2. The One to Blame
Tsuna would have liked to blame Irie for the whole mess with Byakuran. To blame him for not being straightforward with them, and especially for putting the girls and children in danger. But really, he had already forgiven Irie-san back in the Millefiore Base. Tsuna had never been good at holding grudges, and he truly had no reason to, since his plan had worked perfectly and Byakuran was now defeated. Tsuna couldn't help but be grateful to him.
Here, back in what was left of the Millefore Base, everyone was waiting in front of the round white device that held their future selves, waiting for Irie-san and Spanner to send them back to the past.
"Alright, everyone," Irie-san called out, "we're ready to send you back." Immediately there was an excited from all the middle schoolers, except for Hibari, who was as far as he could get to the crowd.
"Isn't that great Tenth?" Gokudera, to his right, almost shouted. Yamamoto, to his left, laughed in agreement.
"It'll be great being back home, right, Tsuna?"
"Tch, baseball idiot, I was talking to Tenth!" Gokudera's happy awe-struck look reverted back to his customary scowl when he turned away from Tsuna towards Yamamoto. The baseball player only laughed. "Maa, maa, we can both talk to him, right? He's my friend too."
"Irie-san!" Tsuna cut in before Gokudera could respond, in order to stop an escalation into a fight. Secretly, he was glad. It was already starting in feel like they were back home. "I- I just wanted to say…" Tsuna trailed off. Why couldn't he say it? He looked up into Irie's expectant eyes and felt himself clam up, under a suddenly swell of embarrassment. Then, thankfully, Irie's eyes lighten with understanding and smiled.
"Thank you, Tsunayoshi-kun." The redhead said, stating what Tsuna couldn't. Tsuna responded with a nod and a relieved smile.
Irie turned away and moved back toward the control panel, hit a few buttons, and rested a hand on a red-handled switch and addressed the group again.
"Thank you," Irie Shoichi repeated. He didn't notice Spanner looking over the portion of the control panel Irie had just worked on. "We couldn't have defeated Byakuran-san without all of your help. Goodbye, everyone." Irie finished a flip of the switch his hand was resting on.
Irie's sincere face was blocked out by the following bright blue light surrounding the group of middle schoolers. His excitement at finally going back home, back to his peaceful Namimori and happy kind mother, was quickly replaced with apprehension when he heard Spanner's slightly concerned voice.
"Um…Shoichi? I think you made a mistake."
Tsuna took back his earlier thought.
He blamed Irie Shoichi for everything.