Tsuna felt empty. He felt surprised, confused, a little mad, but overall, empty.

After school, he went straight upstairs and fell on his bed, exhausted for no particular reason. He wasn't empty in the sense that he'd taken a shit, or that he'd forgotten to eat for a good part of the day - though in truth, he did - but just completely hollow. He felt like his thoughts had been sucked out; like his heart had stopped pumping and all his blood had emptied out. His head felt lightheaded, but bombarded with heavy loads and questions.

If asked, he probably wouldn't have been able to give a clear answer on why he felt this way. It was an entirely new feeling, and when you're empty, there's no way of describing how it feels - because it feels like nothing. He would've been better off trying to describe what water tasted like.

He wasn't sure when it started to happen, but he'd grown to expect many things from Kyoya. He wasn't blaming it on him - and it seemed wrong to - but rather, it was only himself he had to blame. It was also only for himself he deserved the right to blame.

The whole day, he had gone by seemingly undetected by the prefect. Tsuna had made an effort to greet him whenever he could, and to maybe even touch him briefly, but he was incessantly met by a hasty, thoughtless reply: "I'm busy."

Kyoya had always been a bit cold at heart, but not so openly in a complicated manner such as this. It seemed a lot more than just general ignoring or dismissing, personality-wise (and also typically his trademark), and even an idiot - like Tsuna - could realise there was some sort of uneven, awkward tension wavering between the two.

Naturally, he gradually grew more hurt by every rejection. Something like this was to be expected of Kyoya, but it seemed like he was wrong on this part. There was no denying Tsuna had felt hurt by the last school bell. After all, him and Tsuna were friends.

Abruptly, Tsuna shot up from his bed and frowned. 'Friends'? Well, no - not exactly.

The small relationship they had was fragile. Tsuna would constantly choose his words, rethinking and rephrasing - sometimes, he wouldn't say anything at all - but the two didn't talk much in the first place.

Tsuna was a normal guy, of course. Hypothetically thinking - he repeated these two words in his head - if any two friends had had the same thing happen to them, where one would ignore or brush off the other, they'd confront them about it. Breaking a friendship over something as small as that is like tearing paper in half. What you need is a clean cut - to slice the paper with scissors.

So, then, why was he not blaming Kyoya? He should get angry - he wanted to get angry - but he fell deeper into insecurity and being worried sick. If needed, Tsuna would've tried to fix himself, so as to ensure it didn't happen again.

Inevitably, thinking about what had happened earlier made Tsuna sad. It seemed like he was always sad nowadays.

He buried his head in his blankets, ruffling his hair. He felt like sleeping was the only solution - that maybe he'd detach himself from reality for a while.

Heaving a large sigh, he swung off his bed, quickly shutting his curtains closed - a soft, burgundy light illuminated his room - and almost fell back onto his mattress. He knew sleep wouldn't solve his problems, nor give him any worthwhile answers, but it was a way to temporarily get away from everything.

He scrunched up a section of fabric from his blanket using both hands. His eyes were shut so tight, he could see lights floating - he could feel them starting to tear up. Without knowing, he'd been holding his breath too, and when he finally exhaled, his eyes opened, but his view of his ceiling and light was distorted. The tears flowed out raggedly, stopping and starting as if his tear ducts were malfunctioning.

He rolled onto his side, shaking and sobbing silently.

It hurt. It really, really hurt.

His throat hurt; his ribs; his head; his heart. It clenched tightly and he felt as if he was going to choke on all the words he'd never ended up mustering the courage to say to him - to Kyoya.

He really was weak.

.

Even as a child, Kyoya had never really been openly honest with himself. He saw himself as the one thing he could never see through - he couldn't even predict his own actions. It was painfully ironic. The only person - or thing, for that matter - he could ever first-handedly control was him, and he knew this. But he couldn't.

For the whole day, he'd been in a big state of confusion. He was confused about a number of things, but the biggest one was Tsuna. Rather, it was his feelings towards him. He'd decided on his own that their tutor-student relationship would be strictly professional (or the most professional you could really possibly get from two teenagers in the same grade), but he'd been doubting his real opinions and wants.

But what did he want, exactly? He couldn't figure it out.

He knew that during the day, he had been ignoring Tsuna to the best of his ability, and he also knew Tsuna would excessively worry about it afterwards. It was a mean thing to do, but for Kyoya, it was also slightly an unexplainably fond action.

He'd been acting like a herbivore for the whole day - weak, with no backbone. Maybe it was Tsuna who'd really been acting strong the whole time.

Kyoya tapped his fingers on his desk in a quick, rhythmic pattern. He was growing impatient at his inability to make such seemingly simple conclusions.

Clenching his hands, he spins around on his chair and snatches his cellphone off the bed. He would call Tsuna. It'd only been around four hours since they'd been let off school, but he would call Tsuna. Not because he felt like he owed Tsuna an explanation - he didn't owe anyone anything - but because he, himself, was greatly confused and felt as if he needed somebody else to yell an explanation for him and his thoughts.

He started to dial Tsuna's phone. More than enough rings passed by and there seemed to be no hope or luck. Suddenly, there was a 'clack' and Tsuna's drowsy voice met the phone.

"Yes?" he said.

Suddenly, Kyoya found himself almost speechless. "Yes?" he repeated.

Gulping, he cleared his throat. "Sawada."

He was met by a muffled yawn, as if he'd deliberately taken the device away from his ear and brought it back. "Sorry, who's this?"

"It's Kyoya."

He didn't get a reply immediately after that, but after waiting for a good ten seconds, Tsuna said, "Oh."

Kyoya smiled slightly, then he cleared his throat again. "I need- No, I want to talk to you. Come over to my house, quick. You should know the way. Right?"

"U-Uh, yeah, I think... It should be fine..! Um- before I leave- Will it take very long? My mum should be back kinda soon, so if you were planning to, um, lecture me or anything, now really isn't the best time. O-Oh, but of course, if that doesn't suit your needs, then it should be OK-"

"It shouldn't take too long if you come over as soon as you can. Run for it."

"Y-Yes..! Goodbye, then-"

Kyoya stifled a laugh - it sounded as if Tsuna had pressed the 'End Call' button too quickly. Sighing as if the worries that had slowly pent up throughout the day were released in that single breath., he leaned back in his chair and lulled his head back lazily, closing his eyes.

His eyelids felt dry. In actuality, he felt hot and sticky, and the air in his room felt sickly damp. As he slowly spun on his chair and reduced his energy levels to a minimum, he noticed that there had been cicadas outside his window.

He hadn't done much waiting in a while now, and to think it was in this sort of nostalgic, summer mood made it seem all the more worthy to be anticipated for - or maybe just the thought of Tsuna exerting the effort to make the trip was pleasing enough, albiet he was slightly forced to.

Maybe he'd be hated more - maybe feared - after what was to happen after his arrival, but it was something he'd learned to grow used to over time. He would admit he felt something abnormally strong for Tsuna for a mere acquaintance - or for a friend, if he dared to put it that way.

But Kyoya, always and had been, incredibly selfish, and brooding over something so small was a herbivorous characteristic - so if he was to make himself out to be the mean one, so be it. He was almost willing to sacrifice it.

A/N: thank you for being patient! i'm on my phone so ff is being really dodgy, so i'll try to make this quick! first, thank you all for the reviews on my previous chapter! i think i responded to all of them - if not, i'm super sorry uhhuhuuuhu - but i don't to let anyone down anymore, so although it was fleeting, i'm not responding to them anymore. it was fun to talk to you all! i appreciate you guys! of course, if you have a question, i'll answer to the best of my abilities.

also, it should've been clear, but tsuna and kyoya (everyone in general, actually) act super duper ooc! if you're uncomfortable with that, sorry if this wasn't what you expected. you're not inclined to read my story or anything, so the moment you start thinking "this is a shitty story", just exit! my story writing isn't top notch, and i only have myself to blame if you feel like this story is deteriorating. otherwise, thank you so much for sticking with me! i love you all ahhh ramble ramble sorry