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KHR rarepair Week - Mist - Eldritch AU
Living in Oakmont, Tsuna decides fairly early on after he and his mother move there, is very much like eating a live octopus.
You shouldn't.
But he's fourteen, and apparently his father has gotten a job there all across multiple oceans, and his mother happily goes along with whatever his father says, so, you know what else is he supposed to do? Absolutely nothing. Despite the massive alarm bells going off in his brain at every little thing he hears about the place, and the absolute trepidation that hits him at seeing that mudsunk disaster of a town that looks like it might be better to leave to the crabs... He goes with his mother. Because he's a dutiful son. And also, again, fourteen, and not really that good at anything that might get him a job.
"You know, have you thought about getting a job here?" his mother of course asks, in the questionably built apartment building they live in that's still somehow better than most of the actual homes in this shipwreck of a city. "I mean, it'd just be a nice way to go out and meet people, wouldn't it? I haven't even heard a single word about you making any friends!"
Sometimes, Tsuna has to wonder if his mother has paid attention to the kind of drama which exists all around her at any given time. He's had to pay attention to a lot of drama, all the time, considering that the cruddy school he attends seems to be split straight down the middle besides lots of other weirdos, a different kind of weirdo group everyone else hates, and then, like. Him. Plus a few other people just trying to do the same in keeping their heads down.
Although, he has to say. He was kind of worried when he first came to Oakmont. You never know how people in a foreign country will react to someone from out of it coming. But it seems they're all too busy hating each other - Oakmonters versus Innsmouthers.
He just had to deal with the fact that neither of them wanted him on their baseball team during recess.
But try telling that to his mother - good hearted and oblivious as she is, he doesn't know if it'd go anywhere at all. Tsuna honestly would rather lay face down on their cruddy floor than try and make friends in an absolute mess of a city like this. It's just, he's got no choice. So even though he groans and lays his face on their table, he says he'll give it a shot.
So of course he gets stuck in an alley where two different gangs are trying to go at each other.
"I'M NOT INVOLVED, I'M NOT INVOLVED!" is a shriek that, predictably, gets absolutely no attention to it, and all he can do is trip and stumble his way past violent altercations usually involving a spare piece of wood that's not too soggy. There's the occasional bullet. He is 100% going to die.
And then, when the wylebeasts start dragging themselves up out of the mud, and squeezing past boarded up windows, all pale clammy skin and strange limbs, he amends that certainty to 200%.
It becomes a bit of a blur, after that. Part of that is because then it's not just him that's screaming, but everyone, and the violence only gets worse to some degree, and infinitely more chaotic. He thinks he picks up a baseball bat at some point? He has no idea when he picks up a baseball bat, or where he got it from. Did one of the others have a baseball bat?
What Tsuna definitely has, when he pulls himself out of an adrenaline fueled haze, is his life. And what feels like a black eye. And an absolutely dazed looking redhead, sitting next to him on a pier.
Oakmont has a million piers, on account of 40% of its streets being flooded.
"Uh," Tsuna says, and isn't sure how to follow that. Both of them are sitting with their legs crossed; it was one of the first pieces of advice that Tsuna was given when he moved here. Relatedly, he also refuses to look in the water for too long.
Apparently, his brand new bit of company has about the same idea on how to deal with this incredibly awkward situation as he does, because he just kind of shifts in spot. Neither of them say anything. A boat sputters along down the street, and doesn't turn to look at them even once. "Enma," he mutters, after a second.
It's the exact opposite sort of name that Tsuna has come to explain in this place, and he blinks, brain failing on him for a moment. "What?" Of course, it's only after he's spoken that he realizes just watch exactly Enma said, what that means, and he flushes. "Oh! Right! Uh, Tsuna." Shaking his head, he tries to take in the guy - Enma - just a little more, now that his head doesn't feel so foggy. It's only then that he takes a proper good look at this guy, and realizes that he's just a little bit familiar. "You go to the school the Throgmortons set up, right? Just, uh, just down the street from the university." And in a distinctly different district, which is probably how the Innsmouthers can manage to be near it, but, it's whatever. It's not important right now.
Enma jerks, just slightly, as though he wasn't expecting to be talked to at all. "Huh? Oh, yeah.... Right. I do... I guess. We can't really afford to move back to my parent's country, so.... We're kind of stuck here for right now..."
"Oh, yeah. I get it. Um, my dad brought us here for some job or another, I don't really know the specifics. So I'm kind of stuck too. I know I complained about the whole boat ride that got us here in the first place, but I think I'd definitely prefer it to living here for months, right?"
And that, somehow, starts up something of a conversation. Both of them manage to ease up with every word exchanged, until he has a little more of an idea of Enma's home life, and Enma in turn has heard more than a little bit about Japan and everything Tsuna can remember from there. They manage to keep talking long enough for a fishing boat of some sort to come crawling along, with a kind enough man at the helm who can get them to a different street where people actually live.
Both of them, very pointedly, don't talk too much about what exactly happened on that street, or what exactly they might have seen.
But hey, in the end, through something that is both miracle and absolute horror in one, he's managed to do exactly as his mom wanted, and he's made a friend. A friend that even goes to the same school he does and, soon enough, the two of them start to hang out a little bit more. During lunch, or at recess when they both try to avoid team games. Mostly, however, it's after school, as the two of them try to find a safe and sane place in the entire dang city.
It's a thing easier said than done, honestly. Just trying to get around has them passing by guys with entire rucksacks full of bones (Tsuna aggressively ignores and does not wonder where they came from), and other guys wearing squids as hats, and that's not even talking about whatever splashes around in the water.
Although speaking of the water, Tsuna has to wonder just how his mother manages to make such nice and fresh looking meals when their pickings are like this.
That fact aside, having a friend in Enma makes it easier to ignore some of the weird things around. Can't look down into the water, or see what weird things are happening in window reflections when he's too busy taking in how bright a red Enma's hair is even in the gloom, right? It's a little better to ignore the absolute weirdos they pass by and whatever they're saying when they're talking about what kind of place Italy is.
If there's one big shame, it's that they really don't have a lot of places that they can hang out at - or, at least, which are easy to reach. Again, most of the city is flooded... and Tsuna would really rather not deal with the water if he can get away with it. So the two of them usually just end up hanging around the parts of the city where they live or, at most, the areas that are around the school. That's often how they end up wandering towards the university, honestly.
Neither of them is old enough for university - and, when they talk about it, they both have to laugh at the fact that they're probably too dumb for that kind of thing anyway, even if their families would be over the moon at the idea of them attending. But maybe because of some sort of... outreach initiative or something, the university actually seems fairly open to people just hanging around, looking through the library, even working as assistants even if they've never graduated or anything. "I hear it's because the Throgmortons are the ones who help fund it the most," Enma says, a little more knowledgeable about these things than Tsuna since he's been around longer. "It's why the library is open to everyone, too, for free."
Tsuna squints. "Isn't that... how libraries are supposed to work?"
Enma shrugs. What both of them don't say is that, in Oakmont, how things should work is usually not how they actually work.
They get back to talking soon enough, both of them just sitting right there on an unoccupied stone bench as they ponder about the different books the library has, and if any of them are actually fine and won't somehow end up slipping out of their hands and into the depths. It's a conversation that, unfortunately, doesn't last very long. Some guy in clothing that looks scholarly suddenly comes up to them, sneering and with purple hair and big glasses.
"You two look like you're doing nothing of import," he says, which, in Tsuna's experience, is never a good sign to anything. Never has been, never will be. "How about I bless you with a job opportunity, then?"
In theory, this could be a great idea. It'd be nice to have a little bit of spending money on his person, or even contribute to some of the stuff around the house. Tsuna would be lying if he said he hadn't thought about how nice it would be, to get a little bit of praise sent his way for that. It's not like he's going to get it in his schoolwork.
On the other hand, trusting a guy with an aura like this, who decided to approach a pair of high schoolers for a job opportunity, sets off all sorts of alarm bells in his head.
Enma looks about as sure as he does, but he manages to mumble something first. "Uh, what... kind of job?"
"It is a simple task, really, even something that those such as you could do. You need merely retrieve some of the common wylebeasts-"
Tsuna grabs Enma's hand and yanks him straight out of the university courtyard.
Eventually, out of sheer necessity more than any true desire towards it, Tsuna learns how to handle a small motorized boat that his mom picks up. "I got it with some of the money your dad sent," she says cheerily to him while admiring the dingy little thing bobbing up and down in filthy seawater. "I'm thinking of using it sometimes for groceries, but you should learn how to use it soon too!"
Despite Tsuna's overwhelming reluctance, he doesn't really get a choice in the matter. It's probably for the better, in this one specific case. With a little boat available to them, him and Enma can make their way around the city a little easier. You know. So long as they're fine with not looking directly into the water and whatever might be in it. And not lingering too long on what the fishermen are pulling up on their lines. And, most importantly of all, surviving every stupid crash into some floating wooden crate, because the people in this city are messier then he is.
Although Tsuna guesses he's gotten a little better at being clean. Live in Oakmont long enough (longer than five minutes), and wearing a clean pair of underwear suddenly starts feeling like a godsend.
But again: it's nice to be able to get around the city easier, which is otherwise impossible if you're trying to stick to purely dry land. And he gets to hold Enma's hand too, a lot of the time. You know. Just to make sure that neither of them goes tumbling overboard. Important boat safety, and all that stuff. They're both so clumsy, it's just the smart thing to do.
Today, the task is this: go check out the new charity that's happening in town, and see if maybe their little family - and the Shimons, too - might qualify.
"Everyone's Obvious Duty Is To Help Each Other," Enma recites slowly, as they follow various posters which have been plastered to various brick walls and are already starting to peel, fray, tear, or otherwise fall into disarray. "That sounds really wordy..."
It is the wordiest title for anything Tsuna has ever heard in his life. "I guess I can see why they shorten it to EOD on all the pamphlets and posters," Tsuna agrees as they turn a corner. "But I guess that's the spot to look out for? It definitely stands out a bunch..." After all, it has the appearance of one big giant open market - a place with one enormous roof support by a couple of pillars along each corner and some sort of central building in the middle. The rest of it is all just open space. Or, rather, it'd be open space, except a lot of that space is filled.
Mostly by fish. Like. A ridiculous amount of fish, it almost seems like. More fish than Tsuna ever thought he would actually see in person, especially with how he's been staunchly ignoring as much of the local sealife as possible while living in Oakmont. It's enough to make him kind of nervous, actually.
But he can't deny that the place is filled with all sorts of bustling people. Him and Enma are still trying to figure out where the line even ends when a perky adult woman suddenly seems to appear in front of them as if from nowhere. "Hello! I couldn't help but notice that the two of you looked a little bit lost. Did you need something, or did you just get swept up in the tide?"
Well, at least this looks like someone who knows what she's doing. And it also looks like Tsuna is going to have to be the talker right now, considering that Enma is distinctly avoiding eye contact. Well, it's his family's business anyway, so Tsuna can't say it isn't fair. "Well... My mother just wanted to send me down here, because she heard there was a charity that helped people out? So she wanted to know more about it. That's all." Nothing big, nothing that would take up too much time. He hopes.
"Well now, aren't you a good son?" the woman says cheerily. "And perfectly living up to the philosophy of the EOD, too! Well, fortunately enough, I do happen to have a couple of pamphlets on hand - ah, here we go, there you are! That should tell you everything about what we do, who qualifies, the whole nine yards!" As they accept the pamphlets, she winks at them. "But did you want to take any fish with you today? The line's a little long, but we always make sure that we have enough for anyone who needs anything! It's the least we could do, after all."
The Japanese etiquette part of his brain kicks in before he can even think twice about it. "Oh, no, you don't have to worry about that. We'll just, uh, read the pamphlets, and look at stuff - you know, my mother will probably want me to tell me all about it. Is it... alright if I come back to ask you any questions after?"
The lady of course answers affirmatively, in that really chipper voice of hers, and so him and Enma scurry through the whole throng of people and tables of fish and boxes, until they've managed to find a bit of respite by a pillar, far away from where all the fish gift giving is happening. "Sorry," he says to Enma after, while they poke through the pamphlets. "I answered for both of us. Free fish, and whatever else, probably would have helped a lot for your family, right?" Tsuna knows that, in the end, he's lucky. Whatever weirdness his dad gets up to, it's enough that it keeps him and his mother perfectly afloat, even if they don't live in the super fancy ("fancy") side of town. The Shimons clearly have it harder.
But Enma just shrugs. "It's fine. If it's this big and popular... Adelheid has probably heard about this thing before. Either she's using it, too, or.... she's not."
Tsuna can't imagine why someone wouldn't accept free fish, honestly. Then again, while he doesn't know her indepth, Tsuna has still briefly met Adelheid, and seen her at a distance. She's not someone you'd want to really question, if she'd decided on something. So he shrugs, too, and goes back to looking at the pamphlet. "Well, at least the fish looks okay."
It really does, too, is the thing. Fish sometimes can get weird in Oakmont - especially from fishermen who are in a hurry and willing to sell things suspiciously cheap. But all the fish that they can see, as they hang further from the lines and near where a lot of stock is piled up, seems to be okay. You know, as normal as normal is going to get in this city. There's lots of fish that even looks like normal fish. Tsuna has to admit that he's impressed.
And it's so much fish, he has to wonder where it's all being stored, too. Like, that's a lot to be transporting every day, right? He knows he sucks at math, that's nothing new to him, but he can still tell that much. Maybe... And that's around the time he glances towards the thick building in the middle of all the pillars.
He just does it to get a look at the building, to follow an idle thought, because it makes sense, right? It's right there where all the fish gets displayed, and, past all that brick, it's probably pretty cool. Perfect for storing fish, even without anything else installed inside of it.
Storing fish and maybe anything else, because there sure are some men, hunched and secretive, carrying something in a sack that's much longer and sturdier than a sack of fish would be.
Tsuna looks away. He looks away very very quickly, staring down at the pamphlet in his hands that suddenly makes far less sense than English normally does. "You know," he says, voice just a little bit tight as he fights to keep it low instead of hitting the freakin' ceiling. "I think I kind of get why your sister probably doesn't come here for fish or anything."
Of course, he says that, but he doesn't leave with Enma right away. With all his years of being on the bottom of the barrel and bullying, Tsuna knows that an immediate response can be guilty as hell.
...He gives it five minutes. And excuses himself, alongside Enma, with picture perfect lying as he claims that his lunch is messing with him and the smell of so much concentrated fish isn't helping. No one needs to worry about anything else.
"So how did the EOD's food giveaway go?" his mother asks him cheerily that night, when he manages to choke down some food.
At least this has been a conversation he's been running in his head all night leading up to this point. Tsuna can be assured of that much, and he swallows down his dinner. "I think some of the fish might have gone bad, there wasn't a great smell around there," he says, and his mother just sighs in sympathy.
"It must be so hard for a charity like that, with such a demand, to get good and fresh fish."
And that's life in Oakmont. Nonstop. Day after day. Year after year. Lots of people to aggressively avoid, lots of sights you definitely didn't see, and also some of the worst food on the planet, Tsuna is pretty sure. Sometimes, Enma's older brother Julie slips them bottles of totally for the health """grape juice""", and that sort of makes things taste better. A little bit.
Or maybe that's just the intoxication.
But, still through some sort of absurd luck - Tsuna is positive that it can't possibly be skill after all - he manages to make it through. And so does Enma. And so do their families. Despite all the weird tales which pop up whether through gossip or in the newspaper, despite all the blatantly suspicious stuff, despite the many gangs which are all super dangerous and super have problems with one another... They somehow make it through. And Tsuna really does have a good feeling about maybe they'll be able to move out within, like, the year, if his father's job will just hurry up and finish already.
Of course, him getting optimistic is when life decides to knock him down a few pegs, because who does he think he is, anyway?
It starts with his mother telling him one morning over breakfast, "You know, I really am glad that you made a friend in Enma, but I think your grades have been slipping. So, I got you a tutor!"
On one hand, maybe he should be glad, because Tsuna's heart did do a weird motion in his chest when she brought up Enma, and he had to wonder if she'd realized how much more they were hanging out lately. His mother is fairly easy going (in all the weirdest and most unexpected places), but it's still.... a lot to dump on her.
On the other hand, oh Kay he hates school, and he hates homework, and he knows for a fact that he's especially going to hate having a tutor. A tutor his mother chose for him. A tutor his mother chose for him in the weirdest city in the entire world with more danger than a pufferfish.
As with many things in his life as someone still under his parents' care, however, Tsuna doesn't have a choice in this. All he can do is complain and whine a little bit to Enma when they see each other at school, and are doing their best to hide out on the roof. You know, away from all the kids who are having a thriving social life, and also coincidentally like picking on them. "He's going to be a weirdo," Tsuna sighs, cheeks squished against his folded arms as the lay there together. "No one takes a tutoring job in a place like this."
That's because all the people who are into academics, in a place like this, are incredible freaks. Tsuna has known that ever since the day him and Enma were approached there on a bench right there in front of the university. He doesn't care how much the Throgmortons throw at stuff like the library, no one with sense comes to work in academia in Oakmont.
And that includes tutoring.
"If I'd known she was looking, I would have offered Adelheid," Enma says, which makes Tsuna's heart run just a little cold, "or Rauiji. He gets pretty good grades."
What would he rather have, a guaranteed weird tutor that he doesn't know, or Adelheid? It might go to the judges with that one, although Rauji isn't that bad. "I appreciate the thought anyway," Tsuna says, because he does. "But yeah... That might cut into our time doing stuff. You know. Hanging around." Going on dates that they haven't officially said are dates, but he kind of wants to think they are?
Enma thinks about that for a moment, gaze drifting off into the distance. "...I mean, I guess I could still come by the house? You know. If the tutor doesn't mind me hanging around for a little while until you're done."
Will he? Hard to say. But there's something else, too, and Tsuna grins a little. "And, hey, we see each other here! Although, uh, it's usually during classes, so..." There's not really a lot of time for them to do anything. And even during times like lunch, or recess, it's not like they're in the best position -
"Yeah," Enma says, and smiles right back at him. "There's always here." And, real quick, he leans in to peck a kiss to Tsuna's cheek.
It has him grinning throughout the rest of the school day, all the way until he gets home. He's in such a good mood that he just about nearly forgets what exactly is supposed to be happening today, until it happens, and there's a knock at their apartment door. The reminder hits him like a stray bass flopping right into his face. (Things that have actually happened.)
But his mother taught him how to be polite, if nothing else, and she's busy in the living room anyway, so he goes. Obviously. It's just, when he does, and his hand opens the door, he promptly regrets it.
There is a toddler standing there. Except he's not a toddler. Toddler's don't stand like that - perfectly poised, balanced in every way, any hints of unsteadiness absent despite the fact that such a body should not know the experience of walking. The arms are too flexible, too nimble, bent perfectly at the blow, hands hidden away into a tiny little suit that looks as though it were made for a funeral, and perhaps that would be equally endearing and sad, were it on a normal child, but this isn't - it's not. There's not even a hint of dampness on the suit, which is unheard of even on all the rich bigwigs in this terrible little city.
The eyes are too big. They are too dark. He knows pupils, has looked himself in the mirror on occasion, knows that such things are dark and strange, but these are too dark, and -
Atop the toddler's head, there is a hat. On the hat sits an octopus, bright green to a sickly level. He blinks, and there is no octopus. There is a lizard.
Tsuna does the very sensible thing, trained after months of living in a weird and wretched city, and slams the door shut.
Or, well. He tries. But something darts inbetween door and frame, jams it from shutting, and then the door is open all over again. Worse, still, is that something smacks right into his shins - like an angry toddler, but with all the strength of a man, and Tsuna hits the floors with a squeak of protest.
"Ciaossu. I arrived three hours early but, as a service, I'll evaluate you now. The manners could use some work, but the reaction wasn't too bad."
You shouldn't.
But he's fourteen, and apparently his father has gotten a job there all across multiple oceans, and his mother happily goes along with whatever his father says, so, you know what else is he supposed to do? Absolutely nothing. Despite the massive alarm bells going off in his brain at every little thing he hears about the place, and the absolute trepidation that hits him at seeing that mudsunk disaster of a town that looks like it might be better to leave to the crabs... He goes with his mother. Because he's a dutiful son. And also, again, fourteen, and not really that good at anything that might get him a job.
"You know, have you thought about getting a job here?" his mother of course asks, in the questionably built apartment building they live in that's still somehow better than most of the actual homes in this shipwreck of a city. "I mean, it'd just be a nice way to go out and meet people, wouldn't it? I haven't even heard a single word about you making any friends!"
Sometimes, Tsuna has to wonder if his mother has paid attention to the kind of drama which exists all around her at any given time. He's had to pay attention to a lot of drama, all the time, considering that the cruddy school he attends seems to be split straight down the middle besides lots of other weirdos, a different kind of weirdo group everyone else hates, and then, like. Him. Plus a few other people just trying to do the same in keeping their heads down.
Although, he has to say. He was kind of worried when he first came to Oakmont. You never know how people in a foreign country will react to someone from out of it coming. But it seems they're all too busy hating each other - Oakmonters versus Innsmouthers.
He just had to deal with the fact that neither of them wanted him on their baseball team during recess.
But try telling that to his mother - good hearted and oblivious as she is, he doesn't know if it'd go anywhere at all. Tsuna honestly would rather lay face down on their cruddy floor than try and make friends in an absolute mess of a city like this. It's just, he's got no choice. So even though he groans and lays his face on their table, he says he'll give it a shot.
So of course he gets stuck in an alley where two different gangs are trying to go at each other.
"I'M NOT INVOLVED, I'M NOT INVOLVED!" is a shriek that, predictably, gets absolutely no attention to it, and all he can do is trip and stumble his way past violent altercations usually involving a spare piece of wood that's not too soggy. There's the occasional bullet. He is 100% going to die.
And then, when the wylebeasts start dragging themselves up out of the mud, and squeezing past boarded up windows, all pale clammy skin and strange limbs, he amends that certainty to 200%.
It becomes a bit of a blur, after that. Part of that is because then it's not just him that's screaming, but everyone, and the violence only gets worse to some degree, and infinitely more chaotic. He thinks he picks up a baseball bat at some point? He has no idea when he picks up a baseball bat, or where he got it from. Did one of the others have a baseball bat?
What Tsuna definitely has, when he pulls himself out of an adrenaline fueled haze, is his life. And what feels like a black eye. And an absolutely dazed looking redhead, sitting next to him on a pier.
Oakmont has a million piers, on account of 40% of its streets being flooded.
"Uh," Tsuna says, and isn't sure how to follow that. Both of them are sitting with their legs crossed; it was one of the first pieces of advice that Tsuna was given when he moved here. Relatedly, he also refuses to look in the water for too long.
Apparently, his brand new bit of company has about the same idea on how to deal with this incredibly awkward situation as he does, because he just kind of shifts in spot. Neither of them say anything. A boat sputters along down the street, and doesn't turn to look at them even once. "Enma," he mutters, after a second.
It's the exact opposite sort of name that Tsuna has come to explain in this place, and he blinks, brain failing on him for a moment. "What?" Of course, it's only after he's spoken that he realizes just watch exactly Enma said, what that means, and he flushes. "Oh! Right! Uh, Tsuna." Shaking his head, he tries to take in the guy - Enma - just a little more, now that his head doesn't feel so foggy. It's only then that he takes a proper good look at this guy, and realizes that he's just a little bit familiar. "You go to the school the Throgmortons set up, right? Just, uh, just down the street from the university." And in a distinctly different district, which is probably how the Innsmouthers can manage to be near it, but, it's whatever. It's not important right now.
Enma jerks, just slightly, as though he wasn't expecting to be talked to at all. "Huh? Oh, yeah.... Right. I do... I guess. We can't really afford to move back to my parent's country, so.... We're kind of stuck here for right now..."
"Oh, yeah. I get it. Um, my dad brought us here for some job or another, I don't really know the specifics. So I'm kind of stuck too. I know I complained about the whole boat ride that got us here in the first place, but I think I'd definitely prefer it to living here for months, right?"
And that, somehow, starts up something of a conversation. Both of them manage to ease up with every word exchanged, until he has a little more of an idea of Enma's home life, and Enma in turn has heard more than a little bit about Japan and everything Tsuna can remember from there. They manage to keep talking long enough for a fishing boat of some sort to come crawling along, with a kind enough man at the helm who can get them to a different street where people actually live.
Both of them, very pointedly, don't talk too much about what exactly happened on that street, or what exactly they might have seen.
But hey, in the end, through something that is both miracle and absolute horror in one, he's managed to do exactly as his mom wanted, and he's made a friend. A friend that even goes to the same school he does and, soon enough, the two of them start to hang out a little bit more. During lunch, or at recess when they both try to avoid team games. Mostly, however, it's after school, as the two of them try to find a safe and sane place in the entire dang city.
It's a thing easier said than done, honestly. Just trying to get around has them passing by guys with entire rucksacks full of bones (Tsuna aggressively ignores and does not wonder where they came from), and other guys wearing squids as hats, and that's not even talking about whatever splashes around in the water.
Although speaking of the water, Tsuna has to wonder just how his mother manages to make such nice and fresh looking meals when their pickings are like this.
That fact aside, having a friend in Enma makes it easier to ignore some of the weird things around. Can't look down into the water, or see what weird things are happening in window reflections when he's too busy taking in how bright a red Enma's hair is even in the gloom, right? It's a little better to ignore the absolute weirdos they pass by and whatever they're saying when they're talking about what kind of place Italy is.
If there's one big shame, it's that they really don't have a lot of places that they can hang out at - or, at least, which are easy to reach. Again, most of the city is flooded... and Tsuna would really rather not deal with the water if he can get away with it. So the two of them usually just end up hanging around the parts of the city where they live or, at most, the areas that are around the school. That's often how they end up wandering towards the university, honestly.
Neither of them is old enough for university - and, when they talk about it, they both have to laugh at the fact that they're probably too dumb for that kind of thing anyway, even if their families would be over the moon at the idea of them attending. But maybe because of some sort of... outreach initiative or something, the university actually seems fairly open to people just hanging around, looking through the library, even working as assistants even if they've never graduated or anything. "I hear it's because the Throgmortons are the ones who help fund it the most," Enma says, a little more knowledgeable about these things than Tsuna since he's been around longer. "It's why the library is open to everyone, too, for free."
Tsuna squints. "Isn't that... how libraries are supposed to work?"
Enma shrugs. What both of them don't say is that, in Oakmont, how things should work is usually not how they actually work.
They get back to talking soon enough, both of them just sitting right there on an unoccupied stone bench as they ponder about the different books the library has, and if any of them are actually fine and won't somehow end up slipping out of their hands and into the depths. It's a conversation that, unfortunately, doesn't last very long. Some guy in clothing that looks scholarly suddenly comes up to them, sneering and with purple hair and big glasses.
"You two look like you're doing nothing of import," he says, which, in Tsuna's experience, is never a good sign to anything. Never has been, never will be. "How about I bless you with a job opportunity, then?"
In theory, this could be a great idea. It'd be nice to have a little bit of spending money on his person, or even contribute to some of the stuff around the house. Tsuna would be lying if he said he hadn't thought about how nice it would be, to get a little bit of praise sent his way for that. It's not like he's going to get it in his schoolwork.
On the other hand, trusting a guy with an aura like this, who decided to approach a pair of high schoolers for a job opportunity, sets off all sorts of alarm bells in his head.
Enma looks about as sure as he does, but he manages to mumble something first. "Uh, what... kind of job?"
"It is a simple task, really, even something that those such as you could do. You need merely retrieve some of the common wylebeasts-"
Tsuna grabs Enma's hand and yanks him straight out of the university courtyard.
Eventually, out of sheer necessity more than any true desire towards it, Tsuna learns how to handle a small motorized boat that his mom picks up. "I got it with some of the money your dad sent," she says cheerily to him while admiring the dingy little thing bobbing up and down in filthy seawater. "I'm thinking of using it sometimes for groceries, but you should learn how to use it soon too!"
Despite Tsuna's overwhelming reluctance, he doesn't really get a choice in the matter. It's probably for the better, in this one specific case. With a little boat available to them, him and Enma can make their way around the city a little easier. You know. So long as they're fine with not looking directly into the water and whatever might be in it. And not lingering too long on what the fishermen are pulling up on their lines. And, most importantly of all, surviving every stupid crash into some floating wooden crate, because the people in this city are messier then he is.
Although Tsuna guesses he's gotten a little better at being clean. Live in Oakmont long enough (longer than five minutes), and wearing a clean pair of underwear suddenly starts feeling like a godsend.
But again: it's nice to be able to get around the city easier, which is otherwise impossible if you're trying to stick to purely dry land. And he gets to hold Enma's hand too, a lot of the time. You know. Just to make sure that neither of them goes tumbling overboard. Important boat safety, and all that stuff. They're both so clumsy, it's just the smart thing to do.
Today, the task is this: go check out the new charity that's happening in town, and see if maybe their little family - and the Shimons, too - might qualify.
"Everyone's Obvious Duty Is To Help Each Other," Enma recites slowly, as they follow various posters which have been plastered to various brick walls and are already starting to peel, fray, tear, or otherwise fall into disarray. "That sounds really wordy..."
It is the wordiest title for anything Tsuna has ever heard in his life. "I guess I can see why they shorten it to EOD on all the pamphlets and posters," Tsuna agrees as they turn a corner. "But I guess that's the spot to look out for? It definitely stands out a bunch..." After all, it has the appearance of one big giant open market - a place with one enormous roof support by a couple of pillars along each corner and some sort of central building in the middle. The rest of it is all just open space. Or, rather, it'd be open space, except a lot of that space is filled.
Mostly by fish. Like. A ridiculous amount of fish, it almost seems like. More fish than Tsuna ever thought he would actually see in person, especially with how he's been staunchly ignoring as much of the local sealife as possible while living in Oakmont. It's enough to make him kind of nervous, actually.
But he can't deny that the place is filled with all sorts of bustling people. Him and Enma are still trying to figure out where the line even ends when a perky adult woman suddenly seems to appear in front of them as if from nowhere. "Hello! I couldn't help but notice that the two of you looked a little bit lost. Did you need something, or did you just get swept up in the tide?"
Well, at least this looks like someone who knows what she's doing. And it also looks like Tsuna is going to have to be the talker right now, considering that Enma is distinctly avoiding eye contact. Well, it's his family's business anyway, so Tsuna can't say it isn't fair. "Well... My mother just wanted to send me down here, because she heard there was a charity that helped people out? So she wanted to know more about it. That's all." Nothing big, nothing that would take up too much time. He hopes.
"Well now, aren't you a good son?" the woman says cheerily. "And perfectly living up to the philosophy of the EOD, too! Well, fortunately enough, I do happen to have a couple of pamphlets on hand - ah, here we go, there you are! That should tell you everything about what we do, who qualifies, the whole nine yards!" As they accept the pamphlets, she winks at them. "But did you want to take any fish with you today? The line's a little long, but we always make sure that we have enough for anyone who needs anything! It's the least we could do, after all."
The Japanese etiquette part of his brain kicks in before he can even think twice about it. "Oh, no, you don't have to worry about that. We'll just, uh, read the pamphlets, and look at stuff - you know, my mother will probably want me to tell me all about it. Is it... alright if I come back to ask you any questions after?"
The lady of course answers affirmatively, in that really chipper voice of hers, and so him and Enma scurry through the whole throng of people and tables of fish and boxes, until they've managed to find a bit of respite by a pillar, far away from where all the fish gift giving is happening. "Sorry," he says to Enma after, while they poke through the pamphlets. "I answered for both of us. Free fish, and whatever else, probably would have helped a lot for your family, right?" Tsuna knows that, in the end, he's lucky. Whatever weirdness his dad gets up to, it's enough that it keeps him and his mother perfectly afloat, even if they don't live in the super fancy ("fancy") side of town. The Shimons clearly have it harder.
But Enma just shrugs. "It's fine. If it's this big and popular... Adelheid has probably heard about this thing before. Either she's using it, too, or.... she's not."
Tsuna can't imagine why someone wouldn't accept free fish, honestly. Then again, while he doesn't know her indepth, Tsuna has still briefly met Adelheid, and seen her at a distance. She's not someone you'd want to really question, if she'd decided on something. So he shrugs, too, and goes back to looking at the pamphlet. "Well, at least the fish looks okay."
It really does, too, is the thing. Fish sometimes can get weird in Oakmont - especially from fishermen who are in a hurry and willing to sell things suspiciously cheap. But all the fish that they can see, as they hang further from the lines and near where a lot of stock is piled up, seems to be okay. You know, as normal as normal is going to get in this city. There's lots of fish that even looks like normal fish. Tsuna has to admit that he's impressed.
And it's so much fish, he has to wonder where it's all being stored, too. Like, that's a lot to be transporting every day, right? He knows he sucks at math, that's nothing new to him, but he can still tell that much. Maybe... And that's around the time he glances towards the thick building in the middle of all the pillars.
He just does it to get a look at the building, to follow an idle thought, because it makes sense, right? It's right there where all the fish gets displayed, and, past all that brick, it's probably pretty cool. Perfect for storing fish, even without anything else installed inside of it.
Storing fish and maybe anything else, because there sure are some men, hunched and secretive, carrying something in a sack that's much longer and sturdier than a sack of fish would be.
Tsuna looks away. He looks away very very quickly, staring down at the pamphlet in his hands that suddenly makes far less sense than English normally does. "You know," he says, voice just a little bit tight as he fights to keep it low instead of hitting the freakin' ceiling. "I think I kind of get why your sister probably doesn't come here for fish or anything."
Of course, he says that, but he doesn't leave with Enma right away. With all his years of being on the bottom of the barrel and bullying, Tsuna knows that an immediate response can be guilty as hell.
...He gives it five minutes. And excuses himself, alongside Enma, with picture perfect lying as he claims that his lunch is messing with him and the smell of so much concentrated fish isn't helping. No one needs to worry about anything else.
"So how did the EOD's food giveaway go?" his mother asks him cheerily that night, when he manages to choke down some food.
At least this has been a conversation he's been running in his head all night leading up to this point. Tsuna can be assured of that much, and he swallows down his dinner. "I think some of the fish might have gone bad, there wasn't a great smell around there," he says, and his mother just sighs in sympathy.
"It must be so hard for a charity like that, with such a demand, to get good and fresh fish."
And that's life in Oakmont. Nonstop. Day after day. Year after year. Lots of people to aggressively avoid, lots of sights you definitely didn't see, and also some of the worst food on the planet, Tsuna is pretty sure. Sometimes, Enma's older brother Julie slips them bottles of totally for the health """grape juice""", and that sort of makes things taste better. A little bit.
Or maybe that's just the intoxication.
But, still through some sort of absurd luck - Tsuna is positive that it can't possibly be skill after all - he manages to make it through. And so does Enma. And so do their families. Despite all the weird tales which pop up whether through gossip or in the newspaper, despite all the blatantly suspicious stuff, despite the many gangs which are all super dangerous and super have problems with one another... They somehow make it through. And Tsuna really does have a good feeling about maybe they'll be able to move out within, like, the year, if his father's job will just hurry up and finish already.
Of course, him getting optimistic is when life decides to knock him down a few pegs, because who does he think he is, anyway?
It starts with his mother telling him one morning over breakfast, "You know, I really am glad that you made a friend in Enma, but I think your grades have been slipping. So, I got you a tutor!"
On one hand, maybe he should be glad, because Tsuna's heart did do a weird motion in his chest when she brought up Enma, and he had to wonder if she'd realized how much more they were hanging out lately. His mother is fairly easy going (in all the weirdest and most unexpected places), but it's still.... a lot to dump on her.
On the other hand, oh Kay he hates school, and he hates homework, and he knows for a fact that he's especially going to hate having a tutor. A tutor his mother chose for him. A tutor his mother chose for him in the weirdest city in the entire world with more danger than a pufferfish.
As with many things in his life as someone still under his parents' care, however, Tsuna doesn't have a choice in this. All he can do is complain and whine a little bit to Enma when they see each other at school, and are doing their best to hide out on the roof. You know, away from all the kids who are having a thriving social life, and also coincidentally like picking on them. "He's going to be a weirdo," Tsuna sighs, cheeks squished against his folded arms as the lay there together. "No one takes a tutoring job in a place like this."
That's because all the people who are into academics, in a place like this, are incredible freaks. Tsuna has known that ever since the day him and Enma were approached there on a bench right there in front of the university. He doesn't care how much the Throgmortons throw at stuff like the library, no one with sense comes to work in academia in Oakmont.
And that includes tutoring.
"If I'd known she was looking, I would have offered Adelheid," Enma says, which makes Tsuna's heart run just a little cold, "or Rauiji. He gets pretty good grades."
What would he rather have, a guaranteed weird tutor that he doesn't know, or Adelheid? It might go to the judges with that one, although Rauji isn't that bad. "I appreciate the thought anyway," Tsuna says, because he does. "But yeah... That might cut into our time doing stuff. You know. Hanging around." Going on dates that they haven't officially said are dates, but he kind of wants to think they are?
Enma thinks about that for a moment, gaze drifting off into the distance. "...I mean, I guess I could still come by the house? You know. If the tutor doesn't mind me hanging around for a little while until you're done."
Will he? Hard to say. But there's something else, too, and Tsuna grins a little. "And, hey, we see each other here! Although, uh, it's usually during classes, so..." There's not really a lot of time for them to do anything. And even during times like lunch, or recess, it's not like they're in the best position -
"Yeah," Enma says, and smiles right back at him. "There's always here." And, real quick, he leans in to peck a kiss to Tsuna's cheek.
It has him grinning throughout the rest of the school day, all the way until he gets home. He's in such a good mood that he just about nearly forgets what exactly is supposed to be happening today, until it happens, and there's a knock at their apartment door. The reminder hits him like a stray bass flopping right into his face. (Things that have actually happened.)
But his mother taught him how to be polite, if nothing else, and she's busy in the living room anyway, so he goes. Obviously. It's just, when he does, and his hand opens the door, he promptly regrets it.
There is a toddler standing there. Except he's not a toddler. Toddler's don't stand like that - perfectly poised, balanced in every way, any hints of unsteadiness absent despite the fact that such a body should not know the experience of walking. The arms are too flexible, too nimble, bent perfectly at the blow, hands hidden away into a tiny little suit that looks as though it were made for a funeral, and perhaps that would be equally endearing and sad, were it on a normal child, but this isn't - it's not. There's not even a hint of dampness on the suit, which is unheard of even on all the rich bigwigs in this terrible little city.
The eyes are too big. They are too dark. He knows pupils, has looked himself in the mirror on occasion, knows that such things are dark and strange, but these are too dark, and -
Atop the toddler's head, there is a hat. On the hat sits an octopus, bright green to a sickly level. He blinks, and there is no octopus. There is a lizard.
Tsuna does the very sensible thing, trained after months of living in a weird and wretched city, and slams the door shut.
Or, well. He tries. But something darts inbetween door and frame, jams it from shutting, and then the door is open all over again. Worse, still, is that something smacks right into his shins - like an angry toddler, but with all the strength of a man, and Tsuna hits the floors with a squeak of protest.
"Ciaossu. I arrived three hours early but, as a service, I'll evaluate you now. The manners could use some work, but the reaction wasn't too bad."