It's already 2016 and I barely updated last year. I'M SO SORRY. If I'm being honest, I'll probably continue to update only once in a while due to my commitments to university, but I really do love writing this story, so I hope you'll all continue to be lovely and patient with me!

I'd like to take the time to thank you for all the follows/reviews/favourites! I do try to respond to each and every review I receive. 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.

Seated on a park bench, Riko was enjoying the evening chill as she flipped through a manga volume (In English, of course) and pulled a crisp out of the bag that sat beside her. All was good and quiet, before a loud sigh startled her, and something heavy weighed the park bench down.

It was a man, dressed in an obsidian suit that screamed luxury, along with cologne that Riko could faintly smell from where she sat. He seemed to have not noticed her, though, as he moodily stared down at the smartphone in his hand.

"Herbivores, the lot of them! I've never seen a room full of spineless lawyers in my entire life!"

Herbivores?

"Makes me want to bite them all to death! Honestly! The kind of people fighting for our justice these days!"

Bite them all to death?

Riko had the strangest feeling that she knew who this man was.

"Mi scusi signor?"

His hair was dark and neatly combed back, with a faint sprinkling of white at the sides that could only be seen if one concentrated very hard. However, Riko instantly recognised the angular jaw line the man possessed, as well as the cool grey of his sharp eyes, though she was more accustomed to seeing emotions linked to malice and dark humour rather than worry and stress in them.

"Oh, hello there! Didn't notice that there was already someone here!" The man's eyebrows were raised in surprise, before he remembered that Riko had spoken in Italian. "Apologies, but I'm afraid I don't speak your language. Does English help?"

The fluent, perfectly accented English that streamed out of his mouth flawlessly made Riko's jaw drop. Literally.

"Oh dear," Upon Riko's mute response, he reverted back to Japanese, "Not English? Maybe French…? But my French is travel French…"

"Oui, monsieur, je parle français," Riko hastily spoke, and then in Japanese, "I speak English too, but I do speak Japanese."

It was the man's turn to be stunned. "A multi-linguist! How useful!" He paused as he considered what he had said, before hastily adding, "Oh, please, don't mistake me for a stranger that's considering abducting you. What I meant was-"

"It's useful when dealing with international clients." Riko finished for him. She knew how lawyers worked — vaguely, anyway, from the times when the Varia needed a bit of legal help to bypass the armada of weapons that their squad basically was.

"My name's Shou," The man stared at Riko, which made her squirm a little because his eyes were just like his, "I'm sorry, but are you Italian?"

"I was born in Europe, and moved around a lot. I've been living with a lot of Italians for a while now, so it's my default language. I'm Japanese-Chinese."

"I see, I see. Well, I'm very sorry for ruining what seemed like a moment of peace for you," Shou's eyes dropped to the book that lay half open on her lap, and the bag of crisps.

"It's okay," Riko lifted the bag, "You seem to be having a bad day. Crisps?"

Shou brightened at her offer. "Oh! If you don't mi-" A thought seemed to flash through his mind, before he brought his hand down. A downcast expression replaced his previously bright one. "It's almost dinner, and my wife will have my head if she finds out I've been snacking right before. And she can always tell, which is as scary as her wrath."

"Signora Suzume is the scariest woman I know, so I agree with you."

At the mention of the name, the man's eyes widened. "How do you know my-? Rather, how on Earth did you guess?"

"Kyoya is the only other person I know who calls people 'herbivores', and uses the phrase 'I'll bite you to death'."

The mental cogs turned in Shou's head before realisation dawn in his eyes. "You're Kyoya's friend!"

Riko grimaced. "Friend is a term I'd like for you to consider revising," she muttered, "It's more of a master-slave relationship."

"Oh, Kyoya's into those kinds of things, is he? Why, that sly dog!"

The insinuation made Riko want to lobotomise herself, so she could forget that he ever said it. "Fuck no! There is no fucking way I'm interested in him like that! And besides, Kyoya is incapable of human emotions!"

"So, not the girlfriend?"

"Absolutely fucking not!"

"Aw, but my Kyoya is so handsome!"

xxxx

"He made me come."

Seated at a low, rectangular table that had four sets of meals set up, Hibari stared stonily across at the dark-haired acrobat who was looking right back at him. Her face was half-obscured by the infuriating mask she liked to wear, and his hand was itching to pull it down.

"Father, you had no business with this herbivore."

"Why, Kyoya, I thought you'd be happy to have a friend over for dinner! I'm sure it must get boring sometimes, eating with just your parents at home!"

"Kyoya, that is no way to speak to a guest that your father invited to dinner. Did I not raise you better?" Suzume, who was seated beside her son, said sternly.

"The only thing you've raised within that diablo is hell." Riko muttered underneath her breath, thinking her voice was low enough for her to keep her comment private. Shou, however, with his sharp ears, picked up on her quip and chuckled, which garnered pair of identical, and equally intimidating stares from both his wife and son.

"May I ask what is it that you find amusing, father?" Hibari asked icily, his gaze shifting towards Riko despite the question being aimed at the person next to her.

Riko felt a shiver ripple down her spine as her eyes met Hibari's. For some reason, the image of his fingers intertwined with hers surfaced in her mind's eye. At the sudden recollection, the acrobat felt her face flush violently, waving the memory away as quickly as it had come. What in fuck's name was wrong with her? And it wasn't just the unwanted trip down memory lane, but rather, the fact was she was participating in a Hibari family dinner. If she was being honest with herself, if she was capable of outrunning highly-trained security guards chasing her down for stealing a priceless artefact, she sure as hell could've easily run off when Shou had invited her back to the Hibari household for dinner.

Still, who would've thought that of all people, she would randomly chance upon Hibari Kyoya's father? He was nothing like she had imagined the other half of Hibari to be. Suzume was pretty much everything she had imagined, but Shou was absolutely someone she would've never guessed to be the infamous cloud guardian's father. The lawyer was lively and loquacious - the complete opposite of Hibari's quiet and broody. Riko wondered how on earth Shou had managed to successfully court the quiet Suzume - Hibari himself had no patience for noisy, persistent people.

Mischief twinkled wickedly in his eyes as Shou inquired his son, "Should there always be a reason for one to laugh, Kyoya?"

There was a slight twitch on a corner of Hibari's mouth as his glare hardened. He was seriously beginning to wonder if there truly were mystical forces at play in the workings of the universe. Even as a person who only believed in facts and what the naked eye could see and comprehend, there were just way too many instances where his life intersected with the infuriating acrobat's. He hardly saw those other herbivores (read: Tsuna and his friends) despite the fact that they were part of the same family, yet he seemed to encounter Yang Riko with every corner he turned into, it was ridiculous.

"So Riko, Suzume's told me a little about you, but she didn't tell me how you and Kyoya met," Shou smiled pointedly at his son, "I'm sure it couldn't have been easy, becoming this one's friend."

"Er... we go to the same school, I s'pose," Riko mumbled, avoiding Hibari's gaze as the family's attention shifted towards her.

"Is that so? Kyoya doesn't really like to socialise, so how did you end up getting acquainted?"

It was definitely going to be an extremely long evening.

xxxx

It was close to midnight when Riko was finally allowed to excuse herself home. Dinner had been an incredibly uncomfortable affair for the Varia assassin, as Shou had continuously assaulted her with questions about her - for lack of a better word - relationship with his son, and about herself. If it hadn't been for Suzume's stern insistence that Riko be home before midnight, she probably would've ended up never leaving the house.

The thought of living with the demonic Hibari Kyoya made Riko shiver. She already spent more than enough time with the capricious cloud guardian as it was.

"Pick up the pace, herbivore."

The sudden words startled Riko, and she whipped her head around to see Hibari out of his kinagashi, and instead, was dressed in a plain white shirt and black jeans. Before she could evade him, Hibari's hand shot out towards her face, and his fingers hooked over her goggles, pulling them down.

"I am so confused right now," So much that Riko hardly cared that he had messed with her goggles yet again, "Did you level up and unlock a new outfit? I had assumed that you only had two outfits - kinagashi and uniform."

"Hilarious," However, Hibari's tone suggested he found her comment to be anything but, "My parents insisted that I walk you home. They seem to have the assumption that you are susceptible to the dangers of the night."

"The only danger of the night that I can't defend myself against is you," Riko said drily as she exited the gate. She paused and turned around, waving a hand. "You can just go on back and tell them that I'm perfectly capable to protecting myself."

Without another word, Hibari sighed and grabbed the girl's wrist, and started walking, dragging her along with him. Riko yelped as she struggled to match her pace with the cloud guardian's, failing to free herself from his iron grip. "Fucking let go of me already! I told you, I can protect myself! I'm a world-class assassin for fuck's sake!"

"Shut up and just let me walk you home."

xxxx

Watching the pair as they argued from a distance, Shou smiled as he leaned against the open window frame. "Kyoya's really different around her, isn't he?"

Sipping at a steaming cup of tea, Suzume looked up at her husband. "Indeed."

"Do you think it's a bit too early to consider a marriage proposal?"

"... Really, Shou?"

"Oh yes, we need to meet her parents first, don't we?"

"..."

"Aw, Suzu, don't give me that look!"

When I was developing Hibari Shou's character, I initially considered making him a less talkative individual, but then I decided that was too easy. A complete 180 of Hibari Kyoya would be perfect as his father, in my opinion. I hope you guys liked Shou as much as I enjoyed writing him!

Translations

mi scusi signor - excuse me sir

oui, monsieur, je parle français - yes, sir, I speak French

diablo - devil

Let me know how you liked or disliked this chapter, or if you have any questions! I'll see you in the next chapter!

Delphoxi