Sawada Tsunayoshi's first reaction to Hayato's presence is a burst of sheer fright, and he does not understand.
The boy is strange in a way that eludes him. How he sits shyly, curled up into himself. Soft brown eyes repeatedly search him out with a glint of something he does not recognize.
His first meeting with Tsuna is explosive and strange and just the slightest bit frightening in ways he does not yet understand, but he will.
And somehow, he finds the brunet weirdly endearing.
Hayato is a transfer student, half Italian and not good at making friends. He sticks with the small boy that seems to look towards places far away.
The comments about the mafia put him off, as do the small whispers about accidents and sad stories.
Tsuna has an interesting sense of humor that half irritates him and half amuses him, even in a situation where he supposes he should be somewhat offended.
Strangely, there was never a single comment about his chain smoking tendencies.
"Piano?" he asks while sitting on the roof, looking down from the painted afternoon sky.
Tsuna smiles brightly, rows of teeth shining almost red in the light of the setting sun.
"Yeah!"
Hayato does not stare. He has learned by now to expect things like this from the boy. Instead, he inhales, cigarette between his lips, and exhales all his worries and concerns and trust issues in a cloud of cancerous smoke.
"I don't play."
The smile doesn't diminish, but somehow it looks sadder and unfittingly understanding. Tsuna doesn't respond.
0 0 0
Takeshi is well liked among his peers and just about bursts with athletic talent. He leads a happy life and likes interacting with anyone, especially if they're interesting enough to warrant his attention.
Tsuna is definitely interesting, morbidly fascinating in a way.
Most people don't notice. He's always been the weirdo.
The outcast.
The victim.
Why would they pay attention to one mousy boy when they could simply move on with their lives without sparing him a single glance.
No one cares to notice that the bullies are cowards. They just threaten, but never hit.
And sometimes that's more than enough.
But something about him has changed in subtle ways and Takeshi has always been a curious boy. So he talks to him and Tsuna cannot offer any subject of conversation, so of course he starts talking about baseball. Baseball is his life.
Sometimes he talks about his father, how he doesn't tolerate any fooling around in the restaurant. How he's wickedly skilled with his knives.
And Tsuna asks him interesting things.
"If you swung that bat fast enough you could cut something in half!" He looks harried, panicked even, at the prospect of his own amusing statement. "Reborn shouldn't have given you that bat!"
Takeshi laughs.
"Reborn?"
0 0 0
Ryohei worries about his sister, how he sometimes notices a brightly manic gaze in her direction. She always waves it off. But it follows her, and he trains and trains because sometimes you fight without gloves or a ring.
He's exuberant, he's energetic, a growing boy with a passion for sports. Always such a serious face when he trains. His dad is proud. He doesn't know why.
When he first finds Tsuna, the boy's demeanor goes from frightened to amicable in a matter of seconds.
"Onii-san!" he calls him, and it is simultaneously painful and warm.
His sister never called him that.
But for his sister, he asks the underclassman a question.
Tsuna blushes and stutters. A hand presses against his torso, as if to soothe something hurt.
Then he smiles so brightly, frighteningly sincere.
And Ryohei worries about his sister, but he also worries about Tsuna. He does not know in which way.
0 0 0
Lambo does not expect a loving mother. He wants attention, and sometimes he gets it.
And then there's the older boy, clumsy and weird but nice enough to give him candy every now and then.
Candy is not a very filling meal.
This is his home now, he says to himself as he runs down the halls, away from outstretched arms ready to catch him should he stop. Tsuna always says he makes such a racket, he should be quieter if he doesn't want to be found in the first ten seconds. That wouldn't be fun.
"She's going with him to train." Tsuna tells him with a half worried smile.
Lambo sees the tall man in the weird red blouse take I-pin away. He realizes there was never a man in this house, even though there's a photo of one in the living room.
His cheeks feel wet and he wants attention so he yells.
His expectations are met.
0 0 0
Mukuro is a teenager and not very well liked by authorities. He always runs, of course. He never did like it behind bars, no matter that he already was in that hellhole twice.
Kokuyo is ideal. The uniform doesn't look stupid. Delinquents run amok.
Who'd pay attention to little old Mukuro when there were already so many hazards to peaceful society running around?
Chrome sometimes comes to his usual haunt, worried and jittery as she always is. Her uniform is prim and perfect. Her eyes show a great deal of insecurity.
This time she brings this boy along, small and utterly insignificant.
He smirks predatorily at them. She cringes, the boy almost yelps in fear. Then he frowns.
"I thought you were in Vendicare?"
0 0 0
Kyouya is a very busy man. Boy. Whatever he is. It's so hard to tell at this point.
He's very observant, especially in such a rowdy school as this one. He's strict. He never had many friends. His mother says it's hereditary, he got it from his father, just like his insatiable thirst for justice.
The first time Sawada Tsunayoshi cowers before him when he meets the boy's eyes, Kyouya sees something.
Something off.
Those eyes are brown, obscenely soft, extremely expressive, unnaturally bright.
There are marks, purple and blue and yellow. He sees them under his shirt when the boy lifts his arms. When he stops by the house, there's a racket and screams. And then absolute silence.
The boy does not react to his surroundings. As if he lives in his own little world.
The day he decides to report his misgivings, there is a fire alarm.
The Sawada home has burned down.
When he gets there, others are there as well. The firefighters were too late. There are people from his school, first years and one third year like him.
They're all looking at Tsuna.
The boy smiles brightly.
"I defeated the bad guy. We can see the fireworks together!" he chirps, purple cheek stretched into a manic grin. His eyes reflect the fire.
"Don't worry about the house. My dad's a firefighter too. He just hasn't been home at all lately."
A small boy with curly black hair and bandaged arms also stares at Tsuna.
The angry visage of his mother is nowhere to be seen.
AN:
so since no one seems to actually get it, I'm gonna explain just what the hell i wrote.
Tsuna, dear weak child that he is, suffers under pressure from school, his bullies and an abusive mother. So at one point somewhere after the start of his first year of middle school, he snaps. Tsuna develops an elaborate delusion and layers it on top of his actual reality. That means that canon as we know it is just a figment of Tsuna's imagination: flames, arcobaleno curse, time travel and colorful magic mafia all don't actually exist.
Hayato is just a normal transfer student of half italian heritage and with a bit of a smoking problem. Takeshi is a happy baseball player whose dad is truly only a sushi chef and nothing more; they don't have a dojo either. Ryohei notices someone is stalking his sister and when he finally confronts Tsuna, who in his delusion only has a huge crush on her, Tsuna's so unexpectedly nice (he also notices that Tsuna's hurt). Lambo's trickier: he's a foster child at the mercy of Sawada Nana just like I-pin until she was taken away (you can apply whatever theory you want here) by Fon, he also realizes that Nana's husband has been dead for a while. Mukuro is just a particularly nasty delinquent and Chrome is his prim and proper sister who doesn't really know how to interact with him. Finally, Kyouya is a strict boy and son of a policeman, who notices what's going on with Tsuna.
At the end, Tsuna finally truly snaps and burns his house down with his mother inside, probably believeing to have won some major battle from the series.