PAIRING: Byakuran & Sawada Tsunayoshi & Uni

TAGS: Canon Compliant, Ten Years Later Arc, The Curse of the Rainbow Arc

Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death (the two in the future, you know the ones)

Character Study, Team Dynamics (well they're not a team but you know), Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends (for bya & tsuna at least), Emotional Hurt/Comfort (but the comfort comes later), Canon Dialogue

Non-Linear Narrative, POV Third Person Limited, POV Alternating

WARNING: Not Beta Read

"You're Byakuran, right?" she asks, always recognizing him at first glance in every world despite never having seen him before, and she probably has no idea just how much it means to him.

Her face is cold, her eyes are cold, and her voice is cold too.

She's always cold to him in every world, and is only ever cold in this particular way with only him. Even in the worlds where they first meet before he does anything wrong she can condemn, she's only ever kindly distant at best.

She always sees right through him in every world, just as Byakuran always sees right through her, but where Byakuran always sees her too, she only ever sees right through him, even when she's the last person in the world who should be able to only do that much.

Byakuran hums, taking her in. "And who's this again...? Like I could know when we've never seen or met each other before." He smiles, closing his eyes. "Right, Uni-chan?" Her men protectively and defensively surround her, but he only has eyes for Uni. Uni, with her cold face and cold eyes, standing like she faces an enemy she has no intention to lose against. "I thought there might be a baby coming, but you're far more charming than I'd imagined."

Byakuran would stop everything and turn over a new leaf right then and there in a heartbeat if she asked him to. Would have done so in every world if she'd have asked him to.

As long as she sees him, he'd do anything she asked.

She just has to see him—

"You're more... ordinary than I'd imagined."

Her voice is cold, her face is cold, and her eyes are cold too.

Byakuran smiles wider. "Nicely said."

Maybe if he were to burn the world down to the ground so to be the only one remaining in it, leaving no choice to others but to see him, but he's already done it in every world except this one, and this is exactly where they've always stood.

Uni cradles the pacifiers close to her chest, pouring out her flames from her entire body, and the pacifier around her neck has never been heavier before. The ones in her arms soak up her flames, eating at her life so to come back to life.

She lets it happen like she's always done, gives her flames to them like she's always given all of herself and everything in her life away, but she's never asked for any of this, has never wanted any of this.

"Wait, Uni!" Sawada shouts. "There's no reason for you to sacrifice yourself for the Arcobaleno!"

He means well, only says it for her because he cares about her. He's the only one who's ever said similar words to her too, words she's been desperate to hear more times than she can count during her life, but the anger bursting in her chest is scorching, almost ripping her open.

What would he know?

Sawada gives all of himself away too, is the only way he's ever known how to interact with the world too, but where he finds happiness in it, where the world gives back to him and allows him to keep some of himself for himself, Uni's only ever found meaning in it.

Of course there's a reason for her to sacrifice herself for the Arcobaleno. She's the only one who can. She's been born so she could be the only one who can. She wishes it didn't have to be this way, has always wished it didn't have to be this way, but this is the only way there is, and the only way there's ever been her entire life.

And now he wants to take this away from her too? Wants her to give it away too?

She opens her eyes, catches his eye and smiles. "I must."

Her voice is genuine, her smile is genuine, and her words are genuine too.

Uni finds meaning in giving all of herself and everything in her life away, and that it'll give meaning to her life and the life she's lived is the most she's ever been allowed to hope for.

Byakuran screams as his X-Burner consumes him whole, burning skin and bones until not even ashes are left. Tsuna's flames don't waver, and his resolve to see his death through the end doesn't falter either.

It couldn't happen a second sooner, and if he could have made it more painful for him, he would have.

It won't bring Uni and Gamma back, and Tsuna can't think straight, consumed whole by grief and guilt and pain and anger. Consumed whole by hatred, and for all the many opportunities he's already had in his life to hate, this is the first time he tastes hatred so strong and wretched on his tongue.

Byakuran thought he cursed his own fate, but what does he know about his life? What does he even know about life, about living when he discards all of it so easily, when he looks down on it? What does he know about struggling to live a life you might want to curse and enjoy it anyway, when he's the one who made life that way for so many people?

And so what if he feels trapped by the world and the people around him? He isn't the only one, and all he did was take the easy option out, the cruelest one on everyone but him.

It's people like him who've hurt Tsuna all his life, people convinced to be above everyone else, people convinced they have the right to make choices for everyone else and impose their wills on them, no matter the means to that end.

Tsuna watches Byakuran die, does not look away from it, doesn't feel the need to, but it won't bring Uni and Gamma back.

Uni was wrong.

Byakuran and him are nothing alike.

Byakuran looks at Tsunayoshi on his knees, bruised, beaten and bleeding, but still trying to stand again. Maybe even having it in him to stand again too.

It wouldn't be surprising if that's the case. That's yet another one of his misfortunes Byakuran's came to learn through his knowledge of all the parallel worlds.

Tsunayoshi always finds it in him to keep taking it, to keep standing again even when it'd be much less painful for him to just stay down.

Byakuran smiles brightly at him, mocking him, taunting him. "If you hadn't been brought here, you wouldn't have had to go through all this. Don't you curse your own fate?" It's a rhetorical question, but of course, Tsunayoshi thinks about his words. "Right?"

And then of course, he disagrees with him. "No... that's not... exactly... true..." He shakes, barely keeping his eyes open, barely holding himself up even when he already leans his hands against the floor, and then he can't even hold his head up anymore to look him in the eye. But of course, like in every world, he still disagrees with him. "Well... the future is scary... and painful... and full of uncertainties. There's been very few times when I've felt happy since coming here... but... I feel as though I understand all that now... It's not about what's good or bad... Everything that happens here... is a precious part of my life."

Tsunayoshi's never much fun to talk with when he only ever says nonsensical words like this to him, in every world. It is fun when he angers him with his words sometimes, because he doesn't even have any of Uni's special circumstances to not even be able to see right through him, let alone see him.

There's no such thing as meaning in the act of living in and of itself. Isn't that why everyone strives to make something out of their life?

Shouldn't life be made of only good moments?

Tsunayoshi calls precious the bad moments his life's given him, the bad moments that are all his life's ever been made of, but it doesn't mean they do anything but still hurting him, does it?

"You sure have an odd way of perceiving things," he says, and this time around he feels no anger, just some kind of indifferent pity.

Byakuran could save him from his own fate if he'd let him, could give him much more and much better than the cards he's been dealt with his entire life, but of course, like in every world, Tsunayoshi'll rather die right where he stands than let him save him.

"If the boss, Uni-chan, betrays me... You don't care what'll happen to the rest of the Black Spell?" Byakuran says, but Uni remains steady under his threatening gaze. "Well, they seem to love you so much... that they would be happy to be boiled or burned for you, though."

"What?" Tsuna shouts, everything happening so fast, he hasn't the time to process any of it. "Does that mean... hostages?"

And still, Uni remains steady under all of their gazes, looking at Byakuran straight in the eye. "They'll... understand."

Tsuna blinks, as if something just went by too fast in front of him for him to make it out.

What did she say?

He can't have heard her right.

"Wait, do you intend to...!" he shouts again, reluctant to let her go through that, to let her family go through that, but it's not just reluctance in his voice. "You'll watch them get killed?"

"Tsuna, you're the only one left," Reborn says. "You're the one Uni asked to protect her. What're you gonna do?"

"Bu—but... her comrades are..." Tsuna's voice dies in his throat when he looks at Uni again.

Her eyes... that girl... She's prepared... She knew it would happen.

Tsuna's stomach jolts, revolted to his very core, and in that moment, she's no different from Byakuran in his eyes.

Uni, the second boss of Millefiore, the boss of the Giglio Nero, the Sky Arcobaleno and their boss, but she's only been hope to him from the moment she's appeared. Twice she spoke for giving them another chance despite them having lost the Choice, and twice now Byakuran denied her, but by her presence alone and as long as she has the pacifiers in her possession, there's still hope for Tsuna to keep his family safe and get them back to a peaceful past.

He'd do anything to keep his family safe, would do anything to make them happy, would do anything for them.

But her family, and she'll—

Her family who loves her so much they'd get boiled and burned for her, and she'll—

Tsuna cannot fathom ever choosing to stand where she stands.

Uni looks at Byakuran straight in the eyes, her eyes determined, unwavering, unyielding. Tears gather at the corner of her eyes, and Tsuna sucks in a sharp breath.

She's hope to him, and no matter the reasons she has to be willing to go so far, the worst thing Tsuna could do to her now is to let it be all for nothing.

He grabs her arm. "Come!" he says, determination in his voice, a promise in it. "Come with us!"

Uni turns her head to look at him, her tears spilling out of her eyes, pain, relief and gratefulness in them, and in that moment, she looks nothing like Byakuran.

Still, Tsuna cannot fathom ever choosing to stand where she stands.

"Well, then how about this, Uni-chan?" Byakuran asks, cornered, or at least threatened by her making the pacifiers glow, as she intended. She needs to buy herself enough time to ensure the revival of the Arcobaleno no matter what. "The Tri-ni-sette that I was supposed to get by winning the Choice game... is very important to me and troubled me so much to get it. But, I don't mind giving the Vongola Rings back to the Vongola family... if Uni-chan comes back to the Millefiore." He smiles like he's saying anything that's supposed to faze her, to entice her; says 'Uni-chan' with so much fondness, like he's ever cared about her as a person.

She would know. Uni matters the most only when there's something needed out of her, but it's never about her. Uni's valued the most only the time for her to give what is expected of her, what is demanded of her, what everyone always acts like it's only a given she'll give it away.

What she must give away, as no one else but her can.

She looks at Byakuran, and feels nothing.

Sometimes she does, but she knows all too well by now how this goes.

"Byakuran. I know why you want me."

Not for herself, but sometimes in the way he looks at her, like he looks at her now, it seems he thinks so. There's desire in his eyes, elation at finally having the one thing he's ever wanted in his life within reach, but also something looking like hope and relief at the idea she might be considering going back to his side.

Uni despises that look of his more than anything else about him.

She's a mean to an end before she's ever allowed to be a person with her own wants and needs, has always been a mean to an end before being a person all her life. The pacifier around her neck is a tool to serve a greater purpose, but around her neck, it's hard to say who's more of a tool between the pacifier and her.

She's never felt the truth of those words more deeply than since she's met Byakuran, and she hates him for it.

Would hate him for it, but she knows all too well by now how this goes, has known it her entire life.

"I know that, and... that is the reason why I can't go back to your side."

Still, let her at least be her own mean to an end of her own choosing, even if only for the first and last time in her life.

A/N: Moth, remember our conversation about how these three fill the hole inside them in their own but similar ways, and how they all want the same thing at the end of the day, and how they're just different enough to not realize that, and to not realize they're much more similar before they're ever different, to the point they get in the way of each other even when they're all trying to get the same thing?

And Missi, remember our conversation about how these three pull towards different extremes?

Okay, now both of you consider this: I'm gonna make them come together anyway. :heart emoji:

Also I know the formatting of the dialogue often doesn't make it flow naturally, but that's because I kept them accurate to the translation, and, well... they were written like that lol.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Any and all reviews are appreciated.

Thank you for reading!

- Hope

Answers to Guests' comments:

arcoskylover: thank you so much, i'm so happy you liked it so much! these three are so interesting together and such compelling characters even on their own, and though i don't feel as strongly about byakuran, uni and tsuna are both among my favorite characters in the manga too. thank you for your comment!