Ryohei hates therapy.
She hates how one broken leg was enough to get her banned from the dojo, how one student sent to the hospital was enough to make her parents decide there's something wrong with her.
The therapist shows her pictures of people making faces and wants her to say what they're feeling, the therapist gives her scenarios and expects her to care about these fake people. The therapist tells her she's not supposed to fight, the therapist tells her it's unhealthy and Ryohei bites back her reply. Even she knows telling the therapist she can't stop will make it worse.
Kyoko is her only saving grace. Ryohei complains to her sister one day, tells her she's going crazy with these never ending sessions and the doctor that judges, when Kyoko stills. There's that look in her eyes, the one that says she's plotting something, but she just waves it off when her sister asks.
Ryohei finds out the next day when her little sister comes home with a stack of medical textbooks from the library. (Stolen probably, since they don't have a library card. Or Kyoko could have talked the librarian into handing them over, she's always been good at getting what she wants.)
"Here," her little sister says, dropping the pile of books on the table with a thump.
"What?" She asks, baffled as Kyoko starts flipping them open.
"We're going to find out what's wrong with you," her sister states so matter of fact Ryohei blinks, "and then we're going to find something you can tell to get the therapist off your back."
"What?" Ryohei asks again, this time completely confused, but Kyoko only rolls her eyes.
"You're unhappy," she says as though it's obvious. "The sessions are making you upset, so we're going to find a way to get the therapist to back down. If we do it right mom and dad might even decide you're cured."
They spend the night rifling through the textbooks, Kyoko showing her sister likely diagnoses and Ryohei marking down which symptoms match.
By the end of it Kyoko is frowning as she looks over the possibilities they've written down, annoyance plain in her eyes.
"We can't tell them this."
No, Ryohei agrees as she looks over the names Kyoko's scribbled, they can't. These are severe, these are the kinds of things that make specialists get involved, that add in pills and even more therapy sessions.
"So what do we do?" She finally asks, looking at Kyoko as her sister thinks.
Kyoko bites her lip as she thinks before looking back up at her sister.
"Anger management issues."
"Huh?"
"You just need to pretend you have anger management issues. It'll explain away the violence, and you just need to pretend you're calming down after a few sessions. The therapist will think you're cured and we can stop this."
Ryohei looks over the textbook and the symptoms, chewing on her lip before finally deciding.
"I guess it's worth a try."
She hadn't expected the plan to actually work. Sure, the therapist doesn't seem entirely convinced, but her parents are, and that's the important part. Kyoko's even let her know she's overheard them discussing stopping the sessions.
She didn't expect the plan to work, but it has, and now everything's back to normal. The only thing left is figuring out how to fight without her parents fighting out.
"Ryohei," mom's voice interrupts her thoughts and she looks up from her plate.
"Yeah?"
"We were thinking," she starts, sharing a look with dad before turning back, "since you're doing better, it might be time to to work on making friends."
Friends? Ryohei has never thought it necessary. Why would she need friends when she had the thrill of the fight, the satisfaction that came from watching the fear on her opponent's face?
"Sure," she eventually responds, knowing that this has to be another hoop to jump through before therapy finally stops, "I'll try."
Mom beams before launching into another topic, but Ryohei can feel Kyoko's eyes on her. Her little sister raises a disbelieving brow before going back to her food, and Ryohei bites back a sigh.
Their parents can live in their own little world where she'll magically make friends, but both of them know tricking someone into thinking she's normal will be hard.
This 'making friends' thing is hard. Putting aside not even knowing where to start and what to say, none of her classmates are interesting.
They're either too dumb or too smart, just perceptive enough to know something's off. And the ones that aren't, the ones that are smart but still the right shade of oblivious are boring. If she has to spend time with them, they need to talk about more than crushes or more than the local baseball team.
Ryohei is walking through the halls after class, running through the options, when someone barrels into her.
"Sorry, sorry!" A voice apologizes, and Ryohei looks up from her position on the floor, staring straight into Sawada Tsuna's bright eyes.
Everyone knows about Sawada. Everyone knows she and Hibari rule the school, everyone knows they get away with things no one else can. And Ryohei notices things, she's seen the bandages on Yamamoto's arms, she's seen the dirt under her nails and the bruises decorating Hibari's shins. Even more, she's seen the two of them follow Sawada without a second thought.
Little Tsuna, with the big doe eyes and the flowery braids. Tsuna, who broke a boy's jaw, who knocked out someone's teeth for no reason at all.
Tsuna, who looks like an angel but has blood on her hands.
Ryohei accepts the hand she offers, Ryohei can only nod when Tsuna asks if she wants to study with them.
It may not be love at first sight, but it's something close.
