Phoenix hangs up her phone, angry. Gokudera had done something to set off Reaper and she has had enough. The red-haired teen calls Gokudera and steps away from her noisy team.
"I would ask you to stop provoking Reaper but I don't think you would listen to me. You are just going to get yourself killed." Phoenix takes a deep breath and lets it out. "And I don't want that."
"Oh fucking please, I'm pretty sure nothing will happen. Plus, it's too much fun. Though the asshole keeps trying to make me admit that I-admit something that isn't true."
"Pretty sure isn't sure enough Hayato! As fun as it may be, you are gonna end up missing a few limbs If he ever catches you! That's if he lets you live!"
"Aydan...I'm not gonna get hurt. I promise."
"I just don't want you to do something stupid...You're my friend Hayato...I can't lose another friend."
"I swear on my life that I won't do something stupid and get myself killed."
Phoenix sighs. "Well since I know how highly you hold your own life in regards to your bosses..."
Phoenix laughs along with Gokudera.
"Oh shut up."
"Not gonna happen Hayato. Oh! I almost forgot, I found out Reaper's plans for you guys, and me. Would you like to know what is in your future should we lose?"
"Hm...do tell."
"Well who's fate would you like to know first, because they are kinda lengthy...and gruesome."
"Let's just start with my fate as well as Juudaime's."
"You had to pick yourself and Tsuna...aside from me you two have the worst." Phoenix pulls out a small note book filled with Reapers flowy handwriting. She flips a few pages until she finds what she is looking for. "Well Tsuna's fate it to be...wow this is...creative. Tsuna gets to be tied to a table, starved, have hot coals continually on his chest, then he gets to have two toes cut off each foot, and then...Wow." Phoenix takes a closer look at the notebook. "Uh, he gets the Pretzel Torture along with the Chines Water Torture and the Bamboo Torture. Reaper must really want him to suffer...Jeez..."
"So he pretty much wants Juudaime to suffer exactly what he had to go through?" Phoenix and Gokudera had spent a lot of time talking about Reaper's weak points. "Yeah, there's no way in hell I'm letting that happen. How about me?"
"Yeah basically...Well you get a fun torture. You are to be tied over twenty bamboo plants and have them grow slowly though your body while a couple hundred rats eat you alive. Yeah, Reapers definitely branching out on this job."
"Rats? Really? He'd have me fucking eaten by rats? Reaper is just...that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
"Have you ever had rats chew on you while you were alive? It sounds stupid but it hurts like hell! Foster home number five if you were wondering. And as for the bamboo...well at least you get to die quickly...you and every other guardian." Phoenix flips through the pages. "He only wants to spend time on me and Tsuna."
"What...What does he have planned for you?"
"Mine is going to be interesting. Chinese Water Torture, starvation, a mix of hallucinogenic and watching a reenactment of my family's murder…that should be fun."
"W-Wait...your...I thought your family was just taken out. Not tortured."
"They were just killed...and I get to relive it every single day if I lose. Sounds fun right?"
"Please tell me you're being sarcastic. I can never tell with you."
"No duh, Hayato. I just wanna know why he's holding back for everyone except me and Tsuna."
"He probably would get off from seeing you and Juudaime tortured in such ways. Sick pervert that he is."
"No, the more people he causes pain to the happier he is. It makes no sense for him to kill you all so quickly...something's wrong...something's changed..."
"Maybe he fell in love..." Gokudera laughs. "Imagine!"
"What! With who? You know I am trying but I just can't see Reaper in love….like I keep getting this image of him sitting outside someone's window singing to them…." Phoenix shakes her head and laughs. "It doesn't look right!"
"It was a joke. You seriously think I'd believe a psycho piece of shit like him would actually fall in love."
"I know it was a joke! I can't help what my brain decides to do! The picture's still there."
Phoenix laughs again and Gokudera can't help but to join in.
"I don't even wanna know what goes on in that sick mind of yours. All women seem to be thinking about some pretty sick shit nowadays."
"Hey! Watch it with the mind cracks! I think I liked it better when you were making fun of my humor...and my hair..."
"Well would you prefer I go back to that?"
"Don't you dare!"
Phoenix hears Gokudera's laughter and she smiles.
"So was the lecture and torture the only reason you called Phoenix?"
"Maybe. And if they weren't?"
"Well then, I'd have to start thinking that Reaper's telling the truth and you like me."
"Please. I'd sooner like a fat drunk than you."
"You wound me Phoenix."
The teens laugh and Phoenix smiles again. The more she talked to Gokudera, the more Phoenix realized that she did like Gokudera. The thought scared her, so far every person she cared about got hurt. Her family, her friends Ben and Marisol from the system, Cesar, every person she had come to love in some way had been killed, hurt, or changed in some way...and she didn't want that for Gokudera.
When the red head finally puts down the phone, a smile still on her face, she looks around her apartment sadly. It seemed the only way to keep Hayato Gokudera safe was to turn herself over to the O-Loughlin's.
"But then he'd come after me...I need to figure out how to turn myself in, in a way that makes it impossible for Hayato to follow me..."