Reborn bounces up the steps of the mansion with the rest of the crowd lazily flowing in from various expensive cars, lips twitching up into an involuntary smile occasionally.

Skull abruptly brightens up, happiness coming through the bond like humming a song. Probably still gleeful over his new stuffed toy all because it was Reborn who won it.

Reborn has had practice now so he suppresses his instinctive need to respond. The last time they got caught in a feedback loop, Skull was a giggly mess on the floor of the green room before a stunt show and Reborn was crooning through the bond, squatting in a closet and trying to hide after he killed the right-hand man of the Corsa famiglia.

Reborn moves swiftly through the crowd greeting each other at the entrance. He sees people turn to him in his periphery but Reborn has somewhere to be. He does enjoy the networking to attract more clients, and he loves to dance, but he has a very clear goal today.

"Reborn!" the Donna of the Corsa famiglia calls out sweetly.

Reborn pretends he doesn't hear and breaks away from the crowd to emerge into the huge fairytale style ballroom. Pure white marble floors with hints of silvery highlights wind across the ground and up the pale grey walls. Chandeliers hang down like the glass ceiling above shattered and was caught mid-air.

Mist flames glimmer at the edges of the room, making everything bright and starkly clean, keeping out of bounds doors invisible and letting staff move like ghosts through the crowd.

Several dozen Rains have blended with the guests, women in glittering dresses and men with sharp suits, ready to step in and quietly neutralise any troublemakers.

Colonnello would look so good as a suited bodyguard. Reborn is going to make that happen.

The live band at the end of the room and a few hired dancers to keep the crowd moving are all Suns, able to ward off exhaustion despite the long hours that parties like this tend to go on for.

Lightning flames crackle in rhythmic pulses through the circular crystal tables dotting the ballroom, delicate surfaces covered in food and alcohol and hardened with the flames surging within so the next time someone gets thrown at a table it doesn't break so easily.

A bar on the left of the entrance is filled with Clouds spinning metal shakers in a dizzying blur and pouring never-ending drinks.

Storms make up the backrooms, Reborn assumes. Ready for clean up when switching menus, when someone gets too drunk and spills something on themselves, when the corpses need to be disposed of.

Fon is probably lying in wait in the bathrooms.

Does a member of the Triads get invited to places like this? Well, either way, Reborn doesn't want to risk it.

Reborn moves further in but keeps to the edges, where wide doubles doors lining the sides lead out to one long connected balcony wrapping the entire building, overlooking the gardens, the twisting paths dimly lit by the moonlight.

Reborn has killed several people in those gardens before. Not all at once, but on four separate occasions. The security here is laughable.

Verde could probably land one of his big robots on the roof and people would wave it off as a helicopter.

This charity ball is hosted by the Legno Scuro famiglia, a yearly event raising money for developing better technology and tactics to hide Mafia Land from the prying eyes of the law. Legno Scuro is a neutral famiglia, large but rather stupid and easily influenced.

Much like Alicia, the poor idiot Reborn's thief has thrown out as a scapegoat the moment Reborn got too close.

Reborn knows that the thief is some shadowed information broker who backstabs everyone they deem useless. That's all Reborn managed to get before Alicia's name started popping up.

A cousin to a weapons manufacturer that Reborn put out of business for the scrap metal they tried to sell as guns. A friend to a rich heir who owns the warehouses Reborn enjoys dumping his corpses, which got shut down by police investigation.

At face value, Alicia has many reasons to want revenge on Reborn. To set him up for apparently robbing people that he couldn't care less about, or apparently killing a few others on fake hits that would have insulted Reborn had he actually been contracted for it.

Except it can't be Alicia because Reborn once spent a lovely night with her in Germany. She's very good with her hands but also a bit of a dumbass and couldn't possibly organise all of this.

Reborn winds around a large table dedicated entirely to a huge chocolate fountain (that Skull would love – and stop thinking about your weird half-Guardians now, Reborn) then steps up to a small group of people with a smirk. The circle of women quickly break apart to stare at him with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

Reborn smiles charmingly and offers a hand. Alicia takes it with a flirtatious flutter of her eyelashes.

Reborn sees a figure in his periphery, wavering and indistinct even with Reborn's ability to see past most illusions. They pause just before they re-enter the glittering ballroom from the darkness of the balcony, catching sight of Reborn as he leads Alicia out onto the dancefloor.

They lean against the door and they're smirking in victory, but that's fine, because Reborn does love a bit of arrogance in his targets before he breaks them down.


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A/N: I have so many ideas for a Mafia strip club; like all the dancers would be Mists so they can change into different forms and famous people.

I bet Viper owns a 'Gentleman's Club'. I bet they save money on alcohol by using Clouds to propagate it. I bet they give pictures of half-naked Arcobaleno for the pole dancers to change into because it rakes in all the cash.