Diclaimer: I don't own the characters or the series. Amano Akira does. I'm just playing with them for a bit.
WARNING: Darkfic. Potentially disturbing imagery.
A/N: Prequel to Clipped Wings and Death of the Skylark.
Blood-stained Feathers
They thought he was defeated, broken. They thought he had been brought to his knees mentally as well as physically. They thought his outward appearance reflected his shattered inner world.
They were not entirely wrong.
A part of his mind was still awake, still struggling, trying to force him to stand up, to fight, to refuse to submit. His body, however, would not obey, pushed well beyond his limits. He'd bide his time for now, his aching bones pleaded. He'd wait until he was better, until their guard was down, until he had better chances.
He had become a coward.
Dragged out of his cell again, his attempts at struggling only worked to alleviate his shame at not being able to push himself further. One of his eyes was swollen shut, the other only half open, a painful gash along the side of his face discouraging him from too much expression, not that he ever was given to much of that. Even with his sight thus reduced, he noticed the man immediately.
Hibari was, even after all this, not fully aware who the man exactly was. Someone he had defeated before, it appeared, someone with enough power in his family to be able to capture and keep a Vongola guardian as little more than a toy for his personal amusement. Any pain he had gone through, any torture he had been subjected to after his shameful capture had been because of this man. At the moment, there was nobody he wanted to see dead more.
Yet as he was pushed down on the floor in front of the man, his body would not obey him enough to push himself up again. He did try. He failed.
"Ah, my lovely little bird," the man cackled. "Do you feel a bit tired today?"
He would have glared at the man, except an attempt made a flare of pain run through his head. His hazy gaze could only barely make some sense of the room. His tonfas sat upon a wall, set up like a trophy for a sick hunter, so very close yet too far for him to reach. There were men around him, prepared to act if he tried anything, allowing the man to sit in relaxed confidence.
"I've found myself a new pet, you know," the man said, hardly contained glee in his voice. "Too bad the little thing seems not to be doing too well."
Little thing. That forced him to raise his eyes again, blearily able to make out the form of someone entering the room from the back, carrying something that looked like... a bird perch. With something small and yellow seated on it.
"He hasn't been eating, has he," the man cooed. "Of course, I might have forgotten to feed him."
"Hibari," a weak, high voice broke through his pained haze. "Hi-ba-ri. Hibari go sleep?"
Somehow his body found the strength to push himself up on his elbows to see. It was Hibird. It was a ragged ,dirty Hibird, a chain around one little leg binding it to the perch. It raised its wings just a bit, broken, clipped wings, and called for him again, voice weak yet still painfully familiar.
"Hibari! Blood, blood. Hibari hurt?"
"Such a stubborn thing," the man chuckled. "Just like its master... I never expected it to survive this long, really."
The man had hurt Hibird. He'd hurt and starved Hibird just to get to Hibari, just because Hibari was too weak, too weak to free himself and the only thing who had never questioned him, never doubted him.
Hibari did not hear his body's protests right now. He refused to. Aching muscles and wounds were forgotten as he forced himself to spring up, quite to the surprise of the men around him. They got not a single thought from him right now.
His tonfas were on the wall. His hand could not grasp the handle, not with the way his fingers had been broken, but he did manage to capture one between his wrists, lifting it from its hooks on the wall.
Little beady eyes looked at him with what almost looked like relief. "Hibari!"
No other word got out as the next sound was the violent crunch of a small, fragile skull being brutally shattered.
His legs gave under him, plummeting him to the floor. Everyone was moving now, one guard quickly taking the tonfa away while another dragged him further away from the man. Pain returning, he made no move to struggle, staring at the tiny, broken body.
At least one of them wasn't in pain anymore.
The man stood now, staring down at him. "So the proud cloud has finally gone down to the level of the common beast," he said, sounding sufficiently amused. "Give him his prey and take him back."
He was barely aware of being dragged back to his cell, stumbling down on the floor as he was shoved through the doorway. Someone tossed a small, yellow ball after him before closing and bolting the door separating him from the world.
Somehow he managed to drag himself to the corner where he usually slept, carefully picking up Hibird's tiny body. The bird was quiet, motionless, broken. He could have almost convinced himself his little friend was asleep if not for the crushed form.
"Hibari," he murmured, trying to remember the exact tones of Hibird's voice. "Blood. Hibari. Hibari go sleep?"
Hibird in his arms, though, remained silent.
"Hibari go sleep..."