I'm sorry for the long wait. Things happened. I got sick for days and my internet crash. Gladly, i can raid my mom's PC to post this. :D
And to make up for the long wait, I'll post two chapter at the same time! This one and the next!
Thanks for Bernie6394 and Belle'Masque who reviewed. I'm glad that you love this story! Here the update!
So, on to the story! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. :D
"Talking"
'Thinking'
This story is beta'ed by Pure Red Crane.
Chapter 10
Vindice
As his guardians walked out of his office room one by one, Tsuna closed his eyes tightly. 'Please…don't hate me.'
"Tsuna... are you alright?" Rosette's question shot him back from his sad thoughts.
The Decimo leaned back on his leather chair and with a sad sigh, he replied, "I'm fine."
The girl frowned at the tone. The man's voice sounded so hopeless and unsure. It seemed like he wasn't even sure about his condition. With worry lacing her voice, she called the man's name. "Tsuna..."
The man shook his head. "Don't worry, Rosette. This is what I choose to do." Hope and determination shone on those brown beautiful eyes.
The girl bit her lip tightly. "...But..."
Tsuna stood up and turned around to face the girl. He was shocked when he saw the glistening tears on her cheeks. The thought of making the girl cry saddened him. He slowly raised his hand and wiped her tears. He raised his hand higher and patted her head softly.
Rosette looked up at him. She could see the man's masked expression. She could see that the man in front of her, the strong and kind man who saved her, was trying his best to hide his sadness and pain, also holding back his tears. She wiped her tears. But as she wiped the tears away, they seemed to fall more and more.
The man pulled her into his warm yet lonely embrace. He held her head close to his chest,so close that the girl could hear his weak heartbeat. "Don't worry." he said softly. His voice was restricted, telling the world how hard it was for him to keep his emotions from spilling out.
Noticing the effort of the brunet, Rosette pulled back. The girl wiped her tears again. With a small bead of tears on the corner of her eyes, she nodded slightly.
Tsuna's arm tightened around her little body as she clutched his suit tightly in her grip.
It has been a few days since the guardians started to leave headquarters to do their missions. Tsuna felt like he could break down at any time with all the sadness and the pain he was feeling. But the constant presence of Rosette held him up and kept him from breaking.
Right now, they were in Tsuna's office. The Mafia don was doing his paperwork while Rosette read story books on the sofa across his desk.
Suddenly, Tsuna's body stiffened as he felt a cold, dark, suffocating yet familiar aura slipping into the room. He saw the girl humming to herself as she flipped the page of her book. "Rosette." he called out.
The girl immediately turned her attention to him. "Yes?"
Tsuna tried to smile at her, hiding his worry and wary. "Ever since you came here, you've always been stuck in this office. Why don't you look around the mansion?"
The girl looked up at him in confusion. "Why?"
"Well, you might get bored if you stay here... I think this is a good time to walk around the mansion. The weather is nice for a walk in the garden."
The girl thought about it. "Do I have to go...alone?"
"I can ask Paolo to accompany you..."
The girl tilted her head slightly. "Why don't you go with me?"
"I still have the paperwork." he reasoned.
She frowned a little before she stood up. "Okay then..."
Tsuna called to her before she opened the door. "Do you want me to ask Paolo to go with you?"
She placed her finger on her lips, thinking about the offer. She looked up at Tsuna and smiled. "Nah... No need to... I'm old enough to walk around alone."
Tsuna smiled warmly at her. "If you say so... See you later, then."
The girl nodded and excitedly walked out of the room to go to anywhere she wanted to go.
Tsuna dropped his smile and his eyes glanced at one corner of his office. "So... What brings you here..." Black fog started to fill the room, the temperature dropped drastically and then a figure appeared from the deep fog with a heavy and suffocating aura. "...Vindice?"
Tsuna looked at the Avenger cautiously. 'Why is he here?' he thought in suspicion.
The Avenger approached him. "Vongola Decimo. I would like to ask you some questions."
Tsuna raised an eyebrow in confusion. "About what, if I may-"
"About Oscurità..."
The answer caught Tsuna's attention. He narrowed his eyes. "What do you want to know about them?"
"Did they do something to you?"
Tsuna looked at the lone figure with the fluttering black coat. He chose his words carefully. "Why...do you want to know?"
Even behind the bandages, Tsuna could feel the sharp gaze of the Vindice. He didn't answer, as if thinking about whether he should tell him or not. But, he eventually told him.
"Oscurità...They are Vindice's target. We have already searched for evidence to prove their crimes. But until now, we can't find anything. Or to be exact, no living witness to prove it. And you may be the proof."
"Hnn? Taking advantage of me?"
"...That's how we work."
Tsuna thought for a moment about whether he should tell him or not, 'The Vindice can arrest them for me.' He decided to tell him. "... did."
"What exactly did they do to you?"
"They poisoned me,leaving me with a short amount of time to live." He smiled bitterly at his own words.
"Any witnesses?"
"A girl I brought with me, Rosette."
The room was filled with silence as the lone Vindice thought for a moment. "...That's enough for now." The black fog started to fill the room again. And the black coated figure started to become engulfed by the fog.
"Make sure to inform me about it." Tsuna said before the figure was completely submerged and the black fog started to disappear.
Tsuna sighed as the darkness disappeared. 'At least I can trust the Vindice to take care of the Oscurità.' he thought to himself.
Then, Tsuna turned to look at the sky. 'A clear blue sky, but without the sun, cloud, rain, storm, lightning, and mist.' He could feel his eyes moisten as the feeling he was hiding within the confinements of his heart spilled out. It started with the lonely feeling when his guardians left headquarters. Then regret and disappointment settled in. Lastly, but having the greatest impact upon him, fear. He closed his eyes to get rid of those feelings, but the moistness started to pile up even more and then trickled down his cheeks. He cried silently towards the lonely sky up above.
Did he do the right thing?
.
.
.
To be continued.
Short chapter indeed...
But to make up for it, I made a little omake about Tsuna and Rosette's days.
Here it is!
Omake
Memories of a Flower and Name
The figure of a man walked out of the mansion. His silver hair swayed as he approached his car. He stopped when he reached the vehicle and open the door. Before he climbed into the car, he turned around and glanced at the mansion. His emerald eyes lingered for a second, but it was long enough for him to stare at the window of a certain room before he turned again and climbed into the vehicle. With a sigh, he closed the door and started the engine.
The black car ran slowly along the pavement and towards the front gate. While waiting for the gate to be opened by the guard, he glanced at the mansion again. Deep in his heart, he didn't want to do this. He closed his eyes. But he needed to gather his feelings and thoughts. And he still had his duty as the Storm Guardian of Vongola and the right hand man of Vongola Decimo. So, with a final sigh, he opened his slowly eyes and pushed on the pedal.
A pair of brown eyes watched the black car run away from the mansion. The owner of the eyes frowned deeply. 'With this, there are no more guardians here.' she thought to herself. She turned her attention to the brunet with spiky hair.
The man's attention was still on the paperwork sitting on his silver haired man left the room they were in a few minutes ago. She looked outside again, noticing that the car was already out of sight. 'Why? Why do they leave? Why don't they stay here? Don't they know about Tsuna's condition? Can't they feel it?'
By a simple glance at Tsuna's pale skin, everyone in the mansion already knew that Tsuna was sick. Even though they didn't voice out their thoughts, they helped the man with his work. She noticed that the amount of the paperwork had lessened. On the first day, she stayed in Tsuna's office, which was the day after the man saved was a lot of paperwork that had to be done in one day, the paper were in many piles that reached the ceiling. Nowadays there were only 2 piles of it. Because of this, Tsuna could finish his work early.
"Tsuna…I think you should get some rest." the girl said as she noticed that the man had finished signing the papers.
"I'm fine, Rosette. Don't worry." The man turned to smile at her. "What's that book?" Tsuna pointed at the book she brought with her.
The girl looked down at the book. "...Flower..." she answered shortly.
Tsuna noticed that the book had a photo collection of flowers. "Is it good?"
Rosette's face lit up a bit. "Yes...Though, I don't understand the language..." She frowned as she looked at the weird and complicated characters in the book.
Tsuna giggled as he saw the frown. He motioned the girl to siton the sofa with him,which the girl did immediately. As she sat beside him, Tsuna opened the book on his lap and explained to the girl that it was written in Japanese, his native language.
"...The ones on the side, which are written downward, is the name of the flower. The one above the dots is the kanji characters, while the one under the dots is the hiragana characters. The hiragana is explaining how you read the kanji." he said as he pointed at the characters. "This one is Yamabuki...this one is Botan...Ayame...Suiren..." he read as she pointed at the pictures of the flowers.
Tsuna watched as the girl flipped the pages one by one, admiring each flower in amazement.
"Tsuna! What about this one? What's its name?"
Tsuna peered at the picture and noticed it right away. "It's Tsubaki. Camellia."
"Camellia? Tsubaki?" She stared at the picture.
Tsuna nodded. "Yes. It's Camellia,but it's called Tsubaki in Japanese." he said as he too stared at the picture. "It's pretty, isn't it?"
Rosette stared at the picture intently. The name was bringing her memories of the past. Camellia. A girl with blonde hair and light blue eyes came out in her mind. The appearance of the flower didn't remind her about her friend. But, her friend was really beautiful. Much more beautiful than the flower she shared the name with. She smiled at the thought.
'So this is a Camellia...' she thought as she tried to remember all the times she spent with the girl.
~Flashback~
"...Flower?" A girl with black hair looked up at her only companion.
The girl beside her nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! My name is a flower's name. Camellia." She pressed on each syllable. "It's a beautiful flower. You will like it when you see it."
The black haired girl frowned lightly. "...Yeah...if I could see it..."
"You will see it." The blond haired girl grabbed her companion's hand. She gave it a tight and short squeeze, as if to encourage her to believe in her words.
The black haired girl just nodded solemnly before she said, "It must be nice to be you. You are beautiful. You have the gift to see the future. And you have a beautiful name. While I..." The black haired girl was too deep in her own world to notice the frown on Camellia's face.
"Rose." Camellia said suddenly, making the black haired girl look up at her questioningly. "Your name for the mean time. Rose. It's also a flower's name and it's as beautiful as the Camellia, more beautiful than Camellia actually." she said with a big smile adorning her soft and kind expression.
The black haired girl stared at the blonde before smiling a little. "...It's good name."
~End of Flashback~
"Rosette?" a man voice called to her. She looked at the man who was staring at her worriedly. "Is there something wrong?"
She shook her head. "No. Nothing. I'm fine." She smiled softly.
Tsuna looked at her, confused, but smiled nonetheless. "If you say so." Then he looked back at the book on his lap again.
Rosette stared at the picture of a Camellia in full bloom. 'Your flower is indeed very beautiful, Camellia. I only wish we could have seen it together.' She reached forward to the edge of the pages, ready to flip it.
'Thank you for everything you have done for me.' Rosette thought to herself as she flipped the page and saw a picture of red roses.
Omake-End
Saa... How is it? Hope you like this chapter and the omake too. :)
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See you next chapter! :D
