Consequence chap 4

Hello hello hello again!

Please note, if Tsuna does something in this chapter, or any other from now on, that doesn't explicitly say he uses his hands, you can assume he's using his Telekinesis. IE "He threw the tacks at the door of his locker." -using Telekinesis. Also, as an Empathic, he often goes through different emotions at the drop of a hat. Some may be subtle, others not quite so. And many times, those emotions he goes through are not his – not completely. I'll try to be clear, but if/ when I mess up, please tell me so I can fix it? Thanks, and Enjoy!

Tsuna did not want to go back to school. Having Reborn trailing behind him meant that he had to though. (And yeah, he knew he could just ignore the hitman and do whatever he wanted, but Tsuna also knew that the moment he did that, his destiny (That he liked!) would be forever ruined. And Tsuna was not going to let that happen.)

He sighed again.

He still didn't want to go.

Reborn couldn't blame him though. Even the mafia kid Reborn himself had sent to help Tsuna mature as a boss was petrified by a miniscule display of Tsuna's power. Reborn didn't have to have Tsuna's empathy to know how scared every student was; it was palpable in the air, written on everyone's face, and etched into Tsuna's mind. It was Tsuna's main fear come to life – the fear that no one would want him near them anymore. Hell, the girl he liked, the girl he was trying to help had basically abandoned him as he was beaten down.

Reborn really couldn't blame him for not wanting to go back there.

"There's going to be someone new in class today, isn't there?" Tsuna asked, the suddenness of his voice bringing Reborn from his reprieve.

"Yeah. How did you – oh, right. I forgot you have visions." Reborn said with a sigh. Tsuna smiled a small tilt of his lips at him and nodded.

"I can also feel this new student's apprehension about today." Tsuna paused. "They… he saw me yesterday in the gym, didn't he." This time, Tsuna's words were saddened by the burden of his powers, and Reborn could only sigh.

"He did."

"And now, he's afraid of me too." The statement was a bare whisper to Reborn, and he nodded.

"But he's Mafioso. He's strong enough to overcome his fear and get to know you as a person. I know it." Reborn added sharply. He had, after all, been to Gokudera's place that morning to ensure that the young Bomber would go through with the plan. (Though Reborn had no doubts Tsuna would win, it was just the 'how' that was unknown.)

They walked the rest of the way to school in silence, Tsuna to prepare himself for the onslaught of negative emotions he knew would be thrown at him today, and Reborn in reflection. What beyond paperwork and leadership was there to even teach this child? Tsuna never had his flames sealed, his Dying Will Flames, and thanks to his spiritual guide/ ancestor/ whatever, the boy had free access to it. He even knew he was going to be the boss of the Vongola, long before Reborn had even gotten to him.

Reborn sighed and mentally shrugged. Why stress if there was less to do? (That said, he did want to test the limits of these seemingly limitless powers.)

Getting to class was harder than Tsuna had thought it would be, the fear from everyone as he was just walking in through the gates was bearing down on him and it was suffocating. He had to bite back tears and force himself to hold his head high rather than to look down to try to hide even a little. He was barely inside the building when Gigi shouted at him to turn around, and Tsuna had his Telekinesis halting everything within two feet of him before he was even fully turned.

It was Hibari Kyoya, in all his ferocious glory, tonfa in hand and raised as if to strike Tsuna down. Everyone had turned to watch what they thought would undoubtedly be a battle to end all battles, and Tsuna could feel their hope rising a little. Probably hoping Tsuna would lose. Hoping the undefeatable demon would destroy the monster they all feared. (Tsuna knew he would win, but he was routing for Hibari-san too.) They all stood there a moment, unsure of what was going to happen next, but Tsuna merely sighed and began walking away.

'Avoiding a fight' was one way to think about it. 'Running like a coward' was another. Tsuna wasn't sure which felt more accurate.

He switched out his shoes, pulling the tacks out of his indoor shoes and tossing them at his locker door, forcing them to stick in. He was halfway around the corner when he finally released Hibari from his suspended animation, letting him finally finish the follow-threw of his strike. It caught air, not herbivore, and Hibari was rightfully furious, taking to stalking his prey through the halls. He followed Tsuna through the halls, not yet trying to strike again, but he was growling and Tsuna wasn't sure who the populace was more afraid of at this point – the telekinetic monster, or the perfect demon.

"What the hell? I thought I told you not to come back, freak." Not even sure when he looked down, Tsuna paused and looked up at a strangely subdued Mochida Kensuke and guide. Though the teen's words were sharp, his expression wasn't and his eyes held a fear Tsuna was sadly getting used to. He also looked very beaten up.

"What happened to you?" Tsuna blurted the question and for once he didn't regret it. He watched Mochida's face scrunch up in irritation as he looked away, then cringe in pain as he brought up a hand to hold it to his swollen cheek and black eye.

"Turns out Kyoko-chan has a really over protective older brother." he muttered with a glare. His eyes shifted to Tsuna, looking him over. "What about you? I know I broke at least 3 of your ribs, Monster."

Tsuna's eyes shifted to the floor; he could feel everyone's stare boring into his back. Hibari Kyoya was still there, less than 5 feet away, and Tsuna was startled to realize the black-haired teen was actually waiting with everyone else to hear Tsuna's answer. With a troubling amount of anxiety, Tsuna took a deep breath and replied as calmly as he could,

"I can heal injuries, whether on myself, or on someone else." Tentatively, Tsuna looked up at Mochida and lifted his hand toward the taller teen. "I can show you, if you want."

Mochida wasn't sure if he wanted the Monster's hand any closer, but he was actually very curious about its powers. Before he could think on it much at all, the bell to start class went off and a murderous aura nearly exploded from Hibari.

"'When the morning bell sounds off,'" Hibari began, quoting the Student's Handbook and sounding absolutely demonic, "'Students should already be in class.' So. Get. Going."

The hallway was clear of students within seconds – literally less than 5 seconds and the only people left in the hall were Hibari, Tsuna and Mochida. Though Mochida was slowly backing away, and only hadn't run with everyone else when he noticed Hibari's hand on Tsuna's shoulder, the smaller teen the only barrier between them.

"I'll come find you at lunch, and I'll decide then if I want you to heal me. If you can." Mochida muttered the last part, disbelief (at Tsuna's abilities or his own words, Tsuna wasn't sure.) and distrust colouring his face before he swiftly turned and bolted down the hall.

It took a moment, but eventually Hibari dropped the hold on Tsuna's shoulder, and the brunette turned to the other in question. It was silent between them for a minute, and Tsuna took the time to come to an understanding about Namimori's most vicious person.

He wasn't being possessed, not really, but there was a very evil… entity eating away at Hibari's soul. Tsuna wasn't sure what it was, if only because it definitely started as the wondering ghost of a lost soul, of someone who had killed so many people that when he was executed his soul stayed behind, likely in the hopes to kill more, but it could no longer really be called a ghost or spirit. It wore the deepest black Tsuna had ever seen, and it was so dirty its skin was grey. It was nearing the levels of a true 'Ayakashi' and if there was one thing Tsuna knew about those, it was that they needed to be vanquished as soon as possible.

Sadly, Tsuna didn't know how to do that.

On the bright side (if there even was one) Hibari's guide was keeping the evil thing from outright devouring him. Though that meant the guide was taking one hell of a hit too. (He seemed to be handling it just fine though.) The guide was a man, maybe 40 or 50, with bright platinum blond hair and startlingly bright eyes, though they were brought down into an angry sneer as it pushed against the entity. It also wore black, but it was more of a clean-cut suit with a bright white under shirt, and a deep red tie. Tsuna got the feeling that the man wore those colours because in life, he had probably killed many for a justice he truly believed in.

"What are you looking at?"

Tsuna snapped back to attention with the harsh words and blinked a couple times to re-focus his vision. (It always went a little funky when Tsuna was looking at someone else's guide up close for too long.)

"Oh, um, do you feel a lot of blood lust?" Hibari's eyes narrowed and Tsuna felt the emotion in question rise dramatically.

"I do right now." he said, seriously considering ripping Tsuna apart. Tsuna laughed nervously.

"I-I see… um, why did you keep me behind? I think I'm late to class-"

"Fight me." Hibari dropped to a fighting pose, tonfa almost magically in hand.

"Um… How about no?" Hibari lunged and Tsuna squeaked in fear, froze him (again) and bolted.

"Everyone! This is the new student, Gokudera Hayato. He's from Italy, so be nice!" The teacher called with a fake cheer so obvious, Tsuna didn't need his empathy to feel it. And he was standing outside the classroom, too; he couldn't even see the teacher. With a deep breath, Tsuna pushed down the fear he had building up since he had shown his powers the day and walked in.

"Sawada," The teacher sighed, tone dangerously angry. Everyone else flinched at his arrival, new student included, and Nezu-sensei either didn't notice or didn't care. "You're late! I've already done attendance, so you can either go sit at your desk, or go to the principal's office. It isn't like you would learn anything either way."

"Sorry." Tsuna muttered, walking passed the man and new student, doing his best to avert his eyes and not stare at them.

It was so weird though! The new student's guide was getting chastised by the boy's deceased mother, for a reason Tsuna couldn't understand because they were arguing in Italian. Tsuna smothered a smile under his hand and settled into his seat, looking up just in time to meet the new student's ice-cold glare as he stalked toward his own seat. Tsuna met his eyes willingly, tilting his head when the other male stopped at his desk.

"So, you're Sawada Tsunayoshi." Tsuna was sure the young man meant it to be far more intimidating than it was, but his fear was tainting his intimidation. The telekinetic nodded in reply.

"Yeah, and you're Gokudera Hayato."

The new student flinched so bad he nearly took a step back. A few other people in the class flinched too, fear permeating through the air. "How did you know that?" Gokudera asked, his voice low.

Tsuna pointed at the teacher. "He said your name right before I came in." The tension visibly lowered in the room, Gokudera let out a sigh of relief and continued on to his desk. Tsuna took a moment to look around the class, trying to find Kyoko, but it seemed she wasn't in today.

Tsuna couldn't help but feel responsible for that. After all, he had been the cause of her stress the day before. But her friend Kurokawa Hana was in today, maybe he would ask her later if Kyoko was OK.

Tsuna was beyond bored of school work by the time the lunch bell sounded, and he was just about to enjoy his lunch when the door to his classroom slammed open. Mochida Kensuke stormed in and slammed a hand down on Tsuna's desk.

"You said you could heal me? Well, I wanna see you try. Right here, right now." he challenged, and everyone in the classroom, as well as quite a few from the hallway paused to watch what would happen. Tsuna gave a mental shrug and a physical nod.

"Sure, but that means I have to touch your face. Are you OK with that?"

Mochida blinked, like he wasn't expecting Tsuna to actually step up to the challenge. "Uh, yeah. That's… OK."

Tsuna nodded in reply and bit back a yawn. "OK, you might be better off if you sat down, this will take a few minutes. Oh, and close your bad eye. I'll work on that first."

Vaguely dumbfounded, Mochida sat down in a chair that had magically pulled out for him, and closed his bad eye, keeping the other open to watch for any tricks. Tsuna sensed Hibari enter the room as well but he kept his focus solely on the young man in front of him. Gently, Tsuna pulled the beads from his right wrist, his Telekinetic beads, and he slid them onto his desk.

Tsuna took in a deep breath through his nose as his power increased nearly 10-fold, the feeling of having his restraints removed was both freeing and terrifying. He let out his breath in a shuddered sigh and held his hand to Mochida's face, sliding the tips of his fingers across the teens left eye.

"Is this going to hurt?" Mochida asked, suddenly feeling unsure. Tsuna could feel the emotion as strongly as if it were his own with the small contact, but pushed it out of his mind before he accidentally amplified it.

"I'm told it tickles." Tsuna said with a smile. "My grandpa fell and injured his ankle about a year ago. I fixed it, and he was laughing the whole time." Tsuna giggled with the memory, cheating with Mochida by forcing a touch of the happy emotion into the others head. Mochida's lips twitched upward a moment, before he fixed his expression to annoyance.

And Tsuna was OK with that, because it meant that he at least wasn't angry. Tsuna got to work then, knowing everyone was watching, and gently slid his fingers over Mochida's eye lid. The swelling and discolouring cleared up almost immediately, and when Mochida opened his eye, he could see clearly again, as opposed to the slight distortion the swelling had caused. Tsuna was working on his cheek next, rubbing his thumb over the dark bruise.

For a moment, Mochida likened the action to a caress rather than just a touch, and he did his best to mentally shake the feeling from his head. That was… weird to think. Tsuna was a freak of nature, not someone to be caressed by. Not that Mochida wanted to be caressed either, it was just… ugh. Never mind.

"And… Done!" Tsuna said with a small smile, pulling back from Mochida and turning to grab his beads with his hand and pulling his lunch from his bag. He set the bento on the desk before sealing his powers again, caging his telekinesis and forcing back the instant migraine he got whenever he put his beads back in place.

He's staring at you.

Tsuna blinked up at Gigi for a moment, his chopsticks halfway up to his mouth with his first bite, before turning back to look at Mochida, lowering his food back down.

"Is there… Something else I can do for you?" he asked in a quiet voice, head tilted to the side. Mochida raised an eyebrow and pointed at Tsuna's head.

"You still have a cut from when I first hit you."

Tsuna brought a hand up to his head, wincing when he put too much pressure on the still healing wound. "Oh, I must have forgotten it." Tsuna lied. In truth, he had left it just to feel the pain, to pretend for a moment that he was a normal person. It was hard coming back to reality after that, but it was easier to escape for a few minutes, than face it constantly.

Mochida continued to stare, his eyes hardening as he took in the lie. He stood just as Tsuna took his first bite, and muttered "Bullshit." as he walked out. Tsuna blinked innocently, tilting his head again as he watched the other storm out. His guide paused though, the beast turning to Tsuna a moment. Then the strangest thing happened.

It barked.

Like… like a dog. But bigger, and it stood on two hind legs. Then it turned back to Mochida and continued to follow its human out the door.

Not two seconds later, Tsuna's intuition (and his guide) quickly let him know about the impending doom by the name of Hibari, and again, Tsuna froze the teen with the tonfa inches from his head. There were gasps from everywhere at once, everyone apparently shocked by the sudden attack.

"I'm not fighting you." Tsuna said, not looking at Hibari and instead focusing on eating through the migraine that persisted. Damn thing was usually gone after a minute or so, why was this one different?

Hibari growled. "Fight me, and become a carnivore!"

"No, I have a headache." Tsuna responded lightly. With the increase of bloodlust spiking through the air, one everyone could feel despite Tsuna's attempt to stint it, the seer turned to Hibari, taking in the guide and the apparition fighting for dominance. Tsuna watched the almost Ayakashi snag a small part of Hibari's soul, and it cackled maniacally as it lifted the piece to its mouth.

"Fight me!" Hibari snarled, breaking out in a cold sweat. There was the barest hint of confusion in his eyes though, almost like he didn't fully understand it himself why he needed to fight as much as he did. The Ayakashi laughed loudly as it bit down on the small part of what made Hibari human and Tsuna watched with dread as he couldn't stop the thing. He could feel the way Hibari's heart stuttered with the tear, and a rage Tsuna was sure wasn't all his had him writing an address down on the chalk board at the front of the classroom, the noise gathering everyone's attention.

"Meet me here on Sunday, at 2pm. If you do something for me there, I'll fight you." He waited for Hibari to memorize the address, and when the other looked back, Tsuna added, "Have you memorized it? Will you come?"

Hibari snarled, but nodded all the same. Tsuna nodded back, and tossed Hibari out the window, turning back to his food like nothing happened. He waved his hand at the chalkboard and the address vanished.

As everyone rushed to the window to see if the demonic perfect was alright (he was, Tsuna made sure of it.) Tsuna realized he probably should have asked his Grandma Ayumi if he could use her place for the exorcism before he made the other male agree to go there. She might be busy, after all.

Tsuna ignored the stares he received the rest of the day, and the way Gigi wouldn't stop laughing over the fact that Tsuna had thrown the other boy out the window.

Tsuna could feel the other's apprehension, dread, fear, and determination all long before the silver haired teen stepped up to him.

"Come with me." He had said, and Tsuna had followed him out of the classroom and out to behind the main building. That determination from before was waning, but then Reborn popped up from nowhere, landing between them, and Gokudera's fear doubled, increasing enough for him to use it to gather his determination again. Before the other teen spoke, Tsuna looked down at Reborn.

"You did something to him." he accused, narrowing his eyes at the cursed man.

"So what? He's Mafia, Tsuna, he's supposed to be afraid of me."

Tsuna huffed a sigh, but didn't argue. It wasn't the smartest thing he could do, after all. It was Reborn.

"I'm here to challenge you!" Gokudera's voice wrung out strong, and at no point did it waver despite the worrying amount of fear the boy held. Tsuna was very impressed with it. "The position of Tenth doesn't belong to a civilian like you, it belongs to someone already in the mafia." With that said, he lit a cigarette and pulled out six sticks of dynamite, three in each hand.

"This is Smokin' Bomb Hayato. I'm sure you can guess why he's called that." Reborn introduced dramatically, waving a hand at the teen standing before him. Tsuna nodded, but looked back at the spirits following behind the silverette.

Oh, I just hate how my baby has to smoke to fight. Honestly, I wish his father would just tell him the truth about me, and he could continue life without the need to fight through it. The mother spirit huffed, (in Japanese this time and by her tone it was her native tongue) and turned her nose up at the smell… as if she could actually smell the smoke. The teen's guide sighed, eyes closed and face pinched like it physically hurt to explain this yet again. He also spoke in Japanese, but by his heavy accent, it was not the language he had used when he was alive. (Yes, spirits could still learn things after death, Tsuna was a little baffled by that too.)

We've been through this. He needs to do this because it's his destiny. I know you don't like it, but it is how it is. You just have to trust me.

Tsuna chuckled at them, a smile coming to his lips and he looked back at Gokudera.

"You, my friend, have absolutely nothing to worry about, so long as you live." he said with a small laugh. It was like watching an old married couple, the way the pair of them bickered.

"What the Hell do you mean?" Gokudera asked suspiciously, eyes narrowing. Tsuna's smile didn't falter so much as it drained a little, the Telekinetic sobering up from his own emotions.

"I mean, you have two wonderful guides willing to fight for you, and do anything they can to help your soul throughout your life. I'm sorry if this seems a little out of the blue, but I can see the souls of the dead that have yet to leave this planet, and you have a very funny pair keeping you safe and sound." Tsuna smiled again, and sighed.

"But we aren't here for that, so shall we move on to the fight portion?"

Gokudera sneered, even as he moved back a step, caution keeping him at a farther distance than he would usually put between him and his opponent. "Alright." he said lowly, "Let's go."

And he threw the suddenly lit bombs at Tsuna.

She paced like a caged animal, walking back and forth in her bedroom, eyes bloodshot and red from crying too much. Her waste basket by her desk was nearly filled with the remains of her previous nose-bleed, tissues all a deep red – also from crying too much. Her eyes shifted all over her room with every sound she heard; the cats meowing outside for attention to her older brother walking in through the front door, and of course she had to poke her head out her door and yell down at him, just a small 'Welcome Home' but she couldn't make herself pace over to the door to do just that.

She couldn't stop pacing though. She hadn't been able to since this morning. Walk to one side of the room, around the bean-bag chair her brother liked to sit in, over to her closet, then her desk, then her bed, and back again. All around the pink room – and for the first time in her life she actually hated the colour. Her grandmother's bracelet lay in the centre of the room, untouched were she had taken it off the night before – she couldn't stand to wear it at the moment, and she couldn't force herself to pick it up to move it either. So it sat, lonely and on the floor, and the young preteen could only circle the piece of jewelry, switching between staring at it for hours on end as she walked, to not being able to even glance at it.

There was a sudden knock on the door and a taller, slightly older teen walked into her room, startling the young girl into collapsing near her bed.

"Kyoko? Kyoko! What's wrong? What happened?" Sasagawa Ryohei darted into his sisters room and over to her side, sliding a hand under her arm to brace her. Kyoko sniffed, but leaned into her brother's touch.

"Am I a bad person?" Her voice was harsh from her tears and dis-use, but the words cut into Ryohei's ears like the sharpest of knives.

"No, you're not. You could never be. Hey, look at me." He gently turned the young girl in his arms around to face him properly, and he tried to keep his own worries out of his mind when their eyes met. She needed him to be her strong big brother right now, not the hyper-active teenager he usually was. "You are an extremely kind and wonderful girl. You could never hurt anyone. You are not a bad person and I don't think you ever could be. Now, tell me what on earth made you think otherwise?"

"I am a bad person." She sniffed, tears gathering in her eyes again – not that they had ever really stopped. "I couldn't move when he needed me to."

"Who needed you to move?" 'Couldn't move? What?'

"Sawada-kun!" she bawled, lifting her hands to her eyes. "He was defending me and Hana-chan, and he got beaten up for it really badly! I couldn't help him! I couldn't even thank him, or say sorry! I can't face him! I'm so scared, Onii-chan!"

"Alright, there, there. I'm here." That held absolutely no useful information, but Ryohei tried his best to comfort his sister. She hadn't cried like this since she was small. "Want me to call Hana over? You go take a bath and I'll go get her." he said as he coaxed her into standing. She nodded as she wobbled, and he ended up picking her up in his arms to carry her to the bathroom. He was a little thankful that she didn't need help once in there, but he pulled out his cell phone and looked for Hana's contact number once he was down stairs.

The girl picked up on the second ring, god bless her.

"Senpai?" she sounded a little cautious. For some reason, she always did around him. There were times she weirded him out too though, so he considered them even. "What's wrong? Is Kyoko OK?"

"Can you extremely come over? Kyoko needs some help, but I'm extremely not sure how to help her. Can you tell me what extremely happened yesterday?"

"Yeah, I'm not too far away. I'll be over in a few minutes."

Hana explained what had happened to Ryohei before, on their walk home when it was just the three of them, but she had suspected even then that he hadn't registered what she was saying, just that she was talking. So he had nodded where he thought he should, and waved to her once they reached her house. As she let herself into the front yard of Kyoko's house, she thought back over what happened… and realized how bad it all sounded.

How could anyone who wasn't there when it happened possibly understand what she was about to say? That the person that had tried to help them, and succeeded, had used powers that no one had thought was possible? And the new discovery that he could heal people too?! Hana tried her best not to think on it too much, at least before she got to Kyoko's house.

She let herself in just as Ryohei stepped down the last step. They both stopped and stared at each other for a moment, just letting the door close softly behind Hana.

"I just got Kyoko into an extreme bath." Ryohei said lightly, and really, just one 'extreme' was light for him, so Hana let it go.

"I thought you said she needed help."

"She extremely does, but I'm not sure how… so I extremely called you." His normal tone wasn't the easiest thing for Hana to deal with, but at least he wasn't shouting. "Now, can you tell me what happened?"

She nodded and he led them into the kitchen, grabbing two glasses and the jug of milk, pouring them as the young girl started her story again. She had to re-tell it two more times, and repeat several different and smaller parts, but Hana had expected as much. He actually understood quicker than Hana had feared he would.

"Now, can you tell me why Kyoko needs help?" Hana asked as soon as she was sure Ryohei understood. The taller teen looked down at his watch and nodded.

"She needs to come out of that extreme bath now anyway. Come on." He stood and led Hana up the stairs. Together, they found Kyoko half out of the tub, laying there like she had slipped and just forgotten to get up. Hana ran to her side and Ryohei rushed to get a towel, not really comfortable with seeing his sister naked, but he couldn't bear to just stand idle while she needed help.

Hana managed to get Kyoko to her bedroom and into a change of clothes, and Ryohei waited outside the closed door, listening to his sister cry about being a bad person again.

That was when he decided he needed to have a talk with this 'Sawada' person.

The bombs went off – there was no doubt about it. There was a loud explosive sound and a huge flash of light, but that was all. There was no heat, no fire, no real explosion, no crater on the ground – nothing that would otherwise depict an explosive had been used. There was only a strong gust of wind, the smell of sulphur fading with it. Tsuna's words, just before the bombs went off hung in the air and in both Reborn's and Gokudera's minds.

"You've seen my Telekinesis. So I'll show you my Pyrokinesis."

A small ball hovered in the air where the explosion should have taken place, bobbing up and down a little. Gokudera could tell just by looking at it that the ball was made up of the flaming remnants of the explosion; he just had no idea how that could be. It was glowing red, and it was about the size of a basketball.

Tsuna had his left hand raised slightly, bare and without his beads, palm to the sky and his red beads in his right hand. He closed the fingers of his left hand in toward his palm and the ball seemed to shrink, until it reached the size of a tennis ball, and its red-hot glow brightened into a near white. Then Tsuna threw the ball into the sky and the three of them watched it rise – until it popped.

Well, 'popped' wasn't quite the right word. Once it reached about 100 meters in the sky, it burst into an explosion ten times that of what Gokudera had intended it to be. The bomber dropped to his knees in awe as he looked back down at Tsuna.

"Please don't kill me." he whimpered, his words a bare whisper across the silent space between them. Tsuna looked at him sadly, his smile gone completely, and took a small step forward.

"I won't kill you." Tsuna promised. "I just… I want to be your friend."

"My… friend? What do you take me for? I'm not that gullible. No one in the Mafia could be considered a 'friend'. They only keep you around for your usefulness. So, why do you want me?" Gokudera spoke softly, but his words were a lot stronger than he was, and he took a deep breath of his cigarette – only to find that it was cold. The burning end had gone out and he couldn't take in the toxin his body had stared to crave.

Tsuna looked pensive for a moment, thinking of a way out Gokudera thought, and finally asked in return in a soft voice, "May I sit a little closer?"

"Like I can fucking stop you."

Tsuna flinched with his wording, but nodded, and took three small steps closer before folding his legs under him and sitting on the ground in front of Gokudera, maybe 4 feet away. Tsuna scooted a little closer once he was on the floor, and let out a soft sigh.

"I'm sorry you think that way, and I'm sorry you're scared of me." Tsuna started softly, "I was hoping you would be my friend because you know more about me than most people, about my destiny, about what my future holds." He paused and looked down at his hands. "About my powers." He slipped the beads back around his left wrist again, and Gokudera saw him flinch. Rather than question it though, Gokudera took the pause in the conversation to re-light his cigarette.

"Please believe me when I say I don't want to hurt people, at all, ever." Tsuna paused again, angry tears gathering in his eyes. "I hate my powers. I've never asked for them, and they're getting stronger by the day. I sealed them to try to keep a better control on the more destructive two powers, but the others… I hate it all. I hate having to speak to the dead, listen to them cry and mourn and scream… I hate how I only seem to see the bad parts of my future, never anything good. Why can't I see anything good?!" He curled in on himself, pulling his knees up to his chest and he tried to reign in his emotions.

He focused on his feeling of anger, trying to pinpoint where it was stemming from. Making sure that this rage was actually his. And it was – mostly. Some of it was actually stemming from Gigi.

"You… can see the future?" Gokudera asked calmly. Tsuna looked up into the others deep green eyes and nodded.

"Yeah." Hesitantly, Gokudera scooted forward a touch. It wasn't much, but it was enough that it helped Tsuna calm down.

"Like… What?"

Tsuna bit his lip, looking down at his hands. "I got this power, most of my powers in fact, from my grandparents. My grandma Megumi also has the power to see the future, and she has a better control over what she can see than I do." He chanced a glance up at the other, watching as his fear faded – again, not much, but it was enough. "She said that the day I was born, she saw my wedding." Tsuna said with a smile.

"Wedding? Can either of you pinpoint what you see?" Gokudera asked. Tsuna tried not to flinch as the disbelief in the other's tone when he repeated the first word, as if the other teen couldn't believe anyone could possibly love Tsuna enough to marry him.

"N-no… well, actually my grandma can, a little. Like, you can ask her if you'll die young, and she can say yes or no, and she's almost always right. But her favourite motto is that nothing is ever set in stone, meaning that even if she can see one thing in the future, it can change at a moment's notice. And that is what I try to focus on the most."

"Why is that? You see things you don't like?"

"That's… putting it mildly. You see, whenever I meet someone who is going to have a large impact on my life, a good one, I … see how they leave me. How they die."

"You… seen how I die?" he asked hesitantly, and Tsuna looked up at Gokudera, watching how he wouldn't meet Tsuna's eyes, and gauging how his emotions waged a war inside of his mind. Fear was still the most dominant emotion, but curiosity was making a close second. His determination to fight Tsuna had died when Tsuna had completely taken over the other's explosives, but then a new determination to get all the answers to all the questions he had out of Tsuna rose quickly.

And Tsuna really didn't want to chase him away.

"For a Mafioso, your death was relatively tame." he lied smoothly, biting his lower lip. "Lung Cancer. It was far more rapid than anything I had ever seen. And I couldn't get to you in time to remove it before it killed you. You were 55." In truth, Gokudera died violently, horribly. He was tortured to death without ever giving up Tsuna's name, or his location, but if he had he would have lived damn it! Tsuna would have been able to save him! Gokudera wouldn't have had to die at 29!

Tsuna looked down at Reborn walking up to their sides. "I saw how you die too." he said, his voice low. Reborn scoffed.

"Ha! I'm never dying!" The boys shared a small laugh, and Tsuna offered to walk Gokudera home. The other insisted on the opposite, and they walked home, a cautious distance between them while Tsuna took to explaining his powers. He was vague about his Empathy, but detailed in the rest.

He only really left out the part about Gokudera's mother following him, if only because said ghostly woman glared at him and told him it wasn't Tsuna's place to go any further, and that if he did, there would be hell to pay. Tsuna believed her, and shut up about her presence.

I feel bad for Kyoko, I really do. Review?