Title: Silver Lining

Author: MissSparks

Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Characters: TYL Tsuna, TYL Hibari

Pairings: 1827

Rating: T

Warnings: Mild spoilers, homosexuality (meaning boy x boy love, people), mild language

Disclaimer: As much as I wish it was different, I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, nor any of its characters, and I'm not making any profit out of this (Puh-leeze, I wish!)

Summary: There's an old saying: "Every cloud has a silver lining." But only Tsuna can see the silver lining of this particular Cloud…

A/N: Please review! Tell me what you think, but no flames please! This is my first 1827 fic, and my first KHR fic (but hopefully not my last!).

TWO O'CLOCK A.M., VONGOLA HQ, ITALY:

At two in the morning (also known as All-Normal-People-Are-Asleep O'Clock), anywhere in the world (not at the same time, of course, but whenever it happened to be two A.M.), anyone with the sense God gave a mentally challenged rock would be asleep. Even on a night like this one, when rain mercilessly pelted the city, it was almost unthinkable that anyone in his or her right mind would be awake. Nevertheless, someone was, indeed, awake.

That someone was Vongola Decimo, the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Famiglia, Sawada Tsunayoshi.

He was sitting in a chair he'd pulled close to the windows of his room, forehead resting against the cool glass. Pellets of rain pounded against the house, and the storm raged on with a cacophony of thunder crashes and sharp winds. He sighed, his breath fogging up the window's surface. He knew he should be asleep (there was the meeting with Xanxus and the Varia *shudder* around noon, and he would need his sleep to survive it) but his mind wouldn't let him. They should be back by now.

It had been two weeks since he'd last seen them, Yamamoto, Chrome, and Hibari, and he was anxious to see that his Guardians were all right. They'd been gone on an assignment in Mexico, and they were supposed to have returned on Tuesday.

It was now early Friday morning and still no sign of them. His common sense, not to mention his Hyper Intuition, told him that he shouldn't worry, that they could take care of themselves. But he couldn't help it. It was his nature to worry about his family. Tsuna hadn't heard from them for almost a week; on Thursday, the only thing that had stopped him from going after them was Shoichi and his damn logic. That, and Ryohei knocking him out when he tried to go anyway. When he woke up, he was tied to a chair with a splitting headache. The redhead had pointed out that the three Guardians were more than capable of keeping themselves safe, the job they had been sent on was pathetically easy for them, and that if he went looking for them, chances were that all he'd accomplish would be to put himself in danger, and that wouldn't help them at all, now would it, Tsunayoshi-kun?

Damn logic.

He had the feeling that if he tried again, there would be the same result. Therefore, there was nothing for him to do now but wait. So he was sitting by the window in sweats and an overlarge T-shirt, a shirt that belongs to his absent lover, staring out the window at the storm, waiting for them to come home. Brown eyes stared up, through the water-splashed pane of glass, and landed on the copious layer of clouds blanketing the sky.

The face of the Vongola's Cloud drifted across Tsuna's mind.

TWO FORTY-NINE O'CLOCK A.M., VONGOLA HQ, ITALY:

Swinging noiselessly on its hinges, a door was opened, letting dim lights stray into the darkened bedroom of Vongola Decimo. Outside, the storm was still going strong (in a different room, on the same floor, Storm and Rain were going strong as well, but this is irrelevant). There was a muffled thud as the door closed, and the whisper of dress shoes against the carpet as the visitor crossed the threshold of the room.

The visitor looked down at the young Vongola boss and exasperatedly shook his head. Tsuna was sound asleep, slumped over in a very uncomfortable-looking position. The visitor rolled his eyes.

He bent down and shook the young Mafioso's shoulder. The effect was instantaneous. Tsuna's eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet, his Dying Will Flame flaring up, ready to fight. The visitor chuckled darkly, and let his own purple flame spark to life.

"You're getting sloppy, Tsunayoshi-kun. You let your guard down."

Orange eyes widened as he took in his late-night visitor, and then faded back to brown as his flame died and his stance relaxed. Anyone else would have waited until they could see the visitor's face, but not Tsuna. He knew that voice, the flame, and it could only be one person. The one and only person that came into his room without notice.

"Hibari-san!"

The smaller Vongola closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around the Cloud Guardian, pressing his face into Hibari's purple silk shirt. The fine cloth smelled like gasoline, smoke, blood, and sakura flowers. It was strange. Hibari couldn't stand the sight or smell of sakura flowers, a lasting effect from the disease Dr. Shamal had given him a decade ago, and yet he always seemed to smell like the pink blossoms. The other scents lingering in his clothes weren't surprising; he always smelled like blood, and he had been in Mexico City, one of the most polluted cities in the world, so the gasoline and smoke were expected.

Hibari made no move to return the gesture and after a moment, Tsuna pulled back and looked up into the cold grey-blue eyes. Eyes the same color as the clouds outside.

"I'm glad you're back." He stood up on tiptoe and pressed a light kiss against the elder's pale cheek. "I missed you." A pair of strong arms wrapped around him, pulling him back against his Guardian. Tsuna smiled into the soft fabric of Hibari's pinstriped jacket and put his arms around his lover's neck.

"I love you," he murmured into the jacket. There was no response from the Cloud Guardian, only the weight of Hibari resting his chin on the top of Tsuna's head. There was never a response, and Tsuna never expected one. Not once had Hibari ever told Tsuna that he loved him.

Tsuna had never been under any delusions about what type of person Hibari Kyoya was. Hibari always had been, and always would be, a selfish, aggressive, and detached person. If someone couldn't offer him a challenge, then that person was beneath him and not worth his time or attention. He was the living embodiment of the cloud, a wanderer who never allied himself with anyone else, drifting along his own path.

More than once people had told him to leave Hibari, and more than once people had told him that Hibari was no good for him. Hibari, who didn't care about him, and didn't make an effort to understand him; Hibari, who was never there for him; Hibari, who had nothing in common with him apart from the Vongola and their shared past. But they were the ones who didn't understand. True, Hibari never asked him about himself, never gave Tsuna any information about himself and his past. He didn't try to understand the brunet, and more often than not he wasn't around. Hibari didn't hold Tsuna when he was hurting, he didn't reassure him when he doubted himself.

Tsuna had always known that Hibari Kyoya would be a difficult person to love, and he was prepared to put in the effort, because it was worth it. Hibari was worth it. No, not once had Hibari told Tsuna that he loved him, but Tsuna didn't need to hear it to know it. Every tingling, lingering touch said, "I need you," every dizzying, knee-weakening kiss whispered, "I want you." And every time that Hibari returned from a mission shouted, "I love you." If Hibari didn't love him, then he wouldn't come back. He wouldn't kiss him, he wouldn't touch him, and he wouldn't embrace him like this after long trips to some faraway place.

Tsuna knew it, and so he made sure that Hibari (because he was still Hibari, not Kyoya, even after all this time) knew how much he loved him. "Feelings" were not something Hibari was experienced with. Anger, irritation, rage, blood-thirst, scariness, annoyance: those he knew, those he was familiar with. But affection, warmth, kindness, love: those were entirely foreign territory for him. Tsuna didn't need his Vongola intuition to know that Hibari was uncomfortable and unsure. For once, all his strength and his skill were useless. He couldn't manipulate someone else's emotions, couldn't force Tsuna to love him, so all he could do was keep coming back, reminding the young Vongola of his existence, and hope that Tsuna would stick around.

So Tsuna would smile his brightest, welcome him back with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and tell Hibari he loved him time and time again, and he would hope that Hibari would understand. And when Hibari pulled him towards the bed, discarding his tie, jacket, and shoes on the way, Tsuna knew (just as he knew when Hibari trailed kisses down his neck, shedding his shirt, and when Hibari stared down at him with those unreadable eyes and smirked) that Hibari understood just fine.

Hibari was sitting with his back leaning against the elaborate headboard of the bed, his lover lay next to him, his head resting in his lap. Hibari runs his slender fingers through the messy brown hair, head tilted back and eyes closed. Those who didn't know him, or hadn't heard whispers or rumors of him, would never have guessed that under his regal and refined exterior lay an intense and unmatched fervor for violence and bloodshed. To any observer watching them (and God help any poor soul stupid enough to spy on Hibari Kyoya…), he would have appeared to be only a content young man enjoying the silence.

Hell, would they have been wrong.

Tsuna, however, was enjoying the moment. As rare as they were, what with life-or-death battles, assignments, one unfortunate instance in which Tsuna died, et cetera, he had learned to treasure them. He committed each minute to memory, because when Hibari left on one of his self-assigned jobs, they were all he would have left. So he smiled and closed his eyes, enjoying the hand that stroked his back lightly, and let the darkness claim him.

The words were spoken so softly, Tsuna almost believed that he dreamed them. But no. They were real.

"…I love you…"

They say that every cloud has a silver lining. But it seems that only Tsuna is capable of seeing this particular cloud's...