Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is not mine. Never will be mine. Oh damn it. [sighs

Author's Notes: This is tough to write... argh...

Chapter Summary: Tsuna takes a peek inside infant Hibari's life, while purposely avoiding the present, murderous Hibari whom just realized the journal is gone.

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May 5th, 1987

I am exhausted after being in labor for ten hours. I've given birth to my first son-- it's a miracle. He hasn't fully opened his eyes yet, but he did wail a lot right when he left the womb. He's sleeping now. Masa-kun and I have decided to name him Kyouya. Yamanada Hibari Kyouya, our precious son. I'm not looking forward to everyone hearing of the news, though-- my relatives will shower me with unnecessary gifts when just a few words of congratulations are acceptable.

-----

Tsuna raised his eyebrow. So that's where Hibari gets the indifference from.

He ran his fingers over the picture, not exactly touching the surface of it though. He turned the page, and there was another picture taken a day or two later. Wide, sky blue eyes gazed up at him, and infant Hibari sported a playful grin as he reached for the camera. The next several entries were only several sentences long. The next major entry he could find was dated roughly a year and three months later.

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June 7th, 1988

Kyou-chan seems to have an affinity with birds. I was just talking to my friends as I pushed him around town in a stroller. A little skylark landed on the stroller hood, peering down at him curiously. He reached out to touch it, but it flew away. He was a bit disappointed, but he watched it until it was only a dot in the sky. My friends say that he shares my curiousity with birds. I am inclined to agree. One of my friends managed to catch it on camera. My husband smiled and laughed at it.

------

Right underneath the entry was a small photograph. The one year-old Hibari's eyes were wide open and he was leaning out of his seat reaching for the skylark that gazed curiously at him.

Tsuna had to admit, it was a cute photograph (although if Hibari knew he was reading this, and that he thought that, he'd be dead). Funny how the bird that they were both named after had taken such a fascination with the little boy. And when he thought of the yellow bird that was always perched on Hibari's shoulder, it made sense in its own weird little way. Hibari himself was just like a skylark, soaring high above the clouds. Incredibly tough to bring down, even when his body was already broken like in his fight with Mukuro.

Even the illusionist agreed that Hibari Kyouya was a frightening man.

He skimmed through the next several pages. Several little pictures (there was a particularly cute one where Hibari held a large canary plushie), but the entries were extremely short. It seems as if Hibari's mom disliked going into detail about her life and was always able to summarize what happened during the days in a sentence or two. He was just about to skip over another entry when a picture caught his eye.

Hibari's mom was holding onto Hibari, whom gazed at the camera with an impatient frown on his face, his eyes a darker blue than all the previous pictures he'd seen. This time though, there was a man in the picture. His arms were wrapped around Amaya's shoulder, and he flashed a grin at the camera that reminded Tsuna of a wolf. His eyes were amber, and he had rough, short, wild black hair. This man was Hibari's father...? Tsuna studied the picture intensely, his eyes flickering back and forth between Amaya and the man--Masahiro, the caption said--and closed his eyes, conjuring up a headshot of Hibari.

He, with absolutely no doubt whatsoever, had his mother's eyes and soft but firm lips (he blushed upon realizing this was the first thing he noticed besides the eyes).

He had his father's eyebrows, strong nose and sharp, defined jaw. As for his build, he was safely in the middle. He wasn't as slim as his mother or as muscular as his father. He had a much more slender build, and his muscles weren't incredibly noticeable but they were there.

He opened his eyes, flipping towards the next entry, deciding that this was the last he'd read before giving the diary back to its rightful owner first thing tomorrow morning.

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September 20th, 1990

I'm... worried, to say the least.

Masahiro is... distancing himself from me. Drinking often, and he's not as cheery as he usually is. It wasn't really noticeable until today when he yelled at Kyou-chan for tugging on his hair--an action which usually earned a laugh from him and he'd pick the boy up and spin around in circles. The poor boy was frightened into silence and wouldn't let go of Sachiko (the stuffed canary). I confronted Masa-kun about it, but he just scowled, pushed me aside and promptly left the house. That's when I noticed a part of a tattoo peeking out from underneath his shirt collar.

A new one. One that I could instantly tell covered his whole body, and one that he could hide underneath his clothing.

What is he thinking, going down that path?

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Tsuna slowly closed the diary, shutting off the flashlight and pulling the blanket down to his shoulders.

He slid it under his pillow, resting his head on it and stared off at some point on the opposite wall.

Suddenly, he didn't want to give it back. Not if it meant that he'd finally understand. Not after what he just read. Especially if Masahiro did, indeed, join a local yakuza. Somehow, he had a feeling that it'd continue in a downward spiral. He needed to give it back--it felt too personal now, and he was digging into business he shouldn't be digging in---but he just couldn't.

He shut his eyes, shoving the negative thoughts to the back of his mind as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

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The next morning, he went to school sleepy and disoriented. He had a dream last night, but could only recall bits and pieces of it.

One tidbit being toddler Hibari frightened, clutching onto his stuffed plushie, his eyes opened wide.

It wasn't until he step foot onto the Namimori campus and laid his eyes upon the head prefect that he realized he didn't have the diary with him. Which was a bad thing, but also an incredibly good thing as said head prefect was making a beeline for him, looking particularly murderous. Gokudera and Yamamoto noticed the hostile aura coming from him, and they were instantly on guard. And him? He swallowed nervously and took a step back. It was much more frightening this time as he knew the reason why Hibari was so angry.

"Sawada. I need to have a word with you." His face was twisted into a scowl, and Gokudera snarled.

"What the hell do you want with the Tenth, bastard?" Hibari didn't even spare him a glance before snapping.

"It doesn't concern you, or the other weak herbivore beside him. Leave the two of us alone, or I will bite you to death here and now." Gokudera was about to lunge at the prefect and rip out his throat and would've succeeded, if Yamamoto and Tsuna didn't hold him back.

"Gokudera-kun! Please, calm down!" Tsuna yelled as he held on to the boy's arm. "All he wants to do is talk!"

"But Tenth--"

"I'll be alright, Gokudera-kun. I'll see you guys at lunch, okay?" Tsuna flashed Gokudera a reassuring smile, and he stopped his furious attempts to get free. He glared at Hibari, clearly not trusting him at all.

"Fine. But if you're late, Tenth, I will storm up to the reception room and shove some dynamite down his throat!"

Tsuna sweatdropped as Yamamoto pulled Gokudera away from the two and towards their classroom. Now if only his heart would stop beating incredibly fast for fear of something bad happening, that would be great also. He turned around and immediately cowered under the icy, feline glare that Hibari fixed upon him. Without another word, the boy pivoted on his heels and started walking, and Tsuna took that as his cue to follow. Five minutes later in complete, awkward silence, they made it to the reception room.

It was empty.

Hibari shut the door with more force than necessary and Tsuna felt as if his soul jumped out of his body for a few seconds. He kept a cautious eye on the older male as he walked around him, perching on the arm rest of the leather couch in front of him.

"Do you have it?"

Fuck.

"Uh.. h-have what?" He took a step back, and immediately regretted it as Hibari narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"Don't play stupid. You were in the restroom that I was in, and that was the only place where I could've misplaced the book."

Dear Kami-sama. Please grant Tsuna the ability to lie so that he'd survive long enough to tell the truth later on in a time where Hibari WON'T beat him into a bloody pulp. Tsuna blanched, and waved his hands wildly.

"I-I-I d-don't have it! I swear! I don't have it! I didn't even know you lost a book until right now!!" Tsuna whimpered, and when Hibari shifted, he instinctively shut his eyes and made an attempt to block a move that he couldn't even see.

The next second, he was shoved into the door with a loud slam and let out a pained gasp. The cold steel of his collapsible tonfa was pressed hard into his neck, almost hard enough to restrict his breathing entirely. Tsuna gazed up at him, utterly terrified. He was close enough that Tsuna could see every individual eyelash, all the cracks in his dried lips, and the specks of cerulean blue hidden in the darker hues in his irises. Close enough that he could feel the warm breath ghost across his cheeks.

Under different circumstances, he would've turned a beet red from their close proximity. But he was much too scared at the moment to even think about that.

"You're lying. Is there any reason why I shouldn't bite you to death?"

Tsuna opened his mouth, and was about to reply when there came a sharp knock on the door. Hibari eased up and Tsuna reached for his neck, rubbing it as he gasped for air. He opened the door to find Kusakabe standing behind it.

"Sir, one of the third year delinquents set off a stink bomb in the east wing--- was I interrupting something?" Hibari glanced over at Tsuna and back at Kusakabe.

"No." He promptly left, heading for the east wing, and Tsuna was entirely grateful for the intervention.