Sawada 2:2
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October 2006
Gingerly approaching the front door with a nervous agent behind him, Sawada Tsunayoshi pushed the creaking door open… He made a mental note to oil it later. And as he turned his head, his eyebrows shot up in shock and mild dismay.
Dust!
Cobwebs!
Mold!
Tsuna felt his skin prickle and the fine hairs on the back of his neck rise. Turning to look at the estate agent at his back, he meekly questions, "How long did you say this house had remained empty like this?"
Shifting in discomfort she replies, "Roughly sixteen years. But are you really sure you want to stay here? There's a lot of bad history in this house." She ends with a worried squeak.
Tsuna blinks big brown eyes at her in confusion, "But didn't whatever happen, happened a long time ago?"
She fidgets, "That may be true but still… Sawada-san are sure you'll be-"
"I'll be fine Miura-san."
He says it so resolutely that she doesn't put up much of a fuss at him cutting her off.
"If you say so…" The woman mumbles. "But if you need anything at all, please call. I'll be more than happy to help!" The brunet could only give her a small but genuine smile at her sincere declaration.
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After the agent leaves, Tsuna wanders around to get a feel of the place, all the while checking around to see all that needed his attention for repairs. The ground floor was in perfect condition minus the state it was in with all the dust. He heads to the living room where his things were placed and rolls up the sleeves of his shirt to dig through the boxes he had dragged in.
Unearthing the cleaning supplies, he dumps them into the kitchen before he wanders up the stairs to check up on the rooms and attic.
Of course the moment he reaches the attic and takes one peep into the room, he quickly closes the door with a choking gasp. It was worse than the levels below!
Coughing slightly the brunet wanders into a bedroom to peak from a window, he spies a sizeable garage near the back of the manor and he brightens considerably. He had been concerned whether or not his car would be left to the weather outside. He goes to check it out.
Not long after he finishes his exploration, he sees the movers arrive. Steeling himself for a meeting, he goes to meet them. Remembering the living room he had cleaned a bit, he tells them to put his furniture there. The movers are just about as stunned as the brunet when they enter through the front door.
One of the elderly movers throws Tsuna a sympathetic gaze and says, "It's going to be murder cleaning up this place."
The brunet fights back a flinch when the man says 'murder' but he couldn't place the reason for his sudden fright. He gives the old man a convincing smile and says that he can handle the clean up on his own.
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It's just after one when he finishes up a take-out lunch, and with the right supplies in hand the vertically challenged brunet is ready to clean the house.
First he cleans the kitchen spotless, then goes to scrub the bathrooms and then dust and air the bedrooms out in that order. The house is fairly large so the brunet knows that the cleaning would take a while but Tsuna definitely wants to have a decent home cooked meal and a proper bath and a place to sleep, so the most important places get to be priority cleaned.
When Tsuna finally stumbles his way to clean up the bedrooms, his arms and legs are shaking like a new born cattle's. It has been ages since his last workout so the brunet is rather out of shape.
Not to mention, Tsuna had belatedly remembered that he was afraid of heights. And hadn't moved more than three steps off the ground, which meant straining his poor limbs to reach the places needing to be cleaned higher up the walls. If his best friend was still alive, he would have laughed himself out of oxygen before throwing the nearest bottle at him, if he had seen the position the brunet was in, out of pure amusement.
(Actually, he was fairly certain that he heard laughter at that moment, it just didn't sound like his best friend's.
Tsuna had been a tad too concerned that someone had broken in and was watching him to even think about being depressed. He checked all of the windows three times to make sure that no one had gotten into his new home before he was satisfied.)
Thankfully the bedrooms had a normal ceiling so his dusting and cobwebbing went a bit smoother than the one downstairs in the kitchen and bathrooms.
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And so, by the time he finishes cleaning the brunet is shaking all over and was sorely tempted to pass out.
Sighing dejectedly, he recalls that if he'd taken to doing something strenuous without help his best friend would run him a bath and reluctantly make dinner as if held by gun point, and then proceed to dump his stuff in the brunet's room for an impromptu sleepover for all his trouble.
Pausing in his attempt at hauling his suitcase full of clothes and necessities, Tsuna brought a hand up to cover half his face, a wretched sob bubbling past his trembling lips.
Honestly, Tsuna hadn't had the time to properly grieve his best friend's death. He had still been in shock. So it was no surprise to Tsuna now that he was all alone with his wandering thoughts…
He would finally break down.
Collapsed upon the staircase, clutching the still dusty wooden banister he sobbed his poor heart out. He was so lost in his own despair that he had not felt the touch of frigid fingers lightly combing through his hair.
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Head numb, the woozy male planted himself face first onto bed of one of the guest bedrooms. He'd seen the master bedroom and promptly noted that it was too large for him. Tsuna had spent most of his life very sheltered and boxed in that he couldn't settle down in a place that was wide and open. It made him feel vulnerable in all the worst ways.
Tsuna blamed that on his father. Speaking of, he should be expecting a call right about…
Riiiinnng!
Now.
Speak of the devil…
Groaning in misery, the brunet dug into his bag blindly. His swollen eyes sealed shut.
Finally getting a grasp on the ringing monstrosity he answered the call.
"Hello papa, how are you and mom?" he says tiredly.
"Haha! We're fine my little tuna fishy~ But I didn't call for you to ask about us. We want to know how you're doing!" his voice had boomed cheerfully, but there a hint of worry in there that was not very common in his father's voice.
"'We'? Is mom there with you?" he inquires.
"Hello there Tsu-kun~" he hears his mother coo at him over the line. His dad must have had the call on loudspeaker.
Huffing in amusement Tsuna forces himself onto his elbows and switches the cell from his left ear to the right.
"Hi mom! And before dad thinks I'm changing the subject… Guys, I'm fine."
He hears his father make a disbelieving snort but it's his mother that speaks next.
"But Tsu-kun it's barely been a week since the funeral here in Italy. Are you sure that you're alright? The two of you were so close…"
Tsuna feels his eyes burn behind his eyelids but he'd decided he cried enough for today.
Taking a deep breath he says, "I'm trying to cope… Honestly, sometimes it feels like he's still around. It's creepy as hell but I don't feel so alone." He jokes to his parents.
The line went deathly quiet and Tsuna started to chew his lip in worry.
"Tsunayoshi…" his father says quietly. "Are you sure you don't want to come back to Italy? We know we've been pushing you into being more independent-" At the phrasing, Tsuna cracks open his eyelids and squints in concentration to figure whether or not his father was yanking his chains, "-but we're worried about you. Can't you come back home to us?"
Tsuna would have been sorely tempted to take them up on their offer, but years of being by his pushy best friend's side made him stubborn and impromptu.
The man might have been buried in Palermo, Sicily. But he had been killed here in Japan.
Tsuna wanted to at least spend his time in the country his best friend was murdered in before coming back home. But that was his cowardice talking.
Although he won't move back in with his parents, he couldn't go back to that homely flat he and his best friend had bought and settled down in just yet. He's only here because he can't face that empty house by himself.
He was running away and he damn well knew it.
"Nah, I'll stay here for a while. I won't come back home either, I have a home to go back to when I arrive you know." He says lightly.
Iemitsu huffs and grumbles, "I knew it was a bad idea for the two of you to become friends…"
Tsuna rolls his eyes with a look of contempt. His father never did like that the other had taken a liking to Tsuna. It physically and mentally burned the blond every time he saw them side by side.
The sound of his mother's startled, "Dear!" and slap to the head or what Tsuna assumed was a slap to the head. He really hoped she hit him on the head.
His father's scandalized and whiny, "Honey?!" only added to his satisfaction.
Snorting lightly, Tsuna rolled onto his back and rubbed his blurry eyes. "Well it was nice to hear from you guys but I'm bone tired. I'll call you guys tomorrow before lunch." He stifled a yawn. "Okay?"
His mother gave a fond hum over Iemitsu's whining, "Okay Tsu-kun! Have a good rest. Mama loves you~"
"Love you too… Bye dad…" Tsuna trailed off and hung up before his dad could keep him up longer.
He switched off the lights.
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The brunet woke up ten minutes before his alarm went off and just laid there blinking in confusion.
His poor head was pounding.
When he glanced at the too bright screen of his cellphone he groaned. It was barely four in the morning and here he was, up at an ungodly to finish cleaning his house. Tsuna glanced down at his clothes and huffed. He hadn't taken a bath last night and just fell asleep in his dirty shirt and stained slacks.
Brushing back the long bangs from his face, his deactivated his alarm before it could scream at him and crawled into the shower. After cleaning himself up he groaned once again at his stupidity. He should have just went ahead and cleaned the house first before taking a bath. That way, he didn't have to take two baths.
Donning an overused white shirt and a cycle shorts, the man hustled himself into the kitchen to whip up a quick breakfast before starting his tireless day.
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It took a grand total of nine hours before he finally finished cleaning the whole place out while putting everything into place aka dragging his furniture around the manor. The brunet was mighty proud of himself. His slave driver best friend was something else indeed. He outright collapsed on the cold harsh dirt outside of the garage with a satisfied hum.
His stomach rumbled and the brunet then realized that maybe he had missed lunch.
Oh who was he kidding, he knew that he had missed lunch. And not just lunch but his call to his suddenly overprotective and overbearing parents.
Tsuna wandered into his home, dust and grime ridden, with his cleaning supplies and picked up his cell phone from the counter in the kitchen where he'd left it. A trail of sweat ran from his temple to cheek.
48 Missed Calls
76 Text Messages
All from his parents.
Tsuna sighed. He wondered not for the first time, why his parents suddenly decided to care. The brunet wouldn't have minded this level of coddling when he was younger but now, when he is already a grown man…?
Dialing his parents' home number he wandered around the kitchen pulling some items out for a late lunch while his mother answered on the first ring.
He spent a solid thirty minutes on the phone talking with his mother before hanging up. Tsuna stared at his half eaten sandwich with a blank look on his face before shoving it into the microwave. He then went into the bathroom to clean himself up.
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Drained of energy and speechless, Tsuna went and crawled into his unmade bed. His warm and moist skin felt great against the silk sheets and he rolled around like a little child. He laughed softly and curled himself onto a pillow to take a short nap.
The dark heaviness lurking within his conscious which had taken a seat on the back burner of his mind just temporarily, surged forward with a burning lunge.
The slumbering brunet never heard the creaking of the wooden floor boards nor did he see the trailing green glow of the eyes that watched him cry out in his sleep.
TBC…