Title: Normal Is Overrated

Author: TripOverFlatSurfaces

Rating: T

Summary: Good, normal days never meant well. Ever. That was basically the logic by which his everyday life functioned.

Warnings: Language. No major spoilers.

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! as it is the property of Akira Amano.

Thanks to those who reviewed: Sora no hono KHR, cael05, Vanilla Interlude


"Tsuna-kun! Tsuna-kun!"

Tsuna became aware of a faint voice calling his name and the feeling of being gently shaken. "Five more minutes Mama," he slurred out, pulling the blanket higher. It was quite warm and comfortable and moving was not Something To Be Considered. He shifted though, to get into a more comfortable position, and in the process, something moist plopped down over his nose. Groggily reaching up a hand, he encountered a…towel?

'A towel?' With great effort, Tsuna peeled his eyes open, slowly becoming aware of a dull ache settled inside his head. His vision blurred before refocusing on the concerned visage of a brown-haired girl.

"Tsuna-kun!" she exclaimed in obvious relief, "Thank goodness, you woke up." She gently took the towel off his face, and smoothed down some of his bangs.

"Nana-chan, what did I…?"

"You fainted, remember?"

"…Fainted? But I― HIEE!" Tsuna shot up into sitting position. 'T-Then it wasn't a dream?' He furiously ground the heels of his palms into his eyes, kept his eyes closed for ten more seconds, and opened them again. He could feel an impending migraine coming on. 'November 12, 19XX…' Tsuna really felt like fainting again, if only just so he wouldn't have to deal with this anymore.

A hand lightly touched his arm, causing him to snap out of his self-induced cloud of misery. "You can talk about it if you want," Nana offered. "I don't mind, and it might make you feel better." Her eyes shined with genuine concern but she couldn't hide the spark of curiosity that appeared as well, one of which Tsuna immediately felt guilty for causing and the other which he didn't want to entertain any further.

In the end, he settled for shaking his head and giving her an apologetic smile. "No, it's nothing. I was just a little, um, tired. You know, because a lot of things happened yesterday, and I guess it all just caught up with me…?" he trailed off, not enjoying that he had to lie to the first person who had shown him kindness in this time period, but knowing that the truth was not something he could tell her. Yep, that would go over well; sorry but it seems that I'm from the future?

To his relief, Nana seemed to accept this answer and didn't push any further. "Alright then," she stretched as she stood up, "I'll go tell Obaa-san you're awake." The door swung shut gently behind her as she walked out, leaving Tsuna alone. He attempted to swing his legs over the side of the bed to stand up as well, but a wave of vertigo tilted the floor dangerously and he collapsed back onto the bed. He lay there staring up, listening to the faint murmuring of voices filtering through the cracks in the door.

'This sucks,' Tsuna mentally directed towards the white plaster of the ceiling. 'What am I going to do now…?' He frowned, puffing out his cheeks, and pushed the question from his mind. Maybe if he ignored it, the problem would go away. At least, it wouldn't do him any good to think about it at the moment. Instead, brown eyes traced the cracks age had wrought upon the ceiling idly. He was just in the middle of determining whether the odd shape in the far left corner of his vision was a rabbit or a hare―what was the difference?―when the door to the room creaked open and Nana's head popped in.

"Tsuna-kun, do you think you feel well enough to come down for dinner? And before you say anything," Tsuna closed his mouth, words dying on his lips, "Obaa-san said she would love to have you stay." He gave no immediate reply. Seeing his indecision, Nana opened the door further and let the smells from the kitchen waft in. 'Well?' her tilt of the head seemed to say.

In the end, his stomach decided for him, and Tsuna allowed Nana to pull him up from his temporary residency on the bed. The wave of vertigo hit again, but this time a hand was there to steady him, and so a painful reunion with the floorboards was narrowly avoided. Throwing a grateful look towards Nana, Tsuna made his way down the stairs by himself, though he never quite let go of the rail.

The delicious aroma from earlier really had not prepared Tsuna for how mouthwatering the sight of the food was. Although it was probably a trick of light, he thought he saw sparkles surrounding the table, and were those flowers in the background…? Snapping out of his food-induced daydreams, he realized that Kyousuke was already seated and Mira, seeing them, smiled and gestured excitedly for both he and Nana to sit down.

"Dinner is ready, dears," the old lady trilled cheerfully. As she was handing Tsuna his helping, she continued to beam merrily, to the point where it was starting to become highly disturbing. Giving her an uncertain smile, he accepted it and thanked her quietly. Now that everybody had been served, a silence seemed to fall over the table, and Nana's grandmother continued to produce sparkles so bright Tsuna was sure he would go blind if he stared at her for too long.

"Um, well, itadakimasu!" Nana exclaimed, trying to break the sudden strain in atmosphere.

"Itadakimasu!" Tsuna, Kyousuke, and Mira echoed after her. As everyone started to eat, the silence continued to persist, despite Nana's first attempt. Instead, it was Mira who finally said something.

"How are you feeling now, Tsunayoshi-kun?" she enquired. "You gave us quite a scare when you just collapsed like that."

"Ah, is…is that so? I'm feeling much better now," he replied awkwardly, "Thank you for taking care of me. I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"Not at all! So, how does it taste?" she asked, making a vague gesture to the food, "Is it to your liking?"

"It's delicious," Tsuna told her truthfully. And it was. The only other food that had ever tasted so good before in his life was his mother's cooking. 'Actually, this tastes a lot like Mama's cooking now that I think about it…'

If possible, Mira's smile grew brighter. "Is that so? That's good then."

"A-Ah." Tsuna eyed her warily between bites. "Eto…" he stopped, uncertain of how to phrase his question without sounding rude. He wanted to ask 'Why are you still staring at me?' but he was pretty sure that was not the way to go. Unfortunately, the old lady did not seem to be able to miraculously read his mind.

"Yes?"

"It's, well, you see…y-you've been staring at me, so I was just wondering, um…"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry about that dear," she giggled, "I didn't mean to stare! I was just so happy that Nana has finally found a friend." She winked at him conspiratorially. "You're the first friend that she's brought home since she came here." Tsuna glanced at Nana, to see that she had a light dusting of pink highlighting her cheeks.

"I'm always telling Na-chan," the old lady continued, "that she needs to be more outgoing. You can't make friends if you don't smile first!" Kyousuke nodded approvingly in the background. "I want her to be able to look back on her life," at this point Mira put her hands on her cheeks, much like how a schoolgirl would act, "and say 'Kyaa! What a wonderful life!'" There was something vaguely familiar about this conversation.

This time, Nana's cheeks flamed with embarrassment. "Obaa-san!" She glanced over at Tsuna meaningfully, "Don't do that, please." There was something definitely familiar about this conversation. Wasn't it exactly like the ones he always used to have with― He was brought out of his ponderings as Nana hurriedly changed the subject.

The rest of dinner progressed in a pleasant manner, and Tsuna was pretty sure that if he ate another bit, he'd explode. Eventually, after the dishes had been washed (something Nana and her grandmother had vehemently refused to let him help with, claiming guests shouldn't do such things) and put away, the entire group somehow migrated to the living room. Conversation flowed much easier than he expected. This family had the uncanny ability to make him feel much more comfortable than even being around Gokudera-kun or Yamamoto did. Much of what they talked about wasn't particularly personal, but Tsuna was dreading the start of those questions.

"Tsuna-kun, you said you just moved here, right?"

It came.

"Where do you live?" Nana bit her lip, suddenly recognizing another problem, "Won't your guardians be worried?"

All the occupants of the room froze.

"Didn't think of that…" Kyousuke muttered over his wife's gasp of 'Oh my!'.

Tsuna sweat-dropped. "About that… Since I, er, moved here, I haven't really… I mean, there isn't…"

Nana's grandfather fixed him with bewildered glower. "You don't have a place to stay?"

'Well, this trip wasn't exactly planned,' Tsuna thought, rapidly acquiring a tick in his eyebrow. It was a good point though; he hadn't considered it before. Where was he going to stay? Camping out could be an option, but what if he got attacked by a bear? Or worse, what if he got hypothermia and died? 'I don't want that!' Tsuna wailed in his head hysterically, already driving himself into a panic.

"―stay with us?" He blinked, realizing that he had missed something while immersed in his own horrified thoughts.

"Eh?" he asked intelligently. He thought he had heard wrong. Was Nana's grandmother really asking what he thought she was asking? Looking around, he saw Kyousuke nodding his head in agreement with his wife once again, though by the looks of it, Tsuna suspected it had less to do with personal opinion and more with how the old man didn't want to risk disagreeing with Mira. Nana, on the other hand, seemed rather happy.

She turned to Tsuna, eyes shining in excitement. "What do you think, Tsuna-kun? Do you want to stay with us? You can even enroll in my school!"

Her earnestness was ridiculously hard to refuse, Tsuna reflected as he, for the second time that day, succumbed to it and found himself agreeing with her before he even registered what he was saying. Still, it was worth seeing her smile, his own personal despair at his inability to resist notwithstanding.

"That's great!" Nana cheered. "We'll have so much fun, I just know it." She took a quick peek at the clock. "I guess we'll have to go get the forms tomorrow. It's too late now…" Disappointment was evident in her voice.

"Th-There's no need to hurry… I don't mind," Tsuna consoled. "Like you said, there's always tomorrow."

Nana laughed sheepishly, "You're right. No use rushing these things I gue—" she cut herself off with a yawn. Tsuna felt the urge to yawn as well crawl up his throat.

"My my, now if we have that all sorted out, isn't time for bed?" Mira clucked her tongue, "Na-chan, you still have school tomorrow."

"I'll be going to bed then," Nana stretched her arms above her head, standing up. She stifled another yawn. "Goodnight, Obaa-san, Ojii-sa—" she stopped, and Tsuna noticed that in the amount of time it had taken for the conversation to finish, her grandfather had already fallen asleep. Nana laughed softly under her breath. She caught Tsuna's eye and smiled. "Goodnight, Tsuna-kun," she said, and then made her way up to her room.

"Sweet dreams, Na-chan," Mira called after her, Tsuna echoing the sentiment. The old grandmother then made to wake her husband, but he only muttered under his breath and settled deeper into the couch cushions. Shaking her head in fond exasperation, she slowly rose to her feet and turned to Tsuna. "Come with me please," she requested in a hushed whisper and put a hand on his arm. Getting up, he followed her as she walked into a room. Mira quickly shuffled over to a wooden dresser and opened a drawer to rifle through the contents. Tsuna lingered by the doorway, only going in when the old woman looked up, and seeing that he wasn't beside her, beckoned for him to come closer.

He blinked as a bundle of clothes was plopped into his arms. Tsuna looked up questioningly. "This is…"

Mira continued rummaging through the drawers. "I assume that since you have no place to stay, the only things you own right now are the clothes on your back." She shook out a shirt, and held it up contemplatively. "So please borrow these, and we'll go shopping later, okay?" She deposited the shirt happily onto the bundle.

Tsuna's eyes widened, and shook his head frantically. "I can't accept this…!" He tried to return the clothing, but Mira only firmly pushed them back into his arms.

"I insist, Tsunayoshi-kun. Go on to bed now. Do you remember where the guest room is? It's that room we put you in after you fainted." At his wince, she patted his cheek, "Now, now, don't be like that. Go on. Growing boys and girls need their sleep!"

Tsuna opened his mouth to protest again, but thought better of it. "Thank you, Oeda-san."

"No need to be so formal, call me Obaa-san!"

"Then, thank you...Obaa-san."

Mira smiled gently. "Goodnight, Tsunayoshi-kun."

~o~o~o~o~o~

After finally coaxing her husband awake and leading him to bed, the old grandmother shuffled over to the window to close the blinds but paused to gaze at the dark sky, devoid of anything but the tiniest sliver of a moon. She rested her fingertips against the cool glass and simply stood there.

"Tsunayoshi-kun…I wonder if it was fate that brought you to us? I've never seen Na-chan look so happy..."

'Kami-sama, if nothing else, please let Na-chan keep that smile on her face for as long as she lives.'


A/N: Yay, Chapter 3 finished~! I need to write with less procrastination~! *sobs* ;_; Anyhow, maybe Chapter 4 will go better. Iemitsu will probably appear then… Since Iemitsu is not that common of a name (I think), will Tsuna recognize him? The answer is: Most likely not. Hyper Intuition aside, if he hasn't recognized his mother, he won't recognize his father who is never around. Haha, well, please review and I hope you continue reading!

(The following is for Vanilla Interlude, to whom I apologize. I was not able to include another 'current time flashback', as you termed it, in this chapter. SO IT WILL APPEAR IN THIS OMAKE!)

OMAKE START!

Once upon a time, there was a pleasant town in Japan called Namimori. In this town of Namimori, there lived a boy named Gokudera Hayato, who was very loyal to his friend, Sawada Tsunayoshi-The-Tenth. Every day, he would go to his house in the morning to pick him up for school. Today was one such day.

"Good morning, illustrious mother of Juudaime! I have come to escort him to school!"

"Good morning to you too, Hayato-kun! But I'm afraid Tsu-kun isn't here."

The boy was very surprised to hear this. "Did he go with Reborn-san?"

"No, I asked Reborn-kun, but no one has seen him since yesterday afternoon. Do you have any idea where he might have gone? Honestly, that Tsu-kun, making his mother worry like this!"

Naturally, the boy knew what he had to do. "As the right-hand man of Juudaime, I'll go look for him!" And with that he sped off, looking for his precious friend who had gone missing.

"JUUDAIME! WHERE ARE YOU? CAN YOU HEAR ME? JUUDAIME!" He called and called but all he attracted was another boy named Yamamoto Takeshi.

"Haha, what are you doing, Gokudera?"

"I wasn't calling for you, Baseball Freak!"

"Then who were you calling for?" the other boy asked.

"Juudaime, you idiot! He's gone missing!"

"Eh, Tsuna's gone missing?"

"That's what I said you idiot! And don't call Juudaime so familiarly!"

"Haha, then we'll look for Tsuna together."

The boy grew angry. "I don't need your help, you Baseball Freak!" Leaving the bemused other-boy behind, he once again set off to go find his precious friend.

He went to the mountains… "JUUDAIME!"

He went to the ocean… "JUUUDDAAIIIMMMEEE!"

He even dared to trespass into the territory of the fearsome prefect, Hibari Kyoya… ""! WHERE ARE YOU? JUUDAI—"

"What are you doing, herbivore?" Once again, the boy's calls had attracted someone else besides the one he was calling for. This time, it was the fearsome prefect, Hibari Kyoya. "For being disruptive as well as late, I'll bite you to death." With that, the fearsome prefect attacked the boy.

"I don't have time for this, bastard!" But the fearsome prefect didn't listen. The boy had no choice but to continue fighting. "Fine then, if that's the way you're going to be…DOUBLE BO—" His attack was stopped though, by a mysterious force. The fearsome prefect paused from their fight as well. The boy turned and saw…

TO BE CONTINUED!

Any longer, and it'll turn into a chapter of its own… ^^;