Chapter Ten – Sickness and Suffering
"It is not a slight against you, Gokudera, but I can't let you in," Reborn said solemnly, staring up at Gokudera from in front of Tsuna's door, small arms crossed over his small chest.
"But the Tenth – "
"Is suffering, I know, but you going in there won't help him."
Gokudera grit his teeth, and barely refrained from flinching when from beyond the door, Tsuna howled in pain, the noise dissolving into heart wrenching sobs.
Down the hallway Yamamoto was restlessly pacing, holding his elbows, his skin pinched and pale and his eyes narrowed, on the precipice of looking angry.
"But we can't just leave him, Reborn," Gokudera pleaded. "Maybe we can…maybe Bianchi will have an antidote or…"
"You know as well as I do that each of Bianchi's creations is unique and that each process is different. I doubt your sister can help."
Gokudera made a high pitched whine of frustration between his teeth and pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes with an angrily muttered, "Why aren't you talking to Bianchi about targeting Tsuna?"
"Do you think Tsuna would thank me for fighting his battles? This is something he has to face by himself and if I were to interfere it would undermine his authority. Bianchi would hate him even more."
"Goddamnit," Gokudera cursed and pressed his palm to the wall leading to Tsuna's room, the other teen wailing softly.
"I just want to help."
"We have to let it run its course and be there for him afterwards. As of now, there is nothing we can do." Reborn watched as Gokudera scraped a restless hand through his straggly locks, his hair messed up from running his hand through it countless times before.
"Perhaps," Reborn said lightly, "You could see how Mama is. I'm sure it is more heart-wrenching and causing her more distraught to hear her son in pain than it is for you."
Gokudera started, turning his head from staring a hole into the wall as the realisation struck, and a sour expression crossed his face, one fairly close to self-loathing.
"O-Of course, that I-I didn't think that before I…"
"You're still a child. Children make mistakes. See how Mama is. Maybe bring a pitcher of water up, Tsuna will be most likely dehydrated by the end of this ordeal."
Gokudera nodded heartedly and hurried down the stairs, his footsteps heavy and loud.
They weren't loud enough to drown out the sound of Tsuna retching in the background.
"Yamamoto," Reborn began after Gokudera's soft voice floated up the stairs, Nana's hitching, breathless words following, barely a whisper in the background. "Would you get a damp towel from the bathroom? I will need a pair of steady hands if I am to see how Tsuna currently is."
Yamamoto's pacing stuttered to a halt and he turned to look at Reborn, an unsure expression on his face. At seeing Reborn was serious, his expression hardened and he nodded, quickly striding to the bathroom where the tap sounded from shortly afterwards.
When Yamamoto returned, he opened the door and respectfully held it ajar for Reborn to walk in first, his nose wrinkling at the rancid smell that wafted out, almost warm in its intensity.
The room was surprisingly well lit for how grim it smelled, a preconceived notion that anything sickness related must be kept in the dark.
Tsuna was no more than a miserable, shaking bundle in the corner of his bed, questionably, darkly coloured gunk staining the floor and his bed covers.
"If you're going to be sick, be quick," Reborn advised. "I'll need your help in sitting him up. Don't worry, what this is, isn't communicable."
Yamamoto swallowed the bile in his throat and tried to shallow his breathing. It wasn't the worst thing that had ever graced his olfactory senses but it was pushing its way into a close second.
"I'll be fine," he said, voice wavering and Reborn gave him a cursory look over before nodding and striding towards the bed, easily avoiding the puddles of sickness.
Yamamoto picked his way across the room with much more care, squeezing his fingers tight enough around the damp towel in his hand that water started to dribble down his forearms.
"Just here," Reborn said, clearing a space on the bedside table that Yamamoto set the towel down on. Reborn rolled his sleeves up and added, "If you could sit him up for me…"
Yamamoto nodded jerkily and moved to pull the covers back in order to expose Tsuna. Tsuna moaned pathetically at the sudden brightness and shuddered his way into the foetal position.
Whispering apologies and trying not to cringe at how hot and sticky Tsuna was, Yamamoto took a hold of Tsuna's shoulders and eased him up into a seated position. Tsuna lolled forward and his forehead hit Yamamoto's shoulder, his breathing little more than whimpers and pants.
The smell of sick and something much more potent wafted up from the brunet, but Yamamoto grit his teeth and manoeuvred weak, heavy limbs so he could get Tsuna out of his sweat soaked shirt and so Reborn could gather up the cold wet towel and start wiping the sick teen clean.
Every other touch made Tsuna flinch anew, and Yamamoto had to grit his teeth against the sensation of tears. That was why it was a shock when Tsuna went limp and still in his arms and it took a quiet moment of panicked fumbling to find a fluttering pulse.
"Asleep again," Reborn guessed from the flood of relief that washed over Yamamoto's face, and deep inside he was glad Yamamoto didn't have to suffer the pain of having Tsuna die in his arms, no matter the final outcome.
"Yeah," Yamamoto mumbled, and pulled Tsuna a little further forward so Reborn could tear the blanket off the bed and pad across the room silently to retrieve a fresh one from the closet.
When the bed was set again, Yamamoto lay Tsuna back down, who was starting to shudder and shiver again, soft pant escaping him every so often.
"How much longer do you think?" Yamamoto asked, letting Reborn tuck the small, pale brunet into the bed.
"As I told Gokudera, Bianchi's…unique ability means that every creation differs in its effect. Tsuna will become better when it has run its course. We should leave now."
Yamamoto bit down the complaints he wanted to make, wanting to stay rather than leave but nodded instead and, holding the door open for Reborn, only sighed when it clicked back into place behind them.
Tsuna could barely decide if he was on fire or freezing to death, one moment blisteringly hot and the next doused in ice. Every movement felt like nails scraping along his skin, and his stomach churned more violently than a stormy sea.
Something angry and burning crawled up his throat, like a giant bug clawing its way out and then he was being sick onto the floor, his jaw creaking open with more effort than he felt he could give.
A morbid thought crossed his mind as he wondered whether or not the sickness would take him, or if he would choke on his own vomit.
Rolling over, he painfully stretched out an arm, and blearily stared at his fingers. His arm gave a spasm and then went rigid as he stared at his hand, the fingers twitching sporadically, like the legs of a dying spider.
Tiny black things were crawling out from his nail beds, tiny legs skittering loudly like a dozen heels on a marble floor and the small rational part left of Tsuna's fever cooked brain said, hallucination.
The rest of him, the terribly, terribly sick part of him, started to scream and cry and he tried his best to move, move, move as these tiny, awful things started to strip skin from flesh, flesh from bone.
Something in his stomach flip flopped, over and over, twisting back and forth angrily like a coiled snake with no room to go and the taste of blood filled his mouth.
The tiny black things didn't stop.
It took him a few minutes to remember the screaming was coming from him and then his teeth were clacking shut hard enough for him to feel a brief sting on his tongue where he'd bitten down.
How long had he been like this?
Minutes? Hours? Days?
Tsuna desperately wanted to know when it would end, and between one blink and the next the black things were gone and the clock had started to melt off of the bedside locker.
There was a shrill ringing in his head that wouldn't leave and his fingers had started to purple.
Breathing had suddenly become harder, his throat feeling tight and stuffy and for a long moment he wished fervently it would close all the way, save him from the pain that was still making his stomach cramp and his muscles seize.
But then everything went limp and he could breathe again, the air like fire travelling through his nose and down to his lungs, everything so sensitive.
He wanted to cry but wasn't so sure the tears wouldn't either freeze to his cheeks or evaporate off his skin.
Extending his legs took immense effort, but pushing the blanket to the floor with his toes felt immensely satisfying, an emotion that flittered briefly through him and then disappeared, swallowed by the pain.
Of course, as soon as the blanket was gone, he was cold again, shaking so violently that he was sure the bed was rattling beneath him.
His stomach lurched angrily, tightening further and further until he was gasping over the pain and blood was bubbling up his throat.
And then, as sudden as the sensation had happened, it was gone, his vision speckling black in places, the speckles turning into great, yawning black holes of nothing.
His heart beat was loud in his ears, a thud-whoosh , heavy and slow. It beat a grand total of three more times and then stopped completely.
About thirty minutes later, Tsuna, using limbs as shaky as any new-born faun's, sat up, pressed his face into his hands and tried his best not to sob.
Gokudera's head jerked up so quick that the back of it bounced off of the wall he had been sat against when the bedroom door eased open from the inside.
Tsuna, bundled up in several layers and shivering pathetically, used the doorway to support most of his weight as he prepared to shuffle into the hallway.
"Can I get a drink?" he croaked, his throat scratchy and dry and, impulsively, he rubbed the knuckles of one hand against the side of his other, to make sure everything was still there.
Gokudera burst into motion, rushing down the hallway to where a glass pitcher was sat on a table toward the corner of the corridor. It had been left long enough for condensation to bead on the outside and, as Gokudera poured a glass for Tsuna, some of the water scattered since he couldn't stop himself from shaking.
"How long?" Tsuna asked, and flinched when Reborn's hand fell on his shin, a faint part of him still expecting to feel like his nerve endings had been exposed to the sun.
"It's been twenty two hours."
Tsuna licked dry lips with a thick tongue, looking down at Reborn's impassive face.
"M-Mama?" he asked, voice breaking and causing an ache in his throat.
"She stayed at a friend's house for the evening, a suggestion she was amicable to follow. The first few hours were the most difficult as you can imagine."
Gokudera scurried back down towards them, side stepping Yamamoto who was sleeping, head drooped forward with his chin on his chest.
"You all stayed?"
"I wouldn't have left for anything," Gokudera whispered fiercely, presenting the glass of water with still trembling hands. "The baseball idiot – ah, Yamamoto, sorry – was reluctant to leave too. We stayed. Hibari visited. You weren't…you weren't lucid when you awake, so I doubt you remember."
Tsuna took hold of the glass, his fingers slightly numb to sensation. It took a little more effort than normal to keep a good hold of the slippery surface, but he stared into the depths of it for nearly a solid minute before lifting it to his mouth and drinking in greedy gulps.
When the glass was half empty, the out half sitting heavy in his stomach, the cramps began, too much too soon on a shrivelled, empty stomach.
He accepted Gokudera's help as Reborn guided them to the spare bedroom, and the clattering was loud enough to rouse a sleepy Yamamoto, who immediately sprang into action as soon as he realised what was happening.
"Tsuna," he said warmly, one arm resting across his back to keep Tsuna upright. "Are you okay?"
Tsuna tried to smile, but imagined it looked more like a grimace. He was still sweaty and he doubted there was any colour to his face and Yamamoto's answering smile was awfully pinched.
"I've been better," Tsuna admitted, feeling his stomach roil restlessly, feeling as if he were going to be sick.
"You did very well faced with what you were," Reborn said encouragingly. "But, next time, don't eat questionable food given to you by strangers."
"I didn't know everyone was out to get me," Tsuna smiled in response, and it felt a little more natural then, his legs starting to wobble underneath him.
"For as long as you are the Decimo candidate, everyone you do not know is a potential enemy. Thinking of it this way will give you a better life in the future. I do not doubt it will give you a longer life, too."
Tsuna grimaced at that, clenching his hand in a fist towards his stomach and dropped his eyes to the floor.
"That's not a life I want to live."
"Then you're going to have to learn." Reborn stopped next to the guest bed and looked at Tsuna sternly. "Because I refuse to be witness to any more of these tragedies. I will tell you again and again – you aren't to suffer alone anymore."
Tsuna couldn't do any more than whisper his thanks and gratefully sank into a bed that didn't smell of sickness and rot.
It was supposed to be an update on the Harem one but this one came out easier, so sorry for those of you waiting for the other stories to be updated.
Hope this chapter met up to standards!