This was written for the KHR Secret Santa on Tumblr, with the recipient being spatulapyrope. Be warned, this was my very first attempt at romance, so it's kind of awkward...

*A thank you to sydni for betaing this for me*

Gokudera woke up before the alarm for school rang. It took a moment for him to remember that he was in his apartment, and not in the secret Vongola base beneath Namimori. Even though he and the others had been in the future for many months, only about 4 days had passed in the present time. Eventually, thanks to Tsuna (Gokudera started smiling), Byakuran was defeated, and they were able to return to the past. Even better news was that the future version of Tsuna was never dead, but had faked his death. He knew that his boss couldn't have been taken down so easily. Tsuna was strong, and no doubt he would have gotten stronger in ten years. He'd hate to imagine what it had been like for his future self.

He tried to imagine what it would be like if the current Tsuna was the one that was dead, but he couldn't. His heart clenched at the thought of Tsuna being gone, of him never existing. Before he came to Namimori, he had been cold and distrustful with everyone. He remembered all the fights he had gotten into, his anger at his family, and the feeling that there was nowhere he belonged…

RING!

Gokudera jumped, having forgotten about the alarm. Grumbling, but secretly relieved at being distracted from his thoughts, he got up from his bed, and took in his messy room. Carefully stepping over various pieces of trash and debris, he quickly gathered his clothes from the laundry pile he never bothered to fold, quickly got ready, and left the apartment. He was happy to see that he had more than enough time to head over to Tsuna's house.

Leaning against the wall by the gate, he patiently waited until Tsuna came out. Gazing up at the sky, he was able to fully relax. These past few months had been stressful, so he was happy to go back to the peaceful times, and he was positive that the others felt the same, considering how they were acting when they came back. Lambo and I-Pin were spending more time with Nana, Yamamoto was spending more time with his dad, Hibari had gotten more vicious and paranoid about Namimori, and the younger Sasagawa was spending more time with everyone, while the older one was training more. He had no idea what Chrome Dokuro was doing, but most importantly, Tsuna was spending more time hanging out with everyone (with the notable exception).

"Ah! Gokudera-kun." Drawing him out his thoughts, Gokudera stepped away from the wall to see Tsuna's mother, Nana Sawada, standing outside with the front door open.

"Good morning Sawada-san!" he shouted, giving her a low bow. Nana laughed lightly at his greeting.

"Good morning Gokudera-kun. Are you waiting for Tsu-kun?" Gokudera nodded. Tsking, she looked behind her. "Tsu-kun! Gokudera-kun is outside waiting for you!" she shouted up the stairs. Gokudera heard a vague shout coming from upstairs, and Nana sighed. "I apologize. He'll be ready soon, and you have been waiting all this time..." Gokudera furiously shook his head.

"It's okay. I can wait for the Tenth as long as I need to." He hadn't realized that she knew how long he was waiting for. Nana gave him an odd look, before smiling a bright smile that told Gokudera where Tsuna had inherited his smile from.

"Thank you for always looking after my Tsu-kun," she told him. Gokudera felt his face heat up.

"I-It's alright. He's important… er, so I… um…"

"Sorry Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna said, running out of his house. "I missed my alarm this morning and Lambo had…" Tsuna panted out, his clothes rumpled.

"Tsu-kun, please fix your clothes..."

"I will, don't worry..." Tsuna grabbed Gokudera's arm, and dragged him away from his house, much to Gokudera's embarrassment. After they were a good distance away, Tsuna let go of his arm, much to Gokudera's disappointment. "Sorry, was she bothering you?" Tsuna asked. Gokudera shook his head. Tsuna smiled in thanks as Gokudera reached out to hold his bag while Tsuna fixed his clothes.

"Of course not, Tenth! It was no bother at all." In fact, he was honored to be thanked by Tsuna's mother at all. It doesn't matter what, he will do whatever he can for him. While Gokudera walked, daydreaming, Tsuna chuckled, while slowly shaking his head.

"Yo, Gokudera, Tsuna." Gokudera snapped out of his daydream about helping Tsuna some more to see Yamamoto cheerfully heading towards them. While Gokudera glared at him and grumbled about his presence, Tsuna greeted him back. On the rest of the way to school, Gokudera continued to criticize Yamamoto about his lack of seriousness about the mafia, but both he and Yamamoto knew that the words no longer held their former bite; they both had fought together against Byakuran in the future after all. Tsuna, knowing this, only made a half-hearted attempt at stopping them.

"Ah Tsuna, where's the kid?" Yamamoto asked. Realizing the lack of a fourth presence, Gokudera looked around, half expecting Reborn to drop in on them.

"I didn't even realize he wasn't here," Gokudera muttered, still looking around, waiting for him to pop up with some sort of test for Tsuna that Gokudera was more than happy to help his boss with. Even though he wasn't able to sense anything, Gokudera wasn't surprised. For someone of Reborn's caliber, it was very easy to go about unnoticed.

"Um, Reborn said that he had business to do, so he won't be here today," Tsuna reassured them. Yamamoto laughed it off and started speculating what a baby like Reborn could be doing, while Gokudera relaxed. The three of them continued on to school, but Gokudera made sure to stay extra close to Tsuna just in case there were any attacks. Even if he didn't want to admit it, he couldn't deny it to himself that he had gotten more paranoid about losing Tsuna. If Tsuna noticed anything odd about his behavior, he didn't comment on it.

Soon, the final bell rang for school, and everyone started leaving. Saying that he had practice, Yamamoto left them, so it was just, to Gokudera's relief and joy, him and Tsuna walking home. Because of this, Gokudera happily listened on as Tsuna recounted his morning and explained why he was late.

"I honestly don't understand where Lambo gets his explosives from! No matter how many times I take them away, he finds more, and this morning, he decided it would be a good idea to try bouncing them against the wall in my room..."

"Do you want me to deal with him, Tenth?" Gokudera asked, trying to hide his annoyance of the cow brat so Tsuna doesn't notice. Tsuna shook his head.

"It's okay, Gokudera-kun," he said, smiling at him. Gokudera's stomach fluttered slightly and he smiled back. "Anyway, so then I-Pin comes in and tries to stop him using her Gyoza Ken, but she got my desk instead and..." Gokudera stopped walking when Tsuna drifted off.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned. Tsuna shook his head, and continued walking.

"No, I just want to apologize for boring you by talking about something so unimportant." Gokudera looked at him in shock.

"I-It's not unimportant," he told him, surprised he would think that way. "Nothing you say to me could ever be unimportant. You can rant and talk about anything you want with me, Tenth." By the end, Gokudera was smiling warmly at Tsuna, who was looking at him with wide eyes. Slowly, Tsuna smiled back at him.

"Um, would it be possible for you to stop calling me 'Tenth,'" Tsuna asked. It was Gokudera's turn to stare at him with wide eyes.

"Why?" Tsuna nervously bit his lip.

"I want you to see me as not just a boss, but your... friend," Tsuna answered him, looking at him.

"But I greatly admire you, that's why I call you 'Tenth.'" Gokudera said. He watched, horrified, as Tsuna's shoulders slumped, and he appeared crestfallen.

"Oh, so you just admire me just as a boss─" Gokudera shook his head furiously.

"No, I do admire you as a boss, but I admire you more as a... a friend." Gokudera felt his face heat up and the butterflies in his stomach start zooming around, but he refused to stand down. Tsuna stared straight into his eyes.

"Really?" Gokudera nodded, and blushed again when Tsuna gave him the familiar warm smile. A moment later, the smile faded away, as Tsuna looked nervous again. Gokudera opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, when Tsuna, in one smooth motion, took at step forward, stood on his toes, and pressed his lips against his cheek. The next moment, Tsuna was back to his original spot. They both stared at each other, before Tsuna's face turned red. "Uh, I have to go home now, so see you tomorrow!" Tsuna shouted, and turned on his heel, and ran as fast as he could towards his house. Gokudera, still in shock, didn't move until a few minutes had passed. The fluttering in his stomach had gotten worse, and his heart felt like it was swelling. Even so, Gokudera couldn't help but lightly touch the cheek Tsuna had kissed. Realizing he should eventually get back to his apartment, Gokudera headed down the street, still touching his flushed cheek, and a huge grin on his face.

Hopefully that wasn't too bad, right?