"As you all know," said Ms. Tohoku, their homeroom teacher. "Tomorrow is a day off. If you show up to school, you can have fun all alone while your classmates do whatever it is they're doing, like enjoying the weather, or going shopping, or watching the Namimori Athletic Festival, because Midori doesn't have one after that fiasco three years ago and the school figured, if we're not having one we'll send our students to look at a different school's and realize on their own time why we don't have them anymore."
She shuddered delicately. One of the students raised her hand.
"Sensei," she said. "Why doesn't Midori have a sports festival?"
Ms. Tohoku pointed in her direction with a dramatic finger. "An excellent question, ten points to Ravenclaw."
"I'm a Hufflepuff," mumbled the student, but was ignored with a hair flick.
"Since we're nearly done and no one can focus when you have a day off tomorrow," Ms. Tohoku grinned knowingly. "Let me tell you a story about the school you attend, and why we don't get to have fun things like a festival where you girls make idiots of yourselves in front of not just the whole school but also the visiting families."
Not that Hotaru was a proponent of sports festivals in general, but Ms. Tohoku had a way of making it sound horrendous. No wonder she liked her homeroom teacher so much.
"Once upon a time – and by that I mean before three years ago – Midori, too, had an athletic festival. Was it as big or as eventful as the ones held by Namimori Middle? No. Usually when boys are involved in something it tends to get messier and more violent, which is why I teach in an all-girls' school. That's not sexism, that's just a fact. If you check the papers, you'll find that after every sports festival they've held, Namimori Middle always makes it someway, somehow onto the local news for injury, property destruction or some kind of unintended accident like the time a bunch of roosters attacked the audience, or that other time when someone got their hair caught on fire."
That sounded so incredibly like what would happen in a place with the name 'Namimori' that Hotaru believed it immediately. Some of the students in the class tittered. Shrugging satisfactorily at the reaction she had drawn from her listeners Ms. Tohoku continued her story.
"But I digress. Back to Midori. We had annual athletic competitions, and none of them were as close to being, shall we say, eventful as Namimori's until the fateful day."
"What happened?" Haru asked.
"There were two girls," said Ms. Tohoku somberly. "For the sake of confidentiality let us refer to them as A-ko and B-ko."
"That's such a lazy fake name," booed someone behind Hotaru.
"I totally agree." Ms. Tohoku said and didn't bother taking up the constructive criticism. "A-ko and B-ko were friends. Not the best of friends, just a friend from class kind of friend. They were both third years, and they had been in the same class for their three years in the school. That was about all they had in common. Or," she paused for dramatic effect. "So they thought."
"What else did they have in common?"
"Were they secretly sisters?"
"Oh, so the father must have cheated on two different women, and they didn't know until they coincidentally came to the same school and found out when he came to their sports festival!"
Ms. Tohoku made a face with intense squinting eyes and puckered lips, as if she had bitten into a lemon without warning. "Normally I'd tell you girls to not write fanfictions about people you don't know about, and to not draw conclusions so quickly, but you're actually close with the theme so I'll let it go this time. The two girls both had a boyfriend."
Someone gasped, realizing where she was going with this. "They were dating the same boy!"
Their homeroom teacher nodded with a serious set to her lips, but her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Exactly. It turns out that this boy had been cheating on both the girls, and they only found out during the athletic festival when A-ko caught B-ko asking the boy for a good-luck kiss. A-ko, being a girl with a, shall we say, fiery nature, demanded to know what B-ko was saying to her boyfriend, and while B-ko was shier than A-ko she had a spine and she snapped back that he was her boyfriend, A-ko must have been mistaken."
Scandalized but clearly intrigued, the class listened with bated breath for what came next.
"Now the two girls were on opposite teams, and almost as if it was fated, ended up facing each other in the wrestling match."
Wrestling? Hotaru thanked the stars that Midori no longer held the event.
"You girls have to remember that the full truth isn't out yet, and from the perspective of the girls, it was the other that had essentially seduced her boyfriend like a homewrecking Delilah." Ms. Tohoku gave a small shrug, as if to say, 'what could you do?'
"The match started, and instead of a wrestling match, it was a catfight. I think A-ko jumped on B-ko, trying to claw at her face, and B-ko was trying to bite A-ko wherever she could, and both of them were calling each other names that made the principal want to wash their mouths out with soap. Really, it happened all so fast I don't remember the details, just that I knew I didn't want to be the one getting between them."
"What did they say?" someone called out slyly.
Ms. Tohoku sent a 'nice-try' look towards that direction. "Bad words, which I will not repeat as a teacher in front of her students lest the principal decide to wash my mouth out with soap."
"What happened afterwards?" pressed a different person, eager to know the ending, not the insults thrown around back then.
"The referee – another teacher, let's call her Ms. C – tried to step in and separate the girls, but they were too angry to see her properly, so they just smashed past her like charging bulls and ended up knocking poor Ms. C away like Team Rocket blasting off again. It didn't help that she was a tiny woman to begin with."
"Is Ms. C Ms. Kaai?" called out a girl behind Haru, naming the shortest teacher on the Midori faculty.
"No comment on true identities. Confidentiality, girls. So the referee is out of commission, the girls are fighting like they're trying to kill each other with their bare hands, and the spectators are finally realizing that this is not planned and there is something wrong because it doesn't look like wrestling, what's going on down there. One of the student council members running around and making sure the festival goes as organized, let's call her D-ko, sees this and has a stroke of genius. Some might consider it reckless or brash, but I consider this genius so take my bias with a grain of salt."
Ms. Tohoku checked the clock, and Hotaru, along with at least half the class, turned their heads. They still had a few more minutes till the bell rang. Enough time for their teacher to finish the story.
"She picked up a bucket of water – with ice cubes, for a different challenge – and threw it onto A-ko and B-ko."
Hotaru felt phantom chills run down her spine at the thought of being drenched with ice water and suppressed a shudder.
"Hey, I know this story," said someone behind her. "D-ko's my cousin!"
Ms. Tohoku laughed. "Then you know how it ended?"
"No, um, D-ko's always super-embarrassed by it and she covers my aunt's mouth whenever she tries to share the story. How does it end?"
"Oh, I don't know," said their teacher, grinning in a positively evil manner. "If D-ko didn't want to share-"
The rest of her words were drowned out by protests from all the class. Hotaru was among them, because there was no way she could just not end the story after all that.
"Alright, alright!" Ms. Tohoku had to make a calm-down gesture at them. "I'll finish the story. D-ko threw the bucket of water, but she forgot that they were all wearing white t-shirts. A-ko and B-ko remembered, though, partly because they were the ones getting wet, and partly because cold water is enough to cool anyone's hot heads even in the heat of the moment."
Several of her classmates made sounds of sympathy and understanding.
"Freezing wet, hair a total mess, embarrassed and upset, A-ko and B-ko wiped away the water from their eyes, and apparently they also wiped away whatever rose-tinted lenses they'd been wearing because the two of them, in synchronized unison, looked at where their cheating boyfriend was standing."
The bell rang, and never had the sound been more annoying than in that moment.
"Enjoy your day off tomorrow, girls!" With a cheerful clap, Ms. Tohoku began to grab for her bag. Almost as loud as the sound of the bell were the groans that came from everyone in the class in that moment.
"Ms. Tohoku! Come back here!"
"You can't just leave without finishing the story!"
"No cliff-hangers!"
None of that stopped Ms. Tohoku from cheerily stepping out of the classroom like she hadn't just left them all hanging. "Don't forget to finish your homework! See you girls after the weekend!"
"She's so evil," mumbled the girl in front of her, and Hotaru was inclined to agree.
.
The weather forecast wasn't perfect, but it was accurate most of the time, and today was no exception. The sun was bright, the skies were clear, and the day was warm.
In other words, it was the perfect weather for a school to hold a sports festival.
Namimori Middle School did exactly that. Since Midori had a day off, Hotaru was at a school that wasn't even hers to watch students exercise in the name of competition under three different teams.
The things she did for her friends. At least she wasn't required to participate.
Haru came early in the morning to take her to Tsuna's house, where they prepared lunches for the day. Tsuna's mom was a very nice woman, and a fantastic cook. She had the same kind of aura Tsuna did, the warm, comforting kind, as well as the same round eyes lacking judgement.
"It's so nice that Tsuna's friends are here to cheer him on," Nana said. "But are you girls sure you don't have to be at your own schools?"
Hotaru shook her head. "We have a day off, Sawada-san."
"Please, just call me Auntie," said Nana. "And I didn't know that."
Hotaru caught Haru's eyes, and instantly knew the other girl was also thinking of Ms. Tohoku's story. She bit the inside of her mouth to prevent herself from bursting into laughter. Sharing a story when it ended in a cliff-hanger was as evil as her homeroom teacher, and she didn't want to subject Sawada Nana to that.
It was also interesting to meet Tsuna's other family. Lambo, despite being foreign, had no difficulty speaking Japanese. He seemed to be a very bright child, in both personality and linguistic ability. He was also loud and cheerful, as befitting his age. Setsuna might have balked at his fashion, but otherwise he was a cute child.
Haru also introduced her to Bianchi, the beautiful young foreign woman who lived in the Sawada residence as a homestay of sorts.
"I'm here for Reborn," she said, fond smile warming the initial cold impression Hotaru had received from her.
She seemed fond of children, from her obvious affections for Reborn and how she interacted with Haru. They hadn't known each other very long, but Haru was already treating her like an older sister.
But then again, Haru was Haru, so that could also have been it.
After preparing the foods – and Hotaru finding a similarity between Bianchi and Setsuna in their culinary skills, or lack thereof – they headed to the school together to cheer on Tsuna, Takeshi and Gokudera Hayato. Hotaru had been surprised to find that Bianchi was Gokudera's sister, after meeting her and him.
Their coloring was different – Bianchi with pink hair a few shades darker than Chibi-Usa's, and Gokudera with silver locks – but once their relationship had been explained, Hotaru could see their resemblance in little details of their face, like the shape of their eyes or the set of their lips.
The boy that had called Takeshi a shoulder blade was quite prickly, constantly frowning and ruining the good looks that he had. He also seemed to have more than a few bones to pick with another boy with white hair buzzed close to his scalp. For a moment she worried.
Then she remembered that Gokudera was the kind of person who thought Takeshi would make a shoulder blade, so.
Hotaru folded up any and all worries she might have had and threw them away before she turned her attention away from him, and towards Takeshi. He was running for Team A now in the relay race, and he was in the lead.
The fact that the two and a half people she was here to cheer for – the half being Gokudera, by virtue of his sister being next to her but also only half for being on her list of people she didn't really know and therefore cared little about – were all on the same team made it easier for Hotaru.
The run was nearly over, and the ribbon was stretched out over the finish line. The participants ran the last stretch, squeezing out what little strength they had left.
But Takeshi was faster. Hotaru cheered when he crossed before anyone else, tearing the ribbon from the tapes and letting it drape horizontally across his torso, the physical proof that he had gotten first place trailing like the cape of a conqueror behind him.
His teammates, with the same jersey to show their association, crowded around him, loud and rambunctious in their victory. A head taller than his peers, his eyes flit over to where he was. He grinned and waved.
She waved back as the speakers announced the next event – also a relevant one she needed to watch. The pogo race was one where Tsuna was supposed to participate. It wasn't as bad as running, but it was still a race, and it required balance to prevent humiliation.
Hotaru imagined herself doing any of these events and shuddered despite the warm day. It was a good thing Midori didn't have an athletic festival.
.
Hotaru didn't even know what she had expected, but in retrospect she felt like she should have expected something more, something extraordinary and unusual. Something like this.
'This' was the team leaders of Team B and C both suddenly made unable to participate in the final event, the Pole-Knocking competition, and Team A being blamed for this.
"Each team's leader rests on a pole," Haru explained when Hotaru's blank face made it clear that she had no idea what that entailed. "And the other teams try to knock the leader off. Whichever team's leader stays on the pole for the longest wins!"
That sounded absolutely horrible. It became even more horrible when she found out that Tsuna was the leader of Team A.
Tsuna had to be the one, fighting for dear life to stay on a pole – a pole, of all things – while his teammates tried to keep the pole supported and held up and enemies tried to knock it over or drag him down.
Hotaru peered over to check, and sure enough, the participants for this event were all boys. Neo-Queen Serenity only knew how rough it would become.
"I hope it gets cancelled," she said with utmost sincerity. This was not what she had signed up for. Cheering for friends as they hopefully had fun? Yes. Watching them get trampled by a frenzied mob? No.
"I hope so too . . ." moaned Tsuna, as he stumbled over to the place they were sitting at, ready to start lunch in the form of a picnic. He looked like the will to live had been drained from his body.
Sympathetic, Hotaru patted his back and offered him a new bottle of water. "Stay hydrated."
"Thank you . . ."
Poor Tsuna looked like he needed rest. The lunch break should have been a time for him to relax while the third-year students debated how to handle the sudden ineligibility of two leaders.
Life, unfortunately, had a way of throwing curveballs and throwing off what should be.
The glares and comments from members of teams B and C passing near them had a very counterproductive effect to Tsuna's rest.
"That's him. He's the leader of Team A."
"The one that ordered his underlings to take out the other leaders?"
"Yeah."
"I bet he bribed them, he doesn't look that tough."
"What did you expect?"
They certainly weren't making an effort to speak quietly, and with each comment Tsuna shrunk into himself, color leaving his face.
Hotaru's lips thinned in displeasure. She despised bullies who threw out hurtful words without ever considering just how sharply they cut, how deeply they bruised the mind and self of a person until the ego was left in tatters and the victim was left to blame themselves, not the perpetrators.
She wasn't the first one up, though, because Haru, naturally, would not stand for such a thing.
"Who do you think you people are?!" she demanded, leaping to her feet and looking ready to fight all the world with her bare hands if she had to.
If the boys had been smart, or had a sense of shame, they would have realized what they had done wrong and backed down.
They didn't, unfortunately, and Hotaru's dislike of them rose further.
"Ooh, scary," said one mockingly.
Another snickered. "I dunno, I think she's kinda cute."
Haru reared up, ready to say something, but Hotaru spoke then, making sure her voice carried. She couldn't let Haru be the only one to stand up against them. Her ego was no longer in tatters.
"Haru, don't," she said, a little louder than her usual volume. "Their idiocy might be contagious. It's already giving me a headache."
She might have been speaking to Haru, but she let her eyes meet each and every one of their faces. Was it a little over the top to put in a bit of Saturn's powers behind her words? Not death or destruction directly, that was too much, but just a bit of force leaked, enough for them to be intimidated by triggering senses of survival with her aura alone.
Letting them get a sense of the greater being within her for a brief moment.
While they lacked a little in terms of respect for their fellow human, they still had a shred of self-preservation. The hecklers froze up, sweat from more than previous events evident on their foreheads and necks. Maybe it was too much, to expose boys barely out of childhood to the presence of a planetary guardian.
Then Hotaru remembered what they had said about Tsuna and rescinded her thoughts. Immaturity was no excuse or free pass for cruelty to others.
"Then again, it could be the smell," she added, wrinkling her nose. They had been warned, this was enough, no matter how contemptuously she viewed people like them. "Either way, leave us please."
Hotaru turned her attention back to the food. Nana made egg rolls that looked like they belonged on the cover of magazines for cooking recipes, and she'd been dying to try it. They looked so fluffy she almost wanted to try poking it to see if it would bounce back into shape, like a sponge.
The silence from the others made Hotaru look up. Haru was gaping at her, and Tsuna looked . . .
Well, he had the expression of a person who had just been smacked in the back of his head by someone completely unexpected.
Hotaru was fairly sure that neither had been exposed to Saturn's force, having been careful to direct it to the specific individuals, and just for a second, so it probably wasn't that. "What?"
Tsuna never got to answer. Bianchi offered the boys some chocolates, and they collapsed after eating it, clutching at their stomachs and turning a rather pasty color. Hotaru could have pitied them, but she didn't. The rumors of Team A being underhanded and vicious in their attempt to win, unfortunately, grew faster after that. She didn't have the attention to spare for pitying them.
When the speakers announced that Teams B and C would join forces against Team A, Hotaru just barely resisted burying her face into her hands. This was going to be awful to watch. The only consolation was that it couldn't get worse than this, because there were only three teams. Unless Team A turned on itself –
"I'll do it," a cool voice cut through the chatter about who the leader of the joined teams would be. Like the Red Sea, the crowd of students parted to make room for the dictatorial beast of Namimori, not even dressed in gym apparel like everyone else.
Using the heads of other students as stepping stones, Hibari Kyoya leapt up to the pole with easy grace. A smirk twisted his lips, and Hotaru was, through her horror, reminded of a lion, looking down from a large rock at the savannah and claiming it as his own.
. . . it just got worse.
Hotaru looked at Team A's pole, where Tsuna looked pale, even at this distance. The jerseys of Team A were far fewer when compared to the crowd of the united team against them, facing overwhelming odds as if this was a battle, and the field Thermopylae.
A symbol of courage, certainly, and perseverance, one that had made the legend of three hundred against an army multiple times larger than they, but not victory or survival.
"Ready! Go!"
At the order, the teams sprang into action. Team B and C either came to attack, clawing their way through the human barriers Team A members were making with their own bodies, or holding the pole steady with their dear lives lest they drop the beast of Namimori.
Team A was defending viciously, but they had half the people of Team B and C – and none of them were attacking, because while the adrenaline and excitement of the sports festival may have made the students of Team A crazy enough to try their hand at attacking Hibari, the sheer difference in the number of people made it impossible for Team A to actually attempt attacking.
It was an unfair match. Hotaru glanced over at where Hibari was sitting – and for all that he was perched on a pole upheld by students, he truly did look like a lion lounging.
"Mid-air reborn!" roared a voice. Hotaru turned her eyes back to Team A and then did a double take, because the heat must have been making her see things. She thought she had just seen Tsuna, in nothing but his underwear, leap into the air with a flame burning on his forehead. "Win the pole-knocking competition with my dying will!"
She rubbed her eyes and looked again and – maybe rubbing her eyes was a bad idea, because she was seeing him, still in nothing but his underwear and a fire still burning between his brows, using the people below him as footsteps to leap around like a deranged grasshopper.
Hotaru stopped denying reality or the control she had over her eyesight when Takeshi, Gokudera and one other boy formed a cavalry to support Tsuna in charging Team B and C. Just because she had stopped denying it, however, didn't mean she had an easy time accepting it.
"What in Selene's holy name," she said with the deepest sincerity she could muster at this sight. "Is happening right now?"
"Tsuna-san does that sometimes," Haru said, with a dreamy smile. "He did that when he saved me, too. He jumped right into the river after Haru, shouting 'Save Haru with my dying will!'"
Against all odds, Hotaru was actually distracted from the competition – and the sight of a half-naked Tsuna charging forth towards Hibari Kyoya, fighting through students on the back of three friends – as she looked at Haru.
"You didn't mention this part." She had been more than a little vague on just how Tsuna rescued her.
"Hahi!" Haru clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing the secret she had let slip.
"Tsuna did that?" Nana asked interestedly, her attention also drawn at Haru's testimony. "Oh, I'm so proud of my son."
"Look," Bianchi said, and Hotaru remembered that there was a competition she was supposed to be cheering for.
The three-man cavalry with Tsuna – still in his underwear and flaming head, she could no longer deny it – was charging towards Team B and C, but then –
"What are they doing?" Haru asked in disbelief, voicing what everyone was thinking in that moment. The third boy suddenly punched Gokudera, and the action broke the cavalry apart. It was already incredibly difficult to maintain his balance on a stand made of people, and Tsuna lost it, tumbling over Takeshi to crash onto the ground.
The rather anti-climatic end, as if to make up for the lack (?) of action, started a scuffle when members of Team B and C charged towards Tsuna. Team A didn't take that lying down, and it escalated into a full-out brawl.
Ms. Tohoku really hadn't been kidding when she said Namimori Middle had the craziest athletic festival. On her part, Hotaru knew this event would be unforgettable.
AN: Not as much 'omfg who is that pretty girl with Yamamoto since when did he have a girlfriend' as I thought (or wanted) so later, I guess. The things I sacrifice to try and keep the story's flow smooth (readers: you drama queen).
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What Hotaru believes would be Setsuna's reaction to Lambo's clothes
Setsuna: "iS THAT A COW-PRINT ONESIE." *faints in horror with the back of her hand pressed to her forehead like a dramatic fainter*
What Setsuna's reaction would actually be.
Setsuna: *silent staring, trying to not judge but…*
Setsuna: *thinking of all the possibilities*
Setsuna: (well… if he likes it…)
Setsuna: *buys clothes for her own daughter while she's at it to cover the bad memories with the good*
Hotaru: ?
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Hotaru: *has no patience for people she does not like* *puts the power of Saturn behind it while justifying to herself that she's going easy on them, which to be fair she is* Leave.
Team B and C: *exposed to something greater than they should comprehend, frozen with fear*
Tsuna: (Whoa I thought she was just a nice girl but she can be serious and scary too)
Haru: (Hahi! Hotaru-chan's mad!)
Reborn: [REDACTED]
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Important notice!
I thought we'd pass the daily life arc before we reached 50 reviews on both sites (low expectations) so this is great, but I also have like nothing prepared. So.
When we reach the next mark - a 100 reviews - I'm thinking of posting an AU one-shot (or multi, we'll see how it goes). Since romance is far off in the main story, we can have romance here. I have some ideas, so if people like it they can vote for that or they can be like 'hey so I have an idea and you might like it' and submit that instead of a vote.
Here are the au ideas I have so far.
-Xanxus/Hotaru (where Sailor Saturn, after taking down Pharaoh 90, fell into the KHR world and grew up with Xanxus. Or, Tomoe Hotaru is technically the Cloud Guardian of the Varia)
-Chrome/Hotaru (where Nagi had a friend only she could see and speak to. Or, Tomoe Hotaru's spirit watches over Nagi / Chrome.)
-Mukuro/Hotaru (Mukuro remembers his first life - when he wasn't human, and he died along with the rest of the world as his princess was awakened. Or, one of Mukuro's past life was as a Saturnian)
-Takeshi/Hotaru (a Petrichor AU where, at a party, aliens are attacked and two unlikely people trapped together are trying to fight the invaders without the other noticing their secrets)
Or I could just do a double update but that seems kinda … not special … IDK
Sweet Dreams~