Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn
Pairing/Characters: Mukuro/Hibari, Tsuna and mention of all others
Summary: A look at Mukuro and Hibari's dysfunctional relationship and all the incidents that had led up to it through Tsuna's quietly perceptive eyes. It is understandable that there were times Tsuna couldn't help but wish he didn't know some of the things he knew though.
A/N: My take on how Tsuna would look at a relationship between his Mist and Cloud. It is a good thing that Tsuna is someone who tends to keep his observation to himself.
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Tsuna might not look like the sharpest person around, but looks could clearly be very deceiving, and those who knew him (or fought with him previously) knew that the young 10th boos always knew more than he let on. And honestly, it wasn't as if Tsuna liked to pry into other people's business, in fact, he would rather not know most of the things he knew, but hey, no one can blame a guy for being unnaturally perceptive, what with his inherited ability of hyper intuition and having a tutor that shoot at you whenever you made a mistake. And naturally, that meant he noticed details about his Guardians that he probably did not want to notice in the first place. Especially when it comes to his Cloud and Mist guardian and their particularly dysfunctional relationship, or if whatever between them could even be called a relationship.
Most people like Gokudera and Ryohei were blissfully ignorant of the circumstances (and sometimes, Tsuna really envied them) because more often than not, Hibari and Mukuro were always at each other's throat, or at least Hibari's hands was on Mukuro's throat, always ready to crush the Mist illusionist's windpipe. And often, they would snip at each other during private meetings between him and his guardians, and one can clearly tell the animosity between them was more than real, and certainly not pretense. Not to mention the one incident in which Goukdera and Lambo had almost lost a limb trying to stop the fight between them that had threatened to blow up the entire Vongola headquarter. Or the one time he sent both of them and Yamamoto on a mission, and Yamamoto had come back, laughing heartily while reporting that halfway through the process of eliminating their enemies, Mukuro and Hibari had somehow ended up trying to decimate each other instead. So no, he couldn't blame Gokudera and the others for not noticing what he and probably only a few perceptive others like Reborn seemed to have caught on.
But between those violent instances between his Cloud and Mist Guardians, Tsuna couldn't help but notice that they also showed a side of themselves to each other that they would never have shown to anyone else. Hibari, for one, would have never allowed himself to lose control the way he always did when it came to Mukuro, would have never lost his temper so recklessly and thoughtlessly when it came to anyone else. Of course, his Cloud Guardian was always angry about something more often than not, but his anger, when directed towards anyone other than Mukuro, was always tightly controlled, with a solid but quiet promised of a bloody and painful painful death if the oversight or blunder was not rectified right away. There was never a real need for Hibari to raise his voice or fist to express his displeasure (even though it was his preferred method), because he had a clear aura of…how did Kyoko describe it…ah yes, an aura of "Talk to me and die".
And Mukuro's flawless smiles always became a degree more twisted and taunting and sharp when he was directing them to Hibari, as though expressing some sort of dark promise that Tsuna probably didn't want to hear about. After all, Mukuro was the kind of guy that enjoyed messing around with people simply because he thought it would be amusing, and Tsuna had never managed to find anything that Mukuro regarded as "funny" to be remotely funny at all. He had to admit that Gokudera's crude description of his Mist Guardian as "a psychotic mother fucker that fucked up people's mind" was not an unfounded one. Or maybe Mukuro simply enjoyed being acquainted with Hibari's deadly tonfa. There were endless possibilities and each one more alarming (and horrifying) than the last and Tsuna resolved not to think about them anymore.
At times, there were also rare moments of quiet and calm between them, even if those moments never lasted for long. There was once when he went to the piano room hoping to find Gokudera there, but instead, he found Mukuro at the piano playing some soothing tune while Hibari lounged quietly by the window, seemingly lost in thought. And there was also a time when he found Hibari napping in the conference room while Mukuro sat silently beside him reading a book or the time when they sat down quietly to enjoy the green tea that Chrome had made. But the incident that confirmed his long-held suspicion that there was something more between his Cloud and Mist was the one unfortunate timing when he and Chrome were looking for Mukuro. Right when they were about to knock on the illusionist's door however, they both heard the kind of noises that left them horrified and red in the face, and Tsuna swore he even heard the familiar phrase; "I'll bite you to death" leaving no doubt who the other occupant was. He had quickly grabbed Chrome's hand and hurried down the corridor to avoid hearing anything more explicit that would probably left both of them damaged permanently, you know, on the inside.
It was clearly a very dysfunctional relationship, but as someone who was used to crazy and insane happenings, Tsuna thought he could somehow appreciate what Hibari and Mukuro had between them even if at times he couldn't help but wonder if it was a sign that he was getting mad too. While it wasn't an affiliation full of sweet kisses or words of love (Tsuna secretly believed there were probably more blood than love involved anyway), both of them were slowly tearing down the walls around each other. And he clearly wasn't the only one who thought so, because during one of his coffee break, Haru had jumped excitedly into his office and babbled about how she thought Mukuro and Hibari made a very cute and endearing couple. Which naturally resulted in him spitting out his coffee all over his important documents.
Reborn was definitely going to shoot him for this.
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I have thought of writing this through Gokudera's point of view, but feel that I couldn't measure up to his level of foul language! So it ended up being through Tsuna's instead, which I kind of thought to be interesting too. Reviews or critics are highly appreciated.