Of Warm Hands Hidden (KHR FANFIC)

B L A N K

Yamamoto Takeshi knew he was an idiot. He wasn't academic or knowledgeable like Gokudera Hayato, but Yamamoto Takeshi wanted to believe that being smart didn't always mean knowing what to put down during tests.

He may not get great results in English or Japanese, but Takeshi was told, long long ago, by his mother that he was fluent in reading emotions. While he didn't understand what she meant as a child, he thinks he sort of gets it now.

People's eyes were just too telling. They spoke volumes of what people didn't outright say. Takeshi learned that people's eyes were a much more reliable source than listening to what they said. A small part of him was guilty at sneaking past their walls without their permission.

But it was just too easy.

He learned the hard way not say anything he found in their eyes.

("Why did you say that?"

Takeshi blinked. He gripped his baseball bat tighter with his small hands. A ball of anxiety knitted itself into his throat. "W-what?" He croaked out.

The kid in front of him– the same age he was– looked at him with horror etched on his features. "Don't tell anyone. Don't– please–"

"I–"

"Stay away from me."

Takeshi never saw him again. He would look at the telephone at home, hands itching to call someone to let them know that there was a kid being abused at home– but then Takeshi would remember the sheer fear in the boy's eyes and Takeshi would lock himself in his room.)

Takeshi had genuinely thought the Mafia business was a game at first. Who wouldn't? But the moment Takeshi saw the look on the small child named Reborn's face– he knew better. But Takeshi accepted it for the person who saved him. There was a warmth in his chest that was given to him that he had thought he lost.

Takeshi remembers falling off that building, ready for everything to end. But he also remembers a boy falling after him, hands reaching. It was later when Takeshi could feel how warm they were.

"Hey, Tsuna," Takeshi says, leaning against the roof railing, "How are you feeling?" The wind caressed their hair as he looked directly into his friend's eyes. It was one of those rare moments in which Gokudera wasn't around. Probably being nagged by a teacher.

Tsuna's smile was weak at best. "Good as I'll ever be." It was vague and didn't give a straight answer. Tsuna's hands rested on the cool metal railing.

"Do you remember when we first met?" Are you going to do something like that without us noticing?

Tsuna, as if hearing something in his tone, turned to his face, unwavering. For a split second, Takeshi is reminded of the person Tsuna was– before... before something happened behind their backs. "Of course." His voice was confident as steel.

Was he worried that Takeshi will jump again? The thought brought a smile on his face. "That's good," Takeshi says and the sudden tension in the air drops. He looks at his friend and only finds confusion in his eyes. "Just messing around with ya."

Tsuna pouts and kicks him in the shin, causing Takeshi to laugh. He hardly felt a thing!

Eventually, a companionable silence befalls on them. Takeshi sneaks a glance every now and then. Tsuna's eyes slowly grow more... distant. As if he was seeing something only he can see.

Tsuna continues on in a different world and Takeshi doesn't know what to do.

---

Lambo was a genius, that he knew was the truth. Sometimes, he pities himself. Why do idiots love to flock around him? Especially Reborn. Reborn is the biggest idiot there is.