Chapter 9 : for almost twenty years now


It would be nice if because Hibari and Ryohei closed the matter, all of Tsunayoshi's problems would be solved - but in the first place, it wasn't about the clubs. Tsunayoshi's problems are far from over yet.

Which isn't to say that the clubs don't back off: they do. Ryohei stops trying to get Tsunayoshi to join as if loudly extolling the virtues and adventures of the Boxing Club would ever appeal to someone like him, and though Saitoh still comes by to share a friendly word with him from time to time, he never particularly wanted Tsunayoshi to join to begin with.

Due to just Ryohei's actions alone, Tsunayoshi's problems with the Boxing Club dry right up, and without anyone trying to poach the Committee's free gofer, the DC members themselves go back to generally ignoring Tsunayoshi's existence.

It sure is nice to be a lesser being not worthy of being noticed most of the time, Tsunayoshi reflects.

Despite the way things quiet down from the noisy chaos of those last few weeks of school, Tsunayoshi still feels strangely content. A part of it must be the way Hibari doesn't uptake his usual hunting games, another the way both he and Kyoko relax as more days pass and Ryohei seems to mind his restrictions. The fact that his 'household' remains undisturbed despite his concerns about how Haru would view his twisted past with Kyoko is a large part of it.

Haru is probably not the sort to issue some kind of challenge or duel to a non-combatant that kind of way, but Tsunayoshi doesn't mind not having confirmation if it avoids the whole problem entirely. Even if he doesn't want to involve Kyoko in his affairs, he's not sure how he'd respond if Haru had tried.

After all, Kyoko isn't a threat. She's not a threat and she isn't scum, too low to be worthy of stepping on, so there's no way Tsunayoshi could have just stood by if she were being attacked. It'd get so incredibly messy.

Yeah, Tsunayoshi is grateful it hadn't even seemed to occur to Haru to see Kyoko that way, as hard as she is to dissuade from her notions.

-0-

"Tsu-kun! Visitors!"

Tsunayoshi startles a bit, fumbling the controller rather magnificently and managing to punch every other button but the pause button. A big, fat GAME OVER shows on the screen before he can manage it, and he plants his face into the floor in despair. At least he hadn't gotten too far. Haru and everything else had kept him too busy during the school year to really play his video games, and he's gotten out of practice.

"Coming!" he calls back, dragging himself up off the floor with no little reluctance.

It's a bit of an odd time to be having visitors, actually. It's only the first Tuesday after the end of the school year, and he'd already - accidentally, while trying to subtly probe Hibari for ways to keep in touch - verified that there would be no club activities until the week before school started once more, in order to organize the usual start-of-the-year activities. Tsunayoshi hadn't believed for one second that this meant a cessation of the after-school patrolling the Committee members did, but Tsunayoshi's determined to find out how long he can tolerate not seeing Hibari at all.

(It's just - Tsunayoshi will get worried if he doesn't see Hibari. Hibari isn't the sort to wear a troubled face, nor is he the kind that can't do it for himself, but -

Ahh. But if it were as simple as biting his problems to death, Hibari would have already done it. It's not an obstacle if it's easily dealt with - even demons can't do everything on their own.

Tsunayoshi knows that better than most.)

It probably isn't Haru, either, or otherwise Nana would just have announced her or sent her up. Haru isn't forbidden in his room, after all, so long as they keep the door open for whatever reason. Besides, soon Yekaterina's vacation will be over with, so Haru is spending the first few weeks of spring vacation with her mother, and there's no way that Tsunayoshi would ever begrudge that. Just because he doesn't understand the feelings that Haru has toward the parent that keeps leaving her doesn't mean that he can't respect them.

He can't imagine would who come looking for him, unless it was someone like Saitoh or Kusakabe for some strange reason, so it's with a great deal of caution that Tsunayoshi comes downstairs. Something faint, like smoke or wisps, curl in his chest and in his gut.

By the time he makes it to the door, Tsunayoshi isn't even surprised by who it is, despite the fact that it isn't anyone he would have normally predicted.

"Tsuna-kun," Kyoko greets him brightly, more in the way the sun flashes off a glass window a blinds someone and makes them crash into things than a polite or soothing way, "Oniisan and I came by to make amends!"

"Huh?"

Judging by the frown on Ryohei's face, he doesn't entirely agree with his sister's explanation, but behind Tsunayoshi, Nana claps her hands together. "I'm sure it was only a misunderstanding! Tsu-kun, invite your friends in! Would you like a snack?"

Tsunayoshi cuts his mother a betrayed look, although he honestly expects nothing else out of her. She's so enamored with the idea of him making friends that he's pretty sure if she ever meets Hibari, she'll try pinching his cheek or something else equally dangerous. What is Tsunayoshi supposed to do if Hibari tries biting his mother to death?! Is that what they call a 'worst case scenario'?!

In light of that, he's actually a little relieved that it's Ryohei and Kyoko on his doorstep.

"Um, please come in," he says reluctantly, stepping back out of the way to hold the door open.

"Thank you! We'll be intruding for a little while," Kyoko says sweetly as she steps nimbly through the doorway. As excited as she seems to be here, Ryohei is definitely facing this as more of a matter of honor.

As a matter of fact, no sooner does Nana deliver them to the living room and provide them with snacks before bustling off to the kitchen - undoubtedly to listen in, if Tsunayoshi knows her at all, which he honestly wonders about sometimes - than does Ryohei abruptly plant his hands on his knees and fold into something kind of like a bow, as awkward as it is while sitting on a couch.

He ignores the high pitched startled noise that Tsunayoshi makes, saying, "From the one the most inconvenienced by the actions of myself and my underlings, I humbly beg forgiveness!"

"There's really no need for that!" Tsunayoshi protests loudly, not the least of which is because Kyoko is sitting next to him and delicately selecting a cookie off the platter Nana provided while radiating a kind of terrifying pressure.

His protests are easily steamrolled.

"It's obvious that my brother has caused you a lot of problems," Kyoko says, even as she scoots a drink in front of Ryohei so he either has to come out of his bow or risk getting it in his hair. "So it's only natural that we'd want to give reparations for that."

The way that Kyoko says 'reparations' sounds much less like an apology and much more like the kind of gift that would be troublesome to refuse. Tsunayoshi would very much like to be able to learn how to say it that way - it feels like it'd make his life a lot easier.

After all, what, exactly, is it that Kyoko is thinking that she'll do to him if he refuses? He's Dame-Tsuna, after all, and already considered a delinquent. He's the free gofer of the Committee. Hibari is the strongest fighter and it'll get on his nerves if Tsunayoshi's movements are hindered.

It's troublesome that Kyoko has discovered where he lives, but it's not particularly difficult information to find out. The Disciplinary Committee would know, and while Kusakabe would stand firm, the other members aren't so firm in their convictions if Kyoko were inclined to share her baking with them freely. A snack made with the blossoming idol's own hands? The Committee members have sold each other out for less.

So, he's not entirely sure what Kyoko could possibly do to him to become 'troublesome' if he refuses, but honestly Tsunayoshi isn't terribly inclined to refuse in the first place. He'd rather get along with everyone than fight them, and it would be good if he could learn a technique to use on people capable of grasping the situation at hand. Tsunayoshi can't just go around kicking everyone in the face regardless, after all.

There are really tall people in this world, and Tsunayoshi isn't growing anytime soon it seems.

"In what way?" he asks cautiously, as it seems unlikely that he'll get rid of them any other way.

Was it really only six or seven months ago that Tsunayoshi would have been overjoyed to have Kyoko in his living room? Although, remembering the kind of kid that he'd been back then, somehow he thinks that he either would have spent the entire time in his bedroom hyperventilating or basically falling all over himself and her. Dumping an entire drink on Kyoko's head by accident sounds like exactly the kind of thing that would have happened back then - and he probably would have been too worried about himself to even notice if it had pissed her off at that.

Although, taking Kyoko's personality into consideration, he thinks it's more likely that Kyoko would have felt so sorry for him that she couldn't possibly find something like that annoying. Even though Tsunayoshi doesn't want to be at odds with her in any fashion, she's not a bad person; he doesn't understand why they have to be fighting at all. Going back to a relationship of mutual non interference would be for the best, wouldn't it?

"Sawada," Ryohei says passionately, "you mentioned that you had a kickboxing teacher! I'd like to humbly offer the assistance of my sensei!"

On some level it makes sense that Ryohei must have learned the art of boxing from someone in order to have become Nami Middle's top boxer and the captain of the club, but on the other-

"I really don't need something like that," Tsunayoshi blurts, trying to ward the blinding intensity that Ryohei is aiming his way with his palms. "I really did try several forms of martial arts before it was decided that kickboxing suited me best!"

"But don't you know?" Kyoko chimes in pleasantly, no less bright in her radiance. "It's very important to have balance in your life, Tsuna-kun."

"Kyoko is right! It doesn't matter if the foundation can withstand an earthquake if a tsunami can wash the house right off it!" Ryohei exclaims. He actually has an inside voice, which is the less confusing but more astonishing part of that. It's loud, of course, and as gravely as his shouts - his shouting actually tends to make a person overlook the scraping of his throat, which… might be part of the point. Who punched him there in the first place?

"I'm not Yamamoto, I'm not going to take a swing at a force of nature," Tsunayoshi says in disbelief.

He doesn't see why he should take them up on their offer at all. He hasn't almost killed anyone in months now, not even when Yekaterina pushed him on it, and he's feeling pretty secure in his ability to escape any more thugs. He'd allowed himself to be caught by the last set, simply when he got desperate and gave up upon realizing they had the only person he'd had left in this world.

"Yamamoto-kun aside, don't you think making friends at another dojo would be good?" Kyoko prods pleasantly.

Ah - is she still worried that he might become friends with her brother? Admittedly, now that he's not being terrorized and hunted by Ryohei, he sees more of his responsible side, which is - nice. Refreshing. Tsunayoshi thinks he could get along with Ryohei pretty well - but Kyoko had a point. There's no way that Tsunayoshi could possibly look after Ryohei and Haru at the same time; Hibari takes care of himself just fine without Tsunayoshi, that's all one-sided on Tsunayoshi's side, he knows that.

There's nothing about fighting that Tsunayoshi likes, other than the ability to make sure that Haru and himself are safe from the people that want to hurt him, and even though it's troublesome… ahh. If it'll bury the hatchet between him and Kyoko, if it'll make her feel better to think that he's just looking for some strong-armed thug to take his side - well. Tsunayoshi is capable of pretending as such.

"Alright, alright," Tsunayoshi sighs, his hands in the air still, as if being held at gunpoint. "I'll accept."

-0-

It's for the purpose of burying the hatchet, Tsunayoshi reminds himself sternly as Ryohei drags him into a boxing gym. It's Tsunayoshi's fault for not clarifying the point. Actually, no, he should have suspected as much giving that Ryohei is captain of the boxing club. Of course it's not a classic dojo, although it's certainly obvious that people are learning how to box here. Actually, Tsunayoshi feels a little relieved to see that people are really learning. They won't be inconveniencing anyone this way, which - given the situation, was entirely likely.

Tsunayoshi figures that it can't really be all that surprising that there's an actual gym that specializes in American-style boxing in Namimori. There may as well be. Hayashi-sensei taught a specifically Japanese style of kickboxing, but to help out various students, he wasn't above coaching them regarding all kinds of styles. And after seeing Haru do western style hogtying, Tsunayoshi really has remembered just what a mixed bag Namimori is.

"Sawada," Ryohei says suddenly, turning on him seriously and taking his shoulders in both hands. His eyes are stormy gray and seriously way too intense, and Tsunayoshi uncomfortably flashes back to their first encounter, his cheeks heating. Ryohei appears to take as much notice of Tsunayoshi's discomfort as he ever does, saying earnestly: "You must have rules at your dojo, but all the same! Listen to me explain the rules of the Boxing Ring!"

"O - okay?"

Despite the build up, the rules that Ryohei lays out for him are fairly common sense: listen to the master, behave as though one is training a weapon, don't be prideful. These are rules that Tsunayoshi is already familiar with from the other various dojo that he'd visited, even though only Hayashi's stuck - ah. Come to think of it, Hayashi-sensei is very tolerant of backtalk and seems to find Tsunayoshi's usual protests amusing.

There won't be room for that here, because the other rules that Ryohei tell him basically amount to: don't talk. No arguing with the master, no bragging, no questions: just do as the master says.

"Isn't there something off with that?" Tsunayoshi wonders, and furthermore if Ryohei's difficulty in taking his word at face value might not have something to do with it.

"It's training the body! Creating automatic reflexes so your body moves without hesitation!" Although Ryohei is boundlessly excited by the concept, he seems to sense Tsunayoshi's trepidation, squeezing his shoulders between those two rough, bandaged hands. "At higher levels of skill, fights move too fast for conscious planning. If you can trust your body to defend you without thought, then your mind can analyze the situation and see its way out."

Tsunayoshi blinks. Ah. He's starting to get the feeling that despite the reason he even allowed Nana to rope him into something as stressful as self-defense classes, Hayashi-sensei has been going easy on him. No - more than that. Should he say 'sensei' if he's really being let down like that?

Ryohei releases his shoulders, straightening up - he's just enough taller than Tsunayoshi that to properly get in his face about it, he'd had to bend his knees a bit. He clenches his fist in the air between them, forearm cording in an alarming way that suggests that Tsunayoshi has been very lucky that Ryohei hasn't actually tried fighting him yet. Curling his other hand over his bicep, Ryohei looks at him straight in the eye, intensely. "You're trying to protect someone, right?" he says. He doesn't wait for an answer, turning his eyes on his fist. "I got the sense your resolve was something as extreme as that. Your methods are kind of half-hearted, but-" he scratches the back of his head awkwardly. "It's the resolve I can understand! Kyoko said you weren't the kind to understand people with your fists, so I should try to use my words to get the point across."

"Oh," Tsunayoshi says, a bit stunned. He blinks again. "Um -" He scratches the edge of his jaw with one uncertain finger, avoiding Ryohei's gaze. It's a bit insulting to have his methods called 'half-hearted' when Ryohei hasn't even seen the things that Tsunayoshi can become capable of if it's required, but it won't hurt things to go along with it for now. Ryohei isn't wrong that Tsunayoshi has been kind of coasting along recently.

Although speaking of reflexes, and bodies that move without hesitation and without consulting the brain - is that really okay for someone like him? Who had never even held anything more dangerous than a stick in his life, but somehow took a gun in hand without flinching and ended lives with it?

(Under the stink of sweat, he thinks he smells it: metallic and salty. He thinks he still hears it, under the grunts of exertion. Wounded and helpless and frightened. Ahh. Some part of him had wanted to help them despite everything they'd done, despite them surrendering their rights to live as human beings. Next time, he'll do his best to reduce the suffering they'd gone through.

He's not like them, after all.)

Before Tsunayoshi can figure out a way of answering Ryohei's assumptions, the man he'd noticed approaching plants his elbow into Ryohei's thick skull hard enough to make the older boy fold. Tsunayoshi can't even be embarrassed by the high, alarmed noise that escapes him without permission, even as he recoils a few steps; he'd sensed no hostile intent from the man at all. Had Ryohei really let his guard down so much?

"So! This is the scrub you brought to me to learn?" the man demands.

If the blow had stunned Ryohei, the man's words bring him back to life, at full volume. "Extremely so!" he shouts, straightening against the pressure of the man's elbow on his skull. Not that the man seems to be trying very hard to keep Ryohei down, but he definitely is exerting some pressure that Ryohei is pushing back against without struggling. "Shi-oji! This is my classmate, Sawada Tsunayoshi!"

Tsunayoshi is going to end up going under another name if it will stop people from reacting that way to 'Sawada,' he thinks. The easy going air around the man changes suddenly, and the vague awareness he'd had of Tsunayoshi sharpens as he looks over him again.

It isn't narrow and unfriendly the way Yekaterina's attention had been, but - ahh, Tsunayoshi is willing to bet that Ryohei referring to this guy as an uncle isn't just because he's too old to properly call 'senpai.' All the same, he doesn't seem to be the sensei of the dojo, either - this seems to be more American style, in that people who want to use the facilities do as they please without being led unless it's one-on-one. The idea of coming under this guy's attention one-on-one is a bit worrisome.

"I-it's nice to meet you?" Tsunayoshi ventures uncertainly.

"Sawada-kun, huh," the guy says, still staring at him without much of an expression at all. He still hasn't removed his elbow from Ryohei's head, who hasn't seemed to notice anything at all special about his uncle's attention. They're as different as night and day - almost literally. Ryohei's likely albinism aside, the man is leaner in build with skin as dark as night and long hair that's been twisted into dozens of braids. "Shioya Tadamasa."

He holds out one bandaged hand. It's a lot like Ryohei's; powerful and calloused and almost uncomfortably warm. It closes around Tsunayoshi much smaller hand and doesn't even try to crush it, although it feels like it would be easy for him.

Ahh. Ryohei's right, after all. Just because Tsunayoshi doesn't have to fight against Hibari, who doesn't even want to kill him, doesn't mean there aren't strong people out there who Tsunayoshi doesn't know about yet. Just because Shioya doesn't want to crush him doesn't mean he couldn't. If he had, what would Tsunayoshi have done?

What if someone like this threatened his mother? Or Haru? Could Hibari-senpai fight off someone like this? Tsunayoshi can't answer any of those questions and it makes his chest uncomfortably hot. Something licks at the back of his throat: sulfur and smoke.

"Ryo-chan, go get some gear for this guy, will you?" Shioya says, not letting go of Tsunayoshi's hand even as he lifts his elbow from Ryohei's head. Ryohei - extremely - leaves to do so like he's some kind of command-controlled robot, seemingly pleased with himself. "Now, Sawada-kun," Shioya says, looking down at Tsunayoshi with dark, unfathomable eyes. "What exactly are you intentions toward that kid?"

Does this guy think Ryohei wants to date him or something?! Regardless of Tsunayoshi's strange notions - which are naturally onesided in the first place! - neither Kyoko nor Haru would stand for it! He's only even here at this gym because he wants to decrease tensions between Kyoko and himself, so that's impossible no matter how you look at it.

Anyway, that question really should be asked in reverse.

"Ah - this is just to satisfy a matter of… 'honor?' I think?" Tsunayoshi says, flailing the hand that Shioya doesn't have grasped in the air.

"Is that so," Shioya says mildly, "and you have no plans of looking after him? Because his mother might need to give her decision first."

Ryohei is the upperclassman in this situation! This is all entirely backwards! And if his own mother weren't deaf to the atmosphere, she would have a lot more to say about this than anyone else's mother put together!

Tsunayoshi despises whatever it is about 'Sawada' that makes people act this way. He feels like he's being judged for the sins of the father that's never around to pay reparations in the first place. It's completely unfair.

"Please forgive me, Shioya-san," Tsunayoshi says; the formal polite speech that comes out would almost startle him, because he's never put a great deal of focus into remembering how to use it in the first place, "I have no intentions of being responsible for Sasagawa-kun, even if his mother or his sister were inclined to surrender his care to me." Just how ludicrous the entire thing is strikes him, and he averts his gaze sulkily. "Kyoko-chan in particular refuses to the point of not getting that I don't want it in the first place."

Even if he doesn't understand what it is about him that makes people react to him this way, arguing against it won't get him anywhere, so he can only answer to their accusations like he understands any of it in the first place.

(Or doesn't he? Even if Yekaterina had never brought it up, hadn't he thought it first himself: he'll become capable of anything if something bad happens to Haru. To Hibari. He's already gone so far for the mother that tried to protect him in her own way, even though he doesn't understand the first thing about her nature.

If he doesn't tread carefully, then seeing Ryohei get attacked in the ring will begin to trouble him, too.

Ahh. Someone like him, who isn't good for anything other than that awful feeling that devoured him then, should be careful about just who they allow close to them. Sooner or later, those feelings will come into conflict, won't they?)

"Pfft!" Shioya laughs in his face, although not particularly loudly or unkindly. "I should be insulted on that kid's behalf," he says, releasing Tsunayoshi's hand, "but you're on the nose about that. Well, I'd say 'nice to meet you' except only the future can really decide that."

One of these days, someone will be straightforward when threatening Tsunayoshi about things he doesn't understand, and he's going to end up reading something strange into it just because he won't be expecting it. Why do these adults think that he's someone worth threatening anyway? If they could sense just what he's capable of, then shouldn't they be working harder to make sure he stays away from these kids they care about?

He really doesn't get any of this at all, but he goes ahead and smiles awkwardly at Shioya anyway.

-0-

Among the many, many reasons why Tsunayoshi doesn't want to 1) fight Ryohei, 2) be 'responsible' for him in whatever way Kyoko and Shioya mean which would require Ryohei's mother's permission, despite the fact that he actually can appreciate and look up to Ryohei's personality type - probably the biggest reason is that Ryohei is a bit of a monster in the ring.

One that Shioya seems to find a great deal of pleasure in pitting Tsunayoshi against.

"There's no need to take it easy if this isn't your first fight and all," Shioya had said with a kind of terrifyingly reasonable way while patting Tsunayoshi on the head when Tsunayoshi had tried protesting this.

Not with weights on his feet to keep him from instinctively kicking out, Tsunayoshi had wanted to shout, but had only managed a wobbly "Shioya-san!" in reply.

A monster in the ring Ryohei might be, but at least he's not a heartless or out-of-control one. Tsunayoshi is kept from running away or even dodging with his feet, so he does his best and for the most part, Ryohei enthusiastically allows him. The strikes he lands on Tsunayoshi's shoulders and forearms are much more powerful than the ones he lands on Tsunayoshi's cheeks or chin.

Just because Hibari is a demon who is indiscriminate and bloody minded doesn't mean that others can't be monsters in their own right and their own way. Ryohei is one of those; it's less like he's out of his mind and more like he's outside his limits that makes Tsunayoshi so very much against facing him directly when at all possible. The person that Tsunayoshi is right now could never win against something like that without going overboard and causing all sorts of problems.

About the time that Tsunayoshi is so exhausted from the weights around his ankles and trying to survive having that much Ryohei aimed directly at him with boundless, radiating enthusiasm that he begins to think that he'd welcome the sweet embrace of death no matter what troubled faces Haru and Nana might make - Shioya calls Ryohei off with something of an unreadable look on his face.

The floor of the ring is incredibly gross after rounds and rounds and rounds of fighting, but Tsunayoshi collapses onto it and attempts to merge with it anyway while Shioya sends Ryohei off with a few quick words. It's not that Shioya dislikes him, really, or Tsunayoshi would be more worried about the way that the guy comes over to crouch beside his heaving body. Even Hoshino has more of an opinion on Tsunayoshi than Shioya, he thinks.

"You alright there, kid?" Shioya asks.

It catches him a little off guard. Tsunayoshi can't remember the last time an adult asked him if he was okay; even Hayashi-sensei was prone to believing his own eyes over anything Tsunayoshi might say. Somehow it gives him the strength to peel himself up off the floor and onto his knees, sitting back and inspecting himself. He ends up humming an affirmative; his body aches all over from finger to toe and his limbs are wobbling a bit, but he has no scrapes or bruises to show for the beating he's just taken.

There's something odd about that. Tsunayoshi knows what kind of beating he can take and which bruises those kinds of hits would leave. He should have bruises and scrapes, is the thing. At least a few of them. There's exactly none.

It's not the oddest thing that's ever happened to him, though, so he doesn't mention it.

"Hmm," is the only answer Shioya gives him, as if he disagrees. There's a frown on his face as if he's not entirely sure what to make of what he's seeing. It's a bit unnerving to be looked at that way, but it doesn't seem to be mean or cruel, so Tsunayoshi doesn't know how to react to it, averting his gaze and scrubbing the sweat from his check onto the bandages wrapped around his wrists.

"Well, there's no real delicate way of saying this," Shioya says as he stands. "But you're a clumsy shrimp."

Tsunayoshi whips around, staring in shock at Shioya's back as the man goes to pick up the extra towel and water bottle. It's not like he really disagrees with that assessment at all - no matter how he looks at it, Tsunayoshi is small for his age and even after all the training he's done with Hayashi-sensei, it's obvious where he falls short. It's just not something adults say to his face.

Speaking of, the dry towel at the ringside gets thrown at that same face. Tsunayoshi yelps, flailing and sputtering as he tries to pull it off despite the mitts on his hands.

By the time he's gotten it off his head, Ryohei has already come back and then been sent off to see to it that his sister can rest easy with everything. That certainly doesn't stop Ryohei from loudly proclaiming that he's looking forward to squaring off against Tsunayoshi again.

It's a little bit terrifying that there are people who want to harden Tsunayoshi's resolve to do anything he has to in order to make sure the people he cares about aren't sad. No matter how many times he's patted on the head, he won't mistake being 'capable of anything' as a good thing.

(Ahh. But isn't it? If you love someone, you love them. Well - he thinks so, at least. He doesn't properly love Nana, or Haru, no matter how much he hates it when they aren't happy. How can he love them if he can't even understand them, or connect what he's feeling with what they're going through?

But if he can go as far as he has for them even with things like that, then-)

"Alright, Sawada-kun," Shioya says, extending his hand to help Tsunayoshi up. "Time to go home. You'll be expected back here every day that you're not at your kickboxing courses. I won't interfere with something you're paying for, but dealing with your instincts - that requires hard work every day."

"Ah-" Tsunayoshi starts, fulling intending to protest this - but no sooner does he get to his feet and Shioya lets go of his hand than does he collapse right back to the floor with a whimper.

Despite hardly being able to move his feet - Tsunayoshi had tried. With all his might, he'd done his best to be able to dodge and move away from Ryohei even though it was no good. Even if he hadn't been able to move anywhere until Shioya had taken the weights off his legs, his muscles were clearly overworked and in no condition to carry him anywhere.

"Oh," Shioya says, seeming to understand the situation immediately. "Well, I guess there's nothing for it, then."

In the next instant, he has Tsunayoshi slung over his shoulders - 'like a dead body' is the alarming phrase that comes to mind, although Tsunayoshi is probably flailing too much for it to come to anyone else's - and Shioya is headed for the door.

"You'll have to help me out," he says. "I don't know where the Sawada residence is."

"There's really no need to go to all this trouble!" Tsunayoshi yelps.

It's all for nothing, of course. Shioya isn't any more inclined to listen to other people than Ryohei, it seems. Tsunayoshi is forced to wonder if it's a similar situation, and what part of him is the part that Shioya can't tolerate. The weird way that Ryohei listened to Shioya seemed to go past the kind of devotion a student gave a teacher - and to call him 'Shi-oji' at that! Just how big of a hand in raising Ryohei had Shioya had?

Since he's kind of helpless and Shioya doesn't actually seem like the bad sort, Tsunayoshi tells him the way all the same.

-0-

Of course Nana invites Shioya Tadamasa into her home without thinking too deeply on it. Tsunayoshi had seen her invite much more shady people in, who are attempting to sell her something weird, or worse: defective. Granted, none of those people had ever been successful in selling their wares to her, from reasons ranging Nana politely declining until she can speak with her husband, to what may be a stroke of shame in the seller, to that one time Tsunayoshi hadn't made himself scarce quickly enough and Nana had made him serve snacks to them.

How a shape kitchen knife had ended up on the service platter, and what Tsunayoshi actually tripped on, he still doesn't know to this day, but his clumsiness had been especially bad at that time.

So it doesn't surprise Tsunayoshi that his mother cheerfully invites a man into her home who has her son draped over his shoulder. He's more surprised by the easy-going politeness and smalltalk that Shioya manages to engage in, as though anyone as much if a boxing maniac as Ryohei shouldn't be capable of it. Nana titters in response to those manners, and that more than anything else is what makes Tsunayoshi distinctly nervous.

Thankfully this isn't the kind of situation he has to stick around for; once made aware of his condition, Nana helps him as far as running a hot bath and then he's left to his own devices upstairs.

He won't lie to himself and say he's not anxious about Shioya and Nana being left alone, but in the end, Shioya seems like a good person even if he's a harsh taskmaster, and besides - he's associated with the Sasagawa siblings. Ryohei and Kyoko both are honors students, and Ryohei's weird intensity aside - they're normal. There's no one like Yekaterina waiting at home for them.

Tsunayoshi reluctantly relaxes back, letting the intense heat of the bath soak into his sore limbs. At least with this, his unwanted feud with Ryohei and Kyoko should come to an end. It's not such a terrible thing after all, even though today it's left him almost paralyzed from how hard his body has been worked. If he'd just realized earlier the truth of Ryohei's persistence, maybe things would have gone a lot more smoothly - because after all, wasn't Ryohei clearly correct?

It's too bad that he's unable to return the favor and do something about Ryohei's loneliness. He's just too much of a one of a kind for there to be an easy remedy for something like that.

Ahh. Isn't Tsunayoshi the same, though? Haru can say he thinks the way that Kyoko thinks all she wants to - it's obvious they won't be able to connect on serious level. Kyoko doesn't want them to - and frankly, if it keeps her from being kidnapped by thugs, Tsunayoshi doesn't want her to either.

Maybe Ryohei thinks so to, and that's why he wants to help him.

Maybe he only likes that resolve.

If others can find something about his resolve to admire, since Tsunayoshi himself is far from worthy of admiration himself, it's not anything he can complain about. He's gotten lazy. Comfortable. His methods have become 'halfhearted' after all. In order to have the strength to make sure neither Haru nor Nana have reason to be sad, Tsunayoshi can do anything - become anything. He'll shake that admirable resolve in anyone's face to achieve his ends.

"That's almost certainly not a 'normal' thing to think," Tsunayoshi muses into the empty bathroom.

"Well, you didn't properly think of it that way the first time, did you?"

There's a boy with milkspill hair sitting on the edge of the tub, his feet plunged into the steaming water and his pants rolled up to his knees. He leans forward. The steam and the water pull at the lanks of hair.

"Aren't you being weirdly introspective for a thirteen year old?"

Tsunayoshi blinks.

"Or maybe I'm being impatient," he muses, smiling down at Tsunayoshi with such sharp edges to his teeth. "It's not really my place, after all. That cute kid said it would happen soon, but they haven't even gotten anything ready yet. Say - Nayo-tan."

Danger.

Long fingers splay out across Tsunayoshi's naked chest, even more pale still than his own sun-starved skin. Tsunayoshi inhales. The fragile bones of his ribcage arch up, straining against tendon and flesh.

Eyes like faded flowers, pressed between pages in a book and forgotten for years, and years, and years - those eyes hold no grudge or malice against Tsunayoshi as the boy says, "won't you show them how to burn?"

And then Tsunayoshi is plunged underwater.

-0-

That dangerous spark inside of him that burned him alive and hollowed him out - doesn't so much as char.

-0-

Tsunayoshi sits upright in the tub, steam curling in the air. His hair is dry.


Tsunayoshi: [kills some folks, would do it again]

Also Tsunayoshi: [squeals like a puppy if it thunders too loudly]

Between being culturally Japanese despite its melting pot status, and being culturally criminal, the amount of "it's not your business so don't meddle" that goes on in Namimori is a bit fucking ridiculous. And you wonder why Kyoya is always so tetchy.

Shioya, a flame active adult, looking at a young active Sky in Tsuna's shape: haha what the fuck? What exactly is your home situation, kid?

So obviously I'm going with the trope of Namimori being the retirement version of Mafia Land as a kind of way to ensure that the various organizations across the world don't come into conflict unnecessarily. Most civilians are civilians and unaware of their family members' ties, some have inferred some shit, like Haru. To retirees, they look at Tsuna like "great, here's another super charismatic magic usin' mafia brat" while retirees in the know are just suddenly very tired, because skies are the worst.