I Won't Let You Go

Yamamoto smiled contentedly, closing his eyes and tilting his face skyward to better feel the tiny pitter-patter of April rain wash across his skin.

He released a quiet sigh and spread his arms, palms up, catching the fine drops that caressed his skin with their soft touches.

A certain silverette suddenly turned the corner, umbrella in hand, and began walking vigorously towards the brunette.

"Dumbass!" Gokudera's growl broke Yamamoto out of his reverie, and he started slightly when the umbrella was jabbed through the air to rest above both of their heads.

Gokudera used his free hand to pat the shoulder of Yamamoto's shirt, and his displeasure at the wetness was obvious as he smacked said shoulder. "Are you seriously stupid? What are you doing? All you're going to do is get sick!"

Yamamoto laughed softly at this. "Haha! Aww, Gokudera does care."

Gokudera sputtered and turned away, blushing slightly, "Of course I care! It'd really suck if you got sick on your birthday anyway…"

Yamamoto's eyebrows rose a hair. "You remembered?"

Gokudera clamped his mouth shut, noticing too late that he wasn't supposed to remember.

To cover it up, he just frowned and huffed. "Whatever. It's no big deal. So…Happy Birthday I guess…"

Yamamoto smiled. "It's a big deal to me. Thank you."

There was silence for a few seconds before Gokudera, eyes averted, randomly asked, "You like me, right?"

Yamamoto felt his face flush. "H-huh? Yeah, haha, of course I like you Gokudera!" He smiled, trying to will his blush away.

"I meant like like." Gokudera stated simply.

Yamamoto's smile dropped and his blush returned tenfold. "U-uh, um…well…yeah."

Gokudera swallowed thickly and nodded. "Yeah, I thought so."

Yamamoto was quiet for a moment before he asked softly, "How did you guess?"

Gokudera shrugged. "It was a combination of things. But what really caught my attention was, well…like that time with anike a couple weeks ago…"

"Jyuudaime!"

"Yo Tsuna!"

"Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto. Hello." Tsuna smiled, opening the door wider so that they could come through.

"Let's go up to my room, then we can see what we can do with that homework assignment; before Reborn gives me a concussion." Tsuna shuddered at the last utterance and said infant smirked from his shoulder, eyes and freshly-polished shoes glinting evilly.

The three boys had adjourned to the Tenth's bedroom and sat puzzling their brains for barely a quarter hour before the front door opened and closed once more.

Footsteps ascended the stairs and everyone looked towards the door.

In the split second before the door fully opened and revealed the person on the other side, Yamamoto had clapped his hand gently over Gokudera's eyes.

"OI!? What do you think you're doing?"

The brunette gently but insistently got Gokudera to his feet and led him out the door, muttering obscenities, past Bianchi, who wasn't wearing glasses or goggles or making any effort to cover her face.

"Hayato?" She murmured softly when he was out of earshot.

At the bottom of the stairs, which he had carefully guided Gokudera down, Yamamoto took his hand away at last to find a very peeved-looking silverette.

"What the hell's your problem?"

Yamamoto smiled sheepishly. "Ahh, nothing, I just didn't want you to get sick like you normally do."

"What!?" Gokudera raved, obviously not getting it.

"Bianchi was up there." Yamamoto pointed his finger towards the ceiling for emphasis.

Gokudera paled slightly at the mention of his sister but maintained his composure.

"Oh…" He was silent for a moment, then blushed and mumbled, "Thanks." under his breath.

Yamamoto scrunched his eyebrows together. "That was all?"

Gokudera shifted from one foot to the other nervously. "Well, no…There was also that one time last month…"

It was mid-March and the ground was covered in huge patches of ice from when the latest snow had melted and refroze.

Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto were walking to Tsuna's house from school, all eager to be anyplace but the cold, windy street.

They had barely spoken since their walk started, instead focusing on trying not to freeze to death before they got home.

Yamamoto happened to look up just at the right time, so he saw the patch of ice that Gokudera did not.

As soon as the silverette put one foot on the slick surface he lost his balance and Yamamoto dove in to grab him securely around the waist, jerking Gokudera across his front as he fell heavily onto his back on the ice.

The fall knocked the breath right out of him and he managed to whack his head against the ground with enough force to receive an instant migraine.

Gokudera immediately supported himself above Yamamoto with his hands on either side of the brunette's shoulders, his face registering shock, then confusion.

"Why…?"

"HIIIIIIIEEEE! Yamamoto! Gokudera-kun! Are you alright!?" Tsuna's frantic voice shook Gokudera out of whatever funk he had been in, and the two both got to work on helping their still-slightly-dazed friend up from where he had fallen.

"Idiot! Why would you do that?" Gokudera muttered more to himself than to anyone.

"H-haha…" Yamamoto laughed weakly. "Because I didn't want you to get hurt…"

Yamamoto smiled and rubbed the back of his head, "Ahh, I see."

Gokudera still would not meet his eyes. "It wasn't just that though. You would…touch me a lot."

When Yamamoto made a face he clarified. "I mean, not in a weird way. Just…like when I would show you and Tenth how to do something on the homework you would lean in much closer than him. And if- er, whenever I got in your face over something, anything, you would always kind of just nudge me off, but your hands would always stay on my shoulders until I was the one to move away. And that one time…you…" Gokudera blushed furiously. "You actually tucked my hair behind my ear…"

Yamamoto felt his face catch fire. "Ahh, that time after you got sick you mean?"

Gokudera nodded and Yamamoto smiled weakly. "You were so sick…I didn't think you'd remember…"

"I like you too." The statement shocked Yamamoto, and when he looked, he saw that Gokudera's silvery-green eyes had finally risen to his.

Yamamoto's gaze softened, and he smiled. "Now that I think about it…"

Only a week prior there had been a fair day, even for April.

The weather was nice enough that students actually began going outside for lunch again, or at least until the next cold spell hit. A few of said students had even started a game of volleyball.

It was as the trio of Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto had been walking by that one overly-enthusiastic participant in the game had spiked the ball far too hard.

Yamamoto had pulled a bit ahead of his two other friends.

There was a sudden shout of, "Yamamoto! DUCK!" and it took the brunette less than a second to obey the command simply by instinct alone.

The volleyball sped right over Yamamoto's head and slammed into the wall of the school building, ending its renegade journey by slapping into the hands of a very pissed-off silverette, Tsuna jumping and yelping beside him.

Gokudera whipped the ball viciously back at its thrower, livid. "Why don't you morons learn how to throw a goddamn ball!? Next time that happens you'll find out how much it hurts to have a bowling ball hit you in the head instead!" The silverette spat viciously.

The boy who had thrown the ball threw his hands up to his face just in the nick of time, and the now-forgotten volleyball fell to the ground as Gokudera walked quickly away, still fuming, with an anxious Tsuna and worried Yamamoto on his tail.

Gokudera blushed when Yamamoto brought up what a temper he had been in, but he wasn't finished there.

"I also heard something interesting from Tsuna."

Gokudera's head shot up.

"It seems that not only did you go to one of my games, but you actually defended me then as well."

Gokudera's face flushed pink at the memory.

Yamamoto swung the bat for the fourth time, hoping against hope. But as soon as his shoulder was pushed forward he had to grit his teeth in pain and then frustration as the ball bounced off to the side.

"Foul! Out!"

From over in the stands Gokudera and Tsuna frowned.

Yamamoto's bad grip on the bat earlier had caused him to mildly wrench his shoulder, and it was obvious to everyone that the baseball ace was in pain.

"HEY DIPSHIT! WHY DON'T YOU COME BACK WHEN YOU LEARN HOW TO SWING?"

Gokudera's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly.

Okay…almost everyone.

Gokudera shot up from his seat, blanket falling from his lap and dynamite ready to be lit as he whipped around to face the idiot who had shouted.

"HIIIIIEEEEE! GOKUDERA-KUN NO!" Tsuna practically tackled him, then made him put the dynamite away and sit once again.

"Now just calm down." He was saying. "Do you really think that Yamamoto would let those guys bother him?"

Gokudera crossed his arms and huffed. "I don't want there to be even the slightest chance…" He muttered to himself.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing Tenth."

Gokudera smiled a tiny bit at the memory of the idiots' terrified faces when he had spun around, dynamite in hand, but Yamamoto quickly recaptured his attention.

"And I also noticed that you didn't hit me nearly as hard as you had before. And you stopped smacking my head altogether after the ice incident back in March." He smiled kindly, ruefully rubbing the back of his head as if it still hurt. "I appreciate that."

Yamamoto was shocked once again when Gokudera leaned forward and tightly embraced his torso as well as he could with the umbrella still in his hand, briefly pressing his face to his soaking wet shirt.

Yamamoto noticed how badly he was shaking.

The silverette pulled away as quickly as he had come and Yamamoto had to ask. "Are you really cold?"

Gokudera shook his head. "Nah, s'not that…"

The hand not holding the umbrella was made into a tight fist, and Yamamoto suddenly got the picture, his mouth making a small 'o' as it dawned on him.

He gently took the umbrella from Gokudera's quivering grip and wound his other arm around the silverette's shoulders in a light embrace; soft, but firm enough to steady Gokudera's wavering courage.

The yielding gentleness of Yamamoto's touch was what gave the silverette the strength to do what he needed to.

He gently fisted the damp fabric of Yamamoto's shirt and turned his lips into the brunette's in a timid kiss.

Yamamoto's blinked in surprise, but then smiled softly into the kiss and was about to respond when he had to turn his face away, a sneeze interrupting him.

"Bless you."

"Ahh, thank y-" The remainder of his sentence was silenced as Gokudera pressed their lips together again.

Yamamoto was able to respond this time, and that he did; after a few more moments of languid lip-locking he gently separated from the silverette.

"Hey, wait. I don't want you to get sick too."

Gokudera shrugged, smiling slightly. "I don't care. I'll take care of you now, so then if I get sick you'll just have to take care of me."

Yamamoto chuckled. "It's a promise."

Gokudera smiled, bigger this time. "Buon Compleanno Takeshi."

Yamamoto returned the sentiment, giving his cheek a quick peck. "Arigato Hayato."