Laesk: Thank you so much for the review, I am so glad that my story is so re-readable!
I don't own Khr.
At first, Ryohei didn't realize why or what had woken him up. All his foggy mind knew was that he was awake and that his siblings were sleeping beside him.
Though...after everything that had extremely happened today, it wouldn't hurt to make sure.
Ryohei then blinked his eyelids open and propped himself up by the elbow and looked at his right side. Kyoya was sleeping on his back at the end of the line of his sleeping family, his head turned towards Chrome with his mouth slightly hanging open. Chrome herself was sleeping on her side with Lambo held securely in her arms. The baby himself was snuggled comfortably against her chest as he held Chrome's new toy tightly in one little hand.
Ryohei smiled slightly as he then looked at his left side. Right beside him was Takeshi, who was sleeping on his stomach, an arm over Ryohei with the other stretched out over both Tsuna and Hayato as much as possible. Tsuna was curled on his side, his back to Takeshi and one hand clutching the front of Hayato's nightshirt while the other hand was swung over Hayato's side. Hayato himself was also on his side facing Tsuna, with his arm over him protectively. Mukuro was on the opposite side of Hayato, lying on his stomach as he had one arm swung across both Hayato and Tsuna.
Yep, all of his siblings were extremely okay and were sleeping beside him. Good.
Then, all of a sudden, Ryohei realized why he had woken up.
With extremely careful maneuvering, Ryohei climbed off the bed without disturbing his siblings and left their bedroom. Once he had closed the door extremely quietly and slowly, Ryohei quickly went to the bathroom and relieved himself.
After he had washed his hands, Ryohei let out a huge yawn as he looked at his injured hand. Before Knuckle had treated it, his hand had been swelling a bit as well as red like a bad sunburn. But now the swelling had gone down and his red skin was starting to peel, which Knuckle said were signs that it was ultimately healing.
When Ryohei had thanked him earlier that day, Knuckle just chuckled and just said that he was just grateful that it had ended up being a first-degree burn, and not a second-degree burn like he had originally feared.
Ryohei yawned again as he carefully but quickly rewrapped his bandage, eager to go back to bed. When he had finished, he opened the bathroom door and went out into the hallway.
Just in time to see Mukuro closed the bedroom door silently behind him.
"Mukuro?" Ryohei called out as quietly as he could, but apparently it wasn't quiet enough as his slightly older brother gasped as he swung his face towards the white-haired boy. Ryohei opened his mouth to ask him if he had needed to go to the bathroom too when he noticed it.
Mukuro's face was paler than usual, his fingers were jittery, and thanks to the lamp on a nearby table, Ryohei could see clearly how much his heterochromatic eyes were glistening.
Oh.
"You're...you just went to the bathroom," Mukuro said shakily with a sigh of relief as he took a few steps towards Ryohei, wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand while doing so. "I knew it."
"Yeah," Ryohei added softly as he closed the distance between him and his brother. "I guess I drank a lot of water to the extreme at dinner or something."
Mukuro just gave a quiet verbal response as he stood in front of him, his hands still slightly jittery as he took in one deep breath after the other.
Ryohei sighed. There have been days, random days, when Mukuro had been either overprotective (well, maybe more so than usual) of them or really silent as he kept a watchful eye on them (even Kyoya). Sometimes both. Each one of them all eventually realized, in one way or another, that these days always happened after Mukuro had a nightmare. And that right after a nightmare, Mukuro would go check on each and every one of them.
None of them had ever ask Mukuro what had happened in his nightmares, and it wasn't just because they knew Mukuro wouldn't want to talk about them. It was just kind of extremely obvious what they were about.
And after what had happened today, after everything that had happened in the last week or so to be honest, it made sense that Mukuro's deepest fears would come visit him tonight.
"Hey, it's okay," Ryohei said softly as he reached out and pulled Mukuro into a hug. Mukuro initially tried to push himself off of Ryohei but the action was half-hearted at best so Ryohei stuck to his guns and kept his arms around Mukuro. After not even two seconds, Mukuro sighed and leaned against Ryohei's chest.
"I'm okay," Ryohei continued, making sure his voice was as soothing as possible. "You're okay, we are all okay."
"I know," Mukuro mumbled, his face dugged into the crook between Ryohei's neck and shoulder as his hands clutched the front of Ryohei's shirt like there was no tomorrow. "But...it was too close. We...we were right there too...I was right there...and Hayato still got kidnapped and Tsuna still got hurt. And...and Hayato almost got killed. Again."
"'Yeah, I know," Ryohei replied softly as his heart twitched painfully because Mukuro was right. He wasn't afraid to admit that he had dropped his guard in the store, and because of that, two of his brothers were put in horrible, extreme danger. And Ryohei hadn't even realized anything was wrong until Knuckle had run up to him and told him that he and Lambo needed to come with him.
The thought that he could have lost one, maybe two, of his brothers while blissfully shopping for sweatshirts was not a happy one.
Thank goodness that didn't end up happening.
"And right after we just got him and Chrome back too," Mukuro went on, his muffled voice full of emotion. "We...we never should have stayed here. We should have just fought our way out that night. If we had, then we never would have entered that store in the first place and Martina never would have found Hayato and Tsuna."
"I guess that's true," Ryohei admitted as he gently rubbed circles on his brother's back. "But...that also doesn't mean Martina wouldn't have found him later on, with or without our knowledge. At least now we know Martina will never hurt him or any of us again."
And that was something Ryohei was grateful for. After Giotto had knocked Martina out, G, Elena, and Knuckle took them home while the rest had stayed behind. When they came back home, Giotto told them that Martina had been taken to a special, inescapable prison where she would spend the rest of her days. However much of those she had left.
"I...I guess so," Mukuro begrudgingly admitted. "But that doesn't mean that this is a good place for us to stay. They were there too, 'protecting' us, and they almost let Hayato die."
"Yeah, but they didn't," Ryohei countered. "I know you don't like them, and I don't blame you for that, but you have to admit that they did their best to save our little brothers, and they did to the extreme. Our brothers are alive because the Vongola refused to give up until they were safe, until all of us were safe. Shouldn't we at least be grateful for that?"
Mukuro didn't reply at first, choosing instead to just stay silently in Ryohei's arms.
"...Perhaps. But we still shouldn't stay here."
"And I'm extremely fine with that," Ryohei said honestly because all he wanted was for his family to be happy to the extreme. "Though if we do leave, it should be after Hayato and Tsuna are better, they are not in a good position to run away right now."
"Oh definitely," Mukuro agreed. "Though...Reborn is bound to come back soon. We're gonna lose our chance to leave."
"Then we will just have to extremely wait for him to leave again," Ryohei pointed out.
"Kufufu, I guess we have no other choice," Mukuro said. Ryohei both sighed and smiled in relief. If Mukuro was able to chuckle, then that meant that he was better. Maybe not that much, but better all the same.
Then Mukuro sighed as he finally undug his face out of Ryohei's shoulder.
"Well, we probably should be getting back to-"
The sound of a door opening suddenly echoed down the hall, causing Ryohei to look up. It had been the bedroom door that had opened, and before Ryohei could begin to wonder who had done it, Takeshi poked his head out through the crack.
"Hey guys, I thought I heard you," Takeshi greeted them with a yawn as he stepped out into the hall with half-closed brown eyes. "What are ya doing out here?"
Ryohei just smiled as he held his arm out.
"A group hug buddy, come join us to the extreme." Takeshi needed no further prompting as he quickly walked forward despite his clear exhuastion and wrapped his arms around his older brothers.
Ryohei hugged Takeshi tightly with one arm while still keeping his other arm snug around Mukuro. Mukuro for his part let one of hands go of Ryohei's shirt to pat Takeshi's bed-tousled hair.
"At least you're healthy," Mukuro muttered as he gazed at Takeshi. "You haven't even been sick lately have you?"
"Nope, I don't think so," Takeshi said with another yawn. "I think the last time I've been sick was at the orphanage."
"That's right, good boy," Mukuro praised him as if Takeshi had an actual choice in whether he could get sick or not. Several moments passed like this, with them just peacefully hugging each other because there is no such thing as too many hugs.
"Are...when are we going to leave?" Takeshi suddenly asked with a serious expression on his face despite his slightly droopy eyes.
"Soon, after Hayato and Tsuna fully recover, Ryohei too for that matter," Mukuro assured him as he swept his hand through Takeshi's already messy hair. Then, just as Ryohei was about to protest that he was extremely fine, Mukuro narrowed his eyes.
"Why? Did something else happened?"
Takeshi shook his head.
"No, not really," Takeshi clarified with a big yawn as his serious expression left to be replaced by a relieved and contented one. "I just wanted to know how much time..."
The rest of Takeshi's words were an incoherent mumble as his eyes fully closed and he started to waver on his feet.
"Whoa there little brother," Ryohei said softly with an extremely adoring smile as he steadied Takeshi with one arm before he could fall to the ground. The action caused Takeshi to stand up straight however, with brown eyes wide open like someone had prodded him with a sharp stick.
"I'm awake," Takeshi said flatly as he kept his eyes as wide as saucers.
"Kufufu, I can see that," Mukuro chuckled, clearly amused as he let go of Ryohei's shirt to gently bring Takeshi into his arms. Knowing what Mukuro was about to do, Ryohei finally let go of his brothers and took a step back. Mukuro then slightly bent over and placed his arm underneath Takeshi's knees before carefully sweeping him off the ground.
"C'mon, let's go back to bed," Mukuro stated a bit cheerfully as he began to head to the bedroom. Ryohei silently followed suit.
"Hey, you don't need to carry me, I can walk," Takeshi tried to protest with his head leaning against Mukuro's chest right before his eyelids finally lost the fight to stay open.
"Sure you can buddy," Mukuro said softly with a fond smile, making Ryohei smile extremely wide.
Mukuro was okay.
They were all okay.
Yep, everyone is okay right now. Except for Martina though, she is faaaar from being okay. And she will never be okay again :)
Well, I am personally happy of how this chapter turned out, but what do you guys think? Please tell me your thoughts in a review and I will update next month.
Till then, may you stay healthy and have a good day/night!