Title: Mistero del Pianista
Author: me… who else?
Genre: Romance/General
Rating: T
Character/Pairing: GokuXHaru otherwise known as 5986
Summary: He's a walking mystery. A mystery she wants to unfold. He intrigues her so much she kept dreaming about the questions that had always circled her head. Some really early birthday fic for Gokudera.
Spoiler: Nothing at all. It happens some five years after the Ring Battles of the future character.
Disclaimer: If I owned this, I would draw it in the manga instead. Why do I want to up-load it to some un-profitable website when I can get a load of money from the manga? Unfortunately I don't own this. Akira Amano owns all the Katekyo Hitman Reborn! universe. T-T
22/09/08 EDIT: Edited the grammars. Thank you to my beta-reader.
Gokudera Hayato, a piano prodigy since when he was young, never showed anyone how he played the amazing instrument before. Not even for the Tenth, Sawada Tsunayoshi, his beloved boss of Vongola Famiglia, much less Yamamoto Takeshi, his un-official best friend.
--
She had heard from Kyoko-chan (who heard this from Tsuna-san, who heard this from the man himself) that Hayato-kun (she started calling him that after they entered university) really loved playing piano. But when Tsuna-san prompted him to play a piece of piano score, he would object the request and try to talk about something completely different.
She had also heard from Yamamoto-kun how Hayato-kun always threatened him. That he would someday shove his dynamites into Yamamoto-kun's mouth if he dared to ask him to play the piano again.
She had always wondered how that foul-mouthed man, who liked to curse every second, who liked to smoke every minute, who liked to throw dynamite to some random people every hour, who always brought an unfathomable amount of dynamite around on his body, was capable of playing something delicate like a piano.
She had wondered why he always tended to look sad whenever he walked past a musical instrument shop displaying a small piano in its window.
She had wondered too about why he always avoided talking about his parents.
Over the past seven years she had known him, she still didn't know much about him.
She knows that he's come from Italy. Kyoko-chan had told her that.
She knows that Bianchi-san is his half sister. Yamamoto-kun had told her that.
She also knows that he works for the mafia family Tsuna-san leads. Real Mafia… Tsuna-san had told her and Kyoko-chan what kind of work they were doing. What kind of world they were in. She had never thought that it was a game like Yamamoto-kun used to think it was. She had her doubts but she believed it anyway.
She knows that he would trade his life for Tsuna-san's safety. Tsuna-san is everything to him. He was his first friend. He was the very first person to accept him for who he was.
But all in all, everything she had heard about him, everything she knew about him, didn't come from the man himself. It all came from other people.
He's a walking mystery. A mystery she wants to unfold. He intrigued her so much she kept dreaming about the questions always circling her head. She felt like Pandora who was so interested in opening the mysterious box of knowledge. She was afraid of what she might see if she opened the box.
That was why today she wondered, as she saw him alone and playing the piano inside one of the music rooms in their university, should she or should she not ask him all the questions she had in mind?
Would he be angry? Would he snap at her? Or would he throw some of his dynamite to her?
"Hayato-kun?"
He stopped playing. He turned around to see who had mustered up the courage to disturb his private time.
"What, stupid woman?" he replied, scowling deeply at her.
"Can I come in?"
"What do you want?"
"I want to talk to you. Ask a few questions."
She walked inside the room without waiting for his permission. She sat on one of the chairs near the grand piano he had been playing.
"Tch!" he spat. "It better be important, stupid woman!"
"Will you stop calling me that?! I have a name, you know. Call me Haru like everyone else does."
"Stupid woman is more suitable." He put his big hands on top of the piano keys, but he didn't push any of them. "What do you want to ask?"
She rested her chin in her hands and continued looking at him. She was observing the way he sits. Usually he would just lay back and put his legs on the table. Now his back is straight and his shoulders relaxed; it's the very posture she always sees in her few pianist friends she had gotten to know. She looked at how his foot was ready to tap the piano pedals. She looked at his long fingers. It was so strange to not see a stick of cigarette in those hands.
He glared at her, annoyed by her silence. "What do you want?!" he snapped.
She blinked and suddenly realized that he hadn't used any swear words.
"Why do you like to play piano?" she asked him suddenly. He was taken aback by her question.
"Why do you want to know?" he asked her back. His brow furrowed deeper.
"Just curious," she answered. "So why?"
He kept silent for a moment. He looked at the black and white keys in front of him and sighed.
"My mother was a pianist," he began, his fingers stroking a key combination and producing a melody. "She always played for me when we were still living together."
His hands started to play a song. She recognized the song as the famous Piano Concerto no.2 composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It was one of the most beautiful and difficult songs she had ever heard from her pianist friends.
She knew that the song was so difficult that only few managed to play it as it was supposed to be. It amazed her how he played it flawlessly. Even her friends couldn't play it as good as him.
He played the song for couple of minutes or so and she enjoyed every tune he made.
"Where is she? Your mother…"
"She's murdered."
Silence fell. She blinked many times and he stopped playing.
"I…"
"Don't say you're sorry. It's not your fault that she was involved with someone else's husband. It's not your fault her future was destroyed the moment she gave birth to me. It's not your fault she was too stupid and believed my father would let her live," he said bitterly, eyes averted from the piano.
That answered all her questions.
He doesn't want to play piano in front of anyone because it reminds him of his mother.
He always looks sad whenever he saw a piano because it reminds him of his mother.
He never wants to talk about his parents because it reminds him of how his own fatherr had shortened his mother's life.
It made her realize that everything Tsuna-san had told her about the Mafia is true. She had doubted it a couple of times. Hearing that Hayato-kun's mother was murdered just because she gave birth to an illegitimate child made her wonder what kind of world the Mafia is.
"Do you have any other questions?" he asked her after few minutes of awkward silence.
"Why are you always calling me stupid woman?"
He blinked at the sudden change of topic. She could see a small twitch of a smirk at the corner of his mouth.
"Stupid woman…" he muttered and continued playing the piano.
"You haven't answered my question, Hayato-kuun" she said in a sing song voice.
"And why do you call me Hayato-kun? No one calls me by my first name besides my sister and the pervert doctor," he asked her back. "Do you like me or something?"
He said that just to tease her. He never thought that she'd blush like that.
She couldn't hide her embarrassment. She couldn't bear to meet his green eyes. She never thought that her curiosity might have changed into something more. She just realized it when he said that.
She didn't know since when he started to look different in her eyes.
He's not just some foul-mouthed man anymore. He curses less these days. At least, when he talked to her, he used his usual cursing less than when he talked to Yamamoto-kun.
He didn't smoke as much as he used to in his high school years. Yamamoto-kun had said to him that his smoking could affect Tsuna-san's health (and Yamamoto-kun's health) as much as it affects his health. He lessened his cigarette intake since that day. He only smoked if he wanted to light his dynamites.
But he's not even throwing as much dynamite as he used to! It had something to do with box weapons or another.
She always wondered why her heart pounded every time he talked to her, even if it's just a greeting (he never greeted her in middle school).
She wondered too why she couldn't keep her eyes off him every time they crossed paths. She thought it was just her curiosity. Nothing more.
Once, she told about it all to Kyoko-chan. Kyoko-chan said that she must have fallen in love with him! She had turn down that option and chose to think it was just her curiosity. The person she likes is Tsuna-san, not Hayato-kun. But Tsuna-san is (finally) going out with Kyoko-chan. So where does that leave her?
Now, after he had showed his amazing piano playing skills, when his beautiful green eyes (why did she never realize that?) fixed on her, she finally accepted the fact that she had fallen in love with him. And then she sadly thought about the fact that once, again she was in an unrequited love.
He cleared his throat when she met his eyes. "Wh-what?" he stuttered. She smiled at him. She had never heard him stutter before.
"You're right…" she said, trying to control her blushing.
"Right about what?"
"I like you."
He was so surprised, he hit the piano keys at random and it produced a loud 'BANG!'
She tried not to wince and just looked at his eyes. His mouth was gaping like the carp fish her father kept at the small pond in their house. She almost laughed but suppressed it.
"WH-WHAT?!" he yelped. "Don't joke about things like that!"
"Who said I was joking?"
"Are you serious?! What about the Tenth! You keep saying you want to be a mafia boss' wife for how many years now?"
"Tsuna-san has Kyoko-chan. I gave up decades ago."
He could only gape at her boldness. "Bu-but…"
"But, what? It's not like I'm asking you to go out with me. I'm just saying that I like you. That's all."
He blushed. She tried to hide her own blush.
"That's all, I think," she said as she stood up from her seat. "I have class in ten minutes. Guess I'll see you later, then."
Her hand was just turning the door handle when he called her.
"Wait!"
She stopped, heart pounding and blood rushing. "Yes?" she responded without turning around.
"We're not finished yet!" he said, standing up from his seat and walking closer to her. She stiffened when his footsteps began echoing in the soundproof piano room.
"What the hell do you mean by you like me but you're not asking me to go out with you?" he asked. His tone showed that he was still confused by her boldness. "What's the point of saying it in the first place?"
He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. She refused to meet his eyes. His scowling face would make her break out in a cold sweat. She kept her silence.
"Speak!" he commanded her, shaking her shoulders.
"I just want to tell you!" she shouted finally. "I know you're not going to go out with me or something. You don't like me! You hate me!"
His scowled deeper when tears started to well up in her eyes. She felt like an idiot now. He was right. If she already knew that he didn't like her, what's the point of saying she liked him in the first place?
"Don't cry, stupid woman," he said.
"Who's crying?" she shouted, tears falling like a waterfall. "If you don't have anything else to say, then please excuse me! I really need to go to class."
He didn't let her go and kept staring at her. She tried to turn her head away from his gaze.
"Let me go!" she said, pushing him away.
"I can't let you go crying like this!" He grabbed her shoulders again.
"Why do you care anyway?"
"I could ask you the same question! Why do you care about me? Why do you like me? Why did you choose this time to tell me? And what makes you think that I don't like you?"
"I don't know! Just let me go, already! I have class and…"
Her shouting was stopped by a firm kiss from him. He kissed her aggressively and ignored her whimpers and the hands hitting his chest. But when he softened the kiss and moved his lips more languidly on hers, she stopped fighting and closed her eyes.
The faint smell of tobacco seeped into her nose as he savored her upper lips. His hand moved down to her waist, pulling her closer. The other hand moved to the base of her neck, twisting the short hair. She warped her hands around his neck and pulled him down so she didn't have to tip-toe.
Somehow he had pushed her against the door and moved one hand inside her shirt, touching her back. When she didn't slap him or break off the kiss, he smiled between kisses.
She broke off when she felt his tongue touch her lips.
"Hahi!" she squeaked and pushed him away, her face flushed.
His face was equally red when he realized what he had tried to do. "So-sorry…" he muttered. He scratched his head and look away.
After few minutes of awkward silence and the blushing receded on both sides, he cleared his throat and met her eyes.
"You're wrong…" he said. "It's not that I don't like you."
"What?" she gaped at his statement. "What do you mean?"
"'It's not that I don't like you' means that I don't hate you."
She tilted her head as she gots more confused. He grunted and ruffled his silverish-gray hair. "I… you…" he muttered.
"What?"
He cursed silently. "I LIKE YOU! Happy?"
The situation earlier was reversed. She gaped at him and he bowed his head in embarrassment. But it didn't last long because she smiled and stepped closer to him.
She looked up to him and cupped his cheeks in her hands. "Really?" she asked him. "Why?"
"Do you want another shouting match?" He smirked when she smiled and started crying again. "You really are stupid." He leaned in to kiss her wet eyes then her lips again. This time, she didn't push him back or break off when he deepened the kiss.
--
"Do you see that, Tsu-kun? I told you they like each other."
"But I really don't think it was a good idea to peek, Kyoko-chan."
"Don't worry. Didn't you say that Gokudera isn't so violent anymore, Tsuna?"
"See? Even Yamamoto-kun agrees with me."
"He isn't so violent anymore, yes. But don't you think he'll be angry if he knows we were the ones who planned this?"
"By the looks of it he's quite enjoying our plans to match him up with Haru, Tsuna. Don't think too much. It's a good early birthday gift from us."
"He does. But still Yamamoto, Kyoko-chan … He'll be very, very angry if he knows that…"
"Shut up, Tsu-kun or he'll hear us!"
Tsuna sighed and shook his head as his girlfriend and one of his best friends peeked through the glass window of the piano room where Gokudera and Haru were.
Author's Note:
Huf Another fic ready! You could say that this one is a tie-in fic with 'The World Ten Years Ago'. Kind of about how Gokudera and Haru get together because I can't fit it in the story.
Here's some note about some things I couldn't fit in the fic.
Why Gokudera let Haru hear him playing piano: He was feeling nostalgic because it was a couple of days before his 20th birthday and a week before his mother's death anniversary. Sometimes when you feel nostalgic enough, you will show your sensitive and soft side.
Piano Concerto no.2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff: It really is one of the most difficult piano concertos ever created. The piano composition can even make a grown man cry (believe me, I've seen my friend cry). This concerto was composed by Rachmaninoff when he was devastated at the public opinion on his first piano concerto. I think it had the same ambiance as Gokudera's feeling. Gokudera's a genius and piano prodigy, so it's not surprising if he could play it well. If you want to know what the song was like, you could search it in youtube or if you have watched Nodame Cantabile, you'll know how great this song was.
Why Haru likes Gokudera: If you have read my other story, The World Ten Years Ago, it was mentioned in Chapter 1: Lost in Past Memories. It's very vague but… that's what love is like. It's unexplainable.
What Tsuna, Kyoko and Yamamoto have planned, exactly: Hmm… I don't know if I should tell you or not because I'm saving it for another crazy fic… or not… XP
And that's that! Tell me what you think. Reviews are the writer's best friends, you know. XD