Author's Note: This will be a mini arc of its own. I will be subverting some common and popular fandom ideas regarding flames and the world around it. I'll also be adding in my own.

Canonically, flames are passed through genetics. Please keep this in mind.

Gokudera is a bit like me in my teens, except with more delinquency, violence, and possible terrorism so I hope my take on him is well received. Please let me know what you think about my portrayals. We will be seeing more of Ieyasu as time goes on.

Chapter 3: Gokudera Hayato

Reborn said Vongola Decimo was the same age as him, that they might have something in common with him. Hayato said something vaguely agreeable and when the phone call was over, he threw his phone at the wall and shouted at it until he felt better.

The fuck did a soft and pampered little civilian boy have in common with someone him?

Hayato had been working day in, day out so that he could survive. He ate out of dumpsters, murdered people he never wanted to murder, and had done countless other desperate and painful things all in the name of survival. Why did this boy who did not understand what it means to survive, how could he ever know what it was like for Hayato?

There were countless of boys within Vongola the same age as Hayato. Some more capable, others decidedly less so, but it didn't change the fact that the only difference between Hayato and these other boys was the difference in blood percentage.

Namely, Hayato was a quarter Japanese.

What a bunch of bull!

Hayato was Italian! He was raised Italian, he'd grown up thinking he was Italian, he was basically fucking Italian, and he'd never stepped a foot in Japan before this, but everybody liked to remind him how "Japanese" he really was. Now they were expecting him to go to Japan, strike a conversation and "bond" with the Decimo to be because they were both "little Japanese." It was racist as hell!

He didn't even know Japanese.

"You know their language and customs." His commander claimed. "What do you need lessons for?"

Hayato wanted to tell that fucker to take his assumptions and shove it up his dumb ass, but that guy was a higher up so he had kiss that dumb ass instead. The woes of a low-tier soldato.

"Didn't your mother teach you?"

"My mother was Italian." Hayato responded stiffly. "My birth-mother was…you know what, never mind. I'll ask somebody else."

While he'd always felt inexplicable connection with his birth mother, it didn't change the fact that a man could have two mothers and still be a stand-up guy.

Hayato's stepmother had always loved and raised him as if he were hers. For eight years, he'd always thought that he was the child most like her. Finding out they weren't related was devastating. She'd been the only adult who'd really listened to him.

For that reason, he'd always assumed his birth mother's death was orchestrated by his father. There was no way that angelic woman would do such a thing, not when she herself had her own (female) lover. No, Hayato was certain; it was definitely that scumbag old man.

"Still, your birth-mother, whoever she was, she was oriental, wasn't she? Oriental people can communicate with one another? Even Asians from another country can."

Hayato's mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. This was too stupid, even for him. He'd only ever seen his birth-mother a few days a year. Did they think languages could be passed through blood? This wasn't a fantasy book, you know!

Besides that, Lavina was adopted. She'd never met her Japanese parent, never learned Japanese, and never even stepped foot in that country. Not without lack of availability as Hayato's father had offered many times, but because she did not care to. Even if she could, there was literally nothing for her to even pass on.

Hayato left before he could lose his temper. Time was of the essence. Reborn wanted him in Japan within a month and a month wasn't long enough to learn properly, even for a genius like him.

That racist fuck.

The teen found somebody who finally would help him resolve his little language issue. The budget was small, but it was still a damn budget. Hayato studied what he could with his tutor, snuck into however many extra language classes he had to for what he couldn't, and then, when he was on the plane, he learned how to do a proper Japanese Dogeza so that he could properly kiss Japanese ass and ensure his survival.

Within a week of his arrival, Reborn pulled him aside and said:

"I need you to pick a fight with the new candidate and then fight him as if to kill."

Hayato's cigarette dropped out of his mouth. He stuffed it back in and forced a polite smile on his face.

"I-what? I must have misheard you, Signore-"

"Speak Japanese." The other demanded.

It was easy enough to agree to. Language immersion was the most effective learning method.

"Sorry Reborn-san. I'm not accustomed to Japanese yet."

Round black eyes scrutinized the nervous teen. "Really? You sound as if you were raised speaking it."

"No, no. I learned it. Last month, in fact." On the short notice you gave me, you racist fucker.

"Then I will only repeat myself once. I need you to fight Sawada Ieyasu as if to kill." Then, as an added bonus, Reborn lied. "If you win or kill him whether on purpose or on accident, I'll introduce you before the Ninth as the worthier heir."

There was no way Hayato was going to believe such an obvious lie.

While it was true that there were many bastard lines from various Vongola bosses and it was true that Vongola Boss's could adopt a worthy heir, that was all only in theory. It wasn't enough to become the Boss. You needed to have the recommendation of the Vongola Boss Himself and his CEDEF head. Before that, you needed to prove your worthiness and not get wiped out by your rivals or the Boss himself. It wasn't something an everyday grunt like him could do, got it?

"I don't have Vongola Blood. How could I-?" He stammered.

"You do." Reborn interrupted. "I checked. Your great-great grandfather married a Vongola? That was how your family originally entered the Vongola alliance."

The famous Vongola Alliance was carefully kept and maintained through the marriages of countless Vongola daughters and sons. There were few commodities more valuable than Vongola blood as their blood ran thick. Even generations after the original Vongola married in, genetic markers remained. Genetic markers like a propensity towards Sky flames.

Sky flames were another benefit of being a worthy member of the Vongola alliance, a chance to be considered "something more" than an average human. This was why nearly all the upper echelons could boast to Sky flames. They all descended from a Vongola relative or the relative of a relative of a Vongola relative. This was where the cult of personality that wrapped around Sky flames and their wielders came from. The elites liked to stay in power.

A sky flame was a sky flame was a sky flame. How could the common people hope to break through such a circle? How could average flames like theirs? How could they prove worthy for leadership when they lacked what could only be passed through blood?

Hayato had a lot of thoughts on this matter, but that wasn't the point. The point was this: I don't have fucking sky flames, Signore Shithead.

"That's not…" It was frustrating how he couldn't say what he wanted to. That Reborn was a shit fucker and the way Hayato's great-great-grandfather nabbed his beloved bride was in the same way a person might buy a designer purse in a random street stall, with roughly the same result. The elite hitman might take it as an insult and somebody like the Sun Arcobaleno wasn't somebody you could offend lightly. "We left it shortly after." He said lamely.

"If legitimacy is what you're worried about, Timoteo-" requisite name drop with emphasis "-can adopt you. This is Vongola's great claim."

Vongola's famous claim was that so long as they were worthy, capable, and had the right bloodline, anybody could be boss. It was also complete and utter bullshit, as shown in history.

Not many people realized this, but Hayato was a fan of history, research, and how clearly there were signs of aliens and witchcraft involved within Vongola's founding. He knew his stuff. This famous claim only applied during the first few generations. After that, there was little tolerance for "pretenders, bastard claimants, and those lacking the True Blood." With emphasis on the blood.

Vongola Settimo wiped out the wealthiest and most powerful of the claimant families, even those who didn't press their claim - even those from whom Primo himself was descended from. He claimed his victories were due to their "lesser blood". Then, high off his victories, he kidnapped a young girl from Primo's Sawada family and forced her to marry her son. Both the son and Settimo himself died under mysterious circumstances, their bodies found and arranged in such a grotesque way that Ottava, who found them, never spoke of it. The Sawada girl was found dead days later, having drowned herself in the river. Her corpse was shipped back to her homeland, where it mysteriously disappeared.

Vongola Ottava learned from her father's mistake. She recruited and put all possible claimants into powerful and worthy positions…that also happened to bar them all out of succession. Many of those with "Vongola looks" were CEDEF or Varia. Usually CEDEF because Varia claimants, mysteriously enough, never lived for long.

Her son Vongola Noveno took an entirely different route. He ruthlessly stamped out all threats to his heirs by formally adopting any threatening claimants and then marrying them off to trusted Allies. Those adopted claimants had no choice but to rely on his good will and protection to be treated well within their new households. He'd sell you off and you'd thank him for it. That's how cunning he was. Noveno made and renewed so many alliances that it would be impossible to become Decimo without his prior approval.

It was fucking terrifying.

The teenaged Hayato's response, when it came, came out as a dry croak. "Right. Adoption."

"I knew you would see it my way." Reborn said with a smirk. That fucking bastard. This was why you could never trust adults. He ran away so that adults couldn't control him anymore, not so that he could be controlled even more! This was total bull!

For the record, Hayato Gokudera only gave in because he had to kiss ass, not because he was scared of being wed. You can't just say no to a bigshot like Reborn, after all. Those three days he practiced in throwing off his aim in a natural way was so that he wouldn't actually kill the new Decimo and get killed. He already learned the most polite (and subservient) form of Japanese by then so he read popular manga and whatever the hell teenagers liked for fun, not so that he could properly endear himself to the new Decimo and prevent his beautiful genius ass from getting married. His nightmares about Vongola Noveno marrying him off once he was of age were purely symbolic of his burning and passionate desire to win.

If Hayato repeated it to himself enough, he'd definitely be alright, right?

Right?