Little longer chapter here.

Beta'd by Tsumugi Hitomi

Chapter 5: The Neighbor is Made of Ashes and Coal

At a nearby park, Nana was far too busy chattering to the other parents to pay any attention to her son and none of the other kids ever wanted to play with Tsuna either so he was left to his own devices. Spotting a big yellow butterfly, the boy followed it and wandered out of the park and across the street, unnoticed by everyone else.

That was when he saw Him. It was the King! He was sitting on a bench across from an old candy store.

He was wearing a red shirt this time, but he had the same pants and shoes. The same tanned face that took in everything in a sort of distant, but regal manner.

Even if the King wasn't wearing a crown, he couldn't have been anything else. He couldn't explain it, but something from deep within continuously whispered that this person was different in a way that most people could never be. And most people could never be kings. It made perfect sense.

Besides, Tsuna was sure that even royalty needed to take off their crowns sometime. He had seen pictures where they looked huge and heavy, all glittering gold or silver and filled with lots of shiny colorful rocks that Mama called jewels. Tsuna knew that they were still rocks though and rocks were heavy. It would be tiring and uncomfortable to wear it all the time so it would make sense that if a King wanted to relax, then he would take off his crown.

But now that Tsuna was in front of him, he was starting to feel a little intimidated. The King was big. As big as Mama with none of her loving warmth. Mama was like the sunshine, bright and happy.

But there was a different sort of heat Tsuna could feel from him. It was buried deep within, but even so, the boy instinctively knew that it would be a painful scorching heat not unlike the bonfire he had seen during a festival once. It had looked so pretty from a distance, lighting up the dark night and Tsuna had cried when it had burned down to ashes.

Though there was nowhere near as much heat or light, Mama told him that beneath those cold looking ashes were rocks called coal glowing with the remnants of the fire. If the coal cooled, it could be heated again and make an ember. And if given more food (fuel Mama had called it), the ember would feed from it and grow into a big bonfire again.

The King's eyes lazily drifted down to him and Tsuna was reminded of the way the soft ashes had floated away lazily in the wind. His dark eyes were as cool and as dark as unlit coal. But in Tsuna's eyes for just a split second, he saw the bonfire, hot and dangerous, but strong and bright enough to chase away the dark and all the scary things in it. Somehow this made the King seem bigger than Mama-bigger than anyone-could ever conceivably be. A bonfire was so much closer than the sun after all and the closer things were, the bigger they looked.

Tsuna blinked and the King became the burned out fire pit filled with ashes. There was no warmth at all…but…that didn't mean that the coal couldn't be relit. That the bonfire couldn't be brought back. It was a shame for a bonfire not to burn because it was so pretty, but Mama had said that bonfires were dangerous if he got too close…

He couldn't back down now though. He had come this far and there was no way to know when the next time the King would emerge from his castle be. So drawing up all the resolve he had, the little brunet looked straight into the King's eyes.

Years later, Tsuna would understand that the King wasn't as tame and controlled as a carefully prepared bonfire. He was an all-consuming wildfire that had been reduced to ashes. But starting a wildfire was just as easy, if not more so, as starting a bonfire.

Shy as he may be, Tsuna is a persistent little kid and Xanxus doesn't have much of a will to do anything…for now.