"Go."

Skulls voice was completely devoid of its usual whining, If Reborn didn't know that was Skull, if they haven't been on the run together for weeks, he would swear a Mist had somehow infiltrated them and that Skull needed saving.

Now.

Because that was not a tone he had ever heard the Cloud user take. It couldn't be Skull standing yards behind them, not now. Not when they were all running for their lives and the lives of their Families. Skull, despite what Reborn had always said was not that much of an idiot.

But that was Skull, and if he wasn't playing The Fool, then what the fuck could he possibly be doing?!

"Lackey, we need to leave. Now. Don't think I won't leave you here."

Had he ever sounded so commanding before? So completely without feeling? But Skull needed to get back to them, because if Skull was that far away then Reborn couldn't grab him when he inevitably messed something up. It wasn't because he was getting a bad feeling from all of this, he didn't care about the idiot. But now with everyone being hunted they couldn't afford any screw ups.

But Skull…

Skull was rapidly showing why he was part of the Strongest Seven of this Generation. Purple Cloud Flames were starting to fill the clearing, they were bellowing out like he had never seen before, drifting as far as the eye could see. They were calling more and more attention to where they were. It was deliberate.
Almost Challenging.

It was complete suicide.

"Your right, Senpai." He did not like this, he did not like this at all. "You need to leave."

This stupid, foolish child was going to get them all killed.

"Skull. Come, here. Now." His voice wasn't shaking. And that wasn't Colonello's hand creasing the back of his suit. And Skull was not doing this.

"Can't do that, Senpai." Skulls Flame Clouds were so thick in the air now you wouldn't be able to see the two small forms hidden behind them in the clearing. Even now he was still making more. "I know you guys don't like me. I've always known. It's kinda hard not to when we can't even see each other without someone getting hurt. Mostly me. " A self-deprecating laugh they could hear but not see.

But that was wrong. They didn't dislike Skull. He was just… weaker than them, and really easy to boss around.

"But I've always really looked up to you guys!" That was more like the normal Skull, but the choked off sound at the end made his nerves stand on edge. "Even though I'm weak, and useless and can't do anything right. I'm Everything you've all always said I was, but no matter what, I've always, always thought of you guys as my family."

Reborn couldn't move. Skull was not crying. He knew what Skull sounded like when he was crying, he'd done it enough around them all that it was practically background noise by now. And he was not useless. He was a civilian who was dragged into the Mafia for his Flames before he even knew what Flames were. They didn't mean all of that, it was just..

He had been a Civilian. The only Civilian. The only one in a group of trained killers that had no idea what was going on. So, of course, they'd picked on him, just a little. Just enough to see what he was made of. But then the missions started and he was The Liability suddenly.
The one they had to watch over and babysit because they all had to make it back for the mission to succeed.

So they might have been a little bit resentful, but who wouldn't be in that situation? This was an adult (he was a kid around that time though, wasn't he? Reborn remembers thinking that he'd eat his hat if the Cloud was over 16) who couldn't even keep up with them but who theyhadto protect. Then the curse had happened and everyone had been so angry, so betrayed because Luce had known and she'd done nothing, and said nothing. It had all spilt over into violence that was typical in the Mafia, but Skull wasn't Mafia so he had taken the brunt of their combined anger. Luce had died after that with Aria becoming the Sky Arcobaleno, then suddenly, and all at once, it had become habit.

To treat Skull like that. It's what they'd always done.

But Skull couldn't actually believe what they'd all said at one point or another could he? It had never gotten that bad. It couldn't have. Skull was a Cvilian. Skull was the Baby of the group. The Weakest. They would have never let it get that bad.

"But I can't keep up anymore. I can't run anymore, senpai. It's so freaking pathetic but this body just doesn't have the stamina you both do. I'll drop before we get to the pick up point, but I to be the reason you both die."

Before he could even so much as twitch towards the center of that twirling mass of Cloud, Leon was wrapping him in a Leon-blanket and Colonello had his arms around him, bodily lifting him away.

They were moving.

Away from the clearing.

Away from the Clouds.

Away from Skull.

AWAY FROM SKULL.

Trying to rip himself away from Colonello was futile, (he tried though. With everything he had, ever scrap of Will he had ever used in summoning his Flames went into his struggles. He would kill Colonello for this. They were NOT leaving Skull here!) he was trapped in a flame conductive Chameleon, (he had never hated something as much as he hated Leon in that moment. Never wanted something so single mindlessly destroyed) and the sight of Skulls Cloud Flames were already fading from sight.

But he could hear the fight. Could hear yelling and the sound of tearing clothes, tearing flesh. The Octopus wasn't there. (Of course not. Skull loved that thing to a ridiculous degree, there was no way he would bring it Into a fight to the dea-) But Skulls Flames were flaring so fast and so hard that people were flying up into the air, being stabbed straight through and disintegrating. (That wasn't good. Skull hated having to kill and he'd have to deal with it once he was free of tHiS GODDAMN CHAMELEON-)

Then they were out of sight.

•••

Right before Tsuna kills that Bastard Byakuran, Reborn turns to look at where their missing Cloud should be. The Purple Pacifier is in his pocket, still cracked despite Yuni's sacrifice earlier. What no one had known was the Sky Pacifiers ability to bring back the others was conditioned on them wanting to be brought back. Yuni had tearfully explained it to them that the only reason she was alive at all was because Skull wasn't.

Checker Face may have cursed them but even he was not so cruel to being someone who had fulfilled their duty,(willing or not) back into the land of the living if they didn't want to return. It had spoken volumes to the Arcobaleno about Skulls mental state that he had no desire to live again after sacrificing himself.

It had hit Reborn the hardest. As the main perpetrator (even Colonello had never done so many needlessly cruel things to him) against Skull whenever they met, along with calling him whenever he wanted for the most useless of things. He knew. They all knew.

So when Yuni had returned but no Skull? It had devastated him. He could not fix this.

Not in this time. Not to this Skull.

He couldn't tell him how sorry he was. How he had never seriously meant any of the things he said. That Skulls persona made him laugh when he was alone, that he thought the tricks he could do on any wheeled vehicle we're admirable. That he was slightly jealous of Skulls acting skills.

He couldn't tell him anything.

Because Skull was dead.

•••

So when they all wake up back in the past? It's like a know Skull's no longer dead. They can feel him in a way they never noticed before.

But when they storm his current base, he's gone.

Skull is a ghost after that, appearing and disappearing at random all over the world. Always minutes and feet away from them before he's gone again.

Skull is very obviously running from them.

It's too bad that Reborn is unrelenting.

•••