He always felt an affinity with clouds. Drifting in the sky unfettered and independent. He longed for that freedom. It was an odd sentiment but he attributed it to being constantly locked up in his cupboard. Its dark cramped space like a prison. No window even to look upon the vast endless sky. The sky he always wanted to touch, to be near. The sky that would never lock him up or chain him down. The sky that would let him fly free and soar like the skylarks trilling their songs of freedom while they flew above and away from everything.

He knew he was odd. The feelings the sky and its elements evoked in him were not what was typical. Mostly he felt irritation, but beneath the irritation was some odd feelings of protectiveness and belonging. Why would he feel like he belonged under the open sky no matter the weather when he never felt anything but imprisoned everywhere else?

He got weird looks from other children and adults when he described the sun as loud, the lightning as childish, and the rain as cheerful.

Rain made him think of cheerful smiles, baseball, and the glint of sharp metal.

Storms reminded him of smoke and explosions along with silver hair and intelligence.

The ever prevalent fog and mist made him think of pineapples and annoying laughter sometimes and a soft voice and bright violet eyes at other times.

The brightly shining sun always felt loud, enthusiastic, and annoying and he could almost hear shouts of "EXTREME" ringing in his ears as he is reminded of boxing.

Lightning was the oddest. It made him think of cows and children. At least he could understand why he also associated it with explosions, but could not for the life of him figure out why he also thought of pink smoke. What in the world would cause pink smoke?

Rainbows made him think of babies and brightly colored pacifiers.

And the beautiful sky made him think of small fluffy animals, beautiful orange flames, and radiant smiles. It made him feel so much that it all became a jumble. Amusement. Excitement. Irritation. Contentment. Sadness. Anger. Longing. Respect. Confusion.

Regardless of how odd, they also made him feel less lonely though they reminded him that something was missing.

The first time it happened was in his first grade class. It was show and tell and a little girl in his class brought in her pet canary. The little bird was a bright yellow and cheerfully chirped "hello" to the class thrilling many of the children that it could talk.

He watched the bird sensing something familiar about it but it seemed wrong. It should have been rounder and fluffier and it should be saying something else. "Hi...ri...Hi...ri...bite...death". The sounds were muted but he could hear them. No one else seemed to though. The fluffy yellow bird in his mind started singing, some odd song that oddly made him feel proud.

He was laying the roof of his school. The beautiful blue sky stretched above him and the little yellow bird happily singing a school anthem.

"So he's yours." A cheerful girl's voice commented. She was trespassing. Her uniform was not from his school but he recognized her. She was one of the female herbivores that crowded with the fluffy brown-haired small animal.

"Hahi, he's really cute!"

"Hn."

"Does he have a name?"

"..."

"Haru thinks that since he is Hibari-san's bird, he should be called Hibird."

He was no longer on the roof but instead back in his classroom. Was he asleep and dreaming? No he was still sitting straight up at his desk. Hardly any time seemed to have passed either. The little girl with the bird was just walking back to her seat.

The lapse in his consciousness unnerved him enough that he would not even look at any birds for the next week.

It kept happening sporadically. Sometimes it was just a voice saying something or a flash of a scene. Sometimes it was longer. An entire conversation. Most of it was easily forgotten again and rare enough in frequency to ignore.

He had his second major episode as he sat looking through his science book the next school year. The chapter was on ecology and was about the food chain. From the text the word 'carnivore' jumped out and captured his attention. The word was familiar and comfortable.

A tall man was standing in front of him. He could tell that what the man was about to say was important. His face was serious and he made sure to look him directly in the eyes."We Hibari, are carnivores. We are at the top of the food chain. We are strong."

"Hn."

"As carnivores we are predators and herbivores are our prey."

"Hn."

"We use our strength to protect our territory and our pack. Namimori is our territory and it is our duty to protect our territory. We have protected it it for centuries. We protect Namimori by biting to death those herbivores that do not follow the rules and disturb the peace of Namimori. Remember to only bite those types of herbivores to death. You must leave the others alone."

He looked up at the man not comprehending, "But they are just herbivores."

"We may be carnivores but we still need those herbivores. They form the lower rungs of the ladder and without them the balance will be disturbed. They are weak but they are still important to assure that our territory runs smoothly. They do things that allow us to focus on protecting our territory. They fear easily and need someone strong to herd them and protect them. It is our job as the strong to protect them."

"Are there only carnivores and herbivores?"

The man gave a rueful smile, "No there is another. If you are very lucky, maybe one day you will meet one. They are omnivores and they are very rare. They have the strength and cunning of we carnivores but are not."

"How are they different?"

"Maybe one day you'll meet one and understand. They can be very dangerous and in different ways than we carnivores."

He was fairly certain he was not a carnivore. If any thing he was an herbivore that the him in the vision spoke about with such contempt. The term omnivore made his heart race with excitement and he wondered wistfully if he had ever gotten to meet an omnivore. Beautiful, exciting, flashing orange eyes kept popping into his head when he thought of omnivores.

Things continued the same for several years. Most of his episodes were brief and forgettable, but a few seemed to have more significance and no matter how much he tried he could not forget them. They rarely made sense though.

Things change and change came fast.

He was running away from Dudley and his gang as they played their game of "Harry Hunting." His mind screamed at him that everything was wrong. He should be the predator experiencing the thrill of the hunt not the weak prey running and hiding. He didn't care. He ran and as he ran he looked at the welcoming sky and wished that he could be closer to it. With a sudden and loud pop he found himself on the roof of his school and he was closer to that beautiful sky than he had ever been. It happened again.

He was napping when the annoying voices of herbivores woke him up. Opening his eyes he saw the silhouette of the fluffy haired small animal bending over him. "Sawada Tsunayoshi. What do you want?"

"Hello Hibari-san. I was just wondering if you would like to have lunch with us." The annoyingly herbivorous smile was firmly set in place.

He took a glance to the side to see the small animal's pack. "I do not crowd with herbivores."

"We're not just herbivores, we're family Hibari-san." The smile was gone and his heart jerked a bit in pain but he ignored it. "Oh. Well here, I brought this for you."

He looked to see a lunchbox wrapped in a purple cloth. "I do not need it."

A sly smile made it's way to the small animal's lips causing irritation to swell in him. "It's hamburger steak. Mom was making it for lunch today and since it's Hibari-san's favorite I asked her to make extra for you. There is also some mochi I made in there. Please take it Hibari-san."

More irritation filled him but underneath it was something else he couldn't define. Resigned that the small animal would not go away, he took the box. Seemingly content the small animal returned to his pack. Growling in frustration, he joined the herbivores but sat a bit away from them. They were pack, no matter how annoying.

The roof was different but it was the same sky. The same sky that made him think of Sawada Tsunayoshi's smile. Was this boy the omnivore he kept thinking about?

A teacher saw him on the roof and assumed he had climbed up there. A janitor was sent to fetch him down and he now stood in the headmaster's office as the headmaster ranted about what a reckless delinquent he was to be on the roof.

"Obviously you need more discipline, boy!"

Discipline. That word sent him through a collage of scenes and images. A black jacket with a red armband. A group of tough looking teenagers with odd hairstyles bowing to him. A office in a school with paperwork piled on the desk. Students shying away from him as he stalked the halls. Holding a set of metal sticks that he was using to beat a group of thugs. "Kamikorosu!"

They had him surrounded. His cousin and his friends. His bullies. They had laid in wait for him around a corner an in an alley that he had to pass walking home from school, frustrated that their earlier attempt had been thwarted. His aunt would never deign to pick up her freak of a nephew from school when she picked up her precious Dudleykins. Dudley had time to gather up his gang and prepare.

The closed in feeling and the air of violence that hung heavy in the air triggered it. His vision flashed. Voices and shouting that did not belong to those that stood in front of him drowned out the jeering of the boys that thought they were more.

It was an ambush.

It was meant to be a meeting with an allied famiglia over shipping rights. A meeting that the boss of the Vongola would not normally attend in person but tensions between the head famiglia and its allies had been running high over the other famiglia's less than savory practices. The Vongola boss was attended by his devoted right-hand man and Storm Guardian as well as the strongest of the guardians, the Cloud Guardian, for protection. The Sky's intuition had been acting up lately. It was a show of both strength and amity.

It turned out not to be enough to overcome the treachery.

The Pietri Famiglia had colluded with two of the Vongola's enemy famiglia in order to ambush the Vongola Decimo and bring an end to his reformist ways. Strong as the three Vongola were the number of men they were being forced to fight in close quarters left them at a severe disadvantage. One famiglia they could take out, two they probably could as well, but three was too much even for the boss and two of his guardians.

It only took a moment of inattention as he was being surrounded for everything to fall apart. The enemies had several snipers whose aim was just to take them out. It mattered not to the enemy if any of their own were taken down by friendly fire. He managed to dodge one bullet only to miss sensing another one until he heard Tsunayoshi's unmistakable voice grunting in pain. He turned to see the Sky falling with with a bullet wound in his chest. The blood stain spreading insidiously across the crisp white shirt underneath the black jacket.

It was a scene that was hauntingly, horrifyingly reminiscent of a future that never happened.

He was careless and the selfishly selfless omnivore had jumped in and taken the bullet that should have killed him. Rage filled him seeing the brunet collapsed on the ground. His flames roared to life immediately consuming the enemies in front of him. He mercilessly and efficiently kept a perimeter around himself and the fallen Sky. The annoying bomb herbivore blasted his way towards them and tried to heal the omnivore.

"Hayato. Kyoya. I'll clear a way for you. You two get out of here." A voice hoarse with pain ordered before overcome by a cough wet with blood.

"I'm not leaving you Juudaime!"

He just gave a disdainful glance at the omnivore as he continued fighting. "Don't be an herbivore."

The honey-gold eyes closed wearily in defeat but then hardened with resolve and turned orange again. "Help me up Hayato. We're getting out of here."

The silver-haired bomber did as ordered. As soon as he was standing, an enormous amount of the purest Sky Flames erupted from the boss. The entire building was engulfed in a blazing inferno centered around the Vongola. The flames consumed everything that they touched except they passed harmlessly by the two guardians. Tsunayoshi's flame, no matter how strong or wild, will never hurt those he loves. The reckless Sky lost consciousness as soon as the flames simmered down leaving burnt bodies in its wake. They didn't stop to check for any survivors.

Their driver was already dead. Shot by a sniper. The Storm placed his boss into the backseat and pushed the corpse of the driver to the passenger side. They could at least return his body to his family. The Cloud deflected the bullets coming from the snipers too far away to have been caught in the inferno of Tsunayoshi's flame. He jumped onto the roof of the car before it sped away continuing to defend it and his Sky from snipers.

When they got back to headquarters carrying a bleeding Tsunayoshi, pandemonium broke out. The Suns of all the Vongola and its allies were all called upon to help.

It was not enough.

The idiotic self-sacrificing omnivore had used up more flames than his heavily injured body could endure to get them out of there.

Silence pervaded. The only noise heard in the usually lively mansion was occasional sobbing. Tension hung thick over the residents and all were united towards the overwhelming desire for revenge. It had to wait however. There were more important matters to attend to. Tsunayoshi had to be laid to rest.

Questions abounded. Why did they not know that the Pietri Famiglia had allied themselves with their enemies? CEDEF should have been aware and alerted them.

There were traitors in CEDEF. The former baby had smoked them out. Spineless herbivores that were discontent with the change in Vongola's ways but too cowardly to voice it to anyone that mattered. Instead they hid. They hid from the penetrating eyes of the Sky. They hid their greed. They hid their traitorous intentions. They hid the so crucial information that could have prevented the ambush. He thoroughly enjoyed their screams of pain and even reveled in the horror that the pineapple herbivore elicited. The Vindice took them after that. Death was too good for them.

The sky was beautiful that day when Tsunayoshi's body was lowered into the ground. Those closest to the Vongola Sky stayed until night had fully enveloped them. There was only the dim glow of distant stars. No moon with its reflected glory, only the darkness of a new moon.

The next day was a bloodbath. The Millefiore, Simon, Varia, Cavallone and former-Arcobaleno divided the two enemy famiglia amongst themselves. Both famiglia had been laid to waste. Their members slaughtered and their holdings burned to ash.

The traitorous famiglia was left to the enraged guardians and the world's greatest hitman. The aloof Cloud that had failed to protect the Sky and the misleading and obscuring Mists joined in purpose, descended sowing chaos and confusion. Gruesome specters formed out of the indigo mists horrifying those that saw them as a Cloud darted among them. Purple spiked balls of death rained down piercing those caught by the razor-sharp needles of Roll. Their cries of pain added to the terror of those facing the Mists' illusions. The blessed Rain that washed away the family's sorrow became instead a grief-stricken deluge that drowned and swept away the betrayers in its torrential force. The passionate Storm became a hurricane, howling and furious. The bright Sun that destroyed the misfortune of the family with his own body and shined brightly upon all became the harsh relentless desert Sun that scorched and blistered. The Lightning that once danced playfully in the Sky's embrace became a force of destruction igniting fires and electrocuting all that dared take his brother from him. The guiding sun no longer stood back but unleashed his fury in yellow flame coated bullets that always hit their mark.

Some begged for mercy. Some tried to buy their lives. Some tried to run. All were dispatched. There was nothing left of the backstabbers. Mercy and compassion had been the province of their fallen Sky.

The Vindice watched it all with sorrowful satisfaction. After all it was normal for famiglia to destroy rival famiglia that threatened their territory or in retaliation. It was nothing that was worth the cloaked and bandaged enforcers interference. It was nothing more than they deserved.

That had been the most intense episode he had had yet. When he came back to himself, instead of seeing the bodies of the Pietri Famiglia still on the ground before him, he saw instead the bodies of Dudley and his gang writhing in pain. The violent other him, Hibari Kyoya, his mind told him in the man's deep stoic voice, was giving a satisfied smirk. The herbivores deserved it. He shivered a bit as he started to realize that the satisfaction came as much from himself as from the other him.

The bloodshed and death in the last vision (memory his other self corrected) was disturbing and scary in hindsight but when he was in it, all he felt was the other him's emotions. The unaccustomed helplessness, the anger, the panic, the sadness, that dark, dark desire for vengeance, and the grim satisfaction when it was achieved. After it was all over though he felt empty. His Sky was still gone.

He could feel it. That last memory had finally broken whatever barrier had been in his mind separating him from the other. The cracks had been forming for years. He and the other were merging and he did not know if he should be scared or elated. He could lose himself to that stronger, scarier person. We are one, you will not lose yourself because you are me. We are carnivores. We do not let weak herbivores intimidate us or control us. Fear is for herbivores, the other scoffed.

And that settled his fears. He could not lose himself to his other. They were one and the same. The part of him that felt wrong, as if it was missing something was less so. Something was still missing but a part of it had been returned. His other seemed to know what was missing.

Nothing triggered it the next time. The barrier was broken. There was nothing to stop the memories from flowing to him. One moment he was being screamed at by his aunt, (the woman was screaming at him about his having beaten up {bit to death} her precious Dudleykins and how when his uncle got home how he would beat him until he couldn't move and then toss his ungrateful freakish self out on the streets to die) the next he was in another memory.

It was the annoying Storm that came up with the idea. It was unsurprising since he was the most intelligent of the guardians. He had holed himself in his rooms for a week working non-stop on something causing the females to worry greatly. When he came out looking exhausted but hopeful for the first time since the omnivore dared to die on them, on him, they knew that he had come up with something.

It was insane and dangerous with the potential the wreak havoc on the space-time continuum and all the guardians agreed to the idea immediately. It was a plan inspired by their trip to the future. Instead of going to the future they would try to use the Vongola Gear and their power over time to send all of themselves or barring that one of them back a month and stop Tsunayoshi's death. They were still the owners of the Vongola Gear since Tsunayoshi's heir was still too young to even go to school, not to mention search for his own guardians. They no longer had a Vongola Sky so they would have to harmonize their flames to create the Sky Flames needed. It took them another week of continuous practice in secret to harmonize their flames.

They finally succeeded while standing in the clearing Tsunayoshi was buried. They were surprised however when instead of just a Sky Flame coming out of the Sky Ring Ver. X, the flame resolved itself into the form of their deceased boss. Tears flowed from the eyes of the more emotional of the guardians at the sight of their Sky.

The stupid omnivore smiled his too sweet and bright herbivorous smile at them before telling them , "Please stop. I know what you want to do, but you should not."

"We don't care Juudaime! We will save you."

"Bossu, we want you back!"

"Tsuna, we'll fix this. This wasn't meant to happen!"

"Thank you for loving me enough to do this, but you can't. It too dangerous for everyone."

"Lambo-sama doesn't care. Lambo-sama wants his Tsuna-nii back."

"Everyone is EXTREMELY sad without you!"

"I know and I am sorry for making you all sad. I love all of you so very much but we will meet again. I promise. We are bound to each other with bonds stronger than death, so please don't do this."

Tsunayoshi approached each of the guardians and bestowed a kiss upon each of their heads. All of them stood still receiving his benediction. From his lips a small Sky Flame sparked into life and was absorbed into their bodies. The flame felt of his strength, resolve, and gentleness and lifted their moods, settling in their hearts warming them.

"We'll find each other again and I'm sorry I had to do this but you'll still be able to release your weapons from them." The glowing omnivore promised one last time before his flame winked out and instead of the Sky Ring Ver. X laying on the grass, was the sealed form of the Vongola Sky Ring. Their own VG had reverted into their sealed form and box animal rings. The herbivore (he no longer deserved to be called an omnivore) had sealed their gear to stop them from using their full powers. They could no longer try to turn back time. Strangely the thought no longer seemed to bother any of the guardians. It felt as if Tsunayoshi now resided in their hearts.

He came out of the memory with his aunt screaming, "Are you listening to me boy?"

He glared at the annoying woman and smirked at her answering, "No." He then walked to the cupboard and gathered the few items of his that could be useful and started for the door. No one would give him his freedom. He had to seize it for himself. He was tired of being a herbivore. It was time for him to be a carnivore.

He ignored the herbivore as she shouted at him. He finally knew what was missing. Harry Potter, once known as Hibari Kyoya, the Vongola Cloud Guardian, had some herbivores to find and a foolish Sky to bite.

A.N. I wrote this because my muse wanted to work on something angsty. She says the fluff was starting to make her blood sugar too high. Seriously though I've seen several stories that seem to be Harry becomes/reincarnates as Kyoya and I wanted to reverse it.

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