"So, that's why you've been hiding here lately." Haru, actually, had serious eyes.

"I'm not hiding, it's a tactical retreat."

"Coward."

"Haru!" But it wasn't his monotone voice. It was his useless high pitched squeel.

"Sorry, sorry!" She couldn't help but to tease him a little. It was their way of showing friendship. He always snuck in some cheap shots too. Then she sighed. "But this does damper everything."

"Ara, how?" Tsuna was only seeing it from his own narrow view.

"The dynamics of everyone's relationship will shift. It won't be said out right, but it will happen, and all of us will feel it, little by little." She glanced down, in worried thought. "Think about this carefully Tsuna-san. What is Chrome to you?"

"What is Chrome to me?" Wasn't it supposed to be simple. 'Nagi is...' She was the one who always gave Boss was something in the hopelessness.

"And the same goes for Kyoko. You can't keep running circles around them, even if circles never end."

Tsuna had told Haru about the note Chrome gave him and the fact that Kyoko came to his house to talk. He didn't go into details, but she got the jist of it.

"But I still don't have an answer... N- I mean, Chrome," Haru ignored his slip up, "is the person who knows me best, I don't want to lose someone that close."

"So then what's wrong?"

Tsuna scratched his hair. "But I can't, Hibari is also..." He groaned in defeat. "Fuck me and fuck this."

Haru leaned back on her rolly chair. Her index finger to her cheek, staring at the ceiling. That cute, little, thinking process Tsuna didn't know he enjoyed. "You know, the school always thought you guys were the closest group. The roof always reserved, mostly because of Hibari-san, but it was still always you three. I never would of thought you guys actually had problems. It always looked so simple between all of you."

Tsuna rested one cheek on his hand. It looked simple because it actually was, until he ruined everything last summer. He glared at the empty chalk bored. The look in Hibari's eyes this morning is what killed him the most. "It's never gonna go back to how it was, huh?"

Haru kept her eyes up, trying to see past the ceiling, to the sky. "No, it won't Tsuna-san."

He dropped his arms, one over the other, on the desk, and buried his head in it. "Figured as much..."

"Sorry."

He shook his head, tilting it to her, his cheek on his forearms. "Don't be. At least you're not trying to comfort me with a lie." He ignored the sudden image of Kyoko-chan roaming on the white sheets they shared last night.

"I think the truth is a kindness people mistreat as weakness..." Haru stopped her sky gazing and looked back at him. Her eyes always had a twinkle when she smiled. "But you're not like that."

He was taken back. Wait, was Haru actually complementing him. "Um, thanks Haru, but I'm not-"

"You're welcome, Tsuna-san." She sincerely interrupted his own criticism.

Lunch.

Tsuna stared at the grey sky. A drop. A drip. "This is probably the last time I get to enjoy it with them." He wasn't even sure if Hibari would show up. "This is the first time I've made it up here before them, since the rain started."

Hibird began to sing the Namimori middle school anthem. It landed on his brown bushy gravity defying hair. It kept singing, both of them waiting for the other two.

The door creaked open. "Boss, you don't have an umbrella again..." Chrome frowned. She walked Yuni to school, and knew she had it instead, but maybe something happened. Yuni seemed upset at Boss, yet didn't tell Chrome anything.

He gave his awkward laugh. "Um no it's because-" He stopped himself with orbs. 'Because I shared one with Kyoko-chan the whole way...'

She rose an eyebrow and nodded for him to continue. She sat down in the middle of the bench, giving shelter to both Boss and Hibird at the end. "Because?"

"I forgot." He quickly brushed off. "Um Chrome, can we talk after school, here?" He rushed. If he didn't do this now he would never have the courage again.

She scrunched her nose like a cute bunny, slightly confused. "Sure Boss, but why all of a sudden?"

The door opened again. Boss tensed. Hibari was alone, without the vice-chairman, without an umbrella. Both him and Boss shared eye-contact. They both tried to smile at eachother. Both of them lying.

Chrome greeted him like usual, but with a slight nervousness. She disregarded her own question.

Tsuna sighed. For the first time, Hibird didn't leave Tsuna's mane to land on Hibari's raven nest.

And it kept singing the school anthem.

Chrome folded her umbrella. The rain was only a gentle drizzle now. Barely grazing them.

They sat. They repeated the motions. But it wasn't there. Tsuna leaned on the arm rest. Hibari was always proper and reserved. Chrome, she almost squirmed in place, but kept up appearances.

She was squeezing his hand, and he squeezed back, but neither of them admitted to it. It was an illusion after all...

It was quiet. It was silent, it didn't bring the comfort he always held on to. It brought the misery he carried everywhere else around. His narrow eyes tried to stare pass the horizon. No matter what, all he saw was a never ending grey in the abyss.

Tsuna kept staring at the sky. He was ignoring the window and students in his way.

"Sawada!" Lal-Mirch threw her infamous chalk-bullet.

He 'accidentally' dropped his head. "Ow." He mumbled with out pain, full of a nonchalant care. The chalk-bullet flew past his hair and smacked Gokudera-kun! Poof, instant knock out!

Lal-sensei's eyebrow twitched. 'Did Sawada just dodge it?'

And he kept staring out the window. Her shoulders loosed, seeing the deep thought in his eyes. She let it slide, this once. 'Has Haru actually got Sawada to open up more to others.' "I can't believe he's the first one to actually dodge that." She whispered to herself. She went back to writing on the chalk bored with a delighted grin.

Tsuna hesitated at the door knob. He gulped and opened it. It's now or never. There she was. She innocently sat on the bench, drawing on her sketchpad. The rain had dispersed, leaving the grey sky to solitude. Noticing him, she tilted her head to him, in that special way, she only does towards Boss. That small eloquent smile she always reserved for the quiet moments between them.

"Hey Chrome." He smiled back in his own way. Instantly dropping his headphones, and giving her his full attention. Nobody noticed it between them. Except them.

Neither of them wanted to give that up.

"Hello Boss."

He didn't sit down. Her eye landed on his arm. He was rubbing his elbow. He did that whenever he was nervous. "I, um..." This was a lot harder than he imagined. He sighed, caving in. He took his usual spot next to her. She kept staring at him.

Was Boss going to give her an answer? She almost scratched nails against the sketchpad. Maybe she wasn't ready for this. To call Boss Tsuna openly was a struggle enough. "I-It's ok... you don't have to." She lowered her eye to shield herself away. Tsuna almost felt relief. He didn't because of the weakness in her eye.

They would both keep acting like this because neither of them wanted to break away from the secret that they kept together for so long. Quiet nights they shared affection, snuggled on her bed, staring out the window together. Whispers of love and sighs of compassion. Lonely words spoken, carrying paragraphs of emotion.

Tsuna clenched his fist shut. 'Haru was right, I can't keep doing this to Chrome or me. I can't back out now. Don't be useless for once.'

"Chrome, I wanted to talk about the note you left on my desk."

She took a deep breath. "You do?" Her voice didn't quiver, and her composure never changed. If Boss was ready, then so was she. She was sure of it...

"Um, yea."

Even if...

"Boss do you like my drawing?" The grey abyss of the sky.

"Huh, sure Chrome it's good, but I-"

"Do you think it's a good concept for the set?"

"Chrome."

"I'm not sure it's quite right."

"Chrome."

"It won't illuminate someone like Kyoko or Haru on stage." It's perfect for me though, ne Boss.

"Chrome."

"Ah, but I won't be on stage, sorry Boss. I-I'll scrap it."

His grip let go of itself. "Stop it Nagi." He whispered.

She finally faced him, staring up into his brown eyes. Her voiced cracked a weaker, honest, pitch. "Boss." He lowered his forehead and pressed it against hers. "Was any of it real?"

He nodded against her forehead. His voice just as broken. "All of it."

"Then what are we?"

"I don't know anymore."

She sniffled. "Neither do I."

Only the gentle breeze. They remained locked in their embrace for a moment before they stepped back into life.

They both broke the physical contact and stared into eachother's eyes. "Why Boss?" She already knew.

"Chrome, please." Because he didn't know.

"Why Boss."

"Chrome-"

"Why Boss."

"Nagi..."

She buried her head on his chest. "You promised didn't you!... You promised you wouldn't blame me." The fragile voice of a broken glass, sheltered by the shattered sky.

His voice croaked. "So did you."

But here they both were. Socially detached from everyone and emotionally destroyed because of the other.

Her fingers clutched over the fabric of his uniform. "...But why..."

"We're both so broken... We can't keep doing this..." He whispered over the pineapple spikes tickling his chin.

She nodded against his chest. She knew it was the truth, "but why..." She kept repeating. Boss was Boss, couldn't he understand that.

He didn't understand. He didn't understand, because he was Boss.

She rose her head away from his chest. She lingered up to his lips. He was enchanted by the way her face was glowing with the atmosphere. He unintentionally gulped and parted his lips.

"Tsu-na-yo-shi." A hauntingly beautiful lullaby she only shared with him.

"Chrome stop..." It was weak with a lack of effort to shine. She pressed her lips to his one more time.

He didn't fight it. The desperate attempts against his affection. Moving up and down, begging for a reaction from him.

For a moment, he kissed back. It was a hesitated will of his love, and she accepted as much as she could. She wanted, needed, more. Boss was Boss...

She pushed him against the arm rest, climbing his body, never breaking the kiss.

He did. He broke the kiss.

"No." She whispered. "Not yet."

She didn't want to admit it.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him again. She felt his lips unmoving. She forcibly moved them for him. She couldn't admit it. She was losing Boss.

Boss was Boss...

He broke it again, and again.

Again.

Her eye opened for a blink. She ignored the guilt in his eyes. She reached for his lips, but only found his cheek.

"Chrome I can't keep doing this to you." He wasn't able to make eye contact, he could only stare off.

"Yes you can Boss, we can both-"

"Keep using eachother? Like Mukuro." It was harsh. It was quiet. It was the truth. He closed his eyes. He knew that was the trigger to end it. He didn't want to pull it, but he did...

He body froze like the vessel Mukuro turned her into.

Her eye was hollow throughout the ordeal.

She didn't reply. He felt the clog in his throat. She placed her sketchpad into her school bag. She rose from the bench.

'It's better this way.' That's what Boss had to tell himself.

She took a few steps, her boot landed on a puddle. She turned on her heel. He forced his eyes up to glance at her. It broke his heart, becuase she was smiling through the tears.

"Sorry." It was a lie hidden by the mist. "For everything. And thank you for everything."

She began to take her leave.

"Hey Chrome!" Tsuna abruptly stood up. She paused to hear him out.

He bit his lip. "Um, am I," He didn't know why, but out of all the questions running through his mind, he needed to know this one. "Am I still Boss?" But he didn't know if he wanted a yes or a no...

She turned her head, slightly to him her bangs shadowed her eye. She didn't answer, faced foward, and kept walking.

That empty echo from the doorknob opening, and closing pierced his ears.

She walked down the stairs. He slumped against the door, not wanting to open it. She gazed out the windows throughout the hall. He rubbed his face in defeated stress. Her mist flames hid the liquid bubbling around her eye every time she blinked. He stared back at the sky. She wiped her eye with a damp sleeve.

"The sky is finally clear." He mumbled, annoyed of the irony the weather always played on him. The sun began to soak up the puddles around him. 'If the rain is gone, then why do I still feel the downpour...'

Boss stayed on the roof top. The night sky of constellations. His eyes scrolled up and down at the last conversation he had with Nagi on his phone. He shut it off, but the memory played. And it kept repeating.

He never would forget that night. His throat was dry, but eyes were wet. "She actually called me Tsunayoshi..."

On the phone next to him, the screen read:

U'll be here today right?

Yea, on my way.

Boss/Nagi,

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, because you always tried to fix me, but I... I only ended up breaking you.