Hi there, if you're new to this story this is an Alternate Universe featuring my OC.

While this story is tagged as Romance, its also Family, Friendship, Adventure and a slight bit of Angst. A re-telling of a series that has played a very special part in my life. I love KHR but I admit that it had it's flaws and I honestly never accepted the ending. To find closure with those feelings, to fill the need of the lack of OC fanfics that's paired with Tsuna and to give him a suitable love interest (I admit, he is my husbando), I wrote this. It's also a fix-it fic for all the plot holes that bugged me when I was younger.

It's not a direct copy and paste of how the series went with my OC inserted in for fun. I will deviate from canon and there are changes that will come resulting from it. Let's say rather than having all the Arcs happening during Tsuna's Middle School life, it stretches from Middle School until their University Years. There will be darker and mature themes as the story progresses but I still want to keep that Reborn charm you know?

Originally, I started on this story back in 2015 but after experiencing some heavy loss in my life, I stopped writing. It's been one hell of a struggle to bring myself to touch my stories again but I'm here.

To my old readers, if you're reading this thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking around. If you decide to re-read this fanfic again, you might notice some changes I made. Nothing too big, but parts where I could have done better had been re-written to be better.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, Artland owns the rights to it.

A lot of things could be said about Sawada Tsunayoshi; pathetic, weak, scrawny, and dumb. That's what the kids in his neighborhood called him at least. All of these words though, we're summed up into a title that would stay with him for years to come.

They called him Dame-Tsuna.

It started out as teasing whispers over an unfortunate accident during kindergarten. But having a low self-esteem and a shy demeanor didn't help his plummeting popularity. It got worse. The teasing became bullying and soon the abuse followed. Tsuna could hardly remember a time when he wasn't bullied at school. When he wasn't ostracized by his peers and beaten to a pulp.

But save the sob story for another time. Everybody who reads this pretty much understood who Sawada Tsunayoshi is. If you don't, go home. You're bloody drunk if you don't know the main character of this fandom.

Fast forwarding, Tsuna is now twelve years old and attending middle school. He thought he could start new, hoped that he could turn his life around and possibly make friends. His hopes were immediately shot down when he realized, as he came to his class that day with a smile, that most of his elementary classmates transferred to Namimori Middle. His smile immediately slipped off his face and his hope shriveled.

It was with dread as he stood in middle of the gym during the opening ceremony. He could feel the stares, the whispers and mild spite directed at him. He withstood it, as he had for the last few years by telling himself that it was best to keep quiet and let it pass. His eyes caught Sasagawa Kyoko's frame from the mass of students in front of him and his cheeks darkened.

Last year, she helped him to the infirmary after a mean beating. She had been so gentle as she patched him up that he instantly fell for her. He knew that she was too good for him but that didn't stop him from fantasizing.

After the ceremony, anything that happened after was what he expected. He was singled out, picked on and nearly beaten. He went home that evening, grimacing as his shoulder ached. He had gotten hurt trying to run away.

"I'm home," he called out hollowly.

There was no answer.

"Right," Tsuna muttered to himself. "Mom won't be back till tom." He forgot that his Mother left the day before to go to Tokyo to attend a distant relative's funeral. Knowing that no one was around, he could feel the moisture in his eyes prickle and he sniffed. Limping towards his bedroom, he flopped on the bed and buried himself in the covers without changing.

Curling into a ball, he prayed with all his might that things would get better.

Fuck the universe. Nothing got better. Tsuna thought rather viciously after two weeks of school. He was just as bad at everything in school as he was in Elementary. He knew he was failing, knew that at this rate he'll never amount to anything in life. At this point, why was he still trying? He was nothing so why would the world care if he was loser?

Such thoughts plagued his mind as he walked around Namimori late at night.

"I still have that Math test tomorrow!" he screeched in frustration into the sky. No one was around to hear his outburst so Tsuna heaved heavy breaths to help control his pent-up feelings. Why can't he do anything right? So fed up with his shitty life, Tsuna threw his head back – not looking where he went – and accidentally smacked it against a street light, knocking himself out rather spectacularly. He was spread out on the ground like an exposed nerve, completely vulnerable to the dangers of the world.

(This is the part where a freaky molester appears – joke! #deathbytuna)

How long he lied there on the cold concrete he didn't know. But when he slowly opened his eyes, a shadow cast over him. As his eyes focused, the image solidified into girl looking down on him, her face hidden in the shadows created by the street light shining above. As the world started to make sense around him, he noticed that she was crouching down right beside him, staring curiously.

"Eh?" He gaped at her. Now that he had a closer look at her, he felt his face flush in embarrassment.

Her hair was a tangled mess of long blonde locks, some of it sort of stood up because of its layered style while the rest of it flowed down like waves. It looked nice – like it was just yanked out of a tight bun. Her eyes were the color blue that he couldn't identify as what. It reminded him of a flower he'd seen in his picture books as a kid. It held his gaze and he was unable to look away.

Realizing he was staring, he tore his eyes away, face burning like the setting sun.

"It's past midnight," she said mildly. She had an accent but he couldn't focus on that, not after having registered what she said in his mind.

"Wh-What?" he gasped and shot up to a sitting position. He went out around seven! He had been out-cold for four hours? Holy shi –

"Go home before I call the police. Seriously, I thought you were on drugs or something," she joked, grinning widely at his expense.

"I-I-I… right. Yeah, yeah, thanks… for that." He stuttered lamely. He sighed at his own pathetic person, even talking to a stranger – who was pretty nice – made him stutter like a moron.

She frowned a little at him. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," he replied.

"What a mouthful," she commented and turned thoughtful. "I'll think I'll just call you Tsunayoshi… chan?"

Tsuna blanched at the nickname. She backtracked quickly at his expression. "Mannagia tua! Sorry! Sorry! I'm not… familiar with using honorifics in Japanese." She laughed. "What am I supposed to call you then?"

He blinked then blushed again. "Just Tsuna is fine. Don't bother with honorifics."

She beamed at him. "Fantastico!"

So she really is a foreigner. From what country, he could only guess. "Um, can I ask for your name?"

"Sorry, I'm Mia Matteis. My first name is Mia, just call me that."

Tsuna pursed his lips. It was alright, his mind told him. She's from another country so Japanese customs didn't necessarily apply to her. He smiled at her a little. "M-M-Mia then."

She grinned and he found that her grin was infectious as his own appeared on his face. She held out a hand that he took a bit hesitantly. They shook hands, a concept that was foreign and fascinating to him.

"Well Tsuna, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." She declared. "As your friend, I'm telling you to go home now. It's really late and I don't think I'd want to see my new friend on the TV tomorrow saying that he's missing or something."

He actually found himself laughing, albeit a bit shyly. "Yeah, thank you Mia."

"See you around the neighborhood Tsuna!" she waved goodbye as he left.

When he went home that night, he felt better than he ever did in his whole life. He had a friend!

Author's Note:

This takes place before the series started and here, Tsuna had just started Middle School. Right now, he's 12 years old. I'll sprinkle a few reminders here and there of their ages.

When I originally wrote this out, I decided to start my story before the series began. I still stand by that decision as it gave me time to have a solid foundation for future chapters.

Thanks for reading!