Giving Comfort - Lal

Disclaimer ~ I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

*Lal's side of things while comforting Skull*

Lal was exhausted when she finally made it back to the Arcobaleno manor. The mission she just finished was harder than she expected. It was about 2 in the morning when she got back and all she wanted to do right now was get some food, take a shower, and sleep for a week. After a quick meal of leftovers, Lal sat in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee. The warm drink was going wonders to relax her and kill her headache. It was only natural that she jumped when Skull spoke from behind her.

"Rough mission?" he had asked.

"Other than where I had to hide it was easy," Lal replied. It was the truth. Her hiding place was so uncomfortable and disgusting that Lal barely kept herself from puking. And she had to stay there for six hours. She was lucky she didn't lose her sense of smell. Skull nodded at her answer, reaching over to remove a leaf from her hair. Lal noticed something was off with their cloud. He was almost dripping with fatigue. "Are you alright Skull?" Lal asked. He paused from where he was getting his own coffee mug out of the cabinet.

"Huh? Yeah. Everything's fine. Why?" he answered. Lal told him all of her observations and Skull seemed to deflate at her answer. "Figures you'd notice huh?" he sighed. Lal remained quiet as Skull started making his favorite drink of hot chocolate. It wasn't hard to learn that it was his comfort drink. Just like Lal's was jasmine tea. Lal stood up and moved to another cabinet, grabbing Skull's prefered cocoa powder and his favorite marshmallows. He would fight anyone who messed with the marshmallows on a normal basis. He only used them on really bad days and today seemed like one of those days. Lal returned to her seat, and after a couple minutes, Skull sat next to her.

"You know Skull...If you want to talk about it...I'm all ears," Lal said breaking the silence. She ducked her head, trying to will away her blush, as Skull turned to stare at her in shock.

"...I don't think you'd like to hear it. It's really stupid," Skull eventually said after a few minutes of silence. Lal was immediately concerned.

"Try me," she said. Skull took a deep breath before telling her about how he's been having a nightmare the last several days. It took a bit of gentle probing to get him to tell her the details but when he did, Lal was shocked.

"You die," Skull said, getting straight to the point. His voice started to tremble as he continued on hurriedly, "And not just you. Reborn, Colonello, Viper, Verde, Fon, Luche. All of you die. And I can't do anything to stop it. Like I said. It's a stupid reason. All of you are so strong and would never let that happen to you." Lal didn't know what to think at this point. Skull was worried they would die? That couldn't be the whole reason for his nightmares. 'There had to be something el- that's it. He's not afraid of us dying,' Lal thought to herself. 'He's afraid of us leaving him.'

"That's not something stupid Skull," Lal said as she gently pulled Skull into a hug. It seems that that was all it took for the youngest arcobaleno to break down, clinging to Lal tightly as sobs silently shook his body. "It's not stupid. It is perfectly understandable. You are afraid to lose us. Your brain is just playing on those fears," Lal continued, rubbing soothing circles into Skull's back. "One day we will die. That is a fact of life. It could be a hundred years from now or it could be tomorrow. We will eventually die. But we won't leave you Skull," Lal whispered gently. Skull just clung to her tighter as he continued to cry. A movement from the doorway had Lal looking up to meet Reborn's eyes. She didn't stop what she was saying to Skull, nor stopping her calming movements. The sun studied her for a moment before nodding and leaving just as silently as he had appeared. Lal knew he wouldn't be far though. Reborn cared too much about Skull for that.

"We all care about you too Skull. Even Reborn. None of us would leave you because we all care about you too. Besides. Those bastards are too stubborn to die," Lal smiled slightly. She continued in this manor for a while. Simply whispering assurances in Skull's ear as the boy continued to cry into her shoulder. Lal had never comforted anyone before. She was from the military. Their idea of comfort wasn't gentle. It was training until you bled and were too exhausted for problems. That, or drinking the pain away. Neither option would work for Skull though. So Lal simply tried her best, using things she saw others do or in movies.

Eventually, Skull's sobs died into quiet hiccups. But he didn't move away from Lal and Lal didn't stop drawing random patterns on his back. She found the repetitive motion just as soothing to herself even though it was meant for Skull. A few more minutes continued like this, until Skull's grip on her loosened. He didn't let go though.

"Thank you Lal," Skull whispered so quietly that Lal almost missed the words.

"Anytime kid."

Okay, so I had to go back to the Seeking Comfort version of this and I realized I kinda strayed away from Skull and into Lal's POV in the middle of it. I will get that fixed soon.

I hope this lived up to your expectations! Please continue to Review and suggest any ideas you may have!