[Authors notes are in a bracket]

[Hello. =) This is my first story on love (I usually do torture/angst), so please do pardon me if there are any plot holes and stuff. Thanks!]

[I'm telling you, this is so not my fic. It's more xMemrC. She did so much editing I couldn't tell the difference between my version and hers o.0]

[Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! This is solely for my entertainment due to my insonmia.]

[Warning: A few vulgarities. 8059 (YamamotoXGokudera WHICH IS YAOI/GAY), a tiny, tiny bit of 5927 (GokuXTsuna WHICH IS ALSO YAOI/GAY) though there isn't much of a hint of 8059 here. In this chapter. Yet.]

A storm had brewed in the sky. It was a sudden downpour, a gift from the heavens above. The sky was a dull, washed-out shade of gray: gloomy and bleak. And it suited his mood all the more.

The rain pattered down on his shoulders, plastering his clothes and silver hair to his body. The umbrella the Storm guardian was holding fell onto the wet cemented floor, where the cheery print of the umbrella clashed with the concrete grey of the ground. Vaguely, Gokudera wondered why he had brought it in the first place. He loved the rain. It let him pretend that the salty, clear liquid rolling down his cheeks was the rain.

He let out gasping laugh, the kind of laugh you heard from a small child, a crossover between crying and laughing. Then, it slowly evolved to full-blown laughter, and his knees gave out; he sat on the stone ground of the rooftop.

Why was he laughing? He didn't understand. Nothing made sense.

The usually hardcore, tough-as-a-rock storm guardian Gokudera Hayato had been reduced to shivering, shaking bundle, disheartened and upset by the severity of it all. He'd confessed his love to Tsuna, but...

It wasn't meant to be. It never was. And he knew it.

Now he'd just made it worse with his fucking stupid confession! His laughter faltered. He breathed and let out a final, strangled gasping laugh. Personal and business matters never mixed well. Destruction was what a Storm Guardian specialized in, and he had just tried to destroy the balance in the Family by confessing.

The silver-haired bomber stopped laughing. He pressed a cold hand into his face, sobs reducing him into shivers.

It hurt, it really hurt, to be turned away by the person he loved the most. His first true friend, his guardian, the very person he lived for.

If Gokudera wanted to shed tears, now was the time to. Because, for now, the rain would mask his tears of desperation and wash them all away.

His words met with the tense atmosphere, clashing awkwardly. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't string two thoughts together. He'd known it even before having the thought of trying.

The silence hung. He snuck a look at his boss. Tsuna's face was unreadable, but his big, brown eyes were the epitome of an open book. Reluctance, regret, awkwardness, guilt, as well as the occasional flash of sky flames, burned in his eyes. Gokudera returned his heavy green gaze to the school roof's ground. But of course, he thought bitterly. His boss was compassionate. Ever-loving. Accepting. Kind.

So unlike the others.

He might as well salvage what he could of that one broken soul, right?

He let out a laugh—a ghost of his usual ones—as turned his gaze on a stunned Tsuna.

Yes, he would salvage the shattered pieces. Hold on to them, make do with them, no matter how small they were.

"I'm joking, Tenth!" His cheerful voice sounded fake even to his own ears. Wincing inwardly, he put some more effort into it and forced emotion into his weary eyes. "With me as your right-hand man, the Vongola Family will prosper!"

He watched as the brunette's indignation took over, denying his undeniable position as the Vongola Tenth, and hoped it would also squash out the Hyper-Intuition. His hopes were futile, in-vain, he knew; but it was worth a try.

It was a scarce whisper, but Gokudera heard that single word as though it were being shouted at him. "No," the young Vongola leader mumbled to himself.

The words were meant to be heard by Tsuna and Tsuna alone, but no one, no one, could hide those hurting words from the 'human dynamite'.

No one.

The bell was his saviour, and they returned to class—or at least, Tsuna did.

"Ironic, don't you think? The Storm guardian caught in a storm. The Rain guardian caught in the rain."

A bright voice cut straight into the fog in his mind. He blinked and glanced upwards, noticing how he couldn't feel the steady thrum of raindrops. The absence was like a flesh wound, and he gasped again, flailing slightly before lush forest green met glowing warm amber.

"Baseball nut," Gokudera acknowledged. His voice came out in a rasp, surprising him. He tried again, trying to speak over the pattering of rain. "Baseball nut, what are you doing here?"

"Hmm? I was just taking a walk." Yamamoto's grin grew as he watched incredulity washed over Gokudera's face as he took in the Rain guardian's equally soaked clothes.

A flash of pain crossed the silver-haired guardian's eyes, and all previous emotion disappeared. An out-of-place crease formed between Yamamoto's eyes before vanishing again. "Come on, let's go."

He watched as his friend blinked blearily and confusedly, lost for a moment. "What?" The word was strange from Gokudera's lips, Yamamoto decided. Gokudera should have gotten pissed off for being babied, argued and then tried to beat him up, in that very order. Concern flashed through his features again.

"Come on," he repeated, voice gentle as he offered his hand to the Gokudera sprawled on the floor. He watched as Gokudera held his hand up, halfway to accepting his, before remembering who he was and who he was.

"Buzz off, Yamamoto. I do whatever I want to do."

That's more like it, the avid base-baller mused. He decided that Gokudera was alike to Uri in more ways than one. A kitten through and through.

The pair of friends walked side by side, avoiding eye contact with each other. Both knew that they were both heading for Tsuna's house. They didn't say a word, they just knew. It was an instinct; maybe more. Maybe they really could read each other's minds.

The awkward silence that hung between them was too much for Yamamoto to bear. "Hey. Did something happen?"

The silverette refused to respond. And with a good reason too.

For there was a sixteen-wheeler hurtling towards them at full speed.

Pain and sorrow.
Rejection, depression.
Torturing torments, hurting hearts.
Derived because of you.

[Reviews please? I may be a newbie but I know what reviews are , 'kay. =D]