A/N: Thank you for the positive feedback on my first chapter! I absolutely love you all and I'm so very thankful to everyone who reviewed, and I'd like to take a little time to respond to the more specific reviews here:
Night Neko-Jin: Hello my lovely! It's so nice to see a familiar face, and I'm always flattered that you follow my stories – I'm also glad that I've managed to fulfill your expectations for a khr fic, oho. Everything is going marvelous for me, I hope the same for you.
Nanahikari2000: Hahaha actually that's my favorite kind of fic, too – from the PoV of a completely normal and logical person who's uninvolved, which is why I set up the prologue as such. Thanks for reviewing!
Discoabc: Ugh I'm so happy you like my random headcanons – they're silly and unimportant but I adore little headcanon details, hahaha. Also I'm just basically super flattered by your review in general and you've made me super happy, hahaha.
Takatou: Haha I'm happy you also like 1827 – I absolutely adore the pairing. I'm also really relieved that you like my characterizations of Tsuna and his Guardians, since it's my first foray into khr fanfiction, keke.
Be-ya: No, thank you for the positive feedback – I'm very happy!
THIS CHAPTER. I contemplated doing an 1827 or 8059 piece, but decided to leave that for another time (if you squint and use a magnifying glass you might detect a hint of 1827). I also decided to do another short piece, but I do want to start up like a small arc soon. I have a few ideas, but do you guys have any you want to see?
NEXT CHAPTER. I'm debating between a lot of little ideas – I'm considering an introspection piece on all of the Guardians and their relationship with Tsuna, maybe, or an 1827 piece or an 8059 piece. Is there anything you guys would want to see / prefer? If so, let me know in a review and I shall see what I can do!
Disclaimer: I do not own KHR.
chapter i.
summary: the family of Vongola X through the eyes of the Italian household staff.
The visits to Italy start somewhere towards the end of their third year of middle school (well; Ryohei and Hibari had moved on to high school, but Tsuna, Yamamoto and Gokudera had been finishing up their last year of junior high).
The first time it occurred, Tsuna and his Guardians hadn't seen it coming at all.
Literally.
All Tsuna remembers is blacking out in the midst of doing his homework somewhere around halfway past seven p.m.; when he wakes up, he's strapped into a large leather seat and there's some sound of- turbulence?
Eyes wide – panicked and terrified – he whips his head from side to side to confirm his sinking suspicions: he's on a plane. (A small, very luxurious, private plane courtesy of the Vongola famiglia, but still thousands of miles above ground nonetheless). Before he can give a wail of confusion, he feels a blunt force slam into the side of his skull, and stars are swimming in his vision.
Now six-year-old Reborn floats gracefully back down into the seat beside him, twirling hammer-Leon in his hand cheerily. "Ciaossu. Close your lips, Dame-Tsuna, Vongola X shouldn't look stupid like that."
So yeah, it turns out that Reborn had kidnapped Tsuna and his six guardians in various ways (Gokudera rendered unconscious by the face of Bianchi; Lambo slapped into a teary submission; Yamamoto with chloroform and Ryohei with a haphazard bag slapped over his head). Hibari and Chrome were the only ones to arrive of their own accord – Hibari because he was easily goaded with the prospect of a fight with the infant, and Chrome primarily because Mukuro's wrath would be exponentially larger than necessary should Reborn knock her out, too.
And Tsuna doesn't even have time to panic as much as he wants to faced with the prospect of meeting the Ninth again before he's knocked out cold by Reborn, who's found his whinging to be all-too annoying.
In any case, it was deemed that Vongola X (or Neo Primo, they're both rather interchangeable at this point) and his Guardians needed to start making trips to Italy in order to get ready for when they fully inherited the Vongola. If Tsuna's being really honest, it scares him shitless, because being in Italy – surrounded by the language, the Vongola manor and the suits of the mafia – makes everything feel so much more real and impending and really, he's only fifteen.
But he goes along with it, and before he knows it, they're making trips every few months.
Usually, it's just to have a friendly little chat with Nono. It might be strange, yeah, traveling across entire continents just for a little tea and lunch and weekend spent in the Vongola manor gardens, but Tsuna enjoys it. He likes spending time with the grandfather who'd always visited him as an infant with toys and laughter and warmth.
The household staff are bewildered, because there's their familiar Nono, a man typically with severe lines on his face and an intensity burning in his eyes, a man who commands power and authority. But as soon as Vongola Decimo steps into the place, he turns into the kindest, softest grandfather of all, and he's laughing, delight evident in his voice as he converses with the boy in Japanese.
They see Vongola Decimo fooling around with his Guardians, see the silly shenanigans and the broken Italian he attempts and the soothing lilts of Japanese when he speaks to his friends. They see the Vongola heir treating all of the household staff with more kindness than is wise for him to display, see how he picks up after the young Lightning Guardian in a way that's more fitting for a servant than the king of the castle.
They just see Vongola Decimo making trips to this manor, here, all for the sake of messing around and laughing and having tea with the Nono, and it's odd.
Of course, that's not the real reason that they frequent Italy, not really.
Tsuna's noticed by now, and he's rather sure his guardians have, as well (except perhaps Lambo, who's still awfully young).
Vongola X and his Guardians' visits to Italy are much more than just a formality, certainly more than just for little chats with the Ninth. It's more of a- parade, to show off the prized Vongola X generation to the manor inhabitants, to start introducing the idea of the tenth generation to the Vongola family and its allies.
It's to quell any and all doubts of Sawada Tsunayoshi's leadership abilities before he actually takes the helm, in order to minimize the backlash from the naysayers (and there are always those who protest the next successor).
And yeah, Sawada Tsunayoshi has a lot of opponents at first.
Because- look at him, he's this scrawny fifteen year old boy who can't even speak Italian, who had never even heard of the Italian mafia until a few years prior. And yes, sure, there are the stories that he's defeated the Varia, defeated Byakuran in the future and Shimon in the present and cured the Arcobaleno curse, but- how could that all be true?
No matter how many times Tsuna proves himself, over and over again, no matter how many times he's seen being greeted by the Nono with open arms, there are always, always people who can't fathom how he'd be fit to rule the Vongola. He hears the rumors up and down the hallways in the manor, and Tsuna doesn't mind them, not really, but he can't help but be upset when they doubt his Guardians, too, because they're incredible and they oughtn't be doubted just because he's their leader.
Tsuna's silly, though, because if he can hear these rumors, of course his Guardians have heard, as well.
He doesn't know that Gokudera's already attempted to 'blow up' various household staff for saying unsavory things about him approximately thirty five times (Yamamoto's always stopped him every time). He's unaware that Lambo's frowned and unleashed a grenade on a kitchen cook, once, for saying mean things about 'Tsuna-nii,' doesn't know that even Hibari has once fixed a cold and hard stare on a maid until she fled, terrified.
He's also unaware that Reborn and Nono had anticipated all of this, exactly.
So of course he's unaware that at some point, the Vongola manor received news that the Bonanno family would be attacking in the next few days. He's also in the dark that Vongola Nono specifically arranged it to be that Tsuna and his Guardians would be in Italy at the time, or that he specifically ordered his own Guardians to lower their defenses when they're attacked.
When the Bonanno family breaks through the gates of Vongola manor, they're greeted with the full force of Vongola Decimo and his Guardians. In fact, his Guardians are so powerful that they wipe out nine tenths of the force of over two hundred men that Bonanno has sent within half an hour, and no one's even managed to approach the actual mansion. It almost seems that Decimo himself won't even have to lift a finger-
-until the Bonanno family brings out its strongest box weapons, and a stray cloud of flames manages to intercept the Guardians' defense.
It hurtles straight towards the mansion, and the density of the flames is so strong that it's doubtful whether one of the Guardians can block it.
That's when Tsuna leaps in between the attack and the manor, outstretches his hands, and nullifies the flames.
There are shocked expressions and awe and wicked murmurs all around.
Because this boy, this thin, fragile boy, has managed to replicate Primo's legendary abilities all on his own, and could this mean that all those rumors and stories about him are true?
There's significantly less whispering about Vongola Decimo and his right to succeed after that.
There are other kinds of murmurs, instead.
Murmurs of how one oughtn't underestimate the Rain Guardian with his bright smiles and infectious laughter, because he's easily the most frightening of them all, if only because his smiling demeanor hides a vicious swordsman that's surpassed even Superbi Squalo; of how the Storm Guardian is terrible and wild and unrestrained, and how anyone who dares to question the tenth will be personally burnt by his hands; of how yes, the rumors that Vongola Decimo had managed to enlist the terrible and infamous Rokudo Mukuro as part of his Mist guardian team was true, and he's even more frightening than the stories; of how the Sun Guardian may seem silly when he's yelling 'extreme' all the time but that's no reason to brush him aside, especially if the Tenth is in danger; of how the Lightning Guardian may be just a child, but Decimo is so fiercely protective of the boy that one should never dare consider him the 'weak link.'
Of how the Cloud Guardian is easily one of the strongest Guardians of any generation and any attribute that the household staff has ever seen.
Rumors of how Sawada Tsunayoshi has assembled a militia of frighteningly powerful monsters as his guardians, and how they prowl around him like a group of guard dogs, of how it's certain death for anyone who wishes ill against him because this group of all-powerful beasts is undeniably protective of their boss.
Of how yes, the Guardians are almost obsessively protective of their Boss, but how Decimo is even moreso, and much, much more powerful than his small stature will ever let on.
They're starting to see why he's the Decimo – why he's the boy who inherited something no other generation has managed to receive from the Primo, why he's the boy who stands amidst the rumors of a new Neo Vongola.
(Later, Tsuna will realize that this was all but a setup courtesy of the Ninth and Reborn, and he'll be upset and kick up a fuss and can't you see people could have gotten seriously hurt, Reborn! but Reborn will only smirk, because it's so typical of Dame-Tsuna to be upset over possible casualties instead of the fact that he'd been played).
And in the time to come, higher ups in the Vongola and its allied families will also come to the realization that this Sawada boy holds much, much more power than anyone could have ever anticipated.
That this Sawada boy has won the favor of even 'Bucking Horse Dino,' that it wasn't a mere fluke that someone as feared as Rokudo Mukuro has chosen to follow this boy; that Reborn remains Sawada's mentor not simply out of duty to the Ninth, but because he's decided that he'll follow Tsuna once he becomes the Decimo, too. At thirteen, Sawada Tsunayoshi managed to quell the unruly Varia, and that wasn't a fluke, either.
Nothing's a fluke when it comes to Vongola Decimo.
And yes, perhaps his Cloud Guardian is a bit out of line and unpredictable, but that's half the reason he's so powerful. (In the years to come, the Cloud Guardian will settle down and grow a fiercely unrivaled allegiance to Decimo, anyway – to Sawada Tsunayoshi, not the Vongola, never the Vongola if Sawada Tsuna is not the leader).
Matters of worth aside, it would be foolish to oppose Sawada Tsunayoshi for any given reason – seeing as how most of the people who've accepted him as the leader did so for him, not for Vongola. That should the Vongola reject Sawada Tsunayoshi, they will also be rejecting the long list of all-powerful figures who have chosen to accept Tsuna because he is Tsuna, not because he is a Vongola.
They would also be knowingly unleashing the fury of at least twenty known sociopaths, each with the ability to destroy a very large and certain amount of the Earth, all of whom have somehow found that they have grown an affinity for the bumbling Decimo.
It's politically unwise, is what it is.
(Later, Vongola X will become the most powerful mafia boss, and the most frightening – because the people who choose to follow his kingdom are among the most terrible and strongest people alive, and they follow him with absolution and devotion and adoration).
By the time of the Inheritance Ceremony in a few years' time, there's absolute silence and acceptance when Sawada Tsunayoshi accepts the throne to the underworld.
A/N: Please review – let me know what you think of this piece, and what you wanna see in the next chapter!