1. Birth

The moment Ryuuichi was able to see light again, he couldn't help but scream. Scream in confusion, and in desperation. He, however, soon quieted down when Yuuichi's cries joined his moments after. 

2. Introduction

“Shiroki Ryuuichi.” The said teen jerked at the sudden call, the previously noisy classroom was as silent as grave. He looked up from his note book and spotted the prefect that sauntered towards him.

His eyes widen in shock, but he merely stared, too speechless to say anything.

It was only with the years of self defense training he had did he managed to dodge the tonfa aiming to his head. He jumped back, his chair clattered and fell onto the ground. Yuuichi abruptly stood up from his seat behind his brother and was about to shout at Hibari when Ryuuichi shot him a look and shook his head.

Ryuuichi turned back to the prefect. “Hibari Kyouya.” He nodded to the prefect, noting an approval glint in his grey eyes. Internally, Ryuuichi both screamed and squealed. He never thought that Hibari would personally approach him.

Hibari smirked and kept his tonfa. “After classes, the courtyard. Come or I’ll hunt you down.” And he walked out of the classroom as though nothing happened.

Ryuuichi remained blank until the teacher came after a few minutes.

‘The heck just happened?’ 

3. Complicated

Ryuuichi gritted his teeth as he did a very clumsy somersault back, barely avoiding the metal tonfa of death. He stumbled when he landed on his feet, and quickly lifted his arms up, crossed, to block the weapon to his head. Honestly, what was with Hibari and aiming at people’s head?

And damn, did that hurt!

Hibari whistled, impressed. It wasn’t much who can simply block off his attacks simply like that. His strength would have broken the bones, but surprisingly, Ryuuichi managed to block it on a spot where he would take lesser damage. He probably did it without noticing.

But just that can never beat Hibari.

He kicked, sweeping Ryuuichi’s legs off and his tonfa onto the teen’s abdomen. Ryuuichi yelped as he was thrown back. He skidded to a stop, hitting the tree and panted.

“W-wait!” Hibari couldn’t care less as he rushed forward, tonfa stretched out. Ryuuichi squeaked and immediately duck, the tonfa hit the poor tree, leaving and indent.

Grumbling he immediately jumped up and literally onto Hibari. The prefect as taken in surprise as Ryuuichi’s weight and the velocity of his movement pushed him off balance, landing onto the ground. He, despite that, wasted no time and rolled, pinning Ryuuichi down instead of the other way around. One of his tonfa was against the other’s throat as Ryuuichi cursed.

“D-dammit what the hell?! Can you at least tell me what you want before attacking me out of nowhere?!”

Hibari smirked with great amusement, not even out of breath despite fighting for almost an hour non-stop when Ryuuichi was already dying. Ryuuichi’s arms were littered with bruises and his abdomen hurts from all the kicks and hits. He was sooo going to be aching everywhere. 

“Long hair for guys is against the rules.” Ryuuichi threw his head back and groaned loudly in annoyance. “That’s all? Ugh.” He glared at the prefect, which turned into a pout. 

“I can’t cut it. Otherwise, people won’t differentiate me and my brother.” An excuse, it was very easy to differentiate the teen. 

 After all, one is really outgoing while the other is awkward. 

 Hibari raised an eyebrow as Ryuuichi groaned again. “Okay, I like my hair. I want to keep it like this. I won’t let it grown more than shoulder length and always tie it up. Really.” 

 The prefect stared for a moment before standing up and walked away. “Get out of the school ground, small animal. School’s over.” Ryuuichi laid there, blinking at the sky. 

 “Oh my god. Did he just called me ‘small animal’?” 

4. Hate

Kei blamed his hormones. He hated love, he hated the thought of loving, he practically loathed its existence. There was no love, not after his family died because of it. Of love and loyalty. Ended with betrayals that practically slaughtered everyone. Kei wasn't there when it happened, family killed by the other branches of their family. If he were there, he might be able to save everyone, or he would vanish with them.

He wasn't there for them.

But when he saw Sakura for the first time, his hatred turned into something else.

5. Love

Ryuuichi rarely use the word 'love', choosing the word 'like' instead. He felt that, if he used 'love', it would meant that he could never live without it. So far in his thirteen (nineteen) years of life, his family is the only one he used 'love'.

And when he hit fourteen, fifteen and sixteen and so on, his family grew, his usage for 'love' expanded, and the one person he felt that even love couldn't justify who he was to him made him realized that 'love' was really a word too strong, but he loves it.

6. Feel

Ryuuichi shrieked when he felt something touched his leg and immediately ran away, barreling into the people dressed as a ghost without a care and practically ripped himself out of the haunted house. He was miles away in barely a minute.

Hibari, in the haunted house, was shaking. He was shaking so hard trying to conceal the laughter that threaten to slip out of his lips and bounced off the walls. 

7. Wrecked

Going through Middle School again was one thing. Going through high school was another. Because of all the pressure the teachers gave him and projects and the saying that 'you have to do well or else you'll ended up dying in a ditch' or something were really killing him. On one hand, he gave little to no damn about it seeing that he was already on a steady path to be a criminal. On the other, he just couldn't stop himself to do well. (Consider it as a bad habit of his.)

Ryuuichi never liked pressure. When summer break came, he never realized how blissful it was despite the heat. Because god help him, he would wreck the whole world upside down and inside out if the annoying teachers don't get out of his hair soon. 

8. Soft

They were spooning, with Ryuuichi being the little spoon. Hibari was holding him so close that he could practically feel everything. He couldn't care less, however. He was sleepy, and his bed was soft. His lover was so warm and cozy that he wanted to fully melt in his arms. 

And the Hibird plushy in his arms was so damn fluffy. He just couldn't. 

9. Cold

Amemori shivered at the cold wind and wrapped himself with his thick coat tighter. He was starting to wonder why he was standing in the middle of the street and out in the cold when he could stay in his house, playing with his younger siblings as they watched some stand-up comedies on television. 

Ah, right. Yuuichi. He was waiting for his boyfriend, who was staying in a hotel for the time being with his brother somewhere around Kyoto. He had promised him that he would take him around Kyoto. Right.

"Hibiki! Sorry for being late!" The sight of Yuuichi jogging towards him made him heat up.

10. Without

Tsuna gasped awake, jolting into sitting position. He clutched his hurting head as he tried to calm his labored breathing. A nightmare. His breath hitched when he remembered the content of it, quickly pushing it away.

"-na, Tsuna." A pair of hands were on his shoulders as they shook him out of his reverie. He blinked upon seeing a frowning Reborn. Why was Reborn frowning anyway? "Tsuna, you're having a nightmare. Calm down. It's alright." It seemed so real though, the dream. He wanted to say that, but he found no energy to. Instead, he nodded stiffly. Clearly, Reborn was still slightly concern.

He pulled him down onto the bed again, being uncharacteristic as he held him close, patting him on the back. "Go back to sleep, idiot." 'It'll be alright.'

Tsuna felt somewhat relieved. But it wasn't alright, as the dream was linked to the future that should never happen.

11. Inspiration

There was this thing about dancing in the rain that appealed Yamamoto. Maybe it was because of his flame, and yet, it was still appealing. Ryohei didn't understood it, but Yamamoto didn't mind. Ryohei was more the sunny type after all. 

The rain always brought ideas and insights to him for his dance-like fighting style.

12. You

Ryuuichi kissed Hibari for the nth time that day, albeit gentler than the previous one. "Ti amo, amore." He skipped away to continue on with his work, leaving a very confused and weird out Hibari behind. The next hour he popped out again, he kissed the older as hard as he could, tongue and all. "Je t'aime, amour~" He huskily said after the broke apart.

And he left without another word. Hibari frowned. Something was wrong with his lover. Not that he disliked all of that, but he was genuinely concerned. Ryuuichi doesn't usually initiate things.

So he cornered him an hour after when he appeared. "What is wrong with you?"

Ryuuichi merely laughed and leaned up to kiss him. "You~"

13. Confused

Enma woke up to Natsu his face. And Uri on top of him. And Shiro and Kuro nuzzling against his side. He tilted his head, frowning. 'What in the worl-' He blinked. Why does he smell like catnip?

14. Affection

Ryuuichi chuckled silently as Hibari buried his face in his stomach, head on his lap as the prefect tried to sleep. He threaded his fingers into the surprisingly soft black hair, massaging the scalp slightly. Hibari unconsciously leaned against his hand when he rubbed the lower end. Really, Hibari looked and acted like a cat.

His and only his affectionate, spoiled cat.

15. Joy

The moment Ryuuichi and Yuuichi came to life, Sakura couldn't feel more happier than the day she accepted Kei's proposal. They are her babies, her precious. She love them so damn much, that all the pain she being through was worth it.

And it was really worth it, as she watched them grow each day with Kei.

16. Horror

Ryuuichi blanched upon the news. His hands trembled as he struggled to stand up right, trying to not drop his phone. "T-Tsuyoshi-san, what are you talking about? M-my father is alright. He's with my mother right now, in the shop, right? Tsuyoshi-san-"

"Ryuuichi-kun, calm down, please. You father.. He.. He was shot thrice in the stomach. He's currently in the hospital-" He never got to hear the rest as the phone dropped onto the ground with a loud thud. Ryuuichi stared blankly at it, hands shaking so badly that Dino was concerned.

"Ryuuichi? What's wrong?" He took a deep breath.

"Call Yuuichi," He said shakily. "Call him and get us back to Japan. Now." He hurried away to the toilet and threw up.

17. Acceptance

"Yuuichi, I love you. I'll always love you no matter who you are. You are you, my brother. I love you." Yuuichi sobbed into Ryuuichi's chest as he held him tightly, whispers of thank you slipped out of his lips in a fast pace. I love you so much, thank you.

18. Sympathy

Gokudera stayed silent as he knelt in front of the grave, his mother's grave. Haru was beside him, gripping his shoulder tightly as a support. He didn't need her pity or sympathy, and she knew it. Instead, she was silently telling him that she would be with him.

It was weird how clashing their personality were, but how their heart and soul fitted together.

19. Holding

Ryuuichi let out a strangled gasp when Hibari tighten his hold. "K-Kyouya- no-" He rasped out breathlessly, whimpering. Hibari smirked, thumbing. The younger moaaned out at the sudden movement. "P-please- Kyouya- Ah-!" 

"Let me see you break, Ryuuichi."

20. Defeated

Death, for once, frowned upon seeing the fourth reincarnation of the Historian, standing at the very edge of the tall building with the strong wind blowing against the lean frame. Dark green eyes dulled, light dying in it as he gazed down onto the town. Upon sight of the broken Historian, Death knew Fate had gone too far.

But when has Fate not gone too far? Far too many times had the humans wave white flag to Fate, surrendering.

Death felt it was too much for the Historian after all his suffering.

21. Pride

When Dino reached his expectation, Reborn was impressed and genuinely proud. When Tsuna continued to grow and grow even after all these years, Reborn found himself exhilarated. When Ryuuichi surpassed his expectation , Reborn was absolutely speechless.

The three of them were and always will be his pride. 

22. Knife

Ryuuichi had literally stabbed the butter knife in between this American jock's leg, impaling it into the chair with a blank and cold look on his face. The jock paled, trembling on the chair as Ryuuichi stared down at him. "Keep your hands to yourself." He pulled Xena and Ivy away, Yura laughing his arse off.

The jock fainted right there and then. Since when butter knives are this sharp?

23. Overwhelmed

It didn't occur him when they got together. It definitely did not occur him when they were out on dates. No. It hit him when they were cuddling against each other while watching some boring movies. It hit him so hard that Ryuuichi couldn't help pull Hibari into a full-blown make out.

"Why so sudden?" Hibari asked, murmuring into his lips as they joined mouth again. "I just realized that I couldn't live without you and I love you so damn much."

24. Depressed

Amemori was drunk. It didn't take a idiot to realize that, with how unsteady and flushed he was. But he was the idiot. He figured that he wasn't drunk enough, and just kept drinking. He really missed Yuuichi, and their break-up was just killing him. He wanted to forget everything, wanted to just rip his heart out.

But he couldn't. He'll always remember it even after he woke up with a hangover. With how horrible he felt, he absentmindedly vowed that he wouldn't drink until he's too drunk to function. (He broke it two years after.)

25. Adoration

Eliot doesn't have any father or mother figure, or idols, in fact. He had been living in hell for as long as he could remember, so love and respect was a very foreign thing to him. 

However, Ryuuichi taught him of it unknowingly, as the man guided him with the flames and all, guiding him through his life and gave him a purpose to live. "Eliot! Come here and join us for tea!" Eliot blinked at a smiling Ryuuichi waving at him and Hibari, sitting by the ceramic table in the middle of the garden, shaded and table filled with pastries and tea.

Eliot grinned and ran towards them. "Coming!"

26. Worship

The Discipline Committee member practically took Hibari as god, from what others could see. Ryuuichi saw it that they took Hibari as their leader, respecting him with all their hearts.

They even had a worshiping routine towards the prefect. He decided, that their obsession was a bit too much.

27. Zeal

Yamamoto cheered at the homerun, joining in the other fans at their favourite team's victory. Tsuna smiled in exasperation at how happy and excited Yamamoto was. (He always wondered if Yamamoto should've continued on with his baseball career, but Yamamoto just shot that idea down. Yamamoto wanted to be with them, and he would.)

Even though Tsuna doesn't understand the game as much as the taller man does, he was happy that Yamamoto enjoyed it just as how he did when he was younger. Tsuna was glad that it could bring the innocent back into Yamamoto's eyes. So glad.

28. Light

Luce had really lived up her name, bringing light to everyone. A sky to the boot. She had shown Reborn the light before. It brought him sorrow instead. When she disappeared, only to realize that she was dead, Reborn laughed. If anything, her granddaughter is the light, not her.

If anything, she was darker than his own soul.

29. Exhaustion

Ryohei sighed and slumped onto the chair, leaning back. He loosen his tie as he glared at the paperwork in front of him. He never liked office work, never quite understood them, but it was a necessary thing to do as everything requires written evidence. Tsuna needed evidence to black mail the rest of the guardians for what they had done.

Especially when they create chaos.

Ryohei just wished that they could be careful enough with their plans and not get injured because, it was already the five hundredth time they needed emergency first aid from their own pranks. This time, was Gokudera impaling himself with his own arrow.

He sighed.

30. Obsession

Everyone wondered why was Caelum so obsessed with the stars, why was he so addicted to literatures and philosophies. They thought it was because he was influenced, brain washed, by his late uncle.

Unknown to them, he was the one that influenced his uncle into all these, asking him to teach him as his uncle planted the seed of humanity in him.

31. Rage

Yura screamed bloody murder at his mother. He yelled curses at his father. He roared his burning rage into his brother's face. He'd showed them hell in repay for what they had done to him, and he'd showed them how cruel he can be for what they had done to his family.

He was going to kill them.

32. Empty

Yuuichi have no idea why, but on certain days, his brother would look like a lifeless doll for no reason. He was scared of how empty his eyes were at times. He said nothing of it.

And then Amemori explained. Yuuichi wanted nothing but to break the shield Ryuuichi build around himself unconsciously and permanently take it down.

33. Anger

Ryuuichi growled lowly, stalking up to the pair of thugs that dared to cut his hair off because of the incident on last Wednesday: he reported them exploiting juniors to Hibari and the prefect showed them hell. In revenge after knowing that he was the one who told the prefect, they decided to literally cut his hair off with a pair of gardening scissors.

Now it was known to almost everyone in his circle that he has this major pet peeve of people touching his hair or his head, as the matter of fact. (Unless he didn't tie his hair up, which was rarely) Even Hibari wouldn't be forgiven if he were to try and ruffle his hair. 

In flash, he showed the thugs the third layer of hell and left them on the ground, beaten black and blue without saying anything. He tugged the hair tie down, his now short hair falling onto his neck. He sighed at the ticklish feeling, rubbing the back of his head. He would need to ask his mother to fix this choppy cut. 

34. Fury

All Dino could see was red. Red red RED. He snarled loudly at everything and immediately gave orders to tear this Famiglia inside out, spilling blood everywhere. Ryuuichi frowned in concern, but he said nothing about Dino's recklessness. The blonde has every right to kill everyone because they had tortured his fiancee. Even Ryuuichi was angered.

Vindice had no say in this when they came to visit, the Famiglia was nothing but a taboo to everyone in the mafia world. They were all once again reminded that the Cavallone wasn't just the third strongest Famiglia in the world, but the don was the most ferocious among all the other generations' Dons despite his kindness. His fury is not to be taken lightly.

35. Delight

"Happy Birthday Kyouya!" Ryuuichi grinned brightly as he gave the older teen a kiss. Hibari merely blinked and raised an eyebrow, making Ryuuichi groan the moment he saw that. "Oh come on. Don't tell me you've forgotten your birthday." 

"I didn't. I just don't see it as something important." This time, Ryuuichi frowned. "It's the day that you're born, the day that you came alive to this world. Of course it's important, you idiot." He kissed him again, harder this time to make his point through. "I'm happy that you're born, Kyouya. Thank you for that." 

He leaned their forehead together and grinned brightly. Hibari couldn't help smile at that.

36. Submission

Since Hibari was such a dominant person, a carnivore, everyone thought that either he would be alone for the rest of his life, or have a submissive mate. They thought that if he were to find a dominant partner, it definitely wouldn't go well. And when Ryuuichi came into the picture as a dominant, they thought Ryuuichi was actually a submissive one. Oh how wrong they were.

Hibari had never said he needed a submissive partner, nor a dominant partner. He didn't even care about it. On the other hand, Ryuuichi was definitely not a submissive one. He, in fact, is rather dominant. In a sense. He was never submissive, and perhaps, never will. (Unless, well, in that kind of activity.)

The two of them merely complete each other in their own ways, despite how 'clashing' they are, as so said from everyone else other than their friends.

Their friends can never be any more confuse by their relationship in many different ways.

37. Infatuation

At first, it was merely an infatuation, but as time gradually rolls by, Hibiki found himself head over heels for Yuuichi. He had never felt something like this before, not even with Ryuuichi's past self. He soon found himself getting more confused, and more in love. So in love to the point that he couldn't even properly breath, everything overflowing like a broken dam.

When he confessed, he was so sure his heart had exploded into million pieces, with sparkles.

38. Anticipation

Xena was jumping down from the ceiling out of nowhere. Literally. Like spider man. Except clumsier. "W-what the- Xena?! Why were you up there?! Since when-"

"It's going to be Easter!" Ah, right. "Xena, please, calm down. Easter's like, a month from now on."

"Easter! Easter! Easter!" Ryuuichi palmed and sighed in fond exasperation. For some reason, Xena loves Easter so much that she couldn't wait for it each year. Ironically, in contradict to all the sugar, spice and everything nice, she has this interest in dark magic. Ryuuichi couldn't exactly understand her at all.

39. Pessimistic

Kyoko, in contrary to popular belief, was very pessimistic. Her mind seriously contradicted with her personality, unlike her straightforward brother. Hell, even Tsuna thought like that before. (He didn't realize it until a year and a half after their friendship, finally understanding the week after they got together.

Really, she was a pessimist. She just doesn't say it out.

Like how she was trying not to worry about the how her brother might get hurt if he were to go on this long-term mission. (Their long-mission was really at most three months.)

Tsuna was worried as well, but he pushed everything down and tried to support her. Ryuuichi took a glance at them and sighed. "Guys, he's just going to a trip with me and Shamal, for medical research."

"Exactly."

40. Jolly

Eliot hummed cheerfully to the song as he swung his legs, looking out the window at the moving scenery. He was on the back seat of Hibari's car, Ryuuichi in the shot gun. The adults were verbally shooting something at each other in a different language as Hibari drove all of them to the zoo.

He had never been to the zoo before, and this would mark the first time in his entire eleven years of life.

"Kyouya, you cannot kidnap any animal for him."

"I can, and I will." "Kyouya!"

He couldn't wait for it. He so want to see the lions and tigers and elephants!

41. Grasping

Hibari reached for Ryuuichi's hand as they made their way down the road, walking side by side. He frowned when he found himself grasping into thin air and turned from the shop he was staring into. Ryuuichi was no longer beside him. His eyes widen at the sudden dread that hit him and looked around frantically, trying to find his lover. He couldn't see him as he ran back to where they came from.

Ryuuichi was nowhere to be found.

Everything suddenly changed, the scenery of the town they were in warped into a dimly lit room with a black and old grand piano in the middle. It was tainted in red. He looked at his hands, they were tainted as well, the ground, the walls, his very being, all red. So sickening red.

And then he spotted Ryuuichi, lying in the middle of the red pool with his face up, looking peaceful despite everything.

Hibari shook himself awake and let out a soft gasped, eyes wide and staring at the white ceiling. He was breathing heavily, feeling oddly stiff for some reason. He turned to his side and saw Ryuuichi sleeping peacefully, snoring lightly. He reached over immediately and touched his neck, running his fingers over the beating pulse. His other hand reached to the chest, placing over the thumping heart.

Ryuuichi twitched at the touch and cracked an eye open, sleepily looking at Hibari. He opened both of his eyes. The moment Hibari saw the dark brown orbs, his heart leaped. He pulled the younger nearer, holding onto him tightly. Ryuuichi merely snuggled up against him wordlessly, burying his face against his collar bone while intertwining their hands together. He unknowingly purred softly at the warmth.

Hibari calmed down the moment he did that, taking in his presence. He, however, didn't let go of him even after he had fallen asleep. 

42. Agitation

Ryuuichi gritted his teeth, very tempted to bring hell onto earth. Someone had actually dared to insult Ivy, harassing her even. It wasn't done in public and she didn't told any of them. Ryuuichi just so happened to saw the note, scrawled in red on the ground beside the dustbin outside their compound. 

He crushed the paper in his hands. Whoever it was, he would show them not to mess with any of them.

43. Calm

Byakuran stared blankly at the screen of his laptop, a video extracted from the security camera. Ryuuichi stood in the middle of chaos, bloodied and heavily injured. And yet, he doesn't seem the least bit scared that he would die any second now. Instead, he stared right at the camera and smirked.

Explosion filled the video, obscuring the death of Ryuuichi. Byakuran popped a marshmallow into his mouuth and hummed.

44. Astonished

Lal Mirch gaped at how Colonello and Reborn were tied up together on a pole, back to back. They were biting at each other, snapping insults despite their situation. They acted as though they weren't tied up. Meters away, she saw a fuming Tsuna and shut up.

She tuurned on her heels and walked away, ignoring the sudden calls from Colonello.

45. Loneliness

The first time Ryuuichi went out on a trip alone without any of his friends or his family, was when he was twelve. He went to Kyoto alone during Summer holiday because he was bored, and that he already had permission. His brother was in camp, apparently, leaving him alone at home for about a week and a half.

At first he was able to entertain himself with his laptop, but soon after, he was literally rotting in boredom. 

So he decided to travel to Kyoto for two days. (His father had booked him a hotel the moment he called him, agreeing after multiple persuasion.)

He was excited, really excited, jumping to pack everything at the allowance. He hadn't been to Kyoto before, so he might get lost but he would survive. That's how useful smart phones and technology are nowadays. He was so fortunate.

When he arrived, the first thing he did was heading to the famous places like the Kyoto Manga Museum. Yes, he's a nerd and he wasn't ashamed of it. Next was the Aquarium, which was really awesome since, aquatic animals. He almost didn't wanted to leave but he also wanted to visit the National Museum. He finally did after buying a few souvenirs. 

He wasn't disappointed with all his visits, lest to say. When he arrived at the inn he was staying and checked in, he almost dropped dead on the ground instead if the staff wouldn't stop asking where was his parents. He wasn't amused because he clearly could take care of himself. Not to mention that the staff wasn't the first person who asked him that.

He sighed in relief as he laid onto the futon, absolutely tired. His smile dropped as he stared out into the sky. It was fun. Really fun. He had to admit he had enjoyed it a little too much.

But he couldn't stop himself from feeling empty. And lonely. He sighed again and forced himself to sleep, wishing Yuuichi was with him to enjoy everything. 

46. Lust

Hibari's eyes were burning as he stared at Ryuuichi. Ryuuichi could feel it. It was hard not to, seeing how intense the stare was. The older was as though trying to burn holes onto his back. His back, actually. Ryuuichi sweated. Does skylarks have heat? He gulped and tried to ignore it as he continued to arrange the record files back onto the shelves he had pulled out from. Read: tried.

He was getting uncomfortable, his lower part. 

He swallowed again and silently huffed, taking in a deep breath to calm himself down. That was when Hibari decided to leave his spot by the other side of the room and sauntered towards him.

Hibari squeezed his buutt.

"Oh my god- Kyouya, I swear to god, if you don't leave me alone to finish this up, you'll be getting blue balls for five days."

47. Longing

Caelum forced himself to tear his gaze away from Alaude and walked on. He clenched his hands tightly, jaws locked tightly and tensed. He could not. He mustn't.

Unknown to him, Alaude looked towards him the moment he turned away, staring at his disappearing figure. Alaude frowned a little.

48. Tender

"K-Kyouya-" A silent gasp. "Stop that-!" Hibari kissed his thighs biting softly as he moved his hips slowly. He smirked down the writhing body beneath him, hands ghosting around. "Stop what?" He said in a soft, gentle tone that made Ryuuichi shiver violently. He leaned closer, a hand slidding up those sensitive thighs. 

Ryuuichi's breath hitched as he tried to get away from Hibari's hands but to no avail. His energy was drained mostly, and his own brain couldn't really process the need to move. Everything felt hot, so hot and soft that he felt like melting. He couldn't take it. This was causing him to tremble so much that he thought he might die.

He might actually die.

"Ah-!" His voice pitched at the thrusst. All too gentle. Was Hibari trying to kill him? 

The older man kissed him on the lips softly, murmuring sweet nothing onto his collarbone after moving down. "I love you, Ryuuichi." 

Oh god, someone help him because Ryuuichi felt that his heart could literally fail right there, right then.

49. Hard

"Your head is really hard." Ryuuichi squinted his eyes at Gilbert, snatching the ice pack from him. "No thanks to you." He half-heartedly snapped back as he nursed his swollen head. "Next time, try not to aim at my head when you're fixing the lights."

"So I can aim at your face instead?" He narrowed his eyes at the laughing man. 

50. Rebirth

Death almost wanted to frown at the amount of souls the Historian had sent to be reincarnated. Almost. Really, the current Historian was too forgiving. These souls were once tainted, but was purify by the Historian even after what it had done. Death let them go, reaching the mortal world and reincarnate.

Perhaps the Historian wanted to give them a second chance, just like how he was given a 'second' life.

How ironic.

51. Amused

Reborn grinned maniacally at how Tsuna shrieked and tried to run away from the energetic panthers that were chasing him. "Reborn! What did you gave them?!" He only cackled in glee at that. Ryuuichi quirked an eyebrow and sighed in exasperation. He couldn't help but smile a little though.

52. Broken

In another world, where Ryuuichi was colorblind but could see flames and have no recollection of his past life at all. In another world, where the power of Historian wasn't by soul but by blood, and Ryuuichi have no blood relation with the Historian. A totally different world, as he was separated by his parents and brother at the age of five because of his sight.

He could only see flames. He was sent to the hospital where only people with problem up on their head goes, forced to. He cried, scream and struggled, not wanting to leave them, but alas, he was brought away.

He was left broken by all the so called treatment. It never 'fixed' him, it couldn't anyway. He knew it at the age of six, a year after he arrived in the asylum. He learned to lie, he learned to hide, he learned to fake taking his medicine. All learned from the rest of the patients in the asylum.

He was released when he was eighteen, where they were finally satisfied torturing him, bored after all those years of playing with him. He never searched for his family. He found a job in a homey cafe owned by this kind old lady, who allowed him to stay in the cafe during the night after knowing that he had no place to sleep. Kind. Really kind. Ryuuichi owed her more than his own life.

Yet, he stayed broken, living just because of it and without a single want to live despite couldn't bring himself to commit suicide. Each time, he would thought of the old lady, wondering if she would be sad. He didn't want her to be sad. Then he would wonder about the cafe, the cat that stayed at the back of the shop, about everything.

He couldn't bring himself to let go of the railing. But now, he felt like he could. She had passed away in her sleep last night apparently, the old lady. He was devastated. Now, he no longer have anything to hold him back. He looked down at the street, hands still gripping the railing as he stood on the dangerously small ledge.

"What are you doing?" He jumped and whirled his head around to see a man glaring sternly at him. He stopped breathing for a second there at how beautiful he looked, with the angry purple all around him, flaring brightly.

"If you're trying to kill yourself, do it out of Namimori." Lies. The purple wasn't dimming even after his harsh words. If anything, it burned brighter. So blinding. The man took a step towards him, breaking him out of his trance. "Do you think that if you die, everything would be better?"

He flinched. "If that's so, then you're a coward." He bit his lips and looked away. "Stop looking back and start moving." For twelves years of dry water work, it was finally working, bursting out of the broken dam.

A few years after, Ryuuichi smiled upon the arrival of the raven haired man, wiping his hands on the dirty apron. "Welcome, Hibari."

Hibari had propagated a new heart for his shattered one, fixing his jagged edges and his broken soul.

53. Abused

The bazooka was once again, malfunctioning for the nth time. This time, Hibari was shot instead and he exchanged place with his younger self, five years of age and biting a toy. The moment Ryuuichi set his eyes on him, he squealed. Hibari was absolutely adorable when he was younger, not that he wasn't at the moment, but really. Ryuuichi wanted to just squeeze him.

Hibari glared at the strange man in front of him. He was dangerous, Hibari knew that, but there was something comforting about him. That, and there was no threat aimed at him. He was picked up suddenly and before he knew it, the man was nuzzling his cheek against his face. "Kyouya~ You're so cutteeee!"

Tsuna sweated. 'Oh dear, Ryuuichi's broken..'

"Get off me!" Hibari trashed about in Ryuuichi's grip, trying to get away. Ryuuichi dodged the punch aimed at his face and repositioned the boy in his arms so that he wouldn't accidentally drop him. And then Kyouya bit him on the arm, hard. 

That was when Ryuuichi noticed his teeth was particularly sharp somehow. He frowned as he peered down the tattered, abused toy, almost disfigured. "... Kyouya, biting so much will ruin your teeth." Hibari went stock still.

Pink smoke filled the room and their era's Hibari came back with a scowl. Ryuuichi smiled as he greeted him, nursing his bruised arm. Hibari narrowed his eyes at his lover.

"So you're the one..." Ryuuichi merely grinned brighter and picked up the toy. He beamed and skipped away. Tsuna blinked. He gaped once everything made sense. 'Ryuuichi was the one who made Hibari like this?!'

54. Tranquil

Amemori was, by no means, a Rain. Apparently. When everyone realized it, half of them were shocked while the other half had somehow expected it. Ryuuichi was actually the one who's surprised. He found it amusing how his brother's boyfriend was the same as Yuuichi, but soon realized that it wasn't that much of a surprise.

He always found Amemori calming, even though he could be quite a Storm. It was nice.

When Amemori finally joined the Giudizio however, he found it annoying more often than not. Especially when Amemori and Yuuichi ganged up against him.

Damn their flames. Damn their tranquillizing aspects. Ryuuichi made a noise of a dying whale at the back of as he buried his face deeper onto Yuuichi's stomach, shuddering at the hands that were rubbing the back of his neck, shoulders and back. "Damn you guys.." His voice came out muffled, holding no heat in it.

Amemori merely laughed. "If you didn't like this, then stop overworking yourself." Ryuuichi whimpered when he pressed on the right spot. He was getting drowsy and languish. He was drugged. Drugged by the Rain. He had half of the mind really wanting to ban them from doing this to him, but he couldn't find the energy to do it.

It wasn't that much of a harm, but it was seriously addictive. He would be lying if he said he hated it.

55. Composed

Fon sipped on his tea as deafening explosion threatened to burst Lal Mirch's eardrums. She twitched. "How are you able to stand all this?" Fon tilted his head in confusion. "Stand what, exactly?"

She flailed a gesture to the chaos that was getting worst as seconds ticked by. "This." Fon turned to the commotion and chuckled. "Oh that? That was nothing. You've seen nothing yet since Kyouya isn't around today." Lal Mirch stayed silent.

56. Glad

It was dark. So damn dark and so cramp that Eliot couldn't breath. He couldn't breath. He panicked and hit the metal wall of the container, trying to get himself out. Please please please!

"Eliot!" His teary eyes widen at the familiar voice. He opened , tried to choke out a shout for help but he couldn't speak. He couldn't. "Eliot!" His breath hitched, clawing on the wall as he got more and more desperate, wanting to get out, wanting to just jump into those pair of safe arms.

The wall was sudden tear off by a large ball of spikes as though it wasn't made out of really strong metal. Light blinded him at first before he was engulfed into a hug by pair of strong, warm arms. "Eliot." Ryuuichi's voice sounded so relief in his ears that he couldn't help but feel the same.

He was so grateful that they had came to find him.

57. Stress

Saying that Ryuuichi can handle stress really well was, well, an overstatement. In actual fact, he cannot handle it. People usually thought that he could because he seemed so calm every time when something stressful was happening. Technically, he wasn't even stressed out at that time since he had somewhat expected it. 

When Ryuuichi was stressed, he gets more physical and explosive. If he had short temper before, he practically doesn't need it to be angry and annoyed with everything.

Tsuna and Gokudera was the most surprised out of everyone during the first time they saw him like that. He was grumbling and rage-working all his assignments that was dued in three days even though it was given a day before. Understandable, since there was about three of them, and they practically took 50 percent of his marks.

"If they don't shut up anytime soon, I'll rip their tongues out.." The amount of killer intent Ryuuichi was releasing at how noisy some mid-scholars that were in the usually silent cafe made them shudder. Yamamoto slowly inched away from the teen who was typing furiously on his laptop, sweating bullets.

58. Serenity

It was so silent, unlike how he had spent his life in noises most of the time. So silent, and so calming. Caelum smiled softly as he stared at the village from the tree, all the villagers asleep. There was no commotion happening, no nothing. Just plain, boring night.

He liked it. (But it didn't last long.)

59. Colorful

Mindful of the trays of paint, Ryuuichi stepped over to his brother, sneaking up with a mischievous grin. When he was right behind him, he tapped Yuuichi's shoulder. "Wh-" He slapped his hand on the cheek with a squish. Yuuichi's eyes widen in surprise as Ryuuichi laughed loudly and ran away. Yuuichi smiled as well and dipped his hand into the paint. "Oh you- Come back!"

The day ended with them laughing like maniacs on the ground, dirty with paint from top to bottom.

60. Coping

Ryohei was in awe and horror as he stitched Hibari up carefully with skilled hands. Hibari didn't even flinch the slightest as he pushed the needle in, merely staring at it going in and out of his flesh. He was injured by Squalo, who didn't even hold the slightest remorse as he stabbed Hibari on the forearm, and the wound couldn't be healed by flames since the shark had the mind to use his flames. (Well, Squalo knew Hibari would survive anyway.)

The tranquilizing effect had actually stopped Ryohei's Sun flame's properties on activating the cells to regenerate.

While Ryohei was used to pain just as how everyone in the Famiglia was as well, seeing Hibari staring at him stitching him up with a resting biitch face was amazing, yet scary. Ryohei had questioned it before, (He was pretty sure everyone else questioned it as well) just how was Hibari able to cope the pain and ignore it like it was nothing. 

61. Boisterous

Lambo was a noisy brat. That was a well known fact. He was loud, bratty and very annoying at some point. He craved for attention, and he was a crybaby who had the tendency to pop the bazooka out whenever he couldn't tolerate something. He is annoying, that's for sure, but everyone loves him regardless of it. The love every aspect about him, love how innocent he could be at times, how cute he actually is. Hell, even Gokudera and Reborn loves him. Not that they would admit it.

So when the boisterous kid was silent for once, all of them couldn't help but wonder if something happened, and the rest of the Guardians wanted nothing but to bring their loud Lightning back.

62. Placid

Liu swallowed at how placid Xena suddenly was. It wasn't like her at all, and Liu knew something was wrong. So very wrong. It was worrisome. "Xena-" Liu was about to call out to her when Ryuuichi came out form the shop. He took one look at him, another at Xena and lastly at the group of men walking pass them when he soften.

"Xena, if you want, go to them." She blankly turned to Ryuuichi as he took her hand. "Don't tie yourself down." Liu frowned when she said nothing in return. He walked to her and squeezed her shoulder. "Whatever is it, we'll be with you Xena." There was something flashed in her eyes, before she slowly shook her head. "No.." She shook harder. "No, it's alright." She smiled. 

"I've you guys now."

63. Tired

Yuuichi groaned at the loud whistles from the garden and buried his head under his pillows. He could still hear it, however. There was only one person who was capable of whistling so loud and for so long in this house. His brother. He grumbled and threw everything aside. He stomped to the closed window and slammed it open.

"For god sake, Ryuuichi! Please stop whistling!" 

Ryuuichi snickered from where he was and shook his head. "Alright, alright! Sorry for disturbing you!" Yuuichi grunted and closed the window again. He flopped back onto his bed and sighed at the silence. He was exhausted from his to-and-fro trip to America, having to settle some things. If anyone made another set of noise, he would-

A loud bang from downstairs interrupted his thought as his eyes snapped open. Oh someone is going to die today.

64. Bliss

Ryuuichi sighed as he laid on his stomach, snuggling into his pillow before he groaned, shifting to his back and sat back up. He huffed and rubbed the back of his neck while rolling his shoulders. 

"What's wrong?" Hibari, only in his sweatpants, asked as he wiped his wet hair, just coming out from the shower. Ryuuichi hummed, not lifting his head up. "Sore neck." Hibari raised an eyebrow before pulling a shirt on, sitting beside his lover. He reached over and squeezed his shoulder in a considerable amount of strength, eliciting a relief groan from Ryuuichi.

"You're so tense. Just how long since the last time you relaxed yourself?" He moved slightly as he massaged his shoulder, pressing the pressure points. "Oh-! Don't.. Know?" Hibari scoffed a little and pushed Ryuuichi down so that the younger was lying on his stomach again. He sat behind him and smirked at Ryuuichi's bewildered look.

"W-wait what are you-!" He groaned when Hibari dug his knuckles into his back, pressing on the right spot. "God- There-!" He immediately melted into a puddle of goo under Hibari's skillful hands. Hibari merely chuckled and continued to massage him, unwinding the muscle knots.

When he was done, Ryuuichi had long fallen asleep, absolutely peaceful. Hibari smiled slightly and got off of him. He lied down beside him and pulled him close. In matters of second, he, too, had fallen asleep, breathing even out to the same pace as Ryuuichi's as the younger unconsciously purred.  

65. Neglect

Hibari scowled. He growled as he speed forward, aiming his tonfa at Ryuuichi's head. Ryuuichi immediately dodged and brought his bo stick up to block another attack aimed for . Hibari then promptly gave him a round house kick. Ryuuichi wasn't exactly fast enough to dodge it and was hit, threw back as he landed on his back with a groan.

"T-time out!" 

"No." Hibari attacked again. They fought and fought for hours until Ryuuichi was nothing but a dead meat on the floor, with Hibari looming over him.

"Stop neglecting your own welfare, small animal." Ryuuichi frowned, knowing exactly where the conversation was going. He didn't like it at all. "Stop putting your problem behind of others' just because they seemed so insignificant to you. Stop ignoring your own heart."

66. Fine

Tsuna blinked when the door was suddenly slammed open while he was doing his work, looking through all the reports. He lifted his head up to see who abused his poor door again just as his flames sang. He raised an eyebrow at Dino and Enma, both dragging Ryuuichi along. "Is there something going on?"

The blonde and redhead grinned while Ryuuichi merely sighed, letting himself get dragged along the marble floor. "Let's go to Japan!"

Tsuna blinked again. "What for? I doubt Reborn would allow me though." As much as he wanted to go back to Japan and see his mother, his ex-tutor was a Satan, locking him in Italy even though he had finished his work. Dino came up to his desk and leaned against it, his arms supporting his weight.

"A secret!" 

"But.."

"Oh don't worry about Reborn." Ryuuichi spoke up. "I'll convince him. Go and take a break." Tsuna debated for a moment before nodding, smiling at them. "Okay then." Dino and Enma cheered before they let go of Ryuuichi. Ryuuichi stood by the side, fixing his collar as they went around the desk on each side and manhandled Tsuna out of his seat. "W-wait what are you guys doing?!"

"You've been coped up in your office for too long. We're going out shopping in this fine day to unwind and to buy things."

"Fine day?! It's raining cats and dogs outside!"

"Like I said, fine day."

67. Question

Hibari was watching Roll and Hibird eat when a pair of familiar hands covered his eyes. He reached up to pull it away when Ryuuichi said, "Don't." He paused and finally lowered his hand. "How do the sailors answer their captain?"

".. Aye."

"What is the game people play only verbally, with nothing else to help?"

"Shiratori." He heard a small shuffle behind him. "Who always put up with Hibari Kyouya's bratty attitude since the day he was born?" He twitched at that.

".. Tetsu."

"What does Hibari Kyouya enforces and bite people who breaks it to death?"

"Rules." He blinked under the hand when it was taken away. He craned his head back to look at Ryuuichi, grinning sheepishly at him. "What is wrong with you?" Ryuuichi merely shrugged and leaned down slightly, looking straight into Hibari's eyes. "Who is Shiroki Ryuuichi looking at?"

Hibari smiled. He reached up and pulled Ryuuichi down by the back of his neck, kissing him. "His one and only."

Aishiiteru, my one and only. 

68. Energetic

Yuuichi grinned in a feral manner, eyes flashing as he dribbled the basketball in an even pace, eyes on Amemori. Amemori was scowling in concentration, on defense stance. Yuuichi took a small step forward and Amemori was up against him in split second, blocking him from advancing. Only, Yuuichi wasn't advancing.

He pulled himself back like Newton's First Law has no effect on him at all and jumped, ball positioned to the hoop. Amemori jumped after him, trying to slap the ball away but he was too far away. Yuuichi was still moving back, as though floating in the air. Amemori sweated. His distance from the net was too far for him to make it, impossible. But Yuuichi wasn't a prodigy in basketball for nothing.

Yuuichi shot, and it went in without even grazing the net. "Yes!"

Amemori groaned as he landed, holding on his knees as he panted. Sweat rolled down his cheeks as he shook his head at the that, laughing breathlessly.

"Let's go again!" Yuuichi had already gotten the ball back and Amemori groaned again. "Oh my goddd-- Did you consumed a bag of sugar?"

"Nope." A familiar voice joined them and they turned to Ryuuichi, who looked very amused. "He simply downed about one and a half liter of isotonic drink and orange juice at one go."

"You're exaggerating, Ryuu." 

"I'm not." Amemori merely sighed tiredly. Only basketball would able to excite Yuuichi this much.

69. Noble

Yura was born a noble, taught since young how to be one. He was once loved, still is, but he was loved not because of who he is. He wasn't living at all, a doll to his family, a doll to the world for their amusement and entertainment. He went through the change, finally realizing who he had wanted to be. He was no longer loved. Instead, he was sold.

He stripped himself of his title, he pulled himself out of the line just so he wouldn't fight with his brother for it. He became who he truly is, leaving his noble life behind and start from scratch. He found his true family, and realized that his parents and brother were never nobles.

Those who deserved to be called noble is his family, who all accepts him as who he is, and love him just the way he is.

70. Disgust

Ryuuichi cringed at the smell of blood and the sight of gore, where some pieces of flesh and organs splattered all around. "This is sickening.." He carefully stepped over the dead men's body, soles clicking silently against the bloodied floor and headed up to the control room, where the enemy's boss should be.

There was body everywhere, none recognizable with how it was, destroyed. Just as he walked into the control room, a body with its brain burst outwards splatted onto the ground in front of him. He cringed again at that, managed to jump back slightly to avoid the blood getting onto his shoe. "What did they do to make you... Deform them?"

Reborn smirked in a bloodthirsty manner that would bring shiver down one's spine, sauntering up to Ryuuichi. He grabbed his chin and tilted it up. "They had the gall to threaten me, of course." He continued when Ryuuichi raised an eyebrow. "To torture mio apprendista in various dirty ways."

Ryuuichi scrunched his nose at that thought. "But that's not all, is it?" Reborn smirked even wider at that as he let go of Ryuuichi. The younger narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest. "They blackmailed you with me and Tsuna, is it? Saying that they had kidnapped the both of us since we weren't in country."

"My dear, they planned to create an orrgy out of you with me watching everything." He gagged at that as Reborn cackled. "Well.. Good job then.. Deforming them." Reborn laughed again, a bit too gleeful. "Anyway, let's get out of this place."

71. Lively

"Xena, I swear to god, if you bring that here I'll-" Ivy shrieked and ran as Xena chased after her around the hallway. "Xena! Stop!"

"Oh come on, Ivy! It's nothing!" Eliot, who was walking to the library, blinked as he looked back. He paled at what Xena was holding and immediately ran as well, joining Ivy. They ran, shouting for Xena to stop when they bumped into Liu and Gilbert. They took one look at who was chasing the two of them and took off as well, but not before picking Ivy and Eliot up. 

"What's wrong with it?! It's amazing! Come back!" They ran to the basement, where the training room was, and where Ryuuichi and Yura was, training.

There was a rule in the family, and the only one everyone must follow. (Well, except for not letting Ryuuichi near the stoves. That, is major.) No one must interrupt one's training session lest they wanted to be sliced or shot down. 

Clearly, they were going to break in.

They bust into the training room, almost breaking the metal door off its hinges despite it being strong, and immediately rushed behind a flaming bow wielding Ryuuichi. Ryuuichi, who was in the midst of launching an attack on Yura with the sharp edge of the bow quickly pulled back just so he wouldn't accidentally killed one of them and ended up throwing the bow into the air. The bow landed a few fit in front of Xena just as she braked her sprint.

Ryuuichi was about to scold all of them when he saw what Xena was holding. Yura's eyes widen and he gulped, hiding behind Ryuuichi as well. Ryuuichi scowled at it.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Xena pouted and held it up. "I just want to show Ivy this.." 

"Xena, you're holding a rotting carcass of a dead snake with a parasite on its stomach."

72. Power

Caelum sometimes hated his powers, the ability Death and Judgement had gave him. He hated how he had to set someone's path, hated how he had to put out punishment. He hated how he had to deal with all these head-splitting-headaches.

But on occasion, he was really glad and relieved that he had this power. He was able to bring people to justice, was able to bring smiles onto people's faces. He was able to bring happiness. He had a sin that would never be repented, so he was really glad that he could bring joy, even though it was short lived.

73. Pity

It was a disability of Ryuuichi to pity someone. Everyone in their circle knew that. Sympathy came slowly, but never pity. No one knew why, but Ryuuichi couldn't generate pity at all. His mind would be blank, rendered mute, most of the time. He wouldn't be able to speak, voice nowhere to be found.

It was both a blessing, and a curse. 

Because of his disability to pity, he couldn't understand emotions. He didn't how to differentiate between envy and hatred, between like and love. It would take him a really long time.

Though, Ryuuichi didn't mind, not understanding it. He has all the time to learn, and so many friends and family to teach him after all.

74. Humiliation

Tsuna blushed in embarrassment when everyone laughed at him, being his usual clumsy self. He had tripped over his own legs with little to no grace at all and managed to kick a bucket of water, which somehow, managed to splash all of its content onto himself and the bucket landed on his head. 

Gokudera yelled at everyone, profanities spewing at as he and Yamamoto helped him up. Ryuuichi took the moment to glare at everyone and promptly lectured them about laughing at the unfortunate, successfully planting guilt in every one of them. He then waved at Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto for the brunette to change, telling them that he would clean this up despite the protest.

Tsuna was really grateful for every one of them, though there was one thing that made him wonder. Why does Ryuuichi spoke as though he had experienced the hardship of being neglected for almost half of his life?

75. Satisfied

Basil and Lancia exchanged a look when Natsu popped out of nowhere without Tsuna's permission and literally jumped onto Enma, who just walked in, during their annual meeting. Tsuna merely sighed in exasperation, shaking his head slightly even though he was amused. "N-Natsu!"

The lion merely purred, crushing Enma beneath him as he snuggled. It has been a while since he had last saw Enma, his second favourite person in the whole wide world, Tsuna being the first, and he absolutely missed him. Deprived, Tsuna would say. Enma huffed at the heavy lion on top of him, giving up. He smiled and patted Natsu with a bright grin.

Adelheid had a blank look on, but she, no doubt, had taken a picture of what had happen. Of course she would. It sells really well after all.

76. Thankful

Gokudera was a brat, very short tempered and explosive, literally and figuratively. People looked down upon him because he was a half-blood, in a sense, because he was a brat. They looked down upon him and cast him away without looking at his talents, scoffing. So when people finally accepted him, he was really happy and glad for once.

The first one was Shamal. He was the one who showed him the ropes, the one who taught him things he could never learn through books and manuals. He wouldn't admit it, but he was thankful of Shamal's 'patience' with him.

The next one was this mysterious person he got to know from the net. He would have never thought that he would personally approach someone he doesn't trust and have no idea who the hell they were. The person was called Drake, with no gender specific, or, that was what Gokudera thought. (He refers him as 'he', however.) Drake had let him rant about anything at all, answering each one truthfully. Gokudera wasn't foreign to fake enthusiasm, so he could tell. Drake was being blatantly honest after all. But then, he disappeared. Gokudera resented him at first, but then he decided to find him even if it cost his life. 

He had never expected that finding his other light brought him to Drake. 

Tsuna was the next person who accepted him regardless of anything, even when he had tried to kill him because Reborn said so. Mafia wasn't a place for the soft, after all. Tsuna not only didn't hold a grudge on him, he had saved him and befriended him. For someone who doesn't have any friends, Gokudera was very touched. Tsuna showed him his purpose to live, not for someone, but for himself and those he love. Tsuna made him realized that the world was never that dark. He just saw it that way.

From there, he found so many precious people, some who he had never expected to be in that category. He was forever grateful for them, for their existence. He owe them so much that he didn't know how to repay them. But that's okay, because they felt just the same.

77. Hyper

Once, Reborn decided to shoot Ryuuichi with the Dying Will Bullet. He was curious, obviously, because he had never seen him with his limiters, whether Ryuuichi knew it existed or not, off and totally unhesitant. That, and he wondered if Ryuuichi would strip off his shirt and left with his boxer on, like what happened to Tsuna before.

And so he did. He didn't expect the result he would have gotten.

Ryuuichi skipped all the steps and went into Hyper Dying Will mode. He looked just like Tsuna, minus the flames on forehead. His eyes were flaming instead, figuratively. His eyes were more narrowed and, were they glinting in slight blue? Reborn hummed thoughtfully as Ryuuichi sighed.

"Reborn, this is unnecessary." The hitman merely shrugged with a smirk and continued to observe Ryuuichi. He pelted a pebble at him with a speed so fast that no one saw him move at all. Ryuuichi remained unfazed and merely stepped aside. Reborn whistled, slightly impressed.

Ryuuichi's eyes narrowed even further when Reborn gave him this unsettling glint. "Let's see how fast you can dodge these bullets." Reborn clicked the safety of his gun off.

78. Goosebumps

Ryuuichi felt a delightful shiver ran down his spine when his skin was exposed to the cold air, and the hungry stare Hibari was giving. He felt hair rising from his neck. He unconsciously liccked his lips when Hibari pulled his own top off, never breaking the eye contact. 

Hibari leaned down and gave him a kiss, touching him in very intimated manner. Ryuuichi gasped into his moouth, back arching from the bed slightly. Hibari grinded, releasing the kiss for oxygen, and to plant bites all around the other's neck, shoulders, stomach, thigh, literally anywhere he could touch. 

He pushed, and Ryuuichi let out a silent scream.

79. Worthless

Liu clenched his hands tightly, digging his nails into his flesh and breaking the skin. He bit his inner cheeks hard, drawing blood as his father ranted about how pathetic he was, how useless he was. He had failed to do such simple task that even the lowest ranking members could do. But honestly, how could he, rob 'protection' money from the poor, old couple?

He couldn't.

"Liu. Oi Liu." A sigh. "Liu Xie!" The said man blinked to attention, blinking away the ghost tear and turned to Yuuichi, who frowned in concern. "Are you alright? We've arrived." He then realized that the rest were waiting for him to get off the private jet. "A-ah. Sorry." Yuuichi narrowed his eyes at him for a while before scoffing. He threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled Liu to the exit.

"Idiot, you can do it. Believe yourself." Liu pursed his lips before laughing softly. He shook his head. He had definitely grown stronger, physically and mentally wise. He can do this. He'll do this. He took in a deep breath as they stepped onto the land of China.

80. Remorse

"Do you not have any ounce of remorse left in you?!" Caelum's breath puffed into the cold air as he ignored the glare from G. "Do I even have any in the first place?"

"Cael, you-" Caelum laughed bitterly, shielding his eyes from the other as he turned to him. He took one step forward, his movement faltering only the slightest. G took notice of it and scowled. "Oi- Don't tell me you.." He took another, and promptly fell head first. 

"Caelum!" He was caught into a pair of warm arms, the smell of tobacco strong and stinging his nose. It was too hot and too cold at the same time. His head was swirling so badly he out for a moment. He heard curses spewing from G's mouth as he tried to gather the energy to tell him he was alright. "Sheit, you're burning up!"

"I.. Alrig-" "Like hell you are. Hang on!" G shifted him onto his back and sprinted to the nearest clinic. He gritted his teeth. He should've noticed, that Caelum wasn't feeling fine. When he had slaughtered the young man, G should've know that he wasn't in the right mind to decide carefully.

'When did he fall ill? Probably before we even came here.' G cursed again. Alaude would kill him when he knew that he let Caelum finish the damn mission in this kind of condition.

81. Degraded

The table were literally set on fire out of the sudden. Literally. Tsuna had his eyes shield from sight, but everyone could feel rage radiating from him. The allied Don swallowed thickly, trying to mask his fear. Ryuuichi leaned away from the table, arms crossed. He was slightly amused, however, as he waited for the ticking time bomb to go off.

"Your arrogance has brought you your downfall, Don Regis. From this day on, our alliance is off and our Famiglia no longer has any ties with each other."

"D-Don Vongola! Please-"

"You're the one who wanted this. So, to amuse you, I degrade myself to a petty man and grant you your wish. Bring him out." The guards immediately dragged the Don out of the door, leaving Tsuna with Ryuuichi, Reborn and Enma. Enma sweated a little, but said nothing about the brunette's decision. After all, even he would be angry if someone labeled his family as annoying, obnoxious and immature brats. 

82. Revenge

Ryuuichi snickered silently as he ran away after he surprised Reborn by slapping a pie onto his face when he tricked him into a kiss. Immediately, gun shots were heard as he laughed loudly. Serve Reborn right for dumping a tray of mayonnaise onto him when he was asleep. He hated mayonnaise more than he ever had. 

Oh, and the kiss was to infuriate Hibari. That damn skylark had ditched him in the well just to go after a flock of herbivores. (Though, on Hibari's defense, he had made sure that Ryuuichi wasn't injured before running off.) 

Ah, revenge is so sweet.

83. Fulfilled

Yuuichi gritted his teeth, wanting nothing but to personally strangle Amemori. Who had given that idiot permission to go on a mission alone? Who allowed that bloody foolish, moronic, asinine imbecile to go on his first mission without supervision? 

Right, his brother.

Unlike the rest of the Giudizio, Ryuuichi held no remorse as all of them panicked. Yuuichi really couldn't understand his brother sometimes. Wasn't he worried about Amemori? That bloody idiot had disappeared in midst journey across the Atlantic Ocean. By boat. Who in the sane mind would ride a boat when there are plane? Certainly not Yuuichi. Certainly Amemori.

"Yuu, go fetch Hibiki up." He snapped his head to his brother and gave him a bewildered look. A string of profanity slipped out of his moouth, but Ryuuichi simply ignored it with a leveled gaze. He gestured to the window with his head, seeing that he had his arms crossed. Everyone gave him a confused look while Yuuichi narrowed his eyes at him. 

Yuuichi warily walked up to the window, only to find himself torn between wanting to throw a dozen of dynamites or himself out of the window. He took in a deep breath and screamed. "You bloody arsehole!" And then he promptly jumped out of the window. 

Yura and Ivy let out a screeched and ran to the window, gazing down. They gawked at the sight of Yuuichi clinging onto Amemori like a Koala, only, hands around and tightening.

"You're lucky you kept your promise because I swear to Hades, I would skin you alive and burn you to the depths of hell!" Amemori only let out a strangled laugh.

84. Shame

The last thing that was on Mochida's list of expectations was to meet Sawada again. It has been ten years of lost contact, not that they were in any contact at all in the first place, and he was absolutely surprised seeing the brunette in a bar on the land of England. He was shocked and really taken aback about the fact that Tsuna, the Dame-Tsuna, was so damn gorgeous and damn graceful unlike his usual clumsy self. Not to mention that he was dressed in such a high class manner.

Mochida could not.

Now, Mochida had already matured over the years, regretting what he did when he was younger. It took him years to realize that he was such an imbecile and utter idiot. Sawada didn't deserve all the jeers and bully, and guilt was killing him because he was one of those who bullied him. Well, he didn't actually bully him, maybe only insulting and..

"Mochida-san?" Oh dear god, why do Sawada need to notice him? 

"A-ah. Long time no see, Sawada." Sawada literally beamed and pulled him onto the chair beside him. "How are you?" Mochida couldn't believe it. The guy whose life he had made miserable was chatting with him like it was nothing. How forgiving is this guy?!

"Still alive and living, somehow. I can see that you're doing very well.." Sawada laughed a bit sheepishly. "Ahh, well, I kind of.. Inherited a family business."

"Oh, wow." How, utterly, crazy. "So you're still in contact with those two?" By that, he meant Gokudera and Yamamoto. Sawada laughed again. "Yep. In fact, We're working in the same company." "That sounded.. loud?" Mochida wasn't foreign to the fact that the two, stuck to Sawada by the hip, were really noisy and destructive. Sawada suddenly turned grim as he stared at his bonze, hard. Like he was glaring at it. "Very loud and explosive." Uh-oh. Mochida seemed to have landed on a mine.

Then he realized that Sawada was probably drunk, with how he ranted of that their fights have been causing so many damage, so many paperworks, and some other things he couldn't understand because Mochida literally zoned out.

Holy sheit, did Sawada mentioned about Hibari Kyouya and Sasagawa Ryohei?!

"Oi Tsuna." Is, is that Shiroki Ryuuichi?! And Mochida thought that he had already, vanished!

"Ryuuichi~! Come on, join me for a drink!" Ryuuichi glanced over to Mochida and raised an eyebrow. He nodded and him and patted the brunette's shoulder. "No, you've enough already. Let's go." Tsuna whined about something that made Ryuuichi rolled his eyes. And then he promptly dropped unconscious. 

Ryuuichi sighed in exasperation and hoisted Tsuna up by the shoulder with a heave, managing it without difficulty. He stared at Mochida. "I would probably stay a little longer to chat but.." He peered at the unconscious man. Mochida immediately shook his head. "No, no. It's okay. I'm leaving after all." 

He almost blanched when Ryuuichi grinned in a feral manner. "I'll see you next time then, ciao ciao~" And Ryuuichi dragged Tsuna out of the bar, weaving around the sea of bodies with ease. Mochida couldn't believe it. And he didn't want to. He don't want to meet Ryuuichi, Sawada, nor his merry little gang ever again.

Shame, because a week after, he bumped into them again, in a coffee shop this time.

85. Graceful

Reborn smirked as he sauntered into the lobby, clad in his usual black suit and fedora. Everyone, practically everyone in the room would take a second glance on him as he passed, or longer. Definitely longer. He ignored their ogling, too used to it and went into the elevator. He pressed thirteen and waited patiently, the slow hum of music filling the silence.

At the ding that signified the arrival, he walked out of the open door and to the last room on the floor. Just as he was right in front of the door, he heard the soft sound of piano echoing from the room. He silently clicked the door open and peered in, to see Bianchi playing the piano, eyes unfocused despite looking at the key.

It sounded repeating, looping without an end. She was distracted. He merely stood outside and waited until she stop. He was all too used to this kind of situation, seeing that his apprentice and one of his student's Storm tends to do that when bothered.

It didn't stop him from thinking that she seemed really graceful, however.

86. Shining

Gokudera wheezed as Yamamoto fell onto his knees, body shaking. The bomber was as pale as a ghost, and eyes wide. He couldn't help but gasped loudly, just as how the others did as well. 

Ryuuichi was on his knees too, but unlike the others, he was staring intensely into Hibari's eyes. Hibari bristled and leaped away. Ryuuichi immediately gave a chase and left them behind. Yamamoto choked and laughed like a madman, tears springing from his eyes as he rolled on the ground. Reborn's eyes glinted in glee as he threw something shiny into the air and caught it again.

Who would have thought that Hibari would turn into a cat from a bullet made of Mist flames? 

87. Content

Hibari sleepily blinked at the teen who was sleeping on him, wondering how he was able to not wake him up like that. He glanced at the clock by the wall and yawned. He turned to his side, causing Ryuuichi to fall onto the bed. Ryuuichi made a dying whale sound at the back of his throoat and shifted closer to Hibari, sleeping all the while. Hibari chuckled in amusement and pulled him closer, almost crushing him against his chest.

He planted a chaste kiss on the younger's forehead and closed his eyes, taking in the warmth. 

88. Feelings

Death knew that Caelum was full with emotions, knew that the First Historian had wanted to take his own life again and again because of it. The next one was the same, and the next, and the next. But as each reincarnation dragged out, Death noticed that the emotion decreased drastically. It was as if the soul was tired, as if the heart was merely pumping for the sake of it, exasperated. 

Death realized that the Historian was getting weary despite all of it. Until the current reincarnation, Death and Judgement had discussed of it, wondering if they should let the Historian's soul rest in peace. 

Fate had another idea, and Death and Judgement couldn't win against Fate. 

They soon saw what Fate saw and knew, the colorful burst from the Historian, restoring the dull, monotone soul.

89. Pleased

Nana was a happy woman, still is. She was cheerful and optimistic, sharp despite others calling her an air-head. She knew things, suspects them. But she stayed silent, for the voice in her head chanted for her to wait, wait and see. So she did. It paid off, for her baby child soon grew happier and happier. It was worth it, when her husband, after so many years, finally retired and stayed with her.

"Dear! We ran out of shampoo!" She sighed in fond exasperation, smiling as she skipped up to the bathroom. "There should be a new bottle in the cabinet!" 

90. Relief

Luce smiled softly as she watched her grandchild, her beloved grandchild smiling and living, growing. She smiled, as she took in how Reborn, Fon, Viper, Verde, Colonello, Lal Mirch and Skull revolving around the little Sky, happier than they ever was. She was glad that she didn't claim them as her's, didn't let them go through the pain when she left, when she broke their bond.

She wanted to cry in agony at the emptiness.

Yuni has her elements now, and that's okay. She's growing, her family is growing. That's okay. She's living.

Aria shook her head at her mother and patted her on her shoulder gently. They exchanged a look and mirrored each other's smile. They gave the little Sky one last look before disappearing.

Yuni blinked, surprising herself with a lone tear that dripped from her eyes and successfully surprised the others as well. They panicked as she looked up to the sky with a confused gaze. 

She smiled to herself.

91. I

I am a King, I am a scum, I'm god itself, and I'm satan as well. I'm the opposite of everything, and the opposite of nothing. I-

Checkerface stared at the chess board boredly, moving a piece, the silent clack of the piece placed on the marble echoed in the silent room, void. He was leaning against his propped up arm, cheeks against his fist. His mask was still in place, always was. It weighted of the world. It weighted of nothing.

"Kawahira-san!" He lifted his head up slightly to the darkness in front of him, and a screen suddenly appeared. "Kawahira-san! Are you there?"

'Sawada Tsunayoshi. What does he want?' He opened a portal for the brunette and watched him come into the void. He turned the void into a forest instead, with chairs and a table. The chess board was replaced by snacks and tea. He smiled as the brunette came in.

"Welcome. Do you need anything?" Tsuna narrowed his eyes at him. Checkerface chuckled and took off his disguise. It was no lie that people hated him being Checkerface instead of Kawahira. These children certainly loathe it. "Kawahira-san, we're going to hold a party tonight! Can you join us?"

"Party? I'm afraid I'm too old for this." Tsuna pouted. "No one is too old for party!" Kawahira chuckled again. "Besides, everyone is expecting you."

He raised an eyebrow at that. That was.. Surprising. Unexpected. "Oh?"

"Yeah. We'll be sad if you didn't come." The eighteen years old pouted and gave him puppy eyes, a trick he had learned after all these years with his tutor and friends. How amusing. It didn't work on Kawahira, however, and Tsuna knew that. Still, he tried harder. 

It reminded him of the time Sepira and the rest of the Earthlings were still alive, where they would still smile and laugh genuinely. 

I'm alone.

"Tsunayoshi-kun, I-" "I'm not taking a 'no' for an answer, Kawahira-san. We will drag you there if we must." Kawahira smiled a little, twitched a little. How daring of him. "And Yuni will cry." That's... That's foul play. He merely sighed.

I'm not alone.

92. Zest

Yamamoto grinned, all too sharp and all too feral. His eyes were no doubt glinting underneath his blindfold, holding a bat in hand as the scorching sun burned his . He ignored that and chased after Gokudera, who screeched profanities at him but it was unheard to him, as he was wearing earbuds. Gokudera wanted to bomb him, but his dynamites had been confiscated. 

"The goddamn watermelon is there you bloody-" His words ended with a high pitched scream when Yamamoto slashed down, almost smashing his head open instead if he didn't dodge just in time. 

Ryuuichi sighed as Yuuichi laughed hysterically beside him, lying on his back as he tried to stop it. Ryuuichi merely shook his head in exasperation, fanning himself with a plastic fan. It wasn't that effective, but at least it wasn't that bad. "How can they be so energetic?" 

He ended up asking himself since Yuuichi has clearly lost himself. He sighed again, wanting nothing but to escape the heat. He was under the umbrella, but the sand was hot as well. Why did they make this an annual thing to do? Right, Reborn enforced it. Speaking of the hitman, he was leaning against his back. His sun flames weren't helping much with how much heat he was giving off. 

Ryuuichi groaned and leaned forward, causing the hitman lean backward as well. "Why do you need to stick to me? Can't you go bother someone else?"

"No."

He saw Leon flicking his tongue at him from the corner of his eyes. That reptile-

"Tsunnaaa-" He drawled out, whining slightly. "Get your tutor off meeee!" Tsuna gave him a sheepish smile and ran off after Gokudera and Yamamoto, trying to stop them. Damn.

...

"Why are you throwing lemon zest at me?"

Reborn gave him a sheit-eating grin. "To neutralize the bitterness." 

Ryuuichi leaped after Reborn and tried to shove a lemon into his mouuth.

93. Tears

She was breaking. She was shattering under her skin, scream for help inside. She wanted to scream it out, wanted the world to know but would clamp up whenever she tried. Her heart would thump loudly against her rib cage, telling her not to, that it's not worth telling them. That her problem doesn't worth their time.

She stopped and pushed it down. For years and years, she pushed it down, burying it under layers and layers of self-deceit and fantasy. She acted, faked and put up masks. She hid herself from everyone, from her family, from Alex. She was so tired. So tired of everything. She just wanted to stop breathing already. 

And she did.

And he breathed.

Ryuuichi found himself staring at his hands, small, soft and foreign, yet his. He found himself staring at himself for hours in front of a mirror, taking in everything. He was sure that he was looking at himself, yet he didn't feel like it. He couldn't get use to it. He was breathing yet again.

Why?

Ryuuichi didn't know if he could cope it. He didn't know if he could last any longer. The prospect of death scared him, but he wondered if it would be easier than living. He stayed still instead and waited in silence. His screams died down, but the echo remained. His screams never disappeared, coming back again and again, terrorizing and exhausting him.

He was no longer breaking, but it sure was cracking little by little as he waited.

"It's okay to fall, Ryuuichi. It's okay to stop. If it's too much, push it away. If you can't handle it alone, call me. Don't hide yourself anymore. Don't break by yourself any longer." He soaked Hibari's shirt with tears. 

94. Building

Ryuuichi didn't like sand that much, and he was pretty sure the sand didn't like him just as much as well. He had this thing about playing with the sand while talking, he just couldn't stand it. Perhaps it has something to do with his paranoia that he would accidentally eat the sand. Yuuichi, on the other hand, clearly had different thoughts.

The five years old were happily chattering with the other kids as they played in the sand box, Ryuuichi occupying one of the swing nearby as he stared. They were building a castle, apparently, which soon turned into a huge boulder since they didn't have and pail. They didn't mind, so it seem, merely dumping more sand onto it. 

A strong breeze against Ryuuichi's face, which he didn't mind until his right eye hurt. He winced and immediately covered his eye with his hand, trying to blink the sand out of it. It didn't work, obviously. It was getting itchy and irritating that he couldn't stop himself from rubbing it until a set of hands pried his off. He frowned at Yuuichi, who was staring at him for some reason. No, not at him. At his eye, apparently.

Damn he wanted to close it.

"What-" And then Yuuichi inched closer and promptly blew his eye. Ryuuichi tilted back a little, a hand on the chain just so he doesn't fall off, in surprise. He blinked again, finding it better. 

"Thank you." Yuuichi grinned. "Then let's go play with the sand~ You look lonely here with onee-san." Ryuuichi was taken aback for a second that his brother managed to pull him off the swing and dragged him to the sand box. He looked back at the place he was sitting, to find a young woman with a smiling at him. And she disappeared into thin air.

If he didn't recognize who it was, he would probably scream and run away, but he did. He merely turned back to his brother and raised an eyebrow. (Why did the both of them saw his past self?)

95. Optimistic

Yamamoto hummed a tune loudly as he drove up the hill, head bopping a little to the music. Gokudera, who was at the backseat, groaned at him as he nursed his headache. "Can you shut up? Why are you smiling anyway? This isn't a trip, idiot."

"I know~ But don't you think this is the moment to be happy?" Gokudera scowled at him with a weird look. Why would Yamamoto thought that it was a happy moment when they were clearly heading to a warzone. Why?!

".. I knew it. You're a psychopath." Yamamoto merely laughed at him. "I prefer the word optimistic, Hayato-chan~" Yep. Damn psychopath. "Don't call me that you bloody weirdo."

The smile on the black haired man stretched even more. And sharper.

96. Thrilled

When Ryuuichi got his first laptop, Kei and Sakura had never saw him that excited before. The young child had literally thanked them almost a million time in a day as he rushed to charge the laptop, with Yuuichi following closely behind. It was adorable, really, seeing how his eyes sparkle that much for the first time. 

Though, they soon wondered who taught him to use the laptop because he doesn't seem to need any teaching to know how to use it. Especially typing. Dear god, they have never saw a kid of his age type that fast. Adults and teenagers, yes, but a kid? No.

"Opps- Mother, do we have a mouse or something?"

Yuuichi tilted his head in curiousity. "Mousey? There's mousey?" He looked around. "Where?"

Ryuuichi laughed heartily at that, happiness heavy in his voice, uncontrolled and free. Kei quirked a smile and shook his head slightly as Sakura cooed. (Kei should be worried that his eldest son would be addicted to the laptop but he couldn't find himself to be concerned. That, and he was too late.)

97. Dealing

Gilbert and Liu sweated at how Don Hayme blabbered about his conditions on the alliances as they stood behind Ryuuichi, who was sporting a migraine. They exchanged a look and wondered if they should intervene before something happen when it was all too late. Don Hayme stopped short on his sentence when Ryuuichi raised a hand.

"Don Hayme, with all due respect, please shut up for a moment." The don sputtered incoherently at how straightforward Ryuuichi was as Gilbert and Liu sighed internally and braced for it. 

"First of all, note that you're trying to make an alliance with a neutral organization. We will not assist you in any ways if you were to commit 'crime' and find yourself in trouble with the Vindice. Secondly, we will assist if we deem it alright. Thirdly, we will not allow you to do anything on our, Vongola's, Cavallone's nor Shimon's turf."

"You're being unreason-"

"The one who's being unreasonable is you. I've made it very clear the moment I started this organization that whoever it is, our priority is to be a neutral party."

"You-"

"I'm different. I stand as a different person under the title of the Historian. As a Historian, only those whom I am bonded, I will assist."

Don Hayme became redder and redder, and Ryuuichi took it as a sign that the alliance was off. He shrugged internally. Nothing to lose anyway. "Well then, we've another meeting to attend. Please excuse us, Don Hayme." He stood up and walked out of the room with Gilbert and Liu following behind.

The older two shook their head in exasperation. This would mark the twenty-fifth time Ryuuichi had walked out of a meeting room like that. 

98. Reflect

Ryuuichi smiled at Hibari, whistling a small tune as he called for the stray birds, Hibird pierced on his head and chirping as well. In his hand, was a handful of bird seeds. Soon, canaries and magpies flew towards him. Some landed on his hand and shoulders, some on the ground, pecking the spilled bird seeds.

It was really amusing, seeing the usually blood-thirsty prefect being this gentle. (Because he wasn't usually that gentle. The bump on the back of Ryuuichi's head was the proof. Hibari was lucky he didn't lash out because he really dislike people hitting his head.) Ryuuichi had saw this for quite a few times now, having to arrive early enough to see him do this. It was still entrancing despite that.

He closed his eyes and the flashback of the first time he met Hibari played in his mind. Then to the moment Hibari didn't even care of him being approximately one meter away, didn't care that he was there like he didn't care Kusakabe was with him. (Ryuuichi had seen some other members of the committee being bitten to death because being too close to the prefect. Like, one point five meters close. Really.) And then, everything fast forward to the moment they got together.

He blushed at how idiotic he was, running away. Seriously, he wasn't a teenager anymore, mentally wise anyway, why was he being shy from a teenager's action? He palmed his face and huffed.

Hibari peered towards Ryuuichi and raised an eyebrow. He looked at his hand and had an idea out of nowhere. He wordlessly walked to the younger and sat down beside him on the ground. He felt the jolt but ignored it. "Hand."

"Hah?"

Hibari reached out with his free hand and grabbed Ryuuichi's, then proceeded to dump the remaining bird seeds onto it. Ryuuichi screeched a little at that and the birds immediately flapped over to his palm. Hibari chuckled at how tensed he was. "Relax."

"Easy for the one who's surrounded by them everyday to say." He smirked at the half-hearted grumble and whistled again, calling more birds. Ryuuichi would probably squawk out in surprise at the increase of amount of bird if he wasn't already surprised by the tune Hibari was whistling.

"Y-you were listening?" It was something he had composed out of nowhere. It was short, and stupid, and he was pretty sure that he was playing it alone.

Hibari said nothing of it and kept on whistling until the end, and then the melody continued. Ryuuichi's eyes widen. Hibari was continuing the unfinished melody he created out of boredom. He flushed at that and turned away slightly. He couldn't stop the smile from forming on his lips, however.

He joined him in his whistling a moment after, sitting there even after the bird seeds was finished. 

99. Embarrassment

"Boun compleanno, amore~" Ryuuichi grinned, face flushed and eyes glazed. Intoxicated, apparently. Hibari raised an eyebrow at that as he loosen his tie. "It's not my birthday, small animal." The dark brown haired man frowned, lips jutting out slightly. "Noooo- It's your birthday! Don't tell me you've forgotten!" Hibari was pretty sure that it wasn't his birthday, nor was it spring. It was actually winter.

"Come 'ere! Lemme give you your present~!" Amused by that, he walked over to him, where he was on the floor. That was when Hibari noticed the empty bottle on the ground. He took it and smelt it before pulling it away and scrunched up his nose. Vodka. Someone must have switched his water. He knelt on the ground right in front of Ryuuichi, who was still grinning like a high-on-sugar child.

"Since today is your birthday.." Ryuuichi swayed a little. "I'll let you do whatever you want with me!" Hibari smirked at that.

Ryuuichi blushed and groaned loudly at that, rubbing his temple. He did not just did that... Okay maybe he did. The video was the prove. Damn Reborn for taking it. Hibari was smirking smugly at him.

Ryuuichi avoided his eyes as he sobbed internally. Why must Hibari force him to wear these?! As in, Nami-chuu's girl's uniform. Whyy!? 'That's it. Kyouya has uniform .'

If that wasn't bad enough, he was bloody chained up to the bed post, absolutely rendered immobile. Hibari crawled up to him, eyes glinting in lust. 

100. Friendship

Once, Ryuuichi had a weird but surprisingly pleasant dream. He dreamed of everyone, of his brother, of Tsuna and the others, Dino, Hibari, Enma, and a whole lots of others. They were all standing in a circle like when they were breaking the curse of the Arcobaleno. A very large circle.

Everyone had their eyes closed, minus Ryuuichi. The Arcobaleno was no longer in infant form but in their original size, eyes closed as well, standing so still. He was so confused when he noticed a rainbow ball in the middle of the circle. 

It was then he noticed a string from the ball connected to Tsuna's chest, then the others as well, and his own. 

He touched the string slowly, watching it resonate and pulsing slightly. It seemed to have grown out from his chest, or something. It was humming. He had no idea why. 

Though, it wasn't such a bad thing. He smiled and closed his eyes. 

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying in a heap with all of them, all on the ground and sleeping.

101. Enthusiasm

Yuuichi's first family outing was to the zoo. He was really excited about it, after all the cartoon of animals, the pictures, the videos. Yuuichi couldn't wait for it. And when the kid finally got to go, he was left breathless. Literally. It was beautiful, with the various species of animals all around him, some he even got to feed.

But upon seeing the cages, he could feel some tiny pieces of him died a little.

102. Triumph

Yuuichi smirked down at his brother, a hand on his neck as he pinned him down. "I win, Ryuu~" Ryuuichi blinked in surprise before chuckling. "Indeed, you did." Yuuichi got off of him and reached out a hand for him. He pulled him up as Amemori clapped, walking over.

"I've never seen such confusing fight before." The twins burst out into laughter. "Well, Ryuu, you owe me!" Ryuuichi stopped and groaned a little. Whatever it is, never owe his brother, or Reborn. The outcome will never come out alright. Yuuichi merely grinned victoriously. 

103. Making History

Tsuna wondered, if he were to be different, born a different person from different parents, would his life be better, or would it be worst? But when he remembered of his mother, his beautiful, sweet sweet mother, he blanched. He didn’t want to leave his mother. He didn’t want to see her sad. 

He didn’t want to be like his father, who made her lonely even when he was there for her.

”What did you see?” He jolted and looked around the roof. He should be the only one up here, but apparently, he wasn’t. “What did you see?” The person asked again, from where he was behind the water tank, away from Tsuna’s sight.

Tsuna blinked, hesitated. “.. The town?”

”And?”

”.. Nothing else.” 

A chuckle was heard. “Look again.”

Tsuna frowned. He didn’t understand. As he was about to ask, the bell to the rang, signifying that homeroom would be starting soon. He hurried away.

Two years later, when he went up to the roof of Namimori Middle alone, he stared at the town. He finally managed to shake off Gokudera and Yamamoto just so he could come up here alone, entertained by his thoughts. 

He had just remembered the conversation he had with the mysterious person up here, and he wondered again. 

“What did you see?” Tsuna looked up to the water tank, the mysterious person is there yet again, away from his sight. 

With a smile Tsuna turned to the look at the town again. “My home, my history.”

Behind the water tank, Ryuuichi smiled.

104. Rivalry

Amemori glared at Hibari, just as Hibari glared at Amemori with the same intensity. Ryuuichi palmed his face and sighed. 

”Mind telling me what the actual hell you guys are doing?”

Hibari growled. “He dared try and kiss you.”

“I told you I wasn’t!”

The prefect had just the right timing to come into his room when Amemori tripped on top of Ryuuichi, pinning him down with their face inches away. It was clearly a misunderstanding, but Hibari wouldn’t listen to any excuse and practically ripped Amemori off of his Ryuuichi.

And hence, the glaring contest and Hibari twitching to bite Amemori to death while Ryuuichi tried to pacify everything.

Ryuuichi had enough.

“I explained, you didn’t want to listen, I had enough.” He then literally pushed the both of them out of his room and slammed the door shut.

He was so done with them.

105. Unbreakable

The moment the Giudizio’s mansion, their home, was infiltrated by assassins from their enemy Famiglia, Ryuuichi personally took care of it.

He, stood in the middle of the circle, surrounded by ten or so assassins that he led to the courtyard to avoid any destruction in the mansion. 

“Before anything, which Famiglia are you all from?” His voice steadily resonated and clearly heard by the assassins despite the distance, his hands in his pockets, his jacket forgone somewhere during the cat and mouse chase.

The assassins didn’t answer. He shrugged.

“Figures.” They attacked, guns were brought out and shooting, flames and box weapons were used. 

It took merely three minutes for all of them to fall, either crippled or shot or burnt. Ryuuichi had his gun out, Sora, Shiro and Kuro by his side, all grown up.

“I’ll let all of you off for now. Bring this message to your boss; Give it all you got, you imbecile.”

Yura and Xena laughed from the balcony of the second floor as Gilbert filmed everything down. Yuuichi merely sighed and shook his head in exasperation with Liu, for this was the nth time Ryuuichi disabled whomever their enemies sent to kill either of them single-handedly. Though, he had a smile on. 

Send whoever you want, for we will forever stand strong til death.

106. Obsession

Ryuuichi mooaned as Hibari bit onto his neck, hands roaming his chest. Their lips locked together as they became one.

Ryuuichi threw his head back and screamed, out of both pleasure and pain, his hands raking Hibari’s back, leaving trails of red at his wake.

He screamed Hibari’s name as he nipped his ears, rewarded by another shaky mooan. “K-Kyouya!”

107. Eternity

Caelum drifted along the clouds, floating as he watched his and Alaude’s successor spar, their body gracefully moved to dodge each others attack, and to initiate another. 

He had never believed in eternity, let alone eternal love.

But, 400 hundreds years after, he believed.

108. Gateway

He was Caelum first, and Nico the next. During the interlude, he stood by a large gate. To where, he had no idea, but he remained there, staring.

The gate opened slowly, he never moved.

He turned his back to the gate, and walked away.

109. Death

Death had no idea what Fate wanted, or what Fate had planned for the Historian, to be reincarnated in another world, different from its original. Judgement didn’t as well. In fact, none knew what Fate was thinking.

They never do anyway.

Death was exasperated.

110. Opportunities

Hibari wanted to kiss Ryuuichi. Really wanted to. They haven’t met for almost a month for he had a mission, and he really missed his lover. It was fortunate of him that Ryuuichi had things to do at the Vongola mansion, but unfortunately, Ryuuichi was constantly surrounded by herbivores. 

Because it was the annual meeting between the allied Famiglia and Organizations with Vongola. 

He tried to sneak a kiss here and there, but those herbivores just kept pulling Ryuuichi away from him.

He was pissed.

“R-Ryuuichi.” Tsuna whispered to the said man and secretly pointed at Hibari’s direction, where he was standing by the corner emitting a dark, murderous aura that none dared to approach him.

Ryuuichi turned to look at the Vongola Cloud, and sighed. “Excuse me for a moment.” He walked to Hibari, who was glaring at the innocent ground as though it would burn.

“Kyouya.” He sounded so exasperated, but fond. ‘Cute.’ Chuckling internally, he looked around for a moment. No one was looking at them. Good.

He leaned up slightly and pecked the man on the lips. “Patience, okay?” 

Ryuuichi knew of how Hibari wanted to push him down right there, right then with how heated his stare was. He gave him a wink and proceed to mingle with the others again. Secretly, he liicked his lips, anticipating. 

The dark aura Hibari had dispersed. 

111. 33%

Ryuuichi never always believed in a hundred percent. Especially with the contracts with other Famiglia other than the Vongola, Cavallone and Shimon. There will always be a thirty-three percent of doubt.

And said doubt never hurt as it helped him throughout the years in the mafia, planning a second or third way betrayed, backstabbed or cheated.

As how he wasn’t the least bit fazed when the accuse of Yura a group of young girls from this particular Famiglia. The Don looked absolutely furious as he bellowed at him. 

Ryuuichi merely waited for the Don to finish his rant, his hands interlocked in front of him, elbow propped up on his table. Yura stood behind him, scowling but said nothing despite the points. 

“Don Lilae.” He calmly said, a business smile on. “I can ensure you, that my man did not raape any of your girls.”

“What prove do you have?! We even had the DNA that matched that bastard’s!”

Chuckling, he leaned in slightly. “Didn’t you know that DNA can be fraud? Besides, Yura was with me the whole time on the dates you had said.” He picked up a file and pushed it to the man. The Don turned red in anger and snatched the file. 

His face blanched at the pictures.

“Instead, I found you raaping all of them on said dates. It was too bad that you did it on Cavallone’s territory. Don Cavallone was generous enough to let me know of your,” He paused to find a better word. “Affairs.”

He smirked in a sadistic manner. “Let’s talk about real things, shall we?” (Yura almost laughed.)

112. Dead Wrong

Dino had been wondering, if Reborn like Ryuuichi in the way Hibari love Ryuuichi. He noticed all the intimated touches Reborn gave Ryuuichi each them they’re near each other, and how Ryuuichi responded to each of them.

Not to mention the not so subtle kisses on the cheeks they sneaked each time.

It made Dino wonder if they were in a polyamorous relationship with Hibari, or Ryuuichi was cheating on him.

“Do you like Ryuuichi, Reborn?”

Reborn gave him an exasperated look. “Define ‘like’.” He took a sip on his espresso. 

“Romantically.”

Something twinkled in Reborn’s eyes as he smirked. Ryuuichi came up to them with a similar look. Dino suddenly felt afraid, fear for his own life.

“Perhaps we shall show you what our relationship is, pipsqueak-Dino~” 

113. Running Away

Liu had been in the triad every since he could remember. He was born into it, being the heir to the head of the triad. He spent hours and hours of training and learning. He took in all his father’s beating, all the jeers and mocks from other higher members of the triad, he took in all and let them cage him in this golden birdcage.

He wanted to be free.

But once in a triad, there was no leaving except for death. Liu wanted to die.

Until this strange man showed up.

He was finally ran, and survived.

114. Judgment

Occasionally, Judgement wondered if it was a mistake to let a human with abundance of emotions to decide on another set of humans’ lives. 

But when Judgement saw how the Historian gave the others choices instead of deciding it for them, Judgement wondered no more. 

Except whenever the Historian decided to end another’s life because of their wrong doings. His punishments are always typical.

115. Seeking Solace

It was a common knowledge that Hibari is a really, bloody strong person despite his soft spot for small, cute and adorable animals. His hits are aimed to maim and punish most of the time, landing most of his victims into the hospital. Some, to kill.

He was so strong that no one (other than the rest of the guardians) dared to fight him, let alone be near him.

They believed that he would never break down like a common person.

Ryuuichi doesn’t. 

The sixteen years old teen stood by the door in a short sleeved green T-shirt and shorts, blinking at the drench Hibari from the heavy storm outside. He frowned and immediately pulled him inside. 

“Wait a moment.” He immediately ran into back into the house after closing the door shut, coming back with a thick, fluffy towel. He draped it over Hibari’s head and told him to dry up first while he drew a hot bath for him.

Hibari wordlessly stared at the towel before his hands moved it. He stared at his feet, and toed off his shoes. 

He slowly made a beeline to the bathroom, leaving puddles on the floor. He didn’t care about it, and he doubt Ryuuichi would even though he might grumble a bit when he wipe it. 

Ryuuichi was dipping a hand into the water to check the temperature when he came in. The teen gave him a look. “Strip.”

On normal occasion, Hibari would look at him as though he was suggesting something, but it wasn’t. Seeing how stiff Hibari was, Ryuuichi wordlessly did it for him.

He ed the button-down shirt Hibari was wearing before moving to his trousers, not even the least bit embarrassed. He left the boxer on, and looked up to Hibari, silently telling him to do it on his own. He took the soaked shirt and trousers in hands, and moved around to the put it in the washing machine when Hibari suddenly hugged him from behind.

Ryuuichi could feel how cold the other was, and how his shirt was getting wet. He didn’t mind. He placed a hand on Hibari’s arms as Hibari buried his face at the crook of his neck. 

“Take a quick shower first, alright?” He tried to coax, not wanting him to catch a cold. 

Slowly, but surely, Hibari untangled from him and moved away. Ryuuichi smiled softly and plopped the garments into the machine, pushing a few buttons here and there and let it do its work. He heard the water splashing, overflowing slightly, indicating that Hibari had went in. 

Ryuuichi walked out of the bathroom and went to his room to take a spare set of clothes Hibari left during the time he came over. Trotting back the bathroom, he placed it beside the towel and went to make two cups of hot tea.

Just as he set the cups down on the coffee table, Hibari came out, hair wet. A crooked smile tugged on Ryuuichi’s lips as he pulled Hibari down onto the sofa and wiped the black hair dry.

Once he was done, Hibari immediately pulled him into a tight embrace and buried his face on his shoulder once again.

Ryuuichi sighed and let him do what he wanted, threading his fingers in the black locks.

Both of them said nothing, holding onto each other while listening to the loud pitter-patter of the rain. Days like these, Ryuuichi couldn’t help but love how Hibari trusted him to show him his vulnerable side.

But Ryuuichi couldn’t fully give him the support he needed. He is not Hibari’s Sky.

116. Excuses

”Yura.” The teen flinched at the tone of Ryuuichi’s voice. Ryuuichi noticed and let out a small, inaudible sigh.

He pulled him into a hug. “I know that you hate your parents, but please don’t do this.” He gently said. “They’re not worth it. Don’t make them an excuse to hurt yourself.” 

Yura sobbed into the man’s shirt, soaking it. 

17. Vengeance

She never liked her father, but he was still her father even when he told her to sell her own body. 

He was still her father even when he told her to infiltrate into the Vongola’s mansion and sleep with one of the guardians, just so he could threaten them into a unbreakable contract. 

She did as told, sneaking in with great difficulties with the help of her mist flames, in the middle of the night.

And she did as ordered, sleep with one of the guardians. She sneaked into the Vongola’s Cloud guardian’s quarters, naaked.

The raven haired man immediately noticed her presence and pushed her down, a tonfa onto the throat.

His grey eyes narrowed at her. “Who are you?”

Just as she was about to speak, another man with long, dark brown hair came in. The man jolted in surprise at her presence before turning on his heels and walked out of the room in a fast pace.

The Cloud snarled at her when she held onto him just as he was about to take off and chase the other man. He knocked her out.

When she came to it, when everything registered in her mind, the same man that walked away gave her a choice, saying that her father was taken away by the Vindice for multiple charges, human trafficking and slavery.

The man gave her a chance to start a new life as someone new, away from the dirty world and without her father, or join him into his Organization as he would treat him as a human rather than a toy.

She never liked her father, and she never will.

She took up the name ‘Ivy’ and took the man’s hand.

118. Love

Yuuichi wasn’t foreign to love, having to fell in love with a handful of people only to let them go when it disappeared.

He wasn’t foreign to love, for his family and friends showered him with love that he would never live without.

He love all of them. He treasures them greatly. 

Yuuichi fell in love with all of them. And he love Amemori.

119. Tears

On rare occasion, Ryuuichi would shut himself in his room when no one was around. He would stare at the sky, watching it turn from bright blue to amber red and to deep blue. He would blankly look up at the stars, absentmindedly connecting each and one of it.

On rare occasion, droplets of water would dropped from Ryuuichi’s eyes when he was alone.

120. My Inspiration

Ryuuichi never really told anyone, nor had anyone asked, but he likes poetry and riddles. He likes how beautifully written they are and how deep the meanings are.

He had written tons of them himself, hidden in a pile of notebook of random stuff and notes.

And he kept on writing them even after ten years, and probably will write it until his hands could no longer moves. 

For his family showed him so many different things.

121. Never Again

The first time they fought verbally, wasn’t the last time they fought, but it was the most heart breaking one. It involved shouts and screams, pained as words they never meant to say was thrown around.

It lasted until they just stopped, panting from where they stood. Ryuuichi eyes were teary as he tried to keep it in. Hibari was scowling, biting his own lips until they bleed. 

Ryuuichi took in a shaky breath and walked out of the room, leaving Hibari with his own thoughts. They both needed time and space to calm down.

That night, long passed midnight, apologies were murmured into each others’ skin as they held onto each other. The pain in their heart never left, but they knew that they are okay.

They are okay.

122. Online

”Ryuu is dying.”

Hibari literally did a double take at how calm and deadpan Yuuichi sounded. “What?”

”He. Is. Dying.”

Hibari hurried over to the doorway, putting on his shoes. “What happened?”

”Internet.” He palmed his face, finally noticing the familiar hysterical, obnoxious laughter over the phone.

123. Failure

Gilbert was once Henry. He was once a failure.

He failed to keep his family safe.

He won’t lose them again. 

“Goddamit Gil, stop trying to kill our intel!!”

Never again.

124. Rebirth

Death looked at the soul of the Historian, floating in front of Death. Death wondered if Death should just let it go and free it from its task.

Death let it reincarnated without doing anything.

125. Breaking Away

The Historian is a Sky without its elements, a sky without anyone by its side.

Ryuuichi knew that, as his flames were never fully bonded with the others. (They said otherwise, however.) 

He could never have the kind of relationship Tsuna has with his guardians, how they truly felt each other through their flames without much difficulties. He envy them, but he is happy for them.

He could honestly do without the aching pain of emptiness that hit him from time to time though.

126. Forever and a day

“What is your wish, Historian.” Caelum stared at Judgement and Death, tilting his head in confusion.

“You have sacrificed a lot, and will continue to do so. We decided to grant you a wish, in return of your sacrifices.”

Caelum hummed thoughtfully. He smiled.

“I don’t have one.”

Judgement and Death were surprised, but they nodded and let Caelum’s soul be reincarnated. 

“What is your wish, Historian.” They asked again, but this time, to Rue. 

Rue smiled, eyebrows furrowed slightly. “I don’t have any.”

For I’ll live as long as this world still exist.

127. Lost and Found

Caelum leaned in and pecked him on the forehead. It was a quick one, as he soon back away from the stunned man. 

A small, melancholic smile was on his face as he left without a word. Alaude never saw him again.

Ryuuichi walked up to Hibari, face devoid from emotions. He stopped right in front of the prefect. He stared up into Hibari’s eyes, searching. 

Hibari looked at him with the same intensity. He pulled Ryuuichi into his arms and shared a passionate kiss with him.

128. Light

Eliot had never seen the light for a long time. His days were filled with darkness, and stale smell of body odours. 

His life was so dull and black. 

But his life now is so bright, blinding and warm. He could never ask for a better home. It doesn't smell as well.

129. Dark

Hibari woke up to the dark, and to an empty spot beside him. He groggily pushed himself up and looked around his room, noticing that his lover wasn’t around.

He stood up from his bed and walked out to find him, not caring if he was topless. He yawned and shuffled to the kitchen silently, where the light was still on even when he had turned it off before going to bed.

He blinked himself awake upon seeing Ryuuichi staring at a bunch of papers scattered on the dining table, arms crossed.

“What are you doing?” He asked sleepily, the other jolting at his presence.

“Oh, Kyouya. Sorry, did I woke you up?” He shook his head and moved to him, hugging Ryuuichi from behind as he peered at the papers over his lover’s shoulder.

“Why are you doing geography in the middle of the night?”

Ryuuichi sighed, leaning back into the heat. “I’m not doing geography. I’m just trying to put figure out where all these,” He flailed a hand at the papers. “Streets of Russia goes. Reborn’s idea.”

He rolled his eyes at that. “I don’t even understand Russian, how the hell am I going to understand those words?” 

Hibari squinted his eyes slightly at the tiny words. Surely, those were Russian letters. Even he doesn’t understand them. He took his attention off it and bit onto Ryuuichi’s neck.

“That doesn’t mean that you should do it in the middle of the night.” He mumbled into the skin. His eyes narrowed.

“You and Reborn sure is close.” Ryuuichi yelped at the second bite, harder than the previous. He swatted Hibari at his head and hissed at him.

“Oh come on..” He pouted. “I can’t sleep.”

Hibari liccked the skin as an apology. He then turned Ryuuichi to face him. “Then let’s not sleep at all.” He said huskily, eyes glinting. 

130. Faith

When Hibari went missing for six months, everyone in the Vongola panicked slightly. Tsuna panicked the most, unable to reach the Cloud guardian. He had sent Hibari on a small mission which he should have finished it in a span of a week, but he ended up going MIA.

When the brunette rang up Ryuuichi, he realized that Ryuuichi wasn’t informed of this.

And yet, Ryuuichi was so calm, as though he wasn’t scared that something would happen to his lover.

“Have faith in him, Tsuna. He’ll come back. He may be a cloud, but he has a Sky to come back to.” The brunette frowned, wanting to rebuke Ryuuichi’s saying when the window of his office slid open suddenly.

And a man with spiky black hair and grey eyes popped in like a monkey. Tsuna shrieked.

Ryuuichi laughed over the line to the point that he couldn’t even breathe.

131. Colors

Once, in the streets of Paris during the rainy season, Ryuuichi saw two rainbow next to each other, clear and bright in the sky after a brief shower.

Reborn, who was with him as they were both on a hit together, whistled and pushed his fedora up to have a better look. “That’s rare.”

“They say that there’ll a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Do you believe it?”

He snorted. “Wouldn’t doubt. There was the happening of the Rainbow Curse, so a pot of gold at the end of it isn’t surprising.”

Ryuuichi smiled, eyes never leaving the rainbow. “I think it’s Home that should be at the end of the rainbow.”

Reborn stared. He scoffed and ruffled his hair, much to the other’s dismay. “You sure are cheesy sometimes.”

132. Exploration

They were cuddling against each other, taking in each others’ warmth. It was calming and relaxing, both tired and recharging after a day of chaos.

They said nothing, simply watching the rain drops flowing down on the glass window, lightning flashing in the background. Hibari pulled Ryuuichi closer, as though he wasn’t close enough, and nuzzled into the crook of his neck, taking in the scent of citrus. 

His hands sneaked under the baggy sweater, brushing against the lean torso. “Hey.. Stop that. It tickles.” Ryuuichi let out a small giggle as his hands continued to stray. 

The eighteen years old teen pushed Ryuuichi down onto his stomach. He pulled the sweater off and caressed the soft, pale skin of Ryuuichi’s back, listening the small gasp. He moved his hands upwards, rubbing the small black spots that littered across his back. 

He had seen them a lot of times, and it never stop fascinating him. 

133. Seeing Red

Yamamoto could count the number of times Ryuuichi lost his temper with just his right hand. At least, in front of him. Even Tsuna needed the other hand, but for ten years, Ryuuichi’s remained the same, five. And today marked the sixth. 

Vongola had organized a ball, in order to celebrate the day of its rise. It was supposed to be a peaceful dinner and ball, but someone just needed to cause havoc. “Ryuu, it’s fine.” He tried to coax the said man, patting him on the shoulder as Ryuuichi glared coldly at the fame information broker. Famous, but arrogant. Why did Tsuna invite this guy again? 

“Don Vongola.” Oh god, Ryuuichi lost it. Tsuna came forward, scowling but it wasn’t directed to Ryuuichi. “I apologize for the trouble caused but may I be rude in your presence?” 

“Please be frank.” 

Ryuuichi nodded curtly, eyes never leaving the information broker. “Do repeat your exact words you had said to my man, signore Nigela.” The information broker was scowling as well. “You’re an honorable man, signore Shiroki. But-”

“Your exact words.” 

“.. A scumbag from the slum should just rot in the ditch than dirty the floor.” Ryuuichi took a step forward, heavy and murderous. “A scumbag, refers to no one but you.” Nigela looked alarm, finally realizing what kind of bomb he had stepped on. 

“You, who are born in the same slum, has no right to say someone else.” Ryuuichi snarled. “While I do not appreciate the jeers people gave to my people, I absolutely loathe your kind who looks down upon them. 

“Who the hell gave you the right to say them?!” He punched the man right on the jaw. Nigela fell to the ground with a split lips and a broken tooth. Gilbert quickly pulled Ryuuichi back by the arm, snapping out of his frozen state when he punched the man. Yuuichi rushed forward as well, trying to calm his brother down. The Vongola guardians nor the Cavallone and Shimon didn’t move.

“You’re all just talks and lies, none of your words are worthy to be remembered. Gilbert is much more capable than you are. If you, or anyone in fact, dared to insult my people, I will not hesitate to make your life miserable.” With that, Ryuuichi walked away with his subordinates beside him, heads held high and proud. 

Yamamoto, while was sweating at the commotion, was damn proud of his childhood friend. 

134. Shades of Grey

Tongues lapping each other as saliva dripped slightly from their open mouth. Ryuuichi mooaned at the pair of sinful, calloused hands moving across his body. He hitched a breath when the hands ghosted up his thighs, all his sound swallowed by Hibari.

“Kyou-” He gasped out before his lips were covered with another again. His eyes were closed, but Hibari’s were open, half lidded. He watched how Ryuuichi’s expression change. He took in how pleasure took in Ryuuichi, breaking the usually composed look into pieces.

He loves it.

He finally broke the kiss, both of the panting to fill their lungs with oxygen. He leaned in and placed kisses onto the skin, felt it twitching and jolting at the peppery touches, as though they burned.

“K-Kyouya!” Ryuuichi moaaned out loud, almost screaming his name.

Hibari loves it.

135. Forgotten

Once, Gokudera had written a letter to Ryuuichi before Ryuuichi disappeared a year. He received no reply. Instead, the letter was returned, unopened. 

They had searched high and low for him, not even Hibari or Yuuichi know where he was. They couldn’t find him. He left no clue except for the fact that he had left with his weapons and his rings. His animal partners had followed as well. He had just, as though disappeared into thin air. 

They couldn’t find him. 

On the second day after a year of his disappearance, he came back out of thin air, hair cut off and smiling, slightly thinner and with Vindice’s chain in tow. 

The letter was left in the drawer, untouched as they fussed over him. 

136. Dreamer

Caelum wondered if he was born a she, would things be different? If he was born a she, would he last this long and meet Alaude? Maybe, even marry each other?

But he wasn’t one. And will never be one. They could never be together, not now, not ever. Caelum knew that. 

Yet he wasn’t called a dreamer for nothing. 

137. Mist

It was cold in the morning, very cold and misty. And yet, Ryuuichi was already up and about. He took his coat and wore it over his thick sweater, long cargo pants with a pair of boots, and went straight out into the woods despite the fact that it was still dark.

He had his hands shoved into his pocket, taking in the cold air and smiled a little. Despite what everyone said of the cold, he still found it comfortable. He carefully stepped over the large roots, subconsciously avoided the leaves and twigs. He walked deeper, and deeper, eyes looking at each trees and followed those he had marked long before, an ‘o’ with a cross in the middle. 

He reached out and touched the marking as he went, barely feeling it, until he came to a small open space where no trees but flowers and dandelions would grow during spring. It was unfortunate that it was currently winter, but it was still a beautiful place. 

He immediately lied down in the middle, dismissing the freezing ground and stared up at the sky. He tried, but he couldn’t, because of the mist.

He chuckled a little when he suddenly remembered of Mukuro and Chrome. The older one, on the outside looked as though he would be the one who kills Tsuna, but in fact, he was the most protective. Chrome wasn’t as shy as she used to be, and is just as deadly as Mukuro.

Honestly, he really think that the Mist would always be the most protective element.

Just as how protective Ivy and Yuuichi are. He chuckled again and spoke to the thin air. “I’ll go back when the sun rises, don’t worry.” The slight indigo mist surrounding him faltered a little, and disappeared. 

138. Burning

Tsuna’s eyes have always been burning for as long as Ryuuichi could remember, even the first time they met. There was this small fire in them, that slowly grew and grew as they turned older. It never had died. Tsuna’s resolve, apparently, came in form of a fire that never goes out. Burn those who crossed, and save those who loved.

It was a flame, that reminded Ryuuichi of how flicker life of a human is, despite how powerful it looked.

139. Out of Time

The clock struck twelve in the midnight as the bell rang loudly against the night sky, soon followed by the roaring of fireworks. Caelum leaned against the balcony of his late Uncle’s room, staying in the lone, silent house that looked eerily like a haunted house. He stared at the Big Ben, miles away from where he was but still clear to his eyes.

He clenched his shirt over his heart, biting his lips. It was a night of celebration, but he didn’t feel like it.

He was running out of time already.

140. Knowing How

Hibari was on a mission when he got hurt. It was a lucky shot from the enemy, they managed to nick his heart and puncture his lungs. When Tsuna informed Ryuuichi, Ryuuichi almost fainted.

He rushed to the Vongola Mansion and almost broke down when they wouldn’t allow him to go into the surgery room, where Shamal and Ryohei were doing their stuffs. He knew that even if he was to rush in, he couldn’t even do anything.

But he wanted to stay with his lover.

Hours after, the surgery was over and Hibari was officially healed. Ryuuichi never felt so relief since the day his brother got shot as well.

He immediately went in and paled at how fragile Hibari looked like. Times like this, Ryuuichi hated himself for not knowing what to do. He waited for the older man to wake up, staying in the room for almost four days until Reborn manhandled him out for a breather.

On the fifth day, Hibari finally woke up.

He was rendered speechless when Hibari had gotten a temporary amnesia.

141. Fork in the road

She hated making decisions, much less those that would determine her future. Uncertainty always blind her and others’ words always gets her more than she liked. It annoyed her each time someone asked what she wanted to be in the future.

Just as she was reaching the point where she would need to decide on the road to take, she was thrown into another place and started over again.

He found himself loving every second of his life there.

142. Start

Enma stared at Tsuna. Tsuna stared back. Amber eyes clashed with bright red. They were tensed and alert, standing meters away from each other. Ryuuichi stood in the middle and sighed.

”The spar of the Hyper-Duo, begins!”

The roars and cheers of the two Dons’ guardians exploded as Reborn took a video by the side, Tsuna and Enma wrestled each other without their flames. Ryuuichi jumped back and onto a chair, furthest away from them. He made the right decision as multiple needles shot out and almost hit Squalo in the face.

Ryuuichi couldn’t understand why Reborn wanted this to happen, and that they could only use no-flame weapons just for the sake of it. 

The two complied as Reborn had not so subtly threatened to shove two Chaos Shots up on their arse. 

143. Nature’s Fury

Ryuuichi and Hibari were stuck in a storm. Literally. It took every control and tight grips on the bolted objects all around to make sure that the both of them doesn’t fly off. 

They could’ve been in their rented hostel, watching the storm while cuddling with each other, could’ve stayed dry (-or not). But Ryuuichi just has to drag the both of them out for this antique shop.

After many struggles and close-call of flying off into the air, they finally reached their apartment. The door slammed close and they leaned against it, panting slightly in fatigue. 

They exchanged a look before Ryuuichi burst out into laughter while Hibari rolled his eyes and chuckled. 

144. At Peace

Yuuichi threaded his fingers into the long strands of dark brown hair, king his brother’s head gently as Ryuuichi hugged him close, asleep. There were eyebags under his eyes, exhaustion clear to Yuuichi. He moved his hands and rubbed the back of his neck, massaging it.

Ryuuichi shuddered in relief at that, remained asleep even after that. Yuuichi chuckled, glad that his brother was calmer than before. 

Calmer than the moment he was torn between closing himself up from everyone again and letting go.

145. Heart Song

In a world, where soul marks, isn’t much of a mark, but a melody that buries deep down in your heart, marking your soul. Incomplete, and rather dull alone, but completed, it was really unique.

Unlike everyone else, Ryuuichi was born deaf in this world. Deaf, but he could clearly understand what everyone else were talking about, mastering in lip reading. 

He was born without the melody.

Instead, he sees the flames. The pure, invisible flames from everyone and that it would mix with different colors when they find their soulmate.

It gave Ryuuichi a headache, so he dampened everything with glasses, which helped a lot. Until he met Hibari personally.

An explosion of loud melodies filled his heart, overwhelming and overflowing just as the comforting silence calmed Hibari down. 

146. Reflection

Alex had an ability to sense, and very rarely, see things that he shouldn’t be able to. She knew that, and believed him. Which was why she never liked horror movies or anything. Because not seeing is more scarier than seeing.

But that wasn’t the main reason she hated horror movies. Because more often than not, she would see the reflection of a ginger man through the mirror, instead of herself. She was afraid. But he is no longer scared of it.

147. Perfection

There was no such thing as perfection to Ryuuichi. He never really believed it as everything has its flaw, everyone has their other side, just as how he has. But his heart begged differ the moment he saw his brother with Amemori together.

Despite their jagged, healing relationship, they were so perfect together, fitting like missing puzzle pieces.

He smiled. 

148. Everyday Magic

The nineteen year old teen narrowed his eyes at the pale blue glowing ball that floated in front of him. It had been following him ever since the morning after he left his dorm. He tried to swat it away, but it only floated out of the way and stuck to him like a super glue.

He growled, annoyed at it.

And then it pulsed before bursting into small fireworks. Hibari tensed at that and frowned, confused. 

None for you, none for me. All for the world to see.

His head snapped to the haunted tower in the abandoned wing of the academy, catching a brief flash of grey. He scowled.

A teen with dark brown hair smiled before disappearing into thin air. 

149. Umbrella

Hibari couldn’t believe his ears. Ryuuichi was actually singing in front of him while washing the dishes and swaying his hips to the beat, the radio blasting the English song from its spot on the cabinet. The older teen was awestruck at his voice, and the fact that he was voluntarily singing in his presence when it took him almost half a year to sing in front of him, even the stupidest song of all. (It wasn't, to Ryuuichi.)

“You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh, under my umbrella~” The seventeen years old sang the chorus loudly, hips jerking side to side.

Hibari couldn’t be anymore aroused by that.

150. Party

There was a few rules when they hold a party. One, never let Hibari have liquor, or any beverage with alcohol. Two, never let Ryohei force Hibari to drink. And three, never play any form of drinking game with Ryuuichi and Reborn combined.

A highly intoxicated Ryuuichi narrowed his eyes when the white ball rolled into a spot and took the beverage with a scowl. Vodka. It burns. He downed it without any second thoughts.

“Your turn, Reborn.” He slurred as the hitman spun the roulette board. It landed on Gin. Reborn downed it in matters of second. The others, those that were still awake, stared in horror at how much they could drink. 

Xanxus was amused.

Ryuuichi bit his lips. The last one. He spun the roulette and groaned loudly. Reborn smirked. “I win. Now drink it.” Ryuuichi clicked his tongue and sighed. He downed it and slammed the glass down. 

(The audiences groaned and cheered at their bets.) 

Ryuuichi huffed and leaned against the table with his head supported by his arms, peering over at a scowling Hibari. He hummed, face a little flush before he walked up and sauntered over to the older man, his steps faltering slightly. Everyone stared in silence as Ryuuichi plopped onto Hibari’s lap.

“Remind me not to drink for another year.” And he pulled Hibari into a kiss right in front of the others. Immediately, Hibari’s hands were moving, shirt getting crumpled. The Varia whooped as Reborn took a photo. Tsuna shrieked and ushered everyone out.

151. Troubling Thoughts

Gokudera bit his lips as he ruffled his sliver hair, pacing around the room. He was very worried. And anxious. Tsuna was ambushed by some assassins on the way back to the mansion. Fortunately for the brunette, as the driver was killed with a headshot, he only suffered a minor concussion, a few broken ribs and some scratches.

Ryohei was attending him at the moment, but it was taken too long for these injuries. Too long for his liking.

Stupid thoughts filled his mind as he desperately tried to be positive. He failed, obviously.

Yamamoto frowned and grabbed him by his shoulder, stopping his pacing. A firm, reassuring squeeze was given to him as Gokudera slumped.

He perked up the moment Ryohei came out with Tsuna in tow.

(Ryuuichi toed the dead driver, a blank look on his face. This was no accident.)

152. Stirring of the Wind

He was once Caelum, and then he was Nico next. Now, he is Ethan, occasionally a she, but currently a he. Ethan had no memories of his past life except for the fact that he had been through two reincarnation and the name Caelum and Rue would forever implant in his mind. It had been there ever since he was born.

But Ethan was different.

He has no emotion and no sense of pain, born with a disorder that left him blank. He had stayed blank for years now, but no longer.

Vindice arrived the night of his seventeenth birthday.

153. Future

The ten year bazooka was, in a way, very intriguing. Also annoying. To the fifteen years old Ryuuichi anyway. He and Tsuna, was shot by that accursed thing for the nth time since Lambo came canon-balling into the brunette’s life.

He sighed in exasperation as the pink smoke disperse, Tsuna gaped for some reason. Ryuuichi blinked at the sight of seeing their older selves in front of him. His counterpart looked rather amused than anything, while Tsuna’s raised an eyebrow.

“I take that the bazooka malfunctioned again.” Ryuuichi’s older self, Shiroki, to avoid anymore confusion, mused, a Reborn-smirk on his face. Sawada was exasperated.

“Or Giannini got his hands on it again.” It happened too many time for Sawada to be fazed at all, actually.

“W-wait!” All of them turned to Tsuna when the brunette squeaked at the sudden attention. “U-um doesn’t this create a time paradox?!” Ryuuichi nodded and turned to their older selves, agreeing with Tsuna.

“In another circumstances, it will.” He tilted his head in confusion at his older self as Shiroki chuckled. “Have you not noticed that we’re all somewhere else?”

A fifteen years old Eliot jolted upon seeing his father figure and his friend split into two, his era’s Ryuuichi gone. 

Ryuuichi raised an eyebrow at the teenager. Tsuna blinked as Shiroki walked towards Eliot and patted him on the head. “You’ve grown so much. Good.” Eliot seemed as though he wanted to say something through his gaping but the four of them went back to their respective time before he could.

There was only one thing in Ryuuichi’s mind. ‘What the hell.’

154. Health and Healing

Yuuichi had caught a cold, hitting 40 degrees Celcius in one night and had to be warded into the hospital. It was influenza, they say. Ryuuichi merely dismissed that and took care of his brother the whole time. He was concerned. Hibari had gotten influenza before, but that was way before they got together. And the fifteen years old teen had never seen the prefect catching another one yet.

It looked painful and tiring. Being sick was already a nuisance, but influenza? Gosh. 

Ryuuichi gently pushed the stray strands of hair from his brother’s face, smiling slightly. The fever had dropped significantly, actually. Yuuichi looked more relaxed than before, thankfully. 

He lied on his arms and stared at his twins face, holding his hand. “Hurry up and get well soon, Yuu.”

155. Separation

When they were forced to break up because of the thought of long distance relationship, Yuuichi cried silently in his room for almost a week. He had never realized how much he loved Amemori. When he finally went to Italy with his brother, he was home sick. He missed Amemori so damn much that he was constantly overworking himself to forget everything. Ryuuichi sternly put his feet down and forced him into taking two weeks of vacation every two months.

He never realize that it hurt so much to be separated from someone.

156. Everything For You

Amemori peppered soft kisses down Yuuichi's collarbone, cuddling against him. He pulled him into a slow, lazy kiss as his hands held the other by the waist, rubbing softly.

"What do you wish for your birthday, love?" He asked as the kiss was broken. "I'm fine with anything-"

"Hush. Tell me something you really want." Yuuichi blushed a little. 

".. Then, your everything." Amemori grinned and kissed him again. "I've long given you my everything."

157. Slow Down

Dino shrieked at how fast Ryohei was driving, Ryuuichi leaning against him and already out of it. "W-w-wait Sasagawa! Slow down! You're killing the both of us!"

"Nonsense! This is nothing! You should see Gokudera and Yamamoto's extreme race!"

And Ryuuichi thought Hibari was a reckless driver.

158. Heartfelt Apology

He received a bouquet of purple hyacinth on the first day. He flushed a little, but with a smile. He received pink carnation the next, he couldn't help but grinned brightly. He arranged it neatly in a vase and placed it near the hyacinth. 

On the third day, he opened the door to a large bouquet of red and white roses, and Hibari holding them. Ryuuichi laughed a little. "Isn't this a bit too much just because you missed the date?"

"It isn't just a date, Ryuuichi." Hibari kissed him. "It was your birthday. I'm sorry." Ryuuichi merely pulled him back into the kiss. "As long as you're still mine, I don't care about anything else."

159. Challenged

Amemori hissed at anyone that dared to come near him and Yuuichi, pulling the latter close as he gripped onto his hand tightly. Yuuichi sighed in exasperation at his boyfriend's behavior. "What's wrong? No one's even trying to break us apart."

Oh they weren't. They were only trying to get into Yuuichi's pants.

Yuuichi is his and only his. The others could keep their stupid wands in.

160. Exhaustion

The first time Ryuuichi fainted out of nowhere was during the sports festival of his second year of high school. He, by some sheitty luck, was chosen as one of the sports committee for the festival. Fortunately, he had gotten under basketball. Unfortunately, he was treated as the manager. Don't get him wrong, he didn't mind it. But he swear to god, that he would really like to punch them for being so dependent on him. Like, they even need him to wipe their bloody sweat when they clearly has the energy to do it.

(He actually did punched one of them. For various reason.)

So on the day of the festival, he had woken up with a headache caused by his twenty-four seven working brain. He ignored it, only taking two pills of painkiller in the morning and went with it.

He fainted out of nowhere in the middle of the semi-final game. According to Kyoko, who was in the same department, said that his brother had literally abandoned the game and swoop him up to the infirmary. Actually, it was Hibari, who flew down from nowhere made everyone stop playing. Yuuichi noticed that and immediately took him to the infirmary as the prefect opened a path for them.

Ryuuichi sometimes hate his immune system very much. He had gotten a fever with migraine constantly trying to split his brain into two. 

"Next time, I'll kill you myself if you overwork." Was what Yuuichi said. He merely laughed dryly at that and went back to sleep.

161. Accuracy

Reborn smirked haughtily as he lowered the smoking rifle, Ryuuichi whistling in impress. "That was, what? Your 39 thousand head shot? Not including real humans."

"To be exact, 39989." Ryuuichi sweated. "... O..kay?" And then he started shooting with his own rifle. At some point, because he still had a shoulder injury and the recoil was really strong, his aim started slipping lower. The bullets hitting the mannequin on the.. Lower part.

He stopped and winced. Even Reborn was grimacing internally but raised an eyebrow instead. "Who angered you?"

"Dio- it wasn't on purpose!"

162. Irregular Orbit

In another world, where Ryuuichi and Hibari was born in separate places, where Ryuuichi was born in the outskirt of Aikita and Hibari, in Tokyo. In another world, where none of them were involved in the mafia, where Ryuuichi had no memories of his past life and where flames doesn't exist. Ryuuichi and his brother soon left Japan to live with their older cousin, Dino, who was a owner of one of the most famous companies in the world in Italy when they were twelve. They lived there until they got into university, before moving back to Japan and lived in Tokyo for this exchange program.

At the same time, Hibari moved to China to further his studies on crime, living with his uncle, Fon, who was a famous lawyer. Years after, Ryuuichi became an accountant for his cousin's company while publishing novels under the pen name Luka, while Yuuichi became the nasional basketball player for Japan, also a model. Ryuuichi permanently moved to Italy as Yuuichi stayed in Japan, both of them occasionally visited each other.

Hibari became a police, soon rose into the head of all the police in Japan for some reason, staying in Japan for the rest of his life.

None of them met each other, until Yuuichi reported that he had a group of stalker that was waiting to kidnap him. Just his luck, he had gotten Hibari working on his case. Yuuichi dared not to go back alone and stayed with Hibari until his brother came from Italy.

And when Ryuuichi arrived, Hibari was tempted to lock him up instead.

163. Cold Embrace

Caelum didn't know this, but when Alaude finally found him after all the years he had gone missing from the surface of the world, it was when he had passed away. It was winter, and Alaude went to London to find him. He had been finding him for years, non-stop, searching for leads and when he did found one, it led him here. Caelum's late uncle's house.

He went into the cold cottage, there was no one around, lifeless and full of dust. He searched high and low to see if there was indeed anyone or anything at all that indicates Caelum was here, but he found none.

He ventured into the back yard, he saw a body on top of the pile of snow. It was Caelum, sleeping peacefully like a sleeping beauty but instead of beauty, he looked weary and sick, pale. Too pale. His lips were blue, the tip of his fingers frozen.

Alaude realized that he was dead, about a day before the snow falls since the body hadn't start to rot. Alaude cursed, for why hadn't Caelum wait for him. He carefully carried the body into the house, trying and failing to ignore the cold skin despite his own despair.

He gave him a proper burial. A year after, a day before the same day, he joined Caelum, and the rest of the guardians.

164. Frost

Hibari murmured sweet nothing into Ryuuichi's neck, hugging him from behind. Ryuuichi hummed at that, browsing the internet on his laptop. He clicked open a video by mistake and cursed under his breath. Just before he was able to close the tab, a loud scream followed by a man-made ghost popped out onto the screen.

The older teen raised an eyebrow when Ryuuichi jerked and stiffen. He shifted a little to look at his face to see him frozen with wide eyes. Hibari couldn't help but laugh.

165. A Moment in Time

Human are such fickle creatures, living only for a short moment of time. Knowing this, Ryuuichi doesn't get attached to them. In fact, he doesn't attached to anyone other than his brother, the King of Life whereas he is the King of Death. Yuuichi brings every living being in this world to life, while Ryuuichi brings them to afterlife. They balanced out, in a way, rather than having conflicts. They do occasionally fight, but only over stupid matters.

Anyway, Ryuuichi doesn't get attached to them. He does approach them in his disguise at times, when one or two of them interested him, but he would still be distant. The other world was too boring, and his job, in general, is too boring. He just couldn't stand it. He usually cures the boredom by sparring or approaching humans, but seriously, plain and dull. 

And then he came into the world. Yuuichi probably brought him to life from one of the souls that was scheduled to be reincarnated, but the moment Ryuuichi set his eyes on him, he was very intrigued. So he watched over him the first few years, finding himself smiling at how adorably feisty yet endearing he was. The kid was able to see him when he was a month old, still unable to comprehend things.

Two years passed, another set of kids came to life in the same world as the interesting toddler's. All were interesting, much more interesting than he had expected, but the kid he watched over was still the most interesting one. 

"How long do you plan to hover around me?" Hibari Kyouya, seventeen and was actually still growing, snapped, tonfa out. The teen growled at the man with long dark brown hair, floating above ground.

Ryuuichi blinked in surprise. "Oh? You could see me?" How unusual. Normally, Fate or Sight wouldn't allow this to happen unless Fate planned something. Which actually, happened quite frequently. He hummed in amusement instead, pleased despite Hibari was getting more irritated.

"Who are you?"

Ryuuichi smiled. "Death." He floated nearer to Hibari. Every ounce of Hibari's body screamed at him to run, but his pride wouldn't allow it. He stayed put. Ryuuichi cupped his cheek with a hand and looked into his eyes. "How interesting.." 

Hibari shuddered at the cold touch, and the tone of Ryuuichi's voice.

166. Dangerous Territory

The moment someone tried to sneak a hand on Ryuuichi's bottom, he was taken down with a tonfa flying to his face out of nowhere. Ryuuichi blinked in surprise at the fallen man and reached down to take the tonfa as Hibari, with a dark look, descended from the stairs. 

"Are you alright?" Ryuuichi reached a hand out for the man to take. The man took it with a stutter and was pulled up. His hand lingered on Ryuuichi's a split second too long when Hibari's grey eyes glinted menacingly and pulled Ryuuichi to his chest. He growled lowly at the frighten man and guided the younger away, an arm around his waist. 

"You shouldn't have go for the Giudizio's head." The man squeaked at Fran's sudden appearance. "He's Cloud's territory."

167. Boundaries

Ryuuichi screamed, hitting the glass wall as he tried to break it. He screamed until his voice was hoarse, throat hurting. His eyes filled with panic as his hit got more frantic, harder and harder. Hibari gritted his teeth and did the same, punching the glass wall that separated the both of them. He cursed everything, cursed whoever set this up, whichever sick sheit did this. Their eyes set on each other as some sort of gas filled the container they were in.

"Ryuuichi!" "Kyouya!"

168. Unsettling Revelations

Caelum heaved a heavy breath, leaning against the back rest at the news. The man in front of him, G, was solemn, hands intertwined together on the table as a cigarette hung on his lips. "W-what do you mean Daemon had betrayed us?" 

169. Shattered

Occasionally, Reborn would dream of screams, dream of pleads for their life. Then came loud gun shot and red, so red that Reborn couldn't help but get sick of it. But he was used to it. Some other days, he would dream of flying, soaring in the sky and absolutely free, until he was chained, cuffed and dragged back down onto Earth. He would be Earth-bound until the end of his life. He had fell like Icarus.

Then came Tsuna, who broke the chains for him, shattering the one thing that held him back.

He could never be more grateful for his whole life.

170. Bitter Silence

Ryuuichi toed the debris of the once strong building, now burnt and crumbled down. The Vongola Mansion had fallen. Ryuuichi stepped over the cement and over the body, heading into the building with his hands in his pocket. This mansion was once filled with noises, chatters, filled with life. Now, it was no more.

He never really liked silence, and he hated it even more now. He ignored the bitter taste in his mouuth and went to Tsuna's office.

"Welcome, Historian." Byakuran greeted him gleefully, sitting on the table while rolling a marshmallow in his moouth. Behind him, Tsuna sat on the chair with his forehead bleeding, looking peaceful for some reason.

Ryuuichi stared back at Byakuran with his emotions locked.

171. The True You

Hibari is a person full with secrets alright. No one knew much about him, much less why he used those animal metaphors and all. No one knew whatever he was thinking. It was as though he hid his true self under layers and layers of violence. It seemed so impossible to make him shed all of it without getting killed.

And yet, Ryuuichi was able to shed each and every one of it effortlessly, breaking through the fort to his heart like it was nothing.

172. Pretense

"Is my love nothing but a lie to you?" Ryuuichi recited, agony and betrayal clear in his facade. He took one step forward as the girl took a step back, shaking her head. "My darling, please tell me, do you love me, or do you not? Do you trust me?" She frantically shook her head, sobbing into her hands and apologized, muttering it again and again. 

"I.. I'm so sorry.." Ryuuichi locked his jaws and clenched his hands. He lowered his head. "Very well then. My sincerest apology for bothering you. Farewell, Milady." He bowed and walked away, leaving the girl behind as she collapsed onto her knees, still sobbing.

The moment he was right behind the curtains, away from public eyes, he heaved a sigh and leaned against the wall. He pulled at the tie, grumbling at the heat. "That was brilliant, Ryuu." Yuuichi grinned. Ryuuichi gave him a wry smile and patted him on the shoulder as he walked pass. "Good luck, brother mine."

Yuuichi gave him a thumbs-up as he walked out onto the stage. "My dear, what has brought you grief-" Ryuuichi shook his head and tuned everything out. He trotted to the backstage and sat on the chair with a relief sigh. He thanked one of the backstage crew when they passed him a bottle of water and literally downed it at one go. All this acting had tired him out.

'Why did I sign up for this again..?'

"'Is my love nothing but a lie to you?'" He snapped his head to a smirking Hibari and groaned. "My love, please enlighten me, do you love me, or do you love me?" Hibari grabbed his hands and pulled him to his chest, holding him by the waist. Ryuuichi flushed and tried to pull away, to no avail. "Kyouya, we're in public." He hissed, well aware of the wide eyes people were giving them.

Hibari merely glared at them, forcing them to look away before turning back to Ryuuichi. "What is there to hide when it's clear as daylight?" He leaned in until their faces were only inches apart. "Let's cut all the pretense, shall we, my love?" 

Ryuuichi huffed. "This is so unfair. Stop reciting those lines. They weren't even mine." Hibari chuckled lowly. "But you like it, didn't you?"

"Shut up you cheesy boyfriend." 

173. Patience

Tsuna clicked his tongue and tapped his feet impatiently, biting his nailed. He soon started to walk around in circle, getting more restless as each second passed. Haru took one look at him and laughed. "Tsuna-san, calm down. Kyoko-chan will be fine." He ruffled his hair and grunted indignificantly. "But it's taking too long." Gokudera grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him onto the chair inbetween him and Haru.

"Juudaime, she's right. Sasagawa will be alright. She has Shamal and her brother after all." 

"That's exactly what I'm worried about." The brunette grumbled when his trained ears picked up the sound of wailing. He perked up and immediately rushed into the ward. Gokudera and Haru exchanged an exasperated look before laughing softly. 

174. Midnight

Caelum grimaced at the blood that managed to splatter onto his face. Alaude scoffed at him and pulled a cloth out of nowhere, wiping his cheek. "You don't have to-"

"Stay still or I'll poke your eyes out." Caelum huffed at that but stayed put, closing his eyes just in case. He felt Alaude rubbed the same spot for a while before a hand replaced the cloth. Caelum jolted and gave him a incredulous look. "W-what is it-"

Alaude pushed his bangs away and stared at one spot, narrowing his eyes slightly. "I didn't know you have this scar."

"Oh. Uh, I had it since birth? I don't know. Wait how did you see it? It's almost invisible." He gave Caelum a deadpanned look, rubbing at the small scar slightly. Caelum shuddered a little and pulled away. "Let's get back. It's pass twelve. Giotto will be worried."

Alaude scoffed. "Since when does he not worry?" Caelum rolled his eyes at him but they soon made their way back to the estate, the crescent moon lighting their path.  

175. Shadows

It was dark, and only her. She looked around in fear. It was too dark, even when she could see herself. Too dark, and too cold. Her breath hitched when something touched her leg and tried to shake it off, to no avail. She peered down, to see something black curling around her legs, clinging onto it. And another one latched onto her leg, one managed to grab her hand.

She screamed in fright and ran, but the shadows simply clung onto her as she did, chasing and grasping her, pulling her back. She yelped prayers, trying to escape the vice grips, sobbing.

He woke up to the light blinding him, and a series of pain shot up from his torso and his chest. He screamed in pain, trashing as hands held him down onto the bed, shouts of order to jab him with anesthesia. "Ryuuichi! Calm down! Ryuuichi!" He heard his name being shouted, but he couldn't stop himself from screaming, hyperventilating. 

"Ryuuichi!" A pair of hand pulled his face to the side and he saw a man with black hair and bluish black eyes looking into his eyes. He couldn't process who it was, only with the thought of wanting to escape. "It's alright, calm down! Breathe, Ryuuichi. Breathe!" He jerked at that and gasped silently, focusing at the eyes.

"That's it, breathe. In, out. In, out." He followed the command, finally stopped screaming. Soon, his eyes rolled back and he out.

176. Summer Haze

Amemori missed the beach. He missed the sea, the hot breeze of Summer air as all of them played around in the beach, the scorching sun against his skin, the cold, salty water. More importantly, he missed Japan. He missed Kyoto and his family, he missed Namimori.

He was officially homesick after not visiting Japan for almost two years. 

He sighed tiredly as he slumped onto the table, staring out into space. ".. What is wrong with you, Hibiki?" He ignored Yuuichi's question and only sighed again. Yuuichi narrowed his eyes at him and pelted him with an ice cube from his glass of cold juice. It hit him square at the back of his head, but Amemori didn't respond.

Yuuichi sighed. "Keep that up and we'll leave you here." That got Amemori's attention as he turned to look at Yuuichi, head still on his table. "What are you talking about?"

Yuuichi scoffed. "You weren't listening when Ryuu was talking, were you? We're going back to Japan for a holiday. All of us."

Amemori perked up, eyes sparkling. "Seriously?!" He ignored the eye-roll and promptly leaped at his boyfriend, cheering loudly. "Gah- Get off me, idiot!" 

177. Memories

Caelum pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed through his nose. He was having a migraine, all caused by his memories. He just had to have dig up the old stuffs, don't he? He sometimes really hated his ability to remember so much. 

The loud deafening bangs of gunshot forever encrypted in his mind, ringing in his ears even though he tried his best to drown it out. 

Shaking his head, he walked out of his room to find Asari. He really need some sleep.

178. Change in the Weather

Ryuuichi jumped at the loud roar of thunder and turned to the window to see that there was a storm outside. He sweated at the loud rattling of wind from the window. It was still so bright and sunny just now. He huffed and turned off his laptop, switching off any electric appliances to avoid any short circuit. (It wouldn't happen even if he didn't turn it off, but it was a force of habit.)

The thunder roared again and this time, Ryuuichi screamed. It wasn't because he was scared of the thunder, (He loves it, actually.) but it was because Hibari literally popped out of nowhere from behind, in total silent. Or, it was because of the thunder. The prefect was literally soaked.

"God- go to the bathroom!"

179. Illogical

"You're making-!" Ryuuichi gritted out, grimacing in pain. "-No sense at all!" "I never said that it'll be logical." Push. Ryuuichi yelped. "Ouch- Stop!" Reborn sighed, only pushed his back forward more. "Your flexibility is really pathetic for someone who knows martial arts."

"Yes, I suuck at it, so- Goddamit stop trying to fold me into half! And I don't think doing a split out of nowhere is seductive!"

180. Only Human

Hibari clenched his hands as Ryuuichi tuurned on his heels to leave. They were having an argument, and it had dragged to the point none of them wanted to continue it anymore, but did because of their pride. They were both prideful, and very stubborn. It was until Ryuuichi couldn't take it anymore and dropped everything behind.

Hibari wanted to reach for him, wanted to pull him back and hold him tight, but he couldn't move. He had never thought of it before, and had never expected that something like this would happen. He didn't know what to do, and it hurt, seeing him leave. So he resorted to watch the younger until he disappeared from sight. 

And then, Ryuuichi unexpectedly turned around and sprinted to him. He literally jumped onto him. Hibari was taken aback that if it wasn't for the years and years of training, he would have fallen down from the force. "What-" His moouth was covered by another, tongue persuading him into a dance.

He returned the kiss just as hard, in a rather feral yet desperate manner. It was an unspoken truce between the both of them, whatever their argument was about forgotten almost immediately as clothes started leaving their body.

181. A Place to Belong

Eliot wanted a home. He never had one. He never thought he would have one. The closest place he could call 'home' was the small, dark closet he sleep in, dirty and smelly. It was cold and cramp, but it was better than the cells he would forced to stay in when he did something wrong. It gave him more sense of security because it wasn't that big, and he knew he would be alright in there, alone.

And when he found his home, he realized that home was so much more. Home is the place of sanctuary, full with warmth and love. Home is where he will be safe always, where people will look out for him and care about him. Home is much a better place. The Giudizio is his home, and he love it.

182. Advantage

Alex had once said that her kindness was taken advantage of. He was infuriated, angry and wrathful, wanting to teach those people a lesson. She stopped him, saying that they weren't. Alex wanted to prove her otherwise, but backed down because she didn't want arguments or fights. He knew what they were doing, he knew that she knew as well, and he couldn't understand why she don't show them that she wasn't a pushover.

He wanted them to know that she wasn't one.

But he also knew that she didn't want anyone to know that she wasn't one, because she didn't want anyone to see her true self.

183. Breakfast

Ryuuichi whined slightly when Hibari nuzzled into the crook of his neck in a hard manner, hands slipping into his shirt. He turned more to his side and buried his face into the pillow, trying to sleep. He ignored Hibari, absentmindedly thinking that he would stop bothering him and let him sleep if he ignore him. Sadly, he was wrong.

Hibari bit his shoulder, eliciting a yelp. Ryuuichi pushed Hibari's face away and grumbled sleepily. "Stop it, I'm sleepy.." His eyes were still close as he tried to fall asleep again. "It's already ten, love. I'm hungry."

"Go to the kitchen then, boo.." He slurred, already back in dreamland when Hibari bit his collarbone, nipping down his shoulder. "Ugh I'm not food!" 

Hibari smirked, suucking on a pressure point. "But you look so delicious." True to Hibari's words, Ryuuichi looked absolutely ravishing, only wearing Hibari's white dress-shirt, loose and showing more skin than intended. Hibari leaned down and whispered huskily into the younger's ears, making Ryuuichi to shiver. "Itadakimasu."

184. Echoes

The resonance of the call was silent, yet deafening and demanding. So demanding. Tsuna suucked in a shaky breath and stumbled off the bed, hurried to his wardrobe to change. There was something wrong, and it was between all the Skies and Earth closest to him. 

DieDieDie-diE-LIVE

Something wrecked in him and made him cried out in the foreign twinge of pain. It was familiar. He felt this when Yuni, the one from the Future-Not-To-Be, sacrificed herself. Something really wrong was going on.

His phone rang and he immediately picked it up. It didn't take him more than a split second to know that it was a join call. "Tsuna, can you feel that?" It was Dino, who sounded breathless and was probably driving at high speed. "All of us felt that as well." The brunette almost nodded but he remembered that none of them could see him. 

"Yeah. It's-" He rasped, only to end his sentence when emotions coursed through him again. Di--livE!

"Sheit- This.." There was a strain in Dino's voice, perhaps trying to control himself. "Who is it?" Enma asked, sounding really worried as well. "Byakuran, are you there?"

"Yeah, I am. Yuni's with me as well." There was no playfulness in his tone, too solemn and serious. "Where's Ryuuichi?" Tsuna asked, alarmed.

"He's not picking up." He scowled. Just as he was about to speak again, Gokudera with a murderous Hibari barged into his room. "Juudaime! Code red! The jet Ryuuichi and Yuuichi are on disappeared from radar just moments ago, and a SOS was sent not a second after!"

DIE!

185. Falling

Please please please please-

Ryuuichi choked on a cry and bit down the whimper. He curled himself up and hid in the store room, door locked from the inside. He felt everything jumbled up inside him, every single thing set him off despite it being harmless, he couldn't. He couldn't. It has been years since he last felt like this, and he never missed it.

He wished he never felt it again, but it seemed like it was impossible.

The day Ryuuichi found himself falling into a spiral of despair once again after almost two decades, was the day he lost all control of himself and set everything on fire, even himself. 

Help, help heLP-

He's drowning.

86. Picking up the Pieces

It took Hibari three days to find Ryuuichi. Three days, fifteen hours, forty minute and twelve seconds. He found him in a rundown factory, curling by a corner, looking absolutely lifeless. Except, he was alive and not alive. It was concerning. It was damn scary. Hibari had never seen him so broken before. Not after Amemori Hibiki's death. It has been three weeks since, where the wake was held during the time Ryuuichi was in coma.

He woke up with panic, which soon turned into hyperventilating. No one could calm him down and he was sedated immediately, with tears running down his cheek. When he woke up the second time, he was dead. He wouldn't talk, wouldn't look at anyone, and almost would eat and drink.

And then he disappeared.

A search team between all of them was immediately formed, and yet, they couldn't find him anywhere. Until Hibari did anyway. Hibari knew Namimori like the back of his hand, so he knew which nook and cranny to look, where Ryuuichi would most likely to be.

He was right. 

He knelt beside Ryuuichi and reached out to touch him, only to stop when a visible flinch was seen. He ignored the pain gnawing in him and retracted his hand. (Ryuuichi need him, it wasn't the time to care about his own welfare.) Instead, he sat down beside him in silence, close enough to let him know he was there, and far enough to not bother him.

And he waited for him to open up, waited for him to talk. 

Soon enough, he heard an almost silent sob, he noticed how the other's body was shaking, how tightly he was clenching his forearm. Hibari slowly reached over and pulled him into his arms just as the waterwork broke. 

187. Gunshot

Reborn was born with a gunshot echoing in the midnight air, or that was what his mamma had said. She said papa was killed when she was giving birth to him, said papa slaughtered their enemy just before passing away after seeing him for the first and last time. She said, he was the reincarnation of his papa, resembling him from the tip of his toe to the very strains of his hair. He was named 'Reborn', in another language, because of that.

His dead name, which he had left behind years ago after his mamma fell into despair and hallucination, after his mamma turned into a mad woman. He had ended her miserable life for her, after much pleading, with the same gun his papa had last used. 

He lived in the scum, learned to survive, learned to kill more and more, learned about many things he would never learn in school, not that he had attend school. Then he met his zio. He wasn't exactly his zio, but Reborn regarded him as so. He gave him a roof to stay under, gave him food, gave him clothes and gave him freedom. 

He thought him of English, Math, Science, History and almost everything. Reborn has photographic memory, he remembered and took in everything like a sponge. And then he brought him into the underworld, brought him to Cosa Nostra. There, he met Timoteo, old but not that old. Not like his zio.

His zio was a hitman, apparently. Reborn wasn't scared. Instead, he learned from him his skills, learned about everything of the mafia, and he was turned into a hitman.

A year after he became the World's Strongest Hitman, his zio passed away. Not murdered, not anything, but he had passed away peacefully in his sleep. Reborn gave him a proper burial and left the apartment they were staying. He left to Sicily instead, to Cosa Nostra.

He soon became an infant again, and the ghost sound of the gunshot that forever marked in his mind grew louder.

188. Possession

Ryuuichi yawned as he trotted to the toilet to wash up, hair disheveled and messy. He shivered a little upon stepping onto the cold tiles and sleepily reached for the toothbrush and toothpaste. Just as he was brushing his teeth, he gazed up the mirror and froze. He looked absolutely horrendous, for one, since he was somehow sleep deprived. But that wasn't the point.

From the nape of his neck to his shoulder, where the baggy and large sweater was slipping off, was littered with red spots. He touched it, wondering if he was attacked by some kind of bug when he was asleep, only to realize that it wasn't insect bites.

Mine mine mine mine!

He flushed red and quickly finished his business. He leaped back into his room and pulled on a turtleneck before promptly stomping downstairs to murder a certain skylark. (And, oh god, there was some even on his torso!)

(Hibari merely smirked as he took a stroll out in the town of Naples.)

189. Twilight

Caelum was reading outside when it suddenly turned dark. He was pretty sure that it was only three in the afternoon, as what his pocket watch has shown. He turned away from his book and squinted at the sun, only to widen his eyes in surprise. There was something shading the sun. 

He winced not a moment later because it was still very bright, the sun ray and immediately looked away, squeezing his eyes shut.

This happened almost every year, and every time, he didn't have the chance to see it. It was quite surprising that it just so happen he was outside.

It was amazing, lest to say. A bit anticlimactic, but still amazing. It's like the sun slowly died and regenerated itself. Somehow. Representing a new beginning for the sun. Caelum smiled as he watched the shadow on the ground grew and grew, until the whole place was dark. And then the light came back slowly.

Soon, it was bright again. He sighed and lean back against the tree trunk. He actually wanted to see the whole process straight on, but he couldn't do that without burning his eyes out, unfortunately. 'Oh well.'

"Caelum!" He glanced down the hill and saw someone waving at him. Recognizing who it was, he smiled and waved back. He stood up and trotted down carefully. At the back of his mind, he wondered if humans were like the sun as well, getting to die and reborn into a new person.

He soon got his answer.

190. Nowhere and Nothing

They stood face to face as everything else dissolved into darkness. They were silent, unmoving. Caelum was staring at Ryuuichi, who had his eyes closed tightly. He stared, and stared. And he closed his eyes. 

And Ryuuichi opened his. He opened his eyes to the darkness. He clenched a hand over his beating heart. And he disappeared.

191. Answers

They were lying on their bed, sated from their, activities while sticking close to each other even though it was a bit uncomfortable as they were slightly sweaty and sticky. Ryuuichi was dozing off against Hibari's bare chest, listening to the heart beat as Hibari uncharacteristically stared off into space, running his fingers through the dark brown hair. 

Ryuuichi snuggled closer and slurred sleepily. "What's wrong..?" 

Hibari snapped out of his reverie and hummed. He planted a kiss on top of Ryuuichi's head and sighed through his nose. "Nothing." He smiled at the purr as Ryuuichi cracked his eyes open, almost reluctant. "You're lying."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not."

"You ar-" Hibari flicked his forehead, eliciting a whine. "I'm not, small animal. Go to sleep." Ryuuichi stubbornly shook his head and shifted so that he was looking at the older without craning his neck too much. "You are, Kyou. Tell me." He almost raised an eyebrow when he hesitated.

"You do know that we've been together for almost fifteen years, right?" He nodded. "Of course." Hibari shifted his gaze to the side of the room for a moment before looking right into Ryuuichi's eyes. "I love you, Shiroki Ryuuichi." He pulled him closer and kissed him. "Will you give me your all?"

Ryuuichi stared with wide eyes, mind going haywire. He couldn't believe what he had heard. For the skylark to actually propose, of all things. It was a really big step for him, Ryuuichi knew it. Being tied down isn't something the skylark likes. The prospect of marriage in Hibari's dictionary would be equivalent to being chained down. Ryuuichi knew that, he understood that because he, at first, wasn't that fond of it as well. He accepted that side of Hibari.

And yet, Hibari was here, asking for his hand.

And he wasn't as well.

Ryuuichi blushed. He, however, couldn't help but smile in happiness. "I've long given you my everything, Kyouya." He leaned their forehead together and stared lovingly into those bluish-grey eyes. "Are you wiling to give me yours, Hibari Kyouya?"

Hibari returned a similar smile as he pulled him into another kiss, more passionate than before. "I've given it to you since the day I met you." 

It wasn't much of a proposal, it wasn't a promise either. It was a silent oath between themselves and only themselves. To be with each other forever, to stay connected no matter what. To fully bind themselves together. There was no legal documents nor it was printed black and white, but the matching ring they both wear on their left ring finger was more than enough to prove it.

192. Innocence

Mukuro lost his purity since the day he was exposed to the torture. The day he greeted hell headfirst. Bits and bits of innocence destroyed by the disgusting mafiosi. He wished for revenge, he wanted revenge. And he's going to get it. Hatred burned and burned in his heart, until he let it all out and promptly slaughtered the mafiosi.

It still wasn't enough.

He wanted to destroy the mafiosi, the whole of it. 

"Mukuro! Stop mopping there and come join us!" He turned to Tsuna, who was waving at him from the mat under the cherry blossom tree, smiling in such a trusting manner that made him recoil internally. He couldn't understand, why would he still accept him even after trying to kill him and his friends.

'Vongola Decimo is an enigma after all.'

He chuckled and sauntered over, a smirk on his face. "Sawada Tsunayoshi, what makes you think that I would join you and your merry little troop?" 

The brunette tilted his head. "But you're here, aren't you?" He faltered for a split second and shook his head. "You're seriously strange, Tsunayoshi-kun." He smiled internally. Perhaps, it was alright for him to forget about the whole for a day.

193. Simplicity

Hibari had his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall. Passer-bys would sneak a second glance on him, blushing a little while those who know him immediately ran away, not wanting to risk getting themselves killed. He wondered what he was doing here, our in a crowd and actually tolerating it. He wanted to bite all of the herbivores to death, but he restrained himself and waited (im)patiently.

"Kyouya!" He looked to the right to see Ryuuichi jogging up to him with a back pack in tow. Light, it seemed, compared to the usual weight he would bring. Hibari pushed himself off the wall and stared at him. The younger was wearing a dark blue button-down shirt with a black jacket tied around his waist. 

Ryuuichi grinned at his boyfriend only to blush when he noticed the intense stare. That, and Hibari was damn handsome in casual wear. "Sorry for the wait." Hibari merely shook his head. "Shall we go?" With a 'yes', they headed to the aquarium that just opened recently, walking side by side.

Their hands were inches away, bumping slightly. Ryuuichi was content with this, but he couldn't help but wanted to hold Hibari's hand. Perhaps Hibari noticed his dilemma, he immediately grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers together. Ryuuichi jerked at that and was surprised, almost letting go. Hibari wordlessly tighten his grip and cast him a glance, smirking. 

Ryuuichi huffed but squeezed his hand back, pouting a little when he realized that Hibari was either mocking or teasing him. He was about to roll his eyes when he saw the aquarium. Finally.

They were inside almost instantly, passing the ticket booth without the guard stopping them. Hibari was probably the reason why. Typical of him. Ryuuichi had no complains though, he was like a five years old kid, jumpy and hyper as he cooed at each and every aquatic animals he saw along the way.

Then they came to the section where you can touch the aquatic animals. Ryuuichi hesitated, not sure of it until Hibari nudged him and gave him a nod. He reached into the cold water and poked a star fish. It didn't react, so he took it and pulled it out of the water, showing Hibari.

And he came face to face with a sea cucumber. He jumped back and gave the prefect the most betrayed look ever. Hibari couldn't help but laugh slightly. Ryuuichi's eyes soften and joined him in laughter. Seriously, it was such an amazing day with nothing to worry about. Slightly plain compared to their usual chaotic days, but it was really appreciated.

194. Reality

It took Reborn a while to accept the fact that they had really broken the curse. That Tsuna had broken the curse for them. He couldn't really believe it, kept thinking that it was a dream. He even had a plastic pacifier on just in case it was really a dream so that he wouldn't be that much in shock.

It was until when his clothes were getting tighter than usual, his shoes smaller, that he realized that it wasn't a dream. It hit him in the face so hard that he couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous things were. His grin turned sharper, more insane as the thought of growing back to his actual size was damn pleasing.

He couldn't wait to actually tutor (Read: torture) Tsuna in his original size. (Going through puberty again wasn't that fun, however. It was a biitch.)

195. Acceptance

Alaude wondered what would happen if he didn't give Ryuuichi his acceptance. Would Caelum still be restlessly watching Ryuuichi? Would Caelum continue to hide himself from Alaude and the others even after four centuries? He didn't know.

What Alaude did know was that Caelum finally let go, finally decided to let Ryuuichi take his place fully and join Alaude in afterlife along with others, if there was an afterlife in the first place because they had been lingering. Lingering for so many years until the right successor came. (Their afterlife, was in fact joining their reincarnations, merging with their souls and be a piece of it.)

Caelum smiled at him, smile at everyone for the fact that they had accepted his reincarnation. Grateful- and forgiving. A smile Alaude had seen so many times yet it was so foreign now, since their burden had been lifted. He couldn't help but find that smile of Caelum's the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

196. Lesson

"Secondo, on the other hand, was an angry, cinnamon roll." Ryuuichi gave Reborn a look. "'Cinnamon roll'. Are you kidding me?" Tsuna, who was sitting beside him, was confused as well.

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Yes." They answered in unison, which they ended up receiving a slap from a slipper that popped out of nowhere. "Secondo was titled as that because while he was wrathful, he has this side of his as well, that made him really innocent, in a sense."

"Is it because he died a ?" Reborn gave Ryuuichi a withering look. "Secondo had a handful of unnamed women, so if he did died a , I don't know what he did with them." 

Ryuuichi scrunched his nose in concentration slightly. There was a small pause before he nodded. Reborn nodded as well and was about to continue on the history of Secondo's reign when Tsuna raised his hand.

"What if Secondo's gay?" Reborn palmed his face as Ryuuichi doubled over in laughter. Tsuna, however, was serious about it. Seriously, what was with this set of students Reborn has? Even Dino wasn't this much of a pain in the back. Oh, wait. He was. Damn it.

197. Frozen

Ryuuichi shuddered, curling up into a ball as he tried to keep warm. Never in his life had he hated the cold, well, except when he was ill. It probably below thirty degrees here and he was dying. The winter coat and the thick sweater plus turtle neck wasn't helping much either.

His teeth was chattering, apparently, and the tip of his fingers had turned blue. He was probably going to get hypothermia if he were to stuck here any longer. Where was he again?

Ah, right. Russia, during winter for a mission from Vongola. He was chasing this traitor across a hill when he slipped and promptly got stuck under a pile of snow with a sprained ankle. At first it was alright since he was able to draw his flames to keep himself warm while trying to heal his ankle, when he realized that his leg was actually buried in the snow, couldn't get it out no matter how.

Bloody damn ice. At least it was able to aid on the sprain. Somehow.

And then he was getting sleepier and weaker, his flames spent from using too much. He was probably going to die.

A familiar presence and voice reminded him that he didn't come alone as some of the snow was dug off. "Oya, oya. I took my eyes off you for two hours and this is how you ended up?" He stared up at Mukuro, eyes half lidded as the energy to retort his words was just simply non-existing. He, however, noted that there was a slight panic in his voice. "Looks like you're about to die."

Knowing that he wouldn't actually die, now that Mukuro was here, he slipped into the darkness. Mukuro scowled and clicked his tongue. He quickly dug Ryuuichi out fully and carried him by supporting his back and the back of his knees. He was cold. Scalding cold. Second stage of hypothermia, reaching the last. He have to be quick.

With a sigh, he took of onto the road and immediately brought him to the hospital. 

198. Game

Fon smirked behind his sleeve as Reborn moved. At the sound of the piece clicking on the wooden block, Reborn immediately narrowed his eyes and cursed under his breath. Fon's eyes were crinkled at how hard he was smirking as he moved his piece with another hand.

"Jiang." Reborn huffed and tilted his fedora down slightly. Why did he think that it was a good idea playing Chinese Chess of all things with Fon for a deal? Why didn't he choose Cricket instead? Cricket's nice. And less headache-y. 

"So what was the deal again?" Fon was definitely cunning under his kind demeanor. Definitely. Sly as well. (The pot calling the kettle black, Reborn.) The hitman sighed and squared his shoulders, looking directly into Fon's eyes and narrowed. "Fine, you get to train Tsuna for half a year."

"And..?"

"And I'll delete the picture of you red from the Mapo tofu from my data." 

199. Endings

Ryuuichi never liked endings. He never did, and probably never will. Whenever he was reaching the end of a story book, he would always tried to endlong it by putting it aside, reading slower than usual. He never wanted it to end. But alas, it did.

Endings are inevitable. Just like death. Ryuuichi knew that very well. Which was probably why she was so reluctant to hang out her friends. Well, was, anyway. (He couldn't even properly stay home now with them dragging him all over the place.) Happiness always seemed to disappear in a blink of an eye rather than its opposite.

But even so, it wasn't like ending would erase everything. It wasn't like ending would pull him and everyone else apart. 

And it wasn't as though it was ending. After all, it continues on and on for eternity.

200. Death

Ryuuichi was scared of death. He was scared of the eternal darkness that comes after this short and fickle life. He was scared of being alone. And that was, well, was.

He didn't know how, nor when was it, that he wasn't even scared of it anymore. He didn't know when did he started to accept that the fact. Perhaps it was when he knew he would probably get reincarnated again, or when he was too used to putting his life on the line.

It just came to him one random day, when he was doing a report. It struck him out of nowhere, that he couldn't comprehend what he was writing anymore, that his pen stayed frozen, the tip on the paper.

Shiro's whine and Sora's nudge against his tight shook him out of his stupor as Kuro jumped onto his desk, managed to not knock down the cup of tea by the corner. He raised an eyebrow at them. "What's wrong with all of you?"

Kuro growled and leaned in. He bit Ryuuichi's loose tie and tugged it to the direction of the door. The other two were pushing him as well. "H-hey, what-"

Suddenly, Sora stiffen and growled lowly at the window, curtain drawn. It was then Ryuuichi noticed that something was wrong. It was a moment too late, when a bullet impaled itself onto Ryuuichi's back. 

He out, with his animal partner's howls and growls. He was dying, he realized. He never knew it was this peaceful, even though he was pretty sure that the pain was ripping him inside out. Scratch that. He knew it was peaceful, but he didn't realize it years ago, too scared of it.

Death must be thrilled to see him, again... Nah. Death would have to wait.

He couldn't die now. He mustn't die now.

A small flame lit inside, slowly growing and growing. It flared out from Ryuuichi's growing cold body, burning almost everything beside the panthers and wolf in the room. A loud gasp erupted from his lips as he jerked up slightly, eyes snapping open. 

He burned the whole office down as Kuro hunted for the assassin.

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A/N= FINALLY! This is the longest chapter I've ever written. 31K. It took me more than three months to finish this, ya know?

I first apologize to everyone for not updating for so damn long but my school work have been piling up so much that I couldn't find the time to finish this. That, and I'm actually having exams right now. Like, I've exams tomorrow and I'm working on this.

Eh, it's confusing, I know. Its a pile of jumbled up things, all of them at random age each and AUs everywhere. I can't remember everything, so please ask. There are repeats, I know, because I took two similar list and combined it. And, similarities because I lack of imagination.

It mostly surrounds Ryuuichi, Hibari, Tsuna and the Giudizio, I noticed. I didn't know what happened.

Since it's long, I didn't exactly proof read properly. Please, please inform me if there's any mistakes or weird sentences. Thanks!

Fun Fact= Amemori joined the Giudizio at age of 25.

I sadly announce that this will be the last chapter. I'm really happy with this story. Really really happy. It is and will always be one of my proudest work. In fact, this is my first work that I've ever finished. *sweats* I'm not sure if I'll be writing anything for this year since.. It's clear that I'm really busy. But who knows.

I'll still write the character info tho, so it'll still be marked ongoing until I settle it.

Anyways, thank you for supporting this story and bear with me all this while! I'll be forever grateful XD (I've, like so many things to say but I felt that this thing might corrupt already lol)

[I apologize for any grammar, spelling, etc. etc. mistakes.]