Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is the property of Amano Akira.

Fourth Adjustment: His Day

"Hibari! Hibari!"

The little bird chirped from its place on the pillow as morning sunlight began filtering into the room. It preened itself and stretched its wings.

"Hibari! Hibari!"

Hibari opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a few moments before finally sitting up, stifling a yawn with his hand as he did. Then he stepped out of bed and made his way lethargically to the bathroom, still half asleep with Hibird hitching a ride atop his head.

Upon arrival at his destination, the raven-haired man gave pause at the unusual sight that greeted him. His sink had been filled up with water and happily paddling around in it with its webbed feet, peeping innocently, was a little yellow duckling. The moment it saw him, the duckling began paddling its way towards him, peeping a bit more loudly in hopes of getting his attention.

Seeing this, the Cloud Guardian reached for the small pot of fresh grass on the counter…something that had also mysteriously appeared over night…and pulled off a blade of the greenery, feeding it to the duckling who accepted it gladly. He then placed a finger against its throat, rubbing it gently before scooping the small animal out of the water and placing it on the counter so he could proceed with his morning ritual.

When he had brushed his teeth and washed his face, Hibari returned to his bedroom, though not before refilling the sink with water and returning the duckling to its personal sized pond. He opened his closet and selected a suit and a shirt. From the tie rack, he pulled a matching tie. Then he opened the dresser's sock drawer…only to find a small, furry, whiskered nose of something buried amongst the fabrics, twitching up at him.

Unfazed despite the oddity of the situation, Hibari removed the socks closest to the nose, and the head of a small white rabbit popped up.

He blinked impassively down at it.

The rabbit looked up at him, twitched its nose, twitched its floppy ears, then went about exploring the sock drawer.

Fifteen minutes later, the Cloud Guardian made his way down to the kitchen, fully dressed and with a little white rabbit in one arm. He went about making himself a cup of green tea as usual. When he opened the cupboard to get a cup, he found his third surprise of the morning.

Sitting inside one of the teacups, turning curious circles about itself, was a little gray chinchilla with a long fluffy tail, looking almost like a baby squirrel.

After watching it for about a minute, Hibari held his hand out to the little rodent. The chinchilla sniffed at his fingers tentatively. Then after a bit, it crawled into his hand, up his arm, and perched on his shoulder.

Now with a bird in his hair, a rabbit in one arm, and a chinchilla on his shoulder, Hibari put tea leaves into his teacup and poured hot water into it, completely unperturbed as though this happened every single day. He then took his tea and relocated to the island counter, taking a sip and savoring its taste. Only after that did he decide to speak. "Do you intend to turn this place into a zoo?"

The Mist Guardian dispelled her illusion, revealing herself to be in the room, standing with her back leaning against the far wall, smiling sweetly. "Nothing quite that aggressive. Maybe just a small animal shelter."

"And?" he asked evenly. "Who would be tending to this…animal shelter?"

Her smile practically glowed with amusement. "Well, given your 'no crowding' policy, naturally, it would be you."

"And what if I refuse?"

"But they're adorable," she countered casually as she walked around the island to his side. "Won't you feel sorry for them?"

He said nothing as he absentmindedly continued to pet the rabbit in his arm.

"It won't take much out of your time," she added.

"…"

Mist took the rabbit from Cloud's hold with a sigh. "There's a five-year-old boy who lives in my building. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to take them in. His mother's a chef, so when he's tired of them, she can probably do something about it."

He plucked the rabbit out of her arms before she could walk off with it. "I have a better suggestion."

She suppressed her laughter, schooling her features before turning to face him fully. "And that is…?"

"The one who acquired them can tend to them." It sounded more like he was laying down the law rather than merely making a suggestion.

She wasn't intimidated. "Is that permission for me to come and go freely on a regular basis?"

"You seem to be doing that already on your own accord," he pointed out.

"Just today." She studied him with a slight tilt of her head, wondering if his placid tone was in fact deceptive. "Are you upset?"

He took a moment to actually consider that question, taking another sip of his tea before giving his honest reply. "Not as of yet."

"Alright," she beamed. "I'll help you out on one condition."

He narrowed his eyes slightly. "You are in no position to be asking for conditions." And what did she mean by 'help out'? He was telling her it was her responsibility.

She voiced her request anyway. "I want to name them."

That wasn't really much of a condition. He supposed he could allow it. "I don't mind."

"And I want—"

"You said one condition," he cut her off warningly. Was she purposely trying to irk him?

She flashed him a sheepish smile. In truth, she didn't really want anything. It was just a personal challenge of hers to see how much she can get him to deviate from his typical Hibari Kyouya behavior. Getting him to agree to one condition was already one more than she'd thought possible, no matter how inconsequential said condition was. "Names, then. Let's see…" She pondered as she reached up and coaxed the chinchilla into her hand. "This one will be Hi…"

"If you name them Hiduck, Hirabbit, and the like, I will bite you to death," Hibari cautioned curtly. Miura Haru was the one who started calling his pet Hibird. Somehow it had stuck. It didn't make him happy.

Chrome chuckled at his agitation. She knew she'd been pushing his limits all morning and supposed it would be wise to back off before he truly snapped. "Whatever you say, Cloud Man."

By the time Mist said her farewell, Cloud was left with Hiro, the chinchilla, Hikaru, the rabbit, Hibiki, the duckling, and a whirlwind of thoughts swirling around in his head.

Hibari was quite aware that in this one morning alone, Chrome had done a long list of things that he would have typically found unacceptable. Entering his home unannounced…attempting to deceive his eyes with the power of Mist…bringing outsiders into his home, never mind that they're baby animals, and leaving them here and expecting him to take care of them and assuming he'd be happy about it… The list could go on. Had these acts been committed by anyone else, he would have already bitten them to death ten times over.

Nevertheless, these things that would usually irritate him to no end didn't really bother him much this time around. Instead, what bothered him was the fact that these things weren't bothering him. It was a bit unsettling, though he would never admit it even under the threat of being locked into a room filled to the brim with obnoxiously loud and whiny third-rate herbivores.

His willingness to accept and accommodate another person's existence in his life as he was accepting and accommodating Chrome's was unprecedented. The way he would sometimes make exceptions to the rules…his rules…when situations involved her was disconcerting. To some extent, it felt like his sense of order was being disrupted, his sense of balance being thrown, and he wasn't sure what to do about it. On the other hand, he couldn't deny that he wasn't as irritable as he used to be. Was he changing as a whole? Or was he simply making minor adjustments to his system in regards to one person? Was that tolerable? Or should he reevaluate?

He looked at the clock and couldn't believe he had just spent half an hour on the assessment of personal protocol. Placing his empty teacup in the sink, he swiftly got ready and stepped out of the house, closing the door behind him with mild exasperation. It was undoubtedly Chrome's fault he was being plagued by these thoughts, but he supposed this morning's events could have been avoided had he not done two things:

One: given her a key to his house.

Two: disclosed the date of his birth.

A/N: She's cracking his shell, and he knows it. Heh.

This chapter's a bit on the brief and subtle side. It's even shorter than the last one. Then again, there can only be so many words to describe waking up in the morning to find animals in your house. XD

According to Reborn Wiki, Haru was the one who named Hibird. Not sure how that happened, but I went with it.

This chapter and the next are sort of a pair. So, if this one is 'His Day', then I guess it's probably pretty obvious what the next one will be. Although the next chapter will be a lot longer…longer than all of the chapters so far, actually. And quite a few characters will be making an appearance, even if it's just for two seconds. LOL! Hope you'll look forward to it!

Thanks for reading! Reviews appreciated!