YA; Don't own.
Ideas are free to use.
I don't feel like I'm important to anyone,
I just kinda exist in people's lives.
-Karunase
Skull knew this would be a terrible day from the start. After centuries worth of bad days the stuntman knew how to recognize them on sight. All the signs were clearly there.
Tsuna had arranged a meeting between a rival family, who had the guts too demanded the Arcobaleno come, and normally this would be down right refused but Tsuna's intuition had went off inwardly telling that something with the strongest seven would happen.
Tsuna being the lovable and generous person that he is, immediately informed them of what had happened and given them the option of coming. Reborn, who very obviously to anyone who knew him, adored his student had instantly agreed.
The others had been a bit more sceptical but had also agreed if only out of concern for Tsuna and Yuni.
It wasn't until the next morning that Skull had felt his cloud flames stir. Something they hadn't done in years even before the Arcobaleno were cursed.
Ergo. Bad.
Really, really bad.
The location they were at was a tall building in the middle of several smaller buildings at the top floor, something that had made Skull's eyes narrow in suspicion.
Soon after they entered the building Skull had started to get the feeling that something was terribly wrong. Tsuna had apparently gotten the same impression because he had told them to stick close together.
"...Senpai, something doesn't feel right." Skull murmured glancing around the room they had just entered from underneath his helmet.
Reborn paused glancing at him as did a few others, "Like what?" He stated as blunt as he could be.
Skull bit his lip, "Is it only me or does it smell weird in here?" He asked.
Several people paused, inhaling through their nose. There was a few looks of confusion. Verde was the first one to understand.
"Cover your mouths and try not to breathe!" The scientist screamed tugging his shirt up.
Apparently it was too late because gas started to filter in through the open vents and the doors. Skull could feel his body begin to tense up. Reborn had just enough time to raise his gun and fire a chaos shot through the ceiling.
As soon as he did several men filtered through the doors all wearing gas masks, Tsuna had shoved Yuni back only for more men to filter through the other side.
"We need to get out of here, kora!" Colonello yelled, "That gas did something to make my flames go crazy, kora!"
"We noticed!" Verde screamed hitting one of the guards with his satchel while Keiman bit at their legs.
"Um… guys! They have flame suppressing cuffs!" Tsuna shouted.
"Goddamn it! Dame-Tsuna do I want to know how you know how you know that!" Reborn cried shooting down two more guards.
"No!"
Well… That didn't sound good...
"Yuni!" Skull could here Fon and Lal scream in distress and he turned just in time to the young girl getting dragged away from them.
Skull slammed his fist into one of the men's jaw trying to move towards Yuni only to be pushed back when even more of the gun toting men entered the room.
Eventually they had to retreat to the roof and apparently the rival mafia group had predicted this because they had a helicopter with machine guns shooting at them. The Arcobaleno and Tsuna took refuge behind a concrete slab.
"Well this sucks." Skull deadpanned.
The comment made a few snorts and short laughs of either amusement or exasperation.
"No, really?" Reborn drawled out sarcastically.
Mammon snorted, "I expect extra compensation once this is over."
Tsuna gave a slightly shaky laugh, "Yes, well, I promise I'll make it all up to once we all get out of here."
"Does anyone have any clues as to where they could have taken Yuni?" Fon's ever calm voice broke through.
"They wouldn't keep her here. They are most likely evacuating her as we speak." Verde stated.
Skull took a deep breath before leaning over the edge. "Yup." he confirmed "She's down there."
Tsuna cursed, "If only I could get these handcuffs off, I could fly down there." He murmured.
"You shouldn't have gotten caught in the first place." Reborn growled pointing his gun at the helicopter and firing a bullet.
"You can tor-tutor me later. I've already informed the Varia that we need their assistance."
Verde's eyebrow twitched, "Calculating the second by foot radius at a speed of sixty miles per hour-!"
"Speak english, kora!"
Verde twitched and in perfect english he yelled, "We need a plan you microscopic fucker!" Before switching back to italian.
There was a beat of silence as all of the former Arcobaleno starred. Taking a moment to marvel over having finally hearing Verde swear after over fifteen years with them.
"Wait a minute Verde-senpai I'm working on it." Skull growled forcing his flames to move where he wanted them to.
"And what are you trying to do Skull?" Fon asked politely looking at him curiously.
"I'm trying to focusing my flames into my lungs… To multiply the antibodies…"
The group all took a moment to look at him, and Skull chest heaved as he started coughing as his flames roared begging to be released after centuries of restraint. Viper, Fon, Tsuna and Verde who were probably the most adept at flame sensing all twitched as the felt his flames.
"Well this is going to hurt like a bitch." Skull choked out tossing his helmet over the edge, "Well, I'm going to take out the helicopter so meet Yuni and I on the ground please."
He barely had time to enjoy their shocked and outraged faces before he lept over the concrete slab. His group all watched in varying degrees of shock.
They had apparently noticed him but it was already too late, ignoring the stinging pain in his body from the bullet wounds, he jumped smashing through the front window grabbing the pilot's shirt and tossing them out.
Letting his eyes flutter he unlocked his inner limiter that he had placed on himself and his flames sang with glee as they consumed the helicopter. Snapping his eyes open and striking the man who were shooting at his teammates and watching him crumble as the airmobile was torn apart by his flames.
Skull gave a wild grin before hopping out of the scrap metal, cackling madly because nothing was holding him back, restraining him. His flames had the first taste of total freedom.
Landing with one one foot half on the edge and the other bent at the knee he gave the rest of the surprised Arcobaleno and Tsuna a cocky grin and a two fingered salute before he tilted off the edge.
"See ya at the bottom senpai!" Skull cried laughing as he heard varias version of 'What the fuck just happened?'
His favorite cry being Tsuna's distressed shriek of 'No! Not my sanity buddy! He wasn't supposed to be as crazy as the rest of you people!' And the silence that followed.
He twisted in the air laughing as his flames danced with the wind twirling in the air and watching the fast approaching ground. He crashed into the concrete, feet first, creating a rather large crater as he did so.
Startled cries erupted from Yuni's kidnappers as their leader starts spouting orders. The grunts turn their weapons on Skull firing in his general direction without really aiming. He dodges as many bullets as he can ignoring the stinging sensations in his abdomen and arm.
Skull lashes out his flames pushing outward and knocking them of their feet, and in all the chaos he spots Yuni's terrified face. A flash of hurt flickered over his expression.
The cloud breaks eye contact having already expected this. The rejection. The terror. The pain that comes after because he knows that he will never be able to have a Sky to claim as his.
Skull had been rejected hundreds of Skies in his lifetime even the ones who thought they knew what his immortality entitled. In the end no sky had been able to let him drift freely.
He vaguely recognizes that the men have stopped shooting at him and the few with flames had theirs activated. Skull takes a moment to scan the crowd. The kidnappers had every weapon from knives to a scythe.
The boss has Yuni in a choke hold and he rages inwardly, his flames lash out and the stuntman attacks. The henchmen startle and fire, flames burn his skin, and sharp weapons pierce his body and by this time everything burns and it hurts but Skull can't bring himself to care.
Skull lashes out, letting out a roar of unrestrained fury as he tears through the rival family. One of the men throws a small grenade momentarily knocking the cloud back.
The stuntman stands up a moment later, bleeding heavily, lunging forward and slamming his fists into one gunman so hard he can hear bones snapping.
A swordsman moves dashes forward with a cry intent on avenging his fallen comrade only to be cut off by a sharp kick to his face which threw him several feet back.
Skull can hear the cries of distress and confusion, 'Isn't he the weakest of the Arcobaleno?!' and 'How is he not dead?!'
Their terrified and confused. Good.
Skull hears Yuni give a cry of pain as the boss tries to pull her into the car. He spins around barrelling through his opponents, his vision starts to blur and cloud flames invaded his vision.
'No more holding back,' A long forgotten, hidden beast in Skull inwardly seethed, 'They will see why I hold the title, 'The Immortal Skull.''
It's absolute chaos after that, screams and cries of terror erupt as barrels through his prey, and then, the Arcobaleno and Tsuna arrive just on time to see the woman carrying the scythe swing. Skull's head flies off of his body and his body crumples into the blood stained pavement.
"No!"
"Skull!"
"Lackey!"
Distressed cries echo through the air and just as the other elements begin to rage Skull's cloud flames explode outward dragging the cloud's head back onto his body as sickening cracks echo through the air.
Skull's whole body slumps forward and he lets out out a pained gleeful laugh as he tears through his opponents until there's no one left but Skull, the spectators and the lone mafia boss.
There's a sickening squelch as the immortal's head finishes connecting to it's body. Skull's rolls his head allowing the muscles to adapt. An insane grin stretched achingly across his face.
Skull took a few even measured steps until he was mere inches away from the pathetic trembling mafia boss who seemed to be frozen. The cloud didn't dare look at her expression choosing instead to stare the man in eyes.
Normally bright eyes had darkened into a deep, rolling, thunderstorm purple. As if a cloud's feared temper was being tightly contained in Skull's body. A low growl left his throat.
"Let he go." The stuntman ordered voice slightly hoarse.
The man's gripped slackened and Yuni dropped onto the ground. Seeing that she was safe Skull felt his anger begin to settle an his flames disperse but not before landing one last punch, effectively knocking the other out.
There was a sudden stillness to the air, as if something was waiting for the storm to hit. Ironically it was Fon who broke the silence.
"...Skull?" His name was spoken hesitantly as if the other couldn't possible that the stuntman was capable of something like this.
"Oh," Skull plastered a large fake cheery grin on his face tilting his head to the side, "Hey Fon-senpai~ I guess I let my temper get away from me, huh?."
He received no answer as the Arcobaleno and Tsuna continued to stare at him. Concern flashed over the storm's face before he asked, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine~ I am the Great and Immortal-" Skull was cut off as he felt two sets of arms wrap themselves around his shoulders and waist.
Tsuna buried his face into Skull's stomach, "You're not okay." He stated sunset eyes lifting to bore into the stuntman's. Fon held him steady as the immortal slumped.
"I'm so tired." Skull murmured feeling a dampness on his face. He looked up at the clear sky and it took him a moment to realize what was happening, "I'm crying, I'm actually crying."
A hysterical laugh escaped him and the other elements looked at him. Colonello wrapped another arm around Skull's shoulders. Yuni bravely walked forward and started to cling to Skull's leg.
Reborn and Verde both stood on opposite sides of Skull and Viper and Lal stood in front of him. It was Verder who started the inevitable interrogation.
"Is Skull your real name?" Verde questioned.
It was a good question, usually something that would be easy to answer and simple enough to open up into more topics. It was also somewhat nice that Verde had chosen something that wasn't silence related and more personal.
One major problem though, Skull shrugged, "It could be. After so long of people not referring to me by actual name, I forgot what it was. I guess that somewhere along the way I started going by different versions of 'Skull'."
There was a horrified silence, Yuni had started crying. Skull reached down hand halfway to her shoulder when he stopped realizing he was still covered in blood but before he could pull away Fon wrapped his hand around Skull's and guided both of their arms to press Yuni into the immortal's side.
Collenelo was the next ask a question, "Wait, if you're old enough to forget your own name then who old are you, kora?" He asked eyes growing wide.
Skull paused thinking back, "Umm… I didn't keep track. I was there when Egypt first started. Does that help?" He questioned.
Another silence.
Tsuna pulled away taking a deep breathe, "Don't scare me like that again, okay, Skull?"
The stuntman nodded before frowning at the mafia boss, "You're reacting rather calmly Tsuna."
Reborn nodded in agreement, "Normally you would be panicking Dame-Tsuna."
"I kinda knew already or at least had my suspicions. It's not like Skull tries to hide it all that hard. Plus my intuition never went off when you called yourself immortal." The brunette shrugged.
Tsuna wasn't even surprised anymore he'd dealt with so much complete and utter bullshit that the conformation that Skull was indeed immortal barely made his top ten weirdest moments (the first would always be tied between the day he first met Reborn and Budapest (freaking Budapest).
"You know," Skull started looking rather thoughtful, "You guys are actually reacting better than the last time people found out I was immortal."
Fon looked down at the stuntman, "How much better?" He asked.
"A lot. The last time was somewhere during the witch trials. Fuckers burned me at the stake. Fire hurts like hell ya'know."
Yuni gave a sob which caused Skull to tense. He looked at the other Arcobaleno for help only to find them tightly restraining their flames. Murderous looks set in on all of their faces.
Seeing that none of them would be any help Skull turned to Tsuna and froze. The brunette's eyes hand sunken into a raging orange-red, a tense fake smile still on his face.
"Skull." Fon muttered before hugging the stuntman as tightly as he could.
That seemed to set off a chain of events for the other Arcobaleno as they all joined in a giant group hug. Skull was honestly touched, hell Verde, Reborn and Mammon had even joined in.
"I knew you guys loved me~" Skull laughed.
The Varia arrived half an hour later, and found them hugging in the middle of a small masacre and covered in blood.
Omake
"Hmmm? Yah I knew Giotto and his guardians." Skull said casually taking a sip of his wine.
The stuntman, Tsuna and the other Arcobaleno sat in a giant lounging room.
"I was actually the one who taught them how to use their flames. I met Alaude when he was still a cute, adorable, if a little violent kid and let him travel with me until he was a teen."
Tsuna tilted his head curiously, "Then what happened?" He asked.
"Well I visited him again when he was… twenty-three I believe. I found out he had joined Giotto's little group. I then took the chance to embarrass him in front his companions by telling them all the stupidly cute things he did when we was little." Skull's tone had taken on a proud fatherly one. The occupants of the room listened in rapt attention.
"And then?" Yuni asked eagerly.
"Well someone who had heard about the vigilante group tried to attack them," Skull's voice darkened, "So I took care of them… Anyways they saw me using my flames and back then we didn't have anything as convenient as dying will bullets so when they asked me to teach them we had to do it the hard way. I guess you could say I was their version of Reborn."
"What happened then?" Reborn asked eagerly leaning forward.
A sadistic grin appeared on Skull's face, "Well…" He drawled put, "The rest of Giotto's guardians didn't have much trouble. Most of them were naturals.
"Giotto though had more trouble, he was pretty much a pacifist so the idea of using flames to hurt people was unthinkable. So I threw him in a lion's den with a few children."
It took a minute for the statement to sink in. Seeing their openly gaping faces Skull laughed waving them off.
"Back then Giotto-chan didn't have his famous Vongola Intuition, although it wasn't called Vongola at that time and the children were mist illusions I had Daemon whip up for me. On the bright side; Giotto learned how to use his flames. On the other hand after that he had a crippling fear of lion cubs."
Verde looked at him, "Just the lion cubs?" He asked.
Skull's shoulders slumped as he nodded seriously, "He could look a full grown lion strait in the eye and face it without any fear but when he saw those cubs."
Skull pause blinking before turning to Tsuna, "Actually can you bring out Natsu?"
Tsuna raised an eyebrow but did so. Picking the small lion up by the scruff of it's neck Skull tapped on the Sky ring.
"Wakey, wakey Giotto-chan~" The stuntman sang.
The ring glowed and Vongola Primo slowly appeared into view. Giotto blinked staring at the stuntman.
"Skull? Wha-" Giotto was cut off when the immortal shoved Natsu inches from the other's face.
Giotto let out a high pitched scream that was eerily similar to Tsuna's. Darting to the other side of the room and curling in on himself and sobbing.
"Get it away from me!" Giotto sobbed, "Why would you do that Skull?!" He cried.
The rest of the room stared, Lal even daring to voice out a 'Seriously?'. Tsuna taking pity on his ancestor took care of Natsu.
Giotto blushed barring his face in his hands. Skull grinned, "You're kinda lucky you're dead otherwise I would have to whip you back in shape Giotto-chan~"
Giotto whimpered, "Oh HELL NO!" Before returning to the Vongola ring.
Skull frowned at the ring, looking vaguely insulted, "How rude. I wasn't that bad. He's just mad about that stripper incident, which is a shame. Giotto and Alaude did make quite a bit of money that night."
nefelibata (n.)
'cloud-walker';
one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination or dreams,
or one who does not obey the conventions of society, literature, or art.
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