Disclaimer: Don't own KHR, Amano-sensei does

Satisfaction & Loneliness

You've come to realise that living on hate and irritation alone isn't all that satisfying in the end.

You burst through the doors of the mansion and stalk towards your room. There are no terrified glances sent your way by the staff; the whole estate is in bed, lulled to sleep by the darkness' lullaby. You like it better this way, better sleeping herbivores than awake herbivores. At least when they sleep they're less of a nuisance.

The mission was regrettably easy. The mafioso you were supposed to negotiate with had been so oh so arrogant at first, but a few words and a well-placed glare later, and he was like a kicked puppy: oh, Hibari-san, we've heard much about your achievements; oh, Hibari-san, tell us more about your last mission; Hibari-san, may I congratulate you on your latest victory which, I might add, I don't even care about, but hey, I'm not suicidal, now, am I?

Needless to say, blood was shed. After all, Vongola's Cloud Guardian was not known for his good temperament.

But still, despite the small fight you managed to have (which did indeed calm down your bloodlust a little) you were left feeling extremely annoyed, no, more like out-of-place. Why, you thought. Maybe it was the empty praises that were sung about you. Maybe it was the extremely long flight from Tokyo to Sicily. Maybe it was the small dent that you got on your tonfas and the knowledge that after years and years of violent usage you'd finally have to get a new pair.

Heck, why were you thinking so much? You were never the thinker; more like the 'kill first, ask questions later' type. Just beat up a few people and you would get respect, answers money, or whatever it was you wanted. It had always worked for you before.

Yes, you think, feeling a bit pleased with yourself for figuring out the problem. Fighting always worked before. No use in messing with a good system.

And thus, you go off looking for a decent fight in this godforsaken mansion at two o'clock in the morning.

You usually go out of your way to avoid a certain pineapple-headed illusionist. Not that you'd purposely go out of your way to avoid him, because no way would you trouble yourself so much for a single herbivore. No, rather, factoring in the sheer amount of missions both of you undertake and the size of the mansion and the fact that your rooms are situated on the opposite ends of the estate for obvious reasons, the chances of bumping into each other are, indeed, rather slim. Not to mention, Lady Luck has been on your side.

However, she has decided to abandon you for an indefinite amount of time.

He is leaning against the wall, in the middle of an extremely narrow corridor, and you want to scream at him to get the fuck out of the way, and why was he standing in the corridor and blocking your fucking path, for god's sake, but you have just returned from a unnecessarily drawn-out fight with an enemy famiglia and you would never admit it but you are exhausted, goddammit, and you just want to go back to your room and sleep. However, you refrain from shouting all of this out loud and instead, shoot him a dark, killer glare.

He responds with a light chuckle and a playful smirk. "Kufufu...have the skylark's feathers been ruffled?"

You snarl. "Get out of the way, stupid herbivore." The arrogant smirk that irritates you to no end stays on his face, no, in fact it gets even wider.

"Short-tempered, aren't we?"

That's it. Screw exhaustion. You whip out your weapons and charge at the illusionist. His annoying grin just gets even bigger and you wonder, as you collide with one of his bloody illusions (a stone wall that appears out of nowhere), whether ripping his face out would be a better course of action.

You can hear him chuckling in the background, and that makes you want to pound him into the ground with your tonfas to the point where he can never see the light of day again, but right now you don't even have the energy to stand, much less fight. Seems like the mission took more out of you than you thought. You know that very well and damn, if the sudden absence of laughter and his look of slow enlightenment is anything to go by, he knows it as well.

"Oya, oya, is skylark-kun sick?" He says, rather condescendingly, and the urge to punch him surges through you again. Fuck. Fucking herbivores. Fucking stupid illusionist herbivores.

You are so caught up with cursing the Mist Guardian, that you fail to realise said Mist Guardian has sauntered over to your side. That is, until he reaches out to pick you up and sling you over his shoulder.

For what is perhaps the first time in your twenty-one years of life, you are absolutely, utterly speechless.

And then it hits you. The fucking herbivore has picked you up. And is now fucking carrying you. Carrying. You.

White-hot rage engulfs you. How dare this fucking illusionist treat you like a herbivore? You start fighting back, earning a curse and a few hisses of pain which satisfies you very, very much, and motivates you to try harder.

Until you suddenly find your hands and legs bound together by ropes which were definitely not there before and by right are not supposed to be there, which means they are illusions and that pisses you off a hell lot more than it should.

"Oi, you fucking stupid herbivorous low life, let go of me this instant," you hiss. All you get is an amused laugh. You scowl and trash about even further.

"Vongola's skylark-kun is lonely, huh?"

You freeze, surprised by his random remark (not that you would ever admit it). "What the hell, herbivore?"

Both of you have reached your room. He somehow manages to mysteriously unlock the door with a carefree wave of his hand and enters your room which no one but you is supposed to enter dammit and unceremoniously throws you onto the bed.

You stare up at his forever amused face with a scornful glare, foolishly hoping that if you put enough hate into it, he would take the hint and suddenly keel over (and since when were you still thinking so childishly?). "What the hell?" You repeat.

"Hmm?" He's still staring down at you with a playful grin. Maybe you didn't put enough hate into it.

"Your herbivorous remark just now," you spit out at him hatefully. He raises an eyebrow and shrugs.

"Oh? About you being lonely?" You wince as he repeats the offending remark again, as if it's a personal insult, which, quite frankly, it is.

"Loneliness is for herbivores," you scoff. "I'm not weak."

And then he smiles. Not a condescending smirk of playful grin, but a truly genuine smile. It makes you feel like punching his face again, but simultaneously you feel oh god is that embarrassment?

"Is that so, skylark-kun?"

You scowl, but refuse to meet his eyes. "I'm not weak."

"Hmmm...I wonder. Aren't the strongest and most successful usually the loneliest?" You glance at him, at the melancholy look in his eyes. And what are you supposed to say to that? You curse him for saying something so out of the blue, so utterly nonsensical.

...And yet so familiar.

...What did all your victories achieve, in the end?

'Just beat up a few people and you would get respect, answers money, or whatever it was you wanted. It had always worked for you before.'

Did it work?

He laughs, softly, distracting you from your train of thought, and thank god for that, because since when did you entertain such herbivorous mindsets. You scowl, feeling absolutely disgusted with yourself, but even more disgusted with him for making you feel this way.

"What are you laughing at, stupid herbivore."

He smiles again, another real smile, the second one today and heck, you can't even be sure if it's still him anymore, if it was even him in the first place, because the Mist Guardian you know doesn't act like this, isn't so weak. And you. You weren't supposed to feel comforted by this. So what was this herbivorous feeling?

"I'm lonely too, Kyoya-kun. So we're in this together, ne? Kufufu..."

You don't know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that he's acting so out of character (or for that matter, that you yourself are acting so out of character), so instead you decide to forgo all that and kick him in the shins.

He's back to his old self the next day, after you kicked him out of your room. The same arrogant, self-centred bastard. But you cannot help but remember what exchanged between the both of you, and judging from the glances he keeps on sending you, neither can he.

So when you end up confronting him after a mere three days of unexplainable irritation, neither of you are very surprised.

And when the resulting fight culminates into a kiss, neither of you are particularly shocked.

You've come to realise that living on hate and irritation alone isn't all that satisfying in the end.

How that came about, well, you'd rather not recall, because, quite frankly, you don't really understand it yourself.

Not that you would ever admit it, of course.

Hi.

I'm not quite sure what this was supposed to be...it started off totally randomly, continued randomly and became what you have just read (unless, of course, you have scrolled all the way down simply for the sake of reviewing to tell me how much this sucked).

Oh, and I realised Mukuro's name is never mentioned in the fic, not once. I'm somehow quite amused by that XD

Well, it's my first fic...for all that's worth...

So, cheers? :D

R&R