Fear clutched onto her feet and slowly crawled its way up her body as if it was holding her down so she could not run away from reality.
She was cowering in the corner, shielding her face with her stuffed owl. She did not want the others to see her face stained with tears, since they would only further make fun of her. She let out a choked sob every now and then.
Their words were like thorns she could not get rid of. The way how they use her brother's name only made it worse. Those words echoed loudly and she could not get rid of them even though she kept pushing the palms of her hands into her ears.
A disheveled head poked out from underneath the bed sheets. Chrome pulled them closer to her trembling body as she bit down on them, trying to not let her cries be heard. She stretched out her arm, searching for her stuffed animal. Her owl was firmly pressed against her body, but it did not comfort her like it did before.
Chrome was scared.
She was scared that these nice people would eventually reject her like the children at the orphanage did. She wanted to run away, but she would end up becoming a burden since her new family seemed to care about her.
Deep down, she knew the family she was adopted into consisted of kind people but she did not want to bother them with her problems. This was the fourth night in a single week that she had this recurring nightmare. Maybe she could talk to her brother about it.
She slowly got out of her bed, but then she thought that she would be a bother to ask him in the middle of the night. In her rush to get back on the bed, her legs got caught in the sheets, making her tumble onto the ground with a thump.
Chrome frantically tried to get back on her bed and make it seem like her fall never happened, but she lost her owl in the process. With her one eye, she started to crawl about on the ground with her arm waving about senselessly for her owl.
The door was suddenly opened, making Chrome jump in surprise. Before she could register who entered her room, a strong pair of arms scooped her up, making her yell in shock. Thinking the person was a thief, she started hitting the intruder with all her might. When she noticed her hits were ineffective, she started yanking at the intruder's hair.
"Chr– Ow! Chrome, it's me, Giotto!" The blond let out a sigh when the girl stopped pulling his hair.
"G-Giotto-san?" Chrome's eye widened before latching her small arms around Giotto's neck. "I-I'm sorry. I-I-I t-thought you were a thief a-and–" She started to cry and mumbled her apologies. She never wanted to hurt him.
Giotto sighed as he held the girl closer, rubbing circles into her back. "Shh… It's alright. I'm okay, Chrome."
The sound of feet pounding against the wooden floorboards could be heard before the door was slammed again. Tsuna's eyes darted back and forth in Chrome's room with a baseball bat held securely in hand. When his eyes landed on Chrome and his father, he let out a sigh of relief before kneeling on the ground. He honestly thought someone had entered the house.
Giotto looked down at the trembling girl in his arms. "Chrome, I'm sorry for scaring you."
Chrome shook her head against Giotto's chest but her trembling body said otherwise.
Tsuna dropped the bat to the side and laid spread out on the ground, trying to calm himself down from his adrenaline high.
Giotto bitterly smiled as he held her closer, trying to calm her down. However, his face soon brightened when he thought of something. "Chrome, how about you sleep with me and Tsuna tonight?"
"E-Eh?" Chrome looked at Giotto as if he was insane.
Tsuna lifted his head and then just dropped back onto the ground. When his father decided on something, there was no way Tsuna could reason him out of it. "I'll go get the extra pillows then." The brunet heaved himself off the ground and started to make way to the hallway closet.
Giotto chuckled as he made his way to his room with Chrome, clutching onto his clothes. "Chrome, do you know what I think about nightmares?"
"What?" Chrome could not see how having bad dreams be a good thing, but the smile on the blond's face made her confused. For one, they were scary and always left an icky feeling behind.
"When you have nightmares, you can always use that as an excuse to sleep with your favorite people." Giotto chuckled when he saw Chrome's puzzled face when he put her down on his bed. "How about I tell you a story? But I have to warn you, I'm not the best storyteller and it's not really a happy story."
Chrome hesitantly nodded as she watched Giotto lie next to her and supported his head on the palm of his hand, looking down at her.
"Once upon a time, there was a family of three, a father, a mother, and a son. They were a happy family, but one day, the mother died. The father was sad that he lost his love, but he had to be strong for his son. However, because he tried to keep a strong front, he ended up having nightmares of losing his son one day but he did not want to tell anyone. Out of nowhere, his son wanted to sleep with him one day. The father thought his son was still bothered by the loss of his mother and just let his son into his bed. The father had the nightmare again and woke up with his son hugging him, saying 'I'll never leave you.' Since then, the nightmare rarely returned. The father knew it was because he had his son by his side that nightmares did not seem as scary as before. From that day on–"
"From that day on, the father would latch onto his son every single night, almost choking him in his death grip. Said boy managed to escape the man's grasp. Now, the father has found a new victim, his newly adopted daughter. She does not know what she has gotten herself into, but the son will save her from his father's evil clutches."
Giotto shot his son a look while the brunet smirked. "That is not true."
"Yeah…" Tsuna rolled his eyes as he lied on the side of the bed unoccupied by his father. "Who was the one was kept on begging me to sleep with him even though I was and still am fourteen?"
Giotto started sputtering incoherent words. "I– I– I was lonely…"
Tsuna rolled his eyes as he pulled the sheets up to his neck. "Night, Papa. Night Chrome." He draped an arm around Chrome in a protective manner and drifted off to sleep.
Chrome silently giggled at the two's exchange and looked at Giotto. "Thank you for the story, Giotto-san. I think I know what you're trying to say." She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to Tsuna for warmth.
Giotto looked down at the two children on his bed with a gentle smile. He settled down on the bed and glad that Chrome felt more at ease with him. He wondered if Chrome was going to be able to sleep comfortably tonight, but from the looks of it, he did not need to worry about it.
Giotto muttered a good night and draped his arm on top of both Chrome and Tsuna as if he was their shield.
A disheveled head popped out from beneath the comforter as a slight yawn escaped from the girl's mouth a she awkwardly sat up in the bed. She rubbed her good eye to rid of the haziness as she patted her hand around the bed, searching for her owl. When her fingers failed to find the familiar texture, Chrome realized where she was and shifted to her left and right to see if Giotto and Tsuna were still there.
To her surprise, they were not there. She scrambled off the bed and darted down the stairs. She grabbed onto the banister so she could catch herself if she slipped on one of the steps. She darted straight into the kitchen, because a sweet aroma from the kitchen was wafting through the living room. When she caught sight of the unruly brown hair, she sighed and took a step into the kitchen. "Tsuna-nii?"
The brunet looked up from his breakfast and was surprised to see Chrome awake so early. From what he could tell, she usually slept for an extra hour. "What's wrong?"
"I didn't find you or Giotto-san this morning, so I was scared…"
Tsuna smiled at his sister and went up and gave her a hug before ushering her up on a seat next to him. "Let me get you some breakfast before we go on an adventure today."
Chrome tilted her head in confusion. "But don't you have school today?" She could see that her brother was dressed in his school uniform.
Tsuna chuckled nervously as he placed Chrome's breakfast in front of her. "I guess I'm going to skip today. I'm sure no one would notice that I'm there except for my friends…" Tsuna's eyes landed on the clock sitting on the counter and they widened as he rushed out of the kitchen to the front door.
Chrome jumped off of her chair and followed her brother. There was urgency in his eyes. "Tsuna-nii…?" Chrome was surprised to see a male hanging onto her brother for dear life while another one was laughing off to the side.
"Look at that Hayato, Tsuna's not dead. He's just late."
"Shut up, you heartless idiot. And when did I give you permission to call me by my first name? Anyway, how would you know? There could have been a robber, or worse, a sociopath or a psychopath."
Tsuna groaned at his friend's exaggerated concern and resorted to pushing him off of him. "Hayato-kun, please get off of me. You're embarrassing me in front of Chrome."
The male immediately let go and noticed the small girl, looking at them with hesitation. "Damn, she's like a clone of Rokudo."
"Hayato-kun, please watch your language."
The silver-haired male stiffened at Tsuna's cold tone and nodded, quickly apologizing in the process.
Tsuna sighed and ushered Chrome to his side. "Chrome, these are my best friends. The one who hugged me is Gokudera Hayato and the one over there is Yamamoto Takeshi."
Chrome bowed politely and whispered a hello.
Takeshi knelt down in front of Chrome and ruffled her locks."She's cute, Tsuna."
Hayato awkwardly muttered in agreement. "So are you ready to go to school, Tsuna?"
Tsuna rubbed the back of his neck, looking apologetic. "I was thinking of skipping today. I was going to take Chrome to visit my dad."
Hayato sighed in defeat when he saw that face while Takeshi laughed.
"Tsuna, are you sure that's a good idea? Won't Alaude-san try to arrest you for skipping school?" reasoned Takeshi.
Tsuna shrugged. "Probably, but I don't think he'll toss me into a jail cell again."
Chrome's eye widened. "You went to jail, Tsuna-nii?"
Tsuna nervously laughed when he cast her a shy look. "Yeah… over a year ago…"
The small girl could only stare at the brunet. How could someone like him end up in jail? Surely, it must have been a misunderstanding.
Takeshi looked at the clock hanging on the wall and tugged on Hayato by his collar. "Well, I hope you guys have fun today. Tell me all about it tomorrow, Tsuna. Have fun, Chrome."
Hayato pulled himself away from Takeshi, who merely shrugged with a smile on his face. "Well, I bid you good day. Just be careful, Tsuna. I'll take notes for you and make sure you're excused. Hayato analyzed Chrome from to head to toe before nodding with a content expression on his face. " You may look like Rokudo, but I expect you to be a good sister to Tsuna, so be safe." Hayato knelt down and pat Chrome on the head before leaving through the front door.
Chrome just stared at the front door as Tsuna closed it. "Tsuna-nii?"
"Hm?"
"You have weird friends."
Tsuna nervously chuckled as he led them back to the kitchen. "I know…"
"…but they seem like nice people."
EXTRA NOTES:
Ah, this was such an awkward chapter to write. So awkward. I can only imagine these things happening, so I can't really convey my intentions properly. Anyway, thank you for reviewing the first chapter. I was surprised to get such a response. My writing has gone downhill, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It'll be nice to hear what you had to say. Please look forward to the next chapter.
Hahaha... Red String is the next story to be updated. Seriously, that story is a monster to tackle.
