Title: And Then You Came Back

Rating: T (for now)

Genre: Angst, Romance

Pairing: 10YL!6927, with a tiny, tiny bit of 10YL!1827

Summary: What if Tsuna had been the only one sent into the future?

Disclaimer: I do not own or gain any profit from writing this story. All characters used belong strictly to Akira Amano. Thank you.

A/N: Well, my Reborn obsession finally managed to sucker me down again. It's been so long since I was last into it, and now I'M LIKE REALLY INTO IT. Again. So here's a plot bunny that has been raging in my head for the past week.

He remembered an explosion, he remembered his insides feeling like they were being catapulted to some far-off dimension – Sawada Tsunayoshi remembered lots of things, but for just this once, he wished he didn't have to remember that horrible, tugging feeling. That nauseous feeling you got when you were hurdled over an outrageous drop on a raging roller coaster, the feeling you got when you were out-of-your-mind scared. The universe seemed to collapse in on itself, his body floating on nothing but the air around him.

'I'm spinning,' he thought to himself, brow furrowing as his world twirled about him, sending him falling through a whirlwind of dizzying motion. Good thing he had his eyes closed.

"Wah!" he cried when his body suddenly slammed down, as if rooting him to the spot. The tugging sensation tapered away until it was gone altogether, and the world seemed to finally stop spinning enough for Tsuna to open his mouth and inhale a lungful of much needed air. When it's staleness tickled his taste buds, Tsuna knew something was horribly, terribly wrong. There were no sounds, no noises, no toddlers crying and whining for this and that, no friendly banter and trivial arguments between friends – absolutely nothing. The only thing he managed to point out was a slightly familiar scent, a floral one, as if he were encased in . . .

'Flowers?!' he though, twiddling his fingers at his sides until he felt the distinct softness of what felt like a horde of flowers pressing into him.

Tsuna forced his eyes open, panic blasting into him like a geyser. His eyes met with nothing but darkness, a pure and scathing black resembling the color of spilled ink. The fear began to claw at him, raking through his limbs and slashing across his mind. Adrenaline kicked into his blood stream, fusing to his veins like a parasite. He began moving his limbs, flexing his fingers wildly until he managed to slam them up against something – and that's what really frightened him.

He was trapped inside something, encased like a writhing sardine that hadn't quite kicked the bucket. He slammed his fists against the barrier above him and kicked out at the remaining sides enclosing his body, but to no avail.

"Help!" he screamed, slamming the palms of his hands against the sleek surface directly above him. "Help, somebody please!"

He raked his fingernails along the barrier, madly trying to claw his way through, terror licking at his heels. "Please, somebody help me! LET ME OUT!"

He was shrieking now, the air feeling all too warm. His breath was hitching, his lungs trying to suck in as much oxygen as they could without trying to collapse on themselves. It was really, really warm now. So warm that Tsuna was starting to sweat, a bead of water slowly streaming down the right side of his temple to pool around the curve of his ear lobe.

"LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT!" he hollered, his voice growing frantic. He punched, kicked and banged at the barrier, jerking his limbs chaotically about him, stopping at nothing to be released.

'I'm gonna' die, I'm gonna' die. I can't breath -- .'

And then the world turned white.

Tsuna jutted his hands out in front of him, palms wide open. He choked, taking in a lungful of crisp, cold air. He slanted his eyes, the white light around him molding into blue sky, white clouds and a dense forest of gangling trees. For some reason, the top of the barrier had been removed.

Tsuna's entire body tensed when he heard a choking sound, and then a rendering sob. He wasn't alone.

"Juu-Juudaime?"

Tsuna shot up and looked around him, large chocolate eyes scanning his surroundings. There were so many trees, tons of them, all lined up together like strips of lean wire. There was a breeze softly flowing through them, whispering gently against the leaves and trailing languidly along the surface of the coarse, uneven grass. At this point in time, Tsuna looked down at himself, eyes widening even further when he found that his hand was clutching onto something. After a good deal of squinting and cocking his head, he realized that he was clutching onto the side of what he had been earlier encased in.

He was in a casket – a coffin.

"Hiiiii!" he screamed, throwing himself over the right side of the casket, sending him sprawling in a tangle of limbs on the grassy floor. His face hit the earth with a sickening smack, momentarily knocking the breath out of him until he managed to regain it back again. He heard a distant thud to his left, as if something or someone had dropped heavily to the grass. Tsuna piqued his head, fear momentarily paralyzing him. He shot a brief glimpse at the shadow of a figure hidden amidst the plethora of trees.

"Juudaime . . . Juudaime. Tsu-Tsuna."

And then realization hit him like a bag of bricks. Tsuna's eyes flew open and abruptly spun his body around, nearly knocking himself back into the coffin. He knew that voice – of course, it sounded a bit different, a bit more huskier and deeper from what he could remember, but it was the same nonetheless.

"G-Gokudera-kun?"

A/N: Well, first chapter complete. Uhhhh, I'm really anxious to see what's going to happen next in KHR. I mean, after all this 10YL business, what's going to happen next? It's kind of hard from going all "Byakuran! Arcobaleno! Mukuro escaped Vendicare!" to "Yay! We're back in the past. Now what?". There's a huge transition to make!

-.-"

Please review if you can! Thanks for reading!