HAPPY BIRTHDAY, kye_kestrel! [4/5]
BACKSTORY: kye_kestrel is celebrating in roughly an hour, so I've decided to attempt to resurrect my whole FIC THE NUMBER OF DRABBLES EQUIVALENT TO YOUR FRIEND'S AGE thing, since I wasn't able to do it with a lot of the other people who celebrated their birthdays this year. orz I MUST WORK HARDER AT THIS.
I know I should be posting this by midnight, but titling and editing everything took really long. I figured that I might as well toss them in now~
I've divided the drabbles between several entries. You can check the links for the others here:
1 || 2 || 3 || 5
OOKIKU FURIKABUTTE, KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! and all characters/ideas/concepts/places therein are not mine, although the writing certainly is.
December 13 [2007]: Ookiku Furikabutte. Like toothpaste, smooth and minty.
This was inspired, in part, by the shenanigans that used to take place down at the Oofuri RPlurk Crew.
Suffice to say, their first date was a complete and utter disaster. Abe had arrived horrendously late, Mihashi had done little else beyond flail through all of the places that Abe had oh-so-carefully outlined in true Nishiura Pitcher fashion (read: ice cream parlor, batting range, sports shop, park), and both of them had fumbled so much over words and actions and everything in between that by the time they were finally walking back to Mihashi’s place, Abe was convinced about two things:
A.) He sucked at dates, and he would never go on one again. With anybody.
B.) Mihashi was probably even more scared of him than he had been before this horrendous date had started.
With that in mind, the catcher was pleasantly surprised when, after saying their goodbyes, Mihashi stopped halfway between the gate of his house and his door, turned around and scuttled right back, to give Abe a nervous peck on his lips.
“T-t-t-thank you, Abe-kun, for today!”
Abe stared.
“I… I would really like to do it again sometime!”
Abe stared some more.
“W-well. S… see you at school!”
And Abe continued staring, even long after Mihashi had retreated into his house. The next day, he was bent over his notebook once again, scribbling out his master plans for yet another day out with his pitcher.
November 21 [2008]: Ookiku Furikabutte. Kissing is like drinking water: you drink and your thirst increases.
The make out session was a result of stupid teenage hormones and Izumi insisting, with the gravity of a boy much older than he was, that there probably wasn’t a thing that Mizutani was good at. Mizutani, after whining some and pouting some, decided to prove Izumi wrong by leaning forward and kissing him, because the girls that he had gone around with before in their school had always had one thing to say about him - that was he awfully good with his mouth. What Mizutani had not really expected, however, was that they would kiss again after that first one. And again. And then a little more, along with some cop ups and rumpling of shirts.
They pull away, hot and breathless, staring at each other with hooded eyes, not really knowing who disengaged first. The uncomfortable and ragged silence is broken, of course, by Izumi, who is, if for anything, a most practical-thinking boy.
“I still think you suck at it. Do it again, so that I can make sure.”
And Mizutani, being the gullible idiot he is, does exactly as he’s told.
September 17 [2007]: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! You bring out the sunshine underground.
This takes place ten years into the future.
“What do you think you’re-”
“I’ll let you go once we’re there, Hibari-san. I promise.”
He has come to realize, over the nine years that they have known each other, that he really can’t do anything about that smile. Sawada Tsuyanoshi has become the one person who can disarm him with a look, with the sheer power of the fact that he does nothing but feel and with those feelings, he takes on the whole world, holding it between two gauntleted hands. He pushes these thoughts away, though, because they are inconvenient and make him uncomfortable, distinctly aware of that very slight and telling increase in his heart rate and the fact that Tsuna’s hand is holding his own, fingers tangling between fingers.
“When they asked me about the renovations, you were the first person that I thought of.”
Tsuna speaks with the brisk, perfect ease of a professional who has caused wars and fought in wars and won each and every single one of them, but the image of a cold-blooded mafia boss is immediately dispelled the moment he turns, briefly, to smile at his companion again. Oddly, Hibari pays little attention to the smile, and notes the way Tsuna’s shoulders look instead, slim but strong, filling in the curves of the tailored suits that he wears more and more often these days.
(Hibari, however, prefers it when the clothes are off, and he can kiss the bare skin of those shoulders, tracing out their perfect, rounded angles and snaking upward, to the spots where those shoulders meet that slim, delicate neck.)
They climb three flights of stairs before Tsuna leads Hibari out into the sunlight, pulling him unto a rooftop that looks remarkably like the rooftop of their school building in Namimori. It is only when the Tenth boss chuckles that Hibari realizes that he must have been staring, with too much wonder befitting of his personality, up at the wild Italian sky over their heads and the clouds racing above, far beyond their reach.
“Well? Do you like it?”
He brings himself back down to Earth only to find himself staring into those eyes. Hibari has no answer, nothing to offer but a quiet embrace, a kiss to the forehead and a silent promise that he will never, ever let anyone get close to the younger man in the way that he is close, always five steps behind and an arm’s length away.
October 20 [2007]: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! A flower called heartsease.
This takes place sometime in the future.
The piano was the first thing he heard the moment he went inside the mansion: the tone was soft, sweet and low, new and pleasantly unfamiliar. Sawada Tsuyanoshi followed the sound, feeling the exhaustion of his day out being the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family melt a little with every step he made, as each one brought him closer to his new destination - a better, nicer place than all of the other ones he had been wandering through since breakfast.
On his first official day as the Tenth, Tsuna’s head butler had asked him about the renovations and additions that he might have wished to make to the mansion. It was apparently the family’s tradition to allow the newly inducted boss to change the mansion as he wished, provided that he kept a few key areas and rooms intact. Oddly, the only thing Tsuna had asked about was a particular room in a particular wing that had not been used since the time of the Fifth. He had wanted the whole area refurbished, and the finest piano in the country moved into the room in question.
Gokudera was in that room at the moment, playing through the song that Tsuna had heard back at the front door of the mansion: the silver-haired mafioso was totally absorbed in his music and Tsuna was content with playing the role of secret observer from the corridor, of having the privilege of seeing Gokudera not as the Storm Guardian and Right Hand of the Tenth, but simply as himself for just a few precious minutes, a young man with a piano and his favorite song of the day.
Gokudera dropped the last note almost too quickly for Tsuna’s tastes. The young man did not call attention upon himself immediately, choosing, instead, to commit the image of his Storm Guardian - his lover and dearest friend - to memory: the relaxed curve of his back, the broad shoulders, the glint of each of the rings on his fingers, the sunlight in his hair, his peacefully closed eyes, the slight, upward and content curve of his lips. Tsuna very suddenly wanted to take that face between his hands and kiss that mouth, slowly, sweetly.
“What song was that?”
“Ah! Tenth!” Gokudera scrambled up, all flushed cheeks and total embarrassment. “H-how long have you been standing there?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Tsuna chuckled, dismissing the whole situation with a careless wave of his hand. He looked up then, smiling a little shyly at the other man. It always took a bit of effort for him to ask the next question, even though they had practically grown up joined to the hip, knowing every inch of each other’s skin like they knew the backs of their own hands. “Do you… do you think you can teach that piece to me?”
“Of course.”
And there it was, the complete and total lack of hesitation and pure warmth that he had once thought of himself unworthy of receiving. It was Tsuna’s turn to blush as he smiled again, lowered his eyes, and stepped through the door.
February 6 [2008]: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! The justice of my quarrel.
This one takes place somewhere in the middle part of the TYL arc. If you don’t know who Spanner is, then this is most definitely riddled with spoilers. orz
The last test that they took ended in failure, with Spanner clicking his tongue at the unreliable data it had yielded and his guinea pig of the moment flat on its back, trying to remember how to breathe properly without hurting himself. Spanner, of course, did not notice a thing outside of his lollipop and the fact that the test did not meet up with his standards - the blond engineer eventually glanced away from his screen, eyes instantly singling out the boneless heap of boy on the floor of his hideout.
“Get up and try that again.”
“S… Spanner-san, I-I really don’t think-”
A sudden pause, following by some wheezing and a violent bout of coughing. Sawada Tsuyanoshi tried to get up, and ended up flat on his stomach rather than his back. Spanner lifted an eyebrow at the scrawny boy, unimpressed by the pitiful fuss that he was making.
“You don’t think what?”
More wheezing and coughing. Spanner’s other eyebrow traveled into his hairline - he stood up with a sigh, and crossed to the other side of the room. He returned with a towel and a bottle of water, squatted down in front of Tsuna, and used the bottle in his hand to rap the Vongola not-so-lightly on the forehead.
“Drink this and get up. We have to hurry.”
“…Sorry.”
But Spanner did not seem to hear him - the man had stood up again, returning to his work station. Tsuna eventually gathered enough strength in his limbs to push himself up and do as his captor told him to. The boy rocked back on his heels, twisting the cap of the bottle off and taking a generous gulp of its contents. He could not recall a time when something as plain as water had tasted so sweet. A few gulps later, and he was observing Spanner from a distance, as he had come to do more and more often as of late.
Beyond the fact that Spanner liked lollipops and seemed like he was going to stop at nothing to beat the perfect X-Burner out of his prisoner, Tsuna really could not tell what sort of person Spanner was, or why he was doing what he was doing. Granted, it had only been a few hours since they met (read: since they fought and Tsuna got knocked out and woke up in handcuffs in Spanner’s hideout) and Tsuna wasn’t exactly good at reading people. From what little that he did know, however, Tsuna figured that Spanner was definitely a strange one.
“If you’ve got the time to stare at me, Vongola, you ought to get up and prep for the next test.”
“A-ah! Sorry!”
Spanner, predictably, did not answer, leaving Tsuna to blush and scramble to his feet. The boy re-assumed his original position, forcing his tired limbs back into the stance that he needed in order to fire the X-Burner correctly. He really couldn’t tell if they were going anywhere with all of those tests, and it wasn’t as if Spanner was open about his plans for him, and-
“It’s not just about your weapon.”
“Eh?” Tsuna automatically turned to look in Spanner’s direction, only to freeze the moment he noticed the unimpressed expression on the man’s face.
“Eyes forward, Vongola.” Spanner waited until Tsuna had dutifully turned away before typing again. “Maybe I’m doing this for other reasons too,” the blond eventually said, just as Tsuna started charging up. His voice was nearly lost to the roar of the Dying Will flames cloaking Tsuna’s fists and marking the boy’s forehead, and the future Tenth of the Vongola Family was a little too preoccupied with keeping his own balance to ask what the blond engineer met. He forgot about it later, when Iris - a squadron leader from the White Spell - crashed into their hideout.
(Tsuna only remembered it much later, when they finally came face-to-face with the round machine and Irie Shouichi and it seemed as though Spanner could do nothing but stare at the young man before them with a funny sort of look in his eyes that Tsuna had never seen on anyone else before.)
I know I should be posting this by midnight, but titling and editing everything took really long. I figured that I might as well toss them in now~
I've divided the drabbles between several entries. You can check the links for the others here:
1 || 2 || 3 || 5
OOKIKU FURIKABUTTE, KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! and all characters/ideas/concepts/places therein are not mine, although the writing certainly is.
December 13 [2007]: Ookiku Furikabutte. Like toothpaste, smooth and minty.
This was inspired, in part, by the shenanigans that used to take place down at the Oofuri RPlurk Crew.
Suffice to say, their first date was a complete and utter disaster. Abe had arrived horrendously late, Mihashi had done little else beyond flail through all of the places that Abe had oh-so-carefully outlined in true Nishiura Pitcher fashion (read: ice cream parlor, batting range, sports shop, park), and both of them had fumbled so much over words and actions and everything in between that by the time they were finally walking back to Mihashi’s place, Abe was convinced about two things:
A.) He sucked at dates, and he would never go on one again. With anybody.
B.) Mihashi was probably even more scared of him than he had been before this horrendous date had started.
With that in mind, the catcher was pleasantly surprised when, after saying their goodbyes, Mihashi stopped halfway between the gate of his house and his door, turned around and scuttled right back, to give Abe a nervous peck on his lips.
“T-t-t-thank you, Abe-kun, for today!”
Abe stared.
“I… I would really like to do it again sometime!”
Abe stared some more.
“W-well. S… see you at school!”
And Abe continued staring, even long after Mihashi had retreated into his house. The next day, he was bent over his notebook once again, scribbling out his master plans for yet another day out with his pitcher.
November 21 [2008]: Ookiku Furikabutte. Kissing is like drinking water: you drink and your thirst increases.
The make out session was a result of stupid teenage hormones and Izumi insisting, with the gravity of a boy much older than he was, that there probably wasn’t a thing that Mizutani was good at. Mizutani, after whining some and pouting some, decided to prove Izumi wrong by leaning forward and kissing him, because the girls that he had gone around with before in their school had always had one thing to say about him - that was he awfully good with his mouth. What Mizutani had not really expected, however, was that they would kiss again after that first one. And again. And then a little more, along with some cop ups and rumpling of shirts.
They pull away, hot and breathless, staring at each other with hooded eyes, not really knowing who disengaged first. The uncomfortable and ragged silence is broken, of course, by Izumi, who is, if for anything, a most practical-thinking boy.
“I still think you suck at it. Do it again, so that I can make sure.”
And Mizutani, being the gullible idiot he is, does exactly as he’s told.
September 17 [2007]: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! You bring out the sunshine underground.
This takes place ten years into the future.
“What do you think you’re-”
“I’ll let you go once we’re there, Hibari-san. I promise.”
He has come to realize, over the nine years that they have known each other, that he really can’t do anything about that smile. Sawada Tsuyanoshi has become the one person who can disarm him with a look, with the sheer power of the fact that he does nothing but feel and with those feelings, he takes on the whole world, holding it between two gauntleted hands. He pushes these thoughts away, though, because they are inconvenient and make him uncomfortable, distinctly aware of that very slight and telling increase in his heart rate and the fact that Tsuna’s hand is holding his own, fingers tangling between fingers.
“When they asked me about the renovations, you were the first person that I thought of.”
Tsuna speaks with the brisk, perfect ease of a professional who has caused wars and fought in wars and won each and every single one of them, but the image of a cold-blooded mafia boss is immediately dispelled the moment he turns, briefly, to smile at his companion again. Oddly, Hibari pays little attention to the smile, and notes the way Tsuna’s shoulders look instead, slim but strong, filling in the curves of the tailored suits that he wears more and more often these days.
(Hibari, however, prefers it when the clothes are off, and he can kiss the bare skin of those shoulders, tracing out their perfect, rounded angles and snaking upward, to the spots where those shoulders meet that slim, delicate neck.)
They climb three flights of stairs before Tsuna leads Hibari out into the sunlight, pulling him unto a rooftop that looks remarkably like the rooftop of their school building in Namimori. It is only when the Tenth boss chuckles that Hibari realizes that he must have been staring, with too much wonder befitting of his personality, up at the wild Italian sky over their heads and the clouds racing above, far beyond their reach.
“Well? Do you like it?”
He brings himself back down to Earth only to find himself staring into those eyes. Hibari has no answer, nothing to offer but a quiet embrace, a kiss to the forehead and a silent promise that he will never, ever let anyone get close to the younger man in the way that he is close, always five steps behind and an arm’s length away.
October 20 [2007]: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! A flower called heartsease.
This takes place sometime in the future.
The piano was the first thing he heard the moment he went inside the mansion: the tone was soft, sweet and low, new and pleasantly unfamiliar. Sawada Tsuyanoshi followed the sound, feeling the exhaustion of his day out being the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family melt a little with every step he made, as each one brought him closer to his new destination - a better, nicer place than all of the other ones he had been wandering through since breakfast.
On his first official day as the Tenth, Tsuna’s head butler had asked him about the renovations and additions that he might have wished to make to the mansion. It was apparently the family’s tradition to allow the newly inducted boss to change the mansion as he wished, provided that he kept a few key areas and rooms intact. Oddly, the only thing Tsuna had asked about was a particular room in a particular wing that had not been used since the time of the Fifth. He had wanted the whole area refurbished, and the finest piano in the country moved into the room in question.
Gokudera was in that room at the moment, playing through the song that Tsuna had heard back at the front door of the mansion: the silver-haired mafioso was totally absorbed in his music and Tsuna was content with playing the role of secret observer from the corridor, of having the privilege of seeing Gokudera not as the Storm Guardian and Right Hand of the Tenth, but simply as himself for just a few precious minutes, a young man with a piano and his favorite song of the day.
Gokudera dropped the last note almost too quickly for Tsuna’s tastes. The young man did not call attention upon himself immediately, choosing, instead, to commit the image of his Storm Guardian - his lover and dearest friend - to memory: the relaxed curve of his back, the broad shoulders, the glint of each of the rings on his fingers, the sunlight in his hair, his peacefully closed eyes, the slight, upward and content curve of his lips. Tsuna very suddenly wanted to take that face between his hands and kiss that mouth, slowly, sweetly.
“What song was that?”
“Ah! Tenth!” Gokudera scrambled up, all flushed cheeks and total embarrassment. “H-how long have you been standing there?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Tsuna chuckled, dismissing the whole situation with a careless wave of his hand. He looked up then, smiling a little shyly at the other man. It always took a bit of effort for him to ask the next question, even though they had practically grown up joined to the hip, knowing every inch of each other’s skin like they knew the backs of their own hands. “Do you… do you think you can teach that piece to me?”
“Of course.”
And there it was, the complete and total lack of hesitation and pure warmth that he had once thought of himself unworthy of receiving. It was Tsuna’s turn to blush as he smiled again, lowered his eyes, and stepped through the door.
February 6 [2008]: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! The justice of my quarrel.
This one takes place somewhere in the middle part of the TYL arc. If you don’t know who Spanner is, then this is most definitely riddled with spoilers. orz
The last test that they took ended in failure, with Spanner clicking his tongue at the unreliable data it had yielded and his guinea pig of the moment flat on its back, trying to remember how to breathe properly without hurting himself. Spanner, of course, did not notice a thing outside of his lollipop and the fact that the test did not meet up with his standards - the blond engineer eventually glanced away from his screen, eyes instantly singling out the boneless heap of boy on the floor of his hideout.
“Get up and try that again.”
“S… Spanner-san, I-I really don’t think-”
A sudden pause, following by some wheezing and a violent bout of coughing. Sawada Tsuyanoshi tried to get up, and ended up flat on his stomach rather than his back. Spanner lifted an eyebrow at the scrawny boy, unimpressed by the pitiful fuss that he was making.
“You don’t think what?”
More wheezing and coughing. Spanner’s other eyebrow traveled into his hairline - he stood up with a sigh, and crossed to the other side of the room. He returned with a towel and a bottle of water, squatted down in front of Tsuna, and used the bottle in his hand to rap the Vongola not-so-lightly on the forehead.
“Drink this and get up. We have to hurry.”
“…Sorry.”
But Spanner did not seem to hear him - the man had stood up again, returning to his work station. Tsuna eventually gathered enough strength in his limbs to push himself up and do as his captor told him to. The boy rocked back on his heels, twisting the cap of the bottle off and taking a generous gulp of its contents. He could not recall a time when something as plain as water had tasted so sweet. A few gulps later, and he was observing Spanner from a distance, as he had come to do more and more often as of late.
Beyond the fact that Spanner liked lollipops and seemed like he was going to stop at nothing to beat the perfect X-Burner out of his prisoner, Tsuna really could not tell what sort of person Spanner was, or why he was doing what he was doing. Granted, it had only been a few hours since they met (read: since they fought and Tsuna got knocked out and woke up in handcuffs in Spanner’s hideout) and Tsuna wasn’t exactly good at reading people. From what little that he did know, however, Tsuna figured that Spanner was definitely a strange one.
“If you’ve got the time to stare at me, Vongola, you ought to get up and prep for the next test.”
“A-ah! Sorry!”
Spanner, predictably, did not answer, leaving Tsuna to blush and scramble to his feet. The boy re-assumed his original position, forcing his tired limbs back into the stance that he needed in order to fire the X-Burner correctly. He really couldn’t tell if they were going anywhere with all of those tests, and it wasn’t as if Spanner was open about his plans for him, and-
“It’s not just about your weapon.”
“Eh?” Tsuna automatically turned to look in Spanner’s direction, only to freeze the moment he noticed the unimpressed expression on the man’s face.
“Eyes forward, Vongola.” Spanner waited until Tsuna had dutifully turned away before typing again. “Maybe I’m doing this for other reasons too,” the blond eventually said, just as Tsuna started charging up. His voice was nearly lost to the roar of the Dying Will flames cloaking Tsuna’s fists and marking the boy’s forehead, and the future Tenth of the Vongola Family was a little too preoccupied with keeping his own balance to ask what the blond engineer met. He forgot about it later, when Iris - a squadron leader from the White Spell - crashed into their hideout.
(Tsuna only remembered it much later, when they finally came face-to-face with the round machine and Irie Shouichi and it seemed as though Spanner could do nothing but stare at the young man before them with a funny sort of look in his eyes that Tsuna had never seen on anyone else before.)