Getting to Know Each Other (4)

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I don't own KHR.

"Hiiiiieeee!" Tsuna screamed as they fell into the long, dark hole. Chrome screamed too as she held onto Tsuna for dear life with her eye closed and with terror threatening to consume her soul. It was only after a few agonizing seconds had passed that Chrome realized that Tsuna was holding her tightly. And that his hand was covering the back of her head.

He was clearly just as terrified as she was, but he was holding her like he was still trying to protect her. Just like he tried to before Gabe and his friends tossed them into the well house.

He...Tsuna needed to live...

Then Chrome suddenly got hit with a memory of Mukuro smiling and praising her when she conjured her first proper fog illusion.

She needed to live! They both needed to live!

As a determined yet desperate yell left her throat, Chrome unclenched her right hand off of Tsuna's shirt and summoned her trident. Then she started to conjure the first thing she could think of while praying that the illusion would be ready before it was too late.

They had already fallen so far, the well had to end some time...

Then suddenly, they stopped falling. But instead of crashing to the hard ground or into some cold water, they landed on something soft.

Chrome let out a sigh of relief. She made it.

"What..." she heard Tsuna say as she felt him take one hand off of her, presumably to feel what was underneath him.

"Hey, are you guys alive down there?!" Chrome heard someone call out to them, she think the voice belonged to Matteo. Instead of answering, Chrome reached into her pocket and pulled out the small flashlight that she and Mukuro grabbed from the Estraneo labs. Grateful that it was still in her pocket, she switched it on.

"Gah!" Tsuna flinched as he quickly brought his hand over his brown eyes, his voice echoing throughout the broken well.

"Sorry," Chrome guiltily apologized as she quickly moved the beam of light out of his face, her voice also echoing a little bit.

"Okay, I hear them, they're still alive," she heard Matteo say, sounding suspiciously like he was actually relieved. Chrome didn't paid him any attention though as she moved the flashlight around their surroundings.

The rocky well was narrow to the point that if Chrome chose to lay down with her arms outstretched above her head, she could probably touch both sides of the well with both her hands and her feet. But luckily, the well was just wide enough to give her and Tsuna some space and not make them super cramp so that was something. It probably also helped that both she and Tsuna were small kids.

"Oh good, you have a flashlight," Tsuna said with relief as Chrome got off of him, which in turn freed him to do the same. As he sat up though, his eyes widened a bit as he got a good look at what they were sitting on. "...A mattress? What's a mattress doing down here? Not to mention...a small circle one..."

Chrome looked down at her creation and felt a strange mixture of pride and relief as she looked down at the simple white mattress. Sure, it hadn't been a perfect fit since the edges were crawling up the sides of the well a little bit. But considering how she had been in a rush as well as how this was her first attempt at a mattress, and a circular one at that, Chrome felt like she had done a good job.

And besides, better too big than too small.

Now she just had to make sure that the mattress stayed there...

"Hey! Gabe! Nico, Matteo!" Tsuna exclaimed as he knelt on the mattress, his head facing the well opening. "Please, please help us get out of here! I know you guys don't like us, but even you guys aren't cruel enough to leave us down here!"

The only answer they got was the clear sound of a door being closed.

"No...no!" Tsuna cried out in desperation and fear as he began to stand on the mattress while Chrome herself felt dread crawl up from her stomach and into her throat. "Plea-whoa!"

As he tried to stand up, the mattress shifted under his weight slightly, making Tsuna wobble as he tried to keep his balance. Chrome instantly reached out and grabbed his wrist, letting go of the flashlight as she did so. However, while she successfully helped Tsuna stay on his feet, her single eye widened in fear as her ears registered a familiar sound.

The sound of sloshing water.

It looked like she really had conjured the mattress illusion just in time.

"O-Oh...oh my..." Tsuna reacted as he looked down at his feet in fear, his hand suddenly snatching up to grab Chrome's as he slowly sat back down on the mattress. When they didn't hear any sounds of water beneath them, Tsuna let out a shaky sigh of relief. "It's...it's a good thing that there was a mattress here...huh Chrome? Or else...we'll be trying not to drown in cold freezing water while we waited for Kyoya...or Mukuro to rescue us."

Chrome indulged herself into just holding Tsuna's hand before she replied.

"It's because of me."

"What do you mean Chrome?" Tsuna asked in confusion as he turned to her, grabbing the flashlight with his free hand so he could see her better. Then his eyebrows raised as he took in something beside her. "Wait...are you holding a trident?"

Chrome couldn't help but chuckle a bit at how it took Tsuna this long to notice her trident. Then she took a deep breath before letting it out.

It was finally time to tell Tsuna the secret.

"Tsuna...remember yesterday when the sakura tree appeared out of nowhere?" Chrome asked.

"Ye-Yeah! How could I forget?" Tsuna replied, perking up a bit. "Wait...why are you bringing this up now?"

"Because..." Chrome started as she let go of Tsuna's hand so she could hold her trident with both hands. She twisted the trident in her hands a bit before she answered. "It's why I have the trident. Mukuro-sama and I...we have power to make illusions. The trident...helps me make them."

"...So...the sakura blossoms weren't real at all..." Tsuna said slowly, causing Chrome to nod. Then Tsuna's brown eyes widened as he looked down beneath them.

"Wait...are you saying that the mattress isn't real either?"

"Don't worry, it'll hold," Chrome quickly told him before her friend could start freaking out. She didn't mention though how it was starting to get a little hard to keep the illusion going.

Chrome had never kept a illusion alive for this long before...but she had no choice but to push herself today.

"O-Okay but...if the mattress is an illusion, then...how is it keeping us afloat?" Tsuna asked, sounding like he was trying to be calm but was too confused to be really successful at it. Chrome didn't answer right away, trying to recall what Mukuro told her earlier.

"...Because your senses are fooling you that it is real," Chrome said a bit slowly as she gripped her trident tightly. Mukuro explained it a bit more than that but that was the gist of it. Not to mention it was getting harder to think as she strained herself to keep the mattress beneath them.

"Oh...so as long as I keep on believing that the mattress is real, I won't fall through it?" Tsuna asked, sounding not nearly as confused as before. Chrome just nodded though she ended up smiling a little when Tsuna instantly chanted to himself that the mattress was real as a result.

When Mukuro asked her to tell Tsuna (and only Tsuna) the truth about their abilities earlier, Chrome had been nervous. Nervous about explaining it properly, and nervous about how Tsuna would react to the revelation. But Tsuna seemed to both accept and understand the truth pretty well considering the situation, and didn't seemed to be afraid of her or Mukuro either which was a plus.

Murkuro was right, it really did go smoothly.

Well, other than falling down a cold and old well that is.

"This is a real mattress...wait, if you can make...a mattress illusion, then...can you also make a ladder illusion? Or anything that can get us out of here?" Tsuna requested suddenly as he turned his hopeful gaze towards her.

"I...I can't," Chrome answered regretfully as she gripped her trident even more tightly while her strength and control over her illusion faded by the second. "I...I can do only one illusion at a time..."

"So...you can only do a ladder illusion if you drop the mattress one?" Tsuna asked despite sounding like he already knew the answer. Chrome just nodded, not bothering to mention that she didn't have the strength at this point for another illusion even if she did decide to risk dropping the mattress illusion.

"Yeah, that probably won't be a good idea," Tsuna muttered as he looked down at the mattress. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a wave of guilt and inadequacy washed over Chrome, making her sniffle.

"C-Chrome?!" Tsuna suddenly exclaimed, clearly very alarmed as he turned his gaze back to her. "Wha-"

"I'm sorry," Chrome apologized as she tried to keep the tears at bay. But due to how exhausted her body was, it was a fruitless cause. "I'm sorry that I can't make a ladder illusion too, I'm sorry that Mukuro-sama hurt Kyoya, I'm sorry that I couldn't protect us from Gabe and the others, I haven't learned any illusions that could have done that, I'm not talented like Mukuro-sama, I could only mentally contact him-"

Then suddenly, Chrome was enveloped into a warm but tight hug.

"Whoa, it's okay, I don't blame you, I don't blame you at all, you're learning," Tsuna assured her as he held her. "You didn't ask Gabe and the others to toss and leave us here in a well. I know if you could have, you would have fooled or protected us from them with an illusion. At least you're able to do illusions, I can't do anything cool like that. I can only stomp on someone's foot."

For a moment, Chrome let herself soak in Tsuna's sincere words as she basked in his warm and comforting embrace.

"At least you got out of Nico's hold," Chrome told him as a smile graced her lips while her tears began to dry up.

"Yeah, only to be captured again not even a second later," Tsuna huffed. "Some...wait, did you say you could only mentally contact Mukuro?"

"Oh...oh yeah," Chrome recalled as she gently broke their hug so that she could look at his face. "I...I'm not sure why and Mukuro-sama isn't either but...we can contact each other using our minds."

"...You two are telepathic too?" Tsuna asked with a slightly gaping mouth. Despite her growing exhaustion and their situation, Chrome couldn't help but chuckle at his expression.

"Yeah, but only with each other, we can't talk telepathically with anyone else...at least we haven't tried anyway," Chrome explained as she felt herself just about to waver before she managed to stop herself. "When they first caught us, I told him what was going on, and that they were going to put us in the well house. Mukuro-sama is on his way."

Though...though Chrome couldn't help but think that he should have been here by now...

"Oh, that's a relief," Tsuna sighed. "We shouldn't be here-"

Then suddenly, a faint spell came over Chrome, making her waver uncontrollably.

At the same time, the mattress beneath became a bit more transparent.

"Whoa Chrome!" Tsuna cried, truly alarmed now as he caught Chrome before she could fall to the mattress. Tsuna's hands grabbing her shocked her out of her fainting spell, and with the remaining strength she still had, Chrome made the mattress fully solid again.

"S-Sorry," Chrome apologized once more. "I...I don't know how much longer I can hold it..."

For his part, Tsuna's eyes just widened with realization and fear before they hardened with something akin to determination as he pulled Chrome to his chest.

"It'll..It'll be okay, Mukuro or Kyoya will get to us soon, I just know it," Tsuna assured her as he held her tight. "Just...lean on me until then okay? And...don't talk either, save as much strength as you can okay?"

And for her part, Chrome just nodded as her single eye slipped to a close.

She really hoped that she could hold on until then.

KHR

Kyoya sighed as he stood in the hallway just before the dining room door. He had been patrolling the first floor when he had found some kids trying to loot the kitchen. Of course, he swiftly bit all of them to death, but while before he wouldn't have broke a sweat, Kyoya now felt...a bit tired. It was understandable of course, he was running on a few hours of sleep, but it was still frustrating all the same.

Perhaps Kyoya could have tolerated his low stamina and aching back if he had actually defeated Mukuro, if Mukuro had left the orphanage yesterday. But no, he had to give ground under Tsuna's puppy-dog gaze and agreed that Mukuro could stay despite breaking several unforgivable rules.

One of his only consolations about the whole situation was he now had more time to get to know Chrome and perhaps convince her to stay with him and Tsuna and not Mukuro.

The other consolation of course, being that if Mukuro broke their agreement, was that Kyoya would have another chance of biting the pineapple to death.

Kyoya sighed once more as he finally opened the door, his little break now officially over. He had done the whole building, now he just had to patrol outside and then he could finally take a-

Then, just as he walked out of the dining room, someone crashed into him. While it wasn't enough to make him fall to the ground, Kyoya did stumble with gritted teeth as his back screamed. He quickly looked up but any words he was about to say died in his throat when he saw who his new prey was.

"Sor-oh," Mukuro reacted with wide heterochromatic eyes full of apprehension and realization. That look of apprehension grew even stronger when Kyoya felt a bloodthirsty smirk grow on his face "Look, I-"

"For crashing into me, and for breaking the agreement that we made only yesterday, I will bite you to death pineapple!" Kyoya declared as he felt revenge race through his veins, his earlier exhaustion and pain completely forgotten.

"I honestly didn't see you there!" Mukuro tried to defend himself as he jumped backwards just in time to avoid Kyoya's tonfa. "And my name is Mukuro, not pineapple!"

"Your name is pineapple if I say it is," was all Kyoya had to say as he quickly swung his tonfa towards the other boy. While he was fully ecstatic that his chance to bite Mukuro to death was already here, Kyoya knew that he had to finish this fight quickly. Kyoya didn't know exactly what kind of trick Mukuro pulled yesterday that made him lose, but he would rather not deal with that right now. If he kept on attacking Mukuro, then Mukuro wouldn't have time to pull that trick again.

And if Kyoya did manage to bite Mukuro to death quickly, then the pineapple would have no choice but to accept that Kyoya really was that much stronger than him.

"Oh for-look!" Mukuro exclaimed as he suddenly brought out his trident to block Kyoya's attack. "Chrome and Tsuna are in trouble!"

"Wait, you were on your way to meet with Tsuna?" Kyoya interruped, his voice as cold as ice while he absent-mindedly pushed his tonfa against Mukuro's weapon even harder. It was one thing to break their arrangement by bumping into him but to break it by trying to interact with Tsuna...

"Yes, so I can save him! And Chrome!" Mukuro yelled as he pushed his trident against Kyoya's tonfa. "Gab-"

"Stop lying! It's just another one of your tricks!" Kyoya ordered as he swiftly swung his other tonfa at Mukuro's head. His opponent tried to duck but he didn't do it fast enough as the tonfa managed to graze the top of his head. Mukuro let out a cry of pain as he stumbled sideways, his hand over his new injury. Kyoya couldn't help but to smile in satisfication when Mukuro brought his hand to his face, revealing that his head was indeed bleeding.

"...Is that how you wanna play, my little bird, my little skylark?" Mukuro finally asked, his face full of cold rage as he clenched his now bloody hand.

"I'm not a skylark and I'm not playing," Kyoya replied as he braced himself to go on the offensive again.

"Good, because I don't have the time to play either," Mukuro admitted as he brought his trident up high in the air. "So face the full wrath of my illusion!"

...Illusion huh? So Kyoya was right, the sakura tree yesterday really was just a trick.

Then Mukuro started to bring his trident to the ground, so Kyoya quickly ran towards him. Kyoya reached him just as the sharp points of the trident were about to pierce the floor, and the Japanese boy wasted no time in aiming his tonfa for Mukuro's face. But to his surprise, Mukuro just jumped to the side and landed on the ground on one knee with his weapon still pointing at the floor.

Then, with a cold determined expression mixed with another emotion that Kyoya couldn't name at the moment, Mukuro pierced the ground with his trident.

The ground between the two boys instantly glowed an orange-red color. It then started to bubble like Kyoya was in an active volcano, and not in an orphanage in the dead of winter.

But unlike yesterday, when Kyoya could stare at the falling leaves of the sakura tree in pure bewilderment, he moved. Armed with the knowledge that this was just an illusion and with his need for revenge, Kyoya raced right for the bubbling lava and for Mukuro.

Mukuro's heterchromatic eyes widened a bit in surprise and maybe alarm as well as the lava began to bubble even more violently. But Kyoya paid that no mind as he jumped right over the lava like it was just an inconvenient puddle.

Kyoya was still in the air when he suddenly heard a loud whoosh and felt a huge surge of piercing heat. But since the heat was behind him, Kyoya knew that he had dodged the eruption, so without missing a beat he raised his tonfa up high as he came down towards Mukuro.

Mukuro could only look on with fully wide heterchromatic eyes as Kyoya hit him square in the chest right before his feet touched the ground. Kyoya's opponent grunted as he fell backwards, and he grunted in pain once more when he collided harshly against the wall. As a result, Mukuro let go of his trident, causing the weapon to fall to ground with a clatter.

Gasping in pain, Mukuro reached for his trident but Kyoya was too quick for him as he kicked the trident far away from the boy with the pineapple hairdo. Kyoya then raised his tonfa while Mukuro just gritted his teeth, prepared to end this with just one more hit.

Then at the same time that Mukuro raised his arm, Kyoya brought his tonfa down.

"Wait!" Before Kyoya could react, someone crashed into him again. But this time, the person wrapped their arms around him. Enraged that someone had not only broke past his personal boundaries like this, but also stopped him from truly biting Mukuro to death, Kyoya turned to face the person.

He was seconds away from biting them to death when he realized that the person hugging him was none other than Matteo. In spite of himself, Kyoya stayed his tonfa, feeling utterly bewildered.

Matteo knew better than to hug him like this, so why-

"Matteo?! What are-" Mukuro started to exclaim when Matteo beat him to the punch.

"Chrome and Tsuna fell down the well!" Kyoya's body went completely still as his heart skipped a beat while he suddenly recognized the other emotion Mukuro wore before he made the lava illusion.

It was anxiety...

"What?!" Mukuro cried, true fear and alarm in his voice as he began to pick himself up. "But-"

"Gabe threw them into the well house but then the well collapsed and now they're down there! And Gabe and Nico refused to help them! Please, you got to help them!"

'Good, because I don't have the time to play either.'

'Chrome and Tsuna are in trouble!'

'Yes, so I can save him! And Chrome! Gab-'

Then Kyoya muttered something so softly that even his own ears could barely detect the words.

"What have I done?"

So...what do you guys think? Do you think Kyoya and Mukuro are going to put aside their differences to save Chrome and Tsuna? Or do you think that the two little kids are gonna die and that the Chrome and Tsuna that we see in Little Children are actually illusions that Mukuro made to help him (and Kyoya) deal with his grief? :)

In any case, what did you guys think of the chapter? Please leave a review on your way out and I will update shortly. Until then, stay safe, sane, and have a good day/night! See ya!