the wind's hymn | paused

Chapter 16

"Reborn! You little shit!" Alec bursts through the door to the reception room, chest billowing for every breath he takes as he shifts his gaze away from Tsuna--why is he holding a slipper?--Gokudera, and Yamamoto to Kyoya.

"Long time no see," he chirps with a little wave when Kyoya lunges towards him.

In the corner of his sight, as he steps back behind the doorframe, he spots Reborn holding out a bomb and swiftly yanks it shut.

Alec sinks onto the floor, tucking his feet and covering his ears when a fierce blast shakes his bones.

"Ugh, I feel sick again," he groans, clamping his jaw between his knees..

You just finished eating. Wind points out, I told you not to go.

"Yeah, well--" the blond pulls away his hands to wrap them around his knees and swallows down the acidic fluid climbing up his throat, "--you know me."

—•—

"Headache again?" Akiyama-sensei asks, looking up from her sheets with a pen in her hand.

"Nauseous," Alec mumbles, making his way to the nearest unoccupied bed closest to the nearest window. "Almost vomited and the headache is killing me. I've drunk some cold water but the classroom's gonna stink and get stuffy since it's lunchtime."

"Ate something bad?" she furrows her brows in worry, lips pulling into a frown as she scribbles on paper.

"No," the blond hauls himself on, pushing the window open. The fresh air pushes his hair back slightly, clearing the haze in his head as he sits on the bed. "I finished eating when I heard Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto got into trouble with Kyoya. Ran to the reception room, there was an explosion. I shut the door but I feel sick."

"An explosion?" A disbelieving voice echoes, shifting Alec's attention to the person he saw on a bed on the other side: Kurokawa Hana.

"Yeah," the blond looks out the window, eyes fixed on the smoke puffing into the blue sky. "You see the smoke there? From the reception room's windows?" He stands up, pressing the tip of his pointed finger against the window. "It's from the explosion."

The girl cranes her neck from where she is, her arms wrapped around her abdomen, and her eyebrow raises at the sight.

"Why would there be an explosion?" Akiyama-sensei mutters. Alec looks at her to find she's looking from a different window and shrugs. "As if I know. I feel sorry for the classrooms nearby."

"Isn't the one to the left ours?" Hana turns to him, staring at the taller male.

"Why else do you think I'm here?" Alec lifts his chin, lips curving into a calculating smile.

Hana looks away from him in disgust. "Monkeys," she mumbles under breath.

"I'll be back soon," the nurse says, leaving the room.

"Is your stomach ache really painful?" Alec asks Hana, taking his water bottle out his bag to keep nearby.

"...Yeah." She answers, eyes darting to her bag.

The blond pauses rigidly.

Fuck. She's on her period. They don't know he's a widow who raised a daughter alone.

"I hope it gets better soon. My sister says apple juice helps a lot."

There. Now, why the fuck is Wind so silent?

Your panic is amusing.

Amusing your head.