Teach Me Love - Chapter 22

Summary: "Show me this so-called greatness of the power of love," Hibari ordered. "Fall in love with me." Haru could only stupidly gawk at him. Just what the heck did she get herself involved in? HaruxMultiple Pairings

My lack of KHR knowledge might make some things untrue or some characters OOC and I guess I'll explain some stuff at the end of the chapter, just so I won't spoil things! XD

I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn because if I did, there would be a lot more Haru loving!

Please forgive any mistakes, both character-wise and grammatically wise. lol, i still don't understand the beta system thing and I don't really have time to re-read and edit things.

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Chapter Twenty-Two

HappyFace1886

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The noisy shifting of gravel was the only indicator of his presence. Utter silence had filled the area with even the minor city wildlife straying far away from the scene of where the blood was going to disperse.

“Fuck,” Gokudera cursed grouchily at what laid before them. “You mean to tell me that that bastard actually chose this place again to be his hideout?”

Right before the eyes of the future Vongola Guardians and leader was the exact same old building where Haru had been kidnapped. The damages inflicted in the environment before were still present, with large steel beams laying carelessly all around them. There were also several spots of soot and burns from where Gokudera had thrown his dynamite.

“It’s not a completely bad idea,” Yamamoto murmured quietly and Gokudera gave him a wary look. With the whole behavior change because of the Haru ordeal and the revelation that Yamamoto might actually like the same woman as the Juudaime, Gokudera wasn’t sure how to react to him anymore. “Most wouldn’t consider the same old place to be a good idea to hide in, especially after how we were able to get in so easily.”

“I-In other words...” Tsuna paled a bit.

“It’s a trap,” Gokudera finished for him, a mixture of aggravation and annoyance filling his features. He then grinned at his leader. “As expected from my future leader! You saw right through their plan!”

Tsuna could only grin sheepishly, unsure of how to reply to that. His attention was jerked towards the silent member of the group and winced when Hibari wordlessly began to walk towards the building. It was scary whenever Hibari-san opened his mouth since it usually ended up being a threat of some sort or some bloody image of what he’d like to do, but the silence was equally scary since he was giving no indication of what was going through his mind.

“Hey, don’t just go off on your own!” Gokudera snapped with his fist pointed towards Hibari’s back. “We should think of a plan or something! We’ll get things done much faster if we work together!”

“The aid of useless herbivores is unneeded,” was Hibari’s cool reply as he didn’t even pause in his stride. Gokudera began to choke in his words as his blood pressure began to sky rocket. Hibari didn’t bother to even grace him with a glance as he made his way to the door that would lead into the building. “Besides, we’ve wasted enough time.”

“You-!”

“G-Gokudera-kun!” Tsuna immediately butted in before the self-proclaimed right-hand lost his cool. “H-Hibari-san does have a point. We should get to Haru as quickly as we can!”

“But Juudaime-!”

“We’ll just take Hibari-san’s lead for now!” Tsuna added in quickly, waving his hands around furiously as if to try and hide Hibari’s fading form from Gokudera’s view. “And it’s like you said, it’ll be much faster if we work together. S-So let’s just go and back up Hibari-san instead of doing our own thing.”

Gokudera growled deeply, but shoved his hands into his pockets. Fine, if that’s what the Juudaime wanted, he’d go along with it for now. From beside him, Yamamoto shifted his weight amongst his feet.

“I think that’s a good idea.” Yamamoto said, his eyes roving over their surroundings with a slight frown as they began to walk in the direction Hibari had disappeared into. “Something happened here.”

“What do you mean?” Tsuna began looking around, trying to see what had captured Yamamoto’s attention.

“Baseball freak is right,” Gokudera grunted, still looking a tad irritated. “If the bastard who kidnapped Haru is going through the same old motions, we should’ve have been attacked by now. Even if he wasn’t, there should’ve been some guys patrolling the area... but this place is almost completely deserted...”

His words trailed off as they soon caught up with Hibari who hadn’t walked too far into the dimly lit hallway. Instead, he was kneeling before a fallen pipe on the floor. There were also several unconscious bodies down the corridor, but judging by how far along down the hallway the bodies laid, it was unlikely that Hibari had been the one to knock them out.

“Haru,” Yamamoto concluded, recognizing the clumsy blows that had been inflicted upon the fallen men. It wasn’t perfect enough to land on the vitals, but she had managed to hit them hard enough to knock them out. His gaze went down onto the bloodstains on the ground. Still, he wondered grimly, she couldn’t have done it all unscathed.

“Hah, all my training with her paid off,” Gokudera grinned with pride. See! Regardless of what other people said, he knew knowing the theory behind fighting was just as important as knowing how to actually fight! From behind him, Tsuna couldn’t help but give off a small smile as well.

Hibari snorted with contempt and Gokudera flashed him a glare. Before another loud one-sided argument could begin, Yamamoto spoke up. “If Haru was the one who did this, where is she right now?”

The worry returned into Tsuna’s eyes. “Maybe... Maybe she was able to get away?”

Before any could formulate a response, Hibari began his way into the hallway. Perhaps Haru had gotten away. But perhaps she didn’t... if she was still inside, he would find her. And he would make whoever made her bleed to pay with their own blood.

---

Haru moaned slightly and grimaced at the feel of pain radiating all over her body. The second thing that registered in her mind was the fact that her wrists were bound. She couldn’t move her hands and judging by the positioning of her body, she was currently propped against the wall.

What happened?

The sound was muffled, but she could vaguely hear and angry rants and raves of someone. Her eyes fluttered in time to see a hand reaching out and striking her on the face. Unprepared for this, she released a slight yelp of surprise and pain. Her eyes began to tear up, but she refused to let them fall as she glared defiantly at the raging man before her.

Of course. It was him again.

“You stupid bitch,” he snarled with his eyes glowing with fury as his hands twitched with the urge to hit her again. “Why can’t you be docile and do as you’re supposed to do like before?”

“Haru isn’t a bitch nor is she stupid!” she resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at him. He’d probably try and cut it off or something equally gruesome. “Besides, she’s not the one who thought of the stupid plan of doing the same thing all over again!”

“Be quiet!” he yelled and she flinched when it looked as though he was going slap her. However, the rebellious gleam in her eyes never faded.

“Haru refuses to let you use her like that again!” she snapped boldly. Never had she been so angry with a person in her life. Maybe it was a mix of adrenaline and pain, but right now, she hated the mere sight of this man. He caused her and her friends so much pain and all because of his stupid need for vengeance... a vengeance he didn’t even deserve to want since he was doing bad things in the first place! “You will never, ever again use me as a weapon against my friends.”

Hideo clenched his hands into tight fists. He gritted his teeth and was about to silence the stupid girl when she moved without warning. Seeing as though he was dealing with an obviously weak and useless girl, he hadn’t had the foresight to actually tie her to anything. Her wrists were the only things tied together.

Haru made sure that her shoulder was in the front, slamming it as hard as she could into Hideo’s chest. There was a choking sound from the man as he had the wind knocked out of him. Unable to pull back from her momentum, the two tumbled together into the floor. Haru tried to scramble away from him, shoving her hands into his chest in order to push him back down while standing up. Unfortunately, the moment she did so, Hideo grabbed her by the ankle and roughly yanked at it, causing her to fall.

There was a loud cry of pain as she fell onto the hard floor. Meanwhile, Hideo took this time to get back up. Running an aggravated hand through his hair, he pivoted on his heel in order to kick her hard on the stomach. There was a cough while Haru clutched onto her stomach, a pain she had never felt before compounding throughout her entire body.

Still, to Hideo’s great unpleasure and a tiny bit of growing horror, the rebellious fire refused to die from her eyes.

“What,” so outraged over how a measly little girl was giving him so much trouble, the words were literally began spat out with little specks of saliva shooting out of his mouth, “the fuck is with you brats? What the hell is driving you to be so stubborn? What the fuck is making you...” by this point, Hideo almost appeared to be at a loss for words, “you so strong like this?”

Hideo gritted his teeth.

He was strong!

He was one of the most influential people he knew! Why was this mere child so unafraid of him?

Hideo’s heartbeat quickened as he met her gaze. It was reminding him too much of the fucking Prefect’s eyes. He could still remember the pain that radiated from his scar, the cool and collected gaze of that young boy who had beaten him so easily. This girl was giving off the same frightening powerful presence like that boy.

Why?

Why?

Why?!

“Because,” Haru coughed out, bearing through the pain. She gave him a flimsy smirk, but it was enough to make Hideo take a step back. “If it’s for the people I love... when it comes to the power of love... there’s nothing one can’t handle.”

The words were enough to snap him out of his terror. Such words were so vastly different from the ones that would have been shared by the Prefect. He must’ve been mistaken to believe she had such a threatening presence about her. No, it had all been an illusion from the stress. This child was weak, feeble... helpless.

He sneered at her. “So you’re just a fucking romantic idiot with no sense.”

“Don’t look down on the power of love!” Haru yelled at him. “It’s what helped me beat you in your stupid game!”

The jab hit his ego hard and Hideo raised his fist. “You little-.”

The descending fist never reached its intended destination, a loud crack of bones breaking echoing throughout the empty room as Hideo’s fist ended up smacking hard against stainless steel. There was a moment of silence before Hideo howled in pain, backtracking while clutching onto the wrist of the now broken fingers.

He muttered unintelligible curses under his breath before freezing. What had he just hit? It was long and thin like a pole... like the end of an all too familiar tonfa wielded by the nightmare that terrorized him each night.

Hideo slowly raised his head and found himself looking into the eyes belonging to the apex of the predators.

No! This wasn’t part of his plans!

Tonight was supposed to be his night! He was supposed to be the hero that triumphed over the villain, the monster that haunted his every dream! He was-!

The rest of his thoughts were silenced as there was another sickening crack, this one much louder than before as Hibari mercilessly slammed the tonfa into Hideo’s face. Hideo went flying, his body slightly spinning before he landed face first into the wall. He slid onto the ground and groaned in pain, placing a hand against the wall to help him stand up. He barely managed to stagger onto his feet when he heard the innocent clatter of something dropping before him.

His eyes barely managed to register what it was before the dynamite exploded beneath him. His consciousness wavered as he was sent flying, the world becoming a blur. Still, he wasn’t out of it enough to avoid the pain that exploded throughout his stomach when the back of a katana was shoved into his gut. The momentum caused by the explosion seemed to amplify the hit.

He staggered backwards, trying to recover from the myriad of pain that filled his body. Hideo stumbled over his feet and turned around.

Callous two-toned eyes were the last thing he saw before he felt a punch right onto his already broken nose, the crunch of the broken bones grinding against each other being the last thing that echoed throughout his ears.

---

Haru thought she was going to cry at the sight of the boys before her. Thank goodness. She was saved! She had managed to hold on long enough for the boys to get here... all without them being hurt by whatever stupid plan Hideo had been making.

And then a pair of long legs came into view. She looked up and saw Hibari’s cold gaze looking down at her. Against her will, fear and apprehension clawed up from her stomach and clutched onto her throat. Words were trapped within her as her mind flashed back to the time from before... when they were caught in a similar situation and he had declared her to be a burden.

He kneeled before her and Haru looked away, instinctively afraid of what he was going to say.

Had this moment just reaffirm his conviction? They had just started to get along again! Would he... Would he still consider her to be weak and useless?

She didn’t think her heart could take another blow...

A hand gently cradled her bruised face, the hold intentionally tender in order to not hurt her. Gently, it guided her so that she was now looking into Hibari’s face. There was something... different about the way he was looking at her right now.

“You did well,” he murmured quietly.

It took a few seconds for the words to register in her mind before she gave him a watery smile. This time, she wasn’t able to hold the tears and a few managed to trail down from the side of her face. “All because of the power of love...” she managed to say hoarsely.

“Yes,” he murmured in silent agreement, his eyes never strayed from her wounded face. The wounds she obtained because she was fighting. For him. “I think I’m starting to understand a bit more of this power of love... even if it’s just a little bit.”

His thumb slowly wiped a tear that slipped out.

“You grew strong because you were fighting for someone you love.”

Haru’s face flushed at his bold declaration and she shyly pulled away, unable to hold his intense gaze. Instead, she sniffled and focused her tears, knowing how unsightly she must’ve looked right now. She reached up to wipe the tears away, only to wince when she realized just how raw and even somewhat bloody her wrists were with all of her rough movement.

“Let’s get you out of those,” Yamamoto’s reassuring voice reached her ears and she looked up to see him slice through the ropes. He grabbed her by the elbow and slowly helped her up, giving her a warm smile while he sadly gazed at the bloodstains on her skin and clothes. “You were very brave.”

“T-That’s because I didn’t want anyone to get hurt again because of me.” Haru said, wanting to very much pull away because Yamamoto’s gaze was just as intense as Hibari’s. Still, the hold he had on her arm was very warm and comforting, a clashing contrast to the angry hits and rage from the one who kidnapped her. “I... I was determined to protect everyone, no matter what!”

“Because you love us all?” Yamamoto asked teasingly, causing Haru to blush profusely while Hibari scowled. Haru began to stammer, unable to form the proper response. To her immense relief, there was no need as Gokudera and Tsuna then made their appearance.

“Haru-chan!” Tsuna yelled, his eyes widening in horror at all the blood. “Are you alright?”

“You stupid women,” Gokudera yelled as well, his stomach lurching at the sight of her bruised face. “What was the point of us teaching you if you end up getting kidnapped again?”

“It’s not like Haru meant to get kidnapped again,” she growled at him.

“B-But you’re bleeding everywhere,” Tsuna took in the sight of the dried blood on her shoulder and felt his eyebrows wrinkle together in worry.  He reached out in order to gentle caress her cheek with the back of his hand. “I’m sorry we didn’t get here fast...”

Haru felt her face flush even more and wondered if she was going to resemble a tomato by the end of tonight. “N-No! Please, I’m fine! I’m just glad you were all able to get here without getting hurt...”

“All thanks to your handiwork in the hallway.” Yamamoto teased. “But we can discuss more about this later. Let’s get you out of here.”

Haru perked up at the idea of finally being out of this place, but the moment she took the first step, she stumbled forward right into Yamamoto’s arms. The ache from her stomach from being hit made it hard to move without wincing, but she had completely forgotten about the wound on her leg. Not to mention from when Hideo had grabbed her ankle...  now that the adrenaline was dying out, she found it amazing she had been standing at all!

“Sorry,” she murmured against Yamamoto. “I... I think I twisted my ankle...”

There were no replies from the boys, their expressions darkening at the memory of what they had walked into. The door to the room Hideo and Haru were in had been open, giving them the perfect view of Hideo kicking her in the stomach before spouting more abuse at her. Hibari had simply been the fastest and the closest, hence the reason why he had been the first one to land a blow.

Hideo had gotten off easy. If they had all made it in on time, there wouldn’t have been pieces left for the police to arrest again later. No... after tonight, a more alternative method of punishment would be laid out later.

Before Yamamoto could reassure Haru that it was alright, Hibari made his way towards him and pulled Haru from his grasp. Haru’s eyes widened in surprise before she squeaked, clutching onto the front of Hibari’s shirt as he wordlessly picked her up into his arms. She looked up wildly at him as he cradled her close to him. “Wait, wait, I can walk!”

“No,” was his simple answer as he turned towards the exit.

There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to register what happened. It was abruptly broken when Gokudera shook his head free of the confusion, turning to point an accusing finger at Hibari’s back. “Where the hell do you think you’re going with her?”

There was no response and Gokudera growled, running after Hibari. Tsuna trailed after him, trying to calm Gokudera down before another fought broke out. Yamamoto merely chuckled, following them from behind. He would allow Hibari to have this moment.

After all, since the threat had finally been silenced, the games had only just begun.

“K-Kyoya, please! I really can walk!” Haru squirmed, alternating from looking at Hibari to Gokudera chasing after them from behind. She was happy that everyone was now safe and that Hibari seemed to understand the power of love. And even though it was mortifying how Hibari was holding her with no obvious intention of letting her go, she felt contentment run through her at the realization that finally... finally things would go back to the way they were.

There would be more embarrassing random moments with her and Kyoya. She would still keep up with her training with the boys. That way, in the future, if something like this happened again, she would be able to take care of herself. And then there would be-.

“You’ll love only me.” Hibari’s voice cut through her train of thought. His voice was also loud and clear enough to echo throughout the empty hallway.

There was a loud thud as Gokudera tripped over his own feet. Tsuna didn’t even seem to notice his self-proclaimed right hand falling onto the floor, openly gawking at the unaffected Prefect who continued his steady pace. Even Yamamoto appeared surprised by the bold declaration.

“H-hahi?” Haru choked.

“You grew stronger for me and only me,” Hibari replied stubbornly, his eyes narrowing at the thought of otherwise. “Because you love me and only me.”

“Oi, what the hell are you saying?” Gokudera yelled from the ground.

Yamamoto spoke calmly with his usual smile, though there was a slight hint of steel behind it. “Don’t you think Haru-chan should be free to love who she wants?”

“Which is me.” Hibari said finally stopped walking while tightening his grip around Haru. He spared a glance to the people behind, the dark glower that promised retribution to anyone who dared to interfere with what was his. “If you grow any stronger due to the power of love, then it’s due to me only.”

“What?” Haru’s eyes goggled in disbelief.

“H-Hibari-san,” Tsuna began and wilted a bit under the glare. “Be a bit reasonable here. Yamamoto-kun is right. Haru-chan should be free to love anyone she wants.

“Exactly, so don’t go around trying to hog her for yourself, you bastard!” Gokudera added while standing up, growing more and more irritated with each bullshit the stupid Prefect spat out.

“Why? Do you wish to have her for yourself then?” Hibari remarked coolly and Gokudera blushed a brilliant shade of red while Haru whipped her head towards Gokudera so hard that she thought she was going to give herself whiplash.

“What the absolute fuck?” Gokudera sputtered.

“Eh? Gokudera-kun? You like Haru-chan too?” Tsuna faltered.

“Don’t listen to him Decimo! I know you like that stupid woman-wait-I mean!” Gokudera blubbered as realized he just gave away his precious boss’s secret away. Tsuna’s face was currently beet red while the flush on Haru’s cheeks deepend.

Hibari then turned to Yamamoto. “I have no intention of letting you have her.”

Yamamoto smiles coolly. “And I have no intention of letting you have her either.”

By now Haru was way too flustered and in pain to stay conscious. Instead she groaned and buried her face into her hand. What kind of development was this? What did Hibari mean that everyone else loved her?

Just when she thought her problems had settled down, more had formed now instead.

So much for peaceful days...

Still, a smile reached her lips as she heard the mixture of rambunctious yells and collected retorts of the boys around her.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

---

::owari::

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AN: Really, did you think there would be some kind of satisfactory ending when it came to pairings? xD This is, after all, a HaruMulti fanfic. And the whole point was Haru trying to teach Hibari about the power of love. Now that that’s settled, the story has ended. Sorry for the unsatisfactory ending. @_@ This seemed like the only way to end it without dragging it on even more! I’m sorry for how long it took to finish this, but for those who stayed till the bitter end, I hope this somewhat gives you guys closure!

There was actually more I wanted to do... sadly, life got in the way. I wanted to update earlier today, but suddenly plans sprung out of the blue. Then there were health issues in the family. And so, I apologize for any expectations I might've destroyed.

Now I must go and attend to the other multi-chapter fanfics!

Chapter 21