A/N: 'Finally.' You might say. XD Ah, it's what I told myself, too. But I did post an 8027 fic (Who is Your First Kiss?) three days ago…Is that forgivable?o_o Ah, on other news, I changed the summary (with miyaken's help ovo)~ Is it more appropriate?XD I hope so. XD
Dedication: I don't think I'll be able to update any fic or post a new one until after Christmas, so…this might end up being my Christmas present for myself. XD;; So, merry Christmas to me! (chumee?XD) Merry Christmas to everyone, too! Hope this is a suitable enough gift for 1827 fans…although it isn't Christmas themed or something.
Requests: For the benefit of everyone reading, and to answer shizuke's review in 'Who is Your First Kiss': yes, everyone can request fics from me. The instructions, limitations and other stuff are in my profile page. ^_^
Of Luck and Choices
(chapter three)
by chumee
"You didn't go to gym right after you left the Discipline Committee room." Hibari said. It was a statement, not a question.
"Yes." Tsuna replied, looking at the floor like it was going to collapse. He only wished it will do so soon. Hibari was sitting on his usual spot, his henchmen scattered around the room. Tsuna couldn't see any way to escape without breaking a lot of bones and losing a lot of blood.
"Why?"
'Why not?' Tsuna wanted to say. But he didn't. Instead, he said, "I thought the Physical Examinations were already over."
"You thought." Hibari repeated. "'Assumed' might be the right word here." He paused. "Assumptions kill a lot of people."
Silence.
Some more silence.
Was Hibari waiting for an answer?
But what could Tsuna do aside from agreeing?
"Yes, it does." He replied, his voice surprisingly calm.
He heard snickers around the room. 'Well, at least they were amused.' Tsuna thought bitterly. 'A lot of people seemed to be amused when it comes to ending my life.'
"That's…interesting." He heard Hibari say.
He looked up to see Hibari hide a smile from him. It was unreal. Hibari. Smiling. Really..? Tsuna started to stare.
And as he continued to do so, he expected the horizontal line in Hibari's lips turned downward. But it twitched. Like he was about to smile. Or laugh.
What the hell? Hibari also thinks of him as an entertainment?
Then Hibari made a gesture that his henchmen understood and Tsuna did, the moment the men went out of the room, murmuring something about injuries and either fists or tonfas.
Cold sweat broke over his forehead. Maybe he only got away with making coffee this morning, but now, it certainly looked like his death was imminent. And Hibari looks really calm. Well at least, he wasn't narrowing his eyes and baring his teeth and taking out his tonfas and—
"I've checked your records." Hibari said, standing up and walking over to take a folder that was placed in a shelf on one side of the room, undoubtedly placed there by the nurse, or one of his men to avoid crowding him.
"Eh?" was the first word that escaped Tsuna's lips. The next words that followed were said with a panicked tone and more volume. "EHHH??! Y-you did?! W-wha..? T-that's—! Isn't that—?! Ugh. Ugh! UGH!"
"Hmm…" Hibari said while reading the information with a trying-to-be-straight face. "Well, it's not that impressive."
Tsuna gawked. 'The hell it's not!' he thought, blush coloring his cheeks. 'So why do you keep reading it?!'
"Anyway," Hibari said, closing the folder and putting it on his table. "Just to make sure…" Hibari took a step forward and put one hand on his pocket. The motion made Tsuna stand up and take an instinctive step backwards.
He assured himself that he was quite safe since he knew there were no foldable or extendable tonfas in existence, right? A-and…Hibari wouldn't switch weapons to a nunchaku, right?
Yeah, right.
Thankfully, what Hibari got from his pocket didn't resemble a tonfa or a nunchaku. Still, doesn't that little circular thing look highly suspic—
At this point, Hibari chose to unravel the mystery item.
"AAAAAHHH!!!" Tsuna yelled quite scandalously. Apparently, the thing in Hibari's pocket was more frightening than tonfas, nunchakus, or even a miniature heat-seeking missile. He could only yell, though. It felt like his legs were glued on the floor.
"T-tuh…T-t-t-tuh…" Tsuna stuttered, pointing at the object shakily.
"You are certainly overreacting." Hibari said, though a hint of a grin lingers on his lips. "It's just a tape measure." He took a step towards the frightened boy, not a hint of mercy on his face.
"I-I know what the hell that is..!" Tsuna said, and took a step back. He thanked his legs for obeying him this time and took several steps backward, eyes never leaving Hibari's hands where the dreaded tape-measure is.
Why had he jumped to conclusions awhile ago? Didn't Hibari say, 'just to make sure'? Then that must mean he'll measure Tsuna himself, right? Well, better him than those disgusting goons with weird hairdos. No, wait! What the heck is he thinking? Anybody measuring him aside from a nurse, his mom or a tailor is absolutely objectionable! And Hibari is—
Tsuna felt solid wall behind him.
"E-e-eeehh??" he asked the wall. 'Why do you have to show up now?' he thought, scolding the stationary object. 'Just open up for a sec!' he pleaded. 'I need to escape!'
He didn't realize that Hibari was only a meter away from him until the DC leader spoke. "Don't be so difficult. I will just measure you." He said, slightly frowning and looking pissed with every passing second.
"Hiiii!!" Tsuna squeaked in an undignified manner and dug his back against the wall.
Hibari took a step forward.
"D-d-d-don't;;;" Tsuna said, his arms making a defensive stance across his face and torso, his eyes closing instinctively.
He waited for Hibari's fist to collide with his head or stomach. Or the feel of the choking pressure a tape measure would do around his neck. Or anything violent that would happen to him, any time now, for being so Tsuna.
Instead, he heard a chuckle. And it was impossible for it to come from himself. Besides, who was in such a good mood enough to chuckle? Hibari doesn't chuckle. He muwahahahaha-ed.
'How annoying.' Tsuna decided. 'Even a ghost is amused with events that will happen before I get brutally murdered.' He thought, believing the sound came from a ghost.
"Very well." Hibari suddenly said. Tsuna heard him back away. He opened his eyes to see Hibari walking towards his chair.
Tsuna looked as shocked like he was told that he was pregnant with Hibari's baby. "W-why—?"
"There's no use measuring someone so stubborn." He said plainly. "Besides, I'd get the measurements wrong if you move too much."
"B-but…You…I mean, my measurements..?" Tsuna asked hesitantly, afraid that Hibari might think he'd want to get measured after being so pig-headed.
"Do you want me to measure you?" Hibari asked quietly. Tsuna didn't fail to notice the hint of sadness on Hibari's voice.
Honestly? Well, it certainly felt like Hibari was guilt-tripping him. That is, if Hibari was capable of doing such a thing. "W-well, no but—"
"Then keep quiet and make me some coffee." Hibari commanded in his usual voice, without a trace of the sadness he heard awhile ago. The tone might be Tsuna's imagination, anyway. So much for trying to explain himself. But it isn't that he'd willingly get harassed (again), right?
Hibari then got a stack of papers from one of the drawers and placed it on the right side of the table. He began reading the paper on top, without paying any more attention on Tsuna.
But as the seconds went by, the silence became more unbearable and awkward. Well, at least for Tsuna, who still has his back against the wall.
"Hibari-san?" he tried.
"Hm." Hibari replied, not looking up from the document he was reading.
"Are you…" Tsuna began, and gulped. "Are you mad?"
Hibari kept on reading the document. "Normally, I would bite you to death. But I wouldn't want blood in my coffee, would I?"
Tsuna sweatdropped. "Ah…Okay."
"Okay..?"
"I-I mean, 'okay, I'll make you coffee!'" Tsuna said quickly, and laughed quite awkwardly. Then he went to the side of the room where the water heater was placed.
After some time, while Tsuna was waiting for the water to get hot, he began to listen to the turning of a page and the sound of a pen writing something. Of course, it didn't sound like Hibari was mad. This might even be a typical day where he signs documents regarding upgrades on the school equipment. Or something.
'Two teaspoons of sugar, one spoon of powdered milk.' Tsuna repeated the addition to Hibari's coffee in his head. And before Tsuna knew it, his thoughts were getting out of his usual 'thought-range'.
'Hibari isn't really angry, is he? Well, he confirmed he wasn't, sort of. But he really is angry. It doesn't take a genius to know that. Or maybe I'm just assuming. Hibari isn't the type to— But who am I to say this, really? I don't really know him. All I know is that he loves the school like crazy, that he has a pet bird and that he always says 'bite this or that to death'.'
Tsuna stopped stirring and walked to place the mug on Hibari's left side. And while he waited for Hibari to drink, or look up, or to ask him to get some biscuits, he noticed Hibari's hands. Well, he doesn't imagine them doing something pervy (yet,) but was honestly interested on how something can look so delicate but can be so dangerous. The hands that held tonfas are the same ones that held the black pen he was using, and now the mug…
The mug?
Tsuna's gaze went from Hibari's hands to his face. Hibari was looking at him with a smug look. A corner of his lips was turned upwards. The current expression on Hibari's face made Tsuna's cheeks turn red and made Tsuna want to punch Hibari. Or kiss him. Ha! That'll take care of that stupid look—
Tsuna's own thoughts made his cheeks redder. He recognized that thought as the same one from this morning. Why the hell was he thinking about kissing a boy?! Why the hell Hibari?! Why not, say, Kyoko-chan? What's up with this messed up hormonal thingies! Damn Biology! It was something he didn't understand, didn't need to understand and wasn't forced to understand. Vongola bosses weren't given exams! They were given weapons, firing ranges and sparring partners, dammit!
"See anything you like..?" Hibari asked, the smug look seemingly pasted on his face. This inquiry brought Tsuna's thoughts back to the DC room.
"A-a-a-a-as if!" Tsuna stuttered, taking an instinctive step backwards.
"Hmm…" Hibari sipped the drink and allowed a little smile to show on his lips. This time he looked mischievous. Maybe Tsuna should run for it?
"Make me coffee again tomorrow." was Hibari's command, before waving Tsuna away.
Tsuna needn't say 'yes', or 'okay'. The way Hibari does it, it was always a command, not a request. He sighed.
"Ah. By the way, Sawada."
Tsuna paused from opening the DC room door. Hibari seems to say something when Tsuna was at the door. This time, Tsuna checked himself before he turned to look at Hibari. He seemed okay. No open buttons (Gokudera offered to repair it for him) and his boxers weren't showing (Gokudera managed to get a rope for a belt for him).
He thanked the gods for Gokudera. Maybe he could really make Gokudera his right hand man for this. Then he turned to face Hibari with a poker face.
He was greeted with the same kind of face. "You did not offend me."
That took Tsuna by surprise. His eyes widened a bit. "Why?" he asked.
"Why am I not offended?" Hibari rephrased Tsuna's question. Tsuna nodded.
"Because I'm not." Hibari said plainly. 'That's not even a decent answer!' Tsuna thought. And before Tsuna can think of any more things, Hibari asked a question of his own. "Does it bother you?"
And as usual, our protagonist answers immediately, honestly. "Well, yes…Only a bit though! Because—"
"If you don't want to get measured, then why should I measure you?"
'Well, that's reasonable.' Tsuna thought, agreeing with Hibari. 'And it's better that way. I won't get harassed if I don't want to.' At the last thought, Tsuna almost kicked himself, if that was possible.
'That's not even harassment! That's voluntary rape! If there was such a thing, anyway…' Tsuna yelled in his thoughts, to keep other pervy thoughts about Hibari away, if his brain managed to create some.
And while Tsuna was silently arguing with himself, the poker face Hibari had cracked a bit around the lip area. Again, that maddening mischievous face!
'He's up to something. He's up to something.' Tsuna repeated over in his head. But, relieved that Hibari was at least emphasizing that he wasn't angry made him a little bit more respectful, enough to make him listen to what Hibari has to say, even if that kind of face is really getting creepy.
"If there's nothing else…" Hibari began.
Tsuna took this as a signal for him to go. "W-well then, excuse me..!" Tsuna said hurriedly, and in a flash, he was gone already.
And as soon as Hibari was sure Tsuna wasn't on the same floor as the DC room, he sipped the coffee Tsuna had prepared and frowned.
It seemed like he would take more than what he could normally take to tame a Sawada Tsunayoshi without biting him to death in frustration.
As they say, when a predator is in love with the prey…
Hibari sighed. It wasn't as if he was 'in love' with that herbivore. It was more like, he found an interesting toy, cruel as it may seem.
And what else could be more frustrating than a toy running away from you?
…Not being able to bite the toy to death?
Hibari cursed under his breath and glared at the mug.
Yes, it wasn't as if he was in love with Tsuna. He wasn't. Still, the thought he was having since Tsuna tried to get away nagged him.
'I'll make you realize you'd only want me and nobody else.'
A/N: Tsuna is so conservative, it's driving me crazy. O_o Not in a perverted way crazy. But out-of-my-mind crazy. O_o Just thought I'd make that clear. *cough* Anyway…
Hibari isn't exactly helping to keep me sane, either. Not only does everything about him makes my heart do death-defying stunts, his speech pattern is very…mysterious. The type of mysterious that would make your scientific calculator go 'syntax error' or something.
As miyaken suggested, I tried reading some 1827 fics. But, I don't think research helped. In fact, research made me even more confused. But see, I'm trying my best here…ToT I hope I didn't make Hibari too OoC. I did make him talk a bit more for…a reason. XD You'll see on future chapters, so don't worry! Ovo
…Review? ovo/