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

Open The Windows to a Strange Sky

"…Kyouya?"

Dino paused at the door, unsure whether the other had heard him. After waiting for a moment and receiving no response, he knocked on the door and called out again, this time louder. "Kyouya?"

For a moment he thought his call went unheard again. Finally, though, he heard a somewhat tired voice calling back. "…What is it?"

"Ah, I was just wondering whether you were settled in, yet." Dino took this as the best invitation he was going to get, given Kyouya's usual personality, trying the door. It was unlocked.

Letting himself in, he took a look around the room. Sizable as it was, it seemed rather empty with its sparse furnishings. There was just a desk and a chair in one corner, a bookshelf and an armchair in another, and a bed along one of the walls. There were only a couple of books in the shelf, the desk empty save for a paper or two, the bed neatly made in the manner that spoke of complete lack of use. It was not a room that had been lived in. Then again, there hadn't exactly been much time for it to gather the usual signs and knick-knacks of life. It had been empty for quite a while; this wing of the manor hadn't seen much use in the recent years. Now, he'd had this one room cleaned and prepared for a new inhabitant, one who would quite prefer a location away from the worst buzz of life.

Said inhabitant currently sat on the floor in the middle of the room, looking at an empty suitcase. Its contents had apparently found their way in their respective places, be it the bookshelf or the closet open in front of him. Though Dino didn't exactly go snooping to see Kyouya's things more closely, judging by the size of the suitcase, there hadn't been all that much.

"...Is that all your luggage?" he asked, frowning. There was nothing in the room that indicated there might have been more. "That's... not much."

"There isn't a lot I found necessary to bring along," Kyouya replied, still not quite looking towards him. "I'm not exactly given to herbivorous sentimentality when it comes to mere objects. Most of what I took along consisted of some clothing to tide me over until I can purchase new clothes. There are very few things I cannot simply replace."

"Really, now." On one hand, it sounded very much like Kyouya to say something like that, but on the other hand... there was something amiss. He couldn't quite figure out what it was, yet, but he knew something had upset his prize pupil. Which obviously meant that he had to solve the problem, whatever it was.

Kyouya didn't offer any clues, quiet as he was. Hibird on his shoulder gave Dino a slightly quizzical look. It seemed somewhat harried, apparently still stressed after the transcontinental flight. "Hibari! Hibari!" it announced, beating its wings once or twice without actually taking flight.

"...I know this is a big change," he finally said quietly, starting with the most likely cause of distress, sitting down on the floor next to Kyouya. "You just finished high school in Japan, and now you're going to start university here in Italy. Pretty much everything in your life is changing. But... you know, Kyouya... it's really all right to be a bit upset about it. Afraid, even."

"Why would I be afraid?" Kyouya asked, perhaps a tad too defensively. However cool and mature he appeared, however much he sometimes even made Dino himself feel immature, he was still just a young boy in the end.

"Because everything changing means that nothing is familiar." Dino shook his head. "You are quite a creature of habit, Kyouya. It's rather obvious, considering you continued to attend middle school even when you were technically enrolled at high school. To suddenly throw yourself into a new situation in a new culture... of course it is unsettling. Frightening, perhaps, even if you don't want to admit it. And it's quite normal, you know. Human beings tend to prefer familiarity."

"You forget I'm not some common herbivore." Nevertheless, Kyouya's voice just barely almost trembled. Most people would have never caught it, but Dino was used enough to observing the younger man that he noticed. "You are just looking for reasons to interfere with my life even further."

"That's the last thing I want to do." He shook his head. "I offered to let you live here on Cavallone grounds simply because it is easier for you than having to start from scratch in a new country. I don't expect you to take any part in the life of the rest of the people here, and I'll make sure nobody is stupid enough to start crowding near your room." Of course, he would drop by occasionally, but then he was rather certain Kyouya was already expecting that. "...I know it's not the same as your home back in Namimori, but..."

"...It'll do." Kyouya was still not looking at him, he noted. "I am not a child, Cavallone. I do not require you to look after me."

"I know that, Kyouya." He decided he might actually dare set his hand on Kyouya's shoulder. "But... I can still be concerned for a friend."

There was a momentary silence. Finally, Kyouya spoke. "I'm not going to cry myself to sleep with homesickness if that's what you're worried about."

"I never thought you might, Kyouya," he said honestly. "But that doesn't mean you may not sometimes feel a bit unhappy. And when you do... I'll do everything I can to cheer you up." He gave Kyouya a small, only slightly sheepish smile. "It's the least I can do in return for having you here, all to myself." After all, while he was sure Kyouya wasn't going to change his habit of occasional disappearances and lack of general sociability, he was still infinitely closer than he had been over in Japan.

"...You are a useless, stupid sap of a herbivore, Cavallone." Kyouya shook his head. "And it seems you're never going to change in that respect."

Despite the harsh words, Dino couldn't help but notice that Kyouya was yet to shrug off his hand. He let it linger a moment longer before finally withdrawing it, not stupid enough to mistake the momentary respite for a total change of character. The foremost thought in his head, though, was not a complaint over the expected aggression, but rather a kind of simple determination.

He perhaps couldn't bring Kyouya's home over here, but at least he was going to do his utmost to help Kyouya make a new home for himself.