Chapter Ten
"I mean I never knew he can be this cute."
"It's not like you never saw him sleep."
"Now that he's this older? No! I never! Do you remember how cute he was when he was four? Whenever he pouts?"
A chuckle. "Whenever he can't reach the couch?"
A laugh. "That! And whenever he can't eat all the things we cook! Then he'll go to the couch and kept on sitting there until he sleeps or just get bored watching the TV, so he'll move to the terrace to watch people."
"That reminds me, do you know he talks about animals in his sleep?"
A laugh. "Really?!"
Lids slowly opened and caramel eyes slowly gained eyesight as he hears more laughter and more talks. The first thing he saw was weakly fluttering white curtains before he realized that it's morning with how bright the other side is. Slowly, it came back to him what happen.
The headaches. The bus ride. The USJ. The villains. His Dad. Then All Might.
His Dad.
Tsuna sat up immediately and looked around to know where he is. Then he registered that he's in a room, on a bed, beside another bed where his Dad, Shouta Aizawa, is bedridden, with his Uncle Hizashi Yamada on his side. The tension and the fight-or-flight instinct ebbed away from his body as his intuition tells him to keep calm, and everything is alright.
Shouta watched his son move away from his own bed and crashed to his, curling by his leg. The hero sighed. He wanted to ruffle the child's hair, but both his arms were broken and cannot be used for the meantime. Unless they heal, of course.
"Hey, Tsuna." Hizashi greeted in a chirpy manner.
"Hm." The brunet hummed softly.
"Do you want to hear the condition of your Dad?" The blond asked, glancing at him.
"Hm."
"Well, his arms suffered comminuted fractures. If you didn't save him from the Noumu who was going to smash his head to the ground, he might have suffered more life threatening injuries." Hizashi informed.
Shouta felt an arm go around his legs and clutched there. "'m glad."
"You did a good job keeping your promise, Bud." He praised, earning a smile from his best friend.
The sleepy brunet looked up to him before crawling and draping himself on Shouta's stomach. "How's the others?"
"Number Thirteen's back and upper arms have sustained serious lacerations. All Might is alright, just his sides injured and the usual. Midoriya got crippled, but nothing Recovery Girl can't heal." Hizashi relied.
"My classmates?"
"No one was injured. They did ask for your whereabouts."
"According to All Might, you collapsed just when Cementoss put a wall between you and Kirishima. The doctor said you were exhausted." He said before moving his leg to hit his son. "You overworked yourself."
"At least I didn't do something I won't do." The brunet retorted. "And I'm fine. I was just emotional and unsteady that time. The adrenaline washed off. Headaches and no sleep, remember?"
The blond beside him laughed. "My God. We have two pandas."
"You're impossible." Shouta sighed, getting another bout of snickers from Hizashi. "The class is suspended today due to the attack yesterday."
Caramel eyes snapped to him with narrowed, warning gaze. "You are not going to class with those injuries, Shouta Aizawa. I'm warning you."
"You can't stop me." He harrumphed.
Those caramel eyes went orange as they narrowed more. "Is that so? I'll have you to know that my hands are usable and yours aren't? Even if you can move your legs, you can't wrestle against me."
"I have Hizashi."
He received a smirk. "Uncle Hizashi won't lift a hand to help you against me. I'm his favorite."
He looked at his best friend who looked away while whistling. "Hizashi."
"Tsuna is cute." The blond simply stated. "And he enjoys my gibbers."
"They are not gibbers. I appreciate them as much as I enjoy them." His son corrected.
"You appreciate everyone." He pointed out.
His best friend gasped. "How mean of you, Shouta!"
"Of course I do." Tsuna huffed, pushing his head more to his stomach. "But they have their own special places. I know to myself that I know you and I know what you like, dislike, what you think is fine, and what kind of people you really are. Like there's these people who have their own special spaces in my heart. Same with you, Dad. Then uncle has his own space too. There's also Izuku and Katsuki. My classmates are on their way. Even Uncle Naomasa too. There's also my parents. I like a lot of people, but I also have those people I love."
"You're so cheesy that it makes me want to cry." Hizashi sobbed, making the two of them laugh.
Tsuna opened the door of the classroom, making the noise inside to cut off. He waved at his classmates who said his name. He sidestepped and let Shouta come inside in a sedate pace, causing voices of concerns. He followed their teacher to the podium and helped the other get there with how shaky he looks.
In the end, Shouta was able to convince to let him go to school. They agreed on a mutual condition though. One, Tsuna will be with him when they go to class, in lunch and going home. Two, they will eat together because Shouta won't be able to eat without anyone feeding him. Of course, they'll go somewhere private to do it. Three, no straining activities (not like Tsuna will permit that). And lastly, if anything happens, or he feels uncomfortable, he will call for Tsuna.
The brunet honestly wishes he has a secondary flame, like a sun flames. It will be a great help for him and to those who can't be healed by Recovery Girl. But even if he does have one, it will take time for him to get used to them. He may know the nature of the other flames, but he will never be able to use them because he doesn't remember wielding them.
Man. He just wished he has Reborn right now to heal Shouta's arms.
"Morning." Shouta greeted in his usual monotone.
"Sensei. You're all right!" Iida exclaimed with his hand raised.
"Can you really call that 'all right'?" Uraraka questioned, face frowning in concern.
"Don't concern yourselves over me. After all, the battle hasn't really ended with you yet." Shouta said instead, inciting some reactions. "Yuuei's sports festival is approaching, boys and girls."
"Oh yeah! This is a school!" Kaminari exclaimed.
"I keep forgetting that this is an actual school!" Kirishima laughed.
The comments made Tsuna snicker and sweatdrop.
"Wait! Hold up!" Hagakure voiced in panic and worry, taking most of their classmates' attentions. "Won't that be something villains would try to infiltrate, isn't it? Will it be alright?"
"On the contrary: Since we're going ahead with the festival, it means that the school is confident it has all its ducks in a row when it comes to its crisis control. I hear police presence will be five time bigger than normal, for example."
As his Dad goes on, explaining the UA sports festival, Tsuna's mind went back to what happened before they went for class.
His uncle, Naomasa Tsukauchi, invited him to the briefing the faculty had to do regarding the villain attack the other day. They wanted to know what's his insights since he is the one who figured who the infiltrators were after. He declined though, and reasoned that his Dad needs him. Like always, Naomasa understood and gave him an head pat for being a good kid for Shouta. He only smiled with a blush.
What really made him laugh at the encounter was when the police asked him to remove the ice he put on the villains in the conflagration site of USJ. They were informed by Ojirou that he was the one who put them in their stuck places. Not even one of Endeavor's fire assistant can put it away when they tried. Tsuna, of course, declined at first for the heck of it. But that morning, he unfroze it and let the police do what they'll do to the villains, who wet their pants due to the fact that they couldn't go for the bathroom in two days. Hizashi and Shouta called him merciless that he only answered with a cheeky smile.
"Sensei!" Asui called out with her hand raised. "We just want to clarify something."
"What is it?" Shouta entertained.
"We want to know what Sawada means when he called you his Dad and family, and why you permitted him to help All Might until the end." Mineta answered.
Tsuna slowly lowered himself to his seat when his classmates stared at him with wide eyes. He looked at his Dad before he sighed and sat up. "Aizawa-sensei is my adoptive father since age four. That's why I call him my Dad and my family."
"If it's not rude to ask, where are your parents?" Yaoyorozu queried.
"My parents are alive, but not well. I do hope you do not treat me as someone else because our teacher is my father. I have you to know that his attitude is the same with me. Especially now that I'm his student, never expect me to know all the things he's going to do to us. I'm just more immune to it in a sense." He smiled, catching Katsuki's gaze before he surveyed his classmates. "As I've said to Asui-san, Mineta-san and Izuku, my quirk is not really a flame type. It's far from it actually. Those who saw me toss around the Noumu the other day can guess what it is."
"Enhanced strength." Kirishima nodded.
"Yup. Don't get me wrong. My dying will is an ability of mine that I rather not disclose. But I'm more akin to using it than my own quirk. Which is a good thing because as what Dad-" He gestured to his parent who is watching him with masked fondness. "-had told us, heroes have more than one trick on their sleeves. And if I didn't have my quirk, he would've sustained more injuries than he already has now."
"And I thank you for that." Shouta expressed.
His classmates gaped at them.
Tsuna chuckled. "Now regarding the support I was permitted to do, I think that's your role to explain."
Their attentions shifted to their adviser.
"Tsuna has been under our radar for five years and running, for all the things he had done without the permission of the law." Shouta started off.
"He was a vigilante?!" Mina gasped, making the brunet sheepish.
"He is a vigilante who cannot be seen in any kinds of media platform, until a year ago. In his situation, it's either he gets trialed in the court for publicly using his registered quirk and going vigilante when he's not a hero, or, become a student of Yuuei to maintain his private life with the help of our principal. Limited choices. Since he doesn't want to attract attention nor have me do all the paper works for him and trouble me, he chose to enter Yuuei like anybody else.
"I permitted him to assist All Might because both of us know how experienced he is in that field. Some police have told me that he had barked orders on them like he was their chief, and they did what was asked and it worked. He had saved a lot of civilians in disasters none of us can think of, and knows when to fight or back away. Other than that, he could help All Might with his quirk, just hauling the Noumu off me was enough justification of how strong he is."
"You flatter me too much." Tsuna chided softly, blushing.
"You can already be considered as a pro." Sero mentioned.
"Yeah! Four years of experience!" Uraraka seconded.
"At the age of ten too!" Mina counted.
He waved his hands in front of him, trying to placate them. "Please. I was just trying to do what I can do to help. I can't just sit back and relax when I have people calling for help in front of me."
"Even if you breached the law?" Iida queried.
"Even if- excuse me- fucking the law." He emphasized, causing silence. "Laws and rules are made to regulate order. Just like promises, it can be broken one way or another. Don't be offended, nor see me as someone who should be looked up to, but in my own twisted opinion, I cannot and will never be able to sleep well if I can hear people calling for help and I cannot help them just because rules are there. Just to clarify, I'm a vigilante, not a hero. A hero tries to save the world, a vigilante tries to save as many people as he can."
"But you're here, attending a hero school." Iida stated, eyes glinting.
"I was forced under circumstances. Limited choices. If I could make a third choice, why not? If I wasn't dared to disappoint my family, why not? If I could help more people without getting credits in the long run, why not? We have our own preferences. We have our own things to do. If you want to be heroes, surpass All Might, be known as the greatest, prove someone you can do it without their help, that's yours. But remember, even heroes fuck the law when it targets their principles."
All of them looked at Katsuki who clapped. "I'm so proud of you for learning how to curse."
"I have my own dictionary I can share with you, Katsuki." He smirked before returning his gaze to Iida, who looks contemplative. "I don't want to spite you, Iida-san. But you have to open your eyes that there are more between heroes and villains. But that's what we are here for in Yuuei. To know more about the world we haven't explored."
"I understand, Sawada."
"Okay." They turned to Shouta who decided to grab their attention. "No more questions?" No one answered. "Okay. Tsuna, come."
He stood up and went for the front. He assisted Shouta from going down before he opened the door and they went out. They were silent on their way to the staff room. Shouta with his own thoughts, while Tsuna looked around.
"I think you broke them." His Dad remarked.
Tsuna can't help his light chuckle. "I was honestly gonna fail the exam on purpose, but Nezu-san dared me to disappoint you, which I can't. Maybe if I was any normal child, I'll be the same with them. Dreaming of becoming a hero without any thoughts of how dangerous the profession is."
"But you're not normal."
"Yeah. And I'm thankful for that." He smiled before opening the door. "I know I have my own twisted thoughts about things, Dad."
"I understand. They have to realize that people have differences too." Shouta assured as he sits on the couch. "What do you want to do for the school festival?"
"What else? Make you proud." He shrugged. "Do you want to drink water? Coffee?"
"Maybe water. I want to sleep until lunch." His Dad answered, which he hurriedly went to get. "I never pegged you to be foul mouth."
"I learn things in school." He chuckled while getting a straw that he packed that morning inside the office.
"Tsuna."
"Hm?"
"If I wasn't your adoptive father, do you think I'll ever meet you again?" He looked back to see his Dad gazing at him. "Do you think you'll be here and I'll only sustain this kind of injury?"
Silence.
"Do you believe in parallel universe, Dad?" He questioned. He walked for Shouta and helped the latter get the straw to drink. "Like in every decision, there are million branches in it?"
"I guess?" The hero replied in a question mark. "Like pros and cons?"
"If we think about it, there will be a time in the past that my three years old me died and you never met me. Your life will go on, and you've probably sustained more injuries than this because none will be there immediately to help." He put the glass down on the table and helped the man lay on the couch. "Or maybe, like you said, you thought it was best for me to be taken away by some orphanage or a couple. Regardless, we'll still meet. We won't be as close, but you'll notice me and remember me. You'll probably track me down because I got caught on camera like what happened. I got forced to attend here. We went to USJ. The villains attacked. But like any other, I saved you and you'll be like this. Instead of being with you in the hospital, I'll be offering you assistance like right now, that we both know you'll refuse at first but will give in after I point out certain facts. We'll meet, I'll be here, you'll get that, but not as close. We'll treat each other as student and teacher. That's that."
Shouta hummed in thoughts. "You got it right."
"Of course I do." Tsuna took the blanket from the rest of the plush and covered it on his Dad. "I'll be back by lunch. Don't go anywhere or I'll hunt you down."
"I won't." The hero promised before closing his eyes.
When Tsuna went out, he leaned his back on the wall beside the door. He closed his eyes and breathed the loneliness that crept in his heart. The question felt so wrong and right at the same time. If he wasn't under Shouta's wing, what will happen to him? What will be his experiences? Will he ever be this sane? Maybe more distrustful?
Tsuna shook his head as he started to walk. Reborn told him a lot of times. He doesn't change. Not in a million years. He'll remain as Tsunayoshi Sawada, the Neo-Vongola Primo, great Vongola Decimo and the head of his own family.
"Keep it together, Dame-Tsuna." He whispered to himself while slapping his hands on his cheeks. "You're still you. Damn it."
"Katsuki?"
All eyes went to Tsuna who is pulling out his headset and rather clueless with what's happening. The Class One-A sighed at how naive their classmate is whenever he has his Italian lullabies on. They discovered that as long as he has his headset on, he can't hear anything and be with what he has. Well, if you approach him though, you'll be entertained. Satou, Kouda, Shouji and Aoyama have reminded him to lower the volume everytime they approach, it looked like the volume lowering has no effects.
After the 'discussion' they had in their homeroom and Tsuna went with their teacher, they had a small discussion to honor the brunet's request not to treat him any special with his relationship with Eraserhead. They realized, that at some point, Tsuna was right. Some rules are sometimes get broken for the sake of others, not for themselves. Some of their classmates also relied what they saw in the practical exam. What Tsuna showed in the USJ and the trial of battles were a small portion of what he did in the exam. The more they have to respect the brunet.
If they were even gonna treat the brunet any different, it's because of his experience and power. If he wanted to be treated like he was a king of Yuuei, why did they keep his relationship to their homeroom teacher if he could just brag it to everyone?
"Oh. Hey! Weren't you that guy who said the robots look like legos?" Tsuna said with a smile while pointing at one of the crowds.
They looked at each other and peeked at the hallway to see who it was. It was a black skinned guy.
"How are you? What class are you in?" Tsuna said in English, taking some of them in surprise.
"You can speak English?" The aforementioned teen gaped in shock.
"I know a lot of language."
"I'm in Class One-E in Department of General Education."
"Wait. There's a department like that? They do college degrees?"
"Yeah. You didn't know?"
"I am not informed." Then the brunet looked at Iida. "Is there any chance to transfer in Department of General Education?"
"What?!" Most of them shouted.
"What what? Damn. I should've asked the principal if there are any other department. Why in heck am I such a dame? Anyway, where are the others?" He pertained to the one he was talking with. "Oh. There are two. There's that lady I remember. Man. It was like what? Two to three months ago?"
"Five." A girl corrected before smiling. "Thank you for saving me that time, Sawada-san."
"Remember when he smashed that one robot?" Another girl exclaimed excitedly.
"Yeah! He even smashed that big robot at the last!" A teen from the back said.
"Oi! Don't mention that! I wasn't that- Oh shit. I need to go. Dad will kill me. Let's eat sometimes in the canteen, yeah? And Katsuki, come on. Excuse us. I need to get there before he kills me with a death glare!"
They watched as Tsuna and Bakugou made their way with a big berth. The brunet waves a hand to those who greets him and got chided by the blond, who got irritated. The latter gave the former a peace sign and started to animatedly talk about something. In the same process, the crowd that was impenetrable just awhile ago dispersed too.
They looked at each other in question.
"Did you understand what they were talking about?" Mina asked to Momo.
"Tsuna asked how were they and what class they were. He said he knows a lot of language too." Momo answered in a wondering look. "How odd. I didn't know he's that good."
"He's our salutatorian." Izuku informed to others. "He and Kacchan were our top students. He's a lot more unapproachable during our younger years. Especially when he got his phone and headsets."
"He's still is." Kyouka pointed out before making a thoughtful expression. "Milder at least."
Some nodded at her observation.
"Maybe I should urge him to teach me how to speak English like that. He has no accent!" Sero grinned.
"Wait." They all looked at Kaminari whose eyes were wide. "It means he's not just listening to those Italian songs and lullabies just for the beat and the tune. It means he also understand them?"
The information donned on them.
"Shit. Too much information." Kaminari groaned.
"Maybe the next time we knew it, he has the same quirk as All Might and Midoriya." Asui sighed before she and some of the girls went out.
If she only knew who got affected with that comment of hers.