Chapter 16 – A Glorified Errand Girl: Cares

Tsuyoshi watched the girl touch a grain of rice to her lips just for it to fall back into the bowl. This repeated itself over the next five minutes until his twitching eyebrow felt sore.

"Mira-chan, is everything alright?"

She waved at him absentmindedly, still staring intently at the space behind his head, missing her mouth and accidentally poking herself in the nose with a pair of chopsticks. Takeshi shrugged at his father's questioning gaze, hand rubbing the back of his neck. Knowing his senpai, she was probably just scheming, the student disciplinary head likely being on the unfortunate end of it. He'd seen them make their way up to the school rooftop and it didn't exactly seem like the kind where they'd be exchanging pleasantries. Then on the way home, she seemed sour and barely talked.

Either way, Mira was the last person he'd need to worry about. She always picked herself up, no matter what. At the end of the day, that was what he respected the most about her. He excused himself to go get dressed into his uniform.

He moved across his room sluggishly, picking up dirty clothes and books that had been strewn across the floor. His hand lingered around the handle of his baseball bat, before he decided to leave it. He slung his bag across a shoulder and turned around to come face to face with Camilla. She watched him by the door, arms crossed and wearing an inscrutable expression.

Takeshi put on a smile, waving at her. "Sorry, did I take too long? We can go now."

He took a step forward but when Camilla made no indication of moving, he stopped, smile slipping. "Is something wrong, senpai?"

She nodded at the baseball bat abandoned behind him. "I don't know, sushi-boy. Is something wrong?"

He met her eyes for a long second, wondering if she knew more than she let on. But then again, Takeshi suspected she was actually excessively observant but just chose not to act upon it. He smiled brightly. "Why would something be wrong?" He tugged at her arm, pulling her out the door. "Bye dad! We're going now!"

"Ok! Have a good day at school you two!"

"Bye dad!" Camilla shouted from the streets.

The early shoppers all turned to Camilla and then to each other, whispering indiscreetly behind their hands. "Did you know Tsuyoshi had a daughter?" "Do you think she's maybe adopted? I mean look at her. She doesn't look anything like the Yamamotos." "Maybe she takes after her mother?"

Takeshi chuckled, figuring the hearsay would spread across town by the afternoon just in time for everyone to ambush his dad at lunch time. He began wondering if he should skip school to help his dad hold down the shop. Mira glanced at him as if reading his mind and shot him a closed eye smile. He then remembered her mentioning something about business opportunities and boosting revenues the last week when his dad had been complaining about rising seafood prices. Just when he was starting to put two and two together, Mira had dropped to the floor in a lunge, fingertips braced against the ground.

"Take care of my stuff, Takeshi. I'm going fishing. Oh, and I bought two boxes of strawberry milk. They're in my bag, both are yours." He needed to grow big and strong after all. She sent him a wink before racing off into the distance. Takeshi coughed on the sudden eruption of dust, flapping his hands in front of him wildly, wondering if the fishing was just another way she was trying to help their business.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was having a great morning. He'd managed to wake up early. Mama had made him a delicious breakfast. His homework had actually been completed the night before. And he had managed to bump into Kyoko and somehow, they were now walking to school together. Right about now, he felt as if his life was going to change for the better. A bright future awaited him and he was going to become-

An abrupt weight dropped around his shoulder, dragging him back to hard, cold reality.

"Mornin' Kyoko-chan. Tuna-kun." His head turned mechanically to meet a pair of dead, verdure eyes. He was too tired to even resist.

"Onee-san! How have you been?!" The school idol waved her hands animatedly, narrating her past week to Camilla who nodded along to her story telling with artificial interest.

"I was feeling a little down but seeing your cute little face has made it all better." She tapped her on the nose for good measure, smiling angelically at the younger girl. Camilla made to dismiss her, "Now, will you be ok to walk the rest of the way on your own? I have something really important to speak to Tsunayoshi-kun about." Tsuna blanched at her atypical referral of him, sensing dangerous connotations to her wording.

Camilla sent Tsuna's beau away with a coquettish flutter of the hand. Once the head of orange had disappeared around the corner, she turned apathetically to Tsuna. "Look, I'm gonna keep this short. You won't understand yet, but you'll just have to take my word for it, Tuna-fish. A baby in a suit is going to find you. That's not a problem. But when you see a silver haired delinquent, just avoid him. That's all. Questions?" Tsuna opened his mouth to interject, eyes wide with bewilderment but before he could get in a word, Camilla's commiserating hand had already left his shoulder and she was giving him a two fingered salute. "Good luck, I left my things with Takeshi, so I have to go. I'll see you for dinner at Mama's. Don't die."

When Camilla had arrived at school, she realised Takeshi was already there despite her having sprinted ahead. She chalked it up to a combination of his athletic abilities and enthusiasm for practice, shrugging it off. But instead of the baseball field, he was up on the rooftop, staring out onto the field. Usually, he'd be energetically ricocheting baseballs off a bat at 300 kilometers an hour by now. What was he doing up there? Before she could even start onto school grounds she was accosted by an undesirable.

"Sakaguchi-san! You're early as always, an exemplary example to us all, really!" The class president adjusted his glasses, beaming at Camilla. "I've done what you've asked – a club for all the third years to enjoy extracurricular activities together? Splendid! I have a long way to go, I really do. That's why the whole class had decided for a re-election yesterday. Everyone voted for you to be our new class representative!"

She'd never felt a stronger urge to rip the glasses off the overeager pond scum and crunch it under her feet like a cockroach. Instead she opted for an embarrassed flush of the cheeks and a 'playful' punch to his body. He choked upon the impact but nonetheless smiled idiotically bright. "That doesn't make me happy at a-all!" she cried. It honestly didn't. She had no time to play class representative and deal with all their trivial complications. She didn't want to be responsible for feeding their class pet or chase up missing homework from difficult classmates – she had Tsuna for those. She wanted power, that was the reason for creating an exclusive third year club comprising of Namimori Middle's most useful students. Becoming class president was redundancy, something she didn't have patience for. She whipped out her mobile and started tapping away maliciously.

Before the first bell had even rung, the rumour had spread; Sakaguchi Mira's elder sister had died the day of being elected class president and ever since then, Mira had vowed never to assume that role, in honour of the sister that she had loved.

It was like she was never appointed class representative; everyone avoided the subject like a plague. No one wanted to be the one to bring it up despite the overwhelming curiosity. It was social suicide for whoever mentioned it first and managed to upset the most idolised girl in the whole school.

Camilla finally broke through the throngs of hovering students, arriving at the rooftop. Naked sushi boy was still there, gazing vacantly onto the playing field. She squatted beside him, tucking her knees under the chin.

It was a long time before she spoke. "What you can do, doesn't dictate whatyou will do. Just like what you end up doing is not a show of what you can do. I know it's been hard on you recently, Takeshi." She heard him suck in a shuddering breath. Camilla resisted peering past his side profile, allowing him the privacy to wipe at his face. "You can be bad, but you're not allowed to be unhappy doing what you love." She ruffled his dishevelled hair. "Else I can't continue being happy doing what I love – watching you smack that tiny white ball with a stick." Takeshi gave her a dazzling grin, albeit watery but it glowed enough to staunch the inexplicable unease she had, seeing him so close to the rooftop fence.

"Hold on. That's Sawada from my class. He looks like he's having fun!"

She followed his line of sight to the school entrance. Tsuna had been hit with one of Reborn's meddling bullets and might as well be sporting a Class A pervert signage across his forehead.

"Sasagawa Kyoko! WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?!"

Oh mon dieu. She had told him not to die, hadn't she? But Tuna wouldn't be Tuna if he managed to listen to her.

A/N What? Who's back? I'm back. My goal is to make y'all sick of me by updating short and frequently.