Hayato rubbed his eyes sleepily as he wandered down the hallways of this strange mansion. It wasn't long before he heard sounds of crying and followed it to find the little brunette from earlier, Tsuna.
All the adults around him were panicking, trying to get him to stop crying, and Hayato felt a small pang of jealousy. Whenever he cried like that, he got into trouble with his father.
The only time he didn't get into trouble was when that nice lady who taught him to play the piano used to come over. When she saw him crying, she didn't get mad; she just hugged him tight and told him that everything would be alright.
After just a moment of hesitation, Hayato steeled his resolve and decided to approach them, and the adults looked up at him.
Ignoring their curious gazes, the silverette promptly walked up to the little brunette and clumsily wrapped his arms around him. When Tsuna looked up at him, he tried a hesitant smile, not saying anything.
For some reason, that smile reassured Tsuna, and he thought that maybe this onii-san wasn't as scary as he seemed. Quickly rubbing away his tears, Tsuna offered him a shaky smile, and Hayato's own grin grew wider. Letting go, he ruffled his hair playfully, and placed a brotherly kiss on his cheek.
The Vongola guardians watched in amazement as Tsuna went from a scared little kid, back to the fluffy little ball of energy he had been before his nap.
And from that moment on, Tsuna and Hayato were inseparable. Despite not speaking the same language, they somehow understood each other perfectly, and one was never seen without the other. It got to the point that Tsuna wouldn't even go to sleep if his "Hayato-nii" wasn't there, and vice versa.
Meanwhile, the same thing seemed to be happening with Mukuro and Nagi. After the hair incident on the first day, the illusionist became strangely protective of the only girl in the group.
For most of the first week, everyone pretty much did their own thing; Hayato and Tsuna explored the mansion and occasionally the gardens, an activity in which Ryohei and/or Takeshi sometimes participated. Kyoya was alone most of the time, doing who knows what, but sometimes he would join Tsuna and Hayato on their travels if Ryohei and Takeshi weren't there. The Japanese skylark didn't have anything against them, he just didn't like crowds; the only reason he put up with Hayato (whom he did have something against) was because Tsuna never strayed more than a meter away from him, and he had gotten quite attached to the brunette; in fact, all of them had. Even Nagi and Mukuro sometimes decided they could stop playing pranks on Daemon and get to know the other pair.
It wasn't until one day, when Asari was bored and with nothing much to do, that he came up with the bright idea of teaching the kids a bit about each other's languages.
It took some bribing on Kyoya's part, but he eventually got all seven of them together in the library.
"What are we going to be doing here today, Asari-nii?"asked Tsuna curiously, tilting his head to the side in question. The guardians had (thankfully) convinced the Japanese children to call them big brother instead of uncle, seeing as most of them weren't even twenty yet.
"I'm going to teach you a little about the language your Hayato-nii speaks," replied Asari in a friendly voice, and saw that little brunette's eyes brighten at this.
Turning to the silverette sitting beside him, and began gesturing excitedly, and Hayato thought he had the gist of what he was trying to tell him.
Turning to the Japanese man, he asked, "Are we going to learn their language too?"
Asari allowed himself a moment to be impressed at their system of communication, then smiled. "Of course," he said. "But, unfortunately, this does mean that you and Mukuro will have to be separated from your other halves for a few hours."
"What?" shouted Mukuro, standing up. "Why? If they're learning Italian, wouldn't we be able to help them? And they'd help us learn their language easier too!"
"Yes, but things will be a lot faster if we have the lessons at the same time instead of one after the other. Once you've all learned the very basics, though, we'll get back together and help each other, okay? Don't you want to be able to talk to Nagi?"
Tsuna, who had been watching silently until then, tugged on Hayato's arm and looked up at him inquiringly.
The silverette took his right hand, showing it to represent himself, and put it up against his left hand, which seemed to represent Tsuna, then brought them apart.
Tsuna, having understood what his friend meant, widened his eyes in surprise, but actually took it unexpectedly well. Smiling up at Hayato, he nodded once, then turned and went to sit beside Takeshi and Kyoya, who smirked infuriatingly at Hayato.
Supressing the urge to attack the older male, Hayato turned and followed Asari to another part of the library with Mukuro also following; Knuckle, who had been quiet all this time, stayed behind with the other five children.
After seven days of constantly having Tsuna at his side, it felt odd to look over and see Mukuro in his place, and he could see the pineapple head felt the same. This little fact had the strange consequence of them becoming a bit friendlier towards each other.
Asari noticed this, and smiled; none of the guardians had expected that the only two Italian kids would bond with the more timid of the Japanese kids instead of with each other. Somehow, though, it was very fitting.
And for the next hour and a half, Asari taught Hayato and Mukuro about honorifics and the basics of the Japanese culture, things such as "hello" and "goodbye," "how are you?" and "I'm good," and Hayato even requested to learn one certain special phrase.
Meanwhile, the same was happening with the sun guardian and the Japanese kids and, not surprisingly, by the time they all got back together, the people that had learned the most were Mukuro, Hayato, Tsuna, and Nagi.
The moment Asari said the words "let's go back," Mukuro and Hayato scampered off and plopped down beside the awaiting Nagi and Tsuna, respectively.
When Hayato was situated beside Tsuna, the brunette smiled at him, and stumbled over the words, "Ti voglio bene*."
Hayato's eyes widened upon hearing these words from the boy; he was ecstatic to learn that he meant so much to his friend.
Hugging him, he said clumsily, "Anata wo mamotte agetai*." It had taken forever for him memorize the words, and actually pronounce them so that they were halfway understandable. When he saw Tsuna's expression, though, it seemed worth it.
The little brunette let out a giggle, saying an enthusiastic, "Hai!"
*Ti voglio bene – "I love you" when talking to a family member.
*Anata wo mamotte agetai – I want to protect you
**Please note I found the above translations on the internet, which isn't always accurate; if believe the translations are lacking, or that the phrases used aren't correct for the situation, then please let me know how I can fix it (politely, please; I'm not a speaker of either language).**
SkyGem: I've just remembered how much I love writing chibi!Tsuna! Haha, anyways, sorry for not updating at all these past few days but I have a lot going on right now. I'll spare you guys the sob story, though; I just wanted to say I won't be updating much these next few weeks (exams are coming up) Gomen, ne? Just please leave a review telling me what you thought and I'll see when I can update next. Ciao~
P.S. The poll on my profile is now closed and it looks like there are 5 chapters left! I can't wait to start the sequel (specifically, the Shimon arc)!
EDIT: This fic is taking on a life of its own, I swear. Anyways, I've just decided to make this series into a Trilogy (hence the spontaneous change in title and summary)! Yay~ do you guys like the idea? Let me know~