Diclaimer: I don't own the characters or the series. Amano Akira does. I'm just playing with them for a bit.

A/N: Set in my 1896 'verse.

Kitty Cuteness

It appeared to be more or less a fact that the various box animals happened to treat each other the same way their respective owners acted. Granted, it might have been a more or less natural outcome of the pets often sharing the personalities of their owners, or merely their way of following the set example, but whatever the reason, this fact seemed to hold true even as the years passed. The box animals of the tenth generation of Vongola grew up, the various kittens and puppies and otherwise juvenile creatures making way for even stronger and more dangerous beasts, they grew up and their allies gained their own pets and things changed around them at a rapidly accelerating pace, yet this one thing seemed to stay the same regardless of the time. Uri and Belphegor's dear mink hated each other from the first time they saw each other, Uri spat and hissed at Yamamoto's dog while the poor thing tried its best to make friends with the cat, and Roll and Mukurou treated each other with a kind of wary suspicion at best.

Of course, since the animals were even less likely to control themselves than their owners, all this meant that the life in the new Vongola Headquarters could get rather interesting at times. It was indeed a blessing that it was rare for the entire core family to be there all at once, given they way this always seemed to lead to fights, between the animals if not the guardians themselves. Any visit from the Varia was bound to cause even more squabbles, no matter how hard Tsuna worked to make his various friends and allies cooperate without any unnecessary bloodshed.

One notable exception to the general rule, however, rather stood out from the crowd. Despite the occasional disagreements of their owners, the feline box animals seemed all too happy to cuddle together. At first Bester had regarded Uri and Natsu with a kind of haughty suspicion, but upon realizing that the storm leopard and sky lion were indeed just as capable fighters as the liger himself it had more or less grudgingly accepted them. After that, whenever Xanxus was forced to approach the tenth generation, it was rather safe to assume his pet slipped away sooner or later to enjoy the company of the two smaller cats.

Chrome, for her part, thought that the cats were quite adorable. They were often in the habit of falling asleep in a pile in the cats' room in the mansion Tsuna's guardians claimed as their home base in Italy, a big heap of fur and flames and sleepy little growls. However cute they might have appeared, though, everyone knew better than to go disturb their sleep. Natsu was rather amiable outside battle, but both Uri and Bester would just as soon bite your face off as give you a dirty glare, and tended to make this very clear. Once the cats got properly settled down for their nap, nobody but one of their owners could possibly have dared to approach them.

This was why she now found herself hesitating in front of the door. On the other side of it, as she well knew, she would find three very big and powerful cats sleeping – one might almost say cuddling, though certainly not anywhere the cats could hear, or Gokudera or Xanxus for that matter; the two more volatile owners were very much convinced that their pets could not possibly be capable of an act quite that peaceful and would swiftly correct anyone who dared suggest something that... atrocious. Under normal circumstances, she would not have even dreamed about opening the door; while she was certainly capable of defending herself even should it come down to a fight, she still rather preferred not to have to do such things, and besides three big box weapons would have been quite a challenge for one person alone.

These were, however, nothing like normal circumstances. At least, she was rather convinced they were not.

It wasn't like it was any reason to be worried, Gokudera had said rather haughtily. It was quite normal of Hibari to just disappear with neither a warning nor a trace, only to reappear some time later without any explanation as to where or why he had gone. Tsuna had rather accepted this as a fact of life, and following his example everyone else did so as well. Granted, he didn't usually just up and leave when he was supposed to appear for a meeting, but then that would hardly be unprecedented, either. It was the nature of the Cloud Guardian to be apart from everyone else, after all, and Hibari Kyouya embodied that idea better than anyone, for better or worse. And, like a part of her mind kept telling her, a part that sounded remarkably much like Mukuro-sama, it would be much better for her to simply stay away from such an antisocial recluse.

However, another part of her mind couldn't simply rest. After all, that part reminded her, this wasn't just any day, not just any meeting. Hibari-san... Hibari-san had said he wanted to talk with her about something later and that he'd meet her then. And for all that he could indeed be peculiar at times, Hibari-san rarely broke his promises. If he'd said he'd meet Chrome, he would do so, and that meant he wouldn't just disappear on her. At least not without telling her first.

At least so she thought.

Spurred by such musings, she had taken to going through the entire mansion. It wasn't like she gave it a thorough search; many of the places could be dismissed right out of hand for being too noisy or too dirty or too full of people. She had checked all the likely places, however, like Hibari-san's room and the rooftop and all the other places where he sometimes napped, but she hadn't found him anywhere. For a moment, she had been almost convinced that Gokudera had been right and Hibari-san had simply decided to leave as usual. Almost.

Then she'd noticed the tiny bit of yellow down at the door of the cats' room, and dread had filled her. If Hibird was there – if Hibird had been hurt...

Well. She had to find out. And to do that, she'd have to open the door.

Gathering her courage, she grasped on the handle and opened the door.

The room was absolutely silent, save from some heavy breaths. Like she had pretty much expected, the cats were all asleep in one big, furry pile. Other than that, there didn't seem to be any other life in the room.

Then she noticed something a bit out of place. A small speck of yellow stood out amidst the pile of cats. It wasn't the muted yellow of Uri's fur, either, but the bright, keen yellow of Hibird's feathers.

Daring to take a couple of steps closer, she spotted something black as well... an area of black hair that was too big to be just stripes or spots on a big cat's fur.

The pile shifted minutely, and she held her breath, hoping she hadn't managed to gain the ire of the beasts. Instead, however, the black spot moved a bit, shifting.

Turning around, Hibari-san directed a sleepy gaze at her, his hair mussed up from sleep.

"Unless it's time for that idiotic meeting already," he murmured, "I'm going to sleep a bit longer."

"Ah – of course." Chrome found herself somewhat flustered though she didn't rightly know why. "I – I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you... I just, I wondered where you were."

"I was asleep." With a small yawn that might have almost been cute had it not been Hibari-san who performed it, he added, "And I'd quite prefer to return to that state." Hibird next to him opened its eyes for just enough to stretch its wings, then returned to sleep as well, apparently unharmed despite her initial fears.

"Sorry," she murmured again, flushing further. "I'll... I'll tell you when they need you."

There was no actual response this time, just a somewhat sleepy nod before Hibari-san closed his eyes again. He appeared to be quite comfortable leaning over the pile of more or less vicious beasts, reaching one of his arms over Bester's back as he sought a position suitable to returning to sleep. None of the box animals seemed disturbed by his presence. Despite herself, Chrome found her lips curling into a little smile. It really was quite an adorable little picture.

Closing the door behind herself, she made sure not to cause any noise. It would have been quite a pity to break such a cute little scene.

The flush, however, remained on her cheeks for quite a while, the image of Hibari-san's messy hair and sleepy eyes firmly entrenched in her mind.