To celebrate the day after Christmas, I wrote a chapter that was very day-after-Christmas-themed. :)
Enjoy this chapter and enter the art-contest! Do it now!
~8~
"I remember when my life was normal," Hide sighed, "And when I had barely any friends and everyday was the same as the last…those were good times…"
"Shut up and put away Christmas decorations," Reborn ordered while pointed a Leon-gun at his student.
"R-Right!" he yelped and quickly grabbed a box that was supposedly filled with Christmas lights but the weight of the actual object seemed to lie about its contents, "What's up with this thing! It weighs a ton!" Hide groaned as his knees began to shake under the weight.
"To make them impossible to steal," Reborn explained.
"Who would steal Christmas lights!"
"Who wouldn't?"
"I think almost everyone!"
"Oh my, Hide-kun!" his mother called from the living room as he continued to struggle taking the box down to the basement of the house.
"Yeah, mom?"
"While you're down there, why don't you take out some of the New Year things?" she suggested.
Hide sighed again and asked, "Why can't Adam do it? He's stronger."
"Oh my, well it's the strangest thing," she began in an explanatory way, "I haven't seen Adam-kun or Anna-chan around at all today, oh my!"
"They're probably just avoiding doing chores," he muttered.
"Boss!" Nico ran up beside him with his arms outstretched, "Let me do it for you, Boss! I'm much stronger than I look!"
"Er," the older boy looked at him worriedly and said, "I think this may be too heavy for even you, Nico."
"Nonsense!" he declared, "Nico Bovino is the stronger than everyone in the world!"
"Yeah, right," he nodded and gestured to another box, "Why don't you get that totally not smaller or lighter box over there."
"Yes sir!" the little boy saluted and ran over to grab the box, but he fell to the ground after trying to pick it up, "What's up with this box! It feels like it just has weights in it!"
"That's because it does," said Reborn.
"Reborn!" Hide yelled and paused for a second of thought before asking, "Do I even need to ask why?"
"Nope."
"Oh my, Hide-kun?"
"Yes, mom?"
"Before you go down to the basement, could you go over to the grocery store and buy some more trash bags? We seem to have run out…"
"No problem, mom!" he said and immediately put down the box and grabbed his jacket, "It'll probably be really crowded at the store so it may take an hour…maybe two hours…who knows, perhaps all afternoon!"
"Get back soon," she said distractedly.
"Okay!" he said in a sing-song voice and quickly left the house, he ran out onto the street and looked around to see if Reborn or Nico or both had followed him.
"Shouldn't you be getting trash bags?" asked his tutor as he lounged on top of Hide's head.
"H-How did you get up there!" the boy yelped before his tutor jumped off his head and onto the street.
"That's not important," he stated.
"You're always saying that everything's not important…"
"No, just the things you say are unimportant."
"Why do I get the feeling that this argument will never end," Hide groaned.
"Hide-nii!" something latched onto his legs and caused him to fall the ground.
"Ow!" he yelped in pain.
"Hide-nii sounded like a herbivore!" Ahiru giggled.
"Hibari-chan?" he questioned while struggling to get up, "W-What are you doing?"
"Ahiru saw Hide-nii acting like prey," she began bashfully, "And Ahiru couldn't help but act like the predator."
"I'm beginning to wonder if you watch the Discovery Channel a lot, Hibari-chan," Hide muttered after pulling the girl from his legs and standing up, "And if so, I'm beginning to wonder if that's good for your health or not."
"Ahiru doesn't watch tv," she stated in an almost proud fashion, she noticed Reborn and immediately smiled, "Reborn-chan!"
"Ahiru," the infant nodded to her, "I thought that you were going to be baby-sat by Kurokawa."
"Takuma-nii is doing something today," she stated, "Ahiru thought it would be fun to play with Hide-nii today!"
"I have to do some errands for my mom though, Hibari-chan," he said.
"B-But its Christmas…" she began sadly and teary-eyed.
Hide's mouth fell open at this display and thought in horror, Oh crap, did I make her cry!
"Uh, H-Hibari-chan, there, there," he said while nervously patting her back, "I, um, guess I'll play with you?"
"Yay!" she immediately began cheering happily.
"Huh?"
"You were just played, stupid-Hide," Reborn smirked.
"Hide-nii was played like an old video game!"
"What!" his mouth fell open again and he asked, "Wait, where in the world did you even hear of such a saying!"
"That doesn't matter," she said bluntly, this statement caused Hide to look at Reborn suspiciously, "Hide-nii promised to play with me!"
"No I didn't!"
"B-But its Christmas…"
"I'm not falling for that again! And its December 26th, Christmas was yesterday!"
"Don't lie, Hide, you said it all right here," Reborn began, a tape recorder materialized in his small hands and he pressed a button on the machine for it to declare: "I'll play with you."
"I think there's some parts missing from that sentence…" Hide pointed out.
"Hide-nii said 'I'll play with you' and you will play with me!" Ahiru said demandingly.
"I can't, Hibari-chan," he said, "I have to do chores for my mom!"
"Do it!"
"I can't!"
"Just do it already," Reborn threatened with a gun against Hide's head.
"What do you want to play?" he asked with a sudden change in attitude.
"Park! Let's go to the park!" she said excitedly.
"Wait!" they both turned around and saw Nico pointing an accusing finger at them, "Are you guys going to the park with Boss when he has important errands assigned to him by Mama!"
Ahiru paused for a moment of thought before replying cheerfully, "Yes!"
"Nico, you can come with if you want to," Hide said.
"Who would want to go with you bastards?" the little boy yelled and then quickly added, "No offense, Boss."
"Okay, then it will be just Ahiru and Hide-nii!" she cheered.
"What!" Nico yelped, "There's no way in hell that I'm letting you and the Boss play together without me!"
"In the end, you're just inviting yourself to come with us, huh?" he sighed.
"Ahiru wants ice cream!"
"It's freezing cold and you want ice cream?" Hide asked.
"I want ice cream too!" Nico pleaded.
"It's freezing! You'll both get frozen tongues or something!"
"Fine!" Ahiru pouted.
"You sure know how to ruin children's dreams," Reborn observed.
"Why are you making me sound like the bad guy!" his student yelled questioningly.
"Let's play tag!" Ahiru suggested, "Ahiru wants to play tag!"
"I don't want to play tag," Nico declared, "I want to play hide-and-seek!"
"Isn't that almost the exact same game?" Hide pointed out.
"Ahiru hates hide-and-seek," she said and added, "It's a herbivore's game."
"Quit looking down on me whenever you say 'herbivore'!" Nico yelled angrily.
"Stop fighting you guys," Hide warned, but it was too late. Somehow, a purple bazooka jumped out of Nico's backpack and landed on the two children.
"Oh great," the blonde Japanese dreaded as he watched two figures come out from the pink smoke of the Ten Year Bazooka.
Teen-Nico yawned sleepily as he was lying on the ground, "I had such a nice nap…"
"Whoever took me away from my duties as Disciplinary Chairman," teen-Ahiru began in a dark tone, there was a flash of metal that Hide could only assume to be her tonfas, "is going to be bitten to death.
"I-It wasn't me, I promise!" he quickly squeaked.
She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before looking down at the fallen Nico, "You," she began, "You're the one that I always see when I'm suddenly taken away from my duties…"
"Hm?" Nico looked at her questioningly before brightening, "Oh, it's Boots."
Ahiru was now holding him up by the neck with his feet dangling half a foot above the ground.
"Now, now, Boots…" the teen began nervously, "You don't have to get hasty now…"
"I was in the middle of disciplining the order and peace of Namimori to some pathetic herbivores," she said darkly and added with a smirk, "But you'll suffice."
"Come on, it's not really my fault!" he said fearfully, "It was my younger-self's fault! Blame him!"
"What kind of stupid excuse is that?" she questioned.
"Oh, looks like Ahiru's bloodlust is about to be shown," Reborn observed while eating a bag of popcorn.
"What the heck is that supposed to mean!" Hide yelped and quickly asked, "Shouldn't we be trying to stop this?"
"You can," the infant said and pointed a green gun at him.
Hide was lucky enough to narrowly avoid being shot, but he fell on his butt to the ground and was forced to watch Ahiru begin to beat up Nico, "STOP IT!" he found himself yelling.
They all froze still and fell silent, but it wasn't because of Hide yelling. A small white thing quietly floated down from the sky and landed on Hide's nose before quickly melting. It was quickly followed by a flurry of white snow that fell in what seemed like a mixture of floating and dancing.
"Snow…?" he muttered.
"A White Christmas," Nico muttered happily before both he and Ahiru turned back into children with a puff of smoke.
"Snow?" child-Ahiru questioned before cheering excitedly, "Snow! Snow!"
"A Christmas miracle?" child-Nico wondered.
"It's December 26th," Hide pointed out but was soon kicked in the back of the head by Reborn.
"Don't spout random things," the infant scolded.
"But Christmas was yesterday!" he said but was once again kicked into unconsciousness by Reborn.