This is finally ready to be published! My laptop has been acting fun the past month and the month before that I got lazy to edit. So sorry. But it's now ready!

Disclaimer: Do not own KHR

Chapter 12

Tsuna woke from his dream as he felt the sunlight hitting his eyes. He could feel his head pounding. It was a dull ache and dizziness that overwhelmed him. He wondered why it was hurting so much. He began to move to the left and felt himself fall. He thought he would hit the floor, but instead, he hit something soft. He opened his eyes from the shock of falling and saw that he was still on his bed, not the floor. He looks around his room and sees it is empty. No one was around. He sat up and slowly the memories of the other night flowed back. He looks down at his hands and feels horrible. He didn't know what to do now after worrying Gokudera. 'I'm bothering him and becoming even more of a burden.'

xxxxxx

Gokudera was downstairs cooking eggs, toast, and bacon. He decided to let Tsuna sleep in a little longer after what happened the other night. Gokudera was really worried about the small brunet. The teen was flipping the bacon when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Ummm, I-I'm sorry," the timid voice said. Gokudera didn't turn around to the voice. Even so, he could imagine the brunet standing there looking to the ground with fearful eyes and lots of doubt. Gokudera continued to fry some eggs for the brunet.

"It's okay."

"..."

Tsuna waited for the silver-haired teen to continue. He thought he would scold him or tell him to quit being a nuisance. But instead, the older teen never said anything. Tsuna decided to sit and wait. They were silent, both in deep thought. They really didn't know what to say, but they were worried for different reasons. Gokudera placed the two plates down, and they began to eat.

RING RING

Gokudera looked to Tsuna before rising out of his seat. He decided to get it himself. The smaller teen was looking unsure. Gokudera knew the smaller teen wouldn't be able to handle a phone call right now. He needed to compose himself. While Gokudera was away, Tsuna thought about why he freaked out the other night. The picture on the desk was a big issue. It was always an issue. Even so, he knew he shouldn't had reacted as he did, but the panic had just suddenly occurred. He must not have been okay before hand. He looked at the eggs and bacon on the table and forced it down. He really didn't feel hungry or capable to eat it. He got a couple of bites of egg and half the toast down before he gave up. He decided to get up and check to see if it was his mom on the phone. He shouldn't leave her worried about him. As he walked into the hall, he heard Gokudera's voice. It was rough and calm. He had a little bit of fake excitement in the mix. He must be trying to act like everything was okay when it obviously was not. He walked to him, and he looked up at Tsuna.

"Alright, well looks like Tsuna's done eating, so I'm gonna go eat real quick before we head out. Alright, have a good day, Mama." Gokudera handed the phone to Tsuna. "Hurry, we have school to get to." He said loudly enough for Mama to hear.

"Oh, Tsu-kun! How are you, boys?"

"It's good. Mom. We're good. We've been taking care of the house, and we hadn't had much of any homework."

"That's great! Today has been great! We got most of the case down with. Futa, Ipin, and Lambo will soon be ours. We came to Japan yesterday and we'll be home tomorrow afternoon. Your dad won't be able to make it home though. He has to go back to work. Can you believe it, but what can you do? So, we'll see you then. Bye."

"Bye," he says back and moves to the kitchen. Gokudera stared at him. He guessed now he was ready to talk to him.

"Are we going to school? How are you feeling? Personally, I don't think we should go," Gokudera started he had a look of upset and sadness. Tsuna walked to him.

"I think we can," he smiled. He smiled a bright smile. One Gokudera hadn't seen in a long long time.

"Alright," he said. They headed out with some rice omelets for lunch.

xxxxxx

As they met up with Yamamoto, neither boys mentioned the other night. Tsuna was worried. If Yamamoto saw him like that too, he wouldn't be able to hold back his emotions. Even so, he felt stronger today unlike the other day, but he knew it was just barely. They met with the girls and Ryohei not too long after picking up Yamamoto. As they were heading out to school, they saw something. In an alley, there were bodies, bloody and broken, on the ground. Tsuna's intuition went haywire. 'What's happening,' he thought. He scanned the alley he felt Gokudera and Yamamoto right behind him. So he knew his back was safe from attack. He saw from the corner of his eye, Ryohei. He had pushed the girls to the wall by a trash can. He stood in front of them leaving no opens for anyone who could attack the girls. Tsuna scanned the area still but nothing was around. 'That's weird. It looks like the attack happened not too long ago.' Gokudera spoke first.

"There is no one left."

"Right," he said back. "Let's check their wounds and get them an ambulance." Tsuna turned to the girls, and saw Hana was already calling at that moment.

"I'm on it," she called back to them. Tsuna looked at the three students on the ground. Ryohei kept his post as Yamamoto and Gokudera examined the bodies. Tsuna was keeping his intuition up and alerted. Over the few years of having learned of his intuition, he can now control his intuition in case of danger. He looked to the left and saw no one then the right. He could tell something was wrong with this situation around them. Gokudera walked up to him.

"I think this was an attack, but it doesn't seem like an ambush." He looked concern. Yamamoto walked over next with a concerned look of his own.

"I think that Hibari needs to know about this. They are from our school and so close to the school."

"Mmmm," Tsuna said as he heard the ambulance. They answered the questions that they had for them and walked off to head to school. As they were walking to the school, they walked in silence. That was a shock to them all. They did not expect to see something like that today. They were all walking down the hall as the bell rang. They walked into the room. Hibari shot off. Tonfa out and ready to attack the intruder. Tsuna dodged the attack that he knew was going to occur.

"Hibari-san, I'm sorry to intrude," he spoke sincerely and honestly, but Hibari didn't care. He attacked the brunet that spoke. Tsuna tried to dodge but got hit on the check. Hibari was not listening to the boy. He didn't see a reason to and to be honest, it was never an option with Hibari. They were breaking the rules and that was it. Tsuna continued to try getting through to him, but Hibari focused on only attacking. Which Tsuna thought was the positive thing, but Gokudera was getting tired of Hibari ignoring Tsuna.

"Listen to us, damn it!" Hibari glared at the silver-haired teen.

"Do not order me." Hibari attacked the teen ignoring his previous target.

"Hibari-san, I just have some information you might want, and I would like to inform you of it." Hibari looked to the small teen. Tsuna wasn't sure if he was trying to figure out if Tsuna had ordered him or if he wanted to hear this information. Finally, Hibari hit Gokudera on the head and turned to Tsuna with a glare. He didn't attack which was a good sign. In Hibari's language. "On our way to school, we spotted a group of Namimori students taken down. They were attacked. They are now at Namimori Hospital. They were in the ally by the end of the street toward the east, by the fruit shop."

Hibari listened and then turned to leave. Tsuna breathed out a sigh as he saw the demon began to walk away toward the door. "Hurry to class, or I'll bite you to death." The group at the door got out of the way as Hibari pulled out his phone to call someone. Tsuna looked to his friends in the room. Yamamoto was trying to see if Gokudera was alright but was pushed away.

"I'm fine damn it," he yelled. Tsuna looked to the girls and Ryohei to see they were fine.

"Gokudera-kun, I'm sorry you got hit."

"It's fine… Tsunayoshi." Tsuna smiled to the silver haired. Gokudera stared at the boy with curiosity. He was not sure if the brunet was really better or not, but he was smiling more today. Gokudera smiled back at the shorter teen, and they headed out.

They went to class with a note from Hibari. The Infamous Hibari Note is a slip of paper students take when they have been punished by Hibari. They each took one. The paper is squared and small. It only has one Kanji on it. The Kanji for Death. Tsuna and his friends each showed the death mark and placed it on the teacher's desk. He immediately tossed them fearing the demon perfect like everyone else. The group all sat in their seats while the class began to roar with chatter.

xxxxxx

Lunch came and went and it was now time for project's. Tsuna saw his partner come in and didn't know how to act. He wasn't sure how he should feel as Shota walked to the seat next to him.

"G-good morning Shota-san," he stuttered out. Tsuna felt flushed and embarrassed but smiled and tried to act more confident. Shota looked to the brunet and smiled back.

"Morning," he said. They sat in silence for Tsuna feared speaking again and stuttering more. Tsuna's stuttering problem seems to have gone away most of the time but only with his friends. With others like Shota, his stuttering can go bad. So when he does stutter, Tsuna still has a great fear of being teased. Even if Gokudera and the others seem to have scared the bullies away, they are still there.

While waiting for class to start, Shota began to doodle on the conners and ledger of his notebook. Tsuna could not see what he drew because Shota's hand was blocking it, so Tsuna decided to watch Gokudera anger his partner again. Watching them was the entertainment of the classroom. Some pity Gokudera's partener, but most just couldn't help to laugh at him too when Gokudera ignores him. Today, Gokudera was listening to music from his earbuds while his partner, was his name Ito, yelled at him.

"Pay attention! We need to divided the work! You research the first question and I'll do the second. The first is easy so just do it!" Gokudera continued to ignore him. Tsuna laughed inside at how impossible it was to get Gokudera to do anything that he doesn't want to do.

"Let's get ready to work," Shota suddenly said next to him. Tsuna turned his head to the fluffy haired teen who was looking at his notebook finishing a doodle.

"R-right," Tsuna said. He grabbed his notebook and the paper where their list of questions about their country was. Their presentation was suppose to have the answers to all these questions no matter what extra work they do for bonus points. Tsuna and his partner decided on two main poster boards. Gokudera and his partner were working on a presentation that Gokudera did not support. He wanted to do a simple poster board instead of a powerpoint.

"I'm not to good at things like this, so let's do each question together," the fluffy haired teen said.

"R-right." Tsuna began to read the first question on the sheet. It asked what the current development was of their country. Tsuna didn't quite get what it was asking. Next to the question was asking the difference from the year before that. He looked clueless at the paper and decided to look over at Shota. He didn't look like he knew either but began to look through the textbook. He was hard at work while Tsuna sat there not knowing what to even look for.

"I think I've almost got it," Shota said. Tsuna tried to seach of the answer but still didn't know what he was doing. He feared it was his own fear of being wrong that may not had helped him figure it out. "Done!" Tsuna looked and saw a number being written down. The brunet sighed. He was no help again. Shota looked at to the brunet next to him and saw he didn't get anywhere close. "Umm, let's try the next one." Tsuna stared at the teen. He felt like he should have been scolded by him, but instead he said nothing. They tried the next. Tsuna still didn't get it. He was really feeling badly by the end of the class.

xxxxxx

The day ended and Tsuna had not been much help to Shota. He sighed at his failure at being his partner. By the end of the day, everyone was whispering around the school about Tsuna and his friends. Somehow, news about them escaping Hibari so many times has been spread. Especially after today's incident. The word is that the demon has a special liking to them. The evidence was because they come to classes late and always seem to escape punishment and that was just the start. Now, according to an eyewitness, they went to the demon's den, I mean office, and got a death note from the demon himself. Lastly, the weirdest thing is they escaped without any serious injuries or harm done to them. The rumors seemed to had gotten crazier and more unbelievable as the day continues. Tsuna was worried about it all. Since the others are all top students, the word is spreading that he is their servant, and no one but them can say anything bad about Tsuna. Tsuna doesn't mind it much since it was not true, but he did fear what people thought of his friends. It seemed Gokudera and the others were more mad about them calling him a servant than he was.

Now, they were walking home. Today was the day they all spent the night together, and he was not sure if he was more excited or nervous. As they got to the house, Gokudera went to get the tea ready. Tsuna went to get the snacks. Yamamoto grabbed a tray to place everything on. He was not sure what else to help with. He grabbed some cups and Gokudera poured the water to mix the tea. They headed upstairs to talk about their project. Tsuna was still sad about his work. Shota ended up answering all of the questions they had. Tsuna and him ended up splitting the remaining four to answer two each. Tsuna would not be surprised if the other teen had them all answered tomorrow because Tsuna was no good. Gokudera went through his projects paper and was answering everything like no problem. Tsuna looked down at the paper in his hands where the the questions remained. He still had no clue what to do about them.

"What's up?" Gokudera asked the brunet who was sitting so solemnly. The two older teens were looking at the brunet with worried eyes.

"I wasn't much help with my partner today." He had his head facing down. They sat in silence for awhile.

"Tsunayoshi, it's okay just try your best and maybe try to do more with the presentation part. That way you can feel like you contributed more. Pick up where he leaves off. Do your best!" Yamamoto tried to explain. Tsuna smiled softly and then looked back at his paper. He tried to work on the first problem.

Ding.

Tsuna jumped in his spot. He looked at his phone and saw a text. 'Having trouble with this problem.' Tsuna stared shock at the photo. It was one of the questions Shota was working on. Shota had texted him.

"What is it?" Gokudera asked.

"Its Shota-san. He says he is having trouble with one of the problems. Maybe he wants my help," Tsuna spoke confused. Gokudera stared at his eyes. He could see the hope and joy in that possibility but also pure fear and disappointment in himself.

"I'll help," he offered. Tsuna looked at him with eyes of sadness and thankful. Gokudera smiled a rare smile at the brunet. "I will just teach you like in Math. It's not hard. I can see you are getting close one that first one. If I help figure out how to get the answer, you'll be able to do the others on your own much easier."

"Thank you Gokudera-kun," he spoke with happiness and joy. Yamamoto smiled and watched them. He and his partner were no good today either, but the teachers been spending all of class teaching them. They did feel guilty hogging the teacher all the time. He watched the two work for a couple of hours before deciding it was time to eat.

"What do you guys want to eat? Anything specific?"

"Nah," Tsuna spoke first. "Just reheat one of the food in there. They all sound good!" He smiled at the taller teen.

"Alright," he said and headed out. After he was gone Gokudera wanted to take a chance to talk to Tsuna again.

"So how do you feel? Where you better today?"

"I think so. I felt okay I think," he spoke honestly. Gokudera just nodded his head and continued to watch the teen work on his problem. He got the hang of it now, but Gokudera liked to make sure he did it right. Yamamoto came up stairs to tell them food was ready and they headed down. They ate and Tsuna left to bathe first. Gokudera watched the boy go fearing the worst but letting it go.

"How is he?" Yamamoto asked. Gokudera stared at the baseball freak. "I could tell," he said answering an unasked question.

"He's okay for now. But last night wasn't good." Yamamoto nodded. He could tell something happened the other day because of how they had been acting. "He fell in the bath the other day and then had a panic attack or something after I left to shower. He cried."

"Mmmm," was all he said.

"Have you remembered him?"

"Yes."

"More?"

"Yes."

"Me too."

"Last night I feel like more is clearer."

"Me too." They stayed quiet for awhile.

"Does he remember you think?" Yamamoto asked.

"No. I don't think so but I don't know. Maybe he does." Gokudera spoke confusedly. Yamamoto looked off to the distance. He was worried. He wanted to talk to Tsuna about all this but the two older teens seem to be in an agreement to not tell him. At least not now. They sat there again in silence. Gokudera stood to clean the dishes. Yamamoto cleaned the table and put the food up.

"What do you remember?" Gokudera darley ask. Yamamoto snapped his head around to look at him to see if he was serious. Gokudera didn't meet his gaze. They stood in silence once again.

"Will you tell me about what you remember?" He nodded immediately.

"I planned too," he confessed. Yamamoto sat and Gokudera sat too. They did not meet gazes just sat and waited tell one of them started.

xxxxxx

Tsuna was cleaning his hair when he felt the dizziness overtake him again. This time he gripped himself stopping from falling. He didn't want to make Gokudera worried again. Tsuna rushed the rest of the washing of his hair and moved to soak in the bath. He felt like it was needed. He did take longer soaking today. He hoped the others didn't mind. He began to think. He thought about Shota and how kind he is. He feared that it would end soon. He wondered about Gokudera and Yamamoto. Then moved on to Ryohei. He was curious of Tsuna, and Tsuna didn't know why. He felt the water warming him up. Gokudera is now worried constantly. Then there was the students today. There had to be a reason for what happened to them. They were beaten up badly. Hibari want to take care of it, but Tsuna was still worried he might had punished the students as well for getting into a fight and losing. Tsuna decided to get out of the tub and worry about it tomorrow. Thursday. He was not ready for it. Mama didn't call tonight. No worries though. She called that morning. Tsuna got out and dried himself and headed to his room where he expected to see the others. When he saw no one, he wondered and thought maybe they decided to watch tv downstairs or something. He went down.

Thanks for reading and I'm going to try harder next time to publish sooner. Reviews wanted! Favorites loved! Follows appreciated! Thank you for reading this chapter and reading this story so far!