I'm sorry! MAWWriter was volunteering to be my editor, but I didn't get any messages or anything, so I just went ahead with it? Anyway, sorry for the long wait, but here is Tsuna and Tsunayoshi and Natsu and Giotto's Four Men Family Lifestyle. Here's a simple character listing:
Sawada Tsunayoshi (14): The second son, and the younger twin brother of Tsunayoshi «Hyper». Real name is Ietsuna, answers better to Tsunayoshi, nickname is Tsuna. Just might be the most normal kid in the house. Often takes care of Natsu.
Sawada Tsunayoshi «Hyper»(14): Tsuna's elder twin brother, and the first son. Calm and collected, he's very mature. He enjoys teasing Tsuna and playing with Natsu.
Sawada Natsu (5): Tsuna and Tsunayoshi's younger brother, as the third son. An innocent kid, his hobby is to imitate his brothers' attitudes. Never takes his visor off. Also enjoys pretending to be a lion.
Sawada Ieyasu (?): Birth name is Giotto. The three sons' father. Ordinarily is mature like Tsunayoshi, but sometimes is just a silly, nonsensical young man.
Many neighbors of the Sawada family were of the opinion that they were a very smoothly-run group. They hardly bickered or fought, the single father, Ieyasu, trusted all three kids (even 5-year old Natsu) with any job they thought they could handle, both older twins were kind and gentle, never snapping at each other or their baby brother unless it was necessary, and overall they were a very welcoming and open-minded lot of people.
Unfortunately, they were all wrong.
6:45 in the morning, and 3 alarms around the small house were blaring loudly. Within the 12 seconds following, all three were set back on snooze, and the four members of the building snuggled back down into the downy sheets.
7:15. Blearily, one boy, Sawada Tsunayoshi, the oldest child, blinked and squinted in the sunlight slanting through the window shades. Turning his head, he looked across the room, to see his younger identical twin brother, Tsunayoshi (or Tsuna, as he liked to be called), still snoozing, sheets thrown willy-nilly, with his feet on the pillow and head at the footboard. Who knew how he slept like that, but he did. (Although his real name was Ietsuna, he had unintentionally learned his brother's name instead, and it stuck. People were always confused on the first days of school when the teacher would call "Sawada Tsunayoshi!" and two voices would answer, then one would apologize.)
The two of them had the same wild brown hair, tinted with hints of copper and metallic bronze in the right light, which stuck out in every direction imaginable and framed a lightly tanned, youthful face. They had the same physique and stature, too: both short for their age and rather lean. However, there were three aspects where they were hardly similar in the slightest. First, their eyes. While Tsuna's eyes were a bright amber, filled with laughter and innocent joy, Tsunayoshi's were closer to a dull- but not lifeless or bored- wood brown, the color of a violin, mellow and warm rather than bright and cheerful. Although they both (along with their brother and father) had a strange gene where, when deeply angered or deadly serious, their eyes caught the light and seemed to become a molten gold or sunset orange, a flickering flame that threatened to explode with wrath when provoked even a step further. Second, their voices were different too; Tsunayoshi had the fine, mature tone of one who was meant to be in charge, to help others when help was needed and to face any problematic situation at hand with confidence and grace, while Tsuna's voice was… cuter, for lack of a more fitting description, but of someone who would easily accept you for whatever you were and wouldn't ever make one feel bad intentionally. Last, their personalities came off differently as well. While Ietsuna was nervous and unsure, Tsunayoshi was more calm and collected in what he did. But that wasn't to say that they were on different levels entirely: true, Tsuna was abysmal at sports while his brother was a quick learner for things like soccer and picking up moves, vice versa applying for more artistic matters, neither was much good in the classroom and both had two left feet when they weren't looking out.
Yawning, the elder sat up a bit, and chanced a look at the alarm clock.
Three pairs of eyes snapped open to the sound of a very, very loud scream. "Wha- Where's the fire?" Tsuna yawned, sitting up slowly. Looking over, he saw his brother wrestling to get his pants on.
"This!" Tsunayoshi snapped back, grabbing his own alarm clock off the desk and tossing it at the other. It smacked him full in the face, and Tsuna rubbed his eye painfully before taking a look.
A strangled cry escaped from his throat, and he threw whatever covers were still on top of him out of the way before grabbing a neatly folded uniform out of the closet and hurrying to get ready for school himself. Both of them tried to get out the door at the same time, and ended up crashing, both falling backwards with a pained yelp after smacking their foreheads together.
Their father, Ieyasu, stopped on his way down the hall, to give a bewildered look to the two sons. His blond hair was a bit more spike than the boys' fluff, hazel eyes glowing with cheer beneath the single bunch of bangs that hung between his eyes (they were an interesting color; though no one could doubt they were blue and brown hazel, they were clear sapphire with slivers of amber, rather than the usual brown with flecks of green or blue). He wore pressed black dress pants with silver pinstripes running down the length and a crisp vest of the same color pattern, with a white dress shirt underneath, the whole thing topped off by a black necktie. "Tsuna, Tsunayoshi, what are you doing? You're going to be late!"
"Morning Da- Wait! Dad! Your vest!" Tsuna managed to shout.
The one in question looked down in shock, and began trying to unbutton it from behind. "Now how in the world did that happen?" he muttered, turning it around the right way. Both boys shrugged. Calmly, this time, they again tried to get out the door. "Tsuna! Can you wake Natsu up! ? He's not downstairs!" Ieyasu's voice called from the lower floor, as the sounds and smells of rushed cooking began wafting up.
"On it!" he called, hurrying back down the hallway. Tsunayoshi would get their bags together, he knew. Rushing into his baby brother's room, the first thing he noticed was that the bed was empty. An instant of panic overtook him, before he saw the struggling bundle on the floor. Apparently, little Natsu couldn't get his sweater on because his head was stuck. Oh, brother.
Squatting down, he sat the little child up (all 4 of them were petit for their ages) and tugged down on the sweater so that his head popped out. Brown-orange hair tipped with copper and bronze, and bright caramel eyes with flame-orange flecks hidden beneath a blue visor and messy bangs could now be seen. "Thanks, nii-chan!" he squeaked, pouncing over to his backpack.
"You could've taken your visor off, Natsu," Tsuna sighed, knowing full well that it was useless. The tiny child wouldn't part from that thing no matter what. "Come on, breakfast. Let's get downstairs. "
"Too much effort…" Natsu groaned, stretching facedown on the floor. He had seen his nii-chan do this yesterday, and thought it was funny.
Tsuna frowned momentarily before picking the tiny kid up in one arm, backpack in the other. "Come on, we're all going to be late," he said, skipping down the stairs (nearly tripping and killing them both in the process).
Downstairs, both Ieyasu and Tsunayoshi were already scarfing down the miso soup, rice, and chicken salad at speeds unrivaled. Dropping Natsu into an empty seat, Tsuna did the same, upon which almost choking on an unusually large chunk of chicken before Ieyasu pounded him on the back.
…
When the two older twins rushed outside with half-full stomachs and full bags, Natsu with his backpack swinging giddily between their arms, they were greeted by two other boys waiting by the gate.
"Good morning Tenth, Decimo!" the shorter of the two, Gokudera Hayato, greeted them, bowing politely first to Tsuna, then to Tsunayoshi. Ordinarily, both would insist that he not be so formal with them, but he was a persistent boy. Sage green eyes, usually scrunched in a scowl, were grinning cheerfully as he saw them. Gokudera was three-quarters Italian and one fourth Japanese, fluent in both languages, with mid-lenth silver hair that resembled, to some people, an octopus. A star student in every way possible, most teachers said that the only thing to work on was his attitude and sleeping-in-class habits. Others said worse.
"Deh… chi… mo?" Natsu repeated, trying to familiarize his tongue with the foreign word.
The other newcomer, Yamamoto, leaned down and ruffled the five-year old's hair with a hand, calloused from many long years of baseball, affectionately. "Yo! Morning, Tsuna, Yoshi!" The abnormally tall black-haired boy was the only one to refer to Tsunayoshi as 'Yoshi,' saying that it was easier for him to say. The grin that graced his tanned features now was ever-present, his air-headed and happy-go-lucky attitude always in direct contrast to Gokudera. "Is this your brother? Haha, he looks exactly like you two!"
Tsuna nodded, smiling back. "Good morning, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto," he said. "Y- yeah, this is Natsu."
"Good morning, you two," his brother nodded, then looked down at his brother. "De-ci-mo," he repeated. "It's Italian for 'tenth,' Gokudera-kun said. Oh, let's get walking."
"But nii-chan is 'juudaime,' nii-san!" he chirped back as they got going, curiosity piqued. "So that makes you both tenth!"
Gokudera intervened, sparing 'Decimo' from having to explain the whole matter. "Yes, they're both 'Tenth.' My dad was an old friend of your father's, and called him Primo as a nickname once, which then stuck. The two were thick as thieves, according to Dad, but they got through thick and thin all the same. I decided when I first met Decimo and the Tenth that I would strive to always be there for them, because I look up to my Dad so much that I wanted to be like him. As for why they're 'tenths' instead of 'seconds,' well… it's easier to say, I suppose. And being a round number like a ten appeals more to me than being the only even prime number."
"Oh, wait, don't you think we should get going?" Yamamoto interjected, chuckling when he saw Natsu's confused expression. Who else but Gokudera would try to speak with prime numbers and long phrases to a five-year old?
Tsuna checked his watch. "Hiie!" he yelped. "Yamamoto's right! And we have to drop Natsu off at daycare, too!"
The five sped off, Gokudera with an exclamation of, "I shall accompany you both as it is my duty!" and Yamamoto for the sake of going, laughing all the way.
…
Being dumped unceremoniously (for the most part) at the daycare center was not part of little Natsu's idea of a perfect morning. Not at all. Although it wasn't bad, he supposed. After waving goodbye to his brothers and his new friends, he held the hand of the nice teacher as they walked down the hallway towards the classroom.
Upon entering, the small boy was met with a face full of soot-black bomber head hair. "Natsu!" Lambo yelled, clinging onto his friend's sweater. "You're late! As punishment, you'll have to be Lambo-san's underling for today."
"Bad Lambo! Natsu-san is not an underling!" another voice chided him from behind. I-Pin, with her wide forehead, thin eyes and signature ponytail, appeared, and bowed to Natsu. "Good morning, Natsu-san. Nice to see you today!"
"Good to see you too, I-Pin, Lambo," the brunet smiled. It was weird, but these two were his best friends; after all, they'd been friends longer than any of them cared to remember. Not just that, I-Pin's older brother Fong was a year older than nii-chan and nii-san, so the two came over often, even if it was only to say hi.
It was always fun days to be had with these two around. Once, on children's day, the teacher had asked them all to write their wishes on paper koi fish and then color them so they could be pasted all over the walls. Lambo's messy scrawl of "World Domination shall be mine" had made Natsu laugh nervously and I-Pin chide the cowboy harshly. After all, Lambo seemed the kind of kid who might actually try and maybe, just maybe, succeed. I-Pin's wish had been a bit more serious; she had wanted to become a better fighter. Although that was scary too. According to her, both she and Fong attended the same dojo for their… Gyoza-Ken, was it? Anyway, Fong, despite being only 10 years older than his sister (disregarding that as a long time between siblings [after all, Natsu and his brothers had a little under 9 years]), was the youngest master, and taught all the beginners while continuing his own training at other times. Not only that, I-Pin was one of their most promising young pupils. In comparison, Natsu felt silly for writing, "I want to be useful" and "I want to accomplish something." But in his defense, the Loser-gene seemed to run in the Sawada family; his dad had been awful in school for years before discovering his talents had no tie to conventional education whatsoever, and his brothers were the Loser-Tsuna pair. Not that they seemed to mind, and on the contrary, they seemed perfectly okay with it.
"What should we do today?" he asked them. Together, they could be either the worst or best kid that a preschool teacher had ever seen (depending on how they blended), but they had fun and never felt that the world should be any different.
"Lambo-san wants to work on the World Domination plan!" Lambo yelled immediately. After a slight, pause, he added, "And plot to kill Reborn, too!"
Natsu smiled, watching I-Pin berate the afro-haired boy for his outcry. Reborn was one of Fong's friends, a master at nearly everything (or so it seemed to them). He was dark and mysterious, his speech formal and clipped, and his attitude ever the gentleman's. He was good in school too, often taking it in his duty to completely blaspheme the teachers' knowledge; naturally, he was head of the debate team as well. And he tutored both of Natsu's brothers on Wednesdays after school. To the chestnut-haired boy, Reborn was amazing: smart, strong, and courteous, he was one of his role models. Except that he was very, very scary… everything except that was amazing about him.
Naturally, Lambo hated him. (The thought process apparently went something like this: A, World Domination must require that the dictator be the best at everything. B, Reborn is the best at everything. Because of points A and B, therefore, Reborn must go (C). Only problem was, every time the five-year old ran up with some sort of weapon [bet it a stick or a stone], Reborn not only knew that it was coming and hardly moved a single muscle, but was absolutely merciless when slapping the offending item away and most likely severely injuring Lambo in the process.) "I- It's okay, I-Pin. How about… let's play Mafia!"
The other two agreed immediately. Lambo quickly decided that he would be a Boss, and everyone else must be his underling. I-Pin rejected the idea, and nominated Natsu to be their boss. In the end, Natsu was the Boss of a family against Lambo, and I-Pin was the assassin-for-hire whose current mission was to take Lambo's life. All was good.
…
All was not good.
The quartet had been tearing their way down the streets pell-mell, racing against the clock to avoid getting marked tardy. (Yamamoto laughed all the way, and Gokudera yelled at him. Tsuna took a moment to wonder how neither of them got out-of-breath before concentrating his efforts back on being on time.) And, of course, it had ended with Gokudera and Yamamoto crossing the threshold a fraction of a second before the bell rang.
Of course, this was a fraction of a second before Tsuna and Tsunayoshi got through the gates.
Drat.
"Hey," a slightly sinister voice greeted the two. Tsuna's flesh crawled, and he could see Tsunayoshi stiffen slightly. "Do you two know what time it is?"
Tsuna whirled around to see a dark-haired boy leaning casually against the courtyard wall. "Hi- Hibari-san!" he squeaked. "Er… time to get to class?"
"Nope, it's time to be in class," the prefect corrected, before standing up straight and walking over to them. "You two aren't where you're supposed to be. Which means…" Tsuna clung to his brother in fright when a pair of tonfas were drawn from somewhere inside the Disciplinary Committee Leader's jacket. "I'll need to tutor the herbivores a bit. Don't worry, I'll call an ambulance."
They cowered underneath the predatory smirk directed at them. "I'll bite you to death."
…
Tsuna opened his eyes to find himself being dragged down the hallway. Blinking, he realized that his entire body was sore, and that Tsunayoshi was being pulled along next to him, looking equally battered if not more so. For a few moments, he tried to understand what exactly was going on, before it hit him.
They'd been a mere second late. Hibari decided to bite them to death for it. And they were apparently now being used (rather heartlessly and unceremoniously) to sweep the floor before they probably became dead weights (literally). "Oh, you're awake," he heard a voice say, and he looked up to see that whoever was dragging them had stopped, and was looking at him.
"Hi- Hibari-san!" he squeaked out quietly, recognizing the tone (his eyes weren't focusing quite as well as they should have been able to).
The one in question snorted. "You two are too weak. It's boring. The Infirmary should be open." Tsuna shuddered as the prefect continued dragging the two by the backs of their vests. "Also, you're considerably weaker than your brother. At least he went down with a fight, as pitiful as it was. You're pathetic."
"So… why are you helping us?" the brunet asked timidly. "Help" being in the sense of "not hurting anymore."
"I told you I was going to call an ambulance, but your spinelessness made me not want to fight anymore. Besides, if I'd left you two out there you would've died for sure because some sort of higher animal would've come down and picked at your bones. A corpse lying on Namimori grounds would be unsightly."
It was at that time that they reached the infirmary door. Kicking it open, Hibari walked in without any warning or invitation. "Oi, what the-" the nurse shouted, jumping up. He was a rather rugged man, with stubble and a dark brown haircut sort of similar to Gokudera's, with thick eyebrows. Dr. Shamal looked the two injured up and down disapprovingly. "I don't treat boys, kid," he told Hibari, sniffing and sitting back down. "But if they're going to treat their own injuries, take the beds."
The prefect nodded, then proceeded to bodily throw Tsuna and his brother into beds next to each other. "Now, what did we learn today?" he asked venomously.
"Th- that being late is never an option! ?" Tsuna spluttered out, shrinking into the headboard (er, headrail?).
"Good. Next time I'll really kill you two."
With that, he turned on his heel and left. As Tsuna breathed a heavy sigh of relief before groaning in pain and sinking down into the mattress, Shamal spoke up. "One of these days, I'm going to come in here and find a pile of bones in one of those beds, you know. When that happens, I'll let the authorities know that it's you."
…
"So what you're saying is… you want me to let you off the hook for being late to class because you went to the infirmary?"
Tsuna nodded fearfully to the science teacher. Mr. Nezu was clearly shaking with barely suppressed rage at the quivering student. "Sawada-kun," he barked, "It's only 15 minutes into first period! Why in the world would you already need to be in the infirmary this early in the morning! ?"
"Tenth!" Gokudera shouted, standing up. "I was sure the baseball nut and I got to school at the same time you did!"
"I agree with Gokudera," Yamamoto piped up. "I thought you and Yoshi were right behind us; Gokudera looked like he was going to have a nervous breakdown when you didn't show up for homeroom."
"Er… well, that's the thing," Tsuna pointed out nervously. "We were right behind you." Raking a hand through his messy hair, he hummed in thought. "Um, let's see… I have a huge bruise on my lower back, various cuts and scrapes across my forearms, a scab forming above my left eyebrow, and I have a stomachache now. My brother has a bump on the top of his head, scrapes across his palms, three smaller bruises close to his shoulder blades, and I think his left arm might be mildly paralyzed from all the scrapes and impact. Oh, he's also limping on a bruised ankle and has a swollen cheek."
"And this happened why…?" Nezu asked again, a bit calmer this time, though still irate and probably more than a bit suspicious.
"We… ran into Hibari-san," he answered, twiddling his thumbs with embarrassment. "He threw us in the nurse's office because he didn't want us leaving corpses around… or something like that."
Nezu let out a deeply exhausted sigh. "Very well," he answered after a few moments pause. "Just… just go sit down. Don't think this is getting you out of your test grade. Which, may I add, severely lowered this entire class's average score…"
…
"Tsunayoshi-kun!"
The one in question turned when he heard his name called, to see a familiar head of indigo hair approaching, gathered in a unique "pineapple" style. "Mukuro!" he replied, stopping. "What is it?"
Mukuro stopped a pace or two away from the shorter brunet, and smiled. "Actually, I was wondering if you were free this weekend," he said.
Tsunayoshi blinked. "What for?"
"Well," the other began, twiddling with the hem of his shirt sleeve. "It'll be Nagi's birthday in a little more than a month, and I'm still not sure at all what I want to get her."
The brunet rested his chin in his palm and thought. "This early?" he asked, "I know her birthday is December 5th, and it's still late October now." Nagi was Mukuro's little sister. They were a year and a half apart, and so he was a third year above Tsunayoshi, whereas she was a first-year beneath. As far as Tsunayoshi knew, there seemed to be some sort of right eye problem that ran in the Rokudo family genes; Mukuro had complete heterochromia iridis, having a cobalt-blue left eye and a red-brown right. Nagi, on the other hand, had a weak right eye, and sometimes wore an eyepatch to school when it became a bother, so that only one brilliant violet orb would be seen. (Their father had partial heterochromia in his right eye, with the inside being dark brown with the outer edge blue.)
"Well the thing is, late November and early December is a time when all the stores are really packed and busy, so I try to get her presents in advance so that I don't have to worry about that," he explained. "And I'm not sure what to get her, because whenever I ask she says that anything I get her is wonderful. She says the same thing when I get Ken or Chikusa to ask, too."
Tsunayoshi nodded. That made sense: Ken Joshima and Chikusa Kakimoto were two boys who lived with the Rokudos, having been adopted at a young age. In fact, Chikusa's birthday had been just two days ago (he remembered this because he and Tsuna had helped Nagi to find him a good present; they did these sorts of favors for a lot of their friends, since everyone seemed to have it in their heads that the two were good at understanding people and their preferences/personalities). Of course she would answer just the same to them as she did with Mukuro; he knew that she thought of them as family even if they weren't always nice to her for being a quiet, shy girl. "Well, I think I'm free on Saturday," he replied. "We can meet at your house and go to the Shopping Center. What time works for you?"
"Hmm, how about… around 10?" the taller boy replied. "I think Nagi said she was invited on an excursion with Kyoko Sasagawa and Haru Miura that day, so that should work fine," he answered. Catching the confused look, he chuckled and clarified his statement. "Kufufu, an excursion is an outing or a day out, Tsunayoshi-kun."
"Oh," Tsunayoshi replied, the corner of his mouth tugging upward a bit. "Sure, 10 o'clock should work fine. I'll see you later, then." Turning, he headed off to eat lunch, limping a bit on his bruised ankle.
…
Tsuna and Tsunayoshi and Gokudera and Yamamoto were sitting on the school's roof to eat their lunch, just as they did whenever the sun was out. When Tsunayoshi arrived, Gokudera quickly stood up and moved to make room for him. "Tenth, Decimo, are you alright?" he asked worriedly. He'd already been mothering over Tsuna's physical condition during both 10 minute breaks between first, second, and third periods, which he hadn't been able to do with Tsunayoshi because the latter was in class 2-B with Ken and Chikusa, not 2-A with Tsuna and Gokudera and Yamamoto.
"I'm fine," Tsunayoshi insisted, waving the silver-haired boy off. "Though I think I'm in worse condition than Tsuna." He chuckled a bit, opening his lunchbox to begin eating. "Hibari always goes easier on you than on me, doesn't he?"
"Well you fight back, for one thing," his brother mumbled back around a mouthful of fried chicken. "And then you're better friends with Mukuro. He just picks on me. And you know how much Hibari-san hates him. Stands to reason he might not like you very much."
"Well, I'll ask Mukuro not to pick on you, then," the elder twin offered helpfully, shrugging. "I'm sure he'll listen if I ask politely."
"Or… I could blow them both to the ends of the earth," Gokudera offered, less helpfully. "It would do the rest of the world a bit of good, too."
Yamamoto laughed loudly, clapping Gokudera on the back. "I don't think it'd do them any good!" he chortled, "And I don't think it'd stop them from fighting, either. They'd probably keep going at it in heaven."
"Shut up, baseball idiot," Gokudera snapped at the laughing teen. "No one asked you!"
…
"Sawada-san! Please wait a moment!"
Both Sawadas turned just before they were to leave the school gate. As they stopped, a rather tall man with a large regent-style haircut came running up. "I found this in the hallway," he said, holding out a language textbook. "I believe this is yours, Ietsuna Sawada-san."
"Oh, thanks, Kusakabe-san!" Tsuna said cheerfully, taking the proffered item. "Haha, thanks for finding it; I got in trouble during language arts because I didn't have it."
"No problem," Tetsuya Kusakabe replied, giving a small smile. He was a very tall man at 181cm, with broad shoulders and a grass stalk always between his teeth. He was also Hibari's second-in-command as the Disciplinary Committee Vice Chairman.
Tsunayoshi tilted his head even farther up than usual to see the top of Kusakabe's head. "I can't believe you used to be in our elementary school classes," he deadpanned.
Kusakabe laughed. "Nor that you two are almost a month older than I am," he replied.
…
"Sorry for intruding!"
"Please excuse us!"
Ieyasu poked his head out from the kitchen door and smiled at the five children. "Welcome home, Tsuna, Tsunayoshi, Natsu," he greeted his own kin. "And Takeshi, Hayato, Don't worry about the formalities, come in have have a seat. We were just making food."
As Tsuna helped Natsu get his shoes off, Tsunayoshi blinked and asked, "We?"
Instead of answering the question, the father simply chose to escape back into the living room/kitchen area. Sighing, Tsuna smiled and picked up the five-year old. "Apparently dad doesn't want to answer, Tsunayoshi," he laughed. "Guess we'd just better find out for ourselves."
They all headed through the door, lead (or rather, directed) by Natsu who excitedly jumped up and down in his brother's arms. When they entered, all five gasped.
"Yo, kids," a man with red hair parted in the center and sitting on one of the couches greeted them. He had a rather peculiar fire-like tattoo on the right side of his face, and a cigarette dangled from his mouth. Next to the red-haired man sat a taller man with well-combed black hair pulled back into a long ponytail, smiling and waving at them. On another couch, another black-haired man, but this time with the hairstyle short and messy, sat with a child on either side of him. One was Kyoko, a girl in Tsuna's class who both twins had a crush on, and the other was Ryohei, her fiery, extreme older brother. The man, Knuckle, appeared to be reading them a book of some sort that they looked at with curiosity.
At the table, two more men sat, one with white-blond hair and the other a rather teal color. They appeared to be having a heated debate in some language that sounded vaguely northern European, though it could have been Swahili or even Martian for all the three Sawada sons knew (if anything, they seemed to keep jumping around between languages). On the other end of the table, Mukuro and Hibari sat having an even more heated game of Speed; both moved with a blurring ferocity, yet they hardly glanced at the cards, instead staring intently at the other as though the real objective was a staring contest with distractions. Chrome sat next to her brother, watching quietly.
"Dad!" Gokudera and Yamamoto both said in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Gokudera quickly followed with an irate (and rather childish) shout not to copy him, and Yamamoto just laughed.
"Okay, so maybe not we," Ieyasu called, pulling a tray of cookies out of the oven. "but you get the point."
At that moment, a loud slapping was heard, immediately followed by the sounds of two chairs falling over. "Kufufu, I believe this is a tie," Mukuro chuckled, and Hibari growled back.
"Again," the latter snarled, and the younger of the two complied.
Another loud slapping and chair falling was heard as the two grown adults on the other end of the table did the same thing as their children. "I'm right and you know it, Daemon Spade," the blond man snarled in Japanese, pounding his fist on the table again. "For one thing, you know very well that Wikipedia is not a legitimate source of information."
"Nufufu, there's a first time for everything, Alaude," Daemon replied, "And I'm sure this isn't your first time being wrong."
"You two need to shut up and speak Japanese like the rest of us," G, the red-haired man, yelled from across the room (and apparently not realizing the contradiction in his statement). Daemon shrugged and chuckled again, whereas Alaude shot the intruder a glare that could very well have killed someone.
The owner of the house chose that moment to set a plate of hot biscuits on the table. "Hey, get along, you two," he chided the two older men. "Look at Kyouya and Mukuro; at least they're playing nicely."
The five children at the door watched the mentioned two, and Tsuna thought with a bit of dread, That looks anything but nice… that poor table. Shaking his head of the thought, he walked to the table and sat next to Hibari, plopping Natsu down on his other side, closer to Alaude. "Thanks, dad!" he said, taking a cookie. Blowing lightly on it, he handed it to Natsu before taking one for himself.
This he nearly dropped when the older boy beside him jumped up and slammed his hands on the table again, causing him to juggle the still-hot treat in his hands. "I win," Hibari smirked, and Mukuro relented, scooting over so that Tsunayoshi could sit at the end of the table between him and his opponent. They sat down again, before both pairs of eyes wandered over to the plate of cookies on the table. Tsuna opened his mouth and was about to ask if he should pass the plate, when Hibari held up his hands. "Temporary truce," he said, before grabbing a cookie.
"Agreed," the other chuckled, taking two and passing one to Tsunayoshi, who accepted it and thanked him. Chrome was already happily eating one.
"Hey, why don't we all play Old Maid?" Tsuna asked, brightening up at his own smart suggestion.
Mukuro chuckled and smiled. "I don't see why not," he replied. "In fact, it sounds like a wonderful idea. Unless, of course, Hibari-kun is afraid of losing a-"
Hibari all but threw the deck of cards he had been packing away at Mukuro's face, who was hit squarely in the nose with the box. "Say anything like that again and I'll kill you," the raven-haired boy growled, before turning to Tsuna. "Pass me another one of those cookies, they're good." The brunet complied, and Mukuro was about to start dealing when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" Tsuna called, standing up. As he did so, Alaude and Daemon stood up to move their argument to the couches, and Yamamoto and Gokudera took the empty space. Tsuna nearly slid down the hallway in his haste, and ended up crashing into the door anyway. Opening it, he rubbed his nose ruefully and blinked at the guest. "Oh, hello, Lampo," he smiled, checking his hand to make sure there was no nosebleed. "And Lambo, I-Pin."
"Hi, Tsuna-kun," the green-haired teenager greeted. He was a little bit taller than the brunet, with light green hair and child holding onto each of his hands. He, too, was a grade above Tsuna, being classmates with Reborn and Fong and a few of their friends in 3-C. "Lambo was saying that he wanted to come over, so it's alright if I come over too, right? I-Pin and Fong are staying at our house this week while their parents are out."
Tsuna laughed. Lampo had a strange way of talking, in which his word choice gave the impression that he was very full of himself, but his personality was often timid in the presence of danger. "Of course it's alright, Lampo," he said, opening the door. "We have company over, so I'm sure three more won't make a difference."
As they made their way back into the living room, Natsu jumped down from his spot and ran over to his two friends. "I-Pin! Lambo!" he shouted cheerfully, "Let's play!"
As the three rushed over to the living room, getting in the adults' way, Tsuna offered to look after them so that Lampo could go play Old Maid with everyone else. However, the latter only waved him away and sighed. "It's alright," he said tiredly. "I'm supposed to look after them. Man I hate kids." The last sentence was mumbled, but Tsuna caught it and smiled a bit before returning to the table.
Turning, he would've dropped something had he been holding anything. Staring with a mixture of horror and shock at Mukuro, the heterochromatic boy looked back with curiosity. "Is there something wrong?" he asked, scrunching his eyebrows in thought.
Mukuro! Nosebleed! Nosebleed!
Sitting back down, he tugged on Hibari's jacket to whisper something into the older boy's ear (Gokudera scowled a bit, but didn't question it). "Hibari-san, should I tell him that there's blood all over half his face…?"
Pulling away, Hibari shook his head and smirked in amusement. "No, don't. I'd like to see how long it takes him. And if it ends in death due to blood loss, well, good news for me."
Tsuna nodded slowly, before wondering why no one else had told him. Gokudera couldn't have cared less about Mukuro's well-being, so that was out. Yamamoto probably hadn't noticed, being unable to read the atmosphere. Chrome seemed to be debating with herself whether to speak up or not. And Tsunayoshi… well… Tsuna wasn't entirely sure what he was thinking at that moment. Shaking his head, he took another cookie. "No, nothing's wrong, Mukuro. I just thought I saw something. Deal, please?"
Mukuro nodded, albeit a bit skeptically, but smiled and began passing out the cards anyway. Soon all seven were engaged in the game, taking many breaks to insult each other or take some more snacks. The father came by with a platter of drinks at one point, and they kept going.
At one point, there was a great roaring noise from the adults (and six children), whereupon all seven at the table turned around to look at the parents they had left alone for the past hour and a half or so. They were all laughing and talking, and seemed to be having a blast. (Well, maybe not Alaude. But he seemed to be having as much fun as was physically possible for him.) Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Tsunayoshi turned to see Lampo standing there. "Tsunayoshi," the green-haired boy drawled lazily, "I've been meaning to ask you, but I never quite understood what all your fathers do for a living. I mean, I know they work together and are well-paid, but I don't understand exactly."
"Um… It's sort of like… well… they do… er…" trailing off, the brunet turned to look around the table in a silent plea for assistance.
Tsuna fidgeted nervously. "Uh, well… it has to do with… um…"
The table fell silent and still as each person (or rather, the ones who cared about the topic of conversation) mulled over how best to answer.
Chrome was the first to pipe up. "Actually, they all work part time for the Ya-"
"-The Yamamotos!" Tsuna blurted/spluttered. "It's not on a regular schedule or anything, just sometimes. And they all have regular jobs too; that's the one that they're all together on. But that one's… secret."
A slightly confused Lamp nodded slowly, before a quick-thinking Yamamoto offered the three little kids more cookies from the most recent batch. "Haha, eat up, alright?" he told them. "And someday you'll be big and do your own great things!" Tsuna gave a sigh of relief; the situation had been salvaged. He'd been lucky to be able to blurt in like that; it was uncommon for him to think well on his feet. Nevertheless, he was slightly amused by his own ingenuity. It was true, all 6 of the fathers occasionally worked at Yamamoto's family restaurant, Takesushi, with the boy's father and uncle (he looked much more like his uncle, but was almost his father reincarnate in personality). Even some of the kids had had the odd days of part-time working there when they needed the allowance; it was sort of like an unenforced tradition in this strange web of relationships that mixed family and friendship together.
"Natsu-!" Lambo whined. "Come on, let's play!"
The five-year old "lion" nodded and chased, then paused. "What about I-Pin?" he asked.
Lambo merely waved a finger and made a light "tsk-tsk" noise. "My, my, Natsu doesn't know anything," he smiled rather mischievously. "Don't worry about I-Pin, she's being a steaming red pepper anyway." At this, Natsu huffed and followed his friend, Lampo trailing behind his brother and said brother's friend.
Tsuna blinked and turned to look at Gokudera. "Steaming red pepper?" he repeated, confused.
Gokudera shrugged. "I don't know either, Tenth," he admitted. "But since this is the idiot cow we're talking about, it probably means nothing."
Tsuna nodded. Yes, it probably meant nothing, since it was Lambo who'd said it. Feeling a tugging on his sleeve, he looked down to see I-Pin being, well, a steaming red pepper, hiding behind his chair and blushing a brilliant shade of red. Picking her up, he sighed; Natsu had always been able to understand others' strange descriptions without batting an eyelid. He, as the older brother, didn't have that kind of ability. Perhaps it was because Natsu usually had trouble explaining things too (once, he had been trying to describe a bird he had seen, and spent five minutes "flying" around the room and mimicking the chirps). But then again, Tsunayoshi couldn't either, but he had something too; Tsunayoshi was strange in that he always seemed to know when others were coming towards him (he was strangely perceptive when Mukuro or Hibari or both were in the vicinity). These made Tsuna jealous of his brothers sometimes, and he would tell them so. Then, they would tell him that he was more lucky: apparently the middle son had the intuition to know when others were lying or not telling the whole truth (said son didn't understand why that was a great thing, however).
"What's wrong, I-Pin?" he asked the small child now sitting on his lap. I-Pin was a peculiar child, being much more mature than Lambo (actually, most kids were, but that was irrelevant), but very shy and blushed often. Clinging to his shirt, she stretched upwards to whisper in his ear. "Who's that?"
He looked towards where she was pointing, only to see Hibari staring off into the distance behind Mukuro's head. (Or maybe he was trying to bore a hole through the annoyance's skull. He wasn't really sure.) "That's Hibari-san, I-Pin," he whispered back. "Why?"
Still blushing, she squinted at him (though one could hardly tell from her already very thin eyes), and whispered back, "Because he looks like Fong." Tsuna blinked. He looked at Hibari, then down to I-Pin again, then repeated several times. True; though he had never really dwelled on it, Hibari and Fong did look rather similar. They had the same thin eyes and pale, mature yet youthful face, framed by mid-length black hair that came down into a triangle in the center bangs. They could've been twins; differences were that Fong had a more calming presence and a long ponytail down his back, doing everything with a polite smile, whereas Hibari's aura radiated danger and commanded respect, with little facial expression beyond a mildly sadistic smirk. "I think he looks cool…"
Tsuna opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a loud and obnoxious five-year old voice. "Tsuna! I-Pin!" Lambo shouted, "C'mon let's play!" (Natsu seemed to be playing with Lampo at the moment.)
Tsunayoshi smiled and picked up the screaming child, hushing him. "Not now, Lambo," he said. "I-Pin's talking to Tsuna."
"Okay, then Lambo-san will be quiet!" he shout-whispered. "Because Lambo-san is a good k- gupyah!" He yelped the last word and clung onto Tsunayoshi's shirt front. When the latter asked what was wrong, he cling tighter and pointed a finger shakily at Mukuro. "M- Monster!" he wailed. "Lambo-san doesn't want to die! Tsuna–, save Lambo-san!"
Most everyone else burst out laughing as Mukuro gave the most amusing face any of them had ever seen; it was that of someone who would be offended, confused, indignant, and lost for words all at the same time. Yamamoto and Tsunayoshi and Tsuna would've done spit-takes had they been drinking anything (actually, Yamamoto barely escaped spraying Gokudera with orange juice). Gokudera had snorted loudly and smirked at the pineapple, and Hibari had an expression of pure, uncensored smugness and amusement without actually making any noise. Chrome politely hid her face behind her hand to hide the fact that she was laughing at her beloved elder brother.
"Th- that's not a monster, Lambo," Tsunayoshi managed to splutter out. "That's Mukuro."
"Why I never!" Mukuro huffed indignantly. "I should say very well that I'm not a monster. The nerve!"
"But there's blood all over his face!" Lambo kept wailing. "He must've eaten someone!" Even Gokudera laughed this time, pounding a fist on the table and burying his face in his arm. (Hibari gave an almost inaudible "pfft" sound.)
Mukuro smiled, a nerve twitching near his temple. "I'll have you know that I've never eaten a person in my life," he continued. "I imagine that they taste quiet horrible; just think of all those impurities that humans have floating around in their systems."
…
It was around 8 in the evening when the next knock on the door came. "I'll get it!" Giotto called, and a half-asleep Natsu clung onto his shirt front as he stood up with the child in the crook of his arm. Lambo and I-Pin were in similar states. The former was curled up in the midst of various plastic candy wrappers and paper napkins, tucked in the corner between one side of a couch and the floor; a large snore came from the fast asleep form before he snuffled, shifted a bit and fell quiet again. I-Pin leaned against him, yawning quietly and blinking as though to stay awake. Opening the door, he blinked at the person on the steps. "Oh, hello, Luce," he smiled, bowing respectfully to the older woman. "And your daughter and grandchildren as well, what a surprise."
Luce, the grandmother, laughed quietly and nodded in reply. "Good evening, Giotto," she greeted. She, too, smiled, though hers was much more small, but no less beaming. "Say hello Reborn, Uni."
"Good evening mister Sawada," the two children chorused. Uni looked much like a shrunken version of her grandmother, with blue-black hair in a neat bob cut and long ponytail, dressed in a slightly puffy white dress and light gray bolero. She was 10, a fifth grader. Her 'brother' (though they had no blood relation; Reborn was an adopted child), was five years older, in the grade above Tsuna's. He was dressed as a near polar opposite of his sister; black suit and tie with orange-yellow dress shirt and matching fedora. The two children's mother, Aria, was taller than the grandmother, dressed in black pants and a red dress shirt.
"Formal as always," Giotto smiled, nodding back at the children. Aria had been Giotto's friend in their younger years back in the suburbs of Italy. From there, he had met Luce, a kind woman with a background in the upper echelon of society. Luce's family was very traditional in many ways. They all had a tendency to dress rather formally no matter what the occasion, and spoke with a polite distance. "Why don't you come in?" he asked, holding the door open wider.
Aria shook her head. "Sorry, we're on our way somewhere," she declined. "Just stopped by to say hello. Oh, and you might want to get them to keep it down a bit; it's getting late so your party may turn into a neighborhood disturbance."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Giotto said.
Or rather, attempted to say, and was instead interrupted after "talk-" by a large crashing sound, followed by grunts and shouts that sounded rather like Hibari stomping Mukuro's face into the ground and Tsuna/Tsunayoshi/Chrome trying to dissuade him, then Yamamoto laughing and Gokudera shouting. "Scratch that," the blond sighed. "I have a very good idea of what you're talking about."
"Alright, we'll be going, then," Luce said as she turned to leave, waving. "Come on, Uni."
Giotto nodded before closing the door. Reborn stood staring at the entrance for a few moments, listening to the sounds of his classmates' ruckus. Suddenly a loud banging was heard and silence descended, and he smirked. "Reborn?" his mother called. "We're going, come along."
"Yes mother," he replied, then trotted after his family, turning once to look back at the house.
Many neighbors of the Sawada family were of the opinion that they were a very smoothly-run group. Many others, however, always had moments of humor when they thought about just how oversimplified that opinion was.
Thank you for reading another chapter! (Even if it was a huge omake!) I'm currently wondering whether I should do a third chapter or not, which would probably be about how the Hibaris spend their nights… but I'm not so sure if I'd be up to it. A- anyway, thank you very much! (Without MAW I had a bit of a tough time self-proofreading, but I hope I did alright…!) This seems like it might be taking place in the same universe as the "7DaysWar"/"Two's Company, Three's a Crowd" story I wrote… except I haven't finished that yet (even though it was begun much earlier), and I'm still trying to decide between the two titles…
Anyway, thank you again! (I like this Natsu-kun. I drew him and he seems like a cute kid.)
