Here it is people. The second half of chapter 2 that is now officially chapter 3 that should have been out a long long time ago. My apologies.

For people asking about Rain/Yamamoto. He wasn't in the last chapter, because he didn't die yet. Chapter 2 started and ended while Tsuna was still in elementary school.

OCs in the form of Hana's parents and an elementary school teacher are here along with bullied Tsuna who's slowly getting better.

Chapter 3: In Which the Garden Provides Solace

"Alright! Listen up everybody!" Ina-sensei called her class to attention with a loud clap. "This is the final project for this subject for this year. It's a group project and members will be picked out of this box. We've got twenty-four people, so there will be eight groups. No one and I mean no one is going to be allowed to switch members unless there are extre-extenuating circumstances."

She winced internally having caught that word before it could fully manifest and changed it as she noticed one of her students flinch. Sighing, she shook the shoebox once more and opened it.

"Group One! Haga Manabu. Fujita Seiji. Ibu Takumi. Group Two! Higuchi Chika. Harada Junko…"

It went on and on until Tsuna was one of the last kids left. Even in a random drawing, it seemed that Tsuna would still be picked last.

"Group Eight! Sasagawa Kyoko. Kurokawa Hana. And Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Sensei! That's not fair! How are Kyoko-chan and Hana-chan supposed to pass with Dame-Tsuna on their team!"

"Yeah! You should at least give them extra credit!"

As the jeers and complaints continued to grow louder and louder, Tsuna sunk further and further down into his chair. He bit his bottom lip as he noticed the considering look in his teacher's eyes. After that sight, he couldn't bring himself to look at either of his new partners.

"Quiet! These teams are final. Each group has to pick a topic or chapter that we've gone over this year. Your choice must be submitted for approval this Friday. Once they've been approved, each group will receive a packet with the requirements for the presentation you will do on it."

It was a quiet walk to Tsuna's house. He was cautious and made sure that no other people from there school were following his group as he led them to the Sawada residence.

"What's with you?"

"No-nothing."

Even as he spoke, he kept glancing around to make sure that no one would decide that he needed a warning against doing anything to the girl everyone felt pity for.

Kyoko, walking to his right with Hana in between them, was a quiet girl with a gentle smile that rarely reached her eyes. He had heard rumors that her older brother had died in a fight and unfortunately, she had been the first person to come across his body. Still, the girl was one of the few people who would give him a smile, even if it was always so fragile that it seemed like a breeze could blow it off her face, and never picked on him.

Hana, her best friend, had picked up the nickname of 'The Castle Wall' for her protective nature to the once cheerful girl. She was forever at Kyoko's side, preventing anyone she deemed unworthy from approaching. Her sharp tongue was like barbed wire while her intimidatingly aggressive stances were like landmines and trenches.

Kyoko didn't like silence. Her house was too quiet with parents who had both thrown themselves headlong into work to take their minds off the death of their first child and the absence of the noise that her brother once brought made it seem all the more nerve wracking. Hana's home, on the other hand, was right above the flower shop that her family owned. She wouldn't have time to discuss things with them, because her parents would put her to work right away. So that left Tsuna's house as the only place they could go. Despite his initial protests, Hana had overridden him and as Tsuna didn't feel entirely too threatened by either girl, he finally gave in despite his extreme reluctance.

The awkward silence that surrounded the trio became too much for the orange haired girl and unsurprisingly, to Hana, Kyoko was the first to initiate a conversation.

"Umm…Tsuna-kun?"

"Ye-yes?" Tsuna was still clearly jumpy about something.

"Are you alright?"

"I-I-I…" He flailed a little but in the end sighed as his shoulders slumped. "No one from school has ever been to my house. I…I'd rather keep it that way."

"Why?" asked Kyoko. Hana raised a brow. She had a good idea why. If she had been treated the way Sawada was, she'd try to keep away others from the only safe haven that she had too. However, she was the daughter of a florist and she had heard about the miraculous garden that the Sawada's had. She wanted to see this so called miracle for herself.

Tsuna clammed up, screwing his face into what she believed was a frustrated grimace even if it came out looking kind of adorable. Like a kitten that had been chasing a butterfly only to realize that it was too far out of reach.

"I'm Dame-Tsuna." That didn't explain a thing, but in a way. It explained everything.

Sawada was clearly a paranoid child. She knew that people picked on him at school, but was it really that bad?

"I'm home." As soon as the door had closed behind her, Sawada's voice seemed to regain more confidence even if it was no louder than before.

"Welcome home Tsu-kun! Oh? Oh! You've brought friends!"

Nana's eyes sparkled and she practically beamed at them. Before they could register anything other than her blinding smile, she had swept all three into the kitchen and settled them around a table full of food.

"Tsu-kun. You should have called ahead and let me know that you were bringing such lovely girls home. I would have prepared more snacks if I had known."

Hana twitched, staring at the snack-laden table in front of them. What. The. Hell. How the hell… The table was completely empty when they had been ushered into the wooden chairs around it, but somehow Sawada's mother had placed an entire spread fit to feed twice the number of people in the household in five minutes and was now worried about not having enough.

By her side, even Kyoko was looking a little wide eyed.

Tsuna wasn't fazed-or even aware that this was not normal-and nervously introduced them.

"Mama. This is Kurokawa Hana and Sasagawa Kyoko. They-they aren't really friends. They're just here to work on a class project." He carefully didn't look at either girl, but Nana was not to be deterred.

"Well this is a good time as any to make some! Why don't we all eat first and tell each other a little about ourselves. After this, you can all work on your project in Tsu-kun's room."

Tsuna's head jerked up, caramel eyes wide with a sort of shocked terror.

"Bu-but Mama…why can't we do it down here?"

"Because Mama will be busy and I wouldn't want to disturb you. Now eat up. You'll need plenty of energy to work hard."

Miserable but unsurprised, Tsuna ended up in front of his bedroom door, biting his lip in nervousness as he put his hand on the handle.

"Well? Aren't you going to open it? If you're embarrassed about it being a pigsty, don't worry. I doubt that it could be any worse than my cousin's room."

Vaguely, some part of Tsuna understood that this was Hana's way of trying to reassure him which was unexpectedly nice of her, but he still hesitated at the thought of letting either one join the small number of people who had ever seen the greatest joys of his life. With a resigned sigh, he turned the handle and pushed open the door.

Kyoko gasped in surprise as Hana's eyes methodically latched on to each plant, cataloging and comparing them to the wares of her family's shop. She stayed at the doorway and watched as Tsuna set down his backpack and turned back to face them bowing apologetically.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to start without me. This is the time that I usually spend caring for them," he waved a hand around his room "and it won't be done for a while. After that I need to help out there while there's still daylight."

The girls stepped up to the window and Hana sucked in her breath. Below was a garden bursting with life. It was almost wild looking, as if the entire space had been crammed with anything green and if it wasn't for the half hidden dirt paths and types of plants she could see growing, she would have thought that it was an abandoned secret garden like something out of a fairy tale.

"Tsuna-kun! This-This is amazing!"

"Isn't it?"

Everyone turned to see Nana standing at the doorway with a smile.

"Will you two be able to stay for dinner? I'm sorry, but Tsu-kun is right. I had forgotten, but I do need his help today otherwise we'll be absolutely overwhelmed tomorrow. It's a bit of a race to keep ahead during this time. Everything just grows so quickly."

Kyoko thought about her parents who were both out of town for work and her empty, quiet-far far too quiet-home. Hana thought about how her father would berate her for not using every opportunity she could to find out the Sawada matriarch's gardening secrets and how her mother would do the same if she couldn't secure some of the famed 'Sawada Harvest' produce for their family. It was a no brainer.

"We'll stay. Thank you for your invitation. We haven't even decided on a project topic yet though. Today was just for brainstorming."

"Ah. Well, Tsu-kun is very good with plants. Perhaps something along those lines will be of use to you."

At his mother's nickname, the females in the room all turned to look at the brunet who had started tending to the bright red rose bush upon their distraction. Upon noticing their attention on him, the boy seemed half torn between hiding behind his plant-which was large enough to completely cover him if he curled up-or shielding it from their view.

In the end he nodded stiffly and fled out of his room to fill his watering pail.

"You are welcome to talk while we work. But Tsu-kun won't be ready for about half an hour. He always takes care of these first and the rest of the day is spent in the garden and greenhouse."

"These are Tsuna-kun's plants?"

"Mmm. Yes. Each and every one of the plants in this room are only alive today because of my son. No one else touches them. Not even I do. He's quite protective. To the point that he sometimes doesn't even take the time to eat before he goes back to tending them. If we didn't have the garden outside, he would most likely just shut himself in here for the rest of his life." She sighed. "It's good that more people are coming now. Tsu-kun really needs friends that can talk to him, but he's so shy."

'I wouldn't want to talk to anyone either if they all treated me like the way they do to him,' Hana thought to herself.

There wasn't much to say, so Hana pulled out a notebook and a pen. "We can make our plans anywhere. We don't have to work here."

"Hmm. Alright. You can talk to him while we work in the garden outside. I should warn you though. Tsu-kun is very sensitive when it comes to anything under his care."

"Tsuna-kun?"

"…"

"Hey. She's talking to you."

Tsuna didn't jump. Didn't respond. It was almost unnerving the way the small boy was so focused on the red rose bush.

Another minute passed before Tsuna sat up and sighed.

"Tsuna-kun?"

"Hmm?" He blinked, eyes coming back into focus and stiffened again as if he realized that he wasn't alone in his room.

"Did you raise all of these yourself?"

"Ah-ahhh…yeah." The gentle affectionate smile that Tsuna only showed in the sanctuary of his home morphed his countenance into one of peace and love. Idly, Hana noted that if he made that face at school, he'd probably be a lot more popular. "They are everything to me. I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to them."

"You know? I think that if you were to talk to so-"

"No!" Wide eyed, Tsuna was suddenly shielding the closest plant from her, which was the rose that he was just tending. "Please. Don't. Don't say anything. Tell them my room is messy. Tell them I'm a pig. Tell them that I'm useless. But never, ever even breathe a word about them to anyone."

"But why…?"

Instantly, Hana got it.

"Because all the boys around our age are monkeys. He's already got a bad rep. If they find out that not only does he like flowers, but is actually good at it, he's also going to be picked on even more for liking 'girly' things."

"…"

"But I'm sure-"

"Kyoko."

The girl instantly shut her mouth at Hana's serious tone. 'Later.' Mouthed Hana.

Kyoko glanced over the where the boy was obsessively checking the soil, doing his best to pretend that he was part of the scenery in his own room.

'Okay.' She nodded and decided to concentrate on the project.

It was Friday afternoon and the only group that had yet to submit a topic sheet was Team Eight. Oh wait. Here it is. Ina-sensei raised a brow.

Chapter 12: The Diversity of Plant Life

Topic Choices:

'The Life Cycle of Flowering Plants'

'Hormonal and Nutritional Effects on Flowers'

'Decorations Aside, Other Uses for Flowers'

It made sense. Kurokawa's family owned a flower shop after all. Considering who they had, the group would need every edge they could get. Not to mention Kurokawa had a fairly sharp mind and inclination for money. She wouldn't put it past the girl to use this project as free advertisement for her family business. Ina had gone to middle and high school with the younger sister of Hana's mother after all. Their money loving ways ran in the family.

"Team Eight. I want to talk to you after class."

The last bell had rung and Tsuna stayed behind with the two girls.

"First off. Your topic choices have all been approved. It's just a matter of picking one. Secondly, extra-credit will be given for outstanding work only. However, I won't be curving grades. I don't think your group will need that curve though."

At the confusion on her students' faces, she reached into a large tote bag and pulled out a folder. Flipping through it, she pulled out three sheets and handed them to their respective takers.

"I haven't given back your quizzes yet, but they've all been graded. I guess I can let you three take a sneak peek."

Tsuna eyes grew wide as he stared at the large 80 circled in bright red at the top of the page.

"I've noticed that there has been a marked improvement over the last few months in your grades. Do you have someone that's been helping-Sawada-kun? Sawada-kun? Are you alright?"

The poor boy looked like he was about to begin hyperventilate.

"I-I-I-Is thi-this fo-for real?" The last bit came out as a squeak. "I-i-it's n-not a mis-mistake right?" His eyes looked both hopeful and terrified at the same time. As if he was waiting for someone to tell him that this was just a cruel joke and that he really was as no good as everyone called him.

"No. It's not." The trembling boy reminded her of a small animal that she had once seen on a nature documentary. Sawada always seemed to be preoccupied with surviving. He kept his head down and tried not to draw attention to himself from larger creatures.

He clutched his quiz like it was his lifeline and looked up to her with wide wide eyes. She had never really had the urge to hug cute things, but dammit, Sawada was making her want to cuddle the life out of that boy.

Then he gave a sad sad smile. It gave her a bad feeling. "I-I'm really happy. Tha-thank you Ina-sensei, for letting me see this early. Can I ask for a favor though?"

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Can you take about forty points off?"

"What." It was a flat statement that came from the Hana. "What the hell Sawada."

Their teacher was too shocked at the request to reprimand her student, but Hana's words summed up her thoughts perfectly.

"Why?" This time it was Kyoko who asked.

"There's a lot of work to be done. Mama's going to need all the help she can get and I can't afford to have anything take away from that."

"Help with what? How's failing a quiz going to help your mother?"

Ina-sensei had an uneasy feeling at the gentle expression on Sawada's face. It was a resigned mature look that shouldn't be on such a young kid shouldn't be making.

"Mama has a big garden that needs constant maintenance. She's a hard worker, but she's still only one person. I do what I can to help out."

Ina recalled Sawada Nana from the last parent-teacher meeting. A cheerful, somewhat ditzy brunette that had the most amazing vegetable garden on this side of Namimori or so the rumor mill went. She had a huge harvest every year and quite a bit of it was sold to a local grocery store that actually had a section for her produce alone. It cost quite a bit more, but no one could deny that it wasn't worth it. Ina herself had managed to snag some cucumbers and cherry tomatoes last summer. She had been quickly converted to the 'Sawada Harvest' ever since.

"Ina-sensei. Please." He pleaded. "If I get such a high score, it's going to look unnatural."

Unatural? The bad feeling was growing.

"Don't be silly Sawada. You've obviously been working hard and your effort has paid off."

"They'll assume that I cheated or that you're giving me special treatment." He gave a mirthless smile. "I doubt the principal will say anything, but you'll definitely get some flak for this. Not just from the students, but from your colleagues as well."

Was Sawada always this articulate? Come to think of it, Ina had never heard him actually talk aside from when he was called to answer a question.

"At first, they're going to question you and your judgment. They'll want to see what kind of quiz you've given. If it had been a multiple choice one, they could pass it off as me being lucky for once, but here it's clearly a fill in the blank and short answer one. Then they're going to want to know how you managed to get me to actually learn something. You, this class and your teaching methods will be under close scrutiny for a while. Once they've figured out that nothing has changed, you'll be accused of padding my grade or coaching me beforehand. Maybe even letting me see the answer key. It'll look bad, but don't worry. Most will believe that the real reason is because you were trying to make sure that I would be able to pass your class. Once I'm in middle school, I'll be someone else's problem, so you were only doing your best to get rid of the one dragging the class average down."

The certainty in his tone chilled her.

"Don't worry. Most of them are already doing it. In fact, Matsumura-sensei will probably be the first to confront you about this and admit it in public. Inahara-sensei and Chino-sensei will probably admit it too after they hear him say it. It's Minami-sensei that will tell you first. In private though. Most likely in an empty bathroom or a secluded class."

Everything actually sounded plausible, but this was just absurd. It was surprising yes, but maybe he was just a really, really late bloomer.

"I, on the other hand, will be accused of cheating, sucking up, and bribery. The other kids…"

He was giving her such a resigned, accepting look now.

"I can see that you don't want to believe me, but there is a bright side to this. The one thing about being known as Dame-Tsuna is that no one tries to force me to do their homework for them. If you won't change my grade, then would you please wait until next Friday? Most of the manual labor should be done by then."

"Sawada-kun…why?" The question came out as a breathy whisper.

"Because." Sawada looked her straight in the eyes. Sad, resigned and oh so heartbreakingly accepting with the most beautifully tragic smile she had ever witnessed.

"I am Dame-Tsuna."

The next few days passed the same way and Tsuna, while still skittish around them, slowly began to open up. Kyoko and Hana were treated with the same lighthearted, but generous hospitality that had been shown to all guests of the household and they stayed longer and longer each time.

Just when they were starting to settle into a routine, Tsuna broke it the same way he broke their conceptions of him. Abruptly startling with a dose of unpleasant realizations for good measure.

It was then that the girls noticed that he wasn't taking them straight to his home. They had been walking for about twenty minutes now and were passing through an older worn out neighborhood that Hana was pretty sure was to the west of his house. She had passed him on the way to school plenty of times and she was pretty sure that she had never crossed this place before.

"Sawada. Where are you taking us?"

"To my home."

"How much longer is this going to take?"

"About thirty to forty more minutes."

Hana stopped. "What?! Why are you doing this? Do you really not want us to go to your house that mu-mph!"

Tsuna quickly covered her mouth and tugged her with him behind a copse of trees. They were growing close to a fence with a place in between them just big enough for small adults to squeeze through. He gestured for Kyoko to follow and led them to a large bush where he quickly pushed aside some branches to expose a hole. The fence was old and the hole looked like it had rotted away instead of being intentionally made. They could see more bushes on the other side, but Tsuna pushed them to the side and waved them towards it.

"C'mon!" He hissed as loudly as he dared. "Hurry!"

"No. I'm not going until you explain what's going on." Something in his urgent tone must have convinced Kyoko though, because she was already on her hands and knees crawling through. "Kyoko! What are you-"

"Shh! Kurokawa-san. Please." Tsuna pleaded. His eyes wide and worried and she was pretty sure that it would akin to animal cruelty if she didn't go along with his desire at the moment. His scared kitten face tugged at the depths of her heart no matter how hard she tried to squash it down. She may not like kids or most of the male race, but she had nothing against cats. Even liked them for their usefulness in thwarting rodents.

"Fine. But you better explain yourself after this." With that, she crawled through too. Tsuna followed, settling beside her after he made sure that no trace of their passage could be seen.

"Now what?"

Not saying a word, he beckoned them to follow him across the overgrown yard. The place was an old fashioned abandoned house and for a moment, Hana wondered why this place hadn't been bought out.

Then she didn't have time to wonder as she tried her best to keep up with the surprisingly fast brunet.

They circled around the house where bushes in serious need of a trimming crowded along the fence with a few trees thrown in for measure. Tsuna approached a particularly large one and froze in the realization that his usual spot was too small for all three of them.

Gazing around the abandoned compound, he thought carefully before coming to a decision.

"In here." He pushed aside a bush to reveal a hollow space between it and the tree.

"Sawada."

"Don't make any noise and don't leave until I tell you it's safe to come out."

Before they knew it, branches and leaves were shielding their view and Tsuna was gone. Exchanging uneasy glances, the girls huddled together.

"Hey! Anyone seen Dame-Tsuna?"

"I saw that stupid hair of his earlier."

"Yeah. It's stupid alright. Hey! How about we help him with that? You know make it less stupid. I got some scissors."

"Oh! I got some glue." *Snicker* "And the nail polish and lipstick my sister was throwing out be it was 'so last season' in her words."

"Hahaha. That's a good one. He oughta be thankful that we're going out of our way to make him live up or down to his name."

"So thankful that it would be impolite to refuse his thank you gifts."

"Like his lunch money?"

"Nah. More like his bento. Dame-Tsuna might be worthless but his mom's cooking sure isn't."

"It's really that good?"

"Oh yeah!" a third voice chimed in. "It's great. Better than Morimoto's mom's food and you know how awesome that is."

Their voices periodically interspersed with mocking laughter trailed away and what seemed like an eternity later, Tsuna's somber, but thankfully unharmed face came into view.

"Tsuna-kun. What was…" Kyoko trailed off as she helplessly gestured back to where the voices had come from.

The boy tilted his head as he sought to place them from memory.

"Some of our classmates. I think that was all of Group One, Five, and Ibu's brother from the year above us and Kisamura's brother from the year below. He's really big for his size and good at looking scary so they let him tag along."

Hana opened her mouth, realized that she couldn't speak, then closed it as she sucked in deep breaths in a desperate attempt to control her temper so that she wouldn't start shouting and give away their position. It also helped to push down the sick sick feeling in her stomach and unblock her tight throat.

"How long?" she bit out.

Tsuna had the gall to look afraid and confused and Hana wasn't sure who she wanted to punch more. Him for being so pitiful, those boys for being such monkeys, or herself for not knowing how bad Tsuna's situation really was. She noticed Kyoko's especially pale sweating face and ruthlessly shoved aside her other thoughts.

Kyoko came first above all else. They had to get out of here before she had a panic attack or worse a complete meltdown.

"Let's go back to your house."

Tsuna opened his mouth.

"Shut up. Kyoko needs someplace where people won't pry and your place is the only one that fits the bill. Can you get us there without being caught?"

Tsuna eyed them both cautiously, but Kyoko's wan face seemed to force a dramatic change over him and Hana nearly did a double take.

"I can."

There was no hesitation in his voice or stance whatsoever. It was like she was looking at a completely different person. She didn't have much time to ponder though as Tsuna was methodically checking to see if they were in the clear. Then they were heading back and she had other things to worry about.

Nana wasn't home and Hana was absurdly grateful that there was one less person to witness this. It seemed like Kyoko had regained a little color but she was still withdrawn and had not said a word since she had been seated by the little square table in Tsuna's room.

Tsuna set some tea filled mugs down in front of them. The scent was wonderful and she'd probably be able to catalogue it if she was in a better state of mind, but no one was in a mood to appreciate it so they sat there sipping in silence until surprisingly, Tsuna himself broke it.

"It…this started when I was about eight."

Hana blinked, then remembered her earlier question from before that tense run back to the Sawada house.

Eight…Sawada was twelve right now.

"That's four years."

Four unbelievably sad years of being the school's whipping boy.

"As far back as I can remember…I was always alone, ever since I started Kindergarten. Then when I was eight, people started to take notice. It wasn't so bad at first. Just some name calling and shoving. Things like people dropping their pencils and markers on purpose and asking me to get it. Then it became the…cool thing to do. The in thing and things got worse.

'Who can make Dame-Tsuna scream the loudest by putting the worst things in his desk or his backpack.' 'Who can hit Dame-Tsuna the most in dodgeball.' "Who can shoot the most spitballs at Dame-Tsuna's head before class is over.' 'Who can hit Dame-Tsuna hard enough to cry first.' 'Who can steal Dame-Tsuna's things and make him pay to get them back.' That's the sort of thing that happened."

On one hand, Tsuna's account of his disturbing daily life had managed draw Kyoko out of her funk. On the other hand…Hana wanted to scream. Wanted to throw her cooling tea at him. Wanted to hurl this mug with the lovely gladiolus painting at him hard enough to shatter. Anything to sweep the chill from her bones and that sick sick urge to hurl from the bottom of her stomach. The worst part was that she had a feeling that he'd simply sit there and take it and then offer her another mug of tea without ire or thoughts of vengeance. He honestly looked that defeated.

"Why…why didn't you ask for help? Surely a teacher would have done something."

The fact that he was still going through this made it clear that no one had and Hana didn't want to ask knowing she wasn't going to like the answer but it had to be done.

"Remember Chomaki-sensei? From two years ago?"

Hana frowned. She remembered that he was a shit math teacher and an even shittier person, grating on the nerves of his female colleagues with his abrasive sleazy ways.

"Ibu's his nephew. He's also terrible at science. He is…or was worse than me. Chomaki-sensei didn't like that. And then there's…"

Tsuna wove a horrifying, but entirely plausible (logical, realistic) tale of how several events and people conspired together to make his life a living hell. After it all, he sat there shrunken down as if hunching his shoulders would allow him to hide behind his mug.

This was just…and those-those monkeys dared to call themselves human. Because of the thoughts she was currently harboring, it took Hana a moment to realize that Kyoko had started talking.

"…I…I…my-my…big brother died…I was the one who found his body…"

She trembled and refused to look up from the dregs of her cup. Hana didn't dare to breathe. Kyoko was talking. About that day. She never ever talked about that day. Not since the first two weeks after her brother had died.

"It…he was always so big…so loud…so bright…I thought nothing could ever bring my big brother down. But he liked to fight and would pick them with older people and-and I guess one day…someone did. He was just so…he was still warm, but he wasn't-" Her voice broke and she squeezed onto the mug so tightly Hana thought she would break the handle off.

It was then that Tsuna plopped the bright yellow pot with the equally bright yellow daylilies right in front of her.

"Talk to Sun. I need to take care of things."

"Sawada." Hana hissed. What the hell was he doing? Kyoko was finally talking, doing something all those child psychologists and her parents and even Hana couldn't (wouldn't) pry from her and yet somehow Sawada had managed to do it. She's be damned if he messed this up.

"It's alright. I'm not here. Hana's not here. All that matters is you and them."

There wasn't pity in his eyes though, but she had no idea what it was and he was already turning away from them both and opening his window.

"If it makes you feel better, the both of us will leave. Just talk."

There was the rustle of fertilizer beads being shaken about. Not knowing what else to do or why she was even going along with his orders, Kyoko went ahead with it anyways focusing on the cheery yellow suns embossed along the side of the pot; her eyes tracing the raised squiggles radiating from the center slightly misshapen circles.

"He was just too still and his eyes were wide open and-and-and it's just too quite…everything's too quiet. I can't sleep because I'm so used to listening to his snores and they're not there anymore. If I get a nightmare I can't crawl into his bed anymore."

Hana was reminded of the way Kyoko would share her bed during sleepovers. The way she would press her ear against her chest to let the warmth of another body and the steady thumping of a beating heart sink in. Hana's mom snored. Loudly. Ironically, the very thing that would keep her husband and daughter awake was what lulled Kyoko to sleep.

"My parents weren't home much so it was up to me to cook meals. Most of the time it was just the two of us. Onii-chan and me. Me and Onii-chan. It didn't matter that Okaa-san and Otou-san were always out late because Onii-chan's presence was big enough to fill up the whole house just by himself. I think he knew that though. No matter what he was doing he always always came back to eat with me."

Kyoko trailed off to stare intently at the multitude of thin leaves springing from the stalk like the bristles of a bottle brush. She mentally began to count them to try to take her mind off the topic. Tsuna left and returned with the familiar long nosed watering pail by the time she was done. He passed by both girls as if the only thing in his view were the plants. He even began humming a song, something new and popular on the radio.

"Then one day…he didn't. It was a Sunday. We didn't have school but it was about time for dinner. I went out to look for him. He liked jog around the town but his favorite park was the big one near Block Thirty-Three. He just-he just-"

Kyoko's breath hitched and she began to cry, tears blurring the brown speckles on the yellow petals before her.

"He-he ju-just-he wasn't mo-mmooviiinggg…he wa-wasn't-" *gasp* "he-he-he-he…"

She got louder and louder and sobbed bitterly, tears and mucus running down her face as she continued to talk and the entire time Tsuna continued to tend to his plants, not looking, not speaking, and for all intents and purposes, not even acknowledging their existence. Yet when Hana was about to take her into her arms like she had always done, Tsuna shot her a look as if to say 'Don't interfere.'

Who are you to tell me not to comfort my best friend. She about to ignore him when…

"I-I miss him! I want him baaaaccckkk!" Kyoko wailed. "I waaannnttt myyyy Oooonnniiiii-chhaaaannn baaaahahahaaaacck!"

There were thirteen flowers in the pot before her. The same age Ryohei would be if he was still alive. Kyoko kept her face up to stare at the yellow blur in front of her. If she tried hard enough she could imagine that his face was staring back at her with that worried panicked expression he always had when she cried. Her mug fell to the floor but neither girl cared, much less noticed.

Tsuna slid a tissue box to Hana and left, carrying away all the now empty cups with him. When he returned, it was with a large plate of snacks and more tea. Then he walked out without another word. He would take care of Sun later tonight. Right now Kyoko needed it the most and there was another garden to tend to outside.

Hana came out. Alone and sporting a considering expression despite the flat line of her pursed lips. Tsuna ignored her. Or maybe he didn't even notice because he was perched on a ladder and trimming some unwanted growth from the mass of vines climbing towards the roof on the other side of the house.

Then she did a double take. When she and Kyoko had first arrived it had mostly been two leafy trellises that only reached six feet up. Now the Akebia had taken over a third of the wall. She knew they were fast growers and could easily reach at least twenty to thirty feet in a year's time but this was unbelievably (impossibly) so. They weren't even half of that height last week. Akebia were known to be incredibly invasive so it was easy enough to figure out why the boy was up there and trimming away.

The Sawadas had converted every inch of unpaved ground (and over half of the paved ground) into their garden and despite first (and second and third) glances, it was amazingly well controlled even with the rampant growth going on. However, the mother and son duo seemed to be barely keeping up with their normal jungle of a garden and now she found that they had decided to get some ridiculously prevalent vines as well.

They had to be crazy.

Tsuna was going higher and it looked more like he was guiding the existing vines towards certain directions that only he seemed to have an idea about. Hana thought about calling out, but he still didn't seem to have noticed her. Just to be on the safe side she decided to wait until he was back on the ground.

He pulled back to take one last look, hooked his tools back onto a thick tool belt around his waist, and climbed back down and folded and stowed away the ladder into the small shed by himself. Then he looked at her. It seemed that Tsuna had reverted to back to his usual skittish self and they stared unsure of what to say.

"How did you know what to do? How did you know what to say?" Hana started off. "No one's been able to get anything from her since that big lug died." Not even Hana as much as it hurt her to admit it. Sasagawa Ryohei wasn't so much like a monkey as he was a gorilla and he was a real idiot but he had always treated her well and he adored Kyoko as much as she adored him.

"It's…it's different for everyone but for most people it's…it's like watering a plant."

Hana's expression clearly showed that she didn't understand.

"If you have don't have proper drainage and too much water, it will stagnate. It'll eventually drown and rot the roots which will fester and spread and eventually kill the plant."

It took a few moments to translate his words and not for the first time, Hana was grateful that her father owned a flower shop and had pounded all sorts of things about them into her head from birth. This conversation would be a lot more confusing otherwise.

"Are you saying that Kyoko would have died from grief?"

"Ye-yes. I-I mean no-no! Not at all…maybe?" Tsuna helplessly wrung his hands. "It's different for every plant, every person and Kyoko-chan looked sort of…wilted."

He cringed under her stare.

"Wilted and…neglected..."

Hana's temper flared.

"Are you saying that I haven't been supporting her?" Hana hissed vehemently as she took a threatening step forward. Holding her through her tears? Sharing the same bed at least four nights week for the last few years because she can't sleep otherwise? Are you saying that I. Don't. Care?!"

Tsuna shifted like he was about to turn tail and run home, but he was already there. There was nowhere else to go and he had to see this through to the end anyways.

"No-no-no. I…neglected may not entirely be the right word…I…she's…she needed to be drained! You're probably the mulch over her soil!"

"…what."

At her incredulous expression, Tsuna hurried to explain.

"Every plant needs a-a certain set of conditions for optimal growth. Kyoko-chan has-or had-good soil and room with great mulch to keep weeds from mooching off her nutrients but…she may have been over fertilized and over watered.

I've never met her brother, but if I had to guess, I'd say that he was her bright light and she'd be something like a hibiscus or a rose of Sharon or maybe a buddleja. Something that does best with full sun.

The problem is that she's not in the ground. Not anymore. From the way she talks it about how her parents are always working, they might know how to care for a plant, but not the specifics for the kinds their children are. At first, after suddenly losing their son, my guess is that they panicked and uprooted her from the ground to a pot indoors. Then they overwatered and overfertilized her, meaning well but ultimately doing more harm than good."

Hana thought back to those early days and found that he was right. If she compared the phrase 'uprooted from the ground to a pot indoors' to mean a sudden and stressful change, then that would be true. Kyoko's parents had turned all their attention to their only child left and coddled her as best as they. They wouldn't have known what kind of soil would be best, how to properly trim the roots, and they'd have picked a pot more for its looks than function in the hopes that it would somehow give the image that things were better but that wasn't how plants worked.

Overwatering and overfertilizing would be the constant visits with those useless psychiatrists with their misleading (pointless) degrees framed all along their walls and the way her parents thought that buying all the things she had previously wanted would make her feel better instead of being a constant reminder that the only reason she was getting it was because her brother died.

…

Once again she was more than thankful that she grew up with a florist. However, Tsuna wasn't done.

"Then they dealt with their own grief and when she seemed okay, they left her alone because they were starting to move on with their lives, but Kyoko-chan was still left behind in a pot without proper drainage, not enough light and too much fertilizer and water and well…"

Tsuna shrugged weakly.

"You know best what happened after that. By staying with you more often, her pot was given a chance to dry out some and have all that extra fertilizer removed, but it's not enough. She still has all that water and…probably root rot and root burn too."

Sawada Tsunayoshi was scary. At that moment, that was all Hana could think of the meek figure standing before her. Short of hiring a private detective, how could anyone figure all that out? And just by comparing it to a plant in a pot of all things. She had to know.

"How long did it take you to figure this out?"

"…after she began talking…it just all…clicked somehow. Everything fell into place and I knew around the time she started crying."

He was more than scary, he was terrifying.

"If I'm the mulch, then what are you?"

"…a rock."

"…"

What.

"I'm the rock on the side walk. I'm not trash so there's no point in picking me up even to throw away or recycle for a chance to become something new, something better. I won't die so easily so people kick me around for fun and either don't know or don't care if I break, because let's face it. I'm just a no good rock taking up space and getting in the way of higher life forms."

What a bleak way to view your life. Tsuna turned away and motioned her to follow him back inside.

"…but today…" He continued. "…some kids ended up kicking that rock a little too hard and accidently cracked a pretty little pot. That rock figured that it might as well do some good for once and smashed a hole to let all that stagnant water drain out. She's a nice bush, still salvageable and with some time and proper care, she'll be able to flower again so beautifully only the most observant people will ever notice that she has a broken pot. Maybe she'll even be able to send her roots out from that hole and find the right conditions to flourish again."

If it hadn't been for his experiences with Stranger-san Tsuna might have never taken the initiative for such a thing to someone who knew him, knew who Dame-Tsuna was. As it was, Kyoko had never once mocked or looked down on him, being far too wrapped up in her own grief to even notice and Tsuna supposed that if his plants were good enough for Stranger-san whose eyes showed an old soul that held a much more profound sorrow, they'd be good enough for someone who would be able to overcome this time of pain with just a little care. It was against his nature to give up on a living being no matter what anyone else would say.

Kyoko was still sitting in the same spot. The snacks were untouched and the tea had gone cold. Her eyes were red and puffy and she seemed to be focusing on Sun with unnerving intensity but she did turn to him when he entered the room.

Tsuna took it all in but continued to ignore her as he carefully checked over the moisture in Sun's soil. It was about time to add some more water, but more importantly, it would soon be time to repot everyone. He had spent more time preparing the individual soil and compost blends for each plant than he had for his homework along with several individual jars of homemade fertilizer. By the time the garden outside could afford a day off, they'd be ready.

When he had finished putting away the last of his tools, he sat back down across from her and Hana.

"Feeling better?"

Kyoko seemed to come back to herself.

"…I…yes…I think I do."

She realized that she wasn't lying. She wasn't quite as miserable anymore. Instead she just felt tired and a little numb. Worn out, but somehow she felt like she could breathe a little easier now.

Tsuna smiled faintly.

"That's…that's good."

Kyoko tentatively smiled back.

"If…you'd like. You can both stay for dinner. Mama would be more than happy to have you."

"We'll stay." Hana answered for her. It's not like she could let Kyoko stay home alone after today. Her parents were used to this anyways. Kyoko was practically their other daughter in all but name now.

Dinner was…interesting. Nana called to say that she was in Yamagata for the night and would return tomorrow so it fell to Tsuna to prepare dinner. Tsuna insisted that all he could really do was take care of plants but he was a pretty good cook too. Not as good as his mother but on par with Kyoko which meant that he was a couple of steps above both of Hana's parents too.

"I lost someone too. He was old and died peacefully in his sleep not too long ago." He admits halfway through the meal. "It hurts. It still does and it always will but it's getting easier. Life goes on, but as long as you remember them, they'll always be alive in your own heart."

They do their homework together and Hana and Kyoko step in to tutor Tsuna who truly was dismal when it came to academics but tried hard anyways. When they're all done, Tsuna packs two baskets of fruit from the greenhouse for them just before they leave.

Kyoko walks away with reluctance, but despite the burden of the basket, her steps have a lightness to them that Hana hasn't seen in over a year. It's not quite a spring, but it's not the slow footsteps weighted down by such heavy sorrow nor is that desperate speed-walk that seems as if she can outpace it if she is fast enough.

There's just a normal walk. Casual. Normal. Just like before that day. And Hana has no idea just how much she had missed it until right this very moment.

"Hana?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Tsuna-kun will like cookies or cupcakes better?"

Cooking, like everything else that reminds her of her brother, still hurts Kyoko because she always makes too much for one person but just enough for a boy who eats enough for two and a girl who can sometimes match him and occasionally a pair of adults who are their parents.

Baking is different than cooking as this was more of something she does for Hana and the other 'friends' (sympathetic but ultimately useless classmates at school who have mostly drifted away or just continue to cluck their condolences like chickens) but she doesn't do much of that anymore either.

It's a start though. Everything has a start, including the healing process.

Hana takes it back. Sawada Tsunayoshi was beyond terrifying. He was amazing. He had managed to reach the crux of the problem and was already doing damage control as efficiently as he deadheaded old flowers and plucked ripe fruit.

The so called No Good-Tsuna was so far from no good that those monkeys surrounding him were too jealous to stand it, hoping that if they flung enough of their crap at him, he'd turn into something worse than them and the stupid ones joined in just because they thought it seemed like fun too.

Hah! Even if you covered a diamond in crap, it was still a diamond through and through.

She idly wondered if she was maybe giving Sawada a little too much credit by calling him a diamond, but who knows? Maybe he was. Maybe he was right about being a rock but didn't know enough to realize his own worth, uncut and unpolished but still one of the most coveted gems in the world. Maybe they were the lucky ones to have stumbled over it first.

They come back the next day with a box full of homemade sugar cookies and Kyoko spends more and more time chatting to everyone, pitching in as much as she can while Tsuna and Nana work.

Hana observed the woman before her carefully as she set the table and thought about the questions she had wanted to ask. Questions her father had wanted her to ask. But there was something more important that she wanted to confirm.

"My father once asked what was the secret to your successful garden."

Nana stopped humming her cheerful tune to show that she was listening.

"He said your answer was that it had someone's love and kindness blessing it."

Her only response was a smile and Hana gazed through the house windows to where Tsuna was outside explaining to Kyoko the appropriate time to harvest the many overgrown squashes that were threatening to bring the sturdy arbors down over their heads.

"He thought that it was a reference to your husband and the money he provides you with to buy all this." She waved at the greenhouse and the various equipment that was sure to cost a pretty yen. "The tools, the fertilizer, the soil and whatever else you've got. These are all top of the line brand name supplies, but that's not the real reason is it." There was no question to her words. "The real reason is that Tsuna has two green thumbs and anything that involves photosynthesis is under his jurisdiction. You're his support, his assistant, not the other way around. The real secret to your successful garden is that you are only following the orders of the one who knows exactly what needs to be done."

Nana's smile never changed.

"My, my, aren't you the clever one."

She didn't even slow down her knife, dicing away at the cucumbers Tsuna had just picked.

"You are the third person to ever figure this out Hana-chan. Not even my husband realizes this. He thinks that it's my hobby, but really, I only started because of Tsu-kun. As such, you are one of the very few people to even know about my son's magic touch. My shy sweet Tsu-kun who's never really grown out of hiding behind his mother's skirts."

There was a sigh as she swept the cubes into a bowl, rinsed and wiped her knife and proceeded to slice some bell peppers.

"It's slow going, but more and more people are coming to see who my son really is. I have faith that one day Tsu-kun will be surrounded by so many loyal friends that he'll find himself scrambling to just to make enough time to be with them all. When it comes time, he won't need to hide anymore."

Hana was about to say something when she spotted something red near Tsuna and Kyoko. It was a baby in red clothing with a tiny monkey on his head. She blinked and rubbed her eyes a little, but they were still there.

"Oh! Looks like we're having guests. Hana-chan, would you mind setting these out next to Tsu-kun's place?"

Doll sized china was presented to her and a part of the girl's brain stuttered to a halt when she realized that it was actually two sets of plates, bowls and utensils in the palms of her hands.

There was a baby. A baby with a monkey. The Sawadas chattered to the pair as if it was a perfectly normal thing. What. The. Hell.

Hana had an aversion to little kids ever since she had gone to a family reunion and ended up stuck with the bunch of brats that were too babyish to hang out with the older pre-teens, but too young to actually be a baby that adults liked to coo over. They were some of the worst little terrors Hana had ever had the misfortune to meet in her young life and she had come away from that experience needing a new haircut to get the gum out of her hair, a ruined hair accessory that she had begged her parents for over two weeks to get and the loss of her favorite shoes because one of her cousins thought it would be funny to super glue half of the guests' footwear to the entrance way. Not even the spanking and grounding he got after that was enough to make Hana ever want to deal with them again.

The baby, Stranger-san as he was introduced, had a pair of bamboo chopsticks, just a little over half the size of the children one's she had seen in the stores. For the tiny monkey, a cute little thing that looked more like a plush she could win from one of those claw-grabbing prize machines than a real animal, tooth picks and a tiny spoon were his utensils of choice when he didn't want to dirty his furry hands. He could also pour tea for everyone with astonishing grace.

Kyoko seemed to find nothing wrong about this scene though and Hana was a bit worried for her. And for the Sawadas, especially Tsuna once she found that he and the baby were still calling each other Stranger-san after knowing each other for so many months.

"Shouldn't you both be close enough to know each other's names by now? Aren't you friends?"

The startled disbelieving look Tsuna shoots her is something that shouldn't make her heart squeeze so painfully, but it does. It does and she's bullheaded enough to keep forging ahead when she sees the way the boy sneaks a tentatively hopeful look at the baby.

"Friends should at least know each other's names even if they want to be called something else."

It doesn't matter that it's a baby and babies are supposedly innocent. If he says anything that will destroy those fragile hopes and trust beyond repair, she will think he's the devil himself.

No one makes a move, much less a sound and even the monkey is giving his master deservedly pointed looks.

Hana realizes that she'd probably have to find another word to call those idiots at school because it would be an insult to this brilliant little beast otherwise.

Fon waits, wanting to be the first to offer his name, but knowing that it's the boy who will have to make the first move otherwise he will feel pressured into accepting and the last thing Fon wants is for him to feel obligated no matter how that hopeful face says otherwise. He wants the boy to take the initiative on his own just like he had when he had offered the peaceful sanctity of his room for a complete stranger.

Taking little steps like this to become more assertive is the only way he'll be able to change his life for the better.

Stranger-san does not disappoint him.

"I…I…I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi," he blurts out. "But you can call me Tsuna." Like it's a last second impulse, Tsuna holds out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Fon smiles and takes it, wrapping his tiny hand around Tsuna's pointer finger in a firm grip.

"My name is Fon. It's nice to meet you too Tsuna-san."

"Tsuna." The boy insists. "Just Tsuna."

"Tsuna."

Tsuna's smile warms his heart like a cup of his favorite tea and around them the womenfolk resume there chatter.

Later Fon tells Tsuna that he has good friends.

Tsuna flushes and is adorably awkward about it, but Kyoko pipes in with "Tsuna-kun is a great friend. One of a kind." and Hana gives a "He's worth more than the rest of those useless pests at school combined, teachers included."

Nana beams, so delighted with this all that she ends up baking a cake with fresh tangerine slices neatly arranged on top like a flower which makes Kyoko smile brighter than ever.

Being here never fails to bring good feelings and rejuvenate his mind, body and soul. The next morning Fon swears to hurry through his next set of jobs so that he can return that much faster.

Two weeks later, they're nearly done with the project. It's getting late though and Hana decides it's time for another push. Once they're done, they'll be free to work on other things like baking (which Kyoko has taken up again) and gardening (which is all Tsuna seems to do in his spare time) so they agree to finish it even though it takes them past midnight to do so.

Hana's parents think she's staying with Kyoko tonight and she is, just not at the empty (and far too quiet) Sasagawa household.

They're sleeping over at Tsuna's and sharing the bed in the guest room. Why doesn't Tsuna use it when it's bigger than his own room is a point of confusion that never gets clarified, but at the moment it's convenient because the bed here is a little bigger than Tsuna's as well.

Despite the amount of time both girls had taken to spending here, the bed was still different and the sounds of the house settling down are different and the only thing familiar is the press of a warm body and calming scent of their best friend.

Hana was exhausted but Kyoko's whimpers woke her anyways and with the ease of long practice she gently shook her awake. Then she rubbed her back, listening to the quiet sniffles emerging from the face pressed against her chest. She's long since stopped asking what those dreams were about. Kyoko never remembers or if she does she's not telling.

Instead Hana thinks of ways to distract her from her thoughts.

"Do you want me to get Sun? I'm sure Tsuna won't mind and I can put it back before he ever finds out."

Kyoko has become rather taken with those yellow lilies. Even though the others are more impressive, with a bounty of flowers or other colors there's something about this simple but no less lovely plant that just calls to her. Whenever she has to talk about the past, she always focuses on Sun's bright petals.

There's no answer, but the squeeze of Kyoko's arms is enough for one.

They sneak quietly open the door to his room and while Tsuna doesn't wake, there is a strange feeling in the air. It smells of earth and damp and greenery and life. The window is closed, but moonlight shines through the open curtains and onto the plants which have been rearranged to different places again.

Sun is sitting on the table next to Lightning and it would be so easy to just walk over and pick it up. Kyoko could talk to it for an hour or two and they could put it back. Tsuna would never know. But…somehow it feels wrong, like they would break the strange tranquility of this moonlit space by doing so.

Instead Kyoko takes a seat on the floor but doesn't say a word with Hana following suit. She falls asleep ten minutes later and Hana is torn between moving her back to the guest bed or risking the embarrassment of being caught in the morning.

She debates for so long that when she finally takes another look, Kyoko is smiling in her sleep. With a sigh, Hana goes back to grab the pillows and blanket from the guest room and takes her place next to her best friend.

She doesn't think she can possibly sleep but before she knows it her breathing evens out and her last thought is 'At least Tsuna doesn't snore.'

Kyoko dreams. She dreams that she's small again and her Onii-chan who's smaller than an adult but bigger than life is there.

They are at home and she's just woken up from a scary dream. It was about faceless monsters who have come to take her things away. Whenever she had scary dreams, she'd always climb into bed with Onii-chan who'd hold her to his chest. It was harder than her bed and harder than her pillow and so much noisier but that was okay. It means he was big enough and strong enough to chase those monsters away.

Kyoko dreams that she's holding him, arms wrapped around his broad chest as much as they can and even though he's not hugging her back, it's fine because he rarely does. Onii-chan tends to sprawl out like a starfish.

He's talking to her. It's not as loud as she remembers him being, but she knows he can be quieter at times, considerate for the others sleeping in the house. This is one of those times.

He says something about being extremely fine, extreme apologies for making her cry and how he's doing extremely well and he's not lonely because he has some pretty extreme companions too.

But it's time to sleep now so he wishes her an extremely good night and falls back asleep.

Kyoko's dream fades but the sound of rumbling snores lingers long after she wakes.

Tsuna's alarm goes off and a hand quickly reaches out to turn it off. It's five-thirty in the morning and while he's still tired, he's glad that the project is finished. Even better, he doesn't have school today. There's a lot of work to be done but it's work that Tsuna doesn't mind, enjoys even.

His mother will be up to make breakfast and after that it'll be time to head back into the garden.

Sleepily blinking, he finally makes out Hana curled up next to Kyoko who's clutching Sun's pot so tightly he wouldn't be surprised if she had an imprint of the suns on her own face.

Tsuna gazes on sadly, but doesn't wake them. Instead he pulls the covers up a little higher, grabs a set of old work clothes and heads to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

When Hana tries to say something later, Tsuna cuts her off with an offer to sleep in the guest room and let the girls take his if they want.

Hana twitches and gives into the urge to poke him rather harshly on the forehead for being such a generous idiot.

In the future, sleepovers become more and more frequent because Kyoko sleeps better there than anywhere else and in the end Nana gives them two futons to set up in Tsuna's room.

If this was anyone else, Hana would balk at sharing a room with a boy, much less allowing Kyoko to do so, but this is Tsuna the Diamond, uncut and unpolished and a girl's best friend. She grudgingly admits that she gets a better night's sleep here than even her own house.

Ina-sensei waited another week after the day Sawada had requested, citing that she had some problems with the plumbing in her house and that she had been so busy with the trouble that came from it that she had ended up forgetting about grading their quizzes until the night before.

Team Eight's project was factual, but interesting and full of colorful pictures of the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen. Not a blemish or dead leaf in sight. When asked, Hana claimed that they were plants that could be bought from her family's shop, but these particular ones weren't for sale as they were already owned by a family that the group had to go through a lot of trouble to convince to let them take pictures of their precious plants.

They received a perfect hundred. However to the surprise of everyone else, the girls always included Tsuna in everything they did afterwards. They refused to leave his side and this earned him the ire of many of his classmates.

The next few months of school flew by and much to her horror, the predicted events proceeded as if it was she was in the script of a badly written play. She didn't call on him anymore and if a student was caught misbehaving (i.e. participating in the bullying of Sawada), they'd receive a stricter punishment than usual for some other rule infringement. Ninety-five percent of her students were a part of the victimization of Sawada. She could count on one hand the number of people in the entire school who actively chose to help the brunet instead of looking the other way with fingers left over.

But Sawada continued on through school like he always did, head down, as quiet and unobtrusive as he could make himself. Yet occasionally small folded notes would find their way onto her desk with advice for how to deal with or avoid situations with the other staff as well as how his grade should be shown. They were invaluable and made things much smoother for her. She questioned why didn't he take his own advice though. If he was this good at reading others, why wasn't he ridiculously popular? Or at least, able to trick people into liking him more?

The first time Tsuna walks into the Kurokawa Flower Shop, he brings several covered baskets tied to a wheeled cart as a welcome gift because he's staying for dinner.

Hana introduces him to her father, Yukio, and her mother, Kaori. Yukio is a florist and the one responsible for making most of the arrangements along with training other employees. Although Kaori didn't exactly have a green thumb herself, she came from a family that grew and sold flowers to florists so it was easier and cheaper to get the stock for their shop. She also dealt with the bookkeeping side of the business.

They're polite enough at first and Tsuna tentatively begins to come out of his shell, but as soon as Yukio lays eyes on the bounty that he's brought over, his eyes take on a near maniacal gleam and he approached the petrified boy with grabby hands that looked more like the actions of a pervert about to grope someone than an innocent florist.

Luckily Tsuna's saviors step in.

"Tou-san!" Hana snaps and shoves him back with both palms pressed against his chest. "I already told you he's shy. Don't be such a creeper."

Kaori tugs her husband back by the ear harshly.

"She's right dear. You're being rude." She turns to Tsuna who looks like he's debating about bolting back out though the glass door behind him. "Sorry about this. Yukio has an obsession with plants. It's so nice of you to bring some."

"It really is!" exclaims the man who's still being held back by his wife. "I'm the biggest fan of the Sawada Harvest."

Hana groans at the same time as her mother and Kyoko giggles quietly while Hana explains that her dad has gotten into fist fights in public over it. There are certain stores that Hana can't go into anymore because she's afraid she'll die from the embarrassment.

"I-it's no problem. We always grow more than we can eat."

Tsuna slowly starts to unwind as the night passes and even gets to tour the shop. He spends several long moments staring at the cut flowers though, nearly jumping out of his skin when Hana's father comes up from behind to ask if he likes them.

"They're…nice. They're all beautiful, but…"

Yukio gives him a knowing look.

"You prefer the ones still intact. The ones still in the dirt. Like those." The man gestures towards the shelves where small pots of bulb flowers and miniature roses sit.

"Yeah."

"And that's fine too. You don't just care for the flowers and the fruits. You love everything from the roots to the tips of their leaves and all the thorns, hairs, and other not so pleasant things that most people don't want to see."

Tsuna watches him carefully, giving a slow nod before turning back to the flowers.

"Taking care of plants is the only thing I'm good at. It's something that doesn't hurt anyone and can bring smiles to others. I can love doing this with all my heart and I'm grateful because there can be worse things to love even half-heartedly."

Yukio blinks and takes a good look at the profile of this small boy still gazing at the colorful contents of the refrigerators. No wonder Hana has taken to him so well. There's a sort of maturity here that makes it hard for Yukio to find in his own contemporaries, much less children their age.

Kyoko might as well be his other daughter at this point and he's not blind to her issues, but lately she's been looking better. Much better. She's not quite so bubbly and carefree like before, but she doesn't looking like a grieving widow either. She's moving on and while he had his misgivings when he found out that Hana was spending all her time with a boy, even sleeping over there instead of Kyoko's house, if Tsuna shapes up to be as good as she says he is (a diamond in the rough Hana calls him), then he and his wife will give their blessings to this friendship.

Besides, as the number one fan of the Sawada Harvest, he's certainly not going to be rude to someone who can provide him with free produce.

Hana's parents eventually find out the secret to the Sawada's miraculous garden. It's Tsuna.

It all starts because some plants don't look so well and despite everyone else's best efforts, they continue to fade. The typhoon season makes it hard for new shipments to come in and they are having issues because their main supplier has had a bit of bad luck with disease infecting a great deal of the more popular plants. Hana drags Tsuna in and all but orders him to fix the problem. In a nice way of course.

Because if he can keep grow all sorts of plants that shouldn't be able to survive in this environment alive, he as sure as hell can cure whatever is going on in her family shop.

Tsuna comes without complaint every day just before closing time to care for them no matter how cold or wet or windy it gets. He spends the first day wandering around the shop with paper and pen, taking notes of all the issues. Then he works on the plants late into the night long after everyone else is asleep and well past sunrise. Kaori ends up driving him home, but he's back the next night, and the next and the next.

Tsuna's careful to never give others reasons to be thought of as something more than just Hana's friend and the employees don't see him as anything more than the shy little boy who likes to look at the flowers.

By the end of the first week, everything looks alive and moderately healthy. By the end of the second, they're blooming like no tomorrow. By the third, rumors have spread that the Kurokawa's have gotten a really good shipment of flowers recently and Yukio has to fend off curious rival vendors and customers alike about what they're doing to keep everything looking so good. Even the cut flowers are lasting an abnormally long time and for some reason, they're just not wilting well after their usual limit.

Yukio is more of an artist than he is a shopkeeper and being able to keep so many flowers alive that much longer allows him to have a greater selection to choose from when he makes his arrangements. Kaori is pleased because this means less wasted stock and less money being lost.

Tsuna refuses all payment though and continues to quietly work while being as unobtrusive as he can. He's cut down the visits to once every few days when the plants no longer need his constant care, but still comes by to check up on them.

Nana sends an invitation for them to come for dinner and Hana's father all but jumps on the chance to visit the garden than the woman rarely ever allows visitors to enter. The stakes and trellis and arbors that ring the small yard are tall and everything that uses them always ends up reaching even higher. Short of climbing onto the rooftops, even their next door neighbors wouldn't be able to see much of the yard itself.

Everything's going well enough until Tsuna leads them to the back.

Kaori gasps at the same time as her husband chokes on air.

This place is alive and crowded with overwhelming greenery, a huge contrast to the rest of the suburban neighborhood beyond their property.

Splashes of color break up the view and they can't help but stare at the way the akebia have taken over the entire back wall and side walls of the house and pods upon pods of purple, pale lavender and white fruit hang like ornaments on a Christmas tree. Huge vegetables and fruits are everywhere with countless more flowers promising another round of equally superior produce.

Bees buzz everywhere throughout this confusing hodgepodge of a garden as there are no discernable paths. The plants have nearly taken them over and Tsuna gives a soft sigh that Hana and Kyoko have comes to learn means fond exasperation. The paths had just been cleared two days ago and the only evidence that they ever existed were the few rarely patches of dirt that could be seen between the foliage.

It's a god's garden as the girls have begun to refer to it as.

"So~." Nana claps her hands together. "What would you like to eat? I have some recipes for stuffed akebi rinds and the white asparagus and Senju leek are ready as well. There are saltwater tomatoes as well or if you'd prefer something with a little more crunch we have a variety of squash. For dessert we also have honeydew, watermelon, figs, tangerines, strawberries…"

Kaori just manages to close her gaping mouth just as Yukio stammers out a "H-Ho-How?!"

"Love." Says Kyoko.

"Magic." Says Hana.

"Tsu-kun." Says Nana.

Tsuna just shrugs when all eyes turn to him.

"Things grow. I don't know how or why, but they just do."

Yukio wants to file for joint custody with Nana for Tsuna who gently but firmly refuses. When he later tries to convince Tsuna that he should join the family registry via marriage to his daughter, his wife slaps him on the back of his head and Hana stomps on his unprotected feet. While wearing boots. Repeatedly.

Kyoko giggles in the background and Tsuna winces a bit but decides that ushering the new melon vines back to their designated area takes priority over interfering with Hana's retribution.

Despite Hana's bold blunt nature and sharp tongue, she's still says nothing about the plants that Tsuna holds dearest. A part of her doesn't want to let anyone else know or see. It wouldn't be right, spilling such an important secret like that.

This little magical garden is more than the culmination of Tsuna's love and care. It is the cure for Kyoko's nightmares and trauma. It is the peace of mind and heart that her best friend will be more than okay for Hana. Most of all, it is Tsuna's heart and soul and losing this would no doubt break him the same way Kyoko had broken upon losing her brother.

That's why she doesn't say a word when her parents wonder if he ever grows something more than just fruits and vegetables and herbs. Something that's just for the pleasure of the eye and not the stomach.

Kyoko doesn't say and Nana doesn't push either. Not like she had for the girls the first time they had come over.

But Tsuna-Tsuna, the last person anyone expects to offer-does. He's been a little bolder since he decided to offer Fon his name, but it's really only visible to those who really know him and this is something that's more than a little bold.

She worries because she knows her dad. How excited he gets when he sees beautiful flowers. How embarrassingly sappy and stupid he looks when he thinks about new arrangements of them. How persistent he is when it comes to getting what he wants.

There's no doubt that he'll want. Anyone would and Hana's resigned to playing her role as The Castle Wall at home as well as at school.

When her father first steps into Tsuna's room though, he stops at the entrance way just to take in the sights and sounds and smells. Just like how the garden outside seems so secluded compared to the rest of Namimori, Tsuna's room can be considered the same.

As she watches her father carefully, politely, reverently approach each flowering pot, she wonders if Tsuna's terrifyingly amazing people reading skills have given him a better insight to the man than his own wife and daughter will ever know.

They're gorgeous. Everything is and it smells like mulch and earth and fertilizer, things that not everyone can stand, but it also smells like life and green and flowers.

For all that it's a normal bedroom in a normal house, Tsuna's room is a world unto its own. Even though the window is open and he can feel a breeze swirling in, the atmosphere is still different. Something that Yukio, for the life of him, cannot place but cannot dislike either.

He can hear his wife inhaling sharply behind him as she comes in, but that does nothing to disturb the tranquility of this place.

The first thing that draws his focus is the red rose bush, its branches wielding so many flowers it's almost impossible to see the leaves. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought someone had glued more on. From there they move on and he mentally catalogues each one.

'Plum Blossom, Shamrock Chrysanthemum, Burgundy Iceberg Rose, Double Asiatic Lily, Moonshadow Carnation...'

His hazel eyes trace the carnation's ruffled violet petals. It's the only pot to contain a single flower which perches on the tip of a long slender stem, but that still doesn't detract from the beauty of it. If anything, it's minimalism at its finest.

"Do you practice ikebana?" he finally musters up the words to ask.

"Ikebana? No. It's…something like that is beyond me. I just care for them."

Yukio hums in place of a reply and takes a while to ask his next question.

"What made you choose these plants in particular?"

"I thought they should have a second chance."

"Hmm?"

"They…no one wanted them. No one was going to bother caring for them and they were going to be thrown away so I figured it was the least I could do."

There's so much kindness from this boy that it's practically overflowing into everything he touches.

Yukio can't bring himself to ask for any of the flowers no matter how beautiful they are. Hana takes much more after her down-to-earth mother than her father who is prone to flights of fancy, but Yukio thinks she can still feel the special thing that's in this little garden even if she doesn't understand what it is.

It's love.

Tsunayoshi loves his plants and he's loved back by them ten-no a hundredfold.

'Love and magic and Tsu-kun huh?'

The answers he was given were all correct.

Tsuna vaguely wonders what would it be like his own father was like Hana's, a bit more respectful about other's opinions and actually there for his family, but then he supposes it doesn't matter. He's already welcomed just like Kyoko. As if he was part of the family.

He tells Hana that she has a nice father. When she gripes about how embarrassing he is, Tsuna shrugs.

"At least yours is decent enough. The last time I saw mine, I came home to him hacking off some of Storm's flowers because he forgot to get some for their anniversary and didn't want to go out to get some from the store. I kicked him out of my room and he spent the next few days whining about how selfish I was being because he only wanted 'a few beautiful roses for his beautiful wife' and 'didn't I want to make Mama happy?' Storm needed months to recover from the damage, but at least it gave as good as it could because his hands were pretty scratched up."

There's something dark in Tsuna's eyes about that memory. Darker than anything she and Kyoko have ever witnessed and not even the bullies who still shoot spitballs at the back of his head or try to trip him up ever bring this sort of look.

Hana never says much about her father's embarrassing ways after that and when she comes back home, she hugs him tightly.

"Thanks Tou-san."

"For what?"

"For being here and for not being a complete pest."

Yukio blinks in confusion but hugs her back anyways.

For Tsuna's thirteenth birthday, he celebrates with more than just his mother and plants.

Usually he and his mother share a small cake after a busy day of handling the fall harvest and the overwintering preparations. It's nothing really special to Tsuna. His dad doesn't call and he's too preoccupied with daily life to really care.

His mother usually just gets him new clothes as Tsuna doesn't want anything else unless it's for his plants and he has all year to get that sort of thing anyways. He's not going to wait for this one not-so-special special day to get what he needs.

So while it's not a surprise to see Hana and Kyoko at his doorway, it is one to see them handing over colorfully wrapped presents.

"What are those for?"

"For you silly," giggles Kyoko. "Happy Birthday!"

Tsuna blinked.

"It's my birthday?" Tsuna thought back to the date. "Huh. I guess it is."

"Of course it is. Don't tell me you forgot." Says Hana as she toes off her shoes.

"I kinda did." He admits. "It's just another day and I already have everything I need. Ah! That's not to say that I don't appreciate your thoughtfulness." He hastily tried to reassure them. "It's just really not that important though. I have work to do and it's always just been Mama and me. I've never had anyone else to celebrate with." They didn't miss what went unsaid. Never had any friends to celebrate with…

Hana frowned.

"Well now you do and you're not going to get away that easily. I'm demanding at least an hour of your time. Per guest."

"I concur with the young lady."

Hana started so badly she nearly collided with Tsuna. Right behind her was Fon standing beside a box nearly twice as big as himself. Lichi waves happily from where he's perched atop his partner's head and bounds onto Tsuna's in a few leaps.

"My apologies Hana-san." Says Fon looking not very sorry at all. "But she is right. You do have friends now and we want to be a part of your life."

For all of his quiet maturity and steadfast loyalty, there's something heartrendingly vulnerable about Tsuna whenever he's approached with genuine care.

He ducks his head a bit but doesn't turn away.

"I..I…thank you everyone. This means more to me than you could possibly know."

Hidden from view, Nana smiles and quietly slips back into the kitchen to put the finishing touches on a large birthday cake, one that's more than three times bigger than the previous years.

Just before middle school starts, Tsuna decides to do a mass repotting of all his plants in his room and tarp covers everything.

Fon and Lichi are back from doing whatever it is that babies and monkeys do to help.

There are several bags of soil that need to be carried up stairs and Hana stares at the way the baby manages to effortlessly carry the heaviest ones, bounding up the stairs like a rabbit with whatever Tsuna needs held high over his head.

No one else bats an eye though. The Sawada family is a bit strange but in a good way and it's not hurting anyone so she lets it go.

Tsuna's focus is entirely on checking over the roots of each plant and they don't get more than a few distracted words from him until Kyoko decides to ask one of the most important questions yet.

"When did you first start doing this?"

"Hmm?" Tsuna looks up, still distracted by the root ball he's trying to trim.

"Gardening I mean. When did you find out that you like doing this?"

"Ah…"

He pauses and gently lowers Mist as he tries to remember.

"It was back in second grade. Tani-sensei decided to get the class involved gardening and everyone didn't just plant vegetables outside. We also each got a plastic cup to grow some cosmos in that we could take home at the end of the month. Mine came out with orange and red and yellow flowers."

There was something painfully nostalgic in his smile as he resumed the detangling of the roots.

Something occurred to Hana just then. There were no cosmos here. It should be long dead and Tsuna might not have learned how to harvest seeds at that age, but wouldn't he have tried growing more? People were generally fond of their firsts anything.

"When they bloomed, it was two weeks sooner than the teacher had expected. My flowers grew bigger and lasted longer than the others though even nothing was done differently. We used the same soil and the same water and somehow they just kept growing and growing and growing. We were supposed to take them home the day before summer vacation started…"

He went quiet again.

Hana wondered if she should try to prompt him to continue because when it came to Tsuna, there was always more to the story and it was rarely pleasant. Luckily he decided to keep talking after Mist had been carefully resettled into its new soil and watered.

"On the last day, I was trying to make sure I had all my things packed and when I finally went to get it, I couldn't find my cup."

Damn it. Tsuna didn't have to say anything. Hana could already tell where this was going.

"I found it though. Just inside the school gates in a secluded spot not far from the main entranceway."

Tsuna could still remember the delight of having such pretty flowers coming from those tiny dried seeds. The joy of returning the next day only to find that another few leaves had sprouted or unfurled. The worry that gnawed as his heart and gut when he realized it was gone and the disbelief and horror of finding what was left. The bright petals and leaves had been plucked and tossed about. Shoes prints belonging to the person that trampled them littered the dirt.

"I tried to salvage as much as I could, but…" Thin shoulders hunched at the memories.

He remembered gingerly picking up a broken stem, a single orange petal dangling off the half crushed head and gently cradling it in his tiny palms. One of the few bright pieces unmarred by the bruising most had been subjected to. Even the roots had been torn apart. What had once seemed more like a bouquet of fire was now nothing more than a broken heart.

A boy, one of his classmates, had looked back and sneered at him before handing his mother a similar cup with much smaller flowers. His smug face and cruel laughing eyes lingering in Tsuna's memories long after his name had faded.

Tsuna didn't cry. He just knelt down and began to gently scoop as much as he could back into the plastic cup, cracks and scuff marks spider-webbing from the place it had been carelessly tossed.

"It was beyond help."

A pair of small brown loafers paused in front of him and a taller boy, a senpai Tsuna had seen every now and then, but only from a distance, stared down.

"School is over. What are you still doing here Herbivore?"

Tsuna had only given him an expression that looked like he had just found out his mother had died and bent his head back down to continue pushing the petal strewn dirt into the cup.

The boy had frowned but when he took the cup to read the named written on the side, Tsuna's breath had hitched like he was about to cry and the boy had quickly given it back.

Tani-sensei found them there.

"Hibari-kun. What happened here?"

"Ask that herbivore."

"Tsunayoshi-kun?"

Tsuna didn't say a word. He just continued to cradle his cracked cup with his dirty hands, uncaring of the way they stained his clothes brown. The old man had gasped and mourned for those flowers almost as deeply as Tsuna. He offered to give him a brand new packet of seeds, but Tsuna was still reeling. No matter how they cajoled or (in Hibari-senpai's case) threatened him for any information about who had done this, Tsuna never spoke a word about.

There was nothing to be done about the boy. He had moved away during the break and Tsuna never saw him again. Later that senpai who was kind enough to stop and occasionally even step in to chase away a bully or two (or a whole crowd of them) died in an accident. Tsuna was one of the handful of people who genuinely mourned him even though the most words they had ever shared involved Tsuna being threatened for causing a crowd and being an herbivore.

"I didn't want to grow anymore flowers after that, but around that time it became a big trend to start growing your own vegetable garden so Mama decided to try her hand at it. For a while I just helped out watering and weeding that. When I was eight I met Storm. It was sick and the shop keeper gave it to me for free because he was going to throw it away. Still had to pay for the fungicide though, but helping it got me started on caring for flowers again."

Tsuna was smiling again, that sad uplift of his lips changing to something brimming with gratitude as he stroked a thorny branch laden with red roses.

No wonder he was so obsessed with never letting people learn about his hobby. To let them in on his secret was akin to letting them into his heart and it had already been broken before.

Hana became especially sharp tongued to anyone who dared to mock Tsuna within hearing range. Kyoko stayed close to him as much as possible, knowing her presence was enough to deter quite a bit of potential trouble. It still hurt to think of her brother, but she couldn't do anything for him now. It was Tsuna who needed her and she would begin to ruthlessly exploit the pity people had for the 'poor traumatized girl' if they tried to pull anything.

As for Fon, well, it was against his nature to do something mean spirited to innocent civilians, but if some kids who had happened to have a game of 'Tsuna-Tripping' happened to somehow get involved in some embarrassing but non-lethal incidents or some adults who had gone out of their way to pick on a certain brunet had issues with bursting pipelines and missing paperwork who could say it was anything but bad luck?

On the last day of school, Tsuna was held back again and most of his classmates' jeers could be heard even as they walked out the door.

"HAH! I bet he's gonna be held back."

"Dame-Tsuna's gonna be with the babies now. How fitting."

"Maybe he'll be an elementary schooler forever."

She wasn't really sure what to say now that they were alone.

"Why-"

"It's called being a scapegoat."

"Sawada…"

"People don't like admitting that they can fail. People don't like being wrong. People don't like others being better than them. It makes them feel bad and people don't like that either. It's much easier to say 'It's not my fault' than it is to say 'I was wrong' or even 'I'm sorry.' So long as someone is worse off than them, they can say 'at least I'm not like that guy'. It makes them feel better and they don't want to lose that so they'll do whatever it takes to make sure that that someone else is worse off than them and stays worse than them."

Calm. Accepting. Level.

"I'm the smallest one, the slowest one, the weakest one. Instead of stepping in, everyone chose to overlook it. As long as they were willfully blind to it, such a distasteful thing as bullying does not exist in their eyes. It's merely escalated from there. I had no strength to fight back, no one to support me, and no benefits for others to reap from me…except for being an outlet for their ugliest emotions."

No child this young should be having such cynical views in life.

"How can you live like this?"

"As long as I keep my head down, I can survive. Maybe someday, I'll be able to leave Namimori and go somewhere far far away where no one has ever heard of Dame-Tsuna. I can start over from there. But to do that, I have to survive first. Right now, that's all that matters. "

But you don't. You don't keep your head down. You are always watching and no one ever realizes that you do. You have to constantly watch everyone because you feel like everyone around you is a threat.

"I…Sawada. I'm sorry for…if I had known sooner…" But you did. That little voice in the back of her mind reminded snidely. You were just like everyone else. Sawada doesn't even realize that he could do so much better than he believed because everyone has looked down on him for so long that even he believes it now.

"It's alright Ina-sensei. You were willing to listen. You were willing to try. But more than that, you opened your eyes and kept them open. It's something most people don't ever do. Thank you very much sensei. But you should stop now. Close your eyes again. If you try to help me anymore, you'll be next. Let them talk. I'll be someone else's problem soon. Someone else's scapegoat soon."

Sawada may not have been book smart, but he was unnaturally wise in ways that made her feel as if she was talking to someone who had lived a hundred years instead of a boy just barely half her age.

"Has anyone ever really…tried? You know…" She floundered. Why was this so hard to bring up?

He understood anyways.

"There was someone once…a senpai. He wasn't exactly helpful, but he was neutral and fair…and a little scary, but he helped me out a few times...even if he would hit me too. I heard that he passed away a couple years ago." The image of a silvery-eyed boy with black hair and shiny-sometimes bloody-tonfa flashed through her mind. Could it be? Lost in her thoughts, she just barely realized that the boy had started talking again.

"You can get away with what you're doing now to help me graduate. Now that Utada-sensei, Washio-sensei, and Yabuki-sensei have come to pity you for having me in your homeroom, they won't bother you like they were doing earlier. Watch out for Kakino-sensei though. He won't care that you are married or pregnant. Stay with larger groups and do your best to foster closer relationships with others. Narumi-sensei can be surprisingly chivalrous even if he likes to flirt. He's a fairly neutral party too but he will step in if Kakino-sensei tries anything.

After this, when they talk about me, join in. If you can't, don't show that you disapprove. Just take deep breaths and walk away. Let them assume that I was a frustrating student. Someone so bad that you can't even bear to hear about without losing your temper. You can't afford to lose your job and you can't afford the stress or that's going to hurt someone other than yourself."

Orange tinted eyes-had they always looked like that?-gave a knowing glance at her thickening abdomen. She hadn't told anyone yet, not even her husband, and it could have been passed off as weight gain from the stress eating she had taken to doing lately. A hand rested on the barely visible bump in surprise and with a heavy heart she watched as the brunet bowed. Thanked her one more time. And walked out.

The girls were waiting just outside. Both of them sporting concerned frowns. Hana with her arms crossed across her chest and Kyoko wringing her hands on a handkerchief. Clearly they had been eavesdropping, but Hana's presence and poisonous tongue would deter others from ambushing the boy as soon as he was out of her sight.

The scene made Ina feel a little better as she watched the boy who had opened her eyes to the world around her leave with what were probably his first true friends. But it was still a little disheartening to see that he would still find it so surprising though. She was almost afraid to go to the staff meeting that afternoon. The staff that had overlooked and stunted and crippled an amazing little boy with such satisfied smiles on their faces.

The next morning, a large basket of freshly grown produce was found on their front doorstep by her surprised husband along with a simple handmade card.

'Thank you for everything.'

At the bottom, hidden underneath a package of sweet smelling tangerines, was small notepad with notes of all her co-workers habits, things she could do to avoid causing more stress, and the health benefits of each of the fruits and vegetables in the basket.

Even when he wasn't here, he was taking care of her. She realized that he took exceptionally good care of anything that was important to him. Kyoko-chan. Hana-chan. And now her. Work had never been going so smoothly for her in all of her years of teaching. In the three years she was at Namimori Elementary, she had never become so attached to a single student like this. She wanted Sawada back.

Close your eyes again.

"No. Thank you though Tsunayoshi-kun. It's not going to be easy, but I'll continue to keep my eyes open anyways."

At the very least, she would do her best to make sure that there was never a repeat of Dame-Tsuna again. Because if all of this could happen to one innocent child, who could say that it couldn't happen to hers?

"Tsuna-kun?"

"Yes?"

Tsuna turned to look at the orange haired girl who was now walking him back to his home. On her other side like usual was their dark haired friend.

"That was a very nice thing you did for Ina-sensei."

"Mmmm." Tsuna tilted his head back to stare up into the dark sky that was gradually lightening as the sun rose. "It's the least I could do. Ina-sensei isn't likely to listen to my advice. She's a good person, but a bit stubborn and it'll take some adjusting for her to come to terms with things. Change is always stressful and too much stress will be bad for the baby."

"Baby?" Hana asked. "What baby?"

"Ina-sensei's baby."

Both girls stopped.

"Tsuna-kun?"

"Sawada?"

"Hmm? Didn't you notice? She's been looking a little tired even though she's doing a good job at hiding it. I think it's because all her energy is going towards the baby. She's also been putting on weight around her middle lately. It's like watching a seed pod form. I'd say she has about seven and a half months to go."

Hana and Kyoko looked at each other, but ultimately decided to continue following.

"We should get her a gift when the baby's born."

"Her husband usually buys yellow colored bouquets for her from our shop. I think he's asked for sunflowers before, but he's never been able to find one that he likes for her. Apparently she loves the big ones, but we don't carry them."

Tsuna hummed thoughtfully.

"How about a Mammoth Russian? I need to do some planning because they're so big and they tend to leech the soil of nutrients pretty quickly, but I think it'll be ready in time."

"Sawada. If your estimate is right, it'll be far too late for them by then. Ina-sensei's only going to get a dried head and a bunch of seeds."

"Don't worry." He smiled back almost reassuringly. "I'll manage it. Somehow."

"Well then!" Kyoko clapped her hands together in delight. "Hana-chan! There should be plenty of sunflower themed things this season. We should start look for a present now."

Outnumbered, Hana could only sigh and shake her head.

Middle school starts and Tsuna figures out in a few short hours that it's not going to be as bad as elementary school. It's going to be worse. For now, he's got a bit of a grace period as most of the kids coming from his elementary school are still adjusting to their new life as middle schoolers, but the uneasy feeling doesn't fade.

Most seem to be uncaring or just okay or even kind of decent and Tsuna can deal with that. His new science teacher is nothing like Ina-sensei though.

Nezu Dohachiro is petty and boastful and has a penchant of giving pop tests while doing barely enough teaching to warrant an average grade, much less the great-perfect-results he's expecting. Tsuna's trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he can already tell that this year isn't going to be pleasant.

Namichuu doesn't have a reputation for being a good school. There's a few warring school gangs along with the usual stereotypical cliques that form anywhere there are more than a handful of people.

The head of the Disciplinary Committee is a pompadour haired delinquent. To be more accurate, he's the pompadour haired delinquent that always has a grass stalk in his mouth because they all wear pompadours. Tsuna hasn't gotten close enough to tell what kind it is. He also doesn't have much hope for them because the DC spends most of its time getting into fights with the other gangs both in and out of their school and getting suspended. Thus they aren't around to deal with the mass bullying issue. Tsuna's not sure if they would even if they were.

The bright spot in this all is that somehow Kyoko and Hana have ended up in all the same classes as him.

Fon seems happy for him when he hears of this good news. Yet, there's something more than happy to his smiling disposition, something pleased, something almost…smug? Lichi looks like a cat who got the canary, the goldfish and the cream. Whatever it is, Tsuna's not going to ask no matter how suspicious they seem. It's just a happy coincidence that the three friends managed to stay together in everything. That's all.

Tsuna gets Kyoko to help him bake several tiny fruit tarts decorated with candied flowers for them to take when they leave anyways.

Hana arrives a little out of breath at the Sawada house.

"Did-did you hear?"

Tsuna and Kyoko blinked. Fon, back from wherever he was, stops still holding the huge squash Nana was planning to use for dinner and even Lichi pauses his chatter.

"Hear what Hana-chan?" prompts Kyoko.

"Yamamoto Takeshi died this afternoon. He was coming back from a baseball game and got hit by a truck. All the witnesses say that he wasn't paying attention and stepped onto the street while the light was still green."

The name means nothing to Fon, but Nana gasps.

"Oh! Oh no. Tsuyoshi-kun must be…"

Dinner is a quiet somber affair and Nana is distracted the entire time. After the dishes are done she announces that she's leaving.

"Everyone. I might not be back tonight. Tsu-kun."

This is something Tsuna hasn't seen in a long time, but still remembers if only vaguely.

"Right. Take care."

"Wait!" calls Hana. "Where are you going?"

Nana begins to pack a small bag with a few necessities.

"Tsuyoshi-kun was absolutely devastated when his wife died. The only thing that gave him to strength to move on was his son and now that Takeshi-kun's gone, I'm afraid..."

The implications sink in for Fon first and he gives her an understanding nod.

Tsuna later provides them with a bit of history about how Yamamoto's mom was his mother's tutor in high school and they had become good friends who kept in touch even years afterwards. The last time he had seen this expression on his mother's face was when she found out the woman had passed away from illness a few years ago.

No one says more than a few good nights and it's an unspoken acknowledgement that everyone is spending the night in Tsuna's room.

Nana returns two days later. The funeral is to be held in a week.

Kyoko only makes it through that day with the warm press of her friends on either side and offers her condolences to the emotionally worn man who has lost the last of his family. This is too much like how her brother's funeral went and she ends up staying over in Tsuna's room for three straight weeks.

It's a rare day when Hana and Kyoko aren't by his side. Kyoko's parents are home and she's spending time with them. Hana's helping out at the family flower shop because they're short-handed due to their employees being sick from a bout of food poisoning after a party.

"…your mother's fault! She…"

"Don't you bring my mother into this you bitch! You never…"

It's the same neighbors again. The Heiwatake couple. He knew he should have stayed on the other side of the street. It was going to rain and Tsuna was halfway to the grocery store before realizing that he needed to go back to get his umbrella.

There's screaming and shouting and the same sense that lets Tsuna know when he's being followed also lets him know when to stop moving. It's almost like a game of dodgeball except more dangerous and the benefits of allowing himself to get hit don't outweigh the benefits of not letting them touch him.

Something green pokes out from a pile of shards and Tsuna kicks aside what's left of them to reveal a small clematis vine clinging to the back of a small wicker chair back. The rest of the chair is scattered around in pieces and he spares a moment to wonder if they chopped it up just to have more projectiles to throw at each other.

There's still some root left from wherever it had been growing. Oh well. Finders keepers.

It's not like they'll notice and everything here is going to be cleared away and trashed anyways.

He ducks as a wall clock comes sailing out the window and towards his head next and decides to make a run for it.

The sky begins to pour before he gets far, soaking him through and through, but mercifully drowning out the sounds of the fight behind him.

"Well." Tsuna gives a sardonic smile. "I guess I know what I'm going to call you now."

There's still a few spare peat pots, but he'll have to get something bigger, more permanent later to put in his room. Tsuna finally reaches his yard and heads to the back to go through the green house first. Hopefully he'll be able to wring out most of the water there.

"Welcome to your new home Rain."

Huge AN here. Skip if you want.

Since Ryohei died, Kyoko is no longer the same sweet carefree girl in canon. In fact she has PTSD and I'm pretty sure I'm not doing it right. Tsuna's getting through school life with the support of his new friends however. A little foreshadowing about Kusakabe and Hibari, and Yamamoto's accident and retrieval by Tsuna and the cast is almost complete.

Reborn's coming next time. Going to be even crueler to Kyoko for the next couple chapters too, but it's necessary.

The fun thing about characters with no known history/family is that you can do whatever you want when it comes to making them up. Here, Hana's OC parents who can be a bit little funny at times but are still normal as opposed to most of the canon characters.

I feel that if there was anything Tsuna was actually good at, he'd have a little more confidence in himself, because there would be something like "At least I can do this" instead of "I can't do anything." So while he still gets flustered about other people praising him, his self-esteem isn't as bad as it could be. It's still pretty bad though. He's far more observant than he realizes, but those that really get to know him figure this out pretty easily. Also, yay for Tsuna making friends by bonding over mutual grief for the dead!

-Rather than streets having names, they give blocks numbers and leave the space in between the blocks, streets, nameless. There are some exceptions to this where certain streets do have names, like main thoroughfares, though these names are generally largely ignored by locals, postal workers, etc. If you want to find some location, rather than asking what street something's on, you'd rather ask what block it is in.

Plant Trivia:

Double asiatic lilies are unique in that they do not produce pollen. Their anthers have been replaced with petals, creating a double flower and no pollen. Doubles have an exceptional long bloom time in the garden. Petals are lightly spotted and produces 5-7 flowers per stem.

Ryohei currently has two stems. One with 6 flowers and one with 7.

If Kyoko was a plant she would be a Buddleja/Buddleia (butterfly bushes), Breed: 'Evil Ways' Dark purple flowers with bright yellow leaves.

According to the Reborn wiki, the card game gave her a mist flame but it was never confirmed by Amano. Here the flowers are a reference to her being a primary mist user with the yellow leaves hinting at a secondary sun flame.

The first breed I considered for her was 'Flower Power': A bicolored hybrid. The flowers are purple/pink and orange.

Akebi/Akebia-A vine that is native to Japan, China and Korea, and naturalized in the eastern United States from Georgia to Michigan to Massachusetts. Considered to be an invasive pest in certain areas/countries. They need to be cross-pollinated to get fruit and even then it's tends to be fickle.

Akebia quinata (Chocolate Vine or Five-leaf Akebia) and Akebia trifoliata (Three-leaf Akebia) are the two Tsuna is growing.

"Akebia is often mentioned in Japanese literature, where it is evocative of pastoral settings. Although the akebi commonly refers to the five-leafed species, the three-leafed species is used in much the same way for novelty food, medicine, and for vine material.

It is something of minor food source that was foraged in the past when other more conventional food sources were scarce. The pods contain a white, semi-translucent gelatinous pulp that is mildly sweet and full of seeds. The taste is described as sweet but rather "insipid". Some people recollect in idyllic terms how they foraged for it in the hills as children.

The purple-colored, slightly bitter rind has been used as vegetable in Yamagata Prefecture or in those northern areas, where the typical recipe calls for stuffing the rind with minced chicken (or pork) flavored with miso. Minor quantities of akebia are shipped to the urban market as novelty vegetable.

In Japan, the leaves are made into a tea infusion. Also, Akebia vines are used for basket-weaving crafts. " -Wikipedia