Tsuna doesn't remember exactly when it began.

Or, more accurately, he remembers detail by detail, frame by frame, but he doesn't want to.

In these vague but clear, unforgettable but muddy memories, he remembers being revered. He remembers looks of awe, words of praise and mutters of jealousy. His mother was proud of him then. But no longer.

Tsuna's last memory of elementary school was being pulled to the rooftop by his best friend. His friend had been disgusted by him and told him it was wrong for someone to be as "perfect" as Tsuna had been. Tsuna remembers begging for forgiveness. He thinks he asked his friend how he could make it better.

"It's easy. You just have to be no good. That way, no one will feel threatened."

"It's that easy?"

"Definitely, you're perfect, it'll be nothing for you."

Tsuna remembers exactly when it began.

He wishes he could forget but that's impossible.

"If you have time to be staring out the window, Sawada, answer this question!" his teacher yells from the front of the class.

There's no need to yell, Tsuna thinks. He stands up and feigns a confused expression. His teacher sneers and moves on while the class burst into giggles.

No one will feel threatened, his friend had said. Tsuna didn't understand at the time, but he's since then found the message his friend hadn't said. In order for no one to feel threatened, all you need to do is be the one everyone treads over. Be the underdog. Be the no good trash.

Tsuna stares out the window and wonders why he is still alive.

He's staring up at the ceiling in his room when his mother bursts into his room. She's mad, he thinks. It's probably the test score.

"Tsu-kun! I found you a home tutor!"

What?

"What?" he says dumbly. "What?"

"Well, I found an interesting flyer in our mailbox," his mother says a skip in her voice. She pulls out the flyer and reads, "Will raise your child to be a leader of the next generation, grades and subjects don't matter. Isn't this amazing?"

"It's probably a scam," Tsuna says, crossing his legs. His mother's expression falls.

"I wish you'd talk to me, Tsu-kun," she says, tucking the flyer away. "Ever since elementary, your grades haven't been great. I just don't know what I can do to help. Is it because of me? Or are you missing your Papa?"

Tsuna studies the expression on his mother's face: sadness and confusion. His mother just wanted to help and yet…

"It's not your fault, mom," he says. "And I don't want to see dad."

"I see…"

Tsuna hates to see his mother at a loss. He wants to speak up, wants to tell her he'll do his best. For his mother, he'd whatever she wanted him to be, do whatever she wanted him to do.

But he can't.

He can't bring himself to say that. He can't bring himself to make even the smallest sacrifices for his mother.

Truly, he's become a scum of of this planet.

"I'm sorry, mom, but—"

"Ciaossu," a high, tinny, squeaky voice pipes up. A baby dressed in a black suit, a bright yellow pacifier hanging in front of his chest and topping it all off with a fedora and… was that a chameleon on the hat? "I arrived three hours early, but as a service, I'll evaluate you now."

"You are…?" Tsuna asks with a frown.

"I'm Reborn, the home tutor," the baby answers with confidence. Tsuna can see his mother's face go green at this, and he can't honestly say he blames her.

"I see… where are your parents—" the baby shoots forward, foot outstretched. Tsuna jumps off the bed and rolls out of harm's way. "Hey! That's dangerous—" Reborn's hand darts towards his tie and Tsuna ducks, "Really! This is dangerous!"

"Oh! I'll leave you two to get acquainted, then! Come down for dinner in an hour, alright?" his mother waves jauntily, and Tsuna wishes that she wasn't so oblivious sometimes. He knows his mother is never oblivious, but chooses to do so for the sake of her husband. Tsuna doesn't want to add to her ever-growing list of burdens; he will never tell his mother that he knows. For the same reason, Tsuna will also never forgive his father.

"Don't be so zoned out, it's not fit for a future mafia boss," Reborn says, after his mother shuts the door behind her.

Tsuna frowns, "Mafia boss?"

"Yes. My true identity is an assassin, and I have been sent here to make you into the best Mafia Boss to be."

"Oh," Tsuna says. "Wait, an assassin?" Reborn produces a rifle out of nowhere on cue and Tsuna hurriedly waves his hands, "I'm not saying I don't believe you, I was just surprised!"

Tsuna settles back into his bed while Reborn makes himself comfortable on his desk.

"Why me?"

"The other candidates became unsuitable," Reborn answers. Tsuna could list a thousand thoughts to this, but he doesn't.

"I see. I don't want to become a mafia boss though."

"You will," Reborn says simply.

"Tsu-kun! Can you and Reborn-chan go get some groceries for me?" his mother suddenly calls, and Tsuna is nothing but grateful for the distraction.

"Yeah! I'll be right down!" he calls back. "Are you coming?" this he directs at Reborn.

Reborn, as a response, hops on Tsuna's shoulder, "As your tutor, I must first get to know you."

"Right."

Tsuna scans down the list his mother had hurriedly pushed into his hands before all but shoving him out the door. Something about a celebration for Reborn's arrival. Tsuna thinks it's kinda dumb, but again, what does he know?

"I can get most of this at the shopping district…" he mutters quietly to himself. "But for the tofu, mom likes it best from the shop in the public market… If I hurry I should be able to…"

"Speak up, Tsuna," Reborn says, punching the side of his face. Tsuna nearly goes flying into the fencing beside him, but manages to catch his balance. "A proper mafia boss needs to have confidence in order to be respected by his subordinates."

"I'm reading the shopping list my mom gave me," Tsuna says incredulously. "There's no one around here."

"You never know who's watching," Reborn counters easily.

And Reborn is right, because as soon as they round the corner, Tsuna all but walks into Sasagawa Kyoko. After a flurry of sorries from all parties involved (minus Reborn, the little bastard), Kyoko directs her full attention on Reborn, forgetting Tsuna's existence.

"How cute! Why are you in a suit?"

"I'm in the Mafia."

"How cool! Well, good luck with your job!" she says before waving goodbye, now remembering Tsuna's existence. Tsuna waves back tiredly.

"Mafia seduction," Reborn explains. "There may be a day when a female focuses only on you, but of course, only when I'm not around."

"Right," Tsuna says, hurrying on his way. "We need to hurry. The tofu store's closing soon."

"You want to be friends with her," Reborn guesses. "Or, you just want a friend."

"Yeah," Tsuna admits easily. "Friends are nice."

"Well," Reborn pulls out a gun and points it to Tsuna's head. "Die."

"What?"

"You'll know when you die."

Tsuna watches as he pulls the trigger in slow motion. He feels the bullet pierce through skin, drill through bone, torpedo his brain into liquid goo. Except he doesn't feel any of that. His mind goes blank and he feels himself hit the ground.

Iemitsu wasn't helpful when Reborn asked for information on Tsuna. In Iemitsu's eyes, his son isn't that bright, timid to the point of fault, doesn't have many talents. In other words, useless.

Walking into Tsuna's room confirmed Iemitsu's lack of knowledge for his family.

Tsuna's room was lined with bookshelves, filled to the point of overflowing with various subjects of both the high school and university levels. More books are strewn across the floor and his bed, open with bookmarks thrown in here and there. His textbooks for school, however, lay in a pile neatly and untouched. His notebooks are left blank.

But there are also papers around the room, filled with neatly scribbled notes and answers to questions that should be much beyond his level, but with perfect solutions. If Reborn didn't know about his school grades, he would've admitted that Tsuna is a genius.

So he decides to shoot Tsuna with a Dying Will Bullet, because why not, his finger was itching from withdrawal.

Tsuna's Dying Will is…

Unexpected.

After being shot by the Bullet, Tsuna fell.

And didn't get up for a long time.

Reborn wonders if Tsuna didn't actually have the potential, if everything had been miscalculated, but then Tsuna slowly pushes himself off the ground, a small flame burning on his forehead.

And wept.

Tsuna sat in the middle of the street, fully clothed (to Reborn's surprised) and teardrops dripped down both cheeks. He covered his face with both hands and a stream of words flowed from lips that barely moved. Most of it was nonsensical, but every now and again Reborn catches faint words of what may have been apologies.

"I'm sorry mom sorry mom so sorry I can't do it sorry don't want to be a burden so scared mom sorry Suguru he— sorry"

Rinse and repeat.

Five minutes later, Tsuna dropped again to the ground, blinked his eyes open, and stood up, "What happened? Wait—" he checks his watch and breaks out into a run. "Tofu!"

Reborn follows, jumping onto Tsuna's head while he sprinted towards the public market.

The flame that flickered on Tsuna's forehead, was a bright orange, the kind of flame Reborn had only seen one other person possess. Yet the flame is so small, so weak, flickering wildly and threatening to burn out any second; it's a quality he's seen many times. It's the flames of someone about to die.

As far as Reborn knows, Tsuna isn't sick, and, in fact, extremely healthy. His running compounded this fact: the speed at which he ran to the store was such that he could've won an award for track.

"Thank God I made it," Tsuna lets out a sigh of relief. "Right, so what was that whole talk about dying? I don't remember what happened."

"Are all the books in your room yours?"

"Huh? Yeah," Tsuna looks up at Reborn, or tries to, without tilting his head so much that Reborn would fall. "Why?"

"I saw some of your work, they seemed complicated."

A certain amount of defensiveness creeps into his voice, "Right…"

"They seemed more difficult than your school materials."

"Well, yeah but—"

"Who's Suguru?"

Tsuna flinches. He flinches so hard he almost drops the plastic bag in his hand, "Where did you hear his name?"

"You said it a bit ago," Reborn answers nonchalantly.

"He… He is… was my friend."

Damn that Iemitsu, completely useless.

It's rather disconcerting to hear his name brought up after years. It's even more disconcerting when Reborn tells him he had said the name out loud.

He does the rest of his shopping, dodging Reborn's quick-firing round of questions that followed along with the kicks that accompanied every question he doesn't answer, which just happens to be most of them. Tsuna's sure that he's going to wake up with bruises all over tomorrow, which is fine, really. It's been a long time since he's last felt alive. The adrenaline from each duck, each sidestep, each twirl makes him think that he's not ready to die, not yet, anyway.

He blinks. And he looks up at the sky.

The sky is blue, a dazzling, pure blue that's so blue Tsuna can't comprehend how it's possible. Sure, he could dig through his books and the Internet and find that when the white light from the sun passes through the atmosphere and blah blah blah, but that'll never cover the whole wave of emotions looking at the blue seems to give him. It feels like the heaviness that always followed him step by step is now left behind in the dust. It feels like he'll never again sit in bed, with grief chaining down his limbs and bogging down his mind.

It's amazing, that just having a someone beside him can make him feel so refreshed, almost as if he was, indeed, reborn.