If I die young, burry me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Oh-oh, Oh-ho
It was nighttime. Hibari can remember each and every star in the sky, every small detail that fateful day burned in his mind. They had been out on a job, Decimo had wanted them to take care of the remaining members of the Millefiore.
The raven-haired man had grit his teeth in frustration, holding back a low growl. He hated how even after their leader fell, the sheep still flocked together, trying to find any form of safety in their little groups. Herbivores were pathetic, and he was about to show them, the fangs of a wolf.
Ready to pounce, he was stopped only by an arm shooting out, to block him. On instinct, he nearly attacked the fool who dared get in his way, before he whipped his head to the side and instantly recognized who it was. The messy brown locks and blazing orange eyes, on a deceptively soft looking face that hid a raging power inside, Vongolo Decimo. This was the only man Hibari would even begin to consider listening to.
As there eyes met, Tsuna flashed him a grin, that beautiful smile he reserved solely for the ravenette, and because of the two of them had bonded, Hibari could pick up the tinge of excitement in that depression.
His herbivore, had finally grown into something string and independent though that didn't stop Hibari's protective urges towards the smaller man. While Vongola Decimo was a force to be feared, Tsuna was still a small rabbit he had to put himself between the world with.
He was a lone wolf, a alpha wolf, but he had let this small animal into his pack.
"Are you ready, Hibari?" The boss of the vongola said, snapping the other man out of his revery.
"Hn," The carnivore grunted in response.
Taking on a battle stance, Hibari readed his tonfas as Tsuna's gloves ignited beside him, close enough that he could feel the heat.
"Then let's do this." Vongola Decimo spoke.
And after sharing one last look, they both launched themselves into the fray.
At the time, Hibari didn't realize how final that look really was.
Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors
Oh, and life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even gray, but she buries her baby
The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time
It was as Hibari was preparing to leave, packing lightly and only the necessities, when his little rabbit's mother knocked on the door.
"Hibari kun," Nana called out, hands on her hips and a fierce, unwavering depression on her face. "You're going out to find my little boy, aren't you?"
His little rabbit, more like.
"I know he's alive. You can't stop me from looking for him." Hibari enunciated. "Even though everyone says he's dead, I know he's alive. You want to try and hold me back?"
Nana barked out a laugh before he could even whip out his tonfas. It sounded bitter and despairing, so different from her usual jovial giggles. Her usual facade of a lightheaded housewife was gone, instead the eyes that bore into him were as sharp as his.
"No." she growled darkly, crossing the threshold of the room. Giving off the intent of a carnivore. Hibari had to wonder how much of her "personality" was an act. "You and I both know my son isn't dead. Though what his fate truly was remains to be seen. But you can sense it, can't you? That he's still alive?" Nana smiled, but it wasn't a happy depression.
"Call it a mother's intuition." Hibari had to hold himself back from shivering, something that he had never felt before. Note to self, never bring forth the rage of the denmother. Especially when it came to her young.
"Yes." Hibari confirmed shortly. Nana laughed again. "I knew you could also sense that my son was alive. Your bond is special. Different than the others."
Hibari begun to feel a begrudging respect for Nana then. A wolf in sheep's clothing, that's was what she was.
"Good luck, then," Nana wished him ominously. "You'll need it."
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
"He was my leader," Gokudera articulared, grief potently soaking his every word as he gripped the sides of podium. The funeral was simple and modest just how Tsuna would have wanted if (if he'd actually died, that is; Tsuna never believed he'd desserve a grand funeral and this was an emergency anyways; they didn't even have the funds to hold something so grand even if it's what his little rabbit would have wanted). The podium was simple and didn't even afford Gokudera enough height to look into the eyes of those at the back of the crowd. It was a sparse gathering. "But more than that? He was my friend. I don't know how I'll go on without him. How any of us will."
As Gokudera droned on about Tsuna's many fantastic qualities (which Hibari agreed with but would never publicly agree with; Gokudera was, as far as Hibari was concerned, at most a clingy hanger-on and at worst a boundary-pushing fanatic and agreeing with him would only serve to elevate the heights of annoyance the silver haired man could reach.
Hibari was sick of it.
"He was all our everythings. And I know none of our lives will be the same. But all we can do is keep moving forward. As his right hand man, I'll make sure never to forget him and to continue the legacy he was building. Of a better Vongola. Of a better future for all of us," Gokudera vowed. "He wouldn't want us just to wallow in grief."
Hibari was sure it was a moving speech. For those that stupidly believed in the false reality was Tsuna was dead, of course.
Hibari knew better, though.
He knew better than to believe in the lies.
What he didn't know is why. Why Tsuna would do such a thing. His little rabbit, his little sky, was much too powerful to be a victim to any sort of scheme let alone to die from such a simple thing. So the only conclusion was that, somehow Tsuna planned this.
This funeral is. A. FARCE.
And Hibari can't take it anymore.
The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time
Taking a nice right cross to the jaw, Gokudera scrambles to keep on his feet and retaliate, a war cry rumbling out of his throat as he spits his own blood in Hibari's face and lunges at him, the two tumbling down the stairs, knocking the podium over in the process.
Igoring the way they're buffeted by the jagged edges of the staires as they roll, they do anything to bring harm to the other.
They punch. They kick. They bite and scratch.
They damn each other to Hell and back.
They knock over a large stand carrying one of the funeral wreaths gifted to them by a rival family and send it tumbling down the aisle.
Eventually Hibari gets the upperhand, foot slamming into Gokuderas' stomach and sending him flying into the pews, the mourners scattering in order to not become his landing spot.
"Bastard!" Gokudera screams, attempting to lunge at Hibari a second time but getting tackled by a few of the mourners, trying to wrangle in the situation.
"Stop it!" Lambo screams, tears rolling down his face as he and Ryohei rush in between the two, trying desperately to control the situation. "This is the last time we can say goodbye to Tsuna-nii and you're both ruining it."
"This is extremely inappropriate, Hibari." Ryohei shouts, placing a hand on Hibari's shoulder as he begins to try to escort him out.
"This funeral is a sham." Hibari growls, kicking a stand carrying a bouquet so it falls to the floor with a clatter.
"You two are out of control." Yamamoto says, eerily calm. His sharp eyes snap from Gokudera to Hibari. It is nothing more and nothing less than the killer instinct of a natural born hitman. "Get out. This event is for remembering Tsuna, and you're making it all about yourselves."
Hibari huffs.
Making it about himself? What a laugh. He was thinking about Tsuna. He was the only one thinking about Tsuna these days.
And I'll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger
I've never known the lovin' of man
But it sure felt nice when he was holdin' my hand
There's a boy here in town, says he'll love me forever
Who would have thought forever could be severed by
Hibari searched the world, for Tsuna. he could only think about the good times and laughters they had shared when they had been in their happy relatioship.
~ FLASHBACK ~
Tsuna's laugh echoes across the room, brightening it with a single sound. Hibari would never admit out loud but that sunlight laugh was enough to even illuminate the cold hard shell of his heart, past the fangs of the carnivore that guarded his most inner feelings to pierce his very emotions.
"What's so funny, little rabbit?" Hibari asks to disguise the pounding in his heart. The rays of the sun's light fall across Tsuna's brown eyes from the open window turning his warm irises into liquid gold. Molten fire burning at Hibari's heart, scorching the shards of ice buried deeply within himself. "That you're laughing like that?"
"Oh, nothing," Tsuna said looking over at him.
The way Tsuna looked at him was nothing short of painful in its tenderness and openness. Hibari didn't undestand the joke but when Tsuna gave him a depression like that he thought he didn't have to know the joke to feel like he could laugh along.
And he almost does. it would be so easy to laugh, to let the mirth escape him but something stops him. Maybe he shouldn't break this moment; it's not like him to laugh and perhaps it would put Tsuna off.
It doesn't stop him from wanting to.
And it doesn't stop the ice around his heart from cracking, melting like frost-touched grass at the first light of day.
~ END FLASHBACK ~
Hibari bought yet another plane ticket.
He knew this was inneficient but he couldn't help but feel that he had to do this. That, by looking so randomly and spontaneously, and by channeling what little of Tsuna he felt he could—and wasn't this just something like Tsuna would do?
Hitch one random plane after another, letting his heart decide where he went? letting the four winds carry his fate, leading him to wherever he may go?
Somehow he felt that he would find Tsuna this way. He could of course be methodical about this, but something told him that was wrong.
That this was the only way to find Tsuna, the right way to find him.
As Hibari went through the process of getting his check baggage and carryons weighed, he felt an odd sensation like a puzzle place had fell into place in his heart.
The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time
They had tried to speed up the ceremony, rushing through all the vows and pledges in hopes they could finish before he'd arrived, but the doors of the Vongola Mansion burst open and Hibari Kyouya rushes - a litter of bodyguards' bodies littered behind him - in to defend his mates' honor as he was always meant to.
"Hibari! How dare you interrupt this most prestigious and time honored ceremony?" Timoteo barked, flame igniting upon his forehead as his guardians circled in defensive position around him.
"This ceremony is a farce." Hibari growls, gray eyes narrowing at the old man before turning to the traitor standing between the two of them.
Xanxus dii Vongola... Hibari never trusted him. Not in the past. Not in the present. And definitely not in the future. That drunken lap dog of the ninth's has been coveting Tsuna's rightful place as the heir for over ten years now, waiting for any opportunity to snatch it Tsuna's hands. Never man enough to admit that he didn't have what it takes to lead a pack like the Vongola.
"Farce, farce, farce. You keep fucking repeating the same old bullshit like your shitty little canary." Xanxus muttered, slinking away from the ceremonial podium and down the stairs towards Kyouya. The guests in attendance shuddered as they plastered themselves to the walls, fearing the impending battle that was about to commence. "That little sack of trash you worship and slobber over is dead. If you can't accept that, then I'll send you on to be with him in Hell."
Quicker than an SSC Tuatara, a sideways pillar of burning flames claws through the air towards Hibari, who deftly dodges the blast (a few attendants not so lucky, their bodies falling to the ground with freshly drilled holes in their chests).
Hibari lunges forward, swift feet pounding against the floor as he pushes through the guests foolish (or frightened) enough to remain standing in the middle of the hall, thrashing his tonfa to shove them aside.
Xanxus pulls his second guy, blasting and blasting BANGBANGBANG! with no care for the guests or the structural integrity of the hall they were standing in. The Ninth and his guardians quickly make their retreat (frightened little mices running from a true predator), ushering as many people out of the hall as they can.
Squalo and the rest of the Varia attempt to intersect Hibari, but his will - his love - was far too powerful and he bats them away as he thrashes up to stand face to face with that pathetic little whelp Xanxus. Mano a mano. One on one, where their strength would prove themselves. Hibari's will verses the Vongola's will.
Xanxus tries to raise his gun to shoot at him, but Hibari kicks him in his nether regions, causing him to drop his guns. Then he headbutts him, cracking his skull and dropping him to the floor.
Here Hibari drops his tonfa all together, and rages with his teeth-no, fangs-bared at Xancus with his bare hands, fists flying in a barrage of furious desperate hits. Anguish streams from his eyes and throat as he screams his frustrations with his familia, the world, himself into Cancus's face.
"TRAITORTRAITORTRAITORTRAITOR" he chanted over and over, a furious verse delivered with a wrath that was nearly divine, as he brought his fists down. Until the skin over his knuckles split apart. Until the blood from Xanxus' wounds covered his clothes and face. Streams of it running down staining the floor and their clothes deep crimson rage. Until Yamamoto and Ryohei burst into the crumbling hall and pull him from the battered remains beneath him, holding him back as they've always done...
So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls
What I never did is done
A penny for my thoughts—oh no, I'll sell 'em for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
And maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singin'
Funny when you're dead, how people start listenin'
It had finally gone too far.
Hibari has finally had enough. After the funeral, after Xanxus, after everything?
This is the last straw.
"Tch, why'd you even call us here," Gokudera says, sounding flippant like this is some prank, some joke, something lighthearted on Hibari's part. But he didn't know that Hibari was all too serious about this. "Get it over with so we can get back to work."
Hibari nearly saw red right there. It was like Gokudera didn't even care for his oh-so-precious Juudaime. Hibari was doing his best not to completely fall apart, and this was just another workday to Gokudera?
It was at that exact moment that all Hibari's doubts as to what he was about to do just faded away. He would never regret this for as long as he was alive.
"How long has it been since you all felt anything through the Bond?" Hibari asked.
Silence.
"But Tsuna's dead," Yamamoto challenged stubbornly. "Of course we didn't feel anything."
"Then why didn't you feel him die?" Hibari asked.
"That -"
Hibari nearly gorwled with anger right then and there.
"WE WOULD HAVE FELT HIM DIE!" Hibari screamed suddenly, temper flaring not unlike one of Gokudera's signature explosives. "WE SHOULD HAVE! BUT YOU DIDN'T. AND OF COURSE YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL THAT OUR BONDS ARE ALIVE AND STRONG BECAUSE YOU'VE DEADENED YOUR OWN EMOTIONS!"
The Guardians all looked stunned to his out-burst. No one had known he had it within him to say so many words at the same time. And with such viciousness too, never holding anything back, never even for a second pulling a single vicious punch. They had truly seen the depths of Hibari's rage today as he usually preferred fighting to words, if he was using words, then it was truly drastic.
"None of you have been there when Tsuna really needed it," Hibari spat bitterly. "It disgusts me to think of my little animal surrounded by fakes like you."
Ryohei stepped forward, and Chrome said, "You can't just -"
"But I did," Hibari said, shutting down their responses. "You are all completely pathetic herbivores. I see what I have to do now."
They looked at him fearfully, waiting for his next decision.
"I'm leaving the Vongola."
"No!" A chorus of voices rang out as one, horrified at the turn of events.
"Yes. As it's clear to me, the Vongola… has already forsaken Tsuna," Hibari delivered the final nail in the coffin. "Every single one of you has lost sight of what Tsuna has worked so hard for his entire life, his victories, his defeats,they're all meaningless because none of you have even tried to understand him. And now that he's gone, and you all think he's dead? That just shows how little you know after all."
No one could stop him as he turned, hair sweeping over his eyes to cloud his angry depression as Hibari left the room.
They couldn't, after all.
Because they knew he was right.
The Vongola really had left its Decimo.
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Fiji was known for it's beautiful sandy beaches and crystal clear waters. Seeing it with his own chocolate brown eyes, Tsuna understood why they were so highly revered. The sight of the brilliant sunset before him, they days final rays of sunlight fizzling out as it sinks down into the sea for rest, was almost enough to heal his shattered heart.
Almost.
Tears still fell freely down his cheeks as the gentle seabreeze played with his hair and clothes. He shuts his eyes as he sits in the sand, breathing in deep as he tries to forget. Forget how he failed his family, his friends, himself.
Even after years of all these years of training and tuteledge from the finest tutor in the world, he still wasn't the man he wanted to be let alone the man they deserved. He would never be good enough for them. Not as a leader. Not as a friend. Not as a brother. Not as a son. Not as a student. Not as a mafioso. Not as a man.
(Not as a lover.)
An aching breath racks through his body as the pain begain to consume him, the intense throbthrobthrob-ing of his heart almost sending him toppling to his knees in the sand. He swallowed, trying to grapple the pain as pest as he could. It would never go away, not as long as he shall live without them, so he figures he should learn how to deal with it.
'Anything.' he thinks, clutching his chest, barely stifling the wretched Oof! of pain that longs to slip out of him. 'Anything to protect them from my inability.'
A new stream of hot tears sleep past his tightly wrenched eyes. They're better off without me. I'll never bee anything but Dame-Tsuna. They're better off without me.
Even if I'm nothing without them.
(Without him.)
Ooh, ooh, the ballad of a dove
Go with peace and love
Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket
Save 'em for a time when you're really gonna need 'em
Oh, the sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time
So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls
He was contemplating letting himself be taken in by the sea, letting it wash away Earth's final impurity, when he hears his name on the wind, as if being carried to his ear by a dove.
Or a skylark.
He whirls around, standing up from his beach chair, his breathe catching in his throat as he catches sight of him walking towards him.
He was as beautiful and perfect and too good for him as he always was, raven locks dancing in the wind as he closes the distance between their bodies and hearts with each powerful step through the white sand. The satisfied wolfish smile of a wolf that's finally cornered his prey graces his features. "Well, this hunt was interesting, but it's time to return to your natural habitat, little rabbit."
"How did you find me?" Tsuna whispers, a hand reaching up to cover his mouth, as it hangs open in shock and awe. More tears begin to drop down his face, but these were tears of elation.
"Little rabbit, you could never escape me. Or my love." Hibari chuckled, finally closing the distance between them, the two now chest to chest. Their heartbeats kissing. "We are off the same pack. A mated pair. We are bound together by law of nature. There's nowhere you can go without me following."
Tsuna shudders, joy making his body quoke, tears now flowing freely, raining down towards the sand, as Hibari wraps his arms around him.
~ fin ~
OMAKE COMING SOON