Day 9: Stockings
Tsuna was sent on a mission to buy stockings for his family, meaning: a shit ton of people. Reborn wanted him to buy stockings for the Kokuyo gang, the girls, and hellーeven Dino and Romario! Not only that, he wanted those jumbo-sized stockings. So demanding!
After Tsuna basically took half the stock of the convenience store's stock of stockingsーwow, what a tongue twisterーhe returned home only to be kicked out once again after the hitman tutor gave him another list. This time, it was a list of stocking stuffers for each person. And each person had difficult, and probably expensive, items to acquire but knowing Reborn and his connections, Tsuna will probably end up with the stuffers somehow. Honestly, he was hoping that the item would just walk right up to him.
And one of the items did. The young boss stared dumbfounded at the floating item. It wasn't exactly walking but who the hell sees a floating item on a daily basis?! 'This is probably Reborn's doing,' he thought. It wasn't even that surprising anymore. The item floating towards him was an adorably large shiba inu pillow plush. He checked the list to see who this was for and saw that it was for Kyoko. Blushing, he said, "How cute!" As he reached out to grab it, the plush moved away from his hand. Frustrated, he tried to be quicker and ended up having to chase after it. Of course this wouldn't be easy.
After a few minutes of running around, he heard some familiar voices.
"Yo, Tsuna!"
"Tenth!"
He was still running as he looked over his shoulder and ended up tripping. "Oww.." He groaned, rubbing his face. His friends caught up with, Gokudera being worried as usual. "Tenth, are you okay?!" Tsuna nodded and remembered what he was doing. "The plush! Where'd it-" As he frantically searched around, he noticed that it stayed where it was when he tripped.
"Oh cute! Why is it floating?" Yamamoto asked. "Nevermind that, do you think either one of you could grab that plush without it floating away when you get close?" Tsuna asked. Determined to make his boss proud, Gokudera ended up running after the plush while cursing at it and resisted the urge to throw a bomb at it. He circled back to the two boys and was running straight for Yamamoto where he got an idea.
"Baseball freak! Catch!" The rain guardian turned around and saw the plush flying towards him. He reached his arms out and grabbed it. However, Gokudera couldn't stop himself and collided with Yamamoto and the plush, causing him to lose his grip on it. "No!" Tsuna exclaimed. He quickly jumped after it and caught it before the plush could start floating again.
After making sure that he actually caught it, he breathed a sigh of relief. 'So much effort just for a plush,' He thought.
"Tenth! Is this another one of Reborn-san's missions?"
"The kid asked for a floating plush?" Tsuna sighed.
"He's making me find things to put into the stockings I bought for everyone earlier today." Gokudera got starry eyed. "Even for me?" He asked.
"Yeah! Everyone gets one, this plush was for Kyoko-chan."
"Do you want us to help?" Yamamoto asked. Tsuna shook his head. "Nah, it's okay. Besides, I don't want you guys to see what's going to be in your stockings!"
"That's true! The Tenth is so considerate of us! Let's go baseball freak, we can't delay the Tenth's mission any longer." Gokudera dragged the rain guardian away. Yamamoto waved goodbye to Tsuna as he was getting dragged away.
Tsuna decided to head back home and leave the plush in his room. It was too big to carry around so he made sure to carry a couple bags with him for the rest of the stuffers.
"Good job, Dame-Tsuna."
"Hiee!" The young boss shrieked. "Reborn! Don't scare me like that!"
"You still have a lot more to get. Here's where you can find them." Reborn handed him another piece of paper with a map of Namimori, red X's marking the places that he needed to go to. Before Tsuna left, Reborn told him that he had to find everything by the end of the day. It was halfway through the day already.
And it was also a school night. It was hell once again for our little Decimo.
He decided that he should search for Haru's stocking stuffers next since it seemed the easiest to locate and gather. Tsuna found himself going to several different stores because the map Reborn gave him added another X onto another store after he finished finding something at the previous store.
After going through about 10 stores, he finally gathered all the things and sat at a bench to assemble everything into a box. The box was filled with different supplies to create more costumes since Haru seemed to enjoy making that kind of stuff.
While he was in those shops, he also got the stocking stuffers for Fuuta, I-Pin, and Bianchi. Tsuna bought a few different scarves for Fuuta, a custom plush that looked like Fon, I-Pin's master, and an apron that had Reborn's face on it along with a few new cooking utensils for Bianchi.
His next destination was apparently a weapon shop for both Gokudera and Hibari's stocking stuffers. There were scary-looking men guarding the door and almost denied Tsuna entrance into the shop until they saw the ring on his finger. The guards moved to the side and allowed him inside.
"Why hello there, what brings you here?" The man at the register asked. The young boss was still a bit intimidated by the two guards back there but he needed to finish this mission. "D-do you have these limited edition items?" He showed the man the photos that Reborn had provided on the list.
"Ah, yes! You must be here to pick it up for Reborn-san. Wait right here." The man disappeared into the backroom for a bit and came back out with two, nicely wrapped boxes. Gokudera and Hibari's names were labeled on their respective boxes. "Here you go, run along now!" Tsuna thanked the man and left, quickly wanting to leave the shop.
Right next to the weapon shop was an athletic store. 'Were these stores always here?' Tsuna thought. He walked into the store to find Yamamoto and Ryohei's stocking stuffers. For about 30 minutes, he searched in a bunch of different aisles to find a limited edition pair of boxing gloves for Ryohei. From the corner of his eye, the young boss saw what looked to be the gloves. Quickly heading into the aisle he almost passed by, he reached out to grab the gloves only to find another hand grabbing for the same thing.
"Sawada! Are you looking for gloves so you can join boxing!?" Unsurprisingly, it was Ryohei. The sun guardian looked at the gloves they were both trying to get. "Oh! These are a good pair! But they are limited edition and this is the only one in this store! I've checked everywhere else for like 2 hours!"
"Oh um...actually onii-san, could I have these gloves? Reborn is uh...training me again and specifically asked me to get these boxing gloves!"
"Yeah, sure! Good luck with training!" And with that, Ryohei walked away into a different aisle. Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed the gloves. He still had to find something for Yamamoto's stocking so he continued looking around the store and was shocked to find a famous baseball player in one of the aisles. He didn't think he would actually be able to get the signed photo of the baseball player that Reborn wrote on the list (that hitman tutor must have done something for this to happen). Tsuna remembers Yamamoto talking about his favorite baseball players once before and shared pictures he either took with them or of them. There was only one person he wasn't able to get a photo of just yet and that person was standing right in front of him! The baseball player was currently looking at some bats, probably thinking of getting a new one. The young boss approached the man and tapped on his shoulder, getting his attention.
"U-um, excuse me. C-could I ask for something?" Tsuna stuttered out. The man gave him a smile and nodded. "Is it okay if I take your picture? A-and if you could sign it too that would be great! Um, my friend is a really big fan of yours so I wanted to get something baseball-related for him." The baseball player let out a chuckle.
"Of course you can! I don't mind one bit. I think it's nice that you're doing this for your friend. You must care a lot about him." The man replied. Tsuna nodded, a happy expression painted his face. He rummaged through his backpack and found the camera he used a few days ago. The baseball player grabbed one of the bats and struck a pose. Tsuna let out a little laugh and took a picture of him. Since it was an instant camera, the picture slowly came out from the bottom and Tsuna shook it after to help make the image come out faster.
While he was looking for his camera earlier, he also brought out a Sharpie pen. He gave both the photo and the pen to the baseball player. "So, what is your friend's name?" He asked.
"Oh, ah, it's Yamamoto-kun." The man started writing on the photo and finished it off with his autograph. He gave the photo back to Tsuna and said that he had to head out. Before he left, the young boss gave him a thank you.
"Hm…I think I should get a couple more things for Yamamoto-kun's stocking." Tsuna thought. It wasn't on the list but he felt that a single photo was a bit too small compared to all the other stocking stuffers he got today. He decided on getting a frame for the photo and a new baseball jersey. Since he was still in the store, the young boss bought the jersey there before heading out to buy a frame.
He walked down the street and entered a fancy-looking shop that was marked on the map. It had various wares and even candy! Tsuna looked around the store and found a small section of the store that had frames. He brought out the signed photo and compared it to various frames before finding the perfect one. He also bought another frame for his mom's stocking stuffer. "Oh! Since this store has candy, maybe they will have the ones that Reborn wrote down for Lambo's stocking." He thought out loud. There was a different location marked on the map Reborn gave him for Lambo's stocking but it wouldn't hurt to look around while he's there.
He headed for the section that had the candy and searched around a bit. Luckily, he actually did find the specific brand of candies for Lambo! The young boss paid for the frame and sweets, then headed out of the store. He decided to take a break on a bench outside of the store, putting down the bags he had full of goodies. Tsuna's legs were hurting a bit from both carrying the bags and having to walk around the shopping district. He brought out the list from his back pocket and checked off all the people he had stuff for. He groaned when he saw how many people were still left that he needed to get stocking stuffers for. To be honest, Tsuna thought that these were more like proper gifts than simple little stocking stuffers! He's slightly dreading the thought of what he'll have to end up getting for everyone for their actual Christmas presents.
"Haaah, I still have to find stuff for the Kokuyo gang, Dino-san, Romario-san, and Reborn." It was starting to get dark so he decided to get up and pick up the pace before the shops begin closing.
Tsuna decided to start with getting the stuff for the Kokuyo gang so he headed to a nearby bookstore where he bought two limited edition books for Chikusa. Then, he headed to a convenience store and bought a whole bunch of snacks for Ken (he made sure that they didn't expire for a while). In the same store, he bought some fancy chocolate (for Mukuro as well) and a cute owl plush that resembled Mukurowl (he painted the eyes red and blue later at home to help make it look more like the owl) for Chrome's stocking.
Afterwards, the young boss crossed the street to a store that made custom figures. Apparently, Reborn already ordered something for Dino so all Tsuna had to do was pick it up. The cashier smiled at him and asked if he was here to pick up an order.
"A-ah, yes! I'm picking up an order for Reborn." The cashier nodded and headed to the back to grab the order. After a few moments, she came back and brought back a figure of Enzio, Dino's pet. "Uwaah, so cute!" Tsuna thought. The cashier wrapped up the figure in a velvet cloth bag and handed it to Tsuna.
"Thank you, come again!" She said while Tsuna was leaving.
The next stop was a liquor store to get Romario's stocking stuffer. This was a bit difficult to get since Tsuna was underage. After repeated explanations and begging from the young boss and constant rejections from the cashier, he finally noticed Tsuna's ring and profusely apologized.
"I'm very sorry, you should have let me know that you are the Tenth. Wait here, I will get the liquor you requested." Tsuna let out a sigh of relief and thanked the cashier once he got the bottle. He wrapped the bottle up nicely before giving it to Tsuna. He thanked the cashier and exited the store. The bags he was carrying just kept getting heavier and heavier but he persevered. The young boss stared up at the sky and noticed that it was quite dark already. A few shops were even beginning to close.
"Okay, I just need something for Reborn's stocking. I can make mom's one at home." The list the hitman tutor gave Tsuna earlier in the day didn't specify on what to get him. The only thing written for Reborn's name was 'Figure it out, Dame-Tsuna.'
Tsuna sat down on a bench again to rest his legs and think about what to get Reborn. He came up with an idea after a few long minutes of thinking and stood up. He grabbed his stuff (forgetting that they were quite heavy so he stumbled a bit) and walked over to a fancy coffee shop.
The young boss's idea was to get Reborn a variety of espresso beans since espresso was his favorite type of coffee. He noticed a sign by the reusable cups that said 'You can print your own design on these reusable cups!' Tsuna got another idea and walked over to the cups. He asked the worker to print the Vongola logo on one of the venti cups. Tsuna gave him a picture of the logo and the worker began printing it onto the cup. In the meantime, the young boss picked out several espresso beans that came in various flavors.
Once he figured out which beans to get, he headed back to the cups. The worker finished printing on the logo and gave it to Tsuna. He thanked the worker and paid for the beans and the custom cup at the cashier.
"Finally, I'm almost done!" Tsuna let out a big sigh of relief as he left the coffee shop. He finally started heading home to go and stock those stockings.
Tsuna finally got home and put all the bags down in his room. Everyone else was in the kitchen right now having dinner but he wanted to finish up this whole 'stocking mission'. First, he had to finish making the gift for his mom's stocking. He searched through a box of pictures and finally found the one he had in mind. He then took out the frame he bought from one of the bags and placed the picture inside.
On Reborn's list, what he wrote down for Nana's was basically 'Get whatever you see fit for mama.' The picture Tsuna chose was the photo he took with everyone the first time he had to take pictures of his family. The young boss also bought a card and an envelope when he was buying stuff for Haru's stocking. Tsuna knew that his mom would probably like to have a physical memory of their family (and would also appreciate the card). He began writing in the card and once he was finished, he started labeling all of the stockings.
Once all of that was finally finished, he began filling all of the jumbo stockings with the various gifts he acquired today. Also, he didn't forget to add the frame to the photo for Yamamoto's stocking. After what felt like years, he was done filling up the stockings which were laid out on the floor in a few stacks. He laid and let out a big sigh of relief.
"Uwaah, that was exhausting…" He thought out loud. "At least I'm finished with all of them."
"Good job, Tsuna. I'm surprised you managed to get everything and fill all the stockings before the end of the day. Not too shabby." Reborn said, startling the young boss. "Hiee! Reborn! When did you come in?"
"Anyways, go get dinner, mama left some leftovers for you."
"Hai, hai…" Tsuna dragged himself up from the floor and headed downstairs. Reborn looked at all the stockings on the floor. "Guess I'll have to put these up for him." He sighed and shook his head.
"Dame-Tsuna making me do all the work."
sorry this is like two years late lmao
guess we'll just have to wait and see when this will end up being finished, but hey! this was kind of a long chapter so there's that at least :D
aaa it's not even christmas anymore
it's not even winter in general lol
anyways, i hope you enjoyed this chapter (i'll reupload if i see any mistakes since its like 3am rn)