Word Count: 2400~

So I said that I probably wouldn't update very quickly for the a while cause of stuff, but this is way more enjoyable than I thought it was and it turns out that I'm at it constantly. For now.

As always thanks for all the reviews, favourites and followers its really inspiring to know so many people are interested something I've made.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or any of its characters.

Chapter 3

"Hello!"

He didn't speak back, vouching only to tilt his head slightly. He didn't seem bothered by her presence – only confused. Probably. The lack of reaction didn't stop Uni though as she continued on.

"Would you mind if I sat here as well?" He took a few moments to register the request, likely due to just waking up, and promptly began to gather his equipment. Uni was quick to stop this as she reached out with her hand to catch his arm mid action, when he did something she didn't expect. He flinched.

His arm quickly pulled into his body before he realised what he was doing and after a few moments he managed to relax it. She couldn't hide her concern in time as it flickered through her face, he was quick to return to his task but this time faster. Keeping her arms to herself she spoke out softly.

"I didn't mean for you to leave." She brushed her hair over her ear."I would like to see the view, however I would feel guilty if I made you leave for it." He didn't stop collecting his things as she spoke, so frowning slightly she continued."I'd rather leave than interrupt your time up here." It was true. She knew this spot meant a lot to him in other lives, it wouldn't surprise her that it was the same here. Much to her relief this caused him to stop.

He laid his gathered pile on the grass at the side opposite to her, and he shuffled himself over next to them leaving a gap for her to get a better angle without straining her neck. Too big a gap. She didn't complain though, not wanting to push him into doing something he was too uncomfortable with she took the spot he left graciously.

Holding her dress she sat down, then letting go of it once it wasn't caught beneath her she looked up out to the view once more, her head laid against the tree.

She couldn't focus on it though, not giving out any obvious indicators she observed Tsuna out of the corner of her eye. He had left the bento box that was next to her as well as leaving about three quarters of a metre between them, and yet he still seemed to be trying to make himself smaller. He tucked his legs in and wrapped his arms around him and unlike Uni seemed to be gazing out to the view without any attempts to glance at her.

It was odd to say the least, she hadn't expected the differences to be so radical. The Tsuna she knew was an openly clumsy and friendly person, even to people he had just met. It was the largest difference in his usual personality that her memories showed her and she wasn't sure how to deal with it.

She decided that it was a good thing that she and Byakuran had split up, he didn't have enough normal contact to ordinary people in order to deal with this situation. Although she hadn't been in this situation before, she could adapt a lot faster than Byakuran could.

Uni began to speak up deciding that she had to try to get somewhere in their first meeting in this universe.

"You okay up here by yourself?" The question seemed to take him by surprise as he jumped at the sudden noise. Silence.

A minute passed and she was about to give up on receiving an answer when he spoke out.

"Yea." His voice was rough and monotone, dull like his eyes. She waited to see if he would elaborate and when nothing was said with several minutes past she tried her luck again.

"Why come all the way up here?" She waited for her answer once again. It didn't come any faster than the last time, so she waited. She stared out at Namimori and the forest and contemplated. What made Tsuna so different here? How could she help? Could she help? The last thought was quickly discarded, useless as it was.

"It's nice." Another short answer in the same tone. She couldn't make heads or tails of his emotions, the only thing she knew for certain was that he shied away from contact. Likely due to bullying, but was it that extreme in this world? Her thoughts were broken when she noticed him turning his head for a glance at her, though he immediately turned away tucking his head further in.

It lasted like this for the next hour, she would keep asking questions and waiting for the answers whilst he would answer her questions with answers never more than a few words. Always the same tone, but eventually he began to answer faster. If only slightly.

The small victory brought a small smile back onto her face, it seems like she could do it after all. Although Byakuran was going to be mad, he would want to know how this world differed to the others – or to be exact who the perpetrators were. She grimaced he would likely have to keep his distance for a while whilst she tried to break the ice with him, she wasn't sure if he could handle Tsuna right in this type of situation, or to be more accurate if Tsuna could handle him.

She managed to calm herself it time for Tsuna's glance, it had been happening over the past hour. She had made sure not to be caught when looking over at him, only using very small movements when doing so and only looking from the edge of her eyes not twisting her neck much.

She was making progress. Slowly, but it was better than nothing. Again slipping into thoughts of what she and Byakuran were going to have to do she realised that, at least for now, they couldn't freeload at Tsuna's house as planned. If she was able to pull it off it wouldn't be long till Tsuna was comfortable enough with them that they could pull off a stunt to try to stay over, the thought of it brought a small smile to her face.

Thinking of times when the three of them were together in Namimori: the camping trip, the hiking – though Byakuran cheated –, the pool. She relaxed into the tree as she wandered around the memories in her mind.

Several minutes later a growl brought her attention back to the present, not a threatening one but a hungry one. She turned to Tsuna with a smile on her face when she saw one of the few actions he had made to symbolize his emotions. He was rubbing his head in embarrassment as he stared down at the ground.

Though something was off. Something didn't feel right about him. She couldn't pin it down though, nothing seemed off about the way he showed the emotion, he had made the same motions many times in her memories and nothing seemed wrong. She frowned.

Her eyes widened. Tsuna had glanced at her whilst she was annoyed at the strange feeling she got. He had seen the annoyed look on her face. He had seen it after he had done something. He had turned away from her now, but not like the other times, he had angled his back towards her as he clamped down. She quickly spoke up not wanting to spoil what she had managed up until now.

"I wasn't annoyed at you." Something wrung false about that statement as it left her mouth."I was just thinking about some other problems that I am having." She spoke softly, a smile on her face trying to solve her mishap.

He didn't move. Silence filled the air for minutes before it broke, but only to her slouching back against the tree. She clenched her hand into a fist, but only the one unnoticeable to Tsuna, she had messed it up. All her patience, all her care. It had come to nothing. Her thoughts preoccupied by her failure and the silence continued to hang over them for even longer.

Until it was once again broken. But this time by a small rough voice that snapped her out of her thoughts.

"I come up here to try to forget my problems." It was the longest thing he had said since she had sat down.

But still the unasked question hung in the air.

Then why are you up here for so long?

Uni jumped over a log as she made her way back through the forest, her teeth clenched. She had left shortly after his final sentence, he didn't appear to be moving from that spot even though his hunger was obvious. Quickly deducing that he wouldn't move with her presence she had left with a quiet goodbye to allow him to get back to eat something.

She had allowed her annoyance at how she had messed up show once she had reached a satisfactory distance from Tsuna's spot. Her dress that she had tried hard to keep in good condition was beginning to acquire marks left by branches she had roughly pushed past and dirt she had kicked up.

She had to call Byakuran and explain the situation, then come up with a plan to allow them to get closer to him without scaring him away. She made a rough turn, her shoe scrapped against a tree. It didn't take long for her thoughts to focus on her encounter with Tsuna, she had been doing so well!

She continued back to where they had met and was almost there when she was suddenly lifted up. She turned to face the perpetrator, though she already knew who it was, with a grimace on her face – it was explanation time.

"You're in quiet the state aren't you~" His eyes shone mysteriously."What got you so worked up that you couldn't keep the dress you personally picked out clean?"

Uni looked down to discover that just as he had mentioned her dress was in a horrible state. Good thing she brought two, not dwelling on it she turned her head to Byakuran again.

"We might not be able to call Tsuna Tsu-chan for a while..." That caused him to stop. And stare."He's not like most of the Tsunas, he's abnormally shy and flinches away from contact and keep a distance between us and there's something off about him that caused me to mess up!" She blinked in surprise as she realised that she had began to shout and cry.

Byakuran smiled sadly down to her.

"So he was a moody teenager just like me?"She looked at him, tears streaming down her face.

"He's not the same as you were-"

"Sounds like it." This time she didn't reply."There might be some differences, but if you managed to put me on the right path, then I don't see how you couldn't help Tsu-chan. He is one of the nicest people I know, of course you're another~ He might be a bit moody, but there's no way he isn't like he usually is. That's what makes him unique, deep down. He never changes."

He began to walk again, still carrying her, he made his way back to Namimori.

"You can tell me all about the encounter." Again he looked down at her as he walked."We can come up with a plan to help him out, cause it's not just you that wants to help him – not this time." She stared at him, eyes still watering, he just looked the way he was walking his smile still present.

She grumbled something about his sample size being rather small.

His smile widened.

Then it widened further still.

"Of course there's going to have to be some punishment for not getting me when you saw him~"

She shivered.

They had decided to rough the night out in the forest as they hadn't made any back up plans. They were currently searching about for a place to get a late lunch, where Uni would further explain their current situation.

They settled for the restaurant of the alley they had used earlier, settling down they decided it would be best to use this an opportunity to get a dinner like meal instead of a lunch, they could eat a snack later.

Once they were seated it wasn't long till they ordered their meals, the question about whether or not they could pay pointedly ignored, conversing as they usually would. Though is wasn't long till Tsuna made his may into the conversation.

"I can't believe you ditched me!" Byakuran teased her, leaning back as if struck by a bullet he grasped the clothing around his heart. Giggling at his antics Uni played along.

"Well I can't have dead weight tagging around all the time." She put on a sophisticated voice as he let out a cry as he leaned further back, twisting up.

Their act was finished early when a few of the customers complained at them. Uni apologised whilst Byakuran just made faces at them telling them to shut it, which earned a soft slap to get his attention from Uni who was glaring half-heartedly at him with a finger on her lips telling him to shut it in her own nice way.

With a sigh he complied and leaned forward, back to the table. It was then that Uni explained everything about her first meeting with Tsuna. The flinching, the long silence between small exchanges of words, the weird feeling she got and the lack of visible emotions.

He listened intently, and she never missed a beat, conveniently when she had finished with her story the food arrived. Giving a moment of silence between them as Byakuran processed the information.

She had ordered a medium portion of some kind of mild flavoured sauce of a burger on rice. It was an odd dish to her, but a burger was a burger.

Right?

Much to her relief after taking her first bite she found it to be nice, signalling Byakuran with a thumbs up he too dug into to his food – his with pineapple added to the sauce to sweeten the dish.

As she was about to eat more she spotted Byakuran with his signature marshmallows in hand, Uni quickly grabbed his hand and assured him that as much as he wanted to. Adding marshmallows to his meal wouldn't make it better, to which she got a disbelieving look when he seriously said.

"You have to try it with every dish you have to make sure."

She laughed forgetting about her earlier troubles, invested in the moment with Byakuran she stopped worrying and enjoyed herself.

Well. They met.

Tsuna has been through a rough time... I'm trying to not make it a situation of him being bullied by everybody he sees and I've attempted to come up with reasoning as to why it's like this.

Though this is using my creative influence on the world, so non-cannon prospects, much like my take on Namimori cause I couldn't find anything on it's layout or its surroundings(apart from the school Haru attends) so I came up with my own - admittedly kinda half ass'd cause I'm more into the characters.

I hope you enjoy'd this chapter and, if you keep following along, will enjoy the next chapters as well.