"Tama-chan, Tama-chan! Guess what? I think I'm in love!" Katsura said happily while talking on the phone with a friend of hers in her room one night.
"Love? Again? Who is it this time Katsura?" her friend asked in a sing-song voice that suggested she had heard this five billion times before.
"He's the sweetest guy I've ever known!" she said happily while holding up a photo of him in her hand while the phone was pressed to her ear in the other, "I met him in the park with this cute baby, so I just know he loves children! Plus he saved my life when I was drowning!"
"Are you talking about that same guy you 'fell in love with' three weeks ago?" her friend asked skeptically, "That's a rather long time to like someone, even for you!"
"Geez, Tama-chan, I'm serious about this!" the girl pouted and dreamily said, "I knew from the moment he saved my life that I was meant to be with him forever and ever!"
"You said the same thing about that soccer player at our school last month," her friend pointed out, "You said from the moment you saw him, he would be your soul mate!"
"That was before the summer though, Tama-chan!" she sighed and said, "You wouldn't know, you've never been in love!"
"Um, I actually have a boyfriend, thank you very much," 'Tama-chan' said satisfactorily, "And this guy that you've been talking about must be different because you usually get over your crushes after a week! Have you at least had a proper conversation with him?"
Katsura thought about this; the various times she had gone over to his house and asked him to come out probably didn't count, and the first time she met him also didn't count either.
"Well…no…" she said slowly while she tried to prepare something to counteract her friend's skepticism.
"So what, you just fell in love with him at first sight and you've just been stalking him now, right?"
"Well…no…we talked a few times…"
"Oh geez, Katsura! You said he was with a kid right? Let me guess, you probably had some sort of horrible misunderstanding with him and thought that he was influencing the kid to do bad stuff like rob a store or something dumb that only you would think of and you swore to take vengeance for that kid and kill him, but when you were about to kill him, probably on a bridge or something knowing you, you fell off the bridge and he dove into the river to save you. Am I right?
"…Bulls eye…" she muttered.
"Katsura! We've been over this before! Stop trusting each and every person that saves your life once!"
"But…he's…" Katsura stammered, "he…he might be the one."
"The one my ass, Katsura! Not even my boyfriend's the one!" her friend scolded her and said, "Katsura, I'm your friend so I'm telling you this, if you know what's good for you then you'll stop concentrating on love for five seconds!"
"I understand Tama-chan," Katsura said slightly ashamed and hung up the phone.
She flopped down on her bed and stared at her ceiling, which had a large scale picture of Sawada Hideyoshi taped above her bed. Katsura sighed wistfully as she stared at the photo and held her handmade (i.e. badly made) stuffed doll of Sawada Hideyoshi. She stared at the doll for a few seconds before resolving to go to Hide the next day and ask him on a date.
How she got to this conclusion is still unknown.
~8~
Hide was surprised, if not completely shocked, when he was suddenly tackled in the park. He was even more shocked when he found that it was the girl that persistently stalked him every where he went.
"Um, Katsura-san, right?" he asked.
He knows my name! Katsura practically swooned but regained her composure and remembered why she was here, Keep a clear head, Katsura! Remember the goal!
"Why are you wearing football equipment?" Hide asked when he noticed the shoulder pads, helmet, and jersey on her body.
"That's not important, Hide-kun!" she said determinedly, "I need to ask you something!"
"Uh, what?" he asked, slightly freaked out at this point.
"Will you go on a date with me?"
Hide fell silent and became so still that it worried Katsura if he was alright or not.
"Hm? Hide-kun, are you okay?" she asked curiously.
"He's done it," said Reborn, who had cleverly disguised himself as a bush mainly for the sole reason to be able to scare Hide, "He's been shocked into a paralyzed-state."
"Eh?" Katsura looked back her crush and asked worriedly, "Is there anything we can do to help him?"
"A kiss by a handsome prince!" said Adam, who was hanging upside-down on a tree branch and was disguised as an overly large squirrel.
"Or another shock to the system," said Anna, who appeared right behind Katsura with two tazers in her hands and was disguised as a bear.
"…what's with the outfits?" Katsura asked.
"It was supposed to be part of the plan," Adam shrugged while still hanging on the tree branch.
What plan? she wondered in mild horror.
"But we're going to have to abandon that plan right now though," said Reborn dismissively and continued, "Hide will not end up being a Mafia Boss if he is paralyzed for the rest of his life."
"Then he will need a kiss from a handsome prince!" Adam declared and then, after some thought, added, "Or princess in this case."
"A-A k-k-kiss?" Katsura blushed as she stammered the words out.
"Anna?" the twin brother implored his sister to do the deed.
"When hell freezes over," she stated bluntly.
"Well that leaves only one other handsome 'princess'," he said and they all looked at Katsura.
"M-Me? A k-kiss? T-To Hide-kun?" she stuttered and looked at Hide's laying form.
"You already asked him on a date," said Reborn dismissively, "You might as well."
"But-but," she looked from Reborn to Hide and over again until finally she shrieked, "It's too soon!" and ran off.
They were all silent for a little while until Anna held up one of her tazers and said, "I guess that leaves shock to the system."
There was then an awful scream that caused all the birds fly from their trees and all the wild animals to flee from the surrounding area.
"Can you tell me exactly why I was electrocuted again?" Hide asked while putting a bag of ice on his arm where Anna tazed him.
"You really don't remember why?" she asked.
"No, all I remember was that I was walking in the park and then after that it all goes blank," he said while moving the ice around.
"No use in trying to remember it Boss," Adam shrugged, "You'll probably remember again soon."
"What do you mean 'soon'?" he asked suspiciously and it was then he saw Katsura hiding behind a tree, shaking slightly with a red face.
"Katsura-san?" he asked, "What are you doing here?"
"So y-you're awake now," Katsura stated while still hiding behind the tree.
"Did you see me after I blacked out?" Hide asked, "Do you know what I was doing before I blacked out? I can't really remember…"
The girl ran towards Hide with an excited look on her face and asked, "You don't remember?"
"No, not really," he shook his head.
"Th-Then, I have a question!" she announced.
He stared at her funny and said uncertainly, "Yes?"
"Will you go on a date with me?"
Hide fell silent again and the bag of ice fell out of his hand and dropped onto the ground, Katsura worried if the shock of being asked out probably made him paralyzed, but instead he opened his mouth to say something and…an ice cream cone hit him in the face.
"Hide-kun!" she gasped.
"Hey are you alright?" asked the park's ice cream vendor, Hide looked up at him and saw Nagi.
"Either I'm going insane, or that's Nagi-san," the boy grimaced.
"Oh! Young sir!" Nagi said happily and handed him some napkins.
"Yup, that's Nagi-san…" Hide sighed as he wiped the ice cream off his face.
"Everything's going wroooong!" Katsura screamed and ran off crying.
The two stood there in silence before Nagi asked, "What was up with her?"
"You know, I can't really remember," he shrugged, "I think I did another mini-blackout while I was talking to her about…something?"
"Boss, you seem to be having a lot of those lately," Adam noted.
"You should probably get yourself checked by a shrink," said Anna.
"Maybe it's the stress of being around you guys all day," Hide grimaced and decided to change the subject quickly, "Nagi-san, what are you doing here at the park…and selling ice cream?"
The man looked pleasantly surprised at Hide and said, "I'm glad you noticed, young sir! Actually, as a matter of fact, being the ice cream vendor here is my new job!"
"Really?" the boy asked.
"Yup!" Nagi nodded and looked around, "My sister should be around here somewhere…I wonder where she is? Maybe she's been kidnapped again?"
"What-?" Hide began worriedly but then Hanabi appeared right behind him saying:
"Twelfth!" right into his ear, causing him to possibly be deaf in that ear for the rest of the day.
"G-Gokudera-san! Where did you come from?" he asked as he tried to recover from being startled.
"I just wanted to surprise you, Twelfth!" she chirped.
I think I've had enough of surprises today…he thought to himself.
"Oh there you are Hanabi! I thought you were kidnapped again!" Nagi said cheerfully.
"I'm beginning to wonder why you keep thinking I'm kidnapped most of the time," Hanabi frowned and sighed at her brother.
"Hey, Smoking Bomb's brother, do you have mint chocolate chip in there?" Adam asked.
"Why yes I do!" he nodded.
"I'll take two then!" he said cheerfully.
"Hey mister!" a small child of no actual discernable gender tugged at Nagi's apron and said, "Can I have some ice cream?"
Adam knelt down to the kid and said and a dark tone, "Beat it kid, I was here first."
The child stared at him blankly for a few seconds and turned around and cried, "Mommy, this onii-chan is bullying me! Waaah!"
"W-What?" Adam paled and felt a sudden killing intent right behind him, he turned around slowly and saw a very large woman with a crying baby strapped to her chest.
The mother looked down at Adam and said darkly, "Are you threatening my Koyuki-chan?"
"Um, uh…" he gulped nervously and looked to his sister for help.
Anna then turned around quickly and said, "You brought it upon yourself."
"You're abandoning me?" he asked.
"Who are you?" she asked while avoiding eye contact.
"We're twins!"
"I think you have me confused with someone else."
What kind of brother and sister is this…? Hide groaned.
"Nagi, I told you for the billionth time today, don't give away free ice cream!" Hanabi scolded her brother.
"Oh Hanabi! There you are! I thought you got kidnapped again!" he laughed.
"I've been standing next to you the whole time!"
What kind of brother and sister is this! Hide gaped.
"Look! Ice cream!" someone yelled and then suddenly Hide found himself surrounded by elementary school kids, probably back from a summer camping trip.
Hide managed to get away from the kids in time and landed his butt on the grass. He sighed with relief from getting away from them and watched the crowd of children scream their orders at Nagi.
"Twelfth! I got some ice cream for you!" Hanabi said brightly and cheerfully as she walked up to him with two cones in her hands, "I got it from Nagi, before that bus full of brats came!"
Hide never thought that anyone could ever say 'brats' in such a cheerful and normal way before, but now he guessed he stood corrected.
"Thanks, Gokudera-san," he said and took one of the cones she was holding, they both sat down. As they sat in a sort of peaceful silence, Hide looked up over at Nagi who was cheerfully selling ice cream and asked, "Gokudera-san, doesn't something seem a little off about your brother?"
"You mean Nagi, Twelfth?" she asked innocently, "What's so strange about him?"
"Well…he sort of acts differently from you and your grandfather…I don't know how to explain it…" he said uncertainly and then shook his head, "Maybe it's just me."
Hanabi looked at her brother, who was cheerfully giving out ice cream to the children that crowded around him, and said after a little thought, "Actually, sir, Nagi is a bit different…"
Hide looked at with surprise as she continued, "Don't tell anyone about this, I'm only telling you because you're the Twelfth, but…Nagi used to be the right-hand man for the other Twelfth."
Other Twelfth? he thought, Does she mean one of the candidates before me for Twelfth Boss?
"You see, Boss," she said slowly while staring at the ice cream cone in her hand, "Nagi used to have a really horrible temper, he would get angry at even the smallest of things, and the only thing that could actually ease him was when he was with the Twelfth-I mean the other Twelfth…but when the other Twelfth died, Nagi blamed his death all on himself and got even angrier to the point where he would become frightening…he had to be put in therapy and given a lot of medicine until he was like a completely different person…so the Nagi you see over there, the Nagi that's giving ice cream to those kids, that's not the real Nagi."
"Gokudera-san…" Hide's eyes widened, he never saw Hanabi so serious before and, when he thought about it, he never actually had any sort of serious conversation with her before.
She quickly ate the rest of her ice cream cone hurriedly, stood up and brushed the grass off her jeans then said, "But that's all in the past now."
"Gokudera-san, are you alright?" Hide asked as she started walking towards her brother.
"Yeah, sorry for telling you such a boring story, Twelfth," she said without looking back at him, "I guess I didn't know what I was thinking."
"Wait, Gokudera-san…" he began but she was already by her brother.
"Don't try to, Hide," said Reborn, he appeared by Hide's feet, "It's no use getting into the personal affairs of your subordinates."
"But Gokudera-san isn't my subordinate! She's my friend!" he argued.
"Has anyone informed Hanabi of that yet?" the infant asked him while fixing his fedora in a good position, "So far, Hanabi only thinks of you as her Boss, maybe unconsciously she thinks of you as her friend but if you were to confront her about this issue and you said the wrong thing, she would most likely leave and never come back."
Hide was silent and looked up at Hanabi, she was scolding Nagi for trying to give away free ice cream to one of the kids.
"I can't just do nothing though," he muttered.
"Sometimes, all you can do is nothing," his tutor said distantly.
The sun was beginning to set, Hide looked up at the sky as it went from blue to orange to red and to purple. And as the blazing red sun was beginning to set on the trees, Hide couldn't help but think of how the summer days were ending quickly and how little time they had left before school started.
~8~
Katsura: Woah! Woah! Is this seriously all of the chapter? Seriously! I'm only in like half of this whole chapter, wasn't it supposed to be entirely on me and how I ask Hide-kun out?
Echan: Oh…Katsura…what a…surprise?
Katsura: Why am I in only half this chapter, huh? Are you writing me out!
Echan: Come on, Katsura, let's not make a scene in front of our readers…
Katsura: Cut it out already! Don't you think I'm all pleasant and nice all the way to the core! What's this about you thinking of cutting me out of Skywards? Eh?
Echan: I never said I was going to write you out, though.
Katsura: But you were thinking about it!
Echan: Well…to be honest with you Katsura, you're pretty annoying to write *imaginary arrow goes through Katsura's chest* and you're also very hard to set stories up for *another arrow goes through her chest* and I actually only wrote you in the first place because I thought I could crack a joke with your name *another arrow* so you're pretty much just a copy of Haru from the actual KHR series by Amano Akira.
Katsura: *trying to get up from the stabbing emotional pain* Th-That's still no reason to get rid of one of your beloved characters!
Echan: *stares blankly at Katsura* but do you count as a 'beloved character' when I'm actually kinda annoyed at you? *another stab through the chest* I've also been feeling that I have way too many female OCs around lately so I've been thinking about writing more male ones for fan-service…
Katsura: So you're selling me out for better OCs!
Echan: 'Selling out'? Those are such harsh words, I prefer 'trading in' *shifty gaze*
Katsura: *gaping* B-But I'm your comic-relief character!
Echan: Katsura, have you even looked at this chapter? Or the last chapter? My main characters can act like the comic-relief as long as my straight man is there.
Katsura: *shocked* Y-Your straight man!
Echan: Yes, my straight man! Sawada Hideyoshi! He's absolutely perfect 'common sense' material! Plus he's pretty much at the center of all the craziness in Skywards, this makes him even more perfect!
Katsura: H-Hide-kun is!
Echan: *laughs maniacally just for the heck of it*
Katsura: Please! Let me stay as a recurring character, Mistress Author! I beg of you! If you don't, I'll just end up like those nobodies like the ones at the beginning of Skywards that called themselves Hide-kun's friends and were never seen again after Hide-kun left them! Or those guys in the Boxing club who pretty much just yelled random things for the conclusion of the chapter! And those nurses in the last chapter! Please! Don't let me be like them!
Echan: *scoffs and doesn't even bother to look down* Fine, I guess I could let you stay on the story. Geez, you're so spastic.
Katsura: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Echan: Get your butt outta here, I gotta make real announcements now *kicks Katsura out*
Sorry for that folks, I made myself out to be a complete and total b-word…but what Katsura says is I almost completely cut Katsura out of the story, purely because she was hard to write for. But instead, I decided to deal through the hardness and take it up as a challenge…I'm so valiant *sarcasm*
If you want to discuss this with me and my fancy friend Neszriah, writer of other NextGen/FutureFic stuff like Vongola Unidecisimo and Zio Hayato, then come on over to my forum: Just another Forum and go head over to the topic headed On the topic of future fictions…
Sorry for the large amount of A/N guys, KHR belongs to Amano Akira
