Written by Meikokuran999, Edited by The Neo Productions.

Numbers of Life - Ch.2 - Fall

Tsuna's body still felt like complete shit. It had been a week since the night when he saved Hibari, and the poison had a lasting effect of fatigue on his body. No amount of healing from Reborn's sun flames could give him back the energy he had before. It was tiring and annoying, but really, what did he do daily that needed a lot of energy. He didn't talk to anyone except a select few people, and he never played sports at school in fear that he may end up hurting his classmates. At school like usual, he stayed silent, the only thing different going on that may need an excess amount of energy was the talking with Hibari.

Ever since the day he had saved the male, he wouldn't leave him alone. Tsuna did not mind the constant attention from Hibari because he was a calm person who didn't try to get him to talk much, but the extra attention from the rest of the school - because of his interactions with Hibari - was quickly becoming an annoyance.

The most annoying thing out of everything now was that his teachers were asking him for answers in class since they no longer believed him to be a mute after three students had heard Tsuna talking to Hibari. Answering the questions wasn't a problem, it was just the fact that Tsuna truly hated talking. He could talk perfectly fine and probably had a much larger vocabulary than most because of Reborn's Spartan training, but the only problem was that Tsuna had always felt like speaking was a chore. Even when he was little, unless he felt he really needed to talk, he would rather choose to remain quiet.

Tsuna knew inside that a big part of his hate for talking was that his father would never shut his mouth. Everything that came out of the man's lips was vulgar and disgusting. It gave Tsuna the avoidance for speaking because he very much believed that it was unnecessary to open your mouth unless you wanted to make a fool of yourself. Luckily for everyone, Reborn had started to make Tsuna talk after the first incident with Luce or he might have been even more hateful of the simple action.

Tsuna yawned as he sat at his desk, staring out the window. He paid little attention to what was going on outside as he just stared blankly. He heard his name called as he glanced towards the front of the classroom. The teacher was looking at him, "Tsunayoshi, can you please read the next three paragraphs?"

Tsuna began reading. He read loudly and clearly, but at the same time, you could tell just by his voice that he hated every moment of it. Once he finished, he just returned to staring out the window blankly. He was tired and ready to go home to bed. He sighed, wondering when the effects of the poison on his body would finally go away.

Tsuna stretched as he stood up and left the classroom. He was planning on heading home before he saw someone he was actually familiar with walk by. He smiled as he looked at the black-haired male, "Yamamoto."

Yamamoto glanced towards the smaller male who smiled back up at him. Yamamoto gave a slight smile, but anyone who knows the male would see through it instantly. The second he saw Yamamoto's face, Tsuna knew something was troubling the male right now. Yamamoto continued to smile falsely at Tsuna as he spoke, "Hi, Tsunayoshi. How are things going?"

Tsuna frowned when he noticed Yamamoto's arm in a cast. He felt bad for the male since there was a big game coming and it was obvious that he would not be participating in it anytime soon. Tsuna avoided looking at the cast from that point on knowing it would probably upset the male more. "Good", he answered. "except for the fact that everyone learned that I can talk, things are going great. I am a little tired lately, though."

Yamamoto's smile became a little less fake as he looked at Tsuna who had taken on a joking tone while talking. "I hope you feel better soon, you really don't look the best right now. Maybe you should take a day off from school and get some sleep."

Tsuna nodded, "That sounds like a really good idea actually."

The two talked for awhile and Tsuna thought that he had cheered the baseball freak up a little bit. So, with that, he said he would talk to Yamamoto tomorrow and turned to leave. He stopped when he saw Hibari at the end of the hallway watching him. It was so obvious that the prefect wanted to have a chat. Tsuna smile at Hibari, "Hibari-san, what do you need?"

Hibari stared at him for a few seconds before he answered, "I want you to look something over for me, I believe it's suspicious."

Tsuna looked at Hibari confused, "Why would you need me to do that?"

Hibari just shrugged, "I wanted a second opinion."

Tsuna smiled, "Okay."

Hibari and Tsuna both headed in the direction of the Discipline Committee office, and right when they were about to go inside, Tsuna saw someone out of the corner of his eye. Instantly, he was moving in the direction he saw the person walked. It wasn't possible, he had just been talking to him and the number was so much larger, so why now?

Hibari walked beside Tsuna as the teen quickly moved through the hallway. They followed the person up the stairs towards his destination which was the roof. Tsuna opened the door to see him standing by the fence at the edge of the roof. Instantly, he began moving towards the male, but he stopped when the teenager noticed him.

"Stay away."

Tsuna took a step back and pleaded, "Yamamoto. Please don't do this."

Yamamoto looked at Tsuna, "Why not?"

Tsuna shook his head, "There's too much to live for, don't give it up just yet."

Yamamoto took a few steps closer to the fence so that he was basically leaning on it, "No! There isn't! I'm a failure."

Yamamoto began to back up into the fence and Tsuna could see it as it was about to happen. He quickly started sprinting across the roof as the metal fence began to break under the male's weight. He reached out and took Yamamoto's hand as they both began to fall. Tsuna grabbed the edge of the roof as he cried out in pain from the stress of barely being able to hold them both up,

"Ahhhhh!"

Tsuna held on as tight as he could on Yamamoto's good arm, as his fingers began to slip from the roof. He tried to get a better grip, but even as trained as he was, he already knew that it didn't matter at that moment. He was too exhausted to hold them up for long, and there was no way either one of them was going to be climbing up in their condition. Tsuna closed his eyes as he tried to focus on just holding on to make the pain from holding them both up go away. He was sure that he would be letting go in a matter of seconds as he felt someone's hand on his, pulling him up.

"Hibari-san."

With Hibari's help, the two that had almost just fallen to their deaths, survived and made it safely up onto the roof. Tsuna could feel pain all over his body as he moved away from the edge of the roof with Yamamoto's hand still in his own. Yamamoto jumped when Tsuna looked at him because of the sheer anger radiating from Tsuna's body. Tsuna spoke in a voice that bordered on yelling.

"How could you do something so stupid? How could you even think about doing something so fucking stupid? Gokudera goes back to Italy for a few months and you try to kill yourself. How do you think that would make him feel? I mean it's not like he's going to be gone forever, and don't you ever try telling me that you're a failure! Because you are nowhere near being a failure! Don't ever do something like that again, and don't ever make me feel like I'm about to lose you again!"

Yamamoto was shocked by how loud Tsuna was, as he nodded he honestly didn't know what had overcome him. He felt so sorry when he looked at the condition Tsuna was now in. If he looked bad before, then now he looked horrible. You could clearly see on his face that he was in a lot of pain. Yamamoto looked above Tsuna to see Hibari, he was surprised when he saw worry on the older male's face. Hibari looked at Tsuna, "Do you need to call Reborn to come and get you?"

Tsuna shook his head, "He went out, he won't be home to help with the pain at least until eight tonight."

Hibari made a face that clearly stated he was not pleased. "Fine; then, come to my office. We can wait there until he gets home."

Tsuna stood up quickly and easily, but when he went to move, he almost collapsed from how much his ribcage was hurting. Hibari was quick enough in moving beside him to support him from falling.

Tsuna smiled, "Thanks."

The three had made it to the Discipline Committee office swiftly. Once there, Tsuna had started berating Yamamoto for doing something so stupid before the baseball player left, leaving Tsuna and Hibari alone.

Hibari looked at Tsuna as he grabbed a file from his desk. He handed it to the brunette. "This was what I wanted you to look at."

Tsuna took the paper and read it over quickly; the second he was finished, he glanced up at Hibari with a serious look on his face.

"Forget about everything you read from these pieces of paper and burn it. You should not be getting involved with this. It is not something you should be butting your nose into."

Hibari was the least to say surprised by the strong reaction he had received. So, Tsunayoshi knew something about what had been going on in town as of lately. Hibari glared at him from the seat across from Tsuna.

"So, you know something about why all this is happening then?"

Tsuna shook his head. "Yes, and I was told specifically to stay out of it. It's too dangerous to get into it, if you do not belong. If you're not careful in dealing with these people, then you'll die whether you are actually involved with them or not."

Hibari growled, "Herbivore, do not tell me what to do."

"You don't scare me Hibari," Tsuna laughed. "and I'm not joking with you, this is the only warning you'll get. Do not get involved in that family's business, unless you want to die. Even if their current boss is a wonderful, kind-hearted man who would never hurt anyone here, the people that are causing problems are not. That bastard, Iemitsu, will kill and allow his group to destroy anyone who gets in the way, while he's here searching for something. "

Hibari took the files from Tsuna and set them on his desk, the room was silent from then on. It lasted for at least an hour before the ringing of Tsuna's phone broke it. Tsuna picked it up and smiled.

"Yeah…You're home early… That's good… Yeah, I need a ride…Thanks."

Tsuna stood up carefully and moved across the room. Hibari sighed and stood up to help after watching Tsuna pathetically move across it. He helped Tsuna down and moved outside in a slow manner so that they were careful not to cause more pain. When they got outside at the front gate, Reborn was standing against it with arms crossed, waiting. When he saw Tsuna limping over with a lot of help from Hibari, he made an irritated noise and then walked over to them. Instantly, Tsuna was up in Reborn's arms as the adult looked at him.

"What happened now?"

Tsuna sighed and said, "I fell off the roof, but I caught myself, so everything's okay."

Reborn looked at Tsuna then at Hibari. He repeated his question with more urgency in his voice this time. "What happened?"

Hibari gave a direct-to-the-point answer. Reborn nodded and then turned to leave, Tsuna still in his arms. He set Tsuna in his car and glanced back at Hibari. "Tell the principal tomorrow that Tsuna won't be at school for a while. He needs some time to heal, and we have a few other things that need to be dealt with before he returns."

Hibari nodded as Reborn got into the driver's seat of his car and then he watched them drive off.

Tsuna looked at Reborn, "Why am I going to be missing school? I mean, you could heal this tonight easily?"

Reborn sighed, "I just received information today while on the job about what Iemitsu and the CEDEF have been in town looking for."

Tsuna jumped slightly when he heard Reborn say the man's name. After watching Tsuna's reaction, Reborn continued, "I heard that he's in town looking for any evidence left about his son who went missing after the death of his wife because the boy is the next heir to the Vongola Family. His wife died a couple years back during the mission that I found you on. His son's name is Sawada Tsunayoshi. Is there something that you would like to tell me?"

Tsuna scooted as close to the opposite side of the vehicle as he could get. It's not like he had meant not to ever tell Reborn, but at some point, he had just kind of forgotten. That's why he was signed up in the school under his real name. He really wasn't trying to hide it from anyone. If Tsuna was being honest he didn't care if anyone knew or not.

"My last name is Sawada, and Iemitsu is the father I always refused to tell you about."

Reborn sighed, "You didn't think that you should have told me that you were the next heir of the Vongola Family?"

Tsuna looked at him, "I swear to God, I knew nothing about that. Although, now that we are mentioning it, I remember where I saw Nono before, I met him when I was a child once when he came to visit Japan."

Reborn nodded, "I think we should go see Nono. He must have kept you as his heir because I took you to see him when you were little which was proof enough to him that you were alive, and now you're on the right age to become Decimo."

Tsuna looked at Reborn, "I cannot handle that, not with my eyes. I mean, I will be able to see when everyone is going to die. I could never lead an entire family responsibly with this ability, it's not possible. I'm not meant to be a leader. I don't even like talking, so how could I lead an entire mafia family?"

Reborn sighed again, "I don't know about that, but no matter how you feel you may not have a choice in the matter anymore."