So now Tsuna was apparently a temporary babysitter for a very volatile, very violent, and very angry child. Joy.

Still in a daze, he returned home not too long after a one-sided discussion with Alberta who had chucked her unconscious son—oh my God, Tsuna really, really wanted to contact Child Services but Aldo, the family's butler and driver, who was intimidating enough with his blank face, had just given him a look when Tsuna tried to reach for his phone—at a prepared Aldo and forced Tsuna to follow her to her office. No matter how loaded they were, the hourly fee still nearly gave him a heart attack, even if it was just for a day.

Tsuna slumped in his chair at the dining table and slowly ate the omurice he cooked for dinner. It tasted like mush and felt like sludge going down his throat.

"Tsuna-nii," Giotto said, frowning, "are you okay?"

Tsuna blinked, snapping out of his stupor, before forcing a quick smile. "I'm fine. Just tired."

His brother still looked skeptical. He resembled their father more with his blond hair and dark brown, almost orange eyes. They differ in personality though, thank God. While their father could be considerate, he was a ditz sometimes (no wonder he got along well with their mother). Giotto was responsible and easy to handle as long as you didn't get on his bad side. That didn't mean he was prone to some childish behavior, like sneaking in Tsuna's bed at night or eating nothing but his brother's cooking, but Tsuna thought it was more because their parents weren't around. Plus, Giotto was still a kid.

"You don't babysit Takeshi on Wednesdays," Giotto said. "And Asari's not back from Austria yet."

Tsuna laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, I know. Something just…came up."

"Right." Chewing, Giotto continued staring Tsuna down, making the brunet sweat. "I heard about you getting in a foreign car after school."

Tsuna widened his eyes. "H—How did you know that?"

Giotto pursed his lips. "We live in Namimori, Tsuna-nii. Everyone will know eventually."

Deflating, Tsuna just bowed his head. He couldn't really hide anything from Giotto who was honestly too smart for his own good. There was also no point in lying since his little brother was scarily intuitive. "I guess."

"Are you having money troubles?" Giotto said, furrowing his brows. "Is there something that Mama and Papa didn't tell us?"

Tsuna waved his hands quickly. "No, no, no! It's not like that! Just…" He rubbed his face. "Yamamoto-san…recommended me to his friend or something about babysitting. I thought why not because, well, I'm already in my second year and I kind of don't know what to do after I graduate. I don't want to rely on Tou-san or Kaa-san forever, you know? And this is something I'm kind of good at, maybe, I'm not sure but Takeshi likes me. Then again, he's like the only one I've babysat so far and—"

"Tsuna-nii, you're rambling."

Tsuna flushed. "Oh, I'm sorry." He chuckled nervously. "I shouldn't have dumped that on you like that."

Giotto frowned. "You don't have to apologize." He huffed. "I get it but does that mean you're not going to pick me up from now on?"

Tsuna's smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "I don't know. I'm going over to their house tomorrow. It's not official yet but I'm…kind of hoping that I don't get the job."

Giotto blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Honestly, just pray for me…"

Whispers followed Tsuna the whole day at school and he tried hard not to focus on them. The problem was that Namimori was a small town and a small town liked gossip. Tsuna hated it, which is why he was considering about applying to university not too far away from Namimori but far enough so he didn't have to deal with their bullshit. The only problem was Giotto.

"Tsuna-kun doesn't look too happy, desu!" Haru said with a pout. "Haru is worried!"

Tsuna's smile strained a bit. "I'm okay, Haru-chan. Just tired."

Kyoko, sweet and beautiful Kyoko, frowned in concern. "If you're having any trouble, you can always come to us, Tsuna-kun." She smiled brightly. "We'll help in any way we can!"

Tsuna almost teared up, feeling too blessed to be graced by the kind goddess. "Kyoko-chan…"

He squeaked when Hana tapped his head with a textbook. "Stop worrying about useless things," she said, her brow twitching. "Also, buzz off."

Kyoko pursed her lips. "Hana-chan!"

Tsuna just thumped his head on his table while Haru panicked in the background and fanned his face with a paper fan she had made at some point.

"What was that all about yesterday anyways?" Hana said. "Some monkeys are saying you're involved in the yakuza. No offense, but even I think that's ridiculous."

"Just pray for me today," Tsuna muttered miserably. "That's all I ask…"

"Wait, is that true?"

Kyoko and Haru gasped. Tsuna peered at Hana from the corner of his eye, making her tense. "I don't know but I hope I'll see you guys again tomorrow…"

Aldo picked him up a couple of blocks away from school. Tsuna almost screamed when he saw Squalo in the backseat, glowering at him with the heat of a thousand suns. The boy spat something distasteful words at him in Italian—Tsuna had plugged in some words he could remember in an online translator; needless to say, he was kind of shook—and looked out the window, crossing his arms over his chest. He was wearing the same white uniform from yesterday with some kind of black and white face mask on his lap.

"Good afternoon, lad," Aldo said. "I assume that your day at school went well."

"Oh, um, it was…fine." Tsuna slowly strapped on his seatbelt. "How was your day, Aldo-san?"

"Just Aldo is fine, please. And my day has been relatively pleasant." The man turned and handed Tsuna a slip of paper. "This is Young Master's schedule for today. If you have any questions or concerns, my number is at the bottom for your convenience."

Tsuna gaped at the schedule:

3:00-6:00 Fencing with Tyr

6:15-8:00 Private session with Aldo

8:00-8:30 Dinner

8:30-8:45 Warm-up

8:45-11:00 Kendo with Tsuyoshi

11:00-11:15 Shower

11:15-5:00 Bedtime

Squalo was fucking 8, okay? An 8-year-old shouldn't—This wasn't—Oh God, Tsuna just wanted to strangle someone, preferably himself for going this far (but there were more contenders. He glanced at the boy who studied him with unnervingly irritated eyes.

"So, um, do you have any food you like?" Tsuna said. If he wanted to get at least one brownie point today, his cooking was probably his best bet. He was obviously going to fail in the other departments.

"I can snap you like a twig in an instant, trash," was Squalo's scathing response.

Tsuna had no idea what he just said but he had a feeling that it was unpleasant. "Can you speak Japanese…?"

"Stop talking to me and telling me what to do, swine. I can talk however I want."

Tsuna gave up. They weren't going to get anywhere. All he hoped for was getting through the day in one piece.

They ended up in Midori, where it was more like a city than Namimori was, with multiple shopping centers and well-known cafes that Haru and Kyoko frequented on the weekends. Aldo drove towards a rather nice building and parked the car by the sidewalk. He said something to Squalo in Italian, which the boy ignored, before looking at Tsuna. "I'll be back here in three hours, lad," he said.

Tsuna had no choice but to follow Squalo inside the building. He didn't even know there was a fencing school in Midori. They walked through the doors, entering a sleek lobby with a desk. The secretary paled when she saw Squalo and didn't even bother asking them to sign in. Tsuna gave her a shaky smile but then she looked like she wanted to puke.

Picking up his pace, Tsuna kept some distance from Squalo who suddenly unsheathed his thin fencing blade from its blue cover in front of a door and burst inside the room. Tsuna yelped when several masked fencers lunged for Squalo out of nowhere, their blades clashing and a dizzying blur. But Squalo, suddenly in the freaking zone, parried all of them and pushed them back with his own impressive techniques.

Tsuna just stood at the doorway, gaping, while Squalo tumbled and flipped over the taller, older fencers, deflecting their blades with a flick of a wrist and strong parries. At this point, Tsuna was pretty sure that wasn't fencing and more like a warzone but he was too amazed at Squalo's sheer skills and speed to really care. Clearly the boy knew what he was doing and…it was just honestly amazing.

Within minutes, all the fencers had fallen, twitching and groaning from the pain, while Squalo stood amongst them, standing tall and proud as he swiped the air with his blade in dramatic fashion. Someone clapped in the background. A tall, foreign man with cropped brown hair and a scar running down his cheek stepped forward from the shadows. He clicked his stopwatch. "You were a second faster than last time," he said. "Not bad, brat. Get on the strip. Hideo, get your sorry ass up. Stop whining. They don't even count as bruises."

Tsuna blinked when the man suddenly switched to Japanese at the end. He shuffled awkwardly to the side while the groaning fencers stood up and headed towards the long gray fencing strips in the spacious gym. The instructor glanced at him from the corner of his eye before shaking his head.

"Get out while you can, kid," he said, walking away. "You're not up for it."

Tsuna stared at his retreating broad back, his eyes wide. What did he mean by that?

Just watching Squalo during his lesson and obliterating the other students exhausted Tsuna. He was dragging his feet by the time Aldo led him in the living room. The amount of opulence in one room made Tsuna nauseous. Squalo had gone off to God knew where and Aldo left Tsuna in the kitchen to make dinner after the brunet asked him if he could.

There were only Western ingredients in the pantry and fridge—the kitchen was more like a restaurant than a normal house kitchen—so Tsuna settled on cooking some spaghetti because…well, he hoped Squalo would like it if he was Italian, not that Tsuna was trying to be racist or anything. After setting the table, Squalo seemed to walk past the dining room, not even looking at the food prepared. Tsuna's brow twitched. If there was one thing he didn't like, it was wasting food.

"Squalo," he said, clearing his throat, "I made you dinner."

The boy just clicked his tongue and plopped down on the expensive couch. Squalo was covered in sweat, didn't take a shower yet, and it was fucking dinnertime. Throwing all caution to the wind, Tsuna walked over with Squalo's bowl and almost shoved it on the boy's lap, making him tense. "What the hell are you doing, trash?" Squalo said.

"I don't know if you can understand me or not," Tsuna said, "but you're going to eat your dinner or else."

Squalo stared at him incredulously for a moment before looking down at the food. Turning, Tsuna left for the kitchen to wash the pots. Moments later, Squalo returned, slid the empty bowl nosily on the counter, and left silently as he came, not looking up once.

Bedtime had never came faster. After Tsuyoshi left, but not without a pat of encouragement, which was already too late at this point but thanks Tsuna guessed, Squalo took a quick shower and came out in some blue-striped pajamas. When Tsuna tried to follow him upstairs mostly out of habit with Takeshi, Squalo whirled around with a glare. "Don't follow me to my room, trash!" he said.

Tsuna could only stare as the boy stomped up the stairs and disappeared down one of the hallways. "Good night…" he said.

Aldo appeared by his side with his jacket and backpack in hand. "The car is ready," he said.

"I can just take the bus, Aldo-san," Tsuna said.

"Nonsense. You won't be able to go home otherwise. There are no bus stops or taxis that come by here."

If Tsuna wasn't going to be killed by Squalo somehow, he was probably going to be killed by Aldo. And he saw the man spar with Squalo. He was terrifying. Neither of them really spoke much on the ride. Tsuna dozed off in the backseat, momentarily forgetting he might be axed to death, until he saw his house in the distance. "Thank you, Aldo-san," he mumbled, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Of course," Aldo said. "Have a good night, lad."

"You too."

"Oh, and don't fret. It seems like Young Master finds you tolerable."

Tsuna blinked. "Oh…"

He took a nice hot shower once he got home and passed out on his bed. He later woke up to his phone ringing early in the morning. Grumbling, Tsuna grabbed his phone and yelped when he fell out of his bed. He rubbed his head before looking at the time. Who the hell was calling him at 5 in the morning?

"Hello?" he said, voice still groggy.

"Aldo will pick you up after school today," a sharp voice said. "You'll be given a more extensive list of duties then."

Tsuna didn't even have time to respond when Alberta just hung up on him.

"…huh?"

A/N Tyr tried to run, but somehow, in some way, Alberta found him. :'^)

Thank you for reading! If there's any kid you want to see next, let me know! Who knows if they'll pop up? ;^)

Have a lovely day~

Little Miss Bunny