A/N: Sorry it took a bit longer to update! I was busy, but here it is~ Thanks to all the reviewers: 666 Hell Ring and EvilBoyzR2Cute! Don't forget to vote for the poll on my page, it'll help me progress in the story! Do tell me if you think Aki is too Mary-Sue (I hope not! ) and thank you for all your support.
666 Hell Ring gave me an idea for the omake at the end, so I hope you guys enjoy that too~ (It's actually quite long too ^^;;) Tell me what you guys think of the omake, not sure if I gave you guys what you wanted (couldn't quite imagine Yamamoto drunk...I might revise it one day if I get additional ideas XD) If I messed up any info on the drinks, don't blame me, I don't drink~ (and I'm underaged) XDD
I apologize if the fight scene is meh as well...I'll work on it!
Please review~ Reviews and constructive criticsm are welcome! It'll give me more motivation, hehe. Thanks for reading!
"I'm going to bite you to death, herbivore." Hibari wielded his tonfas threateningly, glaring at the none too innocent Aki.
She tried to calm him, a small shiver of unease running down her back. "Hibari-sempai. Please calm down. I'll apologize if you like."
"I'd rather you fight me." He clanked his tonfas together, rushing at Aki, who readied her shurikens, really wishing she could be anywhere but there. How she hated pain, well at least when she was on the receiving end of it. So maybe Hibari didn't scare her in quite that way but he was certainly scary.
Aki had come onto the rooftop during the lunch break since it was a windy day and she secretly loved the feeling of her skirt ruffling around her knees. It felt like so much fun and the wind felt really good after being in the stuffy classroom all morning long. She had found Hibari stretched out, sleeping, with Hibird perched on his head. She could have left, knowing the rumors (mostly true) surrounding the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, but nooooooo, she had to stay and admire his bird. It was so cute and small, and squishy! She couldn't help but stare at its downy feathers, which meant staring at Hibari at the same time. He's pretty small for his age, she couldn't help noticing his tinyness compared to say, Dino, who still loomed over Aki like the freaking Hulk.
"Hey," she whispered to the bird. "What's your name?" She was pleasantly surprised when it started to sing "Midori tanabiku namimori no~!"
"Kya! You can sing the school song?" she squealed, scooping the bird off the top of Hibari's head. Luckily for her, Hibari was still asleep. "You're too cute. What's your name?" She awaited the bird's reply with anticipation, thrilled to pieces that the bird could sing the school song! Heck, she didn't even know it herself.
"Hibari. Hibari," it chirped, cozying itself in her hands. Aki giggled, the scary Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee had taught the bird to sing and say his name? How mysteriously interesting, Hibari hated people but secretly loved animals!
"But what does Hibari-sempai call you? How about I give you my own special name?" She studied the little yellow bird for a moment before deciding with a wide grin. "I'm going to name you Namimori-chan! So I can call you Nami-chan or Mori-kun if I want, right?" The bird just blinked blankly at the girl and cheeped, "Hibari! Hibari!"
"No, no, no," she shook her head. "Aki! Aki! That's my name, not Hibari! Hibari! Hibari!" The girl gently placed the bird back onto Hibari's dozing head and laid down on her stomach, facing the bird. "Try it. 'Aki.' Ah-ki. Aki." I must have nothing better to do if I'm talking to a bird like it's going to answer me. Oh well, it's a cute bird, hehe.
"Ri! Ri! Mi! Ki!" the bird twittered nonsensically. "Ki! Ki! Ki!" Excited by Hibird's progress in learning her name, Aki clapped her hands in delight.
"That's right! Just one more syllable. 'Ah-ki." Aki! Just a bit more, Nami-chan."
"Ki! Ki! Ki!" it chirped. "Aki! Ki! Ki! Aki! Ki! Ki! Aki!"
"Yay, Nami-chan, you did it! With just a little more practice, you'll get it all the time. You're a genius bird!" Aki praised the bird, stroking its feathery head with her forefinger. A sudden thought caused her to giggle. She wondered what happened if Nami-chan needed to go while it was on Hibari's head. The mental image of little pellets littering Hibari's hair was too amusing not to laugh at.
"What are you laughing at, herbivore?" Aki hadn't noticed Hibari stirring slightly or him opening his eyes to glare at her. He sat up, with Hibird still comfortably sitting on his head. "People who disturb my sleep, I bite to death."
Before she knew what she was doing, she poked him in the cheek and said, "I was laughing at the idea of Nami-chan leaving pellets in your hair. And I'm not a vegetarian. I like meat too, you know." She slapped a hand over her mouth in horror as she finished rambling. Did I really just say I was thinking about the bird leaving dung in his hair? He's going to bite me to death!
"Nami-chan?" Hibari raised a brow at this. " It doesn't matter what excuse you make, you're going to have to pay the repercussions for waking me up." Hibari pulled himself elegantly upwards, pulling out his tonfas to challenge Aki, his eyes dark and irritated.
And that was how she ended up with an annoyed looking Hibari plus dangerous tonfas. Oh, that and a cute little birdie she named Namimori. Hibari swung at Aki's stomach with violent speed, which she blocked with her arms, wincing as they made contact. They exchanged hits in a flurry of tonfas and fists; well actually, Hibari fought while Aki blocked. Hibari was too fast for Aki to actually land a hit, so she could only defend, her arms bruising from taking the brunt of his attack. Aki threw a shuriken at his face, only to have his tonfa knock it from its course. I change my mind! Hibari-sempai is really scary after all! He's like a serial killer or something. That murderous glare of his is quite something!
"This is getting boring. Let's end it now." After saying this in his usual monotone, Hibari swung his leg behind her knees, kicking her to the ground. Her eyes pricked with tears at the impact but before she could lift her arms to protect herself, Hibari pummeled her with his tonfas, like quicksilver. "Herbivores should just die." With that, the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee walked away, his jacket fluttering in the breeze, with Hibird following him calling "Defeat! Defeat!"
Damn, that hurt. Aki checked herself for injuries, her arms covered in bruises, and she was afraid Hibari had broken her ribs, it hurt so much. She groaned, winded from her "fight" with Hibari. Slowly standing up on weak legs, she chucked her shuriken over the fence in pained anger, forgetting the fact that they were pretty expensive because they were custom made, monogrammed with SA, and of course, they were cobalt blue. They hadn't helped her in the fight at all, the useless things. That was completely one-sided. I didn't realize I was so weak. Or maybe Hibari's just the devil. Aki wiped at the tears that hung at the edge of her eyes, hating her pathetic state. She hated how she always cried when she got hurt badly, it was annoyingly embarrassing. But most of all, she hated pain. It hurt so damn much! So she did the thing she always did when this happened, she slid down against the fence and curled up and just tried to rock the pain away, the dry fire that blazed somewhere under her ribs raging on.
Tsuna looked around the classroom, noticing the absence of his cousin shortly after lunch break. It didn't bother him too much since she often went off to explore on her own. It was after the break ended and class had already gone on for an hour that he started to worry. Sensei seemed to have forgotten that he had a new student, it was only the second day after all. Sure, she may not participate in class, she had already learned everything, and she didn't really have any friends, but that wouldn't mean she would skip, would she? Maybe something had happened to her! Images of Aki taunting bullies and then engaging in fights flashed through Tsuna's mind. He shook his head in denial, although he knew it was probably the case.
"Sensei," said Tsuna, standing up, "Aki hasn't come back to class yet. Is it alright if I go look for her?" The teacher glared at Tsuna but just gave an annoyed nod. Kyoko gave Tsuna a worried glance before turning back to her work. Gokudera piped up saying that he was going with Tsuna. Sensei refused, saying that Aki was not Gokudera's problem. Gokudera followed Tsuna anyway, giving the teacher a thorough scowl and said "Any problem of the Tenth's is my problem as well."
"Where do you think Aki could be, Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna asked, despite the obvious fact that Gokudera didn't care about her at all.
Gokudera shrugged. "I dunno. Where did she go last time for lunch? She might have been there again."
Tsuna smiled, Gokudera-kun was so smart! "You're right, Gokudera-kun! Aki went with Yamamoto to the roof before, so she might be on the roof, let's go check!" They dashed up the stairwell to the roof, bursting through the door.
"Aki-chan," called Tsuna, "are you up here?" Gokudera peered around, looking for the stupid girl who had made the Tenth all worried.
"Stupid girl, are you here? Answer the Tenth or you'll ge —" Gokudera tripped over Aki's shoes that were peeping out from her huddle. She seemed to be sleeping, tightly curled up, her arms around her drawn up knees. They couldn't see the blossoming bruises underneath her sleeves, and Hibari hadn't marked up her face.
"Aki! What were you doing, sleeping here?" exclaimed Tsuna in relief, glad to see she wasn't fighting anyone. "Class already started." When she didn't respond, he grabbed her arms and shook her a little, to which, Aki's head lolled to the side, her eyes still screwed shut. "Aki, wake up!" Tsuna shook her a bit more desperately.
"Tsu," her eyelids opened a bit, "na-nii. Let go please, you're hurting me." Tsuna stumbled back, letting her go. Suspicious, he rolled up her sleeves and gasped at the bleeding cuts and bruises. She had lined up some shurikens in her sleeve while fighting Hibari and he had slammed several of the sharp weapons into her flesh, and her arms were a mess. Aki fell back into a state of semi-consciousness, unable to handle the pain.
"We have to get you some help!" Tsuna tried positioning himself to carry Aki, but he just didn't have the arm strength to lift her. "Gokudera-kun, can you help me?"
Gokudera reluctantly complied, struggling to lift her. He grunted, "I'm not a jock and this girl is heavy. Yamamoto must have used all those stupid muscles of his yesterday. This girl is so much trouble!" Together, Tsuna and Gokudera managed to drag her to the doctor's office.
"Dr. Shamal, we need your help!" Shamal stepped from behind the curtain to see a panting Tsuna and Gokudera, carrying in-between them a bloodied and battered Aki.
"What happened to her? Anyone who beats up a girl is an enemy of mine!" exclaimed Shamal, gently placed her onto a cot, whipping out his cotton swabs and bandages. He shooed the two boys away, reassuring them that he would take care of her properly.
"Thanks, Dr. Shamal," Tsuna hung by the doorway, agonizing over how his cousin had been beat up. That was the worst state he had ever saw her been in, she was usually pretty good at fighting back. A faint thought crossed his mind, perhaps her opponent hadn't been an ordinary person at all. There were a few such people at Namimori, but none of them really beat up people for fun. Except for a certain Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee.
"You know, you look terrible today." Dino held up a pink dress to his body, then holding it out to Aki, he examined it. "How's this look?"
Aki moaned, "Of course I look terrible. I've got like a million bruises on my arms and I have a sprained wrist. Did I mention the horrific bruises from the chest down to my stomach? And that dress is hideous!" She snatched the dress with her left hand, throwing it onto the rack. "Who in their right mind would wear a dress that shade of pink? It's hot pink!"
Dino sighed, pulling out a soft blue shirtwaist dress, then thrust it at Aki. "These should match your eyes. Try it on, please?" Hours of shopping was taking its toll on Dino, who had to carry all the bags and Romario wasn't there to help out when he tripped down the stairs with all Aki's purchases. "You didn't even dress cute today, even when I said it's a date."
Aki called out from the dressing room, "I didn't think you were being serious, it's just a shopping day, right?" Dino could hear Aki stumbling around, trying to avoid all the hangers on the floor. "It's so messy in here, I wish they'd clean it up."
"Well, it's not actually a date. I'm training you, Aki-chan, so you can use your feminine wiles for the good of the family. You know, seducing the enemy into give you information," joked Dino slightly. He waited to hear her indignant reply and was not disappointed.
"DINO! Are you kidding me?!" She stomped out of the dressing room, the top buttons still undone. "I can fight too, you know. I don't need to sink to such low levels. Besides, what do you know about any of this stuff? Exactly how many girlfriends have you had?"
"A few, but I am older and more knowledgeable on this subject. Besides training you for the mafia, it'll be good to know this kind of stuff for when you date, right? I know for some unexplainable reason, you don't really like men, but I can see that you're warming up to some people here." Dino appraised her appearance, taking in the way the dress really brought out her eyes. "Not bad. So lesson one: when you go on a date, you have to dress nicely to impress the boy. Guys like it when you dress special just for him."
Aki bit her lip at the mention of Dino's past girlfriends, but just retorted huffily, "Who said I'm even interested in anyone? I'll kill someone before they can lay a hand on me. I'll wear whatever I want to wear, if someone really likes me, they'd better like how I look without all that fancy clothing."
Dino stepped closer to Aki, pulling her bruised and injured arms to show her. "So who touched you and got to live?" He slipped his fingers between hers, placing his palm on her wrist brace carefully, swinging his other arm around to hold her. "Dino-nii will go beat those guys up for you. Then I'll teach you how to seduce a guy so he won't hurt you. Sounds good?" Aki just knocked her forehead against his chest, her fingers tingling slightly, the skin on her neck prickling pleasantly from his touch.
"That stupid student of yours," she mumbled into his shirt, breathing in his scent happily. "Don't call yourself Dino-nii like that, it's so gross. And no need for that, I can beat up regular guys, but you can go beat that devil if you want. If you can that is, he's crazy strong." Dino chuckled, running a hand through her long hair. If she was a cat, Aki would have purred with content. That happiness was disturbed when said hand holder tilted her face upwards with a question.
"Kyouya did? He can be violent like that." She nodded in answer and then returned to breathing in his shirt. Dino rubbed her head softly, laughing again. "I'm sure he doesn't have a grudge against you. He just hates people in general, I think. You know, I don't remember you being so soft like this. You're always insulting me in some way or another. He must have really got you good, huh?" Aki just nodded again, clutching the front of his shirt with her free hand, her other hand still warmly interlocked with his.
"It's EXTREMELY nice to meet you," roared Ryohei, enthusiastically pumping Aki's left hand up and down. "My name is Sasagawa Ryohei and my motto is EXTREME!" Ryohei noticed her slightly pained look and glanced down at the hand he was gripping, noticing for once, the cuts and bruises that graced her arms. He said cheerfully, "I can see you're an EXTREME fighter, come join the boxing club if you want!" Aki smiled politely, losing the feeling in her hand from his tight handshake. Oh great, now I'm going to have two useless hands. I can't believe Kyoko-chan is related to this guy.
"It's nice to meet you, Kyoko-chan's brother. My name is Sawada Aki and no, I'm not going to join the boxing club, sorry," she offered an apologetic courtesy smile before turning away to her cousin, wringing her numb hands.
"Tsuna-nii! Where did all these people come from? I don't know them at all. For example, who the heck are these two?" she gestured at a confused looking Adult I-Pin and a sleepy Adult Lambo.
"Yo, young Aki-san, you're looking beautiful as usual," complimented Adult Lambo. Aki cringed at the sight of him, with some of his shirt undone, scurrying behind Tsuna, and clutched his elbow with her free hand.
Adult I-Pin looked around in confusion at the party, "Sawada-san, Aki-san, where am I? I have to deliver the ramen to Uncle Kawahira or the noodles will get soggy!"
"Tsuna-nii, that guy isn't even dressed properly, it's so —" she shuddered in distaste. "Who is he and can I kick him out? The girl at least looks nice, it seems like she brought free ramen."
Tsuna sighed; Lambo must have set off the Ten Year Bazooka when he was running to get the cake that Haru had brought. "This is Lambo, from ten years in the future. The girl is I-Pin from ten years in the future."
Aki eyed the cow shirt boy suspiciously; he didn't look like the Lambo she knew at all. "Prove to me you're Lambo." It was then that Bianchi entered the living room area with a poison cooking cake, that oozed with purple bugs and need I repeat, poison. She stopped when she saw Adult Lambo and then charged him, her face akin to an angry bull.
"ROMEO! Die now!" she punched the cake into his face, reducing Adult Lambo to tears, rubbing at the cake on his face. Aki giggled, finally believing it; who else but Lambo would cry so pathetically like that?
"I guess I'll have to believe you then, Lambo-kun. Really, that reaction was so lame." She laughed again, touching the buttons on her dress lightly. Aki had decided to wear the dress Dino had picked out for her and had already received compliments from Nana, Kyoko, Haru, and Bianchi.
"It's nice to meet you, Aki-nee," said Fuuta, coming up to Aki. "My name is Fuuta de la Stella, also known as Ranking Fuuta."
Startled at the sudden appearance of yet another unknown person, Aki smiled at the little boy. "Hi Fuuta-kun. What does the "Ranking" of Ranking Fuuta stand for?"
Reborn swung over on a vine, in a Tarzan cosplay. "Fuuta ranks things, obviously." To Fuuta, he said, "Why don't you rank Aki to show her what I mean?"
Dino strolled over, with a cup of juice in hand. He suggested with a playful smile, "Why don't you rank the top three things Aki-chan loves?"
"Alright," confirmed Fuuta, the room's contents slowly levitating into the air. "Aki-nee's three most loved things. Third is —" Fuuta's eyes looked to the ceiling, as if contacting the Ranking Star, his voice trance-like. "—money."
Yamamoto laughed, tumbling in the air, "Haha, no wonder Aki-chan only has instant ramen at home." The party guests couldn't do anything but float and listen amusedly so it was quiet when Fuuta announced the second item off his list.
"Aki-nee's second most loved thing is her parents." Nana smiled at this, looking over gently at her own son.
"Aki-nee's first most loved thing is —" Fuuta paused, "Tsuna-nii." Abruptly, the gravity was returned to normal and everyone was dumped onto the ground. Five year old Lambo started crying when he landed on his head, with I-Pin patting his shoulders comfortingly.
Tsuna flushed at this revelation while Haru shook her head passionately in agreement. "It's so BEAUTIFUL desu! Cousinly love is so MAGICAL desu," she fangirled. "Aki-san really loves Tsuna-san, ne?"
The loved cousin in question tried to distract attention from himself. "Aki, why is money third? I thought you liked chocolate!"
"But you buy chocolate with money, duh," answered Aki with a knowing smile. CRASH! Everyone could hear a loud ROAR that seemingly came from the bathroom.
"Dino, where's Enzo?" asked Reborn, sitting crossed leg on the table. Dino then made an oh crap face as he raced towards the bathroom.
"It seems like Dino must have left Enzo in the bathroom when he went to wash his hands," smirked Reborn, taking a sip of tea.
Tsuna put his hands to his head in panic, "Reborn! What are we supposed to do? Enzo's going to destroy my house…again!"
"Relax, No-Good Tsuna. Romario went to go help Dino." Just as Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief, Reborn grinned. "Not. Romario went to go get more cake. He won't be back for awhile."
In the midst of it all, there was a familiar voice at the door, "Geez, what a mess. Reborn, this better be worth the money you're paying me!"
"Mammon!" Tsuna and the rest of the Guardians tensed, shocked at the appearance of the illusionist of the Varia.
[OMAKE]
[Five Years Later: April 24th]
"Where are we going?" Yamamoto stumbled slightly as he was led into somewhere even darker than before. He couldn't even tell who was tugging him along, no, that was a lie, he knew it was Aki. He recognized her small hands and pushy ways. But with a blindfold on, it was impossible to tell. Yamamoto had just finished the day's classes when a dark limo had pulled up at the entrance of the school and two men in suits he didn't recognize tied a blindfold around his head, and shoved him in the car. It had all happened so incredibly fast, that he hadn't had time to pull out Shigure Kintoki, and the whole time he was in the car, he was cursing himself for his idiocy. Thoughts like what would happen if these men used him as a hostage to get to Tsuna? He'd never forgive himself. They finally stopped and familiar, teasing hands had grasped him and here he was.
Finally the creak of a door opening, and then…his ears were nearly blast off with Haru and Ryohei's EXTREME rendition of "Haru Yo Koi."
"HARUyooooooo tooki HARUyo, mabuta tojireba sokoniiii," belted Haru, loudening at the "Haru" parts.
"AIOOOOO KURESHI KIMI NO, NATSUKASHIKI KOEGA SURU!" sang-shouted Ryohei, waving his arm in motion with the beat. Aki slipped off Yamamoto's blindfold, pleased that her plan had worked, yet again. Now to put plan B into action.
"Surprise, Takeshi!" she spread her arms in a wide gesture around the room. "We planned a surprise party for you. It'll be fun; we have food, drinks, cake, and FUN!" He laughed at her outburst of enthusiasm, looking around at who else had attended. There was Tsuna in the corner, covering his ears at the combined EXTREME singing; Gokudera looking pissed in the same corner, also with his ears covered; Kurokawa was sitting on a couch, sipping red wine while reading a book, headphones covering her ears; Kyoko was dutifully sitting next to Hana, filming her friend and brother, smiling brightly; Chrome was sitting shyly next to Kyoko, fidgeting slightly while humming under her breath; and Basil was studying the song lists, furrowing his brows at some kanji and looking relieved at the katakana.
"Hey, Aki-chan, who were those guys in black before?" asked Yamamoto waving at everyone before taking a seat next to Basil.
"Those were my men," answered Dino, stepping into the room with a tray of bottles. "Aki-chan, I brought the drinks you ordered. I hope these are enough."
Aki beamed, everything was working according to her plan. "Hey, Takeshi-uma, why don't you have some? Dino bought some juice for us, go ahead and try some!"
Yamamoto agreed; after all, he wasn't surprised Dino had bought the drinks while Aki had ordered them; she was still stingy as ever. At least she hadn't made him pay for the drinks himself. He took a sip, surprised at how strong the "juice" tasted. Dino laughed at his reaction.
"That's limoncello. It isn't too bad, if you like sweet drinks; just try to drink it slowly," he recommended, uncorking a bottle of Merlot and pouring it into a fluted wineglass. "I had Romario fly in a couple types of drinks for you from Italy. Aki told me you wanted to try all kinds, so drink up!"
Looking up from the huge songbook in his lap, Basil enthusiastically reached for a bottle himself, commenting as usual, on his Master's teachings, "Master said to try some shochu while I was in Japan, so I will now partake!" At the same time, Aki poured herself some limoncello, settling herself next to the still drinking Yamamoto.
"How is it? How do you feel?" she asked him eagerly, downing her drink a bit too quickly in her excitement and tendency to eat things too fast.
Tsuna rushed over, snatching the drinks from Aki and Basil while giving them a reproachful glance. "Aki, Basil, you guys aren't twenty yet, so no drinking for you two!" Surprised, Yamamoto looked at his friend.
"Relax, Tsuna. It's just juice, right? Let them drink it; this actually tastes pretty good," grinned Yamamoto, finishing the contents of his glass, his cheeks starting to turn rosy. "Dino, can I have some more?"
Tsuna sighed inwardly at Yamamoto's usual cluelessness, holding the two glasses awkwardly. Gentlemanly as usual, Dino poured some more limoncello into Yamamoto's glass. He took the cups from Tsuna's strained fingers, but before he could set them down, Aki snatched her drink with a smile.
"Tsuna-nii, you should know, in Italy, there is no drinking age."
"That's right, Sawada-dono," inputted Basil, taking back his drink as well, "so please feel free to drink as well, since we are gathered here to celebrate Yamamoto-dono's commemorative 20th birthday."
Vongola X groaned inwardly again; sure that was great and all, but they were in Japan right now, not freaking Italy. Ever aware of his boss's needs, Gokudera crept over, leading Tsuna to another sofa across the room, massaging his shoulders. Why did that stupid girl have to drag the Tenth to the stupid baseball freak's "surprise" birthday party? They had important work to do, which most certainly did not involve lounging around, singing karaoke, and drinking alcoholic beverages.
"Mah, mah, Tsuna, Gokudera. Don't look so stressed. Aki and Dino went so far as to throw a party so you two might as well enjoy it," laughed Yamamoto, the words slipping loosely out. The song had ended and Haru bounced over happily, congratulating Yamamoto and pouring him even more limoncello, while Ryohei and Basil enthusiastically handed out drinks to everyone, which meant everyone, even the underaged. And let's not forget about Ryohei and Yamamoto's competition to see who could drink the most the fastest.
[THREE HOURS LATER]
"You are my soul! Soul! Itsumo sugo soba ni aru, yuzu renai yo, daremo jama dekinai," slurred Yamamoto with a flushed Gokudera hanging onto his shoulders. Aki stumbled drunkenly over a KO-ed Dino, who was slumped on the ground.
"You're ssssssoooooooooo useless D-D-Dino," she singsonged, while kicking him in the legs. "Why'd you fall asleep? Ahhh right, you're drunk too." She staggered over to the singing duo, trying to avoid the knocked out Tsuna, Kyoko, and Chrome. Hana was still on the couch, reading her book, frowning slightly at Yamamoto and Gokudera's off-key singing. Ryohei's head rested in her lap, drunkenly clutching her hand and moaning loudly, "Kyoko, Hana. Wet's go sakuwa washing TO THE EXTWEME!"
Basil, surprisingly, was still sipping his shochu calmly while flipping through the books to see which song to sing next. He had gotten so excited singing enka that he hadn't had too much alcohol. Haru sat next to him, devouring the remains of the cake, chewing loudly, and then gulped down the rest of the lemonade. Or what she thought was lemonade. Like Basil, she had been too caught up in karaoking to drink much, enthusiastically picking out all the love songs to sing, so she could serenade her Tsuna-san. Too bad for her, Tsuna was force-fed one shot of tequila and was out, along with Kyoko and Chrome. He had gone down, mumbling, "Nooooooooooooooooo, I'm not twenty yet!"
"Takeshi-uma," giggled Aki, slinging an arm around Yamamoto's neck, shoving Gokudera out of the way, whom promptly fell straight to the ground on weak legs. She whispered into his ear, "Sooooo, tell me what happened five years ago in my room that first time. What did I doooooooooooooo?" Yamamoto turned his head to her quizzically, his mouth brushing her cheek.
His eyes glazed, he spoke slowly, forcing the syllables out, his tongue feeling swollen, "Nuh-thing Ah-ki."
Aki's eyes narrowed reflexively at his answer, her mind muddled. "Then why were you all red? AKI CAN ALWAYS TELL when someone is HIDING something!" She screamed that last part, bordering on drunken tears, hanging onto the front of his shirt. More quietly, she mumbled sadly, "It's something bad, isn't it? Takeshi-uma can't even tell me after five years."
Blushing, he recalled the scene from five years ago, it was the first time he had seen what he dubbed her "cute side." When tears started rolling down her face onto his shirt, he grabbed her tightly.
"So-rry, Ah-ki. Shhhh," he whispered, for some reason, tears made their way into his eyes as well as he held the sobbing Aki gently, whispering to her what she had done that had made him fall just a bit in love with her.
Dino looked up from his paperwork at the buzzing from his cellphone. He took a look at the screen, putting two fingers to his temples as if it would calm his rampant hangover. But he smiled, despite himself.
The text read:
PLAN B SUCCESS! ;) Thanks for the free drinks, it was sweet~
-Aki
A/N: Sorry for any OOC-ness~ Hope you enjoyed! Any ideas and comments are welcomed, and don't forget to vote for which weapon you think Aki should wield; the poll is on my profile. And don't forget *nudges at review button* hehe thanks again for reading~~ ^______^ Sorry if this chapter is a bit rushed/AN rushed since I was being yelled at to go to bed ^^;;
