Title: Her Son
Theme: #18. Love
Rating: K
Character/Pairing: D18, Hibari's mother
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Summary: Love is such an unpredictable thing. But like the saying goes "the mother knows best".

A/N: Me attempting to try the 100 theme challenge. Also trying to write a fic a day, but since school is starting tomorrow, the fics will most likely be drabbles, but I will try my best. My take on Hibari's life is totally AU.

She walked into the room in a brisk pace and held his blood soiled uniform in her arms. She stopped at the doorway to take in the image of him trying to wipe dried blood from his metal tonfas. "I found these in the hamper."

He looked up from his activity and said with a calm voice, "I put them there."

"There's blood on them."

"The blood is not mine."

Her arms suddenly felt heavy from the weight of the clothes and she said in a tired voice, "dinner's in the fridge. Reheat it."

She left the room and entered the bathroom before closing the door. Leaning against the door, she slid to the floor and tossed the clothing to the side. She had kept a lavender scented air freshener in the room, but somehow, she could still smell the metallic scent of blood. Burying her face into her hands, she cried out in frustration.

It didn't use to be like this. Her son used to come home with mother's day crafts like a normal child, beaming as his mother ruffled his hair. He used enjoy weekends at the park with his mother, letting out childish squeals as she swung him higher and higher on the swings.

Like a normal proud mother, she did not believe any rumors of ill behavior of her son, but soon it was too late. She knew she had gone wrong; she ignored the hints and now, her son was a delinquent who ruled his school with violence. She couldn't help but flinch every time he came home with blood on his body, even though she knew that the blood was not his.

Slowly she stood up and started to wash his clothing. She wiped back her tears with her arm and stared into her reflection. The image of a confident young women with happy smiles was gone and replaced with a gaunt, pale face and matted dull, black hair. What a sight she might have been to the other house wives shopping around in the neighborhood; but she doubted they would have cared. To them, she was the failed mother of a reckless delinquent.

"You're crying," the voice of her son startled her from her reverie.

She glanced down towards the sink to see the red swirls of blood in the water from the wet clothes. Touching her own face with her forearm, she felt dampness on her cheeks. "So I am," she said with almost a surprised tone.

She saw her son reach out his arm as if he were to wipe away her tears but put back down his arm. He stared at his mother for a moment, as if waiting for her to explain, and then turned around to leave when he was met back with silence.

"Kyouya!" Maybe it was the sudden cry, or the almost desperate voice she had used, but he paused and turned back.

"Kyouya…are you happy?" He stared with murky eyes into the wet, confused eyes of his mother. It was strange. They had the same eyes yet they were projecting totally different emotions. "Are you happy with this life that you're leading?"

"Something's missing," he murmured before he turned around and walked away. And somehow, the image of her son walking away from him hurt more than when he had come home littered with bruises and cuts.

-

She had received a call from the hospital. Her son had been admitted for having most of his bones broken and the hospital bill had been paid by a mysterious benefactor. She sat down next to her son, staring at the bandages that wrapped around his lithe frame. She stayed at the hospital for almost a full week, only leaving to get a change of clothes and a quick meal from the cafeteria. Her son received few visitors: someone with a strange hairstyle from his school's disciplinary committee and one time, a group of students who looked just as injured, bringing fruit baskets and sushi with them.

Just when it seemed like her son would never wake up, she was greeted with something that had made her heart swell. She had taken to sleeping in the bed-side chair, resting her head on his bed and one week after he had been hospitalized, she woke up with his hand (bandaged fingers and all) gently grasping her hand that had been lying near his arm. His hand was not there before. "Kyouya?" she whispered quietly, but her son did not answer. But despite that, she could not help the small smile that was tugging from the corner of her mouth.

-

She walked into his room to see him packing his clothes into a small bag. "Kyouya…are you leaving?"

He glanced up and continued to pack. "I'll be gone for about a week."

"A week? What are you doing?"

"Training."

"I see…" she glanced down at her feet and saw something sparkle. Kneeling down to pick it up, she realized it was an ornately decorated silver ring. "Kyouya, this ring…"

He grabbed it from her hands and shoved it into his pocket. "It's nothing." And with that, he walked out the door.

She fell to the ground, wondering just how long she could last, not knowing anything about her son, or what he was doing, or where he was going. She heard him open the front door, and just as he was about to leave, she ran to the front and said with a quick voice, the words she had not uttered since he left elementary school, "Be careful, and come home safely!"

He stepped out the door, and without turning back, he said, "I'll come home soon."

-

The doorbell rang and she opened the door to find a smiling blond foreign man standing on her doormat holding her son in his arms. Behind him were a few dangerous looking men in black suits.

"Hello," she said cautiously.

"Hello madam," the man said smoothly in Japanese even though he had a strong accent. He shifted the boy in his arms. "My name is Dino Cavallone and I'm the tutor for Kyouya."

She quickly reached out to retrieve her son from the man who relinquished his bundle rather reluctantly. "Tutor?"

"He didn't tell you? Ah, I shouldn't be surprised. I trained him this past week, but I guess I should leave the rest for him to explain. Be careful with his leg, he's injured there, but I've patched him up pretty nicely."

She scrutinized him with a strange gaze that made the foreign man slightly uncomfortable before she walked over to the coach to lay down her son. "Would you men like to come in and have some tea?"

Cavallone laughed and shook his head. "Sorry madam, but there is some business I have to attend to. I'll be back to visit as soon as I can, but if you could please leave a message for Kyouya?"

The women nodded warily, her hands running through the dark hair of her sleeping child.

"Please tell him that he should pick up his ring from Reborn as soon as possible."

The man started to leave but she quickly stood up and grabbed his arm with a determined look on her face. "Wait!"

The blond haired man turned toward her with a confused look.

"Mr. Cavallone, can you tell me what is going on? Who are you? Why is my son involved with you? How can I trust you?"

The smiling blond man patted the women's hand that was still gripping him gently. "Forgive me, but I cannot tell you anything, but do you trust Kyouya, madam? Do you trust your own son?"

"I…of course!"

"Then you shouldn't doubt your son." With a smile, he asked her to forgive his rudeness before he gently pulled her hand from his arm and walked away with his men.

-

She walked toward home with a bag of groceries when a sleek black car stopped in front of her house and out stepped her son and the same blond haired man who appeared at her house a few weeks back. "Mr. Cavallone!"

The man stood by her son and smiled. "Please just call me Dino, I feel too old."

"Where were you Kyouya?"

Her son didn't answer, instead turned a bit red as Dino draped his arm over his shoulders and said with a cheerful grin, "a date! We saw a movie together."

Hibari shoved his arm from his body and grumbled something that sounded like, "he gave me no other choice."

She giggled and shifted the grocery bag. It was getting a bit heavy. "Would you like to come in Dino? You didn't have dinner yet right?"

Dino looked at Hibari to see if he should take the offer, but the boy ignored him. Instead, he walked over to his mother and reached out a hand. She gave him a surprised look before a huge smile erupted from her face and transferred the bag into his hand.

She walked to her front door and waved her hand to tell them to come in.

-

"So Dino, are you Italian?"

She giggled as rice fell from his chopsticks and Hibari looked on with disgust. This was nothing like the composed man she had first met.

"Yes, ah!" The man yelped as some of the hot soup he was drinking spilled onto his pants. He quickly grabbed napkins to wipe the spill, blushing brightly as his host continued to laugh at him.

"Kyouya," she called. "Why don't you see if there's any clothing you can find for Dino to change into. Maybe some of your father's old things..." she trailed off. Hibari got up and left the room.

Dino, feeling an awkward change in the air, decided to carefully step into the danger zone. "Your husband…"

"He died many years ago…"

"I'm sorry-"

"It's okay, it's been a long time. Dino, how old are you?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm twenty-two."

"I see…" She watched as her son walked back in and tossed the clothes into the Italian's arms.

Dino stood up and said, "I'll change in the bathroom-"

"Wait, Dino." The seriousness in her voice caught his attention, and her son's. "I'm not sure if I will ever get another chance to say this, but," she smiled widely and her eyes twinkled, "remember, no sex until you are of age, Kyouya."

Hibari choked as he nearly spat out the water he was drinking, and Dino dropped the clothes he was carrying onto the floor.

She yawned, stretching her arms high above her head. "I'm feeling a bit tired, I think I will rest early tonight. You can just leave the dishes in the sink. Oh, and Kyouya, I don't think Dino ate much dinner tonight, most of it landed on his clothes, you might want to help feed him to get some food into his stomach. Good night!"

She briskly walked out and closed the kitchen door behind her. Leaning against it, she smiled. Throughout the last few weeks, her son has matured in a way that made him seem more like the son she thought she had lost years ago.

She didn't care anymore if her son did not go down the path most normal boys went. She did not care if her son came home with blood dripping from his body as long as it was not his blood. All she cared was that her son had finally found what he was missing and now, even if he did not express it, he was happy.

And as long as he was happy, so was she. Because, in the end, whoever he became, he was still her son.

A/N: I cannot believe I just wrote about 2000 words using just "she" and "her". Like I said above...I am doing the 100 Theme Challenge, and ALSO one per day, so they will never be this long again because school is starting tomorrow. Wonderful T.T I hope you enjoyed this one though. (And I did NOT plan this, my friend picked #18 and the theme was love. Coincidence? Maybe its fate!)