Leilani really struggled with her hair, it was everywhere and she had tried to keep it out of her face for the whole time. It was bothersome when she tried to concentrate on her stones. She flipped her hair up for the millionth time only to let her face hit the table in frustration when it immediately bounced back.

Her cheek was squished against the wooden surface "I need scissors or something."

Colonnello raised his eyebrow "For what, kora?"

"My hair."

"You want to cut it?"

"Yeah."

"But why?"

"It's annoying."

"And that's why you want to cut it?"

"Yes, it's everywhere."

"But you like your hair."

"I mean yeah… my mum's colour and my fathers texture but… it's driving me mad at this point."

"You know you don't have to cut it to get it under control, right?"

Leilani still didn't move. "I had a ball in my fourth year at school. We tried for five hours. Five hours but nothing was ever able to make it stay in place. I can't get rid of the curls.''

"That's the only reason you want to cut it?"

"Yes."

Nello tilted his chair back, looking into the living room "Lal? You've got spare hair ties, kora?"

The woman looked up from her gun that she was cleaning "Yes, in my bathroom."

"Can I have some?"

"For Skull?"

"Yeah."

"Sure, go ahead. Just take them."

The rain grinned as he let his chair fall back into place, his sky still hadn't lifted her head from the table and as so often he just picked her up by her waist and pulled her up.

Leilani didn't even put any strength in her body, just wiggling slightly with her arm and feet "I already tried putting it up."

"It didn't work?"

"Not at all."

"Won't hurt to try again and this time I'm helping you, kora."

"You got magic hands now?"

"Naturally."

"You think you can tame my hair?"

"I already tamed you after all, right?"

"I would rather not wait years for it though. The amount of ties that would die like that would be astronomical."

He laughed "Don't worry. We will figure it out. I watched my sister do it more than once. It can't be that hard."

"With my hair? Yes, yes it can be."

"We will see."

"Do I get ice cream if it fails?"

"Sounds like a good deal, kora. I vote for ice cream in any case though."

"Agreed."

Finding the ties in Lal's bathroom wasn't that hard with the clean order the rain kept her belongings in. He just grabbed a few before going into their room.

Colonnello picked up the hairbrush from their bathroom.

Leilani wrinkled her nose. "You know if you brush it in a dry state it just explodes even more."

"That's possible?"

"it is. Can you imagine that? That I'm more hair than my actual body."

"You already are that."

"True but… well… wait it could make me taller, right?"

Colonnello snickered, sitting down behind her on the bed.

She nodded enthusiastically "Do it! I can be tall."

Colonnello actually broke the brush almost straight away in her hair. Skull did fix it almost immediately but still he was creating more of a mess than anything and the hair literally grew. Just a huge mountain of fluff surrounding the small sky. It was a mistake though as he had more than enough problems even just grabbing all of it to attempt to put it in a bun.

Skull didn't mind though, just humming while as so often wiggling her feet while he attempted to tame her hair.

It took embarrassingly long but in the end something… resembling a bun was created. It was hanging far too much to the side instead of the middle of her hair and it was clearly not secure.

Still he had to pause for a moment when he turned her around to look at her, her huge green eyes staring up at him in full display no longer hidden by the massive curls that usually hung into her face.

"Well…" he tried to search for words but as always he had slight problems putting words together when she looked at him like this. He couldn't help but let his eyes wander over her dainty features, something in him wanted to count every last of her freckles but he had to pause when his eyes fell on the prominent scar on her forehead. He had never asked how she got it.

Leilani noticed where his eyes wandered and she jumped up, breaking the moment to look at herself, her hair was wiggling around and the moment she saw herself she tilted her head slightly, the bun fell to the side with it and she had to giggle, just moving her head form one side to the other and the bun followed.

She grinned at the image in front of her.

Nello has followed "Well.. sorry. I know it's far from good."

"No, no. It's perfect. Thank you Nello."

"You like it?"

"Yeah." she grinned as she took his hand "Let's finish the stones, alright?"
He smiled at her as she pulled him down again, through the living room where the arcobalenos were seated.

Reborn looked up, one eyebrow raised as he saw the unsecure bun. He sighed "Okay, come here Skull. This is a mess. Let me fix it."

She stuck her tongue out "It's Nello's masterpiece. Don't ruin it."

"It's crooked and moves."

"So?"

"It's terrible."

"No, no, it's perfect. You're just jealous."

"Of what?"

"This." and with that she started to swing her head in circles, the bun just following her movements.

The group just stared at the small sky.

Lal actually turned away bright red. Not that anyone was better, especially not Colonnello.

But one thing stood undefeated in the room. The sky was way too adorable to handle.

Leilani was lying upside down on the couch, her legs placed over the leaning and her head hanging down as she crossed her eyes to try to count the freckles on her nose. "Have you ever thought about the fact that Reborn must have had tons of zits as a teen? You know because of his flame? Activation and stuff just screams zits."

The hitman raised his eyes from the book he was reading "I didn't have zits."

"Stop lying. You probably were covered with it."

"I wasn't."

"You're totally lying. Did you know tht sky and storm flames both can get rid of zits? Sky flames stop them from forming and storm are able to get rid of them."

"And you know that how?"

"Duh. Did you think I spent thousands of money on makeup? Sure, I duplicate it but after the fifth time it starts to show. I just didn't take it off."

"That's disgusting."

She stuck her tongue out "Did you know if you duplicate food the nutrients just split between them? Like if you duplicate cookies ten times you still only get filled and the nutrients from one cookie but you can eat it longer. That's the fun. Kind of a secret diet strategy. Just duplicate one banana 50 times and you can keep on eating without getting fat."

"Did you ever do that?"

"Not for dieting. But it helps trick the brain into thinking you're not hungry. It's useful. Cloud Flames are useful."

The hitman put his book aside, his full attention on the sky, same as the rest of the group "are you still doing that?"

She shook her head, groaning, as the dizziness hit her and immediately getting pulled up by her rain "No… not really. Just sometimes. it's a habit."

"You know you don't have to do that anymore, right?"

"Yeah but you know? I kinda am sad that I didn't have that ability as a kid. Would have made my childhood way better."

Fon swallowed hard "You didn't get much to eat?"

She shook her head "Not really. You know the usual punishments. You let the chicken get too dry and then you're sent into your cupboard for a week with no meals."

Lal tried to clear her suddenly way too dry throat "Your… your cupboard?"

Leilani was still trying to get her dizziness under control while simultaneously leaning against the suspiciously quiet rain "Yeah, my cupboard. the cupboard under the stairs."

"And you got sent there for punishment?"

"I mean it was my room? Where else?"

Reborn was already fingering the gun on his hips, aware he couldn't shoot anything but it was still his first reaction.

Fon just took a deep breath "It… was your room?"

"Yeah, until I turned 11. My relatives kinda freaked out when they saw that the address on my school letter included the cupboard part. So I got my cousin's second room afterwards."

"Your cousin had two rooms? And you had a cupboard?"

She hummed "Yeah, he used it to store his broken toys. Was kinda cool when I got it. I actually had a real mattress then and whenever I was locked in there I could play with the toys. Sure, they were mostly broken in half but creativity is the key. I pretended to open a hospital. I care for their injuries and they for mine."

She had to laugh slightly when Colonnello pulled her on his lap, his arms around her and his face buried in her hair.

She wriggled herself comfortable in his tight grip "Can we have chicken for dinner tonight?"

In Lals voice was a slight tremble "Yes… yes, we can."

The sky smiled brightly up at her, almost blindingly "Thanks! I Really want it today."

The female rain had to look away. Her throat was closed shut.. she didn't know what to say, especially not when Skull looked at her like this but she wasn't the only one. All of them just sat in silence while the tiny sky started to ramble about the new game Colonnello had brought her.

Reborn leaned back, his fedora pulled deeply into his face to not let his expression show. At least it was clear now why she was that small. He was aware they had to talk with her about this. About how she didn't see anything wrong with it… how she didn't even seem to realise what she actually had said but… right now he needed a drink.

Skull was an adult and Skull was safe with them and nothing like that would ever repeat again. They could bring the topic up later again and try to make her understand.