In Reality

6918

So. I rarely write about Mukuro x Hibari simply because they're not my OTP, kora. But I had yet another brainwave while doing nothing, so I ran for my laptop and typed this whole thing up. Warning, it's tragic and sad and it'll make you want to grab tissues and cuddle your Hibird plushie (if you have one). Or at least, I hope that's the effect it'll have on you. Past 8018 and current 6918.

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Any similarities in events or characters living or dead are entirely coincidental.

Enjoy!

It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. In reality, Tsuna was not really as innocent and soft-hearted as he appeared to be. In reality, Gokudera's rough and temperamental attitude did not reach the grand piano's keys. In reality, Squalo's hair was not actually naturally straight as he claimed, but rather the product of nearly an hour's worth of heat under the hair straightener every morning. In reality—you get the idea. You cannot make a judgment based on appearances under any circumstances at all.

So in reality, Mukuro loved Hibari.

In reality, Hibari loved Yamamoto.

"Kyoya!" Mukuro called, strolling leisurely into the dark bedroom. "Time to rise and shine!"

The lump under the thick coverlet did not stir at all. Undaunted, Mukuro pranced over to the heavy curtains on the other end of the room and called out again, "Kyoya~ Get up!" as he ripped the curtains open. Sunlight streamed into the room as though somebody had turned on a giant flood light in the bedroom. Hibari hissed like an angry cat and actually fell out of the bed in an uncoordinated heap on the floor. Mukuro burst out laughing, clutching his sides as the raven untangled himself from the sheets, hair sticking up in every direction and a furious look on his face.

"Baka! What on earth did you do that for?"

Mukuro beamed at him. "What better way to wake you up than greet you with the glorious morning sun my love?"

"Come here so I can properly bite you to death!"

"If you can catch me, darling!"

It was not an unusual morning routine for the two of them in the Vongola mansion. Hibari would sleep in whenever he didn't have anything of extreme importance to do in the mornings and Mukuro would form a devious plan to wake the sleeping guardian up. A floor below, Gokudera groaned in his bed and rolled over, clamping a pillow over his head to drown out Hibari's yells. Reborn sipped his coffee without much care as dust fell from the ceiling in the kitchen. In his office, Tsuna shook his head and winced slightly as he heard something delicate and probably dead expensive shatter into a million pieces under the wrath of Hibari's tonfas.

It was usually over in about twenty minutes, either when Hibari managed to actually catch Mukuro or if the raven simply lost interest. Luckily for the majority of the other guardians also attempting to sleep in after late-night mission reports, Hibari had huffed in annoyance and tossed his tonfas onto the sofa of his shared room when Mukuro had managed to obtain a seat on the swinging chandelier high on the ceiling of their room.

"Get out of my way, herbivore."

"Ne, are you mad, Kyoya?"

"Shut up. I'm going to get Hibird food. I demand to go and shave right now. You look ridiculous."

Mukuro pouted. "I haven't shaved for a week already and you didn't say anything before. Why bug me about it now?"

Hibari shot him a scathing glare. "I was far too busy with my work to care. You are becoming an eyesore with your whiskers. Get rid of it now."

Mukuro sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll go."

Hibari turned on his heel and left their bedroom with the little yellow puff ball chirping after him. The blue haired man remained on the chandelier for a moment, swinging his feet like a child on the swings. Risking one more glance at the closed door, the illusionist dissolved into mist and reformed in the spacious bathroom. It was dark, because the room didn't have any windows and the door had remained closed. Mukuro glanced up at the mirror. He could see a vague outline in the glass of a tall, well-built man. If Mukuro stood up straight in his real body, he would almost be as tall, but still too slender to pass off as him in the dark. Curse his athletic build. He heard the sounds of the bedroom door opening again and hurriedly flicked on the light switch.

"Are you done yet?" Hibari called to him through the door.

"Halfway done." Mukuro called back in a voice too deep to be his own.

"Hurry up. I want to shower." Hibari yelled back, his voice neutral, which meant that he wasn't really that pissed anymore. Mukuro grunted in response, turning to face the mirror. If he was in his real body, he would see the image of a long, blue-haired man with glowing, mismatched eyes and a smart, devious faces. But right now, all he could see was the tanned face of another man with short, spikey black hair, warm honey-coloured eyes and a thin scar on his chin.

In reality, the face of Yamamoto Takeshi stared back at him from the smooth surface of the mirror that did not tell lies until it was deceived by the works of a certain illusionist.

In reality, Tsuna knew.

It had been maybe a week after he'd taken on the Rain Guardian's appearance and personality, and Tsuna, piled under a heap of work and stressed out beyond belief from reports and grief, called out to the illusionist out of instinct as he was passing by the young boss' office office.

"Mukuro! Could you lend me a hand with this stack of mission files?"

Unconsciously complying, the Mist Guardian had walked into the room, dropping his own stack of work onto the overcrowded couch and reached over to give Tsuna a hand. And then he stopped, because Tsuna stopped. And then he caught on, and his heart stopped for a fraction of a second, and then thoughts were racing through his head along the lines of crap crap oh crap crap crap—

"Uhm, Tsuna, I think you're mistaken," he said quickly in Yamamoto's gentle voice, "Mukuro isn't here. He's gone."

Tsuna looked up slowly, rubbing his eyes like he was trying to see through something. The Tenth Boss frowned, and when he opened his mouth, Mukuro knew that he'd already seen through everything.

"You're not Yamamoto, are you?"

Mukuro looked away. Curse that hyper intuition!

"Mukuro? What are you doing with Yamamoto's appearance?"

The illusionist closed his eyes. Tsuna's breath caught in his throat and he choked out in a hoarse whisper, "Mukuro? If you're here, then whose body did we bury in your grave?"

And Mukuro couldn't reply. Well, eventually, he did, since Reborn had his ways of knowing things and slapped Tsuna back into his senses and basically squeezed the story out of Mukuro. Not that the illusionist was completely reluctant to tell those two. He knew they wouldn't tell anyone. Especially—

"Hibari!"

The former prefect turned and watched as Ryohei came running down the hall clutching a toppling stack of envelopes and papers. He nodded in Mukuro's direction. "Hey, Yamamoto."

"Hello, senpai." Mukuro replied immediately. "What's all this?"

"Work," panted Ryohei. "I've got mail for Hibari. Here." He shifted his papers so that he could hand a white envelope to the raven. "Gotta run to the extreme now. See ya!"

And with that, the energetic Sun Guardian was running down the hallway again, shouting something to Gokudera who had been making his way up the stairs with his own pile of work. Hibari ripped the envelope open and tugged out a sheet of paper. Mukuro leaned over the other's shoulder.

"It's from Kusakabe. There's work to do back in Japan again."

"Eh? Really?" Mukuro asked, taking the letter as Hibari passed it over into his hands. They were walking back down to the meeting rooms so that Hibari could use the filed records stacked on the shelves for his write up, Mukuro coming along just because he felt like it.

"Herbivore work. I'll notify Sawada and take a flight over tomorrow morning."

"I'll come with you." Mukuro offered immediately. Hibari huffed. "I don't want you crowding me," he said, but there was no malice behind his voice. The look in his eyes was surprisingly soft, and Mukuro had only seen that look presented for two living beings: Hibird, and Yamamoto. It made his heart ache tragically, for himself and Hibari.

"Maa, maa, mean as ever, Kyoya." Mukuro said playfully, slinging his arms behind the back of his head and grinning good-naturally down at the raven. "I can't let you go over all by yourself. You'd get lonely."

"What on earth made that thought go through your head?" Hibari snapped, snatching the letter back. "You're always in my way, Yamamoto Takeshi. Sometimes I swear you do it just to make me mad."

"Maybe~" Mukuro winked while his chest hurt from the effort to stay impartial to hearing the name. Hibari huffed and walked ahead as they neared the meeting room. Mukuro lagged behind, staring blankly at the wall. It was a difficult task to maintain. He knew that the moment he'd closed his eyes and willed his mist to cover his features and replace himself with the Rain Guardian. Yet, sometimes he wondered exactly how long he could keep this façade up. How long he could keep lying. How long before Hibari found out.

"Are you coming in or not?"

There was that look in his eye again. A look given to the person the Cloud Guardian loved. Mukuro smiled widely and ran up. "Yeah, yeah, I am."

Even if that look wasn't for him, he'd do anything to keep that warm happiness alive in Hibari's eyes.

The flight to Japan was utterly uneventful. The night before, Lambo had called in from America with news that had sent all the Guardians scrambling out of bed at the ungodly hour of 2:37am so they could catch the Mafioso escaping from the States to Italy. They made it in time to the Italian airport, where they apprehended the suspects they've been after for a long, long, time, and finally returned to the mansion at sunrise, completely burned out. Hibari had stayed at the airport and sent Mukuro back to grab their bags for their 10am flight. An exhausted Ryohei had offered to drive him back, but in the end, Mukuro took the wheel after the Sun Guardian fell asleep twice at the wheel and nearly rear-ended another passenger car.

Now the two Vongola members were slumped in their seats on the place, feeling the turbulence rumbled beneath them as they took off. Hibari snored a little and slid sideways from his seat to lean on Mukuro's shoulder. The Mist Guardian's breath hitched a little at the sight of the peacefully sleeping raven curled up next to him. Lifting his arm up, he wrapped it comfortingly around the softly breathing Cloud Guardian and drifted off into sleep on his own as well.

The ride back to Hibari's second house was also uneventful, because the raven had stayed awake for about twenty minutes as they walked through customs (which had been considerably shorter for them as they were Mafioso) and had dozed off again the moment they found Kusakabe's car. When they arrived, Mukuro half-dragged, half-carried Hibari's limp body back into the house and unceremoniously dumped him on a laid-out futon.

"Man, how does he sleep like that?" he wheezed, staggering outside to grab their bags. To his surprise, Kusakabe had already brought them in. "Here you go, Yamamoto-san. I know you're tired so I already picked up everything from the car. Go ahead and get some sleep."

"Ah, thank you." Mukuro sighed, offering an exhausted smile as he dug through his bag for a change of clothes.

"How are things holding up with the other Guardians?" Kusakabe asked, pulling Hibari's suitcase to the hallway. Mukuro paused in the middle of taking out his shirt. "Well, fine, I guess."

Kusakabe nodded at the answer. "I heard from Hibari-san about the passing of your Mist Guardian. I'm sorry for your loss." Mukuro stopped moving altogether and pressed a hand over his face. He suddenly felt a decade older.

"Hibari…talked about Mukuro?"

"He did." Kusakabe replied, sitting down on the stairs.

"What did he say?" Mukuro dared to ask, looking up with tired interest. Kusakabe shrugged and sighed a little.

"Well, he said that he didn't think Mukuro-san would die just like that. He thinks he's still out there somewhere, probably planning something stupid again. He'd like to fight against him again. I know that for a fact."

Mukuro gave a hollow laugh and stood up. "Well, somebody had to die in that fight." He said quietly. "The graves are occupied by the dead, not the living."

"Huh—?" Kusakabe asked, confused. Mukuro gave a weary smile. "Nothing. Goodnight, Kusakabe-san."

In reality, Mukuro never forgot that day.

He was standing in the room. It was a doctor's operation room containing a load of medical equipment which names Mukuro couldn't even properly pronounce. The lights were flickering badly in the ceiling, one of the broken ones spraying a shower of sparks all over the floor on occasion. A floor stained with blood.

Yamamoto Takeshi was dying. Mukuro kneeled beside him, at loss for words as the Rain Guardian coughed weakly and smeared more blood onto the ground. His eyes closed for a moment and for a heart-stopping second, Mukuro thought he'd died already, but then the baseball lover's hand reached out, and by some miracle, managed to find Mukuro's wrist and hold it tight despite two broken fingers.

"…kuro…Mukuro…"

"Stop talking." Mukuro said immediately, almost wincing when Yamamoto appeared to be choking on his own blood. "Stop…stop. Don't act like this."

"…favour…please…"

Mukuro stared. The botched mission seemed like a million miles away. He wiped blood out of his own eyes and pressed a wad of cloth into Yamamoto's side, hoping to buy a little more time for him. "What are you talking about?"

"…change…image…"

"What?"

"…you…love Kyo…Kyoya…"

Mukuro's heart almost stopped again. How did he know?

"…disguise…as me…take care…of Kyoya…"

He was not suggesting what Mukuro thinks he is suggesting. No. No. Impossible. The Mist Guardian swallowed and said sharply, "Stop it. You're on the verge of dying. Tell me something reasonable and useful, damn it!"

The next words Yamamoto spoke still haunts him to this day. "Love…reasonable…right?"

Mukuro hung his head. He was selfish. Too selfish to want Hibari for himself and too selfish to keep Hibari happy. "Are you sure?" he whispered to the dying man. Yamamoto's grip tightened.

"…keep him happy…please…"

When Hibari, Gokudera, Ryohei and Tsuna stormed into the crumbling building and into the dark room, all they saw was Yamamoto Takeshi was straightening up and Mukuro's lifeless body on the floor.

"Takeshi!"

Mukuro's eyes snapped open to find Hibari's face inches from his own, glaring down at him with narrow onyx eyes.

"About time you woke up, baka. Were you planning to sleep the whole day?"

Mukuro sat up, staring around. It was mid-morning, with sunlight streaming in through a crack in the curtain and a room completely devoid of blood. He'd been dreaming. Hibari stood up and popped his back, yawning. "I'm going to shower. Get your shit and leave as soon as I'm out. I want to clean that herbivore mess up before noon."

Mukuro nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment. Hibari took no notice and walked out of the bedroom, Hibird chirping after him. An old man's dream. A dream of a day he could never forget. A day that will haunt him until he dies. Mukuro pressed a hand to his face again and exhaled in agitation.

Love is reasonable, right?

Mukuro gave a hollow laugh. "Don't make me laugh." He muttered, getting to his feet and cracking his joints the same way Hibari did.

In reality, it was not a herbivore mess.

Whatever Kusakabe had sent them was clearly bullshit, because the moment Hibari and Mukuro slipped in they were nearly blown to kingdom come by the trap set out for them. Mukuro immediately drew out an imitation of Yamamoto's rain shield around the two of them, saving them both from the deadliest part of the explosion. Hibari stumbled and raged, his ears bleeding from the force of the dynamite. Mukuro felt the side of his head as well; sure enough, it was sticky with blood.

The battle began at once. They were horribly overwhelmed and had been forced to fight for their lives the moment they entered the field. Hibari was lost to Mukuro in the sea of bodies, but Roll appeared minutes later and Mukuro settle on the fact that Hibari was still okay. His own box animal couldn't be opened without giving away his identity, but he pulled out his illusions and created the image of a sparrow and a dog to the best of his ability. They fought without stopping. Mukuro soon found himself stepping over and on top of bodies as his fight continued.

It was just like that day. So many ambushers, so many Mafioso, and so many dead—

Mukuro saw it in his mind before it happened. One brute found his way behind Hibari, and as the raven turned, he slipped in the blood. Mukuro moved before anyone knew what had happened. A blade passed straight through his stomach. Hibari grabbed him around the middle and was yelling incoherent words now. And then a blow to his head, and Mukuro descended into darkness.

In reality, Mukuro knew he was dying.

He opened his eyes groggily and he could almost feel the energy draining from him. Curses. Why did he have to wake up when he was going to die in a minute or so anyway?

"Can you hear me?"

A voice. His voice. Mukuro's eyes fluttered. Hibari was hovering above him, his eyes shadowed and red.

"Mukuro. Can you hear me?"

It took the illusionist a moment to process what Hibari had said. When he did, he swore the heart monitor next to him missed a beat. He looked over through half-lidded eyes.

"You…know?"

Hibari closed his eyes. "I knew." He said quietly. Mukuro's heart dropped. "From the moment I walked in into that operation room…I knew he was dead. Perhaps not right away, but in my heart, I knew he was gone. And then I looked at you, and I knew you weren't Takeshi."

"How…did you know…it was…me?"

"Who else could fool everybody in the whole of the Vongola without batting an eyelash?" Hibari shot back, his voice cracking. "And you've changed back, you know. How long have you kept his image? It's been nearly a year, hasn't it?"

Mukuro glance over to his side. Sure enough, strands of blue hair were spread around him. There was a strange buzzing in his ear now. The lights were getting dimmer.

"Sorry…for tricking you…he wanted…and I liked you…so sorry…"

"Stop…stop it. Don't act like this."

Mukuro almost laughed at the moment of déjà vu. It came out as a hacking cough that spiked the heart monitor to a high pitched wail. Hibari jumped out of his seat. "What are you doing? Mukuro!"

"Thank you…for…keeping me…by…"

"Stop talking like that!" Hibari yelled.

"…by…your…side…"

"Takeshi's left me already! Don't you dare leave too!"

For a moment, Mukuro swore he could have seen an outline of a man standing in the corner of the room, hands in his pockets, a sad but grateful look on his face. He smiled, and the scar on his chin stood out from a mile away.

Thank you.

In reality, he still loved Hibari. And love is reasonable, right?

Mukuro closed his eyes. He didn't wake up again.

Done. Done. I'm done. Yay. Not a fan of the ending, but I can't help that. It's a brain killer. UGHN. In any case, thank you for reading. Reviews and comments are much appreciated.

-BlackStar