"Hey little bro!" The older male greeted from the door way.
Tsuna started. "Dino-san!"
"Tenth!" Gokudera greeted shoving his way past Dino to join Tsuna kneeling at the table.
"Hey Tsuna!" Yamamoto stood behind Dino.
"Yamamoto! Gokudera!" Tsuna smiled at his two friends. "How is your training coming?"
"Perfect Tenth." Gokudera nearly shouted holding his fist clenched.
"It's neat to spend time with the old man." Yamamoto laughed.
"Caissou." Reborn dropped on to Tsuna's head. "How is Hibari Kyoya's training?"
Dino shook his head with a frown.
"That badly?" Tsuna nearly squealed. "We're done for."
"No." Dino reassured them quickly. "The kid is doing fantastically but he doesn't care why he's fighting and I can't seem to get anything more than threats out of him. Kyoya won't even hear anything about the rings."
"That's terrible." Tsuna bit his finger nails. "What if he won't fight the right person and ends up killing US?"
Dino shook his head. "He'll fight the person that is pointed out. That much he agreed to but"
"Then what's the problem?" Gokudera scorned. "All we need is for him to fight for the Tenth and be in best physical condition."
"There's more to teaching than physical condition." Reborn said. "Like with Tsuna."
"Mental and emotional condition have to be considered as well for fighting." Dino finished off.
Yamamoto looked up from studying Tsuna's homework. "Like if he's insane?"
"No." Reborn looked pointedly at Tsuna. "More like if he's upset about something."
Tsuna thought that over.
"Hibari? Upset?" Yamamoto asked.
The older blonde scuffed the floor with his shoe. "That's the thing; I can't get a thing out of him. What about you Reborn?"
Reborn just frowned slightly. Dino opened his mouth to press the short male when a noise interrupted them. It sounded like someone beating the air with a whisk.
Midori tanabiku namimori no
"Is that?" Tsuna looked at the open window.
A little ball of yellow feathers fluttered up cutting off at the beginning of the song as if just announcing its arrival. The little bird's eyes roved around the room.
"Hibari's bird?" Tsuna looked the duckling like creature.
"Hibari! Hibari!" It chimed jumping back into the air to soar around Tsuna's room.
"Where?" Tsuna cowered waiting for the terrifying figure to jump through the window.
No one came through the window. The bird landed right on Dino's shoulder.
"Hibari! Hibari!" It chirped.
"He isn't here though." Dino tried to explain to the distressed looking bird.
"Help!" The bird cried suddenly.
"What?" Dino looked around suddenly.
Gokudera gritted his teeth. That stupid bird setting them all on edge. Just in case he tightened his grip on several bombs.
"Hibari! Hibari! Help! Help!" The bird took off circling the room. "Help! Help Hibari! Hibari!"
"What?" Tsuna asked.
The bird didn't listen though and it glided out the window crying for help and its master. Tsuna felt something in his chest tighten. Help Hibari. He stood quickly grabbing his bag and scanning his little group. Dino had Romario waiting outside so this might be ok.
"Come on." Tsuna slid out the door and Reborn landed on his shoulder.
"Tsuna?" Dino called running after him.
"Tenth!" Gokudera ran down the stairs with them and Yamamoto dashed right behind them.
The suited subordinate was waiting outside. "What is going on boss?"
"Not sure but you had better stay here." Dino panted.
Tsuna scanned the skies. There! The noisy speck of yellow in the sky. The bird was flying in a straight line. Tsuna ran after it with the four others with him. They dashed through the evening light on the city. Everything was closing up for supper time and still they ran. The yellow feathered creature suddenly started circling.
Tsuna nearly ran smack into the beginning of the dense forest. He dodged through the trees and stopped behind a wall. Reborn jumped right to the top. Tsuna pulled himself up. Not really over but enough to see the clearing beyond.
"What is it Tenth?" Gokudera asked.
The other three males hauled themselves up a ways. The clearing was pretty really. A huge house stood towards the front and the sun lit the area with a beautiful glow. There was a quiet pond hidden just at the back of the clearing a little into the woods that probably couldn't be seen from the house. The only thing that soiled the perfect scape were the two figures in its midst.
"Hibari-san?" Tsuna squeaked in a whisper.
Said figure was standing nearly at the middle of the grass. His head was tilted down so his hair shaded his deadly grey eyes. A taller almost exact older copy of him with brown eyes was before the male. The brown eyed middle aged man was yelling.
"Completely useless!" Tsuna caught as the volume of the man increased. "And I have to deal with the shame of having you for a son! Disgusting bastard child!" He spat. "Permit you to have food and even a freaking place to live and what do you bring back? A 99 on a test? Worthless!"
The man suddenly step forward and back handed Hibari's face. The smack made Tsuna jerk.
Hibari didn't flinch. He didn't pull out his twin weapons either. He just stood.
"Did you hear me you brat?" The man crushed his fist into Hibari's abdomen. The steel eyed male sank to his knees.
A woman unnoticed before stood.
"Thank god." Dino swore softly relieved that his student was ok. His mother, the woman would intervene.
Tsuna knashed his teeth. Something wasn't right. Then the woman swaggered drunkenly.
She giggled. "Don't kill him and watch his face." She cackled and nearly fell, headed for the house. "Give him a good crack for me!" The door swung close.
The man laughed boisterously. "She, your fucking mother, doesn't care about you! I don't care about you! Who would care about a broken, good-for-nothing, weak, waste of space like you?"
With each word he struck Hibari.
"You listenin' to me boy!" The man undid his belt.
"Worthless."
Snap. The belt cracked across Hibari's arm.
"Lousy."
Snap. Snap. It landed across his back splitting the material and drawing blood.
"Irrelevant!"
Snap. Snap. Snap. His body was laid open with repeated blows.
"Coward!"
The man swung his leg around and kicked Hibari hard enough in the side to tip him over. The dark haired person just let himself fall, eyes closed.
"Help." The bird cheeped quietly landing on Dino's shoulder.
Hibari's father kicked him in the chest until he heard a satisfactory crack under his polished shoe.
"Shame to the entire family!"
The man looked over his work. He lifted his foot and brought it down on his son's lower leg and it broke.
"Worthless." He spat on the face with the blood splatters and closed eyes. "Just stay there and let yourself bleed to death."
With one last foot to the stomach the man wandered drunkenly back to the house. The door slammed echoing around the clearing.
"Hibari?" Tsuna called much too quietly to be heard, as if asking himself as if that were the real Disciplinary Committee Head.
Molten mercury eyes opened and Hibari groaned in pain. He rolled gingerly to his stomach and pulled his quaking arms under his chest to raise the broken ribs off the ground. It wasn't as bad as others he had experienced but he was alone and could show a little pain. I mean injuries hurt no matter how many times you get them god damn it! Hibari laid his forehead on the ground.
The tiny bird swooped off Dino's shoulder. "Hibari! Hibari! Help! Help!"
"What's wrong?" Hibari asked quietly lifting his head from the ground as the bird landed before him. "Are you hurt?"
"Hibari! Hibari!" It chirped.
The pale boy pushed himself up into a kneeling position then paused. He screwed up his face and shoved to his feet. The bird landed on his unharmed shoulder. He swayed then limped forward dragging his broken leg along with him toward the other end of the clearing. The group watching dropped from the wall and stalked along it until it ended and they were just inside the shadows. They made no noise like a pack of wolves watching a wounded deer. More like a group of timid hares following the injured panther.
"Hibari." The bird dropped to the water's edge.
Hibari let himself sag to his knees and his busted leg hung limply off to the side. Hibari heaved a breath and scooped some water with his cupped hands. He lifted it to his face and rinsed the splattered blood from his burning eyes. He coughed.
"Hibari! Hibari Help! Help Hibari! Help!" The bird cried forlornly.
Hibari's eyes looked at the bird softly. "Why do you cry that? You aren't hurt."
Dino couldn't take it anymore. "Maybe he wants someone to help you?"
The ragtag family came into the light. Tsuna flinched when the liquid silver turned to pointed steel in Hibari's eyes.
The injured one was on his feet in seconds, his tonfas glistening, ready for battle. "What are you Herbivores doing here?" He growled.
"Hibari-san." Tsuna said sadly.
"Get out of here before I bite you death." Hibari braced one leg back.
"Kyoya." Dino said gently. "We care. Just so you know."
Hibari turned around and strode toward the edge of the clearing. "I gave you an order."
Gokudera nearly growled. "What is with him?"
Hibari made it to the edge of the wood's shadow. Then the grey eyed male stopped completely setting one hand on the trees on the side of his broken leg. He didn't look back but stood there ramrod straight.
"Why?" His voice was the same as a threat but like it was in another language. "Why do you care?"
Dino looked at his student. "You don't need a reason to care about someone."
"We're a family, kind of." Tsuna put in hesitantly.
Hibari glanced over his shoulder and started walking again as he turned back in the direction of the hospital under his control. "Don't follow me."
"Wait for it." Dino smiled and held up a finger.
"Or I'll bite you to death."
Dino sighed happily as the little bird flew off.
Midori tanabiku namimori no
"He's alright."
The next day Hibari listened.
The next day Dino learned.