The Leftover Princess
Premise is based off of this shoujo manga called Okobore hime to entaku no kishi (or, The Leftover Princess and the Knights of the Round Table). You don't need to know it to read this. I just thought that it was interesting to see the parallels between both stories. So enjoy my best shot at humor, KHR-shoujo style!
Summary: In order to avoid a civil war, King Iemitsu decides to announce...Princess Tsuna as the next Queen?! But wait, wouldn't she need to find her Knights of the Round Table first? Join Tsuna and her baby bodyguard Reborn on their quest to make Tsuna a good Vongola Ruler! /"B-But, hieeeee! I don't want to be Queen!"/ fem!Tsuna
Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn belongs to Akira Amano. Okobore hime to entaku no kishi belongs to Ishida and Akatsuki.
Beta'd: by the wonderful Winter's Light
chapter i
1. Abandon (hope, all ye who enter here)
"..."
One could hear a pin drop in the room. It was literally that quiet. On the other hand, the tension in the room was as thick as frozen butter. You could hack at it with a knife and it wouldn't give.
Tsuna (short for Tsunayoshi), the current king's third child and the First Princess, unashamedly gaped at her father. Screw all lessons on etiquette. This was not happening to her. She did not just hear what she thought she heard.
Finally recalling the wonderful ways of human speech, Tsuna cleared her throat several times before finally forcing a word out.
"P-Pardon?"
(Ah, and she thought she finally got rid of her stuttering problem ...)
King Iemitsu, unaware of his daughter's current mental breakdown, beamed.
"First Princess Tsunayoshi. I appoint you as the next Queen!"
Huh. So Tsuna really did hear what she thought she heard.
... Joy.
"H-Hieeeeeeee!?"
2. Abate (the problem by causing more problems)
The Kingdom of Vongola was in a pinch. Unlike the other Kingdoms who do not have enough heirs (ha! Sucks to be them!), Vongola had two.
Two extremely excellent princes who both held the right to succession.
First Prince Dino, son of the Second Queen. He had blinding charisma and was a truly kind person. Dino perfectly fit the stereotype of a 'Dazzling Prince on a White Horse'.
On the other hand, Vongola had Second Prince Xanxus, son of the Third Queen. He was your ruthless royalty type that was feared, but was kind in his own ways.
The whole Kingdom was split between these two Princes who have different mothers. If the Kingdom was given to either, it could be the start of an internal war.
In order to counter all that, the current King came up with a brilliant solution.
'Let's just give the Kingdom to my daughter!'
In all honesty, Tsuna has no idea how her no-good father thought of that. If the Kingdom was split between her two brothers, wouldn't the whole Kingdom rebel against her now?
Yeah. Iemitsu had to be drunk when he thought of a plan like that. Definitely.
(... On the bright side, 'The Leftover Princess' was a title infinitely nicer than 'No-Good Tsuna'.)
3. Abbreviate (the person, now he's a baby)
"Ciaossu."
"..."
Tsuna could feel her sanity cracking into little, itty bitty pieces. She just barely resisted the urge to bury her head into her hands and cry.
"Ah," King Iemitsu said happily, "here you are Reborn!"
Reborn nodded, tilting his fedora (fedora! Who wears fedoras in these days?) back. "I still owe Vongola Nono one more favour. I didn't come here because of you."
Ouch. And oh, did Tsuna mention that Reborn was a baby (who could apparently insult people better than she could)? No? Well, he was.
"Tuna fish," Iemitsu beamed (uh, and here's the man who doesn't know when he's insulted). "This is the bodyguard and tutor I hired for you!"
Again, Tsuna's father hired a baby as her bodyguard? Did he want her to get killed on her first day as heir? Or was he really that oblivious?
... Oh who was Tsuna kidding? This is the guy who wanted No-Good Tsuna to inherit the Kingdom ―nevermind the two totally capable Princes who were supposed to become King.
"Don't worry No-Good Tsuna," the baby, er, Reborn, 'assured'. "I'm the world's No. 1 Hitman."
... And Iemitsu hired him as Tsuna's bodyguard?
"Meep," the girl squeaked. "Please don't kill me."
4. Abducted (by your bodyguard/tutor)
"Here," Reborn said, handing Tsuna a book.
Tsuna blinked and looked at the title.
"..."
'The Dummies' Book For Escaping Your Own Castle?'
Tsuna shed mental tears. What the heck?
Reborn smirked. "I'll give you ten minutes to get some advice from that. After all, if you're going to become Queen, the very first thing you should do is to get a look at your nearest town!"
... Forget mental tears. Tsuna could be outright sobbing right now and nobody would hold it against her.
5. Abetting (your charge to run away)
Tsuna bit her lip as she scurried around. Various townsfolk greeted her.
"Lady Natsu! It's been a while."
"Oh Lady Natsu! Are you looking for some healing balms again?"
"My little tyke has been missing you, Lady Natsu!"
All through this, Reborn stared at her unblinkingly. Tsuna mentally winced.
"Hmm, Lady Natsu, huh?" The baby said, twirling ―was that a gun? "Has there been something you haven't been telling me and your father, Lady Natsu?"
... Again, screw mentally. Tsuna winced as she ducked into an alley, prepared to plead her case.
"I-I like playing with the children," Tsuna mumbled as she bit her lower lip, "so I regularly s-sneak out of the castle to travel incognito."
Reborn stared at her again. Tsuna could feel her hands grow clammy with sweat before the baby swatted her with his ―oh, so it was a gun.
"No-Good Tsuna, don't stutter like a peasant." The gun-toting baby reprimanded her with another whack. The girl blinked in surprise.
"T-That's it?" Tsuna asked (earning another swat for stuttering), resisting the urge to flail. "You won't tell my father?"
Reborn smirked. "You may be no-good, but at least you have a backbone, Lady Natsu."
6. Abhorring (devil's incarnate)
"Your job today," Reborn started, pausing dramatically. Tsuna felt herself twitch with fright. "... Is to seduce a knight who's patrolling this area into becoming yourknight."
Tsuna gawked. Those words did not just come out of a baby's mouth. "I have to do what?"
"Close your mouth, it's not befitting for the next Queen to do that." Reborn scolded again. "And I know you heard me loud and clear, No-Good Tsuna...Oh would you look at that! He's already here!"
With a growing smirk (Reborn was enjoying this way too much!), the baby ―the baby!― gave Tsuna a truly hard whack with his green gun, making her lose her balance and tumble forward into someone's chest.
"HIEEEEEEEEE!"
"What the f―"
Needless to say, Tsuna and her unfortunate companion both landed onto the ground in an awkward heap.
Groaning slightly, the bedraggled princess peeled open her eyes to see a lovely shade of green ... green eyes that were glaring daggers at her.
"Watch where you're going!" Green-Eyes snapped at her as Tsuna scrambled in haste to get off of him.
Tsuna could have wept in embarrassment. "I-I'm so sorry Mister ―Gokudera Hayato?!"
Of course. Instead of bumping into a random person who would have forgotten her in a few hours, it just had to be someone she knew.
... Reborn was not a baby. He was a demon disguised in cute packaging, just so that he could take advantage of girls like Tsuna.
Green-Eyes, er, Gokudera stared at her suspiciously before his eyes widened in shock. "Princess―Your Majesty?! What are you doing here!?"
"Erm," Tsuna screamed internally as Gokudera's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I-I'm travelling in incognito?"
Gokudera frowned. "Where are your guards?" The knight adjusted his light armour as he waited for an answer.
"R-Reborn is here with me ..." Tsuna started to explain as she pointed to ... empty air?
...
Forget Reborn being a demon, he was the Devil incarnate.
Gokudera shook his head in open disgust at her pathetic truth-turned-lie. "You have been selected as the next Queen and yet you still do stupid things like this? You are not fit to be the next ruler of Vongola!"
Tsuna could have wept. Try telling that to her brain-dead, no-good father.
7. Ability (to attract trouble and blow things up)
Okay, so Gokudera could dislike her, but in his defence, the young knight was still very professional. Gokudera refused to let Tsuna walk around alone and accompanied her as she went on her quest to find her bodyguard.
(And wasn't that just ironic? Looking for your lost bodyguard?)
Tsuna mentally sighed. She hoped that Reborn had made a mistake in pushing her into Gokudera. Trying to convince the silver-haired boy to become her Knight would be next to impossible, and knowing Reborn, the evil baby would force her to try anyway. It'll just become a mess of awkwardness.
"Ara, ara, who do we have here?" Both Tsuna and her companion immediately tensed.
A group of thugs with grotesque weapons surrounded them quickly. Tsuna could feel her face grow pale with fright as they leered at her suggestively.
"A girlie who can employ a knight? Or maybe he's your lover?" The thug leader ignored Gokudera's angry, embarrassed spluttering as he unsheathed his sword. "In any case, you're one loaded bitch. Give some of that money to us, yeah?"
Tsuna wanted to cry. Of course. The one time she has a bodyguard tagging along, people target her. Of course.
Gokudera snarled at the thugs before glaring at her, and for one heart-stopping moment Tsuna was afraid that the boy would leave her to the wolves. But then he was moving forward with his hands full of―
"Is that dynamite?" Tsuna muttered to herself incredulously. Dino had told her something before about how Gokudera Hayato liked to play with fireworks, but well, Tsuna didn't think he meant it like this.
... Though then again, taking things at face-value from Dino wasn't really smart. Half the words that came out of his mouth was chatter. Better than Xanxus though, because half the words out of his mouth were swears.
"Oi, you jerks," Gokudera said with a fierce glare. "If you retreat now you won't be hurt, but should you dare lay a hand on this lady, I'll blow you up!"
The thug leader laughed before he charged. "You're only one man!"
Tsuna watched in a daze at how swiftly Gokudera moved. His speed was definitely comparable to those of the First and Second Chivalry Order, and his dynamite was no joke either. The large dynamite seemed to do minimal damage, sending only small sparks that seemed to completely knock his opponents out. It was amazing.
But what the thug leader had said before was true. Gokudera was only one person. Though he seemed to handle the battle without breaking a sweat, it wasn't long before Tsuna saw some other thugs (a flank?) suddenly rushing up behind him with a knife.
"Gokudera!" Tsuna watched with abject horror as Gokudera turned around, green eyes widening in dismay before closing in resignation. Tsuna knew that the boy wouldn't have enough time to protect himself, and he didn't seem to like close combat in the first place.
Time seemed to slow down.
Gokudera was rude to her.
He kept glaring at her.
He didn't like her.
But the knight had been kind enough to accompany her as her bodyguard, even if it was out of some sense of duty. It was still more sincere than what Tsuna was used to, in the very least.
But now Gokudera was going to suffer because of her. Suffer because of what he did for her.
.
.
.
No.
Tsuna felt her hands getting warmer as her heart lurched in pure regret. She didn't want that to happen!
She wouldn't let it happen.
"No!" The girl yelled as she watched that knife inch closer to the knight. Throwing her hands out, Tsuna prayed to any deity that was out there for a miracle to happen.
Thwack!
And happen it did.
Gokudera's eyes snapped open and everyone watched in disbelief as the knife rebounded off an orange shield-like substance, mere centimeters from plunging into the knight's chest. Tsuna blinked, her jaw dropping as the orange light exploded back, sending the rest of the thug stragglers flying into the walls surrounding them.
They were immediately knocked out cold.
Silence. Gokudera turned around to stare at her in slack-faced shock. Though to be fair, Tsuna was sure she looked like that too.
Hysterically, the girl noticed that her Sky Ring (the one that had been gifted to her when she was young) was glowing a beautiful bright orange.
8. Abnormal (Rainbow Baby Lord)
"Hmm ... the reports about Gokudera Hayato was right. Your skill with different types of dynamite is phenomenal."
Tsuna jumped as she whirled around in surprise. "R-Reborn! You were watching?!"
"Of course I was, No-Good Tsuna. I've been following you the whole time." Reborn twirled his green knife as he watched his charge splutter in surprise.
Gokudera stared in shock. "R-Reborn? As in, Lord Reborn of the Acrobaleno?"
Tsuna blinked. Lord Reborn of the Rainbow? What the heck? First he's a baby hitman, now he's part of a rainbow? And what's up with the 'Lord?!'
"That's me." Reborn tilted his fedora down with a smirk as a worshipping gaze entered Gokudera's face.
Tsuna mentally shuddered. Fanboys. Ugh.
After Gokudera spent a few minutes sprouting praise for the little baby, who actually was the world's best hitman according to him, the bell tower started to chime. Reborn whipped out a green pocket watch ("When did that get there?!") before sighing in disappointment. "Come No-Good Tsuna, it's time to go back."
Tsuna blinked. Gokudera looked disappointed before schooling his face into a professional one.
"Lord Reborn, it was an honor to talk to you. Have a good day, Lord Reborn ... Princess." Gokudera bowed after a quick glance to Tsuna, and the girl was relieved that it held way less aggression and irritation than it did before. Curtseying back, she watched the Knight walk away before turning to Reborn for further instructions.
He was gone again.
...
Tsuna buried her head into her hands and internally screamed.
.
.
(Later, Tsuna would realize that her ring was no longer glowing before writing the entire thing off as a hallucination due to an accumulation of too much stress.)
.
.
.
(Much, much, later, Tsuna would wonder if her whole life was a hallucination due to stress.)
9. About (time to get your own harem)
The next day, Tsuna had been enjoying her breakfast. The birds were chirping outside, the sky was a beautiful blue, and everything was perfect.
But then Reborn opened his evil mouth.
"So, what do you think about your first lover of your harem?" The baby stole Tsuna's biscuit when she squeaked in mortification and dropped it in shock.
Ohmygosh. How does one respond to something like that? Tsuna could literally feel her face flaming red as her brain scrambled for something to say.
"Where do you even get these ideas? He hated me at first sight!" Tsuna was not wailing. She was not. She was a princess, she had enough posture and etiquette.
Or, well, she had enough posture and etiquette lessons pounded into her thick skull.
Reborn 'tsk'ed and shook his head, hiding a smirk. "No-Good Tsuna, there is always a fine line between love and hate. I'm sure you've just mistaken it for love at first sight."
What the heck. Tsuna felt herself gape, lessons be damned. She may be No-Good, but even she could read emotions! And Gokudera was certainly not feeling love!
"Wait," Tsuna said, feeling a bit confused. "Why are you so eager about my love life?"
Reborn blinked. Tsuna ran that question through her brain again before her lessons on past princesses made their way to help her with a solution. Tsuna could feel her throat becoming dry as the clogs ticked in her mind.
"You're not going to marry me off or something, right?" Tsuna asked fretfully.
Reborn stared at her. The girl could feel cold sweat gathering as her disbelief grew (would her father really just wed her away?) before the baby hitman sighed.
"They've really told you nothing about becoming the Vongola Queen, didn't they?" Reborn crossed his arms (he isn't cute, Reborn was the devil, he isn't cute!) as he stared Tsuna down.
Tsuna blinked in surprise. "What?"
"The Knights of the Round Table," Reborn stated as he continued to eye Tsuna. "You'll need your Knights before you can become the Ruler of the Kingdom."
Tsuna's eyes widened. The Knights of the Round Table? They were the closest ones to a Ruler of the Vongola Kingdom, kind of like the King or Queen's personal Guardians. It was a prerequisite that all the future rulers have to have a complete Round Table before they could actually become King (or Queen, in Tsuna's case).
But wait ... did Reborn say that she had to get her own Knights of the Round Table?
Ugh, no way! Tsuna had forgotten how both of her older brothers had already gathered their own Knights. If either one of them became King, their Knights would immediately be sworn in as a Knight of the Round Table.
On the other hand, Tsuna didn't have a single Knight protecting her. She had always refused her brothers' offers to help her pick some good Knights of her own. Tsuna knew that since she wasn't in charge of part of the army like her older brothers, any knights that would become her personal guard would become super bored. In addition, Tsuna didn't really need guards. She rarely left the castle (okay, that was a lie, she rarely left the castle as Princess Tsuna) and the thought of facing her brothers' wrath chased away any potential assassins/kidnappers. It didn't help that usually one of either prince would spend the day with Tsuna.
Suddenly, a thick tome hit Tsuna right on the face. Tsuna yelped as she rubbed her nose, looking at the title of book as she did so.
"How to Become a Good Vongola Ruler?" She read aloud, blinking.
Reborn snorted. "I didn't think you knew absolutely nothing, No-Good Tsuna." His black eyes glinted and Tsuna felt a chill run up her spine.
"You have one day to finish the book," Reborn said as he pointed his green gun (again, where did that come from?!) at Tsuna when she tried to open her mouth in protest. "Any questions?"
Reborn clicked off the safety. Tsuna gulped and shook her head fretfully.
"Good," Reborn smirked sadistically. "I'm going to make you the best Queen of all time."
Tsuna internally screamed.
'I don't want to become Queen!'
10. Absolutely (weird dreams) OMAKE
"After you find all your members of your harem ..." Reborn smirked. "Don't worry, No-Good Tsuna, I'm going to make you the best Queen of all time."
"VOIIIIIIIIIII!"
"Haha, Squalo, it's nice to see you again!"
"Trash, shut up."
"Ushishishishi, the Prince wants a fun job this time."
"Fun to the EXTREME!"
"Kufufufufu, my dear apprentice, how are you?"
"Fine. You, Master?"
"Hey Baseball Idiot stop fooling around!"
A click of a gun. Reborn opened the door of Tsuna's office and―
"HIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
BAM! CRASH! THUNK!
Tsuna's Guardians, Reborn, and the Varia walked into his office just in time to see the young Vongola Decimo vault out of his seat and crash blindly onto the ground. Every blinked in shock.
(Reborn inwardly frowned. Pity. He was looking forward to shooting his former student too.)
On the other hand, Gokudera (ever the trusty right hand), practically leapt to his Boss' side in worry. "Tenth! Are you okay?!"
Tsuna sat up panting. His face alternated from a burning red to a pasty white. "I just had the weirdest dream ..."
Chrome blinked. "D-Dream, Boss?"
Tsuna nodded. "I think I was born a girl―"
(Gokudera choked. "Tenth as a girl?!")
"―and Reborn one day upped and told me that I had to find my own harem―"
(Chrome blushed as Gokudera choked even more. Mukuro looked amused, while his apprentice blinked. Everybody else stared in shock. Who knew Vongola Decimo had these kind of thoughts?)
"―so that he could make me a Queen. Weird right?"
... Awkward silence. Tsuna blinked before looking around, his eyes settling onto Xanxus.
"Oh yeah," Tsuna said in remembrance. "And Xanxus was my older brother!"
"..."
More silence. Xanxus turned red as he looked like he wanted to rip apart Tsuna with his own hands. Tsuna shifted away from the Varia Boss warily.
"Hmm," Reborn drawled, shuffling forward to his boss. It seems that he'll get to shoot Tsuna after all.
"What I'm interested in is how you've been sleeping instead of working." Click. Tsuna looked even more nervous now as he chanced a glance at his window. It was only the fourth floor, he wouldn't die if he jumped out, right?
Reborn smirked as he heard his dear former student's thoughts. "Maybe you should do it with your dying will."
BANG BANG BANG BANG!
"Hieeeeeee!"
.end.
AN: Muse, please, stay with one story before going to new ones! I only have one plotbunny left but I'm not sure if I'll actually write up that one, haha. On the other hand, I tried. I'm not that good with humour but really, I tried. Anyway, school is back in session and I'm currently struggling under a pile of homework (Math, Physics, Chemistry, help), which is why any updates (this going for my other KHR stories and/or other fandom fics) will be sporadic. I truly apologize. This was written mostly as a stress-reliever during my exams a week ago and thus might continue as a drabble fic...or turn into an oneshot, depending on the response from readers. Thank for reading!