generalzargon wanted an outside POV, which is actually kind of impossible in the way I'm telling this story, but - then I realized that Shioya Tadamasa would be an interesting guy to visit briefly, since he actually knows a lot of the backstory involved that Tsunayoshi won't discover for a long time?

This doesn't actual explain the subtext that Tsunayoshi has no way of picking up on, I think, but a bit more got explained and/or hinted at.


Intermission : they eat their own


Tsuyoshi has the decency to wait until his face is burning red and Tadamasa has his face braced up against his hand before he says, "Sawada." Flat and measured, like a man might when he takes a mission he knows is suicide.

Tadamasa can't blame him, having seen for himself the way Tsuyoshi's son had set his feet against his father. Of course, even without that: little Takeshi is in monsoon. As a Rain himself, Tadamas knows there's no stopping that.

"Well, it's not like Namimori is over pouring in little Skies," he points out reasonably.

Tsuyoshi gives him a look like a man watching his own toddler son being taken hostage. Maybe that's how he feels about it, Tadamasa wouldn't know. He only has Kyoko and Ryohei, and no one had ever been stupid enough to come for Sasagawa Naoko's children, not after she had given them her own name.

"I'm surprised at you, Tadamasa," he says, every inch the assassin that would reach over the table and cut a long and hungry line through Tadamasa's belly, and then sit there and finish his drink.

Tadamasa just smiles. He's impressed enough with Tsuyoshi's will to kill, but Tsuyoshi didn't get as far as he did by being someone who acts on his emotions. If he needed to, he'd kill Tadamasa without hesitation - it just wouldn't be rational in this case.

He didn't intentionally install himself as an important person in Tsuyoshi's life, but there's only so far that a normal person can understand what it's like for someone with the ability called 'Flames.' And little Takeshi will need Tadamasa's coaching sooner rather than later. Maybe he hasn't shown his will yet, but his sway is all over his home and he'd only too happily poured them all over that Sky of his.

"Don't be surprised at me," Tadamasa says mildly, picking up his cup. "You know how I feel about Sawada. The fact that I'm investing in that kid's future should tell you enough."

He snorts. "The fact that you are is the only reason I haven't cut his head from his shoulders."

Frowning, he shoots back: "Don't be cute about it. That would be a neat way of making enemies out of the people you're trying to protect."

It's nothing a drunk father worried for his son wants to hear, and it's twice as hard for Tsuyoshi. He's an amazing man - the One who has Doused a Thousand Flames - but he's also only a man, sitting in his living room and glaring into his cup. It's easy to tell the usual thought has come back to him: that he misses his wife. That he wishes she were here to help him with the son he understands less and less as the years stretch on.

"With our resources, there isn't much we can do," Tadamasa points out, not entirely unsympathetic after all. "I'm trying control the whole fallout a little bit, but that only goes so far when that small brat is being sly about it."

Not that he can really blame the brat about that. It doesn't surprise Tamadasa that Sawada doesn't believe in tradition after what he did - he fought Vongola Nono tooth and nail over that. There's no one in all of Namimori that the small brat seems to trust - not even his mother - as secretive as he's been about choosing his guardians. Every instinct in his body must be screaming at him to keep a low profile.

Even so, he's carrying that out to a disturbing degree that makes Tadamasa's skin crawl. Skies aren't meant to be so unobtrusive - like something beaten and backed into a corner so that it cowers and slinks to avoid notice. Tadamasa's first indication that he's in the presence of an active Sky shouldn't have been hearing the kid's family name.

(Maybe he's inverted, Tadamasa had kept thinking as he shoved and shoved and shoved and never could get a single wisp of will out of him. What a terrifying thought: Iemitsu is powerful as it is. If his son favors his purity of flame, then-

But: No. Now he's seen the small brat with those chosen guardians, and how he acts around them, the problem isn't that his flame has twisted around and turned on its source to devour his spirit. There's something badly wrong with Sawada Tsunayoshi, and Tadamasa won't be able to rest easy until he gets to the root of the problem, but no one will have to put down a rabid Sky after all. What a relief.

Killing Skies is always a pain in the ass.)

"I'm not sure I'm any happier with it being Sawada," Tsuyoshi says grumpily.

"Well, there's no helping that," Tadamasa says evenly. "He screwed up his first pick, and thankfully gave up after that. I don't want to go into detail about what can go wrong if a Sky turns a guardian down gracelessly." Other than to say: they wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation. "I told you his flames are too strong to be patient about things. That kid was going to leave the nest the moment he graduated in search of a Sky, and with that purity? He would have been in high demand. You know what it's like in our circles to be in high demand."

The son of Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, the One who Doused a Thousand Flames, but with flames of his own? And the instincts that someone with his pedigree couldn't help but have. The discipline. The drive. He would have been turned into some kind of monster.

He could still turn into some kind of monster with the Sky he's got, but these days, Tadamasa finds it hard to begrudge that. Even if no scrap of his will has shown itself, he's a Sky, after all. Even Tadamasa who despises the father and mistrusts the flame and distrusts the name has become sympathetic to his cause. What a terrifying, two-faced brat.

Tadamasa has seen plenty of Skies with raging Storm temperaments, though a soothing Rain isn't strange at all. He's seen them so protective they might as well snap and crack with green flames instead. Those who favor the harsh clarity of the sun.

This is the first Sky with a Mist temperament that he's met. It's plenty unsettling: like seeing shapes in the dark but in reverse - what seems to be a harmless coat hung in the corner turns out to have claws and teeth after all.

"After Mayu, I thought I'd be happy for Takeshi to find someone like that," Tsuyoshi says at last.

"Why would you?" Tadamasa asks dryly. "You weren't happy about Mayu. There's no way you'd be happy for little Takeshi, either."

"Mayu and I were married," he refutes without emotion. "I should be happy for my son to have discovered someone like that before he makes the same mistakes his parents did."

It's a bit of a relief that even if he doesn't feel it honestly in this moment, he's at least doing his best to keep his attitude correct. Ever since having a son, Tsuyoshi has always tried to do right by him, no matter what - even when he doesn't understand him. Perhaps losing Mayu over his own stubbornness really taught him an important lesson.

After all, anyone can see the level to which little Takeshi adores his Sky. Why shouldn't he? Tadamasa has seen for himself that the small, two-faced brat has the same incredible level of instinct which made Vongola's CEDEF into a force to be reckoned with. It elevates to a whole other level around his guardians - anyone should be pleased to be so doted upon.

And for little Takeshi, who is a blade so sharp and fine that his flat side mirrors and his edge could be used for the most delicate of tasks? How wonderful to be seen as a person to be kind to and not a tool to be wielded however the strongest hand pleases.

"In that case, you might as well treat that small brat as your future son-in-law," Tadamasa says mildly, not looking at Tsuyoshi. "He's not so stupid as to realize that he's not welcomed by you, but he won't want to cause friction in little Takeshi's home. If you want to keep your son close, at least get to know mini-Sawada. Try seeing what your son does, for once, instead of expecting him to come to see things your way."

Tsuyoshi slams the cup in his hand down on the table with a loud thunk. The cup doesn't shatter though, so he's just being sulky instead of throwing a true temper tantrum about it. "No offense," he says, "but that nephew of yours sure screwed things up."

"None taken," he says easily. "He got that from his worthless father, after all. Imagine thinking you can pull one over aneki."

"Naoko-chan doesn't really have a reputation as a black widow," he points out.

Sometimes Tadamasa wished she did. Maybe it would have saved him a lot of grief in the long run, since there probably wouldn't be a small, two-faced brat to be bothering him now. She'd come close, a few years before that, when Sawada had made the mistake of thinking they were some kind of package deal. It's not easy turning against your Sky, but if anyone could do it, Naoko could have.

Actually, thinking of it that way… doesn't that small brat share a lot of his traits with his blood sibling, unexpectedly?

"That kid of yours sure has a type," Tadamasa muses. There was no way for Takeshi's first choice to have worked out since there's no way that kid could have been soothed by him, but - well, wasn't Sawada Tsunayoshi the next best thing?

"Two-faced brats?" Tsuyoshi asks.

Tadamasa gives him a mild look in rebuke, to remind him just who he's talking about. As if Tsuyoshi has room to speak, what with the twisted personality his own kid has. "You can't argue with little Takeshi over this, Tsuyoshi," he says. "This isn't like forbidding him to hang out with certain friends, or those baseball geeks of his who can't even see what's in front of their own faces. If that small brat can prefer to use his own inactive mother as a crutch over a fully active guardian like Ryohei, then there's no way he'll settle for some other Rain after petitioning you the way he did-"

"You call that a petition-"

"From that brat?" Tadamasa says sharply, "who refuses to show preference about anything and lets anyone walk over him? To a man he only just met?"

It's pitiful as a petition, that's true - unworthy of someone of Yamamoto Takeshi's caliber and unworthy of a Sky with ties to Vongola. But given that he can count the number of times Sawada has even met that small brat with one hand and still hold a cup with it, and his lack of chaperone? Given that there is a fair chance he's as aware of his circumstances as his own mother, and has been depending on instinct and implications alone? The fact that he tried at all is indicative enough.

Just as is the way little Takeshi had set his feet against his father: the pouring Rain that just as easily washes away buildings and drowns the unwary when it's unrelenting enough.

The sooner that Tsuyoshi can accept that, the better for everyone involved. Tadamasa still has a trip to make to the Miura household to find out if Hideki and his wife have found their daughter out. He's not looking forward to it.

"You really are championing that kid," Tsuyoshi says after a moment, watching him with the sharp eyes of his bloodied past.

"He's getting along with my aneki's kids," he says. "Of course I am. It's self preservation to throw my lot in on him early and earn his regard. If he comes to trust me, then me and my own will be sheltered, too."

Tsuyoshi grunts, drinking again. After a moment, he says, sourly, "a son-in-law, huh."

"Well, if you're lucky, some day you'll get a cute daughter-in-law, too," Tadamasa says. "Paying in on a new Sky isn't a bad idea. That Sky will relentlessly protect your son and any children he has if it kills him."

He almost hates to mislead Tsuyoshi this way, but - the man doesn't know the finer politics of the way these who have such incredible wills that they can manifest. Tadamasa is throwing his lot in on Sawada Tsunayoshi - but it won't exactly cost him a lot if Tsunayoshi fails, either. After all, no one in his family is at risk here.

And a Sky like that small brat, which dotes on his guardians that way, certainly would go so far to protect little Takeshi and any wife or children he has. The only problem will be keeping that Sky alive long enough that he can back up those feelings of his with his fists.

Because if any of the Families back in Italy learn about an unaffiliated Sky in Namimori-

Tadamasa pours himself another drink.


NOTES: being 'in monsoon' has no special meaning other than Takeshi thinking with his flames instead of his head.

Saying someone has a "[flame type] temperament" is about as accurate as judging their personality by blood type, date of birth, or mbti (which has been shown to fluctuate due to mood). Shioya would say, for example, that Timoteo is a Rain temperament, Xanxas a Cloud (despite Wrath flames), Dino a Sun, and canon!Tsuna would be a Lightning. Again, it means basically nothing and is based off personal feelings and interpretations.


Additional Notes, 11.10.18: There have been some interesting reactions to this intermission! I was really caught off guard by them. I thought setting the tone with Tsunayoshi murdering five guys and having Iemtisu congratulate him on that fact would make it obvious that this is a grey, amoral kind of story. Canon takes the mafia very lightly, but I'm interested in playing the mafia straight.

That said, Tsunayoshi is no one's Heir, so no one will be coddling him as Vongola's precious prince. Furthermore, Namimori still has omerta, so no one expect Tsunayoshi to know anything. He's kind of harmless as a 13yo kid, which is why no one's killed him yet, but he's really aiming above his station.

Please also acknowledge that aside from Tsunayoshi murdering five people in chapter one, long before Nana or himself had their lives threatened - he thinks of people as 'scum' and 'yappy dogs' and is perfectly willing to kill again if it becomes necessary. Just because he acts a certain way and tries to avoid getting into situations where he 'becomes capable of anything,' doesn't mean he's Canon!Tsuna.