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Uri’s tail flicked under Hibari’s nose as she settled in against his chest, purring softly. Hibari was still half-asleep, so while the movement woke him briefly, he fell into a dream, or a memory rather, just as quickly:
“Hayato, why is this cat in our bed?” Hibari asked, his eyes narrowed at the cat. She was sitting on his chest, nonchalantly grooming her paw. Hibari usually had a soft spot for small, cuddly animals, but something interrupting his sleep was another thing altogether.
“‘This cat’ is named Uri, and how the hell should I know?” Gokudera punched his pillow around a few times, his usual bedtime habit, and then settled restlessly on it. “She doesn’t listen to a damn thing I say.”
Hibari lifted the cat—Uri—by the scruff of her neck and deposited her on Gokudera’s chest. Uri immediately hissed, her fur fluffing up, and began scratching at Gokudera’s face. Gokudera yelled and struggled, but was ultimately powerless to stop his tiny storm cat. Hibari reached over and plucked her off again, instead setting her on the bed between them. Uri immediately calmed down and returned to her grooming.
“Thanks for that,” Gokudera grumbled, touching a finger to one of his cuts and wincing. “She was perfectly fine on your chest – you just had to move her, didn’t you?”
“She—and thus you—interrupted my sleep,” Hibari stated matter-of-factly.
Gokudera scoffed, but even in the dark Hibari could tell that he was smiling. “So sorry, Your Highness.”
Hibari smirked and rolled over to tuck his face against Gokudera’s shoulder. Uri curled up under his chin, which only made Gokudera scoff again. “Un-fucking-believable.”
Hibari’s eyes opened. It had been precisely nine days since the younger Vongola arrived in the future. They were much weaker than Hibari remembered them being. Granted, he had never thought they were particularly strong, but looking at them now he couldn’t even remember why he had been relatively okay with being associated with them. He was fine with their future selves because they were strong and he enjoyed himself sparring with all of them—except for Lambo, mainly because Gokudera was overprotective of him and never let Hibari fight him in fear that he would fatally wound the kid, which was fair—but he sure couldn’t see what had drawn him to them in the first place.
It must have just been the baby, Reborn. It was good to see him again, at least.
Uri meowed in his face, purring as she rubbed her cheek against his. It had been nine days since he had seen her too, as no one had been around who could open her box. The younger Gokudera must have finally figured it out, if she was here now.
Hibari reached up to scratch under her chin as he stared over her head at the empty side of the bed. All of Gokudera’s rings that he usually wore on his right hand and had to remove to use the Sistema C.A.I. were still scattered on the bedside table, along with his glasses.
Hibari felt a tightening in his chest that had everything and nothing to do with his usual anger, and then got out of bed.
Uri mewed happily and jumped off the bed, following him into the kitchen. Roll was already there, waiting for his breakfast, and he squeaked happily when he saw Uri. The two box animals rubbed their faces together in greeting, as tactile as they always were.
“Look at them,” Gokudera said, shaking his head fondly as he gestured at Uri and Roll cuddling together on the floor. “They’re so embarrassing.”
Hibari lifted his chin from Gokudera’s shoulder and glanced at the two box animals. They were hardly any different from how Hibari and Gokudera were, as entangled on the couch as they were. Hibari said as much, and watched with amusement as Gokudera’s entire face flushed red. He really was too easy to tease.
Hibari shoved the memory away as he opened Uri and Roll’s food cans, irritated that he was even thinking about it. He had been alone for years before he met the Vongola, and he had been perfectly fine. Even though he now shared his life with Gokudera, he preferred to spend most of his time alone, or at least doing his own thing. There was no reason why that shouldn’t still be true. There was no reason to miss him, or any of them. He always preferred solitude, and he always would.
He slammed Uri and Roll’s food bowls down on the floor, perhaps harsher than necessary, and then went to the bathroom to shower and put on his suit.
--
There was a lot of shouting and commotion coming from the Vongola base today. It irritated Hibari, but he didn’t want to know – in fact, the less he got involved, the better. Though of course Kusakabe told him anyway.
“The young Hayato-san seems to be looking for Uri,” he said, a small smile on his face. “That sure brings back memories.”
Hibari looked down at Uri curled contently in his lap. She had come by again the night before, sleeping in her usual spot on Hibari’s chest, just under his chin. Uri was very rarely a creature of routine, but she had been joining him every night since the younger Gokudera learned how to let her out of her box. Hibari knew that it was probably because she hated the younger Gokudera, just as she had hated his Gokudera at first, and that she knew he would feed her, but some small part of him that he didn’t dare acknowledge wondered if she missed him, missed them.
“I’ve looked fucking everywhere for Uri, but I can’t—” Gokudera slammed the sliding door of their house open, stomping out of his shoes before coming inside. He stopped just inside the door, staring wide-eyed at Hibari, who was sitting calmly on the floor with a cup of tea before him. “…You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Welcome home,” Hibari said innocently.
“Don’t ‘welcome home’ me!” Gokudera snapped, wildly pointing a finger at Hibari. “How long has she been there?!”
Uri, curled up in Hibari’s lap, stretched her legs before rolling onto her back. Hibari dutifully began rubbing her belly, to the kitten’s obvious delight. “Oh, I’d say for the last hour or so.”
“And you couldn’t have told me that before I ran around the whole fucking base looking for her?” Gokudera huffed as he sat down beside Hibari. Uri opened one eye to glare at him, and he glared right back. “Why does she love you so much but hate me?”
“Box animals are supposed to reflect their users, are they not?” Hibari said, casually sipping his tea.
Gokudera clicked his tongue. “Cheeky. I don’t hate myself that much.”
Hibari couldn’t help but note that he hadn’t said anything about the other half of that sentence. Gokudera seemed to realize it at the same time, for he added, “I do love you, though.”
Hibari’s eyes widened, and Gokudera smirked. “You know, it may have taken me a long ass time to work up to saying that, but it’s worth it for how much it startles you every time.”
Hibari huffed and moved Uri into Gokudera’s lap, where she promptly hissed and began scratching at his face. Two could play at that game, after all.
“ … Never mind, I actually hate you,” Gokudera grumbled once he finally convinced Uri to go back into her box.
Hibari smirked, and then leaned over to kiss him.
Back in the present, Hibari ran his hand down Uri’s back. “Hayato’s relationship with Uri has always been shaky at best. Considering that she must build a bond with him all over again, I understand her reluctance.”
Kusakabe smiled sadly. “It’s not easy, that’s for sure. It’s hard to just pretend like ten years never happened.”
Hibari’s hand curled slightly in Uri’s fur, and she blinked at him accusingly. “It should not be hard.”
“…They’ll be back, Kyo-san,” Kusakabe said softly. “Once we succeed.”
Hibari huffed and went back to petting Uri. She would have to leave eventually, if Gokudera was looking for her, but he saw no reason to push her to go back so soon.
The less he saw the younger Gokudera, after all, the better.
--
The night before the raid on the Millefiore base, Hibari couldn’t afford the disruption that Uri’s arrival always caused. He needed his full eight hours, as he was planning on fighting for as long as it took for the raid to succeed.
So he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and got out of bed, heading for the Vongola base. She hissed and struggled, obviously displeased, but he held her far enough away from his body that she couldn’t reach anything. He had spent so many hours watching Gokudera struggle with her that he’d learned all the tricks by now.
Reborn, Sawada, and Yamamoto were all standing around in the hallway when Hibari walked up to them, Uri still yowling in his hand. He didn’t particularly want them to know that Uri always came to his house, as it would no doubt encourage them to also come by, which he absolutely did not want, so he said, “She was so tired and out of it that she entered my room.”
“H-Hibari!” Sawada yelped, obviously surprised. His eyes fell down to Uri scratching and clawing at the wall of the base. “…Gokudera’s cat?”
“Wha—” Gokudera stormed out of the nearby room, pajamas on but hair still styled. He obviously had not been sleeping. “I thought she was back in her box! What are you doing, Uri?!”
Hibari let Uri go while Sawada questioned Gokudera about his choice in names. She leapt into Gokudera’s arms, almost cuddly for a strange moment before realizing who he was and leaping up into his face to scratch there instead. He struggled with her, as he always did, and Hibari realized that the ache in his chest was not actually excitement for the coming battle, but something much, much worse.
“Kyouya,” Gokudera whispered. “Look.”
Hibari looked up from the blueprint he was reading. Gokudera had been helping him analyze and translate the documents he had found regarding the creation of the boxes, and they had been at it for the better part of the night. Gokudera barely slept, and Hibari took naps whenever he felt like it, so it rarely mattered what time it was when they were getting their work done.
It also usually took a disaster to rip Gokudera’s attention away from whatever he was studying, but this time the documents were in an abandoned messy pile beside him on the couch. Apparently what he had wanted Hibari to witness was not something related to the boxes, but the fact that Uri had migrated into Gokudera’s lap, curled up, and fallen asleep there.
“This is the first time she’s ever cuddled with me,” Gokudera said, sounding close to tears.
Hibari just stared at him. It was true that Uri hated Gokudera with a unique passion, and usually took to scratching at his face whenever she noticed he existed or ignoring him the rest of the time. She usually curled in Hibari’s lap if she sat with them at all, which Gokudera had always found particularly insulting. But the fact that this was apparently more important than the documents they had found…
Fondness settled in him, but he very rarely indulged in it when he could tease Gokudera instead. “Wow. This is a historic occasion. We should mark it on the calendar, make a holiday of it.”
“Shut up,” Gokudera hissed. “It’s a goddamn miracle, is what it is.”
“Must have been the sun flames,” Hibari said. Gokudera had only recently discovered what giving her the sun flames led to, and it seemed the only plausible explanation.
“Heh. Must have been,” Gokudera said, fondly resting his hand on Uri’s back and petting her softly.
Hibari sighed, dispersing the memory, and said, “Nights should be quiet.”
It was enough to startle all of them, which pleased him. It had been a long time since any of them had truly been frightened of him, and he strangely found that he missed it.
“You know what happens when you disturb things, right?” he continued, and brought a tonfa out for good measure.
Sawada and Gokudera flinched back while Yamamoto held his hands up placatingly. The familiarity of it ached, and he was abruptly done with the whole interaction. He yawned and turned away. “I’m sleepy. Next time.”
“Wait, Hibari!” Gokudera demanded. Hibari stopped, but didn’t turn around. “…Thanks. I’ll pay you back sometime.”
Hibari smirked to himself for a moment. Gokudera had never been particularly good at keeping his promises, despite his best efforts. They had used to fight over it back before they trusted each other, but now it was simply something that Hibari found unreasonably amusing and Gokudera found unreasonably embarrassing.
So he curbed his smile and said, “I’ll wait, but I don’t expect much, Gokudera Hayato.”
He then walked away, ignoring Gokudera’s spluttered indignation. Sometimes—and if he was being honest, more like all of the time—he hated how familiar this younger Gokudera was.
--
When Gokudera eventually showed up at his door, looking for Uri, Hibari almost didn’t let him in.
The rational part of him explained it away by claiming that it was irresponsible to influence the past. Sawada had already done so by bringing them here, but he had been worried about how their experiences would change their own past, or if it would even affect them at all. Hibari’s relationship with Gokudera in particular had been so haphazard in the beginning that any slight change to it now could push their future in a drastically different direction.
But in reality, he didn’t care about that at all. He was just so sick of seeing him, of how similar he was to his own Gokudera, but also how blatantly different he was. He didn’t want him in his space, where echoes of his Gokudera followed him around like ghosts.
But Gokudera had already spotted Uri and was clicking his tongue at her. “Damn, I don’t know how she always gets away from me. I’m sorry she keeps disturbing you.”
Hibari stared at him for a moment, and then turned away into the kitchen. “She comes here because her home is here. If you want her to move her home, then you should take all of her things with you.”
Gokudera gaped at him. “…What?”
“You also need to feed her a more balanced diet than just fish,” Hibari said, roughly stacking Uri’s food cans into a small box. “She typically eats half a can three times a day, and I would suggest rotating between the different flavors, unless you want her to hate you more than she already does.”
Gokudera blinked at him in obvious astonishment. He glanced over at Uri, who was curled with Roll in the cat bed tucked into the far corner of the living room, both sound asleep. Hibari watched Gokudera stare at them, and then at the cat tower in the other corner of the room, and then at the box of cat food cans that Hibari had slammed onto the counter in front of him. He looked completely gobsmacked.
Hibari gestured vaguely towards the hallway. “And I would suggest taking the litter box as well.”
Gokudera’s fists clenched at his sides. He was angry, suddenly, though Hibari had no idea why. This Gokudera was much harder to read than his was. “Why don’t you just keep everything, since Uri obviously prefers you anyway? Damn, does she really hate me that much?”
“Yes.” Gokudera’s head whipped up to glare at him, his eyes fiery. “You are not her Gokudera Hayato.”
Gokudera scoffed. “She must not like him very much either, if she lives here with you. I mean, why don’t I already have all of her goddamn stuff? Did I just give up on her?”
…Ah. The more obvious answer hadn’t occurred to him yet. Hibari supposed his younger self would also be shocked by his current living arrangements.
“She lives here,” he said flatly, “because you live here.”
If Gokudera was gobsmacked before, this seemed to shut down his entire central nervous system. He just stood there, looking at Hibari with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open. After a long moment of them just staring at each other, he swallowed and said, “That’s—that’s not possible. You and me?”
Hibari stared at him for another moment and then went into his bedroom. When he came back out, he dropped Gokudera’s rings and glasses on the counter between them. Gokudera’s eyes bugged out as he stared at them, his hand with the same rings on them twitching at his side.
Hibari pointed at a thin silver one and said, “This one belonged to your mother. You never wear it in battle in fear you’ll lose it, or it’ll be destroyed.”
He picked up a black one, squishing it slightly between his fingers to show that it was merely made of silicon. “This was the first ring you ever bought for yourself, and it’s not even a real ring. You just thought it looked cool.”
He set that one down and then hesitated. The last one, the dark red one, wasn’t on the other Gokudera’s hand, and he was almost certain he shouldn’t tell him where it had come from.
But Gokudera was watching him, and while he was still visibly shocked, his eyes were fiery, defiant, so painfully familiar. Hibari clenched his teeth and said, “And this one…I gave to you for your 22nd birthday.”
Gokudera stared at him for another moment before his eyes dropped down to the rings. He gingerly picked them up, running his fingers habitually over the ones he already wore, curiously over the red one that he wouldn’t have for many years still.
“I’ve—” he started after a while, his voice quiet, “I’ve never told anyone about my mother.”
“Yet,” Hibari corrected, and met Gokudera’s eyes when he looked up at him.
Gokudera scoffed and turned away, watching Uri methodically groom Roll’s face. “In my present, I never even talk to you. We barely know each other. And yet you’re saying I—and Uri—live here with you? That I’ve told you things I’ve never told anyone before? I find that hard to believe.”
Hibari shrugged. “I don’t really care what you believe. You wanted to know why Uri comes here, I told you. Now take her and leave.”
Gokudera glared at him and then snatched the box of food cans off the counter. He stalked over to the cat bed and grabbed Uri by the scruff of her neck—to the storm cat’s very obvious annoyance, with how she struggled and yowled—and then continued out the door.
Hibari was left standing there, hands clenched into fists on the counter, consumed with an anger that he didn’t know what to do with.
--
That night, Uri didn’t join Hibari in bed, and he finally realized that, after all of these years, he had forgotten what true loneliness felt like.
--
Gokudera was waving a laser pointer around for Uri, the storm cat chasing after the red dot with delight.
Hibari watched them from the kitchen as he prepared fishcakes for Roll. The lasagna Gokudera had made was baking in the oven, filling the whole house with the scent of garlic and tomatoes. This was a usual occurrence, as Gokudera was the better cook between the two of them.
What was unusual was Uri’s playful tolerance of Gokudera.
“Finally tamed her, did you?” Hibari said snidely, setting Roll’s plate down on the floor.
“I wouldn’t say tamed—” Something made a loud crashing sound. The only reason Hibari could ignore it was because he had already removed everything he considered valuable from easy reach of a disobedient kitten. “More like…came to an agreement.”
Hibari watched Roll eat for a moment before walking into the living room. He found Gokudera there, carefully sweeping up the broken pieces of a panel of the sliding door while Uri sat beside him looking strangely pleased with herself. Hibari sighed. He supposed it was impossible to keep everything of value when one lived with a storm.
Though he’d already known that when he’d asked Gokudera to move in with him.
“Don’t worry, I’ll fix it—” Gokudera grouched, before turning and stopping when he saw Hibari. “…You’re not mad. In fact, you’re smiling. Who even are you?”
Hibari smirked and crossed the room, careful to avoid the pieces of broken glass Gokudera had yet to sweep up.
“I was simply considering how storms have the tendency to break things no matter how hard you try to protect them,” he said, bending down to kiss Gokudera’s forehead.
“Oh, so you were being an ass, I see.” Gokudera smirked and grabbed the front of Hibari’s shirt, pulling him down further so that they were nose to nose. “Should’ve known that smile was suspicious.”
Hibari kissed him properly, sliding his hand back through Gokudera’s hair as Gokudera opened his mouth for him. Kissing Gokudera was much like a storm, too – it was all-encompassing, frenzied, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
The eye of the storm only came when they had to breathe, gasping like they’d been at it for hours. Grinning, Gokudera lifted his hand and aimed the laser pointer at Hibari’s chest. Uri leapt for it, and—
Something warm and smooth, like a cat paw pad, pressed down on Hibari’s face. A soft mew sounded by his ear, followed by a low purr. Then, something furry burrowed under his chin.
Hibari opened his eyes. He was sleeping on the couch, as the bedroom had become particularly unbearable lately. The couch wasn’t much better, since they had fallen asleep together just about everywhere in the house, but at least the empty half of the bed and Gokudera’s rings and glasses weren’t staring at Hibari every time he opened his eyes.
Instead, he was greeted with a sea of yellow and white fur. It was Uri, of course, nuzzling against his chin with her cheek.
He was suddenly aware of another presence and he sprang into a sitting position, his hand on Uri’s back the only thing preventing her from catapulting across the room. He turned, ring blazing, to find Gokudera, the younger one, leaning against the far wall. He wasn’t anywhere near Hibari, at least, but how he had gotten inside without Hibari noticing was more alarming. Perhaps he had found the spare key that his future counterpart kept in the mostly unused room he shared with Sawada.
“What are you doing here?” Hibari growled. His hand tightened around Uri slightly. “Why is she here?”
“Well, to be honest, I couldn’t think of a single reason why anyone, let alone you, would pretend to be in a relationship with me.” Gokudera shrugged. “So I thought about it, and realized that it probably means more to you to have her here than it does for me to have her with me.”
Hibari bared his teeth. “I don’t need your pity, herbivore.”
Gokudera swore under his breath in Italian. “How are you still this irritating in ten years – aren’t you supposed to mature as you get older?”
Hibari narrowed his eyes at him, but Gokudera merely scoffed. “It’s not pity. Just think of it as me returning that favor I owe you.”
Hibari stared at him. He was still uneasy, prickling with irritation beneath his skin, but he had gotten better at not violently acting on it right away. And besides, somehow it was better, with Uri there – she was warm and cuddly and a good reminder that he was fighting for something, for someone. That he wasn’t just the same lonely, repressed 16-year-old he’d been ten years ago.
“Gokudera Hayato,” he said finally, smirking, “you managed to exceed my expectations. I’m impressed.”
Gokudera scoffed, but he was smiling too. “I should’ve known the moment you teased me like that. You were way more familiar with me than I was expecting.”
“…A lot changes in ten years,” Hibari murmured. “Even people like you and me.”
Gokudera watched him for a moment and then pushed off the wall. “Well, I guess that’s probably a good thing. I’m a complete asshole right now.”
“Oh, that doesn’t change,” Hibari couldn’t help but jab, and smiled as Gokudera flared up at him.
“Geez, you do a guy a favor and all he does is insult you.” Gokudera turned for the door. “I just need Uri back when we’re going to train. And I hope you don’t mind if I keep this spare key that I found.”
“You wouldn’t have it at all if I minded,” Hibari said, realizing just then that it was true. He had known this would happen eventually, Gokudera finding out, and he had been dreading it.
But perhaps it had worked out after all.
Gokudera just lifted a hand, waving as he left the house. Hibari heard the lock turn, and then he was once again alone.
Well, not completely alone.
Laying down again, Hibari closed his eyes, and with Uri curled against him fell quickly back into sleep.