Why Mama, that's quite a secret you have there. I wonder, what would happen if it got out?

~ Pay no attention ~
to the lies they try to feed you
It's a wicked, twisted fable
He's not stable
It's just another box of tricks
~ a crock of shit and good dreams go wasted ~

Tsunayoshi was an...odd child. Even before everything, before that man came, before he was set on a path that would have him meeting the most powerful people in the world, in an entirely new secret society. Tsuna being odd was well known.

It had never been anything really eye catching. Just small, little things that added up to make something altogether unusual to the people of Namimori.

For one, Tsuna had never been scared of the Hibari's. The family, for all that they protected the town, were well known for having connections to the yakuza, not to mention how odd they were themselves.

The most current Hibari that lived in town on a somewhat regular basis, had a very deep connection to animal kingdom metaphors. And even that Hibari was more unpleasant then most to meet, as his most used option for diplomacy was swift, brutal force.

But Tsunayoshi didn't seem to.. well, care.

At all.

To the People of Namimori it seemed like the cheerful child just didn't see the Hibari's as a threat. The Adult Hibari's, when they were in town, seemed amused by the child. Often indulging him when he would walk stright up to them to talk. About what no one but the two parties could ever find out.

The Baby Hibari on the other hand, seemed to take it as a challenge. You could often see the two locked in a chase through out town, on the good days Tsuna escaped. On the bad days, Tsuna limped home black and blue, while Baby Hibari slunk off to nurse his own wounds, a strange look on his face that seemed like a mix between satisfaction and pouting.

Thus to the people of Namimori, Tsunayoshi Sawada was a strange child, though not at all a bad one.

So it's sickening to realize, that the day Tsunayoshi Sawada falls out of a tree in own his back yard, in front of an old man called Nono. That the people of Namimori are about to have a very sudden change of heart.

One that will push a strange, lonely child stright into the arms of the darkest parts of the underworld.

Tsuna has always known his mama wasn't a very good one. Tsuna thought she loved him. She did everything his books said a mama was supposed to do. She took care of him when he was sick, fed him his favorite foods on his birthday, read to him at night. She always did everything right, but every time he looked any deeper then the surface there was this disconnect between the way she acted (oblivious, sweet, homely) and the way she felt (ditzy, discordant, frigid).

It hurt. Because he wasn't stupid, he knew that she only ever felt that way when she looked at him. She tried, he could feel how hard she tried everyday to love him, but there was always a crack. A small little thing he could feel inside her that didn't quite agree that loving him was right choice. But he loved his mama no matter what she secretly felt about him, so he tried very, very hard to stay out of her way.

But it just got worse once That Man came. He had done something to Tsuna that day, something that made him clumsy, that made his head hurt if he thought to much or read to much or talked to much or did to much of anything really. He did something to make the people around him cruel.

Because Tsuna wasn't stupid, he knew this was all very wrong, somehow. No matter what the school liked to say. He knew that mothers weren't supposed to call their children dame. That mothers weren't supposed to laugh at finding blood on their children's clothes.

He knew this like he knew that schools weren't supposed to ignore bullying and belittle students when they asked for extra help. He knew all of this. But it didn't matter because it just kept happening. And it was all That Man's fault.

Because no matter who he told, or how much he cried no one cared. He had thought, in the beginning that if he just waited long enough someone would come, or if he just told someone in exactly the right way they would stop it. But after waiting for weeks and weeks, seeing people dismiss him or just ignore what was going on he gave up. No one was going to help him.

If he wanted anything to change, he would have to do it himself. It was at that point where he realized he only really had two options. He could lay down and die, figuratively. He could accept that this was his life now, numb himself to the pain and move forward with the way his life seemed to want to go. It would be easy.

Or..

He could refuse.

He could say no to all of this, to the bullies that seemed to find him no matter where he hid, to the teachers who always called in him when they had to know he didn't know the answers. To his Mama the called him Dame-Tsuna so affectionately, but who he could feel kinda believed it deep inside her. No to the bruises, no to the black eyes and broken bones, no to barely getting anything to eat because his mama forgot to cook enough for both of them again. He could say no to all of it.

He would have to fight, and struggle, and he knew it was going to hurt. He could feel that this path would take him so low that he might want to die at some point. The twists and turns of where he knew this was going would not be fun or easy. But he also knew that at the end of this path he had a chance to be happy.

It wasn't a 100% chance, and the road to it would bedifficult, but he refused to give these people the satisfaction of breaking his spirit before he could even try.

In another life Tsuna would have stayed as he was, would have become used to the abuse, ignored the way he would sometimes know things because it hurt to much. Never knowing what could have been.

But in this life Tsuna has the Blood of Giants in his veins. He has pride, spite, and a strong desire to live his life, with or without the good opinion of everyone else.

He is so much like his father in this moment that if the man could only see the conviction buring in strangely familiar eyes, he would never doubt that this boy was his son.

The first few plans he tries crash and burn one way or another.

When he tries to run away the first time the Hibari's track him down easily. He was actually doing pretty well before they found him, he'd had a warm little nest in a tree he'd found right outside of the towns borders. It's only when he starts running errands for the local yakuza that he's spotted by an Adult Hibari and taken back.

He mama never realizes he was gone. This repeats about seven different, increaseingly annoying times before the Adult Hibari's get tired of fetching him and threaten to send Baby Hibari if he tries to leave again.

That plan is put on the shelf until he can figure out how to get farther away then the next town over with out getting caught.

(Baby Hibari is very put-out when he doesn't try to run again. The next few weeks of 'Play Fights' as the Adult Hibari's named it years ago, are much rougher.)

His next plan backfires so spectacularly that he's ashamed for ever thinking of it in the first place.

The first step is simple. Fight Everyone.

In the years he's known the Baby Hibari it always confused and astounded him how easily Baby Hibari got everyone to avoid him. They even went out of their way to avoid him! It was amazing. (And super unfair)

So after researching what the Baby Hibari does in his natural habitat for the next few days, (and no it wasn't stalking, no matter what the Adult Hibari's liked to coo at him)

he comes to the startling conclusion that all he has to do is hit people enough that they start not getting up! It's so simple!

After finding the secret to Baby Hibari's success in avoidance, he tries it out himself.

It goes about as well as you think it would. Even though Tsuna has a fighting spirit that was always willing to kickass and take names, his body didn't really agree.

Most of the time he loses. Pathetically.

The few fights he does win are by the skin of his teeth and the timely intervention of Baby Hibari.

(Not that he ever intervened to help Tsuna out, it was more like if you were disturbing the peace in namori you were getting bitten to death regardless of why or who you were fighting.)

Trying to bribe his way out of town is apparently hilarious because every Adult Hibari he tries it with laughs at him.

Yeah, he understands his bribe of candy and eternal gratitude isn't the most sellable currency, but it's just rude to laugh.

(Baby Hibari just takes the candy and demands he join the Disciplinary Committee he's forming. A chase starts when HE laughs at Baby Hibari)

Stupid Hibari's.

His last desperate plan is to simply blackmail everyone into leaving him alone.

It takes months to gather enough evidence, and he was a suspicion that without his knowing stuff it would take even longer. But it goes well. He already has a few people running interference with the rest of the herd, (Damn Baby Hibari for rubbing off on him) so that he's left relatively in peace. It's heavenly.

It all comes crashing down when one of his blackmailies tips off the forming gang that Baby Hibari calls a Disciplinary Committee.

(He swears revenge against Baby Hibari that day. All his work, ever hour he's spent looking under every rock and into ever shadow for secrets that no one wants known and he's stealing it all. It's not fair!

It's days later when an Adult Hibari, a nice man that's always had very pretty hair and who's never treated Tsuna anything other then kindly, tells Tsuna that everything he's found out is being used to further the reach of the Disciplinary Committee and that Baby Hibari has sworn on the family honor to get Tsuna into his Committee.

His reaction is not what the Adult Hibari was expecting.

At all.

Fon thinks the Sky his nephew has chosen was adorable.

With his gravity defying hair and cute face, he's easily able to ignore those familiar eyes. With how long they've been courting each other, (From toddlerhood! How cute!) Fon knows that Kyoya will be falling into his chosen Sky very soon. Or at least he thought so.

Its only when he tells the Baby Sky what Kyoya done to show off that things take a turn for the worst.

Its that cold almost-familiar tone that clues Fon in that something has gone very wrong.

"What."

Oh dear.

Fon's spine straightens unconsciously as he eyes the now still boy in the bed.

"Kyoya asked that I tell you the information you've given him has been very helpful. And that I offer you a place as his third in command. Again." He tries to add a playful tone to the end, to tell the boy he's only teasing.

It doesn't seem to have any effect as the child just curls up tighter. The Rage in those familiar eyes (who exactly did they remind him of?) would make him uncomfortable if he wasn't one of the Strongest Flame users in the world.

This has gotten out of control so very quickly.

Whatever Kyoya has done, has pissed this Sky off so badly he could almost feel the withdrawal of Harmony from his potential Cloud Guardian. Kyoya was going to go insane.

"You tell that.. that fucking hypocrite. That I will never join him. He could be the last person on earth, the last person to have water or food or anything, and I would destroy it just to spite him and destroy us both. I hope he rots."

Fon backs off after that.

Now is not the time to to try to change his mind. Not when he was sending spikes of Sky Flames out like that for defense.

It's as Fon's hurrying home to inform the clan at what exactly Kyoya messed up on that he think back to those eyes. Ones he just realized we're more desperate then any he's seen in a long time.

What ever you've done Kyoya, I hope it's worth it. Because it's just lost you, your Sky.

But nothing worked.

It was like the whole town was determined to ruin him; at some point, spite just doesn't cut it anymore. Spite is tiring. It makes you ache for closeness and safety.

He knows he won't be able to keep this up for much longer with no hope in sight. This 'Me against the World!' Mentality. It's unhealthy.

So.. at some point, you just have to stop.

You have to stop trying to prove yourself in a school that doesn't want you to anyway, He knows theirs no point in trying to change the minds of people who want to stay intentionally ignorant.

But the day he walks in and hears his Mother talking to her husband about him? About how just plan wrong he is in some fundamental way?

It's defeating. It makes him want to give up, just go to sleep and never wake up again.

But he's chosen his path. He knew I would be difficult before he even started walking it. This was his line in the sand. He refused to grow up anymore in an environment where he was expected to fail, where he had no other option then to fail.

Fuck no.

He wonders if it's fate finding that paperwork in his mothers closet that night, while he was looking for the money he knew she hid there.

It has to be, seeing how it has the 'unknown' mans name on it, even faded it's still readable.

He idly wonders as he takes both it and the money back into his room, how exactly it was, Nana of all people, had gotten the Greatest Hitman in the Worlds blood without him knowing.

Because really, who else could it be with the name Reborn?

~ There's no place like home ~