"Use a large sized mug," Reborn instructs.
The woman behind the counter looks confused. "An espresso only comes in shots."
"I know," Reborn reassures. "So do that repeatedly until it's a full sized drink."
"...I need to ask my manager."
Reborn waits patiently as the woman ducks away. This always happens at any new café he visits. Yes, he can take the caffeine. No, he won't die. Just pour the damn drink.
Another woman, presumably the manager, comes to the counter quickly and ask Reborn again to confirm before staring at the register in confusion for a long moment, trying to figure out what the price is going to be.
"Thank you," Reborn says happily as the manager hands him a number card for his table and he saunters off to find a nice seat near the window.
He gets three pages into his newspaper when a shadow falls over him.
"Would you like a drink?" Reborn offers.
"Surprise me," Verde replies, settling down into the chair opposite.
Reborn puts his newspaper on the table and goes up to the counter for Verde. The woman looks at him wearily and the manager starts to approach from the back until Reborn just orders a normal flat white.
They still look a bit mistrusting so Reborn smiles charmingly to distract them, then heads back to his table, hurrying a bit when he realises his drink has already been set down.
"You are not a part of Interpol," Verde states before Reborn even sits in his chair.
"No," Reborn agrees in confusion. "Why would I be?"
He takes a sip of his espresso under Verde's intense stare and tries to discern if anything has been added to his drink by the scientist. He can't tell, but it should be fine since his Sun flames can burn through most things, and there's only so much poison Verde can put in the drink anyway.
Verde opens and then closes his mouth. "Your Cloud. Our Cloud, he asked if I was working as an agent."
Reborn's lips twitch up.
Verde frowns. "It was very vague." His eyes narrow. "Did I...get tricked into giving you to him?"
"Skull actually scared you with that?" Reborn scoffs.
"Of course I was wary!" Verde snaps. "I thought you might have had the entire Interpol behind you! Or at the very least you were a Sky being raised for a new famiglia."
"Skull thinks I'm some kind of James Bond spy," Reborn admits with amusement. "I've even told him my code name is triple-oh-R!"
Verde grits his teeth as Reborn chuckles. "Well, now that I'm aware, I won't be handing you over so easily next time."
Reborn smirks and raises his coffee in toast. "Good luck catching me again. I was off my game from meeting Monster."
"Monster?"
Reborn hums. "I'm surprised you haven't caught sight of him prowling around Italy. Kind of hard to miss a beast like that trying to act human."
Verde's eyes flicker for a moment before he calms. "You're no longer protected by the Cloud's lie so you've invented another threat to keep me in line."
Reborn leans forward. "Believe what you will, but you'll know if you ever see it." Reborn pulls back yet keeps his voice low. "Don't run, the Monster likes to chase."
Reborn takes a sip and another customer chooses this exact moment to back up into Reborn's chair, jolting him and making Reborn splash some coffee on his shirt.
The man turns around to apologise and gets Reborn's icy stare. "Oh."
"Thank you," Reborn states firmly, one hand already tucked into his suit jacket to caress the cold metal of a handgun. "You can go now."
The man stumbles the rest of the way out of the shop, walking sideways so he doesn't show his back to the hitman.
Verde raises an eyebrow and offers a tissue from the stack on the table. Reborn takes it, half-heartedly attempts to blot at the wet patch, and then just sets his drink down to head to the bathroom.
"It's not that bad," Verde points out as the hitman stands up.
"I have higher standards," Reborn sneers.
Clearly higher than Verde, who looks like he slept in those clothes for the past two nights, not to mention the suspicious stains all over his lab coat. Does this man even shave? Look at that stubble, disgraceful.
Reborn weaves through tables towards the back corner of the shop, near the counter. He pushes open the door to the men's and glances around the three-stall bathroom. It's empty, tolerably clean. He ducks into a stall to grab some toilet paper so he can wet it at the sink.
He pauses for a moment when a wave of vertigo hits him hard. He braces a hand against the wall and waits until the room stabilises under his feet. He tells himself it's from whatever drug Verde slipped him, but the spikes of burning heat from his flames says differently.
It feels a bit like heartburn, trying to reel back and compress all the flames that are trying to escape through the two bonds he has now. Maybe if Reborn leaves it alone, his flames will fix themselves. Maybe Reborn will keep being an idiot and he'll explode from the build-up, who knows?
Reborn steps out of the stall and Fon punches him in the stomach so hard Reborn folds over the man's arm and throws up.
"Good morning," Fon greets.
Reborn scrambles to grab the martial artist's long sleeve so he doesn't collapse. The wad of toilet paper falls out of his hand, landing in the small puddle of espresso and bile - because Reborn has not had anything else today.
"Why?" Reborn groans. "Why would you ... so rude."
"Who is that man you were sitting with?" Fon asks casually.
Reborn straightens up slowly, the muscles in his stomach still twitching with pain, and steps back with arms hugging his abdomen protectively. "Are you on medication? I think you need to be on medication."
Fon tilts his head to the side and smiles in a ditzy manner.
Reborn slumps sideways against the stall's door. "Find me a mop and bucket."
"I'll take care of it," Fon dismisses.
Reborn frowns at the mess. "It's gross."
Fon actually laughs at that. "I've seen far worse. I caused it, I'll deal with the consequences."
"Okay, well." Reborn starts edging to the side. "I'll just go then, shall I?"
Except Fon is blocking the stall so Reborn can't leave.
"The man you were sitting with," Fon begins. "He put something in your drink. Unless it's very fast acting you should be okay with just throwing it up, but perhaps you should visit a specialist to be certain."
Reborn stares at Fon for a long moment. "I'm a Sun."
"And a very lovely Sky as well," Fon agrees readily.
"I. Am a Sun. Why do you think I can't handle a simple poison?!"
Fon folds his hands into his sleeves and takes a moment to contemplate this, as apparently the thought hadn't occurred to him before Reborn pointed it out. "I assumed your Sun secondary wouldn't be strong enough-"
"I'm primarily Sun," Reborn cuts in. "Sky is my weak secondary."
Fon's eyebrows furrow in confusion but before he can ask further questions the door swings open, Verde stepping through.
The scientist glances between Reborn, Fon and the vomit, quickly coming to the right conclusion. "The bond says you feel embarrassed and distressed."
Reborn genuinely doesn't know who pisses him off more between these two. "Does it also tell you about the anger? Because I'm feeling pretty angry right now."
Fon turns to take in the newcomer, his usual smile slipping away. "I suppose you must be the Lightning."
Verde hums. "You don't sound very impressed. So stupid you don't even know your betters."
Fon raises a sleeve to his mouth, eyes narrowing above the red sea of cloth. "A skinny branch I could snap in half with a finger isn't much to be impressed by."
Reborn vaults over the side of the stall and runs. He's not waiting for these territorial shitheads to finish their posturing and band together against him.
Skull trots over to his front door as the doorbell chimes fade away and pulls it open, a bright grin lighting up his face when he sees Reborn. Skull opens his arms to demand a hug and Reborn flops over the stuntman.
"I thought Cloud's were supposed to be the worst," Reborn mutters into Skull's coarse hair. "God forbid I ever meet my Rain, they'll be some berserker cannibal at the rate I'm going."
Skull frowns. "Are cannibals a thing I need to be worried about?"
Reborn sighs. "Do you think my potential weathers awful because I'm an awful person?"
"The fact that you're not answering me is concerning," Skull admits. He looks around the street, almost dislodging Reborn. "Is that why you felt bad earlier? Cannibals?"
Reborn blinks, slowly. "Compared to everyone else, you're pretty great. Which is kind of sad when I think about it because you kidnapped me once."
Skull drags Reborn inside and locks the front door after them. "Get the back door, I'll shut the windows." He darts off.
Reborn sighs again, heavier this time. "I think I'll just go home."
Skull pokes his head out from around the corner. "I made brownies?"
Reborn hesitates. "I'll take one and then go."
"And my new Aston Martin arrived."
Reborn spends the entire day at Skull's place because he is a weak, weak man.
