Namimori School Play

He lay in bed, wide-awake with a smile spread across his face. She sat beside him, face shrouded in black. ‘Hush. Go to sleep Hayato.’ Her voice was gentle and beautiful as always, with that same haunting sadness that echoed through your whole body. ‘I’m not tired.’ His voice was slightly older, but not by much. ‘Would you like me to play a song for you?’ He nodded and watched her sit down in front of a piano at the foot of his bed. ‘Any requests?’ ‘Play the song you wrote for me.’ The song she played wasn’t his. He remembered his was meant to show her feelings for him. It was meant to show him how he made her happy. It was meant to be joyous and otherworldly and the notes were meant to flow like the water in a gentle stream. She composed a tragedy. The notes that were meant to dance gracefully could drive others crazy with their uncoordinated ballet of self-loathing. Suddenly there was a loud bang and she fell to her side. Her delicate body lay on the hard floor as motionless as the ghostly tune she played. Her blood spilled from the gaping hole in her head. It snaked through intricate patterns, crawled down from the walls, and stained everything in a film of red. ‘Ma…ma?’ She was smiling.

He sat up gasping for air. His messy, disarray of silver hair clung to his face with sweat.

“Dream…the same…dream. Just a dream…” He reassured himself as he brushed the hair out of his face. Gokudera glanced at his clock.

4:17 AM.

She died on April 17th. Was there a connection, or was it just coincidence? Assuming coincidence was probably best for now.

It was much too early to be awake, but getting back to sleep was easier said than done. He made his way into the living room where a piano rested right in the center.

It was the same one in his dream, an old white grand piano. The paint scraped off in some places and the ivory keys tinted yellow from the sun. There were stains of red scattered across the front of the piano and on the seat from that night.

It hadn’t been touched since that night either. If Gokudera ever wanted to play, he would find another piano.

“It couldn’t hurt to play it, right?” He asked himself as he sat down on the seat and let the tips of his fingers touch the fragile keys. ‘It’s too stuffy,’ he thought, standing up from the wooden seat. ‘I’ll open the windows before I start playing.’

He played a song he was sure he’d forgotten. A song he didn’t really want to remember. The sun was up now and Gokudera stopped playing.

“That was nice. Is it unfinished?” He was startled by the voice coming from a window behind him. He turned around to throw something at the observer.

He didn’t mind being watched, in fact back in Italy he had several concerts he held for his father’s various parties. Having several hundred eyes on him all at once was nothing new to him, but the song he played wasn’t meant to be heard by anyone.

We he realized the lack of anything around him to be able to throw he growled at the smiling boy in his window.

“What the hell are you doing here, baseball-idiot?”

“I was just doing my morning run and I heard a piano playing. When I started following the music I ended up here. Are you ever going to finish it?”

“…It is finished.”

“Eh, but it ended so abruptly.”

“Proprio come la sua vita.” The silver haired boy looked down at the bloodstains.

“What?”

He looked back up at Yamamoto, contemplating on whether or not he should translate. “It’s none of your damn business.” He decided and walked out of the other boy’s sight.

xXx

“Gokudera-kun, are you feeling ok? You look really tired.” Tsuna asked when his friends greeted him at his front door. Yamamoto was smiling like always, but Gokudera just looked kind of out of it.

“I had a bad dream so I couldn’t sleep very well. There’s nothing to worry about, Juudaime, I’ll be fine.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than his beloved boss.

xXx

Gokudera was swarmed by girls complimenting him on his piano skills and asking if he could play a song for them.

“Hey, baseball-idiot. Why do so many people know about this morning?”

“What, you didn’t notice? I wasn’t the only one there.”

“No I didn’t. But why were they there to begin with?”

“Well you were playing so early in the morning so it probably carried around easier. Plus you had the windows open.”

“Shit. Now every one knows where I live…” He rested his head on the desk in front of him. He really needed sleep and all the girls were preventing him from getting rest. As slow as it was, tuning them out seemed to do the trick.

“Did you see the bloodstains on the piano?” He managed to tune out all the annoying ones, but he still overheard 2 girls behind him.

“Yeah, that was kind of scary, wasn’t it?

“Maybe something happened to him while he was in Italy.”

“You mean did he, like, kill someone? No way.”

“I didn’t kill her…” Gokudera mumbled. The girls went silent and just stared at him. “It wasn’t…my fault…” He wasn’t talking to the girls behind him, just reassuring himself.

“Wait, so like, someone did die?”

“Hey, hey. Who died?”

“Shut up.” He mumbled again.

“Was she your first love?”

“That’s none of your fucking business!” Gokudera stood up making his chair fall back. Now the whole class stayed quiet. “Maledizione.” He walked out the door and Tsuna and Yamamoto followed.

“Go…Gokudera-kun…wait up!” Tsuna gasped for air. Somewhere along the way Gokudera started running, Yamamoto was keeping up just fine, but Tsuna tripped a few times and his lungs felt like they were going to cave in.

They were behind the school building now and ran about half way.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.” Gokudera was a bit out of breath, too. As a smoker, running wasn’t exactly the best thing to do.

“Quit crowding Herbivores. Class is starting.”

“Hi..Hibari-san?!”

“Hmm? Sawada Tsunayoshi. You’ve been skipping school a lot lately and now you’re cutting class? Looks like you need some disciplining.” Hibari took out his tonfa and crouched into a ready position.

“If you lay a hand on Juudaime, I’ll blow you to pieces!” Gokudera’s mood made a quick transition as soon as he noticed Tsuna being threatened. He pulled out several stick of dynamite and was about to throw them at the president of the school’s disciplinary comity before he’d even moved. Before he could light the fuses Yamamoto grabbed him.

“Calm down Gokudera. He hasn’t-“

“KYAAA! WE FOUND OUR PRINCESS!” The shrieking of girls’ voices came from seemingly all around.

“P…Princess?” Gokudera stammered.

“Looks like this will have to wait until later.” Hibari relaxed his stance and walked away. Tsuna fell back onto his butt and sighed. He was relieved that he didn’t have to worry about getting a bloody nose.

“Hey, Gokudera. You heard a bunch of girls screaming ‘princess’ too, right?” Yamamoto asked, still holding onto Gokudera.

Suddenly, a horde of girls appeared from every direction.

“It’s the girls in charge of the play.” Yamamoto smiled. “So who’s the princess?”

“The perfect princess is…” they said simultaneously. “Gokudera Hayato!”