Chapter II; the Bad Day...
The bad day usually makes it a habit to announce its coming first thing in the morning. Of course, by doing so it gives the unlucky participants a tiny bit of time to prepare for the upcoming cosmogony to follow. For Hibari Kyoya the day that was just beginning was exactly this sort of day. A day when at least everything feels like its about to go wrong. And it all started the moment he opened his eyes to greet the day, a quarter to six in the morning.
Upon this simple action by which everybody wakes to each day, Kyoya noticed a variety of unpleasant symptoms on himself. First of all his body would hardly obey his mind and he had to make an effort to even get himself out of bed. Secondly his head felt as heavy as if it was made of pure lead. The worst of all though was the third symptom. He felt that strange sort of fluttering in his stomach. As known, butterflies in one's stomach can only mean one of three things; guilt, love or pathological issues.
Kyoya did not feel guilty about anything. The Namimori prefect spent day after day making sure that his beloved school was safe and sound and that everyone was following the rules. Of course that meant he should be feeling proud and not guilty in any sense. The only thing he might feel a little guilty about was eating all the chocolate he bought the other day in but an evening, but still it was no reason to feel so guilty as to feel this fluttering sensation.
And, of course, it wasn't love either. He knew what that short of diagnosis looked like. He had seen it many a time in school. This short of fluttering was the one felt by all those who were burning by their desire for a certain person and was always accompanied by a constant sigh rising from deep inside their hearts and a stare that begs to be compared to that of a cow.
Lastly, there was nothing pathological going on, he was rather sure of it. If anything was going to actually happen it would have already happened a couple days ago after he walked home in the snowstorm. He did use the thermometer he kept in his nightstand to check his temperature anyway, just to keep safe, but by the results and the way he felt in general he figured he was just as healthy as he could be right now.
So... he wasn't guilty, in love nor deathly ill.
He didn't feel even vaguely bad in any other sense apart the fluttering. People like Kyoya weren't easily shaken by things like that. Not even a fever of fourty two Celsius could render him unable to assume his duties. He had been able to fight with half of his bones broken, internal bleeding and under the influence of the sakurakura disease in the past. This was nothing.
After depleting all other possible answers Kyoya decided he eventually had to cave in and accept the final, worst, fourth explanation. The truth. It was worry. It was the feeling of premonition that was building up for the past days. It just kept becoming stronger and stronger. He didn't know what was going to happen, nor to whom and this drove him insane. The fluttering feeling only became worse and his worry developed into a quiet panic. A short-of panic where he, of course, didn't run in circles pointlessly, scream like a girl and clumsily break stuff -like some other people he knew- but instead entered a state of alertness with every sense tensed up, ready to receive information from his surroundings.
And instead of quickly getting ready to head to school he seemed to be wasting his time, walking around the house as if waiting for a sudden stroke of inspiration to explain the unexplainable to put everything in its place and resume his day normally with the ups and downs that where bound to appear on the way. Things that appeared to upset the flow of his schedule grew like weed out of nowhere all the time as of lately and Kyoya was becoming steadily angrier at the fact as he came to realize it.
Sadly, he seemed unable to just go and get dressed, pick his bag and leave the house. And the clock was ticking away the minutes. And hell, what kind of a good example would he give if he arrived at school late, him, the prefect he was? Acts such as that were best suited for the weak and incompetent kind of herbivores that deserved to be bitten to death. And he wasn't about to categorize himself with that sort of a pathetic kind. So, in the end, he made the need into pride, hurried up, choked the fluttering feeling with some bread he grabbed from the kitchen as he was making his exit from the house -there was no time left anymore to make breakfast and have his coffee in peace- and rushed to school where he managed to arrive -miraculously- on time.
He thought classes would detach his mind from this whole unfavourable situation. Thought that, by indulging himself in menial tasks, such as composition, mathematics, equations and chemical values he'd give enough time to whatever tension plagued him to defuse. And in fact classes succeeded into doing that and by the time the noon bell in between classes rang signifying the lunch break the whole 'premonition fiasco' seemed like an already distant memory.
Kyoya spent his lunch break patrolling the hallways close to the music room. It had already been three days and no abnormal behaviour was expressed so far and the situation did not repeat itself. Nobody stayed over school hours and the piano remained untouched. Kyoya was finding himself almost wishing for the peculiar events to repeat themselves so he could get some more action for himself. The will to hunt was natural to a predatory animal.
Yet the sunset still found him in Namimori's rooftop, surrounded by wire-fence, the snow that fell -softer now as the wind had ceased for a little while- and the constant mist. That particular sunset, after the day of worry that preceded it, was stunningly beautiful. It was, in fact, so stunning that it would take the breath away even from those people that their everyday duties and assignments had forever ruined any sort of mood for romantic thoughts they might have in sight of the sunset's glory. The funny thing was, it wasn't even a real sunset. For a single moment only the thick clouds lingering in the sky had withdrawn, as if prompted to, to allow a glimpse of the setting sun, then returned to their original position, guardians of the sky from the sight of mankind. And unknowingly those clouds gave the answer to the silent, lingering question on everyone's lips amidst the chaos of this weather -would the sun ever shine again behind those prison clouds?-
Hibari Kyoya watched the sunset silently, not making any thoughts of the like. It wasn't in his nature to have such a romantic mind. He failed to see the point in making romantic thoughts at all. Right now he was focused on his task. He was waiting for the person that played the piano to appear, but of course, he didn't believe the culprit was stupid enough to return for another time. -Furthermore he was afraid that if he rushed to 'the scene of the crime' but found none again he would be forced to agree it was either a really well-played prank or a ghost. And of course he was too proud to admit to be the victim of a prank and he didn't believe in ghosts which brought him to a dead end.
He yawned softly, waiting for something to happen, knowing nothing would. His feeling of premonition had also faded and so he didn't find it odd to simply leave, finally.
After he left the school -umbrella open this time seeing how there was no fear to be blown away by some howling wind- he decided to stop and do some shopping as well as buy something for dinner -he felt like he could allow this small luxury to himself. Of course he never accounted the fact that things that appeared to upset the flow of his schedule had taken a certain liking to him. So did random encounters, it would seem, as he soon caught a glimpse of a familiar figure trailing after him, but staying far behind in a silent game Kyoya really didn't feel like playing right now. They weren't five year-olds playing 'red light- green light'. He also didn't feel like causing a scene in front of everybody right now even though he, normally, wouldn't mind.
Somewhere in the back of his head he wanted to strangle that person. No, wait... this wasn't in the back of his head. It could as well as be written on a neon-sign plastered on his forehead. He loathed every cell of that person's body, every molecule of his pathetic existence... and yet he had somehow ended up in the same 'team' as him. Doing his best to not show any signs that he noticed him, Kyoya entered Takesushi which was on his way, in order to buy his dinner but was inevitably stalked, even there. Upon exiting, after receiving his order about ten minutes later, the person was nowhere to be found but he didn't allow himself to relax at all. That devil could take about any form imaginable.
He was about to leave for his next destination when he felt a light tap on his left shoulder. The sensation lasted only briefly, before the hand was withdrawn, having finished its task -making its owner's presence known. He didn't even need to turn to look. The only person with enough audacity to do said act was none other than the person he so long tried to avoid.
"Rokudou Mukuro." his voice was a nothing but a soft tone barely above whispering. Of course, people knowledgeable in this field would say that 'a dog that barks isn't a dog that bites', henceforth speaking in that low-tone was far more ominous a sign that yelling would ever be. The other chuckled softly. Kyoya's ability to perceive his environment had always been quite remarkable. Of course, Kyoya said nothing and just walked ahead, as if nothing just happened.
"Mmm~ you don't seem to be very pleased to meet with me so unexpectedly, do you Kyou-kun?" Mukuro questioned with that falsely amiable smile of his while trailing after him like a lost child. Seriously, have one not known the odd teenager he'd find him to be a rather pleasant person. That being said... Kyoya knew. Maybe he knew more than he wished to know as well -not that anyone would ask for his opinion on the matter. That was one of the things you can't choose to keep or give away.
"No." Instead of the bland reply Kyoya would have pulled his tonfa out, finally having taken as much as he could take of the other's presence, if only his hands weren't occupied by his bag, the sushi he just bought and his umbrella.
"How cruel, little skylark~" Mukuro cooed, his smile fading ever so slightly from his face, indicating that the illusionist might have had another, more serious, reason to stalk Kyoya that night, other than toying with his nerves. "I would love to play the game for a little while longer, but as you very well know I don't have that much time..." his words concealed a tinge of ruefulness and, the oddest occurrence, Kyoya found himself sympathizing if only just a little. He knew where and under what conditions Mukuro's real, physical body, was held. The mere thought made a shiver run down his spine.
Giving up on getting rid of him as fast as he possibly could, Kyoya extended the hand that was holding the umbrella in the other's direction. It was rare to see him act kind and gentle such as that but such behaviour on his part was not so impossible to encounter either. There were numerous examples where this side of his was shown. Not to mention that he was rather amused by the slight surprise Mukuro allowed to show on his features. This was certainly not what he expected Kyoya to do. It would maybe seem more natural if he walked away, but to say the truth he was curious -never mind that curiosity killed the cat-.
After the first shock had been dealt with Mukuro stepped just one step closer to enter under the protective dome of the umbrella. He knew that if he dared to move any closer he was under the danger of being attacked -not that he was afraid of the prefect-. "It's about..." the usually unstrained, glib manner the boy spoke into was replaced by one unsure trailing of his voice. This, in Kyoya's opinion, could be anything but good.
Rokudou Mukuro was, oddly, facing a dilemma. He had went there with the full intention of telling the Cloud Guardian what was plaguing him. Kyoya was the only person he could entrust with this piece of information -much to the dismay of Chikusa and Ken- basically due to his status as prefect and his natural ability -as well as duty- of making sure everything was orderly and in-place. Sure, such a person was the one best suited to be the one to first notice an abnormality and deal with it. So... how come he was having second thoughts now? Such a shame. Such things were unheard of.
Of course he had a good point in not telling as well, or else the dilemma would be rendered null and void. What he wanted to say was something based entirely on intuition. Something he felt through Chrome. Something he felt that he wasn't the only one feeling... of course he had no way of knowing if Hibari Kyoya felt it too. Telling a person to investigate something based on a 'bad feeling' was also unheard of.
"I was picking an odd vibe as of lately so I thought I'd ask you to investigate, is all!" he exclaimed, smiling again, making an attempt at making himself sounding half-joking just in case the level-headed prefect decided that all of this was plain stupid and he made a fool of himself. And somewhere inside of him, Mukuro was pretty sure that this was going to be the case.
Nothing could have ever possibly prepared him for what was going to happen next.
Surely not for the feeling of frightened disbelief he mostly felt rather than saw reflecting in the boy's eyes and definitely not the silence. He'd have preferred the boy to laugh in his face -not that it was in Hibari Kyoya's character to do that- instead of the silent treatment. It wasn't that look of disbelief that he feared to receive. It was the silent sealing of his feeling by the hand of Kyoya's barely-shown surprise. And to top it off... he was quickly running out of time.
Kyoya, on the other hand, was frozen in place. He would like to say he felt the same. He wanted to... but he would never admit to something so absurd. And of course not to Mukuro, not even now that he was saying he was picking up this 'odd vibe' -the same thing he was possibly, experiensing too. The boy did look serious but then again it could all be nothing but a bad joke. Yet, those few words spoken, with that carefree smile were enough to make the spark or worry flickering weakly inside him grow into raging wildfire. The butterflies in his stomach, asleep for so long, were awake. He felt nauseous. He didn't speak though. He just stared, watched for any signs that might indicate than Mukuro was lying to him. But no...
"Think about it." were Mukuro's parting words. "I shall return tomorrow."
Kyoya didn't react when the teen stepped out of the range of his umbrella's protective circle and left even though he really wanted to speak of his own feeling now that he had found a person that he could speak to, as if, by doing this, he would extinguish it. Maybe tomorrow, though. Maybe it was in his best interest to wait. Maybe after he had some time to think. Yes... maybe it was better. And just then he realized just how many 'maybes' he had just stated in his head and by that realization, he became frustrated. Since when was this happening? Since when was he so damn insecure that he would think like this?
Promising to bite the next thug he'd come across literally to death in order to let off some steam, he hurried on his way back home.
What he didn't know was that he wouldn't have enough time to grasp the events that were about to transpire... even worse, they would be the ones to grasp him in their treacherous web of despair instead.