Excerpt from Rhapsody on a Windy Night
Twelve o'clock.
Along the reaches of the street
Held in a lunar synthesis,
Whispering lunar incantations
Dissolve the floors of memory
And all its clear relations,
Its divisions and precisions,
Every street lamp that I pass
Beats like a fatalistic drum,
And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.
-T. S. Eliot
X X X X
"To be or not to be, that is the question."
Tsuna found it rather melodramatic, but still watched with wide eyes. On stage, a lone man stood, lit startlingly by a single spotlight. In his hands, he gently caressed a human skull. Strangely, his features reminded her of someone, though she knew she had never met him. But he felt familiar to her. She knew, maybe, how it felt to be influenced by him, but it was ill-defined.
He turned to face her, his piercing eyes meeting hers. They were cold. She was the only audience member in a hall made for hundreds, and he was only drawing attention to that fact.
She closed her eyes for a moment, forehead wrinkling. She didn't like these illusions. She wished for this dream to end. When she blinked them open again, he was much closer than before.
Now, they were on the stage together. If she looked from the corner of her eye, she could see herself in the audience.
"To be or not to be, that is the question," he repeated. And instead of a thoughtful introspection, as written by Shakespeare, he was directing it to her. What was that supposed to mean?
He wasn't looking at her anymore, but she could feel his hands against her head. She paused. Her blood ran cold. She realized that she was the skull.
Tsuna gasped awake and tried not to throw up over the Gigantic Bed of the Future. She rubbed her forehead tiredly, smoothing out the creases. Maybe, in the future, the next Game of Thrones book had come out? (And yes, she knew it was actually called A Song of Ice and Fire, you losers.) It's not like there was much to do in the here anyway.
She tried not to think of the dream.
X X X X
"Umhmm...Yes…." Tsuna pondered before speaking. "In your future, I see good fortune! Your lucky color this month is...tangerine. No! Nectarine! Yes, if you wear nectarine all this month, you'll ace your midterms for sure!" Tsuna gestured in what she considered a mystical way.
"Nectarine isn't even a color, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said after the poor girl left. "She definitely paid too much for that."
"Hey, I'm the most authentic fortune-telling experience there ever was!" she protested. "People should be paying me millions, but what do I charge? Just five dollars a reading! A real steal, I'd say. And anyway, how many time-travellers do you see with enough time to own a small-business?"
"I don't think this counts as a business," he said contemptuously, like Tsuna hadn't done an awfully nice job with her simple set up. And it was out of the way of the main street for some added authenticity (and perhaps because she lacked the proper permit).
"I just don't know why you always have to be so mean to me," she pouted. "I'm twenty-five, now! Shouldn't you support my decisions a little?"
"Did you seriously just ask me that?" he scoffed, flicking her forehead and disappearing into the throng of the crowd. She would call after him, but a nervous-looking boy had appeared before her place of business.
"Ohhh, love problems?" she asked with a smirk.
"How did you know?" he asked, handing her five dollars.
"I'll tell you a secret, kid." She gestured for him to come closer. "I'm from the future."
X X X X
The future was kind of cool as fuck, honestly. All the Kentucky Derby winners from the past ten years were memorized and she'd researched if there were any major economic bubbles as well. Even though she was heir to some old (as in ancient) money, it couldn't hurt to make some bank on her own. All this research was done in secret, of course, since the future people were "very concerned" with "preserving the integrity of the space-time continuum." Like, they obviously weren't very concerned if they let her near one of their weird complex computers!
The future people mostly left her alone. Which, you know, was kind of nice. It was strange to catch a glimpse of one of them out of the corner of her eye, watching over her while giving the illusion of privacy. Seeing Gokudera's eyes or Ryohei's hands made her feel less alone for a moment before she realized they weren't hers. They were so familiar, yet so achingly strange. It was unnerving, to say the least—the Uncanny Valley.
In modest terms, the Vongola Mansion was oversized. The architecture was clearly influenced by Renaissance-era Italy (she even thought she spotted an Albertinelli hanging on one of the walls). She wouldn't call it gaudy, per se, more...opulent. Her bedroom—or at least the bedroom of her older self—was decorated in a more traditionally Japanese manner. It was simple and that alone relaxed her a little.
Even there, however, shadows loomed from every corner. An ever-present sense of doom plagued her, not helped in the least by her recent dreams. She found herself absentmindedly wandering the halls often, only to wind up at an old portrait of Giotto. She hadn't even known it was there before she stood before it. This happened four times the first day.
His painterly eyes were as empty and glasslike as the facsimile that resided in her ring. It actually rested on her thumb, since it hadn't been fitted properly to her hand. Once, she thoughtlessly slipped it onto her ring finger. She'd looked down at it then, a mockery of a wedding band—a bad omen. Her tie to the Vongola, of fire and blood.
She didn't leave her room often anymore.
There was a great fear in her heart. Eventually, she knew, she would face the man who haunted her dreams. Who manipulated her mind like it was his right. And when that happened, she wasn't sure she could win.
X X X X
When it was determined that her return to the future would not be soon, Iemitsu invited Nana on a cruise to end on an undetermined date. Secretly, Reborn thought the woman so oblivious that she wouldn't notice her daughter aging ten years in a night. But that was rather mean.
"Back in the day," Tsuna said, "I could've used this opportunity to throw a total rager. I wouldn't have, but I could've." She pouted, poking at her future phone that didn't work through time travel. "Now all the people I could invite are either ten years younger than me or ten years younger than me and on another continent! And, you know, I'm an adult who doesn't have to have parties in her mom's house. I have my own house now."
"Do you have parties in this house of yours?" he asked, flipping through the newspaper.
"Well, no," she admitted. Reborn smiled. Sometimes this Tsuna was so strange to him. He missed all the events that changed her from his Tsuna into the woman sitting next to him now. But in moments like these, he could see that she was still Tsuna, despite being a decade older.
"How's the inheritance ceremony gonna go?" she said after a moment of silence. "Aren't people, like, gonna notice that I'm not fifteen?"
"Well, I suppose we'll have to get you back to the future before we find out."
"Dude, Back to the Future? We should totally rent that movie!" she said. "For research purposes, of course."
"Yes," Reborn sighed. "I'm sure that's the breakthrough those scientists working on the bazooka need."
X X X X
"Aren't you a bit young to frown like that?" a gruff voice came from her side. Today, she sat in the gardens. In spite of her fear, the sameness of her room began to bother her and she finally left for a reprieve and some fresh air. The sunlight felt nice against her face and the flowers were vibrant and beautiful. Maybe it wouldn't be such a tragedy to live here after all.
"What's wrong, kid?" Her attention was called back to her visitor.
"You're Bouche Croquant, right? The Ninth's Mist?" she asked. Reborn had drilled a lot into her head, but he stressed political allies and enemies above all.
"That's right, little miss," he said, sitting down in the metal chair next to hers.
"I've had some trouble with mists lately." A flash of her Hamlet crossed her mind before she forced it from her head.
"I'm not going to hurt you, at least," he said. Maybe it was because he was so old, had served the Vongola for so long (even if he was in service to the damned Ninth), but the words eased her heart.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "Would it be weird if I told you what really troubles me? It's kind of heavy for strangers."
"You could call me any insult you could think of. You could beat me all you want. And I wouldn't protest. You're the heir to my Sky. I'm here to serve."
"That's terrible," she said, wringing her hands together. To be devoted to the point of allowing mistreatment. What kind of service was that? She'd let her guardians know that they would never have to deal with that, though she doubted she would have to bother with Hibari or Mukuro.
"My duty's a great honor, little miss. It'd be a disservice if you made it out to be a punishment." He looked into her eyes and she tried to understand. She wasn't sure if she did.
"I'm sorry," she said and he nodded. "I'm afraid I'm going to face someone soon and he'll...he'll be able to make me believe things I don't want to. I think I'll fail against him and everyone loyal to me will die in my name."
"Hmm," Bouche Croquant pondered. "Your thoughts are indeed heavy. But I think I have some advice for you." His scarred face softened for a moment. "There's only one thing to do when you're afraid: improve. You have allies here and spending time alone in your room, afraid, won't help you. You only need to ask, and we'll help."
Tsuna stood. Bouche Croquant was taller than any man she'd ever met, including Xanxus. When she stood and he sat, she could look him in the eye.
"If what you say is true, sir. Then, please, um, teach me the ways of the mist?"
The proposal was a bit awkward, but he still smiled. The scars on his face seemed to stretch painfully, but his eyes were kind. He nodded.
X X X X
"Ninth, I'm not sure that's the best idea," Reborn said over the phone. Eventually, he hung up with a sigh.
"What was that about?" Tsuna asked, flipping some pancakes. She asked, but she could probably guess. Back when she was fifteen and got back from the future, she was told a pretty basic explanation for everything that happened in her absence. The outcome of this battle was already decided, and it was written in her blood. Nothing the Ninth or Reborn talked about could change anything. Because fate, especially when in the hands of a great mist, often worked opposite of what people wished.
"The Ninth is aware of the strange happenings around our Tsuna lately and he thinks he knows who's behind it." He rubbed his forehead tiredly. "And he wants you to fight him instead of Tsuna."
"Seems like a solid plan," she said. "Why are you opposed?"
"Maybe it is a good plan," Reborn admitted. "I just don't think it's going to work."
"Well," she said. "There's not much to do about that. And there's no real point in worrying either. The only time you should probably worry is if I start to fade from existence…" She paused for a moment looking at her hand. "Oh my god…I think I am."
"What?" Reborn asked, grabbing her wrist.
"Just kidding, man. It's all good. As the great philosopher Noel Miller once said: They feelin' like I'm outta sight because they focus off. I see you countin' dirty money, boy, who's really washed?"
"I don't know what that means."
X X X X
It was night in the garden.
Candlelight flickered, casting strange shadows on the walls in the shapes of tall, ghastly trees. She closed her eyes against them, a fine layer of sweat coating her skin. She could feel everyone around her: the servants asleep in their quarters, her guardians, ever watchful, and Bouche Croquant.
"The mist is incorporeal but still ever-present. The mist doesn't lie; it obscures the truth.
"Imagine a coin in your hand. What is its shape? Imagine dropping it into a glass of water. In your hand, it's small and definite. You know this. In the water, it distorts—becomes larger than what it truly is. In order to control the mist, you must be aware of it. You know coins don't grow in water, but a mist will make you think they do. The mist must fool others while knowing the truth: the difference between the perceived and the real. Just like the mist knows the truth, you must know it as well to ever hope to escape an illusion."
"Well, yeah, I know about water distortion and stuff, but what if it's not common knowledge?" she asked. "Like, the mists I interacted with build whole worlds-"
"But you should've recognized you weren't in those worlds. You should've remembered reality, and not been lost in a dream of another's creation.
"Just like a coin doesn't grow in water, and two and two don't make five, no one can transport you from one place to another in the blink of an eye. If someone told you two and two make five in a dream, you would believe them. Because you don't know the basics. Common sense doesn't exist in illusions."
Tsuna's fingers twitched with the effort it took not to clench her hands into fists. She'd been working on conjuring mist flames for days! Sure, sky flames had taken her years, but at least then she'd had an excuse. She knew she had mist flames, since Bouche Croquant had done some weird mafia test on her. (Honestly, she still believed that skies could use all the flames because of their harmony factor.) Maybe it was the element least connected to her?
She was a figurehead. Tuna Fish, Dame-Tsuna and The Tenth. She was always noticed. Even when her peers despised her, they never left her alone. (Her, among the hundreds of similarly-skilled kids in the school) She was the only heir to an ancient mafia family that she truly had no obligation to. She was the big blue sky that people couldn't not look at.
And maybe that was why she couldn't grasp the mist. Bouche Croquant always spoke of how the mist was intangible. All-consuming, maybe, but unable to be truly grasped. Fine dew and coolness.
She thought of Mukuro, more distant from her than any other guardian. She rarely saw him, unlike even Hibari who she often caught glimpses of around school property. Most often grievously injuring someone. He always seemed like he was hidden from her, like he wore a mask of cruel humor and indifference. And when she got close—when she kissed him—he slipped between her fingers as easily as his element.
She remembered holding the sun in her hands. It was much easier.
But maybe that was really the point. That the mist and the sun were not only different in properties, but also in the way they must be approached. The mist actively obscured; it was unreachable. So maybe she should stop trying to reach it.
Although it went against every instinct she had, she let the flames elude her. She let herself be surrounded by the idea of them, but never tried to cage them. The mist was vapor. Indefinite. In order to wield it, she could not go against its nature. She accepted the ambiguity.
Her eyes blinked open when the courtyard cooled. The flames of the candles burned lavender and hundreds of distorted coins sunk in the garden's fountain.
X X X X
"I wonder how Tsuna's doing," Takeshi said. At the end of every week, Reborn gathered all the guardians at Nana's house to inform them of any new developments. There weren't usually many.
"She's going through a training montage," Tsuna said distractedly as she twisted the controller in her hands. She didn't usually hang around the young guardians since it was pretty awk. Like, they didn't really know her and while she knew them, it was just weird to talk to them when they were fifteen again. Like she wasn't the Tsuna they wanted to hang out with.
But anyway, she usually played Mario Kart with Lambo, since he was a bit young to worry about anything that was happening. And he thought of her as his Tsuna-nee, at least. Whenever they played, she would have to veer wildly off course every once in a while, so he never lost hope. The distance between them was never very great and he even passed her once in a while.
She never let him win, of course. He was spoiled enough already. But frustration with losing never helped anyone grow.
"That was a tough one!" she exclaimed as her Princess Peach took first once more. Lambo came third but didn't seem too put out.
"Another round! Another round!" he demanded as she put on Moo Moo Meadows.
He was the only guardian from this time who seemed to know how to deal with her.
X X X X
She was standing on the sky, hair dangling to the ground below as gravity flipped. She took a step forward, and then another. Where was she going? And where was she a moment ago? Her mind was telling her that she had always walked on the sky. She couldn't remember a time where she hadn't. But something wasn't right. There was a fog clouding her brain. But she tried to push through it. She closed her eyes and imagined walking on the earth.
"Good, little miss," Bouche Croquant said. "That took about five seconds for you to break."
"But, sir, I could be killed in seconds," she protested.
"You're making steady progress, girl. It does you no good to be dissatisfied with yourself," he scolded. "You've got a good grasp on flames for such a young person." He was the second man to tell her that, but she still blushed. It was nice to be good at something for once.
"I'll tell you what," he said. "By the end of tomorrow, I think you might be able to resist the illusion entirely. And after that, we can work on illusions that don't break after you're aware of them. Mastering that will probably take the rest of the week." He noticed her face fall. "If you're still here, of course."
"I'll be done with this by noon tomorrow," she vowed. She thought about all her past interactions with mists. They had been able to control her so easily. The only reason she was still alive was because her death didn't fit into Mukuro's plans. She clenched her fists. It was so awful to be tricked like that—for her own mind to betray her for the enemy.
X X X X
"Who the hell are you?" Xanxus said. It had been very startling to see him in her house uninvited. Mostly because she forgot he wasn't in Italy. And like, for someone who hadn't even been around for days, he was acting weirdly entitled.
"Bro, what the fuck are you doing in my sister's house." It's not like he would know Nana was an only child.
"Are you that brat's aunt?" he asked and smirked. "Who knew the kid had such smokin' relatives?"
She valiantly resisted the urge to make earnest fun of him, but had to lift her hand to cover her smile.
"Does that work for you often?" she asked.
"What can I say? Chicks dig scars." He stepped closer to her, brushing her hair behind her ear. This would probably seem pretty predatory if Tsuna didn't actually know him. "I'm Xanxus." His deep eyes bore into her, warm palm against her cheek. He still dwarfed her. (Unfortunately, Tsuna didn't grow much after she hit fifteen.)
"I'm Nami, Nana's sister." Reborn had worked out a cover story for anyone not in the know. Though she felt kind of bad lying to Xanxus, since she really did trust him. But she also doubted he would flirt with her if he knew her real identity. And she wanted to live out her teenage fantasy of getting that dick, you know? "I'm house sitting." Tsuna hadn't flirted in years. She tried to smirk in an attractive manner. She wasn't sure it was working.
"If you're not too worried about the house getting into trouble while you're gone for a few hours...maybe I could buy you a drink."
Tsuna discreetly looked around for a sign of Reborn. He'd said he would be "handling business" (or whatever that meant) for the next few hours, so she'd probably be cool. And besides, she was a grown-ass woman! Reborn didn't get to decide where she could and couldn't go! (Although he did still do that in the future.)
"Sure!" she agreed, grabbing her keys. She made to step out of the door, only to confront the nervous, young face of Enma. "Um, hi? Did you need something?"
"Umm," he said nervously, shifting from foot-to-foot with a red face. "I was, uh, wondering if Tsuna was home? I wanted to talk to her. Um, ma'am."
"Sorry, no. She'll be away for a while, unfortunately," she smiled at him. Nothing that happened (or, was going to happen?) was truly Enma's fault, after all. "Do you need me to tell her anything?"
"N-no, that's fine," he said quickly. "Thank you, but I'll just talk to her when she, um, gets back, I guess." He frantically fled her porch and disappeared around the corner. Suddenly, Tsuna felt a little sad but knew that she wasn't the one who could fix things this time. Her younger self would have her work cut out for her, but what happened would come to pass, whether she willed it to or not.
"So," she turned back to Xanxus, "where were we?"
X X X X
When her fingers grew to a foot in length, she immediately recognized the illusion. She waited for it to disperse like all the others had at the moment she found them out, but it remained. She held her hands out in confusion, her long fingers flopping uselessly to the floor.
"What is going on?" she said. Although it was slightly unnerving, waving around her weird, useless, noodly hands was pretty fun. "Oh…" she said. "Didn't he say we were gonna work on this stuff...I'm kind of stupid." She sat down and tried to grasp soft grass in her hands but her weird fingers were being very uncooperative.
"Sir Croquant, you didn't even give me, like, a lecture about this," she sighed. "How am I supposed to know what to do?" He didn't answer her. Which was expected, but still mildly disappointing. Even if he did, he'd probably say some bullshit about how she should just listen to her heart.
It's not like she had any other ideas, though. She closed her eyes and meditated for a while. Although she wasn't magically gifted the answer to the universe, she did find that she could activate her flames and even feel Bouche Croquant's flame signature in the illusion. She wasn't sure how that helped her, though.
Hmm...She activated her mist flames. And while nothing really changed, she did turn her hands back to normal. She was kind of surprised it worked. She could feel her flames covering his flames covering reality. So she could pile illusions on top of illusions (which seemed slightly unwise), but she couldn't figure out how to break them.
But the interesting thing was, his illusion and her illusion didn't touch. If she brushed against the illusion with her flames...Yes! It wavered all around her. It was kind of like her battle with Xanxus, in that her will had to be the strongest to win. Although mist flames were dissimilar to the flames of the sky, they both were based on dying will.
The illusion didn't have a definite shape, which was strange. She had to imagine one for it. In her mind, she visualized a sphere that represented Bouche Croquant's flames, and then molded her flames to cover it from the inside. She tried to press gently at first, but that certainly didn't work. She was panting at how much force she had to use before the bubble popped. And then she was free.
She opened her eyes to Bouche Croquant's expectant face. He seemed very pleased, like he was about to congratulate her. But before he could, she crumbled. He caught her upper arms before she could collapse to the ground, so she leaned against him instead. She sobbed, ugly and terrified. He seemed terribly confused.
"I-I just ha-a-ate illusions so much!" she cried. "How am I even supposed to kn-now if this is real? Maybe it's j-just another illusion I made? What if I'm still there, sir? How can I know? H-how do you guys do thi-is?"
"Just breathe," he said. She hadn't noticed how close she was to fainting from hyperventilation before he said it. "I don't think you were born to be a great mist, despite your prowess."
"Thank God," she said.
X X X X
It was the day of the Inheritance Ceremony.
"I don't think anyone's gonna be fooled," Tsuna said. Sure she hadn't changed that much since her teenage years, but she had definitely grown enough for people to doubt she was fifteen. (She didn't like to brag, but she was a B-cup now, suckers!) She just didn't have the youth in her anymore. She looked like an adult; she doubted she could even pass for an early-bloomer.
"If we tell them you're fifteen, they'll believe it," Reborn said, adjusting his fedora so it shadowed his eyes at the right angle. How didn't he get how lame that was?
All she had to do was walk on stage, smile, maybe thank everyone for coming, get old blood (?), and formally be the next boss!
Obviously this did not happen.
X X X X
Bouche Croquant was very good at crossword puzzles. Every morning at the breakfast table, he'd complete them at lightning-speed in a black pen. He was so good he never needed to erase. She'd look over his shoulder as he completed them in awe.
"I've never heard of any of these people," she said as he filled out another row. There were a lot of dead Italian singers.
"I'm still surprised you can read this," he said. Reborn had been teaching her Italian since she'd met him and she'd been learning English in school for much longer. They were pretty similar, so it wasn't that hard to pick up the gist of what the hints said (though she couldn't understand the puns). It wasn't really amazing, since she didn't know a lot of the rarer words and she couldn't speak well at all. Her and Bouche Croquant always spoke in Japanese.
"Yeah," she said. "Have the scientists made any progress?" She'd been in the future for a week.
"Hmm, maybe," he said, scrawling in something about football (not the American kind).
"What are you going to teach me today?" she asked when he didn't elaborate.
"Today?" he pondered. Fifteen across: win that brings little actual gain.
"I know that one!" she exclaimed. "Does hollow victory fit?" Sir Croquant took a moment to translate it from Japanese to Italian, and nodded. She only knew that because Reborn forced her to read a lot of mafia history books and that was the kind of stuff they talked about.
"Very good," he said. "And as for today, we'll be too busy for a lesson. You'll have to fill in for your older self at a ball. The heir to one of our allied families is turning eleven."
"Ew," Tsuna said. "That sounds majorly lame."
X X X X
So, yeah, Enma was a traitor. Obviously.
Maybe Tsuna was being unfair, but she liked to think that even without her knowledge of the future she would've been able to tell he was planning something. Like, his demeanor, the fact that he transferred to her school, how he showed up way before the other families. He was totally sus from the beginning!
And he had some weird thing about her dad, which was fair. She wasn't that into him either.
But anyway, here's the tea:
Tsuna's Fight Highlight Reel! *。 ﾟ* ヾ( ゝз・)ノ
Some dick kidnaps Chrome! Goddamnit!
Her guardians get some sick jewelry and weird flame animals! Victory!
Ryohei doesn't win but he also doesn't lose. That's fair!
Lambo and Gokudera win! Victory!
The stupid bitch that kidnapped Chrome is actually a different stupid bitch? Fuck mists!
This concludes Tsuna badly summarizing her own life events. Come back next time!
"So I guess you're the guy I really have to fight?" Tsuna says, her guardians and the Shimon at her back. It was kinda weird that young!Tsuna wasn't there for the weird Primo memories and didn't even really know the Shimon but it would work out. They were probably more for the Shimon, anyway.
"Although I was expecting the younger model, I suppose you'll do," Daemon Spade hissed. "Now-"
Tsuna disappeared in a cloud of pink smoke.
X X X X
Wearing silk was fucking weird, man. Some ladies had taken off her body hair and the strange, cool fabric was only highlighting the loss. She felt hyper aware of her own skin, in a way she wasn't sure was good or bad.
But anyway, Tsuna was all cleaned up and dressed in a blood red gown. She assumed the flashiness was to distract from her teenager-ness. But over all the chatter and tasteful string music, she had a bad feeling. She kept having visions about Primo and some guy who looked like Enma, she had fake nails on, and she was at a goddamn ball!
What was she even supposed to do? She didn't have any boss training. Reborn never taught her diplomacy in between threatening to shoot her and really shooting her! And she didn't understand how anyone was buying that she was twenty-five! Surely these people had met her before?
"This fucking sucks," she whispered to Bouche Croquant. She was trying to stay out of sight, but the red dress just made her an easier target. At the beginning, the Ninth talked, she smiled, and they tried to present a united front. She fucking hated the guy though, so it probably looked like she was trying to kill him with her eyes alone.
"A few more hours, little miss," he said. She could tell he was trying to look disapproving but a smile pulled at his lips. "And then I'll teach you some parlor tricks as a reward. Just try not to look like you're plotting a murder." Tsuna felt warmth flow through her veins. How would it be, to return to the present where she knew him as a friend but he didn't know her at all?
"Thank you for being my friend, Sir Croquant," she said.
"There's no need to thank me, little miss," he said. "It's been an honor to teach you."
And then, before she could respond, an ever-so-familiar shade of pink engulfed her. And when it cleared, she was surrounded by faces of her own time. Her guardians, Enma and Co., Reborn, and the demon from her nightmares. She felt like she was trapped in the dream again.
To be or not to be? She thought, a skull trapped in his terrible hand.
A/N: Hello! It's been, like, ten years, I know. But I only got over my writer's block a couple days ago. And I've been writing in the time I haven't been studying for midterms. I know, like, excuses, excuses, excuses. But I just wasn't feeling it for a while.
Not a lot of romance in this chapter but, you know, they were kinda displaced. I was thinking about it and I think Bouche Croquant might come off as kind-of a villain but that is not what I was going for! He's just nice and old, I promise.
But anyways, thanks for reading and favoriting and following and reviewing!
Special thanks to lovelydragonfly, pupstarstar, TomRiddlesTwin, and RainbowMaze for reviewing since last time!
To answer a specific review:
RainbowMaze- thanks for being so nice! I hadn't thought about an Arcobaleno story til you brought it up, but I think it would be cool once I finish Nectarine. I think I'll let the readers decide whether they want it to be AU or canon. Love you!