AN: Hi guys! I don't feel very good about this chapter, it feels very filler-ish. Build-up shit. But next chapter should be much more interesting, so I hope you'll hold out for it! Thank you to everyone who's reviewed or followed, etc.

Reborn was… intrigued.

Kuroko Tetsuya and Momoi Satsuki had both caught the attention of the World's Greatest Hitman, which on its own was a rare thing. But the two teenagers were civilians through and through – for them to hold the Sun Arcobaleno's interest, he who lived and breathed Mafia, was almost unheard of. The boy, Tsuna's cousin on his mother's side, had an abnormal talent for disappearing into the background. The girl, Kuroko's self-proclaimed girlfriend, had a quick mind and above-average observational skills (Reborn suspected that this was an understatement; her gaze was far too knowing for somebody new to the Sawada household).

At some point during the evening, while all the teenagers were getting up to their usual ridiculous antics, Reborn slipped away into one of his little hidey-holes to do some more research. He had done the absolute minimum prior to their arrival; only enough to ensure that they were of no danger to the Vongola Decimo. First impressions were important, and he hadn't wanted his to be tainted with any sort of expectations.

Now, however, he could do all the digging he liked.

The next morning, Tsuna was supremely surprised to find himself waking up naturally. On his own. By himself.

Without Reborn doing something crazy.

He wasn't sure whether to be happy or terrified.

"Don't get used to it."

"Hiiee!" Tsuna scuttled back in his bed when his tutor abruptly popped up in front of his eyes. "Reborn! What are you doing?"

"I was waiting for you to wake up. You're the last one, Dame-Tsuna."

Huh? Leaning over to check on the futon that had been put out for Tetsuya to sleep on, Tsuna found the floor empty of cousin and futon both. He sat back, glancing over at the clock on his nightstand. It wasn't as late as he'd feared; not quite noon yet.

"Are Tetsuya and Momoi-san alright?" He asked, hastily donning a shirt and shoving his legs into a pair of jeans. "How long have they been up?"

Reborn replied from his place on Tsuna's shoulder, hitching a ride downstairs. "They're fine. They both woke up early, but Mamma and Bianchi were both already awake as well. It seems the four of them got to have a nice, relaxed morning before the kids woke up."

Tsuna smiled, glad. His mother had probably enjoyed the chance to bond with her nephew.

As he reached the first floor, the normal sounds of the Sawada household became clear; clattering dishes, shrieking children, and the warm laughter in the background that could only belong to one person. There was extra chatter today; Tsuna could just make out Bianchi and Momoi-san's voices beneath Lambo and I-Pin's usual clamour.

Opening the door, he was greeted by four smiling faces (and utterly ignored by the two kids). "Good morning guys!" Tsuna said sheepishly.

A chorus of 'good morning's was his reply. "Did you have a good sleep, Tsu-kun?" Nana asked, handing him a plate full of food that she'd obviously set aside for him.

There was general pleasant chatter as Tsuna ate his fill, and it gave him such a content feeling that he decided for once to ignore Reborn stealing tid-bits from his plate. "Do you guys want to do anything today?" He asked his cousin, slowly coming to the realisation that he hadn't actually planned anything for the weekend. Not that there was much to do in Namimori, compared to Tokyo.

Tetsuya shook his head. "Not really. I just wanted to meet the two of you."

Nana smiled brightly, putting a hand over her heart. "How sweet!"

"Why don't you just show us around, Tsuna-kun?" Momoi asked. "And we can have lunch at Yamamoto-kun's father's restaurant, if that's alright?"

Tsuna nodded, impressed that she had remembered something that Yamamoto had only mentioned in passing. "That sounds great, Momoi-san. Yamamoto would probably like that too."

So that's what they did. Namimori was small, but they whiled away the afternoon quite nicely, wandering around aimlessly. Tsuna was the first to admit that he was a terrible tour guide, but his cousin didn't seem to mind.

After almost two hours of exploring though, the three of them agreed that they were getting hungry again, and set off for Takesushi. Tsuna strolled along, chattering with Momoi while Tetsuya listened peacefully, and wondered when the last time he'd been so untroubled was. All this mafia stuff really took a lot out of him.

Although, horrifyingly enough, Tsuna found that somewhere along the way, he'd got used to it.

"Something on your mind, Tsunayoshi-kun?"

Tetsuya's mild question made Tsuna blink. Abruptly realising that he'd zoned out and hadn't heard the last thing Momoi had said to him, Tsuna flushed right up to his hairline.

"I'm so sorry, Momoi-san," he cried, waving his hands in front of him. "I got distracted."

Momoi smiled. "It's fine, Tsuna-kun, it wasn't important. Tetsu-kun's right though, you looked like you were thinking some heavy thoughts. Is everything okay?"

Tsuna smiled back, tipping his head back to stare into the blue sky. He had the stray thought that it was the perfect type of day for Hibari to be napping on the school roof, and his smile widened. "I'm okay, Momoi-san, Tetsuya. Just thinking about all the craziness that my friends get up to, is all."

The two older teens exchanged glances, sighing and rolling their eyes in unison. Tetsuya's mouth was twitching at the corners though, and Momoi was shaking her head with fond exasperation.

"We can relate," Momoi told Tsuna, chuckling. "Our friends – well, they're very unique."

"Oh?"

Tsuna shrieked, leaping back in fright. "Reborn!"

The infant hitman had materialised out of nowhere, seemingly falling out of the sky to land square in Tetsuya's arms. Tetsuya himself allowed only a sliver of surprise to show on his face as he gazed down at his new passenger.

Reborn, ignoring Tsuna's dismay with the ease of long practise, looked up at Tetsuya. "What makes your friends so special, Kuroko?"

The barest hint of a smile hovered at the edges of Tetsuya's mouth. "They're all incurable basketball idiots, Reborn-san."

Tsuna laughed. His cousin had told him stories about his monstrously talented friends, written their nickname down in a letter and told him to look them up on YouTube; Tsuna had been enthralled. The sheer talent and athleticism of the Kiseki no Sedai (plus his cousin's teammate, Kagami) was awe-inspiring.

Momoi giggled. "I don't want to hear that from you, Tetsu-kun. You're just as incurable as the rest of them."

They reached Takesushi then, and the three teens filed inside. Yamamoto was there, sitting at the counter where his father was working, looking so genuinely happy that it made Tsuna's heart squeeze. Ever since they had come back from that hellish future, Yamamoto had been trying to spend as much time with his father as he could. Tsuna didn't blame him.

"Ah, Sawada-kun!" Yamamoto Tsuyoshi greeted him cheerfully. "Here for my boy?"

Tsuna shook his head, seating himself beside his friend, Tetsuya and Momoi settling on his other side. "Not today, Yamamoto-san. My cousin is in Namimori for a visit, so we thought we'd stop in here for lunch."

Tsuyoshi jumped, eyes landing on Tetsuya for the first time. Tsuna only just caught the way his hand tightened on the knife he was holding, because the cold flash in his eyes was holding almost all of his attention. "Ahaha! I didn't see you there!" Tsuyoshi said, smiling genially. "Newcomers, is it? Welcome to Namimori!"

Well. At least Tsuna knew where Yamamoto got it.

Tetsuya and Momoi said their thanks, and then the three of them ordered (Tsuna ordered double, because he knew for a fact that Reborn didn't know how to keep his hands to himself). Yamamoto seemed pleased with their presence, and Tsuna felt a little (a lot) bad that they always seemed to spend the most time together when something crazy was going on.

Talk turned back to Tetsuya's basketball friends once their food arrived. Yamamoto, maybe not so surprisingly, considering he was a former sports fiend, was pretty well informed about them. He and Tetsuya seemed to be getting along really well, discussing the various antics that the Miracles got up to on and off the court.

Reborn was oddly attentive to their conversation about high school basketball players.

Of course, Tsuna was well aware that his spartan tutor had no limits when it came to recruiting for the Vongola, no matter what Tsuna had to say about it. He resolved to keep an eye on the hitman; there was no need to be dragging any more innocent people into Tsuna's insane life.

AN: See what I mean? But I just couldn't get past all this to get to the juicy stuff, and I couldn't figure out how to re-write this to include the juicy stuff, so we'll have one chapter of filler and get it out of the way! I'm sorry that it's probably not worth the wait from when I last updated. Let me know what you thought.

Recs: There are Stars in your Eyes by Metronome I Hear, because it's beautiful and lovely and I've re-read it a fair few times. And also divinity in his veins by HeavenlyDusk over on AO3. Idk if they have an FFNet account, but the story is worth going over and checking it out if they don't.

- Kelly