After that, everything is quiet.
It's the kind of quiet that grated at Tsuna's skin, the kind that felt a little like knives cutting through every inch of his flesh, the kind that left him blindly grasping at air with his hands, the taste on his tongue bland and the smell nearly pungent with nothing. There's a muteness to his senses, dampened by a heavy and unrelenting cold weight that seemed to press down on the nape of his neck, not unlike his father's own when he used to lift him above the ground, and Tsuna despised the sensation with every fiber of his being.
(The unignorable presence of sheer absence was one thing. Having it constantly intruding, interfering, and dictating his thoughts was another.)
Nana is silent about it. Kensuke, even more so, after Tsuna nearly tears into his throat five days after his father's visit with that man. They don't speak of it, but every millisecond of delay in Tsuna's response, every awkward beat of inaction where his eyes would seem to burn out, and every abrupt display of unexpected aggression was indication enough that something has changed.
Being able to control the physical - and reflexive - manifestation of the ghoul in his blood was easier when he hasn't had anything interfere and mess with his system. That's a tad bit harder when his body responds to a stimulation that he couldn't even sense. He's fortunate that Kensuke is quick to alert him whenever he starts seeing the barest hint of black creeping into the corners of Tsuna's eyes when they're outside but it's not as if they share the same class - with Kensuke being a grade higher than him - and having to periodically excuse himself from class to check if he's manifesting is bound to get him some questions if done often enough.
Evidently, Tsuna should have figured that Nana wouldn't remain quiet about it forever.
(Especially not when it becomes less of a mild inconvenience and more of a perilous risk that could lead to the possible revelation and extinction of their kind.)
