[Edit: 4/12/17 - a few typos that I could spot at a cursory glance and a bit for clarity, not much]

Mutt: Let's get right back into it!

Mutt: Or should I say...

Kei: Don't you fucking da -

Mutt: Let's get write back into it.

Kei: ...

Goku: That was fucking disgusting.

Tsuna: Er...Kaylin?

Kei: ... *silence gets progressively more aggressive*

Tsuna: Uhh...

Mutt: Blame Sans.

Tsuna & Goku: Eh?

Mutt: Don't worry about it. Same generic Disclaimer as always, don't be a dick, okay? Now, let's move on before Kei-chan breaks one or all of my fingers and I can't write, anymore, yeah?

[ READ THE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM, GUYS, OKAY THANKS ]

/\/\/\/

1st person, Kaylin

"Ara, Kaylin-chan?"

I halted mid-step in my jog, tipping backwards a bit to blink in the direction of the familiar voice. The early morning sun made me squint slightly.

"Oh. Kyoko." That's surprising. Now that I looked around, I wasn't quite sure where I was. I had taken to regularly going on jogs of a morning. Out of caution, they were significantly shorter than that first jog that had knocked me out for half a day, and thusly much less straining, but I was slowly, slowly, rebuilding my lost stamina. I hadn't tasted any blood due to overexertion for a while, 's partly due to rather lax days, though, I imagined.

I didn't have a set route, yet, and used my jogs to explore Namimori little by little. While I wasn't quite sure where I was at any given moment on said jogs, I was generally able to find Namichuu easily enough, it being rather central in the city.

This morning, it seemed I found myself near Kyoko's neck of the woods.

I blinked as Kyoko seemed to deliberate for just a moment before visibly coming to some kind of conclusion, which had her making her way over to me from where she spotted me in a way that seemed disproportionately resolute.

I wiped my forehead with the wristband below my elbow and curiously waited for her as she jogged over.

"Good morning, Kaylin-chan!" Tsuna's crush chirped, smiling sweetly.

I didn't dislike the girl, and she was important to Tsuna (said boy never actually said that he was crushing on her, but I had enough common sense to notice), so I reciprocated the pleasantries.

"Morning, Kyoko." I tilted my head and smirked teasingly. "You're pretty chipper this early in the morning."

She seemed surprisingly pleased with my response. "It's such a nice morning, after all," she beamed at me.

Geez. I thought the sun was bright, but here she is, giving it a run for its money. I couldn't help but give her a small, genuine smile back. She radiates nothing but good will.

She fiddled with the handle of her school bag for a moment, and it struck me that she looked just a little nervous. It was true, we'd never had a proper conversation before. Then again, I'd never had a proper conversation with the majority of my classmates.

It seemed like she wanted to say something, so I tilted my head and waited patiently. Ah, such a tender age.

"If you'd like - " She looked me in they eye, leaning forward slightly in her earnestness. I blinked and straightened. "If you'd like, Kaylin-chan, if I'm not interrupting your jog terribly, would you like to walk to school together?"

I blinked again. She pursed her lips and waited for my response.

That. Well, wasn't what I was expecting, but -

"O-okay?"

She should come with a warning label for that thousand-watt smile of hers, holy hell.

"I'm glad!" She is? "We've never really gotten to talk before, but I was sure you seemed like a nice person!" She was?

"You were?"

Kyoko nodded resolutely. "Mhm! Some of our classmates think you're scary, but I can tell that you're actually a good person." She had an almost comically serious look on her face, with a little wrinkle between her eyebrows.

"Y-you think so...?"

"I do! You've stood up for Tsuna-kun before, and I've heard you say you've helped him study before - " It was then that she put on a thinking face, holding her index finger to her chin. " - And, even though he's nice to everyone, Yamamoto-kun seems to like you, and Hana-chan doesn't think you're annoying - which is impressive! - and Saya-chan and Haruka-chan talked about how - "

At that point I was rather stunned, as well as something between embarrassed and flattered, and she still kept rattling off things that apparently made me a good person. I couldn't tell if she was surprisingly observant or just picking at straws. Or maybe her social circle was just that impressive?

My assent to walk with her was apparently all she needed to open the floodgates of middle-school-girl chattering. I quickly learned that she was a ray of sunshine even away from a crowd, as well. A very short while after we started moving, she tentatively began asking questions.

"Kaylin-chan is from America, right?" I nodded, and I could just see the inquisitiveness leaking from her ears. "You've been here for a while, but is this your first time in Japan?" Another nod. "There must be a lot of culture shock, then!"

Girl, don't get me started.

I nodded vigorously. "There is, there is! All the formality is so...stifling!" I flailed my hands, displaying my general discomfort. "I feel like a delinquent every time I talk to an adult," I complained. "And it feels like sometimes people are overly polite to me for no reason, it makes me twitchy!"

Kyoko, surprisingly, gave a little snort before covering her mouth with a hand and laughing. "You're as blunt as Hana-chan!"

I was honestly surprised by how quickly we fell into bantering back and forth. Talking to someone so...dainty and delicate usually made me uncomfortable pretty quickly - it just wasn't what I was used to - but Kyoko was just so...friendly. It was impressive, really.

At one point, she just smiled at me and said, "I knew I was right! You're not scary at all, Kaylin-chan."

I huffed and scratched my cheek, scowling at how warm I found it.

I'm a mafioso, dammit!

Kyoko, for some reason, giggled at the look on my face. "You've even got a cute side, too!"

I made a sound between a gasp and a squeak before I could stop myself. Even as I denied it fervently, "I-I'm not cute - !" Kyoko burst into a fit of even more giggles, peals of laughter only serving to make me more indignant.

She struggled to catch her breath as she waved a hand at me, other arm clutching at her stomach. "S-Sorry, Kaylin-chan - I was only teasing!"

I was saved from further loss of my pride when Kyoko and I simultaneously blinked at something ahead of us.

"Ah, Tsuna."

"Ah, Tsuna-kun! Good morning," Kyoko beat me in greeting, as I was studying the sight before me, though the more I thought about it the less surprised I was.

The girl Tsuna had saved from drowning was there, with Tsuna, right in the midst of the boy accepting...a lunchbox? I raised my eyebrow at him, but given the way he looked like he was about to have a panic attack, I surmised that this wasn't what it looked like. Though, Kyoko might not have noticed that.

Which was hilarious. I had to bite my cheek to stop from laughing. Tsuna's eyes skittered between Kyoko and Haru before landing on me, and I was fixed with a hopeful, pleading look that would put puppies to shame. Though I was still laughing on the inside, and I was sure it was evident on my face, I shrugged in a 'well, I don't know what to do' gesture.

And thus he sunk into the depths of despair.

/\/\/\/

Tsuna's mood, just borderline of 'foul' lasted until lunchtime. But, luckily, the way a teenager's stomach was so closely linked to their brain, the promise of food placated him considerably.

"So?" Tsuna asked me around the chopsticks in his mouth as he pulled open his lunchbox (The one Haru gave him. He said it was bad to waste food.), "Why were you even with Kyoko-chan this morning?"

Gokudera was having his cigarette, and Yamamoto was eating his own lunch. I was in the middle of tearing open my first package of melon bread (of three). Squeezing my tongue between my teeth, I yanked the plastic apart at the seams with a 'pop' before responding.

"Was it that weird?" I mused, taking a bite of the delicious delicacy that was melon bread. Hina sniffled on my shoulder.

"Well, you don't usually talk to other girls in the class," Yamamoto commented mildly.

"Hm." I conceded the point. "I was about ready to head to school on my jog, apparently somewhere near Kyoko's neighborhood, and she kind of flagged me down and asked if I wanted to walk to school with her." I was still rather confused about that turn of events, and it was evident on my face. "And we kind of, you know, chatted for a while, I guess." I shrugged. "Maybe she was just curious because I'm foreign? I certainly like to think I'm more approachable than him." I jerked a thumb towards Gokudera.

Said silverette twitched and Yamamoto laughed.

"Well, she has a point, you know," the baseball player pointed out.

"What was that?!" Gokudera seemed to seethe on principle.

"Maa, you guys," Tsuna borrowed from Yamamoto's peacekeeper playbook, "You're both kind of, you know...intimidating." Tsuna grimaced a little. Since that was the image Gokudera was going for, and something I had come to terms with, neither of us disagreed. Not that Gokudera would, anyways. "But that doesn't have to be a bad thing! It's just part of your character." Poor kid looked like he only half-believed what he said.

"Mafioso are generally supposed to be scary, after all."

None of us really jumped at the surprise entrance of the squeaky voice we all instantly recognized to be Reborn.

What did get us, however, was the hitman's...er, outfit. "Outfit" being loosely applied, here.

He was a...spiky chestnut. With a face.

I don't think my cheek had ever spasmed so hard. I was caught somewhere between horror, second-hand embarrassment, a vague sense of being impressed, and uncontrollable amusement. As it was, I just kind of gaped.

As per usual, Tsuna was the first to verbally greet the baby and, as per usual, it was with a mixed amount of surprise and exasperation. And a little suspicion.

"Reborn!" I imagine Tsuna's expression was pretty close to my own, but with more irritation. "What's with that costume?!" An appropriate reaction.

The appropriate response to which was apparently repeatedly jabbing Tsuna with the spikes.

"Could it be..." Gokudera half-muttered to himself. "A 'big' chestnut (kuri) is meant to be a big surprise (bikkuri)?"

My eyes sprang open so wide I could have cried. I snorted so hard I did cry.

"Ow, ow, ow - !" I covered my face with my hands, hiding a series of snorts and chortles. "Bilingual pun..." I mumbled weakly. Oh no, the more I thought about it the funnier it got.

I paused. "Bikkuri..." Then started giggling again.

"No fucking shame...shitty yankee," I heard Gokudera growl.

I gasped, aghast. "You straight-faced it! You fu - you completely straight-faced it, though!" I cried, then proceeded to full-out laugh.

"I suppose only those who know multiple languages would appreciate humor like that. But it's a shame," Reborn said.

I sniffled, wiped away a tear, and straightened up, definitely red in the face.

Tsuna blinked down at Reborn. "A shame? Why?"

Reborn never blinks, but it felt like it should have been there.

"This is a sea urchin."

I slammed my face into my knees to keep from cracking up again.

"Bianchi made this for me when she was in middle school," the infant continued, set on ignoring me. "It's a disguise used for long-distance commuting."

"Everyone would notice that!"

Reborn probably shrugged. "Everyone avoids the spikes, so no one bothers me."

'That's a fair strategy,' Hina remarked from by my bottom, where she likely took refuge since it was the only thing not flailing. If only her eyesight allowed her to fully appreciate this.

And, in that way of his of talking about horrible, often deadly things like they were as benign as a sunny spring day, Reborn added, "The spikes are also covered in a poison that'll send anyone to heaven in thirty seconds."

Wh -

Every sane person present straightened in alarm - Reborn had just jabbed Tsuna with those things a little bit ago - !

No one reacted immediately as Tsuna flopped backwards, fainted.

Reborn pulled out a stop watch.

"Hm. Forty-five. Maybe it's old," the baby muttered.

That little shit - !

/\/\/\/

"Well, at least it's not me, this time," I dryly remarked as the boys situated the unconscious Tsuna onto a sofa.

"Why, you - ! You're not even helping!" Gokudera snarked.

I rolled my eyes. "As if you need three people to carry him." Gokudera twitched, but couldn't logically find anything to be angry at with that statement.

Yamamoto wondered aloud, "To think there was a room like this in school." He stared around at the admittedly out-of-place room, and I followed suit, taking in the leather couches, potted plants, view of the pool out the window - I made an impressed humming noise.

"The reception room isn't used much," Reborn explained after having perched himself on one of the plush chairs. "The furniture is nice, and so is the view." So he agreed. "And the location is convenient, too."

I squinted. "What are you getting at?"

The baby took my suspicion in stride, of course. "This room will be the Vongola family's secret headquarters."

I blinked. In the school?

That was...not permanently realistic, obviously. But it was also dangerous for every student on the roster.

...I called bullshit.

...

In my head.

Yamamoto laughed in a kind of delight at Reborn's words, though.

"Oh, that's fun! Like a secret hideout." I pulled my hand across my face and gave the boys a sidelong glance when Gokudera griped.

"What are you, a freakin' kid?" Well, yeah. Though, as I leaned on the armrest by Tsuna's feet, Gokudera gave the room a satisfied smirk, hand on his chin. "Though, this is good. The family definitely needs a base."

I gave a quiet sigh. He was a kid, too.

Yamamoto simply smiled before turning to the windows and working them open. I had to agree: it was too nice a day not to enjoy it.

That said, however...

My neck prickled and my shoulders tensed a split second before the sliding door was thrown open in front of me.

"You there. What are you all doing here?"

And here we see a pack of vultures that will make it rather hard to enjoy said nice day.

I eyed the boys in front of me warily, not moving from my position in front of Tsuna. They were in a more traditional style of school uniform, and wore red bands on their upper arms. And...

They...all had pompadours.

...Alright, as much as I really didn't want to take them seriously, the looks in their eyes definitely said that they meant trouble.

"Who told you to come here?" One in front demanded.

I could feel Gokudera's hackles raise from behind me, though I didn't take my eyes off of the newcomers, who were all glowering at the three of us in turn. Reborn went unnoticed. Because of course he did.

"Hah? Rather, what the hell do you guys want?"

Not intimidated in the least, the boys flowed into the room like particularly flambouyant tar. Several got closer to my position than I liked, and many were decently taller than me, not even counting my half-seated state, but, still, I didn't move.

"Don't act cocky!" One of the clones spat. Seriously, they all looked alike.

Pretty sure he can at least kick your ass in particular, bud. At least in a fist fight. With his explosives, every one of them would be char.

I got a bad taste in my mouth the moment I realized that I acknowledged that kid in a fight. Dammit. This was just gonna be one of those days, wasn't it?

"This room was given to the Disciplinary Committee," the thug continued. We had a disciplinary committee? That was a thing?

The one at the front of the pack, and closest to me, finally glanced behind me, at Tsuna, and his eyes narrowed. He began to move forward, apparently ready to ignore me.

He caught my glare, however, and faltered.

"I wouldn't," I warned, voice low.

The boy sneered, obviously not taking me as seriously as he definitely should. Then, without preamble, he reeled his foot back and shot it out toward the side of the couch, right next to my leg.

Which was a poor, poor choice.

...Under normal circumstances.

As it was, I met his kick with my own, intercepting and absorbing the shock as much as I could, catching him in the outstretched ankle with the heel of my foot. My eyes narrowed dangerously.

'As it was.'

As it was, that was all I could do freely. Absorb impact as much as I could, minimize the threat to Tsuna and my new family.

As it was...

I was honestly itching to tear somebody's fucking throat out.

My voice was eerily quiet, even to me. "Ne, Reborn...?"

"I'll allow it. Just don't kill anybody."

I made sure not to let either of the boys see my face when my expression twisted into a wicked grin, teeth bared and gleaming.

Oh, yeah. Still a poor, poor choice.

/\/\/\/

3rd person, omniscient(?)

Kaylin flipped her crimson fringe out of her face with a huff, crossing her arms under her chest.

"Feel better?" Reborn idly inquired as he finished brewing coffee.

Kaylin tilted her head as she surveyed her and her friends' work, and couldn't keep the smug grin from her face.

"Mhm, kinda, yeah. I do." She rolled her shoulders. She never realized how pent up she had been until after the last pompadour'd thug slumped to the ground. The fight started and ended abruptly.

While she had intended to take care of the problem by herself, she wasn't very surprised at all when Gokudera jumped in all of two seconds after she made the first real swing.

Well, it wasn't so much a "swing" as it was a takedown. She'd shot up from her position on the arm of the couch, knocking the thug off kelter by kicking off with her foot on his ankle. She took advantage of his compromised balance by hooking her foot around his grounded knee as a counter force and shoved him backwards and over by smashing her forearm into his neck. Disoriented by the blow to the windpipe and the rapidly shifting center of gravity, the back of his head smashed right into the ground, and he was out cold.

Most of the brawl was a similar series of one-hit K.O.'s.

She wasn't surprised when Gokudera jumped in, but she was surprised when Yamamoto stepped in when someone started swinging around a mop like the thing was meant for fights in the first place. She honestly half-expected the baseball player to be something of a pacifist.

But, no, he didn't seem very reluctant at all to give mop-guy a hell of a left hook to the face after he caught the handle with a single hand. He then proceeded to take down the aggressors in what she would never admit was a manner faster than she did.

Considering her hand-to-hand combat tactics were counters. That, or murder.

But she was on probation, so.

As it ended, the body count was roughly even in distribution among the teens and about a dozen unconscious members of the Disciplinary Committee were heaped onto the floor, not one of them within two meters of the sleeping Tenth Boss-to-be.

"You just had to go jumping in head-first, you shitty yankee," Gokudera grumbled after Reborn announced that the coffee was done.

"Psh," Kaylin scoffed, "as if you weren't about to."

"Maa, you two," Yamamoto attempted to placate his friends, holding out two mugs of coffee in for them in each hand, hoping they'd be distracted from their own squabble. "It seemed like they were going to cause trouble, anyways. It probably wouldn't have mattered who threw the first punch."

Kaylin gave a self-righteous 'hmph,' primarily just to assert her small victory over the silverette, who glowered at her in response. The girl pointedly ignored him as she took a sip of her coffee while Yamamoto grabbed his own. She smiled in very pleasant surprise and looked down at Reborn, eyes sparkling.

"You didn't leave it black!"

The infant took a loud swig of his own coffee before responding nonchalantly with, "I used an obscene and unhealthy amount of sugar in that cup, just for you."

The redhead only grinned. "Just the way I like it!"

Reborn would have sighed if it wasn't undignified. He shared an unreadable glance with Leon, instead.

Unfortunately, none of the teens put much of a dent in their portions coffee before they were interrupted again.

From the doorway sounded just about the most nonchalantly disdainful tone of voice any of the teenagers had ever heard.

"Not even useful as guard dogs..."

A young man that only one of them didn't recognize was leaning easily on the doorframe. He casually poked at the prone body of one of the Committee members with his foot, not an ounce of respect in his stature or actions.

By that time, some color had already drained from Kaylin's face, several things blazing through her mind in about a second. She made a conscious effort not to let her gaze flick towards Tsuna. She processed that her boss-in-name wasn't in the line of sight of the boy she had yet to learn the name of.

She remembered how eager to fight this boy had been during their first real encounter and preemptively sat her mug of coffee on the desk by the window. She noticed, to her mounting tension, that the dark-haired looking boy eyed the action, and then her. Vague recollection passed through his eyes.

His gaze slid smoothly between her and the boys to her side.

"Who are you?" His tone and voice matched the disinterest in his eyes perfectly.

"That's..." Yamamoto muttered, "...Hibari Kyouya." Kaylin didn't like how tense her easygoing friend had become with the arrival of the now-named stranger.

"You're with them?" Gokudera suddenly demanded as he marched forward, all too cocky with his mug of coffee still grasped by the handle in one hand, other fisted at his side.

Both Kaylin and Yamamoto tensed further, sharing a semi-panicked glance.

"Hn?" The narrow-eyed boy, Hibari Kyouya, gave the irate green-eyed boy the same level of concern one might give a particularly average-sized insect.

Yamamoto tried to warn him, his usual cheer entirely replaced with a wariness that made Kaylin's stomach clench and fingers twitch.

"Wait, Gokudera, that's - "

"This is the Vongola family's new base," the clueless mafioso growled, like the quiet warning yowl of a tomcat before a fight broke out.

"'Family?'" The elder boy murmured, not even considering being intimidated. "What kind of gathering is that supposed to be?" If anything, he seemed marginally bemused, which, of course, rubbed young Hayato in entirely the wrong way. His temper rapidly flared.

"Gathering? Enough already, get lo - "

There was a nearly imperceptible movement in Hibari Kyoya's shoulders. In the same instant that light arked in a vicious upward swipe, Gokudera was yanked backwards. Ceramic shattered on the ground.

/\/\/\/

3rd person, Hibari Kyouya

He had honestly just planned on taking a nap to pass the time, but this turn of events would work, too. He wasn't distraught in the least that a few of his henchmen in the Disciplinary Committee seem to have been beaten into unconsciousness. It was their own faults for being weak, after all.

And since his plans had only been to relieve boredom, anyways, he wasn't even particularly irritated to see that this had taken place in the room he intended to claim his own for his nap. Biting a few meddlesome herbivores to death would help well enough to ease the tedium of the afternoon. And it seemed they were eager to be cut down to size.

He struck at the most arrogant of the "family," - whatever kind of group that was. Just to startle him, really. Unless he was angered or in a bad mood prior, he did have something of a habit of playing with his prey. Call it a character flaw.

Another character flaw, though he'd never admit it himself (or deny it, really), was his own pride and arrogance. He didn't imagine that he'd have to pay any particular kind of attention to catch the movements of some strange female - even if he had seen her move quite quickly before. Before she had only dodged a single strike. Not nearly enough to really catch his attention.

He had seen her coming, of course. He expected them to try attacking him at the same time, as weaker creatures tend to do when frightened. It seemed he slightly underestimated her, though. Instead of attacking and being consequently struck down, she did something relatively less self-destructive. Rather than moving within his reach, she got as close as she dared and yanked her comrade backwards and away from Hibari.

He wore a pleasantly surprised smirk as the red stranger uncurled her fingers from the fabric of the herbivore's shirt. Though the expression on Kyouya looked nothing but menacing.

Hibari Kyouya hummed, completely shifting his focus to the girl. This may well serve to be entertaining, after all, he considered.

"You little -" The silver-haired herbivore snarled as he moved forward and reeled his fist back.

"Oi!" The red girl snapped. She might have pulled him back again, but in the next moment Kyouya easily stepped aside from the boy's swing and struck him across the head with his tonfa. He was thrown into the arm of a couch, and he slumped. He had barely qualified as a light snack.

The girl hissed something that Kyouya would have guessed was a curse, though he couldn't understand it. Not that he cared enough to want to. Already his fingers were twitching to reach for his other tonfa.

Though, it seemed the other herbivore wanted to be bitten to death before her.

Hibari was vaguely amused when the taller boy hurried forward and put an arm in front of the girl and guided her a few steps back. He was even more amused at the affronted look on her face.

"Kei-chan, he's -" The boy started.

The red one snapped, "Dangerous, I know! So you step back and let me -"

Kyouya's tonfa flashed centimeters away from her face and both she and the other herbivore jerked apart to get space between themselves and the swipe of the weapon.

Hibari's smirk was predatory. He said, "I'll honor your pointless chivalry by biting you to death first, then."

The head prefect was fast. He surged toward the male and aimed a blow right for his face. Hibari only smirked again when the boy dodged. Barely. The red one was certainly more surprised by this show of reflexes than he was. Shocked, even, considering she didn't step in even after Kyouya continued raining swipe after swipe on her companion.

The prefect's smirk widened as he hummed. "You're fast." Of course Hibari was holding back. This was fun. He didn't even slow down his attacks when he continued, "But you're guarding your right side. Are you in the baseball club?" The boy's eyes widened and Kyouya's teeth flashed in his slight grin as he secured an opening.

The girl cursed again, seeing it, too. But Hibari was between the two and she wasn't fast enough to do anything about the merciless kick to the baseball player's stomach that sent him sprawling over onto one of the couches. The prefect's smirk didn't fade as he turned to the last herbivore.

"You look angry," he mused. The comment seemed to incense her further.

"Mostly at myself," she muttered, eyeing her fallen friends with a grimace.

"Don't be." He moved into a loose ready stance. "You couldn't have protected them, anyways. I'd have just cut you down, first." To his slight consternation, though, the girl put on a wry smirk of her own. Her right foot slid back into her own stance, not shying away from combat, at all.

"If I offer to just take my friends and leave, would you let me go without a fight?" She tried.

Kyouya tightened his grip on his tonfa, eyes glinting in anticipation.

"No."

/\/\/\/

1st person, Kaylin

It was clear with the first two rapid swings of his tonfa that this "Hibari" guy was trouble. What was also clear was that I was going to be hard-pressed to win in a situation where I could hardly fight back.

Or rather, what would even count as a win in this situation?! Both Gokudera and Yamamoto were out, and Tsuna would wake up sooner or later. Meaning, my current goal was to protect Tsuna. Okay, yeah, that would count as a win.

But, again, I couldn't fight back. Not in any kind of effective way! This guy hit so damn hard that I had to have complete accuracy in deflecting his blows lest I get a serious bruise. Or broken bone.

I skipped back to avoid another swipe at my head (seriously, rude.)

"You're not as fast as the baseball player." Swipe. "But you don't need to be. It seems like you know how to fight."

I didn't respond. I was too busy avoiding unnecessary damage. He aimed the end of his tonfa at my face in a scarily fast strike. I shoved his arm to the inside, making sure I stayed out of the range of his other arm.

Of course he smirked and took advantage of the position to aim a sidekick right at my chest. Even though I was quick enough to jump backwards, I wasn't quite quick enough, so I had no choice but to block this one. I crossed my arms in front of me and let them absorb the shock of the blow, and I skidded backwards.

I thought I had grimaced, because that fucking hurt that'll be a hell of a bruise in the shape of school slipper tread, until Hibari smirk widened again in vague amusement.

He remarked, "Oh? Could it be that you're enjoying this, too?"

My eyes widened, and he had the grace enough to pause his flurry of attacks. Turns out I wore more of a snarl of a smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied. An animal part of me that I try to kick into submission seemed to be rearing its head in the face of someone so much like a...predator. A tingling sense of danger that I had long since stopped being afraid of.

"That makes me wonder," he ignored my denial as he pulled out another tonfa from somewhere, and I tensed, "why you're holding back."

I didn't have time to even grit my teeth before he was on me again, this time much faster than before.

"Again, I don't know what you're talking - !"

He interrupted my false assertion with a swipe at my face. "I'll force it out off you, then." He spun and arced out his foot and followed up with another arc of light from his tonfa, of which I had to skip the fuck out of the way, because I couldn't block that without damage.

What the fuck does he think this is?!

I stopped trying to argue and focused on dodging. Again, my methods of attack were countering or murder, and one of those was out of the question from the get-go. The problem was that this guy left few openings for countering. Someone of this caliber would normally be an enemy mafioso that I would have been allowed to kill. Anyone of a lower combat prowess I cold disarm or incapacitate with what little mixed martial arts I knew.

This boy was not an enemy mafioso, nor was he some mook I could just bitchslap into place.

Hence my problem of inaction. If I wanted this to end I'd have to incapacitate him somehow, and he clearly won't stop if I ask nicely.

Think. Think.

Assess:

(I dodged on autopilot. I vaguely noticed his eyes narrow when my face blanked.)

Threat: immediate. Lethal measures restricted. Use of force limited.

Possible solution: disarmament by dislocation.

(I sidestepped to the left of a right hook with the butt of his tonfa, my fringe losing a few hairs to the force and proximity of the punch to my face.)

Remain close to the side of assailant's body. Grab extended wrist at carpals tightly and take hold of the shoulder.

(I bent my body to avoid a counter punch to my face from his free arm.)

Take wrist and

pull.

This time Hibari moved away, examining his dislocated wrist almost curiously. I savored the reprieve from the fast-pace speed match. He tested the movement of the affected hand, which was clearly off.

"Hn," he muttered. And then for the first time in that encounter, his expression came close to a glare, which set my hackles up. "That hurt."

And then the crazy bastard gave his tonfa a death grip, anyways, because what else would a sane person do with a dislocated wrist.

I clicked my tongue and got into a more solid stance. What the fuck did Reborn want me to do?! I had to defend Tsuna, obviously, but with an antagonist like him, it was only a matter of time before I got hurt and then he got to Tsuna and that would be bad because Tsuna's terrified of stuff like this and -

Just when I least needed it, a groggy voice and fuzzy head popped up over the back of a sofa in my peripheral vision and my attention snapped over to the waking Tsuna.

"Wh-what? Eh?! What happened?! Gokudera-kun? Yamamoto!" His frantic eyes landed on distracted me. "Kayli - !" His eyes suddenly darted to the right and I only noticed too late Hibari having no mercy on his distracted opponent, and he viciously drove the end of his tonfa into my ribs.

Searing pain blinded me and I didn't even notice myself fly backwards and into a wall. I could only feel a deep, deep burn travel up my throat and obstruct my windpipe as I slumped down. I could only see the burning red I coughed up, on the floor, on myself. Every gasp burned and every exhale brought more red acid out of my body, where it needed to be.

I could feel the transparent flames in me flare crackle furiously, and focus, another hot liquid to burn through me. They fought desperately against something horribly wrong with my lungs and my sternum. I couldn't manage any focus on my surroundings; only on my immediate crisis.

The crisis of bits of my lungs apparently crushed to mush.

And being on the ground in front of me.

The pain. It was like -

I shut down.

Assess: Repair

/\/\/\/

3rd person, omniscient

Tsuna felt bile rise in his throat when he heard the crunch of the impact of Hibari Kyouya's tonfa on Kaylin's chest. She slammed into the wall and Tsuna's head spun when a terrifying amount of blood was forcefully expelled from her mouth, covering the floor as well as herself. She wasn't even unconscious! Her eyes were wide and it seemed like she was struggling desperately for breath.

He wasn't awake to see what had happened to Gokudera or Yamamoto. Of course, thank Kami that they didn't seem to be hurt as badly as Kaylin was, but -

"Hmph. Getting distracted by her group makes her weak," the Committee Head remarked.

Tsuna's eyes snapped to look at Hibari. A heart-stopping dread made him dizzy and tense when the dangerous boy slid his gaze over to him. Tsuna felt a shameful relief when Kyouya scoffed and turned to look at his two closest victims, Gokudera and Yamamoto.

"Crowded..." He mumbled.

Tsuna's relief turned to fear again when the prefect easily hefted the two unconscious boys up by their collars. The fear turned to panic as he watched Hibari drag them in the direction of the window.

The frightened thirteen year-old startled himself when he spoke up, scrambling over the back of the couch clumsily, desperately glancing back to Kaylin. "W-wait! What are you going to do?!"

Hibari didn't glance back. "Take out the trash." He proceeded to prop them over the window ledge.

Tsuna's panic intensified to a degree that made his knees shake. He didn't notice another rising feeling, however. Underlying the fright, a small kindling of something between rage and protectiveness.

Apparently, however, a heretofore hidden infant noticed.

He squeakily intoned like some spell, "Save them yourself with your dying will."

And a shot that Tsuna had yet to not be surprised by rang out.

And he died.

And then he cried, "Leon! Come!" Following the just budding authority of the Decimo and Reborn's silent assent, Leon leapt to Tsuna and shapeshifted into, of all things, a house slipper. Tsuna didn't care. An immediate, all-encompassing need to keep his friends from being thrown out the window filled up every part of him.

"You idiot!" And he quickly, precisely, and somehow ironically slapped Hibari in the back of the head like a grandmother would an errant child.

There was an all-encompassing pause like an intake of breath, where nothing moved, save for Tsuna's heaving chest.

Until Hibari's fingers loosened from the boy's collars, and he slowly turned to Tsuna with an unreadable expression on his face, half hidden by a disshelved fringe.

The bodies of his friends began to slip, however, and Tsuna didn't spare him a second glance as he single-mindedly shouted, "Save Yamamoto and Gokudera!" and grabbed their collars himself with a strength he would normally never possess. His furious mind couldn't process anything but keeping the two from falling, and his back was left exposed for a rather peeved Hibari Kyouya.

Said carnivore smirked in an eerily false way, and, continuing to ignore his hurt wrist, gripped both tonfa with white knuckles. He took his time and took half a step forward and raised his left arm, completely prepared to strike his target's exposed back and sending all three of the herbivores tumbling three stories out the window. Reborn watched on.

He tensed to strike like a panther coiling all his muscles for a killing pounce.

Then, a flash

of red

And his tonfa crushed down on a pair of crossed forearms with an audible crack.

The red-head's sudden resurgence surprised even Hibari, who raised his eyebrows and uttered a bland "Wow."

Cold, frozen steel pierced his own onyx eyes with their stare, and not even Hibari would deny the rush of adrenaline that spiked up his spine and around in his blood.

A young panther and a wounded wolf stared each other down, waiting for blood.

Hibari was excited.

"I'm sure I fractured your ribs," he ventured, voice deceivingly even.

Kaylin didn't blink, though her chest heaved.. "You did."

Neither moved.

"And I just broke at least one of your arms," he pointed out.

"One of your wrists is dislocated," she countered, ignoring how lame the comeback was.

Hibari huffed something less than a laugh. "At the moment, your tenacity is much more monstrous than mine." He pressed down harder with his tonfa, making the bones in Kaylin's arm creak sickeningly. She finally grimaced, and something undeniably dangerous began to seep into her eyes, and Hibari only smirked wider.

Finally, he seemed to have found someone who could entertain him in a fight. Someone who he could beat down again and again. Perhaps, if he could provoke her out of whatever useless reasons for holding back, eventually she could be a challenge. Eventually -

"Yes, yes, you're both quite the monsters," a squeaky voice piped up from the side. When neither teen broke eye-contact, Reborn, with quite some force, kicked Hibari's arm up and off of Kaylin's, forcing the prefect a step backwards. The hitman deftly landed on Kaylin's shoulder, not without noticing her minute wince or shaking arms.

"I hate to ruin your fun, but we'll have to call this scrap to an end." He ignored the ferocious side-long stare from the American girl.

"Hn. I don't know who you are, but I'm very invested in biting her to death, right now." Hibari said, not intending to heed the infant. That is, until the noxiously tense air fizzled out with the sudden sound of suspicious crackling and snapping.

"You really need to learn how to handle a break-up gracefully," Reborn quipped.

Then quietly, to a suddenly panicking Kaylin, he ordered, "Jump out the window."

She didn't hesitate for a second and turned on her heel and leapt over the windowsill with a renewed vigor from yet another burst of adrenalin, just soon enough to escape the concussive blast of the dynamite Reborn had lit and tossed between the new Vongola family and Hibari exploded and propelled everyone out the window.

Red hair whipping out above her and lush green bushes approaching below her, Kaylin cursed Reborn, cursed Hibari, cursed herself, and continued cursing anything and everything that went through her mind until she crash-landed into the shrubbery and was forced out of consciousness.

/\/\/\/

1st person, Kaylin

The first thing I noticed was someone calling my name. Then I felt the pain shoot straight down from my shoulder to my right forearm.

I gasped and blindly threw a left hook to the area above my arm. I heard a yelp, and then flew upright and looked around. I blinked when I saw Tsuna holding his cheek and nearly laughed at the surprised look on his face until another wave of pain made me hold back another gasp.

I finally looked down at my arm a -

"...Well fuck,"I muttered. No wonder it fucking hurts. It was still broken.

That was... concerning. Then I remembered why it wouldn't have healed, yet -

And then I remembered the blood all over my shirt.

I was outta goddamn juice.

"K-Kaylin! A-are you okay - of course you're not, you spat up so much blood. How did you even get up after that?! And you're arm - aren't you supposed to heal really fast or something ? - "

Thwap.

Tsuna yelped again as he held his head, staring at Reborn with wide, frantic eyes.

"Shut up, already, Baka-Tsuna. She'll explain what she wants to explain when she wants to." Reborn turned his unreadable look to me, almost definitely assessing and calculating many things at once, and silently suggesting something.

I looked at my arm again. It was swollen and angrily bruised, and, again, definitely still broken. I felt several scratches all over myself, and looked over my shoulder at the bush I must have landed in. I gingerly touched my back and backside with my good arm, and noticed what felt like fading bruises.

"Fuck. I haven't been this beat up in - " I skipped a beat, " - a while." My throat tightened but I dismissed the feeling immediately.

I tried taking a deep breath when Tsuna spoke up again. "And how are you okay from that fall? Leon turned into a parachute and floated the rest of us down - K-Kaylin?!" A hacking cough interrupted him, racking through my whole body and making me double over, fighting for breath.

Fuckin' Christ, okay, bad idea.

Tsuna flailed some until I recovered some, clearly at a loss as of what to do.

I shallowly sucked in a rattling breath, not at all liking the sound.

"No more deep breaths, got it, roger that." I held my head in my good hand, exhausted. "Fucking hell..." I breathed.

"Kaylin, are - what's wrong? Should we get you to the infirmary?"

"No!"

Tsuna straightened back, taken aback by my sudden shout, but quickly motherhenned some more when I coughed again.

"No, I'll - this'll fix itself."

"B-but..."

"It'll heal," I snapped. I averted my eyes and relented, "Eventually..."

I suddenly remembered something. I looked around frantically for Gokudera and Yamamoto, but didn't see them anywhere.

Tsuna must have noticed my slight panic, and quickly reassured me, "Ah, if it's those two, Reborn sent them ahead to the infirmary."

I was very relieved - for several reasons. "Are they okay?" I asked Reborn.

Reborn answered, "They've only got bruises and scrapes. You should worry about yourself."

Tsuna kept a hand on my shoulder as he snapped, "It's your fault this happened, anyway! You expected all that to happen!"

At least he's not dense, I thought absently. Or he's just gotten to know Reborn.

...Both, I hoped.

"I did," Reborn readily admitted, causing Tsuna to gape at the audacity and me to grit my teeth. "It was clearly a gamble," the infant eyed my arm and the blood on my shirt. "A gamble with a variety of outcomes, all of which I've prepared for."

Okay, what?

Before Tsuna could say something naggy, Reborn addressed me again.

"I do need you to see medical aid, Kaylin."

I tensed. "Reborn, if a doctor sees me heal like I do, or my - " illness. I cut myself off and forced myself not to glance at Tsuna. "No civilian can see how I am, you know that."

And then I got a nagging suspicion, just as the last few words left my mouth. Tsuna just looked lost and was waiting for an explanation.

Reborn gave the impression that he wanted to sigh. "You're right, of course, that a civilian doctor shouldn't see to your treatment." My treatment? He knows I heal on my own. The hitman paused, hands behind his back. "I had honestly planned on calling him over here a little later, but considering the plan I had play out today, as well as certain circumstances, I called in an extra favor and gave a little incentive and had him fly in sooner than we had initially agreed."

"Him?" Tsuna echoed, suspicion beginning to creep over his face.

I frowned. "An underground doctor? There are plenty of those already in Japan."

"Ah, kitten, but the best had to fly in from Italia on short notice," a tenor voice startled both Tsuna and me and we turned, me stumbling, to see a...doctor?

Reborn chatted, "Sorry about that."

The man in a white overcoat scoffed. "No, you're not."

"You're not wrong."

I interrupted the pointless banter, "Reborn, who is he?" I asked lowly.

The man blinked and raised his chin. "I am - "

"This is Tridant Shamal. A specialty hitman and a good enough doctor."

'Shamal's eye twitched. "Oi! I'm the best in my profession!"

Tsuna seemed primed and ready with his characteristic skepticism, but I really wasn't in the mood to let this play out as Reborn had apparently planned.

"Reborn, I don't need his treatment. I'll heal on my own." I struggled to keep my tone even.

The infant was unfazed by my poorly hidden anger. "Are you sure about that?"

My eyes snapped wide. He wouldn't dare!

"Eh?" Tsuna looked between Shamal and me, but I refused to meet his eyes. I was too busy internally panicking and shooting Reborn the harshest stare I could muster from underneath the mounting fight-or-flight response.

"Reborn - " I was cut off.

"I sent Gokudera and Yamamoto away for the sake of your privacy. However, Tsuna saw you grievously injured when you shouldn't have been so affected. This is your opportunity to control what he finds out of your situation." There was a threat there, and I nearly bared my teeth.

"So you put me under a fucking spot light?!" I really was panicking, to snap at the world's greatest hitman like that.

"Wait, wait," Shamal interrupted what was about to be a likely dangerous argument, though he didn't seem to actually care about the tension. "You mean nobody knew about her but you?" He addressed Reborn.

"I had initially given her the freedom of her own discretion after she told me herself."

"As if I had a choice," I muttered. Reborn surely heard, but didn't deny it.

"Wait, I have no idea what's going on!" Tsuna suddenly spoke up, sounding pleading. "Kaylin," I couldn't make myself face him, "it sounds like something is really wrong - not just your broken arm, b-but all of that blood..." He hesitated. "I-I don't know any of your circumstances, but, you're being offered treatment. I - shouldn't you accept...?" He trailed off, not knowing what to say.

I cradled my arm to my chest, trying and failing to hide a wince. I opened and closed my mouth, while everyone waited for a response. My voice was quiet, and directed at Tsuna. I kept my eyes on my shoes.

"...Are you worried?"

Tsuna's response startled me so badly I jumped and jostled my arm. I snapped my head up to stare at him with wide eyes.

"Of course I am!" He - he looked angry? I gaped dumbly. "Look at yourself! You help me all the time, like when you just got your arm broken protecting me and the others, but you're refusing help from others now when you really need it? What's with that?!"

I nearly shrank away from the force of his sudden emotions. Where did this even come from? I somehow felt like the four inches I had on Tsuna didn't matter much.

Seeing my face, Tsuna's own eyes widened and he relented nearly full-stop. But then he looked me square in the eyes with that look he only got on occasion, that one of silent resolve.

"I don't know what it is, but I can tell something's...wrong." He seemed to struggle to formulate his words, opening his mouth to say something, then deciding against it more than once. "I-if, if you're - if you need it - I think - I think you should let that guy help you..." And he trailed off lamely.

All of that emotion just worked itself into a series of words that I never expected from the timid Tsuna. Or anyone, really.

I'd thought, subconsciously and consciously, that my sickness was just my problem. My problems had always been taken care of by me, until that time I was broken out of that place. But even after that, I had acted like it was just me.

Only me. Just tagging along temporarily in someone else's adventure, only doing this for myself, though I admit I was getting emotionally attached...I thought it was just me.

It was always just me.

And now Tsuna, who was going to be my professional superior, who'd said he'd thought of me as a friend - I'd gone and made him worried...

Mother of shit, I was so intensely out of my element I could barely breathe.

I realized I had been wordlessly staring, wide-eyed at Tsuna for several seconds too long when he stuttered, "K-Kaylin?" He honestly looked like I was about to snap.

I felt myself flush as I quickly looked over to the two men who had silently let this play out. Shamal looked vaguely bored, but Reborn looked...somehow satisfied?

All of that - that caring had left me speechless, and quite honestly flustered, and a glued my eyes to the ground again.

I scrambled to find words. "I - Um." I gingerly brushed my unhealed arm with my fingertips and desperately tried to hid my face with my thankfully loose fringe. Of course the Vongola heir would just blurt out what I apparently desperately needed to hear...

"...Okay," I breathed.

/\/\/\/

A\N:

Well, that was a long time coming. And a long time writing. Like, the hype for that Undertale pun up top has already faded. A lot of stuff has been happening in life, but I promise I'm not abandoning this! A lot of my ideas come and go and stall and just fizzle out, but this one, at the very least, I'm committed to. Kaylin's grown on me, you know?

Also, this was shorter than I intended, but. Hey. Gotta post something, yeah?

I don't even know if I like this chapter, the end, especially. I rewrote it twice, and the Hibari scene had to switch POV's because I needed, I dunno, incentive?

Anyways, feedback is welcome (begged for) (shut up).

PS: How 'bout that Tsuna/Kaylin fluff, huh?! I don't think I'll pair them, but that kinda just happened by itself, so.