Chapter 10 -

Visit.

Disclaimer : I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn in any way,shape or form.

I do,however,own my character.

A skip,a step,a jump. Tsuna dragged me by my hand in a game of lava,two adventurers running away from the dragon after it blew the ground into magma,and if one were to let go,they would die! Tile by tile,leap by leap,our feet barely above the hot liquid a few coins away-I pretended to yelp everytime we jumped together.

Tsuna and I ended up calling each other by our first names. Yeah,I know japanese society were not keen on physical skinship,nor calling each other by their first names-an indication of their relationships.

I couldn't help it. I tried to call Tsuna with a san suffix at first,but I keep ending up using his first name when playing tag because I was out of breath. As for Tsuna,I don't remember when he started using my first name. It just ended up like this. Now whenever I try calling him with the san suffix he would complain that,I quote 'Other school people call friend by first name!'. With that,I couldn't even voice a protest anymore-not that I really minded,considering we have spent months togther almost everyday by now.

At least that's what I'm trying to imagine as Tsuna made a series of words that vaguely sounded like "Dragon!" when he grabbed me, "Lava!" a pointed finger at the ground...er,sand. And "protect!" with our hands held high the moment we met each other at our usual hangout,the playground. Today was the day where Tsuna was to bring me over to his house.

I spared a thought for my ruined dignity as a teenager,before leaping along anyways.

We were halfway through our game-but then came a very familar sight. It was one that vanquished my happy mode instantly. Tsuna stilled,his expression like those of a deer caught in headlights. Just around the corner of a nearby street came a group of boys. Just a group of boys older than me and Tsuna,looking relatively innocent and carefree like kids were supposed to be.

No one would've known that it had always been this exact group of boys that had caused Tsuna's multiple deaths in many futures. I eyed them,before turning around to look at the brunet.

Tsuna's hand clutched mine tighter-as if having me there could help make things better. I nod to myself. It was time to put those evasion techiniques to use.

"Tsuna." I grin,trying to dispel his sudden fright. "Play game of evade?"

"N-now?" He stutters. His fear was not unfounded-those boys were one of the triggers I labeled as a psycho flag,after all. They looked exactly the same as what my vision showed me. Dragging my resentment of bullies down,I spoke.

"Watch."

It didn't take long. Almost pathetically fast. Although the group of boys managed to catch sight of Tsuna,enough to try to make their way to him,it only took a few zig zags around the corner to ditch them. I was expecting more resistence,considering that you know,when fate is fate and destiny is destiny,it would try hard to make one's path...straight.

Tsuna had kept quiet the entire way. Usually,it would be him trying to evade me,the tagger.

I pull his hand,slightly. He jerks,eyes wide.

"Hey." I say. "Your home?" I prompted.

"R-Right." He mutters. "Sorry."

I pause,mid-step as he was leading me. "Why?"

"They always want to play tag,so they look for me."

I frowned. If it was just a game of tag,what's up with his reaction? I stayed silent,waiting for him to continue.

He shifts on his feet,before turning around to look at me. "Aki..." He trails off.

"S-see. I am a school people and there got school people want play tag with me. But tag with you not hurt,and tag with them hurt. Why like this?" He questions.

Tsuna. The word for school people is students. When are you going to remember that? I facepalmed mentally even as I seriously considered his question. "Tag not supposed to hurt. And you no need say sorry,I do not mind." I say firmly. "If it hurts,it is not tag." I added,worried that he would continue mistaking people hitting him as 'tag'.

He tilts his head. "Then why they call it tag?"

"Cause they want to hit you." I'm about to have a headache here,trying to explain to a kid. Argh.

"Why would they want to hit me?"

"Cause...they want to." I said,unsure. Bullies,I had never understood their motives and intentions. Other then the brats in the orphanage,of course. Those were at least understandable,but this...

"Oh."

"If they hit you,do what I do." I advised. "Play evade. But not play play. Play real." Curse my lack of japanese. I'm going to pore over the dictionary later. And drag Tsuna into reviewing it with me.

Tsuna hums an agreement,continuing to pull my hand to get me to follow him. Obliging,I followed. Uh,wait,I forgot to correct his language. So along the way,instead of playing some sort of dragon lava ground thing,I lectured him about certain words in the japanese language. Hey,I might not be proficient at it but I think I knew enough to use daily now! Kiddy daily,anyway...

Soon,we reached his home. A two-story house with a red rooftop,white walls and a brown door. It had a mailbox next to the gate,along with an inside courtyard that had some trees. He swings the gate open and continues to drag me by hand,which was an action that I thankfully don't mind since there was a lack of it in my life.

As we reached the opening to the house,I gulped. Tsuna reached up to ring the doorbell,his expression clearing from our earlier talk as he-

"Mama! I'm home!" -Ouch. My ears,Tsuna! I groaned and rubbed my left ear. Noticing,he turns to me and mumbled an apology sheepishly.

"Welcome home!" The door had opened. With long brown hair and eyes just like Tsuna's,a women in a pink apron held the door open. She stops at the sight of me,eyes widening in surprise.

"Tsu-kun,you brought back a friend! How nice! I thought he would never find one. Come in!" She chirps,holding the door wide as we entered,reminding tsuna about his shoes.

"Sorry for disturbing." I said,mimicking Tsuna's actions,leaving my shoes by the entryway and slipping on the house slippers.

"Oh my! How polite! Welcome." A thud behind me signals the door being closed.

"Thanks. Excuse me." I continue,mindful of the japanese manners and customs. Looking over at the women I assumed to be Nana Sawada,the mother of Tsuna.

She looked...young,for a lack of words to say. To be honest,I wasen't expecting her to have long hair,but I remembered reading something about how younger Nana used to have long hair.

"Ah!" Tsuna suddenly yelps.

"Sorry! Wait here!" He hastily says,rushing up the doorsteps of his house,to,what I assumed to be his room. I blinked. Did he seriously just ditch me? Nana follows,chiding him more about manners and saying something about his room. She did,however,tell me that I could use the sofa in the living room to wait for Tsuna before leaving.

I smirked to myself,amused. Is this the so called guy's room being messed up and they're too embaressed thing? I didn't have a guy friend before,so I supposed this is a first.

Looking around in the living room,there were pictures of Lemitsu and Nana,along with Tsuna. It felt comfy,cozy and like I was at home,at peace. I shrugged the feeling off,thinking that I must have been missing my old home. Before I could think further,however,Nana came by.

"Sawada-san."

"Hello there. You can call me Mama." She coos. I shuddered at the baby talk,but let it be. "What is your name?"

"I'm Akira." Wait,I'm speaking? Shoot. Hopefully she wouldn't spread the news.

"Sorry,Akira. We can go up now." Tsuna huffs from his position at the doorway. I stand,nodding towards the brown eyed female to be polite. Nana smiles back at me,sunny grin and warmth practically radiating off her. I can who Tsuna inherited his smile from.

His actions were a clear indication that he didn't listen to his mother-he had captured my hand like he had always done in the made up games that required it,and speedily dragged me into his room,all the while bouncing on his feet like a ball that had no end to its jumps. Nana was saying something about not touching someone so casually downstairs,but as the door to his room shut it couldn't be heard at all. Well,If it was something important she would come up and scold him for it.

Tsuna's room seemed organised. I would have approved,except I knew for a fact that Nana most definately helped Tsuna in cleaning his messy room. Giving Tsuna a knowing look,I sat on the floor. Tsuna was enthusiastically introducing me to his robots,of which I promptly forgot their names because yeah,those names were ridiculous,okay?

The day passed by quickly. Before Tsuna and I knew it,night had came. He had practically thrown me manga to read the moment he realised I didn't read any,and when I caught up to him in chapters we had totally just geeked over it by reading the rest together. Some of them involved Tsuna sending his robots flying and urging me to mimic the scenes in the book,or us discussing what would happen next and theories of who the main character actually was. Tsuna was adament that Takeda was the hero in disguise,meanwhile,I disagreed,believing it to be Shinji who has constantly dissappeared for the chapters we have read. Of course,we fought over who was the hero,but it was all in good fun.

He had held his robot toy up in the air in one of such scenarios,jumping on his bed as he mimics the pose it was in.

"When I grow,I wanna be a robot!" He declared,before zooming down his robot into mine in a show of heroic fighting.

I laughed.

I want to live a nice life without strive,with a stable job and a full stomach.

Nana invited me to eat dinner,but I declined,claiming that I should go home soon. Tsuna mournfully stared at me from the door,probably having hoped for a sleepover as he mentioned that many times when he wrangled a promise for me to visit his home. I had managed to pacify him with a promise of tag next afternoon,though. His eyes could be a weapon,A weapon.

"Come back sometime,Akira-chan! You're always welcome." Nana says,eyes sparkling.

"Thank you,Sawada-san." I wait till Nana was out of earshot before saying. "Tsuna. If someone hits you,remember to play evade,ok? If it keeps on,tell Sawada-san."

"Ok." Tsuna whispers. I studied him,his shoulders slumping down and hair shadowing his eyes against the golden light,but left as sundown was coming quick.

"I'm home!" - Tadaima.

"Welcome home!" - Okaerinasai.

"Sorry for disturbing." - Ojamashimasu.

"Thanks. Excuse me." - Domo,Shitsurei shimasu.

"What is your name?" - Namae wa?

"I'm Akira." - Akira desu.

The entryway to Tsuna's house – Genkan.

A/N : If the conversation feels awkward its meant to be that way. Partially because Akira's not so fluent in japanese,and partially because I'm somewhat trying to mimick japanese manners and ways of speaking(which,yeah,I probably will leave those out now.) I may,however,still link some japanese words so maybe you can try to imagine how they're speaking in japanese. Honorifics will stay,english equivalent of japanese will not.

21/1/19