Hustler

AN: I worked bloody hard on this fic. So I hope at least a few people will appreciate it. ENJOY.

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“How have you been holding up, Kyouya?” Chiavorone asked, swivelling idly on his stool and adjusting the thick frames on the bridge of his nose. There was a thin clipboard that sat open across his knees, and the man was fiddling with a pen, clicking, again and again and again...


Dino stopped when Hibari scowled at him, giving the man a weak smile as he finally looked up from the thick tome in his lap to catch Dino’s eye.


“I’m fine.” Hibari intoned.


“Of course you are.” Chiavorone replied pleasantly, making a show of flipping to the second page of the clipboard and scratching down a quick note. Hibari shook his hair subtly from his eyes and sighed, the sound piercing the suffocating silence between them. Dino Chiavorone looked up distractedly from the papers, closing the clipboard in resignation as he did.


“Look. You know I wish I had better news, but right now Kyouya there’s nothing we can do but wait. You’re on the recipient list, and the results of your test have....have moved you up, but...”


“I already know all this.” Hibari said shortly. And he did, he’d been hearing it his whole life, there was nothing new that Dino could tell him. But for as long as Hibari had known him the man had been insufferably diligent. ’I’m your doctor, Kyouya, it’s my job.’ Still, what was the point? Hibari was perfectly aware of his situation and it was his preference to be left in peace...or at least as much so as a terminally committed patient could be. Chiavorone, on the other hand appeared to be of the opinion that in lieu of a viable medical fix his mother-henning was the best course of treatment.


Hibari would have done away with the man if he hadn’t been so adverse to putting forth the effort it would take to acquire a fitting replacement. Instead he ignored the sympathetic look on his face and returned to book in his lap, bleeding out the world around him.


When Dino walked out the door, an apologetic sound escaping his lips, Hibari pretended not to notice.


~[ |-| |_| $ ¯|¯ |_ £ Ř ]~


“Ah, sorry, I was a little caught up.” Dino replied, sliding to a stop in front of a sharply dressed young individual, who for all his airs was very apparently nervous.


Round brown eyes flickered to him momentarily, and the young man’s expression brightened exponentially, before dipping back to one of anxiety as he fixed his gaze on the starkly elegant man that was standing in the white-washed hospital lobby before them. Rukudo Mukuro was not a man that Dino was unfamiliar with, and yet each and every time he met him it was akin to meeting the man for the very first time.


And by the nervous fidgeting of Sawada Tsunayoshi beside him, the young heir felt the same way.


“Mukuro.” Tsuna said with a nervous bow and Dino purposefully failed to mimic the act but gave a cheerful wave instead that went entirely unnoticed.


“I’ve got what you asked for.” Mukuro said holding out a small transport cooler with all the nonchalance of a handshake.


“Ah, thank you Mukuro.” Tsuna fumbled as Dino stepped forward to take the offered cooler. “Now if you could come with me to my office we can discuss...”


Tsuna trailed off at the complete inattention Mukuro displayed. The man was glancing distractedly at the side doors to the hospital where a scowling young man dressed in a black summer yukata had re-entered the lobby, scattering nervous patients and frightened nurses as he cut a path across the crowded white floor.


“Who is that?” Mukuro asked without any pretence.


A look of fear crossed young Tsuna’s face, nervousness freezing his tongue entirely.


“Kyouya. He’s a patient.” Dino muttered under his breath, hoping half-heartedly that Mukuro wouldn’t hear him.


Dino shuddered a little at the predatory grin that lingered briefly on Mukuro’s face as he tracked the man’s movement across the room. He flinched when the pager on his belt went off and he scowled faintly at thought of having to leave one of his oldest patients to fall prey to a man like Mukuro.


But it was what it was, and it wasn’t like Dino could just drop a surgery because he was trying to protect the sanctity of Hibari Kyouya...


Right. This was Hibari Kyouya of all people...Dino turned away to hide the smile that formed on his lips at that thought from Mukuro.


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Mukuro leant against the door frame to a private room in the cardiology ward, his eyes taking in the accommodations as he tried to figure out how to best approach the man who was staring out the large windows across the room, his back to the door.


“So what are you in for?” Mukuro asked at last, a little flippant.


For a minute he suspected that the man hadn’t heard him at all—his stance didn’t chance one bit, he didn’t turn or jump—but just as he was about to step into the room he was fixed with a dark glare and pinned him to the threshold of the door.


Ah this little caged bird was certainly interesting, very much worth his time, Mukuro decided. Not that he appreciated the ‘Are you an idiot?’ look that he was receiving.


“Come on now. A little civility won’t be the death of you will it?” Mukuro swaggered into the space despite the intense killing intent that seemed to be aimed in his direction.


“Get out of my room unless you want to see how your intestines will look decorating the floor.” The man snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.


Mukuro laughed. How cute!


“Ah, but it’s no fun if I leave now.” Mukuro said, walking in a little further and enjoying the way the other man bristled at his advance. “Now be a good little bird and tell me what you’re in here for.”


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Hibari growled in frustration as his most recent literary pursuit was slipped from his fingers as a completely unwanted presence settled onto his bed.


“Really Kyouya? To Kill a Mocking Bird? You know I don’t condone violence against cute little birds, my skylark.”


“You’re doing a good job of killing me right now.” Hibari muttered under his breath and Mukuro grinned, laughing softly. He suspected the fact that Kyouya was talking to him meant that he had at least warmed up to him a little after all these weeks of nearly daily visits. Not that he could ever gauge with the brooding young man. Trying to sound out his emotions was like throwing a pebble into a bottomless pit.


Not that Mukuro didn’t enjoy the challenge. Or the fact that he had to spend three hours tracking Hibari down after he switched rooms on the fifth day. Or that he was dragged off by a couple matronly nurses and admitted to the psych ward on the twelfth day. Or even that Kyouya had Tsuna intercept him four days straight three weeks after he had first began dropping in on him.


So really Hibari being a little disgruntled was an improvement...


The next thought he had was that the stars in front of his eyes were very pretty indeed. By the time he had shaken them from his vision Kyouya was nowhere in sight.


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Mukuro was whistling as he strolled through the pristine hallways of cardio ward, winking and shooting dazzling grins at fawning nurses as he followed the now familiar path to Kyouya’s room. In one hand he had a tastefully small bouquet of flowers. Not because he thought Kyouya would appreciate the gesture, but rather because he thought it would at garner at least a reaction from the stoic young man.


Hibari. It had taken a certain degree of finesse for him to discover Kyouya’s surname...which in itself was a novel experience for Mukuro. Once he had the name it had been a ridiculously simple task to look Hibari up. What he had discovered had rekindled that boyish excitement he had felt when he had first set eyes on Kyouya.


It had been plain as day that Kyouya was of Japanese decent but that simple fact was hardly inclusive of his finer points in Mukuro’s opinion. Clearly Kyouya valued his heritage, though Mukuro wasn’t all together appreciative of that fact considering his own splintered relationship with his motherland. But more intriguingly there was something exquisitely exotic about the man that was Kyouya. And it was this mysterious allure that Mukuro found so intriguing, so addictive.


Mukuro slid with perfect grace into the doorway to Hibari’s room and—


The bouquet slipped from nerveless fingers.


Mukuro was unceremoniously pushed aside by an unfamiliar doctor who charged into the room and he slumped against the wall, shaking.


The weakness in his own knees was entirely unfamiliar to Mukuro. It felt like the bottom had dropped out of his stomach and there was a dull roaring in his ears as he watched with passive, almost unseeing eyes.


Kyouya was laid flat against the bed, pillow on the floor, an oxygen mask pressed over his mouth and nose. The yukata that Mukuro had gotten so use to seeing him in had been yanked open to reveal a pale unmoving chest, and three pairs of hands scrambled over his torso, hastily trying to work life back into that unmoving body.


The flat lining heart monitor’s high tone was like a scream in his ears. The words that the doctor and nurses threw at each other went in through one ear and out the other. And for the life of him Mukuro could not understand why his hands crumpled into white-knuckled fists and his whole body shuddered with heart-rending relief when that monitor’s tone beat to life at last.


~[ |-| |_| $ ¯|¯ |_ £ Ř ]~


“How long?” Mukuro hissed. For all outward appearances he was calm, but the emotions that were ripping through him would have crippled any other man.


“What?” Mukuro was a little taken aback by the ferocity of the blond standing before him. He had not expected Dino to be so plucky and he was in no mood to appreciate his sudden display of backbone.


“How long does he have?”


“I’m afraid that would be a breach of doctor-patient confidentiality.” And Dino’s tone made it clear that that was the least of his reservations where Mukuro was concerned.


Mukuro had him by the neck and slammed against the wall with all the casualness of handshake.


“You don’t seem to understand. You will tell me.”


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“I’m sorry sir, I’m afraid you cannot enter—there.” The male nurse choked as Mukuro brushed past him without acknowledging his existence at all. Kyouya was sitting up in bed, his hair looking ruffled.


Chiavorone who was on the far side of the bed leaning against the window sill flinched when he saw who had walked in but Mukuro paid him no mind.


“Sir, you can’t—“ The nurse grabbed him by the elbow from behind and before he could react Dino waved the young attendant off and flashed Mukuro what could have been considered a daunting scowl. Mukuro failed to notice all together.


“Mukuro, you shouldn’t be here.” Dino muttered with the distinct feeling that he was being ignored. He glanced at Kyouya briefly—he was still wary of the overly bright expression Mukuro was wearing—and saw that the other man was more withdrawn than even he was use to seeing.


“We’re done right?” Kyouya’s tone was hard but brittle, as though he was on the edge of snapping. But whether in anger, or a true break down he couldn’t tell. Dino felt frustration race through him at his own inability. His hands were tied, there was nothing he could do for Kyouya. Certainly he was a heart surgeon, and one of the best in the nation, but as long as Hibari was in stable condition he would never get far enough up the organ recipient list to get a heart. Not before one of his arrhythmias killed him.


“Yes. Kyouya—“


“Just leave Chiavorone.”


Dino stripped his glasses off his face and rubbed his temples in resignation as he left, sparing Mukuro a devastating glare that naturally, went entirely unnoticed.


Mukuro watch Kyouya in silence, a self-satisfied smirk on his lips. Was it his fault that he thought that his little bird was adorable even when so downcast and broken down?


And really, it didn’t help that he had been too busy running around the past couple days to actually come in to dote on him. Seeing Kyouya now was satisfying in a way that even Mukuro hadn’t anticipated, doubly so because of what he had managed to accomplish by calling in a few of his favours.


“You’re not welcome here.” Kyouya’s voice cut into his musings at last and Mukuro forced a laugh as he closed the distance to the bed. He kicked off his shoes and sat down on the hospital issue white linens, his feet pointed towards the headboard, his back and elbows resting against the single horizontal metal rail that was at the foot of the bed.


Kyouya did not look at him and so Mukuro took the chance to examine him closely, seeing the anger rising in him and feeling a warm flutter in his stomach at the subtle play of emotions across Kyouya’s face. Oh how Mukuro loved it when he could draw such deliciously volatile reactions from the young man.


His eyes caught on the deep, bruising bags under Kyouya’s eyes however and his mind was instantly reined in by the sight. Right. He had a few manipulations that were in dire need of execution.


“I told you—“


“Yes, yes, that I’m not welcome, I heard you the first time.” Mukuro said with a grin that was guaranteed to infuriate the other man. It did it’s job surely and Mukuro felt himself warm as he saw the high colour rising in Kyouya’s cheeks: a sure sign of his anger—though unfortunately it also set off how devastatingly pale sick young man was.


Mukuro sobered a little. “But I’m certain you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”


“And I’m certain that you’re deficient in the head.” Hibari bit out. Mukuro laughed, a sound that clearly incensed the already sufficiently annoyed Kyouya.


“Now, now, if you keep treating me with such poor hospitality I might not give you the good news at all.”


“Do I have to beat it into your skull? I’m. Not. Interested.”


“Well I’ll have you know that even in peak condition you don’t have any hope of laying even a single finger on me.” Kyouya looked about ready to explode in fury but Mukuro finessed his words right around that tightly constrained anger, speaking them with piercing clarity as he looked Hibari straight in the eyes. “I have a gift for you, Hibari Kyouya.”


Brown eyes flashed dangerously. “I don’t want—“


“Oh but you’ll want this—though really it’s more of a business proposition than a gift, but you know how that works. And really Kyouya you’re in no position to refuse, not if you want to live that is.”


“I don’t make deals with petty criminals.” Kyouya said shortly.


“Ah but Kyouya.” Mukuro adorned a sing-song tone of voice. “You can’t really afford to turn down my heart now can you?”


“Get out!”


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Mukuro had never experienced such stunning disbelief. He should have been tired of the trivial novelties that being around Kyouya exposed him to, but Mukuro only found a childish satisfaction in the whole experience.


That didn’t save him from being angry though. Thoroughly incensed in fact.


Kyouya had turned down his offer, without thought or reason.


Again. And again. And again.


Mukuro had spent countless hours over four days trying to wheedle and manoeuvre the other man into accepting his once in a lifetime bargain to no avail. And to think he had bothered to call in favours, put his reputation on the line, tried to save his ungrateful ass.


Well enough was enough. Mukuro decided. Sooner or later Hibari would see the error in his ways and when he did, when he came begging in his moment of desperation Mukuro would rob him blind for his insolence and do it with a smile too.


Mukuro had never once felt a resolve so fierce towards anything, and on the fifth day he entered the hospital with a shark’s smile and spring in his step. He was entirely intent on making the likes of the young Sawada heir a miserable affair this day. He simply had to relieve all that stress he had pent up on account of Kyouya.


Walking up to the front desk, he crossed his arms on the high counter, leant his chin on his forearms and flashed the young nurse on receptionist duty a killer smile. She expectably swooned and was all aflutter in her attempts to be of service.


“I’m here to see Mr.Sawada.” Mukuro purred.


The woman, if she hadn’t been flustered before, certainly was upon hearing his request.


“Ah I’m sorry sir, I’m afraid an emergency situation has had him tied up all morning.” She said with a slight purse of her lips, clearly she wasn’t pleased with having to present Mukuro of all people with such news. And rightly so. The anger that flashed over his expression was scorching.


“I think you’ll find that he will meet with me.” Mukuro said, his voice all kinds of pleasant: overtly facetious.


“It simply can’t be done, sir, I’m sorry, you’ll have to return at a later time.” She said. And for a rather simple girl she was impressively resilient. Mukuro felt his anger boil over.


“Do you know who I am?” Mukuro hissed, his arms falling off the counter and crisply to his sides as he drew himself up to his full height.


“Mukuro Rokudo.” The girl replied without missing a beat, cutting him off neatly, and there was not a trace of adoration in her voice as she spoke his name. “And the boss would like you to kindly keep your distance today.”


“Excuse me then.” An expression of acidic venom flashed over his face as conviction coiled in his stomach. If Sawada thought that he could be intercepted by a flunky nurse then he was sorely mistaken. He would bring such—


A sharp fluttering pain jolted through his stomach, straight through his heart and brought him to grind his teeth as he suppressed the dark groan of realization that threatened to spill from him. Sawada was not subtle, it wasn’t in his style. There was only one reason he would try and deflect Mukuro in light of all that had happened the past couple weeks...


Sawada was trying to keep him away from Hibari—it was painfully obvious now that the thought had dawned on him—and there was no two ways about it. Mukuro redoubled his suave demeanour, masking the visceral rage that honed it’s serrated edges in the depths of his mind and heart. Walking away from the desk, the young nurse’s agitated warnings rolling unheeded like water off a duck’s back, Mukuro cut a swift course through the crowded lobby.


The playful jaunt to his step had fallen away, leaving Mukuro with a rather serious air and people moved swiftly out of his way as though sensing his dangerous mood. Nurses tumbled over each other to look busy enough to not have to engage him as he cast his eyes over the nurses’ station that the elevator doors opened to on the Cardiology ward.


Their efforts were undermined by the fact that Mukuro needed no help in tracing the path to Hibari’s room and his anger meant that he didn’t even pause as he clipped a harried pace down the left-most hallway.


Columns of stragglers and hanger-ons loitered around the open door to Hibari’s room, and seeing that was enough to unsettle Mukuro, the instinctive notion that something was deathly wrong rushing through him.


The crowd did not give way to him no matter how viciously he scowled at the people who stood, backs to him, peering chastely over one another’s heads at the spectacle within the room. Perhaps there was a profound philosophical lesson to be learned about patience and curiosity and dead cats but all that was lost on Mukuro. His patience snapped, and heaved over the cutting tension in the corridor and he split the crowd like a knife sliding through butter.


Breaking the crest of the onlookers he was stopped decidedly by a firm hand on his chest. Chiavorone. Mukuro fixed him with the direct-most gaze he had ever afforded the man, but brief for all it’s intensity. He couldn’t help it, his eyes were moved near-instantaneously to the merger of chaos that was Kyouya’s bed.


Too many white coats. That was the first detail he noticed.


Second. The death-thickened air, pumping through his lungs, making him scowl and wince and tremble...


Third. Running, running, running hard. The heart-monitor fluttered like an injured bird, trying fervently to escape it’s mortal cage.


Words crashed over his shell-shocked body, drilling into his consciousness.


“All of you need to leave. Right now.” The anger in Chiavorone’s voice was like a dog-whistle, tapered so high it was painful as it reverberated in his mind.


The crowd to his back dispersed with all the eagerness of a school of fish breaking over the muzzle of a shark. Mukuro matched eyes with Dino, feeling hot and dizzy all at once.


“I can help.” Mukuro’s grating voice forced into the dead air.


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“You have blood on your collar.” Dino muttered tiredly. Mukuro glared, fiercely. Or at least in a manner that he hoped was fierce, because he was far too beyond exhausted to tell.


“Chiavorone.” He growled and surprised even himself when he saw the telling way in which Dino flinched.


“He pulled through.” The ‘thank you’ was implied in self-satisfied spring in the blond’s step as he pulled off his scrub-cap and drudged away through the anxiously milling crowds of people in the waiting room. Throwing himself into one of the green and brown waiting room chairs Mukuro choked down a breath of air that for the first time in a long time didn’t feel like a crown of thistles in the back of his throat.


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There was a fresh bouquet of flowers in his hand. Simpler this time, a tasteful trio of pale stargazer lilies. It was still a joke, but not a slap in the face as far as Mukuro was concerned.


As he walked through the pristine hospital corridors the on-coming night winked at him with twilit clouds through copious gaping windows. It was late, past visiting hours, particularly in the ICU but he had special privileges to say the least.


It was just rotten luck that Chiavorone would have to be leaving Kyouya’s room as he reached it, but Mukuro did not let his displeasure at the meeting show on his face.


“Doc.” He greeted pleasantly enough, swinging the stalks of the bouquet around his wrist a single turn before catching the flowers firmly in hand once more. A tactic of distraction and one that worked all too easily on a simpleton the likes of the blond.


“I think you’ll find Kyouya will be rather displeased with those.” Dino said pointedly, barring entrance to the closed door by sheer presence.


“He’s awake then?” Mukuro asked, easily able to examine the other man’s face as Dino stared openly at the flowers as he had intended him to.


“Yes, but...”


“That’s all I needed to know, thank you.” Mukuro said dismissively, obtusely polite.


Mukuro walked past unassumingly uncaring of Dino who had stepped aside, clipboard clasped to his chest and his brows furrowed in near painful frustration and looking at once older and younger than his actuality.


--


Two steps into the room and Mukuro saw that Kyouya’s eyes were open, though his eyelids fluttered in what seemed to be half-heartedness against the sleep that was trying to drag him under. Mukuro smiled, a predatory grin, he was sure and couldn’t help the near giddiness that surged through him when those eyes fixed on him, however briefly.


Kyouya had seen him, that much was evident in the way his fingers clasped at the sheets in white-knuckled prevalence and slight kick of his heart monitor. Mukuro crossed the room with the ease of authority, confident at least that his little bird could not flee him in the condition he was in.


Mukuro plucked a single lily at the bud and drew the soft petals across Kyouya’s pale white skin, his hair dripping over his shoulders and onto the white sheets as he leaned over the other man, his own heart fluttering weightlessly in his chest.


The white of Kyouya’s knuckles was bleached now even in comparison to the blanched hospital sheets and Mukuro laughed softly.


“Don’t worry my little bird, take all the time you need to recover. We’ll talk once you’re a little more hale.” He chuckled again as he met furious eyes and tucked the single lily in against Kyouya’s clenched fist. Mukuro straightened up, his hair dragging against the sheets in a way that he suspected would have Hibari twitching in agitation if he wasn’t wired into so many damn machines, but even that thought only brought a smile to his lips.


Mukuro smirked and tried to lose his critical glance in a more smugly playful expression but he wasn’t quite sure he had succeeded when he saw Hibari bring up his hand and drop the crushed and bled petals of the lily over the edge of the bed and to the floor.


~[ |-| |_| $ ¯|¯ |_ £ ? ]~


Hibari bit his tongue to keep from spewing out wretched profanity at the infuriating man that was sitting at the foot of his bed.


“I. NEVER. ASKED. YOU.” Hibari growled when he gained a semblance of control.


“Ah, but whether you asked me or not, it doesn’t change the fact that you have a heart beating in your chest that is rightfully my property.” Mukuro sat on the footrail of his bed, swinging his feet and smirking insufferably. “Besides, it’d be very simple for you to just pay me off. I know you can afford it.” Mukuro’s grin was sharp and Hibari scowled with equal bite.


“No.”


“It’s simple really.” Mukuro continued, as if completely unhearing of his refusal. “If you really want to get rid of me, all you have to do is fork over the cash. I’ll give you my account number, a simple money transfer will do.”


“Are you thick? What do you not understand about no?!” Hibari snapped, losing his patience.


“Sorry, I only managed to make out the fact that you owe me.” Mukuro chirped.


“You’re insane if you think that I’m going to participate in what constitutes as criminal dealings with the likes of you.”


“Ah well then by default you give me permission to be a permanent fixture of your life until you so decide to make good on the payment.”


“Do you honestly believe I’m damaged in the head or something? What makes you think I’d agree to something so preposterous?” Hibari growled.


“Because you don’t have a choice.” Mukuro purred smugly. “And so long as you refuse to make payment that heart is mine, and I have a penchant for keeping a close eye on what’s mine.”

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END PART I


AN: So I initially intended for this to be a valentines day fic. But then for some reason I had the hardest time finishing it. God it was a pain. I decided to post it in two parts. So you guys can have the much more satisfying smutty second part once I get a chance to fix it up if you're good and review.

And boy am I ever glad to be done with this fic. It's been a pain in my ass for far too long now. But it was definitely worth it in the end!

- Incessant_Darkness