Summary:
"Illusionists don't dream," Fran interjects, muffled and toneless against the hard concrete floor. "We walk in other peoples' bodies and converse with the devil in our slumber."

Squalo narrows his eyes. "..No you don't. I've seen you dream."

Reborn sends him a very offended look. "Why are you arguing with an illusionist about what illusionists do in their sleep?"

A/N: follows immediately after the prev chapter. i like a little more vulgar camaraderie in my varias, so here you go.

it's tough being a sky to a bunch of wayward elements missing their own sky.

Warnings: casual murder. just a flesh wound, nothing too gory.

/ / / / / / / / /

i believe that all good harvests must eventually wither

/ / / / / / / / /

"Reborn?"

Sawada Tsunayoshi. Target.

"Hey, you shouldn't be getting up yet!"

Mochida Kensuke.. Target'scompanion. One of them, anway.

Renato steadies himself with a hand against the back of the couch. His vision goes a little hazy from rising too quickly.

"..What happened?" It comes out croaked, unlike his usual dulcet tones. Probably from breathing in dust after that supposed explosion. He has a bare recollection of it.

"You don't remember?" Sawada seems concerned, judging by the crease of brow and downturn of lips. "Your Flame sort of.. went haywire."

"They exploded and you blew up your arm," Mochida adds, disgruntled. "You've been out for about a day now. I only just got here because some people didn't call me sooner to patch him up."

"I'm perfectly fine, Kensuke, and so is Squalo. His shield was still up and he put one around me when we realized what was going to happen."

Squalo. The little shark. Traitors of Vongola.

...Speaking of traitors.

"What day is it?"

"..What kind of question is tha—"

"It's been 48 days since you arrived," Sawada says. "..I think, anyway."

Diligent. Because Reborn asks far too often, probably. Renato remembers that much.

"Where—" He coughs into the palm of his hand. Man, that sounded too much like a dying toad. "Where's Egidio?"

"Um.. still in the basement. Why are you asking?"

"Ooh no you don't." Mochida yanks on Renato's wrist when he tries to move away. "Look, I don't care what you have going on between you and that guy downstairs, you just blew up your arm and gave yourself a helluva concussion."

Renato stares at him incredulously. Mochida does not relent.

"Sit back down."

Renato snarls.

A snap of his arm to the back of the other's neck sends him slumping down to the ground, only temporarily stunned. Sawada stumbles backwards, falling into the other couch, looking more than a little confused and frightened. Not at him, though, nor at anything in particular.

He finds the kitchen and the hidden switch easily, guided by faint Flame-laced recall and muscle memory.

"Reborn? Where are you goin— ow-" Sawada comes in rubbing at a red mark on their forehead from bumping into the wall. "What are you doing?"

"Paying the Beheader a visit. Haven't you been trying to get him to talk?"

"Well.. We figured we knew what he was after already. Kyouya's in charge of what happens to him now."

"He's not here to kill you, Sawada."

"..What are you talking about?"

Renato resists the urge to roll his eyes. For someone this entrenched in the Underworld, Sawada seems woefully ignorant of it.

"A skilled hitman or assassin does not let himself be caught. He will not divulge information. He will not allow himself to be questioned." He presses the palm of his hand to Sawada's shoulder, to nudge them out of the way. A killer he is, but a mafioso, and a gentleman also. "The fact that he hasn't used a kill-pill yet means he has some other reason to be here."

"A what?"

"Suicide pill. Surely you know what those are."

"I— yes, of course, I know, why would he have one?"

"Do the words liability and loyalty mean anything to you, Sawada?"

"Why are you talking like that?" Sawada grabs onto Renato's sleeve, though it does little to stop him from going down the steps to the basement. "Reborn, what's going on?"

"My name is Renato," is all that he responds with. "Don't make me say it again."

Those words do not, unfortunately, make Sawada leave him alone. Instead they grab on more firmly, teeth bared, face twisted into something akin to upset and grim, steely anger.

"Where is Reborn?"

Renato sneers, ignoring the flutter in his chest to know that he, another him, has endeared themselves to someone so utterly in the short time they'd been here.

"Fond of him already?" He reaches out to thumb over Sawada's cheek, and they startle backwards from it, letting go in the process. "This is my body, Sawada Tsunayoshi. Not his."

And that is all it takes to make that steel and grit crumble.

"What, did you never think about that sort of thing? You've never thought to ask the other Arcobaleno about the specifics? You heard they were from another universe and just accepted it without question? My, but you're naive. Even the Bovino's Bazooka addresses this paradox."

"I.. I didn't—"

"You didn't care about them?" Renato scoffs. "Well, that no one would blame you for. You didn't know them before they were replaced. It isn't your duty to worry about every single existence on this planet."

"That's—" Sawada frowns. "..Wait, are you trying to guilt trip me?"

"A little. Is it working?"

"Ugh, you're just like him."

"We are the same person."

"You just said you weren't—"

Renato shakes his head and turns away to continue down the stairs. The chameleon's head bobs up and down from his shoulder, as though it were laughing. It better not be laughing.

"You had better not be laughing," he says to the chameleon. He hopes this doesn't become a habit. Talking to an animal as though it could talk back, or even understand him. Whose chameleon is this anyway?

It doesn't even look much like a chameleon. More like a flat-faced gecko.

"Who are you talking to?"

"A lizard."

"A li- Leon!"

"You know it? Take it. It keeps staring at me." Renato pauses just long enough to drop the chameleon onto Sawada's shoulder. Partly because the critter looks like it was willing to take very drastic measures in order to switch rides.

"Um, he's- oh." Sawada blinks somewhere in the direction of his shoulder. "Hi Leon. He's not mine! He's.. yours? He's Reborn's. Wait, shouldn't you know that? You obviously remember stuff from the past few weeks."

"Selective memory," Renato calls back up the stairs. Sawada is strangely complacent about all this. "A chameleon isn't useful. I don't need it."

"That's not a nice thing to say to his face!"

"I'm not saying it to his face, am I?"

Sawada sputters something in response, but Renato is already at the foot of the steps and turning down a branching corridor that leads to the solitary cell. He locks the door behind him.

Behind bars, the Beheader raises his head. Renato could almost smile.

"Chaos, Egidio."

Egidio's face scrunches up in confusion, and then goes pale.

"I heard you tried to seduce me into thinking we were on the same side," Renato says in smooth, smooth Italian. Liquid smooth. Like make-up concealer smooth. "Well, the other me. I suppose I— we —were lucky that he hated you so much."

"We are on the same side, Renato. Gesso gave the assignment to both of us."

"Funny. All I remember was having a free lunch with the one man I couldn't stand to be near. Two men. You were the one who accepted the job, I don't recall ever saying anything about it."

"Then.. then what are you here for?"

"Iemitsu's spawn." Renato bares his teeth in a mockery of a grin. "Sawada Tsunayoshi's life, not death. So it seems we have a conflict of interest between us."

"No we don't— Gesso didn't even send us— me— I'm not here for the CEDEF brat!"

"I know that, obviously. I was there at the meeting. Gesso wants you to get rid of Vongola Decimo's youngest sibling." Renato tries really hard not to roll his eyes. "It's too bad you tried to kill Sawada while you were at it."

Egidio snorts. "You think I'd still be alive if I had actually tried to kill him?"

"I know you like playing with your food, Egidio." Renato sighs. "It's just your luck that this house is Shrouded. Just what you'd expect from a base of operations, really. I don't know why you thought it was a good idea to break in alone."

"He's lucky it was," the Beheader snarls, chains clanking together as he yanks at them. "Lucky you're on his side or I'd have him in delicate little pieces at my feet."

Renato lets out a tut and lifts one eyebrow. "Are you sure you want to speak of such things in front of me, Egidio?"

"He is a child," Egidio sneers. "You've been made a glorified nanny to the useless heir of a useless famigli—"

A streak of bright yellow erupts from the tip of his finger and goes straight through Egidio's chest, leaving a hole the size of a large marble. He slumps over with a wet gurgle.

Someone kicks the door open, sending the doorknob and bits of wood scattering across the floor.

Squalo meets him, eye-to-eye, sword in hand.

Renato looks at him. Then at his finger. Then at the blood pooling out from under Egidio's corpsifying body, and then back at Squalo and the other ex-Varia officers showing up behind him.

"Oops," he says. But they're already charging at him.

/ / / / / / / / /

He stands across from himself again. Reborn. That is what his other self is named, because he has been reborn.

Reborn looks eerily like Renato. Eerily. Not just a matter of seeing himself as if in a mirror, but as though through rippling water. Like there's something wrong with those nose, that mouth. Those hands. The length of his legs. Something not right.

It's like he can't decide what he's supposed to look like. Or doesn't know.

He rubs at his chin as they switch places, drifting past one another as they had just earlier. How long has it been? Hours? Just hours. Hours, after an entire month of playing backseat driver to his own body.

..Well. At least the guy knows how to the shave.

Renato looks better with stubble though.

Find something to hold onto, he tells the other as they fall into place. The darkness is almost starting to feel like home now. They're quite attached to you. Wouldn't want don't want to leave them too soon.

..Who?

Sawada, of course. Renato waves. Take care of that body. And get laid at some point, Christ, that was like walking around in a dried up—

/ / / / / / / / /

There is a lot of groaning when Reborn wakes up. Again.

Again?

Squalo is leaning against the wall across from them, next to Tsunayoshi, who is staring off at... something. Reborn is tempted to look, but then remembers that Tsunayoshi is rarely ever actually staring at something.

Still tempting though.

Is that Belphegor on the ground? And Fran? And- oh, yes. That's definitely Levi.

"Reborn?" Mochida looks over his shoulder, strangely perplexed and confused, from where he's crouched in front of Tsunayoshi.

"..Yes? I mean. Yes. What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You.. just woke up and said prune suit."

Oh.

"Oh. Don't worry about that. Arcobaleno humor. Does Mammon ever do that?"

"Do what?" Squalo snorts. "Wake up and say random things like carrot sticks or menorah? VOI— ..actually yeah, that did happen once. Something about a weird dream."

"Illusionists don't dream," Fran interjects, muffled and toneless against the hard concrete floor. "We walk in other peoples' bodies and converse with the devil in our slumber."

Squalo narrows his eyes. "..No you don't. I've seen you dream."

Reborn sends him a very offended look. "Why are you arguing with an illusionist about what illusionists do in their sleep?"

"Because he—" Squalo cuts himself off with a perplexed scowl. He settles for a disgruntled grunt and a crossing of his arms to indicate his withdrawal from the discussion.

Never mind the fact that Reborn's pretty sure that illusionists don't do that either. Unless they're Mukuro or Chrome. Maybe Croquant does, too. Who knows? Who would even ask Croquant something like that?

"More importantly," Reborn continues, "why do I feel like I just killed a man? Not that I'm complaining, but it's been a month and I'm not even really sure where we are right now."

Tsunayoshi inclines his head, still looking at.. something. It's not until Squalo and Mochida both jerk their heads in the same direction that Reborn does look over and—

"Oh," he says, upon seeing Egidio's slumped over probably-corpse. Looks kind of fresh. "..Well. Good riddance."

Someone groans. Probably Belphegor.

"The Prince thought he was retired." Definitely Belphegor. "How is the peasant still so strong? Isn't he supposed to be a million years old?"

"You wanna go a second round, Your Highness?"

Belphegor lets out a fit of giggles that stops about as suddenly as it starts. "No."

"Are you sure? Because that other me suggested I get laid at some point, and I know for a fact that violence turns us both on—"

Levi emits a very, very manly shriek and tries to bury his ears with the flaps of his uniform jacket. Squalo groans loudly, VOI! Belphegor sounds like he's choking and Fran is just monotonously chanting oh my god, no, stop over and over.

Reborn is not quite sure what to make of Mochida's face. He looks.. appalled. And resigned. Which is a very odd combination when he's almost got enough facial piercings to rival Skull.

Tsunayoshi, though. Tsunayoshi laughs. There is a dead body not meters away, and he is laughing. It echoes, yes, a little hollow and and a little empty, but he figures that's just the acoustics messing with the sound. Reborn's laugh joins not long after, though his is more of a snorting chortle than anything.

Mochida is already fussing over Tsunayoshi. "Tsuna, stop that, you're going to make your concussion worse."

"He has a what? I didn't hit him, did I?"

"No. Apparently he came in after it quieted down and tripped on the doorknob." Mochida sends a pointed look at Levi and the others. "..Managed to avoid themjust fine though."

Squalo shifts in his seat, glaring stubbornly at Reborn instead. Reborn squints at him. He vaguely remembers Squalo being responsible for that doorknob on the ground.

"I don't have a concussion," Tsunayoshi says once he's stopped laughing. He's still 'staring' at Egidio's body. "I just see dead people."

Mochida stares at him for a while. "...I'm not sure if that's his eyes being weird or if he's actually hallucinating from a concussion. If you can even do that when you're blind. Are they tiny?"

"Um..?" Tsunayoshi shrugs.

"The dead people. Are they tiny?" Mochida's face pinches then when Tsunayoshi just shrugs again. "...He could also just be trying to be funny."

Tsunayoshi's lips quirk upwards at the corners. "I'm just being funny. Probably."

"Ha ha ha," Fran adds flatly, prompting another set of giggles from both Belphegor and Tsunayoshi.

"Okay, muffin-top, I think you've had a long enough few days. Time for you to go to bed. And since you're having trouble walking—" Mochida hefts Tsunayoshi into his arms, maneuvering them around the Varia still on the floor. "Your eyes- eye- doesn't react to light to begin with, but everything else points to mild concussion. Probably. Better to err on the side of caution."

Reborn perks up. "Wait, why do you get to carry him?"

"Because your shoulder's dislocated and I haven't fixed it because I want him all to myself." Levi makes a half-hearted grab for Mochida's pantleg, but he dances away with a triumphant laugh. "See ya, suckers!"

Tsunayoshi puts his arms around Mochida's neck and makes a show of swooning. "Oh, my hero."

Mochida really is a Storm like Hayato. Just as manic and loyal when it comes to their Sky. Except he lacks a lot of the tendency to self-combust when shown any sign of affirmation or affection, as evidence by the victoriously gleeful cackling trailing behind him as they go up the stairs.

Age might have something to do with it, too. Neo Primo's Hayato did mellow out quite a bit.

"So what happened to you guys?" Reborn asks once the two of them are gone.

"VOI, you took down Varia's head officers and you seriously don't remember any of it?"

"I remember a lot of things, Superbi." He gives Squalo a flat look. "And I remember them a lot of times. You'll have to be more specific. Aren't you ex-Varia members anyway? That's shameful. Little old me against 4 strapping gents, and you still lost. I don't even have a weapon— where's Leon?"

Squalo gives the top of his head a glance. Reborn, for some reason, thinks looking up is the way to go. All he sees is the ceiling. (Of course.)

And then he sees Leon crawling down his face to lick the bridge of his nose. And his cheek. And eyebrow—

"Stop grooming me, you ridiculous lizard." Reborn plucks the chameleon off with his good hand and onto his shoulder instead, where shapeshifting gecko-chameleons belong.

"Did he call us strapping gents?" Fran says, finally managing to raise himself to a seated position against the Levi. "I'm only 20. I'm barely a gent."

"Oh, he's such a baby. So small and innocent." Reborn presses a hand to his chest. "I almost feel bad for kicking his ass."

"You didn't. I tripped over Levi and didn't feel like getting up."

Levi jerks up. "What— you little shit, I thought you were hurt! Get off, you're heavy!"

"You were saying, Superbi?" Reborn asks while Levi and Fran duke it out. And by duke it out, he means Fran sprawling out and laying his meager weight on Levi to keep him down, spontaneous apple-hat and all.

"Sawada tripped the silent alarm. He only usually does that if he's in trouble, so we came running in and thought you were going to let Egidio out and go on a killing spree or whatever."

"I would never do such a thing... Well, not that it matters now that he's dead." Funny, that is. "Who dislocated my shoulder?"

"..I think it was Levi. Barreled right into you."

"I ought to step on his nose on my way out."

Squalo snorts and waves his handless arm. "VOI, you already beat him over the head with my hand. That hurt, by the way."

Reborn picks up the violently detached prosthetic hand at his side with his thumb and forefinger and gingerly holds it out. It's surprisingly light. Probably made of the latest and lightest materials possible. "Sorry. Let me hand it back to you."

Belphegor cackles as Squalo snatches it back with another scowl. "No hand jokes."

"Sorry."

"And you, you damn prince, stop laughing! VOI!"

Belphegor finally stops laughing when Squalo chucks the hand at his head. It connects with a thud and a yelp. Levi reaches out blindly for it when it lands nearby, having given up trying to shove Fran off of him (probably not entirely because he isn't able to).

Reborn pops his dislocated shoulder back into place with a wince and a hiss, letting his Sun Flames heal it up. Still aches a bit, but he can move it now.

"Alright. You guys figure out what to do with that dead body— don't put him in the garden, I don't want to have to see his face all the time. I'm going to go supervise those two kids."

"They're 30."

"So?"

"You're 30. 5? 35?" Squalo scowls again. "How fucking old are you?"

"You really don't want me to answer that question."

Levi scoffs. "Old, crusty-ass, hitman-wannabes— wait don't actually step on my nose—!"

/ / / / / / / / /

...We stood in the rain, together as always, all seven of us, and wondered what lay beyond the clouds in the sky. Would it be another horizon, a sun burning bright and scorching and gloriously desolate? Or would it be the same landscape that we always saw when we woke, wet and barren and drowning in the acid that fell from above?

We had no business staying here anymore, with our corpses at our feet and the city ruins at our backs. We had nothing here that was not wrought by our hands.

And so we forged on. Into the night, into the bleak comfort of the coming dawn. We hoped we would find something beyond the clouds in the sky. Something.

Anything.

.

"That's a pretty awful ending for a book," Tsunayoshi says, only slightly slurred.

"Only because you're drugged up on Rain Flames," Reborn says, looking pointedly Squalo, sprawled out at the other end of the couch. Apparently Mochida didn't feel bothered to actually take Tsunayoshi up to his bed and left him down here instead. Probably easier to get him food and water.

There's only a small bump on the back of his head, but Tsunayoshi doesn't seem to be kicking up a fuss about everyone else kicking up a fuss over him.

Then again. Drugged up on Rain Flames.

Squalo snorts and startles awake, caught in the middle of a snore when Reborn kicks him gently on his thigh. "What? What are you looking at?"

"You Tranq'd him so much he said the book was terrible."

"Voi, how's that my fault? Maybe the book's just terrible. Maybe your reading is terrible. Made even me fall asleep."

"I could read the bible and you'd fall asleep, Superbi."

"Father Renato," Squalo says with a grimace.

Reborn shudders. "Ugh, no. Never. Also, it's Reborn."

"Agreed. What the hell did you even read that was so bad, anyway?"

"I have no idea, I started making stuff up after the third page."

"No wonder it sucked," Tsunayoshi grumbles.

"I take offense to that," Reborn says, snapping the book shut. "That was my best attempt at grandiose creativity."

"Flying purple dinosaurs?"

"I've seen them with my own two eyes."

"Were you awake?"

"Are you insinuating that I have crazy lucid dreams?"

"Are you insinuating that flying purple dinosaurs actually exist?"

Reborn makes a frustrated noise and shoves at Squalo's thigh with his foot again. "Hasn't Verde made those box weapons yet?"

"VOI, stop that! I'm trying to sleep here!" Squalo snarls, but softly, and more like an angry sleepy puppy than a shark. Probably because Tsunayoshi is trying to sleep, too. "How the hell am I supposed to know? Ask him if you're so curious."

"Verde's trying to stop them from being made," Tsunayoshi chips in with a hum. "He's been destroying all the blueprints and prototypes he and Mammon can get their hands on. They won't say why, though."

"..Probably tired of making them over and over again," Reborn says finally, and with a shrug. "Big old baby is what he is."

Never mind the fact that the aforementioned flying purple dinosaur box weapon had racked up quite the kill count by the time they were manhandled back into their boxes. Hibari's Cloud Hedgehogs were at least mostly timid and adorable enough.

Cloud Dinosaurs? Not so much. That Cycle had been, in essence, fucked the moment Millefiore got their hands on those boxes.

Reborn thinks disposing of them prematurely is a rather drastic way of making sure Gesso doesn't do the same this time, though. It probably would have been enough if they just destroyed all the megafauna models. Like the Lightning Moose. And maybe the cassowaries.

"Speaking of big old babies, where's the guy who said he was going to drop you off in bed and then gave up halfway?"

"Kensuke? He had to leave. Date night."

"..He left to go on a date while you're here with a concussion?"

"I have you here, don't I? You've got better Sun Flames than whatever Kensuke learned from Kyouko." Tsunayoshi reaches out and pats him half on the knee. "And Squalo's here, too. Whatever good he's for."

Squalo shoves at Tsunayoshi's feet with his own. Tsunayoshi shoves back. Repeatedly.

"Menace," Squalo hisses, and ducks to avoid the tangerine peel that Tsunayoshi throws at him from the pile in his lap. "You seem fine now, so I'm heading back down to check up on the others. And also sleep."

"You're not coming back up for bed?"

"Tch, wish I could. Levi got his ass handed to him, he's going to be sulking for days. He's so fucking annoying when he sulks."

"He misses Xanxus. Just yell at him a bit."

"Is that what you do when he slinks upstairs at night?"

"Who, me?" Tsunayoshi lets out an incredulous laugh. "Never! If I started yelling like that I'm sure all of you would break down the door to see what was wrong. And I happen to like my privacy where I can get it."

Reborn considers the little squabble they'd gotten into three days after his arrival and counts himself lucky that they had resolved the problem easily. No yelling. No overprotective quasi-guardians.

"Squalo, hey." Tsunayoshi beckons the man over as he stands. Squalo comes closer stiffly, still sending wary looks in Reborn's direction. Reborn puts his hands up and scoots his chair back from the couch.

Tsunayoshi wraps both arms around Squalo's neck in something that Reborn might consider a hug. Buries his face in Squalo's hair, at the junction of his shoulder. Squalo returns it tentatively, and it lasts a few seconds too long to be purely customary. Friendly.

Squalo gives him a bump on the forehead with his own when they let go of each other, drawing a chuckling giggle from Tsunayoshi. They bid each other good night. Squalo disappears down the hall and he hears the grinding of stone as the passageway closes up.

Then Tsunayoshi reaches out and finds Reborn's wrist.

"Time for bed?"

"Yeah." He leans down enough for Tsunayoshi to wrap his arms around his neck this time, and hefts the man into his arms with a grunt. "Bit early, but that sounds good."

"Your turn to carry me, I see."

"Are you complaining?"

Tsunayoshi snickers, laying his head on Reborn's shoulder. "Not really, no."

"Good. I'm complaining. You're heavy." Or maybe Reborn is getting soft.

"I'm gonna throw up on you if you stumble around too much."

"..Are you being funny or— never mind. I'll grab a bucket."

"Erring on the side of caution," Tsunayoshi hums, and pats the back of Reborn's neck. "A wise decision."

are you confused yet? yes? good. there's so much stuff i need to explain but i don't want super long chapters or super long author notes so everyone's just gonna have to be patient (me included). for now, let's just establish that renato and egidio in this world are both freelance and not loyalty bound to any one family. they might have a history. renato might be a ridiculous sadistic asshole drama queen. no one is surprised.

as for renato and reborn, for now they just vaguely remember events that happened while the other is in control. as renato says, 'selective memory'. they have no knowledge of each other's thoughts. for now.