Updates, updates yay yay yay! Also, I wanted to thank the person who put this story on their alerts. Currently I cannot remember that person's name... sumimasen! -bows-. Also to usuilove21 who favorited. You guys give me inspiration, though I'd love some reviews... Anyway, this next chapter is dedicated to the people who will review and favorite and alert this story at some point. :3
Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto were on the way home from school when they saw someone they thought they recognised.
It was Hibari!
But... who was walking with him?
It was the obvious form of Hibari, taking strides with a purpose down the familiar streets of the city. The prefect was pulling something along, a rolling suitcase that appeared to be sky blue with something like a skylark on it, which caused the little group to chuckle. Beside him was another person, hair pulled into a small ponytail and eyes of hazel. The person looked like a smaller verson of Hibari-coming roughly to his chest, but looking almost exactly like him only with a rounder, softer, and in fact more feminine features.
'Was that the Nona Hibari-san was waiting for? She's... she's actually pretty cute...' Tsuna thought. The girl he saw walking towards them, though extraordinarily flat-chested, could be described as pretty. In Tsuna's eyes she held not even a candle to the exceedingly beautiful Kyoko-chan. Yamamoto and Gokudera saw them too, and found himself thinking the same thing his boss was, but without thinking that Kyoko was prettier. He was intrigued how a demon like Hibari could be related to someone who actually looked human. Two of the three has the good sense not to disturb them, but the third decided to call out to them. And this third person was dense enough to actually think that was a valid, good idea.
"Hibari-san! Who's your friend?"
The girl walking beside him was the first to acknowledge Yamamoto's shout, even though her cousin so blatantly wanted to ignore it. Before they had met up with the people Hibari had currently wanted to see least, they had been talking about what had happened since she moved away from Nanimore that summer after grade school. Nona learned for the first time that that summer was the same summer that his parents talked to him about getting a divorce. They had never gone through with it, but that was the last trip they'd ever been together as a family. Hibari (fondly called Kyo-chan by Nona even though he had asked her not to call him that in public-so settled on calling him Kyo-kun) had since gone into shell shock from all his closest people moving away from him...
"Oh, Kyo-kun, are these your friends?"
"No, these are a group of crowding, pathetic herbivores." He said harshly, threatening to bite them to death if they didn't leave that instant. Of course, Yamamoto completely ignored the look and Nona obviously seemed to know what they meant, but patted his arm in a slight hope to keep him from killing someone. Little did she know that Hibari wouldn't dare try that with Nona watching or even nearby. In honesty with he fought his mind was no longer on what happened around him that didn't have a direct effect on the battle.
"Oh, is that so?" Nona said lightly, walking over to the three of them. Hibari didn't like that and made it known through his expression, but made no move to stop his cousin. "Hello everyone. I'm Kyo-kun's cousin. I'll be visiting for a few weeks. You can call me Nona."
"Happy to meet you, Nona." Yamamoto held out his hand to shake hers, and they engaged in a handshake. After they established that Nona was radically different from The Carnivore in personality, the other two introduced themselves as well. Hibari cleared his throat and made it clear to her that he wanted to move along to his house and get everything set out. After all, the two had just come back from cram school that their parents had enrolled them into cram school at the beginning of their freshman year, and it was well after sundown.
It was Tsuna who was most curious about Hibari's cousin, mostly because it seemed she lacked his evil aura. "Will we see you around school?"
Nona was prepared to answer the question, but the prefect sensed that this conversation was going exactly where he didn't want it to, with those worthless herbivores trying to get too close for comfort. His cousin was the only omnivore other than those higher-ups in the disciplinary committee, and he would not allow Nona to get mixed up in the affairs of such painfully worthless herbivores. "Nona, time to go. If we hurry there might be enough time for dinner."
Hibari knew exactly how to handle his cousin, for as soon as those words fell from his mouth, Nona was walking away from them, waving to their backs as the duo made their way in the direction that the violent male's home probably was. Remembering the time themselves, they hustled over to Tsuna's house for "study sleep-away camp." With Reborn and Hayato under the same roof, they had to make progress. Even though the almost constant inhabitance of Bianchi oftentimes messed with Gokudera's stomach, and therefore disrupted their own studying.
But the title was misleading, since all they did at "study sleep-away camp" was gossip about Hibari and his cousin like a group of teenage girls, with snacks and everything.
Yamamoto was grinning from ear to ear with some of the sushi from their restaurant before them, along with chips and juice. However their books were closed and their mouths were running. No one more than the "baseball idiot's". "See Gokudera? You thought she'd be ugly, but she turned out to be rather cute."
"It's strange though, isn't it?" Tsuna offered, leaning over the table in his room almost conspiratorially. "How those two... can be related..."
The storm guardian nodded with great enthusiasm. "Yeah... I mean, there's no way Nona can be related to Hibari. I suppose they're similar appearance wise, but totally different personality-wise."
Tsuna nodded. "Yeah. I feel really bad for anyone who falls for her. I mean, did you see that murderous intent in Hibari's eyes when Nona walked towards us? Talk about being overprotective."
"Well, maybe he's just trying to be a good cousin. Really now, when someone like Hibari can be as messed up as he is, you can't help but want to protect something like Nona."
"'Something like Nona'?" Tsuna asked the athlete across from him.
"You know, someone nice and pure and all that."
"You dumbass, you don't know for sure if Nona is either of those things."
"Ahaha, I guess not, but I believe enough to put money on it!"
"Baseball-moron!"
"Ah! Gokudera-kun, you're going to knock over the table!"
"Sorry Tenth!"
The next morning, Tsuna half expected to see Nona walking to school with Hibari, but since he'd never seen Hibari on his way to school before (mostly because he left so early) so he was not too disappointed when he didn't see anyone on his way to school other than Gokudera and Yamamoto.
In the yard the brunette absorbed a few things rather quickly. First he saw that Hibari was at the school like he'd been every morning before Nona arrived in town, his collapsible tonfas in his hands and in a stance that everyone could see was meant to be threatening. The prefect stood between Nona and a boy whom was sitting on his rump and looking between Nona and Hibari as if sizing up the positive with the negative. Apparently the male decided that it wasn't worth it and got up, running away from the prefect. Even though Tsuna was glad he didn't show his violent side, Gokudera couldn't help but notice that Hibari had let the boy get away with his life. If what he thought had happened (that being that the boy had tried to hit on Nona) then why would he let him get away?
As he thought about this he remembered that night, when murderous intent was flowing out of Hibari like a tap, he made no move to hurt them, only threatening them with his knifelike glare. He was doing the same thing here but only in a slightly more active way. Gokudera understood the situation now. Hibari didn't want to be violent around his younger cousin, but he still wanted to protect her. It was sweet in a way. Now they had to hope that no one came out of no where and tried to attack them all.
"Hey! Nona!" Yamamoto shouted, causing everyone to turn towards him as though he had some kind of preemptive death wish. But everyone was a little surprised when the girl they had taken for shy scuttled over to the baseball jock and high-fived him. "Oh, so you enrolled in our school huh?"
'No you idiot!' Gokudera screamed mentally. 'She isn't enrolled in our school! Look at her, she's wearing pants and tee-shirt instead of the girls' uniform!'
But Nona was much more gracious about correcting Yamamoto in reality than Gokudera had mentally. "No, I'm not enrolled. Kyo-kun just doesn't want me to spend all my time at home alone."
The silver-haired male whom had just chastised his fellow family member in his head gasped, as though that made him remember something that he'd nearly forgotten. Which, in fact, it had. "Hey Nona, why are you here instead of going to your school?"
"My parents thought now would be a good time for them to go on vacation, and since they think I'm too young to stay home alone for two weeks they sent me over here."
Even though Hibari's angry stare was boring into their skulls, Tsuna couldn't help but feel at ease. After all, the male that Hibari beat up had no doubt tried to hit on Nona, and they were doing no such thing, not to mention she was holding up the conversation, not being forced to interact because she-basically-had already met them, though they doubted the head of the disciplinary committee had told her anything about the mafia and all the battles they had been through together. He was trying to control himself, though why Tsuna didn't quite understand. It was probably for the same reason Ryohei had lied about getting beat up to protect Kyoko.
Nanimori was a little different from the rest of Japan. Normally the Japanese school year began in April, while the final semester finished in late March. Although it would be illogical to change the entire school year, the children of Nanimori decided that it would be more fun to celebrate love's continuation at the beginning of the new school year instead of the end of the old one. So Valentine's was on April 14th instead of February 14th, and White Day on May 14th. It was something that made Nanimori different from all the other cities aside from the Mafia battles that seem to happen so often here.
Since Hibari's younger cousin was not a student, she roamed the hallways during classes as much as she wanted. After a few days students noticed that Nona would walk around the hallways from the first floor to the roof as soon as classes started for the day, and once Nona had done that she would go to the cafeteria and sleep at the table closest to the window, where Hibird would watch like a sentinel for danger.
Boys had long since stopped professing to Nona, much to the happiness of the other girls at Nanimori. Gokudera overheard them talking about her, about how Nona was so extraordinarily flat-chested, how she was such a tomboy, always wearing pants and never anything to show her legs or make her think she has anything resembling a body shape. 'But,' Hayato remembered thinking with a hint of mental scorn, 'at least she isn't fake. Sure she's shy and very awkward and also clumsy... sure she has the appetite of a man twice her weight, but she's genuine. There's probably no one like her.'
And, to his horror, he realized that he'd been wearing a wistful expression on his face as he thought those things, and found himself sweeping the cafeteria for sight of Hibari's cousin, a prize among the males of the school. Not because she was a goddess among trolls even though she was rather cute, more because if anyone managed to get into a relationship with Nona, that meant that they had Hibari's protection. And Hibari's protection was far more valuable that any protection guaranteed by the law.
After looking around a few times he saw her sitting at the table in the far corner. No one dared to sit at the table itself, but most tables around it were occupied by inquisitive males. Hibird was chirping rather loudly and bouncing around the table, as it seemed, trying to frighten off the boys sitting in the general vicinity of the table. No one paid it any mind.
Then everything froze, and all it took was a simple statement.
"What's the matter, Hibird?"
It was non other than Hibari Kyoya, crouched on the window sill, his collapsable tonfas not in his hands but stored on his person somewhere. His hand reached out to Nona and he looked at her face. Everyone had thought her to be asleep, but apparently that wasn't so if the shadow over his face was any indication. The prefect jumped into the cafeteria, and Gokudera could have sworn he heard someone question how he got there. Everyone knew that you were not supposed to question Hibari's methods. All you did was move when he walked through the halls, run when the threatened to bite you to death, and listened when he spoke without throwing in your own opinions. To be perfectly honest, Hibari couldn't care less.
"Which one of you spineless herbivores made Nona cry?"
His voice was like acid, and everyone was surprised. She had cried so quietly that no one head known she was crying. They had been under the assumption that she was simply asleep. When no one answered, the shining metal tonfas came out from his hidden person and a poisonous black aura surrounded him. Everyone with a brain sprung into action and made to leave.
But Nona had moved quicker. In a fluid motion she had stood, turned and run out of the cafeteria, yelling something behind her that no one really caught. Gokudera watched, yet none of the guys who wanted to make Nona theirs got up to chase after her and try to learn what was wrong. Damn them.
Smokin' Bomb Hayato was the first to move. Hibari moved faster and blocked him off with an acid look.
"You worry about giving discipline." Gokudera said smoothly and without fear. For a moment he didn't know why he wasn't afraid-in any other circumstance he'd be frightened, not wanting to get in the other man's way. But something about Nona's face made him uneasy... "I'll worry about making sure she doesn't hurt herself."
A slight smirk tugged at his lips and he moved out of the way, allowing Hayato to run after his cousin. Seeing it work for the silver haired storm guardian, all the other males stood and surged towards Hibari, using the same line that Gokudera had. All these spineless herbivores... It was almost too pathetic. Almost.
Everyone knew where Nona went after lunch. Usually she went up to the roof where Hibari usually was, and they assumed that they spent time talking and catching up. Though, no one could imagine Hibari just laying back and relaxing, reminiscing with a childhood friend and family member. Some thought they were up there practicing fighting, which no one could imagine Nona doing. Whatever they did on the roof seemed to be unknown to the vast student body... unless someone could understand the chirps and squeaks of Hibird, whom apparently was there on the roof while they did whatever it is that they did.
The Italian took the steps two at a time as he went up to the roof. He was greeted with the beautiful view of Nanimori sprawled out in all its splendor, the limitless blue sky covering it and occasionally pierced by the moving black speck he could only assume was an airplane. Hibird was chirping the school's song before perching comfortably on the ledge of the school building. He did a complete 180 once on the roof and saw Nona against the wall, sniffling softly.
"Nona..." He whispered, walking closer to the curled form.
Hazel eyes lifted to regard him before a soft sniffle beckoned them back to their place hidden by fair-if lightly tanned-arms. She hadn't moved away from him, so he moved over to the small form, one arm going around draw shoulders and the other around the front, encircling her in a hug. All he got was a few sniffles for his trouble, but made no attempt to use his words to calm her. What could he say? Instead he rocked from side to side bringing the other with him, until her sniffles stopped and he could have sworn there were the faintest hints of a smile on those features. Once he released the form it uncurled and wiped its eyes.
"I have to get back to class." He said awkwardly and received a nod. After he was down a few steps, a faint thank you hit his back and he reentered the classroom beaming. Why was he so happy? He didn't know... but if all it took was a hug and some rocking to make her happy, she definitely took the cake as one of the easiest girls to please that he had ever met before in his life.