Once upon a time my sister gave me a prompt ("Wrist watches and nailpolish") and two characters ("That guy who looks like Trent from Daria (Hibari) and that dude on the first page of chapter 17 (Gokudera)") and suggested those be what I write about. This is what came from that suggestion.

Disclaimer: Apparently even my stick figures do not look like stick figures, so obviously I can claim no ownership of KHR and its lovely characters.

Off Topic

"You're late."

Gokudera might have mellowed out a fair bit over the past ten years, but he remembered well enough what was happening at this moment nine years and ten months into the future to his nine year and ten month younger family (and found it somewhat disheartening that that sentence, despite its seemingly obvious fallacies, was entirely correct). So, when Hibari showed up on their old middle school's roof two minutes later than he had said he would, it was rather understandable that he received such a cold welcome (not that he usually received particularly warm welcomes from Gokudera).

"My watch says I'm not," he replied coolly.

"That's wrist watch."

"What?"

"That which is on your wrist and is telling you that you are not late - which, incidentally, you are - is correctly known as a wrist watch."

Somewhat caught off guard by this random twist in the conversation it took Hibari a moment to come up with: "But is more commonly referred to as simply a watch."

Gokudera, however, was on edge. And when Gokudera was on edge his mind dealt far better with things by being obsessively organized and precise while lecturing less obsessively organized and precise minds on where they were going wrong. Hence, rather than furthering the conversation to perhaps more relevant topics, he replied thusly:

"The word 'watch' can refer to a number of things. For example: I have been keeping watch for your arrival, while watching over the baseball idiot and stupid cow so that I could watch out for anything moronic they might do, like frighten away that watch of nightingales – your younger self's doing I presume; you really like birds, don't you - over there, because that would lead you to harm us. I am now also contemplating my handmade Italian pocket watch to see whether the third watch of the night, assigned to me, is over yet and whether the prescribed drying time for the red nail polish recently applied to my left hand has passed yet.

"Given the amount of possibilities it is important to be as precise as possible with your language so as to avoid any possible complications that may arise from contextual confusion."

Hibari ruminated upon this shortly before replying: "Why was red nail polish recently applied to your left hand?"

Gokudera sighed. "You're missing the point."

"You're avoiding the question."

"Why were you late?"

"According to my watch I wasn't."

"Wrist watch."

"If you keep this up I am going to bite you to death."

Gokudera sighed again. "How many times have I told you that you have to amend that phrase? In this context bite simply does not –"

Hibari was pleased when Gokudera seemed to deduce that finishing his sentence was not in his best interest, but was somewhat disappointed to have had to have helped him reach that conclusion by knocking him unconscious with his tonfa. Still, his mood was not too foul, mostly thanks to his recent battle and the watch of nightingales serenading him from the far side of the roof. In fact, he even felt quite cheerful as he grabbed Gokudera's now limp arm and matched the time on his pocket watch to that of his own wrist watch. He even made sure that the red nail polish on Gokudera's left hand had dried (he really would require the answer to that mystery when Gokudera woke up) before prying the pocket watch from his hands. After all, if his wrist watch was correct (and he knew for a fact that it was), Gokudera's younger self had just saved his younger self from a particularly nasty death nine years and ten months into the future. It was the least he could do.