I haven't actually read KHR before, but I've read so many fanfictions and crossovers that this plot bunny just won't leave me alone? I will read the manga as I go, for reference at least, as I hit the canon timeline, as well as look at the wiki. I'm mostly going to be taking liberties with said timeline, though, and especially namimori natives, as I know the most about them.
This is both a genderbend (only Tsuna though, as I am wont to do), mildly SI and wildly au, so that's your heads up.
Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, but as far as I know, I own my own specific fanfiction ideas. Some might be based off other fics subconsciously, but not with any intention to copy them.
edit: january 16th rolled out the promised edits.
Five year-old Sawada Tsunami stares at the man her Mama had told her is her Papa and feels something bad. If she were a little older and wiser, she would be able to identify the feeling as mixed disgust and disappointment.
He greeted her by swooping her up and throwing her into the air, calling her "Tsuna-fishy", which she both didn't like and didn't understand, because it was partly in a different language, but then he'd supposedly forgotten to catch her when he'd seen her Mama. Luckily, Nami had landed on the couch and so she'd only been jarred rather than hurt from hitting the ground, but it hadn't been a nice experience and she knows enough about falling to know that she'd been saved from some pretty significant pain by her instinctual twist just slightly to the left she'd done while in midair.
Her Mama is in the kitchen right now, cooking away and humming ever so prettily to herself, but her Papa isn't with her. No, he's laying on the couch, surrounded by cans of an unfamiliar type that smell gross and sour, wearing only his underwear and snoring loudly, one hand in his underwear and the other on his chest.
She doesn't like him very much. Or at all, really.
She feels bad about not liking him, because she's supposed to, but she doesn't.
Turning slightly in place, the brown pigtails her Mama had made of her hair this morning swishing against her cheeks and eyes, Nami makes her way to the kitchen. Trotting to her Mama and then pulling on her loose pant leg, gaining her attention.
"Yes, Nami-chan?" She asks, setting aside the knife she'd been using and then looking down with a sweet smile that never fails to warm the colder parts of Nami's insides, immediately giving Nami her entire attention, which is also very nice.
"I don' like Papa," she tells her Mama honestly, voice serious despite her childish mispronunciation. "He smell an' weird… 'an he dropped me."
Nana frowns then, stooping low to pick her daughter up and abandoning the vegetables she's been slicing completely. Holding her daughter on her hip. Nana habitually runs her nose against Nami's soft cheek and temple, her frown lifting into a lighter expression, her Nami-chan lifting her mood as always. She walks from the kitchen to peer into the living area, catching sight of her husband on the couch. On her face, a frown flickers back to life before that expression vanishes and she holds onto Nami tighter, lingering in the doorway but only looking at Nami.
"Nami-chan, he must just be tired. He works very hard, you know?" Nana tells her daughter gently.
"Why he never here?" Nana translates the childish speech with ease and nods.
"Yes, that's why he's never here. He works very hard so we can be happy and have a home," she explains. Brown eyes flicker back to her husband before looking away and heading into the kitchen again. Once inside completely, Nana settles her daughter on a chair as she returns to cooking.
"... So we can be happy?" Nami parrots back uncertainly, peering at her Mama with concern and confusion, not understanding. His being gone goes directly against her Mama being happy- Mama seems the most happy now that he's here, not gone away to work.
Nana looks over her shoulder, brown eyes meeting amber, and her look is so affectionate that it warms Nami even further on the inside.
"Yes, Nami-chan," she confirms. "I'm sure your Papa will feel better and nicer when he wakes up," Nana finishes in a soft voice, which doesn't go unnoticed, but does go unacknowledged, as Nana turns her attention back to the cooking. Nami settles down on the chair with crossed legs, hands gripping her ankles as she stares at them with a thoughtful expression, her head rocking ever-so-slightly back and forth as she rolls her Mama's logic around in her head.
It seems wrong- incorrect. But her Mama wouldn't lie to her, right?
Time passes and when her Mama touches the top of her head lightly, it's been three hours and Nami hadn't noticed at all. Head finally stalling in it's rocking and eyes a little distant and a lot dry from a lack of blinking, She blinks rapidly to wet them and dispel the resulting tears, Nami returns to the world properly and looks at her Mama.
"Hai, Mama?"
"It's dinner time, Nami-chan," Nana tells her daughter with a fondly worried expression. She'd called for her daughter's attention several times before she'd decided to reach out and touch her, which had been all that Nami'd needed, apparently, to come back to consciousness. That behavior, zoning out, wasn't anything new to her daughter though Nana is honestly just relieved that she had just stopped getting upset every time she was broken from such a state.
Nami had used to get very upset when she was snapped out of what Nana had privately begun to call "episodes", which involved tears, loud protesting of any and all physical contact, and Nami running off to hide somewhere until she'd calmed down.
Of course, Nami hadn't ever really hid very well, but Nana had learned very quickly to just leave Nami be without any interference on her part. It had been a very stressful time for Nana, especially because she'd been alone and none of the local mothers were willing to help her, but as her daughter grew older, she'd gradually calmed down, which was a relief.
Not that Nana loved her any less, but she worried.
Nami would get fussy about being touched sometimes, regardless of anything else going on at the time, but her sweet Nami-chan knew how to say so now and things went much more smoothly than they once did.
Nami gives her Mama a bright smile and a nod of acceptance, hopping down easily from her chair. While her Mama asks her to please help her set the table, Nami feels a bubble of pride in her chest at being useful to her Mama.
After everything but the big rice pot is on the table, Mama leaves the kitchen to get Papa and Nami clambers onto the seat directly next to Mama's normal seat, leaving her own usual seat across from Mama open for Papa to take. Maybe it's mean of her to not let her parents sit next to each other, but unless Mama makes her move, then she's not going to. She's going to stake her claim.
Mama is hers! Papa was always gone, he didn't deserve her!
Eventually, her parents enter the room. Though her Mama blinks in surprise at the sight of her seat choice, Papa is the one to try and remove her from her chosen seat. Mama stops him, though, and despite not paying much attention, Nami knows she did so very nicely and handily when Papa sits down in the seat she'd left him, cooing at them the entire while.
Once her Mama has placed the rice onto the table, Nami briefly cuddles close to her with a soft sound. Her Mama obligingly pats her head with a loving hum before nudging her upright gently.
Dinner is louder than usual, as her Mama and Papa don't seem to want to stop talking. Nami pays attention at first, but when Papa repeatedly breaks the rules by talking with his food in his mouth and talking with his chopsticks in his hands, waving them about to emphasize things, she turns her attention back to her Mama and eating her food properly.
"-will be visiting tomorrow," Papa says conversationally, waving his chopsticks around a little more.
"Really?" Her Mama gasps in mixed surprise and excitement, but her Mama doesn't fumble in lowering her chopsticks to the table at all.
"Yes, he's very interested in you both, as I talk about you often!" He exclaims happily. Nami stares at him, an uneasy feeling making itself known to her before she sets her chopsticks aside and looking at her Mama, interrupting her Papa.
"Mama? What's happen?" She asks, reaching out to tug on her Mama's shirt gently. Her Mama looks down to her, and Nami can tell she's a little sad and disappointed than Nami hadn't been listening, but she answers anyway.
"Papa's boss will be visiting tomorrow, Nami-chan," her Mama explains before looking up at the man across from them with a smile. As Nami picks up her chopsticks again, she notices that her Mama's smile looks different than the usual smiles her Mama gives.
Why is it different? Nami wants to ask, but decides not to.
"Shouldn't Tsuna-fish be going to bed soon, honey?" Papa says in a weird voice. Nami wrinkles her nose at him with slightly narrowed eyes, lowering her chopsticks.
"Don't like that," she protests. Papa ignores her, watching her Mama instead, and when Nami looks up to her for an explanation or instruction, her Mama's eyes are shiny, her face smiling but very still.
Nami very suddenly wants to cry, but stubbornly pushes back her tears and sets down her chopsticks, reaching yet again for her Mama's sleeve. Nana blinks rapidly a few times before looking down at Nami inquisitively.
"Hai, Nami-chan?"
"Don't-" Nami is interrupted.
"Nana-chan, isn't it Tsuna's bedtime?" His voice is weird as he persists, and when Nami's attention swings back to her Mama, her eyes are shiny and blank.
Nami is sent back to bed by herself, before dinner ends, as Papa continues to insist.
Normally, her Mama tucks her into bed, telling her goodnight and kissing her forehead for good dreams and to ward off nightmares. Tonight, Nami walks with Mama to the bottom of the stairs, is shooed to go up them, and then her Mama disappears back into the kitchen, where Papa had been left, as well as the rest of Nami's dinner.
It's over an hour before Nami usually goes to sleep, though, and she doesn't particularly want to sleep, especially without her Mama to ward off the bad dreams she always inevitably has.
Nami does end up falling asleep, though she does so on the floor of her bedroom, curled around the katakana worksheets her Mama had given her to work on.
She wakes twice from nightmares she can't remember, feeling watched and uncomfortable like usual of them, and tries to go for her Mama, but her room door is locked and there are weird noises coming from inside.
She goes back to her room without knocking both times, feeling a little colder than normal.
Nami isn't awake when the old man comes, so by the time her Mama comes to wake her and then help her down the stairs, so she won't fall like she did that one time, he's already at the table and talking to Papa with weird words that she doesn't know.
When she and Nana enter the kitchen, Papa and the old man look up after a minute, and Papa's face breaks into a wide smile and he stands to approach her. Mama smiles down at her reassuringly, reaching out to pat her head, and her smile doesn't dim in the slightest when Nami ducks away from the hand as she smoothly turns towards the stove, where some food is already cooking.
"Don't like that," Nami protests as Papa's hands reach out, maybe to pick her up. Papa ignore her, though, again, with an exclamation of "Tsuna-fishy". Nami immediately tenses up as the large hands wrap around her ribs beneath her arms tightly.
She doesn't understand why the words didn't stop him. The words always worked with her Mama, and now they didn't, and now she feels icky and like she wants to cry, but her body won't move.
"Nono, this is my darling Tsuna-fishy! Isn't she adorable?!"
"She is indeed, Iemitsu," the old man says before turning his eyes onto her. "Hi there, Tsuna-chan. My name is Timoteo, but you can call me nonno." He smiles beneath his small mustache. "It means grandpa in my language."
Nami wants to tell him her name isn't Tsuna, it's Nami, but her body isn't responding to her anymore. Her eyes start to tear up and her face starts to get tight; skin crawling the longer Papa's hands are on her.
Nana, mother's intuition prickling in a familiar manner, turns from the eggs and her eyes zero in on Nami-chan's face, catching sight of the tears and paling complexion. Dropping the spatula, she flies over to pluck Nami from Iemitsu's grip, setting her on the floor immediately after. Nana watches as her daughter goes limp on the wooden flooring, tears flowing in earnest as her cheeks flush instead of going bloodless.
"Don't like!" Nami insists, amber eyes meeting Nana's own for an instant before they focus instead on the wall behind her.
"Nobody will touch you again, Nami-chan, you're okay," Nana tries to reassure her distraught daughter.
"Ignored me!"
"Iemitsu!" She hisses, turning a fiercely stern look on her husband. "Don't ignore her, she speaks for a reason!" Nami had, in fact, totally skipped the 'baby babble' stage of infancy, and was usually very non-verbal unless she had a specific reason to say something. "If she says she doesn't like something, please listen!"
"Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't know!" Iemitsu frantically apologizes. Feeling his sincerity, Nana crouches down to look at her daughter, who is rapidly calming down now that the ordeal is over and done with.
"Do you hear that, Nami-chan? Papa's sorry."
"Yeah, Papa's sorry, Tsuna-fishy!"
"Don't like th-that," Nami's words are partly interrupted by a hiccup as she stops crying altogether, and Nana straightens to get her a cup of water before going back to the food, reassured that things will be fine.
"Don't like what, Nami-chan?" Nana questions over her shoulder.
"Nami-chan, not Tsuna-fishy," Nami whines, even managing to get out that strange foreign word at the end. Iemitsu hurriedly agrees to the use of her preferred name, eyes quickly flicking aside towards the old man- towards "nonno". The old man is watching them all calmly, and when he sees Nami look over at him, he smiles kindly at her.
Twitching uneasily, Nami gets to her feet and goes to her Mama, demanding to help with the food.
Watching the front door mournfully as it closes behind her Mama, Nami wishes she'd been allowed to go with her. She'd tried to go with, but her Mama had insisted that she stay and bond with Papa and nonno, instead of hiding away.
Turning with a feeling of dread in her stomach, Nami meets the expectant eyes of Papa and promptly looks away, with something twisty in her chest making her do so. Sliding around Papa carefully, she ignores all of his whining about her actions and then goes past nonno to the back door, getting up on her tippy-toes and opening the door and then escaping into the back yard.
Her Mama had put up a baby gate in front of the stairs, so she couldn't go to her room, but outside was always an option. Looking around the yard, Nami realizes that there's nothing really outside now, except for a magenta colored ball bigger than her head, and the tree she usually climbs when she goes outside.
Nami looks back, contemplating going back inside, but Papa and nonno are chatting in the kitchen, not looking at her but very close to the backdoor, and look like they just might come outside at any moment. So she turns back and trots to the tree, digging her bare feet into the little divets she and her Mama had made in the tree over time.
Her Mama had been very worried when Nami first started to climb the tree, but so long as Nami hadn't gotten hurt any time she'd done it, and so long as Nami had agreed to use the hand-holds and foot-holds she and her Mama had made, she could climb the tree whenever she wanted. She usually didn't unless her Mama was nearby, just in case her sense of balance went wonky or she became dizzy like had happened a few times, but this felt like an emergency.
She didn't want Papa and nonno to be able to get to her easily, so up the tree it was. Her Mama couldn't climb the tree, so there was no way someone like Papa and an old man like nonno could do it. So it'd be safe there, right?
"Tsunami!" A loud, male voice shouts her name just as she's getting close to her usual sitting spot, and Nami's entire body goes still, fingers going stiff and missing the nearest hold, her feet going completely straight and sliding right off the hold they'd been on. Her body falls, rotating back first and then head first, and Nami can't move.
She can see Papa and nonno standing on the porch, Papa's face registering only in her head as angry rather than angrily-worried, and a sense of terror at falling and angry man right there, and her vision goes white.
Nami jerks awake with a horrible scream, and she can't see- no, everything is white, she can see, where is she-
"Nami- Nami, you're okay, please calm down-"
Her chest hurts and her insides are hot to the point of flash-freeze, her soul turned to dry ice. Everything is hazy and unfamiliar, why can't she breathe? She can't remember- what happened? Where is she? Her vision is swimming, everything looks like it's moving by itself, is this a hospital room? She's able to meet her Mama's eyes, frantic and worried but so, so relieved to see her awake, but she can't really meet them, because someone touches her arm on the side she isn't looking, and panic spikes again.
"No-!" She jerks away from the cold hand, her body overbalancing terribly and her head swimming in fear and confusion, and someone says something she can't quite hear, and then there's a jolt of pain. She tries to get away from the pain, tries to escape again, but then everything fades to black, and there's nothing.
