Author's note: I really should be studying for my human anatomy test instead of writing this. Or my physics test. Ah well. Reviews make updates more frequent. Thank you for reading. Ciao~

Star of the Circus

Chapter 4

A couple of times in your life, it happens like that. You meet a stranger, and all you know is that you need to know everything about them.

It was almost a relief to have Nana forcefully usher her into another bath not five minutes after she entered the house. It had been a long time since she'd realized how much of a luxury being clean was.

The woman was still going on about how horrible it was that the movers lost all of her clothes and shoes, but Leora guessed it was better than her getting suspicious and calling child services.

After putting on another pair of Tsuna's clothes she was herded downstairs and seated at the kitchen table. Tsuna looked torn between sitting down himself or staying standing next to her while his mother bandaged her cut up feet.

Nana solved the problem for him.

"Tsu-kun, go wash your hands. Dinner's ready." Not looking very happy about it, Tsuna left to do as he was bid.

Securing the last of the wrappings with tape, Nana started packing up the first aid kit.

"All done Leora-chan! They don't hurt do they?"

Leora flexed her wrapped feet and wiggled her band-aid covered toes. Yes, yes they did.

"I'm fine." Standing, Leora bowed low in front of the housewife. "Thank you again, Nana-san. I haven't been a very good guest so far, and I'm really sorry for it."

Nana just waved it off.

"Aren't you so polite!" she squealed, "It's been no trouble at all Leora-chan. I'm happy to have you over. I'm sure Tsu-kun is too. He's been going to the park every day since you left trying to find you again."

"MAMA!"

Tsuna was red-faced as he ran back into the kitchen, screeching while his mother continued to tease him about how much he missed his friend.

Leora wasn't sure what to feel about that.

From a certain perspective, she agreed with Nana. Following someone around in a socially awkward attempt to make a friend was adorable. But she was pretty sure that what he was doing was a precursor to stalking.

"I can come by more often, if you want?" she offered hesitantly, interrupting another of Nana's tirades. She didn't really want to, but she also didn't need Tsuna developing stalker tendencies when it came to her. Maybe coming over every now and again would make it stop? Nana just beamed another smile that brought flowers into existence, like it would be ridiculous that she wouldn't before shoeing the two of them towards the table.

Grateful for a reason to get off her feet, Leora complied. Tsuna shuffled into the seat next to hers.

And then there was food. A lot of food.

Neither Tsuna nor Nana seemed to think that anything was wrong with the heaped up platters in front of them, so that probably meant that this was a normal amount for the Sawada household.

Leora gave her own plate a dubious look. Nana had taken it upon herself to portion things out for her, and she hadn't been stingy.

…She wasn't going to be able to eat all of that. Even if she was hungry and back to adult size she wouldn't be able to eat all of that.

How was it that Tsuna never got fat?

"How does it taste Leora-chan?" Snapping out of her thoughts Leora hastily shoved some kind of vegetable in her mouth. It didn't have the ash taste that the burger from earlier had, it actually tasted great, but the idea of eating just wasn't as appealing as it was a few days ago.

Dutifully she swallowed. "It's delicious."

Then she set to work picking her way through her plate with a single minded determinedness that seemed to please Nana for some reason.

She didn't even get a fourth of the way through her plate before she put her chopsticks down.

There was nothing wrong with the food, she hadn't been lying when she said it was delicious, but the not being hungry despite hardly any food was really bothering her. Realizing she couldn't tell if she was full or not wasn't helping things.

She'd just eaten a decent amount of food after very little for an extended period of time and she didn't feel full. She didn't even feel satisfied, just a bit nauseous.

Apparently as far as her body was concerned, she wasn't hungry and she didn't need to tell if she was full or not.

Weird anime world or not, this was not a good thing.

Did something in her break when she fell through the tent? No, she'd still been hungry after waking up under the bridge and she felt full after dumpster diving behind Takesushi. So something must've broken during her run-away-freak-out.

Fuck.

Things just kept getting better and better.

She was already forgetting to eat if the apple scenario from earlier was anything to go by. If she wasn't careful she could end up starving herself to death.

Double fuck.

Damnit, she was going to make visiting the Sawada house a regular thing wasn't she? At least that way she was sure Nana wouldn't let her leave without something to snack on.

"Aren't you still hungry Leora-chan?" Jerking out of her progressively hysterical thoughts Leora pasted what felt like a completely fake smile on her face.

"I'm full." Nana frowned.

"You hardly ate anything dear. Are you sure?"

No, not really she thought. "I don't eat much."

"But you're a growing girl! How are you going to get big and strong if you don't eat?"

Lady I top out at one hundred sixty two centimeters with a build like a colt. 'Big' is not a word anyone has ever used to describe me.

"Sorry, Nana-san. I'm just not hungry anymore."

"Well, alright. If you're sure you're full." Nana gave her another concerned look before it was replaced by a smile. "Tsu-kun is almost done too. Maybe you two can play after dinner?"

Tsuna promptly started choking on a mouthful of rice. Pounding his back, Leora resigned herself to something like this happening every time she came over. This was twice now and she didn't see it stopping in the near future. Tsuna was to easily embarrassed.

It took a few more minutes for him to stop choking, and another ten for him to actually finish eating, before Nana decided that they were done and should head up to Tsuna's room.

Leora offered to help with the dishes but was easily dismissed with another squealed 'You're so polite!'. Which left her and Tsuna standing awkwardly in the living room.

"W-we can go to m-my room, if you want." Tsuna offered, shoving his hands in his pockets for lack of anything to do with them. "I have some g-games we can play."

Really, this kid was adorable. Why his whole school seemed to hate him in canon was beyond her. The women at the circus would've been cooing over him the minute they laid eyes on him.

Falling into another bow, Leora flashed him a small grin over the brim of the invisible hat she just swept off her head.

"Lead the way Tsuna-san." Tsuna blushed, but happily lead her up the stairs. Leora not so happily followed.

Now that she didn't have to ignore her feet to keep moving, she was paying a lot more attention to how much they hurt. She made it about half way up before decided to screw it all and bent forward until she was doing a handstand on the step in front of her. Taking a moment to ensure she had her balance, Leora proceeded up the stairs the rest of the way on her hands.

She nearly tumbled back down when Tsuna screeched.

"Why are you screeching?" she demanded once she caught her balance, tilting her head to glare at the gaping boy.

"H-how are, w-why?"

"Look, my feet hurt. Walking on my hands is easier anyway." Taking a deep breath to scrounge up some patience, Leora gave Tsuna another look. "Can we go to your room now so I can sit down?"

"S-sure."

Tsuna felt like banging his head on a wall.

He'd finally found Leora after she ran away a few days ago and managed to convince her to come over to his house again. This was his chance to get her to be his friend.

He wasn't doing a very good job of it.

So far he'd managed to run her over again, make her fall when he'd tripped rushing them to the kitchen, and nearly sent her tumbling down the stairs because he shrieked like a baby when he'd seem her walking on her hands.

In his defense, it had scared him to turn around and see a pair of feet where a head was supposed to be.

So he shut his mouth and lead them the rest of the way to his room, Leora walking on her hands just as easily as she could walk on her feet.

He honestly thought it was really cool that she could do that. Tsuna couldn't even do a cartwheel without falling on his head.

Finally getting to his room – he'd kept it clean in case he'd be able to get her to come over again, and mama had been really happy he was picking up after himself now – he watched as Leora's legs fell into a sideways split that had him wincing just looking at before crossing themselves behind the arms holding her up. Then she kind of just…sunk to the ground. He thought that was the right term anyway. It was all very smooth and graceful, like she'd been doing it for a long time.

If Tsuna tried that he'd break something.

Snapping out of it, he scrambled to get out the games he had. One or two board games and the video games that mama had gotten him for his birthday last year. He had hoped that she would choose the video games so that he could show her he was good at something, but she didn't do more than glance at them before focusing on the board games. Tsuna tried very hard not to droop in disappointment.

"Y-you don't like video games?" he slapped a hand over his mouth. Why had he said that? This was going to ruin everything.

He blamed the warm feeling in his chest. It'd come back almost immediately after he ran her over and it made him want to relax, like he could be completely comfortable around Leora. But they weren't friends yet so he couldn't do that at all.

"I never played them before. My family never had a TV so there wasn't much point." Leora said matter-of-factly, breaking through his thoughts. "Do you want to play one? You'll have to show me how."

Tsuna brightened immediately, hurrying to set up his Legend of Zelda game. He could show her he was good at something!

Turns out Leora wasn't good at video games. At all.

Tsuna had showed her which buttons did what, and how to pull off combo moves, but Leora just couldn't seem to get the hang of it. She'd end up staring at the controller instead of the screen and end up with her character dying.

It was kind of funny.

Leora would get so frustrated when her Link character would die or when he wouldn't do what she wanted she would glare at the screen, or the controller, or him when he caught her laughing at her, however silently.

She also started mumbling something under her breath in a language he couldn't understand. Probably Italian. She did say her family was from there. After the forty fifth time her avatar died she gave up, throwing the controller away in disgust and hiding her face in the pillow she'd been holding in her lap.

"Video games suck." He heard her whining, and Tsuna's laughter wasn't silent anymore.

Leora threw her pillow at him.

"Laugh all you want. I'm choosing the next game and then I will have my revenge for this embarrassment Sawada." She threatened, shaking her fist at him. He would've taken her seriously if it wasn't for the slight twitch of her lips.

He noticed that his friend – hopefully? – didn't really have a lot of facial expressions. It felt like she was wearing a mask, and something would slip out occasionally. Tsuna thought that meant she was starting to open up to him a bit.

Leora ended up choosing the deck of cards he'd thrown into the pile of games as more of an afterthought than an actual desire to use them. Apparently, if he was going to teach her something new, she was going to return the favor.

So he was learning how to play poker.

Tsuna was pretty sure gambling was bad, but Leora insisted that knowing how to play poker was important skill to have for when you're older. She said it was something the people in her family would do at least once a month and it was a great way to have a social get together. And a good way to make some extra money. The grin she had when she said the last part reminded him a bit of Hibari-san, enough to make him shiver.

Tsuna didn't have any money, but that didn't seem to matter to Leora. They were using the cookies that mama had dropped off during their third video game attempt as chips.

He panicked at bit when she explained that the game had a lot to do with keeping track of numbers, he was really bad at math, but she didn't get mad when he lost track of things or didn't understand the rules. She would just calmly explain it again until it made more sense.

Tsuna was really proud when he was able to correctly guess how many kings were left in the deck. Even if it only happened once.

"You're getting good at this, Tsuna-san." Leora praised as they both revealed their hands, a straight flush for her and two pair for him, and she scooped up the small stack of cookies to her side of the table. "If you keep practicing this, you'll be cleaning me out in no time."

Tsuna beamed at the praise, feeling more happy and relaxed than he had in a long time. Leora blinked at him, then rubbed her eyes a bit, mumbling something about genetics and then going off in more Italian.

Pushing all the cookies that she'd won back into the middle of the table, she had about fourteen of the twenty four his mama had brought up, she stretched making her back pop.

"It's getting late. I should head home now."

…And the relaxed feeling was gone.

"W-wouldn't it be safer to stay the night?" he asked timidly, not wanting her to go when he was having so much more fun than he'd had in as long as he could remember. "It's already d-dark."

"Probably. But I literally just moved in today, so I need to head back." Standing up Leora winced when she put her full weight on her feet.

"What about your f-feet? You don't have s-shoes." Tsuna desperately tried to reason, scrambling to his own feet. Leora's usually composed face turned sheepish.

"Do you think I can borrow a pair of yours?" she asked hesitantly, running her fingers through her hair and scowling when they got caught in knots.

Tsuna really wanted to say no, shoes were the only excuse he had to make her stay, but she'd probably just walk down the street on her hands if she had to so he reluctantly handed over a pair of his flip flops. They were a little big on her.

"Thanks." She said after a moment of testing the fit. "Are you free tomorrow? I do need to get a pair of my own, and I don't know where the store is. You willing to play tour guide?"

"Sure!" he blurted out, calming down some when he realized she wasn't going to disappear again. Her mask cracked again, showing a small smile. It wasn't a mean or mocking smile, not like the kids at school gave him. She looked genuinely happy that he agreed to show her around Namimori. It was a little hard to wrap his head around.

Leora went down the stairs on her hands again, Tsuna not far behind being extra careful not to trip. That warm little flickering feeling made it easier to balance, but it was still really small and couldn't really do more than warm the center of his chest so it took him a lot longer to get down than it did for her.

Mama was already in the kitchen, moving around and putting things in a laundry basket that Leora was holding…cleaning supplies? Why would Leora need cleaning supplies? Seeing his confused look her face turned embarrassed.

"The apartment I moved into is really dirty. Nana-san's letting me borrow some things to clean it up until I can get my own."

Well, that made more sense, mama really liked Leora and was happy to help her, but why did Leora have to get the cleaning supplies? Wouldn't it be her parent's job to get stuff like that? They'd only just moved to Namimori so they wouldn't know where the shops were. That was why she asked him to take her shopping tomorrow. Why would they send their daughter out alone in an unfamiliar area?

"Thank you again, Nana-san. I'll return it as soon as I can."

"Don't worry about it Leora-chan." Mama assured, patting Leora on the head. Leora's face didn't so much as twitch, but Tsuna could tell she didn't like that. "I need to go shopping soon anyway. Just keep it."

Leora still didn't look happy but she bowed again before heading for the door, Tsuna only a few steps behind her.

"What t-time do you want to go t-tomorrow?"

"It's more up to you isn't it?" Leora shot back, one eyebrow raised. Tsuna blushed.

"We c-can go in the morning." Leora thought it over, then nodded.

"I can come by around eight. Is that alright?"

Eight. Could Tsuna wake up that early? He was always waking up late for school so probably not. He was going to have to get mama to help him. And set his alarm clock. And maybe borrow his mama's alarm clock.

"S-sounds good."

"I'll see you tomorrow then." Leora gave him another small smile, and then she was gone, the door closing with a quiet click behind her.

Tsuna stared at it for a solid thirty seconds before he realized he probably should have offered to walk her home and he had probably been really rude. Scrambling to put his shoes on, he stumbled out the door after her, tripping just as he made it out of the gate.

Leora was already out of sight.

Drooping dejectedly, Tsuna trudged back inside and up to his room to set his alarm clock. He'd apologize for being rude tomorrow.