Ms. Tohoku was a homeroom teacher and a woman of much wisdom. She was a teacher, so the assumption would have been that she was smart enough to teach her subjects, but more than that, she was clever in the ways of the world. Like the time before the athletic festival, when she told the class that boys tended to be rowdier than girls.

That story came to mind now, months after the event because Tsuna was in the hospital again for a broken leg. It hadn't been all that long since his birthday, when he landed in the hospital for the rather explosive way Reborn's birthday party had ended the day before, but he was back again.

It was going to heal without any issues, he reassured her when she asked, but he looked rather pale and worn out, as if he'd been harassed before she and Haru arrived at his hospital room.

Hotaru glanced around. Tsuna was in a private room, which was unusual for someone who had a relatively minor injury like a broken leg. Maybe there had been a rude patient in his previous room, and the hospital moved him to a better one to make up for it.

Reborn ushered them out to let him rest, and they did so without protest.

"I hope he gets better soon," Hotaru said, as she left the hospital with Haru and her new friend. Hotaru had brought him a basket of snacks, and, because of what Haru had planned to raise Tsuna's spirits, a charm from Rei. She left both at his bedside table.

Why he looked at her like he was Caesar being stabbed by Brutus, Hotaru didn't really understand, but she figured it was because of all the stress he was going through.

"Mm-hm," agreed Haru's friend, who had dressed up as an exorcist with her. Hotaru didn't recognize her, so it was doubtful that she was from Midori. Maybe a friend of Tsuna's who met Haru before. "Tsuna-kun's always so energetic and interesting to watch. It doesn't feel right for him to be stuck in the hospital."

Hotaru nodded as Haru clapped her hands.

"Hahi! I forgot to introduce you two! Hotaru-chan, this is Kyoko-chan! I met her on Haru Appreciation Day! She loves La Namimorine too! And Kyoko-chan, this is Hotaru-chan. She's been friends with me for a long time, and we go to Midori together."

Haru did mention she met someone the other day, on her shopping date with Tsuna. It had gotten a little overshadowed because of Kawahira's illusion lesson, but Hotaru remembered now. "Nice to meet you."

"Same here!" Kyoko beamed at her. Hotaru didn't know her, but she was willing to bet that Haru had collected yet another good person. There was a brightness about her, and not just because of her light-colored hair, cut short to frame her face, but in the way she smiled sweetly and how her eyes were guileless and kind.

It turned out that Kyoko also went to Namimori Middle.

"I can't believe we missed out on meeting you during the sports festival," Haru said, when they realized that Kyoko's brother had been on Team A and worked closely with Tsuna and the others. "We could have been friends so much sooner!"

Hotaru recounted her memory of the event, and recalled Gokudera punching and being punched by another boy with white hair cropped close to his head – the boy they had identified as Sasagawa Kyoko's brother.

Maybe that was for the best, back then. She kept that quiet.

Haru was set on making up for missed time, and when the boys went on a camping trip into the mountains with a friend from Italy after Tsuna's leg healed, she took the initiative to organize a girls' day.

"If the boys can have a boys' day," she said with fierce competition burning in her eyes. "Then we can have a girls' day!"

It wasn't exactly something that warranted a competition, but Hotaru went along with it. The boys could have fun climbing a mountain in this cold and sleeping outside, in a tent. They'd just spend their day having fun in a safer, less strenuous way.

Kyoko was invited because the whole point was to make up for the time they missed out on being friends, and after asking them in advance she brought her friend as well, raising their numbers to an even four.

Kurokawa Hana was a girl their age with eyes so sharp, she could have come across as cold and unfriendly at first impression, but with a few words exchanged after being introduced it was clear that she was simply a blunt and honest person.

That was evident in how she looked a little taken aback at how instantaneously Haru warmed up to her, but didn't protest or react harshly. A fair response Hotaru couldn't fault her for.

"We can go shopping first," Haru chatted, eyes sparkling. "And then go for karaoke, and then go get some cake!"

It was a plan that they all agreed with.

Girls' day was fun, and something she hadn't had for a while, at least not with people her age. Most of their shopping was window shopping. For Hotaru, most of the clothes in the shops didn't really meet the high standards set by Setsuna, but it was the experience looking through the sales and trying on the items that nearly made the cut that was worth it. Haru was always expressive in her reactions, and Hotaru could pick up fashion trends from her peers. Setsuna may have had an unparalleled eye for clothes, but she wanted to learn to pick her own clothes instead of relying on her mother all the time.

"What about this cardigan, Hana-chan?" Kyoko called from the shelves, where neatly-folded autumn clothes were arranged according to color. She raised a light pink cardigan for her friend's approval but was turned down with a shake of the head.

"Spring clothes are on sale now," said Hana, idly flipping a few dresses on the rack. She had the concentrated look of someone balancing two desires – in this case, the desire to find something for a good price, while also considering the likelihood of wearing the sundresses she was looking through.

Hotaru peered at the dresses. The shape was nice, but the pattern, pastel colors with tiny flower printing, could end up burying the shape and make the end results look like she was wearing a shapeless mass of tiny flower print if worn wrong.

Hana seemed to reach the same conclusion, because she pushed herself away from the dresses like they gave her a headache. Not having much else to do, Hotaru shrugged and followed suit.

The other girl decided to speak to fill the silence. "How did you get to even know Kyoko?"

"Haru and I are friends with Takeshi," she answered automatically. She decided to keep the explanation simple because she didn't want to talk about near-death experiences. "Haru met Kyoko-chan when she went shopping with Tsuna-san."

"'Tsuna?'" Hana raised an eyebrow. "Like, Sawada?"

Hotaru nodded. The critical light in her sharp gaze deepened before Hana shrugged.

"Didn't expect him to be a lady killer," was all she said, but there was an implication there.

"Is he popular with girls?" Hotaru asked, surprised. Not that Tsuna didn't seem the type, because he was a sweet person with a good heart, but other than Haru Hotaru had never seen him with another girl, and Haru never mentioned any girl who showed interest towards Tsuna that way.

He also didn't seem to be the 'lady killer' type. Hotaru would know, she lived with one.

But maybe Hana would know better. She did go to the same school, after all, and unlike Takeshi could see things from a girl's point of view.

Why Hana looked at her with a flat look, Hotaru didn't understand.

"Never mind," the other girl mumbled, shaking her head.

They left the shopping district soon after, for karaoke.

There was a moment of excitement that almost possessed Hotaru like a demon when she saw a song by Minako from one of her movies and she made Haru sing it with her, but even after that they had a lot of fun with karaoke. They started by picking the popular pop songs, and then started picking older songs, and then Haru just threw what little reservations she had out the window and picked her favorite enka songs and from then on they turned silly, wailing along to old songs with their soda raised in the air like it was alcohol.

Then Haru paused on a page in the book of songs and pointed out an entry to Hotaru. "Doesn't Haruka-san like this band?"

"She loves them," Hotaru replied after peering at the song Haru pointed out. "Haruka-papa told me that when the lead singer died, she knew she was never going to love another band like she loved Queen."

That was all Haru needed to push in the code for Bohemian Rhapsody, but when it came up on the queue, they ran into an unexpected problem.

"Why are the lyrics in English?!" Haru wailed. Midori taught second languages, one of which happened to be English, sure, but she wasn't on the level of a native speaker. To pay her back for singing 'C'est la vie' along with her, Hotaru picked up the mike with the determination of a soldier about to make a last stand.

"Hum along," she instructed. Then, because the first verse had flown by while Haru panicked, started on the next. The lyrics that she started singing were a little morbid, but Hotaru rolled with it. "Mama, just killed a man."

The problem with Bohemian Rhapsody wasn't that it was in English. No, the foreign language part wasn't a problem. Sailor soldiers were kind of omni-lingual for the sake of convenient communication. Besides, Haruka played Queen enough at home, she knew one of their most famous songs by heart now.

No, the biggest issue was that Bohemian Rhapsody was a song sung by a man with a famously impressive vocal range and lung capacity that required a lot to be sung properly. And Hotaru had a naturally quiet voice, and she preferred to speak softly, not belt out lyrics to a song Haruka insisted was the greatest rock song in human history.

It was also nearly six minutes long, which was long.

In short, it was a huge strain on her throat because despite all that, despite everything working against her, Hotaru, in a moment of sheer bullheaded refusal to do anything less, still gave it everything she had, squeezing out every bit of her breath from her lungs like she would die if she didn't. It felt like she was going to die as she did so, but she did it anyways.

After the last line – hoarsely whispered in deep relief that she was finally done– Hotaru put the mike down on the provided table and ungracefully collapsed into the seat like a puppet whose strings had been cut. After a second she put a fist up in the air because it was a rock song and deserved a proper finale.

"Whoo!" Haru cheered, clapping. Kyoko, who was holding a tambourine, clapped along, and even Hana looked impressed.

"Next time," Hotaru croaked, reaching out for a drink to soothe her poor vocal cords. "We should do 'We Will Rock You' instead."

It was a much shorter song, for one, with simpler lyrics that didn't require her to do the vocal equivalent of acrobatics.

"Which one is that?" Hana asked.

Because her throat hurt too much to say anything, Hotaru stomped her feet twice and then clapped. It was more than enough to make Hana understand.

Haru took that as a request and immediately punched it in.

"I'm not singing this one," warned Hotaru in advance. "I'm just going to clap and stomp."

"That's okay," Haru reassured her.

Hotaru ended up singing again because she got swept up in the atmosphere. Her throat hated her, but Hotaru still had a lot of fun.

The water that burst out from the ground fell all around them in a parody of rain, and with it died the out-of-control fire.

The Dying Will Flame flickered out from his head after the last of the fire was extinguished, and Tsuna sighed. He was wet from the groundwater, dirty because of the mud and cold because he was in his underwear, but the fire was out.

Shivering in cold and relief, Tsuna rubbed his arms to create some friction and warm himself.

Yamamoto and Gokudera handed him some spare clothes and he pulled them on, nearly sighing at how they seemed to warm him up in an instant. Like a hug from his mom, telling him it would be okay now.

He really should have known better than to relax just yet.

As if his thoughts had just jinxed him, Dino yelled a warning. "Watch out!"

The end of his cry was buried with a furious roar. Horrified, they all turned to see Enzio, giant and towering over them all.

Because of the water Tsuna had pulled up to stop the fire. Out of the fire, into the sponge turtle's snapping jaw.

"Run!" shouted Dino, and he didn't need to say it again.

AN: Early update because of the news that the Sailor Moon Eternal movie(s) is set to be released in 2020, which, finally!

Haru is unintentionally and unknowingly the luckiest of everyone here, because she went for girls' day instead of with the kids to the cake shop in the mountain. She knows her best friend, she knows Hotaru isn't going to be hiking for cake.

Lambo and I-Pin went with the boys, because someone needs to watch over them and their usual go-to went for girls' day. When they started trying to make a fire Lambo decided he wanted to do it, but Gokudera pushed him, and in retaliation started throwing grenades. Poor I-Pin.

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The girls: *stomp stomp clap* Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise, Playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday~ You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, Kicking your can all over the place, singin' ~ We will, we will rock you

Tsuna: AHHHHHHH

+ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+

Sweet Dreams~