Author's Notes:

It's fun to see some of my countrymen greeting me. Hi guys and thank you for the wonderful comments, I had a blast reading through them. I'm glad that everybody enjoyed the last chapter. In this one, I'll be focusing on three points. One scene is for the Blackthorn Arc, a Daily Life Arc and an introduction of a KHR character.

Oh and before I forget, thank you to LD-2015 and Ara le Yama Raja that gave me some helpful advice about devianart artists and their work. I'll keep what you guys said in mind.

One last thing before I start, I took the scenes that happened in this chapter from the manga and not from the anime.

Disclaimer: I do not own KHR

The Girl

Something strange was going on, Mia thought. But then, when you know Reborn, plenty of strange things happen to you. A fine example would be her best friend Sawada Tsunayoshi. Now Mia had always constantly reminded Tsuna not be fooled by Reborn because he was easy to mess with (sad but true) and right now, something was definitely happening to him. Mia wasn't sympathetic. Tsuna may not be convinced that Reborn was the one at fault but she thought otherwise. She wasn't stupid. Haru was hanging around with Bianchi and seeing as that Reborn hadn't been seen lately, she assumed that Reborn was messing with them as usual.

But she didn't tell Tsuna that. He wanted to ignore her advice? That's cool. At least his problems weren't as big as her headache.

It wasn't anything serious but lately there was a strange buzzing sensation happening in her ears. It felt like her brain was being microwaved. Oddly enough, Fuuta was experiencing a small level of discomfort as well. She assumed something was wrong with the air conditioning and sent him back to the Sawada residence until she could find the cause of the problem.

She glanced outside her bedroom window and saw Haru walking around with a gigantic backpack. She blinked, thinking that she might be seeing things. But no, Haru's backpack really was huge and it was bulging. Mia was surprised that the girl could carry something so heavy. She went back to looking through her notes, trying to see if the Vongola had anything on the Arcobaleno.

Her phone vibrated and she looked at the message sent to her.

Some freaky old lady was asking for help! Her face was melting! – Tsuna.

Her face was melting?

It's probably just your imagination Tsuna. She texted back.

His reply was instant.

I'm starting to think I should be getting used to this.

Mia smirked and replied,

You should be. I'm pretty cool with it.

Leaving it at that, she set her phone aside and went to sort out some packages that was delivered to her home a few days ago. The boxes were sent from Italy to her father. She had left them beside her door feeling too lazy to move them but it was starting to bother her so she wanted them out of her sight. There was a letter that came along with the boxes but she didn't touch it. If it was meant for her Papa then she shouldn't look into his stuff. She was lugging the boxes – damn were they heavy – when one particularly heavy one toppled out of her hands.

She thought it was filled with trinkets and the sort. She was right. That is, they were priceless artifacts. Each item had to be something from a different century and Mia was horrified she had dropped such important relics. She immediately began putting them back into the box when one caught her eye. It was a broken end of a horn by the size of her thumb. At least that's what she thought it to be. She didn't know the history of horns but from what she knew, they were made with either copper or brass and this one was neither. It was a perturbing shade of dark violet and was metallic. What it was made of, she could only guess. When she reached out to pick it up, her headache became worse. Her head throbbed and she felt like throwing up. But she persisted, trying to ignore the raging of nerves in her head. When she touched it, it was cold as ice and shot up her arm like an electric shock.

Instantly, all her strength was sapped dry and she jerked her hand back, feeling extremely exhausted. Her body felt cold and she was shaking. What the hell was that? She shook her head, trying to clear it. Her headache had receded a bit but she felt weak. Was she sick? Thank goodness she sent Fuuta back to the Sawada residence.

She should rest, she thought but first she had to finish up here. When she picked the horn up again, it didn't shock her. She thought it must have been a product of her imagination. When she placed it back in the box, she was too tired to notice that the small little horn was warm. After closing the box firmly, she left it in the living room and went to her room. That night, she had set a chain of events in motion.

Ways away, a young man perked his head up as if someone had called him. He had stopped walking in the middle of the street, paused, and resumed walking towards his destination. Namimori. His emerald eyes were burning with animosity.

He was close to his target.

He had to find the girl that led them to their home.

He had to kill her.

How To Teach A Tuna To Swim

In Japan, physical education was held differently for the two genders. Today, while the girls were off at the gym, the boys were cleaning the pool. Their sensei, a man who was obnoxiously loud as he was big, told them that if they couldn't swim fifteen meters, they would be sent to the girls to learn. Oh hell that would be embarrassing.

Why?

Because he couldn't swim.

He had sworn Mia into secrecy not to let that out but now he could no longer hide it and admitted it to Yamamoto.

"Hahaha Tsuna, if that's the case then I'll teach you! Let's meet up at the public pool alright?"

Tsuna looked at his friends as if he was his savior. But of course, something just had to go wrong and Reborn showed up out of nowhere. Training, his tutor said. He already spent his weekend mornings jogging around the neighborhood and practicing Judo. What more did the little devil want?

Apparently, Reborn wanted him to suffer.

He didn't need to do anything though because Tsuna did it to himself.

Oh the embarrassment, the humiliation… he prayed he would drown already. Yamamoto had asked him to try swimming (to see how bad he really was) and when he tried, he almost drowned in the shallow water. Talk about the worst thing to show to his friend. How uncool. Mia laughing in the background wasn't helping either.

She had come along with them, saying that she didn't want to stay at home at the moment. Tsuna was a bit disappointed that she wasn't going to swim (not that he didn't want to see her in a swimsuit). She wore a pair of swimming shorts, an orange parka, some old flip flops and had her hair tied up to a pony tail. She was sitting underneath an umbrella, laughing at how he was failing.

He was red as he was coughed out the water that got into his system. He could tell that Yamamoto was trying hard not to make him feel bad.

"O-Okay, we'll just start from scratch!" Yamamoto said cheerily. Tsuna nodded and his friend began his lesson. The baseball ace made a swimming motion with accompanying demonstrative noises.

"You just have to breathe like this," he made some breathing noises. "Then umphaah! You'll be swimming like a fish in no time!"

'I can't understand!', Tsuna thought. Yamamoto grabbed his hands and pulled him to the water.

"Go on, give it a try!" he encouraged him.

Once again Tsuna was drowning himself in humiliation. The problem with Yamamoto was that he went with feeling and Tsuna, being a completely different species, was unable to comprehend his language. He blindly grabbed on to a float and pulled his head up. Reborn stood from atop his float, menacingly looking down at him.

"Lions throw their clubs off cliffs to make them stronger," he said and kicked Tsuna in the face right back into the water. When he resurfaced the hitman said, "And if any make their way up, they kick them back off." Then he kicked Tsuna again. "There's also the practice of throwing rocks at them." He added. Tsuna looked up to see three boulders falling from the sky.

Being in the water, he was unable to evade them and was crushed. There was silence. Then…

"I almost died!" he gasped.

Reborn had lied down again on his float. "In the Mafia, you're always one heartbeat away from death."

"You didn't need to try and kill me to teach me that!" he retorted.

"I'm a hitman, its part of my job."

"Now, now," Yamamoto patted his shoulder. "The kid's just trying to cheer you up his way."

Tsuna thought that no, Reborn wasn't trying to cheer him up. He was pretty sure the hitman wanted to maim him.

"Come on, let's get back to the lesson okay? One, two, three…" he repeated his weird lecture. He was going to politely refuse any more lessons since he was sure he couldn't possibly learn from a style like that. He couldn't say it though when he heard a familiar voice crying out for help. He turned around and Haru was drowning in the kiddie pool.

He approached the girl, extremely weary and said, "Haru… what are you doing?"

Haru straightened up. "Tsuna-san! Understand that I'm drowning right now?" Horrible impersonation of a drowning person though… "I'm in trouble right now!" No she wasn't… "I'm drowning like I'm on the Titanic!" Whatever she was imagining, he didn't want to be a part of it. "You're the only one who can save me!" He had nothing to say for that. Instead, he switched topics.

"What are you doing here Haru?" he asked.

"Reborn-chan said you forgot how to swim! But then how did you save me before?" He almost forgot that!

"T-That was different…" How does someone forget how to swim anyway?

"But don't worry! I'll make you remember by getting myself in trouble! You'll save me for sure! With the power of love, anything can happen!" Haru cried and went back to drowning herself.

"Look at those weirdos over there," he heard some of the kids say.

"I wish they wouldn't come hang around here," his friend said.

"That guy can't swim! What a loser." Tsuna flushed and Haru stopped pretending to drown.

"And I suppose if I dunked you into the adult pool without your float you'll be able to swim out?" An innocent voice rang out. Tsuna looked up to see Mia. She stood over the children, a sly smirk on her face.

"Ah… you wouldn't do that!" One of the kids accused her.

One of her eyebrows rose. "Kid, don't tell me you can't swim!" she gasped, pretending to be surprised. They mumbled something. "What was that?" she tilted her head to them. "So you can't swim?" The two children looked away from her. Her sarcastic expression melted to a warm smile. "Hey," she said. Tsuna knew that tone. That tone that would make anyone look at her, so warm and inviting. The children couldn't resist. She went down to their level and looked them in the eyes. "Please forgive my friends for being noisy okay? It's just how they are."

The two kids grumbled something and went away, pink dusting their cheeks. Mia looked at him and winked. He blushed and she let out an un-lady like laugh. He turned around, still blushing and went back to Haru.

"I won't learn that way Haru," he grumbled to the girl. Haru pointed at glare over his shoulder to where Mia was still watching them. A determined glint entered her eyes. He shouldn't have asked, he thought as he heard people around them mutter. Haru was treating him like a kid!

"Good boy, good boy!" she praised him.

In the background he could hear Yamamoto doing his breathing routine as if he would pick it up as he went along with Haru's teaching.

"Tenth!" Gokudera had climbed over the fence like a cockroach and jumped into the pool. He surfaced out of the water in front of him. Tsuna couldn't even react as the bomber frantically shook him. "I've never heard of a disease that renders the victim unable to swim! What should I do? How can I help?"

"Wh-Who the hell said that?"

Mia smacked her palm against her forehead when she heard his question. To her it was obvious who it was. "Hayato! Tsuna isn't sick!" she shouted from the side.

"Really my Lady?" Gokudera turned back to him. "That's great Tenth!"

"Get out of the pool Hayato!"

"If you follow these steps then you should be able to learn Tenth. Remember that you just have to balance between your weight and your ability to float. This is very important." Gokudera pointed at a diagram of a man swimming in motion.

If Yamamoto taught on instinct then Gokudera taught on theory. Which wasn't a bad thing… if he wasn't so freaking science-y about it. He couldn't understand a thing about that theoretical jargon and told his friend so. He didn't know how but this ended up with his friends competing with each other who can teach him best. Each had been given half an hour to teach and if he could swim fifteen meters, then they win.

"Why does everything have to be a competition?" he grumbled.

To sum it up, they couldn't teach him (as if they could). That was when Ryohei Sasagawa appeared. Mia had squealed when the boxer startled her from behind. She almost fell into the pool if Gokudera hadn't caught her.

"Sawada! I've come here to extremely teach you!"

For a moment, Tsuna hoped that he knew what he was talking about and then the boxer dived into a pool and…

Mia's eyebrow was twitching as was his. Ryohei had sunk to the bottom of the pool and moved his arms similar to how a bottom feeder would.

"That's it." He got out of the pool and made his way to where his towel was. "I'm going to be swimming with the girls."

"Hmph… you need confidence Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said.

"That's right Tsuna! Don't give up!"

"I'm sure you can do it Tenth! If you can't swim then no one can!"

"Unleash your feelings of love towards Haru Tsuna-san and then you'll be able to swim!"

"Join the boxing club Sawada!" He sweat dropped at the last bit but his heart did warm at his friends' encouragement. He slowly turned around.

"I suppose I can try a bit more…" he slightly smiled. His friends beamed at him with pride. He looked from one person to another finally settling on his best friend. She had that mischievous look in her eye and he frowned. Something occurred to him. "Mia?" he called. "Can you swim?"

"Yeah, I can." She innocently grinned at him. He scowled at her, feeling annoyed. Everybody turned to look at her now.

"Why didn't you teach the Tenth instead my Lady?" Gokudera asked.

Mia shrugged. "Reborn must be rubbing off on me," she said. Tsuna glared harder at her and she laughed. "But to be honest I've been really tired lately but watching you guys made me feel a lot better. Sorry Tsuna, I'll teach you if you want."

There was no lie to her words. Mia was being entirely truthful. Now that she mentioned it, she did look tired – he wondered if she was having nightmares again or if her insomnia kept her up than usual. He didn't ask though because he remembered that he still didn't know how to swim. Mia had taught him everything else, he hoped she would do the same for swimming. She gestured to the pool.

"We'll start on your breathing exercises then I'll show you some simple swimming strokes."

Mia did not treat him like a child. She did not give him compliments like Haru would. She stayed quiet as she observed him as he did each thing that she asked. Her teaching was simpler compared to the others and easier to understand. She guided him through with stern patience. Somewhere along the line his friends joined in on the lesson. She had him watch Yamamoto do a freestyle and Gokudera a breaststroke and then had him imitate them.

The friends gathered to the side, watching as the Tenth boss struggle to keep himself going. Mia had not once gone into the pool and was standing by the edge of it providing instruction when needed.

"Mia really knows what she's doing," Yamamoto observed.

"Of course," Gokudera boasted. "She is a fine Lady."

"Mia is really extreme! If only she did sports then I can convince her to join the boxing club!"

Off to the side, Haru was biting down on her thumb, trying not to glare at Mia as she suddenly burst out laughing at Tsuna's attempt for a doggie paddle.

After a day at the public pool, Mia deemed that Tsuna was ready. She thumped him on the back the next day before gym and gave him a thumbs up before joining the girls. She believed he would pass. And he did.

Summer Hearts

Mia wasn't usually a beach type of girl. The woods and mountains were more of her kind of terrain but everybody was insistent she should come and she did. Ryohei-senpai had invited them over to the beach and so here they were. It was hot, the sand was getting into her feet and she was annoyed that she had to wear a swimsuit as per the rules of the beach. She didn't want to wear a skimpy little two piece bikini but Bianchi had dragged her away with Kyoko and Haru to get changed.

Her torture was completely embarrassing. Bianchi practically had to strip her bare and forced her to wear the damn thing.

"Hmn… you're well average. I think you'll get bigger." Bianchi studied her chest.

"That's not something I want to talk about!" she cried.

When she was done changing, she looked down on herself. Not really feeling comfortable at wearing almost nothing, she hugged herself as if she could hide. Bianchi approvingly looked her up and down. "You're growing to be a fine young woman Mia."

"I look stupid," she grumbled.

Bianchi reached out and tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. The older woman smiled down at her and tilted her head to make her look up. "You should be more confident with how you look."

Mia stared up at those green eyes and sighed. "I'll try," she promised.

"If it makes you feel better – looks aren't just for show. You can use them to your advantage," Bianchi told her. Mia actually paused at the thought of it. She never really did think about it that way before… "We've been here too long. Go on, Haru and Kyoko are waiting for you." The hitwoman handed her bag of clothes. "I'll be going on a small trip to look for poisonous ingredients."

Jarred back to the present, Mia remembered what she was wearing. She awkwardly made her way to her two friends with her head ducked. She didn't want to see if people looked at her. When Kyoko and Haru saw her, Mia held a hand up, her face glowing red.

"Please," she pleaded. "Let's just go."

Kyoko and Haru didn't talk to her. She was thankful for that. She didn't want to talk or do anything. Maybe she'll just sit underneath a nice shaded umbrella and spend the whole afternoon there. While walking, she observed the two girls walking ahead of hear. Now that she was getting used to her suit, she thought how pretty daring theirs was. They were string-tied bikinis. Easy to take off and pretty sexy to wear. Compared to hers, hers was actually pretty modest (as in it covered her feminine parts just well enough) and admittedly cute with its shade of azure. The only thing she that still bothered her is that the band around her chest was meant to snuggly fit so it did push her breasts up for an extra dose of cleavage.

She sighed. She was lucky that Bianchi actually considered her feelings as she picked out an outfit. She could have gone with something worse. Thinking like that made her smile.

"Tsuna-san!"

"Tsuna-kun!" Kyoko and Haru ran towards Tsuna, who was ogling the two girls. He had that dreamy look of pride on his face that Mia thought made him look stupid. Disgruntled, Mia went towards Hayato and Yamamoto instead. The two looked up at her only to gape at her. She could feel her cheeks becoming warmer. This was the least she had to wear in front of so many people.

"So… where's Ryohei-senpai?" she asked casually, trying to sound like she wasn't feeling self-conscious at the least.

Yamamoto cleared his throat and his eyes went to meet hers. "He'll be here soon. But uh… you want to wear my shirt?"

She stared at him.

Yamamoto waved his hands around, pink dusting his cheeks. "It's just that you look uncomfortable and well…"

"You'd rather be wearing something else." Hayato finished. He smiled smugly as Yamamoto rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Yeah… that's what I was trying to say."

"But my Lady, I think you look just fine. It suits you." The bomber grinned widely at her and Mia felt the heat leave her cheeks. She smiled back, feeling less awkward. Hayato honestly meant well when he said it and not the way a lot of people would think. She was blessed at how terribly honest her friends were.

"Really? Bianchi picked it out for me." She placed her bag beside their belongings.

Hayato blanched at the mention of his sister's name but schooled his expression back to normal. "Well… it is sis after all…" he grumbled.

"Think I can count on her?" she asked him lightly.

He turned away, embarrassed to admit that Bianchi was doing something helpful instead of poisoning people. "Sis is still a woman. That's something at least," he muttered bashfully.

"Man I'm so jealous. I wish I had a sibling." Yamamoto chuckled.

Mia nudged him in the ribs. "Don't I count?" she teased.

Yamamoto rubbed her head fondly. "Hahaha… Dad already considers you as family, after all you did at the restaurant. You're practically a sister to me."

Mia's eyes lit up. "Really?" she asked, sounding childishly hopeful.

Yamamoto's eyes softened and he patted her head again. "Yup."

"So it's fine if I called you Takeshi right?"

"Of course! Why not?"

Hayato looked at them and couldn't bring himself to be angry. Seeing the Lady be so happy made him feel like his inner guts had grown a tad touch warmer. He had to give it to the baseball idiot for this one.

"First Hayato, then Fuuta and now I have Takeshi." She giggled silently to herself. "That's a lot of brothers."

Being so close to her, he heard it. Hayato felt his face go hot. He couldn't speak. The Lady considered someone like him as her own flesh and blood? It was an honor. An honor that he couldn't bring himself to express through words. He was a bit irritated that he had to share that title with the baseball idiot though.

Tsuna heard his friends were laughing and turned to see what was so interesting when he saw a girl – not just any girl but Mia – talking to both of his friends. His eyes widened slightly at her outfit and swallowed. Kyoko and Haru's definitely left nothing to the imagination but Mia's just had her femininity accentuated. From her eyes and hair, to her curved hips. When she caught him staring, he quickly looked away mumbling stupid things. Actually, he felt like his brain had turned into butter. His words turned into a garble and he shut his mouth instead to stop embarrassing himself.

Mia barked out laughing. Girls… make things so hard.

Thankfully, Onii-san showed up, taking his manliness with him. Seriously, he was rocking that speedo.

Basically, Onii-san was working as a part-timer as a life guard at the beach. They were invited to hang out and Tsuna, wanting to experience a bit of the summer holiday, jumped right into it. But hearing the word 'life guard' he was painfully reminded of the times he was almost swept away or drown in the sea and had to be saved by them when he was a child. It was a position he respected. He just didn't know if Onii-san was the best man for the job with the way he swam but still, he was good person and that's what counted right? Right?

"We can't have you dumping your trash around here. It makes more work for us!" They heard. Three rather large guys were picking on one kid. One of them had the child by the scruff of his shirt. Tsuna could sense a rise coming from Mia.

"I'm s-sorry!" the kid cried.

"Okay then." He dropped the kid. "Clean up this area then." He finished a can of soda and tossed it towards the kid.

"Get going." The bald guy tossed a bag of trashed as well and the last spat on the ground.

"Ciò che un testa di cazzo!"Mia swore angrily beside him. Tsuna and Hayato choked at her choice of wording.

"My Lady!" the bomber, who was a delinquent, was ironically scandalized.

"Mia!" Tsuna couldn't help but crack up. Mia just called the whole lot of those bastards 'dickheads'.

"Hahi, what did you say Mia-chan?" Haru curiously looked at her.

Mia didn't reply and scowled as the supposedly senior lifeguards approached them. How could Ryohei-senpai let these people lord over him? Just because they were former boxing club members doesn't excuse him from being scum. She wanted to shave his hair off.

"Hey, is this your sister?" The guy with the bad shaggy cut approached Kyoko. He looked at her lecherously.

"H-Hi," Kyoko greeted timidly.

"She just might be my type."

Haru was looking at the two who surrounded her anxiously. Mia gnashed her teeth together and marched towards Kyoko and Haru. When they saw her, their eyes raked over her form. She didn't show how uneasy it made her and kept her head up high.

"Come on Kyoko, Haru."

"T-That's right! We'd rather hang out with Tsuna-san and the others!" Haru said. Mia wanted to slap herself.

"Tsuna-san? You mean like Tuna? What, does this guy swim like a fish?" they laughed.

"Go with the crows morons." Mia had enough of these fools and tried to push her way past them. They didn't get to as one of them; the guy with the really crappy haircut blocked her.

"How about you get some fun with us?"

"Vaffanculo!" She growled lowly. Hayato let out an appalled gasp from the back.

But ugly-boy didn't seem to heed the warning in her tone. He wrapped a hand around her shoulders. "Don't worry; we'll take good care of you." Then he looked down on her again.

Mia didn't wait for Tsuna to snap. Her fist flew without meaning to and hit him in the jaw. His head snapped to the side and he fell flat on his ass bruised and disoriented. She stood over him, her hand sore and face set in a snarl.

"M-Mia!" Ryohei-senpai was in shock.

That seemed to have snapped Kyoko and Haru. They ran to stand behind her.

"T-These guys are bad news desu," Haru said.

"Mia-chan, you shouldn't fight." Kyoko quietly reprimanded her.

"I'm sorry, was I supposed to let them have their way?" she retorted sarcastically. Kyoko didn't reply.

"You bitch!" the guy with the deadlocks growled. She opened her mouth to say something equally insulting but Takeshi, Hayato and Tsuna stood in front of her. Their faces were stony. Ryohei stood in between, not sure if he should stop the oncoming fight, let it happen or join in on it. At least he had the sense to understand what was going on. Tsuna stepped up.

"Leave the girls alone and everyone can walk away without this ever happening," he said in a low warning tone. He was mad.

Mia couldn't help but beam in pride. Once upon a time Tsuna wouldn't dare to pick a fight. He would have avoided fighting at all costs but now he was actively participating in one. He still didn't like fighting but when it comes down to it, he was willing to do what he needed to. Before the other two thugs could do so much, their supposed leader with the bad hair stood up.

He rubbed his bruised jaw. Mia scowled. She wished she could have knocked him out but didn't have the necessary power or muscle to do so. If she could kick him, then that would be a different story. He spat a bit of blood at the sand and smirked at them.

"You think we'll just let this go?" his eyes landed on her.

Takeshi and Hayato stepped up menacingly. For being less buff that their opponents, she was impressed at how intimidating they looked. Ugly-hair guy knew it too and frowned.

"How about we settle this with a competition?" he proposed. "We'll swim a lap around that island – " he pointed to the small island close to the beach. " – to back here. First group to finish wins."

"What's in it for us?" Hayato asked suspiciously.

"If you win, then we won't bother you guys. But if we win, the girls will be hanging out with us."

"Not enough." Tsuna narrowed his eyes at them. "You have to quit your jobs if we win."

They looked like they wanted to rip Tsuna into pieces but the leader conceded. "Fine," he spat. "So do we have a deal?"

The boys exchanged looks. Tsuna steadily glared at the leader. "Deal."

They were given ten minutes to prepare and Ryohei-senpai was appointed as the referee. In that time, Kyoko and Haru expressed their worry and their admiration. Tsuna was being showered with praises and was rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. Mia scoffed and turned to look into the sea. Reborn showed up as Master Paopao and hopped on to her shoulder.

"Jealous?" he teased her.

"No." Her tone was flat and uninviting.

"You shouldn't deny your feelings Mia," Reborn lectured her.

"I shouldn't?" she gasped in mock surprise. "Then should I just shove you off my shoulder? Because I'm feeling pretty annoyed right now."

Reborn hit her on the head pretty hard and she yelped in pain. "Try using that tone on me again and I'll give you a concussion."

Mia grumbled but did not say anything else. She glared into the sea instead as if it could start boiling and was still going strong at it when Tsuna approached her. "That was a nice punch earlier," he absentmindedly told her. She didn't look at him.

"Yeah well, I wasn't strong enough to knock him out cold." She pretended that Reborn wasn't there. Tsuna did the same.

"If you were strong enough, I'd have to watch out for myself." He joked. Her lips twitched up to a smile. "Where did you learn that?"

"Uncle Ben taught me," she replied. "So, playing hero huh?" she teased him. "Bet Kyoko-san and Haru loved that."

He blushed. "Well… they were being…"

"Dicks?" she suggested helpfully. He nodded, grinning.

"Yeah, they were dicks."

Mia laughed. It was so weird to hear him so crude. She shook her head fondly and stared back into the sea. "You really surprise me Tsuna."

"Um, well…"

"What happened to the kid that wanted to run and hide the moment he can smell a fight?" she playfully asked him.

"You make it sound like I'm some kind of dog." He pouted at her. "But to answer that… I guess he had to man up. He couldn't let his best friend of a girl get hurt all the time."

"Are you saying that this girl was weak?"

"No, it's actually the opposite." He was smiling softly at her. "She was strong and he admired her for that." His smile turned down a bit. "But there were things she couldn't fight against, things that she couldn't do. So he decided to become a person who can do the things she couldn't."

"They must have great teamwork," she said thoughtfully. "Like two sides of the same coin."

"Where did you rip something so awesome from?"

Mia was offended. "Excuse me but I happened to have made that up on the spot."

He gave her a skeptical look. She swatted at his arm. The two of them laughed lightly then turned quiet. They stood in companionable silence until Tsuna was called. They looked at each other.

"Good luck," she wished him. He smiled and made his way to the starting line. The first to go were Takeshi and the guy with the dreadlocks. It was obvious who the superior athlete was. Tashi pulled ahead from his opponent. Mia was with the other girls cheering. As Takeshi disappeared behind the island, he never showed up again and his opponent finished first.

"What the hell?" what could have happened to him?

Then Hayato came up next. The same thing happened to him. Mia was sure these assholes were cheating. Tsuna shared her thoughts and was determined to win it. He'll find out what happened to his friends. Mia watched as Tsuna dived into the water, proud that he could finally swim (although not that good but passable). What Tsuna lacked in skill he made up with endurance. He held his own against his opponent. They were neck and neck as they swam towards the island.

Reborn gave her a telescope out of nowhere which she took without question. Tsuna had yet to circulate the island when a cry of help sounded ahead of him. She saw it was a small child being carried away by the waves. Tsuna didn't hesitate to save the girl. His opponent, who shamed the name of a lifeguard, tried to take the child away from Tsuna to get the credit. She saw him punch his opponent's face and grinned.

"Is the Tenth winning?" she lowered the telescope. Hayato and Takeshi had returned with at least a dozen of unconscious guys at their feet. She raised a brow at that.

"So that's what happened," she said. "Nice work boys." She tilted her heads towards the remaining thugs. They were staring at their fallen comrades, mouths wide open in shock. "There's still some left." They snapped their mouths shut, turned tail and ran just as Tsuna came out of the water with the little girl in tow.

He was visibly shaking with exhaustion but his expression was triumphant. "You're safe now," he grumbled to the little girl before collapsing on his knees. The child ran off to her mother. Mia quickly joined him at his side. A crowd of people was quickly gathering around them. Mia was going to make a move to leave, uncomfortable with the attention they were getting when Tsuna grabbed on to her hand.

"If you're leaving, take me with you."

"What's wrong? Don't you want the glory?" she asked him, confused.

"Actually, I just want to sleep. I've had enough excitement for the day."

"That's… pretty humble," she commented, surprised. He scowled at her, still panting.

"I'm just glad the little girl is safe," he said.

Her expression was tender. "Because of you."

Tsuna turned pink. People around them began to clap and Tsuna was soon reduced into a stuttering fool that she knew from the beginning. The mother came over and personally thanked him. He stumbled through his words but Mia thought it was endearing. Even when hailed with praises Tsuna still kept his head in shape. Throughout this whole time, Tsuna held on to her hand which she couldn't help but blush about. When Kyoko appeared, Mia literally pulled her hand out before she noticed.

"That was so noble of you Tsuna-kun!" Kyoko clasped her fingers together, thinking hard. With a determined look in her eye, she leaned and gave Tsuna a kiss on the cheek. Mia was stunned, as was Tsuna. He stared at the orange-haired girl, mouth closing and opening like a fish. Kyoko giggled at his expression.

She was blushing when she said, "Thank you Tsuna-kun… for protecting us."

Tsuna swallowed. "Y-you're welcome."

"Me too Tsuna-san!" Haru barreled on to Tsuna to bestow upon him a kiss. He turned just in time for her lips to land on his cheek. "Haru always knew Tsuna-san was her hero!" His head was whirling. Two girls practically just gave him their kisses right now. Two cute girls that had guys all over fall over themselves to get attention from. He was sure several glares were being directed his way, not noticing that it included Mia's. She spun around her heel and marched pass Gokudera and Yamamoto. They jumped away like she was emitting fire. They looked helplessly at each other.

Mia was really upset. Her heart felt like someone had jabbed a fork into one of the arteries. It bothered her to see how close Kyoko and Haru were getting but she was powerless to stop it. She wished she didn't have feelings. She wished she was as heartless as Hibari. Furiously, she ran her hands through her hair. She liked her best friend more than she should have.

"Damn me," she cursed herself softly.

It went unheard to the wind.

Nagi

Nagi was a simple quiet girl that liked to play with stray cats. It was often her way to pass the time she should be spending with friends. There was just one tiny problem. She didn't have any friends. The reason so was because she was too timid, too scared to speak out loud. She never got to express herself, not even in her own home.

How could she not? Nobody wanted her.

Nobody wanted the little mistake. The smudge in their perfect painting called life.

She was painfully alone. Day in and day out it was pure suffering she felt to be treated like air. If there was a god, Nagi thought, then desperately she hoped her prayer would be heard. There was nothing more that she wanted in this world than to have a place to call home. A real home.

Chrome is coming.

Thanks for Reading!