notes: There is oocness. honestly, I haven't a clue on how to put mukuro in character.. but for some reason, i can imagine him like this.

Based on a manga

Like a Child

I can feel him beside me.

Drip.

I feel something wet on my cheek.

Tears?

They aren't mine.

"I love you... I love you so much..."

He says.

"I'm sorry, so sorry..."

I feel more tears.

"This will be the only time I'll tell you..."

Then a lip touches mine, a light brush, not even worthy to be called a kiss.

So clumsy. So child-like. So much like him.

I don't open my eyes and fall into deep sleep as he cries and cries.

I fell in love with him that day.

parting

"Tsunayoshi!~ I haven't seen you since yesterday!" A tall blue haired boy called out to another boy who looked half his age.

Rokudo Mukuro, Koukuyo High's top swimmer. Two-time champion since his 1st year for swimming. Popular. Half the school adores him, the other half... also adores him, but since they're male, it's not adore, but they look up to him. Nearly perfect grades (only because he cuts class a lot), genius athlete and a pretty big playboy. His best friend, Sawada Tsunayoshi. He's known him since he was born.

He ruffles Tsuna's hair.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Tsuna pushes his best friend's hand away.

"Let's go to the beach! I feel like seeing the ocean!"

"No way, I have class right now!"

"C'mon, just ditch! We'll have a lot of fun!"

"You're going there just to swim, why do I have to go with you?"

"Because I want you to come, why not?" Mukuro smiles.

"No means no, I'm leaving."

Tsuna hurriedly walks off towards the school buildings.

"Tsunayoshi!" He calls out, "Aie-shi-te-ru!"

Tsuna turns around, with an angry and red face.

parting

I like to swim. It calms me and purifies me.

I've never lost in a relay... except once. To another high-schooler, Hibari Kyoya from Namimori High School. He is the only good swimmer there though, so his school never beats us. But he does defeat anyone he goes up against. It's thrilling.

In front of me is the ocean. Beautiful. On my lap is the boy I'm in love with sleeping.

I gently move his head off my legs and get up.

I feel like swimming.

So I dive in.

parting

"Where's Tsunayoshi?" Mukuro asks a classmate. Tsuna wasn't in his classroom during lunch when Mukuro went to get him.

"He's in the library with Kurokawa-san, she's tutoring him or something.."

Mukuro goes to the library, only to see Tsuna's and Kurokawa's face merely centimeteres apart.

"Hey Tsunayoshi~ I've been looking for you." He cuts their closeness apart and stands between them. He smiles at Tsuna.

Tsuna looks surprised, "What for?"

"We're supposed to go to the movies together, you said so yesterday."

"Oh..,"Tsuna says sheepishly. "I was tired yesterday, I don't really remember, hahaha..."

Kurokawa interrupts, "Well, Tsuna-kun and I were going out to eat after this, a treat for the passing grade on his Math test."

"Oh? Well Kurokawa-san, let's go to the movies, you and I and forget about this forgettable guy," Mukuro grabs her wrist and pulls her out of the library. "See you, Tsunayoshi~"

Once they're outside, Mukuro lets her wrist go. "What's wrong?" She asks.

"I suddenly don't feel like going."

"What? You just pulled me out of the library-"

"Sorry. I'm going home."

"Hey! That's cruel!" Kurokawa's eyebrows come together as she yelled.

Mukuro starts to walk away.

"What the heck?"

In a distance, he hears another sentence.

"Why does anyone like you anyway!"

I don't know.

I wonder why too.

parting

The water embraces me as I embrace it.

I glide through the water. The coldness of the water splashes at my body. Tranquility.

The peacefulness stops.

I hear something.

Dipping my head down, I search for noise.

Damn, it's a-

How...

No, no, I can't die like this.

I musn't-

"Mukuro!"

parting

"Mukuro, Mukuro...! Come on, get up!"

Tsuna presses on his chest.

Lip to lip, giving him CPR.

"Breathe already!"

Mukuro's face distorts a little, and he coughs out water.

Tsuna listens for a heartbeat, just to make sure.

He feels it, faintly.

"Thank god..."

parting

I nearly died.

I used to be unafraid of death. I have loved the waters forever, so to die in it would be a great pleasure. But the moment I had almost drowned, I felt all the remorse and regret of not saying anything. Not confessing. I thought that I would die without ever telling him I was in love with him and hear his confession to me.

And so, when I opened my eyes to see him right in front of me, worried expression, breath hard, panting, and a flushed face, I smiled.

"Tsuna, I love you."

"Stop lying."

"I'm not lying, it's the truth."

"What are you saying..."

"I had realized... before, as long as no one took you away, I was happy. I was content just seeing you, being by your side."

"Let go!"

"That night, you said you loved me, did you lie?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"So the kiss was a misunderstanding?"

"Stop it! Let go of my arms!"

"What are you so afraid of? Do you think my feelings are a joke? Is it because we're both guys?"

"Why do you have to tease me like this? Why do you-"

"Wouldn't you regret it? If the world ended tomorrow, wouldn't you regret not ever telling me how you feel?"

"I..." Long pause.

"I would. That's why I'm telling you now. I don't care it other people think that this is wrong, what others think means nothing. The feelings I have for you right now are real. I love you. Even if these feelings change one day, you would know that I had once loved you seriously. Tsunayoshi, tell me how you feel."

Silence.

"I... I don't love you."

"Say it to my face...don't turn away."

"I don't love you Mukuro."

parting

So clumsy, so child-like.

Like a child, he ran away.

He's avoided me since then.

I called him all the time, he returned none of my calls. I wrote him notes, he replied to none of them. I dropped by his house a couple times, but he was never home when I had come. What a coincidence. I rarely saw him at school. When I did, he was with friends, I assumed, that I've never seen him with.

After awhile, I called less and less, stopped writing and discontinued trips to his house.

It's like he's forgotten about me.

Did I mean so little to him?

I lean against the wall, thinking how a friendship that lasted 17 years had ended in one day.

"Mukuro."

I turn my head.

"Kyoya." He stands there for a moment.

"Hold still." His arm reached out to my face and wiped something away.

I didn't even realize I had done that.

"Thanks."

He nodded curtly, and we walked down the road to the beach for a swim.

if you see problems with my grammar please tell me.

if you don't like my plot... uh you can tel me that too.

if you like it... please tell me! :) thanks