"What'd you do?"
"What do you mean?" Tsuna asked Takeshi confused.
His friend nodded his head towards where Kyoya was stalking through the students angrily.
"What makes you think I had anything to do with that?" Tsuna responded offended.
"You're looking far too gleeful," was the response.
"Oh crap."
Tsuna quickly tried to adopt a worried expression like every other student there causing Takeshi to snort.
"So?"
The young boy glanced at the prefect before dragging Takeshi over towards the baseball field to explain.
"So you left an unconscious drug dealer at his house as a gift?"
Tsuna nodded.
"You do know that seems like you're wooing him right?" his friend asked with a grin and then laughed when Tsuna threw his hands up in the air.
"It's not like that," he said. "Why does everyone think it's like that," he pouted making Takeshi laugh harder. "I just want to be his friend."
"You want to be friends with the Demon Prefect?"
Tsuna nodded and Takeshi laughed again.
"Well good luck. You could always just manipulate things so you end up cleaning the gym with him every time."
Tsuna blinked and then glanced at his friend.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he denied.
"Sure you don't," the other snorted.
"And besides. He's older then us so we don't have gym together."
"Right," Takeshi grinned. "Want to visit the arcade later?"
XXX
"So you plan to leave another…gift for him then?"
"Don't say it like that," Tsuna complained to the baby on his shoulder. "It's a friendship gift. That's all."
He could practically feel Fon's amusement as he traversed the town till he found a mugger. The boy proceeded to do the same thing as a couple nights ago and then froze when Fon leapt into the bushes.
"Herbivore."
There was only one person that could pull off such a dangerous tone in one simple word. Tsuna really had hoped to get more gifts in before getting caught.
"Carnivore-san," he greeted as he did a quick turn and then lunged to the side to avoid the tonfa aimed at his head.
"You're hunting in my territory."
Tsuna ducked under the next swing and kicked his leg into Hibari's stomach. It sent the older boy back about an inch.
'Stupid strong jerks,' he thought annoyed.
"It was a gift," the weaker one was quick to say in the split second he had before Kyoya attacked again.
Now that his little bit had been said Tsuna put all his concentration into the fight. He knew Kyoya wouldn't be above seriously hurting him and the boy wanted to do at least a little return damage. It helped that he had practice fighting the older Kyoya from his past.
He slipped in past one of the attacks and aimed a punch at Kyoya's head and a knee into the boy's stomach. The punch connected but the knee didn't and he had to duck back to avoid a tonfa in the head. Instead he got whapped across the arm instead making him wince.
On the other hand he had used enough strength to give the other boy a bloody noise. The fact that Kyoya actually looked a little surprised at it was highly amusing. The feral smile that took over after that was not. Then the boy increased his speed and Tsuna had to use everything he had just to keep up.
It involved a lot of dodging. It felt like that was all Tsuna could do though he did get some kicks and punches in occasionally. He actually managed to knock Kyoya off his feet; he was fifty fifty on whether it was luck or not. The fact that the grin on the prefect's face had widened did not cheer him up.
'Why did I want this again,' he thought to himself as he dove to the side. 'Oh yeah, cause it's kind of fun.'
And it was. In a hugely painful sort of way. When he was fighting with his cloud guardian all the other problems fell away. He was too busy trying not to get a broken arm to worry about the future. On that note; Tsuna did a quick roll to avoid a tonfa to the arm. It smacked into the wall leaving a mark and he winced. That would have hurt. He ducked under Kyoya's arm and grabbed it in an attempt to dislocate it; unfortunately he didn't have enough time as the other grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder. Tsuna took the practice with Fon to fall properly and not injure himself. He also took the chance to kick out at Kyoya's knee making it buckle and then slammed his foot into Kyoya's side.
It ended not to soon after with Kyoya's tonfa at his throat making Tsuna see black for a second. The image of his past Kyoya flashed through his eyes, with a tonfa stained with red, for a second before focusing back on the current one. The older boy studied him for a moment and then turned and walked away.
'Didn't even say anything,' Tsuna thought sourly as Fon returned to his shoulder.
"He was impressed," the baby assured him. "No one your age has held out that long against him; or given him a bloody noise," he sounded rather amused at that.
XXX
"I take it Hibari figured you out," Takeshi said amused.
"What gives you that idea," Tsuna muttered as he prodded the bruise on his arm and winced.
"The wounds and the fact that he's walking towards us."
Tsuna's head jerked up to see that the prefect was indeed stalking towards them.
"Oh no," he moaned. "I'm still sore from our last fight."
Which had been yesterday. Really though; he should have expected this; it was Kyoya after all. The boy straightened up just in time to dodge to the side.
"Carnivore-san," he heard Takeshi choke behind him at the name.
Tsuna briefly considered trying to talk to Kyoya before deciding there would be no point and focused on blocking the next tonfa strike which hurt but he pushed it to the side to punch Kyoya in the face.
Yeah it was dirty going for the nose again. Tsuna didn't particularly care at the moment; not when the other threw him five feet away making him do a quick tuck and roll. By the time he was standing the prefect was by his side and slammed one of the tonfas into his stomach. Tsuna let out a cry of pain and then quickly moved sideways to avoid the knee that was headed towards his face. He shifted around so he could slam his leg out into a spot he knew he had hit last night and was relieved when the bell rang.
Kyoya took a second to wipe some blood off his face.
"Thanks for the gift," he smirked before walking away.
Tsuna knew the prefect was messing with him; despite common belief Kyoya did have a sense of humor. That didn't stop him from pulling at his hair.
"It wasn't like that," Tsuna whined as Takeshi wheezed with laughter.
XXX
Tsuna was going to regret this; he knew he was but at the same time he couldn't wait any longer. He took a breath and walked into the gym. Not even ten seconds later Ryohei was standing in front of him with a large grin. An image of blood stained bandages around a throat filled his head for a moment.
"Have you come to extremely join the boxing club?"
Tsuna couldn't help but smile.
"I was actually wondering if you had drop ins?"
The older boy looked adorably confused so Tsuna elaborated.
"I'm too busy to join a club full time but I was wondering if I could come by occasionally."
He hundred percent wasn't lying either. There was keeping contact with Hayato; he was Tsuna's gossip source back in Italy, training with Fon, getting his ass kicked by Kyoya and to top it off he hadn't heard back from Mukuro which was slightly worrying.
"You extremely can," the older boy grinned. "Go get extremely changed and we can start now."
Tsuna found himself pushed into a change room. He sighed in amusement but had expected this so he pulled on workout clothes. He had also expected, for some reason, to go straight into a fight. Instead he got set up with a punching bag. Logically he knew this made more sense but it was still a little confusing. Also when he got down to actually teaching Ryohei was pretty good.
"You won't start actual boxing for a bit," he told Tsuna. "First you learn the punches against something that won't hit back. Once I think you're extremely good enough; you can practice with a person."
Tsuna nodded a bit bemused but got to work learning the different punches and practicing them. Ryohei stood by to correct his stance or show him how to extremely do it better the whole time.
XXX
Tsuna came to a complete halt on the street and whipped around.
"Do you know a lot about bikes?" he blurted out.
Mentally he winced as he watched Shoichi look up from the bike he was working on. He had seen the red hair and just had to talk to him. Bikes where the first thing that came to mind.
"Some," came the confused answer.
"Would you mind looking at mine then? I haven't used it in a couple years and my Mom and I don't know anything about them and my Dad is never home."
Shoichi stared at him bemused. Tsuna had said the whole thing in one breath and then flushed.
"Sorry," he apologised. "I can pay you," the boy offered weakly.
Tsuna could see Shoichi thinking it over before nodding.
"Bring it over tomorrow. I'll take a look at it."
Tsuna beamed in response and nodded.
XXX
He was there the next day and had to take some deep breaths to curb his excitement. Shoichi had been one of the few that had been alive before Tsuna had pulled the trigger so seeing him again was amazing.
"A couple years huh?" Shoichi asked as he looked over the old bike in front of him and Tsuna blushed.
"I've, uh, started getting healthier. Taking martial arts training; so I thought adding bike riding to the mix might be a good idea."
Which was a complete lie; he had thought no such thing until he saw his friend yesterday. He had somehow forgotten that the boy lived in the same town as him until he saw the red hair. Shoichi gave him an odd look before starting on the bike leaving Tsuna to stand there awkwardly.
"So, um, my names Sawada Tsunayoshi," he offered.
"Irie Shoichi," was the reply.
Tsuna continued to sit in silence since Shoichi didn't seem interested in talking. He eventually gave up and just sat down on the ground to watch. He still found himself fidgeting a bit; Tsuna never was very good at sitting still. He'd actually gotten better with it since he started training with Fon but he still had a bad habit of moving; especially when he was thinking. He watched as Shoichi efficiently took apart his bike and fixed it. Once he was done he had Tsuna attempt to ride it and nodded pleased when everything worked.
"So, you're around my age aren't you Irire-san? How come I haven't seen you in school?" Tsuna asked as he pulled out some money to pay him.
This time the money was actually legitimate too; it came from his allowance.
"I'm taking advanced glasses," was the response and Tsuna blinked when an idea came to him.
"Okay; so I don't know if this will be awkward since we just met but would you be, uh, interested in tutoring me?"
Shoichi turned to stare at him and Tsuna winced.
"Well, it's just that I'm not doing very well in school; I'm almost failing every class except English."
That was purely because he spoke the language. Reborn had been very insistent that he learned it since most of the world spoke it.
"And I know my Mom is going to think about getting me a tutor soon anyway."
In a couple of years in the form of Reborn.
"So I figure it would be better to find one myself instead of who she picks."
He took a breath as his friend continued to stare at him.
"I'll pay you again," he offered weakly.
"I've never tutored someone before," Shoichi said.
"First time for everything," Tsuna retorted.
"Why me?"
"Well you're smart and know what you're doing and you're my age and seem nice," Tsuna rattled off.
"Hmm, sure why not," Shoichi finally gave in. "Mom wants me to meet people anyway."
Tsuna grinned brightly.
"Awesome. Your place, my place, or somewhere else? How about my place?" He suggested before his friend could actually answer. "My mom loves to have people over and would be more than happy to make dinners when you are by."
Shoichi rubbed his stomach slightly making Tsuna worry. Was he making his friend nervous? Was he jumping the gun? Maybe he should stop babbling so much.
"We take turns," Shoichi compromised. "We'll go to your house and then mine and then back to yours."
Tsuna reached forward to shake his hand.
"Deal."
XXX
"What was I thinking?" Tsuna whined.
Takeshi made a cheerful humming noise as he watched his friend stretch.
"I mean martial arts training, getting nearly killed by Hibari and then I decide to try out some boxing. Not to mention I decided to add tutoring to the list. What's wrong with me?"
"You're a glutton for punishment," Takeshi offered with a laugh.
Tsuna finished his stretches and was attacked about thirty seconds after.
"Thanks for waiting until I finished," he told Kyoya between strikes.
As much as he complained; it was working really well for his body. His strength and speed were increasing; they had to if he wanted to keep up with the prefect and he was starting to land some more blows. Maybe one or two more each spar. Kyoya jerked to a halt as the bell rang and Tsuna thankfully wiped some sweat off his forehead.
"Good job Tsuna," Takeshi commented cheerfully.
Said named boy saw Kyoya's eyes flicker towards his friend. He briefly considered warning him and then decided against it. It was his fault for laughing at him. Takeshi yelped as Hibari's tonfa came swinging towards his head and he brought his baseball bat up to meet it. The prefect stared at him for a moment.
"Hn," and then walked away.
"Serves you right," Tsuna told his friend amused as Takeshi mournfully eyed the newly formed cracks in his bat. "You might want to consider your own martial arts training," he said and then it was his turn to laugh on the way to class.
Yoki
Enrico of Vongola has been killed in a gunfight.
Smoking Bomb
Well shit.
XXXXX
I do not own Katekyou Hitman Reborn. Opinions on Hibari and Shoichi. Good? Bad? In between? Opinions, compliments, suggestions, make me cry tears of happiness.