A slow, rhythmic beat echoed weakly in the dimly lighted room. Tsuna sat there quietly, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. He watched his predecessor, his faux grandpa, as he slept, the old man quiet and serene. Tsuna frowned at the pulled out heartbeats, wondering if the next time he visited, there would only be an empty bed and grim, mourning faces. He never really liked black.
It was sitting by Nono that he remembered a funeral. His first, he realised. The rain fell like the sky was crying, and tapped against their shoulder blades in an attempt to comfort the mourners. He saw a lot of people crying for his mother's colleague, from a time before she married his father. But amidst the grieving, there was a child who didn't. The dead lady's son. All the other boy did was glare at the ground like it was the reason his mother had died. The boy seemed to catch Tsuna's staring, and glowered at him. Tsuna had timidly squeaked, before nestling into Nana's black dress.
His mother had placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn't like the look on her face, the hollow look in her eyes, or her sunken cheeks. He tried to smile at her, reassure her, but she took one look at his face and started to cry. He was frantic, and embraced her. She made him promise that he won't leave. Not like Papa. Not like Yamamoto Sachi. He only hugged her, something in him telling him that he shouldn't make such promises. Instead, he made her promise that she would stay safe.
He guessed now that he's seen the future, he could say it was a wise choice to not have made that promise. If he did, the both of them would have broken their promises.
He blinked back the memories, frowning as he remembered dying again. His forehead pulsed at the thought, trying to wrap itself around the idea of the continuum of space and time. Wasn't very smart of the Arcobaleno, seeing as which a normal human's mind wasn't exactly made to survive the laws of Physics. He sighed. Maybe he'd been studying too much into his headache. Or maybe he had been studying too much with Gokudera. He thought too much now. It was probably just stress. Yeah. It was just the stress that came every time he thought of the future where he died. Yeap.
"Tsunayoshi?" A weak voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up, and stared into the half-lidded eyes of his pseudo-grandpa. It was nice to think of him like that, he never met his biological grandparents. The old man smiled, but Tsuna could tell that the small action was taking a great deal of energy from him. He pulled the chair closer to the bed, if only so that the current Vongola Head didn't need to expend so much energy to talk to him. Tsuna smiled at his predecessor.
"Good morning, Nono." He realised his Italian, while getting better, was still thickly accented. Reborn reminded him of that fact every night when he though him languages after all. But Nono's eyes widened with glee, and his smile grew just a smidge bigger. There was a flicker of pride in Tsuna, and he let it flood into his smile.
He felt like a child, but as he grew older, he just wanted to hold onto this feeling of doing something right, unlike what he'd been doing everyday of the past…what? 14 years? He squashed down the self-deprecation, before returning his attention to Nono, to which he realised with a jolt that he was waiting for him to reply to something.
"Sorry, I didn't quite…er…catch that." He flushed with embarrassment as he switched back to his primary language. Nono chuckled.
"I asked you if you have progressed in your search for your partner. Coyote had informed me of their request to you." Nono seemed to enjoy the blush of mortification on Tsuna's face. Tsuna grimaced, looking away as his mind flashed to scarlet hair and cheeky eyes. His flush turned more vibrant.
"She…It's going fine." He stated simply, still not looking at Nono. Nono chuckled again, and the reminder of M.M had Tsuna recalling something. "Nono?" The Ninth hummed softly. Tsuna gulped, before scratching the back of his head. "Do you still remember about the Mélodie?"
Timoteo looked at him, surprised, before it hardened. Suddenly Tsuna could tell why the Vongola was feared. "How do you know about that?" He hissed, and Tsuna almost stuttered out a reply, until Reborn's voice flitted into his mind.
A Boss never shows weakness.
He stared back at the bedridden man. A wave of calm washed over him. "So you knew." He said it slowly and decisively. It wasn't a question. "Did you know there wasn't enough evidence to incriminate them?" Nono's expression twitched, and Tsuna knew the answer. He took a slow breath, closing his eyes as he exhaled. When he opened them again, they were a dark orange.
"Were you there?"
M.M paced her bed, checking inside each drawer at least five times to check if it was empty. Mukuro watched her intently, and even Chrome had a smile of amusement. M.M glared at them both, before resuming her check. And like the last fifteen times she checked, it was cleared of her belongings. Chrome giggled, before thumbing the jacket that M.M had laid out over her bag. She giggled again when M.M swiped it away from under her grasp and held it to her chest almost protectively.
Mukuro only watched the two with a thin veil of interest.
M.M, finally tired of pacing, flopped onto her bed, the uncomfortable hospital mattress creaking at the sudden weight. She scowled at it, almost offended at the sound.
She sighed, glancing at the clock. Deciding to do something productive, she pulled out a book, ignoring the twin looks of chagrin on Mukuro's and Chrome's faces. There were reasons Kokuyo didn't have any actual lessons and one of the reason was watching her with disgusted heterochromatic eyes as she flipped through the Science textbook.
To be fair, it wasn't really to do something productive, but to distract herself from the next day's events. In around 18 hours she would be packed onto a private jet with people she still wasn't sure trusted her. M.M thought back to the wild look in Smokin' Bomb's eyes when she was caught fighting (well, sort of) Tsuna's dad.
Her mouth went dry at the thought of Tsuna. He was becoming a mystery. The idea of it felt like a joke, but in the end, M.M couldn't understand him as well as she did when they first met, as 'enemies'. It seemed almost simpler back then.
She ran a hand against the rough felt of denim on her jacket, wondering absently if she should ask Mukuro if he knew whether Tsuna was acting weird. If Mukuro couldn't do it, no one could. She sat up, wanting to ask the Mist form of her… boss (?) when Nana stumbled into the room, an apologetic smile on her face.
"I'm so sorry, M.M-chan! There was a sale and-" M.M smiled at Tsuna's mom, shaking her head to signify she was fine with it. Nana turned to smile at Chrome and Mukuro.
"Thank you for taking care of M.M-chan." She bowed quickly, before turning back to M.M. "Let's go home, ne, M.M-chan."
M.M wondered why she was thanking Chrome and Mukuro before the Mist got a bit thicker and nurses' outfits formed around the duo. She looked at Nana, who stared back at her expectantly, as if she thought there was a chance that M.M wouldn't want to leave the godforsaken place that was the hospital. She thought about it and a thought passed through her mind and she smiled softly.
Maybe Nana just felt lonely.
M.M was willing to let the other woman be selfish, at least so that she could make up for taking up the space in their house. She nodded and stood, grabbing her bag. She nodded to the Vongola Mists as Nana rambled on about having a feast to celebrate M.M's discharge.
The next time she turned around, the two were gone, dissipated and erased from the other patients' memories.
Like the mist, a voice sounding strangely like Chrome's quipped.
M.M smirked, before wondering aloud that it would be nice to have some omelette.
Nana snapped on the chance and immediately said she'd cook it.
(Tsuna would've looked at her with a cheeky grin. Omelettes were Nana's favourite food, after all.)
Woah it has been a long time since we updated. I was supposed to update on Saturday but I...forgot. Sorry. Completely my fault there.
Yeah so thing is, now there may be a really long hiatus, lasting until November. See, I had kinda messed up on my midterms, so I can't write too much. Only reason I can update is cos I'm sick and absent from school. (Been falling sick way too much) I still hope that you can stick with us and be patient.
Reviews are appreciated, and as always, thank you for reading.