It seemed to be a reoccuring theme in his life. That he would find the one person who would take him in, pretend to treat him like he was one of them, only to leave him in the 'tender mercies' of the biggest asshole on the planet who thought the fact he hadn't been born or raised in their society was enough reason to 'toughen him up' in the most horrible way possible.

It had happened with the normal people. It happened with the magicals.

He would be damned if he fell for the same crap now that he was old enough to actually do something about it and leave just because the mafia thought they had automatic dibs on anyone with these...flames.

Skull seethed when he finally figured out why he kept having flashbacks to some of Vernon's worst abuse growing up after yet another training session with Renato, who seemed to take the fact Skull was a 'civilian' as all the excuse he would ever need to beat the living shit out of him.

Soon after, when the cloying feel of Luce's "flames" that felt more like a collar that threatened to choke him with the false hope of a 'home' started to feel entirely too familiar to the false platitudes Dumbledore kept giving him for years before the senile fucker finally died at the hands of his so-called redeemed Death Eater, Skull realized something.

He could stay, and likely be used in whatever scheme the 'Sky' bitch had planned and get screwed over yet again...or he could do the smart thing and leave.

Considering the sheer lack of respect or even common decency from anyone save Viper, who made it abundantly clear they hated every one of them equally and only gave two shits about the others because they were being paid an outrageous sum of money, Skull's choice was all too obvious.

There wasn't enough money in the world for him to tolerate a continuation of the same abuse and beatings. Besides, none of these idiots knew his actual name and there was literally nothing they had to hold over him.

Most of his family was dead, he was independently wealthy with his funds being in vaults that had no access to the internet, and it would take all of five seconds to be halfway across the country with enough of a head start to change his features to the point he would be unrecognizable.

And if that didn't work, he could always cast a personalized fidelius and hide until whatever plot Luce was trying to pull over him ran out of time. From what he had been able to ascertain, her 'greater good bullshit' was on a very specific deadline.

He was perfectly capable of hiding in an inhospitable location for a considerable amount of time in isolation. He could wait her out and he had ways to deter the asshole who hired him from locating him twice.

After sterilizing his little 'nest' (which was nowhere near the room they had given him because he wasn't stupid enough to sleep in an area Renato could get easy access to) and cleaning the place so thoroughly that it would be a miracle if they found anything of his, Skull grabbed his broom that he had charmed to look like a normal motorcycle.

"Where are you going?" demanded Renato.

"To town for supplies. One of my orders came in and I'm going to pick it up," said Skull.

Which was true, but the order was in another part of the country entirely.

"Why don't one of us go with you?" said Luce, her too-fake smile making it clear she wanted one of the others to keep an eye on him.

Skull stared her down with a flat expression.

"Let me rephrase what I just said. I want a couple hours as far away from Renato and the others without having the fact I'm stuck in the damn mafia shoved down my throat every other hour," said Skull flatly, glaring at her.

"Tch. Just bring back some dinner Lackey."

Skull waved him off without agreeing to a damn thing. If he did this right then he could be free of this bullshit within an hour or so.

It took the group twelve hours to realize that Skull hadn't returned and another day and a half to realize he had managed to give them all the slip.

By that point Skull was clearly long gone.

"Alright, what the hell did you do Renato?" demanded Viper.

"What makes you assume this is my fault? Clearly the lackey couldn't handle it," said Renato. "And for that matter why do you even care?"

Viper took out a book they had found in their room and removed the envelope.

Seeing they had everyone's attention, they pulled out the contents...which were all three checks Skull had gotten on the jobs assigned to them from Checkerface.

"...Why do you have those?" asked Lal baffled.

"Skull left these in my room...the idiot used them as a bookmark of all things," said Viper.

"A...bookmark?" said Fon in disbelief.

Most people would cash them or deposit them.

Viper was still a bit surprised Skull had left the checks in their room in a place only they would have found it. They had already looked into it and found that Skull hadn't cashed a single one, which really begged the question of why.

For that matter Viper still couldn't find where Skull's bank account was. The Mist might like their money, but they disliked owing someone even more. It was as if Skull lived completely off the grid, which might explain why the Cloud had never cashed the checks.

"We can ask the Lackey what the hell he was thinking when we find him. Any idea where he went?" said Renato dismissively.

It would take them an uncomfortable ten minutes to realize not a single one of them knew anything about Skull.

He claimed to be a stuntman, but Viper couldn't find a single hint of him ever performing a show. And Skull de Mort was obviously a fake name.

As if that wasn't enough, inspecting his room came up completely empty...it was clear from the dust alone it had never been used, which really begged the question of where Skull had been sleeping while he stayed there.

"It's like the idiot was a ghost. Have any of you found a single thing we can use to track him down?" said Lal.

Fon shook his head.

"Skull is apparently better at cleaning up after himself than we thought. I've searched for several hours and I haven't found a single scrap to indicate he had been living with us for any length of time, and none of us bothered to get to know him that well."

Viper kept their mouth shut. Renato, having sharp eyes looked at them suspiciously.

"You know something."

"I know Skull has been screwed over by a mind walker before, repeatedly," said Viper evenly.

"What makes you say that?" asked Fon curiously.

"When he found out Mists were naturals at getting into people's minds, he came and asked me the extent of what I could do with my flames. The second he found out I knew how to create permanent mental shields, he paid me a very large sum of money to fix his. Apparently someone went into his mind a few years ago and completely destroyed his natural barriers against mind walkers, opening him up to repeated attacks from what I can only suspect was a certain Discorded Sky Latent considering he admitted to being from England," said Viper.

"...Are you telling me Skull was in the middle of the terrorist attacks almost two years ago?" said Fon carefully.

"He was on the side trying to put a stop to it on the front lines. He still has nightmares and I suspect he might have PTSD considering he kept having flashbacks while I helped him rebuild his shields," said Viper. Lal went pale hearing that particular tidbit...then again she was an ex-soldier so it was understandable she took that sort of thing very seriously.

The fact she never picked up on it really worried her. Then again Skull was unnaturally good at compartmentalizing from what she saw.

"Why did he leave?" said Verde.

"My best guess? Luce and Renato."

"I can understand Renato, considering how he treated Skull on a daily basis, but why Luce?" asked Fon.

"He just left a country where he had been tortured by a Sky who was unconsciously attempting to either forcibly harmonize with him or murder him. I sincerely doubt the trauma of that sort of thing has even remotely begun to heal, so being around Luce would have been extremely painful, especially if there was no compatibility between them. And the fact she didn't really attempt to divert any of Renato's behavior away from Skull suggests there wasn't. In fact none of us really gave Skull a reason to stick around once he had enough."

"But he spent quite a bit of time around you," said Luce confused.

"According to Skull, I hate everyone equally but at least I could be counted on to give a straight answer and not pretty up the truth with false platitudes so long as I was paid. He said he 'knew where he stood' with me," said Viper.

In other words Skull was perfectly okay with paying Viper to tell him the honest truth and to divert Renato whenever the Sun was acting like a bigger asshole than normal with fake tasks to get him as far away from the hit man as possible.

Viper was literally the only person who bothered to do even that much.

Skull sighed with relief. Leaving had been the best idea ever and he was never going to regret that fact. Honestly, he wished he had thought of this sort of action years ago.

Then again, he was still underage a few years ago with minders all too happy to drag him back into their problems because they were lazy bastards. The 'strongest seven' didn't really need him in the first place outside of the fact he was a strong Cloud. They were all much more skilled than he was and had never really demanded his limited skill set (that they knew about) durig missions anyway.

He stretched out and relaxed.

This was much better, even if he was currently 'roughing' it with a magical tent out in the middle of nowhere.

Knowing Luce, she would demand they track him down for whatever reason and bring him back. The easiest way to avoid dealing with her again was to stay off the grid entirely.

Not too hard considering he wasn't really inclined to be around people for a while and was getting pretty good at foraging and hunting.

Then again, Renato had been such an ass that Skull was already brewing some polyjuice. The idiot shouldn't have left his brush out in the open like he had, especially when Skull had ample reason to get back at him.

After all, he was a Marauder's son and the adopted brother of their second coming...never mind the fact he was also the head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black.

Renato's behavior couldn't go unanswered, but Skull was willing to give the man some leeway since allowing him to live would give him more than enough opportunities to make his life a living nightmare. Besides, this was the perfect warning not to cross him or he would escalate into far more horrific and traumatizing pranks.

Viper had to resist the urge to cackle as yet another unlikely and rather shocking rumor about the recently named "World's Greatest Hit Man" reached their ears.

Then they saw Renato and had to fight back a snicker.

"What's so funny?" asked Fon. It had been two months since Skull disappeared and still they had no leads on him.

"Have you heard the latest rumors about Renato Sinclair?" asked Viper, openly smirking.

Fon's instinct said this would be blackmail gold, so he forked over several large bills before Viper could say a word.

He would be right, and would soon join Viper in trying desperately to hold back his laughter whenever he saw Renato.

It would be Luce who enlightened him to the first of many, many rumors already spreading about him.

"Renato, don't take this the wrong way...but are you gay?" asked Luce slowly.

Renato slowly lowered his espresso cup.

"What?" he said baffled.

"I heard several rather... well, there's a rumor going around that your playboy persona is nothing more than a beard for the fact you're gay and happened to enjoy going into drag queen bars," said Luce carefully.

Fon and Viper looked at each other, before trying desperately to hide their laughter. Either way, Viper still got some rather delightful pictures of Renato's expression hearing even a fraction of the rumors being spread about him. Fon paid the Mist in advance...there was no way he'd let the Sun live this down.

Renato looked torn between incredulous and pissed.

"Where the hell did you hear something like that?"

And who was going to die in as slow and painful a method as possible once he got his hands on the damn Mist that had to be responsible for this?

"It's all over the underworld," admitted Luce. "Along with one or two odd mentions of a Triad assassin fitting Fon's description, but the ones about you are considerably more prominent."

"Wait, what?!" said Fon in surprise.

"There's a few odd rumors about you, but they're nowhere near as interesting as the ones about Renato," repeated Luce.

"What kind of odd rumors?" asked Fon intently.

"I know the ones she's talking about, but from what I can tell it's mostly about you putting spike strips or ribbons in your braid," said Viper.

Fon looked relieved at that, even if hearing someone was going around with his face was highly disturbing. Still, the first part did sound like a rather intriguing idea...it would cut the number of comments about the braid he kept his hair in down at any rate if he decided to make it true.

"Wait...how do they know about a spike strip?" asked Fon.

"From what I heard, you've been seen in a few bars starting fights and a couple of idiots tried to grab your braid only to find out the hard way what was hidden inside it. Nothing too damaging but it makes you sound more like a typical hot-headed Storm compared to your usual calm demeanor," said Viper. "Compared to Renato who has been seen repeatedly in drag and sometimes doesn't even bother to wear a fake bra. Several of his former lovers have seen him and recognized him instantly."

"Please, if I wanted to cross dress no one would know I was a man," said Renato without thinking. Only to realize too late that he wasn't helping his case at all.

Particularly since Luce quit responding to his light flirting and made a point never to be in the same room alone as him.

He never took her to be homophobic.