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Tsuna was born due to an agreement.
The relationship between his parents had terms, but didn't have them hating each other and they'd be amiable for their childrens' sake.
Tsuna's life was not lacking love as far as he was concerned.
He was two when he was examined.
Most would wait until after a child's fourth birthday but if you have the money and power, results came sooner.
Todoroki Tsunayoshi had two toe joints in his pinky.
It was a person with a quirk who specialized in these types of things for wealthy clients who said so.
Neither parent could doubt the man's words.
It pained both his parents to find out such a thing.
Soon, Tsuna was excitedly by his mother's side wondering how a baby got in her stomach.
Tsuna is four when he falls from the tree he was climbing.
It startles tears out of him and he had a sudden feeling of deja vu before a headache has him painfully busting into flames as he recalls everything.
Once the ache dies down, Tsuna is left staring at his hands in a daze.
His sky flames aren't the same as before, going straight to hard flames that burn the grass underneath him and he considers it being his quirk.
It's not.
If he has a quirk, it's not this.
Why had this happened?
Tsuna grasps the charring grass in his little fists as tears start spilling.
Tsuna tried to mentally himself from his family, trying to put his thoughts in order but it's hard when he already has two younger siblings.
Fuyumi and Touya are always around and they're too cute to ignore.
Well, things are different now so maybe it's not bad for Tsuna to want to live his life as a doting older brother.
Touya loves to train and Tsuna doesn't want to ruin his dream but he can't say he's as supportive as his father.
Their father is enthusiastic about it and Tsuna is glad he no longer gets that look directed at him anymore, smothered in regret.
He'd had a whole lifetime of people looking at Useless Tsuna and he didn't want another father treating him like greatness was expected of him.
If Touya wants to be his father's prized son, Tsuna has no problem letting it happen even with that niggling sensation in the back of his mind.
Tsuna let's himself get wrapped up in his own issues.
It's easy to ignore what's going on around him and he doesn't quite get why Touya wants to train, but he knows if Touya wants to, then he should be allowed to.
Lambo had been blown to the other side of the country.
I-pin had taken on Hibari.
Fuuta had used his abilities to rank them to victory time and time again regardless of his fears.
He'd had every bone in his body broken all at once so his brother getting a bit burned leading to a ban from training didn't line up.
It took him a while to understand maybe things were different.
Tsuna didn't think it was normal but along the way he'd learned to accept it as is and let everyone push themselves to an early grave because it was just something mafia did.
This was not mafia.
Suddenly, Tsuna is all too aware of Touya.
Fuyumi is worried about Touya and Tsuna decided he has to act like a better brother.
Touya is a bit moodier than before so he isn't as excited to play but he gets Fuyumi and Natsuo to play outside more and more.
Natsuo learned a cool trick that Tsuna's too clumsy to replicate but he tries anyways which makes his little sister laugh and Touya tease.
Tsuna has a great time with his siblings.
Tsuna can say that most of his deaths have the starting point of an idiot father with too much ambition.
Usually, it was just his death.
Tsuna would accept his fate or get ruthlessly pushed into it by an overbearing tutor but...
His father's ambition would kill Touya.
Or Shoto.
Once they're dead he's sure it would go down the line until Fuyumi and Natsuo were dead too.
Tsuna wasn't confrontational.
He didn't like things like this.
It had always been easier to let bad things happen and deal with the aftermath but for the sake of others, he'd fight.
For the sake of a brother burning too brightly and sibling unknowing of his place in this puzzle of madness, he'd fight.
Tsuna's intuition has been ringing all day and he's about to scream.
What is it?
It this world of heroes and villains, anything could go wrong at any time due to a quirk.
But it isn't something so grandiose.
It's something unsettling.
Tsuna puts himself between Touya and Shoto, unwilling to ever let them harm each other and he sees something in Touya break.
Their parents look at them in horror.
His intuition snaps as he watches his brother run out of the house and after a moment's hesitation he runs after Touya.
He's right to do so because Touya's quirk goes out of control and burns.
There's nothing Tsuna can do.
There's one thing Tsuna can do.
Tsuna ignores his father's demands for him to return and goes straight to his brother.
He wouldn't have done this if there were any other option, he's not like Iemitsu or Gramps.
It's not death, but to lose the ability to have connections and it was so very lonely.
Tsuna's flame protects him a bit but the blue flame is so strong that something in his heart rings to save his brother from this pain.
Ambition.
The realization hurts Tsuna's mind, so used to a certain way of things in the world.
Quirks were a tradeoff for flames.
And if this quirk was Touya's flames...
Tsuna stands in front of Touya who seems to be unconscious form the pain of the burns, kneeling with his gaze to the sky.
Those unseeing eyes stare up at Tsuna and Tsuna can feel himself start to cry through the heat.
It hurts so much.
He'd never learned to do it properly but Tsuna can do something and he angles his hands together, "Zero Point."
His father sees Tsuna and he freezes.
Enji looks at the scene and Tsuna can see a shift in his father that could lead their family down many paths.
Tsuna has no way of predicting which one.
The fire is not out, encased in ice that will never be broken.
In the middle of it all, is Touya.
Skin burned from fire and ice.
Tsuna mourns as he stays day after day to free his brother.
He knows what it is like and knows what will happen.
There are no dramatic cracks or a shattering of the prison but a slow transition to a puddle around his feet.
Once the sky flame surrounding Tsuna is gone his father moves to gather Touya in his arms.
They don't speak as they descend the path back home.
They only talk about it to make an excuse.
Enji does not believe his son has a quirk but something has to be said about everything.
Tsuna cannot explain that he used a sealing technique on his brother's quirk.
He explains something else instead.
Touya will be able to use his quirk with practice as he steadily burns through his seal but it will never be as strong as it was before.
Tsuna does not blame his father as much as he wishes he could.
His life is cycling over again.
His resentment of his father has just always been disappointment in himself.
Tsuna decided distance would be better after the incident.
It was because of guilt but no one said anything about it since things seemed to have settled.
He returned to spoiling his siblings as much as he could but he mostly stayed away.
Running away was his specialty but a mail on his phone wouldn't let something happen so easily.
It's that irritating message that Byakuran used to mock them in the future.
"Ran-ran-Byakuran!"
His life was looping.
Tsuna's intuition did not warn him but his mother's trembling body did.
It seemed Tsuna was destined to be between his little brother and the things that would threaten to harm him.
Unfortunately, it mostly seemed to be his family.
The water boiled his flesh away and he felt his stomach drop when he saw he didn't protect Shoto from all of it.
His brother was immediately on the ground, clutching his face.
Something in his mother finally made her move and she ran to Shoto, using her quirk to cool him but she was too unstable and Tsuna reacted when he heard Shoto screech.
Tsuna tore Shoto away and quickly ran.
He needed to get his brother to the doctor.
Touya had figured it out.
With clues from Fuyumi and Natsuo and their father, he'd somehow put everything together to know it was Tsuna's fault.
Touya would never forgive him for betraying him.
Touya wanted to be a hero and Tsuna took that away from him.
Soon after Todoroki Touya had run away from home.
With media and the public watching, the best thing the Todoroki family could do was label it as a death.
Tsuna ran away from his responsibility.
Mentally, physically, it didn't matter.
It was clear Tsuna ran.
Shoto was going into high school.
Tsuna dazedly looked at the notification from his sister.
He was going to be a hero.
Tsuna was proud and started to call Shoto but stopped.
Would his little brother want to hear from him?
It had been years.
Nervous, he decided to send a message instead.
Tsuna didn't think he and Shoto were at all alike at fourteen but the bad luck that hit him reminded him a lot of his mafia days.
Reborn had brought fairly simple chaos but the mafia dragged the worst of it.
Mukuro and the kidnappings. Varia. Byakuran. Daemon.
Since Shoto had started school it had been school incident after school incident.
His blood was cursed, wasn't it?
Tsuna thought Byakuran having a hero license was the biggest of ironies in this lifetime but when Byakuran explained the benefits, he understood why someone as insane as that guy would want any leeways he could find.
"You should get yours. Endeavor has a lot of connections so you could take the quick course through remedials."
Tsuna looked at Byakuran with a frown, "I'm quirkless."
Byakuran grinned at him.
"So am I."
He looked at the small wings on Byakuran's back and, for the first time, Tsuna wondered if he should have paid more attention in school.
Tsuna had collected a full set of guardians which let his flames be balanced.
He was a balanced glass atop a performer's crashing pile.
What was wrong with this world?
Even Bykaruan couldn't guess as the Arcobaleno who had a connection to the future.
They discussed it a lot and came to the conclusion that the issue was with the past.
It is was the past then they needed the Vongola rings.
Tsuna had his doubts they even existed anymore since they were usually the first to appear in their little trio of things.
Byakuran didn't agree or disagree since they were both too new at using their newly assigned abilities.
"This world doesn't have much time but it seems we'll have to be patient."
Tsuna didn't have a choice but agree.
"It might help if you had guardians to stabilize your flames."
Byakuran chuckled, "I'm busy with other things. It's hard to find entertaining enough people."
Tsuna had only seen one of Byakuran's limited guardians and wished the kid luck.
Tsuna stared at the boy on his porch.
"Hayato?"
The boy who looked like his friend from the past but not almost collapsed and Tsuna realized he was hardly wearing anything.
He was still in house slippers.
"Hayato!"
Tsuna moved to help the blond boy up but flinched away when Hayato's flames sparked in response to his touch.
It hurt!
Unsure of what to do, he let the teen cry.