Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn for it belongs to Amano Akira.

Enjoy the story. R&R, plz!

Prologue: Orange Lily

His first love ended in complete despair.

"I know you have put a lot of effort in it, but I'm sorry. I can't accept your feeling, Shirosaki-kun. I hope we can still be friends after this."

Tsunayoshi Shirosaki, or Tsuna for short, lowered his face in disappointment and received the crumpled letter from Kyoko Sasagawa, his first- and probably last- crush. The boy tried his best no to show his emotion outside, but the glazed eyes and trembling shoulders had given him away.

"It's okay, Sasagawa-san. I understand". The brunette gave a weak smile in an attempt to chase away his sadness, but to no avail. The pain was too great for him to bear.

If it were just Kyoko's rejection- Tsuna knew it was inevitable, the brunette would still be able to bear the pain and move on. However, his life would not have it as simple as that; in a cruel twist of fate, his confession letter was found by the bullies before the girl could read it, and soon, the paper that he had put his heart to it were adhered to the school bulletin and became the new laughing stock for the students' own amusement.

Tsuna's remaining time at school passed with him staying silent and apathetic towards the laughing and mocking of other students for confessing to the school idol without considering his self-worth. They laughed at his stupidity; some "complimented" mockingly on his "courage"; some of Kyoko's dedicated admirers explicitly insulted and physically assaulted him for daring tainting their idol with his filthy existence. By the end of school, he was feebly limping towards the orphanage, his already marred skin decorated with more bruises and injuries, some of which was bleeding and wetting his shirt with blood. Yet, no teachers paid attention to it, but then, even if they noticed his injured form, they would more or less pretend that nothing happened.

People scolded that he didn't know his self-worth, but the truth was that he was painfully aware of it. He had forgotten how many times he stared at his reflection in the mirror and wished that the ever truthful object would just lie to him. He knew his looks were shabby, probably like a geek with big broken glasses and messy hair; he knew he was hopelessly clumsy with his tendency to ruin everything and trip over thin air. He was so no-good that everyone, peers and adults alike, preferred to have nothing with him for fear of "being infected with his no-good germs".

Of course, who would ever want to associate with a pathetic excuse for an existence such as himself?

He was always alone. His mother passed away since he was still not aware of this world. He didn't know who his father was, and his suspicion told him that it was likely that man didn't want anything to do with him and his mother. Nobody wanted to be his friends; adults often looked down on him; even animals chased him away for no reasons. And thus, loneliness became his constant companion.

"I'm sorry for being alive" was what he usually mumbled to himself.

Because nobody, even himself, wanted him alive.

-o0o-

"I'm sorry for being alive", Tsuna mumbled as he sat on the chair in the back wing, waiting for his turn to go onstage to perform.

As the "punishment for defiling Kyoko", during the class's field trip to Tokyo, Tsuna was forced to sign up for Japan' Hidden Talent competition, in exchange for having his bag back- in the end, his bag was still dumped into the canal and lost forever- with mocking eyes of his bullies watching his every movement with barely concealed sickening amusement as he stood in the long line, waiting for his turn to fill in the registration form. The brunette first thought he could avoid humiliating himself in front of the judges, audience and millions of TV viewers by faking absence, but the bullies wouldn't just have it like that. Threatening to show him more pain if he didn't show up at the audition, the bullies "treated" the poor brunette to a beating session to drill the threat to his mind, and on the competition day, they forcefully took him to the audition site in case he decided to hide.

And that led to him now standing on the bright stage, shying away from the camera in an effort to hide the blue bruise on his cheek and broken lips whose wounds had yet to heal. The judges were currently having their back on him, as the competition rule to ensure no biased opinion, so at least they wouldn't have to witness his ugly face for a while; however, many of the audience gasped when he came out, from either recognition that he was Dame-Tsuna or surprise that he would show such a face to the camera.

Thinking he would serve as a good entertainment for the judges and the audience, Tsuna mentally gave up his futile struggle with fate and decided to let it have its own course.

And Tsuna sang.

The song he sang was Aozora no Namida (Tears of Blue Sky), which he had come across by chance while surfing the web in hasty search for any suitable song for him to sing for the audition. He thought it somehow fitted his current predicament.

He sang with own his heart, his pain, his misery and…his hope.

The last note of the song echoed and Tsuna closed his eyes, waiting for the judges to complain for his failure to sing. However, against his expectation, his ears were assaulted with booming applause and clapping sound and the judges' excited "Bravo".

For the first time in a very long time, tears of sky stopped falling.

From the first-row seat, a man with white hair, whose face was shadowed by his bang, smiled mysteriously.

-o0o-

Tsuna used to think that if he proved himself to be good at one thing at least, people would accept him. He used to think that if there were some worth in him, he would have friends.

Not until now did he realize that he used to be such a naïve foolish boy with delusional idealism.

Prejudice was a curse that Tsuna would have to face for his life, for once a No-good, he would always be a No-good.

Almost everyone in Namimori thought his success at the audition was a fluke, and he must have cheated his way into the later rounds. Some nice ones simply expressed their disbelief and said he was just lucky. Some were crueler, spreading the words that he sold his body to the judges and the producers for a slot in the competition. People just believed those right away, not caring to check if they were rumors or not, and used every chance they got to mock him.

The abuse just kept getting worse.

And now, he was lying on the dirty ground inside a dark alley, bruised and beaten, unable to lift a finger or even twitch a toe, while his attackers were cackling gleefully at his misery and calling him with terrible names. On his way home, Tsuna was sneaked upon by a group of four bullies, whom quickly dragged him to the alley and beat him to bloody pulp. Some of his unhealed wounds were aggravated and bled, causing the pain to be over his endurance limit, and thus, against his policy not to show weakness in front of others, the brunette began begging the bully to stop.

The beating never ceased. It got worse.

Once satisfied, the bullies immediately left the place, leaving behind a battered body while laughing and chatting cheerfully, as if what they had done was a normal thing. But then, "beating Tsuna" was a normal occurrence in Namimori, the brunette bitter thought.

Soon after that, black cloud quickly gathered and hid the clear sky away, and began a downpour that signified the start of a rainy summer. People walked faster to find a shelter from the rain, most annoyed at the sudden change of weather. Yet, inside the alley, lying motionlessly on the ground was Tsuna, body severely injured and mind beyond broken.

Tsuna couldn't make out whether it was his tears or rainwater rolling down his face. His senses were numb from the pain on his body and the coldness of the rain; water soaked his clothes and made the wound throb much worse.

Nobody would come and look for him, Tsuna bitterly thought and closed his eyes. People at the orphanage had never cared for him much, aside from feeding and clothing him, so it was natural that his absence would be brushed aside as some attempt to get attention.

"So this is the end for me, huh?" Die in this alley, only to be found later as a rotten corpse. Die a lonely death, having nobody mourning for his passing. And people would laugh and say he deserved it.

…

No, he wouldn't want that. He couldn't accept it.

He wanted to live.

He wanted to prove himself. He wanted to prove to this rotten world that he was not a No-good.

He wanted all of those people to see him rise to success and stand above them.

He wanted them all to regret treating him like this.

HE WANTED THEM ALL TO SUFFER.

Tsuna opened his eyes. His usual brown orbs turned into a magnificent orange color, shining eerily in the dark with a small tint of madness. A flame of an another being burn strongly in him, screaming for him to let it out of the confinement. However, Tsuna was too exhausted to move, let alone twitch his finger. His only hope was that someone kind enough would find him and bring him into the shelter.

Before his consciousness faded into the blissful darkness, he briefly saw a silhouette of a man in white approaching him.

-o0o-

"So what is your answer, Tsunayoshi-kun?"

Tsuna stared into the mischievous violet eyes of his savior, who had found him, brought him to his home, and even treated his fever. The man introduced himself as Byakuran, director of the newly-established talent agency Gesso, and, when Tsuna had mostly recovered from his fever, offered him a deal. It was simple: Tsuna becoming the exclusive idol of Gesso Agency, in exchange for the company's assistance in his quest for success. Even though his head still ached from fever, Tsuna still felt doubt regarding to this offer for it was too good to be true for someone like him.

Nevertheless, Byakuran just simply smiled mysteriously and tossed another marshmallow into his mouth. "I knew what true talent is and my dear Tsunayoshi-kun, you are a true gem during the audition that day, a real diamond in rough", the albino spoke slowly, his eyes staring straight into Tsuna's as if looking into his core, "I fully believe that one day you will be the biggest, most popular superstar in Japan, no, the whole world. You just need a little push, a little help and a little encouragement from the right person, and no doubt, you will bloom brilliantly. Like that bouquet of orange lilies."

True to Byakuran's words, the orange lilies put in the nearby vase was in full bloom, spreading its large petals in hope of showing its glorious form and beauty to the world to admire. He wanted to grow like that, too. To show those damn bastards that dared treating him like trash the despair he felt all those years. And the fire of revenge came back stronger than ever, burning as vividly as the color of orange lily.

"Do you accept it, or not accept it?"

"Accept the offer, Tsuna and your wish might come true!"

Tsuna turned his gaze back to Byakuran, his eyes glowing in orange of insanity.

"Yes, I accept your offer."

TBC

Orange Lily == Flower of Hatred, Revenge

Aozora no Namida performed by Takahashi Hitomi

Should I continue this story or not? It looks too shabby compared to many other KHR fics out there :(

Edited: 9/3/2015 (fixed Tsuna's name and some spellings)