Story Title: Throwing Salt
Rated: PG for minor violence
Status: Complete || 600+
Summary: [Ryouhei/Tsuna] It wasn't sumo. Pre-slash.
Steve's Notes: Written for the LiveJournal community scrawl_calibur. The prompt was feel.
Disclaimer: Katekyou Hitman Reborn! © Amano Akira

Tsuna begins with, "It wasn't sumo."

.

Ryouhei had asked him not to tell Kyouko.

"She worries," Ryouhei explained, his wrapped palms skyward and vulnerable. "She—I can't do that to her."

Once, Reborn had shot Ryouhei with a Dying Will Bullet and it had done nothing, because Ryouhei already lived as though he were going to die, as though he regretted every moment he did not live to the fullest. Once, Ryouhei had stood up and been beaten down and had a rock cracked over his temple, left with only a nasty scar as testimony to his bravery. He was headstrong and impatient; he rushed blindly into situations and saw disadvantage as an opportunity to become stronger. Tsuna thought he understood.

"I won't tell her," Tsuna promised.

.

He never had any intention of telling Kyouko the truth. The excuse he gave—the excuse he believed—was the want to protect her. It was never as simple as that, nor was it as simple as Reborn stating, "You're selfish."

Much of what Reborn said was efficient and cut to the quick. Those two words went through Tsuna like a hunk of lead through flesh and muscle and bone; it hurt because it was real and clarity sank like tar in his lungs. Yes, he wanted to protect Kyouko from the brutality of the mafia underworld, but only because that meant when he was with her, he could pretend it didn't exist at all.

.

"Sawada!" Ryouhei snarls. His rough voice smashes against the metal walls seconds before Ryouhei's fist smashes into his cheek, sharp and visceral.

It hurts. It hurts more than the nip of steel tonfa, it hurts more than a bullet to the brain, it hurts more than illusions or box weapons or machines. In the background, he hears Gokudera start to shout obscenities and peripherally sees Yamamoto move to hold him back. Yet all he can focus on is the fast pain and the slow throb, how his body stings from where it cracked against the floor.

It hurts and he concentrates on that hurt, because Tsuna knows he deserves it as much as he doesn't.

.

Tsuna tries to be a good person.

He tries to keep Ryouhei's promise by lying. He tries to keep Kyouko safe by preserving her ignorance. He tries, but his good intentions are tainted by chauvinism and the desire for normalcy. He tries, but the truth won't break Kyouko and it won't break him.

He tries and he tries; yet sometimes being a good person means doing the right thing, even when he's absolutely terrified.

.

Ryouhei punches hard enough to dislocate jaws, shatter bones, break concrete. He knocks Tsuna off his feet but Tsuna's only injury is a cut on the inside of his cheek, from his own teeth; blood bursts metallic across his tongue. It's a grounding, reassuring taste.

Tsuna takes a moment to lay back and stare at the fluorescents overhead, bright and artificial, before he musters the strength to sit. He's greeted by the sight of Ryouhei's honest fist uncurling into a helping hand. The palm is wrapped, skyward, and vulnerable. It's an apology Ryouhei wouldn't know how to make any other way, an understanding no words could express. Tsuna accepts it without thought.

Then, as Tsuna slips his fingers into the rough warmth of Ryouhei's strong and steady hand, Ryouhei asserts, "You're a good man, Sawada."

.

In an unfinished future, Tsuna sits down in an unfinished base and tells an unfinished story. It involves a boy, a girl, and an older brother. It isn't about sumo.

But, in a way, it is.

end.