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iv

4.

The world was ending.

That was what he first thought at that time.

Looking up in shock, Tsuna couldn't help but stop in his tracks and gape along with the crowd at the sight of a petite girl ruffling Hibari-san's hair fondly.

It was a masked loli.

A loli was pulling Hibari-san down - wrinkling his beloved uniform in the process - in order to reach up and pat his head.

What.

Tsuna's brain stopped - honest-to-goodness stopped working at "Kyoya-chan". He couldn't-

He couldn't compute.

Tsuna absentmindedly pinched himself.

Hard.

He winced.

Nope. He really wasn't dreaming.

Hibari-san, the stop-crowding-herbivores-I'll-bite-you-to-death demon prefect, the person who was said to break bones and draw blood when people ventured in his personal space, was well-

Letting that loli mess with his rep.

And his hair.

The fuck. Tsuna couldn't get over the Kyoya-chan.

Seriously?

What.

"How about you?" The loli asked as she continued to court death and proceeded to give Hibari-san a noogie. "Didn't you miss me?"

What a brave loli.

Tsuna couldn't help but admire the girl's spirit and courage. It was truly admirable, even as the picture they painted made everyone's face curled up like a raisin as the killing intent in the air went up a notch.

He thought it was the end for the valiant loli, but-

The air just turned colder and colder as the loli played on and on, and Hibari-san, for the lack of a better word, indulged the culprit.

Tsuna swore that he and all of the late-bivores that were privileged to see this event had their minds merged as one and collectively thought-

So this was Hibari-san's type, huh?

Of course, this thought didn't last long when once the loli got tired to stretching her hands, Hibari-san finally straightened his stance, fixed up his uniform and regained his dignity.

The demon stared at the loli aloofly - almost exasperatedly (?), but Tsuna didn't care about that when Hibari-san shook his world again with a sentence.

"I'm fine, aneki. Let go of me."

Tsuna squeaked, when that particular information started to sink in and his ears finally stopped ringing from the shock.

Aneki?

That loli-

She looked like a grade-schooler, Kami-

She was probably, give or take, only as tall as Fuuta!

Was Hibari-san high?

Tsuna flinched, withering as startlingly sharp gray eyes roved over his form intently before moving away.

The masked loli didn't seem so harmless anymore when he still felt his scalp prickle as she then, looked at the people who were starting to whisper among themselves - seemingly estranged.

(Tsuna remembered thinking during that moment that-)

(She was looking at all of them as if they were all dead - as if they weren't real.)

(It was only a moment. A split second at best, before her eyes regained its previous mischievous light and Tsuna forgot about it, but-)

(Although he ignored it at that time, his intuition was curling in on itself whispering dangerous, take care, there's something wrong wrong wrong-)

(Before it vanished as if it wasn't even there, to begin with.)

The courtyard was once again silent.

The mask loli smiled at the prefect playfully, her eyes crinkling into half-moons - arms falling away to her sides. "You're still a grump huh, ototou?"

The prefect just hummed in reply as he flicked his tonfa to the side and sneered at all of them haughtily. "Stop crowding, herbivores and get to your classes."

Tsuna didn't even hesitate. Immediately jumping at the chance of freedom, he tried to get into terms with the fact that apparently, the demon-prefect had an older sister.

An older sister that looked like a loli, was as tall as Fuuta and, damn it all, called Hibari-san "Kyoya-chan".

...His head hurt.