Waking Up With the Sun: Chapter 7: Lollipops Summer Omake
A/N: Instead of going about and making this an actual chapter, I'm just going to write small tidbits for things people did during the summer. Basically I don't want to flesh out an entire chapter lol. Takes place during the summer, which I've placed as post-Mukuro Arc.
I messed up the timeline because the manga and anime switch around the time placements of the incidents with the Mukuro Arc and pool episode, which I used as the basis for the start of Lollipops. I wrote a more complicated explanation for the next chapter of Lollipops lmao, but this is basically a small omake continuation of the first 2 Lollipops chapters, both of which take place during summer break.
Sorry if it's all confusing, I'm still getting mixed up myself. _ Whatever though. Once we past the next Lollipops chapter it goes into the rest of the school year. The Byakuran Arc, which I will barely be touching, will be included in both Lollipops and Waking Up with the Sun. Though the Byakuran Arc takes place right after the Varia Arc, and then more chaos follows, I'll still be spreading things more thinly, and addressing high school entrance exams and stuff.
Lastly, I'll be including Ryohei's birthday in this chapter because his birthday is the 26th of August, and I don't remember if they celebrate birthdays in the series lmao it's been 4 years. But yeah, he'll turn 15 (in canon) so there's that.
Tl;dr: this takes place during summer, post-Mukuro, post-pool, pre-Varia.
I wrote more notes than I thought I would so I'll make this a long omake collection OTL
I. Bargain Dash*
It started out as a simple idea. The heat was too intense for anyone to want to deal with. Reborn had suggested another beach outing. The jerk lifeguards from their last beach trip were undoubtedly gone, and Nana had thought it would be a great idea to take the kids to the beach. Tsuna and his friends, however, didn't feel like witnessing anymore of Ryohei's… swimming.
Instead they decided to just have a gathering at the house and eat watermelon and ice cream and relax as noisy cicadas became nothing but white noise.
It started out really well. Everyone brought an ice cream of their choice, and an ice cream to share with others. With so many growing children, one needed a lot of food. Yamamoto's dad stopped by to drop off some watermelon, and so they chilled it for later.
As everyone mingled and just had fun, someone (no one's sure who, though it wouldn't be a surprise if it were Ryohei) decided that they should have a watermelon smashing competition.
Tsuna knew that anything to do with some sort of destruction and his house and this many people would only result in an utter catastrophe.
And it did.
Three aggressive young teenagers obliterated the watermelon in the backyard as if it were a challenge to their strength. This resulted in Tsuna picking up after them as they lay in the cool grass, covered in sweat and laughing like idiots (of course Gokudera wasn't laughing, he was too busy sulking about having to deal with two dumbasses).
Tsuna scrubbed the side of his house, covered in watermelon remains from top to bottom. The sun was setting, and he needed to get it done before nightfall. The sugar would attract too many bugs, and he didn't want to have anything to do with that.
As I-pin and Lambo ran through the grass, playing in the sprinklers Nana had set up, Reborn sat idly in a Leon-hammock snoozing away. Haru and Kyoko were inside with Nana, already working on dinner. Bianchi, donning her signature goggles, was also with them. She had promised the others not to touch the food, but with the previous Valentine's Day incident and the mental scarring still lingering in the back of his mind, Tsuna would still be cautious when joining them. Fuuta had fallen asleep on the tatami, his huge ranking book serving as a pillow.
The warmth of the sun felt rather nice at this time, compared to its sweltering heat at mid-day.
Tsuna wiped his brow as he looked at the wall of his house. It was as clean as it could get, and though his job wasn't necessarily half-assed, the minute Tsuna threw the rag he was using on the ground, Reborn appeared on his shoulder, criticizing his work efforts.
"You can't even clean a wall properly. Useless."
"According to my rankings, Tsuna-nii is number 7 at being horrible at cleaning," chimed in Fuuta, "that's amazing, Tsuna-nii!"
Tsuna was too tired to protest as he walked into the house, quickly followed by Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Ryohei.
"Don't ignore me, Dame-Tsuna," the baby frowned as he kicked the boy in the head, using the recoil to land on the table.
Dinner was loud, rowdy, and Tsuna felt the warmth of a happy home in his stomach. He smiled softly as the teens played with the kids, and everyone ran around in their usual antics. Nana called him from the kitchen to help, so he left his comfortable seat on the couch to help out, only to be greeted by a LOT of ice cream. Everyone had brought their own and some to share, of course. Nana, having three babies, one young child, and one growing teenager live under her roof, bought enough for the whole family and more.
Tsuna read the label of one of the small pints of ice cream, struggling to read out the English words, "B-b-A-rgain D-dash? What kind of ice cream is this?"
Nana smiled, "Only the best for my Tsu-kun~!"
Tsuna set out some bowls and ice cream cones and spoons, and then called everyone else into the kitchen. And that's when things went to hell.
Tsuna can't remember most of what happened. It was all a cold, chocolate-drizzled, vanilla scented, sticky blur. But he remembers laughing (and crying) a lot (the crying more so than the laughing, to be honest), and once everyone crashed from their sugar-highs, he helped his mother clean the kitchen of melted ice cream and chocolate syrup residue. It took them a while, and by the time they were done, both were exhausted. Nana hummed as she put thin blankets onto the kids passed out on the floor, wiping at any excess chocolate syrup on the corners of mouths.
Tsuna yawned as he trudged upstairs, exhausted physically and mentally from the day's events, but it was one of the most fun summer days he's ever had.
He found Reborn already tucked away in his hammock, snot bubble and all. The young boy fixed the hitman's blanket, smiling and muttering an almost inaudible 'thank you' before passing out on his own bed. The baby smirked in his sleep.
II. Cake
Ryohei was following his usual bed time routine, a hot shower to wash off all the grime and sweat from training, brushing his teeth, etc. He had gone downstairs to get a cold glass of water. Hydration was always important. The downstairs lights were off, and no one seemed to be awake, but to his surprise, the kitchen light was on and the door was… locked?
He knocked on it, earning a high-pitched yelp.
"Kyoko? Why'd you lock the door?"
"Ah! Onii-chan don't worry about it. I was just making something and I ended up making a mess. Do you need anything?"
Ryohei scratched his head in confusion, but answered anyway, "Just a glass of water, please."
Muffled footsteps could be heard through the door and it slid open just a little bit for a petite hand to squeeze a glass of water between the cracks. Ryohei tried to peek through the opening, but his view was blocked off by Kyoko's head. She handed him the glass, and as soon as it was out of her hands, she slammed the door shut.
Ryohei scratched his chin in confusion, but shrugged his shoulders mentioning something about girls being weird and went back upstairs.
*~*U*~*
As soon as the alarm went off at 6am, Ryohei shot up out of bed and prepared for his morning run.
He was greeted by a very sleepy Kyoko knocking at his door, "Onii-chan, Happy Birthday!"
She smiled blearily, and gave him a warm hug. The boy patted her on the head as she pulled out a small, cutely wrapped box from behind her. Ryohei smiled as he set the gift on the desk behind him, and carried the younger girl back to bed, already falling asleep in her big brother's arms.
No one was in the kitchen as he walked in to fill his water bottle, and whatever mess Kyoko had made was gone. Soon enough he was out the door, ready to start the day. He ran into Hazuki in no less than five minutes, the girl looking surprisingly cheery to see him, considering most of their encounters started off with her glaring at the boy. After reaching the riverbank they always stopped at, Hazuki's phone went off. Ryohei continued stretching.
"I gotta go," she spoke as she fixed her shoelaces, "but I'll see you later, ne?"
He nodded, getting ready to run some more, "Later!"
"Oh! By the way, Happy Birthday, stupid!"
"Oi! Who're you calling stupid?!"
She grinned and apologized, words oozing with sarcasm, "Ah, gomen, I guess that's something rude to say to someone older than you on their birthday. Don't do anything too reckless."
Before he could say anything else, she ran off.
*~*U*~*
Ryohei spent the rest of his morning running towards the school, then around the block twice before heading to the boxing room. It greeted him with a slightly musty air, the scent of dried sweat and blood still lingering. He took a deep breath of it and continued with his morning workout routine until lunch. The clock read about 12:30 when his stomach growled.
The walk to the convenience store took a few minutes, but in that journey between the school and the store, he was intercepted by his friends from the boxing club. They exchanged small talk as they deterred him away from the store and towards the busier, more commercial district of Namimori.
The large group stopped for lunch at a fast food joint, where they surprised their team captain with a banner. The large, black banner was hand painted with the word 'Extreme!' in large white kanji painted over an explosion. 'Fight on! Sasagawa Ryohei,' was written on the side in katakana. It had signatures from his teammates as well as the coach and team manager written in silver marker all over it. The boy was genuinely surprised at his teammates, and they spent the rest of lunch laughing and being rowdy to the point where the store manager had to kick them out.
He bid his teammates farewell as his phone buzzed. It was a message from Kyoko, saying that their mom wanted him to buy some soft drinks and juice while he was out. As he headed towards his neighborhood supermarket, he ran into Hibari.
The two exchanged greetings (read: Ryohei yelled his greetings and Hibari walked past him), and both were on their merry way. Ryohei smiled as he watched Hibari walk away. Hibari was a true man, like himself. The boy hoped to himself that one day they would be able to spar like comrades.
The boy grinned to himself as he walked, literally, into Tsuna.
"Ah! Onii-san!" the younger boy exclaimed.
"Oh? Suman, Sawada, didn't see you there!" Ryohei laughed, scratching the back of his head.
The younger boy chuckled, saying it was nothing, but his curiosity piqued when he saw the large folder up banner in Ryohei's arms.
Ryohei, taking notice of Tsuna's inquiring face, opened up the banner, "I ran into the guys from my boxing club today. Isn't this the most extreme banner you've ever seen?!"
Tsuna deadpanned, but he did admit that it was indeed, extreme. The large, black banner was hand painted with the word 'Extreme!' in large white kanji painted over an explosion. 'Fight on! Sasagawa Ryohei,' was written on the side in katakana. It had signatures written in silver marker all over it.
Ryohei smiled in pride as he showed off his members' artistic talent. Tsuna took a closer look at the detail, and noticed what was written by his teammates. The boy paled in shock. I didn't know it was onii-san's birthday! Ah, I feel so rude!
Tsuna sheepishly looked up at the grinning boy, "Happy Birthday, onii-san!"
The boy only laughed boisterously and put a hand on Tsuna's shoulder, "Thanks, Sawada!"
"Oi, oi! Get your hands off of the tenth, lawn-head!"
Neither of them noticed Gokudera as he walked towards the two until he spoke up, "What do you think you're doing to the boss?"
"Ahhhhh? What'd you call me, octopus-head?!"
As by routine, Gokudera and Ryohei immediately got into a yelling spat. Tsuna tried to calm both of them down, and reached out towards the bomb expert, "Ano, Gokudera-kun. Today is onii-san's birthday! So please don't fight!"
The silver-haired boy ceased his actions immediately, and straightened up, "My apologies, tenth!"
Gokudera's apologies were interrupted by a loud laugh, and the boys turned to see Yamamoto, with Reborn standing on his shoulders.
"Oi, what are you laughing at, baseball freak?" Gokudera glared.
"Nothing, nothing. I swear," Yamamoto answered, holding his hands up in surrender, "but Sasagawa-san is looking for senpai. Reborn and I ran into her on the way here, and she said something about her brother not picking up the phone. And, eto, something about juice!"
All eyes turned to Ryohei as he fumbled around, searching his pockets, only to find his phone at the bottom of his equipment bag. Tsuna took this pause to look towards Reborn, who was happily snoozing on the tall boy's shoulders, snot bubble and all.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" he exclaimed, "my phone was on silent when I was at school earlier."
Tsuna face-palmed, "But what did Kyoko-chan mean when she asked about juice?"
"Ah, I have to buy juice and some drinks for the house," he answered.
"We'll accompany you, senpai!" Yamamoto said, earning some less than savory reactions from Tsuna and Gokudera.
*~*U*~*
Any time more than two people within Tsuna's friend group (read: Guardians) gathered, there was some sort of chaos and havoc wrecked amongst the surrounding area. The thought of something going horribly wrong plagued Tsuna's thoughts constantly. And when Yamamoto suggested that they go to the grocery store together, he knew something would happen.
And it did.
They ran into his mother as well as Lambo and I-Pin at the store. And any time Lambo and Reborn within 100 meters of each other, there were explosions. Luckily, it was only outside. Lambo was easily knocked out and the young (unconscious) Bovino was scooped up into Nana's arms. I-Pin, on the otherhand, was a much more considerate child, helping Maman put groceries into the cart.
Ryohei finished his chores while Tsuna was trying to stop Lambo from bombarding Reborn with grenades. Yamamoto had also gone inside with him, picking up a lot of milk and some other drinks.
So the four continued walking, talking about summer homework assignments. Ryohei still hadn't started and neither did Yamamoto or Tsuna. All three were flabbergasted to find out that Gokudera had completed all of his the day after school let out.
Gokudera then proceeded to call the two sports freaks 'idiots' while Tsuna felt his soul slip away. His pitiful demeanor was interrupted by Gokudera getting on his knees and begging for forgiveness, then trying to convince him that the bomb expert could easily help his boss with his homework.
Ryohei didn't notice that they had all followed him home until he was inside, taking his shoes off. The boxer turned around to ask why they followed him inside, but was instead greeted with birthday poppers to the face. He blinked in confusion, but before he could speak, a gentle finger tapped him on his shoulder. He turned back to see Kyoko and their parents (each pulling the string on their poppers) as they all greeted him, "Happy Birthday!"
A warm feeling spread through his chest as his parents hugged him, and Kyoko dragged him to the living room, where decorations and food was set up. His friends followed behind.
The afternoon was loud and lively, and everyone enjoyed the cake that Kyoko had made the night before. He was surprised to see Hazuki drop by, shoving a small, cutely-wrapped box in his face as she walked inside. She greeted everyone as Ryohei joined them in the living room, and introduced herself to his parents. They commended her for being able to keep up with their rambunctious son, and laughed at her (actually serious) question of Ryohei being adopted.
Hazuki only stayed for an hour, enjoying Kyoko's cake and teasing the boxer. Tsuna, Yamamoto, and Gokudera left later around 6 o'clock, returning to their homes for dinner.
Ryohei smiled as he opened his presents in his room, bed covered by the banner his teammates had given him. Kyoko had packed an assortment of good-luck charms and hand-made crafts, as well as a heartfelt letter. His parents gave him a custom sports jacket with his name and the kanji for 'extreme' on the back, as well as his lucky number '33', and a new pair of boxing gloves. He ripped apart the wrapping of Hazuki's gift, and his eyes almost sparkled in delight. It was a figure of Makunouchi from Hajime no Ippo, as well as a discount coupon for a nearby sporting goods store that would expire in three days. A colorful piece of paper dropped to his lap as he pulled the rest of the wrapping paper off of the box.
He flipped it over and read the note, scrawled hurriedly and decorated with doodles.
'Yo! (｡◕‿◕｡)ﾉシ
Man, Kyoko-hime literally just told me it's your birthday today, and since you're such a good sport and a fun person (albeit kinda stupid) to be around, I thought I'd get you something! Don't think of it too much, though. I don't spend money frivolously (do you know what that word means LOL). I knew you liked boxing but I dunno if you like anime but really I'm pretty sure EVERYONE our age likes anime. If they say they don't, then they're lying. I was walking around some stores and then I remembered that my cousin won this Mankunouchi figure in a raffle drawing, but neither of us really like the series (the art is weird plus it's SO LONG) so he just kept it in storage thinking he could sell it someday. But I traded him the ecchi figure that I won for this like twenty minutes ago.
┐('；)┌
So Happy Birthday! Also there's a coupon in there and you should definitely use it now because it expires in like two days. I was thinking of using it but then I looked at my closet and got kind of depressed because there's so much. ᕙ(‸↼‶)ᕗ
Anyway! Happy Birthday! Thank you for becoming my running friend! Most people I know live in further neighborhoods, so it's nice to hang out with someone close by, especially if that person has the most perfect sister in the whole world! (*･･)／
-Hazuki
Ryohei would never admit to the girl that he didn't read the whole thing, but he did save the note and use the coupon the next day. The store clerk was more than fearful when Ryohei discovered that the coupon value wasn't all that great, but he bought a new mouth guard with it anyway.
*~*END*~*
It's no longer Ryohei's birthday where I am, but it's still the 26th in the states! So I'm not that late lmao. I wrote almost all of this up until the supermarket part like two days ago and then I just didn't have time (or brainpower) to write anything else up until now.
The running friend thing will be clarified in the next Lollipops chapter, but I won't upload that until I've finished the WUWS chapter I'm almost done with. MFW I wrote like ten pages on MSWord but I still need to write more. I'm trying to write more in the chapters than usual because it kind of picks up, and there's going to be a lot of stuff going down in Tokyo. I have the ending in mind already, as well as the climax of the story, but I still need more build-up while trying not to introduce too many side characters. Some old, forgotten characters will show up, though.
Thank you for those who have been reading and adding this insane self-insert (hahah cries) and I'm sorry I'm so shit with updates. I hope everyone's having a good summer and to those who started school, I'm so sorry lmao.
Note:
Bargain Dash* is the parody name of Haagen Dazs in the series Gintama, which I'll be pulling a lot of names from oops