It's a two part update! If you went to this one, go back one ya animals!

HAPPY QUARANTINE.

I do not own KHR.

Cries of the Heart, Echoes of the Night

Chapter Three:

a guidepost wherever you go

Ketsui's dreams never had too much variety.

It was usually the same pattern type on repeat, recurring whenever it seemed the dreams deemed themselves fit to be shown. The kind of dreams though where she'd open her eyes and think she'd gone to school naked or see Nana flying past her on a fish—those weren't typically her kind of dreams. Sometimes she had them, on a rare, strange occasion for a moment of reprieve, maybe so she wouldn't go insane.

Ketsui's dreams normally came in one of four ways.

One, the most common, was the darkness. Black. Endless, endless black like a void with just barely enough light to sense her own hands and barely see her fingers in front of her. Sometimes she saw things inside this darkness, like sitting inside a hole and waiting for bits of light and color to filter in. Here she felt the most whole and the most confused, where all those bits of others came passing through her—whispers of memories that were or weren't hers. It was usually in this darkness that she saw them, coming on occasion to sit beside her and keep her company in that silent darkness. She only enjoyed those dreams these days when Niko was the one who'd come sit with her.

Second would be in those wild, nauseating explosions of color and sound. They varied and shifted when they came to her in her sleep, rousing her in a few minutes and keeping her stupidly up late. Jumbled explosions mixed with the scent of cigarettes, the muted sound of rain like a whoosh or the ear-splitting screeches of lightning.

The frenzied blur of different sensations and colors or smells would usually just be too much and she got the vague feel that when another marker in Tsuna's life was coming closer, their specific frenzied nightmare reappeared with much more ferocity.

Lately a good handful of them had been doing this and Ketsui decided to prepare her stomach for the ongoing days to come.

The third kind of dream was the rarest of them and came far more scarcely. These dreams were like little blurred images, clicking past her in quick succession. These ones were supposed to be the most important and the most telling, according to the memoirs before her. The third kind of dream wasn't meant to be taken lightly and handled different cases—like the shadowy blurs of Reborn coming into sharper focus or the recurring dream of Tsuna's crying face before they met.

(Her dream about Niko before he bid farewell to the night.)

The fourth kind was up for debate. It usually depended on whether or not she had the nerve to deprive herself of a good night's sleep—which she hardly got anyway—or if some otherworldly force decided for her, "Yeah, we don't need you today. Have the night off."

Some nights she just didn't dream at all.

But when Ketsui pried her bloodshot, weary eyes open that morning to the dull, deafening echo of explosions still ringing painfully through her head—it wasn't hard to tell which one had deprived her of another night of sleep.

She laid there in bed for a moment, squinting at the ceiling and willing the throbbing, absurd pounding to subside, even just an inch, and for the nausea to settle. She grabbed the corner of her nightstand and helped prop herself up, comforter spilling down to her lap. Her hair stuck out every which way, the most prominent, proud twin ahoges bouncing at the top of her head as Ketsui blinked once. She wiped a spot of drool from her mouth.

Her sleep crumpled shirt was printed in tacky cheetah patterning, settled over a pair of equally audacious cheetah print shorts. Ketsui ignored the alarm going off from her clock somewhere in the corner of the room even though she'd have to get it later and decided instead to fish for her phone amidst her pillows, checking the time.

You have school. Ketsui's brain slowly powered up, coming back to life. Go get changed. It's your turn to meet Tsuna today. Brush your teeth. Hair. Eat something or he'll scold you.

But first—

This horrible headache! Ketsui pressed the hell of her palms into her eyes, groaning as she curled up on top of her sheets. Nausea climbed up her throat, sitting just below the surface and waiting patiently to unleash itself for another round of hell. Maybe she should just skip breakfast after all. Explosions. The stupid explosions.

She thought the shrill, screaming lightning was the worst with how it sounded, but even that dream tended to fade quickly. The shrill cries always cut themselves short. The explosions on the other hand—they were the worst. She could confidently think that after years of these dreams.

The explosive ones were persistent, stubborn and unrelenting as they pounded and flashed across her eyes and she always woke up with the memory of cigarette smoke.

Cazzo. Ketsui wasn't particularly one for vendettas or grudges. Revenge was an emotion she'd only childishly felt once in a split moment of feeling alive when her tiny fist connected with Tsuna's poor cheek. Niko told her she ought to always settle her scores and if she didn't like people, she didn't like them—no need to explain herself.

But maybe, just maybe, she might actually develop some kind of disdain against whoever the explosions belonged to. They owed her nights of sleep.

Not like I get much anyway. Ketsui blinked in surprise at herself, pulling her hand away from her mouth. Ah, that was sarcasm. Maybe she was learning after all.

Her mood lightened up a bit at that.

"You're late, Ketsui."

Ketsui wordlessly continued to chew on her banana, discreetly trying to eye a content looking Leon curled neatly over the top brim of Reborn's fedora.

The soft green chameleon blinked at her, curling his tail. She kind of wanted to think the way the thin line of his mouth was curved meant he was smiling.

The hitman had his hands in his pockets, observing Ketsui from the top of one of the neighboring house walls while the two of them waited for Tsuna to come out. Reborn considered Ketsui's semi-hazardous appearance, from her barely combed bedhead to her creased dress shirt with the first two buttons undone and her sleeves rolled up as the weather grew a bit more humid. Her blazer was tied around her waist over her skirt, but he paid particular focus on the mismatched socks, one red and one blue.

"...they're like that on purpose," Ketsui said, feeling a strange need to defend her clothes. "The soles are purple."

"Tacky," Reborn said. "Aren't those against school regulations?"

Ketsui frowned at Reborn. They might be, but since she wasn't on club duty today she really only had to worry about the off chance Hibari might see her. Odds were he wouldn't though since Tuesdays he liked to patrol the town instead of school.

Reborn pulled the Namimori School Handbook out of the inner pocket of his suit. Ketsui quietly huffed, continuing to eat her banana. Reborn smirked, making the jump from the neighborhood wall onto her shoulder. Ketsui stiffened in surprise, taking one step to shift for the light addition of weight. She hesitated a second, not sure how to react to the sudden proximity of… of well, Reborn who her decided feelings for she hadn't quite sorted out yet.

Should… should she shove him off? Would that even work? Did she just let him sit there? Niko said do what she felt first—what did she feel first? Surprise. If she was surprised, then how should she go from there—

In her indecision, Reborn made himself comfortable and sat down on her shoulder, chubby cheek almost pressing into hers. The side brim of his fedora pushed up against her head. "Try not to think too hard. You'll hurt your brain, you know."

No, she should shove him off. That felt like the right decision.

Leon crawled down onto Reborn's lap, settling there.

Ketsui's shoulders relaxed a bit. She'd just… let him sit there for now.

"You're going to be setting a bad example for your fellow family members, you know. As a tutor, I can't have that," Reborn said conversationally. Ketsui, only a bit defeatedly, made her way to where the Sawada's kept the compost bin and dropped the rest of her banana, losing her appetite. "You were number one, so set a proper hierarchy."

I don't really care about things like that. Ketsui's fingers twitched at her sides but she said instead, "Too much work."

Reborn looked amused, "Need some incentive then?"

Ketsui stiffened, eyeing the hitman warily. Reborn reached down to his lap, letting Leon climb onto his hand as the chameleon turned its eyes toward her. Tsuna said Leon is strange and he can shape shift or something into a gun Reborn uses—

Leon's tongue jutted out, attaching itself to her cheek. Ketsui blinked.

"There," Reborn said. "If you do well, Leon will reward you."

Ketsui's eyes turned sideways. Leon seemed to smile around his outstretched tongue, blinking big eyes at her.

Thump. Thump.

"Reborn!" Tsuna cried, bursting through his front door, hair sizzling. "Don't leave electric traps on in the bathroom! What if my mom had walked in?"

"Impossible," Reborn said. "I never miss."

"She almost walked in!"

Tsuna panted, quickly unlatching his gate and almost dropping to his knees in front of Ketsui, who quickly offered a hand to steady his shoulder. "S-Sorry, Ketsui! We should hurry before we're late—"

Tsuna blinked, looking up at Ketsui's face. "Hiee! Ketsui! You're a little red, are you sick again? Go home if you're sick!"

"Not sick," Ketsui mumbled. "Let's go."

"H-Huh?"

"Stupid No-Good Tsuna, you're going to be late."

"Who's fault is that! W-Wait, don't hit me!"

Even after these past few years, Ketsui still felt as though her definitions for things were changing and growing.

Like what she thought was cute, for example.

(She just didn't know how Reborn picked it up so quickly. That guy really wasn't someone to let her guard down around.)

"Everyone, we have a new transfer student who was studying overseas in Italy," their homeroom teacher announced, gesturing to the young man standing beside him. "Let's all give him a warm welcome."

Today, Ketsui decided, looking at the ceiling as the rest of the class turned in attention. She had the desk right behind Tsuna's—a desk diagonal from Yamamoto Takeshi's, she realized now—and second from the window. I'm going to try the vanilla banana milk from the left side of the school. It might be too sweet, but I want to try it.

"An exchange student at this time of the year?"

"Italy? Wait, isn't that like, so cool?"

Italy. Ketsui looked up at that. So far, there'd been one person from Italy who she was fond of and one who gave her reason to fear for her best friend's life. Literally. Part of her wondered if it was some kind of freak coincidence or if maybe it had to do with—

Boom! Kaboom! Boom!

Ketsui paused, growing a bit pale.

He had hair the color of smoke—gray, the way only the elderly should have, but his face was young, shaped at a nice, sharp angle and his eyes were a pretty shade of green. Light enough to look like jade. His lips were pulled into a menacing scowl, dress shirt unbuttoned over his own shirt, showing off his silver chain and the catch of rings on his finger. Ah. He's breaking the dress code. The guy genuinely looked like he could be anywhere else but here, ready to snap at any one of them for no reason.

Ketsui stared.

It took three seconds before the thundering, nauseating—headache inducing nightmare of explosions went off in her head in perfect succession.

"His name is Gokudera Hayato," their teacher finished. "Welcome, Gokudera-san."

Gokudera scowled at all of them.

"Hey, wait a minute, isn't he hot?" one girl beside her perked up, cheeks flushing.

"We got lucky! He's gorgeous! I bet he can speak Italian."

"How romantic!"

Tsuna shriveled up in his seat in front of her, trying to shoot discreet glances to Kyoko who sat beside him. A pleasant, happy smile was on Kyoko's face as she faced forward—welcoming just like they were all supposed to be.

Ketsui suddenly felt like throwing up.

Yamamoto curiously observed the reactions of his classmates around him, finally glancing at the girl who sat diagonal from his desk. A grin touched his lips and he stretched one long leg out, lightly tapping the leg of Ketsui's chair. "Hey, Usagi-chan, what do you think about the new guy?"

Ketsui slowly turned to Yamamoto.

"Woah!" Yamamoto blinked, a surprised smile on his face. "Usagi-chan, you don't look so hot. Are you okay? You look ready to be sick or something!"

Ketsui took deep breaths through her nose and exhaled purposefully through her mouth. The breathing exercises kept the nausea barely at bay. Everytime she searched up new ways to try and stop throwing up, they all said the same thing. I should excuse myself and go get a soda. Bland crackers. Something to make it go back down.

She was about to lose her weak breakfast of one banana. Soon.

Ketsui could do this. She didn't need to throw up every time. She didn't. She had this.

"Gokudera-san, your seat will be—huh? W-Wait, Gokudera-san, where are you—"

The subtle hint of cigarette smoke tickled her nose. Ketsui jolted in her seat, slapping a hand over her mouth. She looked up in disbelief as Gokudera came to a stop just one desk shy of her own, purposefully making eye contact with—Tsuna?

Tsuna looked up with wide eyes, a little pale in confusion at the tangible hostility Gokudera openly radiated toward him. Ketsui looked at the exchange student over the top of her hand, blinking. What does he want?

Gokudera's knee promptly jerked out, knocking Tsuna's desk sideways. A few classmates gasped while some girls swooned. Tsuna yelped, tumbling out of his chair as Ketsui's eyes bulged from her head, quickly lunging across her desk to grab his chair and the back of his collar before he hit the floor sideways. "T-Tsuna?"

"Hiee!" Tsuna grabbed his desk, sweating as Ketsui straightened him out. "W-Why me?"

What the hell?

"Holy—Sawada what was that?" the boy beside Tsuna said. "Do you know that guy?"

"Oh," a girl sighed in the back. "We need to make a fan club. He's so dreamy—"

He just kicked Tsuna's desk? Ketsui blinked in disbelief, startled by the outright attack. Huh? You? But you're supposed to be… Ketsui's head started to throb, building the uncomfortable tension in her stomach and throat. The dreams were never wrong, so what the hell was—

"Are you…" Ketsui started to ask Tsuna and stopped, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth. Ugh.

"I-I'm okay," Tsuna said nervously, scared out of his mind. "Why did he just—hiee!"

Gokudera audibly clicked his tongue in disgust, brushing past Tsuna's desk with a venomous glare. He moved, stepping right past Ketsui's desk as she abruptly stood, chair scraping loudly behind her as one hand slapped her desk. Everyone's eyes turned to her.

Explosions. Cigarette smoke. A mess of things just like one bad storm—

"Woah! Is Usagidoshi about to fight back?"

"Hah?" Gokudera snarled threateningly, quickly turning to Ketsui with his eyes narrowed into slits. He jerked his fists out from his pockets, the teacher foaming at the mouth from the front of the class in disbelief. "Who the hell are you—"

Ketsui turned her head to the side, throwing up pale yellow vomit onto Gokudera's shoes.

Last night's dream clicked solidly into place.

A storm was here.

Four students.

It took four students to stop the newly exchanged Gokudera Hayato from punching Ketsui's lights out—or worse, or better, not like she really knew the guy yet beyond the fact that he was the root of her worse headaches. Two terrified guys nearby who didn't want to get caught in the fray, one Takeshi Yamamoto who had to hook his arms behind Gokudera spitting curses and venom at her and one brave, pale faced Tsuna waving his hands frantically and blubbering as Ketsui tried to make sure she didn't throw up again.

Gokudera was quickly escorted to an office by the teacher so he could clean off and hopefully not commit murder on his first day while Tsuna quickly rushed Ketsui to the nurse's office—not an unfamiliar sight—while Ketsui breathed heavily into a paper bag and chanted meditations forward and backwards.

Apparently it was a normal thing, getting sick. Some weird, strange curse passed down to each BLANK before her. Dreams tended to take physical and emotional tolls, so it wasn't uncommon for them to feel nauseous or a little antsy—Niko's memos said he would get a sharp, hard tug in his gut like a cramp or an ache in his knee. The eighth would feel a cramping in his hand, so bad he could hardly move it.

Ketsui? She just threw up.

She would've gladly taken any of these other signals anyday.

Now Ketsui dully sat on one of the beds in the nurse's office, munching quietly on saltine crackers with a bottle of lemon water courtesy of Tsuna. Said friend was twiddling his fingers nervously in front of him, checking the clock then checking on Ketsui then sighing himself as he slumped in his chair and Ketsui offered him some crackers as an apology.

"If you were feeling sick today you should've stayed home," Tsuna said, brows creasing in worry. "You looked red this morning too!"

"Wasn't that," Ketsui said. "Sorry though. Just felt nauseous all of a sudden… Bad headache today."

"We'll ask the nurse for pain killers when she gets back," Tsuna promised. "Do you need an antacid? Are you sure you're okay?"

Ketsui nodded, popping another cracker into her mouth and handing the rest to Tsuna. He sighed again, taking one and chewing on it with a small frown.

She was mostly okay at least. Her head wasn't but her stomach had settled for now and she didn't think she'd lose her lunch if she saw the explosive headache again, but that was up for debate. If I have to deal with this six more times I'll lose it.

Ketsui's main problem now was figuring out what that guy's problem was—did he just target Tsuna because he looked weak and scrawny or was it some kind of personal vendetta? She knew not all of his future partners had to get along at first—the memos of her predecessors all varied with their experiences and personalities, but if Gokudera Hayato was going to be… well, a jerk, she wasn't really planning on staying quiet about it.

What are you going to do? A voice taunted. Stand up to him? Say something great?

"You will not even need to speak. The responsibilities with your job do not require keeping company."

Ketsui glumly bit into another cracker. She guessed it was naive of her in the first place to think it'd all go over smoothly. The dreams clearly said enough about that. He's a headache. And… it wasn't like she hadn't gotten into fights with or for Tsuna before—they'd just dwindled into nothing as they moved up to middle school. Less people started to care about physically bullying him and kept to name-calling and laughter instead.

"Ketsui, are you feeling sick again?" Tsuna asked. "You look like you're getting sick again—"

Ketsui idly gave his leg a reassuring pat. "I'm okay. Just thinking."

"About getting sick?"

"Stupid stuff," Ketsui said. "Are you okay? He hit your desk pretty hard."

"N-No, I'm fine!" Tsuna said. "I just don't know why he did it. Did I say something? Was it the eye contact?" Tsuna paled, grabbing his face. "Did he read my mind?"

"Mind," Ketsui echoed. "What'd you think about?"

"I-I just thought about how it sucks all the girls like a guy like him!" Tsuna wailed. "Even Kyoko-chan was smiling! You don't think he can actually read minds do you? Hiee!"

Ketsui thought about it seriously for a moment. The closest to any mind reader she'd ever met so far in her life was Reborn. Gokudera wasn't quite at that level yet. "...no, I don't think so."

Tsuna wilted forward in relief. Ketsui rubbed his back. "Have you… ever met him before?"

"Not at all!" Tsuna said. "Did we ever meet him when we were young? There were so many bullies and, oh god, Ketsui what if he's coming back for revenge?"

"...I don't think so," Ketsui said, thinking about it. She'd spent most of her life entirely so far… with Tsuna. If Gokudera had ever been around Japan before and met Tsuna, there was always a chance she didn't hear about it because the world was a big place, after all. It just seemed unlikely since at least back then, it seemed they knew everything between the two of them.

"For nothing else but them."

Ketsui gave Tsuna's back a final pat, pulling her hand back into her lap. "Don't worry too much about it. Let's go get lunch."

"L-Lunch?" Tsuna said. "Ketsui, you're still thinking about food? Soft! You need to eat something soft, you like udon, right? It's on the A Set today!"

Ketsui made a face. "I think I do."

"We'll be careful and avoid that exchange student," Tsuna said, pulling at his hair. "Extra careful! I don't know why he has it out for us!"

"I threw up on him."

"Hiee!"

"Tsuna, you'll go bald if you keep pulling your hair."

In hindsight, maybe her own fantasy of idly meeting the owners of her dreams, quietly exchanging a few words, nodding to them, and then bowing while she dabbed a tear from her eye and sent them off with Tsuna in capable hands really was too naive.

It's just… well, it wasn't like Gokudera was going to try to blow up the school, right?

"I think I've figured it out," Tsuna said quickly, moving his hands as he and Ketsui made their way down the hall. Club hours were about to begin and school was coming to a close, the two of them headed toward the shoe lockers. "We can take the back exit just in case we run into him from the front of the school, then we can wait until everyone goes home and get our shoes!"

Ketsui quietly sipped on her salty lemon water—the banana milk would have to come another day and she was realizing she kind of liked citrus flavored things—considering Tsuna's words.

"I don't think he's gonna come after us," Ketsui said quietly. "Why would he?"

"But you said it yourself!" Tsuna cried. "You don't think this is the last time we'll see him."

Ketsui frowned around her straw, mildly troubled. Well, I thought that because he's in our class now, but I guess otherwise he'll be showing up still because of the dreams…

"So we should—hiee!"

Tsuna jostled forward, nearly falling flat on his face from how hard his shoulder clipped the person beside him. Ketsui grabbed the back of his uniform, stopping him a few inches from slamming into the tile as she looked up with a frown.

Three upperclassmen glowered down at them, lips pulled back into ferocious snarls. Ketsui duly noticed the metal rings and chains, beanies on their heads to make them look rougher, including a facial mask even though they didn't seem sick. She absently realized they were breaking the dress code too.

Maybe the Disciplinary Committee really was rubbing off on her.

Kusakabe-san would be proud, I think.

"Watch where you're going, shrimp!" one of them snapped. The other two snickered, sneering back at them like hyenas. Ketsui watched enough television dramas for reference—it was unbelievable how unrealistic and realistic they could be at the same time. Almost stupid.

There. Ketsui thought. That's a solid opinion. I have a bit more personality now, right Niko-san?

"I might've broken a bone, kid," one smirked. Tsuna panicked, looking pale. "What would you do if I—"

"Did you?"

The three upperclassmen stopped, blinking at Tsuna. Her friend was white, sweating bullets and they turned over to where Ketsui stared back at them, more focused on the speaking senior's arm.

"Whaddya say, girl?" one said.

"Your arm," Ketsui said quietly. "Did you break it?"

The senior stared at Ketsui in disbelief, looking to his companions to make sure she was actually talking to them. Ketsui adjusted the violin over her shoulder, reaching out with her hand toward the senior's arm. "If you broke it, then you should be—"

"We're so sorry!" Tsuna shrieked, grabbing Ketsui's hand and hauling her off her feet with record speed. Ketsui blinked, practically flying as Tsuna shouted apologies, racing down the hall with her in tow. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"

Tsuna ripped the door to the outside courtyard open, lunging toward freedom as Ketsui flapped out like a kite behind him. The two of them came to a stop, Ketsui looking mildly put off as Tsuna panted, hands on his knees. Sweat rained down his face, completely pale. "K-Ketsui! We can't mess with seniors like that! We would've been beaten to death!"

Ketsui made a face, looking back to the hallway door. Beaten to death… huh?

"Herbivore, if you are late once more, you will be bitten to death."

"...I'm not sure," Ketsui said slowly. "I think there are scarier people at this school."

"Scarier?" Tsuna cried. "Like who?"

"That was pathetic."

Ketsui went rigid the same moment Tsuna did—only for different reasons. Her stomach churned with uncertainty, the familiar, biting scent of cigarette smoke wafting up into the air. Smoking in middle school, huh. Gray hair came into view, Gokudera's back toward them as he pocketed his lighter. Tsuna shuddered nervously.

"G-G-Gokudera-san," Tsuna said. "Y-You were here too…"

Gokudera wordlessly exhaled a cloud of smoke. Ketsui's brow twitched, pressing her hand to her mouth as she breathed deeply, calming her upset stomach. "W-We'll just… be going now…"

"If a pathetic runt like you becomes the Tenth, the Vongola Family is finished."

Ah. Ketsui raised her eyes up high to the sky, urging her stomach to listen to her. There it is.

Tsuna's head snapped around, nearly flying off his shoulders. "Huh? How do you know about the family?"

"Because I refuse to accept it!" Gokudera snapped, finally whirling around. Tsuna jumped, stumbling backwards. "I'm much more fit to be the Tenth than you!"

Ketsui blinked at that, lowering her eyes forward. Tsuna's knees shook, "W-What am I supposed to do about that? What are you saying all of a sudden?"

Gokukdera advanced a step on him, smoke trailing up from his cigarette. "I've been watching you since the volleyball match, but it's a waste of time to keep evaluating a worthless guy like you."

Tsuna urked, stepping backwards as Gokudera advanced another menacing step, raising his hands from his pockets. "Someone like you isn't fit to be the Tenth—"

Two hands calmly grabbed Gokudera's wrists, stopping him from bringing his hands out. Gokudera blinked once in momentarily stunned disbelief, ash dropping from his cigarette. Tsuna started to foam at the mouth, eyes bulging in fear at the person standing between him and Gokudera.

I don't really care if Tsuna decides if he wants to be the Tenth or not. If he decides to run away from all of this, that's fine too, but at the end of the day, the dreams never lie. Tsuna is next in line to inherit the Vongola title. Trust me on that, new guy.

—was what she wanted to say, calm, concise and quiet.

"Don't care," Ketsui said instead. "Tsuna's definitely the Tenth."

Tsuna's jaw hit the floor. Gokudera's cigarette dropped down onto the ground. Ketsui blinked in quiet realization.

She… She was really bad at communicating, wasn't she?

"You," Gokudera snarled, voice rippling with loathing. Ketsui sadly blinked in somber resignation at his tone. Ah, this won't end well after all. There really was a reason why his dreams gave her the worst headaches. "The crazy bitch who threw up on me—who the hell do ya think you are, hah?"

Gokudera ripped one of his hands free, fisting Ketsui's uniform and hauling her off her feet. Ketsui's hands calmly held onto his wrist, feeling his muscles flex under her fingers.

"K-K-Ketsui!" Tsuna shouted, face pale in fear as he stepped forward, waving his hands. "G-Gokudera-san, please! Let Ketsui down! She didn't mean to—she wasn't feeling well this morning."

(Her face looked calm, perhaps mildly emotionless, but Ketsui was currently about a few shakes in the wrong direction closer to losing her lunch. Again.)

"So you run to a damn trash can!" Gokudera spat. "Out the stupid window! Why the hell did you lose your shit on me, hah?"

It's hard to explain. "Because of you," Ketsui said.

Ah.

A pin dropped. Ketsui worried she might've forced Tsuna to lose a few years from stress.

"K-K-K-Ketsui—"

"Alright, I see how it is," Gokudera said darkly, a vein throbbing off the side of his forehead. Ketsui realized up close his eyes really were a very nice shade of jade. He had good skin too. "You've got a real spine, I'll give you that, dumbass. What the hell are you supposed to be, huh? His bodyguard?"

Ketsui seriously considered his question, trying to figure out an appropriate answer.

"...his friend," Ketsui said calmly.

Tsuna crashed onto his knees, overwhelmed tears pouring down his face from how touching her words were the same moment his soul started to ascend upwards, unable to take the high tension of the situation. Gokudera sneered, hoisting her a bit higher into the air. He's strong for a middle schooler. Ketsui didn't particularly enjoy this kind of rough treatment. Niko was the only one who was allowed to toss her around, and that'd been for training and stealing fruit off trees.

Her stomach growled threateningly. Ketsui blanched.

"Alright, streetrat," Gokudera growled. "I'll give you credit for having some balls, but they ain't gonna save that loser over there. You better fucking remember you asked for this, got it?"

"W-Wait!" Tsuna exclaimed, scrambling to his feet as Gokudera reeled his free hand back. Ketsui bit her bottom lip, eyes going sideways. Her stomach churned harder, pressing up her throat. "No! Gokudera-san, don't hurt Ketsui—"

Gokudera's fist shot forward the same instant Ketsui's legs came up.

Her feet slammed roughly into his gut, knocking the air out of his lungs as Gokudera heaved, instantly dropping his grip on her shirt. Ketsui squawked, her back hitting the ground, head smacking into Tsuna's face as he rushed forward to try to catch her, sending both of them toppling into the dirt. Gokudera landed backwards, wheezing as he came up and grabbed his stomach. "What the—the hell?"

Ketsui wheezed an apology to Tsuna, scrambling onto her hands and knees as she lunged for the bushes. Tsuna grabbed his throbbing head, eyes wide as Ketsui shoved her face into the bushes and heaved. "Hiee! K-Ketsui! Oh, my god, Ketsui!"

Ugh. Ketsui sank back onto her heels, tugging off her bowtie and using it to wipe her mouth. She spat onto the ground and tossed the bowtie into the bushes too. I think…. His is starting to fade a bit too. Good.

"That's it!" Gokudera roared, jumping back up onto his feet. Tsuna screeched in fear, throwing his hands out in front of Ketsui as she dully looked up at Gokudera. "I'm finishing this once and for all! Eat dynamite!"

Huh? Ketsui and Tsuna blinked, wicked smoke trailing up into the air as Gokudera tossed two sticks, fuses lit at the end as they sank toward them—

The branded orange sticks stared back, properly brandishing their chemical make-up and use on the side in bold letters.

Dynamite.

Dyna—

(THE EXPLOSIONS WERE REAL.)

Ketsui and Tsuna's eyes bulged from their heads. Tsuna grabbed Ketsui, "HIEEEE—"

BANG!

Gokudera clicked his tongue as the top fuses of his dynamite sticks uselessly hit the floor, the no longer lit pieces falling with a soft thud. Ketsui and Tsuna continued to stare at the sticks with wide eyes, holding onto each other with Ketsui holding her violin case in front of them for protection.

Bright, slitted eyes calmly blinked back at her. Ketsui stared, watching as Leon crawled over from the top of her violin case, staring down at her.

"Ciaossu," Tsuna's head whipped sideways, smacking Ketsui in the chin. He shrieked out an apology, Ketsui hurriedly trying to wave him off. Reborn's lips quirked as he used a regular pistol to push his fedora at, "You came earlier than I expected, Gokuder Hayato."

"R-R-Reborn!" Tsuna cried. "You two know each other?"

"So you're the Ninth's most trusted hitman," Gokudera said darkly. "Reborn."

Tsuna looked up in surprise beside her, blinking rapidly. "Reborn's… the Ninth Boss's…"

Yikes. Ketsui thought. That's why he got his own dream, I guess.

"You weren't kidding about me becoming the next candidate if I kill this guy, right?" Gokudera said. Ketsui blinked in disbelief while Leon jumped over to Reborn's hat.

"What?" Tsuna exclaimed. "What does he mean by that?"

"Yeah, that's right," Reborn said simply. "Well, let's continue the killing."

"H-H-Hey, wait a minute!" Tsuna said. "Killing? What are you talking about? You're joking right?"

"I'm serious," Reborn said, curiously looking over to where Ketsui's expression seemed idly calm, sitting on her knees beside Tsuna.

"You're betraying me, Reborn?" Tsuna said in disbelief. "You mean everything until now was a lie?"

"That's wrong," Reborn said, pointing his gun at Tsuna. "I'm telling you to fight."

"W-Wha?" Tsuna said. "Telling me to f-fight the transfer student—" Tsuna's eyes went round and he turned on his heel, grabbing Ketsui by the back of her collar as he started to run. "I'm not fighting with the mafia—hieee!"

Gokudera quickly blocked Tsuna's path, eyes glittering dangerously as he shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. Tsuna's eyes nearly popped from his head as Gokudera aggressively lit a series of cigarettes, smoke puffing outwards as he fished out handfuls of dynamite. "W-What the heck?"

"It's said that Gokudera's a human explosive device that conceals explosives all over his body," Reborn informed. "His other name is Hurricane Bomb Hayato."

"Y-You've got to be kidding me—I'll die! Ketsui, we're going to die!" Tsuna cried, hauling Ketsui forward. "We've gotta run—"

"Tsuna, don't worry," Ketsui said, a little awkwardly from her uniform collar pressing against her throat from Tsuna's grip. He's a good friend. Tsuna whirled around to her. Gokudera growled out something utterly incomprehensible from the dozens of dynamite in his mouth and hands. "You're not going to die, I promise."

Ketsui offered him a thumbs up, expression encouraging. I'd definitely dream about something like that.

Reborn smirked.

Gokudera tossed his sticks of dynamite out, garbling curses around his cigarettes as they flung out into the air—crackling and sizzling. Tsuna shrieked, grabbing Ketsui as they darted across the courtyard, Ketsui dutifully holding up her case as dynamite sticks bounced off it and blew up, thundering into their ears and shaking the ground. "No way, no way, no way!"

"Wrah luh ah mwan!" Gokudera shouted. Die like a man!

"Hiee!" Tsuna cried, tears gathering at his eyes. Ketsui knocked another dynamite stick aside with her case. "It's a dead end! Ketsui, we're really, really going to die—"

"Then fight with your dying will."

Ketsui stiffened the same moment the shot rang out, turning quickly over her shoulder with wide eyes. Blood gushed from Tsuna's head, only for a second—as his back crashed onto the floor. Gokudea's dynamite sticks halted for a second, brows furrowed in confusion as Ketsui's heart thumped loudly in her chest.

Rrrriiiiip!

"Re-born!" Tsuna threw himself back onto his feet, eyes burning as fiercely as the wild orange flame flickering about passionately at the top of his head. All of his clothes had fallen to the ground, ripped in half and left him only in his tuna patterned boxes. Tsuna let out a ferocious roar, thrusting his fists into the air. "I'm going to extinguish those sticks like my life depends on it!"

Ketsui stared.

"T-T-Tsuna—"

"Defuse!" Tsuna shouted, pinching the lit dynamite sticks mid air. He moved faster than Ketsui could track, knocking an entire pile away from her as he pinched each one. "Defuse! Defuse! Defuse! Defuse! Defuse!"

"W-Wha?" Gokudera shouted. He tossed up dozens more, stumbling backwards. "T-Take this! Double Bomb—"

"Defuse!" Tsuna shouted, wiping each bomb out of the air in seconds. Gokudera's brows furrowed, eyes moving quickly as he hauled out more, chucking them high. "DEFUSE!"

One of Gokudera's dynamite sticks slipped from the massive pile between his fingers. Jade eyes went wide, cigarettes crumpling between his teeth as they all came crashing down around him, hissing in the air like snakes. "S-Shit—"

"Tsuna!" Ketsui started to stand, letting out a squawk as she was knocked backwards by Reborn's feet landing on her head. "R… Reborn…"

"Just watch," Reborn said cheerfully. "You said he wouldn't die, right?"

Ketsui's brows furrowed, forcing her eyes to narrow a bit. Reborn smirked, "Only a day and you're starting to make faces like that?"

She blinked, touching her forehead. Making faces like...

"DEFUSE!" Tsuna roared, snatching the last stick of dynamite out right from under Gokudera's nose. The mafia bomber blinked, once and then twice in utter disbelief, eyes slowly traveling up Tsuna's naked torso and up to his snarling, passionate face as it burned with the flame of his dying will. "Defuse!"

Gokudera's cigarettes dropped onto the ground. The bright orange flame on top of Tsuna's head started to fizzle out until it disappeared, leaving her friend blinking in relief. "T-Thank goodness, I think I got them all…"

Tsuna froze, quickly looking up at Gokudera. "G-Gokudera-san—"

Gokudera's knees hit the floor.

Tsuna and Ketsui jumped, the latter trying to shove Reborn off the top of her head. He didn't.

"I'm sorry!" Gokudera shouted, bowing his head. "I was wrong! You're absolutely, without a doubt—the only man fit to be the Tenth!"

Gokudera raised his head, eyes shining with complete and utter adoration. Ketsui blinked in disbelief while Tsuna stared, eyes bulging out from his head. "I'll follow you to the ends of the earth! Command me to do whatever you want, Tenth!"

"H-Huh?" Tsuna cried, stepping back.

"It's customary for the loser to go under the winner's command," Reborn said, finally jumping down from Ketsui's head and landing in her lap. She made a face. "You've got no choice now."

"H-H-Huh?"

"Actually, I didn't even really want to become the next boss," Gokudera admitted sheepishly. Uwah. This guy totally has two switches, doesn't he? Niko-san, I've met someone strange today. "It's just that… when I heard the Tenth was Japanese like me, I felt this kinda kinship… to test you out too."

Tsuna blinked, looking confused and touched at the same time. Ketsui made a discreet swipe at Reborn's head he deftly avoided, grabbing one of her fingers and halting it instead.

"B-But you're much more than I expected!" Gokudera confessed, eyes brimming with adoration. "For putting yourself on the line like that to save me—I'll do the same with my life for yours! For eternity!"

"T-That's too troubling!" Tsuna said hastily. "J-Just something normal, like, like classmates! Classmates is fine! And… bullying me less…"

"Absolutely not," Gokudera said darkly. Tsuna hiccuped. "Of course, I won't ever lay a hand on you like that again! Please forgive my earlier discretion!"

"Gokudera became your subordinate because of your strength," Reborn hopped off Ketsui's lap, looking up at Tsuna's disbelieving gaze. "Good job, Tsuna."

"W-What are you talking about?" Tsuna said.

"And… woman," Ketsui blinked warily as Gokudera aggressively shuffled over to her on his knees, eyes burning as he gripped the top of his pants. "You…" He ground his teeth, swallowing his pride and dropping his head, "You… could already sense the Tenth's worth… thankyouforprotectinghim."

Ketsui stared.

"But you can now rest easy," Gokudera looked up, eyes burning. "From now on, I'll be the only one the Tenth needs! You can run along and just—"

"Actually," Ketsui grunted as Reborn landed on top of her head. Please, make up your mind. "You should show your superior some more respect, Gokudera. Ketsui was Tsuna's first family member."

"Eh?" Tsuna said, blinking. Gokudera looked dumbfounded.

Reborn smirked on top of her head. "She's one rung higher than you."

"That can't be allowed!" Gokudera barked, shooting up onto his feet, fishing for more dynamite sticks. Ketsui glowered at the floor, Reborn still standing on top of her head as Tsuna floundered, flapping his arms at Gokudera. "Then all I have to do is take out the person next in line—I'm the only man fit to be the Tenth's right hand man—"

I don't really care. You can be it if you want. I just need to stay by this guy's side, you know? But maybe you could cool off a bit because you did try to kill him—

"No," Ketsui said instead.

Silence fell heavy over all of them. Gokudera's lighter broke in his grip.

Ketsui quietly shut her eyes, bringing her hands to her mouth. The rules were right. She should just give up talking. Nothing good could come out of her stupid mouth anyways. She was hopeless. Niko-san, please forgive me. This is harder than it seems.

"Hey, what the heck is this? Do we have some kids ditching class?" Ketsui dully looked over to where the three seniors from earlier—oh, them—were sauntering over with cheeky grins. "Hey~ I think we need to teach these kids a lesson."

"...Tenth," Gokudera said calmly. "Don't worry. I'll dispose of these guys. And then I'm coming for the street rat's head. Just sit tight, okay?"

"W-W-W-Wait a second! Gokudera-kun, please don't! Hiee! Leave Ketsui out of this—"

"How's that?" Reborn asked above her. "You've got a good junior under you now."

Ketsui let out a long, quiet sigh.

She had a headache.

But at least she wasn't throwing up anymore.

Ketsui stared at the sight before her apartment door in silence, calmly assessing her possible list of responses and most appropriate choices of action—using her dramas, Niko, and interactions with Tsuna for reference.

She smelled like smoke. And something burnt. She needed to give her case a good polishing to get all the ash off of it too. Thank you for doing your job.

A few feet from her, literally the door right beside her own—Gokudera's cigarette dropped down onto the ground, slipping from his slack jawed response as he gaped at her. His school bag hung loosely in one hand while he gripped a bag of groceries in the other. Ketsui similarly had a bag full of antacids and emergency vitamin boosts she picked up from the convenience store.

Gokudera's lips moved uselessly, searching for words. He choked, pointing a finger at her, cutting himself off, starting again, then repeating the cycle as Ketsui calmly gazed back at him. She didn't really like smelling like smoke, her headache hadn't completely subsided, but she duly noted she wasn't feeling like throwing up at seeing his face.

(Well, even if she would prefer otherwise, some things were just out of her hands. She definitely knew that better than most.)

"Y-Y—You!" Gokudera finally managed, nearly strangling himself over the words. "You—here—what—woman—"

Ketsui's mood lifted, just a bit. Maybe she wasn't the only one bad with her words.

Unable to pick any other interesting response, Ketsui went with calmly bowing a bit to Gokudera in both greeting and farewell. She quietly reached into her bag, picking a pack of egg sandwiches she was originally going to try down in-between them as a customary housewarming gift. Gokudera continued to stare at her, slack jawed and spluttering, and Ketsui inclined her head one more time before opening the door to her apartment and stepping inside.

She waited a moment before taking off her shoes. She set her violin case down by the doorway so she could clean it off, stepping past the genkan and into her house.

"What the hell?" Gokudera shouted beyond her door. "What the—"

Ketsui tuned out the incoherent shouting, quietly wondering if she would have to adjust to the explosive noise next door. She gingerly made her way to her bathroom, keeping her uniform on as she set her bag down by the door, placed her phone on the sink, and then wordlessly stepped into the bathtub.

Without even hesitating, Ketsui turned the showerhead on. Warm, hot water came rushing down at her, soaking her clothes and her hair and Ketsui allowed herself to slip down into the tub like jello, limbs relaxing and laying face down as she let the water pelt her.

Niko told her once this was how he liked to unwind, destress, clear his head—anything bothersome. Ketsui had to agree that it usually worked wonders.

Her phone vibrated off the counter. Ketsui sluggishly raised her head, moving damp hair out of her face. She faintly wondered if she was imagining the slamming she heard next door as she wiped one hand on a towel, reaching for her phone and opening up the message.

Unknown (16:32): Usagi-chan! It's Yamamoto. I got your number from Sasagawa, hope that's cool with you! Did you hear those fireworks? It sounded like tons of fun!

Ketsui attempted to process the information now presented before her. She decided to put a temporary halt on it, simply responded to Yamamoto's message with a "Yes." and closed her phone. Ketsui set it back on the countertop and once again laid herself flat against the bathtub floor, letting the hot water soak her and her clothes.

One down, five more to go.

(Perhaps her water bill would go up a bit this month.)

Here we are right now, together in this moment, and we'll continue onwards, meeting each guidepost.

I absolutely want to bring back Goku-dog and Streetrat, I always loved having them call each other that, HAHAHAAH.

There's something hilarious about KHR and how it just barely gets by with a certain amount of absurdity that makes it like, a little difficult when you have characters like Ketsui with budding emotional capabilities that of cucumbers. But it's fun to write and it's kind of silly, but I love getting away with it because it literally happens in canon lmao. Can't wait to bring the Kikuyo arc back in and then the Varia arc we stopped just short of last time during this story's original run.

We'll mostly be following a little mix of manga and anime, since the anime paces some things differently and changes up meetings—Yamamoto already would've been joining by now if we follow anime, but we're going to do some manga timelines too because eventually we'll go off the manga once we catch up to where the anime ended.

I've also been asked about pairings! Right now, the story is more Oc. than Ocx or Oc/ if that makes sense, which means we'll mostly be developing Ketsui's relationships with each of the characters before anything else and then going off there. It's essentially Oc/? Though so anyone is free game, I love strong bonds and dynamics before anything else, so just have fun with it! There will be characters though I'll say won't be potential partners and more just bros/platonic, but we'll get there when we get there.

LOTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO, I HOPE YOU'RE ALL ENJOYING IT RIGHT NOW AND WILL KEEP ENJOYING IT, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND FOR ALL YOUR PATIENCE AND SUPPORT. Thank you again to all the old readers for coming back, and thank you to all the new readers for giving this story a chance!

Please stay healthy and well, and look after yourselves!

Thanks for reading!

Marshmellow-

-OUT!