OpalescentGold: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
Takeshi
This is how water reflects moonlight.
Instincts
Takeshi is very much an instinctive person. It's what makes him so good at baseball.
So, when a girl with white blonde hair approaches him after class, lugging a boy with fluffy brown hair after her, he grins and introduces himself brightly. His instincts whisper safety and acceptance and home.
They don't let him down.
Never
"I'll never give up baseball!" Takeshi proclaims one day after practice, dropping down into a chair in the library. He catches the towel Noriko throws at him and drinks from the water bottle Tsuna offers him, smile only growing wider.
"Never?" There is a funny little half-smile on Noriko's lips. She flips through a textbook, one that she has probably been going over with Tsuna. The boys get mediocre grades, but they're not failing, which Takeshi counts as a win.
"Never!" There can't be anything as worthwhile and exhilarating as baseball, not in the whole wide world. It's what Takeshi is, what Takeshi does. He can't imagine what his life would be without baseball.
"Practice went well then?" Tsuna asks, smiling softly. There is always utter sincerity in Tsuna's voice when he asks, and he asks every time, and it's such a strange difference when compared to the things his teammates say.
Takeshi can't bring himself to question it though. "Yeah! I didn't miss a single ball!" And his team had crowded around him and shouted compliments, saying that he was their "star" and how they were sure to win the next game.
It makes his heart twist for a reason he can't understand. This is a good thing...right? It has to be.
"Well, you know what they say: never say never," Noriko says, still smiling that funny little half-smile. It's like she knows something that he doesn't.
Takeshi doesn't understand that either.
Star
Takeshi wins. Again and again. He wins all the games he's in, so they keep on putting him in more and more games until he's in every last one. He loses track of time until it's just when the next game is and how he should train for it.
In fact, he doesn't even notice how little time he's been spending with Noriko and Tsuna in their fourth year before he accidentally bumps into Tsuna in the school hallways.
"Oh, hey, Tsuna! Sorry, didn't see you there!" Takeshi laughs ruefully, already reaching out to tug him up.
Tsuna smiles weakly and shakes his head. "It's okay, Yamamoto. It was an accident." He pauses, taking in the bag slung over the taller boy's shoulder. "Are you going to practice?"
"Yeah." Takeshi shifts his bag slightly, rubbing the back of his head. "There's a game tomorrow."
Tsuna nods and steps out of his way. "Good luck then, Yamamoto. Just...you know..." he trails off uncertainly, glancing away.
Takeshi frowns thoughtfully. He'd thought that they had gotten over this stage already. "What is it, Tsuna?" he prompts.
Tsuna gives him a long, searching look that makes Takeshi want to squirm, even though he's not quite sure what's wrong. "Y-You know that you're always free to join me and Nori-chan if you have time, right?"
Takeshi goes motionless at the nervous words, mind suddenly kicking into high gear as he goes over the past three months. And he abruptly realizes that he has not spoken to Tsuna in two months and Noriko in three.
What sort of friend is he!?
"I-I mean," Tsuna panics at his silence, waving his hands in front of him frantically, "yo-you don't ha-have to, I just thought that - you know what, never mind, I'm sorry, you should get to your practice before you're late - "
Takeshi grabs Tsuna's arm to prevent him from running off, and Tsuna freezes, staring up at Takeshi with hesitant eyes. Takeshi hates that Tsuna is uncertain of their friendship, but this is his fault and it's up to him to fix it.
"I'll be there," he says. "Today after school, right after practice, okay? Save me a seat, Tsuna."
The brilliant smile he receives makes him feel even guiltier.
Fair
Takeshi keeps his word and shows up at their table in the public library as soon as practice lets up, sprinting to get there. Tsuna beams when he appears, completely out of breath, and pulls out a chair.
Noriko looks at him for an endless, tension-filled second, before smiling and continuing the lesson as if he has never been gone.
However, after the tutoring session is over and Tsuna leaves, she corners him and there is no hint of a smile on her face now, only serene unrelenting focus as she lays down the law.
"You were gone for months, Takeshi-kun," Noriko says first, and he knows she is not nearly as forgiving as Tsuna is.
That's okay. He doesn't deserve that forgiveness, not yet. "I know," Takeshi says. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
She contemplates that with a mild frown. "It's not fair," she tells him, "to leave us whenever you wish. If we're just convenient distractions you think you can throw away whenever you get distracted by a new, shinier toy..."
"No!" he protests immediately and loudly, grimacing when someone shushes him. "No," he repeats, quieter. "That's not true at all. I-I just got caught up." He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "It won't happen again."
She tilts her head to the side, but to his relief, nods. "See that it doesn't," she commands and launches herself at him. He catches her automatically with an "oomph" and she wraps her arms around him tightly.
"Welcome back~" Noriko sings.