Ack! I forgot about today. Here's a quick something for Singles' Awareness Day. I need to write more. I'm so out of practice!

The Best Kind by ficklepickles

Tsuna stared at the calendar date with a sigh. While he harbored no delusions about his chances of receiving any gift, he cringed at the thought of getting caught in the inevitable crossfire. As he had learned with being friends with some of the most popular students in the school, he had become charged with certain responsibilities.

None were so apparent as on this singular day.

With another small sigh, he peeked into his schoolbag and made certain that he had a small collection of little plastic bags within. Then he straightened his tie as best he could, and left the house with a piece of toast between his lips. It would be a poor decision to have skipped breakfast on this day.

He walked alone to school, Yamamoto and Gokudera having left early for club or some other miscellaneous reason. That was fine with Tsuna. Things typically went smoother on this day without their presence on his walk to school, as Gokudera was often... reticent to accept gifts from "strangers".

On the way, he was stopped several times by admiring classmates, and was given a box and a request.

Offering a polite smile, Tsuna accepted the request, taking the small box and placing it inside the allotted plastic bag. Tsuna made sure that he was organized this year. Last year was a bit of a mess, and he didn't want to disappoint any of the hopeful students.

By the time he made it to school, his bag was already laden and he was nearly late. Luckily, Hibari wasn't waiting at the gate with his usual imposing glare, so Tsuna hurried to homeroom. He paused briefly at his shoe locker, noticing that it wasn't fully closed.

A bit of fear struck him. When a boy was in his particular position, he had cause to worry when something was awry. It usually resulted in explosions, collateral damage, bandages, and profuse apologies. Thankfully though, all he found were his school shoes, and he swapped into them quickly.

Homeroom was slow to start, so Tsuna took the chance to stare out the window as their teacher began another lecture which Tsuna was sure to forget. There must have been something happening outside the gate as it had begun to accumulate a small crowd. Tsuna hoped that another box of kittens had been left there. A few months ago, someone had left a cardboard box with a small litter inside, and Tsuna had wished he had been able to pick up at least one of them.

The kitten would give Lambo and I-pin another live being to play with, and maybe even offer his mother some company while they were gone for one reason or another.

Yamamoto and Gokudera were curiously absent, so during passing period, he obtained an increased number of tiny, neat packages, which he carefully dropped into his plastic bags.

At lunch, he ate with Kyoko and Hana. Kyoko had invited him so he would not have to eat alone. Hana seemed oddly amused, a strange smile playing across her lips whenever the subject of his absent classmates was broached.

After lunch, he had PE, at which he failed miserably, nearly spraining his ankle in a dash. The teacher assigned a student to take him to the infirmary when no one volunteered. Tsuna wasn't surprised. Without Yamamoto or Gokudera there, Tsuna had few friends willing to approach him at school. Still, it was a rather depressing observation.

Once he was kicked out by Doctor Shamal due to his lack of breasts and other lady parts, he ran into Ryohei who was running down the halls. With the loud declaration of taking care of his ankle (to the extreme!), he bodily lifted Tsuna and carried him away.

Away from prying eyes, Ryohei made a fist and then grabbed Tsuna's ankle. Instead of crushing pain, Tsuna felt the soothing warmth of Ryohei's Sun flames. Then with a grin and a thumbs up, Ryohei wished him the best of luck and told him to watch out for his health.

It left Tsuna feeling a little unsettled, but he soldiered on.

The fact that he had seen neither hide nor hair of Reborn had also made him a bit uneasy. That always seemed to be a pre-cursor to some other disaster.

However, the school day came to a rather uneventful close with Tsuna leaving the school through the back gate. Whatever had happened at the front gate had caused the area to be cordoned off. Tsuna had caught a glimpse of cracked concrete and bent metal, and desperately hoped that either Hibari had not seen the damage done in front of the entrance of his beloved school, or that he had not been a part of what caused it.

Also, there had been no kittens.

Yamamoto and Gokudera, both looking slightly worse for wear, greeted him at the back gate. With a small frown and a suspicious glance around (though Reborn was nowhere in sight), Tsuna asked them where they had been. Both admitted that while they had been on school grounds, they ended up missing all their classes. Tsuna decided not to pry further as evasive answers usually meant Reborn's hand, and he less he knew about it, the better.

When they looked at him with expectant eyes, Tsuna remembered.

"Happy Valentine's day." He said, handing them their plastic bags full of candy. "I think it's about as a good a haul as last year."

Yamamoto's smile faltered a bit, but took the bag and thanked Tsuna for collecting them for him. Gokudera spat on the ground and told Tsuna to keep it. Last year he had tried to trash the candies, but Tsuna frowned at the waste. Tsuna hugged the bag to his stomach for a moment, and then replaced it back into his bag.

As an afterthought, Yamamoto gave Tsuna his candy as well, claiming that the sugar wasn't good for his training. Tsuna accepted this as well, knowing that while Yamamoto wasn't fond of hurting the girls' feelings, he wasn't the type of person to accept them when he didn't return those feelings.

So, both bags were once again in Tsuna's bag, and the trio spent the rest of the walk back talking about what the two absentees missed in school.

Parting ways, Tsuna thought he heard Gokudera angrily hissing something about a shoe locker and trying to cheat to Yamamoto, but that could have just been his imagination.

At home, Tsuna found Lambo messily eating chocolates from a giant box as I-pin berated him for eating too much. His mother explained with a happy smile.

"Isn't it wonderful? Dino sent a box from Italy, and Reborn graciously shared them with us."

The "with us" must not have included him as Tsuna watched Lambo polish off the last of the chocolates, a huge chocolaty smear spread across the lower half of his face and on the parts of his little cow print suit. Tsuna didn't mind it too much. What was another Valentine's day without chocolate? Just another day to him.

Instead he grinned and teased Lambo about getting fat.

"Nyaah! Tsuna's just jealous 'cause he got no chocolate!" Lambo stuck his tongue out.

"Oh yeah?" Tsuna raised a challenging brow, then pulled out the bags of chocolate from his school bag.

Lambo's eyes widened and sparkled. "Gimme gimme!"

Tsuna pushed him away with a laugh. "Dinner first, or you'll eat yourself sick." He said, handing the chocolate bags to his mother and I-pin.

"Hey! Meanie Tsuna! That's not fair. Lambo wants chocolate!"

Tsuna's mother glanced down at the chocolates, noting the names of his best friends. "Oh Tsuna." She said with a smile, and presented her son with a small box of her own. Specially crafted chocolates for her baby boy.

Tsuna blushed and took it. "Thanks mom."

He may not have received any chocolates from any admirers, but he was sure that his mother's would be the best. Anything given lovingly always did.

Upstairs, Reborn reclined in his hammock, nibbling on a chocolate. He wondered if he should have fed these to the cow too, but discarded the idea. Spicy chocolates suited him, and the cow had already scarfed down Dino's present to Tsuna. Besides, Reborn could never be too certain about chocolates from the Varia. He was certain he had tasted at least two illegal substances in the few he had eaten, and another loaded with a liqueur possessing a high alcohol content.

Smirking to himself, he thought of the wild goose chase performed by Tsuna's admiring classmates. Yamamoto and Gokudera had both seemed so sure of themselves, to either receive a gift from Tsuna, or to give one to him themselves. Reborn took the choice out of their hands by stealing their gifts and declaring that they would only be able to present their gifts if they were able to retrieve them from him.

They had been unsuccessful.

Relaxing further into his hammock, Reborn heard a few sirens from outside. The ongoing battle between two other idiots was still raging in parts of Namimori. It had moved quite a bit since its inception at the school gates. Mukuro had made his move, and Hibari had been all too eager to intercept.

They would most likely quit around midnight, when the exercise became pointless as the day was over, and they came to another draw.

Also, any "gifts" either of them would have had on them would most likely have been destroyed during their duel. Neither was of a particularly gentle sort. He snorted at the thought the broken remains would most likely be re-gifted to their underlings, since neither was of a wasteful sort either.

With a sigh, Reborn went to sleep, content that all was as it should be.

The next morning, Tsuna awoke with a call from his mother.

"Tsuna! You have mail!"

Blearily, he walked down stairs to see his mother offering him a crushed, dented, and dirtied package.

Ahh, only his mother would give this to him without a second glance, he thought, staring at the obviously damaged and highly suspicious looking package.

After a moment's hesitation, he tore it open. Out poured dozens of wrapped chocolate lollipops in the shape of wrenches.

Tsuna closed his eyes and wondered when Spanner would learn that Valentine's day meant that the guy received chocolates from the girl.

end

I've lost my funny bone!