Archive of Our Own

Even all the holders of the Sky Mare Ring, with their abilities to see and expect, can’t fully comprehend every single possibility of every single world. As the saying goes, the possibilities are endless.

So when one Sawada Nana takes in her home, which seems much lonelier then it should, and her seven year-old son, who loses the shining happiness in his eyes day by day, she comes to a decision.

It’s time for the holidays; and it’s summer anyway, so why not go to the beach?

The way her Tsu-kun lights up at the words just cement her choices.

Sawada Tsuna is at the beach for half a hour before he makes some… ‘friends’.

They’re three boys, each stuck up in their own ways, each entitled in some form to something in their lives. And they happen to decide that Tsuna would make the perfect errand boy.

Though, to be honest, Tsuna is just happy they don’t beat him up or steal his money; they just order him around, which still allows him to build a sand castle or two, and even check out a star fish in a tide pool. 

And while he may have to carry the other three’s things everywhere, and get them drinks from a vendor (though they give him money for that, which already makes them better then some of his other bullies so far), Tsuna doesn’t mind how his vacation is going so far.

Then they hear the drums.

“Hey, do you hear that?" Rin asks, freckled face frowning as he looks further down the beach, brown eyes taking in where the tide reaches further up the shore.

Now drawn to their attention, Nicer Bully Number 2 Sai, the tallest of the three and Number 3 Natto, the smartest, frown as well as they start to listen in. Tsuna frowns, but for a different reason from the rest; he had heard the weird drumming earlier, but his feelings told him to ignore it. And while Tsuna would like a clearer feeling for why he should (his feelings use to be really exact, but ever since daddy come back with his guest, they’ve been fading), he knows it’s better to act invisible. Though he knows his new nicer bullies won’t listen to him, his old ones never did after all, he just watches.

"Come on! Lets see what it is!” Rin grins, the brunet excited for fun.

“Maybe someone is throwing a party!” "Natto wonders, deep black eyes brightening at the thought, starting to follow.

“Oooo, I hope they have cake!” Sai yells, getting up with ease even as he still follows the other two from behind.

As the NBs chat excitably, going in the direction of the drums, Tsuna suddenly gets a new feeling, one that makes a cold sweat come:

If he leaves them by themselves, one of them will die.

And the fluffy-haired seven year old can’t have that.

Slender fangs drip with green, not something wishing to be seen,

be careful for they are mean.

It is only thanks to Tsuna pushing Rin out of the way that the other boy avoids being bit, even as the very, very big snake strikes, something so fast that Natto and Sai can barely even blink before it is gone, another monster off into the world that they let lose.

Only for screams to soon follow after, one in particular getting special attention.

"KAA-SANNN!"

If you think life is such a bore, if you are left wishing for more,

Then listen carefully for this fellow's roar.

"RUUUUN!" Tsuna yells, even if the growls are just barely there and not the roar forewarned, him and the boys take off, Natto only just remembering to grab the game as they do.

They have to climb a tree before the jungle's king wonders off, ending up the one bored with them this time.

Be careful of a lost of energy, for you will be left for misery,

and the many are still bloodthirsty.

"SAI GET OUT OF THE WATER NOW!!!"

“I-I-I can’t! What if something even worst comes out!”

“The Lion almost ate us! I don’t want to either.”

“I swear that bat almost bit me!”

“…Um, guys?” Tsuna said, his form trembling as he cut into the fearful conversation. As one, the boys turned to him. The children were much changed from this morning; no longer any smiles or cheer, no delusions or dreams of tomorrow. All they wanted now was to live through the night, eyes fearful even as they took in that hellish game.

“We have to go; it’s a ru-rule of the game.” Tsuna said, stumbling over rule as his eyes turned to Natto, who still is developing scales.

 Jumanji didn’t take cheating well.

“Besides, if we complete the game, every bad thing will go away. So then Rin’s mommy will get better.” Tsuna also pointed out, hoping to cheer the others up a little.

(The bully’s mother had gotten bit by the giant snake; she was still in the hospital, stuck deep in sleep.)

Looking at each other, one pair of eyes silted, though all red from tears, they hesitantly nodded, two of them gulping as they looked at the 'innocent’ game board just lying on the sand.

And to think that this day had started so well at first.

Tsuna felt tears in his eyes as the dice were passed to him, before a terrible feeling started coming over him. Brown eyes wide and terrified, Tsuna clenched the dice in his hands, looking to the group of boys all around.

“… You guys have to continue the game, you got to… Promise!” Tsuna hiccuped, his eyes unknowingly turning orange, the boys, in response to the sudden desperation, promising to do so.

It was a good thing they did.

“In the jungle you must wait, until the dice roll a five or eight.”

Even years from now, Tsuna will never talk in length his time spent in that cursed jungle, how an hour on the beach was a month there.

How he awakened his flames when he was young and sealed, how he had such control was something even Reborn would never know in detail.

For the other boys though, that hour of the game had been hell without Tsuna and his feelings, the pain and scars still a phantom to them all the years later.

“ROLL THE DICE!”

“DO IT NOW!”

“Hu-hurry!”

As Tsuna rolls the dice (hopefully for the last time), the older boys holding the door against the latest onslaught. Sai wouldn't last long after the leaches from the earlier, and Rin with his arm limp from some frog touching it. Natto too was also lagging behind a bir, what with his body needed much more warmth then usual, his reptilian features really starting to take over.

“Please let it be a three!” Tsuna begged weakly; his own time in the jungle hadn’t been nice either. (So many eyes, so many shadows, with blood, rain, and earth all around in colors both beautiful and cruel.)

This had to be it.

And just as the door almost gave, the monstrosity behind it this close, the dice settled finally settled:

a one and a two showing.

“JUMANJI!”

And just like that, a hurricane of motion going by, it was that morning again, four normal boys around a board game.

“Oh, Tsu-kun, what’s that you have there?” Nana asked her son, who seemed as if he had grown a few years since he left earlier. While the mother would have been worried, she took one look in his eyes, and couldn’t help but feel proud.

While he looked older, his eyes showing a steel they didn’t hold before, they also had the warmth and kindness inherent to his person.

“It’s a present; I’m just going to put it away now.” Tsuna answered calmly, going into his room at the beach house.

(“What should we do? Do we destroy it?” Natto asked, the raven wrapping themselves in yet another blanket, looking like a mochi as he did.

“Can it even be destroyed?” Sai asked in turn, grey eyes doubtful even as he brushed his equally grey hair from his eyes.

“Maybe we should just bury it?” Rin suggested, even as brown eyes refused to look away from where his mother was resting on the beach, drinking the sight in.

“We can’t destroy it, and someone would eventually find it.” Tsuna pointed out quietly, getting uneasy looks from all around at that.)

Gently, the young boy took the box, covering it with pillows to muffle the drums; can’t have his mom hear it. (Can't risk her ever touching it.)

(“It’s a game; it wants to be played. It will find players. So the best thing to do is have someone take it with them and hide it. That way if someone finds it again, they’ll have someone there to help them.” Tsuna suggested, not at all surprised when he got his replies.

“Not it!”

“That thing hurt my mommy, no way!”

“I don’t want to eat bugs!”)

Getting up, Tsuna left his room, shivering at the sound of drums.

(“… I guess I’ll take it.”)

Closing the door, Tsuna sighed. He didn’t want the game, but his feelings told him that he couldn’t leave it be, and that maybe, one day, it could come in handy.

After all, in some games, once a player, always a player.