Heyo! Phantom here. I hadn't the slightest of intentions in returning to this story, but my weak heart pushed me to read the reviews and then I was like, "these poor souls have been waiting for an update. Just do it." It has been a few years, thus if you notice the difference between writing styles, well, it's only natural. I can't believe how edgy this story was.

Also, important notice: I don't plan on updating this any further. In my eyes, this is the fic's end!

Chapter Warnings: Injury description, Skull's entire past in general, talking about death, Skull's foul mouth, etc.

When Skull's eyes open, the light from behind his eyelids gets brighter. He cringes, but as he blinks, things get better. He catalogues his body's old injuries, already healed. As memories flood back, he wonders if it was someone else who healed him, instead of himself. His eyes sweep across the room and takes in where he is. There's soft sheets under him, but they feel odd, like someone shook a layer of dust off them before setting him on top of them. Ignoring the way that makes his skin crawl, he pushes himself up onto his elbows.

He examines the area, noticing that Uni was curled up on a chair next to his bed. It surprises him a little, even though it shouldn't. Out of all of them, she held the most empathy. If anyone asked, he'd say she cared too much- and, secretly, he hoped that never changed. She was his favorite, and not just because she reminded him of her mother and Luce.

He sits on the bed for a moment, lifting a hand to set one on hers, when the door flings open. He sees the rest of the group arguing amongst themselves in hushed whispers that fade the moment they see Skull sitting up in better. Verde's expression goes from surprise to irritation, but there was a lingering guilt that Skull was curious about. Before he even had a chance to ask, Mammon was at his side, hand on his shoulder, pushing him back onto the bed steadily. He would have fought against it, but he found himself too tired to argue.

When he was flat against the surface, Mammon's hand stuffed some pillows under his head. To his surprise and his delight, they were fluffed to perfection. No doubt a sign that they had bought some expensive ones. For him? Skull was confused anew. He didn't voice his concerns, though. If he asked, he'd probably get charged for the items, since Mammon was surprisingly easy to embarrass, especially when they were caught caring.

Skull squinted closer to their hidden expression, catching the downwards twist of their lips. They were also acting guilty. The questions were eating at him now, and despite the lecture he was no acquiring from everyone, and the sad puppy dog eyes aimed at him from Uni now that she was awake, he wanted to ask them. As everyone started speaking over each other, he coughed into his hand, effectively quieting them.

"What's going on?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed as he examined everyone. Their suspicious behavior was telling; there was a coldness on his face where he knew his bandages had been pulled off. The scars were bared for the world and the sensation was uncomfortable. However, he knew their reactions weren't towards that. Nor were they about the numerous scars on his suspiciously nude body (thank you, Death, for the sheets over his lower body).

"Don't you dare," he warned when it looked like one of them was going to ignore the question. "You guys did something and if it was about me, I deserve to know, more than anyone. Don't fuck around." Uni shuffled down further in her chair, but she wasn't frightened by his language- at this point, she was more than desensitized towards it, considering who she lived with. Reborn or even Lal was ten times worse than he was.

"Verde said you weren't going to wake up for awhile," Fon began, hands hidden in his sleeves. "He had a machine that would work with mist flames. He said we could use it to determine what happened to you, but it did a lot more than that."

With that admission, Skull struggled against Mammon's hand, wanting to fling himself at Fon. That only meant one thing; they violated his privacy and dug deeper than they were ever meant to. It meant that they now knew about what he tried so hard to keep in the depths of his mind.

"How dare you? How dare you? How could you do that me?" He yelled, eyes tearing up, his body betraying himself. Uni's hands cupped her mouth, eyes doing the same thing. He ignored the sobs coming from her, because honestly, how could they all betray him like this?

"I'd have never done this to you guys, so why? Why me? Is it because I'm just the lackey?" Skull asked, shouting. Reborn's expression twisted darkly, crossing the room to smack him on the forehead. Skull let out a "fuck" under his breath as he placed a hand over the spot that was turning red.

"Calm down. Try to understand the condition in which we found you. You're Arcobaleno, Skull. We're a team- a shitty one, but we still have to work together. We're in the mafia and you are prone to lying. You didn't look like you came out of a stunt, Skull. You looked like you came out of a gun fight. What kind of stunt involves bullets?" Reborn scolded, having said the most Skull's ever heard from him.

"The awesome kind!" Skull protested, defending his career. "It pays a lot and it's part of who I am. I'm the Immortal Skull! The greatest stuntman around. I- I might have gone overboard, but now that I've got my real body back, I had to take advantage of it. That doesn't excuse you guys digging around in my past. They call it the past for a reason. I don't need anyone's pity."

Skull watched them exchange glances around the room and he felt justified when he saw that they were actually contemplating his answer. He knew that they weren't going to feel sorry about what they did. No one felt sorry when they felt justified and that was a well known fact.

"Skull, I don't personally like it when you act like you are immortal," Uni admitted, fingers twiddling in her lap, eyes wide like she hadn't expected to admit such a thing out loud, but now that she had, she couldn't take it back. Skull's lips twitched, finding her expression sort of hilarious. He exaggerated a pout at her, but knew that no matter how many times he asserted he was actually Immortal, no one in this room would believe him, and he didn't honestly want to go back over the event that lead up to that.

It's hard to explain looking at Death in the eyes when you're young and getting into a disagreement that resulted in Death cursing him with an eternity of life ahead of him. No matter how many accidents he'd gotten into, intentionally, Death's mind could not be changed and now he was stuck. He was the youngest Arcobaleno, outside of Uni, but he wondered sometimes. His memory still got fuzzy with time- how long ago had it been that he was seven? Who knew? Speaking of memories, how did they not see that one?

"Right, right, but you're all changing the subject. Don't go digging where you don't belong. That sort of shit should have been granted to you when I felt comfortable enough," he pointed out, tongue clicking in distaste, like an old timey school teacher scolding their students. Uni's shoulders lifted defensively, but she gave a nod. He could tell Colonello and Lal were trading looks from the corners of their eyes, but at this point, he was still so exhausted, he couldn't find it in himself to care very much.

"Where's my phone?" He demanded, looking around for his clothes in general. It was Mammon who brought him his phone. It appeared out of a thick mist and was dropped onto his lap. He thanked Mammon, pleased that he had it, as he flicked it open to view what he'd missed in the time he'd been out. Two hundred messages, forty seven calls, and fifteen voicemails. He didn't hide his distaste as he groaned, dropping back against the pillows, phone outstretched in front of his body. He watched as Uni stifled a giggle and smiled to himself, pleased. His dramatics back in place and no one noticed the subtle change. Master actor struck again.

His fingers nimbly shot out a few texts, asking for a pick up. The new boss of Carcassa was his emergency contact. After the death of Albano, they'd picked up his son as the boss. That hadn't lasted that long, however, since their defenses had gotten broken through and he'd died at the hands of an assassin. Their newest boss, Celeste, was nothing Skull had ever encountered before. The grandson of Albano, with pep and cheer times ten all in the small body of a newly-twenty year old. Celeste was still mastering their flames, but his progress was far faster than anything Skull had even encountered, and it was up to him to train him.

Celeste, however, was still very much the boss. Thus, when it comes to his absences, Skull was supposed to report to him- which he hadn't, and no doubt he knew about the stunt, as evidenced by his most recent message of five minutes ago that simply said, "I'm coming. Stay where you are."

Skull closed his eyes, already knowing the ensuing argument that would result in the destruction of a perfectly cleaned room. Hey, speaking of cleaned room-

"Why did you guys have to put me on a dusty bed? Weren't there better options in this mansion? Also, where's the cleaners?" Skull complained, buying time for his real family to arrive. Carcassa was his home and despite his begrudging fondness for the other Arcobaleno, they hadn't treated him with nearly as much respect as he found at his employer's.

As Uni explained that the condition they'd found Skull in required to be timely about their course of action, they had planted him on a dirty bed in their haste to get him fixed up. Verde commented that he hadn't been thinking of what kind of infection he could have contracted from that blunder- as he said that, Verde's eyes glinted, and he commented that he could 'examine' for one.

"No, no, I'm good," Skull sputtered, hands shaking in front of him as he pushed the idea away. Once he'd said that, he heard the doors downstairs slam open and a familiar presence entered the house. Since the Arcobaleno in the room lacked to respond to such a situation, he supposed they had already known this would happen, and they weren't in the least concerned about it. Meanwhile, Skull felt the familiar trickle of fear settle in his stomach, like an uncomfortable rock sitting at the bottom of it.

Celeste slammed the door open of the room, locating them easily. He forced his way around the Arcobaleno to make his way to Skull's side, a flurry of wild black hair and eyes that glowed orange in anger. Calloused hands clasped his own and the pure concern aimed at him made Skull feel bashful for some reason.

"It's time to come home. Dio knows these fools can't take care of their own right," Celeste claimed, ducking his head at a swipe that Reborn aimed at him. His boss' lips quirked in amusement at the fury radiating behind him. Skull gestured at his naked body.

"Everyone get out," Celeste huffed, shooing the others out of the room with a dismissive hand that no doubt pissed Reborn off the most. Lal was more vocal about it and even as Uni lead them all out of the room, Skull could still hear her when the door was shut. Celeste placed his spare clothes into his hands, having picked some up before he'd left the mansion.

Celeste turned his back; Skull shuffled out of bed and pulled on his clothes. Stereotypical Skull; ripped dark clothes, spiked, belts, and combat boots. He was glad his piercings were still in place, but the ear-to-lip one snagged on everything. He was careful about it when he poked his head through the shirt hole at least. Clothes on, Skull was more than ready to leave the building, and as he followed his boss through the door of the room, he could feel some tension ease from his shoulders.

Before he could get to the stairs, though, Uni clung to his back, arms wrapping around his waist. Even as she mumbled into his back, he could hear her words clearly, "Please be safe." With a nod of his head, he granted her that he'd try, and she let go.

While he walked to the door, he could feel their eyes on his back. Some of Celeste's guards lingered, trading a few Italian insults at the Arcobalenos. Skull placed his hands over their mouths as he walked, leaving his hands to rub awkwardly against their skin. He grimaced at the spit, wiping them off on his hand, but he smiled when he noticed just how many Carcassa members were outside the mansion.

It felt like he was leaving behind a heavy weight from his shoulders as he stepped into the car. He looked back and noticed his team staring outside the door with various blank expressions. He lifted his hand and waved at them, and even though he felt bitter at their invasion of privacy, he knew he could forgive them. He settled back in his seat with a soft sigh, shoulder to shoulder with Celeste.

"It's time to go home," he mumbled to himself, a smile on his lips as he pressed his forehead to the glass.