Hibari found her between classes and demanded that she follow him.

She did so with a small, high-pitched "Hieee?"

He led her outside into the courtyard, stood her under the shade of a tree on the opposite side of the trunk from the school, making them out of sight, and stared at her for a very awkwardly long minute.

"Umm… Hibari-san?"

He blinked at her. She had the thought that maybe he had trailed off into his own little one-person world. "Sawada Tsunako, I have a proposition for you."

That was rare. Hibari usually didn't proposition people as much as he bit them to death for whatever reason he saw fit (or, in better terms, unfit).

"Okay... What is it?"

He tilted his head down, fists clenched at his sides, and looked halfway between murder and simply leaving.

Oh, wait, he was… bowing? Tsunako cupped a hand to her mouth, surprised.

"… Please… Go on a… date with me… … … ?"

Her heart stuttered. What could she say? What could she say? There was nothing to say.

She loved Mukuro. Even if she should get over him, even if accepting Hibari's offer could possibly help her do so, she knew she didn't want to.

Because there was only one two-person world she wanted to be a part of.

"I'm sorry, bu – HIIEEE!"

Hibari's tonfas came out instantly, like they had always been in his hands, before he paused and eyeballed Tsunako's reason for screaming with less than enthusiasm. "You're not a Namimori student."

The smell of flowers and mist was powerful. Tsunako reached up and gently touched the sleeved arm around her shoulders. There was no way…

"Kufufufufu ~ and you're not man enough for my Tsu-kun."

Hibari hissed through his teeth. "I'll bite you to death! …!" Hibari took a step back and stared at her with wide eyes.

She had no doubt that he was clueless on how to handle a crying girl.

"R-Roku-…" Tsunako turned in the arms that held her. Looking down at her through one azure blue eye, the other scarlet orb obscured by a fall of blue bangs, was her hero. Her savior.

Her prince.

Her face split into a grin. "Rokudo!"

He cupped her jaw in one gloved hand, thumb brushing away her tears. "Oya ~ what is with this crying? Surely you knew I would be coming back for you."

She pulled back her fist and smashed it into his handsome face, nearly knocking him sideways. "You ASSHOLE! I had n-no clue you were coming b-back. I don't e-even know where you w-went! A-All I know is why y-you left…"

He gingerly touched his newly forming bruise. "Are you sure you know why I left, Tsu-kun? Wait, don't answer that yet." He gave Hibari a very pointed look.

The prefect stood there, staring right back at him with tonfas raised and eyes narrowed hatefully.

"… I see. Some people are simply too dense to get the hint. Kufufufufu ~ then we'll leave. Have a good day… whatever your name is."

Hibari gritted his teeth and leapt forward. "Fucking herbivore!"

Tsunako had never heard Hibari curse before. Then again, she could only imagine what it felt like to watch the very person she had just asked on a date be swept up into the arms of another person.

Princess-style, of course. And Mukuro was running away with a furious prefect hot on their heels.

"Hiieee! He's chasing us!"

"Not for long!" Mukuro sped around a corner, made another sharp left, and then pushed Tsunako between his body and the brick surface of one of Namimori's walls.

Which Tsunako thought strange because she had never noticed this little alcove in the school's structure before. Mukuro pressed a secretive finger to his lips before leaning down and kissing her softly. Then with more pressure as a familiar hunger began to boil in Tsunako's belly – most likely the same sort of fire that burned in Mukuro's – and her hands dug into his shoulders as a shadow passed by the shallow niche they were hiding in without appearing to notice it.

How hadn't Hibari seen them?

'I shouldn't question good luck', she thought to herself as her knees got weak and her body prickled with want. 'Rokudo is back, he's here with me, and I'm so confused and angry and happy and scared… I don't understand how I can feel so much at one time.'

She turned her head away, gasping for air as Mukuro found interest in drawing strange designs down her throat with his tongue. "R-Rokudo…"

"Kufufufufu ~ my Tsu-kun…. You haven't changed at all. Have you missed me?"

In an instant, fury overcame everything and she shoved him away. "Of course, you baka!"

"So now I'm a baka? Are you going to hit me again?"

"Yes! A-and no…" That had actually really hurt.

Mukuro chuckled. "Tsu-kun ~ "

"Don't…" Her bangs fell into her expression as she dipped her head low. "Don't. J-just tell me… where you went…"

"First, tell me why you think I left."

She flinched and swallowed thickly. "You didn't want to be with me anymore, r-right? Because everyone was r-right and I'm a whore…"

"A kitten, somewhere in the world, just died, Tsu-kun." He tangled a hand in her hair and forced her to look up. "That isn't the reason I left at all. If it were, why would I come back to you? No, no, no ~ you've got it all wrong."

She hoped he was joking about that kitten. "T-then why did… Why did you leave…?"

"You?" Mukuro supplied gently.

She flinched. "Yes."

He edged his way closer and put one hand against the wall on one side of her head while the other came around her waist and held her as if she was something fragile about to shatter. "I can't tell you where I went or why I went there – you're better off not knowing, trust me on that.

But I didn't want to go. Every second I was gone, I wanted to be right here with you. Kufufufufu ~ even the boys were complaining about going so long without seeing you." Mukuro smiled down at her with that old charm that she remembered.

"… Was it because of Birds-Sensei?"

His body went rigid against hers, even while that ever present smile refused to disappear. "He was no sensei."

"Did it have something to do with him?"

She had never felt a silence be so cold and dense before. "I should have killed him the moment I met him," he hummed and noon in February felt like Antarctica in December. "But he was only a small part of it."

'I want to ask more, like a small part of what? What can't he tell me? Why did everyone have to move away? But he looks so uncomfortable…' Tsunako pushed her head against his shoulder. "You're not leaving again, right? Please, Rokudo, please… Please don't leave again."

"Please don't leave you again?"

She nodded pitifully.

Mukuro said he had missed her this entire time, but she just couldn't believe him. She couldn't believe that he hadn't been able to find someone else to like and had left poor, whoring Tsunako in the dust. It was great that he was back – but for how long?

He knew she was filthy and she knew he liked clean girls. Her heart ached but she had to face the facts: there was absolutely no way Mukuro still liked her.

She had never been the princess to his prince anyway.

"Oya ~ leaving once was bad enough, I don't want to go through the annoyances of it again. No, I am definitely not leaving you again." His hands held her face as he pulled her back and butted their foreheads together. She watched his heterochromic eyes close, a softness relaxing his expression. "Nope. Being with you sounds perfect. My Tsu-kun… My princess." He took a step back and knelt before her. He took both her hands in his and kissed each knuckle. "I am no prince, or even a knight in shining armor. More or less, you could say I am the evil wizard bent on making the princess mine. So will you let me capture you and keep you, my princess?"

She trembled as his eyes opened and found hers. "I'm not a princess…"

"You're my princess."

"I'm no one's princess."

"Mine."

She shook her head. "P-Princess or not… I don't think you can capture someone who willingly follows."

"Then follow me."

"I can do that."

~::~

She could do that. And she did.

Mukuro got her in a blue Crossover before driving to the plane station. He blindfolded her and led her by touch and voice to First Class.

She had no clue where they were going, but Mukuro held her hand the entire flight and she thought that, maybe, they could be going to Hell and it wouldn't matter as long as he didn't let go.

"When you said follow, I didn't know you meant out of Japan." She found his shoulder and rested her head on it.

"Kufufufufu ~ is there a problem with that?"

"No… It's just that everyone at home is going to be worried now."

"Oh, yes. Them. I may have forgotten to mention that you dad knows that you're with me."

"He does? Wait, does he only know or did he have a say in this?"

"He tried to have a say in it. He likes me even less now than on the day he met me."

"That's because I'm his baby girl." Tsunako flushed at the argument she and her dad had had that first night after he had met Mukuro as her boyfriend. "He doesn't want 'any bad boy' stealing me away." Iemitsu, that giant of a man, had even cried.

"… Right. Well, there's that." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "And then there's that he's one of the few that know how much of a bad boy I am."

She thought of Birds-Sensei and the scene of the crime.

Back when she had been on the ground in Japan, safely in school with Hibari on the hunt for Mukuro's blood, sounded like it would have been a good place to stay. Because who would follow someone who could do that to another person?

That answer seemed easy enough: Sawada Tsunako would.

She curled up in her seat and he wrapped her up in his arms across the armrest, producing a blanket from somewhere and tucking her in with it. "Sleep, Tsu-kun. I'll wake you up when we get there."

"Where's there?"

"Kufufufufu ~ you'll find out soon enough."

~::~

He told her to take off her shoes the moment the car stopped.

Still blindfolded, she did so and then he came around and opened her door, took her hand in his and helped her down. Soft, soft grass tickled her feet and he hummed a soft melody beneath his breath as he led her somewhere on foot.

After hours on a plane and then even more time in a car, her legs weren't up for a long trek. It felt like the moment they took five steps away from the car she would collapse. But she held in there because his wordless lullaby sounded so happy and his hand, ungloved, was cold and damp around hers.

'He's nervous,' she realized. 'I never knew Rokudo could get nervous.'

"Come with me, princess, let me lead you to a faraway land where unicorns prance and rainbows end in gold…"

She laughed. She couldn't stop herself. "That's corny, Rokudo."

"Corny makes you happy. Just look at your blush."

"I can't, remember?" But her heart was warm and fast in her chest, a testament to what Mukuro said.

"Come with me, princess, let me lead you to a distant haven where the blue waters sparkle like crystals and there's not a person but us for miles…"

Her breath caught. "H-hiiee?"

His lips touched the back of her hand. "I found it. It took me awhile, it isn't even as perfect as I wished it to be, but it exists and it's as close to perfection as this entire world can get."

"A-are w-we going to…"

"I hope so. In the end, you're the one who makes that call."

She already knew what her answer was. Chances were he knew it too.

"Come with me and dreams will come true ~ "

"But they've already come true," she said suddenly.

"Have they now?"

"Yes." She stopped walking and he stopped with her. She pulled him closer and rested her hand over his less-than steady heart. "If we stood here all day without doing anything, I would be really happy."

"Well then." He tilted her head up and kissed her. "Let's make you even happier, neh?"

And then he slid her blindfold off.

Beautiful was not a good enough word to describe where she was. She saw the distant climb of purple mountains against the endless expanse of blue sky, painted with cotton balls of white. The sun beamed down upon the breathtaking scenery with a single-mindedness to only make it look more ethereal than humanly possible, casting shadows against forest greens and browns and light upon the body of water that met her gaze.

It sparkled like it was crested with diamonds, a clear, clean blue that lapped lazily at the low, sandy bank circling it.

Mukuro wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. "What do you think?"

There weren't words to describe what she thought – she could tell him word for word just what she saw, but it would never come close to doing the landscape justice. Her hands found his and clenched around them as she sucked in a deep, fresh breath.

His hands dipped beneath her shirt and rested against her belly. "Kufufufufu ~ I understand completely how you feel. I often face the same dilemma trying to describe a greater beauty."

What greater beauty? There was something more beautiful than this? She turned his head and his duo-colored gaze was focused only on her.

She flushed scarlet red.

"Come, my princess – let's make memories here." And from behind his back, he produced –

A white picnic blanket.

"That is, if you want to." His smirk was wicked.

"You know I do."

"Are you positive?"

"Yes."

"Flawless certainty?"

"Yes."

"But will you one day re-"

She spun around and smacked her lips against his, shutting him up. It hurt somewhat, considering that their noses became fatalities along the way and her teeth clacked against his in that first second of contact, but she didn't dare break away and he didn't back down.

His tongue slipped past her lips and brought with it the taste of pineapples and dew.

It felt like they stood there for an eternity, searching and probing and playing, hands tight on each other, eyes closed as they savored only each other – their small, two-person world.

She broke away eventually, though, because she was an oxygen-breathing creature and everything was starting to blur together. She took a step back, Mukuro watching her with hazy, wanton eyes, lips as bruised as hers, and began unbuttoning her shirt.

"I'm sure this time."

"I'm glad to hear it."

~::~