Fire
Bright light. Endless darkness.
His-no, her siblings huddled around her for comfort.
A bright new world. A new baby brother. A mother. A kingdom.
Loneliness
Fire.
Nothing but fire.
Her siblings come and go when they need her. Only the fire stays. Only the fire remains.
Then. War.
Fire burns the air. Not the warm embers of her hearth but an all consuming conflagration that devours all in it's wake. One by one her family fell and she was too weak to save them. Too used to staying back. To keep the fire of home burning.
Home. It was with her. Always with her and the flames in her spirit.
With her last breath she took with her what she could save of her family. Of what they have left behind. Shattered remains and imprints. Sacred weapons and spirit. She gathered them all and held them in her amrs. In her flames.
As their world burnt around her. she stood within her hearth, keeping what little of her family she could keep. Within the protective embrace of her flames she rested, waiting for the day they could be reunited again as the world around them changed.
Her flames consumed them and kept them and the rest she gave to mankind to fight with.
And Hestia fought no more.
It takes a while before she-he... He now. Before Tsuna comes to. He dreams and dreams and remembers and only when the chaos in his mind settles does he awaken.
He remembers a battle. He remembers the ring in his hand, on his fingers. He remembers it settle and something inside him snap as his too cold body was all of a sudden suffused by flames. As unbidden, memories of an eternity long past returns.
He looks to his side and gasps before a smile settles warmly on his face.
A riot of color. A shroud of metalic silver and the lingering scent of olives.
The confusion, the panic, ebbs away and Tsuna instead focuses on what he does best. Taking care of family.
He zeroes in on his dearest friend and a small part of her-him wonders how much of his affection for Hayato was for him and how much was his flame, his instinct realizing who was before him? He pushes the dilemma away as he runs gentle fingers through silver hair.
He has always been fond of this color.
Tsuna wonders how this all happened, but really is just happy that he has found family. Athena, or Gokudera Hayato, rather, was seated on the chair beside him, fast asleep on a god heh awful angle that really would make his neck sore if he sat any longer like that.
"Gokudera-kun? Gokudera-kun wake up," Tsuna called gently, applying a bit more pressure when he runs fingers through silver locks. It takes a bit more but soon the storm stirs and the flames within Tsuna bounce like an over excited puppy.
The silverette slowly comes to, eyes blinking blearily at Tsuna before his eyes widen. Tsuna's heart skips a beat as an unexpected wave of longing holds his heart in a crushing grip.
Does he remember?
Except, there is no recollection in Gokudera's eyes. Nothing past the frantic "Juudaime!" as the other boy proceeds to thoroughly check for injuries in his beloved "Boss."
Numbly Tsuna accept's his fussing as he sits in bed, a millennia of loneliness gripping his mortal heart.
Maybe Tsuna should never have remembered?
"-daime! Jyuudaime!" Tsuna blinks in shock. He had apparently spaced out and had worried his right hand neicefriendcomradefamily who looked moments away from calling a nurse.
Unbidden he thinks back to a millennia of battles from a time the other doesn't remember. He thinks of hours sitting side by side before the heart and secrets whispered to each other in confidence. He thinks further back, to a younger Athena, born whole yet still a child in years and experiences, falling asleep in Hestia's lap and the thought of being so formal hurts.
"Tsuna." Hayato looks at him blankly and the confusion makes Tsuna smile. "Call me Tsuna, Gokudera-kun. We've stood side by side through battle. We've fought for each other how many times now. You have, by far, earned the right to call me Tsuna, Gokudera-san."
The storm flushes a brilliant red and Tsuna could feel the myriad of soul flames within him, predominantly storm with flickers of several others, tentatively reach out before Gokudera instinctively catches it and Tsuna frowns.
He thinks back to the incident. To the utter cold that snuffed out his flames. That had sealed them so tightly, it had destroyed Tsuna. He was a being of fire and home, and without his flames he had been reduced to nothing. He knw it had robbed him of his focus, his will, his life. Only now does he realize, it had robbed him of harmony too.
He lets his keening flames reach out to the other. Lets them trickle towars him so as to not overwhelm the storm and hears Gokudera gasp, meeting wide green eyes that were quickly filling with tears as their flames danced between them in complete harmony. He tastes the insecurity in the young (much too young) storm and realizes he must have felt like it was his fault Tsuna couldn't harmonize with him.
"I'm sorry it's a little late, Gokudera-kun. My... My flames had apparently been sealed. I was made to forget it, until now that I had touched the rings and somehow it tore through the seal placed on my flames by... By the ninth and my father." Tsuna was surprised by how much grief coats his words and realizes where he and Hestia differed. His emotions have not been dulled by the endless march of time. He feels so much in this teenage body and wonders if it was a boon or a curse. He pushes aside the thought and instead allows himself to be warmed by the outraged horror in his his storm's eyes.
"Tsuna..." Hayato rolls the word on his tongue and flushes pink even as warmth and belonging suffuses him. He feels so many emotions run through him at that moment. Feels rage on behalf of his sky for being sealed. Feels relief that their failure to bond wasn't his fault. That Tsuna wants him there just as much. And he almost chokes at all the adoration he feels for his saviour and friend and partner in battle.
"Call me Hayato," he offers instead and hopes Tsuna feels every bit of gratitude, adoration and admiration that suffuses his flames.
"H..hayato." And as it has always done, Tsuna's warm eyes radiate with acceptance as they look at him.
He makes Hayato feel worthy.
Tsuna woke up to Reborn sitting by his bed side, staring at him with unfathomable eyes. His sun flames were a brilliant ball of fire leashed within a tightly sealed body. Tsuna could see the icy chains that bind the infant. Could see how he stands outside of time and yet within it too, holding too much burden in his too little body. Something was amiss with the arcobaleno. He needed to fix that.
"They sealed you, Tsunayoshi?" Reborn sounds older. His voice, though squeaky the way a todler is, shakes with rage and grief the way no child's voice ever should.
"They did," the teen confirms quietly, not knowing what else to say. He stares at the hitman whose eyes burned in the dark and Tsuna's flames seek to comfort the arcobaleno. He pushes it down.
Reborn hopped off his bed silently, moving towards the open door to Tsuna's room. The silence grows heavier as the hitman simply stands there, back to him.
"Rest, Tsuna." He hears the door close but barely pays it any mind. He'd closed his eyes by then, listening to the world he has been (re)born to.
"Maa maa, you scared me Tsuna!" Takeshi is sitting by his bedside, grinning. All the while Tsuna hears Hayato splutter at the familiarity at the back.
When he looks at Takeshi, all he could hear was the world trembling. He sees the oceans rage and the waves crashing all around him.
Tsuna is infinitely amused all of a sudden. It seems that not even rebirth could keep them from their bickering. Now he understands why Hayato was as prickly as he was with Takeshi.
"I'm sorry. I'm just really glad everyone's okay." Tsuna smiled sheepishly at the reincarnation of his dear little brother.
His precious little brother who could churn the world's oceans with one hand. Who could tear down civilizations with his other. Who always listened to him, always took care of Tsuna, of Hestia. Who would always smile to keep her from worrying, even as their world fell apart. Poseidon was always so gentle with her, so caring and indulgent even when to the rest of the world he was nothing more than a monster with an easy going smile.
He remembers Reborn calling Takeshi a natural assassin and wonders how much of that is from this life and how much is born from millenia of detachment from mortals.
Tsuna relishes that for some reason. It is what makes Poseidon, what makes Takeshi himself and he could not ask him to change just as much as he couldn't disregard family. That Takeshi still can love Tsuna as gently as he does, as fiercely and completely despite his detachment does nothing but endear him more to Tsuna.
It makes Tsuna almost giddy with how much he cherishes the rain who even now protects him just as fiercely He does nothing to stop his flames from instinctively reaching out to wrap the rain up. He has done this as Hestia a million times before. Had comforted his(her) brother with the warmth of home even as he smiled in anger. What Tsuna wasn't prepared for was the Takeshi's own flames, because he has flames now too, and how eagerly it responds in a torrent of rain as powerful as the crashing waves and as steady as the coming and going of the ocean tides.
Takeshi's eyes sharpen for a moment as he locks eyes with the brunette, searching and anyone but Tsuna would have felt smothered by the intense gaze. Instead he smiles as he always does, reaching out to rest his hand against the swordsman's shoulder and Takeshi's eyes soften in response, a gentler smile on his face.
"Yeah. I'm glad you're safe, Tsuna."