Target 02 - Hit
Prompt: Tsuna faces a real assassination attempt for the first time.
Warning: Brief descriptions of gore and graphic violence
Setting: Namimori; a little over a year after The Curse of the Rainbow Arc
It happened on the second day of high school while Tsuna was on his way to meet Hayato and Takeshi in front of the school entrance.
The morning had started out like any other day. He'd been able to evade the majority of Reborn's Spartan wake up methods but in his haste of escape, stepped on his own foot and crashed down the stairs. Routine, really.
While jogging his usual twenty laps around the block, Tsuna breathed in and tilted his head back to look at the stars still remaining in the morning sky and allowed his lips to twitch upwards in semblance of a smile. Building up stamina really helped a long way in allowing himself to enjoy his daily exercise. While halfway through lap twelve, the air shifted and Tsuna felt a knot of discomfort settle in his chest. He instantly felt wary. Something like this had only happened once before and that was the day before everyone had been sent to the future. This feeling was a little different and Tsuna didn't like it. He slowed the pace of his jog and kept himself alert.
As he neared the corner of his home street, the knot of distorted into a sharp pang in his gut so poignant that Tsuna's body stopped mid-run in chilling paralysis. He recalled Reborn's earlier lesson about knowing when he was being watched by someone. The teen cast his senses around to locate any possible hostile presences. Finding nothing, he hesitantly continued walking home but the discomfort remained unsatisfied.
Once Tsuna's yard and house were in sight, the high schooler exhaled in relief a the familiar sight. The feeling in his stomach faded away but Tsuna decided to be extra cautious throughout the day. He definitely didn't want to get sent to an apocalyptic future again. He walked through the front door, kicked off his shoes and headed upstairs for a quick shower. The water droplets pelted against his back and whisked away the lingering ache of discomfort from before. Perhaps his paranoia had finally spiked out of control and he'd been imagining things? Afterward, Tsuna quickly dried off, slipped into his school uniform and met the rest of his family downstairs for breakfast.
"Ne, Reborn," he began. "Earlier, there was, well…" He trailed off, unsure of where he was taking the conversation. "I guess...is there anything going on around Namimori? Or something I should know about?" He kept his tone light, not wanting to cause the kids or Kaa-chan any unnecessary worry. For that matter, he wasn't sure he should be worried himself. The feeling was near non-existent now.
The seven-year-old hitman frowned and shot him a puzzled look. "Did something happen, Tsuna?"
Tsuna sighed and shook his head. "I-it's nothing. There's probably a surprise exam today." He didn't want to imagine what may have caused such a dark feeling. Maybe there'd been an accident and someone got injured? 'I hope my friends are all okay,' he thought.
Reborn's gaze lingered on Tsuna but he didn't comment any further. They all enjoyed a lovely breakfast cooked by Nana and the eager assistant, I-Pin. Tsuna hurried through his food, not wanting to be late to class.
He hurriedly stood up. "Thank you for the meal," he said while running upstairs to grab his school bag. Before heading out the door for the day, he paused and looked at his tutor, who was just finishing his own meal, unsure of whether he'd be accompanying Tsuna on his way to school or not.
Lately, Reborn had decided to stop following Tsuna so closely outside of school to force him to figure things out on his own. His student was depending on his guardians and home tutor to be the first responders too often.
Reborn looked at his student. "Go along, I'll join up with you soon."
Tsuna nodded and shut the door behind him. Walking to school by himself before he met up with his friends seemed to be the only time in the day when his life wasn't a chaotic mess and Tsuna basked in every second of it. The brunet soaked in the fresh morning atmosphere and welcoming sun rays. The majority of the walk to school was quiet and peaceful.
And then it wasn't. One last small breeze rolled over his body and the air stilled.
Suddenly, the feeling was back, twice as intense as before. Reaching into his back pocket, Tsuna pulled out his mittens and slipped them on. He focused his senses once again but could not pinpoint any causes of disturbance. His confusion heightened. He stood there in the middle of the sidewalk for a full minute. Why was his Hyper Intuition acting up? What was it trying to warn him? There seemed to be absolutely no reason for panic but he his breaths quickened and broke into a sprint towards the school regardless, hoping to reach his friends as soon as possible.
Tsuna continued running for another two minutes when the feeling of paranoia sharpened into a painful jab. His head was ringing wrong, Wrong, WRONG! He shoved some pills into his mouth and burst into Hyper Dying Will Mode, preparing for the attack. A slight tug. Right, his Intuition whispered. Tsuna leapt backwards, missing a miniscule needle by half an inch, no doubt dipped in poison, that flew past his face. He landed, spread his hands to shoot flames at his attacker—
–...?
There was nobody to target. Tsuna spun around. Still no one.
Down!
He dove forward. He felt, rather than saw or heard, something fly over his head, just barely grazing the top locks of his hair. Tsuna rolled out of the dive and immediately got into a defensive position. Orange tinted eyes narrowed. There was still no sign of his attacker or attackers' location. Locations? Focus. His senses hummed and buzzed crazily.
These guys, they really wanted to kill him.
It wasn't his first assassination attempt, but he'd never gone against someone as serious as this before. When would they show themselv–BEHIND! The presence was so instantaneous, even Tsuna's hyper reflexes had no time to react.
I can't move!
The masked attacker swung his knife up, aimed for the sweet spot between the teen's lungs. Before the blade could lower, his hand's momentum was promptly knocked off course by a yellow beam of light. It pierced through his flesh, ripped through the bones and muscles of his wrist, nearly decapitating his entire hand from his arm.
The man growled. The shock of his interrupted attack passed. Pain spread up through his whole appendage. Undeterred, he spun around using momentum to throw his leg up and smash against his target's body.
His foot stopped mid-air. A scowling child with inhuman strength, adorned in a black fedora and dark suit was blocking his foot with one hand. The grip tightened, crushing his bones.
"Ciaous," the child greeted, meeting his gaze with a deadly glint in his own. "Nobody's allowed to target this dame-student except me."
-o-
As established, Reborn left a few minutes after Tsuna rushed out the front door, secretly trailing behind his now only semi-dame student (not that he'd ever admit that to anyone, especially said student).
Tsuna's comment at breakfast immediately put him on edge. To date, there had been three assassination attempts on his student. The first attempt, made by Valensa and Toras, was a joke and terrible training opportunity at best. That time, Reborn hadn't worried about the threat of assassination. His only concern was the knowledge that Tsuna was already a marked target to other famiglia.
The second two, Tsuna didn't know about.
Reborn took care of the hitmen before they posed any serious threat to his teen student. He could have turned them into a lesson, but he'd been reluctant to. A legitimate assassination training was a one of those dangerous topics that could become tricky to handle. And Tsuna simply hadn't been ready. Defense against assassination opened the first of the three lessons he was most reluctant to teach a kid like Tsuna, who'd been raised as a sheltered civilian and was simply too good of a person for Reborn to taint like that.
As he trailed behind the future Vongola boss, a subtle feeling of dread settled in his stomach. Fate decided that today was the day he'd pay for delaying the first Hitman lesson. These guys were good. The neighboring civilians had even been taken care of, to ensure no accidental witnesses. It was only due to countless years of accumulated skill and experience that he was able to easily approximate the sources of aggression.
They hid their positions of attack and their killing intent aura incredibly well. Despite his earlier training with Tsuna to identify and locate masked presences, the former arcobaleno knew that his student wouldn't be skilled enough to successfully track these hunters.
Reborn dashed forward to catch up to the future Neo Vongola Primo. His granted time of delay was up. It'd only been a matter of when before assassination attempts, like the one that would no doubt occur in a few minutes, would happen. Dame-Tsuna was in immediate need of a lesson plan change as of yesterday.
He broke into a run, faster than a typical child's body should allow. He constructed a plan, picking out the group of assassins and calculating the character information of each individual. Number of targets: two, no. Three. That third member needed to be taken out immediately. Reborn saw Tsuna's sprinting come to a halt and his student activate his Hyper Dying Will. 'Excellent,' he thought. The hitman tutor dashed off of his original course. Tsuna's flames would buy Reborn a few extra seconds to reach that hidden third member and...
Good day, Mr. Sniper-san. Reborn silently appeared behind the gunman's prostrate body. His two small hands wrapped around the assassin's head, one covering the mouth and the other firmly planted among the roots of the hair. His hands sharply forced the head sideways and back at a twisted angle, with a hard Crack! and the sniper fell limp.
Reborn swiftly disabled the sniper gun. Seeing a switch knife in the sniper's back pocket, Reborn snatched it up and tucked it into his sleeve. Not wanting to waste even half a second, he took off after Tsuna. Reborn arrived just in time to see one of the hitmen appear behind his student. He charged his pistol with sun flames and shot the man's hand off course. Reborn switched his gun to his left hand and blocked the follow up kick with his right. He mentally profiled the man.
Age: mid 30's. Hair, eyes, and facial structure noted. Large stature. Ethnicity appeared to be Greek. Greek? Really? Attire, weaponry and current fighting style suggested primary close-range combatant. These guys weren't the type to any information concerning their employer. Interrogation would be useless.
Reborn tipped the brim of his fedora up and met the assassin's dead eyes. Unbeknownst to Tsuna, Reborn's aura was pouring with the darkest killer intent only seasoned hunters would be able to pick up.
"Ciaous, nobody's allowed to target this dame-student except me."
Reborn used his grip on the assassin's leg to throw his balance off. The man stumbled back. With a flick of the wrist, the knife Reborn had picked up, flew out and embedded deep into his victim's throat. Minimum blood splatter. A quicker clean up after this mess.
Reborn waited for the third. There was absolutely no indication of where or when the next attack would happen. Even the child hitman's gut instinct had some difficulty picking up the next guy's moves.
On the faintest whim, Reborn reflexively leapt up. His fingers shot out and caught a poisoned needle midair, two inches from Tsuna's forehead. Reborn, number one hitman in the world, was already using the needle's positioning, angle, and velocity to exact the final assassin's location whilst both the attacker and high school student were still processing that the hit attempt had been expertly intercepted.
Reborn's pinched fingers thrust the needle towards the ground. When his small feet landed, he pushed off, having already established his target's hiding spot. Of course, by the time Reborn reached his destination, the assassin had already vanished. Tsuna's home tutor promptly twisted around midair, readied his pistol and took aim. Following the same whim as he had before, he took a shot. The bullet zoomed past behind Tsuna and landed in the final hitman's shoulder, right as he suddenly appeared at the boy's back.
The man didn't have time to recover. Reborn was in front of him, breaking his fingers, which held two more poisoned needles. The assassin cried out in pain-laced fury. Recognizing the former sun arcobaleno, his skin paled. Their mission had failed, and he knew it.
"You're good," the suited child smirked. "But I'm Reborn." He cocked his pistol and shoved the muzzle into the assassin's gut, right above his small intestines. He pulled the trigger. "Chaous Burst: Irradiare." The assassin let out a yelp which pierced Namimori's still air but was abruptly cut off. A dozen rays of blinding sunlight ruptured through his body. Life faded from the man's eyes and he crumpled to the ground with a soft thud. Blood splattered the adjacent fence and collected into a pool beneath the corpse.
"Tch," Reborn scoffed. Unlike the first two, this one would be a pain to clean up. And the moron's blood had gone and ruined his suit too. It was a good thing Reborn was growing and in need of a new size anyway.
Tsuna's dying will flame extinguished; his heart was no doubt pounding with adrenaline and his mind still trying to comprehend what just happened. The entire attack had not even lasted two minutes.
Reborn still vividly recalled a similar incident, with Dino. He remembered the panic, horror and fear in the young boy's eyes when he saw his mentor standing in that blood-soaked room, among a scattered pile of bodies. It was bound to happen...the very real awareness from his student that he was a ruthless killer. Reborn couldn't have kept that from him forever. Hitmen weren't supposed to care about their missions. It caused too many problems. But Reborn had never been conventional. Becoming a teacher and investing so much time and effort into these young boys made it so hard not to. It took a little over a month for Dino to stop looking at him like that, and for things to go back to how they were. It was only when Dino stepped up the Cavallone boss and was placed in difficult situations that full understanding demolished any leftover wariness.
And now history was repeating itself.
For a minute, it was just them: the home tutor and his student. Namimori was still waking up and just beginning its day.
"R-Reborn, w-what just happened?"
Reborn's gaze snapped up to meet his student's face. The child hitman could see the eyes of the teen's pale face that he was in danger of going into shock. Seeing Dino's reaction prepped Reborn to face the young sky boss but for some reason, Tsuna's felt so much worse.
-o-
"Are you uninjured, Tsuna?"
Tsuna jumped at the unexpected inquiry. The fog settling in his head muddled his thoughts. The question seemed needless. Both Tsuna and Reborn could see he hadn't been physically harmed in any way during the whole fiasco, all thanks to the former arcobaleno. Miraculously, no blood had gotten on him or his uniform either.
"A-ah, I'm okay." He didn't think his answer convinced Reborn. The brunette was still shaken up. Suddenly, he had a terrifying thought. "The others! Takeshi! Hayato!"
"The target was you," Reborn interrupted. "These three are the only hitmen, who did not ally with the Vongola, in Namimori this week." He paused for a moment. "Are you certain you're alright?"
There was a lump in Tsuna's throat, but he nodded. He still didn't think he was fooling his home tutor. Regardless, Reborn nodded and thought for a bit. "In that case, I'm going to clean up this mess. You should still go to school. Your guardians are waiting for you and I don't sense any other attacks happening today."
"O-oh, okay." Tsuna gripped the straps of his school bag tightly. A small splatter of blood had landed on Reborn's cheek and it slowly trailed down his face. Tsuna's stomach clenched. He couldn't force himself to turn away. Go to school? After this? His stomach lurched, and he felt like he was going to be sick. He managed to take a few steps backwards and then stopped.
There was a slight tremor in his hand when reached into his pocket to take out his phone and dial Hayato.
"Good morning, Juudaime!"
"Hayato-kun," greeted Tsuna. "...I…" He found himself unable to tear his gaze away from that one trail of blood on his tutor's cheek. "S-something's come up...and I won't be arriving to school today."
"JUUDAIME!"
"I'm okay!" he quickly reassured. His voice steadied. "I'll explain after school. Ah, I hope Kyoya-sempai doesn't bite me to death later. I'm just calling so that you won't worry and come looking for me."
"Tsuna-sama! Are you alright? Did something happen? Have you already left your house? Where are you? I'll be right there–"
"No! Don't!" he exclaimed, cutting off his best friend. "Reborn...ano, Reborn's taken care of the problem. I will see you all later and explain. Please, don't worry and go to class with everyone else. If you come to see me, Takeshi will insist on following and Onii-san and Kyoko-chan will want to be informed, and then Chrome, Shoichi-kun and Spanner-san will want to investigate...and then Hibari-san will arrive to bite us all to death for skipping...it's better if you stay there. Reborn's with me. I'll see you after school, I promise."
"As annoying as they are, we're all happy to skip and come over!"
"No, Gokudera-kun!"
"But Juudaime–"
"Please, Hayato!" His voice wavered. "There's just something I need to...figure out with Reborn and on my own right now, without everyone here." There must have been some audible desperation in his voice because the silver-haired teen grew uncharacteristically quiet. He could imagine that Gokudera-kun was gritting his teeth.
"Damn it, I'm coming over immediately after the bell rings."
"Okay," Tsuna conceded. I'll try and be ready to answer your questions."
"...fine," Gokudera-kun relented.
"Thank you," sighed Tsuna in relief. "I'll see you later."
"Be safe, Tsuna."
Tsuna hung up and turned back to Reborn, who was frowning. "You're skipping school."
The teen walked up to his hitman and knelt, so he was at eye level with the (not really) kid. Hesitating for just a second, he used a thumb to wipe away the blood that was still slowly trailing down the seven-year old's face. He didn't like seeing that kind of red on his family.
He retrieved his hand and looked the crimson liquid now on his hand. The shock was wearing off and as his senses returned to him, he found the smell the scene nauseating.
"Tsuna, what are you doing?" Reborn had an odd look in his dark eyes. His voice was laced with a hard tone but he let Tsuna do…(whatever he was doing?)...anyway.
"I won't be able to concentrate in class,"Tsuna began. "And if it's not too much trouble, could I...stay with you?" His voice cracked and involuntarily shrunk to a whisper at the last of the question. He cleared his throat, embarrassed. "I...I could h-help. I'm sure the...the b-bodies will be less hassle if the two of us worked together. So…" Tsuna trailed off, unsure he'd made the right call.
Incredulity briefly flashed across Reborn's features. He read his student one more time. Tsuna was wary and horrified. He was most definitely terrified out of his mind, but those feelings seemed to be directed more so at the current situation than at him, as a killer. This kid, he really was an all-encompassing sky.
Tsuna fidgeted. "I just...I don't think I can…" leave. I can't brush this off. I don't like leaving you here to deal the aftermath of this with this while I attend a stupid class in school like nothing happened. Please, help me deal with this?
He didn't finish his sentence, at least, not out loud. He wasn't alright. Reborn, the intuitive mind reader seemed to hear what couldn't voice and sighed.
"This can be your lesson today. Usually, I'd have someone else take care of the mess but unfortunately, Shamal and Bianchi are out of town and people will be passing by soon. We don't have any more time to waste. A boss should be aware of everything that happens before and after a hit." Leon glowed and transformed into a large bag. "Get the first man and put him in the Leon-bag, fast. I'll be right back."
Thankful to have simple orders to follow, Tsuna took the bag and hurried over to the first attacker who had a blade embedded in his throat. The teen crouched down to pick the man up. He was probably nearly three times Tsuna's own weight. Thankfully, almost three years of Reborn-driven spartan training gave him the strength to heave the large assassin into the Leon-bag with minimal struggle. He blinked as he thought about his current situation. Him. Stuffing an actual body into a bag to disposed. How was this his life?! Did people like Reborn do this all the time? He shuddered. He didn't want to dwell on that thought.
Reborn returned, hauling a third man on his back and carrying a sniper gun. Tsuna blanched. A sniper? Hiiee! He hadn't sensed him at all. He obviously had more training to go through or he wouldn't make it through a single day as Decimo (or Neo Primo, or don Vongola, whatever they called it nowadays!).
He created a wide opening so that Reborn could easily toss the sniper into the bag as well. The third body, well, when Tsuna approached it, he choked back a gag. It was a huge mess of mangled flesh, blood, guts and other bodily fluids he didn't even know existed. Reborn took care of that one. Tsuna didn't envy Leon one bit. The shape-shifting chameleon was glowing with some sort of protective layer around it.
Apparently, the Leon-bag was bigger on the inside than its outside appearance would suggest because they managed to fit all three carcasses into the sack and close it. Tsuna didn't really question much things like broken physics laws anymore.
Reborn pointed out a route they would take that would lead out of Namimori and into the woods. Reborn reached into a pocket and sprinkled something over the bloodstains on the sidewalk, road, and fence. The red marks immediately began to fade.
"They'll be long gone by the time we get back," Reborn said. He turned, dragging the bag with unnatural strength and Tsuna numbly trailed behind. Once in the woods, Reborn kept walking and led them to an isolated clearing. With Reborn calmly directing Tsuna through each step, the whole process went by rather smoothly, in Tsuna's opinion. They dug a small pit (Tsuna didn't ask where in the world Reborn even got the shovels from) and dumped the bodies in a pile.
Reborn pulled out a container and sprinkled the liquid it held over the three men. The bodies started sizzling and disintegrating. Soon, the teen could see that the substance was eating away through the flesh, leaving behind dry ash. He sweatdropped. (Hiiieee!? Reborn was carrying something dangerous like THAT around in his pocket all this time? Scary!)
"Why didn't we use that stuff before coming all the way out here?" Tsuna asked.
"It'll take time to work through everything and someone would have stumbled across the scene," answered Reborn.
Oh. And that was that.
The tutor was right; Tsuna estimated it took over twenty minutes until they were left with a pile of disintegrated and charred...something...and ash. Tsuna and Reborn set to work filling the pit back up. They worked quickly, neither willing to start up conversation. When all was done and finished, Tsuna stood there, looking at the ground where he had just helped bury three people. There was no evidence. Again, how was this his life?
"Do you think they had families?"
Reborn patted the once again even ground with his foot. "Maybe. Don't make any of this personal. To them, it was just another job. To you, it's another day survived. Such is the life in the mafia."
"I'm not going to be a mafia boss."
"Whatever the case, as the next in line to be the next Vongola leader, you don't have a choice. You're already involved in the world."
Tsuna frowned in frustration. That was the truth and he didn't like it. "Where did they come from?"
"Not sure. I'm going to call Nono as soon as we're done here and look further into who sent them."
The brunette thought about the entire morning's events. He'd been targeted for assassination. It wasn't the first time but this was way different from the one before. Someone, somewhere, really wanted him dead. If they'd succeeded, he wouldn't be at school, returning home to his siblings or Kaa-chan... seeing his friends again...if it Reborn hadn't rescued him..."
Tsuna's legs gave out underneath him. "I-I was helpless," he bit out. "Even with the Intuition and my flames, I couldn't do anything. I was useless, dame."
Reborn tilted his head. "Well, all things considered, you managed to dodge the poisoned blades, before I arrived so that somewhat contributed to your survival."
Tsuna's facial features scrunched up. He wasn't sure how to interpret that. Was Reborn was attempting to make him feel better about this? His hitman tutor, as always, remained unreadable.
"But you're right. You were completely pathetic. Starting tomorrow morning, you're going to run five laps around Namimori in preparation for the next lesson I've got for you. As for tonight, Gokudera and Yamamoto are going to catch you up on all of the school work you're missing right now."
All color drained from Tsuna's face. "H-haiii…"
Reborn kept his true thoughts to himself. Tsuna had been far outclassed and that was on Reborn's shoulders. Going against the Varia, Millefiore and Vindice provided the future boss with a fighting experience that didn't fully cover defending from ambush assassinations like this one. They were different styles. Tsuna needed this push.
Previously, Tsuna's strength and drive was only drawn from his desire to protect his friends and family. Now, a new flame was born; Reborn could see it in his student's eyes. Tsuna wanted to get stronger, for himself. He wanted to live another day to see his family again. He could work with that. They would be diving into the first of his three most hated and feared lessons within the next twenty-four hours. Tsuna was going to need his rest.
He wordlessly offered his hand to his favorite student (Dino would never know) who was still kneeling on the ground. Tsuna blinked in surprise and accepted it. He pulled the high schooler back up onto his feet.
The (not really) seven-year-old tipped the brim of his fedora down. "Hm, you still have a long way to go, dame-Tsuna; as your tutor, it's my job to ensure you make it to your next lesson. I'm determined to make you live up to your potential as the Neo Vongola Primo."
I'm going to make sure you survive and come out on top.
Tsuna fixed his large brown eyes on his teacher and let himself latch onto that promise.
"Na, thank you, Reborn."
The teen followed his hitman tutor out of the woods wordlessly. The sun in the sky seemed to simultaneously shine a little darker and a little brighter than it ever had before.
Alternate Ending:
"Na," Tsuna murmured. "Thank you for saving me, Reborn."
"Hmph, it's my job as your tutor to ensure you make it to your next lesson, dame-Tsuna."
Tsuna smiled, in spite of himself. "Still, it was...it was terrifying to be in that situation, where it was them or me. I feel a little safer knowing you're around."
The (not really) seven-year-old tipped the brim of his fedora down, subtly masking his surprise. He lifted his leg and kicked Tsuna in the back, smashing him to the ground.
"Hiiee–tata! Reborn, what was that for!?"
"Don't be sappy, dame-Tsuna. This Target chapter has had enough ellipses and potential drama chick flick moments to last through an entire arc. We're not in a romance. The readers are going suffer from my out-of-character-ness."
"Ellipses...? Hiiii, what romance? Out-of-? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"
"You've gotten soft. A boss keeps his true emotions and thoughts in check."
"I-w-bos-what?"
Reborn didn't deem that response worthy of further explanation and he turned around, heading back to town. His student, confusedly trailing right behind him.
Author's Notes, Part 1: Yes, Reborn can momentarily break the fourth wall when the situation calls for it. It's been years since I've written anything and actually posted on or AO3 and I can't believe I've actually taken this project on. My writing style has changed, and I welcome and appreciate any reviews and constructive criticism because I can always improve!
Part 2: As a fanfiction reader, how I imagined other good fanfiction writers write their stories: somehow have actual free time to think of, maybe outline, write out, and edit their chapter ideas in that exact consecutive order.
How I find myself writing my fanfiction: about 30 different plot bunnies in my head, 6 moderately outlined and scattered in different places, 3 mostly completed one-shots but suffering in writer's block or not ready to be posted yet, 5 different story arcs outlined vaguely in my head but too long of projects for me to start tackling right now; several small blurbs that kind of wrote themselves and I don't know what to do with them now because the rest of the scenes aren't writing themselves...and absolutely no time dedicated to give my full attention to any of these because...life.
If you were look at my profile, you'd see that the last time I wrote something and posted it was back in 2012. Yeah. There's a reason for that. I'm just not at a place in my life where I can offer regular updates over a long period of time. And I probably won't reach that point until I'm completely done with school. I'd feel bad for starting something and then abandoning it because I don't have the time or motivation to finish which is something I've already done multiple times. This is why I've always held back as far as writing and publishing fanfiction stories myself. That being said, why in the world have I started posting this?
Fortunately (for you my dear readers) and unfortunately (for my sanity and school grades), some of these fic ideas just won't leave me alone so I end up losing time and sleep just jotting them down until suddenly, I have something I can post on A03 and with just a bit of editing. I decided to stop holding myself back and just post the first chapter of Mangos and Oranges as an experiment because in case this takes off and becomes well liked, I can handle one-shots. I don't have to drown myself with guilt for leaving y'all on a cliffhanger after each update!
Side Mentioning: Also, I'm planning on re-watching the anime and re-reading the manga because (besides the wikia page and occasional youtube videos) it's been years since I've seen any actual canon material. I like to make characterizations as accurate as possible (or at the very least, completely plausible) but until I can get around to that time-consuming task, you're just left with whatever my memory has to offer.