Kei: So -
Mutt: I don't wanna talk about it.
Kei: But -
Mutt: Nope.
Kei: Bu - !
Yama: Maa, Kei-chan, I'm sure she had a good reason for not posting anything since July of last year! Right?
Mutt: *sudden wails and waterworks* NOT YOU, TOO!
Yama: Er...
Kei: Smooth.
Tsuna: I feel like you were about to bring up the same point...
*wailing and whale noises continues*
Kei: Well, the same Disclaimer here as in every other freakin' chapter.
Mutt: PLEASE READ THE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OKAY I LOVE YOU ALL FORGIVE ME PLS *SOBS*
Kei: OKAY, NOW WILL YOU SHU -
WARNING: Mention of suicide/suicide attempt. You know the one. A smidge of Kaylin-brand insight into Yamamoto's rough point. Not much, but just a heads up.
1st person, Kei-chan
"Gokudera Hayato and Steele, Kaylin, you've both received perfect scores on the recent math test."
"Ha!"
"Hah?!"
Roughly the same sounds, rather different meanings.
I smugly waved my graded test in front of Gokudera's face with a hand on my hip and a self-satisfied grin stuck to my expression.
My expression of self-satisfaction.
He snatched it out of my hand and glared at it like it was some scandalizing photograph. I remained smug as he snapped his glare to the teacher who, to his own credit, only twitched violently in mild alarm.
"Are you sure you didn't grade this wrong?!"
The teacher looked like he was internally yelling at himself to grow a pair and stand up to a delinquent middle schooler.
"Quite sure."
The silverette, not satisfied, scanned my paper himself, foresty green eyes flicking back and forth, and my smugness only heightened when I saw his cheek spasm.
"H-how the hell -?"
Before he wound up crumpling my test, I gently pried it from his fingers and turned on my heel to walk back to my desk, significantly toning down the smug attitude. I was only happy because I didn't score lower than him. I had no desire to rub it in the rest of the class' collective face. After missing a beat, Gokudera stalked after me, a row over, and to his own seat to the right and a few spots behind Tsuna.
Said fuzzy-headed young teen smiled at both of us, looking disproportionately amazed.
"That's amazing, you two!"
Gokudera immediately deflected the compliment. I had a suspicion that had anyone else said it, the Italian would be annoyed, but because it was praise from his Juudaime, he took it with as much grace and appreciation as he could muster. Hm.
Tsuna's doe-y eyes turned to me and I found myself deflecting much like Gokudera did, to my dismay. My smile turned sheepish.
"W-well, we studied, after all..." Was that the best I could come up with? Really?
"Ehehe~ Kei-chan's so shy~!"
A mischievous voice that I could just hear the smile in sounded from a bit away. I twitched violently and mechanically turned my head towards the front of the classroom, fighting the scathing glare that threatened to take over my entire demeanor. I forced an unconvincing smile that was more a scare tactic than anything.
"Face forward like a good student, Saya." I bit out through clenched teeth. The girl cackled to herself and she complied, shoulders shaking with suppressed mirth.
I ran my hand down my face with an exasperated sigh and moved to take my seat when I heard a quiet laugh to my right. I paused and blinked over to find Kyoko with a dainty hand over her mouth, giggling to herself. Like she had given the clear, a few more titters bounced around the room. Kyoko opened her eyes only to see me looking at her curiously. She quickly returned to facing the front, but I could still see her lips pursed together, fighting a smile.
I glanced at Tsuna. He was gazing at Kyoko with an almost dazed look on his face, and I was suddenly reminded of his crush on the girl. Since he wasn't looking and couldn't be distressed by any look I may have had on my face, I didn't hide the small, wicked grin as I finally planted myself onto my seat.
I know your secret~
All scheming that I may have otherwise began was interrupted when the teacher called out a couple more names.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi."
The fuzzy head jerked to attention. "H-hai!" He stood up straight.
"Yamamoto Takeshi."
"Yeah." Yamamoto got to his feet in a much more relaxed manner.
I furrowed my brow a little. They hadn't gotten their tests yet. I wondered what the prob-
"20 points."
My jaw dropped.
Oh. That's what the problem was.
I covered my face with my hands to dull the thud of me dropping my head onto my desk. My face was squished, so when I mumbled, "We studied, after all..." it was an incoherent jumble of mostly human noises.
According to the teacher they had to make up their tests. But! They would do it out of school and turn it in the next day.
But. They had to get a perfect score. He didn't elaborate what would happen should they fail.
Bad things, probably.
But! Tsuna did well enough away from the test when I helped him study, so I'd just help him out again this time! No problem! He couldn't possibly fail this! And the teacher didn't specifically say to do the homework alone so it's not cheating!
Maybe not smart on the teacher's part. But whatever. Plus for us.
Oh. And there was Yamamoto. He scored just as bad as Tsuna did.
...I tried really hard not to think about how bad that implication was.
Have faith, me. We'll work something out.
...Probably.
I was going to just show up at Tsuna's house to help him with his homework. Pleasant surprise and all that. But Yamamoto had a better idea, that pleasantly sociable fellow. He had apparently snagged Tsuna aside while I wasn't looking and suggested they do the homework together. Reborn popped up and decided that the little study session would be held at Tsuna's house, and all was agreed upon. Tsuna left promptly after.
Probably to clean his room.
This time I was snagged aside, just as I made it out of the school gate. I was moving rather sluggishly, what with not sleeping when I should and then sleeping in a weird position when I shouldn't. The coffee was probably why I wasn't sleepwalking by that point.
"So, you'll go, too?"
After giving me a short rundown, he told me that since I was one of the two that scored perfectly, it would be a pretty good idea for me to be there, since I actually knew what I was doing. His words.
I was about to verbally affirm when a yawn overtook me, so I settled with a nod and held my hand over my mouth until it passed.
Yamamoto blinked at me as we started walking in a vague direction away from school, him taking the social cue to walk with me since I was still slightly facing him.
Pleasantly sociable fellow.
"Um - on second thought, maybe you should just stay at your place? You look like you could fall asleep standing up." He frowned down at me slightly, uncertain.
I snorted a little. "Do I look that bad?"
The tall teen immediately dithered. "Er, not that you - I mean, you just look...sleepy?" He paused, then laughed nervously.
I just plain laughed, albeit somewhat weakly, and waved my hand dismissively, shaking my head.
"It's fine - I'd much rather you be honest."
He looked somewhat relieved and sighed a little, rubbing the back of his head with this hand. "I've seen some girls get really mad when you tell them they look tired," he sheepishly justified his alarm.
I nodded sagely. "This is the age when most girls start to take greater care of their appearance, after all. And looking tired means that they don't look their best."
"I think what someone should be concerned about if they look tired is getting more sleep, though..." Yamamoto stated. He was wearing a mildly bewildered frown, looking like he really didn't understand the logic in girls' thoughts.
I huffed a laugh.
I digressed, "Really, though," I gave his shoulder a light pat, "I'm fine. I'll just drink some coffee soon and make sure to go to sleep at a reasonable time tonight. I'll be good as new by morning." Roughly.
Should I ask...?
"So..." I started. Yamamoto blinked at my hesitance. "Me aside...How are you, lately?"
"Me?" He tilted his head at me. "I'm fine." Obligatory smile.
I pursed my lips. Well, he sounded honest, but...
I must have had a look on my face, because his expression shifted like he understood that that wasn't the sort of answer I was looking for.
I tried to give a "no pressure" kind of vibe, only watching him out of the corner of my eye. Despite that, I was hyper vigilant of any changes in him. I was vaguely Assessing his heartbeat and rate of perspiration, watching out for any signs that I needed to back off and not pursue the topic that I hadn't yet verbally breached.
Yamamoto acted cheerful and light-hearted, and mostly carefree. For the most part, I think he is. Happy and helpful for the sake of others. Smiling and laughing and joking for the sake of others. And I didn't think that it was anything other than genuine.
But he had been poised to freaking jump off a three story building not that long ago.
Disregarding the question of whether or not he actually wanted to stop living, the fact that he was threatening to end his life in the manner that he did points to a severe feeling of desperation, if nothing else. He, as far as I knew for the short time I've known him, hadn't overtly threatened suicide or so much as talked about it prior to that incident, which lead me to believe that he hadn't been simply acting out that day.
Whatever caused that, he was in a very dark place, if only for less than a day. Despite what people on the outside see, things like that don't just pop up out of nowhere. It's gradual, sometimes unnoticed until the situation reaches a tipping point like it did on the roof.
Likewise, things and feelings like that don't just disappear, either.
To the point: it outwardly looks like he's no longer in that dark place. I didn't know him at all before that incident, so I can't say that he's "back to normal," but he doesn't seem suicidal, anymore.
Then again, he didn't seem suicidal before he stood at the edge of the roof, either.
It seems that he's showing real smiles since then, though. Smiles that actually appear of their own accord, from within his heart, as opposed to smiles because others expect him to or want him to or need him to smile. Or even smiles that he needed to display for himself. He's, more often now, smiling because he's happy, not happy because he's smiling.
I've been around a lot of people. I can read them. And that's the impression I get from Yamamoto Takeshi, after a lot of concerned thought.
Despite that, though...
...I couldn't actually know unless I asked.
That said, I also couldn't know if I should ask without asking about that. So I danced close enough to the subject without actually mentioning it that Yamamoto could know what I was really asking. The last thing I wanted to do was hit him over the head with it if he wasn't ready to talk.
He was silent for several more seconds. Rather than looking closed off, he seemed like he was considering how to give a more satisfactory answer.
He suddenly clarified, with the barest hint of discomfort and strain that one would likely not even notice had they not been attuned to it, "Lately?"
Thin ice.
I shrugged, glancing forward. "Yeah."
I looked back to him when I felt his eyes move away. His eyes flicked up to the sky in thought. He blinked once. I only then noticed how subtly tense he had gotten when he suddenly relaxed, still looking at the crystal clear sky like it had given him the answer.
He smiled. I could tell immediately that it was a smile from the inside. Not a toothy grin, but a smile that was vaguely satisfied, or content. I could tell by his eyes, like brown sugar mixed in honey, that, for a split second, reflected the clarity of the sky that day.
And then he looked down at me, and his smile turned crooked.
"Lately," there's the toothy grin, "I'm okay." His voice was open.
I briefly tilted my head.
Then I gave a small, pleased smile. I jerked my head in a nod, satisfied.
"Good."
...
...
"Now all we need is to fix Tsuna's self-confidence and Gokudera's inability to play nicely with others," I grumped.
Yamamoto gave a sudden bark of laughter.
Even though I was entirely serious.
"Oh, speaking of Gokudera," Yamamoto mentioned once he stopped laughing. "I thought of inviting him to study, too..."
I hummed, furrowing my brows in thought. And maybe wrinkled my nose a little.
"Well, he's certainly good at math, too."
He nodded. "That's what I thought. And I figured he wouldn't refuse as long as it'll help Tsuna."
I snorted. "He'd agree in a heartbeat if Tsuna were involved." I tilted my head at Yamamoto's slightly uncertain look. "But...?" I urged.
The boy laughed habitually. "Well, I guess I avoided it and found you first," he confessed, looking guilty.
I blinked. "Why'd you avoid asking him?" I tilted my head the other direction.
He looked like he wanted to squirm like a kid under interrogation.
I tilted my head the other direction.
"I don't think he likes me very much, you know?"
"Ooooh." So that was it. Then I blinked twice before laughing. "You must've noticed that he's like that to everyone, right?"
"Not with Tsuna."
Well... I frowned thoughtfully. "Or with Maman, actually..." I conceded.
Yamamoto blinked curiously.
"'Maman'?"
...
...
"A-anyways, don't worry too much about him not liking you or anything like that!" I coughed into my hand, turning my head, sure that my stupid cheeks were pink.
Why does my subconscious not drop that nickname?!
"Tsuna's the only exception, and Tsuna's mom is...well, Gokudera isn't that much of a brat. Plus no one can really dislike Tsuna's mom."
"So that's who you meant."
"Anyways, don't take Gokudera's apparent dislike to heart- I get a feeling that he's just not honest with himself. Although you should still be careful about his temper."
It seemed Yamamoto might make it a habit to laugh at things I said quite seriously.
"You mean make sure that the two of you don't fight too much?"
Twitch.
I rounded on him to tell him how it was all that freaking Siamese cat's fault but lost the wind from my metaphorical sails when I saw he already had his hands up in defense.
"I'm joking! I'm joking!"
I huffed and crossed my arms, unaware that I was basically pouting.
"Ah."
I turned at Yamamoto's sudden word, glaring, but I let up and raised an eyebrow when I saw the sheepish look on his face.
"I don't actually know how to contact Gokudera outside of school."
I glowered at the number 20 on the door I was standing in front of. As soon as I got to the apartment complex I had stomped just past my door and started glaring at the entrance to Gokudera's small place of residence. I walked straight home, so it was still just after school and I honestly didn't really know where else to look.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Just knock on the door."
I squinted at the rat on my shoulder.
"Shut up," I muttered.
Though I complied. I was a little too polite to kick the door down right off the bat.
Knock knock knock.
"Go away."
Was all I heard through the door.
Twitch.
I grit my teeth. "Oi!" I called, irritated two words into the conversation.
I frowned as I heard a curse. "Now I'm definitely not opening the fucking door!"
Twitch.
"What the hell?!"
"Go away!"
"I'll kick the damn door down, you shithead!"
I heard a louder, definitely Italian curse, and hurried footsteps before the door swung open to reveal a severely inconvenienced-looking Gokudera, who was still in his uniform.
"What the fuck do you want?!"
I ignored him and stared below his arm and into his home.
It was more messy than mine.
Just at a glance into the kitchen I could see a full trash can, a few papers of some kind spilling out from the sitting room/bedroom/tatami room, and I thought I saw a glimpse of dirty clothes peeking out of the bathroom like a shy, sentient wad of garment.
When I leaned to the side to get a better look, Gokudera cursed again before stepping out of his apartment, pushing me back and out of the way. He slammed the door.
"What do you want?" He repeated.
I gaped at him in disbelief.
"You've been here less than two weeks!"
He growled, "What are you even talking about?"
I pointed over his shoulder. "Have you even seen the inside of that place?!"
He twitched violently before smacking my arm away from him. "What are you even here for?!"
I blinked, having honestly forgotten the purpose of this exchange after bearing witness to the slice of hell that was the teenage boy's living space. The silverette twitched (again) in irritation at my change in demeanor.
"You should come to Tsuna's house in the next forty or so minutes," I informed him, skipping to the point: Tsuna.
The boy's entire attitude changed at the mention of Tsuna, and I fought a roll of the eyes.
"The Tenth's? Of course I'll go, if it's for the Tenth, but why?" He demanded.
"To make sure he and Yamamoto do well with their make up homework."
He twitched again. "The baseball freak?" He grumbled, mostly to himself, "Why does he need to be there...?"
I didn't resist the eye roll this time. Yamamoto must have been right about the calcium thing that one time. The silverette didn't wait for any kind of response - not sure he expected one.
"I definitely can't leave this matter to you two," he declared, some stupid form of motivation taking over that might have actually been admirable had the specific words not pissed me off.
My eyebrow ticked.
"Okay, mild offense taken," I mumbled offhandedly, though it was ignored.
A little more offense taken.
"Less than an hour, right?" He again didn't wait for an answer as he turned on his heel and rushed back inside, slamming the door behind him.
...
...
"Well, at least it wasn't difficult to convince him to come," Hina quipped.
I threw my head back and heaved a long-suffering sigh.
3rd person, omniscient
The doorbell of the Sawada household was rung with a push of Yamamoto's finger.
A patter of footsteps followed after a brief delay, and the front door was opened by a cheerful looking Tsunayoshi. About to offer a generic "hello," Tsuna blinked in surprise when he noticed that his failure-buddy hadn't come alone.
"Gokudera-kun, too?"
The Italian beamed at the acknowledgement. "I heard and decided to come help, Juudaime!"
"O-oh..." Tsuna trailed off when he finally noticed something out of place and bright red on top of the low wall surrounding his home. That, and an arm...
Mild horror dawned on his face when he recognized this as another person.
"And - Kay...lin?"
He didn't quite know what to say...
His American friend was leaning on the wall with her head resting on the top, one arm draped over the surface like someone who had just barely survived nearly drowning at sea during high tide, clinging on to a rocky shore and completely overtaken with exhaustion.
At hearing her name, the red hair shifted and Kaylin blew her fringe out of her face with a huff. She waved her visible arm vaguely in her friend's direction in greeting, a sleepy half-grin on her face.
"Surprise~!"
Tsuna sweatdropped. "A-all of you came? N-not that I'm not happy..." It's just that their female friend looked ready to fall over.
Like, literally fall over.
Tsuna jumped a little when he felt a sudden weight on his head, knowing immediately who it was.
"I would have called them all over, anyways," the infant hitman said.
He'd invite people over to Tsuna's house without permission?
...Well, it wasn't like he hadn't done it before.
"What, I had to deal with Gokudera's grumpy teenage attitude when I didn't have to?" Kaylin lazily gestured towards said cranky teenager.
"Oi!"
"You could have told me, Reborn!" She whined.
The baby pointedly ignored her, much to Gokudera's amusement.
"But look, Baka-Tsuna. Your family organized themselves to come help you. Isn't that great?" Although Reborn didn't sound very impressed. Maybe more pleased that the effort he needed to expend was lessened.
Before Tsuna could get angry at Reborn's use of the word "family," Yamamoto chimed with a grin, "Well, I failed, too. That's why these two are here." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the foreigners to his right. "Now we have the combined skills of at least a hundred people."
Both perfect score-bearers grew varying degrees of flustered, though Kaylin wound up snickering when Gokudera played off how he was secretly pleased with the compliment with a typical "hmph."
Reborn resisted rolling his eyes, though a very mild impatience could be heard in his squeaky voice. "Enough playing around in the heat. Let's head to Tsuna's room and work on his crappy grades."
"O-oi, Reborn..."
Kaylin had quickly taken to making herself more or less at home on her side of the kotatsu, farthest from the door. Her face was pressed to the surface of the table, and she, along with Gokudera and Tsuna, were watching closely as Yamamoto easily jotted down the work to this particular math problem. However, Kaylin was honestly struggling to retain mental clarity, at this moment.
Hina pressed her paw to her human's nose, and Kaylin sluggishly handed the grey and brown rodent a piece of dried fruit from some recess of the backpack she'd brought along. The rat nibbled contentedly as the redhead gently scratched behind her ear.
"Amazing..." Tsunayoshi mumbled as he stared at his supposed failure buddy's work.
Yamamoto's focus shifted and he huffed a laugh.
"It's actually pretty easy if I just read the textbook."
Gokudera grumbled something under his breath and snatched Yamamoto's worksheet from under his hands. He scrutinized the question on the paper and the baseball player's work below it with razor-sharp and critical eyes. He was looking for any kind of mistake, really, that he could call Yamamoto out for, but he was quickly placed somewhere between astonishment and irritation.
"It...It's right..." He muttered.
Kaylin momentarily blinked her daze away to give an unladylike snort.
"So it's your own fault you failed, then," she lethargically grumbled, though she was more vaguely amused than anything, evident by the upward twitch of her lips.
"K-Kaylin..." Tsuna sweatdropped. He couldn't reprimand her any further even if he had any intention to, because she soon slipped even deeper into a half-conscious daze than she was in before.
No words filtered into her brain until she was suddenly jerked back into reality for a brief moment by a burst of pointed laughter from Gokudera. Her barely breathed whisper of a comment of, "This is freaking ridiculous..." went widely ignored. Limb-numbing fatigue abrutptly won out over her willpower, and without even realizing that she was moving, the redhead instinctively scooted backwards and left. She turned to fold her arms over top of Tsuna's mattress and tucked her face into the cradle made.
She mumbled something into her impromptu pillow that may not have even been words, and was asleep in about a second.
"Kei-chan, do you think you can - er..."
Both Tsuna and Gokudera glanced up when Yamamoto trailed off. The tall boy blinked over to Tsuna's right, prompting both other boys to respectively turn or lean over to finally notice -
Deadpan.
"...Kay...lin?" Tsuna blinked owlishly at the state of his female friend: breath slow and even, curled into the side of his bed, face hidden under her arms as well as the small blanket of her fringe, which regularly shifted with Kaylin's soft puffs of breath.
...
His chick friend had just completely crashed on his bed.
"The fumes she was running on seem to have run out," Reborn idly observed from his place by the window.
The silver-haired Italian teen irritably 'tch'd. "What did she even bother coming for?"
1st person, Kei-chan
I cursed irritably as I dug a bullet out of the fresh hole in my side. I sat in the midst of wounded and dying, medics running about, tending to those who still had a chance of making it home, and occasionally easing the suffering of those who didn't.
It was a massacre.
I hissed as the bullet finally flew from my torso and clinked to the ground. Finally my healing process sped up to it's proper pace. The bullet would have been pushed out soon enough, more or less going in reverse as my body stitched itself back together like it always did, but having a bullet traveling through your flesh in slow motion is pretty painful. And this was faster.
I watched the wound bleed less and less for a few seconds longer, gaze neither pleased nor disgusted. As I pulled my shirt back down, I glanced around at the people in my vicinity through the fringe that had fallen out of the French braid I used for jobs.
I couldn't really say no one else was disgusted, either, though.
Several people that I made eye contact with averted their gaze quickly. Perhaps they were new to operations of this scale. It was a plain fact that a wide range of mafioso had heard of me, and many had seen my peculiar habit of never dying or losing any noticeable amount of stamina, despite being shot, stabbed, and occasionally bludgeoned, among other things.
My eyes continued to flit from person to person. I didn't distrust these people like I would an enemy, but I was wary out of habit. No matter how "good" the Vongola and affiliates were in the underground, mafia was mafia. Always.
Including me.
And everyone else knew it, too.
Whispers of "not human" and "that should have killed her" filtered in and out of my attention.
"Stay clear."
"Did you see how many she took out?"
"At least she's on our side..."
"...the way her hand just tore through -"
"...want candy!"
" - normal person would have died of blood loss..."
"...the higher ups let someone like that run around allies..."
"...bo-san his candy!"
Whap!
"Oi, Lambo!"
I shot straight up and clutched the side of my head, caught completely off guard by the assault of...
"You promised Lambo-san candy!"
I blinked owlishly at the five year old standing on Tsuna's bed, nearly eye-level with me and glaring at me with his big green eyes, jamming his little pointer finger nearly into my face.
...By the assault of a temperamental Italian child.
"Will you settle down, you stupid cow?!"
...The one with the afro, not the pubescent one.
"S-sorry, Kaylin! He was making a racket before we even realized he was here..." Tsuna trailed off when I continued to stare blankly at Lambo, still struggling out of a haze of disorientation.
I blinked slowly and turned to stare at Tsuna for a second, who blinked a few times back.
"E-er..." He trailed off again. My fuzzy brain ignored him as my eyes flitted elsewhere. My gaze found Gokudera who was scowling at me in distaste. I blinked slowly. His eyebrow twitched and he mumbled something under his breath. He looked like he'd chuck something at my head if I didn't stop looking at him like that. My attention shifted again.
I blinked slowly. Wasn't Y-
My neck nearly cracked from the force of a five year-old tackling my face.
Oh. Right.
"Lambo!" Tsuna scolded. I think Gokudera snorted, instead.
I tried to pry Lambo off of my head with one hand and waved vaguely in the direction of my bag, which I had sat between Tsuna and I when we started studying.
"Tsuna - bag -" I managed to mumbled around the cow child.
"Huh - a-ah, here..." He (Tsuna, presumably) placed the handle of my bag where my fingers brushed it. I quickly pulled it to me, giving up on detaching Lambo and blindly dug through the contents until I felt the plastic wrapper and long stick of a sucker. I yanked it out and held it up by my head, where Lambo could see.
A muffled, "Here -" from me.
Lambo squealed in delight and snatched the candy from me, launched himself from my face and out the window for some reason, leaving me gasping for air and blinking rapidly.
I pushed my fringe out of my face as Gokudera scoffed. I squinted at him.
"Why would you go and promise that brat candy?"
I shrugged. "Bribery." Tsuna twitched.
"I'd personally approach an annoyance like that more directly," Reborn's squeaky voice chimed in from behind me.
I saw Tsuna twitch before I turned to blink sleepily at the infant hitman. "Violence isn't a legitimate approach to dealing with children!" Tsuna (attempted) to scold in disbelief. Reborn gave a small snort but didn't seem like he could be bothered to verbally disagree.
I blinked when my eyes finally flicked to the window.
I blinked again.
Then, twice more.
When...did it get dark outside...? Something in my stomach curdled.
I asked the unsurprisingly calm infant, "Er, when did I fall asleep?"
"Roughly three and a half hours ago," he answered immediately and nonchalantly.
I groaned quietly and rubbed my temples in frustration. When did my stamina get so -
My shoulders stiffened as I grimaced, mind going to the obvious answer. How does a hitman's stamina get so remarkably low?
They get taken out of the game for a couple years.
...And get sick.
Now's not the time, I told myself. Perhaps an excuse.
But.
I sighed once more before turning back to the two younger teens. Tsuna just looked exhausted, whereas Gokudera just looked irritated. Well, and a little tired. I couldn't say that I was surprised that his irritation was directed at me. I blearily watched him, waiting to hear about whatever I'd done this time, though there was an obvious conclusion to be drawn, here.
Gokudera all too happily obliged in enlightening me.
"You make a point of coming here and wind up falling asleep after thirty minutes! On the Tenth's bed!"
Tsuna developed the tiniest flush. "I-it was really just her arms -"
"What do you have to say for yourself?!" Gokudera demanded. Tsuna gave a resigned sigh at the interruption and slumped. He glanced up at me, though, looking wary of a possible altercation.
I did consider snapping back at him, but honestly...
I wasn't really feeling it.
Instead I sighed and propped my elbow up on the edge of Tsuna's bed, leaning cheek on my hand.
"First of all: granted, Reborn planned on you being here, so you would have wound up here whether I told you about this or not, but I did tell you. Myself. On purpose." Gokudera's eyebrow twitched, but he didn't say anything. "Second of all: you had it covered, right?" Said silverette twitched again and an altogether funny look was plastered over his irritated one.
I rolled my eyes like the teenager I was. Not spazzing was a little out of character for me, sure, but geez. I didn't grow an extra head.
"Did you finish all of the questions correctly?" I directed the question at Tsuna, who straightened and blinked.
"Well, yeah." His eyes moved towards the ceiling, looking suddenly haggard. "Eventually..."
I raised an eyebrow. I wondered, but... something in the subtle look of remembered horror on Tsuna's face made me reluctant to find out.
And I guessed it was safe to assume Yamamoto had simply left when they had finished.
Anyways, I continued: "See? No harm done, in the end," I assured both Gokudera and myself.
It wasn't as if I expected myself to fall asleep again...
Luckily no one seemed to see the flash of worry cross my face again.
I apparently really needed to get my shit together.
If anyone were to ask me how I wound up walking with both Yamamoto and Gokudera the next morning, I'd blame Tsuna. It seemed that we'd all begun to gravitate toward him, naturally seeking him out. After a few minutes we collectively figured he'd already left for school.
Astoundingly enough, I managed to get some sleep after that study session that I wound up avoiding participation in. At least four hours' worth, though I had another dream of the more...willfully violent part of my past. To be honest, I'd been having many since I left that place in Italy.
They...made me tired.
Mercifully, the most recent dream was as uneventful as the one I'd had the evening before, so much so that they blurred together into a montage of bullets, blood, and pain.
...Okay, thinking about it now, it's not exactly "uneventful." But at this point in my life, blood splashing up to my elbows wasn't particularly traumatizing, anymore.
I glanced down at my hands as the three of us walked the route we figured Tsuna would take to school, a reminiscent frown on my face.
Though no one else could see them, and though I knew they weren't really there, I could still glimpse the stains that were on both hands, no matter much I washed them the first few times. I occasionally remembered the flecks of red that once marred my face when I was still young and sloppy. My skin still felt...tainted.
But despite all of that... my hands hadn't felt this clean in years. Not since before.
"Kei-chan?"
My gaze snapped back forward, then sideways, my musings abruptly forgotten. Yamamoto was looking down at me curiously, head tilted.
"What?What?" I had to repeat myself. I did that so often I thought my friends were learning a few English phrases. And curses.
"You were frowning," the tall boy pointed out.
"Huh? Oh, that." I huffed a laugh and shook my head once. "I was just thinking, is all." I fussed with the wristband below my elbow unconsciously.
Yamamoto very slightly furrowed his brows, one just a little lower than the other. I noted that the Italian just rolled his eyes, but squinted at me from the side.
Ignoring Gokudera, I waved a hand at the baseball player's concerns as if to physically brush them away. "Just, you know, thinking about stuff - I can't even remember what it was, anymore. Don't worry about it," I assured him. Hell. I must have still been pretty groggy to let something like that show on my face.
For some reason, I really didn't want to elaborate further. At all. It felt like I'd have to force the words out of my mouth, even if I wanted to say them.
...Weird.
I didn't get a chance to immediately investigate these feelings, though.
"W-w-wait!"
A familiar voice wailed in a slightly higher-than-normal level of distress, and my small group's collective attention was dragged a block and a half or so forward.
"Arguing is futile!"
It - what?
"Juudaime?"
"Tsuna?"
Who else has hair that fuzzy?
"Hold it!" Was that a hockey stick?
"Stop chasing me!"
"Hold it!" And a...what do you even call that? Sports armor?
Oh, shit.
With varying cries of shared distress and dismay, we three subordinates took off at a rough sprint. Well, it changed to a full-on sprint once Gokudera threw dynamite. I was so focused on trying to take stock of what was happening to Tsuna that I didn't even get a chance to try and stop him.
"What the fuck?!" My cry even managed to get Tsuna's attention from a block away. His head snapped in our direction and I could see the palpable relief from here. Until he had to duck under a wide hockey stick swing aimed at his head. So much inertia was behind that swing that the aggressor couldn't seem to stop themselves from spinning several times.
Whoever that was didn't even know what they were doing, did they?
And some idiot threw dynamite -
"Juudaime! Please dodge!"
I thought I would have kicked him in the fuckin' knee had I not been on mafia probation.
Luckily, the arc from a throw at that distance was rather high, and Tsuna actually did have time to get out of the way of both the immediate impact and the blast radius, but -
We rounded the corner as the smoke cleared, Tsuna jogging forward to meet us.
I saw that Tsuna was clearly unharmed with a once over. Something was very clearly missing, though, and my gaze flitted around looking for it - them.
No one else was on the bridge.
I paled at the same time Tsuna made an intuitive leap, and we both ran the short distance to the railing of the bridge hanging over the man-made river. We spotted her (definitely a her) just as she cried out.
Tsuna made a panicked noise while I bristled and cursed violently.
Everything snapped into focus.
A civilian in heavy clothing just got blasted into a fucking river on my watch and I was just gaping uselessly.
It all happened so fast -
Instinct hit me like a hammer.
I hurriedly shrugged off my bag, Hina sensing my intentions and scampering down my arm from where she was hiding under my shirt. I saw Tsuna's desperate look in the corner of my eye.
Blood pounding in my ears (it had been a long time since I last swam - could I even beat the current?) I grabbed the railing with both hands and prepared to vault over, not even considering that there were better people for the job right behind me (star athlete of the school who doesn't occasionally hack up his lungs).
I didn't notice any of the alarmed looks behind me.
"Wait, Kaylin." I stopped mid-bounce as a squeaky voice snatched my attention. "Tsuna will save her."
Both Tsuna and I began to protest, but faster than I could react, Reborn's pistol was already smoking. I felt the breeze of a bullet whizzing past my head. The little hitman hopped past me and gave Tsuna a solid kick to send him tumbling over the railing and towards the river.
Not a split second after my boss' Dying Will Flame sprung into existence, two more shots rang out.
I had to remind myself not to question the Vongola special bullets.
Tsuna hit the water like an Olympic swimmer and was halfway to the girl before I even regained my senses.
I cursed again.
I hauled my bag back onto my shoulder, Hina holding on for dear life, and tore around Gokudera and Yamamoto, who had moved to the railing in both alarm and surprise when Tsuna went over. I sprinted to the end of the bridge, grabbed the railing and used my momentum to turn and fly down the stairs.
Tsuna got to the girl well before his flame wore out, so perhaps I didn't need to rush so much, but he'll need a little help helping her back onto dry land. And she might have swallowed water or something, and while I didn't strictly know CPR or mouth-to-mouth, I got the gist in theory and that might have to be enough -
I shook myself out of my mild freak-out when Tsuna made it to the edge of the water, carrying the - was she familiar, or...? - girl in his arms, she holding on to his shoulders for dear life.
"Here - gimme your arms," I told the girl - familiar - while holding out my own. She was shaking a little as she complied, prying her fingers off of Tsuna. I crouched, reaching out for her, and grabbed her upper arms as firmly as I could. She mirrored me, grip near vice-like, and I used my weight to heave her out of the water. I couldn't avoid dumping her onto the concrete beside me, but she was safe.
While she collapsed onto her hands and knees, perhaps a little in shock, Tsuna returned to normal, his dying will having been fulfilled.
Unfortunately, he was still in the water, and he struggled to pull himself over the ledge. I held my hands out to him, now, and he gratefully grabbed one, and then the other. I pulled him up and forward until he could swing his leg over the edge of the river, then he scrambled up more or less by himself.
Yamamoto and Gokudera skidded to a halt just behind me.
"Juudaime!" The silverette crouched by his boss, only sparing a glance to the poor girl now that she was on dry land.
Like this wasn't his fault to begin with.
Seeing that Tsuna was taken care of, both Yamamoto and I turned to -
Holy shit that's the girl that was calling Tsuna out.
No fucking wonder.
The baseball player wordlessly produced a towel from his school bag - handy fellow. I took it and kneeled by... Haru? I thought that was it. It was pretty and easy to remember, after all. I put a gentle hand on her shoulder and held the white towel where she could see it.
"Here," I offered.
She blinked at it a few times before shakily taking it from my hand. I gave her a little space, but stayed right beside her.
Tsuna seemed exasperated, but worried, and assured Gokudera that he was fine before moving to stand beside us, his right hand following close behind him.
"We should probably get her out of that heavy stuff," Yamamoto said, looking to me.
I would have sighed had I not just exceeded my rightful quota of adrenaline for the week, being off-duty and all.
Instead, I only ran a hand through my fringe before getting to work.
Haru was dried enough, soon, and sat huddled under the bridge. I imagined the poor thing had been terrified.
I had done what I could to offer some kind of comfort, but it seemed like she still needed her space. She wasn't shaking or anything, and didn't seem to be in shock, so I let her be.
The boys were just generally concerned, sticking around to make sure she was okay, like I was. Well, Gokudera gave his attention to whatever had Tsuna's attention, anyways. Not like he'd leave without his Juudaime without a good reason.
Yamamoto said something and Tsuna bantered back for, like, one second, and then Haru rose from the dead and sprung into action
She had the most peculiar of looks on her face, too.
I was just about to speculate like a nosy shrew when a familiar voice was heard.
"Tsuna-kun?"
Well, this just got a tad complicated. And maybe a little funny.
Haru was getting rather excited, jumping around and cheering, and I mean I was glad that she was up to doing that after near drowning, but Kyoko (and Hana, I noted) were coming around the corner of the stairs, and Tsuna was starting to look a little panicky.
Oh, dear.
Tsuna sputtered Kyoko's name and looked between her and his new fan (whose enthusiasm was steadily increasing) with dismay.
Though my mouth quirked, I tried my best to conceal my amusement at my hapless boss' (friend's) situation. I thought maybe I could manhandle Haru a few feet away from Tsuna's direction and took a half-step forward to do so when she, against all odds, exploded into even more animation.
She lunged at Tsuna with open arms. My jaw dropped and I twitched to help him, but he performed a rather masterful dodge and... well, fled.
Gokudera, of course, scowled, and Yamamoto and I blinked surprise and amusement.
"Well, who'd have thought..." I muttered under my breath.
After a moment of evading Haru's, er, advances, Tsuna was (literally) driven up a wall, and I felt inclined to help him, which I would have, had I not been stopped in my tracks by a chill shooting up my spine.
My head snapped around to look at the top of the bridge we were under, and I nearly grimaced and flinched simultaneously.
Looking down his nose at the little group that had formed was him, perhaps the only fifteen year old on the planet that puts me on edge. I'd only heard whispers about the name "Hibari" and a certain "Disciplinary Committee" because I, for some fucking reason, didn't properly look into this kid when I really, really should have.
Considering how easily he found a reason to swing at me when I was late for school before (wasn't even my fault, dammit), I half expected him to leap down from on high and smite us all.
Not that I'd let him, if it came to it.
Our eyes locked, and we were at a standoff. He had an appraising look in his eye that made me twitchy, like he was deciding whether or not I was worthy prey.
Normally, such a notion (me being someone's prey, after all I've powered through - and after what had happened) would royally piss me off, but goddamn this kid just gave such bad vibes, I was too busy watching every twitch of his muscles for some sign that he would break the stare and pounce.
But then he smirked. And stalked off.
I exhaled. While the rational part of me was relieved, another part of me was frustrated with pent-up aggression. My mouth twitched into a frown as soon as he was out of sight, and I turned back around. I glanced around. Nobody else had noticed him.
Except -
Reborn smirked, too, eyeing me in amusement, no doubt having watched the entire exchange.
I scowled at him, but didn't say anything.
It wasn't like he was wrong to keep an eye on me.
...
Cheeky little shit.
A/N
Well, this is definitely less than I wanted to stick in this chapter. I kind of wanted an omake or something here. I think I'll post what I have now, just to update, and then add the omake soon enough. I'll give you a heads up in the next chapter if I edit this one, yeah? I just figured I owe you guys something by now.
Somebody tell me if the Haru-and-the-river scene was rushed, because I KNOW IT WAS AND I'M SO SORRY I JUST HAD TO GET IT OVER WITH BECAUSE I WAS SO STUCK AND - ugh i don't even wanna
ggnnnn
I was planning a field trip next chapter, to a certain nerd paradise, but... Should I just move on with the story?
OH, OH, I KNOW!
I'll have Kei take a vaca - u kno wat
it's a surprise but i just thought of something that would work in my favor, i think.
Less rehashing of things you undoubtedly have already seen.
Let's see, though, who's next...? Ah, right.
Hibari.
*rubs palms together* hehehehehe
