Genre: Romance/Humor

Rated: T

Pairing: 1886 TYL. Hibari x Haru.

Summary: They had maintained a relatively platonic relationship for almost ten years now, with her calling him a close friend and him looking out for her. But after her decade-long crush on Tsuna came to a sad ending and she came back to Japan, he decided it was high time their relationship progressed.

Setting: Ten Years Later

Disclaimer: I do not own Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn. The manga belongs to Amano Akira-sensei.

Chapter 2

"Is—Is that so. But, why are you telling me this?"

"…It's been ten years since then, right?"

"Ah, yeah. I almost forgot. Time sure flies, huh?"

"That means Haru's been in love with Tsuna-san for ten years."

"I…guess?"

"What about Tsuna-san? Have you ever loved Haru back, even a little?"

It was around noon in the seemingly peaceful town of Namimori. Sunlight beat down mercilessly everywhere except the only forest in town. It was located near the outskirts of Namimori. The thick, dark forest only allowed little light to shine through. In the heart of this out-of-place wilderness was Namimori Shrine, a rundown shrine that had been deserted for years because of its location, hidden from normal citizens.

Haru and Kusakabe—the latter carrying a huge suitcase—had marched through the forest and arrived at this mysterious shrine casually, as if they had been doing this for years. Haru, having walked and chattered all the way there, was getting thirsty.

"Hahi, this place looks the same as ever," she observed, fanning her face. "And, why is it so hot? It's already fall!"

"Yes, I agree. It is really hot and humid today. Well, anyway, please come inside first, Miura-san." Kusakabe gestured at the shrine, even though it had no doors. Haru nodded and simply walked into the place. Her body vanished in an instant. He followed, and both of them disappeared into thin air, as though nobody had been there at all.

Past the illusion, a Japanese-style mansion loomed. They walked past a well-decorated traditional garden full of plum trees and bamboos to the front of the house. Once they had taken off their shoes, Kusakabe spoke up.

"Kyou-san is probably at the back room. Let me put your luggage in your room first and I'll make you some tea."

"Thank you, Kusakabe-san."

Haru thanked him and stepped into the reception room of the institute. She walked past it to the door and slid it open. A big, wooden corridor welcomed her. Several sliding doors lined in a row, facing one another across the hallway, all of them painted in delicate Japanese patterns. There were a few traditional decorations and banners. All of them represented the word 'Discipline'. The place was mostly bare, with no human in sight—which was how its owner probably preferred.

She knew her friend would be at that room at the end of the hallway, where he could enjoy the view of the backyard and relax. That was where she had come often, too, in the past. She smiled to herself, thinking about all those times she had come here with a giant bag of textbooks, and took a deep breath; she liked the smell of this place and it felt really nostalgic.

Standing before the only door at the end of the corridor, she wondered how she was going to greet…whoever was inside. Should she be dramatic or play it cool? Should she scream at him out of joy and give him a hug? No, that would most definitely be a bad idea. Or, maybe she should complain about him not coming to pick her up at the airport himself this morning? Furthermore, what kind of face should she make when she met him? Given that she was going to be staying here a few days or more…

Haru was busy debating with herself about how to make her entrance when, all of a sudden, the door slid open and slammed on its side with a bam, scaring the living daylights out of her.

"HAHI!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and instinctively ducked, her arms flying to cover her head.

A tall man dressed in a black yukata looked down at the cowering girl before him and asked in his usual cold voice.

"…What the heck are you doing?"

She glanced up at him tentatively, still panting hard from shock. Finally realizing how embarrassing she had acted, Haru sprang up straight and laughed sheepishly, her cheeks the color of crimson.

"Hi-Hibari-san, hehe, um…It's—It's been a while! And, and…Hahi! Just now, you scared Haru to death! I thought my heart jumped out of my chest! Geez, don't do that again!" She pouted and crossed her arms.

The sudden change in her mood didn't surprise him. He merely looked her over a few times before turning back into the room and sat down at his seat. Haru puffed out her cheeks and followed him, sliding the door close. She stomped towards the low table he was seated at and sat down opposite of him.

Hibari picked up the book he had been reading before he noticed her presence at the door while Haru continued to glare at him.

"Don't ignore Haru!"

"…" He yawned.

Seeing as the man in front of her showed no sign of guilt or any attention to her, Haru took another deep breath, prepared to shout. However, at that moment she noticed something she liked and her mood lightened up immediately.

"Hahi, Hibari-san, did you cut your hair again? You did, right? Hehe, I'm glad you did, because the last time I saw you, it was starting to get long. And I really like you with the short hair more," she piped up excitedly, her hand reaching out to touch his hair.

Hibari was forced to close his book and use it as a shield from her curious hand. The brunette giggled and took her hand back, her eyes gleaming. She opened her mouth to say something, but the familiar high-pitched voice coming from the back yard beat her to it.

"Hibari. Hibari." A small yellow fluffy bird flew in through the open door and landed on the table.

"Hibird-chan!" Haru exclaimed in joy and picked it up in her palms. "Aw, I've missed you so much!"

"Haru. Haru," the bird chirped and flew around her in circles, letting her know it felt the same. "Hibari. Haru."

She laughed and played with it, completely forgetting the owner of the bird. Just as the brunette was trying to place it on her lap, the door slid open.

"Excuse me. Miura-san, here is your tea," Kusakabe came in politely and set the tray on the table. Haru gave him a smile and thanked him. Before he could exit the room, though, she asked him a question.

"Kusakabe-san, what has Hibari-san been up to? I know he's right in front of me but it'd be just a waste of time to ask him, since he's not going to answer anyway." She said while scrunching up her nose at him. The man himself only gave her a quick look before returning to his book nonchalantly.

"While you were away, Miura-san, Kyou-san has been traveling and gathering information all over the world. And right now he decided to take a short break here for a while before getting back to our research."

"Hahi, that sounds exciting! And Hibari-san didn't bother to mention to Haru at all through the email that you were traveling, or, sending me any email for that matter," she pouted again. Kusakabe smiled at the pair and decided it was time to take his leave and get back to work.

"There was no need to, since I knew you were with the herbivores anyway," Hibari replied, albeit reluctantly.

"But that doesn't mean you could just disappear from Haru's life for a year, you know. And this morning you didn't come to pick me up, either, you meanie. Right, Hibird-chan?"

"Haru. Haru."

"See? Even Hibird-chan is on my side."

This—even if it seemed completely ridiculous to some people, for example, Hibari—for some unknown reason, it made her smile. Seeing as her cold friend was as unmoving as ever, she put her elbows on the table and propped her chin on her palms, then settled herself into staring at his face.

"…"

Even the ever steadfast Cloud Guardian of the Vongola Family still felt uneasy from being pierced by those big, brown, doe-like eyes. To tell the truth, he had never been able to escape that innocent and assertive look of hers. And that, actually, had been the beginning of their relationship in the first place.

That day he noticed her for the first time—over 10 years ago.

"…What is it?" He sighed, putting down his book again.

"Hahi? Nothing. Haru was just bored because Hibari-san was not talking. So I thought I'd just look at you to communicate. Since, you know, sometimes conversations fail the human thoughts," she explained with a bright smile. "Can you feel what I'm thinking right now? Because I know Hibari-san must be thinking that, err, that—"

"That you're being silly? Then you're right," he retorted.

"Hahi! That's rude, Hibari-san!" The brunette scowled at him, but then changed her mind. "But, well, for some reason, I kind of missed your insults, hehe."

He almost frowned. "You haven't changed."

"No, I haven't," she grinned. "You haven't changed, either. That's a good thing. Actually, when Haru was looking at you earlier, I kind of had a little flashback to when we were still in high school, you know? You still have the same look as back then. But…In Haru's case, even though it looks like nothing's different, something has definitely changed."

His grey orbs came to focus on her face the moment he detected a sad vibe from her voice. Haru's mood changes had always been sudden and easy to tell: she'd change from being angry to happy in a blink of an eye. That was precisely why she could hide her sadness so well. For her, sorrow was the only thing she didn't want to show, and so she was good at covering it up. However, having been close to her for a number of years now, Hibari knew the subtle hints in her behavior and never failed to pay attention to it.

And he knew—a little too well for his liking—what the cause of her pain was.

"Did you know, Hibari-san? Tsuna-san and Kyoko-chan finally decided to go out together," she began with a small smile.

The revelation didn't come as a shock to him. He couldn't care less what those herbivores were doing, whether it was going out or killing each other. But, obviously, it was different in her case.

She was in love with that herbivore, after all.

And it really irritated him that he had to care about it, simply because she did.

"Is that so," he responded coolly.

"And guess what, it was Haru who made that happen, hehe."

This time, that statement actually did surprise him, although he didn't show it. He looked at the smile plastered on her face and frowned. There was some pain and loneliness in her eyes but, oddly enough, the smile was sincere and warm. That just confused him.

"…Why?"

Haru's grin widened and she giggled. "I knew you'd ask. Your obvious questions were one of the things Haru missed the most. Well, as a love guru, I'm going to explain it in a way Hibari-san can understand." She nodded to herself and brandished her forefinger in the air, getting serious. "Basically, the one year Haru spent at the Vongola mansion, it made me realize one thing: Tsuna-san, Kyoko-chan and Haru, none of us was happy the way we were. I could clearly see that the two of them were in love with each other, but Kyoko-chan, being such an angel she is, would never be honest with her feelings for Haru's sake. And, honestly…"

Hibari watched as she chuckled mirthlessly and continued, the light in her eye dimming by the second, "Honestly, it was getting unbearable to watch. So Haru decided it was time to just, you know, give up. Since Haru loves the both of them so much, I figured if I had to be sad alone but could see them happy, then I should step out. And, sure enough, now everyone's happy!"

He just couldn't understand how she could be acting so cheerful right now.

He knew, from the look in her eye, that it hurt—a lot. But she was smiling, as always.

"Then, doesn't that just make you the sacrifice?" He asked, a prominent knot between his brows.

Almost immediately, the brunette's mood deflated. She sighed heavily. "Geez, Hibari-san. You sure know how to ruin a person's mood. But, when you put it like that…I guess you're kind of right," she admitted, shrugging. The brunette only allowed a few moments to pass before she put up a wide grin again.

"So this is the reason you came back," he concluded.

"Hmm, that's only one of the reasons, actually. To be honest I already finished my part of the project at headquarters a few months back, so I was just looking for excuses to stay in Italy. And I ran out of them eventually, that's why I thought I should come back," she admitted.

"The project is finished, then?" he inquired, although he didn't seem very interested about the subject.

"Almost. The past few months Haru's been helping Giannini-san and Spanner-san install the formula of the prototype into their machine, but to be honest I didn't get to help much because Irie-san asked me to help him with his new biometrics software for the family. I think it's going well since our software is now based on human cells; nobody but Haru can fake an identity of the cellular level. I mean, nobody that I know of," she explained, shrugging.

"You've been busy," he noted blandly and appeared to not care much. But she didn't mind, she knew he had always been like this and was used to it by now.

"Well, when I left neither of them had quite finished their work yet, but they said it's fine and if they needed my help they would give me a call. Speaking of which, now that I'm back here I can also help upgrade the current security plan for your network, but that will have to wait a little. I was hoping to do another research on the regenerative perks of the Sun Flames when I came back, to tell you the truth."

He eyed her pointedly and shook his head, his voice a warning tone, "Don't experiment with the Flames."

Haru nodded compliantly. "I know, we talked about this. But…Oh well, it's not like I will have the time anyway. I have to finish my postgraduate training program, did you know? What a pain in the neck," she grumbled.

The brunette continued to complain for a while before she ran out of complaints. She took a sip from the tea cup and made a wistful expression.

"…Tsuna-san likes this type of tea," she absent-mindedly muttered. "Haru used to make it along with his bento, too. But now Kyoko-chan is the only one who gets to care for him."

"You brought it upon yourself," he commented in his usual insensitive manner. Not that she had ever minded.

Haru smiled and looked him straight in the eye. "I know."

Hibari stared into those candid brown eyes that had never wavered or lost their light no matter the situation and shook his head slowly, defeated.

"You're one stupid herbivore."

Not only did she not get mad at his offense, but the lady actually laughed. "I guess I really am stupid, huh. Hahi…It's been a while since you called Haru a herbivore. But, the joke's on you, Hibari-san."

He lifted an eyebrow, a little wary of her mischievous tone.

"Since Haru's going to stay in Japan for at least two years to pass the trainee program for doctors, and no one I know is in Namimori as of late, you're going to be seeing a lot of Haru!"

She giggled and stuck out her tongue at him playfully.

"Just like the old times, I'm going to come here and bother you a lot, so you better be prepared! Welcome back to your hellish days with Haru, hehe."

He looked at the excited gleam in her eyes and felt something warm in his chest.

Those 'hellish days' with her—oddly enough, he actually didn't mind them at all.

To be continued

KimJoysu's Notes: Uh, hey guys. So I decided to post more, yay. Almost half of the comments are about my other fanfic. You can't see but I'm sweating like mad right now. So the story is not really fast-paced. But it's probably gonna be a lot of flashbacks for sure. Not much to say here, it's 3 in the morning. Uh, please tell me if you like it or hate it. R&R!

PS. Thanks to those who commented in the first chapter! You guys are such dolls.