Takeshi knows what it looks like when someone knows how to fight.
His parents are, after all, assassins who agreed that an innocent childhood would be a pipe dream for any child of theirs.
His mother, before she died, had taught him what she could of various hand-to-hand styles, and while most of his time was taken up by his extra curricular activities at school, Takeshi still found time to go to martial arts competitions.
His father still taught him every Sunday morning, continuing his mother's work, and allowing Takeshi to practice moves he's picked up at the martial arts competitions.
Takeshi knows what it looks like when someone knows how to fight.
Tsuna knows how to fight.
Takeshi watches with sharp eyes as Tsuna throws himself back into a roll to avoid a high kick, and comes up kicking.
Takeshi's seen this kind of fighting before. Not often because it was hard to find and he'd been focused on the more organized styles his mother had favored, but he recognises the general shape of the moves, recognises the what Tsuna must have been feeling when he learned to fight - however he learned to fight in the time since the hospital released him
Tsuna fights like he wasn't taught how to fight. He fights like back alley, desperate, it worked on TV, tested and proven, if not the most efficient or elegant. Bovino's rigid adherence to the structure of the forms he'd been taught only makes Tsuna's complete lack of any such thing all the more obvious in the contrast.
Takeshi can also see that there's something wrong. Tsuna's missing something. Takeshi can see it on the way he keeps pulling back and moving out of the way just in the nick of time. He recognises it from his own spars with his father, from the way his father would unthinkingly reach for a blade that wasn't there.
But it's more than that. Tsuna's stumbling, grazing Bovino when Takeshi's sure he meant to land a solid hit. Takeshi recognises this, from the martial arts competitions he watches when he has time, from his own spars lately, from growth spurts that make his body unfamiliar.
On top of all that, Tsuna's wincing whenever his right wrist is jarred too much, though he's managed not to use it.
The fight is over in a minute, but this is just more proof that Tsuna knows what he's doing. He's got Bovino's face pressed into the dirt and his arm pulled up behind him so that he can move without dislocating his shoulder.
"Are you satisfied, Reborn?" Tsuna asks in the silence, not letting up the pressure on Bovino's arm.
"Where did you learn how to fight like that?" the kid sitting quietly next the Ryohei asks.
Takeshi bites his lip because he would very much like to know that too, but he can see Tsuna's face from this angle and Tsuna looks like Takeshi's father had when he came to pick up Takeshi from Ryohei's house a couple days after takeshi's mother died. He looks tired, and like he'd maybe a little sick of the world.
"Hibari Kyoya-san is two years younger than us," Tsuna says. There's a world of implications in those words.
(Takeshi remembers how clumsy Tsuna used to be, before . . . Hibari-san is two years younger, so for two years, did Tsuna . . . Was his clumsiness because he was hiding bruises and strained muscles? Was it because he was staying up all night to protect the school? Hibari-san had only really started to stake his claim while Tsuna was away from school. Takeshi can't really see that, but . . . he remembers running around playing tag with Tsuna in elementary school. Tsuna hadn't tripped then.)
Tsuna hasn't moved, and Takeshi's honestly starting to get a little concerned about Bovino. The angle of his head and the hand Tsuna has on his throat is probably cutting off his air circulation, but he hasn't moved at all - not even slightly to try getting more air. Takeshi . . . well to be truthful, Takeshi doesn't care if Lambo lives or dies, all of their interactions have been fairly antagonistic, but he's fairly sure that Tsuna will care if he kills Bovino.
"Hey, Tsuna, let me see your wrist," Ryohei says before Takeshi can think of a good excuse to get Tsuna off Bovino in the silence of the clearing. "Don't think I didn't see you wincing."
There's something off about Tsuna as he finally releases Bovino's arm and stumbles over to Ryohei. The way his face hidden behind his bangs reminds Takeshi of the first time he'd seen Ryohei dragging Tsuna to the start of their normal jogging route. That was the first time he'd seen tsuna like that.
Takeshi wanders after Reborn as Tsuna lets Ryohei fuss over his wrist, prodding it slightly to check for swelling and whatever.
"Get up," the kid demands tersely, nuding Bovino's side with one polished black shoe.
Bovino moves with the nudge, and falls back into place as Takeshi squats down next to him. He doesn't look like he's in any danger of suffocating anymore, but he hasn't moved from the position Tsuna left him in. The kid nudges Bovino again, and this time Takeshi leans forwards to push Bovino all the way over and onto his back.
Immediately, Takeshi can tell something's wrong. Bovino is pale, and now that the sound isn't muffled by the dirt, Takeshi can hear him breathing rapidly.
The kid's expression doesn't change, but he kneels down, getting the knees of his expensive looking suit dirty. "Bovino."
Bovino doesn't answer or make any indication that he even heard the kid talking, and the kid slaps him. Bovino blinks as his face lulls back to center. His breathing is still too fast, and his pupils are still blown wide, but at least they're focusing now.
"Get up."
Takeshi doesn't want to be serious. The last time he was serious, he had to give up the hobby that he was hanging his identity on. It took him a year to figure out who he was outside of the popular star of the baseball team, and even now, he clings to Ryohei and his ancestor's flute by his fingernails.
But nothing the kid says is registering with Bovino, Takeshi can see it in his eyes.
Takeshi reaches out before the kid can kick Bovino again. He thinks - what does he know about Bovino?
Mostly it's nothing. He knows that Bovino is Italian. He knows that Bovino is mafia - which is like the Italian Yakuza. He knows that Bovino's apparently from a different family than the one Tsuna is the heir of, but because Bovino was . . . friends? with one of the former (dead) heirs, he was practically an outcast from his original family.
Takeshi also knows that Bovino doesn't normally fight hand to hand - can see the awkwardness of learned but not as practiced stances, can see the careful stitching on every piece of clothing that Bovino wears, tailored to hide the bumps of his guns and knives.
Takeshi doesn't know what the green flames that burn on Bovino's forehead after he's taken those pills are, but he knows what Bovino's expression reminds him of. It reminds him of no one meaning are you alright?, of picking bones out of the ash one at a time, passing them chopstick to chopstick for his father to put them in the urn, of gathering all of his baseball things in a pile in the park - folding his shirts carefully, reverently leaning the bats together - and setting it all on fire.
Takeshi says, "Hey, are you free on Saturdays? I need a sparring buddy."
He doesn't sound casual, for all that the phrasing isn't serious, and he wants to wince because he can hear it so obviously. Bovino's eyes snap to his, and he can can feel the hair on the back of his neck prickling before Tsuna brushes against his back to let him know he's there, but he doesn't break eye contact.
Bovino's still gasping, but he manages to draw in a deeper breath and ask, "W-what?"
"Are you free on Saturday afternoon?" Takeshi repeats patiently. "I still can't beat my dad, but I know most of his tricks, and he told me I really just need to practice with someone around my own level right now."
Bovino's eyes flicker to the kid before he nods. He's still gasping, but it's slowing down and starting to sound more like sobbing that hyperventilation.
"That's great!" Takeshi exclaims as he bounces to his feet and holds out his hand. "I don't think I've introduced myself yet. I'm Yamamoto Takeshi."
Bovino eyes the hand for a moment before he cautiously accepts it. "Bovino Lambo, but you already knew that."