Kaleidoscope

Warning(s): OC, OOC, foul language, typo, grammatical errors, unbetaed.

Note(s): the OC is two years younger than Hibari.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! ©Amano Akira

OC ©ariailes

The first time Hibari threw a glance at her when he was thirteen, he just assumed the herbivore's eyes were brown—ordinary and average just like most of the other herbivores.

It's not until two months later, when the herbivore is still insisting to eat lunch together with him on Namimori's rooftop—despite the threats and two actual hit to the head Hibari had delivered to her; since her presence is equal to the crowding that Hibari hates so much, damn it—the self-proclaimed carnivore thought that her eyes could be another colour.

The herbivore was speaking animatedly even though there are still some food left in her mouth, waving her hands in gestures to enchant her story—that Hibari actually tuned out, by the way—and smiling so big that he wouldn't be surprised if her face will rip in two soon. It's a nuisance, really, and Hibari was about to shoo her away again, when he saw it.

The herbivore's golden eyes.

However, that brief surprise he felt didn't stop him from threatening her to get off his rooftop. And after much arguing along with a peek of the prefect's tonfas, the herbivore relented, but not without an one-sided promise of another lunch together tomorrow.

The herbivore stared up at him with her brown eyes one last time before walking away, and Hibari shrugged off the momentary golden orbs he saw as a trick of the sunlight.

The second time Hibari saw another colour residing in the herbivore's-supposed-brown eyes was on a normal morning when he was fifteen.

He was patrolling around Namimori-chuu when he saw the mentioned herbivore dragging—or trying do drag, to be exact—a net full of balls to the sports warehouse. He continued his walk and ignored her; at least until she caught sight of him and called him.

"Hibari-senpai!"

Hibari kept walking.

"Senpaaaaaaai!" she shouted obnoxiously. "Notice meeeee!"

Hibari ears was ringing from her shrill voice. With a sharp glare, he turned around, strode across the street, and punched the herbivore's head.

"Ow! That fucking hurt—"

"You're disturbing the peace," Hibari said darkly. He took out his tonfa, which were gleaming unter the sunlight. "I'll—"

"—bite you to death, yeah, yeah, I know," the herbivore interrupted. "But before you do that, can you help me bring these balls inside? They're heavy stuff!" As if to prove her point, she tugged the net.

The truth was, Hibari didn't want to comply. But then, he has to deal with the herbivore's non-stop complains of him being 'heartless' for the rest of the day, and he rather have his ears free from the torture that is the herbivore's voice. So, he reluctantly slipped his tonfa into his gakuran top back and took the net full of balls from her. Then, he opened the warehouse's door and put the net inside the warehouse, near a basket where the other balls are kept. The warehouse was dark, and its only source of lightning was the lights from outside.

The herbivore ran to his side with a bright face. "Thanks a lot, Hibari -senpai!" she said. She opened the net and started to put the balls in their place. "The sports teacher sure are mean, ordering me to bring these heavy things to the warehouse by myself just because I slipped an insult of his unfashionable hair in front of him," she said with a pout. "And he forbid my friends to help me, to boot!"

The mention of the herbivore's friends caused Hibari to remember an incident that provoked his ire earlier in the morning. "Tell your so-called herbivore friends to not bother me anymore with such trivial questions."

"'Such trivial questions'? What the heck did you mean?"

"They were crowding this morning, asking me back and forth what your favorite colour was, your daily habit, and other stupid things."

"Eh..." The herbivore was at loss of words. She was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking about the reason behind her friends actions, and Hibari was about to leave when she opened her mouth. "Don't be so mean to them, Hibari-senpai, I guess my friends was just trying to find me a suitable gift for my upcoming birthday."

"If you call them your 'friends', then they should have known such trivial things they asked me earlier."

Silence.

And a moment later, the herbivore chuckled bitterly. It sounded so out of place, especially considering her usual cheerful demeanor.

Even though he won't admit it, Hibari was antonished.

"Who knows?" the herbivore said while she stared at whatever was in front of her with a blank gaze. "Maybe I just don't wanna tell them."

Her eyes were black and almost sinister.

"Just kidding!" she then sing-songed, facing Hibari with a wide grin that contrased her outburst earlier. Her eyes shaped a pair of cresent moons because of the curve on her lips, but Hibari could see clearly that it has turned brown again.

Hibari flicked her forehead sharply and promptly left her—who was currently complaining and cursing alone in the warehouse.

The blackness he saw earlier probably was just the effect of the darkness in the warehouse, he said to himself.

The herbivore—Hibari learned after he spent the first one and a half year with her and had his past figured out by her—may be slow most of the times, but she sure wasn't stupid.

In fact, she has a pair of sharp eyes that can observe even the tiniest movement and an outstanding analytic ability. But of course, she only uses these gifts of her when she feels like it—which annoyed Hibari to no end.

So, when the herbivore quickly discovered his connection with the baby without him telling her, Hibari wasn't surprised at all.

Since then, the herbivore has been hanging out a lot with the no-good herbivores and his friends, throwing questions here and there about the mafia world. When asked, her reasoning was 'she wants to be an awesome information broker like a certain light novel character'. Huh.

It came no surprise to Hibari when the herbivore started to stay at the rooftop when school are over, just to see him battle the Bucking Horse.

"Oh, the sun is setting," she said one evening when Hibari was about to start another round of battle with the Bucking Horse. "Well then, I guess I should go home now. Got a lot of homeworks to do!"

"Japanese students sure are busy, huh?" the Bucking Horse replied, eyes filled with amusement as the herbivore picked up her bag and stood up.

"But, Dino-san, not all students are busy with homework. Just see Hibari-senpai as a glorious example. What he's busy with is maintaining his iron fist in this school. Or town," the herbivore said before snickering.

The Bucking Horse laughed a little. Afterwards, his eyes caught something in the herbivore's hair. "Did you change your hair tie?"

The herbivore's hand touched her brand-new ribbon she used to tie her hair. "Yeah, the last one got crappy already. How is it?"

"It's a nice colour."

"I know, right?" The herbivore grinned. "Hibari-senpai picked it for me!"

The Bucking Horse and his right-hand man wore a dumbfounded expression soon after, and Hibari glared at her.

"Ah, you must be confused," the herbivore added. "To sum it up, I brought two ribbon to Hibari-senpai, a green one and a red one. I asked him which one would suit me the best, and his gaze lingered to the red one a second longer, so I just assumed he liked the red one more!"

"I... see..." The Bucking Horse said.

He avoided a swing of a tonfa a second later.

"Cut out the useless talk," Hibari deadpanned.

"Geez, Hibari-senpai, you're no fun!" The herbivore shouted, her lower lips jutted out a little. "Whatever, I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Dino-san, Romario-san, Hibari-senpai!"

"See you later!" The Bucking Horse shouted back, while Romario nodded politely at her.

Hibari just spared a glance at her, but in that very moment, he saw the brown of her eyes had been replaced with a pair of stunning red.

Her normal eyes colour returned soonafter, however, when the herbivore changed her head's angle.

It must be just because of the sunset that hit her eyes just right, but Hibari briefly thought that the red eyes suited her name well.

Gotou Akane—and 'Akane' means 'brilliant red'.

The herbivore has been avoiding him.

Hibari's not stupid. He had his suspicions since she visited his rooftop less and less, using pathetic excuses that became more absurd each day. It came into full circle when she flat-out refused to meet his eyes when they passed each other at the hallway.

To be honest, Hibari was pleased with this new change. Finally, he can have the peace he longed for, without any annoying chatter, shouting, or cursing.

It just became a bother—how he would look behind without any reason and found an empty hallway instead of a certain ponytailed brunette trailing after him; how he actually waited, even for a very brief moment, for the herbivore's arrival on breaktimes; how when the Bucking Horse would ask where the herbivore is, he would ignore the question and attacked the Bucking Horse almost too aggressively—even for him.

It just became a bother at how much he expects.

But it would soon pass, Hibari told himself. All those bothers, it would dissappear soon enough.

Or that what he thought until he was sent into the future and discovered that in the future, Gotou Akane was dead and never chased Hibari back.

His chest kept stinging even though there are no wound there.

Gotou Akane does not trust people.

She loves them, and likes being around them, but she just doesn't trust them.

Apparently, this stem from an event in her past, but Hibari didn't bother to pry any deeper.

And suddenly, it all made sense. How in most of her chatters, she would talk about the lastest gossips or her newest experience, but rarely about her personal self or her past. How her she has so many of those so-called friends, yet they know so little things about her. How she, sometimes, looked alone in the crowd—and as if by her own choice.

Gotou Akane does not trust people, because she's afraid of getting attached to them.

Then, didn't that mean the herbivore avoided him all this time in order to chase away her building trust for him?

Didn't that mean everything between them was fake?

Hibari felt strangely bitter.

On the evening after he returned from the future, Hibari confronted Gotou Akane.

The school were already empty, save for Hibari and the aforementioned herbivore—who just finished her duty to clean the Art Clubroom. Dark clouds has fallen upon Namimori's sky, colouring the usually vast blue with a gloomy shades of grey.

Hibari stood before the herbivore in her classroom and held off every of her attempts to escape the situation.

And then, because Hibari is not the kindest person in the world, he bared the cold, hard, truth in front of her—all of her fear and insecurities.

Sharp words evolved into screaming, and ignorance turned into flaring anger.

"You're not Gotou Akane. The real Gotou Akane is not some cowardly herbivore," Hibari said, gripping the herbivore's wrist that almost collided with his face.

"Who the hell are you to say that?! You don't even give a single damn about me!" the herbivore shouted back, eyes stormy grey under the dim lights of the room.

The grip on the herbivore's wrist tightened, and she winced.

"You're not that stupid," Hibari said, obsidian orbs burning.

The herbivore gaped before slowly ducked her head. She understood. Understood the meaning behind those words. Thus, quietly, she muttered, "Let me go."

Hibari did.

"I..." the herbivore's voice was weak and trembling, "just... give me some time, okay...?"

Hibari didn't answer. The herbivore quickly grabbed her long-forgotten bag and ran out of the classrom.

In his mind, Hibari thought that he never wants to see that grey in the herbivore's eyes again.

A week later, the herbivore showed up at the rooftop with a bento in hand.

"Hello, Hibari-senpai! Miss me?" she greeted, smile a little rough around the edges yet somehow genuine.

Hibari just rolled his eyes.

The herbivore laughed, and sat beside him, movements stiff. She opened her bento, and ate while talked at the same time. Her story was chopped, like she was confused how to speak properly in front of him. But she slipped the things she likes and dislikes in her chatters, told him a little about her home, and her brown orbs shone with life—

It may be clumsy and awkward but—it's okay. It's a start.

The last time Hibari wondered what Akane real eyes' colour was, he just returned from a mission to Akane's—or maybe, probably, their—apartment.

The women was in front of her computer, typing vigorously. Her red glasses slipped down, and she pushed it up. It came no surprise to Hibari that she's still up at three in the morning—she's always been a night owl since young, especially with her current job as an information broker that requies her to stay up most of the nights.

They are together now, but Hibari is not hers and she is not his. They belong to their own selves and no one else's. He won't leak Vongola information just because of their relationship, and she won't tell him what she knows about Vongola either.

But, according to Akane, it what makes them different.

"Kyouya, you're home!" Akane exclaimed happily before standing up and taking off her glasses. She then ran up to him and stood on tip-toes in order to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. Then, she settled on hugging the Cloud Guardian, resting her cheek on the man's chest.

He only circled one of his arms around her shoulders.

Akane beamed up at him with a wide smile on her face.

And Hibari saw it.

How her long lashes framed her eyes perfectly. Those eyes that starts with mocha on the edges before dipping into caramel in the middle, only to be interrupted by a circle of honey around the pupils. And if he looks closely, carefully, then he can see little flecks of red adorned them.

Gotou Akane's eyes are indeed brown, but they are one of the most beautiful thing Hibari has ever seen.

"So, Kyouya, do you want dinner or me first?"

"I'd rather sleep."

"You fucking moment ruiner."

Not that he will ever admit it, of course.

End

A/N: Hello there! This is my first English fic, and I hope you enjoyed it!

On a side note, this was supposed to be less than 2k words, but it evolved into this monster ^^' Oh, and I will probably write another story about these two if I'm in the mood or if you guys want it.

Mind to RnR?