Yay, Second chapter is up! xD I noticed after chapter one, that it was incredibly short! D: I don't usually post chapters of that length u_u So I did my best to make this chapter decent! And though chapter one was pretty short, I appreciate the reviews for it! Thank-you very much! Oh! And for the person who suggested Hibari's POV, I had planned it to be in chapter 4! So look forward to it! Anyways, on with the story!

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Chapter 02: Shut-in Policeman

"Tsu-kun? Is everything alright?"

Tsuna looked up from idly poking at his breakfast, his eyes glazed over in thought. His mother was staring at him with a worried look those familiar caramel eyes, and Tsuna couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for being the cause of that worry. For nearly a whole week, the brunette had been mopping around, depressed, and wasn't being his usually clumsy and happy Dame-Tsuna self. Of course there was a reason for his dark clouds, and ironically it involved a certain cloud guardian. All because Hibari, the Hibari, ran away from him that one day, and for no apparent reason. Well there was a reason behind it, but Tsuna still didn't know what it was. One would think that the brunette would be quite happy that the skylark was avoiding him to the point that he doesn't beat him to a pulp anymore, but it bothered Tsuna a lot that Hibari wasn't behaving like he usually did. It just wasn't right. A nonviolent Hibari was like a cat without its claws or a dog without its bark or a bird without its wings!

"Yeah... Everything is fine," Tsuna lied through his teeth with a smile plastered on his round features, but it didn't convince Nana one bit. However, the mother didn't ask any other questions, instead, focused her attention to Lambo and Ipin who were bickering over the last pancake. There must be a reason why her son wasn't telling her what's wrong. Perhaps he was having girl troubles and he was trying to solve it all on his own. After all, when she asked Reborn if he knew what was wrong with her Tsu-kun, the baby told her that he didn't know either. Nana smiled softly to herself as she came to one conclusion. Tsuna was growing up into a man just like his father! He still had a long ways to go, but it was alright for him to take one baby step at a time! Though Nana was quite content with not knowing what troubles Tsuna was going through, and letting him handle it all on his own so he could grow up, a certain hitman baby was tired with the brunette's glum attitude and uselessness.

"I'll be leaving now," Tsuna called as he grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder as he opened the door of his house. He heard his mom say 'have a nice day' from the kitchen where she was probably washing the dishes before he left and closed the door behind him. The brunette hadn't taken two steps when he
felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and was forced to tumble forwards from the impact. Luckily, he was able to keep his balance not actually fall forward like he usually did.

"Dame-Tsuna, how long are you going to mope around because of Hibari," Reborn said as Tsuna looked back, rubbing the sore spot on his head where he had been kicked, his face flushed lightly as he chewed the inside of his cheek. He didn't have to ask Reborn how he knew that Hibari had been the cause for his gloomy attitude because the Arcoballeno baby always knew things some way or another, even when you try to hide it from him. It was just easier to accept that Reborn was an all-knowing, mind-reading, cosplaying baby than to question. Plus, you never get answers to the questions you ask.

"B-but Reborn, Hibari-san is avoiding me like the plague! I don't know what to do!" Tsuna said with a look that resembled one of an abandoned pup, with those big eyes of his looking oh so sad.

"Have you confronted him?" Reborn asked.

"Yes! Or at least I tried... When I was going to ask him directly, and I seriously was going to! ..He ran away from... He ran away!" Tsuna said, looking rather distressed and upset. As Tsuna continued to babble and panic about the situation, he failed to noticed the little smirk that crossed Reborn's face, the smirk the baby always got when he was up to something. He also failed to hear Reborn say, "Don't worry Tsuna, I'll help you." But perhaps, if Tsuna had heard him, he would've been terrified of what Reborn meant by "help". One thing Tsuna has learned from Reborn's torturing is that his 'help' was very painful. So yes, it was for the best that Tsuna didn't hear and continue to list the many times Hibari's avoided him to Reborn as he and the baby began to walk towards the school. Tsuna stopped babbling, however, when he met up with Yamamoto and Gokudera. Reborn found it amusing that the brunette was comfortable confiding in him about Hibari, but not with his closest friends. But then again, if Tsuna hadn't told him, he would've forced it out of the boy one way or another. Reborn smirked to himself. Tsuna was really growing up. Slowly... But surely.

-x- -x-

Caramel eyes shifted continuously from his lunch to the window. Yamamoto and Gokudera noticed this right from the beginning of lunch, the moment they sat down to eat. The two exchanged worried and puzzled looks, not understanding the brunette's behavior at all. But they had to admit, it was much better than when Tsuna had the depressed air about him. At least he was eating something, unlike the days before where he would eat two bites and then push his food away or just idly poke at it with this sad look in those big brown eyes of his. There were plenty of times when Gokudera had though his heart would break at seeing his boss like that, and Yamamoto had almost felt obligated to try to make his little brunette friend smile somehow. Gokudera even participated, reluctantly of course, in one of his silly antics and jokes. But none of it worked. Whatever smile they had gotten was either very smile or forced. It had been painful to watch Tsuna so down in the dumps for an entire week. Today though, he seemed lighter, more back to normal. The two of them had taken note that they had met up with Tsuna when the brunette had been with Reborn unlike other mornings.

"Do you think the baby had cheered up Tsuna?" Yamamoto whispered to Gokudera. The Italian bomber nodded before he asked, "Is Juudaime looking for someone?"

The swordsman shrugged before the two of them looked back at their boss, who remained oblivious to their whispered exchange of words, and continued to glanced back and forth from his food to the window. It wasn't until about five minutes later that Gokudera gathered up the courage to talk to the future Vongola boss.

"Juudaime...are you uh...okay?" Gokudera asked hesitantly. Sadly, Tsuna hadn't heard his right-hand man as he continued to stare outside of the window a little longer than usual. "Juudaime!"

"Hmm?" Tsna hummed softly, turning his head towards the Italian, but his eyes still fixated on the window. When he did look at Gokudera, he seemed a little confused and curious, obviously not knowing what was going on or what the other had said really. "What is it Gokudera?"

"Are you okay? You seem a bit distracted..." Gokudera asked again, worriedly frowning at his beloved boss.

"Yeah. It's almost as if you're looking for someone Tsuna," Yamamoto added Gokudera's early concern. The brunette flushed a soft pink as he took a sip from his juice box, embarrassed that he had been caught by his two best friends. After telling Reborn everything, not like he had a choice anyways, Tsuna had found himself feeling a lot better and happier. He guessed that he just needed to talk to someone and vent out his feelings of frustration, confusion, and sadness. And all that talking made him realize that he had to do something about this problem he had with Hibari, or rather, Hibari had with him. Even though Reborn hadn't said anything (that he was aware of that is), he knew that the baby was expecting him to do something. So he has taken every moment to look outside in hopes to catch a glimpse of the skylark, because he hadn't seen him since chasing him down the halls. Another reason why he had been so down in the dumps.

"O-of course I'm fine! I just have a lot on my mind with Reborn's training and the upcoming math test. Hahaha..." Tsuna quickly said, laughing nervously as he scratched the back of his head. He knew that keeping things from Yamamoto and Gokudera would probably come bite him in the butt one day, but he couldn't tell them about Hibari's avoidance and how it was making him feel. Knowing them, they'd try to confront the skylark themselves and most likely get bitten to death by said skylark. Tsuna didn't want to trouble them and get them hurt in some way, so he decided he was going to do this alone! With this though weighing heavily on his mind, the brunette smiled softly, guilty, before saying, "Sorry for acting weird these days guys... I didn't mean to make you worry."

Tsuna apologetically smiled at his two best friends, flustering the baseball fanatic and the Italian bomber.

"J-Juudaime! There's no need for you to apologize at all!" Gokudera said once he recovered some, stumbling over his words for a moment.

"Yeah Tsuna. It's only natural for friends to worry about one another," Yamamoto said with a bright smile. At that moment, Tsuna felt something clutch his heart and give it a good squeeze. The brunette stared at his two friends with startled eyes, soon softening as a warm feeling swept over him.

"You guys..." Tsuna mumbled with a soft smile. Never in his life did it occur to Tsuna that he would make good friends, but like always, life seemed to love proving him wrong. And for once, he was completely fine with that. Before Gokudera and Yamamoto, he was just Dame-Tsuna who had no friends and was always being picked on for some reason or another. Now, he was still Dame-Tsuna in many of his classmates' eyes, but in a handful, like Gokudera and Yamamoto, he was more than that. He was Sawada Tsunayoshi, Juudaime, Boss, and the person to inherit the Vongola famiglia in the eyes of just a handful of people. But that was okay, because he didn't need a million friends to be happy. He was perfectly content with the amount of friends he has as of now. However, one of the those friends, if Hibari was even considered as a friend, was avoiding him, so right now he wasn't so content.

"Have you heard? Apparently the disciplinary committees' president hasn't left his office for a whole week! He's letting his subordinates do all the work!"

Tsuna's head snapped up at the mention of the "disciplinary committees' president", his caramel eyes searching for the source of information till they fell on a pair of gossiping girls.

"I know! I can finally get away with kissing my boyfriend in the hallway. Before, Hibari-san would always interrupt and - -"

The girl stopped in mid sentence as she was interrupted when a pair hands came down onto her desk loudly. The two girls looked up with an irritated look in their eyes, ready to chew out the person who dared to interrupt their conversation, but a pair of serious golden brown eyes kept them silent.

"Is it true? Hibari-san hasn't left his office all week?" Tsuna asked in a no-nonsense tone. The two girls were stunned by the brunette's seriousness, not believing that Dame-Tsuna was being so demanding. Never before had he acted this way. Sure there was a time when the brunette suddenly grew some kind of backbone and was pulling off these crazy stunts in his underwear, bu that stopped after a while and he reverted back to his quite and wimpy ways. But now, the look Tsuna had in those eyes of his, it almost seemed as if he could do anything he wanted to do. Both girls found it very manly of the small teen and flushed a soft pink. One of the girls recovered from her shock a lost faster than the other and nodded at Tsuna a bit hesitantly.

"Yeah. It's all everyone's talking about," she said. Tsuna looked odd to the side as he fell into deep though before he sighed and gave the girls a smile. "Thanks for the information."

With that, the brunette turned on his heel and bolted out of the class, leaving to flustered girls and two confused and stunned friends, but that didn't matter to Tsuna at the moment. What mattered was the fact that he had been very dense this whole week. Of course Hibari would be in his office! The skylark was in their like 80% of the time! The rest of 20% he was out biting people to death or doing some other errand that required violence. Tsuna hadn't the slightest clue why it didn't occur to him to go to check the guardian's office first! Then again, there was a reason why he was Dame-Tsuna... It was practically his job to be slow and leaning more towards the stupid side.

Tsuna finally turned around at the corner that lead straight to Hibari's office, but the brunette soon skidded to a halt, caramel eyes wide with disbelief. There guarding the door to Hibari's office, were two of the skylarks lackeys. Tsuna's heart plummeted when he realized they were placed there because of none other than him. Hibari doesn't need protection, and he enjoys beating people up when he gets the chance, so there was no need for body guards! But since Hibari is avoiding him and wouldn't beat him up anymore, the skylark needed someone else to beat him up. The truth hurt Tsuna, but he knew that moping about it won't get him anywhere. He'd have to think of a way to get rid of those two goons without getting caught...

"Juudaime!"

The hair on the back of Tsuna's neck stood on end in panic at the sound of Gokudera's voice. Turning around, the brunette quickly ran towards the direction his storm guardian was running from, and literally tackled the bomber around the corner just before the two lackeys saw him or Gokudera. That was the fastest he's ever ran and the first he's ever tackled someone when he wasn't in his hyper mode! The brunette scrambled off his friend and crawled over to the corner, peering around it, sighing in relief when the two goons hadn't budged one inch. He was sure that Hibari had told them to him away, or at least that's what his hyper intuition kept telling him.

"J-Juudaime? What's - -"

"Shhhh!"

"R-Right! ...What's going on?" Gokudera asked again, lowering his voice to a whisper as he sat up rubbing his head where it had made contact with concrete. Better him than his beloved boss though, so he didn't mind so much that he may get a bump later on. But seriously, he never thought Tsuna would ever tackle him to the ground all on his own. Gokudera grinned. He was so proud of him! Speaking of Tsuna, the brunette turned his caramel gaze on the silverette, opening his mouth to explain things, but he was interrupted before he could utter a word.

Tsuna! Gokudera! There you guys are!" Yamamoto said as he approached them, that cheerful smile of his intact to his face. "Why are you guys on the ground? Are we playing a game?"

"Shut-up you baseball idiot! Can't you see Juudaime is doing something important!" Gokudera whispered yelled as the carefree rain guardian crouched by him and Tsuna.

"What is he doing?" Yamamoto asked, matching his volume to Gokudera so he wouldn't get yelled at by the silverette again. The Italian bomber shrugged, no sure himself what the brunette is doing.

"I don't know...but you don't have to be here! Juudaime has me if he needs help!"

"But I want to help Tsuna too. After all, I am his right hand man, haha!"

"What! Like hell you are! I'm his right hand man, you bastard! Anybody who says otherwise, I'll blow them to bits!"

"Haha! Your jokes are funny Gokudera!"

"They aren't jokes you baseball idiot!"

"Gokudera-kun... Yamamoto."

"Yeah?"

The Italian bomber looked up from gripping the swordsman by the collar, threatening him with some of his dynamite, but thankfully they weren't lit. Yamamoto who had been laughing, looked over at the brunette with a curious smile, his hands up in a surrendering kind of way. They had both responded to the brunette when their names had been called, and now waited patiently for Tsuna to finish what he began to say. The brunette was still peering over the corner, not moving for a few moments before he looked back at his friends, startling them when they saw that serious look in those normally gentle eyes. Yamamoto's smile and Gokudera's scowl disappeared to equally serious looks. If Tsuna was serious, then surely something was up.

"Can I ask a favor from you guys?" Tsuna asked, brows knitting together nervously. He hadn't wanted to involved these two, but it seemed that it was unavoidable that he needed some help. But maybe he should just deal with it on his own? Tsuna was about to tell his friends to forget about what he just said when Gokudera said, "Of course Juudaime! Ask us anything!"

Tsuna blushed a soft pink and looked over at Yamamoto who smiled and nodded encouragingly. Tsuna smiled softly, really glad that he had made friends with these two guys. Because really? Where would he be without them?

"Ah well, I guess I should tell you what's going on before I ask you guys a favor..." Tsuna said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "E...Eto.. Lately, Hibari-san has been avoiding me and this whole week he's locked himself in his own office to avoid me altogether. I came here to confront him, but two of Hibari's subordinates are guarding the door and well uh..."

"You want us to get rid of them right?" Yamamoto finished for Tsuna, earning a nod from the nervous brunette.

"Leave it to me Juudaime! I'll get rid of those mindless goons for you," Gokudera said with a sharp nod.

"Yeah, you can count on us Tsuna! Just gives us a couple of minutes!" Yamamoto said with a grin before he patted Gokudera on the shoulder as he stood up. Tsuna watched as the two ran around the corner towards the two lackeys. The brunette had thought that they would probably tell a lie telling them about some false fight or seeing someone vandilizing the school, so it was a real shock for Tsuna when his two best friends punched a lackey each in the face before running away, Yamamoto being the only one laughing when the two guys started chasing after them. But he really shouldn't have been so surprised... Oh well, he was just glad that they got rid of the guys. He wasn't too worried about them getting hurt, because honestly, those lackeys would never be able to beat them. After all, those guys would be going against two Vongola guardians who went up against the Varia, a ferocious assassination group. There was no way those two would ever lose against Hibari's men.

Speaking of Hibari, this was his chance! Tsuna quickly stumbled back up onto his feet and ran over to the door where he took hold of the door knob. However, as soon as he touched the cold metal, the brunette froze. What was he going to say to Hibari? Just straight up ask him why he's been avoiding him all this month? What was he going to do if he tried running away from his again? Just chase him like the last time? There were so many questions swirling inside the brunette's mind and Tsuna knew the answer to each and every one of them. He was going to catch Hibari no matter what! But even with his own assuring thoughts, Tsuna could still feel his heart pounding like a drum against his chest. He was so nervous, though he wasn't quite sure why. Could be that Hibari could change his mind and seriously beat him this was not the time to think about such possibilities. He had a mission he had to complete! So with one final deep breath, Tsuna twisted the door knob and pulled the door open, slamming it shut once he was inside the room. Caramel eyes automatically fixated themselves on the dark haired boy who was working on his paper work at his desk, his head down and didn't even move to look up and see who it was, no doubt because he wasn't expecting Tsuna at all and probably thought it was one of his subordinates.

"There better be a good reason why you dare to interrupt my work," Hibari said, still not looking up from his work. Tsuna opened his mouth, then snapped it shut and began to chew on his bottom lip nervously. He was nervous to speak, but he knew he had to. After all, he's made it this far already. Taking another deep breath, Tsuna regained some of his confidence again.

"I do have a good reason, Hibari-san," Tsuna said, sounding more confident than he had expected. The brunette noticed instantly when the skylarks pen stopped mobing and his frame tensed up. Blue-gray eyes looked up slowly to meet golden brown eyes, holding that gaze. Tsuna stared back unblinkingly, as if he were searching in those normally very cold and blood lust eyes. He probably was searching, but wasn't sure for what.

"Hibari-san... We need to talk."