GUYS I FINALLY GOT MY DRIVER'S LICENSE! But I'll still be a hermit at home because my sister's hogged the car we were meant to share and now I have to ask her for permission at least a day in advance if I want to use it!?

Anyways, thank you for all the follows/reviews/favourites! They're all very encouraging and I hope I can continue to interest you with my future chapters and have your support!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.


As she sat stiffly with her legs folded into each other on the floor cushion, Riko could not help but have the following train of thoughts whilst busily avoiding eye contact with the much older woman sitting primly with her legs folded neatly underneath her:

First, this was the woman that had birthed the child of Satan, Hibari Kyoya!

And if one got over the initial shock of coming to terms with the fact that Hibari was, in fact, a proper human (Biologically speaking, of course. Not much could be said for his personality.) and not an alien from a war-torn planet, it made a lot of sense that Suzume was Hibari's mother. She exuded a chilly, regal aura that made Riko fear her a lot more than she did Hibari.

Second, Hibari Kyoya was a rich kid!

Who would've guessed?! On their three-minute walk from the display room to the guest room, Riko's well-trained eyes had catalogued countless priceless artefacts decorating the Japanese mansion, and the total value in that short walk alone had been more than she would ever be able to afford in ten lifetimes. That made Hibari's hobby of extorting money out of innocent people redundant, but then again, he was the Demon of Namimori, so nothing he did ever made sense.

And lastly, if she put together all the things she knew about Hibari before this new revelation, it suddenly displayed a much clearer picture of the background Hibari came from. The structured Japanese tradition that oozed even from the soil of the estate, the known ancestry of warlords… Of course, the picture was still riddled with wisps of mystery, but she was beginning to understand that the prefect was not a mere embodiment of wrath, authority and terror like she had assumed.

Riko wasn't a complete idiot, and she could tell that Hibari and his mother did not have a sugary relationship that involved frequent displays of affection.

Clack!

The sound of an object being placed on the ground tore Riko out of her thoughts. A grotesque hybrid of a yelp and a growl left her mouth when she came face to face with a stony Hibari, and with the absence of her goggles (She had decided to leave them off, in case Suzume, like her son, took them off for her) she felt very unsafe with the sudden closeness between herself and the prefect, with his face only inches away from hers.

"Tea."

"A fucking hello to you, too, Kyoya."

Hibari's eyelids lowered as he looked down, and Riko's gaze followed to see that a small lacquer tray had been set up in front of her, and a ceramic mug filled with a steaming verdant liquid had been placed on top of the tray. A pleasant aroma wafted up into her nose, and Riko immediately narrowed her eyes when she detected a strong bitterness.

"Did you-"

"No," Hibari cut in before she could finish her question as he took a seat on the cushion next her, "I did not poison it."

"And you think I'll fucking believe whatever you say!?"

"I think that you should know me well enough to know that I-"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You're so fucking great that all you need are your two fists to massacre the entire world."

"I'm happy you feel that way, herbivore."

"Shut the fuck up! You're the herbivore!"

xxxx

A few feet away, Suzume watched with interest as she sipped delicately at the china she held between her hands. It was the first time that Kyoya had had a friend over, and knowing her son, she was probably being quite liberal in using the word 'friend' to refer to Riko with.

Still, this was an interesting display of social interaction by Kyoya; a side of her son that Suzume had, quite frankly, never seen before. If he ever spoke more than a single sentence to anyone, it was usually to threaten them. However, this seemed to be an idle conversation that was leading to nowhere, which was something that Kyoya never ever bothered to take part in.

The girl herself was interesting on her own. Despite the fact that the only security their estate had was the concrete fence that surrounded it, no one in their right mind would attempt to infiltrate the Hibari estate and dream to make off with the many treasures it contained, because Kyoya himself was all the protection they needed. She was either very foolishly brave or extremely uninformed, but since she knew Kyoya, it was probably the former. Shame, too, because she did seem to have a sensible head on her shoulders.

Still, it wasn't everyday that there was a person that could talk straightforwardly in her son's face (albeit the crude language and lack of etiquette left much to be desired. She was sitting like a man!) without running away immediately. Kyoya wasn't shy about hitting people in general, so she imagined that the girl had probably taken a fair few hits from the brunette, which made the fact that she was still brave enough to stand her ground, quite impressive in its own right.

"So, Yang Riko," Suzume decided to interrupt what seemed like a very one-sided argument, "Did you come here with the intention of visiting Kyoya?"

Riko appeared to be startled by her question, but Suzume was more interested in-

"I invited her here, mother," Hibari replied, meeting his mother's gaze unflinchingly, "I must have forgotten to inform you."

Intriguing.

Suzume smiled, and Hibari narrowed his eyes slightly. What was going on in his mother's mind?

Riko's eyes widened with surprise as she stared at Hibari. Had he finally lost it? Why on earth was he covering for her? She started to open her mouth to object, but the chilling glare he gave her from the corner of his eye made her shut her mouth again. Beggars shouldn't be choosers, as Mammon always liked to say, and this was probably the only time Hibari would ever bother to help her out of a sticky situation. (But he'd probably make her pay him back by torturing her the next time he saw her)

"Well, I apologise for the misunderstanding," Suzume's expression was unreadable as she spoke, something which spooked Riko a whole lot more than a livid Hibari did, "So Kyoya mentioned earlier that you're not a native of Japan?"

The acrobat nodded slowly. "I was born in Europe."

"Whereabouts in Europe? Italy, perhaps? You seem quite attached to the language."

"No, I was born in Germany. We stayed for a year and a half after I was born before we moved again," Riko smiled nervously, "Before I came to Japan I was living in Italy, and if I hadn't moved here, next year would've been my fifth year living there."

"So you've just migrated here? What for?"

"Er, work."

"What do your parents do?"

"Entertainment."

"Actors? Musicians?"

"Well-"

"Mother," Hibari interrupted, "The herbivore needs to leave."

Both Riko and Suzume looked at the brunette with identical expressions of surprise. Suzume turned back towards Riko and asked, "Do you need to be somewhere else, Yang Riko?"

Yes!

She could almost hear the angelic chorus singing in the background as the golden beam of freedom split the murky clouds of awkward entrapment within the Hibari estate. Mentally wiping a tear away, Riko nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes I do. But this was so lovely, signora Suzume, your hospitality was ever so kind," she quickly stood up, "Well, I'll be seeing myself out now, ciao!"

She left the tatami room as quickly as she could without openly running, leaving Hibari alone with his mother.

"Kyoya-"

"I'll see her out," Hibari cut in coldly, and within seconds he was gone.

Suzume sipped at her tea and sighed.

"When will those teenagers realize that I can see through every poorly-concocted lie they think of?"

xxxx

"Herbivore."

Riko broke into a mad dash when she heard his voice. There was no way in hell she was going to walk back willingly into the arms of the devil!

"Oof!"

Unless the devil could jump over her like the superhuman he was, and stand in her way, of course.

Swearing loudly as she got back onto her feet, Riko glared at the impassive brunette through her goggles. "What the fuck is up with you?! You've basically just kicked me out - which, by the way, is something I'm actually grateful for, so grazie - but now you're trying to keep me in!?"

"You left your souvenir, herbivore," Hibari said with wicked smirk as he held up the chalice that had caused Riko so much trouble, "Do you not want it?"

Riko narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What's the catch, Kyoya?"

"Nothing," He tossed the antique carelessly in her direction, and Riko scrambled to catch it before it landed on the ground, "We have no use for this, and besides-," A chill frosted her spine as Hibari's eyes darkened and his smirk got wider, "-I would hate for my prey to be eaten by another carnivore."

"I am not your prey!"

Hibari said nothing as he opened the door and stepped aside as he yawned widely. Sliding a hand into the obi tied around his waist, he jerked his head towards the path outside the door. "Go on."

Riko shuffled sideways, taking caution with every move she made, and her eyes never leaving Hibari. She slowly backed out of the house, and stopped when she was completely outside.

A pregnant silence filled the air around the two as they stared at each other.

"Er…"

"Don't you want to leave, herbivore?"

"S-Shut up! I was just about to!" Riko huffed, "But I have to say thank you for helping me, otherwise it'd be rude if-"

SLAM!

The words died on Riko's tongue as she stared at the closed door with her jaws parted. Then, she frowned.

"WELL FUCK YOU TOO!"

xxxx

As he walked down the wooden corridor, Hibari's eye caught flashes of white stark against the dark, wooden wainscot that panelled the wall. Crouching down, he slid a hand over the wood, and stopped.

It was a card. They were all cards.

Hadn't his mother returned an incomplete deck of cards to the herbivore when she had interrupted their spar?

Hibari pulled them out, running his fingers over the cracks in the wood where the cards had sliced into. He touched the edge of a card, and noted that it was a regular playing card — not one that had been modified to have razor-blade edges. If that was the case, that meant that it wasn't possible for them to have been embedded so deeply into the wood, much less cut through metal.

How had she done it?


And a chapter of character development ends! This was fun. Review to let me know how you liked it and/or if you have any questions! c:

Translations

signora - madam/miss
ciao - bye (informal)
graze - thank you

Delphoxi