04. Five Minutes - Katekyo Hitman Reborn - 1886

Cloud Watching Days

Summary: Series of connecting slice-of-life one-shots concerning our favorite couple, Haru and Hibari! Their moments in time together. Hibari x Haru / 1886

My lack of KHR knowledge might make some things untrue or some characters OOC!

I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Please forgive any mistakes, both character-wise and grammatically-wise. I don't have time to re-read or edit things.

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04. Five Minutes

HappyFace1886

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“You bitch,” the towering man snarled, his heavy scowl further distorting the scars on his face. In his hand was a frightening looking serrated knife with blood dripping down its fine, sharpened edge. “I’m going to enjoy cutting you to pieces.”

Haru clutched onto her bleeding arm, sweat trailing down the side of her face as she tried to keep her breathing steady.

Two minutes.

She just needed to last two more minutes.

---

“The best way to defend yourself is being able to read your opponent,” Hibari murmured as he leaned against the wall. Haru sat before him on her knees, looking attentively with her hands pressed on her legs. They were currently in one of the underground facilities of the Foundation that were still being built, but what they had was more than enough for their needs. “To be able to properly read your opponent, you must first overcome the paralysis that sets in when your senses are filled with fear at facing an opponent stronger than yourself.”

At that, Haru gulped a little. She’d more than enough experience when it came to that. Even though she’d stayed behind the sidelines, she still clearly remembered the battle in the future. Not to mention, later on in their own timeline when she’d been exposed to the other dangerous side of the mafia. Then there was Hibari... she’d been dragged into enough fights with him involved in the center of it to have more than enough familiarity of being pinned down by the bloodlust of an enemy.

Still...

She flinched when Hibari’s gaze sharpened on her and a suffocating pressure enveloped her.

...this was the first time she’d ever felt his bloodlust aimed towards her.

It was certainly an interesting experience from a clinical sense. The way her body automatically tensed, unsure of what to do due to the extreme danger it was in and consequently freezing in place as the fear settled over her. The only one that came to mind who could rival this thirst for violence and blood was probably the leader of the Varia. Tsuna-san and the other Guardians, not even Mukuro-san, ever summoned such a potent lust such as this.

Because this wasn’t just a simple want of killing someone.

This was a need to dominate and to crush, to force the unworthy to their knees. Or as Hibari liked to put it, to show the pathetic herbivores that their place belonged right underneath the blood stained jowls of a hungry carnivore.

For those of Hibari’s breed, this was simply just a way of life.

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Haru rushed towards the man and skid between his legs, taking advantage of his towering bulking figure that required him to have a widened stance in order to balance himself. He tried to grab her, but she swiftly ended up behind him. She wasted no time, rushing towards the maze-like corridors.

The wound on her arm was shallow, but she still worried that her frantic movements would lead to blood-loss. She couldn’t afford to let that happen. One sluggish move from her and it was all over!

Just a few minutes. Maybe even just a minute! She was almost there!

---

The pressure evaporated and Haru nearly fell forward, her hands now pressed against the tatami mats while she panted hard to catch her breath. God, was this what Tsuna-san and the others faced all the time? Was this what brought Hibari such joy to face each time he got himself involved in a dangerous battle? She’d seen his battle maniac smiles several times and, other than the usual lazy indulgent smiles he'd give her, it was a smile of joy she rarely got to see. One filled with unbridled excitement and anticipation.

Perhaps she was a bit unhinged from being exposed to so many crazy things in this world, but Haru couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped. She covered her mouth in order to smother it. “You’re crazy, Kyo-kun.”

From in front of her, Hibari smirked indolently. He pushed himself off against the wall and walked towards her. “Once you’ve overcome your natural reactions to danger, then we can move onto reading your opponents movements. Meanwhile, we’ll also have to improve your speed so that you can avoid being grabbed.”

“Is that all I’m going to learn?” Haru inquired with a slight tilt of her head as she frowned. “Won’t I also need to learn how to defend myself?”

“Do you think you’ll also have the time and energy to devote yourself into learning how to defend and attack?” he arched an eyebrow at her, knowing that even after graduating college, she was trapped with a Spartan lifestyle under a ‘internship’ with Verde-san. Then there were her part-time jobs with Spanner and Shoichi Irie.

Haru winced. Training her body into being able to escape will probably take up what precious free time she had left for herself. “Good point... but what happens if I’m kidnapped? I can only escape them for so long and if I can’t think of a way to lose them or knock them out, I’m going to end up right where I started.”

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Her attacker laughed. “Do you think you can escape me? Your blood is giving me a trail of exactly the direction I should go to find you!”

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“Five minutes.”

Haru stared as Hibari showed his hand to her, his fingers all parted and showing the long artist fingers that’d ended so many enemies... and yet would hold her so delicately. “Hahi?”

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Haru leaned against the wall in the middle of the corridor, breathing harshly while clutching onto her arm. Her attacker found her so and roared with laughter, waving his knife threateningly as he approached her. “Gone mad, have you? This is the first time I had a bitch grinning like you right when she’s about to be killed.”

“You’re the one who doesn’t get it,” Haru said with a tired smile.

The concrete walls behind the knife-wielding man began to crack, spider web-like fractures appearing at an extreme pace.

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“All you need to do is survive for five minutes,” Hibari continued, his hooded eyes blackening at the possibility of the fool that dared to touch what was his. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

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The wall exploded and an ominous figure appeared amongst the rubble. The burly man whirled around, eyes widened as a suffocating deadly presence exploded within the air. He choked and took a step back, nearly dropping his knife along the way. Unfortunately for him, perhaps it would have been best if he’d done so.

Cool, sharp eyes stared at the blood dripping on the serrated knife and of how his Haru stood behind the fool, her hand clutching onto a bloodied arm. Hibari smiled darkly as he crossed an arm across his chest, the tonfas of his cambio form clicking into action as he spoke in a quiet, deadly voice. “I’ll bite you to death.”

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::owari::

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AN: I'm losing steam... @__@ or more like, I need more sleep. The updates might slow down a little now, haha. It won't disappear completely though. I just need sleep @___@

Anywho, this is more in the future and as noted, Haru has graduated college. I’m sure that due to Haru’s relationship with the Vongola and Hibari, she’d be a prime target for kidnappers. So I figured she and Hibari would try to think of what to do if such a scenario appeared. I'm sure it was probably a big cause of concern for the both of them, Hibari with wanting to keep her safe and Haru for not wanting to be a liability for the freedom-love Hibari. However, while a badass Haru will be nice, I can’t imagine her trying to juggle all her intense studies AND be a decent fighter, so they stuck with something she should focus on until help can arrive. Five minutes is impossible to always keep, but I can imagine Hibari saying something arrogant like that. xD

03. Cappuccino Kisses
04. Old Intimacies