Stepping into the staff lounge of Namimori Middle, Dino Cavallone wasn't surprised to find one of his fellow teachers sitting towards the back of the room, a book open on their lap. The other seemed rather peaceful where he was, not a care in the world as he flipped the page.

"I thought you had a class, Reborn." The blond smiled as he made his way over to the kitchen area, intent on getting himself a coffee. He flicked the switch on the kettle before going in search of a mug, turning to look over his shoulder as the other spoke.

"I did, but I got Skull to take it for me instead." The dark-haired man lifted his head at these words, his fedora shading his face. His voice became serious at this, his mouth set in a firm line as he regarded his fellow teacher with unreadable eyes. "Hibari left class again today. I'm thinking it's time to go talk to his uncle about this seeing as he's down to his last couple of chances. He can't keep skipping or he's not going to pass the year level."

Dino sighed, stilling in his task of adding sugar into the bottom of his mug. He was silent for a few moments, the thought of his student being held back painful to him; he would be lying if he said the teenager didn't hold a special place in his heart, even if said student didn't seem to like him very much, if at all. "Has anyone even spoken to Kyouya about it first? Have they told him he's almost out of chances?"

"Of course they have, and it always results in him trying to fight them. Everyone's given up on him and aren't even trying to stop him if he leaves the room. It's not worth the hassle; Hibari is Hibari, and he's not about to change." Turning back to his book, Reborn turned the page, deciding that he was done with this conversation; it would have been a waste of resources to force the substitute teacher to take his class if he couldn't even finish his book before lunch.

"I haven't given up on him yet, even if he doesn't want me around him. Do you know where he is?" Dino turned the kettle off, knowing he would rather go and talk to his pupil rather than sit down and drink; his students were precious to him, and he would do anything for them, even if it meant sacrificing his own time and energy.

Sure, Dino may not be the best teacher around; he was a klutz, and his students always seemed to be laughing at him for one thing or another, but even for the worst of his students, there was nothing he wouldn't do for them.

"Up on the roof, where he always goes." Waving a dismissive hand in the air, Reborn didn't bother looking up; he knew that Dino would be gone in seconds, the young man too compassionate and caring for his own good.

Reborn wasn't sure how long it would take for the blond to learn that he was too soft on those who didn't deserve it, but he wasn't going to say anything; he had stopped mentoring Dino a long time ago, so his advice was unneeded at this point.

Dino would surely find out for himself soon enough.

Leaving the staff lounge in a hasty manner, Dino knew he had to find the teenager who gave everyone so much trouble; the teacher had never encountered someone as unsociable as Hibari Kyouya before, but no matter how aggressive and violent the skylark could be, Dino had a soft spot for his student; he knew that Kyouya just needed more guidance than he was currently getting, and he was sure that if he could get his pupil to trust him, he could help fix the other's troubling behaviour.

The only issue was… would Kyouya ever accept his help willingly? Did Kyouya want the guidance he was lacking? Or was he truly fine the way he already was, going out of his way just to avoid the other students and spending most of his time by his lonesome up on the school roof? Dino didn't quite know the answer to these questions, but he would be more than happy to find out; whatever the skylark needed from him, he would give without hesitation, even if that meant respecting his standoffish nature and finding a new way to help other than seeking him out all the time.

By the time Dino arrived on the school roof, he found the student in question curled up on his black jacket, fast asleep. Dino couldn't help but smile at the sight, almost not wanting to wake the other up when Kyouya was sleeping so peacefully; while there was still an air of danger around the younger, he looked far more relaxed than he was when awake, and the blond wanted to savour this moment, it being such a rare occurrence.

"Kyouya?" Dino was sure to stand a few feet away from the sleeping student, knowing that the teenager would be greatly irritated at being woken; having his naps interrupted seemed to be one of the worst offences that could be done, and the teacher had seen the damage inflicted upon unsuspecting pupils for breaking the unofficial rule; it wasn't pretty, and Dino wished to avoid it happening to him, too. "Kyouya, you know you shouldn't be skipping classes to sleep."

Kyouya's eyes snapped open, a look of annoyance thick in the grey orbs. He sat up, a soft yawn escaping his lips. "You should know better than to disturb me when I'm sleeping, herbivore. I'll bite you to death for that one."

Dino stood his ground, knowing that even though Kyouya was a force to be reckoned with in his own right, he could hold his own against the volatile teenager, even if he never wanted it to have to come with that; all he wanted was a nice, civil talk between them. "Don't you think you should be staying in your classes, Kyouya? You can sleep when you get home."

"Don't think you can be giving me orders, herbivore." Standing up, the skylark pulled a pair of tonfa out from beneath his jacket, holding them in front of him threateningly.

Dino stayed where he was, speaking in a calm tone; he had been dealing with the younger long enough to know that any hint of fear or panic would be enough to set Kyouya off into a rampage. "Why are you so tired all the time, Kyouya? Are you getting enough sleep at home?"

Kyouya didn't reply to this; he instead charged at his teacher with his weapons raised, agitated greatly when the other backed up but still refused to fight; he wasn't one for talking, and he didn't respect anyone – the concern the blond seemed to hold over him made his touchiness grow, seeing it as a sign of weakness that shouldn't exist in the first place.

"I won't fight you, Kyouya," Dino said in a gentle manner. "I just don't think you should be skipping all of your classes. You have math now, don't you? Why don't you go back inside and –"

The teacher made a soft gasp of pain as the hard steel of one of the tonfas slammed into his cheek with crushing force. He stumbled back, his head dropping as he raised a hand to his injured cheek. The bone didn't feel broken, but there was a dull ache in the side of his face that was evidence enough of some sort of damage to his cheek.

Dino knew he shouldn't have dropped his guard the way he had, but was it really so bad he wanted to believe Kyouya would at least hear him out? Maybe he had put too much faith in the student, but he couldn't help it; he was sure that beneath the violence and aggression, there was a half-decent person inside Kyouya, one that just needed a bit of coaxing and to be shown it was alright to trust some people. For that, Dino would do whatever it took to bring that side of his student out.

"You made two mistakes." Kyouya stepped back, lowering his tonfa as he regarded Dino with a cold expression. "One; you came out and woke me up. Two; you are bothering me with petty things I do not care for when I could have finished off my nap in peace. You have one minute to go back downstairs, and if you choose to stay up here, it won't just be a warning hit."

Dino was silent as he regarded the younger with pain-clouded eyes. He sighed, knowing that he had come out here and gone about things all wrong; Kyouya was a fickle person, and he had to be handled with care lest one get the shit beaten out of them. He shouldn't have woken his student up; he should have let the other sleep and instead spoken to him later when he wasn't as tired.

"We'll continue this conversation another time." With that said, Dino turned around and headed back into the building, a thin string of blood dribbling down his chin.

Kyouya watched him go before he lay back down in his previous spot, intending on finishing off his nap.

~~XX~~

Sitting still while the school nurse tended to his injury, Dino couldn't help but sigh; he loved his job and all of his students, but sometimes he felt at a loss as to how he could help them all. Kyouya was his biggest issue, having never met another student who acted out the way the skylark did. What made things hardest was that he really had no idea what could be causing the teenager to behave this way; he wasn't sure as to why the Prefect was living with his uncle, but he knew there was no case of abuse or neglect there; Kyouya's uncle was a very kind person who loved his nephew greatly. The teenager wasn't bullied because he had made such a name for himself, there were only two students in the entire school who dared challenge him, and while one of them would get the shit beaten out of him, the other was evenly matched against the skylark; that was a delicate situation, and Dino knew for a fact that wasn't it because Kyouya had been this way long before meeting said student.

Dino felt like a horrible person; he couldn't even think of any other possibilities that may explain Kyouya's attitude, no matter how hard he tried.

"Oh, my, he really got you hard, didn't he~?"

Dino glanced up at the man, frowning as he noticed the perverted smile on his friend's face; of course that innuendo was intentional… "I'm not in the mood, Lussuria."

The school's nurse, a flamboyant Italian named Lussuria, chuckled as he shook his head playfully. "I'm sure Kyo-chan is just having~ teenage~ troubles~"

Unsure of how this man had kept his job for so long as Lussuria seemed to have nothing but sex on his mind all the time was a mystery to Dino, but he couldn't complain; at least his heart was in the right place and genuinely cared about his job and making sure everyone was alright. "That's not it, Luss. That's just how Kyouya is."

"Oh, that's just what he wants you to believe, hon~ He just needs to have it given to him hard so he'll calm down~"

"How do you talk about students like this and still have a job…?" Dino felt a bead of sweat roll down his face as he became uncomfortable with this conversation; he was a twenty-two-year-old teacher entrusted with middle schoolers; he couldn't betray that expectation on perve on his students like the school nurse could.

"Wouldn't you like to know~?" Behind his thick sunglasses the man was never seen without, Lussuria winked at the younger before he blew a kiss into the air.

Dino groaned inwardly, not knowing what he had done to have life hate him so much today. Shaking his head, the blond blocked out the taller male's ramblings and instead focused on his thoughts; there had to be some way he could get through to Kyouya; he just hadn't found it yet.

~~XX~~

"Ah, Kyo-san."

Closing the door to the office Kyouya had long-since claimed as his own for the Disciplinary Committee he headed, the skylark turned around to find his second-in-command, Kusakabe Tetsuya, approaching him.

"Tetsu." Kyouya picked his bag up from the ground, closing the distance between the other. He fell into silence as he walked beside the taller male, the only other person aside from his uncle he could get along with.

Tetsuya didn't feel fear as he relayed the day's events to the Prefect, knowing the smaller male would listen in silence to him; he didn't know what he had done, but he had done something in order to get the other to somewhat trust him.

"And then they – Kyo-san?" Tetsuya stopped walking when his friend did, finding that the skylark must have been distracted by the small gathering up ahead. "What is it, Kyo-san?"

Kyouya didn't reply; he was too outraged by the crowd blocking the staircase he needed in order to go home. He walked up the group with a calm demeanour, but everyone who knew who him could tell he was angry; crowds were at the top of the list of things Kyouya hated, and forcing him to go near them was a big no-no.

"What do you think you're doing standing there?" Kyouya fingered the handle of his tonfa, ready to pull it out and use it again. "Don't you herbivores know not to crowd around by now?"

Dino, who had been talking to some of his students, backed up at this, giving the younger room to descend the staircase. He glanced at the three standing with him, raising his hands in defence. "My apologies, Kyouya; we didn't realise how close we were to the stairwell."

The brunet who had been standing with Dino squeaked and backed up, hiding behind his teacher while his two friends made the situation worse; the dark-haired student closest to Kyouya laughed, and the silver-haired male scowled and muttered something beneath his breath, only agitating the skylark further.

"Sawada herbivore, you came from detention, didn't you?" Kyouya wasn't surprised when he received a meek nod in response. He sneered. "And what did you do to get in there in the first place?"

"…I didn't do my homework…" Tsuna looked to the ground, reaching up to take Dino's jacket as a silent plead for the teacher to save him. "I'm sorry, Hibari-san…"

"I should bite you to death right here for not respecting my school's wishes." Raising his tonfa, Kyouya was just about to swing before a familiar head of blue hair leaving the detention hall caught his eye. He spun around, changing targets without hesitation, but quickly froze when a blond ran out of the hall straight at him, forcing his attention away from his target and instead onto the current threat.

Preparing himself for a fight, what Kyouya didn't expect was for the blond to lick him on the cheek and then run off laughing, the long-haired vice principal chasing after him with an angry expression; one could only imagine what the boy had done to piss the man off this time. There was a loud yelp seconds before a thump filled the air, the unmistakable sound of a body falling down stairs. Everyone was silent for a few seconds, not knowing what to think, but when a familiar giggle filled the air and running footsteps sounded from downstairs, everyone let go of their baited breaths; the blond student had survived the fall and clearly found it funny as he was continuing his task of running away from the vice principal who was most likely going to murder him and dump his body in the ocean for shark food.

"Where did the pineapple herbivore go?" Looking around for his arch nemesis, Kyouya's agitation grew as he found that the blond wasn't the only one playing hide-and-seek; the blue-haired teenager he had been about to attack was gone as well, a clear taunt meant to rile the skylark up further.

"I think he's long-gone," Tetsuya said softly, understanding his friend's distress; having lost against the blue-haired teenager once in a fight, Kyouya couldn't cope with the same feelings again – not when he felt he had something to prove to their fellow student ever since their first run in.

Kyouya was stoic for a few moments before his grip tightened near-unperceptively around his tonfa. Turning back to the original group who had caught his attention, the skylark muttered, "You got off easy this time, herbivore."

With that said, Kyouya was gone, Tetsuya not far behind him.

Dino looked down at his three students, his eyes wide with everything that had happened; he had been sure he was going to have to pry apart two separate fights and stop a third, but to his relief, the other two trouble students had ran off before Kyouya had gotten a chance to fight them.

"Well, that was…" Dino cocked his head to the side, uncertain of the terminology he should use. "…Interesting?"

The younger three nodded before they winced as a loud scream filled the air, followed by someone's shouting.

"Ah…" The brunet student frowned, looking back up at Dino. "I guess Squalo caught Belphegor…"

"Sounds that way." Dino shook his head, trying not to focus on the sounds coming from elsewhere in the building. "Come on; I'll take you all home. Takeshi, Hayato; you two need lifts?"

When it soon became clear that Dino would be taking all three students home, the teacher couldn't help but think of Kyouya; would he ever be able to get close enough with the skylark in order to drive him home from school on occasion? He was very close to the three students he was standing with; would things ever be the same way with Kyouya?

Dino certainly hoped so.