Summary: "You have nothing to worry about, Kiria-chan; Hayato will keep me company." Warning: Character death. One-shot. AU. Pairing: 5927.

SkyGem: Well, it's been a while since a wrote a really depressing fanfic, so I decided to see if I still had the touch. Hope you like, ne?

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR.

Kiria looked down at her best friend, feeling her resolve waver; he just looked so weak, so vulnerable.

"Just go, Kiria-chan!" he said, his voice soft and gentle, as it'd always been. "I can't let you drop everything just because I'm a little sick! You have your own life to live!"

His efforts to put her at ease may have worked, if only his skin wasn't so deathly pale, and the expression in his eyes weren't so tired.

"But Tsuna-kun…" she said, trailing off. "You're so weak. What if...what if when I come back, you aren't here anymore?" she asked, feeling tears come to her eyes as she voiced her worst fear.

Tsuna just smiled, not saying anything, and it was that silence that terrified her, alerting her to the fact that her fears were very much in danger of becoming true.

"How long have we known each other, Kiria-chan?" he asked her out of the blue.

Seeming a little confused at the change of topic, she just replied with, "We met when you transferred in the first year of high school, so that would make it three years now."

Tsuna nodded, then asked his next question; "And in those three years, have you ever known me to break a promise?"

Kiria shook her head hesitantly, wondering where he was going with this.

"Then you have no reason not to believe me when I promise that I'll be fine even if you leave for a few days, am I right?"

Kiria hesitantly nodded, opening her mouth to reply, but was cut off.

"Then go!" he said in an exasperated tone. "Go on that vacation with your parents! You have nothing to worry about, Kiria-chan; Hayato will keep me company!"

Furrowing her brows at the unfamiliar name, the girl asked, "Who's Hayato?"

Suddenly, Tsuna's eyes lit up with a beautiful sparkle, and he let out a weak little chuckle. "Hayato is so many things; my childhood friend, my partner in crime, my first love…my other half."

"Your other half?" echoed Kiria, shocked at the never-before-heard tone of utter adoration she heard in his voice.

The brunette nodded, his expression a happy one. "I haven't seen him in four years…there's so much I want to tell him when I see him again!"

Kiria smiled at this, feeling relieved that there would be someone with him; maybe his health wasn't as bad as she'd originally thought it was. "Will I be able to meet him?" she asked in a light tone, more than a little curious to see this guy named Hayato.

A flash of some unknown emotion flashed through Tsuna's eyes, but was gone before Kiria could identify it, making her wonder if perhaps she'd imagined it. Smiling brightly, Tsuna replied with, "Maybe someday…"

Kiria smiled worriedly at this, thinking maybe he was tired now, and said, "Well, I shouldn't keep you up too long, or the nurse will get mad at me for letting you exhaust yourself. I'll see you next week then? When my parents and I come back from our holiday?"

Tsuna's smile widened, and he said, "Of course! Make sure to bring back lots of souvenirs for everyone!"

Laughing a little, she nodded saying, "I'll try not to forget! Bye Tsuna-kun!"

"Bye Kiria-chan! Don't forget to think about me once in a while!"

It was three days into the family vacation, and Kiria and her mom had just gotten back from a spa day when the eighteen-year-old started to get a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Opening the door to the hotel suite she and her parents were sharing, Kiria saw her father sitting on a sofa in the living room, his head held in his hands.

Upon she and her mother's arrival, he looked up, and Kiria could see by the expression on his face that something terrible had happened.

"Daddy?" she said in a quiet voice, trying not to panic take over. "Did something happen?"

There was a moment of silence before her father let out a heavy sigh, not meeting her eyes, and said, "Tsunayoshi passed away an hour ago."

There was a beat of silence as the world seemed to freeze around her before Kiria heard the distant sound of an inhuman shriek tearing through the air. It took her a while to realize that it was her own voice, crying out in agony.

Falling to the floor, tears pooling in her eyes, Kiria let her mother pull her into a tight embrace, not really feeling it.

Tsuna's last words before she had left came back to her and as her brain slowly deleted some of the words, his real message stood out clearly in her mind. His voice may have said "Don't forget to think about me once in a while," but he had really meant…

"Don't forget about me."

The funeral had long ended, but Kiria was still standing in the graveyard, her puffy, red eyes still glued to the tombstone in front of her.

R.I.P.
Sawada Tsunayoshi
1996-2014
"Your world may end, but the sun still rises, the Earth still turns, and life still goes on."

A small, watery chuckle escaped her throat as she read the inscription; there was nothing funny about it, but it was so utterly typical of her friend.

The smile was gone as soon as it had appeared, though, and Kiria was spiralling back into the depths of depression once again. She'd been so scared this was going to happen…

But there was one thing that just kept bothering her.

Tsuna had said that his friend Hayato would be coming to see him, but Kiria hadn't seen any guys her age at the funeral that she hadn't recognised.

So what had happened? Had the guy decided not to show? Or worse, had Tsuna just made him up to put her mind at ease?

As Kiria contemplated these thoughts, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye, and she turned to look at it.

It was a tombstone, right beside Tsuna's, and a little closer than was necessary.

When Kiria saw the name on it, she gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as she tried to stifle a sob.

R.I.P
Gokudera Hayato
1996-2010
"Death is not an enemy to fear, but a friend to embrace."