A/N: Been a long time coming… I'm busy. I really am but the coronavirus is keeping me away from some of my work and I really miss writing.
The day started with the usual. Breakfast. A noisy, chattery and energetic breakfast. Tsuna still sat at the head of the table, Satsuki still sat at the farthest side from him with the girls. Three weeks after Kyoko woke up from her coma, she was good as new. She joined in the usual banter, the usual routine and it seemed as if nothing bad happened at all.
Satsuki was thankful but at the same time, still slightly guilt-ridden.
There was, however, one small thing that changed at the breakfast table. Every so often she would tilt her head to the side, catch a glimpse of Tsuna. Sometimes, she would stare too long. She would get lost in her thoughts about how he grew up so well.
There was a time where she was wandering the halls of the Italian base. She had stumbled upon a room that was lined with pictures of all the Vongola leaders. From the first, up until Tsuna, along with pictures of all the guardians. Her eyes had been stuck on Giotto's photo, she couldn't help but wonder if he and Tsuna were actually the same person. The similarities were uncanny.
She looked at how Tsuna's lips would just crumple up into a soft smile. His jawline was very prominent and his eyes were always a gentle yet…such strong hues of brown. He cleaned up really well too, the thought of him in a suit and tie was always—
"Are you quite done staring?"
Haru snapped her fingers two times next to Satsuki's ear. That brought Satsuki back to reality and she quickly averted her gaze to her plate, the other girls giggling at her sheepish expression. I-pin pulled her chair closer to her, peering up at her face. "Satsuki-chan~ How has it been? Did you go on a date yet?"
She opened her mouth to say something in protest, but Haru had beat her to it. "I-pin! You can't ask questions like that!" She moved her gaze to Satsuki, silent for a few seconds before her face broke into a smile, "…but did you?" Satsuki groaned in exasperation at her friends' questions.
"What's up with them?" Gokudera mumbled under his breath at the huddle of girls squealing and talking. Tsuna let out a mumble of curiosity, having no idea that the girls were having a mini conference.
"Maybe a new baking project!" Yamamoto grinned widely, knowing that the girls loved baking. Gokudera was about to retort, wanting to say baking is not the only thing girls do these days. "Ah! How's that thing going with Satsuki, boss?" Ryohei grinned at Tsuna, mouth full of scrambled eggs.
"DON'T TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!" Gokudera bellowed, an irk mark forming on his head. All the bits and pieces were flying out of Ryohei's mouth and on Gokudera's plate. Ryohei scarfed down the rest of his eggs and gulped, staring expectantly at Tsuna.
Tsuna stiffened at the question, he scratched his cheek with a nervous laugh. "Ah… haha…" He moved his gaze to the ceiling, not really knowing what to say. It had been… nothing. They shared an intimate moment last time but ever since then, whenever they ran into each other it seemed to be…awkward.
"As expected, you're handling it like a teenager. Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said, munching on his piece of toast.
"Hmph. Pathetic," Hibari chimed in, calmly cutting a piece of sausage.
"You too, Hibari?!" Tsuna said in an outburst, not expecting any comment from Hibari at all. Yamamoto laughed at the predicament and patted Tsuna's shoulder. "You'll get there. It's fine."
Gokudera scoffed, "How would you know, baka? It's not like you've been in a relationship before." Yamamoto grinned at Gokudera, replying him with a simple yet meaningful, "You'll get there too, Gokudera! Haru has been waiting a while!"
Gokudera choked on his tea, spluttering some of it on his shirt. "You piece of—" Gokudera climbed over the table and jumped at Yamamoto who kept on laughing while the other men tried to pry them away from each other.
The girls were unbothered. They had their own gossip circle. "You should definitely make the first move! That's how it is these days!" Haru hissed at Satsuki while Chrome just tilted her head curiously. She knew nothing about these things. Kyoko giggled and touched Satsuki's arm, "Satsuki-chan, let's get you a makeover, he won't be able to resist then."
Satsuki furiously shook her head. No. No makeovers. Everyone was way too excited about this compared to her. She told them with finality that she would let it take its natural course. No interfering or anything.
"Awe, okay," Haru pouted and finally leaned back on her seat, continuing with breakfast. Kyoko smiled brightly at her, "but if you need help, don't hesitate to ask us." Satsuki returned her smile and nodded a bit. Surprisingly, Kyoko had shown no signs of disappointment over the development. It was then that Satsuki found out Kyoko already had eyes for someone else. She didn't ask who though, she had a hunch of her own.
Later that day, Satsuki was forced by Reborn to deliver some paperwork over to Tsuna's office. He said he had things to do but Satsuki knew full well that was just an excuse. She had a pile in her arms, and she was just outside the tenth's door. She didn't know why her heart was pitter pattering at a higher rate. Oh come on, this isn't high school, we're adults. What's happening to me? She took a deep breath and knocked on the door three times.
A muffled "Come in," echoed and she twisted the door knob open, closing the door behind her gently. He hadn't looked up from his current paperwork. His brows tightly knitted in concentration. "Umm, I'll just leave these here…" His head snapped up at her voice just as she was putting the extra paperwork down, about to turn around.
"Wait!" Tsuna scrambled up from his office chair, the pen he was holding, teetering to the side of the table at his sudden movement. "Ah!" He said in alarm, trying to catch the pen, arm shooting forward, only to knock off the extra paperwork she had just dropped on the side of his table. The papers fell in a messy heap on the floor, one paper flew up and was now slowly descending down like a feather amidst the sudden silence in the room.
Tsuna blinked at the mess he made, groaning internally but he heard a slight stifle of laughter from Satsuki. His eyes moved up towards her who looked to be trying really hard not to laugh out loud. In the end, she turned around and let out a hearty laugh that made him feel like his mess was actually worth it.
"Tsuna-kun," She finally turned around, wiping some tears from her eyes. "You're still so clumsy," she bent down and started cleaning up, Tsuna following wordlessly next to her. They managed to clean it up in a short amount of time and were suddenly back to an awkward silence, standing side by side, both with papers in their hands.
"Uhh… You…" Tsuna started, tripping over his words. Now's not the time to turn back into your teenage self, Tsuna. He reminded himself. Mafia boss. You're a mafia boss. Vongola tenth. "Stay for a while," he finally said, moving away from her and back to his office chair, placing the stack of papers back on his table, looking up at her expectantly.
Her breath caught in her throat at his rather sudden assertiveness. Gosh, why are you my boss? It makes it all the more… she gulped, irresistible. She covered her thoughts away by replying in a playful manner. "Yes, boss, as you wish."
She sat on one of the chairs facing his table, him chuckling softly at her reply. He stood and sauntered to the cupboards off the side of the room, he always had a tea set there, and it looked like he had already prepared some tea beforehand along with some biscuits. "I was going to take a break anyway," he said.
Tsuna picked up the intricate tray. It was white ceramic, the design painted with Japanese cherry blossoms. The tea set and plates, likewise. He cleared his table of paperwork before moving the tea tray over to the middle of his table. Rather than taking his office chair seat, he moved so that he sat on the chair next to her, as if two parents waiting in the principal's office.
"I'll do it," she said, pouring him and then herself a cup of tea. She was again aware of the silence that followed but she pretended to be very interested in the tea, cupping it in her hands, smelling the aroma of tea. Alright, come on, say something. You just sniffing at tea is starting to be super weird. OR fiddle with something else. Biscuit! She suddenly thought, arm stretching out to grab a random cookie from one of the plates, the crunching sound filling the room. Okay, now what?
She gulped the bits in her mouth, her throat dryer than ever. "What's your favourite tea?" Rather than being happy that a conversation was started, Satsuki got more stressed out. Is he forcing himself to talk to me? Is this really what he wants to talk about?
She answered, nonetheless, "Uh, hm… Jasmine, I guess," tea wasn't really something she thought about on a daily basis. Whatever tea was available, she would drink it.
Tsuna mentally kicked himself for starting such a boring topic, he was panicking and that was half sad half funny to him. Vongola tenth. Panicking cause he didn't know how to talk to the girl he likes. Wait till Varia hears about this.
"…Actually, I'm not really that fond of tea and biscuits," she sighed. She tried to accommodate to his question. Tried to impress him with her answer but she realized that wasn't working. Why was she so tense? This was Tsuna, speaking as normal would do.
"…Oh," Tsuna said, sounding slightly forlorn. Satsuki sat up straight and looked at him, "But this is good! I mean, I wouldn't go out of my way to get tea but, you know, since you prepared it and all already, it's good!" She reassured him, taking a sip of the tea to make a point.
He slightly tilted his head at her and then chuckled at her sudden run on sentence. "No, you're right, I do remember that you like coffee and strawberry shortcake more." Her head swivelled towards him in surprise, eyes wide. "How'd you know?"
"Hm?" He said curiously, putting his teacup down. "Well, there was that one time in high school…"
"Do they have strawberry shortcake?" Satsuki asked, peering at Kyoko's phone. They were having a study group at Tsuna's house. As expected, they weren't really studying.
"And then, there was that other time, at Yamamoto's house…"
They visited Take-sushi as a celebratory lunch after the Varia battle. The meal was almost done and Yamamoto said that dessert would be out soon. "Mmm… Yamamoto-kun," Satsuki started, "would you guys happen to have strawberry shortcake?"
"And a few months ago, our long walk in Venice…"
Satsuki stared intently at the menu. Everything was in Italian, but her eyes shone when she saw something familiar. "Strawberry shortcake!" she pointed at it with fervour.
"Yeah," Tsuna finished, as if it was nothing at all, continuing to sip at his tea. Satsuki was dumbfounded. He remembers? She was struck with surprise. Those were simply passing moments in her life, quick words that she didn't think anyone would notice. Her heart started hammering in her chest. He remembers. She thought with finality.
She didn't really think about her next move. She leaned towards him, stretching out a little from her seat. She felt Tsuna stop and stiffen at the motion. Their faces were inches apart when time seemed to slow down for Satsuki. She cursed in her mind. What was she doing? Well, too late to turn back now, and in a split second, she tilted her head up, her lips landing on his cheek. She could barely even call it a kiss, it was chaste, similar to a feather brushing his cheek.
Just as fast, she slid back to her seat and covered up her embarrassment by grabbing another cookie, chomped down on it and devoured it nearly whole, downing it with a shot of hot tea. Bad move, she felt like her throat was scalded and she grimaced a little at the discomfort.
"…I think I'm done here!" She hurriedly said, trying to get out of the situation to hide her ripening face but she jumped a little when Tsuna suddenly had both his hands on the arms of her chair, trapping her in between.
Her eyes widened in wonder, looking at him, feeling like a mouse trapped by a cat. There was something different in his eyes, as if something had turned a switch on.
Satsuki thought she saw a grin rather than an innocent smile.
His mouth opened in a whisper, "…You missed."
The next part was nearly automatic, he leaned forward, she closed her eyes and… there was a knock at the door, causing them to pull apart, back to their own seats as the door swung open without even waiting for a response.
"Tenth, these came in the mail for you." It was Gokudera, completely and painfully oblivious to the situation. He did see Satsuki there, but thought nothing of it. It looked like a completely normal tea time gathering. Just as quickly as Gokudera came, he was also suddenly completely gone.
Satsuki was mentally whining in her head but she sighed and stood up, now she was really done with tea. She managed to break a smile, "I'll be going too, I promised Haru I would help her with something."
"Alright." Tsuna said with no complaints and stood as well, walking her to the door. He touched her shoulder before they both reached the door, and this time when he leaned forward, Satsuki felt his lips on her forehead. The feeling was surreal. It wasn't feather-like. From him, it was firmer, more sure of himself. It was a split-second shot of electricity spreading from her forehead down to her face. His other hand was twisting the knob and pulling the door open,
"…Come back at the same time tomorrow?"
There was no sense of embarrassment in his actions, Satsuki noticed. He did it as if it was normal and in turn, that made Satsuki feel like she shouldn't need to freak out as well. She smiled and nodded, seeing herself out of the door and waited till the door closed before she had her private and silent meltdown. She buried her face in her hands, trying to keep the blush from coming up to her cheeks. When she had sufficiently calmed down, she went on her way to look for Haru, trying to shake off the tingling feeling still lingering on her forehead.
On the other side, in Tsuna's office. The Vongola tenth leaned his head back on his door and closed his eyes with a sigh. "Gokudera…" he half sighed and half groaned out in complaint.
Well, better luck next time.
