Gokudera started to grow accustomed to the life in Japan after staying for a little more than a week. His relationship with Tsuna already had its firm foundation laid too; he was invited to lunch on the rooftop with him and almost everyday after school for tuition.

Although, most of the time these chances are made possible with the help a certain idiot's suggestion.

During lunch:

"My dad made extra sushi today, and I don't think Tsuna and I can finish it all by ourselves. Come for lunch with us, Gokudera!"

"But Yamamoto, you brought only one bread today..."

"Haha, it's sushi-flavoured, Tsuna!"

Gokudera, for a split-second there, thought his brain was a piece sushi too.

After school:

"Tsuna, Gokudera and I were wondering if we can pop by your house to do our homework today. It's due tomorrow, so the faster we finish it the better!"

Wait, he was wondering with him since when?

"Sure Yamamoto, but tomorrow's a Saturday."

"Haha! That means no student meals from WacDonalds' tomorrow doesn't it? We can still eat at my dad's place if you guys like!"

Gokudera swore, that if you asked about his hair colour, he would have told you why octopusses taste better than lamps.

In the middle of the night, at three a.m., in the morning, when no sane soul was awake, in the middle of a sweet dream involving parfaits:

"Hello?"

"Hello? Gokudera? I was just wondering, if you'd like to come over to Tsuna's tomorrow afternoon to play the mafia game."

"You fuc- I mean, yes, yes that would a pleasure, you basta- Yamamoto."

"Okay, great! Now all I have to do is ask Tsuna whether we can go over. But ah, I guess I should do that later shouldn't I, he's probably asleep now, don't want to disturb him!"

And Gokudera's sweet, sweet, diabetic dream of parfaits turned into one of salmon sushis trying to swin upstream.

Gokudera had to shake his head at the thoughts of these nightmare-like flashbacks.

"You herbivore over there," a voice came, interrupting his, uh, head-shaking moment.

Gokudera turned around to see a boy, a little taller than him, stroll over to his side by the window with an air that commanded authority. "No loitering in the hallways, especially during lunch. Do you wish to be bitten to death?"

Hibari Kyoya. The name popped up in his sea of thoughts immediately. The strict, fierce, and power-hungry prefect who allowed not even a piece of tissue off when it breaks the littering rule--Gokudera witnessed for himself the cruel dismembering of the two-ply tissue fibre by fibre--had his eyes locked on him. As a new exchange student here, it wouldn't be very good to leave a bad record, Gokudera decided, and thus quickly apologised. "I'm sorry, senpai, I didn't know that. I shall return to my class immediately."

He could feel Hibari's burning glare on him as he walked back to class. The annoying aura of arrogance surrounding the senior tingled his nerves a little, just a little, but he had enough sense not to scrunch up his face in irritation and fling a deserving punch at him.

"Um, Go-Gokudera-kun," the high-pitched voice of two squirming girls who suddenly appeared in front of him stopped him in his tracks. "Pl-Please accept this!" One of the girls stretched out her hand, a pink slip of paper decorated with hand-drawn hearts held onto tightly.

Another love letter. He had been receiving quite a lot from the girls recently. Japanese girls are really more outgoing than he imagined. Although he was not really interested in relationships at the moment, he figured it would be only polite to accept the letter. "Thank you," he smiled and raised both his arms to take it.

He felt his cheekbone being cracked open, as he was suddenly threw to the side and skidded across the floor. Why, of all times, must Japanese school's hallway floors be so squeaky clean?

Screams and stares accompanied his flight. When Gokudera got up he noticed a fresh blood stain on his shirt. He wiped his mouth to confirm his suspicion of a bleeding nose. He furrowed his eyebrows slightly to look up at the culprit, "What was that for, Hibari-senpai?"

The skylark's shadow fell over Gokudera's body. "Loitering in the hallways."

Gokudera hissed as he got up and brushed his shirt. An emerging frown was evident on his face. "I was returning to my class, it's just that the girls stopped me and-"

"That's right," Hibari cut his sentence short, like he was an inferior being not worth listening to. He pivoted around and marched towards the shocked girls, raising his tonfa in a svelte manner under his black coat. "No loitering in the hallways, I'll bite you to death."

Hibari swiped his merciless tonfa down, only to have his arm grabbed suddenly by someone. Instinctively he swung his other tonfa at whoever it was, and began engaging in a fight with the intruder who interrupted his feast on his prey.

"Hibari-senpai," Gokudera reasoned, in a tone that was similar to shouting, "I believe it is wrong to hit girls." He dodged another strike of the cold metal.

"Oh? That wasn't in the rules, and therefore it is okay to," Hibari replied, in a collected manner despite his relentless swipes at the Italian.

Gokudera gritted his teeth, "Well, it should be, senpai." Darn it, the prefect's attacks are so well-kneated there wasn't a chance for him to reach for his dynamites. He could only keep backing, and soon there wouldn't be anymore space to step back to.

Hibari raised his eyebrow, as if hesitating for a very small while. Gokudera's battle instincts kicked to life and he stole the chance to throw his leg up and sweep across, kicking Hibari's arms and pushing them away. Seeing that he had the upperhand now, even if it's for a short period, Gokudera quickly flung his fist forward. It reached just the tip of Hibari's nose while he threw his head back to dodge, when Gokudera remembered that violence in school is greatly frowned upon.

He swiftly retracted his knuckles and gave a bow sportsmen always give after the end of a match. Hibari flipped back into his fighting stance again, as he asked menacingly out of curiosity, "Why did you not hit me?"

"It is wrong to fight in school, senpai," Gokudera answered, "I'm sure you know that too." Inside, he was hoping he'd notice the sarcasm.

Hibari paused, as a face of contemplation formed. This kid is... interesting. "Are you the new Italian student?"

"Yes, senpai, I am. Pleased meet you." Gokudera rolled his eyes mentally as he said, "Fantastic meeting."

Hibari's eyes scanned Gokudera up and down, in what seemed like hours. Was he going to fight, or was he going to let him go? The small crowd that had formed around them was whispering among themselves on the outcome.

Finally, Hibari's expressionless face was marred by a smirk. "You're an interesting kid. The Disciplinary Committee can use someone like you. You know where to report to," Hibari ordered as he turned around to walk away, parting the crowd like the red sea as he did.

Gokudera blinked after the prefect. He was perplexed, because really, he didn't know where to report to.

"Gokudera-kun! I heard Hibari-san wanted you to be in the Disciplinary Committee?" Tsuna exclaimed as soon as the threesome stepped out of school.

Gokudera held on to his bag strap as he answered, "Yes, he did, Sawada-san. I apologise for not reporting earlier."

"Hibari wants you in the Disciplinary Committee?" Yamamoto's shocked face popped out from beside him.

"Yes, I believe I just answered that, dumbas- Yamamoto."

"Are you going to join then?" Tsuna asked, his eyes wide with concern.

"Is it possible to reject?"

Tsuna stared at the ground and rubbed the back of his neck as he contemplated. "Well, it's possible but..." It would involve a lot of persuasion, some heavy bites to death from Hibari and possibly the entire crew of the Disciplinary Committee, and perhaps the demolition of the rest of his school life. "...it's a little hard."

"It is a good idea for training, Gokudera Hayato," a child-like voice came from Tsuna's back.

"You think so, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked, his decision starting to waver. It would do his family proud, indeed.

"Hibari is one of the most powerful Guardians in our clan, it would do you good to receive some training from him." Reborn stated.

Gokudera gave a silent, long sigh. He turned to Yamamoto, although he knew that the idiot wouldn't be of much help, it would be polite to assure him that his graced presence was acknowledged anyway. "What are your opinions, Yamamoto?"

The Italian almost thought that his thoughtful gesture surprised the idiot, because he saw Yamamoto speechless for a while. His gaze seemed to be unsteady, his eyes were gliding everywhere, but Gokudera could feel it was all over him. For the first time in his life, Gokudera felt some sort of self-consciousness. But, this is what most people would feel if a brainless salmon posing as an overgrown teenager was staring at them like that.

"......Well?"

Yamamoto closed his mildly parted lips, as he lowered his head in an attempt to hide his face. He ruffled the his hair, and he answered, as Gokudera noticed, quite unenthusiastically. "I-If Gokudera wants to join, then you should." He then looks up to force an empty laughter.

Somehow, that bothered Gokudera for the entire night that day.

For the past two days, Gokudera had been careful to avoid any sort of rule-breaking, or more specifically the fierce skylark. Tsuna and Yamamoto noticed and also understood Gokudera's uneasiness too, afterall, they were sure he was someone who required no influences whatsoever on making a decision. So on their way to the rooftop, they kept mum about the incident, and tried their best to obey whatever rules there was.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi." Speak of the devil.

Tsuna shakingly turned around and smiled nervously at Hibari, "Ye-Yes?"

Hibari raised a tonfa at him, which resulted in a "hiee!" from the brunette. "The baby says he is going to have a fight with me, and told me to find you for him. Where is he?"

"What!" Tsuna hated it when Reborn went about making decisions on his own. And he hated it worse when it involved him being put through rigorous and painful torments. He secretly shot an apprehensive Gokudera a look, and relented, "Okay, I'll bring you to where Reborn is." Looks like he'll have to miss lunch today. As he led Hibari away, he shouted over his shoulder to the two mafias, "I'll meet you at the rooftop, you guys go ahead!"

Hibari seemed to have finally noticed Gokudera's minor presence, and dumped him an intimidating glare, "Gokudera Hayato. If it's the crowding you're hung up on, Kusakabe had arranged for you to be a high rank." He bored another dirty look at Yamamoto. "You know what is the right choice."

Gokudera nudged Yamamoto away from him. The further apart they were the better. He didn't notice Yamamoto's gaze at his shadow on the floor.