TAGS: Pre-Canon, Canon Divergence, POV Third Person Limited

Light Angst, Angst and Feels, Implied/Referenced Bullying, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Worth Issues

Healing, Bonding, Fluff, Chrome Dokuro-centric

WARNING: Not Beta Read

There's a cat crossing the street, and a car not slowing down coming right for it. So of course, Nagi drops her school bag and runs to it, never mind it means the car will be coming right for her too.

Supposedly the cat's life should mean nothing compared to hers, or at least shouldn't mean so much to her she'd put it above her own life and safety, but she's running right in the path of an oncoming car which is still not slowing down all the same, reaching out to the cat. She wants to scream in warning at it too, but can only open her mouth on words that refuse to come.

Words have always failed her, but it's at times like this she truly resents having been born quiet even when she doesn't want to be, like a hand always covers her mouth tightly, or wraps around her neck and squeezes. Nagi's only familiar with her words—her voice when it's choked up in her throat, can only be sure it tastes like blood at the very least from when she bites the inside of her cheek so hard, her lips tightly pursed shut when she only wants to speak.

She doesn't know if it tastes like that for everyone else too, of if it's even supposed to taste like that at all.

[She knows it isn't.]

A cat is about to be hit by a car and die, and Nagi shouldn't be taking the risk to get hit herself and possibly die too to try to save its life. The cat might be someone's cat, might have a home to return to and people who'll miss it and mourn it if it never does, but it's not the thought that makes her running to him, running to a car which is now sure to hit her too.

The cat might not be anyone's, might die there hit by a car and no one will care, no one will even notice it's even gone, and so of course, Nagi, who was there to notice and care, is running to it to try to save it.

[So what if it's all alone in the world, with no one to care for it? It doesn't mean its life still hasn't worth and value, or it hasn't the right for its existence to be protected and ensured it'd go on as long as possible. It shouldn't mean that anyway.

And it's all alone in the world now, but it might not have been before, and might not still be after. It might be there's simply no one to care for it yet. Just not yet, but one day, eventually, surely…

Oh, please, let it be simply not yet, it has to be.]

The car hits her, but at least she scared the cat away from it first.

[Nagi doesn't pass out on impact, but before the white-hot pain can fully reach her brain, the boy in her dreams pulls her deep within herself where they meet each other. She wonders if he did it on purpose.

"Why did you do that?" he asks, but not with his mouth which never moves when he speaks, the light from the sun unnaturally blocking his face from her sight, and she's never seen what he looks like before.

They stand face to face on a clearing, the grass bright and soft under her feet. Small and lazy waves ripple the water of the lake under the warm breeze fluttering her hair, dress, and the leaves of the nearby trees, and the sky is blue and endless above their heads.

It's a beautiful and peaceful place, the most beautiful and peaceful place she knows, and she's always wondered if it was born from within her or within him.

"No one else was going to."

She doesn't say it to make herself look good or anything like that, is only saying the truth. Nagi wasn't the only one walking down the street, wasn't the only one who noticed the cat and the oncoming car, but no one else but her would have tried to save it, not when it meant putting their own life at risk, let alone for a simple cat.

They'd have been horrified once it was hit, would have gathered around it after and spared some saddened and compassionate words and feelings for it, but after the cat would have already been dead.

"It was just a cat," the boy says, saying the word "cat" like he's never seen one before, like he never got to learn for himself what a cat you can see and touch is, and her heart clenches like it does so very often and for so many things about the boy.

She shrugs. "It wasn't its fault it didn't know about cars and how to safely cross the street."

The boy's lips twitch like he was about to smile, but then he purses his lips into a hard line, looking like it could shake at any moment. And like so very often when they meet each other, the urge to reach out to him and reassure and comfort him almost physically bursts out of her. "But now you're the one who got hit by the car. You're the one who's going to—"]

Nagi doesn't stay unconscious for long, passing out and waking up again, then again and again and again. She wishes she could just stay unconscious because she only wakes up to pain, though as far away as it can be as she probably made it to the hospital. But she still wakes up to pain whenever she wakes up, and so she knows she's dying.

Nagi doesn't want to die.

It's a funny thought to even herself, because she's been miserable all her life, and she can't think of a single reason she should hold onto her life and fight her way back to it, or a reason worth for her to try to. She can't think of anyone worth trying to either, can't think of anyone who'll be glad and relieved to see her wake up again.

She's an unwanted and unloved child, her father leaving so soon after her birth she hasn't a single memory with him, and wouldn't even know how he looks like if it wasn't for the few pictures she's seen of him. Her stepfather never tried to connect with her, and couldn't care less about her from day one, even if her mother likes to make it all on her not being able to grow close to him.

School is a lonely affair too, has always been one, with the only silver lining being that she's on the side of too creepily weird and quiet to be relatively left alone as long as she doesn't draw attention to herself.

It's a lonely affair everywhere, really, in all aspects of her life, has always been, and so her dying should feel like breathing a sigh of relief.

It doesn't.

Nagi doesn't want to die, can't think of anything else but how she doesn't want to die as she's dying, and the more she thinks about it, the more a fierce and searing heat burns her from the inside out, pushing the cold away.

Nagi doesn't want to die, she doesn't want to die, has never wanted to die, not even during the most miserable days of her life or at the lowest points in her life.

Most of all, she doesn't want to die having been nothing in the world and nothing to anyone, and doesn't want to die leaving behind a life which has never meant anything and has never mattered to anyone even if it should have.

[Nagi wants to live so badly, has always wanted to for as long as she can remember.]

When Nagi breathes her last, she's scared and cold and in pain, alone and abandoned, and it's so wrong it revolts her to her very core.

She hasn't been living a life worth hanging on to, has always found it hard to even if she's always been trying to make her life into that kind of live too, and now she's at death's doors, it couldn't be clearer how so very wrong it is.

It shouldn't have been hard for her to live a life worth living for, and shouldn't have ever felt unattainable at times to do so.

It's so unfair she's always found it so hard to live happily, to live a life that has meaning to her at the very least, and now she's lying on her deathbed, she can admit to herself the searing heat burning her from the inside out is nothing short but fury. It's rage and overwhelming grief, because her life was made to be hard to live, hers if no one else's, but she knows it isn't only hers.

[It's want for something that could have been and should have been allowed to be, and for something she yearns for so deeply still.]

If the people in her life were never going to let her mean anything to them, if they were never going to let her live a life that mattered and had meaning to it, if they were ever only going to give her that on the condition she changed everything about herself first, then they should have let her search for all of it elsewhere, with other people. Instead they shackled her to that place where she was unwanted and unloved, made her bear the fact she was unwanted and unloved like a cross, and made that cross ever heavier to bear the longer she wasn't trying hard enough to earn to be wanted and loved, even when she was already trying her very best.

It isn't right, shouldn't be how the world is meant to function—isn't, surely.

And if it is, then—

["—the world should be made anew," the boy's voice says over her own, so cold it chills her to the bones, and heavy like a mountain.

But it's a good thing whenever he says it. It means the unbearable pain she's always known him to go through didn't leave him empty of everything but the raw and agonizing aftermath, not this time at least.

(Pain isn't the word for it, doesn't even come close to describe it, but she doesn't know any other word that'd better fit.

It's pain like nothing else she's ever felt or ever even came close to feel, like nothing she can even imagine existing, pain the likes of which leaves her throwing up on her knees and gasping for breath through her tears, leaves her writhing on the floor and screaming and begging for it to stop.)

At times when all he's left with is that raw and agonizing aftermath, he speaks other words of what the word should be made of, promises much darker things of what he'll do to the world as soon as he'll have the power to do it. At such times Nagi wants nothing more but to reach out to him and tell him the world is much more than what he knows it to be, to promise him it is.

At such times the need to promise him the world is more than pain is physically painful, to promise him she hasn't really experienced it for herself but she knows it is, to promise him she is coming for him to free him from the painful place he's shackled to as soon as she can if it's the last thing she'll do, and then show him all the world has to offer so he can see it for himself if it's the last thing she'll do.]

Nagi dies, and it still doesn't feel like breathing a sigh of relief, but she can only assume it can always only be somewhat comforting to know no more pain will ever come your way again.

[The boy's entire being shakes like a breath hitching, or a rubber band stretched too taut snapping.

Something cracks too, so quietly she almost doesn't hear it, but she does and knows the boy will never even try to mend the crack again if she doesn't do it for him, and she cannot bear to let it happen.

The boy needs her.

Of course the boy needs her.

Nagi does matter to someone, does mean something to someone, just as the boy was the only thing in her life making it easier to bear, and at times, the only thing in her life making it worth hanging on to life to see another day.

Just as Nagi needed the boy and the comfort and strength he gave her all her life.

Of course.]

Nagi breathes her first again.

She opens her one remaining eye, but she sees the world clearer than she ever did with both of her eyes still whole. Unlike then though, she doesn't look away nor look down, doesn't cower in front of it and will not bow down to it again. Not ever again.

She's not alone and wasn't abandoned by everyone, and she isn't cold anymore either, instead feeling warm to her bones, and it's soothing the pain of her broken body away.

Nagi doesn't get back her left eye, but her internal organs go through a miraculous recovery between the last time the doctors checked on her and when they come see her again. Nagi leaves the hospital before they can make too big a deal out of it, and using the new indigo flames that answer to her like a second nature so her parents won't notice her, she packs the things she needs and cares about in the house that has never been her home for as long as she lived there.

She leaves that place with no intention of ever stepping foot in it again, and the whole world feels within her reach as she finally steps out of her shackles without looking back.

She doesn't know where to go from there or where to start, but for the first time in her life she has purpose, making her walk forwards without faltering.

So maybe the world is and has always been that way, but if so Nagi just has to carve a new, better and kinder path for herself, and whoever else will rather want to walk on this one too.

And so maybe the world has been made that way, but if so Nagi just has to make it anew again, better and kinder, and with a place in it for herself too.

Nagi wants to live so badly, has always wanted to for as long as she can remember, and so Gold help her if she doesn't make it happen with this second chance at life she got, whatever comes her way.

["You died," the boy says, his voice cold and cutting, the way it was when they first met. "Let yourself die too," he adds after a beat, and his voice is accusing then.

"I'm sorry. I won't ever do it again, I promise. Not before I come for you first, I promise."

The boy stays cold, his hands curled into fists at his sides, a hard set to his jaw. He says nothing, and Nagi's eye wells up with tears, her heart in her throat.

She doesn't want to lose him, not like this.

"I came back," she says, planting her feet in the ground and setting her jaw too, because she won't let him deny this, whether she still ends up losing him or not.

For you, she doesn't say, but at times they're all but one and the same, and she doesn't need to.

The boy slowly uncurls his fists, the silence between them weighing heavy on her shoulders. But then a smile pulls at his lips just as slowly, and then he laughs.

Chuckles, more like, because it's always a quiet and short-lived thing when he laughs, and this time it doesn't sound like it hurts him to. It isn't often it doesn't, and Nagi lets herself smile back, her shoulders slumping.

"So you did," the boy says, the smallest smile still playing on his lips, but there still.

Thank you for doing it, he doesn't say, but at times they're all but one and the same, and he doesn't need to.]

He sits on the same swing as her.

It's funny too he's in the same park too to begin with, though if she should take a guess it's probably the one the furthest away from where he lives and where he goes to school, but still within reasonable walking distance like it was for her, but the fact he also sits on the same swing as her is the push that makes her go to him.

The boy isn't swinging, is barely swaying himself back and forth with the tip of his foot. But it isn't about the swing, she would know. It's about the free one next to him and how he isn't swinging on the one he's on, about the unspoken invitation and hope that wasn't taken and was left hanging one time too many if his face is anything to go by.

Nagi silently sits on the swing next to him, and pretends not to see at the corner of her eye the way he hesitantly peers at her. She still pretends not to notice when he ever so slightly straightens himself hopefully, once Nagi has yet ask him to leave or start to make fun of him or something like that. He starts swinging with a little more vigor then, matching her pace, whether he does it on purpose or not.

"We have the same eyes," she eventually says.

They glance at each other at the same time, and though the boy is quick to look away, he takes a good look at her first.

"I don't think so," he says quietly, almost too quiet for her to hear him.

Nagi blinks, then frowns. She slows down her swinging without meaning to, but then picks up her pace again when the boy tenses.

Ah. Maybe he's right and they don't anymore. But she knows those eyes, saw them in the mirror too many times not to.

"I had the same eyes as you before," she corrects, and the boy curiously glances at her. "Are you…" Nagi could say many things there. Is he sad, is he tired, is he hurt? Is he alone? Is he lonely? But of course he's all of those things, she would know, and so what she settles on saying is "...angry?"

The boy freezes, widening his eyes, and for the first time he looks at her properly. He looks shocked to his core, and Nagi isn't surprised by it, not when she's talking to him about anger, not when she's telling him he's allowed to be and has every right to be if he is.

Because they're not meant to ever become angry at what they're given, aren't allowed to be, and are punished for it when they dare to be anyway. They're meant to just take it, to be hurt and powerless, to give in and let them take more and more of themselves away.

They're meant to accept and resign themselves to what they say they can only be and the only things they're willing to give them, and to the only things they say the world will ever have to offer them.

Liars, all of them, and cowards too for some of them, and it never stopped Nagi to get angry at the world and at all of them anyway.

The boy's eyes are brown.

Of course Nagi's known that since the first time she saw them, but when he sits straight like that, holding his head high and tightly holding onto the swing; when he looks into her eyes so intently, his face so bitter and hurt and angry, but so fierce and resolute even more, she can only marvel at how richly brown his eyes are, shining, like she's seeing them for the first time.

The boy doesn't answer her, but it's all an answer all on its own.

"Do you…" He doesn't seem to falter more than to think over his words, trying to choose the right ones like she did before. "Do you also want… more?" He breathes the word out like he isn't allowed to say it, like something bad will happen to him if he says it out loud, but Nagi only smiles at him.

"Yeah. A lot, lot more."

A small laugh tumbles from his lips before he holds it back, but he can't quite hold back the grin fighting to pull at his lips. "Where…?"

Nagi shrugs. "Somewhere, I'm sure. We just have to find it."

The boy's grin falters, and he frowns, looking uncertain, worried and scared. "But what if…"

Nagi doesn't answer right away, has to first push down the panic and fear rising in her. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't scared too that somewhere—her somewhere wasn't anywhere in the world for her to find, but if it's the case… "Then we'll just have to make it."

Her words hang in the air between them, their eyes in each other's. Something so sad flickers across the boy's face, but then he blinks it away, blinking the tears in his eyes away too.

Then he grins, brighter and warmer than the sun.

"I'd like that," he says, and then offers her his hand. "I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, but everyone calls me Tsuna. Will you—will you be my friend?"

Nagi's already taking his hand before she even realizes she is, laughing. "I'm—" She falters.

Nagi doesn't… hate her name, but it doesn't feel right to give it to her brand-new friend, to the first [—second, technically, but the boy in her dreams is different—] friend she's ever made, feels like she'll be lying to him somehow if she does.

She hasn't thought of another name she'd like to go by though.

["Chrome."]

"—Chrome," Chrome says without a second thought, beaming and feeling warm inside. "Nice to meet you, Tsuna-kun. And yes, I'd really like that."

They swing as high as they can for what feels like hours on end, making a competition out of it, and all the while laughing at the top of their voices until they have tears in their eyes.

Tsuna's mother lets her stay in their home maybe easier than she should have, even when Chrome didn't use her flames on her, though she was never going to. She's grateful for the new roof above her head and the food offered to here too, but it's not as easy for her to get used to live with them, is a little of an awkward process.

Because Tsuna's home is a home, not just a house he lives in because he has to, and Chrome has only ever dreamed of those until she couldn't bear waking up from them to what was still only a cold house anymore.

She lives with them and isn't meant to make herself as invisible to them as she can, isn't meant to take as little space as she can. They come knock at her door when she stays in her room for too long, asks her what she thinks and what she wants if she stays quiet for too long, and don't take away her right to exist the second she makes a mistake, whether it's not making her bed properly, or spilling water or food, or staining her clothes.

"Thank you, Chrome-chan," Tsuna's mother says because of something Chrome doesn't even remember anymore, can't remember anymore, not when her voice is warm and her smile even warmer, not when she's gently and affectionately ruffling her hair.

Chrome's eye wells up with tears, her throat closing up, but neither Tsuna nor his mother comments on it. Tsuna does hold onto her hand tightly, and his mother kneels in front of her to pull her in a hug, but they silently let her be until her eye dries out.

[It's not perfect though, Tsuna and his mother relationship, that is.

They're warm with each other and love each other and take care of each other, but his mother doesn't seem to care about the way Tsuna holds himself, like he's trying to hide from the world, or about how reluctant he is to go outside if he can help it at all. She doesn't seem to notice the way Tsuna tenses when she sighs at his grades, and doesn't seem willing to question how Tsuna can fall, so often and what kind of fall could give him so many bruises.

Sometimes she calls him by that awful nickname that was forced onto him too, and doesn't seem to realize it has everything to do with why Tsuna always leaves the room not long after, and then avoids her for a bit.

Chrome feels guilty for it, but it's relieving to see those little cracks on that perfect picture of a family—her perfect picture of a family. It's just—

Making a home out of each other seems to come so easy to them, and she couldn't help thinking that maybe it's not that her mother never cared to try to do that with her too, but had to try her hardest to not give it to her too, lest she ever did without meaning to.

It hurts either way, but if it's the former then at least there's nothing wrong with her, not to the extent she can't find a home too anyway, and it's not setting herself up for pain to hope to meet someone who'll be willing to meet her halfway.]

They sit on Tsuna's bed, hand in hand, looking at each other with apprehension and fierce determination on their face.

It was a pure accident when Chrome's flames touched Tsuna, and something in him reacted to them, sparking to life. It was also a pure accident when, while trying to properly bring that something within him to life, it turned out Tsuna's flames—such a warm orange, like the sun setting in the sky—made her own stronger. Made them easier to draw out of her, and easier for her to keep them alight longer and use them for longer amount of times.

It seems her flames have the same effect on Tsuna's too, but she cares more about how Tsuna's flames make hers stronger, because then—

Then maybe they can make them just strong enough she'll be able to meet the boy in her dreams long enough for him to tell her where he is.

Chrome told Tsuna about the boy in her dreams right then and there, and wasn't the least bit surprised when Tsuna immediately believed her and agreed to help her, only feeling warm all over.

[There's bandages around Tsuna's hand, around other parts of his bodies too, as well as band-aids on his face and bruises on his visible skin. But this time—for the first time it wasn't one-sided, and Tsuna has been looking at all of it with pride and joy ever since he got them.

His bullies cornered them on their way to the grocery shop, but instead of cowering under their taunts and threats, Tsuna stood in front of her. He was shaking, but his feet were firmly planted in the ground, his hands curled into fists at his sides, his back straight and his head held high, and he looked like a giant then, like the highest and sturdiest of walls.

His voice didn't shake when he said, "Leave us alone."

Or else, he didn't say, but it rang heavy in the air like thunder, and his bullies faltered, some of them stepping back.

They still lunged at them, but Tsuna threw himself at them right back, and fiercer than they could ever hope to be, all raw and pent-up feelings bursting out of him. He could only end up losing outnumbered as he was, but watching him, shining like the sun and burning with so much life like fire, Chrome couldn't imagine he was ever going to lose.

Tsuna wasn't small then. Didn't look powerless or weak either, wasn't either of those things, and could never have been either of those things when he was unstoppable strength now, like a force of nature in his own right.

No wonder the people in his life tried their hardest to take it away from him before he could realize he could take on even the world if he wanted to.

Tsuna threw his punches and kicks wherever they'd connect, grabbed and clawed and bit, struggled like his life depended on it to not be grabbed or knocked down or be kept down, not backing an inch all the while, refusing to be moved from in front of her, and it wasn't anger or hate or pain or vengeance spurring him on.

It was protection and caring (and maybe even love), and before the thought even finished to fully form in her head, Chrome was already throwing herself in the fray too.

They lost.

Tsuna was in a much worse shape than her, because they didn't seem too willing to hit a girl, let alone one blind in one eye, but they didn't exactly let her go scot-free either. Tsuna lied on his back on the ground, Chrome crouching next to him, and it was just their heavy and labored breathing for a while.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Sorry they still got to you. Are you okay?"

Chrome shook her head, a little smile on her lips. "I'm more worried about you."

Tsuna tried to laugh, but had to stop because of the pain. "It really hurts. Like, everywhere. But at the same time… it really doesn't hurt at all either." He looked back at the sky, smiling, and Chrome really only could see happiness on his face. "I even feel very light right now. I don't know, I just… This is the best I've ever felt before. Does it make sense?" he asked, catching her eye again.

"Yeah," Chrome said, nodding, returning his grin. It could only make sense to her. She would know how bones-deep healing the fact alone of finally getting rid of your shackles was. "I'm really happy for you, Tsuna-kun," she said, holding his hand. "But what are you going to tell your mother? This is worse than all the times before."

This time, Tsuna let himself laugh despite the pain. "I'll tell her I fought back."]

They nod at each other before closing their eyes. They both call their flames to them, let them wrap around each other's, but Chrome takes the lead then, guiding Tsuna's flames deep within herself.

Thankfully it's even easier than she hoped it'd be, but then of course, she doesn't manage to bring him into the place where the boy in her dreams and her meet. It isn't really a problem because she can tell Tsuna will still be able to use his flames to let them meet longer, but she wanted for the both of them to meet if at all possible.

As if answering to her thoughts, the boy in her dreams meets them halfway, and his flames are indigo too.

Of course they are, and yet Chrome is taken aback all the same to see it for herself, pleasantly surprised to her core, and she can't help but look at them with wonder in her eyes.

The boy keeps his distance, though doesn't feel unwilling to be there or hostile at Tsuna's presence. Encouraged by her, Tsuna slowly and tentatively reaches out for him, orange flames bathing indigo ones under their glow.

Tsuna flinches when they make contact, his flames abruptly drawing back.

Chrome's heart sinks, but as she scrambles to think of something to do to salvage the situation, to not make the boy leave, to make them both agree to give each other's a second chance, Tsuna reaches out for him again like a tsunami coming down onto land, ablaze with righteous fury, with searing sorrow.

Ablaze with fierce protectiveness, and the boy within the embrace of his flames doesn't drown, but breathe.

["So that was the new friend you've been talking about, was he?" the boy asks, his voice a bit far away as he's clearly deep in thoughts, and shaken still even if he tries his hardest to not show it.

They sit face to face on the grass, Chrome with her knees pulled-up against her chest, and the boy cross-legged.

"Yeah. What did you think of him?"

"He was… quite a bit angry, wasn't he? Hurt." He huffs a small incredulous laugh, maybe with something else in it too, but then turns thoughtful again. No, confused. "Why did he care so much?"

Chrome's heart clenches, going out to him as it does so very often. His pain isn't something he should be going through, isn't something anyone should ever have to go through, but she still doesn't know how to tell it to him. "He's been hurt before too. Not like you, not even close, but… he's been hurt before too, and for the longest time no one cared about it either."

"So?" he asks after a beat of silence.

"Some people cares," Chrome says softly. "Just because it's the right thing to do too, just because they can."

"And that friend of yours is one of them?"

Chrome thinks of a shaking boy standing in front of her like a mountain to keep her safe, thinks of a boy apologizing for letting her get hurt like he wasn't in a much worse state than her, and she can only beam at the boy in her dreams. "Yeah, he is."

The boy takes her face in for a long moment before a smile pulls at his lips. A small and still guarded one, doubtful, but curious. "Sawada Tsunayoshi, is it?"

Chrome lights up even more, like the sun. "Yeah, but everyone calls him Tsuna."]

When they open their eyes again, Tsuna's eyes are wet and there's tears streaks on his cheeks. He looks pained too, holding tighter on her hand with a shaking one of his own.

"He…" he says, his voice strangled.

"Yeah," Chrome says just as quiet as him, a lump in her throat. "That's why I want to get him out of there."

Tsuna nods, then resolutely dries his eyes with his hand. "Did you get enough time? Did he tell you?"

Chrome nods back, squeezing his hand tight too. "Italy."

Tsuna's mother is all but too happy to prepare them a trip to Italy, but once they're there, before they can even think of how they should look for the boy, it's the boy who finds them.

"He's here," Chrome breathes out, and then she's already running out of the room as fast as her legs will go, her heart beating a mile a minute.

"Chrome-chan, wait for me!" Tsuna shouts, hot on her trails.

Chrome stops dead in her tracks right outside the house, Tsuna almost running into her, and watches the street with wide and hawk-like eyes. She doesn't see him the first time, but there he is the second time, walking to them like he was always there.

He looks healthy, physically healthy anyway, walking to them without trouble, no sign of injury she can see except for the eye-patch over his right eye.

He looks like her. Really looks her, has the same face and eyes, except he's a boy and she's a girl.

It doesn't freak her out, instead only feels right they look alike. After all they're one and then same more often than they're their own separate person.

He's free.

"You got yourself out," Chrome says as soon as he stops in front of them, grinning so, so wide.

"You really came," is what the boy says, tilting his head as he takes her in. His voice is a little rough like he isn't used to use it, but otherwise sounds exactly like it does in her mind.

"I promised I would." Her laugh spills out of her then, she can't help it, her heart swelling with so much relief and happiness, it feels about to burst out of her. "I'm so glad you got out, I'm so happy for you. Are you okay?"

The boy gives her a little smile, but then turns his attention to Tsuna.

"A-ah," Tsuna stammers, bashful. "I'm—"

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," the boy cuts him off. "Why are you here too?"

Tsuna blinks. "For you," he says then, like it's obvious. "I wanted to help too if I could." The boy says nothing, just watching him, but Tsuna soldiers on, smiling at him. He glances at her, and Chrome nods, smiling. "What's your name?"

It's the boy who blinks this time. "My name," he repeats, brushing his eye-patch with his fingertips. "Mukuro. Rokudo Mukuro."

"Mukuro-kun," Chrome breathes out, carefully trying out his name on her tongue. "Nice to meet you. My name's Chrome. Chrome… Dokuro."

Mukuro smiles his first real smile, still a small one but real for the first time, and Chrome feels like she's on the moon.

"Nice to meet you too, Mukuro-kun!" Tsuna says cheerfully. "Are you… okay?" And whether it's what he meant to say or not, he stands by his words, holding Mukuro's gaze. "Sorry, it's just… you're still hurt, aren't you? You're still hurting."

Tsuna breathes the words out as soft as he can, but it sobers Chrome up like a cold shower. She wants to reach out to Mukuro, to hold his hand, but she isn't sure if it's something he'd like.

"This much is nothing though," he says, and can't possibly miss the way both Tsuna and her flinch at that, but he doesn't comment on it.

"What are you going to do now, Mukuro-kun?" Chrome asks.

Mukuro turns away from them, taking in the street and the people in it. His face turns into stone as he does, his voice into steel. "Getting rid of all of this. Of this ugly and disgusting world."

"Okay."

Mukuro turns into a boy again, and Chrome lets herself breathe again. He turns to Tsuna, an incredulous smile pulling at his lips, but with a glint in his eye that eases Chrome's breathing further. "Okay?"

Tsuna nods, the genuine smile on his lips not faltering an inch. "Yeah, okay. But do you want to eat something first? Mom bought these really good cereals."

Mukuro laughs, a real laugh, and Tsuna and her exchange a glance, beaming at each other. "Cereals," he says, the way he says "cat" and "friends" and "name", but it's fine.

He's free now, and they have time for him to get familiar with the world, to learn just how big and wide it is and how much it has to offer, have time to be in pain and ease the pain away, and maybe—hopefully, even heal it away, and time to make the world anew, kinder and better, or to get rid of it entirely.

The word is theirs to take, and they have time.

"You should say yes," Chrome says, offering her hand to him. "They're really, really good."

It takes a moment, but of course it would, and Chrome doesn't let it get to her, doesn't let her smile dim an inch.

She doesn't let her hand falter an inch either, or be anything but patient and hope and a promise she has every intention to keep.

"Fine," Mukuro says, taking her hand. "But those cereals better be as good as you're making them out to be."

A/N: I unfortunately didn't get enough room to equally focus on Tsuna & Mukuro relationship, but eh, Chrome supremacy. This girl is severely underrated, and this story is about her first and foremost.

I hope you enjoyed the story. Any and all reviews are appreciated. :heart emoji:

Thank you for reading!

- Hope