Note from the author: Hide's name is pronounced 'HEE-deh' not like Hide from the hit television sitcom, That 70's Show

~8~

Hide woke up today and examined himself in the mirror. He did this ritual pretty much every morning to check for any 'changes', he had seen people do this on TV and he had heard some kids at school brag about chest hairs. So therefore, he concluded that it was perfectly normal to do the same thing as them.

He began with checking the hair on his head, messy and blonde despite the fact that his mother had straight, black hair; he went on to look at his eyes, a light, caramel brown but they were round and childish looking just like his mother's so that at least proved that he was related to her; then he examined his face and other parts of his body like his armpits, chin, and chest for extra hair. When he found none, he would sigh in defeat and quickly run over to the other side of the room to check his height. Hide went to the wall he usually checked his height on and marked a spot, then measured…still 5'1"

After going through this examination he would get dressed for school and go downstairs to eat breakfast…only to have it stolen by Reborn.

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings," was the infant's excuse.

Somehow, a week had gone by since Reborn came to his home and settled in, much to Hide's chagrin. A week had gone by since Hide lost all of his old friends, but found a new ally in the school 'bully' and recognition of existence from the girl of his dreams. And a week had also gone by since he found out that he would be a Mafia Boss.

"Hide, I've taken the liberty of arranging today's schedule," said Reborn, he handed Hide a slip of paper with a list of things on it.

Go to school on time

Meet new student

Train

Get beaten up by new student

Train

Find new family member

Train

Hide practically choked on his toast and he yelled, "You have training on here three times! And why is getting beaten up by a new student on here!?"

"It's punishment from last week because you didn't finish the assignment I gave you," said Reborn.

"I understand the training, but how is getting beaten up by someone I don't even know punishment?"

"Isn't it expected?"

"IS THAT REALLY HOW YOU SEE ME???"

"Oh my, Hide-kun you need to get to school," his mother called from the kitchen, "You don't want to be late do you?"

"Fine," he said in a sing-song voice. He took a bite out of his toast and got up to walk over to the door. As he put on his shoes he recalled something that was on Reborn's schedule.

"Wait, Reborn," he called.

"Yes?" a floor board near where Hide was putting on his shoes moved aside, revealing Reborn and almost giving Hide a heart attack.

"Why were you in the floor!?"

"Why weren't you?"

"That makes no sense!"

"Do you really want to argue about this now?" Reborn asked, he held up a clock which had the time on it.

When Hide saw the time, he nearly flipped and pulled on his shoes, grabbed his bag and ran out of the door before saying, "Bye mom!"

"Bye Hide-kun," his mother waved from the door and noticed Reborn in the floor, "Oh my, Reborn-san that's really no place for people to be."

"What about hitmen?"

"Hitmen are people too, Reborn-san," she said haughtily as she picked the hitman up from the floor, once that was done she asked, "Are you going to follow Hide-kun to school today again?"

"Hmm, yeah he might need my help on something today."

"Oh my, you're so cute when you talk all serious Reborn-san!" Hide's mother giggled with delight, she stopped as she suddenly remembered something and ran to the kitchen. When she returned she had a box that was wrapped in a piece of blue cloth and handed it to Reborn, "Reborn-san, could you take this to Hide-kun? He left in such a hurry this morning!"

"Sure thing," Reborn nodded and added, "And a hitman always keeps his promises."

"Waah! So cute!"

~8~

Dang it! I forgot my lunch at home! Hide thought as he searched desperately through his bag.

"Well it's too late now…" he said in despair as the bell rang, everyone got to their seats as the teacher entered the class room.

"Class," the teacher spoke in a monotone voice, "You will have a new student today, she is from Italy and is here to complete her studies in Japan. Come on in."

Italy, huh? Isn't that where Reborn's from? Hide wondered in his seat.

The teacher gestured for someone outside the class to come in; when the person walked in all the guys had started whistling and howling like dogs. She had long, platinum blonde hair that reached mid-way on her back, and she was wearing the guy's Namimori jacket open with the girl's skirt extra short. She had a chain necklace and another chain on her skirt that was attached to a belt with a silver skull on it. She had striking green eyes that looked like they were looking down on everyone and everything in the classroom. The Italian girl was nevertheless very pretty, and she had a sort of dangerous 'edge' to her that only enhanced her presence in the room.

"Gokudera Hanabi," she stated at the head of the class.

She's a total punk! Hide immediately thought but the other guys in the class had immediately fallen for her while the girls also seem to fall for her and called her 'cool' and 'awesome'.

"Well, Gokudera-san will you go sit by-," the teacher began but she had already started walking straight towards Hide.

She stopped right in front of his desk and harshly kicked it back threateningly, then she walked over to the guy that sat behind Hide and glared at him.

"Out," it was not a question, the boy complied, half-scared and half-entranced by the beauty.

"Hey Sawada, does that chick have a thing for you?" a classmate sitting next to Hide whispered to him.

"I don't know!" he hissed back.

But, what does Megumi-san think about this…? Hide thought and looked towards the front row where she sat, Megumi was happily reading a book while humming to herself. She seemed completely oblivious by what had just happened.

Hide paled as he felt a heated glare aimed at the back of his head. He sat with the glare until lunch came around and he heard Hanabi get up from her desk. He could tell that she was heading towards him, she was now standing in front of his desk and she opened her mouth to say something to Hide when-

"Hey Sawada!" someone called from outside the class, "Sakuraba's here to see you!"

"H-He is?" Hide gulped.

"Sawada's friends with Sakuraba-kun?" someone whispered.

"What if he's going to get beaten up by him though!"

"Poor Sawada…"

Hide ignored the comments and walked to the door to exit the classroom. Morita was indeed waiting outside and when he saw Hide, he fell to the other's feet and started pleading spontaneously.

"Sawada, I need your help with something!"

"S-Sakuraba-kun, c-can you please stop that?" Hide whispered when he saw that everyone was staring at them, "It's not normal."

"Ah, sorry," the boxer nodded and stood up, "You can call me 'Morita' since we're friends, okay?"

"Huh?" the boy blinked at the sudden change of mood and conversation, "Uh, s-sure Morita-kun, I guess you can call me Hideyoshi…"

"Eh? Hideyoshi is too long, I'll just call you Hide!" Morita declared.

"Um, alright," Hide nodded, that's what I wanted to be called anyways…

"Anyways, Hide, I need your help with something this afternoon!"

"What is it?"

"The principal is threatening to eliminate the Boxing Team!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Hide's mouth hung open. Namimori was known for its Boxing Team, why would the principal just suddenly start threatening to eliminate the one thing that this school is good at? Because everyone knows that best grades had nothing to do with it.

"Why would he do that?" he asked.

"I don't know! The senpais told me about it this morning, and if we don't get more new members we'll be out!"

"S-So you want me to join you?" Hide asked, dreaded where this was going.

"Would you?" the boxer asked with a pleading look.

"Of course he would!" said a voice, Megumi was standing by the doorway of the classroom with a look of determination.

"Megumi-chan?"

"Tanaka-san!?" Hide's eyes widened when he saw her.

"Sawada-kun isn't the type to just outright refuse a friend, right?" she said with conviction.

"Megumi-chan, this is Hide's decision, well Hide?" Morita asked, a pleading look was in his eyes.

Hide looked to Megumi, then to Morita, finally he gave in and said, "Alright…"

"That's great!" the girl clasped her hands together gratefully.

"You rock Hide!" Morita patted Hide on the back, "Come by afterschool to the clubroom, and try to bring any other people that you think would be good!"

"R-right…" Hide nodded almost miserably, but once Morita left Hide was happier than ever because he was now left alone with Megumi.

"I heard that you and Morita were good friends Sawada-san!" she said, "Me and Morita have been friends since grade school, but I didn't know that you knew him Sawada-san!"

"Y-yeah Tanaka-san…" Hide nodded, this time much more enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah, since Morita is calling you 'Hide', can I also call you that?" she giggled, making the boy melt in his shoes.

"Of course!"

"Okay Hide-kun," she said sweetly and quickly added, "You can call me 'Megumi', if you want, 'Tanaka' is way too formal."

"Right, Megumi-san!" the blonde-haired boy said happily.

"Excuse me," someone interrupted, it was Gokudera Hanabi, she stood outside the class and looked like she had been standing there for a while, "You're Sawada Hideyoshi right?"

"Um, yeah," Hide nodded and wondered how she knew his full name for a new student.

"Hmph," she said in a snobbish manner, "So you're the Twelfth, huh?"

Hide's heart dropped when he heard her say that, he knew perfectly well what the meaning behind that was.

"Hm? Hide-kun, what is Hanabi-chan talking about?" Megumi asked.

"Ah, nothing, nothing!" he said hurriedly, "It's an online thing, right Gokudera-san? You must be the Thirteenth then, right?"

"What?" the silver-haired girl asked, she raised an eyebrow.

"Right, right! Come on Gokudera-san, I just got that new MMORPG from the game store yesterday!" he said and took her hand.

"What's an MROQG-," she began but she was dragged away by Hide.

~8~

When they were in an empty place, and after Hide made sure no one was around, he turned around to her and pointed.

"Okay, who are you?"

"You don't even know the name of your rival?" she crossed her arms and gave him an 'are you stupid?'-look.

"I don't even know who you are!" he exclaimed.

"Che, you really are an idiot," she said while reaching into her jacket to take something out.

"Her name's Gokudera Hanabi," said Reborn, he sat on top of a tree branch.

"Hello Reborn-san," she nodded.

"You know each other? Thank goodness!" Hide sighed in relief, "Reborn, can you stop this?"

"I can't," he answered, "this is a duel."

"A what!?" the blonde gawked in horror.

"Reborn-san, is it true that if I kill this guy then I can be the next Boss of the Vongola?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Kill!?"

"Sounds fun!" the silver-haired girl grinned and took out a deck of cards, "Let's fight!"

Everyone was silent until Hide asked, "Um, do you want me to play you in a game of cards or something…?"

"NO!" she yelled and threw a card that dug an inch into the cement wall Hide was in front of.

"What the heck!?" Hide's mouth gaped open.

"Hanabi comes from a long line of skilled hitmen," Reborn explained, "She's extremely talented at throwing projectiles, so talented that she adopted the nickname that her grandfather had: Smokin' Bomb Hanabi."

"Bomb!?" Hide yelped, he looked over to the card that was in the wall and was literally blown away by it.

"Once I kill you, I'll become the next Boss of the Vongola!" Hanabi declared.