Chapter 9: Ivy, Friendship and Affection, Fidelity and Wedded Love
Interlude, Part I
"Miyu, wake up."
She stirred quietly, her eyes fluttering open. There was a hand on her cheek, callused, that gently traced the soft curve of her face with what seemed to be years of experience. She yawned slightly, sitting up and pulling the white duvet tightly around her body.
"Kyoya?"
The black-haired man answered her not with the sarcastic remark that generally classed as playful banter between the two of them, but with a possessive kiss. She responded almost bewilderedly, wondering what on earth was going on. The thought, though, was quickly erased by her husband's fervent kisses, the feel of his almost rough hands trailing slowly down her arms, the feel of herself being pushed back down onto the bed as if by her husband's mere insistence. He pulled away, growling deep in his throat.
"I have to go."
Miyu sat up.
"But-"
He silenced her with another heated, if brief, kiss.
"Listen. Sawada and I are planning something. I won't tell you much because it could potentially put you in danger. Instead, I'll tell you what you need to know to give you an edge."
His mouth collided with hers again, a second time and a third.
"This might be the last time I see you. By the time you get back from that place, the plan will have been set into action. Expect our younger selves. I'll be staying to train Sawada for a bit, but eventually I'll be switched too. You understand?"
She nodded slowly, her mind reeling.
"But-Kyou, what do you mean this might be the last time I see you? Do you-do you expect that you won't come back?"
He shrugged.
"If it works, will go back and change the future. In which case this particular branch of the future may no longer exist. Everything could change."
His steel grey eyes were grave on hers.
"But you would be safe."
Miyu's lips trembled and she felt tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks and she sat up and hugged him. She had often wondered why he went so far in the efforts to change this world-this world of danger, of constant battling, this world that seemed to suit him so well. She knew at once what he meant-this might be the last time they would be together as husband and wife, because this was a future that needed to be changed, and who knew what would change along with it. She buried her face into his neck.
"Oh, Kyoya-I don't know why you ever wanted to marry an old woman like me!"
He snorted.
"For precisely that reason-because you are a woman."
Through her tears, she batted him playfully with her hand, smiling.
"So you think I'm old!"
Her bare leg had somehow become exposed and he ran his hand up its length slowly, his mouth less than an inch from hers when he shook his head.
"Never. I married you because you're a woman."
"I see. I was simply the first woman to look in your incredibly handsome way, is that it?"
He smirked.
"In my incredibly handsome way?"
Feeling suddenly mischievous, and yet still trying not to cry, she cracked a grin.
"Sure. If you had been standing where I was and you saw Tetsuya Kusakabe, all glorious and manly at your side, you would have fallen over your feet in desperation, too."
He growled, lifting her leg suddenly and wrapping it around his waist.
"Is that so? You find Tetsu more attractive than me? I think I'll need to bite him to death."
She let out a slow breath and whispered, "only if you bite me first." He did, nipping lightly at her inner thigh. She shivered and sat up, kissing him very carefully on the mouth.
"Kyoya, I just want you to know that-"
He shook his head, his eyes like steel on her warm, inviting dark ones.
"I already know, woman."
A gentle smile lit her face.
"When did you start calling me that, Kyoya? I remember it used to be Sakamoto, always."
"When I started to notice that you were a woman, a real woman, the way a woman should be. Not one of those ridiculous, whiny herbivores that stampede all over the place, throwing themselves at every other herbivore that claims to be male."
She laughed softly at that, knowing exactly which pet peeve of his he was referring to. It seemed so long ago that he had started calling her that, in a different time, when he was still a child and she still acted like one. She understood him exactly, like no one else could, and she understood, that in his own way, he loved her. He had never told her, and she knew he never would, but she knew from all the things he did that he loved her very, very much. She felt something inside of her clench painfully when he straightened up to leave.
"I have to go, but Miyu…"
She looked up at him questioningly, only to be pulled off the bed and into an embrace, his dress shirt that she had used for pajamas revealed, hugging her hips and ending there. He held her for a moment at arms length, for what seemed like the longest time, his voice low and husky when at last he spoke.
"I always tell you that I married you because you're a woman, everything that a woman should be. You've proven it to me again and again and I think you deserve to know…I married you because you're polite, obedient, because you have a sense of discretion not often found nowadays, because you have this way about you of making people happy, regardless of the situation. I married you because of the way you care for everyone-even people who don't deserve it."
She froze, shocked, even as he kept mumbling into her neck, pulling her closer and closer, more than she had ever thought possible. Was this truly her Kyoya speaking?
"I married you because I love way you move-it drives me crazy, did you know? Because I love the feel of you-"
He ran a hand down her side, from her breast to her hip, from too high a place to be proper to too low a place to be decent, his hand warm against her cool skin beneath his shirt.
"You're so-soft-not harsh, all curves and silk. And you smell so-good-like something sweet, fragrant, like those flowers you spent so much time with and something that isn't tame at all, but it's home. And Miyu…"
She was breathless when he kissed her, pulled away from her with a growl, and suddenly walked away. He wasn't one for goodbyes, she knew that. All she could do was watch him go, and by the time he stopped at the door her heart was pounding in her chest. Could she really let him leave? Just like that? He turned and his eyes met hers.
"I love you."
She couldn't-not like that. Not when-she bit her lip-she might never see him again.
"Kyoya!"
She nearly stumbled over to him, throwing her arms around her neck and kissing him again, holding him tightly enough for him to know that she never, ever wanted to let go, that she just could bear it. He stroked her hair softly, tilting her head upwards so that he could kiss her, and then closed the door behind him. Miyu sank to the floor and cried.
And then she woke up.
"Miyu."
She jumped at the sound of his voice.
"Kyoya! You-"
His ten year younger self was staring at her with the same steel grey eyes, and for a moment, she felt as if Kyoya-her Kyoya-might have just walked out the door. She smiled at the little boy in front of her, remembering the days she had spent-oddly enough-in his house as his ward and responsibility, and said, "hello, Hibari-san."
He scrutinized her very carefully, his expression far from neutral, so much so that she looked at him in confusion. And then she realized-he had called her by her given name.
"Hibari-san, did you just-"
He cut her off with an authoritative wave of his hand, a movement she was familiar with-her husband used it often-though she found it odd that it was directed at her. "I find it hard to believe," he began, his eyes sharp on hers, "that you continued to call me 'Hibari-san' when I married you. I have been told that you referred to me as Kyoya, or, occasionally, as Kyou and I to you as Miyu."
Wordlessly, bewildered, she nodded. He smirked, satisfied.
"We will refer to each other in these terms. This is our bedroom, I assume?"
She blinked.
"Yes, but why-"
He yawned.
"I will finish asking my questions in bed. Come."
Just realizing that she hadn't fallen asleep in bed, she looked down and found that she was comfortably seated in the armchair that Hibari had put in the room for her-she brushed her hair in it every morning when on leave from the Varia. She paused. Wait. Was the teenage version of her husband-a sixteen year old boy-ordering her-a thirty-four year old woman-into bed? She chuckled lightly to herself, taking everything in stride. He hadn't really changed. Except in height. She sniggered. Hibari's height had been a sore spot in their early years. How was she to have known that he had been waiting to grow taller than her to, well, inform her that she was now to be his lover. If she had, she certainly wouldn't have teased him as much about it and thus causing herself all the trouble she did by motivating him to act in retribution. She smiled at the memory of her husband as she debated whether or not to take off her Varia coat before laying down-completely dressed, of course, other than said coat and her tall boots, long since left behind in the hallway with all the other shoes. Hibari, looking rather exasperated, turned to her and said, "Take off the coat, woman, and lie down."
She blinked and, smiling in amusement, did as he asked and hung her coat on her armchair. Hibari watched her every movement like a hawk. This was his wife. He didn't care what his older self had to say about keeping his hands to himself and not so much as going near her on pain of being bitten to death. He would take the moronic herbivore down for daring to order him around, whether he would be fighting himself or not. He would also ignore the instructions not to ask Miyu any questions and not to refer to her familiarly or without respect. In fact, aside from disobeying all these rules, he would bite his older self to death for having the audacity to call him an herbivorous little punk. As long as he was in this time, the Miyu of this time was his wife. And the Kusakabe of this time-apparently referred to by his older self as "Tetsu," a practice he would suppose to adopt-was still his Vice-Chairman and under his command. And he was curious. He noticed that he had-not a soft spot-a particular inclination to the woman he lived with-he felt that Sakamoto was an inappropriate way to refer to her-and to find out he had actually married her, apparently years ago, intrigued him. She was looking quite lovely, more womanly, actually, at thirty-four. Something that surprised him, because his Miyu from ten years ago was plenty womanly already. And shouldn't she, at twenty-four, have already been as womanly as she could get? No, perhaps it was her clothes. His Miyu did not wear expensive clothes, mainly because she could not afford them, and in any case, he doubted she would have worn clothes as close-fitting as this Miyu's. He blinked. Since when had that woman been his Miyu? Oh well. He looked at her a little lazily from his pillow.
"So, what did I say to you the last time I saw you?"
Miyu stared at him for a moment before sighing and pecking him on the cheek-an action that caused his face to be dusted with the slightest shade of pink-and laying back.
"Good night, Kyoya."
"Aunt Miyu, what do you mean you're leaving? You-you can't!"
Tsuna's face was positively crestfallen. Miyu sighed and ruffled his hair.
"I have to go back, Yoshi. You-you wouldn't understand. After all, for you, it hasn't happened yet. But I have to go when I get called back. No exceptions, no excuses."
He frowned.
"But why? I don't get it. Why did you even join the Varia in the first place?"
Gokudera and Yamamoto ambled over from opposite sides of the kitchen, sitting down at the same table Tsuna and his aunt were sitting at just in time to here this question. Both boys had interest written all over their faces. Miyu looked from one to the other before sighing.
"How can I say no to such adorable little faces? I almost wish you wouldn't grow up."
She took a single, second look at their faces and burst into laughter.
"Okay, okay. Such ruggedly handsome and not cute at all faces. Well…"
Her face took on a thoughtful expression as she considered it. Tsuna and his friends leaned forward in anticipation and she suddenly smiled sheepishly at them, not having intended to space out as she had. "Sorry, boys," she said, holding her hands up in a gesture of surrender, "I was just thinking about where to start." Her face took on a more serious expression.
"So, a while ago, and I mean a while ago, Vongola ran into some trouble. Big trouble. Like, the-family-nearly-got-terminated trouble. So, while that was going on, I was kidnapped."
They gaped at her, about to start attacking her with questions when she held up a hand firmly to silence them.
"Let me finish! Geez. So, I was kidnapped. Everyone was in a state of uproar-thinking that the enemy had me. Until the Ninth got a message from the Varia that said, basically, that all claims on me had to be relinquished and that I was now solely under Varia jurisdiction. If anyone tried to take me back, Varia support would be withdrawn and they would secede from Vongola."
Tsuna's mouth popped open.
"But that would lead to a civil war!"
Miyu pinched his nose, nodding wisely.
"Exactly, Yoshi-kun. So, the Ninth tried to negotiate-to find out what the Varia really wanted. Instead, he got another letter that said the Varia would travel to Japan and assist the future Vongola Tenth in fighting the rival alliance and that once the enemy was defeated they would return to Italy. No other negotiations would be made. The Vongola triumphed in Japan, thanks almost exclusively to Varia efforts, and everyone lived happily ever after. The end."
Gokudera frowned.
"That's a crap story, Aunt Miyu. What happened to you in the end?"
Miyu smiled, a little wistfully, perhaps.
"I, well…you all know that I had been very close to the Varia boss in my childhood, right? Well, during the ring conflict, he saw me, I guess, and came to my apartment. He left me a note to meet him the next day. I did. I had no idea at the time that he was, well, who he was at that time. We were, not in love, but somewhere near it, I think, but I couldn't handle what he'd been doing-and the way he said, that if I came with him, he would let Yoshi live, he would let you all live-the way he said it hurt me so much that I told him to leave. He did."
Tsuna watched his aunt as if he had never truly seen her before. She took a deep breath to steady herself, asking her memory of Hibari to give her strength.
"Xanxus…he told me he would come back for me one day, and he did. I was walking home from the grocery store-we'd run out of tea, you see, and Kyoya always drinks it in the evenings, so I'd run out to buy some. He cornered me and carried me off. I spent weeks in a room at the Varia base, until I found out what had been going on between Vongola and the Varia. I, well, I had a bit of a fit and I stormed out of my room and demanded to see him."
Tsuna noted that she looked suddenly very sad and a bit uncomfortable, but didn't say anything. He was not the only one, though, and Yamamoto's grin faded a little. Gokudera just watched as she suddenly smiled a bit sheepishly.
"I almost got myself killed. Actually, Levi-the one who nearly killed Lambo-nearly killed me. There was a huge uproar about it-everyone ended up coming out of their rooms-Bel started poking me with knives and Luss-Lussuria, who fought Ryohei-was trying to convince him not to kill me and then Squalo, bless his tiny, shriveled up little heart came out and started shouting at Levi and at everyone."
Tsuna sweatdropped. Miyu didn't notice, though, not that nor Gokudera's twitching-he would never forgive Belphegor for beating him-or Yamamoto's smile-he could picture Squalo yelling all too easily.
"He started waving his sword around shouting, 'VOI, YOU TRASH ARE GOING TO GET YOURSELVES KILLED WITH THIS SHIT!' Of course, he knew he wouldn't die, I mean, he defeated the Emperor of Swords! Sorry, Takeshi-kun, but I think he's the most talented swordsman in the world. I know you beat him, but you have a pure type of heart, of resolve and determination that darling Squalo doesn't. And that makes all the difference."
Yamamoto smiled in acknowledgement and she returned the bright expression.
"You're all so cute! Ah-sorry, I know. Back to the story. Well, Squalo was shouting so loud that Xanxus came out of his office, pissed as hell and wondering what on earth was going on. In much, much less polite terms. And he saw me, and Levi grabbing me by the hair about to throw me to his lightning squad for, er, disposal and he got rather upset."
Gods, they could see it now. Upset? More like, raging, full of wrath, about to explode.
"He looked like he was about to kill everyone. I've never, ever been as scared in my life-not like that, not before then or any time since, even with all the Millefiore trouble-so I just called his name and hoped he wouldn't get any more mad. He grabbed me and dragged me from Levi and Squalo and said they were not to do anything like that again. He asked me, er, what I was doing out of my room and I got over my fright and I talked to him and I joined the Varia on the condition that even if I no longer took orders from Vongola, I could still visit once a month. I was ordered to get rid of my engagement ring and was dismissed."
She suddenly smiled and it was such a bright expression that the others wondered at it.
"When I was escorted to the exchange point for my first trip outside-I'm not a fighter, I can defend myself, but I'm no guardian or Varia quality assassin-Hibari was the one who picked me up. I told him that I'd been ordered to get rid of the engagement ring and, well, imagine my shock when he agreed. The next thing I knew he had flung the ring down the hallway, all the way to your side of the base where Lambo picked it up later, and carried me off. We were married the same day and I got a new ring on my finger. And now," she chuckled, "you know absolutely everything."
Ivy (Genus Hedera): an evergreen climbing plant, NOT POISONOUS. Woody stems, leaves that vary from green, green and yellow, and green and white.
They're still not back, and I'm getting really worried. Nana isn't really, she said that Tsuna swung by the other day and told her all about their camping trip. I don't think it's true, though. I think he's up to something mafia-related and is trying to cover it up. In case I'm right, I won't say anything. I had the strangest dream last night, and it made me wonder…where will I be in ten years?
Ivy/End.