Meeting the Vongola Decimo and his guardians had been quite an, ehem, interesting experience. 6 teenagers and one child, barely older than an infant, running around Namimori either blowing things up, bashing people, laughing and joking, or panicking over the damage, seemed, at first glance, to be unfit to be the next generation of, what was essentially, Mafia Royalty. However, seeing them all interact pulled at Skull's heartstrings. The looked and acted like a family. Not a Famiglia, but a Family. Close-knit, and dysfunctional. There was the hot-headed bomber, always eager to defend his Boss, the baseball-obsessed athlete who seemed to take everything as one great big joke, the Skylark that haunted Nami Chyuu, beating up the 'herbivores' who kept 'crowding', a spoiled, attention-seeking infant with an obsession for cows, an extremely loud, extremely annoying boxer, and a shy, timid girl being possessed by a powerful illusionist who was locked-up in the Vendicare Water Prison. If they were normal people, they would have hated one another, but, through association with the Decimo, they just really dislike one another. Well, except for Takeshi Yamamoto, the Rain Guardian. He seemed to like everyone, that it, until they tried to kill Tsuna.
They met at Mafia Land, a holiday resort for Mafiosi. Reborn had called (ordered) him to come and attack the Vongola Decimo with his new pet octopus Ootakku. Skull had been confused, but complied with the order, if only to avoid being beaten later for disobedience. He hated the fact that, as the unofficial Lackey for the Arcobaleno (never mind that he was one as well and much more powerful than anyone there), he was forced to do everything from running around grabbing drinks to taking beatings from Reborn's students so that they could 'learn'. It shouldn't be like that. He was the great Skull-sama, the Immortal Stuntman! Even Morty hated him! He shouldn't be bowing down to all of these people who, while older, didn't have his abilities! It was infuriating!
That didn't matter to them though, oh no. Being the Lackey of the group had resulted in a severe change in his personality. Whereas before, if he were ordered to do something he would've spat in that orderer's face, now he would tremble, put up a meek and pathetic attempt of defiance, then go and do the job like some well-trained house pet.
Anyways, Skull had been at Mafia Land with some others from the Carcassa Famiglia, attacking the Vongola Decimo. Well, not quite attacking. It was more a case of being soundly defeated by the Decimo after Reborn had shot his hand with a bullet that made it swell to the point that Ootakku didn't recognise any orders made.
He'd eventually been able to crawl away, dignity and pride in tatters once again, wishing all the while that he could order Reborn to pay him for these jobs.
Skull could just imagine how that would go over.
"Oi! Reborn! Pay me next time for these jobs that I've been doing for you!"
*Reborn turns around and glares at Skull*
"N-n-n-never m-mind Senp-p-pai! T-t-t-thank you f-f-for giving m-me t-t-these jobs!"
Skull winced, jolted out of his minds wonderings by another call from Reborn.
~~~OOO~~~
The next time Skull saw the Vongola Decimo and his guardians, it was with the rest of the Arcobaleno as well. Reborn had called them all together to put his student through a test where he had to gain each Arcobaleno's seal in order to open some sort of tiny orange box. Skull's idea for the test was to see if the Vongola Decimo had enough control of his guardians to stop the two most ruthless ones (Hibari-san and Mukuro-san) from fighting. Of course, Reborn misinterpreted his idea due to Skull posing as Tsunayoshi to lure them into the same area, but it all worked out. That is, until Reborn pushed him into the middle of the fight and sat back, watching while he was beaten up, again. By the time Skull had been able to subdue the Mist and Cloud, he'd been covered in bruises, cuts, grazes, lumps and dints, and hardly able to move, let alone give Tsunayoshi the Cloud Arcobaleno seal. By the time he was alone enough to use some basic healing to stop the blood and age the bruises by a couple of weeks, making them much less painful, it almost would've been easier to die, let Death heal his body, and regenerate then, but that would've meant likely running into Checkerface, or as everyone else knew him, The man with the Iron Hat, and he still didn't feel like talking to him just yet. You wouldn't either, if one of your own acquaintances decided to make your immortal life more difficult by turning you into a baby.
~~~OOO~~~
Whatever toxin Verde had created that stopped Skull (and the rest of the Arcobaleno on the beach) from moving hurt. It wasn't just physically causing pain, but it was also causing him to have a nasty flashback to when he was trapped in Malfoy Manor, hanging from the ceiling by his wrists, unable to move because of whatever spell they had cast. He'd been under that spell for two months, two long, torturous months, and being restrained by an unknown substance in such a similar way was wreaking havoc on his already almost broken mind. When Tsunayoshi (he'd insisted on not being called Decimo) and Lambo (whom he got along quite well with, to the surprise of literally everyone) finally stopped Verde and got rid of that horrible substance, he'd very nearly cried, though he did run up to Tsunayoshi, dodging Reborn's 'warning' bullets and hugged him tightly around the shin, before running over to Lambo and giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek as well. Everyone froze, but Skull didn't notice the sudden rise in tension, too happy at having not had a complete break-down that would've revealed some very dark secrets to the others. Arriving on the beach with Lambo (who was still sore from channelling a massive amount of electricity), Skull gave Tsunayoshi one more hug, before leaving, needing to find a quiet place to reorganise his mind.