General Warnings: Alternate Universe, Violence

Summary: Tsuna has never been normal, from a young age he could always see the aura of color that surrounded other people, has always been able to see the long thin colorful threads that tangled one person to another. Yeah, he wasn't normal, he knew that, but no one else did, he was just getting his life back damnit, so he would like to keep it that way. Except he doesn't exactly get a choice when a strange man approaches him claiming they have a connection and are bound together, Tsuna can't help but be a little incredulous.

-x

For as long as Tsuna could remember his life has been full of color. The green of the trees, the blue of the sky, the brown of the dirt, and the many varying different shade of colors that surrounded people, that apparently only he could see.

The first time he got the hint that the aura of color that surrounded everyone around him was something only he could see, he'd been five. His father had called, a rare occurrence in of itself, to tell his mother that he would be unable to make it home for their anniversary, it was the first of many. Tsuna had watched as his mother's beautiful, bright colors of green and blue had turned into a murky blue, growing darker the longer she spoke on the phone, and lasted as she hung the phone.

"Mama?" His mother's head snapped up, her attention immediately on the small child a few feet from her, a smile already on her face.

"Ah, Tsu-kun, I didn't see you come in here!" she said her voice cheerful, no different than usual, but Tsuna's attention was on the dark colors that hovered around his mother. She moved forward kneeling until she was Tsuna's height.

"Are you okay mama?" He asked, his attention shifting from his mother to the cloud of color. The smile faltered briefly, before returning once more.

"Of course Tsu-kun!" Tsuna frowned as the colors surrounding his mother remained the same, even as she continued to smile cheerfully. They were ugly compared to his mother's usual bright and vibrant ones.

"But your colors are different," he said in way of explanation. His mothers face took on a bemused expression, a light shade of yellow and orange breaking through the dark colors, as she looked down at herself.

"Tsu-kun, I'm in the same thing I've been all day," Nana said bemused, before a smile broke across her face as something seemed to click in her mind "Oh! Are you learning your colors in class sweetie?"

Colors? He was, but he didn't understand what that had to do with anything. He gave a nod, and his mother's smile brightened. Some of usual vibrant colors breaking through the darker ones. "You want to show mama?" She asked, laughing when Tsuna nodded eagerly. She took his hand and lead him back to where he had been seated drawing. She took a seat next to him, as Tsuna eagerly gathered his crayons and blank sheets of paper.

Tsuna didn't understand why his mom wanted to know about his colors suddenly, but he was more than happy to show her, if it meant the dark blue that had surrounded his mother lightened around her. It was still there, but there were a speck of different colors now, and he had the feeling that that was okay.

-x

There was a man named Hiroshi Eiji, who lived a few houses down from Tsuna and his mother.

He was a kind and helpful man, always willing to help any mother who needed a day to herself, or who just had too much on their plate and needed to leave their kid with someone so they would stay out of trouble.

Hiroshi got on well with the fathers of the household, he could always be seen speaking with one or another. He helped anywhere he could, he was a respected member of society, so to say. People trusted him, people loved him.

Tsuna, well Tsuna never wanted to be within reaching distance, or even within eyesight, of the man.

Not with the colors that always seemed to surround the man. They were a mixture of so many different colors they all blended together to make one single hideous shade.

-x

Tsuna was eight when things started going downhill for him.

It had been a normal day for Tsuna and his mother, a day like any other. His mother had announced that she would be needing to go to the store to buy some needed ingredients for that night's dinner and run a few errands as well. Tsuna hadn't thought anything of it, had simply ran downstairs and pulled on his shoes, ready for the trip to the market. His mother had smiled at him, taken his hand and led the way out. It wasn't until they had stopped in front of a house Tsuna always wanted to avoid, that Tsuna noticed his pack hung over his mother's shoulder.

Hiroshi Eiji had stepped out of the house with a smile and already reaching for the pack his mother was handing off to him. Tsuna attention shifted between his mother and the man. The colors surrounding them both were so contrasting it hurt Tsuna's eyes. His mother laughed at something Hiroshi said, before turning to Tsuna and kneeling before him.

"Tsu-kun be good for HIroshi-san, okay? Mama will be back in a few hours," she said, the ever kind smile still plastered on her face. Tsuna quickly shook his head in denial, he didn't want to stay with this man! "Don't worry, I'll only be gone for a small while." she patted his head, before raising from her crouched position and turning to walk away. Tsuna glanced up at the taller man.

There was a loud ringing in his head, it was like there were alarm bells going off inside his head.

"Well come in Tsunayoshi-kun," Hiroshi smiled, reaching for Tsuna's hand. Tsuna pulled away moving until he was just out of the older man's reach. A frown took over for the previously there smile, and Hiroshi made to reach for Tsuna again. Tsuna wasted no time in creating a larger distance between the man and himself.

Tsuna let out an ear piercing wail, that had the older man backing away from the child. The bag he was holding fell to the ground with a barely heard thump. The sound of hurried footsteps barely heard through the piercing cries of the child. It wasn't long before Tsuna's mother and a small group of worried bystanders were rushing into the yard, a look of worry overtaking his mother's features. Tsuna wasted no time, running towards his mother and wrapping his arms around his mother's legs, clinging tightly to her skirt.

It wasn't until later as they entered the house, and away from prying eyes, that his mother finally asked the reason for his unusual behavior.

"Hiroshi-san is a bad man, he wants to hurt me," Tsuna mumbled, his face smeared with tears. His mother had stared in disbelief, before letting out a sigh.

"Tsu-kun, Hiroshi-san is a kind man, he won't hurt you," she said softly. Tsuna shook his head furiously.

"His colors are weird!" Tsuna exclaimed, leaning closer to his mother and clutching her arm, willing his mother to understand, "they're ugly and dark!"

Nana stared at Tsuna, her worry clear on her face. Colors, her son had been speaking about colors for as long as she could remember. "Tsu-kun, what colors are you talking about?" Tsuna paused, staring at his mother in confusion.

"The colors around you mama," Nana gave her son a smile, patting him over the head.

"Tsu-kun, the colors around you don't make you a bad person, it's just the color you favor," Nana explained, running a hand through the child's brown strands. Tsuna stared at his mother not comprehending what she was saying.

"No, you don't understand mama!" Tsuna shouted moving away from his mother's reach. "Hiroshi is a bad man!" The worry and confusion on his mother's face returned, and something was slowly coming clear.

"You see the colors, don't you mama?" His voice was soft and hitched as he tried his best to hold back tears. His mother shook her head not understanding what her child spoke of.

"What colors, Tsunayoshi?" His mother gave a small smile, an attempt to keep her son from crying. Tsuna shook his head, furious and upset at what was slowly becoming clear.

He wasn't normal.

-x

The incident between Hiroshi and Tsuna was put aside in people's mind, seen as nothing more than a child too attached to their mother, and not quite ready to be separated just yet. It created problems for Tsuna at school, his classmates mocking him, but otherwise no one thought on it anymore, and no one listened to Tsuna's protest that that wasn't it.

After all there was no possible way Hiroshi Eiji was anything but the kind and gentle soul that everyone knew him to be.

So it came as a terrible shock a year later when police arrived at Hiroshi's home with an warrant for his arrest. It was quite the scene, police officers guarding his door, a large crowd held back by nothing more than the crowd's disbelief and fear that they had trusted that man.

The scene that Tsuna and his mother arrived to was one of police officers searching Hiroshi's house. His mother had errands to run and had taken Tsuna to the shopping district with her. Arriving to see the crowd of people, the disbelief and anger easily seen, had mother and child pausing on their way home.

"Oh my," the look on Nana's face was a perfect mix of confusion and surprise.

"Sawada-san!" Nana turned at the sound of the harried voice, it was the lady that lived across from them, Chou-san. Tsuna didn't pay much attention to her, to busy focused on the police officers before him. She hurried over to Nana. "It's terrible!" She said her hands clutched together in front of her. "Hiroshi-san has been arrested!" Nana let out a gasp of surprise. The words caught Tsuna's attention, he turned away from the police officers to the woman speaking to his mother.

Hiroshi had been arrested? Tsuna could not help a small amount of relief he felt at those words. Arrested meant Hiroshi would have to go away, he would no longer be able to come near him or his mama. For the first time since seeing the woman, he took in the colors that surrounded her, they were a strange purple and blue. He tilted his head curiously, his eyes drifting over the crowd and police officers. They all had the same varying colors surrounding them, Purple and blue with just a smidge of dark yellows and red.

"What was he arrested for?" He heard his mother ask, and Tsuna focused on her once more, her usual green dimmed with a light yellow and blue.

"It's absolutely horrific!" Chou-san exclaimed, her face twisted into a look of utter disgust and disbelief, as if she still couldn't believe it herself. "He-," her words trailed off as she finally caught sight of Tsuna and something seemed to click in her head, as her face turned to one of absolute horror. Chou-san's yellows turned darker. She turned back to Nana, grabbing a hold of Nana's shoulder and pulling her away from Tsuna. Surprised, Nana released the hold she had on her child's hand. Tsuna watched in confusion as Chou-san whispered furiously to his mother. He watched as the green that always seemed to surround his mother completely vanished. The colors around Nana turning into an ugly yellow and dark blue. His mother pulled away from the older woman, slapping Chou-san's hand away when she made to grab Nana once more. His mother looked pale, her eyes wide as she turned back to Tsuna.

"I-I need to get Tsu-kun home," She stated her voice shaking, as she stumbled to her way back to Tsuna, "come on Tsu-kun."

"Mom?" Tsuna blinked in surprise as his mom grabbed him rougher than usual, not enough to hurt, but enough to shock the nine year old.

"Sawada-san!" Chou-san went ignored by his mother as she hurried them both past the crowd and in direction of where their house was.

-x

They must have made it home in record time, but his mother didn't even look winded, not like Tsuna did with trying to keep up with his mother's longer legs. His mother slammed the door closed behind them, pushing Tsuna into the sitting room.

"Stay here Tsunayoshi," the sound of his full name had Tsuna nodding without thought, he only watched as his mother walked past him and back into the hallway. The sound of running water followed his mother's exit, and Tsuna realized his mother must have gone to the kitchen. The sound of cabinet doors being opened and then closed with more force than was usual filled the silence of the house.

His mother returned moments later, her hands clamped together in front of her. Her attention was solely on her son watching him closely, Her colors hadn't changed at all. She moved closer and kneeled before him taking his smaller hands into her own. His mother's hands were shaking.

"Tsunayoshi, I need you to be honest with me okay?" Nana gave a tremulous smile, her hands tightening around the smaller pair. Tsuna quickly nodded, "sometime ago, you said Hiroshi was a bad man, how did you know?" Tsuna tilted his head in worried confusion, he had already explained how he knew.

"His colors," he said, his voice uncertain. HIs mother's expression shifted into something unreadable.

"What colors?" She demanded, voice desperate. Tsuna flinched back, unused to his mother's current behavior. She was completely different to the happy, easy going woman that put him to bed every night. Nana tightened her hold on Tsuna's hand, keeping him from pulling away, as she forced herself to calm.

"I'm sorry, Tsu-kun," she said, voice brittle. She smiled, and it looked nothing like the usual vibrant one she always gave him. This one was sad and fragile, as if his mother only a step away from breaking down, "Tsu-kun did Hiroshi ever hurt you?"

Hurt him? Hiroshi had never even come near him after the first and only time his mother had tried to leave Tsuna in his care. Tsuna had personally made sure of it, he was never without his mother, and always avoided the man's house.

He shook his head, and the colors around his mother darkened, even as she smiled and released his hands. She sent him up to his room to finish his homework. But even as he climbed up the stairs to his bedroom, and pulled out the things he would need to complete his assignments, the look in his mother's eyes were seared into his mind, the colors floating around her, still as clear as if he were standing next to her.

His mother did not believe him, not the tiniest bit.

-x

It was only a month later that Tsuna was taken to his first psychiatrist. His mother had told the lady everything that was apparently wrong with Tsuna, about the colors that he saw and about Hiroshi. The lady had become a sort of annoyance to Tsuna, always asking questions about the colors and about Hiroshi, always giving a sigh of disappointment when Tsuna didn't answer her questions the way she wanted him to.

He wasn't sure how long he had seen that lady for, but she had quickly become one of his least favorite people.

It was within a session with her that he learned, that seeing colors he always seemed to see was not in fact normal. That perhaps, it was something he created to cope with the trauma of the incident with Hiroshi. She never seemed to listen when Tsuna denied it. She never seemed to listen when Tsuna said that Hiroshi never hurt him either, always nodding in understanding, as if she knew something he didn't.

But It was also during a session that he learned that colors could have meaning. Well that certainly took Tsuna by surprise. Tsuna had quickly looked into it, asking his school librarian, who always seemed to know everything, about it. She had helped him by ordering him a few books on colors, when he had shown his interest.

-x

After months of being taken to his sessions, (sessions he only went to because his mother thought they were helping him, and anything that would make the dark purple and dark blues surrounding his mother recede every time she looked at him, well he could put up with it.) He had learned that it was best just to lie. Lie to his mother, lie to the pediatrician, to the psychiatrist, to the neurologist. Lie, lie, lie. Lie that he was getting over his "trauma", lie that he was better, (even though there wasn't anything wrong with him!) Lie that he didn't see colors anymore.

But he did. He continued to see colors everywhere he looked. He knew when someone was angry, or sad or happy or content just by the color that surrounded them. Knew when someone was lying or telling him the truth, even if they had the best type of poker face. He just knew, and lying had become a self defence, to keep people from poking and prodding at him.

And when one morning he woke to the sight of a long thin orange thread wrapped around his wrist, and fell to the ground in a tangled mess. It led downstairs and out the front door, he had been so tempted to follow it, something in him urging him to follow it, but the sound of his mother calling him had him turning away from the house's front door. He walked to the kitchen where his mother was, and the sight of the indigo colored thread wrapped around his mother's own wrist, had him laughing, because it was happening again.

It had been like waking up all those years ago to see his mother surrounded by an aura of vibrant colors, except this time it wasn't just the usual aura of color he saw, but also the colored thread that led out the back door.

And when his mother asked him if he was alright, trepidation and caution clearly seen in the mix of colors that hovered around her, if not her face, Tsuna lied. Of course he was fine. He was absolutely fine.

But he was anything but fine, because maybe all those different doctors he had met were right. Maybe he was going crazy.