A/N: I'm sorry it's taken a long time to rewrite this T^T School kept me busy and I kinda lost my muse for writing this, but I'm back (tho no promises of quick updates :)

Chapter 1

Natsu loved his Mama. That was a fact. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her because she loved him and she was always there for him.

Even when she became a worrywart.

"Do you have everything? Notebook, pencils, crayons —"

"Yes, Kaa-san," he drawled with an amused glint in his eyes. His Mama huffed and pouted but ruffled his hair. "You knew I packed this morning."

(Did you hear —?)

(I always knew something was wrong with —)

"Just making sure your day goes well," she smiled at him, landing a quick kiss on his temple. "You only go home with Mi-kun, okay?"

"Yes, Kaa-san."

"That's my boy," she said, ruffling his hair once more before gently nudging him towards the school gates. "Mama will see you later, then."

He waved at her before stepping inside the gates, smile in place as he waved at all those who he passed by.

(Such a kind boy —)

(You don't know yet —)

The classroom was well-lit and filled with colors to make all the children delighted. All children except himself.

Miura Natsu had been reading novels since he was a child, moving on to higher level textbooks as long as he had a dictionary next to him. His Mama was so proud of him, and Uncle Minato indulged him in his book obsession even though the man childishly complained about having two bookworms in the family now.

So he wasn't all that excited to go to first grade. He would rather be with Mama and finish up that book he was reading.

"When I call your name, please stand up and say your name and your favorite thing to do!" their teacher said. She was bubbly, but the peppiness wasn't really hyping him up.

He dozed off when the first few names were called, only snapping to attention when "Miura Natsu!" rang throughout the walls of the classroom.

"Good morning, I'm Miura Natsu, and I love reading."

(Isn't he —)

(Mama said —)

He sat down and then stayed quiet, observing his classmates to gauge who he could talk to. Most of the boys were talking about some robot anime he'd seen previously, and he wasn't up to speaking with girls since the ones in his table were both talking about dolls and fairies and the like. The others were just

(That's what she —)

annoying.

He turned to the only boy on his table.

Him. Good choice, good choice.

He nodded to himself and held a hand out to the boy. "Miura Natsu."

The boy blinked, blonde bangs moving in unison with his face as he turned to Natsu. "Aa, Watanabe Kenji."

He's different that's nice

"It's nice to meet you, Watanabe-kun. I hope we can be good friends." Natsu said with a dazzling smile on his face.

Kenji smiled as well. "I hope so, too, Miura-kun."

Their first subjects were Math and Language, which he breezed through. They were no problem for him given how much he read at home.

He blinked and looked up from the Language worksheet that they were given, noticing Kenji looking at him. "Yes, Watanabe-kun?"

"Sorry, I'm just having trouble with this item. Could you…" Kenji began and Natsu nodded, moving closer to see the other boy's worksheet. Everything but the one he asked Natsu for help for was right.

"Oh, you do this here, and then…" Natsu went on to explain the problem.

"Aa, thank you, Miura-kun."

"No problem."

"You're like me, aren't you?" Kenji told him as they both sat on the swings, watching the other kids play in the field in front of them. "You think they're rather childish."

Natsu hummed. "I'd like to think that both of us have simply outgrown that. We're still kids like them, anyways."

"Hmm," Kenji let out.

Yanagi Minato loved his cousin and his nephew. He just hated this small town, hated that she chose to restrict herself and Natsu to this secluded area just because she didn't want attention. From who, he had asked. From the father, she had said. She never even told him who the father was, but he was pretty sure he deserved to know. Natsu deserved to know.

He sighed as he stopped his car in front of the gates, eyes scanning the crowd of children for a boy with gravity-defying brown hair. There he was.

Natsu waved goodbye to a blonde kid before stepping inside the car.

"How was school?" Minato asked as they sped off to home.

Natsu shrugged. "It was okay."

"Okay as in meh or okay as in you'd rather just stay at home because the lessons bore you?" Minato chuckled.

"…"

"Yeah, I figured."

Such was the consequence when you were a genius kid, after all. Even Haru had been bored for the first few years of schooling until she entered middle school. That's when she started to become happier and more into her studies.

"That's fine, kiddo. You won't get bored once you're in the higher levels. It'll become more challenging then," he assured the boy.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Now, who was that kid you said bye to? A friend?"

"I suppose so. His name's Watanabe Kenji. Ring any bells?" Natsu asked him curiously.

Minato hummed and thought over it before remembering who the kid was talking about. He wasn't surprised that he remembered. It was a small town after all. "Oh, Watanabe, yeah. His family owns the cafe a few streets away from the house. Good family. Heard he was pretty smart, too."

"He's certainly not boring," Natsu smiled.

When they got home, Natsu dumped his bag on the floor next to his table and changed into more comfortable clothes before walking over to his uncle's room. "Ne, Minato-oji, what time will Mama come home?"

"She'll be back a little after dinner. Speaking of, what do you want? Pizza?" his uncle replied shuffling through his wallet.

Natsu shrugged. "Just make sure she doesn't find out. You know how she gets about calories."

"Oh, hush, you," his uncle grumbled. "What she doesn't know won't kill her."

"If she does find out, I'm blaming you, okay?"

"… Uh, yeah, sure."

Natsu laughed as his uncle seemed to have frozen because even he wasn't immune to his mother's calorie lectures.

He then walked back to his room and started on his homework.

"Gotta be done before Mama arrives," he said to himself as he began writing down answers.

Haru loved her job. She was a costume maker at a nearby cosplay store and she was quickly getting famous with her customers. She was also able to meet many people who shared her passions for particular anime, and she loved her co-workers. She was happy and content.

"Hey, Haru-chan?"

"Yes, Kiyo-san?"

A thirty-something year old woman stepped closer to her, long ash brown hair waving behind her as she smiled at the younger brunette. "I'm sorry, dear, but Emi-san asked if you could purchase these things from the bookstore. I'd go, but my regular, Daisuke-san, is here right now and I need to make some adjustments to his suit."

"Oh, that's fine, Kiyo-san! I'll be back before you know it!" Haru grinned at her senpai, who was the woman she was closest to in the establishment. She placed her sewing materials down on her assigned table and grabbed her jacket. Kiyo handed her the money she'd be needing.

"Take care, Haru-chan!"

"Thanks, Kiyo-san!"

By the time she reached the bookstore, Haru immediately searched for the materials on her list before she gasped.

"Hahi! I need to get Natsu-chan a new book!" she told herself. She'd wanted to surprise him with it for quite some time now because she felt bad for all the times she had to work overtime or take another shift for someone.

She missed him.

She immediately went over to the science textbooks, looking all around for a physics textbook she had seen Natsu looking at online. Once she located the book, she tiptoed to reach it but couldn't. Growling, she held on to one of the shelves and used it to push herself further up. It still didn't work.

Before she could start ranting to herself, a hand had reached for the book and handed it to her. Blinking in surprise, she turned around to see a dark haired man with blue eyes.

"You looked like you needed help," he said with a polite smile. He wasn't mocking her at all.

But why wasn't he?

"Aa, thank you, Stranger-san," she said, bowing towards him. "I'll be getting this now. Thank you, again."

"It's no problem," he inclined his head towards her before he went his way.

Haru stared at the spot he had previously occupied before shrugging. He probably was just wanting to help her anyways. Stop overthinking, Haru!

She then went over to the cashier and placed the items down, waiting patiently as the items were being scanned. After paying, she grabbed the books and proceeded to walk out of the bookstore, but before she could, her feet stopped moving. Her eyes widened as she saw someone she had never thought would come to such a small town like this.

In front of her was Sawada Tsunayoshi. He wasn't facing her; it was his back that was in her line of sight, but she would never miss that gravity-defying her that was just so, just so Tsuna-kun.

She wasn't ready for this confrontation.

By the time he began turning around, she dived behind one of the bookshelves and shut her eyes, praying he wouldn't come over here. She inhaled deeply before turning around, moving some books to the side to spy on the man.

He was on the phone with someone, and he was talking in French, a language he must have picked up over the years.

Of course, she would have known about it if they didn't —

She shook her head. She wasn't going to regret anything now. It wasn't their fault, after all.

Sawada Tsunayoshi finally pocketed his phone before walking over to one of the bookshelves close to her. More specifically, he stopped at the bookshelf she was at. He was just on the other side, browsing through the books a few shelves above the shelf she was crouching under. Her breath stopped, making sure she didn't even twitch as his fingers glided across the book shelves.

Don't look down. Don't look down. Please don't —

She let out a quiet sigh of relief when he disappeared from her line of sight. He probably moved over to another bookshelf.

Carefully, she grabbed her purchases and peeked from the side of the bookshelf, noting that he was indeed somewhere further away. She then sped walk out of the bookstore, ignoring some of the stares she had gotten from doing so.

She so did not need this right now.

"Haru-chan, what happened? You seem a little pale," Kiyo-san told her worriedly as Haru shook her head, bringing a bright smile on her face.

"Hahi, it was nothing! I was able to get what Emi-san needed!" Haru said proudly, handing Kiyo-san the purchases.

"Thank you, Haru-chan! You should probably go home to your kid now, though. It's getting awfully late."

Haru looked outside the glass windows of the store and noted that the sky was indeed darkening. "Okay, Kiyo-san. I'll see you tomorrow!"

By the time his Mama came home, it was already way past their dinner, but he didn't mind waiting for her. Uncle Minato had already fallen asleep on the couch, a pizza slice still in his hand.

Natsu laughed. Mama's going to kill him when she sees.

He then heard the door opening and he jumped up from his seat on the dining table, running over to the hallway. "Welcome home, Mama!"

"Okaeri, Natsu-chan!" his Mama beamed at him, kissing his forehead. "What did you guys have for dinner?"

Natsu smiled but smirked inwardly. "Aa, Minato-oji ordered some pizza. Said it was good for kids like me."

"WHAT?!" his Mama said in surprise, growling as she placed her things down and marched over to Minato, poking his waist hard.

"EEK!" Uncle Minato shrieked, covering his waist before he stared at Haru and grinned sheepishly. "Aa, hi, there, Haru! You look rather charming today. Did you do something with your hair? I—"

"What did I say about oily food?" she asked him, face carefully blank as she enunciated each word clearly and with purpose.

"To, uh, well—" Uncle Minato tried to reply before he glared at Natsu.

Natsu, meanwhile, just giggled and went back up the stairs.

Worth it.

"—and the fox finally found his friend. The End." Haru smiled as she closed the storybook and gazed at the child whose head rested on her shoulder. "Maa, I'm surprised you still wanted me to read this to you, Natsu-chan. I thought you outgrew this long ago."

Natsu shook his head. "No."

"Okay. You can tell me more about school tomorrow during breakfast. Sweet dreams," she kissed his head before she started to shift.

He quickly wrapped his hands around her arm, though. "Stay?"

Haru blinked before she smiled. With how mature he had been getting, she thought he would have found this to be childish. Deep down, she was thankful he didn't. "Okay, Natsu-chan. Oyasumi."

She switched off his lamp before they snuggled into the warm covers.

"Oyasumi, Mama."

"Miura Haru, Miura Natsu, Yanagi Minato. Normal. Civilians. No flicker of Flames at all."

"Are you sure, Ricardo?"

"Yes, sir."

"Keep observing them. Today may just be a fluke."

"Yes, sir."

A/N: And that's it for now. I hope you guys liked it :