CHAPTER II

But they did, a few years after highschool. You were going to university, studying in the medical field and working part time as a waitress and bartender at an Italian style restaurant close to your university. The days were long, the nights were longer and you felt you never had any time to yourself, but it was okay, you were on the path to a better future. There were several times where you'd have to go out into the field and shadow a doctor for a day, assist in an mock procedure or intern at a hospital.

This time though, a classmate asked you to take over her placement after becoming ill. It was at your old highschool, where she was interning as the school nurse. You gladly accepted, feeling the waves of nostalgia being back at Namimori.

The day had ended and you decided to finish your paper work in the school's nurses office instead of at home. You were lucky to have the night off from work so that you could just go home and relax. Wrapping up the last of your work, you checked your watch and realized you had lost track of the time immersed in your workload.

You stood, placing the papers inside your briefcase when you heard a melancholy tune floating in the air. It was only slight, but you could hear the sound of the piano. You weren't sure if you should've ran out of the school as quickly as you could because as far as you thought it was just you and the janitor left in the school. So the janitor plakyed piano?

"Heh," you muttered through a smile.

When you opened the door of the office, the sad but alluring music seemed to have gotten louder and it was drawing you in. The curiosity of who was playing this beautiful melody started to eat away at your sensibility. Setting your briefcase case down in the door way, you headed towards the music room where you knew the only grand piano in the school resided, naturally.

The door to the music room was ajar, but not open far enough for you to peer in at the pianist. You frowned as you thought the janitor was clearly wasting his talent cleaning a school. The piece lasted a few more minutes and when it ended you felt a little empty and emotional, you could feel the musician's woe and despair. You turned to leave when the door to the music room opened. You turned around to quickly apologize to the janitor for invading his privacy when you froze. Standing in front of you was the green eyed, silver haired hot head you disliked immensely in highschool. Both your eyes went wide in unison.

"G-Gokudera," you stammered with surprise. He clenched his fist and furrowed his brow. Anger clouded his face. You took a step back instinctively and raised your hands in defense.

"I-I uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude."

His face softened a little. "Tch", came the sound he made when he clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth in annoyance. "What are you doing here, stupid woman?"

It was your turn to clench your fists. How this person made you so angry with his constant arrogance. "I could ask you the same thing," you answered with anger, but your tone faltered.

He clucked his tongue again and brushed passed you, heading down the hallway.

Against your will, your legs began to move towards him, following his lead. He looked behind him to see you on his heels and he rolled his eyes.

"Quit following me," he growled.

You blew through your pursed lips. "I'm not following you, my bag is at the nurses office. Don't flatter yourself." You instantly regretted the words as they floated out of your mouth. He stopped and turned around.

"The nurses office?" His tone held a sense of intrigue.

You raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Yes."

He looked out the windows lining the corridor walls. You followed his gaze to the beautiful orange and pink streaked sky with the setting of the sun.

"You play beautifully," you added in hopes of lessening his oncoming verbal assault. You sincerely meant it. He clicked his tongue again and you noticed a soft pink blush dust his cheeks. It made his green orbs stand out against the orange glow from the sun. What was this? You felt some sort of twinge in your heart. The person standing in front of you didn't remind you of the 15 year old angry teenager you first met six years ago. He looked at you and this time there was no anger, no arrogance, no annoyance. He blew a strand of silver hair out of his face. This was totally out of his character. He was almost...attractive. Did you really just think that? This made you blush a little too. Quickly trying to hide it, you rushed past him toward the office and grabbed your bag.

wait!" he called. You stopped your brisk walk down the hall and turned. "I wouldn't be forgiven if he ever found out I was...short...with you." He avoided your eyes and you could tell he was annoyed at having to say anything apologetic but did it for him anyways. Tsuna.

You recalled the day he scolded Gokudera in these very halls for the way he treated you.

You smiled and sighed. "How is he anyways?" Gokudera started to move toward you, still avoiding your stare.

"He's doing good, got his affairs in order. Of course, being his right hand man," he jabbed a thumb at himself, "I helped guide him on his true path." His voice was full of admiration, not arrogance as you thought it would be. You figured 'right hand man' was code for 'best friend'.

"That's nice," you say sweetly. "Maybe we could have that lunch date sometime." You saw the tempered silverette's face cloud over again.

"As if-" he began in his usual tone but then stopped himself. "He's really busy, he doesn't have much time for anything," Gokudera added coolly.

You felt as if there was something more behind his reply but decided not to question it. After all, it wasn't a natural occurrence that Gokudera would be civilized to another human being.

You smiled again, this time to let him know you had nothing more to say to him."Okay, well, please let him know I said hello and that I wish him well." Something shifted in his eyes and he looked out the window again.

"Yeah, okay."

You felt really frustrated, trying to be nice to a person you just wanted to kick was exhausting. But you guessed that's the way he felt about you. Except you had never given him a reason to dislike you. You didn't bother to say goodbye, you just hurried out of Namimori as quickly as you could to avoid any more awkward conversations.

Later that week you were unable to get that sorrowful melody Gokudera had played a few days prior out of your head. You couldn't get the image of him blushing in the dusk lit hallway of Namimori. You couldn't get him off your mind at all. It made you feel like scrubbing your brain free of these memories with bleach. You didn't want to think of Gokudera like that, you knew differently, the way he was at the school wasn't him. He was only being civil toward you because of Tsuna. You thought of him at the piano again. Was there more to Gokudera you were overlooking because of his off putting exterior? Was there some loneliness, some sadness that was deep in Gokudera's heart? It kind of made sense to you now, his overly excessive angst. He was trying to protect a much more fragile Gokudera on the inside.

Your thoughts were interrupted by a playful voice attempting to place an order of drinks at the bar you were stationed behind. You set the glass you were drying down and turned. You saw a tall Japanese man with hazel eyes and stark black hair smiling down on you. You took note of a deep laceration on his chin that was just starting to scar over. You thought he looked familiar but couldn't figure it out.

"I'm sorry," you say with a nervous laugh. "Could you repeat that?"

"Haha," he laughed, running his hand through his hair.

Suddenly it dawned on you. It was Yamamoto Takeshi! "Yamamoto?"

"Oh!" His eyes widening with realization. "It's you, (Y/N)!"

Gokudera's POV

He looked over at the you behind the counter, frustrated that the baseball idiot picked the one bar in town that had you in it.

After his run in with you at the school, he couldn't get you out of his head, the same words "You play beautifully." repeating like a record skipping .

He didn't like this feeling, he didn't understand it. But as he watched you laugh with Yamamoto, he felt a twinge of jealousy flare from deep in his gut. He had never seen you laugh like that around him, you were always so timid. He supposed it was because he was always short tempered but the truth was he didn't have an interest in stupid women, women at all for that matter, he never had the time. Sure there had been girls, lots of them, the Vongola were privy to flocks of them that he would put between the sheets and send home the next morning. None of them sparked an interest in him like you had, he couldn't even remember their faces.

He lit a cigarette and took a long drag, savoring the tabacco and exhaling a billow of smoke through his nostrils. He thought about going over to the bar, yelling at the baseball freak for taking so long but really it was just an excuse to see you. He clicked his tongue of the roof of his mouth and took another pull on his cigarette.

No, he thought. It was safer to stay here and not be noticed. He didn't want to feel any of those surging emotions he was beginning to have every time he thought of you. The faster he forgot about you, the better. He didn't need you to affect his job performance. He thought he'd take home another random, faceless girl and use her to erase your blushing face from his memory.

Thinking that made him feel a little guilty and these feelings, they were starting to make him itch with insanity. He was a man of logic and feeling this way about someone he barely knew was illogical.

Taking a third, long haul of his cigarette he decided he was going to get drunk. Get drunk and forget your face that way and if he brought home a girl it would be out of a drunken stupor, a inebriated mistake. He couldn't feel guilty for that.

Yamamoto returned with the drinks, his lips spread wide into a stupid grin.

"What took you so god damned long, yakyū baka?!" he shouted, snatching the glass from his rather annoying partner.

Yamamoto laughed and said, "Hey, did you know that (Y/N) works here? She's studying -"

Gokudera cut him off. "I don't know who that is and I don't care about that. When is shibafu headdo supposed to get here? I need someone less annoying to entertain me. Che, and even he's annoying. Why am I surrounded by morons?" He dragged on his cigarette, blowing the smoke angrily out of his nostrils.

Yamamoto rolled his eyes and grinned. "I've got to let Tsuna know she works here."

Gokudera shot him a glare hot enough to melt through metal. "Do not distract Juudaime. Reborn-san clearly said he needs to focus on his training." Yamamoto's lips twitched into a small frown. "Yeah, you're right."

Gokudera turned his attention towards you again, he watched as you adjusted your crisp, white blouse and flipped back your (h/c) hair off your shoulder, tucking it behind your ear. He thought you looked cute like that. Realizing where his mind was wandering, he growled and took another swig of his drink, now more determined to immerse himself in the alcohol that would help him forget.