Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Hibari-centric

1827

Desolation and Pity

Hibari Kyoya had seen plenty of desolate scenes in his life. It was something that he had become accostumed to during his time as a member of the disciplinary sqaud. Sometimes the herbivores tried to fight him, they were systematically bitten to death. Other's tried to run from him, they were caught and beaten. His favorite reaction was the tears, though. Something about the liquid trailing down their faces and eyes shining in despair excited him. He had yet to find someone who's desperation weakened him.

Until Tsunayoshi made a point to be noticed by him.

"Even if it's complete darkness, I don't care anymore. Go ahead and do whatever you want with me. If your life is a complete wreck and you have so many regrets then nothing matters anymore."

Hibari's grip loosened on his tonfa as he looked at the smaller boy sitting on the ground in front of him. Eyes that were dry of all tears stared at the dirt blankly, shoulders that were hunched, but not tensed defensively and slight arms wrapped around thin legs. Yes, in that instant, Hibari Kyoya felt pity for the small creature that crouched in front of him.

"Nothing is less amusing than destroying those who have no will to live..." His world narrowed to a single point and as he moved to place his tonfa where it went, the other herbivore broke out into a sob about a girl named Terumi, forcefully pulling Hibari back into the real world. There were other matters to be taken care of right now, this display of weakness could not be seen and spread around school, he would deal with it later. For now, he would take satisfaction out of biting them. Hibari smirked and tightened his grip again.

"Well, maybe not." With that, he stepped forward and let loose.

--

Later that day, as Hibari was leaving school grounds to go home, a certain herbivore, one that had refused to leave his thoughts alone, stepped out of a room in front of him, alone and unprotected. Tsuna didn't see him and Hibari, although he usually preffered for his victims to be facing him and aware of their doom, was quite fine in allowing the smaller boy to walk down the hall unscathed. He followed him on silent feet through the halls of Namimori Junior High, towards the front doors that would lead to the streets outside. As Tsuna approached the steps that would lead down to the first floor and freedom he reached into his bag for something and when an initial inspection found nothing, he turned his head to look deeper into his bag.

And promptly tripped on the first step and tumbled to the bottom floor. At first, Hibari only smirked at the smaller boy, who still had yet to notice his presence, but the smirk disappeared when all Tsuna did was groan and gently prod the back of his head for any blood or easily noticeable bumps. There were several scrapes on his arms and a hole had been torn in the knee of his pants. Hibari glided down the steps and held out his hand, Tsuna grabbed it without thinking, most likely thinking that it was one of his little friends. His suspicion was confirmed when Tsuna let out a small groan and muttered the name of that guy who was on the baseball team. Yamamoto or something.

But Hibari didn't pay much attention to it as Tsuna started to pull himself up off of the floor. His grip was light, practically not there and Hibari tightened his own grip as his stomach started to create knots. Tsuna didn't look at him, opting to shake his headlightly to get rid of any remaining dizziness. Once that was done he opened his eyes and stared at the hand for a minute, his chocolate eyes widened as he allowed his gaze to slowly travel up Hibari's arm and to his face, barely even pausing when they landed on the badge on his uniform. He paled, as much as he could when half of his face was just a mass of bruises from their encounter earlier in the day.

"Hi-Hibari-sen-senpai!" Tsuna stuttered and tried to back away, simultaneously attempting to pull his hand back. Unfortunately for Tsuna, attempt and try happened to be the keywords in that statement. Hibari had him in an iron grip on his hand and refused to let go. He started to pull the smaller boy in the direction of the disciplanary committee's room and Tsuna followed, unwilling and trembling.

Within minutes Hibari was closing the door to the room and pushing Tsuna down into a seat as he went to a closet and opened it. He watched Tsuna out of the corner of his eye as he pulled out the first aid kit. He had no idea what had compelled him to do this, all he did know was that the only herbivore that had ever incited his pity now sat trembling in his domain and he had every intention of fixing the visible cuts and scrapes on his thin body. Sometimes he confused even himself.

Hibari turned his attention back to the creature who he had escorted into his territory and sat the little white box on the table in front of Tsuna. It seemed like Tsuna got an idea of what Hibari was planning, because he finally opened his mouth and spoke without stuttering very much.

"I could have just gone to the nurse's office, Hi-Hibari-senpai." For an instant, but only an instant, Hibari wondered what his name would sound like if Tsuna didn't have that habit of stammering around him, but he brushed it off as inconsequential in the long run and replied to Tsuna's only slightly stammered statement.

"They closed early today. The 'nurse' had a 'meeting' today." He said icily and Tsuna didn't say anything else for several long minutes as Hibari started to tend to the scrapes and cuts on his face. After several minutes of him observing the way that the jumpy creature in front of him slowly calmed down, Hibari decided that he would not become completely terrified when he moved onto the next set cut injuries.

Hibari slowly reached for Tsuna's hand, turning it over in his grasp as gently as he could. All Tsuna did was stiffen up, but even that disappeared after a minute as Hibari wiped the disinfectant across the palm of his hand. His flesh tingled where he gripped Tsuna's hand, wrist, and arm. Of course this meant nothing to him, but he ignored the implications easily enough. After a minute, his eyes flickered up to meet Tsuna's bemused gaze, a slight flush covering his cheeks. Hibari ignored that as well.

"Why?" Drifted down to Hibari's ears and he flickered his gaze upwards again as he moved to the other hand and arm. He didn't answer for several long minutes as he swiped the cotton ball around on Tsuna's arm.

"I pity you."

"Oh..."

There it was again. That tone of voice that said that there was nothing in his life worth living for. Hibari didn't pause in his motions as his eyes returned to Tsuna's face. His eyes were dry as they stared out a nearby window where the birds fluttered by. The shoulders were hunched slightly in on himself, but his arms remained uncrossed, his free hand was tucked up under his chin and supporting his head, elbow resting on his uninjured knee. The same feeling welled up in Hibari as he started to gently swipe the disinfectent across the scraped knee. In the two minutes that it took to clean off the knee and put the box back in its spot in the closet, Hibari came to a decision. One that would effect his duty as prefect, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Tsuna was already standing when Hibari turned around from the closet. He started to fidget with the hem of his shirt when Hibari turned his normally cold eyes onto the smaller boy.

"I guess I have to s-say tha-thank you, Hiba-Hibari-senpai." Hibari stepped forward, blocking the second year's way when Tsuna started to head towards the door.

"I demand payment for services rendered." Fell from his lips silkily and he smirked when Tsuna blushed prettily under and around his scrapes and bruises.

"Pay-payment?! For beating me up earlier?!" Tsuna yelled in obvious outrage. He immediately regretted it though, when Hibari took a step forward, arms uncrossing in the process.

"I went easy on you then. Your friend took the brunt of it, with his pathetic weeping." Hibari took another step forward.

"But...but..." Tsuna said faintly

"You, on the other hand." He started to muse, watching the herbivore who currently resembled a cornered animal.

"Me?" He asked even quieter.

"You were completely desolate," His smirk faded as Tsuna repeated the last word in a voice barely above a whisper, "Yes, desolate. For the first time in my life, I felt pity," He took another step forward and was mildly pleased when Tsuna didn't remove his chocolate gaze from Hibari's own, "That is not an emotion that I allow myself to feel without looking at the reason why."

"Did you figure out why?" There wasn't a stammer to his voice when he spoke this time and Hibari's smirk reappeared.

"Yes." He closed the distance between them and pulled Tsuna against his body, pressing their lips together. Tsuna's were warm and soft under his and he let go and stepped back after only a second, "I will be watching you, Tsuna." Tsuna looked at him for a minute before shooting off like a bullet out the door. Hibari let him go and stepped up to a window.

"There is more than one meaning to the word pity." He muttered, lips tingling with the remnants of his herbivores satiny lips.

FIN

Pity

noun

1. a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others; "the blind are too often objects of pity" syn: commiseration

2. an unfortunate development; "It's a pity he couldn't do it"

3. the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it syn: compassion

Definition found at dictionary . com.