Un-beta'd.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

While recovering from the Curse being broken

—

"Claire. For the last time, no."

Skull sounded amused and Reborn paused outside the house to look at Fon, who shrugged. Skull had been at the Acrobaleno Mansion, having turned down going on a job on rather vague grounds. Looked like they weren't so vague. Instead of going inside, they opted to walk around the back to see what was going on.f

"But its Lussuria! THE Lussuria. They're one of the best hand-to-hand Suns out there and I absolutely loooove their work."

Three different laughs joined Skull's- two feminine laughs and one masculine laugh. Then the speaking male gasped dramatically while the others devolved back into laughter.

"What?! No! You're my wife! I am not leaving you." He sniffed. "Such little faith you have in me."

Fon and Reborn came around the corner to find Skull, body currently at 19, with 4 young-ish Flame-active adults all sitting on the ground laughing, except a male with rich red hair, almost a wine color, who had his arms crossed and giving them all the stink eye. Ever the gentleman, Reborn doffed his hat to the ladies.

"Ciassou, signoras, signores. Skull, would you introduce us to your friends?"

Oddly, that got the wine-haired man laughing. "They call you 'Skull'? Oh my god."

The golden-eyed woman with black hair rolled her eyes with a sigh and quickly signed something using ASL and the red haired woman shrugged as Skull signed something back with a nod. Reborn didn't know what it was since he only learned Italian sign language and Fon didn't know any outside of the Chinese variants.

Skull gestured to the golden-eyed woman. "This is Chane, poor wife of the sap over there ("Hey!) and a Flame Active Cloud. Said sap is Claire is a bloody Sun that idolizes Lussuria. Then these two are Firo, also a Sun and his wife Ennis, a Lightening."

Chane had a polite smile and lifted her hand in greeting while the wine-haired Claire grinned with a little too many teeth. Firo, a sandy-haired man with a more mischievous grin, tilted his head in greeting. Ennis, the redheaded woman gave them a polite smile as she spoke up, a nice contralto voice.

"Care to join us?"

The two sat down while Chane and Skull had a quick conversation in ASL before the purple-haired cloud nodded his head with a mock resigned sigh.

Ever the troll, Reborn looked over at Claire. "So why are you so eager to meet Lussuria?"

Dark eyes flicked to Skull and Chane who both nodded. His grin widened and jumped to his feet with a flourish.

"You are sitting before the wonderful Claire Stanfield, better known in some circles as Vino or the Railtracer."

Reborn narrowed his eyes. "Oh really now? How do we know you're the real deal?"

"I am a bloody Sun for a reason, Signore Reborn. I love feeling the blood on my hands, not to mention leaving all that blood behind? That much blood almost looks like spilled wine. That's why I am Vino. As for the Railtracer," his eyes glinted, "I am the bloodiest murderer on the rails."

Chane pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand and yanked him back down onto the ground with the other. "Ignore my husband. He's very proud of those names."

Claire mock glared at her. "That's how we met, in case you forgot."

She rolled her eyes. "Forget the sight of you completely drenched in blood while fighting on top of a train? Not likely."

Fon wondered to himself how the hell had Skull met these American people, especially someone like the hitman Vino. It was one of the many inconsistencies revolving around the stuntman cloud.

"So how did you all meet Skull?" Fon decided to verbalize his curiosity.

Firo smiled. "His younger brother is my Sky and Ennis's as well."

Claire relaxed. "I grew up in the circus until he found me and introduced me to Firo as kids. I don't have a Sky though. I introduced him to Chane at our wedding."

"Actually, I knew of her. Was acquaintances with her father before she was born."

The four Americans looked stunned and Claire managed a quiet "Huh" in response. The other two Arcobaleno wondered just how old Skull was before the Curse, since Chane looked to be in her mid-20s.

"He is still incarcerated, isn't he? Haven't heard much about him lately, even with Talbot being the arresting agent..."

Reborn's eyes narrowed. "Talbot, an agent?" His mind went to the Vongola's ring artificer, planning on investigating this but Skull interrupted his thought process.

"Probably not whoever you're thinking of. The guy's an American FBI agent. Knew him before he went that route."

Reborn gave Skull a flat look. "Any other surprises we should know about, like other people you might know?" His fingers twitched for his gun but Skull wasn't one of his students and the one time he did try it, he was banned from espresso. "Like, your Sky, perhaps?"

Skull's eyes went cold even as his body stayed relaxed. Oddly, the Americans tensed up. Reborn filed that tidbit away.

"I've told you before, Reborn. Do not pry. I might introduce them to you or I might not." The stuntman stood up and dusted off his clothes as he looked at his guests fondly. "Let me see you off. Thank you for stopping by."

Firo and Claire each draped an arm over Skull's shoulders as they walked away with the ladies following behind, signing in ASL to each other. Fon and Reborn looked at each other.

"He knows some odd people. Did you know he knew whichever sign language that was?" Fon queried.

Reborn just shook his head. "Probably American Sign since the four of them were American too." He paused. "He avoided more questions again and they knew the answers, I'm sure."

Fon tilted his head in agreement. "He is opening up, though. They knew we were approaching and did not leave immediately. Let us wait and see what happens now. Besides didn't Lal say that one his guardians in the Ring Battles go by Vino, too?"

After a moment, Reborn spoke up. "They never addressed Skull by name."

—

Author's Note:

So for those who don't know, there are a group of people who are actually immortal. In this series, Skull is part of this group. So are Ennis, Firo, Claire and Chane. The Skies mentioned will pop up again.

This series is a non-chronological series but I will do my best to keep it obvious about the order of things. In the next few days, I will put a timeline of stories on my profile and will add to it as I publish more in the series.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or if there is a scene you would like to see.