makeste: (Car wreck kids)
makeste ([personal profile] makeste) wrote2008-02-26 04:15 am

Reborn! shortfic - Brand New Sky

Title - Brand New Sky
Author - [livejournal.com profile] makeste
Rating - G
Characters/Pairings - Tsuna-centric, gen
Warnings/Notes - No warnings I can think of. The title is a Foo Fighters reference. XD
Summary - Somewhere along the line, Tsuna grew up a little.


---


Sometimes, every once in a long while, Tsuna can almost see what they see.

It doesn’t happen often; usually right after he’s managed to say or do something undeniably cool (which is a rare occasion in and of itself). And usually it doesn’t last too long; sometimes only a second or two. He has a tendency, like when looking at one of those Magic Eye pictures, to lose sight of it almost immediately unless he’s only looking at it from out of the corner of his eye.

But he sees it, nonetheless: an almost intangible quality, and one that’s almost impossible to describe. For him, anyway, because he’s never quite sat well with the adjective Yamamoto and Gokudera-kun and all of the others prefer to use. There isn’t, and never has been, anything ‘amazing’ about him.

There is, however, something there that he’d never known before meeting Reborn. Something peculiarly strong and remarkably resilient, something that the other adjective he’s heard all his life—‘no-good’—definitely doesn’t seem to fit. He can’t put a finger on when it first appeared; it’s not as though he just woke up one morning all ready to go kick ass as the tenth boss of the Vongola family. Or maybe he did. He really doesn’t have a clue.

All he knows is that sometimes he looks in the mirror and he suddenly realizes how different he is from when this all first started, and the contrast hits him like a slap in the face.

It’s weird, because there’s still that part of him that hasn’t changed one bit, the part that always made a laughably pathetic effort (most everything about him was pathetic back then) to resist Reborn’s wanton violence and insanity. That part of him hates how deeply he’s let himself be dragged down into all of this, how much he’s given in. It’s the part that’s always feared anything that stands out—anything that isn’t normal.

But there’s another part of him, the part Reborn so unapologetically sunk his teeth into. The part that comes face-to-face with death every time the bullet hits his forehead, and understands that nothing in life could possibly be more frightening than never living at all.

And that’s the part of him that can’t imagine ever going back to the way things were.

He’s still not big on the violence, and really, he never will be. He’s not too keen on the insanity either, though if chaos travels hand-in-hand with his friends then he’ll embrace it, no questions asked. That’s the one thing both sides of him are sure about: no matter what happens, he never wants to be parted from these people. If it means accepting his role in the mafia world and all that comes with it, he’ll do it, although he’s not beyond clinging stubbornly to the hope of an alternative. At least, not yet.

But even more than the changes in the world around him, it’s the changes in himself that this part of him clings to the most. It’s the realization that he’s more than just No-Good Tsuna; that there’s something inside of him that’s strong enough to confront his fears, and resourceful enough to overcome them. Something hopeful enough to inspire others, brave enough to trust them, and sure enough to shoulder the responsibility of keeping them safe.

He’s never been especially bright, but he’s not stupid either, and when he sees those things, it doesn’t escape him that those are the qualities of a leader. And that is perhaps the scariest insight of all, and one which almost always makes him hastily look away. He isn’t ready for that; not yet. But the thought still lingers, in the back of his mind, that maybe one day he could be.

Most of the time he buries it, shying as far from the idea as possible. When a grinning Yamamoto tells him he’s an amazing guy, he replies that he’s not half as amazing as Yamamoto himself. When an apologetic Gokudera drops to his knees insisting that he’s not worthy, Tsuna is properly mortified and frantically assures him that he really doesn’t have to do that, it’s okay. In sharp contrast from the people around him who struggle to win recognition and success, Tsuna goes out of his way to convince people that he’s really no one special.

Most of the time, he even believes it, and the thought makes him content.

But every so often, he catches that flicker of orange flame in his reflection, and he does see something more.

[identity profile] ansibs.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 05:31 am (UTC)(link)
Ah...Tsuna really *is* strong, despite all the things he says. What he says, what he denies - there are so many things that might label him no-good and a coward. But his actions show where his heart is, in the end: the determination he has to stay with these people because they're everything to him, they really are.

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the comment! ♥ And I totally agree--the thing I love about Tsuna is how humble and unassuming he is, even though like you said, he really is strong. He just needed the right people to finally bring that out in him.

[identity profile] azartti.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
Tsuna~~
Oh god I love you so much for writing this. That you don't actually think that Tsuna is weak, gahh I'm too incoherent to review properly.
*loves*

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh, thank you (coherent or not)! And I definitely couldn't think that for a second; just one look at him in the most recent chapters, and you can really see how much he's changed and how strong he's become. :)

[identity profile] ex-dwimmer.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
Oooh, gorgeous! Tsuna happens to be my favourite character and I love the insight you've shown on him with this piece. He's a bundle of contradictions but is slowly finding himself. It's great ♥

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
He's a bundle of contradictions but is slowly finding himself.

That about sums up everything I love about Tsuna's character in one sentence. Thanks for the feedback! ♥

[identity profile] morphaileffect.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
very, very insightful. i think it was said somewhere in the manga that tsuna is "so ordinary he's extraordinary" or something like that, but from the start he's shown that he has the stuff to change things and give hope, and that's definitely - to borrow a word from gokudera and yamamoto - amazing.

much love to you for writing this ♥

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Yep, I think Basil said the "extraordinarily ordinary" line during the Varia Arc; sums him up pretty nicely. And it is an amazing quality, definitely.

Thank you for the feedback! ♥ ♥

[identity profile] shiroinokistune.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, wow. This was so deep and so well thought out.
What you have written here is what I mostly love about Tsuna. The way he grows up- it wasn't one big smacking change after a dramatic moment but in all the little ways, his determination to stick by his friends, no matter what they do, his ability to simply care...
Yup, Tsuna is simply amazing*totally adding to my memories*

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much for the comments. ♥ And yeah, you can see the change slowly happening over the course of the manga, and it's so fascinating to watch. He really is a great character.

[identity profile] aradiantsun.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 11:45 am (UTC)(link)
This is such a lovely little fic - a real gem to wake up to. You captured the essence of growing up wonderfully, how one day you just sudden realize you're different from before.

He can’t put a finger on when it first appeared; it’s not as though he just woke up one morning all ready to go kick ass as the tenth boss of the Vongola family. Or maybe he did. He really doesn’t have a clue. I think these are my favorite lines, though I really thoroughly enjoyed every part of this. *mems*

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
:D :D Thank you!

Like I said in the above comments, the way Tsuna grows up over the course of the manga is my favorite thing about his character. You can see at times (like the end of the Varia Arc when Reborn tries to give him the ring he won and he freaks and says he wasn't fighting to become the boss, he was just trying to keep Xanxus from doing so) that he's still resisting it a little, but he's definitely gone through a huge change since the start of the series.

[identity profile] zehphy.livejournal.com 2008-02-27 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
Gah! This was so great. These are totally all the reasons I love Tsuna!

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-27 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. ♥ And same here. :) He is an amazing kid--he just hasn't quite realized it yet.

I'm a brand new sky to hang the stars upon tonight

[identity profile] demoerin.livejournal.com 2008-02-27 12:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I never really thought about how Tsuna would come to see the changes in himself, so this fic was good to see. And you did it well - I could see him thinking exactly this way - and that made it even better to read. ♥

I, I'm a little divided

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2008-02-27 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Do I stay or run away... that song really reminds me of Tsuna. XD

I do wonder about what Tsuna thinks about how far he's come since the Daily Life arc, and this was pretty much what that speculation resulted in. He does have his cool moments, and that can't have completely slipped his notice--especially when there are people like Gokudera, Yamamoto and Haru who never stop singing his praises XD. And I'm sure he must have wondered at least a little about what his TYL!self was up to before, uh, you know. But judging from the way he still resists mafia involvement whenever possible and gets embarrassed when people talk him up, etc., he's still got a ways to go before he accepts it.

...And I'm gonna shut up now before I start essaying. Anyway, thanks so much for the comment. ♥

[identity profile] muumuu122.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I like your take on Tsuna <3 I feel that this could very well be canon.

[identity profile] makeste.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 05:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! ♥