Chapter 3: The Date

No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.

-Julius Caesar

Reborn waited patiently in front of the fountain. It was almost sunset and bright streaks of orange had begun to penetrate the blue sky. He was dressed to the nines in a slim fitting suit, which did little to hide his toned body. With his hair slicked back, Reborn knew that he was the very definition of Sicilian charm. In his peripheral vision, Reborn could see two girls taking sneaking glances at him and giggling.

Little idiots.

Reborn looked down at his old fashioned watch bemusedly. His date was running late, but he wasn't that surprised. The short brunette beauty seemed to be a force of chaos.

From the corner of his eye, he saw her hurriedly approach the fountain.

"Plea-se excuse my lateness." his beautiful date huffed out, almost out of breath. Her face was flushed a rosy pink color and the shirt dress she was wearing complemented her slight figure well. It was a shame that her legs were covered in leggings though.

He took her trembling hand and kissed it delicately.

Tsuna squeaked out a sudden "hie" and flushed even more in embarrassment at the sudden intimacy.

"I hope you don't mind my forwardness, but you look very beautiful tonight, Tsuna-san."

Tsuna did not know what to say to that, but eventually stuttered out a response. "You lo-ok nice to-o, Renato-san."

Reborn was pleased at his date's receptiveness to his attention. "Please follow me. I've booked a table at an Italian cafe nearby," he said assertively. "Have you ever had Italian food before?"

"No, I haven't," Tsuna said shyly.

Reborn smiled at him with an almost hungry look in his eyes. "Well, I'm glad that I'll be your first introduction."

"This spaghetti is really good," Tsuna said as he twirled the pasta around his fork. It was weird eating noodles without chopsticks, but Renato had patiently instructed him on eating pasta the Sicilian way.

"I am glad you think so, but my Mama's spaghetti is even better. Maybe we can visit her together one day?"

Tsuna choked on his food at Reborn's eagerness.

He coughed.

How should he respond to an invitation like that?

"That's very kind of you, Renato-san, but...I..." he weakly trailed off.

"I know that I am being very intense," Reborn said in reassurance. "But I've never felt this way before. There's just something special about you that I can't put my finger on."

When did Renato get so close, Tsuna thought.

His face inched closer and closer to Tsuna's.

Tsuna closed his eyes in expectation. A rough hand gently cupped his face.

"Reborn!" A voice screamed at them.

The hand moved away and Tsuna opened his eyes, the moment ruined. He was shocked to feel disappointment.

Did he want to be kissed by Renato?

Reborn stared darkly at the young boy who had screamed out his real name and dared to interrupt his date. The boy was short and for some odd reason, was wearing a cow print jumpsuit. But most importantly, he was going to die.

"Who is Reborn?" Tsuna asked confused.

"Please excuse me, while I take care of this matter," Reborn said tightly. He got up and speaking in sharp Italian got the boy to follow him.

What was going on?

Tsuna decided to check his phone, while he waited for an explanation from Renato.

Kyoko had texted him, How is your date going?

How should he answer that? Maybe he would say, Kyoko, I think he almost kissed me and it's crazy, but I might have wanted him to.

Or maybe he shouldn't even mention that. It seemed too personal to share.

He scrolled through the group chat. Haru had sent him, Is he cute? Are you going to kiss on the first date? We need all the details. Share!

He decided to be brief in his message to them: Date's going okay. Will talk later.

It's not like he could say, I think Renato's funny and thoughtful and interesting. But our date just got interrupted by a boy in a cow print onesie and I think Renato's got a secret, over the phone. If he did that, Kyoko and Haru would be waiting at his house for an explanation.

"And then what happened?" Kyoko asked.

Tsuna's stomach grumbled. Kyoko and Haru had ambushed him while he was getting lunch at the college cafeteria and he hadn't gotten a chance to eat a single bite due to their interrogation.

"Renato came back, but he was very vague about the boy. He said that the boy was the son of one of his business associates who was having an emergency."

"Hahi! And then?" Haru said. She had a dreamy look on her eyes.

Tsuna did not want to know what she was imagining.

"We got dessert and walked around the plaza. Then, I went home after getting a text from Mom. She needed help with something."

"Bo-ring! You should have kissed in front of the fountain. It would have been super romantic!"

Too late, he thought.

"Does Mama Sawada even know that you went on a date?" Kyoko asked ignoring Haru's commentary.

"Well yeah, I don't keep secrets from my Mom. Turns out we have the same shoe size and she's okay with the whole cross dressing thing."

It was too quiet.

Tsuna stared at Kyoko and Haru who had a speculative look in their eyes.

"Not that I would want to do it again, of course," he hurriedly said.

"So are you going on another date with him?"

Tsuna stalled. He felt lucky that they were interrupted by a girl with long wavy hair.

"With who? Since when was Tsuna going out on dates with guys?" Hana asked confused. "Sorry, I've been out of the loop, but that stupid law test was killing me."

While Kyoko and Haru caught her up, Tsuna took the chance to finally eat his lunch. He sighed in contentment, nobody made rice balls like his mother.

Hana started laughing as they finished their explanations. She summarized the unexpected chain of events, "So long story short, you both got Tsuna of all people to dress up as a girl, which turned into him ending up on a date with a man." She continued with disbelief, "I've only been gone for two weeks and whole world went crazy. So what now, Tsuna?"

Shit, he knew the peace couldn't last forever, but a little longer would have been amazing.

He sidestepped the question a little. "Renato said he had some business he needed to take care of and that he would contact me later this week about another date."

"And do you want to go on another date with him?"

Why did he have such persistent friends? He mournfully popped his last rice ball into his mouth, attempting to stall for more time.

"I am not sure yet," he finally said. "Renato's nice and all, but the whole thing started from a lie. He thinks that I'm a girl. It feels like the whole mess will blow up in my face. What if he finds out I'm a man?"

"Don't give up hope, Tsuna!" Haru said.

"Good. You're taking this more seriously than I thought you would," Hana said with approval.

Kyoko took his hand comfortingly and said, "I think that if Renato is really serious about you, it won't matter that you're a man. But if it doesn't work out, we'll be here for you." She looked at the other two girls who agreed with her.

"I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens."