Chapter Text
In every world, there are events that are fixed in time, inevitable. However, there are times when the causes of those events vary greatly. In every universe in which Flames of the Dying Will exist; one Sawada Tsunayoshi will become the 10th Boss of the Vongola Familiga. However, as one Byakuran Gesso could tell you, one small action can change the face of the entire future. In this case, Timoteo Vongola's youngest son Xanxus is convinced to come with his adoptive father when the man visits Japan to meet Sawada Iemitsu's son. And two Skies meet, not in battle as they do elsewhere, but in peace.
Family is sacred after all. But nobody said you have to be loyal to your blood.
----------
Xanxus had to admit. This was kinda fun. Normally, the idea of sitting in a plane with goddamn Iemitsu for twelve hours would make his skin crawl, but it was downright hilarious watching the trash getting more and more agitated about Xanxus knowing where his brat lived.
Never mind the fact that the CEDEF Leader was a fucking moron, and Xanxus had known that Iemitsu's spawn was in Japan for years because the man couldn't help but brag about his 'darling Nana' or his 'cute little Tuna-fish', even outside of his damn Headquaters. Honestly, it was a fucking wonder that the kid hadn't already been assassinated or kidnapped for leverage against the trash.
He'd still rather be back with the Varia. Or Fede. After losing Enrico, Fede had started looking after Xanxus more, even as the rest of their already strained family began to fall apart. These days, if Luss wasn’t the one fussing over him, Fede would be. Although at least his brother was making the effort to try and stay part of Xanxus' life, which was honestly more than Massimo had been doing ever since goddamn Iemitsu showed up.
His Wrath flickered to the surface, and Xanxus forced himself to close his eyes, and tune out the trash and his old man. He thought of his Varia, and briefly imagined working as the head of the Varia under Fede. Federico was the one person Xanxus would trust to be his boss, because clearly the shitty old man was lying to Xanxus somewhere along the line, and Massimo was too much like the fucking blond moron for Xanxus to ever be comfortable taking orders from him.
Before Enrico had died, Fede had planned on Xanxus leading the Varia, and Enrico leading the CEDEF, no matter what the shitty bastards outside the family thought about Enrico being the favorite to take over. Then Enrico had been a fucking idiot and gotten himself killed because he couldn't keep his fucking Sun's mouth shut and--
This was not helping Xanxus calm down. He could feel his Wrath fizzing in his blood, and he really wanted to shoot something. But he had enough common sense to not try to draw his X Guns in a plane. Even if he could hear Iemitsu’s whine boring its way through his skull and making his Flames flicker higher. “Shut the fuck up, trash. I’m not going to hurt the fucking brat unless Pops gives me reason. And I can keep my fucking mouth shut, unlike some people in this fucking plane.” Xanxus snarled, opening his eyes to glare at the blond idiot. “Tch. Fuck this noise. Let me know when we’re landing.”
He could just feel the look the old man was giving him. Honestly, there was a lot worse he could have said. Iemitsu was a goddamn idiot. The least he deserved was to be told off. It was almost enough to make Xanxus wish Lal Mirch had come along on this clusterfuck trip. At least she could keep Sawada in line.
Despite his moderate dislike of the CEDEF, mostly because of Iemitsu, Xanxus could quite comfortably say that Lal Mirch was not an insufferable little shit, and, was in fact someone he could get along with, despite being a hard ass military bitch. Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that the miser midget had told him that she was actually a Rain, just corrupted into a Cloudy-Mist, he would have been trying to court her as his Cloud, as Ottabio was a useless piece of shit and he couldn’t understand why Tyr had kept the trash around.
There was also the minor fact that the CEDEF would fall apart without the woman, but Xanxus could consider that a fair price to pay, especially if it meant the old man actually looked at how Iemitsu ran the operation, and called him out on his myriad of fucking oversights.
'Tch. If that ever happens I’ll eat my fucking Flames. The old man is blinded by his shitty compassion.' Xanxus thought bitterly, as he skulked back to the rooms that had been set aside for him when this entire trip had been arranged. 'Culturing. Right. Because it’s not like Mammon isn’t fucking exacting with his illusions. Fede, you need to take over, or I’m going to shoot our old man myself.'
--------
Tsuna wondered what was supposed to be happening. His kaasan had been up since early, cooking lots of good smelling food. She’d blocked him out of the kitchen with a smile, and sent him outside to play. He didn't want to make his kaasan sad, so he'd gone out with the bright orange ball he'd been given for his birthday, at least until he started to get bored.
After that, he'd gone up to his room and taken one of the books kaasan would read to him off the table. The words tended to get mixed up when he tried to read for himself, but he could still look at the pictures and imagine the story they told. His favorite was the story about the red and the blue oni, even though he always felt really sad for the blue oni, who had just tried to make his friend happy, and had ended up being forgotten.
He knew the story well enough by now that even when the words tried to mix up, he knew what they should say, so could usually manage to push through and have everything line up again. Although he still preferred when kaasan would read to him, since she did the best voices for stories.
He'd just grabbed the book about the cat and the painter, eager to look at the pictures, when he heard kaasan calling for him.
"Tsu-kun! Our guests are here."
Guests? He didn't know there were guests coming. For some reason, the idea made him feel funny in his chest. Like a tummy ache, but higher up? He wasn't sure. But he couldn't disappoint his kaasan.
So the little boy made his way downstairs, carefully gripping the rail so he didn't fall down the stairs. He froze when he reached the bottom step, and the weird feeling increased, making his mouth feel dry. There was a scary dark haired guy, a creepy blond and an old man. There was a voice shrieking in his mind, a voice as shrill as a jay, wrongwrongwrong fake dangerous liar danger, about both the blond and the old man, and even though the 'dangerous' echoed for all three people, the voice didn't seem to think that the scary guy was wrong or fake.
"Tsu-kun, this man is your Papa." Why was kaasan acting like one of Choshi-san's cats over the blond man? She'd draped herself around him, and was looking at Tsuna expectantly.
"Awwwee~ my little Tuna-fishy is so cute!" The blond man, who Tsuna refused to think of as his Papa, rushed forward, and suddenly Tsuna felt like he was being squeezed to death. He barely managed to get a strangled sound out before the scary guy glared at the blond man.
"You're going to kill the brat if you keep that up." The language the scary guy spoke sounded so weird, but it was kinda musical in a way. The blond man grumbled something, and then Tsuna was on the ground. Sensing a hero, the boy darted behind the scary guy's legs, peeking around slightly to keep watch on the two other men.
"I think little Tsunayoshi likes you, Xanxus." The old man laughed, speaking in the same music language that the scary guy, 'Zanzus' Tsuna thought, latching onto the name like a new toy, had spoken in. Then the old man was crouched down, looking at Tsuna with a warm smile. The voice was screaming now, a blur of noise and impressions, all variations on the theme of dangerous fake.
"Hello Tsunayoshi. I'm your father's boss, but I've always thought of him as a son, so you can call me Nonno." Was it just Tsuna, or had Zanzus snorted at that? "And the young man you're standing behind is my youngest son Xanxus."
"I-I'm pleased to meet you both." It took some creativity, but Tsuna managed to bow without running into Zanzus, while still being behind the male. His saviour made an amused sound, before Tsuna felt a hand ruffling his hair. He looked up, and saw that Zanzus was smiling, even though it was wild in a way that reminded him of the oni in the stories.
"Tuuuna!" The blond man yelled, trying to push past Zanzus to grab Tsuna. The five year old decided that the perfect way to deal with this threat was to grab hold of Zanzus' pants legs and not let go.
“Looks like your brat’s made his choice.” Zanzus said, grinning like an oni at the blond man. “Hey brat, how about we go outside and let the adults catch up? Your maman will call us when she’s ready for us.” Tsuna nodded and smiled brightly, grabbing onto Zanzus’ hand and pulling him towards the back door.
“Um... Thank you. I don’t like that blond man. He’s scary and... He makes kaasan cry!” Tsuna said quietly, looking down at his feet. “...and if you hadn’t been here... He probably would have dropped me again.”
“Bra- Tsunayoshi. Look at me.” Tsuna looked up into bright red eyes, before Zanzus ruffled his hair again. “I don’t know how long we’re staying, but as long as we are, I’ll keep you safe from that idiot. Just stick by me, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t throw you like that again.”
“O-kay. Uh... Zanzus-san... since we’re here, do you want to play with me?” Tsuna bit his lip and looked down, expecting a refusal.
“...Sure. Why the hell not?”
It didn’t feel like very long until kaasan called for them. Playing with Zanzus-san was so much more fun that playing alone! “Zanzus-san. I can put these away. Can you go sit?” Tsuna didn’t mention that he hoped Zanzus would position himself as far from the scary blond as possible. Zanzus-san grunted, but did follow up.
“Alright. Don’t do anything moronic.” Tsuna nodded quickly, smiling warmly up at the older male.
It should have been okay. It should have just been an easy thing to put the ball away, and be done with it, go inside, and spend as much time with Zanzus-san as possible. And maybe it would have been, if Masoni-san down the street hadn’t left her gate open, and her loud little dog hadn’t come running down the street, barking painfully loudly.
Tsuna jumped on hearing the dog, and then everything was warm. He saw the world in vibrant colours. Kaa-san’s flowers were spotted with a pretty blue-purple, as if someone had splashed paint on them. From the house, he could see two patches of bright orange, and a paler patch of the same blue-purple that was on the flowers. The most interesting was the swirled orange and red patch, which he just knew was Zanzus-san, somehow.
But then the two orange patches were moving closer, and Tsuna realised that it was the scary blond man and the fake old man and that they were going to do something bad to him, and the shrill voice was screaming again, begging him to get away RUN!
The old man was approaching, and his orange was now a blindingly bright dot in Tsuna’s vision. Tsuna was scared, and the colours stopped with a sound like something breaking, and he could see the old man crouched in front of him, a finger extended to touch Tsuna. And… the finger was somehow on fire? Tsuna couldn’t move, pinned in place by pure fear and the voice that screamed in his mind.
And then... "What the fuck are you doing to my little brother, shitty old man?”
--------
The kid was lonely. That much was fucking obvious as soon as he saw the fluffy haired brat. The second obvious thing was that the brat had the purest damn Sky Xanxus had ever seen, which was a pretty impressive feat for a kid, given that Xanxus was part of Vongola. And apparently the idiot and the old man were blind to it. How they could ignore a passive pressure so strong that it was making Xanxus’ Wrath fucking sing was a mystery. Xanxus caught himself almost wondering how strong the brat’s Flame would be in a few years, or hell, if he were just actively trying to project it.
So caught up in the high the brat’s Flame had created, Xanxus almost missed the clear fear and discomfort when the moron picked the brat up and started squeezing. All he did was tell Iemitsu off, and suddenly he had a fluffy shadow. Well that was fine, especially with the fucking hilarious shade it made Iemitsu go.
And clearly the kid either had Intuition or damn good instincts, because as soon as the old man grew too close the Flame pressure the brat was letting out tightened, and Xanxus’ Storm screamed BabySky! Danger! Protect. MINE. His Wrath was fizzing, drawn higher and higher by the part that was Storm screaming to get the old man away from the baby Sky before he did something stupid (like touch the brat, or even breathe too close to him). He caught the comment about the old man telling the brat to call him grandfather of all things, and he couldn’t hold back a full derisive snort.
When the kid said he was pleased to meet them, while still staying as far away from the old man and the moron as possible, Xanxus was actually amused. The kid had a spirit to match the Flame he carried as easily as he breathed. He also apparently had a fucking strong grip, as evidenced when Iemitsu tried to pick him up and he very nearly managed to half strip Xanxus before Iemitsu finally let go. Xanxus probably shouldn’t have needled Iemitsu after that, but it was such a perfect opportunity. Besides, Iemitsu clearly didn’t know how to back the fuck off.
With that little bit of fun taken care of, Xanxus turned his attention back to the brat. He wanted to keep the kid away from the moron and his old man as much as possible. And if that meant going out the back and playing whatever the fuck kind of games Japanese five year olds played, that was fine by him.
So, not only was the fluffy little brat bone achingly lonely, he was also obscenely observant. Xanxus had no fucking clue where the brat had picked that up, since both of his parents were fucking dense.
He could almost understand the woman. She had Mist Flames, but the way he felt them against his Sky told him that she was in a constant state of Rejection, probably induced by being so far away for so long from probably the only Sky she’d ever met. Unbonded Mists have a questionable grip on reality as it is, but with a Mist Rejection thrown in, it was a fucking wonder the woman could even keep herself aware enough to keep the brat fed.
Although... He did still look scrawny, so maybe she was more disconnected than Xanxus had thought…
‘No. Iemitsu’s shitty brat isn’t my problem. No.’ Xanxus thought to himself, even as he tossed the ball to the kid.
It was almost an hour before the kid’s mother called them. Xanxus should have known that it was time for everything to go to fucking shit.
He’d left the brat alone for maybe thirty seconds when the Passive Flame Pressure became Active. For a second, Xanxus was swamped by the kid’s presence, even from a room away. His Wrath bubbled, trying to manifest in his hands, a silent response to the brat’s Sky. But he didn’t. At least not until the fucking moron and his shitty old man both excused themselves from the table.
By this point, Xanxus had figured out what Iemitsu was planning with this clusterfuck trip. If the brat had Flame Potential the presence of two such powerful Skies (Iemitsu hadn't planned on Xanxus coming along. Honestly, it wasn't Xanxus' fucking fault he'd been dragged on this trip, although he couldn't say he regretted it) would draw out the kid's Flame, allowing the Vongola Nono to Seal it, supposedly so the kid could be a normal civilian.
Never mind the fact that not even the fucking Estrano would Seal a child's Flame if they became Active before adolescence. It would make the child completely useless, even after the Unsealing. Never mind the fact that Xanxus had compiled a fucking binder of what Mammon and Levi had learned about Flames and their effects on the body, and put it on the fucking old man's desk and the fucking first thing on the first page was that Flames in an Active person are directly tied to healthy physical, psychological and emotional growth, and disrupting the Flames of a person before they were fully grown would disrupt their body at best, and completely obliterate the Active (and possibly the Sealer) at worst.
Clearly Nono either hadn't bothered to read the binder, or was justifying the consequences of his actions with the fact that the kid would never get involved in the Mafia.
Xanxus made sure to put down the dishes he'd been holding to help Sawada's wife, before all but running outside. He saw the old man's finger lit with a Flame, and Xanxus acted on impulse, following the direction of his hissing, snarling Flames. He grabbed the shitty old man's wrist, letting just a touch of his Wrath come to his hand. Enough to startle, but not burn. He could safely say that he hadn't planned the words that came out of his mouth.
"What the fuck are you doing to my little brother, shitty old man?"
Iemitsu's offended squawk, under any other circumstances would have been fucking hilarious, but right now, the brat was oozing Sky and the shitty old man was about to do something fucking moronic that would destroy the brat.
"It's for his own good Xanxus. Flames from a child this young--" The old man tried to say, but Xanxus cut him off.
"Should never be fucked with! Didn't you read any of the fucking research I sent you?! If you do this, you'll fucking destroy the brat." Xanxus snarled, pushing against the old man with his Will.
The Flame on the old man's finger flickered, as he tried to push back against Xanxus' Will, while trying to also break free of the tight grip Xanxus had on his wrist. Iemitsu went to interfere, but suddenly froze.
The brat's eyes blazed orange, and the Flame Pressure was back, and then he spoke in, surprising everyone, clear and crisp Italian. "Don't you hurt him! He's trying to protect me. Don't you want me to be protected? Isn't that why you always leave?"
Christ. The brat's Intuition was fucking ridiculous. Being able to speak a language he's heard all of once clearly enough to be understood, and pick through Iemitsu's bullshit with a look... Xanxus just knew that this kid would be a fucking powerhouse later. If Nono didn't Seal the brat's Flames. On that subject, Xanxus called more of his Flame to his hands, and he thought about the things the miser midget had forced him to read about the way Flames work, and shoved with his Will.
The old man was startled enough to take a step back, and lose his hold on the Flame he would have used to seal the brat. At that moment, the oppressive pressure the kid was letting out relaxed. Xanxus barely had a moment to exhale in relief, before he was tackled in a hug by the kid.
"Zanzus-nii! Let's go back inside!"
Xanxus raised an eyebrow at the new honorific, prompting the kid to explain further.
"You called me your little brother.... Are you saying you don't want to be my oniisan?" Fuck. This kid's sad eyes were going to be the death of him. He was Xanxus of the Varia, he shouldn't be cowed by a fucking baby Sky pouting at him. But ... this particular baby Sky needed someone to look after him.
He ruffled his apparently now little brother's hair, and came to a conclusion. He was going to do this shit right. He'd talk to Fede about how to look after a kid, and send some of the older Varia members to Namimori to protect his brat, because Iemitsu clearly couldn't be trusted to do it right.
"Sure. Let's go see what your maman made. Do you have a shorter name I can call you? Tsunayoshi is a mouthful."
"Mmmhm! Call me Tsuna!" The kid chirped joyfully, and Xanxus couldn't shake the feeling that he'd just been played by a fucking five year old.
He did stop briefly before entering, turning back to the trash who had tried to hurt his little brother. He bared his teeth in a possessive grin, and pushed, just once, with his Flame and Will.
He is MINE. There will be hell to pay if you hurt him.
It was a simple message, and clearly understood if the tightening of the shitty old man's hand on his cane was any indication.
Xanxus grinned savagely, before going back into the house, already planning on how to train the kid to Quality. He refused to let Tsuna get killed because he didn't know how to defend himself.