It was the turn of Tsuna's class to clean the hallway on their floor of the school once most of the other students were gone. It was a nuisance, but there was a roster, so no single class had to do the chore too often, just like individuals took their turns doing cleaning chores in the classrooms at the end of the day.
The cleaning was somewhat interrupted by a child in a red shirt. The kid had a handkerchief of belongings tied to the end of a stick, which was carried over one shoulder, and a photograph.
"I'm sorry," Tsuna said as she squatted down to get a better look at the picture. "But I don't think this person is Japanese at all. I don't think you will be likely to find them in Namimori."
The child frowned, and muttered something in a language that wasn't Japanese. Tsunahime's Mandarin was admittedly accented, and she still had a way to go before she reached a mastery of the language, but it was passable for a conversation, so long as it wasn't an overly long and detailed one.
She repeated herself in the language that the child (a little girl, unless Tsuna missed her guess) clearly knew better.
"My name is Sawada Tsunahime," she introduced herself, still using Mandarin. "What's your name?"
"I-Pin," the child (yep, definitely a girl) answered. "You look very much like the target to I-Pin," the child added with a considering frown.
"Your photograph is of a man. I am a girl in middle school," Tsuna said, giggling as she tried to remember the right words and orders. "I think I-Pin might need glasses."
I-Pin blushed, but nodded in acknowledgement of that truth.
"I know my Mandarin isn't very good," Tsuna apologised. "But I know someone who is much more fluent. I will take you to him, and I am sure he can help. Okay?"
I-Pin thought about it a moment, then nodded in agreement.
Tsuna picked I-Pin up, slung the child onto her hip, and excused herself to Hana and Kyoko.
"Small Animal," Hibari recognised as she approached him.
"Please forgive my intrusion, Hibari-sempai," Tsuna requested politely. "But this small one is lost, in desperate need of glasses, and speaks Mandarin. I hoped you might be able to call her guardian, to arrange for her to be collected and taken home?"
Hibari's eyes narrowed minutely, just for a moment, as he took in the child on Tsuna's hip.
"Come quickly," he instructed, then turned and marched off. Marched. There was no running in the halls, even for Hibari.
Soon, they were in the Discipline Committee's designated room. Hibari had crossed the room in two great strides, and was on the phone almost faster than Tsuna could blink. He hadn't even asked for a phone number, but already the Mandarin was flying thick and fast.
Ting.
Tsuna looked down, and was surprised to see that the source of that sound seemed to be the girl she was holding. A set of nine circles had appeared on I-Pin's forehead.
Ting.
Now there were eight.
Hibari yelled into the phone. Actually yelled. Then he set it down, and stepped up to Tsuna – or, more accurately, stepped up to I-Pin. He placed a hand on her forehead, took a deep breath, and in Mandarin that Tsuna didn't understand, he chanted something. Before, she hadn't been able to follow because Hibari was talking too fast, though she'd caught a few words, as well as a phrase here and there. This, she just didn't recognise.
"Ah... Hibari-sempai?" Tsuna queried.
"I-Pin is my uncle's student," Hibari stated, clearly unhappy about something. "He wants me to take care of her for him."
That would be what had upset Hibari.
Tsuna bit her lip, and for a moment she debated between offering her help, and teasing.
"It will be good practice," slipped out of her mouth before she'd even made a conscious decision one way or the other. "For when you become a father."
"Small Animal," Hibari said in a warning tone.
"Hibari-sempai," Tsuna said, and though the words were softly spoken, they were filled with resolve. "... will be a much better father to his children, than Sawada Iemitsu had ever been to me."
The tension shifted, but it definitely did not get any lighter. Then, Hibari sighed.
"You will make bento for her each day," Hibari instructed. Clearly, resigned to having to take care of his uncle's student. That didn't make him any happier about it though. "She's old enough to be enrolled in Namimori Elementary. The tiny herbivore will need lunches."
"For Hibari-sempai as well?" Tsuna asked with a small, hopeful smile.
Without a twitch, Hibari's fearsome expression softened, just the tiniest bit.
"Make sure it has meat."
~oOo~
Tsuna was on her way home from school. Well, actually, she was on her way home from Hibari's house. He was prepared to launder his own clothes – that is, he took his uniforms to the dry-cleaner and threw his underwear in the machine – but he wouldn't do the same for his new charge. This would be the third load of laundry that Tsuna would do for I-Pin. It had been a month since the little girl showed up – and an almost peaceful one.
Gokudera still loudly prostrated himself and failed at using his ears properly when Tsuna spoke, and Yamamoto was still painfully happy-go-lucky, but Lambo was calming down with school and friends (he wasn't walking back with her today because he was playing at a friend's house), and Hana and Kyoko were also both as they always were, which was a boon. Kyoko, bright and cheerful as the sun. Hana, sure of herself and unrelenting in the face of opposition – which almost always crumbled before her.
Yes, her friends were definitely a boon in the face of pervasive idiocy. Tsuna wasn't about to call all men 'monkeys' like Hana, or all people in general 'herbivores' like Hibari, but she would definitely call 'idiot' when she saw it.
When she turned into her street, she noticed that there were a lot more people standing about than there usually were. As she got closer, she realised that they were all foreign men wearing matching suits and hanging around outside of her house. Great. Just great. They didn't look like professional bodyguards, even with the matching suits. They looked like thugs that were part of an organisation that had a dress-code.
In short?
It was a damn good thing that the average Japanese person associated 'organised crime' with 'Yakuza', and not with 'Mafia', or this – whatever was going on here – would be a heck of a lot more problematic. As it was, Tsuna fully intended to chew out somebody, she didn't care who, about their lack of subtlety.
And then it got worse. Because the men in suits noticed her, and snapped to attention in very straight lines on either side of the street.
"Welcome home, Mistress Sawada Tsunahime," the nearest of the men on the left said.
She took a deep breath, and started walking.
"Do up your jacket," she instructed as she past the man. "You too," she quipped to one on the opposite line. "Take out that ridiculous thing you have hanging from your eyebrow," she snapped at a third man. "Your tie is crooked," she informed yet another as she walked up between the two lines to her front gate. At which point she turned around and looked up and down both lines. "And for goodness sake, all of you stop standing around and looking so conspicuous! You're all about as subtle as an elephant in drag."
A few backs stiffened, but not all. Tsuna would guess that the ones that hadn't reacted were the ones that didn't speak Japanese.
She turned and headed inside.
"Welcome home, Tsu-chan," Nana greeted with a smile.
"I'm home, Mama," Tsuna agreed with a smile of her own as she toed off her shoes. "I've brought laundry from Hibari-sempai to do."
"Oh my. Again?" Nana asked, surprised. "But he has always been such a self-reliant young man before. It is so strange that he is suddenly relying on you to make bento and do laundry for him."
"Hibari-sempai is looking after a young girl for his uncle," Tsuna explained. Honestly, she was a bit surprised that it had taken her mother this long to ask. On the other hand, Sawada Nana could be more than a bit vague in the head about some things. "He doesn't want to wash a little girl's things. Also, he usually bought his bento. I offered to make bento for him as well as for I-Pin-chan, the girl he has care of."
"Ah! Well, go ahead and put the laundry on quickly, Tsu-chan," Nana instructed. "Then go upstairs and greet our guest."
"Our guest, or Reborn-san's?" Tsuna asked as she walked past her mother to the laundry at the end of the hall.
"Reborn-san's," Nana agreed, and gave a short, girlish laugh as she raised a hand to one cheek. "I never knew Reborn-san had such a handsome friend."
Tsuna said nothing in answer to that. As far as she was concerned, whoever it was that had invaded her home so brazenly and blatantly could wait. Granted, she had probably already kept whoever it was waiting longer than they had expected. She'd done her homework at school with Hana and Kyoko as usual, and then walked with Hibari to first Namimori Elementary to collect I-Pin, and then to Hibari's house to collect I-Pin's laundry.
I-Pin didn't mind that Hibari and Tsuna weren't at the school gates to pick her up as soon as the elementary school let out. Even the elementary school had clubs, after all, and I-Pin's Japanese was rapidly improving thanks to both her being immersed in the language and culture, and having joined the (admittedly very small) calligraphy club that was offered there.
"You're late," Reborn said when she opened her bedroom door. "We've been waiting, Tsuna."
"I don't have any appointments this afternoon," Tsuna countered. "Therefore, I am not late. Stick in your pacifier and suck it."
The two men in suits (not counting Reborn) stiffened.
"Get out of my bedroom," Tsuna growled at them. "It is my space, and I sure as hell didn't invite you into it. Now move, before I rearrange your balls."
"Yo, head of the Vongola," came from the black leather chair on the other side of the small table that had been set up in the middle of her room. "I've come all the way from Italy to visit."
"Heir apparent," Tsuna corrected. "And that was not an idle threat. I'll throw them out the window after I've kicked them in the crotch."
"Ah-ha," the leather chair's occupant laughed nervously, and it spun around to reveal a young man with messy blonde hair, brown eyes, and wearing a khaki-green jacket with a black fur collar. A handsome young man.
Sawada Tsunahime's taste in men was not the same as Sawada Nana's, however, so she was unmoved – and definitely still unimpressed.
"Boss?" one of the men checked.
"... Go."
The two men left.
"I'm the tenth-generation boss of the Cavallone Famiglia," the young man presented himself. "My name's Dino."
Tsuna blinked, then casually set her bag down on her desk, and headed for her wardrobe. She had no reason to stay in her uniform, and frankly, even with the blazer... well, it wasn't an outfit that conveyed strength at all.
No, she didn't introduce herself.
He suddenly started laughing.
"This is no good!" he cheered. "She doesn't look daring, and she's so small!"
"She also has no money, and no power," Reborn quipped with a smile.
"She's got almost zero talent as a boss," Dino said.
"Yup," Reborn agreed.
Tsuna ignored them as she picked out fresh clothes. The mafia man and the insane tutor clearly weren't leaving her bedroom any time soon though, so Tsuna headed for the door. She'd have to get changed in the bathroom.
"Oi, don't ignore your senior student," Reborn scolded.
"Don't enter my bedroom without permission," Tsuna countered blandly, and left. When she returned, dressed in a black skirt with red trim along the bottom that Hana had given her, and a purple shirt that complemented the red on the skirt, they were both still there. Tsuna continued to ignore them as she hung up her uniform in her wardrobe. Then she pulled out her desk chair and sat down.
Rather than sitting on the flat cushion on the other side of the small table to Dino's large leather chair.
"I said a lot of harsh things, but don't take it badly, Vongola Tenth," Dino said with a winsome smile. "Before I met Reborn, I had no talent for being a boss."
Tsuna, who most definitely did not have her mother's taste in men, was not even half as impressed with that smile as Nana would have been. She kept her mouth shut and her eyes coolly level – just the way Hana had taught her.
"Before I came here, I was training Dino to become a Mafia boss," Reborn confirmed.
"Reborn's lessons were no easy tasks," Dino continued. "There were many times I thought I'd die."
"Were you that pathetic, or does Reborn have different training plans for girls as opposed to boys?" Tsuna wondered.
"Both," Reborn stated plainly. "As well needing to adjust my lesson plans for a girl, Dino had exactly zero talent as a boss when I took him on as my student," Reborn declared. "Tsuna has almost zero talent."
"Thanks to Reborn, I'm now a boss in charge of five-thousand families. The truth is, I wanted to learn a lot more from Reborn, but he said he had to go to you, so I saw him off," Dino said.
"How about a time-share?" Tsuna suggested. "Since I can't completely get rid of the pest, and you want him, it would make sense. I have school to worry about, and his antics upset my routine, so you can have him back from Monday to Friday."
"You're not getting rid of me that easily," Reborn informed her. "Also, Dino is staying here tonight. I've already got permission from Mama."
"Is there anything you want to ask me, my cute junior student?" Dino asked with a smile. "I'll give you advice as your senior pupil."
"How do you evict unwanted men from your bedroom?" Tsuna asked flatly.
"Ah-ha..." Dino laughed weakly, and slowly stood from his chair. "Ah... I'll just..." he tugged on the piece of furniture.
"That can stay," Tsuna interrupted him. That chair looked comfortable, and it wasn't ugly either.
~oOo~
Tsuna had so far managed to witness a situation between the boxing club and the judo club, dodged some kind of New Years Idiocy instigated by Reborn, and had survived going to the zoo at the same time as Gokudera. (She hadn't gone with him, but he'd been there at the same time, and for some stupid reason he'd blown up a couple of the animal cages. Yes, Lambo continually fell into the cages, and I-Pin was, for some reason, doing katas with the monkeys, and Sasagawa-sempai had been there shouting about wanting to fight a bear, but all of that would have been fine, if only the bomber hadn't let the animals out of their cages!)
She'd also had the absolute pleasure of introducing Miura Haru to Dino of the Cavallone.
She was really very taken with the idea of marrying a Mafia boss, and Dino had impressed her – Tsuna didn't know how, and didn't care to know the details. She'd only introduced them.
It had actually been a stalling tactic, so that she'd be able to get to school without any further interruptions from either of them. Tsuna had left them alone pretty much immediately after she'd introduced them to one another. Truly, she had no idea what had happened. She had, subsequently, become somewhat friends with the girl. They'd gone to the zoo together with Kyoko and Hana, even. They weren't that close, Miura-chan went to a different school, but they were becoming friends.
But now, with snow on the ground and only fluffy white clouds in the sky, and no school, it was a good day to take some time to relax and have some fun.
Tsunahime got her chores around the house done before breakfast, packed a basket while she ate – she'd long since decided to not bother sitting down to eat when Reborn was around – and then she made a couple of phone calls.
"Oh, are you going out, Tsu-chan?" Nana asked with a smile.
"Mm," Tsuna confirmed with a smile of her own and a pleased nod. "I've called some of my friends, and we're going to have a picnic in the snow, and a snowball fight."
"Snowball fight?" Lambo repeated eagerly.
"Lambo-kun, I also called the parents of some of the friends you've made at Namimori Elementary, and I'll be dropping you off with the Ichijoujis on my way to see my friends. You'll be going to the park together, and you'll meet the Yoshidas and the Kusakabes there, and the Kusakabes will have I-Pin-chan with them. Now, go and put on some warm clothes, okay? You wouldn't want to catch cold."
"Okay, Tsuna-onee-san!" Lambo cheered happily, and ran off to do just that. "Yay! Snow ball fights! Snow men! Snow..." his cheering faded as he skipped down the hall and closed his bedroom door while he got dressed for a day out.
When Tsuna got to the school, where she had agreed with her friends to meet up for their picnic in the snow (large open spaces of undisturbed powder, but also with plenty of convenient places for shelter), the group waiting for her... wasn't exactly what she had expected.
Gokudera, Yamamoto, Cavallone, Miura, both of the Sasagawa siblings, and Reborn were there. Of that list, Tsuna had only anticipated maybe Kyoko being present.
"Yo, Sawada-chan!" Yamamoto called in greeting. "We all agreed to meet up today and help you watch the kids."
It was well-known around the school that Tsuna had care of Lambo, and did certain chores for Hibari in regards to I-Pin.
"Jyuudaime shouldn't have to put up with the loud cow-brat on her own all the time," Gokudera said firmly.
"Lambo-kun and I-Pin-chan are playing with some of their friends, under the supervision of the parents of those friends, at the park," Tsuna informed the crowd. "And I have plans."
"J-Jyuudaime!" Gokudera called desperately.
"A boss must be able to adapt in the face of the unexpected," Reborn lectured.
"Fine. All of you, pair up, then find somewhere around the school to build a snow-fort. We'll start launching snowballs in..." Tsuna checked her watch. "An hour. That should give plenty of time to build a good fort. Rules are: snow only! No stones, no sticks, and no dynamite, Gokudera-san! No poison, no whips, no wires. No turtles. Give Enzo to one of your subordinates, Cavallone. If it is not snow, and only snow, then you are disqualified."
"How should we pair up?" Dino asked, smiling and more than willing to go along. His question seemed to be directed at Reborn, rather than Tsuna. "Japan has its own traditions for picking teams, right?" That was directed at Haru.
"Hahi! Usually janken or drawing straws," Haru answered cheerfully.
"I've already designated teams," Reborn said, and unrolled a piece of paper. He was wearing a samurai costume.
"There are so many things wrong with that outfit," Tsuna informed him as she confiscated the list and tore it up.
"But I spent all night making it," Reborn countered, "considering the balance and things, so I didn't sleep much. See, I have dark circles under my eyes!" he said, and pointed. Yes, there actually were dark circles under his eyes.
"That is your own fault, and the dark circles don't make the outfit any more right," Tsuna scolded in turn. "You most definitely do not have any sympathy from me."
"Hahaha!" Yamamoto laughed. "Sawada-chan is so cold!"
"Miura-chan and Cavallone-san are one team, both of the Sasagawas are another, Gokudera-san and Yamamoto-san are another team. Reborn-san is on his own unless Bianchi-san shows up, in which case, she'll be on his team. There, done," Tsuna said, and clapped her hands firmly. Incidentally, scattering the scraps of paper.
"But -! Jyuudaime!" Gokudera objected. "What about you? Why can't I be on your team? Why do I have to be with this baseball idiot?"
"My team will be arriving shortly," Tsuna informed him plainly. "I told you, I had plans for today, I am adapting them, but still. And you are paired with Yamamoto-san because you're both about the same intelligence level, so far as I have seen. Pairs, go, build your forts. You have one hour to make yourselves secure."
"So in control, Vongola," Dino praised.
Tsuna waved them off as she pulled her phone out and headed towards another part of the school. She had to let her friends know about this... addition... to their plans.
~oOo~
Reborn had dragged – literally dragged – Tsunahime out of Namimori to the mountains. Tsuna, for her part, had very conscientiously decided that, rather than letting the pint-sized hitman/tutor bully her into doing whatever he wanted, she would hitch-hike back home.
Lambo, I-Pin, and Hibari-sempai had all caught colds, and while Sawada Nana was able to care for Lambo, Hibari and I-Pin didn't have anybody to take care of them and make sure they didn't get worse.
There was also the preparations she needed to make for Valentine's day. She had to make chocolate for her friends, and... well, some of them had high standards and very particular tastes.
