#liquidletti

The boy’s shoulders hitched as he stared at her hand in surprise. Kyoko waited patiently as he hesitated to reach out and accept it, starting and stopping. But finally, his slightly scratched up fingers rested on the handkerchief. Kyoko’s smile widened.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked, as he slowly climbed to his feet. Although he accepted the handkerchief, he didn’t use it to wipe his nose or his hand, only holding it tightly. “It doesn’t look like your pants got ripped, so that’s good. Do your hands hurt?”

“Um… no, I’m okay,” the boy said quietly. “Th-thanks…”

Standing, they were about the same height, but with the way he stooped, shoulders hunched defensively, he had to look up at Kyoko through his bangs.

“Kyoko,” she introduced herself, “I’m Sasagawa Kyoko. Nice to meet you!”

“Ah… I’m Da… Tsuna,” the boy said. “Sawada Tsunayoshi.”

And, encouraged by her own bright, beaming expression, Tsuna smiled tentatively.

‘Ah,’ Kyoko thought. ‘Cute…’

It really was. Tsuna’s smile was so cute, like a flower opening up toward the sun, and Kyoko suddenly knew she really wanted to see it again.

~.~.~

Tsuna was in her class, Kyoko had realized only after they walked to the classroom together. She hoped he hadn’t noticed her momentary confusion when he followed her in — it wouldn’t be fair to Tsuna to think he was that forgettable. She’d never forget him again, she decided.

Especially since… Her lips thinned in displeasure at the smattering of sneers that greeted ‘Dame-Tsuna.’

No one greeted him with a smile.

And that wasn’t right at all.

“Tsuna-kun,” Kyoko said, turning to him instead of going to her seat, “Let’s have lunch together.”

A sharp, ominous hush fell over the classroom behind her. Someone dropped something, and she was pretty sure she could hear Hana palming her face. But Kyoko kept her eyes on Tsuna and smiled. “L, lunch? With me…?” he repeated, blinking in shock as Kyoko nodded.

His gaze darted everywhere except her, and his hands fluttered uselessly, but it wasn’t a no yet. “Will you?” she prompted.

“Y-y-yes!” Tsuna stammered. “I will!” He beamed, and it was as cute as the one before.

The bell rang, and Kyoko headed back to her desk with a last smile and a wave. Hana mouthed a question as their eyes met, but Kyoko just shrugged helplessly. She couldn’t explain it at all, but somehow this was what she wanted to do.

~.~.~

Hana sulked all through lunch. She thought all boys their age were just monkeys, and the way Tsuna fumbled nearly every piece of food didn’t do anything to change her opinion. His ears grew redder and redder, and his head sank lower, as the students sitting nearby jeered continually.

Looking at the way Kyoko’s lips thinned, her smile becoming increasingly brittle, Hana sighed and turned to fix the nearest group with her nastiest glare. “Hey!” she barked at them with the kind of sharp, unhesitating forcefulness Kyoko admired most about her. “Keep it down or get lost!”

“Thanks, Hana-chan,” Kyoko murmured, as her friend turned back. Hana snorted, chewing sullenly at the last of her egg sandwich.

“You’re buying me cake after class,” she said.

And unexpectedly— “I, I’ll do it!” Tsuna burst out. Ducking his head, he said, “It’s my fault, so I’ll pay.”

“No way,” Hana declared flatly. “I’m not doing anything for you. Kyoko decided to drag you along, so it’s on her. It’s rude to ignore her decision, you know. Besides, I don’t want to go to the cake shop with you. I’m going with Kyoko.”

Kyoko laughed. “Okay, Hana-chan. The one by the station, right?” She tried to catch Tsuna’s gaze, but he had ducked his head again, drooping sadly, so in the end, Kyoko reached out and placed her hand over one of his. “I’ll get you something too, we can have it after lunch tomorrow.”

The chopsticks slipped from his hand. “…Tomorrow?” he repeated in stunned tone.

~.~.~

‘Tomorrow’ became ‘every day.’

Despite her huffing and grumbling, Hana eventually accepted that their new lunchmate was not a passing whim or just politeness on Kyoko’s part. Her manner remained sharp, but she went as far as adding another share of cookies or snacks when she brought extras for lunch. “Shut up,” she mumbled, flushing a little at Kyoko’s bright, proud smile then.

Tsuna himself… was taking longer to adjust. He still looked so shocked and disbelieving every day when Kyoko said hello to him and when she invited him to eat lunch with them and when she said goodbye at the end of classes.

It wasn’t like Kyoko couldn’t guess why. Their classmates, she was thinking more and more, where not very nice people.

Already on the second day, the whispering clusters of students eyeing them unhappily had pushed forward a representative, who approached Kyoko with a nervous expression. “Sasagawa, you shouldn’t waste your time on Dame-Tsuna,” he’d said.

Kyoko didn’t know exactly what face she made then. She had thought she was smiling politely, but the other student had flinched, breaking out in cold sweat. “Thank you for your concern,” she said in an even tone. “But I don’t agree.”

Turning away after that might not have been very nice either, but Kyoko rebelliously felt she might not care too much just then.

Maybe she really had been a strange face because she could feel her expression relaxing as she faced Tsuna again. “So how about it, Tsuna-kun? Do you want to study for the quiz together?”

~.~.~

No one asked her about Tsuna again. And since no one brought it up to Kyoko again, she thought that was the end of it.

But it turned out, their classmates were even more… impolite than she had realized.

“…just causing trouble for, Sasagawa.”

“That’s right. If Sasagawa-chan keeps wasting her time on you, she’ll end up no good too! It wouldn’t right for our class to lose our idol just because of you.”

“So stay away from Sasagawa!”

Standing around the corner from where a group of students had cornered Tsuna, Kyoko listened with a feeling she had trouble putting into words. She thought she might have been making a weird expression again — her face felt stiff. Her fingers were digging into the handle of her book bag as it hung by her side.

There was a dull thud as one of the other boys hit the wall next to Tsuna’s head, making him jump. “Got it, Dame-Tsuna?” he demanded.

Tsuna’s hands were clenched into trembling fists, but there was no threat of angry retaliation in his stance. Tsuna wasn’t that kind of person to begin with. “…” His voice was an inaudible whisper.

“Huh? What was that?!” the bully demanded — because he was a bully, Kyoko thought, her lips thinning. Well, she knew what to do with bullies. Her brother had set a good example often enough. Squaring her shoulders, she was about to take a step forward—

“…no.”

It had been so quiet that Kyoko almost thought she had misheard. Tsuna had never rejected any request, especially not such a forceful order. She would have called it part of his accommodating nature, but Hana tended to describe it less charitably as ‘having no spine.’

But this time, Tsuna had refused. He didn’t lift his head, but he didn’t waver in his decision.

“I won’t,” he said, just as quietly. “Not if Kyoko-chan doesn’t ask me herself. And she always…”

Kyoko had always been clear. But maybe she needed to be even clearer, for some people who just didn’t understand when you were nice.

“That’s right,” she said, stepping out from around the corner. The boys in front of her all jumped and froze, staring at her with wide, stunned eyes. “I don’t want that. I want to be friends with Tsuna-kun. And if anyone causes trouble for my friends… I’ll be really angry, okay?”

Even though she was smiling, their classmates swallowed heavily and took a step back.

“Okay?” Kyoko prompted.

Flinching, they nodded frantically.

“That’s good. Well, have a nice day,” she concluded.

The moment she turned away, they scurried away, but Kyoko didn’t really care about that. Tsuna was still staring at her in shock, but he at least didn’t look scared. As her expression eased into a more honest smile, he blushed and ducked his head, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Are you okay? Did they do anything?” she asked. If they had… she was getting Ryohei. She didn’t approve of violence, but he could yell a lot louder than her.

Tsuna quickly shook his head. “I’m fine. Um… sorry you had to see that.” He hesitated, shifting foot to foot. “D-do you really think we can be friends?” he blurted out, finally meeting her gaze.

“Aren’t we?” Kyoko asked, tilting her head. “I thought we’re already friends.”

“Oh,” Tsuna murmured.

And this time, it was Kyoko who blushed. She could feel the slightly stinging heat spreading across her cheeks as she stared at Tsuna — at the smile that spread across his face. It was just so… ‘Cute,’ she thought. ‘He’s so cute.’

…She didn’t think that about Hana. Maybe.. this wasn’t a friend kind of feeling. That explained the droll look Hana had given her when Kyoko had told her, ‘I want to be friends with him.’

Well, that was something to think about later. For now, friends was good too.

Smiling back, she reached out and took his hand.