BROT3 - Paintball Fights
Unfortunately, the first contest didn't have enough participants and was canceled. However, I'd like to spotlight kiwipunch for her wonderful submission. Congrats and I hope you enjoy the prizes sent to you. For everyone, I'd like to recommend reading this!
Title: Paintball Fights
Author: kiwipunch
Rating: PG
The walls of this cave felt like they were closing in on them and it was beginning to make Tsuna feel a little claustrophobic. To call it a cave was a bit of an exaggeration - a small hole on the cliff face was more like it. It was barely enough cover for one person but somehow, they managed to cram three people in there with plenty of room for the person at the front to shift around and peer through the entrance - he was pressed into the back of the cave, Yamamoto half pinning him down and Gokudera standing(sitting?) guard at the front, looking out for enemies from behind the cover of a boulder.
The smell of dust was thick in the air, almost suffocating in its heat and above him, Yamamoto wouldn’t stop shifting around. Half on his back and half on his side, Tsuna tried not to fidget, even if the rocks digging into his skin were getting really painful and the feathery touch of Yamamoto’s breath ghosting along his skin was kind of distracting, which really, really wasn’t good considering the situation they were currently in. Dirty, exhausted, alone with no way to call for help and none of their usual weapons on them- things were looking pretty bad for them. Enemies coming at them at every direction, far too many for the three of them to handle completely on their own; they were lucky they had made it through mostly unscathed.
‘How did our vacation end up like this?’ Tsuna thought mournfully. Chased around by enemy groups, driven into the edge of exhaustion (well, Tsuna was exhausted. Yamamoto and Gokudera were still looking far too energetic for all the running and shooting they had been forced into)… it was basically like every day of his usual life, nothing like how vacations were meant to be - long and relaxing, hours spent at the beach, mucking around at home and messing with video games, watching fireworks…
His train of thought was cut off by a sharp blow to his head. Tsuna yelped loudly, wondering what had happened as stars dances in front of his eyes.
“Sorry, Tsuna,” Yamamoto whispered apologetically and up front, Gokudera had whipped around, an automatic response to Tsuna’s cry of pain and snarled angrily.
“Idiot, what do you think you’re trying to do? Give him a concussion? Are you alright, Tenth?”
Tsuna didn’t have to look up to know Gokudera was glaring furious daggers at Yamamoto who would be grinning sheepishly and waving a hand around in a gesture that was meant to calm but only served to infuriate Gokudera instead.
“Sorry, I’m not used to carrying such a big gun around, y’know?” Yamamoto looked down again, concerned. “Are you okay, though? You got hit pretty badly by those guys from before, after all, and then when we were running, you took a pretty bad fall.”
The bruises and scrapes along his arms and legs twinge in pain at the memory of his fall and his earlier scuffle but he manages to smile and nod, turning his head to lock eyes with Gokudera, emphatically insisting he was one hundred percent okay.
“I-It’s fine, really! I was just caught off guard.”
Actually his head was kind of throbbing right now but if it kept Gokudera from trying to blow up Yamamoto (it didn’t matter they had none of their weapons with them, Gokudera would find a way with what he had on hand - one of the scary things about having a friend who was as short tempered as he was intelligent), he was willing to make a little white lie every now and then.
“Are you sure, Tenth? God knows this-“ What ever insult Gokudera was about to throw Yamamoto’s way abruptly cut off by the sound of leaves and sticks crunching underfoot, the sound of quiet chatter, loud and clear in the silence of the forest. Tensing, all three reached for their weapons and Gokudera slid down to the ground, taking cover behind the boulder once more, just out of sight.
“Come on, it’s this way,” one voice called out. “They could have only gone this way!”
They tensed further and clasped his hands together, praying that they wouldn’t spot them. With where they were hiding, they were like cornered rats.
“Don’t be stupid! There’s nothing back there, we’ve already checked that area. They probably headed back towards the forest clearing.”
“But we checked that area five times already and there’s nowhere else that we haven’t-“
“We’ll just wait there for them - don’t you see? They will have to pass through that area again eventually and that’s when we can ambush them!”
The sounds of bickering continued on for a few more minutes before they all finally agreed to move off back into the forest and the footsteps moved off again.
The relief in the air was palpable. After a few more moments of waiting to make sure they were actually gone, Yamamoto finally rolled off him and they crawled out of the cave. Tsuna took Gokudera’s hand with a thankful smile as he got to his feet, dusting the dirt off the back of his pants before he picked up his gun gingerly once more.
“O-Okay, so heading back through the forest is definitely out of the question. D-Does anyone have any ideas about which way to go?” Tsuna looked at his friends hopefully. The day had been long and he just wanted it to end already. And while they could head back through the forest where there was cover and places to hide behind and simply avoid the clearing, Tsuna didn’t feel like struggling through all of those bushes and branches again.
“How about along the river, Tenth? It’s closer to us anyway and it’s a lot easier to follow than trying to beat our way through the forests.”
“Haha, yeah! It’s a bit open but it’ll definitely be a lot easier to get away too.”
Along the river it was then.
Ten minutes later, Tsuna found himself wishing that they had just struggled through the forest again. While there was certainly an ambush waiting for them in a forest, they had forgotten their current enemy was a group of ten people, not just two - and run into them along the river where everything quickly degenerated into chaos.
It was absolute madness.
Shots firing everywhere. Everyone running into each other, shouting furiously as they tried to avoid shooting their own allies. Tsuna couldn’t count how many times he had tripped over his own feet, trying to get away from it all. Where were Gokudera and Yamamoto? Somehow he had managed to lose them in this battle.
He didn’t have a chance to search for them though. Suddenly there were guns everywhere aimed at him and he froze visibly, sweating nervously. His gun fell to the floor as his fingers went slack just as shots upon shots were fired at him. He screamed-heard Yamamoto and Gokudera shout out his name in horror before he fell into the water.
The last thing he thought before he blacked out was that he was never getting the paint out of these clothes.
“Tenth. Tenth!”
“Tsuna, come on, you need to wake up. Tsuna.”
Groaning, Tsuna forced his eyes to open, blinking up blearily at his friends’ worried faces. Seeing that he was awake, they broke out into relieved grins. They moved back to allow him room to sit up. Before he could even ask what happened, Gokudera was already speaking at one hundred miles per hour.
“I’m so sorry Tenth! I’m a failure as a right hand man! I wasn’t protecting you properly! I should have been there and taken the blow for you. Feel free to do whatever you want to me as punishment--”
“Tsuna! Haha, it’s good that you’re awake. You were sleeping for awhile, y’know.”
“What did you expect, you idiot?! Those bastards ganged up on him and shoved him into the river after they fired all of those paint balls at him--!”
“Um. Guys…?”
“Haha, didn’t we do the same to their friend as well? We didn’t gang up on him and we didn’t push them into any rivers-I don’t think you can blame that on them, though. That was kind of an accident.”
“Bullshit! They were plotting this from the start. You’re too soft! After they saw the Tenth’s amazing skills with a gun they were clearly plotting this from the start."
“…guys?” Ignored once again.
Listening to his friends argue, Tsuna sighed, dropped his head back down onto the seats. He picked at the ends of his jacket, wishing he had the foresight to wear one of his older ones, ones that were a little worn out. This one had been brand new and was quickly becoming a favourite - his mother was going to kill him. He rubbed at the bruises on his arm, formed by the paintballs.
“GUYS!” He shouted this time, trying to catch their attention once it looked like their argument was beginning to derail into territory Tsuna didn’t feel like dealing with right at this moment.
Yamamoto and Gokudera froze, and turned to face him with apologetic looks(Gokudera was already trying to bow in rapid succession as an apology but that was nothing new).
“I’m so, so sorry Tenth. I’ve been absolutely-“
Tsuna held up a hand, cutting his friend off in mid ramble.
“It’s okay. Let’s just go home. You can tell me how it went while we’re walking back.”
As soon as they left the center, Yamamoto launched into the story excitedly, slinging a companionable arm around Tsuna’s shoulders as Gokudera took his usual place at Tsuna’s right, hands brushing up against one another occasionally.
“--and Gokudera went kind of crazy after you got knocked out and just went beserk on everyone. You should’ve seen it! It was a pretty amazing sight.”
“Of course.” Gokudera looked smug. “Vengeance for the Tenth was absolutely necessary. They deserved everything that was coming to them. The idiot wasn’t half bad either at the end. He took out a good chunk of them too for daring to mess with us.” The glint in Gokudera’s eyes was nothing sort of unholy.
You guys really were treating that very seriously, huh?
Tsuna laughed, sweating inwardly, terrifying scenes of how that must have gone down running through his mind. It certainly explained the frightened and scared looks people kept throwing them as they walked down to the bus stop.
Still. He remembered a time where he never would have been able to step into a place like this. A time where there would have been no one running to help him once he had gone down. Mafia games, paintball wars- knowing that he had the greatest friends by his side through it all, ones that wanted him around, ones that would jump to defend him at a moment’s notice… it was a nice feeling, warm and fluttery in his heart.
“I-It’s great you guys had fun. I’m sorry I wasn’t very helpful throughout the game. I kept getting us into messes instead. ”
Yamamoto grinned, ruffling his hair.
“Don’t sweat it. I’m sure you’ll do much better next time we play.”
Wait. What?
“Next time?” Tsuna asked slowly, making sure he didn’t hear wrongly.
“Yes!” Gokudera replied enthusiastically. “We’ve been signed up to play at the centre every Saturday and Sunday for free. Apparently the owner, Rebomaru was so impressed with us that he said we should come and play there more often. Reborn-san said it was a good idea and would help with training.”
“Isn’t it great, Tsuna? Man, the owner’s a really nice guy, isn’t he?”
“Every Saturday and Sunday?” Tsuna repeated with a hysterical tinge to his voice that seemed to go over his friends’ head. Of course. He should have known Reborn would be behind this. So lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice when Yamamoto gently nudged him into the direction that was opposite to the bus stop.
“Yep! Haha, maybe we can get the others to join us this time. The more people we have, the stronger team we’ll be, right?”
“Tch. We were fine on our own. But if you have to invite others, don’t invite any idiots.”
Tsuna listened to them gloomily. As much as he enjoyed every moment he spent with his friends, this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind for summer vacation. He had wanted to spend time with his friends in ways that were comfortable and relaxing. Being shot at by a bunch of strangers was not his idea of a good time.
“Yes, yes. It’ll be a of fun though, don’t you think? I’m already getting worked up thinking about next week. What about you Tsuna?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun I guess,” came the hesitant reply. He really doubted it though.
“And we’re here, Tenth!”
Tsuna blinked, looking up, distracted from his thoughts.
“Already? But the bus stop isn’t…”
He stared. This wasn’t the bus stop. It wasn’t even the train station.
How on earth did he get led to a beach? And judging by the stalls that were being set up alongside the road, it seemed like there was a festival going on too.
“How-“
“While you were sleeping we heard that every Sunday here, they always set up all of these food stalls right next to the beach. It’s not a proper festival, but it’ll be good to have a place to unwind after all of those training sessions and games at the paintball center, right?” Yamamoto grinned, leaning on him heavily. Gokudera cast Yamamoto an annoyed look, one that said ‘get your hands off him already’ before facing Tsuna with an eager puppy dog look.
“And since we’re next to the beach, we can set off those mini fireworks safely too. Do you like those tenth? I can try to get my hands on the bigger ones too! Just say the word and-“
“No, no. Those mini ones will be fine.”
He smiled genuinely this time, eyes bright and happy.
“It’ll be more fun playing with those tiny ones together, don’t you think?”
Gokudera and Yamamoto grinned back.
So maybe his vacation wasn’t turning out the way he originally hoped but if the end result was being able to relax and unwind with his closest friends then he was willing to put up with a few more bruises and paintball fights.
That was all he really wanted out of this vacation anyway.
Title: Paintball Fights
Author: kiwipunch
Rating: PG
The walls of this cave felt like they were closing in on them and it was beginning to make Tsuna feel a little claustrophobic. To call it a cave was a bit of an exaggeration - a small hole on the cliff face was more like it. It was barely enough cover for one person but somehow, they managed to cram three people in there with plenty of room for the person at the front to shift around and peer through the entrance - he was pressed into the back of the cave, Yamamoto half pinning him down and Gokudera standing(sitting?) guard at the front, looking out for enemies from behind the cover of a boulder.
The smell of dust was thick in the air, almost suffocating in its heat and above him, Yamamoto wouldn’t stop shifting around. Half on his back and half on his side, Tsuna tried not to fidget, even if the rocks digging into his skin were getting really painful and the feathery touch of Yamamoto’s breath ghosting along his skin was kind of distracting, which really, really wasn’t good considering the situation they were currently in. Dirty, exhausted, alone with no way to call for help and none of their usual weapons on them- things were looking pretty bad for them. Enemies coming at them at every direction, far too many for the three of them to handle completely on their own; they were lucky they had made it through mostly unscathed.
‘How did our vacation end up like this?’ Tsuna thought mournfully. Chased around by enemy groups, driven into the edge of exhaustion (well, Tsuna was exhausted. Yamamoto and Gokudera were still looking far too energetic for all the running and shooting they had been forced into)… it was basically like every day of his usual life, nothing like how vacations were meant to be - long and relaxing, hours spent at the beach, mucking around at home and messing with video games, watching fireworks…
His train of thought was cut off by a sharp blow to his head. Tsuna yelped loudly, wondering what had happened as stars dances in front of his eyes.
“Sorry, Tsuna,” Yamamoto whispered apologetically and up front, Gokudera had whipped around, an automatic response to Tsuna’s cry of pain and snarled angrily.
“Idiot, what do you think you’re trying to do? Give him a concussion? Are you alright, Tenth?”
Tsuna didn’t have to look up to know Gokudera was glaring furious daggers at Yamamoto who would be grinning sheepishly and waving a hand around in a gesture that was meant to calm but only served to infuriate Gokudera instead.
“Sorry, I’m not used to carrying such a big gun around, y’know?” Yamamoto looked down again, concerned. “Are you okay, though? You got hit pretty badly by those guys from before, after all, and then when we were running, you took a pretty bad fall.”
The bruises and scrapes along his arms and legs twinge in pain at the memory of his fall and his earlier scuffle but he manages to smile and nod, turning his head to lock eyes with Gokudera, emphatically insisting he was one hundred percent okay.
“I-It’s fine, really! I was just caught off guard.”
Actually his head was kind of throbbing right now but if it kept Gokudera from trying to blow up Yamamoto (it didn’t matter they had none of their weapons with them, Gokudera would find a way with what he had on hand - one of the scary things about having a friend who was as short tempered as he was intelligent), he was willing to make a little white lie every now and then.
“Are you sure, Tenth? God knows this-“ What ever insult Gokudera was about to throw Yamamoto’s way abruptly cut off by the sound of leaves and sticks crunching underfoot, the sound of quiet chatter, loud and clear in the silence of the forest. Tensing, all three reached for their weapons and Gokudera slid down to the ground, taking cover behind the boulder once more, just out of sight.
“Come on, it’s this way,” one voice called out. “They could have only gone this way!”
They tensed further and clasped his hands together, praying that they wouldn’t spot them. With where they were hiding, they were like cornered rats.
“Don’t be stupid! There’s nothing back there, we’ve already checked that area. They probably headed back towards the forest clearing.”
“But we checked that area five times already and there’s nowhere else that we haven’t-“
“We’ll just wait there for them - don’t you see? They will have to pass through that area again eventually and that’s when we can ambush them!”
The sounds of bickering continued on for a few more minutes before they all finally agreed to move off back into the forest and the footsteps moved off again.
The relief in the air was palpable. After a few more moments of waiting to make sure they were actually gone, Yamamoto finally rolled off him and they crawled out of the cave. Tsuna took Gokudera’s hand with a thankful smile as he got to his feet, dusting the dirt off the back of his pants before he picked up his gun gingerly once more.
“O-Okay, so heading back through the forest is definitely out of the question. D-Does anyone have any ideas about which way to go?” Tsuna looked at his friends hopefully. The day had been long and he just wanted it to end already. And while they could head back through the forest where there was cover and places to hide behind and simply avoid the clearing, Tsuna didn’t feel like struggling through all of those bushes and branches again.
“How about along the river, Tenth? It’s closer to us anyway and it’s a lot easier to follow than trying to beat our way through the forests.”
“Haha, yeah! It’s a bit open but it’ll definitely be a lot easier to get away too.”
Along the river it was then.
Ten minutes later, Tsuna found himself wishing that they had just struggled through the forest again. While there was certainly an ambush waiting for them in a forest, they had forgotten their current enemy was a group of ten people, not just two - and run into them along the river where everything quickly degenerated into chaos.
It was absolute madness.
Shots firing everywhere. Everyone running into each other, shouting furiously as they tried to avoid shooting their own allies. Tsuna couldn’t count how many times he had tripped over his own feet, trying to get away from it all. Where were Gokudera and Yamamoto? Somehow he had managed to lose them in this battle.
He didn’t have a chance to search for them though. Suddenly there were guns everywhere aimed at him and he froze visibly, sweating nervously. His gun fell to the floor as his fingers went slack just as shots upon shots were fired at him. He screamed-heard Yamamoto and Gokudera shout out his name in horror before he fell into the water.
The last thing he thought before he blacked out was that he was never getting the paint out of these clothes.
“Tenth. Tenth!”
“Tsuna, come on, you need to wake up. Tsuna.”
Groaning, Tsuna forced his eyes to open, blinking up blearily at his friends’ worried faces. Seeing that he was awake, they broke out into relieved grins. They moved back to allow him room to sit up. Before he could even ask what happened, Gokudera was already speaking at one hundred miles per hour.
“I’m so sorry Tenth! I’m a failure as a right hand man! I wasn’t protecting you properly! I should have been there and taken the blow for you. Feel free to do whatever you want to me as punishment--”
“Tsuna! Haha, it’s good that you’re awake. You were sleeping for awhile, y’know.”
“What did you expect, you idiot?! Those bastards ganged up on him and shoved him into the river after they fired all of those paint balls at him--!”
“Um. Guys…?”
“Haha, didn’t we do the same to their friend as well? We didn’t gang up on him and we didn’t push them into any rivers-I don’t think you can blame that on them, though. That was kind of an accident.”
“Bullshit! They were plotting this from the start. You’re too soft! After they saw the Tenth’s amazing skills with a gun they were clearly plotting this from the start."
“…guys?” Ignored once again.
Listening to his friends argue, Tsuna sighed, dropped his head back down onto the seats. He picked at the ends of his jacket, wishing he had the foresight to wear one of his older ones, ones that were a little worn out. This one had been brand new and was quickly becoming a favourite - his mother was going to kill him. He rubbed at the bruises on his arm, formed by the paintballs.
“GUYS!” He shouted this time, trying to catch their attention once it looked like their argument was beginning to derail into territory Tsuna didn’t feel like dealing with right at this moment.
Yamamoto and Gokudera froze, and turned to face him with apologetic looks(Gokudera was already trying to bow in rapid succession as an apology but that was nothing new).
“I’m so, so sorry Tenth. I’ve been absolutely-“
Tsuna held up a hand, cutting his friend off in mid ramble.
“It’s okay. Let’s just go home. You can tell me how it went while we’re walking back.”
As soon as they left the center, Yamamoto launched into the story excitedly, slinging a companionable arm around Tsuna’s shoulders as Gokudera took his usual place at Tsuna’s right, hands brushing up against one another occasionally.
“--and Gokudera went kind of crazy after you got knocked out and just went beserk on everyone. You should’ve seen it! It was a pretty amazing sight.”
“Of course.” Gokudera looked smug. “Vengeance for the Tenth was absolutely necessary. They deserved everything that was coming to them. The idiot wasn’t half bad either at the end. He took out a good chunk of them too for daring to mess with us.” The glint in Gokudera’s eyes was nothing sort of unholy.
You guys really were treating that very seriously, huh?
Tsuna laughed, sweating inwardly, terrifying scenes of how that must have gone down running through his mind. It certainly explained the frightened and scared looks people kept throwing them as they walked down to the bus stop.
Still. He remembered a time where he never would have been able to step into a place like this. A time where there would have been no one running to help him once he had gone down. Mafia games, paintball wars- knowing that he had the greatest friends by his side through it all, ones that wanted him around, ones that would jump to defend him at a moment’s notice… it was a nice feeling, warm and fluttery in his heart.
“I-It’s great you guys had fun. I’m sorry I wasn’t very helpful throughout the game. I kept getting us into messes instead. ”
Yamamoto grinned, ruffling his hair.
“Don’t sweat it. I’m sure you’ll do much better next time we play.”
Wait. What?
“Next time?” Tsuna asked slowly, making sure he didn’t hear wrongly.
“Yes!” Gokudera replied enthusiastically. “We’ve been signed up to play at the centre every Saturday and Sunday for free. Apparently the owner, Rebomaru was so impressed with us that he said we should come and play there more often. Reborn-san said it was a good idea and would help with training.”
“Isn’t it great, Tsuna? Man, the owner’s a really nice guy, isn’t he?”
“Every Saturday and Sunday?” Tsuna repeated with a hysterical tinge to his voice that seemed to go over his friends’ head. Of course. He should have known Reborn would be behind this. So lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice when Yamamoto gently nudged him into the direction that was opposite to the bus stop.
“Yep! Haha, maybe we can get the others to join us this time. The more people we have, the stronger team we’ll be, right?”
“Tch. We were fine on our own. But if you have to invite others, don’t invite any idiots.”
Tsuna listened to them gloomily. As much as he enjoyed every moment he spent with his friends, this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind for summer vacation. He had wanted to spend time with his friends in ways that were comfortable and relaxing. Being shot at by a bunch of strangers was not his idea of a good time.
“Yes, yes. It’ll be a of fun though, don’t you think? I’m already getting worked up thinking about next week. What about you Tsuna?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun I guess,” came the hesitant reply. He really doubted it though.
“And we’re here, Tenth!”
Tsuna blinked, looking up, distracted from his thoughts.
“Already? But the bus stop isn’t…”
He stared. This wasn’t the bus stop. It wasn’t even the train station.
How on earth did he get led to a beach? And judging by the stalls that were being set up alongside the road, it seemed like there was a festival going on too.
“How-“
“While you were sleeping we heard that every Sunday here, they always set up all of these food stalls right next to the beach. It’s not a proper festival, but it’ll be good to have a place to unwind after all of those training sessions and games at the paintball center, right?” Yamamoto grinned, leaning on him heavily. Gokudera cast Yamamoto an annoyed look, one that said ‘get your hands off him already’ before facing Tsuna with an eager puppy dog look.
“And since we’re next to the beach, we can set off those mini fireworks safely too. Do you like those tenth? I can try to get my hands on the bigger ones too! Just say the word and-“
“No, no. Those mini ones will be fine.”
He smiled genuinely this time, eyes bright and happy.
“It’ll be more fun playing with those tiny ones together, don’t you think?”
Gokudera and Yamamoto grinned back.
So maybe his vacation wasn’t turning out the way he originally hoped but if the end result was being able to relax and unwind with his closest friends then he was willing to put up with a few more bruises and paintball fights.
That was all he really wanted out of this vacation anyway.