Year 851
It's been about half a year since Annie was captured and Reiner, Bertolt and Ymir supposedly returned to the latter's homeland. The Survey Corps retained custody of Eren Yeager and is currently preparing a new path to the breach in wall Maria from Karanese District with plans to seal the hole and retake wall Maria. Human kind has been unthreatened the last half year, with the colossal and armored titans having supposedly headed home and the beast titan having not appeared again. Even so, humankind has not yet recovered from previous disasters and believes the peace is short lived.
"Woohoo!"
"Gaaah! Look out!"
"Aaah!" A series of screams and loud thuds and crashes could be heard from the 105th trainee's mess hall.
"Tsuna, you dumbass! That could have hit someone!"
"Oi, Oi. It was Daniel's fault that it got like that. Besides, you're just jealous you didn't come up with the idea in the first place."
"Making a table surfboard outa some logs an' a wood panel isn't exactly something to be jealous of! You coulda hit someone!"
"Well if you guys can't dodge a surfboard then how do ya expect to defeat titans?" The 105th trainees' squad was currently unsupervised as Keith Shadis was called to a meeting. Some trainees were taking the opportunity to goof off and enjoy the break from the overly harsh drill sergeant by making table surfboards and pushing each other across the mess hall on them.
"Hey, Daniel, you owe me another go! This time don't mess it up, you're getting me yelled at." There are four trainees involved with the table surfboards, Tsuna, Daniel, Hiro and Allen. Tsuna is a short girl with a light complexion, light blue eyes and abnormal white hair. Daniel is a slightly tall guy with a more muscular build, brown eyes and light brown hair. Hiro is a tall more gangly young man with blue eyes and light blond hair. Allen is on the shorter side and has an average build with dark brown hair and green eyes. They're some of the best to be found in the 105th trainees' squad.
"Alright, get on. Ready? 1, 2, 3, GO!" Daniel pushed the table surfboard with Tsuna on it and sent it flying down the middle of the mess hall.
"Haha. Yea!" Tsuna yelled, headed straight for the closed door at the front of the mess hall. Prepared to crash into the doors Tsuna finds herself surprised when they open and standing in front of her is none other than Keith Shadis himself, and some other, unfamiliar, people. You could see the instant regret on Tsuna's face as she was headed straight for said people. Behind her, her friends shared similar looks of dread and horror at the surprise appearance of the demon Shadis.
"Waaah!" Tsuna yelled as she neared the people in front of her. Said people were able to dodge Tsuna and the surfboard table and as such Tsuna went flying through the now open mess hall doors, down the stairs and crash landing on the ground.
"Itai…" Tsuna lays sprawled out in between logs and wood while she receives gawks from everyone but the demon whose giving her a death stare promising many head butts and lots of extra running.
"TSUNA! What the hell is the meaning of this?!" Shadis yells at her while the other onlookers stare with mixed expressions of surprise and disbelief. The others who were involved with the table surfboard immediately stand at attention.
"Didn't I tell you before that this is unacceptable?! Who else was involved?" Shadis turned towards the trainees still inside the hall and directs his glare towards Daniel, Hiro and Allen with a knowing look.
"She did it on her own, Sir" Hiro quickly tries to evade the blame.
"Y-yea, all by herself." Allen also tried to escape whatever cruel fate will accompany whoever is involved.
"Oh really?" Shadis asked with and all to knowing deathly look. Meanwhile Tsuna recovers from her crash landing and takes note of the people accompanying their drill sergeant. Judging by their uniform, they must be with the Survey Corps.
"Y-yes sir" they both replied.
"What about you Daniel?"
"I, uh, I was involved too sir" While reluctant, Daniel knows that there's no escaping being figured out if he were to lie so he opts to tell the truth in hopes of not incurring the demons wrath.
"Oh? At least one of you isn't as useless as the rest" Shadis states and then turns towards Tsuna who was spacing off watching a moth fly around.
"TSUNA!" Shadis startles Tsuna out of her day dreaming.
"Yes sir?" Tsuna now stands at attention too.
"Pay attention dammit! Do you want to piss me off?" Tsuna blinked in surprise.
"Uh, I was pretty sure you were already pretty pissed sir…" Tsuna answers with uncertainty.
"So you do want me to be pissed?!" He intensifies his death glare and Tsuna flinches back.
"N-no sir! It's just how things usually go when you catch us doing something like this. Th-though I'm not complaining, sir!" Tsuna stayed at attention but looked at the Survey Corps members out of the corner of her eye. I wonder what Sergeant is doing with members of the Survey Corps.
"It's your maggot's lucky day, I'm feeling rather generous. Daniel, Tsuna! Clean up this mess!" Shadis turned to look back at Hiro and Allen.
"You two, for blatantly lying to your commanding officer and abandoning your comrades you will have clean up duty for the next two weeks!" Hiro and Allen inwardly cursed themselves for being stupid enough to think they would actually get away with lying and without getting in trouble.
"Listen up everyone! I have an important announcement to make. A few members of the Survey Corps will be staying here undercover for a while. They will stay at the barracks with you and live amongst you. I expect things to go smoothly, and for no trouble to be started." He directs his gaze towards Tsuna and Daniel. Tsuna smiled and waved while Daniel gave a sheepish look.
"Of course sir, no trouble. Got it. I'll be on my best behavior sir" Tsuna continued to smile with closed eyes trying to hide the fact that she knew she wouldn't stay out of trouble for long considering the group of people she befriended. She could hear Hiro and Allen trying to suppress laughter and she heard Daniel scoff from slightly behind her. She promptly delivered and elbow to his stomach when Shadis wasn't looking.
"Oof" Daniel sputtered while doubling over to hold his stomach. Tsuna turned and gave him an Unohana₁ smile. He looked back at her with a glare promising revenge.
"Hmm, I find that hard to believe coming from the likes of you." Shadis grumbled. Tsuna and her friends managed to be the only people capable of giving him a headache.
"No sir, I mean it, no trouble. Best behavior. I got it." Tsuna felt stricken that nobody believed she could behave but internally agreed with them.
"Alright, I have other business to attend to, I'll leave things here to you, Captain Levi." Shadis looked at a short man with black hair and a cold expression. They nodded at each other in affirmation then Sergeant Shadis took his leave. Tsuna noted the other Survey corps members around this Captain Levi guy. There were nine others, three girls and six boys, plus the captain. The captain started talking to the other Survey corps members. Tsuna stared at them for a few more seconds looking over all the people and trying to read each of them. Tsuna was knocked out of her daze at the feeling of her legs being kicked out from under her.
"Gah" she squeaked as she felt her ass hit the ground. She turned and glared at Daniel who was sniggering. She retaliated by a quick fist to his nose. Daniel made a noise of pain then glared back at Tsuna with a now bleeding nose. The two's attack on each other was halted when they were called upon by the short captain.
"Oi, you two." Tsuna directed her glare towards the captain.
"Hurry up and finish that so you can join everybody else." He ordered.
"Sure thing boss" Tsuna taunted, she couldn't help herself, she loved to challenge authority when she was upset. She knew it wasn't smart but the way the short guy acted really got her all worked up on top of her being pissed off at Hiro and Allen for trying to put the blame all on her.
"Tsuna!" Daniel chided quietly from next to her, warning her to stop before she got in more trouble.
"Excuse me?" Levi turned towards her and gave her a glare.
"Tch. Nothin." She glared back. She didn't want to risk getting her friend in more trouble since they were obviously coconspirators, so she headed Daniel's warning. Levi turned back towards the other Survey Corps members, completely ignoring Tsuna, much to Daniel's relief. Tsuna redirected her attention to picking up the dismantled table surfboard and stowing the pieces away for later. After her and Daniel returned they found all the Survey Corps members gathered in the mess hall. They headed towards a table to sit at, they opted out of joining Hiro and Allen choosing to instead ignore them completely.
After that, Levi went over some stuff about how Survey Corps members will stay there and try to integrate with them, but for the trainees to remember that they are their superiors and blah blah as Tsuna tuned him out. After a few minutes of talking to the 105th and then to the S.C members, he left. Tsuna took this opportunity to find certain traitors and righteously punish their transgression with a few flying fists to their faces and kicks to their groins.
"What the hell Tsuna?!" Hiro groaned out from his position on the floor. Hiro was kneeling with his hands between his legs in pain while Allen settled for fetal position on the floor.
"Exactly what I was gonna say! What's the big idea trying to rat me out to save yourselves?" They looked sheepishly and painfully away from her.
"Ah- well… I guess you're right. Sorry Tsu" Hiro said obviously feeling slightly guilty.
"Me too" Allen replied the best he could, obviously not taking the assault on his manly hood very well.
"Yea yea. Don't let it happen again" Tsuna said smiling at her friend. She's done the same thing before so she wasn't too mad just irritated that they used her trick against her.
"Look at you two, getting beat up by a girl!" Said a snarky voice from somewhere behind the trio. Tsuna turned around to find a tall fairly built guy with black hair and dark eyes.
"Huh? You want some too?" Tsuna threatened₂
"Hah, like I'd waste my time on a small fry like you" The guy laughed mockingly.
"Shudup Mason, or I'll kick your ass" Tsuna grinded out between clenched teeth.
"Why don't you just try it, tiny" Mason sneered. Tsuna got in a fighting stance but Daniel grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder and walked away before she could react.
"Cool your jets, haven't you gotten in enough trouble tonight?" he asked still carrying her.
"Hmph" she turned her head away from him obviously upset that he interrupted her would be fight. Tsuna decided to just hang there and let herself be carried around without knowing where they were going. The trip ended shortly and they were still inside the mess hall. Maybe I'll take a nap here, she thought to herself. She knew if she did then Daniel would take her to her bunk so she wasn't worried about that. She decided that she would take a nap, until Daniel started talking to the Survey Corps people, then she decided she would eavesdrop.
"Hey there cutie" She heard Daniel say. She turned to look the best she could and saw a girl with brown hair and light brown eyes, looking thoroughly confused and flustered.
"H-hi" she replied, still taken aback.
"I'm Daniel, what's your name?" Daniel asked, obviously flirting with the poor thing.
"Sasha…" She said with weariness. Tsuna suppressed a chuckle. Between Daniels way too up front flirting and her 'what the hell is going on' attitude, this was pretty funny.
"Leave the poor thing alone" Tsuna said, still holding back her laughter.
"But she's cute" Daniel argued, intent on hitting on Sasha.
"Well that means she's outta your league buddy" Tsuna laughed at him. Daniel made a noise of feigned hurt, probably accompanied by a similar face Tsuna couldn't see due to the fact that she was still draped over his back.
"Oh? Did you want me to drop you on your ass?" Daniel threatened.
"Oh? Do you want me to put you on yours too?" Tsuna mock threatened. From what Tsuna could see, most of the other Survey Corps members were talking amongst themselves, a few had been watching Daniel try to put the moves on the Sasha girl. They looked like they had been entertained by Daniel's attempts at seducing Sasha. Daniel completely ignored her statement in favor of redirecting his attention to the girl in front of him. He tried making small talk with her, he was surprisingly successful in his attempts which Tsuna began tuning out in favor of that nap she had wanted to take. After about a minute or two he asked if she was hungry, the girl's eyes lit up at that and she said yea. Daniel asked if she wanted to go eat with him and she instantly agreed with great enthusiasm. Tsuna who was on the verge of sleep, still hanging off of Daniels shoulder, was promptly awoken as she felt herself falling and her ass hitting something. Her eyes bolted open and she looked to see Daniel walking off with that Sasha girl and found that she had been dropped on the table's bench that they were standing by.
"Oi! Daniel! What the fuck bro? You're gonna do this to me?" Tsuna half yelled at him irritated that her makeshift bed had walked away. He turned around and offered her a huge grin of satisfaction.
"Tch, asshole" Tsuna mumbled "not like you have a chance anyways…" She watched Daniel get the girl some food and sit with her as she ate. Tsuna noted that she ate like she was a starving wild animal. Tsuna also noted that Daniel didn't seem deterred by this at all.
"Hey" Tsuna jumped and made a slight 'eek' of surprise at the voice that snapped her out of her day dreaming. She whipped her head to the side to find the source of the voice. She saw a short boy with shaved hair and bright hazel eyes. The guy looked just as surprised as Tsuna, probably due to her reaction.
"…hey" Tsuna replied cautiously. The guy smile sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Heh, sorry 'bout that" he said, he seemed genuine in his apology and Tsuna decided he was probably on ok guy.
"Oh, it's all good. I probably shouldn't space out so much" Tsuna said and laughed. This made the guy relax and smile too.
"So, is this a regular thing for him?" the boy said while gesturing towards Daniel who looked to be having a goofy conversation full of grandeur hand movements and intense faces with Sasha. Tsuna noticed that the guy speaking to her seemed almost down put and maybe jealous.
"Hmm, jealous are we?" Tsuna said teasingly. The statement got a nice blush out of the boy and a shocked expression.
"Huh? Me? No, I was just wondering, that's all!" He said way too quickly for it to be a good cover up.
"If you say so… don't worry about it though. He likes to think of himself as a womanizer but he never gets far. The only reason she even seemed interested was for the food I think." Tsuna said with a smile, the guy seemed to seriously consider her words and looked back at the two who were a few tables down from them. He laughed.
"Yea, sounds like her." He said while continuing to look at the Sasha girl with a smile. "Oh! I'm Connie by the way." He redirected his attention towards Tsuna and held out his hand.
"I'm Tsuna" she smiled and shook his hand. He seems pretty nice she thought to herself. "You guys are from the Survey Corps right?" she asked him.
"Yea, I guess we're gonna be staying here for a while. We're supposed to be in disguise and staying low key for a while."
"Is it like a secret mission?!" Tsuna had quickly shifted from her position of sitting on her butt to perching on her feet on the bench, now facing Connie with excitement.
"Y-yea. Something like that." He replied with surprise and humor in his voice. Tsuna beamed with excitement.
"Sugoi!" Tsuna said with awe. "That must mean you guys are like super awesome, right?" Connie chuckled.
"Well I wouldn't say 'super awesome' but yea, we're pretty good" He said, a now smug expression donning his face.
"How long have you been in the Survey Corps?" Tsuna asked, still relatively excited.
"Ah, about half a year or so. Not too long."
"Does that mean you guys are from the 104th trainees' squad?" She asked in curiosity.
"Yea"
"Were you in the top 10?!" she asked, excited again. Connie beamed a smug smile once again.
"Yup, I was ranked 8th" He said, obviously proud of himself.
"Whoa, you're pretty good then!" Tsuna said in slight admiration.
"Ehh, He's ok" A new voice said from behind Tsuna. She turned around to see a guy with short light brown hair and light brown eyes. He had an expression on his face that said he wasn't being serious. Tsuna considered his tone of voice and decided he meant no harm. She thought to herself off handedly that he was a good looking guy.
"Oi, Jean, butt out" Connie said back to the 'Jean' guy in slight irritation at the friendly jab.
"Who're you?" Tsuna asked, or rather politely demanded. The 'Jean' guy turned his attention to her and Tsuna swore she saw the slightest tint of pink light up his cheeks. She looked intently back at him waiting for an answer.
"I, uh, I'm Jean" He slightly stuttered. Tsuna figured the stutter was from her sudden serious seeming demeanor and question. She hadn't tried to come across as serious, she was more curious about who the guy was than anything else.
"Oh. Hi Jean, I'm Tsuna." She smiled at him and gave a slight wave with her hand. He definitely blushed this time but Tsuna was oblivious to it.
"Hi" He said back.
"Hey Jean, go find some other conversation to interrupt" Connie said from behind Tsuna.
"Oh, yea that's right! If you said that he's only 'ok' does that mean you were ranked higher than him?" Tsuna asked Jean with excitement and interest. Jean's flustered face suddenly garnered a more haughty and confident expression.
"Yup, that's right. I was ranked 6th in our class" He said while pointed his thumb towards himself and smiling smugly. Tsuna's eyes lit up with awe.
"Wow, 6th. That's pretty impressive" Tsuna said still in admiration. "You're both pretty talented" she said and looked back at Connie too.
"Huh?! Tsuna, I hope you know you'll be in the top 10 too." She heard off to her side. She turned to look and she saw her good friends Amy and William. Amy was a nice girl with shoulder blade length light red-brown hair and hazel eyes. William was a slightly taller than average guy with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a very welcoming, charismatic personality. Amy was the one who had spoken.
"Yea Tsuna, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were in the top 5 at least." William spoke this time.
"Ehh?!" Connie made a noise of surprise accompanied by a fitting look. Tsuna looked back at him and gave a sheepish smile.
"Well, I don't know about that." Tsuna said back to Amy and William.
"Oh stop with the modesty, everyone here knows you're gonna be at least top 10, no doubt." William said teasingly but honestly.
"No, I'm seriously not that good you guys. I just act like I am. Besides, it doesn't really matter what you guys think, it's up to Shadis isn't it?" Tsuna said, trying to convince her fellow trainees that they were seriously over estimating her. William ignored her comment and looked at Connie and Jean.
"Don't fall for her tricks you two," he joked, "while she seems like a bit of a clumsy airhead, she is very good, she just doesn't act like it unless we're getting graded." He said and Amy agreed enthusiastically.
"Oh, buzz off. Go be a busy body couple somewhere else" Tsuna teased them with a smile. Amy blushed and William put his hand around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.
"Jealous you don't have someone Tsu?" He teased with a smirk.
"Pfft, as if." Amy giggled at her and William smiled triumphantly at his jibe and getting his girlfriend to laugh. They walked off and William offered a wave over his shoulder. Tsuna feigned a grumpy face and crossed her arms.
"Anyways, they're total bullshiters. I'm seriously not top 10 material." Tsuna said to Jean and Connie in a slightly dejected voice. Suddenly she jumped up from her perch on the bench and turned to face both boys "If you'd like, you could join me and my friends for some diner" she offered both boys.
"Sure" Connie stood up from his place on the bench and he and Tsuna looked at Jean for his answer.
"You don't have to, I was just offerin'" Tsuna said to make sure he didn't feel obligated.
"Oh, no, its fine. Sure, I'll join you." He said and turned to join them from where he was standing next to the table. Tsuna looked at both guys and noted that they were both taller than her, although Jean was much taller than Connie too. Tsuna then noticed that they were both staring at her.
"You're short" Connie said in slight astonishment that he actually had to look down on someone. Tsuna made a noise of hurt and looked at him with a 'really?' look. Jean chuckled from next to Connie.
"Actually, she might even be shorter than Historia." Jean said to Connie and they both made looks of contemplation.
"Hey, Historia!" Connie had turned around and shouted to one of his fellow Survey Corps members. A small blond haired girl with blue eyes turned to look at them and started walking towards them when Connie waved her over. "We were just talking to Tsuna here and we wanted to see if she might be shorter than you." The girl looked at Tsuna with an almost apologetic look and offered a smile, Tsuna returned it. Jean and Connie had them get back to back so they could compare them
"Whoa, now way." Connie said with a look of bewilderment
"I can't believe it. You're even shorter than Historia" Jean said with equal shock, he had grabbed the top of Tsuna's head, turned her towards him and bent down slightly, seeming to inspect her.
"Yea, and I thought she was short" Connie gestured towards the 'Historia' girl "No offense Historia" she smiled in a way that indicated no offense was taken. Jean nodded in agreement with Connie's initial statement then turned back to Tsuna who he was still holding onto.
"Just how tall, or rather how short are you?" Jean asked Tsuna. Tsuna had on a look of embarrassment and the slightest amount of irritation but she'd gone through this too many times to really get upset about it. Tsuna's eyes looked towards the floor at the question as she blushed from the combination of having a guy so close to her face holding her in place by her head and from being the center of attention.
"U-um, I'm 140cm (4'7)" Tsuna said bashfully. Connie noticed Tsuna's discomfort and felt somewhat responsible for having started the whole thing about her being short.
"Let's go get some food now" Connie offered, trying to make Tsuna less uncomfortable "And thanks for your help, Historia." He said to the girl who nodded with a smile and walked back towards this other girl who was tall and had dark hair and a dark complexion with freckles. They started talking to each other. Tsuna, Connie and Jean headed to get food from the kitchen part of the building. Tsuna saw Hiro and Allen waiting in line for food and they saw her too. They expected to her go up to them and talk to them but she chose to still ignore them as punishment for their earlier betrayal.
"Don't you know those two?" Connie said from behind her as they waited in the other of the lines to get food, diner time had just started a little bit ago so most of the people were in line to get food. Tsuna and co.'s table surfboard incident had been a way to pass time as they waited for diner time. Tsuna turned to look at Connie.
"Yea, they're supposed to be my friends," Tsuna said loud enough for Hiro and Allen to hear, "but I'm ignoring them for trying to rat me out earlier."
"Oh, you mean when you got in trouble for riding on whatever that was earlier" Jean asked with a slight chuckle, Connie snickered too. Tsuna turned red in embarrassment and laughed nervously.
"It's a table surfboard. And yea, they acted like they had nothing to do with it when it was their idea in the first place." Tsuna was obviously irritated at her friend's betrayal.
"Do you always do stuff like that around here?" Jean asked.
"I don't always table surfboard, but I do goof off a lot with my friends, it usually doesn't end up as good as it did tonight. Shadis usually gets us in a lot more trouble but I guess we got lucky, or at least Daniel and I did, those traitors got what they deserved though." Tsuna said. Hiro and Allen had 'discreetly' gotten closer to them.
"That's not fair Tsuna, you know you've blamed us for stuff too." Hiro said with a pout. Tsuna turned to face him with a look of extreme irritation.
"Yea, and that was like at least a year ago and we decided not to blame each other for things anymore and own up to the things we do, or at least I thought we had."
"I know, we said we're sorry. Honestly I was just scared and spoke before I thought about it. I didn't mean to, it was an accident." Hiro said still pouting, he did feel bad about it and he understood where Tsuna came from. Promises were a big thing to her and he knew it. Next to him, Allen looked upset too and he offered Tsuna a hug. Tsuna sighed and rolled her eyes but accepted it none the less.
"You guys are lucky I can't stay mad at you long" she said. Allen laughed.
"Yea, we know Tsu." He said, letting her go from the hug.
"Go back to your line before you lose your place you dorks, I'll save you a spot at the table if we get there first." Tsuna said as she ushered them to go back to their line as people had already joined the line that Jean, Connie and herself were in.
After they had gotten their food, Tsuna lead Jean and Connie to a table where Allen, Hiro, Amy, William and a few others were at, there was a spot open next to Hiro and two spots open next to William. Tsuna sat next to William, Connie sat next to Hiro and Jean sat next to Tsuna. Allen was next to Hiro and across from William. He seemed to be in a deep conversation with William and Amy, Tsuna didn't bother to pay attention to what they were talking about though. Jean and she were fairly close together because there wasn't enough room for them to be too spaced out. Tsuna blushed slightly as she felt his leg bump into hers. She looked down at her food, some stew and a small loaf of bread. She pushed the stew forward towards the middle of the table and just took the bread and started nibbling on it. Jean looked down at her in curiosity.
"You aren't gonna eat that?" he asked, not expecting to get it but just out of interest.
"Oh, uh, no. You can have it if you want." She said rather quietly.
"Why aren't you gonna eat it?" He knew that bread alone couldn't possibly keep her full. She went wide eyed and red faced at his question and chose to fill her mouth with bread rather than answer. She looks embarrassed he thought to himself
"The stew has some meat in it and Tsuna doesn't like to eat meat" Hiro said from across the table. Jean and Connie both gave her a surprised look.
"Huh? Why not?" Connie asked this time. Tsuna's face got even redder and once again she opted for a mouthful of bread. Hiro chuckled.
"She feels sad when she eats meat cause she knows it means an animal died." He explained. Connie and Jean looked even more surprised.
"What? Is that true Tsuna?" Connie asked. Tsuna barely nodded her head, still very red faced.
"Why're you so embarrassed?" Jean teased. He thought that it was a rather endearing thing that she thought like that, although he probably could never be the same way.
"I-I'm not" Tsuna said still pretty quietly and still focusing on her bread.
"That's not very convincing" said Connie with an expression that said he was entertained by her embarrassment at something that wasn't even a big deal.
"She used to get picked on for it, especially when we were younger and I guess it makes her a little self-conscious about it." Hiro clarified for the two males.
"H-hey! Don't go telling people that!" Tsuna tried yelling at him for it but it didn't come out nearly as intimidating as she wanted it to. She then settled for lowering her head and refocusing on her bread. Jean reached out and grabbed her head and forced her to look up at him.
"That's not really something to be embarrassed about, hell, I could never give up eating meat for a sentiment like that so I think you should be proud of yourself" he said encouragingly to her. Tsuna's blush deepened and all she could do was stare at him in wonder. Nobody had ever said something like that to her except people like her lifelong friends Hiro, Allen and Daniel. "In fact, the only thing that's shameful is not being yourself, so whatever people said to you before is meaningless. Okay?" All Tsuna could do was look at the guy in front of her in awe. It was then that she noticed how handsome he was. She found herself giving a slight nod.
"Y-yes" she said breathlessly. He smiled and let go of her head. She remained looking at him for a few more seconds before she lowered her head back to look at her bread. She didn't eat it, she just looked at it thinking. All this time I was so afraid of what people thought of me, of how I'm different from normal people. Is it really okay to just be myself? Tsuna contemplated his words a couple more seconds. She turned back to Jean.
"A-ano…" Jean turned to look at her and Tsuna regretted saying something "I- uh, well, um…" she started to blush because she was completely overreacting and she knew it and she knew she seemed laughable and she really needed to just say something instead of looking like a fish out of water. "Um, you can have that if you want…" She said and pointed at the stew she didn't eat. While it wasn't what she was going to say, it was better than nothing. The whole time he had been looking at her with an expression of mild humor. Hiro was looking suspiciously between the two and Connie had started to stuff his face with his own food, looking at the scene slightly interested. Jean chuckled and patted her head.
"If you insist" he said while taking the bowl of stew and eating it. He had a look that said he knew that that's not what she wanted to say or ask but Tsuna was glad he hadn't questioned her and that he let it go. She looked up to Hiro worriedly because he wasn't one to let things slip by. He sat there sipping his drink looking at her with devious eyes, then he directed his attention towards Jean.
"You're Jean correct?" Hiro received a nod in return, "I'm Hiro, nice to meet you" Hiro said and held out his hand. Jean shook it. "Do you know how long you Survey Corps members will be staying here?" He asked.
"We weren't given an exact amount of time but we were told to expect at least a couple weeks."
"Oh well in that case if you continue to hang around Tsuna I suppose we'll become good friends." He smiled. To anyone who didn't know Hiro really well, the smile would seem purely kind with no ulterior meaning, but to someone who had been his friend for years like Tsuna, the smile was kind but it also meant that he did have an ulterior motive and that he knew something or had planned something no one else knew about. He turned to Connie "and you're Connie right?"
"Yup" Connie said with a smile.
"Like I said, I'm Hiro" he returned the smile and exchanged a handshake with the shorter guy. "If you don't mind me asking, how old are the two of you?" Connie who had just taken a bit of his stew hurriedly chewed and swallowed his bite.
"I'm 16" Connie said in a way that made it seem like an accomplishment. Hiro nodded his head and then turned towards Jean.
"I'm 16 as well" Jean said "how old are you guys?" He looked at Hiro then at Tsuna.
"I just so happen to be 16 too." Hiro said in his usual upbeat voice.
"I'm 15" Tsuna said still somewhat quiet from her earlier embarrassment. Jean smirked.
"So you're the little one in more than one way" he said jokingly and laughed, Connie and Hiro joined him in his laughter as Tsuna once again got red.
"I'm not little!" She said in defense. They just laughed harder. She decided she'd had enough of their mockery and that she would go find Daniel. She halfway stood and turned to get out from the bench on but her foot got caught and she let out a squeak of surprise and horror as she saw the floor getting closer and closer to her face. She closed her eyes and readied herself for the impact but instead of feeling the hard floor against her face she instead felt an arm around her stomach. She slowly opened her eyes and looked down at the arm, her eyes followed the arm to it's shoulder and then to the head on top of the shoulders and she saw Jeans face. She then realized that her hands had gripped onto the part of his arm that was touching her stomach and that her hands weren't letting go even though she kept telling them to. She just stared at Jean for a couple seconds before he lifted her from her horizontal position to a vertical one. Her hands still didn't let go and she was still just looking at him.
"You should be more careful" he said to her, not scolding or meanly but somewhat caring. She nodded and finally her hands let go of his arm. He retracted it from her waist and she turned to sit again.
"That was a close one Tsuna, you're lucky he caught you." She heard Allen say from next to Hiro and she heard William snicker.
"It's not like she hasn't face planted the ground before" him and Allen both chuckled at that. She tried her best to glare at them but she wasn't taken seriously. She gave up and instead turned to Jean who, along with Hiro and Connie, was watching Allen and William with slight humor.
"Th-thank you." Tsuna said to Jean and his eyes immediately redirected their attention to her. He took a few seconds to take in her appearance. She had odd white hair that looked to be fairly long, instead of being a deterrent he thought it was more complementing to her features. She had these big, light crystal blue eyes that had such an innocent look in them. She was pretty light skinned and had a very good complexion for a teenager training to be a soldier. He realized suddenly that she was actually quite beautiful, he thought to himself that she may even be more appealing than Mikasa.
"No problem" he said, forcing himself to stop staring at her. He looked towards Hiro and immediately regretted it when he saw an all too sly smile and a very suggestive head nod from his direction to Tsuna's. His face turned slight red and he turned his attention back to what was left of his food.
"So, do either of you have girlfriends?" Hiro asked and Jean nearly choked on his food, he looked up incredulously at Hiro and Hiro gave him and even slyer smile in return.
"No" Connie said dejectedly from next to Hiro. Tsuna giggled from next to Jean.
"He may not have one but he sure does have his eyes on someone" she said with another giggle. Connie's face got red.
"N-no" he said with hardly any conviction.
"Uh-huh, you like that Sasha girl" she turned her attention to Hiro "you see the one that Dan was trying to hit up?" She received an intense nod in return "Yea, that's the one he likes!" Tsuna pointed to Connie at 'he'.
"Ohhh" Hiro said all smooth and sly as he turned to face Connie, "she's a real cutie, but her table habits seemed a bit much for my taste" he teased Connie with a few nudges to his arm and a wag from his eyebrow. Connie just got redder and decided to keep quiet. Tsuna giggled which brought Hiro's attention to Jean.
"And what about you, Jean" he said with a very devious look "do you have a special someone in your life?"
"Me? Nah, not really." Jean said trying to play it cool but probably failing miserably.
"Oh, that's a real shame" Hiro said, obviously not meaning it. Is this kid really trying to hook me up with Tsuna? She probably has lots of guys interested in her or she's probably interested in one of the guys here, that she actually knows, Jean thought to himself.
"What about you, Hiro?" Jean said with a slightly snarky undertone. "Don't you have a girlfriend or something?" Hiro looked slightly surprised at the question and Tsuna Giggled behind her hand. Next to Hiro, Allen gained a sudden interest in the conversation.
"Actually my friend, while I don't have a girlfriend, I do have someone very special to me" Hiro said with a smirk. "I don't particularly find girls attractive in that way, I'm much more into guys" he said as he reached over around Allen's shoulders, tugged him close against his chest and kissed the top of Allen's head. Connie looked shocked and Jean looked slightly shocked as well but he also wore a grin.
"What?! You seemed like a total womanizer! Like a chick magnet, y'know?" Connie said still surprised.
"Yea, I get that. It's a real shame, I always feel bad when I have to let some nice girl know that I'll never be into her." Hiro said with a grim look but it instantly changed to a pleasant one "but I wouldn't trade this guy for any of them." From under Hiro's arm, Allen blushed slightly while smiling at the sweet words of his boyfriend. Tsuna looked at Connie and Jean worried about their reactions to her friends' homosexual relationship but was relieved when she saw Connie's shocked expression had turned into a smirk and that Jean still wore his grin. Although Jean expression also held something more devious, it didn't seem like he meant any harm to Tsuna's friends so she didn't bother worrying.
"I'm gonna go find Daniel, I'll talk to you guys later" Tsuna said while carefully getting up from the table and walking off with a wave.
"Okay, see you later" Connie said.
"Yea, talk to you later" Jean said a little eagerly. He was slightly disappointed at her departure. It wasn't that he liked her, he did find her attractive but it was more like she was nice and easy to be around and that's why he felt slight disappointment. It was kinda like having a clumsy, female Marco around he thought to himself.
"Bye Tsu!" Hiro said, still happily holding Allen.
"Bye" Allen said, he had a relatively deep voice compared to his boyfriend.
"You know, neither one of you seem like your gay. I don't mean that as an insult, I just totally didn't expect you two to be gay and a couple." Jean said with genuine interest. He received a small chuckle from Hiro.
"Actually, I'm the only gay one, Allen here is pansexual" Hiro said as he looked down to Allen with a loving look.
"What's pansexual?" Connie asked looking really confused.
"Pansexual means that gender is pretty irrelevant to him, someone who is pansexual doesn't discriminate between genders and instead looks for love with a person instead of love with a 'boy' or love with a 'girl'" Hiro explained. Connie still looked pretty confused and Hiro decided he'd try and make things a little simpler. Jean found Connie's lack of knowledge pretty humorous. So their conversation continued on and eventually turned to random small talk.
Tsuna found herself searching for Daniel, he wasn't with the Sasha girl anymore and he didn't seem to be in the mess hall. She double checked around the hall and decided to go look outside. She headed towards the door, receiving a couple greetings from some of her friends along the way. A lot of the people in the 105th trainees' squad liked Tsuna because she was nice, funny, caring and had a good moral. There were a few people, like Mason, who didn't necessarily hate her but they definitely didn't get along with her. Tsuna neared the door and as she stepped out she tripped over a warped board. She found herself for a second time that day falling face first towards the ground, only this time there wasn't someone next to her to catch her. She braced for impact, somehow unable to bring her hands to her face. Next thing she knew she was being grabbed around the waist from behind. She ended up being suspended in midair by the hold on her waist.
"Whoa there" she heard from right behind her. She didn't recognize the voice at all. She grabbed the arm that was around her waist in a vice like grip and turned her head towards whoever just saved her. She saw a tall, built guy with short blond hair. She followed the arm from his shoulder just to make sure that he was indeed the guy who rescued her. She blushed when she saw that he was in fact the guy who had her suspended in midair with one arm. She blushed more when she noticed that he was very ruggedly handsome. She moved her mouth to say 'thank you' but nothing came out and she ended up looking like a fish. He laughed and lowered her to her feet. It took Tsuna a second to let go of his arm and when she did she looked back up to his face to notice that he was a lot taller than her.
"Um, thank you" She said quietly. She was still blushing, out of embarrassment and the fact that the guy was really good looking. From off to her side she heard a familiar boisterous laugh. She turned to see Daniel a couple feet away bent over holding his stomach laughing. She glared at him and he just laughed harder. She just sighed in return. She noticed that he was standing next to a very tall guy, who was also pretty good looking. He was at least a foot and a half taller than her with dark hair and green eyes.
"Could you turn any redder Tsu?!" Daniel managed between his laughter. Tsuna did in fact get redder at his comment and shyly turned her head towards her feet and grabbed her right arm with her left hand as a nervous habit.
"Sh-shuddup Daniel" Tsuna tried to sound intimidating but failed miserably. "Whatever, I'm leaving anyways" she said as she turned around and began to walk away. She was stopped by a hand grabbing her arm. She turned around to see the big blond guy that had saved her was the one who grabbed her.
"You're just gonna walk away without telling me your name?" He asked with a smile, almost a smirk but it could pass as a smile. Tsuna blushed bright red once again and stared at him with her mouth slightly open. She realized she was staring and averted her eyes to the ground.
"Ts-Tsuna" she managed to get out. She looked back up at him and saw that he had a half smile adorning his face.
"Well hey Tsuna, I'm Reiner" he said. She noticed he was still holding her arms and she looked at it and blushed more. He took a half step closer to her and then let go. They were fairly close together now and Tsuna felt very nervous and flushed. Daniel's laughter finally subsided from off to her right.
"Whoa there buddy, you're pretty smooth aren't you?" he teased Reiner. Reiner just gave a chuckle in return.
"Hm, I guess you could say that" he said while still eying Tsuna who was getting very embarrassed, not only at their words but at the closeness of the handsome guy in front of her.
"So where were you headed Tsu?" Daniel asked her with a smile in his voice. She turned her attention towards her friend.
"Actually I was looking for you but now I don't know if I want to be around you" she said as she turned her nose at him in a way that showed she was upset. She was also trying to get over the heavy flirting from the guy in front of her.
"Ho-ho don't be like that, it's not my fault you got the hot's for him" Daniel laughed out. Tsuna whipped her head towards him and looked at him incredulously and angrily she momentarily debated if she should kick his ass or not. "Okay, okay. I'm only teasing Tsu" he had put his hands up in mock surrender. Tsuna made a 'tch' noise and began to walk away. "No, don't leave Tsuna, I was teasing, I'm sorry" he said as she continued to walk away "really Tsu, I'm sorry. Come back here so I can make it up to you." She stopped and turned towards him.
"Oh? And how would you do that?" she asked him with irritation and disbelief in her voice.
"I'll let you join us" Tsuna gave him a 'whatever' look and turned to walk again, "wait! And I was going to say that I'll give you a piggy-back ride too, as long as you want until bedtime." She considered this.
"And, if you'll let me use you in jousting during training tomorrow." Tsuna bargained. Daniel laughed.
"Deal" he said and Tsuna walked back towards him. "You wanna ride on my back or on my shoulders?" He asked her and she considered the question for a few seconds.
"Shoulders" She said. He reached towards her and grabbed her under her arms, lifted her up and swung her around behind him and finally up onto his shoulders. There she leaned down and rested on his head. He smiled and gave a small chuckle at her adorableness. Reiner and the super tall guy watched the scene play out in amusement. Tsuna realized that there were still other people around and she tensed up, also realizing just how stupid she must have looked. She then remembered what Jean had said about being herself and relaxed a little.
"Oh, and by the way, this is Bertolt" Daniel said and gestured to the tall guy next to them that was nearly as tall as Tsuna was on top of Daniel's shoulders. Of course Tsuna's short body hunched over like it was didn't add hardly anything to Daniel's height, she was still amazed at the Bertolt guy's height. She noticed he was looking at her with a small smile so she smiled back at him.
"Hello, I'm Tsuna" she said happily. He mumbled a 'hey' in return.
"He's a little shy" Daniel said from bellow her.
"Hey Daniel!" William had walked out of the mess hall and called Daniel "Come with me to the bunks, I have something to show you." William said to Daniel.
"What is it?" Daniel asked out of both curiosity and laziness, if he could do whatever needed to be done without going somewhere he'd be much happier.
"Just come see, but Tsu can't come" William said as he turned to Tsuna "Sorry" he gave her an apologetic look.
"One sec" Daniel said and William nodded and headed towards the 105th sleeping quarters. Daniel looked up towards Tsuna the best he could and Tsuna bent over his head to look at him, albeit upside down. "Sorry Tsuna, looks like I'm gonna have ta put you-…" He stopped as he looked forward and deviously grinned "Hey Reiner" Daniel said and Reiner looked at him. "You mind doing me a favor?" Daniel's grin turned sly.
