uploaded on December 05, 2015
I don't have an excuse for the untimely update. But, here's a chapter with lots of things going on. Lots and lots. Not necessarily plot-related, but still lots.
I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Progress
"Good morning, Tsu-kun!" Tsuna heard his mom greet him from kitchen. He thought she was extra lively today; it was only five in the morning but she was already awake, moving about in the kitchen if the clanging sounds of kitchenware were telling. "Would you like to eat first before your morning run?"
"I'm good, thanks," Tsuna smiled at her as soon as he entered the dining area. Just as he suspected, his mom was already halfway through preparing a feast. "What's with all the food?" he asked lightheartedly, beelining for the fridge to get himself a glass of grape juice. "Don't tell me dad's visiting?" She always prepared a truckload of food whenever that man remembered to visit them.
Nana giggled. "Hardly. The food will be five times more when your Papa goes home. Today I'm just really, really happy!"
His mom's cheeriness always rubbed off on him, Tsuna mused, as he laughed a little bit too. "Oh? Did something good happen?"
"This is a celebration!"
"Is it somebody's birthday?"
Nana wiped a tear from her eye. "My Tsu-kun's growing up."
Tsuna frowned. "But it's not my birthday?"
"Of course not. But you're all grown up!" She turned away from him and continued stirring the pot. "I'm just really glad to know you're an adult now."
"Adult —
"You're going on a date!" Nana squealed as she did little jumps.
Tsuna paled. "Mom, I think you misunderstood —
"I just knew, one way or another, that you'll enter the realm of adulthood very soon. And to think it will be with Takeshi-kun! Oh my oh my! Mama approves!"
Tsuna turned from white to red in an instant. "Mom, you got the wrong idea!"
It was Nana's turn to frown. "Are you not going out today with Takeshi-kun?"
Suddenly the floor looked very interesting to Tsuna. "Um, we will head out later. So, yes?"
"And are you not going to eat out during that time?"
"W-well, we would probably go hungry in the middle of our trip. So maybe we'll grab some snacks."
"And are you not heading to Takeshi's place?"
"I kind of promised I'm going to check out his dorm —
Tsuna froze.
"Mom."
"Yes, Tsu-kun?"
"This is a date, isn't it?"
Nana sniggered. "Please tell me all about it when you get home."
"But I still think you have the wrong idea with entering the realm of adulthood!" Tsuna shouted over his shoulder as he headed outside, determined to run his fluster away. His mom was messing with his head again and he refused to let it bother him. He didn't want to weird Takeshi out with his awkwardness!
Doing his morning runs always made him feel better, Tsuna mused, as he took a break at the park and watched the sun finally rise up from the horizon. He was considering contacting Ryohei to ask him to do daily spars with him again when his phone beeped with a new message.
"Good morning Tsuna!" It was from Takeshi.
"Good morning too, Takeshi. Don't you think it's a little too early? We're meeting up at 8 AM, right?" Tsuna replied, ignoring the strange flutterings at the pits of his stomach.
The reply was almost instantaneous. "Yup. But I want to keep up with my batting practice so I'm up early." Tsuna remembered Takeshi was going to try out for his university's baseball team. "The batting center's still closed though . . . so I'm at the park practicing."
Reading the last line, Tsuna felt his embarrassment wash over his entire body. He was almost afraid of raising up his head from looking at his phone because he knew what he would see, but . . . Tsuna did so anyway and was not surprised to find Takeshi a few meters away, smiling that Takeshi-smile and waving at him, the other hand clutching his bat. Suddenly, his brain found this the appropriate time to make him remember his mom's words — leaving Tsuna a huge, blushing mess.
"You okay, Tsuna?" Takeshi asked as soon as he stepped in front of him. "You look a little red."
Tsuna laughed nervously. "Just a bit tired."
"You sure?" Takeshi prodded on as he placed his spare hand on Tsuna's forehead. "If you're sick, maybe we should stay home."
Tsuna's eyes widened at the contact and he couldn't help but get a tiny bit redder. "I-I'm fine, Takeshi! Really!"
Takeshi smiled. "You can rest at home and I could take care of you?"
Tsuna thought he was going to melt. He was going to melt and merge with the ground and never come back up again. "I'm just red because I just finished running! Yeah! I'm fine."
"Well, I trust you," Takeshi chuckled, finally letting go of Tsuna's forehead. "Since we're together now, would you like to have breakfast with me?"
Childhood best friends, Tsuna reminded himself. "Oh yeah! My mom cooked up a feast for breakfast. You should come to our house!"
"Oh? Is it somebody's birthday?"
"No . . . my mom just loves cooking." One part of the reason, at least. The other part was something Tsuna didn't want to disclose.
"Cool. I love Mama's food!"
"Don't we all?" Tsuna smiled.
After having breakfast (while simultaneously being praised by his mom for taking the initiative, whatever that meant) they went about their ways to get ready for their trip. They decided to meet up at the train station by eight in the morning.
But things weren't always smooth-sailing like how he planned it to be.
"Good morning, Tsuna!" Ryohei boomed from several meters away, earning strange looks from bystanders. "Going out?"
Tsuna tried his best to fight off his embarrassment as he scurried towards Ryohei. "Good morning too, Ryohei," he mumbled, then pulled him along so they could walk off from the watchers. "I'm on my way to the train station. You?"
"I was about to buy breakfast but I guess you're now bringing me to wherever you're going!"
Tsuna almost choked on nothing. "Y-you got it wrong! I just wanted to find a peaceful place." Without prodding people.
Ryohei grinned. "Since we're both busy, don't let me keep you. Even though I want to! HAHAHAHA!"
Bad for the heart, bad for the heart, think of Kyoko! Tsuna was chanting in his head but he didn't even know what these words meant to him in the first place. What did Kyoko have to do with anything right now? Sometimes his line of thoughts made no sense to him. "Thanks Ryohei. I'll see you around?"
Ryohei waved as he walked away. "Just let me know if you're in a pinch. I'm only a phone call away!"
Tsuna didn't think he'd be in "a pinch" if he was with Takeshi, but at least it was nice to know that Ryohei had his back. Anyway, he should hurry up and head to the train station, time was running out quickly and he didn't want to make Takeshi wait too long.
But again, things weren't always smooth-sailing like in his imagination.
"Well, well, well," Ken appeared from somewhere, followed by Chikusa who looked nothing short of bored. "Look who showed up, Kaki-pi!"
"Tsuna," Chikusa replied nonchalantly even as he made a bow towards Tsuna, which Tsuna returned in fluster.
"S-so, where are you guys headed?" Tsuna attempted small talk to avoid the awkward atmosphere while they stood in the middle of the sidewalk.
"We're heading to the cafe for our shift," Chikusa answered before Ken could let one syllable out, leaving him with his mouth wide open and looking stupid.
Tsuna chuckled nervously as he eyed the look of confusion and anger at Ken's face. "Um, as for me I'm going to the train station —
"So it's at the opposite direction," Chikusa cut him off while Ken was about to say something.
Tsuna's eyes darted between the two, once again noting the growing ire on the other's face. "Y-yeah, it is. I guess here's where we part ways —
"We —
"Bye," Chikusa's voice overpowered Ken's.
Tsuna gulped as Ken's face turned red.
"KAKI-PI!" Ken suddenly grabbed Chikusa's shoulders, shaking him. "Why do you keep interrupting me?!"
The other guy was very calm despite being rocked back and forth. "Knowing you, you'll probably say something stupid."
Ken roughly removed his grip and pouted. "Who cares! Just let me say what I want!"
"This is so troublesome," Chikusa muttered, looking away. "Go ahead, say what you want to say to Tsuna."
"Good!" Ken turned away from his friend and faced Tsuna.
At least they're okay now, Tsuna thought, giving Ken a smile. "Yes?"
"W-we —
Ken froze. Then unfroze, then froze again. And then unfroze but this time his face was redder than ever and he turned around while whining about inappropriate now and I lost my chance thanks to you Kaki-pi you evil monster!
Chikusa only ushered him away as Ken continued to whine and curse him. "Mukuro-sama would want to see you, Tsuna."
That was an invitation to go to the cafe, Tsuna mused. "I'll pass by sometime."
And so they finally parted ways with Tsuna heaving a big sigh of relief. He glanced at his phone to find it was around seven-forty-five, and the train station was still twenty minutes away on walking a normal pace. That meant Tsuna had to run to make it on time, and run he did.
Then again, things weren't always smooth-sailing like how he wanted it to be.
In his effort to get on time he failed to look at where he's going, his intuition unsuccessful from preventing his collision with somebody else. The other guy quickly clamped his hands on Tsuna's shoulders to stop his fall.
"Thanks, and sorry!" Tsuna kept his head down, clenching his eyes tight.
"What a coincidence, huh Tsuna?" Takeshi's cheery voice made him feel a whole lot better. "This is the second time today."
Tsuna finally pulled his head up to look at him. "Yeah. I'm glad it's you." And not another distraction.
Takeshi only kept his smile and stared back.
Then Tsuna remembered why they met like this. "I'm sorry again, Takeshi. I was running and wasn't looking, I didn't want to be late to our meeting —
"Haha! I was running too. My dad made me help with the shop for a bit but I was already running late," he smiled wider, and as he removed his hands from Tsuna's shoulders he quickly replaced an arm over it. "But now that we're both here, then we can both be 'late' to our meeting!"
"That's a funny way of looking at it," Tsuna coughed into his hand.
"Come on, let's go to the train station together."
Even though things weren't always smooth-sailing, sometimes it turns out even better.
Tsuna gulped as he stood nervously on the train platform. "That train's taking its time . . ."
Takeshi laughed. "It's only been a minute from the last train, Tsuna! Relax."
Tsuna laughed too, albeit a little too nervously. "I'm just excited to get to Kishiki."
Takeshi laughed louder this time and gestured to Tsuna's other side. "I think Hibari's worried about you."
Needless to say, Kyouya was standing next to Tsuna, but his eyes were focused on the space in front of him. He had his arms crossed and Tsuna could clearly see the man was itching to get his tonfas out and probably attack Takeshi for describing him with something so unlike him. Tsuna wondered what was stopping him, when the man suddenly brandished his favorite weapons and dashed towards Takeshi —
But Takeshi was just as fast as he blocked the tonfa using his baseball bat.
Tsuna's panic levels were rising. "K-Kyouya! Please stop attacking —
"Carnivores are natural predators," Kyouya grumbled without even glancing at Tsuna, keeping his eyes trained on Takeshi.
The other guy only smiled back. "I'm not a carnivore though."
Tsuna glanced between the two of them. "Come on, no fighting please? Ah, the train's here —
Kyouya's eyes narrowed even further. "I absolutely despise liars." But he concealed his tonfas again and finally acknowledged Tsuna's presence. "Little animal, you will return to Namimori."
Tsuna was confused. "O-of course?"
Kyouya's focus returned to Takeshi. "Untouched."
But Takeshi only held up his smile as he placed both of his hands at the back of his head.
Tsuna was absolutely confused and it seemed like the two were communicating somehow, with the way they were staring at each other as the train made its stop at Namimori station. Kyouya didn't cause any more altercation as Tsuna and Takeshi boarded the train. When the train departed, Tsuna turned to the other guy. "What were you and Kyouya talking about?"
"Aah, he's just worried. You've never been very far from Namimori, right?"
Tsuna nodded. "The farthest I got was Kokuyo, but that's only a few minutes away with a bike. Simon's the same . . . Unless you count my deliveries to Kawamoku, but I don't stay there too long."
"He's probably worried something will happen to you when you're not in his area of influence. Who knew Hibari was so territorial?" Takeshi laughed at his own joke as everybody knew Kyouya was absolutely and undeniably territorial.
Tsuna smiled in response, but something nagged him at the back of his mind, only he couldn't figure out what it was.
Kishiki was a homely-looking town, which was quite a contradiction to how Tsuna imagined it to be; when the concept of universities came to his mind, all he could imagine was tall, towering buildings and lots of people. Kishiki, and by extension, Kishiki University, looked oddly similar to Namimori, only it had a university in the middle of it.
"There are more people during weekdays," Takeshi blurted out as if he had read what was on Tsuna's mind. "Do you want to take a look around or do you want to head to Admissions?"
"Admissions sounds good. Then we could walk around afterwards."
This was a rather serious trip, Tsuna pondered when they finally acquired the list of available programs offered in Kishiki U. His mom's chanting of "It's a date! It's a date!" suddenly lost its merit and Tsuna could finally admit he was relaxed. He had been far too high-strung for the past few hours.
"This university's too big," Tsuna grumbled while they took a break at the school's field bleachers. "Just look at the size of this field!"
"Well, baseball fields are generally huge," Takeshi chuckled, handing Tsuna a can of green tea.
Tsuna frowned. "But in Namimori Middle, the field isn't this big but you can still play baseball."
"That's just the infield, which is where most of the action happens like the pitching and the batting. The outfield is the one taking up the space. You know? The grassy area outside the diamond area?"
Tsuna pouted. "I know this was taught during our P.E. class but for some reason I don't remember it. Aah, I suck at sports . . ."
"If you're good at sports you'll be far too perfect," Takeshi grinned.
Tsuna accidentally spat out his green tea.
"Tsuna-kun?" There was a familiar voice that called out to them, who Tsuna knew too well. He turned around in an instant to find Kyoko climbing up the stairs towards them, gracing them with her goddess smile. "It is you, Tsuna-kun! And Yamamoto-kun too!"
"Kyoko-chan!" Tsuna stood up to welcome her and she quickly gave him a warm, comforting hug. "Do you have classes today?"
Kyoko pulled away from him and pouted a tiny bit. "Why didn't you tell me you're coming to Kishiki? We only talked last night. I was just about to go back to my dorm when I spotted you here. What are the odds?"
"Yeah, but it's a happy coincidence! Right, Takeshi?" Tsuna turned to the other guy who was already standing up.
"Yup."
Kyoko smiled again. "So, why didn't you tell me? I would've met you at the station!"
Tsuna looked sheepish. "I didn't want to bother you . . . and besides, I already have Takeshi as my tour guide."
"Oh, Tsuna-kun . . . you will never bother me. Next time, please let me know if you're coming here so I can accompany you. Especially when Yamamoto-kun might be too busy to accomodate you." She smiled at Takeshi who smiled in return. "Oh! Let me tell Onii-chan I found you here!"
"Kyoko-chan, I don't want to keep you if you have something else to do."
"I don't have any classes today so it's alright. I can spend the rest of the day with you two!"
And that made Tsuna calm down by a huge margin, for who knows the reason why. All he knew was Kyoko always made his day better and now he would get to spend this day with her, after not seeing her in person for so long (sending each other pictures through Line didn't compare).
Next thing Tsuna knew, it was almost four in the afternoon and Kyoko had already left on her merry way. Takeshi and him were already riding the train back to Namimori while Tsuna held his stomach in comfort. "I ate too much," he grumbled, regretting the copious amounts of food Kyoko had placed on his plate. "The food in your cafeteria is too good . . ."
"Culinary Arts majors intern there, so maybe that explains why."
"Please let me rest for a while," Tsuna mumbled as he leant against Takeshi's shoulder. "I'm sorry we didn't get to visit your dorm, but I hope you still had fun."
Tsuna felt the vibrations of Takeshi's body, presumably from chuckling lightly. "I should be the one saying that to you. Technically, you're my guest and not the other way around."
"But I was the one who brought up the idea to go to Kishiki in the first place."
"And I accepted. Which means it's my responsibility."
"B-but if I didn't bring it up then you didn't have to take any responsibility at all —
"Tsuna."
Tsuna reluctantly looked up sideways to stare at Takeshi's face.
"I hope you had fun," Takeshi smiled.
Tsuna was dead. Dead, resurrected, dying and then dead again. At least, that was what he felt at this very moment with all the blood rushing to his face and to his head and then suddenly the space felt lighter and way, way, hotter and —
"It's so annoying watching you two!" Tsuna swore he heard Lambo's voice from somewhere but when he looked around he didn't find him. Maybe it was only his imagination because he was feeling a little too light-headed right now, maybe he was starting to hallucinate things.
"Please wake me up when we get to Namimori," Tsuna whispered before drifting into a nap.
As soon as they got off the train at Namimori Station, Kyouya chased Takeshi away with his tonfas and dangerous aura permeating around him. The two then disappeared into the distance before Tsuna could even say anything else, watching in confusion.
Kusakabe was standing next to him. "Kyou-san cancelled all his patrols today."
Tsuna didn't want to hear it.
"Kyou-san kept watch on Namimori Station all day."
Tsuna seriously didn't want to know.
"Kyou-san waited right here."
"Please Kusakabe-san," Tsuna pleaded, every inch of his body wanting him to cry out tears of disbelief at the craziness of everything. "I just want to go home and rest from my trip."
"Of course, Sawada," Kusakabe bowed and stepped aside, which Tsuna took as his cue to run away as fast as he could.
"How was your date, Tsu-kun?"
"There was no date, mom."
"Oh?"
"We did go to Kishiki, but like I told you it wasn't a date."
"Will you tell me all about it?"
"It's really nothing special. I got the university's program listings, we met Kyoko-chan halfway through —
"Oh?"
" — and she stayed with us until the end of our trip. Why do you look so shocked?"
"I guess I just never factored in Kyoko-chan. That's something new."
"What the heck are you talking about, mom?!"
"Oh~ nothing. Take your well-deserved rest, Tsu-kun. There's still plenty of time to enter the realm of adulthood!"
"I don't want to hear that from you!"
