Minor crossover with Harry Potter. You don't have to know Harry Potter to read this, though. I'll be explaining the important parts.
I also modified some things about the Lovegoods because artistic license.
OP!Tsuna, probably. Stress relief and my own entertainment. No real plot, I'm just writing whatever comes to mind.
-o-
Airheaded, dreamy, inattentive, oblivious… so on and so forth. Those were the words used to describe one Sawada Nana. She always seemed unaware of the world around her, and accepting of the strangest things. On occasion, people had witnessed her talking to thin air, further solidifying their impression of her as 'strange'.
What nobody knew was that Sawada Nana was the daughter of one Luka Soru, who had been called Sol Lovegood once, a long time ago.
Sol Lovegood was a magickless child from the old lineage of the Lovegood House. Despite being unable to perform magic like the rest of his relatives, he still retained the special ability of the Lovegood House: the ability to see things that no one else could.
It's no wonder that the Lovegood House had always been characterized as 'strange'.
-o-
When Sawada Tsunayoshi had been born, Nana immediately knew that he would be different from the other members of the Lovegood House. Same, yet very, very different.
He had been blessed – or cursed, Nana still wasn't quite sure – with the gift of common sense.
-o-
When Tsuna was very young, he had already realised that other people couldn't quite see the world the way he did. Unlike the other Lovegood children, he did care about what others would think about him. However, to Nana's relief, Tsuna didn't reject his gift. He didn't stop believing in what others didn't believe in. He just didn't talk to the creatures when in company of anyone else. It was too bad that first impressions were hard to get over. Hence, from then on, Tsuna was known as 'Loony-Tsuna' and later 'Dame-Tsuna' when his low academic scores were revealed. Tsuna wasn't quite affected with other people calling him 'Dame-Tsuna'.
After all, their heads were obviously infested with Wrackspurts.
-o-
Nana taught her son how to listen to the wind, to understand the whisperings of the earth and the sky and the stars above. Nana taught him about the creatures others couldn't see, like Nargles which had a subspecies that have adapted to live in cherry blossoms instead of mistletoe, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks which lived in Sweden, and Wrackspurts which infested the mind of people and could often be found hovering near people's ears.
Tsuna learnt how to please the spirits and creatures around him and request for their help for simple things. The kitsune who lived in the shrine would give him small charms for his handmade inari sushi; the spirit – or sprite, they never really could make up their mind – in the river would give him pretty little stones for the occasional chat; the kappa who lived in the lake in the forest would teach Tsuna simple healing in exchange for fresh eggplants or cucumbers.
With all these things to do, it wasn't surprising that Tsuna's academic marks started low and stayed low. His mother never scolded him for it either, knowing all too well that Tsuna wasn't stupid or useless – he was just focusing his attention on other aspects of life.
That, however, did not prevent her from accepting her husband's request to hire a home tutor for Tsuna.
-o-
When Reborn first met the rest of Iemitsu's family, he was somewhat surprised. They had treated him as an elder to be respected instead of an equal or even a child. He didn't quite know what to think.
Still, he kept his calm and informed Tsuna of his heritage. He was surprised yet again when Tsuna only nodded resignedly.
"I can't escape from this, can I?" he asked. Reborn used his fedora to cast a shadow over his eyes.
"You are the last living candidate," he replied. Tsuna sighed, looking at the spot beside Reborn's head.
"Bloody Wrackspurts," he muttered under his breath. Reborn wondered what Tsuna was talking about.
-o-
The next morning when Tsuna came down the stairs to see Reborn eating at the kitchen table, he scowled.
"What he is doing here?" Tsuna demanded. It was such a drastic change from his serene behavior the precious day that Reborn could only stare.
"Tsu-kun," Nana addressed Tsuna. "The Wrackspurts are affecting you again." Tsuna's eyes went wide and he quickly shook his head. When he composed himself, the serene demeanor from yesterday was back.
"Sorry mother, Reborn. I will be more aware of the Wrackspurts next time," he said. Reborn frowned.
"What are… 'Wrackspurts'?" he asked. Nana laughed airily as she went back to the housework while Tsuna slid into the seat opposite Reborn.
"Wrackspurts are invisible creatures that enter ears and make people's brains go fuzzy. A possible side effect from this would be people becoming unreasonable," Tsuna explained. When Reborn narrowed his eyes, the boy laughed. "You don't believe us, do you? That's fine. Not many people do."
Reborn ignored Tsuna's comment and continued with another question. "What are Nargles?"
"Um… they usually live in mistletoe but the ones here have adapted to live in cherry blossoms. They like playing pranks and stealing things."
"I see."
An uncomfortable silence settled on the pair as they finished their breakfast. Suddenly, Tsuna stood up and grabbed his bag.
"I'm going off now, mum," he said.
"Alright. Say hello to them for me, Tsu-kun!" Nana replied. Reborn hid a frown. Did Tsuna have frends that Nana knew? The reports hadn't contained anything about it.
"I'll see you at school, Reborn." Tsuna nodded at him and left the house. When Reborn tried to follow him mere minutes later, Tsuna was nowhere to be seen.
-o-
Tsuna had been late to class. Considering the fact that he had left the house more than an hour before the start of school, this meant that Tsuna hadn't gone straight to school. What was strange, however, was that no one seemed to mind that he was late.
No, it wasn't that, Reborn observed. It was as if they didn't even notice that Tsuna had been late, treating him like he had been at school the entire time.
Scowling, Reborn tried to approach Tsuna to demand answers when a strange feeling overcame him. Why had he been so angry at Tsuna? He couldn't remember. Actually, had he been angry in the first place? As he settled back into his seat, his yellow pacifier pulsed once and his thoughts came back to him. He tried not to feel shaken.
-o-
Without interfering with anything, without even revealing his presence to Tsuna, Reborn tailed Tsuna after school.
He watched as Tsuna took a route that definitely did not lead back to the Sawada Household, stopping under a cherry blossom tree and just staring up at the leaves. And as if that action wasn't strange enough, Tsuna lifted up his hand with his palm faced out, seeming to wait for someone to give him something or for something to drop from the trees.
The cherry blossoms rustled although there had been no wind.
Something small dropped from the trees and fell right onto Tsuna's palm. Reborn saw that it was a pearl ring.
"I know that it's in your nature to be mischievous, but please don't steal the river's things. Actually, don't steal from anyone who isn't human; you might get hurt," Tsuna said. Reborn did not see anyone that Tsuna could have been speaking to, and neither did he hear an answer. Tsuna seemed to have received one, however, as he had nodded to the trees and walked off.
Usually, Reborn would have marked Tsuna down as delusional and mad but something held him back.
The pacifier around his neck pulsed yellow once again.
-o-
Reborn spent fifteen minutes watching Tsuna converse with no one. The boy was standing on the middle of the bridge above Namimori River, leaning against the rails with his eyes fixed on a certain spot in the river.
"Oh right, I have the thing the Nargles stole!" Tsuna exclaimed and took out the pearl ring. He paused, as if listening to instructions, before nodding and dropping the ring into the river. There was another brief moment of silence and then Tsuna lifted up his hand once again.
Before Reborn's eyes, droplets of water fell onto his palm and a beautiful blue stone dropped out of thin air. Tsuna nodded graciously and smiled.
"Thank you," he said, and he was off. After a while of deliberating, Reborn decided to feign ignorance of Tsuna's abnormal activities until he had gained more information. He wasn't one to recklessly charge into unknown situations, after all. That was more of Colonello's thing. Reborn would bide his time and investigate further into the matter.
Meanwhile, he would continue with his plan and call Gokudera Hayato over from Italy.
-o-
So far, the interactions between Tsuna and Gokudera had gone according to plan. That was good, in Reborn's opinion. After Tsuna's totally unexpected… everything, Reborn felt that he deserved some predictability in his life.
Gokudera pulled out his dynamites, challenging Tsuna to a duel, and Reborn readied his gun. If things continued smoothly, Reborn would be able to shoot Tsuna with a Dying Will Bullet and activate his flames.
Reborn could see that Tsuna was frightened and the boy moved his arms to that his hands were in front of him, a common defensive actions shared by people who felt threatened—wait. Reborn blinked as Tsuna's hands formed an unexpected yet somewhat familiar gesture.
And then there was ice everywhere.
-o-
Reborn had wanted to confront Tsuna about his ability to use flames and zeropoint breakthrough and how in the world did he manage that when his flames were supposed sealed but Tsuna had disappeared after that incident. Without any leads, he had to go back to the Sawada Household to ask Nana where her son might have gone.
"Tsu-kun?" Nana hummed as she pondered. "He probably went to see Kawahira-san. Kawahira-san teaches him the things I can't teach him, the abilities that do not come from my blood." Reborn correctly translated that into 'Kawahira teaches Tsunayoshi about his flames'.
"Who is Kawahira?" Reborn asked.
"We don't quite know, actually," Nana commented, not the least bit worried that someone was teaching her child how to wield fire. "What we do know is that he can control the Wrackspurts too. Not too sure if he knows about that ability, though."
"Where can I find Kawahira?" Reborn pressed on. Nana shrugged.
"He can be found only when he wants to be found. I wouldn't worry, Tsu-kun will be fine."
This didn't calm Reborn down at all.
-o-
There was once a young boy who could talk to things other people couldn't see.
There was once a man who was the last of his kind, and had to regularly steel his heart and sacrifice people in order to keep the earth from dying.
The boy was kindhearted and charismatic. The man was resourceful and cunning. Above all, the both of them were logical. (The boy more so than the man.)
When the boy found out about the sacrifices, he was upset. Instead of flipping out and running away, however, he logically went up to the man to ask if there were any alternatives and if there were none, if they could find one together.
The man agreed readily, for he was logical as well, and did not want to rely on human beings for something as important as maintaining the balance of the world. Hence, the two started on their task.
-o-
"Another failure, huh?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. At least we know what we need: something that can maintain a set amount of flames without having them die out."
"Something like an accelerator?"
"…Probably."
-o-
The next time Reborn caught sight of Tsuna, they were in school. Reborn had temporarily given up on the search for the boy, reluctantly deciding to trust in Nana's word that Tsuna would be fine. Reborn had caught sight of Tsuna while he had been scouting the student body for possible guardians. He found a possible candidate in Yamamoto Takeshi, which was coincidentally where Tsuna was as well.
"I could get you something for that, Yamamoto," Tsuna said in reply to Yamamoto's question about his slump. "In the meantime, I advise you to not do anything rash or out of the ordinary."
"Alright Tsuna!" Yamamoto replied with a plastic smile. Tsuna didn't seem to have noticed, too absorbed in his thoughts.
Tomorrow… Reborn knew that what was going to come would either let Tsuna gain another guardian, or lose a classmate.
-o-
Thanks to darkiceangelflare on tumblr for pointing out my typos! (Heart shape and happy face here)