Takin' Your Circus to the Sky
Author: Jusrecht

Pairing: Dino/Hibari

Diclaimer: KHR belongs to Amano Akira. The title of this fic is taken from the song 'Red Morning Light' by Kings of Leon.

Summary: What the world thinks of D18.

Note: Written as a birthday present for electricsong LJ :")

—

It was a truth universally acknowledged that Dino Cavallone, mafia boss extraordinaire and a seasoned heartbreaker according to many suspecting and unsuspecting females, only ever belonged to one person.

And Hibari Kyouya did not tolerate sharing, ever.

—

1.

For the past eight years, the Cavallone Famiglia had looked at Hibari with wary eyes. Whereas Dino thought him amusing, the rest could not help but question the merits of prolonging an acquaintanceship which had so often left their boss nursing bruises and bites all over his body. He was too important a man to play these childish games, so soon after the Family's return from debt's throttling vines. Sentimentality, however, ruled differently. For the sake of his happiness, these opinions were never openly discussed in his presence, and over the course of the years, the Family had come to recognise Hibari as an inevitable appendage of the Don's life.

Until it came to light such fact that their relationship might be a little bit more than what was commonly perceived. Romario, naturally, had known for a long time but thus far had kept this knowledge to himself out of combined love and loyalty. It was the imminence of Dino's thirtieth birthday which eventually forced him to re-evaluate his decision, including its impact to the Family in the long run.

With a heavy heart, he resolved to put their collective needs above all else and take action. Following a long, solemn conference with the Consigliere and all Cavallone's Caporegimes, a plan was finally put in motion. All of a sudden, Dino found himself being aggressively introduced to most prominent daughters of friends and allies, and then to every other available female in their Families. When it was evident that no change would occur, the Family began to push an assortment of beautiful and attractive young women his way at regular intervals, clearly in hope that one of them would be able to catch his attention long enough to facilitate the possibility of marriage.

It continued for quite some time until one day, at the end of April, Hibari came to Italy unannounced and discovered him walking out of a theatre arm-in-arm with a beautiful actress (who was also Bait #471). For a while, the Family dared entertain a flimsy hope that the Cloud Guardian would decide to end things from his side and thus free their boss from what obviously was an abusive relationship. Only Romario, Dino's faithful right-hand man who had watched Hibari Kyouya grow from a violently possessive boy to a violently possessive man, remained sceptical.

He was proven correct the moment Hibari arrived at the Cavallone mansion. Between furious roars of unfaithful bastard and promiscuous herbivore and the background sounds of things being destroyed and ground to dust, the Family finally realised that it was their boss who ultimately bore the brunt of their Machiavellian schemes. With this disastrous encounter in mind—which had resulted in Dino being hospitalised for three full weeks—they decided to cease all attempts of arranging 'accidental' meetings and resigned themselves to the prospect of a chosen, if not blood successor. What trial and tribulation the future might hold owing to this decision, they must face with firm courage and unending faith.

After all, an heirless boss was still infinitely better than no boss at all.

—

2.

At the age of twenty-two, Tsuna was a young man happily engaged to the woman he loved. That he also happened to be a mafia boss of a large, powerful Family was a situation he had reluctantly accepted after a long private struggle with himself. Nevertheless he remained firm in his belief that many other people were better suited for the job compared to him, particularly in handling awkward situations like this.

Tsuna had never minded the idleness of waiting. Gokudera, on the other hand, looked exactly like a brewing storm ready to be unleashed upon the man who had been so insulting as to make the Tenth wait. The two bosses were supposed to have a meeting at nine o'clock this morning, and yet thirty minutes had passed from the appointed time without any hint of Dino at all.

It was more a matter of survival than decorum, he thought in despair. Both of them knew where Dino had been spending his nights whenever he came to Namimori, but the idea of sending anyone into Hibari's domain to inquire after Don Cavallone's whereabouts was about as kind as putting a child inside a hungry lion's cage. Besides, after walking on them once and experiencing the rudest awakening in his life, Tsuna was more than willing to give them the widest berth he could afford.

Another thirty minutes had passed before Dino finally appeared, wearing an uncomfortable look on his face and profusely apologising for his tardiness. Not far behind, Hibari followed with dangerous, purposeful steps, glowering at him as if the Vongola Decimo was the sole reason why he was now deprived of a warm human pillow—which, Tsuna realised with a sinking heart, he probably was. Smiling weakly, he offered them both seats and staunchly ignored the fact that Hibari was not even invited to the meeting. He was desperate, not suicidal.

Fifteen minutes later, they shook hands with each other and closed one of the quickest deals in history. Gokudera looked positively scandalised, but Tsuna was just glad it was over.

—

3.

Neither Vongola nor Cavallone was anywhere lacking in term of angry rivals or enemy Families. Their long, bloody history was part of their inheritance and would remain so in the course of their existence, along with decades of revenge and grudges born of old pain.

And yet, the number of people Hibari alone had offended dramatically exceeded their combined tally.

It was not what he did as much as how he behaved. With no regard at all to the world and its inhabitants except those of his equal strength, he caused offence everywhere he went and left a trail of angry, vengeful inferno in his wake. Unfortunately, his power was such that any attempt made upon his life had been so far unsuccessful or worse. Even a ploy to capture his pet bird and tortured it in place of its master had been developed for some time, before abandoned completely due to the inescapable growth of affection toward adorable little animals. After all, it was not the bird's fault that its master happened to be a homicidal brute.

And that was when they began to turn their head toward Dino Cavallone. After a sighting of the Don kissing his former student on a Christmas Eve in Venice (these small, hidden cameras were useful, costly as they were), many began to consider the possibility of hurting the Cloud Guardian through his loved ones—or one, since there seemed to exist only one such person in the entire world.

Three failed murder attempts later, Hibari put two and two together and started his own hunt. Clouds which had cast their cloak of indifference became a terrifying force of nature, as the responsible group of people were quick to discover. Not even one slab of brick was left undamaged from what used to be grand, supposedly secure bases, let alone the blood running in their veins. The extent of the massacre was said to be unparalleled, so much that even the Vongola Decimo had taken to hiding for weeks out of an overwhelming combination of guilt, shame, grief, and embarrassment.

As for any rival Family who ventured to even the score with Dino Cavallone by targeting his lover, it was a much less bloody but nevertheless traumatising experience which awaited them. He would seek these people out and then conduct a meeting which chief purpose was to ask them kindly to leave his Kyouya alone. It was all done swiftly and methodically, not to mention under the glare of eighty gun barrels (Romario particularly enjoyed this part, including the challenge to put on the most frightening face in his arsenal and keep it there for the duration of the dialogue.) Perhaps there would be lacerations involved, or at least coy flashes of a glinting knife, but on the whole it remained a fairly civilised affair. Uncivilised actions were only attempted if the warning went unheeded, and that was where the screaming began.

Very soon, everybody had learned not to touch one for fear of aggravating the other, and the two of them were left in relative peace.

—

4.

The subject of Don Cavallone and his supposedly illicit relationship with Vongola's Cloud Guardian remained an amusing topic of conversation for the idle and unconcerned. Whispers and rumours spun a miscellany of tales, from the vaguely possible to the most outrageous to the outright ridiculous. Various theories had been proposed, among them the possibility of the gossip being a ruse to cover something much viler, or a simple explanation of the two of them losing a bet to the diabolical Vongola Decimo. An eager speculation that Hibari Kyouya was, in fact, a woman who for some reasons had been condemned to spend her life as a man also saw the light of day (after all, no man ought to be that beautiful). Another crowd with a more tortuous mind suggested that it might be a Vongola plot to weaken their ally, and subsequently absorb the strength of the Cavallone into their own rank by depriving them of legitimate heirs.

In the midst of it all, a few romantic souls dared mention that this might be one of those great love stories which graced the long, bloodstained history of men from time to time. However, such opinion immediately became an object of extreme ridicule and its speakers censure, that in the end it simply disappeared and was never heard of anymore.

—

5.

"Have I told you that I love you today?"

"Shut up, I'm trying to sleep."

"Does that mean you love me too?"

"No."

"I think you're lying."

"No."

"You definitely are."

"No."

"See? You're lying again. Such a bad habit, Kyouya."

"I'm going to kill you."

"But you can't because you love me too much, I know."

"…I hate you."

Dino smiled. "I love you too. Good night, Kyouya."

End

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