Days passed, then weeks and months.
It had been almost a year now since they had met.
Tsuna was –
– happy?
Yes, surely that was the right word to describe the bubbly and warm feeling swelling in his chest each time he looked at Nero.
So.
Tsuna was happy.
For the first time in a long, long while he had a friend. And best of all, that friend loved basking in daylight as much as he did.
Tsuna sighed, tilting his face up to stare at the clouds slowly drifting overhead.
Once a month, kids who'd done exceptionally well during the tests were allowed one hour outside of the cells into a small courtyard. It was a very narrow space of cracked asphalt and gray cement, with tall walls that towered so high above their heads that they could only make out a small square of blue sky. Some of the children pushed themselves hard during the experiments to be allowed out there. Those few minutes of faux-freedom were intoxicating in a way that no drugs would ever be.
The searchers held them all in the palms of their hands and each one of them knew it. An yet they would all keep on dancing to the tune of scalpels and white coats if it meant a small moment of respite. The adults were smart. They had long caught onto the fact that sometimes fear alone wasn't reason enough to push on through another day.
But hope?
Hope kept you going even though it could kill faster than pain.
How clever of the scientists to dangle the promise of the sky in front of boys and girls raised in a cage. Tsuna knew it was a trap. And he ran headlong into it every single time. The feel of the wind in his hair, the kiss of the sun's warmth on his skin – it felt like a taste of something secret, something forbidden, and he savored every second of it while it lasted.
"Move it."
A shoulder slammed into his own from behind, and Tsuna stumbled forward, barely catching himself before he ended up sprawled all over the hard concrete.
Vito glared at him as he entered the courtyard, making a bee-line for the center of the open space where the sun shone its brightest. The blond boy didn't push his advantage further though, not when three guards were positioned all around them with their control bracelets in plain sight.
Tsuna watched as Vito sat down, his pasty white complexion put in sharp contrast as he looked up at the sky. Three other children trickled in after him, two girls and one really small boy who couldn't be older than four. They went to different corners of the courtyard, well away from the others, and silently enjoyed his rewards.
"This idiot," Nero growled. He was glaring at Vito. "He's getting worse and worse lately."
"Don't start a fight."
"No kidding." Nero sniffed. "That would be like letting Big-and-Stupid win."
Tsuna glanced at his friend's grumpy expression. "You're doing it again," he said. "The sulky face."
Nero shot him a deeply offended look. "I don't sulk."
"Huh."
"I don't," Nero insisted, scowling. "And stop laughing!"
Tsuna bit his lips, cheeks puffing out in an effort to hold the laughter in.
Nero stared at him for a moment, his whole being radiating wounded dignity. Then he huffed, rolled his eyes, and suddenly smacked Tsuna's face with both of his hands.
Air rushed out from between Tsuna's puckered lips, resulting in a very wet, very loud raspberry.
He let out a squawk of protest, cradling his stinging cheeks. "It hurts!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Nero snickered. "Come on."
He grabbed Tsuna's hand and dragged him further into the courtyard, aiming for a still unoccupied space that was bathed in sunlight. Stopping there, he bodily maneuvered Tsuna down onto the fractured concrete. The hard surface wasn't exactly comfortable but that was nothing new to either of them. Tsuna lied there without a complain, his arms and legs sprawled out like a starfish, and leveled an expectant look at Nero.
"Good enough?" he asked.
"I guess so."
Nero made himself home on Tsuna's stomach, using his belly as a cushion while he wriggled around to find a comfortable position.
"I don't sulk, you know."
"Hn?"
"I really don't."
"Hm."
"Shut up." An irritated growl. "I'm just setting the record straight, that's all."
Tsuna hummed a little and closed his eyes.
He shifted slightly, trying to absorb as much daylight as he could. His Flames almost purred with pleasure as they rolled in the warm weather, lazily uncoiling from his core and stretching out, like something big that had gone boneless and lazy.
"Are you asleep?"
"No," Nero said, his voice soft and dreamy like it never was when they were inside. "You're thinking too loud."
Tsuna blinked. "How can I think too loud?"
"By wiggling and squirming around like a worm."
"I'm not a – "
A finger poking his ribs.
Once. Twice.
Nero grumbled. "You sure move like one. Stop it. I want to try to get some sleep before they take us back."
Tsuna obligingly went still.
He knew all too well how long it had been since Nero had gotten more than a handful of hours of rest. Tsuna gently ran his fingers through dirty blond hair, not minding that it was dry and brittle. Nero immediately went boneless against him. There had been a time not that long ago when physical contact between the two of them would have been impossible, when any attempted touch would have been met with a glare and a snarl. But not today. Not anymore.
The reason why Tsuna loved the dilapidated courtyard so much wasn't only because he got to feel the wind on his skin and watch clouds dancing across a sea of blue – it was also because it was the place where he'd become friends with Nero.
("I've got a mother and a brother. But I don't know their names anymore. I can't even remember their faces."
"I want to leave this place. I want to go outside and never come back. Before they kill us.")
The sky was clear and bright above them. Even though they were only allowed to see such a small piece of it, its vivid color was almost blinding. Something about its sheer size reminded Tsuna of the story of a frog, an ocean, and the bottom of a well. He couldn't remember it all, but the vague memories brought back whispers of a woman's voice to his mind. They teased him, forever out of reach, like a playful breeze that could be felt but never touched.
Tsuna closed his eyes and asked, "What about now? Are you asleep yet?"
A sleepy mumble.
Tsuna grinned.
.
.
Slash.
A blur of silver. A scalpel cutting through skin and nerves and flesh.
Blood.
Tsuna screamed around his gag, struggling against his bounds.
"Seems like a failure." A man sighed from somewhere on his right.
"Healing rate's not up to par with what was anticipated." A second voice, this time coming from the left. "See how the skin's not knitting back together?"
"Kid's not a Sun, but this is disappointing."
"He wasn't given any painkillers, right?"
"No. We need him clean for this."
"Let's try again."
Slash.
Scream.
More blood.
So warm and thick as it traveled down his torso.
"Keep going. His Flames are going to kick in at some point."
Slash.
Scream.
Blood.
He felt himself drifting away after that, in some place dark and cold and empty.
And then a hand slapped him.
Hard.
Lights danced in front of his eyes. The examination table he was strapped to was cold and hard under his bare back. He shivered.
"Do you hear me, kid? I want you to call on your Flames. It should help with the pain, so try to channel them where it hurts."
His … Flames?
Tsuna blinked, trying to focus.
It would be easy, he distantly acknowledged. To just … let go.
But Tsuna couldn't.
He wouldn't.
Because the Flames they were talking about were a roaring tempest of defensive rage and fury that was about to erupt in a deadly firestorm. And they felt strong enough − angry enough − to burn down the world to ashes and still grow hotter, wilder, until there was nothing left of this planet but the charred shell of a broken star.
They wanted him to let that out?
(Yes.)
No.
He wasn't sure he could survive that sort of fire – that sort of hate.
"Let's try again."
Slash.
Scream.
Blood.
.
.
Vito planted his hands on Tsuna's chest and pushed.
Tsuna crashed to the floor with all the elegance of a collapsing mammoth. The impact caused his mouth to slam shut, his teeth clicking together with a snap. Pain flared. For one frantic moment, he wondered if he hadn't just bitten his tongue off – but no, it was right there, moving and unscathed.
"Tsuna!"
Nero rushed to his side.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Are you in pain?"
Feeling a little woozy, Tsuna assured his friend that he was fine – no, no he wasn't hurt, not at all, why was Nero even worried – and tried to wrap up the whole thing with a pretty smile.
It worked as well as could be expected.
Nero's expression twitched, lips and brows slowly shifting into a fierce scowl.
"Okay," he said in a very, very calm voice that Tsuna didn't trust for a single second. He stood up and repeated, "Okay." Then, "This is fucking war."
Vito laughed. "I'm so scared."
Nero's eyes narrowed. They started to glow with a harsh light, white-hot and unforgiving.
And then the two boys were rolling on the floor, exchanging blow for blow, hit for hit. Each strike was mean and nasty, aimed at vulnerable body parts that caused cries of pain.
"Stop," Tsuna called from the sideline, his words coming out muffled because he was still holding a hand over his mouth.
He really hoped his teeth weren't going to fall off later.
The brawling pair completely ignored him.
Vito twisted his upper body, lifted one arm and rammed his elbow into Nero's nose. The smaller blond yelped, jerking back, then let out an outraged growl. His fingers transformed into talons that went straight for Vito's eyes, who only avoided permanent disfigurement by burying his teeth into Nero's wrist.
"Ow!"
Cue more rolling around and trashing limbs.
Tsuna anxiously glanced at the door, wondering if the ruckus was loud enough to attract Amadeo or Jenoah's attention.
The door remained locked.
So far, so good.
"Hey!" He carefully approached the scuffle. "It's stupid. Stop fighting. Please?"
A yelp of pain followed by a curse.
That would be a resounding shut up, we're busy, then.
An arm went flying by Tsuna's face and, seeing an opportunity, he grabbed the limb and held on tight. He pulled and yanked, trying to separate his friend from the older boy, but the two of them were having none of it. They kept yowling and snarling like a pair of wild animals, all claws and fangs and bristling furs.
And then there was a leg, slamming hard into his knees.
Tsuna felt himself tilting over for the second time that day. He went down with a squeal and landed right in the thick of the melee.
Time sort of blurred after that.
At some point, he stopped trying to separate Nero and Vito and merely attempted to crawl away, feeling sore and bruised and quite done with life in general.
Vito grabbed Tsuna's ankle and dragged him right back into the fight. Tsuna let out a squeak of protest as he slid backward, fingers digging uselessly at the floor.
Nero – in a misguided attempt at rescuing Tsuna – made something of a cross between a belly-flop and a tackle. He slammed into Vito's back with a grunt. It effectively took the blond down, but Tsuna didn't feel particularly impressed because he abruptly found himself at the bottom of a writhing dog-pile. He almost lost an eye to a flailing hand, and a foot rammed into his side with enough strength that his ribs cracked.
"'s that all you've got, you fucking Dipshit?"
"I'm just getting started!"
"Eat that –"
"Hey, no biting! No biting!"
Tsuna didn't know how he did it, but somehow, someway, he managed to survive the next several minutes and then the storm had blown over and they were all lying side by side, panting and coughing and hurting all over.
His head was throbbing. There were tiny spots of light dancing across his vision. Breathing was exhausting.
"This," Vito gasped out from somewhere on Tsuna's right, "this doesn't mean I've lost."
"Shut up," Nero wheezed, sounding one second away from passing out. "Tsuna, are you okay?"
Tsuna let out a strangled sound.
Vito snorted. "Crybaby," he mocked. Tsuna could just feel the sneer in his voice. "You hear that, Dipshit? Your half-breed's a fucking crybaby."
Half-breed – the word that had started it all.
"What did you say, asshole?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I hurt your feelings?
There was a dull smack, followed by a curse, and then they were going at it again.
Tsuna scrambled away, clumsily back-pedaling even as the two blonds picked up the fight where they'd left it.
Unbelievable. Those two were unbelievable.
How could they even move?
Vito noticed Tsuna's retreating form, ducked under a flying fist, and scowled. "Oh no, you don't."
He lunged, hands extended toward Tsuna, but was intercepted – "not even in your dreams!" – by a kick to the stomach before he could reach him.
Tsuna cringed. "Stop it already. That's enough."
They ignored him.
Again.
The fight started to escalate, growing in intensity and volume.
Tsuna wondered how it was that Nero could disregard Vito's insults when they were aimed at him, but could never overlook them when Tsuna was involved. They would need to work on that overprotective streak of Nero. Soon. Before it got them both into troubles.
Well.
More troubles, anyway.
The other kids in the cell watched the three of them from afar, quiet and wary, and their silence made the sound of hits and blows even louder. It wouldn't be surprising if by now someone had noticed that three heartbeats had skyrocketed in the cell.
A searcher would push a button anytime now, Tsuna thought hysterically. The knock-out drug would be delivered directly from their collars into their systems and they would wake up strapped to an examination table.
"I'll fucking kill you!"
"Try it, I dare you!"
This was stopping.
This was stopping right now.
Tsuna's Flames stretched out, awakening with a loud rumble. His hands flashed out, snatching each boy by the back of their necks. He gave a little shake.
"I said," he gritted out, Flames flaring in his voice, "That's. Enough."
Vito and Nero froze, both going completely still.
Tsuna's fire flowed out, not a lot – careful, careful, don't burn too hot – but just enough to brush against strands of yellow sunlight and green lightning. It snapped sharp fangs in warning, once, twice, then cuffed the two misbehaving Flames like naughty children who'd crossed one line too many.
The boys winced.
Tsuna remained unimpressed. "Can I let you go?" he asked. "Or are you going to freak out again?"
Mumbles and mutters all around.
Nero's expression was suspiciously mulish. Next to him, Vito had gone white.
Tsuna waited.
A beat of silence.
Then,
"Yeah, fine." Nero growled, shrugging off Tsuna's hold. "Dammit. You're no fun."
Tsuna mouthed no fun, dropping back his hands onto his lap. "No fun? The two of you almost crushed me to death!"
"Big baby."
"I am not–"
"Hey," Vito cut in.
Nero's heads snapped toward him. "What?" he bit out.
"You're both stupid and I hate you," Vito replied flatly. Then he turned to Tsuna, pointing an accusing finger. "And you're a fucking freak, half-breed! Don't you do that to me ever again, you get it?"
Nero bristled.
Vito showed his teeth.
And Tsuna buried his face in his hands with a groan.
.
.
The flat screen formed a half circle, glowing like an artificial apparition.
Shapes danced all over its smooth surface without logic or discernable patterns, bouncing right and left and up and down.
(Bottom. Up. Up again. Left. Right.)
Tsuna had to be one step ahead of them, to anticipate their courses from the merest twitch, to be able to guess their paths before they even changed direction. His fingers flashed over the screen, his time response growing faster and faster as the speed of the shapes progressively increased.
(Left. Left. Down. Right corner −)
Too slow.
The screen flashed red.
The pair of electrodes glued to his forehead buzzed. It felt like two needles stabbing straight into his brain.
Tsuna cried out, hands flying to his head.
"We're starting again."
A male voice echoed in the room from the speakers fixed on the walls. It was flat and monotonous.
"Get ready."
Tsuna blinked furiously, knowing as always that searchers were watching him from behind the one-way mirror behind him.
The screen flashed blue.
He lasted three minutes this time before it turned red again.
Another electric shock.
Warmth rose from the depths of Tsuna's soul, and he desperately gave himself to it. His hands started to move on their own, animated not by conscious thoughts but by the rush of heat burning under his skin.
(Up. Left. Top hand corner. Down. Down.)
A third flash of red.
Pain.
"Again."
.
.
The first time Tsuna had realized his friend could put a bunch of letters together and extricate meaning out of them, he'd felt as if an entire new world had opened up to him.
Reading was such an alien concept, something that belonged to Before, and it was almost wrong to discover that Nero could do it – well. Maybe reading as such was a little bit of a stretch. The blond boy could recognize some letters and lump them together to form a couple of familiar words, which was still very far from literacy.
But still.
He could write his name.
Nero knew how to write his own name, and that seemed so wonderful in Tsuna's eyes that he simply had to learn, too.
He started to hound Nero, harassing him days and nights to be taught, to be shown, and from there on it was only a matter of time and determination before Nero finally caved in and reluctantly accepted the role of teacher, if only to get some fucking sleep, dammit Tsuna.
"What," Nero said blandly two days later, "is this?"
Tsuna thought it was rather obvious.
"Your name," he answered, chest puffing up with pride.
"Huh." Nero stared at the strange pattern Tsuna had carefully created out of several threads he'd pulled from the hems of his pants. "That's not my name."
Tsuna frowned, looking down at his masterpiece. It was rather well-made, if he did say so himself, with the dark threads standing out in stark contract against the gray of the floor to form a pretty design.
"But look," he said, pointing with a finger. "I made that double wavy thingie for the 'n' just like you showed me, and the 'e' isn't upside down, and the 'r' is –"
"All I'm seeing," Nero cut in flatly, "is a monster with four legs and three arms."
"What? No!" Tsuna gaped. "No. That's the shapes you showed me earlier and – and three arms? That's just mean!"
"You're the one drawing squiggles all over the place."
"I'm writing! There's no squiggles anywhere!"
Nero huffed. "There are if I say so," he said. "And idiots who let themselves starve to death don't get a say in this conversation anyway."
Tsuna immediately blushed so hard he felt on fire. "That was only one time –"
"Once was enough, stupid."
"I hate you."
"Liar." A smug look. "You don't. Now start again."
"... I don't want to."
"Sure. Then I won't teach you anymore."
Tsuna let out a little growl, then attacked the threads again.
He was going to get this right even if it killed him.
.
.
The boy who had just been strapped to an exam table started to convulse. And scream.
His voice rose above the searchers' chatter, hoarse and gut-wrenching. It cut off seconds later. Someone had pulled a gag over the boy's mouth, and all that pain was reduced to a muffled cry.
Tsuna stood between Nero and a red-headed girl from their cell, watching the scene in tense silence.
Only half of his attention was on the boy's torment. A great part of his mind was busy noting and cataloging the looks aimed his way by every adult in the room.
Lingering glances.
Quick peeks thrown between bits of conversation.
On his right, Jenoah was smiling widely, appearing unusually peppy even by his standards, and Amadeo himself seemed to be keeping an eye on the proceedings.
Tsuna fought really hard to staunch the flood of panic rising in his chest.
Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
The three searchers muttering around the boy's seizing body seemed to lost interest. They scattered. Two went to grab an IV bags while the third one turned around as she frowned down at the tablet in her hands. She was a tall woman, with short blond hair and a pair of square glasses. A sense of sharp impatience surrounded her, as if she couldn't help but be annoyed that the world wouldn't hurry the hell up and match her personal pace.
She looked up.
And stared straight at Tsuna.
Her eyes narrowed, then slid over to Nero. She took in the way they stood close to each other, how Nero had taken a shuffling step to the left that put him a little in front of Tsuna.
The woman smiled.
Tsuna shrank into himself.
He tried to tug Nero back next to him but his friend refused to budge. He stood his grounds stubbornly, gripping Tsuna's hand in a white-knuckled hold.
Tsuna gritted his teeth but chose to bid his time. The last thing he wanted was to attract even more attention to them by starting an argument.
He would let Nero have it later, though.
There would be words.
Tsuna took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing pulse.
It was the first time the two of them had been brought out of the cell together, and Tsuna had quickly found out that Nero's mere presence with him during an experiment made everything a thousand times worse.
Oh, the fear of hurting was still very much the same. That sickening anticipation of the pain to come had his knees quivering and bile rising in his throat like usual. But it was nothing – absolutely nothing – compared to the horrifying realization that he would have to watch Nero be used and hurt and that he was powerless to stop it.
Tsuna swallowed hard.
He was going to throw up.
From somewhere on their right, Jenoah let out a soft cooing sound. "Oooh," the guard crooned. "Look at you two, holding hands and all. You're just adorable."
He sauntered over to give their shoulders a friendly pat.
"Don't break, okay?" Jenoah leaned forward and whispered right into Tsuna's ear. "That wouldn't be fun."
Tsuna blinked.
What –
"Next," the tall female searcher called.
Jenoah walked around Tsuna and Nero with a spring in his steps and a song on his breath. He grabbed the only other remaining kid from their cell – the red-headed girl – and pushed her forward.
She stumbled, her face deathly pale, the line of her mouth trembling.
But she didn't beg.
She knew better than that.
They all did.
The same scene repeated itself for a second time as she was made to lie down on a table. Restraints were snapped closed around her wrists and ankles, and an IV stand with a bag full of transparent liquid was brought over. The female searcher put her on a drip, and an infusing pump started to beep and click as it monitored the drugs being flushed in her system.
The girl started to shriek a minute later.
Tsuna's heartbeat picked up.
The group of three searchers went off on a low conversation. The poked, they prodded, they observed, and through it all Tsuna couldn't help but notice how uninvolved they seemed with the whole thing. As if the girl – and the boy before her – weren't all that important, as if there was something else they were waiting for.
Sideway glances again in his and Nero's direction.
Ones that were assessing. Weighting. Judging.
The girl screeched again. High and raw, and it felt like her voice would break and shatter like glass.
They put a gag on her after that.
"Next," the woman said again.
Jenoah trotted back to them and Tsuna trembled with the need to run.
To grab Nero and hide him away. To yell, no. No, don't come closer.
Jenoah reached out for Nero – Nero, who just stood there, stupidly not moving an inch from his position in front of Tsuna, chin jutting out defiantly even though his shoulders were shaking and his face had gone white.
Everything went silent around Tsuna.
He couldn't hear anything, couldn't move, couldn't breathe.
Jenoah's hand closed around Nero's arm. Gave a tug.
"Let's go."
A switch was flipped inside, and the world rushed back to normal with a tearing sound. Tsuna jerked forward, reason drowned under the roar of outraged mine that came from his Flames. His muscles coiled tight, even as the monster burning in his chest rose swiftly and lethally to the surface. He would make them pay, he would kill them all –
Except.
"Not him," the female searcher said before Tsuna could attack. "The other one."
Tsuna stilled.
The firestorm brewing in his veins ground to a halt.
Oh, he thought numbly. I guess that works, too.
Jenoah pulled him from behind Nero, and Tsuna didn't fight. He'd been so focused on his friend, on how he could protect him that he had sort of forgotten he wouldn't be spared either.
Jenoah dragged him along.
"Come on, Tsuna-kun," he said cheerfully. "It's your turn now."
The walk toward the three searchers felt simultaneously very short and very long. Jenoah lifted Tsuna onto a free table, and the female searcher immediately got busy with a needle. Someone else tied a tourniquet around his arm, tight enough to control his blood flow.
And then someone screamed.
Loud and childish and utterly furious.
"Don't touch him!"
Nero's voice pierced the mist that had descended over Tsuna's mind and yanked him right back to the present.
He startled, eyes snapping to the commotion raging beyond the row of examination tables.
Nero was twisting and kicking as he struggled in Amadeo's hands.
"Don't fucking touch him!"
Tsuna automatically tried to go to Nero, only to realize that his hands and ankles were already cuffed to the metal bars around the table.
"Wait," he blurted out, tugging at the restraints. "Wait."
The woman didn't even glance at him.
She cleaned a spot of skin on Tsuna's inner elbow, then inserted the needle in one of the veins bulging there. The tourniquet came off.
Something that was both ice and fire started to trickle in Tsuna's arm.
It wasn't a pleasant sensation.
(It burned.)
Tsuna gasped and squeezed his eyes shut.
Nero howled.
The blond boy fought harder, and half wrenched himself out of Amadeo's hold. His flailing feet caught the leg of a nearby table and sent it flying. Medical material spilled on the floor with a loud racket.
Amadeo let out a curse. "Stop fighting, you little shithead."
Nero slithered free and lunged toward Tsuna – only to be plucked clean off the floor by two deceptively strong hands.
"That's enough," Jenoah tutted. "Take a deep breath and relax. You're making a scene."
Spitting mad, Nero clawed at the forearm holding him. "Fuck. You."
The two guards wrestled him to the floor. Amadeo twisted Nero's arms behind his back while Jenoah basically sat down on his legs.
And that… shouldn't have been necessary.
Two grown men weren't supposed to have any difficulty to subdue and hold down one malnourished kid. His struggles shouldn't have caused them so much trouble, shouldn't have been strong enough to escape Amadeo in the first place.
Nero looked up, and his eyes glowed white-hot. Flames – immature and not fully manifested, but still very thick – seethed in the air all around him.
"I'll kill you," he snarled. "I'll kill you."
Around the exam table, the searchers watched him with delighted expressions. The woman, especially, looked very pleased.
Tsuna instantly knew that this sort of interest was dangerous. That they didn't want it, ever.
"Nero!" he called. "Calm down!"
But his friend didn't stop, didn't even seem to hear his voice.
Tsuna focused inward and reached out for the little spark of sunlight that had ignited in the middle of his own Flames. He found it immediately, crackling and flaring in distress, radiating so much impotent rage that it'd become deaf and blind to the world.
Tsuna's fire wrapped around Nero's Flames and squeezed.
(Hear me. See me.)
On the floor, Nero let out a choked gasp.
Tsuna wrapped his Flames tighter around the tiny Sun.
It's alright, he told him, the lie feeling like razor-blades cutting his insides open as he sent it out. We'll be alright.
Nero twisted a little so that he could stare at Tsuna. He didn't blink, didn't move, didn't even seem to be breathing.
The woman by the IV stand let out a little laugh.
"Well." She smiled, an edge of deep satisfaction purring in her voice. "Don't you two make an interesting pair?"
.
.
Tsuna cracked an eye open.
He was lying on his stomach on a cold floor, and it took a moment to realize he was back in the cell.
Tsuna shifted onto his side, moving gingerly. He felt tired and groggy and sort of dazed but…
(Nero.)
Tsuna sat up. He didn't immediately keel over. Alright. That was a good sign. An excellent one, really.
Nero was right there beside him, knees drawn up to his chest and arms wrapped around his legs. Other than a slight tremor in his hands, he appeared to be relatively fine. No missing limbs or new scars. No bandages or blood stains.
Tsuna brushed the tips of his fingers against Nero's wrist.
"Nero?" he whispered.
"I'm fine," the boy answered flatly.
Considering that fine was Nero's code for I'm-about-to-crash-and-break-and-burn, Tsuna wasn't feeling particularly reassured. Orange Flames sluggishly licked up at his insides, weak and exhausted. They still managed to convey a message, their voice faint and far away.
(Silence-and-patience.)
Tsuna flopped back onto the floor. He stared at the ceiling.
The wait until his friend started to talk wasn't very long.
"I hate them," Nero said, hands curling into fists. "I hate them so much."
There was poison in those words. A dark, putrid poison that hovered like acid between them.
"They hurt you," Nero continued, glowering at his knees, "and I'll never forgive them. I'll make them pay. All of them."
Tsuna nodded slowly. "Okay."
"Okay?" Nero rounded on him, teeth bared. "You don't understand at all, do you? I'm saying that I'm going to kill people, Tsuna. On purpose. Lots of people. I'll make them beg and cry and hurt – and then I'll kill them."
He stared at Tsuna with a clenched jaw, almost challenging, as if daring Tsuna to flinch away from him and leave.
"Okay," Tsuna said again.
And he didn't move a single inch.
Tension ratcheted up in the air.
And broke.
Nero's shoulders dropped. His expression twisted, like a crack running up the surface of a porcelain mask.
"I'll kill them," he said again, softer this time, like the whisper of a terrible secret. "Because they're turning me into a monster."
A monster.
Unbidden and crystal clear, the image of a blazing fire and scorched bodies flashed in Tsuna's mind. Flames like amber that came from a bloodthirsty beast lurking in his very soul.
"I think they're turning all of us into monsters," Tsuna said softly.
Two small hands closed around his upper arms and yanked him up.
"Not you," Nero hissed, shoving his face so close their noses almost touched. "Never you. They can't."
Too late, Tsuna didn't say, but it seemed like his friend heard him anyway.
Nero's face became a shade paler. He let out a choked sound, like a small, injured animal that had been driven in a corner.
Tsuna let his forehead drop on Nero's shoulder. The other boy immediately wrapped his arms around him.
"Don't worry," Tsuna mumbled. "I'm not afraid of you."
Nero shivered. "You better not."
Around them, the cell's oppressive silence was only disturbed by the sound of children's regular breathing as they slept. No one moved. No one talked. Everything was still, as if frozen in time.
Tsuna hesitated, but this was as much privacy as either of them would ever get.
"Let's make a promise," he said quickly, before he could reconsider and realize he was just a coward drowning in a nightmare.
Nero tilted his head to the side, showing he was listening.
"Let's run away." Tsuna's throat was so tight it hurt to speak. "Together."
The mere idea of escaping, of living Outside – it was terrifying. Tsuna thought he had never wanted anything more in his life.
Nero didn't blink, didn't even hesitate.
"Yes," he said without missing a beat. "I don't want to die in this hell hole, you know."
Tsuna let out a hysterical giggle.
Nero cracked a smile.
They stayed like that for a moment longer, huddled together around a promise that felt as fragile as glass.
"Together," Nero repeated quietly.
"Together," Tsuna confirmed.
And the word fell from his lips like a pledge. Like a vow.
(Like a lie.)
.
.
Jenoah came for Nero two days later.
.
.
The woman secured the padded restraints around his wrists and ankles.
Somehow, Tsuna couldn't find it in himself to care.
There was an invisible pressure bearing down on his chest, a sort of hammering anxiety that hadn't let up for an entire week.
Because Nero hadn't come back.
Tsuna took a deep breath, trying to hold off the tidal wave of worry that threatened to swallow him whole. His Flames roiled and snapped inside him, agitated like a restless beast pacing the length of its cage.
Back and forth and back and forth.
Wrong, the fire growled. Something is wrongwrongwrong.
That had never happened before.
Children were collected for their tests and they were always, always, returned to the cell afterward. The searchers never kept them away for as long as Nero had been gone, not unless a replacement was put in their group to round up their number.
But there had been no newcomer to take Nero's place, and Tsuna clung to that knowledge with every fiber of his being. Two other kids were also missing, the ones who'd been there during that first and last test Tsuna and Nero had gone through together.
And that had to mean something.
Nero would come back.
Definitely.
The alternative was unthinkable.
"Alright," the woman beside him said, standing up. "That'll do."
She quickly fixed two electrodes pads on Tsuna's temples, chest, and upper arms, then attached medical wires to them. They hung down his body like white snakes that monitored everything going under his skin. He idly wondered if they could read the hate that churned in him, if anger had a color on their monitors, and if it was as red as blood.
The woman turned his head right and left, observing her work, then gave a satisfied nod. "We're all set here," she called out.
There was a faint buzzing as the door behind them clicked open. The woman walked out and Tsuna was left alone, staring into empty space, his heart attempting to pound a hole through his ribcage.
It was a girl that came in this time.
The red-haired one that had disappeared along with Nero.
Tsuna lurched forward, questions spilling past his lips before he could stop them.
"Where were you? What happened? What did they do? Have you seen Nero?"
No answer.
She just stood there, and Tsuna wanted to grab her shoulders and shake, as if the information he was after could be rattled loose if he tried hard enough.
The girl took an unsteady in his direction.
She was barely a couple of years older than him, and maybe in another place, another time, people would have called her pretty. Now though, she was just a skinny shadow made of emaciated features and sickly pale skin. Her eyes were wide and slightly dazed, with a look in them that spoke of drugs and pain.
Tsuna didn't know what the searchers did to all those people before they were sent to him, but it always twisted them beyond help, beyond saving. He didn't understand either why they kept doing it since it never worked anyway. A small part of him – the one that just wanted it all to stop – gave an uncaring shrug.
The girl shuffled forward – and a figure appeared behind her.
Nero stumbled into the room.
And the entire world just –
– stopped.
No.
(No.)
Tsuna stared.
He stared and stared and stared some more, unable to comprehend what he was seeing because there was no way that his friend was standing in front of him. Nero shouldn't be there, couldn't be there, not in the white room of death where Tsuna was a killer.
"Tsuna?"
But this was no illusion.
Nero had just stepped into Tsuna's personal hell on shaky legs and he had no idea about what was going to happen to him.
To all of them.
Nero blinked, slowly, eyes dull and lifeless.
"Oh," he said. "You're really bright, Tsuna. And warm. Wow."
Adrenalin flooded Tsuna's system.
He started babbling, a rush of garbled words that barely made any sense. "No, no, no. You can't be here. You can't. They can't make you – they can't make me – please. Please, not you. Not you."
Nero shuffled closer still. A helpless moth drawn to the flame.
Tsuna reared back.
"Don't come closer! Just go away – go away!"
One more step. Then another one. And a third and a fourth.
A touch suddenly whispered along Tsuna's arm and he almost jumped out of his skin. He looked up, startled, and found himself staring into large brown eyes. H'd been so focused on Nero's presence that he'd forgotten they weren't alone.
"Pretty," the girl hummed. "So pretty and bright …" Her hands fluttered up and gently cupped Tsuna's face. "Mine. So, so pretty. All mine."
A bolt of lightning tore into Tsuna.
His back arched, arms and legs jerking against his restraints. He tried to move away, to escape the bony fingers digging into his cheeks. Horror clawed at his insides, worse than the foreign Flames, and he choked on it, drowned in it.
There was a scream in his head, something about can't lose control, and can't let go, and can't-can't-can't.
The green lightning came again, harder this time, reaching down like a greedy hand burying sharp talons directly in Tsuna's flesh.
He started to shake. The world wavered around him, fuzzy and white. Nero was a dark shape somewhere in that blurry background.
Close enough to touch.
Close enough to hurt.
"Please," Tsuna said, aiming the words at his friend even though his head had lolled back and he was looking at the ceiling. "I don't want to hurt you, Nero. Don't make me hurt you."
Nero didn't listen.
They never did.
Cool fingers wrapped around his hands and sunlight burst out behind Tsuna's eyelids.
His felt his Flames recoil, startled to find that one of the intruders was familiar, someone precious and fragile that was meant to be protected. The instincts to attack and rip and rend warred with the need to shelter and defend, and for one crystal-clear second, Tsuna felt himself balancing on the edge of a blade. He coaxed his Flames, wrapping chains and fetters and shackles even as they lied down with a rumble of acceptance.
Tsuna let out a slow, careful breath. He blinked. Above him, the ceiling was coming back into focus.
He could do this. He could hold back. He could –
The girl launched her green lightening again.
She fought, wrenching her way toward his Flames like a thunderbolt that slammed into Tsuna again and again.
It hurt.
A lot.
Tsuna felt his control slip.
Just a little.
Another flash of lightning, followed by sunlight that trickled in its wake like warm honey.
The monster inside Tsuna buckled.
It let out a warning growl, low and furious and you dare. The chains restraining it started to break one after another, a series of snapsnapsnap that spread in Tsuna's mind like ripples over the surface of a lake. Each little undulation grew stronger and stronger, swelling like the tide until they were great waves that crashed onto the frayed edge of his control.
Green thunder again, this time reaching far enough to brush against the orange of his Flames.
A shift deed inside. A foreign pulse overlapping with his own.
The beginning of a connection. A bond starting to form.
(No!)
And Tsuna failed.
His Flames erupted upward with a roar and tore into the green lightning. And then it kept coming, surging from a bottomless abyss, a roaring monster of orange firestorm that hated the world hard enough to want its destruction.
Nero slammed down to his knees.
Even though he wasn't the target – even though he wasn't the invader– he still let out a choked gasp as Tsuna's fire poured into the room. Blood trickled down Nero's nose and ears.
He released the hold he had on Tsuna and blinked.
His eyes seemed to clear, to sharpen.
"… Tsuna?"
The girl let out sound of pain as the skin on her arm burned.
But she didn't let go.
She did not let go.
The orange fire snarled at the challenge. A ring of Flames burst out from Tsuna in a wide circle and punched out, fierce and infuriated and leave. Its attack completely by-passed Nero, not even touching him, but the girl was another story.
She slammed into the wall, pushed away from Tsuna by a wall of orange Flames that snapped menacingly at her.
Panting, she glared and thrust her hands forward. Green Flames flared to life all around her, loud and bright and crackling with electricity.
"Mine," she said, and her Flames rushed toward Tsuna like a whip.
His own fire gathered tightly around him, preparing its defense.
And Nero jumped.
In front. Of Tsuna.
He threw his arms wide open and yelled, "No!"
There was a bright flash of pure yellow in the room, blinding but not strong enough.
Tsuna screamed even as his own Flames rushed forward.
The world rocked with a loud explosion. The walls shook and dust fell from the ceiling as smoke spread like a thick blanket of smothering death.
And then there was silence.
A loud, ringing silence.
The last of Tsuna's Flames receded and disappeared into thin air. It sank back under his skin hurriedly, sweeping an urgent look over Tsuna's soul in search of the little sun that had been sheltering in its heat for so long now.
It was gone.
There was no sunlight to be found. No fragile rays of sunshine that glowed warm and protective in the dark.
Only a vast emptiness heavy with absence.
Because suddenly it was just Tsuna, all alone in his head, as if he were the only person alive in the universe.
Tsuna stared.
The previously pristine appearance of the room was no more. Cracks and fissures scarred its smooth surfaces where they'd been touched by Flames hot enough to disintegrate concrete. There was only a small space that retained its pearly white, located right under the chair Tsuna was tied to, as if he were sitting at the epicenter of an earthquake.
Two bodies faced him.
The one under the one-way mirror was obviously the red-headed girl's – and maybe it made Tsuna a little bit heartless, even a little bit inhuman, but he didn't spare her a second glance, didn't give her a single thought. He could only stare at the other unrecognizable body, bile rising in his throat even as his mouth turned dry.
Nothing was left of Nero but a mess of seared flesh and black ash drifting on the floor.
And there was a smell in the air, something heavy and disgusting and all too familiar.
Tsuna threw his head over his arm and vomited.
Tears ran down his face, dripping from his nose and lips. He coughed, choking and wheezing as his lungs rebelled against the very idea of pulling air in.
Nero was looking at him with unseeing eyes.
Dead.
And abruptly Tsuna found that he could breathe after all, because he started screaming and screaming, and it felt like he'd never stop.
The collar around his neck let out a sharp beep, and cold rushed in his veins, promising darkness. Peace. Just for a little while.
But Tsuna didn't want it. He didn't fucking want it.
Something was missing inside. His Sun was gone and he was empty and so, so alone he might break.
Whywhywhywhy –
He was still screaming when Jenoah and Amadeo walked in the room.
He was still screaming when they released him from the chair and tried to get him to stand.
He was still screaming when something hard slammed into the back of his neck and –
.
.
.
.
And that's it for now. Damn, this got even darker than last chapter, but I'll get to the fluff. Eventually. On another note, I'll probably stick to shorter chapters from now on. Writing this was exhausting.
I didn't expect to feel this upset about Nero's death. I mean, I usually don't get attached to OCs, and I pretty much knew he had to go from the start, but … (*sobs*). I hope I managed to show how close the two of them had grown over the years, even though they hadn't accomplished full Harmony yet.
I also realize that a few things are fuzzy for people who are not in my head, (i.e everyone). Tsuna is ~ eight during this chapter (which spans a couple of months). He met Nero when he was ~ six.
Also, OperaEagle IcelynLacelett wondered about the scientists trying to harmonize with Tsuna themselves. I like to think that the searchers aren't all Flame Users. They are trying to understand the process of harmonization, to work it out and better grasp the bond between a Sky and his/her guardians. Some of the scientists who do have Flames might feel greedy - Tsuna has strong Flames after all - but the way he dealt with forced attempts at harmonization so far is a good deterent. No one wants to end up burned to a crisp. They would probably wait until they'd made the whole thing safer before trying it themselves.
I hope that clarifies it for you guys?
Thanks for the reviews, they make my day.
Next chapter: the great escape. Lot of smoke and fire and poor traumatized mafia kids. And Mukuro. Briefly.
Rei.