A/N Welcome!

I've been fiddling with this little fic for a while, and rather than let it stew in one of my not-so-well hidden folders, I thought I'd post it here.

The updating will be sporadic, and mostly all over the place (with large unexplained breaks) and this is mainly because I am focusing on another fic.

I will try to at least finish this though, whenever that might be :)

There are a lot of pairings going on in here, but I think I'll be making it pretty obvious who will have a part in the romance. I am not sure though, if this will end with a final single pairing, or an odd mishmash of a harem.

Well there won't be much of anything in the first few chapters anyway, so here we go. (Just a note, italics is for Italian, I'll be putting google translate to work in this fic)

~Chapter 1 – They Beat in Sync

"My apologies Iemitsu," A gravelly voice said over the phone, his voice filled with sincerity despite the foreign words, "I hate to trouble you at this time, but it is likely that you will have to return."

"Haa…" Iemitsu sighed softly, stretching his tense shoulders as he kept his eyes on the flickering ceiling light. He stood stiffly, phone pressed to one ear while the other stayed attuned to the commotion in the room behind him. "When?" His hands itched to pull out a cigarette, but he wouldn't dare inside the hospital, instead settling to run his fingers through his short, blond hair.

"Tonight." His boss answered with finality.

"Now?!" For a moment he struggled to keep his speech respectful, head turning to glance inside the room where his wife was, "What happened?"

"The Gospella famiglia are causing trouble again," The voice on the other side of the phone sounded tired, "Sorry again, Iemitsu," He repeated, "I know you wanted to be with your family." He shook his head forlornly. He didn't even have a family to be with yet, and despite the fact that his wife and future son were fighting for survival just a couple steps behind him, the chances were he wouldn't spend more than a moment with them. And that was if he was lucky. He took a deep breath, exhaling loudly.

"It's fine." The fact that his boss was apologizing struck him deeply, seeing as the old man had enough power to simply order him back without question, "I'll board the plane tonight-"

"Sawada-san." A masked doctor tapped his shoulder and Iemitsu quickly ended the call, shoving his phone back into his pockets.

"Yes?" He instantly switched languages without a problem, if anything more comfortable with this one seeing as it was the one he grew up with.

"Congratulations." The doctor smiled behind his mask, pushing open the operating room's doors so he could glance inside, "Would you like to meet your children?"

"Children?" His blue eyes locked with the brown of his wife's, the warm and fuzzy feeling of love rising in his chest as per usual. His eyes peered at the bundle in her thin arms, so intently he was startled by a nurse pushing an identical bundle into his own arms. "Twins?" His voice caught in his throat as his son squirmed and then began to wail, his loud cry demanding attention throughout the room.

"Iemitsu," His wife called, beckoning him over, "Come here." They swapped bundles, and the man noticed that this child was ever so slightly lighter, letting out only quiet whimpers.

"Names?" he asked quietly, as Nana soothed the crying baby.

"Ieyoshi," She said looking at the one in her arms, "And Ietsuna." This time her eyes moved to the lighter of the twins, pale eyes opening blearily as she took in the first sights of the world.

They were one and the same, and yet each had their own undeniable existence, like two candles brought to life by a single flame. Since the time they came into the world they were inseparable, and only with many tears did they unwillingly part. Ietsuna was the older twin by mere seconds, but in every other way she was 'smaller' than her brother, both in size and personality. She cried softer than her physically bigger brother with wisps of laughter compared to the other's hearty squeals. They had both started with brown tufts of hair and pale eyes, but through time Ieyoshi's dark hair lightened until it was more blonde than brown and his eyes brightening to a magnificent blue, whilst his sister took a marginally different path. Her hair never went more than a few shades lighter than their mother's and her eyes colouring a molten amber that few would recognize.

Nana was of the ignorant majority, she could only smile as she watched her darling children play. She considered herself incredibly lucky that she had been blessed with twins, and better yet, a pair of siblings that seemed to adore one another. "Tsu, look." Her son was shouting for his barely-older sister, dragging her attention away from the colourful picture book and towards his stack of building blocks.

"Uh?" She clapped her hands in praise, being careful not to knock the structure down as she poked its side. Their mother could watch them forever, both entertained by their silly behaviour and watchful of potential dangers. Nana simply loved every minute of her days. They were so well behaved, not as loud as she had expected most of the time, and she wanted to be there for every milestone in their growth. No, she didn't even want to think about being separated from her babies.

"Nana." Iemitsu called her into the kitchen, his usual smile a bit more strained as he watched his kids. She loved him dearly of course, seeing as she married him, but unfortunately he had always been the bearer of bad news in the family. He spoke quietly, and for a second she thought she might have misheard.

"You want to take Yoshi-kun?" Nana repeated, her voice horrified. Iemitsu looked at her and nodded, his expression one of rare seriousness. He had told her barely anything, as per usual.

"Nii-chan leaving?" An unsure voice brought their attention to the twins, two pairs of wide, innocent eyes looking at them questioningly. Nana knew it was almost impossible to miss how close they one with one another. Even now they were holding hands, and yet Iemitsu wanted to split them apart.

"Maybe," The blond said, scooping them both up in his strong arms, "Papa's lonely you know." Whilst it was only part of his reason for wanting to take his son, it was the truth and the only thing his dear family had to know.

"Far away?" Ieyoshi asked, blinking his gorgeous blue eyes as his mother's hand ran through his blond hair.

"Very far away," Iemitsu answered, "But we will come back often, to visit your mama and onee-chan."

"Like papa then." His daughter replied as the hand moved to tug her own brown hair. She understood the concept of leaving, and knew she wouldn't like it if she couldn't see Yoshi. Especially since when their papa said 'often', he really meant once in a very long while.

"Just like papa." Nana confirmed looking at her daughter's worried, amber eyes. She opened her arms and her husband let her hold the young girl, both of them now facing each other with one of their children in their arms, "What do you think, Tsu-chan?" She asked her daughter quietly, now that the twins were apart, albeit only slightly.

"I-," She immediately wanted to say how much she hated such a thing but an odd feeling made her hesitate. She didn't want to be like some of the other kids they had met, she didn't want to be selfish. Tsuna just wanted her mama and papa to be happy. "Yoshi should choose." She replied, turning her face away and burying it in her mother's warm chest, tears threatening to cloud her vision as she knew exactly what her brother would chose.

Her brother had already left by the time kindergarten arrived, and suddenly something that had excited Tsuna, became unbearably frightening. "My name is Sawada Ietsuna." Her voice trembled nervously as the small girl hunched in on herself, small hands clutching one another tightly as she pretended her hand was someone else's. She didn't like the attention, and already missed the comforting warmth of her mama.

"No need to be so scared Ietsuna-chan," The teacher patted her fluffy hair fondly, wearing an encouraging smile on her face, "Now come on and raise your head so you can get to know your new friends."

"…ok." Still unsure, she dragged her eyes from the faded carpet, visibly flinching as whispers broke out, quickly growing to a loud murmur.

"Sensei, what's wrong with her eyes?" Tsuna felt her body tense at the question, her breath becoming shorter and quicker with the onslaught of panic.

"Kenta!" He was being scolded, but it didn't change his words. Why exactly were her eyes so different from the norm? Why couldn't they have been more like her mother's….or even her brother's? Thinking about her twin seemed to worsen her condition. The fact that he wasn't here beside her made her afraid in an inexplicable way.

"Ietsuna-chan?" The young teacher looked down at the shy girl, noticing how she was shaking. She got no reaction, growing increasingly concerned at the hard breathing. "…Ietsuna-chan?" Tentatively she reached out, lightly touching the small shoulder.

"Yoshi," The name slipped past her lips almost inaudibly at first, before she began to chant it in earnest, "Yoshi-nii…where?" Her chest was beginning to hurt, making her panic more, with even tears gathering in her eyes. "Yoshi?"

Tsuna. Nana wrung her hands in her lap, looking at her daughter who had finally fallen asleep. The hospital bed looked too large for her, to white and sterile. They had taken away the oxygen mask as soon as she had been able to breathe safely on her own, and loaded Nana with too much information for her to currently process. Asthma wasn't uncommon, she now had the medication for in, and the panic attack was likely a one off and not future anxiety problems.

With one last look at her daughter, she left the room, ready to go find the doctor in charge for a repeat explanation.

"Oh, are you alright?" Nana wasn't clumsy by nature, but still found herself stumbling quite embarrassingly into a stranger. The stress of it all was probably getting to her.

"Sorry." She replied hastily, taking a step back from the man. He wasn't dressed like a doctor, instead wearing a simple green kimono, and despite his shock of white hair, looked like a kind, young man.

"You look awfully tired," He began, adjusting his glasses, "Can I offer any help." He seemed completely sincere and before she realized what she was doing, she was unloading all her problems and worries onto him. And surprisingly, he listened, with more than enough patience expected of a stranger.

"…I love Tsuna so much that I'd be lonely without her, just like without Yoshi, but I can cope. I'm coping now." She wasn't going to cry, feeling more drained than actually emotional, "I don't think Tsuna can do without her brother though. It was far too early to pull them apart."

"Can you not move over there with your husband?" The unnamed stranger asked. She shook her head. She couldn't, it was the one thing she was completely stubborn about, and she had no good reason as to why. Japan was her home, it was Iemitsu's home as well so long as she was there and it was something she felt he couldn't afford to lose. He never stressed that they should live together, he travelled a lot after all, and never wanted her anywhere where she was uncomfortable.

A/N Thank you for reading :)

This chapter is quite short, but I didn't want to call it a prologue and mess up fanfiction's numbering.

This will be a twinfic, but they'll actually be quite close. I have a hard time making characters mean, it just doesn't stick and I have an aversion to making people bad. (In fact I might end up redeeming a lot of characters...oh the struggles of picking an antagonist.) Well, we'll just go with the flow here.