Author Note: This is a oneshot. I always have a lot of ideas when trying to figure out what to write for my longstanding practice fic and this was one of the ones that came up. Actually, it was supposed to be more darker and steamier involving the girl being forced into an unwanted marriage with a scumbag and how Tsuna saves her (cough), but it became this instead.

Romance with a little drama. Enjoy!

Edit 5/26/19: Cleaned up the syntax a bit to prepare it for AO3

Edit 6/2/19: Changed their ages because Tsuna sounds way too old to be a teenager. Cleaned up two sentences that bugged me. Removed a typo.

Edit 6/10/19: Forgot to change a sentence commenting on their ages. Adjusted paragraph to fit flow (all I did was add a word.)

The first time he'd met her, it was through a friend of a friend. Wavy, light brown hair that framed her face. Eyes wide and innocent. Shining, when they were introduced. Reddened lips pulling into a smile as she greeted him.

Tsuna had never had somebody look at him like that, as if he were capable of being more than a mafioso. More than a no good. He wanted to see her look at him that way forever. Something loosened inside of him at the sight of her smile, as if all the pains he had accumulated were washed away.

Ishilde Di Mercurio.

Who are you? Really?

"I'm an ice-skater," she answered.

When he nodded politely and asked her questions, she laughed and said: "Aha! You don't believe me!"

He was startled at being caught. He blinked, looked at her earnest eyes, and smiled.

"It's hard to believe without the proper evidence, these days."

"Then you should come and watch me skate. It's off season right now, but I have tickets for my next ice show."

He nodded and pretended to believe. She was too good to be true, this girl, and if he wasn't careful, she would break his heart. Maybe if he'd been younger, he might have fallen in hook, line, and sinker, but he was older now. Wiser.

(Broken hearts did that to you.)

He looked her up, too used to being told one thing and finding something else entirely. As it was, she'd been entirely too modest.

"You competed in the Olympics?"

"I didn't win though…"

"Does it matter?" He asked, exasperated and feeling more like his old self than ever. "You competed in the Olympics and got all the way to the top ten."

"...Italy deserves better."

He wanted to scream. Are you kidding me!? You competed at the Olympic level! You got into the top ten! How are you still so blind to your accomplishments?

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing. It's nothing." He smiled wryly. "I just realized something."

She leaned in curiously. "What did you realize?"

What a curious girl she was. "I realized why Reborn-my old tutor-gets so annoyed with me."

She wrinkled her nose, puzzled. "I don't get it."

You don't have to. You just need to stay here, with me, just for a little while longer.

Only a moment, I promise.

If you asked him, he wouldn't know why he was so obsessed with this girl. She was only twenty to his twenty two, not that different from other girls her age. He'd met hundreds of people who were all beautiful and dripping with charm, but there were the lightest of freckles on the bridge of Ishilde's nose from where the sun hit her face.

And those freckles, they were everything.

MM slammed the envelope on his desk.

"The tickets. If you hurt her, I'll destroy you. Decimo or no."

Tsuna leaned back, amused. He toyed with the pen in his hands, slyly peering up at her from the side. She looked entirely too ruffled for his liking.

"How would you do that?"

Her plan was surprisingly comprehensive. Violently nasty and cruelly vindictive. Just the way he liked it. For some reason, it put him in a better mood, knowing that Ishilde had someone like that at her back, the same way he had Enma. Knowing that she was close enough to him for MM to get attached made him think she might be trustworthy.

Made him think that maybe she wasn't all that untouchable.

Not like Kyoko.

Kyoko was his first heartbreak and it was entirely self-inflicted. Even Onii-san didn't have anything to say.

(Rather, Onii-san seemed to pity him, but Tsuna wasn't ready to think about that.)

"It's better this way," Tsuna told her curtly. "Go home. Be free. Italy will be too painful for you."

She trembled whenever he touched her, flinched whenever he spoke. He'd never done anything to her to warrant that reaction. As always, as always, it was the mafia that was the problem. With tears in her wide, pure eyes and the way she stood, as shakily as a newborn fawn, Tsuna knew this was the right choice for him to make.

"I flew all the way for you and this is how you behave!? Haru was right!"

Tsuna smiled coldly. "Haru is always right."

And she was.

Tsuna was indeed a heartless man who chased women all day and focused on all the wrong things, things that didn't make life worth living. A man with the power to order the deaths of anyone that ever hurt what was his without even batting an eye. Indeed, Haru would never chain herself to this kind of man.

"I don't mind working for you Tsuna, but I won't become one with you." Haru told him in her usual straightforward, no-bullshit manner. "Is that alright?"

Tsuna almost fell in love with her for that. Almost. He fell for anybody who showed him even the slightest of backbone these days. Anybody who showed him a little respect. Anybody who listened.

(Of course, that was never long enough for him to stay.)

As Haru predicted, Kyoko and Tsuna broke up.

If there was space for somebody like MM in Ishilde's life, would there be space for someone like him too? If she accepted MM as her friend and all that entailed, would she accept him too?

Most importantly, would she care about him being Vongola Decimo?

Ishilde wasn't all that different from the average woman. She ordered far too many beauty and skincare products. Her closet was enough to fill an entire room. She liked beautiful things, beautiful people, and beautiful places. You could see it all over her instagram.

To be honest, she looked like the gold digger trophy wife type.

Her instagram was full of glamorous shots of her posing in expensive hotels or restaurants, all carefully filtered. Pictures with fellow skaters or other celebrity types. Advertisements for her sponsors. Somebody who looked like he could be her boyfriend. Somebody who looked like he could be her boyfriend.

Tsuna ordered a background check.

"And get me the pictures from her private instagram while you're at it."

Her private instagram was like this: sometimes blurry pictures of food, family, and fluffy animals. Simple, easy, and down to earth. Not at all like the shiny photographs of her official account.

Most importantly, the boyfriend was nowhere in sight.

Honestly, Tsuna didn't care if she was a gold-digger or not. Money was an asset in these kinds of games and he had it in spades. It'd honestly make things easier if she was a gold digger. Tsuna would never have to worry about her ever leaving him so long as he kept the money coming. Whatever she wanted, he had no problem giving it to her so long as she never left. No, that wasn't the problem.

The problem was this: he didn't want her having any other boyfriend besides him.

"Who's this? Your boyfriend?" He asked casually when he saw a picture of the not-boyfriend.

He already knew, of course, but he wanted to hear it from her. What did she think of him? Was this kind of person her type? What were her feelings towards him? What were her feelings towards Tsuna?

"Oh my gosh," she gushed, "I wish! He's my idol!"

The mafia boss stilled. "Is that so? What…what do you like about him?"

He forced the words out, hoping they sounded casual and not at all hopeful.

(How long had it been since his heart beat like this?)

"Is it…is that ok?" She asked hesitantly. "You're ok with me gushing about him like this?"

He smiled. "Why wouldn't I?"

Her face lit up. Her face split into a grin, not at all like her sweet, poised smiles. This was an Ishilde he'd never seen before. Tsuna's heart skipped a beat.

"Can I really?"

"Go ahead."

"Oh um..well first, I want to tell you thank you for listening and…"

"This isn't a speech, Ishilde," he said teasingly. "Just tell me what you like about him."

A red flush kissed her cheeks. All of a sudden, he wanted to kiss her and never stop. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and never let go, not even if the whole world ended.

"Sorry," she said, her voice suddenly and noticeably quiet, "I'm not used to telling people about this."

"Ok now I definitely want to hear this from you."

"Once-so when I was in juniors, he saw me skating and complimented my forms and said that my step sequences were really good and that I should keep trying because when we stumble, that's how we know what we're made of and you know, since he.."

He leaned in closer, careful not to lean in too closely. "Since he what?"

"You're still listening?" She asked, gobsmacked.

He wanted to find all the people that thought she wasn't worth being listened to and wring their necks.

Tsuna didn't let himself be vulnerable very often. He didn't like to drink too often, but when he did, he had trouble stopping. He always did, when it came to things he liked. Chasing women, chasing heat, chasing the warmth of somebody other than him. Those were things he liked the most.

"It'll be ok," she promised, warm under his arms. "I'll take you home. You really shouldn't drink drinks somebody gave you without checking for roofies."

"Is that how it is with you?" He slurred, breath warm against her neck.

"Yes." Her tone was bitter. "Everyone wants to bag a celebrity, even a small one like me."

"You're not small."

"Yes I am. Look at how much shorter I am next to you!"

Cute. Very cute. He liked it a lot.

Liked her a lot.

(Far more than he should.)

Love came at him with all the subtlety of a trainwreck. He felt like a trainwreck. His life was a trainwreck. She didn't stitch it or him back together- he wanted to do that himself. He wanted to become the person he saw in her eyes. That possibility, that potential, all of it laid out for him to see.

(Was this how Byakuran had felt, the first time he saw into other worlds?)

A sense of standing on the cusp of something greater than his current lifestyle. Seeing what he was and what he could be. Realizing he never needed all those fears in the first place. That he could change if he wanted, that he could stay the same if he wanted and never wonder if she would look at him with the same happiness in her eyes that she did now.

That he could be whoever he wanted. Not as a mafia boss. Not as a murderer or a killer or a man that slept with too many women, but as a man. A normal, ordinary man.

Did she like him? Did she want to get closer to him like he did with her?

He wasn't sure, but for once, he was willing to find out.

"For Ishilde," he said, "I won't mind killing you. Got it?"

Author's Note: My headcanon is that Ishilde's idol is Yuuri Katsuki. She likes dem good looking Asian boys.