Like Water to a Drowning Man

A/n at the bottom

Warnings: Slurs, bullying

Tsuna was sleeping; it was summer vacation and the night before he had had a bad dream so Hide let him sleep. He was the one to answer the door as neither Minoru and Aya were at home. Both had work and Naomi was with her friends. He wasn't expecting to open the door to a baby in a suit.

Hide let the baby in assuming that he had lost his parents. When Hide went to get the phone to give it to the baby. A gun was fried exceedingly close to his hand causing him to pause in his actions.

"Don't even think about calling the police, Sawada Hidetada. I have to say you're more informed than I gave credit for and able to remain calm." The baby squeeked.

"What the hell! Was that a really bullet? Informed, informed about what? I was going to give you the phone say you could call your parents or the police to get home!" Hide exclaimed flailing around a bit.

The baby blinked, put his gun away, and patted the couch," Then it seems that I'm going to have to explain somethings. Come sit."

Hide wasn't really inclined to listen to the gun toting baby. He was more interested in grabbing his baby brother and getting out of the house. But the baby did have a real, working gun and was apparently more than willing to use it on Hide. So he sat in the chair opposite of the insane baby occupied couch.

"Your father," the baby began ignoring Hide sneer at the word father," has hired me to teach either you or your brother, on how to be a mafia boss. You, of course being older, are prefered, but either way it doesn't matter. One of you will inherit the biggest and bloodiest mafia family, Vongola. Which ever one of you chooses to become Decimo will be coming with me to Italy for training. Speaking of which, where is you brother?"

"It doesn't matter. My brother will not have to witness anymore bloodshed. I will be the Vongola Decimo. All I ask in return is that my brother is moved out of this house and to some where that will take care of him properly" Hide looked at this baby with an unwavering, resolved, gaze.

"That can be arranged."

Tsuna woke up to his brother running his fingers through Tsuna thick hair. The dream he had been awoke from was rather unpleasant so he was thankful to awake to his brother's face. Then Tsuna noticed his brother wasn't the only one in the room. There was a baby; he was dangerous.

"Tsuna, are you awake now? I have something to tell you." Hide's voice is soothing and gentle in an almost motherly way.

Tsuna nodded, dislodging his brother's hand. Tsuna looked up at Hide with bleary eyes not sure what his brother was talking about.

"You won't be living with Minoru anymore, neither of us will. We won't be living together. You'll be living here, in Japan. I'll be moving to Italy, but I won't be like him. As often as I can, I'll call you." Hide is practically pleading with Tsuna, begging his brother not to hate him.

Tsuna didn't talk often, he never had. After his mother's death he talked even less, only when it was necessary. With Hide Tsuna hardly ever had to talk. Would it be the same with the people he moves in with? This would be the first time in his life without his brother. Tsuna was nervous to the point of panicking, but Hide had asked something of him and Tsuna wouldn't let his brother down.

Tsuna sat up in his futon; he looked directly into his brother's eyes. This is for Hide. Whatever it is that's going on, I won't get in his way. Tsuna nodded again.

"Okay, Tsuna this is Reborn." Hide gestured to the baby,"He will be helping us find you a proper home. Do you think you could write down a list of things that would make you more comfortable when staying somewhere without me?"

Tsuna tilted his head to the side then got out of his futon. He pulled out his school supplies and ripped out a notebook. Tsuna pulled out a pen and wrote.

1. no children older than me

2. afford to take care of me

3. my own room to decorate as I please

4. my own clothes

5. a school with a low bullying tolerance

Tsuna handed the list to his brother who added a few things to it then gave it to Reborn.

Reborn watched the two boys interact; it was informative to say the least. Hidetada was very protective of his brother. He could understand his brother without the younger even speaking words. There was nothing on Tsunayoshi's file about being mute so Reborn assumed that he was silent by choice.

The two Sawada brothers looked alike; both had brown hair, brown eyes, and a short stature. Hideyoshi was slightly taller, had a build more like his father's, and had short straight hair. Tsunayoshi had a body type more similar to his more, long spiky hair, and just felt smaller compared to his brother.

Reborn looked at the list he was given.

1. no children older than me (It would feel like I was being replaced)

2. afford to take care of me (comfortably, where we're staying has a tight budget)

3. my own room to decorate as I please (we share here and aren't allowed to add things)

4. my own clothes (we share so everything is either too big for Tsuna or too small for me)

5. a school with a low bullying tolerance (Tsuna is a very easy target for bullies with his shy demeanor)

6. (They need to fill up Tsuna's plate for him or he won't eat)

7.(pretty liberal I don't want Tsuna being taken care of bigots)

8.(make sure he gets involved with extracurriculars)

9.(a younger child to give Tsuna a sense of responsibility)

10.(loving and willing to take care of my little brother)

11.(Don't force him to talk if he doesn't want to)

Reborn had to admit it was a pretty reasonable and sound list of items. It would be pretty easy to find someone that hit most if not all the points. Just not in Namimori which is where Iemitsu wanted the non decimo brother to live. But he could find a family near Namimori. It was a good idea to comply with the one request Hidetada made.

Reborn said that Tsuna didn't need to take anything with him unless it had some strange sentimental value. Tsuna had been tempted to latch onto his brother's arm, but feared it would be counterproductive to what was going on. So he grabbed the one thing he would be bring with him, a necklace. The necklace had once belonged to his mother. It was a golden locket with a hearted pendent. The pendent opened up and held a picture inside. The picture was from Hide's ninth birthday. All three were in the picture, Tsuna, Hide and their mother.

It only took two days for Reborn to find a family that Tsuna could stay with. To Tsuna it all seemed so surreal. He was going to live with some strange family without his brother. Tsuna couldn't help, but wonder. Was Hide going to turn into another Iemitsu? Would his brother forget about him? Tsuna didn't want to doubt his brother, but he had already been betrayed by one man in his life. A band of mistrust was already established.

Tsuna looked around the house, it was very nice. He had been introduced to the three residence, Morishige Nagi a girl his age, Naito Daiki her step-father, and Naito Setsuko her mother. Although Tsuna could tell just by watching that he wouldn't be seeing much of the parents. Setsuko was a rather prominent actress and was often in other countries. Daiki was a businessman and was also out of the country more than he was in Japan. Nagi reminded Tsuna of himself so she needed a Hide. Tsuna was going to be her Hide.

There were four main helpers. There was Ryo, the cook. Osamu, the glorified baby sitter. Jun, the housekeeper and his twin sister, Hwan, the gardener. Hwan only came once a week on Tuesdays. Jun came on Thursdays and Mondays. Ryo and Osamu were at the house everyday. Ryo arrived at sixish and usually left around seven, seven-thirty A.M. Osamu would arrive after school finished for the day and left after Tsuna and Nagi had dinner.

Tsuna and Nagi made an odd pair. The two hardly ever talked even to each other. Both had a doll-like aura. As if to prodded them too hard they would break. They seemed to be able to communicate with each other with only a glance. Although without Tsuna Nagi never would have figured it out, she loved pranking people. She once nearly peed herself laughing when Osamu jumped a foot of the ground due to her duck taping air-horns behind every door.

Of course Nagi wasn't the only one upsetting Osamu. Tsuna's grades were doing a pretty fine job. It got to the point that Osamu got permission to take him for a brain scan. They found that the part of Tsuna's brain that retained knowledge stopped developing past age five. It was a bit of a shock of everyone involved. They were able to discover it was due to emotional trauma. This confused the doctors as the only emotional traumatic event they had listed was his mother's suicide.

Tsuna was taken from doctor to doctor, be it medical or psychological. He was missing more and more school, his brother wasn't calling as often., and Nagi was withdrawing from Tsuna. Everything he had built up for the past six months was falling apart. So Tsuna insisted that ether he was pulled out of school or he didn't go to as many appointments. It was the first time in Tsuna's life that he ever raised his voice. He got his point across and was soon placed in a special needs class at the same school Nagi went to.

Tsuna didn't like getting treated like he was stupid; he wasn't. He just had a learning disability. There were some pros of having the other student think he was stupid. It was gossip people would openly talk about. The most recent rumors they heard. This cause Tsuna to discover an ability he had. He could tell when someone was lying.

It also helped him discover Nagi's reason for withdrawing, bullying. If there was one thing Tsuna knew about it was bullying. He knew why people targeted others, why they felt the need to bully, and where they committed the acts. So at lunch Tsuna snuck away from his classroom and headed to the spot in the school garden where grass never grew. There were six girls from Nagi's class picking on her.

They were saying awful things to her. They pushed her and Tsuna couldn't bare to watch his friend get hurt. So he stepped in front of Nagi to protect her. This didn't seem to deter the girls at all. Luckily Tsuna had a secret weapon. He gave Nagi a wink and whipped up some fake tears; Nagi realizing what he had planned followed suit this cause the words the girl were spewing to became harsher. At the exact same time Nagi and Tsuna let loose two extremely loud wails.

The teachers heard the commotion and quickly headed over. A few recognized Tsuna from the special needs program and hurried over to him. They asked him what had happened and he relayed the truth. Then Nagi piped in

"Those girls called him a retard. I know what that means. They called him that just 'cause Tsuna's brain stopped developing. I could take them saying bad things about me, but Tsuna is really nice and when they called him that… I… I couldn't take it." Nagi let out another wail.

"They said that Nagi's mom was a whore and that Nagi was going to grow up to be one too. And they said that her parents didn't love her and didn't want to see her face so they left the country. But that isn't true! Auntie Setsuko is really nice and let's me stay at Nagi's house while my brother is in Italy. And Both Auntie Setsuko and Uncle Daiki love Nagi!" Tsuna allowed two big tears drop to fall from his eyes and sniffled.

A teacher escorted both Tsuna and Nagi to the nurse's office. While the other two took the six girls to the principal's office

It was hard to let go of his brother, but Hide knew it was for the best. He didn't want his brother to be dragged into the world of bloodshed. Hide had started off calling his brother every night, but it as getting harder to find time to do so. He hoped that his brother was doing okay.

Reborn had taken to "tutoring" which was another word for torture. Still Hide was getting better grades than ever. Of course that could be because he was being homeschooled. Reborn had said something about a mafia school. Supposedly once Hide was strong enough he would start there.

The whole situation made Hide sick to his stomach. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to make his brother do this either. Anytime Hide thought about giving up, he imagined his brother having to do the same thing and managed to find strength to the other day Hide had learned how to make a body decompose quickly. He threw up several times.

"Idiot Hidetada get back to work!"

So the reason Reborn didn't explain everything is because he didn't want to repeat things.

Yes Nagi is Chrome. We are never given names for her parents so I had to make up some. The reason Nagi has a different last name is she kept her father's name. In this Nagi's parents are neglectful. They leave people to take care of her, but they are emotionally neglectful.

The whole brain developing thing. It's due to sealed flames. Great job Nono and Iemitsu.

As alway any questions ask via review or PM