Don't own KHR.

Don't own the Cover Art.

Crowding Clouds

Every child in Namimori knew the Hibari family. Each parent made sure that their kid knew that the Hibari house was as safe a place to go to as the nearest police station if they were in trouble or scared, and every child was taught the Hibari emergency phone number alongside the typical 119. Over the years, they were slowly taught what constituted a Hibari-grade emergency, and were encouraged to not go to them otherwise. The only Hibari there at present time, Kyouya, also discouraged any notion of approaching as well.

Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on who you asked – having assassins after you and your family was considered a Hibari-grade emergency, and so Tsuna stood just outside the Hibari household nervously shuffling in place with Skull perched on his shoulder looking around curiously. "How old is this house?" The purple-haired child asked curiously, and Tsuna grasped at something to take his mind off what they were doing.

"I'm not sure, but it's been recorded as one of the first buildings built in Namimori, with the Hibari family being one of the town's founders," Tsuna told Skull, walking up to knock on the front door. "Since the Hibari are very traditional, they don't see the need to change the house, or at least that's what my mom told me." Before Tsuna could even lift his arm to knock the door opened, a scowling nine year old greeted him.

"Herbivore," Hibari Kyouya acknowledged, eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Why are you here?"

The two children knew of the other, but really only through word of mouth and their own sparse research. So Hibari likely knew that Tsuna was "Dame", as everyone else liked to call it, and Tsuna knew that Hibari had a short temper that exploded rather violently when it ran out. To prevent a rather painful reprimand from the older boy for wasting his time Tsuna quickly said, "Assassins are after my family," and was rewarded with Hibari's eyes widening for a moment before a horrifyingly eager look overtook his features.

"Enter," he commanded, turning on his heel and moving deeper into his house, Tsuna scrambling to keep up behind him. Skull was now silent on Tsuna's shoulder, and Tsuna glanced at him but the helmet he had put on was keeping his face hidden.

Which was probably for the best, as the confusion and horror that was present there would only terrify the poor brunet even more.

Because seriously, what was Skull seeing? Did the first generation up and decide to reincarnate and fix Vongola themselves, or did their descendants just choose the winning lottery numbers from the gene pool? Twice now he's found kids that could only be described as the second coming of their ancestors, and it was frankly scary. They looked just like Giotto and Alaude; just less blonde.

Skull was broken out of his musings on how impolite it would be to ask them to dye their hair so he could see how much they resemble their ancestors by the Alaude-lookalike. "Why are assassins after your family, Herbivore?"

Skull felt Tsuna hesitate, not entirely sure of the answer himself, so the Arcobaleno sighed and answered for him. "His dad's a higher up member of the Vongola, a notorious mafia family in Italy." The two children paused, Tsuna in horrified anger and Hibari in contemplation.

"I have heard of the Vongola," Hibari admitted reluctantly, eyes locked onto Tsuna speculatively. The brunet fidgeted at the look, though Hibari didn't seem to notice. "My family comes from a long line of criminals and law enforcement alike, and so Vongola is a name not unknown in this household." His eyes then moved to the child on Tsuna's shoulder, eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "But why would a child like you know of the Vongola?"

Skull tensed a little before heaving a sigh and taking off his helmet. While Hibari bared his teeth at the piercings Skull gestured to the pacifier around his neck. "I am known as an Arcobaleno." When the nine year old scowled at the word Skull gave a grim smile. "Your uncle told you then?"

"The basics," he grunted and, at Tsuna's confused look, reluctantly explained. "Arcobaleno are the seven strongest members of the mafia, chosen through some unknown method, and forced to remain young until sometime passes. That's all he told me."

Skull hummed a little, patting Tsuna on the head a little when the seven year old turned to give him a surprised look. "That really is the basics of it all. I can probably fill in some more if you want."

Tsuna beat Hibari to his question. "How long have you been like this?"

Skull put his helmet back on and wringed his hands a little. "About 30 years now."

"What?!" Tsuna yelped, but Hibari bulldozed over his next attempted question.

"How are you chosen?" he demanded, leaning closer in his desire to know.

"The generation's strongest Flames are chosen."

"Flames?"

Skull gulped a little. The others were going to murder him for telling so much to two civilians, and children at that. But they needed to know; their lives were in danger so long as Iemitsu lived and Tsuna and his mother stayed in Namimori. Here's hoping he doesn't come to regret this decision later. Taking a deep breath, Skull jumped onto the table in between the two boys, positioned himself so that both had full view of his front and opened his hands.

And summoned his flames.

The room was thrown into an eerie light by the dancing purple flames, which around skulls hands and forearms and made the helmet he'd put back on a more ominous visage. Something in Tsuna called out at the sight of those flames, and he could tell that Hibari felt the same way, the other boy leaning even closer though few would have noticed that he had moved at all.

"There are seven Flames overall," Skull began, letting his Flames retreat back down to only his hands. "Sky, Cloud, Rain, Storm, Mist, Lightning, and Sun. Each person has at least one Flame lying inside them; mine is Cloud." He let the purple fire grow smaller, until he had a tiny flame on the tip of each finger and nothing else. "Each Flame has its own unique ability as well, to be used in combat. The mafia almost exclusively uses Flames in their fights." One by one Skull let the flames on his fingertips flicker away, until they were all gone and the children were staring fixedly at his hands.

The silence that followed was almost suffocating, the voice in Tsuna's head crying out mournfully at the loss of the brilliant purple flames, orange hazing over his eyes. The child spoke up after a minute of silence, and he didn't even recognize his own voice. "You need to train us, Skull-kun." Hibari nodded stiffly as Skull looked at them before resignedly dropping his helmeted face into his hands.

"The others are going to murder me when they find out," Skull said, but the implied agreement had a smile breaking free on Tsuna's face as Hibari scoffed and minutely relaxed.

"Like we'll let them. Interfering Arcobaleno will be bitten to death." Tsuna couldn't help but laugh a little as Skull wordlessly groaned in response to Hibari's declaration.

"We'll start working on your Flames in a few days or something; I have to get an aquarium for Oodako."

Tsuna blinked a little in confusion. "Who's Oodako?"

Oodako, apparently, was Skull's giant pet octopus that either hadn't seen Skull in a long time or enjoyed hugs, as it had shrunk down to a more manageable size before clinging onto Skull with what looked like no intention of letting go.

Skull didn't seem to mind though, if his giggling and just as strong hug back were anything to go by. "How did he shrink?" Tsuna found himself asking, curiosity pushing him past the insanity around him.

"Oodako is my Flame animal companion," Skull explained. "And the trait of Cloud Flames is Propagation, which in Oodako's case means that he can grow or shrink as he wishes. Oodako," he finally called for the octopus' attention, which he easily gained, "This is Tsuna-nii; we'll be staying at his house for a while, okay?"

While Oodako gave a close approximation to a nod, Tsuna cocked his head to the side. "Why do you keep calling me Tsuna-nii? We both know you're actually older now."

Skull stopped and looked at Tsuna, his eyes a bit guarded. "Well, for a number of reasons. For one, it doesn't seem as weird for a child to act like this than if you deferred to me. For another…senpai doesn't have any good connotations for me," Skull shrugged awkwardly at that, and something – Tsuna was beginning to suspect it might be a hint of his Flame – hissed in displeasure to something Tsuna himself couldn't quite see. And that made him wary.

"Finally," Skull grinned a little here, "It's kind of fun calling you Tsuna-nii. Unlike the other Arcobaleno, I don't really mind acting like an actual little kid. Plus it gets on their nerves." The purple-haired baby cackled for a moment, likely reminiscing on something that had amused him, and Tsuna's lips twitched a bit as well. He could imagine the faces Skull would get for acting like a five year old around other adults stuck in five year old bodies.

While Tsuna was thinking about this, Skull was adjusting Oodako so that the little octopus was on his back like an absurd backpack, his helmet on the motorcycle which Oodako had previously been guarding. The two then started heading back to the house to ask his mom if they could go buy an aquarium. "So how much of this did you want to tell your kaa-san?" he asked, looking curious as Tsuna rapidly paled.

Oh yeah. He'd forgotten about that.

"I don't know; she deserves to know, but I don't want her to worry too much," Tsuna fretted a little, looking to Skull for his opinion.

The Arcobaleno was silent for a moment, obviously going through the pros and cons of telling Tsuna's mom about what was going on. "She's an adult," he finally decided. "We'll just ask her what she wants to know, and work from there."

Tsuna nodded immediately to that, some of his tension draining away. His mom, while a bit air-headed, did have good instincts and would ask anything she truly wanted to know about. Tsuna took a deep breath and entered his house. "Kaa-san, Skull-kun and I are back!"

"Welcome back Tsu-kun, Skull-chan!" His mother appeared from the kitchen, offering the two some onigiri as a snack. "How was your meeting with Hibari-kun?"

"Very informative," he told her a bit dryly, before a serious expression took over his features. "And Skull has more information, about tou-san and those people attacking us. But we'll tell you only what you want to know."

His mother stared at him for a moment, her eyes widened and suddenly much more aware than how she'd appeared moments before. Nana studied her son intensely for a moment before asking, "Have you made plans for if those people come back?"

"Yes," Tsuna answered immediately, straightening. "Skull-kun will train Hibari-senpai and I on ways to defend ourselves from the men…but kaa-san, what about you? Do you want to train with us?"

Skull looked surprised by the offer but didn't seem against the idea. In fact, he looked pleased and proud of Tsuna, which actually embarrassed Tsuna a little; he hadn't seen anyone but his mom look proud of him in a long while. Nana hummed thoughtfully to herself, and looked ready to reject when Skull interjected. "At least come to the first one, kaa-san," he requested softly. "Hibari-san can get you fitted with a Tazer or some pepper spray if you don't want to continue."

Still looking reluctant, Nana agreed, and it made a knot of worry in Tsuna's stomach disappear. At the bare minimum, his mom would be able to defend herself for a little while from attackers. He cleared his throat a little in an attempt to hide how blatant his relief was, and continued. "Was there anything else you wanted to know?"

"Not right now," she assured them. "A lot of this is your Papa's to tell, and he'll do so when he's ready." Tsuna couldn't stop a grimace from forming on his face, and saw Skull twitch out of the corner of his eye. "Now," she clapped her hands to break the silence that had fallen around them. "What else did you want to talk about?"

Tsuna grinned; his mom's instincts were still quite sharp. "We were wondering if we could go buy some stuff for Oodako."

"And who's Oodako?" Nana asked curiously, smile widening a bit at Tsuna's enthusiasm. When the octopus obligingly showed itself from on Skull's back, his mom cooed at the creature. "How cute! What does he eat? And salt or freshwater?"

"He's a saltwater creature," Skull told her, happy to talk about his companion. "And he doesn't need to eat, but he likes clams as treats from time to time." Nana patted the octopus on the head for a moment before grabbing her purse and herding the boys out of the house.

"So what are we getting?" Tsuna asked curiously from behind Skull, examining the tanks as the Arcobaleno looked them over critically.

"A reasonably-sized tank and salt water filter for starters," Skull listed. "Some rocks and false seaweed for Oodako to cling to…or," Skull grinned as an idea came to him, "we can get some sand for the bottom and then we can get some anemone and clown fish for color!" He hopped a little in excitement at the thought, and nearly missed the confused look that Tsuna shot him.

"Why do we need to get both? Why not just some anemone or just some clown fish?" Tsuna was very genuine in his confusion, so Skull responded honestly back.

"Clown fish and sea anemone have what is known as a symbiotic relationship, which means they interact with each other a lot throughout their lives. Theirs is also called mutualistic, which means they benefit from one another. The clown fish is kept safe by the sea anemone, its home, because it isn't hurt by the sea anemone's stinging, and the sea anemone is kept safe because the clown fish keeps it healthy by eating little things that hurt it." Skull shrugged as he finished his explanation. "Because of this, I can't imagine getting sea anemone without clown fish or vice versa."

When he didn't hear anything behind him, Skull turned around to see Tsuna staring at him, looking amazed for some reason. The brunet answered his question before he could ask it. "You're really good at explaining things, Skull-kun." His eyes dropped a bit before shyly creeping back up. "Just…that actually made sense, and normally things don't really make sense to me."

Skull smiled gently at Tsuna to hide how his chest tightened at the boy's words. "People learn differently, Tsuna-nii," he chirped. "And I was once a tutor before I was a stuntman, so I like to think I'm not too bad at explaining things."

"You're not bad!" Tsuna exclaimed, shaking his head in vigorous denial to Skull putting himself down. "You're…you're really good, Skull-kun."

Skull smiled at the boy, ignoring the way his face warmed at the other's praise. "Thanks, Tsuna-nii. That actually means a lot to me." It really did, surprisingly enough, and Tsuna could probably tell if the way his own smile grew was anything to go by.

*Omake*

What the hell! Skull grabbed his hair and fell to his knees, not sure how to take the sight before him. This is getting ridiculous! I though priests were supposed to be celibate!

Ryohei, unaware of the false child's mini-meltdown, continued running down the street whilst shouting out the occasional "EXTREME!"

*End Omake*

The wheel is slowly beginning to turn! We'll see more of the odd jobs Skull has done over the years as he teaches Tsuna bits and pieces of the things he's learned over the years. I actually managed to finish writing this chapter early, so I'm posting it a bit earlier than planned. Everyone's kind words have definitely helped me keep the muse going, so thanks everyone!

Please review.

Ja ne!