A few weeks after the Hibari Incident, Skull could be found in the garage, hiding from Hibari by working on his bike. The other mechanics in the garage didn't mind and Spanner waved him in easily when Skull peeked in.

Skull focused his attention on putting the finishing touches on his bike. He sprayed it one last time and then started cleaning the spray equipment, taking his face mask off, as the fumes were no longer in the air. Soon, he was cleaning his hands off and throwing the disposable items in the bin. Oodako climbed onto his shoulders, curling around them happily.

He throws one more proud look at his bike and then strides away from the garage. He waves enthusiastically at Spanner on his way out, who mumbles something incomprehensible under his breath, waving to Skull in goodbye, as the robot pieces under his screwdriver twitch.

Skull quickens his pace, still waving wildly. He was not getting involved in that.

It was whilst he was closing the garage door that he felt a tap on his shoulder.

Skull screeched, his arms pin wheeling as he turned around, Oodako following his actions, as he wailed "SKULL-SAMA IS SORRY FOR WHATEVER HE DID-"

-and then he and Oodako froze upon meeting Tsuna's startled gaze.

Skull sheepishly scratched his cheek, laughing nervously. "Hahaha, sorry, Tsuna I thought you were Hi- umm, someone else," he grinned widely at him, Oodako curling their tentacles in embarrassment, and Tsuna smiled back hesitantly.

"Yes, right," Tsuna said, probably guessing who it could be, and Skull grinned inwardly. It was so fun playing the fool at times. "I was wondering if you'd join me for a chat?" Tsuna asked, shifting his body slightly.

Skull automatically started walking, taking his cue from Tsuna and the two fell into step with each other. "Skull-sama and Oodako will graciously join you!" Oodako peeked over his shoulder, waving at Tsuna happily, previous embarrassment forgotten. "Is anyone else joining us?" Skull asked nervously, looking round for Tsuna's guardians or Reborn.

"No," there was something in that one word, in the weight behind it that made Skull look at Tsuna. "There's something I'd like to discuss, just the two of us."

A beat of silence.

"THE GREAT SKULL-SAMA IS SO SORRY IF HE HAS DONE SOMETHING TO OFFEND TSUNA-"

"HIEEE? NO, SKULL, YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG, PLEASE CALM DOWN!"

"I'm sorry," Skull said, guiltily shifting his feet. Tsuna smiled warily at him.

"I know, Skull, I know."

Skull stared morosely into his glass, a pout on his lips. Tsuna sweatdropped, fiddling with his own glass.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"So," Skull said, shaking off the morose mood with ease, his voice growing loud and robust. "What did you wanna talk to great Skull-sama about!" He threw out his hands and Oodako posed atop of his head.

"Ah, Skull-san, there has been something on my mind for a while," Skull didn't have to fake his curiousity. Tsuna did talk to him from time-to-time, but his tone was never this stern, or his eyes - tinged orange - blazing right through him, as though he knew. What it was that he could know, Skull had no idea. But he knew that whatever it was, he probably would never see it coming.

"And I was hoping you could, um, clarify it for me?" Tsuna asked, his hesitancy ruined by his bright eyes.

Skull could feel his spine straighten, eyes sharpening as he titled his head. He then smiled widely throwing his arms out. "Skull-sama will do his best to help his fan!" A glint of teeth fron behind his grin. Oodako slid down from his head to his shoulder and stilled, watching and waiting, and making no sound.

Tsuna looked away from him to stare into his own glass.

"I guess the beginning would make sense, right?" Tsuna muttered to himself, sloshing the wine in his glass thoughtfully. Skull stayed quiet, knowing the question was not meant for him.

"…before Reborn came along," Tsuna started, looking up and staring at Skull with bright orange eyes. "I kept on winning a Coin Toss," Skull froze minutely. "Over and over again..." he trailed off.

"A Coin Toss you say?" Skull put on his thinking face. Fake. He then considered his answer carefully. "Skull-sama is ashamed to say he's never been good at coin tosses! Well, apart from this ongoing coin battle with this one dude where he has not lost once yet!" He said in a boastful voice.

Tsuna blinked at him and then his lips turned into a half-smile, shoulders relaxing. Skull chided himself for not noticing before.

"The first time I won was after my flames were sealed," Tsuna admitted and Skull couldn't help but to stare at him. Here was someone who has died enough to remember, just like him. But-

"Senpai has told me a bit about your pre-Reborn days!" Tsuna twitched and mouthed 'pre-Reborn' with a bewildered face. "And I was just wondering, why did you keep on picking to come back to this world?" Skull stared at Tsuna curiously.

Tsuna blushed, and rubbed his cheek, a sheepish expression on his face.

"I… have no idea," he admitted. "We don't get to remember the first few times, and Death wasn't really forthcoming about it. After the 7th time where it told me I will remember, I went back because of Mama. And I even told it that that was the reason for me to come back-"

"But if you told it the 7th time, then you probably said your reasons before," Skull muttered, and Tsuna nodded his head.

"I never really had a reason to go back before, so it always confused me why I kept going back. That's what I wanted to talk to you about actually," Tsuna drained the rest of his glass.

"Maybe it told you or showed you something important? It would be impossible for it to send you anywhere without your say, you won the Toss after all," Skull guessed.

Tsuna scrunched up his nose, eyes glinting amber. "… It does sound right, but there's something wrong about that. Would Death be able to do that?"

"Not Death, but maybe some of the others, I'll look into it for you," and with that Skull took his own sip of his wine.

"Thank you, Skull," Tsuna said, his eyes finally losing the amber edge.

"Anything for his biggest fan!" Pause. "Wait, how did you even know that Skull-sama knew!" Skull's arms pinwheeled as he jumped from his seat, Oodako waving most of their tentacles in the air in tandem with him.

Tsuna blinked rapidly, a brief and stilted 'hie!' falling from his lips.

"How did I know that you knew-?"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT I KNEW-!"

"HIEEE! DIDN'T IT TELL YOU THAT THEY TOLD ME THAT YOU KNEW?"

"WHAAAAAT?!"

"HIEE-!" The door slammed open.

"TENTH! WE HEARD INCOHERENT SCREAMING, ARE YOU ALRIGHT? WHAT HAPPENED?"

"Lackey..." A click of a gun was heard.

A/N: hello hello hello! Honestly, Skull gets no rest. He just had a very deep and freeing talk, only for Reborn to burst in. They didn't hear the conversation btw, only the screaming - more precisely they only heard Tsuna's HIEEE which honestly can be heard for miles and no soundproofing can hide it. I was hesitating on how to write Tsuna and I ended up with this characterisation.

Anyway, hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've been mostly busy with this one plunny (if you go on my profile then you'll know which plunny I mean) but it did release me for a bit to write this chapter for you all (and some stuff for DitWoMS which is only on ). I still have no idea where I'm taking this story, but I hoped you enjoyed this silly little chapter. I was considering making a writing tumblr for all those fics of mine, but I'm still undecided. Should I make one, I will tell you all!

Update: you can find me on tumblr as dessmina now! Feel free to send asks and stuff, I don't really have anything there but that is about to change...