First of all, thank you for the lovely comments, they've been a great encouragement to keep writing this - I felt like giving up like ten times this chapter. Seriously, it's been killing me. That's most likely the reason the coherency isn't as good as it could be at certain places... That's Yamamoto's fault! XD No, really, it's way harder for me to write in his POV than in Gokudera's... Well, here it is anyway, please bear with me through this emo-stage of both of them, I promise to at least insert random accidental fluff moments :3

Chapter five: The Day After

Dawn broke through the unveiled windows, the first rays of the early morning sun sliding across raven black hair, caressing the lines of their owner's face and slowly prying his amber eyes open until the young man sprawled against the wall finally gave in. It was still far too early for school and he was still sleepy, not to mention his entire body was sore from sleeping curled up sitting on the floor.

His eyes traced the rays that roused him to their source, marvelling at the stunning sight of the Earth's nearest star spilling its soothing light slowly over the horizon, driving away the inky blue of the nightsky, painting the few clouds with radiant orange.

It took several seconds for realisation to hit him, to remember the reason why he had spent the night sprawled against the wall – and instantly, the reflection of the bright coloured sky in the pools of his sincere eyes faded to its dark negative. Had the silver-haired male whose presence still lingered in the room seen the unspoken longing swirling within regret and torment in his eyes now, he'd understood; but Yamamoto would never let him see anything but his best smile, even when he felt like screaming in anguish for having to keep his distance, and for suffering through all the insults and punches.

Before he knew, the baseball ace was fully dressed and out of his house, with more than an hour still left before school. He kept losing himself in the memory of yesterday evening, wondering whether had he truly crossed the line this time. Was Gokudera already suspecting him, or merely dismissing him as an annoying pervert? No matter what the case was, it was likely he'll be even more reserved towards him than normal.

His wandering brought him to the street where his beloved lived – it seemed like his feet knew well enough what dwelled in his heart, and where his longing led to. Considering his options briefly, he paced up and down the pavement, hands buried deep inside his pockets and face snuggled in the collar of his shirt.

However, it didn't take too long for his eagerness to know how badly had the yesterday's events screwed up their already fragile and stormy relationship to win over his worries, and he found himself in a half-obscured place where he could wait unseen for the storm guardian to show up and then 'accidentally' run into him.

His plan worked perfectly; Gokudera was too absent-minded to notice the lean posture of the sportsman half-hiding behind a nearby tree, and merely hurried along the road towards Tsuna's house to pick up the juudaime just like every single morning. Yamamoto hesitated for a moment, then jogged lightly after his silver-haired classmate as if he'd just happened to cross his street and notice him.

"Good morning, Gokudera!"

His brightest smile was etched on his face to greet the juudaime-right-hand-man, while his mind threatened to blow up with anxiety – what will become of their already unstable and mostly one-sided friendship? How badly had he screwed up?

However, the reaction was unlike anything he'd expect.

"Mornin'," came the silent answer.

Yamamoto stared at his classmate in shock. No yakyuu-baka, asshole, jerk, blockhead, imbecile, mindless cretin or anything. He simply greeted back, not even making a grimace, or bothering to furrow his eyebrows in a threatening expression – no, absolutely nothing. Hell, he didn't even seem to notice the awkwardness of meeting him here.

Something was wrong, very wrong.

Not only his gut feeling, but the blatant facts proved that clearly. He had never once in his life seen Gokudera that spaced out.

Daring a closer peek at the bomber's face since he didn't seem to be reacting or threatening to blow him up, the baseball freak noticed dark rings staining the silky-soft pale skin, circling the stormy olive green eyes that now looked rather hazy.

"Gokudera, are you all right?" he asked, maybe a tad too worriedly – but the addressed didn't seem to be paying attention to the undertone.

"Ah," was all that escaped the lips he longed so hard for, but knew they were not his to claim.

They kept walking in silence towards Tsuna's house; Yamamoto didn't dare to interrupt the silence again and was now biting his lip, suppressing back the numerous questions about his classmate's health and well-being while he listened to his even breathing. Damn, he was too worried to enjoy the company and relish in the mere two inches that separated them as they walked the streets alone.

'Could this be... the effect of yesterday...? Is this ... my fault...?'

Or ... did something else happen to him...?'

Panic started gripping him as they approached the all too well-known porch, and laid their eyes upon the homey-looking façade of their friend's house, and Gokudera still haven't mouthed a single word or changed his stoic expression.

'What would happen if Tsuna sees him like that...?'

However, all his worries turned out to be baseless – for, as soon as Tsuna answered the doorbell with his classic shit-we're-gonna-be-late-again-what-will-happen-if-hibari-san-gets-us expression, Gokudera seemed to be his normal self once again. That is, at least on the surface. Beaming at Tsuna, he literally dragged him towards school, spitting a shower of insults at a group of innocent first-years that happened to be in his way, and recklessly attempted to fill them with dynamite when they didn't move fast enough, which their mild-natured bearer of the Vongola sky ring successfully prevented once again.

'...heh, I guess Tsuna was all he needed...' the raven-haired sportsman thought bitterly. 'Juudaime here, juudaime there... always just the juudaime...' Of course, that wasn't anything new to him – and yet, it still hurt every time the blatantly obvious signs forced him tore-realise it regretfully.

'While Tsuna can make him laugh by just appearing... I couldn't even make him as much as yell at me.'

He had always known the situation was hopeless. A love triangle, just like in those Spanish-Brazilian-Venezuelan-and-whatnot-soup-operas, the ones that knew only three different scenes – crying, screaming about their love and emotions, and getting killed. He loved Gokudera, Gokudera had his eyes only for Tsuna, and Tsuna was after Kyoko. The only thing that kept giving him hope was the way the girl reacted to the kind-hearted teen – in his honest opinion, it was just a matter of time the two would end up together. Of course, that would leave the juudaime-right-hand-man heartbroken, but maybe... Maybe, if he kept waiting, and then when the time would be right, just kept near him, being there for him... comforting him... then maybe... maybe there was still hope; hope that the heart-broken Gokudera would simply get used to him being around, and start to feel comfortable around him... and maybe, if the time was right, accepted him as a replacement.

'Even if just once, I want to be the one that makes you smile.'

xXx

It was as if the sky liked the day before so much that it decided to reproduce all the same conditions; once again, the clear sky devoid of all clouds was lit up by the radiant star that provided the conditions for life on this planet, scorching the inhabitants of it as they were some annoying bugs you'd love most to just disappear.

School just ended, and Tsuna disappeared with Reborn immediately after class, the infant dragging him along, explaining mid-run that they had some serious studying to do for the science test the day after tomorrow. He certainly did always choose the best moments to live up to his role as the former-no-good-Tsuna home tutor.

As Yamamoto waved them goodbye, he noticed their silver-haired friends with the looks and attitude of a delinquent leaning against the robust fence surrounding the Namimori Middle School. The moment the juudaime's attention wasn't on him, he'd go to the same absent-minded stoic-looking state he'd been in since morning; up to this point, it became clear to the baseball ace that his normal behaviour in front of Tsuna was merely façade he put up in order not to worry the juudaime. He admired the storm guardian for that, for being so strong for the one that was special to him; and yet, the fact that he was the only one Gokudera deemed important enough burned him inside like heated iron ready for marking cattle.

He wanted to walk up, lean next to him onto that fence, and make him share what was troubling him. But he knew better; surely, Gokudera wouldn't share his problems with someone as him, and... no matter how hard it was to admit, it was probably better to just leave him alone to straighten things out by himself, as he had always done.

'He's too hard on himself... he always was... not relying on others... just doing everything on his own...'

He knew that was his way, and that he probably knew no better, since he'd lived so far like this... For the time being, it was better for Yamamoto to try to forget that troubled face adorned with strands of loose silvery hair and focus on baseball instead. Actually, he should be worrying a lot more about baseball than that octopus head, with the regionals coming up and one of the more reliable players having sprained his ankle yesterday... today was the day they were trying out the replacement. Today would determine if they still had chances of getting through to the national championship finals.

With a sigh, he retreated to the baseball court, trying to focus on that battered stitched-up ball while stealing glances towards Gokudera whenever he could.

He took a pause to observe the recruit they were trying out. He wasn't anything special in terms of agility, or speed, or strength, or technical knowledge or anything actually. Just another average player, with an average percentage of hits and misses, one who'll maybe once or twice in a lifetime manage to hit a homerun. He could estimate his prowess in a few glances, the tryouts were unnecessary. They'll have to train him to insanity if they want to get through the preliminaries...

Yamamoto's mind strayed away once again, as he took a few away from the field, seemingly looking away, resting his gaze on the silhouette of the school, while stealing a glance towards Gokudera. Funny though, he seemed to be standing closer than before. But there was no evidence of him having moved, so the baseball ace dismissed the thought.

Just as he was about to return to the field, a speeding object came into his view – a baseball bat?

'Did that idiot just manage to throw the bat?'

A split second later, realisation hit him.

Gokudera was directly in the path of the thrown bat, and his mind was nowhere even close to reality. There was no way he'd notice it in time.

He knew he had to act fast. The processing of information in his brain, and his instinctual reaction were lightning fast, and as he bolted towards his friend it seemed like the entire world slowed down as if played half-speed. Just in time, he reached Gokudera, and acting the only way he knew would get him out of the bat's way, flung himself towards the bomber, gripping him around the waist tightly, making them fall to the ground together, their sun-heated bodies collapsing against each other.

For a few moments, they both disappeared from sight in a cloud of dust. As the light breeze whipped the air around them clear, a rather strange sight surprised Yamamoto's teammates. Sure, they cheered happily as their captain saved an innocent bystander from certain death-by-baseball-bat, but couldn't suppress feeling a bit weird about the situation.

After all, for a few seconds, they could all witness Yamamoto clinging to Gokudera with his eyes closed, arms clutched tightly around the other male's waist, his body arched over the lean posture of the silver-haired teen in a protective manner. Their captain, protecting and holding down another male with his body as if it the world depended on it, and both of them, as if frozen in that awkward protective embrace for a few long seconds.

The saviour's mind wasn't really functioning properly. All he could focus on was the lean body temptingly sprawled underneath him, and the fact that the storm guardian was safe. He knew their position was weird enough already, and that he had to restrain himself from doing anything to worsen it; only that took most of his brain capacity. But he was unable to let go as well.

Then, for the first time that day, the swirling pools of jade focused on him, and met his gaze; it seemed like the inquiring eyes were asking him 'Why? Why did you save me?'

But before the raven-haired teen could answer, the spell was broken, and Gokudera shove him away, hissing "get off me, yakyuu-baka" hoarsely, leaving the school grounds as if in a hurry.

Once again, he was left alone after a situation he felt he might've gone too far.

However, this time, there were those few seconds of that utterly confused look on the face adorned with silver that could not comprehend why someone the likes of the stormy bomber would be saved by the always-smiling baseball star of the school.

Waving his surprised teammates goodbye, Yamamoto left the court as well. He had enough for today. He couldn't concentrate on baseball anyway, and was no use for the team. The only good he was for today, was saving Gokudera... a tiny smile made his way to his lips, curling up the corners of his mouth just a bit.

Today was a good day. Saving Gokudera... he never thought he'd ever had that opportunity... and it felt like the best thing he'd ever done.