The room is not small but not quite big either, a nice wooden finish with no windows since it's underground but a large skylight on the ceiling to let in the quickly fading sunlight. It's a stand alone building, heavily soundproofed, and paid for by the Triads to maintain their best assassin.
The floor is concrete, overlayed in fake wood linoleum because it gets damaged so often that having actual wooden floors is troublesome to maintain. The middle of the room is covered with thin black mats, the outside ringed with more specialised equipment such as weights and several machines.
There is a gun lying on one edge of the mats and a second skitters across the ground to join it.
Reborn curses and ducks a high kick. He goes for an uppercut but Fon catches his fist and yanks him off balance. Reborn lurches forward with the motion and rams a shoulder into Fon, both of them toppling over.
Fon rolls on top but Reborn shoves a knee into the Storm's side and bucks hard. Reborn twists and surges back up, but so is Fon, and a backhanded fist makes Reborn's head snap to the side.
Reborn is thrown back, hits the ground and scrambles to grab a lone 10kg disk weight lying beside him. He throws it at Fon like a frisbee, hoping for just enough of a distraction to get back up.
Fon catches the weight and hurls it back hard enough that when it hits the mat right next to Reborn's head, there's a loud and distinct sound of the concrete underneath shattering as the disk lodges itself into the ground.
Reborn gasps where he's curled up, arms over his head. "Fon! Was that necessary?" he pants.
"You did it first," Fon chuckles, also rather out of breath, and sits down next to the hitman.
Reborn stretches himself out and sighs. He puts a hand up to the side of his face and starts to heal it.
"Sorry about that," Fon points out. "I do try to avoid your face, but it's a very important target in a fight."
"It's fine," Reborn muses. "I'll always be more handsome than you anyway."
Fon nudges Reborn with a foot and they both stay there for a moment until their breathing calms down.
Reborn rolls over onto his stomach and starts searching around for his clothes. He took off his hat and jacket when they started but ditched his gun holsters halfway when Fon kept grabbing onto the leather like it was a handle to swing Reborn around.
Fon took off his top, and may have lost some of a pants' leg when Reborn tried to drag him down to the ground by yanking on it.
Fon clears his throat a bit nervously. "Reborn, I'm going to be frank with you."
"Oh, please do," Reborn drawls, propping his chin up on a hand.
Fon gives Reborn a smile, something small with a touch of embarrassment. "I have been thinking about forcing our bond."
"I see," Reborn muses. "Well we aren't quite in a public place but I'm sure if I start screaming loud enough, then someone will come to save me."
"This building is soundproofed, and you twisted your ankle at the end there, so you won't be able to run either."
Reborn stares.
Fon sighs and slumps. "I do enjoy the time we spend together and with the others, but it has been difficult to be content while knowing that we could all be closer."
"It's not that much different from what we have now," Reborn says.
"Please don't lie to me."
Reborn takes a moment. "It's not different enough to warrant you forcing me to bond."
"Lal has done it and that turned out fine," Fon points out.
"Lal is batshit insane and has an army."
"You didn't seem very upset," Fon muses. "Everyone got over it. There's really nothing stopping me."
"Lack of consent could stop you," Reborn suggests.
"I do remember having this conversation with you before."
"And I won, so you should listen to me."
"No, we were interrupted by the bouncer," Fon corrects.
Reborn clicks his tongue. "Fine." He sits up and smoothes down his shirt. "I don't have a problem with the actual bonding. I want you, you fit in very well with the others, I like your personality and even your stupid hour-long showers. But I have three people in my head now and it takes some time to get used to."
Fon contemplates this. "I don't think that's a good enough reason to stop me."
Reborn turns to the martial artist. "Did you know, Fon, that I have the address to your sister's house?"
"Would you?" Fon muses. "Would you do that to me?"
"I can if I need to," Reborn admits. "I don't want to see you upset but I've cautioned you. You know what the consequences are now so even if you do get upset, you're the person who caused it. I think it's a fair trade that if I lose a choice then you lose something too."
Fon nods. "Is it bad, that I still think it might be worth it?"
"Probably," Reborn muses. "If you do try, I'll fight you. If we bond anyway, I won't mind too much because I do want you as a Guardian and we'll probably bond soon anyway. Colonnello can teach you Morse code."
Reborn leans over and bumps his shoulder into Fon's. "You're pretty awful at meditating so it'll take you a while to get a shield up. Prepare for Skull to throw feelings at you when he gets too excited. Lal also peeks in a lot and kind of riffles through your stuff."
Fon sighs mournfully at hearing what he can't have. "If you're going to bond with me soon anyway then why can't we do it now?"
"Because it's...hard to get used to people in my head," Reborn explains. "Even with the shield up, I can still feel everyone's presence, constantly. I would like to get used to three before I take on another one. And I want to do it on my own terms so I can prepare myself for it."
"Can I go next?"
"I was thinking Verde."
Fon pushes Reborn to the ground and lies on top.
"Maybe Viper," Reborn laughs.
