Disclaimer: Do not own Katekyo.
A/N: Sequel (?) to "April Fools, Hayato" and "To Remember". Last one of the Trilogy (although I think I killed the meaning of "trilogy"…) Don't have to read the first two, but then this one has points that were mentioned in the earlier ones.
Warning: YamaGoku 8059, Character death, Bianchi bit-OOC
Summary: YamaGoku (8059) I will give up my life for you. I will give up my happiness, for yours. I will let go of our memories together, so you can have better, happier memories.
'-x-' flashback
'xxx' scene change
'--' dream scene (what the... is that?)
'...' ...don't ask me what this scene is 'cuz I don't know myself (sweatdrop)
Give Me Up
Gokudera picked up a gun from the ground and shot at someone who was about to shoot one of his people. With the last bullet used up, Gokudera threw the gun away and followed the person who knew where the Tenth was.
A blade slashed the air beside his ear, startling him.
"Storm! Behind you!"
-x-
"Storm?"
"Come in." Gokudera looked up from his pile of documents. The man who interrupted him walked in holding onto a box. The man swayed a bit, trying to not drop the heavy box. Gokudera sighed, and with a wave of his hand, signaled one of his subordinates to help the man.
"Thank you." The man wiped the sweat off his forehead and then saluted to the Storm Guardian. "Good afternoon, Storm."
Without the box in the way, Gokudera studied the man in front of him. His eyes widen when he found out what division the man in front of him is from.
"Why is someone from Yama-" Gokudera painfully swallowed the lump in his throat, "from Rain's division here?"
The man shifted awkwardly under the stare of the Storm Guardian.
"I've brought in something that we have, that is, the... Rain division, found in the room that Rain had stayed in during his... last mission." The man looked at the Guardian to see if there were any response. He found none, and then continued on with his story.
"I was one of the people who always accompanied Rain on his missions, and so I know his habits when he goes out on long ones. In the day he focuses on his duties as a Guardian and finds out what is required of him to finish his job; at night, he would sit down on his desk, take out a piece of paper and pen, and then start writing. When we ask him who he was writing to, he would tell us, cheerfully,
"I'm writing to my wife!"
"Although we never read these letters, and Rain never tells us... But we all know that what he writes is what his feelings were at the moment. Sometimes there would be a smile on his face, sometimes a frown...
"When he was done writing, he would fold the paper up and then put it in an envelope. He does this every night until he returns to the Headquarters. We never saw where he put these letters, but we knew that he had hidden them somewhere in the room.
"And now, when we remembered that Rain had written these letters and kept them somewhere, the Rain division had decided to find them and give them back to you." The man gestured towards the box that he was holding a few minutes ago. "These letters are the ones that we have found hidden in Rain's room. Although we know that it is not good to go into Rain's room uninvited, but we knew that we have to show them to you, to let you know that they exist.
"We've never counted how many there are, but we're certain that we had found all of the letters that Rain had hidden. We're very sorry that it took us this long to find them, but we have done our best.
"I represent the Rain division to apologize to the Storm Guardian for trespassing the Rain Guardian's room." The man bowed deeply. "But... we know that this is what Rain would have wanted us to do."
-x-
Gokudera turned around at the last minute and blocked the attack with his arm. The sword cut deep into his skin, meeting bone. The enemy drew out the blade and Gokudera cried out in pain, blood spilling out of his wound. His arm dropped to his side, useless.
The enemy charged again, sword aiming for his heart. Gokudera gathered as much blood onto his uninjured hand and flung it towards the man running towards him.
The blood hit its mark and the man clutched his eyes as they started to sting. Taking this as his cue, he took the sword that fell out of the enemy's hand and stabbed it through the enemy's body.
The man laid on the ground, twitching as blood pooled around his body.
Gokudera collapsed onto the ground, his now bloody hand holding onto his useless arm.
Someone from his division ran forward as soon as he saw his Guardian fall. He took out a small first aid kit and started to treat Storm's wound. Finding that there isn't much he could do, he took out a roll of bandages and wrapped it firmly around Storm's wound. As if on a second thought, he added a little bit of support and together with the bandages wrapped it around the wound again.
"How much further until we reach the Tenth?" Gokudera bit down on his lip to stop himself from screaming in pain.
"If Sky is still in that Conference Room... Then he should be in the farthest room down the hallway on the right hand side..."
Without waiting for the man to finish, Gokudera ran towards the place where his Boss is...
-x-
Gokudera picked up a letter from the box and opened it.
'To my dear wife (imagining you blushing cutely and then yelling at me for calling you wife),
It's just the first day, but I already miss you. I wanted to bring you with me; I know that Tsuna would agree if I asked, but I don't want to see you get hurt. So I must do this by myself.
I miss you so much... I miss your face, your smile, the feeling of my fingers in your hair, the feeling inside you... Ah! I'm not going to write anymore... perverted... stuff so don't burn this! I just want to tell you how much I miss you...
Ah crap, I'm running out of ink... I'll write more next time!
Love, Takeshi (your husband)'
"Yakyubaka..." He sat down in a nearby chair and pulled the box with him. He reached over and grabbed another letter from the pile...
-x-
"Jyudaime!" Gokudera ran in front of the attack just in time. He spun around, covering the Tenth's body with his own. His unarmed back took the hit, Gokudera biting his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain. Gokudera's body fell down; Tsuna quickly held onto him, slowing his fall towards the ground. He laid his faithful Storm Guardian on the ground and glared at the man who had injured his Guardian.
Tsuna's gloves burned with the Sky's flame and he shot through the air towards his target. His eyes glanced back for a split second, to make sure that Gokudera is okay. The Storm Guardian nodded at Sky, signaling to him that he is fine. Tsuna nodded back at him and then focused on the man in front of him.
The sound of bodies slamming into each other, and heavy breathing sounds filled the once Conference Room.
Gokudera laid on the ground, silently watching the fight between the other Family Boss and his Vongola Boss. Sounds that weren't supposed to be part of the fight of his Boss filled his ears. Because of the fact that one of his ears were pressed against the ground, he heard the sounds loud and clear.
Footsteps. Many of them.
Grunting, he forced himself to stand up. He reached into his inside pocket and took out one of his many Boxes. He closed his eyes and thought of a burning hot flame. His ring burned with the Storm flame, steady, bright. But as he was about to put the ring inside the Box, Gokudera suddenly fell to his side. His body got heavier, his head getting dizzier by the second. Unable to keep the image in his head, the Storm flame burned out, and the box fell out of his hand.
"As Jyudaime's right-hand man, I have the duty to protect you! Don't worry, Jyudaime! No matter what happens, I, as your right-hand man, will be there to help you! I will use my life to protect you, Jyudaime!"
The door of the Conference Room slammed open and people stormed in.
"Hayato, I'll be leaving tomorrow for my mission... But before I go, I want to make a request..."
Gokudera shut his eyes, trying to close his thoughts and concentrate on the fight before him. But the more that he tried to close them, hide them away, the more they come back, reminding him of the painful memories. Why do I have to remember those letters at this time? Gokudera swore in his mind and wished that he hadn't read those letters that He had written before going out with the Tenth on this mission.
"That is, when I'm gone, I wish that you would forget about me, go on, find a new person, and live on."
Gokudera clutched his head, and cried in his mind, please, leave me alone!
The other Family Boss laughed as he saw his own people coming to his aid. He smirked at Vongola's Tenth Boss and aimed a kick at his abdominal. Tsuna dodged the kick and punched the other man, aiming to knock the smirk off his face.
"You will regret this, Vongola! My people outnumber yours; my Family will be the victor!" Unable to contain his glee at defeating the powerful Vongola, he grinned at Tsuna and made a shape with his fingers - 'Loser!'
"I won't be regretting anything... Are you sure you are going to be the victor?" Only bringing in one Guardian with him when he knew that there would be trouble was not a good decision, but he needed the others to help him do the other things related to this... "meeting"... They will be able to complete what I have asked them to do. They're my Guardians, my friends, and I believe in them. They won't let me down.
xxx
On the other side of the room, Gokudera laid on the ground, the other Family's people surrounding him.
Gokudera tried to ignore the headache, the pain in his arm, back, and other places on his body where he was harshly hit. But as he tried, he soon found out that there was no more strength left in his body.
His conscious slowly drifted away; the scene in front of him slowly turning black.
From the back of his mind, he heard the sounds of footsteps, cries of, "Storm! Sky!"...
But that's not all that he heard. For before his conscious faded away, the soft sounds of someone who he knew for a long time, said to him,
"It's okay, Hayato. I'm here."
--
Gokudera woke up and looked around him.
"Where... where am I?"
It was unlike the other places where he has been before. There was nothing in sight except for darkness.
Out of the corner of his eye, there was a small light. As he turned around to look at it, the light grew brighter, up to the point where he had to close his eyes from the blinding light.
When Gokudera opened his eyes again, the scene changed.
He hadn't thought that he would return here, after he had decided to join the Tenth to go to Vongola and fulfill their duties as Guardians...
Namimori.
The place where everything started; the place where he had met, for the first time, Yamamoto Takeshi.
Gokudera still remembered how he had felt when he had just known the stupid baseball idiot. He was stupid, idiotic, clumsy... Always fighting for the his place as Jyudaime's right-hand man... Every time he saw him he would get angry and start yelling at him. And then, that started to change.
He doesn't know when or how the change started, but every time he saw the yakyubaka, he would feel some kind of warmth deep inside him. His face would burn, and he would look away to hide the blush on his cheeks.
He found out what that feeling was later on.
'Hayato, do you want to go out with me?'
'I... I think I like you.'
'Not that kind of liking, I mean, like as in, the like kind of like!'
'I'm crushing on you!'
"...I love you." He regretted not saying those words more often. Gokudera now understood why He would always say those words.
He would always ask him if he loves him back, and he would always ignore him. The times that he had actually said those words back to him were few. And he regretted it.
"I love you, Takeshi... I miss you..." Gokudera sat down on his desk and closed his eyes, trying to keep the tears away...
I love you so much... I miss you; I want you to come back. But I know that you will never come back to me. Because you're gone... I know that...
He opened his eyes as his voice echoed in his mind, of a conversation that they had before...
'Hayato... If anything happens to me...'
He shook his head, as if trying to shake the voice out of his head.
'I want you to forget about me and find another person who is better than me.'
Unable to hold them back anymore, the tears rolled down his face.
"Why... why is that I love you so much? I love you, but the memories of you are so painful to me... I want to forget about you... But I want to remember you..."
Gokudera let his head drop onto his hands.
"I love you, Takeshi. But I want to forget about you, forget about the times we had together. But at the same time, I don't want to forget about you, because you're the one who showed me what else there is to life...
"Takeshi... what should I do?"
And then he felt it. A light weight on his head, patting his head, touching his hair... That touch...
"Take-" Gokudera wanted to raise his head, but the hand on his head stopped him.
"Shh... It's okay. I'm sorry that I had to leave like that. I'm sorry that I have caused you so much pain. Don't worry, I'll fix up this mess that I made."
Gokudera leaned into the hand that is still playing with his hair.
"I'm so happy that you still love me."
He could feel Him kiss his hair... And then the hand was gone. Gokudera stood up, looking around to find Him...
"Takeshi! Takeshi! Don't leave me!"
"Don't cry, because you'll be forgetting about me soon... Forgetting about the times that we had together..."
"Takeshi! Come back! I don't want to forget you!"
"Go on, live your life to the fullest. Find someone who will protect you; love you. Someone who will be able to live with you until the day you die..."
"Yakyubaka!"
"Heh, it's been a long time since I've heard you call me that..." He sighed.
"I'm sorry I broke my promise... The one saying that we will always be together... "
"Yamamoto Takeshi!!"
"But there is one that I haven't broke yet...
"...That no matter where I am,"
"No..."
"I will always love you."
"Takeshi!!"
--
Green eyes opened. He looked at the person holding onto his hand, sleeping.
"...aneki?"
His sister woke up from her sleep and yawned. She paused in mid-motion and stared at the person who woke her up.
"...Hayato...?"
Before Gokudera had time to reply back, Bianchi had already jumped up from her chair and hugged Gokudera as tight as she could without touching Gokudera's wounds.
"You're finally awake...!" Bianchi pulled away from the hug. "You've been sleeping for so long... Everybody was worried about you! Ah! I forgot, I need to go tell Tsuna and the others... Don't sleep! I'll go get them..."
And then she left.
None of this Gokudera had heard or saw. His gaze stayed transfixed towards the small silver band around his finger. He tried to remember what it was, where it came from, who gave it to him... But all that came up was a blank.
He clutched his head as he felt a headache coming, but for some reason, he felt as though if he didn't remember who gave him that ring, then that person would be lost to him...forever...
And then, for some reason he wasn't able to explain, he took off the ring and looked at the inside.
"From T to H. No matter where I am, I will always love you."
A drop of water slid down his face and hit the pillow underneath. Gokudera slowly raised a hand to touch the trail left by the salty water. Then, as if triggering some kind of switch, the tears continued to roll down, with no intentions of stopping.
When Bianchi came back with the other Guardians, they stopped at the doorway looking at the scene in front of them.
Gokudera looked at them, pain and sorrow evident in his eyes.
"Someone that I have known for a long time, that has taken a lot of space inside of me, just left. But... no matter how much I try, I can't remember who it is..."
His eyes closed, his fingers releasing its death-like hold, the ring fell down...
Cling
...
The memories to this ring, this person, blackened and pushed away where it faded with age. The door closed, chained and locked. A dark fog surrounded it...
For the rest of his life, his mind would never wander into the fog where, unconsciously, he knew stored memories that he does not want to remember.
And the fog stayed, until the memories, the pieces, faded away...
End
A/N: Oh my god took me so long to type this (sighs angrily). I was actually almost finished in two weeks, until I started getting writer's block in Bianchi's part. I think this is my second longest one-shot ever (following "Never There" which is like, 3755 words). Anyways, here you go, the last of the trilogy!! (smiles happily) Had a lot that I had wanted to say before but now I can't remember what I had wanted to say (sweatdrop)
To my awesome readers and reviewers, thank you sooo much for reading my fics!! (hugs)
Which reminds me, its my birthday soon, so can I request a birthday ficcy? (puppy eyes) Anyways, since it's going to be my bday soon, I just thought that I should get this sad story out of the way and start a happy one... see if I could get it finished before my bday XD That is only if I am able to think of something to write before next week... Anyways, thanks and I'll see you next time when I upload something! (when is that going to be?!)