AUTHOR'S NOTE: A new addition to my 8086 drabbles/short fics. It's been sitting incomplete on my hard drive for the last few months and I decided to sit down and finish it finally before I worked on the next chapter of my Skip Beat! fic ^_^
Even though I'm taking a break from my other KHR fanfic, these tend to be quick and simple and don't really require a whole lot of plotting because they're intended to be fluffy. This one is a follow-up to Goldfish, It's not a Love Confession, and White Rain. This series of drabbles runs roughly through a year of events (twelve in all) and is completely dedicated to 8086 because Haru and Yamamoto make as adorable of a couple as Haru and Gokudera (though with fewer explosions XD)
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! isn't mine, it belongs to Akira Amano, I just tend to frolic a bit in her world now and again.
Thank you for taking time to read (and review if you get a chance)!
~ Yuki
Sakura Ame
Sunday morning.
Takeshi Yamamoto groaned softly as the light spilled in through the window and grumbled about forgetting to close the curtains last night when he'd gotten home. His tournament last night had run stupidly late. He rolled over to go back to sleep and noticed a pale petal sitting on his window sill. Suddenly he shot bolt upright and glanced out the window and saw the cherry trees that lined his street in Namimori heavy with blossoms. He glanced at his bedside table and spotted the picture with a brown-haired girl with her arms wrapped around a white puppy and he smiled—suddenly he wasn't tired anymore.
He rolled out of bed and fed the goldfish on his bookshelf before heading for the bathroom after checking with his dad to make sure he didn't need the bath. He sank neck deep into the water and turned over several ideas for what kind of excuses he could use. He couldn't come up with a single plausible excuse, he'd already used the excuse for checking on Shiroame at least twice this week and he wasn't sure Haru would buy it a third time without getting irritated that he thought she couldn't take care of the puppy.
A wry smile curved Yamamoto's lips, one of these days he was just going to have to dispense with the excuses entirely and just confess to her. Right now though, he didn't want to push anything. Over the past month or so she'd been able to show up at the Vongola Famiglia meetings and not bolt at some point when Tsuna interrupted the meeting for the fifth time to respond to a text or call from Kyoko, but he still saw a little flinch every time it happened. Sighing he heaved himself from the bath and dried off and got ready for the day.
He grabbed his bat bag with the Shigure Kintoki safely ensconced within amidst the other two or three baseball bats and headed downstairs.
"Going to the batting range again?" Tsuyoshi Yamamoto questioned.
"I was thinking about it," Yamamoto answered.
His father gave him that piercing look that always made Yamamoto vaguely uneasy and then cast a look down at the counter in front of him. "Take this," Tsuyoshi ordered.
Yamamoto blinked as his father handed him a basket of food with a checkered cloth over the top of it, the white squares were slightly yellowed with age and it was well-worn. "When your mother was still alive, the day the cherry blossoms first bloomed I would close the store for half the day and we would go out and view them," Tsuyoshi said idly. "I always seem to make a picnic basket every year when I see the petals on my window for the first time. Usually, I just pull everything out and use it for the lunch crowd, but maybe you can find a better use for it this year?"
Yamamoto smiled. "I'll do my best," he said.
"Good," Tsuyoshi nodded approvingly. "Now get going. I have preparations to make."
Yamamoto thanked his father and walked out the door, the picnic basket swinging from his hand as he started down the sidewalk. There were already people gathering all over the place to enjoy the first bloom of the cherry blossoms and he couldn't help but smile as well.
He followed a familiar path, but wound up deviating into one of the smaller parks located near Haru's house on instinct. The next thing he knew he heard a joyous bark and found himself under attack by a growing white puppy and he laughed.
"Shiroame! Get back here!"
As expected the slender brunette burst out of one of the bushes in the puppy's wake. "I'm so sorry, the leash…" Haru Miura trailed off as she realized who was being assaulted by her dog.
"Good morning, Haru," Yamamoto smiled and picked up the end of the dangling leash and offered it to her. "I hear it's a good idea to keep your hand in the loop."
For a moment Haru looked indignant and Yamamoto nearly cursed his immediate urge to tease, but then a soft pink flush spread across her cheeks and she smiled. "I did have it, but I got distracted by how beautiful the cherry blossoms were and I'm afraid my grip slackened a bit. He's usually pretty good about staying near me even if I do accidentally drop his leash, but he just tore off. I can see why. He probably smelled you."
Yamamoto chuckled and scratched Shiroame behind the ears. "Maybe."
"What are you doing here?" Haru asked. "Did you come to check on Shiroame again?"
There was a bit of irritation under her apparently innocent question and Yamamoto cocked his head. "No," he said. "I know you'll take good care of him."
Shiroame was nosing at one of the pockets of his jacket and Yamamoto chuckled as he recalled that's where he usually kept the treats he brought when he came to visit. He slipped his hand in and found one more left over from the last time he'd been by and pulled it out. "Have you been a good boy, Shiroame?" he asked. "You're entrusted with a very important task you know."
Shiroame barked and Yamamoto patted his head and fed him the treat. "Good boy," he said.
Yamamoto rose accompanied by a disgruntled yip as his attention turned to Haru. "I actually came by to see if you wanted to go look at some cherry blossoms with me," he said and held up the basket that he'd somehow managed to juggle along with the enthusiastic canine. "Pops apparently makes a lunch basket every year the first day he sees the cherry blossoms and offered it to me. There's too much for just me to eat so I thought I'd see if you were interested."
"Are you sure?" Haru asked uncertainly. "You don't have anyone else you'd rather share it with?"
Yamamoto cocked his head for a moment and then remembered running into Haru while he was talking with one of his female classmates about a project they were doing for class the day before. "I can't think of a single other person I'd like to share this basket with more than you and Shiroame," he said.
"But the girl yesterday…" Haru trailed off.
"Kotonami-san and I are lab partners," Yamamoto said. "We were finishing up a discussion of the experiment we'd done so we could turn in the final report tomorrow."
"Oh?" Haru said.
Yamamoto nodded. "Do you know of a good place to go?" he asked. "I usually just admire the cherry blossoms on my way to the batting range."
Haru nodded. "Haru knows the best place in all of Namimori," she boasted. "And not everyone else knows about it."
Haru took the basket from Yamamoto and he held on to the leash, chuckling as Shiroame tried to hare off after some more cherry blossoms as they started down the path. "How much food did your father put in this thing?" Haru asked with wide eyes.
"I'm not sure actually. Would you rather I carried the basket?" Yamamoto asked.
Haru shook her head. "Shiroame wants to walk with you for a little while," she said. "He's actually calmed down a bit now that you're here."
Yamamoto glanced down at the puppy who'd settled into a more sedate pace contenting himself with gruffing at the occasional bird or cherry blossom petal that wandered into his field of vision.
"Turn left here and then go right at the next crossroads and we should be able to see it," Haru said.
"All right," Yamamoto agreed and they continued in companionable silence.
As they drew closer to their destination Yamamoto watched Haru's expression become melancholy as they could hear happy shouts of laughter and voices just up ahead. "I guess someone does know about it after all," Haru said disconsolately.
"It's fine, I'm sure we'll find a place to eat anyway," Yamamoto smiled.
They emerged into the area and a boy in a cow outfit flew by with a little girl in Chinese-style clothing screeching about Lambo stealing her strawberry. Yamamoto glanced over the group assembled in the small copse in front of them and couldn't help but laugh. "Haru-nee-san!"
Yamamoto watched Haru's gaze snap to the young boy with dirty blond hair and a broad smile. "Fuuta-chan?" Haru blinked.
"Oh you got my invitation?"
Reborn's voice came and the suit-clad toddler descended from one of the cherry trees. "Ah, no, actually I didn't," Yamamoto said.
"How did you know about this place?" Haru asked.
"I know everything," Reborn said smugly. "Glad you could all join us for our first annual Vongola-Style Hanami."
"Oh dear…" Haru said.
"According to my rankings this is the number one place in all of Namimori for an ideal hanami," Fuuta said. "Reborn-san asked me about it earlier."
Yamamoto chuckled and reached out and squeezed Haru's shoulder. "It should be fun," he said.
He couldn't help but notice that even though she smiled Haru was a little disappointed in the turn of events. Even so they moved over to greet the rest of the Vongola including Tsuna, Kyoko, and Nana and they spread the blanket out next to theirs and settled down.
Several hours and not a little property destruction later, the kids were all passed out on the blanket next to Nana and Tsuna had recovered a change of clothes after running around the clearing screaming about catching all the cherry blossoms like his life depended on it and dumping the load of petals over Kyoko.
As the sun set everyone collected their things and said good-bye and promised to do it again next year and Yamamoto smiled. "That wasn't so bad was it, Haru?" he asked.
"I guess not," Haru said her fingers running through the worn-out puppy's soft fur.
Yamamoto hunkered down next to her on the checkered blanket that they still hadn't collected and reached out and pulled a petal out of Haru's hair and lightly touched it to her cheek drawing her fathomless brown eyes up to meet his. "It still hurts that much?" he asked softly.
Haru looked startled and shook her head. "No," she replied and he could've sworn he saw a flush cross her cheeks in the bright light of the moon.
"Then what's wrong?" Yamamoto frowned.
She turned her head and dropped her gaze to the blanket and traced the lines of the squares like it was the most important thing in the world.
"Haru?"
"Haru was kind of hoping for a quiet hanami with Yamamoto and Shiroame," she confessed.
"Do you know why I had the picnic?" Yamamoto asked.
Haru turned her attention to him and shook her head.
"Pops and my mother used to go out and have a picnic the first day of the cherry blossom season and he still makes a big picnic lunch every year. This year, he gave the lunch to me and the first person I could think of that I wanted to share it with was you," Yamamoto said.