Welcome back! Thank you to those who reviewed this so far! Sorry it kind of took a while, I just got a new job and life's been a bit crazy, but no worries, the updates on this one will keep coming as long as I'll have to time to work on this!
Main Pairings: TsunaxHibari, GokuderaxKyoko, MukoroxChrome
Rating: M for bad language and smut and upcoming violence
TWO: Prologue to the fall - Tsunayoshi (un-betaed)
The room was darkened, thick velvet curtains letting through but a little of the afternoon sun that shone brightly over the inner garden of the Vongola mansion.
He was looking at him from the corner of his eye, trying to figure out how and when they ended up like this again.
Naked and entangled in stained sheets and clammy limbs.
His backside hurt when he tried to shift his body a little, the small movement enough to have dark blue eyes open and fix him silently.
Tsuna laid his head back on his pillow and smiled softly.
"Where did you plan on going?" Hibari gruffly whispered, still staring, not fooled by the misleading smile Tsuna was giving him.
Tsuna closed his eyes and sighed. "I can't remember the last time I woke up without feeling guilty."
Hibari sat up at that and grabbed a pillow to put behind his back against the wooden headboard. "Would you rather not wake up at all?"
"Of course not," Tsuna replied, chuckling. A comment like that would have shocked him a few years ago, but being around Hibari for so long had made him impervious to the man's antics and a master at decoding what he truly meant when he said things like that.
He was Vongolo Decimo now, a role he'd unknowingly had been fulfilling throughout the years, born out of a need to protect the things and the people he held most dear. He'd accepted that with that role came the burden of waking up every morning with a guilty conscience.
"Of course not," he repeated, this time more silently, his eyes downcast.
"Tsunayoshi… what are you going to do about her?"
He rolled himself onto his back and stared at the crest of the Vongola that was embroidered with golden thread on the dark red canopy above his bed.
"I'm still waiting for her to break it off…" he replied, closing his eyes again. "Heh… God, how pathetic."
Hibari didn't say anything, but simply watched him. He'd been there when Tsuna's first crush turned out to be nothing but a fantasy, he'd been there when she'd ripped his heart out unknowingly for the first time and the times after that. They'd finally gotten together over the years, but by then Tsuna and he had started to see each other in secret, something that neither one of them had seen coming. Tsuna had been looking for comfort, feeling bitter and angry about being in love with someone who didn't even see him back then. Hibari had been there, strangely, and it'd been awkward and painful at first to admit that what they were doing, what they'd started to do and feel for each other, was addictive and dangerously pleasurable.
And highly unstable.
So when Tsuna finally got together with Kyoko and thought to fall in love with her again, he realized that the one he was falling for was actually his Cloud Guardian, that the distance he and Hibari had put in their relationship only served to inflate the feeling of longing he had for the man.
And then he found out that Kyoko and Gokudera had started seeing each other.
Tsuna never really felt the need to know the details of the how, when, and why, just the fact that she choose to keep it from him, that they both chose to keep it from him was reason enough for him to feel a little less guilty about what he felt for Hibari and the things they did during the cover of night.
He'd never been the type to take matters into his own hands instantly, Reborn or someone else always managed to push him towards being decisive, and therefore he didn't have the courage to tell her that he knew what she'd been doing with Vongola's Storm Guardian. The point would be made mute anyway if he ever told her, because then he'd have to tell her that he'd been sleeping with someone else too.
It wasn't because he was ashamed of his relationship with Hibari, but he really needed for it to stay a secret because being the Vongola's tenth boss meant having a lot of enemies. If word ever came out, it could cause for serious complications.
"Tsunayoshi," Hibari whispered, a hand sliding up his lovers throat that rest against his cheek.
Tsuna sighed and closed his eyes, leaning into his touch. "This isn't something I've ever gotten good at…"
Hibari moved closer and kissed him on his forehead, holding him to him.
Tsuna lifted his face, searching for his lips. "Hibari…"
"I leave for Japan in an hour…"
He nodded understandingly, but moved closer still. "Just… please…"
Hibari ran his fingers through his unruly mass of hair and smiled gently, rolling onto his back and looking up at him as he sat down on top of him. He let his eyes go over his lean frame, ran a thumb over his lower lip and pulled him down on him for a kiss.
Tsuna moaned softly, biting his lip when Hibari focused his attention on his throat and kissed him lovingly there. He positioned himself and guided Hibari's awakened manhood inside of him, last night's activities had left him prepped enough to do this without too much pain.
Hibari grabbed him by his hips and let out a soundless sigh when he slid inside smoothly, giving Tsuna's body the time to adjust to his length again, noting the little tremors that went up and down his spine. "Relax, don't rush this," he whispered consolingly.
A tear rolled down Tsuna's left eye and he buried his face in Hibari's neck, holding him tightly. "Hibari…"
"I know," he whispered back, rolling them over again before looking down on him and pushing inside, keeping their eyes locked.
Tsuna sighed happily and slid his fingers through his jet black hair, gasping wordlessly with each thrust.
Perhaps this wasn't perfect. Maybe it wouldn't even last.
All Tsuna knew was that he needed him. Needed for him to give him these times they spent together intimately, far away from the world and its obligations.
"Hibari…!"
Even if they shouldn't, even if nothing good could come of it.
Knowing that he'd always be there was enough.
It was enough, because he promised.
"We're already thinly spread as it is; this isn't something we can rush into without careful consideration."
"But we can't just sit idly and watch things go on the way they are," Gokudera contoured, standing from his seat and facing Ganauche on his left. "We need to bring back some of the troops currently stationed in Asia to reinforce the ones in Great Britain."
"That decision does not reside in your hands, boy," the elderly Coyote Nougat stated, his deep voice rumbling through the room. "Who knows what you'd be sending those men into. Ganauche is right."
"I say we just burst in there gun's blazin' and cut anyone opposing to ribbons!" Squalo exclaimed, slouching in his chair with a bored expression on his face. "Just sitting around talking about it isn't getting us anywhere!"
Tsuna watched his subordinates quarrel amongst themselves for a bit and then sat back in his chair, going over the data documents both Hibari and Mokuro had provided him with.
Two days ago, an anomaly occurred in a backwater district of London that ended in countless casualties. The fabric of space and time has been contorted in that spot –named field zero- making gravity seem like nothing as time stretches itself endlessly within it.
No one figured out what exactly happened, though diverse theories are being thrown on the table as to what it is that hit the ground on that day. Local mafia families were sent to investigate, but those attempts either ended in tragedy or without success.
Tsuna was at a loss of what to do. Send in more troops or wait and see what happened next? And what about the casualties and the families who've lost members?
His eyes fell on Hibari's empty seat and he sighed in dismay.
"Tsuna?" Yamamoto whispered inquiringly with a small encouraging smile.
He looked at Yamamoto and smiled reassuringly. The whole table had gone quiet and he turned to look at them as well. "Xanxus," he said calmly, looking at the other end of the table at the Head of the Varia forces. "I want your opinion on this. What would you propose we do?"
The older man rolled his red eyes slowly towards Tsuna and rested his jaw against the back of his hand idly. "We stop wasting time," was all he said.
Tsuna smirked at the answer, not having expected anything else from the man and turned to the Ninth's right man. "Nougat, I take it you're staying with your previous statement?"
Nougat nodded silently.
"In times of crisis like this, the head of the CEDEF holds an important role to the Vongola," Tsuna continued, turning to Basil sitting on his right. "Basil, what do you advice me to do?"
"As much as I would like to give you other advise, Tsuna, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with Xanxus on this one," Basil said with a shake of his head, intertwining his hands on top of his document holder on the table. He looked at Guardians of the previous Vongola generation, "We can't sit around and wait for the situation to turn in our favor, we need to act now and fast, but not without consideration."
Tsuna nodded and looked at his papers again. "Irie."
The redheaded head of Science and Development stood from his seat. "Yes sir?"
"Please collect all the information and data you have on field zero, both the antecedents and theories you've come up with. I will study them tonight and bring forth my decision and battle plan during tomorrow's meeting." Tsuna watched Irie nod and then looked at everyone who was present. "Is that alright with all of you?"
Most of them nodded, others shrugged and some others remained silent.
"Then this meeting is adjourned," Tsuna said, standing from his chair and picking up his papers.
"I'll send the files to you through e-mail, so you can visualize them on your V-Pad," Irie informed him as the room emptied. "Or if you'd like I can go over them with you on a later hour?"
"Much appreciated," Tsuna admitted with a grin. "I still have to go pick out the hors-d'oeuvres and the colors of the plates or was it draperies? I promised I'd have an answer for her later today."
"Sawada!" Ryohei said with a growl. "Those things are important! Kyoko is counting on you!"
Tsuna mentally sweat dropped. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind."
"Man, trying to save to world and planning a wedding on the side. You're really something, Tsuna," Yamamoto commented with a carefree smile.
Tsuna smiled back. "There are a lot of people counting on this marriage, so I'm just trying to make the best with the time I have right now." His eyes fell on Gokudera as he said that and it saddened him to see the barely concealed guilt he saw in his downcast eyes. But this wasn't the time or place to call him upon that.
When was it ever?
"Still, it's amazing… I barely have the time to see Haru with all of the travelling I'm doing lately," Yamamoto continued, scratching the back of his head as they were now walking down the hall towards the dining room to have lunch. "And I must admit that I get goose bumps every time she even mentions the M word."
Ryohei laughed. "You'll like it, I'm sure. It's not easy, but there's nothing better, trust me."
Tsuna listened to them with a smile as he followed them close behind, walking in step with Gokudera who was un-characteristically silent.
"I could use my right hand man to help me with my decision later on," Tsuna whispered in a persuasive tone, looking straight ahead as they walked on.
Gokudera scratched the back of his head and smiled uneasily. "I'm overlooking a training exercise of the French Storm Squad Division later this afternoon…"
"Sure," Tsuna replied with a nod and a smile. "Rain check?"
"Yeah," Gokudera answered with a nod. "When are you heading back home?"
"After tomorrow's meeting. Hibari and Mokuro will assist me on an ongoing investigation, we'll meet at Midori base," he answered and then sighed. "The situation here does preoccupy me though…"
"No one doubts about that, Boss," Gokudera answered him and Tsuna saw the determination in his friend's eyes again.
Tsuna smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Gokudera." He placed his hand against his arm amicably and squeezed briefly before walking on.
Gokudera frowned a little as he had thought to have seen regret in Tsuna's eyes. He watched him go, his own heart heavy with what he too was hiding.
It was a perfect fit.
"What's wrong, Kyoko?"
Her head snapped back up at those words and she looked at her best friend with a reassuring smile. "Nothing, it's just I have a lot on my mind."
Haru grinned back. "I know, but this is your wedding dress! Come on, put on a bigger smile! You look gorgeous, Tsuna won't know what hit him!"
She chuckled a bit and turned to look at herself in the three mirrors that reflected her silhouette back at her.
The white of her dress didn't look as pure as it did a few moments ago.
And now looking at herself sickened her.
She promised him that she wouldn't say anything, not until the right time.
But when was it ever?
To be continued in THREE: The one who brought the sky down – Hayato
-BDP-