Summary: (Canon-AU; this will be a 'parallel reality')(Slow friendship-romance) It doesn't have to make sense to others, and it doesn't have to make sense for them, either – but that's okay, because labels are overrated anyway. Still though, secrets will come out sooner or later and what doesn't break a friendship, only makes it stronger... "What kind of balls?" "Baseballs."
Note: Chapter lengths are not pre-determined and are to be posted as they are written, hence updates may be unpredictable. At present, this is to be a snapshot-like series. Storyline told in snippets. (And there WILL be a storyline!)
All recognisable appearances here are the conjurations of Akira Amano and the team behind Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Unless otherwise stated, the only thing 155cm owns is Nakamura Yukiko, and even that's debatable – she's a fairly free spirit.
For some strange reason, Yukiko is never introduced to Takeshi's friends.
It's not completely strange, really – the two don't really interact when there're others around anyway, not because they're trying to hide their friendship or anything (gosh, put that way it sounds so suspicious, like they're secretly dating or something – they're not), but rather because their friendship has for some inexplicable reason never cropped up as the subject of interest before. It's probably due to the irregularity of their meetings and the fact that they're only really together for any length of time when there aren't many others around.
(No really, they're not dating.)
As previously mentioned, Yukiko's number of friends is a size so abysmal it's not particularly worth noting – all her friendly acquaintances are everyone else's too, and save for Takeshi she doesn't have anyone else. Which is fine, really.
It's the same with Takeshi. Sure, he has teammates and classmates and an abundance of people wanting to mate with him, but she had been under the impression that he too was not particularly close to anyone save her. The thought is a little narcissistic for her to think, but she has to acknowledge it sometime or another, and what's a better time to do so then whilst methodically cleaning the classroom?
Some kid named Toshio or something (and the name does ring a bell somewhere, but she can't be bothered remembering exactly when or where she heard it) had been tasked to be her partner for the day, but he had been absent sick from the last class.
Sick, she wants to scoff. Yeah, right.
Anyway, here she is, methodically cleaning a place filled with a bunch of teenagers every day, desperately trying not to think of just what those teenagers do during the day that would actually warrant a good clean.
Those desperate attempts to occupy her mind have ergo led her to her current contemplation of her social life and lack thereof, which of course has allowed her thoughts to drift off to her friendship with Takeshi and how the both of them have never bothered to mingle with each other's friends.
It doesn't concern me, Yukiko decides as she finally finishes with the windows and moves to the blackboard. Picking up the duster, she narrows her eyes as she frowns at the half-rubbed-out chalk.
It's good that Takeshi has found people outside of the club to mingle with. He's been looking happier recently, and though she still needs to talk to him about what happened the other day and she's still watching him perhaps a bit closer than usual, she's not feeling as desperate and anxious like if he was completely alone. So, she's happy he's got a group of people he has found for himself.
Good on him.
Still, that doesn't mean that Yukiko isn't at least a little bit curious. Which is why just ten minutes ago she had called out a cheery hello to Takeshi when he had passed by outside, and he had waved back before yelling that he had to drop something off but would be back soon.
Because usually, she just smiles or pulls faces which is less work than talking, and when she does talk it's usually to tease. When Yukiko is in a friendly mood she's a bit more pleasantly conversational, so even though she doesn't really feel like smiling and being chirpy she tries it out anyway.
"Nearly done, Yukiko?" Takeshi pops his head around the corner, smiling. He once tried to shorten her name to 'Yuki', but she had poked him in the side for a solid five minutes, claiming that just the mention of snow made her want to curl up and sleep, and he'd better stop if he didn't want her sleeping through all of their conversations.
Speculatively eyeing the two heads of hair standing a respectable distance behind Takeshi, she shrugs at him. "Just gotta clean the dusters and empty out the rubbish and recycle bin," she motions to the powdery dusters in her hands, soiled from her rubbing at the blackboard, "you wanna help?"
Takeshi shrugs. "Sure." Then, he turns to stick his head further out the door. "Yo, Tsuna, Gokudera! Wanna help too?"
There's a spluttering from outside, and Yukiko can't help but to smile fondly as she smacks the dusters together.
"Baseball idiot! Why would you drag the Tenth into doing such a menial task?"
"Gokudera-kun, I really don't mind—"
"That's not the point. It's her task to do, so you shouldn't bother other people with it too!"
"Ahahaha, it's not a big deal though, right Tsuna? It'll be super quick, and 'sides Yukiko is looking kind of tired."
She blinks, surprised that Takeshi had picked up on her mood so quickly. Perhaps she isn't as good at this faking cheer thing as she thought she was.
"Why should we care what the woman thinks, stupid? And don't refer to the Tenth so casually!"
"Hie! Gokudera-kun, put those away—"
Here, Yukiko's smile fades into a frown. There's something off about this.
It's not Tsunayoshi – having spoken to the boy once or twice herself, she knows that this is fairly normal for him. Rather, it's impressive he even has the nerve to try to talk back. Good, at least he's fine here.
There's… something hostile, something unknown hovering between Takeshi and the one they refer to as Gokudera.
(Gokudera Hayato, her mind supplies automatically, and she only knows his name due to the incessant whispering of his many fangirls who seem to think the library is the perfect substitute for a gossipy tea session. She would know; the librarian's scream about bread crumbs had shaken the shelves for days.)
Anyway, this Gokudera clearly doesn't like Takeshi. Which is a shame, really – but she can't force her own friendship choices on others, and ordinarily she wouldn't even have felt bothered by this, because it's not exactly uncommon for two people to be drawn together solely due to a mutual friendship.
The problem is, there's something more here.
There's something strange in Gokudera's tone whenever he speaks, and refers to Tsunayoshi that feels familiar to Yukiko. It's something she doesn't want to poke at, but if he's going to take it out on Takeshi if left unattended she'll have to do something about it.
"Hm, the transfer student is outside, right?" She asks out-loud, doing her best to channel every inch of her unimpressionable classmate persona. Takeshi eyes her speculatively, the darn guy knows her too well – but he doesn't question her, just nods in affirmation with a laugh that she can tell sounds a tiny bit strained. "Yep, sure is! Want me to call him in?"
"Please do." Yukiko nods, "I haven't been able to greet him since he transferred in, and it's been grating on my hospitable sensibilities."
Here, she and Takeshi both share wry grins. They both know the truth is that she spends more time than not sleeping away all her classes, and alternating that time with frantically catching up to anything she missed out on that's actually worth noting. Socialising and making nice is nowhere near close to making the top ten of her agenda, but Takeshi knows that she usually has a relatively good reason for doing things.
"Who am I to refuse a lady?" Takeshi's tone is cheeky as he darts out the door, and Yukiko is torn between rolling her eyes and smiling fondly as he disappears to talk to his friends.
It's always good to know you're a positive influence on someone.
Gokudera Hayato's scowling visage appears through the doorframe not long after, and she catches sight of terrified brown eyes that rapidly disappear back around the doorframe as he enters. So, Tsunayoshi is probably the reason why he had entered with such little resistance.
Shrugging, she pushes the curious Takeshi out the door with a friendly nod to Tsunayoshi, who splutters in surprise.
(Inwardly, her smile is positively diabolical. She does love screwing with people's minds, and she's finally found a method to tease the poor boy that won't actually do him any harm.)
Once sure that Takeshi has steered Tsunayoshi away somewhere (probably off to play baseball, the poor sucker), she turns to eye Gokudera speculatively. All traces of her faux friendly persona have been dropped, and she's back to her usual, languid self.
"Since you're new, you can take the recycling bin. I'll do the trash." Yukiko says, heading for the near-overflowing bins situated in the corner of the room. "On the way to the school dumpsters, you can tell me why you hate Takeshi so much."
(If he gives her a stupid reason, she'll dump him in the trash because of the rubbish he's full of. Hah. Hahaha. Okay, she'll stop and get serious now.)
a/n:
yo human beings are so weird like we decide how we're gonna act and pinpoint our personalities so we're individual, but then we go ahead and do things that don't make sENSE (aka Yukiko isn't weird, we're all weird :P)
I woke up this morning and found that people have subscribed/favourited this thing! Thank you much for showing interest, you're the stones of my garden - you ROCK