Archive of Our Own ^beta

Aunt Nana was a sweet, nieve woman that I loved dearly, but she was the type that probably never should have been a mother. Not for any awful, terrible reasons like abusive tendencies, cruelty or lack of love, but because some people just shouldn't be made responsible for the life of another human being. Or even a dog. Or a hamster.

Honestly, I don't know that I'd even trust her with a goldfish.

I was not the mothering type, myself, but clearly both of these idiots needed help. They sure weren't going to get it from Iemitsu.

That was how a reincarnated six year old became head of the Sawada household.

I did not, technically, live with my aunt. Or maybe I should say I didn't officially live with her.

My second parents were, uh, surprisingly fertile, and I had more siblings than they knew what to do with, especially since they'd just had a set of quadruplets three years after my own birth. I was relievingly calm and responsible, but too young for them to feel comfortable with me running off alone.

As far as they knew, I had become enamoured by my quiet baby cousin in a way the screaming four had not managed. That this resulted in my constantly wanting to visit did not seem abnormal.

That I visited so often I had my own room and my fourteen year old brother got tired of walking me there was just another element of their chaotic life. Eventually, it was unexpected to find me away from the two, and as I was clearly being cared for, they didn't make a fuss.

That I only visited my actual siblings and parents on occasion was just... the natural conclusion to a very gradual separation plan orchestrated by someone they simply weren't prepared for. I tried not to let how easy it was hurt too much.

I'd gotten what I wanted, after all.

Tsuna was a soft little fluff baby, and I loved him very much. I also knew his future.

Unfortunately, being only a fluff baby was dangerous for him. So I brought him to a dojo in town, ostensibly to let him make some friends his own age. It had more to do with a cute-loving, steel-eyed boy I'd seen attending classes there.

I don't know if it was the barking and screaming that got my attention first, or the comforting blaze of what I could only assume to be Sky flames from someone I was closely bonded to. I rushed through the house and into the backyard as fast as I could, but it was already too late.

I'd wanted to change this, prevent it somehow, but I didn't know when it would happen. To see them looming over the sweet baby I'd done so much to help build into a confident child, without such abysmal self worth issues - knowing what they had just done to him. If I'd had the power, I think I would have killed them in that moment.

The rage inside me wanted to explode - how dare they seal my precious cousin! I clamped down tightly on it, pulled the ball of wrath further and further into my core until I felt something crack - slapped that blank, empty expression that Nana always got when she didn't know what was going on around her onto my face. It hurt. It really hurt.

It hurt badly enough that I was immediately certain I'd just damaged something within myself.

They'd gone, and good riddance to all of them. All I could do was cradle Tsuna and try not to cry. He was so dazed - foggy and slow in a way he'd not been even a day ago.

It was nauseating. I kept trying to reach out to him with a sense I hadn't realized was there, but between what I'd done to myself and what they'd done to him... It hurt.

It hurt, hurt, hurt!

It was all wrong!

I wanted to kill something. Rend it to pieces and burn it to ash. Bare my fangs and-

I remembered quite suddenly that Hibari and Fon were related. And Fon had active flames.

Maybe he could do something.

Nana was so busy cooking to distract herself from her husband leaving again, that she barely registered when I said I was taking Tsuna with me to a friend's house.

I had not... actually met the little ball of death, yet. Nor did I think they were actually friends. But I was pretty sure even as a child, he would not abide this... caging of Tsuna's fire. Even if he didn't know exactly what had happened.

"How did he end up like this?" Being eyeballed by a young Hibari was not comfortable - maybe because I already knew how completely batshit he was, even if he hadn't yet grown into his fangs. I was not keen on him testing his jaw strength on me.

I shifted the toddler on my child body's boney hip and tried to find a way to explain without saying anything too incriminating. Just because I wanted the Storm Arcobaleno's help, doesn't mean I actually had any reason to trust him. Certainly not with the knowledge that I was a future knowing reincarnation from another universe. I couldn't risk saying the wrong thing and having it get back to him.

Coming here at all was dangerous. I had no clue what kind of flames I had, but maybe I could pass it off as some kind of subconscious prompting from them.

"Strictly speaking... I'm an ambush predator. I was a cub faced with an apex predator and a dumb, arrogant, but powerful young lion - there was nothing I could do for him. All I could do was use my camouflage to hide my true nature - pretend to be the herbivore they wanted me to be, so they wouldn't know to cage me, too." Geeze, speaking with Hibari in his natural metaphoric language was like talking in code - all the same, the look on his face was clearly understanding.

Such a weird kid.

"He's my student." The eldrich being known as Reborn was clearly not impressed with my claim to Tsuna. No respect.

"Well he's my cousin! I've been training him for years before you even knew he existed!" Tsuna had the strangest feeling that they were fighting over who got to bully him?

Fuck, that was hardly fair. There is something undeniably sexy about a shoulder holster - it probably has something to do with the way it emphasized the breadth of the wearer's chest and shoulders. It made it suprisingly difficult to focus.

The smirk he was sporting suggested he was fully aware. Bastard.