Disclaimer: I don't own any of the stuff I wrote about, blah blah blah. Enjoy the fic.
Tsuna sighed in frustration, closing his DS.
"Something wrong?" Asked Yamamoto casually, grinning his usual laid-back smile.
"I keep on dying... it's nothing serious, don't worry."
Tsuna stretched out, staring up at the sky. They were gathered on the school roof for lunch, chatting randomly. It had been a while since there had been a quiet, relaxing day like this...
"EXTREME! VICTORY AT LAST!" Ryohei leaped into the air, arms pumping with victory.
"Ah, big brother plays video games too?" Tsuna asked, curious.
"Yeah! Any game where you can fight for the championship is my kind of game!" He leaped into the air again, nearly dropping his DS off the roof.
"What game is it?"
"Pokemon Gold!"
"Oh man, I'm playing the same stuff as that lawn-head? I've gotta start a new game..." muttered Gokudera, next to Tsuna.
"Wow, you guys both play Pokemon still? I thought I was the only one..." Tsuna grinned happily.
"I'm playing the same game as the Tenth? Brilliant! Let's trade!" Same old Gokudera...
Tsuna has a Pikachu
"Darn..." Tsuna winced, losing again.
"Hard part?" asked Yamamoto, grinning. Tsuna had stopped like that every day this week.
"Yeah... The elite four keep beating me... Oh well, it's the end of the game anyway, not like I'm missing out on more than the credits, right?"
"Well, actually, there's a whole world after that!" Gokudera ranted for a while, trying to help Tsuna with technical aspects of the game, mentioning something called 'EV' points and a 'macho brace' item he'd never even found...
"That... doesn't make much sense. Sorry!" Tsuna rubbed the back of his head. He never knew playing pokemon could be complex...
"Actually, I don't think you need any of that stuff. I did just fine." Yamamoto reassured him. "Gokudera's just a math nerd, is all.
"You play too?"
"Well, only a little. I'm more focused on my baseball, after all." Yamamoto showed his DS, an amazing team breezing through the game easily, without any real effort on his part.
"Math nerd! Take that back, baseball freak!" Gokudera riled after the comment, more annoyed at how easily Yamamoto had finished the game than anything else.
"What's the big deal? You finished the game too, didn't you?
"Um... sure!" Gokudera sweated... as much as he knew about the game, he'd never had the patience to actually level up his pokemon... he didn't even have three badges...
Ryohei laughed, seeing his file.
"Give that back! How far did you get, anyway?"
"Three badges!" he gave the thumbs up to Gokudera, who facepalmed. Tsuna went through his file, amazed.
"Your entire party is made of fighting types... I haven't even caught half of these..." It was just like him!
"Can you win like that? I thought the fourth badge was ghost types..."
"Hah! I'll never stoop to cheating. If I level up enough, I can beat them with any pokemon!"
"Um..."
"Besides, it's more fun to use the pedometer that came with it. I make a goal of always walking a thousand steps more than the day before!"
"Can you really keep that up!?"
Hibari laughed under his breath, leaning on the other side of the roof.
"Wh-when did Hibari get here?" Tsuna panicked.
"Oh, you play too? Let's see!" Ryohei opened his DSi, checking Hibari's save file without permission. Naturally, he had tested the game, seeing as how so much of his school was playing it. Tsuna wondered what he would have done if it wasn't appropriate...
He had one level one hundred Lucario, and that was it...
Just like him! Tsuna fell down in shock, comically.
"Hey everyone!" Greeted Haru and Kyoko, coming up to the roof as well. Tsuna straightened up, blushing as Kyoko waved at him. Neither one was very good at the games either, only playing them because everyone else was. Haru had a policy of only using 'cute' pokemon, which made actually battling quite difficult. Tsuna was going to offer to help Kyoko, but the moment he opened his mouth to do so, Lambo leaped out of nowhere, landing on his face.
"Lambo plays too! Have a look!"
Where did everyone keep coming from? Lambo and Haru didn't even go to school! Tsuna sighed, realizing it was the story of his life. Everyone seemed able to find him, somehow. He helped Lambo dutifully, unwilling to be mean in front of Kyoko, although it was very tempting. Lambo, fittingly enough, had no pokemon... he hadn't figured out how to turn it on yet...
He seemed content sucking on the corner of his DS, however, and had lost his stylus in his hair already, so Tsuna doubted he could play even if he did show him how to turn it on. He turned back, startled as he saw Chrome kneeling next to the others, playing pokemon as well. Someone had traded her a Mewtwo from an earlier game, which she kept relying on whenever the battles got too intense... Tsuna tried to hide his worry when he saw the original trainer of the Mewtwo; Mukouro. There was no way... It was just a coincidence, surely? He laughed it off, as someone kneed him in the back. Hard.
"Reborn!" Tsuna gasped for air, as Hibari and Ryohei tightened around the infant.
"Hiya, cutie! Did you get lost?" Kyoko picked him up, adjusting Reborn's hat for him.
"Tsuna, I'm ashamed of you. You should be able to defeat your family in any way possible, even when playing games for fun."
"Are you insane? Stop bringing that up and connecting it to random things in my life!" Tsuna frowned. He was taking a stand. There was no way he'd let Reborn bully him this time! Before, Reborn had forced him to limit his toilet paper, in order to be more 'eco-friendly' than the rest of the family. Then, he'd had to enter an eating contest against the others, to prove he was the biggest of them all... Enough was enough!
Ten seconds later, he was gasping for air, dangling off the roof of the school building.
"On the other hand... how dangerous could some video games be?"
Reborn organized a tournament, allowing the victor one home cooked meal at Tsuna's place, along with full access to his room.
"What happens if I win these prizes?"
"You can eat tonight." Replied Reborn solemnly.
"You mean I can't eat unless I win!?"
Naturally, Tsuna was placed against harder opponents, Lambo and the girls giving Gokudera and Hibari easy victories. Tsuna barely won the first match, and only because Ryohei kept using the move 'self destruct', in a kamikaze strategy that didn't quite work with less pokemon. Hibari walked right out of the tournament then, bored, giving Tsuna a fighting chance at the title, and an easy pass.
Gokudera fought Yamamoto, but both were disqualified when Gokudera threw his DS off the roof, Yamamoto diving to catch it, and getting into a fight with the punk then and there. Tsuna worried about them, but no more than usual, keen to eat tonight and maybe (but probably not) earn Reborn's respect.
"And the final match is between... Tsuna and myself!" Declared Reborn.
"Ehh? When did you join in!?"
"Just now." Tsuna glanced nervously at Reborn's custom made, mafia-style DS, expecting a team of legendary beasts...
"Magikarp, Caterpie and an egg!?"
"It's just like how I fight in real life." Reborn stated.
"Even though my fighters are weak and hopelessly pathetic, I force them to do better and win anyway."
"Why are you looking at me as you say all of that!?!" Tsuna ignored the insult, worrying as he realized they were all high levels... even the egg...
Fortunately, even Reborn wouldn't break the rules of the game, and his pokemon had no attacks that could hurt, besides tackle. It was still an extremely close match, but in the end, Tsuna actually won, making his day. For once, he had won against Reborn!
"And you only had to play games all day, and miss an important test, to do it." replied Reborn as if he could read Tsuna's mind.
"Wait, what?" He panicked, but deep down, at the end of the day, it was still worth it, as far as he was concerned.
A/N: Does this belong in the cross-over section? It just treats the games like games; I don't have Ash stopping by to join them or anything, so I don't think so… Besides, I like getting better ratings~ Huge thanks to Midirin for the conversation that inspired this!