Hibari swung his hand away from Dino and turned to shoot a glare at the Cavallone who was still busy catching up with his breath. Dino, undaunted at how anytime Hibari would attempt to bite him to death, just grinned as he slipped his rejected hand awkwardly back into his jacket's pocket.
"You were walking so fast," Dino tried to explain for his actions, "It'd be a hassle if I lost sight of you."
"That's not an excuse – I'll bite you to death the next time you touch me."
They weren't lovers, of course. Despite how hard Dino had been trying.
-x-
It had been this particular day when Dino repeatedly tried to convey his feelings clearly to Hibari and to know how the other feel in return. Besides getting the cold shoulder even way before he could ask the nerve-wrecking question to his student, the raven-haired guardian wasn't even looking at him.
It was frustrating.
"Do you enjoy eating them...?" Dino tried to start a conversation again lamely, looking at Hibari who then only nodded while munching on the hamburger, his usual cold stance brought down slightly. "... I see,"
It was then the both of them fell into silence again, both too concentrated in their dinner which made things pretty much awkward.
"... Kyoya, I bet you already know what I've been trying to tell you for the whole day."
Dino rested the unfinished burger down the table, watching how Hibari paused at his actions. Dino had been beating around the bush for so long today that he didn't feel like wasting another second anymore.
This was it – he was going to be frank and that's it.
"Give me an answer? Or do you find those words too hard to say? You can definitely draw it out instead-" Dino placed the receipt which he had gotten by buying this dinner near Hibari, and quickly dug his pockets for a ball-point pen that he would always bring. "I just want to know."
Dino ignored the glare that Hibari was giving to him again, probably for behaving like an extreme herbivore and just continued to have that silly grin instead.
Hibari just exhaled a sigh that was most probably due to frustration and started to draw on the back of the receipt; Dino just swallowed deeply due to the unknown anxiety piling at the back of his mind.
And he saw a dinosaur. At the back of the receipt.
"... Is that me?"
Dino pushed his eyebrows together disapprovingly when Hibari crossed out the newly-drawn dinosaur.
"So do you understand now?"
"... I can still continue holding on hopes, right?" Dino nibbled at his bottom lip as he took the receipt over, gently crushing it in his hands. "There will be a day when you are ready to accept me and draw a... what do you want to represent a 'yes' with?"
Hibari rolled his eyes at how persistent Dino could just be.
"Hamburger."
"... A hamburger? Seriously?"
-x-
"These bottles are too small for drinking,"
Hibari deadpanned as Dino presented two small bottles to him with a wide smile while complimenting just how cute they were.
"... These are not for drinking, Kyoya." Dino chuckled softly as he moved on to dig at his bag again for something else, and Hibari could only sigh at just how optimistic the boss of Cavallone would always be. He was always smiling. "Here, I brought proper papers this time!"
Hibari could only stare uninterestedly at Dino who just shoved a pen and a paper into his hands.
"... W-Well, both of us will write something on the paper and keep it into the bottle! Just anything – an important though, a wish, a message and just anything you want!"
Dino gulped when Hibari just continued staring at him.
"That's just plain childish-"
"Doing childish things does not mean that you are childish, Kyoya. Listen to me this time!"
And Hibari did.
-x-
Moments later after they've written the letters and kept them safely in the bottles, Hibari watched as Dino dug at the backyard of Hibari's home with a smile while muttering how he wrote a long wish but was going to keep it confidential first and expressed curiosity over what Hibari had written.
"When will we dig them out then?"
That question was almost like a hammer to Dino's mind, as Hibari watched how Dino just paused at his every actions while gaping like a fool.
Hibari had this slight smile on his face when he knew Dino wasn't looking.
-x-
"It's only natural that you must return to Italy," Hibari sighed at Dino who had his bottom lip pushed out like a child. "You're just like a herbivore now-"
Hibari blinked when Dino suddenly had a firm grip on his shoulders, determination and fear clear in his eyes.
"What if you drew a hamburger to somebody else while I was gone?"
Hibari shook his head while ignoring Dino's words that made no sense and watched how the boss of Cavallone was trying to keep his unneeded anxiety down.
"I promise you that I will be back, so don't you give any hamburgers out! I promise, alright?"
"I don't need any promises-"
Hibari's back stiffened immediately at the second Dino suddenly leaned forward and pressed his lips against his forehead nervously.
"I will be back,"
Just as a certain bright-haired Cavallone was grinning widely to himself at the flight back to Japan as he looked out of the windows to the white clouds, a certain raven-haired Cloud Guardian was left behind, badly injured after a fight which involved Millefiore who had it all plotted out.
"Dino-san, it's me. Come to the Vongola Headquarters right after you land at Japan - something bad happened to him."
"What do you mean by that?"
No one could really blame Dino for the harsh tone that was used as he spoke with eyes that suddenly didn't seem as friendly and warm anymore. Yamamoto who was always smiling, had a worried frown this time as he gave a consoling pat on the Cavallone's shoulder, continuing the words that Tsuna couldn't.
"The doctors tried to extract the poison out of him already but it spreads really fast and there isn't really a proper cure for it - it's already too late to help or do anything-"
Gokudera sighed when Dino charged into the room that was told to be Hibari's ward when Yamamoto haven't even finished his words.
-x-
He was struggling. Fighting with things that he couldn't see, fists against his ribcage hardly and even gasping looked like it hurt. The sight pricked Dino at his heart.
"... Kyoya, what's going on?" He quickly hurried to Hibari's side, clutching onto his student's hands which were hitting his own chest earlier. "I will get the doctors in here-"
Hibari just shook his head as he struggled badly to speak.
"I can't... breathe,"
The whisper of Hibari came out too strained, too weakly to even sound like it belonged to the cold Cloud Guardian. It looked so unfitting to Hibari, so badly unmatched that Dino just want to bring everything away. These pain, and vulnerable state.
"Whatever it takes, I'll find someone that will cure you completely. I promise," Dino pulled the body of Hibari close to him, his warm arms around his shoulder tightly, trying to give whatever feelings that Hibari wanted that moment. "Just keep holding on, Kyoya."
Hibari didn't answer; instead he just pressed his forehead comfortably against Dino's shoulder once his breathing get just a little easier, while Dino started to feel his heart getting heavy for making a promise that he had a feeling he would break.
-x-
Dino looked at the raven-haired guardian who was seated on the bed so silently, picking at the edges of the shirt that he was wearing absently, the strength getting only stronger when his breathing had gotten worse again all of a sudden. And when Dino called out for Hibari, he wouldn't answer.
He would just lower his head and held on tight to whatever he could, not wanting to give any of his attention to anything.
"Kyoya, do you want to go out for a small walk or anything? Look at those trees, or just anything. Staying at this room won't make you breathe any better."
He had learned from Yamamoto that his lungs were already severely damaged; he had no idea if going out for a walk would make Hibari feel better or not but he just want to take Hibari out here, out of this place which just brought all the atmosphere down to a sickly state.
But no, Hibari had been like that for so many days ever since he got into that hateful fight and got infected. He refused to answer him.
"Kyoya, just look at me. We can talk or anything to make things better-"
Hibari pulled his knees close his chest the next moment and pressed his forehead against them, sighing and refusing any forms on interactions with anyone.
"... Kyoya-"
"It's no use." He muttered so softly. "I can't see anymore."
-x-
And it broke Dino, so painfully slowly as he watched Hibari losing all those things he once had. It was a miracle at how Hibari could still hold on despite everything, and even if he looked like a badly broken porcelain doll at times, he still fought hard to survive. Some parts of the Cloud Guardian still wanted to show the Millefiore how he wouldn't fall just by this.
But he couldn't hear anymore, he couldn't see, he couldn't speak and he couldn't feel at all. Everyday was nothing to him, everyday was a living nightmare and everyday just seemed like any other day - he couldn't tell the differences at all.
Despite everything he still went to visit Hibari every single day, to give him a tight hug which he couldn't feel, cold jokes that he couldn't hear and smiles that he wouldn't be able to see.
Sometimes Hibari would just sit there with his eyes unfocused, deep in his mind and just touching at anything around him, trying to feel something.
Sometimes he would be lying there with his eyes closed, wishing that everything will just come back to him once he opened it.
Sometimes he would curl up into a ball on the cold bed, trembling so slightly as he fought with himself, as he fought with his breathing and everything.
Sometimes Dino would see tears threatening to fall, but he forced it back just in case anyone was there and Hibari didn't want to show his weakness.
Someday Hibari would finally let go of everything and break down together with Dino who was always there.
-x-
Dino was seated just right beside where Hibari was sleeping, and watched his peaceful face with a torn expression.
The Cloud Guardian looked so perfectly fine when he was asleep; he looked like he could hear, speak, see and feel perfectly fine. He looked like he was going to pull through everything despite his ghostly pale face.
Everything looked so calm, so soothing that moment until Hibari was caught up with harsh coughs that wouldn't stop, all until Dino saw crimson staining Hibari's hands which tried to cover his lips.
Blood was there. Everywhere.
A panic immediately rose within Dino as he pressed the red button located right above the bed for any doctors and nurses to come, to save his student as tears immediately welled up in his eyes once a dreadful feeling hit him.
He tried to push all of them away as he ran comforting hands up and down Hibari's back, trying to have the coughs stop as he bit his bottom lip hardly at how a single tear managed to escape from the corner of his eye to his cheek, leaving a cold trail.
"... Dino,"
Everything seemed to stop that moment when Hibari suddenly spoke, his name being called by Hibari's voice that he had missed so much. And it was Hibari's eyes that were looking into his. It was Hibari's voice. His name.
"Stop behaving like a herbivore and dry those silly tears," Dino's lips parted in an unattractive way as Hibari wiped his tears that started to fall uncontrollably weakly while another cough was locked in his throat miserably, suffocating him once again. "... and ... thank you."
At the last few coughs that were finally released from Hibari as the Cloud Guardian tried to move his arms around the Cavallone in a weak attempt, everything finally came to an sick end.
He fell so lifelessly all of a sudden on Dino, his hands lying a few inches away from the Cavallone's hands which were trembling.
Everything came too much as a shock to Dino as he sat there almost like a statue, with Hibari leaning onto him like he still had everything and that his student was just sleeping. But the temperature wouldn't lie, and so did what his mind that had already tried to warn him.
Hibari left him.
-x-
Dino dug at the soil lifelessly where they had buried the bottles days later with dark rings forming under his eyes and his hair tousled, ignoring any worried stares that were coming from his subordinates standing behind him.
Each dig he made on the soil seemed to be like a stab to his heart - no actually, every second seemed to be that way. Every second he seemed to be losing himself badly.
He breathed in deeply in exasperation as he finally saw the bottle that was labelled to be Hibari's, and uncapped it gently as he took the slip of rolled paper out to look at it's content.
There was no words, just a drawing.
A very simple drawing of a hamburger. A hamburger.
Everything seemed to hit Dino like a swoosh of a sick wave as he suddenly arched forward with his legs going all weak and the bottle slipping from his grip to the soil. He couldn't stop looking at the drawing that Hibari had drawn as his hand flew up to cover his mouth which was suddenly releasing broken sobs together with those tears that were falling unstoppably.
He cried, he cried so badly at that sight of what Hibari had drawn.
Everything was so wrong and everything was just so cruel and unfair. Hibari didn't deserve this and neither did they.
Hibari in return had already loved him back but he was just too stupid to realize it.
Everything was wrong.
Dino dragged his feet into the ward that Hibari had been staying in, with his body that was threatening to give in and break anytime. His mind couldn't stop rewinding the memory at how Hibari had finally loved him back but it was all too late and it was all too much for him to take it.
He missed Hibari so much.
Dino came back here, trying to grab onto any desperate traces that Hibari might leave behind, just so to have him breathing easier. All those death and crying had gotten Dino so suffocated. He needed help.
He looked over to the bed where Hibari was always sleeping in, and his eyes started to sting at how there was no sight of Hibari trying to catch onto just anything when he was still having difficulties that he couldn't see anymore, no sight of him struggling to breathe badly as he hit himself and there was no sight of Hibari doing anything.
There was no sight of Hibari trying to fight a losing war, and what was left was just folded sheets and blankets that belonged to Hibari.
It was almost his instincts that made Dino lie on the cold bed, fingers sliding over those smooth blanket that Hibari would always grab onto - those memories were just too much. Dino was just having too much of a hard time to get everything over. He couldn't pull through this, really.
His vision turned black as he closed his eyes, a last desperate way to see Hibari; by picturing him in his mind.
And as he did that, he naturally put himself in Hibari's shoes which were so torturing. Having no ability to speak, to hear, to see and to feel as well as the hard breathing. The living nightmare that no one would want to go through and-
The faint scent of Hibari was there as Dino breathed in deeply, a special warmth suddenly gathering within his chest.
There, there it was. Hibari's scent that was always there; the scent that was never-changing.
Dino smiled.
Ah, there's Hibari.
He found him.
-FIN-
Author's Note : I'm rewriting all of my past fics of D18 which i find totally horrendous and traumatizing LOL. I'm starting out by "He found him" first since I pretty much like this fic actually, but get too scarred when I read back at it. I hope this was better to read. c: