If older siblings were supposed to set a good examples for younger siblings, Tsuna was a failure as an older brother. It wasn't very surprising, though. Tsuna had failed in so many things in his life, so why would this aspect be any different?

When Tsuna was seven, people started to call him Dame-Tsuna. It was a fitting name, for he was bad at academics, bad at sports, bad at…everything.

It hurt at first, especially when Ieyoshi didn't say anything about it. He wanted to though, that Tsuna could see. Ie really wanted to speak out against the name and yell at the bullies, but he didn't for he was afraid to stand out. For he was afraid to bring the bullies' attention to him. And so, Tsuna endured the name while Ie dropped the matter.

When they went to Elementary school, Tsuna and Ie started to drift apart. They weren't exactly close to begin with, so it wasn't shocking for them to go their own ways. Ie was popular and charismatic, smart and athletic. He was everything people wanted in a friend; he was everything Tsuna wasn't. People flocked to him while they shunned Tsuna. Referred to him respectfully but looked down at Tsuna. And Tsuna… Tsuna never once said anything about it.

Ieyoshi had always felt uncomfortable around his classmates, despite his love for the attention. Two-faced bastards something in him always said whenever he saw them interact with Tsuna. How could they be so nice to him only to be so spiteful to his brother a split second later? "Dame-Tsuna," they would sneer, even in front of him. That same something in him would squirm around uncomfortably whenever he heard that name, something heavy in his heart weighing him down whenever he saw the callous and rude way his friends would interact with Tsuna. With his brother.

Still, he didn't say anything.

What would happen to him if he stood up for his brother? Would he become like Tsuna? Would people start to call him Dame-Ie as well? These thoughts always held him back from speaking up, and it made him hate himself a little bit more.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

-o-

One day, something happened.

"Oh, Tsu-kun! You dropped Papa's favorite cup! You really are Dame-Tsuna."

Ieyoshi froze at the words, while Tsunayoshi only smiled sheepishly and bent down to clean up the mess. How… how could she say it so easily? She was their mother! And Tsuna wasn't even saying anything against it! As if he had accepted the fact that even his own flesh and blood would call him useless! His mother was horrible to call Tsuna useless, just like he was horrible to ignore his brother's bullies.

"Why."

Tsuna and Nana turned to the youngest in confusion. "Why what, Ie-kun?" Nana asked.

"Why would you call Tsuna like that?!" Ieyoshi's voice cracked as he felt his eyes burn. "He's your son! Why would you call him useless? Why would you allow other people to call him that, why are you following them? Why can't I just stand up for my own brother? Why am I such a coward?!" he screamed. His vision was blurry so he couldn't see Tsuna and Nana's reactions to his outburst. He didn't think he would have wanted to see it, anyway.

"Ie…" Tsuna tried to approach him. Ieyoshi just flinched away, not wanting his older brother to see him like that, not wanting to see his older brother's hatred towards him, even if he deserved it.

"Don't touch me!" Ieyoshi yelled and bolted up the stairs. Seconds later, Tsuna and Nana heard the door to Ieyoshi's room slam shut, followed by muted screams of frustration and loathing. Tsuna stared helplessly up the stairs before his face set into a determined expression.

"I don't think Ie wanted to shout at you, mum. Don't worry, I'll talk to him," he said. "Sorry," he added reflexively. Tsuna didn't really know why he was saying sorry, but he had learnt that the people around him would feel better if he did.

(If he took the blame.)

"No, Tsu-kun." His mother's uncharacteristically solemn tone made him spin around to face her. "Ie-kun's right. I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry." The look on her face bad Tsuna's heart clench.

"It's okay, mum. I'm used to it!" Tsuna said, trying to make her feel better. It had the opposite effect.

"It's not okay, Tsu-kun. Now, go up and talk to your brother. I believe he needs you."

"…alright mum." With one last glance back, he went up the stair, leaving Nana alone. When she was sure she was alone, she laughed mockingly to herself.

"Just what have been I doing…?"

-o-

Tsuna knocked on Ieyoshi's door. "Ie? It's Tsuna."

"I don't want to speak with anyone right now."

Tsuna hesitated. He wanted to give his brother space, wanting to prevent that this never happened and that everything would go back to normal later on, but something in him told him to enter the room. Steeling himself, he knocked on the door once again.

"I want to speak to you. Please?"

"…alright."

Tsuna entered the room to see his brother curled up under the sheets. "Ie?"

"I'm sorry, Tsuna. I haven't been a good brother." Ieyoshi's voice came from under the blankets, filled with self-hatred. It made Tsuna flinch.

"No! I… I haven't been a good brother too! I'm older, so I should be the one protecting you and yet I'm so useless…" Tsuna's words made Ieyoshi throw off the covers and leap out of bed, nearly tackling Tsuna.

"Don't call yourself that," Ieyoshi hissed. "You're not useless. You're not… You're here, you exist. You smile at others when they're mean. You don't hate them! How…" Ieyoshi trailed off to roughly wipe his eyes with the back of his hands. "I hate them and I'm not even the one who…" He hiccupped.

Not knowing what to do, Tsuna just held onto Ie for a long time as his younger brother cried.

If older siblings were supposed to keep the younger ones from crying, then Tsuna had failed as an older brother. Again.

-o-

"Tsuna, it's time to go for school! Hurry up!" Ieyoshi called out impatiently as he waited at the door. It had been a long time since they had walked to school together. Ieyoshi wasn't sure why they had stopped.

"Coming!" Tsuna yelled back from upstairs. "I'm sorry, I overslept!"

"Geez, Tsuna," Ieyoshi chastised. "You're always oversleeping! That's why everyone calls you—" he suddenly stopped short, the colour draining from his face. Just what had he been about to say? Did he really…

"Sorry Ie, I didn't hear you." Tsuna hurried down the stair and to the door. "What were you going to say?"

"…it's nothing," Ieyoshi muttered, plastering a smile onto his face so he wouldn't worry his brother. "C'mon, let's go!"

-o-

On the way to school, Ieyoshi's friends joined them. Ieyoshi didn't see how Tsuna seemed to shrink into himself, trying to hide in Ieyoshi's shadow.

"Good morning!" Ieyoshi greeted. They returned the greeting cheerfully, before their eyes landed on Tsuna. As if a switch had been flipped, their easygoing expressions melted into arrogance and disdain.

"Oh, if it isn't Dame-Tsuna!" one of them sneered. "Why don't you just run along now? You can walk to school on your own, right?"

The sight made Ieyoshi sick. He clenched his fists and opened his mouth to say something but fear wrapped around his throat and he immediately stopped short. Cowardice. It made him so frustrated. Why wouldn't the words just. Come. Out?!

"It's okay, Ie." Ieyoshi's head snapped towards Tsuna, eyes wide.

Tsuna shook his head with a small, defeated smile and waved goodbye to Ieyoshi, turned around to walk to school on his own. In that moment, in his mind's eye, Ieyoshi could see that he and Tsuna were standing on a cliff. There were small cracks in between them, slowly crumbling away, but Ieyoshi could still step over them. When his friends had shown up, the cracks became a small gap between the two; and when Tsuna started to leave, the gap widened with every step he took and Ieyoshi couldn't step over it anymore. He knew that if he let Tsuna leave now, if he let Tsuna walk out of his sight, the gap would become a wide chasm and he and Tsuna would…

Now, the gap was wide, but he could still jump over. He could still leap over.

"If you don't want to walk to school with Tsuna," Ieyoshi stressed on Tsuna's name, letting people know that he would never use that derogatory nickname on his brother, "then I guess I can't walk to school with you. Because I'm going with my brother."

"Seriously? You want to walk to school with Dame-Tsuna?"

"It's Tsuna." Ieyoshi pinned his classmates to the spot with an ice cold stare. "Never let me hear that disgusting nickname ever leave you lips again." With that, he turned away from his classmates, turned towards Tsuna, and started to run.

"Tsuna, wait up!"

A running leap of faith.

I discussed some parts of this fic with InsaneScriptist.

jumping on the bandwagon but i hope to be able to break cliches. tsuna's brother is still going to slip up here and there, but he'll try.

In this fic, Ieyoshi would have been chosen to be Vongola Decimo, but Tsuna would step in and volunteer himself. Because Ieyoshi had dreams while Tsuna was just dame-Tsuna and he has nothing. So why not protect his brother by becoming a mafia boss? it's not like he's going to lose anything.

The title of this fic is a literal foreshadowing for what's about to come.