Over the course of about ten minutes, Reborn slowly winds tighter until he's left standing in the kitchen, a death grip on the counter as he tries to think of a way to ignore the man behind him while still being able to thrown the Franken fucker out.

"If it helps," Verde begins. "I do apologise."

"It doesn't." Reborn releases the poor counter and turns around. He now has a kitchen island that Verde is standing behind, the dining table off to the left and the attached living room to the right with the front door right next to the long couch.

"I had to make sure," Verde insists. "I work with mind altering drugs, they're popular these days. It's a real threat."

"Yeah, I do know," Reborn deadpans. "People have tried your exact drugs on me before, for the quite the variety of reasons. So you, suggesting I'd do the same thing, is kind of making me hate you right now."

"I didn't mean that-"

"You have made it perfectly clear that you don't trust me," Reborn points out. "I don't need your insecurities in my life right now, and I don't know you well enough to want to help sort that out. You deal with your stuff and then you come to me and we can talk."

Verde scowls at first but then just sighs, his body slumping. "I know, I'm wrong, I'm the problem." He leans forward and braces himself against the counter. "But I do know what I want now. I want you." Verde pauses. "I made you a vivarium."

As in a specifically designed enclosure, to observe a creature in their natural habitat.

Reborn gapes for a moment. "No. No, I'm not going to be an experiment."

"More of a pet-"

"Verde!"

"In a nice way!" the scientist insists. He huffs. "Fine, alright, I want what you have with your odd little Cloud. And now that Rain, I suppose."

"They've earned that," Reborn warns. "You haven't."

"Has the Monster?"

Reborn narrows his eyes. "I don't want to talk about him."

Verde offers up a smirk. "Then I'm still winning."

"He isn't even a Guardian," Reborn argues. He rolls his eyes. "I'm not having this conversation with you. Come back when you can do better than a monster."

Verde wavers. "I am trying."

"That's nice," Reborn accepts. "Now try harder."

Verde stays right where he is.

"That was your cue to leave," Reborn suggests.

Verde begins to move around the counter. Reborn immediately draws a gun because he has seen lesser Lightnings coat their hand in flames and stab straight through someone's chest. There's really no telling what someone of Verde's strength can do, even discounting the numerous inventions lining the man's pockets.

Verde stops though. He stops and holds out a hand. "You owe me two experiments for the flame storage. This is one."

Reborn looks down at the hand. "You can't be serious."

"If you didn't want me, I'd be dead already," Verde argues. "We don't have a bond-"

"Yeah because you broke it over commitment issues!"

"-so my death wouldn't give you backlash now but you still haven't killed me for what I've done to you," Verde finishes. "Reborn. Just a spark."

"Pick something else," Reborn demands.

Verde lets his hand fall. "We're perfect for each other."

Reborn's next exhale is too sharp, a stifled laugh. "Depends on who's perspective."

"The Cloud is your chaotic side," Verde muses. "I haven't studied your Rain enough but that Storm is all determination." Verde pushes up his glasses. "I'm your logic, your pragmatism. The voice in the back of your head when things are going too well, when there's something wrong, something that could be a threat."

"You're the threat," Reborn says, incredulous. "You want to put me in a damn vivarium."

"We're perfect," Verde repeats, pointedly ignoring Reborn. "Because the Cloud would invite a potential problem into your home with his naiveté, the Rain is a soldier who would wait for your cue to react, the Storm would smile and watch and believe himself so superior that he would relax his guard."

"I don't need protection," Reborn scoffs.

"The others do."

Reborn pauses, watching Verde's expression closely. "And … you would protect them?"

"I would have to, wouldn't I?" Verde waves a hand at Reborn vaguely. "This. Sky flames. It's not linear. I would be connected to everyone else through you, we would be a set, all equals."

This is genuinely the first time Reborn has heard someone talk about a set without implying that the Guardians' focus should always be on a Sky. It's designed like a ruler and their court, always a Sky at the helm and the Guardians as spokes off a wheel, never really connecting to each other and always lesser.

Reborn doesn't care if his Guardians are powerful, or even if they have the strongest flames in the entire world or something equally ridiculous, that's not what he's after. What's important is that they can all be friends, genuinely loyal and loving, not just distant work associates who can be dropped if they stop being useful. The strength and intelligence factor comes later, plus can always be trained up.

Reborn really likes Verde's idea of them all being partners in this.

The hitman shrugs, trying to act casual. "Well, we wouldn't be equals per say. I'd be the strongest, after all."

"Depends on who's perspective," Verde echoes Reborn's earlier statement wryly. He holds out his hand. "Your Guardians are idiots and you know it."

Reborn hates that Verde is right. "Nothing but an initial bond, and I'll break it whenever I damn well please."

"Agreed."

Reborn reaches out but hesitates. "And we're in this together."

Verde raises an eyebrow. "I wouldn't make a very good follower."

"Strange, because you're an excellent stalker."

Verde just grabs Reborn's hand in annoyance as the hitman laughs.


.

A/N: Reborn doesn't care if his Guardians have bad habits like human experimentation or trust issues because Reborn has his own little vices, such as killing people or being an extreme perfectionist.

(Also, I finished the fight between Skull and Fon so...yeah, just wait for that chapter.)