Authors Note- Here ya go guys...I had free time, not so much later on though. Ah, so tired. So someone asked a question about Tsuna's teddy bear, Mister Hiedel and this came of it.
Chapter Warnings- There be bears!, Mister Hiedel-centric, vague mentioning of wars, dunno.
Chapter Seven: The Birth of Mister Heidel
.
.
.
1903- Giengen, Germany
He is one of the very first, one of many that will go on for a long time and her name is Margarete Steiff. Her hands are scarred from needle points and endless days of sewing, her fingers thin but deft, so far from the hands of a lady of high stature and these are the hands that make him. He was supposed to be frightening, but she feared this and with a smile she softens his features.
Richard was her nephews name, and it was he who designed him.
He was made of felt and mohair and her fingers pushed through his skin with a long needle, bright blue and thick thread used to hold him all together. He was proud, the first time he saw his own reflection, the looks she had given him. White, pure and clean fur with bright blue button eyes and a soft rounded snout with an embroidered nose and mouth. He can move all his arms and legs perfectly and it's wonderful, she thinks he's wonderful.
Soon he is put on display for the world to see at a toy show, she smiles at him with pride, her thin shoulders leaning back as her chest puffs out. Many coo over him, others wish to buy him and offer large sums of money he knows she needs but she shakes her head, he's important to her, he is her first. But someone clever comes along, an American.
The American is smart, he doesn't ask for him. Instead he asks for others, three thousand others and she smiles, bright like a flame and agrees.
He gets brothers and so many sisters, some leave home and some stay but everything is wonderful.
1904
He is given a place, he sits on her lap, everyday, all day and watches as she attends to her factory as he has done for last half decade. Every once in a while she will smile down at him, her lucky charm. She's grown so much more attached to him, a far cry from the hesitance he first got when she was still filling him with wood shavings.
His brothers and sisters have changed through the years, more nimble and far more prettier than he but she still takes pride in his white fur, blue button eyes and thick shimmering threading and how can he feel anything less than perfect?
1905
Everyone looks worried, there's whispers of a price war but she never looks worried, not at all. Richard sweeps in again, another brilliant idea having been put together in his spectacular mind and all his younger siblings get an extra button sewed on their ears with her name on them.
He's different though, the factory workers aren't allowed to touch him. Instead she takes him into her arms and once more takes up the last pieces of blue, thick thread and carefully sews a button on his rounded ear. His button is a little different but still bears her name, he loves it.
1909
He doesn't see her anymore, she's gone. After a full year of staring out the window with a rather blank gaze, she slips away before he notices and the world doesn't seem so bright anymore. He doesn't know where she left to but he knows she wont be returning.
No one looks at him anymore, they're afraid to. He's placed on a shelf and no one turns in his direction. Everything is somber, his siblings are still being created but she doesn't watch over them to see that they come into the world perfect. He's so alone and he misses her smiles and wishes he could sit on her lap again.
It's always grey and he wants to be hugged.
1909
Two months later Richard finally looks at him, and it hurts because he can barely do so. With trembling hands he's picked up and is gently placed into a box with a whispered goodbye and a lingering kiss to his round snout.
1914
He has been out of his box for the first time in years and the world has changed. He's given to a little girl with beautiful golden hair and sparking blue eyes, the same shade as his own. She's bright and bubbly, so much different from the people that surround her. There is tension in the air and when people walk the streets, not once do they lift their gazes from the grey streets.
People hunch themselves over as if waiting for a strike and a strike came- there is war.
The little one whispers to him, begs him, please keep my nightmares away Teddy.
Her eyes don't lose their glitter, for that he is thankful and she keeps him close, snuggled closely to her heart. Every morning she brushes his fur before she brushes her own and every night she holds him tight, sometimes trembling and sometimes awake through the night as loud bangs go off just outside her window and down on the street.
1919
She doesn't keep him too close anymore, instead she's interested in boys and likes the color red on her lips and the color pink on her cheeks. She spends the day away from home, out dancing with former soldiers but every night she returns home and cuddles him, whispers to him about the boy who promised to love her for all eternity, the same one her father dislikes.
She promises she'll give him to her first little one and it's then that he realizes she is no longer a little one herself. But when she replaces her pretty flowing skirt with her sleep wear, wipes off all her pink and red and brushes out her high piled curls he swears she looks small again.
1924
She married her soldier boy and had brought home her first young-ling. Another girl with her blonde curls and her daddy's brown eyes and with a sense of importance she gives him over to him.
This is Teddy, darling and Teddy will keep you safe, just like he did with me.
The young-ling doesn't pay attention, she yawns and stuffs a white ear in her toothless mouth. It's a precious scene and he feels somewhat better about her mother growing up.
1930
He is gifted to her younger brother now that she is too old to keep him around, she says this with a loud voice, sounding so sure of herself but he sees the hesitance in her eyes and is there when she sneaks into her brothers room at night to get him back to cuddle. But always in the morning she brings him back with the same words.
He needs you more than I do.
He thinks it's something to do with clouds that linger in the little boys eyes and the way he swings is head around at the smallest of sounds.
1940
The little boy is taken away, he isn't perfect like the rest of the family with their working eyes and he goes with him. They cry, scream and lash out but they are held back, they are safe because they are not defects.
His little boy is so brave, he doesn't cry and hums to himself the entire time, only he can see the trembling hands and the white knuckles as he is gripped closer.
His fur is dyed a muddy red and he loses his little boy who dies shivering and quiet in their dark little room. Once more, someone had slipped away without him noticing.
1951
He is scrubbed up, one, twice, three times and his once white fur is pink but it is enough for the man with his oily smile and greedy eyes. He's shoved up on a shelf amongst books and dusty nick knacks.
His blue eyes are dull now, the color remains the same but they've lost their shine.
He stays up on that shelf for such a long time, never moving from his spot and collecting dust as the shop is passed to another and then to another until one day he is packed up again, placed in the box Richard gave him so long ago and is sent away.
1960
Japan is a strange place full of many odd and wondrous things but none of it's people want him for reasons he cannot think of, so once more he stays on a shelf gathering dust among books.
Year One- Namimori
It's odd, so very, very odd. He hears a bell tingle, the same one that makes the same noise three to four times a day and normally he doesn't notice, normally he dreams of another time. But this time he perks up, he doesn't know why. But in steps a mother with two little boys, the first runs off not wanting to keep near the mother and other trails languidly after her, yawing every once in a while and occasionally sending mildly interested looks to the tomes held high up on the shelves.
Those eyes trail along spines until finally, they rest on him and the world explodes with color because it's been so long since he's seen eyes like them. Almost a century and he swears those eyes belong to her. He wants the boy to come closer, begs with his eyes to pick him up and take him home, far, far way from this dusty little store.
Flames blaze sedately in those eyes as they blink up at him and with hands stuffed in his pocket the boy walks closer, ignoring the curious look of his mother. Withdrawing his hands from the folds of his pants he reaches up, his tiny frame straining to reach him and plucks him off and without so much as a thorough inspection he walks back to his mother and slaps a bill on the counter.
"Does the little Sir want the bear's box?"
The boy shakes his head, a teasing smile on his lips as he looks down at him, the same angle in which she looked down at him, "I think he's spent too much time in that box already. Throw it away."
Year One- Tsuna's bedroom
In the fashion of every child, the boy, Sawada Tsunayoshi or Tsuna, covered his blue button eyes with small hands as he kicked open the door of his bedroom and when it firmly shut behind them he released him with a giggle and whispered into his ear, "Welcome home, Mister Hiedel."
And it really does become home after that.
Year Two- Tsuna's bedroom
His name is Mister Hiedel now and it's his birthday or Tsuna tells him. He sits among his new sibling, ones that couldn't be more than a decade old and he soaks up the warmth that comes from his Tsuna who sings him happy birthday and cuddles him, wraps him tightly in a strong embrace with his thin arms. He brings in cake, baked by what he now knows is the caretaker.
Tsuna brings out a small box and presents it to him with a sunny smile, in it lays a shinning ribbon as red as his little ones lips while she was chasing her soldier boy and it's stitching is golden like his young-lings hair and Tsuna wraps it around his neck and ties it off with a beautiful bow and it was like receiving his button all over again, something so special.
Year Three- Tsuna's bedroom
Mister Hiedel doesn't know if he likes this 'Kyo-chan' but Tsuna does and he hasn't seen Tsuna take an interest in anyone his age before. Tsuna didn't pay attention to other child not even his brother. Tsuna didn't interact with humans in general, he spent his time with his books, himself and his young siblings, often indulging in tea parties and rather one sided discussions.
And despite the jealousy that simmers within him, he's happy because Tsuna's smiles come more often now, even if half of them are really inappropriate in the situation he's in.
Year Twelve- Tsuna's bedroom
It's loud now, full of life. Weapons too, he couldn't forget that. Still, Tsuna is always smiling, habitual or not, he's surrounded by the craziest of people. They're always shouting and teasing, trying to kill each other too. Mister Hiedel has watched Tsuna gather them all, he found each one sitting on a shelf after being alone so long and sitting in dust and he brought them home to love, so Mister Hiedel considers them siblings too.
Kyo-chan comes by as often a possible but is almost always called back to sit among his computers and clean up any mess Tsuna's dark army created, which happens more often than not.
But through it all, Tsuna never stops cuddling him, never stops asking for his opinion, even when his little legion shoot him bewildered but fond looks for asking a blood stained bear for his thoughts.
But Tsuna thinks he's wonderful and Mister Hiedel thinks Tsuna is wonderful and how could he feel anything less than perfect?
It's been a century and he was born from fire and with Tsuna he'd like to live by fire.