The community help_japan on livejournal is a place where people are offering things - mainly fanworks - in exchange for money donated to charities dedicated to the Japan earthquake relief efforts. I am taking part as a writer. Even if you don't want to donate for my fics, there are many, many people offering different things in exchange for money donated to the Japan earthquake relief effort. Please have a look! If you need links, I can PM them.

Written for Lumelle, for her donation of A Help Japan V-gift to my livejournal account. The prompt for this fic was D18, first. This involves their first date, their first kiss and possibly their first quarrel. It went over the word limit I imposed on myself by double, orz... but I hope you all enjoy it!

Akira Amano owns Reborn.

The spring breeze was cool, and carried the scent of the sakura blossoms so strongly that Dino could practically taste their sweetness on the tip of his tongue. As soon as the breeze died down he felt the heat of the springtime sun, the sudden change in weather causing a strange contrast of sensations against his flesh. He rubbed his right hand along the skin of his left arm in a vague attempt at calming the goose bumps that had flared up on his skin, and chanced a glance at the man next to him. Kyouya didn't look particularly impressed by their current location, but he said nothing to indicate his displeasure and continued to walk by Dino's side. His expression - halfway between boredom and irritation - marred the air of calm that enveloped the park.

It had taken Dino nearly five years to convince Kyouya to attend a sakura viewing with him, and even though he had eventually agreed to accompany Dino on this day, the last he would spend in Japan for three months, he certainly hadn't done so without argument. Dino wasn't entirely sure why he'd protested for as long as he had - didn't his student usually enjoy doing traditional things like this? - but he'd hoped that Kyouya's mood would improve as they day progressed. So far this hope had amounted to very little; in fact, Kyouya's mood seemed to be getting worse as they walked through the park, and Dino could feel his good mood slowly draining away with every second of awkward silence and moody glances from the Vongola Cloud. He had made several promises to Kyouya to stop him from leaving at the mere suggestion of seeing the sakura, but what had eventually changed Kyouya's mind was the promise that he'd ensure that they wouldn't regret accompanying each other. Well, the ten spars he'd subsequently promised after Kyouya had reached for his tonfas might have helped too, but he was choosing to ignore that. Now it seemed all those promises had been made in vain. They'd barely started their date, and Dino had apparently already made some sort of huge mistake by insisting upon this location being their first stop.

They happened upon a particularly isolated area of the park, just as Dino was giving up on the idea of Kyouya saying anything to him until they'd left this day far behind them. Kyouya halted so suddenly that Dino almost walked straight into him, and he took an awkward step back when Kyouya's expression darkened at their sudden proximity.

"Are you happy now, Bucking Horse?"

"Eh?" Dino replied blankly, and the other man scowled.

"You have seen the sakura. You have viewed them. And now we can leave."

"Oh," Dino said, grinning awkwardly as Kyouya's eyes narrowed. "Do we have to leave so soon?"

Dino got no verbal reply to that; instead, the Vongola Cloud simply turned away from him and began to walk away.

"Wait a minute, Kyouya!" Dino said, grabbing the Cloud Guardian's arm and spinning him around until they were face-to-face. If pictures could speak a thousand words, Dino's actions had done nothing but increase Kyouya's irritation to the point where he probably could've written an entire collected works about how annoyed he'd made him.

"What?" Kyouya asked shortly. A thousand excuses and promises ran through Dino's head, but his mind ultimately drew a blank that resulted in the Cavallone Boss reacting purely on instinct.

The kiss was so sudden that it almost surprised Dino himself. It certainly surprised Kyouya, if the sharp intake of breath as they parted and his total lack of retaliation gave any such indication. Dino could understand the sentiment; he felt void of any higher thought himself. It wasn't as if he regretted his actions, exactly - he'd met Kyouya five years ago and had been wanting to kiss him for about four and a half - but the circumstances left much to be desired. He felt as if his body temperature was once again fluctuating between warm and cold, though this time he could hardly blame the weather. The rapid beating of his heart and the sudden feeling of nervousness once again rose goose flesh along the lengths of his arms.

Dino stared awkwardly at the Vongola Cloud, and his heart almost skipped a beat as the palest of pinks began to colour Kyouya's face, giving the vaguely annoyed look he was currently aiming at the Cavallone Boss very little effect.

"Ah... you have a flower caught in your hair, Kyouya," Dino said awkwardly, reaching up to take the offending sakura from the other man's hair. Apologising wouldn't do much more than frustrate the Vongola Cloud, so he figured the best course of action was playing dumb, something his brain was currently supporting wholeheartedly. He still felt somewhat absent-minded as he freed the flower from Kyouya's hair, though he was vaguely transfixed on the contrast of colours between the dark of his student's hair and the bright pink of the flower's petals. Kyouya stared for a moment more, but in the instant it took Dino to blink he had regained much of his self-control, if you ignored the fact that his cheeks were still the same colour as the blossom that Dino had taken from his hair.

"I'll bite you to death."

Dino's face paled in an instant, but it was nothing compared to the lack of colour he displayed when he took a few step backs, tripped inelegantly and fell flat on his back. Of all the times he'd accidentally strayed out of the range of his men, this was definitely one of the worst. He got to his feet, fumbled with the whip on his belt and gulped down a mouthful of air as Kyouya took his tonfas from their places at either side of his thighs.

"I think I'll be taking one of those spars you promised now, Cavallone."

Dino could practically hear the sound of victory assured in Kyouya's voice as he spoke, despite the fact that the colour still hadn't faded from his cheeks.

He wasn't sure that he'd be able to keep his promise after all.

End.