Chapter 14: Part I - Treasure
Tsuna found it hard. Hard to breathe, hard to talk, hard to be around Yamamoto now. Guilt crept up her spines, but the person in question seemed to walk carefree and happily right next to her.
After all, it was hard to think when she had just offended him. Perhaps even his deepest, most treasured memories – yes, it would be awful if she had just offended something so close to him. She gulped.
She should have just kept her mouth shut.
And yet, Yamamoto-san acted as though nothing ever happened. Just like he did all the time. Thankfully for her, his face was hard to see. The setting sun had obscured his face in a dark silhouette.
"Aaaah, that was uneventful. But I enjoyed today! Thanks, Sawada!" Yamamoto said, turning to her. They (meaning Yamamoto) had decided to take a long route around to the car – apparently, he enjoyed the bone-chilling air. Unfortunately for Tsuna, the case was otherwise.
"Hey, look! A field!"
"Huh?"
True enough, when Tsuna turned her head towards the direction Yamamoto was pointing at, where a small field stood. She had heard of it – it was one of the last of its kind. In fact, it was the last of its kind – a field in which children could play games together – a field that was rarely used now. It had been there for years, and Tsuna heard that it was to be replaced by a new development. It was old now – it was there even before she was born. A place for children to gather and play after school; well, that was a thing of the past. Now the field was deserted. No one went there anymore.
Then she noticed, a young boy of probably no more than ten swinging a battered bat. His shadow stretched long, emphasizing the tiny, solitary figure. Yamamoto had noticed too – he unconsciously grabbed her hand and charged towards the field.
"Playing baseball?" he asked the boy. The boy, dwarfish and thin, probably because he did not get to eat much, swung around with so much force that he toppled over onto the ground. Yamamoto deftly pushed Tsuna behind and narrowly avoided the bat from swinging into his stomach.
"Oof!" the boy cried, as his bum made contact with the hard, dirty ground.
"Sorry, sorry! My bad!" Yamamoto bent down to give him a hand. However, the dark haired boy just stared at him, before hopping up by himself.
"Mom told me not to talk to creepy old men," he stated simply, and then turned his back.
Yamamoto, quite visibly, was taken aback by this.
"O-oi, oi – creepy old men? I'm not even twenty-five, let alone fifty!"
Tsuna stepped out from her daze and walked forward.
"Then…what about me?"
"People who look like losers, too. It might get to me."
She could feel herself turning into stone, then broken into a million tiny shards. Invisible tears streaked down her cheeks as she held her position – bent down with one hand on her knee and the other reached out in a handshake. The air felt even more chilly than before.
The reality of his words was the most hurting to her ego.
"N-No matter…" she tried to cough up a chuckle. It came off very badly.
"Anyway! That bat looks pretty big for a guy like you…why are you playing alone like this?" Yamamoto said as he patted Tsuna on the head. She needed time to recover.
The boy scrunched up his brows, then puffed up his cheek. He tapped his bat on the ground a couple of times, and put a finger on a chin, as though in deep thought.
"Fine! Just this time! Just this time I'll talk to you!"
"O-Okay…" Yamamoto put on a patient smile. Well, it looked patient, save for the slight twitch at the sides.
"This is my dad's baseball bat!" he said. Yamamoto looked curiously at it. The bat did indeed look rather aged. It seemed to have been through many, many things in its lifetime.
"Two! Because I can't do well in school, I want to become the greatest baseball player, like my dad! But not because I'm stupid, like her!"
Just as Tsuna was about to recover from her earlier shock, she froze up again.
I don't need a ten year old kid to tell me that!
Yamamoto looked down to see an equally worn out ball. He bent down and picked it up, examining it carefully.
"Happy birthday. Love, dad."
Of course, a birthday present from his father. Then, why was it so worn out?
"Hey! Don't stain the ball with your fingers, old man! It was a present from the greatest baseball player in the world – my dad – Fukuhara Shigeru! I bet you've heard of him, hah! It was personally signed – I bet you're jealous! And I'm going to be just like him when I grow up!" the boy hopped up and down excitedly as Yamamoto looked at the ball with interest.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" he smiled genially.
As a matter of fact, that baseball player was Yamamoto's idol in his childhood. Fukuhara-san was very young in those days, and Yamamoto could remember as he watched him on television, starry-eyed and admiring. He did also learn about Fukuhara Shigeru's death in a car accident several years back. Yamamoto mentally frowned.
"It's great that you want to be just like your father, but you know…You shouldn't dedicate all your time into baseball. You have to learn to balance out your time…and open up your heart to other hobbies. Don't forget your studies as well."
"Oh yeah, old man? That's just your naggy side speaking, like all adults do! You just don't know how I feel about this!"
"If there were one to understand such passion, that'd be me! Someone very important to me taught me that lesson, you know!"
The boy looked angrily and Yamamoto.
"Well, let's see you try to hit a Super-Duper-flying-Fukuhara-Takara-Special from me!" he walked up to Yamamoto, shoving the bat into his arms and snatching the ball.
"The game's on!" Yamamoto said. He made a mental note not to hit the ball too far, for he knew it was something precious to the boy, and if he did – it could get lost.
The boy ran backwards, and when he reached a distance he deemed appropriate, he started to swing his arm in circles, preparing to propel the ball.
"I'm going to throw the ball now!"
"Bring it on!"
"Eeeeeyeaaaah!"
The boy released the ball – and despite his scrawny frame, the ball was thrown with much strength and speed, though not extraordinarily spectacular. Yamamoto was able to hit the ball with ease. The boy looked in wonder as the ball went overhead, falling and rolling just to the edge of the field.
In that moment, Tsuna had finally fully recovered from her disgrace, and she looked at Yamamoto with the bat in his hand smiling victoriously at the boy before running up to pick up the ball.
"Takara! It's going to be dark! Stop playing baseball – we have to go home now!"
Tsuna turned to see a woman, her gaunt face wrinkled and hair carrying strands of white. She looked work-worn and worried.
"Eeeeeeeh! But mom!"
Yamamoto had just gotten back from retrieving the ball. The lady's eyes finally spotted Tsuna and Yamamoto. They lost their strict glint, instead turning apologetic.
"Has my son been bothering you?" she said, bowing down repeatedly a few times.
Tsuna shook her head and waved her hands in front of her.
"N-Not at all!"
A white lie.
"I daresay ma'm, he makes an excellent baseball player!" Yamamoto winked at the boy. He walked up to him and put the bat and ball carefully into his hands.
"I apologise if my son has disturbed you! Now, come! You still have a bunch of homework to do!" she walked up to her boy, gently grabbing his arm and then tugging him off in the opposite direction. The boy did seem to want to say something more.
"Bye bye, old man and his loser girlfriend! You'd better teach me more baseball tricks next time!"
Yamamoto and Tsuna both blushed at that, but Tsuna did not take it especially well.
L-L-Loser girlfriend! It's not like that! Ooooooooh!
"Apologise to them, Takara!"
All the boy did was to stick his tongue out. He wrung himself free of his mother's grip and ran forward.
"C'ya later!"
The lady bowed towards them one last time before running up to catch up with her son. The field was now silent, except the breathing of the two people who remained.
"You know, Sawada…the world out there…"
"I know. I've been more ignorant of it than ever."
"Shall we go?"
Before they could leave, Tsuna felt the same buzzing of the default ringtone in her ear.
"Hold on – hello, Reborn?"
A/N:My pokemans. Let me show you them.
Anyway, I apologise (really deeply) for the long, long, looooooong wait. I just received my tablet, so I'm back on track. Unfortunately, my EOYs are coming up real soon, sooo, let's just say updates will be quite sparse until after the start of October.
I've decided to upload this chapter in parts, so this is part I - just because I've kept ya'll waiting for a long time. In a sense, this kind of looks like a filler chapter/omake, but yeah. Parts I and II will even have different names, just because I thought...something else might suit this better. The "Treasure" here is a verb, by the way.
I also know I've been killing everyone with the boring slow pace, but after these few chapters, trust moi, the pace will pick up.
So really, thank you for the reviews and everything when I was being a lazy bum.
On a sidenote, I have rekindled my love for Pokemanz. So if you're wondering where the hell I got the name Fukuhara Shigeru, well, just remember he's GARY M'FING OAK.On the other hand, Fukuhara Takara's name carries a hidden meaning (along with the chapter title) which is close to me, but unmentioned in the awful narration of my story. This OC...is probably just a one-time. Unless I decide he makes a cameo. Cause I'm not sure if I really like OCs.
Mudkieps. I herd yuo liek dem.