A/N: Hii! I am on tumblr: arrysa-clair . tumblr . com
*cries TTqTT I am legitly invested in this story, that this chapter made me cry so bad (which I never does for any of my fics but I did!) I think my heart is in pieces rn but BUT the light is here!
Now onwards to Feels Train!
Interlude: Francesco
Wide green eyes looked at him, a boyish grin gracing the cherubic face that only made his son utterly adorable. Green green eyes that looked at him, seeing him in his entirety, giving him a look that bespoke of love. The man couldn't help but embrace his son tightly, however there were no warmth, only the cold reality of what he would leave behind.
Darkness slowly descent on him, his limbs felt laden with sudden monstrous strength. He must get up, open his eyes, will his body to do anything and move.
He didn't want to leave Lambo too. He has to get up!
Ellie… give me strength. I can't leave our son just yet.
Ellie… Lambo…
"Papa!"
A familiar child voice rang on his ears and as if he had been dozen by a bucket of iced water he had suddenly gotten up. He sprang like a spring board, wide surprised eyes staring around before blinking at the meadow of infinite green filled his sight.
Where…
Is...?
"Lambo!"
He hastily looked around in panic. He didn't just imagine it. Francesco definitely heard his son's voice. Before he could run around, something soft and slender, arms and hands he knew so well landed on his shoulders. He was embraced from the back, could feel the warmth and bosom of his wife.
"Shush…"
Francesco could feel hair against the nape of his neck and he took comfort on this with closed eyes.
Small arms snuggled on his chest and as the waft of air drifted against his nostril, he could smell the sweet aroma of candies that always accompanied his son.
His heart felt warm and lighter. The worry clinging on his heart had dissipated with ease.
It felt right.
"Papa." Lambo, his son called out and Francesco slowly opened his eyes. What first greeted him was the curly black hair and the still wafting smell of fruity candies. But what draw him was the bright green eyes of his son and childish happy smile on his lips.
He was content, happy in this familiar embrace of his beloved family, and yet he wondered why…—
There was a pull on his consciousness and then he was looking straight ahead as a woman – no not yet a full-grown woman – with understanding deep blue eyes.
Lambo snuggled closer on his chest then he wiggled until he ended up sitting on Francesco's lap, back pressing on his chest. The slender arms of his wife disappeared with a mischievous whisper on his ears, "It's time." Then she reappeared right next to him, a warm hand clutching his own comfortingly, like it belongs there.
Francesco was confused at the sudden appearance of another person but oddly enough, he felt like he had meet someone with the same face as her… Before he could voice out his confusion, the girl with a tattoo on her cheek and an orange pacifier spoke with kind voice.
"I am Yuni and it is nice to finally meet you, Francesco-san. I apologize that we met under dire circumstance and all of you were caught up with it. That is why I, the Future Sky Arcobaleno–"
"–and Lambo! Also stop apologizing already Yuni-nee!" Lambo inserted his piece with a pout and the girl, Yuni?, smiled, her eyes growing sad and forlorn before gratefulness entered with a flash.
Francesco blinked, dumbfounded.
"Thank you, Lambo."
Lambo puffed his chest proudly and Francesco couldn't help but chuckle good naturedly.
Ellie's other hand petted Lambo's curly hair and Lambo preened at the touch. "Lambo is right, Yuni. You don't have to keep apologizing, I understand and my dear husband would as well."
Francesco was confused what were they referring to but if his wife said so, then he would understand soon enough. Yuni looked at the three of them thankfully, eyes brimming with tears.
She took a deep breath as if steeling herself before she spoke once again.
"We are here to tell you the truth about Lambo and Tsuna-san."
He listened about an old brunet with a heart who gave too much, whose fate had been entangled, and who lose too much of his heart along the way and yet still love so strongly that it must hurt a lot. Of two person who selfishly took the matter on their hands to save the brunet, to give the brunet a chance for happiness even if they knew their departure would hurt. They were selfishly selfless.
He listened about a young kind child with a heart too big who wished for his parent's happiness even for few short years.
And finally he listened about the brunet whose guilty heart was crying for his little brother.
God... Why...?
Francesco's heart was filled with overwhelming love and gratefulness and he realized just then that he can't…
No one was at fault. They only did what they could given the hand that they could take.
Lambo's small hands holding his left and his wife holding his right, the wedding ring they had bought glisten against the light.
That's right.
For Tsuna's sake, he can't leave, not yet, not until…
Chapter Ten: "Tsuna-nii!"
Thump-thump-thump.
Heart thumping on his little chest, breath puffing unevenly, small fingers digging on the soft fabric of his onesie.
Lambo jumped nimbly towards the chair adjacent to the bed containing the fragile yet awake man.
I'm still not…late.
It had been four to almost five long hours of flight from Japan. It had been that long that his heart hadn't settled, hadn't calmed at all. It pumped with anxiety, fear, and panic. It continues.
It was almost painful, no matter what he thought of to calm himself down during that long hours. His mind hadn't let up and it hadn't let him rest. His thoughts churned repeatedly.
He tried to distract his worried heart and his mind unknowingly thought back of the previous conversation with Byakuran. It… It made everything worse. It only made the tears he held bay stir because he was coming to a realization, a sick theory given the information he currently had.
Tsuna, focus on your father.
Green wide emerald eyes clung to the sight of the pale man, small fingers twitchy and knees jell-o at the sight of his incapacitated father.
"My…son." Weak raspy voice permeated on the air.
Tsuna's small hands reached towards the skinny hand and the warmth he could feel on those clammy hands made his heart leapt with awful dawning desperation.
Please… keep holding on.
"Papa…" He uttered weakly and as if his voice and his presence were the man's balm, the man's face cleared, it lit up with soaring happiness. Such a simple happiness for a simple man.
It shouldn't be this way.
Lambo should be here. Francesco deserve to know Lambo too. Yet… he didn't open his mouth. He can't open his mouth when words failed him and the man had already opened his.
Tsuna's heart clenched all the while, ears sharpening with forced clarity for every sound.
Thump-thump-thump.
"Your hands are still so small… but you are so strong."
Francesco wheezed for air yet he squeezed the warm, small yet strong hands of his son. It would be his last, and he wanted to make it count.
His sight was dimming and swimming among the encroaching darkness. Yet mind came back to the voices on his dream. He couldn't help but smile and focus his sight on his son.
His body were getting weaker and it was like pulling air from nothing for every breath he take. But he would do anything, for his sons.
Please… let me say just one thing. Just…
"Don't feel so guilty…" His words might be confusing but he knew he would understand soon. He squeezed his son's hand with his current ebbing strength. He had wanted to say many things. He wanted to take him into a loving embrace, to say a millionth – no countless heartfelt gratitude he could feel filling on his heart.
"Thank you…so much…"
He wanted to show how much he loves him. Francesco wanted to call him by his name for countless of times.
One…last thing…that I–
"I…love you…" He couldn't cough nor see anymore, the dimming light slowly turning around him.
"…my son…Tsuna."
Tsuna's eyes widened as his father eventually stopped breathing with one last whisper of his real name. The warmth between his hands slowly ebbed.
And the once brunet stood petrified.
He called my name.
What…why? When did he…?
These questions echoed on his mind, it clouded him from really thinking of what he didn't want to think.
Still Tsuna couldn't help but crane his neck towards Byakuran's direction with a helpless expression on his face, seeking for guidance. It was agonizing slow with his body not cooperating with him, and he was hyperaware of the stirring, like a sizzling under his skin, like something was unraveling inside him.
"Tsu-chan," Byakuran called to him and as he directed his gaze towards him, there was warmth surrounding his back and a whisper next to his ears. "Let him go."
That was when Tsuna realized that he was still clutching a cold hand–
–Bright so bright yet dimming yellow flames slowly and surely dispersed on the air and all Tsuna could do was watch it with a teary expression and a heart slowly chipping at the edge. He stood petrified as what had transpired fully caught up with him and he immediately noticed that the yellow sun flames start to flew away.
No...
He couldn't help but jump towards with reaching hands. Don't go, echoed on his own head. Then he was falling back to the ground, hand clutching the colorless pacifier and the yellow flames were gone, dispersed, scattered, flew, towards the empty blue sky.
No .
–Just like the cold pacifier he once had grasped back back then.
…Oh.
A gentle hand pried his hand off without his realization.
They slipped on my fingers again…—
Before he knew it, he was squirming away and he was screaming both on his mind and throat.
…..NOOOOOOOOOOO!
There was a hammerring on his head, it pounded on his mind. It continued throbbing and it was like his very core, his very soul was being squeezed tight in a very very short—no nonexistent hole.
"UwwwaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Scream and flames surged from Lambo's small visage. Lick of prickling hot and electric Lightning Flames burned everything on the clearing, the ground shook and the surrounding fizzled, dust dispersing from the shockwave.
Tsuna was still screaming, he kept flailing because everything hurts.
Everything was flashing before his mind, images of things he knew and had first experienced beforehand. But now the pain that had dimmed through age alone resurfaced, the scabbed wounds were torn anew like it had happened for the first time.
All over again.
He was screaming and crying and squirming and screaming and–
"Tsuna-nii!"
–there was white.
A small hand clutching his own shook him. In turn, caramel brown eyes opened awake and the vast green meadow greeted him. Tsuna was firstly confused but as he continued gazing at the never ending green and blue, familiarity hit him like a brick to the stomach and before he knew it he had immediately turned his attention at the hands on his own, a thing he had momentarily forgotten upon waking up.
He had turned rapidly and Lambo with his curly black hair and green emerald eyes – Elenore's eyes – stared back at him warmly.
Tsuna looked away guiltily, unable to withstand those kind eyes, knowing the sins he had done as he sat down on the grass defeatedly.
"Lambo…"
Tsuna closed his eyes. The pang of guilt churned at his chest leaving him hollow, ashamed for the little brother he had sworn to protect from his own time and the person he took everything from. How could he look at his brother when Elenore and Francesco both died and he was in Lambo's place?
"Tsuna-nii."
Lambo called out to him warmly, affectionately, and his eyes sting. There was no rebuttal, without envy at him for living the life he should have had, and calling him so lovingly.
Tsuna looked at him and even though he was sitting up, he still had to crane his neck down.
Lambo looked so young, he had a bright future awaiting him but now he was just here, contained in this peaceful meadowy unable to experience everything his other selves had been given.
The once brunet couldn't help it and thus, apology left passed his lips. "I…I'm so sorry, Lambo." Tsuna whispered.
Lambo shook his head before he walked towards him, wrapping his small arms around his neck into an embrace. It felt so warm… "You have nothing to apologize for, Tsuna-nii."
Why...?
There was another hand, an adult size and a firm one, on his left shoulder.
"Remember my words, Tsuna."
A familiar voice echoed and he craned his neck to look up even if Lambo was still embracing him. He saw Francesco with a warm smile on his face.
"Don't feel so guilty, my son."
Tsuna's eyes widened.
"Honey is right." A feminine voice echoed and beside Francesco, Elenore appears, this time soft hand played with his brown spiky locks. "We love you, Tsuna."
Caramel brown eyes couldn't help but turn to look at their sudden appearance and the brunet trembled. He couldn't speak, his lips trembling, his body overwhelmed with emotions.
They look at him with love on their eyes.
"See, Tsuna-nii? Even Mamma and Papa says so." Lambo spoke up and he slowly let go of his hold then steps back, he was now standing between his parents and the three of them were softly glowing, a light shade of green.
The scene before him, of the three of them smiling so lovingly and warmly, with Lambo's hands clutching to his parents. His eyes prickled and his core hummed as if he had been consciously waiting for this.
The curly haired child even with his hand holding onto his parents, turned at the brunet with a thankful smile on his face and his eyes shining vividly like a sparkling gem.
Tsuna stood still, there was a tingling on his skin.
"Tsuna-nii… You don't have to continue anymore for my sake. You can live your own life with everyone you hold dear. That's why… thank you for enduring, thank you for being there for my parents when I couldn't, for giving me the time to feel their love through you, even for letting me experience having caring friends. Thank you so much for everything… It's your turn now, Tsuna-nii. I love you."
It felt like... a goodbye.
And yet his heart felt lighter.
They looked at him with loving gaze one last time before they were swallowed by the light. Strong wind blew around him that he had to blink his eyes. When he came to, there was only the vast blue sky around him, no meadow of green…
Lambo...
That was when memories surged to him, through him, like a slideshow and he could only scream voicelessly and trash vigorously.
A feminine voice he knew so well echoed on his mind. Yuni. "I'm sorry and thank you, Lambo, for giving us this chance once again."
"There was nothing to be sorry for Yuni-nee because I will die at childbirth and all I wish is for my parents to not suffer losing me. If Tsuna-nii would inhabit my body in exchange for being there for my parents then I will take it. It would be more than enough."
Yuni smiled with a hint of sadness on her lips and eyes. "You are really alike to Tsuna-san."
A child with green eyes and a young woman with all-seeing eyes floats at the vast dark place. "Tsuna-san, we're so sorry. We didn't have time to properly explain everything to you. You may come to hate us for withholding the truth from you but we can't… we can't let you be the Sky Arcobaleno too. And please forgive us for transferring you to Lambo's body."
Yuni's voice were fragile, she was in a brink of crying but there were no tears on her eyes. "I'm sorry that we have given you this burden. I wish it didn't end up like this… I wish I could talk to the both of you one more time. I wish I saw this future, but I'm powerless, I couldn't stop it. That's why if our sacrifice will give you another chance for happiness, we will gladly take it."
It was dark, and amidst the spreading blackness, a young woman with orange pacifier floats. Her eyes seeking him longingly and tears cascading freely on her pale cheeks, she looks so small right in this instance, gone where her strong visage of earlier now that it was only the two of them. "Tsuna-san… This would be my last time to talk to you as my real self had long since passed away. Even though I am only a flame imprint, she really wanted to tell you to continue living in this new world without any regret. That's why please… for her sake, please continue living and be happy. Once you wake up even though being an infant would be difficult for you, please take care of Bya-chan for her alright? And then… and then when she's born…please…be her friend again."
…
…...Yuni. The Arcobaleno. The Trinesette.
Tsuna remembers.
Flicker of Lightning Flames sputtered and died and for a second everything was still. There were no birds chirping, no rustle of trees, no flapping of wings. Before bright and powerful Sky Flames erupted and surged from the exhausted visage of a small body.
It scorched everything around him, the dent created before turned large with a crack and the ground turned into miniscule dust that flew on the air before it disappeared because of the powerful orange flames.
It burns.
It burns.
The scorching hot and burning flames continued, it burns his surrounding. It had burnt the cow one-sie he wore like it erased the proof of his mask and show the world of who he really was.
He wasn't Lambo.
He was Sawada Tsunayoshi, Vongola Decimo, the Sky Guardian.
His powerful and pure flames surged and surged like an inferno.
Tsuna remembers and it hurts. So bad.
"Tsu-chan!" A voice he knew called out to him. Among the drowning on his own mind, it was his light and he clutched at it with desperation.
It returned him back to the reality of where he was.
It returned him to the reality that there were warm arms holding him down despite the burning Sky Flames he was giving off.
Byakuran...
His eyes widened and within second, he abruptly cut it off, reigning his flames deep in his core.
Tsuna opened his mouth to say anything, even try to wiggle his way out of the warm and sticky embrace but he could only feel exhaustion within his soul, within his everything.
Coppery smell waft on his nostril...
Before he knew it, Tsuna fell asleep and Byakuran continued cradling the other on his arms even though he could feel the painful blister all over his arms and on his chest.
This time he had protected Tsuna against himself however it didn't erase the fact that time and time again he had failed on protecting them.
Yuni had sacrificed herself again, and this time for them both.
When... When are they getting their happiness without sacrifice for once?!
A/N: Thank you for all reviews/favorites/follows and comments/kudos you gave for this story.
This story is coming to its end and I hope you all hold on until the last. (Meanwhile the next chapter is unwritten and who knows when would be the next update...aha...ha.)
Kindly leave reviews/favorites/follows and comments/kudos on your way out~