Exams were finally nearing and that meant everybody had to kick it into high gear. People were stressed over everything. But it was mainly the people in advanced courses that had to do exams. Tsuna was in no advanced courses though so he got to sit back and watch everybody else trudge through definitions and formulas.

He thought he'd have a free week since when exams were going on, you didn't have to go into classes. Nope. Reborn had a completely different thought as he sat Tsuna down at the table.

"Do these work sheets. Ask if you need help." Reborn has said. He immediately started doing his own questions, leaving no room for Tsuna to escape.

"I don't need to." Tsuna grumbled.

"Yes you do. I've seen your marks. They're worse than Skull's makeup."

"He's nice at least." Tsuna tried to say but Reborn ignored him.

Tsuna scowled but tried to struggle through the questions. He didn't even get the first question. The first one was always the easiest though. How could he not get it?

"Just put in what y equals." Reborn told him.

Tsuna squinted over in confusion. Reborn sighed. He shifted forward and pointed to the two equations on the page.

"You're doing solutions. There are two equations and all you do to solve them is find x and y. Y equals 2x + 5 so put it into the other equation."

Reborn watched Tsuna do it, clearing his throat when he did a wrong step. Finally, after five painstaking minutes, Tsuna got what x and y were.

"Good, now do the other twenty questions." Reborn said sternly.

"Twenty?!" Tsuna asked in alarm. "I can't do twenty!"

"Yes, you can and you will. Or you won't like what'll happen."

"W-What would happen?"

Reborn looked over, deadfaced, at Tsuna. "I'd put mayonnaise in your cereal when you weren't looking instead of milk. Maybe I'd put it on your morning toast."

Tsuna resisted the urge to gag. "That's gross! But now I know to look out for it."

"For now."

Tsuna shivered and hunched back over his worksheet. It would be better to just do it than have to watch over his shoulder for Reborn to prank him. Reborn liked to do it too much and it was the only downfall to rooming with Reborn. That and the fact people always asked him to take pictures of Reborn sleeping. That was a weird request he got alarmingly often.

Reborn glanced over in indignation at Tsuna. "Stop thinking about me."

"How the heck did you know that!"

"I can read minds."

"You're lying. Stop lying, Reborn."

"I'm not lying. You just don't want to believe. The truth is out there."

Tsuna rolled his eyes. "Sure. You just want me to play along with you."

"It wouldn't be playing if it was the truth."

"Sure…"

Tsuna focused back onto doing his question and finished. Reborn looked them over and, as Tsuna expected, there were only three that were right. The rest he had to redo.

"Do a pushup for every question you get wrong." Reborn said. Tsuna looked over in astonishment. "I'm not kidding or joking. Do 18 pushups."

"I-I can't even do one pushup. How do you expect me to do eighteen?"

"I don't. Now get going or I'll double them." Reborn thought for a minute. "I'm also timing you. Get them done in three minutes and you can take a break."

"What happens if I take longer?"

"You get to do more worksheets with no break."

Tsuna groaned in protest. "Reborn, you can't expect me to honestly-"

"You already said that. Now get going or I will put mayonnaise into your food when you're not looking."

Tsuna scrunched up his nose in disgust. He finally dropped down onto the ground but before he could do anything, Reborn stopped him.

"Your form is wrong. Straighten your back, make sure your hands are underneath your shoulders, not beside them. And breathe in when you go down, breathe out when you go up."

The entire time Reborn was helping him, he was pushing Tsuna into the correct position with his foot. He crouched down near Tsuna's head when he was done with his lecture. He looked at Tsuna expectantly, waiting for him to start the pushups. Tsuna started one and immediately started to collapse. If it wasn't for Reborn's hand underneath him, Tsuna would have fallen on his face.

"Why do I have to do this? Nobody else does pushups when they get a question wrong." Tsuna grumbled. Reborn seemed amused and let go of Tsuna's chest.

"If you think you can do it, I'll bump your time down so you only have two minutes to do it now. And go!"

Tsuna scrambled to start. His legs kept slipping and everytime he felt his hands push out farther. But he got it done.

"Wow, you got them done in two minutes and three seconds. You don't get a break." Reborn said. He hoisted Tsuna up by the shirt who was stuttering angrily.

"I finished them! It was two seconds. Why can't you just give me a break!" Tsuna spluttered.

Reborn seemed to think about it before shrugging. "You can do it. Come on, I have to hand this sheet in tomorrow so get going on your questions. Not like you have anything else to do."

Tsuna couldn't argue with that. There was a new student in his class today that effectively made him want to stay inside forever from how scary he was. So when Takeshi asked to hang out, Tsuna found himself making up a random doctor's appointment.

Reborn tapped the page Tsuna had in front of him. "Stop daydreaming."

Tsuna nodded. He started to work on his questions. For once he was actually dedicated to doing it. That was the most surprising thing he's had happen, next to him actually doing pushups.

He looked back up towards Reborn almost half an hour later. He got stuck on a question and had looked to Reborn for help. But Reborn seemed...not quite there. He was staring off into space, fiddling with the pen in his hand. Tsuna reached over tentatively to touch Reborn's arm but had his wrist grabbed in warning. Reborn stared at him, a small speck of caution flickering in Reborn's eyes before it was clamped down.

Reborn let go of Tsuna's wrist, wiping his hand on his pants. He said, "I'm fine, Tsuna. Don't worry about me," and grumbled something in Italian.

Tsuna wanted to ask but had to go to the bathroom. He never really got the chance to ask what was going on since he forgot by the time Tsuna went back out and he was forced to do sit ups this time.

Finally, after hours of doing homework, Reborn let Tsuna stop for the night.

Tsuna was all for just going to bed now but Reborn seemed to have different plans.

"You haven't eaten yet." Reborn said. "You're not skipping meals."

Tsuna whined, "But I'm not hungry."

"We both know that;s a lie." Reborn paused and heard Tsuna's stomach growl as if to prove his point. "Go get something."

Tsuna seemed to mock Reborn under his breath as he walked into the kitchen. Reborn raised an eyebrow and followed. He acted like he was starting to make coffee, which he was going to anyway, and looked over suspiciously at Tsuna.

"Do you want me to make you something?" Reborn asked.

Tsuna looked up owlishly with a hint of fear. "No, you don't have to. I-I can make something for myself. I've done it before."

"The most you can make is slightly burnt toast, Tsuna."

"Bite me..." Tsuna said in embarrassment.

"Don't tempt me", Reborn shot back. He poured some of the coffee into a cup and absently put sugar in it. Tsuna watched in fascination as Reborn took a drink and immediately spit it out in the sink beside him. He handed Tsuna the cup, standing up to rinse the one beside him out. "Here, I put too much sugar in it by accident. Enjoy."

"Don't like coffee..." Tsuna said, frowning in annoyance as he stared at the cup in his hand.

"Whatever, I hate sugary things. Merry Christmas."

Tsuna crumpled his face in disgust as he held the cup of coffee. He looked over to where Reborn was flicking things on on the stove desperately.

"I can feel you staring at me, Tsuna." Reborn commented.

Tsuna's face tinted in embarrassment as he looked away.

"While I have you here, Bianchi's brother is in your class. Make him feel welcome so he isn't following me around inbetween classes." Reborn said. His back was turned so Tsuna could only guess at his expression.

"Is he the one that has-",

"Silver hair. That's him. Bianchi loves talk about him."

The two stood in silence. Reborn had resorted to making some type of pasta. Tsuna guessed that was his default, Italian food. He was about to ask when Reborn handed Tsuna a plate full of noodles slathered in white sauce.,

"Eat this before you fall over. Understand? And I want no complaints."

'Yes mother', Tsuna sighed was awkward as he only had one hand to sign with but Reborn got the message. He glared warningly before walking off to his room.

"Study your math," He called. "I'm having a shower and when I get out here again, I better see your stuff out and that bowl almost empty at least."

Gokudera Hayato was not a happy person lately. How could he be? His dad sent him to this backwash town he had never heard of before. In a country he had never been to before. Yeah, his mother was from the town next to this one but that wasn't going to make him feel better. He loved his mother, so when she died it devastated him. Being in a town that was even near her old home was a little too close for him.

Then there was the fact Bianchi was going to be there. She had heard all the stories she had to tell over the phone so he didn't expect to be able to stand hearing them in person. He loved his sister, well half sister, but there were limits.

Bianchi always crossed his limits though and made it hard not to get at least annoyed at her. Then she just had to go before him to meet him at the school he would be staying in. Stress wasn't his strong suit; really, being able to deal with it meant destroying a tree or smoking. And this was beyond stressful. Seeing his sister in person always made him sick, without fail. He wasn't sure how much he would be able to take when they were stuck in a car together.

He honestly wasn't sure why he agreed to this.

The only good thing to come out of the trip was that it was clear skies so he was able to stick his head out the window the entire time. Bianchi was none the wiser as she was just happy to be spending time with her baby brother.

Then there came the first day of school for him. Talk about stress. He was chain smoking at least three cigarettes every hour. In class it was harder to control himself but he managed. A kid next to him kept eyeing him, like he was going to jump up and accuse Hayato of something any minute.

It was strange. The kid was probably an alien if he had no problem staring so long. Only aliens starred without any qualms as to what the person was comfortable with.

Sighing and grumbling quietly to himself, Gokudera ambled out of the class. It was stuffy in there with the kid staring at him. He had the most piercing brown eyes. They were hidden almost completely behind a book but when he looked over, the kid was almost glaring.

Hayato could take him. He'd fought worse people before.

The day was over and he was supposed to meet his roommate at their shared dorm. For some reason he wasn't in the class with the other roommates. He was ready to march down to the office and ask why but Bianchi had explained why. He didn't like the reason but he accepted it.

His dorm was cold. That was all he thought as he walked in because it felt like somebody constantly blasted air conditioning. But it was just all the windows were left open. Hayato angrily stomped around and slammed all of them closed.

He heard the door open as he was closing the last window and he stomped out to meet whoever it was.

And of course it was the weirdo kid that was staring at him. Hayato narrowed his eyes and cautiously moved around Him. He plucked the kid's arm off of his side and glared suspiciously at the skin. It felt human. But you could never be too careful with aliens. They were crafty.

"You must be my new roommate!" The kid said. He was chipper, almost way too chipper. "My names Yamamoto Takeshi, pleased to meet you."

'This kid oozed confidence and happiness,' Hayato thought. He rubbed his chin and stepped out from behind Yamamoto.

"My name is Gokudera Hayato. Don't use my first name, don't be loud, and most importantly: don't make me regret staying."

Yamamoto's face seemed to fall slightly but it was replaced quickly by a thumbs up.

"I'll try my best!" Yamamoto said. Hayato looked him over critically once more before stepping into the kitchen to get some toast. He was hungry since he forgot his lunch this morning. Or rather he trashed it the minute Bianchi was out of view. She was a terrible cook.

Yamamoto followed and started playing twenty questions. Hayato didn't know he could hate somebody so fast out of pure annoyance.

Yamamoto stopped his brigade of questions when his phone rang. "Oh! Let me answer this!" Yamamoto said cheerily. He stepped away so Hayato was able to make his toast in peace.

Gokudera looked up in surprise when he heard Tsuna's surname. "His last name's Sawada?"

"Yeah! Why do you ask?"

"I know his brother. Tell him that his brother's going to be coming to visit him in a couple weeks when he's done touring Europe."

"He has a brother? How cool! What's his name?"

"His names Ieyasu, but he goes by Giotto. Now stop talking to me! We both have homework we need to do!" Hayato said hotly.

The door clattered open noisily, drawing both Yamamoto and Hayato's attention to focus on the doorway in curiosity.

A minute later Ryohei came running into the kitchen. Without any warning, he let out a gutteral yell.

"What the hell!" Hayato protested.

"Hello!" Ryohei greeted. "I think it's extremely cool we have another roommate! What are you!"

Hayato looked at Yamamoto in confusion before looking back at Ryohei and answering with, "I'm a human. What are you?"

"I'm human too!" Ryohei answered. He was shaking almost as he stood still. He started running in place, throwing punches to the air.

"Hello there, Sasagawa!" Yamamoto said happily. Ryohei registered Yamamoto was there finally and threw his bandaged wrapped hands up in excitement.

"You're here. Good! I need a sparring partner. Do you want to join the boxing club so we can spar together?"

Yamamoto laughed good naturedly and shook his head. "No thank you. I like baseball better. Is there a baseball club?"

"Not yet! But I'm working on a boxing club right now. Maybe we can both get clubs!"

"Maybe." Yamamoto said, smiling excitedly.

"We have homework, come on." Hayato insisted impatiently.

Yamamoto gave a small 'oh' as he nodded. "Sasagawa, we have to do work. Why don't you help us? SInce you are the upperclassman."

Hayato nudged Yamamoto sharply in the side. He didn't flinched and just smiled easily down and Hayato. He seemed to wink, almost asking Hayato to trust him.

Ryohei let out another scream. "That'd be extreme! What do you need help with!"

Hayato sucked in a breath to answer but it was Yamamoto's turn to elbow him. "Wwe could use help in math. Do you know how to help us?"

"I do not!"

"I knew it, he's an idiot." Hayato exclaimed. He got out his work and started doing it. Yamamoto frowned.

"That's not very nice, Gokudera. You shouldn't say that about people who aren't smart in one subject."

"No! He's right!" Ryohei yelled, interrupting Hayato's rebuttal. "My grades are bad! But I'm going to be a boxer. Grades don't matter!"

Hayato slumped against the table. He wasn't sure how long he was going to last in this dorm is he was stuck with two idiots.

The next morning was better at least. Everybody was out the door easily and in class. Yamamoto insisted on sitting near Hayato today and happily introduced him to Tsuna.

Tsuna was breathless and dishevelled, trying to straighten out his uniform. He had made quick the entrance as he was being carried by Reborn, who looked annoyed to be having to do this. Tsuna kicked his feet to be let down but Reborn just tightened his grip. There were sighs of envy near the back.

"Now if I see you try to escape back to your room again, I will drag you back by your ankles. Got it?" Reborn said. He dumped Tsuna unceremoniously onto the ground and stood over him in the doorway.

Tsuna grumbled quietly as he picked his bag up from the floor. He had signed something too fast for anybody to decipher. He was hit with the flat of Reborn's knuckle on his head for whatever reason. Yamamoto was certain Tsuna had accidentally said something sarcastic; Tsuna never meant to be sarcastic but some things came out that way. Reborn waved good bye and closed the door behind him.

Whispers broke out as Tsuna walked to his seat to place his backpack down on his desk. That was when he noticed Yamamoto waving over at him near the back of the class. He walked over to Yamamoto's desk, leaning against it as the two talked. Tsuna smiled politely at Hayato who glared back.

Soon the teacher came in and started class.

"Class, today we'll be getting a new student! Treat him like you treat others, kindly and with respect." The teacher chirped, motioning to Gokudera near the back. Her smile tightened from how his feet were put onto the desk like he owned it but she looked away easily as she started class.

Hayato's scowl was a constant throughout the entire day

Tsuna sighed lightly, placing his head onto his arms as he listened to the teacher start their Japanese lesson.

Sometime in the middle of the lesson, somebody knocked on the door. The teacher paused in the middle of her explanation of Japanese grammar and looked suspiciously around. A lot of the kids like to rap in the desk to stop her teaching. But she seemed to catch somebody in the widow in the door. She smiled brightly as she realized who was there.

"Class, we have a presentation today by two of the headmasters children, Skull and Fon. Please come in you two." She motioned for the two people standing outside to come in. Immediately, you could tell who the friendly one was. He was the one smiling lightly and bowed politely to the teacher and class. The other walked in with a slouch, his loud purple jumpsuit making him seem out of place next to the calm red traditional Chinese garb the other wore.

"Hello, everyone", Chinese garb said. Tsuna was unnerved how much he looked like Hibari Kyoya, resident demon at Namimori middle school. "My name is Fon, the one next to me is Skull. We're here to help out with the mood that's been going around lately."

Tsuna furrowed his eyebrows at that. "What mood", he thought curiously. He raised his head from his desk and balanced it on his palm. They looked familiar but he couldn't place them.

He knew that Fon looked like Hibari, but Skull looked completely different. There was nothing similar about Skull's pierced lip and chin and purple themed eye makeup lipstick combo. He heard a few snickers from some of his guy classmates from how Skull was wearing makeup. Skull heard them and glared at them, not at all amused that he was being laughed at by people younger than him.

A student near the back raised their hand, making Fon call on them.

"Um, what do you mean the mood going around the school?" She said fearfully.

"Everybody's had a stick shoved up their-"

"Everybody's seems to be upset about one thing or another." Fon cut in quickly. He casted a sharp look over to Skull who shrugged. "We would like to help alleviate some of that by having a group therapy session. Now were going to have to get you guys to work with us and cooperate as we're only trying to help."

The teacher was quick to jump in. "Everybody, help clear the desks. You too, Sawada. I don't care how much your wrists hurt."

Tsuna made a face but tried to help. Takeshi waved him off though and made him sit down. The teacher glanced over is approvingly but decided to leave it.

Fon and Skull were helping people move chairs into place while everybody else moved the desks. Tsuna awkwardly sat on the sides with a couple of the physically disabled students. They say in awkward silence as they weren't friends and one couldn't talk very well from weak muscles. Fon pulled Tsuna away to help with the chairs though and got him to help.

"What's wrong with your wrists?" Fon asked. Tsuna felt like he was pulled into helping just so Fon could ask this away from everybody else.

"My joints hurt." Tsuna said. He wasn't sure what else to mention as that's all there was to it. He definitely wasn't going to roll up his sleeves either. He got his sleeves a size larger for a reason.

Fon gave a polite smile and moved on.

Tsuna sat down next to Yamamoto when everything was settled. But it wasnt settled for long as Skull got everybody up and started pointing them to spots near people that seemed unlikely friends. Tsuna got stuck between two girls he had chatted with about homework. They were nice enough. He only remembered one was named something like Rin. Yamamoto was sat next to Gokudera and a girl Tsuna didn't know. She might have been new. There were new students coming in every week so it was hard to keep track of who's who. Yamamoto was talking easily with both of them though, keeping a steady conversation. Tsuna was curious if Yamamoto was doing that faker smile he had been told about. He doubted it from how happy Yamamoto looked.

Fon clapped his hands together in a signal for silence. Everybody quieted easily but the teacher felt the need to shush them. A few student rolled their eyes to the ceiling.

"Okay, now hold hands with the person next to you." Fon said. He was obviously the more sensitive one out of the two as he was more of a gentle speaker.

There was a lot of grumbling as people, mainly guys, felt it was gay to do it. They weren't wrong because gay people do hold hands, but its still something offensive. And before anybody else could, Skull marched over there and kicked one of the kids being vocal about this in the shins.

"Hey!" He said angrily. "I don't want to hear about how offensive to your sexuality this is! Hold hands for fucks sake and shut up." Skull kicked the legs of the chairs, making the kid jerk, before walking off.

Everybody seemed to obey after that. Nobody wanted to he yelled at. The teacher was already sour over how Skull cursed. If he was pushed farther, there would be hell to pay.

Everybody fell in and finally held hands though. Tsuna didn't mind it and appreciated the efforts the girls next to him did to make it feel less awkward.

"Okay, thank you Skull for that great speech." Fon said. "Now were going to go around and say something we don't like in our life. It could be anything. Something you want to get off your chest."

Skull started by saying, "I hate how Reborn treats me like a lackey."

Tsuna felt his eyes widen in surprise. This was the first time he heard about that. It didn't surprise him as Reborn sounded like a person that would do that.

Fon went next. "I dislike how I cannot get Mandarin Fish without it being a delicacy."

Fon turned to the person on his right, smiling encouragingly at them to keep going. The chain went around when it came to Tsuna. He was saved by how none of the people in the room knew Japanese sign language. The teacher had offered to call Reborn down to translate but Skull was quick to throw that idea out the window. So they moved on from Tsuna and went until the last person said somethin they were upset about.

"Alright. So now that we've said something upsetting. Lets think about the opposite. What's something that you're very happy about. It could be you got a good grade or that you made it to school this morning. Tell us one thing that made you happy."

And so everybody went around again. Tsuna really didn't understand why they had to hold hands if they were just sharing something. He didnt want to ask though in case they forced him to participate.

But he accidentally did say something. Somebody asked what time it was and he answered with the time. Skull picked up on him talking and pointed it out.

"Sawada," the teacher said warningly. "You have to participate with everybody else. Please say what upsets you and what makes you happy."

Tsuna felt his neck and ears burn as blood rushed to them as he panicked. He didn't want to. He would start crying in front of everybody if he said something that upset him. He couldnt remember what made him happy. He was useless anyways. There wasnt much he was even good at. Petting cats maybe but he wasnt even sure he could go near them anymore.

Fon jumped in. "Why not show us your arms and point to a spot that has a story. You don't have to share. Just let us know there's a story to be told."

It was a simple enough request. Tsuna definitely could have done it. The only problem was he had old self-harm scars along with terrible burn scars. The burn ones were the ones everybody noticed before they saw smaller lines zig-zagging a crossed the rest of his arm. They were old so they weren't very noticeable but some didnt grow over right. So he would rather not. He wasnt even sure he could move his wrist enough to even roll up a sleeve.

He let go of the girls' hands and carefully pushed his left sleeve up. As always, his arm was littered with different marks. He point to the most obvious one though, the one where he got a skin graft on his wrist. Nobody said a word as this was the first time any of them had seen it. Tsuna hated showing people his arms. And all were in some sort if awe. Everybody knew he was the one to pull people out of the fire but nobody knew details. Tsuna refused to give any and all three people in the room were as good as unconscious when he was dragging them.

Fon seemed satisfied and was ready to move on until somebody blurted out, "What the hell, Tsuna. What happened to your arms?"

Skull and Fon started to jump in again, disrupting what was most likely going to be a bad conversation but Tsuna was up and moving out of the door. He didnt stop walking actualy ran down the hall to get away from the class. He finally stopped walking when he was alone in the bathroom near his own room. Tsuna let out a shaky breath. He rubbed his hand over his face and felt his breath hitch on a sob. He slid down the door he was leaning against and rested his forehead against his knee.

His scars were not something he like about himself. He had stopped self harming when he was put into the school. It was a new start for himself and he didn't want to bring that with him. touchy subject to him. Of course nobody knew about it unless you knew what those kind of scars looked like. He had a feeling Reborn knew from when Tsuna had changed his shirt in front of Reborn before so there wasn't much he didn't see.

This was going to be so messy because half of the people in this school used to go to school with him. Tsuna knew that a quarter of those people were nasty human beings. They always had an excuse to pick on him. It wasnt something that bothered Tsuna as he'd heard and been called worse but now they were the worst here. None of his old bullies were in this school so they were it. And if word spread fast about his arms then they'd pop up like annoying weeds wherever he went.

Footsteps down the hall had Tsuna scrambling into a stall and out of his spiralling mind. The door opened and Tsuna pressed himself against the toilet he was sitting on.

There was awkward silence as Tsuna tried to stay silent and the person situated themselves in their own stall. It wasn't silent for long as sounds of retching came from the other stall.

He placed his feet down and debated going to help. But they obviously wanted to be alone from how they had checked twice if anybody was in the bathroom. Tsuna decided he could at least unlock the cell and check if they were okay. The stall door was slightly ajar too so there wasn't any excuse for him not to help.

The person didn't even hear him when he opened the stall. He gingerly stepped in and crouched down next to them. He awkwardly patted their back, making them jerk in surprise.

They struggled upright and glared at Tsuna with such an intensity, Tsuna felt like if looks could kill, he'd be on the ground. But he recognized her. He vaguely remembered her name being Haru and she was the one that wanted to humiliate him with Bianchi.

Haru cleared tear tracks from her cheeks and sniffed. She teared some toilet paper off and wiped her mouth. She look over at him and said, "You didn't see a thing, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

He shook his head. "Not what i meant by coming in."

"What?" she asked.

"No harm. I mean no harm." Tsuna clarified. "Um, can I ask why you're?" He gestured vaguely towards the toilet.

"What the hell," she said. "I have nothing to lose. My mom isn't very good at sticking around from her job, making me feel like she didn't like me. My dad was buy a lot but made sure that he conveyed that he loved me. He wasn't there a lot too though so I was alone a lot in the evening. So when people started bullying me for being a little bit chubbier than everyone else, which was just because I was always inside trying to finish my homework and study so I didn't fall behind, it really made me feel like an outcast. So when I was watching an English talk show, I'm pretty sure her name was Ellen, the host, her wife was talking about having bulimia so it got me thinking, 'why not'?"

Tsuna didn't like where this was going, muttering a small scratchy, "No."

"Yep. I've been bulimic since I was 9. Nobody noticed and I would have gotten away with it longer if you didn't hecking hide." Haru grumpily stuck her tongue out at Tsuna. "In a way, thank you for hiding. I don't like being...like this."

Tsuna felt his lips twitch and smiled. "It's a new school. Why not a new start for yourself?"

Haru seemed taken aback by that but slowly nodded. "Maybe. I-I'll try."

He was about to answer when his phone buzzed loudly against the tiles. He had placed it next to him on the floor absently as he sat down. He picked it up, seeing that it was a text from Reborn who was asking where he was.

"I have to go…" Tsuna muttered. "People are looking for me."

"Well aren't you popular. Leave then."

"S-Sorry."

"Wait, give me your number. I'll put it in my phone." Haru said. She caught Tsuna's hand and let go quickly, awkwardly looking through her pockets for her phone.

Tsuna was oblivious to her awkwardness and just handed her his phone. "You put in your number and ill put in mine on yours."

They exchanged numbers and went their separate ways. Tsuna's phone vibrated as he was making his way to his dorm. He saw on the preview that Haru had messaged him saying, "Thank you".

"Where have you been?" Reborn asked the minute Tsuna walked through the door. Reborn didn't sound concerned, there was no emotion to his voice, but there was a slight edge to it.

Tsuna smiled sheepishly. "I met somebody in a bathroom."

"That's gross, Tsuna." Reborn saidy.

Tsuna felt heat rise to his face and he rubbed his nose. "That's not what-Reborn! Don't be stupid."

Somebody snickered in the living room that made Tsuna look over in alarm towards the chair opposite him. Fon sat there, trying to hide his smile behind his sleeve and faking a coughing fit to hide his laughter.

"Don't even start with me on who's stupid, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn shot back.

"Touché."

"I didn't even know you knew what that means." Reborn snapped his book closed. "You shouldn't be talking so well either. It's been five weeks since you started your speech therapy."

"I, um, well you see." Tsuna said brokenly. Reborn wasn't hearing it though.

"That's going to wreck your throat even more. Speak in moderation."

"But I had to keep talking or else-"

Reborn gave a sharp look that made Tsuna stop protesting. "I don't care. There's no reason for you to sacrifice your voice again. Go change out of your uniform. It needs to be washed."

"You're like my dad." Tsuna grumbled. He did what he was told though and change into casual clothes. They were more or less his pyjamas but nobody needed to know that.

When he walked back out, Reborn seemed to be arguing with Fon almost in Mandarin Chinese. Tsuna almost took a step back in shock as he'd only heard Reborn speak Japanese. They stopped when Reborn saw Tsuna move.

"I thought you didn't like short sleeves." Reborn asked.

"I-I don't." Tsuna said. "I thought it'd be a nice change."

Reborn shrugged. It seemed like the end of the conversation and Tsuna was about to leave when Fon called out, "Sawada, please stay a minute so I can talk to you."

"Why?" Tsuna asked, freezing.

"Because I would like to apologize." Fon said easily.

"For what?"

"For making you upset today. I was sure that you wouldn't leave, I was certain it would happen at some point, but Reborn has told me about how thick skinned you were. So for making you upset, I apologize deeply." Fon explained, placing his right hand on his opposite shoulder as he bowed his head.

Tsuna smiled awkwardly. He bowed back slightly. "It's fine. I-I just don't like to talk about my scars"

Fon smiled knowingly. "I understand. We'll be coming around once every two weeks to do the same thing with the classes, sometimes it'll be other room mates like Skull and I, but it's just so that everybody can be more open with their classmates." As almost an afterthought, Fon added, "A lot of people sympathized with you."

Tsuna opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. He thought most people would just move on and make fun of him.

"What did they say?"

"Not much. They mentioned how sorry they were. The person that spoke, they never meant any harm. They feel bad. Please keep an open mind next school day. Most people are here for their own reasons but they might also connect with you." Fon stood, prompting Tsuna to do the same. Reborn didn't budge and kept reading. "I will be taking my leave, now. Please take care of yourself, Sawada."

"Tsuna. Call me Tsuna."
"Alright", Fon bowed again. He swept out gracefully. Tsuna sat back down stiffly.

"Anything you want to talk about?" Reborn asked.

"No, I-I'm fine."

"Don't lie, Tsuna."

"I'm...Not."

And for once that was finally true.

Edited: 05/07/16

Lmao I know for a fact there's spelling and grammar mistakes because I typed a quarter of this up on my iPod's notes app. So believe me, I know if there's a mistake. I'm just lazy and don't want to read it over.

Reviews are appreciated!

-Gate