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The bastard. Takeshi thought the entire time he was falling. His mind alight with righteous fury at Reborn's actions. If he hadn't have been so concerned with Yuki getting injured- he might have been able to stop himself from tumbling all the way down the stairs.

He might have been able to right himself just enough to keep from falling at all without the added weight of the terrified girl clinging to him.

He might have also been able to beat the shit out of Reborn before the man decided to stop playing with him and get serious.

Might of course being the operative word here. However as much as Takeshi wished that he had been able to do all of those things, he wasn't able. The second he went air born, he shifted Yuki's position so that she was no longer over his shoulder and was simply wrapped in his arms so that he could shield her as much as possible from the inevitable pain that would soon jar both of them.

Making sure that her head was protected by one large hand- he couldn't help but notice just how small she really was. Sure Tsuna- the one he'd made friends with- ad been a small and sort of delicately boned guy. His build somewhere along the wiry side.

And he hadn't been terribly tall either.

A mere five foot seven in a half for a high schooler was a little bit on the pitiful side. Especially when he was barely taller than the tallest girl in their class. And compared to the rain guardian himself- Tsuna had always seemed almost like he was so much smaller due to the vast differences between them.

But Yuki... Even in mid fall, Yamamoto could feel himself beginnings to becoming paranoid. It was just- She was a tad shorter than Tsuan had been. Perhaps standing around five foot five in a half, maybe five foot six? And her bone and skeletal structure was specifically made to appeal to people like him.

And also drive us mad. He thought in wry amusement even as his back made contact with the first stair with a dull thud, the impact causing Yuki to let out a startled scream as he rolled them both and kept going. Everything about the girl practically screamed, 'I'm small and defenseless! Protect me!' Something that Takeshi had absolutely no problem with at all since he sort of liked all things small and adorable.

Aside from looking like Tsuna, he sort of felt something peculiar towards her. It was a feeling that was a tad bit hard to place, much less name. But even if he didn't figure it out now, he would soon enough.

His shoulder was the next to hit something, the force of the blow causing him to bite down on his bottom lip hard enough to taste blood just to keep from crying out. Yuki trembled in his grasp as they both rolled down the rest of the stairs before coming to a total stop.

Takeshi resting on his bruised back underneath Yuki's small body. His hold on her slackening a little bit so that she could move once she was ready too do so. However instead of moving off of him, she simply burrowed her face into the hollow of his throat and tightened her already tight grip, on his shirt.

He was about to laugh and push himself up a bit so that he'd be up on his elbows when he felt Yuki's breath ghost along his skin and heard her faintly whisper- to herself? Or him? He wasn't sure. But her words were enough to tear him up inside and get pissed at Reborn all over again.

"Please, please, please- let it be over. I don't want to be hurt anymore!"

Sighing, he said nothing as he decided not to move until she calmed down. He didn't know what had happened to her before she had shown up here at Tsuna's place, but he would give anything to get his hands on the person who had hurt her. Especially since he specifically recognized her personality and behavior patterns all too well. They simply kept flipping back and forth from 'frightened child' to a normal acting young woman so fast that he was beginning to feel as if he was going to get whip lash if it kept up.

However he said nothing about it. To be honest he recognized the behavior patterns she displayed rather easily. He'd seen friends on the baseball team at school and others display the same behavior patterns.

The behavior patterns of someone who has been horribly wounded and wronged. Those were the behavior patterns of someone who understood physical and mental agony better than anyone.

Because those were the behavior patterns of someone who was very intimate with what it was like to bleed.

Running his fingers though her hair which had come loose of it's ponytail, he gently brushed it back. Carefully scraping his blunt nails along her scalp in what he hoped was a soothing manner, he patiently waited for her to calm down as his grey eyes flickered towards the stairs just in time to see Reborn slowly descending on them.

His intention to grab Yuki and pull her from his grasp, all but clear. Making Takeshi bare his teeth at the man in a silent snarl. Not waning Yuki to know that she was the causing so much tension between the hit man and himself. Especially since it would only serve to frighten her even more than she already was thanks to Reborn's less than stellar handling of the girl.

The dumbass.

The moment Reborn reached the last step and started to reach for Yuki, Takeshi automatically rolled them both away from the man so that Yuki wound up pinned to the floor under him- and while most may have thought that he was trying to make a move on her- the truth of the matter was that Takeshi was using himself to shield her from Reborn's blasted hands.

Figuring the further from the man's grip she was, the better.

Using one arm to hold himself up while ignoring the painful throb of his other bruises, Takeshi used his other hand to gently pry Yuki's hands loose of his shirt while fake laughing to hide his sudden discomfort he said in his most cheerful tone, "Maa, that was a bad fall. We'll have to be more careful of things like stairs from now on."

Yuki moved her head back a little bit to look at him with those oddly colored- and yet so very pretty and expressive eyes- and almost squeaked at how close their faces were. And it was in that exact moment that she seemed to finally notice just how flipping close they both were.

She could feel Takeshi Yamamoto's incredibly well toned and slightly muscular body pressing against her body in specific areas. Like her chest, for one. Even though he was holding himself up off of her enough to keep from smothering her, that didn't mean that their chests weren't tightly pressed together.

And then there was the location of his pelvis. Comfortably situated between her slightly spread legs, with her skirt bunched up around her waist, dangerously close to being immodest.

Flushing partially due to over stimulation and mortification. Yuki did only one of the two things she could have done in such a strange situation. The second Takeshi made eye contact with her- she reacted out of instinct and grabbed him and pulled him down just enough to press her mouth against his own.

It wasn't the best reaction. And it was definitely confusing.

But she supposed that it was better than fainting.