Chapter 7

-Maelstrom-

I'll explain everything when you get to Primo House.

Giotto-san lied. There was no mistaking that those very words had been erased from Tsunayoshi's memory. But the man had left traces; fine, transparent silhouettes of the words in his mind, as if he wanted the boy to know what he had done. Tsunayoshi closed his eyes and sent an electric spark into the lifeless shells of the words, so that they convulsed and twisted back into their original form, retaining a colour that stood out all too powerfully against the black canvas of his mind.

Why didn't you erase everything Giotto-san? Why did you leave these traces?

Sometimes he just had no idea why Giotto did the things he did. Was there a meaning? Something the man wanted to tell him?

"Tell me then Giotto-san...why did you cry when I said the word strangers? At least give me that answer..." The question drifted about in the cavernous room, circling around a porcelain vase, weaving in and out of the rice paper-like curtains, unable to find its partner called 'answer.' Time passed and the question started disappearing into thin, wispy streams of smoke, as if its body were burning sorrowful hyacinth incense.

A question will die when it believes that its partner does not exist...or does not want to exist.

What came after was just silence, an open mouth that sung even though the vocal chords had been ripped out. Nothing moved. The door wouldn't dare creak as it spread its arms open, praying that the bones within it were still young enough to move freely. It flinched the slightest, feeling a cold shadow darken its caramel surface to a maroon. Pale faces were unblinking, their breaths held tight within their lungs as they sent a telepathic message to the clueless figure on the sofa. Run boy, run! But no messages would pierce that mind, now a labyrinth of questions isolated from reality, as if someone had taped 'DO NOT ENTER' over and over again in Tsunayoshi's mind.

The shadow melted with its background, sliding across the floor till it reached its destination: the sofa. Everything became hazy and distorted, like that of a television screen on the wrong channel as the dark presence revolved in great columns of mist.

You are a…

Suddenly a face popped up from behind the sofa, almost making Tsunayoshi's heart malfunction.

"Good morning Tsuna-nii!* The wide grin on Mitsuru's face seemed to contradict the 'colour' in his eyes for a moment, but the older boy moved any suspicions to the 'recycling bin' in his mind. How could he even suspect for one millisecond a boy who had probably experienced a similar torture to his? He had cried at least a litre of tears every day, but this boy must have cried ten.

Tsunayoshi ruffled the boy's midnight-blue hair and laughed. "Mitsuru, you scared me!" He embraced the younger boy, listening to the pulsing waves of his mechanical heart. Every time people embrace, their hearts exchange a message. His was – Thankyou for your smile Mitsuru. I will never forget the warmth of it.

For once, he forgot the numerous scars engraved like an epitaph on his back. He forgot the tattooed number and his artificial heart. And how he was a human weapon, nothing to control him now, not even the marred puppeteer's strings.

After changing into a simple t-shirt and shorts, Mitsuru lead him to the dining hall. As he entered, Tsunayoshi instantly suspected that something was wrong with him. He felt like that person who rushed to work, unaware that his mates had shown their somewhat abstract artistic skills upon the person's face. Swiftly he switched to his D.C.A. eyes and checked himself, but all he could see was his face. It was somewhat worn out with a few blue veins surfacing on the corners of his eyes and spreading its skeletal branches down the sides of his cheek. From a past experiment, one of his irises had developed a layer of pale substance, in effect making the eye a shade lighter. Although the difference wasn't obvious, Tsunayoshi found it difficult to look people in the eye.

There was an immediate increase in volume and amount of waves careering about in the atmosphere as thoughts arose about the new member, creating a ghastly masquerade of screeching Sirens. One of his brows moved in a downwards motion and the other upwards. So noisy…mute…where's the mute again?... After meticulously ruffling through files of questions, thoughts, emotions and memories in his head, Tsunayoshi found the mute switch in the corner of his mind.

Click.

As if the Sirens had been muzzled, all noise diminished to nothing. However, he still kept 'normal' noises flowing through his ear since he didn't want to start off the day at Primo House being labelled as the 'Anti-social mute.'

"Over here!" Mitsuru waved at the brown head from his table and a look of relief washed across Tsunayoshi's face. He quickly made his way to the group, avoiding the whispers, pointing of fingers and goggling eyes but found that there were more eyes on him when Gokudera and Yamamoto abruptly stood up.

"Are you alright now?" They both chorused; the two voices mixed together to form a perfect fifth. A look of surprise was met by an equal amount of surprise as they peered at each other.

Tsunayoshi's lips curved into a wide smile. It was a smile that formed when one had a cup of hot, malting chocolate on Jack Frosts' day out or when one ate a heart-shaped cherry. Minute fragments as small as powdered diamonds began forming the picture he had dreamed of one too many times. The boy placed a hand on their arms and gave them a light pat. "I'm fine now, sorry for making you worried."

A cloud of relief seemed to sprinkle rain across their faces, smoothing out their anxious lines, and then there were the clatter of chairs as everyone sat down, constantly being reminded by their stomachs. In a vain attempt to put their mind off the reminders, everyone's mouth spilled word after word about their life, their suffering and especially loved ones they had lost.

According to Yamamoto and Gokudera, after Tsunayoshi's disappearance a letter arrived in each of their mailboxes.

The brat's heart'll be beating on the floor if you don't come.

44 Sky Avenue.

Varia

Both of them were well aware that there was no guarantee they would come back alive, together. They knew who they were dealing with; the notorious, clandestine group: Varia. But they also never knew that this meeting would change everything. When they saw that glistening heart pulsing rhythmically on the floor, ice travelled through their veins faster than that of light. And when they saw darkness, they knew it was the end. Only to be woken up by the circles of light hovering above them, they watched in horror as their red jewels were taken out and replaced by a flawless silver jewel. The operation was a success and now they had to endure the nightmare awaiting them: experiments. For 3 years they survived the fangs of the snake, the white stones they had to consume and the brutality of X till the day of 'disposal' came.

"Disposal?" A shiver rippled through Tsunayoshi's body like the single pulse of a soundwave. His hands started shaking uncontrollably under the table. Unconsciously, cold nails dug into his palm and there was that feeling again, like something was inside of him. He had no power to control or to get rid of it. He didn't even know what it was. But it was there.

A hand gently squeezed his. Tsunayoshi looked up with surprise and then his hazel eyes softened to a warm pastel hue.

Tsuna-nii it's alright. Mitsuru's eye said. All of a sudden, the younger boy's eyes widened and he flicked his head to the direction of the door leading to the kitchen. There was a scent in the air that Tsunayoshi couldn't exactly describe but every time he breathed it in, a picture of his mother formed in his mind.

"Luce-san!" There was the clang of a harassed chair as Mitsuru stood up and ran to a woman at the door. The force of which he had run would have made quite an impact to the woman's frail-looking body, but Mitsuru knowingly slowed down before giving the woman's rather round tummy a gentle embrace.

Luce steadied the warm plates she had in her hands with white knuckles and flashed her teeth hastily. "Good morning Mitsuru, Aria says good morning to you too." Aria was the unborn baby inside of her. Although she had not asked the doctors to perform an ultrasound to determine the sex of the child, Luce was certain by some reason that it was a girl, and so named her Aria.

"Mitsuru-kun can you help me serve these?" The woman asked, tilting her head to the metal trolley beside her, lined up with the same dish she had in hand.

With an enthusiastic nod, Mitsuru took one plate in each hand and started serving them out to the nearest table. Although the woman tried her best to walk normally, Tsunayoshi could see her slightly hobble along and felt obliged to help. He was about to stand up but a plate had appeared in front of him.

It was a simple-looking muffin, perfectly cooked to an amber-brown but within it held something special. He carefully peeled the paper back, copying what the other children were doing and took a hesitant bite. He almost jumped at the sudden burst of sweetness that took over his taste buds and a warm sensation filled his body like that of an embrace from a loved one.

From his peripheral sight, he could see a slender hand waving to him and he turned to see Luce. "Hello Tsunayoshi-kun, enjoying my muffin?" Her eyes glimmered tenderly like that of a distant star in the sky who looked upon and protected those on Earth.

Tsunayoshi nodded, placing a hand to where his heart was. "It makes me feel warm here."

For a moment pastel blue sympathy replaced the cheerful hue in her eyes but all of a sudden the door tried to escape...and was unsuccessful. A young man with a plaited pony-tail came rushing in with a shocked expression upon his face. "Luce-san! You mustn't be moving around too much!" He tried to reach for the plates in her hand but the woman side-stepped her opponent, determined to carry out the job.

"It's alright Fong, the cramps have eased up." She then turned to Tsunayoshi. "I wanted to meet out new member."

Like that of a soldier in the army, Fong straightened his posture in a split second and bowed in a low manner. "Pleased to meet you, my name is Fong."

"My name is Tsunayoshi, pleased to meet you too." Taken aback by the polite manner, Tsunayoshi also bowed his head a little just to be on the safe side.

A breath of recognition travelled to the boy's ears but before any questions could be made, Fong had slipped through the kitchen door, bringing through various smells of toast, eggs and sausages.

Food was the first priority right now.

Va…ha…v….fou…d…ma…s...on…

His eyes widened. What was that noise?

The wind was unsteady, unable to hide its tension as it roughly caressed the boy's hair. Ash clouds were stealthily devouring the white strokes in the sky and Tsunayoshi could already feel the atmosphere turn damp on his skin.

"We might have to pull up guys! It's gonna rain in about 10 minutes or so!" Yamamoto called to the other members, as they started packing the baseball equipment with urgency. Nobody ever doubted Yamamoto's 'weather forecast report.' It was just so damn accurate.

"Hey Tsuna, do you mind getting that ball near the fence?" The black head pointed at a ball which had tried to escape the fence by digging under the soil but failed doing so. Tsunayoshi gave a nod and sprinted to where it was.

The ball clearly had a head-on-collision with the fence, resulting in them conjoining. Tsunayoshi reached down and pulled the ball, but as he did the fence bit back like a predator stopping its prey from being taken. He instinctively drew back, taking the ball with him and watched the red ribbons flowing out from the back of his hand. Red and warm. His mind pieced together a memory of a child drowning in a tub of blood. Until the final moment when that hand disappeared into the vermillion sea, Tsunayoshi had done nothing to even try save the child.

By then it was the third time in which Giotto had tried sending a message. Tsunayoshi realised that he had unconsciously set up a barrier to ignore everything that concerned the outside world, and hastily broke it.

Tsunayoshi, come to the living room after you've done packing up.

The boy's brows were furrowed in slight annoyance. It seemed more like a command, not a 'if you want to come.'

To 410: I'll be there in a few minutes.

He tried to hide the dissatisfaction in his voice but Giotto seemed to have picked up the tone.

I'll be waiting.

A sigh escape Tsunayoshi's mouth. It's not like he didn't want to see Giotto. It was just that he wanted to reclaim the 'lost time' with his friends.

Even as he headed towards the living room, his conscience was having an all-out-debate-session about how he was letting out unnecessary sand out of the hourglass of time he had spending with his friends. His hand seemed to think otherwise and rapped on the polished surface of the door without so much as a second of hesitation. There was a familiar 'come in,' and with reluctance, Tsunayoshi entered the room. Surprisingly, Giotto didn't appear to indicate any sign of acknowledgment that the boy had come in, as his eyes were clearly following the words on the leather bound book he was holding.

It was only until a minute had passed when the man patted the space next to him, indicating that Tsunayoshi be seated there. With an awkward expression, the boy placed himself in a position where he was neither too close nor too far from Giotto. The moment was reminiscent of last night.

Giotto's voice broke the hushed atmosphere with a rigid tone. "You spend quite a lot of time with him recently, don't you?" There was no eye contact between the two as Giotto merely continued to read.

There were 'canines' behind those words. The choice of words would have played an important role in this situation but unaware of such a thing, Tsunayoshi blurted out the honest question. "Who?"

"Mitsuru,' the man answered, memorising the page number and shut the book. His canines retracted and a smirk played upon his lips."I didn't know you were a shota-kon Tsunayoshi?"

Even though there was knowledge he lost during the time he was a human experiment, that word luckily hadn't been erased from his vocabulary list. "I do know what that means Giotto-san." He could tell that Giotto had tried to lighten up the mood with a joke but the boy swept it aside, wanting to get onto the serious matters. "What did you exactly call me here for?"

The man was fiddling with a strand of uneven length hair and upon hearing the question, Giotto tapped his head.

Head=Mind=Graph=Varia - Tsunayoshi's mind processed. Since his mind had not made any urgent announcements, he had forgotten about the movements of the Varia and the digital mansion. Hastily the boy checked the grid and realised that the dots on the grid were all stationary. They could have stopped moving by vehicle…

"They've either crashed or stopped using their method of transportation," Tsunayoshi reported, suddenly feeling less safe and guilty that he hadn't bothered to check the grid.

Not a shade of colour changed on Giotto's face as if he had predicted such a thing would happen. The man got himself upon his feet and started heading towards the door, taking a black coat from the coat-rack on the way. "Keep a vigilant eye around here will you? "

Tsunayoshi's voice cleanly cut through the air. It was like a blade wrapped in suspicion, intending to slash any jokes or humour present. "Where are you going?"

The answer came back in a monotone. "Somewhere you don't need to know."

From the corner of the boy's mind, something started to grow. Suspicion, doubt...lies...Giotto just couldn't be trusted. He was a stranger anyway.

Notes from Yuhazaki:

Ok, I was on a super-major-serious-case-of-writer's-block but now I'm fine...hopefully;P

It's quite significantly shorter than the previous chapters but enjoy:)