You didn't sleep much that night. Every time you thought your mind had settled another theory for translation sprung up and wouldn't stop pounding round your head until it had been proven wrong. It was only after you cancelled the third alarm on your phone you noticed the sun had risen. Rubbing your tired eyes, you made the executive decision to shower and change before heading into school.
It was all you could focus on as your auto-piloted your way through the morning, barely focusing on class as you applied hypothetical translation after hypothetical translation. Finally coming up for air you notice your usual group of friends in a happy frenzy. Joining them you ask what all the commotion is about noting that Gokudera is still avoiding eye contact with you. They explain they've agreed on the class theme for the school festival.
"A tea ceremony?" you ask for confirmation. They nod. Haru in particular seeming enthused by the idea.
"It'll be so wonderful Angel-chan. Just picture it! Everyone in Kimonos! The smell of matcha everywhere! We can have cakes and painting and flower arranging!" Her eyes are caught in a fantasy a she goes on to describe everything in her head. You smile and laugh a little. "Don't forget we have a limited budget Haru."
It's Yamamoto who reminds everyone you're partly in charge of handling the running of the festival. You cringe, having completely forgotten about it. You make a mental note to find out just what you needed to do before the day ended.
"Ma it sounds like fun though!" the baseball player said leaning back on his chair both arms positioned casually behind his head.
"Oh, Haru, Kyoyko-chan do you know where I could get a Kimono?" You rub the back of your head shyly. "I've never really done a traditional Japanese event before."
They both look shocked but agree gleefully to help you after school. Satisfied you pull up a chair and share your lunch while you give the notebook another look over.
Kimono shopping didn't take long, and you found chatting with the girls an easy pass time as high parts of your brain toyed with symbols scrawled across the notebook.
"Hey, did you get anything for white day?" Haru asks, changing the conversation.
You hesitate to tell them about Gokudera semi-kind-of-white-gift-kind-of-shouted-at-you-and-stormed-out-afterwards gesture. Thankfully Kyoko has an answer ready.
"Yeah! These were on my desk this morning." She fumbles in her bag and pulls out a small pink box with three questionably shaped chocolate. A quick glance at the note and you can tell it's your bosses handwriting.
"Haru got chocolate too!" she says excitedly as she pulls out a similarly coloured box.
"How about you, I bet you got loads right?" Haru asked turning to you.
You replayed the morning in your head, but couldn't remember getting anything. But then you'd hardly even looked at your desk when you'd been in class, eyes glued to the notebook.
"It's okay, don't feel bad, how about we get chocolate together?" Haru says bringing your thought process down to earth.
"I like that idea." Kyoko smiled.
The chocolate shop you chose was quaint with a large window display full of mouth-watering options.
It takes Haru and Kyoko a while to decided and you politely decide to take another crack at your decryption theory. Lost in thought, it's Haru's not so gentle nudge that brought you back to the real world.
"Isn't that HIbari-san?!"
You look up and to your surprise there he is. You watch him quietly as he purchases several items and leaves, either refusing to acknowledge you or not noticing the entourage of staring girls.
"Is he making chocolates today?!" Haru nearly screams in excitement. "Can you imagine Hibari-san giving chocolates to someone?" Kyoko and you both laugh at the idea.
"I can confirm Kyouya-senpais only emotions are pissed-off-bite-you-to-death or nap time" You smile, enjoying sharing what was a long held personal theory with them. Even if they weren't official Vongola guardians, though god hoping if your boss ever got the guts, they were part of the family.
Waving good bye and clutching your bag you head back into the Vongola house. To your surprise Yamamoto room door is wide open. You stick your head in checking just in case an intruder had gotten careless. Thankfully it was empty, as you turn around you're unexpectedly face to face, or face to chest, with a nearly naked towelled Yamamoto. The heat catches in your cheeks as you apologise profoundly shoving your hands over your eyes.
He chuckles, not seeing to mind. "I was actually hoping I'd run into you." He walks casually into his room and rummages around in his bag. You can't help but notice how defined his back muscles are with the water from the shower running down between his shoulder blades.
"Here!" He proudly holds out a small screw top tin.
You look at him quizzically before taking it. "It's wax." He beams proudly.
There's no real information except the word WAX in big letters on the top of the lid.
"Um . . . thank you" You smile deciding it was the thought that counted.
"Your staff must be getting pretty damaged with all the sparring you do, right? It was on sale, I thought maybe you'd find it useful. " His grin is infectious as you felt the warmth of his gesture.
"Thank you Yamamoto-kun." You can't help but grin back.
"That's actually. . . really helpful!" You go to hug him but stop yourself when you remember exactly how little fabric there is between the two of you. This doesn't stop Yamamoto as he decides he needs to spin you around as he pick you up to hug you. That boy really didn't understand how insulting it was to pick up small people at every opportunity. Not that you were small but fuck everyone was small compared to Yamamoto you thought to yourself unable to keep any real grudge against him.
"I'm so glad you accept my gift." He grins.
The small thud of cloth hitting the floor strikes another gesture from you, shielding your eyes. "Yamamoto-kun, your towel!"
Before he has time to say anything you excuse yourself, being careful to avert your eyes from anything exposing.
You spend the rest of the late afternoon looking over the school festival agenda and lazily waxing your staff. The stuff went on like a dream and you had to admit upon further inspection the bottom of your staff had put up with a lot over the past few months.
Only one thing caught your attention on the agenda but you figured you could bring that up with HIbari in the next meeting or if you saw him on night patrol. You ignored the familiar uneasy feelings that lingered around the school building at night. It wasn't something you had set out to do but to try and distract from the creepy atmosphere you decided to take another look at the notebook.
Without really thinking about it you found yourself in the disciplinary chair, perching yourself on a nearby desk, scribbling on the back of a committee agenda determined that you were onto something with your decoding theory. As you continued to write your hand knocked against something smooth. Looking up from the notebook you spot a rectangular white cardboard box next to you.
Curious you check the pink label attached. It had your name on it and the words "Don't forget about exams" in meticulous hand writing. You blink a few times, checking you weren't mis-reading it in the dim moonlight of the disciplinary room. There was no way those were from who you thought they were from. It looked like Hibari's handwriting, the message would definitely have been something he'd say, the closest thing you'd ever received from him that could be called affection. You had seen him buying chocolate supplies today. Nah, no way.
As if trying to convince yourself you'd got it wrong you opened the box up. Inside were four beautifully shaped chocolates with stripes of icing drizzled over each. Picking one up you look around. You wouldn't put it past him to use it as a distraction while he instigated a fight, but to no avail. You sniff it cautiously. It didn't smell like any poison you knew. Not that you thought Hibari would poison you but after your encounter with the Bel you weren't going to be caught unawares again.
Finally deciding it was safe you bit into the chocolate. The first taste that hits your tongue is a sharp bitterness that's almost overwhelming, but that slowly fades and as you let it melt in your mouth, the taste becomes a smooth layering of sweet milk chocolate.
You hum contently as you pop another one into your mouth, this time welcoming the quick flash of bitterness before the sweetened centre. They're wonderful, and if your head wasn't already calling back to the notebook you might have been able to figure out why Hibari had made them for you. Putting the now nearly empty chocolate box into your bag you returned to your notebook decoding. You could do another patrol in 5 minutes.