25. Disillusionment
Word Count: 849
In companion to Entombment.
The air carried the scent of fresh blood, tobacco, and lilies.
The sky overhead was framed by the tall trees of the forest.
The grass of the clearing swayed with the wind.
Two men stared frozen at the open black coffin in the middle of the clearing.
Both men bore the same expression of tiredness; the kind of tiredness that only came from living.
"…Tenth is going to kill me." Gokudera breathed, a trail of smoke slipping past his lips.
"Don't try and fool yourself, Gokudera Hayato," Hibari Kyouya beside him spoke, steel eyes not once moving from the coffin. "Sawada Tsunayoshi is dead."
"I know." Gokudera snarled, but his anger was empty. "I know, bastard. When we meet again, he's going to kill me."
A bitter smirk twitched Hibari's lips up, "And what makes you sure you'll be in the same place when you die?"
"Because the Tenth and I will always be together. This is only temporary," Gokudera droned almost robotically, as if he had been telling himself the same thing repeatedly, over and over for the past few months.
"Thinking like that will get you in the same spot as this herbivore."
"Yamamoto had been losing it since we closed this coffin." Gokudera snapped back. "This… This was undeniably inevitable."
Silence reined the two, eyes still downcast on the open coffin.
"…What did you see?" Hibari spoke quietly.
"Everything," Gokudera hissed through clenched teeth, said teeth biting into the filter of the cigarette.
"I fucking saw everything! How he stood by the Tenth's office as if he would return, how he spoke as if Tenth was still here, how he acted like Tenth was right next to him, how he cried himself to sleep at night-" Gokudera tossed the cigarette to the ground and stomped on it angrily, "I saw every fucking shred of his sanity leave!
"And when it hit him Tenth was actually gone, he- he became a whole different fucking person! He became a shell! Walking without purpose, living as nothing!" Gokudera laughed, the sound harsh, "He'd come back every mission, bloody, fucking bruised and scarred and each time I told him to him to get his ass healed he'd just say, 'Why should I? Tsuna's not here to worry over my health.' That fucking idiot!"
Gokudera buried his face in his fisted hands, "And then it started again! He started talking to the Tenth again! Everywhere he walked he was talking to him! And it wasn't normal conversations! He kept asking if what he was doing was good! If what he did made Tenth happy."
And everything was silent again, the trees only filling the silence as the wind ruffled their leaves. Gokudera's shoulders shook in tearless, silent sobs with Hibari beside him, eyes dull and staring in the coffin.
Gokudera's trembles slowed as he collected his composure and Hibari closed his eyes from the sight.
"If he was losing his mind, why didn't you stop him?" Hibari questioned, voice lower and quieter than before.
There was a long pause before Gokudera let out a derisive snort, the sound of a cigarette being lit following the noise, as well as a fresh whiff of tobacco smoke.
"The bastard smiled," he said softly, and Hibari gave a tired sigh.
"I stopped him just before he left, trying to figure out where he was going and he turned and told me, 'I'm going to see Tsuna.' And then he gave me that same damned smile that looked like the one he used to smile at us when he was a teenager."
Gokudera lifted the cigarette from his lips and let a cloud of smoke leave his lips, watching it as it carried higher to the sky. "…He looked so normal. I thought he finally came to terms that he couldn't continue acting that way, and needed to really let go of the Tenth, to say goodbye." Gokudera returned his gaze to the coffin, a horribly bitter smirk on his face, "I suppose he did, in his own fucking stupid way."
"A very herbivorous action, indeed." Hibari turned and started to walk away. "Do not expect for my return, Gokudera Hayato. I shall inform Vongola's closest allies of Yamamoto Takeshi's death. I'll leave the Guardians to you."
"Ah," Gokudera affirmed, listening to the sound of Hibari's footsteps fading. He closed his eyes and slowly inhaled, catching the scent of fresh rain coming through the scent of the smoke.
He smiled painfully and looked back at the coffin.
The coffin bedded by a plethora of white lilies.
The white lilies tainted by the pure red of fresh blood.
The fresh blood surrounding the lifeless form of Yamamoto Takeshi.
Yamamoto cradling the lifeless body of Sawada Tsunayoshi in his arms, Shigure Kintoki blooded in one hand.
And yet Tsuna laid in a bed of untainted white lilies.
Gokudera turned, the pained smile still on his face.
"Fucking baseball, sword bastard, looking happier than he's had in years…" And he left.
Yamamoto had a serene smile on his still face.
A/N: Let it be known to all that I reeeally enjoyed writing the Entombment/Disillusionment series. XD