In these chaotic times, keep in mind this simple creed. Stay calm and pass some kindness along.
Hopefully this virus nonsense will pass soon, but until then at least try to show some kindness to your fellow man. Also, I'm working to get "A Hunter's Heroics" up soon as a full story. Once it hits the requirement I set for full story status, I'll post it immediately. Thank you!
Tsuna had been having such a good day too. He took one look at the fiery teen with silver hair and bad attitude, then gave Reborn an irritated look.
"You brought a Balam into the school without giving him a chance to register. Are you an idiot?"
Hayato froze the second he said that.
"What did you call me?"
"Balam, a jaguar-like Wesen with a habit of developing obsessive behavior, particularly if harm comes to their family that act first and thinks later. You do realize I run the only apothecary in town for Wesen, right?"
Hayato stared at him for a few seconds, before he Woged. When Tsuna didn't respond you could see him become very, very nervous. Suddenly those weird sunglasses took a whole new meaning.
"Oh god... Why didn't you tell me you wanted me to attack a Grimm?!" said Hayato hysterically.
"Because Reborn is a human and had never heard of Wesen before coming here. To be fair, the Storm Arcobaleno is a Grimm too, as is the head of the Disciplinary Committee. And he will come after you if you start throwing bombs everywhere."
Seeing the poor guy start to have a major panic attack, Tsuna sighed.
He put a hand on Hayato's head and he flinched openly.
"Gokudera-kun, take a deep breath and think for a moment. I just said that I'm the owner of the only apothecary in town that caters to Wesen. Do you really think I'd be able to keep a shop open if I went and started cutting off the heads of all my Wesen customers?" said Tsuna gently.
Seeing the silver haired teen think that statement over for a moment, Tsuna pulled out something from his bag. It was a basic calming potion, just in case.
A few whiffs of that and Hayato wasn't on the verge of a total meltdown.
Reborn openly pouted.
"So why did you send for him anyway?" asked Tsuna, once the teen was somewhat back to normal.
"I wanted to see if he had the potential of being your Storm Guardian, and to see how you handled unknowns."
Tsuna eyed the bombs Hayato still had in his hand.
"Did you make those yourself, or buy them?"
"I make my own. Cheaper and less hassle than buying premade and I know they work," said Hayato immediately.
"Do you have a decent grasp of herbal remedies enough to mix up things like potions?"
"Some, but it's hard to find most of it. Been living on the street until now," he replied automatically, wondering where this was going.
"How many languages can you read?"
"Three. Four, if I brush up on it again. Why?"
"Because I could use someone who knows how to mix remedies, can read the recipe books and doesn't mind working part time in the shop. It's hard enough keeping the more unruly Wesen in line when Kyouya can't be bothered to get up from his naps without having to worry about a customer being left waiting. Though you will have to deal with a probationary period."
Hayato blinked before he stared at him.
"Are you serious?"
"No, that's the Dog Star from the constellation Canis Major," said Tsuna with a straight face. Reborn face-palmed.
"But you're a Grimm!"
"And you're a Wesen. You're not the only Balam in the city, but if you really want to try becoming my Storm Guardian then we're going to have to work past your natural aversion to Grimms."
Hayato gave him the oddest look.
"How are you going to juggle being a Grimm and the Vongola Decimo at the same time?"
"Same way I've been doing it since I graduated Fon's apprenticeship long enough to take over the apothecary. I intend to introduce the Rules and make sure everyone knows they follow them or else. It's actually made things a lot easier between the Grimm and the Wesen since Kyouya, Fon and I came up with them."
Mostly because the rules were perfectly reasonable and kept things civil.
Though Tsuna could do without the idiot tourists who came to the shop to see a "friendly" Grimm.
It took Hayato a week before he calmed down and realized, no, Tsuna wasn't going to cut off his head because of a misunderstanding. If anything he was rather chill about the matter.
Kyouya, not so much.
"If you destroy public property without a damn good reason or disturb the peace with your toys, I will bite you to death."
Needless to say the Cloud Grimm scared him a hell of a lot more than Tsuna did.
Finding out he was allowed to read from the infamous Books written by past Grimm was surreal, but not as much as being told that if he wanted to try his luck in the Arena (with capital letter and all) that he was welcome to borrow one of the old weapons to train with.
Just not the battle ax or the special short swords. Those were Tsuna and Kyouya's weapons respectively.
Celia was very nice, and took the news of the new part timer rather well. She was very patient in showing him the ropes.
"Welcome to Arashi Apothecary!" said Tsuna cheerfully. He had Hayato taking stock downstairs, mostly so he would familiarize himself with the specialty stuff. Though some of it was firmly locked up and only Tsuna had the key.
He ran a herbal pharmacy, and being robbed by junkies wasn't that new to him. Though at least now he had better security in the form of Hayato.
One look at the apartments the teen had been looking at (his budget was too low for anything decent) and Tsuna gave him the keys to the building above that doubled as a safe house. Fon had bought the entire building and had the loft above it converted. With a hidden ladder to make descending into the shop silently possible, to surprise any intruders. There was even a dumbwaiter system, though Tsuna hadn't had that serviced in some time.
Tsuna didn't bat an eyelash when he recognized the man. Though he wasn't one of his regulars.
"Tsuyoshi-san, what can I do for you?"
"Do you have anything for over-strained muscles? And I mean the kind that have been overworked without sufficient time to recover."
"Ah. I thought I saw the signs in Takeshi-kun, but I wasn't willing to pry. You want me to whip something up to help speed up the recovery? He'll have to take at least two weeks off baseball practice and keep his right arm in a sling though," said Tsuna, already getting ingredients.
"Yes please," said Tsuyoshi in evident relief.
"Boss, I did the inventory you asked for."
Tsuna had laid the ground rules immediately when he took on Hayato. Because of his home life and how desperately he wanted to be taken seriously in the underworld, he could either call him by his given name (such as Tsuna-kun or Tsuna-san, but never "Tsuna-sama") or he could just call him Boss.
Hayato decided to settle on "Boss", because Tsuna technically was his boss/landlord/Sky.
It also didn't create any accidental misunderstandings for the customers, which was what Tsuna absolutely wanted to avoid.
Hayato Woged, still rather nervous about being around a Grimm.
Tsuyoshi did the same, and he relaxed.
"An owl?"
"Scharfblicke," supplied Tsuna without thinking. "Basically an owl Wesen with insanely good eyesight, though Tsuyoshi-san is one of the best sushi chefs in town. Also the only one that serves Flame-enhanced tea. You do not want to piss him off, because I've seen him in the Arena a few times with that sword of his."
Tsuyoshi had a brittle smile.
"I still say it's odd that there's a Grimm-sanctioned town where Wesen can live in peace without having to worry about losing their heads."
"We tried our best to come up with some rules everyone could live with and not have to deal with prejudice because of something stupid like species bias. We're all people in the end, just some have a few quirks," said Tsuna, almost finished mixing up the concoction.
"What do I owe you?" asked Tsuyoshi.
"Treat us to lunch sometime this week and we're even. If it doesn't work I have a few other remedies to try, but the effectiveness counts heavily on Takeshi-kun learning to take a break so his arm can recover properly."
Tsuyoshi nodded cheerfully.
"You have a deal."
Takeshi would come to school the next day with his arm wrapped up and smelling faintly of the herbal concoction. His teammates and 'friends' were not happy learning he was banned from any baseball practice for two full weeks by his dad.
Tsuna kept close watch on him... according to Fon, Rains were very susceptible to falling into depression over small things and Takeshi spent most of his school life tied up with baseball in some form or another. He likely wouldn't know what to do with his sudden free time.
Three days later...
Tsuna took one look at Takeshi's face, and did something that would likely get him in big trouble with Kyouya later.
"How's the remedy I made working for you? I hope the arm isn't throbbing like it has been," said Tsuna calmly.
Takeshi blinked.
"Remedy?"
"Your dad came into my shop a few days ago asking if I had anything for your arm, since he noticed you were over using it too much."
The look on the teen's face was full of disbelief, as he connected those particular dots together.
"You mean you're..."
"Someone who really likes fairy tales and works in a very specialized apothecary? Yes I am. If you're interested you can visit the shop sometime and read some of the books I have there to take your mind off baseball. I think we have a bat in the back you might be able to use in the Arena, come to think of it."
Takeshi's eyes were wide, but there was a spark of life that had been almost missing since his dad made him stop practicing for two weeks.
He knew that the sole apothecary in town was run by an actual Grimm, but he had no idea it was a kid from his class. And being told flat out he was allowed to actually read the famous Books written by Grimms... who wouldn't be interested?
As soon as the school let out, Takeshi followed Tsuna and Gokudera to the store, where Tsuna had him set up at a table in the back with the door slightly ajar and one of the books. The one he put down happened to have the same species of Wesen that Takeshi and his dad were, though it had a slightly happier ending.
(Mostly because the Grimm realized he had tracked the wrong Wesen and went after the real culprit, after apologizing to them.)
Hayato looked very much like a cat who's fur was bristled the wrong way.
"You're not going to hire him are you?"
"No, but he might make a decent sparring partner for you once his arm heals up. While he might make a decent sushi chef, I doubt he has the same instinctive knack you do for mixing up the ingredients in the right portions. Now we just need to work on your attitude towards customers," said Tsuna without hesitation.
Hayato relaxed.
Reborn appeared on the roof during lunch with an amused look on his face.
"Congratulations on snaring your Rain Guardian," said Reborn.
"Say what now?" said Tsuna, confused.
Reborn pointed at Takeshi, who had taken to joining them for lunch since he realized they actually gave a damn about him for something other than being popular at baseball. His arm still had a few days to heal, but he could already tell a marked improvement.
Besides, he had his eye on the rather odd bat in the back room to play with in the Arena, once he had a feel for it. Tsuna didn't care, and Hayato was still trying to find the right weapon for him to use. So far he was heavily favoring a double crossbow.
"Oh. Tsuyoshi doesn't seem to mind, once he got over the shock of his son talking about the Books. For some reason the older Wesen still have trouble reconciling with the idea of 'friendly' Grimm who act as odd police that are still teenagers."
Reborn blinked, before he stared at Takeshi. Thankfully they were near the middle of the roof and no one else was up there. He Woged, revealing large eyes and feathers.
"Dammit, not another one," he complained.
"You started it. Not my fault that you keep bringing Wesen with Latent or recently Active Flames my way," said Tsuna chuckling darkly.
"What the hell are you supposed to be anyway?" asked Reborn annoyed.
"He's an Owl Wesen. Really good eyesight, and most tend to work as locksmiths. Or in his dad's case, as an extremely efficient sushi chef with a really strong sword style," said Tsuna cheerfully.
"How many animal people are in this damn town anyway?!" said Reborn, throwing up his hands.
"Animal people?" said Takeshi amused.
"He's still getting used to Wesen. To be fair, the only one of the Arcobaleno who even knew of our world is Fon and he trained me when he found out there was a Grimm other than Kyouya in the city. I think Fon had a bit too much fun explaining things to Reborn though. I keep finding bottles missing in our liquor cabinet. Though I think he did mention suspecting something about the Rain."
Takeshi snickered.
"Oh, and to answer your question Reborn, most of the prefecture is either Wesen or married to one. Once word got out that the city was a safe area to raise Wesen children, they practically flocked here and convinced the normal humans to move, or at least keep their mouths shut. The attraction of seeing a 'friendly' Grimm that keeps the peace without taking heads was a pretty big draw once word spread about us."
Reborn groaned in dismay.