Chapter 1: The City of no Dawn nor Dusk

2300 hrs, December 31, Year 2099 (Namimori City)

The night never seemed to come in the restless city. Not in Namimori City, not anywhere else in the world. Stars had long lost their brilliance, the moon faded into the grey sky that was lit up by artificial light. The buildings, all tall and in strict, tight rows, dullness conformed by their lack of individuality.

It was the time of the year to celebrate the coming of another, a time that families should have been huddling together under their kotatsu and chatting, eating and celebrating. Or lovers to sit under the artificial fluorescent lights that hung from steel beams. For those who had no time – many had no time, it was all work, work and work – they scuttled about, briefcases in their hands, raising arms to check each second passing, hoping to make it home in time at the very last minute to spend the last of the year with loved ones.

The case was very different for Sawada Tsuna. She trailed the pathway – pushed about by the busy hoards of people – it was not as though she stood out anyway. Her tattered windbreaker was thin and kept no heat in, no cold out. The faded pink scarf wrapped around her scrawny neck was of no help either. She rubbed her hands together, trying to create warmth out of friction. Standing by the doorway of some shop to get whatever heat she could, she turned her gaze to the sky.

"Alone, again?" she asked herself, switching her focus to her surroundings.

Colour seemed to fill each corner of her eye – every letter, every number written down, whether on signboards or on each rejection letter she received; each sound seemed to carry a taste of its own. It was ironic, for someone who thought life so superficial and bland would have to forever view the world as full of colour – such was the life of a synaesthete. She had been born with it and lived with it for all her life.

She noticed a new, unfamiliar shop at the corner she had always walked past after her previous job. It was closed; the lights were off. Life sized dolls stood at the window display. It was probably another one of those boutiques. Turning again, she could see a group of girls squealing around a holographic projection at the electronics shop. Loud music was playing –it tasted bitter and felt red; a silver haired man stood before a keyboard, skilfully tapping at each key. It was probably the new, uprising band that the Vongola Entertainment Company was promoting; it was highly praised for the wonderful music, each member handsome and pleasing to the eye, it was indeed very promising.

"Out of the way!" a gruff looking man shoved her aside, before roughly pushing past her, walking into the shop. Tsuna sighed – she could stay there no longer as the shop owners would soon notice – and went on her way. She carried on, back slouched, each step slow and deliberate – vastly different from the people who continued to take no notice of her and pushed her along as though she never existed. Tsuna had always been vastly different – not in a good way, Tsuna was never good. Tsuna only failed and knew how to fail - she could set records for new levels of stupidity.

It was now half past eleven, thirty more till the turn of the year came. Soon, there became less and less people along the pathway. It started to wind up a hill, and the light of the city was becoming dimmer and dimmer behind her. Little clumps of grass soon appeared on the sidewalk, and more appeared till it hid the path, leaving nothing but a field of tall, thick grass. Up at the very top of the hill, a lone cherry tree stood. It seemed to glow ethereally – it seemed almost magnificent, although no flowers bloomed on it.

The hill was life apart from the life of the city. It was pure and natural, not fake, not dull. This was the place Tsuna had spent almost every new year at – Reborn, her guardian, was rarely home when they had lived together, and now that she had moved into her own, rundown apartment, he stopped appearing altogether, only sometimes sending money to her. She was very much alone now.

Settling herself comfortably on a thinner patch of grass, she watched from under the cherry tree, of the light that emanated from the skyscrapers. They seemed to touch the clouds, but never the sky. It was silent here- no sound of the hustling and bustling – just the crickets chirping. Bringing her knees to her chest for more warmth, she leaned against the sturdy bark of the tree. It was here that had the freshest air, it was wonderful to be by oneself and appreciate the passing of the year like that.

Moments passed, and soon she could hear the pattering of someone's feet. Tsuna wondered who it was as not many people liked to sit at the tree. They were all too busy with their lives for that. The pattering soon stopped, and with the rustle of the grass, the anonymous person sat himself (or herself) on the ground, exactly opposite to where she sat. Tsuna presumed that the person did not note her presence, so in spite of her usually meek self, she spoke up. After all, it was not every day she met a person under this special cherry blossom tree.

"H-hello," she started, stammering a bit. Twiddling her thumbs, she tried to quell the ticklish feeling that had bubbled at the pit of her stomach, partly from excitement and partly from fear. "It's rare to have someone spend the new year here…I-I'm normally here alone."

A rustle of grass, followed by low grunt. Tsuna could only presume the unknown person as a man. He seemed not to acknowledge what she said, choosing to ignore her words and pass them off as unimportant. Tsuna tried again.

"D-do you come here often?"

This time, the person took the liberty to answer.

"Yes." It was a simple, one syllable answer, but Tsuna felt satisfied with that. She let go a nice, long breath, savouring the silence for a while.

"Is this place special to you? It is to me. I-I've always felt some sort of connection to it. It's like, something happened here in my previous life, and I'm always trying to remember it, but I can't. It feels almost bitter and almost sweet," Tsuna picked up her confidence now, talking more.

Again, just one word of confirmation, "yes".

It was now a minute to midnight. The pair, again, lapsed into comfortable silence.

"3...2..."

Tsuna could hear from afar, people counting down.

"Happy New Year!"

At that moment, brilliant blasts of light hit the sky, sending out flowers of beautiful fire. They were blue, green, pink, red – many, many bright colours. Tsuna thought that it seemed as though the world was trying to hide their monotone lives behind those synthetic lights. Ridiculous as it seemed however, it just gave out more smoke, adding to the pollution. The fireworks just gave temporary relief.

"Happy New Year," she whispered, assuming that the person would be listening. She did not get a reply this time, but she heard the grass stirring, and the same light pattering of feet getting further, more distant. She was alone again.

1130 hrs, January 1, Year 2100

It was almost noon. Tsuna awoke to the sound of the magpies chirping noisily and incessantly, the neighbour's wife screaming at her rowdy children, and a chorus of giggling girls as they ran past her small, rundown apartment. Lifting her thin blanket, she got off the bed cautiously, shuddering as the toes on her feet touched the cold cement floor. It was finally New Year's Day, but Tsuna had no money to buy the traditional foods, nor did she have relatives to visit or clothes to wear.

Looking towards the doorway, she could see a simple envelope that was slipped from under the door, presumably in the morning while she was still sleeping. Stalking over on her tippy-toes, she picked up the envelope, noting Reborn's elegant handwriting on the cover. It was a simple New Year's greeting card. Tsuna smiled – he had done this every year preceding the years she had moved out.

"Ah, how am I going to go job-hunting?" Tsuna lamented, staring out of the window. The place was covered in a blanket of dirty, grey snow. Little snowdrops fell from the sky, carried eastwards by the gentle breeze. It was going to be a cold day.

She now brushed her short and wispy hair - it stuck up at weird places all the time, and since she could not afford the cost of shampoo, she had it cut. However, she missed the feeling of having the long strands of hair trailing down her back, so she kept some growing at the nape of her neck, tied up in a black silk ribbon – a birthday gift from Reborn.

After dressing in the same thin windbreaker and wrapping the scarf around, Tsuna stepped out. The streets would be filled with people heading to and fro the small local shrine near the edge of the east of the city. The roads would be jammed, she thought. Otherwise, the central of the town would most likely have the least people walking about, so Tsuna thought to head there first. Although fewer shops would be open there – people relished in whatever holiday they got, holidays being incredibly sparse now – she would have to deal less with the pushing and shoving.

The streets of Namimori Central were indeed emptier. Tsuna sighed as she pushed her hands into the pockets of her pants, looking around, bored. It was light, clean silence that floated about the atmosphere, save the chirping of birds and the sound of some chatting couples walking down the same path. It was rare, for the place was always packed – silence only came once in a blue moon.

All of a sudden, something caught Tsuna's eye.

"Haru Haru's Maid Dispatchment Agency?" Tsuna snorted. It was an awfully funny sounding name, childish and the like. However, what truly caught her eye was the recruitment poster pasted on the door of the shop.

Well, I've never really seen this shop around. I guess it's new. I could give it a go – I am rather good at house chores after all, she thought. It was the only thing, that she was good at, quite frankly. Years of living with a Spartan had honed her cleaning and cooking skills – despite Reborn's often absence, he had expected the house chores to be done perfectly. There was once she had failed to dry off a plate, which resulted in her getting locked out into the porch, unable to go in till it was quite late.

"Excuse me!" she cried, pushing the door open, the bell jingling merrily to announce the entry of a potential customer. That too, was odd, for most doors did not need to be pushed open – most shops had doors that would open by themselves. A notion passed through Tsuna's head, that it might have reflected the Agency's odd naming sense.

It was warm inside, for soon Tsuna found herself unwrapping her scarf from her neck. Two sofas were placed in perfect symmetry, a dark, plastic coffee table placed between them. Behind one of the sofas was a counter, a single laptop placed on it. Otherwise, the place was spotless and endearingly plain.

"Excuse me!" Tsuna called again, hoping for another response. Perhaps, just perhaps the owner had meant the shop to be closed, but forgot to lock the door. But to leave such an expensive apparatus lying about – if that were true, the owner had to be at the very least, dull in her head. It all seemed to click; from the odd name to the odd entrance, it would have been quite possible that her possible employer was eccentric.

"Ha-hi!" a voice shouted from above, the sound of footsteps storming at a fast speed, like rumbling thunder, getting loud and louder. "Haru is here! Haru is here! Please wait!"

The person to be known as Haru hopped off the second last landing, huffing and puffing.

"P-perfect!" she panted, before setting her gaze on Tsuna. "Ah! A cute guest today! B-but, I'm afraid we're low on manpower, so if you're hiring a day maid, we can't possibly accommodate you!"

Haru now walked behind the counter, sitting on the little stool that hid behind it.

"N-no! I'm here to apply for the job. I saw it on the poster – " Tsuna said, pointing towards the door. Haru's face seemed to brighten, and then dim a bit as she put on a small frown, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. As if contemplating something, she placed her head between her thumb and forefinger, to create a "thinking pose".

"We have pretty high standards here though. All our customers are high-profile. They live in mansions and expensive apartments – I'll need to put you on a trial," Haru said, looking back up at Tsuna. Tsuna was dumbfounded – one would not have known from the simple layout of the shop.

"Oh. Then...then I should leave. Y-you'll probably not want someone like me," she said dejectedly. Her shoulders drooped a bit as her hands began reworking her scarf, turning and preparing to leave.

"No! Why don't you give it a try? Haru thinks that you look quite the part for the job – she just wants to ascertain if you can do it! If you can't, then Haru will put you under a special training program. Besides – "she reached underneath the counter and pulled out a pretty Victorian styled maid dress – "Haru thinks you would look great in our uniform!"

Tsuna's eyes widened in disbelief. She could not trust her ears.

"Come again?"

"Haru says you're hired! I mean, on trial! Come back tomorrow and I will have some tests to confirm your cleaning skills!"

A/N: Alright, I guess this would be one of the first long-term story-writing projects I'll be embarking on, and uh, the first long-term fan fiction I guess. Right, so I'd really appreciate feedback on this - personally I find the writing to be a bit rushed, but I'm trying to improve on it. It's only been read through once, so I'll apologise for any grammatical mistakes in advance, it would be nice to let me know about them too.

Oh, and, this will be partial slice of life and...

Well, I'll leave it up to you to decide what it is as I go on.

(Thank you for reading!)

One more thing; if there are any questions pertaining to the plot, I most likely won't answer it. You'll find out why.

One bloody huge edit: I admit - I screwed up, big time. I counted wrongly and the 22nd century only starts in 2101 I typed in the date wrong for the first chapter, and then I don't know how I did it consequently for 9 chapters. But it's too late, because the dates are already down (those are actual dates for the year 2100) and written in the story. So I'm changing the summary and doing minor edits to chapter 1. There shouldn't be any hindrance to the storyline though. Sorry!