Tsuna POV
After the Nezu incident the day past rather smoothly. In PE we were playing baseball. As usual I was the last to be picked. No one ever wanted me on their team because I was "no-good". Despite The help of the bullets my coordination is not even at average.
As the other students tried to figure out who's team I would be on, I started to daydream about the pranks I have been pulling around the school. It was not unusual for students to leave school with a different hair color or other small pranks to happen. It's been harder for me to pull off small things like dying someone's hair a different color, but I practice on the students or teachers that bully me. No one has ever connected me to these events and people have long since stopped looking for the prankster since the pranks are not harmful. Some of the more superstitious students started creating different stories about why they keep happening ranging from a mischievous ghost to different yokai.
"Isn't it all right? Just join our team," Yamamoto said yanking me back to the present.
"Are you serious Yamamoto? You don't have to let that loser in," a student on his team said with a disgruntled expression.
"Don't be stingy. I just half to keep them from hitting, right?" Yamamoto replied with his usual carefree (fake) grin.
"Well if Yamamoto says so then okay," another person agreed reluctantly.
Yamamoto is the star of the baseball team. Everyone respects him for his talent in baseball. I get the feeling, though, that if he ever lost the ability to play then they wouldn't care about him one way or another.
As we played Yamamoto kept hitting home runs. Despite this we still lost and, of course, I was blamed even though I was on the bench the whole game. Because of this I was left standing,with a broom in hand, to sweep the whole gym alone.
"Help has arrived!" I heard a deceptively cheerful voice call out as I was thinking about just putting the broom away and going home.
Turning around I saw Yamamoto walking towards me with a broom swung over his shoulders.
Deciding to keep with my character I apologized, "I'm sorry Yamamoto. Just when you let me into the team..." I trailed off.
"It's not your fault," he told me. "You've been doing really well lately. Unlike my skills in baseball."
I looked over at him as he started sweeping. There was a small tremor in his right arm.
"Lately no matter how much I practice my average is dropping and my fielding is screwing up," he continued. "At this rate this will be the first time I don't start since I began playing baseball. Tsuna what should I do?" He asked quietly.
"You're asking me?" I asked with real curiosity.
"Just kidding," he said with that unbearably fake grin. "You've just been so reliable lately that..." he didn't finish.
I put the broom up as I considered what he said.
As I walked past him I stopped, "If you keep pushing so hard you'll break."
"In more ways than one," was left unsaid as I continued on my way home leaving the baseball star to think about what I said.
That night I looked out the window, as was my daily habit, and a small feeling of dread made its way into my stomach. The storm clouds were swelling and the rain was about to fall.
~next morning in class~
The feeling of dread had not lessened at all during the night and an almost ghostly snap had echoed in my head as I woke up. It seems like my advice wasn't taken to heart. This thought was confirmed when someone bursted into my classroom yelling that Yamamoto was about to jump.
Everyone rushed to the roof except for me. I stood there for a moment and thought about why I should care. It was hard to remember sometimes. Then memories of how Shinichi always tried to talk criminals of the edge and how Yamamoto was one of the few people in my class that didn't make fun of me had me sighing and running after the class.
"Besides, Hibari would be crankier than usual if he had to have a body removed and blood cleaned off the grounds of his beloved school," I thought with grim humor.
By the time I reach the roof there was already a crowd surrounding Yamamoto who was standing on the ledge of the roof back when you gets the rickety old fence. I pushed my way through to the front and saw the cast on his right arm. I shook my head. I warned him something would break, be it his arm or the mask he wears. I walked forward with a sigh.
"Please stop Yamamoto," I said quietly. The crowd was a good distance away, afraid that getting too close would cause him to jump. They couldn't hear a word that was being said.
Yamamoto turned around. "Tsuna. If you came to stop me then it's no use. You should know how I feel. For someone called no good all the time you can understand the feeling of wanting to die instead of failing at everything."
"No I'm afraid I don't understand Yamamoto. I have things I want to live for, people I want to live for. People who love me despite being called no good by almost everyone. You have people like that too," I told him.
He looked at me eyes but wary and hopeful.
"How would your dad feel if he was told you had jumped because of a broken arm? He loves you, baseball skills or no. If you're willing to ask you would find that many people care about you and not your skills at baseball. The question is are you willing to step down from there and find them?" I held out my hand and with tears in his eyes he took it. "Good. Now, won't you take off that fake smile and show me the real you?"
After hearing that he smiled, a real smile that seemed to wash away any worry you might have and give you the peace you need. I smiled in return. He started to climb onto the roof when the old chain link fence broke and he started falling backwards. I grabbed onto him but was pulled down as well.
"No! I refuse. As Kaitou KID, former or not, I refuse to die because of a fall from a measly three story building!"
With that thought I felt the flames inside me start to stir and the bullet to my head was the only push it needed to spring forward. For the first time the regret I yelled out had nothing to do with Shinichi and saving Yamamoto was an afterthought at best.
"FLY WITH MY DYING WILL!" I screamed as I grabbed Yamamoto and my flames started to push me up slowing our dissent.
I smiled as we landed gently onto the ground. It felt so good to fly in the air if only for a few seconds. The moment I set Yamamoto down the seal pounced, once more binding my soul. I could feel Shinichi through the widening cracks of the seal. I could feel a faint impression of his emotions. Just a little longer and the seal with fully break.
"Are you okay Yamamoto?" I asked.
"Thanks to you Tsuna. Thank you for saving me" he said with a soft smile.
"I really was an idiot,wasn't I?" He asked meekly then he turned shy, "You know how are you were saying that if I looked I would find people who cared about me not my skills? Would you be my friend?"
"Of course," I told him with a smile that warmed his soul.
As we were walking back to school Yamamoto stopped looking like he just remembered something.
"Yesterday you told me that if I kept pushing so hard that I would break. You ment more than just my arm didn't you?" He asked.
I just smiled and kept walking. "Come on we're already late to class. Don't want Hibari to come bite us to death now do we?" I called over my shoulder.
He stared for a moment the ran to catch up, "Yeah you're right."
