Disclaimer: I don't own it. It belongs to Akira Amano, end of story!
Author's Note: AHAFSKJDHF!?!? Thank you to everyone for reading, favoriting, reviewing, and adding this story to their story alert! T-T I didn't think anyone would like it because it's so rushed and just something I need to get out of my system... perhaps I will revise it once I am finished! Meanwhile, GO KICK SOME ASS, HIBARI[Shinji then jumps out a window to avoid being butchered by a certain murderous head prefect.
Chapter Summary: As Tsuna continues reading the diary (while hiding it from everyone), he finds the events that shape Hibari's life.
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Tsuna blinks, and he finds himself standing on the corner of an unfamiliar road.
He's pretty sure that he's still in Namimori, but he hasn't been to this part of town before. It isn't a run-down part of town filled with dilapidated houses, but it is a heck of a lot more crowded than what he was used to. Instead of two-story houses, there are large apartment complexes and condominiums on every block and Tsuna just feels like he's shrunk to half his normal size.
Despite how the buildings crowded this part of town, it is peacefully quiet. A flock of crows fly out from a nearby tree, and Tsuna is startled by the sudden sound of flapping wings. It isn't until they became specks on the horizon that Tsuna hears another the sound. The sound of footsteps. The familiar clack on hard concrete that is made from a pair of feet clad in heels of some sorts. He looks back down, and a woman is walking towards him, across the street from where he currently stands. She is at least two heads taller than he is, with waves of silky ebony hair, a pale complexion, and the coldest grey-blue eyes that he's ever seen before.
It is Hibari's mother, Amaya.
She has a purse slung over her shoulders, and is dressed in a black turtleneck sweater with a beige over coat and tight, fitting jeans. She is also sporting some boots, and the clacking sound gets louder when she gets to the corner. She looks up, flashes a smile, and for a second Tsuna thinks that she's smiling and waving at him. A movement in the corner of his peripheral vision catches his attention and he turns to his left where a tall, clean-shaven man with hair that vaguely reminds him of Dino's stands with a boy of five years. Hibari Tatsuya and Hibari Kyouya.
"Mommy!" The toddler Hibari cries, waving his arm frantically as a smile lights up his face. Amaya smiles back and hurries to cross the street. Tsuna pales when he realizes just what's coming next.
Two muffled shots. Two bullets ripping through her skull and she still has that grateful, relieved expression on her face. She tilts forward, but before a second passes, a sports car with tinted window hits her full on going 40 kph, and she is catapulted into the air before landing with a loud thud several yards away from where Hibari and his uncle stands. His uncle lets out an infuriated, angry, vengeful cry while Hibari stands there with wide eyes, clearly not understanding what is going on.
Tsuna covers his mouth, feeling the bile rise as his stomach does several uncomfortable flips. The smell of blood is so clear, and it smothers him with that undesirable, unbearable metallic scent. Several droplets are splattered onto Hibari's face and clothes, and he wobbles over to the body of his mother. Shakes it. And Tsuna knows Hibari's never going to get an answer from her anymore, and watching him stand there shaking his mother's body futilely makes his heart stop before restarting painfully.
Hibari's uncle, Tatsuya, frantically dials the number for the police. A murder has happened right in front of him, and he and Hibari are the witnesses. Tsuna swallows and finds that his throat is painfully dry, and he can't tear his eyes away from Hibari's shaking form as just begins to realize that mommy's not going to wake. Not now, never again. Large tears appear at the corner of his eyes before spilling, and he's letting out those choked sobs that Tsuna just can't bear to hear.
Hibari opens his mouth to speak, but instead of the voice of a toddler coming out, Tsuna hears a strained, tenor voice belonging to the present Hibari.
"Why, father? Why?"
He realizes then that Hibari is looking at him, if not through him, when something cold and hard presses against the back of his head. He hears a soft click, the sound of a safety button being turned off.
"Now, you'll watch someone you love die."
Tsuna freezes and his eyes shut as a loud bang shakes the air, but instead of a painful sensation ripping through his skull before nothingness, he hears another thud of a body. His eyes open slowly, afraid of what he'll see. And he is.
The seventeen year-old Hibari, dead from a bullet to the heart.
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"HIIIIBAAAAARRRIIIIII!!!!!!!"
Tsuna shot up from his bed, his eyes currently blinded from panic, drowsiness, and the insanely bright light from the lamp on the nearby table. His breath came to him in panicked gasps and he pressed a hand to his cheeks, finding it moist with tears that he shed throughout the night. After realizing that it was a (frighteningly real) nightmare, he gained control over his breathing and rubbed his eyes. It was just a nightmare, nothing else. It was not real, and god damn it Hibari is ALIVE and probably dozing off at his own place of residence so CALM DOWN.
But it had looked so real.
When he opened his eyes after the deafening gunshot in the dream world, Hibari lay at his feet, a droplet of blood on the corner of his lips. They were beginning to turn into that cold, pale blue, but his eyes... the pupils were dilated and they stared Tsuna down, and Tsuna felt so many emotions in that deadened gaze that he couldn't even find WORDS to describe it! It frightened him, because he looked up to Hibari, whom refused to back down despite his body being a bit more than a torn apart rag doll. He wished he could possess that kind of determination and perseverance that Hibari seemed to be born with. And goddamn, if anyone took him down...
Tsuna couldn't bear to think of what would happen. Thankfully, he was thrown off that particular train of thought when someone came flying from the right and he was thrown against the wall with a painful crash.
"OWOWOWOWOWOW!! What the heck was that for, Reborn!?!?!" Tsuna whined as he rubbed his abused cheek. Reborn landed on the bed in front of him and pointed a small index finger at Tsuna.
"That was for making maman worry. She heard you scream from the kitchen."
I screamed that loud? Tsuna sweatdropped. "Oh my god... she didn't hear what I said though, right?"
"No."
Thank god.
"But I did."
I take that back. If it was the one person Tsuna did NOT want to discover the diary or his frequent nightmares concerning Hibari, it was Reborn. Because no matter what happens, if Reborn finds out, the mafia is going to get dragged into it somehow.
"Why were you screaming Hibari's name? He didn't ravish you senseless in your dream, did he?"
"WHAT!?" Tsuna squealed, his cheeks turning a beet red from the impossibility of Reborn's assumption. "He did NOT!! I was just having a nightmare, that's all! Jeez, don't jump to conclusions like that, Reborn!!!"
"It was just a joke, Tsuna. Anyway, maman wants you to go buy some sweets from the cafe since she already has her hands full cooking dinner."
"Cooking dinner? Isn't it a bit early to be cooking dinner?"
"It's already five in the afternoon."
"That can't be right--" He glanced at the clock. Exactly five o'clock. "WHAT!? I slept for that long?!?!!"
"Yamamoto and Gokudera came by earlier to see if you could hang out, but you were sleeping. They're worried and they think that you have a fever so I had to reassure them that you're fine. Maman said you looked extremely tired these past few days so she didn't want them to wake you up. Gokudera complained profusely, of course." Tsuna could almost imagine Gokudera attempting to storm up to his room and check on him, claiming that if he was going to be the Tenth's right hand man one day, the least he could do was at least check to see if he was alright.
"That sounds just like Gokudera-kun." Tsuna laughed and scratched the back of his head. Reborn smiled, but kicked him in the shins. "OW!"
"Go pick up the dessert! I'm hungry and I want some sweets also!"
"Damn it, Reborn, you didn't have to do that, you know!"
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And that's how Tsuna found himself in town, mingling in with the youth and elders that were occupying the sidewalks at that time. In his pocket was the thirty dollars his mom had given him for purchasing the large cake for dessert. The sun was low in the horizon, and the sky was a mixture of red, orange, blue, and indigo. The street lights were beginning to blink on, and despite having slept for over twelve hours, Tsuna began to feel a bit drowsy again.
Though that didn't last for long; his stomach voiced a very loud complaint on how Tsuna was not feeding it.
"I better hurry up and buy the cake so I can get home and eat dinner." Tsuna whispered to himself as he sweatdropped.
The bakery was just a block away, and he jogged across the street to it, slowing down once he reached the sidewalk. Tsuna walked up to the glass door and pulled it open, inhaling the warm scent of freshly baked pastries and cappucino. There was a line for orders, but he didn't mind waiting. After all, it was quite cozy and warm in here compared to the chilly weather outside. As he waited in the line, he examined his surroundings. The whole room had a very mellow color scheme based on warm brown and red hues. There were several little wooden tables placed around the cafe, and they were only meant for two patrons each. A lot of the patrons happened to be around his age, out on dates, and there were some that were older than he was.
He was so busy looking around that he didn't notice that he stepped out of line and was currently blocking a waiter's path to a table. The waiter elbowed him and Tsuna jumped, opening his mouth to spurt out an apology for zoning out. It died on his lips. Why, you ask?
Yes, indeed. The waiter was Hibari.
"Hibari-san!" Several heads turned their way at Tsuna's exclamation, and the boy quickly covered his mouth in embarassment. He also recoiled from the particularly annoyed gaze that Hibari had fixed on him, and he wondered why.
"I'm sorry, sir, you seem to have the wrong person." Tsuna was about to protest, but his conscience told him to keep his mouth shut for a second. That, and Hibari did not seem to be in the mood to be interrupted. "If you take a seat in the corner, I'll take your orders once I pass by."
It was not a suggestion, it was an order. Wondering what could have Hibari so uptight and irritated this evening, Tsuna obediently shuffled over to the vacant table in the corner of the cafe. He kept his eyes on the head prefect the entire time. The boy made his way over to a table on the opposite side of the room where two bubbly high school girls were seated. They grinned at Hibari and from what Tsuna could see, were making an impressive attempt to flirt with the boy.
Of course, from here, even Tsuna could tell that it was not working and Hibari looked like he desperately wanted to put one between his own eyes. Or push the girls off a cliff. Tsuna vaguely wondered why Hibari decided to work here if he hated crowds so much. After all, it was incredibly busy and Hibari was surrounded by the type of people that he hated to the extremes. Hibari pivoted on his heels and headed for Tsuna, and Tsuna sweatdropped when he realized that the two girls were checking out a piece of human anatomy that they had a perfect view to as he sauntered over. Hibari flipped to a different page on the notepad, with a pen at the ready.
"May I take your order?"
"Uh, yes..." Tsuna glanced up at the nametag. "Inoue-san. I'll have a large black cherry cake with raspberries to go." Hibari scribbled it down, and Tsuna was confused as to why Hibari took so long to write down one order.
"And a drink?"
"Um... I'll take a can of orange soda."
"Alright." Hibari wrote the last of it down and calculated the price on the mini-calculator in his hands. It spurted out a receipt and he handed it to Tsuna, whom took it out of his hands. As Hibari walked away, Tsuna realized that he must've given the page on which he wrote the orders down on.
"Hi---Inoue-san! I think you---" Tsuna's fell onto the words on the paper and he shut up.
Shut up, herbivore, and refrain from referring to me as Hibari here or I'll bite you to death. Once I come by with your drink, move to a table outside and tell me as if I did not tell you to do so. Do not make eye contact with anyone and keep your eyes off me.. I will explain the reason why later if you manage to follow my instructions correctly.
Tsuna looked up, and Hibari was already walking towards him with a can of soda in his hand. Tsuna accepted it, and obeyed the instructions on the paper as he slipped them into his pockets.
"Ah thanks! Anyway, is it okay if I move to a table outside? I'm feeling kind of claustrophobic in here."
"That's perfectly fine, sir. I assume you're in a hurry? Do you want to pay now?"
"Yeah!" Tsuna handed him the thirty dollars. "Don't worry about the change, I don't need it!"
"Thank you, sir. I'll bring you the cake soon."
Tsuna left the cafe and shivered as the icy wind bit into his cheeks. He sat down at a table near where the corner of the cafe would be if he were still inside. He was still curious as to why Hibari wouldn't want Tsuna to mention his name in public. As he gazed into the restaurant, he found his answer.
A woman, draped in black and fishnets with auburn hair was staring directly at him with feline eyes. Tsuna felt as if something was direly wrong as the woman continued to stare him down with her predatory gaze, as if she was waiting for the opportune moment to pounce and rip his throat out. Out of nowhere, for absolutely no identifiable reason, a name burned itself into Tsuna's mind.
Savanna.
He quickly averted his eyes and popped open his can of soda, taking a small sip. From the corner of his eyes, he could tell that the woman was still watching him. If she was here, did that mean... Hibari's father was here also? At that thought, Tsuna quickly looked around him just in case. After a few seconds, he was positive that the father was not in the immediate vicinity, but that thought kept him on edge. What if he showed up right now, and attempted to kill Hibari? Or him, for that matter? Was that why Hibari had forced him to play along and keep up the charade?
"Here's the cake, herbivore. Come with me."
Tsuna nearly jumped out of his skin, but took the box from Hibari's hands and set it down on the table.
"Hibari-san, why are you so alert? What's going on here? Why's Savanna looking at me like that!?"
Hibari narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that name?" Tsuna blanched.
"I---"
At that moment, the glass window of the cafe shattered into a billion pieces and screams erupted all around them. Tsuna found himself being shoved to the floor by Hibari, whom leaned over him and was shielding him from the majority of the shards. He looked up, and for the first time ever, witnessed Hibari cursing profusely. Gunshots kept ringing through the air, and a second later, the reliable tonfa were in the older boy's hands.
"When I say go, grab the box and run for the alley." Tsuna nodded. "... GO!!"
Tsuna didn't need to be told twice, and sprung up from his spot with Hibari. The prefect dashed straight at the gunmen and from all the pained yelps Tsuna could hear, it seemed as if Hibari was absolutely not in the mood to fuck around. Tsuna glanced back as he ran and when he turned his attention back to the alley in front of him, he found a revolver pointed to his head. The foreign woman smirked.
"So it seems my suspicions were correct. He is still alive."
"What... do you mean?"
"Hibari. Hibari Kyouya. The boy I've been trying to eliminate for years." Tsuna paled and shook his head furiously.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Oh, I'm sure you're lying about that. After all, if you don't know who I'm talking about, then there should be no reason for you to turn such a sickly color. And there should be no reason for him to give me that look. It reminds me of my own."
Tsuna turned around at her last words. To his shock, Hibari was already done with the gunmen and was currently trying to find a way to defeat Savanna without any harm coming to Tsuna. He can't remember a time when Hibari was so pissed, except for the Kokuyo incident.
"Drop your tonfa, boy, or I'll pop one into his skull."
Hibari obediently set the tonfa on the ground before standing up, holding his hands up. He kept his eyes locked onto Tsuna's frightened ones, and Tsuna for the hundredth time that evening, wonders why Hibari did what he did. Two bulky men appeared behind Hibari with their own pistols and Hibari shifts every so slightly.
"Finally, after years of tracking you down, I get to kill you off here and now. What a delightful night this has been."
And just when Savanna raised her revolver to shoot Hibari, a loud explosion went off in the alley between then. She flinched and Tsuna jumped, and they were all momentarily distracted by it.
The distraction wasexactly what Hibari needed. He wrapped his arms around the men's, snapping their wrists and making them drop the pistols in their hands. He punched the one behind him to the left in the gut before kicking his feet out from under him and slamming his heel into the man's chest. He swiftly punched the man to his right in all the vital points before grabbing his arm and effortlessly throwing him at Savanna. Tsuna's eyes widened as he jumped away, and Savanna felt the full force of the throw as the man hit her straight on. Tsuna let out an "EEP" as more yakuza members showed up, but Hibari was knocking them down one by one with his own fists, tonfa temporarily forgotten.
And since they were a bit too far from the tonfa anyway for Hibari to grab them, he improvised. By grabbing Tsuna.
Tsuna dropped the box onto the alley floor (thank god it missed the icky looking puddle) and was promptly spun around as if he was some kind of club. Hibari gripped his chest firmly as he pivoted on his heels, forcing Tsuna's legs to slam into their chests. After taking down the first three, he used Tsuna as a stool (or something of the sort) and flipped over him, effectively hitting a man in the face with his heel. Savanna was beginning to recover from being hit and reached for her revolver.
Tsuna didn't know what possessed him to do it, all he knew was that he didn't want to get hurt, or see Hibari get shot, and therefore kicked the gun down the alley. Savanna glared at him before pulling out a dagger, getting up and lunging for Tsuna. She would've successfully ripped his heart out, also, if Hibari didn't smash her into the wall with his re-acquired tonfa. She let out a gasp and Hibari gave Tsuna a meaningful glare.
"RUN!!!"
Tsuna snatched the box containing the cake and ran down the alley past the revolver that he'd previously kicked away from Savanna. Hibari followed shortly after, and when they managed to cover some adequate ground, the sound of gunshots rang out from behind them. Hibari turned the corner and Tsuna followed, and yanked open the door of a black car parked there and pulled Tsuna in. The latter was surprised to see Kusakabe there in the driver's seat.
"Floor it. Now. To Sawada's house."
And Kusakabe definitely didn't need to be told twice.