Taming the Skylark (A Katekyo Hitman Reborn fanfiction)
Standard disclaimers apply. I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Amano Akira-sensei does; though, of course, the OC is mine.
It was an understatement to say that Nanami missed going to school. After being forced into a competition where staying alive was not guaranteed, the thought of not being able to go back crossed her mind many times, so being able to return made her elated despite the tremendous amount of backlogs that awaited her.
"Senritsu-senpai!" A voice called out to her while she was changing into her indoor shoes. She looked over her shoulder and found a familiar first-year duo.
"Are you feeling okay already?" asked Tsuna worriedly.
She smiled and nodded. "I am, thank you. And sorry for making you worry."
"No, I'm the one who should be sorry! I could not even visit you in the hospital."
Before Tsuna could move his head in a deep bow, Gokudera stepped forward in rebuttal. "Don't apologize, Tenth. It's Hibari's fault for not letting us in!"
No wonder she never saw them during her stay in the hospital. She easily guessed that Hibari, as someone who despised crowds, made sure that only immediate family members were allowed inside their shared room.
"Speaking of Hibari-san," Tsuna looked side to side. "Is he still not discharged?"
"Yes. The injuries on his left arm and right leg are quite serious," she paused, then added in a silent whisper, "because I bore holes in them after losing control of my flames."
Gokudera noticed her guilty expression and scoffed. "Why worry? It will surely heal like nothing happened."
"True. It happens a lot so don't worry, senpai," assured Tsuna.
Nanami could only wonder how something so dangerous could be normal to them.
After a short chat, she parted ways with her underclassman. As she was heading to the classroom, however, another voice called her attention.
"You're back, Senritsu!"
Turning around, she found Sasagawa Ryohei sprinting towards her at full speed. After being reprimanded for running in the corridors, he quickly asked, "How did your trip to the Himalayas go?"
She blinked. "Hi—Himawhat?"
"The mountain range! I heard you and Hibari went there during summer vacation, but he forgot about you and accidentally left you there so he had to go back again. Then a bear attacked you on your way back which is why the two of you were hospitalized. How extreme!"
His laugh earned nothing but a blank stare from the brunette.
What the hell is he talking about? Nanami had never been so confused in her life.
Amidst her dilemma, a dark-suited infant entered her line of vision, waving a paper that said, "That is the story we came up with when you were kidnapped!" before magically disappearing in the wall.
A drop of sweat rolled down her temples.
That was what they told everyone when she had gone missing? What a ridiculous story!
"You should have tagged me along!" Ryohei suddenly started shadowboxing. "We could have extremely improved our legwork through mountain climbing!"
At his words, the memory of carrying Hibari flashed in her mind. "Yeah," she smirked slightly. "We really enjoyed that one. Mountain climbing."
"Gah, I'm so jealous!" He tousled his hair in frustration. "I'll go to the mountains right now and train!"
"Wait, we still have classes!"
Her protest sadly fell on deaf ears as he ran for the exit. Upon nearing the staircase, however, Ryohei bumped into someone and the impact sent papers flying into the air. The female student who was holding them fell on the ground.
"My bad! Are you okay?" he extended his hand to help but immediately froze upon seeing her face.
"What the hell are you thinking, running in the corridor?" Her wavy, black hair slipped from her shoulders as she struggled to stand on her own. She shot him a glare that almost immediately faded when she recognized him. "Oh, aren't you Kyoko's brother?"
"K-Kurokawa!" His entire body stiffened like a statue.
Nanami, who went to chase after Ryohei, soon arrived at the scene. Upon noticing the commotion, she looked over his shoulder and found a girl picking up papers from the floor. She quickly moved to help the student and was surprised to see the insignia of the council on one of the parchments. "This is..."
It took Kurokawa a while to recognize the person in front of her. Quickly, but with composure, she introduced herself, "Nice to meet you, President Senritsu. I'm Kurokawa Hana, the new secretary of the student council."
"Secretary?" muttered Ryohei.
"Oh, so you're the freshman that Ogata managed to recruit!" Ecstatic, Nanami extended a hand towards her. "I look forward to working with you, Kurokawa."
Soon, the two finished gathering the papers. The brunette smiled, "Should I accompany you to the office?"
"No, it's okay. I was just told leave it there and go back to class," she answered.
"Alright. See you later in the afternoon then!"
Nanami waved a hand at Kurokawa as she left. After the girl disappeared into a corner, she looked at Ryohei who had seemed to stop moving entirely. "Are you okay?"
"Senritsu!" Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when he grabbed her shoulders. "Can I join the student council too?"
"What? But you're already the captain of the Boxing Club."
He let go of her and sighed in disappointment. "Right."
She watched him curiously. A random thought occurred to her and she laughed in jest, "What, don't tell me you have a crush on that girl!"
"No, it's not like that! Not at all! Not to the extreme!"
Despite his profuse denial, Ryohei could be seen blushing from neck to ear. It surprised Nanami. She was only messing around but had unknowingly hit the nail on the head?
"We're dating."
Her jaw dropped at his unexpected revelation. "WHAT?!"
"—in the future."
She gave him a tired look and deadpanned, "So you do have a crush on her but you still haven't confessed."
"No," he muttered and folded his arms. It was so rare to see him in deep thoughts that it was amusing to watch. "I'm not sure if I really like her, but we will date soon."
She frowned at his contradicting words. "Are you a tsundere or something?"
"You don't understand, Senritsu. I have extremely seen the future!" He opened his arms wide in declaration. Upon realizing that his loud voice earned them curious onlookers, Ryohei retracted his arms and whispered in her ear, "Kurokawa and I will be in a relationship. I know it will happen because we—"
The sound of the bell resounding across the school cut him in the middle of his statement.
She patted his arm to calm him down. "Okay, I will listen to your love problems at another time. For now, let's go to class."
After making sure that her friend attended lectures instead of running to the mountains, Nanami headed to her own classroom.
In the afternoon, the brunette resumed her council duties. As her desk was situated in front of all the others to allow her to watch over them while tending to her own work, she noticed that everyone was more diligent than before.
Just after she made that observation, Ogata walked up to her. His hands were on his back so he was obviously hiding something.
Smiling, she pretended not to see. "Is something the matter, Ogata?"
"We apologize for always slacking off, president!" He suddenly bowed and pushed a bouquet of flowers towards her.
The other members did the same, except that only Ogata had flowers as she assumed that he acted as their representative. They exclaimed, "We abused your kindness. For that, we are very sorry!"
Nanami watched them with a bewildered expression. She hastily stood from her seat. "What? Where is this coming from?"
"After you disappeared, the school was thrown into chaos," explained her vice president. "A lot of files were left unfinished because we skipped our duties during the summer. Many clubs complained and even the Sports Fest was almost canceled."
Another member stepped forward. "Hibari-san made us realize how much we relied on you for school matters. I'm very sorry, president."
She blinked. "Hibari did what?"
"He stormed into the office and was very angry when he learned that we left you to do everything by yourself."
"Yes," Ogata nodded, the simple memory of it was making him shiver. "He even made the entire council attend a sermon prepared by the Disciplinary Committee."
Nanami paled at his words. "Did he hurt you?"
"No, it was his assistant who conducted the sermon because Hibari had to go back to the Himalayas to fetch you."
An indignant snort almost escaped her upon hearing that ridiculous story again. It was truly amazing how Reborn managed to fool the entire student body with such an obvious lie.
"Because of them, we realized our shortcomings," Ogata hung his head low. "We're very sorry."
Nanami had to stop them from apologizing all over and over again. Without denying their wrongdoings, she accepted the apologies and forgave them.
After the other members convinced her to take a break because she just came back from mountain climbing (which was true, but not in the Himalayas), Nanami decided to go to the disciplinary office. She opened the door after knocking and found Kusakabe working at one of the empty desks.
He immediately stood up upon noticing her. "President! Welcome back!"
"Hi, Kusakabe. It's been a while," she greeted him and stepped inside the office.
A relieved smile appeared on his otherwise stoic face. "Are you alright now? We were all worried when you were kidnapped. It was really great that Kyo-san went to save you."
She was slightly surprised. "Oh, you know the truth? I thought that you were also told that we went hiking or something."
"On the night you went missing, I was immediately summoned by Kyo-san to help him look for you," he explained, "so I know."
"I see."
A short silence followed. Nanami fiddled with the edge of her skirt as she thought of what to say. "Thank you for putting some sense into the other council members. I really needed that. I hope you didn't hurt them though."
"We didn't because we knew you would be troubled."
Nanami laughed to hide the blush that was forming on her face. She pretended to pass it off in a jest, "Why are you all so considerate of me? It's making me shy!"
"Anyway, since I'm back, I'll do the rest of the committee work," she said and moved to her desk. "You can go home now or visit Hibari in the hospital."
However, Kusakabe insisted to finish everything since there were only a few papers left. Quietly, Nanami watched him work and spoke after a while, "You know, I was really wary of you guys before, but now I'm glad that I accepted you in the committee."
He turned to her with a look of surprise.
"You all are good guys," she added with a soft smile.
"President—!"
"Except for Hibari, I guess," she deadpanned, her smile had completely disappeared. "He has good morals, but it's still wrong to beat up people."
His elated mood took a sudden plunge. "You misunderstand him, president," he said in defense of his leader. "Kyo-san only punishes people who break the rules. He might be a bit violent, but everything he does is for maintaining the peace of Namimori."
"Can you explain to me then why he attacked me the first time we met?" she asked, honestly curious. "I never did anything wrong. If anything, as the head disciplinary officer, I'm the one who enforces the rules in this school."
"That—!" Kusakabe paused hesitantly. "He did that because he's interested in you!"
"Huh?"
"He acknowledges your strength so he wants to fight you."
She sighed. "I'm honored that he acknowledges me, but getting bitten to death almost everyday is not exactly thrilling."
"I... can't deny that." As someone who from time to time experienced his wrath, Kusakabe could not help but agree. However, as the person closest to Hibari, he was also aware of the side of him that lay beneath his cold exterior. "But I hope you find it in your heart to see the good side of him. Because it does exist, president."
On her way home, Nanami contemplated his words.
"The good side of Hibari, huh?" she muttered, thinking of how exactly she should go about searching for the good side of the man who constantly tormented her. Aside from attacking her, was there anything else he ever did?
"It was really great that Kyo-san went to save you."
While it was true that he went to Italy to save her, he changed his goals midway and decided to fight her instead. In fact, most of her injuries even came from him. Not that she was in any position to complain because she did the same to him.
"What else?" she thought long and hard.
"You're sick."
Nanami stopped in her tracks. Watching her shadow against the setting sun made her remember that one summer afternoon when Hibari brought her to the infirmary because she was struck with fever.
Looking back, she never understood how he noticed that she was ill. Surely, it was not simply through her addressing him with an honorific, right?
"He was very angry when he learned that we left you to do everything by yourself."
Or did he, even back then, already notice that she was overworking herself?
Shocked at the assumption that she made, her hand nervously moved to her mouth. "No way. Is he actually a caring person?"
Saying it aloud made it sound more ridiculous. She laughed. "Of course not! He only did that because I'm the president!"
When her own words repeated in her mind, Nanami reached enlightenment.
"I'm worried about the school, not you."
"Namimori High is currently in a mess after you disappeared so I decided to get you back."
Instead of seeing the skylark in a light that Kusakabe was hoping for, Nanami came to the realization that as the Student Council President, Hibari Kyoya viewed her as a necessary existence in maintaining the peace of Namimori High to the extent where he would go out of his way to save her should she find herself in troubling situations.
Contented with gaining an information that would surely come useful in the future, the brunette headed home wearing a satisfied grin, unknowingly ignoring probably the only instance when he did something for her personally and not as the president.
"You're tired."
It was when he lent her his suit jacket when she was drenched in the rain.
Author's Note:
It's so hard to write romance, damn! (T^T) I hope you liked it though! And special shoutout to AutumnBee124 for always leaving reviews. Thank you so much!
Anyway, do you remember that episode in the Future Arc where it was implied that Ryohei and Hana are dating? Because I'm planning to make them a side couple in this fanfic!
