A/N: Alright, so we - meaning me - have been having some issues with the whole 'Nana needs a job to support her family when Iemitsu is the head of the CEDEF'. Here's my thinking, because it wasn't just to create more drama/tension:

Iemitsu is the head of CEDEF, yes, but that branch is also mafia and therefore he can't exactly advertise his actual career choice, Vindice aside. He has told his son and his wife that he is a construction worker. Presumably, he's told the government this as well. Now, the internet tells me that workers make an average of $35,000 a year, with variances for skill and location. Let's assume he's especially good and makes around $40,000 – $50,000 a year. Now, the average construction worker salary in Japan is around $46,000. Namimori is, obviously, not real, but it is based on Japan, which as a whole, has a very high cost of living. Seeing as his family isn't staying in Italy, it's safe to assume that they have to deal with that.

Since Iemitsu is admittedly smarter than anyone wants to give him credit for, he would probably realize that a construction worker making higher than $50,000 a year is suspicious. As such, I thought that he'd send money to his family according to what he should be getting according to his own cover story. Ergo, the Sawadas are living the life of a middle-class family in Japan, and Nana needs some extra money to take care of the strays that her son is bringing home. I apologize if I confused anyone, or offended anyone, but this was my line of thought.

Not to mention that in Chapter 13 of the manga, Tsuna complains about the noodles his mother is serving for dinner, commenting that they've been eating leftovers a lot recently. Nana responds with embarrassment and that it's better for them financially. Maybe that's just her being frugal, but I chose to interpret that as them being tight on money due to her having to suddenly feed two children, a female teen, and whoever Tsuna brings home for dinner, in addition to her and her son. I don't know if you realize, but teenage boys eat a lot of food. Speaking as one with a male sibling, I can personally attest to that.

End rant: Important notice at the bottom of the chapter. Please enjoy the story.

Summary: Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with future versions of him coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).

Rating: T and most likely won't change.

Genres: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Angst, maybe more, I don't know.

Warnings: Language, OOCness, SPOILERS, breaking canon, it gets worse before it gets better, breaking Tsuna, violence, mentions of character deaths, AU, lethal amounts of exasperation, Tsuna is DONE, multiple cases of PTSD in one mind, warnings are individual per chapter. No yaoi, yuri, shounen or shoujo ai, no slash, incest, necrophilia, or anything resembling pedophilia (that isn't already canon, anyway, *cough*Reborn*cough*). No smut or non-con.

Pairings: Gen, friendships, mentorships.

"Speech"

Flashbacks/Other's speaking/Dreams

'Thoughts'

(#): A/N to explain stuff at the end.

A Gathering of Skies Chapter 5: When the sky falls, we ask for help

By: AngelicSilverWolf

'Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.' - Jeff Kinney

Tsuna has a blessedly restful eighth year. To his great pleasure, no new Others appear. Mistakenly, he lets his guard down. This is a foolish idea because-

The Others wait until he's nine before seeming to come all at once. He gets one on his birthday, then another two months later, than another two months after that, then two at the same time three months after that-

He wonders a little caustically why they all had to die the same year. By the time he turns ten, he has six new Others to deal with. Consequently, he spends a lot of time when he's nine and ten as an extremely dedicated introvert. He emerges from his self-inflicted exile when he's ten and a half, wiser and sadder in equal measures.

His fourth Other is dubbed Double O Neo, because he lived life like a super spy, always in the shadows and using more underhanded means to get his way - sort of like James Bond but not nearly as heroic. He was the Decimo of a Vongola with a traitor in its midst that passed information to enemy families for over three years before he was caught. Thanks to the traitor's information and the timing of his capture, the Vongola fell to an onslaught from four smaller families banded together. The members not arrested or killed off joined together to create a new family - Vongola Ricordo (Vongola Remembrance). They melted away, swearing vengeance, and for about six years there was nothing about them or any surviving members. It was as if they had all disappeared off the face of the earth.

This Vongola was weakened and had to bide its time, working through what meager connections they had left, hence the spy life. The Decimo personally went on many missions to secure information or finances. Only three of his guardians had survived the attack from the four families, and they too were on the front lines with him. They all had new identities, different appearances. For all intents and purposes, the Vongola Decimo and his retinue no longer existed.

Then, a few days before the planned retaliation, alone and weary, Double O Neo died when his temporary location was discovered and subsequently surrounded by over two hundred enemy family members. He died from Flame exhaustion after he exterminated every single one of them, including the foolish boss who had assumed two hundred would be enough to take out a vengeful Vongola Decimo.

Tsuna spends some quality time in the bathroom throwing up while he learns what it's like to burn his fist through a human body. He makes a tentative connection with the newest Other, disturbed by the amount of frustrated rage that encompasses him. Yoshi ojii-san and QT try their best to pacify the grief-stricken Decimo (Tsuna the First has a personality that doesn't mesh well with the newer Other, so he wisely stays away), but nothing works. So, Tsuna pretends to fall sick - not actually too hard to pretend when this Other's flashes of emotions and memories are making him nauseous - and stays home from school for two days. Nana is worried, of course, but he manages to divert her suspicion with a somewhat true report of how everyone at school has been getting sick too (and is it worrying that he's getting so used to lying to his own mother?). (1)

Two days later, Tsuna feels marginally more comfortable in his own skin. Double O Neo has accepted his lot in life as a bizarre presence in an alternate universe's Tsunayoshi, and he even feels something besides hurt and righteous fury. Tsuna takes this as a win, no matter that his newest Other is vowing to take out the traitor in this universe before he can cause the family to fall again. Fortunately, Double O Neo seems to understand the need to fit in with the general populace a bit better than the previous Others, so Tsuna gets a list of possible triggers to watch out for (the sound of a camera clicking? Really?).

It's nice to try and fit in, even if he knows it's all a farce. Normal children - hell, normal people - do not know twelve ways to kill someone before they can raise the alarm, or how to detect poisoned foods and drinks. But he likes to pretend he's just a normal kid.

It would be much easier to pretend, of course, if the Others would stop coming at the worst of times.

…

Present:

Reborn watches amidst his tutoring. Contrary to popular belief, he doesn't spend all of his time touting mafia rules. But he does constantly observe. He doesn't sleep half as much as Tsunayoshi believes he does, not nearly as much as the boy himself does.

Therefore, he notices that Tsunayoshi is quite unusual. He's a bundle of paradoxes that shouldn't exist in a single person, but he does and he is. Tsunayoshi is both disgustingly timid and ridiculously brave at the wrong times. He shrinks into himself at the sight of bullies, but he dares to backtalk Reborn. He's alarmingly lacking in school intelligence, but his frankly strange amounts of common sense and wisdom beyond his years makes Reborn reconsider the name 'Dame-Tsuna'. Not that he'll offer a different name, of course.

Tsunayoshi varies between being on the edge of a nervous breakdown, cool and collected, and in the middle of daydreaming. Reborn occasionally catches him with his eyes distant and his head slightly tilted, like he's listening to something. Reborn has listened with him, but he hears nothing, which leads him to believe that Tsunayoshi either talks to himself or has a mental condition that hasn't been recorded.

But personality aside, the thing that intrigues Reborn the most is that Tsunayoshi Sawada knows things that he has no business knowing. He knew about the Arcobaleno, though Reborn doesn't know exactly what he knows. The fact that he knows they exist at all is alarming and unexpected.

(And Reborn doesn't like the unexpected.)

Tsunayoshi is skittish, clearly has PTSD if the way he carefully avoids certain items and situations is any indicator, and altogether doesn't act at all like a normal civilian. Reborn contemplated infiltration, but he has ultimately decided that this is the real Tsunayoshi Sawada. No impersonator could have Sky Flames so strong or pure. Which means that there's something else at play, and for the first time in a long time, Reborn feel uneasy. He wants answers. And he'll get them, this time from the source.

…

Tsuna has spent the last week in a decidedly twitchy state of mind.

Reborn has been acting weird - weirder than usual. Tsuna catches him staring intensely at him at all hours of the day, during breakfast, during lunch, occasionally from a tree during school - which isn't something Tsuna needs right now, thanks - and almost constantly when he's being tutored. Reborn is, dare Tsuna think it, uneasy. At least, that's what he's concluded after his Others cough up some more memories. He hopes he isn't wrong, because the other answer is paranoid, and that leads to dark and dangerous things.

Reborn being uneasy makes Tsuna uneasy, because what could cause the Number One Hitman in the World to be like this but something terrible and hellish? Accordingly, Tsuna is more keyed up than normal when he hears the ever so innocent click of a camera.

Instantly, his body reacts. In a blink of an eye, Tsuna grabs Takeshi and Hayato and shoves them to the ground, while he himself reaches for his gun.

They must have found him, even if he doesn't know how. He thought he was doing well with blending in with the natives but apparently not. No matter. They'll die for finding him and reporting him in.

They are not getting his family, not again, those motherfuckers. He will burn the city to the ground - hell, the country if he needs to-

"Tenth? Tsuna!"

Tsuna blinks and squints through his suddenly blurry vision. He wipes his eyes and discovers that he's crying, which would be just plain embarrassing, but he's too concerned with not knowing what the hell is going on. His Others are a mess that he won't be touching with a ten foot pole until later, and unfortunately they seem to be scrambling his thought process. It takes a moment for the situation to sink in.

His vision clears completely, and the first thing he notices is some random people gawking at him. Mothers are hurrying their pointedly staring children away from him, and one person seems to be reaching for his phone to take a video. It's about this point in time that he looks down and sees Hayato and Takeshi on the ground (where he threw them, what the hell). He startles out of his protective crouch and lands on his ass, and then he proceeds to crabwalk away in slowly increasing horror.

Oh, oh no. What has he done? No, no, no.

Nonononono-

"Tsuna?" Takeshi sits up and looks at him in concern because they were just walking home from school, why now why them why here-

Tsuna swallows through a suddenly dry throat.

"I-I-" he croaks. He's interrupted by the sound of someone landing behind him, and suddenly everyone who was watching can't get away fast enough. With a feeling of increasing dread (rising over the more prominent terrified shame), he looks around and sees none other than Hibari Kyouya. Perfect. Like this day wasn't shit enough already.

Cool grey eyes sweep over him, and something like understanding flashes in them before Hibari speaks. "Herbivore," he says calmly. Tsuna tries not to squawk in fear. "Can you stand?"

That's a very good question. Can he stand? What's the matter with sitting, anyway? The ground feels nice and solid, unlike his legs which seem to have turned into jelly while he wasn't looking.

"Herbivore." Hibari sounds impatient. He should probably answer, but his mouth won't open. He feels himself literally shunted aside as his Others push Tsuna the First into control. It's like watching a movie from the eyes of the main character. He's had this happen before, and he dislikes it just as much now as he did then (they chose Tsuna the First because he's the most like Tsuna in his weak disposition and awkward flailing).

"K-Hibari-san," Tsuna the First stutters, tripping over the name he normally uses. "W-why are you here?"

Hibari's eyes narrow. He seems to search for inconsistencies, and looks extremely displeased when he doesn't find any.

"There was a disturbance," he says shortly. Tsuna the First blinks.

Then, like he has a death wish or something, he asks, "So why you aren't biting everyone to death?" Tsuna chokes as best as a person mentally can and decides that he's going to have to do something before his Other gets him killed. They are very similar in personality, and that means being absolutely terrible under pressure. He forcefully takes over as Hibari's eyes narrow dangerously.

"U-uh, never mind, sorry," Tsuna says nervously. "I'm fine, and very, very sorry that I disturbed the peace and caused a crowd." Backbone he might have around Lambo and occasionally Reborn, this is Hibari. This is Kyouya I-Will-Hospitalize-You-Without-Blinking Hibari. At least Reborn is under contract not to actively kill his student. Tsuna stands and offers an aborted, cringe worthy, bow and then proceeds to tuck his tail between his legs and head for the hills - or even better, his house.

This day has gone to the dogs. He can't even right now.

Takeshi and Hayato scramble up after him, and Hibari seems to decide it isn't worth bothering himself over, thank goodness.

And all the while, Reborn watches it all.

"Interesting," he mutters. Leon curiously nudges the disposable camera in his hands.

Tsuna doesn't feel the shiver run down his back because he's too busy shaking from nerves, humiliation, and the after effects of a PTSD flare up. He'll wish he had, later, for some semblance of warning.

...

Tsuna recovers.

Hayato - bless him - doesn't question why his best friend/future maybe-probably boss freaked out on him and caused an enormous scene. Takeshi - bless him - doesn't bring it up once after an initial gentle inquiry, the day after Tsuna ran away like the coward he is. His mother - bless her (hell, bless 'em all for dealing with this so well) - chalks up his state to stress from school, forgives him for not picking up Lambo from daycare, and takes extra time to prepare him an enormous lunch for the following day.

Reborn - curse him to the hottest pits in hell - only increases training time. Coincidentally, he almost hits a few dozen triggers on the way. It would be coincidental, but Tsuna knows better. Especially when it comes to his tutor. Thankfully, Tsuna also knows how to deal with the triggers now that he knows they're coming. The near visible frustration on Reborn's face is almost worth the extra pain.

It's one morning, a week or so after Tsuna's Big Sanity Break/Attempted Revolt of His Others that they run into a girl.

Just an ordinary, middle-school girl that thinks Reborn is the best thing since chocolate and who tries to attack Tsuna because apparently he's a bad influence.

Yeah. Tsuna's pretty much given up at this point.

She walks away with a scowl, and he watches her go with a sigh, hand rubbing his sore cheek.

"You should have caught her hand," Reborn admonishes. "It's a shameful time when a boss can't even stop a civilian from striking him."
"Did you want me to break her wrist?" Tsuna asks caustically, not even touching on the fact that, technically, he's a civilian too. "Because I'm not sure my pride is worth the lawsuit." Reborn turns to stare at him intensely.

"In the mafia, pride is important. Important enough that territory wars are started because of a wounded ego," he says. Well, that's pretty damn stupid in Tsuna's honest opinion.

"That's ridiculous," he says. "Why would anyone fight over-"

"Because if you let another family walk all over you, disrespect you, then you are considered weak," Reborn interrupts.

"That's considered weak? What about turning the other cheek? Being the bigger man isn't common, I guess," Tsuna says somewhat smartly. He's had a hard week, okay. Reborn just smirks at him.

"Not if you want to be the most powerful family," he says. Tsuna rolls his eyes daringly. Power - it's always about power. Why can't people compete to be the most...happy? Peaceful, maybe. At this point, he'll even settle for passive-aggressive.

"Tsuna-kun!"

Tsuna turns to see Hayato striding towards him with Takeshi in tow.

"Good morning," Tsuna greets.

"Yo, Tsuna," Takeshi says.

"Tsuna-kun! It has been an excellent morning!" Hayato goes to bow, but then stops and settles for smiling brightly. Well, at least something is going right today.

"Hey, Tsuna, what happened to your face?" Takeshi indicates the red weal on Tsuna's cheek. Tsuna scratches his neck awkwardly. How to explain that a girl hit him twice in the face, and yet his Others are still fond of her. Part of why he didn't dodge was because he was surprised by the overwhelming fondness that his Others felt for the girl - along with the usual grief/sadness/dread, but it was the fondness that really threw him off.

"Well, a girl slapped me," he confesses, because that's a bit more manly than admitting to getting punched in the face after getting slapped. Though, judging by how Hayato nearly bites his cigarette in half and Takeshi's eyes darken with displeasure, that's enough.

Takeshi laughs a little, even though his eyes remain dangerous. "What did you do to deserve that?" he asks. Hayato shoots him an outraged expression, but Tsuna hastens to cut that argument off before it can happen.

"Um, I don't know. She thought I was brainwashing Reborn, or something," he says. And that's just ridiculous. Him? Pull the wool over Reborn?

"And then she slapped me," Tsuna finishes.

"She also punched you," Reborn adds (un)helpfully. Tsuna takes a moment to cast a despairing glance at the sky, and then he's stuck between trying to convince Hayato not to blow up her or her house, and calming Takeshi down so that he'll stop laughing that crazy, maniacal laugh.

That's pretty much the rest of his day.

The next day isn't much better. After the typical morning run that would make Olympic athletes cry for their mothers, Tsuna heads to school. That's all very well and good, but somewhere between there and coming back home, he finds himself first trying to stop Hayato from blowing up that girl - Haru - for challenging him and then, when that fails, he ends up rescuing her because she can't swim with all of her protective hockey gear on. He very, very, politely rejects her advances of...admiration - he's going with that because the other option hurts his brain just a lot - and then he proceeds to scurry to Lambo's daycare without making it look like he's running away.

Success. Or, at least, what he's counting towards it these days, anyway.

Of course, then he reaches the daycare and finds chaos. Lambo has, apparently, taken it upon himself to walk himself home. Without telling anyone.

Tsuna drags a hand over his face even as the poor girl manning the desk tearfully asks for forgiveness.

"No, of course, it's fine," he consoles her. "I'll talk to him about it." This is, after all, not the first time Lambo has just taken off.

Tsuna leaves and immediately heads for home. If his hunch is correct, and if Lambo's habits hold true, the younger boy should be raiding the fridge. When he opens the door to his house and says, "I'm home," his mother - who should be at work and nowhere near this shit - replies.

"In the kitchen, Tsu-kun," she says cheerfully. He steps into the kitchen and finds what is, quite frankly, a mess of flour, water, and a number of other substances.

"Mom, what…" he trails off when he finds the obvious source glued to the glass of the oven door. "Lambo!"

The kid doesn't even twitch. He's too busy drooling over whatever's in the oven.

"Lambo-kun called me home from work. He said it was an emergency," Nana says from where she's washing her hands. "When I got here, he said that all of the sweets in the house were eaten."

Tsuna deflates. "I'm so sorry, Mom. I didn't know- he ran away from the daycare again!" he says, shame clouding his face. Nana clucks her tongue and moves so that she's standing in front of him.

"It's alright, Tsu-kun. I can afford to take a day off here and then," she reassures him. "Besides! I wouldn't want my son and his friends to be without sweets." She pats his head and turns to Lambo. "Wait just ten more minutes, Lambo-kun," she says gaily.

Tsuna has to admit that seeing her like this is pretty nice. She's been tired lately; her job is difficult with its long hours and early mornings. Cooking always puts her in a better mood. Despite his irritation with Lambo, he feels grateful that the boy inspired the mood change in his mother.

The front door opens. Into the kitchen steps Hayato with Reborn on his shoulder. Takeshi must have gone home.

"Tsuna-kun!" Hayato greets.

"You ran off quite quickly," Reborn says, menace underlying his casual tone. Tsuna opens his mouth to refute the 'running away' part, but Lambo's head snaps around at Reborn's voice.

"Reborn!" he yells. Oh gosh. Tsuna thought they were past this.

Before Lambo can create even more of a mess, Tsuna swoops down and picks him up.

"Not in the kitchen, Lambo," he says, carefully making sure that Lambo is facing away from Reborn. Mostly so that Reborn can't antagonize him; he's a jerk like that.

"But, Tsuna," Lambo whines.

"No." Tsuna ruffles Lambo's head in reassurance. He starts to walk out of the kitchen, away from Reborn and - more importantly - his mother.

Of course, something goes wrong.

For no discernable reason, Lambo suddenly starts to struggle enough that holding him is a challenge, and Tsuna has to stop to readjust his grip.

"No, I must...kill...Reborn!" He manages to reach into his afro and pulls out his Ten-Year-Bazooka. Now, Tsuna has only seen this in action once, and it was memorable because apparently 15 year-old Lambo is as sensible as his younger self - as in, not - but he knows it's trouble. He doesn't think even his mother can pass off the ageing of a child as normal. Accordingly, Tsuna tries to grab it. Lambo pulls back.

It's a tug-of-war, and Lambo, frustrated, pulls the bazooka and accidentally pulls the trigger at the same time.

Almost as if in slow motion, Tsuna watches the blast bypass himself, just barely brush past Lambo, and head right for his mother.

"Eh?" Nana's eyes are wide. Then-

She's enveloped in a cloud of bright pink smoke.

"MOM!"

…

"No, no, no." Tsuna barely registers dropping Lambo and surging forwards.

The smoke clears. And, in place of his mother is…

His mother. But-

She's different.

Her hair is pinned in a no-nonsense bun, her smile is gone, and-

And-

One eye is missing. In its place is an ugly, horrifying scar. She is also very, very unconscious.

"No, dammit!" His Others are a mess because this isn't supposed to have happened - this didn't happen in a dozen other universes why does it have to happen in his?

He doesn't realize he's said this aloud until he feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks around, shaking, lost, so, so afraid, and finds Hayato's calm eyes.

"Breathe. She's definitely alive, Tsuna," his friend says. Was that even in question? What kind of world is he bringing his mother into that he has to make sure she's still breathing?

Tsuna shakes his head, as if in denial of the situation, and kneels at his mother's side. He checks her over, hands unsteady and breath coming in with great whooshes of air. He could be hyperventilating. He is hyperventilating - his support, his anchor in his fucking mess of a mind and life, his wonderful, beautiful mother who's been here since he was born, always loving him no matter what and always trusting him though God knows he hasn't done much to deserve that is lying here, unconscious, because he pulled her into this mess. Half-remembered training from his Others kicks in, and he finds himself taking her pulse, just in case. And he finds it, strong and steady, and he could cry with relief. He knows she's alive; obviously he can see her breathing, but the actual feel of her pulse is so reassuring that he feels dizzy.

Her breathing hitches. The one eye left (NO!) cracks open.

"Tsu-kun?" she mumbles. She-

She still calls him that. Even after everything he must put her through - and does he loath his future self for letting her go through whatever hell she's clearly been through; what use is he if he can't even protect the person most important to him?

"Mom?" he says, and it takes a minute to realize that the shaky voice is his own.

"Ah," she says. Realization dawns on her. She smiles, the same warm, caring smile as always. "I don't have much time, Tsu-kun. When...when the other me comes back, she won't be the same. Just be honest with her. She'll come back to you."

Tsuna's mind scrambles to catch up.

"What- what do you mean?" he croaks, relief draining away in face of sheer terror. Will his mom come back changed? Will she hate him? Will she be traumatized for life?

His mom from the future just pats his cheek. "I'm going now. I love you, Tsu-kun," she says. Then, she disappears in another puff of smoke.

Tsuna...just kind of sits there uselessly as he waits for it to fade.

Nana appears in a seated position. Her eyes are blank. Her expression is empty. She looks...unharmed, at least.

"M-Mom?" Tsuna ventures to ask. Her eyes land on him, but they seem to look just past him.

She stands. He scrambles to follow her lead.

"Mom?" he tries again. Nana pats him on the head, but unlike just six minutes ago, this feels impersonal. It feels wrong.

"Mama's going to go sit, Tsu-kun," she says distantly. And she turns. Wobbling a little with each step, she walks past the shocked Hayato and the silent Reborn. Tsuna tries to think past the sounds of his Others having breakdowns, throwing themselves into hysterical fits; he tries to think past the white noise in his mind.

"Tsuna?"

Tsuna turns dazed, lost eyes to Hayato, who looks just as confused but with a determination to help. The problem is, Tsuna doesn't know how to help, and his sources of solutions aren't offering anything either. And - and Tsuna wants to think of something, anything, to salvage the situation, but the same thought keeps running through his mind.

What if there's nothing to salvage? What if this is the final straw?

…what if his mother never recovers?

…

Interlude: Nana

Nana Sawada is not smart. She is not cunning, sly, or duplicitous in any sense of the words. This she knows.

But she is a mother, and she likes to think that she is at least an okay one, though by who's standards that's measured by she doesn't know, because every parent worth their salt knows that they don't know what they're doing with their children. Regardless, because she is a mother, she knows that her Tsuna is a bit more special than other children.

Iemitsu thinks her unobservant, and she is, but not when it comes to family. She'd have to be positively blind to not notice that Reborn isn't a normal child at all. Or that Hayato, sweet boy, always carries dynamite with him. And these people surround Tsuna, who is arguably the most unusual out of all of them. And before today, she could never quite put her finger on why her Tsuna is so different.

But now, after her trip to...the future, she finally knows. The pieces all fall into place.

Her son will be a mafia boss, and one who inherited it from someone he isn't even related to. And Iemitsu… She doesn't know where to start with that. Everything makes sense.

(Did Iemitsu ever love her? Or was she just convenient for his happy ending? Someone to be there for him when he finally decides to retire.)

But Nana, Nana is done withnot being able to protect her son. She couldn't help him with his bullies because the principal wouldn't listen to a single mother, she couldn't help him with his studies because she barely scraped through college herself, but she can help him with this- this obligation forced on him by his father. And if she has to kick out Iemitsu and Reborn, and all of them, to keep her Tsuna happy, then she will.

Nana is many things, oblivious and dull, but she loves her son more than anything in the world; she won't be a failure as a mother too.

…

Tsuna:

"-wada. Sawada. Sawada!"

Tsuna snaps back to attention to find Hana Kurokawa staring at him.

"Um," he says.

"Have you been listening to a word I've said for the past half hour?" she asks. First of all, it's been that long? Second of all, who talks for a solid half hour before noticing that the person they're talking to isn't listening?

But, in the interest of self-preservation, he says none of this. "...no," he says, deciding that honesty is the best policy. He tries not to cringe too much at the ear-melting lecture that is about to follow.

Hana surprises him by leaning back and studying him. "What's going on with you?" she asks. "You've been more out of it than usual for the past two days."

Tsuna blinks slowly at her. Has it been two days? He guesses that since today is Thursday, and the...thing with his mom happened on Tuesday, then yes, it has been two days. Well. Time flies when on the verge of a break down, it seems.

"I-a lot of things," he says honestly. She raises an unimpressed eyebrow. "It's complicated," he adds. She doesn't back off. In fact, she leans forward.

"Listen, it's none of my business, but you're making Kyoko concerned. Hell, Hibari has been hovering for the last two days, which, I gotta tell you, is pretty nerve-wracking for everyone who isn't off in their own world. It's why I got stuck with you as a partner for the project due next Monday; no one else wanted to risk pissing him off. So. Either solve your problem, vent a little, or get your act together and stop with the pity party," she says sharply. For a minute, he wants to snap at her, that she has no idea, that she can't possibly understand-

Except.

Except, she's right. Because he never tells anyone anything, and psychology one-o-one dictates that things that are bottled up are bound to spill over eventually. Well, here it is, exploding all over his life, affecting everything from his school work to his social relationships.

"You're right," he says. She blinks at him. She clearly didn't expect him to give in, but he likes to think that he's good at recognizing when he's in the wrong. "I-" he sighs and rubs a hand through his hair, which is...greasy and gross. He's been letting himself go out of stress over his mother. "Listen, come over to my house after school. I'll explain everything."

Her eyebrow raises from where it had lowered. "Everything?" she asks skeptically.

"Everything," he promises.

…

The doorbell rings.

"I got it!" he calls to his mom. She hums an acknowledgement and doesn't look up from her book. She's been reading a lot. He thinks it might be a coping mechanism, but for what he doesn't know.

Hana and Hayato are waiting when he opens the door. One brightens immediately, and the other shakes her head and pushes in.

"Please, come in," he says belatedly. He guides them to his room.

"Who is it, Tsu-kun?" Nana asks.

"Just some friends," he tells her. "You can go back to reading."

She nods and doesn't question it (she used to be so happy to meet his friends, but now…). He pushes away the pang to his heart and follows his friends up. When he arrives, Hana has made herself at home and is sitting on his bed, Hayato is openly scowling in disapproval at her, and Takeshi is where he was when Tsuna left: in a chess match against Reborn. Everyone looks up when he enters.

"You going to tell us?" Hana asks without preamble. Hayato's scowl deepens, but before they can get into an argument, Tsuna nods.

"Okay," he says, and he breathes. His Others offer silent reassurance, which helps to bolster his courage. "Okay, so you all know how I tend to space out, right?"

All of them nod. He sees Reborn straighten slightly, which would be amusing at any other time, because he knows that this has been driving Reborn crazy.

"So, you also all know the split personality disorder, right? Well, I kind of have something like that. Except, they're actual people who are in my head. Versions of me, actually, who come from alternate universes and who somehow end up with me after they die. Usually, I think, because they have something they regret enough to come back," he says. He doesn't pause to wince at the sheer incredulity on Hana's face and the sudden blankness on Reborn's. It sounds ludicrous. He wouldn't believe himself. "They come at different times. I have over a dozen right now. I call them my Others, but, um, they all have different nicknames. I gained my first one when I was five-"

"You're telling me that you've been getting extra presences in your mind for the past eight years?" Hana interrupts, which makes Hayato shoot her a murderous glare. She ignores this as she stares hard at Tsuna, who gulps.

"Yes," he says. She huffs.

"No wonder you're so messed up," she mutters.

"You-" Hayato starts furiously. Tsuna waves him back.

"You believe me?" he asks, hope rising and catching somewhere in his throat.

There's that eyebrow again. "Yeah. It makes sense if you think about it. I mean, I don't know many children under the age of ten who can write in three different languages," she says. He blushes a little.

"You saw that?" he says sheepishly.

"You aren't nearly as subtle as you think you are," she tells him. "Besides, it explains why you exhibit all of the signs of having PTSD even though you haven't been in any traumatic situations." She shrugs when he continues to stare at her. "It's common sense."

"Yeah, common sense," he echoes. God bless Hana Kurokawa for being so...well, sensible. He glances at Hayato, who immediately understands his unsaid question.

"Of course I believe you, Tsuna-kun," he reassures. "It's not even the weirdest thing I've heard of happening, believe it or not." He casts a suspicious glance at Takeshi. "What say you, Baseball-freak?"

"I already knew," Takeshi says breezily, much to Tsuna's despair, because that makes Hayato look like he's two seconds away from blowing a gasket or having an aneurysm.

"He was here when a new Other arrived. I...kind of freaked him out, so," Tsuna says awkwardly.

"That was fun," Takeshi says cheerfully. Tsuna swears that Takeshi is the biggest troll in the history of ever, because even Reborn seems to be questioning his sanity at the moment. Speaking of Reborn…

Tsuna takes a quick peek at his tutor. It really all comes down to whether Reborn believes him. All of his cards are on the table now; Tsuna doesn't know what he'll do if Reborn calls him a liar, or worse, threatens him for the truth-

"Alright, Tsunayoshi," Reborn says finally. And Tsuna-

Tsuna slumps in relief. The usage of his whole name is, he knows, Reborn's way of saying that he accepts without him actually saying it.

"I don't understand, though, why you were so bad these past few days," Hana says. "You aren't usually so out of it, even if you are a space case."

Tsuna winces at the reminder. "Um, my mom had an...accident. My Others- it didn't happen in their worlds. So, I was caught by surprise," he says. Hana frowns a little.

"Have you...been taking what they've showed you, or told you, whatever, with a grain of salt?" she asks slowly.

"What do you mean?" he says, surprised.

"I mean that what has happened in their worlds won't necessarily happen in yours, and vice versa, so how seriously are you taking their advice on future events? If circumstances are different between the worlds, things may turn out differently." She sighs at their expressions of shock and, in his case, slight befuddlement. "Obviously this hasn't occurred to you, somehow. Look, let's say that Event A plus Event B equals Event C in one world. Well, if your world doesn't have Event A, then Event C will never come to exist. Instead, you'll get a whole different event, or you won't get any event at all. Get it?"

"Yes…" Tsuna says slowly. "But I've had a lot of consistencies between my world and theirs."

Her eyebrow raises. "Have you really?"

He pauses and considers. He thinks about all of their circumstances, the events he's lived through so far, and the people he's met. And, well, except for the actual people, a lot of variables are different between all of the universes. Hell, just having his Others period makes this world far and away from the others.

"I...feel like an idiot," he says. How has he never considered this before? It seems obvious, now that he thinks about it.

"Don't," Hana snorts derisively. "It's not your fault you've got ghosts taking up space in your brain."

Ghosts seem inaccurate. Then again, they are technically all dead.

Wait.

Does this mean he's being haunted and/or possessed? Once again, how hasn't this occurred to him yet? His life is so bizarre if he's wondering why possession isn't a conclusion he reached years ago.

"Explain further. You have knowledge of the future of these alternate universes, and yet you seem surprised at times?" Reborn interjects.

Tsuna scratches his head and tries to think about how to condense it all down. "Well," he starts.

The window explodes as a small, dark shape bursts into the room.

Tsuna sighs as the presence registers. What is it with children and terrible timing? Maybe that's just Lambo, though.

"Die, Reborn!" the boy screams, pulling out his bazooka and-

Nope.

Tsuna reaches and snatches the thing away before Lambo can send anyone else to the future. He is not dealing with this twice, thank you very much. Then, he watches as Reborn punts the kid back out the broken window - he'll be paying for that later - and…

And right through the wall of a neighboring house.

Just.

Why?

Tsuna scrapes his hands down his face, makes a noise that's halfway between a moan, a groan, and a growl - yes that's three, but math is unimportant when faced with possible damage charges - and he bolts out of his room, takes the stairs by three as he charges down, shouts an alert to his mom, shoves on his shoes, and throws open the door.

He's at the front door when it opens and out comes Lambo and...a boy with red hair and glasses who's holding a box. Just a simple, cardboard box, from the Bovino family.

Lambo's family.

"Are you-" the boy starts.

"Yup," Tsuna agrees, picking Lambo up before he can destroy any more houses. "Very sorry for the mess. Um, I'll compensate you?"

"No, I meant- this package. I think it's for you," the other boy says. He pushes the package towards Tsuna, who takes one look inside, blanches and takes it immediately.

Of course Lambo's family would send a bazooka and a grenade to a total stranger.

Tsuna digs out the money he sees and hands it to the boy. "Here, for your trouble and the damages." He pauses. "My name is Tsuna Sawada."

"Oh." The redhead adjusts his glasses. "My name is Irie Shōichi, nice to-"

Irie continues, but Tsuna doesn't hear it over the enormous roar of noise in his head.

Tsuna stumbles backwards, disoriented as his Others all start making themselves heard about something. And that's not even the worst part. They're reacting to this person, Irie whatever-his-name is, and they're fighting about him.

"What- one at a time!" Tsuna yells at them. They don't comply. If anything, they grow louder, desperate for him to listen, to obey, to do whatever it is that they're telling him to do.

Tsuna doesn't register himself falling to his knees. He doesn't hear Irie's alarmed shouts, and he doesn't feel Lambo shaking him. He doesn't notice when blood starts to drip down his nose. He's too busy being crowded in his own mind, frightened of his Others for the very first time since he was five.

They press in, frantic, roiling with fear, anger, and frustration. They mentally grapple with each other, peacemakers like QT and Yoshi ojii-san overwhelmed by others with hot heads or vengeful hearts. They pressure him to act one way or another, tearing at his mind as they fight amongst each other for the right course of action, and he doesn't understand-

Tsunayoshi Sawada collapses in the middle of the afternoon at a complete stranger's house for no apparent reason. The doctors later deem that he had a seizure.

He doesn't wake up for three days.

…

Tsuna is alone, and he's scared. His Others are silent, imposing presences, and right now…

Right now, he's trapped in his own mind, surrounded by memories of the past and nightmares for the future. And he can't.

Get.

Out.

…

Someone help me.

(1): We're going to see some lasting guilt over all of the deception Tsuna has pulled over the last few years. He understands the need for it, but he dislikes it all the same.

Guest Reviews (Bottom to Top):

Snowyh20: Hello. Yes, I think it took an unacceptable number of months for an update? And it happened again? Sincere apologies. Anyway, Takeshi knows, and yes, having someone to share the burden definitely decreases Tsuna's stress levels a little bit. Thankfully. Lambo bullying Tsuna was always something that bothered me in the original manga. I mean, the kid was eight years younger and Tsuna was letting him push him around. So, Tsuna has a backbone. Mostly because he's too tired to deal with anything Lambo throws his way, so he just doesn't care about humoring the kid anymore. He definitely isn't a saint, and his patience is tightly wound and tends to snap when he's exhausted or suffering from a recent PTSD attack.

I really appreciate your kind and very supportive review. Sorry it took so long; I just kind of lost my muse and then…didn't update. I'm glad you think Tsuna the First is realistic, and I hope to see you soon. I hope you enjoyed this last update!

Janee: Hello; I'm so glad that you found my story! Thank you for the kind review, and I hope that the Others delivered on excitement increase with this chapter. Poor Tsuna never catches a break. Sorry for the wait; I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Guest: Glad you like the story! Hopefully I will continue to deliver; thank you for the review!

Guest: Yeah, that rule applies to after, like, sixteen, I think. Interesting fact, though. Thank you for the review!

A/N: I was thinking, after I've gone through all of the Others being introduced, that I could do an Interlude chapter that goes deeper into the former lives and personalities of Tsuna's Others. What do you think? Would you like to read that?

A/N 2: And so we see the first (chronological) Other that has some control issues with anger. That inability, or rather, hardship with controlling anger will feature in some of Tsuna's past scenes. In other news, Others taking over Tsuna's body? Not planned, I'll tell you now. But if the scene fits…

A/N 3: As you can see, this is an important chapter. I had a hard time with it because Irie contributes a lot to the Future Arc and beyond, but I feel like some people would view the Future Arc as his fault. Future Gokudera even told Tsuna to kill him. So. I thought the Others might have conflicting ideas about what to do with him. I don't know when I'll update next, but it's nice to finally get this out after months of dithering over how to end it. Sorry for the wait, thank you for your patience. Enjoy waiting for a resolution to this unexpected cliffhanger ;). Until next time!

PLEASE READ, I AM IN NEED OF HELP! HELP THIS POOR WOMAN!

I'm looking for a beta! Just some help to bounce ideas off of and overall quality checks - misspells, plot points, character actions and such. I don't want to have to rewrite this like I did my other story, because quite frankly it's a pain in the ass. So. This is my solution to hopefully fix some future plot and character problems. I'd look at the Beta section on the website, but there are a lot of people on there, and I don't have the time or patience to skim through them all. I do have some requirements for being my Beta, but I don't think they're unreasonable.

1: You must either speak English as a first language, or you better be damn good at using it as a second/third language.

2: You must be familiar with the fandom and preferably my story. It wouldn't be a lot of help to ask for plot ideas from someone who hasn't read the manga/watched the anime. As for my story, well, I'd rather you be familiar with my writing style/author personality.

3: I don't really have strict deadlines, but I'd like it if you were done your beta work within seven days after I get it to you.

4: You will be reading ahead. Please, for the love of God, don't share spoilers or plot details that I've been thinking about with other people.

5: I'll run some trials with different beta volunteers to see who best fits what I need. I might take one person for one chapter, and another for a different chapter, and then choose between the two. Please don't be offended if I don't choose you. It's not personal - I'm just trying to find the best fit for me.

6: Finally, this is a hobby and I treat it as such. I love constructive criticism because it helps me grow, but if you start harshly putting down my story without good reason, I'm going to cut you loose and then block you from my PM.

Anyone who's interested, please PM me. Please don't answer in a review unless you're adding a comment/criticism/compliment as well.