I'm still alive! I apologize for the long delay. If you accidentally stumbled onto my profile, you'll know why.


Chapter 5: The Sky is Raining

The Arcobaleno Tutor from Hell had already arrived.

Tsuna stared. That was the only action he was capable of doing. That and gape stupidly. His action had nothing to do with the destroyed door, trampled lawn and dented gate. He was rather used to that. Which didn't bode well for his continued health.

Reborn's infant form was something Tsuna had rather forgotten. He had, of course, anticipated the Arcobaleno's arrival-his father practically said so to his face-but the Arcobaleno's infant form still surprised him.

Does the curse still exist in this dimension?

He thought that when they'd broken the curse in their dimension, the other dimensions would follow. Apparently that wasn't the case.

Tsuna was no expert in the time-space aspect of the former Trinisette and he hadn't bothered researching it thoroughly after they'd lifted the curse, so he had no answer for his own question. That was a mistake in his part.

He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat.

It had been years, over half a century, since Tsuna last saw the Arcobaleno. Reborn had cut off every modes of communication possible to contact him. Heck, even his most extensive spies and trackers were unable to track him. Even his yearly Christmas gifts were untraceable.

At first, Tsuna was hurt by his former tutor's rather abrupt departure. Why did Reborn up and left like that? There had been no goodbyes, no letter, and no tear-jerking departure. The Arcobaleno simply...left.

Tsuna thought, at first that this was another one of the Arcobaleno's pranks,- he had did this once, and the likelihood of him doing it again was high-but when days grew to weeks and weeks swept to months, that Tsuna grew worried. He attempted to track the hitman. Those months transitioned to years -and by then Tsuna's nerves were frazzled- when a letter was presented to Tsuna. A letter from Reborn.

The letter contained Reborn's Flame Signature so Tsuna knew that it wasn't a fake. Reborn was, simply put, leaving mafia. Deciphering the letter took some time, but Tsuna was able to decipher, under the subtle insults and jabs to his leadership, that Reborn was proud of him and he quite sorry he didn't contact him until now, (this particular statement had to be dredged up and didn't quite looked like an apology. It could be, if Tsuna's eyes were squinted and his head tilted to the side. Actually, it said, decoded: Be thankful I even bothered writing this letter, Dame Tsuna) because he was busy erasing his ties to the mafia and he had to make sure people believed he was dead.

He further added that Tsuna was crap at keeping his secrets close and his emotions in check. That statement was quite unnecessary, but it did make him laugh, albeit an indignant laugh.

From then on, Tsuna had his trackers withdraw. Reborn wasn't dead and he'd respect the hitman's wish to be left alone.

After that day, Tsuna never expected anymore contact from his former tutor. It was only when Reborn's yearly Christmas presents stopped that Tsuna felt-no, knew-that the Arcobaleno was already dead.

He had shut himself in his office and had mourned the loss of a great, but somewhat crazy, man. Nothing, not even Hayato's persistent begging, could make him come out. How could he, though? Only Reborn could forcefully drag him out of this miserable state.

An extremely loud battle cry shocked him out of his internal angsting. And he snapped out just in time to see two pink hand grenades hurtling toward the hitman tutor.

"DIE, REBORN!" Lambo cried as he threw the grenades at Reborn.

There were many things that Tsuna could do at this situation. He could pretend he couldn't see the grenades hurtling toward the hitman at inhumane speed. He could look around confused at the 'sudden' cry. Or he could redirect the grenades away from his absolutely not fireproof house.

He did none of the above and immediately pulled Shoichi down as Reborn batted the grenades like one would do to a baseball. The bombs changed trajectory and slammed solidly at Lambo. The force of the hit caused him fly over the gate. By fly, Tsuna meant completely obliterate what's left of the gate.

Then the grenades exploded, with poor Lambo at the epicentre.

All this happened in just a second.

Small chunks of concrete flew over Tsuna's and Shoichi's head. Dust billowed around them. Tsuna momentarily lifted his head to survey the damage in front of the gate.

"What..? What happened?" Shoichi asked with a hint of panic in his voice. He too had lifted his head and his glasses were coated with dust. On second thought, everything on their person was coated in dust.

"Nice reflexes." A small voice commented from the wall of concrete that remained miraculously unharmed.

Tsuna started and stared.

It's not fair! He mentally complained. Reborn stood on the wall. His black suit was meticulously clean and his fedora hat remained in place. Even his hair was unruffled.

Tsuna, in all his years of training, could still never achieve such perfection. Not that he ever told his torturer-er, tutor.

But then his mind focused on important matters. Most importantly, the calculating glint in the hitman's eyes.

A shudder ran through his spine. The hitman's eyes were cold, assessing, calculating...

They were the eyes of a predator assessing a potential prey.

"No no no no! No! Dammit!"

All heads swivelled to the source of the deep voice. The panicked exclamations broke Reborn's gaze on him.

Fear gripped Tsuna's heart. He knew that voice and hearing the usually lackadaisical tone panicking made Tsuna fear what happened. He righted himself and waited.

The dust settled. There, standing in the middle of a crater, was a teenage Lambo.

Tsuna didn't know what to expect. He had expected the suave, young man that Lambo would grow into panicking over something trivial. He had expected Ten-Years-Later Lambo to quickly overcome it and greet them like old friends. His contact with the child ensured that Lambo would know him, Tsuna's Hyper Intuition supplied. But no, none of those was what he saw.

Lambo's hair was shaggier than normal. His horns, which were currently attached to head, were crackling with electricity. His usual cow printed shirt was surprisingly missing. In its place was a plain shirt with a brown coat slung over. Although the description white was loosely used.

Red and black were the dominant colours as blood and soot covered his entire shirt. There were also rips and slashes on his shirt. Dirt, grass and dew clung to his clothes. His brown coat was singed. Bandages soaked with blood were wrapped around his knuckles and clutched in those hands was a dusty black shield. Dents and scratches were visible on the shield, even at a distance.

Blood dripped down from an open wound just above his left eyebrow and trailed down his temple and cheek. Tsuna felt his heart and lungs freeze. Suddenly the task of breathing became harder.

Years of experience told Tsuna that the dents on Lambo's shield were not because of simple gunshots. And it scared him to the core because Tsuna knew the shield could withhold even armour-piercing ammunitions. Hell, he even saw Lambo stop an army tank's shells.

Without his Box Weapon, Lambo was the ultimate defence and with Gyuudon by his side, he became a heavy combatant with impenetrable armour.

Tsuna was distracted by a sharp intake of breath beside him as Shoichi gasped at the sight of the bloodied teen. His attention drawn, he failed to see Lambo turn towards them with an alarmed expression. He didn't see how Lambo's expression darkened when he saw the Sun Arcobaleno perched on the wall, looking nonplussed.

He didn't see the dying crackling lightning flare to life as Lambo charged at Reborn.

But he did hear Lambo scream.

"DIE, REBORN!"

The cry was similar to the younger Lambo's cry, but what surprised Tsuna was the sheer amount of hatred packed into those two words. Not even his teenaged Lambo could generate much hatred for the hitman. And that's accounting all the abuse and insults Reborn put the child through.

Tsuna immediately tackled Shoichi to the ground as Lambo made contact with Reborn. The area was bathed in white light and he could feel his unkempt hair rising due to static in the air. Then it exploded.

Whips of pure electricity wildly slammed everywhere like Dino's attacks without his subordinates. Tsuna kept his eyes closed all the time although he could hear concrete breaking, wires snapping and metal crashing as Lambo's Dying Will lashed out. Shoichi had long since fainted at the sheer unrealism happening before him and Tsuna thanked whatever deity watching them that Shoichi couldn't see this. He shouldn't see this.

Then after two terrifying minutes, it stopped.

Tentatively, Tsuna opened his eyes, blinking rapidly to clear the white spots in his vision. He saw Reborn and Lambo at a deadlock. Reborn was holding a rubber coated baton while Lambo with his extended Electtrico Cornatta struggled to push against the baton.

And then the deadlock was gone as Reborn moved.

One second he and Lambo were locked at a standstill and the next Lambo was on the floor with Reborn standing at his chest with Leon gun pointing at Lambo's head.

Lambo attempted to stand up, but the Arcobaleno's deceptively heavy body remained firmly on him.

"This is all your fault!" Lambo shouted angrily. "You created a monster! And now everything's gone!"

Reborn's fingers tightened imperceptibly around his gun as thousand possible meanings of those statements flitted through his brain. Tsuna knew because Reborn's eyes flashed whenever that happened.

"Tch, a smaller Famiglia's fall is something I don't care about. It's not my fault that the Bovino bit more that they can chew." Reborn stated coolly, arrogantly. But he was fishing for information.

"Not that!" Lambo snarled and Tsuna, in all the years he'd been with his Lambo, never heard Lambo snarl. The future must be too dire to imagine, and he'd seen wars. "Burning, falling, screaming. Can you imagine a future where a person is cut down for breathing too loudly? For just being in that monster's way? You can't sleep because his men are everywhere and a single wink can cause your end! Italia gone,Japan in dictatorship and Tsuna-nii and Ma-!" He abruptly stopped as he choked on tears. "Funnily enough, I couldn't too until I live in it." He whispered. "And it's all because of you."

Tsuna could feel tears gathering at the corner of his eyes as he imagined everything the teen said. It was scarily similar to Byakuran's reign in that alternate future. But worse, much, much worse.

Reborn's gun was cocked and a single frosty word escaped the hitman's lips.

"Explain."

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Lambo tilted his head defiantly. Then his green eyes slid over to Tsuna and he spoke, "Bakadera explained things to me some time ago. Please stop this. The White Dragon told me he warned you too late and all branches grew with the same outcome." He was plaintively pleading now.

Tsuna understood clearly what Lambo was saying and it terrified him. But why the careless approach? If Byakuran's warning, the third reason, was so important, why would he draw out every conversation and not just say it out?

Unless…

No. Byakuran was no longer like that. He was a megalomaniac, sure, but he was no longer a megalomaniac idiot obsessed with world domination. Nor was he a sadist. Everything he cared about, as well as those that interest him, were still in the world. It would give him no joy to see the world burn.

"Tsuna-nii, you have to stop him. You have to stop-!" Whatever he wanted to say was cut off as he was engulfed in pink smoke at the same time a shot rang out.

The bullet imbedded itself on the ground, mere millimetres from the child Lambo's ears.

Lambo who wore a spooked expression on his face. He was covered in soot, but otherwise looked unscathed. Tsuna allowed himself a small breath of relief.

Reborn's gun was still smoking as he hoped off the shell-shocked child. Immediately Tsuna ran to Lambo's side and patted him down for injuries. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Reborn, with a disturbed expression on his face, walking along the wall and away from them, presumably to check on Hikari. Then he saw Leon change into a green helicopter and Reborn hopping into it.

Deeming everything safe and Reborn really out of hearing range (because, really, he didn't want the hitman to know he could speak Italian. Anything that's unmatched in his profile that Tsuna knew Reborn possessed was a point for suspicion), he asked Lambo.

"Are you all right?"

The child suddenly burst out into tears and hugged Tsuna tightly, tears and snots soaking his already dirty uniform.

"Hey," Tsuna patted Lambo's back comfortingly as he whispered softly. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here now. You're alright."

A shiver ran through his spine, and he quickly raised his head, his eyes sharply roving the area. Shoichi was still out cold beside him, and his gate was still destroyed. The place still looked like a bomb exploded within.

Then the air rippled.

Tsuna could feel the Mist rolling in, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. There was a brilliant flash of light that had Tsuna closing his eyes in pain. When he opened them, the area was unscathed and the uncomfortable feeling was faint.

He narrowed his eyes as he attempted to locate the source.

There! Behind him!

He twisted, still mindful of the child on his arms. The air rippled faintly and Tsuna caught a hint of red and purple and mocking smile.

Then he had the gall to bow and salute him, before completely disappearing.

Tsuna resisted the urge to childishly stick his tongue out. Instead he scowled at the wall.

Luckily, Shoichi chose that moment to groan before Tsuna could figure out how to channel his Flames through his eyes without harming them. Shoichi woke up, saw the area wholly unharmed, declared everything a weird dream and led them inside the house.


Shoichi left after making sure Tsuna was truly okay. He fussed a bit, but after several assurances from Tsuna that he was really fine, it's really late and your parents will worry about you, he relented and left. But not before leaving the pile of homework and worksheets he kindly asked Takeshi for. So cruel.

Tsuna hadn't done any work since his heir inherited the Vongola.

Tsuna's mother arrived, carrying tons of shopping bags. True to his prediction, she didn't mind Lambo at all. In fact, she even squealed and swept Lambo in a tight hug. Then she learned he couldn't speak Japanese at all. She frowned a bit, tapping her chin thoughtfully, before clapping her hands and rummaging in the attic for the twins' old things.

That was how Hikari and Reborn had found them, hunched over the dining table with tons of books scattered across it. Nana was teaching Lambo the writing system first. She had been pleasantly surprised though when the child picked up on quickly and even stated they could begin with katakana tomorrow.

While Nana and Lambo worked downstairs, Tsuna was in his room, already breezing through the schoolwork he missed. Then he shoved all of them in his school bag and threw himself on his bed.

Tsuna's eyes glazed over as he thought what the teenaged Lambo said.

The future was dire.

The unflappable Lambo, who rarely lost himself to true rage, nearly eviscerated Reborn at the mere sight of him. Italy was gone and Japan in dictatorship? But by whom?

You created a monster! And now everything's gone!

A shiver ran through his frame as his mind dangerously whispered, But you already know the answer, don't you?

He was dead in the future. And he was pretty sure his mother was too. Or else Lambo wouldn't be angered so. His mom and Lambo's bond was a strong bond born of true love and caring.

The White Dragon told me he warned you too late and all branches grew with the same outcome.

That had a rather clear meaning. Byakuran's warning came too late and all the future exuded the same outcome. Tsuna really had to see Byakuran and wring the third reason out of him. Oh and get Kyouya to help him do it.

That man was masterful at getting his answers.

But did Tsuna really want to know?

He already knew, didn't he? The real villain in the future, that is. His Hyper Intuition had instantly supplied what Lambo wanted to say,

But, how could his bro-he do it? Had he really started a dark, dangerous path with no one the wiser? Was his act two weeks ago enough to set him down the path?

Tsuna had no answer to those questions.

He really, really needed to talk to Byakuran.


Tsuna spent the rest of the day (and week) sorting through his newly acquired memories.

It was strange feeling, having two sets of memories in his head. He could remember the pain he went through when the bullies cornered him that day, but he could also remember not being hurt because Shoichi and Byakuran showed up in time.

Some memories were the same in his old timeline, but there were some inconsistencies. For one, there was the memory he had when he was seven.

Consistent with that, he had found several boxes of brown hair dye hidden in his room.

He found it odd that he was blonde in this world. He was so used to being a brunette that the idea of his hair being a different colour—especially the same one as Iemitsu's—was simply…odd.

But then he looked at the mirror and found his roots showing that yes, he really was blonde.

He continued using the dye.

His newly acquired memories made him grimace.

Hikari was acting out of hate and embarrassment.

He was embarrassed of having a twin, an older twin, who, for some reason, failed at everything and anything. He was sick of being known as the guy with the Dame-twin. Because of that, he had chosen to be an overachiever and taken to hanging out with the stronger guys.

Tsuna had a petty power-hungry moron for a twin.

That thought made him sad.


Tsuna woke up to the sound of explosion. He rolled over, glanced at the clock and promptly went back to sleep. It was still too early. School wouldn't even begin for another four hours.


The routine had been going on for nearly two months and by now, Tsuna was very much used to it. Reborn hadn't been too suspicious of him (or so he thought), probably chalking his change of attitude to the coma. (Many of his classmates did that too as a guy who knew random stuff said coma did weird things to people.)

But still, Tsuna knew he had to be careful, as coma didn't suddenly give people decades worth of information regarding the inner workings of a mafia family, especially the Vongola. There was no way he could reason anything he knew about the Underground to coma.

Thankfully, the Arcobaleno hadn't been bothering him, choosing to place his attention on Hikari. Thus, the daily gunshots and explosions in the morning. And after two months, it seemed that Hikari had yet to learn proper survival instincts regarding Reborn.

Like today, for instance.

Tsuna and Lambo were already seated around the table, peacefully eating breakfast. They expertly ignored the loud bangs and explosions upstairs while Nana prepared two other plates and a cup of coffee for Reborn.

A sound akin to a herd of rampaging elephants was heard thundering downstairs. A moment later, Hikari tripped in the dining room, wearing nothing but his boxers with Reborn standing on his back. The infant jumped off and settled himself on the cushioned seat.

Immediately, Lambo's attention was directed at him and he attempted several ways to not-so subtlety murder Reborn who always deflected the attacks without his eyes leaving his newspaper. Tsuna ignored the usual drama. As long as no one was hurt too badly, he could safely ignore the attempted murders.

Although Reborn was keeping a wary eye on Lambo now.

Hikari glared at Tsuna who returned his stare impassively. As he stood up, he hissed at his twin, "Not a word" and proceeded to stalk out the dining room, presumably to his room to get dressed.

Tsuna picked up his pace at eating and excused himself as soon as he was done. He did not want to stay and hear Hikari's whispered spiteful remarks. He was sure to hear it again at homeroom. Although after Tsuna's accident, Nana had no longer been ignorant to the twins' interaction and scolded Hikari when she would catch him. She remained a bit of an airhead, though, still believing the guns and grenades the two child threw were merely toys, albeit realistic toys.

Now that he wasn't the subject of the Dying Will bullets, it was extremely funny to see its results, hilarious even to see his twin make a fool of himself. Of course, what happened to Mochida filled him with pity, but then Tsuna remembered all the shit he had to go through in middle school because of him and that pity crumbled to dust.

"Mom, I'm heading out." Tsuna called as he slipped on his shoes.

He heard a faint "Be careful" from the kitchen. It spoke volumes of Nana's change in behaviour when she used to ignore Tsuna in favour of, well, fussing over Hikari.

The walk to school was quiet and uneventful. Shoichi had finally taken his advice of focusing on mechanics rather than music and had taken to it like fish to water. He joined a contest, won and was currently participating in the regionals which would last for three months in Tokyo. Tsuna wished his childhood friend good luck.

His childhood friend who remained ignorant of the strange happenings in the Sawada household. And Tsuna hoped it remains that way.

School was uneventful too. The same scene greeted him. Dohachirou attempted to embarrass him, to which Tsuna successfully evaded. Bullies would approach him, but would be deterred by Kyouya's sudden arrival. He would get picked last at P.E., because of his tendency to trip over his feet. (But that wasn't his fault! Really. He just wasn't used to being in his old, smaller body. The morning jog helped him adapt, but it wasn't going as fast as he liked.) At least the whispers and stares were no longer following him, now that the hype of his return was over.

Same old, same old.

But what he refused to retain from the past were his grades, his horrendous, atrocious, ghastly, unspeakable grades. Because he didn't want to rouse suspicion, he made sure to raise it gradually. By ten, then twenty and finally reaching the acceptable fifty-mark, he took it easy.

He knew that being the remaining heir of Vongola was the only reason he didn't end up a janitor on the streets. With Hikari as the Vongola Decimo, he would have no place in the mafia world other than the Decimo's brother. He also knew that if Hikari could help it, his Dame-twin would remain largely unknown to his future associates.

But did he really? Did Tsuna really want to turn his back on the world he grew used to? The mafia world was dark, dangerous and bloody, but it was a world he had successfully turned to the righteous path with his heir making sure it stayed there. He could succeed as Vongola Decimo. He held a larger claim than Hikari; he was older, and surely his experience as the actual Decimo in another dimension would count. He could cover what he previously missed in his previous life. Assassins wouldn't be able to trace the civilians in his life.

But he was getting ahead of himself. Did he really want to succeed Vongola and deny Hikari of his chance? Vongola had been his life, blood and sweat. Was it sad that he couldn't remember what life was like without hitmen and assassins in his life?

School ended and Tsuna barely remembered it at all. But somehow, he was the only one stuck in cleaning duty. Oh yeah, Kanaguchi-san, a member of the baseball team if he remembered right, asked him to sub for him and still being the number one person unable to refuse favours, he agreed.

Now he regretted it. It seems this was an indication that the rest in cleaning duty could skive off and leave him alone to clean.

He began picking up the scattered gloves, balls and bats in the field and arranged it in a box by the bench. Thankfully, the field was already swept earlier. Picking up the box of equipment, Tsuna staggered from its weight and adjusted his grip. He really was regretting this.

He was already panting by the time he reached the scoreboard and that was only halfway from the storage room. He set the box down, wiped his sweat and leaned against the fence to rest a bit.

"-asking me?"

Huh?

"It's because you've always been great and everything. You know, achieving those amazing feats and still maintaining your grades. My average is dropping and my fielding is screwing up. At this rate, it'll be the first time that I don't start since I began playing baseball. So, can you give me some advice?"

There was a moment of silence as the other speaker thought for a moment. Tsuna risked a glance behind him and saw Hikari and Takeshi, just behind the bushes, a.

"Maa, everything comes naturally for me. I don't know what to say…" Hikari replied with his hands in his pockets. "I guess you should put in more effort? Practice makes perfect, right?"

"That's true! You know, I thought that was it too!"

Tsuna was getting a rather frightful sense of déjà vu.

"Yosh! Today, I'm staying here and practicing like hell! Thanks, Hikari!"

His twin turned around and waved a lazy hand.

"No problem. See ya, Yamamoto."

Tsuna felt it was nigh time to leave. He lifted the box again and staggered to the storage room. Just as he was about to lock the door, he heard a voice behind him.

"Sawada, you still here?"

Tsuna wasn't startled. He really wasn't. He had heard Takeshi's footsteps from a distance. He turned to face him.

"Yeah," he answered. "Kanaguchi-san asked me to stand in for him. I'm just finishing up." He held up the keys to the room.

"Can you leave it unlocked? I'll be practicing and I don't know how long I'll finish, so you can just leave the keys to me. I'll inform sensei so you don't get in trouble." Takeshi said with a grin.

Tsuna reluctantly handed over the keys. "Alright. But don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

"Haha, okay."

Then he left. His head had begun aching and somehow, Tsuna knew he was forgetting something vital about that occurrence.


It was the next day and Tsuna's headache had yet to let up, even after asking the nurse for an aspirin. There were thundering footsteps just as he reached his classroom's floor. A moment later, what seemed to be the whole class 1-A rushed past him.

He only caught snippets of their conversation.

"-wouldn't actually jump, would he?-"

"-prank, it isn't funny-"

"-roof, yeah-"

"-broke his arm-"

"Tsuna-kun!" The bewildered Tsuna immediately honed on his caller. Kyoko halted in front of him.

"Kyoko-chan? Wha-what's going on?" He asked. It was mostly girls who were rushing past him now.

"Yamamoto-kun's about to jump off the roof! He broke his arm practicing yesterday!" She cried. "Let's go, Tsuna-kun!"

Suddenly, Tsuna's headache cleared and all the pieces fell into place as he rushed after Kyoko. He should have remembered this. It was the time he gained another close friend. How could he forget?

They arrived at the roof. There, standing precariously at the edge, was Yamamoto.

"-baseball gods threw me away, I got nothing left." He seemed to be saying.

Class 1-A, his baseball team, his fan girls, all were standing in a loose semicircle around the baseball player. They were screaming for him to get away from the ledge, but none were daring to step closer.

Even at a distance, he could see the sadness and isolation in those eyes. They were eyes that asked for help, but weren't given one.

Somebody burst through, seemingly kicked. It was Hikari.

"Hikari…" Takeshi murmured. "If you came to stop me, it's no use. You wouldn't even understand my feelings anyway."

Tsuna pushed against the sea of people to reach the front.

"You said so yesterday, didn't you? 'Everything comes naturally for me, I don't know what to say', right?" Takeshi mimicked.

"You're right." Hikari's response elicited gasps from their audience. "I really don't understand your feelings. Unlike you, I've never put an effort in everything I've done. Everything does come naturally to me. But even so, I'll never actually end because of something small."

That was the wrong thing to say as Takeshi's grip on the rusty fence imperceptibly tightened.

"Never had I actually thought things like, 'why am I even doing this', 'I should just give up', and 'there's nothing left for me'. And if I ever do, I think of what'll happen after I off myself. Things will be back to normal. People would mourn for me, yeah, but after some time they'll move on, without me. I won't be able to share their experiences because I won't be there at all.

So pull yourself together, man. Your arm will heal and soon you'll be back to playing baseball." With his piece said, Hikari turned around and stiffly walked away.

Tsuna sighed. Hikari had said all the wrong things possible. If possible, Takeshi's anger swelled and he turned his back on the audience.

Tsuna stepped forward (because, dammit, this was his Family and he wouldn't-couldn't let his Family die before him again).

"Wait," he said. "Before you jump, I just want you think of some things. You say that you have nothing left, but what about your family? You live only with your father now, don't you? Then think of him. What would he feel when he hears his only son is dead? How would he feel when he lives alone? He wouldn't be hearing the words 'Tadaima' anymore and he would have no one to say 'Okaerinasai' to."

He prevented the tears from spilling as he remembered how one by one the recipients of his 'Welcome back' lessened until he had no one to say it to anymore.

"Oh, sorry, Tsuna. Did I wake you? I just wanted to drop these files off and head to sleep myself. Eh? What's wrong, Tsuna?"

"Nothing. You're late and I thought-it's nothing, really."

"Oh that? My motorcycle ran out of gas nowhere near a gas station. Haha, sorry for worrying you."

"No, no, it's my fault for overthinking things. You can go to sleep now."

"Alright. See ya tomorrow, Tsuna."

"Ah! Takeshi?"

"Hm?"

"Okaeri"

"Tadaima"

He turned around so Takeshi wouldn't see his watery eyes and left. It was all he could do to stop crying, to stop remembering events that had happened but wouldn't happen. Not for a long time.

"Ah, wait, Tsuna!" He felt his sleeve grabbed and pulled. He slipped over the wet surface and fell backwards. It would have been alright, if they hadn't been less than a meter from the edge. His back slammed against the fence, it gave way and they fell down, down and down…


Hahahahehehe, cliffhanger *snort*

Reviews are appreciated. They help me know what I should change, or improve, and if I portray the characters correctly. I kinda forgot their attitudes so I had to reread and re-watch (is that even a word?) the series. Hope I did them justice. Except Hikari, cause he's an OC and a jerk.

If you've any questions, don't hesitate to ask by PM or review, 'cause they help me patch up plotholes.