Dandelion Boy

Chapter One

The Crooked Man

Tsuna had always had a strange fondness for dandelions. Why, no one knew. After all, dandelions were pests weren't they? Weeds, unwanted and useless.

Perhaps that was why he loved them so much.

'Should you come across a dandelion, you should make a wish...'

They were just like him. He was unwanted, he was useless and people went to extra effort just to keep him away. He could empathize with those so-called weeds. It was just a little bit pitiful, really. That a child of all things could feel more connections to a plant than to any of his peers.

'The wind might take it away...'

Ironically, just like dandelions, the boy too had many hidden uses. He was terrible on his own, but when he was trying to help others, then he found his true use. And of course, like all things human, this gift for helping others came at a price.

(In his later years, Tsuna would look at the worried faces of his friends and then he would look down at his worn too thin hands with a fond sadness.)

'So seal your promise with a kiss...'

Why couldn't he be as hard to kill as a dandelion?

'And who knows, it may kiss an angel's cheek on it's way...'

It all started with a tingling sensation in his fingertips when he was five. At that age, he was just beginning to realize that there was something a bit shady about his father's job. It was also at that age that he was begining to feel things. Odd things. Odd in the way that he touched his mother's hand the other week and suddenly all he could feel was a deep, awful, terrible, soul-crushing sadness. He had jerked his hand back, tears gushing down his chubby cheeks as he tried to figure out why his mom was still smiling, of all the things.

'Of course, your wish may not come true, 'cause wishes come with a price...'

His mother coos and dotes over his tears, and he just stands there, because now he knows.

Iemitsu isn't coming back.

( Betrayal. Dissapointment. Self-loathing. He-was-gone-I-didn't-mean-to-do-it)

My son isn't ever going to get better.

(I never wanted kids. And it's his fault he's gone. .Gone. GONE!-)

I don't want to be that woman with the not there husband and the no-good son.

'Be it red strings, catfish tails, goldfish scales, or salty grains of rice...'

Images flash into his mind, his mother staring a cradle with a baby inside, a mix of hate and dissapoinment in her gaze. His mother holding a bottle of wine in her hands, drinkng so much she pretends to be sick in the morning so he has to walk to school alone. A man, brown hair and brown eyes, staring at her as he leans in and kisses her lips, the scent of sweat and cheap liquor permenting the air. All of these, and many, many, many more flood his head, along with so much sadness.

He remembers swaying from side to side, vision dimming.

'In the end, it's worth it all...'

He remembers his ears ringing.

'Because a wish is a sacrifice...'

He remembers the most beautiful, soft, warm and welcoming orange around him.

'If there is no pain, there is no gain, your dandelion knows this well...'

He sees his mother's face, a mix of disgust and awe.

'

Is it worth the sacrifice?

Who can tell?'

Then he remembers blackness.

He didn't bring it up again, but he did begin to notice changes in his mother's behavior.

Fearful sidelong glances.

Angry muttering in the dead of night when he lay awake because of the nightmares that plagued his senses.

The sudden decrease in the gifts of wine that his tou-san brought back from Italy.

The shadow in his mother's eyes.

It wasn't too long before it came to a head.

"You stupid, stupid, useless child!"

There is a slap to emphasize each word and he can't even focus on the physical pain because each time her skin touches his, he sees a whole host of new images. Each one is slowly tearing away at the mother he thought he knew. So he cries, he cries and he cries and he begs her to stop but just like when a dandelion is stepped on, no one pays any attention.

"You..." His mother's-no, Nana's- voice is slurred and soft now as she struggles to find purchase on the wall that will support her weight. Then she looks up at him, and he can only sit there, a child of no more than five, curled up on the floor holding the red handprints where brusies were sure to form. Then, he sees his mother's eyes, crazed and clouded over and hate filled, then she says,

"You should have never been born!"

Silence. All he can hear. Silence and Nothing that crams itself up against his aching ears.

"I wish..."

Nana turns to face him, the half empty bottle in her hand swishing its cursed contents every which way.

"The hell did you say, boy?"

"I wish...that I...could..."

He doesn't get to finish because in the next moment, Nana topples over. He runs to her side, ever the faithful, naive, bleeding hearted soul. Tsuna is the type who forgves his enemies, and one who would spend kindness on killers.

(In his later years, he laughs as Reborn says this, then squeezes Yamamoto's palm.)

He is too kind. Too naive.

Kawahira feels like crying.

'Go on, why don't you make a wish...'

He watches, form hidden and swathed in mist flames, watching as the boy sobs into his cute little hands. Tsuna, whose eyes are drowning in tears, wants to reach out and touch his mother but he is terrified of the things he knows he will see. It weighs down on him, that awful, terrible, horrible sensation. That feeling of being completely useless.

'Seal it with your kiss...'

"I wish...I wish that I could make Mama happy..."

'With it, send your thing that you will always miss...'

'...Is that your wish?'

Sawada Tsunayoshi turns to face him, dark chocolate brown orbs drowning in teardrops. He sniffles and wipes his eyes before he speaks again.

"Who-hic-are you?" the poor child's voice is breaking as he tries to wipe his nose.

What should he say? Hello, I'm the one who keeps the world turning. Today I will make your life hell? Greetings, my name is Kawahira, you know from that antique shop that dissapears and reappears all the time? Yeah, that's me. Would you like me to explain the fact that I am about to rip away your future?

So, he takes a deep breath, the scent of his iron mask filling his nose. He places on the carefully carved persona over his sadness. He leans in close and he says,

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, my name is Checkerface. I am here to tell you that you are someone very special."

Tsuna is shocked, to say the least. He is shocked because the last time someone called him special, it was his bullies who were saying that he had to have special powers to be as dame as he is. The man before him should be someone to be scared of, he should be running, screaming, trying to call the police or something! So then why, why do the man's words sound so... sad?

Sawada Tsunayoshi is a kind bleeding soul with the hidden ability to feel other's emotions.

Sawada Tsunayoshi is a Dandelion Boy who still feeds that one chihuhua even though it bit him.

Sawada Tsunayoshi never tattles on his bullies because he forgives them and feels what they feel when they punch him.

Sawada Tsunayoshi is both a sky and a lucky bond. A boy who has no friends and keeps his enemies in his heart.

Sawada Tsunayoshi still loves his drunkard of a mother.

Sawada makes poorly drawn cards on Father's Day.

Tsunayoshi feeds those hated stray cats.

Tsuna plants dandelion seeds, just to watch them grow in a place no one will hate them.

It's no wonder he is forever surprising.

Five year old, tiny, crying, useless, dame, dandelion boy Tsuna looks up at Checkerface. Then he asks, with a voice that could pull down the walls of a serial killer,

"Are you okay?"

'Guess what? I made a Dandelion Wish!'

Checkerface is shocked for all of three seconds. Years later, he would still look back on this moment with some degree of surprise and think 'That foolish boy...'

But right now, he can't.

Rigt now, he has a job to do.

Right now, he is a monster.

So, he pulls out a small orange pacifier from his pocket. He swallows his conscience, his morals, the fact that he is sentencing a child to his death in a world that crushes all things bright, weed or no. Then he holds it out to the boy-Tsuna, his mind says. You're going to kill him, at least use his name- and the boy frowns at him.

"As I have stated before, Sawada Tsunayoshi, I am Checkerface, and I am hear to tell you that you are very special. I am here to make you the next Sky Arcobaleno."

He is a monster, and he is just fine.

no...no he wasn't.

'My wish, was for you to be blessed...'

Stupid, stupid, kind-hearted boy.

Kind-hearted Dandelion Boy

Wonderfully kind, gentle, fragile, Sky Boy

i am so so sorry sawada tsunayoshi

A/N: Made an age edit. Tsuna is now five