Hi guys, sorry this update took longer than usual. The original chapter 9 got deleted off my flash drive when I thought I had transferred it over (apparently Word jumbled some things up and wouldn't currently translate into LibreOffice). You should've seen me, I was raging OTL.

Thanks for all the lovely reviews! Because of them, right after the deletion happened, I decided to get straight to work even though I felt downright dreadful. & sorry if the updates really do come slow now, I have 12-hour workdays on my job most days.

Hope you enjoy! & feel free to comment c:

Things to note: 1600 yen = roughly $20

Itadakimasu = Japanese, you say it before you eat

Doki = sound effect for a beating heart

Giotto grounded him. To the end of eternity.

Correction—he tried to.

"Modo Attaco."

"Big Bang Axle!"

Their gloved fists met and held for a few moments before they each rebounded to a safe spot.

"Mitena!" Giotto drew back his fist and rushed forward as he concentrated all of his power in one point.

"Burning Axle," Tsuna countered. Defending with offense was the best move against Giotto, whose strength was monstrous.

G's eyebrow twitched as the two switched to martial arts—judo matched with aikido—then muay thai and savate—later followed by kung fu and karate. While they were putting up a very impressive show, they were bound to end up with injuries if they kept on fighting aggressively like this. Although he couldn't really label it as fighting—they were physically, but the gleam in Giotto's eye matched the one in Tsuna's. Hell, it looked like they were getting a kick out of this.

He had seen Hibari's gaze riveted upon the two out of the corner of his eye. Che. He was so in sync with Alaude, right down to the attraction to a Sawada. Mukuro seemed to be enjoying the show a little too much—he even had a bag of popcorn (probably conned from an innocent bypasser). Neither Cozart or Asari seemed to want to wait it out. In fact, Cozart looked like he was getting ready to rush in to stop Giotto.

"Giotto," G thundered.

"What?" Giotto answered crossly as Tsuna wriggled his way out of a headlock.

"There's a dojo you can use later if you want, but you're attracting too much attention here." A crowd had formed a ring around them. Hibari had taken off right when it started to form. "Take Tsuna on a walk to sort things out." G wanted to facepalm when Giotto childishly rolled his eyes.

"Fine, whatever," he announced flippantly as he dragged Tsuna behind him as he trailed a blaze through the mob of people.

"Kufufu." Mukuro's eyes sparkled mischievously. "How much time do you give Tsuna before Kyouya pounces on him?"

"Not very much," G answered truthfully.

"Reborn really whipped you in shape," Giotto commented. Tsuna groaned just from thinking about the training. "Think you'll be able to take Dino on now?"

Tsuna hummed. "I haven't fought with him in almost 5 years. Maybe."

Giotto's eyes widened suddenly. "Don't move Tsuna, but there's a bat on your shoulder—"

"H-Hieee!" Tsuna yelped immediately as he frantically tried to shake the nonexistent bat off.

"Sike." Giotto laughed warmly when Tsuna sent him a furious pout. "So about Hibari," he tried to start off lightly.

"Oh. What about him?" The brunet flushed pink.

"I'll allow you to date if:"

Tsuna started to pale as Giotto rattled things off on his fingers. 1) No going on dates without a supervisor. 2) No kissing without a supervisor. 3) No being alone without a supervisor. 4) No fighting without a supervisor. 5) No calling/texting without a supervisor. 6) No marrying (which tied in to no eloping) without the supervisor's consent. Guess who the supervisor was?

"G-Giotto-nii!" Tsuna blurted out, flustered. "Why are you thinking so far? And weren't you the one that told me that there's only a one in a million chance that the person you like will return your feelings? And some of your rules don't even make sense!"

Oho. Well. That wasn't exactly true—the one in a million thing—but it was still pretty amazing when two people were mutually attracted to each other. Still, there were certain things you can do to cultivate feelings—or make someone realize them (Hibari). Although it would take a helluva intervention to get Hibari to get in touch with his emotions. So:

"No seducing, Tsuna."

"I—I—I—" After several attempts to form a coherent sentence, Tsuna opted for a punch instead. "How the hell am I supposed to seduce Hibari-san when I don't even know how to?" he shouted, his face burning crimson when he realized he said that a lot louder than necessary.

Giotto rubbed his shoulder as he sighed. "I can't enforce all of those rules on you if I wanted to anyway. I'm not in control of you." Though the look in his eye conveyed that he would very much like to keep Tsuna pure for the rest of eternity (although it was his own fault that Tsuna became a host at the café, therefore losing a part of his innocence forever).

Tsuna smiled. Giotto didn't have a complete brother complex. It was just that he tried to make up for Iemitsu not being home as often as he should be. "You don't have anything to worry about anyway. Pigs will fly sooner than Hibari-san liking me back."

The elder coughed. Maybe he shouldn't mention that Verde had already engineered a species of flying pigs. While it was almost confirmed that Hibari was asexual, he still had hormones—and the other day he had heard from a source (read: Reborn) that Hibari had acted oddly when around Tsuna. Plus, they shared a dorm room. Two people alone was never a good idea. A shadow fell over his eyes when he recalled Hibari's past. Alaude had told him what was necessary. If Hibari didn't have enough love for himself, how could he give any to Tsuna? He summoned a smile with some effort. Maybe Tsuna could change Hibari.

"You got the job, by the way," Giotto said. He refused to hand Tsuna a heavier burden than Fuuta. He made sure to memorize the way Tsuna's features erupted in happiness, the way his smile easily widened. By giving him to Hibari, this might all disappear for a while if things went sour.

Tsuna had gaped at the menu he was handed. Spanner had already revised everything and added his names permanently to the database—but what was this about 1600 yenfor one kiss? He had asked if Spanner has miscalculated (the forever mellow blond glared at him when he had asked—apparently he got a bit testy whenever his calculations were doubted), but he had shook his head. Apparently Giotto had helped with the prices, but still. The amount of money he was earning was almost exorbitant. Shoichi had handed him his pay for the trial period, which was half of what he would earn—and his eyes had doubled at the excess of digits. But this would help a lot with Fuuta's hospital bills. Dino wouldn't have to worry so much about paying most of it anymore.

Now he was peering over the top of his student manual at Hibari, whose shift ended at the same time his did. His schedule mirrored Hibari's, so their hours and off days matched perfectly. His eyes flitted to the clock—5:30. His stomach gave a rumbling growl in answer. He blushed lightly, peeking at Hibari again to see if the elder had noticed. Nada. Hibari remained unaffected as he turned a page in his book with his earphones on.

Split Second was the name of the book he was reading, Tsuna observed. He had concluded that Hibari was a fast reader because the books alternated almost every day. It would be fitting if Hibari's major was Law Enforcement or Criminal Justice, Tsuna thought. He fiddled with his watch as he wondered what Hibari thought about the lunch incident. Did Hibari really kiss him just so he could get a fry?

His eyes wandered around Hibari's side of the room, fixating on a small form on top of the Skylark's drawer. Roll.

"Piii." Tsuna blushed again as the hedgehog reminded him about the other night. He briefly wondered what its gender was before closing his student manual.

He was just too hungry to concentrate on anything. Basil usually cooked everything and left leftovers, but earlier he had checked the refrigerator and was faced with all sorts of ingredients, but no meals whatsoever. No one was due home until 7:30 (Giotto, Alaude, Colonello, and Lal who went to a female dorm). Basil was staying late because he had to demonstrate something for Enma.

He sat up as a light bulb flashed over his head. He was pretty sure Hibari hadn't eaten either. He could take this as an opportunity to make Hibari a meal as a part of his thanks for the other night (he was pretty sure he had seen something that looked like hamburger in the fridge). He smiled happily as he headed downstairs to the kitchen, unaware of the gaze that followed him out the door.

Tsuna stared at the ground beef in his hands. At least he thought it was ground beef. The ridiculous price tag that hung off the edge alerted him that this must be very high quality ground beef because he had never seen that many zeros on a price tag before. His mother prided herself in being a culinary genius despite her usage of prosaic food items. Organized neatly on the counter-top were ingredients for what he was going to make.

He hummed as he set the beef down next to the eggs and flipped the switch on the rice cooker, noting the time as he did so. He had burnt the rice on more than one occasion when he first started (his mother taught him the fine art of multitasking by making him cook a whole meal within a time limit). He washed his hands after preheating the stove to start preparing the food. Hibari had said that his favorite food was hamburger—but that didn't mean he wouldn't enjoy hamburger steak, right? Besides, hamburger steak was one of his personal favorites.

After he finished chopping the onions and sauteed them until they were translucent, he left the pan on the stove to let it cool. Meanwhile he soaked the breadcrumbs in milk and combined it with the egg, salt, ground pepper, and nutmeg. By the time he finished, the onions were sufficiently cooled in time to amalgamate everything with the meat.

Tsuna divided the meat into two pieces, slapping and turning each piece with his palms until the surface grew smooth. He indented the middle of the raw steaks with his thumb to insure that the middle would get cooked evenly. He placed the hamburgers a good distance apart in an already heated pan and prodded them lightly with a spatula at a regular interval. When they fried to a brown color, Tsuna flipped them over and covered the pan with a lid. He glanced at the clock. The rice needed fifteen more minutes, the hamburgers ten to steam-cook, then after that he needed to make the sauce—so he had time to finish the miso soup he had cooking plus some time left over to cook some potatoes as a side.

He uncapped the lid on the simmering soup, inhaling its aroma as warm air rushed towards him—the hamburgers were starting to smell really delicious too. He spooned some of the hot dashi stock in his ladle before adding some miso and proceeded to mix it together with a pair of chopsticks. Slowly, he added the combined mixture slowly back into the soup and capped the pot again.

After hefting the pot to the back of the stove to open a space up in the front, he tossed in some potatoes that he had previously boiled into an already heated and oiled pan. He tossed the potatoes around a little before adding a little butter, salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of chopped parsley. After tossing the potatoes around for another minute, he lifted the pan and poured its contents into the two plates that he had placed beside the stove. After dumping the pan in the sink, he went to check on the hamburgers, lifting them up with a spatula and placing them beside the potatoes on the plates after he confirmed that they were ready.

Now for the sauce...Tsuna deglazed the pan with some dry red wine. He added some ketchup and Bulldog tonkatsu sauce and started to blend it with his spatula. He was about to commence turning off the stove and pouring the sauce over the hamburgers when he jumped at Hibari's voice.

"What is that?"

"O-Ow!" Tsuna cursed mentally when some of the sauce on the spatula splattered on his wrist. "That is hot," he muttered as he tossed the spatula in the sink. "It's hamburger steak Hibari-san, I'm sure you've—" He squeaked inaudibly when he realized Hibari was much, much closer than he had thought. He gulped and tried to hold Hibari's gaze, only to avert it a few seconds later as his cheeks flamed.

…

Giotto-nii, you jynxer, Tsuna thought contemptuously when Hibari grasped his wrist to lick off the sauce. H-Hibari-san is naturally seductive...who's seducing who?

"T-Thanks," Tsuna mumbled when Hibari loosened his grip after licking all the sauce off his wrist. Was this his future? Inadvertently doing things like that because he was so used to it at the café? He elbowed Hibari lightly to get him out of the way so he could finish pouring the sauce. After that was done, he left the pan in the sink and switched off the stove and rice cooker. "I'm almost done, could you set the table?" he asked the Skylark.

There was an almost imperceptible nod before Hibari headed off. Tsuna ladled the miso soup into bowls and rice onto the plates and cleaned up the counter (read: dumping everything into the sink) before carrying the food out to the living room.

"Itadakimasu," they both said quietly.

Hibari forked a piece of the hamburger steak in his mouth, chewing slowly as Tsuna stared expectantly at him. After a couple more chews he swallowed and locked eyes with Tsuna. "It's good." It's better than a regular hamburger.

Tsuna's eyes seemed to sparkle as he started to dig in to his own food. "That's great! I was worrying about the taste."

They ate in mutual silence until Tsuna cleared his throat. "Thanks. Again. For the other night. And I'm sorry I pushed you in a tree," Tsuna said abashedly. Hibari met his eyes to acknowledge what he said before dropping back down to his food.

"Hibari-san, what are you majoring in?" Tsuna asked curiously after swallowing a bite of hamburger.

"Criminal Justice and Psychology." Tsuna made a soft 'oh' sound when he heard his suspicious confirmed. Then could it be that...

"Do you not read the whole book then, Hibari-san?" Tsuna asked. "You stop when you figure out who the culprit is, right?"

Hibari glanced sharply at him. In addition to being somewhat strong (after all, he had been pushed into a tree), Tsuna seemed to have an eerily dead-on intuition. "Hn." I'll bite him to death later.

Tsuna was slowly getting a grasp on Hibari's language—which mostly consisted of grunts, growls, eyebrow twitches, eye narrowings, and angry body language in general. Had he ever even seen him smile before? But no—wait, there was that one time when there was a soft look on his face when Hibird perched on his finger. But he was digressing—"hn" probably meant "yes." He looked up when Hibari stood and made his way towards the kitchen.

"Hibari-san, just leave your dishes in the sink. I'll put them in the dishwasher later." Tsuna blinked when he heard Hibari's reponse.

"Are you a woman?"

"Of course not!" Tsuna replied indignantly. "It's just that—that..." Open mouth, insert foot. "Mmfmkfgja." His face wore a pout when he joined Hibari at the sink, watching him confusedly as he loaded the dirty pots and pans in the dishwasher.

"Hibari-san, I don't think you're supposed to put those in there..." Tsuna sweatdropped when Hibari deadpanned a "why not?"

"U-Um, it's called a dishwasher for a reason...pots and pans are too big," Tsuna said sagely. "And it would probably crack." He remembered Nana saying something about stainless steel too but he couldn't remember what it was.

"Hn." Hibari scowled. "We'll see." Tsuna wasn't given a chance to respond when Hibari took the plates from and him proceeded to load the rest of the dirty dinnerware in the dishwasher. I really don't want to pay for all of that if it gets ruined...Tsuna whined in his head.

When Tsuna finished cleaning up the counter with Hibari's help (the tasks he had given the elder were as simplistic and mundane as possible—Hibari couldn't do household chores at all), he stared balefully at the dishwasher. He didn't notice how he had somehow gravitated towards Hibari. It was only when he was trapped against the counter did he realize their proximity. He inadvertently sniffed Hibari's scent when he opened his mouth to question their position. All of a sudden the heat between them increased tenfold—how was it that he could mange to feel completely at ease with Hibari yet so incredibly...hot at the same time?

Doki doki

Hibari grasped Tsuna's chin with his fingers and tugged gently until Tsuna's eyes met his.

Dokidokidoki

Very slowly, Hibari descended upon Tsuna's lips.

Dokidokidokido—

Tsuna's heart skipped a beat.

DOKIDOKIDOKI

Their lips pressed lightly together, the fragile kiss soon morphing into an ardent affair as Hibari pinned Tsuna's hands down against the counter with his own. The smaller brunet was caged by Hibari as he was subjected to the mastery of his tongue. Tsuna wasn't capable of fully breaking out of his Hibari-induced euphoric cloud, but he managed to reciprocate back somehow when he tentatively probed the not-so-foreign-anymore interior of Hibari's mouth. It tasted primarily of hamburger, but the taste that so uniquely belonged to the Skylark wasn't entirely masked. Heat seemed to radiate from Hibari as they pressed impossibly closer. It was hard to believe that there was still space between them.

Tsuna whimpered softly when he shifted and caused his body to rub up against Hibari's in a salacious manner. He bit down lightly on Hibari's lip as he recalled the way the elder had grinded against him just a few days ago, the memory causing his pants to tighten uncomfortably as he squirmed. His movement only served to harden his arousal even further, and he moaned in Hibari's mouth.

"Damn hormones." Tsuna half-muttered, half-gasped when Hibari released his hold over one of his hands to cup his erection. The Skylark dominated his tongue again with a vengeance. Tsuna was suddenly very appreciative of the fact that nobody else was in the dorm house (mansion), only to realize a beat later that he spoke too soon.

Alaude was leaning against the doorway, smirking in smug amusement when Tsuna shot him a frantic look. Hibari, to Alaude's surprise, didn't look too annoyed that they were disrupted. Instead, he was smirking back as he tossed something black through the air—a phone, Tsuna's eyes told him.

Alaude's eyes widened fractionally when he saw the screen.

"Tsuna," Giotto called from somewhere outside the kitchen. Tsuna wrenched himself away from Hibari, and like a rabbit, bounded up the stairs faster than humanely possible.

"I'mtiredI'mgoingtosleepGiotto-nii!"

"Kid needs his sleep anyway," Giotto remarked as he entered the kitchen. "He's got a long day ahead of him tomorrow." He paused next to Alaude and curiously sniffed the air. "It smells good in here. Did Tsuna cook something?"

"Hn," Alaude growled lowly as he watched Hibari's retreating figure.

Hibari himself wasn't sure how it exactly happened. Maybe Tsuna had set it off when his body pressed against his own. There was something about Tsuna that spelled "ravish me!" every time he laid his eyes on him—there was a natural, seductive quality that the boy possessed but had no idea how to control it.

Tsuna was curled in a fetal position on his bed. So delicate-looking...yet, he was undeniably strong, though Hibari didn't know the limits of his strength yet. So innocent...yet his very presence did wicked things to his libido. He was so full of paradoxes and oxymorons, yet no set of words could truly do him justice. There was no other person that intrigued him as much as Sawada Tsunayoshi. When he was around, he could think of nothing else.

"I don't want to live anymore," he thought he heard Tsuna mumble. Hibari's lips quirked very slightly in amusement.

"I suppose I could bite you to death," the Skylark offered diplomatically. The brunet immediately straightened and sat up.

"I said that out loud?" He hurriedly raised his palms out flat in surrender. "And please don't!" Tsuna watched nervously as Hibari slowly stalked over, gulping when his personal body space was breached. He made a strangled protest when Hibari sat down and reached over to pick him up, his half-uttered sentence morphing into a quiet gasp when his arousal rubbed lightly against Hibari's as he was placed on his lap. His eyes lowered to half-mast as he loosely wrapped his legs around Hibari to get them out of the way. Were they...were they going to continue where they left off? Tsuna didn't really have any qualms against that, choosing to let the Skylark pull them into a kiss as his hands groped for something to secure themselves onto, eventually curling to grasp Hibari's shoulders. His eyes flickered shut when the elder slipped past his lax lips and ventured into his mouth. The brunet made a soft, appreciative sound when when their lower regions met again. He tilted just so until Hibari was given the perfect angle to work with. Their tongues met and retreated until Tsuna held out and forced entry into the still slightly uncharted territory of Hibari's mouth. A pleasant heat spread through Tsuna's body as the kiss grew deeper and more passionate, his eyes shut in bliss as he bucked lightly in Hibari's lap.

The moment was abruptly interrupted when Tsuna's cell beeped. His brows furrowed in annoyance as he drew it from his pocket and opened an eye to check its screen.

Hibari growled lowly when Tsuna pulled away, narrowing his eyes when a cell was shoved in his face.

I know what you're doing. Stop molesting Tsuna. –Giotto

Hibari stared impassively at the screen. Well, even the great fall. He could only wonder what Alaude had been subjected to to reveal the truth. Giotto was rather sharp.

Tsuna was caught off guard when Hibari took his phone from him and began to text something back.

It's not molesting if he wants it.

Tsuna flushed pink at the message. After realizing his crush, he had expected for the atmosphere to turn awkward whenever they were together—but whatever was between them remained the same.

He really wanted this, so screw Giotto and his overprotectiveness. He pocketed his cell and tugged on Hibari's shirtfront, eliciting a smirk from the elder.

Alright. He wasn't against receiving some action.

"Hnnh...ah," Tsuna gasped quietly, somehow out of breath even though all they had been doing was kissing and light touching for the past fifteen minutes. Why couldn't he tire of Hibari? Instead, the more time they spent together, the more he wanted Hibari, not less. Anyway, this was such a pleasant torture that Tsuna forgot in the midst of it that he still hadn't been allowed to cum yet. Hibari would stop applying pressure the second he felt like he was going to be overwhelmed.

However, Hibari's own erection made him wince a little. It looked more painful than his—not that he could really see it, since they were both still clothed.

Tsuna bit back another gasp when Hibari unzipped his fly and took out his cock, making a complete mess of him when he gave it a firm stroke. Any form of coherent thought fled his mind, his fingers bunching up the sheets around him when the Skylark's fingers circled around the head of his arousal. He tried to hold back a moan as he bit his lip in vain. The sound materialized anyway, the obscenity flushing Tsuna's cheeks as he averted his eyes. Sexual frustration...yeah, that was it. That was the driving force behind this. In the Decimo section; only he and Hibari opted to take cold showers regularly rather than jerking themselves off by themselves or the help of somebody else (excluding that one time). So all this pent up sexual frustration had...Tsuna froze when Hibari started undoing his own zipper...to go somewhere?

Hibari smirked when Tsuna's mouth opened and closed in rapid successions without any audible words emerging when he saw the Skylark's thickened length. Hibari tugged Tsuna's pants a few inches down, bringing his boxers along with it. Tsuna made a surprised noise when his ass was exposed.

With a finger, Hibari lightly rubbed over Tsuna's perineum while keeping his eyes on the brunet to gauge his reaction. The result was a set of widened eyes and a quivering lower lip—Hibari hn'd before deciding that the response meant he wasn't quite ready for what he had in mind. He would puzzle over the boggling fact that he had given up so quickly in his conquest of Tsuna's ass later.

Tsuna flushed a deep red when Hibari wrapped a hand around both of their arousals together and gave a tug, unable to harness back the low moan that resulted from the pleasure.

"Do that again," Tsuna panted out, inhaling sharply when Hibari obliged. "Mmn, j-just like that." He flushed crimson when he realized how straightforward that sounded. "A-ah," he moaned as he bit his lip in vain. Being inexperienced as he was, he could feel the ball of heat in the pit of his stomach already begin to tighten forewarningly. "Hibari-san, I think—" As if expecting it, Hibari wrapped his left hand tightly around the base of Tsuna's arousal, effectively cutting off the feeling of impending release.

"Not yet," Hibari said before resuming the pumping. Tsuna squirmed under the sensations, valiantly trying to control his volume level as his breaths came out in harsh gasps and whimpers. So close. Tsuna made a sound that caught in his throat when the prickling feeling expanded as Hibari released his hand, orgasm sending his body in a mini-paroxysm of pleasure seconds later. His essence spurted messily on both of their shirts as he shuddered lightly in the afterglow. When his mind refocused he reached out a hand to help Hibari get off, only to have it parried. The Skylark pressed a light kiss against Tsuna's lips, a smirk gracing his face.

"Thanks for the meal."

Sorry if I make any mistakes, tell me if I committed any really dreadful ones so I can fix it up. Otherwise, I want to catch up on my sleep. & did you guys know that Tsuna's favorite food is salisbury steak? And technically, a hamburger steak is a variation of that, so...Hibari & Tsuna share the same favorite food! 8D (Btw, thanks to the kind reviewer who reminded me that it was hamburger steak, not plain hamburger).

I credit the Just Hungry site by Makiko Itoh for hamburger steak recipe + directions in the cooking scene (all of her recipes make me really hungry).