Chapter 18. 1 Wedding and 4 Funerals

"I do."

Please. What else was she going to say? Was she going to deny it perhaps? What for? She was a grown woman, and when you reach a certain age and you've had to put up with so much bullshit in one single morning, it's time to face things straight ahead as they come at you and stop pretending.

Haru had never been one to hide her feeling and there was no point to start now. In any case, she was surprised that the skylark would ask such a question in such a straight forward way. She had always seen him as a reserved person, but this was the opposite of "reserved."

The brunette swallowed dry. There was a long pause after her answer and as she waited for Hibari's response she felt like her heart wanted to rip a hole through her chest.

"I see." He said.

"I see". That was all. He said two words and then turned around and went back to sleep. She stood still for minutes, surprised, still trying to process everything that had happened. Maybe she would have been even more surprised if she had seen the faint smile that had spread across Hibari's face as her words re-played over and over inside his head.

"I do"

"I do"

"I do"

But the whole point of turning around was to keep her from knowing.

"What do you think? Should we get married?"

Haru was speechless once again. She didn't know where to direct her gaze. In fact, she wanted to sink into the chair and just disappear for good.

"Why are you asking me this?" She said.

"Well, you're Kyoko's best friend." Tsuna sighed and leaned against his desk.

He had been considering for quite a while already, but before taking the leap he needed approval. Besides, he needed ideas on how to make one hell of a proposal. And, let's be honest, Haru had the best ideas.

"But… you've been dating for like two days."

"Actually, we've been dating for one year, eleven months, one week and three days."

"If only you put as much attention to your job as a mafia boss…"

"I don't want to be a mafia boss!"

"And I don't want to have this conversation again. It's your job, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah… I know. Too late to turn back now. Just help me out. What ring should I get her?"

"Why don't you ask Hibari?" Mukuro opened the door and popped his head in. "I heard he knows a lot about engagement rings~"

Haru's boddy stiffened. "Hahi? W-what are you…"

"What are you talking about?" Tsuna interrupted. "He's always buying rings online but those are for box weapons. There's a big difference… WAIT! What if I give Kyoko a mafia ring!?"

"That's a terrible idea." Mukuro and Haru responded in unison.

Silence took over while. Tsuna looked at the ceiling as if waiting for divine inspiration, Haru sat fidgeted with her fingers and Mukuro ignored the heavy atmosphere and looked for some papers he probably needed.

"By the way," eventually Mukuro spoke. "The guy from the storage just called. He says that it's either today or there's no deal."

"Oh, I see." Tsuna sighed. "Ok then. I guess I can see him in an hour. Did he say anything about the time?"

"I'm texting him right now. He just said that he doesn't want what happened last time to happen again."

"Right. Then we're going to need to get rid of Hibari for one afternoon."

"Right."

Both men looked at each other for a second, and then they turned their heads to face Haru.

A silent minute went by before Haru crossed her arms and spoke.

"No."

"We haven't even said anything yet" Tsuna always replied with a bright smiled when he wanted something from someone. "Just take him out for the day. Go watch a movie, have dinner, check out wedding rings and send me a picture if you find one that Kyoko-chan might like."

"You should pick it yourself!"

Tsuna looked at Mukuro and gave him a nod. The taller man lifted Haru like he was lifting a feather and carried her to the front gate of the Vongola mansion.

"Wait here." He said and walked back in the house, leaving the girl outside alone.

The first time he had done that to her, Haru had screamed and yelled and banged at the door with all her strength. By now, and this was the 17th time, she knew it would be much more productive to just sit down on the floor and check her phone.

The Facebook newsfeed was as interesting today as ever. Kyoko had shared about 20 cat videos and baking tutorials, Ryohei still wrote all his statuses in all caps and Lambo had posted no less than 149 selfies taken in the school toilet. She was about to comment (talk trash) on a particularly mean status written by this one girl she had gone to high school with, when she heard a voice behind her.

"Why do you willingly waste your time and energy with things like these?"

"Hahi? Hibari-san!" Haru got up in a heartbeat. She was trying her best to conceal the smile that had spread across her face the moment she heard his voice. Her blush, however, couldn't be hidden that easily.

"We should get going."

Saying this, the cloud guardian walked past the brunette and started walking headed towards the center of the city. Haru could do nothing but follow him, always a few steps behind. He was walking so fast that it became increasingly hard to keep up.

"Why don't we take the bus to… wherever it is we're going?" After 23 minutes of walking, Haru decided it would be the appropriate time to start complaining.

Hibari stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at her for the first time that day. She was a few meters behind, clutching her stomach and panting from the sprint. He really was walking fast.

"Carol." He answered as he waited for her to catch her breath.

"Carol?"

"The movie. You wanted to watch it, I have to collect some payments from someone who will be there."

Haru looked at him confused for a moment. So that's the lie they had told him. She could deal with watching a movie she had no particular interest in, but the fact that his reason to go was work related and not the promise of a nice afternoon together was really starting to upset her.

"I don't want to watch Carol." Eventually, the girl gave in to her selfish whims.

How dare he insinuate that he was only tagging along because he had to? It was outrageous how little he appreciated her company after all this time. And all the stuff from the night before? What was that all about? Was he really asking her if she loved him as a way to inflate his own ego? No. He's not the kind of guy who needs to do that. But then again, he never said he loved her too, he just turned around unimpressed while she spent the following hours feeling like she had just made a fool out of herself in front of the one man she had come to love more than anyone else that had been in her life before.

"Then we can do something else." His voice interrupted her thoughts. "I can pick up the check in a second and then we can go wherever you want to. I'm not really interested in vintage lesbians either, to be honest."

"… you know what Carol is about?"

"I just googled it."

"Oh."

On second thought. She took it all back.

"Could you pass me the soap?"

The skylark stood inside the men's bathroom reserved for the theater staff. An instant later, Haru walked in holding a bar of soap and a few towels.

"Thank you." He said. "Sorry you had to see that."

"Was all of that really necessary?"

"Yes."

"…Does your arm hurt?" Haru placed her hand on top of Hibari's forearm.

"It's just a scratch." He rolled up his sleeves and carried on with his task of washing his hands.

"What a silly trap…" The girl sighed and picked up a cellphone that had fallen on the cold bathroom tiles. "Whose idea was it to hide inside such a fragile ceiling?"

"Not everybody in the mafia is as smart as you are."

Haru's heart skipped a beat. Eventually she started feeling all awkward about it. Most people wouldn't take a look at that place and think of it as a romantic setting. There was a corpse in each stall, for heaven's sake.

"How much money did he owe?" She asked.

"50k. He could have payed back just fine months after the loan but he decided he wanted to hold on to his debt and keep on raising the interests. Eventually the sum added up to 3 millions. No way he could cover that. Like I said, not everyone is as smart as you."

"You're really talkative today, aren't you?" Haru smiled brightly. Hibari had been trying to wash the blood from his hands for so long that she was already used to the environment.

"Killing people gets me in a good mood."

The brunette started laughing loudly. His dark humor would never cease to amuse her… or maybe it wasn't dark humor and he was being completely serious about the whole thing, but it was not the time nor the place to worry about that.

"Do you ever keep track?" She asked from across the table.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." The man took a bite from the ice cream they were sharing, much to his embarrassment. "Keep track of what?"

"Of the people you take care of. Like, it was 4 men today. What's your record?"

"18."

"That's not a lot."

"No… I guess it's not."

"You know, if you want to fight for yourself I can give you all the guns you want."

"Hahi?" Haru lifted her gaze from the catalogue she was holding. "Why would I want guns?"

"Right. So you want something more powerful"

"Powerful? No… I… I'm looking for something pretty…"

"Woman." He sighed "A Vongola ring is supposed to be functional, not pretty."

"Vongola ring?"

"Why else would you spend 20 minutes looking at a ring catalogue?"

"Tsuna-san wants to propose to Kyoko-chan and I'm helping him pick an engagement ring…"

"Oh."

"Hahaha, Hibari-san you're so obtuse." Haru shut the catalogue close and picked another one. "Hey, what kind of flame do you think I'd have?"

"A lot of people are getting married lately…" Hibari leaned on the counter and started looking at the jewelry underneath the glass.

"Yeah. Maybe we should get married next." She said, jokingly.

We all know Hibari isn't the best at grasping jokes. This time was not an exception. He looked at Haru as if he was trying to memorize every detail of her face. She was now talking to the store manager but he wasn't paying the least attention to their conversation. Too busy thinking about how he could answer to what she had just said.

In the end, there was no need to do so. When he opened his mouth to speak, a familiar voice called his name from outside the store.

"Dino-san! Hi!" Haru turned around and greeted him loudly, making Hibari jump on the spot.

The blond man walked inside the small shop and approached them with a sly grin.

"Finally getting serious, huh?" He asked, shoving his hands inside the pockets of the jacket he always wore.

"We're helping Tsuna-san pick an engagement ring." Haru replied quickly. Almost too quickly.

"Oh, right. That makes sense. For a moment I thought you two were the ones that… well, you know."

"Because a man and a woman standing next to each other in a jewelry store must be a couple. How heteronormative." The skylark promptly jumped into the conversation only to receive nothing but puzzled stares from both his counterparts.

"I guess you're right…" The brunette broke into a nervous laughter. "The sales lady thought we were going out too."

"But aren't you?" Dino tilted his head to the side.

He said it. He went there. He dropped the bomb.

Meeting only an awkward silence he spoke again.

"Because you guys like each other, right?"

Haru looked away, trying her best to hide her blushing cheeks behind her hair. Hibari stared at the floor tiles pretending no one had said anything at all. However, the other man wasn't gonna let it slide so easily. Either he was persistent and nosey or he just couldn't read the atmosphere at all.

"Because…" Dino rephrased. "You guys like each other, right, Kyouya?"

Ah, there it was. The vocative. Now that Dino had said his name out loud there was no way he could keep on avoiding the question.

"Of course." He finally replied. Still staring at the floor, though.

Haru's heart skipped a beat, or maybe two or even three. She wanted to say something. Anything. And again, right when she had barely started to open her mouth so that she could speak, Dino interrupted once more. His phone started to ring (and everyone in the store turned around to see who the hell still had the Nyan Cat song as his ringtone in this time and age).

"Sorry guys, I have to get back to work. See you around."

And just like that, he left.

The awkward silence that remained was only broken after a solid three minutes when the mall announced it was about to close. Not for a moment on their way home did either of them say a word. They didn't even look at each other, in the eyes at least. How could they? Not like it was necessary, you know? Now the feelings were all out there and everything was fine as it was. Just the two of them walking side by side with their pinky fingers entwined as their shy way of holding hands.

Yeah, this was fine.

aaaaa, I know, I know, long time no see. Sorry about that. I've been kinda stressed with classes and all, but here I am. Woah ok this slow build is finally getting somewhere~ and I dont want to make any promises but the next chapter could be the last (or not) but yeah, I think its about time to put an end to this one. Anyways, thanks for sticking with me up to this point and see you next time I update (who knows when that will be)