Title: Normal Is Overrated

Author: TripOverFlatSurfaces

Rating: T

Summary: Good, normal days never meant well. Ever. That was basically the logic by which his everyday life functioned.

Warnings: Language. No major spoilers.

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! as it is the property of Akira Amano.

Thanks to those who reviewed: Clams-and-Rainbows

Tsuna swept his gaze across the room to find Nana, trying to ignore the whispers and stares. When he caught her eye, she gave him a discreet thumbs-up and Tsuna smiled weakly in response. He appreciated the gesture, but the light-headed, nervous feeling that roiled in his belly continued to persist. He had not been in this situation since kindergarten, and that was only a hazy memory. 'Can't the teacher just hurry up and get this over with?' The scratchy newness of his uniform's fabric was starting to itch.

"Alright class, we have a new student joining us today," the teacher, Kichida-sensei, announced. "Sawada, introduce yourself."

Tsuna bowed. "I-I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, and I'll be a student in this class from now on. Please take care of me."

"Thank you. You can sit by…" the teacher scrutinized the seating chart, "Ah, here it is. You can sit beside Takahashi Iemitsu." Silence answered the call.

Tsuna blinked. 'Takahashi? Isn't that Nana's family name as well?' he thought as the teacher called for the person again.

"Takahashi Iemitsu." Still no one answered. Narrowing her eyes, Kichida-sensei zeroed in on three boys sitting in the back, "Ito, Urakawa, Sarutobi!" she snapped, "Where's Takahashi?" The three shifted uneasily. "Well?"

After some nudging and a bout furious whispering ('You tell her!' 'No, you tell her!'), one finally spoke up. "Dunno, Teach. We," at this the boy looked at his companions for support and they nodded vigorously, "haven't seen 'Mitsu since yesterday afternoon."

Kichida-sensei sighed and her hand reached up to massage her forehead, muttering all the while about unruly students and attendance records. In a long suffering tone, she asked loudly, "Does anyone know where he is?" The students glanced at each other, trading questioning looks and coming up blank. The teacher tsked and turned to give Tsuna with a faintly irritated expression. "As your classmate is currently unable to show you where his seat is… I suppose I'll have to do it. Third row from the door, five seats down, Sawada. And hurry up, we've wasted enough time."

Tsuna blanched at the threatening expression on her face and half-ran, half-tripped his way to his designated seat. Some of the people around him snickered but one glare from Kichida-sensei cowed them. She selected a piece of white chalk and scribbled an equation on the blackboard. "We will be starting with math today." The woman turned to face the class and tapped her chalk on the board.

"Now this equation here is used to―"

"SORRY, I'M LATE!"

The classroom door slid open with a crash, causing Tsuna to jump in his seat. A boy with wild blond hair stood at the door, panting and gasping for breath. The chalk in Kichida-sensei's hand snapped in half. At the sound, the boy looked up and grinned. "Yo, Sensei! I managed to beat my time and get here two minutes earlier―itte!" The rest of the chalk impacted with his forehead and bounced off. "Ow, what was that for?" the boy complained, rubbing at the red spot on his forehead.

"Takahashi Iemitsu…YOU IDIOT!" Kichida-sensei roared. "How dare you just come in here all willy-nilly like nothing's wrong! Who do you think you are?! You'll never graduate at this rate…!" Iemitsu rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as the rant continued on.

Tsuna stared with wide eyes. 'What just happened…?' The girl next to him seemed to take pity on him and leaned over. "You're new, so you don't know, but this happens every day. You'll get used to it eventually," she whispered to him. True to her word, no one had reacted to the dramatic entrance, though a few had winced when Kichida-sensei started yelling.

"Every day?" he asked in disbelief. The girl only patted his shoulder sympathetically and returned to watching the scene at the front of the room.

After a good five or so minutes, the teacher finally reined in her temper and simply pointed to the empty seat on Tsuna's other side and told Iemitsu to sit down. She turned back to the board and chose a new piece of chalk. "Now where was I, before someone interrupted me? Oh, yes… Once again, this equation is used to…"

~o~o~o~o~o~

Tsuna slid down his seat in relief as the bell signaling the start of lunch break rang. "Kichida-sensei is really terrifying…"he mumbled to his desk. Looking around, everybody around him had already left; Iemitsu and his friends had run out the moment Kichida-sensei had dismissed the class, and the girl that sat beside him had gone to talk to her friends. He took out the bento that Oeda-san―oops, Obaa-san― had kindly made for him from his bag. He regarded the colorfully patterned cloth. "I guess I should go find Nana-chan?" he asked it, standing up.

He made his way across the room to Nana's desk, which was the one closest to the window. She was by herself and staring intently at something outside and did not notice when he approached. Tsuna craned his head to try to see what had her so interested. "What are you looking at?" Nana turned her head so suddenly that Tsuna barely had time to dodge the braid that would have whipped him across the face.

"Hiiee…"

"Tsuna-kun?" she said. "When did you get here?"

Tsuna sweatdropped. "Just now." He set down his bento on her desk and moved closer to the window to get a better look. "So what were you looking at, Nana-chan?"

Nana blushed lightly. "Ah, well…"

"Hey, isn't that Takahashi Iemitsu?" And it was. The boy and his friends were goofing around outside underneath one of the schoolyard trees. Nana's blush deepened a shade. Tsuna wondered if the room temperature was too hot for her. He certainly felt fine. "Speaking of him, are you two related to each other?"

"Related?"

"Well," Tsuna scratched his cheek, "it's just that both of you have the same family name, so I was curious…" At her blank look, Tsuna waved his hands in front of him frantically, wondering if he had offended her. "But then again, a lot of people can have the same family name if it's common enough!"

Nana's face returned to the expression of good humor that was more familiar to Tsuna since he met her five days ago. Tsuna noticed that her color was back to normal too. "Oh no, we're not related. Just as you said, we only share the same family name." She unwrapped the cloth covering her lunchbox and removed the lid. "Is it okay if we simply eat in the classroom?" She poked at his bento. "Since both our lunches are already here."

Tsuna sat down across from her, taking his bento with him. "Sure, why not?" he said as he started to untie the knot in the cloth. "But wouldn't you rather sit with your friends instead of me?"

Nana stiffened, and then forcibly relaxed herself. She prodded at her food with her chopsticks, determinedly not looking at Tsuna. "I don't really have any."

"Oh," Tsuna said. "That's not true." At Nana's quizzical expression, he elaborated. "We're friends, aren't we? So you have one." He smiled brightly.

"Thank you, Tsuna-kun." Smiling, the two returned to eating and the bell marking the end of break rang soon enough. Class resumed under Kichida-sensei's strict teaching. Excluding a few incidents (in which an eraser was thrown and landed with a poof of chalk dust on a certain blond boy's head―"How dare you sleep in my class! OUT IN THE HALL!"―and the teacher promptly became a demon in human form), school ended with everyone in one piece.

"Stand. Bow. Everyone, dismissed!" The room was filled with chatter as various people made plans for the afternoon or complained about homework. The teacher had long left for the teachers' lounge, and many others were filing out the door. Tsuna double-checked his bag to confirm he hadn't left anything important. 'It wouldn't do any good to start out on the wrong foot as Dame-Tsuna, especially with a teacher as scary Kichida-sensei.' He shuddered a bit as he thought about the consequences.

"Ready to go?" Nana was already packed and waiting, so Tsuna checked one more time (just to be sure) and hurried after her. The hallway was already empty save for a few stragglers and afterschool clubs, since most of the students had fled as the bell rang. Nana and Tsuna went to their shoe lockers and exchanged the indoor shoes for the outdoor ones. Tsuna's locker squeaked as he closed it.

Nana stretched her arms above her head as they headed outside. "Uwah, finally over!" She turned to Tsuna. "So how did you find your first day?"

"It was alright―HIEEE!" Tsuna crashed into the ground as something hard slammed into his back. Dazed, he stared blurrily at the road. 'Oh, hello,' he thought, 'I thought I managed to avoid you today.' He pushed himself up in time to hear the apology being thrown his way―"Sorry!"―as a familiar blond head raced away. Standing up, Tsuna patted down his uniform and picked up his bag that he had dropped when he fell/was pushed/etc.

"Tsuna-kun! Are you okay?" Nana brushed off some dirt he had missed from his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just… What was that about?" He asked as he turned to look at the disappearing back of his classmate, trying to flatten down his hair that had only gotten more mussed with his fall.

Nana pursed her lips. "No idea…"

~o~o~o~o~o~

Iemitsu lingered in front of the apartment door, bouncing on the balls of his feet, and wondered if he should reach for the key in his pocket or not. In the end, he decided not to and simply turned the door handle. As he had come to expect, it turned easily enough and he quickly stepped inside. He toed off his shoes, automatically leaning down to straighten them. He dropped his bag on the kitchen table and walked into the living room.

"I'm home." It was dark and as he clicked on the lights, the first that hit his senses was the acrid smell of alcohol. Three cheap wine bottles littered the space in front of the couch and the fourth was being clutched by his mother as she half-sat, half-lay on the cushions.

She smiled brilliantly at him. "Welcome home! My darling boy…" She stood to greet him and swayed precariously on her feet. Iemitsu rushed to steady her and guided her back to the couch, all while gently easing the bottle out of her hands. She protested weakly, as she always did, but allowed him to set it on the coffee table out of her reach.

"Okaa-san, I think you've had enough for today."

"You think so?" His mother giggled drunkenly. She reached up and looped her arms around his neck to pull him down to sit beside her. "My darling, darling boy, how was school? Was today a very bad day?" she asked as she smoothed a thumb over the furrow in his brow. Iemitsu immediately smoothed out his expression and gave her a smile.

"Actually, I managed to get there two minutes earlier than yesterday! Sensei only yelled half as long as she usually did." He cheerfully recounted the day's events to her. "Oh, and we got a new kid today. Sawada-something-or-other, I think."

"Sawada?" His mother tapped a painted nail against her lip. "That's my maiden name you know.

"Eh, really?" Iemitsu's eyebrows shot up.

"Yep, Sawada. Takahashi Miyako, neé Sawada." She giggled again, nearly falling over before Iemitsu pulled her back. "What a coincidence!"

He laughed with her. "Ha, what are the chances?"

Still giggling, his mother leaned against his shoulder, strands of hair falling across her face. "I'm tired now," she told him. Iemitsu stood and gallantly offered her his hand, even making a mock bow. She accepted his hand and laughed so much as he pulled her up that tears came to her eyes. He led her to her bedroom and made her drink a glass of water before helping her crawl into bed. She closed her eyes. With her long blond hair, which he had inherited as she liked to tell him often, spread across the pillow, Iemitsu was reminded, not for the first time, of the angels he had seen in a painting once.

Thinking his mother had fallen asleep, Iemitsu crept towards the door. "Iemitsu." Hearing his mother's voice, he paused in the doorway. "If your father calls, you'll let me know, won't you? I've been waiting all day." She sounded petulant. "He said he would. He promised last time."

Iemitsu stretched his lips into another smile, even though his back was turned and his mother could not see. It had become a habit anyway. "Don't worry," he chirped, "I will." He eased the door closed behind him and strode back to the front door, throwing a glare at the telephone as he went past. It was useless, but he hoped that bastard could feel it.

"As if he'd call," he grumbled and jammed his feet back into his shoes. He opened the front door and went outside, making sure to lock it this time. Shaking his head to clear away the bad thoughts, Iemitsu stretched in a way reminiscent of a lazy cat and sighed in relief as joints popped. He had a part-time job to get to.

Whoosh! I hope your necks are okay, but even I didn't expect that big of a mood whiplash. Whew. My tendency for angst is starting to slither its way in. Sneaky little bugger. I suppose the next mood whiplash would be the omake? It will end in this chapter as I'm already getting bored of it. :D Please review!

OMAKE START!

Last time:

The boy had no choice but to continue fighting. "Fine then, if that's the way you're going to be…DOUBLE BO—" His attack was stopped though, by a mysterious force. The fearsome prefect paused from their fight as well. The boy turned and saw…

…the tiny―excuse me, I misspoke―the greatest hitman in the world, Reborn!

"R-Reborn-san!"

"Hmph." Dissatisfied that the fight came to an end, the fearsome prefect left to go hunt other prey.

"Ciaossu."

The boy bowed with extreme respect ("TO THE EXTREME!" a boxer named Ryohei shouted somewhere off in the distance). Perhaps the greatest hitman in the world would know where his beloved friend was? "Reborn-san! Is Juudaime with you?"

The greatest hitman in the world cocked his gun. "That useless student of mine was hit by the Ten-Year Bazooka."

The boy was shocked. "The Ten-Year Bazooka? Does that mean Juudaime is stuck in the future again?"

The hitman pouted. "No, the stupid cow spilled juice on it so the bazooka malfunctioned. We don't know where Dame-Tsuna could be."

At this, the boy's face darkened and lightning flashed ominously in the background. "That stupid cow did…? That's it." He drew out his bombs. "I'll kill him."

And so the stupid cow Lambo was once again vanquished from the peaceful town of Namimori. The boy's beloved friend, however, did not come back until the story properly ended.

THE END.

(I love Lambo, I promise that I do…!)