[Fic] Windshear [Part 3/?]
Yet another Update Wednesday ^_^ and we have no work today - YAY - 'cause October 1 is the Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, which means a National Day for people in Hong Kong, Macau, and also Independence Day of Cyprus and Nigeria and Tuvalu, and Happy Malaysian New Year <-- what on earth, so many XD Either way, I'm chillin' and I hope everyone can find something to celebrate too. Enjoy!
Windshear [Part 3/?]
Authors: kagayachou and the-dw
Characters/Pairings: Yamamoto, Hibari, Reborn, Tsuna. Eventual Yamamoto/Hibari.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 5677
Summary: A mission did not go as planned. It wasn't as easy as they thought to escape from the future.
Hibari wiped the sweat out of his eyes as he gripped his tonfas tighter in his hand, the cold steel pressing against his flesh, seeping in nearly to the bone. His lips stretched into a bloodthirsty grin as he crouched down lower behind rows upon rows of cardboard boxes full of 'sardine' cans. And inside these cans, hidden within the stomachs of the sardines, were of course drugs, non-prescription. It was quite a genius idea, really.
He was waiting for a signal from Yamamoto - his temporary partner, because Reborn insisted, and Tsuna, good student he was, always listened to Reborn - so he could just slaughter that group of crowding, noisy herbivores already. These men... he snorted to himself. They were so incompetent as to not notice that he and Yamamoto had crept into their base two days ago, and yet they thought well enough of themselves to want to try to bring down the Vongola and assassinate Tsuna?
Empty-headed idiots. Empty vessels did make the most noise, he thought derisively to himself as he heard another loud cheer come from the group.
His throat tickled; his chest twinge with pain, like someone like plucked a nerve carelessly enough to severe it. He bit back the gasp and swallowed the cough. Damnit, not now. Not during a mission. Not when he's so close to his kill-
Goddamnit, why couldn't Yamamoto just hurry up?! What the hell was he doing?
***
Upstairs, Yamamoto had been sweeping the poker table clean and laughing it off while his sorry opponents groaned. It was all just a game, he said as he stood up, gathering what little belongings he'd brought. A harmless game, because he wasn't really out to empty their wallets. Seriously, he meant it, because, "There'll be plenty of Vongola money to go around after this."
This, being the moment he took a step forward, drawing Shigure Kintoki in a wide, horizontal arc above the table. Cards scattered. Heads rolled. The laughter around him halted into palpable shock.
And the Vongola Rain guardian kept going, quietly, calmly. One room, two, third floor cleared, down to second...
There was no savouring the moment, or freezing in horror, because it really wasn't a game. Yamamoto was on a mission. His name was on his family's payroll and, ironically, on the Hit List that his sorry opponents made up when they naively decided that they were big enough to take on the Vongola and make a name for themselves.
At first, Yamamoto had laughed out loud at these men who thought they could do away with him and his loved ones when they openly invited mercenaries, all but welcoming strangers to their cause. He wanted to see if there was anything worth salvaging before he and Hibari made a clean sweep of the place.
Reborn gave him the green light. Hibari tolerated his voluntary foray into enemy territory. But Yamamoto hadn't been completely honest with either of them, or even with himself.
It was just that... of all the Vongola guardians, they knew a few by name and face. It was inevitable with Gokudera, the Vongola Tenth's Right Hand Man. His distinctive coloring was hard to miss in its own right. Ryohei was just as loud on the radar. Yamamoto rather liked where he stood - infamous yet invisible.
Hibari would have liked that, he supposed, but... Hibari Kyouya was... is a legend among mafia. The strongest. The deadliest. The most recognizable, because the man never felt that he had anything to hide.
But it had just been that obvious to Yamamoto, after doing some research back in their hometown, that Hibari... wasn't in a good condition to fight. So when the time came for Hibari to act, Yamamoto had to make sure that the sick man would still have enough energy afterwards to bite him to death for taking matters into his own hands.
Yamamoto gave a cry as he thrust his blade upwards into another man's heart, a cry that ended as a decisive shout when his sword struck home, his prayer to deliver a quick death swiftly answered.
***
Even Hibari's willpower and persistence had their limits, it seemed, with this irritating affliction of his. He couldn't stop the small cough from slipping out, and that was all it needed to give him away, because a second later, the basement went completely silent, as if the herbivores had scented a predator in their midst.
They were right about that, if they had been wrong with everything in their lives.
Hibari wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before unfolding himself and standing up, his eyes glinting cold and fierce. He heard one of the herbivores try to gasp his name, another one scrambling for his phone, but that was all the time they had. He struck.
It didn't take him long to clear the flock, but when he bent down to pick up the fallen phone from a puddle of blood, his brow creased. One of them had managed to get a call through, yet... yet the alarm wasn't sounding. Did Yamamoto manage to disable them, after all, and conveniently forgot to give Hibari the signal? Hibari gritted his teeth, turning on his heel and running up the stairs.
The basement levels were all crawling with herbivores, but they were barely worth his interest - he bit them all to death with the ease of a lion stepping on an ant. It was only when he reached the upper floors that he realized what Yamamoto had been doing.
Blood coated the floor and the walls, the metallic smell of iron and death weaving in the air. The blood had not yet congealed - these men were not long dead, killed by Yamamoto's hand. No one else would be able to loop a head off a neck with such clean precision - the only reason so much blood was spilled was because of the sheer number of dead bodies.
Hibari growled under his breath - that man... he stole Hibari's prey.
***
White shirt stained with ugly blotches of red, Yamamoto only halted when he saw Hibari at the top of the stairs. He blinked, and his metal sword reverted back to its rested state, looking as though it was a mere training katana soaked through with blood.
Yamamoto smiled sheepishly, "What happened downstairs?" He gave the man a quick once over as he spoke, shoulders sagging in relief because Hibari had barely broken a sweat.
Hibari tilted his head up, giving Yamamoto a flat, cold stare. "You were taking far too long, so I eliminated those," he waved a negligent hand. His eyes turned even harder and chillier as he took a step forward, then another, until his tonfas were within reach of Yamamoto's head. "I thought we had a plan."
"... Ahahaha, sorry." His smile was a little strained around the edges, but really, Yamamoto didn't look all that sorry. "I... did manage to disable all the alarms and traps, but," he glanced aside briefly, recalling how he probably sliced through everything that came at him. "I wanted to make sure..."
Hibari took a step forward, and another. He toyed with the tonfa in his hand, almost as if weighing it before twisting his wrist in a certain way, pressing that hidden catch in the joint between the handle and the bar itself.
He didn't need his ring's flame to deal with this nuisance.
Spikes rose from steel with a snickt, and Hibari's lips curled into a sneer as he held the tonfa against Yamamoto's throat, the two of them close enough to share breaths.
"You presume too much, Yamamoto Takeshi," he snarled, and drew his arm back.
Yamamoto dodged and easily stepped out of the way. It'd only been a matter of time before Hibari would be after his blood today. He'd been expecting it since first blood was drawn. But honestly, at least he could be sure that he wouldn't hurt Hibari. The guy was so righteous and straightforward. If his opponents were more underhanded - quite a lot of them couldn't fight actually, but they were certainly trigger happy -
A bullet... in Hibari. Was too much to risk.
"And you'd push yourself even if you broke more than half the bones in your body," he stated. It was fact after all, rather than an assumption.
Hibari's eyes flashed at the implication of the sentence, his footsteps quick as he moved forward, aiming for Yamamoto's throat again. How dare that man presume that he would have to 'push himself' with these mere herbivores? He bared his teeth and growled, reaching forward to grab onto Yamamoto's collar, and slammed him against the wall.
Then he gasped, his fingers turning numb suddenly as his weapons dropped on the floor. His traitorous legs folded upon themselves, sending him crashing to the ground as a hand grabbed at his throat, nearly clawing at it, another bunching his shirt. His lungs felt as if they had been replaced by acid, the pain flaring like raw fire in his chest. Every breath felt like a million knives stabbing into him, but he continued to gulp air nonetheless - he wasn't going to die because of this. He refused to.
He wasn't going to die such in such a pathetic way, like any other sick animal abandoned by the herd.
His vision swam, but he clung onto consciousness with all the tenacity of a drowning man who had just found a raft. Damnit- Damnit
Despite the fact that his head was ringing, it was automatic; Yamamoto sheathed his weapon and made a grab for Hibari. The older man was alarmingly light however. Yamamoto swore beneath his breath - he could feel Hibari's ribs far too easily.
"Hang in there, Hibari," he fumbled for the cell phone in his pant pocket and barked orders at the backup. They would clean up the rest. Of that, he was certain, but Hibari...
"I'm sorry, but I still have to do this."
He picked Hibari up bridal style - probably jostled him when he bent down to pick up the tonfas as well, then headed down the stairs as quick and carefully as he could.
Hibari grabbed onto Yamamoto's tie and twisted it, pulling it back so that it wrapped around the other man's throat. Forcing his eyes completely open and ignoring the black stars clouding his vision, he swallowed and panted out, "Put. Me. Down."
He wasn't some damsel in distress that needed to be carried out. It was just pain - he had fought and won against enemies while feeling more pain than this. He didn't need anyone's help, and definitely not in such an absolutely humiliating way. Damnit- he twisted the tie even more, making sure that it pressed against the soft skin of Yamamoto's throat, his eyes flashing in unadulterated rage as he glared at the swordsman.
Yamamoto gave a breathless laugh. "I'll put you down. At the door. Or before anyone else sees." Ducking his head to counter the pressure against his neck, he was half-serious as he reasoned, "I can't do that while you're trying to strangle me..."
Hibari sounded perfectly reasonable - albeit with a snarl in his voice - as he countered, "If you put me down right now, then I will stop-"
His voice cut off halfway and he ducked his head down, his hand tightening even more on Yamamoto's tie but not pulling as a fresh wave of pain washed over him, knocking what little wind there was out of his lungs. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, pressing his lips together until they turned white from the pressure so he would not make any sound. He felt humiliated enough already, and he would rather die before showing Yamamoto more of his weaknesses.
He tried to breathe through his nose, curling towards himself involuntarily. It hurt; the agony was worse than when Mukuro had broken half his bones. At least at that time the pain was spread throughout his body - now it was concentrated on his chest, so much that he was starting to feel numb everywhere else.
For a moment, he doubted that he would be able to stand even if Yamamoto put him down again.
But that wasn't about to happen soon. Yamamoto's lips thinned as Hibari curled up. He tucked him into his arms, as securely as he could, and hurried down the stairs. Even when he reached the main entrance of the warehouse, he just set the weapons down so that he could focus on Hibari.
Yet Yamamoto said he'd put Hibari down, so he knelt. Sat down, still holding the man. All he knew was that Hibari's illness wasn't contagious. The cause and cure however seemed little more than abstract concepts.
Hibari breathed through his nose and tried to regulate his breathing, calming his body down so it wouldn't get worse. The first time this had happened, he nearly had a panic attack on top of everything else, but now he knew how to deal with it - he had always been a fast learner. Picturing the pain to be a bunch of clouds in his chest, he slowly 'gathered' it all into a ball, concentrating all the pain to the place where he had been shot, all of five months ago - the corner of his left lung. Then he imagined the ball of be shut up in a box, and the box being shoved somewhere deep inside his psyche, so deep that he couldn't see it anymore.
The pain slowly subsided, and his breathing eased slightly. This... it was almost like meditation, except that rather than clearing his mind he was simply ignoring the pain. Sooner or later it would flare up again, but he would be away from Yamamoto - away from anyone else - by then.
He relaxed his grip on Yamamoto's tie, letting his hand fall down to his side. "Let me go," he ordered, voice barely above a hoarse whisper. "I can walk by myself."
Yamamoto cleared his throat and sighed. "Yeah, you might be able to walk by yourself," he began, "but you don't have to do that all the time when you've got friends, who are willing to support you."
Gradually, he lowered Hibari so that the man could lean against a wall. Then, he sat down beside him and looked at the cleanest spot in the room - the pipe ceiling.
"I know there's nothing much that I can do to help you, but if there's anything I can do for you, I want to."
Hibari propped his shoulder up against the wall, gathering his legs beneath him. He pressed his palm flat on the ground and used it to push himself upwards to a standing position, putting most of his weight against the wall. His legs wobbled slightly, still slightly numb, but Hibari steeled himself and pushed away from the wall, standing up straight.
The world blacked out for a moment, but he simply closed his eyes, then opened them. It was spinning slightly on its axis still, and he could feel blood pounding in his head - he was going to have a bad headache from this. But all of these were inconsequential.
Hibari Kyouya did whatever he wanted to do, and not even his own body was capable to stopping him.
He took a step forward, then turned slightly back, giving Yamamoto a cold glance. "Don't be so ridiculously sentimental. Get up; we're going."
Yamamoto watched him get up, wide-eyed with something akin to shock. He knew Hibari was strong - the guy could move even when poisoned with something that could kill wild elephants.
But this... this thing drew a reaction from him, and a violent one at that.
Nonetheless, it was heartening to see Hibari make it to his feet once again. Yamamoto watched him carefully, preparing for anything. He wasn't even aware of the silly, sentimental smile upon his lips.
***
The car pulled up just as Hibari and Yamamoto reached the main road - Kusakabe's timing was impeccable, as always. Pulling open the door to the backseat, Hibari dropped himself into the car and leaned back against the leather, closing his eyes for just a moment. He waited for Yamamoto to settle into the car before nodding, "Let's go, Tetsu."
Kusakabe didn't nod or acknowledge the order - he didn't need to. Shooting a quick, worried glance at his boss, he shook his head to himself and stepped on the accelerator. If Hibari needed anything else, he would say it - it simply wasn't Kusakabe's place to pry, even though he was worried about his leader's condition. After all, he did have self-preservation.
Hibari exhaled slowly, letting the wave of exhaustion wash over him like low tide over sand. Without opening his eyes, he announced, "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me and I'll bite you to death."
"Haha," Yamamoto just fastened his seat belt, and leaned back. "I'll wake you when we're back at the base."
Kusakabe kept his eyes on the road. There wasn't just something wrong with Hibari Kyouya, he thought. That answer convinced him that Yamamoto Takeshi was insane.
***
"Aa~h," Yamamoto stretched his arms. "Thanks for the ride, Kusakabe-san!" He turned towards Hibari, first to see if that would wake him, ... and then to stare, because... Hibari was still severely beautiful despite being ill enough to cough a lung out.
Hibari blinked, eyes fluttering open as he was woken up by the noise Yamamoto was making. The car had stopped already - they had most likely reached the Vongola mansion already - so he simply opened the car door and stepped outside without acknowledging either Kusakabe or Yamamoto.
He had noticed Yamamoto's stare, but he had gotten so used to eyes on him - either Mukuro and his creepy stalking tendencies, the wide, fear-filled eyes of his previous classmates, or enemies trying to take him down - that he simply dismissed it when he realized that there was no danger. Striding up to the door, he pressed his hand against a particular panel, and the door opened soundlessly.
Yamamoto grinned and hurried to catch up with Hibari, slowing down only when he was at his side. First things first, he and Hibari would report to Reborn. Together, then separately...
"Hey," Yamamoto looked over, "After this, let's grab dinner together." Call him a little paranoid, but he didn't want to leave Hibari alone for too long just yet.
Hibari slanted his eyes over to Yamamoto, giving him a flat, emotionless stare. "I'd rather not," he said, tone cold and dry. "What makes you think that I would want to spend so much time with you?"
"Ahahahaha," Yamamoto scratched the back of his head, "It was worth a shot," he shrugged.
Stopping in front of the office of the Vongola Tenth, Hibari raised a hand and knocked.
Through the door, they heard the voice of Sawada Tsunayoshi, who bid them to enter freely. As Yamamoto opened the door, his stance shifting slightly. He seemed a little more tired, moved a little slower.
Hibari, in contrast, straightened his shoulders even further as he stepped into the room. Tsuna's 'hyper-intuition' was dangerous - Hibari had no intention of letting anyone else, include the Vongola Head, know about his current weakness. The fact that Yamamoto had found out was damaging enough.
Hibird, who had been making its nest in Tsuna’s hair, chirped his name and flew over to his shoulder, settling in. Hibari tilted his head slightly to the side to accommodate it.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi," he greeted, inclining his head slightly. From him, it meant as much as the deepest bow. Eyes flickered over to the man lounging on Tsuna's office couch, his hat pulled low over his eyes. Hibari's lips curled slightly into a smirk, "Yo, baby."
Reborn was no longer a baby - the curse was broken quite some time ago - but he had never objected to Hibari calling him that, and so Hibari had seen no need to change. The tall man, looking far more adult than the rest of them put together, tilted his hat backwards, turning his eyes up to smile at Hibari, a knowing glint in his eyes.
Hibari met those eyes straight on, challenging Reborn. The 'baby' had indeed kept his mouth shut about Hibari's weakness, for what reasons he could not fathom and had no interest in understanding. But Reborn seemed to almost taunt him with that knowledge every time they met. It was rather irritating.
Reborn eventually broke the stare, turning to Tsuna with a small smirk on his lips.
Tsuna was on his feet immediately when he saw the blood-speckled pair. "Hibari-san! Yamamoto!" He stopped short of Hibari's personal space and looked them up and down unabashedly. "H-how did everything go?"
It seemed as though he was afraid to ask, but Yamamoto was pretty sure Tsuna already heard quite a bit it from the cleanup crew.
"Maa..." He waved it off, "We did what we set out to do."
Hibari didn't even answer: he simply shrugged, crossing his arms and turning away. Even after so long, even after ordering these hits, Tsuna seemed to be unable to get over his distaste for blood. Really, it was quite disconcerting how much Tsuna had kept his herbivorish nature despite his current strength.
"There were some kids upstairs who didn't know what they were getting into when they joined," Yamamoto was telling Tsuna and Reborn. "I told them that it was nothing personal, and that they should get out of Family business while they're ahead, but," he shrugged, "either way they'll spread the message."
He'd knocked them out, but trusted the rest of the family to make sure those living would wake up in a hospital rather than with their dead.
Reborn nodded from his place on the couch. He watched Hibari for a moment, noting the slight sheen of sweat on his neck and forehead, barely noticeable to even him. Then, he turned back to Yamamoto, "Good. That's one less threat to the Vongola, then." He leaned back against the couch, the picture of relaxation. When he spoke again, his tone was perfectly casual. "Is there anything else you have to report? Hibari?"
Hibari did not scowl. He knew that the baby was trying to hint something to him, but he refused to take the bait. His expression unchanging, he answered tonelessly, "No."
Yamamoto turned to Hibari, a mild smile on his face. But then, he was always smiling like that. A corner of his lips quirked up as he looked away. "We weren't wounded there, kiddo. ... So don't worry, Tsuna."
He looked back at Tsuna, who seemed half-confused and half-relieved. "But... you're really bloody, Yamamoto..." Something nagged at Tsuna, and he couldn't quite place his finger on it. He could faintly tell that Yamamoto was hiding something. And from earlier reports, he and Hibari really cleaned out the area. Hibari looked normal with only a few speckles of blood on his shirt, but Yamamoto's shirt had odd smears here and there like he'd fought someone without his sword to put them at a distance.
Reborn raised an eyebrow - good, Tsuna's observational skills were increasing again, even without switching on his hyper-intuition - and smirked slightly, hiding his eyes with the brim of his hat. "Oh? Did the two of you end up fighting each other?"
He doubted it - Yamamoto and Hibari did work the best together, after all, with nary a conflict. In fact, Yamamoto was the only person whom Hibari could work with - Gokudera ended up wanting to blow him up, Ryohei lost his temper three seconds in, Lambo was terrified, and Mukuro... he wasn't as much of an idiot as to try to pair them together. But he couldn't resist teasing them - they were as much his students as Tsuna was, after all.
Hibari's flickered over to Reborn for a moment, ignoring the bait, again. "Is there anything else? If not, I'm going."
Yamamoto laughed at the question. It was so like Reborn to hit the nail on the hammer seemingly without any effort. Hibari fought him tooth and nail when he carried him. He looked down at his own shirt, so similarly crumpled, like the rest of Hibari's clothes.
"Wait," Reborn said, tilting his head up to look at Hibari with narrowed eyes. "It wasn't the sakura, Hibari. It was the white orchid."
The white orchid?
Byakuran flickered through their minds. Yamamoto gaped and Tsuna gave a start.
"R-Reborn! What are you talking about?"
Hibari's eyes narrowed, and his hands clenched involuntarily. The Millefiore- no, they were only the Gesso family now. Uni and the Giglionero family never did approach Byakuran for help - Dino got to them first. They had made very sure about that.
He closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling a long, silent breath. Given Byakuran's personality, this made finding the cure even more difficult. Not that it's going to stop him - far from it. More than just his life, it was his pride that was on the line - he wasn't going to be taken down as easy as a bullet to the lung and a disease that turned his own body against him.
Reborn smiled to himself both at Tsuna's reaction - the boy still had much to learn - and the hard light in Hibari's eyes. He wasn't that he had thought Hibari would give up - those words were the antithesis to Hibari's entire being - but with that much of sheer stubbornness, it didn't look as if Hibari was going to go down any time soon.
"Nothing, silly Tsuna," he smirked at Hibari, not looking at his student. "Just a little word game that we're playing."
Hibari rolled his eyes - the baby seemed to have grown even fonder of his little 'games' with Tsuna ever since he aged back to an adult. Shrugging, he turned away, "I'm going back," he announced. Hibird echoed the sentiment.
"A-All right then," Tsuna nodded. "Thank you for your work, Hibari-san." He looked from one guardian to the other, about to thank him as well, when...
Yamamoto looked torn between Hibari and Reborn. On the one hand, he wanted to be sure Hibari was going to be all right at least for the time being. On the other hand, he wanted a private word with Reborn about what he just said.
Was Byakuran involved in what he thought Reborn was talking about-?
"Yamamoto?"
Startled, Yamamoto looked back at the young man standing in front of him. "... Ahahaha, actually, I..." He hesitated, waiting for the door to shut.
"I wanna talk with the kiddo 'bout something, if you don't mind?" He looked at the other two.
Yamamoto knew, Reborn realized in a flash of insight, his eyes snapping towards that Guardian from where he was watching Hibari walk out of the door. Now that was unexpected - Reborn himself only knew about Hibari's condition because Hibari had wanted information from him, and because Reborn had managed to manipulate that conversation enough to get the truth out of him. He didn't expect anyone else to be aware, because if there was anything Hibari hated the most, it was revealing any weakness.
He pushed himself off the couch, standing and dusting himself off needlessly. "Come with me, Yamamoto," he said. "I have something that I want to talk to you about as well."
"Great!" Yamamoto grinned brightly. "Later, Tsuna!" He waved and followed Reborn out the door before Tsuna could even think 'why didn't Reborn mention anything like that sooner'.
"Later!"
Tsuna worried his lower lip for a moment, then sighed as he glanced back at his table. His report-filled table. Fine then. Reborn would tell him if there was something he seriously needed to know - or call him silly for not knowing when the time was right. He'd just have to keep a closer eye on Yamamoto in the meantime...
***
As Reborn led him up to the roof of the mansion, Yamamoto quietly gathered his thoughts. Reborn had proof that Byakuran was behind Hibari's illness? Why? Why him of all people? Hadn't he targeted Tsuna before?
It wasn't that he wanted history to repeat itself. After fighting Millefiore almost ten years ago, and successfully preventing its formation, it was obvious many things would be different.
Reborn opened the door of the roof, stepping through. He closed the door behind Yamamoto before striding over to the edge, leaning over the railing as he stared out at the beautiful Italian sea view. While he was in Japan, he had missed this - as much as he generally missed anything - the smell of the salty sea air, the distant lights of Venice, the barely-there sounds of the moving tide. Reborn closed his eyes.
"Yamamoto," he began. "Do you know how Tsuna had died, in that world?"
Yamamoto's mind shut down. Almost mechanically, he shook his head,"... Gamma said that he has been gunned down, but I don't know anything more than that."
They'd never asked to know more, as though it was bad luck, or because hearing it spoken out loud might actually make it happen in their world, to their Tsuna.
"Are you telling me this is related?"
Reborn watched him silently. He knew that this was a topic that was still sensitive to those who went to the future ten years ago, but it was an issue that needed to be dealt with. Especially now.
"Ah," he nodded. "In that world... Tsuna was shot... but it was only in the lung by a stray bullet. It wasn't fatal, so no one had thought much about it after the wound healed, but then..." he took a breath. It was his greatest failure to date, even though it wasn't really his - it was the mistake of the 'him' in that parallel world. Yet it was still choking to speak about it.
"His lungs started breaking down, seemingly for no reason. It was, I heard, a horrifically painful process for him," his tone was almost contemplative, thoughtful, his emotions veiled. "It was so painful that one day he called Hibari over and told him a few things - about Millefiore, about how to change things. Then he requested something."
Reborn turned around and faced Yamamoto squarely, meeting those oddly blank eyes with his own intense ones. "Hibari was the one who killed Tsuna in that world. In an act of mercy."
"... Heh," Yamamoto couldn't quite laugh actually. "A bullet to the lung... and Hibari got involved?" He stared at his shoes, his smile turning bitter. It was bad enough to find out that his father was killed in that world, and to learn what he had done as a result of it.
He rubbed his chin, the skin there smooth because, thankfully, he never went nuts to avenge his father's death in this world.
"But why did Hibari get shot this time? He didn't take a shot for Tsuna..."
Reborn turned back to face the sea again, his eyes half-lidded. But his hands betrayed his tension, gripping the cold metal railing tightly enough to make the bones of his wrists stand out. His jaw tightened momentarily before he sighed and relaxed himself, folding his arms.
"Tsuna's too well-protected - all of us made sure of that," he looked up and stared into the distance. "I'm guessing that Byakuran decided to take a different route this time, and kill off the strongest Guardian rather than the leader."
His tone was deceptively casual, as if this was a conversation about the weather.
Yamamoto closed his eyes. Two seconds later he threw his head back to give an abrupt laugh that ended with a tight smile. He said nothing as he leaned against the railing, eyeing the orangey pink clouds around the setting sun.
It seemed like the same thing was happening all over again, really. Tsuna, his father, and now Hibari: it was all just cause and effect. They changed some variables but they couldn't change everything.
"Will he...?"
Reborn pulled his hat down further, hiding his eyes. "It depends on how soon we can get the cure. I doubt it, however." He smiled slightly, turning his eyes up to look into Yamamoto's. "Hibari's willpower is legendary, after all."
A short pause, and he shook his head, "How did you find out about it?"
Yamamoto looked at Reborn. "He coughed," he simply said, before it occurred to him how bad it must have been for Hibari for him to show it. "It looked painful," he added. The words felt inadequate. "It sounded painful too, but Hibari insisted nothing was wrong, so I asked his doctors."
Reborn chuckled lightly, leaning back against the railing, his posture now relaxed. He was right - Hibari didn't tell him about it; Yamamoto had to figure it out by himself. It was certainly interesting that Yamamoto actually tried to find out what happened... He made a mental note to watch these two closely, because there might be something interesting blooming.
But, Hibari's condition took precedence.
"I'm surprised that they even told you," he pushed the brim of his hat back, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "I was under the impression that they were terrified into keeping their mouths shut."
And Yamamoto terrified them into opening their mouths when, "I smiled at them. And I told them I'm one of... 'Kyouya's' concerned friends."
Reborn laughed again. He wasn't entirely surprised by that - Yamamoto's smile was one of his greatest weapons in his arsenal, after all. "Only you could have pulled that off," he commented, words that were almost praise.
Pushing himself off the railing, he started towards the door. He stopped right in front of it and turned around, giving Yamamoto a somewhat serious look, "I don't think I need to remind you to inform Hibari of this, hmm?"
Back: Part 2
Next: Part 4
Windshear [Part 3/?]
Authors: kagayachou and the-dw
Characters/Pairings: Yamamoto, Hibari, Reborn, Tsuna. Eventual Yamamoto/Hibari.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 5677
Summary: A mission did not go as planned. It wasn't as easy as they thought to escape from the future.
Hibari wiped the sweat out of his eyes as he gripped his tonfas tighter in his hand, the cold steel pressing against his flesh, seeping in nearly to the bone. His lips stretched into a bloodthirsty grin as he crouched down lower behind rows upon rows of cardboard boxes full of 'sardine' cans. And inside these cans, hidden within the stomachs of the sardines, were of course drugs, non-prescription. It was quite a genius idea, really.
He was waiting for a signal from Yamamoto - his temporary partner, because Reborn insisted, and Tsuna, good student he was, always listened to Reborn - so he could just slaughter that group of crowding, noisy herbivores already. These men... he snorted to himself. They were so incompetent as to not notice that he and Yamamoto had crept into their base two days ago, and yet they thought well enough of themselves to want to try to bring down the Vongola and assassinate Tsuna?
Empty-headed idiots. Empty vessels did make the most noise, he thought derisively to himself as he heard another loud cheer come from the group.
His throat tickled; his chest twinge with pain, like someone like plucked a nerve carelessly enough to severe it. He bit back the gasp and swallowed the cough. Damnit, not now. Not during a mission. Not when he's so close to his kill-
Goddamnit, why couldn't Yamamoto just hurry up?! What the hell was he doing?
***
Upstairs, Yamamoto had been sweeping the poker table clean and laughing it off while his sorry opponents groaned. It was all just a game, he said as he stood up, gathering what little belongings he'd brought. A harmless game, because he wasn't really out to empty their wallets. Seriously, he meant it, because, "There'll be plenty of Vongola money to go around after this."
This, being the moment he took a step forward, drawing Shigure Kintoki in a wide, horizontal arc above the table. Cards scattered. Heads rolled. The laughter around him halted into palpable shock.
And the Vongola Rain guardian kept going, quietly, calmly. One room, two, third floor cleared, down to second...
There was no savouring the moment, or freezing in horror, because it really wasn't a game. Yamamoto was on a mission. His name was on his family's payroll and, ironically, on the Hit List that his sorry opponents made up when they naively decided that they were big enough to take on the Vongola and make a name for themselves.
At first, Yamamoto had laughed out loud at these men who thought they could do away with him and his loved ones when they openly invited mercenaries, all but welcoming strangers to their cause. He wanted to see if there was anything worth salvaging before he and Hibari made a clean sweep of the place.
Reborn gave him the green light. Hibari tolerated his voluntary foray into enemy territory. But Yamamoto hadn't been completely honest with either of them, or even with himself.
It was just that... of all the Vongola guardians, they knew a few by name and face. It was inevitable with Gokudera, the Vongola Tenth's Right Hand Man. His distinctive coloring was hard to miss in its own right. Ryohei was just as loud on the radar. Yamamoto rather liked where he stood - infamous yet invisible.
Hibari would have liked that, he supposed, but... Hibari Kyouya was... is a legend among mafia. The strongest. The deadliest. The most recognizable, because the man never felt that he had anything to hide.
But it had just been that obvious to Yamamoto, after doing some research back in their hometown, that Hibari... wasn't in a good condition to fight. So when the time came for Hibari to act, Yamamoto had to make sure that the sick man would still have enough energy afterwards to bite him to death for taking matters into his own hands.
Yamamoto gave a cry as he thrust his blade upwards into another man's heart, a cry that ended as a decisive shout when his sword struck home, his prayer to deliver a quick death swiftly answered.
***
Even Hibari's willpower and persistence had their limits, it seemed, with this irritating affliction of his. He couldn't stop the small cough from slipping out, and that was all it needed to give him away, because a second later, the basement went completely silent, as if the herbivores had scented a predator in their midst.
They were right about that, if they had been wrong with everything in their lives.
Hibari wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before unfolding himself and standing up, his eyes glinting cold and fierce. He heard one of the herbivores try to gasp his name, another one scrambling for his phone, but that was all the time they had. He struck.
It didn't take him long to clear the flock, but when he bent down to pick up the fallen phone from a puddle of blood, his brow creased. One of them had managed to get a call through, yet... yet the alarm wasn't sounding. Did Yamamoto manage to disable them, after all, and conveniently forgot to give Hibari the signal? Hibari gritted his teeth, turning on his heel and running up the stairs.
The basement levels were all crawling with herbivores, but they were barely worth his interest - he bit them all to death with the ease of a lion stepping on an ant. It was only when he reached the upper floors that he realized what Yamamoto had been doing.
Blood coated the floor and the walls, the metallic smell of iron and death weaving in the air. The blood had not yet congealed - these men were not long dead, killed by Yamamoto's hand. No one else would be able to loop a head off a neck with such clean precision - the only reason so much blood was spilled was because of the sheer number of dead bodies.
Hibari growled under his breath - that man... he stole Hibari's prey.
***
White shirt stained with ugly blotches of red, Yamamoto only halted when he saw Hibari at the top of the stairs. He blinked, and his metal sword reverted back to its rested state, looking as though it was a mere training katana soaked through with blood.
Yamamoto smiled sheepishly, "What happened downstairs?" He gave the man a quick once over as he spoke, shoulders sagging in relief because Hibari had barely broken a sweat.
Hibari tilted his head up, giving Yamamoto a flat, cold stare. "You were taking far too long, so I eliminated those," he waved a negligent hand. His eyes turned even harder and chillier as he took a step forward, then another, until his tonfas were within reach of Yamamoto's head. "I thought we had a plan."
"... Ahahaha, sorry." His smile was a little strained around the edges, but really, Yamamoto didn't look all that sorry. "I... did manage to disable all the alarms and traps, but," he glanced aside briefly, recalling how he probably sliced through everything that came at him. "I wanted to make sure..."
Hibari took a step forward, and another. He toyed with the tonfa in his hand, almost as if weighing it before twisting his wrist in a certain way, pressing that hidden catch in the joint between the handle and the bar itself.
He didn't need his ring's flame to deal with this nuisance.
Spikes rose from steel with a snickt, and Hibari's lips curled into a sneer as he held the tonfa against Yamamoto's throat, the two of them close enough to share breaths.
"You presume too much, Yamamoto Takeshi," he snarled, and drew his arm back.
Yamamoto dodged and easily stepped out of the way. It'd only been a matter of time before Hibari would be after his blood today. He'd been expecting it since first blood was drawn. But honestly, at least he could be sure that he wouldn't hurt Hibari. The guy was so righteous and straightforward. If his opponents were more underhanded - quite a lot of them couldn't fight actually, but they were certainly trigger happy -
A bullet... in Hibari. Was too much to risk.
"And you'd push yourself even if you broke more than half the bones in your body," he stated. It was fact after all, rather than an assumption.
Hibari's eyes flashed at the implication of the sentence, his footsteps quick as he moved forward, aiming for Yamamoto's throat again. How dare that man presume that he would have to 'push himself' with these mere herbivores? He bared his teeth and growled, reaching forward to grab onto Yamamoto's collar, and slammed him against the wall.
Then he gasped, his fingers turning numb suddenly as his weapons dropped on the floor. His traitorous legs folded upon themselves, sending him crashing to the ground as a hand grabbed at his throat, nearly clawing at it, another bunching his shirt. His lungs felt as if they had been replaced by acid, the pain flaring like raw fire in his chest. Every breath felt like a million knives stabbing into him, but he continued to gulp air nonetheless - he wasn't going to die because of this. He refused to.
He wasn't going to die such in such a pathetic way, like any other sick animal abandoned by the herd.
His vision swam, but he clung onto consciousness with all the tenacity of a drowning man who had just found a raft. Damnit- Damnit
Despite the fact that his head was ringing, it was automatic; Yamamoto sheathed his weapon and made a grab for Hibari. The older man was alarmingly light however. Yamamoto swore beneath his breath - he could feel Hibari's ribs far too easily.
"Hang in there, Hibari," he fumbled for the cell phone in his pant pocket and barked orders at the backup. They would clean up the rest. Of that, he was certain, but Hibari...
"I'm sorry, but I still have to do this."
He picked Hibari up bridal style - probably jostled him when he bent down to pick up the tonfas as well, then headed down the stairs as quick and carefully as he could.
Hibari grabbed onto Yamamoto's tie and twisted it, pulling it back so that it wrapped around the other man's throat. Forcing his eyes completely open and ignoring the black stars clouding his vision, he swallowed and panted out, "Put. Me. Down."
He wasn't some damsel in distress that needed to be carried out. It was just pain - he had fought and won against enemies while feeling more pain than this. He didn't need anyone's help, and definitely not in such an absolutely humiliating way. Damnit- he twisted the tie even more, making sure that it pressed against the soft skin of Yamamoto's throat, his eyes flashing in unadulterated rage as he glared at the swordsman.
Yamamoto gave a breathless laugh. "I'll put you down. At the door. Or before anyone else sees." Ducking his head to counter the pressure against his neck, he was half-serious as he reasoned, "I can't do that while you're trying to strangle me..."
Hibari sounded perfectly reasonable - albeit with a snarl in his voice - as he countered, "If you put me down right now, then I will stop-"
His voice cut off halfway and he ducked his head down, his hand tightening even more on Yamamoto's tie but not pulling as a fresh wave of pain washed over him, knocking what little wind there was out of his lungs. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, pressing his lips together until they turned white from the pressure so he would not make any sound. He felt humiliated enough already, and he would rather die before showing Yamamoto more of his weaknesses.
He tried to breathe through his nose, curling towards himself involuntarily. It hurt; the agony was worse than when Mukuro had broken half his bones. At least at that time the pain was spread throughout his body - now it was concentrated on his chest, so much that he was starting to feel numb everywhere else.
For a moment, he doubted that he would be able to stand even if Yamamoto put him down again.
But that wasn't about to happen soon. Yamamoto's lips thinned as Hibari curled up. He tucked him into his arms, as securely as he could, and hurried down the stairs. Even when he reached the main entrance of the warehouse, he just set the weapons down so that he could focus on Hibari.
Yet Yamamoto said he'd put Hibari down, so he knelt. Sat down, still holding the man. All he knew was that Hibari's illness wasn't contagious. The cause and cure however seemed little more than abstract concepts.
Hibari breathed through his nose and tried to regulate his breathing, calming his body down so it wouldn't get worse. The first time this had happened, he nearly had a panic attack on top of everything else, but now he knew how to deal with it - he had always been a fast learner. Picturing the pain to be a bunch of clouds in his chest, he slowly 'gathered' it all into a ball, concentrating all the pain to the place where he had been shot, all of five months ago - the corner of his left lung. Then he imagined the ball of be shut up in a box, and the box being shoved somewhere deep inside his psyche, so deep that he couldn't see it anymore.
The pain slowly subsided, and his breathing eased slightly. This... it was almost like meditation, except that rather than clearing his mind he was simply ignoring the pain. Sooner or later it would flare up again, but he would be away from Yamamoto - away from anyone else - by then.
He relaxed his grip on Yamamoto's tie, letting his hand fall down to his side. "Let me go," he ordered, voice barely above a hoarse whisper. "I can walk by myself."
Yamamoto cleared his throat and sighed. "Yeah, you might be able to walk by yourself," he began, "but you don't have to do that all the time when you've got friends, who are willing to support you."
Gradually, he lowered Hibari so that the man could lean against a wall. Then, he sat down beside him and looked at the cleanest spot in the room - the pipe ceiling.
"I know there's nothing much that I can do to help you, but if there's anything I can do for you, I want to."
Hibari propped his shoulder up against the wall, gathering his legs beneath him. He pressed his palm flat on the ground and used it to push himself upwards to a standing position, putting most of his weight against the wall. His legs wobbled slightly, still slightly numb, but Hibari steeled himself and pushed away from the wall, standing up straight.
The world blacked out for a moment, but he simply closed his eyes, then opened them. It was spinning slightly on its axis still, and he could feel blood pounding in his head - he was going to have a bad headache from this. But all of these were inconsequential.
Hibari Kyouya did whatever he wanted to do, and not even his own body was capable to stopping him.
He took a step forward, then turned slightly back, giving Yamamoto a cold glance. "Don't be so ridiculously sentimental. Get up; we're going."
Yamamoto watched him get up, wide-eyed with something akin to shock. He knew Hibari was strong - the guy could move even when poisoned with something that could kill wild elephants.
But this... this thing drew a reaction from him, and a violent one at that.
Nonetheless, it was heartening to see Hibari make it to his feet once again. Yamamoto watched him carefully, preparing for anything. He wasn't even aware of the silly, sentimental smile upon his lips.
***
The car pulled up just as Hibari and Yamamoto reached the main road - Kusakabe's timing was impeccable, as always. Pulling open the door to the backseat, Hibari dropped himself into the car and leaned back against the leather, closing his eyes for just a moment. He waited for Yamamoto to settle into the car before nodding, "Let's go, Tetsu."
Kusakabe didn't nod or acknowledge the order - he didn't need to. Shooting a quick, worried glance at his boss, he shook his head to himself and stepped on the accelerator. If Hibari needed anything else, he would say it - it simply wasn't Kusakabe's place to pry, even though he was worried about his leader's condition. After all, he did have self-preservation.
Hibari exhaled slowly, letting the wave of exhaustion wash over him like low tide over sand. Without opening his eyes, he announced, "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me and I'll bite you to death."
"Haha," Yamamoto just fastened his seat belt, and leaned back. "I'll wake you when we're back at the base."
Kusakabe kept his eyes on the road. There wasn't just something wrong with Hibari Kyouya, he thought. That answer convinced him that Yamamoto Takeshi was insane.
***
"Aa~h," Yamamoto stretched his arms. "Thanks for the ride, Kusakabe-san!" He turned towards Hibari, first to see if that would wake him, ... and then to stare, because... Hibari was still severely beautiful despite being ill enough to cough a lung out.
Hibari blinked, eyes fluttering open as he was woken up by the noise Yamamoto was making. The car had stopped already - they had most likely reached the Vongola mansion already - so he simply opened the car door and stepped outside without acknowledging either Kusakabe or Yamamoto.
He had noticed Yamamoto's stare, but he had gotten so used to eyes on him - either Mukuro and his creepy stalking tendencies, the wide, fear-filled eyes of his previous classmates, or enemies trying to take him down - that he simply dismissed it when he realized that there was no danger. Striding up to the door, he pressed his hand against a particular panel, and the door opened soundlessly.
Yamamoto grinned and hurried to catch up with Hibari, slowing down only when he was at his side. First things first, he and Hibari would report to Reborn. Together, then separately...
"Hey," Yamamoto looked over, "After this, let's grab dinner together." Call him a little paranoid, but he didn't want to leave Hibari alone for too long just yet.
Hibari slanted his eyes over to Yamamoto, giving him a flat, emotionless stare. "I'd rather not," he said, tone cold and dry. "What makes you think that I would want to spend so much time with you?"
"Ahahahaha," Yamamoto scratched the back of his head, "It was worth a shot," he shrugged.
Stopping in front of the office of the Vongola Tenth, Hibari raised a hand and knocked.
Through the door, they heard the voice of Sawada Tsunayoshi, who bid them to enter freely. As Yamamoto opened the door, his stance shifting slightly. He seemed a little more tired, moved a little slower.
Hibari, in contrast, straightened his shoulders even further as he stepped into the room. Tsuna's 'hyper-intuition' was dangerous - Hibari had no intention of letting anyone else, include the Vongola Head, know about his current weakness. The fact that Yamamoto had found out was damaging enough.
Hibird, who had been making its nest in Tsuna’s hair, chirped his name and flew over to his shoulder, settling in. Hibari tilted his head slightly to the side to accommodate it.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi," he greeted, inclining his head slightly. From him, it meant as much as the deepest bow. Eyes flickered over to the man lounging on Tsuna's office couch, his hat pulled low over his eyes. Hibari's lips curled slightly into a smirk, "Yo, baby."
Reborn was no longer a baby - the curse was broken quite some time ago - but he had never objected to Hibari calling him that, and so Hibari had seen no need to change. The tall man, looking far more adult than the rest of them put together, tilted his hat backwards, turning his eyes up to smile at Hibari, a knowing glint in his eyes.
Hibari met those eyes straight on, challenging Reborn. The 'baby' had indeed kept his mouth shut about Hibari's weakness, for what reasons he could not fathom and had no interest in understanding. But Reborn seemed to almost taunt him with that knowledge every time they met. It was rather irritating.
Reborn eventually broke the stare, turning to Tsuna with a small smirk on his lips.
Tsuna was on his feet immediately when he saw the blood-speckled pair. "Hibari-san! Yamamoto!" He stopped short of Hibari's personal space and looked them up and down unabashedly. "H-how did everything go?"
It seemed as though he was afraid to ask, but Yamamoto was pretty sure Tsuna already heard quite a bit it from the cleanup crew.
"Maa..." He waved it off, "We did what we set out to do."
Hibari didn't even answer: he simply shrugged, crossing his arms and turning away. Even after so long, even after ordering these hits, Tsuna seemed to be unable to get over his distaste for blood. Really, it was quite disconcerting how much Tsuna had kept his herbivorish nature despite his current strength.
"There were some kids upstairs who didn't know what they were getting into when they joined," Yamamoto was telling Tsuna and Reborn. "I told them that it was nothing personal, and that they should get out of Family business while they're ahead, but," he shrugged, "either way they'll spread the message."
He'd knocked them out, but trusted the rest of the family to make sure those living would wake up in a hospital rather than with their dead.
Reborn nodded from his place on the couch. He watched Hibari for a moment, noting the slight sheen of sweat on his neck and forehead, barely noticeable to even him. Then, he turned back to Yamamoto, "Good. That's one less threat to the Vongola, then." He leaned back against the couch, the picture of relaxation. When he spoke again, his tone was perfectly casual. "Is there anything else you have to report? Hibari?"
Hibari did not scowl. He knew that the baby was trying to hint something to him, but he refused to take the bait. His expression unchanging, he answered tonelessly, "No."
Yamamoto turned to Hibari, a mild smile on his face. But then, he was always smiling like that. A corner of his lips quirked up as he looked away. "We weren't wounded there, kiddo. ... So don't worry, Tsuna."
He looked back at Tsuna, who seemed half-confused and half-relieved. "But... you're really bloody, Yamamoto..." Something nagged at Tsuna, and he couldn't quite place his finger on it. He could faintly tell that Yamamoto was hiding something. And from earlier reports, he and Hibari really cleaned out the area. Hibari looked normal with only a few speckles of blood on his shirt, but Yamamoto's shirt had odd smears here and there like he'd fought someone without his sword to put them at a distance.
Reborn raised an eyebrow - good, Tsuna's observational skills were increasing again, even without switching on his hyper-intuition - and smirked slightly, hiding his eyes with the brim of his hat. "Oh? Did the two of you end up fighting each other?"
He doubted it - Yamamoto and Hibari did work the best together, after all, with nary a conflict. In fact, Yamamoto was the only person whom Hibari could work with - Gokudera ended up wanting to blow him up, Ryohei lost his temper three seconds in, Lambo was terrified, and Mukuro... he wasn't as much of an idiot as to try to pair them together. But he couldn't resist teasing them - they were as much his students as Tsuna was, after all.
Hibari's flickered over to Reborn for a moment, ignoring the bait, again. "Is there anything else? If not, I'm going."
Yamamoto laughed at the question. It was so like Reborn to hit the nail on the hammer seemingly without any effort. Hibari fought him tooth and nail when he carried him. He looked down at his own shirt, so similarly crumpled, like the rest of Hibari's clothes.
"Wait," Reborn said, tilting his head up to look at Hibari with narrowed eyes. "It wasn't the sakura, Hibari. It was the white orchid."
The white orchid?
Byakuran flickered through their minds. Yamamoto gaped and Tsuna gave a start.
"R-Reborn! What are you talking about?"
Hibari's eyes narrowed, and his hands clenched involuntarily. The Millefiore- no, they were only the Gesso family now. Uni and the Giglionero family never did approach Byakuran for help - Dino got to them first. They had made very sure about that.
He closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling a long, silent breath. Given Byakuran's personality, this made finding the cure even more difficult. Not that it's going to stop him - far from it. More than just his life, it was his pride that was on the line - he wasn't going to be taken down as easy as a bullet to the lung and a disease that turned his own body against him.
Reborn smiled to himself both at Tsuna's reaction - the boy still had much to learn - and the hard light in Hibari's eyes. He wasn't that he had thought Hibari would give up - those words were the antithesis to Hibari's entire being - but with that much of sheer stubbornness, it didn't look as if Hibari was going to go down any time soon.
"Nothing, silly Tsuna," he smirked at Hibari, not looking at his student. "Just a little word game that we're playing."
Hibari rolled his eyes - the baby seemed to have grown even fonder of his little 'games' with Tsuna ever since he aged back to an adult. Shrugging, he turned away, "I'm going back," he announced. Hibird echoed the sentiment.
"A-All right then," Tsuna nodded. "Thank you for your work, Hibari-san." He looked from one guardian to the other, about to thank him as well, when...
Yamamoto looked torn between Hibari and Reborn. On the one hand, he wanted to be sure Hibari was going to be all right at least for the time being. On the other hand, he wanted a private word with Reborn about what he just said.
Was Byakuran involved in what he thought Reborn was talking about-?
"Yamamoto?"
Startled, Yamamoto looked back at the young man standing in front of him. "... Ahahaha, actually, I..." He hesitated, waiting for the door to shut.
"I wanna talk with the kiddo 'bout something, if you don't mind?" He looked at the other two.
Yamamoto knew, Reborn realized in a flash of insight, his eyes snapping towards that Guardian from where he was watching Hibari walk out of the door. Now that was unexpected - Reborn himself only knew about Hibari's condition because Hibari had wanted information from him, and because Reborn had managed to manipulate that conversation enough to get the truth out of him. He didn't expect anyone else to be aware, because if there was anything Hibari hated the most, it was revealing any weakness.
He pushed himself off the couch, standing and dusting himself off needlessly. "Come with me, Yamamoto," he said. "I have something that I want to talk to you about as well."
"Great!" Yamamoto grinned brightly. "Later, Tsuna!" He waved and followed Reborn out the door before Tsuna could even think 'why didn't Reborn mention anything like that sooner'.
"Later!"
Tsuna worried his lower lip for a moment, then sighed as he glanced back at his table. His report-filled table. Fine then. Reborn would tell him if there was something he seriously needed to know - or call him silly for not knowing when the time was right. He'd just have to keep a closer eye on Yamamoto in the meantime...
***
As Reborn led him up to the roof of the mansion, Yamamoto quietly gathered his thoughts. Reborn had proof that Byakuran was behind Hibari's illness? Why? Why him of all people? Hadn't he targeted Tsuna before?
It wasn't that he wanted history to repeat itself. After fighting Millefiore almost ten years ago, and successfully preventing its formation, it was obvious many things would be different.
Reborn opened the door of the roof, stepping through. He closed the door behind Yamamoto before striding over to the edge, leaning over the railing as he stared out at the beautiful Italian sea view. While he was in Japan, he had missed this - as much as he generally missed anything - the smell of the salty sea air, the distant lights of Venice, the barely-there sounds of the moving tide. Reborn closed his eyes.
"Yamamoto," he began. "Do you know how Tsuna had died, in that world?"
Yamamoto's mind shut down. Almost mechanically, he shook his head,"... Gamma said that he has been gunned down, but I don't know anything more than that."
They'd never asked to know more, as though it was bad luck, or because hearing it spoken out loud might actually make it happen in their world, to their Tsuna.
"Are you telling me this is related?"
Reborn watched him silently. He knew that this was a topic that was still sensitive to those who went to the future ten years ago, but it was an issue that needed to be dealt with. Especially now.
"Ah," he nodded. "In that world... Tsuna was shot... but it was only in the lung by a stray bullet. It wasn't fatal, so no one had thought much about it after the wound healed, but then..." he took a breath. It was his greatest failure to date, even though it wasn't really his - it was the mistake of the 'him' in that parallel world. Yet it was still choking to speak about it.
"His lungs started breaking down, seemingly for no reason. It was, I heard, a horrifically painful process for him," his tone was almost contemplative, thoughtful, his emotions veiled. "It was so painful that one day he called Hibari over and told him a few things - about Millefiore, about how to change things. Then he requested something."
Reborn turned around and faced Yamamoto squarely, meeting those oddly blank eyes with his own intense ones. "Hibari was the one who killed Tsuna in that world. In an act of mercy."
"... Heh," Yamamoto couldn't quite laugh actually. "A bullet to the lung... and Hibari got involved?" He stared at his shoes, his smile turning bitter. It was bad enough to find out that his father was killed in that world, and to learn what he had done as a result of it.
He rubbed his chin, the skin there smooth because, thankfully, he never went nuts to avenge his father's death in this world.
"But why did Hibari get shot this time? He didn't take a shot for Tsuna..."
Reborn turned back to face the sea again, his eyes half-lidded. But his hands betrayed his tension, gripping the cold metal railing tightly enough to make the bones of his wrists stand out. His jaw tightened momentarily before he sighed and relaxed himself, folding his arms.
"Tsuna's too well-protected - all of us made sure of that," he looked up and stared into the distance. "I'm guessing that Byakuran decided to take a different route this time, and kill off the strongest Guardian rather than the leader."
His tone was deceptively casual, as if this was a conversation about the weather.
Yamamoto closed his eyes. Two seconds later he threw his head back to give an abrupt laugh that ended with a tight smile. He said nothing as he leaned against the railing, eyeing the orangey pink clouds around the setting sun.
It seemed like the same thing was happening all over again, really. Tsuna, his father, and now Hibari: it was all just cause and effect. They changed some variables but they couldn't change everything.
"Will he...?"
Reborn pulled his hat down further, hiding his eyes. "It depends on how soon we can get the cure. I doubt it, however." He smiled slightly, turning his eyes up to look into Yamamoto's. "Hibari's willpower is legendary, after all."
A short pause, and he shook his head, "How did you find out about it?"
Yamamoto looked at Reborn. "He coughed," he simply said, before it occurred to him how bad it must have been for Hibari for him to show it. "It looked painful," he added. The words felt inadequate. "It sounded painful too, but Hibari insisted nothing was wrong, so I asked his doctors."
Reborn chuckled lightly, leaning back against the railing, his posture now relaxed. He was right - Hibari didn't tell him about it; Yamamoto had to figure it out by himself. It was certainly interesting that Yamamoto actually tried to find out what happened... He made a mental note to watch these two closely, because there might be something interesting blooming.
But, Hibari's condition took precedence.
"I'm surprised that they even told you," he pushed the brim of his hat back, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "I was under the impression that they were terrified into keeping their mouths shut."
And Yamamoto terrified them into opening their mouths when, "I smiled at them. And I told them I'm one of... 'Kyouya's' concerned friends."
Reborn laughed again. He wasn't entirely surprised by that - Yamamoto's smile was one of his greatest weapons in his arsenal, after all. "Only you could have pulled that off," he commented, words that were almost praise.
Pushing himself off the railing, he started towards the door. He stopped right in front of it and turned around, giving Yamamoto a somewhat serious look, "I don't think I need to remind you to inform Hibari of this, hmm?"
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