An especially brief chapter this time, but fear not, the next one is definitely on the way! I've decided to split it into two so the story would flow better. Also, there is a special omake in the works because Storm Clouds has finally hit the 100 reviews mark!

Massive love to all my supporters thus so far. 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 continued support despite my erratic updates!

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.

The moment Riko opened her eyes, she could feel that something was different.

Like most days, the sun had barely made its daily appearance before Riko's biological clock rudely interrupted her latest dream by abruptly cutting off the mental reel that usually consisted of brightly-coloured characters from the acrobat's favourite anime, and pulling her out of her vegetative state.

Slowly shoving the quilt off her body as she blearily sat up and attempted to blink the sleep out of her eyes, the acrobat could sense that there was a subtle change in the atmosphere of the Varia mansion. Having lived a majority of her life as part of a travelling circus troupe, Riko had honed a keen ability to tell whenever there was a change in her environment, and no doubt it had served her well in her career as an assassin for the independent squad of killers.

But what was it? What had changed? She wasn't a clairvoyant - she couldn't pinpoint on exactly what had changed within the last few hours when she had been asleep, but whatever it was, as long as it didn't have anything to do with her, she really couldn't care less.

"Oh well," Riko said out-loud to no one in particular, in her true devil-may-care fashion, "Que sera, sera."

But by the time she had brushed her teeth, gotten showered, changed and settled herself comfortably in her usual chair at the table in the dining hall, the devil realised that she did, in fact, care.

"Froggy."

"Monkey."

"Is that any way to speak to your senior?"

"I'm your senior. You're just older."

"…"

"OL-DER."

"I fucking heard you the first time, Fran. Do you want me to perform a moonlight drive on you? You glib little gremlin."

"Ah? I thought you were a monkey, not a pro wrestler."

Riko narrowed her eyes with mistrust as she regarded the turquoise-haired newcomer slumped over the dining table. Even with half of his face squashed against the mahogany surface, the illusionist somehow still managed to deliver his insults with clarity. Chair legs scraped noisily against the marble tiles as Riko stood up from the chair she had sat in earlier on before noticing Fran's presence. Stomping over to the centre, where the breakfast spread had been carefully laid out, Riko's hand moved past the toast rack, manoeuvred around stacks of cut fruit, and snatched an open box of cereal, a carton of orange juice and some utensils before perching herself as far away as she could from where the blank-faced child sat.

Hyper-aware of the fact that Fran was unabashedly staring at her, Riko simply ignored him as she tilted the cereal box over her bowl.

Nothing.

Fran eyed the slight tremor of the empty box in Riko's hand with mildly wicked amusement. "Oh, yes, I took the liberty of finishing the cereal. Lucky Charms and Cheerios mixed together? C'etait délicieux!"

"MORCEAU DE MERDE!"

xxxx

"Make me a sandwich."

Riko whipped her head around to stare at the impassive prefect looking at her from behind his interlaced fingers. "Ex-fucking-scuse me?"

Unfortunately for the acrobat, the tutoring session in the library had not been a one-off situation. When she had attempted to leave the school grounds by scaling a brick wall, her balance had been thrown off when Kusakabe unceremoniously clamped a chain with an inhumanly heavy metal ball attached to it onto on of her ankles.

xxxx

"Are you fucking insane!? I could've died!"

"That's bullshit. You always land on your feet."

"And what makes you think you know me so fucking well, huh?!"

"Hibari's waiting for you."

"Tell Kyoya he can go suck a fuck and hell will be cold before the day I willingly answer a summon from the diablo!"

"If you say so."

"H-Wha-Hey! Put me down! How the fuck are you this strong anyway!?"

xxxx

Riko could not tell whether Hibari was smirking behind his hands, or, what was more likely, was impassive. "Do I look like a fucking maid to you?!" she hissed, her voice dripping with poison.

"Underling," Hibari corrected calmly, "You're my underling. Now go make me a sandwich."

Her blood boiling furiously under a thinly-veiled expression of impatience, Riko struggled to walk over to Hibari's desk as she slowly dragged the ball attached to her leg with as much dignity as she could. She slammed a fist down on the desk; her eyes burning with rage as she closed in on the prefect, her face only mere inches away from his.

"The ingredients are in the fridge." Hibari dismissively cocked his head in the direction where a small refrigerator stood.

Muttering obscenities under her breath, Riko angrily stomped over to the fridge, opened it and yanked out a plastic bag that had a loaf of bread, and in the middle of pulling out ingredients, she paused suddenly, yanking her head out of the fridge. From the corner of his eye, Hibari noticed this and put his pen down.

"What's the matter?"

Riko slammed the refrigerator door shut, and walked back to where Hibari sat. From the corner of the room, Kusakabe suspiciously eyed the uncharacteristically saccharine smile on the acrobat's face, and the loaf in her hand. She was definitely going to do something stupid, no doubt.

"Do you not know how to make a sandwich, herbivore?"

"I very fucking well do." Riko replied in a sickly-sweet tone, a hand going into the bag and pulling out a few slices of bread. She leaned over, face inches away from the impassive prefect. Then, without warning, she clamped a slice over both sides of Hibari's head.

"Wha-" Words died on Kusakabe's tongue as he stared at the pair dumbfoundedly, his mouth parted in shock. Hibari's expression remained eerily calm as he stared right into Riko's eyes.

A few beats passed in silence, before Hibari spoke. "Herbivore, what are you doing?" His voice was ominously even, too, Kusakabe noted as he swallowed thickly. What on earth had come over the acrobat?!

"I made - you - a sandwich," Riko smirked triumphantly with a self-satisfied huff.

Did she really just-?! Kusakabe didn't know whether to laugh or cry - this was truly a new level of insanity that the acrobat had just displayed. Rather than her usual mouthiness, she had chosen to directly, physically insult the infamously intolerant head prefect despite the ramifications that she was clearly familiar with. Had she finally lost her marbles? Had her scales of sanity, which had always been tilting dangerously into the side of psychopathy, finally fallen over completely?!

Whatever had possessed Riko seemed to have left, because she blinked very suddenly, breaking her eye contact with Hibari, and the colour drained from her face as she very belatedly realised what she had just done.

"I m-made you… a sandwich," Riko repeated, a corner of her mouth twitching half-fearfully and half-amusedly, "I made you a sandwich. I made you a sandwich. You. A sandwich."

"I know."

Riko recoiled in horror, releasing the incriminating wheat by-products from her hands, and under ten seconds, she had drawn out a playing card, lit it on fire with crimson storm flames, sliced through the chain attached to her ankle and hightailed her way out of the prefect's office. The slices of bread had barely touched the ground by the time she had disappeared.

"Hi-Hibari-san…?" Kusakabe nervously looked over at the cloud guardian. Why hadn't he given chase like he usually did?

Hibari merely leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers beneath his chin. A mildly thoughtful expression crossed his face as his gaze dropped to the discarded bread slices sitting forgotten on the ground. Tapping a finger against his knuckle, Hibari looked askance at his second-in-command.

"Something has agitated that herbivore today."

SHE MADE HIM A SANDWICH HAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, I know. It's a really bad joke, isn't it? I'm pretty excited to have Fran in the mix! He's an adorable lil character, and no doubt there are some similarities that he has with Hibari in terms of 'coolness' and 'calmness' that rubs Riko the wrong way. I also like the fact that he's French, which means that there will be more opportunities to display Riko's multilingualism in the story! (And for me to practise my rusty French lol)

Translations

que sera, sera (French) - whatever will be, will be

c'etait délicieux (French) - it was delicious

morceau de merde (French) - piece of shit

diablo (Italian) - 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