Title: Good Luck and Other Things That Take Work
Characters: Tsuna, Kyouko, Haru
Summary: In which Tsuna is careless, briefly, when he shouldn't ought to be.
Notes: 1724 words. For khrfest, prompt: Tsuna/Kyoko - marriage; "sometimes I forget to love you like I should."
Good Luck and Other Things That Take Work
The day that Tsuna asks Kyouko to marry him is, hands down, the single most nerve-wracking day of his life--not least because of the growing possibility that Reborn will get tired of his dithering over the matter, and shoot him with one of the special Dying Will bullets. Tsuna can't imagine what kind of proposal would result from that. No, scratch that, he can, and it's the looming terror of what he can imagine that drives his courage to the sticking place and him down on one knee in front of Kyouko to stutter out the nervous question, the exact phrasing of which he will never quite be able to recall afterwards.
She says yes, and then Tsuna finds out that nothing in the world has prepared him for the circus that is a Vongola wedding.
It has to take place in Vongola territory, for starters, in the church that the Vongola family has always used. That's not such a big deal for either him or Kyouko, since they've already taken up residence in the Vongola's main house. After something thinking, they pass it off to Kyouko's friends and family as a destination wedding (and part of Tsuna is just a little shocked when he realizes that he doesn't need to resort to any such subterfuge for his half of the guest list; what does that say about him?). It's a little harder to explain why they're getting married in a Catholic ceremony--why they're going through confirmation and conversion at all, really--but Tsuna manages it somehow, without even having to resort to explaining the politics behind the gesture.
But there are traditions piled upon traditions on top of that, some of which make absolutely no sense at all, but which Reborn and Dino and the Ninth and even his dad assure him are absolutely necessary and inescapable. And the thing is, he's the groom--mostly all he has to do is show up on the appointed day, and not pass out while saying his vows. The real business of it is Kyouko's. Every time he sees her these days, she's surrounded by other women, Haru-chan and Hana-san and Dino's wife and even a trio of older, sad-looking women whom Reborn identifies as the Ninth's daughters-in-law. Apparently the lot of them are somehow turning Kyouko into a proper Vongola bride.
At least, Tsuna thinks, part of him extremely relieved by this thought, there isn't a special bullet for that.
In any case, the bulk of the fuss surrounds Kyouko, which Tsuna supposes is the way that it's supposed to go. Everything rolls along the way it generally does, an amalgamation of insanity and tradition and deadly-serious politicking that's always on the verge of descending into complete chaos, but never quite does. It depresses a part of Tsuna's soul when he realizes that this has become his baseline for normal.
Just when Tsuna thinks that everything's perfectly fine, Haru-chan comes to him and fetches him a brisk slap against the back of his head, and calls him an idiot.
That's nothing he hasn't heard before, though not from Haru-chan, so when his ears stop ringing, Tsuna eyes her, warily, and asks, as meekly as he can manage, "What did I do?"
"What haven't you done is more like it," she says, eyes snapping, all her cute little mannerisms laid aside, which means she must be in deadly earnest. "Just because she said yes doesn't mean you get to ignore her now."
"Ignore her--Kyouko?" Tsuna stares at Haru-chan, completely confused. "I don't--what do you mean, ignore her? I saw her just the other day!"
"In a group. With several other people around." Haru-chan shakes her head, like she truly despairs of him. "That doesn't count. How long has it been since the two of you had any time to yourselves?"
Tsuna considers the question, and comes up with an answer that's longer than he really likes to think about. "Things have been busy!" he says, in his own defense. "And she's always busy with wedding stuff."
"Not so busy that she doesn't have time to see the man she's going to marry." Haru-chan gives him a look, long and steady, until Tsuna has to look away. When she speaks again, it's slow and measured. "Tsuna-kun. I need you to listen to what I'm about to tell you." When Tsuna looks at her again, her eyes are sober, and she waits till he nods at her to go on. "I couldn't do what Kyouko-chan is doing, you know. There's no way I could be a boss's wife. There's no way I could be strong enough for it."
"Haru-chan," Tsuna begins, a little embarrassed, and not only because of all the times Haru-chan had proclaimed otherwise, once upon a simpler time.
She holds up a hand, forestalling him. "I'm not finished. I'm not strong the same way Kyouko-chan is. I couldn't do the things she'll have to do as the Vongola Tenth's wife, or the things she's already doing. I don't have it in me to wait at home, not knowing what it is that's going on in the broader world around me. I can't rely only on the things that people can tell me, and I don't have it in me to accept the leftover bits of attention that my boyfriend can spare, whenever his business leaves anything left over at all, which is not often." Haru-chan fixes him with a look that makes Tsuna want to squirm. "And I'll tell you, Tsuna-kun, even Kyouko-chan can't go on like that forever."
Tsuna knows he's not brilliant, not like Gokudera, say, just to pull an example out of thin air. But he's not stupid, either, and he knows that he's only gotten as far as he has in part because of the good people he's surrounded by, the people who want to support him, and that he'd damn well better listen when they tell him something. So he clears his throat, after a moment, and meets Haru-chan's gaze. "What should I do?"
"That's something you're going to have to figure out for yourself." She's still brisk about it, but after a moment, she softens and relents, just a bit. "You could start by spending a little more time with her," she suggests. "The courtship doesn't have to end just because the engagement has begun."
Tsuna thinks about that, and all the rest of what Haru-chan has told him, and nods. "I think I see," he tells her.
"Good," she says, and dusts her hands. "Now do something about it."
"I will," Tsuna promises her, and she leaves, looking satisfied with the work she's done. Tsuna lets himself sit and think for a few minutes about the good friends that he has, and how lucky he's been, and his schedule, before it's time for him to go and meet with the Ninth.
Part of the problem, of course, is that most of his time really isn't his own any more. It's filled with Family business, learning all that the Ninth and his men and Reborn can cram into his head about the Vongola and the mafia. And part of the problem is that he's been complacent--well, Haru-chan has definitely fixed that little problem for him.
And part of the problem is that there are rules and traditions for engaged couples, and propriety to consider. Tsuna has to think about it for a while before he hits upon a solution, and it's not exactly an ideal one. It'll do for now, he hopes, and after the wedding... but that thought makes his eyes cross just a bit, and he puts it aside hastily, and hopes that no one will ask him why he's blushing.
Kyouko looks bemused when her schedule--just as packed as his own, though with different things--has her meeting him outside one of the Vongola's moderately formal dining rooms. "Tsuna?" she says, looking around her, perhaps for the signs of other guests. "Who are we having dinner with?"
"No one," Tsuna says, unaccountably nervous about it--well, actually, that's normal when he thinks about it, since he's always nervous on their dates. Kyouko looks confused, till he fumbles through an explanation. "I mean--it's just us. You and me." And a bunch of servants to bring food in and out, but that can't be avoided, and besides, it solves the propriety issue.
"Oh!" Kyouko says, and then, in an entirely different tone, "Oh." She looks so pleased, and so happy, that it makes guilt grip Tsuna's soul and twist.
"I'm sorry," he tells her, softly. "I know I haven't been around much."
"No, it's fine!" Kyouko assures him, maybe a little too quickly. "You're busy, I know, it's fine--"
"I don't think it is," Tsuna says, as his intuition prickles. There's something in Kyouko's voice, a hint of unsteadiness and forced cheer, that rings false to him. "You're--you're my Family too, or you're going to be, the most important part of it." His cheeks feel warm, saying such a thing out loud, but he plows ahead anyway, because it's all true. "I can't neglect what's most important. It's not right."
"Tsuna," Kyouko says. Her cheeks are flushed too, and her eyes are shining in a way that alarms Tsuna, but she smiles at him, wobbly, in a way that makes his chest feel tight.
He clears his throat. "Anyway. I, uh, insisted that they clear our schedules. So we can, um, have dinner together. Unless there's a formal thing we have to do with the rest of the Family. Um." He stops and peers at her, anxious. "Is that okay? I know I didn't ask you first, but--"
"It's fine," Kyouko says, and this time she really does mean it. "No, it's perfect."
"Oh," Tsuna says, relieved. "Oh, good." He clears his throat again, because the way Kyouko is looking at him is making it strangely tight, and smiles at her. "Um. Shall we go in, then?"
"Yes," Kyouko says, voice steadying again, and takes his arm when he offers it to her, and lets him usher her into the dining room.
And Tsuna knows, as he does, that he couldn't possibly be luckier than he already is, for more reasons than he can even begin to count.
end
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