Title: Make Me Lonely
Author: Serpentine Wisdom
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Pairing: Implied one-sided 1827, implied one-sided 5927
Characters: Hibari, Tsuna, Gokudera, Soichi
Word Count: 3054
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or any of it's characters and I'm not making any profit out of this.
Summary: An airport, a meeting, and everything goes down the drain. Implied one-sided 1827, implied one.sided 5927.
Author notes: I hope this turned out alright, it's the first time I've written out of Hibari's perspective and I'm not certain how successful I was at portraying him. Sigh, he's so much easier to write from someone else's point of view… Also the lame-ass title is a homage to my lack of creativity.
-----
"No mam," Sawada said in smooth Italian with just the hint of an accent. "I promise we won't be causing any more trouble. I'm really, really sorry."
The woman glared at him over the rim of her glasses, her doubtful stare making it clear she had very low expectations as to Sawada's ability to keep his promise. Sawada's smile was wide, almost to wide, as he laughed uncertainly, his right hand rubbing his neck nervously, and he bowed quickly a few more times - even though it was a gesture that was lost on the woman. A black pin strip suit was clinging to his still too small frame with matching suave leather shoes and dark gloves, and somewhere under the long coat hanging precariously off his shoulders, reminiscent of Hibari's high school days, was a gun he had never used. A gun he had never had the chance to use under the watchful eyes of his own private guard dogs. He was decked out in full mafia apparel and had it not been for his out of place gesturing, old habits from childhood, even Sanada would have managed to seem somewhat like the mafia heir he was supposed to be.
As it were the woman was not impressed and the child bawling at her side didn't seem to fully appreciate Sawada's heartfelt apologies. Her eyes traveled over the three of them, taking in their sharp-cut, top-of-the-line suits and well-groomed hair, lingering at the similar rings decorating their hands. It was ambiguous if she was aware of the possible danger she had stormed headfirst into or was simply incredibly ignorant. Although there was always the possibility she believed she was safe solely due to the bustling crowd surrounding them. When she flinched under his stare, he knew he had guessed right. He let his gaze slip down to the child, wishing he had the opportunity to silence it's infernal screeching. And on cue, as if sensing the murderous intent in the dark-haired man, the screaming died down into small hiccuping sobs. The woman shivered slightly, despite her thick uniform, turned on her heels and stalked away without another word, dragging the child with her.
Sawada breathed out a sigh in relief having escaped closer scrutiny by airport security.
With a disdainful snort, Hibari turned his head, discreetly scanning the airport for possible dangers. The swirl of people surging around them, carefully keeping a distance and avoiding eye contact, made his hands ache for the familiar feel of steel in his hands and blood splashing against his face. Only the promise of a fight with Sawada later restrained him. Instead he settled for glaring scornfully at the passers-by. A man caught sight of his cool gaze and visibly hurried his steps, throwing several nervous glances behind his back. Pathetic. As his eyes continued their sweep the reaction of each person that was close enough to notice was painfully obvious and repetitive. Herbivores the lot of them, so afraid for their minuscule pathetic lives that they didn't even try to preserve their pride.
"Where the hell is that bastard?" She silver-haired mafioso next to him said and threw a cigarette stump onto the floor and put it out with an aggravated stomp of his foot, grinding it into the stone as if he imagined someone's face in it's place. "How dare he stand the Tenth up!"
"Relax, Gokudera-kun," Sawada said placatingly. "I'm sure Irie-kun didn't mean to offend us, he might just have run into some trouble on his way."
Predictably Sawada's little pet dog stepped down, still grumbling under his breath and Hibari felt his lips curl in disgust momentarily.
"The moron responsible for attracting the attention of airport security should shut up before someone else does it for him," he said calmly.
With a growl that only enhanced his resemblance to a dog, Gokudera turned on swiftly to face Hibari, his hands in his pockets, clearly preparing to draw out a couple of the dynamite sticks he was infamous for storing all over his body. "You bastard!" He spat out. "You want a fight?"
Hibari could feel his face split in a smile, a mere movement of muscle across bones that always felt strange, out of place. There was no happiness or anticipation, only cold satisfaction that he might get the chance to beat down the silver-haired guardian who always stuck annoyingly close to Sawada. In a swift motion he let his tonfa slide down into his hands from the sleeves of his jacket, fully intent on the man in front of him.
"Hibari! Gokudera-kun!" Sawada exclaimed worriedly, glancing around the airport meaningfully. Clearly he didn't think this was the ideal place for a fight
But Hibari's tonfa had already disappeared up his sleeves again before Sawada's mouth had even opened and his smile had faded into a relaxed smirk. "Did you really think I would waste my time fighting a yapping little puppy-dog in a place like this when I have a much more satisfying fight on stake?"
The furrow between Gokudera' brows deepened and his hands were positively shaking with rage but he still kept quiet with some difficulty. Sawada blushed somewhat at the indirect compliment and looked away, then his face lit up.
"Ah, Irie-kun! Over here!" He calls out, waving his hand enthusiastically.
Out of the corner of his eyes Hibari watched Irie approach. His face was friendly and harmless-looking enough with his soft features, round glasses and thin body and Gokudera dismissed him as a threat with a single glance and Sawada, who had never had much skill in self-preservation, didn't even consider the possibility of the other man being dangerous. Normally, Hibari didn't pay much attention to the various people Sawada met on the rare occasions he was actually present to do his job as a guardian but this Irie Soichi that he's heard Sawada prattle on about more than once sent a tingle of awareness running down his spine. There was something strangely familiar about the man that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
"I'm very sorry for being late Sawada-san," Irie said, bowing deeply.
"You better be," Gokudera said. "Making the Tenth wait like that…"
"Gokudera-kun, it's alright, " Sawada said, placing a hand on his subordinate's shoulder, before turning back to Irie. "It's no trouble, Irie-kun. I don't have a lot to do today anyway."
It was a lie, of course. Sawada's desk was full of paperwork that needed to be looked through – although Gokudera would probably end up doing most of it for his beloved Tenth as usual. On top of that there was a meeting scheduled with the head of Varia just two hours after this, one hour of which would have to be spent traveling. With Xanxus temperament in mind, Sawada was anxious to be on time for their meeting and yet here he was meekly being accommodating to this snake-in-the-grass. Not for the first time, Hibari wondered how such a soft-hearted herbivore like Sawada could hold so much hidden strength. No matter how much he looked at Sawada, he could not see the steel hidden within that cotton-candy fluff that he knew was there and it irritated him. There was no edge to Sawada, no sharpness to detect, there was only that gentle smile that made Hibari's skin itch with the desire to hurt someone.
Chatting amiably Sawada and Irie moved on to the nearest Starbucks where Gokudera insisted on standing in line and ordering for them. The faithful dog act might have endeared him to Sawada, but the cloud guardian couldn't pull out even a sliver of respect for someone so desperate for approval. Bowing down his pride like that, no making servitude a part his pride was shameful. Sitting down by a table that had cleared suspiciously fast Sawada and Irie's conversation soon turned to business.
"The information you wanted was a bit hard to get a hold of," Irie said, rummaging through the bag he had brought with him impatiently. "Ah, here it is!" he exclaimed, holding up a small, state-of-the-art cell phone.
"A cell phone?" Sawada said slowly, a confused expression flitting over his features, but accepted it anyway.
"The cell phone is just a cover, if you break it open you'll find a computer chip with all the information you need," Irie said smiling softly.
There was something off about him, Hibari decided. He had put too much effort into appearing harmless and his smiles had an edge that should not have been there. He narrowed his eyes, compared to Sawada, this man was easy to understand.
"Oh, I see, " Sawada said with an embarrassed laugh. "I'm not very good with things like this."
"Don't worry Tenth, I can work it out for you," Gokudera said quickly.
"Thank you, Gokudera-kun," Sawada replied, then glanced down on his wristwatch. His eyes widened, almost comically. "Crap, we have to go. Now! Or we'll be late."
"Then I'll excuse myself Sawada-san," Irie said smoothly, his chair making a slight scraping sound as he stood up.
"Sure," Sawada said, but his mind was far away. "What am I going to do? Xanxus is going to kill me…"
"Be sure to be careful with that cell phone," Irie said as he left, a strange smirk twisting his face and his eyes flickered challengingly toward Hibari.
Hibari stared after Irie's retreating back, there was something about those words… His eyes widened for a fraction of a second as realisation struck and he spun around and snatched the cell phone out of Sawada's hand.
"Eh? What are you doing?" Sawada asked bewildered.
"What do you think you're doing Hibari?" Gokudera demanded at the same time.
Ignoring the two men beside him, Hibari threw the cell phone high into the air. Seconds later an explosion rocked the airport and knocked them off their feet while debris rained down on them. All around them people were running around like headless chickens in their panic and the smoke from the fire started by the bomb set off the screeching signals of the fire alarm. Soon enough the dust enveloping them had died down and a soft fall off water was falling down on them from the sprinklers above.
"Are you alright Tenth?" Gokudera said, his face ashen white as he put an arm around Sawada's shoulders.
"I'm fine," Sawada coughed, shakily rising to his feet with Gokudera's help.
"Thank you, Hibari," he continued, a grateful smile flickering across his face. "You saved my life."
At those words Gokudera looked away, shame-faced. Another occasion when he hadn't been able to do anything, another time when it had been Hibari who had been the one to save the Tenth. His inferiority complex was amusing and all too justified.
"Saved your life?" Hibari said with the casual lift of an eyebrow. "I only saved you because it would be inconvenient for me if you died before I could fight you."
"You – " Gokudera started before clenching his teeth. "Nevermind, we have to get out of here before the police arrives."
Sawada nodded agreeingly. "But I can't understand why would Irie-kun do some-"
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Before his eyes splatters of blood exploded out of Sawada's chest and the sheer force of the bullets slammed him facedown onto the floor. A decoy. The bomb had only been a decoy and now Sawada laid there, motionless, with blood seeping out from beneath him in a steadily growing pool. And suddenly it was as if all the sounds in the airport had been cut off and his head felt strangely light. He watched Gokudera rush forward toward the tenth, his mouth open as if screaming, but no sound came out. He would let the other guardian deal with Sawada, calmly he turned toward the direction the bullets had come from. It didn't take long for him to spot a man with a sniper rifle moving on the second floor.
Without a second thought Hibari sprinted toward the escalators, his feet barley touched the ground, as if he was only a step away from taking flight. A piece of the ceiling had crashed right into it effectively freezing it but he moved forward anyway, taking three steps at a time and pushing his way through the throng of panicking people that were in his way. It didn't take him long before he could see the sniper again, he was only a hundred meters ahead. Fifty meters. Twenty-five meters. Five metres…
Hibari reached out and grabbed a hold of the man's shoulder and slammed him down into the floor. There would be no need to interrogate him; it was already obvious who was behind this and the motive was hardly difficult to place either. With a practised ease he pulled out his tonfa and hit the man while he was still down. Over and over again, the man's mouth was open and bleeding but Hibari could not hear the screams that should be echoing down the hallway and it irritated him. That strange light-headedness returned in the tick silence, egging him on. He wanted to see this man scream and plead like the pathetic bug of a creature he was but no matter how hard he hit there was no sound, not even that of metal striking flesh. He raised his tonfa and with a click, thorn-like spikes shot out as he brought the tonfa down on the helpless shooter that had attempted to crawl away in the short pause it had taken for Hibari to release the spikes. And the light-headedness grew stronger, made his head dizzy as if he had spent hours under a hot sun without water.
When he finally stepped back from the body he was breathing hard, his usually immaculate suit was ruffled and his arm felt numb. Starring down at the corpse by his feet he could not recognise it as human being anymore. Slowly, as if in a daze, he made his way back to the spot where Sawada had fallen. Medics had arrived at the scene and were surrounding the fallen mafia heir, he could see Sawada's face over their shoulders. Someone must have flipped him over.
Sawada's face was too pale, his chest too still. Dead eyes, usually filled with so much warmth, were staring at him blankly, somehow accusing in their emptiness.
"… sorry…
The cloud guardian shook his head, it felt as if the daze was disappearing, the light-headedness dissipating. Slowly the cacophony of sounds returned. People screaming, medics and police officers struggling to make themselves heard and the tense voice of a mafioso who couldn't do anything to save the one he cared about.
Gokudera had grabbed a young, blonde medic's shoulders and shook him hard. "Do something, you're supposed to be medics! You can't let him fucking die like this!"
"I'm sorry," a medic said helplessly. "He was shot four time's in the back. He was dead before he hit the floor. There's nothing we can do anymore."
At that, the silver-haired mafioso threw the medic down on the floor and slammed his fist down into the tile next the his face. "Don't say that," he said in a low voice. "He isn't dead. He can't be dead. After all the shit we've lived through," his voice rose," you can't fucking expect me to believe he's dead!"
It took the arrival of the rest of the guardians and another half-hour to calm Gokudera down. He ranted, he screamed and he cried but in the end facts were facts. Sawada Tsunayoshi, heir to the infamous Vongola family was dead, shot four times in the back by a Millefiore hitman and no amount of grief or regret would bring him back.
With a last glance over his shoulder, watching Sawada's prone body being carted away, he slipped away from the rest of the group in the turmoil. It only took people on glance at his blood-drenched suit and cold face to quickly step out of his path. A single police officer separated from his colleagues, whose attitude screamed rookie, tried to stop him for questioning. He didn't even have the chance to scream before his body hit the floor with a thud and the people around them jumped back a step, in unison like a flock of fish evading a predator. He quietly exited the airport without any more interruptions.
Once outside Hibari took a deep breath, filling his lungs with pollution-ridden air and closed his eyes. He sat down on the edge of the pavement with his feet on the road. The image of a smiling face flashed in his mind and he put his head between his hands. That face would never smile again… not at him, not at anyone. He wasn't angry or sad, his heart wasn't in turmoil. There was nothing, not even disappointment that he would never be able to have the fight he was promised. So why couldn't his mind let go of that scene, why did it replay itself in his head over and over again? Bullets striking, blood spurting and a body hitting the floor… why couldn't he stop thinking about it?
"I, " he said to himself, his voice unaffected, "I wanted to save him."
He snorted derisively at his own words. "How ridiculous."
Then as he finally looked up again, he spotted a black, expensive-looking car with dark-tinted windows cruising the street a little further away. As he watched, one of the windows rolled down and a soft harmless-looking face stared out at him with a darkness in his eyes and a sharpness to his smile that Hibari recognised all too well. Then the window rolled up again and the car sped away.
Silently watching Irie's escape, a small sliver of anger seethed in him. He pulled on his shirt, once white as newly fallen snow but now dyed red; it was beginning to dry against his chest. Ignoring the curious stares of the people around him or the wondering stares of the corrupt police so deep into their mafia connections that they couldn't even dream of doing anything but keep the young and naive from approaching him and ending up six feet under ground. He would never see Sawada's smile again.
Why did the world suddenly seem so empty?
The End.