A Throne of Fire

A Love Triangle?... Yeah No, This ain't Twilight

Kensuke rubbed the back of his head as he avoided looking directly at Tsuna, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. He could feel the curious and annoyed stares of his two person audience burning into his form. Kensuke began to sweat. He felt like he was the center of attention in the worst possible way, and it made him wonder why he had even gone through the trouble of tracking down Hibari and Tsunami in the first place. But then he actually remembered why, and suddenly he wasn't so unkeen.

After their fight in the gym, Kensuke had rushed out to try to follow Tsuna to wherever Hibari was taking her. He knew after the battle adrenaline had worn off that he had likely overreacted when the prefect grabbed her wrist, but he still wanted to check on her to see if she was alright.

Also she still had his necklace, so it's not like he had much of a choice either way.

Hibari had managed to do that thing he did where he just disappeared into thin air, taking Tsuna with him, so Kensuke was forced to ask around and see if anybody knew where they went.

He had thought about asking Kusakabe, since the man was Hibari's second on the Disciplinary Committee and might know where the Committee Head spends his time. He had tracked the guy down to the Committee office, but one 'you know what you did' look from him after Kensuke had the gall to open his mouth sent him slowly inching backwards so as to avoid getting more beat up than he already was.

His next choice had been Kyoko, which admittedly wasn't much better than Kusakabe, but he didn't have the luxury of options in this particular situation. He had tracked her down in the halls during her walk to her last class of the day, and she barely had the chance to shoot him a look that said 'oh God, you again' before Hana went to save the day by becoming her glaring human wall. She looked him up and down like he was dirt on her shoe before actually speaking to him.

"Oh, you. What the hell do you want, Mochida? Still wanna square up? 'Cause even though Tsuna ain't here, I've got a shinai in my locker with your name on it. It's got 'loser' written on it in big, black letters and everything and I'd be more than happy to use it to- ", Hana said scathingly. Kensuke just stood there and took the verbal abuse, knowing he deserved it. The girl was soon interrupted from ripping him a new one by Kyoko, however, who got her attention by tugging on the hem of her shirt.

"Hana, I think he gets it.", the light brown haired girl attempted to reason. Kensuke looked at her best friend with a deadpan expression.

"Jeez Kurokawa, tell me how ya really feel.", he stated rhetorically, unable to help the joke. His day had been terrible so far, he needed humor. Hana glared at him and opened her mouth to start yelling again, but was prevented from doing so by his only ally in this situation, Kyoko, who got in between the two of them and looked at Kensuke seriously.

"What do you want, Mochida-senpai? Tsuna won. You should respect her wishes by doing as she asked and leaving me alone.", she told him sternly but cordially, staring him down with all the courage she had. Despite all this, Kensuke gave her a warm smile.

In all honesty, he had been impressed by her independence and willingness to deal with her own problems when he had faked being in love with her. He had no doubt it would have been scarily easy for her to simply tell her brother some guy from the Kendo Club was bothering her, and just have him jump him after practice with a right hook from hell and a loud 'Stay EXTREMELY away from my sister!'. He knew she had been too nervous to even tell him no and had to reluctantly let her friend deal with the situation in the end, but he still found her to be an admirable person. Kensuke's eyes gained a sad glint and both Kyoko and Hana started to look confused.

"I know, and after this you won't hear from me again, but I just wanted to know where Hibari took Tsunami. He-he grabbed her wrist kinda rough earlier and I just wanted to make sure she was alright.", he explained. Both girls' expressions softened, and Hana gave him a knowing look.