AN: Curse at me all you but my other works will be on hold for this one. I'm pretty confident in completing this one since I've got the ending pretty much completed. All that is left is the actual development of the fic, which is still a bit blurry. I suppose that I will be going with the flow. Also, this is very different from the usual type. I've never really tried romance before so this is a first and the genre is not the same. Since I tend to write more "fluffy and humour-ish" fics, this will be a challenge for sure.
Warning: AU-ish
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
Summary: Hibari's heartbeat was slow paced. It was that of a sick man with no more will to keep on living. Tsuna's heartbeat was a bit happier but slightly empty. It was that of a teen who has yet to discover the hardships of life. Maybe, just maybe, by putting those two hearts together, it could create a miracle?
Heartbeat
This… It was familiar. Yes. He had seen this scene so many times and yet, he would never seem to be able to remember. Or rather, he would force himself to forget.
As he turned around, he knew full well that she would be there, staring at him with those beautiful amethyst eyes. Again, he just stood there and no matter how much his conscious was screaming at him to do something, anything, he knew that it was useless. It was too late. Again, she turned around and her frail silhouette was the last thing that he ever saw of her. Before she jumped.
Hibari's eyes opened ever so slowly. Again, he thought. He laughed bitterly and as his laughter died away, he noticed that his body was trembling.
Ever since that accident, his dreams would be haunted by that memory. Every single night, as if someone wanted to make sure that he would never forget that horrible sin. As if he could. It's not like he'll ever forget the devastation, the pain, which he had felt. A light knock on his door snapped him out of his musing.
"Come in," he answered calmly, his previous trembling having stopped. A young nurse entered. As usual, she was wearing the baby pink uniform and her hair was tied in a ponytail.
"How are you feeling today, Hibari-san?" she asked politely. Haru is normally a cheerful person but it was still quite early in the morning and she didn't want to disturb the patients in the adjacent rooms. Also, nobody would dare bother Hibari more than necessary.
"Well," the man answered curtly. She sighed.
Really, it was pure bad luck that on her first day of work, they would assign such a difficult patient to her. Haru knew that something was going to be horribly wrong the moment the doctors and nurses exploded into tears of happiness when she said that she would be willing to take the job and take care of any patient that was assigned to her. How naïve of her.
She eyed the pills that were left untouched by his bedside critically.
"Hibari-san, I know that you hate taking pills but you have to force yourself or you won't get any better!" Haru huffed out indignantly.
"What if I do not wish to get better?" Hibari asked softly.
"I'm sorry? Did you say something?" Haru was positive that the man had just said something (probably in response to what she had just said) but she couldn't quite catch it since it was spoken in an extremely soft voice.
"Never mind," he dismissed her question with a wave of a hand. She sighed but cheered up quickly.
"By the way, Hibari-san, I've got great news! I'm pretty sure that it can get pretty lonely sometimes when you are by yourself with only the occasional visits of the nurses and doctors to keep you company so, we have accepted the offer that Namimori University has proposed to us: they are currently working on a project where the students get sent to various organisations in order to help them. It can vary from planting rice to give it to the families in need to taking care of patients in hospitals. Exciting, isn't it?" she asked, her eyes sparkling. After receiving a curt nod, she continued. "Our hospital, being one of the best, has been chosen to be part of the project. They will be sending students who are part of this volunteering program and they would be spending their free time here, with the patients in order to cheer them up. Isn't it wonderful?"
She continued her mindless chatter while Hibari only listened with one ear. He didn't need anybody to cheer him up. There is nothing left to cheer for, he thought brutally. After all, he was a poor excuse of a man who didn't deserve anything after all the bad that he has caused. Yes, he thought, nobody will be able to enter. I refuse to let anybody enter my heart again. I refuse to hurt another and suffer the consequences. Better just seal everything than face the pain again.
With that, he slowly closed his eyes and drifted off until Haru's annoying chattering was but a dull buzz in his ears.
Tsuna looked around, slightly disorientated. His visions blurred slightly and he felt something hit his head. Suddenly, he felt a presence loom over him and tensed. He was prepared for the sharp tap on the head that the teacher gave him with a textbook.
"Sawada, next time that you wish to sleep, please do so in your own bed and not in class or the consequences will be severe," the teacher warned before resuming his class again, completely ignoring the boy.
Tsuna heard a few snickers here and there but didn't pay much attention to them. After all, he was pretty much used to them.
He yawned and stretched until he felt the satisfying crack that loosened his stiff joints. The boy blinked sleepily, trying hard to pay attention to what the teacher was saying but really couldn't.
After a few more minutes of the extremely boring ethics class, the bell rang and the teacher's last words were drowned under the students' excited buzz.
Tsuna can hardly blame the poor man since everybody was way more excited than usual.
All of the students were looking forward to the next class or more like activity. The long awaited day of the volunteering project has finally come. It wasn't like people actually cared about it but more like it allowed them to skip school since certain activities lasted all day. One thing for sure is that everyone was anxious to find out where exactly the school has decided to place them.
As they all gathered in the main room of the school were all the important events took place, and took a seat, the lights dimmed and the excited chatter stopped. A giant screen came down from the roof and the projector was turned on. As the students' names were called out, their placement would light up on the screen. There were three categories: hospital, company and planting.
Tsuna didn't care much about his placement but he just hoped that he would not be sent to the hospital. It brought up unpleasant memories, ones that he would rather forget forever. Of course, knowing his rotten luck, he had just jinxed himself big time. Just as he thought of that, his named was called and he looked up. On the huge screen was the dread word.
Hospital.
Great, he thought sarcastically, obviously I was placed in the hospital section. Who would've guessed?
It was so damn infuriating how his luck just seems to always turn against him. He sighed. At least Gokudera and Yamamoto both had better places to go. Gokudera got placed in the company section whilst Yamamoto was in the planting section. Despite Gokudera's short temper, he had a knack for business and that is the main reason as to why Reborn deemed it necessary to have him as Tsuna's future right hand man.
Yamamoto, on the other hand, was well suited for the planting section since he not only has great stamina (years of running around the baseball field at top speed really did pay off) but with his cheerful attitude, he could virtually cheer up anyone.
Really, why wasn't Yamamoto sent to the hospital section? He would've done a much better job than me, Tsuna thought.
After everybody was sorted and a whole lot of whining later, all were on their way to their respective sections.
As Tsuna rode the bus with a bunch of other students who he thought were seriously ill-fitted for the job, he thought of the type of patient that he would be getting. He was pretty sure that none of them will be nice since they are people who have diseases that have become incurable. Terminal was it?
He just hoped that the person wouldn't be too harsh on him.
Tsuna was now imagining this extremely mean looking woman yelling at him and lamenting about her life while also bursting out in tears at random moments. He shivered.
Suddenly, the bus stopped, which successfully cut his thoughts off. When he jumped out, he was facing one of the biggest hospitals that he has ever seen in his life. He gaped in awe.
It was only when he realized that he was the only one outside (thanks to his moment of shock) and that nobody had bothered notifying him that he entered but not before letting out a sigh at how he was always being ignored. When he was inside of the building, he was even more shocked.
It was nothing like what he has ever seen. The place was huge and was well lighted, the main reason being because the roof appeared to have made out of glass.
Tsuna looked around and saw many doctors and nurses rushing from here to there, never stopping to say hi. Nobody was sitting down with a cup of coffee in his hand or chatting with a colleague. Tsuna started to feel slightly dizzy with all the rushing around the people here was doing. He hurried to join his group which he could see near the front desk.
Luckily, as he arrived, the teacher was done with the classic instructions of not running around or screaming while giving pointed glares at a few troublemakers and was starting to list their partners/patients. Tsuna had his fingers crossed and hoped for a miracle that, most probably, was never going to happen but he hoped none the less.
Finally, he heard his name being called for the second time that day and the following name, that of his partner, was "Hibari Kyouya". Well, at least the name doesn't sound too bad. And it's definitely not a woman's so at least, I won't be facing any random burst of emotions. Great, he added as an afterthought, instead of getting yelled at, I'll probably get beaten up. It sent shivers up his spine but at least, he knew the person's name and won't be embarrassed further.
With the thought still in mind, he went up to the 5th floor and asked the nice looking lady where room 18 was. Upon hearing this, the nurse gave the poor boy a pitying look before pointing at the general direction of the previously mentioned room.
Tsuna decided that he didn't like that look one bit.
He took his time, still thinking about a burly man with huge scars that was probably going to take out all of his depression by beating him up.
Sadly, he arrived at room 18 faster than he thought. In order to calm himself, he took a few deep breaths and no longer able to prolong the time, he courageously knocked the door.
Silence.
He decided to try again and met with the same nerve wracking lack of answer.
Finally, he decided to risk it and, ever so slowly, opened the door. What he first noticed was that the room was well lighted and the windows appeared to be open since the white curtains were fluttering gently. He stepped inside and carefully closed the door behind him.
As he entered the room, he felt a gentle breeze. It was warm and it felt good against his flushed skin. As he looked around, he noticed that the hospital room somewhat resembled to a normal, household one. The walls were painted in a soft cream colour and the room was furnished with simple black, wooden items.
Tsuna scanned the room to pinpoint the patient while he was mentally preparing to face the nightmare-ish man that his mind has, quite unhelpfully, created for him.
When he was finally able to find his partner, he was quite shocked.
Instead of what he was expecting, he saw a pretty ordinary looking man with black hair and soft features. The man appeared to be sleeping and did not seem to be wearing the standard hospital gown since his clothes were soft blue, not stripped white and blue.
Truthfully, he was quite good looking and Tsuna imagined that the man's slightly tussled hair was supposed to be around neck length.
He kind of looks like an angel… Tsuna thought but as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he immediately squashed it. He could only imagine the poor man's reaction if he ever knew that Tsuna had thought that he looked like an angel. Not only that, but it also seemed quite disrespectful to think like that since the man wasn't even dead yet.
Hibari Kyouya's chest rose gently with every breath he took and Tsuna was so mesmerized by it that he did not notice that he was slowly approaching the bed. Before he knew it, he was next to it and he just stared at the man's seemingly peaceful face.
Suddenly, icy blue eyes opened and stared at him.
AN: Sorry 'bout that ending but I had to stop it there. It's kind of getting late and I do have school tomorrow. Sadly, I won't really be able to update even if I have spring break because I'll be going on a trip.
By the way, if you have any kind of scene that you wish to see in this fic, please feel free to tell them to me. I need ideas and hopefully, you guys will be able to help me, somehow. Also, it would be nice if you spot any typos or oddly phrased sentences. I don't have a beta and would appreciate the notice since one pair of eyes can only do as much. Please leave a review!