Silver Snow Chapter 5: Memories of the Snow, a katekyo hitman reborn! fanfic

`Silver Snow

Chapter Five

Memories of the Snow

The Future – Ten Years Later

Feeling bored and frustrated that she would not be able to do anything straining, which technically meant that she couldn't do anything but stay in Hibari's quarters for the next few days, Miyuki unwillingly trudged back to her temporary room. Not that she hated the room – it was more than she had expected, after all, she just had met Hibari Kyoya. Well, at least her ten-year younger self had. She entered her room and glanced around, noticing only then that she hadn't really observed the room properly since the first day, which was only yesterday, that she had stayed in it – probably due to the fact that Hibari's time limits were usually unreasonably restricting, and she knew that she definitely wouldn't want to be late for whatever he had planned. The worst case scenarios flickered through her head and she shuddered.

Wouldn't do any harm to start appreciating the place she was going to live in for awhile, since she actually had the time, would it? The room was larger than the one she had previously lived in at her home back in Italy, the four walls were painted a beautiful shade of sky blue, and seemed to match her very own eyes. Her four-poster bed, which was located in the far corner in the right, had two silk, pure white coated pillows and a blue quilt which matched the colour of the walls. The walls had carefully framed pictures of small-sized animals such as hummingbirds, rabbits and baby turtles, placed at regular intervals. Close to her bed was a black study table, with a lamp and a container full of different stationeries. There was a small, red velvet sofa in the opposite side of the room, with a few multi-colored bean bags beside it and clear, glass coffee table in front of it. There was a small pile of books stacked neatly on top of the coffee table. The black, antique-looking cupboard which was nearly stuffed to the brim with clothes was in another corner. She started to wonder if Hibari Kyoya had ever lived with someone else before. After all, his quarters had a relatively large number of rooms, which all seemed to be unoccupied. This room, however, was well-decorated and looked as if it was well-maintained even when she got here. It was definitely not specially prepared for her since there would've been no time to do so – which meant that someone had lived here before. A relative, perhaps? She decided that there was no purpose in continuing to pursue the manner since she doubted the black-haired man would reply her if she asked, so she dropped the subject and allowed herself to fall freely onto the bed. Thud.

Her mind started wandering off to other distant things… And the first thing that entered her thoughts was her life before the Vongola. She missed them, her dog, those few friends who had stuck through all the tough times together with her since she was young… her family? No, not her family. Not her family. NOT THOSE PATHETIC EXCUSES OF A FAMILY.

Betrayed. Anguish. Outcast.

"You don't belong here." Her so-called family that she had cared so much about, loved so much with all her heart and soul, destroyed all her hopes and dreams with just one sentence.

"But I—" She tried, tried desperately to find something to save herself, tried to find some excuse to stay behind, tried to pretend that she still had a place in their hearts.

"We, the De Luca, as a small family, had nurtured you regardless of your status, but not because of this, Estella. Not because of this. We nurtured you in hope that you would become someone who was good enough to take over the family and expand our influence, making our presence known among the others. But you disappointed us. We painstakingly spent time and effort to try to match each type of flame to your abilities, but none of them yielded results. You failed, just like your sister you are no longer of use to us, Estella, one of your father's wives would be able to give birth to another heir. You are hereby an outcast to the De Luca family." That was all it took for her heart to shatter into a million pieces. She felt numb as she was thrown out of the family's mansion, and out onto the roads, to fend for herself. The only thing left caring for was finding her sister, who was "missing". Only then did Miyuki know that Megumi hadn't just been "missing". She had been banished. What a cruel fate. She laughed at herself then, laughed at herself, and at her family. Her mother had been killed by the De Luca, her sister banished and now her. She didn't do anything to deserve that. She didn't. She obeyed the rules, respected the elders, but got nothing in return. Just a pile of uncaring shit.

From then onwards, she lived by doing odd jobs, which only served to provide enough for her to merely survive. She just didn't care, she didn't feel anymore – her sole wish was to be reunited with her sister once more. But she received a package she would've never expected she would ever have gotten – a package with the Vongola's Snow Guardian ring safely wrapped in a metal box, with a note slotted into it reading: Forget your pain, find a new family. That was the only glimmer of hope her life could've had, her only chance of reliving her life.

And so she took it.

Subconsciously, she found that tears were already streaming down her cheeks, an uncomfortable feeling in her throat threatening to explode, to wail and mourn over her loss. It had all resurfaced. The thorns that were encaging, surrounding and suffocating her heart so badly that sometimes she felt like she couldn't breathe – they were resurfacing. She didn't lie to herself – she knew what she was yearning for. A family who could accept her for who she was even if she was labeled as an outcast. A family who could know her past and not mind about it, who could love her regardless of any mistakes or wrongdoings. But she didn't realize how much she yearned for someone, just someone to say that they would be there for her. Because of this fear, she couldn't confess anything to the Vongola members even though most of them were already here… not knowing about her status at all. She was afraid to lose this place which she thought she could finally call "home". Fear. It was such a simple, but impactful emotion. "Damn it." A cry escaped her lips. She thought that she would be able to push those thoughts away – to forget. But she didn't forgive, and she knew that her heart was still weeping – it had always been weeping. "Damn it!"

In the next moment, all she felt was two warm, strong arms enveloping her in a tight, comfortable embrace. Her head rested on a firm shoulder as reassuring hands stroked her head in a constant motion, a silent comfort, that that alone was more than she could ever have asked for. Miyuki didn't see who it was – she couldn't, because the tears were blurring her vision. The tears wouldn't stop, the pain in her heart was overbearing. She felt herself quickly breaking even in his strong grasp. "I'll be by your side forever." Six words. Those six words were the things that she had never thought she'd be able to hear. The knot that had been firmly tied in her heart seemed as if it had come loose in that very moment. The thorns were falling apart slowly, painfully, but they were actually disappearing, freeing her torn heart. "And that's something that will never change, Miyu." And then she burst out once again, crying even more harshly this time. The feelings that had been bottled up for years were being released. Not completely gone, it would leave a scar, but in time, even the most unforgettable, most painful, most heart-wrenching scars would heal. "Arigatou." She managed to mutter between sobs, her voice muffled by Hibari's soft, cotton shirt. That was the only word that she could use to summarize what she felt – the gratitude, the relief, the freedom… She pressed herself against his chest and cried her heart out.

"Watashi wa ikitsuzukeru."

Hibari Kyoya entered the room holding another plate of food – he remembered that Miyuki had always gotten hungrily very easily, and then refuse to admit that she was until her stomach growled – and then he would be very, very amused.

But what he saw was Miyuki in that heartbreaking state.

The ten-year-older Miyuki looked as if she had collapsed on the floor, her face buried in her hands, but the incessant sobbing was obvious – her whole body was jerking and shivering.

Hibari panicked. He panicked, for goodness sake. Because in those three years that he had known her, he had never seen Miyuki in that state – she had always been carefully guarded, even if it wasn't obvious. The only time he had seen her defences down was when she told him about her trying to find her sister, and even then she only looked as if she was going to break, with her eyes red and threatening to allow the tears to brim over. But she used a smile to cover her feelings and blinked the tears way. He didn't probe – he knew better. But this… the Miyuki in this state looked so fragile.

And without a second thought, he wrapped his hands around her and assured her that he was not going to leave, not going to betray her. And he watched as she released years and years of pain and sorrow which had been kept inside her. Following that, she told him her story, between gasps of breath and hiccupping. He listened carefully as she did so, and afterwards swore that he wasn't going to let her cry over that again – never.

So this time, he was determined to keep his vow. He did the exact same thing, the exact same way and watched as she cried. He meant it when he said that – he would always be by her side, and that was one thing that would never change. He knew that at this moment, his mask had already broken – even if it was just for awhile, even if it would appear once again. But he didn't care, because her mask had broken too. He was just going to make sure that her heart didn't break before her mask did.

He would give another chance for her heart to be redeemed. He would give her another reason to live for.

Anata no tame ni, nani mo yatteru.

Hibari lifted the quilt and draped it over her, and he observed her sleeping form for a few seconds, making sure that she was already alright. Feeling weary, she had fallen asleep the previous time after her big outburst too. Then the corners of his lips turned upwards, as he glanced at the table and made sure that the bento was already there when she woke up.

He knew she wouldn't need him to be right beside her when she woke up, because Miyuki was a strong person. But even strong people had their limits.

Just like he did too. His limit had been crossed – just once, but now he had found it again – that one precious thing that he wasn't going to let go of, the only thing that had ever mattered to him more than his own life.

Miyuki exited Hibari's quarters with a determined expression in her gaze. She was heading towards Sawada Tsunayoshi's room with her treasured bow, which was cased to prevent suspicion, slung over her shoulder – she had decided that she would start her confession about her identity starting with him, as the Vongola's 10th Generation boss. She gave the ring hanging loosely over her neck a light touch, feeling the coolness of it. It had become a habit – not necessarily a bad one, though. Knock. She patiently stood outside the door and waited.

"Ah… Konnichiwa." The brown-haired boy smiled sheepishly as he opened the door, looking a bit surprised to see Miyuki going to visit him. "Konnichiwa. Sawada Tsunayoshi-san, I have something to discuss with you." She decided that if she was going to gain acceptance from the Vongola family, she should probably started respecting the boss even though she thought that he didn't really deserve it. "Sou desu ka? You can come in then, dozo." He said as he invited her in.

"Sawada-san, are you curious to know about my identity?" Miyuki started off the conversation easily, the rhetorical question rolling off her tongue.

"Eeh? …Yes, I suppose." He answered anyway, stammering a little bit.

"Sawada-san… what if I told you Vongola had an eighth Guardian?"

"But—that's not possible. No one has even spoken of that before." He looked slightly confused as he looked at her with a questioning expression.

Miyuki took a deep breath in and closed her eyes, barely managing to whisper, "but Sawada-san, I'm the eighth Guardian, the Guardian of Snow."

It seemed to take awhile before the information could be digested. Tsuna's eyes widened, his face carried an unbelieving expression. "About that… that's impossible, isn't it?"

Miyuki shook her head and continued, "If you don't believe me, I can show you." Her hand reached for her ring and she tucked it out of her shirt, lighting it immediately and allowing him to see its unique, bluish white, and sometimes silver flame. "It's the snow flame." She carefully watched him, looking confident, straight into his eyes. He still didn't trust her. She felt slightly sad at that thought – was she really that hard to accept, then?

She retrieved her bow, holding it with her working hand and decided to activate both her bow and her wings at the same time. "Tsubasa, Freeze." Wings sprouted on her back once again, the silver glinting, reflecting the light from the room off of it. Her bow was surrounded by the pretty, sparkling Snow flame and an arrow formed in the other hand, but she could only clasp it loosely, not daring to exert too much strength.

"That's…that's—"

"Oi, Tsuna, you're already thirty minutes late for training with Lal Mirch, what are you do—" Reborn's eyes narrowed as she looked at the situation they were in. "Teme—! What're you doing with Juudaime?" Gokudera's scowl completely ruined the tense mood they were in.

"Miyuki Estella De Luca, I told you I would give you one chance because Hibari Kyoya seemed to place immense trust in you. It seems that you have lost that chance. I should've known. The 1st Generation Snow Guardian wasn't better in any way." He lifted his gun and aimed it straight for her head. Miyuki stared at him blankly, unable to do anything with only one usable arm.

"But I wasn't—"

"Reborn, you knew who she was?" Tsuna looked at his tutor with an accusing expression.

"Of course I did. I just decided not to tell you." The Acrobaleno did not even bother to turn to look at him as he said that, he just glared at Miyuki in silence.

"Reborn! How could there possibly be a Snow Guardian?" Gokudera shot him an angry glare, but stopped when Reborn spoke again, "There was. The Snow Guardian was supposed to be sealed, banished for eternity after the 1st Generation, because of an unfortunate incident which almost cost Vongola its downfall. The existence of the Snow Guardian was completely erased, and everything concerning Isabella Costa was well kept a secret… Until now." The air seemed to be floating with a threatening aura. No one breathed a word. "I will summarize it, Tsuna, and everyone present here, listen carefully and place your judgments upon her. The 1st Generation Snow Guardian had betrayed the Vongola. She betrayed the Vongola by being an internal spy for the Giordano family, she had gotten into an affair with the boss of that family and was seemingly willing to sacrifice her own family for the man she loved. This caused a huge uproar in Primo's family, but they were allowed to take no action at all… Because Primo couldn't bear to hurt Isabella, he couldn't bear to hurt one of his own family, especially his Guardians, but the main reason was because Isabella was Primo's fiancée."

Clank. Miyuki's bow slipped off her shaking hands and her arrow dissolved into the air. The flame on her necklace was extinguished – she had lost her focus. She didn't know a thing about the past of the Snow Guardian. She nervously glanced at Tsuna, looking if he showed any signs of anger, but there was nothing on his face – it was blank. Miyuki had lost all confidence upon hearing Reborn's announcement. She had too much to handle, too much to confess – already her horrible past, and now this? What were the chances?

Reborn sighed and hopped of the table, passing a sheet of paper to every single person in the room, including Miyuki herself. Her grip tightened, crushing and crumpling the paper in her hands. It was her background information, which included her past – her sister and her being born as illegal children, being born out of an affair. Her mother being murdered, her sister being banished, then subsequently her being banished out of her family because she wasn't compatible with any type of flame.

"Miyuki Estella De Luca, ask yourself, and even you will admit that you don't belong here." Reborn finally said.

No. No, no, no, no, no. Not those words, please. Not those words. Tears started to form in her eyes, again. Damn it, how much she hated herself. She hated herself for letting her emotions get the better of her. She had no reason to be such a crybaby. "I'm sor—"

"I vote for her to be accepted into this family." Everyone whipped their heads over to the Vongola's Cloud Guardian leaning casually on the door, looking at Miyuki straight in the eyes with what could be mistaken as a hard stare, but it contained something deeper than that. Stay strong.

"Hibari—! Out of all times, you decide to only appear now you bastard." Gokudera glared at him.

Hibari seemed completely unfazed by this and looked nonchalantly at Reborn. "I vote to accept her." He said again, his voice showed no hints of hesitation.

Gokudera rolled his eyes and spoke next, "I vote to reject her. I see no need in having a liar in our midst." But it wasn't her fault – she didn't lie, it was the 1st Generation Snow Guardian who did. She was only afraid, she had kept quiet, but she didn't lie. Miyuki had to admit she felt a pang in her heart as he said that, but she decided that she didn't like the constipated Storm Guardian anyway. Stay strong, she reminded herself.

The adult Yamamoto walked in from his position directly outside the door where he was silently listening, "I vote to accept her. Give her a chance, won't you? She didn't do anything wrong. All of us have ugly parts of our pasts, you know that."

"I vote to accept her." Another deep voice resounded. Lal Mirch walked into the room with a challenging expression. "I have seen how this woman plays her part in Vongola. She is trustworthy and loyal – different from the 1st Generation Snow Guardian."

All gazes were directed at Tsuna, because they knew that the decision of the Boss mattered more than anything else. "I…" He paused for a while, seemingly deep in thought. Then he looked up at Miyuki, observing her, maybe with his hyper intuition. She didn't know – she just hoped he wouldn't notice the subtle shivering of her lips and her tightly clenched hands. "I vote to accept you, Miyuki Estella De Luca-san. Welcome to the Vongola."

-End of Chapter Five

Chapter Five.1 – Omake

Meat buns and Other Nonsense

(NOTE: You should note that these things didn't really happen during the story. It's just for my own amusement – and probably yours too.)

In the next moment, all she felt was two warm, strong arms enveloping her in a tight, comfortable embrace. She opened her blurry eyes only to see Giannini, with his ridiculously fat and round head and body, staring at her with a maniac smile – she freaked out and screamed. "What the hell! Are you a pervert or something?"

"Ehh…? Sorry I was too hungry and I thought you were a meat bun." He scratched his too-round head and gave a sheepish, stalker smile.

Author's Note.

Hello again, darlings.

Yes the past behind the Snow Guardian has finally been revealed LOL, though not into detail yet (: A bit of Miyuki's horrible (?) past has also been revealed, so I guess the story's getting clearer now?

I realized I've written about such an emo chapter LOL. And then you read the Omake and you decide that I'm actually quite insane after all, (which I am -.-) coz Giannini's appearance was just so anti-climax HAHA. I bet no one expected that. But yeah I felt very emotional writing the first part :'(

And you know what, I checked this story's traffic.

1,125 hits, 548 visitors, 6 favourites and 15 alerts. And I have 12 reviews. So, WHERE ARE THE OTHER 536 PEOPLE! D: Y'know, I will be super super super duper motivated if each one of you took a few minutes to leave a review for me. Yes, do you understand the feelings of an author? T.T Reviews = feedback = love&motivation. :D

Anyway, two of my friends and I have made a joint fanfiction account named xf-acEPal.M, and we have another KHR story posted up entitled "Poofed!", so please go take a look and review when you're free okay! It's another OC story. :P You can get the link to that joint account at my profile page (:

Kay, that's all, remember to read & review, because if you don't read you can't review and if you don't review I'll be sad! D: (and lose the motivation to write.)