Sitting on the cold marble floor, Hibari leaned his back against the door as he rubbed the key lightly with his thumb and forefinger, feeling the rough edges of the key.
He closed his eyes as he closed his hand tightly around the key.
His warmth was still there.
"Here," The blonde rested the almost painfully familiar looking key onto his palm. He couldn't be more wrong, that was the key. Hibari looked up and into the honey-colored eyes at that, only to find that there weren't any traces of the feeling hurt. "Remember to take care and have your meals regularly."
Dino still remembered that. That he didn't have his meals on the right time and he even skipped them at many times.
"It's none of your business, herbivore." He chided softly and turned away from the blonde. He just had that little bit to say to this person, but failed to do so.
Or perhaps the correct way to say it was,
He chose not to say it.
"Kyoya,"
Hibari could see a small smile forming on the Cavallone's lips as he spoke. He called out his name as if nothing had happened the night before. Was Dino really intending to pretend everything was alright?
"Remember the drama that I had been watching? I was on the last episode yesterday. It was so touching, seriously."
He was really talking as if nothing had happened before. As if everything was normal. It was alright.
"He finally confessed! He said with such a serious tone. I wonder if I could do that also," Dino shrugged awkwardly.
Dino was pretending again. Did he ever mention how he disliked this?
"Ti amo," Dino muttered under his breath with a serious tone, his honey-colored eyes staring straight into his ocean-colored ones.
It was almost as if Dino was really saying that to him.
Even though afterwards, Dino laughed and told him that he was just trying to see if he could be the same as the male lead character. Hibari still remained his silent-self. He didn't even bother to bite the blonde to death, to be angry anymore.
"Ah, I just can't have the seriousness he held! What's wrong with me," He laughed as he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
There was nothing wrong, you had him.
Hibari almost thought that he was serious.
"Boss, you have to rest."
Dino shook his head lightly as he held the exquisite pen even tighter. "I have to finish writing." And as he wrote on the piece of paper even faster, he had a slightsmile on.
"And Romario," Dino heaved in a deep breath as he stopped writing for a brief moment. "I said it."
Dino knew that wasn't bravery when he said it.
"Cavallone, you won't stay. And neither will I make you stay, clear?"
It was cowardly that he didn't say this the night before, but only a moment before.
It was a clean break.
Hibari looked at the mails that Kusakabe had handed to him earlier and sighed in disinterest. And as he threw them onto the table, one of the envelopes in the light color of blue caught his eyes.
It was from Cavallone.
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"Kyoya, I'm writing to you just as I've reached Italy.
And I've bought some food while you weren't noticing and they are all safely kept in your refrigerator. Remember to heat them up if you are hungry, don't be lazy alright?
Ah, and also in the drawer that's next to your bed, I bought some pills for gastric pain.
Take them if you are suffering from the usual pain, alright? But still, remember to see the doctor. And..."
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He continued reading it as he sat on the chair, noticing how long the letter was. The carefully written words filled out a whole page and nothing more. As he read the letter's contents, it didn't mention something that Hibari wanted to find.
"I'm fine."
He didn't write anything like that.
Everything was about what he bought for him, the to-be-microwave-heated food, the extra bottles of shampoos he had bought in case Hibari has used finish all the shampoo, how Kusakabe would take letters to the house as Dino knew he would be too lazy about taking mails out from the mailbox.
He closed his eyes as he folded the letter back to half again like before, and slipped it into the envelope that it was in before. It was cold, nothing of Dino's warmth.
Dino, was he fine now?
"Your family, they are asking for you to go back, aren't they?"
Dino remained silent as he pulled the blanket up to cover his cold body. The blowing sound of the air conditioner could be heard, and how clear the sigh that he knew belonged to Hibari was.
"That's where you belong."
"... Kyoya, you... don't understand."
Hibari opened his eyes at that.
Sure, he didn't understand. He really didn't understand why Dino was acting all this stubborn, not returning and all. He didn't understand why this family-lover person wasn't going back to his family.
He sat up, the blanket covering both of them sliding off the bed. Somehow, he felt something.
Hibari felt this wasn't Dino.
"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to-" The raven-haired male rested his palm onto Dino's bare chest, where the blonde's heart was located. It was thumping. It was as if he could hear it. Hibari felt something. He pulled back his hand, and closed it tightly. "Kyoya?"
"Cavallone, you won't stay. And neither will I make you stay, clear?"
It was like an order that Dino couldn't refuse.
And at the next moment, Hibari felt so exhausted that he fell back to his bed, his eyes closed. He knew what he did, he knew what he felt.
His closed right hand that felt nothing earlier but...
Dino was cold.
And the Dino he knew wasn't.
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Hibari opened his eyes as he heaved out a deep breath. It just had to be that dream, that memory. Running a hand through his raven hair as he turned, he saw the empty space.
"Good morning Kyoya...!" Dino smiled as he noticed him opening his eyes.
His hand, moved from his hair to where the empty space was. He closed his hand, as if to grab onto something, but that was simply nothing but just cold air.
Dino had been gone for a year.
Opening the envelope, he sighed. This was probably the only letter he read.
Every two months, a letter. For him to know what could be done for him to be better.
So many words, but none of them mentioned if he was fine.
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"Kyoya, it's me again.
I'm sorry. You have probably received five useless letters already, right? Sorry that I will still be increasing the number of it in the future. It is okay not to read them if you don't want to.
Anyway, how are you?
Have you started taking your meals regularly already? Or having a normal sleeping time?
Sometimes, it's for your own good – socialize more with Tsuna and others. They are all good people, I can guarantee you that.
Just in case you are ..."
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Hibari stared at the last word of the sentence and slipped it back into the envelop, not finishing reading the rest of it.
Nonsense.
What was Dino writing about? It was...
"Just in case you are lonely."
Just what did Dino think would've caused him to ... feel that?
Hibari looked at the letters that were all piled up on the table. ... He had all of them kept carefully. His finger brushed down the edges of the envelopes, until he felt the top of his table.
28 envelopes of letters, 46 months, near of 4 years.
Some of them contained pages of neatly written words, while some contained only a page long of words and along with some photographs that Hibari never looked at.
Perhaps, he didn't want to see his face.
He slid his finger up to the top letter again,
Maybe he thought if he saw his face which was smiling,
He opened it, and took the photo out lightly.
It meant that Dino was fine.
The photograph in his hands was back facing him, and something was very clear. The date.
It just meant that Dino was fine without him.
In the letter, Dino had written it was only taken days ago. But the date of the photograph had printed was years ago.
"Ah... Hibari-san, you came so suddenly. What is it?"
Anxiety.
Hibari could see that on the man in the black suit. He was hiding something. "Where's the Cavallone, there's something I need to see him for."
The anxious man shook his head and turned to look at the mansion, thinking up for an explanation. "We didn't know you were coming back, and Boss is really busy with work. Not that he doesn't want to see you, but he's not in Italy now. Perhaps you should try coming back months later?"
Months later...?
"What business does he has over another country?" The letter... Dino didn't mention it in the letter. What was Dino hiding from him, seriously?
"Just some simple matters of Cavallone's allies, you see."
Hibari looked over the shoulder of the subordinate of Dino, and saw surprisingly, not a single soul standing at the main door.
"A simple matter will not take months." Hibari muttered as he walked past the older man without hesitating. Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
"Hibari-san, Boss's not in so-"
Hibari pushed open the door and the mansion remained what it looked like years before, just something was missing. The amount of people in the house.
The Cavallone's mansion usually was full with people, full of people that Dino regarded as family.
There weren't much people, and just using both hands, you could already count the number of people that were in the mansion. And Hibari wasn't feeling so good about all these hiding.
He looked to where the staircase was located and found the subordinate that was always following Dino.
Romario.
"Where is he?" He muttered softly as he walked to the stairway, hearing the door behind him closed.
The older man shook his head.
He wasn't going to say and Hibari frowned slightly at that.
The answer, he wasn't expecting to get it out from him anyway. He wanted to ask the Cavallone himself, he wanted to.
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"Boss isn't in, that room is empty-"
Hibari pushed open the door despite the older man's objections, and saw them.
He took steps forward, and without him knowing he had reached the study table, where his hands were already clutching on the edges of the table hardly.
"Hibari-san..."
He heard Romario from behind, and heaved in a deep breath before taking a clearer look at what was all arranged neatly on the tables.
Letters.
The letters were all addressed to him, every single one of it.
He took one of the envelopes up and opened it. The contents in the letter were written already, the photographs were inside too. That was why everything was puzzling.
The date mentioned on the letter was months later.
Skimming through the contents, he frowned slightly.
"The Cavallone can predict the future? He can actually get a new girlfriend he met during his trip overseas? He has some kind of foresight?"
Hibari turned and stared at Romario, wanting a clear answer instantly. Of course he knew the Cavallone didn't have the power of foreseeing the future. That was nonsense.
And if he could, Dino would tell him. Or maybe not.
"Boss said it was for you, it was to –" He saw how depressed the older man looked. " – make it easier for you to forget everything from the past."
Hibari didn't wait for the right-hand man of Dino to continue saying, he just took the letters that dates were after the letter he was holding on up and opened them one by one.
How he like this girl because of her cheerful personality, dating, proposing, engaging, marrying.
"You won't come here, Boss too, won't let you come here and see him. This was one of the ways, writing that he has forsaken the past, so should you."
He was trying to be the bad person?
"How selfless," Hibari spat sarcastically, or perhaps bitterly.
Slamming the letters onto the table, Hibari looked over to what was knocked over.
A photograph-frame.
"Hibari-san, listen to me. Boss isn't trying to lie, he's -" It was them, Hibari saw the picture. It was him and Dino. "- dead."
The frame cracked.
"... What?"
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Dino clutched the phone tightly, listening patiently to what his family members were telling him. He knew they were extremely worried.
"Boss, just come back for the treatment, alright?"
Dino noticed the stare coming from the raven-haired, and gave an assuring smile to him, as if telling him everything was alright.
Phone calls telling him to come back were increasing.
"No, not now, Romario. I'm not coming back-" Dino took a quick glance at his former student again. "- not that fast."
Dino could hear the sighs over the phone. He knew he was being stubborn, very stubborn.
"Having the treatment that does nothing but to prolong my life just a little bit? Romario, it's alright. I don't need it."
Dino lowered his volume, not wanting the Japanese to hear it.
"Why continue to stay, Boss?"
"I want to be with him a little while more before the symptoms get more obvious," Dino insisted. "Not that fast, Romario."
He knew his right-hand man could understand his persistence and all.
"Sorry." He knew Romario was just like his 2nd father. Surely he didn't want Dino who he regarded as his son to take up this path. "Thanks, Romario. For being such a great father all these years."
His eyes were red.
Hibari sat on the ground, confused as he stared at the white marble that had Dino Cavallone carved on it.
Memories were like tapes that kept replaying, unstoppably.
How Cavallone first met him, how they started sparring, how they started to...
"Kyoya, just don't bite me to death for this," Dino mumbled nervously as he gave a quick peck on his lips.
Fall in love.
It was as if that day just happened yesterday, it was so clear. And everything that Dino had done, he wasn't doing all these out of selflessness, he guessed. All the things that Romario told him, he knew the reason wasn't so simple.
The reason was perhaps not because of selflessness, but love for a person, Hibari Kyoya, that did not know what love really was.
Keeping his illness from him, being so happy every single day, not going back just to stay with him for a little while more, telling Romario to continue mailing the letters through the dates even if he was gone from this world, lying in the letters so that he could forget the past more easily, and not even calling him when he was leaving the world.
Hibari shut his eyes as he closed his hands tightly.
He didn't get why Dino was doing all these.
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The wind was blowing gently onto his face, as if...
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Cavallone, why go so far for a person like him?
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As if telling him not to cry anymore.
Author's Note : Thanks for my dearest daughter for helping me to proof-read this! (: Helped me a lot, thank you so so much! And my holidays came, so I guess this is the time for me to continue writing crazily, or should I just, use it for studying? xD Thanks for picking up this story, reviews are very appreciated and wanted! I want to know how you all think of this ~ (:
Disclaimer : I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.