I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It is the property of Akira Amano, and is not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only. The original idea for this fan fiction came from Kyogre.

Tsuna ran. Tsuna ran as fast as possible and then some. His muscles were aching and his lungs burned with every gasping breath he took but he couldn't stop. Not when the bullies were still chasing him.

The rain was falling down all around him, pounding against the ground in a furious beat—like war drums before a battle. The streets were abandoned, everybody else being smart enough to find shelter by now.

He was drenched and the bullies were drenched, but even though they should have stopped chasing him by now, Tsuna had been stupid and insulted them and now they weren't going to let a bit of rain stop them from getting their revenge.

Run, run, run, and run some more until the bullies lost interest and went home. He just had to make sure he wasn't caught before then. It would almost be monotonous if Tsuna wasn't putting every last bit of energy he had into not slipping on all the puddles.

He turned the corner and lost his footing for a moment before grabbing the wall and pushing himself back on track.

There! The complex in front of him was abandoned (supposedly it had been meant to be apartment complex but after Kokuyo Land went bankrupt lots of other businesses fell as well and the construction stopped) and the only people who went inside now used it as a test of courage that was said to be incredibly scary.

He had never participated, too scared of all the horror stories he heard, but the bullies had gone before and were utterly terrified of it—if the stories could be believed that is. They might be too scared to follow him and Tsuna was desperate enough to try hiding there if it meant a chance to rest.

Tsuna pushed himself over the soaked, rusted gates and ran toward the only building in sight. The doors were also rusted but still open from all the people who came here before and he thought he would manage to squeeze through. He looked behind him when he heard cursing and almost tripped when he saw them climbing over the gates. They had followed him!

He ran through the door and stopped at the lobby panting for breath. It was dark, so very dark, and the small light that came from the windows only made it seem more macabre. Tsuna would have whimpered if he wasn't out of breath. Why had he thought this would be a good idea again?

The splashing of feet on water snapped him out of his thoughts and Tsuna looked around him, scrutinizing all the possible escape routes he had. All the floors above him were out. He didn't have the energy to climb the stairs; which narrowed it down to this floor.

Tsuna ran to the first room he saw and desperately tried to open it but it was locked; all the others were most likely locked as well but it wasn't like Tsuna could go back anymore so he ran through the long corridor between rows of doors.

After several seconds it grew almost too dark to see anything and all Tsuna could hear was the sound of his uncontrolled breath, the beating of his heart, and the shoes of the bullies as they searched for him.

He ran.

A slightly brighter section of floor caught his eye and Tsuna stopped and scanned the walls for where it came from. There was a small window, too small and high for him to climb through, and under it, so dark in the dim lighting he almost didn't see it, there was a door. Tsuna almost cried in relief as he pushed the door open and ran outside where the rain was still striking the ground furiously.

There was a smaller building on this side of the complex —some kind of shed from what he could see. Tsuna ran inside and quickly pulled the doors shut before collapsing on the floor. He couldn't hear the bullies anymore but he was too exhausted to do anything but sit there.

Eventually, he remembered that he had promised himself to help his mother with dinner as a way to apologize for their fight this morning and he pushed himself to his feet. His muscles ached and he had to support himself with the wall of the shed in order to stand but he could stand and that was better than he expected.

Slowly, one foot came in front of the other and then the opposite foot repeated the movement. Tsuna dragged himself to the door and stood on throbbing muscles before pushing on the door. It didn't budge. He pushed again, harder this time, but it had no more effect than the first time and now—now Tsuna really felt like crying. Please, please, please don't tell him that he'd locked himself in this dim, damp, and dirty little shed.

Push. No effect. Push harder once again. No effect. Tsuna rested his forehead against the door as hot, wet tears ran down his checks. Push, push, push. No change, the door was still closed.

Tsuna sobbed before bracing his feet against the floor and pushing with all the strength he had left. The door didn't move but Tsuna slipped on a puddle and lost his footing.

As the floor rushed to meet him Tsuna knew that he was going to die. His muscles didn't have the energy to brace his body for the impact and at this angle he would either snap his neck or at least hit his head hard enough to crack it.

For a moment, Tsuna remembered all the things he didn't do. He never confessed his feelings to Kyoko, he never stood up for himself, he would always be Dame-Tsuna to everybody and he would never be able to apologize to his mother now. For a moment, Tsuna wanted to live.

And then the moment was gone and Tsuna closed his eyes. What good would it do if he lived? He still wouldn't have the courage to confess or to stand up for himself. He would never be anything but Dame to everybody and almost dying wouldn't change that.

…He did wish he had apologized to his mother though.

Tsuna felt warm for a second before icy numbness flooded his being.

There was no sudden darkness because his eyes were already closed.

When he opened his eyes again he was in front of his house.

Tsuna blinked, looked around him, and turned around so he could see his surroundings properly. This was definitely his house, and his neighborhood, and it was still raining but…Hadn't he been in the abandoned complex? And hadn't he died!

Was—was that just all a weird dream?! Had he fallen asleep on his front porch or something and dreamed that he— Tsuna shook his head and tried to stop the panicked scream that was growing in his chest. And then he tripped and fell backwards. Again.

"Gah!"

Tsuna gaped at his ceiling from where he was laying on the ground and stared at it in what might have been incomprehension but was probably horror. Then, he craned his neck to look at the rest of his body...which he could only see a quarter of because the door was in the way.

He scrambled to sit up and watched as the rest of his body came through the door. As in literally through the door because he wasn't corporeal anymore! Even if it didn't seem like it since his body wasn't see-through he—he was a ghost!

"HIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

And there was that panicked scream.

"Tsu-kun are you ho…Tsuna, what are you doing sitting on the floor?"

His head whipped over to look at Nana who was peering worriedly at him from the doorway. 'Mom…this is my chance to apologize.' He hurried to stand up and kept staring at her before bowing his head.

"…I'm really sorry for fighting with you today mom… I didn't mean anything that I said and…sorry."

Nana blinked at him before smiling, "Ara, that? Don't worry about that, it's no problem. Dinner is ready; do you want to come eat?"

Tsuna lifted his head to stare at her and a warm feeling gripped his heart. He opening his mouth to say yes when a thought struck him, could he even eat anything anymore? Could he even touch things for that matter?

"Ah…I'm not hungry…In fact I'm a bit tired, think I'll go to sleep now."

"Hmm, OK, good night."

Tsuna gazed at the now empty doorway and felt the warm feeling stretch throughout his body; it was his first clue that something was wrong. The second clue was that his body was beginning to disappear.

Tsuna brought his hands up and stared at the wall from behind them. This—he hadn't been see through before so why was he disappearing now?!

But…hadn't he just apologized to his mother? That was his only regret so maybe…maybe now that he didn't regret anything…was he going to move on?

He once again closed his eyes and felt a small smile tug at his lips. At least he managed to apologize. That nice, strange, and warm feeling enveloped his body and he felt himself surrounded by it as everything else drifted away.

Unseen, a small orange flame flickered and disappeared from the entrance.

The next morning Nana came up to Tsuna's bedroom and knocked on the door.

"Tsuna! Time to wake up and go to school!"

She frowned when she got no response. "Tsuna!" she called again and wiggled the door handle in warning but instead opened the door.

Nana blinked in confusion at Tsuna's empty bedroom. Looking around she realized that the bed was already made and that his schoolbag was missing. Shaking her head she left the room and closed the door behind her.

"Did he leave already? What a troublesome son, not even leaving a note. I hope he at least ate breakfast."

Several miles away and some minutes later, a man called out to his class, "Sawada." When no response was given he lowered his list and searched for an empty seat. He wasn't surprised when he found it and simply sighed while marking Sawada Tsunayoshi as absent.

As for Tsuna, he thought he was floating, or at least that was what he thought it felt like. But how can you feel when you're barely aware of anything? All that he knew was that he was warm. Warm and safe and it felt like nothing bad could ever touch him.

He didn't know if he even had a body here—wherever here was. Peripherally he was aware that he had died. It was a strange feeling and for a while he had alternated between denial, anger at the bullies, and sadness. But then the Warmth—as he had taken to call it in his more lucid moments— came and chased all those feelings away.

He gave the equivalent of a content sigh as the Warmth shifted once again, holding him in a protective embrace.

Life went on and no one but Tsuna realized that something wasn't right, and he didn't particularly care that something "wasn't right."

Several days later—not that he knew it at the time—Tsuna frowned and for the first time since arriving (or however he got here) in the Warmth he opened his eyes. Orange stared back and for a while Tsuna forgot what it was that had jostled him from his sleep in the first place—too busy taking in where he was.

A seemingly never-ending cloudless evening sky—lit up in a beautiful arrangement of different shades of orange— stretched above him. Underneath him, Tsuna was amazed to find the source of the Warmth: A strange covering that met the sky in all horizons. Tsuna would have thought it grass if it weren't for the color — a pale orange— that, he realized as he brought one hand up— clinging orange following its path— wasn't grass but fire. It was a weak looking orange fire that wasn't burning his hand at all.

For a while Tsuna did nothing but stare at the flame on his hand from where he was lying down. Then that same sensation (something was wrongwrongwrong) which had been pushed to the back of his mind in his amazement returned—stronger this time.

He frowned as he tried to identify where the feeling was coming from. Around him, the orange fire shifted erratically and began to grow in size. The last thing Tsuna saw of the field before he was forced to close his eyes or risk being blinded was the flames—the same color as the sky, now that he thought about it— rising and blending in with the sky.

The next thing he knew, he was standing in his kitchen watching his mother chop vegetables. He looked around him before his eyes settled on Nana's form. Something wasn't right with her, he decided. And that wasn't good at all.

"Mom, are you all right?"

Nana gave a screech and twisted to look behind her. When her eyes landed on him she huffed, "Tsu-kun , don't scare me like that! Honestly, I didn't hear you at all." Then, she looked him over for several moments before nodding to herself and beaming at him.

"Tsuna, you shouldn't disappear for days like that. I'm glad you're okay."

"Ah, s—sorry mom."

Tsuna frowned, how could he have forgotten that his mom would be all alone now? If it wasn't because he was a ghost then she would be stuck in this lonely house with no one else because his dumb dad was never home! There wasn't many people, or things, Tsuna was grateful to but right now he thanked the Warmth (who he was sure had something to do with him being a ghost) with everything he had for not making him leave his mom alone.

"It's okay, I'm making lunch now, are you hungry?"

"OH, no, I uh, ate already, sorry." And sorry he was— the food smelled delicious.

"Ok!"

As Nana turned around and started chopping the vegetables again with a renewed vigor, Tsuna felt the Warmth begin to close in on him again. With a last look at his Mom—who was happily humming— and a mournful glance at the food he let the orange flames of the Warmth engulf him and disappeared from the kitchen.

Life went on. Tsuna returned once again to the field of orange flames and quickly fell into an exhausted asleep.

Days later, he was once again woken up by that creeping feeling and reappeared behind a worried Nana. He never stayed long but she was always happy after his appearances and didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong. Tsuna himself was just glad that she wasn't completely alone.

Life went on. The teachers at school assumed that Tsuna was once again on one of his long skipping periods and after a week didn't even bother calling his name. They would know when he was back anyway.

Life went on and nobody noticed anything abnormal had happened.

Life went on…and then Yamamoto Takeshi tried to commit suicide.

Authors note:

This is the un-betaed quasi-draft based on another of Kyogre's brilliant ideas. I'm not very happy with how it is right now, which is the reason for the "quasi-draft" label. I'll probably fix it up once I get more inspiration.

This is what took my inspiration from Flower Shop Blues for the last couple of days and I have a vague idea of how I want it to turn out, but updates will be slow since I'm not that inspired atm.

So what do you think? Is it awful? Should I re-write it? Should I take it down or is it acceptable?