The Cloud That Supported Their Sky
Angst / Family | K. Hibari | ~2.300 words
He was the last person that they expected to go down first.

A/N: i dont own katekyo hitman reborn! (nor do i want to, for that matter)

takes place about 15 years into the future of the end of the manga timeline. i haven't written seriously in almost a year and this is not beta'd so sorry for the grammar/inconsistencies in the tenses/ooc-ness/overall shitty writing. feel free to correct me because i cant edit over my own work. also bad title is bad but my best friend did not help me at all so i have an excuse ok and i edited this over again (kept finding stupid little mistakes that pissed me off) so im editing the author's notes too because i can

i hate writing and i'm never going to do this ever again bye

Hibari Kyoya, the aloof cloud guardian of the Vongola. As the strongest and the most distant guardian, he did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He never stayed in one place for an extended period of time, except maybe in his periodic visits to Namimori, and no one ever knew where he went since they could never track him down.

.:.:.:.

Kusakabe was the one who found him first.

His boss called in once every month to keep him up to date. The calls were always short, crisp, and professional, and he always hung up before Kusakabe could say anything. His right-hand-man never really understood why Hibari called in the first place, though, since most of the calls gave him information he already knew, and Hibari clearly did not enjoy talking over the phone. He passed it as a habit Hibari never grew out of, and, for whatever reason, the regular calls kept Kusakabe motivated. Every now and then, he actually looked forward to them.

When he doesn't receive a call at the usual time and day of the month he knows something is terribly, terribly wrong.

The following day, Kusakabe files into Italy, and orders his men to search for their boss, knowing fully that Hibari would kill him if he knew what he did.

But it doesn't matter because he won't and never will, because within a few hours, they locate him. They find him in his blood-stained suit with a bullet lodged the back of his head, surrounded by dead men.

Kusakabe tells himself not to cry because he knew he would say that crying was for the weak and the weak were undoubtedly herbivores who deserve to be bitten to death. He picks up his cold and limp boss and brings him home.

His men pretend not to see the tears that were streaming silently down his face.

.:.:.:.

Tsuna receives the news from Kusakabe the day before Reborn's birthday. He does not drop the phone in shock – over a decade of training to become the Vongola Decimo prevented his emotions from getting the best of him – but he does bury his head in his hands. He thanks Kusakabe for telling him, requests him to keep quiet about the incident, and hangs up.

Hibari Kyoya was found dead in an alley in an unnamed city in Italy.

The Hibari Kyoya was found dead in an alley, beaten, bloody, and covered in wounds.

Tsuna does not know how to react. Even after years of experience with the mafia, he was still never used to the constant risk of death around him. Especially not to those who were dear to him.

He was never that close to Hibari. Hell, a small part of him still feared the ex-prefect and his blood-thirsty ways. But, Hibari was still part of his family, and family was family. The man, no matter how distant and violent, had warmed his way into Tsuna's heart, one way or another, whether or not he intended to in the first place. Tsuna respected Hibari, and Hibari respected Tsuna. It was a silent, mutual agreement between the two men.

Tsuna cleans up the paperwork that littered his desk, stacks them up in one neat pile, and exits the room.

He doesn't know how to break the news to everyone.

.:.:.:.

Tsuna tells Dino first. After all, a teacher is given the right to know what happened to their student.

He drives over to the Cavallone mansion, and asks to see Dino. He waits patiently in the living room, surrounded by some of Dino's men, while Dino emerges half-asleep from his office upstairs. He grins at Tsuna, happy his surrogate little brother came to visit. However, when he notices tired eyes that were clearly not from pulling an all-nighter to finish paperwork, and a grim, sad frown etched across the brunet's face, he worriedly asks what was wrong.

And Tsuna tells him.

The first thing Dino asks is if what he just said was just a stupid, cruel joke, because it certainly wasn't funny, especially coming out of Tsuna's mouth. Inside, the dreadful feeling that it wasn't overpowered the false hope that Hibari Kyoya was still alive and ready to bite another person to death.

The slow, short shake Tsuna gave him merely proved the former feeling true.

Tsuna stays over for the next few hours, trying to comfort the older man. He leaves when Dino asks him to let him be alone for a while, saying he needed to let the information sink in before he did anything stupid.

Dino locks himself in his room that night and doesn't come out for the rest of the night.

.:.:.:.

Reborn is the next one to find out, because you can never hide anything from him, no matter how hard you try. Tsuna never acted this upset before his birthday, even with the ridiculous party games that they chose to celebrate with.

Fifteen years after the curse was lifted, he stood at a stocking one-eighty centimeters at the ripe age of sixteen, towering over the Vongola boss. After Tsuna officially became the Decimo, Reborn stayed behind and self-appointed himself as his adviser, saying that Tsuna would never survive in the mafia without him.

Tsuna comes home late that day. He doesn't say anything when he comes back, holes himself back in his office, and returns to his paperwork, telling everyone not to disturb him.

A few minutes after Tsuna comes home, Reborn breaks down his door, claiming it was the easiest way in. Tsuna jumps up in surprise. He still wasn't used to his teacher's inability to give a person their personal space, and certainly did not expect the hitman to barge into his room so suddenly. He was, after all, never one for comforting.

Reborn stares at him until Tsuna becomes uncomfortable under his gaze. Tsuna looks more tired than usual, and something in his face tells him something was horribly wrong, so he forces the words out of his student's mouth.

When he hears the news, Reborn tips his fedora down, shadowing his face. Leon licks his face affectionately, and he nods in acknowledgment.

As he walks out of Tsuna's room, Reborn thinks about canceling his birthday party.

.:.:.:.

An hour later, Tsuna contacts the rest of the guardians when he realizes that he couldn't hide it – or hold it in, for that matter. Gokudera and Yamamoto rush back from the mission they were assigned together, Ryohei flies back from Japan after visiting Kyoko and their parents in Namimori, Lambo is called in from university, and Tsuna and Chrome drive to the Vongola mansion from the main base, bringing Mukuro along after he returned from his self-assigned undercover mission.

Tsuna berates himself for wistfully comparing how easy it was to contact the rest of his guardians to the difficult task of even sending a short message to his cloud guardian.

.:.:.:.

It's nearly midnight by the time everyone has gathered around the dinning table in the Vongola mansion. It's been a long time since they've all come together there, and they knew that it must be something important, since they were already going to meet up for Reborn's birthday party the next day.

The members at the table are silent, much unlike their usual bumbling nature.

Surprisingly enough, the first one to speak is Mukuro. After sprouting some empty threats about possessing Tsuna's body, Mukuro demands him to tell them why he has gathered them all today, especially with their busy schedules.

Tsuna sighs and rubs his eyes with his hand. He straightens his tie, sits up straight on his seat, and folds his hands together on the table.

Hibari Kyoya is dead.

He says the phrase in his boss-voice, but he's trembling and he lets out a huge breath of air afterward. He was informed of the death only about six hours ago, but some part of him still refuses to acknowledge the announcement.

Ryohei is the first one to react. He stands up and runs over to Tsuna, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him violently. He speaks in his usual loud tone, but this time with tints of fear and horror in his voice. 'What do you mean he's dead?' and 'I had an extreme conversation with him just last week!'

Tsuna presses his lips together in a grim line, and Ryohei releases his tight grip on the brunet's shoulders. The older man collapses on the floor, his usual bright grin nowhere to be found, his eyes glassing over and watering up.

Chrome cries. She buries her head in Mukuro's chest, and sobs quietly at the news. Mukuro wraps his arms around her, comforting the poor girl. His face was strained, as if he were trying to hide the look of anguish he was displaying.

Gokudera looks down blankly at the table and grips the tablecloth. Next to him, Yamamoto face turns from cheerful to pain-stricken and somber. On the other side of the table, Lambo looks at the rest of his family and their reactions to the tragic announcement.

Lambo was five when he first met the carnivorous teenager. To be frank, at the time, the man scared the wits out of him, but I-Pin liked him, so he didn't think the man was so bad. Now, over fifteen years later, he grew to respect the older man, even though they never actually spoke to each other often, if at all.

Tsuna looks at his grieving guardians, and tries to force himself to appear strong in front of them. A loss is a loss, and they couldn't reverse it or bring try to him back, even with the technology they had.

But instead, he lets himself out and does the one thing that he's been holding back since he heard the news – he cries.

.:.:.:.

The next day, on Reborn's birthday, the guardians force themselves to act normal and cheerful for the event, intending to not tell anyone (that didn't need to know) about Hibari's death.

When Kyoko asks her older brother why he rushed off the day before when they already agreed that they would go together, he tells her that they were planning something important for the party and he forgot until the last day. Kyoko doesn't buy his lie, but does not push any further. Instead, she decides to talk to the rest of the girls about how suspicious everyone was acting.

After the party ended and the guests either left to their respective rooms for the night or went home, Tsuna and his guardians went to report Hibari's death to the members of Vongola who needed to know.

They don't celebrate Tsuna's birthday the next day.

.:.:.:.

They don't hold a funeral for him, because everyone agreed he wouldn't have wanted a bunch of herbivores crowding and being weak – especially not for him.

They don't bury him either, just in case something bizarre happens and his younger self gets hit by the ten year bazooka. And as much as they wanted to, sending his body back to Japan was an unwise choice, so they placed his casket in the Vongola mansion's backyard-slash-forest, under the single sakura tree that grew there. Despite Hibari's dislike for the flowering trees, they knew that every time he visited, he would take care of this single tree, growing it from a little sapling to the size it was now.

His Vongola ring was removed due to its importance to the next generation of the famiglia, and instead replaced with an identical copy because he didn't look right without it. In his hands he held his signature tonfas, cleaned and shined after being bloodied from his last and final battle. His clothes were changed into a clean suit, and the old Namimori Middle School disciplinary committee's armband, the one he still kept even after all these years, was placed next to his arm, along with his box weapon.

Hibari's expression looks far too calm for someone who died in the midst of a battle.

In the air, pitched, sad chirps circled the casket, and Hibari's yellow, feathery companion refused to leave its owner's side.

After placing the casket down and paying their respects, the small group of guests say their last farewell.

Hibird doesn't move from its spot on top of the casket.

.:.:.:.

They hunt down the famiglia that took their cloud guardian down. It goes against their word, and he probably wouldn't have been happy that they took away his prey, but that can't –won't stop them and besides, he can't threaten them now.

It was a newly-formed family, full of muscled middle-aged men who were all brawn and no brain and thought they were better than everyone else. When Tsuna asked why they did it, they laughed in his face and told him this was the mafia he was in, and nothing good comes from being in the mafia.

No one is laughing when news spreads that the famiglia was wiped out.

.

They don't replace their cloud guardian, because to them, he was the cloud that supported their sky (in his own violent way), and no one could ever take his place.