A/N: I think the last chapter had the most reviews per chapter so far haha. Thank you for everyone who took the time to comment (and kudos to the people who realised it was Shoichi who was the scrawny kid). For the people asking for certain characters or events, I am afraid this is the final chapter. It's been two years since I started this, and I've had a great time the whole way and am very glad to be able to see this through. I feel like the story is complete, and is going to end on a note that keeps it true to the original idea of friendship and a ghost. I'm sure there could have been more, but if I didn't end it now I never would have, and feel like it's better like this as a friendship story than inevitable expansion that would happen by bringing in more and more characters and elements to keep it going. I hope everyone else has had as much fun reading this as I've had writing it!

All the third years were talking about it. There was an excitement in their veins, the potential for something new and bigger and wonderful. There was simply so much possibility for these children, places to go, new things to study, the idea of their lives finally starting. They could choose their paths as they left this small school, make the decisions that would determine the rest of their lives.

For Hibari Kyoya, and Sawada Tsunayoshi, the feeling was different. There was an unspoken heaviness between them, a charged air of things left unsaid; not of 'what ifs', but of 'what now'?

Graduation was imminent.

– x –

"I don't have to go, you know."

The prefect wasn't one to beat around the bush, and they both knew – had known for a while – that he was in his third year already, and even if he wasn't, he would have to leave eventually.

"Don't be silly," Tsuna replied, a wide, fond smile upon his face. "You can't stay a middle school student forever."

"I could," the prefect said quietly. "I could stay for as long as I wanted."

Oddly enough, it was true. Hibari didn't need to go to school in the first place, and so he didn't need to move on from it either. He could stay for years and years, only graduating when he was old enough to be a teacher, and then still continue to be there. Tsuna could imagine it clearly, see Hibari spending all those years with him, becoming a teacher – heck, he would probably become the principle too – and the other boy wouldn't have to leave until he was old and weary and his life gave out. They could spend days upon days, hours upon hours, talking and sitting together, wandering the halls and the grounds, building nests in trees, being happy and content as all the other students moved through the years and left, and they alone would be the only ones to stay.

Tsuna shook his head.

"I know you could, if anyone can find a way to stay here forever, it would be you, Kyoya."

The prefect's face appeared impassive, but they had spent the better part of two years together, and Tsuna could see the inquiry upon his face, the unspoken 'but?'

"And I know you would as well, which if why I have to stop you. You're not supposed to be bound, Kyoya. You like it here, I know. But you'll always want to be able to go somewhere else – wherever your heart tells you, and you won't be able to do that if you stay, too caught up in keeping me company. You may as well become a ghost too, limiting yourself like that, and I won't let you determine your whole life for one dead little thirteen year old."

Hibari's face was blank, but his eyes betrayed the swirl of emotions running through him. He didn't want to leave; he didn't want to abandon his first friend, his wonderful ghost. Tsuna wasn't just some dead little thirteen year old, he was everything, he was Hibari's and so it was only right that Hibari was his in return.

Some small part of Hibari also knew, despite what he wanted, that Tsuna was also right. Hibari hated, more than anything, to be bound, and the prefect would live in fear of the day he was old, having spent his life in the same little town – the same small school – where he would grow to resent the little ghost boy who he had given it all up for in the first place.

But Hibari was also notoriously stubborn, and he wanted to stay. Two years had not nearly been enough with Tsuna. The boy was a breath of fresh air, he was the sun and rain and storm and maybe – if he were still alive, and not bound as he was – he'd be the endless sky, limitless, with no end as to what he could do, where he could go.

Maybe for the first time in the years they'd been together, Hibari really understood just how unfair it was, that this small, sweet boy had died so young.

"This isn't over."

With a sigh, Tsuna watched as his long-time friend stalked away. No, it wasn't over. Not yet at least.

The next week was, for lack of a better word, strained. Each conversation seemed a little more forced compared to the last, every silence held some untold tensioned. Words were said without being spoken, their friendship strained – quite possibly for the first real time – and on and on it went while the deadline grew closer and closer.

Tsuna, for his part, was a mess. He hadn't felt so alone, so out of touch with others, since the first year he had died and before Hibari had even known he'd existed. It was incredibly frustrating, and Hibari undoubtedly was one of the most stubborn people he'd ever known. In all honestly, Tsuna knew that Hibari would not really leave him behind.

He met the prefect four days before graduation.

"Hibari-san."

The prefect looked up, because they had long past the point of formality, and Tsuna only used his name properly if he had something important to say.

"You haven't picked a college, yet."

So, it was going to be like that. Hibari relaxed his shoulders; they were still going to talk in circles and get nowhere, and nowhere meant Hibari was going to come out on top.

"You know very well that I'm not going anywhere."

Tsuna held himself tense, almost flinching at his own words when he then replied. "If you aren't going anywhere, then I will."

"…What."

Tsuna, for the first time in a long time, could not read Hibari's face. Maybe the other boy was so taken aback he couldn't appropriately express the whirling emotions faced with this new, unexpected proposal. Maybe it was simple shock.

"Tsuna. What do you mean?"

Tsuna took a deep breath, evidently for comfort for he had long since ceased to breath. And as his life had long since been over, it would not be fair to cut another's short in the same way. Hibari was meant for more than this, and Tsuna knew it.

"I am… bound, I guess, to the school. I can feel it in me, and I can't go beyond it." He started and Hibari nodded once. He knew that by now, Tsuna had never gone even close to the boundaries of where the school ended and the rest of the world began.

"But," Tsuna continued, "that isn't because I tried and there was some sort of – I don't know, barrier holding me back. I've never tried to leave and way dragged back here, I just know not to leave. The school is like," Tsuna paused with a frown, considering. "It's like an anchor. I can let it go, but then I won't be grounded here anymore, do you understand?"

Hibari understood. He understood that Tsuna could let go, and leave him and never be around again.

"Oh. Kyoya." Tsuna raised a hand towards him, but stopped halfway. They both knew he wouldn't be able to touch the older boy, nor could he do anything for the red rims and slow trickling tears running down Hibari's cheeks.

Hibari cried like he did most other things, silently and without expression. And when he was done, he wordlessly wiped his eyes and stared off to the side. Tsuna waited close by but respectfully silent, aware on some level that Hibari would finally have to mourn his death, three years too late.

They could go on about this, they both knew, argue about putting off leaving for a few years. Tsuna could leave next year or the year after, or Hibari could compromise and go on his adventures and return to the school periodically. But both boys weren't the sort to beat around the bush, not after all that had happened between them. Either option would bring the sort of deep, soul-aching pain that would destroy them in one way or another. It would be too cruel to Hibari to have his life on hold, to commit and grow deeper entwined with Tsuna only to give it up all over again. Tsuna knew he'd never be able to bear staying around after Hibari leaves him, to watch in snatches of interactions as the other boy grew older and moved on and lived his life while Tsuna was stuck – alone and unmoving forever.

So, they stood together in quiet companionship, neither speaking and neither turning to leave. It would hurt – it already hurt a little in Tsuna's heart because he couldn't go with him – but Hibari would be fine. He would be fine.

And that was enough to put a small smile on Tsuna's face.

The graduation ceremony was in three days, and in contrast to the week before, those three days were spent entirely in each other's company, existing comfortably side by side for the last time. They ignored the practice sessions for hanging out on the roof, and ignored the inevitability of the end right up until the morning of the ceremony.

The students lined up, two by two, and though Hibari – ever the lone wolf – did not have a partner in the eyes of everyone else, Tsuna was right there besides him as they marched towards the stage. He was there when Hibari was handed his diploma, sharing a smile with the other boy when he left room for Tsuna to hold it as well – a little part of graduation for him as well. Tsuna stayed through the speeches, all through Hibari's own – which, remarkably did not include a single 'herbivore' reference at all – and stayed right up until they bowed for the school for the last time. When Hibari looked up again, Tsuna was gone.

With a huff and a small upturn of the lips, he took his diploma and left.

"Farewell, herbivore."

So Hibari left the school campus for the last time, firmly intent on never visiting again. He wasn't a sentimental person after all. And as he left, a flash of brown caught the corner of his eye, and the ex-prefect smiled. He wasn't a sentimental person, but the memory of a small brunet ghost – a boy most people didn't even know existed – that was one he'd carry in his heart for the rest of his life.

– x –

Epilogue.

Hibari left Namimori the day after he graduated, and never looked back. Not much is known about where he went, although he was spotted many times during these years in China, often with the famous martial artist Fon. Rumours had it that he simply made his presence known in Europe one day, for no discernible reason. He completed a brief stint in the French police force before leaving once more when it became too stifling.

He had a few run ins with the Mafia, only spending a few short years in its clutches – long enough that his name became feared; a legend to rival that of Reborn's – before he left once again, unimpressed by its rigid and stifling ways. Apparently when he left, he had taken one of their best and brightest with him as a student, and neither were seen by the mafia since.

Hibari remained an odd person for the rest of his life. He adamantly refused to drop the animal metaphors, much to the chagrin of his second in command, Kusakabe Tetsuya. Whenever Tetsuya asked him why he did things, or told him off, Hibari would simply explain that he was living for two, and leave it at that.

He was still excessively violent, quick to anger and socially stunted. He often talked to himself, as if commenting out loud to someone else, but when asked he would never explain it. Hibari adamantly favoured the colour brown, oddly enough, claiming it reminded him of a rabbit he once had as a child – and even if the scary, fearsome man seemed the furthest thing from sentimental, nobody would dare point it out.

He never settled down, having never found anyone who he would willingly settle down with for the rest of his life, and Hibari was content with that. He never had children of his own, but his apprentice became close enough that she was his child all but in blood, and her children became his grandchildren.

After a while, he finally, finally¸ found a place in which he could stay and rest within until his age caught up with him. It was a town in Japan, not the one he had lived in as a teenager, but one that he had fallen in love with all the same.

He was visited often by his apprentice and her children, and they grew to take on his teachings as well. He never truly settled down, often flying off without a second thought when he felt like it, but he'd always return.

But at the grand age of seventy-three, Hibari knew his time was coming to a close. He had always kept in top shape and healthy throughout his life, and could have probably lived for a decade more if he tried – despite the numerous injuries and near-death experiences he'd faced – but the man knew it was his time, and he was content with it. His second in command had passed away three years prior, and Hibari finally had nothing else he wanted to do.

The raven haired man, more silver than black, now, sat upon his porch, as he was want to do, and gazed upon the sky. It was peaceful, where he chose to stay, far away from the city that no noise or excessive light would disrupt him. His tea was still steaming besides him, his robe wrapped around him snugly and the cloudless sky sprawled out before him. He let out one, long and weary sigh – the sigh of a man who had lived his life to the full, unbound, and was ready to put it to rest. And after that sigh, he slumped against the door and closed his eyes.

Later, when his apprentice and her children found him, it would have seemed he had simply decided to take a nap. It was entirely a Hibari thing to do, to decide he had enough of life and then simply stop working. And despite the grief of the apprentice and her children, they could make content with his death, for when they found the old man his lips were turned up in the barest hint of a smile.

Far off, far away from the man's body and the grieving people around him, a raven haired teen stepped forwards. He had grey eyes and a stern face, but it immediately softened at the sight of the brunet boy besides him.

"Welcome back."

The teenager smiled.

"I'm home."