Alaude and I shook hands. His dwarfed mine, which had already become soft after a month and a half of easy labor and nightly contemplation. It was only then that I began to take notice of his dress. He was carrying a satchel of some sort, the long strap crossing from his right shoulder down across his chest. He was wearing dark pants and a dark jacket, with a simple orange band pinned to the left sleeve. Ah, so this person is one of the Varia.
"If you would like to go sit on one of the couches over there, I would be glad to get you a drink," I said, pointing to the makeshift living room to the right and around the corner from the front door.
Adjusting the satchel's strap, he began walking towards the couch. "Water would be fine; thank you."
…
I forgot to mention: that morning, aside from Kyouya managing to hurt himself, he and I had a somewhat strange experience.
I had been trying to get Kyouya to wake up, shaking him and saying his name over and over. It was unlike him to sleep in but, well, I didn't really fault him for it. When he finally woke up, though, he immediately sat up, apparently shocked.
Needless to say, it was somewhat painful when our heads crashed together.
As I was nursing my sores, I opened my mouth to say "good morning". Instead, though I'm not sure why, the first thing to tumble out of my mouth was, "You have really nice eyes."
He looked at me as though I'd just told him that all the wheat in the field had spontaneously turned purple because there was an infestation of hummingbirds.
"I mean, I've never really seen that color before, and I think they're really nice to look at." I was most definitely rambling thoughtlessly. "And, in a way, I guess… I like how they're not… bright like mine are, but they're really recognizable and all. And-"
"What time is it?"
"Um… almost breakfast time. I'd say we have about fifteen minutes or so."
Bolting out of bed, he ran into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. After a moment, though, he opened it again, zipping over to the closet to grab some clothes. As he went back into his new private quarters, he pointed at me. "We'll talk later."
…
I guess I was really happy to have someone new (to me) come to Namimori. I stayed pretty close to Alaude for several hours, talking to him and trying to make him feel comfortable (though he apparently came by a lot? That's what I inferred from everyone else's reactions to him) until Kyouya came and forcibly dragged me away to help him replace some lightbulbs down in the cellar.
"You don't like Alaude very much, do you?" I asked him, trying to touch the still-hot bulb. "Are you sure this is burnt out? It's still really hot."
"Yes. The filament snapped out while I was getting whetstones."
"The what snapped when you were getting what? Ow!"
"Careful. The filament is what lights up; when the bulb burns out, it snaps and becomes useless. Whetstones are used to sharpen blades; one of the supervisors came over yesterday and asked to have some delivered over. Help me carry them later."
"Oh. Okay."
I was about to continue speaking when, much to my surprise, Kyouya jumped in first. "And to answer your earlier question, no; I do not like that official very much."
"Why n- eek!" While I fumbled with the cooling lightbulb, the replacement slipped out of my left hand. Thankfully Kyouya caught it before it could fall too far. "Why not? He seems like a good person."
Though I couldn't see him because I was looking up and the flashlight was pointed at the light fixture, I could sense Kyouya's twisted frown in the silence that followed. "He may be a good person somewhere in there, but I don't think that he fulfills some of his responsibilities properly."
Responsibilities… were not something that I was particularly fond of at the time. Even now, I feel that I require certain amounts of freedom. I will admit, however, that complete and utter freedom is daunting and somewhat overwhelming.
I climbed down from the ladder, making for the switch to check the light. "I think he'd make a great father… in a different environment."
"Maybe; I wouldn't know."
…
I've never discussed mealtimes, have I? I'll do that now, then.
My experience with meals at Namimori was… almost like being in a school. By which I mean that we didn't officially have assigned seats, but we tended to sit in the same spots. Giotto often sat at the head of the table, but would occasionally switch it up and sit somewhere along the sides. The table itself was long and rectangular, probably able to seat ten or twelve people, even though were usually a mere four of us sitting to eat: Giotto, Dino, Kyouya, and me. Kyouya always went to the kitchen and brought my portion back with him, so I suppose I always thought that either Dino or Giotto did the cooking in between whatever else it was that they did. Sometimes, though, one of the supervisors would come over for dinner or breakfast. Usually it was Reborn, but sometimes Colonello and Lal would swing by in the mornings- they tended to be together, both in place and mindset. I would only later learn that Basil and Oregano really only left the kitchen during the night to sleep (aside from using the toilet, of course), when they would sleep in the room directly adjacent to it, connected by a door in case they woke up in the middle of the night to smell bread burning.
Anyway, Giotto usually sat at the head of the table, but sometimes he wouldn't. I think that he got tired of always having to act as a leader among us. We usually clumped to one end of the table; even Kyouya must have found it hard to sit so far apart from everyone else. When Giotto sat at the head of the table, Dino would usually sit at his right hand, then Kyouya at his left, and I on Kyouya's other side. When Reborn came over, though, either he or Giotto would sit on Dino's right side, and the other would sit at the head. Colonello and Lal sat next to each other next to Dino. (Thinking about it now, I wonder whether they had always sat opposite to Kyouya, or if that was only after I came and was seated next to him.)
The meals themselves didn't change much from the meals that I had gotten out in the field, aside from the fact that we sat in chairs at a table under a light, instead of on dirt under trees beneath the sun. At Namimori, though, I started to notice a slight pattern in the meals. We'd usually have more perishable goods like meat or eggs (a novelty) early in the week, and towards the end we would have vegetable soups or rice. Cheese was a rarity and treated almost like currency… except that, out in the field, everyone was always so hungry that they ate it almost immediately. In the mansion, Dino showed me how to melt the cheese over, for example, soup, so that it could be put on bread. Chocolate was something that was available to us in the mansion, but not in the field (because it would melt); but when I say that it was "available to us", I mean that we would receive maybe a square the size of my two thumbs together from the tip to the first joint once every other week, if we were lucky. I didn't mind, though. Kyouya wouldn't let me keep it in our room- he said that a bug infestation was the last thing we needed- but I would always hold onto it… all day if I could, just nibbling slowly at it until it got dark, when I would savor the last bits before getting ready for bed.
That said, with Alaude here, our routine was changed by his presence alone. Dino all but pushed Alaude into the head seat (he looked somewhat surprised, but also resigned to it) before sitting on his left side. Kyouya sat on Alaude's right, pulling me into the seat next to him. After a moment, though, Kyouya got up and shepherded me into switching spots with him. (That hadn't made sense to me at the time.) Even Basil and Oregano came out, eating at the table next to Dino, with Basil seated in between the two adults. The meal wasn't much, just like always: warm bread, a slice or two of meat each depending on their body size (it was Tuesday… or maybe Wednesday? One of those two. Not a day where we'd usually have meat, I have to say), some mashed potatoes, and bits of greens.
We ate our lunch in near silence, but I felt slightly strange being seated between Kyouya and Alaude. It was like being stuck at a point between the past and the future. Partway through the meal, though, Alaude tapped my shoulder. "Don't leave the vegetables," he said when I looked up. "They're good for your health; don't let them go to waste."
I stuttered. "Oh, uh, sorry." Next to me, Kyouya stifled his laughter. (I don't think anybody else noticed- he's very good at hiding his emotions- but I could tell.)
"Is that enough for you? You're probably still growing."
"Um, yeah, it's fine. This is enough."
"Alright. If you need more, just say so, because Byakuran's efforts make sure that nobody in Vongola goes hungry."
"Right. I'll- I'll do that. Thank you for your concern."
Kyouya suddenly got up, saying he was going to go get a glass of water. I could hear him snickering in the kitchen.
…
It had been a while since I'd been out of the mansion, not counting helping Dino with the washing. It was strange to walk backwards in space and what seemed to be time: Kyouya and I followed the path around through the trees, and I realized why he had told me to change before we left. Those who work in the mansion had much nicer clothes than those who didn't, and the difference would have been all too obvious; like the animals that they are, humans can attack anything that they can scapegoat during periods of extreme stress. We were carrying the whetstones by using our (purposefully) too-big shirts as a sort of pocket in front.
Because it was just a little bit past lunch, all the workers were out in the field. The supervisors, like always, were sitting on or next to the store shed, talking in quiet voices. Reborn was the first to notice us (I saw the slight tilts of his neck and head), but Colonello was the first to react: he stood up and walked over to us, meeting us halfway. "Hey," he greeted me, waving his hand.
"H… hey," I replied.
"Haven't seen you in a while. Doing well?"
"Yes, very. Um… we have work to do."
He paused, then laughed. It sounded like spring rain, just like how Basil's laugh had sounded like the pot bubbling: both promised the beginning of something new and wonderful, bringing life out of desolation. "Right, right. There's always work to do. Come on." He turned and walked back towards the shed with Kyouya and me following. There was a figure out in the field who caught my eye- he straightened up as we walked by him, but Kyouya pulled me along by the arm so I didn't get a good look at the person's face.
Lal spotted him. "Delle Stelle! Keep working; you just had lunch break!"
He jumped and called back, though he sounded like he wasn't at all used to shouting. "I'm sorry!"
I knew whom he was: it was easy to recognize that voice, even when it was used in a way I'd never heard before. I didn't have to look at the face; I couldn't have seen it anyway, since I didn't have my glasses (Kyouya's or- suggestion).
As Kyouya and I came close, Reborn hopped off the roof of the shed as easily as I could have jumped across the space between two windows… okay, that wasn't a good analogy. As easily as I could have hopped off of a curb, then. "Hey," he said to us. Colonello turned to stand next to him while Lal kept an eye on the workers. "Thanks for coming out."
"It's no trouble," Kyouya said, averting his gaze to watch the workers. "We've been in your service too, so we're repaying a debt."
He nodded before pointing to the shed. "Mind if we ask for your help sharpening some of those, too? They're dull, and we'd prefer to keep those guys working if possible."
I looked to Kyouya, and he nodded in response to Reborn's question. "Not at all. This kid will be helping."
Reborn nodded. "Right; come on, then."
Colonello went ahead of us, bringing some scythes out of the shed, which he placed carefully on the ground on a large plastic sheet. "Just to keep as much dust as possible off of the blades," he said when he noticed my questioning look. "Lal and I are going to help, so we need a bit of room."
Sure enough, Reborn seemed to glide away while Lal came towards us. Sitting herself down without so much as a glance at us, she took the whetstone that Colonello handed her and then started her work.
…
By the time Reborn called the workers in from the field, we were almost done sharpening, but not quite. I watched as they came back: no pair of them had more than half a basket of grain… the one solo worker, though, came back with his basket nearly full. As they came back, Reborn pointed out what they were to do, and that the whole task would be over quickly if nobody slacked off.
A lanky-looking young man, perhaps two years older than I was and with dusty brown hair, came and sat next to me. He had a relaxed half-smile, and eyes full of space and stars. "Hello," I greeted him as he sat down. I scooted over to give him a bit more room.
He smiled warmly at me before turning to his work. "Hello."
We worked silently for a bit until he asked me a question. "Do you think this is alright?"
I looked. "You don't need to grind the blade. You can just slide the whetstone over the edge, like this." I demonstrated. "It might seem slow, but I think that this way is better."
He watched, then chuckled. "Yes, it does seem like it. I'll try that, then."
We worked again, and this time, we kept working while we spoke in hushed voices, keeping secrecy even where none was needed. "What is your name?" he asked.
"Tsuna." I let the name roll off of my tongue; I was used to it by then. "And you?"
He paused for a moment before answering, "Fuuta." He laughed a little through his nose. "My names don't match; I had to take a boat before I got on a train. I don't know how long ago that was."
"I just got on a train… what is the ocean like?"
He seemed genuinely happy as he spoke. "It's big… really big. Bigger than you can imagine. When you're surrounded on all sides by the sea, or even just on one side, you can feel like there are infinite possibilities." He paused again; when he began, his voice was even softer than usual. "There were so many islands near where I lived, and most were uninhabited. If you could get to any of them- by boat, or even sometimes by swimming- they were lush and beautiful… I'd find remnants of houses and streets and even parks or play structures, but never people. Sometimes, there would be writing- whole novels written onto the sides or insides of buildings, with pieces missing or broken or, rarely, completely whole… those stories, they let me think. I don't regret that. I think that learning to have thoughts was one of the best things I've ever learned. I know it."
…
"Eep!"
Kyouya looked up, halfway through buttoning his shirt. He always buttoned from the top and went backwards. "What?" He sounded a little bit annoyed.
I looked back at him, turning slowly. "Th- th- there was someone o- outside the window…"
He sighed, finishing off the buttons before coming over to stand next to me. He looked at the curtains, then glanced at me. "What makes you say that; it doesn't seem like it to me."
"I heard it!" I felt a little bit panicked. "There was thumping, like footsteps, and the way the bush rustled… it had to've been a person!"
He sighed again, and moved the curtains out of the way.
I'd never seen the view from the window before, but it was beautiful. Being on the side of the mansion, we had a clear view of Namimori's treeline boundary, which isolated it from the road beyond. In between, though, there was a garden, apparently well-kept. I marveled while Kyouya simply unlatched and opened the window partway with squeak here and there. He stuck his head out, looked around, then pulled back in. "There's nothing out there," he said, trying to slam the window shut by pulling with his weight. "Go to bed."
…
I don't know what sound it was that woke me up. Maybe it was a creak, or a thump, or a clack, or a click. All I knew were these few things:
It was the dead of night, which meant nearly no visibility, especially with the curtains closed.
Kyouya was sleeping peacefully with his back turned to me and the door.
There was somebody in the room, walking towards the bed.
