The little cube robot zooms past Reborn's foot and slams into the wall with a quiet ump. Gears whirr almost silently as the robot stick to the wall with one of its opaque glass sides, the base releasing from the floor.
The cube zooms up the wall, pauses where a chemical splash is, and a panel opens from the top. It spits out a little feather duster, vacuum end and three-pronged claw holding a bit of microfiber cloth. The cube gets to work cleaning the spill up, working its way down the wall where the liquid drips.
Several more cleaning cubes wheel into the room, past Verde with his clenched fists sparking with green Lightning, past Reborn with his gun pointing at the ground in a mockery of being harmless. They pause under the same wall and little vacuum pipes start sucking up broken glass, from the shattered conical flask that was hurled across the room.
"Say that again," Reborn demands.
"It's your flames," Verde grits out. "You're doing this to me."
Reborn laughs, sharp and jagged. "I can't even control my flames, you think I could hit you with Sky attraction?"
"It's because you can't control it-"
"I didn't want this!" Reborn snarls, fingers turning white where they grip his gun, still pointing at the ground but not for much longer. "You did it to yourself."
Verde opens his mouth but it takes a moment for him to start talking. "Pull back on your Sky flames. Just do that and we'll be fine. I can feel it in the air."
"That's not Sky flames," Reborn murmurs, eyes shaded under the brim of his hat. "Heavy? Like someone is standing right behind you? Feels like you're choking, can't get enough air? Oh, Verde, that's called killing intent."
Verde grimaces.
"I don't understand what you want," Reborn pushes. "You wanted me enough to bond, you've been following me everywhere trying to understand who I am, but then suddenly you're backing away now?"
"That's it!" Verde snaps. "I don't do that, I don't do this - this caring for other people. My work has fallen to the wayside, all of my projects are about you. There's something wrong."
Reborn sighs and holsters his gun. "Meeting people can change you, it's common." He gestures vaguely off to the side. "Skull hugs a lot. I don't like it, the physical contact, I never have. But Skull hugs and he does it all the time, so now I hug him back and I hate that I do it."
"How long have you known him?"
"A fortnight longer than you? Three weeks before you at most."
Verde crosses his arms. "That's not enough time to pick up his habits so strongly. It can't be natural."
"Of course it's not natural!" Reborn cries. "What part of this situation screams 'natural' to you? Do I look like I should be a goddamned Sky?"
"Maybe-" Verde pauses but steels himself. "Maybe you're not doing it on purpose but something is happening and we can't let it get out of control. You're being influenced too. I mean if you hate being a Sky so much then why did you spend time with the Monster?" he accuses. "What did you even come here for?"
Reborn almost -almost- tells Verde he came here for a Guardian. But that would be pathetic, begging for companionship, especially since Verde apparently thinks people would never tolerate Reborn unless he's manipulating them into liking him somehow. Reborn is better than this man, he deserves better.
"It's raining," Reborn says instead. "I didn't want my suit to get wet."
An expression flickers across the scientist's face too fast for Reborn to catch.
The scientist scowls. "Get out."
"With pleasure."
Reborn tries to pull away, yanking on the bond like he did so often in those first few days, and he's surprised when Verde does too. Instead of giving up after a while, Reborn goes even harder and they slowly pull back until it thins and frays. With both of them, pulling from both ends so actively, the faint bond goes taught and eventually snaps.
It hurts, of course it does, but only for a few days and there are no side effects after. It's an initial bond, new and still so shaky, so fragile. They could have waited a few months and it would have broken on its own but both Reborn and Verde are powered with hate right now and too impatient to wait.
(Am I that bad? Even when I'm a Sky, people are trying to get away from me. Is Verde right? Are my flames keeping Skull here?)
"I heard stories," Reborn murmurs. "Of people breaking a full bond."
Reborn is slumped back against the couch, rather morose because he's back to square one, with Skull slowly being burned up from the inside because the Cloud is trying to take everything by himself.
Skull comes to a sudden halt from where he's pacing a hole into the living room carpet. He turns to Reborn and blinks. "Um, excuse me, no?"
"I got rid of Verde," Reborn points out. "If I break Fon's and then yours, I can actually practice with my Sky and then use the flame storage device instead of needing Guardians."
"What did he say?" Skull demands. He quickly reaches Reborn and drops to his knees, grabbing the hitman's hands. "What else did that shithead say to you? You're the greatest, Reborn, and you know it. Where did that arrogance go? You deserve a hundred -a thousand- Guardians and we'd all love you for the rest of our lives-"
Reborn snatches his hands back. "That's not normal! We've known each other for a couple of months, why do you care so much?!"
"Because I'm not fucking normal!" Skull snarls, rising to his full height above a still sitting Reborn. "Because if I meet someone who I want to be with, then I kidnap them back to my house and stalk them until they love me back."
Reborn stares.
Skull sits down beside Reborn and snuggle's into the man's side.
Reborn automatically puts an arm around Skull and sighs. "I think the bond breaking is getting to me. It feels like I'm missing something, it's throwing me off."
"That's okay," Skull murmurs. "I'm sorry for shouting at you."
After a moment, Reborn looks down at the stuntman. "Are you also going to apologise for the kidnapping and stalking?"
"Maybe later," Skull says dismissively. "Anyway, we don't need anyone else."
"Yes, we do. You're starting to get symptoms," Reborn grumbles. "Verde was a mistake – I didn't realise how scared he was of…" He huffs out a humourless laugh. "Of commitment. I promise that I'll screen the next one better."
Reborn quickly starts making a mental list. He flicks through contacts and dismisses most of them on the basis of; 'have killed someone they liked before'. Another few dozen get crossed out because they're too weak, either mentally or physically.
The last handful are weeded out because of; 'too ugly', 'belong to a famiglia', 'Skull doesn't like mean people', 'hates coffee like a heathen'.
The list is blank again.
Reborn imagines writing down Fon's name tentatively. Then Reborn remembers being chased down, punched in the stomach and sniffed like he's a flower. The coffee date does not cancel those out. He scribbles out the entire page and mentally rips it up.
"We don't need anyone else," Reborn echoes woodenly.
Skull presses his lips into a thin line. "How about…I pick the next one?"
Reborn glances over at the stuntman and raises an eyebrow. "I'm not accepting your little freak show friends-"
"No, not them," Skull interrupts, waving a hand about. "I met this person at a bar a couple weeks back. Pretty friendly, strong, even uses firearms like you."
"We don't need another long-distance fighter," Reborn says but he considers it. "Are they aligned?"
"Uh…maybe?" Skull shrugs. "I mean, they're not part of Interpol like us, but they do work for COMSUBIN."
Reborn ignores the Interpol comment automatically and scoffs. "I though you said they were strong."
"Is COMSUBIN bad?" Skull asks sheepishly. "Look, whatever, just meet them. At the very least they won't treat you like a lab rat and then backstab us."
"Oh, you're so innocent," Reborn coos. "Do you really think Verde walking away was anything like betrayal? So cute. You don't even know what people can do." He reaches over and ruffles Skull's hair.
Skull smacks the hand away and frowns, not in the mood to brush off what Verde did to them. "Maybe you just have lower standards than me."
Reborn rolls his eyes. "Fine, let's look at your little soldier. What's their name?"
"Colonnello."
.
A/N: Lal is coming, I promise. It's going to be great.
