Happy New Year! (I realised I'm about two weeks late on this) What were your New Year's resolutions? Mine is to STOP ANGSTING OVER ITACHI AND SASUKE'S SCREWED UP LIVES, and aside from that to also be more diligent and hardworking to achieve my goals. Also, update more regularly (of course, knowing me and my bad habits…).

I am so so so so so so sorry about the short update, but I'm going overseas for a short while and I didn't want people thinking I had writer's block again. No this chapter was not rushed, it was just finished at an earlier point in the story than expected. I'll update in about 3 weeks, will be writing and gathering inspiration while on my holiday.

Chapter 8

Acquaintances

Colours that blur vision and precision, that's what I strive to avoid.

Hibari parked his blood red motorcycle right outside the gates of his enormous property. He removed his helmet and dropped it in his butler's hands, barely acknowledging his presence.

"Kyo-san, we couldn't reach you last night," Kusakabe said, hoping he didn't sound too meddlesome. Hibari glared at him, which was his cue to shut up and leave him be. Kusakabe took the motorbike by the handles and strolled away, sensing his master was not in the very best mood.

When Hibari was finally in his room, he dropped his guitar on the tatami and collapsed to the floor with a weary sigh. He was completely drained; ever since the world had found out his online identity was linked to the university, his short-lived, peaceful life was shattered in an instant. Meeting a mediocre girl that was obsessed with him worn him out even more, and since she was so eager to be involved in his world, he had almost no time to himself. Hibari wondered if he was having a midlife crisis, but he was still too young for that. Of course, peace was not something he expected to be permanent, he had priorities before his comfort – priorities that had been scheduled for the rest of his life until they were accomplished. For a moment he'd forgotten about them, and he blamed it on the foolish janitor, but as his eyes trailed to the wall in front of him he saw his old ebony Gibson hanging off a hook. Just like a hole in the wall, the guitar seemed to glare at him in an odd, eerie fashion, a condescending stare that was almost screaming at him to get his act together, not even his bass guitar sitting in the corner made any effort to save him. Hibari frowned, he wanted to look away but his Gibson wouldn't let him. He knew it was trying to remind him of everything that went on in his world: pain, pain and more pain. His past, his present and future were grapevines wrapped around his delicate ankles and gentle wrists – soon to be bloodstained and rid of vengeful impulses. What he would do to get rid of these feelings...but a normal life was already out of reach, much too far for the naked eye to see.

"Tch." He spat, hate clouding his mind. He reached over and unhooked the Gibson from the wall, fingers trailing down the spine. Music was a part of him that he once found relieving – too bad it had now become a thorn in his existence. Whatever the case was, there was only one person to blame for his current fractured self: a vile blond man who ruined everything. He was the one that showed Hibari the nadir of despair, and for that Hibari was keen on devoting his life to destroying him with death as a beautiful option. He wondered why he ever stalled.

Positioning the instrument on his lap, he began strumming bleak baby tunes. He listened for the whispering sounds, his old music was dead and gone, only to be drowned by dark melodies that for some reason – people loved.

….

…..

….

One of those people being Kurara, who was lying on her stomach with a laptop before her. Hibari's (Namimori02345) music was on full blast and she had her face buried in her arms while trying to stomach everything that had just happened hours ago.

Mukuro's lethal smile and his mismatched eyes were lodged into her head. She was shaking, even the music was having trouble soothing her. She was still in shock and disbelief that he had tried to strangle her and then rape her – even that was going too far for revenge (to think he was capable of more). The thought of his dirty fingers stroking the side of her face, nothing could shake this disgusting feeling off.

Kurara's phone began to ring, she jumped at the sound thinking it could be Mukuro. She left it to ring a couple of times before finally picking up. She sighed with relief, the voice on the other end settled her heart.

"Mum, didn't think you'd be calling so soon. Yeah I'm good, still getting used to things. Hmm, I should be fine on my own now you can stop sending money. No really it's fine, my job pays pretty well and besides the rent is cheap. Err...community college is great. Friends? I've made a few. They're all very nice here don't worry, I promise I've made the right decision. How's dad? Really? Tell him I miss his cooking. Haha." Kurara lay on her side and held her phone closer to her ear, feeling more homesick than ever. She made idle chatter for as long as she could, before her mother declared herself exhausted and out of words. Kurara reluctantly said her goodbyes and hung up. She wondered why there was no sense of guilt after lying the entire time to her own mother, perhaps it would sink in later, for now she just wanted some reassurance that her life in Namimori was going to get better. Who could she possibly rely on to keep Mukuro away? Bianchi was too fragile around him, whatever the reason was, and Shamal wasn't exactly on the best terms with Kurara so it'd seem strange to ask him. The only other people she knew in this town was the landlady and her son (she doubt he was a good asset), Hibari and then Dino. She supposed she could take a gamble and ask one of them…Hibari did say something about owing her.

Her stomach began to grumble and all of a sudden any thoughts of Mukuro disappeared in a flash. She then remembered from today onwards her financial support would be cut off. Kurara turned on her back to face the ceiling, she hardly had any mental strength to worry about anything anymore.

"I wish Hibari would like me faster and get this over with," she muttered longingly, still holding onto her nonsensical beliefs. She really thought things would turn out perfectly, her idol – a cold and uncaring man – would love her for the way she was and treat her like a bird's injured wing every moment they were together. It was her lifelong dream and expectation, for he was the only man she had ever had a crush on.

Her stomach grumbled again, and this time she got to her feet, grabbed her wallet and left to find food.

It was her first time going to the busier streets of Namimori since moving here. For most of her shopping she went to the local convenience store for her groceries, and now that she had to be much more careful with her spending she probably had to resort to eating natto and pickled lettuce every day. Kurara stood outside a simple restaurant and opened her wallet, she counted the number of bills she had and muttered, "this is the last time I'll be able to eat good food so I might as well make the most of it." She pocketed her wallet again and went inside.

"Welcome! Take a seat anywhere you'd like!" Kurara sat in a remote corner where she'd be unnoticed, that was of course until she heard a bunch of rowdy kids burst into the restaurant and take the round table beside her. She sighed, then told the waitress to come back. "I'll just have the curry and rice, make it quick," Kurara urged, wanting to finish and leave as soon as possible. She tried to do a little daydreaming but the people beside her were much too noisy.

"And then you know what he did? He ran into a pole!"

A high pitchy voice burst into guffaws, "I didn't think you were that thick!"

"S-Shut up!"

Kurara groaned, why of all places did they choose here to mingle? She wished she had an mp3 of some sort to block their extravagant voices out of her head, but she never thought to save up for one.

"Masao-san?" called someone. Kurara looked to see who it was, Tsuna and Kyoko were looking directly at her from the round table, apparently the raucous group of friends were theirs.

"Hello…" Kurara said awkwardly.