A Different Shade of Green
AN: Struggling a bit with remembering what's actually canon and what's fanon that I've read along the way. Enjoy.
Chapter Seven:
On the day the gathering was to occur (thankfully, they had not quite reached the 'fated day' that was inevitable in the near future), Luce began to grow concerned when everyone had shown up and the only one they were waiting for was Verde. (She was thrilled when most everyone accepted her cookies.)
Had he disregarded her warning? Had he been unable to come up with an alternative way to be present? Surly not he was reputed to be a genius. Was he merely delaying the inevitable by trying to show up as late as possible?
The sound of a motor whirling distracted her from her thoughts, and she was mildly surprised when an odd machine flew into the room. It was slender and had a rectangular shape, it hovered itself onto the table and opened up, facing the rest of the future arcobaleno, revealing a screen with a green background with a white 'V' in the middle.
How…odd. But she supposed Verde was a genius, and was prone to his quirks. And if he had to send a machine in the beginning to start his participation, well, whatever worked. He would come in person just in time for the most important part and that's all that really mattered.
"What the hell is this?"
Reborn watched from underneath the brim of his fedora as the purple haired child got up from his seat to inspect the machine that had flown in. (And, really, what was with that?). They had been waiting on the seventh person to arrive (punctuality was very important and it annoyed Reborn to no end that the person was keeping the meeting from starting).
"I believe that would be our final guest." Luce said smiling. Reborn noticed that had glanced at her cookie tray in disappointment (he assumed she was pouting that she couldn't offer a machine cookies).
"Mou…it owes me money for wasting my valuable time waiting." Viper murmured from under their hood.
Luce opened her mouth to speak just as Skull moved to touch the machine's screen. A robotic arm emerged from the device and cut through Skull's glove causing him to back away clutching his hand with a yelp.
"Do not touch my machine. The advanced technology it possesses is worth more than you are." Said an irritated male's voice coming from the device. (Oddly, but really not, at the words Viper turned a speculating gaze towards the machine).
"Oh, Verde, I'm so glad you could make it." Luce said, clapping her hands together happily.
Verde? Reborn recognized the name. From what he had heard, the man was not officially part of any famiglia, was known as a mad scientist with a nasty reputation for not caring at all for his subordinates (even driving good portions of them to suicide), and that he often kidnapped people for conducting his experiments (Verde did but they were often prisoners – though Reborn didn't know that).
All in all, Reborn had never heard anything good about Verde besides he was supposedly a genius. Combined with Verde's reputation, obvious lack of punctuality, and his gall to have not even shown up in person, Reborn was beginning to dislike the man already.
It had absolutely nothing to do with his name being a painful reminder of Midori. Not at all.
He scowled at the machine's screen as the group reintroduced themselves for the late comer.
Reborn, and the rest he supposed, were informed by Luce that their (mysterious) employer had gathered them to work together on several jobs that were going to come up in the next couple of months. While Reborn didn't really do the whole "working with others" thing, the deal was really too good to pass up.
As Luce came to a close, finishing up their instructions, Fon spoke up. "Excuse me, but, if I am not mistaken, you said it is required we live together?"
"Yes, that is a stipulation."
It was the weirdest damned stipulation Reborn had ever heard, and he had been in this business for a long, long time.
"What about him?" Skull asked pointing to – Verde, he supposed he could say, though the person in question wasn't even truly there.
"What about him?"
"Is he going to live with us? He's not even here now!"
"Idiot's got a point." Lal-Mirch said.
"Of course I –hey!"
Reborn waited to hear this.
"I will not be joining you all just yet. Even on jobs my presence will not be necessary as I will be in front of a computer and relaying information from a distance anyway." Verde said. Reborn still found it a bit disconcerting that the voice had no image and it was just a voice with a letter attached. He didn't even know what the man looked like, and as far as he was aware not many people did, rumor had it that the man very rarely left his secret lab bases.
"I do not see how that is fair." Fon said, his eyebrows creased.
"I don't see how life is fair at all, so you can just –"
"What I believe Verde is trying to say, "Luce intercepted, apparent to everyone that she was trying to smooth over the situation, and prevent Verde from offending anyone else. "Is that at the moment he is unable to come in person and will come to fully participate as soon as possible. I'm sorry about this unfairness to everyone else but it is truly unavoidable. And like Verde said, he really doesn't need to be here in person, especially with that cute little machine that he has devised, we can communicate with him easily. After all it will be in the home we are staying at too."
Verde neither confirmed nor denied her statements, Reborn noted, however Luce's words did calm everyone in the room, including himself, so the subject was dropped.
From very far away, in Scotland, Verde was leaning back against his bed's headboard in front of the machine he had invented to communicate (he called it a laptop, and he could see them through the screen though they couldn't see him) surrounded by, some empty some full, half gallons of ice cream, absolutely fuming. He could not stand that woman, and from what he was seeing the others were eating out of the palm of her hand. Even Reborn…
That bitch, that fucking bitch. And that stupid fedora wearing, heartbreaking, asshole that knocked me up….Ugh!
Verde took an angry bite of his mint chocolate chip ice cream. Things were just not going his way lately.
AN: I'm not terribly happy with this chapter, but I couldn't figure out anything I liked better, so... Anyway, disclaimer for the invention of the laptop - the concept for a personal computer is accredited to a guy by the name of Alan Kay. The anime I mentioned in the previous chapter was actually Death Note , but though I don't know how far before canon this story is yet, I didn't want to say the name because of anachronistic problems. I got the idea when L taunts Kira on the live broadcast after Kira kills Lind L. Tailor and twisted it a bit.
Please tell me what you think.
