Disclaimer: Ugh, I'm not writing these anymore! D too troublesome… just read the first eight chapters' disclaimers if you reeeaaally wanna see it. But I think it's obvious that I don't own KHR. I does no owns KHR (see, I can't possibly own it with such bad grammar! Yay bad grammar! \(^o^)/ )

A/N: Thanks to the lovely readers still hanging in there and sorry for updates that take SO long, but school and all that…

Joliegold: Thanks for taking the time to review (^_^) really appreciate it! Glad you like it so far~ Haha, thanks for the thumbs up and dashing smile as well! ;-)

On with the story! Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 9

Fifteen minutes into the studying period, Tsuna's mother knocked on the door and entered with a tray of snacks and juice. "Here you go, dears!" she called cheerfully, setting the tray down on an open piece of table. "Study hard, okay?"

"Thank you, Sawada-san. You're just as kind as Tsuna says," Arica said, giving the woman a little smile.

"Uwah," Nana exclaimed, pressing her hands to her pink cheeks. "Oh, Tsu-kun, you always bring such polite and pretty girls home! You seem to be becoming very popular with the girls, ne? Looks like I don't have to be worried about finding you a nice girl to settle down with~"

"Mom!" Tsuna exclaimed, his cheeks turning red as a tomato. "Could you please go now? We need to study."

"Hmm?" Nana said. Blinking at her son before a blinding grin lit up her face. "Oh! Yes, of course! I get it; I'll be going then." When she had backed up completely to the door, she gave the two teenagers a wink before slamming the door shut behind her giggling form. She so doesn't get it, both of them thought.

"I'm so sorry, Arica-chan! I don't know what's wrong with her head sometimes," Tsuna quickly apologized to the brunette, afraid she would feel offended like Kyoko did that one time upon being called his girlfriend – of all things!

"No, no, it's fine," Arica reassured as she took a sandwich from the tray after having been given the go-ahead by Tsuna. Saying thanks for the food, both tucked into the delicious snacks.

The studying continued after their short break and Arica found herself smiling slightly each time Tsuna would give a triumphant shout when he got something right. She was surprised, to say the least. Never before had she felt that way. She had never felt this kind of warmth spread through her upon seeing someone else happy like that. She liked being the reason for that happiness since she has never seen someone react like that to something she has done.

"I know fifteen of the elements already!" Tsuna cheered, followed by a loud whoop and Arica chuckled a little. Reborn, still perched on her shoulder, was watching the scene unfold with interest, studying Arica's reactions and expressions the entire time. He had found that she acted genuinely happy when Tsuna was happy, and she was a great tutor to boot. Hmm, maybe we could add another member to the family, the baby thought as Tsuna celebrated.

Not ten seconds later, the door banged open loudly, making Arica's head whip around and Tsuna released an ear piercing 'hiiii!' What they saw was both surprising, yet totally expected. In the doorway stood Gokudera Hayato, eyes alert and darting around the room, four sticks of dynamite clutched in each hand.

Gokudera had been bored out of his mind just sitting around at home and his thoughts had drifted to the Tenth's tutoring session with Arica that day. Instantly, the bomber was worried. What if she really was an undercover Mafioso? His precious boss was in danger! And would he even learn anything from her? What if he couldn't understand a single word she said; the Tenth was brilliant and could be affected by her stupid methods of studying and could only be taught with the most sophisticated ways of learning. Or she wasn't even there to teach him in the first place and it was all a scheme to get him alone and he could already be in danger! Though, Reborn-san is with him…but one could never be too careful.

Gokudera was on his feet and out the door within a few minutes, heading towards Tsuna's house at a brisk pace. He didn't want to look like he was worried, though, so he would watch from a safe distance, keeping his eyes peeled and ears open for any sign of danger. When the bomber reached the small, cozy suburban home, he hesitated, not sure on what to do exactly. If he were too close, the Tenth would surely see him and he would make a fool of himself. Then again, if he were too far away he wouldn't be able to jump in fast enough to fight.

The Storm's contemplation didn't last long, however, when he heard the voice of his boss resonate from the upstairs window – his bedroom. Shouting. Gokudera was on alert immediately, his dynamites out and ready for action. Luckily he decided to have a smoke on his way over and now had a half-smoked cigarette ready for use. Rushing through the front door without warning – which he would profusely apologize for later – the silvette took the steps two at a time and burst through the bedroom door.

His eyes darted around the room for any signs of immediate danger as he asked, "Juudaime! What happened? I heard you yell and came immediately!"

"G-Gokudera-kun?! Wha–?" Tsuna stuttered, trying to calm his racing heart as he stared at his unexpected visitor. "N-nothing's wrong! P-please put those away!"

The bomber's eyes landed on the girl a few feet from him and his eyes narrowed at her. Arica was staring blankly at him, though she was keeping a careful eye on the dynamites. "You! What did you do to the Tenth?" Gokudera shouted at her with a menacing glare, Tsuna's words lost on him as soon as he saw her.

"I'm tutoring him, remember?" she answered slowly, as if talking to a child. "And 'hello' to you to, Mr. Temperamental."

"Oi, Gokudera," Reborn suddenly snapped and Arica flinched slightly at the high-pitched voice right next to her ear; she had all but forgotten he was there. "You're interrupting Tsuna's studies. If you're going to be the cause of his bad grades, you're going to pay."

The Storm's eyes widened and he instantly dropped to his knees, bowing low in front of Tsuna. "Please accept my deepest and sincerest apologies, Tenth! I-I heard you yell and I began to panic, so I just rushed in. I promise, this will never happen again…unless I'm sure of what the danger is." He then looked at Arica once more and she quirked a brow in curiosity. "Although you can't blame me with such a suspicious person hanging around."

"How am I the suspicious one?" she asked a little incredulously, her eyes narrowing challengingly. "Aren't you the one running around with pockets stuffed with dynamites?"

"That's different!" Gokudera snapped, looking away to hide his slight embarrassment. That had been a good point, though he would never admit the stupid woman was right. Meanwhile, Tsuna sweatdropped as he thought that it wasn't really different at all.

"Well, now that you're here, Gokudera, you might as well stay and learn something, too," Reborn piped up once more before gesturing for Arica to continue the current lesson. The bomber didn't even have a chance to protest or ask what she could teach him before the girl began to address Tsuna.

He stood in the doorway, glaring at the back of her head, hoping it would catch fire, but she just kept rambling on. Finally deciding that there was nothing else to do, Gokudera hesitantly approached the table they were studying at and sat down to his boss' right, as far away from her as possible. The stupid woman was sitting across from him, making it easy to watch her every move.

As the lesson wore on, the Storm realized that her words were starting to get through to even him, her voice seeming to ensnare your attention whether you wanted it or not, and he had started listening to her nonsense before he knew it. And it wasn't really nonsense like he had thought. She was telling stories and making up a bunch of…rhymes. Not just any stories and rhymes, though, but ones that connected to the different elements of the periodic table. The only reason it had sounded like a bunch of utterly useless crap, was because he would never learn or teach others like that.

Then he had glanced at his precious boss and seen him take notes and listen intently, his eyes nearly sparkling as he hung on every word spilling from her lips. That's when he realized that she may be a good tutor after all; the Tenth hadn't looked like that when he had taught him the previous day.

"Wow, Arica-chan, you're great at this! You should do this for money or something," Tsuna laughed happily, pulling Gokudera from his thoughts. He was still staring at Arica and saw the small smile she gave his boss while waving away his praise. It made the bomber's eyes narrow and something was twisting, coiling like a snake in his gut. But the feeling wasn't directed at the girl, but at Tsuna. Gokudera immediately scolded himself, feeling guilty even though he wasn't sure what the feeling was exactly…

"If all other career options fail, I'll consider it," she grinned.

"I underestimated you, Arica," Reborn said, tipping his fedora to shadow his usual smirk as his obsidian eyes shifted towards the silver haired boy. "Better than Gokudera over there, wouldn't you say? Tsuna?"

"E-eh?!" the young Decimo stuttered at the unexpected question thrown his way. He didn't know what to say as his eyes darted nervously between his frowning right-hand man and Arica's neutral expression, caught between a rock and a hard place. "I-I…they're b-both great tutors!"

"You're a terrible liar, Dame-Tsuna," the arcobaleno stated bluntly. "In an hour, you've managed to memorize twenty elements of the periodic table, under Arica's guidance. Yesterday, you only managed to learn the basics of electron exchange when atoms fuse. And even that took you half an afternoon. It's pretty clear to me who's better here…"

"R-Reborn-san!" Gokudera stuttered in a panic. Was he going to replace him with that…that woman as the Tenth's right-hand? He couldn't let that happen!

"Uhm…excuse me. I have to get something to drink; my throat's a little dry from all the talking," Arica said softly as she stood up and walked over to where they had placed the snack tray on the dresser. The glares and threatening aura radiating towards her made her skin itch a little.

Reborn had dismounted from his position on her shoulder and was now sitting on Tsuna's, testing his knowledge of what he had just learned, completely dropping the subject they had been discussing a second ago. Gokudera's eyes were once again trained on the girl as she poured herself some juice. He couldn't be too careful – she could slip something into the beverage for when Juudaime decided to have some too…

As she sat the glass down, Arica accidentally knocked down a small figurine that was placed a little too close to the edge. She apologized under her breath, although none of the others seemed to have noticed anything. She carefully bent down to retrieve it, and that's when it happened. Having been glaring at her back the whole time, Gokudera's eyes instinctively went downward to follow her hand, but instead his eyes caught something else.

For the first time he noticed that she was wearing shorts. And not just any shorts; extremely short shorts. The way she was bending over wasn't helping with that statement either. Green eyes widened as they locked onto the rising hem of the shorts. They made her slightly tanned legs seem longer than they were as they rode up and the bomber felt the blood rush to his face when the fabric only barely managed to cover the curves of her bottom.

Even though it hadn't looked like it, Reborn had, in fact, noticed when the girl knocked over the figurine and when she had retrieved it. He had definitely noticed Gokudera's reaction. He had to suppress a snicker when Arica turned back towards them and the Storm whipped his head in the complete opposite direction, desperately trying to cover up the tiny nosebleed he had gotten. What a child, the arcobaleno thought.

Arica didn't notice as she sat back down to Tsuna's left as he proudly handed her the answers to Reborn's quickly written quiz. "Well done, Tsuna. You're sure to ace that test tomorrow," she told him proudly and the boy scratched his cheek, looking embarrassed at the words. That warm feeling came back to her and it made her wonder if that was what a home and family was supposed to feel like. She couldn't even remember the last time she had felt that way – she never really had a true family or friends. Well, except for that one all those years ago… And there had been her mother, whom she vaguely remembered even now after almost ten years since her death.

"Che." They all looked over to the source of the noise and saw Gokudera scowling, arms crossed over his chest. Her goody-two-shoe attitude was starting to grate on his nerves and it annoyed him even more the way his boss was falling for it – not that he thought the Tenth was naïve or anything, but still.

"Gokudera-kun? What's wrong?" Tsuna questioned with concern.

"Isn't it obvious, Dame-Tsuna? He's sour because there's actually someone better than him," Reborn interjected before the bomber could respond. The infant was bored just sitting around and watching his student study. He wanted some entertainment.

"That stupid woman isn't better than me!" Gokudera growled, glowering at said woman. He was really getting fed up by all the praise she was receiving.

Arica quirked a brow at him. "Are you…jealous?"

That was unexpected… "W-what! Why the hell would I be jealous of you?" he snapped in disbelief and annoyance.

"Because I could actually teach Tsuna something," she replied calmly, a small, teasing smirk forming on her lips. "Just admit it. You can't stand being shown up; by a girl, no less. Sorry to disappoint you, but I bet there are a lot of things I can outshine you in, Mr. Temperamental."

"Why you!" The bomber was pissed off now. Without thinking, he grabbed a pen from the table, sending it darting right at her face.

Arica acted on impulse, her hand shooting up at the speed of light to catch the flying object a mere centimeter from her cheek, just beneath her right eye. The room was plunged into shocked silence as two pairs of wide eyes stared at her while another shadowed gaze examined her with brand new interest. The girl grew a little self-conscious with all the eyes on her and she looked down, clearing her throat a little awkwardly as she fiddled with the pen.

The tense atmosphere was broken as the door slammed open for the second time that day, making the three teenagers jump. "Gyahahaha! Lambo-san has arrived!" the cause of the ruckus exclaimed and Arica saw a black blob shoot into the room and she soon realized it was a small child. He ran a few laps around Gokudera, yelling, "Ahodera! Give Lambo-san all the grape candies you have, or else!" He then stopped to poke at the scowling bomber's arm with a sinister look on his face. "You know you want to."

The silvette's patience snapping was almost audible as a vein throbbed in his forehead. "You stupid fucking cow! Why the hell would I want to give you candy? You're too damn annoying!" he fumed, picking the child up by the scruff of his neck to dangle him in the air.

The child – Lambo – started kicking and screaming at the Storm, who merely continued insulting him while Tsuna was at a loss on what to do and embarrassed of having his new friend see that behavior. The final straw came when Gokudera pulled back his fist to whack the now crying child on the head. Arica was on her feet and had lunged across the table in an instant. She pulled Lambo from Gokudera's grasp and into her arms, grabbing the fist that had already been heading his way with her free hand and twisting. It wasn't a hard twist, but it was enough to make Gokudera's eye twitch.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she snapped at him, letting go of his hand to pat the sobbing child's back reassuringly while cradling him to her chest protectively. "You can't go around punching five-year-old kids, least of all with the amount of force you were using."

"Wha-? Bu-! Didn't you see how annoying he was being?" the bomber asked incredulously, gaping at the way the brunet was shushing the cow child, reducing his wailing to sniffling in mere seconds. "He was asking for it!"

"That doesn't make it acceptable to knock him unconscious! You don't see me going around punching people just because they annoy me. Believe me, you would've been the first," she growled back, having had enough of this delinquent's temper and the way he handled everything with rudeness and violence. Tsuna was watching nervously, afraid that Gokudera might hurt Arica, while Reborn was observing, him mind going a thousand miles a second as it processed every detail. All of them noticing at some point the drastic flip in the girl's attitude. Arica then turned her attention to Lambo. "Are you alright, Lambo-san? If you could be patient, I'll take you to town sometime and buy you as many candies as you'd like?"

"Yay! Lambo-san will own all the candy in the world and share with no one!" the Lightning guardian exclaimed, tears all but forgotten. He then seemed to realize he was being held by a complete stranger. "Hmm~ who are you? Did you come here to be Lambo-san's subordinate?"

"Kono ahoshi! No one wants to be your subordinate; who the hell would be so stupid as to want to follow you?" Gokudera yelled once more. Tsuna rushed forward, trying his best to placate his friend.

Arica's eye twitched slightly but she decided it best to ignore him. The mention of subordinate did stick in the back of her mind for later inspection, though. "My name is Arica," she told Lambo with a warm smile. "And you are Lambo, I presume. It's nice to meet you, Lambo-san." Arica didn't use honorifics on a daily basis like everyone else around her – she wasn't used to it and it felt awkward. The only reason she did so now was because it would make the child happy. "How about we go next weekend?"

"Gyahaha~ Lambo-san likes you, Arica! Much better than Ahodera!" Lambo giggled, sticking his tongue out at the bomber.

Gokudera gritted his teeth and just wanted to lunge at both of them and strangle them, but his precious Tenth was blocking his path and he wouldn't dream of laying a finger on him.

"Is…Ahodera always this mean to you?" Arica inquired, making sure the fuming teen could hear her. For some reason, she felt the urge to tease him, to rile him up. It was kind of fun to piss him off.

Lambo nodded vigorously as he answered. "He always calls Lambo-san stupid and beats Lambo-san up even when I didn't do anything wrong."

"You little– Stop making me look bad!" He finally managed to side-step Tsuna and stomped over to them. He reached out for Lambo, but his hand was slapped away.

Now Arica couldn't ignore him anymore. She had never before considered herself a children's person, but she couldn't bear to see little kids get hurt, especially by others older than themselves whom they couldn't fight back against. Most likely because of her own traumatic experiences in that place as a child. When she was eight years old, she had been through all that pain, caused by adults. She would never be able to stand by and watch others suffer pain, whether they be children or even older.

She sat Lambo down and he clung to her leg, peeking around it fearfully at the demonic bomber. Arica glared at said bomber and he had to consciously stop himself from taking a step back as her light blue-green eyes turned dark, like a forbidden, haunted forest. When she spoke, her voice was low and serious. "Do you always pick on people smaller and younger than you? Why can't you pick on someone your own size for once?"

"If you're suggesting yourself, I have news for you. You're not my size," he spat back, making a point in stepping closer to tower over her.

Arica's eye twitched again at the being-short comment and a mischievous smirk worked its way onto her lips. "Oh yeah?" she asked innocently before her fist connected with his unsuspecting gut and Gokudera grunted in both surprise and pain as he doubled over a little, coming face to face with her. "Now I am."

"A-Arica-chan, Gokudera-kun! Please don't fight!" Tsuna panicked as he came to stand between the two, finally having been forced to step in.

"I say let them," Reborn countered nonchalantly, now on Tsuna's head, his obsidian orbs trained on the two rivals facing off. "That way we can see who's telling the truth."

"W-what? Reborn, you can't do that!" Tsuna exclaimed and he was going to say more before he stopped himself. He would sound sexist if he said they couldn't fight because Arica was a girl, and it would sound as if he thought women were weak just because she was smaller than his right-hand man. And in his eyes, women were anything but weak – the ones in his life at that moment were proof enough of that.

"I'm in," Arica said before the boy could decide on what to say. She would prove that she'll not be walked over like that.

"Let's do it," Gokudera agreed and sparks could be seen flying as their glaring gazes clashed, making Tsuna gulp.

"The fight will take place outside, then," Reborn stated and the two teenagers headed to the backyard.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Tsuna muttered, but followed anyway, picking a cheering Lambo up on his way to the door.

A/N: The end!...of this chapter, anyway. Some badly written action in the next chapter – if you all hang in there that is haha. Hope to see you next chapter~ hopefully I'll update sooner, but I won't promise anything.

Review, review, review! *does review dance, throwing chocolate in the air* CHOCOLATE!she d never be able to stand by and watch others suffer pain, whether they be children or was blocking his path and h