I started this chapter weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to finish until just now because of a hectic school schedule. There are more days off later in the month so hopefully I'll write more. I'm also planning on buying a laptop so maybe that'll help with updates? So sorry that it took forever though. Writer's block is a pain.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN KHR


Dear diary, I've been deceived.

The bright faced woman smiled, grabbing Michiko's hands into her own. "I'm so thankful my no good son has someone helping him with his studies."

She ignored the obvious jab at Tsuna and tried her best to not look uncomfortable. She wasn't used to people being this friendly and energetic; it was an unwelcome change. That wasn't to say Sawada Nana wasn't a sweet woman. From the moment Michiko stepped into the house she knew Nana put forth an effort to make her feel comfortable. However, she just wasn't very good in social settings, so Michiko held back her uncomfortable grimace and opted for a poker face.

"You know he really never does listen to anything Reborn-kun says to him. Maybe if he paid more attention he'd be doing better." Nana sighed, releasing Micihiko's hands and placing a hand on her own cheek.

"Mom…" Tsuna spoke up, signaling her to cut the conversation short. After Reborn explained that Michiko would be his temporary tutor, he had looked just as uncomfortable as she was feeling. Michiko wasn't sure whether this was because this was the first time she came over on her own or if it was because his mom kept not so subtly degrading him. Either way Mcihiko finally understood why he was always so negative. With everyone around him telling him he couldn't do anything it was no surprise he had no motivation.

Tricked, played, and cheated. How did Reborn expect me to take money from Sawada's mom after meeting her? She thought I was helping him from the good graciousness of my heart. She looked so grateful. The expectant look on her face, almost as if she was asking me a favor. This little kid must've set me up for it. He saw how I acted when Yamamoto asked me for something.

While Michiko was lost in her thoughts, Nana continued talking. "But you know Tsu-kun what happened to the other girl you were with? You're also very cute though, I'm surprised my son managed to date two adorable girls."

Michiko blinked at Nana repeatedly before blankly staring at Tsuna. "What."

Tsuna immediately paled, shouting out in denial. "Mom, I'm not dating class rep. She's just here to tutor me."

Michiko was thankful he quickly clarified because she had frozen. The comment left her speechless because the thought dating Tsuna was just that ridiculous. Tsuna had nothing she could possibly want in a potential partner. He was such a pushover, weak willed, scrawny, dumb, unmotivated. He would never be able to keep up with her; it'd be such an unbalanced power dynamic. Thank god she would never have to worry about that though.

Nana blushed at her mistake. "Oh is that so. Well you two better head upstairs and start. I'll bring some snacks and drinks."

She rushed away while the two headed up to Tsuna's room. She trailed slightly behind him trying to talk to Reborn. When Tsuna was out of earshot, she mumbled to Reborn.

"So did you introduce me to her in hopes that I would pity on one of the two? That way I wouldn't want to take money for helping out her 'no good son' right?"

He smirked. "If that's the result of talking to her then let's go with that reasoning."

"You know as a classmate I really shouldn't be soliciting money for my services, but then I really don't have anything compelling me to stay any further."

"Well let's assume that didn't convince you, what about the compelling idea of Tsuna no longer being incompetent? Wasn't that the exact trait of his that made you so frustrated?"

Michiko pursed her lips. This kid was cunning. He knew he already had guilt her into helping Tsuna out, but going even further and persuading her that helping him would benefit her in as well was impressive.

He really is more cunning than his appearance lets on.


The three sat in Tsuna's room. Tsuna and Michiko were in front of the desk, looking over at the textbook while Reborn stood to the side.

"The answer is th-three?" Tsuna stuttered out, staring at his paper.

Michiko sighed, taking the paper from his hand. "Nope. Let's review."

She leaned towards him and could see him stiffen. His eyes began anxiously darting around the room. Why did he look so freaked out? This wasn't the first time she had noticed him looking unsettled around her. Maybe if he were blushing she could assume it was because he wasn't used to such close contact with a girl, but she had seen how he reacted to Kyoko's body near his. This was completely different.

Michiko slightly moved away, raising an eyebrow at him. "Do you have a problem with me?"

"U-uh." he hesitated, looking as if he was trying to come up with a decent response.

"Ok then let's make this easier for you. I know that I haven't treated you particularly well so it probably isn't that strange if you dislike me, but why are you acting so weird?"

He scratched the back of his head, hesitant to look up. "Well you're a bit intimidating…"

His voice trailed off while looking at her uncertainly. She merely stared back, unamused. They continued sitting in silence staring at each other until she saw Tsuna gulp. She let out a small snort causing his eyes to widen.

"So you're saying you're scared of me?" Michiko asked, holding back a laugh. She knew she wasn't particularly friendly, but for someone to actually find her scary was ridiculous. Despite how intimidating her personality may have been, she was a little shorter than Tsuna, which lowered the intimidation factor by a lot. Then again this was Tsuna. Michiko was pretty certain she had seen him hiding from the tiny Chihuahua one of the neighbors owned.

He didn't get a chance to respond as she quickly muttered out "good" leaving him with an uncomfortable grimace.

"Now then why don't we start looking at what you did in this problem?" she asked, putting the paper on the desk.

Halfway through her explanation Michiko noticed Tsuna was staring out of the window. Just as she prepared to scold him, he turned towards her and pointed out of the window. "Class rep there's a weird guy that looks like a cow!"

She clicked her tongue and glared. "What kind of nonsense..." she began, but stopped upon turning her head. There he was, a child in a cow suit on a tree holding a gun. Michiko blinked several times and he was still there. She then lifted her glasses and rubbed her eyes, stared again, and saw no one. What exactly did she hallucinate?

She shared a confused glance with Tsuna before deciding to move on. "So let's get back to that explanation then."

Just as she started her explanation once again, the door slammed open. The toddler she was sure she hallucinated had managed to come into the house and began to introduce himself. "Long time no see Reborn! It's me Lambo!"

Ah, so he was looking for Reborn. A child looking for another child made enough sense.

Reborn ignored Lambo and picked up the book from the table. "You two are so easily distracted. Tsuna let me show you how to do this. You have to remember this formula."

Not to mention most kids aren't like Reborn. Why does he know so much when he's supposed to only be 5? Are children just advancing too quickly? Something about Reborn is just disconcerting. He's strange in a way that's different from most children.

Reborn continued teaching Tsuna while managing to avoid and retaliate all of Lambo's attack while still ignoring him. Somehow Tsuna stayed focused on his work as well and got the correct answer. If Reborn could've taught him why did he need Michiko? She glanced over at Lambo every few seconds watching Reborn become increasingly violent with him.

"Don't you think you should tone it down?" she asked, watching the five year old get thrown into the wall.

"I don't know what you're talking about." responded Reborn. "If you have time to talk, you have time to teach Tsuna."

"You know what I mean. It's one thing to ignore him and another to actually hit him. What if you're just making him dumber each time you bash his head into the wall?"

"I didn't see you as someone who liked children."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm antisocial not abusive. Besides he's been on the verge of tears five times in the past minute."

Reborn merely shrugged his shoulders as Lambo charged into him once again. However, this time he flew out the window. Michiko's eyes widened and she immediately stood up to try and pull him back inside, but he was too far out of reach. Shortly after, she witnessed an explosion. She ran downstairs to see Lambo sniffling next to Nana.

"It's a friend of Reborn-kun's. I found him outside crying. I think they may have gotten into a fight."

As if that hellish one-sided mess could even be considered a fight. Michiko kneeled down and patted the child's head. "We should get some tissues to wipe his face."

"There are some in the kitchen. I'll be right back."

She continued patting Lambo's head as he stared at the floor, sniffling. The poor kid was only five, how could Reborn treat him so badly? But then again Reborn was also five, so why was he so violent? Lambo was obnoxiously loud, but still.

As Nana returned with tissues in her hand, Michiko helped wipe Lambo's face, instructing him to blow into the tissue. Tsuna came down as well, noticing Lambo clinging onto Michiko's leg.

"I think Reborn-kun may have gotten into a fight with him. You two are older, so it'd be nice if you could help them settle it out." Nana smiled brightly at her.

Michiko looked over at Tsuna who was already protesting and sighed. It's not as if Lambo was letting go of her leg anytime soon, so she couldn't exactly go home. Besides she had felt kind of bad for the kid.

"We'd be glad to help." Michiko loudly interrupted him. Tsuna turned towards her with a shocked look. She looked back at him and simply shrugged her shoulders. It couldn't possibly be that bad.


It was horrible. Michiko could feel Lambo's snot and tears seeping into her shirt. She tried to discreetly nudge him away, but this only caused him to cling tighter.

Even after the three had left the house, his crying hadn't stopped. Fortunately Michiko convinced him to let go of her leg, so she didn't have to walk with an awkward drag. However, the price for that was her shirt. Not to mention Tsuna did nothing to help, not as if she had expected him to have done so regardless.

"Instead of staring at my chest, could you help with getting him to calm down?" she snidely questioned, causing him to turn red.

"I-I wasn't staring! Not in that way at least…" he nervously stumbled over his sentence.

Michiko snorted. "Yeah I know. It's not as if I'm Sasagawa."

"Wait how did you know about that?" he exclaimed.

"Anyone with eyes can see it Sawada." she rolled her eyes. "You look like you're about to drop dead with happiness whenever she's in the same radius as you. The only one who doesn't see it is probably Sasagawa herself."

"Yeah, you're right." he scratched the back of his head awkwardly laughing.

"Besides she's the school idol. Most of the boys have a crush on her. You even confessed to her and had a duel with Mochida- senpai over her. Although I guess she did blow it off as a joke in the end."

He brought his head onto his knees and somberly smiled. "I guess I must seem pathetic, liking someone who's too good for me."

She frowned at his self-degradation. She wanted to tell him off, but it didn't seem appropriate at the moment. He was already down, why kick him lower?

"Yeah you are pathetic Sawada, but not because of how you feel about Sasagawa. You're pathetic because you're so quick to give up. If you actually want a chance at dating her then stop putting yourself down and get yourself together. If you're so certain she won't be interested in you as you are now then why don't you put some effort into becoming a better you?"

The two stared at each other in silence for a couple of seconds before Michiko had fully processed that she had given love advice to Tsuna. The situation suddenly became awkward.

"I mean I've never had a crush on anyone so don't take my advice to heart if you don't want to. I just think it's better to do something than it is to just mope around and think 'what if''. Besides Sasagawa is dense so she won't know anything unless you confess. And if you don't stop talking yourself down you probably never will."

At this point she was just rambling. If Tsuna didn't say something soon, Michiko would have to get up and leave. She didn't mean to have a heart to heart conversation with him. She just wanted to get Lambo off of her shirt which he still had a death grip on.

"Thanks class rep." he smiled at her. "Most people would have just told me that it would be better to give up. That I'm no good Tsuna and I'll never be able to get to someone like Kyoko-chan."

Was this boy really still degrading himself after she had given him a semi-inspiring speech? Michiko raised a brow at him, ready to shoot out a snarky comment.

"Honestly I expected you to do the same, but you didn't. It came off as a bit of a shock so I wasn't sure what to say at the moment. Thank you though."

He continued smiling up at her and she could feel herself getting embarrassed. "Well I'm not a complete demon. Also, even if you're pathetic now, there's room for improvement. You're only bothersome when you have no will to improve."

He smiled again, this time staring at the sky. "It's getting darker, so it must be time for dinner." he fished through his pocket and pulled out a piece of candy. "Hey Lambo, you like candy right? If you let go of her I'll give you this candy."

Lambo's ears perked up and he unburied his head from Michiko's chest. She breathed a sigh of relief as he jumped into Tsuna's arms.

"You couldn't have done that sooner?" she gestured to her soggy shirt.

"Sorry about that." he sheepishly smiled. "You could come back to my house and borrow something to wear back home. My mom would probably want you to stay over for dinner as thanks for the tutoring session."

"It's fine. My house isn't that far away and I told my mom I'd be home by dinner anyway."

"Ah all right. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah I guess so,"

Michiko turned her back and started to walk away. A few steps later she stopped. "I am definitely going to regret this." she muttered. Being unable to leave things alone was her fatal flaw.

She turned around and called out to him. "Sawada! If you have the ambition to change yourself then I'll help you out."

He flashed her another smile and waved. "Thanks class rep."


One way or another I'm now somehow involved in Sawada's love life. It should be no big deal since getting closer to Sawada will just be a small part of the bigger picture. Besides he's not as bad as I originally thought. The main problem seems to be his surroundings. As long as he's willing to change this shouldn't be that painful.


Honestly I did not expect this chapter to end out this way. The original plan was to have them bond by getting Lambo to stop crying, but somewhere along the way he was forgotten and it turned into a whole other thing.

Anyways, I do enjoy reading everyone's reviews as well, so please do keep them coming. Hope you enjoyed!