Remembering the Vongola
Summary: Who are all these people walking up to him, and why do they all seem to know him so well? Because, for most of them, he has never seen them before in his life… or more correctly to say, his memory.
Pairings: Everybody x Tsuna. A Tsuna bicycle, capiche?
Warnings: The rating may or may not go up later on in the story. Be warned. There may also be profanity and nudity and a whole lot of Tsuna loving, because that is required in life. Yes, Tsuna, that means some tough love. Bad writing is also forewarned. (and maybe a little bit of gore.
Disclaimer: I own not the Katekyo Hitman Reborn series. I'm not cool enough.
A/N Hi everyone! Thanks for checking out this story. And for the people who reviewed, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I didn't even expect five. You guys really made my day! And, the question that most people asked was, 'Why did Tsuna lose his memory?' –laugh- Well, I'll get to that in later chapters. Gotta keep up the mystery! It's the spice of life.
Oh, by the way, I edited the first chapter, because I re-read it, and it was terrible. It's not as terrible now, so, I think I'll be satisfied. For now. –dun dun-
Thanks for putting up with me! Again, I would love some insight on how to improve or any mistakes in my writing. :D
(And hurray! This chapter is about, 1,000 more words then the one before.)
CHAPTER TWO: IT'S NOT SO BAD
"E-eh? What do you mean? Remember what?" said Tsuna confusedly, accidentally dropping one of his rabbit apples as he looked up at Gokudera, whose eyes had gone tight.
Gokudera's eyebrows crumpled in on each other. His face seemed to collapse under the weight of an unknown grief and it screwed up as if he were going to cry.
"Because we weren't strong enough…" he whispered softly, so very softly that Tsuna barely heard. Yamamoto jerked and stiffened on the other side of Tsuna.
Brown eyes opened wide with uncertainty and just a little bit of worry, and Tsuna's hand unconsciously reached out to gently touch the back of Gokudera's hand, which lay clamped tightly on his legs; his knuckles had begun to turn the color of scar-tissue white.
A jolt ran through Tsuna when he touched the smooth skin on the back of Gokudera's hand, as if he had stuck his finger in an electrical socket.
He could hear the skin ripping off her scalp, the wet suction of hair from bone, the skull underneath painted rose red, cherry red, blood red.
A man with white hair laughed as her straggly brown hair came off in his hands. Her dying gurgles bubbled out of her throat, crimson and drenched with blood that dripped off the side of the building she was dangling from, splattering on the sidewalk that seemed to loom in front of the brown haired boy.
"Tsunayoshi~" the man called flippantly, still smiling, gently swinging the hanging body in his hands side to side. Swing swing, drip drip… it was a sick kind of pendulum that hung from that man's hands.
"Why are you standing alllll the way over there?" the white haired man simpered. Auburn eyes stared at the slowly darkening puddle that dripped onto the concrete in front him, slowly turning his eyes back up at the suspended, bleeding mass above him ."You might not be able to…" The man smiled suddenly, purple eyes curving up.
"Catch her."
It did not happen in slow motion as it was implied in the movies. It was a rush of color and sound and a roaring in his ears as she fell, like a sack of skin and bones, droplets of red suspended in the air as if frozen before descending after the falling body, her limp hair streaming around her face as she tumbled through the air, and he could feel himself rocketing forward with the strange flickering fire coming from his hands, burning bright.
He had not caught her.
As he stood there staring at the shattered body, hair strewn around her head, her blank eyes staring back at him, (accusing, reproaching, why didn't you save me?) a hand reached out and touched his own, still fiery with flame.
"Gokudera…" he had whispered brokenly.
Tsuna wrenched his eyes open and gasped for air, tears dripping a trail from his face to disappear into his brown hair.
His head was in Yamamoto's lap, staring up at worried eyes and eyebrows crinkled together, while Gokudera wrung his hands above him.
Tsuna jolted up and almost fell over, still shaking from the image of blood streaked hair.
"W-what? What happened? Such a nightmare…"
He whispered, gathering himself in his arms, as if to protect himself from the horror of his dream, so vivid and… real.
A hand touched his shoulder, and he whipped around to confront two pairs of worried eyes.
"Tsuna…?" Yamamoto whispered.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I was- I was… I dozed off, I don't know, I guess I was up really late." Tsuna laughed nervously, hand scratching the back of his head. His cheeks tinted at the thought that he had fallen asleep mid-conversation as Gokudera and Yamamoto looked at each other worriedly.
'That was so clear,' shivered Tsuna, as he returned down the rooftop stairs, lunch having ended with the ringing of the school bell.
He wrote it off as a result of the late night he had, attempting to beat last boss in his video game (which had taken him about 17 long, difficult attempts) and gorging on two large bags of chips.
'Maybe I shouldn't eat junk food so late at night,' Tsuna mused. 'It seems to do strange things to your mind.'
Still, Tsuna had this strange niggling feeling in the back of his head, as if that dream were something important that he should remember…
Tsuna looked nervously behind him. Gokudera and Yamamoto trailed behind him, like silent shadows.
They were still following him.
But why?
"You idiots," a voice hissed. "Just because he's like this now doesn't mean his Vongola hyper intuition has gone away. Act. Natural. He suspects."
808080
Tsuna toed off his shoes at the entrance of his house, sighing in relief. Home was a sanctuary of warm wooden flooring, cream colored walls, his mother's smile, and of course, her awesome cooking.
"Okaa-san?" he called out. "Can we have miso soup today?" His mouth positively watered at the thought of tasting that hot salty soup after a long, confusing day. Seaweed! Tofu! Miso! What was there not to love?
"WAHHH!" came a war cry, and suddenly, something black and hairy and cow-spotted was launched into his vision. Or more correctly to say, his face.
"BLARGH."
Tsuna tried to spit out the hair that was in his mouth, which, oddly enough, tasted of grape candy, lollipops, other unmentionables and… was that gun powder?
He held the … thing that had flew into him at arm's length, rather frightened at what it might be.
A bawling, tear and snot covered baby with the most amazing afro and cow print suithe had ever seen looked back at him.
Tsuna screamed.
The cow-afro-baby screamed.
Tsuna almost fainted.
The baby looked at him with teary eyes, than wiped snot on Tsuna's sleeve.
Tsuna screamed.
The cow-afro-baby kicked him in the face and ran away, still screaming. Tsuna suddenly noticed a strange dumpling shaped head with a tiny black braid sticking out running around the corner after the freaky baby.
"Okaa-san! Okaa-san! There are strange things in the house! Really strange things!" Tsuna stumbled into the kitchen, holding his snotty sleeve as far away from him as possible.
"Ara, ara, Tsuna," Nana chided. "You shouldn't scare Lambo-kun and I-Pin-chan like that. You'll get them too excited!"
Tsuna suddenly noticed the large poof of black hair and shrieking baby that Nana was holding to her chest, and a dumpling holding onto her pant leg.
"Wah- Lambo-kun? I-Pin-chan? What are those?" Tsuna shrieked.
"These!" Nana said cheerfully, and held out a teary, boogery mess, and a really, really, chinky baby.
"Hiee!" Tsuna gasped. "What's with those names?" 'What's with those babies?'
"Lambo-san is from Italy, the world's greatest hit man! Lambo-san will blow you up!" bawled the lump of tangled hair. Tsuna could not believe how big Lambo's hair was.
"Lambo!" said the dumpling, in a high, squeaky, distinctly foreign voice. "Behave!"
Lambo wriggled out of Nana's grip and onto the white tiled kitchen floor, before scampering away through the kitchen door and up the stairs, still snuffling under his breath.
"Lambo!" I-Pin said in that high-pitched voice of hers. "Come back!" A braided dumpling raced up the stairs after him.
"Tsu-kun, can you go get Lambo-kun in the bath?" Nana asked, turning back to the miso soup she was making on the stove. "It's almost time for lunch, and now Lambo-kun's all messy. I'll bathe I-Pin-chan later."
"But- Okaa-san, why are Lambo-kun and I-Pin-san here anyway? I mean, are they related to us or something?" Tsuna wondered. What were these two strange babies doing in his house anyway? Were they his long lost cousins or some toddlers his mother picked up off the street? She was definitely Okaa-san-like enough to do something like that, Tsuna decided.
"Eh… you could say that they're part of the family," Nana said vaguely, back turned to Tsuna so that he couldn't see her face.
"Now… bath time! Bath time! Chop chop!" she laughed, turning down the stove and pushing Tsuna up the stairs. "Lambo-kun is really hard to find when he doesn't want to be found, so you should get started looking for him now! I-Pin will help, she's so responsible!"
Tsuna sighed resignedly and tromped up to stairs to find this strange baby. With an afro like that, he mused, it shouldn't be too hard, right?
After half an hour of searching for afros and calling Lambo's name with I-Pin (he learned that she was Chinese, hence the strange accent and choppy Japanese, and that she couldn't see well when she stumbled into a doorway about four times), and another fifteen minutes of wrestling the ridiculous cow suit off of squirming arms and kicking legs, Tsuna finally got Lambo in the bath. Tsuna decided it might have been better off if he had never found Lambo at all.
"Lambo!" Tsuna complained for the fifth time, wet hair flopping over his eyes. "Stay still! You're getting me all wet!" He did a funny nod shake thing with his head down at his sopping clothes, trying to make his point while keeping Lambo in the bath tub.
Lambo was like a wet start firework; add water, and he was bouncing, wriggling, splashing ball of baby, so that most of the water that was originally supposed to stay in the bath ended up on the floor. And Tsuna.
Tsuna had found a multitude of things in Lambo's hair as he attempted to shampoo the hairy black mass. A purple toy bazooka, dozens of pink toy grenades, a ring, and various candies and lollies.
He sighed as he put all of these things to the side where Lambo couldn't get at them while he bathed and wondered how everything fit into his hair.
'Then again, it wouldn't be surprising if there were another dimension hiding somewhere in that dense jungle of tangles,' thought Tsuna.
"Settle down, Lambo!"
Tsuna finally got Lambo to sit down on the side of the tub and began to run his hair through the soapy tangles, smoothing everything out so that his hair began to lay flat against his head. Well, flatter then it was before.
'Huh,' thought Tsuna. 'He's actually kinda cute when his hair isn't eating his head.'
"Tsunaaa," Lambo whined, eyes closed as to prevent the soapy shampoo from dripping into his eyes, (because not all shampoos were Johnson and Johnson, tear-free and hypoallergenic, you know?)
"Yes, yes," Tsuna sighed. He grabbed the shower head and began rinsing off Lambo's head, floppy curls stuck to his forehead and cheeks. Tsuna gently pushed these out of the way, and then moved to grab a fluffy towel to wrap Lambo in.
He grabbed another towel to dry Lambo's hair with. Lambo was silent as Tsuna ruffled his hair.
"Tsuna," Lambo said suddenly. "Tsuna-nii, I've missed you. Why were you gone for so long?"
"What? I haven't gone anywhere, Lambo," Tsuna said distractedly, as he had accidently knocked over the ring while toweling Lambo's hair.
'Eh? Why did he call me Tsuna-nii?'
The tuna questioned, straightening back up after picking up the fallen ring.
"Tsuna-nii will be with me forever and ever, right? Because you aren't Dame-Tsuna anymore."
"Hehe, what are you talking about, Lambo?" Tsuna laughed nervously. He was always going to be Dame-Tsuna, right?
"Tsuna-nii doesn't remember our promise …" Lambo's face scrunched up, cheeks flushing red and tears starting to leak out of the corner of his eyes. But he made no sound. Not a sound.
"E-eh! Lambo! Why are you crying!" Tsuna panicked, quickly wiping away the warm tears.
'Remember? What am I supposed to be remembering?' This was really starting to bother Tsuna. Hadn't something else like this happen today?
"… gone for a long, long time… because you were sick…"
"Lambo? You're mumbling, I can't hear you." Tsuna said nervously, afraid to set the baby off again.
"Since Tsuna-nii is Dame-Tsuna again, Lambo-sama will protect Tsuna-nii instead," Lambo suddenly announced, jumping onto the counter top.
His towel fell to the ground, piling into to fluffy mound of terry cloth goodness.
"LAMBO!" Tsuna screeched. "YOUR TOWEL!"
After wrestling Lambo into a clean cow suit and bobby pinning down his hair so Tsuna wouldn't have to worry about things growing in it ("Tsunaaa-nii," Lambo whined. "Where do I put my candy now?") Tsuna tromped downstairs, Lambo in arm, clean, fresh, and cuter, now that his afro was diminished.
"Wow! Lambo-kun looks so cute!" Nana gushed as she set dinner on the table. I-pin, sparkling and bright cheeked, was helping her. "Did you pin down his hair? Aw, that's so sweet of you, Tsu-kun. You'll make a great parent one day! I can't help but be proud that I'm your mother, to have raised up such a loving son."
"Hehe," he laughed nervously. He couldn't tell her that he only pinned down Lambo's hair for his own peace of mind. There might've been something living there, for gracious sakes. He turned his attention to the meal being set out on the table.
That miso soup that Tsuna had seen simmering on the stove earlier sat in the middle of the table, garlicky stir-fried greens, whole baked steaming fish, and six bowls of rice delicately placed around it, chopsticks set neatly on the side.
…
Six bowls?
"Okaa-san, are we having guests over?" Tsuna asked with dread. Oh, dinner was going to be so awkward. He hated it when guests came over. There was absolutely nothing to talk about. He couldn't talk about school, because he was horrible at that. He couldn't talk about sports for the same reason. The only thing he could remotely even hold a conversation over was video games, and he doubted that if it was guests that his mom invited over, that they would enjoy speaking about the pros and cons of current video game. (He preferred the prequel to the game he was playing better; it was so annoying when he had to keep powering up again and again.)*
"Mmm, they're a little bit more like house guests, Tsu-kun," she said absently.
"What! When'd they come? I didn't even notice!"
"Haha, Tsu-kun, sometimes you're so clueless," she laughed lightly. "They've been here for a bit. They're family too."
'There's something fishy going on,' Tsuna thought to himself. 'Something very fishy… or, um, I might really have not noticed,' he sweat dropped.
"Who are they?"
"Oh, speak of the devil; here they come."
A small, short, brown haired boy walked in, a quilted green jacket much worn wrapped his small frame, along with a striped scarf. He held a large book that he clutched tightly to his chest, as if he could not bear to let go. He had a kind, smiling face; cute and open.
The woman flanking him walked in with her hips swaying, bubble gum hair swinging behind her, dangerously seductive and entrancing. She seemed comfortable in her own skin, shapely and stunning, and walked with a confidence that said she was beautiful woman and she knew it.
Tsuna gaped. When had his mom known these kind of people! He had imagined housewives just like her; bubbly, giggly, and smiley. Not cute little boys that still belonged in elementary school and sexy pink-haired woman whose smirks could make men prostrate themselves at her feet.
Tsuna paused. Oh dear. Who was his mom getting mixed in with?
"Tsu-kun, this Fuuta-kun and this is Bianchi-san," Nana smiled as she put a hand on Fuuta's head, gently patting down a stray cowlick. "Please get along well with them!"
"H-hello. It's very nice to meet you all!" Tsuna stuttered and bowed, keeping his fluffy head down. A hand ruffled his hair, and he glanced up shyly to see the woman, Bianchi smiling gently down at him.
"Please take care of us," said the young boy. Fuuta tugged him to the loaded table, and scooted his chair closer to his as he sat down. When Tsuna looked at the brown hair boy that sat at his side, all Fuuta did was smile brightly, mouth already full of rice.
Tsuna looked down and smiled secretly beamed at the steaming bowl of rice Bianchi had laid out for him. Maybe this dinner wouldn't be so bad after all.
* Can anyone guess what this game is? Kudos to you if you do. It's giving me a lot of grief right now, I'll tell you that. ;.;