Summary: (Canon-AU; this will be a 'parallel reality')(Slow friendship-romance) It doesn't have to make sense to others, and it doesn't have to make sense for them, either – but that's okay, because labels are overrated anyway. Still though, secrets will come out sooner or later and what doesn't break a friendship, only makes it stronger... "What kind of balls?" "Baseballs."
Note: Chapter lengths are not pre-determined and are to be posted as they are written, hence updates may be unpredictable. Short chapters are to be expected!
All recognisable appearances here are the conjurations of Akira Amano and the team behind Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Unless otherwise stated, the only thing 155cm owns is Nakamura Yukiko, and even that's debatable – she's a fairly free spirit.
There is a reason why Yukiko avoids Hibari Kyouya like the plague, and it isn't just because of his ridiculous tendency to 'bite everyone to death'.
It wouldn't be a lie to say that it certainly does hold some weight as a logical argument. No one wants Hibari Kyouya's tonfas aimed at them, unless they're masochistic, of questionable sanity, or both.
Yukiko freezes in the door frame, free hand raised to knock against the door. The very same door which has just broken to pieces in front of her, not due to some unforseen strength she possesses, but rather the force of something hitting the door from the other side.
That something turns out to be a human body. Glancing down, the well-known pompadour hairstyle of a nameless member of the disciplinary committee greets her. Yukiko blinks, but the face is unfamiliar thus does not capture her interest for long. Glancing back up, she meets the furious gaze of one Hibari Kyouya.
"I'll bite you to death."
Hibari Kyouya intones darkly, and Yukiko bites her bottom lip to stop herself from vocalising the annoyance that inexplicably washes over her every being. It's not like she hates the guy, but there is something about him that rubs her the wrong way.
Turning, Yukiko hurries rapidly from the place, thankful that she had been carrying a stack of papers in her grasp.
Granted, throwing them in Hibari Kyouya's face probably isn't a terribly good idea, but it's certainly relieving.
"Hey."
"…how did you get this number?" Yukiko swears her heart stops beating for a moment, but she wills it back into existence when she realises which one of them is calling.
"We've got some members with decent connections."
She scoffs. "I'm not even part of the Momokyokai anymore."
The laugh on the other end is not unkind. "You may have eased out back when it was a small gang, but we've expanded in recent years. You'd be impressed by the name we've established for ourselves."
"What was that? Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of my blissfully ignorant civilian status."
"You brat. You were better as a kid. All meek and mild and shit." The voice sounds faintly amused, but Yukiko still finds herself slightly tense.
"That was eight years ago."
"Still a brat."
"If all you're going to do is talk nonsense, I'm hanging up."
Abruptly, Yukiko ends the call.
Silently, she concentrates on her pounding heart.
Then, action.
With a swift tap, she switches off her phone, not waiting for it to shut down properly before slipping out the sim card and unhesitatingly snapping it in half. Yukiko considers her phone for a while, before eventually shrugging and dropping it to the floor. It does prove to be surprisingly durable, but after a few good drops and a few taps on the edges of various hard surfaces (granite bench tops are wonderful things), its well and truly smashed.
It's not until she's out buying a new phone and sim card does Yukiko wonder whether there was a reason for calling her up in the first place.
Let's take it back eight years ago.
Five years old is pretty darn young. At that age, one is fresh into primary education, meeting new friends, and slowly starting to form coherent sentences in order to lose cute bubbly incoherency and gain the real sophisticated language that all the grown-ups use.
(Then you get to secondary school and the wonderful nuances of text talk, but that's irrelevant.)
The point here is – five years old is pretty young.
At five years old, Yukiko is no more intelligent or philosophical than any other kid. Honestly, there's really only one thing that's perpetually on her mind, constantly there regardless of whether she's consciously thinking it or not; that's the desire to please her parents, in particularly her beautiful mother who never seems to have time for her.
At this age, she doesn't realise that her mother doesn't have time for her because she doesn't care enough to spare her the time of day. Yukiko in her young state is constantly entranced by the picturesque families she sees on TV, and thinks that all it'll take is some hard work and her mother will pay attention to her. Easy, right?
So, picture this.
A young five-year-old girl, hoping to impress her mother. She attempts this by emulating everything she sees her mother doing. For example, she makes an effort to dress nicely – she wears the dresses and the polished shoes and the cute kid clothes that take a really long time to put on but make her look every inch the sophisticated young lady. When her mother gives her a look-over and doesn't say anything, she glows inwardly because that means there's nothing to fault about her appearance, which means approval, which means success.
Still though, it's not enough.
Entering school, Yukiko has realised something.
Other kids at school interact with their mothers differently. At first she thinks it's a little strange and foreign, seeing their mothers constantly hovering around them… but then she sees it more and more, and even begins to notice it when outside of school. Sure, in public her mother sometimes holds her hand and gives her a hug, but she doesn't ever really feel warm and appreciated.
The hugs those other kids get look warm.
So, Yukiko wants to impress her mother. All she really wants to do is to make her proud, and she thinks she can do this by getting a job. Because from what she knows, having a job is a pretty big deal. You can earn money and buy things, and maybe she can treat her mother to a new pair of earrings?
Normally, it's impossible for a kid of five years old to get a job. Completely unfathomable. But at five years old, Yukiko is surprisingly tenacious and hardworking, and fortunately – or rather, unfortunately – she finds one.
She doesn't understand what Momokyokai means, but it has peach in it and she likes peaches. Happily, Yukiko applies for the job.
A smiling man who smells like her father's cigarettes greets her. He offers her a lollipop, and she accepts it and pops it into her mouth on the spot. It's watermelon flavoured, which is one of her favourites, and she beams so happily at receiving a treat because normally she has to go look for them herself in the kitchen at home. The man gives her a hot chocolate at their next meeting, and tells her he'll give her a tutorial on what they expect of her.
(She blinks. She hasn't seen the company, nor does she actually know what the job entails. From her brief research online, she thinks this isn't how things are meant to go. But the man smiles and tells her this is a special job, it's very high pay and it's perfect for her.)
The man hands her a brown paper-wrapped package that feels kind of lumpy. He cautions her not to open it, and to just act like she normally would on any other day. She's given two phrases that are easy enough for her remember, and when she hears the first she's to say the second one, and if that goes well then she'll make the transaction.
So at five years old, Yukiko pretends she's Santa Claus as she hands over a package of drugs, smiling happily and thinking of how proud mother will be when she arrives home with her first paycheck. She receives a package in return, and she hands this to the man who's waiting for her a few streets away.
This, she tells herself, is a transaction. It's a new word, and she knows it's an important one.
The man nods at her. He's not smiling anymore, but that's okay. Yukiko is used to adults who usually don't smile at her, so it doesn't bother her that he's stopped. Finally, the man tells her what her job is.
She nods like she understands, because it's important to do a job well.
She's to be a kid dealer. Whatever that means!
There's a reason why Yukiko avoids Hibari Kyouya like the plague.
Years ago, she was a stupid little girl who wasted all her energy submerging herself into something she should never have stepped into. She thought she was swimming in a pool when in reality she was sinking into a quagmire, sinking deeper and deeper until the only way for her to get out was for something drastic to happen.
Back then, the Hibari family had turned a blind eye to the exploitation of children by the Momokyokai. Money pays well, and within the foundation of the Hibari family's prestige in the present lies the secret of dirty cash.
Yukiko knows that logically, there's a chance that Hibari Kyouya doesn't know this aspect of his family's background. Back then, he was a kid too – she knows this, but she can't help but resent him a little bit.
He can declare he's protecting the peace and security of Namimori all he wants, but she will never believe a word of it.
a/n:
There was a reader who was curious about what Yukiko's interaction with Hibari would be like, and I finally have the chance to say this; I hope you won't be disappointed with the path I'm choosing to take with this! If you are disappointed, uhm.. well, I won't be changing it, so I hope you'll accept it? c:
So, here we are. I'm done with building Yukiko's past for now, you've got the bones of it :D
Before I disappear - whoo, I'm so shocked by the stats on this thing! I know numbers aren't everything, but these are some impressive numbers to be sure, so thank you all!