Chapter 7 : Enter! The Golden Dragon!


It comes as no great surprise that Hibari Kyoya doesn't care for sharing. It's not something that Tsunayoshi gave any consideration to, given that he had no reason to consider it at all. Honestly, it's nothing that he would even wonder about. If he had, he might have thought that Hibari would be above the kind of thinking that lends itself to thinking of things as his. He's a demon, after all. What use do demons have for possessions?

Tsunayoshi may have forgotten that demons tend to be jealous, and greedy, and think first and foremost of themselves. Like Tsunayoshi, in a way. Just because Hibari only glances at his tonfa when it breaks with a considering look, and then strikes harder with the remaining one thereafter, doesn't mean that Hibari will carelessly cast aside all things that enter his sphere of influence.

During the time that Haru isn't coming around, Hibari doesn't seem extra annoyed that he doesn't have two punching bags. The day after Sasagawa-kun tries to shanghai Tsunayoshi into joining his club, though, Hibari frogmarches Tsunayoshi out of the tail end of his last class and up to the Disciplinary Committee's office and locks him in.

His eyes don't shine once with a strange light, even though they glitter oddly, and his fingers feel like steel bands around Tsunayoshi's wrists. They don't bruise, but after Tsunayoshi is released to follow the Committee's after school activities as he likes, he finds himself touching the bones of his wrist repeatedly. Like something lingers there.

(More than anything, Tsunayoshi doesn't want to be left alone. It's not quite what he wants, but - ahh, ahh, it's close. It's close, like Haru tailing him around and claiming to be his girlfriend.

It's bad. It's selfish. Ahh, but, but, but: look at him the most.

Who can Tsunayoshi become to best achieve that, he wonders?)

It becomes something of a habit, and not one Hibari is interested in changing even after Haru forgives Tsunayoshi for being so dense. In the end, it takes a few weeks of those two fighting, but they reach a compromise: since Hibari refuses to surrender his daily afternoons terrorizing Tsunayoshi in the Committee office, Haru might as well keep up her after school gymnastics club meetings.

It would be nice if anyone thought about asking Tsunayoshi's opinion on the whole thing, but - well, he's saved from making some kind of difficult decision. Maybe it's for the best to let others work those kinds of things out on their own, if they can.

There are worse things than being bullied into sitting still, or running pointless errands from classroom to club under Hibari's glittering eyes.

-0-

Given the nature of things, Tsunayoshi probably should have expected strange kinds of rumors to be going around because of him. In the first place, Tsunayoshi has started to wonder at the fact that people seem to pay him an odd amount of attention. It's not like Nami Middle is a particularly large school in any way, so it's not as if he'd really thought anything of it when everyone seems to know his face and call him by that nickname.

But if they were going to go that far, wouldn't they pick on him, too? It's not like he really has any fun being laughed at and told he's useless, nor that after people give up on asking him for favors, they taunt him about the fact that he's no good for anything. But the thing about that is - no one destroys his things, or tries to goad him into killing himself, or even trips him even though they'll laugh and jeer if they see him do it himself. They seem to get kicks from making him join in on their games only to watch him struggle and they send the ball his way and then snort and snicker when it knocks him down.

Everyone always recognizes him on the spot even though he's not popular, or outstanding. He's not even outstanding in the way that his grades are the lowest in school or anything like that. And they start calling him a delinquent now that he's being looked after by Hibari, even though Tsunayoshi has never been rude or mean to anyone in any way other than refusing their requests and their favors.

Before That Time, Tsunayoshi hadn't really been able to tell the difference, but - now that he can tell when people want to kill him or not, he can tell that all the bullying that had so crushed his spirit months back is more like a pack of animals being noisy and unruly in begging for attention. Like that time so long ago that a dog had leapt up on him and knocked him down, being at least twice as big as him. What troublesome animals, he thinks.

… Hibari's way of thinking might be rubbing off on him a little bit.

Maybe that's what happens when a person tries their hardest to connect their feelings with another person. Tsunayoshi can only hope that none of the people he's trying his hardest to connect with have started dreaming about painful things. Hibari probably wouldn't be too troubled by them, but he already sleeps at school so much that Tsunayoshi worries about disrupting his naps all the same.

And it's not like Nana needs more things to think about than she already does. After that night that Hibari broke into his room, Tsunayoshi hasn't entirely managed to rest at ease in his own home anymore - and it's thanks to that he's discovered that she peeks into his room fairly often at night. She never looks very tired, so he thinks she might nap while he's at school every day. It would be nice if Nana could rest easy about it. The last thing he wants is her dreaming about doing all of that herself instead of just seeing him do it.

So Tsunayoshi probably should have expected there to be weird stories going on around him, especially after even Mochida noticed that he'd been captured for a while. It's just - everyone has absences like that, even if Tsunayoshi usually doesn't, and it's not weird to follow Hibari, he has the whole entire Committee - and -

And yeah. Even though Hayashi-sensei doesn't train any other kids from his district, somehow the fact that he's a trained fighter must get out, because during the time that Haru isn't speaking with him, but before Hibari has shifted his approach from ambushing him to batting him around like a cat with a particularly entertaining mouse, Sasagawa Ryohei hears about him.

Somehow, Tsunayoshi feels like he should really know more about Sasagawa Ryohei, but the fact of the matter is that Tsunayoshi has never really taken much notice of him. It's true that he's just one year ahead of Tsunayoshi, and he's Kyoko's older brother, and ahh - it's true that Tsunayoshi used to… kind of stalk her, at least until he'd begun to fear her noticing him, rather than fantasizing about it, and turned his stalker tendencies on Hibari of all people. It's true that club captains are usually well known around school, especially those that went to competition, and even more so the ones that win.

But well - Ryohei is more of a force of nature the way Hibari is a force of nature: a thing to weather with grim determination or terrified awe and be relieved after it passes. That Ryohei is practically sweet compared to Hibari matters little in this.

Mostly, Tsunayoshi knows Ryohei as a footnote to Kyoko, the same way he knows Mochida, which is - well, a bit…

Well, it's regretful no matter what, because it means that he's completely unprepared for the day that Sasagawa Ryohei comes barreling into his classroom, looking for him. The door slams open so violently that the windows rattle, and the noise that's supposed to be Tsunayoshi's name is more or less a roar, if fourteen year old kids were capable of that kind of thing.

Tsunayoshi could believe it, if it's Ryohei.

His startled classmates likely believe it too, if the immediacy with which they surrendered Tsunayoshi's identity is to judge by - and then Ryohei approaches Tsunayoshi's desk and practically climbs atop it, just barely refraining. He leans so far over it though that Tsunayoshi instinctively leans back, almost ready to topple out of his seat. He might have, if Ryohei hadn't grasped his hand and loudly repeats: "Sawada Tsunayoshi!"

How he manages to make Tsunayoshi's ears ring that way without actually seeming to shout - like his volume is simply cranked to the max without even straining his throat in the least - is a mystery.

"Join the Boxing Club!" Ryohei says, both hands clasped tight around Tsunayoshi's. They're larger, and calloused despite the tape that's wrapped around his fingers, which is also rough, and hotter than just 'warm,' and strong like iron bars. The way that Ryohei's gray eyes stare intensely into Tsunayoshi's and practically sparkle like he has brilliant yellow stars in his eyes - well. It makes it feel weirdly like a marriage proposal.

Against his own inclinations, Tsunayoshi feels his face turn hot red like an iron, and he sputters.

The lack of coherent reply hardly bothers Ryohei, who, not letting go of Tsunayoshi, turns back to the room at large. "I'll be borrowing Sawada for the time being!" he declares, drops into a short, shallow bow at the teacher, and then hauls Tsunayoshi to his feet. They're at the door before the teacher can do more than blink. For some reason, Tsunayoshi manages a desperate look at a stunned Yamamoto - of all times for the boy to fail to warn Tsunayoshi of danger! Yamamoto makes some kind of weird face and might even be shifting to his feet, but no one leaves the classroom after them.

Tsunayoshi stumbles in Ryohei's wake, staring lingeringly back at the doorway, and then - because Ryohei honestly seems to mean him no real harm - he sinks into black, despairing thoughts. It's not until Tsunayoshi's uniform top goes flying that he snaps back into awareness and realizes that they've arrived at the boxing club's locker rooms and Ryohei is forcibly stripping him despite Ryohei's underclassmen jumping into the fray.

"Ryohei-senpai! He's one of Hibari's!" a boy already dressed in boxing gear shouts over Tsunayoshi's embarrassed screeching. The boy is practically climbing Ryohei in his efforts to stop him. One particularly heavyset boy is hanging from Ryohei's waist. If Tsunayoshi wasn't so frantic to keep his clothes on, he'd be impressed by Ryohei's manic strength. "And besides! Hibari already told you not to abduct any more students or strip them!"

Tsunayoshi could almost imagine hearing it himself: no students are permitted on school grounds out of dress code. The only exception to that iron-clad rule enforced rigorously by Hibari was if it were required by their club, and even then a license that had been approved and issued by the Council - little more than a puppet of the Committee - had to be provided.

Or something like that. At the beginning of the year, when Tsunayoshi had still been holding out hope to join a club and maybe make some friends and stop being Dame-Tsuna, he'd taken a look at the application process. There were no two ways about it: the Namimori Disciplinary Committee had turned the entire club system into a nightmare of paperwork.

Tsunayoshi kind of sucks at paperwork; he doesn't understand what the questions want from him, or how to fill out the answers accurately or sufficiently. Nana somehow actually manages to be worse. Tsunayoshi had given up at that point and resigned himself to being Dame forever.

"Sawada! You must extremely fight!" Ryohei shouts.

"Let me go before Hibari bites you to death," Tsunayoshi squawks loudly. In all likelihood, he would then proceed to bite Tsunayoshi to death, but it's getting to the point that when doesn't he, so Tsunayoshi is actually surprisingly fine with that.

"Sawada!"

It takes a few more desperate moments before Ryohei's underclassmen manage to pry him off Tsunayoshi, and a few more shaky moments for Tsunayoshi to put himself to rights. By the time he has his tie in some semblance of order, the boxing club has soaked Ryohei to the skin and have an ice pack on his head. One of the underclassmen - or rather, Ryohei's peer outside the club - is wringing his hands at Tsunayoshi.

"Please don't tell Hibari about this," he says, then falls to his knees and prostrates himself, trembling.

"Ah - there's no need for that," Tsunayoshi says uncomfortably. His uniform is more wrinkled than usual, which may or may not invoke Hibari's wrath depending on his mood, but other than that - "this is hardly the worst that's ever happened to me."

The guy stays down for a moment longer before peering tentatively up at him. Whatever he sees on Tsunayoshi's face must reassure him, because he sits up and glances over to Ryohei, who looks to have tired himself out. "He always gets like this when he thinks he hears someone strong might be around," he says a little pathetically. "None of us can last longer than fifteen seconds in the ring with him."

What kind of monster is Ryohei? Tsunayoshi wonders to himself. "I see," he says. "I mean, I don't understand it myself, but… um." He glances down at himself and then over at Ryohei again. Ryohei is something like a head and a half taller than him and easily tops him by ten kilos, probably more. What would have even convinced that guy that Tsunayoshi could possibly stand up to him? "Why not Hibari?" he wonders aloud.

Ryohei must have amazing stamina, because it's actually the guy himself that answers, straightening a bit with an indignant look on his face. "Hibari is an impressive warrior," he acknowledges loudly, "but a true man fights with his fists!"

After the string of self-defense classes Tsunayoshi's taken, plus his own teacher's words, Tsunayoshi knows that fists actually make for shitty weapons: they break too easily and for stupid reasons.

"I- I see," he says instead, wondering if that might be the point somehow. "That aside, Ryohei-senpai… I'm not really a boxer, you know. My teacher targets my feet and leg strength more."

Well, that and his regular fights with Hibari have gotten to the point that Tsunayoshi has started improvising. Tonfa were specifically designed to subdue people, after all, and even if he's more or less okay with being attacked, Tsunayoshi doesn't particularly care for bruises or broken bones.

"Oh! A man's body is his best weapon!" Ryohei proclaims, casually shoving his underclassmen aside and jumping to his feet. There's a fire burning in his eyes that's quite frankly terrifying, and Tsunayoshi anxiously averts his gaze, focusing instead on the edges of Ryohei's face and shoulders the way he would in a fight. Ryohei's soggy, bandaged hands grasp onto his hands again. "You must join the Boxing Club, Sawada! We'll extremely go to your teacher for permission right away!"

"No way!" Tsunayoshi yelps. "I refuse!"

Ryohei isn't the kind of guy that easily accepts 'no' for an answer, as if forcibly abducting Tsunayoshi and trying to make him change into the Boxing Club's gear wasn't evidence enough. Tsunayoshi's strident protests that he doesn't even enjoy fighting are summarily ignored.

Still dressed in his club gear, Ryohei wraps his mitt covered hand around Tsunayoshi's wrists, turns on his heel, and barrels out of the club room. They're already halfway across the courtyard before Tsunayoshi can even catch his breath out of surprise, and digging in his heels isn't doing anything but wearing away at the soles of his shoes. He could actually fight back, but - ahh, turning that thing against Ryohei seems kind of excessive, and he's not exactly certain of his ability to win even with it, and as much as he doesn't want to actually hurt Ryohei, ahh, ahh, if he doesn't win quickly, the feel of that thing is that it might become desperate.

Ryohei just seems really excited that Tsunayoshi exists, and he - well, he wants to fight Tsunayoshi, but in his own way, he's trying to earn Tsunayoshi's consent instead of just biting him to death, so-

Tsunayoshi still objects to being dragged through the streets by a soaking wet guy in boxing gear!

"Ryohei-senpai! Ryohei!" Tsunayoshi does his best to shout over the heartening battlecry that Ryohei is giving, but someone with a voice as pathetic as his is doomed to be shouted over by anyone with a voice of substance, and Ryohei has more than that. Actually, Tsunayoshi thinks that that even if he blew an airhorn, Ryohei would be able to shout over it. That's the kind of guy he is. "Please don't drag me through town like this!"

"Oniisan!"

Where all of Tsunayoshi's caterwauling falls on deaf ears, that single voice slices through Ryohei's battlecry with ease. Tsunayoshi crashes into Ryohei's rock-hard back and tumbles to the ground, hanging limply by his arm from Ryohei's grip.

"Kyoko?" Ryohei questions, turning around.

Tsunayoshi looks up with something not unlike horror in his heart, although he probably should have predicted this the moment he realized that Sasagawa Ryohei had taken him. Everyone is more or less vaguely aware that the Sasagawa siblings look out for one another, so being around either one of them will eventually involve being around the other. Tsunayoshi vaguely remembers that this is more or less how Mochida had gotten past Kyoko's defenses.

If he had thought about it at all instead of being distracted by Yamamoto, he would have fought harder against his fate, he thinks.

As it is, the blossoming idol of Nami Middle comes to a panting stop on the other side of Tsunayoshi's sprawled body, a hand to her chest as she catches her breath. It should make her look like any normal mortal, but only brings out a flush of color to her face that strangely makes Tsunayoshi's already pounding heart skip a beat in his chest, if that's not weird enough.

"Oniisan," she says, still gulping air a bit, the softest frown on her face, "Saitoh-kun told me you were ditching class!"

Between the scene in the boxing club's room and the fact that one of Ryohei's classmates knew to come tattle on Ryohei to his sister immediately, Tsunayoshi thinks this must happen a lot more than he had suspected. More than once is too much in Tsunayoshi's honest opinion, but this might even be a bit routine for them; Tsunayoshi wouldn't know and couldn't have heard before now, given that before he'd only shown up to school for the sake of stalking Kyoko, and since then his activities regarding Hibari.

For his part, Ryohei looks a bit struck by his little sister's announcement, and then a bit like he expects to be able to argue against it. He can't. They're on the streets of Namimori, at least five minutes from school already. Only the fact that he wasn't actually running at the time let Kyoko catch up to him, Tsunayoshi thinks.

The laugh that Ryohei gives is loud and nervous. "Ditching class!" he echoes with a wide, white, incredibly awkward grin. "No way! I was - escorting Sawada to his teacher!"

"We're all going to get bitten to death," Tsunayoshi says under his breath in mortal terror. Hibari is almost assured to arrive and beat every last one of them for playing hooky, and Tsunayoshi honestly can't decide how he feels about that.

"Off campus?" Kyoko asks, folding her arms over her chest. It should look angry or frustrated, and instead only conveys a vast amount of concern and disappointment. There's a heavy kind of pressure to it that makes him want to squirm a bit.

Ryohei doesn't seem to feel it at all, or maybe he's used to it. He laughs like he's making fun of himself, saying, "you know your big bro has a terrible sense of direction!"

Without warning, Ryohei hefts Tsunayoshi off the ground with just the one hand wrapped around Tsunayoshi's wrist, which is slightly terrifying but perhaps ultimately not unexpected, given that Tsunayoshi is about forty-seven kilos soaking wet. The whole thing still startles Tsunayoshi enough that he wobbles unsteadily for a second before finding his feet.

That done, Tsunayoshi stares at Ryohei, frankly appalled. Tsunayoshi himself isn't a good liar and sucks at keeping secrets, so he doesn't make a habit of it, but Ryohei might actually be even worse of a liar despite the easy way it comes out. They're five minutes from Nami Middle! That goes far beyond a terrible sense of direction and into blatant curse territory! If such things as curses even existed!

On the other hand - well, that lie is a bit of a mixed bag, because: part of it is complete fabrication, but the other? Ryohei was absolutely escorting Tsunayoshi to his teacher - just not a Nami Middle school teacher. Although without asking, how is he supposed to know to go to Hayashi-sensei's dojo? Hayashi-sensei's dojo? Tsunayoshi has been to many around the town before settling on that one, after all.

Kyoko sighs, her brow pinching. "I know, but in that case you should have one of your friends take him," she says reproachfully. "When they call me out from class, it makes me worry, you know."

Ryohei wilts under her gaze. "Sorry, Kyoko," he says, rubbing his mitted hand on the back of his head. "You know I get worked up about things sometimes."

That only makes Kyoko frown a bit harder, and then she actually seems to notice Tsunayoshi. She starts to smile that stunning, sunny smile at him, only then she seems to actually see Tsunayoshi, and her face does something weird.

"Oh!" she says. She smiles. It's a perfectly beautiful, kind smile - but there's something weird at the corners of it. "Sorry for my brother, he means well, really."

Tsunayoshi remembers his thoughts that if Kyoko ever actually saw him that she'd pat him on the head and gently lock him out of some kind of metaphorical house, leaving him out in the rain and the mud with the other unruly beasts like Hibari. The weird sense of pressure hasn't let up - if anything, it's kind of increased.

"Ah - it's no problem, really!" Tsunayoshi says, even though honestly, being dragged out of class and then off the campus is a huge problem because - well, Hibari after all. Given that his classmates surrendered him to Ryohei just because Ryohei is loud and excitable and an upperclassman, they're definitely going to get the two of them in trouble the moment Hibari happens by to notice that Tsunayoshi has left school grounds without permission.

"Thank goodness," Kyoko says, still smiling relentlessly. "It was - Tsuna-kun, right?"

The thought that goes through Tsunayoshi's head is that he wonders if she heard it first as Dame-Tsuna or as one of Hibari's the way Ryohei's underclassmen said it. Either way is awful and uncomfortable, he decides, and that's disregarding that despite everything, she still calls him Tsuna.

Everyone calls him Tsuna. From the day number one, Nana and his teachers both said that 'Tsunayoshi' was too large of a name for someone as small as him, so that's what he gets called whether he likes it or not. Usually he doesn't think much of it, but for some reason it really stands out at this moment.

Because Kyoko is smiling at him, it only seems right to smile back. It feels a bit strange on his face. It's not the one that he gives when he's nervous or in trouble and hoping to somehow get out of it. He thinks it's some kind of wish to get along with everyone, but he can't be sure.

"Yes, that's me," he says easily. "And you're Sasagawa Kyoko-chan."

She hums a pleasant affirmative. "Since my brother's gotten you into trouble, I'll walk you back to school, okay?" she says.

Well, that's what she says, but when she steps forward and then in between Tsunayoshi and Ryohei, she takes her brother's elbow in both hands. Somehow, Tsunayoshi isn't disappointed by this, despite the fact that the blossoming idol of Nami Middle has delicately, politely just snubbed him. He actually feels a bit relieved, even if the normally lovely glow she exudes seems to be kind of glaringly bright today.

"That's - that's not necessary," Tsunayoshi protests, waving his hands in the air between them like he can fend the blistering light.

"Hey. Are you saying you don't trust my little sister to guide you back to school," Ryohei says, and Ryohei's strangely energetic but ultimately harmless air has just become some kind of horrible aura, his gray eyes weirdly like the flat of sharpened steel blades as he stares down at Tsunayoshi from Kyoko's other side.

It's really not what Tsunayoshi is saying at all. If anything, Ryohei should take responsibility for himself, but Tsunayoshi would rather be escorted by Kyoko than be dragged even more places by him, even if it's back to school.

Kyoko tugs on his arm a little bit. "Of course he's not saying that, Oniisan," she says, pleasant and patient under Ryohei's attentive gaze. His brows are still furrowed like he hasn't let go of what he thinks Tsunayoshi said. "Tsuna-kun is the kind of person that doesn't like to trouble others, isn't that right?"

Tsunayoshi feels strangely like something bad would happen to him if he disagreed, despite this being a fairly accurate summary of his personality.

Kyoko returns his tight and nervous smile with a gentle look that only increases the way the hair on the back of his neck is standing on end. "But it's no problem," she promises him before turning to gaze back up at her brother with concern. "You should take the chance to change back into your uniform before Mom hears that you were skipping class, though."

Where the threat of Hibari does nothing, the threat of his own mother obviously terrorizes Ryohei. He still hesitates for several long moments, struggling back and forth with himself and looking uneasily between Kyoko and Tsunayoshi. This understandably only increases Tsunayoshi's stress, because while he knows that he's no threat to Kyoko and has no reason to draw Ryohei's ire, this entire situation feels incredibly dangerous anyway. Rather than walking alone with Kyoko, Tsunayoshi would most like to be dragged back onto campus by Ryohei, soaking wet and dressed in boxing gear or not.

Ryohei looks oddly like he might somehow sense that.

But then familial loyalty wins out, and he accepts his fate. "Alright! I will extremely run the entire way back to school!" He punches straight up into the air when Kyoko releases her grip on his arm and immediately takes off running back the way they came.

It's probably as fast as a guy like him can go, and it's - indeed - extremely fast.

Tsunayoshi would have left him eating dust. As much as he asks Hibari to teach him 'discipline,' there's only so much Tsunayoshi can do to fight his instincts, which always say to run away - and Hibari is some kind of savage beast when he gets it into his head to pursue.

Usually he likes to pretend it's not worth his time if Tsunayoshi manages to make enough headway though - Hibari is an ambush predator, not one that chases.

"Sorry about this, again," Kyoko says, drawing his attention. "My brother has the tendency to get worked up about things. It's been a long time since I've seen him this excited… actually, I think the last time was when he learned about Hibari-senpai."

"There- there are a lot of different reactions to have to Hibari-senpai," Tsunayoshi says awkwardly.

"It'll be good if Hibari-senpai were to have friends," she says easily, turning to him with bright eyes. "It'll help him calm down a bit, don't you think? You know, Hana was a bit like that, too, back then."

Tsunayoshi wouldn't know. This was the first time he'd attended a school with either of them and he was too dazzled by Kyoko to really take a lot of notice of the thundercloud lurking three inches to the left.

"I think it's good to make friends," Kyoko says, smiling without looking at him, "especially with the kind of people that need it a lot, like Hibari-san, and Hana. But it's not fair if you stretch yourself out too far, don't you think?"

"Ahh - no, probably," Tsunayoshi says, flailing just a bit, his palms out. "That's probably right, but - um, I don't feel stretched at all, so it's not a problem."

Kyoko looks at him then, just out of the corner of her eye. "Hmm," she says, and only that, at least about that subject, because she continues, "Oniisan was excited at first - about Hibari-senpai, you know? But somehow Hibari-senpai has maintained his title as the strongest person at school, and leader of the Discipline Committee. So it's only natural that when Oniisan heard the rumors about you, about having fought your way up the ranks of Hibari-senpai's friends, that he'd be a little enthusiastic."

"The enthusiasm isn't really the problem here," Tsunayoshi says, because as loud and extreme as Ryohei is, Tsunayoshi doesn't have a problem with that. Even if he's running roughshod over Tsunayoshi's wishes, it's not something he could really carry a grudge about. "The problem is the target, actually. I'm really not scary enough of a person to be interesting for those kinds of reasons, you know?"

Ahh - well, he says that, but.

Tsunayoshi says that, but isn't the kind of person he actually is even worse than Hibari? Isn't he the worst kind of person there is to be? Whatever kind of things that Hibari does, whatever kind of racket that his club is running, it's not as bad as what Tsunayoshi does that leaves him hollowed and charred with numbs hands and wet splatters of blood on them.

But in that case, the target is still the problem. There's no reason for Ryohei and Kyoko to get tangled up with something like him. Only because he can't tolerate Haru's unhappy face, and Hibari can beat him down, and he doesn't want to hurt either of them anyway is all of that okay. Dragging others into something this bad is unforgivable- that's what Tsunayoshi thinks about it.

"I think so, too," Kyoko agrees easily. "Looking after Hibari-senpai is probably hard enough work on it's own. So we agree, then, right? There's no way it's possible to look after both Hibari-senpai and Oniisan, so we'll keep things the way they are. Tsuna-kun, let's continue working together diligently to make sure Oniisan goes back to overlooking you!"

"N- no way! I'm not an offering you can tie to a pole outside the village in sacrifice to that demon!" Tsunayoshi blurts. He isn't even all that opposed to what Kyoko is suggesting here, it's just-!

It just feels really questionable in the first place, somehow, and he definitely feels like his muddy nose has been clipped by a door being shut in his face.

Kyoko laughs. It's gentle and lovely like chiming bells. "Don't be silly, Tsuna-kun," she says. "No one's tying you up against your will. The two of you are already friends, so there's nothing to worry about."

She can say that all she likes, but everything she's said requires a severe misunderstanding of the very basic nature of Hibari Kyoya, Sawada Tsunayoshi, and their overall relationship. In a few weeks, Tsunayoshi will make the not-so-startling discovery that Hibari doesn't like to share, but that aside, he doesn't have any interest in taking up all of Tsunayoshi's time.

And Sawada Tsunayoshi needs someone who will take up his time, or something awful will happen, he thinks.

He has nothing against respecting Kyoko's wishes if she'll do her part in preventing her brother from accosting him again, but the feeling of that door clipping shut is - depressing, a little bit. For a while there, the only interest Tsunayoshi had in coming out of his house and going to school was Kyoko. Something terrible had been going on inside him at that time, he thinks - but he's not really sure, because then That had happened and something had sparked to life inside of him and devoured so many things: charred it to ashes until his lungs were filled with sulfur and soot.

"I just don't think it's fair for me to make those kinds of decisions without consulting with the people who are affected by them," Tsunayoshi says, thinking first and foremost of Haru, who had waylaid herself for Tsunayoshi's sake without consideration for either of them. It wasn't really her fault, but it definitely hadn't worked out the way she thought it was going to.

Kyoko looks at him with something like concern pinching her mouth and brow, except that it's a bit less warm than that. "But both people make a decision when it comes to things like this, Tsuna-kun. This is making a decision for yourself - and for my sake, too! If you don't like hanging around with my brother and you're already in a club as it is, then I don't see a problem with it. You shouldn't just passively allow others to do as they like when it affects you as well, you know."

A talk like this really would have done him some good before That happened. All Tsunayoshi knows is that the hair on the back of his neck won't lay down and his gut is being stubborn about it. Nothing Kyoko has said is wrong, really, except -

"I haven't actually joined the Disciplinary Committee," he says, which is true but also not really relevant to anything they're talking about.

"Oh," Kyoko says, "well. That's troublesome."

Tsunayoshi stares at her thoughtful little frown, while a feeling like unrelenting doom washes over him.

-0-

The fact of the matter is, even if Tsunayoshi understood the first thing about how to fill out paperwork, he wouldn't join the Disciplinary Committee. He can be pretty stubborn about stupid things sometimes, and while he doesn't actually object to being known as 'one of Hibari's' if only for the protection of the people around him so that they know that Tsunayoshi in particular is the kind of person they should probably avoid, there's nothing about Kusakabe or his lot that Tsunayoshi is particularly concerned with.

He's gone from being useless to being something to shut outside and lock the doors against, so joining a club definitely isn't anything he's interested in, no matter how badly he doesn't want to be alone. Weighing that against the safety of the people involved, it's just better to stay out of it.

The problem is, even after getting scolded by his sister, Ryohei is weirdly dead set on getting Tsunayoshi to participate in some form in his club, and if not that, then to at least having a match against him. Both Tsunayoshi and Kyoko probably should have seen this coming after he already went so far as to drag Tsunayoshi off campus in a furor.

Kyoko seems equally hellbent on getting Tsunayoshi signed up with the Disciplinary Committee.

All things in consideration, it should be an easy win for Kyoko, given that she's the number one top flowery idol of the school. Even level headed Kusakabe, who until now has only expressed interest and concern for Hibari's wants and needs, is a bit weak to her charms to judge by the flush that comes in on his cheeks when interacting with her.

It doesn't stop his answer to Kyoko turning in Tsunayoshi's application from being a resounding 'no.' No matter how many baked goods that Kyoko includes from her homemaking class. It does have the side benefit of softening Hoshino toward him somewhat, who even goes as far as to pat him on the back and tell him that of all the trouble he's caused them, this is probably the best kind, and won't he consider causing more?

The one time Tsunayoshi ventures to thank Kusakabe for his staunch denial, and to apologize for the obvious trouble being caused by rejecting so many applications, Kusakabe stares at him like he's thin air and flatly says, "A man's spirit should be steel even when the flesh is weak."

Tsunayoshi kind of gets that, considering the way he has to tamp down when his muscle memory gets the best of him, or otherwise his body acts without thought, but - that's not exactly like getting sweaty palms, he thinks. He wonders why Kusakabe can't just be the kind that accepts apologies like a normal person.

He gets the feeling it's something about honor or duty, which the present Tsunayoshi is still struggling hard to understand. It's a basic conflict of personalities.

For a few weeks, Tsunayoshi has something of a reprieve between the fact that Hibari and Haru have worked out something like an acceptable schedule, Haru doesn't attend his school, and ever since that day Ryohei dragged him from the school, Kyoko has been clinging to her brother's side like a total brocon. As weird as all of that is, Ryohei's kohai, Saitoh Itsuki, seems to be under some kind of delusion that Tsunayoshi is a demon on the same kind of level as Hibari - although a benevolent one.

"It's not that Kyoko-chan didn't support the team," Saitoh says, leaning heavily on the arm he'd slung around Tsunayoshi's shoulders, "but she's really been doting on him recently, and having her around really refreshes us!"

"I - I'm glad everything's going well," Tsunayoshi replies, trying to subtly pull away.

He suspects that as soon as Kyoko successfully signs him up for the Disciplinary Committee, she'll stop coming around the boxing club, and he wants to avoid any threats that the club members might be inclined to make to keep Tsunayoshi from being accepted.

He especially doesn't want some kind of weird club fight to break out over the whole entire matter, not for anything.

-0-


NOTES:

* In this AU, ages got shuffled a bit. Rather than Ryohei being 15, Tsuna 14, and Kyoko 13 as in canon, Tsunayoshi and Kyoko are agemates and Ryohei is only about ten months older than Kyoko. Thanks to this, Ryohei and Kyoko's relationship is a lot closer than in canon, though they don't actually have sibling complexes even if it seems like it from time to time.

Thanks to having that immediate younger sibling, Ryohei is the kind of captain that also acts like a coach/cheerleader and babies his kohai a lot, doing things like taping their fingers and tying their shoes or mitts and making sure they're being hydrated.

* So far, Tsunayoshi has a Lightning Guardian in Haru. Ryohei, being an active Sun, isn't really immune to Tsunayoshi's Sky sway, which accounts for the odd way he and Kyoko react to Tsunayoshi.

* continue to expect shades of All27, some more obvious than others~