Omake ONE
Tsuna was not quite sure when he first noticed Tachibana Suzume as she had a habit of remaining ensconced in the background. He remembered glimpsing what he now knew to be permanent bed-hair at the school entrance ceremony; later on, he would also see it – coupled with her somewhat rumpled uniform – in the hallways between lessons and during joint PE classes.
Since he was mostly left alone by fellow classmates, apart from the occasional bully, Tsuna had spent that first lunchbreak, and all consecutive ones, miserable and lonely. It had been whilst eating the delicious bento his mother had made in the safety of the classroom at his own bench that he'd absently noticed that certain bed-hair walking past in the hallway, distractedly thinking her own classroom must be close-by.
Later on that first day, Tsuna would see the same girl again as he was walking home in a deplorable mood, shoulders hunched and eyes teary after a particularly mean-spirited bully had upended his schoolbag out of a window. Having taken longer than most other students, he'd been a bit surprised when seeing the same uniform only a few steps ahead. Yet, as soon as he'd noticed, the girl had started walking faster leaving him even further behind.
Glumly ignoring the slight pain in his chest, Tsuna continued his slow shuffle home, eyes on the ground and mood severely low.
Over the months he'd glimpse her again and again, always part of the background of his general life though she seemed to be making an effort in avoiding him which somewhat hurt, truth be told – while he did not know her personally, and perhaps did not really care to, she was one of the few who never went out of her way to bully or tease him.
No, instead she did the complete opposite and avoided him like he had the plague. Thankfully, he'd noticed that she did the same with Yamamoto, though why he didn't know as the other boy was popular with nearly the entire school.
Still he didn't quite know what to make of her.
Today had been a bad day for him. It had started with him being late, which had lead him to being chased into school by what seemed to be a particularly demonic Hibari, managing to get away with only bruises and no broken bones or concussion (that had happened once. He did not want to repeat it). Then he'd realised he hadn't done the homework assigned for three different lessons, forgotten his lunch, and then been hit repeatedly with a volleyball during PE (that concussion? So happening now).
And then, as he'd been leaving after having suffered through a horrible, horrible day, he'd been caught by a few third years that obviously were looking for some entertainment in the form of hassling him. Whilst being dragged towards the back of the building by his seniors, he lamented the fact that he was such an easy target for bullies. Was it the fluffy hair? Did his forehead have "please bully me" written in marker on it? So maybe he was a dreadful student in every subject, and clumsy, and kind of wimpy, and afraid of many things, and he did have that weird shriek that came out whenever startled… Ok, so perhaps he was prime material for bullies then. Still not fun.
Feeling his back hit a rough brick wall, Tsuna startled out of his reverie and looked up at the menacing figures surrounding him and smirking down at him. Closing his eyes, he mentally prepared himself for the coming pain. They'd started off only verbally heckling him, which was good for him, and lightly pushing him about, which was not as good as it meant escalation was due soon. A small noise above them captured his attention and he looked up, only to see that familiar bed-head disappear from the window the girl must have been looking at them from.
His loss of attention towards his bullies apparently annoyed them as the next thing he knew he was on the ground, dizzy and slightly disappointed the girl had just left him there.
Well that had been a pleasant surprise; two of the dreaded school prefects had showed up and quickly taken control of the situation he'd landed himself in, taking the names of each third year as a warning that they'd be watched in case of more incidents like this one, shooing them off and helping Tsuna get his things and himself in order, as well as walking him to the school entrance.
Baffled, Tsuna had only haplessly followed the instructions given to him, surprised that the Disciplinary Committee was actually doing its job as they mostly just beat up late-comers and rule-breakers, Hibari being a perfect example of power not used responsibly as he went about terrorising Namimori residents daily.
In any case, seeing the usually violent prefects act like perfect law-abiding citizens was a shock. Still quite confused at what had happened, he had to ask before leaving school grounds, "Why… Why did you help me? Not that I'm not grateful, of course…"
The two boys looked at him, same pompadour hairstyles and black uniform making them look like particularly frightening siblings. The taller one, who looked to be in charge, was the one to answer.
"A student requested we help you after seeing the altercation between you and those third years."
Well if that wasn't a polite way of saying 'mercilessly bullied'.
Tsuna cocked his head to the side, enquiring "Short girl with bed hair and rumpled uniform?"
"That's correct. Ah, and thank you for reminding me that I need to speak with her about her uniform, it's quite unsightly."
Whoops. He had not meant to do that.
He'd made a big effort of getting up early that morning, actually having time to eat a proper breakfast for once. His mother had been very happy at seeing him at the dining table and being able to spend some time with him before he left for school. Feeling slightly guilty at not realising how his mother felt, he vowed to try and get up earlier in the mornings, or at least not go to sleep so late because of reading manga long into the wee hours of morning.
Having fully enjoyed breakfast and conversation with his mum, Tsuna made his way down the road to wait for his unexpected saviour. That morning, she came in the form of a very sudden tackle and tumble down the street. The girl quickly jumped off of him, not offering a hand up but instead turning away to leave without a word. Not wanting to just let her go without thanking her, Tsuna threw himself forward, raising his voice.
"Wait, please!"
AN: Woo, done! This is in honour of Seere Klein, who reviewed and requested an omake from Tsuna's point of view and how he perceived my cute little Suzume-chan. I hope this is what you wanted! Also, a big, big kiss and hug to Crystal Blue Butterfly who gave me three really sweet reviews. :*
Ah, another chapter so soon after the last one! I feel like I'm spoiling you guys.
Anyway, here you can see the ripples starting to form due to Suzume's presence! Also, I felt that adding the bit where Tsuna joins her and Megumi for lunch would be a bit redundant so I skipped that. Eh. To be honest, I was only expecting to write about 500 words on this thing, but it kind of got away from me, whoops! Anyway, if you have requests like this, I will happily see what I can do with them! Having something to write about is always fun.
Kisses to you all xx
THIS HAS NOT BEEN BETA'D, PLEASE NOTIFY OF ANY MISTAKES.
