Alright. So there were some problems. Too many problems.

Damn it all, there were all the problems.

Problem #1: (The most obvious of all) He had been reincarnated as a she.

This was also the smallest of all the problems. Adjusting was weird as hell and those first few years had been an absolute pain to get used to (feeling kinda normal, then feeling ashamed about feeling normal, then feeling ashamed about feeling ashamed, and a whole slew of random ass emotions that he had to fight off to reach even a semblance of normalcy). That slowly went away and he felt good about himself. Felt good about herself too. Sometimes just felt good as an existence in general. Then puberty hit and the cycle started again but he bounced back from that one faster than the first time so yay.

Regardless, he was given a second chance at life and he wasn't going to let something like gender stop him from appreciating it damn it! Dad had been pretty cool about it too, once he had actually worked up to the nerve to, you know, verbalize his problems.

Sure the man was confused as heck, but Nana couldn't even describe the feeling he had gotten when he had come home one day to find Toshi asleep at the table reading books and looking up articles about how to support him. He cried a bit. Then Dad had woken up, started crying too, and they ended the night eating a bunch of junk and watching crappy old time movies. It was great.

The neighborhood had taken it far better than he had thought they would (he may have shouted the news loudly from his roof, seeing as how his Dad had been the only one whose opinion actually mattered to him). Especially Hanazawa-san. Like, come one. The lady had practically tired to beat femininity into him as he was growing up, what the heck? He had been all prepared, even psyched, for the whole dramatic blow up thing but all she did was huff and say "well, that explains everything", and then go on to lecture him on how to be a lady when he felt like a lady and how to be a proper gentleman when he felt like a gentleman. The heck?

Apparently she had a transgender grandson who she had been speaking with more and more over the years Nana had been away at school and the little punk had really opened her mind to things. Of course, right after Nana leaves, that's when she decides to be more open-minded about stuff.

Whatever. Either way, everything in that zone was looking up. Coolio. There had even been a time where Masaki-san (the husband, who was a little taller than four feet and was the sweetest little old man he had had ever met) had taken his cane and smacked some of the teenagers walking home for badmouthing him. Told them to learn some manners before they even thought about butting into someone else's business or he'd smack some manners into them. It was awesome. He loved the Masaki family.

So the whole 'being reborn' thing was fine. A few weird off days here and there, but all good. No problems there.

Problem #2: The reason he had been reincarnated.

As mentioned before, babies were a thing. Clearly, babies were a thing that had to happen.

Yay.

He had, eventually (and with a heap ton of moody depressional ranting) come to terms with the fact that he would have to try to have a baby. The savior of the world is kind of important. He couldn't morally or rationally prevent the birth of the apparently single soul individual that would save life as we know it from biting the dust. Ergo, babies.

On the plus side, Iemitsu was cute. Kinda dumb, super klutzy, but cute. Nana had gotten a job at a little corner restaurant as a table waiter and Iemitsu would stop by every single day to check in on him. Nana hasn't really gotten around to letting him know about the whole he/her/they/them thing but he would get around to it eventually. Probably. As soon as he was sure that telling the other half of the world's survival wouldn't, you know, threaten world survival.

Iemitsu was a nice guy, but you could never really tell with things like that until they actually popped up. Maybe he could introduce him to Hanazawa's grandkid and go from there.

Ugh.

Problem #3: Fucking Snake

The guy would not shut. Up. It wasn't even about anything important anymore! Seriously, for the first sixteen years of his life the dude was all about 'saving the world' and the 'Clam rings' or the 'Tri-ni-set' and whatever the hell a 'Yuni' was. Nana had long since learned to tune him out.

Then, when he turned fifteen, the man randomly asked him what the school lunches were like.

Like a fool, he had answered.

Since then it was like a dam had been released. Questions upon questions, inane prattle about the light reflecting off of things, random ass stories that didn't even seem to involve the man telling them. The man was clearly very, very lonely, and Nana would have far more sympathy for him if it weren't his fault all this shit was happening in the first place.

At least they had a shared interest in music. Those conversations were bearable.

Snake would, of course, still randomly pop in some tidbit of important information in between the bread loaves of bullshit he would usually spout, which is what has lead to the most troubling problem in Nana's mind at the moment.

Problem Number #4: When everything was supposed to go down.

Two days ago Nana had turned nineteen. He had been dating Iemitsu for a little under a year now and everything was coming up roses. It was swell. Dandy, he would go so far as to say. They held hands, snuck in some kisses during work, went on dates, all that good romantic crap without going in too deep yet. Taking it nice and slow, and Nana found he actually really liked Iemitsu.

Then Snake, the insufferable bastard that he is, decided to mention (in the middle of a monologue about the differences between historical vigilante groups and modern criminals, because why the heck not) that Sawada Tusnayoshi, the child destined to save their ever crumbling world (he couldn't actually tell, cause the world looked normal as far as he could see) was supposed to be born in about a year.

A year.

Which meant that, going by the laws of nature, he would have to be conceived in a few short months in order to arrive on time.

Months.

Iemitsu didn't even know he had a tattoo on his back yet (two opals to represent his brother and sister from before, wrapped in a ribbon with their old family name on it in fancy shmancy cursive) but they were supposed to create life in a few months?!

Snake, ignoring his plight, had just continued right on with his one-sided conversation as though he had not just dropped a bomb into his life yet again.

So here he was. Stuffed into the furthest bathroom stall in the restaurant, an hour after his shift, trying to create mental lists of things so that he wouldn't hyperventilate and pass out.

Mondays were always awesome.

Okay, first things first. He needed to cancel the date to the movies tonight. Iemitsu would be disappointed; he'd wanted to see whatever the hell they were going to see for months now (the name was slipping from his mind in between shouts of BABIES, LADY PARTS, DEAR GOD SEX?!), but he would be understanding about it. Probably reschedule for another time.

Then he would go home, hop into his comfiest pajamas, and curl up into a burrito on his bed until all the bad shit went away.

Foolproof.

-00-

The plan, unlike most things in his life, went off without a hitch. He'd even gotten the next day off after his boss had seen him leaving and commented on how sickly he had looked. Toshi had gotten back late and after seeing all the lights off had just assumed Nana was asleep and had gone straight to bed.

Everything was great.

Everything was fine.

Nana was curled up underneath his bed, crying big ugly tears into the stuffed platypus (fondly named Plat) he had gotten from his dorm mate for his eleventh birthday. Even in his last life he had been an ugly crier, and it seems death has only made the problem worse. He could feel the snot and crap building up in his nose and slowly crawling down his throat to strangle his lungs. Strands of hair were plastered to his face, some curling over his eyes, some into his mouth, and one really annoying piece tickling the line of his nose. He was too panicky to do anything about it though, so the hairs stayed were they were, pressed like flowers in a book against his feverishly warm, sweat-slicked skin.

"You're going to make yourself sick," Snake helpfully informed him.

He cried even harder out of pure spite.

Did you know the human body doesn't really ever 'run out' of tears? Cause he sure does now. It had been, what, four-five hours and he was still spewing an insane amount of crap from his eyes? Sure, there were intervals where he would calm down a bit and the tears would slow. Then Snake, the very best friend one could ask for in troubled times, would remind him of why he was there and he would burst into tears to repeat the cycle.

What a dick.

Still, being dehydrated was always crappy and it gave him the worst kinds of headaches so he really should at least try to stay hydrated.

Army crawling his way out Nana pawed at his face to get his hair out of the way. Placing Plat carefully on top of the bed he coughed hoarsely. His Dad was a heavy sleeper so there was no need to worry about waking him up.

Stretching out the kinks of being curled up in a confined space for hours he sniffled, willing back the most recent wave of panic. His hands were trembling and his entire face hurt but overall he didn't feel too badly. Hydrating and snacking, then returning to the pit.

The sound of a knock on his window startled him so badly he slipped on the tail of the blanket that had been dangling down on the floor, tangling it around his feet so that he was flapping around like a flightless bird, sending Plat soaring through the air and himself tumbling to the ground.

There was a second, more urgent knock and Nana struggled to get up.

"Please be a tree, please be a tree, please be a tree," he chanted, flopping around to free himself. He'd seen enough horror movies to know that knocks on the window at midnight often came hand in hand with murder, especially when you don't actually have any friends that would come calling like that.

When he was finally up, breathing erratically and looking extremely rumpled he turned warily towards the window.

It wasn't a tree branch.

It was, however, not a murderer or monster villain looking to stab him.

Iemitsu stared through at him worriedly, a guilty smile tugging at his lips.

Nana stared at him, blinking rapidly to make sure he wasn't an illusion, before stepping over to unlatch the window.

"Are you okay?" Iemitsu asked the second he could slip in. "I saw you fall, did you hit your head?"

Nana found his gaze drawn towards the outrageously large backpack the blond was hauling in after him.

"Iemitsu," he sighed tiredly, running a hand over his face. "What are you doing here?"

Gentle hands nudged him back towards the bed, encouraging him to sit down. Nana allowed it, mostly because his legs were still shaky from the sudden loss of adrenaline.

"I'm sorry I scared you," Iemitsu frowned, brushing his hair away from his forehead. "You're burning up."

'Take that Snake, you son of a bitch,' Nana thought vindictively. It wasn't like Snake got sick when he did, but just going against the man's advice in general felt like a worthy goal in life.

Iemitsu was rummaging around the backpack, throwing things he didn't need out of the way. Nana felt his eyebrows rise at the growing pile of things being formed on the floor.

Dried fruit snacks, small juice bottles, several water bottles, a laptop with a DVD connection port, a concerning amount of old-time comedies, some books, a thin blanket, hand warmers, cough drops, cough syrup, and a heating pad were shoved to the side.

"Ah-ha!" Iemitsu cheered, pulling out three containers. Nana blinked at the Advil, cold compresses, and tin of chicken noodle soup.

"What's all this?" He tilted his head, heart fluttering a bit.

Iemitsu got to work on opening the medicine first. "After you canceled I went to the Café to at least walk you home and make sure you were okay but your boss said you had already left. He said you weren't looking so good so he gave you a few days off. I went shopping for some things I thought you might need."

Nana flushed even redder, feet brushing together as he looked down and to the side. "…You didn't have to do that."

Warm fingers uncurled his own, placing an already open bottle of water in one hand and two small pills in the other.

"Of course I did," Iemitsu smiled warmly, making sure to catch his eye before moving on to the cold compresses. "I'm just glad you came out when you did. I figured if I waited long enough you would go to sleep, but I was beginning to think you might have fallen asleep on the couch or something."

Nana blinked, trying to process that as he downed the pills. "Iemitsu, how long were you waiting out there?"

And how much of the disaster that was his meltdown did he see? Nothing from when he was under the bed, but he was sure he had still been crying a bit when he crawled out.

He laughed, waving the question away. "Come on, let's get you settled. I brought all your favorite movies!"

Nana found he couldn't argue when the enthusiastic blonde smoothed the compress over his forehead and started setting up the pillows for them to be able to lie back comfortably. He could feel the tears welling in his eyes again, but for a completely different reason. He tried to hold them back but when Iemitsu reached over and readjusted the straps of his tank top that had fallen, carefully keeping his eyes diverted as he did so, he couldn't stop the small sob from escaping.

"Nana? Are you okay?"

Nana nodded, reaching out and making grabby hands until Iemitsu got closer and then clutched on to him like a lifeline. He tucked his face into the crook of his neck, relaxing when Iemitsu's fingers began to card through his short hair comfortingly.

"You're really nice," Nana huffed softly.

"You deserve really nice things," Iemitsu responded happily, humming as they sat together.

Well shit. Here he was trying to wallow in his own misery and along comes his boyfriend to destroy all of his plans.

"Are you hungry?" Iemitsu murmured, head leaning against his own. "I've got a few different soups if you're up for it."

Nana rolled his eyes, smiling. "You literally set the stove on fire, I'm not letting you near the kitchen unsupervised."

"I don't want you to have to get up-"

Nana leaned back slowly, patting his face and scratching at the bit of stubble there as he went. "I'm already feeling a lot better, and some movement would help. We can make it together, okay?"

Iemitsu looked like he wanted to protest but when Nana blinked at him patiently he folded. "Alright. That way sounds more fun anyway."

"Damn straight."

They giggled quietly together as they cooked (throwing stuff into the microwave totally counted as cooking, shut up) Nana making sure to soak up the easy affection Iemitsu seemed to radiate.

They curled up back on the bed, surrounded by Nana's collection of unnecessarily long pillows and blankets (they had the one Iemitsu brought thrown over their laps).

Nana texted his Dad, letting him know that he had started feeling sick late into the night and that Iemitsu had been willing to go grab some things for him so that the poor man didn't panic when they inevitably fell asleep.

Toshi peeked in on them before he left for work, torn between feeling relieved that his child trusted him enough to tell him when they had a significant other over instead of sneaking around to see them and protective that they had spent the night together unsupervised.

He smiled warmly when he saw them leaning against each other, Nana drooling a bit and Iemitsu snoring heavily. Dried mangos were littered across the blankets, a laptop playing the opening title sequence of some foreign movie on repeat settled near the foot of the bed. There was a pile of tissues piled next to Nana but when he went over to resettle the blankets over the two he was happy to note that they didn't have a fever.

Snapping a quick picture he sent it to Nana for later, leaving them a note about when he would be back (with a side note warning Iemitsu to behave himself) before heading out.

A few hours later Nana blinked their way to wakefulness, scrubbing at the sandpaper eye crusts gluing their eyelids together. They smiled a little dopily at the blond next to them, brushing a hand through his hair and playing with the strands.

Things still sucked. Nana was still completely unable to mentally cope with the idea of having a child, but they had at least one part of the equation down.

Iemitsu was sweet. He was very kind and he clearly cared for them a lot. Nana kind of loved him a bit, and that went a long way in helping.

Things sucked, but they would get better.

-00-

It wouldn't be until a couple years later, when she was singing her Tsuna to sleep after a nightmare, that she would realize even the strongest love could have limits. That love and trust did not always walk hand in hand. That while Iemitsu was off in another country, apparently trying to 'protect' them from what he saw as a threat she was left raising their son alone with a rare phone call or text to let her know he was even alive.

She loved him. She probably always would. She couldn't even completely blame him. Snake had explained what it was he was doing, why exactly he was staying away, and while she could try to empathize with what he was trying to do there would always be a part of her that resented him for not telling her anything. A part that was bitter and a bit betrayed that he had picked his other family, his Famiglia, over them. A part of her that looked in the mirror sometimes and saw a woman where there should be a man, a person that should never have even existed in the first place, and a parent that just wanted the best for their son.

She loved Iemitsu, but they both made their choice. He chose the Vongola.

She chose Tsuna.