By the time school finally ended, Haru was ready to storm Namimori Middle. Never mind that she had gymnastics practice, she had a friend to yell at for being stupid, because how could he?

Her plans were stopped by her other best friend, the one that had been just as nervous as Haru through classes since morning when the gossip hit.

"Don't skip your club activities," said Hotaru grimly.

Haru turned to protest – and cowered when she saw the look on Hotaru's face, the fire of her righteous wrath extinguished abruptly. Suddenly she felt a little less angry towards Takeshi, and pity took its place because she was fairly sure he was going to die today after all.

Hotaru noticed her reaction, and tried to smile. It came out more as a grimace. "Sorry. Just . . . don't skip gymnastics. I'll go yell at him first, and then you can come join me."

She only listened to Hotaru, Haru said to herself later, as her mind kept wandering from her routines. Because she had never seen Hotaru that furious and she didn't want to end up having to face even a part of that anger herself.

But, Haru added in her mind. She was still going to go over as soon as club activities were done so she could yell at Takeshi, and then give him a hug and thank him for being alive.

It was funny how one event could . . . just change him like it had.

Lying on his back in bed, staring up at the ceiling of his room, Takeshi replayed the events on the school roof in his head – the one that had ended in his dramatic rescue. Tsuna really was something, no matter what self-deprecating words he said.

He was right, though. If he was going to die because of something, then he should use that energy – that dying will, that phrase struck something in him – to live for it.

"Takeshi," came a gruff shout. His father had been horrified, relieved, and furious, in that order, when the school called. It was explained as a joke that was taken too seriously, no harm, no foul, and for the most part the teachers and the school had accepted that, beyond relieved that a student had not taken his life at the school.

His father had not, and Takeshi was grounded. Truth be told, he did deserve it, because his father had spoken with suppressed tears and emotions, asking Takeshi what he was supposed to do if his son died before he did.

And it had made Takeshi realize just how selfish he had been, to make his dad go through the process of standing in white at another funeral, this time with no one at his side to support him if he needed to grieve.

Takeshi accepted the punishment, because he deserved it. But there was one person his old man would let in to see him, even when he was grounded.

"Hotaru's here."

He winced, because there were a lot of ways that Hotaru might react to the news, and none of them were good in any sense of the word.

His guess was proven correct when she opened the door without even knocking.

"Did you cry?" he blurted out, any and all excuses completely wiped from his mind at the sight that greeted him. Hotaru was always pale, and that meant anytime something happened – like a blush – it was very visible.

In this case, the red rimming her eyes was a clear mark.

Hotaru's face twisted, and her eyes filled with tears. "Yes, you idiot!"

Takeshi stared, because Hotaru didn't yell, not like this. Sometimes she shrieked out of surprise or excitement, and she did raise her voice when they needed to shout at each other to communicate across distance, but yell? Because she had lost her calm and gotten emotional?

This was a time of seeing new aspects of people around him.

Her hands rose, as if she wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until she was exhausted, but hesitated at the cast.

What she couldn't do with actions, Hotaru made up with words.

"I heard from a classmate that there was a – a student on the roof, over at Namimori Middle, about to jump because of an injury, and I was worried because that's your school, but then I hear that it's someone on the baseball team, and then she said your name, and do you have any idea how much I panicked? I didn't even know you were injured, and then someone said it was a joke except that was your name I heard, and there weren't any more news coming so I thought the worst, and my teacher wouldn't let me leave early so the entire day I just thought, the last thing I talked about with my best friend was about some stupid homework or grades instead of helping him like I should have!"

Takeshi stared as she ranted. When her words began to grow distraught and blurred together with tears, though, he panicked, because Hotaru was crying. Hotaru had never cried around him, not even when she collapsed and coughed up blood, and he had somehow grown to believe she would never cry.

A day of Takeshi being really, really wrong about things, too.

"Don't cry?" he nearly begged.

That backfired on him tremendously when she buried her face into her hands, trying to stifle the quiet sobs she broke out into. Feeling like he was the worst criminal in the world, Takeshi went through a hell of his own making while Hotaru kept crying.

After what felt like hours of guilt on his part, Hotaru eventually stopped and excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she returned, her eyes were still red-rimmed, but they were dry and focused on him.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, now calmed down. "I should have asked about how you felt, not . . . yelled at you."

Takeshi disagreed. "I think I kind of deserved that."

Plus, it was . . . an experience, seeing Hotaru lose her usual composure like that. And reassuring, weird as it might have sounded. That she cared about him enough to be so emotionally affected.

"Can I ask why?" she asked.

Takeshi wanted to squirm, because it was something that made him feel ashamed, but he did owe it to Hotaru to tell her the truth, after making her cry.

"It's really stupid," he said, feeling heat crawl up his neck.

Middle school had been a change for Takeshi.

The good thing about middle school was, of course, baseball. The second and third years gave him a challenge he hadn't really had in elementary. It was more serious now, and the challenge he was given made his heart pound in the good way. It made him feel alive. Pushed to become better.

And that was important, because the rest of his life was beginning to fade in brightness.

A lot of people said he was a cheerful person. They said so because he smiled and laughed a lot, and he looked carefree.

In a way he was. He didn't care all that much for a lot of things, just what he liked. There were few bright spots of color in a world that was otherwise grey for Takeshi. His old man. Hotaru. Haru. Baseball.

His dad was busy, ever since Mom had passed away, trying to pull the weight of two people on his own. He tried his best, Takeshi knew, but the lack of his mom meant that he had to be mature. He had to grow up, so he wouldn't be a burden to his dad.

Haru and Hotaru were still his friends – the only ones he could really call his friends, in the real definition of the word – but they were attending Midori. They were also girls, and smart, and talented in more than one area which meant that sometimes he felt a little left out.

Middle school starting meant he got less time to spend with them. Hotaru was also in school now, which mean their schedules often didn't meet up. She was busy with club activities and studying and homework. Ever since school had started, Takeshi had spent time with her exactly twice.

So baseball was really a blessing in that sense. It kept him from being alone. It meant he could still be social with people, still enjoy something in life, do something that made him feel alive.

It wasn't the same, with teammates. There was a sense of camaraderie, but it wasn't close or as soothing as spending time with Haru and Hotaru was. It wasn't as important – in fact, it was only done because he knew he had to get along with people, and because teamwork was important in baseball. They didn't see him under the surface he put up. Didn't know him as he was, didn't look closer.

But that was fine, he thought, because he saw them as fellow students, teammates that helped him appreciate the sheer, elating joy that baseball brought him. He couldn't play baseball alone, now could he?

When Takeshi first heard about Tsuna – Sawada Tsunayoshi – in his class confessing to the school idol Sasagawa Kyoko in nothing but his underwear, Takeshi filed it away as something to share with Hotaru and Haru. Stories of what happened in schools with both boys and girls. Maybe they'd tell him about the crazy things that happened in an all-girls' school. What crazy things happened there?

But the whole thing had given Tsuna cred at school. He was no longer the 'Dame-Tsuna' that people made fun of. Some students were scared of him, and others thought he was cool.

Takeshi was probably one of the latter. He had stood up against a second-year for the sake of someone else. That was respectable. Just like how it was kind of cool, when he and that new transfer guy stood up against Nezu. That man hadn't had half the skills or patience Hotaru did, and when the news of him being a fraud got out, Takeshi thought it made a lot of sense.

At the same time, though, he was more focused on how he wasn't improving. There was a challenge, yes, but baseball felt like it was blocked. Like he had hit a wall he just couldn't pass.

And that was a problem, because baseball was something Takeshi could say for certain he was good at. Something that let him be special.

Haru was bright, and cheerful, and genuinely a social person. She was truly extroverted, and she could easily give genuine affection in a way that Takeshi just . . . couldn't. It was a part of why he had grown to accept her as a friend, because she didn't do things halfway and wasn't the kind who gave expecting something in return. That had been obvious from the start.

That, and Hotaru had been the one to introduce them.

Despite Haru's natural brightness, though, Takeshi had also been a little jealous of her. He had known Hotaru longer, but at times it had felt like Haru was closer to her because she was a girl. It had felt a little worse, when Hotaru wrote to tell him and Haru that she was going to be attending Midori.

Like somehow, the differences had been more pronounced. Not just 'she's a girl and he's a boy' kind of difference, but the difference in who they were.

Takeshi, a boy with no real talents other than baseball. Haru, a girl that could really like and be liked by other people, who was smart and funny and weird, but in the good way. Hotaru, a girl who was good at everything – studying, music, reading, everything.

And wasn't it obvious, in how they had become friends, that Takeshi didn't belong? Haru and Hotaru had met, and clicked, becoming fast friends. Takeshi and Hotaru had become friends after his mom's funeral.

His friends were great people, but he had always felt a little inadequate next to them, like he had to catch up. Baseball was his specialty, his passion, his field of expertise.

"It was just my thing," he said slowly. "Mine. It was what I was good at, and that was what made me special."

He pushed against the wall, trying to break past it. He ended up breaking himself instead.

When his arm broke and he was told he couldn't play, possibly for the rest of his life, Takeshi had felt useless.

"I wasn't going to jump," he tried to defend himself at the look on Hotaru's face, almost wax-like in quality now. She was holding something back, and he couldn't read it, so he tried to mitigate it before it identified itself as anger. "Really. I just . . ."

He had gone to school, the day after the accident, and the members of the baseball club, some of his seniors, had somehow found out and were offering their condolences.

But Takeshi had seen the light of mockery and jealousy and relief in their eyes, felt their insincerity, and something in him had snapped.

The next thing he knew, he had been on the roof, looking down and thinking of how many more bones in his body would break if he just took one extra step. No one had come close, scared, maybe, that they would be blamed if he did end up jumping. An invisible line keeping them from coming closer.

He probably wouldn't have jumped. But at the time he had inwardly sneered, that no one was even going to try and stop him.

No on there was his friend, anyways, so he didn't expect anyone to really stop him.

Except someone had.

One of the idioms Hotaru had explained for him in the past was 'fair-weather friends' – those that left when the going got tough.

Tsuna had proven himself to be the furthest thing from a fair-weather friend. What kind of a person just . . . risked his life for someone he didn't know all that well? For someone who had said harsh things, like acid, and pulled him off the roof with him?

Tsuna, apparently.

"I wasn't going to jump," he said lamely. "But I accidentally pulled Tsuna, and the fence broke, and, um, Tsuna saved me before I got hurt."

It was, all things considered, the truth, but the explanation also lacked a lot of detail and the two of them knew it. Hotaru eyed him suspiciously, but that was his story and he was sticking to it.

"Sorry for making you worry," he added, trying to appease her.

For the longest moment of his life, she just stared at Takeshi, eyes scrutinizing and making him squirm in fear.

Then, she sighed, sounding like she was releasing the weight of the world with her breath. "Did you know I don't care all that much for baseball?"

Takeshi blinked at the sudden change in topic. "What?"

"I don't really care about baseball," Hotaru rephrased. "It's a sport. It involves running, and two teams fighting over a tiny ball and sliding across dirt. It's hard for me to like it."

When she phrased it like that, it sounded hard to like.

"The only reason I even care about baseball, and know the positions, the rules, the terms," Hotaru said slowly, like she was trying to explain something to him, the way she did about how the sky was blue, or what the question about the literature assignment was really asking. "Is because you liked it."

She held his gaze while that sank in. It was a good thing she gave him a moment, because he needed that time.

"I don't consider you my friend because of something like pity, or a sport I don't even play or watch anyone else play, Takeshi. Baseball was just a sport to me, until my friend liked to play it. That's all it ever meant to me. It could have been soccer you played, or basketball, or football, and it would have still only been that."

Embarrassed, he let his eyes drop, but Hotaru wasn't done.

"I liked watching you play baseball because you always looked so happy while playing," she murmured, anger of any kind burnt out of her voice. "If you like baseball enough to die for it, then you should live for it, instead."

Takeshi laughed quietly, a little relieved now that his dumb worries had been thoroughly appeased. "Is that a quote?"

"Not that I know of," she said dryly. "It's actually just common sense."

Maybe not so burnt out. He winced, because okay, maybe he deserved that too.

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to find something else to live for," Takeshi decided, looking down at his casted arm. "The doctor says I can't play baseball anymore."

He'd live, Takeshi figured, for the people he cared about. His Pops, who had probably lost about ten years from his life thanks to his rashness. Haru, who was still his friend despite his own personal jealousy. Hotaru, because she had just cleared away a lot of his insecurities and reassured him of their friendship together.

And Tsuna.

If he had to choose baseball and those people, Takeshi thought, a scale in his mind tipping to one side, it became obvious which was far more important.

Hotaru frowned, and Takeshi watched as his oldest friend struggled with words. Her eyes went from his arm, to his face, back to his arms, before she came to a decision by herself.

"I'm about to tell you a secret," she said at last, before amending her words. "Well, show you a secret. But you can't tell anyone else."

A secret? The change in subject threw him off.

"Promise me," Hotaru pleaded.

"Okay," he answered, feeling a little distracted, because even if she hadn't made him promise he wouldn't have told anyone. Her eyes, though, were urgent, and Takeshi knew this was serious. Whatever 'it' was. "I won't tell anyone."

A bit of the tension in her shoulders left, but she was still nervous. Hotaru took a deep breath, and slowly extended both her hands to rest gently on his broken arm.

"It shouldn't hurt," she mumbled, without much confidence. "Stay still, okay?"

Takeshi opened his mouth, but whatever he had been about to say died on his tongue when a soft white light began to glow from where she put her hands on him.

She was right. It didn't hurt. But maybe because he was a little – a lot – distracted, gawking at what was happening.

"It's just something I've been able to do since I was young," she said quietly. Little flicks of light rose up from his arm, like dust particles moved by a current, before fading into nothing. "I couldn't use it while I was – sick, but I got it back recently. It should be enough to let you play baseball again."

Like fireflies, Takeshi thought, awed as he watched the lights slowly drift upwards, away from his broken arm like they were flying off with his wound.

His arm felt warm. Not uncomfortably so, but – warm, in the good way. Like a hot drink on a cold day, or a shower after a baseball game to wash away the sweat. Relaxing. Soothing. Restoring.

A minute later, the light faded away, and Hotaru let her hands drop to her sides. She bit her lip, uncertainty and vulnerability flickering over her face. It was a secret he hadn't even been aware of her having, would never have suspected. It was a secret Hotaru didn't need to reveal to him.

But she had. Not just because of his arm, but because it was an offering, a baring of a weakness of sorts. Giving him a piece of her she had guarded well over the years, just to let him know he was worth it. That she trusted him with this part of her.

He poked at his arm. The cast got in the way. Right.

He tried raising his arm. No pain. No difficulties.

As if his arm wasn't broken.

Hotaru had somehow healed his arm. The arm the doctor had said would be impossible to play baseball with.

His insecurities were banished, he had a new friend – an actual friend – and his arm was fine. It was like magic.

Something burst in his heart, and Takeshi swept up Hotaru in a crushing hug. Now their roles were reversed, and he was the one crying while she tried to tell him that it was okay.

"I'll fix you up," she mumbled, running a hand down his back over and over again, tracing a soothing path. "If you ever hurt yourself playing baseball again, that's fine, I can fix it, as long as you haven't – lost something, okay?"

There was a choking sound. It was from him.

Hotaru sighed and continued to pat his back, as if engraving that soft rhythm of comfort into him. "Just – don't do that again. Don't ever do that again."

Takeshi nodded, because when he tried to speak all he could make were those choking sounds.

They stayed like that until Haru arrived, and he was punished in the form of yet another crying girl yelling at him that of course he was more important than baseball, did he want her chasing after him in a costume carrying a sign proclaiming the obvious to everyone, how could he think they wouldn't miss him, and did he know how worried they were.

For all that had happened, Takeshi thought to himself when Haru finally ran out of steam and hugged him as well. It had been a pretty great day.

AN: Updating early because I play Fire Emblem Heroes and there's a new banner and I usually have better luck when I update a fic before summoning.

Because this is a chapter entirely in Takeshi's POV here's some TL;DR from Hotaru's.

Hotaru: *once would have died to bring a new age, now lives because her princess and queen would prefer that her loved ones live for her instead of dying for her* if you love something enough to die for it, then live for it instead.

Takeshi: That's so deep. But, well, I guess I'm not going to be living for baseball anytime soon now.

Hotaru: hold my tea.

.

Hotaru: (what if he thinks this is creepy, what if he hates me, what if-)

Takeshi: ｡･ﾟ･(*ﾉД`*)･ﾟ･。(((Bear hug to end all bear hugs)))

Hotaru: (never mind, then). *deeply relieved*

Sweet Dreams~