Title: Serendipity

Author: sllebswap

Characters/Pairing: Miura Haru and Dino

Type: OneShot/Drabble Collection (InComplete)

Genre: Romance/General/Humor

Word Count: 859

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn belongs to Akira-san.

Summary: CEDEF Agent Miura Haru and the Cavallone Boss have known each other for a very long time, haven't they? Loosely, interconnected one shot/drabble series. D86.

Chapter Last Revised on: 01/10/16

The way you save me

"Are you lost, onii-san?"

Dino looked up from where he had recently tripped and taken a spill across the pavement, courtesy of his inherent klutziness which not even Reborn had succeeded in curing completely, and was caught in twin pools of apprehensive chocolate. The pair of doe eyes belonged to a teenager; dressed in a schoolgirl's uniform, slender, coltish figure, long, mink brown hair thrown up in a high ponytail, youthful features arranged in concern…for him?

Haru frowned slightly when she received no response from the golden haired gaijin. Strange… she knew that she had gained his attention. He even looked briefly surprised by her presence, and she wondered if they were going to have a problem with the language barrier since he was apparently foreign. His fair, Nordic features were more than enough to attest to his distinctly non-Asiatic blood.

But then again, Haru had also spent the last half an hour curiously observing the boy – who looked to be either in his late teens or early twenties – as he fell all over himself while walking along the streets of Namimori. Four times. In half an hour. He was quite clumsy… Or perhaps he simply suffered from very bad eyesight?

The middle schooler finally decided to take pity on the poor man, approaching to offer assistance once she noted that he was basically more or less wandering in circles.

The brunette carefully repeated her question again, this time in heavily accented English. She wasn't the most proficient in the language, but could still manage to interpret and convey simple, basic phrases.

"Excuse me…? Are you lost, desu?"

Dino snapped out of it. One hand came up to rub the back of his head in overt chagrin, and he finally replied in halting, stumbling Japanese, as if still not used to speaking it but was determined to do so all the same.

"A-Aa, yeah. I seem to have lost my retainer and pet turtle…"

Haru gave him an odd look.

"Hahi? You lost your retainer…who is also a turtle…?!"

Obviously something was lost in translation here, a situation which Dino tried his best to rectify.

"No, no. Uh, I lost my turtle – Enzo – first, but then when I went to look for my turtle, I also lost sight of my retainer." The mortification in his tone was quite apparent now, and meanwhile Haru was also wondering why a grown man would still need a minder to watch him…?

But he was genuinely lost, in a land which he was unfamiliar with, and Haru felt bad for him. She gave him a bright, encouraging smile that seemed to momentarily blind him.

"Understood, desu! Haru will help onii-san find his pet and retainer, so it will be okay, desu!" She extended her hand to him, since he was still sitting on the sidewalk. "Let's go, onii-san!"

The teenager's upbeat, effervescent nature appealed to Dino on some innate level, and he found himself instinctively accepting her offer of assistance, reaching out to take her proffered hand, which his own much larger one practically engulfed. She was petite and almost waifish, but she was also surprisingly strong as she quickly heaved him back to his feet. And then he practically towered over her. Belatedly, it was starting to occur to Dino that the adolescent female who had come to his rescue was very much a young girl, probably just into her teens. It was quite embarrassing, really.

Almost as embarrassing as nearly tripping over his own feet again three steps later and almost faceplanting onto the concrete pavement once more.

"Uwahh!"

He had been pinwheeling frantically with his arms but still would have gone down without any ceremony had his new companion not leapt in and grabbed him by the back off his shirt to right his equilibrium at the last moment, a funny look on her face.

"Onii-san, are you, erm, did you lose something else, also? Like maybe your glasses, perhaps…?"

"Oh no; I've got perfect eyesight, actually. Why do you ask…Haru-shi? That's your name, right? Thanks for helping out."

If anything, the feeling of consternation and curiosity only grew for the Japanese girl, like the golden haired foreigner was something that she did not quite comprehend.

"Yes, desu. Haru is Haru, desu! But if onii-san has good eyesight, then why is onii-san constantly running into things and falling down?"

"Hahaha. Yeah, about that. I'm actually kind of clumsy. And you can call me Dino…"

Hours later, Haru would watch, flabbergasted, as the klutzy onii-san suddenly moved with all the grace and agility of a cat as he worked swiftly to get her out of the rampaging path of his humongous…pet – which might or might not be a cousin of Godzilla's, but that was not the point. Onii-san hadn't even tripped once then, and had looked almost as cool as Tsuna-kun as he calmed down his angry turtle. Unfortunately, all that adroit nimbleness promptly went up in smoke again once the pressing crisis was over, and he had faceplanted right on top of her shortly after, spluttering apologies the entire while.

Some people, Haru was quickly learning, were just really strange.

::owari::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

So, here is my take on a possible first meeting between these two. This is, of course, written under the assumption that they hadn't already met each other through Tsuna and/or miscellaneous Vongola antics.

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FYI, 'gaijin' roughly translates to 'foreigner' in Japanese.

Also, even though Haru and Dino are unrelated and were unacquainted with each other at the beginning, her referring to him as 'onii-san' (older brother) simply serves as a courteous form of address on her part. It's similar to the younger generation addressing older strangers on the streets as oji-san (uncle) or oba-san (auntie) – all out of politeness and respect.

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In this installment, Dino is aged twenty two as per the beginning of the series, and Haru is, of course, fourteen.

This ship has quite the age difference, so for obvious reasons, Serendipity will be a 'slow burn'-ish series that will span a timeframe of ten years and more. However, since yours sincerely is really impatient and oftentimes cannot wait to get to the shippy parts, be prepared to see all sorts of timeskips happening back and forth throughout this fic!

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Last but not least, I'm really blown away by the support that all of you are showing for this fic. Thank you so much!

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Your reviews make me update faster; so please leave a comment if you like this fic!

-sllebswap