(A/N: It's an update, yay! Sorry for the wait. Well, here goes. Will have irregular updates due to lack of inspiration. This is a shorter chapter as I have recently updated this story and want to work on longer chapters for my other two stories. I'll try to write a longer one for the next chapter of this one though. I hope you all like this!)

Disclaimer: If I owned KHR, it would have been similar to this story I'm writing here.

In the last chapter, it showed how our main character and one of his most loyal friends, Yamamoto Takeshi, "met" when they were younger. One of those flashback chapters. This one will be about Kusakabe Tetsuya and maybe a bit more information about the Hibari family, as a whole.

Chapter 7:

Kusakabe Tetsuya had never thought the day his cousin and leader, Hibari Kyoya, introducing him to a friend would actually come anytime soon, let alone three friends. They were still young and Hibari was always such a loner. The only one who could be considered close to the boy was Kusakabe himself; not even the raven's parents were that close to their son! Well. They're close in their own ways. They still call or visit their son once in awhile, but they don't stay for long. Even if they don't show up, they always send presents back for birthdays or Christmas.

Contrary to common belief, the Hibari clan are actually a tight knit family, albeit extremely independent. Every person in the clan do whatever they please, be it assassination, investigation, cooking, sports, etc. However, if anybody in the family needs it, the whole clan will unite to deal with the threat. Not that any of those stubborn, arrogant ones would ever say anything unless absolutely necessary. That clan of independent Skylarks. Kusakabe can't say much about them though. He's family, sure, but the family rarely meets other than the yearly meeting. Though it's not like everyone in the family actually goes to that.

Anyways, back to Kusakabe's current predicament. How should he react to his normally stoic and introverted cousin's sudden friendship?! And there are three of them too. He's pretty sure Rokudo Mukuro and Byakuran were enemies just a few days ago. What happened when I wasn't looking for the three of them to become friends? And that fluffy looking brunette got dragged along too! he thought as he watched their interaction. I-is Kyo-san smiling?! The world's going to end soon! Ahhhh! As Kusakabe was panicking internally, the other four in the room were just having a 'normal' conversation.

"Ne Kyo-chan~ Your new office is kind of plain isn't it? You need more marshmallows in here! And color!" Cue eyebrow twitch.

"Don't call me that, you marshmallow herbivore."

"Eeh~ I'm not an herbivore. I thought you'd know by now that I'm not," Byakuran pouted.

"Kufufu. Don't pout, stupid marshmallow. Pouts are only reserved for cute bunnies like Tsunayoshi-kun," Mukuro just had to add in his own two cents.

"Mou~ That's not true, Muku-chan. Anyone can pout, it's just whether or not they look good at it. And don't call me cute; I'm not happy with that description. Choose another word that's not a simile of the word 'cute'."

"But Tsu-chan you are cute. Really. Like a bunny-shaped marshmallow~"

"Kufufu~ Are marshmallows all that's in your brain?" Mukuro asked the white-haired marshmallow maniac before turning to talk to Tsuna, "But I have to agree with him, Tsunayoshi-kun. You are the most adorable creature on Earth."

"Hn."

Tsuna's face had lit up like a tomato by then. To be honest, Tsuna really didn't like being called cute, but the way the other three said it showed how much they like him and he couldn't help but be happy about that. Nobody had ever shown much interest in him, let alone want to be friends with him. It's nice to have friends. He couldn't help but smile at that thought.

"I-it's not like I'm happy to hear that I'm cute! B-but… thank you." The other three just chuckled and smiled happily at him (with the exception of Hibari of course, he doesn't smile in front of herbivores… Maybe when he's alone with the bunny. But not now), thinking how cute the whole time.

As this conversation went on, Kusakabe was still panicking in the background. What to do? What to do? He didn't show his emotions on his face, but he was still panicking. Maybe the other four should snap out of that sweet moment so they'd finally notice Kusakabe's state of mind and stop him from going any further. But nope. That's not happening anytime soon. Good thing Kusakabe stopped himself before he went into a mental breakdown. That's right! I need to introduce myself first. Then make sure they're worthy enough to acquaint themselves with Kyo-san! Yes, I'll do just that.

"Ahem!" All four of the younger children looked at Kusakabe. "Uh…" Easier said than done. "I… I'm Kusakabe Tetsuya, nice to meet you." Bowing, he didn't notice that three of them staring at him like he was crazy nor the smile on Tsuna's face.

"Nice to meet you, Kusakabe-san, I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi but you can call me Tsuna!" the brunette said as he extended his hand to shake hands. The older boy looked up at the brunette's smile and slowly took the hand offered to him. It took just that little moment to cement the idea - that the brunette was more than worthy to be the friend of the young Hibari - in Kusakabe's mind. And now he, himself, wants to get to know Tsuna better. He has a feeling they'll be great friends in the future, after all.

TBC

Well. That's it for now. I hope this didn't have too many mistakes in it. It's short but I liked the little panic attack that Kusakabe had while the others just ignored him. It's supposed to be humor after all. Hopefully, he wasn't too OOC. The idea is that he's still young and Kyoya was indeed rather hostile to other people, especially Mukuro and Byakuran, so the friendship between them was really hard for him to accept. See you all next time~