AN: Alright!

So I finally got round to writing on another chapter!

Thank you all very much for all the kind words I have received, I appreciate everything you've taken the time to write and they really do serve to make me passionate for this story all over again. I truly did not think that I would finish this chapter so quickly. I kid you not, I started writing on it again just a few hours ago... like... six to eight hours ago, it's crazy.

I hope you like it, I know it's kinda short but if I had included the next scene it would have dragged on for too long.

Please,

Enjoy.

Scene 21:

Attention, Attention

Gokudera drove for a good five minutes before he finally pulled the bike to a stop, turning off the hovering mechanism to gently lower the vehicle to the ground.

He leaned back, removing his weight from the handles as he felt Juudaime move away from behind him, the comforting, gentle presence of her arms wrapped around his waist slipping. He mentally slapped himself, those were not roads his thoughts should go down. Not about Juudaime, never about her.

He watched as the teenager pirouetted to turn towards him, her small, delicate-looking hands that he knew from personal experience were anything but delicate, removing the helmet from her head.

Once again, Gokudera was granted the briefest, blessed glimpse of the entirety of Juudaime's face before her hair once again fell over her eyes, obscuring the beautiful features.

NO! Bad Gokudera!

Those thoughts lead to feelings and she does not deserve yours!

"Did that really happen?" Juudaime asked, eyes locked onto the helmet in her hands. Or, what he supposed were her eyes, he couldn't actually see them. She raised her head and he could practically feel those chocolate brown orbs pinned on him. "Did I seriously just do that this?"

Gokudera allowed himself a chuckle.

"It happened," he answered, leaning an elbow on the front of the bike, letting him rest his chin on his knuckled. "And it was absolutely amazing." he smiled at her. "You did great."

Color flushed what little Gokudera could see of Juudaime's cheeks, her lower lip catching between her teeth as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her fingers dancing on the helmet.

Adorable…

NO!

"How are you feeling?" he asked, noticing the downward twitch of Juudaime's mouth, taking the helmet from her hands.

Her tongue shot out for a split second, parting her lips.

"Conflicted..." she answered slowly, her hands raising from where they had fallen, moving in small circular motions in the air between them as she gathered her thoughts. "Like..." if he could see her eyes, he was pretty sure she would be frowning right about now. "I feel like this… HUGE weight has dropped from my stomach, but..." her hands froze, along with her voice.

"But?" Gokudera repeated softly.

Again, she licked her lips, her hands falling back to her side.

"You don't think I went too far did you?" barely had she finished the question, a small smirk already forming on Gokudera's mouth, that she backtracked. "No." she cut him off before he could say anything. "Don't, don't bother answering that." she waved a finger between them, sighing as she put her hands on her hips, looking at the ground in what Gokudera could only describe as an exasperated stance.

"It was a rather stupid question," Gokudera commented.

"It really was."

Both of them knew, without a doubt, that there was no way Gokudera would have stopped where she had.

Sighing, Juudaime ran a hand over her face.

She looked tired now that the adrenaline had run its course, the relief of the weight of that trash-bag Mochida being lifted off of her mind was finally dawning on her, probably allowing her to relax for the first time in weeks.

"You want me to follow you home?" Gokudera asked, stuffing the helmet under his arm.

He was worried she'd collapse on the way there.

"Wording," Juudaime muttered through her hand.

"Was accurate." Gokudera shot right back at her.

"Shut up." was her very original reply, her hand falling to her side with a long sigh. She raised her head to their surroundings. "Don't you live down that road?" she asked, lazily motioning with her hand down the road he usually took to his apartment complex.

"Yes, what of it?" he asked right back.

"Wouldn't walking me home take too long?"

Gokudera raised an eyebrow at her, leaning forward onto the handles.

"Juudaime," he said, trying to keep the mirth out of his voice. "I'm on a hoverbike."

For a moment, the two of them fell into silence, a silence in which both of them were fighting to keep from laughing.

"Fair point..." Juudaime finally replied, releasing a quick but deep breath.

Suddenly, a thought his Gokudera. A thought that really brought his mood down.

"Unless..." Juudaime immediately caught onto his change of mood, taking a step closer to him. she's too kind, she really is. "You don't want me to see where you live."

Letting out a sigh, she actually punched his shoulder.

"It's not that." she gave him a quick smile. "I just don't want you to do anything that will end up being bothersome for you."

Gokudera shook his head at her words, locking eyes with her through her bangs.

"Anything where you are concerned Juudaime, could never be a bother for me," she said, pouring as much sincerity into each syllable slipping through his mouth.

Juudaime's eyebrows drew together in what Gokudera could only describe as something of a mixture between disgust and disbelief.

"Okay, don't talk like that," she said, raising her hand up between them.

Gokudera raised an eyebrow.

"Talk like what?"

"Like the love interest in a cheesy romance movie." and with that said, Juudaime spun around on her heel and started off down the road he had come to recognize as the path leading up to her house. There was a part of him that felt almost delirious as the situation finally dawned on him.

He was finally going to get to see where Juudaime lives!

June 18

Thursday 2215

They were looking at her.

She could feel the tingling at the back of her neck from their stares.

Ever since she had walked through the doors to the school building, closely following after Gokudera who had held the door open to her, it was like the other students were incapable of taking their eyes off of her.

It didn't help either that she had a sneaking suspicion that most of the males had finally noticed her more form-fitting attire, thank you Reborn (please note the sarcasm).

There was a certain sense of comfort having Gokudera at her side though. No one dared to really approach her when he was near her.

Well…

No one except for one.

"Sawada!"

Tsuna almost jumped at the sudden outcry of her name. Spinning around on her heel to face the young man that made it almost his mission to weave himself into her life.

"Fujitaka?" she greeted, not disguising her bewilderment. She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Is something the matter?"

The young man stopped in front of her, looking the picture of nervosity as he wrung his hands, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Occasionally, his eyes shifted over her shoulder, or more specifically, to the person hovering there.

"I eh..." Fujitaka looked away from them for a second, taking a deep breath before opening his mouth again. "I wanted to know if..." he needed another breath before he could finish his sentence. "I was wondering if I could speak to you about something..." another glance at Gokudera who Tsuna could just feel glaring at their classmate. "Alone?"

She blinked for a few seconds before nodding, more to herself than anyone.

"Okay..." she answered softly.

Turning to Gokudera, she gave him a quick smile.

"I'll just be a minute, you go on ahead."

Obviously, that was not a thought that Gokudera likes, his eyes shifting between her and Fujitaka before he finally let out a long sigh of irritation.

"Alright," he grumbled, placing a gentle hand between her shoulder-blades, sending one last quick glare at Fujitaka before he continued over to the classroom door.

Truthfully, Tsuna hadn't expected him to agree to it that quickly. She had to let out a quick, relieved breath before turning back towards her fellow dancer.

"What did you wanna talk about?"

Immediately, Fujitaka's face flushed with color, refusing to look at her in obvious embarrassment.

"You..." he cleared his throat nervously. "You were really cool yesterday." he finally said, looking quite pleased with himself that he'd managed to get the words out. Riding that pride, he kept on going. "I didn't know you could turn dancing into fighting moves like that."

His words brought a quick, fond smile to Tsuna's face.

"Neither did I." she admitted. "Until Gokudera-kun showed me how."

A darker look passed over Fujitaka's face.

"About that..." he gulped, shifting again, not looking at her. "What exactly… is your relationship with Gokudera-san?" he cautiously glanced down at her.

"Good question." Tsuna immediately answered, putting her hands on her hips as she looked up at the ceiling. "We've never exactly put a label on our relationship yet," she could tell that Fujitaka was starting to become anxious for her answer. "But..." she breathed after a moment of silence. "I'd say we were friends."

Fujitaka froze mid-shift.

"Friends?" he repeated after a moment of silence.

"Yes." Tsuna agreed with a slow nod.

"You're..." a small smile was beginning to form on Fujitaka's face. "Just friends?"

The way he said it, the relief in his word… she knew, logically, that he hadn't meant it the way she was taking it, she knew more than she wanted at the moment, but there was just… a dark feeling that seeped into her at his choice of words.

Particularly, one word.

"This is not a JUST for me Fujitaka," she said, crossing her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing as she looked up at her fellow ballet dancer. "It's a big deal."

That feeling was growing, and she didn't like it.

She needed to get away before she did or said something she would undoubtedly regret later.

"I..." Fujitaka tried to say, only to trail off as Tsuna began walking off. "Wait!" he called out, but she didn't. She was hurrying away from him with strong steps similar to the ones he had seen her take when she'd been walking up to Mochida the days before.

He'd angered her.

There was no doubt about it.

"Arg!" he screamed once she was out of sight, furious with himself.

Can he do anything right?

Tsuna tried to push the feel of the stares out of her mind, opening the lid to her lunch-box as Gokudera was already shoving desks around to make enough room to sit in front of her, Tsuna tried to focus on Lunch, trying to forget the feel of the eyes at the back of her head.

Well, they were staring at Gokudera too. Him and what he was doing.

"You gonna grab a hotdog again?" Tsuna asked once Gokudera sat down in front of her.

"And leave you alone in this building for twenty minutes?" Gokudera raised an eyebrow at her, leaning his elbows on top of the desk. "I don't think so." he leaned back into his chair. "I ordered a school lunch today."

Now it was Tsuna's turn to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Did it have anything to do with what they're serving today?" she found herself asking. It had gotten easier and easier to actually talk to Gokudera since they had started to actually hang out instead of him treating her coldly in the corridors.

"It might have," Gokudera answered with a playful tone.

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna lowered her chopsticks into her lunchbox, pulling out an octopus-shaped wiener (she'd tried to make her mother stop cutting them like that, but the woman refused to comply with her wishes).

She had gotten a few bites into her lunch when a shadow fell over her.

Cautiously, Tsuna allowed herself to keep up at the cause of the shadow through her bangs.

There stood the lightly curved figure of Sasagawa Kyoko, her eyes glittering with a gentle determination that Tsuna could practically feel radiating off of the girl's mere presence.

She had been harnessing her own determination for so long that seeing it in another person had become easier than noticing a tree ten feet in front of her.

Looking over the other girl, Tsuna noticed the faint lines from where the bio-fabric covered scrapes and fresh bandages lining her arms and legs. The scrapes were still bothering her, but thankfully, she didn't look to be in as much pain as she had been in the day before.

Kyoko smiled down at her when she noticed her eyes were on her before turning to the silver-haired delinquent sitting in front of her.

"Gokudera-san," she said gently, turning his attention towards her. "Could I have a word with Sawada-chan?" she jerked her head in the smaller girl's direction.

Gokudera sent a look at Tsuna, briefly meeting her gaze before letting out a long, suffering sigh. This was the second time that day that someone was asking him if they could have a private word with Tsuna, and he knew that it probably wouldn't be the last time this would happen, he just couldn't get that image of Tsuna arriving at the classroom looking seconds away from entering that calm anger she'd felt the day before.

She hadn't told him what had transpired though.

But Sasagawa Kyoko was one of the few people he tolerated in the school...

"Alright." he finally breathed, rising up from the chair. "I need to get lunch anyway." he pinned his eyes on Tsuna, almost pointedly looking her in the eyes. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

Tsuna couldn't help but chuckle lightly at this.

"I don't doubt you." she immediately answered, playfully dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

Gokudera chuckled right back.

"Wisecracker," he muttered as he walked past her.

"Oh you flatter me." came her playful reply.

"I do try." he shot right back, patting her twice on the shoulder before he finally slipped out of the classroom, leaving Tsuna with the school idol.

"You two get along quite nicely," Kyoko spoke up, turning Tsuna's attention back to her.

"Sasagawa-chan?" the smaller girl asked, allowing her face to show the question just as much as her voice. Well, as much as her half-covered face was able to show.

Kyoko just smiled at her reaction.

Carefully, minding her own injuries, the red-haired girl slipped into Gokudera's now vacant seat in front of Tsuna, allowing her injured arm to rest on the back of the chair so that she could look her classmate right in the eye.

Okay, eye-level.

Tsuna took notice of the light flinch in Kyoko's muscles as she moved, not that obvious, and it didn't look as though it was bothering her for more than a second, but it was still there.

"I wanted to thank you." Kyoko finally said after a moment of silence, causing Tsuna to look up from her observation. At her slightly confused expression, Kyoko elaborated. "For what you did yesterday."

Immediately, Tsuna shyly sank back into her chair, her hands coming together to fiddle with her own fingers, refusing to look the other girl in the eye.

It wasn't that she wasn't proud of what she had done to Mochida, she actually almost felt bad for how little guilt she felt, she was stupidly pleased in knowing that she had gotten that bastard back for what he had done to her, the scar he had put on her jaw… but hearing someone else mention it, not to mention thanking her for it…

That was just too weird.

Ignoring Tsuna's reaction, Kyoko kept talking.

"You were pretty cool," she said, causing Tsuna to snap her head up to stare at the other girl in obvious disbelief. "To stand up to Mochida after what he did to you..." she smiled even more at the thought. "That was really amazing."

Tsuna returned to her fiddling.

"It wasn't amazing..." she muttered, so low in fact that Kyoko had to strain her ears to hear what she had just said.

She opened her mouth to tell Tsuna she was when said girl cut her off.

"And I wasn't cool..." she said, now with a lot more confidence. "I was furious."

Now, it was Kyoko's turn to look shocked.

She just stared at the girl in front of her, watching as Tsuna continued to fiddle her fingers, for once in her life too absorbed in her own mind to really notice Kyoko's reaction.

"I just..." she kept talking. "I didn't want him to mistreat another girl, so I just… snapped… I guess." she finished her sentence with a conscientious grimace and a glance towards the other girl's face.

Now, she couldn't help but notice the shocked expression on the other girl's face.

"What's wrong?"

Kyoko had to shake her head to get her mind back on track, and when she did, she just kept looking at the other girl, until she managed to finally open her mouth to get the words out.

"You were angry?"

A look of mild understanding spread over Tsuna's face. She could only imagine what it may have looked like to the people watching. She didn't know how she had looked back there, but she had a strong feeling that it had been nothing like she usually acted.

Not to mention looked like she had felt.

"Seething," she answered, letting out a deep breath as she allowed herself to fall forward on the desk (mindful not to land on her lunch), folding her one arm over her head. "I haven't been that angry for about six years."

She felt the increase in flame flow as she recalled said point of anger.

She forced herself to snuff out the spark of anger before it really ignited.

Kyoko blinked for a few moments before she could bring herself to open her mouth again.

"You… you didn't look like you were angry."

"Well… I was." Tsuna muttered as she straightened herself out. Wanting something to do with her hands she picked up her chopsticks and began poking at the contents of her lunch box.

Glancing up at the other girl, Tsuna decided to make it easier for the other girl and give her at least a bit more than just that.

"My father's the same," she shared. For the first time, giving someone from her class that wasn't Gokudera something more personal than what they should've already been aware of what with them having shared a class for so long.

"Really?" Kyoko asked, intrigued.

"Yeah." Tsuna nodded. "I haven't actually seen him in person for a long time now, but I remember seeing him like… frightfully calm once when talking on the phone." Tsuna shuddered at the mere memory, it was the only time she had ever been truly frightened of her father. "So I guess that it runs in the family."

"Do you know what the call was about?" Kyoko asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"No," Tsuna answered immediately. "I was too afraid to ask." her mood darkened slightly as the realization dawned on her. "But… now that I think back at it..." she licked her lips. "He left a few days after that."

Seeing the obvious change in mood, Kyoko reached out to gently grab Tsuna's hand, forcing her to ease up her hold on her chopsticks.

"When did you last see your father?" she asked gently.

Tsuna let out a long sigh, shaking her head.

"He hasn't been home for six years."

Kyoko's eyes widened.

"Six years?" she repeated.

Tsuna nodded.

"Yep." she answered slowly. "I mean, he video-calls and sends gifts, but he's not here, you know?"

The other girl nodded in understanding, gently running her fingers over Tsuna's hand in what she hoped to be a comforting gesture.

To Tsuna, the other girl's hand felt really warm.

But then again, she wasn't used to touching people.

"Sawada-chan," Kyoko said once Tsuna once again looked into her eyes.

She smiled at her.

"Is it alright if I call you Tsuna-chan from now on?"

Had Tsuna been less in control of her body, she probably would have fallen out of her chair, her chopsticks almost dropping from her hand as she stared open-mouthed at the red-haired girl.

It was her turn to blink before she could bring herself to say anything.

She couldn't help herself anymore, her emotions were running too high.

She smiled.

"Sasagawa-chan..." she breathed in disbelief. Unconsciously, she brought up her hand to brush her hair behind her ear in that gesture everyone in their class had become familiar with once they had actually started taking time to notice her.

"I… I guess," she answered, her one shoulder shrugging upwards in a gesture those who happened to be watching at that very moment found oddly adorable considering who it was.

They were used to Tsuna being cold and almost unemotional…

When had she been adorable?

Kyoko marveled at the sight of Tsuna's small smile.

It was so rare, at it really suited her.

Mentally, she wished that the girl would smile more often.

She couldn't help it, she ignored the pain in her arm and threw both of them around the other girl's shoulders, hugging her as tightly as she could without causing all too much strain on her injuries. She just felt like the girl needed a hug.

At the sudden movement of Kyoko, Tsuna had frozen in her seat, not knowing what to do when confronted with a situation like this.

Kyoko didn't seem to notice this though.

"You're so cute when you're embarrassed, Tsuna-chan." the red-head giggled, running her uninjured hand over the girl's tangled and just a bit greasy hair, but she was too absorbed in simply hugging the, to her, adorable girl.

Finally, after a few long seconds, Kyoko pulled away from Tsuna, though she kept her hands on the girl's slender shoulders, smiling right at her, trying to find her eyes through her bangs.

"Then, call me Kyoko as well." she insisted.

"Kyoko-chan?" Tsuna asked cautiously, even more bewildered than before.

This brought a laugh from the lips of one of the schools most popular girls.

"That's it." the red-head giggled, nodding encouragingly.

"I hope we can become great friends."

Still bewildered, Tsuna had to pinch herself to ensure that she wasn't still at home in her bed.

"Friends… with me?"

"Of course," Kyoko answered as though it was the most obvious answer there was. "You're such a sweet girl Tsuna-chan." she let out a long sigh of self-disappointment, letting her head rest in the palm of her hand. "I'm just sorry it took so long for us to realize that."

It was all too good to be true.

Just a few days after she'd come to truly consider someone a friend, and feel as though they truly consider her to be theirs as well, the most popular and kindest girl in school was openly asking her if SHE wanted to be friends with HER?

How did this happen?

Then again… Tsuna was never really one to question things too much when it came to why people do what they do unless she didn't have a clear enough impression on why they would do it. But this was Sasagawa Kyoko, she doesn't have a truly mean-spirited bone in her body. She can behave overly feminine in ways that were painful to watch sometimes, but her kindness has always been genuine.

"Thank you..." she muttered, her mind still slightly a daze.

"Don't mention it," Kyoko said, patting Tsuna on the hand before she straightened up, throwing her red waves over her shoulder.

"Well." the red-head raised herself from her borrowed chair, eyes trailing over to the classroom door that had just been violently yanked open. "It would appear that our time together has run out." she gave Tsuna a teasing little smile, something that she'd never seen or even had the capability of imagining on Kyoko's face before.

But now that she had, she found that it suited her.

It suited her stupidly well.

"I can only imagine why that is," Tsuna stated exaggeratedly, glancing over her shoulder at the approaching silverette, a food-tray in hand with a covering over the plate.

Gokudera narrowed his eyes jokingly.

"Har har," he said, dumping the tray on the desk, Kyoko having just moved out of the way allowing the delinquent to plump down in front of Tsuna once again.

Tsuna caught Kyoko sending her a smug eyebrow, which again stupidly suited her face before the red-head disappeared off to her own desk.

"What was that about?" Gokudera asked, removing the lid off of the tray, revealing the plate of spaghetti bolognese underneath. She could tell that his mouth was already watering at the sight of the dish.

Okay… take a mental note of that…

"If only I knew," she answered with a roll of her eyes, almost piercing her omelet-rolls with her chopsticks in bewildered irritation.

A few desks away, surrounded by his fellow teammates, sat Yamamoto, chopsticks pushing restlessly at his sushi lunch. The lunch that had been left for him at the kitchen table that morning, like every other day.

He kept a smile on his face, he couldn't afford to let it fall when surrounded by the people that called themselves his friends, but it was getting more and more painful to even lift his arm. He was in pain, and no one around him was noticing it.

Well…

There was one person that had noticed.

His eyes once again drifted over towards a familiar messy head of light brown hair sitting with her chopsticks in her mouth and looking positively shining with that small smile on her lips. She was happier than he'd ever seen her, and he hadn't been the one to put that smile there. The cause of her smile was sitting in front of her, causing chaos around the classroom with his own smile.

No one in the room had ever seen either of them smile.

He was happy that she was happy, she deserved to be, but he couldn't help those dark thoughts, those dark feelings that were building inside of him. He didn't like it.

He wanted to be where Gokudera was sitting.

He wanted to sit with Sawada Tsunako, the girl who could read him like an open book, and not sitting surrounded by people who thought that they knew him.

They couldn't see past the smiles, and it was painful.

It was so painful…

Yamamoto watched as Sawada shoved a wiener into Gokudera's mouth. She didn't feed him, she shoved it into what Yamamoto could only guess was a smart-talking mouth.

When had they gotten so comfortable with each other?

When had they even started hanging out like that?

They were acting like they had been friends for years, not like they had barely known each other for over a month, and said month with one of them being at the throat at the other.

He was glad that Gokudera didn't treat Sawada like shit anymore, but he couldn't help those dark feelings forming, he didn't even know what was the cause of them.

Was he jealous? But in that case, what was he jealous of? He wasn't romantically interested in Sawada at all, but he did want to be closer to her.

"Yamamoto?" one of his team-mates brought him out of his thoughts, snapping his attention back towards the boys surrounding him. "Where are you right now?"

He forced a laugh out, turning his focus back to trying to look interested in the game-theory discussion going on around him.

Stars did he not want to think about baseball right now…

AN: Alright... I really hope you liked that one.

Please tell me what you think, any thought you might've had as you read, give me feedback please, I'm not fishing for compliments I want thoughts, critiques if you have them they won't discourage me it will show me that you've actually taken in what I've written and thus will only encourage me to keep on writing.

I love working on this story, I really do, and I don't want to stop working on it anytime soon.

I'll be back with the next chapter as soon as I can, until then, I hope you spend your days doing something you enjoy for at least a part of it. In this society, that's about as much as one can ask for right?

Until next time.

This has been,

A message from her ladyship.