Been a long time since I've posted anything at all, but here.

Wherein Sawada Tsunayoshi is kind, clumsy, sweet, shy, easily startled, and somehow (accidentally) an absolute BAMF.

(Point of View)

The students of Nami-chuu, despite common belief, aren't actually oblivious.

They're just not stupid, either.

See, when the Head of the Disciplinary Committee happens to be Hibari Kyoya, even the most arrogant bullies learn when to keep their heads down. He may have a tendency to ignore normal human words wherever possible and insert strange animal metaphors everywhere else, but no one native to Namimori will deny that the youngest Hibari is, was, and probably always will be utterly terrifying.

Then comes Gokudera Hayato. He's no Hibari—his temper is more relatable, if very, very short—but he's his own special brand of intimidating. Part of it is his casual disregard for authority. Part of it is because at least five people saw him throwing what looked like dynamite at dame-Tsuna the very afternoon he'd transferred in. (Whatever he'd been throwing, it certainly exploded. The damage had been cleaned up between nightfall and dawn, but between school and evening, plenty of people had seen it.)

Part of it is the fact that he's an absolute, eidetic-memory-wielding genius with a special insight for science and mathematics. Also, he's at least bilingual and a not-so-secret cryptozoology fan. Those things would have labeled him some kind of nerd if not for the excessive use of explosives.

Correction: the casual disregard for authority—except Sawada Tsunayoshi's. Gokudera picks fights with Hibari when given the chance, goes out of his way to make the teachers look stupid, and goes absolutely murder-them-all crazy when anyone badmouths Tsuna. Dame-Tsuna, the weak little clawless kitten of a boy whose desk Gokudera had literally kicked out from under him the morning they'd met and who he'd then called out behind the school and thrown explosives at.

Of course the whole school knows. It's just… no one's dumb enough to mention it again after the first warningly whispered rumor.

Still, Gokudera is a foreigner. Who knows what kind of weird customs Italians had? Maybe the explosive thing was some kind of rite-of-passage or maybe something had happened as the students who'd noticed had made themselves very, very scarce. Maybe it was some kind of life-debt thing, where ever-kind Tsuna had done something stupid and selfless and knocked him away from a mis-thrown bomb. (The speculation generally cut off there, before anyone could get more ridiculous.)

So, anyway, Gokudera worshiped dame-Tsuna, and you did not call Tsuna 'dame' or anything like it in his hearing range. Simple enough rule. They dealt with Hibari and his list, they could handle the simplicity of 'don't badmouth Sawada where Gokudera may even possibly hear of it'.

Then Yamamoto, their baseball star, gets pushed and pushed and pushed too far, his teammates trying to get him to carry them all (the kendo club is appalled, because they aren't a team sport but they're still a team, and they support each other and a team that's supposed to act as a team on the field that puts everything on one person and then ignores him is terrible), and it hasn't been so very long since Yamamoto's lost family and something in him cracks and cracks and cracks until he gives in and it's dame-Tsuna who saves him.

No one's quite sure how. (Or, rather, everyone's certain the exact methodology is some kind of mass hallucination, and they settle on the fact that he did and leave it at that.)

Yamamoto still loves baseball, is still the star of the team, but he drifts away from the people who'd proven they weren't really friends in favor of dame-Tsuna and Gokudera. It isn't surprising; Tsuna had saved his life and given him something to hold on to all at once.

Then the school idol's older brother joins the… well, it's certainly not a clique. Or a herd, no matter what Hibari-san calls it. Considering the chaos that reigns wherever they walk, the school as a whole decides on 'fray' despite the fact that the four don't seem to be fighting against anything but, you know, normality.

Sasagawa Ryohei, captain of the Boxing Club, is very… extreme.

He does not seem like a follower. (Then again, neither do Gokudera and Yamamoto.) Somehow, he follows dame-Tsuna anyway.

(It's becoming clear that dame-Tsuna isn't so dame, but still the unkind nickname persists.)

Somehow, though, the true reality doesn't click for the school body until one day Hibari-san is more irritable than normal, to the point where his tonfa come out for mere normally-respectable-distance proximity, and when a careless passing high-schooler tosses trash into their school grounds (missing the trash can he was probably aiming for, but either not noticing or not caring), the demon in human guise just kind of snaps.

He doesn't even give warning, darting across the yard so fast that it's only long acquaintance with his presence that has students and staff realizing what's happening.

There's a sharp sound, metal hitting skin-covered bone, a half-panicked yelp, and a darkly acknowledging grunt from Hibari-san.

It takes several seconds for the scene to process.

The high-school student is sprawled on the sidewalk, eyes wide with fearful shock, and blocking Hibari-san's tonfa with a bare forearm is dame-Tsuna. Dame-Tsuna who doesn't look at all clumsy or shy or incompetent, doesn't look dame, and is meeting Hibari's gaze with even disappointment while somehow not having had his arm bones shatter.

"Kyoya," he says, that same disappointment in his tone. "You know better. Control yourself—you would have killed him with that strike."

There is a long, long moment of silence before Hibari pulls back, putting his tonfa away and looking ever so slightly chastened. He doesn't protest the use of his given name, instead dipping his head in acknowledgement before saying, "Omnivore," and turning to walk away.

Tsuna sighs, shakes his head, and turns to help the high-schooler back to his feet. "Pick up your trash, please, senpai."

The teen does as he's told, wide-eyed, and Nami-chuu finally realizes that dame-Tsuna… really isn't.

(Of course it took Hibari-san respecting him to make the nickname disappear.)

xxxx