When did the hotel room grow so cold? Maybe in the middle of sleep he had kicked off the covers. Hibari began to shiver and reached down to pull the blanket back up but he couldn't find it. Instead his hand was reaching through blades of grass, tickling between his fingers and cool against his skin.

Grass?

Hibari opened his eyes.

Ceiling replaced by a night sky, city lights replaced by brilliant stars. He would have thought it beautiful if the sight didn't instead confuse him. These dreams were happening far too often for his liking, and too real to ignore.

He was somewhere he didn't know again.

Hibari sat up from the grass, squinting in the dark as he looked around. He still could only barely make out the world around him, everything appeared like little dark lumps. But soon details began to come into his vision, just enough that he could make out where he was. A courtyard. But not like the one from his first dream, no cracked fountain or wild weeds brushing against his ankles. This place looked maintained. His eyes trailed to the house to his right, and the shape of it looked almost familiar, maybe he should recognize it. Every window of the building was dark except for one on the upper floor that faced toward him.

Hibari stood up. His mind was awake but his body still felt unsteady. Moving his legs felt like weights for the first few steps, and the grass beneath his bare feet felt damp like it had been raining earlier in the day. He brushed off stray blades of grass from the back of his pyjamas, thankful that the temperature hadn't dropped down too much even in the night as he warmed up the longer he was awake, and had stopped shivering. When he got close enough to the building he could see there were flower buds that were blooming attached to a lattice leaning against the wall. It was probably springtime here. Namimori was just entering into autumn.

He walked around the house until it led him to a wooden backyard door and when he pushed it open the old hinges creaked in place. The door led him to walk a few more steps until he came to the front of the house, and that's when it became recognizable. The dried well with shrubs. He was at the Cavallone's home in Italy.

That's right, Hibari thought, that clumsy idiot Cavallone lives here. And he remembered his deal from before, the one he never got to fulfill. He may be able to send Hibari back home.

With a new purpose, Hibari walked up to the front of the house and tried to gently open the door. Of course it was locked. He went to the other side of the house, maybe there was a side door leading in or an opened window, but there was nothing useful that Hibari make out. He ended up back at the front entrance staring at the handle. If only he had his tonfa with him he could have smashed the door open but he didn't sleep with them in his hands, they were placed beside him on the night table at the hotel.

The key.

He still had the key in his pocket and had fallen asleep before he could properly inspect it. Hibari reached into his chest pocket and pulled it out – it didn't look like anything special, just a regular shaped piece of metal, its purpose that it could open a lock. Maybe this one. He slid it into the lock, heard the tumblers clicking and tried to turn it gently in place. But he got nothing.

Hibari scowled.

What was the point in carrying this around if it didn't open the door?

Just then the door swung open and Hibari reacted by taking a quick step to the side. He watched as Dino tumbled outside, landing on his front as the frying pan flew out from his hand and skipped across the cobblestone, the metal against stone ringing loud and sharp in the quiet of the night.

Hibari raised his eyebrow.

"Did you really intend to protect your territory like that?"

"Ow, ow..." Dino sat up and rubbed at his elbow. He could feel the sting of the scraped skin when his fingers pressed into it, but couldn't tell if there was any blood. "Distracted is all..."

"Your excuse is as poor as your footwork."

"No, serious!" Dino stood up, and ambled passed Hibari toward the frying pan to pick it up. "Recognized it was you, then stalled and tripped."

"Like something like that would hit" – Hibari interrupted himself – "wao, your Japanese has improved."

"Noticed?"

"Coherent, but not good."

A second pair of footsteps were making their way in direction of the front door. Dino, alarmed, ran back inside the house and slammed the door leaving Hibari alone. From the outside Hibari tried to listened to the conversation, but there wasn't a single word he could make out. In a few minutes one pair of footsteps left, and Hibari heard the door being opened again. Dino poked his head through the opening, looking side to side until he noticed Hibari sitting on the ground with his back against the brick of the house.

"Inside?" Dino asked.

"Do you know how to bring me back home?"

"Right," Dino said. He held out a hand for Hibari. "Promise from month ago."

"A month?" Hibari questioned. He ignored Dino's outstretched hand and pushed himself up off the ground. "Was it not early than that?"

Dino shook his head.

"Little over month? You disappeared in smoke and thought you gone home. Surprised now you back." He motioned with the frying pan in his hand. "Come. We can speak more in bedroom."

He followed Dino into the house. Most of the lights were turned off in the halls, and Dino suggested they kept it this way unless Hibari wanted to be spotted. And while Hibari also lived in a rather large house Cavallone, Hibari thought, definitely lived in a mansion.

"What is that?" Dino said, pressing his heel into the lump on the floor. "Stepping on?"

"My toes."

"Oh." Dino quickly stepped off Hibari's foot. "Sorry."

At the end of the hallway on the upper floor, light was filtering from the crack of a slightly opened door. Dino pushed it opened and motion for Hibari to go inside. Where Hibari preferred the essentials to have a simple aesthetic, he noticed Dino's dressers and tables were engraved on its posts and edges, furniture possibly passed down in his family from its aged appearance. His bed, which was too big for just one person, had at least four scattered pillows. He had clothing hanging over the arm of his sofa. There was a window that overlooked into the courtyard. The single lit window Hibari had noticed while outside was from here, Dino's bedroom.

He noticed Hibari staring at the window.

"Good view from here," Dino said as he shut the door behind them. "You moving outside and I got scared."

"Scared?"

"Crazy stuff happening." He ran his hand through his hair. "I try keep out unless father makes me go."

"The man with the glasses?"

Dino laughed.

"Romario? Sometimes I wish. I love father but wants me in family business." Dino sat down on the sofa, not caring that the clothing on the cushions were being crushed underneath him. "I want to be a respectable man, no mafia crap."

"By mafia, do you mean law breakers? I discipline people like you."

"Me? No, not one of them." Dino waved a hand across the room. "You don't have to stand."

Dino was already on the sofa, so there were two other options. There was a wooden chair in front of a desk, or the bed with a surplus of pillows. Hibari chose the bed. He crawled on top, moving a pillow that was caught under his back to the side.

"What time is it?" Hibari asked.

"Five o'clock."

Hibari glanced out the window. The sun was finally rising and turned the outside world from ink to hazy blues. He heard the beginning of the early birds' chirps. He yawned and closed his eyes.

"Cavallone. When I wake up you keep your promise."

"Yes. You can borrow from me too."

"What do I need from you?"

"Clothes. Unless you walk in pyjamas. And no shoes."

Hibari heard Dino moving and his hands went to his sides to grab his tonfa as an instant reaction. But remembering they were missing, he put a hand out to stop Dino instead.

"You can sleep on the couch," Hibari said.

"But my bed. Tired too."

"Your bed that you offered to me."

"Room for two." Dino began throwing the excess pillows onto the floor. "We don't even touch."

"No."

"See?" Dino was ignoring the glare aimed at him and laid down on the bed opposite Hibari. He tapped the space in between. "Lots room."

"You move too much, you touch me, you snore, you wake me up – I bite you to death. Is that clear?" Hibari turned onto his side, facing the window and away from Dino.

"Yeah," Dino responded, then, "oh."

"What?"

"Does back hurt? Under shirt."

Hibari hadn't realized that the neckline of his pyjama was low enough to expose the bruising near his neck. He tugged the collar up.

"That's from an idiot."

"Why?"

"None of your concern."

"Mafia related?" Dino asked.

"I don't know."

"Lots Japanese with mafia here." Dino continued the conversation. "Work together. Father does. Vongola does."

Vongola. He remembers hearing Dino talking at him about it over dinner. Most of it went over his head because Hibari wasn't interested, however that word had stuck in his mind.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"Who?"

Oh, Hibari thought, maybe this and that were unrelated. He tried another word.

"Varia?"

"Oh, those guys? No Japanese. But strong. Like Squalo, maybe the next boss. I go to school with him. Know him for long time."

Now the conversation was changing and lost Hibari's already weak interest.

"I'm going to sleep."

"Oh right. Sorry, you're tired." Dino reached over to the nightstand and flicked the switch on the lamp. The sun was in the sky enough now to cast a soft light inside even with the lights off. "Goodnight Kyouya."

XX

When Hibari woke up he poked his head out from underneath the blanket and saw that Dino was already awake. He was finishing the last of a sandwich and was watching television with the volume near to mute.

Hibari blinked a few times before registering the white walls and the tall gray buildings of the city outside the window. He was back in the hotel room.

Dino noticed from the corner of his eye Hibari was finally awake.

"Good morning Kyouya," he said, and licked at the corner of his mouth to get some crumbs off his face. "It's actually the afternoon though."

"Where am I?"

"The hotel." Dino pointed to a paper bag on the table. "I brought you some food."

"Don't want any." Hibari tucked his head back under the blanket.

"Are you going back to sleep?" Dino got off his bed to stand in front of Hibari's bed. "Did you wanna train today?"

"Let's fight," Hibari replied.

After that Dino waited for Hibari to move out from under the blankets, but instead he didn't move at all.

Dino smiled.

"Guess you're too tired. To be honest I'm glad you're getting more rest."

"Cavallone."

"Yes?"

"When did you start learning Japanese?"

"Ah – about seven, almost eight years now? I passed the fluency test maybe four years ago. Once you get the structure down it's a pretty easy." Suddenly Dino laughed. "Wow Kyouya, I can't believe you asked me a personal question."

"I was only wondering," Hibari replied, "about when you started speaking intelligently instead of babbling like an idiot."

Dino's voice began to gain intensity.

"Hey, does that mean it started to happen?"

"What happened?"

He ignored Hibari's question.

"How many times has it been? Did you ki– oof." Hibari had kicked Dino in the stomach from underneath the blanket when he had, in his excitement, gotten too close and placed his hands on the blanket with Hibari underneath.

Dino let himself stumble backward and fell down onto his own bed. He placed his hand on his abdomen where Hibari had kicked him. It was sore.

"I guess not." Dino said.

"What started to happen?" Hibari asked again. He had finally risen up from underneath the blanket.

"You're –" Dino's cellphone ringing made him stop, and instead he reached into his pocket. He checked the screen."Crap. Important call again."

Dino left the room with the cellphone at his ear. Hibari slid back under the blankets, closed his eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again looking around. Television still on. Dino's messy bed. He was still in the hotel.

Dino came back into the room after a few minutes, walked toward the window and looked out. Hibari wanted to ask him about what he was going to say before he was interrupted by the call, but Dino spoke first.

"Hey Kyouya," he said as he turned around, "you know where we're training, right?"

For the second time that afternoon, Hibari sat up from underneath the blanket. Maybe his question could wait. This was much more important.

"Where are we going?"

"Everywhere."

Hibari frowned. "Elaborate."

"There's a forest, and a beach around here for natural terrain. I've heard of an abandoned building about an hour from here too, a school I believe. It'll build up your experience in an urban environment."

"That's all?"

"I mean, those are the places Romario and I managed to scope out. We'll move around from location to location finding more suitable places to train as we go. Your biggest weakness, Kyouya, is attacking before thinking and not accounting for your opponent's capabilities. Especially if it's not close combat."

"That's because I'll crush them before they even manage to even try."

"And that" – Dino pointed at Hibari – "is the attitude that can land you on your knees in a bind."

"Is that an invitation to fight now, Cavallone? I'm not opposed to training in this urban environment." Hibari begun to shift his hand toward the tonfa on the table beside.

"Wait no, Kyouya I'm sorr–"

The tonfa soared through the air toward Dino's chest and his eyes widened. Quickly, he managed to dodge the tonfa by pushing himself flush against the wall, and his hand reached beneath his coat to grab the whip underneath and latch it around the tonfa before it could hit the glass of the window. He pulled back on his whip and let it thump against his bed. Eyes still wide, he glanced over to Hibari.

"I have mastered long range attacks," Hibari said.

"Kyouya, you nearly gave me a damn heart attack. And this window." Dino pointed to the window. "How would I explain the damage to the staff if it actually went through?"

"You are a tourist to Japan, going around the country to look for good spots to pick a fight. This hotel is one of them."

Dino winced.

"Don't say it like that, it's too honest."

Hibari reached for his other tonfa and watched Dino tense. He readied his whip a second time.

"I'm finished listening to your wants – now we listen to mine. I want to fight today."

"And you won't change your mind about resting at all?"

"No."

"Not even in the slightest?"

"Cavallone."

Dino sighed.

"Fine, fine." Then he walked toward the door that led into Romario's room. He began to knock. "Just so you know, I'm not going to hold back."

"I wouldn't want you to."

"You might regret that."

"I intend to win."

"We'll see. We're gonna leave as soon as you're ready." Dino thought for a moment. "Don't take it too personally when you lose, okay? Because you're gonna have to get use to it."