CHAPTER 6: FREQUENT VISITING

He wished he would come sooner, Tsuna thought as his eyes drooped close. He fiddled with the bed sheets as he sat on his bed. He wasn't so sure if Hibari-san was coming tonight. His nighttime visiting seemed random and he was trying to stay awake for as long as he could—which was a hard feat for the young eight year old. His parents were no doubt already asleep and it was almost tempting to join them. But he felt obligated to see Hibari come before he went to sleep, it was sort of a child's whim.

As if on cue, Hibari opened the closet door with a disinterested expression. Tsuna jumped in surprise and sat up again, gathering the bed sheets to his chest as if they would hide his racing heart.

"G-Good evening," Tsuna gulped, his tiny adam's apple bobbing at his throat. "…Hibari-san."

Hibari only nodded in reply and sat down on Tsuna's desk, pinching a piece of eraser between his fingers. He scrutinized Tsuna from across the room, his gaze narrowing when Tsuna slowly propped up his pillows to make himself comfortable. Or as comfortable as anyone could get around Hibari.

"Are you going to sleep?"

Tsuna jumped again and turned slowly, as if fast movements would provoke the man, and smiled weakly at him, "U-Um. I guess not. I'm not that sleepy." That was an upright lie. In truth, he was really tired and could probably slip into unconsciousness within a good three minutes.

—

Today, Iemitsu and Nana couldn't get home on time. They had called Kyoko to come over to take care of Tsuna today. For some reason, she didn't come. So he was stuck with Hibari. Alone. In the house. Tsuna sure was okay with Hibari now but being alone with him all alone in the quiet house made him uneasy. Hibari didn't mention whatever happened to Kyoko and why she couldn't make it. He just popped out of the cabinet and proclaimed that he would be the one to watch over him today. They sat on the couch together, watching TV—with a good amount of space between them of course.

"Are you hungry?" Hibari asked, voice flat.

Tsuna fiddled with his thumbs as he replied with a stutter, "U-Um. Y-Yes. Okay."

Hibari got up and walked to the kitchen, one hand in his pockets. The tall foreign figure in his mother's humble kitchen quickly trifled through the cabinets. Tsuna watched from afar as Hibari took a pot and watched as it boiled the water. After seeing the right amount of hot bubbles with satisfaction he poured in the dry spaghetti pasta. Tsuna then realized, that this man was making dinner for them both. Spaghetti, he observed. Hibari then worked on the sauce next, multitasking as he mixed the hard pasta with one free hand. Tsuna stared from the kitchen door way at Hibari, almost not believing his eyes. Boogie men can cook? The sheer idea and image was almost incredulous and it made Tsuna erupt into tiny laughter. Hibari glanced at Tsuna from the corner of his eyes and glared at him, "What's so funny, herbivore?"

Tsuna's smile dropped as fast as it came and slowly morphed to mortification, "Nothing, Hibari-san."

Hibari turned back to stove with a stony expression.

Tsuna noted wonderingly why Hibari didn't wear an apron as he cooked. Tsuna was used to seeing his mama/papa or even Kyoko or Haru in an apron, not thinking right, he vomited out words, "Hibari-san how come you're not wearing an apron?"

Hibari stopped what he was doing to give Tsuna the most obvious look in the world. Tsuna squeaked in fear, and hid behind the door frame with a tremble to his knees. There was a small tense moment before Hibari sighed and motioned Tsuna to come closer. Tsuna hesitantly obeyed and stopped just two feet in front of the busy boogie man. "Make yourself useful," Hibari snapped and threw Tsuna his tiny apron out of nowhere. It snagged onto his head, obscuring his vision and he flailed about, shrieking. "Wear this and get me the jar of tomato sauce from the fridge."

Nearly ripping it off his head to hasten his movements, Tsuna scrambled in putting the apron over his head and around his waist as he moved to open the refrigerator. He noticed the tomato sauce right away. The red glass jar sat on the very top next to the carton of milk. Tsuna tried reaching for it, tiny arms flailing airfully. Hibari noticed this and sighed, he reached over Tsuna and grabbed the sauce himself. Tsuna stared at his feet. He couldn't even get a jar of sauce down! "Hurry up," Hibari snapped over his shoulder, "Get the cheese and put it on the table."

Tsuna reached for the hard piece of cheese. "Not those," Hibari said. Tsuna turned to stare at Hibari. He didn't even look to see what he was doing! It was like he had eyes on the back of his head! "The parmesan cheese you sprinkle."

Tsuna grabbed at the shaker but stopped short as he watched Hibari worked. He vaguely wondered if Hibari cooked alot. Where did he learn to cook? Maybe he was actually a chef?

"What are you doing?" Hibari questioned after awhile, back still facing away from him. "Can you reach that cheese?"

"Oh." Tsuna said simply, realizing he spaced out a bit, "I-I got it." Tsuna cradled the cheese safely to his chest—arms hugging it and scrambled out of the kitchen and placed it gingerly on the table. When he came back, Hibari was already at counter chopping vegetables to go into the sauce. He worked with silence for awhile, concentrating intently on the vegetables instead of the small boy awaiting new orders. Tsuna usually liked cooking with his mama or Kyoko when they instructed him. But working to make a simple meal with Hibari seemed equivalent to military school.

"Do you like mushrooms?" Hibari asked, not turning around.

Tsuna stupidly nodded, then realized that Hibari wasn't looking he panicked, wondering if Hibari would get angry if he took to long to reply, "Yes. I like them."

Hibari threw them into the pot of boiling tomato sauce, after Tsuna's confirmation. After a moment of stirring Hibari turned off the stove he turned to Tsuna, who stood erect near the door, "Go get the table set."

Tsuna nodded, unreasonably tense, and gathered two forks, two napkins, and two plates. He struggled as he held them in his arms, but gasped as they were taken away suddenly albeit gently, "I'll get these. Go get the cups." They set up the table and Hibari returned to the kitchen to retrieve the pot of pasta and spaghetti. He set it down, warning Tsuna not to touch the metal of the pot. They ate in silence. Tsuna stole glances at Hibari as he ate, finding everything he did fascinating. Tsuna took soft bites at his food while Hibari seemed to eat mechanically.

"Can you finish all that?" Hibari said waving his fork at Tsuna's plate. By the pace the boy was going it was highly unlikely.

"Y-Yes!" Tsuna hiccupped, and to prove his point he began to shovel the noodle down his mouth with amazing speed.

"Hey, slow down—" Hibari sighed irritably when Tsuna stopped chewing. His eyes turned wide and be began to make choking sounds. He tried to breathe through his nose without panicking. The man handed him a glass of water. Tsuna took it gratefully and Hibari stiffened when their fingers touched a bit. Tsuna didn't seem to notice and gulped the water down, washing away the scratchy feeling in his throat.

—

For some odd reason, Hibari's visits had become more frequent, Tsuna thought, and surprisingly, he didn't mind in the least. He waited, every night for Hibari to show up patiently. Hibari had recently grown accustomed to seeing Tsuna awake everytime he appeared. At first, he lightly glared at Tsuna, as if scolding him for being up so late. But he didn't seem to mind anymore. Usually they would either talk about Tsuna's day or just chat lightly about how things worked around Namimori. (Even though Hibari probably already knew everything about it) Sometimes, Hibari would just sit there silently at the edge of Tsuna's bed—just thinking really hard. Tsuna never disturbed Hibari when he does that. He knew that Hibari didn't want to be interrupted from his deep line of thought either. During his visits, Hibari learned a great deal about Gokudera and Yamamoto. Although, he already did background checks on the both of them anyway, hearing stories about them directly from Tsuna had been different then learning about them on paper.

Once Tsuna had told him a long story about Gokudera and Yamamoto and his parents going camping. The three had wandered around while Tsuna's parents got the food cooking and set up tents. They decided to have a bug catching competition. Tsuna wasn't too fond with this game. He didn't like bugs, he explained to an amused Hibari, they were icky and crawly and gross! But Yamamoto didn't have any problem. To Tsuna—Yamamoto was a lot like his father. He never seemed to be scared or disturbed from anything. Because of Tsuna's obvious repulsion to bugs, Gokudera had picked a fight with Yamamoto. Not wanting them to one-side bicker, Tsuna had reluctantly accepted Yamamoto's challenge. Gokudera could not refuse his Juudaime so it was natural for him to accept it too. The main objective of the competition was to either find the longest, biggest, or most unique bug. They split up after that. Gokudera had parted with Tsuna tearfully and Yamamoto shooed him away into another direction.

Tsuna had planned to deliberately lose of course. He settled for a tiny lady bug that was taking refuge on a small flower. As Tsuna raised his net to swipe at the harmless little thing, something very huge and worse of all eight-legged fell from the tree and landed onto Tsuna's hair. He screamed so loud, Iemitsu and Gokudera had immediately dropped what they were doing and dashed towards Tsuna's abashed screaming. Iemitsu had laughed at Tsuna when he found him and Gokudera had been hysterically shouting aloud in panic, not sure what he should do if he provoked the damned thing. It was a banana spider, Iemitsu explained, trying to hold in laughter as to not upset Tsuna. Banana spiders are docile and harmless, they wouldn't bite you unless it was for self-defense. But that wasn't the point to Tsuna. The thing was as large as the palm of Iemitsu humongous hand. And he wanted it off and away from him. Iemitsu had gently took the large spider from Tsuna's hair and let him crawl back on the tree. It seemed stiff, like it was shocked from Tsuna's loud bawls. In the end, Yamamoto and Gokudera both seemed to agree on the fact that Tsuna had won that contest that day surprisingly.

"I've seen those before," Hibari supplied when Tsuna ended his story, "They're huge."

"NO! I don't want to hear I don't want to hear!" Tsuna said exclaimed a bit too loudly, covering his ears. Hibari and Tsuna froze and they shared a mutual looks of panic (actually, Hibari's facial expression didn't change other than the widening of his eyes,) when they both heard Iemitsu's and Nana's door creak open and one pair of feet shuffled towards Tsuna's room. Tsuna paled. Hibari scrambled. Taking the boy's shoulder, the pale-man pushed him down. He grabbed at the covers that rested at Tsuna's ankles and pulled it up to his chin. Tsuna closed his eyes—then he worked to calm down his thundering heart and tried breathing evenly. Hibari quickly jumped under the bed just in time when Nana peeked inside Tsuna's room. "He must've been sleep talking," Nana said giggling quietly as she could, she stayed for a good three minutes before she closed the bedroom door in satisfaction.

They listened for the slightest sounds after she left. The two waited for about ten minutes before they slowly rose from their hiding spots. "I should go," Hibari said, straightening the chair, he had practically flown off of in the flurry of panic.

Tsuna poked his heads out from his cocoon, "Okay." He added quietly, "I'll see you tomorrow." His eyes fluttered closed.

"Yes." Hibari agreed. Hibari paused at the closet door—as if contemplating, finally he said coughing, "Good night."

Tsuna's eyes shot open. H-He never heard Hibari say that before! He stuttered, his voice going up an octave in reply, "G-Good night!" Tsuna whispered back. He mentally slapped himself for enabling to hold back the eagerness in his voice.

—

The next week, Iemitsu had pranced up to Nana and Tsuna at the breakfast table proclaiming that he'd like to have a family meeting. Tsuna and Nana gathered towards the beaming Iemitsu curiously. Nana and Tsuna were so alike sometimes; their innocence never seemed to stop amazing him. Iemitsu put his hands on his hips, grinning at his beautiful wonderful wife and his adorable son. "I want to bring Tsuna weight training with me."

Nana nearly dropped the vase she held in shock, "D-Dear, you want to what?"

"Because at Tsuna's age, I trained my hardest to become as muscular as I am today," Iemitsu said, as he flexed his arm, "Good memories."

"Well, I'm not sure…" Nana said, staring worriedly at her skinny-armed son.

"Don't worry, Nana! Tsuna will love weight training in no time!" He insisted, patting his son in the back.

"Papa?" Tsuna asked, tilting his head to look at his father, "What's weight training?"

"Well," Iemitsu said grinning brightly, "It's training to get these babies, Tsuna!" He said, kissing his muscles.

Tsuna stared at Iemitsu arms with admiration, "Can I feel them?"

"Sure!" he agreed heartedly, bending down eye-level so Tsuna could wrap his tiny fingers around Iemitsu's arm.

"W-Wow! They're so big!" Tsuna said delightfully, "How can I do this?"

"Yes," Iemitsu said beaming proudly down at Tsuna, "Soon all this will be yours." He said, motioning gallantly at his thick, beefy biceps. Inside the cupboard under the stairs, Hibari gagged, he quickly composed himself and leaned in to listen to more.

Tsuna gasped and he stared up at his papa's arm, "M-Mine?" Tsuna asked excitedly.

"Yes!"

"When do we start, papa?" Tsuna asked, bouncing on his feet.

"Later this afternoon! Now get dressed, boy! We're going to sweat our skin off!"

—

He was never going to listen to his father's opinions on his welfare ever, ever again. At first, Tsuna's muscles (tiny as they were) never seemed to bother him. About an hour later, his arms began to become strangely heavy. Soon after three hours, they became excruciatingly painful to move and touch. Soon, Tsuna couldn't even pick up his spoon and fork to eat. He didn't tell his father about this though. Aching was normal! His father told him, but the best way was to ignore it! So Tsuna did. Tsuna struggled to get the piece of omelet into his mouth. He gave up as soon as he picked it up. Tsuna meekly looked at his parents, "Mama, I'm not hungry."

"Huh?" Iemitsu exclaimed in surprise, "Why not, Tsuna? Usually after those workouts I get hungry so badly, I could eat a bull!"

Nana laughed, her hand touching Iemitsu shoulder lightly, "That's very true, dear." She turned to Tsuna, "Just go on then, just come down when you feel hungry."

Tsuna nodded, trying very hard not to look dejected. He hopped off his seat and walked up the stairs. He tried not to use his arms to touch the railing; even lifting them hurt a lot. Tsuna had a great struggle trying to get the door open, finally, after he got it open he sat down on his bed, pouting. How was he going to do this? He had to brush his teeth, take a bath, and change his clothes! He wasn't going to be alive by the time this ended!

"Why are you here?"

Tsuna's head snapped to the closet, "Hibari-san?"

"Did you have dinner early?" Hibari asked frowning, he stepped out of the closet, shutting it behind him.

"N-No." Tsuna said, twiddling his fingers, he immediately flinched—remembering that his arms were still very sore, "I just didn't feel hungry." His stomach growled, leaning into the irony of his words. His head snapped up to look at Hibari to see if he had heard. And by the look on the man's face, lying would do no good.

"Come here." Hibari ordered, giving a nasty stare at Tsuna.

"H-Huh?" Tsuna squeaked, inching away from Hibari.

"Come here." Hibari repeated, malice full heartedly intent in his voice.

Tsuna obediently complied, giving Hibari wary looks as he went. The man's hand squeezed at his arms as he got into reaching length. Tsuna hissed and tears began to collect up in his eyes as Hibari pulled him close by grabbing onto his forearm out of impatience. "You're sore." Hibari commented, eyes narrowing at the scrawny arm.

Amiably, Tsuna nodded. The boogie man's eyes shifted to look at the door, as if silently blaming the man downstairs responsible. The boy gasped as Hibari clasped on his shoulder and began pushing him out the bedroom door. "H-Hi-Hibari-san!" Tsuna grasped at the door frame to stop them both in their tracks, (the pain in his arms flared) whispering flippantly, "Mama and papa will see you!"

He turned to stare at Tsuna, "Do you really believe they'll catch me?"

Tsuna bowed his head and looked to his feet, "Not really," He admitted honestly.

Hibari began pushing Tsuna down the hall and the young boy sent wary glances at the stairs, almost expecting his papa to pop out of nowhere. But Hibari's footsteps seemed deaf to human ears; he was completely used to sneaking past everything so making his footfalls quiet wasn't a hard feat at all. Iemitsu and Nana could both be heard at the dinner table, still eating. He tip-toed, but even so, his foot falls could be heard. Tsuna nearly jumped out of his skin when his mother called him.

"Tsu-kun?" Nana's voice echoed up the stairs.

"Answer her," Hibari whispered in his ear. And suddenly, it felt like his entire right ear felt like it caught on fire under the man's breath.

He whimpered quietly at the indirect contact but answered all the same. "Y-Yes, mama?"

"I'll put your omelet in the fridge okay? You'll eat it later, right?"

He called back his answer, "Um. Yes, mama."

Hibari steered Tsuna at the end of the hall into the bathroom. He muttered all the while, 'They did say I have to take care of you, so that's what I'm doing.' Hibari picked up Tsuna and placed him on the sink counter. Hibari glared at Tsuna as he took his colorfully designed toothbrush and squeezed a good amount of tooth paste on the bristle.

"Open your mouth." Hibari commanded, sounding reluctant. Tsuna would've been scared if it weren't the fact he was holding such a childish toothbrush.

Tsuna fervently shook his head, waving his hands about in decline, "I-I can do it myself, H-Hibari-san!"

Hibari shoved the toothbrush in Tsuna's mouth anyway. Tsuna reluctantly complied and settled down, almost pouting. If he wasn't too intimidated or scared, he'd forcibly pull Hibari's hand out of his mouth to stop him. Tsuna moved his tongue away from where he brushed, thoughtful of convenience as Hibari worked.

"Spit." Hibari yanked him (not too hard but not too gentle either) down to the sink. Tsuna complied and Hibari snorted a bit when the last trail of saliva stubbornly refused to relinquish their sticky hold from Tsuna's mouth. Hibari swiftly swiped at the trail of saliva and cut it with the toothbrush. Hibari silently took an equally colorful cup and filled water into it. He held it to Tsuna, "Gargle." Then Hibari realized Tsuna couldn't use his arms quite right to keep the cup tilted and Hibari had to do it himself. After they were done freshening Tsuna up, the two silently made their way to Tsuna's bedroom.

"Sit." Hibari demanded as he pointed at Tsuna's bed. He was kinda getting used to Hibari's one-word orders and he sat obediently on his bed without protest. Hibari shuffled to his closet, Tsuna expected him to leave—but instead, Hibari opened the closet door wide open and grabbed a pair of fresh pajamas from a stack. Hibari walked back and glared down at him, looking like he was about to go into battle. Tsuna held out his hands to take the pajamas from Hibari, but he let out a squeak ad Hibari forcibly ripped the current shirt he was wearing over his head. Tsuna opened his mouth to question him but Hibari was quick—he grabbed Tsuna's arms and pushed them through the armholes and buttoned the pajama shirt with amazing speed. Tsuna almost screamed (he stopped himself just in time) as Hibari did the same treatment with his pants.

For the next week, Hibari repeated this process until Tsuna forced himself to get better.

A/N: Hibari is such a mom. xD Ah yes, the banana spider. I had an unfortunate encounter in Okinawa with one once. I was walking to the bathroom (I had a towel and shampoo at hand) and I opened the shower curtain and HOLY HELL the banana spider was hanging on the shower knob. I never took a shower in that bathroom for at least well over a month. Those things are huge and scary as hell. And yeah, they do exist in Japan. They're one of the most ugliest, disgusting, disturbing bug I've ever encountered in my existence. It's legs were larger than my head! But I assure you, they're very harmless and won't ever bite you unless you provoke it. It's venom is actually pretty useless. But if you ever get bitten by one, don't take my word for it.

Hibari has mentioned another hint about himself. Who exactly is he working for? Maybe you'll find out soon. ;D

ABOUT THE MANGA: I'm still very curious about what happened exactly to Luche. My guess is that she had died, Uni did say that sky-ring-users have limited lives. Aria died of it too, guessing by the look from Gamma in that one panel. BUT WAIT. Uni didn't mention it—but she did say her and Byakuran's lives are in danger—does this include Tsuna too? I don't want Tsuna to die an early death. D:

I'm going to try this out; I've decided to update at Thursday or Fridays. It may not be every week, but it's a promise. I figured you guys like reading fanfiction when you get out of work/school etc. Thank you everyone for the support again!