"Christmas is coming!" Tsukiko squealed happily, throwing her hands into the air.
"VOOOIIII! Brat, we don't care for such festivities!" Squalo grumbled, polishing his sword.
"I do!" Tsukiko pouted. "Squalo-chan…"
"What?"
She crawled up to him. "Can we….can we…go to…"
"Japan to see those ******* Vongola brats…again?! Don't you have anything better to do other than making goo goo ga ga eyes at that roundhead with his pair of sticks?!" Squalo rolled his eyes.
"He's not a brat or a roundhead…and neither does he have a pair of sticks! Those are tonfas!" Tsukiko retorted. She paused. "And nor do I make goo goo ga ga eyes at him!"
She twined her arms around him. "Please can we go to Japan for Christmas? Please…" She gave him her custom puppy dog eyes whenever she wanted something. "Please?"
Squalo glared at her. "That's not gonna work, brat."
"Okay then…I guess you don't want your sword…" Tsukiko sighed, taking out her gun and pointing it at Squalo's clean, polished and VERY precious sword.
"VOOIIII! DON'T TOUCH MY ******* SWORD!" he yelled.
She smiled at him sweetly.
"…fine..." Squalo mumbled.
"Yay!"
"But you'll have to talk to Boss yourself…I'm not doing it for you, that's for sure." He returned to polishing his sword.
"That's easy," Tsukiko beamed. Xanxus always gave in to her requests somehow, albeit a little unwillingly.
"Damn all you Cloud guardians…" Squalo muttered.
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"What?! The Varia is coming…to stay…HERE?!" Tsuna yelled, before fainting. Gokudera blanched and clutched at his stomach. He didn't think he'd be able to survive that psychotic prince's advances on him again.
Yamamoto just laughed. "Haha! Squalo's coming? When?"
Reborn smirked. "This Thursday...20th December."
It was a while before he realised that it was the next day that they would be arriving. Yamamoto scratched his head, confused. Then he laughed.
Reborn stared at him. Even he didn't understand how Yamamoto's brain worked sometimes.
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"Hi guys!" Tsukiko bounded out of the entrance of the terminal. She appeared to be carrying nothing at all.
"Hi…Tsukiko-san…" Tsuna gulped. Her character was the exact opposite of that of what a Cloud Guardian's was supposed to be – cold and solitary. Instead, she was hyper and very, very sociable.
"Where are all your things? I thought you were staying over…"
She shrugged. "There." She pointed behind her.
There, trailing slowly behind, was Levi & Squalo carrying a massive load of bags. Evidently, they were Tsukiko's belongings.
"Goddammit…I knew I shouldn't have agreed to bet with her…she always wins…" Levi muttered under his breath.
"VOOOIIIIIIII! TSUKIKO! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE AND GET YOUR F****** LUGGAGE! I'M NOT YOUR ******* ERRAND BOY!" Squalo yelled. His…ahem…louder than 30-decibels-voice was more than enough to frighten all the people in the airport.
Tsukiko smirked. "Yes you are. I won the bet. So there."
Next to come was Lussuria, carrying a flamboyant and colourful luggage. He looked as gay as ever. Trailing behind him was Gokudera's dreaded…ahem…admirer/psychopath chasing after him. Belphegor strutted out with Mammon. Gokudera cursed under his breath and tried to hide somewhere where Bel wouldn't find him. No such luck.
"Ushishishishi~! Hayato-kun! Where are you going?" Bel sang, slinging a sinewy arm around "his Hayato-kun". Gokudera growled and shrugged him off, following which he immediately sprinted off.
"LEAVE ME ALONE YOU SICK PRINCE!" he shouted.
"Bel-sempai, maybe you should leave him alone. I guess he knows of how your idiocy can spread to others," Fran drawled, appearing out of nowhere.
STAB.
"Ouch, sempai, that hurt," Fran said in a monotone, pulling the knife out of his skin.
Finally came the dreaded boss of the Varia, Xanxus. He looked less than pleased to be in Japan, much less living with the "annoying Vongola brats who suck marginally less than a piece of shit". Tsuna gulped. It didn't seem like it was a good time to talk to him.
"Where's Kyo-chan?"
"HIEEEEEEEEEE!" Tsuna sweatdropped. Tsukiko was always appearing out of nowhere.
"Erm…he didn't want to come…"
Tsukiko sighed. "I'm going to look for him tomorrow." She stalked off, evidently displeased.
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Next morning…
"Tsu-kun! Have you seen Tsukiko-chan?" Nana called out to her son.
"Erm…no?"
Tsuna sweatdropped. He had a feeling he knew where Tsukiko had gone.
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Tsukiko bounced from roof to roof as she made her way to Hibari's house. She grinned, knowing he would be awake by this time.
Finally, she arrived on the roof of Hibari's house. Popping her head into his window, she saw that Hibari seemed to be knitting something.
"Kyo-chan~!"
Hibari didn't even seem to jolt. He must have known of her presence from the start.
"Hn."
Tsukiko pouted. "What are you doing?" She jumped into his room. Somehow, Hibari had managed to hide whatever he was knitting.
"Nothing. Now go away, herbivore."
"I'm not a herbivore! And I came here just to see you!" Tsukiko grumbled. She poked at him.
"Nya…Kyo-chan…play with me~!"
Hibari growled.
"I said, leave me alone." His cold voice sliced through her heart.
Tsukiko was hurt. Tears threatened to spill over.
Quietly, she left, jumping out of the window. She didn't look back.
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"Trash, stop playing with your food. It's annoying," Xanxus grumbled. Tsukiko didn't seem to have heard him.
"VOOOOOIIIIIII! Tsukiko! You in dreamland, or what?!" Squalo yelled at her.
Abruptly, she stood up. "I…I don't think I'm really that hungry…sorry…I'll go back to the room first."
With that, she left. Everyone stared at her.
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"It's Christmas Eve…" Tsukiko murmured, staring outside the window. It was snowing rather heavily.
She wondered what Hibari was doing.
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Hibari furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the finished scarf in his hands. It looked perfect…yet he couldn't seem to place his finger on what was bothering him.
He looked outside the window and stared at the full moon.
He wondered what Tsukiko was doing, too.
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"VOOOOOOOOIIIIIIII! Brat, wake up! Weren't you the one looking forward to Christmas?! Get your lazy ass up!" Squalo yelled at Tsukiko, who lazily pulled herself off the bed.
"Nya…Squalo-chan, I'm still tired…" She yawned widely.
"…I don't actually care…."
She scowled and slapped his leg lightly. Squalo rolled his eyes and walked out of the room.
Tsukiko fell back onto her bed. Her eyes clouded over as she thought of Hibari again.
"Kyo-chan…I came here just to celebrate with you…why did you turn me away?"
A single tear ran down the side of her face.
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"Nyahaha…give Lambo-san his Christmas present NOW!" Lambo shouted. He was 11 years old, but he was just as annoying as he was when he was 5.
Tsukiko groaned. He had been disturbing her for the past hour already.
"Brat, shut up or I'll shoot you into non-existence," she told him in a monotone. She took out her gun and Lambo gulped.
"Gyaaaaa!" He cried as he ran off. Tsukiko smirked. She turned around, only to see that the front door was wide open…
And Hibari was standing in the doorway.
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"So…what do you want? I thought you turned me away…" Tsukiko trailed off. She had been walking in the park with Hibari for at least 10 minutes already, and none of them had said a word so far.
She looked up at Hibari when he didn't reply. His face seemed to be…red?!
She smirked. "Nya~ is Kyo-chan actually blushing? Ehehe…"
Hibari looked down. He took out something from underneath his coat.
"I…have something for you. It's your Christmas present."
Tsukiko looked at him in surprise as she received the package. It was beautifully wrapped, with snowflake designs on the light blue paper. Carefully, she opened it, only to be greeted by the sight of a lovely purple scarf.
Her eyes widened as she lifted the scarf up. "You…made this…for me?" she whispered, taking in the intricate beauty of the scarf. The purple gradient of the scarf was very gradual and very natural, not forgetting that it also had "Tsukiko" sewn onto it, with the colour being a blue gradient.
All in all, it looked like it had been made by a master.
Hibari nodded, his eyes lowered.
Tsukiko smiled as she immediately wrapped the scarf around her neck. It was very warm and she absolutely loved the feeling behind it.
She hugged Hibari tightly. "Thank you…Kyo-chan."
It was a few seconds before Hibari hugged her back. They stayed like that for a minute.
After a while, Tsukiko noticed that they were hugging right under a mistletoe plant.
"Kyo-chan…we're standing under a mistletoe plant…" She blushed.
Hibari looked up in surprise. "Your point being?"
"Well…you know…the tradition that goes when a…c-couple is standing under a mistletoe plant…" she stuttered, unable to continue her sentence.
"So…" Her eyes widened as a pair of soft lips touched hers gently.
Tsukiko closed her eyes and smiled under Hibari's lips.
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They sat on the bench in the snow, their heads touching each other's.
'Kyo-chan…I have a present for you too…" Tsukiko smiled.
"What is it?"
She handed him a keychain. A mini Hibird dangled from its end.
"I sewed that myself…"
Hibari smiled and kept it in his pocket. Tsukiko took that to be an acknowledgement of her efforts for him.
"By the way, Kyo-chan…why did you tell me to leave you alone? You could've just told me I wasn't to look…" her voice trailed off sadly.
"…I didn't know how to tell it to you in a nice manner…"
She giggled.
"D'aww…Kyo-chan, there's no need to be shy…" she laughed as Hibari's face turned red.
"Stop that!"
"No!"
She giggled again as Hibari took her into his arms and kissed the tip of her nose.
"Regardless…I think you're a better Christmas present than whatever I gave you and whatever you gave me."
They stayed in each other's arms for a long time.
