47. Autumn (1/2)

i honestly forgot i wrote more chapters whoops

-autumn-

tsuna sits on the swing beside her, positioned so his feet are on either side of the seat and both hands grasping onto one chain. kahiro sits in the same way, facing him with her head leant slightly forwards like his. their feet are almost touching as they talk-every now and then their voices get louder, usually from laughter, but most of the time they speak in hushed tones, as if everything they say is a secret.

ever since the mafia incident and tsuna's explanation of how he is to be the next boss of the vongola, they've found themselves positioned and acting in a far closer manner. they both have their reasons for doing this although they aren't very aware that they are, feeling instead as if this is how they've always spent time together.

for tsuna, he's doing this in the name of protection of the girl. the awful nightmarish feeling of kahiro slipping out of his fingers first put in his mind because of that gunshot is rampant in his dreams, causing him to wake up in fear and often message the girl despite it being in the middle of the night (she almost always replies straight away, making him wonder whether he's woken her up or whether she's unable to sleep as a result of the incident). if they're close, he immediately feels reassured that he can prevent the feeling from ever having to occur again with his own strength.

but that's just all he's admitting to properly in his head; he's not doing it just to keep her safe. he's also doing it because, since the incident and the horrifying few moment where he thought he'd lost the

ight, blindingly

ight kahiro, he's begun to grasp at every bit of interaction with her that he can. he wants to commit everything about her to memory-it's more than it had been before with just her features but the sound of her laugh, the way her feet fidget when she hasn't been moving for a while, the subtle way her tone of voice changes when she's leading up to a joke.

it's almost as if he's trying to grab everything about her before anyone else can notice it by being so close, keeping it all for himself and hidden from prying eyes.

for kahiro, she's being this close to tsuna because she knows his secret now. she's been given the key to the vault she's been eyeing all this time and it's unlocked both that and the gate that was keeping them at a distance from each other-yes, it was a short distance but a distance all the same. so, as if to mirror this new closeness in their friendship from now knowing secrets on both parts, she's sitting closer to him, lowering her head so that their faces are close when they talk and her ponytail swings down, acting almost like a curtain to keep a sense of privacy.

she's also doing it to notice things about tsuna, but not so much for the purpose of committing them to memory. kahiro's doing it to see what she's missed before about the boy when she wasn't aware of his secret: the small, faint scars from fights on his skin, the flicker of orange in eyes he gets every now and then, the determination and resolve in his eyes when he's having to discuss something related to the mafia.

it's almost as if she's getting to know him in his entirety better than she even knows herself.

"-and you should've seen their faces when they realized i'd jumped down. i mean, i did tell them that stairs were for the unimaginative but still." kahiro lets out a quick, somewhat muted laugh, her head moving to the side so the temple of her forehead is pressed into the cool metal of the chain she's grasping onto.

tsuna gapes at her, but the corners of his mouth are curving upwards. "hibari-san would kill you if he saw you jump out of a window in school!"

"pshaw, i could take him." her eyes glint mischievously at this.

"you could not."

"tsunayoshi, you're so supportive!" she laughs louder this time, nudging him with her foot in a movement too light to be considered a kick. "especially since i've heard you jumped out of a window once-the reception room window to be precise."

he blanches at her teasing grin. "that was reborn's fault."

"in your boxers-"

"also reborn's fault."

she tuts at him. "not everything can be reborn's fault."

the boy snorts. "i beg to differ."

another laugh. she tips her head back in her giggles, the sound drifting through the air with ease. tsuna watches as she does so, her jacket flapping about and trainers not touching the ground. kahiro was just finishing up jogging when he bumped into her but it's hard to tell she's been exercising now-possibly due to the fact they've been in this playground for god knows how long just talking, whispering and laughing.

her eyes then catch something and she gets off the swing in one fluid movement-tsuna curses his clumsiness as he almost gets his foot stuck on the seat when he tries to do the same-with a huge grin on her face. then she rushes off, the

unet going after her as the girl waves at him to come with her. she practically dives into the huge mound of leaves, scattering them all across the ground. "oh my god, i haven't done this in years!" kahiro exclaims with

ight eyes and an excited flush across her cheekbones. noting tsuna's hesitance to do what she had just done, she then gathers up an armful of orange and