Gokudera Hayato barely had enough time to raise his arm to mask his sneeze as the harsh sound bounced off the empty hallway walls. His sneezes had always been as sporadic and harsh as his personality could be towards outsiders or anyone who threatened Juudaime. The loudmouth Vongola Storm guardian produced a tissue from his pocket, since he didn't bother carrying around a useless school bag, blew his nose, and tossed the wadded up tissue at the nearest trash bin. It ricocheted off the rim and rolled to a stop a few inches shy of the bin. Why bother, Hayato concluded with a shrug of his shoulder and a cough he didn't bother to cover.
"Herbivore," an ominous figure turned the corner as silent as a feline stalking a rodent, steel tonfas catching a gleam of sunlight from the afternoon sun positioned just outside the window, "you are spreading an illness all over the school. For this, I will bite you to death." Hibari Kyouya's narrowed eyes seemed to sharpen acutely.
Hayato scowled at the menacing prefect and wiped his runny nose of his sleeve. "Shut up! I'm not spreading a disease or anything! It's just a cold!" The bomber's yell was cut off by a sputtering cough. His breath was sickly sweet, and the sleeve of his blazer felt like it was melting into his skin when his hot breath touched it. The ground seemed jello beneath him was that his shaking legs? Shit, he probably had a fever.
Cold steel touched his throat; the threatening weapon actually offered some comfort to the right-hand man, which was a red flag in and of itself. Burning bloodshot eyes met steeled ones and he swallowed some of the saliva building up his mouth.
The violent prefect was staring at him in quiet contemplation. Whether he was deciding on a method to kill the storm or thinking about what he was having for lunch, one couldn't tell just by looking at him. He always looked so serious, Gokudera noted. Never a team player, always causing stress for Juudaime…
"You know," Gokudera coughed again, gritting his teeth when his throat showed signs of being inflamed, "you're a real pain in the ass."
"…Excuse me?" Kyouya's nostrils flared and his knuckles turned white from the pressure he was exerting on the tonfa. Gokudera wheezed and coughed from the lack of air.
"Always," cough, "causing Juudaime to worry about whether or not," he paused to sneeze, and thankfully Hibari allowed him to sneeze into his sleeve, "you're actually going to show up to events and stuff." Gokudera inhaled, the nasty sound of a crud-filled nose causing a fine black eyebrow to twitch.
"Crowding is for herbivores." The Cloud guardian growled back. "It is because of crowding that the student body will be infected to your illness."
Hibari added something snarky to that, but Gokudera was too distracted by the swaying floor and how close the cloud's face was…
He slumped forward, falling face-first into the prefect. Their lips, unfortunately for the prefect, seemed to fit together perfectly, even if the kiss was accidental. Hibari drew back his face in shaking rage only to find the silver-haired Italian out cold, deadweight against the shorter male.
Growling in frustration at the knocked-out Hayato and the blush that had somehow broken through Hibari's aloof mask now shining brightly across his cheeks, Kyouya kicked the limp body back against the wall and stormed off with tonfas flashing.
When Gokudera came-to, he was tucked into bed in his apartment. He could hear the low whispers of his sister Bianchi, his stomach churned on instinct, and Dr. Shamal in the next room over. The washcloth lying in a bowl of ice-water beside his bed signified someone must have been in here attending to his fever only a moment ago. His tired green eyes scanned the room. He must have passed out. What had he been doing…? He started to sit up and reach for a glass of water set neatly on a coaster so not to harm the wood side table, but pain shot up his spine and stopped him. Damn, it felt like he had been thrown against a wall or something! He was now aware of a nasty purple and blue bruise forming on the side of his neck.
Hm, must have fallen or something when he passed out.
When Hayato returned to school two days later, he immediately sought out Sawada Tsunayoshi and by default Yamamoto Takeshi. Tsuna greeted him with a shy smile and a soft, "Welcome back, Gokudera-kun" while the baseball idiot just grinned and slapped him on the back. Hayato grinned at Tsuna but scowled at Yamamoto, swatting at the taller male with his hand. "Ah, Tsuna! You should tell Gokudera what's going on, since he hasn't been here!"
"Juudaime..?" A silver eyebrow rose curiously, even though he bristled that Yamamoto of all people knew something before he did.
"Ah! It's nothing really…it's just…Hibari-san's ill! I think he has the same cold you did, Gokudera-kun! Isn't that a little odd? I hope we all don't catch it…" Tsuna smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his hair with his sweaty palm.
"Don't worry, Juudaime! My germs would never infect you!" Gokudera declared. He gave Yamamoto the evil eye. "Can't say the same about the baseball idiot, though."
The three of them walked to class, but Gokudera stopped just short of entering.
"Gokudera-kun…?" Tsuna questioned, his big brown eyes taking in the sight of Gokudera touching his lips with knitted browns and a thoughtful frown. "Is something wrong?"
Gokudera shook his head. Why had his lips suddenly felt tingly? Oh well, it was probably nothing. "N-no! Nothing to worry about, Juudaime! I'm back with perfect health!"
Hayato's enthusiasm was enough to make Tsuna dismiss any worry. "Good."
So the two took their seats, and class began normally as usual.
In the prefect room, however, Hibari Kyouya lay on the couch, a beige rag pressed to his forehead and a scowl painted on his face. He was going to kill that stupid Herbivore as soon as his fever broke, he swore it.