Chapter 14: Last Cross

"Do not be afraid; our fate
Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift."
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Yuki Kanazawa, at seventeen, was still not like any of the Namimori girls. She stood at about five feet, and one hundred sixty-eight centimeters, with a mane of smooth long hair she kept styled and neat under a certain red ribbon out of her way. She had a clean face that usually was covered in sweat while training. She had those pretty teal eyes that glowed at times. She had a good head on her shoulders, she was friends with Tsuna Sawada, Hayato Gokudera, Sakura Hibari and occasionally got on Hibari-san's nerves with her steely tongue. She was dexterous and strong and she headed the Newspaper Club for two years running.

She wasn't the smartest girl. She had occasional slip-ups – failing Algebra twice in a year and yet she strived hard. She worked hard and she liked hanging out with friends. She was mafia, working under the tutelage of Reborn the home tutor for years ever since. When the Shimon came, she was wary of Adelheid and her suspiciously big breasts. When she fought against the Shimon, she held her own against Adelheid and left her to Hibari's mercy. She was fast, she was deadly.

Say a bad name for her friends.

She would give you a scolding.

Gang up on her friends.

She would threaten you.

Yuki Kanazawa was emotionally stable. But she wasn't as perfect as others wanted her to be. She was dense when it came to romance. She was too self-sacrificing for her own good. She was aimless and sometimes took things too slow. She was gloomy and sometimes, easy to make sad and miserable.

She hated to be protected.

She hated being restrained.

And she hated how she appeared and appealed to confessions.

A few guys chased her.

Sometimes it was for her literary advice.

Sometimes, it was just to hang out and train – if you were a Guardian of the Vongola.

But if you were a certain Rain Guardian, it was so complicated to explain.

Yuki loved him.

Yuki had loved him for years.

She wanted to smile with him.

She wanted to hold his hand one day.

She wanted to be his one day.

But she had another task.

She just wants to be strong. She wants to be more than a lover. She wants to be a comrade.

Then life just made it harder for her.

She trains and trains her life out of her.

She grows teats and becomes a woman.

She forgets at times herself.

She forgets her feelings and puts up a façade.

She grins and smiles.

But she won't be unfaithful to him. She'll cling to Gokudera when guys want to hit on her. She'll let Gokudera pat her back and tell the other boys to fuck off. She'll say thank you and be shy and be demure once in a while.

When she is training, a girl's heart changes.

She is a fighter, sexless. She wants to be strong. She'll push herself.

"I confessed to Kanazawa," Yamamoto admits to Tsuna and Gokudera during the break.

"Did she accept you?" Tsuna whispered.

Gokudera spat.

"She said nothing." Yamamoto hung his head. "Dammit. I should've known better than not to feel it."

"At least you did it early," Gokudera pointed out. "In the alternate future, you did it too late, and she had another guy with her."

"Good to know. I want an answer from her."

Yamamoto clenched his fist.

Everyone searches for a radiance forever
Hoping to be proud tomorrow
That all things that will make you happy
will be close to me...

During a rusted era like this
I'll always be praying from here
Hoping that this will be the end
That all things tormenting you
will come to an end soon...

As he reads the letter, he waits under the roof of the classroom.

He wants an answer.

She wants the future.

He wants now.

What is the best solution?

Meet me under the sakura tree after graduation. We really have to talk, Takeshi.

-Yuki

She stood him up.

She disappears.

Two years later, when they meet in a bar in Hokkaido under Tsuna's leadership as the head of the Vongola Family, it is inevitable.

She's pleasant and warm.

Her hair's shorter.

But she's still Yuki.

"I like you as a man," she tells him forward.

She didn't stood him up.

She stood there, pretty and earnest. Her eyes were shiny. Her lips were glossed. She was cute.

"Takeshi-kun…"

"Yuki…"

"I'm going to miss you," she breathed and crushed him in a hug that he knew would forever haunt him while she was away. "I'm going to Sophia University in Tokyo. I'll go around Okinawa to train, to Italy with Varia to assist and be an intern and go around as a writer low-key. Isn't it great?"

She smells nice.

"Yes."

She pulls away from him.

"I'll miss you more, Yuki."

A sakura falls.

"Why should you? I've been nothing –"

"No."

She frowns.

"Why –"

He held her face in his hands.

"I told you already, didn't I?" He shook his head in honest laughter.

"You love me."

"I already said that."

She sighs.

"Well? What do you want me to do now? Kiss you? Tell you how nice it is to be desired? Kiss you and let you take me to your house or some crappy love hotel and seduce me? Is that how you want?"

Humor in her words.

She wasn't drowned by the times that had fallen on her.

"It's a tempting prospect," he laughed.

Sleeping with her is unavoidable.

But it has to be pulled off in a respectable way.

"Then what?"

"I just want you. I want you to say my name and tell me what you want. I want you to reply to me. I've waited years for this."

"So did I."

She winks.

"But I can wait more. I can wait ten years to sleep with you. But first, we have to be married."

"You didn't answer me!"

She chuckles.

"We've reached so far!"

They all had.

They had grown up in a matter of time.

"Well?"

"I… I love you, Takeshi! I've been sure of it ever since!" Her confidence is amazing. "I love you! I'm willing to wait for you!"

She held out her hand.

"I want to see you as a friend… But I can't. I've decided to leave you as a possible future. As a friend. I want you to respect me and admire me. Love me for me. Love me purely."

He took her hand.

"Deal is made, Yuki. Do you really want to?"

"Ever since I gave my kiss to you, I want to hold hands with you. Living happily and peacefully's been my problem. I had a hard life. I got picked on. Alienated. Then you came along. Your smiles made me happy. I always wanted to run after you. I wanted you to see me. But I've tired of chasing after you…" The wind coils her hair across her face.

"I want to be with you hand-in-hand!"

"Then you got your wish, didn't you?"

But the deal…

Everything is sealed.

Time is no longer an object.

The red string of fate is intact.

The two held hands as they walked across the same road where years ago, a certain tomboy bumped roads with a baseball idiot.

Under the same sky.

Under the same hopes.

Under the same dreams.

Under the time that had let them form such bonds.

Look at her.

She's happy. She's gotten everything.

"All's right in the world," she whispered. And she closed her eyes.

Acknowledgements:

A big thank you to: everyone who's read and supported Last Cross. I've been doing the whole shebang for about two years. The road's not easy, when it came to this fic. I want to give all of you my love by presenting this small little baby. I appreciate everything you've given me.