Colonnello and Skull are having drawing contest on the dining table, with the cheap coloured pencils that Skull probably found abandoned on the street somewhere.
There's no sharpener in the house so Colonnello has taken to the pencils with his switchblade. Now the both are sitting opposite each other and quietly scribbling all over Verde's important scientific notes with a fierce concentration.
This is not the lamest thing they've done, but close to it. Reborn is sitting next to Colonnello sipping coffee and Fon is beside Skull with tea, apparently refereeing the match.
Fon tilts his head. "Is it a duck?"
Skull gasps in outrage, turning to martial artist. "Fon, why do you hurt me like this?"
"...is it a giraffe then?"
Skull's lower lip wobbles and his eyes tear up. Fon pats him on the shoulder, completely uncaring.
Reborn is peering at Colonnello's drawing, and it also looks a bit like a giraffe. Or an elongated rhinoceros.
Reborn straightens up when the sensation of a giant hand wraps around him from behind, finger cradling his ribs. Something slides his chair out from under the table and Reborn is picked up, legs dangling in the air but coffee mug in hand, before being carried out of the room.
"Goodbye," Fon says pleasantly.
"Ciao," Reborn calls back as he's lifted up and over the stair banister to the second floor.
Reborn sips his coffee as the hand carries him down the hallway and into the room Viper has staked a claim to, the Mist floating cross-legged over the bed with papers scattered in front of them. Reborn pulls up his legs so he doesn't bump into the bed and the hand deposits him beside Viper on some pillows.
"I've set up a trade agreement with an Australian bitch, but my funds are all anchored down in long-term projects," Viper complains. "There's a deal with Polish fuckface that will get me the money to pay off the bitch for her supplies but he's playing coy."
"Aren't you a billionaire?" Reborn asks in confusion. "Or at least close to it?"
"She's getting me ten million euro in-" Viper darts a look away. "-natural resources so it's not a small deal, and only an idiot leaves money in the bank anyway. I've got half my assets shuffling around in the stock market and everything else split between company shares."
"So as it turns out, I really don't care," Reborn admits. "Just tell me who I'm killing and how much you're paying me for it."
Viper pauses. "I'm not saying you have to suck his dick-"
"No," Reborn says very firmly.
Viper holds up a hand. "You don't have to sleep with him, you don't even have to touch him. Just sit there and look handsome while we sign the contract. He's got some weird crush on you, God knows why, and he's been pressuring me to meet you for a while now so I should have seen this coming but...just play along with it."
Reborn frowns, leaning back against the headboard and cradling the coffee mug in his lap. "How much are you paying me?"
Viper purses their lips. "I like to think we're good friends."
Reborn starts laughing.
The Mist grumbles. "Two percent commission."
"Ten."
"Four."
"Fifteen."
Viper drops down onto the bed and rolls up onto their knees just so they can grab a fistful of Reborn's suit jacket and snap in his face; "This not how a negotiation works."
Reborn expression becomes soft and fond. "I've missed this. We used to have so much fun; me threatening to kill you, and you paying me off."
"You haven't changed a bit," Viper sneers. "Playing the friendly neighbourhood hitman with those fools downstairs, acting like your pretty suit isn't dripping blood. Do you think I won't tell them about all the things you've done? They still believe that you putting a bullet through someone's head is the worst."
"Twenty percent," Reborn offers kindly.
"Fuck," Viper hisses, rearing back as shadows in the room flicker into half-distorted faces. "Fine. Ten percent net after I've sold it off."
"Gross, from both deals by your fuckface friend and the bitch, within the next six months," Reborn lays out.
"I'm bleeding!" Viper cries out, throwing their arms out and rising up to stand in the air over the bed. "You're bleeding me out here. What, do you want an arm and a leg as well?"
Blood bubbles up through the bed's mattress, soaking the papers and spilling down across the wooden bedframe to pool on the carpet. Reborn idly splashes a hand through it.
Viper sucks in a breath through their clenched teeth and crosses their arms. "Fifteen gross from the fuckface, paid in two months, you come to both deals as security."
"Deal," Reborn accepts happily. "Also, if our morons ever find out about what I've done, then I'll be telling them about you and your little business ventures." His smile turns manic. "We can self-destruct together."
Viper scoffs. "Looking forward to it."
.
A/N: Technically, Verde also knows about the kinds of things Reborn has done, from back in that one beach episode.
