…Coming up with ten of these is surprisingly difficult.
And reviewers, you are several different kinds of awesome. Thank you!
And now, onward!
Gokudera Hayato
1.
Gokudera first comes to Japan with enough Vongola connections to find himself a lovely Western-style suite to live in. This suite includes an ungodly large kitchen/dining room, a bedroom with a king-sized bed and walk-in closet, a bathroom with a hot tub, and a cleaning service.
Its only drawback is the two hour distance between it and Namimori, but he considers every second of the commute worth it.
2.
Gokudera is never quite able to make himself completely trust Chrome Dokuro. This has nothing to do with her…forward introduction (although on a different level entirely he never manages to forgive her for that, either), but rather her questionable alliance.
Gokudera knows Mukuro's the only thing keeping her alive, but he's had that bastard in his head and can't help but think any decent human being would have chosen death.
3.
As much as Gokudera admires Tsuna, he doesn't religiously stalk the Sawada household purely for his boss's sake.
Reborn may be scary as hell, but there aren't too many other Italian-speaking math nerds hanging around Japan besides the two of them.
4.
Gokudera is ultimately more of a thinker than a fighter. While strategies and equations come to him with the greatest of ease, actual combat is something he's always had to work at. Unfortunately, he has the heart of a fighter—he's tried the passive strategist thing alongside Giannini, Reborn, Bianchi and even Irie Shouichi, and the thought of supervising a battle without taking part in it drives him mad with frustration.
Gokudera's capacity for creating and mastering complex techniques that very nearly defy physics itself (although it's thanks to physics that he can manage them at all) keeps him in the same general range of ability as his fellow Guardians, but as he watches "natural born assassins" Yamamoto and Hibari, ridiculously training obsessed meathead Ryohei, his fellow Mafioso-from-birth Mukuro, and even kind-hearted, awkward Tsuna breeze past him with so much less effort and little to no thinking process, he can't help but feel left behind.
(It pisses him off to no end to realize that Chrome freaking Dokuro and that damn brat Lambo are the only Guardians who can relate to him at all in this respect.)
5.
Bianchi is one of the most terrifying people Gokudera knows, but nevertheless his sister is the only member of his family who has always supported him, and he loves her with all his heart.
It's just his stomach that can't stand her.
6.
Gokudera's upbringing has ensured that mercy is an entirely alien concept to him. Any and all insults, attacks, or threats, no matter how minor, are to be met with harsh retaliation. Anything less would be considered weakness.
This attitude gets Gokudera (by then well aware that he was the bastard child and therefore less privileged) kicked out of four public schools before his father reluctantly throws his son a lifeline and pays the ridiculous amount of money necessary to send a second child through a Mafia training academy.
Tsuna is the first person in Gokudera's life to introduce the concept of mercy to him, and Gokudera becomes enamored with it (and by extension, Tsuna himself) almost immediately.
Restraint, Gokudera is reluctant to admit, is not nearly as easy to learn.
7.
Ironically, years of Bianchi's cooking have rendered Gokudera nigh immune to conventional food poisoning.
Somehow he feels that the crippling pain he experiences every time he sees her face fails to make the payoff worth the price.
8.
Trident Shamal, as much as Gokudera hates to admit it, is his one and only father figure. He has Bianchi to thank for preventing him from picking up the good doctor's…less desirable habits back when he was young and impressionable, but he has no doubt that he'd be even more of a train wreck now if it weren't for Shamal's guidance.
Still, if that bastard leaves him bleeding on the floor just because he doesn't have a pair of breasts one more time, Gokudera's setting off his entire stock of dynamite in the medward.
9.
Many, many things about Yamamoto Takeshi enrage Gokudera, but by far the worst is the fact that he's so effortlessly likeable. Excepting academics, there are few casual situations where Tsuna will ever run to Gokudera first, and practically the entire rest of the world seems to concur.
Gokudera's growing suspicion that the baseball freak's borderline supernatural ability is finally beginning to affect Gokudera himself does not help, dammit.
10.
For better or for worse, Gokudera has always had a family. He's always had supporters and allies, deceivers and foes, and more complicated relationships than any middle school student should have to deal with.
Squeaky, scrawny loser Tsuna, however, is Gokudera's first friend. Tsuna's claim to the Vongola title could have turned out to be as phony as Xanxus's, and Gokudera wouldn't have done a damn thing differently.
Some bonds, he's discovered, go far deeper than even family, and he is never letting them go.
I only regret that I couldn't think up any having to do with his poor mother…alas.
I was going to do this in some sort of premeditated order…thing, but I recently decided I don't actually care. So guys: between Reborn, Bianchi, Kyoko, Haru, I-Pin, Lal Mirch, and any one of the Guardians, who do YOU, the viewer, want me to do next? I'll pick whoever has the most votes. Or something.
PS: Some glorious day, I'm also doing the Varia. They're just not an option because at the very least I want to keep them together. Hopefully.
Until…whoever is next, then!
(As always, reviews are love.)