Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. Although, if I did, there'd be a live action already and Hibari would be hot(ter than he already is).

Edited: 12.12.15

She reached for it, for the light.

And when she did, everything exploded.

She didn't know what to do. She was seeing so much at once, hearing so much.

There was just too much, too much.

So she cried.

Bovino Leora was a kind woman. And because she was kind, she wept silently for her child as she cradled it in her arms. Her child was going to be a mafia child. And not just any mafia child, but the child of a boss. Leora's child would forever live in the shadow of the bosses before her and for that, she was sorry. Leora was the daughter of a mafia boss herself, though she wasn't the first born. Because of that, she was forced into an arranged marriage with the, at the time, just the heir of the Bovino family to secure the alliance. Leora had agreed, she would've done anything for her famiglia at the time. That was, of course, until she discovered how the Bovino family actually worked.

The mafia was a cruel place, oh, she knew. She'd lost siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts. She'd lost childhood friends, trusted servants, all of that. But most of the mafia was kind to their young. Her family was, at least. And she was aware that the Vongola, Chiavarone, Tomaso, and many others treated their young with the utmost care as well. But the Bovino...

The Bovino were rising in power, and now, they would stop at nothing to reach the top. It'd been years since the Bovino had shown any...public appearances, so the underworld had almost completely forgotten about them. But contrary to popular belief, the Bovino were not a small family. No, they were much larger than many would think. Of course, they had yet to reach even the size of the Estraneo, but they were getting there. Slowly and steadily. And to get there, they had devised a plan. A training regimen.

From the very moment of their very first steps, any and all Bovino children were to be taken from their families and put into a training facility.

The Bovino were a mafia family that specialized in infiltration. They held power because the dirty little secrets of the other families were held in their palms. How, you may ask?

Children assassins. No one would suspect a seemingly innocent child, right?

Of course, once they grew older, they'd be put into the general corps which were in charge of organizing information, hacking, and doing the much dirtier work.

But still, these children...they had no childhood.

Leora's children would never actually be children, and for that, she wept.

And the child in her arms, must've somehow sensed her distress because the child had stopped crying and was now watching silently as her mother cried. Leora stared into the eyes of her child and cried harder. The innocence that the gaze had held, would soon be taken away, and Leora did not want that. Not at all. The child, Leora's sweet little baby, she giggled, and reached out a small, gloved hand. She pawed at her mother's cheek. Her touches were sweet and gentle, full of love. It was as if the child was trying to communicate with her mother.

She was.

"Don't cry, mama. It'll be okay, I promise."

The child didn't know why, but when she saw this woman cry, it just...pained her. She knew she had been reborn. The feelings of being touched, of hearing sounds were unfamiliar to her. She had been floating in the dark, dark void for so long. She had known, during her time in the void, that she was somehow..a thing. But her thoughts were constantly vague, yet busy all the same. Noisy. She had been lonely, without a body, and without even the entertainment of her own thoughts for the longest time. Now that she had a brain again, she knew she'd died in that accident, from who knows how long ago. She remembered. And she was most definitely aware of how she had left her sweet, sweet, baby brother behind.

Khang...

But when she saw this woman cry, it just...

The woman reminded the child of herself. Or at least what she could remember of her past self. The woman was not in pain, that much she could tell, but she was crying and that was when the child realized, that yes, indeed, these were tears of sorrow and regret. These were tears shed for someone else. For her, perhaps? Was this woman crying for her?

The child had been reminded of moments from her past life. She was reminded of the nights where would she cry for the father she once knew, for the brother who would forever live with a broken family, and for the mother who was working so hard and was still struggling, even with her own help, to take care of her children.

And the child knew, that this woman, her new mama, was someone who she needed to love and protect. She knew, from then on, that she would have to let go of the past and just hope for the best. She could only hope that Khang had grown up alright.

The woman had stopped crying for minutes now. She'd stared, silently at her child. The woman was touched. Her child, her newborn baby, was somehow able to sense her distress and cheer her up. The woman didn't know how such a feat was possible, not from a child so young.

So young, and so smart. Her child would be a genius, not particularly surprising as the Bovino had a reputation of spitting those out like nobody's business but it both scared Leora and made her proud. It scared her, because it meant she would have even less time to spend with her child. But it made her proud, because she knew that if her child was to grow up as stubborn and smart as she did, she'd be fine.

"Aren't you a smart little girl?" She cooed and poked the child's cheek with a long, slender finger.

The child's face lit up with glee.

"I'll name you Lux, are you okay with that?" She asked, giggling to herself, "Lux because you'd be able to light up anyone's day."

The child didn't understand. She wasn't...

Was this Italian? She would assume it was...certainly did sound like it...

She wasn't Italian in her last life, after all. She was Vietnamese-American.

This was quite the change, wasn't it?

Lux sat in her mother's lap, tracing the words imprinted on the picture book with her small fingers as she listened to her mother read. It'd been six months since her birth. She could talk at this point. .

Well, not really.

She was only able to answer with one word replies usually and she could recognize when someone was talking to her. She still couldn't talk much though, since Italian was still new to her.

She'd realized early on that she didn't see her papa very often. Actually, she didn't really think papa liked her all that much.

Perhaps he was one of those people who wanted a son as their first born. Yeah, that was probably it. He'd warm up to her soon, she hoped.

How wonderful life would be, if she had a perfect family.

"Alright!" Her mother suddenly clapped, breaking the child from her thoughts.

"What's the moral of the story?"

If you're wondering why someone would ask a nine month old baby this question, the answer is simple. Leora had caught on a while ago the her daughter was a freaking genius and spared her the pain of being babied too much. Didn't stop the mother from forcing the girl to play dress up, tea party, and have playdates with other mafia children her age though.

It was hilarious to her.

"F-friends?" Lux answered timidly, not yet having a firm grasp on the language.

"Hmmm, close." Leora smiled proudly when Lux pouted grumpily.

She hated being wrong.

Leora didn't mind, though. She'd be worried if her daughter was never wrong. She was a child, after all, and at this age, the fact that Lux had been able to give an answer at all was amazing.

"You see, the hawk had to rely on the snake to pass a message to the slug who notified the toad of the crow's dire situation. Then, the toad gathered the deer, the piggy, the dog, the dove, and the raccoon to save the crow. So it's not just friendship here, it's something more. None of this could've happened if even one of the characters weren't there. So what's the moral of the story?"

"Teamwork!"

"That's right! Remember, Lux, that people who disobey the rules are scum."

"...But...disobeyed for birdy..."

"Yes, toad disobeyed the rules for crow, but you didn't let me finish, sweetheart. People who disobey rules are scum, but people who leave their friends behind are even worse than scum." [1]

Lux blinked. Where had she heard that before? She shrugged. Well, shrugged best she could with her tiny shoulders.

"Remember." She repeated, letting her mother know that she understood.

"Yes, you must always remember. Now, you sit here and play for a bit. Mama wants to make lunch. Do you want rice porridge or noodle soup?"

Interestingly, Mama was half Japanese, so she knew a bit of Japanese cuisine.

"Rice!" Lux grinned, showing off a few of her only teeth.

She always chose rice. She was, after all, Asian in her past life. Eating rice every day does things to a person. You get sick of it so easily but you stop eating it for a day or two and you start missing it.

"I shouldn't even have to ask you anymore, right? You love rice. Maybe I should cook Japanese food more often..?"

"YES!"

Leora giggled.

After a few moments of silence, except for the clattering of bowls and etc, Lux finally spoke up.

"Mama!"

"Yes, dear?"

"Papa no love Lux?"

Leora dropped the spoon she was holding and it clattered loudly onto the kitchen counter.

"Wh-what makes you think that?"

"Papa's eyes look at Lux give bad feeling." She explained, "Mama look at Lux, make Lux warm. Papa look make Lux cold. Make Lux feel...unwanted."

Leora sighed. Her daughter was just...so smart. She knew this day would come eventually, but why so soon?

"Papa doesn't love you, Lux."

Lying to the child wouldn't have done any good.

She was smart, Leora knew that she would've figured it out eventually anyway.

"Why? Lux do wrong? Bad girl?"

Leora, almost cried.

"Lux, you're a very good girl. You've never done anything wrong, infact, sometimes I wish you would."

"Why Papa no love?"

"Papa believes that all girls are weak and disposable."

"That why Papa hurt Mama?"

Leora froze. "How did you know that, Lux?"

"Sometime, have bad dream. Listen because Lux like Mama's voice, but Mama crying. Lux don't like Mama crying. Lux hear Papa yell at Mama. Lux don't like it."

Leora ran to her daughter and embraced her with all her might. Why must she be so smart?

"Lux be strong for Mama. Show Papa Lux not weak. Then Mama no cry."

I'll protect you, this time, Mama.

History will not repeat itself.

She was almost there. She was so close.

So. Close.

She was so close to being able to show Mama that she was strong.

Lux laid to palms flat on the floor and pushed.

She pushed her self up and she rose and rose until, yes, she was standing.

"Mama!" She called, and her mother running out of the bathroom to see what her child was up to. "Look!" She grinned and she took one step forward, toward her mother.

Then another and another and another until she was in her mother's arms.

Lux, at ten months old, had taken her first steps.

When Lux felt her mother crying, at first, she thought that Mama was happy.

But when she got a good look at her face, Mama was crying because she was scared.

Why was she scared?

Lux frowned.

"Mama not proud?"

And for the first time since she was born, Leora was not proud of her daughter.

"No. No, no, no."

Lux felt tears forming in her eyes. Mama wasn't proud of her? What did she do wrong? Wasn't she showing that she was smart? That she was strong.

"You must never let your father see you do that, do you hear me?"

Lux was shocked into silence.

"LUX! DO YOU HEAR ME?" Her mother grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, still violently sobbing, "YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T SHOW HIM THAT! EVER! INFACT, DONT EVER WALK AGAIN. DON'T! NOT IN FRONT OF ME, NOT IN FRONT OF ANYBODY!"

"Mama, th-that hurts!"

"LUX! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"YES, MAMA! YES!" She cried.

Now they were both crying.

"YOU CAN'T, LUX! YOU CAN'T!"

"I KNOW, I'M SORRY!"

And that's how the Bovino boss found his wife and daughter. On the floor, embracing each other, crying their hearts out. One big, sobbing mess.

He gave them a single glance and scoffed.

He was going to have that woman killed once he receives a male heir. No way in hell that child was going to inherit a single thing from him.

Lux laid wide awake in her crib. She was a year old now.

Her parents were arguing again and she didn't like it one bit.

"SHE SHOULD'VE TAKEN HER FIRST STEPS BY NOW!"

"I'M TELLING YOU, SHE HASN'T!"

"HOW CAN SHE NOT? SHE CAN SPEAK FULL SENTENCES NOW AND READ BOOKS. YOU'RE TELLING ME SHE CAN DO ALL THAT YET NOT WALK?"

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M TELLING YOU!"

A crash. Some banging.

Lux could make out the sounds of physical fighting. She'd heard them before when her parents fought in her old life.

"Listen to me, woman, you will get that child to walk by the end of this week or I will kill her. And you."

"I am your wife-"

"You think I care? I could go out there a marry some other whore and have her give me some other kid. You two are disposable. If you wish for the right to live, you will earn it."

Silence.

"Do you understand, woman?"

A loud slap.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Y-yes."

[1] Yes, I totally just stole that from Naruto.