Surprisingly enough, Riza felt almost comfortable to what she was laying on. Her back pressed against a soft cushion; her body being warmed up by a velvety blanket. Her hand twitched, she never expects it to be this comfortable especially not during a fight. The fight, whatever happened to the fight? The last scenes before she had passed out flashed in her mind, remembering vaguely.
Hibari. Hibari was there and she knows that she had seen him. But perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her? She WAS badly injured after all and Gamma had struck her head on the ground hard that it was enough to kill someone.
She heard someone groaned, a male voice. Perhaps it's Hibari? She shook the thought, it isn't like Hibari to tend the sick or the injured. But Riza wanted him to, despite what he may be like, for once, she wanted Hibari to be there.
Riza was finally tired of just laying there doing nothing, she opened her eyes to see that she was finally back at the Vongola base. The light in the infirmary was bright blinding her as her eyes tries to adjust. She moaned, lifting her hand to cover her eyes.
"I see you're awake, you had me worried there." Riza turned her head to the side to see a blonde male sitting next to the bed.
"Dino-nii…What are you doing here?" Riza slowly sat up, though a jolt of pain struck her, preventing her from getting any further. Dino immediately provided his help and lent her a hand.
"I came here as soon as I heard from Reborn-san…" he smiled.
"W-When was that?" Riza asked, as she rubbed her throbbing head.
"About three days ago…you've been out since Hibari brought you back along with Gokudera and Yamamoto.." he gestured his hand to his left.
"How're they?"
"They're ok, they've been up and about so you don't have to worry." Dino reassured her once again relieve her of her worries. "JA…you should get more sleep, you're not in good condition yet." Riza nodded and soon as Dino left, she hopped out of bed and slowly made her way out of the infirmary. There was something she wants to do, she wanted to talk to the one person who had saved her, to Hibari.
The hallways were quiet and big, almost like a maze down in their base. Despite how big it was, she still manages to make her way to the entrance of Hibari's base. Though she had already reached the door that connects to Hibari's, an unsure feeling washed over her causing her to merely stand motionless. A few minutes of silently thinking, she had managed to gather her courage and finally opened the door.
Standing on the other side was Hibari's right-hand man, Tetsuya Kusakabe, who merely stared at Riza's condition. It turns out, Kusakabe was just about to leave their base and had been wanting to talk to Reborn about Hibari's report.
"K-Kusakabe-san…" Riza bowed and winced in the slight pain she felt as her head throbbed violently.
"Riza-chan…you shouldn't be here, you have to go back and rest in infirmary…" Riza shook her head as she forced herself past him.
"I just want to talk to him…" she looked at him, "…Can I talk to him?"
Kusakabe sighed in defeat, as he nodded idly. Riza bowed in appreciation, leaving Kusakabe sighing once more. Hibari must have ordered him not to let anyone in somehow, and now, he was starting to regret this action.
Riza made her way through the well polished wooden floors of Hibari's base, the atmosphere was completely different from the Vongola base that Tsuna had built, it has more of a Traditional Japanese feeling to it. Instead of the automatic sliding doors, Hibari had preferred Shoji doors with different bird and tree motif, wooden walls and floors. One by one Riza opened the Shoji doors to each room to find Hibari, yet no matter how many doors she had open there was no signs of him.
Finally, at the end of the hall a door leading to the outside was slightly open, Riza figured that if Hibari wasn't in then he might be outside. Meekly, she opened the shoji door to be greeted by a beautiful rock garden, rocks of different shapes were perfectly decorated on the sandy ground. Sakura trees were lined in perfect grace at the far back of the garden, despite Hibari's hate of Sakura trees, he still prefer the beauty it creates in a garden.
Perhaps she made a mistake because Hibari was still nowhere in sight, though the outside walkway led into another lone door. This was the only door outside except for the entrance she came out of. She went to approach the door, she has a good feeling that Hibari would be there, and he's either sleeping or just hanging out. She was a bit cautious, opening the door with a slightest crack so she could peek inside before going in. Sure enough, Hibari was there laying on the floor on his sides, his back away from the door as he uses his left hand for a pillow. Perhaps he's taking a nap…Despite knowing that Hibari might be taking a nap, she entered the room as quiet as possible so he wouldn't wake him up.
Slowly, she approached the unmoving body of the former school prefect and sat quietly in front of him. The fierce cloud guardian now has his guard down, sleeping peacefully like an angel. Nobody would even suspect that this sleeping angel is the strongest and fiercest guardian of the Vongola. His peacefulness reminds her of the first time she'd ever laid eyes on him as he sleeps, right on that school trip 9 or so years ago.
She let out a sigh as she whispered to herself, "I wonder when he's going to wake up?" She sat straight with her legs crossed; her back was still hurting though not as extreme as when it was inflicted. Staring at Hibari sleeping was making her sleepy, she yawned a couple of times as her eyes began to feel heavy. And sure enough, she collapsed on the floor, snoring silently.
Riza began to toss and turn, and was on the verge of waking out of her sleep. A low grunt escaped her lips as she slowly turned face up on the futon she was laying on. Futon? She doesn't remember laying on a futon. Her eyes slowly opened, seeing the wooden ceiling has somehow refreshed her memory, she remembered coming to talk to Hibari but fell asleep. Asleep?
"OH CRAP!" she jolted up, giving her body a painful shock that crept from head to toe leaving her temporary immobile. "Ow...My head…." She whimpered in pain as she rubbed her throbbing temples. As her senses finally returned, she shifted her head from the left, then to the right. Her eyes were caught on a lone figure, sitting by the shoji door, enjoying his afternoon tea.
"Hiba---" she stops midway and paused, "Kyoya-kun…" she called to him, Hibari slightly turned his head back in response to her.
"Stupid woman…you dared disturbed my nap and now this…Don't you have anything to do?" he took a small, quiet sip of his tea. Riza rose to her feet, as she wobbled her way to Hibari.
"Kyoya-kun…If you don't mind, I really want to talk to you…" Riza collapsed down to her knees, right next to Hibari; her health wasn't completely back to normal and any broken bones that she received weren't healed.
Hibari gave Riza a defiant stare as she attempts to continue a conversation with him.
"I know we've already talked about this and I'm not going to bother you anymore as to why you left…but..." she gave a slight pause, noticing the extra cup with fresh jasmine tea that was still piping hot, she picked it up and took in the warm scent of the tea. "…but could we start things over…or at least become just friends." She took a small sip, burning her tongue just the slightest bit.
A deafening silence filled the whole room, Riza started to feel uncomfortable with silence that between them.
"Kyoya-kun…about the last time we…talked," Riza attempted to change the subject that caused their awkward silence. "I'm sorry if I had said mean things to you…I hope you understand…" she paused again. Hibari didn't seem like he was in the talking mood, all he was doing was staring off and drinking tea. Riza was almost at the verge of snapping.
"Kyo---" she started to say, but Hibari had turned his head to stare at her, making her stop in mid sentence.
"Are you really that desperate? If you think that acquiring my friendship would make me tell my reasons of leaving then---" this time it was his time to stop mid sentence. There was a short sound of poof as Riza was covered with a pink smoke. It may not look like it but Hibari stared in horror as he seemed to know what's to come next. He forced to clear the smoke away, fanning it with his bare hands.
As the smoke cleared, Hibari stared into big, wide cyan eyes. He felt a gush of warm blood into his face as he realized that the person sitting so closely in front of him is Riza…10 years ago.
"Eh? Hibari-san…What are you doing here?"
