A/N: I really don't know what to put here this time so I'm just going to let you continue straight on to the chapter.
Enjoy.
Scene 29:
Real People
Yamamoto had never been more terrified in his life.
He couldn't understand how things could have taken this kind of turn.
Just a few minutes ago, he had been so set on taking this jump. Heck, the asphalt that he was now shooting down towards had looked so incredibly soft and inviting when he had first climbed over the railing, but now… now it looked just as solid as it had ever been.
If not more so.
But now, all he could think about how his old man would react.
His old man… the same old man that Takeshi could now recognize had actually attempted to reach out to him after he had gotten out of the hospital. Had taken the time out of the kitchen to check up on him in his room… and he had brushed him off.
When his father had attempted to reach out to him… he'd been the one to push him away.
Roles reversed.
An endless cycle of pain.
A cycle that started the day Takeshi had watched his mother…
And now, because of yet another act of Takeshi's stupidity, his old man was going to lose his son too.
The tears were flowing so heavily now that he could barely breathe.
"I'm sorry, Old man..."
Tsuna felt her heart pounding in her chest with the same strength, if not stronger than it had that afternoon in front of the convenience store.
She still had no idea just what she had collided with back then.
Anyway… she couldn't swell on the past, neither could she dwell on the sensation of her heart violently pounding in her chest, she needed to do something!
Focusing, trying to sort through the multiple sensations she was currently experiencing, but she did find the one thing that she could use.
Fire was currently rushing through her bloodstream at a critical level. It would probably burst from her pores at any given moment because of the risk her life was currently in.
Now if she could just transfer the spot where the flames will erupt...
With only a few more meters until they would eventually… probably splat like a wet towel onto the asphalt, Tsuna frantically maneuvered her and Yamamoto around, forcefully holding the athlete to her chest, bot of his arms tightly pressed to her stomach as she pressed his head down against the front of her neck.
She knew that it probably wouldn't work, but she wanted to know that she had at the very least tried to make it so he wouldn't find out.
Well… it was now or never…
She had never done it before, but there must have been something in the adrenaline that made it possible for her to quickly shove the flames gathered in her blood not towards her hands where she could feel they had started to gather out of familiarity, but to her back.
It was a strange sensation, feeling the flames gather at such a large area, as soon as she could feel the pressure beginning to heat up her insides, she took a deep, shaky breath, and let go.
The force of the release was even stronger than she had expected it to be. The moment she let go, she found herself jerked upwards, like a rocket-ship would have jerked upwards from a short burst, not that she would ever think of herself as a rocket-ship even if she did have a passenger.
The amount of flames she released at that one minutes seemed to be all she had stored up, and the two started falling again, but not as far as one would have believed.
They landed harshly onto scorched, lightly steaming asphalt, the two would probably come out of it with impressive bruises from the fall, but thankfully, neither of them actually died.
That was where Tsuna's active mind crumbled.
Yamamoto was in a state of shocked confusion.
Cheeks damp from his tears, he turned his wide eyes towards the panting golden-haired girl lying on her pack. The ground under her was scorched, and from what little he would see, it was as though the back of her shirt had been completely singed off, leaving soot-covered edged lining the sides of her behind.
What in the world had just happened?!
They had been tumbling to their deaths! But now it just looks as though they had taken a tumble! And those scorch marks...
He didn't get to go any further in his pondering, however.
Suddenly, Sawada gave off a violent jerk in her chest area, the upper part of her torso giving a violent jolt upwards, and again, and again, until she resembled a fish that had just been taken out of water with how violent her spasms were.
Not only that, but her eyes clenched together in obvious pain, sounds resembling those of a dying child escaping her lips as she jerked.
Her hands were flailing at her sides. It looked as though they were trying to grab hold of something but her jerking upper torso was always putting a stop to her arms wandering.
Just what was going on?!
"Sawada?!" he found himself calling out before he could stop himself.
Worried, Yamamoto lashed out, grabbing hold of one of her flailing hands.
Carefully, he moved the tips of his fingers towards the pulse point, and what he felt caused his own blood to freeze up in his veins.
Her pulse was erratic, beating at a pace that quite frankly shouldn't exist, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't have to actually touch the pulse point. If he looked at her wrist, he should be able to see the vein there with how hard the blood was shoved through her body. He quickly moved his fingers from where they were, not wanting to risk clogging up one of the vein in fear of them bursting at the force of the pulse.
He didn't let go of her hand though.
He stared down at her in absolute frantic worry.
What should he do?
What could he do?
He was right back there, the day she got shot, pressing down on the hole in her stomach in a desperate attempt to give her just a few more seconds in life.
The same panic flooded his system, but this time, he didn't even have a clue as to what he should do.
At that moment, it was as if Sawada answered the question for him.
Her hand turned around in his, suddenly grasping his wrist with surprising strength considering the situation she had somehow managed to put herself in, and that was when he felt it.
A strange, prickly warmth spread from where his skin came in contact with hers, kind of like the feeling you get when your limb is starting to wake up after falling asleep, only with heat applied to it. But that wasn't all.
All of the sudden, he had the strange feeling as though something was sucking at his skin, like a low-suction vacuum wrapped around his wrist.
He wouldn't lie.
It tickled.
A lot.
But this most certainly wasn't a humorous situation.
That was when it happened.
Looking down at the hand that was giving him these strange sensations, he notices something even stranger, not to mention even frightening considering the situation.
A bright luminescent blue light shone from where their skin connected, absorbing into Sawada's tiny hand and proceeding to seep into her veins.
Yamamoto watched in fascinated fear as the light flooded down the petite girl's arm, flowing along her bloodstream down to her still convulsing torso. He watched as the light sunk down where he knew the heart and immediately, she stopped moving entirely.
"Sawada?" he asked, his worried voice carrying out over the empty schoolyard.
This was strange in itself considering it was lunch break, but he didn't have time to worry about that.
"Sawada?!" Yamamoto called out again, his healthy arm attacking to her shoulder to give her a shake, hoping against anything that he hadn't just lost the girl he had once saved.
His thumb brushed against the vein in her neck, and he stopped moving altogether.
A breath of relief escaped his lips at the calm, controlled pulse registered into his brain.
She was alright, and when he moved his cheek to her nose, he was pleased to find that she was taking slow, deep breaths, consistent to the breathing of someone in deep sleep.
He probably shouldn't have allowed her to fall asleep as he had no idea what had happened to her in the first place, but he couldn't help but to think that she deserved a few hours of sleep after what she had just gone through.
He would save the one thousand and one questions floating in his head for a time when she actually had the energy to answer them.
"JUUDAIME!" the silverette's voice rang through the air, causing Yamamoto to look up from where he had been leaning over the sleeping girl. The young man sprinted out from around the corner at a surprisingly fast pace, practically flying over the concrete.
The silverette's eyes narrowed when he saw the scorched asphalt under them, and it appeared as though he too noticed the state of Sawada's shirt for he quickly stripped himself of his own as he ran. He was by their side within seconds.
"What the fuck happened?" Gokudera demanded, glaring daggers at the injured athlete.
"I have no idea." came Yamamoto's careful answer.
Quickly, Gokudera lifted Sawada into a sitting position, revealing that the entire backside of her clothing had been burned off, including her bra clasp.
This made the cheeks of the two boys redden with embarrassment, but they didn't allow themselves to think about her state, not when she wasn't even awake to tell them what she thought of their obvious ogling.
With quick arms, Gokudera managed to drape his own shirt over Sawada's shoulders, thread her limp arms through the sleeves before gathering her up into his arms, settling her sideways over his lap, her head resting on his shoulder. The scene was surprisingly nonromantic in Yamamoto's eyes, but that could just be because of everything he had just seen.
Gokudera looked down on Sawada's face, bringing up his hand to inspect her pulse very much like Yamamoto had done previously.
Letting out his own sigh of relief, Gokudera pieced Yamamoto with his most heated glare yet.
"You're damn lucky she wasn't terribly injured Baseball-freak." he immediately turned his attention back to Sawada's sleeping face.
Yamamoto was thrown off for a moment.
Baseball-freak?
He didn't get the chance to ask any other questions as the sound of running footsteps reached their ears, and seconds later, the scene was flooded with the panting students that had once been swarming the school rooftop, demanding that Yamamoto wouldn't jump.
Gokudera growled up at them.
"Took you people long enough."
One of the braver boys glared right back at him.
"You're the only one stupid enough to run inside the school building Gokudera-san."
Gokudera just shrugged, turning his attention back to Sawada, brushing her hair behind her ear so that they could see her for how she usually presented herself.
The students looked over the two teens that had fallen off the roof, pleasantly surprised and a little shocked to see that they barely had any injuries on them.
"How...?" one female student spoke up, but she didn't get to finish.
"Sawada took the brunt of the fall," Yamamoto explained, and it was true, but she had done a lot more than just playing his cushion.
"Let's get you to the nurse." a male student said, motioning towards his friend as they walked around behind Yamamoto, grabbing him by the arms to help him off the scorched ground.
It was funny how no one had commented about that.
On the other side of the scorch mark, Gokudera rose from the ground, carefully adjusting Sawada's weight in his arms before he turned around, most likely to take her to the nurse.
No one had noticed the man standing there.
"I'll take care of Sawada-san if you please." a deep voice spoke up, causing everyone but Gokudera to snap to attention turning towards it.
Everyone would recognize that tall, lean figure of the school's mysterious teacher anywhere, dressed in that ever-present sleek black suit with a black tie and a black fedora perched on his head, his features almost looking sharper than ever with his black ruffled hair sticking out from the back of his head and his sideburns curled somewhat comically.
It caused Yamamoto's eyebrows to furrow.
The man usually looked more put-together than that, he had the last couple of times he had seen him.
He looked at the students with the most lifeless black eyes Yamamoto had ever seen, it unnerved him to the point of getting the strangest desire to keep Sawada as far away from the man as possible.
But, it appeared that Gokudera had other ideas.
Calm as ever, Gokudera walked straight up to the man, careful not to cause too much discomfort for the girl in his arms.
Gently, Gokudera handed Sawada over to the man, who accepted her with equal cation as Gokudera had, lightly shifting her into the most comfortable position before he turned back towards the students watching him suspiciously.
"I have taken up a side-job as Sawada-san's home tutor what with how few actual students I have in this school," Reboyama-sensei explained as if that was supposed to clear everything up, and apparently, to most of the students, it did. Yamamoto found himself surprised that, for once, he was not one among the gullible crowd. "I have more knowledge about her medical history than the school nurse." he glanced down at the girl in his arms. "I'll personally make sure she gets the best help."
He turned his attention back on Gokudera, choosing to ignore Yamamoto's suspicious glances.
"Gokudera." said silverette almost stood at attention at the mention of his name. "Bring Yamamoto-san over to Tsuna's house after school." judging by the furrowing of eyebrows, Gokudera didn't like that idea at all. "Bring her summer homework and bag whilst your at it."
This, on the other hand, seemed to sit better.
"Anything for Juudaime," Gokudera replied with a short bow, and the teacher left, taking Sawada with him.
With the man gone, the students apparently found it good enough to start moving, dragging Yamamoto with them in the direction of the nurse's office.
Behind them, Gokudera stalked after, hand in his pocket and a growling expression on his face.
A few minutes later, Yamamoto lay on a bed in the infirmary, patches plastered over his skin where he had been unfortunate enough to scrape it, he was mostly still there because he already had a broken arm and the release of the adrenaline that had previously rushed through his system left him more exhausted than he cared to admit.
The other students had left for class once they knew Yamamoto was safe with no permanent damage, but there was one certain person that remained.
Gokudera stood leaning against the wall next to the door, his arms folded in front of his chest as he glared daggers at the injured athlete.
Yamamoto pretended not to see this.
His mind was still reeling with what happened moments ago. He could still feel the heat that scorched the asphalt, the violent jerk just before they hit the ground.
Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.
"What happened back there?" he voiced, looking up at the scowling delinquent as he lifted himself off the mattress, bracing himself against the headboard.
If possible, Gokudera's eyes narrowed even further.
"I don't know." he looked away, still projecting that air of absolute irritation. "But we'll probably find out later." he untangled his arms, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he snapped his head back in Yamamoto's direction, glaring at him even more murderously than he did before.
That was the last drop for the athlete.
"Okay man, what is your problem?"
If possible, it looked as though Gokudera became even more aggravated.
"Did you really just ask that?!" the silverette exclaimed once he finally reached the peak of his tolerate-ability. He growled loudly before looking away from the athlete, sighing in exasperation. "I don't see why Juudaime bothers..." the words had been so quiet that Yamamoto had been forced to strain his ears in order to catch them.
"Wha-?" he delinquent cut him off before he could finish.
The young man stormed up to him, grabbing hold of the front of his shirt to yank him up towards his face.
Yamamoto was surprised at his strength.
"Juudaime was kind enough to worry about someone like you, and look what you did!" his words couldn't have been louder than a whisper, but Yamamoto heard them as though Gokudera were screaming them into his ear. "You nearly got her killed!" he brutally shoved Yamamoto back onto the mattress making him bounce against the sheets.
Still glaring, Gokudera straightened his posture, violently turning around towards the door and began to walk away.
"Look, man, I'm sorry!" Yamamoto called out after him, not liking the feeling of being hated to the extent Gokudera was currently giving him.
The silverette stopped dead in his tracks.
Angrily, he spun back towards the athlete, a look of pure murder in his eyes.
"Sorry isn't good enough!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. "Juudaime may be kind enough to figure you for your blunders, but trust me on this." his eyes narrowed as he turned back towards the door. "I will not."
And with that, he was gone, leaving Yamamoto to his thoughts.
When Tsuna opened her eyes, she was surprised to find that she was looking up at her own ceiling, the sight is far too familiar for her not to know it by just one blurry visual.
By the time her vision cleared, she noticed a dark figure from the corner of her eye.
Turning her head, she immediately met the cold obsidian eyes of her tutor, and the man did not look at all happy with her.
"I told you not to excite yourself." he growled, moving closer so that he was sitting on the side of the bed, staring down at her with those unreadable orbs. "Now look what happened."
Tsuna couldn't keep the frown from forming on her eyebrows in annoyance.
"So you say I should have just let Yamamoto-san die?" she asked, her voice seeping the tiniest bit into that cold calm she had become rather known for.
"The fall itself could have been avoided." Reborn countered, not taking his eyes off of her.
Not caring that Reborn was most likely stringing her along, deliberately fishing for a reaction, Tsuna tried to push herself off of the mattress, but the second her torso rose the tiniest inch from the sheets, a stabbing pain shooting through her chest.
"Arg!" Tsuna exclaimed, falling back among the fluffy sheets and pillows as she clutched at the fabric covering her hidden, aching heart.
"Careful." Reborn's voice seeped in through her pain, a weight landing on her shoulder. "You'll need to rest for a few days before you'll be back to normal."
She blinked a couple of times, clearing her sight as she looked up at the man.
"Who would have known..." she let out a long, painful breath as she rubbed over her chest, her eyebrows furrowing as she fought to open her eyes again. "That your heart trying to beat right out of your chest would be so..." she winched once again. "Painful." she finally managed to pry her eyes open.
Letting out a long, low sigh, Reborn rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
It was at this point that Tsuna realized that Reborn looked different. Healthy different. No longer as though he was on the brink of death.
Had he finally gotten some sleep whilst she was out?
"And I am very sorry that you had to go through something like that."
This in itself was unbelievable.
Tsuna had honestly thought that any form of apology didn't exist in Reborn's vocabulary, and yet, here he was, apologizing for almost making her heart pound out of her chest.
Not a pleasant feeling.
Reborn kept talking.
"I should have been keeping a closer eye on you." he let out a long breath. "Which means, I should have been on the rooftop with you..." he sighed again, his head dropping as he removed his hat. "But I'm afraid to say that at the time I was…" was it just her, or did he look embarrassed. "Well… I had fallen asleep at my desk and only woke up to the sensation of a large amount of raw flames released." he ran a hand over his face. "It was very unprofessional of me."
He was apologetic…
Does that mean she can actually get a few answers out of him?
"Will you finally explain what you did back then?" she asked, rubbing at her still-aching chest.
Immediately, she noticed his shoulders straighten into what she liked to call his "Tutor-mode".
Finally.
"I told you about the fact that anyone can activate Anima." she nodded her head slowly in agreement, not really sure where this was going. "Now..." the man reached into his pocket. "Your flames are bright orange, right?" she nodded in agreement, her gaze occasionally flickering over to where his hand was still fiddling with… whatever was in his pocket. "There are six other colors in known existence." her eyes widened even further as Reborn withdrew his hand from his pocket, clutching something between his fingers. "What color you have depends on your own nature." Slowly, Tsuna allowed her gaze to meet her teachers. "Each color possesses a different attribute or ability to them, making them unique." he opened his palm, dragging Tsuna's eyes back down to it, shocking her with a beautifully decorated charm bracelet that for some reason only sported one charm. It was shaped like a bright yellow semi-see-through pebble with beautiful silvery wires curved around it. "The color itself directed by its users nature." slowly, Tsuna looked back up at Reborn's eyes, a question clear in her face.
Smirking down at her, Reborn turning his eyes down towards the charm, carefully adjusting how he was holding it until the charm hung in the air between them. The very next second, the pebble caught fire, burning in a bright yellow flame resembling a smaller, calmer version of the fire spewing out of a welder, with a hoop of glitter thrown all over it, making it glitter something terribly.
Spewing glitter instead of embers?
Probably…
The flame was so pretty, and when looking up at Reborn, she couldn't help but to find the contrast a bit funny.
"This is the color of my flame." Reborn declared, closing his fingers around the charm just as the flame flickered away into nothingness. "It has the ability of acceleration." Tsuna had to admit that she was rather sad to see the charm return into Reborn's pocket. "The technique I used was that I pushed a portion of these flames into your body, it's attribute pushing open the seal a bit further." he let out a long sigh, collapsing himself as much as his… towering frame would allow him. "Of course, because of it's very… energetic nature, it's also very unpredictable, so the technique is quite risky, as you already know."
Tsuna's arms shook at her sides, unable to believe what she was hearing.
"Then..." she frantically grasped for the words in her head. "If that's the case..." his gaze danced around the room. "How did I survive?" her face showed the clear fear of the situation.
Reborn patted her lightly on the shoulder.
"We'll find out soon."
Gokudera stopped his bike outside the Sawada residence, frowning as he looked behind him at his much-hated passenger.
"Get off," he growled, ripping his helmet off of his head.
Yamamoto did as he was told, slowly peeling himself off of the vehicle with shaking legs from the fear he had managed to contain during the whole ride from school.
How Sawada could stand riding to and from school with Gokudera every day was completely beyond him. With how fast the silverette sped down the street, took every turn as a challenge of just how far the bike can become parallel with the ground sideways and straighten back up once the road did, it was a wonder the petite girl was still alive.
Yamamoto hadn't even been allowed to wear a helmet as the only spare one Gokudera had was "Strictly reserved for Juudaime".
He would probably never understand why he insisted on calling her that.
With both of them off, Gokudera killed the engine, retrieving Sawada's bag from where he had hung it on the right handle as he turned towards the house and walked straight up to the front door as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
Yamamoto on the other hand… felt incredibly awkward following his classmate.
It made him wonder…
Had Gokudera been to Sawada's house before?
Standing on the porch, Gokudera swiftly knocked on the door, and before too long, a woman in what appeared to be her late thirties opened up, her milk chocolate brown hair falling over her shoulders as her eyes jumped between the two young visitors.
Yamamoto could immediately see the similarities. She and Sawada had the exact same eyes, only Sawada's being a few shades lighter, they shared the same round-ish face and button nose, but that was where the similarities ended. Even then, there was no doubt in his mind who this woman was in relation to Sawada.
Sure, he'd seen the woman before, but he'd never really gotten the chance to really look at her.
Brown eyes fell on Gokudera, and the woman burst into a wide, energetic smile.
"Oh my, Gokudera-kun!" she exclaimed, putting a hand to her cheek.
Yamamoto glanced at Gokudera from the corner of his eye.
Okay, that confirmed it, he had been there before.
In response to the woman's enthusiasm, Gokudera smiled back.
Like… an actual smile.
A smile that he'd only seen directed towards the younger Sawada before.
The athlete watched as Gokudera lifted his arm, holding up the bag in his hand.
"I brought Juudaime's bad, Okaa-sama," he stated, his voice surprisingly soft in comparison to the harsh tones he had just been using when talking to Yamamoto ever since lunchtime.
This just made the woman smile even more.
"Oh, you're such a sweet young man." she cooed, patting the teenager on the cheek before her eyes snapped towards Yamamoto. She glanced between the two of them for a moment before she opened her mouth again. "And there's another one with you." she smiled at Yamamoto as well. "You here to visit Tsu-chan too?"
"Er… yes." Yamamoto answered, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to behave around this woman, he didn't think he had ever met someone with as bubbly a personality. "Erm..." he suddenly caught himself, bowing slightly. "I'm, Yamamoto Takeshi."
Her response was not one he had expected.
"Oh, I know." she stated… or… maybe she purred, looking and sounded quite smug about said fast.
The athlete blinked.
"You do?"
The woman nodded slowly, her hands on her hips.
"You saved my baby." she giggled, even going so far as to tapping Yamamoto on the nose. "You visited her in the hospital and walked her home some time ago." she preened smugly before looking between the two young men in front of her, her smile turning wistful. "How nice that my baby has managed to make friends with such sweet young men."
Sweet?
Yamamoto glanced at Gokudera from the corner of his eye.
The woman thought of Gokudera as "sweet"?
The woman put a hand on her cheek, her face turning a bit disappointed.
"Though I hope she'd be getting some female friends as well." she sighed. "She needs more variation in who she hangs out with." she shook her head. "That girl has never gotten to really hang out with other girls her age.
Yamamoto couldn't help the stab of guilt he felt from those words.
"I assure you, Sawada-san." He quickly stepped in, turning the woman's attention towards him. "I've seen your daughter spend time with two of your female classmates on occasion, so you don't have to worry."
He could practically feel the angered glare thrown at him from where Gokudera was standing.
Smiling, the woman brought her hand to her chest.
"That's great to hear." suddenly, she seemed to realize something. "Oh! How rude of me!" she stepped away from the doorway, leaving just enough room for the two of them to step through. "Come inside, come inside." she goaded, waving for the two of them to enter.
Slowly, they did as she asked.
The hallway was bigger than one would think, with wooden floors and traditionally white-painted walls, a staircase lined the right wall and four doors could be seen from where they were standing.
Once their shoes were off, the woman spoke up again.
"Tsuna-chan is currently resting in her bedroom." she turned a hand in the direction of the staircase, still smiling brightly. "The last door down the corridor." she bent down to fish a leather handbag from the ground. "I need to leave for the bakery, so I hope everything goes well."
"Thank you." Yamamoto said, bowing to the woman in time with Gokudera before the two of them started up the steps.
The last thing they heard from the woman was.
"Such handsome young men."
Nana's smile disappeared the second the boys disappeared up the stairs, her fingers clenching around her purse strap as she hung it over her shoulder.
"They better tell me what happened when I get back..." she muttered as she stepped out of the house.
Tsuna had begun to feel a bit drowsy when footsteps sounded from the floor below, leading straight up towards her door.
"They're here." Reborn voiced, walking down the stairs to wrap his hand around the handle, pulling the swinging piece of wood open.
She had noticed how her clothes had been changed as she was out, her uniform exchanged to a white tank-top under an orange loose-fitting crop t-shirt and black shorts.
Who knew Reborn was aware of her sense of style?
Tsuna watched as the two boys entered the room. Immediately, Gokudera rushed to her side, sitting down on the side of the bed as he looked down at her in an inspecting manner.
"You feeling alright Juudaime?" he asked, keeping his voice calm in consideration to her weakened state.
"My chest hurts, but otherwise I'm fine." Tsuna replied honestly, not even bothering to smooth the situation out, trying to make it sound better than it actually was.
She knew Gokudera wouldn't appreciate that.
Glancing behind Gokudera's shoulder, Tsuna spotted Yamamoto looking at her with a guilt-stricken expression.
He shook his head, turning his attention towards Reborn.
"What happened to her?" he asked, jerking his head in Tsuna's direction.
Reborn folded his arms in front of his chest, staring intently at Yamamoto.
"That depends on what you saw."
Immediately, Yamamoto launched into a detailed explanation about the heat he had felt, the jerking sensation before crashing into the asphalt, asphalt that just so happened to be scorched.
When he described how Tsuna had suddenly been thrown into a spastic fit, Gokudera's hand lashed out for her own, but the sudden skin-contact felt too uncomfortable for her, so she slowly slid her hand out of his whilst he was too absorbed into what the athlete was telling them.
Finally, came the most surprising thing of all.
Yamamoto described how a strange blue light traveled through her veins, visible through her skin, before sinking into her heart and calming her down instantly.
What in the world?
Reborn moved a finger to his chin, pondering.
Gokudera however, had the most shocking reaction.
He bolted up from the bed, staring from Reborn to Tsuna with wide, wild eyes before he locked his gaze on Reborn.
"Juudaime is the Phoenix?!"
Everything seemed to freeze up for Tsuna.
"Gokudera-kun," she spoke, her voice carrying the weight of her disbelief.
The delinquent's shoulders stiffened at the sound of her voice.
"How do you know about that?" she asked, she sounded almost desperate for the answer, eyes pleading with the silver-haired boy.
Bringing up his hand, Gokudera ruffled his hair violently.
Taking a deep breath, he turned towards Tsuna.
"My family is... familiar, with yours." was his only explanation before he turned back away from her.
"Erm..." Yamamoto's voice carried over the awkward silence. "I'm not following.
"The DiLeone is my Italian family name and we have this bloodline power to produce and control fire through our determination alone." Tsuna's voice was almost robotic, not once looking away from Gokudera's hunched over frame.
"Cool..." Yamamoto nodded in understanding.
"But where did the blue lights come from?" Tsuna asked, finally turning her attention away from Gokudera to look at Reborn.
The man in question removed the finger from his chin.
"It would appear as though your entire body doesn't just serve as an outlet for your own flames, but it can serve as another person's outlet as well," he explained calmly, glancing between her and Yamamoto.
Tsuna's eyes widened at what that fact entailed.
"So Yamamoto-san..." she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. So Reborn did it for her.
"He has the potential, yes." he turned his lifeless eyes on Yamamoto, studying him from top to bottom as if evaluating his worth. "Blue flames has tranquilizing abilities, you were incredibly lucky to survive Tsuna." he finished the sentence with a pointed look in Tsuna's direction, as if blaming her for being careless.
Which… to be fair, he was quite right in doing.
Sighing heavily, Tsuna nodded.
"I understand."
"Anyway." Reborn waved a hand through the air dismissively. "We'll be sure to further investigate this power in further classes."
Tsuna wracked her mind, trying to imagine what those classes and training sessions would entail.
Yamamoto however, was confused.
"Classes?"
The silence was awkward for a few seconds before Tsuna took it upon herself to explain.
"A.A. stands for Anima, Apprenticeship." she shifted under the covers, locking eyes with the athlete. "It's a class specifically for the mastery of this power."
The taller teen reeled back, blinking.
"But you said it's about emotional control." he sounded moments away from stuttering, mindlessly motioning with his cast covered arm in the air.
"In a way, it is." Tsuna nodded along slowly. "Anima is fueled by emotions."
The athlete kept blinking for a few seconds before everything seemed to settle into his… admittedly, rather slow mind.
Reborn turned his attention back to Yamamoto.
"Do you have any more questions."
"One." the athlete replied after shaking himself out of his thoughts. "Just what the hell is she a part of?"
Tsuna's head snapped up at the question.
That was something she wanted to know as well.
Reborn sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"I can't tell you," he stated with a finality to the words that said he wouldn't allow anyone arguing with him about it.
It worked.
Yamamoto looked at the ground for a long moment, then, he raised his head, looking right into Reborn's obsidian orbs.
"Whatever it is, I want in on it."
The room fell into silence.
"What?" Tsuna asked in disbelief, staring wide-eyed at Yamamoto.
"I want in on it." the athlete repeated, still staring intently at Reborn. He threw a quick glance in Tsuna's direction, giving her a good feel for the words he was about to say. "Sawada has saved me twice now, I want to pay her back."
Tsuna, momentarily forgetting that she couldn't sit up, suddenly felt a sharp pain emanating from her chest as she stared at the baseball lover.
At her gasp in pain, everyone turned towards her, but she brushed off their worried expressions.
"Yamamoto-san, I don't even know what I'm in on. Are you sure?" she stared right into his hazel eyes, desperately searching for the tiniest speck of doubt.
"Positive," Yamamoto replied, no hesitation.
"Juudaime, you can't." Gokudera started, but he was silenced by the cold look of the tutor.
"I think this is up to Yamamoto to decide Gokudera."
"Yes... Reborn-san." Gokudera begrudgingly relented.
"I want in." Yamamoto insisted, still fully meeting Tsuna's eyes. "I'm 100% sure."
For a moment, nothing was said, just the two of them staring into each other's eyes.
Finally, Tsuna sighed in defeat.
"Fine..."
"Great." Yamamoto smiled putting his hand into his pocket, fishing out his gem. "Can I have your contact info?"
Ignoring Gokudera's protests, Yamamoto settled down on the floor next to the bed, allowing them to transfer the information between them without anything in between.
With her number saved, Yamamoto was happy.
Standing up from the floor, he jerked his head towards the closed bedroom door.
"I should to leave now." suddenly, a pained look passed over his face, worrying Tsuna. "The old man will probably be worried if I take too long."
She flashed back to the scene on the roof, where his father had been the last straw to change his mind about jumping. Yamamoto would be going home knowing what he had almost done to the man that had loved and raised him.
Biting her lip, Tsuna made up her mind.
"Yamamoto-san!" Tsuna called out, forcing Yamamoto into a stop, watching as he slowly turned back towards her.
"Yes?" he asked, sounding uncertain.
"I think you should tell your father about what you almost did."
The athlete's eyes widened.
"I..." Yamamoto hesitated, but he didn't look away from her eyes. Eyes that stayed firmly pinned on him, unwavering.
Finally, he nodded.
"I will."
And then he left the room.
With the athlete gone, Reborn turned his attention towards his student.
"Well then." his voice made the two remaining teens look at him. "I will have you know Tsuna, that once you have fully recovered, we will have to restart your training." his expression was dead serious as he spoke. "You're still a long way from complete control."
Slowly, Tsuna nodded in understanding.
"Okay."
"Good." and with that, Reborn too exited the room, leaving Tsuna alone with Gokudera.
Seeing the situation, Gokudera immediately straightened himself up.
"Well then," he said quickly. "I should probably-"
"Gokudera-kun," Tsuna spoke up, making the silver-haired boy snap mouth shut, and turn his attention towards her. "I need you to tell me something, and I want you to be honest." she looked at him with the most serious expression she could muster through her weakened state.
"Whatever you need." Gokudera immediately replied, settling down on the side of the bed, torso twisted towards her so he didn't just see her from the corner of his eye.
"Do you stay by my side because of my bloodline?"
A/N: I had originally not intended for this chapter to end on a cliffhanger as well, the scene just got too long and the chapter that follows this was too short, so I split the scene and created a cliffhanger in the process.
Please tell me what you think and the next chapter will be up next week (better just go along with it during these less-than-stellar times).
Until next time, this has been:
A message from Her Ladyship.