A/N: I find many characters in Katekyo Hitman Reborn annoying, but the character introduced in this chapter really takes the price for most annoying in my opinion, and by god so I let them know that in this chapter.

There will be no annoying character traits that will not be thrown into the characters face in my stories.

I'll just leave you to it.

Enjoy.

Scene 33:

Nosy Strangers

July 10

Friday 2215

That day, Tsuna had been sitting in her not-so-little on-top-of-coffee-table-nest-thing, focusing the flow of her flames into the tips of her fingers where she held her hands out in front of her face, watching as her skin turned a bright, glowing orange from the pressure of the flames under her skin.

It was interesting to watch to say the least.

Reborn had informed her that he would put off Lambo's own control training until she had moved onto the next step in her training. Seeing as the eight-year-old's training would be very different compared to the one he was putting Tsuna through.

How was it different?

Apparently, there was more to Anima than just the flames, something that wasn't that hard to understand simply because they were called RAW energy, meaning that there were additional forms to the energy that Tsuna couldn't dive into quite yet.

Because of what she was, she had to learn backwards.

She needed to focus on how controlling the flames before they could even think about trying to figure out how to even call forth the other forms of the energy let alone controlling it.

Reborn had just told her that they would figure it out once they got there.

Tsuna had just been told to let the flames seep out from her system when there was a knock on the door from the bottom of the stairs, quickly followed by the sound of a door opening.

Hiding her hands behind her back, Tsuna shifted her position to face her mother as the woman walked up the steps.

Tsuna's eyebrows fell into a small frown at the piece of paper lodged in Nana's hand.

An unusual sight considering the times they were living in.

The woman only took to paper when she needed one thing.

"I'm sorry Tsuna-chan." Nana apologized, face showing just how self-conscious she was feeling at that moment. "But I have to ask you to go out shopping again."

This turned Tsuna's small frown more defined.

"Gokudera-kun and I bought three bags not even a week ago." she said as she got up from the table, her fingertips no longer feeling abnormally hot. They had just taken to itching something terrible as she stepped up closer to her mother.

"I know." Nana answered, holding onto the list. "But we're feeding one more mouth than I had accounted for when I made that list."

Their eyes turned towards the kid that had crept up behind Nana, staring up at the two of them, dressed in his own, new clothes.

Sighing heavily, Tsuna plucked the piece of paper from her mother's fingers, walking around her as she exited her room. She glanced down at the list, leaving one ear open to the lighter set of steps that quickly followed closely after her.

"Lambo-san is going with you."

Tsuna turned around at the sound of the voice, seeing Lambo looking up at her with a determined look in his bright green eyes.

Tsuna felt herself smiling down at him.

"Thank you Lambo." she said, holding out a hand for the kid.

Putting on their shoes, the two were soon out the door.

To Tsuna's shock, there was already someone standing at the gates. Someone dressed in a black tank-top under a worn jean jacket sporting several colorful patches and badges and a pair of torn blue jeans with several chains hanging from the belt-loops.

She felt a larger smile than normal spreading on her lips.

"Gokudera-kun!" she greeted, jogging up to the gates. "When did you come back?"

The delinquent smiled right back at her after hid own brief moment of shock. He opened the gate for her as she got closer, stepping to the side so as to allow her to pass him.

"Just a few hours ago." he answered. "I wanted to tell you in person."

The delinquent found himself shoved into a second moment of shock as Tsuna hadn't slowed to a stop in front of him as he'd expected, instead continuing her jog right at him, throwing her arms around her shoulders as she collided with his form through the laughed words:

"I'm glad you did."

For a moment, Gokudera just stood there, his eyes wide open in shock.

Slowly, his features came to soften, his muscles relaxing as he found his arms hesitantly move to wrap around her tiny frame, gently hugging her back.

Tsuna got the feeling that the man hadn't been hugged in a long, long time.

The thought saddened her a great deal.

"Lambo-san thought Aho-dera would never come back." Lambo suddenly spoke up from where he was peeking at the two teens, hiding behind one of the gate post as the two teens both turned their attentions towards him.

The kid was smiling playfully at them.

Growling halfheartedly, Gokudera's arms fell away from Tsuna's body, immediately leaving her side as he set off towards the eight year old. The kid in question having already broken into a run, sprinting around the yard as he laughed at the top of his lungs.

It didn't take long for Gokudera to catch the boy, holding him in place as he pressed her knuckles against the top of his head, the rotation of his wrist causing the kid's jet black curls to ruffle.

Lambo just continued laughing over the sound of Gokudera's own chuckled growls.

To be perfectly honest, the relationship that had developed between Lambo and her best friend had surprised Tsuna. With what she knew of Gokudera's character, she had fully expected him to hate Lambo which in turn would make the defensive eight year old hate the silverette right back. But they had crushed those expectations that day they painted the room, the two of them quickly developing a relationship that she could do nothing but compare to the relationship of a boy and his much older brother.

It was a truly heartwarming sight.

Though… truth be told, she could always find some form of humor in watching the two of them interact.

After a moment, Gokudera finally let go of a furiously giggling Lambo, turning his attention back to Tsuna, whom had taken to leaning against the gatepost.

"Where are the two of you going?" he asked, glancing between the two.

"Tsuna-nee-chan and Lambo-san are going grocery shopping." Lambo answered in Tsuna's stead, back straight and his hands on his hips as he looked up at the teens.

Gokudera nodded in understanding, turning towards Tsuna.

"I'll go with you." he said, leaving no room for arguments.

Tsuna just smiled back at him.

"That would be very much appreciated." she held up the piece of paper she had been given by her mother. "If this is any indication, we'll need all the help we can get."

Lambo was starting to regret not going into the store with the teens.

He had chosen to play in the park before they went inside, thinking that it would be more fun out here than it would be in there among the store isles as the teens went through the long list on things Mama had given them. He also hadn't wanted to get in the way of the two people that had picked him off of the streets.

Only… they were taking a lot loner than he had thought they would.

Having long since grown restless, Lambo had decided to just wait outside the shop doors, pacing back and forth in front of them and finding humor in watching them automatically slide open before stopping them from fully closing by quickly jumping down in front of them.

He was just about to take another jump when a voice called out to him.

"Little boy!"

Lambo turned out to see a girl jogging towards her.

She was about as tall as Tsuna-nee-chan, maybe a bit taller, with light brown hair pulled into a high ponytail. A duffle bag hung from her shoulder, she was dressed in light blue jeans short and a light pink frilly top paired with a pair of white slip-on shoes.

She wasn't nearly as pretty as Tsuna-nee-chan.

It would take a lot before Lambo would find someone to be prettier than his Tsuna-nee-chan.

Before long, the girl was right in front of him, crouching slightly to be more on the same level with his face. He noticed how her eyes kept moving around them, looking as though she was searching for something.

"Are your parents inside?" she asked with a sickeningly sweet voice once her eyes finally fully turned to look at him, a small frown of disbelief forming on her face. "What kind of parent would leave their child alone outside of a store?"

Lambo frowned.

Did she just assume he had been left against his will?

"Lambo-san doesn't have any parents." e began explaining clearly. "And Lambo-san was-" he simply wasn't allowed to speak any further.

"No parents!?" the girl exclaimed, suddenly standing up, staring down at Lambo in utter horror.

She looked around again, this time a lot more hurriedly, almost panic-stricken as she kept her face in that "kind" expression.

"Come with me." she said, leaching onto his arm with a grip that dug into his skin. "I must take you to the police station immediately." and with that, she started a rather violent attempt to drag him away from the store.

Key word: Attempt.

Lambo would not go without a fight.

"Let go of me you bitch!" he screamed, scratching at the hand as he planted his feet firmly on the ground, absolutely refusing to move. Tsuna-nee-chan and Aho-dera were still inside the store, and so, he would not move from were he was standing.

"No chance." the girl said sternly, still stubbornly keeping her voice sweet, looking down at him in what he suspected she thought looked kind but he though looked more self-absorbed, like she believed she was the only one who could see something wrong in the situation and thus was the only one that could put it right.

Sure, she was right, but only because she saw a problem where there was none and was trying to correct something that didn't need to be corrected.

She was not his Tsuna-nee-chan.

"I need to take you to the station so you can go to the orphanage and get a new, happy family." the girl smiled down at Lambo, as though those words would convince him to go with her. Lambo would not have it.

He didn't need a "new happy family", he'd just gotten a new one.

He resorted to actually hitting the girl, and Lambo knew that when he really put his mind to it, he could really hurt someone.

If his fists didn't work…

He would resort to that.

Finally, the girl let go of him.

"What's going on here?" a voice sounded from behind them, causing the two of them to turn around.

There stood the teens he had been waiting for, holding two bags each.

Turning back to the girl, Lambo watched as a look of what he knew to be recognition crossed over her stupid eyed when she looked at his new sister, her previously stubbornly sweet and self-lovingly kind expression immediately turning darker.

"I'm trying to get this boy to the police station." the girl grumbled through the pain she was most likely feeling in her hand as her eyes narrowed at his sister.

"Why would you want to take Lambo to the police station?" Tsuna asked, taking a step towards them, her eyebrows turning downwards into a light frown thought her eyes were accusing when she looked at the girl. The expression quickly softened when she looked down at Lambo, her grip on one of the bags in her arms loosening as she allowed it to slide down into his already extended arms.

He couldn't help but to smile back at her.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Gokudera asked as he sat down his bags next to the store doors, storming over to the girl. "Who the fuck grabs children like that when they don't know the-"

SLAP!

Both Lambo and Tsuna flinched as Gokudera's head snapped to the side from the force of the girl's hand striking his cheek. His skin already turning red.

"Who are you to swear in front of a child!" she screamed at him.

She glared at the delinquent for a moment before she turned her attention towards Tsuna, her glare turning possibly darker as she took in how Lambo was hiding behind his new sister-figure.

"You and your boyfriend are horrible influences to your brother." she practically growled at the other female.

This did not sit well with Gokudera.

"Why you..." he muttered, raising his arm over the girl.

For sure, Lambo knew that Aho-dera would strike the girl, and he was scared the teenager would get in trouble for it.

Apparently, Tsuna-nee-chan thought along the same lines.

Quickly, Tsuna grabbed hold of his arm, making him turn towards her.

"It's not worth arguing with..." she glanced towards the girl from the corner of her eye. "Ignorants."

Following her line of vision, Gokudera gave her an agreeing nod.

Picking the bags back up, Gokudera turned to walk away, closely followed by Tsuna, whom, with a hand on Lambo's shoulder-blades led him away with her.

This did not seem to sit well with the girl.

"You are a hideous monster!" she screamed after them at the top of her lungs, no doubt causing a few heads to turn towards her. Not the retreating trio. "You and your boyfriend will rot in hell after you've met the most horrible end imaginable!" Lambo saw how Gokudera's shoulders stiffening, though whether that was due to the "meeting a horrible end" part, or the "boyfriend" part, she didn't know. "You haven't seen the last of me!"

As the screams faded away, Lambo went up and grabbed Tsuna by her free hand, looking up at her with wide eyed of adoration.

Even when faced with such hurtful words, she had remained calm. It had been as though the girl had been screaming those words at a brick wall with hos much reaction she had gotten from the other girl. He wished he could have the same approach to the people being mean to him.

"Why did you let that girl go on like that?" Gokudera asked once they could no longer heard the screams.

Tsuna let out a long sigh.

"Because if we didn't, you would just be proving her point." she gave the delinquent a meaningful look, momentarily stopping in her steps.

A smile spread across Gokudera's lips.

"Tsuna-nee-chan's so smart." Lambo praised, giving her hand a light squeeze.

Squeezing back, she smiled down at him before they kept on walking.

The thing was, Tsuna recognized the girl, she'd encountered her before and she had no doubt that the girl recognized her too if her reaction was anything to go by. This only served to fuel Tsuna's need to get away from the female as soon as possible.

Why?

Because the girl had encountered Tsuna as she was shopping for her high-school uniform before the school year had even started. She'd spotted her messy head of hair among the isles of clothing racks and immediately gotten it into her head that "I am going to give you a make-over, right here, right now". She'd let out a noise that Tsuna could only describe as her appearance having somehow personally offended her and the next thing Tsuna knew, she was being physically dragged over to the cosmetics section of the store.

Cosmetics…

Which Tsuna is severely allergic to…

A fact that Tsuna had desperately tried to explain to the girl as she was being dragged through the shop but it was like the girl was completely deaf to what she was saying, going on and on about how good a person she was for taking it upon herself to let people feel pretty, despite Tsuna not having ever felt she was ugly, something she told the girl only for it to go right over her head.

The situation went so far as the girl actually having Tsuna pushed up against the make-up counter with her hands tightly wrapped around the girl's wrist as she was lowering a bright red lipstick to her face, loudly questioning why she was fighting against her kindness and babbling on and on about how that particular shade of red would look absolutely sinful against her coloring and would really reel in the boys.

Why would Tsuna want to reel in any boys? She didn't want anyone that only approach her because she put poisonous paint on her face.

Tsuna was only saved when her powerhouse of a mother noticed the commotion and immediately marched right over to the two girls, ripped the lipstick away from the girl before loudly reprimanding her for what she was trying to do to her daughter when she clearly did not want anything to do with what the girl was trying to do and Tsuna just stood there, hiding behind her mother and watching as her every word fall on deaf ears again.

She had watched as the girl just grew angrier and angrier with every word her mother had said until she screamed right back, calling both Tsuna and her mother horrible names at the top of the lungs and wouldn't stop until the manager of the store approached Tsuna, the only ones who was paying attention to her surrounding, and asked what was going on.

The girl was thrown out all the while screaming at the top of her lungs about how SHE was being mistreated, how the world was unfair to kind and considerate people who just wanted to do the RIGHT thing to UNFORTUNATE people.

Tsuna could only recall one thought going through her head as she watched the girl being dragged out of the store as she struggled and scratched at the security guard the manager had called:

That girl is a spoiled, privileged, self-absorbed princess.

From the looks of things, she had yet to step out of her personal "I'm a good person because I try and help people that OBVIOUSLY need help because I SAY THEY DO and because I SAY THEY DO that's the only TRUTH that will register in my mind no matter what THEY say" bubble.

She's the kind of person that take offense on other people's behalf even if there is nothing to take offense to and then refuse to listen to when someone tries to explain the situation.

She will fight for things when that thing she'd fighting against don't exist.

Some of the most annoying kind of people in Tsuna's personal opinion.

So really, the only thing the three of them could have done when that girl had started on her "I know better than you because the way I see a situation HAVE to be the right one" rant, was to simply ignore her and walk away.

Given the situation, she wouldn't have listened.

They would have had to find a way to successfully shut up both her mouth and her mind before they could even attempt to try and get something to sink into that kind of a mind, something Tsuna really didn't have the patience or mindset for as of right then and there.

If she encountered the girl again and she overstepped…

Who knows?

Tsuna wouldn't be against seeing that girl react to her when she's angry…

She quickly pushed that thought out of her mind, turning her attention back to her surrogate brother and best friend on either side of her, both having begun a conversation on how the best method of getting an insufferable person to "shut the fuck up".

She had to fight against laughter as the two verbally sparred, not even bothering to join them in their discussion, it was entertaining enough as it was.

Truthfully, they should have known that they were being followed.

July 12

Sunday 2215

Tsuna found herself sitting in her nest again, her nerves in a fit at Reborn slowly circled her, his dark eyes pinned on her frame as they flashed yellow on what Tsuna felt to be random occasions but who knew with her tutor.

He was giving her the final test. The test which would clarify weather or not she was ready to move onto the next step in their training.

They had been training almost non-stop for the past couple of days, spending hours on end constantly going through the same steps she had been practicing since he had first arrived at her house, only this time, she had found each step to be a lot easier than ever.

And so, Reborn had finally come to the conclusion that she was ready for the final control test.

Desperately calming herself down, Tsuna released a steady flow into her veins.

"Keep that going for five minutes." Reborn's voice sounded from somewhere around her, where, she didn't know as her eyes were firmly shut. "No fluctuation."

That, they both knew she could already do, she could even go for ten minutes if she so wished it, but she guessed it was for mere formality.

To say she succeeded in doing it, would be laughable.

"Focus your flames into the tips of your fingers." Reborn's voice once again seeped in through her focused mind.

This, this was a bit trickier. As her Anima energy was different to that of a normal person's, it tended to have more of a mind of it's own. Normally, a person's core would pump something akin to a gas into their veins, for physical representation, only igniting it once it had left the body through one way or another. Her core pumped raw flames straight into her veins, which Reborn noted that he wasn't at all surprised that she would find it difficult to keep them contained, to find them straining against her control more than someone like Lambo will experience once he gets down to his own training. However, after a few almost grating moments of coaxing her flames to turn within her veins, she finally felt the tips of her fingers heating up.

"Good." Reborn spoke up again. "Now hold that pressure for five minutes."

For a split second, Tsuna felt a flash of panic.

She could already feel the pressure fluctuating under her control, but of course, fluctuation was a given in this state seeing as they were flames gathered together at a particular part of her body. She would just have to keep the pressure in her fingertips and keep the heat from setting fire to her pants.

Who was she kidding, that took serious concentration and a lot of pain-staking refusal to panic at the unusal heat her skin was giving off.

It may have become used to the feel of the flames in her veins since she'd first learned how to push it into her system on command, but not this amount of pressurized energy in one place.

Her only comforting thought under these five minutes was that her fingers would never have to freeze during the winter again.

At one moment, she could feel the heat rising without her having intended for that to happen, but it was just a slight fluctuation for a split second, quickly adjusting the temperature back to where she needed it to be as she hoped that that brief slip wouldn't hinder her passing.

She was tired of all the constant meditation!

"Good." Reborn finally spoke, almost making Tsuna flinch at the suddenness of it. "There was a little slip at the end as I'm sure you are already aware of, but it was minor and I'm sure that with a bit more fine tuning, you won't have to worry about that anymore." she almost didn't breathe as she allowed her hold on her core to slip. "You've passed."

Tsuna let out a long groan in relief, breath heavy as she allowed the flames to fade away into nothingness, her eyes opening to see Reborn standing in front of her, his arms crossed over his chest.

"You're ready to move on to Stage 3." Reborn spoke, making her look up at him. The pleased expression on his face was clear for anyone to see and the sight of it made Tsuna feel slightly better even thought she had been so close to screwing everything up.

Letting out a long breath, Tsuna finally managed to collect her voice.

"What's 1 and 2?"

"Stage one is as simple as getting yourself Ignited, which you have been for a long time." Tsuna felt herself frown, she herself had no idea how long she had been Ignited, aside from the almost confirmation that it happened sometime during the year she turned five. "Stage 2 is learning how to actually control your Ignited core, which you have just finished."

"Then..." Tsuna breathed, not really knowing whether she really wanted to ask her question, but Reborn's raised eyebrow forced the question from her lips. "What's Stage 3?"

A smirk spread across Reborn's lips.

"Physical materialization on command."

July 13

Monday 2215

It was a deceptively normal day, the four residing within the Sawada household were sitting around the dining-room table for what had become a more and more frequently occurring actual round-the-table "family dinner" as Nana had recently hired a new manager for her bakery, a younger, spirited man with a no-nonsense attitude capable of handling the disaster that is Sakura, finally allowing Nana to take days off from the bakery for the first time since she'd first hired the woman. Something that has become all the more important to the woman with a younger child now living under her roof.

They'd just started eating the lavish dinner Nana had prepared for them when there was a sudden knock on the front door.

Sharing a confused look with her mother, Tsuna got up from her seat.

Opening the door, Tsuna was surprised to find a smaller crowd of people standing outside, all wearing the familiar uniform of a Child Service worker.

"Can we help you?" she asked slowly, eyes shifting from unfamiliar face to unfamiliar face. Not one of these people having visited their house before, which in and of itself was strange as they'd been told that Child Service's worked to always send the same people to the same house to try and put the children in the house at ease what with the fact that strangers can make certain children extremely uneasy. "Isn't next inspection supposed to be on Friday?"

"It was." one of the men said, stepping out from the crowd with an apologetic look on his face. "It just appears that we've received an anonymous tip that you aren't the best guardians for young Lambo." he glanced over towards Nana whom had just appeared in the kitchen doorway, just visible behind her daughter. "If you would allow us this one unexpected inspection, we can all continue with our days."

"Of course." Tsuna agreed, stepping out of the way of the door, allowing the workers to enter.

"Thank you." the man that spoke before nodded, giving her a light smile before turning back around towards the small crowd.

Still standing in the kitchen door, Nana was absolutely horrified.

Who in the world could have accused her beautiful family of being bad caregivers for children?

Who in the world would dare to try and take HER new son away from her?

Tsuna just crossed her arms, returning to the kitchen table. She had a good idea of who could have possibly made that call, and she couldn't say that she was entirely happy about it.

She could hear the bustling of feet as she sat back down.

On her right, Lambo had stiffened considerably as he stared at the workers, almost trembling where he was sitting.

"Why are they here now?" he practically hissed, sinking into his chair.

Lambo had been terribly cautious of the child service ever since the first time they had arrived on their porch. The mere knowledge that they had the power to remove him from the family that had taken him in frightened him more than anything.

Nana was the one to answer him.

"Someone called them for a surprise inspection."

"Why would they do that?" Lambo asked, voice almost frantic. "Who would do that?"

Gently, Tsuna placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I think you know who."

For a good minute, Lambo contemplated her words in complete silence, until he looked up right into her eyes and gave her a short, firm nod.

Reborn watched this interaction in quiet amusement.

He wasn't nearly as worried as the rest of them, and they weren't worried at all. The Sawada's were wonderful guardians, they all knew that. But should someone have planted anything inappropriate something to try and have Lambo removed from the house, he was just a call away from having the people that reached that conclusion disappear from the face of the earth.

Of course, that wasn't needed.

About an hour later, after the workers had a good look around the house and quite abruptly taken Lambo to a separate room for a couple of minutes to ask a couple of questions, they just packed up and began to file out of the house looking borderline embarrassed.

The one that had spoken to Tsuna earlier spared a moment to walk up to Nana, that smile still on his face though it had taken on a more apologetic nature.

"We apologize for the inconvenience." he spoke kindly, nodding lowly.

"No inconvenience." Nana answered smoothly, though her her smile was almost painful to look at, her anger simmering just below the surface. "What are you going to do about the one who reported us?"

Did her eye twitch?

"We will make sure the caller knows about their wrong assumption about your household Ma'am." the man answered, giving all of them a low, apologetic bow each.

"See to it that they do." Nana nodded right back, her smile growing faker and faker with each passing second. "Thank you."

With another bow, the workers swiftly exited the house, Tsuna and Lambo sharing a look just before the door closed behind them.

Tsuna found herself counting down the second of absolute silence that followed, just waiting for her mother to finally snap.

And boy did she snap.

"If I ever get my hands on that caller, they will understand what happens when they call Sawada Nana a bad guardian!" the woman screamed at the top of her lungs, storming into the kitchen to do stars know what, still screaming about the many ways she could brutalize the reason for her ire as the sounds of kitchen utensils began echoing across the walls.

Lambo half-way cowered against Tsuna's side, staring wide-eyed in the direction of the kitchen.

"Mama's scary." he muttered softly, barely audibly through the noise.

Tsuna nodded slowly in agreement.

"Sometimes." she whispered down to him, patting him over his curls. "Which is why it's best to keep her happy."

Back at the table, Reborn chuckled at her comment, his attention returning to his food.

She had been sitting on her bed, sketchbook folded out in her lap as she calmly drew out her next outfit design, several half-finished works littered over the floor around her. She would get back to those eventually.

Really.

There was no point in thinking about that horrid girl or her boyfriend. The child services would surely find something horrible about that house and that cure little boy would be put into a much better home assigned by the government, sure MUCH better than whatever internal dump that house no doubt is.

She had followed the trio home from a distance that day and had immediately given the address to child services. No surprise, the address was already in their records.

Who knows how many children they had already removed from that horrible household?

Suddenly, her gem went off from where it was resting on her nightstand.

A wide smile spreading on her face, the girl practically threw the sketchbook away from her, attacking the gem in her hurry to jam it against her ear.

"Yes?" she asked hurriedly, eager to hear the news.

"This is child services." the woman on the other end stated, her voice borderline bored as she spoke. "Is this the caller who brought us complaints concerning the Sawada household?"

"Yes." the girl answered immediately. She had chosen not to give up her name in case those horrible people decided to come after her.

"We have come to the conclusion that Nana Sawada and her daughter Tsunako are the ideal care givers for the young boy living under their roof." the woman spoke, voice almost monotone as she delivered the news.

"What!" the girl immediately exclaimed in outrage.

"Their house was found clean, in the most literal sense of the word, and the young boy in question appeared to absolutely love his two female guardians." the woman informed her, but the girl absolutely, positively, wouldn't have it.

"You people are horrible at your job!" she screamed into the device. "It is obviously that boy can't live there!"

For a long moment, there was no sound from the other line.

"Miss, never call this number again."

Shrieking at the top of her lungs in absolute fury, the girl cut off the call, immediately chucking the gem across the room, straight at the opposite wall.

Who cares if it exploded upon impact, her parents could always buy her a new one.

She had been wanting a newer model for a while anyway.

"Whatever it takes..." she whispered under her breath. "Whatever it takes, I'm going to take that kid away from that house, if I have to do it myself."

July 14

Tuesday 2215

Again, Tsuna found herself sent out of the house on an errand. She was just thankful that it hadn't been for groceries this time.

No. This time, Nana had sent her out because of the sudden realization that there was a severe shortage in female necessities, seeing as the last time they had really needed to use them being a good month ago what with neither of the women being… active, in that way. And so, they had completely forgotten to replenish their stores of… stuff.

Truthfully, Tsuna herself felt that avoiding words such as Pads, Tampons and Periods was stupid, something her mother has actively practiced for as long as Tsuna has been alive, the woman wasn't even the one who sat down and talked to her about her "womanly needs" as she phrases it, no, she got to find out about those kind of things in her later years of preschool when the school split up the class for a few hours just to talk about puberty and the biological changes of the human bodies that would happen to them in later years.

A surprisingly clinical, non embarrassing hour of just questions and answers about what would happen to their bodies, something Tsuna appreciated greatly.

If her mother had been the one to talk about those kind of things with her... she was sure it would have been embarrassing simply because her mother was the kind of person to become crazy embarrassed talking about those kind of things.

In Tsuna's mind, those kind of topics are only embarrassing if you make them embarrassing.

And so, there she was, walking home with a plastic bag filled with what her mother only referred to as "womanly things" dangling from her hands, not really thinking about what else could possibly happen that day what with the sun already setting over the horizon.

Somehow… she felt like she should have seen this coming.

She had felt the presence long before it had arrived, but that didn't necessarily mean that she had been prepared for the impact to her back just seconds after she'd rounded a corner into a more secluded spot between two apartment buildings.

It had been so much of a shock that her grip on the bag vanished, sending it crashing to the ground, it's contents spilling out over the asphalt as Tsuna fought to quickly regain her balance.

Seeing the bag's contents out in the open, she couldn't help but to groan loudly.

Turning towards the person that had pushed her, Tsuna wasn't at all surprised when she found herself staring at a familiar girl with light brown hair currently stylishly braided around her head and wearing a very frilly white top that slowed out over her hips.

The same girl from a week ago.

"Oh, it's you." she breathed out in annoyance, brushing off the sleeves of her light-blue baggy crochet over-shirt before immediately bending down to the ground, beginning to gather up the objects that had scattered out over the ground, stuffing them back into the bag all the while ignoring the girl that was still staring down at her back.

Obviously, this did not sit well with the girl.

"You are just a horrible person!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Hand prepared to drop off the last object into the bag, Tsuna felt the girl's hand latch onto her arm, yanking her up to her feet and turning her around towards her only to immediately have a perfectly manicured, pastel pink nail digging into her chest.

She found herself staring down at the thing as she felt herself freezing up at the girl's accusation.

"Ruining a child's impressionable mind. Filling it with the thoughts of a delinquent." the girl's furious voice continued to scream, oblivious to the way the muscles in Tsuna's body slowly began to relax under her onslaught of words. "How can you do that to your brother?!"

Slowly, Tsuna rose up from the ground, bag clenched in her hand.

"Mark my words," the girl continued, her voice lowering to something of a furious growl. "I'm going to make sure that he gets a safe, proper place to live, somewhere you and your… horrible boyfriend, can never harm him again!"

That was the last straw.

Looking up at the girl, Tsuna's face slipped into that eerie calm that so many people had learned to back away from even after only having seen it twice during the course of the spring term. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the other girl.

Rightfully so, the girl faltered where she was standing, her finger still digging into Tsuna's chest.

"Who are you to talk about Lambo's upbringing?" Tsuna asked, her voice deep and accusing as she straightened her spine, raising her head to look down at the other girl. "You don't know anything about him."

The girl managed to collect herself, glaring right back as she once again poked Tsuna in the chest.

"I know that you are one horrible older sister for-"

"Lambo is not my brother." Tsuna cut the girl off as she knocked her hand away, finally, finally, having had enough of the absolute narrow-minded bullshit continuously running out of the girl's heavily glossed lips.

She stared at her as the girl's eyes flew wide open.

"What?"

She took a step towards the other young female, making the girl back up in the process.

"We're not related." Tsuna verified, face blank of any emotion. "Me and my… boyfriend, found him relying on pick-pocketing for an income and living in an old bomb shelter."

The girl's face turned white at the revelation, her mouth opening and closing to give her the general outlook of a fish. She took another step backwards when Tsuna closed in on her.

"I picked him off the streets where he didn't even have shoes, and you're trying to take him away from that?" Tsuna's eyes narrowed even further, even through the calm demeanor she carried, her rage practically radiated off of her in white-hot tendrils, making the girls stumble backwards even further until she collided with the wall of one of the buildings.

She took a moment just breathing heavily before shaking the shock off, pushing herself off of the wall a she unlocked her tongue.

Tsuna somehow knew what was going to happen now.

"B-But you're still a terrible person!" she screamed, pointing a finger in Tsuna's direction as the anger flooded back into her features. "You and your mother!" Tsuna watched as the girl forced her mind back into those 'I know better than you' roads, and she felt the annoyance starting to overcome her as the girl just. Kept. Talking. "I was just trying to freshen you up with some make-up-"

Okay, she was going to stop her right there.

"I've been advised by doctors to steer clear of any form of make-up that's not available in a pharmacy." she stated, watching as the girl practically froze where she was standing. Tsuna herself forced the girl's pointed finger down. "I've got hyper-sensitive skin and a severe allergy against most cosmetics and other health products." now it was Tsuna's turn to tap her finger in the other girl's chest, her eyes still narrowed. "I tried to tell you." she tapped again. "My mother knew I tried to tell you." she leaned in even closer to the girl, allowing the girl to actually feel the hear wafting off of her like a warm wind. "Hence her extreme reaction to your apparent allergy against listening to people."

With that, Tsuna felt she was done, taking a couple of steps away from the girl.

"I… I-I didn't-" she tried to stammer, but Tsuna cut her off again.

"No, you didn't." she agreed, taking a few more steps away from the girl. "That's why we, as human beings, invented the marvelous thing called, Questions." she looked at her from over her shoulder. It was a strange thing, something that she had noticed when she'd jammed her finger in her chest-bone, but she was actually just just a few centimeters shorter than the other girl, something that didn't happen a lot, even Kyoko being notably taller than her and the two of them were about the same in physical stature.

The brunette behind her was built like a gymnast, slender but with solid muscle littered over her entire form, just slightly different from Tsuna, the muscle being the main difference.

Funny how the girl was still very much terrified of Tsuna despite her being the shorter one.

"I-I'm s-sorry." she tried, desperately hoping that those words would make it up for all her actions.

Tsuna felt like laughing in her face.

As if that would happen.

"No." Tsuna said, shaking her head. "It's too late for apologies." she stepped away from the girl, back straight and her eyes no longer narrowed quite as much, but she was still, very much, angered. "Until you learn how to look at situations without jumping onto the first half-assed conclusion that enters your head. You're not worthy of forgiveness."

And with that said, Tsuna turned on her heel and continued down the path the girl had so rudely pushed her towards, leaving said girl quivering against the building.

She looked down at the ground, her eyes welling up with tears at the thought of the accusation she had thrown at those two teens. No wonder the guy had blown up at her.

Judging by how the girl had said the word "Boyfriend", she had probably been wrong about that too, and the delinquent was just a really loyal friend that cared a great deal for her. A friendship that she couldn't help but to momentarily wish she herself had.

That's two things she had made a conclusion about and turned out to have been wrong about...

Just how many other people had she unknowingly hurt by not asking the right questions?

Tsuna hadn't felt this light in her soul for a long time.

One would have thought that scolding a girl her own age would have made you feel heavier, but no. Tsuna couldn't help but to think that she had accumulated so much pent up aggression over the past decade what with everything that she'd gone through, that letting it out, even if it was just a portion of it, even it it was just in front of the one girl, made her feel lighter.

She found herself letting out a long breath with a smile on her face, almost skipping as she turned around the corner towards her home.

A/N: Please tell me what you think, I'll see if I can get some work done on the sequel and I'll be back with the next chapter next Friday unless something is physically keeping me from doing so.

This has been:

A message from Her Ladyship.