Communication Breakdown

Hibari Kyouya was not a very patient man. Neither was he very nice or easy-going, or was one who could easily be led around or be made to do unnecessary things. Well, 99% of the time. Reborn and the battle between good and evil and various animal shelters across the globe fell under the 1% category.

But anyway.

When he had told Chrome Dokuro that it was her fault the entire Mafia and its affiliations now went around thinking that he was gay, and that it was her job to go and fix it before the two most obvious things in the Mafia Universe became "The family always comes first" and "Did you hear that Hibari Kyouya is gay?" he had meant that she explain the entirety of this situation to Sawada Tsunayoshi and everybody else and claim it as her mistake.

So, in conclusion, the words "You brought me into this, you will get me out" really meant "You are the one that caused this clusterfuck of a situation, either directly or indirectly, I don't care; but you will march into Sawada Tsunayoshi's office as soon as possible and make it right, even if I have to drag you by the hair kicking and screaming."

In no circumstances did it mean for her to try and make things better by 'helping out' and 'getting people to understand'. Conditions were already fucked up as it is; there was no need for her to spout more bullshit to people that would no doubt just end in them thinking that he was gayer.

Hibari decided that if he ever discovered a malignant tumor growing in some part of his internal organs, he would no doubt name it after her.

Tsuna scratched his cheek. Reborn, sitting beside him, had his chin on the palm of his hand and looked quite listless, and more importantly, unimpressed.

"So you're saying that... everything..." Tsuna paused, eyes crinkling in disbelief. "Was just a big misunderstanding?"

"Um, that's... that's correct." The woman replied, after having just explained the situation; though, she was a little unconvinced herself.

The two shared a glance. Chrome had immediately looked away, remembering her reason for being in her boss's office in the first place. It was to vouch for Hibari-san's sexuality, not doubt it.

"The misunderstanding..." She continued gingerly. "It was my fault."

Tsuna's voice was skeptic. "So—he's not... gay, then...?"

"That's what he said."

"What he said?"

"I mean—well, yes, it is what he said." Chrome paused. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. Being a heterosexual or a homosexual is perfectly natural."

"Of course not—I mean, of course it is! I meant to say 'of course not' after you said that there's nothing wrong with being gay, which there isn't, but you didn't finish yet and it's rude to cut someone off, so—" Tsuna broke off, feeling guilty under his Mist Guardian's wide-eyed stare.

"You're not making any sense." Reborn informed him, to which the 10th Boss of Vongola immediately hissed a 'Ssh, Reborn!' and deftly switched his attention to Chrome.

"Ignore him, Chrome, I am supportive." Tsuna explained hurriedly. "We're completely 100% supportive behind the movement, and we'll do whatever it takes to make Hibari-san feel comfortable once again."

"Thar's great." The girl brightened. "Hibari-san would be happy to hear that. Love knows no bounds."

Tsuna's eye twitched slightly, though he nevertheless gave her a big smile.

Not that he was against it or anything, but it was hard to get a grip around the idea that one of his toughest, most violent guardians ever could possibly have a thing for him in the future, God forbid it. How awkward would that be? Tsuna tried to think of a way of how he would break it to him gently, without getting his face smashed in by the dull end of a tonfa, just in case.

Maybe it was for the best, since they all knew that Hibari would end up abusing his future lover anyway; whomever that may be.

Maybe, God made it this way so that whoever Hibari ended up inflicting domestic violence on would at least be a man, instead of a woman, and they'd be able to endure the twisted relationship for the better. He didn't know anybody who would want to, but still. It was all for the greater good. Or the lesser of two evils. And stuff.

Still, Tsuna found himself already pitying the poor soul who'd end up with the Cloud Guardian in the future. He just hoped whoever Hibari picked had some pretty big balls.

That, again, was not meant to be taken literally. It was also not meant to be taken as a nasty pun, or sarcasm. It was just a little slip-up; he had meant it in a good way, and it wasn't as if... as if... women couldn't have balls too, you know—

Well, okay, they couldn't seriously have balls per se, because that would just be gross and disgusting and picturing Kyoko with it was more than enough to make his eyes water, but they could have the balls to— fuck it.

"Reborn." The 10th Boss of Vongola called, gesturing for the ten-year-old to momentarily take his place. Tsuna dropped his head onto the desk, trying to erase the nightmare fuel that had just passed in his mind, which would no doubt be haunting him for the rest of his life.

Hibari. Women. Balls. Oh God. A gallon of brain-bleach, please. Or vodka. Vodka would be nice.

"You were saying?" The ten-year-old then piped up, urging Chrome to go on.

"Oh, right..." The woman murmured softly, before continuing in a fluid, practiced voice. "To summarize—everything is my fault. I was the one who ran into their... awkward positions and... i-in my shocked state, I accidentally told Mukuro-sama about it, and Mukuro-sama, being—well," She paused.

"—being somewhat shocked too—" It was supposed to be 'Mukuro, being the fuck face that he is' from what Hibari had told her to say, but Chrome was severely against saying that.

"Anyway, Mukuro-sama... being somewhat shocked too, just wanted to confirm if it was true or not by proceeding to... post pink fliers everywhere in the mansion..." Chrome's voice faltered.

Defending her master's innocence never seemed as hard to do as now. If a man wanted to confirm if something was true or not, wouldn't he just ask? Chrome bit her lip, trying to think desperately. Mukuro-sama was Mukuro-sama. Yes. He was Mukuro-ish. That was just what he was, likewise how Hibari-san was also Hibari-ish.

She continued her speech, now in a more eased state of mind than before. "And so, it accidentally lead to this. It was completely my mistake. Perhaps, if I just hadn't put my nose into others' businesses, then I wouldn't have seen something that I wasn't supposed to see. I was in the wrong... and I... should've just kept it to myself."

The young woman finished speaking, taking a big gulp of air after she was done. She looked up briefly, wondering with a worried crease in her forehead if she had recited Hibari's prepared speech right. After all, it was the least she could do after everything that she'd done.

Apparently, in his speech, she was quite the nosy bitch.

"Oh, and Hibari-san is not gay." The girl proclaimed after a minute, recalling how he had said that it was very important to state this at the end.

With vehement feelings.

"At all!" Chrome declared with a soft turn on her voice, forgetting the 'vehement feelings' part, and then proceeded to try and seem angry by thumping her fist onto the table. A few papers scattered, which she promptly tried to fix.

Reborn looked at her for a long while, before slowly opening his mouth. "Chrome. More than half of homosexual men feel uncomfortable in their first few weeks of coming out." He drawled, quite bemusedly. "How do you know that Hibari isn't merely lying to you because he feels embarrassed about everyone finding out about his sexuality before he became comfortable with it?"

"Oh..." Chrome paused, thinking. "W-well. I haven't thought of that, really." She admitted. "But I'm pretty sure—"

"No, Chrome." Reborn halted her, voice firm.

"Are you certain?"

"As certain as a unicorn jumping over a rainbow."

Chrome took all of this with new enlightenment, glad to hear their opinions. Though, she still had her doubts. "But how do you know that Hibari-san is really gay?" The young woman questioned, eyes crinkling.

Tsuna mirrored her confused expression. "What do you mean?"

"You seem to accept the matter so easily, so readily, without question or doubt, almost as if you knew beforehand..." Chrome repeated. "How are you so sure?"

"Well..." Tsuna scratched his head. "I, uh—"

"Tsuna has Hyper Intuition, Chrome." Reborn said simply.

The Vongola's boss was immediately embarrassed. "Wha—Reborn!"

"But I thought that was only for battles..."

"Oh, no. It can be a very sharp gaydar too. Or in Tsuna's case, a very late gaydar."

"Shut up, Reborn!"

"Gaydar...?"

"The ability for people to detect one's homosexuality." Reborn explained. "Like in Hibari's case."

"O-oh... that makes some sense. I think." Chrome said, and finally stood up, bowing before the two. "Well, thank you for your time, Boss. Reborn-san." She addressed politely, exiting the office.

Once the woman left, Tsuna cast the ten-year-old a distraught look. "I can't believe you just told her that." He murmured, face-palming himself. "That doesn't even make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense, if you think about it. Primo also had a very acute hyper intuition."

"Crazy bastard," Tsuna murmured under his breath. "... did the past generations have to deal with shit like this everyday?"

"Always. But I think this particular one is the first."

"Fantastic."

Softly closing the doors to the Main Office, Chrome took a moment to pause and absorb all of the information which was just given to her. She leaned against the dark, wooden frame of the door, absently gazing down at the Persian carpet in a reverie.

So that's how it is...

She always knew that Hibari-san was going through a lot of inner turmoil, what with being such a lunatic sociopath whose friends only seemed to consist of forest animals but... coupled with his frustration of trying to disguise his true self, in fear of what other people might say... All of it must've been really hard for him to take on by himself.

It didn't help that instead of assisting him from coming out comfortably, he was now being attacked because of it. No wonder he decided to cover it up and kept on denying it so persistently. Imagine just how long he had been living like that, living in a lie from the fear of rejection.

What a brave man. Chrome mused sympathetically. She clenched her fists, eyes suddenly hardening in determination. She didn't want to work in this kind of environment: in a place where people were mocked and ridiculed just because of their true nature. In her heart, she knew that Vongola was better than this. Heck, they already had a member that was out in the open! So why couldn't they give Hibari-san the same freedom too?

What they needed right now, Chrome figured, was someone who had experience in these matters.

"What the hell are you all doing here?" Hibari inquired coldly. Though he still retained most of his desires to roundhouse kick anyone who irritated him to the face and make them eat the steel of his tonfa, 'maturity' and the fact that his bitch hot and cold hormones from teenage-hood had already left his system, sometimes, once in a while, allowed him to entertain the notion of wresting his irritation and act more calmly towards his dumb-shit peers.

But they just made it so goddamned hard sometimes.

The door to his office hung agape as the Cloud Guardian had immediately stopped upon the sight of every Vongola personnel standing in the middle of his office. His eye twitched slightly. Calm down Kyoya, Calm down. He repeated to himself mentally, trying to summon every ounce of restraint in his arm to not swing his tonfa like a boomerang and smack everybody in the face all at once.

They looked rather somber and... was, was that sincerity in their eyes? The hell. "Get out. All of you." He demanded instead, glaring.

"Hibari-san," Chrome called, stepping out from the center of the crowd and towards him. Hibari's attention snapped to her. His eyes narrowed. Dokuro, the fucking tumor. He should've known.

"I do not tolerate crowding. Especially in my office." The Cloud Guardian said matter-of-factly. Just the very presence of them here grated on his every nerves. "If you all don't get out in three seconds—"

"We just have a few things we want to say to you," The woman interrupted. She had her arms clasped in front of her, tone urgent as she gave him an almost pleading look.

Hibari didn't care. "Get out or I will defenestrate you."

"As in throw us out the window? This is the fucking fifth floor—!" Gokudera's (who still retained a head, leg, and shoulder cast) hysterical voice was drowned out.

"Chrome," It was Dino who stepped in this time. He shook his head, gesturing for her to take a step back before he looked at his previous student. "I knew this would happen. He won't let us. We have to force him."

"You." Hibari growled. He knew he should've asphyxiated him with a pillow while he was still at the hospital. "You did this?"

"As soon as I heard, I came." Dino said. His eyes were grave. "You may want to take a seat."

Hibari did not move.

"Kyoya, the first step to overcoming a problem is to admit you have them."

"You being alive is my problem."

"I have a few things that I prepared to say to you." Dino continued, effortlessly ignoring his statement. He pulled out a piece of folded paper from his jacket pocket and cleared his throat before unfolding it.

"Kyoya, several years ago, I was your mentor. If I knew then what I knew know, I wouldn't have put you off as just another psychotic, blood-thirsty demon that was incapable of human empathy. I know that you're going through a lot of obstacles now, and that your... predicament... must be confusing and difficult. As your mentor, I would advise you to just accept yourself, Kyoya, as I accept you. You can tell me anything. Anything."

Deep silence fell over the room as some of the people nodded their heads at the Cavallone boss's words. The few women who were present teared up at this sincerity. Then, Dino looked at Hibari with deep, sad eyes. "I've also realized something. Kyoya, I've been so stupid and oblivious. I'm really sorry if you've had feelings for me before when I was mentoring you and that I didn't no—OH SHIT SOMEBODY HOLD HIM DOWN."

Hibari's hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controlled rage and aggressive behavior, had completely and immediately disintegrated upon realizing the meaning behind the Cavallone's boss' words, and the Cloud Guardian all at once flung his body and fucking flew to attack said man. It took the horde of people present to stop him.

They tried to block his way to Dino, almost to no avail. Three-fourths of the people present died in this battle, but in some sort of miracle, Hibari had somehow been taken and tied down to a chair by the sheer will of God to make his life even more miserable than it already was.

It had already been a very miraculous act that they even went this far, to go inside the Cloud Guardian's office and remain for five minutes. It was very strange, as nobody had ever set foot in his office before and many previously thought that it was filled with countless of torturing devices, shrieks of agony, the bones of infant children littering the ground, or that it served as an entrance into the gateways of hell, which acted like a vortex and sucked whoever stepped inside into its dark, monstrous realm. When told that there would be an intervention held inside, there was about a delay of one hour, as some of the people were scared that upon their very first step a trap door would open beneath them and reveal sharp bamboo sticks poking out the ground.

To Hibari's satisfaction, only a clump of people were left compared to the crowd earlier, and they were all huddled near a corner. This was why he hated crowds. They were such weaklings, relying on each other for strength. How disgusting.

Dino coughed blood. "Okay, I'm sorry if I offended you, I didn't realize that you felt so strongly about me—"

"He's trying to break lose!"

"Hold him down!"

"Oh God, we're all gonna die!"

"Please be quiet!" It was Tsuna who spoke, voice sounding frazzled yet commanding enough to be respected. Compared to the rest, who looked dogged and were beaten half to death, the Vongola boss remained impressively clean. Only his jacket-suit had been shredded to pieces. But then again, he was the wisest in activating his Hyper Dying Will mode immediately once the fray began. "I think we need to speed up the process, and just explain why we came here."

Hibari waited, curious enough to momentarily halt in his attempts to break free from the ropes.

"Such a stroke of genius by Chrome." Reborn supplied, smiling cryptically. Like Tsuna, he stayed clean—in fact, there was not even a speck of dirt on him. Once the fight ensued, the ten-year-old somehow disappeared and watched amusedly from an unknown distance. "You should thank her."

"Thank her my ass," Hibari muttered, though nonetheless stayed silent as everyone waited.

And then, like a beam of light shining down from the heavens, Lussuria literally materialized out of nowhere.

Oh.

My.

Fucking.

God.

They did not just. Oh fucking hell.

The Varia member came out of the closet to add a clever metaphor to the whole process.

"Ta-da~!" His multicolored, parrot-like hair shone like the sun coming from behind the clouds.

Those who understood his meaning clapped. Hibari's cerebral cortex promptly committed suicide, too embarrassed to even begin to analyze and process the situation into his brain.

Meanwhile, in South America...

Mukuro, situated inside a glorious lobby of a luxurious hotel, sat across a younger man with green hair. He gave him a smile, "Little one—"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me that anymore, master pineapple."

"You damn brat—" Mukuro had risen from his seat, voice rising in tremor as his smile instantly vanished and turned into a murderous growl.

Everybody stared.

Mukuro coughed, and after regaining some composure, he sat back down and smoothed his hair as if he hadn't lost his temper seconds ago. Once again, he gave the green-haired man a smile. "Since that savage freak somehow brainwashed our poor Chrome into working for his side, I have a wonderful opportunity for you. But first, you need to come with me to Italy."

A/N: Yes. Two years later, I finally updated. SUE ME.