Smoking Bomb
Author's Notes and Miscellany: Done after I noticed a little peculiarity about our dear human bomb. Seemed appropriate for Tsuna to notice as well.
There was something Sawada Tsunayoshi had noticed for a while now, but didn't say anything about; he had been debating over it for a couple of weeks now, in fact, and still hadn't reached a suitable opportunity to say anything. Sometimes it wasn't that he was dim, but just didn't want to risk shaming someone. Especially not someone as terrifying as Gokudera Hayato.
It was on a particularly oppressive early-summer day that Tsuna finally found the opportunity, and even then, he was still unsure of how to say what he wanted, or if he even wanted to. When he had woken up that morning the question nagged at him; as he ate breakfast, the question still persisted, dancing happily on the periphery of his thoughts. Thinking about it took up so much of his conscious thought that he had accepted an errand of running down to the store to buy oil, and was, indeed, already halfway there before he realized it. And as if fate herself was sitting in some dark netherspace, laughing her ass off, the very subject of Tsuna's thoughts was in the store. In the same isle that Tsuna had to go to. Right next to the cooking oil, scowling darkly at some miso powder.
Of course, Tsuna froze upon seeing the other boy, wondering simultaneously at the coincidence, if this was some kind of sick joke of Reborn's, and simply being terrified of the threatening expression Gokudera wore while looking at cooking products. Tsuna suddenly and desperately wanted out, but before his body could even conceive of reacting, Gokudera, being the proper paranoid gangster he was, noticed someone staring at him. At first, Gokudera's dark expression remained fixed, but upon realizing who it was, his expression changed with such bipolar speed it was as if he had never been angry in the first place.
"10th!" He exclaimed ecstatically, bounding over with the miso powder still in his hand. Tsuna's brain shut down all over again- too much Gokudera in one day did that to him. It was only at the checkout that he came back to himself, slightly miserably, when Gokudera began arguing over the price of the miso powder. Reacting instantly became a new perk of Tsuna's, which came in handy especially in times like these, as he dragged Gokudera physically from the store just as the other boy popped a cigarette into his mouth and started to light it.
It was only outside, and the adrenaline rush wearing down, that Tsuna finally remembered what had been bothering him all week, day and night. He watched as Hayato furiously took out his lighter and lit the cigarette dangling from his lips. And didn't inhale. Tsuna waited, watching Hayato intently, but nothing happened; Hayato didn't puff vigorously on the cigarette like he'd seen irate smokers do, didn't take a calming breath, or breathe recreational smoke rings into the air while holding the cigarette between two fingers. Instead, it dangled from between Hayato's lips, steadily burning down.
Gokudera, finally calming down from his food-price rage, cast a half-lidded glance at Tsuna, and, realizing the other boy was staring back at him, directed his gaze guiltily at the sidewalk. "Sorry about that, 10th. Bastards like that really piss me off."
Tsuna jumped and gave a nervous little giggle; Gokudera had misinterpreted him and Tsuna, who didn't want a depressed Gokudera on his hands (which was possibly more terrifying than an angry Gokudera), was finally forced into asking.
"No, it's nothing like that! Um… Gokudera-kun… can I, I mean, do you mind if I ask you something?" Gokudera smiled, possibly to put Tsuna at ease, possibly because he was relieved Tsuna non-existent anger had dissipated.
"Ask me anything you like, 10th! Don't be afraid!" Tsuna smiled in return, still hesitant, but dove on ahead.
"Gokudera-kun… do you actually smoke your cigarettes?" This seemed to take Gokudera aback for a few seconds, before he finally, and jovially, laughed.
"Nah, not really- I just keep them lit so I can light my bombs faster. I'd be an idiot and a rookie if I whipped out my Zippo every time I got into a fight. That's what used to happen to me, so I eventually decided I needed a constant source of flame. Smoking just kind of came afterwards, I guess." Gokudera laughed again and, finally, took a drag off his cigarette. This bred a ridiculous number of questions in Tsuna's mind, and they were coming upon Tsuna's house, so he decided to just ask one.
"What brand do you smoke?" Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought him back. And so on. Gokudera blinked and rooted into his back pocket before extracting a crumpled pack; he examined the front as though he had never seen it before.
"Marlboros." He concluded. "But whatever is fine. I've found that they burn approximately 2.57 seconds longer than other cigarettes." He stopped at the gatepost of Tsuna's house, and the two bid goodbye.
Later, when he was up in his room, Reborn was already there, napping. Since he was, he wasn't much of a bother, so Tsuna decided to ignore him. He was about fifteen minutes into his incomprehensible math homework (which also reminded him of Gokudera, which made him subsequently miss Gokudera, because he would sure be helpful right now), when Reborn startled him by speaking suddenly into the silence.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Tsuna jumped and turned, but, of course, Reborn had already fallen back asleep. Tsuna stressed to himself for a few minutes, wondering if, indeed, Reborn had set everything up, before concluding that it was a waste of time when he should be doing homework. So, turning back around, Tsuna embarked on Question Three, which dealt with Trigonometry, and entirely missed the small smile on the infant's lips.