A/N: Thanks for all the new reviews, favorites, and follows~
Long Rant (cuz Im at youtube watching crack khr vids)
Mukuro: I will not share my fangirl with Hibari~ The fans loves my face and my laugh~ I have more yaoi fanfics out there than Ed from FMA~ Hibari and Mukuro: Fangirl Addiction~ It is not a sin~ We just know the kind who loves 18-69~ And it's not a loss if our paths don't cross~ As fangirls you'll see we'll be here to make you squee~ ([DWB] KHR! Abridged - Fangirl Addiction)
Tsuna: Title~ Target too~ My hair comes into view~ A lot of wind~ I'm looking down and found a little guy~ Reborn: I lift my head and smile because I know he's gonna die~ I shoot my gun~ Tsuna: This isn't fun~ Where did my shirt go?~ I punch the screen~ Trampoline~ Look into my soul~ How'd I get my clothes back!?~ Who would like a great big hug?~ Ohmygod~ My hands are burning!~ Wait, I guess I'm fine~ There's the Sky~ And why am I in profile?~ Oh tell me please~ How did you freeze my friends right in their track?~ I want them back~ The shows. Our group. Pose. Pose. ([DWB] KHR! Abridged – Literal Days) /Parody song for Drawing Days-KHR 1st opening song.
Hibari: I hate crowds. Tsuna: Common, Hibari it's been 2 years already, I thought you would be okay with it by now. Hibari: Tsuna(more like it was pronounced as Tuna), Is a 15 year old susceptible to prostate cancer? ([DWB] KHR! Abridged – Stand By Me)
Tsuna: This is more than I bargained for, yeah~ this darn Dying Will Bullet's anything but helpful here~ Cuz I don't wanna die this year~ Lying to friends saying he's not my tutor~ Why does he always show up in those freaky new costumes at school? Reborn: Shut up, you weakling, you know that they make me look cool. Reborn: He might be number one with this bullet~ And if he whines I'm gonna smash him right in his gullet~ ([DWB] KHR! Abridged – Tsuna&Reborn's Backstory)
Tsuna: The Boss. Reborn: The Hitman Tutor. Hayato: The Wannabe. Ryouhei: The Boxer. Takeshi: The Jock. Lambo: The Gay Kid. Kyoya: The Bad Boy. Kyoko: The Cutie. Haru: The Creepy Fangirl. I-pin: The Foreigner. Nana: The Soccer Mom. Adult!Lambo: The Gay Teen. Adult!I-pin: The Foreigner Teen. Bianchi: The Goth. Dino: The Poser. Shamal: The Perv. Fuuta: The Genius. ([DWB] KHR! Abridged, Episode #00: Here's What You Missed)
December 21, 2016: Betaed by Pure Red Crane
Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! So no suing please...!
Chapter 7
Tsuna stared at the reflected image in the mirror. He could clearly see his pale clammy skin, and slightly darkened skin below his eyes. Water was dripping from his hair to his chin and to the floor.
"...Sorry." Tsuna whispered softly with his head bowed down, his locks covering his eyes, obscuring his view of the mirror.
"Sorry..." the brunet whispered again as he lifted his chin up, image of his loving mother gazing at him with sad caramel eyes appeared at the mirror, overlapping with his own reflection. Tsuna gazed at his mother's eyes with a pained look on his face. 'I'm so sorry, Mom. I keep crying no matter how long it's been.' But no matter how long it was, the pain still felt fresh.
Tsuna closed his eyes, the image he had conjured on the mirror disappearing, and he took a deep breath, sorting his thoughts and calming his emotions. It took him a few minutes to return to normal. The brunet opened his eyes and stared at his reflection with a dazed look on his face, blinking.
'Smile, even if it hurts.' Tsuna thought to himself with self-hate as he curled his lips into a smile, letting his eyes show a genuine expression on his face. The brunet lifted his hand and slowly made his index finger press on his slightly parted lips in a hushing motion. He head tilted slightly, his brow furrowed downward a bit, child-like curiosity clear in his eyes. Despite how endearing that look was – his customer loved that look, he noted idly - he couldn't hide the genuine pain reflecting in his eyes.
(At the back of his mind, a scene flashed. A younger him was practicing how to look cute and adorable with his caramel eyes shining with a little tint of orange. Tears filled eyes and pouting lips quivered. On the mirror, his image reflected back a young body littered with slightly fading bruises of different sizes.)
"So..." Tsuna paused his steps as he took a heavy breath, "Why are you accompanying me to school?!" he cried out in alarm, but there was certain tiredness behind his words. The brunet stared accusingly at the Mafia Baby traipsing atop of the fence. 'Continue the farce, Tsuna.' he thought bitterly.
"As your home tutor, I am observing your daily life." Reborn answered coolly and reasonably, but all Tsuna could hear was how bullshit that reasoning was. His eyes lightened with amusement – a change from his bitterness since this morning - but he masked it with a glare, "As if I-"
"Good morning, Sawada-san." a familiar voice greeted the brunet. He automatically stopped talking and turned to look at the orange haired young lady with a surprise written on his face. With a blink, he greeted back politely with an embarrassed blush slightly marring his cheeks.
"Goo-" Tsuna's voice was suddenly stuck to his throat, so he repeated his greeting, "Good morning, Sasagawa-san."
Kyoko remained smiling at him, likely not noticing Tsuna's sudden pause, but then her gaze landed to the Mafia baby standing on the fence next to him. She looked at the baby with delighted eyes, "How cute!"
'That...would have been my line if Reborn hadn't hit me the first time I saw him.' Tsuna looked at them and saw Kyoko looking enraptured by Reborn's cute look, which made him internally roll his eyes and shoot an exasperated sidelong glance to the Mafia baby. It would have looked like jealousy if Reborn caught him.
"Ciaossu." Reborn greeted with his normal adoring smile. At least Reborn was polite, except to the brunet – of course, that Mafia baby was a sadist who amused himself with his pain.
"Good morning." Kyoko said with an angelic smile. From Tsuna's position, he could see that she was now emitting a flowery background and it sparkled?! 'Why are there sparkles?!' He looked at her incredulously. This was Tsuna's first time seeing such a thing. It must be some kind of hallucination because he didn't see that yesterday! He dismissed the snickering notion, his mind telling him that his mask cracked just from seeing sparkles.
Kyoko looked at Reborn with wonder in her eyes, "Why are you wearing a suit?"
'I think you mean, why is he wearing a super expensive suit?' He made another sidelong glance at Reborn's suit, also wanting to get away from looking at the sparkles.
"Because I'm in the Mafia." Reborn answered normally. That made the brunet a double take at the Mafia baby with wide incredulous eyes. 'Are they collaborating to make me look at them incredulously or something?' Tsuna idly noted. Wait, the Mafia was supposed to be some kind of secret organization, wasn't it? Why was he broadcasting it in broad daylight?
In the back of his mind, Tsuna idly wondered if Iemitsu ever said those same words to his mother. She would probably only smile at him.
He surmised that knowing and being in the Mafia is a secret since his father constantly lies to his own family about his work. So, why was Reborn saying it on broad daylight? During Reborn's admittance, Tsuna could feel a growing irritation towards his father. If only his no-good father had told his mother...
"Mafia? Wow, that's so cool!" Kyoko said with a happy tone, clapping. Of course, she likely didn't believe what Reborn said and was merely indulging him. But the moment, Tsuna heard those words, he blinked his eyes and turned slowly to stare at the fellow schoolmate. When he did, he saw and heard something else.
("Mafia? That's so cool! Being in the Mafia must be taxing. Why don't you eat some more?" The voice of his mother suddenly rang clear on his ears. Tsuna could visualize his mother clapping her hands and smiling at the infant. Not believing the Mafia part, but instead asking if he wanted more food. His mother smiled even brighter at her own question, already expecting a positive answer.)
Tsuna finally returned to reality when he felt weight on his shoulder. With another blink, the image he saw slowly faded.
"You like her, don't you?" a squeaky voice rang near the brunet that made him turn his head to his right. There he saw Reborn sitting on his shoulder, looking normal. But Reborn was looking at him with his beady black eyes knowingly.
Growing uncomfortable with that gaze, Tsuna turned his head away and towards the retreating back of Kyoko, who had just waved and said something he didn't even hear. The brunet gulped down nervously as the remnant of the image he saw still swirled at the edge of his mind's eye and put a heavy feeling on his heart.
As Tsuna stared at her disappearing form, his mind wandered to what Reborn had said. He furrowed his brow downward, ignoring Reborn's gaze from earlier as he tried to recall the words that had been uttered. When finally he processed Reborn's question, it instantly resulted with a crimson red blush and a startled step back, dislodging Reborn from his shoulder and making the Mafia child hop in front of him.
"N-No!" Tsuna squeaked as he blushed embarrassingly. He coughed at the accusation. He shook his head vigorously to dispel the blush heating up his cheeks.
'Why did Reborn ask such a ludicrous thing?!' he thought in alarm, his previous dazed thoughts temporarily forgotten.
"Then you don't like her?" Reborn asked disappointedly. Tsuna's eyes widened at the implication as he stared down at the infant with growing discomfort. Not liking a girl would be like saying they weren't pretty or cute.
"No! I mean yes!" Tsuna then looked away abruptly, cheeks still tinged with blush, "I mean...I...It's not like I don't l-like her!" Tsuna paused and he unconsciously fiddled his fingers against each other, peering at Reborn with wide embarrassed eyes, and flushed cheeks, "J-Just not in t-the way you mean."
And Tsuna erupted into a deeper red. The brunet internally wished for a hole to swallow him up in his embarrassment.
With embarrassment getting to him, Tsuna nervously bit his bottom lip, "W-Wait!" He gulped down while willing his blush to go away. The brunet just realized that any more excuses would only lead to more embarrassment, so he blurted out the first line that came to mind, "Why are you even asking about my love life?!"
With only silence as his answer while feeling the amusement oozing from the Mafia baby, Tsuna stared at the Mafia baby in front of him, his eyes wide and with every word, his clarity grew and his blush slowly faded. "You...just want to embarrass me, don't you?"
Reborn's lips curled upward and his other hand tilted his fedora to shade his eyes, but that smirk was still visible and it was all the proof Tsuna needed. With that, Tsuna's fading blush returned tenfold. He just showed embarrassment to a baby when talking about his love life.
"I-I'm going ahead!" Tsuna finally said with a hurried, almost screaming tone, his face feeling hot from the blush on his cheeks. He started walking fast, almost jogging, and with every step he took, the brunet wanted more and more to hide under the bed in shame.
With Tsuna's silhouette slowly disappearing, Reborn's lips pressed into a thin line. His eyes lingered on the lithe teenager walking ahead raptly.
If he wasn't the World Greatest Hitman, Reborn would have taken that chance to use the Dying Will Bullet on his dame student. Tsuna was showing the signs that he liked Kyoko, but Reborn knew he wasn't. The emotions that were in the brunet's eyes were different from his actions, though there was the possibility that Tsuna would develop romantic feelings for the orange haired young lady in the future.
Leon, Reborn's trusted partner, crawled onto his shoulder. It seemed that tutoring Sawada Tsunayoshi would be troublesome than with Pipsqueak Dino.
Tsuna face palmed twice that day. The reason was not because everyone was a nuisance and an utter thorn on his side, but because he couldn't forget about Reborn's words. It was mortifying. To think that he was manipulated by an infant, but even more, the brunet was definitely embarrassed by those questions. For him, who was adept at seducing older men, to suddenly act like some teenager talking about crushes even if he didn't like her in that way was...He banged his head against the desk as his cheeks heated up again.
"Sawada-kun! If you want to disrupt my class, why don't you just get out of here?" a booming voice said, making Tsuna sit up straight on his chair as his classmates jeered, whistled, and laughed at his blunder. He had completely forgotten where he was. The brunet cursed internally at that.
"S-Sorry! I won't do it again, M-Ma'am." Tsuna apologized with a squeak, his head lowered to not meeting anyone's gaze. The teacher huffed.
"Take your seat already, and pay attention, Sawada-kun." The brunet sank in his chair and willed himself to remain small, listening to the jeering of his classmates.
Tsuna decided to pay attention to his lesson after that and stopped thinking about any distractions. However, it still didn't make his blush completely go away.
The day passed in a blur and Tsuna made his way home. With a sudden epiphany, the brunet made a detour. Instead of taking the safe yet long path, he chose the short path. As for why he did, it was because he felt compelled to do so. It was an irrational thought, but there was a sudden gut feeling that he just couldn't pass off.
Tsuna clutched his bag against his chest, using it as a protective shield as he walked into darkening alley slowly. His breath was caught in his throat when he saw something just a few feet away from him in the middle of the dark alley. There was a woman leaning on the wall, looking frightened and already shivering from fear. Three older men wearing baggy clothes and metal accessories on their necks and fingers were in front of her, groping her shamelessly while pointing a knife at her.
"I'll give you money, anything! Just don't kill me!" she begged with tears cascading down her pale cheeks.
"Ho, anything?" the man pointing the knife at her said with perverted voice. The woman shakily agreed, probably not noticing what she had agreed to.
"Yes." With that confirmation he pulled the weapon away from her and it made the woman sag with relief, now thinking that she was safe. However, the man grabbed her hair in a very painful motion, eliciting a hurt cry from the woman. "Let go! Please!"
("Let go! Please! Not my son!" His mother's voice rang loudly in his ears.)
Tsuna gulped down. He should run away. He shouldn't get involved with this. So why was he running towards the danger? The brunet hurled his bag on the open back of the man holding the woman's hair. The impact of his bag wasn't strong, but it had the needed effect, it startled the man to let go of the woman's hair. Tsuna inwardly sighed in relief, but he stopped in his tracks when the three men turned towards him with surprise and later anger.
The man Tsuna had hit glared at him and took a step forward, all three of them forgetting the prey cowering on the wall and focusing on the menace that dared to interrupt them. Tsuna looked at the shivering woman slumped on the cement floor.
"Run!" The yell made her sit up straight, and look at him. Tsuna didn't know what she did next, focusing on the men menacingly walking towards him, one already leaping towards him. When he saw this, Tsuna leaped back, dodging the fist aimed at his face by a mere millimetre. However, he lost his momentum by that leap. During that, the man grabbed his shoulder in a bruising manner and hit him squarely on his stomach.
Tsuna let out a pained cry, and the man let go of his shoulder, letting him fall unceremoniously to the cold and hard ground then kicked him in the shoulder, eliciting a pained gasp from the brunet. At that, Tsuna coughed, but he still slowly got up, albeit shakily.
"That's what you get, you little shit." the man said, smugly. The two minions started walking towards Tsuna as the leader step back.
'I should have run away!' he berated himself as he winced when one of the goons pulled his arm. They were looking around his person for money, but he only had a little with him and the goon who had pulled his arm pushed him on the floor in annoyance because of it.
'Why did I act like a hero when I knew I stood no chance?' the brunet thought absent-mindedly as the two goons kicked him, kicking his stomach, kicking his legs, kicking his arms and shoulder. Yet he endured it as he tried to get back up. A part of himself welcomed the pain, screaming about how he deserved it.
"What a useless, brat." one of the goons said, but Tsuna couldn't pinpoint who as he was busy trying to get up – crawl – from his pathetic position. The kicking had stopped as well. It seemed they decided that he wasn't worth hurting. Too bad, it would have been better if they continued until he passed out.
"Tch. Really pathetic, and weak too. He's even crawling like the cockroach he is." The man who had hit him first said in displeasure. The other two goons laughed at his misery, but Tsuna paid it little attention as he focused solely on getting up.
"I bet his whore of a mother and no-good father wanted to dispose of him." one of the goons said and promptly laughed at that statement, followed by the others. Tsuna, however, paused at that statement, emotion immediately growing – bubbling – in his stomach, making him want to hurt them. He slowly got up, forcing his body to move, to defy them, in his desire to hurt them. His knees were shaking and his body wanted to rest, but he persisted. They still keep laughing at him and sharing jokes about him. The brunet was okay with that, but to badmouth his mother too? That was going too far.
"She's not." Tsuna feebly said in a small voice. It was small, almost inaudible, but the men had turned from each other to him.
The leader of the thug raised his eyebrow at him quizzically, mockingly, "What?"
Tsuna lifted his chin defiantly at them, his expression hard. "Mom is not a whore."
"Stuck a nerve, did we?" one of the goons said smugly. Tsuna glared at them. He didn't notice that his eyes were flickering from caramel to orange, but the thugs did and they did a double take at the pathetic form of the brunet with weird eye color. The leader decided that he didn't like that defying look on the brunet.
"Get rid of this pest already."
The two goons marched towards Tsuna with vicious smiles, but the brunet wasn't afraid. There was something in his gut telling him he couldn't discern yet. Tsuna was about to lunge a fist at one of the goons when suddenly, a loud displeased voice rang through the dark alley, followed by the sounds of clanking metal. They cemented his thoughts. Tsuna knew who it was.
"Herbivores. For harassing a Namimori Middle School Student," There was a menacing pause, as if a jury was judging the guilty party, "I'll bite you all to death."
The voice made them pause and Tsuna retracted his fist, letting it fall to his side.
And just this once, the brunet felt relieved at hearing that menacing catchphrase coming from the prefect of the Namimori Disciplinary School Committee, Hibari Kyoya. Because even if he wasn't the one going to hurt them, Hibari would send them to the hospital, sporting bruises that would last for months, and that was fine with him. Wasn't it?
To be continued…
A/N: Please leave a review *insert pleading puppy look here*
Timeline: This chapter is set on June 22.
