Disclaimer: I own nothing from Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

-I'm on vacation at the moment (beachside!) so I haven't had time to sit down and cough up a chapter for my longer fics. This one's just something I came up with without having to put too much effort into it so I hope you enjoy:)

-These will be snapshots of Tsuna and his family with different words as the prompt, common enough.

Summary: Glimpses of Tsuna and his influence on the family he never thought he'd have.

Chapter 1 – Colours

Red

Tsuna used to hate red.

Red was the colour of blood, which always followed a run-in with bullies and accompanied cuts and bruises that he had to hide from his mum so he wouldn't worry her more than he already did. He didn't fear red – he was far too used to it – but he did hate it.

And then Reborn arrived with his guns and talk of the mafia and Tsuna didn't have time to hate the colour when he came home with scrapes and bumps, exhausted from training. It was several years later, during the times when he thought back to his teenage years, that he recalled how his bloodier injuries were always meticulously bandaged by tiny gentle hands as he drifted off to sleep.

But that conscious realization came much later, after Reborn became a friend and advisor instead of just an unwanted tutor. Before that, when Tsuna started taking notice of the colour red again, it was nine years and ten months in the future during a war they never asked to be a part of but had to be anyway, and red became something Tsuna looked forward to, something he was always eager to see, because red meant trust and strength and devotion. Red became his Storm Guardian and Right-Hand and, most important of all, the first person Tsuna could point to and call friend.

Red became Gokudera Hayato and Tsuna only felt safety when the bomber's Storm flames ignited with a fiery passion around them.

Blue

Unbeknownst to everyone – with perhaps Reborn being the exception because his tutor knew almost everything – Tsuna's favourite colour was once actually blue.

Blue was the colour of the unoccupied sky and Tsuna's constant companion when he had been alone and lonely. He had spent more than one lunchtime on one of the roofs of the school, staring up at the expanse and wondering, wistfully, what it would be like if he could simply fly away into that endless blue and never have to deal with the troubles that dogged his every step.

And then blue changed into the form of a fellow classmate with sad eyes and a contradicting smile whose toes stuck out over the edge of Tsuna's roof and who stood with the sky at his back, and blue became something terrifying because that sky couldn't stop the popular baseball player from jumping. So Tsuna stepped up instead and ignored his own fear and uncertainty to extend a hand to the boy who was just as alone and lonely as Tsuna was despite being surrounded by people all the time.

And mere days afterwards when the sadness had fled and happiness brightened those eyes instead, and the smile was no longer so fake, Tsuna found blue to be less scary because the sky was above them again, watching over them once more.

(Later, he would wonder if maybe the colour blue had always appealed to him so much merely because the sky was only ever completely blue when it was all alone, and in that, Tsuna had found something to relate to.)

But still, blue became associated with Yamamoto Takeshi in Tsuna's mind and it didn't feel right to claim that colour as his own anymore. It wasn't until they were surrounded by metal walls and training to get even stronger that Tsuna understood why blue was his Rain Guardian and not really the empty sky on empty summer days. The sky could change after all; it wasn't always blue, but Yamamoto Takeshi was his best friend and a constant at his side and the one who could make him laugh when Tsuna was sad, and while the clear sky could make him content for a few moments, Takeshi could make their entire family happier in the darkest of times.

So blue became the soothing Rain flames that washed Tsuna's sorrows away, and while the colour would never be his, when Takeshi's flames danced around them with lighthearted grace, Tsuna couldn't help but smile.

Green

Green wasn't a colour Tsuna thought much about in the beginning. It reminded him of grass and trees and plants but nothing overly important.

Then, when Tsuna started making friends, green became something a little more significant. Green was Hayato's and Lambo's eyes. Green was Chrome and Mukuro and the Kokuyo group's uniform colour. Green was the field he and his friends camped out on so they could stay out and watch the fireworks (or stars if they didn't have fireworks). Green became a fun colour.

However, it was months after Lambo arrived in his life before Tsuna started associating green with his Lightning Guardian. In the future that would never come to be now, when Bovino Lambo produced his flames without really knowing their worth, green became a shield to Tsuna as well as worry for his surrogate little brother. Green became something a bit like fear, not for himself but for the overconfident child who was both strong and weak at the same time.

And years after, when Tsuna had stopped wailing about not wanting to become a mafia boss and was a mafia boss, green was always one of three things. In battle, with Tsuna and the rest of his Guardians keeping a sharp eye on the teen, green was dependability and fondness and all Lambo, brave even when he wanted to run. But in his office, when Tsuna passed a mission to his youngest Guardian with worried eyes and clammy hands, green was anxiety and additional stress and that old fear that would rear its head until Lambo was home again safe and sound.

But green was also crackling lightning, bounding between Lambo's hands like an adorable kitten, and it was times like those that Tsuna would take specific note of Hayato's steady gaze and Lambo's mischievous eyes and coax his Guardians outside to a grassy field so they could camp out and watch the stars (or fireworks if they had them on hand).

So green was a number of things and all of them led back to Lambo, whose Lightning flames flashed with unrivalled speed and brilliance in Tsuna's family.

Yellow

Yellow was the sun of course, but strangely enough, Tsuna had first associated that colour with his classmate, crush, love, and currently wife.

Sasagawa Kyoko was brightness and smiles and sunshine, as idiotically mushy as it sounded. She was cute and pretty and, at the time, at least half of the reason Tsuna dragged himself to school every day and suffered through the ridicule and insults of the other students.

And then, some stammering words and a few shy smiles and a whole lot of madness later, Tsuna was introduced to Kyoko's boxing brother, and... well, it was pretty damn hard not to notice the older student with his enthusiasm and loudness, shining just as brightly as his sister but in a completely different way.

But yellow, brilliant and strong and like the sun instead of just sunshine, became his big brother and Sun Guardian and one of Tsuna's family's driving forces. Yellow became Sasagawa Ryohei, and the man's yellow flames meant good health and healing, hope and life.

Yellow still reminded Tsuna of Kyoko, but the redhead was a softer yellow, warm and comforting like a crackling fire on a cold night, and Tsuna always looked forward to coming home to her.

On the other hand, the yellow that reminded Tsuna of Ryohei was deeper, more solid and blazing with an inner strength that dragged everyone else along when they lagged behind. Relentless in its constant radiance and a colour that described his surrogate big brother to a T, Tsuna was always determined to keep going when Ryohei's Sun flames exploded around them (to the extreme).

Purple

If red had been a colour he had originally hated, purple had been and, at times, still was a colour Tsuna – not outright feared – but was definitely wary of.

Purple was the colour of bruises, and Tsuna got those tripping down the stairs, stumbling over the sidewalk, slipping in the school hallways, falling when he ran, getting caught by bullies... the list went on. Purple was a dangerous colour and Tsuna had a hard time deciding whether to laugh or facepalm when his Cloud Guardian fought him in a blaze of purple flames.

So purple became Hibari Kyouya, who could be dangerous and terrifying on the best of days and never stood for rule-breaking or crowding and made Tsuna shriek and cower away at the beginning of their acquaintance.

But purple also meant protection and aloof but steadfast loyalty and even years after Kyouya had joined him from the shadows and stood at his back time and time again, Tsuna was still grateful for the skylark's presence.

Occasionally, grown-up and in the midst of a trip down memory lane, Tsuna would think back to those days on the roof, with the blue sky overhead and a homemade bento for one (instead of three or four or sometimes even more than that), and he would remember the distant clouds that drifted through the sky, always making an appearance in rain or shine. He would recall the silver-eyed prefect who had chased him back to class and bit to death anyone who had dared to bully (crowd) him on school grounds.

And whenever he engaged in a spar with Kyouya nowadays, simultaneously dodging steel and fire, Tsuna could only fight back with everything he had, offering the same respect Kyouya gave him. After all, what else could he do for the one person who had unknowingly watched over him even before Tsuna had started noticing and Kyouya had started caring?

Tsuna was still a little afraid of purple, but whenever he caught sight of the fleeting Cloud flames flaring to life in the Vongola mansion, the fear was usually just for the ridiculous amount of money he would have to spend on whatever damage Kyouya caused in the process of bringing some (because even Kyouya admitted defeat to complete) order to their family.

Indigo

Indigo had never even been something Tsuna had considered before meeting his Mist Guardians. Why pick indigo when you could go with dark blue? Just like the mist, the colour was barely a passing thought in Tsuna's mind until said colour decided it wanted to stay and quickly wormed its way into his thoughts.

Indigo was the colour of his Mist Guardians' hair (or maybe a cross between their two hair colours; they sometimes changed colour in different lighting) and their left eyes (also a cross; his Mist Guardians came as a package deal after all). The flames they wielded swirled around their enemies in indigo waves, bewildering and confusing them in turn.

Granted, the 'enemies' used to be Tsuna himself and, like with Kyouya, he was always just a tad wary of his male Mist Guardian (not Chrome though; the woman was like a little sister he had to look out for) though this was also for much the same reason as the skylark. But after things had been cleared up and Tsuna got used to Mukuro reiterating his life goal of possessing Tsuna's body three times a day the same way everyone else got used to Tsuna restating his refusal to become a mafia boss five times a day, their relationship became... well, not completely smooth but certainly less rocky and life-threatening.

So indigo became Dokuro Chrome and Rokudo Mukuro (because there couldn't be one without the other, even after he had freed Mukuro), and their presence in his family brought along a few others, and indigo grew to encircle (not include because they also had their own colours) Chikusa and Ken and M.M. and sometimes Flan. Indigo became a haven, a refuge, a sanctuary, and created its own niche in Tsuna's mind.

Indigo hid them and mystified their enemies and the colour became something precious instead of dismissible. And whenever Tsuna heard Mukuro's unique laugh or Chrome's soft voice as Mist flames spun illusions around them all, Tsuna would relax and know he was in safe hands.

Black

Some would argue that black wasn't actually a colour but Tsuna had always considered it to be one. And while others disliked it because one couldn't see in the dark, darkness always hid Tsuna away from the world, protecting him from all the things that scared him.

Black was the darkness that cloaked his room at night when he curled up under his blanket and cried himself to sleep. Black was the night sky he could see outside his window on clear nights, offering him an array of stars to count and name.

And black came in the form of the first person who looked his faults in the eye and still saw enough potential to create something out of the mess. Black was the first person who refused to let him fail and blackmailed and threatened and kicked him along until he could stand on his own two feet by himself. Black was the first person who refused to give up on him or let him give up.

Black became Reborn with his black eyes and black suit and nearly all-black fedora, who brought mafia and weapons and insanity into Tsuna's ordinary and relatively safe life. And black became less safe and more dangerous and Tsuna began to resent the colour.

...But only for a while. What followed black were red and blue and green and yellow, and purple and indigo not far behind. There was danger at every turn and it was never easy but Reborn offered him a chance to gain everything Tsuna could ever hope for. It came with its own amount of risk but, for the first time in his life, Tsuna had a family who cared about him, like his mother, but also depended on him, had faith in him, believed in him, and that was unlike his mother in every way. His father wasn't even worth mentioning.

So black became a new chance and gratitude, respect and affection, all rolled into one, and when Tsuna broke the curse and Reborn was his proper size again, Tsuna couldn't help the wide grin on his face when he saw all that reflected back at him in warm black eyes beneath the brim of a fedora.

Orange

Orange... well, orange was Sawada Tsunayoshi, the Vongola Famiglia all agreed. Orange fire that burned for their sake, amber eyes that led them with the strongest of resolves, Sky flames that illuminated the dark world of the mafia, protected them from harm, and guided them, always, to a better future.

Next Chapter: Toys