Chapter 8

You probably don't remember this one but... Remember when mum and I pulled off that set-up?

The world suddenly clamped shut to his ears. He wiped his palms roughly against the worn fibres of his pants. Twice. Three times.

The previously snug and warm collar of his hoodie now felt clammy and suffocating. All at once he felt he was dressed like a complete slob. Unprepared was an understatement. The opposing ideas of mortification, betrayal and elation made his face numb. His cell phone weighed a ton in his pocket, burdened by a single, not so apologetic text message from his sister.

His legs trembled, and he wiped his palms again.

He should have never agreed to going ahead first.

"Tsuna-kun!"

He threw a desperate prayer to the higher deities of Namimori.

"Sorry I'm late! Oh, and my brother has boxing practice today so he couldn't make it."

His heart stilled, before thundering like hail against a tin roof.

Tsuna had been thrown right into the deep end. His family had bailed on him and left him to a day out with Kyoko.

Alone.

It was perfect. The disguise, the vantage point, the plan, everything. She felt like a secret agent right out of one of those spy movies. With a nod to her partner in crime across the path, she hummed the little spy jingle under her breath, feeling more than proud as she observed her two subjects from a safe distance. A water pistol or something would just complete everything.

They were on the move. Damn it, what was with the distance between the two?

Nonetheless she slinked after them.

Discreet and suave. Like a chameleon. Or Invisi-man from her childhood TV shows.

Invisi-man was cool.

Low-key and smooth-

"Akira?"

The brunette swore, shades knocking askew at being identified with such undignified ease. Pixie cut and wide amber eyes, surprisingly, framed by glasses she was rarely ever caught wearing- it was Natsumi.

"It is you Akira dear!" She bounded over to the brunette, completely oblivious to their frantic signalling of nodon't. "What are you squatting in these bushes for? You know the toilet is just behind-"

A single hand pulling desperately at the scruff of her neck had her careening face-first into the bushes. Almost cracking skulls in the process and certainly landing gracelessly in heap of scuffed and scraped limbs.

"Keep it down Natsumi!" Akira hissed lowly, "And stay down!"

The pixie-haired teen merely took advantage of their closeness to sling an arm around the brunet in a hearty hug.

"Sorry! I just haven't spent any time with you since I graduated!" she made a point to lower her voice, but the pout in her tone was obvious as she rambled on. "Koutarou made me go back to monitoring work when you visited last time too! Not to mention the bad mood you've been in lately. Do you really hate us that much?"

Akira teetered a moment before sagging, readjusting her shades with one hand and patting her on the shoulder sincerely with the other.

"Alright, alright. I missed you too." she huffed gruffly.

Natsumi grinned at this, punching her in the shoulder amiably.

"You're as socially awkward as ever Akira."

The brunet allowed a few seconds to return the light punch, before the need to turn back to the matter at hand grew too strong to ignore. Like a switch being flipped, she was once again immersed in her refined, undercover persona.

Debonair Invisi-man-

"So what's with the ridiculous get-up?"

She spluttered indignantly.

"It's a disguise!" Akira grumbled. "I'm blending into my surroundings. Loud in the crowd, silent in the shadows."

"Aww, what corny superhero show did you get that line from-?" her cooing was cut short by the brunette elbowing her in the ribs with a mutter of 'thought of it myself'. Barely stifling a snort, Natsumi asked, "What are you supposed to be disguised as Akira?"

"A tourist." Her response so immediate, so sure, Natsumi almost felt bad when mirth had her voice shaking.

"Y-you've got on a bright blue Hawaiian print shirt and shades Akira."

The look she received conveyed the brunette's genuine confusion.

"I know." her brows furrowed, wondering if there was something wrong with her pixie haired friend. "I'm a tourist Natsumi."

Natsumi placed her hands on their shoulders soothingly, enunciating each of her next words painstakingly clearly.

"You're supposed to be a tourist in Japan dear."

"I know. Where else would I be?"

"And in Japan it's autumn, not summer."

"Well yeah. I can tell."

Natsumi raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"Look, I really don't know where you're going with all this." Akira shrugged her hands off lightly with a sigh. All this obvious talk about seasons was throwing her off her spy game. If her espionage were to remain as flawless as it was so far, she needed to concentrate on the task at hand. "Why are you here anyway?"

Natsumi stared, weighing her options. She could easily rip the bright, straw, sun hat off the brunette's head. She bit her lip, and decided that the sunhat a vast improvement from the hardhat. She needlessly adjusted the frames resting on the bridge of her nose as she considered their question. The glint off the lens immediately enhanced her in a sombre and intellectual light.

"There's special sale in the markets."

"I see."

The amber-haired woman had a penchant for bringing back the most peculiar junk (novelty straws), but occasionally there would an exception. Last time in particular, the technician had managed to scrounge up a whole three boxes of heat packs and pocket hand warmers. An endeavour that was serving her greatly at the presently. She barely felt the autumn chill with the numerous heat packs strapped under her tanktop and tropical shirt.

The niggling feeling that arose at the reminder of the strange combination was casually nonchalantly brushed aside. Her disguise was flawless. And like that, Akira re-donned her classy air, sweeping the vicinity for her targets, only to swear when she turned up empty-handed.

"Hey, hey. So what are we doing Akira?" Natsumi prodded, a wide smile on her face.

Still grumbling under her breath, the brunette fixed her with a gravely serious look.

"If you want in Natsumi, you have to understand that this is far from a game. It is crucial that this set up succeeds today."

The amber-haired woman's eyes seemed to sparkle as she nodded vigorously. Akira stared a while longer before relenting grimly.

"We've roped my brother into a date with his crush." on the last word, the sheer excitement she had been struggling to contain under her spy persona simply boiled over. The expression on her face was caught somewhere in between proud smile and smug smirk.

Like a switch being flipped, Natsumi was suddenly no longer a bump in the plan. She was her equally smooth and suave partner in crime.

"I see. So who are the 'we' you speak of friend?"

Akira visibly flinched, her entire frame stilling and freezing in horror.

"Please don't call me that Natsumi." sincere discomfort overflowed in her voice. "I don't think I can ever hear or think about them without going insane for at least two years."

"Ah." Natsumi nodded sagely. "I see. Trauma from the Nakai-"

She never managed to whip out her phone faster in her life.

"Agent double-oh-seven! I uh need your help."

It was safe to say, Natsumi was sufficiently distracted from ever completing her sentence.

"HOLY SHIT you have the double-oh-seven working with you?!" the amber-haired technician gawped. The brunette was surprised her exclamation didn't give away their location. She chalked it down to her fantastic disguise.

"Right? Ain't it fucking cool?" Akira grinned broadly, returning the repeated elbow nudges looking completely chuffed. The cell phone however, did nothing to muffle the sharpness of the voice that came through not a second later. She paled immediately. "S-sorry mum, no, I won't be swearing again."

Natsumi only gawped further.

"Your mum is double-oh-seven?!"

Akira blinked, still tenderly holding the phone away from her ear.

"Yes and no? Well I mean if you think about it, her name can mean seven." while Natsumi started having a fit over the revelation, Akira mustered enough courage to place the phone back against her ear. "Right, so they went to the cake shop down the street."

"Where is she?! What is she doing?! Do you think I could get her autograph?!" only the brunette's hand hastily plastering itself across her mouth ceased the onslaught of questions.

Akira mouthed 'undercover' firmly with a sharp glint in her eyes. With a signal of her hand, she motioned for the amber haired teen to follow. Out of the bush and into another. The brunette's gaze narrowed triumphantly onto the two figures only metres away.

Her brother was window-shopping with his crush. Her heart was practically bursting with sibling pride. Ignoring Natsumi's curious fidgeting, she flipped her phone open, snapped a photo and started clicking away at the keys.

They're standing closer than before. A full two centimetres closer. Aren't you just so proud of our little Tsu-kun?

The response was swift and without mercy.

I'm always proud of you two Ki-chan. Especially when you're not swearing.
But yes, I can already hear the wedding bells!

She wasn't allowed to revel in the bliss for long, the amber haired technician was practically vibrating in excitement and poorly repressed expectation. Akira turned away from the moving scene before her reluctantly.

"She's in the cafe, acting as my eyes in the sky, and probably not." the brunette then paused in thought. "But she'd probably cook you some food if you asked nicely."

Natsumi's impression of a shake weight was spot on.

"A-a-a meal cooked by the double-oh-seven?!" the technician latched onto her shoulders with both hands, and needless to say, Akira did not enjoy it at all when she tried to turn her into one as well. "For m-me?!"

She batted at the offending limbs, disguise knocking askew for the second time.

"Not just for you, I need to eat as well." Akira rolled her eyes, grumbling. "Geddoff!"

She didn't. Instead she went scarily still.

"Wait, you said that she's-" Natsumi licked her lips, inquiring quietly. "she's your eyes in the sky?"

The brunette eyed her warily, slapping her straw sun hat back on her head.

"Yes..."

It took every last scrap of her pride as a capable secret agent to not cry 'lordhelpme' when Natsumi lunged at her with the most terrifying glint in her eye.

"How can double-oh-seven be your eyes in the sky?! I thought I was your eyes in the sky! Akiraaaaaaa!"

Natsumi's devastated whining drew all the unwanted attention her flawless disguise had warded off. Heads turned like housewives at the announcement of a half-price grocery sale. Through the neck dislocating shaking of the shoulders, Akira valiantly brought her phone to her ear with much difficulty.

"Position compromised! Position compromised! Mayday-!" and when the mauling only intensified. "Muuuuuuum!"

The brunette lady on the rooftop cafe dabbed daintily at the corners of her lips to rid them of any crumbs left from the delightful scone she had savoured. Absently, she smoothed the smart and sharp business suit her daughter, whose distressed voice carried even without the aid of the cell phone on the table. had insisted she wear for the sake of immersion.

She had to agree, it was quite the neat little disguise and plan Akira had cooked up.

"My, I feel like a school girl again! Watching those western movies, except I'm in one! How exciting!" she mused, watching the scuffle in the bushes from her comfortable perch. "Seems like Ki-chan and her friend are having fun as well!"

As another static woven cry crackled through the phone, Nana decided a reassurance was in order.

"Not to worry Ki-chan, Tsu-kun is too occupied with blushing at Kyoko-chan to notice you right now!"

"Help- AKIRA DEAR WHY?!- arrrghh!"

Nana was quickly distracted by the waiter sweeping by to take her finished plate away.

"Enjoying everything ma'm?"

She smiled brightly back.

"Why yes, very much so!"

"I'll bring you your cappuccino right in a moment."

"Thank you!"

Turning back to her splendid view, a vivid splash of dyed hair approaching her skilled but oblivious field agent's position had her pausing. She lifted her sunglasses for a clearer inspection and caught sight of a second figure trailing not too far behind the first.

She supposed it was something she should be reporting to her daughter.

But the arrival of her cappuccino, brought a deliciously warm aroma that enveloped and made away with any thought that had been going through her mind. Her daughter's possible predicament was easily overridden by the horrible thought of such a wonderful beverage going lukewarm.

Her excuse? Well, she had doubted Akira would have heard her warning anyway, over all that racket.

Akira had another dilemma on her hands. Natsumi had thankfully stopped inadvertently dislocating her brain but had alas started moping and sobbing. She never knew what to do with a crying Natsumi, it made her out to especially be a jerk wad.

"A-am I not cool enough f-for the title?"

"Uh-"

Akira felt the teen's hiccups with awkward acuteness.

"I m-mean I know i-it's a cool title!" she blubbered. Akira nodded, more so in agreement of the coolness of the title than at an attempt to soothe her. But to the brunette's credit, she did attempt, with great difficulty, the briefest of pats on the shoulder. She tried to be comforting, she really did.

Then Natsumi started wailing.

"Do you n-not trust me to b-be your eyes in the sky Akira dear?!"

Shocked by her undercover mission falling apart in such a manner, and confused as to what to do with the blubbering mess before her, Akira was at a complete loss.

But the suffocating weight was lifted off her shoulders in quite a literal manner.

"Well shit, how could she Natsumi? She never trusted you to be her eyes in the bedroom but you did so anyway."

There was a following splutter, that sounded suspiciously like something along the lines of 'how'd you know about my cameras'.

And there, with Natsumi dangling from their grip stood Seiji, the red devil himself. Upon his face, a fanged grin that promised nothing but the violent demise of all her undercover efforts.

"Unhand me you bastard!"

As Natsumi immediately flipped from moping mess to thrashing terror complete with a furious scowl that stood heroically against the red-head's bemused grin, Akira started rapid-fire muttering sutras under her breath, wholeheartedly pushing in the technician's favour. But her desperate attempt at an exorcism of Seiji was in the end, only desperate. And he honed in on desperation like a moth to light.

"What's with the get-up Akira? Flight to Hawaii got cancelled or some shit?"

The casual way with which her well-thought out disguise was brushed aside once again simply rubbed her the wrong way. And she thought they would happier that she had swapped out the hardhat. Classy secret agent be damned, she dropkicked the hell out of that smug mug. Or at least she tried to.

All she managed to do was make him drop Natsumi.

It wasn't the smartest, as the moment the amber-haired woman hit the floor, she was dangling from the brunette's neck again and snapping at Seiji. Akira was in half the mind to join her. All she wanted was to comfortably enjoy the beautiful date she had set up, but the disruptions seemed to be endless.

"It's a disguise." she forced a tolerant smile, it came out like more of a gentle death threat than anything.

And despite having questioned the same thing not too long ago Natsumi voiced her support primly.

"Obviously."

At their open animosity and suspicion, the red-head raised his hands before him in an attempt to appease.

"Hey now, there's no need for the defensiveness." Seiji reassured, grinning his trustworthy grin.

They levelled him with equally flat stares.

"No really, I'm not here to take the piss at you or anything."

Their brows elevated to their hairlines with a slowness that spoke volumes of their scepticism. It hurt him, it really did. But it hardly bothered him as much as the sheer snark he had been trying to hold down. The two were looking at him with so much expectation that he just had to deliver.

"But really Natsumi? You took the day off to spend time crouching in a bush with Akira? Is this one of your weird fetishes-" he easily swung away as they took their respective potshots at him, grinning merrily all the while.

Natsumi jabbed an accusing finger in his direction, eyes watering.

"Why does my quality time with Akira always have to be ruined?! By you and double-oh-seven-" she whipped around to face the brunette. "and I'm not forgetting that dinner with double-oh-seven you promised me!"

"Huh-? Oh sure."

Her lip quivered, and both Akira and Seiji jumped when she dashed away bawling.

"I have a sale to get to dammit!"

Futilely Akira called after her in an attempt to remedy the situation.

"I'm sorry Natsumi! You can be Q alright?!" she ruffled the short hairs at the back of her head in distress at their retreating figure.

Seiji snorted.

"Well, I'm just dropping something off for you Akira." he patted her shoulder comfortingly. "I don't want to cause you any further inconvenience to your..." the redhead gave her colourful attire one last meaningful once over. "whatever this is."

Akira frowned.

"Dropping what off?"

He tipped his head towards a very familiar, scowling, dark-haired middle-schooler behind him.

"Oh, just a little thing called overdue responsibility." Seiji's signature shit-eating grin was back, and with it, all the unwanted memories of the Nakai incident she thought she had thoroughly bleached from her mind. "Remember Mochida-kun?"

"No." she breathed, voice rising with panic as she continued. "No you can't do this Red! This was supposed to be a day where I could stalk and be entertained by my brother's first date! You can't make me babysit on such an important day!"

But Seiji was already turning to walk away.

"You'll be fine! Just pretend he's your little sidekick or something!" he cackled, before pausing to fix her with a innocent grin. "Oh hey, that was some kinky secret agent roleplay shit you had going on with Natsumi there."

It was with wholehearted earnestness that Akira sent him off with both her middle fingers proudly raised.

"Oi."

She turned to mirror the scowl of her unwanted responsibility.

"What the fuck are you wearing?"

Her phone buzzed. A message from her mother.

Ki-chan, I do hope it wasn't you I saw putting up the rude finger at that young man.

Feeling at a loss, Akira flipped her phone back shut and narrowed her eyes in a glower at the teen.

"That's 'what the fuck are you wearing Agent Matchmaker?' to you, sidekick."

Tsuna had been reduced into some sort of incoherent stupor, induced by extreme exposure to the dazzling radiance his crush seemed to exude with every little action. And he alone had the fortunate misfortune of her closest proximity.

Was it possible for a single individual to possess ability to simultaneously nurture and crush his self-esteem with their very presence?

He blinked and curled into himself when he caught the stares in the reflection of the window his shopping 'companion' was attracting. He did not miss how the stares turned from admiring to incredulous when they slid from her to him. The back of his neck burned. He suddenly felt painfully self-conscious of his own disgustingly, sloppy appearance.

"Don't these sweets look delicious Tsuna-kun?"

Tsuna jumped slightly, a tentative but goofy smile inching its way onto his face at the bright-eyed look the honey-haired teen sent him. Not quite registering her question until several seconds after.

"H-huh? O-oh! Yeah, t-they do! Y-yep definitely." he broke off laughing stupidly, discreetly wiping his palms for the umpteenth time. Real smooth Tsuna, definitely over committed on that one. But before he could beat himself over it too much, a movement beside him caught his attention.

Kyoko tucking a silky honey lock behind her ear.

Tsuna swallowed thickly, cheeks tinged pink and mouth gaping slightly. Just like that he was back in his dazed stupor. And broke right out of it when a pixie-haired, bawling woman barrelled past him, bumping his shoulder and knocking him into Kyoko.

He immediately flushed bright red, spluttering garbled apologies and all but leaping away to create needed distance between them.

"That's alright." she said simply, before blinking after the woman's figure. "I wonder what had her so upset?"

"Y-yeah." Tsuna rubbed his shoulder absently, one terrifying innocent thought popping into his head as Kyoko pulled him along to another shop's window.

That would probably be him if he bumbled up in front of his crush too much.

Akira couldn't help but shoot a thumbs up at her amber-haired friend when Natsumi managed to skilfully knock Tsuna into Kyoko. That constant over half meter distance between them was getting annoying. She wasn't sure whether to frown or snort when her brother immediately sprung away from the slightest of contact with his crush, as if electrocuted.

"Your awkwardness is tangible Tsuna." she huffed.

For some reason, her unwanted charge Mochida Kensuke chose this moment to start paying attention. She silently wondered how one's eyebrow could be raised and furrowed at the same time without the individual looking ridiculous.

He somehow pulled it off.

"Did you say Tsuna?" he demanded. Akira glanced at him briefly.

"Yeah."

"As in Sawada Tsunayoshi from my school?"

She blinked. This person went to the same school as her brother? Maybe she could somehow manipulate this Mochida to befriend her brother-

"As in Dame-Tsuna?" the dark-haired teen's sneer was magnificent. Her train of thought was subjected to a wreckage immediately. "We're following that loser?"

Akira's expression went deceivingly amiable. Mochida seemed not to sense his impending demise, instead squinting at the two figures they had been trailing in the distance.

"Wait- is that the Sasagawa Kyoko he's walking next to?!" his eyes narrowed in outrage, and he rose from his crouch in the bushes, cracking his knuckles menacingly. "Who the fuck does the washout think he is, hanging around with Nami-middle's idol-!"

Mochida choked when the collar of his hoodie dug into his throat as he was wrenched sharply right back into cover. Grunting when his rear impacted the ground harshly, the teen whipped around himself with a furious scowl to find the perpetrator.

He was saved the effort as he felt himself being roughly yanked into a one armed headlock. Loose enough for him to recognise the face of his new keeper, but suffocating enough to get their point across.

Teeth bared at him in a sharp smile. The curve of the brunette's eyes by no means as friendly as it suggested.

Mochida let out a very unmanly 'eep'.

He was prey in the clutches of Namimori's predator of the bushes. And to add to the humiliation, the terrifying predator was clothed in a bright, tropical shirt.

"Let me let you in on a little secret my foolish sidekick." Akira's voice was light, but the tightening of her arm made up for what little threat it lacked. "That loser and washout you're talking about, he's my little brother."

He gulped audibly.

"So to make up for all the shit-talk about dear Tsuna over there, you'll happily make sure this date I've set up for him goes smoothly. Right?"

And despite the unjust tyranny he was being subjected to, Mochida mustered the last of his bruised pride and courage.

"No!" he managed to splutter in protest. "Sasagawa's my future girl-!"

"Ah?"

All civil pretense dropped, the cowing glare he was shot was something that crossed from delinquent right into Yakuza territory. Any further protests immediately wilted on his tongue.

"Good man." Akira released him with a casual dig of her knuckles into the crown of his head. He leapt away at once, glaring at her with a significantly more battered-looking scowl. One look at the two figures several meters had his mood souring further.

"I should be the one with Kyoko in the pet shop right now..." he muttered bitterly.

"Pet shop?"

The way Akira's eyes widened, Mochida might as well have announced that Armageddon itself was upon them. And in the brunette's meticulous and brilliant, grand scheme of things, it was not far off at all. She locked onto her brother in the distance with a speed fuelled by panic.

Right as he disappeared into that deceitfully innocent shop of horrors.

Spewing profanities, under her breath lest her mother heard, Akira all but kicked Mochida into motion, forcing the teen to either trip or be ungracefully herded into yet another cluster of man-nurtured shrubbery. One that had a clear view of the terrible incidents about to possibly unfold around the two blissfully unaware middle-schoolers.

Sure those cute little hamsters are harmless enough but-

"Do you have to choose the prickliest damn bushes in this place?!" Mochida snapped, dusting himself off and irritably inspecting a shallow cut on his elbow. Apparently he had recovered from their previous interaction enough to start make her life that much harder again. "I'm getting cuts everywhere!"

She turned to appraise his injury with an impatient look.

"Oh suck it up you baby." she grumbled, causing him to splutter. "Right now we need a plan to get my brother and his date the hell out of that hell-hole."

The dark-teen gave the pet-shop an incredulous once over.

"It's just a damn pet-shop, what's up with you?" and when his gaze fell on his two school-mates at the window he sneered. "Plus they seem pretty cozy to me."

"Exactly they're in a pet shop." Akira emphasised, "You don't understand how bad that combination is."

She turned back to the pet shop, and the sight that greeted her had her blood run cold.

What her brother's crush was holding was what nightmares were made of. What her brother's nightmares were made of. The brunette found herself crossing her fingers, desperately hoping for a miracle.

Her brother froze up, joints locking up the moment he caught sight of that puppy, that Chihuahua in Kyoko's arms. And Akira knew, Tsuna had not recovered from his childhood trauma in the slightest.

His debilitating fear of dogs.

All at once enlightenment hit. Akira suddenly knew, why she wasn't enjoying her once in a lifetime set up as much as she should be, why she had felt not hysterical glee but unease ever since the beginning of her brother's impromptu date.

Her brother wasn't exactly the dashing and smooth lady-killer who would breeze through something like a date. Her brother was someone who she had to hold hands with and bodily drag, kicking and screaming through the gauntlet known as 'once-in-a-lifetime' events to even hope to glimpse a result that could be considered success.

Because he was Tsuna, he was a Sawada. He came from a long line of predecessors who all possessed a 'luck' like no other.

And as Akira noticed the bright, orange faux-hawk of the employee approaching her brother with another puppy in arm, she realised that she too came from that very same line.

"Stay here and stand watch sidekick."

Ignoring the demand of where she was going, Akira steeled her resolve and stalked towards the pet shop.

The effortless recognition that twinkled in the employee's eye at her approach despite her scrupulous disguise disturbed her, yes. But like hell was she going to stand idly by while her little brother's rare chance at a love-life gets destroyed by a Chihuahua puppy.

"Friend!"

That refreshing smile through the window had her fighting back the onslaught of trauma that threatened to overtake her. Akira twitched visibly, threw a desperate prayer to the higher deities of Namimori and pressed on against her better judgement.

"Oh, the things I do for family..." she breathed.

A/N So I got finally got off my procrastinating arse to pump out this chapter. Because you readers are beautiful and too kind to me and I'm feeling guilty dammit. This one's for all of your fantastic FFR'ing butts you beautiful, beautiful people.
And like always, thank you very much for taking the time to read.