Summary: When Midoriya Izuku unexpectedly meets a kindred spirit in the form of Sawada Tsunayoshi at the Yuuei entrance exam, he's beyond excited. But his tentative friendship is crushed before it can even truly begin when All Might warns Izuku to stay away from the boy with the too sweet smile and the too big eyes and the face that looks like it couldn't hurt a fly. Tsuna is supposedly Izuku's greatest enemy - the final boss he needs to defeat so everyone can have their happily ever after. But the more Izuku learns about his new classmate, the more he begins to suspect that someone, somewhere, must have made a horrible mistake.

"I'm against it."

Reborn's voice was curt, unhappy, with a hint of a growl that would send many a person fleeing with their tail between their legs, fearful for having angered the hitman.

Tsuna, however, merely sighed in resignation.

"I know you are, Reborn," he said, looking up at his tutor with a sad expression.

Reborn looked away, knowing that if he were to see that mournful expression on his ward's face, he would crumble, and his disapproval would be overpowered by guilt.

He knew how excited Tsuna was, how he was looking forward to starting high school, how it was all he'd been able to talk about for weeks now. But he simply could not bring himself to approve, and he knew how it must hurt Tsuna for him to not be on his side.

Reborn was always on Tsuna's side.

It was an unspoken rule, a law of the universe.

No matter what Tsuna did, even if he destroyed their entire Family, Reborn would be on his side.

So how foreign must it feel, to not have Reborn's approval in this one matter?

Reborn grit his teeth, steeling his heart.

"You know how the heroes feel about your quirk," he said, voice harsh as he took his student by the shoulders. "They will – everyone will – be waiting for you to screw up, waiting for an excuse to kick you out or arrest you."

"I know," replied Tsuna, reaching up to lay his hands on top of Reborn's. "I'll be alright," he assured his surrogate father. "I promise. Just…try and trust that you raised me well enough to look after myself?"

The response was immediate.

"I do trust you," replied Reborn, eyebrows drawing together and lips twisting downwards. "It's them I don't trust. UA is very thorough when it comes to who they hire – there's no way we'll be able to plant any of our Famiglia members there. You'll be constantly surrounded by enemies."

Tsuna laughed, dutifully ignoring the slight tremble of Reborn's fingers where they were still resting on his shoulders.

"And how is that any different from the mafia?" he asked, smiling cheekily up at the hitman. "I'd even go so far as to argue it's safer. These guys are heroes, Reborn. They're not going to hurt one of their students. Especially one as loveable and harmless as me."

The last sentence succeeded in getting a startled snort of amusement out of Reborn, who cuffed Tsuna upside the head as he pulled away, trying to regain his composure.

"You know what? I tried my best," he said. "It's hardly my fault if you're too stubborn to see this is a terrible idea. Don't come crawling back to me when your plan comes crashing down around you."

They both knew that was bullshit.

Reborn would always be there to get Tsuna out of whatever shit he'd managed to dig himself into.

"Not gonna happen," Tsuna replied, cheekily. "You do know my guardians are attending too, right? Do you really need to be such a mothe-!"

Before he could even finish his sentence, he cut himself off with a squeak of surprise, jumping to the side as a bullet planted itself in the back of the sofa, exactly where he'd been sitting just seconds ago.

"What was that?" asked Reborn, smiling innocently down at his student.

"I-ah-um…nothing?" squeaked Tsuna, breaking into a cold sweat. "I, actually, uh, just remembered I have to…do stuff…in…some place. Okay bye!"

Reborn just watched him go, still with that odd smile on his face, only moving again when the door had swung shut behind his student.

Running a hand through his hair, he rolled his eyes and turned to look out the window onto the front lawns of the Vongola HQ.

"Mother hen indeed," he muttered under his breath, letting out a huff of exasperation directed at himself.

"OI! The fuck you doing in the middle of the road, jackass?"

Startled, Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the harsh reprimand.

He spun around, body already tensing for impact as words of apology leapt to his lips.

But when his eyes landed on messy silver hair cut short and choppy around an obviously foreign face, and stormy grey-green eyes glaring at him with a ferocity surpassed even Kacchan's, Izuku felt his mouth go dry.

For a second, he almost found himself wishing it really had been Kacchan instead.

Then, as the foreigner boy opened his mouth to no doubt shout at Izuku again, a hand landed on his shoulder, and Izuku watched in interest as his whole body tensed.

"Hayato," said the owner of the hand in a warning tone.

He had messy brown hair that stuck up every which way, and warm brown eyes of caramel. Unlike his friend, he was obviously Japanese.

He was also a good few inches shorter than the boy named Hayato.

"What did I say about picking fights with people at the entrance exams?" he asked.

And Izuku watched in disbelief as Hayato immediately averted his gaze, a sheepish expression crossing his face.

"That I shouldn't do it…?" he said, voice barely audible.

"And what were you doing just now?" wheedled the brunet.

"…I was picking a fight," Hayato admitted grumpily.

"So what do you say to the poor kid now?"

There was silence for a moment.

"Hayato..." the warning tone was back.

"I'm sorry," Hayato ground out, lips pulled into a pout and looking anywhere but at Izuku.

"Good boy!" replied the brunet, patting his friend on the head once before turning his million watt smile on Izuku. "I really hope he didn't frighten you too much. I promise he's not a bad guy. He just…gets a bit carried away sometimes."

"I-i-it's okay!" insisted Izuku, waving the apology off with exaggerated movements. "You don't have to apologize! No harm done!"

The guy's smile widened just a tad, and he bowed his head slightly.

"I'm glad there are no hard feelings," he said, sounding so genuinely relieved, Izuku couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Oh! I think we ought to be going now," the brunet said just then, as if suddenly remembering something. "Good luck on the exam! I hope you do well!"

And before Izuku had even had a chance to reply, the boy had dragged Hayato off into the building where their exams would be held.

Izuku watched them go, and found himself hoping that, just maybe, he'd found a potential friend already.