"YOU OLD FUCK!" Skull was again chased out of his own home by raining glass shards. "YEAH, NOW YOU CAN GET YOUR OWN DRUGS!" He screamed at the twiggy man within with bloodshot eyes and rotting teeth.
The man scowled. "What was that, punk?" He stood to his full heath, closing in on 6 foot 5".
He had no flesh to his bones and more resembled a zombie with his unhealthy complexion and appearance; his glare was dulled by years of drug abuse and his scowl looked more like a grimace of pain.
Nonetheless, Skull was intimidated. "Nothing!" He waved his hands defensively before him. "The corner, right? That's where he should be?" He ran before the man could say (or do) anything.
He didn't stop running until he was a half-mile away. He slowed to a walk and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his purple and black jumpsuit. He snorted to himself, taking on the façade of complete and utter control over the situation.
"What a fucking loser dad." Skull muttered to himself in a whisper.
Nervously, he looked behind himself, half-expecting the man to come chasing him down for the insult.
No creature of skin and bones came barreling towards him, so he relaxed. "He's a fuckin' R-tard. What a waste of space!" He cast another uneasy glance back.
Still no one.
He started warming up to the insults. "Yeah, I could take him on if I wanted to! The old fuck's lucky I don't feel like fighting him!" A cocky grin split his purple-painted lips. "He's just a bug~ I could squish him in a sec!"
Thunder growled above him.
A raindrop splattered on his nose.
"Gah!" He put his hands over his spiky mop of purple hair, scowling as the light shower came down on him.
He looked up with vengeance warring in his glare at the heavy, dark clouds above.
He wasn't done with his tirade.
"Stupid clouds! What, you have something against me?" He snarled. "Yeah, if you came down here, I'd show you what happens to people who try to top me!" He pointed a demeaning finger upwards.
A couple walking at the opposite side of the street seemed to be torn between staring at him as if he was pitifully insane or just idiotic.
"You're lucky you're all the way up there! If you were down here, I'd kick your puffy ass back to the sky!"
The rain was falling down a little harder, coming at him from the back. The pressure was enough that he stumbled forward.
The thunder was getting extremely loud, almost blocking his words from being head even as they were said.
A flash of lightening nearly blinded him.
"Gah! Yeah, yeah! That's all you can do, ain't it, you stupid clouds! All you can do is cry and scream like a little baby!" He sniggered to himself.
His purple makeup was making tiny streams down his face. "Stupid clouds! You're smearing my makeup!"
He rubbed his wet sleeve furiously over his face.
Abruptly, the rain and thunder stopped.
He could hear the click-clack of heels against the sidewalk.
"Human…"
Startled, he took his sleeve away from his gaze. He choked on a scream.
There was a man in front of him with a spiky head of jet-black hair, alabaster skin, and slate-blue eyes. His pale lips were turned down into a severe scowl and his hands were clenched around purple-colored tonfas that seemed to give off their own haze of some sort.
He wore a crisp black suit over a purple dress shirt and business shoes, his attire completely dry despite the sudden shower.
He looked pissed.
"W-what?" Skull jerked back a few steps from the man. "Who the hell are you?"
A vicious smirk came over the man's lips. "You know who I am. After all, you were just inviting me to come down, weren't you?" He held the tonfas before him, feet sliding into an offense position. "Prepare to die."
Skull was going over a mental list of everyone he had insulted lately (a very long list, by the way), even as he released a dying scream and ran hastily in the opposite direction.
He turned a corner and the man was there, waiting for him while nonchalantly leaning against a brick building. "What happened to 'kicking my puffy ass back to the sky'?"
Skull mentally died in that moment.
It wasn't possible… It couldn't be possible… The man was screwing around with him… Definitely.
"Y-you must have misheard me, u-uum, sir! I was – uuhh... I wasn't talking to you… I was…"
He just couldn't figure out the right way to say he had been cussing out the clouds for raining on him without sounding crazy.
"Oh, no… You were addressing me." The man took slow, calculated steps towards him. "You're going to die now." He stated in a low, dangerously icy tone.
Skull's knees knocked insistently against each other as he backed slowly away.
What the fuck was this?
"Hah hah… F-funny joke, dude… I mean, 'cause I wasn't talking to you… You're just really confused, so I'm gonna go that way now!" He fled the scene as quickly as he could.
He shot down an alleyway, hoping to hide there.
The strange and intimidating man was already there, waiting for him.
The purple tonfas were missing; instead, he swung purple handcuffs from one finger, his steely eyes on Skull.
"WAAAAAH!" He ran off again.
… And again…
…. And again…
He eventually collapsed on the sidewalk, too exhausted to keep running.
Where he had set off close to afternoon, it was now closing in on twilight. He gasped for breath, his arms and legs like Jell-O. Sweat had made his jumpsuit sticky, the fabric clinging to his frame.
The man was in front of him, lazily swinging handcuffs around that one damnable finger.
"Y-you're…" He paused to pant. "Not human… man!" His forehead shakily touched the ground as his body gave out on him completely.
"Of course not." The man scoffed. "Who would want to be associated with filthy, greedy earthlings like you?"
He took the last two steps separating them and lifted Skull clear off his feet. "Now you are going to die."
Skull whimpered. "C-c'mon, dude! ... I told you, I wasn't… wasn't talking about… you!" Something trickled down his inner thigh.
"Oh, but you were." The man lifted the handcuffs in his other hand.
Aw, fuck… He was going to get his head bashed in by handcuffs!
He clenched his jaw tightly and shut his eyes, awaiting a painful death with only one reluctant sob.
Nothing happened.
"Hibari…" A kind, warm voice breathed with slight exasperation. "Please put the poor boy down."
He slid one eye partially open to see what was happening.
There was a slim man with bronze hair and large caramel eyes with his hand around the man's offending wrist, his gaze directed at the raven-haired man.
Slate-blue eyes were narrowed threateningly on the slight man, but his grip relaxed and Skull slid to the ground.
The slim man smiled gently. He released the offender's wrist and both of his hands whispered up to the dangerous man's face, cupping his cheeks in a careful grasp.
"That wasn't so hard, was it? When Lambo and Yamamoto told me that you were going to kill a human, I didn't think I was going to make it in time…"
The man – the one Skull was coming to think was 'Hibari' – appeared offended and yet strangely content at the same time.
"I'm happy that he's not seriously harmed." The slim man went on to say with a heart-quivering smile.
His fingers threaded into Hibari's hair, petting the strands.
Hibari snorted. "He kept running – I thought it would be amusing to chase him and make him feel what real fear was."
"Liar." The brunette chuckled. "You just like the hunt."
He felt his face pale by three shades as Hibari smirked.
"Are you calm now?"
Hibari's smirk turned into a considering frown. After a moment, he nodded. "It's because you cheat." He muttered.
The brunette smiled. "I don't cheat – I just happen to have a calming affect over you."
Now that Skull was terrified out of his mind (and he had identified the warm, sticky wetness down his inner thighs), something clicked… in the worst way possible.
"Holy shit!" He barked. "You're both fags!"
Whatever 'calming affect' the two had just been discussing…
Skull failed to see it.
~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~
"You are lucky to be moving in now…" The Chinese kid – Fon – told him, carrying three large boxes that should have made any normal person stumble and waver uncertainly and yet he walked with elegance unheard of. "Colonello and Reborn became sick with being bunkmates some weeks ago – so they tore down the wall separating us from our neighbors and now we have four more rooms instead of the original duplex."
He dumped the boxes in the middle of the floor of Skull's new room.
"Now everyone has their own space." He slid his hands into his opposing sleeves, sighing. "Ah, but I almost miss having a roommate…"
Skull – a broken, bruised mass with one arm in a cast, four recently broken ribs in the process of healing, a sprained ankle, a twisted knee, one swollen-shut eye, three missing teeth (none of them, luckily, visible), and an ear infection – stared at Fon as if he was the devil reincarnated.
He did not remember agreeing to any of this!
Fon smiled angelically at him and patted his shoulder, ignoring his wince as he did so. "Welcome to our earthbound family, Skull. I hope you have learned your lesson about insulting Hibari."
Author's Note: Did I just imply 1827? Yes… Yes I did. …
Skull is among my least favorite characters, so I did him last. Ah, but it makes me happy to know that he got the shit kicked out of him… And he never did get those drugs for his dad. Ah, but it's not funny to make light of that – after all, drug abuse is not a joke and nor should it be forced on anyone…
I just seriously don't like Skull.
Good news! I won't be ending the series here. I hope to incorporate some family moments and shed some light on the elements.
