Leilani was partly proud and gleeful at the fact how pointless their attempts to get her name had been but at the same time she was mad that she was back at their house again.
She wasn't even sure how she would manage to get away next time or how to make sure that they left her alone for good.
The situation was out of control. Sure, she was stubborn and she wouldn't give up but especially the hitman in the group didn't seem inclined to give up any time soon either.
While she had noticed that Reborn and the rest had tried to convince Luce to switch her out, the Donna hadn't relented and so she wouldn't try to illusion herself that this would end anytime soon.
Said woman was already waiting in the living room. "Skull I'm so glad you're alright!"
Leilani just turned her head in the opposite direction. She wasn't in the mood to talk with the giglio nero.
"Skull… I want to talk to you about something."
"No interest. The time of the great Skull-sama is reserved for important people."
"Could you please just listen?"
"Meeh. The great Skull-sama is currently unavailable. Try again on the 32 of February."
"I know you're trying to get home."
Skull paused, she wasn't sure if this was about the circus or not.
"I'm not talking about the circus. You want to return home, right? Your true home."
Leilanis head snapped around faster than anything "You…"
"If you stay and behave until the missions are over… I will get you home."
"You know a way?" the sneer from before had already dropped as she stepped closer to the pregnant Donna.
"Yes. It's less than a month, Skull. Please just finish this up with us and after the last mission you will get home."
"You promise?" she really couldn't stop the hope from rising up. Her voice almost breaking, raw and the pure longing ringing out "You promise? You're really going to get me home?"
Luce nodded "Yes… Yes Skull… I promise. Just finish up the missions with us."
"I don't want to kill anyone…"
"You don't have to, alright? Just accompany them and be nice and… I will get you home afterwards."
Leilani couldn't stop herself, instantly hugging the woman "Thank you! Thank you! I swear! I can be useful! I can cook and clean. I promise I will be nice! Thank you so much!"
The witch even had to fight with her tears but her huge smile was blending.
While the young girl was more than just unaware, the same couldn't be said about Reborn, who just raised an eyebrow at the Donna who had to force herself to smile at the cloud.
That the Donna was lying was more than just obvious. Painfully obvious. It was almost shocking that the cloud had fallen for it that easily.
To be honest Reborn hadn't yet figured out why Luce was so adamant about keeping Skull here. The stuntman may have flame strength as his purple eye and hair colour indicated, same as the always present thin layer of cloud flames woven over his body but it was more than just oblivious that Skull was a civilian. A painfully innocent civilian. While Reborn himself had to admit that the escape talent of the cloud was impressive as he constantly managed to slip away no matter what the rest of the group tried but… he still didn't understand why Skull belonged within the seven strongest.
While it was clear now that the cloud was far from the annoyance that they had to deal with for the last few weeks, especially at the harsh switch in manner he could see now or when Skull had talked to the other Circus performer and in a way it was impressive that Skull had managed to perfect his act that well but it didn't change the fact that Skull had been annoying. Childish, annoying and with such a strong black and white view of the world that Reborn was almost sure that Skull had to be mentally underdeveloped.
All of this didn't make sense and to be honest he pitied the cloud. It wouldn't stop Reborn though from fulfilling the mission. Maybe he would help the cloud to find his way home afterwards. Even while it was questionable why this seemed to be such a difficult task that Luce had to lie about it.
The sun's decision only got firmer with every passing day. it was almost insane how strongly Skulls' behaviour had changed. He took over most of the housekeeping, refusing to let Luce help as she was pregnant. It took him only three days to manage to make the beverages of everyone in the house perfectly and was insanely talented or practised in cooking and cleaning.
On missions the cloud stayed in the car, not helping with any of the criminal activities but not hindering them either.
To be honest while Skull was more of an errand boy than anything else he actually endeared himself to the rest of the group.
Skull was open, painfully innocent and now in opposition to before constantly making sure that he wasn't a bother.
While Reborn was still calling the cloud Lackey it almost became a good natured nickname and Skull didn't seem to mind it either, just grinning while doing his best to be helpful.
Honestly all of them started to feel guilty that no one ever mentioned the fact that Luce had lied to him. Reborn had even seen Viper and Verde discuss the possibility that Skull might have lost his memory partly and therefore wasn't able to make it home alone and ways to fix it.
All of them even started to feel a slight bond between each other, the one to Skull the most pronounced though.
Leilani had just finished the dishes and prepared a cup of oolong Tea for the storm when she spoke up "Fon? Can I ask you something?"
The martial artist chuckled "You already did but yes go ahead."
Leilani sat down in front of him, legs pulled close to her body "Well… you all talk a lot about the weather and… I kinda wonder why? Like how you call me a cloud?"
Fon paused for a moment "You… truly don't know about flames?"
"I mean not really I guess?"
"The fire you produce? The purple fire? You can't tell me you have never used it. You're active, Skull."
"You mean that?" Skull picked up one of the cookies from the plate on the table, concentrating on it and duplicating it and as always when she used her magic in this manner a purple flame sparked up,
Fon was speechless, looking back at the rest of the group that was lounging around the room. Sure, they all had expected that Skull wasn't really aware of most of the flame theory but they didn't expect him to know nothing and that coupled with the immaculate control he just showed was shocking.
None of them actually had used their flames more than internally for their missions. Viper was the only one who relied on them to fight and the mist had refused to do it without getting paid extra for it. So in a way it made sense that the topic hadn't come up before.
Reborn stepped closer "Lackey. Those are dying will flames. We all have them, just different types. My own are sun flames. You have cloud flames."
"And you differentiate them how?"
"By their colour and attributes. my own flames have the ability to activate."
The hitman proceeded to explain the rest of the flame attributes and significance in detail, actually showing a great talent in teaching Skull about it.
"And how did you know that I was a cloud straight away?" the witch inquired.
"Your body always radiates them."
Leilani nodded slightly. It would make sense, after all the magic she used to adjust her size had been accompanied by cloud flames and she actively had to keep them constantly running. "Another question… orange is sky but… isn't harmony pretty useless?"
"Under no circumstances. Skies are the royalty of flame users. The harmony aspect lets them bond to other flame types. They always take important positions, most of the time they become Dons or Donnas. They are very rare but every element wants to find a sky to bond with."
"So… they are made into something really important?"
"They aren't made to be. They are. A sky can give an element a home. They get protection in exchange. Honestly, skies are so revered that most of them are kept tightly guarded by their famiglia."
"What would happen if a … civilian sky would show up?"
"That's impossible. Sky flames are the only ones that are hereditary. But if there was actually a civilian family of latent sky users that went active… well they would get sweeped up in a famiglia. Either be groomed to be the new heir or get taken care of."
"So they would get caged? No other option?"
"Well the only way to stop that would be, to be so strong that no one could force them into that."
Skull nodded slowly. She knew that her orange fire had burned stronger than her cloud ones… but she was really glad now that she had accidentally managed to apparently fake her primary flame. It wasn't like she got all the facts but from what she gathered there might be a chance that if it got out she would get hindered from going home and there was no chance she would allow that.
At least she still considered them useless so there was no way she would willingly use them soon.
