Kyouya was downright smug, and Leona was glaring at him for good reason. Crowley was not amused.
"How did you even get past the barrier?" he demanded.
"I'd be more surprised if it actually kept him out," said Hotaru deadpan, which made Kyouya preen even more.
"Why did you toss him into my dorm?" demanded Leona.
"You had the best chance of surviving Hibari-senpai in a mood," said Hotaru simply. "If I had tossed him to Diasomnia, then odds are his play fighting with my boyfriend would have resulted in the school being leveled."
Kyouya looked downright smug at that assessment. She rolled her eyes at him.
"In any case, it's far too late in the year to make him a freshman...even if he does qualify as a potential student," said Crowley.
Hotaru sighed.
"How long are you staying?" she asked.
Kyouya scowled.
"Several false carnivores have come to town looking for you," he said flatly. "And I'm bored."
"Uh-huh. Which means anywhere up to a month at least," she sighed. Crowley did not look pleased hearing that. "Headmage, it's less of a problem than you think. At worst we can simply toss him into Diasomnia or Heartsabyl and let them deal with it, since he'd only challenge Leona-senpai every chance he has out of boredom."
"I can get Diasomnia, with that lizard in there, but what about Heartsabyl?" asked Leona. He was pleased she didn't mention his dorm.
"Diasomnia, because there's no way Lilia would pass up the chance to toss Kyouya at Silver and Sebek for extra training, which would end his boredom rather effectively."
"What about the other dorm?" asked Crowley, almost afraid to ask.
"Kyouya is a firm believer of enforcing the rules. He'd get along with Riddle like several houses set on fire, and make them long for the days of simply being beheaded," said Hotaru with a dark smile.
Leona was heartily glad that smile was not aimed in his direction. At the same time, he felt like the Skylark was competition for something. What, he didn't know, but he'd swear it involve the little Crow.
"Why are you even here, anyway?" asked Leona.
"That man told me where to find the little Crow, and helped pack a box of things she left behind," said Kyouya immediately. "Besides, far too many people have been sniffing around my territory of late. Fighting them only brings more fake carnivores. It's getting annoying."
Leona stared at him for several seconds.
"So you're laying low here in the hopes that the fake carnivores will leave, or at the very least get a break. Is that it?"
"That and to insure the little Crow's skills remained as sharp as ever," replied Kyouya.
Crowley was not happy.
"Headmage, if it makes you feel any better, Kyouya is like Leona whenever he's told to attend some royal function he finds annoying. He's more inclined to nap than disturb the order of the school," said Hotaru. "I'm sure if you ask politely, he will respect the 'no fighting' areas and will keep his usual antics after classes are over until he leaves."
"Is there really no other option?" said Crowley unhappily.
"Not unless you want the school leveled," said Hotaru firmly. "Think of it as a trial run for next year, if that helps."
Because she had little doubt that Kyouya would be attending next year, though what dorm he ended up in was a toss up.
Either way, Kyouya became a new sight around campus, usually napping.
Hotaru was fortunate enough to be present when Kyouya had his first run-in with Rook Hunt. It was as hilarious as one would expect, and she was so glad she managed to catch it on camera.
Seeing Kyouya puff up like an irate cat and almost hiss at Rook was downright hysterical in her opinion.
~*~*~*~*
Riddle was peripherally aware of the fact there was a non-student in the school. He was very curious about this...Kyouya Hibari, and after inquiring about his birthday, invited him to an Unbirthday Party. However he had never expected to run into said teen napping next to the hedgehog enclosure, with all the animals inside happily scurrying all over him.
Kyouya had taken one look at the hedgehog enclosure, and it was all over. The little creatures looked very content with the unusually violent teen.
Hotaru looked at the way Kyouya was acting and snorted.
"How much you want to bet he gets sorted straight into Heartsabyl the second he arrives next year?" said Hotaru.
"What makes you say that?" asked Cater.
"Kyouya is the head of the disciplinary committee back in Namimori. He takes the rules almost as seriously as Riddle does, except instead of beheading, he inflicts hospital stays. The doctors damn near worship him because he provides steady work for most of the area hospitals," said Hotaru.
"Really now," said Riddle, with a dark smirk.
Hotaru was vaguely aware that Riddle was a "Wrath Sky", whatever that meant, so she was unsurprised when Kyouya started drifting towards Riddle's aura. If he didn't end up bonded to the teapot tyrant before he left, she'd swear off chocolate for a month.
The two were oddly compatible, but not in a romantic way. Riddle had a far higher compatibility to Kyouya than she ever did. To him, she would forever be the baby Crow he had trained up like a sister. It was with dark glee that she saw Riddle happily giving Kyouya a copy of The Rules of the dorm, and Kyouya was actually studying it.
He didn't need to understand why the rules were what they were...he just knew that if he joined this dorm he would be given carte blanche to be an even bigger menace and cite that he was simply embodying the dorm's spirit of Strictness.
Hotaru was rather proud that she managed to withhold her cackling until after they left the dorm. Kyouya was almost disappointed.
"Ok, what gives? Why were you so amused at the way the teapot tyrant was acting around your friend?" asked Cater.
"Be glad you're going to be interning after this year," she said with dark glee. Trey looked up in alarm at that.
"Why?"
"Because Kyouya is going to make everyone else wish for the days that Riddle was simply beheading everyone left and right for minor rule breaking," said Hotaru. Kyouya looked downright smug at her assessment.
"Why is he still here, if he only came to deliver your old stuff?" asked Trey.
Kyouya scowled.
"Apparently a lot of criminal types were taking too strong an interest in him, so he's hiding here until things cool off. They're too well connected and dangerous for the weaker minions to deal with," explained Hotaru.
Guns, by and large, were illegal in Japan. Or at the very least heavily regulated.
Hibari's minions were competent in martial arts, or at least brawling. Not exactly a good match-up against guns, even in the hands of incompetent owners.
It made perfect sense to make a tactical retreat while things cooled down and things went back to normal. He could chase off any stragglers, so long as he didn't have to worry about his men being killed.
There were others who were being watched, but he couldn't really help them unless they were being actively threatened.
His grandfather, who he barely tolerated on a good day, had promised to deal with the situation. Which was why Hibari had agreed to a relatively boring errand that coincidentally took him out of the area for a bit.
Hotaru was just delighted to have the Luna P alarm clock he had given her for her birthday one year back.
~*~*~~*~*
Hotaru was downright cackling as she sent pictures to Fon, who had a pained look of disbelief on his face.
Fon had always thought Kyouya would bond with Hotaru, and become an overprotective, if violent, older sibling to the girl.
Instead he ended up bonding to the baby Wrath Hotaru had accidentally stumbled upon, and it was a match made in hell.
As predicted, Heartsabyl desperately wished for the days it was just a temperamental Riddle they had to deal with. Since Hotaru and Grim were staying in Ignihyde until the major renovations were done, Kyouya had to find other accommodations.
Hotaru wasn't the least bit surprised that Riddle had offered to let him stay in the dorm. Since he wasn't an official student, it made little sense to give him a full room.
So as a compromise, Riddle had Trey move in one of the bigger couches into his room and gave Kyouya some pillows and a blanket. It would allow him to keep an eye on the violent teen, while at the same time keeping Kyouya out of mischief.
Idia had simply given Riddle and Kyouya their own monitoring bands, mostly because it was pretty obvious that Riddle was edging towards "active" status when it came to "Dying Will Flames". Kyouya, if he wasn't already Active, was very close to being so.
He was getting all sorts of fascinating readings from the two, and it was helping their swiftly growing database on the energy.
Eventually Kyouya got word from his grandfather (Fon) that the worst of the threats in Namimori had been...neutralized. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Fon had called in some help to do a bit of...spring cleaning as it were.
Kyouya was oddly reluctant to leave. He found it rather soothing to be in Heartsabyl, and it had taken all of three days for the dorm to realize they had it good with Riddle and to shape up the second they knew Kyouya was around.
Riddle was absolutely delighted. Trey, not so much.
Cater found it hilarious that the others were far quicker to obey the Queen's rules, no matter how small, if it meant not getting their head caved in by a tonfa. If Kyouya didn't end up as the Housewarden the second Riddle began interning on his fourth year, Cater would eat his phone.
Riddle and Kyouya had the weirdest friendship he had ever seen though. Even stranger was how Riddle reacted once the older boy left.
He became more twitchy, almost like he was going through withdrawal or something.
The only thing that seemed to sooth it was being around Hotaru, who gave him extra hugs to compensate for...something.
When she called Fon later, he commented on Kyouya experiencing the same symptoms. Except he took them out (with unholy glee, Fon would add) on the remaining intruders on his turf.
The Momoyokai, who were the lone yakuza group in Namimori, wisely kept their heads down and waited for the inevitable to pass. Or at least settle into a new norm.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear Kyouya was suffering the effects of a partial harmonization that was cut off too soon," said Fon.
Hotaru paused, her instincts telling her to speak up.
"Just out of curiosity, what exactly does harmony look like?" she asked slowly.
Fon told her, and then his eyes widened when she described Riddle's behavior. His eyebrows went up in shock when Hotaru told him that Riddle was classed as a partially inactive Wrath...which was a subset of the Sky flames.
"This could be bad. It would be in their best interests to at least settle the bond before something happens," said Fon.
Hotaru thought about it, before an idea occurred to her.
"How would you and those friends of yours like to come to a rather quaint festival?"
"Go on."
"Another friend of ours, Jack, convinced the headmage to get the students to help with a local festival because they were having trouble bringing it's popularity up. It means Riddle would be outside the school for an extended period and give you a chance to do...whatever it is...that needs to be done to settle the bond. And it would give you a chance to meet him properly."
Fon had a broad smile, as he was very curious what Kyouya's Sky was like.
It took very little convincing to get some of the Arcobaleno to join them, even if the festival really was pretty low-key.
Kyouya just wanted to see the island again...and give the Heartsabyl students nightmares of never being rid of him anytime soon.
