[fic] Tomorrow, In A Year - Chapter Three [KHR]
Title: Tomorrow, In A Year
Author mercymelucretia
Rating: PG13
Characters: Sawada Tsunayoshi and the rest of the bunch
Genre: Drama, Humour
Warnings: AU, TYL
Summary: In a world where he has never met Reborn, Sawada Tsunayoshi lives a perfectly normal life. But he has no idea about the people he is about to meet...
Chapter Three: Both Of You Argue Like You Want To Win
Gokudera Hayato was not an easy person, he never was. Maybe when he was very little, three or four years old perhaps, he was some kind of agreeable human being but if so, he couldn't remember any of it. And he concluded that it was definitely better that way.
Life in Japan was almost the same as in Italy. At least it was the same for Gokudera. It didn't matter to him which country he lived in, he was miserable anyway. And no, he didn't need help, thank you very much.
Unfortunately, his sister thought otherwise. His half-sister, to be specific. Mysteriously, she did not want to leave him alone and this was something he, despite his genius, could not understand. If he were in her shoes, he would not bother with her and everything would be fine.
In the end he thought that this was just his luck. Or maybe aliens or a government conspiracy. All these possibilities were, according to him, very much possible.
He didn't know why he even came here.
But he suspected that this also didn't matter at this point anymore.
Sadly he wasn't alone in this godforsaken place. He was surrounded by inconsequential people who were not important enough to be noticed by him. He was not arrogant or stuck-up, no (deep down he sometimes hated himself), but no one here was worth his precious time.
The place itself reflected the people who were there at the moment quite good. Poor, seemingly soulless, creatures were assembled at this very place. Naturally, this "assembly" had a purpose although nobody in there knew any of the other human beings in the room. But this fact didn't matter at all. Everyone knew exactly why they were there.
All of the sad excuses for proper individuals gathered there had only one goal in mind. One precious goal which they wanted to reach so desperately. All of their dreams were just one step away from being fulfilled if there was not one big obstacle.
"Che, how long does a man has to wait before he finally gets served?" asked Gokudera to no one in particular.
The place he went to? A ramen shop. Duh.
Meanwhile, two men walked the streets of Namimori.
To be exact, those two walked the whole day aimlessly through the small town. Luckily to them, not a soul seemed to take particular notice of the two foreigners (as lot foreigners appeared to inhabit Namimori those days).
Of course running around all day eventually left these guys hungry and it took no time for them to come to the conclusion to look for a place where one could get an affordable meal. As they began their search, another equally strange duo caught their attention (but not in a good way). The other duo consisted of two awkward men behaving rather... weird. One of them, a redhead, held a bottle of liquor while singing quite annoying songs about drinking while the other one, well… words failed to describe it. Besides screaming profanities at passers-by, he held a banana and a pear in his hands while doing an improvised speech in the middle of the road.
After being in a transfixed state for about five minutes because of these weird drunken men, the two men decided to finally to stop staring like idiots and move on to their destination. Said destination was actually right in front of them: a small nondescript restaurant. At least this was better than having to look at these drunken morons.
Eventually, someone served Gokudera Hayato. But of course this didn't happen without various threats on Gokudera's side. He really did scare the young girl who was the one with the painful job of serving him. Seriously, Gokudera Hayato was a very fearsome customer, especially when he got ignored.
Just as he was about to at last eat his ramen, some bastards made him burn his tongue as they stepped into the store. In his mind, Gokudera wanted to strangle them already and rip their throats out. Apparently the anger management that sister had forced him to do was ultimately a failure.
Just as it couldn't get any much worse, the intruders decided to sit next to him. Sometimes, he thought, all shitty things seemed to happen only to him. So, the rest of the night was ruined. But fortunately Gokudera could stand long intervals of silence and because he did not, under any circumstances, engaged in conversations with strangers on his own (or virtually anyone for that matter). And of course these two people, which seemed European to Gokudera, wouldn't, completely out of the blue, start talking to him. After some thinking he came to the conclusion that these strangers obviously had no idea about the customs here and what was considered rude. Not that he cared anyway. Probably they weren't able to speak Japanese anyway so he could care less about them.
But that was after they began talking to each other in Italian.
And now Gokudera had to endure sitting through a conversation which he didn't want to be a part of until he was finished with his meal. Damn his sister for insisting that she does all the cooking with any exception. All efforts were in vain to try and convince her that she was in no way possible a good cook (maybe in a parallel universe where the people have no sense of taste).
As usual, thing got worse, much worse. Those strangers actually started to talk to him. In Italian. What a incredible night for Gokudera Hayato. Again.
But these imbeciles did not know Gokudera. He would not engage in useless talk, no way. Besides, he could always pretend to not understand Italian. At times Gokudera wondered how stupid people could be and yes, it appeared that stupidity seemed to know no bounds.
"Sorry, I don't know any Italian," Said Gokudera after he decided to try and be polite in his best English.
"Then why do know that we spoke in Italian?" Said one of them with a goofy smile on his face.
Gokudera was speechless for minute. Although he was a self-proclaimed genius the argument of that man was tough to counter, even for him. He had to think and very fast for that matter. And on top of all, not lose his composure in front of these strangers. Who knew what they might be up to.
"I don't talk to strangers. It's as simple as that."
"Ah, that's why you had that permanent scowl on your face. Come on, try to cheer up a bit. Talking to strangers is fun, I do it all the time." Said the other man whose hair resembled a mop for reasons unknown.
"Geez, just leave me alone before I get angry."
"So, are you Italian or not? I mean, I'm just curious, that's all."
"I said, leave me alone, dammit. I don't need to make conversation, thank you very much."
"Well, then you can't be Japanese. I heard that Japanese people are always so polite and all. And you're behaving like the complete opposite right now. Am I right with my theory?"
"Che, that doesn't even make sense. You should better think before you open your mouth. By the way, how old are you even? Brats like you should be asleep by now."
"Ha, you started talking, that's great. Before you ask, we're here on a very confidential mission, so we won't tell you anything. But of course that doesn't mean that we can't befriend locals while we're at it, right? And yeah, I haven't slept for almost two days now."
All that Gokudera could think of was that these strangers were extremely weird. The one who initiated the conversation in the first place had failed to contribute anything else yet but had obviously a hard time suppressing his laugh. It almost made him boil with rage but he did not wanted to stoop so low. He wasn't a teenager who could be easily provoked.
"Yeah, right. You're on a very special mission. Escaped from the mental asylum or what? Listen, I don't care what you do or don't do. Leave me in peace and everything will be alright."
"Hm, you don't seem to have many friends, now do you? I mean, I get angry and stuff and it can get very scary but I bet that you're secretly very lonely. You know, I can see things like that immediately. Anyway, what's your name? I'd like to know the names of the people I talk to."
The only thing that could be seen as positive was that these two, especially that young mop-haired guy, were too stupid to be dangerous. But the big problem was how Gokudera could get rid of them as fast as possible. Because even a highly intelligent person as Gokudera got tired of being logical, he concluded that it was the best to threw his common sense to the ground and beat those morons with their own tactic.
Sadly, Gokudera had no idea how to be that on purpose. So he became aggressive instead. What a genius indeed.
"If you don't stop talking this crap, I will beat you into a pulp, do you understand? Seriously, do you even listen to yourself when you talk? In have no idea why I even bother with you. You, mister, should be glad that I even look at you. Hey, are you even listening to me?"
"Sorry, did you just say something? I way away for a moment... Your name is Gokudera, is that right?
"How do you know that, you stupid brat?" Gokudera's mind was surely playing tricks on him right now. This was the only explanation.
"Oh, it's just on these papers in front of you. Also, don't you miss something?"
"I don't miss anything, you insolent brat... Wait, there's my food?
Now that was it. First, he gets annoyed by complete strangers and then his food gets stolen. It was finally time for some revenge. Gokudera-style.
Needless to said, for all the other customers and the owner of the ramen shop it was a very unusual sight. It's not like every day they got to see people yelling at each other like crazy and that in a foreign language. It almost seemed that these men wanted to kill each other. People going completely crazy were no tha unusual in Namimori (in fact, it did happen almost daily) but still, people fighting with such ferocity was quite a thing. Just like a car crash or something similar where you can't resist the urge to look although you know you shouldn't.
"Do you think we should stop them, Fon? I think it's not healthy if an argument looks like a violent competition."
"Let them be. You see, they're leaving the restaurant at the moment."
And indeed they were. While still screaming and without them noticing. Until the dark-haired one shouted that they were coming back tomorrow.
"I think I'm scared now."
Outside the ramen shop the argument continued. Even louder if that was even possible. So long that no one knew why that argument even started in the first place. It could have continued for hours...
If it weren't for for a weird guy who had the nerve to interrupt them to start preaching about the urgency the free the fruit of Namimori from slavery.
Dumbfounded by that, both Gokudera and the guy who still hadn't introduced himself stopped arguing right away. The situation just became too ridiculous to not laugh about it.
The preachy fruit guy was found a minute later by his worried friend who tried to get him back to his senses but no to avail.
Meanwhile, Gokudera was apparently so much out of his mind that he arranged a meeting with those guys on the following day for a rematch. It had to be mentioned that Gokudera hated to lose (although no winner came out of this so-called match).
"So that means that we're friends, right?"
"Friends? Never, you stupid dumb brat."
In retrospect, this day was quite normal compared to what would follow.
Author mercymelucretia
Rating: PG13
Characters: Sawada Tsunayoshi and the rest of the bunch
Genre: Drama, Humour
Warnings: AU, TYL
Summary: In a world where he has never met Reborn, Sawada Tsunayoshi lives a perfectly normal life. But he has no idea about the people he is about to meet...
Chapter Three: Both Of You Argue Like You Want To Win
Gokudera Hayato was not an easy person, he never was. Maybe when he was very little, three or four years old perhaps, he was some kind of agreeable human being but if so, he couldn't remember any of it. And he concluded that it was definitely better that way.
Life in Japan was almost the same as in Italy. At least it was the same for Gokudera. It didn't matter to him which country he lived in, he was miserable anyway. And no, he didn't need help, thank you very much.
Unfortunately, his sister thought otherwise. His half-sister, to be specific. Mysteriously, she did not want to leave him alone and this was something he, despite his genius, could not understand. If he were in her shoes, he would not bother with her and everything would be fine.
In the end he thought that this was just his luck. Or maybe aliens or a government conspiracy. All these possibilities were, according to him, very much possible.
He didn't know why he even came here.
But he suspected that this also didn't matter at this point anymore.
Sadly he wasn't alone in this godforsaken place. He was surrounded by inconsequential people who were not important enough to be noticed by him. He was not arrogant or stuck-up, no (deep down he sometimes hated himself), but no one here was worth his precious time.
The place itself reflected the people who were there at the moment quite good. Poor, seemingly soulless, creatures were assembled at this very place. Naturally, this "assembly" had a purpose although nobody in there knew any of the other human beings in the room. But this fact didn't matter at all. Everyone knew exactly why they were there.
All of the sad excuses for proper individuals gathered there had only one goal in mind. One precious goal which they wanted to reach so desperately. All of their dreams were just one step away from being fulfilled if there was not one big obstacle.
"Che, how long does a man has to wait before he finally gets served?" asked Gokudera to no one in particular.
The place he went to? A ramen shop. Duh.
Meanwhile, two men walked the streets of Namimori.
To be exact, those two walked the whole day aimlessly through the small town. Luckily to them, not a soul seemed to take particular notice of the two foreigners (as lot foreigners appeared to inhabit Namimori those days).
Of course running around all day eventually left these guys hungry and it took no time for them to come to the conclusion to look for a place where one could get an affordable meal. As they began their search, another equally strange duo caught their attention (but not in a good way). The other duo consisted of two awkward men behaving rather... weird. One of them, a redhead, held a bottle of liquor while singing quite annoying songs about drinking while the other one, well… words failed to describe it. Besides screaming profanities at passers-by, he held a banana and a pear in his hands while doing an improvised speech in the middle of the road.
After being in a transfixed state for about five minutes because of these weird drunken men, the two men decided to finally to stop staring like idiots and move on to their destination. Said destination was actually right in front of them: a small nondescript restaurant. At least this was better than having to look at these drunken morons.
Eventually, someone served Gokudera Hayato. But of course this didn't happen without various threats on Gokudera's side. He really did scare the young girl who was the one with the painful job of serving him. Seriously, Gokudera Hayato was a very fearsome customer, especially when he got ignored.
Just as he was about to at last eat his ramen, some bastards made him burn his tongue as they stepped into the store. In his mind, Gokudera wanted to strangle them already and rip their throats out. Apparently the anger management that sister had forced him to do was ultimately a failure.
Just as it couldn't get any much worse, the intruders decided to sit next to him. Sometimes, he thought, all shitty things seemed to happen only to him. So, the rest of the night was ruined. But fortunately Gokudera could stand long intervals of silence and because he did not, under any circumstances, engaged in conversations with strangers on his own (or virtually anyone for that matter). And of course these two people, which seemed European to Gokudera, wouldn't, completely out of the blue, start talking to him. After some thinking he came to the conclusion that these strangers obviously had no idea about the customs here and what was considered rude. Not that he cared anyway. Probably they weren't able to speak Japanese anyway so he could care less about them.
But that was after they began talking to each other in Italian.
And now Gokudera had to endure sitting through a conversation which he didn't want to be a part of until he was finished with his meal. Damn his sister for insisting that she does all the cooking with any exception. All efforts were in vain to try and convince her that she was in no way possible a good cook (maybe in a parallel universe where the people have no sense of taste).
As usual, thing got worse, much worse. Those strangers actually started to talk to him. In Italian. What a incredible night for Gokudera Hayato. Again.
But these imbeciles did not know Gokudera. He would not engage in useless talk, no way. Besides, he could always pretend to not understand Italian. At times Gokudera wondered how stupid people could be and yes, it appeared that stupidity seemed to know no bounds.
"Sorry, I don't know any Italian," Said Gokudera after he decided to try and be polite in his best English.
"Then why do know that we spoke in Italian?" Said one of them with a goofy smile on his face.
Gokudera was speechless for minute. Although he was a self-proclaimed genius the argument of that man was tough to counter, even for him. He had to think and very fast for that matter. And on top of all, not lose his composure in front of these strangers. Who knew what they might be up to.
"I don't talk to strangers. It's as simple as that."
"Ah, that's why you had that permanent scowl on your face. Come on, try to cheer up a bit. Talking to strangers is fun, I do it all the time." Said the other man whose hair resembled a mop for reasons unknown.
"Geez, just leave me alone before I get angry."
"So, are you Italian or not? I mean, I'm just curious, that's all."
"I said, leave me alone, dammit. I don't need to make conversation, thank you very much."
"Well, then you can't be Japanese. I heard that Japanese people are always so polite and all. And you're behaving like the complete opposite right now. Am I right with my theory?"
"Che, that doesn't even make sense. You should better think before you open your mouth. By the way, how old are you even? Brats like you should be asleep by now."
"Ha, you started talking, that's great. Before you ask, we're here on a very confidential mission, so we won't tell you anything. But of course that doesn't mean that we can't befriend locals while we're at it, right? And yeah, I haven't slept for almost two days now."
All that Gokudera could think of was that these strangers were extremely weird. The one who initiated the conversation in the first place had failed to contribute anything else yet but had obviously a hard time suppressing his laugh. It almost made him boil with rage but he did not wanted to stoop so low. He wasn't a teenager who could be easily provoked.
"Yeah, right. You're on a very special mission. Escaped from the mental asylum or what? Listen, I don't care what you do or don't do. Leave me in peace and everything will be alright."
"Hm, you don't seem to have many friends, now do you? I mean, I get angry and stuff and it can get very scary but I bet that you're secretly very lonely. You know, I can see things like that immediately. Anyway, what's your name? I'd like to know the names of the people I talk to."
The only thing that could be seen as positive was that these two, especially that young mop-haired guy, were too stupid to be dangerous. But the big problem was how Gokudera could get rid of them as fast as possible. Because even a highly intelligent person as Gokudera got tired of being logical, he concluded that it was the best to threw his common sense to the ground and beat those morons with their own tactic.
Sadly, Gokudera had no idea how to be that on purpose. So he became aggressive instead. What a genius indeed.
"If you don't stop talking this crap, I will beat you into a pulp, do you understand? Seriously, do you even listen to yourself when you talk? In have no idea why I even bother with you. You, mister, should be glad that I even look at you. Hey, are you even listening to me?"
"Sorry, did you just say something? I way away for a moment... Your name is Gokudera, is that right?
"How do you know that, you stupid brat?" Gokudera's mind was surely playing tricks on him right now. This was the only explanation.
"Oh, it's just on these papers in front of you. Also, don't you miss something?"
"I don't miss anything, you insolent brat... Wait, there's my food?
Now that was it. First, he gets annoyed by complete strangers and then his food gets stolen. It was finally time for some revenge. Gokudera-style.
Needless to said, for all the other customers and the owner of the ramen shop it was a very unusual sight. It's not like every day they got to see people yelling at each other like crazy and that in a foreign language. It almost seemed that these men wanted to kill each other. People going completely crazy were no tha unusual in Namimori (in fact, it did happen almost daily) but still, people fighting with such ferocity was quite a thing. Just like a car crash or something similar where you can't resist the urge to look although you know you shouldn't.
"Do you think we should stop them, Fon? I think it's not healthy if an argument looks like a violent competition."
"Let them be. You see, they're leaving the restaurant at the moment."
And indeed they were. While still screaming and without them noticing. Until the dark-haired one shouted that they were coming back tomorrow.
"I think I'm scared now."
Outside the ramen shop the argument continued. Even louder if that was even possible. So long that no one knew why that argument even started in the first place. It could have continued for hours...
If it weren't for for a weird guy who had the nerve to interrupt them to start preaching about the urgency the free the fruit of Namimori from slavery.
Dumbfounded by that, both Gokudera and the guy who still hadn't introduced himself stopped arguing right away. The situation just became too ridiculous to not laugh about it.
The preachy fruit guy was found a minute later by his worried friend who tried to get him back to his senses but no to avail.
Meanwhile, Gokudera was apparently so much out of his mind that he arranged a meeting with those guys on the following day for a rematch. It had to be mentioned that Gokudera hated to lose (although no winner came out of this so-called match).
"So that means that we're friends, right?"
"Friends? Never, you stupid dumb brat."
In retrospect, this day was quite normal compared to what would follow.