My Storm, My Cloud, My Sun, My Sky
Summary: Reborn met Fon, they became Arcobaleno and went separate ways, not seeing each other for years. Kyoya was born, Fon had to leave to protect his family and they didn't see each other for years. Tsuna met Reborn, the adventure starts. Hibari met Reborn, craziness starts. Dino met Kyoya, Fon returns and secrets are revealed. Better than it sounds, I promise! D18, RF, LalCol possible others.
"Can't believe you actually agreed to come, Reborn," Lal Mirch said as she and a tall, handsome Italian man in a black suit and a fedora sat with three others, waiting for the rest of the summoned to arrive. They didn't know the others except by reputation while they themselves have crossed paths before, what with the hitman being a good friend of Vongola Nono and him being the hitman's regular client while Lal Mirch, the dark blue haired beauty, was a trusted member of Vongola's CEDEF. "I thought this isn't your thing?"
"It's not, but Nono got contacted by this 'Luche' and she got him to pay me for this a good dime, so I don't care," the world's greatest hitman replied, eyeing the Mist, Lightning and Cloud almost disdainfully. He knew them by reputation that follows their names and he knew they were good in their fields, but that didn't mean he liked being in their presence. Viper the Esper was known to only give a damn about money and Verde, the so called Da Vinci Reincarnated, had no morals and only cared about his research and experiments. Skull, on the other hand, was famous only for not being able to die, said to be hated by Death itself. Seeing how annoying he was, Reborn was inclined to sympathize with Death.
Only the Sky, Luche, and the Storm, some Chinese assassin, were missing. It was a gathering of the best of the best, the strongest seven in the world. And while the Sun loved being acknowledged for his skill, he knew meetings like this could never mean anything good.
"What about you? Aren't you busy with CEDEF and COMSUBIN? Why did you come here?"
Rose eyes Narrowed in irritation. "Colonello, that damned lackey, has been really annoying lately, so I figured it would be a nice reprieve."
Reborn snorted. Yeah, the blond was annoying. He was so obviously in love with Lal Mirch that it annoyed Reborn, mostly because the man had a one track mind whenever he perceived that Reborn was trying to seduce her. Okay, so Reborn had a bit of a reputation as a ladykiller, but he respected Lal Mirch more as an ally than just as a random woman to bed when he gets bored. Colonello wouldn't believe him when he had told that straight to the man's face, but then again, that's his own problem. Lal was also obviously in love with Colonello, but the man was too big of an idiot.
How someone like him became one of COMSUBIN's best was beyond him.
Then again, Lal was really good at her job.
"Hey, hey! Don't just whisper among yourselves! It's rude!" Skull called, almost managing to make a tick appear on Reborn's forehead if he didn't have so much self control. "Share your conversations with the great Skull-sama!"
"Good grief, but you're annoying and loud," Viper, whom Reborn wasn't sure the gender of, let alone their true identity, sighed underneath their hood. "Can't we just get this over with already? Where's that useless Storm and the spineless Sky that couldn't be bothered to reach out to us directly but instead go through intermediates?"
"That 'Luche' did say she was going to give us half an hour to introduce ourselves and make small talk or something," Lal replied, sighing as well as she leaned back in her seat.
"Which is completely illogical and not at all needed," Verde supplied, speaking for the first time since he had walked into the room that had been rented for this meeting in, of all things, a factory. They were all collectively beginning to question their sanity for answering the call and coming at all. "We will not be working together again and 'getting to know each other' won't make us work any better now, either. Statistics have proven-"
Suddenly, Reborn whirled around, took a gun out of his jacket and fired a shot before any of the rest could even register his first movement. The bang was almost deafening in the relative silence of the room, making them all flinch but spring into action as well, looking around to see what they must defend themselves against and if there was any more danger.
Reborn frowned when there was no sound of a body hitting the ground or even the sound of the bullet piercing a wall. Just silence.
Lal frowned, too, because Reborn never misses and this almost sounds like he did.
"Wao," a serene voice says as a figure steps out of the shadows where Reborn had aimed. "I'm impressed. You're the first person in a very long time that heard me before I announced myself." The man was shorter than Reborn by half a head and obviously of Asian descent, dressed in traditional Chinese robes usually seen on monk-warriors or martial artists, red and long with white under-robes and pants, feet covered by white slippers, long dark hair tied in a neat, long braid but the rest of the hair on his head looked the tiniest bit messy with his bangs falling over dark chocolate eyes.
"Holy hell, where did you come from!?" Skull screeched, backing away from the table a bit as if to put more distance between him and the newcomer for safety purposes.
"How did you dodge Reborn's bullet?" Verde asked, narrowing his eyes at the red-dressed man. "That is scientifically impossible. The speed of a bullet fired from an ordinary handgun is from 1 to 3 km/s and at this distance, there's no way you could have possibly dodged. The time window for you to react would be about 0.20 seconds since the bullet is fired. There is no plausible explanation-"
"Oh, I didn't dodge the bullet," the Asian says, smiling sheepishly as he brought his right hand up. Between his pointer and middle finger there was a little piece of metal of a recognizable shape that had Skull's jaw dropping and Lal's eyes widening while Verde's glasses nearly slipped off of his face. Reborn's eyes widened just the slightest bit and his lips barely parted, but it was still more of a reaction than most would see on him. Viper stayed quiet, whatever their facial reaction it was out of sight due to the hood. "I was a bit too startled for that, so instinct came in and I caught it. Pretty foolish on my part. If it had been a Flame bullet, I'd be dead." He still just smiled as he walked over to Reborn, hand outstretched to offer back the used bullet.
Reborn took it numbly, feeling something very strange happening with his heart. He'd never seen someone literally catch a bullet before. Especially not one shot by him, the world's greatest hitman who has the fastest draw, aim and fire record in history while his accuracy didn't suffer from it not even by 0.01%.
The black haired man smiled again, this time a bit more genuinely than just that serene smile that seemed to be a part of his being. "I'm sorry I'm late. My name is Fon. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr ... "
Reborn snapped out of his stupor and immediately dialed up his charisma to eleven. "Chaos." He extended a hand for Fon to shake, tipping his head back and pitching his voice just the tiniest bit lower so it sounded a bit like a purr. "Just call me Reborn. And believe me," he said as he brought Fon's hand when he returned the shake up to his lips, impossibly dark eyes never leaving chocolate ones. "The pleasure is all mine."
But Fon didn't seem to be particularly moved. He just smiled politely and nodded, though he didn't bother to yank his hand back. Reborn noted that they were awfully delicate hands considering what he had heard they can do. The man himself looked to be a bit on the delicate side, really, but there was an undercurrent of danger to his serene aura. Reborn decided he liked this one.
"So is everyone here, kora?" A new voice asked and Reborn immediately re-aimed his gun over Fon's shoulder, stopping only from firing because he recognized the voice and the blond foolish owner of said voice as Colonello came into view, hands already over his head because he knew Reborn would be aiming for him.
"Colonello?" A shocked Lal Mirch cried out as she caught sight of him.
The blue eyed blond only smiled a charming grin. "Mind if I join the party?"
"Good grief," Viper gripped again, sounding annoyed. "I take it he's not this Luche we're waiting for?"
"He's just an annoyance," Reborn replied, not bothering to lower his gun or release Fon's hand yet. The man was frowning curiously at the new arrival, but didn't seem bothered by his presence or Reborn practically invading his personal space.
"How did you even find this place?" Lal asked as she marched over to her ... whatever it was that the two were to each other. The blond beamed when he saw her and immediately gathered her in his big arms, all but spinning her in place even as she banged against his chest so he'd let her down.
"Followed my heart to you, kora!" Predictably, Lal blushed at the silliness. Surprisingly enough, Fon smiled fondly at that, an expression someone would usually wear to say sigh longingly at 'young love'. Reborn took note of it, tucking the information away without even bothering to question himself why he was even doing it. For some reason, he had a feeling it would be valuable in the future and he knows better than to brush off his own gut instincts.
Skull threw his helmet at Verde when the scientist looked ready to contradict the romantic statement with a scientific one, to which the green haired man glared.
"Oh, I see that not only is everyone getting along relatively well, but we also have a guest!" A new female voice, gentle and kind, said and they all turned to look in the direction of said voice, finding a kindly looking lady who looked to be in the middle stages of her pregnancy. She wore all white and a bit of gold and black, with a puffed up big mushroom-shaped hat on her head. Her kind dark blue eyes gazed at them all with a gentleness that made most of them immensely uncomfortable, because they were not gentle people, nor were they used to kindness. There was an innocence to this woman that might have actually made them feel ... tainted. And yet there was no judgement there. That, ultimately, made them relax a bit. "I know this place is not ideal to have such a big, serious meeting, but I figured you'd like a moment to rest before we go to the actual meeting place. If everyone's ready, please follow me."
"But Fon and Colonello have only just arrived!" Protested Lal Mirch but Colonello laughed it off.
"I'm made of sturdier stuff than that, kora! Besides, as long as it's you I'm following, I can go to the ends of the Earth."
"How sweet," Fon said quietly and it was not at all mocking, another thing Reborn noted down. "You needn't worry about me, either. If everyone else is ready to go, don't wait on me. I can make the journey just fine."
"And Babyborn can always just pick him up and carry him the rest of the way if he gets tired, right, kora?" Colonello said with a teasing grin, only to crumble to the ground a second later as Lal whacked him good over the head with a fist, clearly annoyed. Fon didn't seem offended. In fact, he seemed greatly amused by the rivalry going on between the blond and the hitman.
"If that's the case, then please follow me. I wish for us to arrive at the meeting place by tomorrow morning." They all exchanged looks as they considered silently just where the hell they might be going for them to need three quarters of a day to get there. And it would seem that they will be making the journey overnight.
Verde and Viper went ahead first, followed by Skull after he picked up his helmet, then Lal Mirch and Fon and in the back were Reborn and Colonello, to watch their rear. Luche, of course, led the way, so she was up front. And while one might wonder why Luche hadn't simply given them the location of the real meeting place so they can arrive there by themselves, it soon proved to be crucial to have a guide as they went into the mountain and started climbing up narrow cliff-road, entering caves at random that lead to completely different parts of the mountain. Without someone guiding them, even with detailed directions, they'd have probably gotten lost.
And traveling in a group proved to be safer, anyway, as Skull lost his footing twice, Verde was nearly crushed under a falling boulder if Colonello hadn't destroyed it with one of his Maximum Cannon shots and Fon had proven incredibly valuable when they found the entrance of one of the caves completely blocked by the results of a landslide. The martial artist sure was a very strong Storm. Viper saved them from some hungry wolves once they climbed to the top of the mountain by hiding them from sight since Luche didn't want them killed and Lal found them edible food when they lost their provisions halfway to the secret location. Reborn ended up having to do some Sun Flames healing on nearly everyone when a mountain lion jumped them from out of nowhere, most of them just getting a few cuts and scratches here and there. Skull proved to be useful in that he played bait for the lion until he could topple it over a cliff, coming back up despite having no doubt broken his own neck on the way down, too. Verde just hardened some branches they found so they can dig out Skull when a rock avalanche buried him. He came out alive, which might have been a bit of a shame because he became even more of a chatterbox.
Needless to say, they were all extremely glad to arrive at the base and to learn that it was almost as big as a mansion and that they each had a room with their own bed and shower. Luche assured them that they can do as they wish with the rest of the day but that seven o'clock was dinner time and that she expected them all at the table and that they shouldn't try to avoid it or else she'd drag them kicking and screaming herself.
"She's rather scary for such a small lady," Skull said in the wake of such a statement as they all scouted out the rooms they wanted. Fon had already claimed the one in front of the garden for himself on the first level and Luche had the only other bedroom on that level for herself. Fon had chosen it partially because the garden will help him meditate and partially because he wished to help the pregnant woman out in case she might need anything. Lal had also chosen a room for herself, the one on the top floor, since it was the only bedroom up there so Colonello couldn't bug her immediately whenever he wished.
Which left Reborn, Colonello, Skull, Verde and Viper to room on the same floor. Joy.
Skull was all over the place, trying to inspect each room at the same time while Verde was just looking for a space big enough or with the least amount of furniture so he can set up his computers and the few robots he'd brought along without too much effort. Reborn did a bit of mental calculation and smirked as he opened the door to the room that would be directly over Fon's, looking down at the garden and, coincidentally, the master bedroom. He walked in and slammed the door in the others' protesting faces. As if he cares why they thought they deserved the room more than him. He just flopped down on the bed gracefully, took out his gun and pointed at the door when they dared barge in, making them all stop in their tracks and slowly back out.
You don't piss off the greatest hitman in the world lightly, after all.
He could hear Colonello and Skull cursing him outside of his room - those barbarians had left the door open, but he didn't feel up to getting up just to close it so whatever - and then Viper and Verde arguing over which one of them would be getting the second best room on the floor and he lamented that he had let Timoteo talk him into this madhouse. Sure, Nono had said that he'll come out even stronger than he was before out of this and that he'll probably meet some very interesting people, but so far, Reborn found that he was rather skeptical.
Unbidden, dark chocolate eyes came to mind, the genuine smile, the aura of danger and deceptively delicate yet powerful hands. He shivered, his heart acting up in that strange way again. Without much thought, he pulled out the used bullet that had been caught by human hands as if it were nothing, reflexes impossibly fast. He rolled it between thumb and forefinger, lost in thought.
A knock came from the door before he could contemplate it further and he looked over to see Fon standing there, a small smile on his lips yet again. Reborn suddenly felt a bit uneasy - and annoyed at himself - for not noticing the other coming, recalling Fon's words and the dangerous message they carried that only now sank in. The Storm seemed to be indeed as swift and as silent as his namesake. Reborn had not caught a whiff of his presence until the shorter man had announced himself but he wasn't about to reveal that to the Chinese assassin. He'd sounded so impressed before ...
"Can I help you, Fon?" He asked as he stealthily put the bullet back into his breast pocket.
Fon smiled a bit sheepishly at him. Somehow, it still looked serene and elegant. Reborn was tempted to ask how he pulled that off. "Luche asked if I and someone else would mind to go fetch some apples from the far end of the garden, since she's planning on making some sweets. I came up to ask, but Skull is stuck in his door out cold, Viper seems to have illusioned their door away, I passed Colonello on my way here and he's headed up to Lal Mirch so I'm guessing those two will be busy and I don't feel comfortable being anywhere around Verde when it's just the two of us. I hope you don't mind. If you'd rather not, I can go by myself ... "
The hitman paused, sitting up to consider the guest in 'his' room. He'll gladly admit that, out of everyone he'd met at this gathering of the 'strongest seven', Fon's the most interesting one so far. The Asian man hadn't left his mind since he'd caught his bullet. Call Reborn intrigued, if you will, but he guessed some more time spent with the martial artist away from the others could give him some insight into why the other peaked his interest so.
So he just smirked at the shorter man and got off the bed in one fluid motion that has turned many eyes his way no matter where he was or what he was doing there.
He figured picking apples might be fun, just this once.