Universe

There is something whispering to Tsuna.

Something inside is telling him that he needs more, that something is going to happen. He needs as many as he can get because they have to be strong for what is coming. But Tsuna doesn't know what he needs more of, or why he needs it. He tries to ask the something inside him but it just keeps repeating that Tsuna has to get more.

It's a good thing that Tsuna has no concept of mental illness, otherwise he would very worried.

"Kyouya?" Tsuna murmurs.

Kyouya looks at the younger boy from where he's currently taken over Tsuna's bed, crayons scattered around him as he draws pictures of incredibly realistic weapons all over Tsuna's actual picture book.

Tsuna sits up from the beanbag he's been lying on ever since Kyouya stormed in and rolled him off his own bed. "Kyouya, I think we need more," Tsuna says, not sure what he means but maybe the older boy will understand.

Kyouya smirks. "That's exactly what I was thinking, herbivore."

He drops the crayon he holds, immediately sliding off the bed gracefully and then hauling Tsuna up by the boy's collar before dragging the orange outside.

.

"Kyouya, no!" Tsuna shrieks, diving forward and barely managing to stop the older boy from smashing the window of the pet store. "That is not how you buy a scorpion!"

Kyouya looks at the brunet hanging off his arm and scoffs. "Who said I was going to buy it?"

The poor shop's owner is currently cowering behind the counter, having a panicked and hushed conversation with the police. "Yes, the Hibari. What? Of course I'm not trying to stop him, I'm not suicidal!"

"Let's go," Tsuna tries. "I don't think I meant 'more scorpions'."

Really, one is more than enough. Romuku is adorable, but only when he's with Chrome. Alone, the scorpion tends to sting and pinch and cover everything in glitter. Tsuna swears it laughs at him with an odd 'kufufufu'.

Kyouya huffs but does leave the store, having only done psychological damage. (Tsuna counts this as a win.) The brunet also has to steer Kyouya away from an arts and crafts store because more glitter is probably not needed either.

Honestly, Tsuna has no idea why he thought Kyouya would understand the vague sentence even when Tsuna doesn't. The whisper repeats, even now as the two children walk down a street with neat little houses. Find more, build your strength, go left.

"Go left?" Tsuna blurts out, confused.

Kyouya turns left. Straight into a house.

.

Shoichi screams in terror, scrambling backwards across the kitchen floor.

The red-haired boy's face is somehow not hurting anymore despite having been hit with what feels like a small truck. Shoichi thinks it might be the adrenalin, because surely it can't be the yellow glow that engulfed him for a second. He can't possibly have just gotten super powers, right?

Just as Shoichi thinks this, the brunet flies forward -in the air, without any visible device- and catches the thrown weapon which is some kind of wooden police baton.

Okay, so when Shoichi daydreams about being a superhero like the characters on TV, he's not actually serious. He may be five years old, but he understands more than most adults. He fully recognises that he would be a horrible superhero.

He gets stomach aches –like right now, actually- and while it's not debilitating, it should hopefully disqualify him from superhero duties. Shoichi can at least take a sick day off for this battle, right?

The demonic creature smirks. The brunet seems to realise what he's done, because he abruptly drops the caught weapon and flies out of the window. The demon snatches up his torture implement and leaps out of the window as well, most likely intending on eating the brunet alive.

Shoichi feels an oddly detached sense of pity for the other boy, because at this point his mind has skipped right over the 'why' and landed on the 'how'. He has no room for concern or fear anymore, just science.

His parents return home to find a shattered dining table and cratered wall, plus one Shoichi madly typing on his computer, trying to research what just happened. He's found some vague sites but landed on a gold mine of information when he started chatting with two other people.

"Sho?" his mother calls out gently, unwilling to step inside the room cluttered with sharp metal scraps and naked electrical wiring. "Sweetheart, we love you and all, but you need to stop doing experiments inside the house."

Shoichi mumbles something back and his parents shake their heads with fond smiles. They used to be the same when they were kids.

.

His poor, poor marshmallows have been knocked off his desk accidentally and are now scattered across the floor of the room. Byakuran thinks he should pick them up (three second rule) but he's too busy struggling for air, currently doubled over his keyboard and convulsing with laughter.

The friend (who doesn't know he's a friend yet) is currently typing questions to Byakuran and another boy called Spanner, just innocent things like; 'How do I make the fire?' and 'How do I make the fire better?'.

Shoichi has also expressed concern over a possessed child eating the flesh of another boy. 'Does it grant the demon more power? Should I use holy water or grenades if it attacks me again?'

Byakuran gasps desperately for air and wipes away tears of laughter, barely managing to not fall off his chair.

He has the best damn universe.

...

Omake – Parallel

Byakuran chuckles at Tsuna's question. "You're doing very well compared to most other versions of the world. Perhaps top ten, and right below the one where Reborn is a Sky user." Byakuran shrugs. "I think that one is so high up because everyone is too scared to start anything bad in that 'verse."

Tsuna slowly turns to where Reborn is sitting next to him, the hitman appearing unbearably smug. Kyouya, sitting on a couch further along, looks as if he's taken Byakuran's 'right below' comment as a challenge. He is now eyeing Reborn speculatively to figure out how scared he has to make people for this universe to pull ahead.

Tsuna reminds himself to update his will.