Title: Retribution
Disclaimer: do not own
Rating: R
Summary: Revenge is a b****. 5980 post-294
AN/Warnings: There is relatively graphic torture and wow after re-reading it, this is just really twisted. And 5980 because there's no way the Gokudera in this fic would ever take it up the ass. XD I've taken a lot of liberties with the characters and left a few loose ends. Also somewhat inspired by a conversation between me and viciouslies. XD
By no means is Gokudera a pacifist. When he's hurt, he hurts back.
his father's gifts are sent back with ihateyous covering the packages
When he bleeds, he fights.
the first time Bel ever wins is the last time
When things of his are hurt, he destroys the one who hurt them.
his sister is slapped by that fucking bastard of a man and he's strangling him when Bianci pulls him off and tells him she can handle herself
Yamamoto was in the hospital and if it wasn't for fucking Ryohei, the fucking lawnhead, he'd be dead and Gokudera wouldn't be the same again. He's naturally ruthless, gets it from his father; lacks the kindness and forgiving smile of his mother. There's war in his blood and ancestry- Roman soldiers and samurai- and it's a war he's ignored since he's met Tsuna because Tsuna is good and pure and understands too well what it means to be the Vongolla Decimo. It's a war that Yamamoto suppresses with gentle hands on his shoulder when Tsuna isn't there.
let it go gokudera, come on i'll treat you to some food
He made a promise and he will keep it and if he acts alone, it's fine because this is a battle brought to him, forced on his doorstep. He will be Tsuna's right hand man, but right now he's just a fourteen year old a little in love with someone who should never hurt like he has.
doesn't understand yet that he'll hurt much more later on and he won't be able to do anything about it
He does something he hasn't ever done. Not when his hospital debts couldn't be paid, not when he slept alone for the first time in the cold, not when Bianci hands him a box of love letters. He calls his father. He knows he has to pick and choose and right now after examining the scene and knowing knowing knowing whoever did this was good, he needs someone better. And there's no one better than the Italian Sherlock Holmes. His father, surprised into submission, agrees, and marvels at the maturity in his son's voice. Looks at the picture on his desk that Bianci mailed him and wonders why he let him leave. Calls his private jet and sets up reservations for a restaurant and when Gokudera stands at the airport to greet him, his heart clenches a little at how tall he's getting. He follows him to his school, his bodyguards blending in with the crowd.
Entering the room, his father thinks the culprit is good, but not good enough. He activates his own flame, mist, and shifts through illusions cleverly crafted to hide the truth behind the flame (give the caster a few more years and he might prove a challenge) and finds it. He looks over at his son who has a dark grim look on his face, a look he recognizes from eleven years ago and one he recognizes from seventeen years ago when a woman with the prettiest hands he had ever seen told him no.
ah and there's the answer- it's a look he's never been able to resist
It doesn't take Gokudera long time to find him; enemies pretending to be allies cannot deny a friendly get together, especially considering the circumstances. He has learned to be a good actor from his time conning women into letting him stay at their homes and robbing them blind the next day. He acts the aggrieved friend and repeats to Mizuno Kaoru the words in the hospital. Kaoru doesn't look nervous, but Gokudera can tell that he is- reads it in the way his eyes turn right and the slight quickening of his heart beat and a barely there sheen of sweat. He hasn't told Tsuna of his discovery. It feels like a betrayal, but he hasn't extracted the longed for vengeance and there's the war in his veins telling him to keep it a hush hush secret for now. He does, however, tell Reborn that Tsuna is never to be alone with the transfer students. Reborn stares at him coolly and says, "I heard you called your father."
He nods imperceptibly, and Reborn understands as he has always understood, knows as he has always known. "Tsuna would say not to kill him."
Gokudera thinks about Yamamoto bleeding on the floor, Ryohei frantically trying to heal him with sun flames and remembers the despair the taste of death the feeling of doom in the air. Tsuna would say not to kill him, but he hasn't and won't because he knows Reborn will not tell him. Reborn nods and approves in that off-handed way.
reborn remembers a fallen comrade and the first taste of a vengeful death and how invigorating it had felt to carve his name into his bloodied, mangled corpse
Bianci gives him the specially prepared dessert without a bat of the eye. It's something unique she's only concocted a few times- has always been more direct in her approach to assassination. Then again, this, she knows is revenge, can sense it in Gokudera's cold green eyes and wonders when he looked less like his mother and more like his father. There's a feeling of loss here, something like innocence destroyed in The Lord of the Flies. She never did like that book.
her first kill is a man who beats a filthy street urchin with the prettiest eyes, eyes like her own but different, and a shock of silver hair- he is her missing brother she learns and she leaves him with Shamal
Gokudera thinks it's funny that Kaoru trusts him because he thinks he trusts him. He eats a little bit of the rhubarb soufflé, immune to most of the exotic poisons she concocts in her food, just to keep suspicion down. He uses Yamamoto as the conversation piece- talks about him as if he's dead and he almost was; this bastard almost killed him- as they share lunch in his apartment. Kaoru gives him a look that is too much like Yamamoto's; wide innocent eyes filled with a burning sense of betrayal and beneath that resignation as he topples to the floor, the poison taking affect.
Tsuna tells him worriedly the next day that Kaoru has disappeared and Gokudera tells him that they had lunch yesterday, but he hasn't seen him since. His father does one last thing for him, casts illusions of Kaoru leaving and wipes away the trace of Rain in a warehouse he owns. Chrome gives him an uncomfortable look, but he knows Mukouro is inside, kukuku, laughing at him with an approving lilt. The Shimon family is on alert, regard him warily, but he's angry and shows them that he's angry and they believe he's angry for them. Shitoppi-chan talks to him a little more cautiously in that strange language of hers, but other than that they show no indication of knowing what happened. Tsuna tells Enma with honest wide eyes that he promises to help find him. Gokudera only feels a modicum amount of guilt, but that is only for Tsuna and no one else.
kaoru bleeds and fears like he has never feared before- green and silver are the colors of evil and he loses his fingers, his ears, his tongue so he doesn't scream and gokudera whispers in his ear this is only the beginning and he cries and cries and cries but the illusion is strong and is never broken and the poison inside his body is one that lasts and lasts and doesn't grant him the mercy of death until he is no longer identifiable as a human carcass
Gokudera caresses Yamamoto's sleeping face and when warm brown eyes startle and look up at him, he smiles. "Glad you're awake, Yamamo-chan."
Yamamoto blushes when he kisses him.