LOG: ...And on the last day. [Thread] [CLOSED]

[derridamustdie]

WHO: Byakuran, Hibari
WHAT: Day Three. Apparently, this vacation is far worse for Hibari's health than he originally thought. Oh yeah: implied backstory thing-ish... yeah. orz
WHERE: Namimori Public Library
WHEN: Feb 25, morning
RATING: PG. Because Byakuran is MASTER BADTOUCH.
WARNING(s): See postscript in the section above. :|

Comments

[srslyevilbzns]

It was probably only natural that the worst encounter would come on the third day. Byakuran wasn't one for libraries, didn't usually make it a habit to visit them. After all, he didn't much like books in general and there wasn't much reason to visit them without that reasoning in mind.

Still, public relations had him visit on the occasion, overseeing donations and the like. It was a fair enough place for meet-and-greets and generally, it meant making enough connections with community leaders-- and community sponsors --to make such occasions worth it.

But, today, he's early, early enough to wander a bit through the shelves and crannies that made up the library's whole. Early enough to make it to one of the darker corners, only to see a familiar shadow. How interesting.

He hadn't seen this one in quite some time.

"Timoteo's son, wasn't it?"

[derridamustdie]

Timoteo's son. It seemed as though the whole publishing industry never tired of calling him that, even after several public incidents involving spilled drinks over expensive dresses (totally accidental, of course) and, in his younger years, punctured front tires.

Hibari looks up with the full intention of snapping with something smart and displeased - it was probably another one of those sycophants from the old group hoping to get back in on the fun now that the company had restructured. He wasn't expecting a significantly young face, white hair and unsmiling lavender eyes.

"...Byakuran Gesso. Charmed."

And also very, very strange. Why would the CEO of Millefiore & Company bother greeting him personally? Sawada and Timoteo were nowhere in sight.

[srslyevilbzns]

And, oh, he remembers well. First impressions are always the ones that stick with him the best and he knows the other from a few business meetings, careful greetings given to his publishing neighbors when he'd first arrived. Hibari had been a shadow behind the older man, unspeaking, but he knows his eyes.

The same eyes that are giving him such a darkly distasteful look right now.

"I didn't think anyone would be up here," he muses, skimming a long finger against the rows of books at his side, authors too old for him to care about, languages he'd never bothered to learn.

[derridamustdie]

"I didn't think CEOs wasted their time with this sort of thing."

Hibari returns his gaze to the book he had been reading, attempting to reconstruct the little buildings of logic, parallelisms, equivalences and gaps that he had made in his attempt to understand the passage. He knows Byakuran, of course - they were formally introduced. To say that they had ever met, however, would be too strong of a term; he had merely come along with Xanxus and Timoteo in those meetings in the past, trailing behind them, silent, watching. It was what the Vongola had built him to do, after all.

"I'd prefer it if you don't identify me with that man. People have names for a reason."

[derridamustdie]

"Old stories."

Hibari replies curtly, focusing on the task at hand - he works quickly, because he's always been disconcerted with viewing the world through a strange haze of color and shadow for too long. He slips the glasses back on the moment he's finished and leans back, as Byakuran's face comes back into focus.

"You're not particularly interested in them, so why are you asking?"

[srslyevilbzns]

Byakuran flips open a page, skimming unfamiliar words and letters with a bland sort of distaste. He pins it beneath his finger, the pad of it resting on top of slightly yellowed pages, holding Hibari's one distraction away from him for the moment.

"Ah, I didn't know you knew me well enough to know that."

Neutral, again. With the barest hint of teasing.

[derridamustdie]

"I don't know you. You just don't look like the reading type."

This sort of small talk annoys him, and the way Byakuran plays with that book makes Hibari wish that he had brought more with him to the table. It would have delayed the inevitable a little longer, if Byakuran had been persistent with constantly stealing them away.

[srslyevilbzns]

He laughs with a soft, conversational tone, "Come now, I could hardly be in this business if I didn't enjoy them."

And, ah, what a lie, he supposed. After all, he could hardly be as ruthless as he was without a slight distaste for them. But, no, Kyouya didn't need to know that-- even if Timoteo's dear shadow probably knew more than he let on from his own lurkings.