A/N: No pairings and no Mochida bashing in this story.

Disclaimer: no

Wait for it

Chapter 1

"Hey, hey, mister? You wanna buy this? C'mon mister, I'll make a great deal for you."

Tsuna stops and looks at the little girl. She can't be older than seven. Her hair is matted and clothes dirty, the oversized jacket she's wearing definitely not enough to keep her warm. Clinging to her back is a smaller child, just as dirty, but looking remarkably warmer in a worn coat.

The girl is holding a bracelet in her small crummy hands. The design is simple and feminine with two thin silver wines looping each other and seven colourful stones embedded into the metal in a seemingly random manner. The morning sun makes them glimmer and glisten like a rainbow.

Tsuna catches a glimpse of a similar bracelet peeking out from the cuff of the girl's oversized jacket. He doesn't need his intuition telling him they were stolen.

"Mister? I know you want it so I'll give it to you cheap. You need to buy p-presents for this Christmas thing, right?" she stumbles over the unfamiliar words, likely not knowing what exactly they mean, but there's a dull hopeful glow in her eyes.

Tsuna doesn't hesitate. It takes him a moment to come up with a plan, then he squats down to the girl's eye-level, leaning the plastic bag with groceries on the snowy street.

"I'd love to buy it!" he says with a warm smile, careful not to scare the children. "How much is it?"

"Seventy thousand," the girl chirps immediately and Tsuna's suddenly very glad Gokudera's not with him. Stray kid or not, his forever loyal right hand does not take well to people trying to hassle the Vongola heir. Tsuna, however, doesn't falter. The kid is obviously not very familiar with money issues or she wouldn't have asked for such an outrageous sum. She probably hasn't been on the streets for too long.

He takes out his wallet and feigns counting his money, then turns back to the child with a regretful smile.

"Sorry, little merchant, I don't have that much cash on me. I don't suppose you take cards?"

The kid hesitates, then bites her lip as she shakes her head.

"I see. That's a problem. I really do want it." He pretends to think for a moment with a finger on his lips and just before the kid can offer her own solution, he says, "Oh, I know! If you don't mind walking with me, my house is a few blocks that way. I can get you the money."

He looks with silent satisfaction as the girl thinks it over, not very subtle with checking Tsuna out from head to toe. At least she knows the dangers of following strangers to their homes. Finally she deems Tsuna as safe, or at least as a naïve idiot, and nods.

Tsuna gives them another bright smile, then turns to walk to his house. He's met enough slum kids in Italy to know not to look back, and to keep his pace slow. Kids like that are cautious and smart and skittish, and he needs to act like a gullible idiot for them to follow. The moment he's too eager for them to come along, they'll flee.

He would feel guilty for dragging Nana into this, but he knows exactly how much his mother loves a full house and taking care of strays. When she sees these kids, dirty and hungry and cold as they are, she'll drag them into the house by force if necessary, and not let them out of sight until they're well fed, dressed, and have a place to call home.

And the best part of it all is that Iemitsu has no right to complain because the situation is perfect for the mission Nono assigned for them, too.

Later he'll contact Hibari to scan Namimori for other homeless children. If there are more than a few, he'll ask Kyoko and Haru to see if an orphanage or a shelter can be established. Even if he isn't the head of Vongola yet, there are still things he can do. Especially if it means saving starving children from the streets.

They'll tackle the heart of the problem as soon as all the children are safe.

-x-

Mochida Kensuke walks the snowy streets of Namimori adjusting the shinai carelessly thrown over his shoulder. He just finished the morning classes in the dojo, and with so many kids losing interest in martial arts lately, he has no afternoon classes scheduled.

It's a shame, really. Training kids at the dojo had been his dream since he took up kendo classes as a young boy, but with how badly it is going, he will have to find a new job very soon. He's not at all confident about a job outside of the dojo, but he will have to manage somehow.

He stops abruptly as he passes an alley. At first he doesn't know what made him stop, but then he hears it again. Someone is yelling angrily a few streets into the mess of small alleys, crisscrossing each other like a nest of hibernating snakes.

He doesn't hesitate before he ducks in. It might be nothing, just two drunkards fighting, maybe, but he has noticed a sudden influx of homeless children on the streets of Namimori. And while he can't think of anything to solve the problem, he can at least help the children when one's in trouble in front of him.

He turns a few corners, following the yelling. Hand on the hilt of his shinai, he rounds some trash cans and yelps as a small figure darts out another alley and slams right into him. He falls on his bottom in surprise. The other person is not so lucky as he makes a few stumbling steps and crashes head first into one of the trash cans, toppling it neatly, and loudly.

Mochida watches with wide eyes as the person rubs his head and moans. There's no mistaking that disastrous brown hair and small frame. He really looks pretty much the same as in middle school.

"Dame-Tsuna?"

He looks up, still holding his head. "Eh? You are… Mochida-senpai? Why are you here?"

"I should be asking you that. What are you running from..?" He quiets as Dame-Tsuna suddenly straightens and looks around as if expecting someone. His eyes are wide, head cocked, listening to something. "Someone chasing you? Don't tell me you still get bullied?"

"Um. Kind of, I guess," he says absently, messing with something on his wrist. Mochida steps closer and sees a silver bracelet. It's frilly and feminine and has sparkling stones on it and even with the massive two-piece ring on his fingers, the accessory looks weird on him. Dame-Tsuna seems to know that too, as he tries to pull it off. Has been trying to do that for a while, judging by the angry red mark around his wrist.

"Stupid thing won't come off," he mutters under his breath. Then he sighs and leaves it alone before checking the streets again. "You should get out of here, senpai. If you leave your shinai and act as if you didn't see anything, they'll let you pass, but you need to go right now."

Mochida doesn't say anything as he takes a loose stance with his shinai firmly in his hand, ready to attack or parry in whichever direction.

"What are you doing, Mochida-senpai? You need to get out of here."

"Shut up! I read the paper in the mornings. Reading about someone I know found beaten to death in a pile of trash would ruin the taste of my coffee. Besides, whoever those bullies are, they're no match for me."

"I'm not joking around, senpai. These guys aren't your typical bullies. There's no need for you to get mixed up in this," Dame-Tsuna sounds a little bit desperate, but his expression is stern and stony. When Mochida doesn't move, he softens a little. "I've been taking self-defence lessons lately. Your coffee will be fine."

"Haah? You want me to believe those noodle arms of yours can do any damage? You may have won against me once, but I've become much stronger-"

He moves so fast Mochida doesn't even have the time to blink and then he's shoved against a wall. A gunshot echoes through the alley and Dame-Tsuna is standing where Mochida had been just a few seconds ago.

Two men and a woman step out from around the corner. The men have guns in their hands and the woman has a European sword strapped to her hip and he gulps. She's really pretty and if the situation wasn't what it was, he'd probably try to flirt with her.

Dame-Tsuna ignores them completely and instead pulls out a small dart from his arm with a wince and inspects it briefly.

"Uh-oh. This can't be good." He throws the dart into a pile of trash and staggers a bit, but stays standing. "Listen carefully, senpai. There's a sniper on the roof with a tranquilliser gun, but he's not a very good shot and it takes time for him to aim. Darts aren't very accurate, either. Just keep low and you'll be fine. Don't worry, I can hold them off for a few minutes. Please just run and get help… Hibari-san should be near Namimori Middle. He'll know what to do."

He says the last part so quietly Mochida has to strain his ears to hear. He doesn't like it, though. Dame-Tsuna acting like he knows what he's doing? Hell no!

"I'm not entrusting my safety to you! You run and get help, and I'll hold them off."

Dame-Tsuna just shakes his head.

"I'm running out of time. Probably only have a few minutes before that whatever drug in that dart takes me down."

Mochida wants to protest because there is no way the tiny and frail Dame-Tsuna, drugged with some unknown substance and staggering on his feet, could face three guns and a sword and live to tell the tale, but the lady with the sword speaks before he can get a word out.

"Honestly," she says and there's something akin to awe in her tone, "You should already be out of time by now. That tranquilliser takes an elephant down in less than ten seconds. For you to still be standing… I've got no idea who you are, but you've got some reaaal nice flames hidden in that small body of yours, kid."

Mochida blinks confusedly. Flames? He glances around to see if there's something burning.

Dame-Tsuna doesn't seem to think it odd.

"This bracelet is why I can't reach them?" Dame-Tsuna shows his wrist with a vague, tired move. "Is this how you keep tracking me down as well?"

"Bingo! I see you got a bright l'il brain under all that fluffy hair, too. The bracelet has a tracking system that activates when it comes into contact with active flames. It's how we hunt down the brats who look useless at first, but turn out to be… profitable later on. I don't know how you got that bracelet, but I'm afraid you're a bit too old for us. But I'm sure Marco would be absolutely delighted to dissect you."

The way she says it with a smile so friendly makes Mochida shiver and grasp the hilt of his shinai tighter.

"They're just innocent children!" Dame-Tsuna snarls, and it would honestly be scary if his words hadn't slurred together. He brings his hands up, widens and lowers his stance. Mochida isn't very experienced in hand-to-hand combat, but he recognises a good stance when he sees one. What Dame-Tsuna has here doesn't look like anything official, more like instinctual, but it's still good.

The lady draws her sword and the two men aim at them.

Mochida has never had a gun pointed at him before and he's never fought against a real sword with a shinai. He has no idea what's going on and everything is honestly kind of terrifying, but Dame-Tsuna is standing in front of him, ready to fight and he looks so fearless even as his feet wobble and words stumble.

Yeah. Even if he had considered running for help before, there was no way he'd leave Tsuna behind now.

Besides, perhaps, if he waits long enough, he'll find out if there's anything solid to that stance other than showing off.

But Tsuna doesn't share his thoughts.

"Run away, senpai! Run right now!" he yells and shoots off straight towards the lady and damn he's fast.

Mochida refuses to fall behind. He's close enough to see how Tsuna dodges two bullets the men shoot at him and steps right into the range of the lady's sword. He moves to dodge that as well, but stumbles on uncooperative feet and Mochida is so glad he's so close. He grabs the idiot by the scruff of his neck and pulls him out of the way as the sword swipes through thin air. He carelessly throws Tsuna behind him and parries another hit, locking metal against bamboo, making sure the narrow blade gets caught near the hilt or it'll cut right through it.

"Hmph, you're decent enough," The lady breaks the lock and steps back.

Mochida can't hear Tsuna getting up and he peeks over his shoulder to see what's wrong.

"But so inexperienced," she says regretfully and it's the last thing he hears before the world goes dark.

*70000 yen is about 525 eur or 618 usd
A/N: Yamamoto implies in Future arc that Mochida Kensuke was at least associated to Vongola or even a member, so they must've befriended him at some point. The fandom seems to hate him a lot, though, so I'm not sure how this story will appeal to people. And I mean, yeah, Mochida's an arrogant asshole who tried to cheat in a match where he was overwhelmingly stronger, but he was also like 14 when he appeared in the manga. And I know I was pretty damn stupid when I was 14. Also, I don't remember him actively trying to bully Tsuna after that match so he must've gotten his act together.
Also, random badass villain ladies with swords. Am I right or am I right?
Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts so please leave a review on your way out!