Oddly enough, it was Hibari-san who got help first.

He had been walking through the hallways to get home after a long day of cleaning when suddenly he hears breathing, panicked, hurried and almost desperate, a close shave with death.

He knows that feeling, that experience. He knows that pattern, that 'one, two, one two one two onetwonetwo-!' that gets faster and faster until you feel like breathing is making you suffocate. Until the feeling of burning spreads across the back of your throat and no matter how much you swallow, it seems to just incinerate more of your throat, growing like a disgusting bump and a boulder in your throat that refuses to go down. Causing lava hot tears to bubble and blister down your reddened cheeks, red from the exercise, the pain, or maybe just the heat, and dribble down your face like the red that falls down your knees when you scrape them and the white blood cells that show in the layer beneath your epidermis when you rip away enough layers of skin to see them.

You see, Tsuna's been listening during science. He's not entirely dumb. He hasn't completely forgotten what it's like to know things. He's not as stupid as some like to think, as the rumors say and whisper in the hallways in between classes.

And he knows many, many things. Like how Mari-senpai, the new upperclassman, has been smoking in the back of the school, near the baseball fences. Like how she goes there around fifteen minutes right after school ends, avoiding all spots where security cameras see just to get her fix of nicotine, noticeable by the sweeping of her eyes and the hurried movements she makes every day to get through the day.

Like how Omanai-kun sells illegal goods in the alleyways next to the grocery store with the busted up "G", that has been flickering on and off ever since Tsuna has enrolled, his skin pale and sweaty with each person who passes by him, unlike his usual attitude in school. Like how Fiyori-kun, one of his bullies, hates spiders and has a phobia of them because his dad was poisoned by one and died, and his mom had to amputate her own hand because a spider bit it back in the third grade.

Like how Kyoko-chan gives Hana-chan looks that suggest Other Things. Like how Kyoko-chan, cute, friendly, kind, good little Kyoko-chan who's known him ever since daycare at the age of three, doesn't care at all for the boys who blush and give her love letters after class, how she only has eyes for her best friend. Hana-chan, who doesn't notice at all. Hana-chan, who feels the same way but is too blinded by her own denial to admit or notice it.

Like how Maman's family never calls her, but neither does Dad's or the Grandpa who used to play with him when he was younger or the neighbor who yelled at him, who had an ugly chihuahua with a big scar on its left hind leg and absolutely loathed the scent of catnip. Which he smelled of all the time, from the plants Maman put in the house and in the garden. The plants that attracted the cats that he would play with and feed when he got home. He still hasn't named them yet.

When Tsuna reached the source of that heavy breathing, his heart beating in unison with it, he didn't say a word, but kept his distance and only got closer when the older boy got calmer and showed signs that he was okay with him closing in. Tsuna knew things, and he knew about Hibari's rules. He had no doubt those rules were put in place for a very, very good reason, not just because they were important for the students, but also important to Hibari himself.

Before he knows it, there's a blanket over Hibari, who is now sitting on a couch, a pillow in Tsuna's arms, and Tsuna himself in Hibari's arms. It's actually quite comfortable.

Y'know, being the arms of the scariest goddamn person in your school who is scary for a good fucking reason. Who is literally in control of all police intentions. Who can kill someone and not be arrested for it because god fucking damn it, he is the police.

You know.


This happens multiple times, over and over. Hibari has an attack, Tsuna finds him, and they end up on the couches or the floor just… giving each other physical affection, fucking spooning each other. Sometimes, Hibari doesn't even get an attack but wants to hug anyways and Tsuna lets him.

God, what has his life turned to; Tsuna bonding with the demonic prefect of his school and actually wanting to bond with him at random times of the day?

….

He researched this on the internet after the first few months of Hibari and Chill and he found out it's called a 'queerplatonic relationship' because he knows for a fact that there is no way he is in love with Hibari, who doesn't even say anything during the time periods they spend together.


There's a small child in his home. Wearing a fedora, a suit, wielding a green lizard. A chameleon. Who claims to be his new home tutor. (He's not going to say anything about the curly sideburns, he knows his hair is ridiculous enough to make fun of.)

Tsuna has been done for a long time now, ever since the whole thing with Hibari has happened, and after that, Yamamoto-kun in women's underwear store, but this somehow pushes him further into the void, the abyss.

He wants Out, out of this damn nightmare.

"Tsu-kun, be a dear and show your new tutor to your room? I'll bring up some snacks for you two." Maman calls from where she left for the kitchen. Tsuna's eyes dart back to Reborn, whose obsidian eyes seem to gaze into his soul, and decides, 'this is it. I'm over it.'

He replies back in a perfectly normal tone of voice, despite the frighteningly blank look on his face. "Okay, Maman! Be careful around the stairs when you finish!" Her girlish giggle is his answer.

The two of them walk up the stairs to his room in absolute silence. It's stifling and it makes him want to break things.

Then, the child pulls out a fucking gun, a gun that used to be his lizard which morphed into a gun, and points it at him before saying, "I'm here to make you a mafia boss."

Tsuna doesn't react whatsoever.


They're walking to school, but it's more like Tsuna is giving Reborn a ride on his head and he's the only one walking.

The weight lifts when he arrives at the front gates, but it's like he's still watching him. He goes through the school day feeling like someone is glaring two holes in his back, but every time he sweeps his eyes around for any threats, he finds none. Well, until lunch break, where when he goes outside to eat, Reborn drops out of a tree and Tsuna finds out that it was Reborn the whole time. Reborn steals his food when Tsuna puts some in his mouth, ending his lunch break with Tsuna only having half of his lunch and the other half in Reborn's stomach. They have a chopstick battle for a moment before Reborn uses his baby strength to snap Tsuna's disposable, wooden chopsticks and take off with the remains of his bento, dropping it off on Tsuna during the in-between period between classes.

When school ends, Tsuna takes extra precautions to avoid not only the security cameras, but also Reborn's possible lines of sight, and the secret spaces he's broken out of while Tsuna goes to class.

His time with Hibari is uninterrupted, thankfully. Hibari gives him this asking look consisting of slightly annoyed eyelid drooping and Tsuna responds with a tired look, tilting the corners of his mouth downwards and Hibari huffs, with a slight 'snrrk' noise at the beginning of it, meaning he's silently laughing at him, before enveloping Tsuna in a blanket that smells vaguely of green tea and vanilla and matcha ice-cream. A bit of honey, too, and they stay like that for about an hour, listening to the birds outside of the school, and napping, folded so that they are intertwined with each other.

This becomes part of his everyday routine, too. Go to school, get watched, eat lunch and have his lunch stolen, battle Reborn for food, then avoid Reborn when going to go see Hibari. Come home after around an hour or too, ignore Maman's teasing, dodge attacks from Reborn and step around traps. Sleep. Dodge traps then, too.

And then, after around two weeks of avoidance, Reborn confronts him about his after school activities with something like a glint in his eyes and suspicion on his tongue. Oddly enough, though, he doesn't look worried, or angry, or anything.

Tsuna answers truthfully.

"I've been hanging out with an acquaintance," He says, not saying the word friend, because the relationship between Hibari and him is too close for terms like 'friend', and because the two still act like strangers during school.

Reborn asks, (read; demands,) for Tsuna to elaborate on who the acquaintance is, why they're not called a friend if they've been hanging out for who knows how long and what they are doing, during their hang out sessions.

He says it like they're doing illegal things. Why would Tsuna want or need to do any of that?

"Birdwatching, I guess. Sometimes we eat food. We nap, too. We sleep a lot."

Well, they do.