A/N: The song is Forever and Always by Parachute. I really recommend listening to it while reading this.
She's sitting at the table, the hours get later
He was supposed to be here
She's sure he would have called
He should be here by now. That was the only thought that she could process. It wasn't like him to not be home by now. He was always home on time. Always. Like clockwork.
So she was left, sitting at the kitchen table, wondering where he could possibly be. Did the mission run late? Yes. It was probably something like that. Something simple, nothing she should get worked up over. So what if it was nearing 11 o'clock and he said he would be home around 8.
And so what if he hadn't called? Just because he had always managed to call before, but had yet to do so tonight, meant nothing. He could just be in a position where he couldn't call her. Yes that was it, he was just a bit busy right then, that was all.
Then bad thoughts started coming to her. What if he was with someone else? That thought however went swiftly out the window. He had been following her around since middle school when he declared that he would become her right-hand man. She often wondered if he knew back then that he really would become her right-hand man.
Her best friend. Her confidant. Her shoulder to cry on. Her everything.
She waits a little longer, there's no one in the driveway
No one's said they've seen him
Why, is something wrong?
But the minutes kept on ticking by, second by second. It was agonizing, just sitting there waiting for him, especially when she knew what kind of mission he had been on. She hadn't even wanted to send him on it in the first place, though Reborn was quick to tell her that Gokudera would be fine. He was her right-hand man and a strong Mafiaso. So she had relented and had given him the mission.
But she had started to regret it deeply. Not that she doesn't have faith in him, quite the opposite really. She would trust him with her life. The problem was that he still wasn't there. He was way too late and with every minute that passed more and more horrible scenarios raced through her head.
Something had gone wrong, she knew it. Call it her hyper intuition, call it woman's intuition, call it whatever you want. All she knew was that something was not right.
She looks back to the window
Suddenly the phone rings
A voice says something's happened
That she should come right now
She keeps looking over her shoulder and through the window that showed a view of the driveway. It was empty. She knew what she would see every time she looked, she would have heard the car pulling in, yet she still kept looking. She could have missed the sound of him pulling in, despite the absolute silence echoing through their home.
Then she hears it. The phone is ringing! It has to be Gokudera.
She jumps out of her chair, and part of her mind hears it fall to the floor. She races to the counter and grabs the phone off of the hook.
"Gokudera! Where have you been? Wh-" She starts, though she is quickly interrupted by a mans voice that she does not recognize.
"Miss I am sorry we have some bad news. A Gokudera Hayato has been in an accident. You should come quickly."
The phone falls to the floor.
Her mind goes to December
She thinks of when he asked her
He bent down on his knees first
And he said
Oh God no.
Her mind starts reeling and the mans voice reverberates through her mind. Bad news. Accident. You should come quickly.
Her hand rises to cover her mouth to stop the rising hysteria, when she feels it. The cold metal of the ring on her left hand. The memory was still as clear as the day it had happened.
It was December, and the first snow of the season had just fallen the night before. He had asked her out on a date, but when he had done so there was something different in his eyes. Of course she had said yes though.
They had gone to her favorite restaurant, and all had seemed normal. They had then gone ice-skating, even though she is no good at it. When she asked why he just told her that it gave him 'an excuse to hold her'. She had not complained.
It was when they had arrived back at home that she noticed that something was different. The house wasn't dark, but instead seemed to be full of life. When she opened the door she saw that everything was covered in candles and rose petals. She takes a few steps inside only to turn back around to see him on one knee.
She started to cry tears of joy knowing what was coming next.
I want you forever, forever and always
Through the good and the bad and the ugly
We'll grow old together
Forever and always
Any words he had said at that moment would have been the right ones. He could have just simply said 'marry me' and she would have said yes. But he didn't do that. He always knew exactly what she wanted to hear.
Those words were echoing in her mind as she picks back up the phone and asks where he is, what hospital. As soon as she has the address, she hangs up, grabs the keys, and leaves.
She had to get to him that second. She probably broke every traffic law known to man getting to the hospital, but she made it in only ten minutes.
She pulls up to the entrance
She walks right to the front desk
They lead her down a million halls,
a maze that's never ending
As soon as she arrives she hops out of the car, shuts it off and just leaves it parked in front of the Hospital. Will it get towed? Probably. Will there be a fine? Most likely. Does she care? Not in the slightest.
The automatic doors open as she rushes through them, and she has to pause and look for a moment to find the front desk. Finding it to the right she hurries over and starts yelling quickly at the woman there in Japanese. The woman however quickly becomes frazzled and she has to take a few deep breaths and slightly calm herself before she is able to ask where he is in Italian.
The woman pushes a button and after about a minute, which is like an eternity, a portly male doctor comes to collect her. She follows him through hall after hall and her mind cannot keep up with where they would even be, let alone how she would manage to come back. What she does know is that it is taking entirely too long to reach him.
She wants to be by his side NOW.
They talk about what happened
but she can barely hear them
She tries to keep a straight face as she walks into the room
The doctor then starts talking about what had happened. Something about a drunk driver, he had been going against the flow of traffic, there was no time for Gokudera to avoid it. Most of what he said was just a blur, but those facts were the ones that stuck out.
She had been so worried that she had been the one to do this to him. That it had happened on the mission. The fact that it was not that made her feel a bit better. He could survive a simple car crash. She had probably been worried for nothing at all. Then the doctor says something that makes her stop dead in her tracks, even though they are right outside of his room, and she should be busting into his room.
He only has a 50% chance of making it through the night.
No. No. No. No. No.
He was stronger than that. He has to be. And she has to be there for him. He has made it out of worse things before, and he would do it now.
She slowly opened the door.
She sits by his bedside, holds his hand too tight
They talk about the kids they're gonna have and the good life
The house on the hillside, where they would stay
She was not prepared for the sight that greeted her on the other side of the door. He was hooked up to so many wires, too many. His face was paler than normal, and his green eyes were duller then they had been that morning when he left.
She raced to his side and grasped hold of his hand, taking advantage of the chair next to his bed. She knows that she is probably holding his hand to tightly but she didn't want to lessen her hold for even one second, afraid he would disappear.
Then he starts to talk. He talks about how he has always loved her. How he thinks that maybe they should start thinking about kids. He says that he knows that she would be the best mom ever and that any child would be lucky to have her as a mom. She then tells him that any kid would be lucky to have him as a father. She says that their little girls will have to look out when they get older though because he will chase away all their boyfriends. And of course all of their sons will be lady killers, just like their father, and that they will probably have to beat the women away.
Then they talk about if they are going to have all of these children running around that they should probably move to the mansion. It would probably be the only place that would fit all of them, plus the children of the guardians when they came to visit. Then they started to laugh when they thought of all the things that would happen when all of the kids met up. No doubt the house would often end up in shambles.
Stay there forever, forever and always
Through the good and the bad and the ugly
We'll grow old together, and always remember
Whether rich or for poor or for better
We'll still love each other, forever and always
They talk about what it would be like when they got older and their kids got married. What kind of people they wanted their children to grow up to be, and how they wanted their life to play out. They promise that no matter how often they fight, that they will always be there for each other. That they would work things through like the team, no the pair that they were.
They go on about how it will probably be hard to run the Vongola as well as raise a family, but they are determined to do it. They say how no matter what trials they would face they would do it together.
"Remember" he says, his voice hoarse "I promised you forever and always."
Then she gets an idea and calls in the nurses
Brings up the chaplain and he says a couple verses
She borrows some rings from the couple next door
Suddenly she stands up and hurries to the door. He asks her where she is going, but she just turns around smiling at him. She tells him to wait right there for a moment. He asks why and she simply states "I am making forever and always happen. How would you feel about getting married, right here right now?"
He just smiles.
She quickly finds a nurse and explains the situation to her. The woman smiles and says that she will need to go get the chaplain but that the wedding will happen if she has anything to say about it.
Now all she needs are the rings. Luck, or fate, seemed to be on her side because as she was having this conversation an old married couple were passing by on their way to see their grandchild who had just given birth. The woman shot one look at her husband, and he seemed to get the message.
They approached Tsukiko and asked if she would like to have their wedding rings. At first she is completely shocked and tries to deny the rings, saying she can't possibly take them.
The woman simply states "These rings have been with us for over 50 years of marriage. I always believed they had a little magic in them, being able to survive these many years without getting lost, or stolen. Some days I swear that these rings have tied me and my husband together, and you my dear need a bit of magic. Please take them." And she no longer argues with the woman, and instead accepts the rings with tears in her eyes.
Everybody's laughing as the tears fall on the floor
She looks into his eyes, and she says
Soon the room is filled with nurses who have heard about the impromptu wedding, Gokudera's doctor, the chaplain, and of course the lucky couple. Everyone is smiling and happy as they start the wedding, though you can see tears fall down the Tsukikos happy face.
When it comes time for the vows they ask to say their own. Gokudera looks into her eyes and says how he has loved her since the first time he had seen her in middle school. He says that she was the prettiest thing he had ever seen and that he had found her nervous stutter adorable. That he never for one moment regretted his decision to stand by her side. That life without her was absolutely meaningless, and that every second he was with her the world seemed to light up. He said he was finally marrying his own piece of sunshine.
Then It was her turn to say her vows. She knew exactly what to say.
I want you forever, forever and always
Through the good and the bad and the ugly
We'll grow old together, and always remember
Whether happy or sad or whatever
We'll still love each other, forever and always
Forever and always, forever and always
Everyone in the room had gone silent. They were so entranced by this young couple in front of them who had gone through so much. Yet here they were getting married, in a hospital, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Both of their eyes shone with the purest form of love any of them had ever seen. And they all thought 'so this is what true love looks like.'
And as the ceremony progressed they both were lost in their memories of each other and their time together. Their first date, their first kiss, their first Christmas, their first valentines. The first time they had said 'I love you.'
She finishes the vows but the beeps are getting too slow
His voice is almost too low
As they finish their vows, they finally lean in for the kiss that will bind them together forever. It was perfect. It was pure bliss. It was everything that they felt towards each other into one kiss. It was the purest kiss in all of history, filled only with the love of two young hearts reaching out for the other.
But the machines that were hooked up to Gokudera did not lie. The once steady beeping from the heart monitor had slowed down and become slightly erratic. Anyone could tell that he was fading and fast.
So she cried out for him, once again grasping his hand, to not let go. "Look" she says "we are finally together. We have our forever, right here. Don't let it go. Don't leave me!"
And with a quiet voice he slowly and carefully answers her in the best way that he knows how.
As he says, I love you forever, forever and always
Please just remember even if I'm not there
I'll always love you, forever and always
And that was when the monitor had flat-lined. It had been like an arrow to her heart, and she reacted accordingly. She had screamed out in pure agony screaming at him to wake up. The nurses and his doctor had quickly gone to his side to try and save the boy and eventually she had to be sedated and taken from the room.
And that was the last memory she had of that night. Of him lying cold on that bed, with a ring matching hers on his finger.
*5 MONTHS LATER*
It had been 5 months since the accident. 5 months since that day.
At the moment Tsukiko was looking through an old scrapbook filled with memories of her teenage years with Gokudera. The current picture is of the entire familglia outside of Tsukiko's house in was taken during her senior year in high school and it was one of her faovrites. Why? Because in the front center were her and Gokudera, and he was holding her hand. The picture brought tears to her eyes.
"Are you still looking through that?" A voice asked from the doorway.
"Yes." She replied though you could hear a quiver in her voice.
"Don't tell me you are crying again." The voice says slightly panicked.
"It's not my fault! It's these stupid pregnancy hormones." she replies looking up at the man in the doorway. He really hadn't changed much from the day that this picture was taken, he was still as perfect as he had been back then.
"Okay blame the hormones." He says walking closer.
"Yeah, you wanna try this buddy?" she asks jokingly.
"No. I think I will leave that to you" He says placing a hand on her stomach.
"I still can't believe it. Can you?" she says placing her hand on top of his.
"Of course. I can't wait. You will be a great mom, Tsukiko."
"And you will be a great dad, Gokudera." She says looking deeply into his eyes.
And there on their hands that rested upon her stomach were a pair of wedding bands from the couple in the hospital. And Tsukiko can't help but think that maybe they did have a little magic in them. After all she had gotten her happily ever after right.
"Now then," says Tsukiko "remind me again how much you love me."
"You already know the answer."
"Just say it."
"Alright." He says as his other hand reaches up to cup her face. "I Gokudera Hayato will love you Gokudera Tsukiko forever and always."
"That's all I will ever need to hear."
And their lips met in just another of the wonderful kisses they would share through their long life together.
A/N: YAY! A HAPPY ENDING! See I promised it would be Happy! No one is dead. Did I get you there for a second though?
Anyway please review!