Uri doesn't understand
Uri had always considered himself to be one of the more intelligent box animals. He couldn't remember when he started to think like that - it wasn't really common for their kind to ponder their own intellect after all. Maybe it had occurred to him the first time someone had called him such a smart little kitten; maybe it was because his current keeper, Gokudera, was considered a genius. Maybe it was just because his master was Gokudera. He didn't know.
Neither did he really care. It was just another thing he could think about while lazing around trying to sleep when Gokudera tried to come up with another way to improve the Sistema, with another way to increase its defensive and attacking force. Uri's mind always felt restless listening to him scratching his pencil over sheets of paper, the number of those being crumbled and thrown away by far surpassing the number of those being kept to go over later.
When it was getting hard to even sit still, when Gokudera was nearly oozing frustration and was close to braking the pencil in his hand and ripping every last of his plans to peaces, Uri knew it was time for him to leave. The first time something like that had happened Gokudera had nearly blown up half of his room. He had later claimed to have experimented with some smaller bombs and hadn't known they would actually do that much damage. That was naturally a lie. Uri knew that Gokudera had planned to burn his notes to ashes and apparently forgotten all about the explosives being scattered all over his room. Now Uri knew better than to just leave him be in such moments. Gokudera had not only been moping around for the loss of his plans (as he had still actually needed some of the burned sheets of paper after all), but also had felt guilty about lying to the Tenth and hadn't been able to look him into the eyes properly for over two weeks.
And when Gokudera was uncomfortable, Uri was uncomfortable. And Uri didn't like to be uncomfortable.
So he went to get help.
His first try had actually been to take matters into his own hands, or better paws. The second time he had witnessed Gokudera nearly blowing his room up again he had destroyed those papers himself and tried to knock some sense into that mind of this so-called genius. Unluckily that hadn't really had the desired effect. Gokudera just ended up more frustrated because that also had been papers he had needed later and now he was angry at Uri too, instead of only being angry at himself. In the end Uri still hadn't gotten his rightfully deserved afternoon nap. Though he didn't understand why his plan had failed, he knew he had to come up with a new one - a method that actually worked. And because human beings were really, really strange creatures it had been quite difficult to come up with one.
After some more trial and error, Uri now knew the perfect solution to Gokudera's - and therefore his - problem.
He walked through the hallways of the base towards the main sector seeing no reason to rush. It wasn't too much of a distance and still too early for an actual explosion. At first it had taken him some tries to perfect his timing though; mainly because their boss hadn't taken the hint to follow him at once. On the first try they hadn't even left the study yet when the fire alarm went off. Uri wondered how he managed to be the tenth boss of the Vongola Famiglia and doing such a good job of it when he was acting like a complete idiot sometimes. Though Gokudera was supposed to be a genius and could be absolutely stupid - so maybe that was just another thing Uri didn't understand about humans. Or maybe it just was because everyone of their family was crazy in some way or another. (But you got used to it rather quickly in Uri's opinion.)
Slipping through another door Uri walked into the boss' study. Tsuna was sitting behind his large desk, shuffling through folders of information, sometimes stopping to write something down, all the while not noticing the cat. And really, Uri couldn't have that, now could he? So he did the most natural thing; jumping up onto the desk and sitting down right on top of those letters Tsuna had just been about to sign and send off.
If Gokudera ever got notice how Uri behaved around the Tenth when he wasn't close-by he would throw a fit. Uri was aware of that, but he just didn't care. Seeing Gokudera riled up was funny after all - just not when Uri wanted to take his nap.
The boss by now knew exactly what Uri wanted from him. He put his pen away, straightened the papers Uri didn't completely block and stood up. When he had rounded his desk, Uri was already at the door. He shook his head, though he was smiling softly. That, too, was already part of their routine.
Hearing the steps following him Uri leaded their short way back towards Gokudera's room. The boss walks silently, not bothering to ask questions or looking worriedly around if Reborn would see him leaving his unfinished work behind, like he once had used to do. Uri preferred this silence as it didn't make things difficult for him and he hadn't to pull at the boss' trousers to get him to follow.
Sitting down in the hallway just outside his usual napping place Uri basked in the attention when Tsuna bend down to scratch him behind his ears. Uri really liked to be scratched there and saw it as a fitting reward for his efforts. He waited until the door was closed behind the boss, just catching a startled T-Tenth? before it clicked shut. Uri stood up again, stretched and slipped into the piano room just next door to finally get his well deserved nap. Curling up between the cushions of the couch which had been added to the room not too long ago Uri let his eyes slowly drift shut and enjoyed the silence.
But all that was before. And if there was a before, there must be an after. And something in between, but both Uri and Gokudera tried to avoid thinking about that. (They failed of course. As if they could.) After proved to be completely different and not at the same time.
For once Uri couldn't really enjoy silence anymore. It usually just was too silent to begin with around the base these days. It wasn't meant to be like that and Uri was rather surprised that he would miss the noise - the screams, the laughter, the randomly going off fire alarms.
It had gotten normal to feel uncomfortable because Gokudera never felt comfortable nowadays. And Uri didn't know what to do to make it better. Sometimes he thought there probably wasn't anything that could make Gokudera feel better.
Uri also didn't take naps anymore. There was no time and too much of it. They were training and if they weren't Gokudera tried to make plans, tried to find solutions to problems that seemed to have none and usually finding none. His mind was too much of a tumult for Uri to even think about sleeping. When finally Gokudera was too exhausted to work anymore Uri had to lay himself on top of Gokudera's chest to calm him down enough to finally, finally sleep. Uri didn't though. He didn't really need to anyway and like this he always could wake Gokudera up from his more horrid nightmares. There was no single night without at least three of them.
Gokudera was slowly going mad and Uri didn't know how to stop it.
They weren't leaving the base but for missions. Uri missed the sun, missed the air, missed wind and smells beside those of the air conditioning and stone walls. He missed the sky and knew Gokudera did as well. So he decided that they needed to go outside.
Now only how to get a stubborn storm guardian to leave the base if he didn't want to? Uri knew Gokudera would follow him through at least half of the base if he got his attention, but would plainly refuse to take another step when he figured out where exactly they were heading. So he had to somehow make him follow anyway.
Uri didn't understand everything about how the human mind worked - especially the concept of nightmares was something completely foreign to him as box animals didn't really dream at all, he just knew they got worse if something really bad happened and the affected person would just bottle everything up and try to pretend everything was as well as it could be - but he knew that if he took something important enough Gokudera would definitely try everything to get it back. So he made sure he was seen when he picked up the sealed Vongola Storm Ring and ran. Hearing the splutters and curses behind him he was sure he was being followed. And when those shouts and curses for him to come back already got even louder Uri knew that Gokudera had noticed where they were headed.
Passing a bemused looking Haru and covering the last couple of meters they were finally outside, but Uri didn't stop running yet. He felt the wind in his fur, the warmth of the sun and saw the deep blue of the sky. Uri knew that somewhere under the fury Gokudera was enjoying it too, more than he would probably even admit to himself.
They were still running; crossing a small grassland and entering the forrest. Uri jumped over small branches and roots reaching the clearing, that clearing. Circling the large black wooden box in the middle of it he waited. He had made sure that he hadn't lost Gokudera.
When Gokudera passed through the trees it looked like he ran against a brick-wall. His steps faltered, which had Uri thinking he would stop completely and stay right there. He slowly drew closer though, breathing hard and taking small, slow steps.
Uri couldn't even guess what he was thinking when he sank down to his knees in front of the coffin, though he had long ago stopped trying to work out what a human mind could come up with. Gokudera's mouth opened and closed without producing a sound before he actually started to talk. Started to talk to the Tenth. As if he really was there - listening and understanding and floating just above his own coffin.
To Uri it was unnerving to say the least. But if he looked hard enough he could nearly make out the form of something - someone - with spiky brown hair hovering just above the shiny black wood. That just had to be Gokudera's wishful thinking affecting him though. There was just no way -
Maybe Gokudera had gone completely mad after all.
Gokudera's eyes were filled with tears when he shook his head. Yet he was smiling. It was a rather sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. And this was the happiest Uri had seen him since before.
Maybe Uri just didn't understand.