Chapter 19: alterum non laedere

This had been going on for approximately thirty minutes, or eternity, as Tsuna had thought.

Tsuna was starting to feel stiff and airless, especially since she was pressed up really, really close against Yamamoto, and her mind was going in all sorts of directions. Why had she gotten herself into trouble again? Why, why in the world did she have to stumble upon the two most dangerous men one could ever get close to? Why did she even have to listen in Hibari's secrets?

One thing, Tsuna concluded – fate, destiny, something out there – just really hated her guts that much.

Tsuna could hear no more sound coming from the outside. No more bloodcurdling thumps, and definitely no more of Mukuro's derisive chortle. Yamamoto, too, loosened his grip on her, and he let his breath go.

"I suppose it's over now. You wait here Tsuna, I'll go see if the coast is clear," Yamamoto said as he cautiously stood up. He grabbed a metal pole from nearby, and began to creep towards the door. Tsuna shut her ears and closed her eyes, huddling up against the wall.

"Augh!"

Tsuna swung her head up, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw Yamamoto's figure fly backwards, as though he was a ragdoll. He hit the ground with a loud thump; Tsuna quickly found the perpetrator standing at the door. His figure – an imposing silhouette, stood mighty and superior. A metal stick gleamed in his hands – Tsuna could see the blood smeared over it.

It was Hibari.

Yamamoto struggled to get up again, but when he was on his feet, he lunged forward, throwing his entire body at Hibari. Tsuna, now teeth chattering and body shaking, slowly edged backwards until she hit something soft.

Dead, still eyes stared back at her. It was a disembodied head – Tsuna screamed loudly; her head had not quite registered that it was fake. However, the scream was enough to take Yamamoto's attention away from his battle with Hibari for a split second – and then, he felt cold, hard metal rammed into the side of his body. He flew to the ground, groaning in pain.

"S-Shit."

Hibari glared at the body that lay limply on the ground, and snorted scathingly.

"Pathetic. Weak. Take that as a warning – I didn't hit too hard."

Hibari swirled around and took his leave. Tsuna, meanwhile, was already tearing up. She let out short, loud gasps, crawling towards Yamamoto.

"Ya-…Yamamoto! What…" her hands were shaking, and tears were streaming down her face. She was not used to this – she was not used to having see people get physically hurt because of her. She did not know what to do. She patted around her pockets to check for her phone – but then she left it back in the resting room.

She was at loss as to what to do. Leave and tell Sasagawa? How could she leave Yamamoto alone! He could be dying, for all she knew – though admittedly Tsuna did not know much. Somewhat to her relief, Sasagawa came running in, after he noted a ragged Hibari walking casually across the hallway.

"Sawada! Oh god," he toned his voice down as he saw Tsuna sobbing over Yamamoto's body. He was wincing, but he could not move much, or even say much, though he still sustained a cheeky smile on his face – maybe in an attempt to relieve his pain and Tsuna's worry. Tsuna turned up, red-faced and snot-covered.

"Sa-Sasa..g-gawa-s-s-san. P-Please! Help! H-Help Yamamoto!"

The next thing she knew, she was curled around Sasagawa Kyoko, who was trying her best to relief her of the traumatic experience.

"Don't worry, Sawada-san. The doctor said it, didn't he? A rib fracture, a few broken bones – but no life-threatening abnormalities. It's really, really alright. Yamamoto just needs a little rest, I'm sure of it."

It was not working though – Tsuna was a softie, and it was the first time (technically second) she had seen a fight, and someone get injured just to protect her. It was rather dark by then – late evening – and Tsuna's stomach started in protest, for she had not had lunch nor dinner.

"See, Sawada, even your body's starting to complain. Please, when my brother settles all of the paperwork, we'll go out and have a hearty meal!"

Tsuna shook her head, sniffling.

"I think I'll go take a walk around the hospital."

She got up on her feet, and walked away, leaving a frowning Kyoko behind. As she walked, Tsuna tightened her coat around her body – despite the hospital being warm, she felt incredibly and oddly cold.

Tsuna was now walking aimlessly – maybe she was one level up, maybe she was one level down – but she was trying to walk it off. Maybe she could speak to Yamamoto after he awakened. Speaking of Yamamoto – Tsuna thought she had seen another Yamamoto's room.

"Yama…moto. Yamamoto Tsuyoshi," she glanced at the signboard – but she ended up shrugging it off. After all, Yamamoto was a rather common surname in Japan, so she would not have been surprised if she saw ten Yamamotos in the hospital, even. She walked around for awhile more, having cooled down a little. The fact that Yamamoto would be okay was starting to settle down in her head, and slight relief soon followed, though guilt still pinned itself heavily on her heart.

"Ah, Sawada-san! Let's go for dinner, since Nii-san is done. Then, you'd better go home and have a good rest. Yamamoto will surely be awake and happy to greet you in the morning."

Tsuna stared at the ward's door for a while more, before her stomach growled again. She had no choice but to take up on Kyoko's offer.

The next day, Tsuna got up bright and early to prepare a tonic drink and some soup for Yamamoto before work, and made sure they were in properly insulated containers so that they would remain warm.

Tsuna knew that it was not the hospital's visiting hours, so she made a mental note to tell the nurse to pass the items to Yamamoto when he was up.

"You're up early, Tsuna," Reborn crept up behind her. Tsuna quickly stifled a scream.

"W-What, Reborn? You're here to stop me from going to work, aren't you!"

Reborn smiled, but shook his head.

"I find that it is an idle thing to pursue, seeing as you so vehemently disagree to it, I guess there is nothing I can do," he said as he helped himself into the seat, the housebot serving him a warm cup of coffee.

Tsuna narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Reborn was never the type to give up – he was annoyingly stubborn at best, and always insisted on things to go his way, do or die. Either way, she chose to let it pass that moment, as she had to detour to the hospital – travelling would take a fair bit of time.

"Goodbye, Reborn."

It was still dark outside when she first left the house, but dawn arrived soon enough, when she had gotten to the hospital. After checking in the items with the nurse on shift, she took a brief look at the ward again. The feeling of remorse and guilt started to creep up her body. She wanted to stay, but she had her own job to do, and money to earn. She could not ask Haru for any more concessions – Haru was already rather lax on the rules she operated upon, especially with fragile Tsuna.

Sighing, she took heavy, drawn out steps and began to make her way to work. Of course, it was another long and dragged-out day. It was not until mid-afternoon that things started to pick up a bit. It started off with a little bit of staring from Tsuna, at a little pixie-like girl. She had long, oddly coloured blue hair. Tsuna could admit, she looked rather cute, but what was a little girl like her doing? She probably was at best, twelve or thirteen years old, Tsuna reckoned. She even had childish looking shell-shaped jewels stuck to her head.

"Hello, what are you looking at!" Tsuna was interrupted from her thoughts as the girl had stalked up to her.

"I, uh, nothing. Just a few things," Tsuna trailed off. She could not say much – although inside, she thought that she might have been making a bit of social progress – she had not talked to any of the maids since she entered, other than I-pin. The rest seemed almost too robotic and cold to approach.

The girl stuck out a tongue and her hand.

"Pleased to be meeting you. My name is Bluebell."

Ah, Bluebell – blue hair. That made sense. Tsuna reached out to shake Bluebell's hand.

"Uhm, mine is Tsuna. Sawada Tsuna."

"Good then, Tsuna! We'll be, uhm, good colleagues from now onwards!" she said in a rather awkwardly phrased sentence.

"Ah, yeah, sure. Pardon me for asking, but why are you working here? Surely you aren't older…"

Bluebell stuck out another tongue.

"I'm twenty, for your information! And my family kind of needs food on the table, so here I am, working as a lowly maid!"

Tsuna noted – she was a rather feisty girl.

"Ah, sorry about that," she bit her lip. Well, at least she had someone to liven up her dull days when I-pin was not around. She had not seen I-pin for quite a while, so she wondered how she was doing. Thus, the pair quickly decided that they would correspond during work, just to make things less dull. After all, idle chat seemed to take one's mind of many things.

Except things that made one feel incredibly, incredibly, awful.

That evening, Tsuna found herself standing outside Yamamoto's ward. She was feeling a bit nervous about going in, especially since she had not spoken to Yamamoto since yesterday, when the incident happened.

She knocked on the door softly, before the door automatically slipped open and allowed her to go in. However, she was not greeted with only Yamamoto, but an angry (well, he was always angry anyway) Gokudera as well. Yamamoto, as typical of Yamamoto, sent a weak wave at her. Gokudera just huffed and turned his head away.

"Uh, hi Gokudera-san, and Yamamoto-san. Are you feeling better?"

"Soup was great," Yamamoto managed to eke out the following few words, although in relative pain. Tsuna understood – after all, fractured ribs made even breathing laborious. She put her bag down and went to sit by Yamamoto's side.

"Hibari really didn't hit that hard," Gokudera said.

"Huh?" Tsuna looked up, and Yamamoto turned to him as well.

"The guy could probably have easily broken his ribs and allowed the bones to pierce his organs. You don't need to worry as much about this idiot here – it was his fault for getting distracted in a fight."

"Oh, right," Tsuna said. She thought that it was odd – Gokudera spoke as though he was a seasoned fighter, as though they were experienced warriors who fought and indulged in violence on a regular basis. Then again, many, many things were odd.

After a brief awkward silence, she saw the containers resting on a different table. She got up and retrieved them, putting them back into her bag.

"I'm really sorry Yamamoto. I really shouldn't have wandered all over the mansion. It's what caused you this injury in the first place!"

"No worries," he replied, and smiled. That did not make Tsuna feel any more relief. If any, it made her feel much guiltier.

Seeing as there was nothing much to be said, Tsuna got up and bid the pair goodbye. She could get up early tomorrow again to make more soup, and she would do it every day to compensate for what Yamamoto had to go through. Jirou would probably miss him too, but sadly, pets were not allowed in the hospital.

Now that she felt a lot like crap, she honestly wished that maybe Natsu would be sent over soon. She had felt a little spiritual connection with the little lion cub – he could be some sort of emotional reprieve for her.

A/N: Okaay, I honestly have no excuse for this 3 month break. I kind of got obsessed with other things, and dropped KHR along the way. So yeah, I've kind of lost interest in the series (though I am still reading it) but I guess there's a little juice in me to keep the story going?