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(1)
Hayato glared up at the baroque façade of Mafia Academy. “You know, I’ve never gone to school before?”
“Mew?”
“Ahaha, seriously?” Takeshi waved to their driver as he pulled away. Hayato thought it was a bit over the top to get chauffeured around, but they were hardly the only students getting dropped off by dark cars with tinted windows.
“When I was little, I had tutors, and after that, I was on my own.” What education he could finagle was either self-directed, or one-on-one. Cielo stetched up and bumped noses with him. “Until I met you, anyway.”
A few of the passing students gave him strange looks. They’d get over it. “Let’s go in,” said Takeshi. “I wouldn’t want to be late on our first day.”
“We’re half an hour early, idiot.”
(2)
Classes were organised by age group, so he and Takeshi were in the same one, despite their difference in academic levels. Hayato had tested out of math entirely, to his surprise; it was only calculus, not spinor geometry or something. They found their assigned seats; Hayato took a box from his bag and set it on his desk. Cielo emerged from his jacket and settled into it.
“Comfy?”
Cielo purred. He scratched the cat’s ears; Cielo’s previous experiences with classrooms hadn’t been positive. The other students were still giving them strange looks. The teacher clapped his hands for attention.
“Welcome to Mafia Academy. I am Giacomo Buonarotti, your homeroom teacher.” He went over the basic school rules. Hayato was pretty sure civilian students didn’t need to be told not to draw weapons in class. Well, maybe in America. “Now, each of you, please introduce yourselves. Tell us your name, which Family you’re with, and your Flame if you’re Active.” There were a few families Hayato recognised, including a Cavallone. Eventually, their turn came around.
“Asari no Yamamoto Takeshi – you can call me Yamamoto. I’m a Rain, and I’m with the Vongola.”
“Hayato Gokudera. I’m also representing the Vongola, my primary is Storm. And this is Cielo.”
“Mew!” Hayato knew what they were thinking: that the Vongola were nuts. That wasn’t exactly wrong.
(3)
“First fucking day, how’d it go?” Xanxus was waiting for them outside Hayato’s lair, sprawled on a wicker bench which Hayato had found in a shed and fixed up. His coon-tail hair clip was dangling over the side, and Cielo pounced on it.
“I’ve never been around that many people my own age before,” said Hayato.
“Yeah, and?”
“Oh my God, they’re so dumb.” He didn’t feel like he smart, but if that was the average …
“Ahaha, I’ll fit right in,” said Takeshi.
Hayato snapped, “You’re not dumb, idiot!” Takeshi made such a confused face that Xanxus burst out laughing. Hayato blushed. “You know what I meant!”
“Hai, hai.”
(4)
By the third day, the class had gotten used to Cielo and Hayato had almost gotten used to the class. He got drafted as an assistant teacher in math, which Cielo slept right through. No signs of bullying so far, because nobody wanted to start shit that could spiral into a blood feud.
Nobody had noticed that Cielo lived up to his name, either. Hayato nearly had a heart attack when he spotted a dot of red light dancing near Cielo’s head. He immediately scooped the cat into his jacket and raised his lightning in defense.
“What gives? We were just playing.” One of the students held up a laser sight that, luckily for his health, wasn’t attached to anything else. “Cats like chasing lasers, don’t they?”
“I should stab you,” Takeshi said pleasantly. Hayato hadn’t even heard him move.
Their Cavallone classmate, Emilio, plucked the laser out of the other student’s hand. “Bruno, we were warned about weapons in class, and this is why.”
“Huh? What about Yamamoto – he threatened to stab me!”
“You started it,” Emilio said, and tossed the laser into the trash. “My Don instructed me to back you up if needed,” he told Hayato. “Is Signore Cielo all right?”
“Mew.” Cielo leaned his head out.
“You can scratch his ears,” Hayato interpreted. Emilio did so, and his eyebrows went up when he felt the cat’s Sky Flames. “We’ve met the Bucking Horse before,” said Hayato.
Bruno looked confused “Just because a cat is orange – ”
Hayato glared at him. “Fucking hell, you’re dense.”
(5)
For once, their class was practicing a math concept Hayato wasn’t familiar with: how to use an abacus. This was also part of their history course, some kind of integrated curriculum thing; Takeshi was ahead there because his Dad was such a traditionalist. “Ahaha, you never know when the old-fashioned way will come in handy.”
Cielo pawed at the abacus, making the beads click. “Satisfying, isn’t it?” said Hayato. “Do you want to put in the numbers while I read them off?”
“Mew!” Cielo set all the beads back to zero, and looked up at him expectantly.
“Right, the first exercise is 153 plus 228 …” Cielo’s ears pricked forward with excitement, even when they tried out some more complex operations. Hayato could guess why: learning was a lot more appealing without the pressure of grades and expectations. Plus, if moving the abacus beads helped Cielo make sense of the numbers – from what Takeshi said, Japan’s school system didn’t account for divergent learning styles.
(6)
Later that evening, Hayato tapped on Takeshi’s window. Since he was less allergic to wealth than Hayato, he had taken a room in the manor’s staff wing; he’d done it up in traditional Japanese style, so it didn’t give Hayato hives. He opened the window, and Cielo jumped off Hayato’s shoulder into the room. Hayato climbed in after him.
“I was just telling Dad about Cielo having fun with the abacus,” Takeshi said. Hayato waved towards his laptop.
“Hi, Yamamoto-san!”
“Mew.” Cielo booped the camera with his nose, then sprawled across the keyboard.
“Good evening, Cielo-sama,” said Tsuyoshi. “And you as well, Hayato-kun. If you like, I could send you my old abacus in my next care package.”
“Could be fun.”
Tsuyoshi continued, “I was just about to tell Takeshi – Hibari-san has noticed your absence. I made him work for it, but I did eventually tell him which school you’re attending now.”
Takeshi scratched his neck. “Ahaha, I’m in danger!”
“Would he really come all this way to hunt you down?” asked Hayato.
“He totally would.”
(7)
Their next encounter wasn’t a cranky Cloud, but someone much worse. Hayato grimaced at the sight of the tiny figure standing on the teacher’s desk. Emilio Cavallone, walking beside him, paled. “He’s not supposed to be here …”
“Cavallone get the window open,” muttered Hayato. He checked that Cielo was safely tucked into his jacket. “Baseball idiot, distract him.”
Takeshi pasted on a smile and sauntered forward. “Hi there! Are you a substitute?”
With a hitman of Reborn’s stature (heh), he would have only moments to act. “Correct, my cute student! I, the eminent Professor Borin, shall – ” Grab. Turn. Heave. Straight out the window, which Emilio slammed shut behind him.
The rest of the class stared. “Um, what if that really was a substitute?”
“I’d skip.”
(8)
Without comment from Buonarotti, more tangible learning tools appeared in the classroom. So far Cielo’s favourite was a hamburger-themed toy for learning fractions. Hayato also got extra credit for defenestrating Reborn.
The World’s Greatest Hitman didn’t give up easily. Next he turned up posing as a student, with pigtails and a tartan skirt. He sat at a desk, hand solemnly raised, while the teacher glared at him. Without a word, Buonarotti opened the window, and raised an eyebrow at Hayato.
Takeshi moved first. “My turn!” Using Rain to mask his movements, he slipped forward. He seized Reborn’s collar, and with perfect fastball form, launched him out the window.
“Huh, I guess you are a pitcher,” commented Hayato.
“I’m ok with catching, too!”
“Oh my God, idiot.”
There was a distant crash, and a yell of, “VOOOOOI!”
“Ahahah, whoops!”
Buonarotti massaged his temples. “Yamamoto, you’re excused. Try not to die.” To himself he muttered, “I should have known. Fricking Vongola, none of them are normal.”
(9)
Hayato scowled at Takeshi’s shredded suit jacket. “This is a total write-off. And don’t get me started on the bloodstains.”
“Maa, they’re just flesh wounds.” And Hayato had already healed them, you’re welcome, idiot. Takeshi was lying on the rugs in Hayato’s lair, with Cielo purring on his chest. “Maybe I’ll keep it and mend the slashed with gold thread.”
“One, that’s outside the dress code and two, are you trying to scare people off?” So far Takeshi had played the role of the friendly one, but flaunting that he’d survived the Sword Emperor would change that.
“Ahaha, a little?”
Cielo tapped Takeshi’s nose with his paw. “Mew?”
“If people take me seriously, it’ll be easier to keep you safe, right?”
(10)
Hayato was on edge. There was something in the air, and it wasn’t the Sirocco. He scanned the area; there was a figure cloaked in Cloud perching on the Academy’s roof, watching the students. The Academy security staff were keeping an eye on them but hadn’t approached.
“Oh no,” Takeshi chuckled.
The Cloud leaped down and stalked towards them. He was a little older than Hayato, and looked exactly like one of the portraits in the Vongola mansion. Creepy. “Herbivores.”
“Mew!” Cielo objected. A cat was certainly no herbivore.
“… Small animal,” the Cloud grunted.
“It’s nice to see you, Hibari-san, but we’re going to be late for class!” Takeshi pulled Hayato away; to his surprise, Hibari glared but didn’t pursue them.
(11)
Hayato was doing an independent study in math class, running the numbers for a shaped charge Xanxus had commissioned. Meanwhile, Cielo was napping in the sun on Buonarotti’s desk. He looked up when he felt the cat’s Flame flare.
Cielo was perched on one end of the desk, and Reborn at the other. They were staring each other down in a contest of Wills. Buonarotti was backed up against the wall, on the phone with security: “You have to figure out how he keeps getting in, this is unacceptable. And why is it always my class?”
The other students were in shock from the discovery that Cielo really was a Sky. Hayato sighed and started to stand up.
The door slammed open. Hibari charged through in a haze of Cloud and tackled Reborn out the (closed) window, in a crash of breaking glass.
“Mew!” Cielo darted after them, still glowing with Flames.
“Cielo, this is the second floor – che, let’s go, idiot.”
“Was that one of yours?” asked Buonarotti.
“Not yet.”
(12)
When Hayato caught up, Reborn was nowhere to be found. Instead, Hibari was curled around Cielo behind a statue, stroking the cat’s fur with an intent expression. Cielo looked highly pleased with himself.
Hayato sat on the edge of the petestal, outside Hibari’s swatting range, and tossed him a bag of dried fish snacks. Hibari grunted and began feeding them to Cielo. “Herbivore. You are the small animal’s pack?”
“Yeah.” Did he always talk in Nature Channel metaphors? “That idiot, too.” Hayato waved at Takeshi, who was keeping lookout well out of Hibari’s reach. He was being silly; compared to Squalo, Hibari couldn’t be that bad.
“Hn. Acceptable.”
(13)
“Can you explain this?” Enrico Vongola waved at the garden patio, where Hibari was brawling with a translucent copy of himself. The ghost was, at the moment, solid enough for Hibari to headbutt him into the ornamental pond.
“Do I have to?” Hayato grumbled.
“Not really, but I was hoping.” Enrico had Cielo on his lap, brushing his fur with a diamond-encrusted brush. “There’s no doubt you’re a Vongola, baby cousin.”
“Mew.”
“What I’m wondering is how he gets here from Japan so fast.” Hayato had checked with Tsuyoshi, and Hibari was often seen in Namimori within hours of being in Sicily. “I know he has a Mist secondary, but it’s not that strong.”
“I know this one!” Enrico grinned. “Therre’s a corridor; enough Mists have travelled between here and Namimori that it’s easier along that route. Did you think the Varia would make intercontinental flights just to go for sushi?”
“Sure they would,” Takeshi and his dad had flown, but then, they’d been travelling legally. On the patio, Alaude’s ghost dissipated, leaving Hibari pouting. Cielo strolled over to nuzzle his leg.
(14)
Hayato sometimes woke up with Hibari lying back to back with him in his lair, Cielo sprawled across them both. He was quiet when he wasn’t fighting, and he brought snacks. He turned up randomly at the Academy, too, and classroom discipline improved accordingly. Hayato got Buonarotti a big bottle of Calvados for putting up with their everything.