All characters © Amano Akira
Summary: A series of points, secrets, and little things that no one in the Vongola's really stopped to notice over the years. If they had, they'd probably scream.
Enumerated: We are the Mafia
12 things Sawada Tsunayoshi never knew about his mother
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1. Sawada Nana earned the Kendo title of renshi roku-dan by the age of seventeen. Tsuna's lucky there are no long, wooden poles of any kind in the house besides the brooms and the upright lamps. Nana still has her uniform somewhere in the back of her closet despite the fact that she's given it up for a life of cooking pork buns. It still fits her.
2. When she was pregnant with Tsuna, Sawada Nana used to sing to him in fluent Italian. Tsuna has no musical inclination in the least, but whenever he hears Masagni or Rossini or Verdi on the classical station he feels a certain, unexplainable fondness.
3. Sawada Nana can fool almost anyone with the ruse of a charming yet absent-minded woman. Year after year she convinces Tsuna's teachers to let him graduate despite his almost laughable grade point average. She's even managed to escape mafioso enemies by playing dumb. Reborn once made a comment that no one in the Sawada family is as they seem, and she couldn't agree with him more.
4. She used to hate anything and everything banana-flavored, since it got so annoying when Iemitsu teased her and called her his "Banana-Nana." Now, as she watches the clock in her kitchen and counts down the hours until he'll call, Nana can't remember when banana hasn't been her favorite flavor.
5. The Ninth is actually her biological uncle. Tsuna's bloodline comes from her, and not from Iemitsu.
6. Sawada Nana used to be a professional assassin for the Vongola CEDEF, known notoriously as the "Seven Sins" in her prime (yet another pun on her name). She's killed people with the same hands that washed her son's hair, changed his diapers, and tucked him into bed at night.
7. It was her idea to name Tsuna after a Japanese shogun. Iemitsu's mother had done the same, and she thought it would be nice to carry on the tradition. History has a way of catching up with you, Nana notices, and she is almost positive that Tsuna believes the very same thing.
8. Sawada Nana had been in contact with Reborn before he moved to Japan. When he decided to come as a home tutor, she gave him full permission to employ his Spartan Teaching Methods (as long as he didn't kill Tsuna). Tsuna was in school at the time, and had gotten somewhat of a shock when he came home to find out that he was the next candidate as a mafia boss. Even more shocked than getting hit by a baby with a sledgehammer.
9. She likes to pretend that Tsuna is there when he isn't, since it helps put her mind at ease. When Tsuna's gone she cleans his room, washes his clothes, and occasionally writes absence forms to Namimori for when he gets back from his "field trips." Ipin often helps her. Tsuna sometimes takes his sparkling room or fresh-smelling shirts for granted when he comes home; he thanks his mom with a kiss and runs upstairs to do his homework, never stopping to consider the fact that Nana's overjoyed to finally have someone around to make things messy again.
10. Screw pepper spray or mace; Sawada Nana keeps a pair of loaded M9's in her purse. Reborn is aware of this, and so is Bianchi.
11. She and Reborn sometimes meet late at night to discuss current events. The coffee keeps him up; worry keeps her. They talk about the Millefiore, Shimon, Italy, new Vongola weapons, and anything else that crosses their minds as the moon rises. Sawada Nana is up to date with everything her son has done, is doing, and will be doing. He just doesn't know it.
12. Sawada Nana misses her husband more than she says she does. Every night, when the sky fades to black, she prays that Iemitsu is doing well. Lately she has begun to pray for Tsuna too, since he's home almost as seldom as her husband is. When she is done, Nana tucks herself into bed and tries not to notice how cold the sheets are, comforting herself with the image of her men coming home to her with open arms. So far the only answers Nana's gotten are the soft creaks of the house settling, and the wind humming through the windows. But she still waits.