Evidence 2: The Younger Brother

When Tsuna opened the door, he was greeted with a hug-tackle from Gokudera that very nearly bowled him other backwards. "Tenth–!" the silver-haired boy wailed. "I was so worried! I'm so glad you're alright!"

"Haha," Yamamoto laughed, coming outside as well. "I told you he'd be fine, Gokudera! He just ran some errands for his mom."

"Shut up, idiot!" Gokudera spat, changing gears faster than should have been possible. "It's your fault! Why weren't you with the tenth! ? What if he had run into a drunkard or a thief! Or worse, someone who would hurt him."

"No, no, Gokudera, I'm fine!" Tsuna said, waving his hands. "See? And besides, the only run-in that I had with someone was my fault. And he was okay with it, so it's fine! Really!"

"If the Tenth says so…" Gokudera grumbled. They all headed inside.

Up in Tsuna's room, the three were pouring over their history homework as Gokudera tried to lecture them without being intimidating. He was having a rough time. Tsuna could remember all the dates when things happened, but he could never remember what the events were called, and, quite often, he couldn't remember what happened on those dates, either. Yamamoto, on the other hand, could remember all the names of the famous people and happenings, but he could never remember why they were important or when they happened in what order. Both knew important facts, but neither could connect the dots to anything else to get them to the right answer.

"Alright, let's try this again," Gokudera sighed. He studied consistently with enough zeal that he didn't need to at this point. "The first Tokugawa shogun was…"

"Tokugawa Ieyasu!" Yamamoto answered. Tsuna was baffled.

"And he was born…"

Tsuna piped up, "January 31, 1549! Death was June 1, 1616!" Yamamoto was speechless.

"Gosh, it would be nice if this was a partner test," Yamamoto laughed. "Then Tsuna'n' I'd probably ace it."

"Next question," Gokudera continued, ignoring the baseball idiot. "The fourth and fifth shoguns were…"

"Uh… parent-child?" Yamamoto tested.

"No, that was Iemitsu and Ietsu- dang it!" Gokudera threw the book on the table. "Just answer the question!"

"Brothers, I think," Tsuna said. Ding. Gokudera was instantly happy again. "Um… I only know four of the shoguns," he admitted. "But Ieyasu was the first (thanks, Yamamoto), Iemitsu was the third, then came Ietsuna and Tsunayoshi. Haha, Ietsuna is my dad's dad, and Iemitsu is my dad. Grandad passed away when I was barely two, though, so I don't remember him. But that's the only reason I know their names."

"Um… Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the dog shogun, right?" Yamamoto asked. "Since he was a dog-year and all… and something like an animal rights activist. Or something like that."

"Right," Gokudera nodded. "He instituted numerous animal protection laws. Swatting a fly could get you executed in some cases."

"Glad I don't take after my namesake, then," Tsuna laughed.

Yamamoto stretched. "I think that's enough," he said nonchalantly. "I mean, we studied for the past hour and a half, so we'll probably do okay on the test. Right, Tsuna?"

"R- right!" Tsuna said, anxious to move on. He really didn't like history. Never mind that he would fail the test whether he studied or not, he just didn't like the subject. There was just too much pain and heartache, not to mention he just couldn't remember those names. "It's two right now, so… we were going to do… um…"

"Science," Gokudera filled in helpfully.

"Thanks, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna said. "I think the homework was just that worksheet, but let me check." Pulling out his planner, he rifled through the fraying pages. "Yeah, just that one worksheet she gave us. The one on… what was it called? Magno-electrics or something?"

"I thought it was magnetic electrodes."

"I believe it was electro-magnetics."

Tsuna stopped flipping through his textbook. "Nice to know that only Gokudera-kun was right," he laughed. "Electro-magnets."

Halfway through the worksheet, someone knocked on the door. "Coming!" Tsuna called, getting up. Opening the door, he smiled. "Oh, hi, Fuuta!"

"Tsuna-nii! Mama told me to bring snacks for you!"

Opening the door wider, Tsuna revealed a small boy, aged somewhere around six or seven. He had mousy light-brown hair and brown eyes, placed above a shy smile. "Thanks, Fuuta!" Tsuna said, patting the boy on the head.

"Yo," Yamamoto greeted, raising his hand and waving slightly. Gokudera looked up and stared. "Tsuna, I didn't know you had a brother!" the Japanese boy laughed.

"Really?" Tsuna asked, relieving Fuuta of the tray. "I could've sworn you've met him before. Oh well; Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto, this is my adopted brother, Fuuta. Fuuta, these are my friends: Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi." He placed the snacks down on the table, and Yamamoto gave his thanks before pouncing on a cookie.

"Pleased to meet you, Hayato-nii, Takeshi-nii!" Fuuta said, smiling. "Mama and Papa adopted me a little before my sixth birthday, so I've lived here a little less than a year… I'll be turning seven in January, though!"

"Dad picked him up during a trip to Italy to visit his family," Tsuna explained, sitting back down and motioning for Fuuta to join them. "He's a second-grader now, but he doesn't go to Namimori Primary, so that might explain it."

"Why's that?" Gokudera asked.

Tsuna laughed nervously. "Because he goes to a school with an international program a little farther away. This kid has potential, unlike me."

"That's not true, Tsuna-nii!" Fuuta pouted, pulling a face. "I think that if someone did a ranking of sixth-graders with the most potential, you'd be up towards the top of the list."

"Really? Then when you get around to making that ranking list, show me and ask what grade I'm in."

They laughed and talked for a few minutes, taking a break from studying, before Fuuta stood up and said that he wanted to work on his schoolwork too, so he could be a great student when he got older like Hayato-nii. But he wouldn't mind being good at sports like Takeshi-nii, or really kind like Tsuna-nii. All three advised him to simply do whatever felt the best for him.

It was a few hours later when Tsuna threw his pencil down on the desk and completely flopped. "I've never studied for this long straight before in my life," he groaned, taking a much-needed break from the arithmetic workbook.

"You're farther than I am, though," Yamamoto laughed. "And naturally, Gokudera's done and just sitting there."

"That's not true!" Gokudera spluttered indignantly. "I'm waiting for a time when my services will be needed," he added haughtily. "Unlike baseball idiots like you, I actually use much of my brain."

"But everything you've been explaining is just what's in the textbook?"

"Tch. Of course it is, idiot. It's part of something called the curriculum."

Yamamto smiled. "Well, thanks to you, I know what it is now."

Gokudera made a cross face and snatched the workbook. "Let me see that," he snapped, flipping through the one and a half finished pages. "… they're all right…"

"So, Yamamoto could be a really good student if he weren't always focused on baseball…" Tsuna sighed incredulously. What he wouldn't do to be like that. "Although I think I'm done… Gokudera-kun, can you help me with some of these while Yamamoto finishes?"

"Of course, Tenth!" the silver-haired boy answered cheerfully, tossing the workbook back to its owner as he scooted closer to the brunet. "Which problems?"

"Well, mostly just these synthesis problems. The ones where we're mixing different things. I'm having trouble with the area of those non-solid shapes."

"Well think of it this way," Gokudera suggested, picking up a piece of scratch paper. "If I have this paper, and I tear a chunk out of the middle, how can I find the area of the paper that's left?"

Tsuna looked from the O-shape in Gokudera's left hand, to the messy blob in his right. "You measure it," he answered dumbly.

Gokudera sighed. "… Well, could you subtract the part from the whole?"

"What?"

"Never mind that." Gokudera sighed again, trying to figure out how to help his beloved Tenth. "How about, instead of that, you reconstruct the shape? You can divide this O-shape into four pieces," he said, demonstrating, "and then we can just add the area of those together."

"Oh," Tsuna said, scribbling things down. "Ooh, I get it now! Thanks, Gokudera-kun."

"I guess Tsuna's just better at constructing than destroying," Yamamoto laughed. "He's so kind-hearted he can't even subtract numbers." Tsuna laughed nervously, and Gokudera scowled and muttered darkly under his breath as though to curse the baseball boy.

…

"We're done!"

All three boys shouted simultaneously immediately after checking their last answer on page 87 of the workbook. Yamamoto flopped onto his back and closed his eyes, and Tsuna collapsed onto the table. Gokudera stayed sitting and began packing all his materials away. "I can't believe we finished all that homework in one day," Yamamoto laughed. "I usually don't finish until Sunday afternoon."

"It's all thanks to the Tenth," Gokudera beamed. "Had he not suggested we stay over, then you would never have finished in all eternity. Be grateful, Yamamoto!" Tsuna hadn't the energy to correct him, and Yamamoto laughed it off. He was tired from working so hard; after all, he never finished early either.

"Tsuna-nii? Takeshi-nii? Hayato-nii?" Fuuta's voice called them from the door as he knocked. "Dinner's going to be ready soon."

"Coming!" Tsuna called, before lazily shoving all of his own notebooks and texts and papers back into his ransel.

The six-year old opened the door. "Tsuna-nii, Mama told me to come up and tell you to come down for dinner," he said excitedly. "Fried noodles! It's fried noodles, Tsuna-nii!"

"Alright, alright!" Tsuna laughed, throwing his hands up in mock despair. "I'm coming, just stay on the ground and don't go floating through the ceiling in a happy-fit." He got up, and his two friends quickly followed suit, all three heading to the bathroom to wash their hands.

"This is amazing!" Yamamto mumbled around a mouthful of noodles, serving himself another helping.

"Yamamoto-kun, you have to swallow, then talk," Nana reminded him.

Gokudera took a different approach. "At least take only as much as fits in your mouth, idiot," he scoffed, before completely disregarding his own words and stuffing himself. He cursed something under his breath, and Nana reminded him that there was a six-year old child at the table.

Tsuna just laughed, glad to be having fun with his two best friends and two-thirds of his family. Fuuta was having fun too; he and Yamamoto were making funny faces at each other.

Sorry that chapter 2 is so much shorter than chapter one- by a lot, but that's what the story dictates, so oh well~

I don't have much to say about this one, so I hope to see you next time, too.