Start at the central fountain in the town square near the station. Follow the main road north, and then take the first left off Via Piuma. Head north-west on that road until the black plant pot next to the cracked cobblestone slabs. From there, use the t-junction to head directly west. Cross the bridge and take another right at the intersection to the park that follows the stream. Follow the path with azaleas, not peonies, and step off at the yellow building. Fourteen paces. A quaint townhouse sat, squeezed between three others that looked exactly as it did, sandy coloured with a Juliet balcony leaning out over the foot traffic passing its front door.
A thin man wearing a pitch-black suit and yellow-strapped fedora slipped out of the crowd that flowed like water. His polished black shoes barely made a 'clack' on the steps to the house, and with a careful glance out of the corner of his eye at his surroundings, he entered the building unnoticed.
He was the first to arrive. As usual. He liked to scope out their meeting points, get a feel for the space and know exactly where everything was. The man stood in the foyer, the house, long and thin, utterly silent. He huffed and quickly fixed his suit, before taking a long, easy stride forwards.
A boy, a son, by the name of Kellen, had his drawing pinned to the refrigerator. A daughter still feeding off of baby food.
He stepped back and let the fridge slide shut, black leather gloves squeaking a bit as he flexed his hands idly. He continued to look around the first floor.
Husband was a simple office worker, managing company finances. He had a degree in commerce hanging on the wall. Had an interest in tennis and squash from the rackets in the corner of the home office.
Wife was a stay-at-home mother, retired from her job in a secretary pool to care for children. Her handwriting was neat and precise; a notepad on the kitchen counter was written almost entirely in shorthand. Blond; doesn't clean her hairbrushes often.
The grandmother lived with them, from the wife's side. Old. Stubborn. Refusing to take prescribed medication. He shifted a piece of paper, dry leaves and burnt paper sat in an ashtray. Grandmother used herbal remedies instead to alleviate pain.
Family of five with eight chairs at their dining room table. A hearty stock of wines in the rack. They had friends over often, a good flow of people coming in and out.
A family lived here, real and loving. He wondered who they had a debt to, to have rented their house out for such a meeting. The man in the fedora glanced around, debating the best gathering of shadows to seep into until the others arrived.
Footsteps brought him from his musing and he tilted his head to look over his shoulder.
A dishevelled man in a lab coat came walking up the hall from the door, his dress shirt looking like it had never been ironed since it had been bought, and his hair bushy with tangles. He had stubble on his chin, and scratches on his hands, round glasses sitting neatly on his nose as he surveyed the man in the fedora with the same critique.
A window opened in the second storey. Both men ceased and turned their eyes to the stairs, slow footsteps groaning through the wooden supports as they tracked the progress. The top of the staircase wheezed under the weight, a metallic jangle. A young man, barely out of his teens, dressed in chains, leather and purple leapt off the last five steps and landed with a loud 'thud', making the vase on display teeter dangerously.
"You're early," Reborn hummed, completely unenthused by the arrival. "For once."
Verde shrugged and nudged his glasses, "I was in the area."
Skull pried off his helmet and grinned, "I was at a friend's house!"
"No one cares, lackey."
Skull deflated with a pout.
Reborn eyed Verde. He had been 'in the area'. That was a bit too close to Reborn's recent interest for his liking. If Verde blew it, that would be months of effort down the drain just as he was starting to get her to warm up to him.
"And you got here rather quick too. What? Has being 'fashionably late' lost its charm, Reborn?" Verde scoffed and walked past, unshined shoes scuffing the carpet as he chose a chair and sat down at the dining table.
Reborn kept his expression carefully still as he sat in the chair across from Verde, crossed one leg over the other and leant back casually.
"Like you," he said, "I was in the area."
"Senpai has a lady friend~!" Skull crooned, dropping himself heavily at the end of the table between them, dropping his chin into his hands. "It's the hot topic! Senpai's got his eye on someone!"
"That poor woman," Verde drawled, "I don't envy her. Dealing with you is punishment in that of itself."
"I think you'd find that most would disagree," Reborn responded idly.
There was a jug of water in the centre of the table, along with seven cups. Only Skull took a glass and sipped on the water. He did that every meeting, Reborn had a feeling it was to rub it in their faces.
"The others are taking their time," Reborn uttered, glancing at the clock. He had hoped to get some organisation done today since Sunday was his newest interest's one day off.
"We're an hour early," Verde reminded him as he unpacked some notes from his pockets, unfolding sheets of messy writing and a notepad.
"Last I heard, Viper was in Izrale! They'll take a bit to get here. Oh and I met up with Fon in Laos a few months ago, so he's probably still there." Skull thought aloud, a purple stain on the rim of his cup.
"Viper won't be here until it's on the dot," Reborn nearly grumbled, already growing bored and restless.
"'Time is money'," Verde quoted, making a short note of some new experiment under the code of Subject 007.
"So senpai," Skull crooned, leaning forward towards Reborn who regarded him with nary a glance. "Who's your new lady friend? Is she pretty~?"
"Probably some lady in red again," Verde scoffed. "I recall you having a recent tryst with some multi-million heiress turned Spanish spy?"
"Sienna was a wonderful woman, but our paths were not the same," Reborn shrugged, forlorn.
"So you've found a new one," the scientist uttered.
"Come on, senpai, tell me the gossip!" Skull pressed.
Reborn tilted his hat and debated what he could let slip, how much of his latest catch he could flaunt.
"She's strong," he chose to say. "Amazonian. Like some sort of Roman gladiator."
"That's new," Verde huffed, still scribbling in chicken scratch numbers. "Usually you go for those slender Femme Fatales."
"I've acquired a new taste," Reborn purred, and Verde was only so grateful that he didn't have to see the man lick his lips.
"Buff people are the best," Skull sighed dreamily, staring off like he was remembering something rather fondly, chin in his hands. "I met this cool lady. God, the muscle. She lifted me clean off the ground and I wish she'd do it again."
"Yes, well," Verde began with a bit of irk to his voice, "While you two have been drooling after muscle women, I have found myself a most interesting secondary subject."
"They're called friends, Verde," Skull chimed.
"My side-subject," he continued, nonplussed, "Has a most fascinating Flame expression. So far I've detected Seconds of Cloud and perhaps Lightning, but their Primary is...irregular."
"How so?" Reborn frowned.
A Flame representation Verde couldn't decipher? Reborn knew Verde was rather new to this whole Flames ordeal, having discovered this world as a curious young man rather than ankle-deep in blood and bullets like most of them. But what he lacked in experience Verde made up for in research, draining every intellectual drop from the Mafia until his curiosity was satiated. If there was someone who knew Flames, it was Verde.
"I have not crossed it before," Verde uttered. "There's no documentation on such a representation either."
The door opened and all three men paused their conversation to regard the woman who entered the room. Dressed in a brown military COMSUBIN instructor uniform and heavy boots that cracked against the floorboards as she walked, Lal Mirch gave the men at the table a stiff nod of greeting. Her hair was neatly brushed down around her shoulders, showing she wasn't on duty at the moment.
Reborn took a moment to admire that strict, militaristic posture he was growing so fond of seeing in women these days. It was then it occurred to him that he had never seen his interest in her uniform which was honestly a crime. He needed to rectify that - Reborn wondered how tight the Italian military's security was concerning their UN soldiers' documentation and photographs.
Reborn drew his eyes over Lal Mirch as she sat herself down one seat away from Verde and folded her hands on the table, content to sit in silence without much to do.
There weren't many women in the army, perhaps a healthy handful. Surely Lal Mirch had crossed paths with his bella, or at least heard tell of her. But he wasn't going to prod. Lal was nothing if not protective and Reborn wasn't willing to take the gamble and see if 'fellow women in service' was reason enough for her to get in the way of his plans to acquire.
"Can I help you?" Lal Mirch asked suddenly, opening her eyes to glare in his direction.
"Debating on it," Reborn smirked, crossing his arms.
"Debate with your eyes elsewhere then, my skin is crawling," she snapped.
"Let's try to not start a fight before this meeting even starts," a man hummed calmly as he stepped into the room, virtually undetected if it weren't for the fact that he was among his peers of World Class.
"Fon! You got here quick, how was Thailand?" Skull cheered, and the Asian man dressed in red smiled patiently in greeting.
"It was beautiful as usual," Fon assured, "That food stand you recommended was delicious."
"Miss Achara knows how to make great satay."
Fon nodded in agreement before finding himself a seat across from Lal Mirch and one seat away from Reborn. Then Skull took a long sip of water and shifted his posture, the most serious any of them had seen the youth in a long time.
"Lal Mirch, Fon, I have a question," the purple man asked, threading his fingers together on the table. Both said people regarded him, Fon turning his head and Lal Mirch glancing to him out of the corner of her eye. "Buff women. Opinions."
Verde put down his notes and put his face in his hands.
"Skull," Lal Mirch sighed, "I don't know what's going on, but I want nothing to do with your latest fetish."
"It's not my fetish!" Skull defended and whipped around to point a finger at the hitman that was sitting in a relaxed recline. "It's Reborn's latest fetish!"
"It's not a fetish," Reborn corrected smoothly, "It's an appreciation."
"So you don't want to be picked up and handled by a buff woman?" Lal Mirch asked, raising an eyebrow.
Reborn was quiet for a moment, so was Skull. Then the hitman said, "It's not a sexual thing."
"Sure."
"I may regret this," Fon began, looking between his fellows. "But what brought this on?"
"I have fou-" Reborn smirked before Skull jumped up.
"Senpai found a girlfriend!"
"Girlfriend?" Lal Mirch echoed, visibly startled.
"She's not my girlfriend," Reborn denied, sitting up a bit in his chair. "This woman is merely my most recent goal. A challenge to seduce within the mix of femme Fatales."
"I don't know," Lal Mirch hummed, something petty in her almost eager to irk that hitman back. "You seemed rather quick to deny. COMSUBIN training suggests there's more at play here."
"This trait of 'buff' is an outlier in the trend," Verde chipped in, "Such a turn would suggest a reason for the new compulsion of…'Girlfriend'."
"Not girlfriend."
"Did your girlfriend do something to catch your eye?" Skull asked, completely invested at this point.
"Not my girlfriend," Reborn grit out.
"Considering his history, she probably tried to shoot him," Lal Mirch scoffed. "Probably engaged in some witty wordplay."
"Do you really think me so predictable?" Reborn asked, regaining his footing.
"Is Lal Mirch wrong then?" Fon wondered, seeing the recollection as them straying off the mark.
"It is true my usual bouts are entanglements of bullets of wit. However, my current beauty meets me with a different attitude. She takes it in stride, unfazed. I'd think it boring if it wasn't so attractive on her."
"Does that count as neglect play?" Lal Mirch asked Fon off to the side and Skull choked on his drink.
Reborn drew up to his full height in his seat, looking most like an offended peacock as he opened his mouth. He was fully prepared to pull out some rather personal jabs about 'neglect play' and a certain rowdy blond boy back on base when the door opened from the street.
A woman, dressed in white and a peculiar hat, walked into the house with a happy-hummed tune. On her arm was a wicker basket that leaked the heavenly smell of warm cookies and sugar. The woman smiled brightly when she saw the five others already sat at the table, and came over.
"Good morning everyone!" Luce cooed and placed the basket on the table where Skull immediately jumped upon it. "Such a good appetite."
"Your cookies are great, Ms Luce," Skull grinned, dual welding the baked goods.
"I'm glad you like them," she beamed, "I added more chocolate this time too, just for you!"
"Hell yeah!"
Fon stood up and pulled out a chair for Luce who thanked him and carefully sat herself down. The atmosphere of the room shifted with Luce in it, five individual energies leaning in her magnetic direction as she smiled upon each of them like doting family.
The Courting was still new, only months old, but no one could deny the Attraction this Sky held for them. They were fitting themselves slowly, patchwork and full of frayed seams; Luce was perfect for that.
"Verde," she began suddenly and the scraggly man turned his eyes in her direction even as his hand continued to write. "You're looking a bit down. Is everything okay?"
Verde was silent for a stretch of time, but Luce didn't waver, waiting patiently for the man to cherry-pick his words and sort out the thunder in his head.
"I am revisiting my personal ethics as a researcher," he said finally, slowly, like he was hesitant to admit it.
"Ethics? You?" Reborn scoffed, leaning back in his seat now that the heat was off him.
"I thought the only board of ethics you got involved with was bored of ethics," Skull quipped with a snarky grin decorated with metal and cookie crumbs.
"How clever," Verde drawled, disgruntledly turning the page of his notebook.
"Oh, ignore them, Verde. Please continue, why are you rethinking?" Luce encouraged.
Verde scratched out another sentence before thumping a full stop in place. He put his pen down beside his notes and nudged his glasses until the light from the windows cast them opaque.
"I may have...agitated a close contact," he uttered carefully.
"That's Verde for 'friend'," Skull stage whispered from across the table
"Oh no, what did you do?" Luce asked, her brows furrowing in concern.
Once again Verde took a moment to answer, visibly hesitating. He tilted in his seat and smoothed out the bent corner of his notebook.
"I may have exceeded what the subject believes to be appropriate areas for research. I reinforced the assurance that I was interested in neither occupants of the household, and was merely observing the primary subject in a social environment outside of the main enclosure of the contact's living quarters-"
"...You broke into your friend's friend's house." Fon deciphered.
Verde frowned at being interrupted and huffed out, "In layman's terms, yes."
"Yeah, they're pissed with you, I can see why," Skull scoffed, reclining in his chair. "Dude, no one likes that!"
"Verde, you must understand how that can make someone feel uncomfortable, knowing you've entered the house of someone they care about without permission," Luce scolded gently.
"The contact quickly grew accustomed to me conducting research in their own home. I don't understand why this is different, wouldn't someone guard their own dwelling over another's? The contact is comfortable with my presence, bar only the bedroom and top drawer of the lavatory due to feminine hygiene products."
There was a long beat of silence before Skull lurched forward and asked, "Wait, are you talking about a girl?"
Verde didn't see why this was relevant to the topic at all but answered a short, "Yes, the contact is feminine identifying."
"Is her friend also a woman?" Lal continued, a look of near exasperated pain on her face.
Verde, realising that ''societal norms' were at play here, decided to let his silence speak for him. He was the first to admit that he had long traded in social cues and cultural normalities to focus on more important details of the world.
"Verde," Luce sighed.
"You've stepped on a mine, there, dear fellow," Reborn tutted, "Women especially prize their social circles, often above themselves. You have to let them come to you."
"The womaniser is right," Lal agreed, looking like she had just sucked on a lemon as she said that.
Skull shook his head and poured himself another glass, sipping away as he listened to the women woes of their estranged scientist.
"Did you at least apologise? What did she say when she found out?" Luce asked. "Were you alone when she confronted you?"
"No," Verde uttered, "She dragged me out of the building and said I was grounded."
Skull spat out his drink just as Reborn opened an umbrella.
"VERDE GOT GROUNDED!" Skull howled, absolutely elated by this knowledge.
"You deserve it, man, really," Lal snorted.
"You are lucky she let you off with that," Fon told him, looking thoroughly amused. "Better men have died for less."
Before anyone could continue to ride on Verde's misery, Luce clapped her hands to call attention, utterly beaming as everyone's heads turned to her.
"It's well past time for the rendezvous, so we can safely assume our Viper won't be joining us this time."
"Could have at least pinged one of us ahead of time," Lal grumbled.
"Yes, it seems like this is all of us," Fon hummed, "So, miss Luce, why were we called today?"
The woman smiled at the calm man and relaxed her posture, signalling to the rest of the room to be at ease.
"Nothing too dire, I just wanted to touch base and see how you all were! We're Courting, after all. I love hearing from you, but you're all so busy."
"So, this is just a social call," Reborn drawled, entirely unimpressed. He ignored how his Flames twirled at the mere concept of having someone want to check in on him.
"More or less," Luce admitted, before she sat back a bit and hummed, "But so many of you were hovering around Sicily at once, how could I resist?"
Reborn didn't straighten his posture anymore. But he was so interested in why so many of them were in town these days. Reborn, Verde and Skull; three of seven.
"If that's it, then I'll be on my way," Lal Mirch announced, getting to her feet, hat tucked under her arm. "I have some reports to fill out by the end of the week that I need to get a start on."
"Oh, of course," Luce nodded, "It was good seeing you again, Lal Mirch."
"And you, Luce," Lal reciprocated. "Maybe next time, I'll be able to stay longer."
She swept her eyes over the table and have a curt tilt of her head before leaving out the front door.
"Such a shame, I was hoping to talk to her more about that boy she's been seen with recently. What was his name? Connor?" Luce sighed, putting her cheek in her hand.
"Collonello," Reborn supplied shortly. "One of her recruits. Smitten with her, I believe."
"A soldier retreating fifty steps laughs at the one retreating one hundred," Fon uttered idly, a light quirk to his lips.
"Pot and kettle," Skull sang in agreement.
"I've heard the rumours! The Longchamp Family had a birthday celebration and that was all everyone was talking about!" Luce gasp as if she was suddenly struck with the memory.
"Senpai is seducing a buff lady!" Skull cheered, "Miss Luce, what's your opinion on buff women?"
"Oh, well, I think they've got a lot of discipline. It's not easy for women to put on muscle."
Skull pouted, "Eh, but that's a boring answer."
The woman laughed, "I'm sorry, Skull."
"It's fine," he sighed and put his cheek on the table. "I guess it's not everyone's taste. At least I have Reborn-senpai, right?"
Reborn faced away.
"I know you want to be manhandled by the buff lady, senpai!" Skull huffed, sitting up sharply at the disregard. "You want to be stepped on! Disrespectfully!"
Reborn paused. "I swore I'd stomp on my drill sergeants' throat." A wave of heat flushed through his body at the memory of his bella's gritted tone. Reborn hummed to himself.
"I will leave now," Fon coughed and got to his feet.
Reborn felt a moment of vindictiveness at making Fon of all people feel uncomfortable, even if it was at his own expense.
"I suppose it's just the four of us then," Luce smiled as turning to the three men who sat at the head of the table in someone else's house. "Such a shame Viper couldn't come today. It's been so long since we've seen them."
"I think that's the point," Skull hummed, pouring himself another cup and selecting a cookie from Luce's basket.
"They never were the most social," Verde agreed, nudging his glasses up his nose.
"I believe today's revelations prove that you should be the last person to comment on that," Reborn scoffed.
Verde frowned and huffed loudly, "What I lack in social skills, I make up in ingenuity and vision."
"Ah, well, I suppose not everyone can have both," Reborn breathed sympathetically, the self-flattery inherent in the tone.
"I have good social skills," Skull announced to the table. "I made a friend and went to his birthday party. His mama makes great cake, she gave me a bunch of leftovers-"
"That's great, lackey," Reborn said flatly.
"Oh, Reborn, Skull just wants to talk about his friends. Let the boy speak." Luce scolded motherly and placed her hand on Skull's arm.
Reborn didn't have to glance over to tell the set of Skull's padded shoulders, the pull of the lip-chain, the tilt of the eyes.
'The boy'.
Skull didn't shift in his seat.
Clouds were selective. About everything. Who could touch where and who could say what. Some called it preference, others called it boundaries. Skull called it 'the vibe'.
Luce did not have 'the vibe' to call him 'the boy'. It was just something about the way she said it. It made him want to rev his engines and sail down the streets, take twists and turns faster than any 'man' dared to. Skull had yet to make any actions despite how it seemed certain…behaviours from their Courting Sky seemed to irk the youth.
Patronising. Coddling.
Many of them wondered if Luce was going the exposure therapy route. Say it until he's numb. It had been done before, one of many ways to Court a Cloud. Worm your way in. Wear them down.
Skull reached for his cup, Luce's hand slipped from his arm.
Luce was waiting for some sort of response. Reborn stepped up while Skull took a long sip.
"Well as riveting as this has been, I have rather urgent and attractive matters to attend to."
"Buff too! Remember the buff part!" Skull chirped.
"Yes, quite, well," Verde gathered his notes and stood up with a scratching of the chair along the floor. "I have data to organise and observations to document, so I'll be going too."
Skull looked at the clock on the wall and spluttered his drink as he yelped, "Aw hell I'm late!"
Luce smiled at them all and remained seated, happy to watch the three men organise themselves for departure.
"Well, it was good seeing you all again! Feel free to take some cookies with you, Skull, share them with your new friends."
"Thank you miss Luce," the Cloud cheered, grabbing a stack with a napkin and shoving one in his mouth. "See you whenever!"
When Luce looked back, Reborn was already gone and Verde had closed the front door behind him. She sat in the quiet room, with six empty seats at the table.
"It will be okay," she breathed, "It will work, just a little more."