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Reborn was the first to find out. He was also the least surprised. After all, he’d assessed Tsuna’s skills and talents when he’d pushed the future boss toward his particular fighting style.
So when he came across Tsuna in the backyard, one surprisingly peaceful day (he’d already been planning how to change that) only to discover him pirouetting softly to Chopin’s Nocturne in C# Minor, he just shook his head.
In the end, he let Tsuna have his one day of peace and quiet.
(After all, dancing was a good workout on its own and Tsuna did look to be stretching some muscles he didn’t often use during his enforced daily regimen. So that was fine.)
He stoutly ignored the memory of how beautiful Tsuna had looked, lost in the sway and turn.
(That memory would come back to haunt him in dreams, but he ignored those too.)
.
The next to find out was Hibari, who found Tsuna leaping across the gym floor at six in the morning. He came forward as soon as Tsuna had finished a set, ignored the boy’s red face and awkward mumbling, and said, “If you’re that graceful, fight better.”
Which was Hibari speak for “My expectations of you have risen and if you don’t step it up, I’ll bite you to death.”
They proceeded to fight and while Tsuna was hardly any better than before, there was a contemplative look on his face that said he might be in the future.
.
Yamamoto found out alongside Gokudera, but while Gokudera squeaked and waved his hands in the air, embarrassed, Yamamoto told his friend and future boss that he missed when Tsuna and the little girls used to put on ballet recitals. He’d always thought it a shame Tsuna had quit in fourth grade.
Tsuna shrugged. “My mom was the one who signed me up initially because she always wanted a girl for a child, but I didn’t mind. I had to stop because my father found out though.” He looked away something dark flashing in his eyes.
And then Gokudera calmed down and scowled. “Well, I think Tenth is a fantastic dancer and if he wants to continue to do ballet, no societal stereotyping should get in his way!”
.
The rest of the Famiglia found out when they all moved to the Vongola mansion, for Gokudera had a small ballet studio set up in the basement for Tsuna. It became a weekly activity to watch Tsuna dance, and after a while I-Pin and Lambo joined in—both young enough to learn the new moves gracefully. I-Pin was a natural and several years later she and Tsuna were gliding across the wooden floor together, leaping and spinning and having the time of their lives while the Famiglia watched on.
.
Soon enough, the rest of the extended Famiglia and their enemies found out too—but by then everyone knew how graceful the Decimo was in a battle. Many mafia fathers and mothers began to sign their own children up for ballet, hoping their kids would one day be like that.
Ballet never had been quite so respected by the “macho” majority as it was in those years.