-|Diner|- [Gokudera Hayato]

He rubbed his hands together from the chilly mid-winter air as he walked down the just shoveled sidewalk, going no where in particular. He looked up at the gray sky, snow threatening to fall as his cigarette hung loosely from his lips. Obviously the person who had to shovel again is going to be pissed, but hey, that's life. Passing by a store that had a pair rather well dressed mannequins, he stopped at the end of the street, for a bright neon sign caught his attention.

"Diner. . .?" he mumbled looking inside the large window. It was one of those old fashioned ones you saw in those movies that took place in the 90's.

The black and white tiled floors shone as a waitress poured another cup of coffee to a customer's mug with a smile. Taking a better look from the outside, he noted that there weren't many people inside, so what the heck right? Maybe he could recommend it to the Tenth! With a grin he snubbed out his cancer stick and entered, glad to feel the sweetly heated air warm up his cold body.

"Welcome!" The same elderly waitress said as he sat down in a booth near the window, the red leather covering squeaking as he slid in. "Here's today's special, just give me a holler if you need anything." He nodded and looked over the menu, as he decided on what he was going to eat for the night, the door opened and a short gust of wind blew past him. Annoyed, he looked to see who was the person to ruin his tranquil moment to see it was a girl with a dark brown hair that just brushed her shoulders, her bangs brushed to the side with a blue butterfly clip and deep chocolate colored eyes that peered around for a place to sit, then landed on him. She frowned and walked passed him, sitting in the booth behind him with a huff.

"Che. What the hell is her problem?" he muttered, turning back to the menu.

"You took my usual booth, that's what." She responded rather rudely.

"What was that?!" he said turning around, only to be a mere inches from her face. He backed away with a slight blush on his face.

"I said you took my usual spot, even the same side too!" she said as the waitress came over with a smile.

"Oh hello Takako-chan, how are you?" Takako smiled in return,

"Hello Masami-san! Fine, how about you?"

"These old bones are giving me some trouble, but otherwise I'm right as rain. How's your sister holding up?"

"She's getting better! Thank you for that recommendation to Akio-san, he's really a much better doctor than the one we had before." Masami's smile grew at this,

"He's the best around for someone so young. So what seems to be the trouble here?" Takako frowned and turned to face the silver-haired bomber.

"He stole my seat." She spat, glaring at him.

"I don't see your name on it!" he said itching to grab his dynamite.

"It's still my usual seat!"

"How the hell was I suppost to know?!" Masami clapped her hands loudly, halting their bickering.

"I have a suggestion, why don't you sit with him, Takako-chan?"

"Do I have too?" she whined.

"If you don't want to then you can just leave him alone. This young man has a right to sit here if he wants to. If you had gotten here earlier, maybe you would be the one sitting here." Takako pouted, not saying anything in return for two reasons, one: Masami-san scared her. She may look like a sweet kind old lady, but if you push her button's just right, she's down right vicious. And two: . . .she had a point.

"Sorry Masami-san. . ." She grumbled.

"I don't think it's me you should be apologizing to." Takako glanced at Gokudera.

". . .Sorry, random dude."

"I have a name, woman!" he said, an anger mark appearing on his forehead.

"'How the hell was I suppost to know?!'" she mocked using his own words against him. They glared at each other with sparks forming in the air. Then she huffed and stood, Gokudera thought she was getting up to leave, but much to his chagrin she just sat across from him. "Masami-san, can we have two of the usual please?" Masami raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to eat all that?" Takako smirked and looked over at Gokudera.

"No, one's for him."

"Who said you could order for me anyway?!"

She narrowed her eyes and pointed her index finger at him.

"Quiet newbie!"

"Two of the usual coming right up." Masami said walking towards the counter.

"Wait! I--damn it! Who the hell do you think you are you stupid girl!"

"I am Takako Kobayashi, not 'stupid girl'." She looked him over, "You look familiar, don't you go to Namimori junior high?"

"What of it?" he said crossing his arms, she leaned propped up her elbow onto the table and leaned her head on her hand.

"You're really popular with the girls I heard, you're all the girls talk about in class, it's almost sickening." He couldn't help but twitch in annoyance. "you can't blame 'em, though. You're pretty cute alright I gotta say." She looked over at him and grinned. "but your attitude sucks."

"Like yours is so great! You really don't live up to your name either!"

"For your information there are four ways of spelling my name and you don't know me well enough to judge me."

"First impressions are everything," he grumbled as Masami came over with two plates, each had a classic diner hamburgers with the works, and steamy shoe-string fries on the side. "Whoa. . ." He breathed, then looked at Takako. How could someone so skinny eat and finish all this??

"What would you like to drink this time?" Masami asked.

"I'll just have a regular cola for today, what about you?" Takako said looking at a still shocked Gokudera, who was still wondering where all this food went. "I guess he'll have the same," she whispered. Masami nodded and left the two alone. "If I'm going to eat I better take off my coat. . ." she murmured, slipping off her black double-breasted trench coat. "Instead of staring at the food, why don't you just eat?" she said taking a bite out of one of her fries. Gokudera's head snapped up to say something, but then immediately dropped a little bit lower towards her chest. Now he knew where all that food went. . .

"S-shut up. . ." He said, cursing his teenage hormones. She gave him a quizzical look then shrugged and looked out the window again.

"Oh, it's snowing." She said impassively. "Doesn't snow look like powdered sugar?"

"No, it looks like frozen cloud droplet's that fall from the sky when it's cold." Takako rolled her eyes.

"Would it kill ya to use your imagination?"

"No, but I think this burger might," She blinked at this then let out a laugh.

"So you do have a sense of humor!" Gokudera gave her a blank look, what he said was not a joke. He decided not to push it though, and started eating, exchanging a few words with Takako here and there as they ate.

"So why haven't I seen you around the school? Someone as loud as you must have a reputation." He said as she took a sip from her soda Masami put down.

"I'll take that as a compliment." She said with a pout looking out the window.

Since that day, every Wednesday for the past three weeks, Gokudera's visited the diner and often found himself looking at the time more often on Mondays, waiting for Wednesday to come. Just so he could speak to Takako. . Though he didn't know exactly why. . .

It finally came and after hanging out with The tenth he made his way towards the diner once again, she may not have looked (it to him), but Takako was pretty bright. . .and interesting. One day she could be as noisy as the juke box that was placed across the room, and some days she would be as quiet as a mouse, looking calmly out the window. Not to mention her taste in food seemed to change too. He couldn't help but wonder though, why was it that he never saw her in school? He asked Tsuna one day in class if he's heard about her, but he didn't recognize the name. Yamamoto chirped in that he heard the name floating around from the guys on the baseball team, his words exactly were: "The guys on the team say she has 'huge melons', but I never see her carrying around any fruit." He said with a laugh.

"Idiot. . ." He muttered as he entered the diner and was greeted by Masami.

"Hello Hayato-kun, waiting for Takako-chan again?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry for just taking up space while waiting." Usually, he wasn't very accepting to anyone that was older than him, but just like Takako, he's seen the darker side of Masami's temper. He decided he never wanted to see it again. . .ever. Taking the booth he grown accustom to, he looked out the window, to see if a certain person was coming, but seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turn to hours and she still didn't show up.

It's not like they agreed on this time and day, she just came here, and so did he.

So why did he feel so disappointed?

He stood and refused some on the house food from Masami and left, looking up at the sky, he noticed that it didn't snow,

"Wonder if it's a coincidence. . ."

For the next few weeks he went, he decided he was going to eat whether she was there, or not. It wasn't like him to get all moody, especially over some girl. Though, why was it when he saw her staring out the same window, her head leaning on her propped up arm, sitting in that booth they fought over the first time they met, he couldn't help but smile inwardly as he approached her and sat down..

"Hey. . ." She said not looking over at him, "Masami-san told me you came here the whole time I was gone."

"S-so? People go to placed to eat when they're hungry, don't they?" He said looking off to the now very interesting looking table. He heard her chuckle then with out warning her warm lips pressed onto his cheek. "What-?!" she leaned back into her seat and smiled.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long," she winked, "That kiss was a thank you for sticking around for so long, Masami-san get's pretty lonely sometimes."

"You didn't have to go and kiss me," he said putting a hand to his cheek. "if you don't mind me asking, what happened to you?" Takako looked away from the window and smiled,

"Oh that? My sister died." She said solidly, her smile never faltering. She looked back at the sky as it started to snow again, "I wonder what she's doing, up there in heaven?" Gokudera really didn't know what to say, or do. How could someone just say that so easily?

"I'm sorry for your loss. . ." He managed to say after a brief awkward silence.

"It's alright, my parents gave me some time off school to recover from the shock." She lowered her head to gaze at the shiny black table. "She wanted me to give you this," she said in a low voice, passing over a small black box. Gokudera quirked an eye brow.

"But, why? I never met her before." Taking the cover off, he held up a picture frame. "This is. . ." He trailed off looking at the photo of two smiling girls looking at the picture, one with a pink hair clip, and one with a blue one. He looked up at the girl across from him to see that she was wearing a pink one.

"We traded places since our parent's didn't want her leaving the house due to her condition, but we both thought that since with the new medicine was working so well, she would be fine, but. . ." Her smile turned into a sad frown and tears started spilling out from her dark brown orbs. "we were wrong!" Gokudera choked back his own tears and picked up the other contents of the box, a letter with his name on it,

"Hey There Hayato! If you're reading this now, then that means I kinda kicked the bucket, Haha! By now, my sister Takako might be crying, so don't be a jerk and let her just sit there and bawl her eyes out! At least try act a little bit like a gentleman and comfort the poor girl. Now, I'm sorry for not telling you about this earlier. I was having so much fun with you that it kinda slipped my mind. Don't you hate when that happens?? Anyway. . .right now I'm crying a little, so don't laugh at the little smudge marks on the paper! I couldn't find any water-proof ink so. . .Gah! I'm avoiding the subject! This letter was just to say: THANK YOU!!!!!!! ^_______^ You were one of my first friends I met since I got sick and if I could, I would give you a big hug! Make sure to keep my booth safe from any newbie's ! I hear by pass it onto you. You should be proud!

I think to conclude this letter, a few words from the dead are in order, here goes: Live life to the fullest and don't go doing stupid things that might endanger your life! Because I have this feeling you're gonna do a LOT of stupid things so don't forget that life is something precious, something to always be treasured. Always! That includes the life of your friends too! . . .Well. . .I guess that's all I had to say, there was more, but that's in my journal, it's in the box too. Good-bye Hayato, and thank you for making the last few weeks of my life some of the best they could be, you're smart so you better do something useful with your life! Don't disappoint me!

. . .Love you always. . .

--Tomoko."

He re-read the letter, who knows how many times, and each time a few more tears slipped out from his shadowed eyes, joining the ones that came from her own.

"Idiot. . .You should have told me from the beginning!" he shouted at the letter, not knowing what good that would do since she was already. . .

"She talked about you a lot," the real Takako said wiping her red, puffy eyes. "If you'll excuse me. . ." She said standing up, he didn't say a word as she left, staring at the blue hair clip that stuck out like a sore thumb out of the black box. Along with the matching blue journal with white kittens looking at the moon. For the rest of the night, he read her story. Some pages had pictures of a younger her, a hospital, her family, her home, Akio-san- the doctor, Namimori junior high, a few dozen pictures of nature she took, then, the diner and it's people, Masami, some of the customers, the cook, then finally, a picture of himself taken from the outside the day he first came into the diner, he was looking over the menu Masami just handed him, so that's why he didn't notice. The next page she wrote in had was a sketch of him, his dynamite in hand, poised for battle. Next to it read, "I know he's probably lying about all those 'adventures' he's had, but the way he says it just makes me want to believe him. . ." He smiled at this then turned to the last page, it was another sketch, but this time is was two people in a lip-lock, their faces hidden by a sticker that had a smiley face on it. Something told him that he didn't need to peel it away to see who they were. . .

Closing the journal, he looked up at the sky. The clouds breaking away, letting the a few rays of sunshine that were trapped behind them for so long finally break through. He let out a sigh and put the contents back into the box.

"How the hell was I suppost to know you had a twin?" he said lowly, taking the box and walking out of the diner, a bittersweet taste lingering on his tongue. "How the hell. . .was I suppost to know you were going to die?"