Autumn's Roaming Breeze

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Branch

Hibari reaches some equilibrium with the idea of belonging to a Family, assisted on his way by Dino, who feels that he owes both Tsuna and Hibari this help. Eventual Dino/Hibari.

Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://www.branchandroot.net/archive/).

"The Beauty of Obligation" published on 2008-11-25 14:47:35.

"Sakura Growing Upside Down" published on 2008-12-09 10:48:11.

"Lighter Than a Feather" published on 2008-12-28 15:00:47.

"Untamable" published on 2008-12-29 14:36:09.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on September 6, 2019 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

Cover illustration is "Sonnenaufgang mit Schilf im Winter" by Benjamin Gimmel, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sonnenaufgang_Schilf_im_Winter.jpg).

Cover design by Branch.

The Beauty of Obligation

Filling in missing scenes of Hibari's training with Dino, and how it might have convinced him to Tsuna's side. Drama, I-3

Kyouya turned over in bed with a huff and yanked the covers up. He was annoyed.

A good fight, one he could sink his teeth into properly, was always enjoyable, but he saw no call to interrupt it with chatter.

And just who did Cavallone think he was, to judge Kyouya's skill? He wouldn't even fight properly, all avoidance and evasion.

Still. The fact that he could evade and avoid spoke its own language, and a far more convincing one than the flowery nonsense about frogs and wells. As long as Cavallone showed up, Kyouya would fight him.

Now if he could just make the man fight seriously.

The ring made a useful lever, which was good; Kyouya couldn't imagine any other reason for keeping it.

"All right, then, how about a trade?" Cavallone showed his teeth. "If I beat you in a serious fight, then you have to be part of Tsuna's Family."

Kyouya had to snort a bit over Cavallone's foolishness. He wasn't one of the idiots from the sports clubs, who made bets and dares out of their wins and losses—cutting one's hair or slave for a week or whatever. A win or a loss was what it was; that was all. And as for joining anything, least of all Sawada's little herd, that was laughable.

The thought did tug at him, though. Family. That was something the baby had mentioned.

Well, that would save for later.

Right now there was only the sudden sharpening of Cavallone's eyes, the speed and sureness of his feet against the roof, the singing of the whip cutting the air. Things that made the world bright and sharp and satisfying.

Losing was not satisfying at all, however.

"So, it's a deal, right?" Cavallone prompted, shaking back sweat-soaked hair.

Kyouya spat blood on the man's foot.

He didn't know why that made Cavallone smile, and didn't waste time trying to figure it out. The man couldn't shut up to save his life and would undoubtedly tell him sooner or later.

"It's not just a decoration, you know." Cavallone opened the range again. "That ring."

Kyouya stalked forward, tracking the motion of the whip. "If it's a herd badge, I don't need it."

Cavallone groaned. "You are the most perfect Cloud in the history of the world, I swear."

The whip hooked one tonfa and Cavallone slid back from the other and Kyouya stepped in, turning to strike again. "Cloud?" That was the symbol on the ring, if he recalled.

"The Cloud watches from above." Cavallone snaked the whip through the spin of one tonfa, tangling it, and jerked Kyouya to the side. "The Cloud follows its own way and can't be bound." Kyouya spun on his center, found his stance again, struck for Cavallone's stomach with the shaft. "You're a natural."

A loop of the whip tightened on Kyouya's neck as Cavallone sprang back, and he barely got a tonfa up in time to keep it from closing completely. Cavallone smiled and twitched it loose, releasing him, and Kyouya's lip curled in a snarl. He hated it when Cavallone did that. "What's your point?" he asked, shaking his tonfa free sharply.

Cavallone tipped his head to the side. "The ring. Doesn't it match what you are?"

Kyouya considered for a moment. "Well enough."

Cavallone smiled. "That's my point."

Kyouya eyed him narrowly. That seemed far too simple for someone who fought in such an indirect style.

"So, you really like this school, don't you? You always choose here, to fight, without even thinking about it."

Kyouya raised his brows. "It's mine." The rest was not some outsider's to ask about.

Cavallone's mouth quirked. "It fits you well. But don't you think some variety would build your skills faster?"

Kyouya stood still for a moment, torn between insistence that Cavallone was not his personal trainer or any such nonsense and the knowledge that he was sharpening against Cavallone's skill.

"It would be more interesting for you, too, wouldn't it?" Cavallone added, easily.

Finally Kyouya shrugged. "If you like. It doesn't matter to me where I bite you."

Cavallone's hair fell over his eyes as he rocked forward, laughing. "I've noticed. Well, come on, then." His smile was bright. "Let's try something interesting."

Kyouya looked over at Kusakabe, standing next to Cavallone's man. "Keep things as they should be," he ordered.

The forest gave him an advantage. The shore was difficult for both of them, with its shifting footing. The edge of his inside strike was exactly here. If he set the ball of his foot at just this angle it increased his power. When Cavallone gave back to rob a blow of its strength, he couldn't draw his whip back in for one and a half seconds. Kyouya stored away all these observations, evaluations, the things he usually didn't bother with because no one could match him.

Cavallone could, though.

It seemed wrong. He'd seen the man trip over his own feet when that assistant of his wasn't around; he was the epitome of a herd-beast. How he could be herd and carnivore as well, Kyouya didn't understand. It seemed disingenuous, and not proper at all.

Of course, very few people understood true propriety, which was why he had to bite them.

It made him wonder, though, how many other carnivores might be found among the herd.

Every now and then, as they fought, he considered what these environments would do to Mukuro's staff, and then he pushed Cavallone harder.

"The thing is," Cavallone panted, hands braced on his knees, "there are people coming after it."

Kyouya blinked sweat out of his eyes. "What?"

"The ring. I told you it wasn't just decoration, didn't I?" Cavallone's smile was wry. "It's a weapon. And some of the most deadly people in the mafia want them."

Kyouya considered this. He didn't care particularly about the ring itself, but if it would bring a real fight to him... He smiled slowly.

Cavallone burst out laughing until he had to sit down. "God, Kyouya. What are we going to do with you?"

Kyouya worked tingling fingers around the handles of his tonfa and looked coolly down at his opponent. "You could fight me for real."

Cavallone leaned back on his hands, one corner of his mouth quirking as he looked up at Kyouya. "Maybe I am."

"Not yet," Kyouya shot back. Last week he wouldn't have been sure of that, but now he could tell. It annoyed him; the only proper fight was a real one.

Cavallone had an odd look on his face, smiling still but his eyes had turned dark. "Maybe." And then it was gone. "In any case, it would be a good idea for you to see some of the other Guardians' fights, to get an idea of the other side's strength, so we should probably head back."

Kyouya cocked his head. So there were other people who had these rings too. More importantly, though... back? "They're in Namimori?"

Suddenly Cavallone looked just a bit shifty. "Ah. Well, yes, about that. See..." he stood up and brushed himself off, "it seems the matches are actually taking place at the school."

Kyouya just looked at Cavallone for a long moment.

And then he turned away and strode for the treeline and the road beyond it.

"Kyouya, hang on! Wait, you don't... are you going to walk back?! Kyouya...!"

Kyouya lay on the roof, glowering at the sky. Those masked things were breaking his school. He would have to do something about that.

It was hard to concentrate, even on such an outrage against propriety, though. He kept remembering the flash of steel and water, and the sharpness of eyes he could have sworn belonged to an herbivore.

"So, are you going to try to take my head off right this instant?" Cavallone sounded cautious, as well he should. Kyouya narrowed his eyes, not looking back to see the man coming up the stairwell.

"Why not? You lie to me."

"I didn't lie." Now Cavallone sounded uncomfortable. "I just didn't say everything all at once. You know you would have—"

"Not that." Kyouya rolled up on an elbow and glared at the man. "You act like an herbivore, but you fight like you have real teeth. You pretend you're not what you are." And apparently this was a popular thing for people who should be honest and self-respecting carnivores to do.

Cavallone was staring at him. "It's not pretending," he said, slowly. He settled on his heels beside Kyouya with a faint frown. "You're talking about my Family, aren't you?"

Well, obviously. Kyouya glared some more.

"Kyouya..." Cavallone ran a hand through his hair, and now he had a tiny, helpless smile. "It's because of my Family that I have real teeth."

Kyouya leaned back, disgusted. "Herd beasts never have teeth. It's their nature."

"Hmm." Cavallone looked at him sidelong. "Well, herd beasts, maybe not. But packs do, don't they?"

Kyouya paused. He supposed there was some truth in that. "They don't congregate with herbivores, though," he pointed out. "They prey on them, as it should be. They only congregate with others of their kind."

Cavallone was smiling. "They're social enough, though, aren't they? With their pack. That isn't dishonest, is it?"

Kyouya pursed his lips. "Hm."

Cavallone laughed and reached over to ruffle his hair, and that was more liberty than anyone was allowed to take, even if they had proper teeth and maybe weren't being dishonest about it. Kyouya's tonfa connected, if not quite as satisfyingly as he would like. Clearly he needed to keep on sharpening himself. He drove after Cavallone as the man retreated.

He was still annoyed that Yamamoto didn't show his teeth properly, and intended to bite him to death as soon as it was convenient, so he could see them again.

Kyouya sat at the edge of the school grounds, watching the masked creatures restore his school. He intended to take every incomplete repair out of their hides. And possibly out of Sawada's, too, since he had done nearly as much damage as that mechanical suit.

"So?" Cavallone stood behind him on the little rise. "What do you think?" There was a smile in his voice. "Will Tsuna make a good pack leader?"

Kyouya snorted. "They're certainly licking his hands already."

Cavallone was quiet for a moment. "And you?"

Kyouya looked over his shoulder, brows raised.

"Will you guard him?"

Kyouya looked back at the school. "If he needs someone else to fight for him, he's an herbivore." Grudgingly he added, "Which he doesn't seem to be. As much."

"I don't know why I even asked," Cavallone sighed. After a moment he asked, "Why do you protect the school? It's full of herbivores, isn't it?"

"It's a traditional school. It's a proper thing."

"Hm." Cavallone sat down beside him, one leg curled under him. "Could a Family be proper?" He sounded curious. "We're about as traditional as it gets."

That was an interesting question, actually, and Kyouya decided he would consider it. But he had a more urgent question this evening. "Why are you doing this?" Cavallone was putting in a ridiculous amount of effort to persuade Kyouya into someone else's Family. If it had been his own, Kyouya might have understood better.

Cavallone didn't pretend he didn't understand, which saved Kyouya having to bite him. "Because the boss is given for his Family." His eyes were distant, fixed unseeing on the school. "It's true; Tsuna isn't suited to be a mafia boss. But he'll be the one Vongola needs. I can't help Tsuna escape that." His hands tightened on each other. "I love him like a little brother, but I can't. My Family needs him, too." Cavallone bent his head, light hair falling forward to hide his expression. "But I'll do everything I can to protect him."

Kyouya stood and Cavallone's head came up, eyes startled. Kyouya looked down at him. "Guilt is boring. Come fight me when you're over it." He walked down the rise to go inspect the work on the school.

Propriety tugged at him.

He stopped, back still to Cavallone, and added, "I'll see what this Family looks like. Whether it's suitable as was it is." The fight between Sawada and Xanxus tomorrow should offer him an opportunity.

He heard Cavallone start laughing, free and rueful, as he walked on.

Kyouya sat silently and suffered Kusakabe to clean and tape his cuts from that pitiful "prince's" knives and wires.

"You should really let us give you a transfusion," Cavallone complained, leaning by the open window.

Kyouya snorted. "I'm not that weak." He'd consented to come to this hospital Cavallone had apparently taken over, and that was enough for one night. Or one dawn, as it nearly was.

Cavallone sighed. "All right. Here, though." He fished a small box out of his pocket and tossed it to Kyouya.

The Cloud ring was inside it.

He had to admit, Sawada did appear to have reasonable teeth, and, if he could be induced to show them, would be quite suitable. One or two of the others had potential. And there was Mukuro.

He turned the ring in his fingers and finally looked up at Cavallone. "I'll see if this Family is a proper thing." It would balance his obligation for the things Cavallone had shown him.

And he supposed it was distantly possible that he would decide in favor.

He sniffed a little over Cavallone's brilliant smile and tucked the ring away.

End

Sakura Growing Upside Down

Hibari seeks out a rematch with Mukuro. Mukuro has his own agenda for this. Drama, I-3

Two days after the battles for the Vongola rings were over, Kyouya cornered Sawada and asked who that Chrome girl was, and why she carried what looked remarkably like Mukuro's staff.

And then he went hunting Dino Cavallone.

"Look, Kyouya, I couldn't..." Cavallone ducked the swing of a tonfa quickly. "I couldn't let you know right then! You'd have gone right after her." He jumped back from a vicious swipe. "Him. Them. Whatever. You know you would have."

Kyouya set his feet again and glared. "Of course I would have."

"Well, then you wouldn't have had the fun of fighting with that mechanical suit, right?" Cavallone offered, a bit weakly.

Kyouya growled and spun his tonfa forward.

They were both dripping blood on the floor before Kyouya's fury ran out. He stood and glowered at Cavallone, panting. Cavallone wiped his mouth on his cuff and sighed.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

Kyouya's lip curled.

Cavallone frowned and coiled his whip with a sharp snap of his wrist. "I'm serious. Mukuro's illusions aren't like that damn drug. You can't shake it off with pure stubbornness." His eyes were hard. "Or you would have done it the first time, wouldn't you?"

"I wasn't prepared the first time." Kyouya didn't like admitting that, but it must have been true for him to be fooled the way he had been.

Cavallone's mouth tightened. "Listen to me for once," he said, quietly. "You can't shake off an illusion just by knowing it's illusion." He stepped closer, holding Kyouya's eyes. "Do you know your own strength well enough, yet?"

Kyouya frowned in turn. He'd always known his own strength. He looked back, silently.

Cavallone's shoulders slumped a bit and he ran a hand through his hair. "I know I can't stop you," he sighed. "Just remember, all right?"

After a moment, Kyouya nodded. Cavallone had earned that much from him. "I'll remember."

He found them easily enough, back at the Kokuyou grounds, the two lesser carnivores and the girl. He raked her over with a glance, disinterested by how frail looking she was. "I want Mukuro," he told her bluntly.

She frowned and her soft "Why?" cut through the loud one's "What the hell?!"

Kyouya would have thought why was obvious. "I have something to return to him."

The yappy one stalked toward him. "You think you can beat Mukuro-san? Hah! He'd just break you into little pieces again!"

Hibari ignored him; the girl had closed her eyes and her lips were moving faintly.

"Hey!"

Kyouya spun a tonfa absently, ready to smack the interruption quiet, but the girl spoke first.

"Ken." Her voice was lower, cool and amused. "I've been expecting him."

The loud one grumbled and snarled and sat back down in a huff, but the quiet one just nodded. "As you wish, Mukuro-sama."

Mukuro smiled at him with the girl's mouth and turned, beckoning. "Come along, then."

Kyouya stalked through the crumbling doorway after him; more room would be welcome enough, but... "I'm not here to fight the girl."

Mukuro looked over the girl's shoulder and gave him a slow, annoying smile. "Well, if you insist." They passed through the blurred shadow under a destroyed staircase and when they emerged into what might have been an auditorium it wasn't the girl ahead of him. It was Mukuro.

Much better.

Kyouya lunged in close, striking for Mukuro's ribs.

It went through them.

Kyouya spun on his toe and blocked the staff swinging down at his shoulder. Just because he'd expected that didn't make him any happier.

Mukuro laughed and gave back, light on his feet. "You're much more wary this time." He tilted his head, hair falling over his forehead. "So, are you really immune to these now?"

There was no gesture, no showmanship—just pale petals fluttering down past Kyouya's shoulder. He stalked forward steadily, not bothering to dignify Mukuro's prodding with an answer. Mukuro blocked the first strike but the second caught his shoulder and drove a gasp out of him.

"I see you have."

"Fight seriously."

Mukuro smirked. "Why?"

Kyouya stopped calculating with the front of his mind, stopped thinking at all, left observations to the back of his brain and just moved, letting rage flow through his hands, drive his feet against the rough floor. The back of his mind noticed the number four forming in Mukuro's eye, poised him to lean into the strength of Mukuro's guard and return, readied him for Mukuro's speed, but his attention was on the feel of his tonfa grips in his hands, the reverberation through steel and bone that would tell him when a strike went home.

He thought the occasional softness was just Mukuro's ability to roll with the strikes until he felt it one last time and Mukuro was abruptly no longer in front of him.

"The day you throw off illusions I'll be in real trouble," Mukuro murmured from behind him.

Swinging around , taut and furious, Kyouya caught a flash of teeth, and then Mukuro's weapon fell away and he collapsed to the floor. By the time Kyouya turned all the way around, it was the girl who lay there. He stood for a long moment, wrestling with the unusual urge to throw something against the wall.

The girl stirred and pushed herself up, rubbing her eyes. "Ah. Are you done?" She looked up, merely inquiring. Kyouya observed distantly that, although he was fairly sure Mukuro's broken arm had not been one of the illusions, her arm was fine.

"For now," he ungritted his teeth enough to say.

She cocked her head at him. "I see. Well, if it's important to Mukuro-sama..." She stood, brushing off her skirt, and picked up the staff. "I suppose we'll see you again, then."

Kyouya watched her walk back toward the room where the other two were and breathed around the pain in his knee and side until his temper had settled, sharp instead of ragged. And then he went to go find someone to fight so he could think about what he'd found out.

"What again?" Ken looked up as Kyouya stalked through the atrium. "Don't you ever get enough? You never win!"

"Boasting for someone else since you can't do it for yourself?" Kyouya asked, not breaking stride.

"Fuck you! Come back here and we'll see who's boasting! You... Kake-pii? What are you looking like that for?"

As their voices turned fainter behind him, Kyouya heard the dark one say, "He never wins. But he never loses either, does he?"

Kyouya's eyes narrowed and he stepped still more precisely over chunks of broken concrete. He was going to pin Mukuro down and finish this fight if it killed one of them.

Chrome looked up as he stepped through the break in the wall. "Mukuro-sama said you would be here today." She set down her can of coffee and stood, closing her eyes. Haze drew around her and, when it cleared, Mukuro was smiling at him, ineffably amused.

Kyouya knocked a few of his teeth out purely for his own satisfaction before he had to start being careful where he put his feet, lest he tread on a scorpion.

Kyouya stared at the pillars of fire separating him from Mukuro, who was leaning insolently on his staff.

"So?"

Kyouya closed his eyes. It didn't help. He could feel the heat on his face, the dryness of scorched air in his nose and lungs. Every sense told him that if he stepped forward he would be burned.

His mouth tightened and he stepped forward into one of the pillars.

It burned, his skin tightened, his lungs felt knifed through, but there was a softness to the sensation that he recognized, now, and he took another step, mind locked around that difference.

The fires vanished, leaving echoing pain and Mukuro's laughter.

"I think you're the best toy I've ever had."

Kyouya lay on the roof of the school and stared up into the blue nothing of the sky. The deep slice along his arm twinged under its bandage.

Cavallone had had quite a few words to say, this week, once he'd tracked Kyouya down, medical minion in his wake. The ones that actually stuck in Kyouya's mind were, "You can't just insist reality is something different. He's better at changing reality than you are, and what kind of idiot fights on his opponent's ground?"

Was he trying to change reality?

He didn't like the thought. It seemed weak-willed. Reality was what it was, and a strong person didn't try to change that; he just acted.

Of course, knowing what reality was, around Mukuro, presented its own problems. He frowned up at the blue. His body could tell the difference, but he needed more than that to actually beat Mukuro. If he had to touch to know...

Do you know your own strength well enough yet?

Cavallone's words came back to him and he frowned more deeply. If Cavallone thought Kyouya had strengths he wasn't using yet, what could they be? If it wasn't what he was currently doing...

Not trying to change reality?

Kyouya's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he watched wisps of white crossing the blue.

Mukuro knelt over Kyouya, staff tight against his throat, chuckling. "Haven't you realized yet?"

Kyouya glared, saving his breath. Mukuro looked down at him with great good humor.

"This body is an illusion, isn't it? Every time you insist on fighting me like this, instead of in my little Chrome's body, you hand your senses over to me before we even begin." He smiled charmingly. "Should I fight you using her next time?"

Kyouya twisted one forearm under the staff and brought a knee up into Mukuro's spine, throwing him over Kyouya's head. He spun up onto his feet and around to face Mukuro again.

"No." His voice was rough from where the staff had raked up his throat, but his mind was abruptly clear.

Reality.

"You are here." He gestured at Mukuro's body. "That is what's real." The mist and flowers through which he and Mukuro had tracked each other today faded from his sight. "That's all that matters to me."

He didn't need to see or feel. All he needed was to know. To be and to know.

Mukuro didn't laugh as Kyouya drove in on him, strike following strike, but his avid, smiling gaze never faltered. Even when Kyouya pinned him against the wall, breaking ribs in the process, he didn't blink. "We'll have to do this again," he gasped.

Kyouya struck full across Mukuro's temple and let his unconscious body fall. It was Chrome before she hit the ground. He stood, panting, letting things settle in his mind.

"Oh." Chrome pushed herself upright, eyes wide. "You... won today?"

Kyouya looked down at her. "How do you know?"

"Mukuro-sama isn't quite there." She stood up, dusting herself off.

"Here." Kyouya picked up his jacket and pulled the can of coffee he'd brought out of his pocket, tossing it to her. "We spilled yours, last time."

"Ah." She smiled faintly. "Thank you."

Kyouya shrugged. She was obliging him, after all.

"Will you be back again?" She took a sip, both hands wrapped around the can.

Kyouya considered. There was a certain satisfaction in the idea. It would be nice to drive his victory home a few more times. It would probably be useful, if he agreed to be involved in any more Vongola doings. "Yes."

Chrome nodded. "We'll see you then." The Mist ring winked on her finger as she took another sip.

He gave her a parting nod in return.

Kyouya thought there was something odd about the fight today. He watched and weighed the texture of it as they moved, twisting aside from the butt of Mukuro's staff, striking down to break Mukuro's knee. He followed Mukuro down and brought the shaft of one tonfa hammering down toward Mukuro's solar plexus.

Mukuro's gaze didn't even flicker.

Kyouya diverted into the floor, adding another small crater, eyes fixed on Mukuro. "You aren't expecting to win," he stated.

Mukuro shrugged with one shoulder; today the other was dislocated, a match for Kyouya's elbow. "Not really, any more." His eyes gleamed. "Not often, anyway."

"Then why are you fighting?"

Mukuro's teeth flashed in the hall's dim light for a moment. "Because it's fun." His leg swept around. Kyouya rolled with it, ignoring the fiery wrench in his arm. His own teeth were bared as they closed again.

It was annoying that Mukuro didn't stay bitten, but he supposed that the biting itself was fun, yes.

He would be back again next week.

Afterword

Chrome curled up in the bed she had created, soft old couch cushions filling a window-seat, piled with linens from the box that had appeared in the atrium one morning, weeks ago. She watched the moonlight sliding over the buildings and trees, past the glass, turning them stark and new. Mukuro-sama?

Yes?

You helped him figure out how to win, didn't you?

Laughter tickled through her mind. Perhaps.

Chrome closed her eyes "looking" at the presence in the back of her head. Why?

With her eyes closed, she could see Mukuro-sama's smile. He's fun to play with. And this way he'll last longer. The smile curled higher at the corners. And that will make me stronger.

Chrome nibbled on her lip. She wasn't really aware of what happened when Mukuro-sama brought himself out through her, but she'd heard the tone of his laughter afterwards, and watched the rage of her fellow Guardian hone into something cooler and sharper than it had been.

A chuckle echoed behind her ears. Ask.

Softly, barely forming the thought into words, she said, You want him to be stronger, too.

Her mind was silent for a moment. We will see, Mukuro-sama finally answered, light and intent. We will see whether this thing Sawada Tsunayoshi is making will survive. Or whether it will be destruction after all.

Chrome remembered him telling her to fight her best as the boss' Mist Guardian. And she remembered Chikusa and Ken discussing who they would kill first, when they destroyed the Mafia completely. It made sense enough to her that Mukuro-sama would do both things at once; he could be more than one thing at once, after all. She nodded to herself and cuddled down into her pillows.

Good night, Mukuro-sama.

Good night, my Chrome.

End

Lighter Than a Feather

This came out of me wondering how Hibari could have been convinced to identify himself with the mafia. Dino finally figures out a way to get through to him. Humor with Drama, I-2

Dino crossed his feet on his desk and stared out the window. "Hmm."

"Boss?" Romario looked in the door. "Anything you need?"

Dino waved a hand "No, no, just thinking."

Romario smiled behind his mustache. "Ah." He came in and sorted briefly through Dino's papers, gathering the finished letters and notes to go out. "Tsuna-kun or Hibari?" he asked casually.

Dino laughed, rueful. "You know me too well."

"You don't puzzle over our own family," Romario murmured. "You act."

Dino's mouth quirked wryly. "Just like Hibari, hm?" He stretched, sighing. "He really would do well among us. It's too bad he doesn't know anything about our history, I think he'd actually approve."

Romario made sympathetic sounds.

"Of course, damned if I can get him to listen," Dino added, rather disgruntled. "Ignores me all the time in favor of his..." He stopped, eyes widening. "Books." For a moment he just sat, staring at nothing. Slowly he began to smile.

"Romario."

"Sir?"

"I think I'm going to want some memoirs. And some blank books."

Kyouya looked up, with a certain jaundiced expectation, as the door of his lounge was flung cheerily open and Cavallone breezed in. No one else intruded on him here. "Back again?"

Cavallone smiled in a way that made Kyouya shift, warily; that was Cavallone's "I have a plan" smile, and Kyouya was somewhat annoyed to realize he recognized it at once.

"Well, you know, I was cleaning out the library and found some things I thought you might like." He waved a few slim books in one hand. "Seeing how much you seem to enjoy history."

Kyouya glanced down at the book currently open in his hands. "You take the baby's 'home tutor' nonsense a little too seriously."

"You'll like this. I promise. Just take a look." Cavallone laid the books down on the couch beside him, flashed another smile, and took himself back out.

Kyouya sniffed. The least the man could have done was offer him a decent fight, while he was here.

He picked up the book on top and paged through it, brow lifting. It seemed to be a personal journal. Cavallone had brought it, it had to be about the mafia. But it was in Japanese and the sentences he scanned sounded... familiar.

He turned back to the beginning, frowning, and read more slowly. An idea here, a sentence there, slipped through his mind easy and familiar as koi in their own pool.

"...as true men always have, we must look after our own honor and never leave it to an outsider..."

"...only law is the law of blood, we will never forget..."

"...our true strength has nothing to do with the foolish softness of rules made in cities far away..."

After an hour or two, Kyouya reached for the second book.

Two days later, Kyouya flung open the door to Cavallone's ex-hospital office without bothering to knock and strolled over to drop the books on a table. "You know, you could have just said from the start that the mafia has proper traditions."

"How was I supposed to get you to hold still long enough?" Cavallone asked, dryly.

Kyouya didn't bother answering that. "It's a suitable kind of thing," he pronounced.

Cavallone downright grinned and Kyouya gave him a narrow look; he didn't see any reason for Cavallone to look so pleased.

"Good."

Kyouya flicked his fingers at the covers. "I still say herding together is weak."

Cavallone's grin quirked. "You're the Cloud. No one will ask you to."

"All right, then." Kyouya crossed his arms. "So?"

Cavallone raised his brows. "So... what?"

"Are we going to fight or not?"

Cavallone leaned back and laughed.

End

Untamable

Dino helps Hibari figure a few things out. It doesn't take Hibari long at all. Porn with Characterization, I-4

"So how is Tsuna's family doing?"

Kyouya gave him a rather flat look. "Why ask me?"

"Because you'll know." Dino grinned. Sometimes he thought if he didn't remind the world that Kyouya was part of that family no one would ever dare. Except perhaps Mukuro, who did it for different reasons.

"They're well enough."

Dino's lips twitched as he watched Kyouya, sitting composed on his couch with a book open in one hand, pointedly ignoring him. It was taking longer, these days, for Kyouya to go from "noticing" to "biting", but that didn't mean Kyouya made it easy for visitors.

Finally Kyouya uncrossed his legs and Dino's attention zeroed in again. Kyouya was about to either answer him or reach for his tonfa.

"Sawada's started making overtures to Girasole."

"The Giglio Nero's allies." Dino sat back, eyes narrowed with satisfaction. This was why he came to Kyouya; to hear the news that went deeper than Yamamoto being accepted to a Pacific League team or Gokudera's latest argument with the Tokyo University mathematics department. "So he's started."

Kyouya shrugged as if it were no concern of his. Dino eyed him.

"And how are your studies coming? Doing well?"

"Well enough."

Dino knew Kyouya didn't believe in socializing, but honestly. He was going to get more than "well enough" out of Kyouya if it killed him. Which was still a possibility, if less so these days, but Dino felt he owed the risk to both his little brother and his not-exactly-student.

"Big apartment you've gotten yourself, here," he observed, innocently. "Planning for someone to move in with you?"

That got him a flat look. "If you want to fight..." Kyouya put the book down.

Dino held up his hands, laughing. "Oh, come on, Kyouya. Someday someone will catch your eye."

"You're annoying," Kyouya declared, hands closing around the grips of his tonfa.

"Seriously, though," Dino said as he wrung out his washcloth into the sink, water running pink. "I know you like your space, but surely you're at least dating people by now."

"I don't have time for that kind of nonsense." Kyouya shrugged his shirt back on and tossed a handful of bloody gauze into the trash.

Dino gave him a pained look. "Kyouya, sometimes I wonder if you've even found out what kissing is for yet."

"Not particularly," Kyouya told him coolly.

Dino turned and stared. "You're serious?" He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "You're nineteen already, this isn't healthy."

"You sound like my mother, Cavallone." And, while Dino was trying to process that mental image, "Why do you care?"

Dino leaned back against the counter, mouth quirked. "I could say, because you're Tsuna's family, and I'm a Vongola ally, and I don't want some rival Family woman who knows what she's doing tripping you up."

Kyouya actually paused to consider that, and Dino stifled a helpless groan. He should never underestimate Kyouya's ability to ignore people genuinely caring about him.

"A valid point, perhaps," Kyouya said, slowly.

Fine, then. Dino would take any opening he was given, to draw Kyouya a little further out. It wasn't as though he'd ever had luck using normal logic with Kyouya, anyway.

"So." He laid a hand along Kyouya's cheek, waiting to see whether it would start another fight; with Kyouya, he never really knew. "Want me to show you this, too?"

Kyouya narrowed his eyes and turned his head into Dino's hand a little. "If it will get you to stop teasing, the way you do when we fight," he said against Dino's palm, and Dino suppressed a shiver; for someone inexperienced, Kyouya had good instincts.

"Got it." Dino grinned, wryly; Kyouya's priorities were predictable, at least. He reached out, swift and careful and pulled Kyouya against him, hand sliding back to cradle Kyouya's head. "No teasing," he murmured, and kissed Kyouya deep and hot, tongue sliding into his mouth, careful of Kyouya's split lip but not slow.

Kyouya made an interested sound. Long hands slid up Dino's arms, as if exploring, and Kyouya flicked his tongue delicately against Dino's. Dino made an approving sound of his own.

It was easier than he'd expected to coax Kyouya along until they were leaning against the counter, twined tight around each other, and Kyouya was kissing back, hands buried in Dino's hair. But, then, this was the other reason he came to see Kyouya, wasn't it?

In a world where honor so often demanded Dino do things he wished he didn't have to, Kyouya was utterly pure and uncompromising.

Dino slid his thigh between Kyouya's legs and smiled at the way Kyouya's breath caught. His own breath came a little shorter as Kyouya arched against him, straddling his leg, shamelessly sensual. He slid his hands down to close on the lean muscle of Kyouya's ass and pull him closer, and Kyouya practically purred.

It was definitely time to get rid of the clothing, because Dino's jeans were getting way too tight.

"Bedroom?" he murmured against Kyouya's ear, and tried not to be the slightest bit smug when it took Kyouya a moment to focus again.

"Through there." Kyouya pushed back from Dino only to catch his wrist and pull him along at a very brisk pace for two men who could really do with a moment to adjust themselves. Dino smiled wryly as he followed along.

Kyouya might not always know what he wanted, but once he figured it out he was unstoppable.

He caught Kyouya's hands, though, lightly, when he started to unbutton his shirt. "Let me?"

Kyouya raised a brow at him and Dino chuckled, shaking his head. "I'll show you why; promise. Just let me?"

He was helplessly amused by how narrowly Kyouya watched him as he undid Kyouya's shirt, and slacks while he was at it. The heat that slid over Kyouya's gaze as Dino stroked the shirt off his shoulders was more gratifying.

"Hmm." Kyouya stepped closer and his hands spread against Dino's chest for a moment before sliding down and under the hem of his shirt. They slid back up even more slowly, baring his stomach and chest, and Dino pulled in a deep breath. Kyouya definitely had good instincts. He raised his arms obligingly, if a bit slowly as his rising bruises pulled, and let Kyouya strip the shirt off him, lowering them to stroke his hands down Kyouya's bare back and pull him closer.

They kissed slowly, tongues twining, as Dino eased Kyouya's slacks and boxers off his hips. Kyouya made an impatient sound as he kicked them the rest of the way off, but it turned husky as Dino's hands slid over his ass, fingers stroking the curve of it. It took a few moments for Kyouya to unwind his own fingers from Dino's waistband and undo his pants in turn.

Dino couldn't help a rather relieved sound and Kyouya snorted faintly. And then he drew back and looked at Dino with a speculative gleam Dino was instantly wary of.

"Hm."

Dino gasped as Kyouya's fingers closed on his cock, bold and slow, stroking thoughtfully over him. "Nothing damaged, then?" Kyouya murmured.

Dino didn't know whether it was hotter that Kyouya was fondling him or that Kyouya was teasing him. "Not a thing," he said, husky. "Want me to show you?"

Amusement flashed in Kyouya's eyes. "Yes."

Dino really liked how definite Kyouya was. "Come here, then." He drew Kyouya toward the bed, very carefully until Kyouya let go of him, and down onto it, stretching out beside him. He made a long arm over the side to retrieve his pants and fish his emergency stash out of the back pocket. He shrugged at Kyouya's raised brows. "Well, you never know." He tucked the foil packets under a pillow and went back to stroking Kyouya's body with slow, open palms until the sardonic gleam eased out of his eyes and Kyouya stretched under him, fingers starting to explore Dino's body again. Kyouya's touch was firm and warm, and the sounds he made when Dino kissed, open mouthed, down his neck went straight to Dino's cock. He held out, though, wanting Kyouya to understand how good this could be, and Kyouya was taut and breathless under him before he reached for the packet of lube.

When he slid his fingers back between Kyouya's cheeks, Kyouya gasped.

Dino rubbed his fingertips gently over Kyouya's entrance, feeling the tension running through Kyouya's body. Hmm. "Okay, look," he said softly against Kyouya's ear, "for this to work you need to relax, all right?"

Kyouya looked up at him with dark eyes for a moment and made an irritable sound. He twined his fingers into Dino's hair and pulled him down for another kiss, nipping at Dino's lip while he was at it. Dino figured that was a hint, Kyouya-style, and chuckled as he set about distracting Kyouya with hot, hard kisses, as sensual as one rather talented tongue if he did say so himself could make them, and Kyouya slowly relaxed until Dino's fingers slid into him easily.

The husky sound Kyouya made, low in his throat, made Dino even harder than he already was and he pressed his fingers in deeper, twisting them slowly. This time Kyouya actually moaned, hands closing tight on Dino's shoulders.

"Dino..."

The sound of his name in Kyouya's mouth brushed a shiver down Dino's spine, and the way Kyouya's hips rocked into his slow thrusts, urging him on, turned his breath ragged.

There was a hint of growl in Kyouya's voice when he pulled Dino down against him and said in his ear, "Show me."

"Are you sure—" Dino started, only to break off when Kyouya nipped his ear. Kyouya leaned back to look up at him, eyes dark and hot.

"Show me."

With anyone else, Dino might have insisted on going slow, but this was Kyouya. Unstoppable. So he made quick work of stroking more lube over himself, trying not to get too distracted by Kyouya's hands wandering over his body, and nudged Kyouya's thighs apart.

Kyouya was smiling, now, lazy and pleased, the way he looked at the end of a good fight and Dino wondered which of them was kinky, because that look heated his blood. He managed, at least, to go slowly as he pushed into Kyouya, breathless with the fierce heat that closed around him.

Kyouya made small, wordless sounds as he adjusted, arms finally settling around Dino as he slid out and back in, deeper. Dino was glad to feel Kyouya's back relax under his hand, and he leaned in over Kyouya, thrusting harder, searching for the angle that would make it still better.

He knew he'd gotten the right spot when Kyouya's arms and legs locked around him, pulling him tight against Kyouya's suddenly arched body.

"Again," Kyouya gasped, and Dino laughed, husky, and lifted his student, friend, opponent's hips and fucked him hard. Kyouya picked up the rhythm—he'd always learned fast, right enough—and pushed up into the thrusts, panting, eyes glittering up at Dino.

The sound he made when Dino closed still-slick fingers on his cock, so free and hungry, made Dino moan in turn and finally let go completely, thrusting into Kyouya hard and wild.

"Yes!" Kyouya's voice was hoarse and insistent, and one hand fisted in his hair but Dino barely noticed because he hadn't seen Kyouya this open in years, and then Kyouya had been trying to kill him. This was much more fun, and he groaned as Kyouya's body abruptly wrung tight.

"God, Kyouya..." Dino buried himself in Kyouya and found his mouth again for a hard, hot kiss, and when Kyouya purred into it it was more than Dino could take. Pleasure turned him inside out, and if he could feel Kyouya laughing as he rode it out, well right now that felt really good too.

He half expected it when Kyouya barely gave him time to catch his breath before squirming and dumping Dino off him, and Dino was laughing, too, as he leaned back in for one more kiss that Kyouya returned with another nip.

"Interesting," Kyouya pronounced, as he lounged back against the futon with cat-like composure. And then he glanced at Dino sidelong, eyes glinting, and added, "And you didn't even need your family around to get it right. I'll remember that."

Not for the first time, Dino decided that the hedgehog really was the perfect avatar for Kyouya. He drew Kyouya against him anyway, and smiled when Kyouya let him.

End