For Valentine's Day, all of them had plans. Michiru and Haruka were going out for date night, with a romantic dinner and drive planned for the evening. Setsuna was going to stay at home, preparing exam questions while keeping an ear open in case of emergencies.
And Hotaru was going to make chocolates with her friends. Haru, all three of them knew very well now, but the other two, Kyoko and Hana, were new.
"How was your test?" Setsuna asked, since that was the reason the girls were making the chocolates on the day of rather than the day before.
Haru beamed. "I think I got most of it! There was only one question that kind of threw me off, but I worked through it so I think I can get half-marks, at least."
Whatever Setsuna had been about to say in response was interrupted and forgotten when the front door, not fully closed, was thrown open.
And in the doorway stood a boy in nothing but a pair of heart-printed boxers, brows alit with an orange flame.
Setsuna, Michiru and Haruka had all seen a lot of things in their lives, including a rapidly growing infant and a handful of alien invasions, but for sure, this sight placed in the top five weirdest things they'd ever seen.
First impressions were important things. It affected how people thought of someone for the rest of their acquaintance unless something drastic happened. It was why he was still a little scared of Gokudera, why Reborn was sadistic and crazy, and why Dino was approachable and cool.
Tsuna didn't want to know what kind of first impression he had just given Hotaru's parents, but he could imagine – and it wasn't a good one.
Tsuna kind of wanted to die from embarrassment. This was all Reborn's fault, shooting him with the Dying Will Bullet and making him chase after Kyoko to Hotaru's house.
Just when all three of her parents were there. Any other time Tsuna might have wondered why Hotaru had three and why none of them looked like her, but he was a little busy trying to will the ground below him to open and swallow him and end his suffering then and there.
"It looks like Haruka's clothes don't fit you very well," murmured the dark-skinned woman that Hotaru had introduced as 'Setsuna'. She was beautiful in a mysterious kind of way, as if she had a secret. Her hair was green, and long enough to fall below her waist, giving her one of the longest hairs he had ever seen in his life. He was pretty sure there was this one lady he saw when he was younger that might have had hair to rival her lengths, but he didn't really remember.
Haruka, the androgynous blond whose shirt and shorts he was borrowing, raised an eyebrow at that. She was tall, much taller than Tsuna, maybe Yamamoto's height or taller, and was wearing slacks and a dress shirt with the same handsome air of an actor on the red carpet. Naturally, Tsuna didn't wear Haruka's clothes very well.
"Takeshi-kun is on his way," said Michiru. If Setsuna was beautiful in the way goddesses in paintings were, and Haruka looked like a model on the cover of a magazine, Michiru was the very image of 'ladylike' and 'princess'. She was elegant, not only in how she spoke, but how she moved. The opposite of Haruka, she wore a silk dress that ended near her knees, and she looked like she belonged in a fancy restaurant. "Just bear with it for a little longer, Sawada-kun."
"Yes ma'am," he answered immediately. All three of them scared Tsuna, because they were Hotaru's parents and he had probably given them a terrible impression, all but breaking through the walls into their house wearing nothing but his boxers.
He was lucky they hadn't called the police.
Still wanting to die of embarrassment, Tsuna shrank into himself.
From the kitchen, Hotaru poked her head out. "Tsuna-san, do you want to join us?"
"I don't want to intrude on girl time," he said feebly. There was Kyoko and Hotaru – which, when had they become friends? Why hadn't he known about this? – but also Haru and, surprisingly, Kurokawa Hana.
She acted like she usually did, which meant she gave him a very unimpressed look, but otherwise she looked like she belonged here, while he stuck out like a sore thumb.
All he had wanted to do was just find out who Kyoko was going to give her chocolate to. It was nice to know that she hadn't given chocolate to anyone, just come over to make them at Hotaru's house, but now he had to live with the consequences of Reborn shooting him.
"It's fine," said Haruka, making Tsuna jump in surprise.
"But it's Valentine's Day and I'm a boy," Tsuna protested. That was the day when the girls gave chocolates to boys.
Haruka quirked up one eyebrow, and she was nearly as frightening as Reborn. The only thing that kept Reborn in a solid number one was his tendency to shoot Tsuna, and his unpredictability. "What does gender have to do with anything?"
And it wasn't like he had anything to say to that.
Michiru leaned into Haruka's shoulder. "We'll be out of your way soon enough," she said soothingly. "Haruka and I'll be off for dinner, and Setsuna will be in her office if you need anything."
"She's not going to help make the chocolate?"
"No," said all three of Hotaru's parents in unison. There was a firm union to the answer that made Tsuna refuse to question why.
The doorbell rang, and Setsuna stood from her seat to answer it. Yamamoto came in soon after, holding a shopping bag and followed by Gokudera.
"I ran into him on the way here," said Yamamoto, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Reborn, perched on Yamamoto's shoulder, waved innocently. "And he tagged along."
Gokudera scowled at Hotaru's parents and Tsuna nearly had a panic attack, fearing that Gokudera might say something rude or outright attack them for whatever reason, but he only gave a gruff, not-impolite greeting.
Haruka didn't seem impressed – at all – but Michiru and Setsuna merely accepted it with a pleasant smile.
"We'll be on our way now," said Michiru, arm linked around Haruka's. She gave all of them a warm smile as the couple stepped out. "Have fun, and don't let Setsuna in the kitchen!"
They closed the door, and Setsuna rolled her eyes. "You burn the saucepan twice, and they never let it go."
Tsuna meekly raised his hand, figuring it was better to ask for permission to ask a question. "Could I borrow your bathroom again? To get changed?"
Even if the boys weren't interested in joining them make and decorate the chocolates, Haru still asked them to stay since she was making chocolates for Tsuna and Takeshi, and it wasn't like they had things to do.
"It's important to get the chocolates on Valentine's Day," she explained. "If you give it the day after, the meaning in it is half-price, just like the chocolates on sale on the fifteenth."
Takeshi burst out laughing at that logic, but they stayed. They had homework on them, and while Hotaru promised she'd help if they needed it, Gokudera was – surprisingly – smart enough to go through all the materials on his own.
Well, he certainly wasn't patient, but he knew the content.
"Although I don't know if they need to stay," said Hana, rolling her eyes as she tied back her hair. Since she wanted dark chocolate and Haru was a fan of white chocolate, they got the bowls and hot water to melt their chocolate. Hotaru and Kyoko preferred milk chocolate, so they got a larger bowl, the saucepan and the stovetop. "Gokudera and Yamamoto's certainly received more than enough chocolate at school."
That was unexpected.
"Gokudera-san did?" Haru verbalized what Hotaru had thought but didn't say. "What about Tsuna-san?"
Hana shrugged, and Haru faltered, eyes widening as it always did when she was worried, and her imagination went into overdrive as it focused on the worst possible outcomes.
Hotaru changed the subject before Haru could overthink it. "Who are you planning on giving your chocolate to?"
Hana tossed her tied hair back and raised her chin. "Myself. And my parents."
Haru gave her a curious look at that, attention diverted by the topic change. "Not to any of the boys?"
Kyoko hid a smile behind her hand as Hana scowled. "They're all monkeys."
'Monkeys', mouthed Haru to Hotaru, eyes wide as marbles as Hana started what sounded to be a very practiced rant.
"All the boys around our age are still stuck in that stupid, unevolved phase in life where they can't use their brains to think," she seethed, clutching the wooden spoon so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "They can't sit still in class, or pay attention, or even just listen or read the stupid instructions and then they do things completely wrong and go 'uh, I don't get it', like, why do you bother having a brain?! Why do you bother living?! Do the Earth a favor and stop breathing!"
"Hana-chan had to tutor her cousin," quietly explained Kyoko, as they melted the chocolate in a double boiler. "It stressed her out a lot."
"Or you have weirdos like Hibari," Hana continued her rant like Kyoko hadn't spoken. "Did you know he made that regent hairdo mandatory in his stupid committee? He rewrote the school rules and just took an office for himself, and the principal was like, 'yes, this is okay now'! He doesn't even go to class himself but the moment someone tries skipping or happens to be late he pops up out of nowhere and starts swinging weapons! Who does that?!"
The word 'mature' was a little hard to fit with what she knew about Hibari. Hotaru nodded while she stirred the chocolate. It was nearly done melting.
"And then you have the creeps who think picking on a girl is a way to show affection!" she cried out. "Who shows they like a person by sticking gum in their hair or stealing their books or flipping their skirts?! That's harassment!"
"Jerks!" Haru empathized strongly at that, slamming her hand down on the countertop. The sprinkles she had been sorting shook, and the neat piles collapsed and touched each other. "They actually do that?!"
Hana's eyes could shoot lasers, and while the anger in them weren't directed at Haru, the rage within her was clear as day. "Why do you think Kyoko's hair is short?"
"It was a few years ago, I don't mind it," piped up Kyoko, but Haru had already turned to her, eyes wide with horror.
"Kyoko-chan . . ."
"Never," seethed Hana. "Have I ever seen a boy who was even on the same maturity level as a girl his age. They're all immature, and they refuse to grow up, or plan ahead. 'Boys will be boys' is the stupidest thing ever because that just lets them act like monkeys and not human beings. No! If they want to be men, and be treated like men, tell them to act like actual men!"
The chocolate was melted, and smooth the way it should be. Hotaru grabbed the piping bags so they could begin to fill them. She was curious, though. "What's your definition of an actual man?"
The fury that lit her like a fire died down, and calmer, Hana began listing the traits. "He needs to be able to step up when he sees injustice, because he has pride in what he does and what he believes in. He needs to be able to speak against what others might be too lazy or too cowardly to go against societal norms for. He needs to be mature enough to not get swept up in what others say like mindless sheep."
It was quite the rousing speech she gave. Hotaru put down the heart-shaped molds to clap.
"Hana-chan's really mature," Haru noted. "Judging people by their personality instead of their looks."
A tinge of red spread across Hana's face. "Well, looks do matter, but personality's really important."
Then she elbowed Kyoko when the other girl started giggling. To hide her embarrassment, Hana picked up a piping bag and began filling the mold Hotaru had set before her.
"Oh, if you want to add nuts," Hotaru added, pushing forth the plate with the cashews, almonds and peanuts. "You could fill the mold halfway and put the nuts in before filling the rest if you want the nuts to be hidden, or just set them on the top if you want them to be decorations."
Hana chose the former, beginning to fill the chocolate with almonds.
"That's really specific," said Haru, working on her own. She chose to be diverse, going for the cashews and peanuts as well, and marked which ones were which with the colored sprinkles.
"The nuts?"
"No, the man."
Hana, finished filling her mold, shrugged as she added almonds to the top of some of them. "Yeah, well, he was a real person."
Melting the chocolate and pouring it into molds were easy. After the finished molds were put into the fridge to cool, Hotaru brought out the second chocolate recipe, thick ganache for homemade truffles. This was Setsuna's favorite, so the ones she was making right now were for her parents. The ones in the mold would go to her friends and Kawahira.
The cream was set on the stovetop to begin warming up, and Hotaru began washing up the dishes. Kyoko was the first to stand next to her to help, which left Hana and Haru to clean up the other parts of the kitchen and set up for making the ganache.
Haru was ready to swoon at hearing Hana's dream man was a real, existing person. "He sounds really romantic."
"I wouldn't know." Hana shrugged, a casual air to her actions, but her long hair couldn't hide the red tips of her ears. "I only met him once."
Kyoko took the bowl Hotaru finished scrubbing to wash and put on the drying rack. "He's Hana-chan's first love."
Hana gave a side-eyed glare that had no effect whatsoever on her smiling friend. "Kyoko, you traitor."
"Was it a secret? Sorry, Hana-chan. But I didn't share his name."
Hana grumbled something under her breath. Hotaru pretended to have not caught the words "I don't know his name, either".
"If it'll make you feel better, Hana-chan," said Haru. "My first love has a great personality, too!"
The odd look Hana wore suggested she didn't know whether to be doubtful or insulted. "In what way?"
Haru didn't notice. "Well, no names for me as well, but he's kind, and gentle, and considerate."
With each word Hana's disbelief became clearer.
"But when he needs to be, he's assertive and strong! And that's what makes him so amazing, and why I love him, because it's harder to be gentle than it is to be strong, but he only uses his strength to help others, like when I was about to drown and he saved me."
True. It was never just how strong someone was, physically or magically. Sometimes it was how strong they were as a person.
Like Usagi, who never gave up on her or the other sailor soldiers. Like Tsuna, who saved Takeshi and Haru even when he hadn't been close to them.
Being kind was hard, and took a strength underrated and unknown by too many.
The cream was close to boiling. Hotaru turned the heat off and removed the saucepan. "Careful."
The girls leaned back from the steaming saucepan to let Hotaru pour the cream into the bowl of chocolate chunks. Now they just needed to let it sit for a few minutes to let it melt before stirring it up.
Haru took the saucepan to clean and put it away while Kyoko turned to Hotaru. "What about you, Hotaru-chan?"
She hadn't expected the conversation to come to her. "Me?"
Kyoko scratched her cheek, her eyebrows tugging low sheepishly. "I don't have a first love, and I'm not really sure what my 'type' is, other than someone I love. It's a little stupid, but that's it."
"It's not stupid," Hotaru said automatically.
First love.
She didn't even have to think hard about her first love. The first person to look at her, even when she was on edge from a pained attack, with worry and not scorn. The first person to reach out to her when the rest of the world wanted to suffocate her and tell her with genuine eyes that she was precious, someone of worth.
In the midst of a life where she was slowly being strangled to death, desperately treading in an endless, painful dark, Chibi-Usa had been a light so bright and dear.
She defined Hotaru not as a creepy girl, or the weird daughter of the freaky scientist, but as Tomoe Hotaru, a person of great value just by being her. She protected, fought for and didn't regret meeting Hotaru, even after Mistress 9 stole her soul and crystal.
"I think," Hotaru said slowly. "Someone with a beautiful smile."
Because Chibi-Usa had been the first to show her just how beautiful a smile could be when empty of malice or ill intent, and the first to teach her just how soothing it was to smile with someone, instead of being the one on the receiving end of taunting grins with eyes that looked down on her.
Her smile had been like the moon – the brightest celestial object in the night sky, making the terror of the dark disappear.
Oh, and one more thing. "And someone who can cry for me."
That was probably terrible of her, but it was still something important to Hotaru. Sailor Cocoon's visit had reminded her of a memory buried deep in her head, something she might have been avoiding thinking about for a long time.
Tomoe Souichi had never wept for his wife, after the accident that took her life. Maybe he had, while Hotaru was in the coma, but never had she seen the rims of his eyes reddened, or any tears run down his cheeks for Tomoe Keiko.
Hotaru had given up on pretending Tomoe Souichi was a kind father a long time ago, but to realize that he hadn't been a good husband to her mother either hurt in a different way.
"Even if it's not love in the romantic way, but for someone who loves me in general." Pain and conflict were going to be in her life. That was a fact.
What she wanted wasn't someone that would try to fix it, but someone that would empathize with her pain. Someone who loved her enough to look at her pain and feel it as their own. Like how all the sailor soldiers had wept, when she first came to Namimori.
Not like her father. He carried out surgery after surgery on updating the robotic limbs grafted to her body, and back then Hotaru had clung to the belief that this was his way of love – trying to fix her, trying to heal her, using what he had. That he was a good man, a good father who was just trying to help his poor daughter.
But not once had he looked at her pain and felt the need to shed a tear or worry about her suffering. It had always been about what he could do, the opportunity she was to him, and never about being there to hold her hand through the pain. He never felt the hurt himself, watching her be in agony.
"Is that what your first love was like?" Hana asked, a teasing smile quirking her lips upwards.
Hotaru nodded, and Haru flipped.
"Hahi?! You had a first love?!" she screeched, and Kyoko, shocked by the sudden rise in volume, nearly knocked off the bowl of cream and chocolate. Only her quick reflexes managed to save the bowl from making a mess on the kitchen floor.
Hana, the closest to Haru, winced and belatedly clapped a hand over her ear.
"Sorry," Haru apologized, but that wasn't enough to deter her from the topic of her focus. "When? How? Who?!"
Hotaru answered in the order Haru asked the questions. "Before I met you or Takeshi. There was," 'an attacking Daimon made from a cat by an ethically dubious professor working with invading aliens' was not okay to say. "A falling object about to crush me and she pulled me out of the way. She was a pretty girl with pink hair and a beautiful smile."
"A girl?" Haru grabbed her shoulders with both hands, and while Haru was her best friend, Hotaru had to admit the manic look in her eyes did scare her a little.
"Yes?"
Hotaru could have been drowning kittens as adorable as Diana, one by one, right in front of her and Haru wouldn't have looked more heartbroken as she did now. "Are you telling me all this time I was forcing the idea of a prince on you when I should have been talking about princesses?"
Hotaru couldn't help it. She burst out into uncontrollable giggles. It was just so Haru.
"I'm serious!" wailed Haru while Hotaru laughed, Hana stared and Kyoko smiled. "I feel so terrible now! Hotaru-chan, you should have told me if I was making you uncomfortable or being stupid or running my fat mouth or-"
She calmed down enough to pat Haru on her shoulder. "It's okay," she reassured her. "Gender doesn't matter in love."
Haru looked at her with starry eyes at that, and Hotaru broke into giggles again.
"I'm sorry to interrupt the moment," said Hana, a light frown creasing her brows, "but did you say a falling object was about to crush you?"
"Oh," Hotaru realized. "I nearly died back then." With all that happened after, she'd forgotten a minor detail like that.
"Hahi?!"
If it weren't for Kyoko eventually reminding them about what they had been doing, the ganache truffles would have been ruined.
AN: It brings me much sorrow to say that this is the last regular update in the foreseeable future, as I'll be busy and have less time to write. Sorry guys, I really wanted to reach the end of the Daily Life arc on a regular pace but I guess that's not happening.
It took a lot of effort to make this chapter land on the 14th of the Daily Life arc. 100k+ words and the seeds of romance have been sown! (Readers: what is this glacial pace)
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw Bianchi melting the chocolate on the stove directly like it was soup because that's not how you melt chocolate, what are you doing.
Hana's cousin, the one she tutored, is a part of the disciplinary committee. They pretend to not know each other at school. She doesn't like the DC or Hibari for that reason. Hana's first love and the reason why she likes 'mature guys' is actually Hibari Kyoya's older half-brother, making him a Hibari too, though she doesn't know that part. Irony is fun.
If you think about the traits Hana's listed so far, and compare them to what we know happens TYL . . . I mean she's not wrong.
See you all on the 21st!
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Outers: Oh, he does have Usagi's blessing. [+10 approval points.]
Tsuna: They probably hate me and think I'm a pervert and a terrible influence on their daughter and I can't blame them for thinking that can lightning just strike me dead already.
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The girls: Talking about types and first love.
The boys: *Can hear everything*
Gokudera: *Those are all traits the Tenth has!*
Tsuna: *kind of in the middle of hope and despair on hearing that Kyoko doesn't have a first love, but her type is vague and how do I fit that*
Takeshi: *First time hearing this* *Is it okay to listen in on girls' talk*
Conclusion: Not much homework was done by the boys.
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Sweet Dreams~