Summary: Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with future versions of him coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).

Rating: T and most likely won't change.

Genres: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Angst, maybe more, I don't know.

Warnings: Language, OOCness - probably, SPOILERS for KHR, mild violence, depression, flashbacks, possible PTSD, angst, mentions of death, bullying, nightmares, non-canon stuff. No yaoi, yuri, shounen ai, shoujo ai, slash, incest (ha nope), or anything resembling pedophilia. No smut, either.

Pairings: Gen. Frienships/mentorships/familiness only.

"Speech"

Flashbacks/Other's speaking/Dreams

'Thoughts'

(#): A/N to explain stuff at the end.


A Gathering of Skies Chapter 2: A Stormy Arrival

By: AngelicSilverWolf
'By chance we met, by choice we become friend.' - Millie Huang


Five year-old Tsuna is relatively simple in his wants and needs. He needs food, sleep and his Mama. That's it. He wants some friends, but that won't be happening any time soon, so he sticks with asking for material items like crayons or toy cars. He doesn't want money or power or any of the ridiculously complicated things that adults seem to desire.

He lives a nice quiet life with his Mama in their two-story house in the town of Namimori, where the most interesting thing is the news of a quickly rising-in-power five year-old boy that is taking over the disciplinary decisions of the entire town (incidentally, the term 'bite to death' becomes a very effective criminal and delinquent dissuader). Tsuna's father isn't in the picture almost at all, except for the visit the previous month that Tsuna doesn't remember too fondly since that was also the visit where his father allowed his grandfather to do something to make Tsuna function worse.

All in all, his life is uncomplicated and relatively easy, and he likes it that way. And then, the Other arrives.

Tsuna is sitting in the backyard, making pretend crash and car noises with his fire truck and small car as children are wont to do, when he gets a splitting headache and his view shifts as memories that aren't his pour into his brain, and he is filled with enormous amounts of confusion, fear, grief and anger-

He is thirty-five, going on a hundred, when he gets the news that his Lightning has fallen, and damn it, Lambo should have been safe-

No, he is a five year-old with too many emotions and he is gasping on his hands and knees in the front yard with no one to see him-

His flames dance and burn when he alone storms the Millefiore family, they have taken everything from him so it's only fair that he does the same to them, revenge for the fallen Vongola-

His mother has finally taken notice and she is asking, babbling, but he can't answer even though he wishes he could (but how could he answer when he doesn't know anything himself?)-

He is thirty-eight, and he is dying and alone. The only consoling thing is that he will at least see his family again so that he can tell them how sorry he is-

And Tsuna's world goes black.

He comes to with a roaring headache and the profound experience of sharing mental space with another living being. His Mama's reappearance nearly sets him off again, but the Other seems to realize this would be bad. At least the Other didn't have a dead Nana in his dimension (new word there that Tsuna shouldn't know), just a missing one. Tsuna passes it off as having dozed off, and then having had a nightmare about someone scary he had seen before.

While his five year-old self is not incredibly skilled in the way of lying and diverting, his Other's memories manage to make it passable. This does not make him feel any less guilty when Nana's face clears and she scolds him in a relieved tone. He promises to take better care of himself and to not worry her again, along with a few apologies that are quite sincere, and she leaves him to rest. Tsuna then turns to talk to this new being that has taken up residence in his mind.

What follows is a garbled and unclear explanation of who this Other is (and doesn't that just blow Tsuna's mind?) as well as a maelstrom of emotions that makes Tsuna dizzy. It is probably a good thing that the Other is so good at tucking his emotions away for later, since breaking the younger version of himself wouldn't be good in the slightest.

Tsuna hopes he doesn't get permanent mental damage from this. The five year-old comes up with a name for this Other so that he doesn't have to keep calling him 'Old dude' in his head. What he uses is hardly better (Yoshi ojii-san), but it will do for now. It takes them about two months for Yoshi ojii-san to stop freaking out at every little detail that Tsuna takes for granted, and for Tsuna to stop crying, passing out, or zoning out whenever his Other does said freaking out. They get into a routine.

Whenever Yoshi ojii-san starts to get tense, Tsuna does his very best to make himself absent and away from whatever is causing the reaction, usually disappearing to a tree or a convenient closet - or his room.

Thankfully, the Other stops feeling panicked around Tsuna's Mama, so the five year-old can stop avoiding her. In turn, the Other helps Tsuna out with school and physical shape. Tsuna takes to practicing katas, like the 'cool TV people', or so he tells his Mama. Tsuna also manages to become a little more responsible in his mother's eyes, for he takes charge of keeping his room clean and clutter free. Coincidentally, doing menial tasks like folding clothes or picking up trash helps calm down Yoshi ojii-san. It's a simple system, and it works. Mostly.

There are still nights when Tsuna wakes up to nightmares about memories that aren't his, and while his Other apologises, both of them realize that they can't do much about the fact that Tsuna has seen and experienced Yoshi ojii-san's life and eventual bloody end in flashes, and so therefore will never be innocent again. There are also times when Tsuna doesn't get out of view of the triggers of his Other, which causes horrendous amounts of painful headaches and blank staring as memory after memory plays before his unseeing eyes.

Still, life isn't too awful, because Yoshi ojii-san is pretty damn (swear words at five!) funny and witty, and nothing at all like the timid boy that Tsuna occasionally sees in the memories passed to him (1). So, when the second Other arrived on the night of his sixth birthday, he could only think one thing;

'Aw hell.'


Present…

Tsuna adjusts to having Reborn in his life with all the grace that a newborn lamb on crack does to walking, which is to say not very gracefully at all. While disturbingly used to the sudden and violent un-snoozable alarm that is his tiny tutor, everything else is something that needs to be mentally sorted through and placed into boxes for the 'Not to Freak Out At' side of his mind. He should be almost done with getting used to the changes that Reborn brings, but somehow his Others just don't get the memo that Tsuna needs some order in his life to function, so they adjust at the pace of a snail.

Not. Cool.

There is also the fact that Reborn apparently can't be consistent to save his life. Whether it's the going between the cute baby that Nana sees to the frankly terrifying Spartan tutor that is the first thing Tsuna sees when he wakes up, or Reborn's annoying habit of making everything in Tsuna's life his business to not caring at all if Tsuna has some trouble with bullies, Reborn is chaos personified, and Tsuna can't help but wonder how this is his life.

Fortunately, his Others aren't completely useless, for they give him little hints on how to be a Mafia boss and what to do and say - but the nightmares they give him are still a major pain in the ass. Reborn hasn't noticed, or if he has, he hasn't said anything, about the ridiculously frequent night terrors that Tsuna gets.

It's to the point where he has more consistent weeks with them than without, but it's been off and on like that for a few of years, some years are better than others. They're about anything from getting tortured to death to seeing the world go down in flames while a man with white hair and marshmallows laughs in the background, to dreaming about checkers of all things. Not fun, to say the least.

Reborn does notice how much sleep Tsuna gets, which - to clarify - is not much at all. He sends Tsuna to bed early and wakes him up even earlier, and when Tsuna tries to point out how counterproductive this is, he gets a kick to the chin and a speech about how brats shouldn't question their betters. Ah, well, at least it isn't a Mafia talk. Man, the Vongola should hire Reborn as their promoter, never mind a tutor. Want to know about the Mafia and how it can make life better or worse depending on how smart you are and how good at making coffee you are? Talk to Reborn, he'll answer any questions you have and ones that you don't.

But, thinks Tsuna as he finishes drawing the little fake ad he's made up on the fly in class - complete with a tiny hitman and bubble letters, as well as a few fireworks just for the hell of it - at least Reborn cares. Sort of. It's really just a concern for a target and mission success, but at least its there.

"Pay attention, class!" the teacher calls out suddenly, startling Tsuna into giving Reborn a slanted unibrow. Whoops. Sorry, Reborn. Hopefully he won't see it and then Tsuna won't-eh, who is he kidding, of course Reborn will see it. His legs ache from the anticipation of the training to come.

"We have a new transfer student who was studying overseas in Italy. This is Gokudera Hayato." And suddenly, the ad doesn't matter anymore, and Tsuna once again has a headache. This has been occurring far too often lately for his liking.

His Others are clamoring and yelling, shouting, whispering, crying, sobbing, and it is entirely too much because Tsuna can't make heads or tails of why the hell this affecting them so much. He'll get to it later, but right now, he is really so far beyond done. This feeling only increases when the guy his Others are freaking out over comes up to Tsuna and kicks his desk. What the actual hell? Fondness and amusement are really the last thing he should be feeling - damn his Others - and so, with a determined set of his head, he ignores the questions and inquisitive looks from his classmates and stands up.

He walks over to the window, bows slightly to his teacher, nods primly at Gokudera, and then proceeds to jump out of the window because there is no way he is going to deal with this. Not today, not this week, if he's lucky, maybe even not ever.

He really isn't lucky.

Not one hour later only proves this theory since he is running around madly trying to dodge the bombs that his future best friend (yes, he registered who Gokudera is, and he's kind of ashamed he didn't recognize his own Storm Guardian, but once again, headaches - for days) is chucking at him. Damn Reborn, damn Gokudera, damn himself for sort of agreeing out of being intimidated by his tutor, and just overall damn the world. Fuck he needs some sleep. At least he has sorted out why exactly Gokudera is so touchy, but it was a little difficult to find the excuse acceptable for the boy who was trying to blow him up for a position that could never be his in the first place.

"Stand still!" Gokudera yells angrily, sending yet another barrage of dynamite his direction.

"And let you hit me?" Tsuna squeaks over his shoulder. And Reborn just watches through it all, traitor. "You must be out of your damn mind!"

This only serves to make his eventual - if he doesn't get Tsuna killed first - Storm Guardian angrier, and out comes another wave of explosives. "Hibari is going to murder me and then follow me to the afterlife," Tsuna groans, wincing as more craters form in the school ground cement.

His Others only laugh - assholes. This is a literal life or death situation, and they are just sitting back and laughing. Smokin' Bomb indeed. Should be freaking Walking Arsenal.

He skids to a stop at the dead end between two sections of the school building and blinks stupidly for a few seconds. There is the telltale click of a gun, and he has just enough time to summon a regret before pain hits his head and there is energy. The next few moments are a bit of a blur, to be honest, but he comes out of his momentary high, and Gokudera is looking at him in amazement and resentment. This boils over into a stupid decision that leaves the boy surrounded by his own dynamite, and how the fuck is this his life right now?

Tsuna is a person who genuinely tries to do good, so he rushes forward and tackles moron away from danger, only moving when all of the dynamite have exploded, leaving both of them fairly unharmed for having been close to what was most likely an illegal amount of bombs. The next two minutes are equally surreal and jaw dropping as Gokudera goes into a mafia-be-damned kowtow, and proclaims himself a ready and willing servant.

Tsuna is so-ho done with today.

Reborn, the smug little jerk, comes forward and explains the policy of mafia and winners and losers and servants, and honestly? Fuck that. Tsuna doesn't say that in so many words, but the meaning is pretty much the same.

"Look, uh, Gokudera?" He's pretending to hesitate here, he knows this boy better than he knows himself because his Others have chosen this wonderful moment to share memories with him (and he really needs to work with them on timing. Tsuna having a terrible day because of hours of confusion, frustration and headaches? Not a good time).

"I don't need a subordinate or a right hand man, honestly. It would be a lot to handle and I'm thirteen - what teenager wants an eternal servant?" Tsuna says frankly, rubbing his forehead in vain hopes of staving off the wave of headaches and memories that are incoming. The look his gets for this statement makes him feel guilty for all of two seconds as he continues, "But...I would appreciate having a friend. You'd be my first one...ever, actually." At least in this lifetime.

And isn't that sad. This hard working person wants to serve him, useless, slowly cracking, and entrance to a terrible life and dozens of potentially violent deaths Tsuna, who has never had a friend before in his life. His Others don't count really, he doesn't know what they are but they aren't friends, just something unexplainable. Gokudera gives him a shiny-eyed expression of disbelief.

"M-me?" he stammers. "Jyuudaime, you want me to be a-a friend?"

So maybe Tsuna isn't the only one with a mile-long list of insecurities. He musters a sincere smile. "Yeah. And we could start by you calling me by name," he says gently. He keeps from flinching as Gokudera slams his head against the ground in a deeply submissive bow.

"You honor me beyond words, Jyuudaime! I-I am not worthy of calling you by name!" he exclaims passionately. Tsuna sighs. So - wait for it - done.

"I'm not comfortable with being referred to as a boss all the time, Hayato - can I call you that? So, just...Tsuna is fine," he says.

A long, long talk about proper addresses for friends later and Tsuna is showing Hayato his home.

"Eh? Tsu-kun has a friend?" Nana asks in amazement. Tsuna wishes she wouldn't sound so incredulous, but then again, he doesn't really blame her. She has thirteen years to back up her surprise after all. It is a little humorous to watch Hayato flail as Nana dances around him, positively squealing in delight.

"My, you're so handsome! Good job, Tsu-kun!" Nana praises, either not noticing or uncaring of the fact that Hayato's face is alarmingly red (Tsuna bets on the latter, his mother is devious, and he wouldn't let anyone tell him differently). Tsuna takes pity on his newly established friend and manages to extract him from his mother's grasp with a promise of snacks and many study sessions to come.

In Tsuna's room, Tsuna bustles about to get homework and textbooks together while Hayato pulls himself together.

"Your mother is very nice, Jyu-Tsuna-kun," Hayato coughs eventually, more pink now than red. Yes, Tsuna has managed to get his friend to call him an actual name, even if it's with an honorific. A big improvement from 'Tenth' in his honest opinion.

"Yeah, she is." Tsuna nods. Without another word, they begin, leaving Tsuna to wonder absently where Reborn has got to. This flies out of his mind as his Others remind him that he doesn't really have the brain capabilities to not pay attention to whatever Hayato has been saying for the past two minutes. As it turns out, Tsuna's new friend is really smart. Like, genius smart. When he voices this aloud, Hayato goes red again. A shame, really, he has just gotten his complexion to be faintly pink, and now Tsuna just undid all of his hard work.

The rest of the day passes into night with studying easier and more enjoyable than Tsuna has experienced ever. Hayato is a godsend, patient like a saint and smarter than one too. He certainly beats Reborn's methods of tutoring. Gokudera goes home late that night, high in spirit.

It's good that he does, since Tsuna has a horrifying nightmare that night.

It starts out violently right away, a memory of a war one of his Others fought in.

He is commanding his famiglia, trying to keep the number of casualties as low as possible, but their Intel was wrong, it is a trap. Their forces are halved within the hour, and the leftovers struggle to formulate a plan, not for a victory, but for survival. There is no victory from this. The battle wages before his eyes, tinted in an orange haze with a hint of desperation.

They make it, lose a third of their remaining forces in the process, but the time to mourn is later because they're alive, and relieved green eyes meet his own-

Bang!

"GOKUDERA!"

The hoarse scream is torn from his throat as he bolts upright. Stinging in his eyes and choked sounds let him know that he's crying and sobbing and coughing because he hurts and that horrible dull ache in his heart just won't go away. His Others are either trying to calm him down and shut him up, or are joining him in becoming hysterical messes.

He's such a fucking mess.

He doesn't know or care if Reborn is in the room and watching him break down from beneath his stupid sleeping cap. He hasn't had a nightmare so bad since the baby came, a couple weeks ago. If this is how he is going to react every time someone from his future/past makes an entrance into his life, he's very tempted to screw it and move somewhere else with his Mom. Not Italy, because Vongola is pretty much everywhere and that's the literal worst place to move to escape becoming part of the mafia, but maybe North America.

In order to stop fantasizing (or maybe it's really worth considering - his tightly wound sanity is at stake after all) and to calm down so that he doesn't become completely overwhelmed, he goes unsteadily to the bathroom to clean up and to soothe his throbbing throat, puzzled green eyes and red blooming on a dirty white shirt flashing continuously before his eyes. After scrubbing his face clean of tears, he makes his way back into his room and flops down on his bed. He doesn't want to go back to sleep, so what can he do-

"Dame-Tsuna. Care to explain that scene just now?"

And dammit. Of course Reborn has to have seen that. Tsuna opens one eye to see his tutor standing in the doorway to his bedroom, fully dressed, and looking for all the world like he's just been...pushed. Had...had Tsuna accidentally moved him aside in his haste to get to the bathroom? Oh, he is so dead.

"N-not really?" Tsuna tries. He doesn't feel like it, but he knows he'll probably break if the hitman pushes. He's never been able to deceive Reborn.

"Too bad. Sit up properly and explain why I just witnessed you having a near panic attack," the Arcobaleno says in a tone that brooks no argument. Well. Tsuna's a little screwed. Something plausible, believable, and not too far from the truth…

"I sometimes get nightmares," he blurts out. Though, he's stretching the truth already, because it's more like he 'often' gets nightmares. "I, uh, they started when I was really young, and they've gotten more common. They're usually violent and bloody."

"What are they about?" Reborn's thoughts are anyone's guess.

"D-different things," Tsuna mumbles, a stray hiccup making him stutter. He hurries to elaborate as his tutor's eyebrow dances dangerously. "I mean, they can be about anything from me becoming Decimo to-to war. And, they aren't always the same even if they're on the same subject."

"Explain," Reborn orders sharply. He looks unnerved, which is what Tsuna wanted to avoid, but it's better than angry or, god forbid, frustrated. A frustrated Reborn is a hellish, demonic, and scary as fuck Reborn.

"Well, for instance, I've dreamed about-about these eight people that I don't recognize. Their faces are always hidden and they never speak, but I always see them together, fighting someone or something. B-but each time, the end result changes. Sometimes they all die, or they all get their differently colored flames stolen and they become...different, and it's never good."

This is true, at least. He tends to get memories of the failure to break the Arcobaleno curse, and whether they fall to the Millefiori before getting a chance to even try and help themselves, or whether they become adults and then die to that damn famiglia anyway, or whether they just die violent horrible deaths, the attempts to get then back into their original fail, one hundred percent. Reborn's expression is blank, but his eyes are piercing - so maybe not the best idea to bring up the Arcobaleno? Whatever, if his tutor pushes, he'll just tell him the truth, about everything.

But, Reborn doesn't. He looks at Tsuna for a moment, and then says calmly, "Get some sleep. We're going to be busy tomorrow."

And Tsuna...Tsuna can't decide whether he's disappointed or happy that Reborn dropped the subject.

He just decides to be confused - it's not like that's a new emotion for him.

...


One thing he does wish would be fixed - the bullies. They aren't really dangerous, but they are rather annoying.

Take example A: the dumbass senior that gets his kicks from hurting someone more than three grades lower than him. And he doesn't even have the decency to make his bullying creative. He just goes and does cliché actions, like throwing Tsuna's things to the ground, which is then followed by Tsuna himself. Now, Tsuna has seen at least ten different weak points in the other person's 'fighting stance' in the past five minutes alone, but he considers himself a better person than some lowlife who's only chance at happiness is to kick younger people around. Normally, he would grant that happiness because he's a nice person like that.

Now? Now, he's stressed, di-stressed, and more than a little irritated. Because of this, he doesn't stand down and let him kick him and rough him up like usual. Instead, he gets right back up and channels a terrifying glare at the senior. And just so he'll get the picture, Tsuna says in a frigid voice, "Are you done wasting my time?"

The senior is clearly taken aback at this sudden change in attitude, and he even retreats a couple of steps before catching himself. They have an audience, after all. A small crowd sometimes likes to come and watch Dame-Tsuna get the lights kicked out of him just because they all have sad and empty lives and this is the only entertainment they get. Well, too bad Tsuna doesn't want to deal with that right now.

Gokudera is out with a cold, Reborn was particularly harsh in training that morning, and Tsuna's throat is still healing from that nightmare two days ago. His Others have been incredibly moody, fighting with each other, which means: that's right, more headaches. Joy! Normally, he doesn't get so many head problems, he swears it's a byproduct of Reborn's continued existence in his life.

"Ha, Dame-Tsuna can have a backbone after all," the senior says, trying to gain some nonchalance.

Neither Tsuna nor his Others are in any mood to deal with this, so he doesn't rise to the bait. He just stands firm and levels his glare and makes himself look like he's ready to fight, instead of ready to run. The senior doesn't know what to do. How does he bully someone who doesn't look cowardly and weak, but rather intimidating? It makes him nervous, which turns to anger. Good, Tsuna can use anger.

He's a little pissed off himself, actually.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, you little shit!" the senior shouts furiously. He charges in with a form so sloppy that Tsuna actually takes a little time to be ashamed for him. Then, he calmly steps to the side of the wind milling fists and lets momentum to his work for him. The senior crashes right into the side of the building, and then slumps to the ground with a bloodied nose.

"Anyone else?" Tsuna asks in a deadly calm voice. He would be freaking out any other day, but he just can't deal with this right now, so he shelves it aside for later. He's always been relatively decent at compartmentalizing. He walks away from the silent crowd that parts like the Red Sea as he steps through it. He should be proud, this means that less people will bother him and more will take him seriously.

But the fear and suspicion only makes what would have been triumph turn to ash in his mouth. His Others encourage him to enjoy the acclimatize to being watched warily, to get used to it, but he shakes them off and firmly decides to ignore them for now. He'll deal with the fallout of this encounter later. Now?

He has a sick friend to visit.


(1): Just to clear something up: Tsuna experiences and sees the memories/lives of his Others when they first arrive, and if they give him memories later on, not in nightmares. Also, since he is so young here and will eventually have over a dozen people in his head as stated last chapter, he doesn't remember all of the sordid details, so some things that he may have already seen will come as a surprise to him anyway. He will remember certain details about important memories he has viewed - like Reborn - but don't go expecting him to fix everything.

His Others come from alternate dimensions, which means that things that happened in one dimension didn't necessarily happen in the others, and so on. Because of that, he might not react in a completely logical manner at certain points in the story, or he may do something completely unexpected.

This isn't a fix-it, because he will certainly make mistakes and won't be perfect, and things will go better and/or worse than they did in canon and in other dimensions. Also, Tsuna doesn't always know what his Others are thinking, and vice versa, which is why he can hide things from them. They mentally communicate, sort of like talking, and he can feel strong emotions of theirs, like they can do with him.


Guest Reviews (Bottom to Top):

Drummer: Thanks for the encouragement, and for the review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Blah blah: I don't know about perfect, but I thank you anyway. Always grateful for the reviews.

Guest: I'm glad this is realistic. It's what I was shooting for, and I'm also glad that I can convey Tsuna's feelings properly. Thanks so much for the review.

Yumi014: I'm sorry to hear that you shed tears, but I'm happy that I provoked such a strong reaction with my writing. And I was trying to keep Tsuna in character, but because the original Reborn! was slapstick humor for the first few chapters, it's a bit difficult to make things more serious. And I love cywscross too, and am sad that they haven't updated in forever. Anyway, thanks for the nice review!


A/N: So, here is chapter 2. I still haven't figured out a schedule for it, but I'm leaning towards once a month. I don't know yet. Thanks so much for the support, I was blown away by the people who liked it. Hope this chapter didn't disappoint, and please leave a review when you finish! See you next time.