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Tsuna wilts internally, closing his eyes in despair. His life; why ? He can’t afford college without this job, he reminds himself firmly. Quitting is a no go; just brave through it, Tsuna. Sooner or later somebody is going to get tired of their disturbance and a fight will break out. Tsuna sighs when it dawns on him that he’s rooting for a fight to break out but it honestly would make his life easier if it does. Usually, fights mean either one or both sides stop coming, either for a time or altogether.
“This library makes no sense,” Tsuna whimpers, covering his face with his hands. What kind of library of hell is this? Tsuna has been working here for about a year and he still doesn’t quite know whether this is a mob front of some sort or if mafia men are actually this enthusiastic about their reading.
But dad got him this job and Tsuna finds that, somehow, he’s far better at handling this sort of craziness than at any other job he’s ever held before. Which is wonderful for his wallet but death to his stress levels. Then again, Tsuna has never had low stress levels. He’s always quietly freaking out for one reason or the other.
And of course, last semester saw the arrival of Professor Reborn to the campus and what little calm ever existed in Tsuna’s life is now only a distant memory. Tsuna has no idea why Professor Reborn refuses to leave Tsuna alone, but nowadays if Tsuna gets so much as a B- there will be hell to pay. And that’s not only in math but even in classes where Professor Reborn isn’t even his Professor.
How Professor Reborn even finds out what Tsuna’s grades are Tsuna has no idea, and he’s too afraid to ask at this point.
A crash sounds behind him and Tsuna squeaks, jumping a foot in the air before burying his head in his arms. That’s his night gone, again, for the fifth day in a row. “I’m going to fail administration,” he wails. He’s had no time to study, not with this new bunch of crazy guys showing up nightly and destroying the goddamn library!
“Come here, bring your books,” a voice demands.
Tsuna jumps again, turning around only to gape again at the seemingly disinterested dark-haired man sitting on his throne. “…what?” That gets the man to open his eyes, red glaring up at him from behind a glass of wine. “No beverages allowed in the library.”
That gets him two slow blinks and utter silence, the chaos suddenly stopping behind this man. Tsuna absently notes that they’re all wearing the same uniform but he doesn’t budge. If he’s learned something from this job is that if you let one of them break the rules, then soon enough all of them will be attempting the same which is far too much trouble to deal with. So Tsuna extends his hand expectantly.
Noticing that Tsuna isn’t going to back off, the man extends his hand slowly, offering the glass to Tsuna and snorting loudly when his men lose their heads in the background.
With a cursory glance at that chaos, Tsuna sighs and nods. “I’ll be back,” he offers and smiles, using that smile he’s mastered while babysitting the kids and that he’s weaponized in this year of managing the library. It’s a mixture of relief because Tsuna can’t quite hide that part, gratefulness at being listened to and pride at the person who was well-behaved enough to do the listening.
It’s strangely effective in mafia men, for some reason Tsuna can’t quite understand; this guy is not an exception. He blinks again, just as slowly but now somewhat bashfully and grunts an affirmative even as he sprawls more, almost melting into his throne. Tsuna lets his smile become warmer and rushes off.
He leaves the glass at the confiscated items vault and sighs in exasperation. The room is full to the brim with weapons, alcohol and another assortment of illegal contraband that Tsuna has found himself taking from the visitors at one point or another. It’s an honest testament to Tsuna’s desperation that when he was presented with the confiscated items vault he didn’t run away screaming. But the job pays well and Tsuna, sometimes, has enough time to do some studying on his shift.
When he comes back, Tsuna does it while carrying all of his administration books, both the ones suggested on the syllabus and the ones Professor Reborn insisted Tsuna needed. “Ok,” Tsuna lays them down carefully on the table beside wine-guy, “here are the books. Which ones do you need? The library has most of them so I can give them to you. Not all of them are free to borrow but we open 24 hours during finals week so it should be fine as long as you come early enough to get them.”
But wine-guy snorts, resting his head in his free hand. “Where’s your syllabus? I’ll tutor you.”
Oh; Tsuna blushes furiously. Oh. In two accounts because like that, all relaxed and attentive? Wine-guy is gorgeous and oh fuck, he’s going to think Tsuna is an idiot. “Uhh…” Tsuna scratches the back of his head nervously, “I’m in the middle of my shift?!”
“Shark!” Wine-guy barks, hooking a foot on the leg of Tsuna’s chair before he pulls Tsuna closer, unphased by Tsuna’s weight on it. “Take over his shift!”
The silver-haired swordsman nods once, brandishing a book in his free hand. (At least it’s not a sword, Tsuna has no idea of how many of them he’s confiscated at this point.) “Voi!” The swordsman screams, “All you trashes better be following the rules!”
Beside him, the one member of this group Tsuna sort of knows stands up. Lussuria squeals, ignoring the swordsman's aggressive stare. “Squ! You’re going to scare the customers!” ‘Squ’ ignores the admonishment but Lussuria hardly seems to care. “Who needs help finding their book~?”
Poor library, Tsuna thinks despairingly, it’s done. He’s going to be out of a job by the end of the night, Tsuna can see it already. But… ah, well. Tsuna looks at wine-guy from between his fingers. Maybe it’s not all bad?