I'm still not sure where I'm going with this story, but I think I have an idea on how to approach the promised romance between our beloved tuna and Haru. For the record, they would be out of character at times to fit the images I have in mind though I'll try to keep the tweaking to the minimum since I do so love Amano Akira's characters.

About the OC, Ichiroku Nisa...I really don't know what to do with her. On one hand, I really liked her sass, and she was rather easy to write because she wasn't like those ultra oblivious figures that had no idea whatsoever about the darker part of the world and tended to make the dumbest conclusions when faced with, uh, peculiar situations like the events that keep on happening around Tsuna. She's a bit in denial, but not too oblivious. I think she'd fit right in within Tsuna's gang...but I'm not really sure.

This is hard. So please tell me what you think.

Also, since no one seemed to have noticed, I got her name from one of the readers who took the time to review...multiple times. I just made it sound Japanese since her code name happened to be, well, a code.

As a clue, why don't we look at Japanese numbers?

1: Ichi

2: Ni

3: San

4: Yon

5: Go

6: Roku

And... so on. Haha. I rambled on too long, I think. Please enjoy!

Chapter 11: Feminine Wiles (Part One)

Valeria Grandine was a bona fide, pure-blooded, true blue Mafioso. She and her sisters, Gloria and Mariela, were the beloved daughters of the fourth boss of the Grandioso Famiglia, which boasted a tight alliance with the renowned Vongola, ever since it was founded years ago. Their father greatly admired the Vongola, and as his children, the three girls had somehow inherited his, uh, reverence to the strongest Famiglia's boss.

Naturally, they admired the future boss as well. (Who was, unfortunately for Tsuna, himself.)

The Grandioso Family boasted one of the best information networks in the country. They weren't quite as widespread as the Vongola, or as intensive as the CEDEF, but hardly anything news went past without them getting a hold of it. In Italy, at least. So when they heard that the future boss of the holy*ahem*strongest family, the boss, who was an old balding man with a stomach the size of a basketball, a football and a quaffle* combined, sent his beloved daughters to 'greet' (read: seduce. Never mind that Tsuna was at least five years their junior.) the young sky.

Which brings us to the most awkward situations in Tsuna's history so far: Tsuna on the floor with three of his shirt's buttons undone, lipstick marks on his neck, hair wayward like it was passed by a storm, and three gorgeous (and identical) women on top of him, sucking his very soul out.

And Haru was standing by the door, looking very much like she was about to fall dead at any time. Or maybe murder someone.

Tsuna had a feeling it wasn't the former.

He just wished the person she wanted to kill wasn't him.

"Uh, Haru… A little help?"


The day started innocently enough. Tsuna didn't wake up with hickeys and neither did he wake up to the sight of three identical girls wearing absurdly red paints (okay, lipstick) on their lips. No, he woke up rather peacefully, having done all of his paperwork before midnight—including the ones his friends created throughout the day—and was able to sleep without incident for the first time in a long, long while. That may, or may not be attributed to the fact that he had just terrified his family so bad (details classified) they wouldn't think of even getting near his door for a long while.

And of course there weren't bombs considering Lambo was in Namimori and Gokudera was…well, frozen.

Stretching his limbs with a yawn, Tsuna smiled and wondered idly what was for breakfast, thinking how bright the day was.

It didn't take long for that fact to change.

The moment he defrosted his Storm and Rain Guardians, Gokudera immediately prostrated himself and banged his head continuously on the floor, muttering apologies while Yamamoto looked dazed and confused, unsure of what to make of the scene. Tsuna sweat dropped, and felt a twinge of guilt for being so harsh on his right-hand man before pulling the—"Oh my, Kami-sama, are you crying?"—silver haired man to his feet to stop him from hurting himself. He winced when he saw the blood on Gokudera's forehead.

After an hour more of mindless apologies from a flustered Gokudera which were later joined by a sheepish Takeshi, he had finally calmed them enough to let Ryohei look at their wounds which had mysteriously appeared on several parts of their bodies. To Tsuna, they looked suspiciously like bullet wounds but opted to keep his thoughts to himself.

By the time they went to the dining hall, Hibari and the rest were done and none of the pancakes Tsuna had smelled earlier was left on the table. Dejected, he sent out to heat some cup ramen for himself and the others. Takeshi ate his with milk, which made Tsuna blink twice before he set about to ignore everything and just eat.

It was when they went to join their schoolmates in the lobby that everything went downhill.

Stepping off the elevator, the sight that greeted them made Tsuna and his company freeze. Thirty seconds later, Hibari promptly excused himself and escaped—or as he put it, strategically retreated. He wasn't seen or heard of the whole day. Tsuna swore he was dead the next time he saw the Cloud Guardian.

That is, if he survived.

He almost, almost, wished he was in his office working on paperwork. And that was the one thing he absolutely hated in the world, next to mindless killing. That was just how dire the situation was.


Haru was in a good mood that morning. For one, she had the most beautiful dream ever, which may or may not include a certain brown-haired mafia boss-in-training and a six-tier cake. Her most favorite things in the world. Also, she had quite the workout yesterday, which relieved her of most of the stress she accumulated during the hours she hadn't been around her future husband. (Kyoko: "I worry about the future, Chrome-chan." Chrome: "Me, too, Kyoko-chan. Me, too.")

But what really had her smiling so wide that wonderful morning was the fact that her future husband was out of his office, and was going to spend the day with them! It would have been better if they were alone, just the two of them, on a date, but she'd take what she can get. After all, her Tsuna-san was much too shy.

Her mood was a bit squashed when he didn't join them for breakfast, although he didn't blame him at all since it was really that stupid bomber's fault for being so damn, uh, stupid. Yeah, that. And rude, and crude, and so barbaric...Never mind.

But when she saw the man of her dreams walking down the hall towards her - and a few others, but her mind wouldn't recognize that - all her ill-thoughts had flown straight down the gutter and she was once again surrounded by creepy mushrooms (ahem, let me explain this one. You know Kyoko, right? And Nana, and Yuni. Those people are the kind of people whose smile spawn flowers, butterflies and bunnies and makes one feel all squishy inside and sometimes causes nosebleed here and there. Haru, however, through multiple associations with Bianchi, had grown to have the opposite effect when she smiles. She has good intentions, but the way the little poisonous mushrooms appear around her tend to make people turn away, and step a few distances further. Tsuna, though, messed up boy that he was, seemed to find this kinda cute, which was the reason everyone, except Reborn, dreaded the day he grew some spine and confessed.)

The man of her dreams looked at the beaming girl, not noticing the paling expressions on Yamamoto and Gokudera's faces, and the horrified expressions on Kyoko, Hana, though he did take note of the maniacal gleam Chrome had, deciding to ask her later and ogled, like seriously ogled, Haru.

The Guardians gulped. Hibari turned away and cringed a little.

As Tsuna went closer to the girl whose presence had been making the young boss fluster a lot lately, he felt his cheeks warm in the tell-tale symptoms of an oncoming blush. He very nearly cried. Why, why the hell am I blushing? She just smiled, goddamnit! She's always fucking smiling anyway!

Still, his heart pounded and no one missed the reddening of his face. Only Haru had misunderstood the cause of it, and Tsuna couldn't tell whether to be thankful or run to a corner and wallow in misery: Iemitsu style.

He chose neither and simply smiled when Haru asked him if he was sick.

Five minutes later he was wishing he really was sick and not simply hormonal.


Valeria, Gloria, and Mariela were triplets, who, for all intents and purposes had but one mind. They all looked perfect, considering they had but one face and the same body structure, although their long pink hair were styled differently so as to easily identify them from each other.

Valeria was the 'eldest' and the apparent leader with her hair falling ruler straight down her back without a single strand out of place. She spoke formally, with just the right amount of mystery to be captivating, although to Tsuna she merely looked like a mean lady about to devour him (which was pretty accurate, in his opinion).

Gloria was the, say, delinquent type who spoke in a rash manner that, coupled with her looks, apparently caught more than enough poor souls to fill a dam. Her hair was styled in messy curls and her make up was so, so dark he couldn't see her eyes. She seemed to be the type to engage in bondage games and those kinky themes (Tsuna saw a whip and a handcuff on her person, why?), which creeped Tsuna to no end. He might be used to pain (thanks to Reborn) and had a slight sadist tendency due to hanging around with Kyoya and Mukuro (and, again, Reborn) but he wasn't deep enough to truly appreciate those... those things. So, yeah, Lady Number Two creeped her out.

Lady Number Three, however, didn't. She was Mariela and the youngest, which was painfully obvious with her childish air, and clothes. She was wearing a skirt and a jumper, which didn't go with her figure at all since she had too much curves. Tsuna supposed there were people who liked that type too, especially when she smiled and talked in that cutesy way of hers - just childish in Tsuna's books - and jumped up and down like an excitable child. Her hair was tied in pigtails. She wasn't quite bad enough to be creepy, but everything about her irritated Tsuna, and, by the looks of it, his friends as well.

Considering they've been living around real children who acted more mature than them, it was no wonder none of them appreciated it. Tsuna didn't want to judge though, so he kept his thought to himself, and the rest followed his example.

.

.

.

.

He regretted that. So. Damn. Much.

He should have just killed them outright. Why they hell did Reborn train him to be so freaking polite?


Notes:

*Quaffle: for those who doesn't know, and hasn't heard of it, this is one of the three balls in the fictional sport Quidditch, introduced in the phenomenal series, Harry Potter.

Thoughts please?