Tsunayoshi and Ienobu were now 4. On the one hand, Nobu had become one of the leaders of the whole kindergarten, even the older kids were kind with him and joined his large group of friends. It was commonly known that he was the one to follow to have the most fun. He was one of the smartest kids and his mother made him delicious cookies and cakes that he shared with all his friends.
Tsuna, on the other hand, had solidified his status as Dame-Tsuna. He always got bad grades, barely passing, and was thought to be stupid. He was allegedly clumsy and had many bullies (who made him trip on purpose, hence his continued reputation). He was not athletic (half true. He was not as athletic as his brother, but could still hold his own. He just didn't see the point of sports, especially if Ienobu was going to be the one praised anyway). He had no friends at all. After all, who would want to be with Dame-Tsuna, the stupidest, most clumsy, weakest and less social kid at school. And nobody wanted his bullies to pay attention to them.
The brunet had learned after many attacks that he would not be able to avoid having bullies. Not with Ienobu sending them after him with his blessing. He also discovered that no adult would step up for him due to his reputation as a loser and that the beatings got over faster if he just took it without a word. As such he stopped trying to speak to others unless prompted, and nobody minded. He knew it was pretty pathetic, but was also aware that he couldn't win against older children ganging up on him and that not even his mother would help him. She seemed to believe that it was only 'fair' that such a useless son was the scapegoat of others. Especially if it made her No-kun happy.
In order to avoid both his brother (who got nastier and crueler over the years), his many bullies and his mother, Tsuna created a routine to follow each day. He woke up early, earlier than his Mama and Nobu. Made some toast and quickly headed for kindergarten on his own (one of the other things Nana stopped doing for him, though she still brought her No-kun by car every day), the streets were mostly empty so early in the morning.
Once in the school building, he found a place to hide, like the roof or a janitor's office, and waited until it was time to show up for roll call. He tried his best to hide as well during breaks, but often his bullies caught him before he could escape.
At lunchtime, he went to the unlocked roof (the teachers were supposed to watch the other children and make sure they didn't go there, but they never paid him any attention) and ate whatever lunch he had found in the morning at home and his bullies didn't take (his intuition clearly told him that attempting cooking was a bad idea for his health right now). Then he returned to class, spent the second break like the first until it was time for parents to fetch their children.
He always managed to leave on his own (again, no-one minded him) and wandered the streets until dinnertime. Nana seemed perfectly fine with this arrangement, since it left her more time for No-kun and not once did she ask him what he did between the end of kindergarten and dinner. Weekends were essentially the same, with Tsuna roaming the city from early morning until evening, staying safe thanks to his keen intuition. After diner, the brunet just stayed in his room, reading borrowed books from the library or studying languages. He was already fluent in Japanese and English and was currently learning Italian. He had found some books in that language in his house along with an old Italian-Japanese dictionary and jumped on the opportunity.
Tsuna had many secrets (could they be called secrets if no-one actually cared about them?), but the biggest of them all was a strange ability he had developed : he could summon fire. Well it looked like fire, but it clearly wasn't the normal kind.
He discovered this ability during one of his city walks. A cat was stuck in a tree and meowing for help. The park he was in was deserted so he took it upon himself to rescue the kitten. Climbing the tree was easy enough, he wasn't as athletic a Ienobu, but wasn't as weak as others believed either. He reached a hand to grab the cat who let himself be held until Tsuna started climbing down.
