The Tragedy of Age by InsaneScriptist

Summary: Age is a difficult concept for the Acrobaleno after the curse is broken. Living without the curse might be harder...

After the curse was broken, Lal was immediately restored to her proper age, while the rest of the Acrobaleno stayed all of two. Verde hypothesized that they'd have to grow up again but the rate at which they'd grow up was a mystery. Would they age year by year or would they grow in fits and starts, skipping years of growth as the magic of the curse unwound?

Worse was the idea that preyed on their minds; the idea of if the years they spent cursed would be added to their age before they were cursed.

The Strongest Seven had spent around three decades cursed and were all at least in their twenties by the time they were cursed. To have the years spent as infants added on would be tragic because people had short lives, especially in comparison to someone like Kawahira who had been around since the Tri-ni-sette were forged.

Kawahira didn't know what would happen and didn't particularly care; that his sacrifices for keeping the balance had managed to find a way to keep the World Balanced before they were replaced/died this time just spared him the effort of having to find replacements. Anyone with eyes and a brain could tell that if he was still around if Talbot's creations failed, he'd restart the Acrobaleno system in a heartbeat.

So, they'd just have to live with the idea that even if they were restored to their proper forms, that they might just have them for a few years longer; people can only grow so old after all...

Sky

Yuni, being the Sky Acrobaleno was cursed to a short life, like her mother and grandmother before her.

She knew that she was now free from the curse, but why the Sky Acrobaleno's curse was different was something that was unexplained. She didn't know if the curse nibbled at her life force until there was nothing left or if she'd live until she was old and grey. The other Acrobaleno were just as clueless.

While she hadn't been the Sky Acrobaleno long, that didn't mean that there couldn't be some lingering effect from it. It was equally possible that instead of nibbling on her life force, the curse of short life just took her life force away to keep the balance and she'd never get it back.

Her vision was clouded in that aspect, so the only thing she could do was make sure her famiglia had a boss after her. One that could grow up free of the Sky Acrobaleno curse.

So she turned over in her bed and woke her lover up. Her famiglia wasn't named Giglio Nero for no reason after all. A white lily was a symbol of purity, but a black lily was just the opposite. Perfect for a mafia family headed entirely by lady bosses.

Storm

Fon found growing up again to be tiresome and dangerous for the line of work he was in. As a martial artist, he knew his body intimately and hated the sudden growth spurts that required training to fix the clumsiness. The first time around he had just been impatient; now that he knew what his fully grown body was capable of the impatience was magnified.

Having another growth spurt after he had just gotten used to his latest size and the constant retraining himself in balance and reach actually made his temper shorter. It only became more apparent when he reached puberty -again- and so had to center himself, meditate and retrain on top of having to take jobs. After a few jobs where he had gotten carried away, he decided that he'd only take them on again when he was an adult and fully in control of himself.

Eventually he decided to crash at his grandson's house and fight him when the restlessness inherent in any young body acted up to make him rash. It was probably one of the better ideas he had; he was able to spend time with his grandson and have him be borderline civil.

Fon had known going into the Acrobaleno Battles that he would likely soon die -he saw no reason other than malevolence for being freed from a curse that had lasted decades like that. So teaming up with his grandson was marvelous, even if his grandson had broken that team when he broke his watch because he wanted to fight more. Now if only Kyouya-kun would join him for meditation and warm-ups...

Rain

Colonello was at first gleeful that Lal had instantly returned to her adult form. It meant that there was hope that they could one day marry, have kids, the works.

Lal's instant return to adulthood did not happen for the rest of them. They'd have to grow up, experience puberty and all that mess again. If it happened at a normal rate, well, Lal would physically be in her forties, still beautiful, still the soldier he loved but the idea of kids unless adopted would be out entirely more or less.

Growing up did happen at at advanced rate, thankfully. It also had its own perils and pitfalls, especially if he was out with Lal, trying to get her to agree to marry him again. Before he was physically eight or so, it was seen as 'cute' that he'd try to marry his 'babysitter.' After that it was a bit disturbing for onlookers apparently.

Worse was that puberty when it finally hit, it hit hard and fast. A person would assume that a second puberty was less awkward because they already knew how to deal with it. He could easily deal with the physical side of things. It was the mental and emotional side that got to him.

He loved Lal, had loved her for decades and if she didn't actually marry him soon he felt his poor heart would break. If that happened, he wouldn't care that they might not live long enough to see their kids grow up, or have kids or anything else.

He'd welcome the oblivion death would bring him.

Lightning

Verde found growing up again to be tedious, frustrating and highly illogical. He had retrieved his old medical records from the first time he grew up, to compare height, weight and the like. It allowed him to realize that how they grew up made no logical sense.

Then again, being cursed to the bodies of and remaining two years old for decades didn't make any sense either. Flames could be studied and despite the odd effects they had, they could at least be replicated, reproduced and understandable.

How being cursed to an infant form for decades was required for World Balance was beyond the scientist, researcher and inventor.

More frustrating was all the custom equipment and inventions that he had made while a cursed child he soon out-grew. He had to modify, refit and remodel his labs to his adult height, something that he'd grow into eventually. Again.

In the meantime he had to adjust to being a child and then a teenager with all the clumsiness that accompanied a jump in height and reach as the brain had to adjust to the new length and reach.

If he broke another vial because he tripped he might never get this experiment done in the next few days... and he wanted that paper done sometime before next month. He didn't know when he'd die, but he was feverish in his work to get it all done before that happened. Measuring the telomeres to determine age was not an exact science after all...

Sun

Reborn took the curse being broken and all the hazards of growing up in stride. He still had a job to do and that was to turn Tsuna into a fine Mafia Boss. If he was going to die soon, then he was going to finish the job. The World's Greatest Hitman didn't leave jobs unfinished.

It was wonderful to grow past the lisp being two gave him, and not be thought of a baby anymore. While he was still kiddy sized, he milked the situation for what he could by making Tsuna take care of him; Mafia bosses needed to know how to deal with kids at all ages if they ever wanted to pass the family down. He would because that's what a good Boss did.

Too soon he was out of that size and his numerous costumes were too small for him. He had more made, tortured and taught his student by turns and dealt with the gangly stages and cracking voices and hormonal urges with a professionalism that many could never match.

However while he dealt with the physical aspects well, it was the mental ones that gave him a bit of grief and it wasn't even his own mental state.

Bianchi was an attractive woman and now that he was growing old enough to be intimate with her, she had truly dedicated herself to her pursuit of him. While it had been a fun ruse and a truly bad cover story was now turning into the truth; Bianchi was madly in love with him. A man that was old enough to be her father. A man chronologically older than her father.

While having a new wife or mistress that was younger than the children produced in a previous marriage wasn't unheard of in the Mafia, most were able to be loyal to their partner, adulterer or not. Reborn prior to the curse had been something of a womanizer, and able to seduce both men and women with ease. He had a few long term partners -Bianchi was supposedly his fourth- but that was with the understanding that they weren't exclusive to each other.

Bianchi might be a hitman, but she was still a little girl for all that she had the body of a woman. A girl who could not tell the difference between admiration and deep romantic love. As a hitman he could tell that the relationship as Bianchi saw it was doomed to tears. As a gentleman, he could do nothing to stop it.

Reborn felt powerless for all the strength he now possessed.

Mist

Mammon unlike the others took growing up hard in ways that were hard to comprehend. Mammon was a creature of lies, death and illusion. Mammon was the Mist Officer of the Varia.

Any hint of Mammon's struggle of growing up again was ruthlessly hidden.

One of the few connections between Mammon and Viper were their skills at illusions and greed. The greed was all consuming, not just for money but life itself. Anyone could spot such a baited trap like the chance to remove the curse but Mammon wanted it. The sheer want was blinding to everything despite the fact that as the Mist Acrobaleno it was Mammon who was least inconvenienced by the curse.

Mammon could easily pretend to be grown, with a few illusions. Not that Mammon really interacted with people much as the illusionist focused on ever improving his techniques.

Viper however took to growing up with an easy arrogance. Viper was the shortest of the Acrobaleno bar Luce, Aria and a fully-grown Yuni, which was understandable as Viper was also female, as puberty unfortunately reminded her of. Cramps were hell and reminded her why she often pretended she was male.

At least the other Acrobaleno had their own puberty related troubles but if Fon showed up to try and get her to be active and away from her books in that tactless way of his, he had he would suffer! She didn't know what she'd do exactly... Fon really was handsome for all that she hated him.

Stupid hormones, stupid girlish emotions, stupid Fon... It was easier being Mammon, but now she'd have to be Viper again.

She was pretty sure she had forgotten how.

Cloud

Skull took growing up the best out of all the Acrobaleno. He had left the Carcassa Famiglia to return to his stunt work. He did keep in contact with the Shimon Famiglia, but unless all the Acrobaleno were meeting his contact with the Mafia had dwindled down to nearly nothing.

He wasn't too concerned about possibly dying of old age a few years after the curse was lifted. The Grim Reaper hated him, had hated him for ages and would hate him for ages more.

They really should have asked him how long he'd been alive, what he'd seen but they never seem to notice him enough to care to even ask. Skull survived things that others did not. He was not the most powerful or intelligent of the Acrobaleno but he was the hardest to kill and keep dead.

If Talbot's creation failed and Kawahira instated the Acrobaleno system again, chances were that he'd still be there. Like he had a few sets ago and a few sets before that.

Unlike the Vindici, he didn't die, so he couldn't exist as one of the undead like them. There was a reason they attacked him and the Shimon; they were angry that he didn't die and wasn't cursed to their same existence. He didn't begrudge them their anger but he knew why they held it. He knew it intimately and repeatedly.

He was cursed to never die, and unless there was someone stronger, he had repeatedly been turned two, thoroughly destroyed as Checkerface switched to the next set of Acrobaleno -which should have killed him, as lots of things should have- and then having to live until the next time he was cursed to the age of two.

He might whine, complain and the like but he couldn't find a reason to do more than empty posturing and cower.

Revving up his motorcycle for an increasingly crazy stunt, Skull did the only thing that would get him noticed and make him feel alive. He had lost too much, been broken too much over the ages to care for titles, to seek strength or recognition for intellectual brilliance. So he survived, existed to find shreds of life and worked for what he needed.

Maybe this time, if he failed, Death would take him. If not, well, that wasn't anything new. The crowd roared.