notes – Tsuna's really a scared little thing here, but I think this would have probably been the case if he wasn't given the title of Vongola Tenth. Personally, I love how he has grown and changed since the beginning of KHR.

empire

It starts with a baby on the sidewalk. He's an adorable tot with a stocky fedora and a tailored suit, his guardian is this boy with brown hair and tired eyes. She recognises the scrawny boy, he lives in her neighbourhood and goes to the middle school three blocks away from her own. He is her age (she kind-of-hopes), because he looks like a pleasant person, and he seems so lost and frantic and maybe somehow he needs a girl in his life.

But it is not Tsunayoshi Sawada who walks up to her and talks, it is the baby.

It starts with a 'hahi!' then an 'impossible!' and ends with a shudder of 'i'm not strong enough'.

They are stooping behind a clan of trashcans, she and the scared boy and the talking baby. She plucks at the tendrils of her hair and glues her knees together, leaning closer to Reborn. The baby nods with a frightening amount of seriousness, his tone far too mature for his stature. He speaks of the Vongola, of mafia and of family. Tsuna buries his eyes in his hands, and mumbles 'sorry' to her in constant repeat, Reborn kicks him in the shins and scoffs at his missing backbone.

"I live with him now because his father is an important member of the Vongola," the baby explains.

She does't know if she should nod, or call him out for the simple act of talking.

It starts with this Italian with silver hair and piercings, then a baseball player with the widest smile, a child in a cow costume, then a loud boxer and a threatening prefect and - why is she surrounded by all these men?

Amongst the chaos commonly associated with boys and their antics, she finds Kyoko. Kyoko is sweet and gentle, a kind girl with happy eyes. She hands her homework in on time and wakes up before the sun rises. She prefers vanilla cream on her cake just as Haru does, and offers to teach English to her after school. Haru can't blame Tsuna for liking Kyoko, who is everything she tries to be but possibly can't, she does not have that natural elegance, does not have that charm.

All she has is the title of a generation of killers; and she thinks that perhaps it is fitting this way.

It starts with Tsuna crying.

He doesn't understand why he is still around them; he is not special, not powerful, not strong or capable in anything. He wishes he could be, but he tells himself he is not made for great things. He only follows because Reborn tells him to, because of his father's expectations and his mother's unknowing smile. He holds onto her elbow when a young man with a scarlet eye laughs, ducks behind Gokudera and Yamamoto when Xanxus towers over her, his scar gleaming beneath the anger in his eyes.

She doesn't know why, how, where she gets the words. Reborn cocks his pistol quietly. The sensation unfurls like a map in her chest, a comforting sort of warmth begins to bloom at her fingertips.

And she promises: "I'll protect you."