"Good morning, Sakiko." A squeaky voice said next to the girl's ear, making her jump a bit in surprise. She had had her eyes closed as she was concentrating on flame movement observation and had not sensed Reborn approach.
"Good morning to you, as well. Did you sleep well?" She asked as she stretched her limbs to remove numbness from them. She had been in the same pose for many hours, unmoving.
"Yes. Come inside and meet mama and the rest." Reborn said and jumped on the girl's shoulder. Sakiko warily entered the garden area, looking around with her eyes, but soon reached the door and knocked on them.
"Ara? Who could it be so early?" Sakiko heard a kind woman's voice say, as it approached the door. Once the door opened, the female gasped in surprise, hand half-way up to her mouth. It was like Nana was looking at a younger version of herself, other than the eyes. Sakiko looked to be very nervous, so Reborn decided to break the ice.
"Mama, this is Sakiko, a friend of mine. Do you mind if she stays here for a while?"
"Eh? Another friend of your's? I don't mind." The matriarch said with a smile and opened the door wider to let both Sakiko and Reborn in.
"Thank you, Sawada-san. I promise to move out as soon as I find a place to stay on my own." Sakiko thanked the kind woman in front of her. Sakiko didn't know how would she find a way, since she had no identity here, but she would manage, sooner or later.
"Don't worry about it. Take as much time you need. And call me mama, everyone does that." Nana said happily, while secretly wondering whether Sakiko was a child of some relative, but none came to mind.
"I'm sorry, but I can't. It would fell blasphemous towards my deceased mother." Sakiko said timidly and bit her lower lip, hoping not to offend her grandmother she had never had the pleasure of meeting before.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. But no worries. You can call me Nana then." Having that Sakiko didn't have a mother anymore, at such young age, made Nana's heart ache with pity.
"Alright." Sakiko said and entered the residence with a quiet "sorry for the disturbance" like it was accustomed in Japan. Nana returned to thew kitchen to prepare breakfast for everyone, saying over her shoulder. "Don't be shy, feel free like at home."
"Relax, Sakiko. There is no danger here. I will go and wake up Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said, jumped off the girl's shoulder and went upstairs. Sakiko sighed and unlaced her boots, and went to the living room to look outside the window. Her body was tense, unable to relax after three years of constant vigilance.
"Who are you?" Asked a female Storm flame user as she went down the stairs. Sakiko understood that it was Bianchi. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, she turned towards the pinkette.
"I'm Sakiko. A friend of Reborn's. Nana-san was kind enough to let me stay here." Sakiko said, controlling her vocal cords not to give in.
"Welcome. I'm Bianchi." The pinkette introduced herself. "What's your story."
"Story?" Sakiko asked, genuinely surprised.
"Yes. You look like you've been through a lot." The pinkette explained.
"I'm sorry. I don't want to talk about it, Bianchi-san."
"Well, you can turn to me if you ever want to talk about it. Us girls need to stick together."
Sakiko wanted to thank her future aunt, but was interrupted by a yell coming from upstairs. Her body stopped like a deer in front of headlights, but ready to bolt, but before Sakiko was able to react more, she was calmed down by Bianchi.
"Don't worry. It's just Reborn waking up Tsuna. The boy can't awaken himself on time."
"I see…" Sakiko said, her high-wire tension easing up a bit.
"Come, Let's see if mama needs any help in the kitchen." Bianchi offered and Sakiko nodded her head in agreement.
"Do you need any help, mama?" Bianchi asked, while the caramelette had to make conscious effort not to drool at the smell of homemade cooking. It had been years since she last ate food made with love.
"No, thank you, girls. I've got it under control." Nana replied twirling around with a smile on her lips. " You go and relax."
" If you say, mama." Bianchi said and turned around and left, but Sakiko remained.
" Do you mind if I watch? I haven't had the chance to learn how to cook before." Sakiko asked timidly, as she took a step closer.
"Not at all." Nana replied happily. She didn't voice it out-loud, but she was surprised that the girl didn't know how to cook, since she knew that they taught it in home economics class at Tsuna's school.
Sakiko was fascinated by the ease Nana made everything. Nana must have noticed how enraptured the caramelette looked at her hands, she offered the girl to try and make some rice balls on her own to which Sakiko readily agreed to. After being shown how to make them, Sakiko tried to make the rice into the form Nana had shown, but somehow she managed to make a lopsided plot of rice. Seeing her failure, she tried to give it a more appropriate shape with little improvement to be seen.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure that you will manage to make a beautiful rice ball with some practice. After all they do say 'practice makes perfect', right?" Nana tried to encourage the girl, seeing how she struggled with the seemingly easy task. Sakiko smiled sheepishly, being caught rice handed by the failure. Somehow Nana's aura made Sakiko feel more relaxed than she was entering the house. Nana had Sun flames locked in her, Sakio was able to sense that, but now it made her think that somewhere deeper inside there was Rain flame hiding.
"Maybe I could set the table instead? That I know how it must look like." Sakiko offered and Nana agreed to that and showed where everything was.
"How many people will there be by the table?"
"Let's see… there is Reborn-san and Tsuna-kun, Bianchi-san and Lambo-kun, and us." Nana counted on her fingers, not really having paid conscious attention on how many people lived in her house. Nodding her head, Sakiko went to work.
"Ehhhh! Another weird person appeared!" Suddenly there was a loud exclamation coming from the stairs, causing Sakiko to tense up and sharply look in the voice's direction. There she saw a boy in his teens with large brown eyes and gravity-defying caramel hair. Although he was a lot younger, Sakiko recognized her father, Sawada Tsunayoshi, in him.
"Be quiet, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said, as Leon transformed into a hammer, and hit the boy.
"Itai! Reborn, why did you hit me?" Tsuna complained loudly. Sakiko could only stare at her father-to-be with a blank look on her face. This Sawada Tsunayoshi behaved completely different from the one that was her father. Somehow it didn't make her tear up at the sight of him.
"Greetings, Sawada Tsunayoshi-san. I am Sakiko. I will be staying here for the time being. Please take good care of me." She introduced herself with a small bow after having set the plates on the table. As she straightened up, she saw a small blush on the boy's cheeks, which caused a small polite smile to appear on her lips.
"Gyahahaha! Lambo-sama is here! Bow down to me, Dame-Tsuna!" Suddenly an obnoxious voice echoed from next to Tsuna, as a child in a cow costume ran past his legs.
"Ah! Lambo! Don't run around in the house!" Tsuna exclaimed.
Seeing that Lambo was not going to stop, Sakiko snatched him as he was running past her, and looked at him with a critical unwavering gaze. Seeing no resemblance between this and her Lambo, the girl calmly said: "Tsunayoshi-san told you not to run."
Lambo looked at her and paused at her calm gaze, but then looked away and squirmed out of her arms, exclaiming "Lambo-sama listens to no one!"
'Brat' was the only word that came to Sakiko's mind seeing him behave like that. Other than the Lightning flame, which was still undeveloped in this Lambo, there was no trace of her dependable Lambo. But, then again, he truly matured only after I-Pin's death.
While everyone was eating, Nana noticed that Sakiko had eaten very little and seemed to have finished, so she asked worriedly: "Eh? Are you not hungry, Sakiko-chan?"
Everyone stopped eating and looked at the caramelette. Not even once they had seen someone not devour the house matriarch's made food.
"No. That is not it. Everything is delicious. It's just that my stomach is not used to this amount of food, and I am afraid to upset it by eating more than it is used to." Sakiko said timidly, not wanting to offend her grandmother.
"Eh? But you must put some meat on those bones." Nana said in a motherly tone, which caused tears to appear in the girl's eyes and stand up.
"I'm sorry, but it really isn't a table conversation. Excuse me." Sakiko said hurriedly and left the house through the back door. Nana wanted to follow the girl, but Reborn stopped her, saying that she'd come around and that he would talk to her.
In the back yard, Sakiko punched the wall with all her strength with no flame enchantment, causing her knuckles to bleed, but she paid no heed to it. After that, Sakiko leaned her back against the said and let herself slide down to the ground. Tears slid down her cheeks as her shoulders shook in sobs, which made the girl to be angry at herself, since only few hours earlier she decided not to cry.
Nana's innocent words made memories flood her mind. Memories of her family, all the times they ate together. The smiles, the laughs, the bickering, the food-fights, the hiding under the table, and someone storming out of the room angrily. Every memory, every face flashing in front of her eyes and soul. But she cried silently, forehead resting against her knees, on top folded arms. Her knuckles throbbed, but her heart throbbed more, so she didn't notice the blood.
Sakiko heard chattering from the front of the house, first Tsuna's and two others chat a bit and then leave in the Naminori middle school's direction. From flames she could tell that the other two people were Hayato and Takeshi. After a while she heard Nana's kind voice and Lambo's obnoxious one leave as well, leaving only Bianchi and Reborn in the house. After few moments footsteps approached her.
"What happened?" Bianchi asked, looking down at the girl sitting next to the wall. The only reply she got was a shook of the girl's head.
"She's from the future. She's Tsuna's daughter and the heir of Vongola. I have some matters to attend to. I leave her in your hands." Reborn said, as he jumped out of the pinkette's arms, leaving the two girls alone. Bianchi was about to question the baby, but he was nowhere in sight. With a sigh, Bianchi went to the crying girl and sat next to her on the ground.
"Can you tell me what happened? Why are you crying?" Bianchi asked in a concerned voice, but all she received was incoherent mumbling.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you well. Can you repeat please?"
Bianchi heard the girl swallow hard and then croak out: "They're dead."
"Who is dead?" Bianchi gently asked.
"Mama… papa… Takeshi-kun… Hayato-kun.. uncles and aunties…. Everyone is dead." Sakiko answered between the quiet sobs.
"Shhh… there, there. Everything is alright now. No one is dead here. No one is going to die." Bianchi calmed the girl, putting her arms around Sakiko and slowly rocking her like a child. Bianchi was surprised to hear that everyone was dead in the future, even her half-brother Gokudera, but didn't let that bother her at the moment. She understood that it must have been hard for Sakiko to lose everyone dear to her, and that Nana's question must have brought up some memory.
For an hour both girls sat like that, one rocking the other, till finally Sakiko stopped crying, and another twenty minutes till she was calm enough for Bianchi to offer to go inside. She led Sakiko to the upstairs bathroom to clean up a bit and gave a towel to dry the face afterwards.
"I'll make you some tea." Bianchi said and turned to leave, but Sakiko grabbed her hand to stop her.
"There is no need for it. I am alright now. Thank you." The teen said to the older girl, remembering that everything she made was poison.
"If you say so. Mama should be getting back soon."
"Alright." Sakiko answered and closed the bathroom door.