Sayonara Memories
Sidenote: set in 5 years since Dino and Hibari's first meeting in Namimori.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! isn't owned by me; otherwise I wouldn't be putting it up on here, no?
Dino ran, and hastily jumped over Namimori's locked gates. With barely any attention to whatever he could have crashed into, he ran towards Namimori's disciplinary committee room.
"Kyouya!" He yelled as he opened the door with a loud slam. He wholeheartedly hoped for a hard, painful steel-tonfa to fly straight into his face, seriously.
Nothing came.
Actually, no one was in the room but him.
"…Kyouya?"
The worried expression on Dino's face quickly turned into a horrified one. Tsuna caught up with him from behind, panting for breath—followed by Gokudera and Yamamoto. "I told you, Dino-san. Hibari-san had disappeared for a month. A lot of students said that Hibari-san's finally skipping school, but we all know it's impossible. Please, accept the fact."
Tsuna received a painful punch he never knew Dino could give. Yamamoto held back the now yelling-profanities Gokudera, who was ready to shove some dynamites down the Cavallone's boss' throat.
"You expect me to believe that Kyouya might've DIED!?"
"HE WAS GANGED BY A WHOLE FAMIGLIA, DINO-SAN! FOUR HUNDRED, FULL-EQUIPPED PEOPLE EXPERIENCED IN ASSASSINATION!" Tsuna, for probably the first time ever in his life, screamed angrily, as he held his pained cheek. "I don't want to believe it either; I tried to think that the Berretti Famiglia was just bluffing when they said they defeated Hibari-san, but even Mukuro confirmed that he couldn't find Hibari-san anywhere."
"He could've lied!"
"If he lied about being unable to find Hibari-san, that would've been a severe self-kill to his prided espionage skill, Dino-san."
Dino was silenced.
"Dino." Reborn called. "You lost your cool. I thought I've taught you better; think the worst when you're in times like this—the mafia will never be a optimistic kind of place."
"But—"
"You don't think optimistic when you're a mafia boss. You thinks of the worst situation possible. You do not hope when you're a mafia boss. You either DO or DIE."
In the middle of the hassle, Tsuna's cellphone suddenly rang. Picking up the call, he didn't realize how Reborn's face darkened. Dino's face lit with hope; it must be a call saying they found Kyouya alive!
Tsuna ended the call, and sadly looked at Dino. "Hibari-san had been found."
"See? I told you—"
"Kusakabe-san will be preparing for Hibari-san's funeral."
Saying that it was shocking would be over understatement.
"—Dino-san? I-I know that you might not want to listen to this and all, but…Hibari-san's going to be cremated this afternoon. If you want to come…please come."
There was a brief silence.
"…sorry to take your time, Dino-san."
It was two days since Hibari was found—Dino returned to Italy without saying anything to Tsuna. He wouldn't have eaten anything in the two days if Romario hadn't dragged him out by force. The blonde spent the two days sitting in front of his work desk, seeing all the unsent love letters he made—but he never could sent.
He read letters after letters; noticing how all of them were in Italian, he then remembered that there was only one letter he had ever written in Japanese; that letter was in sloppy Japanese—he hadn't given it to Kyouya, knowing well that the boy will probably said something about failing language or the like.
Strangely, he couldn't find the letter on his desk.
Groaning, he began scrambling through his desk, ignoring the figure standing in front of the open door of his study.
He stopped abruptly.
He looked up.
"…hey…who let you enter here, boy?" Dino asked to the little boy—who seemed rather familiar—standing at the door. He was black-haired. Sharp eyed. Even that look.
He was almost like a younger carbon copy of a Hibari Kyouya.
The boy scoffed (much to Dino's remembrance to a certain someone) before he then showed something in his hands.
Dino blanched. That letter!
Before he could say anything, the boy ran off. Instinctively, Dino jumped over his desk (much for someone who was forced to eat in the last two days), and chased after the little boy. The little Hibari look-a-like strangely seemed to know his way throughout the house, quickly maneuvering hallways after hallways before running outside.
"Hey, waiit!!!" Dino yelled, as he chased him. Being the klutz he was, Dino kept crashing, tripping, and bumping on some random things as he chased. It was midnight, and there was no car in the road – which made Dino rather grateful as it made chasing the boy much easier than ever.
The chase went from the Cavallone's manor, past the vast garden, through the woods, and when the boy finally stopped running, Dino was panting; he shook off the branches and leaves sticking on him.
"Y-you…f-finally stopped…" Dino said between his breaths. The boy turned around, standing under the park light, looking at Dino with a haughty face. The letter Dino wanted was still grabbed tightly in his hands.
Don't you have anything to say?
It was as if he wanted to say that.
Dino looked around where he was. His eyes widened when he realized that it was where he took Kyouya to when the boy first visited Italy. It was such a memorable place—he could feel tears began forming by the edge of his eyes.
He began to remember the olden days.
Dammit, nostalgia. Dammit.
He began to remember back when he first met him—the boy greeted him back with a formal request of sparring, for goodness' sake! He remembered the first time Hibari took him to a konbini; how he messed up when he put a bag of flour and made the whole rack messy. He remembered when Hibari seemed to be mesmerized as they looked at the sunset at the very place he was standing at.
The tears forming began falling.
He felt a gentle tug on his coat. When he looked down, he realized it was that boy from before. The boy held out the letter to him, which he took gratefully. He ruffled the boy's hair, as he wiped his tears.
"Y-you were trying to bring me to here, right? Thanks."
The boy, strangely, simply walked to a corner of the park. Dino gave him a confused look, before he realized. He quickly followed the boy, and his breath almost stopped.
"…hibird!? What are you doing here?"
That was definitely hibird; Dino wouldn't mistake the familiar lump of yellow which always followed Hibari everywhere. The bird chirped, as it flew up, and landed on a small branch of a small tree.
When Dino saw the dry tree, he stopped breathing.
"Na, Kyouya, plant that sakura?"
"…sakura grows on top of corpses, stupid."
"Then we're making one which doesn't!"
"…are you an idiot or a dimwit?"
"Umm, 'or'?"
Facepalm.
"I doubt it will grow, but fine. Just to show you're being stupid."
"We'll see in two years, then!"
"…why two years?"
"…two years will be the anniversary for the fifth year after we met for the first time!"
"…hmph."
He laughed pitifully to himself, when he noticed that the very day would be that fifth year. He had forgotten; he must've been so caught up in angst that he didn't realize the day was coming.
He looked at the seemingly dying sakura tree.
"…it really didn't grow." He muttered to himself, as he crouched near the tree. The sakura which didn't grow. The sakura which was planted where it wasn't supposed to be.
It suddenly became something like a gravestone without a corpse; Dino's tears didn't stop.
"—sakura grows on top of corpses,—"
He didn't see the small pink bud at one of the branches.
He felt a gentle tap on his shoulders.
The boy who had stolen his letter. Said boy opened the letter which had been neglected on the ground, and shoved it to Dino.
As if he was saying Read it out loud. Now.
The sakura which wasn't where it belonged to. The love letter which was never read.
It was such a perfect setting.
Dino already felt his cheeks cold because of the tears. Would he had cried too, if he had stayed and watched Hibari's funeral?
Another bud seemed to magically appear on the dying little tree.
Pulling himself together, Dino looked up at the stars.
"…I…I…you…"
A deep breath.
Release.
"…I loved you, Kyouya. I've always did and I'll always do."
The previously passive boy looked at him with a pleased look. The two buds on the dying tree seemed to magically bloom before they disappeared with the wind; Dino saw the petals, glowing in the wind for a moment, before he then realized that the boy was gone, along with 'hibird'—leaving only the dying sakura tree. That ghostly boy even disappeared with that unsent love letter!
"—Boss, where are you!? You, look around the fountain—"
He could slightly hear the sound of his subordinates looking for him. As he watched the small sakura tree, he could feel the corner of his mouth making an upward arch; was that boy Kyouya's incantation? Or was it merely his feelings messing with him?
"Ah…I've finally said it." He murmured, gently touching the fragile branch of the tree.
Such pretty words for the last words directed to the one he loved.
End.