Time skip because if I remember well, the last chapter happened when Hibari was around 18-ish. So yeah.

I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any of its characters © Akira Amano, ™ of whoever they are registered with.

We Live Our Lives on Different Sides

~The thin line between reality and dream slowly dissolves~

'It would have been a normal day if it weren't for the unusually low number of customers' I-pin thought to herself. True, six people coming to the restaurant was few and there were even fewer deliveries. Half of the day had passed and she still hadn't heard from Mister Kawahiro.

Getting bored, a sigh escaped the girl's lips and by the silence in their establishment, the owner had no choice but to hear it. Soon enough, I-pin was let off as it was about dusk and still no customers.

There she was out in the streets again but with nothing to do but to go home.

It's peaceful. The days have become such with the Mafia wars sparse between weeks. With the arcobaleno curse practically solved, there was no big action exploding somewhere, much to her dismay.

In addition to that, she quit being an assassin, and the lack of seeing somebody particular couldn't be bridged with the excuse of being in the same famiglia as he.

So she strolled on, with each step, time seemed to stretch to an eternity. Until she remembered a weird dream.

"You're the Chinese girl that explodes…" Yep, Hibari said that in her dream. But what she wondered about was that why she said no. It was her; she was sure it was herself there. But she denied it.

Speaking of the infamous disciplinarian, the young girl hadn't seen him in a while.

'He must be on a mission!' she thought although the reality hit her hard.

'Someday, maybe someday, I'd be that I-pin who you can remember,' she thought with finality, for there she was in front of her home, the Sawada residence. 'And I'll be your home.'

-cloud-

From Italy with battle scars… Hibari trudged through his apartment, wounds stinging once in a while from all his exertions. Still, he being at "home" doesn't quite cut it. There was no peace. There never was peace in him.

His mind has been doing never-ending somersaults at trying to figure out something that he doesn't even have any idea of. It was as if he was forgetting something, something really important. It was inescapable. And he thought about it as he laid on the couch.

"What was it?" Slowly he dozed off, sinking into his own subconscious where he is forever plagued by a faceless phantom of a past that was lost.

-cloud-

Being a woman of twenty-three and still single, I-pin couldn't figure out why, neither did Kyoko, Haru nor Chrome, as to why she was single. Yeah, she was pretty. She's intelligent. She's strong. She's independent. And the list goes on.

Maybe that's the point. Most of the boys think she's so unreachable. Or maybe they just think that she doesn't need somebody else in her life. Boys are so wrong.

The young woman huffed and puffed. If only Lambo or Fuuta could move past their sibling relationship…

'Did I just consider that possibility?' God, she felt so gross at that thought. Yet she continued to walk the streets of Namimori, rambling inside her head how wrong it was.

Creamy legs peeked out in between her skirt and boots once in a while and she knew people were looking. 'Would Hibari-san look at them hungrily though? Nah, it's impossible.'

There are these moments in time, when somebody prays hard, God is willing to grant it as long as it wouldn't hurt anybody. That was when she felt an eternity within half a heartbeat. No matter how hard she'd try, she will never thank the heavens enough.

'Maybe not so impossible,' after which she felt as if she was hit by a train, not from pain, but from her chest tightening and her heart doing backflips over and over.

Steely gaze caught her from head to toe when they met on the street, and his eyes weren't forgiving as they bore holes into her. Just a little more and they would be face to face, and as I-pin looked on, of course making sure she wasn't eye-raping the older man, she saw in his eyes a look that says 'I remember somebody else who looks like you.'

Then, all of a sudden, that weird dream resurfaced. Heat surely was on her cheeks, flushing it a deep crimson, and her eyes could no longer stray from his face.

'Oh no!' Her mind was screaming at her for her lack of delicacy. However, an opposite thought ran in her mind, 'Hibari-san doesn't care. As long as I don't offend him, it's fine!' Too confident for her own liking.

They passed, like two intersecting lines—never to meet again.

At least for the whole month that followed.

-cloud-

Nausea. There is nothing more annoying than the dizzy feeling you get when you suddenly fall asleep and then suddenly awaken. Now awake and obviously there was no point in going back to sleep, as he was sure that another haunting was waiting for him in this dream-space.

Hibari narrowed his eyes. His sight didn't improve. It only worsened, getting more blurred by the second, darker and darker until he couldn't see anything.

"This is stupid," he said because he knew that he was simply keeping his eyes shut. Until he realized that he couldn't open them, glued together as they were. Only one thing comes to mind about these kind of things in his dreams; there was always a certain pineapple head that messed with the visuals of his dreams. "It must be that guy…" Oh, he can't wait to kill him and be on with it.

Currently blind, he let his instinct run him, proceeding to light some Cloud flames and spreading it around him, using it as some kind of radar. Through his abilities he was able to feel what he couldn't see, like a bat hearing what its surroundings looked like.

'No walls,' the Cloud Guardian took a few steps forward and found that there weren't anything that would hinder him. Nausea, again. That feeling that your head is getting filled with something, like water, and it feels as if it's slowly expanding and throbbing, ready to explode at any moment, came to him while he recalled similar dreams. 'This is… a dream I haven't had in a while…'

There was somebody with him all of a sudden. Dreams do that all the time.

"I-pin?" It was too quick of a response and it left a bitter taste on his tongue.

"How did you know?" Never had he thought that she always had such a soft and smooth voice, and he could feel the woman approach, slowly, steadily, like a tiger stalking its prey.

"What's the meaning of this? Why am I blind?"

"Blind? Aren't your eyes simply closed?" stating the obvious, Hibari had not opted to remark at her helpful statement. Instead he waited, as his dreams usually spoke in a cryptic manner.

"Maybe because you don't want to see the truth?" And she had magically moved behind him.

"What I believe to be truth is truth."

It made her laugh, much to his chagrin. She spoke with an angelic voice, after she savored his apparent inadequacy, "But you, yourself, believe that a part of you is denying a truth that a part of you believes."

"What are you getting at?"

"Well," she said and then magically re-appeared in front of him, tracing circles on his cheek. This resulted in that familiar, annoying but pleasurable at the same time, current. Oh, he could drown in it forever. "Maybe you should decide what to do with your emotions, for example?"

Succumbed to the current and barely able to keep his thoughts together, he spoke with a rather gruff voice, high in euphoria, that he had thrown away the useless things that a human possesses.

"Are you saying you're no longer human?" It was an innocent question, so full of curiosity, and whatever it had done to make him flinch and grab her hand in anger was well beyond him.

"Do you want to know?"

Little by little, Hibari could see, how she lifted her eyes from looking down into his own orbs. Filled with so much want, with her proximity to him, he believed he won't be able to stop himself if the chance ever passes him.

His vision cleared, a light cream color pervaded his sight. It was flat and grainy, like that of wood, of painted wood actually. That was when he realized he was staring at the ceiling, of his apartment no less!

'Just a dream…'

His head hurt so badly all of a sudden; he couldn't remember the face again. It was as if his mind destroys the remains of his dreams in a panic whenever he wakes up. Patting his pocket for his phone, he flipped it open and saw that no one bothered to message or call, which was good, but it also reminded him of that day's date.

-cloud-

It was White Day today, but I-pin wasn't expecting anything in return from her chocolates from Valentine's Day. The truth is she missed giving her chocolate a month ago because she couldn't find Hibari anywhere. Later she heard that the man was indeed out of town, on a mission that Tsuna had put him in. She wanted to tease Tsuna about it but decided it wasn't her brother's fault. Things had to be done and that's it.

'The best thing that the world can give me today is if I can see him on my way home…'

But sometimes, no matter how hard you pray, the universe just doesn't want to go along with even a harmless wish. And she hadn't seen him in a week.

-cloud-

It was peculiar. No matter how many times Kusakabe looked back at it, it was still there. It was a really personal thing, he guessed, and wouldn't want to pry. After all, the Cloud Guardian didn't take too lightly on annoying people, even if it were the closest of people (well, as close as they can get, that is).

That white box still scares him whenever he looks back at it. As Hibari had kept it in his hands the whole time he was handed a document that needed immediate review, Kusakabe observed further. His boss would sometimes tighten his grip on the little object, careful all the same.

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind if it's late," Kusakabe had blurted out, instantly regretting what he said. Hibari would be sure to punch him dead later.

-cloud-

It was the first time they've seen each other that year, as Hibari was put in a mission of determining the fate of another famiglia that lasted God-knows-how-long. He hadn't taken the toll of it yet. In the near future, a miserable herbivore will be more miserable after he's done with dishing out pain. But at present another matter needs to be resolved.

There she was, staring at him as she approached. She seemed to be on her way to school by the looks of it; he heard before that she was studying medicine with the excuse of helping the helpless. Hibari knew better.

At the back of his mind, Hibari felt what seems to be déjà vu as they both closed the gap between them. And the faces that remained hazy in his memory slowly had a shape and defining features. He shot his own look at her, from top to toe, thinking that it might make the vision clearer. And it did.

They passed, like intersecting lines, never to meet again. The box, for somebody's sake! Thank God, he remembered before he heard from Tsuna that he'd be put on another God-knows-how-long mission and probably miss her for a couple more weeks to a month then a year, and then completely miss out on giving her the gift.

Swiftly, he turned and called out to the young woman.

"Herbivore!"

Everyone who were around suddenly disappeared. Out of fright, of course. I-pin stopped at his call yet wanted to make sure that it was her that he was calling. She looked around and found no one.

'I swear there were people a moment ago.'

Turning slowly and putting up a determined face, albeit scared nonetheless, she confronted the strongest Guardian of the Vongola family. Towering above her, Hibari's aura exuded death.

"Y-Yes, Hibari-san?"

"Here," to which he held out a small box wrapped in white paper tied with a bow. The moment she saw it, her face blushed so much that she looked like a ripe tomato. She was so happy about what was happening but there was a part of her that didn't want to accept it, as if it was just a dream. Just like that dream.

I-pin can't make him wait. No longer horribly shy, I-pin had long outgrown this definitive characteristic, hence met Hibari with ample confidence, holding out her hand to accept the small parcel. But she still didn't know why she was getting a gift from the man of her dreams. But instead of asking for a reason, she gracefully thanked Hibari for the wonderful present. That was until the color of his present gave him away.

"…White day is a week ago. But I didn't give you anything…"

A snort. She could feel a slight sting from his frightening gaze.

"Nevertheless, thank you." I-pin smiled so brightly it kind of blinded him. It wasn't bad. It just… seemed surreal. And the girl looked like she was about to cry.

Hibari wouldn't want that, to see it or be near it would be unbecoming of his carnivorous ways. So, bobbing his head once in a nod, Hibari left with no other words than what he had already said.

'Really, you could have been more romantic, Hibari-san.'

It was their little ritual which now included White Day.

-cloud-

Back at home, Kyoko, who is now I-pin's sister-in-law (somehow), pointed at the beautiful pendant that hung around I-pin's neck,

"I haven't seen that before, I-pin. Where did you buy that?" the older woman asked as she placed a hand onto her own neck. I-pin picked up the hint quick and fingered the small yet beautiful white-gold moon pendant she received earlier.

"It's a secret."

-cloud-

Darkness.

Then there was a hearty laugh and not the kind that leaves one annoyed, much to Hibari's surprise. "I think you're mistaken, Hibari-san." The voice was particular; it was the rain Guardian—again.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" The way the question was returned to him didn't rub him in the right way. Still feeling iffy about the sudden appearance of an unwanted person, he stilled his tongue. Where had I-pin gone to?

"What do you wish to find?"

"Where is I-pin?"

The other guy laughed again. Hibari wasn't liking it one bit. "You know you won't find her here," Another cryptic statement from the haze that calls himself Yamamoto.

With patience running thin, Hibari doesn't know how long he can still hold on. But he must not let such an opportunity of getting answers to slip away.

"What do you mean?"

"Because you're looking in the wrong place. Try something else, like, the real world."

"I won't remember anything of this when I wake."

"Ah, that's right." Yamamoto looked genuinely thoughtful. "Or maybe your heart?" That was the last straw. He drew his tonfas and launched himself at Yamamoto, eager to rip him to shreds. In his dreams though he is a bit underpowered, resulting with the Rain Guardian avoiding his retribution.

"Oh, you wouldn't want to be too angry now. He might come out you know, that guy."

"Why don't you just tell me? And what about that guy?"

"No anger, okay?"

Like a stone hitting water and creating many waves that create smaller waves until the surface of the water was no longer like a mirror, his vague memories of similar past dreams came flowing back. Correlations have been made and by the sudden realizations, Hibari was left looking like ice cold water had been poured on him.

"Shit."

"Uh-huh."

Hibari's hands fell to his sides and his face looked so enlightened with a pinch of disbelief.

"Yep. So you finally figured it out, huh? That took quite long. If you have been more open to reality and yourself, it should have been over years ago." A usual smile graced Yamamoto's face, adding to Hibari's annoyance. If he could stop talking, that would be great as well, "Did you know, that I was a part of your mind?"

"No."

"Now you do."

"If you are, what part are you?" Hibari getting on.

"Hehe, I'm the part who will most likely follow I-pin."

-cloud-

Tsuna had called again. He said, the remnants of the famiglia they destroyed not too long ago had swarmed Namimori in search of revenge. Not only that but they were able to get reinforcements, most probably from small time famiglia that held grudges against the Vongola. It was going to get ugly.