"Hiee! I'm late!" Tsuna rushed out of bed and started running in order to leave for school… and promptly fell flat down on his face. A loud thump resonated throughout the house.

"Tsuna? Are you okay?" Nana called out, worried about her cute, little son. "Yeah mom, I'm fine," he called out. After a few more thumps echoed from the floor above, Nana finally spotted Tsuna rushing downstairs in a hurry and set out his breakfast on the dining room table.

"You're running late again, nii-chan? Sensei's going to be pissed…" the girl sitting at the dining room table commented while flipping her long, black tresses behind her shoulders. Tsuna yelped, grabbed a piece of perfectly browned toast from the plate that Nana set out for him earlier, and rushed out the door.

On the way to school, he noticed a group of kids forming a circle and staring at something. While he wasn't curious at all (he was late for the umpteenth time after all), he felt his body being drawn towards the commotion despite his will.

'What's going on? I'm late; I'm really late. I don't want to stop and stare at a bunch of little kids…'

Despite his best efforts, Tsuna's body – without his permission – ended up slowing down to walk up to the crowded children and finally spotted what they were doing: the kids were surrounding a pathetic looking black cat, 'probably torturing the poor thing, though I can't blame them… It's not a particularly cute cat,' Tsuna noted. The cat's black fur stuck out everywhere, and it had a dried blotch of yellow paint smack dab in the middle of its forehead. However, the paint blob was partially covered by the strange black fedora crammed onto its seemingly large head – 'it's probably the fur. Why did the kids shove the stupid looking hat on the cat though? Where'd they even find that weird hat? Still, that's really bad of them to do things like that…'.

"Stop that! What're you guys thinking? Didn't anyone ever teach you guys that you shouldn't bully poor little animals? What did the poor cat do to you?" Tsuna, out of some strange sense of obligation, started lecturing the kids that he was forced to walk up to since they didn't seem to know any better.

"But we weren't –" the kids tried to interject, but Tsuna continued on, ignoring their protests. "You guys should know better! Making that cat's fur that damaged – how'd you get it to stick up so much anyways? Never mind that, you should never do this again, do you understand?" "But...–" "If I catch you guys again, I'm going to tell your parents, got it?"

A bit spooked at the teen, the kids nodded in unison before running away.

"Now, let's see if you're hurt…" Tsuna picked up the cat and searched for injuries. As far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with the cat… aside from its atrocious fur anyways. He gently pet the cat before placing it back on the concrete floor.

"I guess you're okay. That's a relief. Just in case, I'll check on you after school if you're still here… Ah! SCHOOL!"

Tsuna rushed off again, fleeing as if Tanaka-san's devil of a Chihuahua was at his heels, leaving the poor, bedraggled feline behind.

The cat watched Tsuna running off into a distance while causing a large commotion in his wake. After he was out of sight, the cat walked up his fedora – it fell when the brown haired klutz picked him up.

"How interesting… Sawada Tsunayoshi… Hm?" the cat seemed to mutter ominously… But… it didn't… right? I mean… Cats can't talk, after all… right?

(1) nii-chan = the Japanese word for older brother

(2) sensei = the Japanese word for teacher; can also be used to refer to people of good standings (example: doctors)

A/N: I have a list of two possible character castings. One is more feasible than the other. The other one's cracky and funny, but your eyes WILL burn. I'm leaning towards the less painful casting at the moment, but if anyone wants to have the alternate one, something can be arranged if you merely ask. :D