*hides behind pole* Sorry for being so bad at this author thing, seriously. Like how do you people even like me still, what.

Hoping you all enjoy it, here is the new chapter of Playing with Fire.

(and people, stop hating on Byakuran for existing, yeezus)

Life is not a cruel thing or a beautiful thing; no, life is a simple part of existence in which there's the bad and the good. Some people receive more bad than good and other more good than bad, but everyone receives a share of the world's trials and tribulations. Every human being is a source of amazing potential and could change the world if they chose to. The world has labels, yes, but when has humanity ever followed the rules? When has anyone truly followed the rules set for them by the so-called God? There were no straight paths in existence, but only the ones already built and the ones you made yourselves.

It was this thought that led Byakuran to become friends with Tsunayoshi Sawada, and years later he still wouldn't realize that his simple ponderings had indeed changed the future of the world. In fact, it would change the balance of every world in which a Byakuran and Tsunayoshi existed, and neither of them would ever realize how twisted and taut the strings of Fate were around them.

Really, Tsunayoshi Sawada resembled a normal resident of Cielo and would have been overlooked if it weren't for the fact that he wasn't 'normal' at all. This was in fact one of the reason he had intrigued Byakuran so; the adults whispered about him in every corner and parents used him as the monster in stories to warn their children but for the life of him, the white-haired boy couldn't figure out why. All he knew was that Sawada Tsunayoshi was an anomaly.

The boy who wasn't supposed to exist.

It wasn't until he was lying on the grass, staring up at the ever-so-blue sky and reached the conclusion that life was meant to be horribly messed up and rules and labels existed to allow one to choose which paths they wanted to go on that Byakuran Gesso decided he was going to find out anything and everything about Sawada Tsunayoshi.

And if it was because he was sick of his life and thought maybe he could find someone to hate this life together with if he met Tsunayoshi Sawada, it was no one else's business.

That very night he made his choice, and Byakuran dreamt of leaping orange flames and the wind whooshing in his ears as feathers fell from the sky.

While it is true that wings on an angel were rare, they did not always mean greatness. They were those who said the wings were the punishment for those cursed by God and others said that only those who'd become a Fallen would have wings. Whether this was true or not, the fact of the matter was that they simply couldn't know because only seven beings in the history of everything had wings.

That three were punished for eternity only went to cement the general belief that wings meant a great reckoning.

They could mean great honor and blessings, fought back a few strong believers, remembering the Lady Luna and her love.

These were the few who carried on the whispers of Lady Stella's prophecy. These people, as well as the Lady herself's family, contacted beings from the other side of the rift and formed a secret alliance.

They called themselves the Tri-ni-sette.

Peeking through the crack in the door, a wide brown eye scanned the empty hallway before landing on the back door. Small hands pushed at the handle of the door and a little boy appeared, eyes flitting back and forth for any signs of people. Seeing no one and hearing nothing, the boy gulped and squeezed his eyes shut nervously, taking in a deep breath.

'I've made it this far,' he thought, biting his lip before bolting for the door and throwing himself outside of his prison.

"Wow," Tsunayoshi Sawada breathed in awe as he stepped outside for the first time since he was brought to Cielo, eyes alight. He took in the endless sky and the plentiful trees, some aplenty with delicious fruit. Bushes of berries and colorful flowers littered the grounds behind the house, birds chirping cheerfully as they flew overhead. Childish eyes took the sight in as his cheeks turned rosy with delight.

"Wow," he repeated once more, slowly taking a step forward, almost as if he couldn't believe his eyes. He took another, and another before taking off into a fast run. Gasping for breath, he stopped at the edge of a lake he hadn't even known had existed and reached for one of the purple flowers on a bush near him, marveling at the smoothness of the petal as it slipped through his fingers. An incredulous giggle slipped past his lips and he blinked through wet lashes. On instinct, he whirled around with a beam, hands gesturing excitedly.

"Mama, Mama, loo-"

He stopped, his heart shrinking in his chest as the smile on his lips faded. Oh. He had forgotten. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he blinked rapidly before a watery smile returned to his lips.

"Look, Mama, it's such a pretty flower," he continued, throat scratchy as he plucked the flower off the bush gently. "It's your favorite color, too."

Twirling it in his hands, he exhaled deeply, trying to contain himself. An idea came to him and he plucked more off the plant until his hands were full. Carrying as many as he could in his tiny arms, he searched for a good place. In the corner of his eye, he saw a tree with its roots forming the perfect place for somewhere to sit. For a minute he could see her reading a book there, snug against the tree as she watched him play around and laughing brightly.

Throat feeling tight at the rush of emotion, he carefully organized the flowers into a decent looking bouquet of sorts into the crook of the tree. Picking up a couple of twigs from the ground, he built a messy barrier around the barriers and crouched to stare at his work.

"There," he choked, gripping onto his pants tightly as he looked down at the flowers before he turned away. Making his way to the edge of the lake, Tsuna stared at his reflection and the boy inside hesitantly looked up and waved.

"I thought you left," Tsuna confessed, sitting down and pulling his knees up as he spoke. He wouldn't have known even if he had-Tsuna had been avoiding glass and mirrors ever since what happened. The reflection shook its head and mouthed at him.

I'd never leave.

"You're what caused all this to happen, you know," Tsuna said quietly before pausing, "but I can't change what I am, right? Only what I become-that's what Mama said to me before. She said that I can't change what I was born as or what I was given, but I can choose what do to from there on and how I use what I have."

Looking up at him sorrowfully with orange eyes, the reflection raised a hand to the surface.

I'm sorry.

Something inside him broke and he remembered the loneliness he'd been surrounded by, his life bleak as he sat all along in that horrible room. Tsuna reached out and felt the liquid stick to his fingers almost like jelly, whispering with a sad smile, "I'm sorry too."

The figure in the water closed its eyes and an expression of concentration came over it. Wondering what it was doing, Tsuna started when he felt warmth run through his arms and settle in his chest, a familiar and soothing flicker he had almost forgotten about. His smile grew just a tad less sad and he brushed his fingers over the water's surface in return.

"Thank you," he murmured. The reflection's eyes glowed brighter for a moment it shook its head again and mouth something else at him.

Anytime.

Flashing back to a day not so long ago where the same thing had been said, Tsuna found himself lifting his hand from the water before he'd noticed.

Figuring that someone would notice he had disappeared by now, he stood up and brushed himself off. Turning around, Tsuna glanced back at the receding figure in the lake and called out to it hesitantly.

"Mama always said that I should never be afraid of you because you were the one person who would always stay by my side; I never doubted her. I don't-I don't blame you or anything, and I'm glad you're here," he said haltingly before running back to his prison.

The reflection blinked with wet lashes from his half-turned position and an expression of relief broke across its face. A smile tugging at the corner of its lips, it turned again and continued to walk on an unknown path, the image slowly disappearing from the crystal waters.

When Ienari woke up in the morning, it was to the sound of laughter from the kitchen and the sound of hesitant footsteps up the stairs. Confused, he blearily blinked and tried to wave off the blurriness that came with just waking up when last night's events hit him like a train. Scowling, he rubbed his eyes roughly, pausing when a soft knock came at his door. Heart in his throat, he froze as a tiny voice came from the other side of the door.

"Nari? Are you awake?"

Feeling something inside him swell up at the sound of his brother's voice, Nari blinked back a tear when he realized this was the first time Tsuna had talked to him in over a week. To others, it might not have seemed so strange, but it hit like Nari like a brick. For a second, he felt regret fill him but then a wall came over his mind and he shook his head, mentally thanking Kage-san. Then, remembering he was allowed to be himself again, he grinned before reigning in his excitement and replying hoarsely. It wouldn't do to make a 360 all of a sudden and freak out Tsuna-nii.

"Yeah?"

There was a pause, as if the older Sawada couldn't believe the door hadn't been opened up by a scowling Ienari asking why he was bothering him on a weekend.

"U-Um, Mama's making p-pancakes for breakfast with Y-Yamamoto-kun-the one from TakeSushi?-and I didn't s-see you downstairs a-and I remembered that you l-like sleeping in so I thought that m-maybe…"

He drifted off and wrung his fingers nervously, biting his lip though Nari couldn't see this from behind the door.

Ignoring the ache in his chest at the thought of his brother being so uncomfortable or scared that he was stuttering around Nari-and the thought of Yamamoto Takeshi being such good friends with Tsuna that he was coming over for breakfast-he slipped out of bed and padded to the door. His mouth opened to say something as he opened the door and saw Tsuna standing there but it closed without a sound and he nodded at his older brother before making his way to the bathroom to wash up.

Staring at Nari, Tsuna felt relief wash over him and allowed himself to hope that everything would be okay, at least for today. For whatever reason he had, Nari hadn't been as cold as normal-even with that one nod, Tsuna had felt Nari acknowledge him like they were brothers again and not two people living in a house with nothing to do with each other. Lips quirking upwards at this thought, Tsuna clung to the banister and climbed down the staircase so that he wouldn't end up tripping and embarrassing himself.

"Oi, Tsuna, is everything alright there?" Takeshi yelled, running out of the kitchen and shocking Tsuna from where he was on the steps.

His foot slipped and his careful grip vanished, his eyes closing as he waited for the inevitable pain and dizziness that came with falling down the stairs again; only, a hand reached out and grabbed him right before he tumble down, pulling him back up straight and grounding him.

"N-Nari?" Tsuna blurted incredulously, eyes wide as he followed the arm on his wrist to his younger brother and staring. As if he'd been burned, Nari let go quickly with a mumbled "be more careful" and an angry scowl at Takeshi. Going down the staircase by two's, he made his way down fairly quickly and jostled Takeshi on his way to the kitchen, not stopping to apologize.

It seemed Kurokawa and Sasagawa weren't the problem, but the class baseball star that was, Nari thought furiously, eyes glinting at the thought of what could have happened to Tsuna if he fell from the top step because of him. It didn't matter that Tsuna had fallen from there before multiple times-any serious pain inflicted upon Tsuna-nii was a crime punishable by death in his eyes. He stalked into the kitchen and tried to remember how to breathe through his rage, leaving the other two boys behind.

"S-Sorry about that," Tsuna found himself saying, clearing his throat awkwardly, not noticing the narrowing of Takeshi's eyes for a split-second. "H-He's not really a morning p-person."

"That's okay," Takeshi answered with a laugh after, dragging Tsuna down the last few steps and watching his feet to make sure neither of them slipped. "Come on, your mom already started making them, and some of the pancakes are in shapes! There's even these cute little tiny ones!"

Smile widening at his newfound friend's behavior, he giggled and joined his mother at the stove.

"D-Do you need any h-help?" he asked from atop the stepping stool his mother had gotten to help Nari and him reach the cupboards and stove.

"No, I'm all good here, Tsu-kun," Nana answered cheerfully, flipping a star-shaped pancake over as she hummed. "Why don't you just set the table with Takeshi-kun? The syrup's already there."

Nodding, he showed Takeshi where the utensils were and started on his own job. Rummaging through the plate cabinet, he pulled out the pancake plates and moved to the other cabinet for the cups.

"Na-kun, get some strawberries and chocolate chips, hmm?" Nana asked her younger son, attention still on the sizzling pan.

"Okay," he answered tensely, sliding off his chair to grab two bowls for the toppings, filling the one with chocolate chips as much as he could so his mother could make chocolate chip pancakes and still have some to bring to the table afterwards like always. Afterwards, he grabbed the cutting board for the strawberries, all the while trying to pretend Yamamoto Takeshi wasn't in his kitchen talking with his older brother.

In that moment, all of them working together on breakfast, it struck the Sawada twins how long it had been since things were like this. Nari bit his lip before returning to cutting his strawberries with a face of intense concentration and Tsuna felt a wide tug at his lips before he noticed something.

"O-Oh no-we don't have e-enough pancake plates!" he fretted, counting once more to make sure that there were in fact only four, one of which his mother was already using for the ones she'd finished making.

"Pancake plates?" Takeshi asked curiously with a grin.

"Oh," Tsuna said, flushing as he realized he'd called them that out loud. "It's j-just that we use these s-special plates f-for when we have pancakes because both me and N-Nari love using them and we just s-started calling them that."

"That's cool! Special pancake plates, huh?" Takeshi exclaimed, eyes sparkling. "If I had a plate for my favorite food, it'd have baseballs and bats and mitts aaall over it!"

Frozen in his corner of kitchen, Nari felt a grin unfurl at his lips at the thought of the many pancakes they'd had on those plates, forgetting completely about Tsuna's new 'friend'. It had been their favorite plates to eat pancakes with because the edges curved up and they could soak them in as much whipped cream and syrup because it wouldn't fall out and was big enough for even the super big pancakes.

He and Tsuna had matching orange ones while their mother had a pretty pink one, plus the green one she was using right now. They had never had to use the second plate before though-Ienari and Tsuna always shared their plate and ate their pancakes together. There were matching cups that had come with the plates, but they rarely used the two together. What's the fun in life if you can't even choose your own cups? In fact, all the plates and cups in the Sawada household were colorful and mismatched, something he and Tsuna had often giggled about as they mother tickled them, teasing them and saying it was to match their bright personalities.

"I don't mind not having a pancake plate, honest," Ienari heard Takeshi say, his train of memories grinding to a halt as the boy tried to convince Tsuna he didn't have to give up his plate for him. Gritting his teeth in anger of this-this intruder, he brought down the down violently, a vicious satisfaction spreading the thunk the cutting board gave.

"But-But-" Tsuna stuttered, arms flailing as he tried to convey the importance of eating pancakes on a pancake plate, darn it.

"I'll share my plate with you," Nari found himself saying, breath catching at the stare his older brother gave him and steadily ignoring Takeshi, lest he do something he couldn't take back. "The plates are big and we've done it before."

"Are you sure?" Takeshi hedged. Tsuna somehow managed to find it in himself to speak and nodded.

"Yeah-Yeah, it's fine. We u-used to sh-share plates all the time," he said, leaving the before he didn't want me as an older brother and started using his own unspoken.

"Tsuna…?" Takeshi asked worriedly, noticing the look on his face.

"H-Huh? It's nothing," he answered, shaking his head and smiling.

Takeshi hummed unconvincingly but let it go, finishing his task. Tsuna hurried to do the same and placed all the plates on the table, unable to resist peeking at Ienari from the corner of his eye. He was still kind of sour-looking, as if he'd had another one of those sour gummies he hated, but his shoulders were less tense and his grip on the knife was looser.

It might not have seemed like much, but somewhere deep inside Tsuna, this felt like another milestone in getting his brother back.

"Alright boys, the pancakes are all done!" Nana announced cheerfully, placing the delicious pancakes down and chocolate chip bowl down with a flourish and beaming. "Na-kun, come on!"

Nodding, he scooped up the strawberries into a bowl and brought it to the table, hesitating before slipping into the seat next to his older brother. Placing the pancake plate between the two of them, he reached for the pancakes without a word to Tsuna as his mother and Takeshi took their seats as well.

"Wow," Takeshi groaned through his first mouthful of pancake, "this is amazing. They're like-like clouds but delicious. My old man never makes pancakes like this."

Nana laughed and cooed at him, "You're so sweet! Thank you."

He grinned and amber eyes twinkled as he swallowed his mouthful. "No need to thank me for telling the truth, Sawada-san."

"Oh now, none of that! You're Tsu-kun's friend after all, so just call me Nana!" she said, waving a hand through the air as if to banish the very idea.

"Well then, Nana-san, I'd like to inform you that your pancakes are food from heaven," Takeshi praised with a laugh before he shoveled down another mouthful of chocolate-y, syrupy goodness.

Giggling, Nana shook her head and passed the strawberries to Tsuna.

"Really, you have such nice manners," she complimented him.

Completely unaware of the conversation between their mother and Takeshi, Ienari carefully made whipped cream swirls on the pancake and some of the mini ones, Tsuna neatly placing strawberry halves around the drops of cream right after he moved on. So focused on topping their pancakes, they didn't notice until they were dropping the chocolate chips on top of the strawberry and whipped cream swirls together that the conversation had stopped as Takeshi stared at them.

"Your pancakes are so pretty," he breathed in awe, staring at the neat and carefully designed pancakes in front of him. "And you guys do it all awesome like you can read each other's minds and know what to do!"

Both of them flushed and Ienari immediately dropped his arms to his side, looking away while Tsuna tried to say something.

"I-We just-It's not that we can read each other's minds-I told you we used to share plates all the time," Tsuna finished lamely, his ears pink as he fiddled with one his sleeves.

"You weren't kidding, huh?" Takeshi asked, still staring at the plate. "Seriously though, it looks so nice! My pancakes never look like that."

Laughing, he gestured to his own plate and, sure enough, they were a sloppy mess of syrup and cream everywhere. Tsuna giggled and slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes widening when Ienari made a soft noise in the back of his throat and clenched his fists as if to stop them from moving; a memory from two years before came to him, unbidden.

"Your laugh is the best thing, Tsuna-nii," Nari told him with a beam, waving his arms around excitedly after Tsuna had laughed at one of his jokes. "When you laugh, it's like something warms up inside of me and everything feels amazing. Sometimes, I think if you laughed when it was raining real hard, it would stop and bring the sun out!"

Slowly, he removed his hand and laughed again when Takeshi tried to make his plate look nicer only for his syrup to drip off the edge of his plate. Next to him, the tension drained out of Ienari and both of them suddenly turned almost bashful, but Tsuna continued his conversation with Takeshi, Nana interjecting occasionally. Nari remained silent, but the seething anger inside of him lessened as he played around with his food and listened to his brother.

He still hated Takeshi, yes, but he could never hate his brother-and seeing him happy made things always made Nari feel better.

It was just enough to completely drown out the voice in the back of his head telling him to kill Yamamoto Takeshi.

For now.

Fon jumped from rooftop to rooftop before reaching the estate, footsteps silent in the moonlit night. Lichi snuggled against his neck and curled his tail upon his shoulder. All the doors had been locked, windows blocked, and Fon smiled as he noticed something. Sure enough, he heard the sound of metal clashing against each other and he followed it to the side garden.

His nephew threw himself against the tree once more, his tonfas colliding with the metal plate on the tree harshly and dodging a shuriken from above. Fon scanned the area and saw the three servants who were throwing them: one crouched in a tree, another on the roof not so far from him, and the third a tiny shape he couldn't quite figure out until he saw the shuriken being thrown from there. Stifling a chuckle, he stroked Lichi's fur and continued to watch, taking in the sight of his whirling nephew using the very same techniques Fon himself had taught him.

Once he had finished, Fon jumped down from the roof lightly, barely making a sound as he walked up to his nephew.

"Well done, Hi-kun," he praised warmly, hands folded into his sleeves. To his credit, the hair on the back of neck rose and threw the tonfa one last time a little harsher than normal, but he gave no other sign of acknowledgement.

"You may return to your other duties now," Kyouya spoke, pulling out the tonfa from where it'd gotten stuck in the tree after he'd been startled by the Arcobaleno. The servants leapt from their hiding places to the ground and bowed to Fon before the little one rushed to Kyouya.

"Thank you for allowing me to train with you, Hibari-sama," Miko said with a beam, prostrating her gratitude before running off to join her parents. Fon watched on, amused, and Lichi chattered on his shoulder.

"It seems like it was just a few years ago she was crawling everywhere and asking after you," Fon reminisced, walking behind Kyouya and internally chuckling at the pink tingeing his nephew's ears. It had been Kyouya's first time being in such close quarters with a baby when Miko had been born, much less one so enamored with him, and it had been an amusing experience for everyone. Kyouya had been constantly flummoxed by her presence.

Fon had wondered if Kyouya ever remembered what children were somedays.

Kyouya grunted and stormed inside his house, knowing what his uncle was thinking about and Fon laughed aloud.

"What do you want?" Kyouya asked abruptly, a scowl marring his face as he turned around to face the tiny man as he grew solemn.

"I'm here to check in on everything, just like I have every other year," Fon responded, staring coolly at Kyouya. 'He's still a child,' Fon reminded himself as he internally sighed. If only he had the same chances as other children.

"Are your parents planning to return soon, or is it another back-to-back?" Fon questioned, following his nephew into the living room where one of the older servants brought them refreshments, obviously having been told of Fon's arrival. He took a seat on the cushion and picked up his tea as Lichi jumped off his shoulder to eat the nuts that had been placed there for him.

"Two weeks from now," Kyouya managed to bite out crossly, taking a sip of his cup and relaxing a fraction. He really was just like mother, Fon thought fondly as he took another sip. Practically a beast on a bad day before he had his tea, wary even around his uncle.

"I'm sorry about the long absence," Fon began, noticing the twitch from the corner of his eye, "but I heard that you're so busy you haven't had the time to be bored without me."

Stiffening, Kyouya's fingers spasmed slightly against the cup and he set it down slowly, lips turning downwards every so slightly.

"In fact, it was to my utmost surprise when I met Tsunayoshi-kun and he mentioned that the two of you were good friends," the Storm Arcobaleno continued. "He even said that he had been invited to the Hibari household in two weeks-coincidentally when your parents return-for a special event that he was very excited about. He was very adorable, practically sparkling when I mentioned you were my nephew."

Kyouya growled at him and Fon's eyes twinkled good-naturedly as the pink tinge returned to his ears and made its way across his cheeks before he puffed up his cheeks with air and glared at him.

Grinning, Fon took another sip of tea and hummed his approval. Really, they always had such good tea whenever he came over.

"Fine," Kyouya admitted grumpily and childishly turning his head away. "I invited him. Happy?"

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, Hi-kun," Fon responded calmly. If he was a younger man, he would have smirked, but as it was he smiled at Kyouya good-naturedly.

Kyouya practically pouted and crossed his arms angrily with a huff. Only Fon could turn their son back into an actual child, his sister had once joked with her husband-it hadn't been a lie. Fon always managed to coax the child in him to come out, a special talent of his that came with being the only uncle Kyouya had. It was always a joy in the Hibari household when Fon vissite,d if only because how flustered Kyouya always became around him.

"I take it I'm allowed to come as well?" Fon questioned, his nephew's adorable scowl causing him to want to coo. His looks would most definitely help make up for his attitude later on in life, Fon mused, remembering what Hi-kun's mother was able to get away with because of her good looks.

"Or perhaps it has already started working in his favor," Fon thought with a smile, remembering the wide-eyed and adorable little boy from Tsuyoshi's restaurant.

"Yes," Kyouya muttered, arms still crossed and lower lip jutting out just a little more than was normal.

"What was that?" Fon asked faux-curiously, peering at his nephew from behind his bangs. "I couldn't quite hear you, Hi-kun, forgive me."

"You may come," Kyouya gritted through his teeth.

"You were taught better manners than that, Hi-kun, please speak up," Fon cajoled. If he were a lesser man…

Well, to be honest, only a lesser man would tease his nephew like this.

"You are invited to the Hibari household on May 5th for the birthday of Hibari Kyouya," he all but yelled before stomping off to his room angrily. Fon felt a laugh escape him and warmth filled his chest; he'd always taken his lessons on propriety and manners seriously, but never managed to keep his cool around Fon to remember them most of the time. Really, it was moments like these that he lived for. Tiny hands picking up a now asleep Lichi, he finished his tea and thanked the staff for the tea before sitting cross-legged on the back porch, watching the sakura trees sway in the light breeze.

He thought about Kyouya, how he had truly laughed for the first time since he last saw his nephew, and about the fluffy-haired boy who seemed to make the very air around him lighter.

"Maybe," he whispered, hands closing tightly around the red pacifier hanging upon his chest, "just maybe, we're allowed to have this."

Yaaaay for updates! *waves hand in air lethargically*

I hope you've all been doing well and aren't too angry or disappointed with me, but I managed to crunch the time to write this out of my schedule. To be honest, I'm kind of an hiatus on everything-Facebook, tumblr, AOW, here. Life is busier than a store on Black Friday for me right now, but I'm making my way through it somehow.

Alright, so, explanations!

First off, anyone who has complaints about the Hibari-Fon interaction can come straight up and tell it to my face because if you haven't fallen in love with the headcanon that Fon is an absolutely shit as Hibari's uncle and Kyouya turns into a little kid around him needs to rethink all their life decisions okay. I just love the idea that Fon finds ease in teasing him and the reason Kyouya hates him is because he manages to get under his skin in every way possible and it kills him.

Secondly-some people might wonder what the heck happened to Ienari. I tried to make it seem like he was barely holding back the urge to just slaughter Takeshi, but just in case I messed up (again), Ienari knows that he can't just kill someone on an empty stomach-lol no he's smart enough to figure killing him right now wouldn't be a good idea and is slowly mellowing when it comes to Tsuna. Or rather, thanks to Tsuna.

Any other comments or question go in the box at the bottom, thank you and have a nice day. *recedes back to hole in the ground*

~ForeverBlackSun

Published 2/17/2015