The justice of my quarrel.
This one takes place somewhere in the middle part of the TYL arc. If you don't know who Spanner is, then this is most definitely riddled with spoilers. orz Also: the title for this fic is taken from the 31 Days theme for February 6, 2008.
The last test that they took ended in failure, with Spanner clicking his tongue at the unreliable data it had yielded and his guinea pig of the moment flat on its back, trying to remember how to breathe properly without hurting himself. Spanner, of course, did not notice a thing outside of his lollipop and the fact that the test did not meet up with his standards – the blond engineer eventually glanced away from his screen, eyes instantly singling out the boneless heap of boy on the floor of his hideout.
"Get up and try that again."
"S… Spanner-san, I-I really don't think—"
A sudden pause, following by some wheezing and a violent bout of coughing. Sawada Tsuyanoshi tried to get up, and ended up flat on his stomach rather than his back. Spanner lifted an eyebrow at the scrawny boy, unimpressed by the pitiful fuss that he was making.
"You don't think what?"
More wheezing and coughing. Spanner's other eyebrow traveled into his hairline – he stood up with a sigh, and crossed to the other side of the room. He returned with a towel and a bottle of water, squatted down in front of Tsuna, and used the bottle in his hand to rap the Vongola not-so-lightly on the forehead.
"Drink this and get up. We have to hurry."
"…Sorry."
But Spanner did not seem to hear him – the man had stood up again, returning to his work station. Tsuna eventually gathered enough strength in his limbs to push himself up and do as his captor told him to. The boy rocked back on his heels, twisting the cap of the bottle off and taking a generous gulp of its contents. He could not recall a time when something as plain as water had tasted so sweet. A few gulps later, and he was observing Spanner from a distance, as he had come to do more and more often as of late.
Beyond the fact that Spanner liked lollipops and seemed like he was going to stop at nothing to beat the perfect X-Burner out of his prisoner, Tsuna really could not tell what sort of person Spanner was, or why he was doing what he was doing. Granted, it had only been a few hours since they met (read: since they fought and Tsuna got knocked out and woke up in handcuffs in Spanner's hideout) and Tsuna wasn't exactly good at reading people. From what little that he did know, however, Tsuna figured that Spanner was definitely a strange one.
"If you've got the time to stare at me, Vongola, you ought to get up and prep for the next test."
"A-ah! Sorry!"
Spanner, predictably, did not answer, leaving Tsuna to blush and scramble to his feet. The boy re-assumed his original position, forcing his tired limbs back into the stance that he needed in order to fire the X-Burner correctly. He really couldn't tell if they were going anywhere with all of those tests, and it wasn't as if Spanner was open about his plans for him, and—
"It's not just about your weapon."
"Eh?" Tsuna automatically turned to look in Spanner's direction, only to freeze the moment he noticed the unimpressed expression on the man's face.
"Eyes forward, Vongola." Spanner waited until Tsuna had dutifully turned away before typing again. "Maybe I'm doing this for other reasons too," the blond eventually said, just as Tsuna started charging up. His voice was nearly lost to the roar of the Dying Will flames cloaking Tsuna's fists and marking the boy's forehead, and the future Tenth of the Vongola Family was a little too preoccupied with keeping his own balance to ask what the blond engineer met. He forgot about it later, when Iris – a squadron leader from the White Spell – crashed into their hideout.
(Tsuna only remembered it much later, when they finally came face-to-face with the round machine and Irie Shouichi and it seemed as though Spanner could do nothing but stare at the young man before them with a funny sort of look in his eyes that Tsuna had never seen on anyone else before.)