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Published: 1/18/17

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何もない -

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"Y-Yamamoto-kun?" The words tumbled out of Tsuna's mouth before he could stop himself as he looked, frozen in place, over the said owner of the surname in utter shock and fright.

Yamamoto, ever the oblivious man, chuckled in mirth and grinned. "Yo, long time no see, right? Sawada? How long has it been – two maybe ten years? It's a small town we live in, how come we never stumble upon each other?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, he laughed and swung an arm over the startled brunet's slim shoulders, face too close to what was normally considered comfortable, and grinned. "You never called us, you know?"

Maybe it's because I didn't want to! Tsuna mentally shrieked to himself, but the ghost of a smile played on his lips to not give away his obvious inner uproar. "A-Ah, y-yes . . . h-how have you been, Yamamoto-kun?" Tsuna couldn't stop the tremor from leaking off of his voice like a burst of a busted pipe, seeing as he hasn't met the jock in over more than ten years now, but either Yamamoto was that oblivious or he was doing a wonderfully perfect job in pretending that the action didn't bother him.

Yamamoto's grin stayed intact, regardless of Tsuna's upheaval. "Maa, maa, there isn't anything to be frightened about, Sawada." He laughed; a natural reflex when dealing with a terribly awkward situation. "Actually, yeah . . . I actually dropped by here for something important."

Tsuna tried very hard to not let the shock slip to his face. " . . . Is that so?" Tsuna murmured. He gently brushed the arm off his shoulders and let an inaudible and grateful sigh escape his lips. Though, for some incomprehensible reason, Yamamoto frowned, showing his obvious disapproval from such a surprising and impulsive action. A silence that Tsuna dubbed as uncomfortable engulfed them, sending the brunet stepping back like a cornered animal.

Tsuna tried for what he hoped was a confident smile. "So . . . what kind of flowers are you looking for?" he asked, all good cheers and smiles. "Ah . . . it's for a lucky girl, I suspect?" He laughed at this, forcefully though he admitted, but he dared not voice this thought out to Yamamoto of all people.

Yamamoto tossed him a thin smile.

Tsuna smiled back, but less on the thinly department and more on the awkward one. "Well, we have the Baby's Breath for occasions such as this, or perhaps White Carnations are much benefit full for your taste?" Hastily, he made his way towards the patch of the aforementioned blooms, eyes darting all over them, thankful he didn't have to speak to the man before his doorstep directly into the face. "Do you have any personal preference Yamamoto-kun – Yamamoto-kun?" Just as Tsuna was preparing to cut the white blossoms and give it to Yamamoto so he could leave and Tsuna could pretend none of this happened and go one with his life, Yamamoto had somehow disappeared into thin air.

With panic seizing him by the neck, he whirled and released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding when he realized that the object of his current problems and worries was looming over a certain patch of flowers. Tsuna eyed him in resigned exasperation. Didn't the man's mother teach him to listen when somebody was talking to him? "Yamamoto-kun . . .?" he trailed uncertainly but didn't seem to be heard. "Yamamoto-kun?" he repeated, much louder and observed in how the man jumped out of his skin and spun to look down at Tsuna in surprise. (The brunet observed that the jock was far taller than him and cussed.)

"Were you planning to buy these . . .?" Tsuna asked as he trod forward, eyes trained on the batch of Larkspur's. "Well . . . I don't highly recommend them, since they wither easily . . . but if you want to—"

"My mother loved these." Startled, Tsuna turned around to look at Yamamoto, who had his head bent down and a bitter smile forming on his face. "She used to tell me that each flower had a special meaning to them. Of course, as a teen, I brushed it off as nothing but motherly nonsense, but now that she's gone, it's just like how she told me." He plucked out one of the flowers clumsily and looked at Tsuna, smile still bitter. "Would you mind telling me the meaning of this one, Tsuna?" The brunet noted dimly in how he stopped using honorifics.

Tsuna, who was still stumped frozen in stupor at what the other said, asked in a shaking and hesitant voice, "Hinako-san is . . . dead?" The brunet's shoulder sagged, refusing to believe it. "B-But, h-how did she—"

"She was murdered." Tsuna's eyes went wide, lips tightly clambered shut. "And I could have stopped it, too." Yamamoto laughed, but it was one full of hollowness and concavity. "You know, she mentioned you a lot . . . you were like a charter member of our family, and she adored you." He said all this in a high and tight voice. "She adored you . . . a lot."

"I-I . . ." Tsuna flushed. "Yamamoto-kun . . . I-I don't know what to say . . . I'm sorry—"

"Don't be." Yamamoto's voice was firm, but tight and thin. "I understand. She was lonely, and you were, too. You were both yearning for company, and it was an amazing coincidence that you both stumbled upon each other. I just wished that I wasn't so blind as to not notice it soon." The flower had been crushed under the shaking man's whitening knuckles, and Tsuna made no move to stop the action. "I wasn't even able to tell her that I loved her, or that she was more than a great mother." He lowered his head; had it not been such a dire situation, Tsuna would have nodded his head and squeezed the man's hand reassuringly despite their past history and differences.

"I wasn't prepared to lose her . . ." Yamamoto whispered; eyes watering as he twirled towards Tsuna's general direction. "She was the best thing I've ever had in my life . . . and I . . . and I . . ." Yamamoto fell down the floor and bursts into sobs. But it wasn't the wailing type. No. It was the type of weeping when you are in dire need of human comfort, when you're in dire need of a cure. It was the type of crying that showed that you were choking back the tears and the sobs. Tsuna was hurt for, just like what Yamamoto had stated, Hinako was a wonderful mother, even when Tsuna wasn't her real son.

Tsuna was hurt, but the only child of the deceased woman was beyond hurt.

He was broken.