Chapter 11 : a thing with teeth
Tsunayoshi's episodes don't get better.
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Shioya is kinder now that school has started up again, but he obviously still expects Tsunayoshi to come by three times a week. Ryohei is more often than not busy with his club at his new campus, or school, or Kyoko, although that last one is more of a feeling that Tsunayoshi has than anything Shioya or Ryohei themselves say. Ryohei's been through going to a school ahead of Kyoko before, so Tsunayoshi is sure he'll cope somehow, but until then Tsunayoshi stands across from Shioya in the ring and somehow manages to count his blessings anyway.
It's just that Shioya lacks that certain edge that Ryohei has which makes him terrifying, even if he lacks the intent to hurt or kill. Because it sure isn't skill or kindness. Ryohei's Shi-oiji is the master, after all.
Tsunayoshi has no actual fits at the gym, but his stomach does feel twisty and unpleasant. If he has to choose, then it's definitely the nausea and not the headaches.
Is it too bright? It is bright. His head feels achy sometimes when he's headed home. Sometimes it's a bit disorienting. The gym isn't as bad as that, although the lights are a bit brighter than his preference. It's not enough to really distract him, but it's not doing him any favors.
Shioya feints a lot. It's hard to keep up with him, but gradually he seems to decide that Tsunayoshi has learned his lesson and lessens the weights on Tsunayoshi's feet until they're removed completely. It's 'acting on instinct' but under certain rules, he thinks.
If he can figure out how to fight someone without killing them, then of course Tsunayoshi can learn to punch without kicking also. Framing it that way makes it obvious that he'll learn, although two weeks feels like ages while it passes.
This ends up not being one of the times that Shioya works him into the ground, although Tsunayoshi collapses in exhaustion on a bench and breathes heavily for a while as Shioya unwinds his own bandages and mops the sweat from his skin before applying fresh ones. He's aware of Shioya watching him, but Shioya has never once shown him a sharp or cruel expression, and with the return of his fits, there's no way for Tsunayoshi to maintain his guard against him all the time.
"Hey," Shioya says momentarily, "chin up, mini-Sawada. No one has time for a genius to stroke their own ego over learning fast."
Tsunayoshi looks at him with some bewilderment. Shioya has a weird way of talking where he says the opposite of what he means, although it's not the exact opposite. The 'learning fast' Tsunayoshi thinks he can take at face value, although he has no metric to measure it against other than his own suffering - the 'genius part' is probably the opposite. He's well aware of his own intelligence.
"I'm not," he says, sulking now. "It's taken a lot of hard work to figure it out, you know."
"Tch - just because you're not a scrapper at heart like Ryohei isn't a reason to brag about it," Shioya cautions him. He reaches out and taps Tsunayoshi's jaw with his knuckle - but lightly, a mimicry of a punch that would send Tsunayoshi's head spinning even at half strength, but turned into a friendly nudge. Tsunayoshi blinks, shocked, and apparently Shioya agrees given the immediate scowl that settles over his face like a thundercloud.
He shakes the hand out and settles both on his hips, the thunderclouds evaporating as quickly as they came. "You still have some kind of strange mental block when it comes to fighting," he says. "I thought I could force my way through it, but you're a tougher nut to crack than expected, mini-Sawada."
"It's Tsunayoshi," he says, because being prickly about being called 'mini-Sawada' is safer than trying to address that he doesn't want to accidentally take a fight too seriously. Shioya isn't the kind of person he wants to fight seriously. Even if it seems unlikely for Shioya to trigger anything the way that Yekaterina's threats had, Tsunayoshi would rather not run the risk at all.
Shioya eyes him for a long moment, to the point that Tsunayoshi wants to start squirming. He forces himself to sit still, to meet Shioya's dark, fathomless gaze evenly.
Adults either despair of him, or judge him, or find him wanting. His mother calls him 'dame' and his father is a stranger that tells him 'good job' when he does terrible, unforgivable things that can't be undone, and then leaves again so that Tsunayoshi and Nana have to pick up the pieces of what's left together. Shioya has been alone in that he seems to have no opinion of Tsunayoshi whatsoever, despite deciding on his own that he'll train him so often without even asking for payment the way Hayashi does for lessons he doesn't even take seriously with Tsunayoshi.
"Maybe someday," Shioya says finally.
Tsunayoshi sags and sighs. "That's what Yamamoto-kun said, too," he grumbles. Only Haru has ever listened to him and easily called him by the full name the way he prefers, and even she's more comfortable tagging 'san' on the end instead of 'kun' as if they're not close enough that he's never bothered with anything to do with her name at all.
"... TakeSushi's Yamamoto?" Shioya asks.
Blinking in surprise, Tsunayoshi says, "you've heard of it? On the first day of school, Yamamoto-kun invited me to come try it out, but there hasn't been time for it, yet."
Yamamoto hasn't been pushing the matter, either, although he's been enforcing Tsunayoshi's place in the desk beside him, working strange magic on his friends and distracting them from Tsunayoshi being sick all over his desk. Somehow he's managed not to have to leave the classroom since that first day, even as miserable as he is.
"Yamamoto-kun did, huh," he says, blinking right back. And then he grins. "Way to go, mini-Sawada."
-! It's not a date! Tsunayoshi had forgotten all about Shioya's weird reaction to when Ryohei brought him to this place!
"Way to go, nothing!" Tsunayoshi sputters, "Yamamoto-kun decided it of his own accord!"
"No need to brag about it," Shioya says, still grinning at him; he seems sincerely amused at the situation, for whatever reason. He ignores Tsunayoshi's indignant 'It's not bragging!' to say, "Well, this I have to see - Tsuyoshi's reaction to that brat of his getting up to no good. Say, mini-Sawada, why don't we and that cute mother of yours go see what it's all about? My treat."
Shioya's just looking to cause trouble - Tsunayoshi manages to crush the thought before he gets as far as 'my household,' but the knowledge of how he immediately thought of it sits heavy and ominous in his head. It really isn't a date! Haru isn't my girlfriend -
Well, no, someone you going to marry was normally called a 'fiancée' - no, he's not actually going to go through with a marriage to Haru anyway! After college is a long time from now and they're not even dating! Haru will find someone a lot more suitable for her than Tsunayoshi who can't even properly feel affection toward people!
Although - ahh, that might prove troublesome in its own way, depending on how Tsunayoshi sees that person - well, no. It's not really his business or choices to make, now is it?
And that aside, Tsunayoshi isn't even properly certain of how Yamamoto would fit 'in his household' in the first place, regardless of what he'd immediately thought. Although, Hibari -
Hibari isn't part of his household either!
No, more accurately: Tsunayoshi doesn't have a household to disrupt!
Unfortunately, Tsunayoshi ends up powerless to stop Shioya anyway, as the man is an adult and he isn't even being as cruel in disrupting Tsunayoshi's household as Hoshino was last year. Motivated with what Tsunayoshi tentatively identifies as mischief, they both shower at the in-gym facilities - there's no attached springs or sauna, something Tsunayoshi wouldn't have known to wish for until he'd spent so many hours in the bath at home - and even though Tsunayoshi is moving under his own power, Shioya is following him home.
That's how Haru finds them.
"Tsunayoshi-san!" she calls out excitedly, and Tsunayoshi barely has time to turn before he's being crushed and staggering under a kind of tackling hug. Haru is too kind to put all of her weight and strength into it, staggering him but catching herself on her toes so he doesn't fall to the sidewalk.
"H-Haru!" he protests. "What are you doing here?"
"It's a joyous coincidence!" she sings out. It's been a while since they've been able to meet between their schedules, so he's not really surprised at her enthusiasm or how he doesn't actually mind it even if Tsunayoshi isn't exactly a fan of hugs or touching. Some part of him settles in place to have her at his side again, even if it is in front of Shioya. "Father gave Haru the day off, and since Tsunayoshi-san was working, Haru decided to go shopping - but! Since Tsunayoshi-san is free, then Haru will stay with him!"
Well, 'free' is -
"Oh-ho. Mini-Sawada, who's this?"
Shioya looks too amused for anyone's good, honestly, though Haru startles and stills under the hand that Tsunayoshi doesn't mean to grasp the elbow of her sweater with. It's not bad, he thinks, but first impressions are something: Shioya acted weird about Ryohei, and now he's acting weird about Yamamoto without even meeting him, and Tsunayoshi is wary of what he'll say about Haru. If at all possible, he won't let mention of Hibari pass his own lips; Hibari will take care of the rest, as loathed as he is of being around others without additional reasons to be annoyed by it.
"It's Shioya Tadamasa-san," Tsunayoshi says to her, and Haru continues to blink up at him without taking her eyes off him, but settles all the same. "This is my friend, Haru-chan."
"'Haru-chan,' huh? You're a good friend of mini-Sawada, here?" Shioya asks, although his grin suggests that much is obvious.
Haru is the kind of person who has two faces, although Tsunayoshi himself honestly has little right to judge her there - there's the strange face that she shows Tsunayoshi the most, the one that watches, the one that's sharp and eager; there's also the face that Haru shows to Nana, and to the other adults that they come across: the one that's bright and simple and happy.
"Haru-chan is Tsunayoshi-san's girlfriend!" Haru tells Shioya brightly, fluttering her big wine colored eyes at him, like she's doing her best to be a simple, harmless girl, but can't quite fully commit to it.
Tsunayoshi wonders if like he had, Haru senses on some level that Shioya isn't anyone to make an enemy.
"She's not," Tsunayoshi says, especially given the way Shioya reacts all the other times, even if he doesn't usually bother arguing against Haru's claims to the point that if things go badly, there's a wedding in his future - ah. But if it did happen, maybe he'd take Haru's last name and never have to hear about Sawada again. Hideki would surely be willing to adopt him into the family if he came to approve the match, or Yekaterina - though that's a snowball's chance.
"Is that so?" Shioya asks, ignoring Tsunayoshi entirely to look nothing less than like a dog with his teeth in a squeaky toy, and basically just as terrifying. "I'm taking mini-Sawada and Nana-san out to TakeSushi. You can come along, it'll be my treat."
"You can't just treat everyone," Tsunayoshi protests. He's pretty sure that's the lynchpin on this situation - if he can just prevent Shioya paying for anyone's food, then the whole thing will have to be called off and yeah, it's late enough that Yamamoto will probably be around the restaurant instead of doing club activities or homework, but that's specifically the point: if at all possible, Tsunayoshi wants to keep this to himself.
He wants to figure this all out on his own before Yamamoto has a chance to realize what he's getting himself into and changes his mind. Although, if Tsunayoshi's fits haven't been enough to give him pause,then -
"It's my money, of course I can," Shioya says, and then cuffs him over the head. "Don't be cute and refuse my generosity, brat."
It seems to be a terribly simple matter to run roughshod over Tsunayoshi's wishes - most of that his own fault, he knows, but even if he hates it, it's just easier to go along with things as long as no one is getting hurt. He does things he hates all the time when it's easier than fighting over the matter. It's often easier to just do something than fight about it and in the end, results in less hard feelings.
Haru bides her time until they've returned to the Sawada household and picked up Nana, and Tsunayoshi's mother is suitably distracted with Shioya, who is on his best behavior - as always. Then, gripping onto his arm the way she usually does, though some part of Tsunayoshi recognizes it as precisely identical to how Nana is holding onto Shioya's - Haru leans into him. She's making her eyes very large and guileless the way she does when demanding information he's tried to hold back. It makes him distinctly nervous.
"Hey, Tsunayoshi-san," Haru says, "What about TakeSushi is special?"
"Shioya-san is just trying to cause trouble," he protests defensively, but he's literally saying out loud something that he'd stopped himself from even thinking just a hour ago. Groaning, he averts his gaze. His cheeks and ears feel hot. "I wouldn't know," he says sullenly. "I only mentioned that Yamamoto Takeshi-kun from school invited me, and Shioya-san got weird about it."
"Yamamoto Take-" Haru's hands tighten on his arm before rears back. "That Yamamoto Takeshi of Nami Middle?"
Her voice breaks. Her eyes sparkle alarmingly.
Tsunayoshi had forgotten that Haru was the kind that dreamed of being saved by a white knight but would settle for a psychopath with a shiny enough sword in a pinch.
The target is only slightly better in this instance, given that Yamamoto is certainly much tamer than Hibari and has much less blood on his hands than Tsunayoshi, but he's not entirely convinced that things will stay that way. Yamamoto is no one that Tsunayoshi would like to end up on the wrong side of, and as little as he wants to put Yamamoto in the position of becoming just as bloodstained -
Well. Yamamoto had said it himself. In all honesty, he dislikes how people react to his actions more than he dislikes those actions. It's better to accept that part of him than it is to try and deny him it.
Yamamoto might be able to teach Tsunayoshi something about becoming someone that others won't want to leave, though Tsunayoshi would prefer to be more honest about it. Tsunayoshi wasn't always the kind who could look at someone and read their hearts as simply as that. People should be allowed to choose for themselves whether it's something they want to get tangled up in, after all.
"The shooting star of baseball, Yamamoto Takeshi? Number one male idol of the Nami school?" Haru continues with such enthusiasm it's like spring has arrived all over again, as if she's an entire sakura tree all of her own, flowering and immediately dropping every last petal on her stems at once.
Tsunayoshi boggles, both impressed and intimidated. "Even Midori has heard about Yamamoto-kun?" he asks.
"If not for that shaggy beasts, plenty of the students wanted to transfer!" Haru says incredulously. "Everyone in the district heard about Yamamoto Takeshi going to bat!"
Is - is baseball a big deal around here? Tsunayoshi has always been too caught up in his own problems to really take notice of anything like that, and while he'd realized that Yamamoto was popular, and more or less the boy's version of Kyoko - it seems a bit out there that even Midori would know about him.
"S-say, you know," Tsunayoshi says, turning into her grip on his arm and waving his free hand. "Try treating him like a normal guy if he's around? I'm sure he gets tired of hearing it all the time."
"I know that already!" she says, although the flush in her cheeks and the stars in her eyes haven't abated one bit. "So let me get it out now!"
Well, when she puts it that way. Tsunayoshi ends up learning more about baseball and Yamamoto's records in particular over the next ten minutes of their walk than he's learned about anything ever before. Period point-blank. He also learns a lot of personal information about Yamamoto to the point of thinking that Hibari needs to tighten campus security because he's pretty sure some of that information is only supposed to be known by the administration - he knows more about Yamamoto than he knows about himself, like what western astrology sign he is, and his blood type.
He doesn't miss the amused look Shioya cuts him over his shoulder either, which honestly just confirms that Shioya is only causing Tsunayoshi trouble for the fun of it.
By the time they arrive in front of a building that's clearly marked 'TakeSushi,' Haru has thankfully run mostly out of steam and Tsunayoshi is mostly staggering around shell shocked. Thank goodness that Haru has his arm and is dragging him forward, or otherwise he thinks he might accidentally just continue walking down the street. The thought of what Shioya and Nana might get up to alone when confronted with Yamamoto doesn't bare imagining.
For once, that dazed feeling isn't because of his fits, though; Tsunayoshi notices that. Of course he notices that. It's as if walking with others somehow lessens some kind of burden, and though there's a slight twinge between his shoulder blades, neither headache or nausea make an appearance.
"Welcome!" the man behind the counter call out to them, loud and automatic. They aren't the only ones in tonight, but if pushed, Tsunayoshi would say that they've managed to miss the evening rush somehow. Still, the chef - ah, yeah, Tsunayoshi sees immediately that this is Yamamoto's father, although he thinks it's likely that like himself, Yamamoto favors his mother the most. But they share eye shapes and the set of their shoulders and likely the set of their feet against the floor, and the remaining tension fades from his spine at it.
"Oh! This is lovely," Nana says brightly, ahead of them with Shioya, while Haru vibrates next to Tsunayoshi. "What a calming atmosphere!"
"Yeah, that kid's around here somewhere," Shioya answers her absently. "This is worse than I thought." Then he seems to start and glance at Nana. "Well, come on, it's a sushi bar, after all, Nana-san. I'm friends with the owner, so let's get a good spot."
The one he picks out is front and center to Yamamoto's father. They've hardly escaped the man's notice, but he's diligent, much like his son: he deals with the customers that came ahead of them before turning his attention to them, and then he brightens.
"Tadamasa-kun," he says with a grin. "What's this? You've always bad mouthed my food before now!"
"And I'm still not eating anything raw," Shioya shoots back; his normally measured tone has suddenly developed a bit of an accent, and Tsunayoshi blinks at him, leaning back in his stool to peer around his mother. It never occurred to him to wonder if Japanese might not be Shioya's first language, but that's what it sounds like a bit - like Yekaterina and Haru herself.
"And that's an insult to my heritage," Yamamoto's father says crankily, snapping his blade against the cutting board before him. This is clearly an argument they've had many times before, and although Yamamoto's father is sincerely a bit irritated by it, it's also obvious there's no real resentment or grudge. "You people are always worried about being sick! I've never had a customer even once get sick of my food! Except when they over indulged themselves."
"You have plenty that's not raw, so serve me some of that," Shioya counters easily, and Yamamoto's father grunts loudly, scowling. "I'm treating these guys anyway, so if you want to serve raw stuff, serve it to them."
Snorting a final time, Yamamoto's father turns his attention to the rest of them, a ready smile on his face - warmer than one that just greets the customers, but still polite and slightly impersonal. "Welcome to TakeSushi! If I'm not wrong, this is your first time here?"
"Yes! It is," Nana says happily. She's calmer about it, but Tsunayoshi feels like in her own way, she's also vibrating with excitement, although for different reasons. "Shioya-kun was kind enough to invite us out here!"
"Is that so! Well, I'll do my best to make TakeSushi a favorite of yours," he says. He turns his attention further down the line, and then his gaze snags oddly on Tsunayoshi - first going to skirt over him to take in Haru as well, then jerking back to Tsunayoshi before even taking a proper look. He smiles. "Hmm." He glances back Nana's way before frowning thoughtfully at Tsunayoshi. "I feel like I've seen you before. Are you one of Takeshi's friends?"
Tsunayoshi lets out the breath he hadn't entirely meant to hold in the first place. "No, no," he starts to say, and then, "well - now I am, I think, but this is the first time I've come here. Yamamoto-kun invited me."
Yamamoto's father arches his brows, still a little distracted but warming up slightly, and then Shioya says, "Allow me to introduce my companions. This is Sawada Nana, and that's Sawada Tsunayoshi, and ah - Haru-chan?"
"Miura Haru," she chirps, but Yamamoto hasn't looked away from Tsunayoshi, blinking at him.
"Ah," he says after a moment, cutting Haru a distracted smile, "Hideki's kid, right? That's -" and then he turns with a ferocious scowl. "Takeshi!" he shouts.
Tsunayoshi jumps, but no one else in the entire restaurant even flinches or stops talking. Apparently they're used to the gravely bellow of an irritated father.
The entrance in the back of the sushi bar that leads to the domicile gets disturbed by Yamamoto appearing in it, his eyes wide and guileless. "What's up, Pops," he says alertly, and then his gaze flickers past his father, who has his arms crossed over his powerful chest and projecting disapproval like nothing less than a massive, snarling, snapping dog - and he spots the customers his father is standing in front of.
Yamamoto lights up like his birthday unexpectedly came early. "Oh! Tsuna!" he greets excitedly. "You came!"
Yamamoto has zero sense for the atmosphere! What a terrifying person! Haru's lack of self preservation instinct is bad enough, Tsunayoshi doesn't want to add looking after Yamamoto who is completely unable to realize the situation here! Or he says that, but clearly no one else is looking after Yamamoto and at this rate-!
"Takeshi!" his father snaps, and Yamamoto's eyes go even wider as he finally seems to realize his mistake. Grimacing, he blinks at his dad, this time obviously trying to project helpless innocence. It doesn't work. "What did I tell you last time?"
"Now, now," Yamamoto says anxiously, finally releasing the edge of the doorway and coming through. "It's a different situation completely!"
There's a certain way that Yamamoto is standing that makes the hair on the back of Tsunayoshi's neck stand on end, although he's uncommonly present in his eyes, brow tilted with anxiety. There's none of that strange edge to his gaze, but Tsunayoshi doesn't particularly care for that particular ratio of tension in his shoulders as compared to the looseness of his wrists and feet.
Despite the kind of person that Yamamoto is, he'd no sooner hurt his father than Tsunayoshi would hurt his mother, but: this is him digging in is heels, Tsunayoshi thinks.
"Um," he says, and almost flinches at his own unexpected interruption. No one quite looks at him, but their attention comes to bare all the same. "Yamamoto-san - that is… um. Yamamoto-kun has been helping me out recently, thanks to various things, so… if we could be friends, I think that'd work out well for both of us."
Yamamoto's father finally stops scowling at his son long enough to look at Tsunayoshi. And oh - that's where Yamamoto gets that odd sharpness in his gaze sometimes, Tsunayoshi thinks. Although the father learned that sharpness somewhere, he somehow imparted that into his son without even meaning to, from the time that Yamamoto was a small child, probably.
This is how Yamamoto knows without thinking about it that if you hit someone in the head hard enough, they'll stay down.
It's not the same situation at all. Tsunayoshi is more like Yamamoto's father than he is Yamamoto himself, but - ahh, that sharpness doesn't scare him at all, not in Yamamoto's hands. It's natural for a parent to worry about their kid that way, or at least he thinks so, but-
Yamamoto's father looks past Tsunayoshi at Shioya, and even thought Shioya doesn't blink or say anything, Yamamoto's father's grimace twists down for a moment and then he sighs and looks back at his son. "We'll talk about this more later," he says grumpily. "But for now, see to your guests, Takeshi."
The last of the tension evaporates, and Yamamoto grins brightly. "Sure thing, Pops!"
Rather than joining them, this seems to mean that Yamamoto should get a short apron on and take their orders. Nana seems impossibly charmed by this, cooing over Yamamoto and mentioning her own past as a waitress - what, really? - and Yamamoto reacts gamely, apparently comfortable with this level of attention from a grown woman.
Well, he is the kind of dutiful son that mothers would wish for to be their own. He's an idol, after all. Everyone wants to be his friend and girls want to date him, and-
And well, the kind of things that Yamamoto is capable of would destroy that reputation utterly. It must be exhausting for Yamamoto, even if he has never shown it even once.
It's not the same at all, since Tsunayoshi has no reputation other than useless and now delinquent, and his mother knows and won't turn her back - but. But. But. But Tsunayoshi can sympathize. Somehow Yamamoto picked him of all people to tell the darkest secret of his heart to, and part of Tsunayoshi thinks: it's not so bad as that, and another part thinks: but it could be. Tsunayoshi has no one to tell these worries and concerns to, but Yamamoto chose him. And Tsunayoshi thinks: I can do this much, at least.
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"Miura Hideki's kid, huh," Shioya says outside the sushi bar.
Behind them, Nana is busy with Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, exchanging numbers and sharing words over their respective children and the friendship that they've allegedly foraged. 'Friendship' tastes like a watered down word compared to the way Tsunayoshi feels about it, but he's not sure what a better one would be.
Next to Tsunayoshi, Haru's hands tighten on his arm, even as she blinks big, wide eyes up at Shioya with naivety that is at least seventy percent artifice.
Shioya looks down at her with precisely the same lack of opinion that he looks at Tsunayoshi with. At last, he says, "You sure make interesting friends, mini-Sawada."
Your instincts are quite terrifying, you know?
He looks away at last, glancing back at TakeSushi and reaching up to rake a dozen braids back out of his face with a slightly daunted expression. "This is turning out to be quite the thing to keep an eye on." He pauses, then puts his hands on his hips in a startling mimicry of what Yamamoto Tsuyoshi did earlier, sighing loudly. "And I complained of being bored ever since those two runts got old enough to look after themselves."
"Eh," Tsunayoshi says, even as Haru loosens her grip slightly. She's still clinging to his arm, even though earlier when Yamamoto had gone to introduce himself to her, she'd squeaked out 'single' instead of her name when Yamamoto had said: and you're…?
Tsunayoshi would leave himself for Yamamoto, too, probably.
Although more importantly, "you're friends with Yamamoto's father?"
"Well, we were acquaintances for a long time, really," Shioya says, glancing down at him. "We used to work in the same circles until everyone started to settle down and have kids. It's good to have amicable relationships within the industry if you can manage it - a kid like you naturally prefers that, which is why I'm even giving you the time of day, after all."
Tsunayoshi blinks, and thinks about Iemitsu's strange, shining eyes, and saying good job when Tsunayoshi did that unalterable thing, and adults saying: Sawada. Yamamoto's father, who passed that kind of sharpness to his son, and Yekaterina who accused him of being the kind of person who chewed people up and spit them out without consideration or care.
He doesn't think anything shows on his face, but it must, because Shioya adds: "You take after your mother in all the ways that matter."
"I could hardly take after him," Tsunayoshi says, and then startles over how it comes out as sharp as the edges in Yamamoto's eyes.
It's not nearly as surprising as the way Shioya tosses his head back and laughs, though, honest and honestly amused. "I guess you couldn't at that," he allows, reaches out and carelessly rumpling Tsunayoshi's hair.
Somewhere, the wires in Tsunayoshi's head must be crossed: that feels like good job, only instead of being for something unforgivable, it's for something that Tsunayoshi is inclined toward, anyway.
How is he supposed to respond to that?
The burden of responding is lifted from him as Nana finally breaks free from Yamamoto's father and comes to attach herself to Shioya's offered elbow again, beaming and flushed. She really does look incredibly happy. It makes Tsunayoshi wonder if she was holding back for his sake, or if it's only because of his connections to their children that Nana can find something in common with these adults. He's never realized how lonely she's been all this time. She's too skilled at hiding it.
He doesn't have long to consider it, since Yamamoto is lingering around the doorway watching after them, and Tsunayoshi is caught up in waving goodbye to him for a while, something Haru only too happily joins in on. At least she doesn't pretend not to know him this time.
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It isn't every day that Shioya works him half to death, or he has to attend classes with Hayashi, and on those nights, Tsunayoshi sits himself down at the desk in his bedroom and spends some time agonizing over his homework. Now that Haru is mostly busy with her own clubs and activities, they can only conviene once a week or so during which she'll try to help him with what he doesn't understand.
While suffering bizarre episodes of nausea and piercing headaches during lessons, that's more or less all of his schoolwork. He's starting to understand better what Haru means by studying during free periods and during lunch, too. It's twisted to think he's starting to develop Haru's work ethic, but the way she looks at him when he doesn't is too crushing for him to cope with.
Maybe it's something he should try approaching Yamamoto about? Only, he has the general sense that Yamamoto isn't in much of a better position than he is where school work is concerned.
Regardless, Tsunayoshi has the good sense to know when he's too frustrated to really learn anything and calls it quits. Rather than fall into the trap of his video game, which he's learned will keep him well occupied until Nana comes upstairs to turn in and scolds him over it, he goes downstairs for a snack.
He finds his mother in the kitchen singing.
Tsunayoshi lingers just outside the kitchen entryway, watching her in silence. Oh, that's right, he thinks: Nana used to sing and dance in the kitchen while cooking or cleaning up. He hasn't seen her do so in years. How many years? He thinks - for his fifth birthday. It wasn't his last elaborate birthday party, but it had been the last happy one. He'd had friends over, but try as he might, he can't remember their names or what they'd looked like. They'd stopped being friends with him only a little while after that.
Only it wasn't exactly his birthday that had set the change, was it? Nana had changed a little while after that.
After Iemitsu had come to visit. She'd been so happy, then, even more so than for his birthday, and then -
Tsunayoshi winces and rubs at his forehead as an unannounced spike of pain pierces through his head. It's far from the episodes he has at school or walking home, which are prolonged and linger; the pain begins to fade after only a few moments. "Mom," he says quietly, stepping into the kitchen, "what's that song?"
"Oh?" Nana glances over, surprised but pleasantly so, it seems. "I don't remember the name anymore. It's some old aria I overhead once when I was a girl, working at the taverna."
He blinks. "But why now?"
Nana cocks her head thoughtfully, still smiling, before she returns her attention to the food cooking on the stove. She hums noncommittally, and then says, "I think it's because I was remembering those days. Even though Mama didn't have a home to live in, and worked for many hours of the day, there were always the customers who would come in and talk. It wasn't quite like having friends, I think, but it was a lot of fun."
Tsunayoshi really does take after his mother in various ways. He feels like some kind of weight has been let off his chest, the way Nana seems to be so happy these days - like he hadn't even realized that along with being miserable himself, Nana was miserable as well, and that had compounded the situation and made it worse.
"I think," he says, slow and uncertain and a bit unhappy, "that I'm building a household somehow. But I don't know how to take care of it. I've never had a household before."
Nana looks toward him, blinking. "A household," she echoes thoughtfully. "With Haru-chan and Yamamoto-kun?"
Well, apparently Hibari fits in there somewhere, too, but more or less, and so he nods.
"Hmm. I don't know much about that myself, Tsu-kun," she admits. "Your father had the same inclinations, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that could be easily explained over the phone -"
"No, no, no thanks!" Tsunayoshi says loudly, waving her off. "Nevermind! I'll figure it out on my own."
Giggling, Nana says, "well, I guess you are growing up and this is the sort of thing you'd want to do without involving your parents too much! Don't worry, Tsu-kun, Mama will keep her mouth sealed. I'll do my best to advise you, it's just - well, since I ran away from home myself, there's not a lot I can say."
Forget his household - "You're a runaway?"
"Oh, yes," she says, blinking at him. "I never said? Mama was about your age when she left home. Now - let's see." She taps her chin thoughtfully. "Yes. Mama's mama was trying to get her involved with something… come to think of it, maybe Nana's Mama was trying to add her to someone's household?" She seems surprised by the thought, but then visibly shrugs it off - not unsurprisingly. It would have happened so long ago that it barely holds any importance these days when she has a son the same age as when she left home. "It seemed really important to Mama, but I'd always wanted to see Italy, so I left."
Tsunayoshi can't be expected to cope with this. No wonder Nana never seems all that worried about anything, even Haru's more alarming habits - she ran away from home as a teenager, all the way to Italy. He's never really given a lot of thought to where Nana grew up, only that he can't pronounce her family name. It's been forever since he heard it to try, but Tsunayoshi is pretty sure he hasn't gotten any better at foreign languages since he was a kid.
It sounds like Nana crossed country lines. What kind of terrifying woman had he unexpected been living with this entire time?
On the other hand, maybe that's why he's been more worried about Haru being safe while doing her thing rather than what she's actually doing.
"But to Mama, it seems that Haru-chan and Yamamoto-kun would like to be a part of Tsu-kun's household, so Mama will help you!" Nana reaffirms, smiling happily.
That's not the kind of thing that Tsunayoshi feels okay with rejecting, even if it's the furthest thing from what he wanted out this this conversation. "Thanks for your support," he says anyway. It's not like he properly knows what he expected out of this, but basically being egged on by his mother the same way everyone else is egging him on is - just weird.
He's pretty sure that health or social class never mentioned building households as a normal thing that people do, although he's so bad at his studies that it's possible he just missed out on it that day. Surely someone would have followed up on it with him, if that was true, though? Then again, he's Dame-Tsuna, so maybe it's only natural that no one would have expected such a thing to become a problem for him.
And who put him in charge of it anyway?! Anyone should be able to look at Tsunayoshi and realize that anyone else is a better choice for head of house! Haru and Yamamoto both should have better heads on their shoulders, but - then again, even people who bare their teeth over 'Sawada' seem to agree that it's Tsunayoshi's job.
Thank goodness that Kyoko is wise enough to keep herself and her own out of it. If only he could throw his lot in with them.
-0-
Notes:
* Midori is kind of an elite school, which definitely includes their athletics programs. You can think of it as being the all-girls version of the mafia school that Dino and Xanxas attended. Taking notice of outstanding athletes is natural. Takeshi being handsome and kind just kind of compounds it.
* Traditionally, a Sky's Sky-aligned parent or one (or more) of that parent's Guardians would oversee a young Sky's acquisition of Guardians, since Skies are very good at attracting people but it's an indiscriminate skill. Left to their own devices, a Sky might choose someone with an unsuitable temperament or skill level to the situation at hand. Elements are even more vulnerable to this given that Skies are rare to begin with, but also have the tendency to consume their (unrelated) young.
I think despite everything, Xanxas might have really thought he was Timoteo's specifically because Timoteo didn't try offing him the moment Xanxas was well and truly within his control. When in fact, Timoteo just had a handle on his instincts from having met Iemitsu, who was really too valuable to utterly crush and probably kill.
Either way, traditionally speaking, this means that in canon Reborn is basically a Fairy Godfather for hire lmao.
* When Nana says 'household' she means it in the 'feudal lord's hold' sense, which is also how Tsunayoshi uses it - although his conscious association is more of a modern take on it, as in himself, his wife, and children, which is why he's being weird about it. Nana, although not active nor schooled in flames, has the gene and so the instincts which is why she just rolls with it.
