Chapter Text
This should have been a normal morning. Reborn’s small family had been wrung dry with back-to-back missions in the last 6 months. They deserved a vacation and this soothing early summer weather would have been perfect for a small picnic with Fon’s homemade meals.
But no, his husband had been up before Reborn, went about his day and now walking around the Vongola headquarter in Italy to look for their son. (Yes, Reborn had finally finished the adoption form when Kyouya was 16. It might be long overdue but none of them really care much about it.)
Apparently, Kyouya should have met up with Fon to plan for a small, intimate birthday party for the now-20-year-old, but he had never shown up despite the tracking device indicating that he’s still in the mansion. Hence Fon’s searching.
“I’ve looked at the west and south wings, but there is no sign of him. Can you help me look at the east one?”
“Why are you so worried though? He’s a grown man, he can take care of himself.”
“But what if he’s wearing something that hasn’t been chipped? What if he got kidnapped again and couldn’t get out by himself?” Highly unlikely, because last he checked, Kusakabe had taken the responsibility to manage all of his boss’ clothes, and no one was as meticulous about this as the Foundation’s second-in-command.
Reborn followed his husband anyway, since there was still a bit of him that remained as protective as ever toward the younger Hibari.
They checked the first floor, then the second floor, but still no sign of Kyouya.
Although, curiously enough, there was some furniture missing in a few rooms. For instance, a soft and lovely gray sofa in the reading room that Kyouya loved to fall asleep on and several pillows and mattress in some guest rooms.
As they went up to the third floor, however, they encountered Vongola’s boss and his remaining Guardians, looking rather confused at the closed door of the largest meeting room.
“Ah, Reborn, Fon, what are you doing here?” Tsuna greeted when he saw them aprroaching
“We’re looking for Kyouya, what about you then, Sawada-kun?” Fon replied, polite as ever.
“Really?” Tsuna turned back to his friends, before hesitating. “We… are looking for Hibari-san too, but I thought, maybe he slept in since he came back late from his Nepal mission last night, so we didn’t send for Kusakabe-san and just went ahead with the schedule.”
“Oh, well if you see him, please inform us." Fon replied, a bit disappointed but bowed in thanks nonetheless.
However, just as they were about to leave, Tsuna let out a shriek as he looked inside the meeting room.
"Hibari-san!?"
The couple immediately turned back and rushed to the door. What in there put even Fon, who had been familiar with the little skylark's antics since he was 3, into a shocked state.
The large, long table once resided in the middle of the room was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a large… pit, made of pillows and mattresses and the furniture Kyouya must have nicked from the different rooms in the mansion.
And in the center of the nest was none other than their missing Cloud, along with dozen other wild animals that Reborn was positive weren't native to Italy. There was a snow leopard, a couple of red pandas, a family of Tibetan foxes, and- was that a Bengal tiger?
There were some bird species that Reborn didn't recognize, chirping happily and enjoying a bird bath with Hibird in a basin on the balcony.
Why had none of them eaten each other yet?
But instead they were napping peacefully. Even with Tsuna's ungodly scream, none of them, not even Kyouya, woke up from their slumber.
"Is that my armchair?" Came Mukuro's exasperated question but shut his mouth immediately when the tiger on said chair opened its eyes to glare at him.
Was this Kyouya's birthday present?
Well, the present he prepared for himself.
"M-maybe we should leave them be." Tsuna whispered, still too scared to poke at the literal tiger.
But before anyone could make a discreet retreat, Hibird, who had been preening and showing off his singing to his fellow avians, found his way back to his master's head. After it burrowed in Kyouya's hair comfortably, the canary began its usual singing.
Predictably, this woke Kyouya up, but fortunately, he didn't seem too grouchy or annoyed, simply sleepy. The Cloud petted the yellow fluff ball gently with his index finger, which sooth the bird and lured it to sleep.
As the master and his partner were about to fall back to sleep, a baby snow leopard made its way from under its mother and stumbled over Kyouya's torso, yowling and nibbling at the skylark's chin. It's loud noise then woke its siblings, and even the fox cubs joined their playing.
"They're trying to eat him." The ever-quiet Chrome remarked when the first snow leopard cub jumped onto the Cloud Guardian's face, weak teeth trying to gawk at his forehead.
Kyouya didn't appear to mind the little monsters' attacks. In fact, he seemed amused and even fond when the cub started to nuzzle his face with its furry head.
Fon, who had been rather incredulous at the scene, now looked calmer, adoring. Reborn knew both Hibari loved animals, the younger much more than the older, and the rule Fon had set out for the child had been devastating to him, even if he didn't show it. Now that Kyouya was of age, there wasn't any reason for them to deny him this, especially when he had been wishing for it for the longest time.
"Kyouya," Fon called as he approached the pillow pit, "what do you have here?"
"She's Hine" Kyouya answered, gesturing toward the mother snow leopard "She's Hiko's daughter. And this" he lifted the cub that still hugged his face "is Spot, Hine's son."
His naming skill was still horrendous, but at least the animal seemed happy with it.
Fon then carefully petted the nearby red panda, who upon receiving the soothing touches woke up and settled on the Storm's lap as its new favorite bed.
Encouraged by this, others started to trickle in, some tried to pet the friendlier animals, like the foxes and the pandas, others, like Mukuro, stood by and were treated as a perch by the birds.
Kyouya seemed rather disgruntled at the crowding but mellowed as Spot attempted to groom him.
They spent the morning like this, meeting forgotten and lunch shared with the animals.
Reborn and Fon was about to say yes to Kyouya keeping the animals before they learned that Kyouya had picked them up from the Central Zoo of Nepal.
The next day, it took them over 3 hours to convince Kyouya to put the animals back where he found them.
They tried every trick in the books. From coercion, to negotiation, to threaten. But Kyouya had one of the best counterattacks that no one had expected him to have.
Tears.
He honest to god started crying when Mukuro brought the family of foxes away. His wet, sparkling eyes got wide and sad and oh god, he started sniffling.
Even the animals got distressed when they heard his whimper, all of them, even the tiger, tried nuzzling to comfort him or licked his tears away. The Cloud gratefully gathered the animals, especially the cubs, up and cuddled with them. He then looked up at the group, his eyes still overflowing with tears, begging them to let his pets stay.
His tactic was extremely effective, particularly on Fon, whereas others who had immediately sensed his intention had turned away to avoid looking at his eyes.
The Storm was a kind of gentle parent that would go above and beyond for his child if he only had a hint of tears. His heart would go soft at Kyouya’s puppy eyes and simmering eyes, or god forbid, Kyouya’s pout.
That’s why Reborn had to be the strict one.
“No, and that’s final.”
Upon seeing Reborn’s absolute expression, the Cloud Guardian could only nod reluctantly, and let the animals go. They were confused, wondering why their human was being weird, but as Kyouya planted a kiss on their head, they complied, and things went smoothly.
The few days afterward it was obvious that Kyouya’s mood was down. Melancholy laced in every single movement of his. No matter what the couple tried, he wouldn’t cheer up at all. Even Tsuna and the other guardians also joined the effort, but inevitably failed.
It all came to an end suddenly a week later, when the skylark requested for a mission in Japan, then hopped on a flight to Tokyo in the middle of the night.
(No one but Mukuro saw a spotted fluffy long tail peeking out underneath Kyouya’s black vest on that sunny parting day.
Well, it’s not like Mukuro hadn’t been hiding a fox cub under his out-of-place leather jacket anyway.
As Kyouya turned around facing the Mist, eyes dry as if he hadn’t been crying 5 minutes ago, his eyebrow raised in question when he saw the distinct reddish-brown tail of a baby Tibertan fox under Mukuro’s jacket sleeve.
The illusionist only glanced subtly at the Cloud’s hip, where the cub's tail tried to curl around his human's waist.
Kyouya fixing his vest carefully before leaving the group.
Well, this might be the beginning to a beautiful friendship between them.)