Maturation refers to the unfolding of one's genetic blueprint.

Real Name | R27 (?)

Sometimes Reborn sat uncomfortably close to him, brushing against him with every movement he made and flooding Tsuna's olfactory sense with the scent of coffee, gunpowder, and a scent that probably belonged to Reborn alone. It was a nice scent, Tsuna had to admit. For some reason, he associated it with safety and protection. He remembered reading somewhere that some people smelled better than others because of genetic compatibility or something. Did that mean that Reborn and he were genetically compatible? That was a strange thought.

"Hey Reborn," he said one day out of the blue. "Do you think I smell nice?"

Reborn stared at him strangely and Tsuna realised that what he said was really weird if taken out of context. And to Reborn, it was out of context. Hurriedly, he tried to explain himself.

"I'm asking because you smell nice to me, and I wanted to see if it's the same the other way around." That wasn't much better. "I'm curious because of some science thing I read online about genes and something called MHC typing," he added. This made Reborn's strange look ease up a bit, and amusement coloured the black haired man's features.

"I don't know, I've never really thought about it," he purred, shifting closer to Tsuna. Seeing the look in Reborn's eyes, Tsuna had the split-second revelation that he had made a big mistake.

Reborn's arms encircled him and he leaned down to bury his face in Tsuna's hair, inhaling deeply. Tsuna's eyes flickered about for an escape route, and his gaze landed on the table. His eyes widened.

"Well, Tsuna, you—"

"Holy shit!" Tsuna yelled, startling Reborn into letting go of him. Tsuna was pointing to a piece of paper on the table and Reborn turned to look at it. It was one of his tutorial worksheets. He didn't understand what had provoked Tsuna into such a large reaction.

"Renato Sinclair! I knew it, Reborn wasn't your given name!"

"…"

"…"

Reborn pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off his headache. Tsuna blinked innocently.

"What?"

Knight in Shining Armor | OC27 (probably)

Tsuna was an odd child, but the best co-worker she could ever ask for. Despite what anyone may think, she really did like him, maybe even love him. It was impossible not to. Tsuna just had that sort of effect on everyone, whether they wanted to be charmed or not. She should probably come up with a name for that effect. The Tsuna Effect? Nah, that's a bit too blatant. The fluffy cutie wouldn't be pleased with it. Maybe the Ventisette Effect? Yeah, that sounded nicer; it also gelled well enough with the name of the university – Trinisette – for anyone to be too suspicious.

She remembered the first and only time Tsuna had asked for her name. He wanted to know what he should call her. She didn't really know what to tell him; how was she supposed to explain her situation to him? That after getting taken in by the manager and leaving behind her old life, her old name, she hadn't even managed to find a new identity for herself?

No one but the manager, and now Tsuna, had ever asked for her name before.

When she didn't answer, couldn't answer, Tsuna didn't push her. He only gave a small smile and quoted something he read online to ease the tension.

'A name is a lie that keeps you from thinking that you can be more than one person.'

It was probably at that point that she fell for him. Of course, she wasn't going to pursue it. Tsuna already had so much on his plate, and she didn't think that she was ready to pursue an actual relationship with other people yet, so she let it lie.

It didn't mean that she didn't find the sight of people trying – and failing miserably – to get Tsuna's favour extremely amusing. It also didn't mean that she wouldn't subtly encourage them; because this sort of thing was somehow helping the café, after all.

Of course, there were some points where she had to draw the line.

"C'mon, don't be like that!" a customer leaned closer to Tsuna, basically cornering him. Tsuna's face was a strange mix of annoyance and discomfort, with a small dash of murder. She could basically see Tsuna's various suitors getting out of their seats, about to… neutralise this threat to Tsuna, but she didn't want to give them the chance to earn brownie points; not with such a cliché scene.

Donning the scariest smile she knew, she tapped the rowdy customer on the shoulder. When there wasn't any reaction, she grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him away from Tsuna, lifting him off the ground with ease. Everyone stared at her. Well, she supposed the sight was weird; young woman who looked like she had never seen a day of exercise in her life lifting up a burly, muscled man as if it were nothing. Damn, when put that way, she wanted to see the scene too. But back to the topic at hand.

"Harassment of customers is very much prohibited, good sir!" she said with poisonous sweetness. The man paled from fear. Or maybe it was because the collar of his shirt was digging into his neck and severely restricting blood and air supply. Oh dear, that wouldn't do. Still smiling, she carelessly dropped the rowdy customer onto the ground. Once his feet touched the ground, he quickly took a few steps back. They stared at each other for a moment before he hurriedly exited the shop. Oh dear, one less customer. Ah, they didn't need someone who would harass the fluffy cutie anyway.

"U-um," Tsuna said from behind her. She turned around to stare at him curiously, but also a little worried. What if he was scared of her after that display?

"What is it, Tsuna?"

"Thank you for saving me! I really appreciate it!" Tsuna yelled out, blushing. She stared at him, and a smile slowly grew on her lips. Ahh, Tsuna was really too cute.

"'S no problem," she replied, patting Tsuna on the head. An idea flashed through her mind and she gave a wicked smirk. Keeping an eye on Tsuna's suitors, she slowly bent down to kiss him on the forehead. Oh yes, so much anger and jealously all about. Very amusing. The weird one in the black fedora was gritting his teeth. The silver haired stalker looked seconds away from marching over and taking her head off. Even the two shy red headed ones looked a little annoyed.

When she pulled away, Tsuna was incredibly red and incoherent. Ah, she had overdone it. Oh well.

She heard the sound of a camera and turned to see that the manager had taken a photo of Tsuna's blushing face, no doubt to post on their café's Instagram later. The manager nodded at her and she smiled back.

"Hey Tsuna!" she called out after their shifts had ended. Tsuna turned to regard her curiously.

"Yes, co-worker-san?" he asked.

"There's this really cool restaurant a little distance away from the university. I kinda wanna go there, but it's a lil' weird to go alone. So, wanna go with me?"

"Sure!" Tsuna was so, so trusting. She just wanted to ruffle his hair.

"Alright! Can we meet tomorrow at six, by the main gates? Or do you still have classes then?" she asked, well aware that she had a shift during that time.

"No, tomorrow at six is fine. See you!" With that, he was off. She smirked.

It was time for her favourite deadpan snarker customer to meet the cutest fluffy thing alive.

Ventisette means twenty-seven in Italian, by the way. I know, I'm so original.

Blind Date | 2627 (Fran's handle is 26 right?)

Tsuna reached the main gates five minutes before six and looked around. He couldn't see his elusive co-worker anywhere, but that was kind of expected. She was the type to arrive exactly on time, right down to the last second. It was a bit unnerving, to be honest.

As the minute hand of his watched reached six, someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned around, expecting to see his co-worker, but green haired boy in a strange hat entered his line of sight. Tsuna stared at the hat for a while. Was that… an apple?

…

Alright whatever. Other people had their freedom to wear whatever they want.

"Are you 'the cutest fluffy thing alive'?" the boy asked in a deadpan. Tsuna twitched.

"Well, it depends on who's asking," he replied. "Did my co-worker send you here?"

"If by co-worker, you mean the crazy coffee lady, then yes, she did. She told me to tell you that something had come up and I would be taking her place instead."

"…" In hindsight, Tsuna should have expected this. "Alright then. My name is Tsunayoshi Sawada, but you can call me Tsuna. It's nice to meet you…?"

"My name is Fran. It's nice to meet you too, Fluffy-san."

Tsuna twitched again.

Despite Tsuna's hesitation about the entire situation, Fran was actually very good company. He was really funny, especially with his deadpan snarky humour, and the way he… commented on everyone.

Tsuna knew that he was a bad person for laughing so much.

"I'm not joking, Fluffy-san! You really need to be careful around the perverted pineapple senpai!"

"Ah, this Gokudera sounds like a stalker. An UMA obsessed stalker. You should consider filing a restraining order, you know."

"Ah yes, I know Hibari Kyoya. Perverted pineapple senpai likes to mess around with him, after all. Hibari's like a caveman who hasn't fully evolved. You need to stay away from him, Fluffy-san. What if you catch his awkwardness?"

"This 'Dino' is a bit… Fluffy-san, about that restraining order…"

How does he say all of that with a straight face? Tsuna was already dying of laughter, leaning against Fran as the green haired boy continued his monotone observations.

"Ah, Fluffy-san, do you think this Reborn specifically curls his own sideburns every morning or…?"

That was too much. Tsuna fell into Fran's lap, tears in his eyes and shaking from too much laughter.

Fran and Tsuna walked side by side back to the gates in a comfortable silence.

"I had a good time today with you, Fran," Tsuna commented, smiling gently. Fran nodded in agreement, expression unchanging.

"I had a good time with you too, Fluffy-san. It's a pity that I couldn't meet you earlier."

"Ah!" Tsuna pulled out his phone. "Would you like to exchange phone numbers?" His smile was sparkly and basically emitting flowers. Fran smiled back a little.

"Sure."

Two days later, Fran entered the café during Tsuna's shift. The brunet happily greeted his friend as Fran walked to the counter.

"Hello Fran, what can I get you today?" he asked. Fran pulled out a piece of paper and placed it on the counter. Tsuna blinked and looked at it.

It was a form for a restraining order.

Tsuna had to place his hands on the counter to prevent himself from collapsing from laughter.

Sky's Second Meeting | G27

When a man with blond hair and orange eyes stepped into the café, Tsuna immediately turned around and walked into the employee room. Whatever it was, his co-worker could do it.

His manager was sitting at the table of the employee room and glanced up at Tsuna when he walked in. They stared at Tsuna for a while before placing their coffee on the table and walking out of the employee room. A few seconds later, they re-entered the room and sat in front of Tsuna.

"You need to face your fears," they said seriously. Tsuna shook his head and they frowned contemplatively.

"What are you doing, Tsuna? Why do you run? Face forward, cast off your fear, and you will grow," they told him solemnly. There was a moment of silence before Tsuna nodded, scared but determined, and walked out of the employee room. The manager was right; he shouldn't run away from his fears instead of facing them head on.

Inside the employee room, the manager took a sip of their coffee and gave a contented sigh. "I knew memorising inspirational anime speeches would eventually pay off," they mused to themselves. "Hopefully we can get another regular."

There was a red haired man with a strange tattoo on his face standing beside the blond one. Both of them had just finished ordering their drinks and Tsuna's co-worker was about to go make them. Tsuna bravely stepped forth and offered to make the drinks. Giving him an amused smile, his co-worker waved him towards the two customers. Taking a deep breath, Tsuna slowly turned around to face the two customers. The blond haired man was gaping and the red haired man looked terribly amused. Tsuna almost ran away again but he caught sight of Fran, who was sitting at the corner of the café enjoying his mocha, enthusiastically waving the restraining order form in his hand, and smiled slightly. With new found confidence, he looked back at the two customers and forced out a smile.

"Hello, my name is Tsuna. I didn't quite catch your name before…?" Tsuna tilted his head to the side. The blond blushed and looked away, prompting the red head to roll his eyes.

"I'm G. and this idiot here is Giotto. You must be the poor guy he violated." Tsuna nodded, blushing slightly. Must he put it that way?

"Yeah, kind of," Tsuna said noncommittally. "Is he alright? I reacted rather violently back then." 'Rather violently' was an understatement. Tsuna had basically kneed the blond in the groin and uppercutted him before running away in mortification.

G. snickered at his question and elbowed Giotto. Giotto quickly shook his head and looked back at Tsuna. "Yes, I am alright. I apologise for my misconduct the other day, it was inappropriate of me," he said with utmost formality. Tsuna nodded, accepting the apology. He wasn't going to talk about the days Giotto spent standing near the doors of the café and just staring at him. As far as he was concerned, such a thing did not happen.

Tsuna's co-worker came back with the drinks and set them on the table. They took it with a 'thanks' and G. slowly herded Giotto towards the door. The blond seemed reluctant to leave, and kept turning back to steal glances at Tsuna until G. whacked him on the head. Once they were out of sight, Fran slowly made his way to the counter and set the restraining order on in front of Tsuna once again. Tsuna stared at it for a long while, contemplative, before he sighed and shook his head. There wasn't any actual reason to file an order.

Yet.

Author's note

Yo, who should I introduce next chapter.

DID ANYONE KNOW THAT REBORN'S NAME IS RENATO SINCLAIR?! AM I ONE OF THE ONLY FEW PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T KNOW?

Amano Akira-sensei revealed it. It is canon.

I've realised that this is also somewhat of a coffee shop/barista au. Huh.

The co-worker and manager won't play much of a big role in the later chapters, I promise. So you don't have any reason to worry.

Many thanks to Hweianime, without whom, I wouldn't even be writing Repercussions of a Wish anymore.

Thanks to Alicia Testarossa too, for giving me the idea of having someone witness the 'Tsuna Effect' from a third person POV.

'A name is a lie that keeps you from thinking that you can be more than one person.' is from Night Vale's twitter

Reviews

guest 5/11 Nope, the adopted human girl isn't the manager! Good guess, though!

hikaru No, actually, I can't. Aren't curling irons super hot? Won't he get burnt? And Giotto, charming? I doubt so. To quote G. from the inheritance arc (which I just watched) "I got dragged into many weird things because of you." I think it tells a lot about Giotto's character. (Personally I think he's the type that leads everyone around him into thinking that he's cool but he is not)

Blaze Thank you! About my Harry Potter one… I actually haven't touched it since two-three years ago, and I've changed very much since then, so I'm not too sure how to write it anymore. I'll see what I can do, though!