True Colors [Part III]
I hope you guys like this last part. :D Thank you for reading!
Title: True Colors
Rating: PG (Swearing)
Summary: Miura Haru doesn't want to feel like she's a piece of furniture to him any longer.
There she is, his girl ten years into the future. He swallows hard, wondering if by some miracle they might have mended things between them. She might have the answers, unless she’s from a different time stream. The possibilities are endless, so he clings to the scraps of hope he’s been surviving on for the past few weeks.
The smoke clears slowly, and he sees her silhouette fall forward into Lambo’s outstretched arms as the debris of it dissipates. It’s almost like he’s watching a movie, the way he feels so detached from what’s going on in front of him.
The slip of a girl, really, did she get smaller, looks up. A confused hahi escapes her lips before her eyes widen exponentially and she shrieks, arms flailing, catching Lambo’s face a few times in the process and knocking him to the ground. She wastes no time and pounces him, gripping him in a headlock so tight he’s sure Lambo will never breathe the same way again.
“You’re that pervert that Haru’s seen running around!” she declares. “Haru’s going to call the po-po…” she trails off, catching sight of him. Her clutch slackens and Lambo makes a desperate bid for freedom, scuttling away from her backwards into the room.
His breath is caught in his throat again. This isn’t his girl from the future, but the one from the past. She’s in her school uniform, hair pulled up in a ponytail, and gazing at him in disbelief.
Well hell, he’s the one that can’t believe what’s going on.
“That’s quite the grip, Haru nee,” Lambo chokes out, getting back on his feet. “I’d forgotten how scary you were back then.”
Her eyes flit back on the idiot, frowning and analyzing. It only takes a few seconds, and then she’s gaping. “L-Lambo chan?” she gasps.
The cow grins at her. “We’re in the future, Haru nee. In this time I generally go by Lambo sama.”
That’s quite enough. “You moron,” he interjects irritably, before he can spout out any more nonsense. “No one calls you that. Now what the heck did you do? Why is Haru from the past here?”
Lambo glances at him in a bored sort of way. “I used a special bomb on her. It’s all part of Vongola’s plan. Don’t worry; she’ll be back in 30 minutes.”
He feels himself falling deeper in incredulity. “Tenth came up with this? Are you freaking kidding me?”
The stupid cow’s lips break into a sly grin. “He did. He said that he believes sending Haru nee to the past will remind her of why she fell in love with you in the first place.” He shrugs. “I don’t see how that could be, but he insisted…”
There’s a flood of ice water cascading into his belly. This can’t be happening. “You idiot cow!” he seethes. “We weren’t together yet ten years ago!”
The stupid shit shrugs again. “Boss’s orders. Can’t do nothing but obey. Besides, the Haru nee from the past will be able to tell you exactly why you fail in the future, I think.” With that said he sashays back to the door, tugs the girl into the room after a quick hug she doesn’t return, and shuts the door behind him, but nor before reminding him that they have 27 minutes.
---
Whenever she thinks about the future a sort of foreboding and frightened feeling expands in her chest. It reminds her of their experiences with destroyed worlds, bloodshed, and loss. She knows that in the end Tsuna san and the others managed to set things right again, but the feeling doesn’t go away when the word future pops up.
And now she’s there again, having fast-forwarded ten years from her own time, having to face the fact that the pervert she sometimes sees is none other than Lambo chan. That somehow, her future self falls for Gokudera Hayato. Gokudera Hayato who is looking at her in a way she’s not comfortable with at all.
His brow is scrunched up like usual, but not in the standard angry look. Instead, the man, and boy did he turn into a man her mind reels before she can stop the though from forming, looks apprehensive, as if he’s a little afraid of her. She thinks that’s a little much, she’s the one that has to face that Tsuna san is not going to be her intended.
A minute passes, and they’re still both silent. It’s as if he were waiting for her to react. It’s too bad for him she’s stuck where she is, back supported by the wall, and with no intention of moving. Stupor is strong. Haru is strong; she has to be to get out of this unscathed by any of whatever it is that’s happened between the her of this world and the Gokudera of it.
“Haru,” he finally says, and she notes his voice is deeper.
And her name, he called her by her name! Oh, well in this time they’re…familiar. She supposes it’s only natural.
He takes a step towards her, and it is then that her muscles unfreeze.
“Wait!” she shouts, holding out the palms of her hands. “I−Haru needs some time to think about what you and Lambo chan were saying.” She tries to sound composed, but the words come out all high-pitched and squeaky. She feels her cheeks burn red.
He stops moving like she asks, nods in acquiescence, and moves back to sit at the foot of the bed. The messy, unmade bed that she can’t think about right now, because he’s looking at her all weird again, as if he’s concerned, and it’s freaking her out, and making her blush a little more intensely.
It’s all rather surreal, because Haru may be impulsive, but not stupid. She finds it too strange and unbelievable that she and Gokudera could have grown up to be together, not the way they get along. Unless…it hits her! She understands. Straightening her spine she marches towards him and claps her hands to her hips.
“Haru is in a parallel world!” she tells him vehemently. “Because there’s no possible reason why I would be with someone as mean and rude as Gokudera san!”
She expects him to understand, to accept that she is not the girl from his past, but another version of her from another world. In this existence of his he must have been different, and that’s why things ended up like they did. Her hands fall to her sides when he does nod, but his head shoulders fall forward, as does his head, as if she’s beaten him into submission.
“You’re right,” he murmurs in that deep voice of his. “Not in your world and not in mine. You’re right.”
Her throat constricts, perhaps she said too much? “Are you sure you’re Gokudera san?” she asks tentatively, her hand rising to touch his shoulder, but falling when his eyes glance up and she realizes that she went too far indeed.
Her gaze falls to her shoes, embarrassed. “I’m sorry,” she apologizes. “I spoke to you as if you where the Gokudera san that I know. But you seem nice enough, so I’m sorry.” She smiles widely, hoping he’ll cheer up. “I bet the me from this world fell for you because you’re…umm, great!”
“Not that you would know,” he points out, a little smile dawning on the edge of his lips and her own turns wider, glad that he’s pulled himself out from whatever chasm she’d hurled him into. He straightens up and looks at her in a way which tells her he’s considering her against the woman that he knows.
“You’re exactly like how she used to be,” he tells her.
---
And she is.
With her bright eyes and expression unmarred by worry. He realizes that he hasn’t seen her like this in a long time. He feels dread expand when it also hits him that this will all change for her soon.
“Haru is sorry,” she apologizes again, her face falling, and he laughs.
“Don’t worry about it,” he assures her as she clasps her hands together and looks at him shyly.
“Haru just finds it strange that Gokudera san could like Haru, when we are always fighting,” she explains. “Haru didn’t mean to hurt your feelings…do Gokudera san and the future Haru still fight?”
He can’t help but smile a bit. “Don’t tell me that you don’t enjoy our fights,” he teases. “I remember you confessed to me once, that you used to look forward to them.” He ignores the second half of what she asked.
She blushes. “Hahi! Gokudera san! Haru does not enjoy fighting. Haru is a lady.”
Mirth bubbles in his belly and he throws back his head and laughs loudly. “I haven’t heard that one in a while,” he says when she glares at him, hands at her hips again.
“What’s so funny?” she demands, and he chuckles.
“It’s just that at one point you told everyone that being a lady was overrated. This was all while you went incognito as a man for an infiltration mission for…” he trails off at the wide expansion of her eyes. He’s definitely said too much.
“H-Haru is part of Vongola?” she whispers, fervor alighting the brown of her irises. He nods reluctantly, but then remembers the failsafe built into the Bovino bombs. She won’t remember anything when she goes back to her own time.
Her lips split into a smile. “Haru won’t be useless in the future!” she exclaims. ‘I’m so glad!”
His eyes narrow. “You’re not useless, stupid woman,” he chides, and her enthusiasm falls short. His stomach drops. This conversation has suddenly taken a too-familiar turn.
She composes herself and glares sternly at him. “Haru is not a stupid woman, Gokudera san. Please don’t tell me you still call Haru that…even when you and her…”
She frowns more deeply and shakes her head vehemently when red covers his cheeks. “It seems I never got out of the habit,” he confesses. “It’s the reason Haru and I are…separated at the moment.”
She makes a tutting noise. “Gokudera san needs to control his mouth,” she tells him. “How else will Haru know you love her, when I know Gokudera san is a very closed-off person? It’s part of your personality. Haru understands.”
He stares at her incredulously. “Even then you knew me that well, huh? But what about her? If she knows that about me, then why can’t she just get it?”
She hits him across the head, a slap to the temple that doesn’t hurt him at all, but startles him. “What the heck was that for?” he demands.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Gokudera san!” she exclaims. “Being together involves partnership. That means Gokudera san has to try harder. That means Haru has to try harder too. You have to be nicer, and she has to meet you halfway!”
He stares open-mouthed. “How the heck do you know all this?”
She grins. “Haru is a lady. All ladies should know these things.”
He snorts, not able to help himself, but smiles at her. “I see.” He takes her hand, and she blushes but doesn’t take it back. “I am in your gratitude, Haru. I think I know what to do now.”
She beams at him. “That’s wonderful! Now Gokudera san won’t be sad, right?”
“Hopefully,” he murmurs, and then glances at his watch. “We have two minutes,” he tells her. He stares at her face, and again that pang of dread engulfs him. “You know, we started getting closer right around this time. It was because something happened to you, and I decided to help you against my better judgment.” She blinks.
“What was it that happened?”
“You won’t remember, even if I told you,” he says sadly, and she bites her lip. Her look of preoccupation dissipates, however, and she grins at him.
“But if Gokudera san will be there for Haru, then I’m sure I’ll be alright.” His mouth opens to say something, but before he can a loud explosion bangs in front of him, and she is gone, the warmth from her hand disappearing as she is hurled back into the past. A second later, however, it is replaced.
The hand is a little bigger, but just as warm. The cloud of purple smoke dwindles and their fingers lace. His Haru is standing before him, smiling in the way that the girl from ten years previously also smiled. It had been a long time since she had looked at him like that.
“Haru has decided to forgive you. What’s more, I’ll meet you halfway. Haru has realized, after all, that she is a stupid woman just as you are a stupid man. We need each other for balance, so that we are not stupid alone. If that makes any sense?”
He stares at her, bewildered, but then lets a smile form on his lips. He stands and pulls her towards him, engulfing her in his arms. “Not at all, but then again we are both stupid Mafiosi, logic is overrated.”
She laughs and he buries his face in her neck, his eyes closing in the glint of steel her earrings reflect.
“I’m here for you, so everything will be fine,” he tells her. Ten years in the past, Haru will soon be wearing the same bands in her ears, and his past self will be there for her just as she predicted, just as he always would be.