CHAPTER 5: RUNAWAY POSTER
Today in art class, the teacher wanted everyone to go outside today at the picnic benches to draw today. She insisted on getting some fresh air instead of staying in the stuffy classroom on such a nice day. So she set up a three-man team and instructed them to draw their most eventful thing that happened to them recently on a poster. Gokudera of course, couldn't be swayed by the teacher's demands to switch partners and stayed loyally by Tsuna's side and Yamamoto tagged along like usual. Yamamoto picked up a red crayon and drew a giant sashimi that took up the most space, signifying the little things about sushi his dad was teaching him. He pinched his eyebrows together in concentration as he colored in the abnormally sized raw sushi. Gokudera, of course, drew Tsuna. Actually, he exaggerated a bit and made Tsuna more manly that he really was; but Tsuna appreciated it otherwise.
As for Tsuna? Well, he wanted to draw the boogie man, or more appropriately—Hibari.
This was a challenge, because really—one, he couldn't draw. Two, he didn't even know what Hibari looked like (because either it was too dark, Hibari disappeared too fast, or Tsuna was just too scared) and three was that Yamamoto and Gokudera was staring in anticipation, making him nervous. Yamamoto was already done with the giant cutting knife to go along with his oversized sashimi and Gokudera was done drawing himself next to the manly-crayon-Tsuna.
Tsuna stared at his part of the poster, blank and waiting. Everyone else was almost done with their poster in the other groups. Not wanting to be left behind, Tsuna decided to wing it. Tsuna started with the black crayon. He made the silhouette of the man and put a scowl on his face. He added the collar and tie to his suit and then he added glaring eyes to the picture. Tsuna drew a yellow ladder behind Hibari, remembering that was one of the things he saw when he fell from the roof and he saved him. Then Tsuna doodled a poorly drawn glass of water to represent when he found out the boogie man's true name. Gokudera did not say anything, his eyes only held admiration for 'Tenth's prodigious artwork' (another big word Tsuna didn't understand) and Yamamoto just grinned saying he did a good job on the ladder.
"Hey, why does his head look all lopsided?" A student asked from over Tsuna's shoulder.
As Gokudera shouted loudly at the student and Yamamoto patted his back reassuringly, Tsuna's lower lip trembled and he stared at his folded hands on his lap. He couldn't help it; he was always a bad drawer. After awhile the teacher broke up the bickering between the nosy kid and Gokudera. Gokudera huffed but refused to let it drop, muttering obsenities under his breath as they got up to turn in their poster in the stack.
"Ah!"
Yamamoto and Gokudera turned to look questioningly at Tsuna, "What's wrong, Tsuna?"
"I forgot the crayons! We're supposed to turn them in with the poster. Go ahead, ok?" Tsuna said smiling.
"As you wish, Tenth!" Gokudera said cheerfully and dragged Yamamoto and the poster to the stack.
The boy ran back to their table, and gathered up as much as crayons as he could in his arms. He pushed the crayons onto his shirt, effectively holding them all. He scrambled to return, and was unsurprised by the fact that everyone had already went inside. He approached the table and gasped. He saw Gokudera and Yamamoto sprawled out on the floor, rubbing the back of their heads. He dropped all the crayons he held and ran to his stunned friends.
"Yamamoto! Gokudera-kun! What happened?" Tsuna asked as he helped them sit up.
"Argh! Tenth, someone got me and baseball idiot when we were waiting for you then ran off with our poster!"
"W-What?" Tsuna said disbelievingly. Who would run off with their poster? Not to offend Gokudera or Yamamoto, the three of them were hardly any geniuses when it came to art.
"Don't worry, I'll get it back!" Yamamoto said grinning and he took off.
Gokudera shouted at Yamamoto's back, "You stupid idiot! Don't think you can get the glory all to yourself!"
Tsuna gasped as Gokudera recovered instantly and sprinted after Yamamoto, "G-Gokudera-kun! Yamamoto! Don't! It might be dangerous!" Tsuna spluttered before nearly stumbling over the grass to catch up with Gokudera. He gulped as he heard the art teacher's yells from behind them, but he didn't slow down. Yamamoto was much more athletic than Tsuna and Gokudera so he easily widened the gap between them. Gokudera slowed down a bit and waited for Tsuna to catch up before he grabbed his hand and together they raced to catch up to Yamamoto.
Strangely enough, Yamamoto stopped abruptly. Gokudera took deep breaths and Tsuna struggled to get air back in his lungs as they slowed down to talk to Yamamoto.
"You…Y-You…" The silver-haired boy stopped to breathe for a moment before straightening, "Why'd you stop?"
"…Yamamoto? What's….wrong?" Tsuna asked breathlessly.
Wordlessly, Yamamoto pointed at the ground a few feet in front of them. Tsuna and Gokudera followed Yamamoto's finger to see what he was pointing at. It was the poster. The three friends cautiously walked up to it and peered down at it. Tsuna gasped. H-His drawing of the ladder and the glass of water! I-It looked—
"Tenth! Someone ruined your artwork!" Gokudera said choking in air, appalled.
Tsuna didn't bother correcting Gokudera's logic. The picture wasn't ruined at all—In fact, it looked so realistic! Tsuna didn't even know if a crayon could even do that! Tsuna picked up the poster gently and took a better look. The sketch was amazing! But however—Tsuna looked at the doodled of Hibari—it was untouched. But in comparison to the glass of water and the ladder it looked pretty ugly.
Yamamoto peeked over Tsuna's shoulder, "H-Hey…That's really cool, Tsuna. D-Did that guy that hit us draw this?"
"That—That simpleton! How dare he!" Gokudera ranted, stomping his foot childishly, "To even touch Tenth's work—I'll kill him!"
—
In music class, Tsuna did horrible once again in recorder and was sent to the corner to practice by himself. Gokudera tried to follow him but the teacher wouldn't allow it, saying that Gokudera was a prized musician in their performance coming up. Yamamoto was equally as bad as him but the teacher insisted that they should practice on their own instead of helping each other out. Tsuna tried playing the recorder but he was just too horrible! His tiny pinky couldn't cover up the entire finger holes right and he didn't know how to breathe between notes! With a sad sigh, Tsuna put the recorder down in defeat.
"Alright everyone," The teacher clapped his hands loudly to get everyone's attention, "Let's do a short practice."
What was he going to do? Everyone was going to laugh at him when his part, as tiny as it was, came!
"Tsuna-kun, are you ready?" The music teacher said, smiling apologetically. She was the only one who the teacher often symphasized with, she partly understood him, and she partly didn't. She also knew that Tsuna was the worst at music, absolutely tone-deaf, so his usual jobs were to just stand in the corner and wait for the class to finish. When they moved onto recorder however, Tsuna is required to participate.
Tsuna nodded dejectedly. Might as well get it over with. Yamamoto's part went first somewhere in the middle—and of course, Gokudera played the crescendo flawlessly. After he was finished, his two friends watched anticipation was Tsuna's small part was coming near. The teacher put his fingers to his temples expecting the off-key melody. Tsuna tensed and drew in breaths to blow into his recorder. But no sound came out from his. Instead, somewhere in the back of the students, a flawless tune overlapped his measly five note part. Everyone turned to stare at Tsuna.
"Tenth!" Gokudera screamed from the front, his hands erupted in thunderous clapping, "That was wonderful! I just knew you could do it!"
"Wow, Tsuna!" Yamamoto said grinning down at Tsuna, "Practice makes perfect, I guess!" The teacher was beaming down proudly at him. He stared at the congratulating and welcome faces and didn't have the heart to tell them that was not him playing.
—
At lunch Tsuna sat alone. He didn't know where Gokudera went and Yamamoto said he wasn't hungry and went ahead to play. He twiddled with his tin metal lunch box. It was the Red Power Ranger inside his Strike Battle Zoid designed—he had gotten it for Christmas last year from Kyoko. He wondered what mama packed inside his lunch today. He opened it with a creak and peered inside. Tsuna gasped because suddenly, the lunch box was rudely snatched away.
"Hey Tsuna! What do you have today?" An eager bully said grinning as he shoved his hand inside the lunchbox, "Lucky!" The bully said, brandishing a delicious looking sandwich high in the air, "It's my favorite!"
Tsuna reached at the hand, his fingers lightly clawing at the taller boy's wrist just barely, "W-Wait! I don't have anything else for me to eat today!"
"Tsuna, you wouldn't deny a buddy would you? I'm starving!"
"B-But…" Tsuna stuttered, not wanting to be rude to a buddy after all.
"I'll take this for the day okay? I promise to give you my lunch another day!"
"Well…I suppose." Tsuna said thoughtfully. As long as he gave him something in return later, he could go hungry for one day. It wasn't that bad of a deal. The boy grinned and shoved the lunchbox under his arm and strode off. Lamely, after the bully's departure, Tsuna's stomach growled. He was really hungry and today was so eventful…Tsuna nodded to himself in determination and ran after the bully. He was really hungry and he kinda changed his mind. The bully turned the corner and Tsuna intended to call out his name but there was a loud thump and the kid screamed.
The bully pathetically shrieked and raced out of the corner he just went through. Tsuna's world tilted backwards as the taller boy roughly shoved Tsuna aside as he passed, the bully still screaming as he ran back to where the rest of the kids were eating. Tsuna pushed himself from the ground and nursed his scathed knee gently. He wondered lightly what made the kid scream like that and he peeked around the corner. Tsuna's mouth dropped.
It was the boogie man—Hibari. He was glaring from where the bully had taken off and Tsuna felt a pang of sympathy rush through him when he thought about his unsuspecting classmate. He must've ran into Hibari when he turned the corner. He shuddered in sympathy. Hibari's presence was scary enough to just look at. It must've been downright frightening if you accidently touched him. Hibari composed himself into a placid expression and turned to look at Tsuna. He stiffly picked up the tin lunch box in front of him and threw it at Tsuna. He nearly dropped it because it smacked him square on the chin. Rubbing at the spot, Tsuna quickly gathered himself and hugged the lunch to his chest.
"That's yours, isn't it?" Hibari said frowning.
Wordlessly, Tsuna nodded.
"Your life is pathetic."
Tsuna stared at Hibari, not knowing how to respond to that.
"You can't draw, you can't carry a note, and you can't even protect your food. You're a gullible idiot that can't keep his guard up. How moronic are you? How are you going to live up to my expectations? I told you to do so. But it seems your idiocy knows no limits." Tsuna recoiled away, hurt. His words cut Tsuna deep. It was true. He could never do anything right. He was so useless.
Hibari scowled as Tsuna started sniveling and tears began to collect in his eyes. Silently, Hibari turned around and was about to jump into the janitor's shed when Tsuna's voice stopped him, "T-That's not true at all…"
"Oh?" Hibari said as he turned around to glance at the shivering boy, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
"Y-Yes. I can say that I'm useless…but…" Tsuna gulped and glared tearfully up at the towering Hibari, "…I still try my best."
"Hmph." Hibari grunted.
"T-Thank you…" Tsuna gulped and tested the name for the first time, "…Hibari-san…for doing those things for me today."
Mutely Hibari walked in the janitor's shed and secured the door behind him. Although Tsuna did not see his expression or hear a response, his gut told him that Hibari was maybe, just maybe—smiling when he left.
A/N: HIBARI YOU TSUNDERE YOU. ;D What a wonderful boogie man, don't you agree? My goodness, I was simply blown away by how many people favorited this story. I've talked with a few reviewers and they really really liked it! Some even mentioned some new places Hibari can pop out of! I feel honored that people tell me they check their favorites everyday to see if this was updated yet. Thank you everyone for sticking with me even though this story only JUST started out! Halloween is just around the corner, hope you guys get alot of candy! Don't get cavities now! x] (I get them way too much)