Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Especially those that answered my question! The site given was very helpful. On another note, in reply to some reviews, Mukuro was not hiding his pain or acting cool. He was faking, lying and acting like a totally different person so that Tsuna wouldn't report him to the police or something. Besides, he's too BAMF to feel pain.

Nuvola Tenri and Misaki Yoshino, you two probably think that I totally forgot about your song requests/suggestions, didn't you?

Author: C.S. Thompson

Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi was a normal, average boy. In fact, he was below average. He was clumsy, got below average scores on all of his tests, couldn't do any sports for the life of him and had virtually no talents to speak of. Tsuna knew this better than anyone, and accepted the fact that he probably wouldn't get very far in life, even if he somehow managed to get through high school.

He accepted that he would (basically) amount to nothing.

So when a band manager by the name of Reborn scouts him specifically for the one of the things he was actually good at (which he also sort-of failed at too), Tsuna was understandably confused.

"You want me to become an international singer?"

Rating: T

Warnings: Hibari Kyouya, Reborn, Rokudo Mukuro and the Varia. Implications of bullying and actual bullying. Implications of violence. Swearing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! in any shape or form. I am not making any money out of this fanfiction. I do not own any of the songs mentioned or will be mentioned in this fanfiction, either. Both the manga and songs belong to their respective owners.

~ ' * ' ~

Chapter Nine:
Four Father Figures

~ Melancholy is a foreign feeling. ~

''Seventy percent,''

~ ' * ' ~

"Hello?"

"Ah, good morning, Tsuna-kun."

"Fon-san! Is something wrong?"

"No, no. Everything's fine at the bakery. I'm just calling to ask you about this weekend."

"Oh. Um, what about it?"

"Enma-kun is playing at that music event at the cultural center, right? This Saturday?"

"Uh, yeah. I hope that it's no problem? I'm pretty sure that he told you about not coming to work and all . . ."

"Oh no, it's not a problem at all. I was just thinking about closing the bakery on that day. My niece wanted to go and I thought that we could spend the day together, so . . ."

"That's sounds nice, Fon-san. I don't mind if you close the bakery for the day. I'll be able to surprise Enma, ha ha!"

"Thank you, Tsuna-kun. I haven't spent much time with my niece since she's living with my other nephew. Maybe we'll see you at the event?"

"Ha ha, maybe. Well, if that's all I'd best get studying, Fon-san."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry from keeping you from your studies, Tsuna-kun!"

"It's no problem, really. Talking to you is much better than doing all this homework. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

"Mm. Good bye, Tsuna-kun."

"Ah, bye Fon-san."

- X -

"You're an idiot," Reborn said, like it's not unusual for him to say. It isn't, actually. He says that at least once a day.

"Thanks," Tsuna mumbled dryly, squinting at the paper in front of him. On the radio that was perched precariously at the edge of Tsuna's bookshelf, Shake It Off by Florence and the Machine was playing, the strong voice of the lead singer filling the small room even on the low volume it was on. The two of them sat at the small desk in Tsuna's room.

It was Friday afternoon. Reborn had come early from whatever he did and had decided to 'help' Tsuna with his homework. The window was open, the sun was spilling in to fill the entire room with its orange-y hues. His room was a bit of a mess, his homework all over the desk, mixed in with song lyrics and chords. His guitar was on the bed, lying innocently amongst the mass pillow and blankets that Tsuna had hoarded. On the floor his school uniform lay in a messy heap next to the laundry basket while his school bag was propped up against the bed post.

"-dance, with a devil on your back! So shake him off, oh woah!*"

He wished he could.

"Let's move on to the next question. What causes rainbows?" Reborn asked, lounging on the seat at Tsuna's desk and holding a piece of paper full of messy scribbles. Tsuna groaned, falling back onto his bed and narrowly avoiding banging his head on his guitar's fretboard. Tsuna screwed his face up in thought, trying to recall the information that Reborn had spent the better half of the hour drilling into his head.

"The sunlight hits the water droplets in the air and, um, the light is separated into different colours because the water, uh, bends it?" He answered falteringly. Reborn made a somewhat pleased sound before moving on to another question, ignoring when Tsuna breathed out a sigh of relief.

"-equested by Misaki, If You Can't Hang!"

"How much of the earth is covered by water?"

Tsuna perked up, he knew this one. "Seventy percent," he said, not bothering to hide the pleased grin on his face when Reborn makes the same sound again.

"Name all the stages a cell goes through to divide. Including those 'sub-stages'." Tsuna huffed unhappily, flopping down again. Reborn just had to jump to the one subject that he hated most. He lay down in thought, combing through his memories to see if he knew the answer. "Can I tap out?" Tsuna asked, only half joking.

"-that's okay*," when did song lyrics start becoming so ironic?

"This is the last question," Reborn informed him. Apparently, he didn't agree with the song that was belting out from the blue and silver radio. Tsuna sighed, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly. Behind his eyelids Tsuna could only see a pinkish red. He was tired, he hadn't been sleeping properly for a few days because he was obsessing over school work and music.

"Interphase, mitosis and cytokinesis. Mitosis has prophase, metaphase, anaphase and . . . telophase?"

"Right. I think we should take a break before we start on history." Oh God, he had forgotten about that.

Tsuna stared up at his ceiling unseeingly, his mind wandering as Reborn shuffled some papers. Tsuna didn't envy Reborn, his desk was a complete pig sty right now. It had taken him a full five minutes to search for his laptop yesterday, and a full fifteen minutes to find his iPod. In fact, he still hasn't found it. That was why he was using the radio to fill the silence.

"-please be mine?"

"Do you like music?" Reborn asked languidly, stretched out elegantly in the cramped room. Tsuna grumbled an affirmative. It wasn't really a secret.

"-was Sleeping With Sirens! Next request is-"

"Alright, what's wrong?" Reborn sighed, sitting up and lowering the radio's volume so that it was a low murmur. Tsuna blinked, pushing himself up a bit to stare at the older man with a raised eyebrow. "You're sulking," he explained, waving a hand at Tsuna before combing his hand through his messy hair. Tsuna blinked again, remembering his attitude for the past hour. That wasn't sulking, not really. That had been him stressing out over school work and a song request from the devil.

Reborn only snorted when he told him so. "What's wrong with the song request then?"

Tsuna finally sat up, snatching a piece of wrinkled paper on the very top of the piles of paper on his desk. Beautiful Girl*, it read. "This, this is what's wrong." Tsuna huffed unhappily, almost flopping down again in a heap of teenage angst. He stopped himself though, because while Reborn disliked hipsters and swag and scorpions and bright greens and cows- a lot of things, actually- he absolutely hated self-pity. (And he had a gun.)

Reborn raised an eyebrow as he read through the lyrics, waiting expectantly for Tsuna to elaborate. "I'm not good at romanctic songs, don't really like them, but this one's harder because I can't get it right for some reason."

"Dame-Tsuna, play it." Reborn ordered him after a moment. Tsuna thought about saying no. He didn't like singing in front of others, in fact, he hated doing so. Whenever he videoed himself doing a song request, he never showed his face, he closed the door when he practiced and only sang with Enma when he was cajoled to. But then again, Reborn could actually help him with his problem. And he wasn't the type to criticize and put down other people in the same malicious way as Tsuna's bullies, not really, at least.

Screw it. Reborn didn't have anyone to gossip with about his failures (right?).

He grabbed his guitar, getting comfortable and took deep, calming breath.

- X -

Tuna-Fish's Blog
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My Wonderful Life
Because everyone needs a place to rant.

June 12th, 20XX at 10:32 PM

Ugh.

Sunny is tutoring me in singing. I don't know how it happened, no freaking clue.
I never had singing lessons. There's more to singing than I ever thought. I mean,
vocal warmups? I knew about them, but I didn't know they were that important.
I feel stupid now. More so than usual.

School is horrible. Like usual. I'm getting so much homework and projects to
do. At least Octo-Head isn't glaring at me anymore. And Moe is just sort of
avoiding me now. His cousin Penny is doing the opposite, though. She calls
True-Flame and I every now and then, it's nice.

I finally finished Nuvola Tenri's request! It took a lot of time, but I managed.
Turns out my strumming was off. Can't help it much, though. I like faster
paced songs.

Mood: Exhausted
Tags: real life, school, music

See previous posts

Leave a comment [27]

BunnyofDOOM: Hey! so Sunny is actually tutoring you? It's not that far fetched that he can help you with music- he's a band manager, isn't he? He has to have some knowledge about music, I guess. Good cover, by the way. Not as good as your other covers, but still pretty good. And you've never had singing lessons? What the heck, my mom made me take one and I'm still not as good as you!

Tuna-Fish: I guess you're right about Sunny. It would be sort of sad if a band got a manager that didn't know a thing about music . . . Yeah, not my best. Probably one of my worst. I'm not good at songs like that, not really.

BunnyofDOOM: Yeah, it would be sort of sad. I agree. I think it was probably in the top seven of your badly done covers. (First place being you first video.) Oh, it's nice to hear that you've gotten that octopus problem solved. Who would have thought that food would work so well? I guess there is some truth in the saying 'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach'.

Tuna-Fish: Aren't you supposed to be comforting me and saying that it isn't as bad as I think? (Second place is definitely the This Love* cover.)

BunnyofDOOM: Why should I? That's called compliment fishing, Tuna. Bad fish. (I thought it was the Eeinie Meenie*- not because of how you did it. It's more on principal, I don't like the guy.)

Tuna-Fish: . . . Bad fish? (Okay, that was probably third place. I didn't like the song either, but it was requested and I suck at saying no.)

BunnyofDOOM: Your a fish. Maybe I should start calling you fishy? (Dude.)

Tuna-Fish: Please. (Dude.)

BunnyofDOOM: HA. You thought I would stop calling you sweetheart, didn't you? Not a chance. (Lol.)

xSamuraiHeartx: Hi again! My teachers are doing the same thing, too! My grades are pretty bad compared to my friend's. He's like a genius. Maybe I can get him to tutor me? Anyway, not a bad cover! The strumming was a bit off in this video, like you said, but it wasn't horrible. Ha ha, what songs do you like then? I like the slower paced ones, but I try not to limit myself to those.

Tuna-Fish: Hello to you too. I've got a classmate tutoring me and Sunny, so I think I'm alright. Go ahead and ask, I'm sure he won't mind. You two are friends after all. Ah, I like a variety of songs. My favourite bands are American Rejects and Shimon, currently. I like one or two of Decimo's songs, like Secrets. What about you?

xSamuraiHeartx: Ha ha, I'll ask him tomorrow then! I don't know what genre I like. I just like songs with good lyrics and beats, really. I like Decimo's Secrets too! It's a lot different to the pop songs I hear on the radio.

Cloud: I have yet to bite punish the octopus herbivore.

Tuna-Fish: Erm, you don't have to.

Cloud: Not for you. He's breaking school rules.

Tuna-Fish: Ah . . . Wait, did I remind you about that?

Cloud: Yes.

Tuna-Fish: Oh. I just signed my classmate's death warrant. I feel bad now.

Mr. Extreme: I'VE NEVER HEARD OF VOCAL WARMUPS. GOOD JOB ON THE COVER, BY THE WAY.

Tuna-Fish: Well, I didn't think about them either, so it's all good. And thank you.

Mr. Extreme: NO PROBLEM.

Scorpion Ai: Hello, sweetheart. Another cover I see. I am glad that Octo-Head isn't bothering you anymore. I told you that food always works, but you didn't believe me. And Sunny . . . I think he may be my love after all.

Tuna-Fish: Hello to you too. Is this the part where you say that you're always right and I say that a man can never win an argument against a woman? Sunny may be your lover? The one you haven't seen in years?

Scorpion Ai: You can't win an argument against me at all. You are very bad at debating, so it naturally carries over to arguing with someone. And yes, that one man that slipped away from me. I think he is Sunny.

Tuna-Fish: Gee, thanks. So what are you going to do then? If Sunny really is your lover? I can't really tell you much about him, because I barely know anything about him myself. He's very . . . private.

Scorpion Ai: You live in Namimori, yes? I've decided to come from America and stay with my little brother for awhile. He lives there currently. I suppose I'll have to figure out what I am going to do as I go. Thankfully, because of the modern technology I can continue working without worries.

Tuna-Fish: You're coming to Namimori? That's so cool! I didn't know I lived in the same city as your little brother. You mentioned him tons of times, but never in detail.

- X -

"Tsuna! Get off your computer and come talk to your father!" Tsuna jumped in his seat at the shout. Oh. He had forgotten that today was one of his father's once-in-a-month Skype sessions. He frowned, he didn't really want to talk to that man, but his mother would get angry if he didn't at least say hello.

"I'm coming mom," he called, giving the laptop in front of him a forlorn look before closing it with a click. He ventured out of his room for the first time in hours, not bothering to close his door. It spoke volumes of how used to Reborn he had gotten, Tsuna thought as he stretches with a yawn. He's practically one of those really quirky uncles (though perhaps slightly homicidal was a better description).

He padded down the stairs absentmindedly, not at all surprised when he tripped on the second last step and went crashing down into the hard, wooden flooring with a shriek. Tsuna groaned, rubbing his backside as he got up, and cursing his clumsiness. He limped into the living room a moment later, almost shaking his head when he found his mother sitting in front of a laptop set on the coffee table. She hadn't even bothered to investigate the noise.

Then again, he mused, he would be used to the yelling too.

Nana looked up when he came in with a face of delight. "Tsuna! Quickly, quickly- come say hello to daddy!" Tsuna almost winced at the title. 'Daddy'.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he said anyway, going over to where his mother sat on the beaten up couch. He sat down heavily, wiggling in his seat a bit before looking at the screen. A man with a sharp chin and a proud nose was grinning toothily in the screen. His short blond hair looked messy, and he had a rugged look to him with his scruffy beard. It contrasted a lot with the clean black suit that he wore. "Hi, dad," Tsuna sighed.

"Tsuna! How's my boy doing?" Iemitsu said excitedly. He didn't seem to get that Tsuna would rather not be here.

"I'm fine." Tsuna said curtly as he inspected the place behind his father, trying to get a feel of where he was. Tsuna always did this, but the place Iemitsu 'called' from rarely changed. Off white walls could be seen over his father's right shoulder. To the left was a bookcase made of dark wood. Tsuna had long ago guessed that it must be made of ebony. The titles for the books found there were small, but the ones that Tsuna could read were a mix of English and a foreign language.

". . . new friend . . ." his mother said.

On one shelf of the book case was an object that Tsuna knew well. A lion plushie with an orange mane and button eyes sat upright, leaning on a red book that read War and Peace on its spine. He knew for a fact that its right paw that was hanging limply had black stitches running along the side, and its tail was a sad little thing that was a patchwork of colourful stitches. He knew because it had been his childhood toy, which he had given to his uncle when he was eight to 'keep him from being lonely'.

"Is uncle Ieyasu there?" Tsuna found himself asking. His mother paused to give her son a cross look, but his father laughed it off.

"Why yes. Yes I am," a smooth voice said. Another blonde man with kind amber eyes walked into the view of the camera to peer over Iemitsu's shoulder. Tsuna grinned in excitement when the man gave him an amused smile that showed off a dimple on his left cheek.

"Uncle Ieyasu! How are you?"

He chuckled, leaning on Iemitsu's chair. "I'm well. Have you been practicing with your guitar, Tsuna?"

"Of course," he replied. In the screen his father sulked, but Tsuna payed him no mind. Of course he had practiced. Of course he would say yes to the man that had spent almost all of his free time teaching him how to play the guitar. Of course he would squirm happily when his uncle praised him for staying in practice. This was his uncle, the man who was like a father to him the few times that Tsuna got to stay with him in Italy.

"How is school then?" Tsuna beamed.

A long while later, when Tsuna was finally saying his good byes with his uncle, his uncle said something very surprising.

"Say hello to Reborn for me, will you?"

- X -

* '-dance, with a devil on your back! So shake him off, oh woah!' Lyrics from the song Shake It Off by Florence + the Machine.

*'That's okay . . . please be mine?' Lyrics from the song If You Can't Hang by Sleeping With Sirens.

* Beautiful Girl is by Christian Bautista.

* This Love is by Maroon 5.

* Eeinie Meenie is by Justin Beiber.