Hibari had faint eye bags under his eyes the next morning. He didn't have a good night's rest as the old mattress he slept on was like a rock and his back ached because of it. Usually whenever this happened, his mood would become very dull for the rest of the day and he would bite more people to death. Surprisingly, it didn't turn out like that today.
Was it because the girl in front of him was too cute for him to get annoyed at?
Chrome was obediently munching on a sandwich that Hibari made for her for breakfast at the dining table. Her eye was still red after her crying half an hour ago.
~.~.~.~.~
The minute she pried open her eyelid, Chrome sniffed and cried, waking Hibari from his wanted slumber. Walking over to the bed, Hibari slid his hand into hers, a hint of concern in his voice, "What's wrong? Why're you crying?"
Chrome turned to his direction. "H-Hibari-san…sob Gomenasai…W-watashi wa hontoni gomenasai…sob,"and she continued to wail. "What for? You didn't do anything wrong," Hibari was confused by her apology when she was not at all at fault.
"I-If I have listened to M.M.'s advice to stay in the house and not wander around on my own, I would never have been a-attacked and would not cause you so much trouble and worry…"Chrome said through her tears, "I'm such a burden, no wonder they all hate me…I'm really sorry".
Hibari was at a loss of how to console this poor girl. She couldn't know or control what would happen, so she was not to be blamed. "Who would hate you?" he asked curiously, but the way he said it sounded as if he was indirectly saying 'You are too cute for anyone to hate you'.
Chrome bit her bottom lip sadly, "My mom and dad. They hate me. That's why they neglect me. They never wish for me to exist". Tears were threatening to overflow from her eye once more. Hibari raised an eyebrow at her answer. Her parents? Come to think of it, she only mentioned about M.M. whenever the subject of family was being brought up. Was it too painful to talk about them? What did they do to make her so upset?
He wanted to know more, but seeing her distressed state, he refrained himself from doing so. Understanding her family background could come later. Right now he needed to make her feel better and stop crying over whatever she believed she had done wrong.
~.~.~.~.~
Therefore, he decided to let her eat something and build up her energy. M.M. telephoned earlier at the wrong time at 8.30am when the two of them were still asleep, demanding Hibari to give her his house address and directions, claiming she wanted to come over to check on Chrome. Hibari reluctantly gave her the super weird and unclear instructions: 'walk straight, cross the road, turn right, walk straight, turn left, turn right, turn left and walk straight'. He swore he heard a "What the ****?!" before he hung up.
"Thank you for the food, Hibari-san," Chrome grinned at him prettily, rising an unknown feeling inside Hibari which he couldn't comprehend. Somehow he wanted to see her smiles more often, rather than her tears. He wanted her to be happy.
The doorbell rang out of a sudden, causing Hibari to glance out of the window. "What was that?" Chrome inquired. "The doorbell. Someone's here. Wait here while I get it," Hibari said, putting down his sandwich on his plate and standing up from his chair.
~.~.~.~.~
The first thing Chrome heard after a few minutes was M.M.'s frustrated shouts at Hibari who totally ignored her from the moment she stepped outside his gate all the way to the front sliding door of his traditional Japanese-styled house.
"I was running around in circles all because of your stupid directions! Why must you live in such a secluded place?!"
"I believe my instructions were already very straight-forward. Scold your useless herbivorous sense of directions."
"YOU ONE HELL OF A BASTARD! I'M GONNA KILL YOU, CHOP YOU INTO PIECES, FRY YOUR ORGANS AND FEED YOU TO WILD DOGS!" M.M. continued to throw insults at deaf ears.
"M.M….?" Chrome's lips curved up, glad that she was here again. M.M. knew she was going to apologise for not listening to and obeying her, so she swiftly covered her mouth, "Don't say anything, baka. You're safe, so stop thinking about the incident". Chrome smiled with a tint of pink on her cheeks.
"I brought you extra clothes. Change into them later," M.M. tossed a brown paper bag onto Chrome's lap. "Arigato," Chrome replied.
"I have work to do, so I can't stay here much longer. Don't you dare do anything to her, you hear me?" M.M. scowled at the uninterested prefect.
Soon after she left, much to Hibari's relief, he sat down across Chrome at the table. "Have you ever learnt Braille?" he questioned. "H-hai, M.M. and her late cousin had enrolled me in a Braille class in a school for the blind's distance learning course when I was young," she said, recalling how her slender fingers ran over the dots and lines of the system, "They helped me store the Braille learning materials and label writer in a bag I left at home".
Good. At least she had a head start. Understanding her wish to venture out into the world and learn new things, an idea popped up in Hibari's head.
"Change into your new clothes. We'll go out to the nearby market," he informed. Chrome's expression lit up and she shone such a bright smile that could make anyone's eyes went blind, "Hai!"
~.~.~.~.~
Hibari had a flair for cooking, especially Japanese cuisines. His culinary skills were of great standards and his food was simply heavenly, a feast for both the eyes and the mouth. Kusakabe had complimented his leader's cooking once when he tasted Hibari's homemade sushi. Hibari had fed Hibird some omelette bits and received mirthful chirps. They were the only ones who knew this secret, and they were given very Hibari-like threats so as not to spill the beans and shatter his pride as a strong, bloodthirsty carnivore.
Kusakabe's nerve-wrecking threat was 'I'll beat the hell out of you, force you to eat all my poisoned food, drain your blood, hang your skin on a tree to scare away herbivores from my territory and leave you to rot for eternity', and it was implanted deep into his brain, so he would never forget. Hibird's one was 'I'll pluck off all your feathers and roast you for dinner or feed you to the cats' which was indeed very terrifying for a bird like him.
This was the scary reality of Hibari Kyoya, Head of the Disciplinary Committee.
Hibari had prepared a list of ingredients he planned to buy at the market for dinner tonight. Since he hated crowds like crazy, he only came to the place at this time when there were lesser people and shorter queues for purchase.
But today was special. He had brought along a girl who was holding onto his hand while he guided her around in the midst of his shopping.
"Round…smooth…oh, there's something like a stick on it," Chrome mumbled as she felt the shape of an apple with her hands. "Here's another fruit," Hibari passed an orange to her.
"Wow, this is really round. It's slightly rougher than the apple, and there's no stick poking out. What is it called again?"
"An orange."
"….Orange? I love orange juice!" Chrome squealed.
"Oh? You do? I'll get you some later, then."
"Really? Thank you, Hibari-san!"
Hibari had learnt a few things about Chrome from this trip.
1. She was a fast and enthusiastic learner.
She would fumble with the food items that Hibari introduced her to, examining their textures, shapes and structures, while paying eager attention to Hibari's explanations.
2. She was very polite.
She would bow and thank the vendors after each purchase. Hibari had glared at those who looked at her in dirty ways.
3. She was very kind and patient.
Upon hearing Hibari sighed impatiently, Chrome asked him, "What's the matter?" He replied, "The vendor's too slow". "Is he an old man? Because if he is, then I think we need to understand that his body's quite fragile and his movements tend to be slower. It's all right, we can wait and not rush him or he'll become more anxious," she showed a toothy grin. Hibari's heart melted slightly at her heartwarming words.
4. But due to her blindness, she sometimes caused embarrassing situations.
"Hibari-san, can you tell me what kind of meat I'm pointing at?" Chrome's index finger pointed straight in front of her.
"…It's a human, Chrome," Hibari said, earning an "Eh?" from her.
The elderly lady vendor who had been mistaken as a lump of meat sweat dropped in depression, "Oh my god…..I've grown so plump that I'm being called a lump of meat…Oh no no no no no…."Hibari dragged Chrome off hurriedly, not wanting to hear any more of the 'human meat' 's nonsense.
In the next stall which sold seafood, Chrome turned to her left and spoke, "Hibari-san, can we go please? I don't like the smell," but only got a pat on her right shoulder.
"Chrome, I'm here," Hibari sighed with his eyes closed.
The stranger that Chrome accidentally mistook for Hibari moved off uneasily, thinking that he just met an oddball. Hibari would have bitten him to death if he had voiced that out. After all, it wasn't Chrome's fault that she could not see, and it was not easy to rely on her hearing all the time.
~.~.~.~.~
"Hibari-san, where should I put your groceries bags?" Chrome said when they returned home after the tiring journey at the market.
"Just pass them to me," Hibari took the plastic bags that she had offered to help carry from her hands and transported them to the dining table with the ones he held.
"Drink your orange juice while I cook," Hibari instructed, passing Chrome's packet of orange juice to her, which she drank merrily.
"Hibari-san can cook?" she tilted her head to the side cutely.
"Don't look down on me," Hibari smirked, showing off a sparkling, proud air.
"I'm sorry," Chrome lowered her head, thinking that she just offended him.
"Don't be so inferior. I didn't mean it that way," The fifth thing that Hibari learnt about Chrome was she apologised too easily. "Eto…Hibari-san, may I please…play with Hibird?" what a funny request that was.
Speaking of the devil, Hibird appeared out of nowhere and bounced onto Chrome's palms. "Ah, there you are, Hibird," she smiled as she recognised the animal's soft feathers and lively "Chrome, Chrome!~".
~.~.~.~.~
The mouth-watering aroma of delicious katsu don and freshly cooked salmon slices served with miso soup diffused from the kitchen to the living room. Hibari was in the middle of arranging the bowls, plates and chopsticks on the table when his pet flew to him in a frantic manner. Sensing something was wrong, he rushed to the living room only to stare at a motionless figure lying on the floor.
"Chrome?" he lifted her up and gently slapped her cheek, "Hey, what happened to you?"
The girl seemed to be panting hard, looking so sick, "Argh…my head…it hurts…"
Hibari carried her to the bedroom and laid her on the bed, placing a damp towel on her forehead.
'She's not having a fever. Is it a headache?'
"Hibari-san, my head hurts…" Chrome's voice became muffled, as if she was having a sore throat.
"Sleep. Maybe your headache will disappear then," Hibari said, still trying to figure out the problem.
~.~.~.~.~
"Migraine?"
"So desu. That girl was born with a common type of headache that may occur with symptoms such as nausea, stress, sensitivity to light and loud noises. In other words, it is caused by abnormal brain activity," M.M. spoke into the receiver as she stir-fried the vegetables in the pan, "In her case, it can be serious to the extent that she may lose her stability and faint".
"It is common to see her like this?" Hibari asked, thinking that M.M. must have did some research on the chronic neurological disorder.
"Well, her illness has improved over the years. It happens only occasionally now," she then face palmed herself, "Damn it! I should have brought her medicine along with her clothes when I came to your house earlier!"
"You forgot even though you have been living with her for so many years? What kind of herbivorous joke is that?" Hibari chided her.
"OIIII! WHO THE HECK DO YOU THINK I AM? I'M A HUMAN TOO, OKAY! I FORGET THINGS NOW AND THEN! I'M NOTHING LIKE A STUPID ALIEN LIKE YOU!" M.M. boomed at the top of her lungs, and Hibari needed to keep the receiver far away from his ear in order not to burst his eardrum.
"Keep your volume down, idiotic herbivore. You're too noisy," Hibari was amazingly trying not to throw a tantrum and smashed the phone into pieces.
"HUUUH?! YOU PIECE OF TRASH! I can't take it anymore! I'm gonna strangle you, stuff shit into your mouth and bury you alive—!"
Hibari slammed down the phone before M.M. could even complete her threat. Checking that Chrome was still asleep with no signs of having migraine, he went off to cover her untouched dinner with cling wrap and store it in the microwave oven.
~.~.~.~.~
Gomenasai: I'm sorry
Katsu don: Pork with rice
So desu: That's right
