Title: Forsaken

Summary: After getting their lives back, curse broken, Skull found himself drifting further apart from his fellow Arcobaleno members. Perhaps this was abandonment, the feelings of rejection, from the ones that should understand him the best. Because, if they didn't, then no one would.

Disclaimer: Seriously? Don't own, just the idea

A/N: Have been meaning to write more on Skull for a long time. Finally did it

Beta'd by WhiteAngel128

Skull hated this place, he really did. It wasn't his home, it was Hell. After the Arcobaleno curse had been destroyed and let them become the eternal carriers, he had been forced, at gunpoint courtesy of Reborn, to move in with the rest of the Arcobaleno to all be in one household.

He didn't like it, not at all. It was a pain in the ass and he was met, day in and day out with torture, mocking, and insults. He always hated having to go back home and spent more and more time in his room away from the madness that seemed to dwell inside and go wild in this little house. Everyone was here, even Yuni and Lal, but it didn't matter much, he hardly saw them in the first place. So whenever he was home in this prison, he would be in his room or hiding in the woods or garage with his bike, and other than that, he would be somewhere in town, trying to get away from everything, just riding around on his bike to feel the wind in his hair without his helmet on.

Before he realized it, he had stopped bothering with putting on his jewelries at first, leaving them off and unbothered on his bedroom counter. But no one noticed or paid any attention to him and that suited him just fine. He withdrew, while the other Arcobaleno members were downstairs drinking and laughing among each other, Skull would be outside with his bike or hiding in his room. No one ever noticed, and Skull knew it. No one really did care about him, not even Yuni, because to her, she had simply been placed in the center of everything, of them, without really getting to know them fully.

Eventually, it came to the point where he started leaving the place more often, never coming home until days later, and hung around the city before moving onto the next and eventually came back home. He would clean his clothes, gather new stuff, before leaving again and months later of traveling, he finally stumbled across someone he never thought of really seeing again after the Arcobaleno fights. He had shivered at the sight of the man sitting across the café he had stopped at, but then sighed, it wasn't as if anyone would really pay attention to him despite being the cloud Arcobaleno, so he decided to ignore the other. Except…he wasn't ignored.

"Oh? Skull isn't wearing his jewelry today? How interesting! I've never seen that before~"

Skull peered up at curiously from his spot, blinking his eyes almost in shock. Had he heard that? Someone was actually talking to him, for once. That was surprising.

"What's with that surprise? Shocked that I'm still here~"

Twitching at that, the purple-haired man fought back, arguing like he hadn't done for a long time. It had been so long since he had actually spoken to anyone.

Days passed, he was rarely home now, heading over to the man's base more often than not. It was more interesting, warmer than the Arcobaleno household, and he just simply felt accepted. Before long, he had sent in his resignation to his old famiglia he had worked for, ignored all the retorts and arguments from them, telling them he was going to be a freelance now and went over to Gesso famiglia. It was funny how things would go like this and how one meeting changed everything and his entire life afterwards.

A week later, Skull stopped wearing his makeup. He didn't bother with such a thing anymore and there was no point in trying to hide his scars underneath his face, not when no one in Gesso famiglia cared about it. The only thing he left on were those white bandages where some old cuts had remained and the teardrop tattoo where it had been covering a knife wound. When he stared into his reflection, he looked completely different compared to before and the gel he had used to keep his hair up and spiky had disappeared. The dye he had used to color his hair purple was starting to fade at the roots, making its way up in inches.

And yet, none of the Arcobaleno noticed, but that might not be totally their fault. He was generally up around six to head off in the morning to hang around Gesso and was back at midnight to get some rest if he ever came back. The cycle repeated for two months and slowly, Skull felt himself changing, he was no longer speaking as much, not as if he had much of a chance since none of the Arcobaleno would talk to him, and kept quiet more often. And with the makeup, the jewelry, and everything else gone, he felt naked, no mask, nothing to cover him up, and he found himself unable to boast in his supposed great skills.

Perhaps he had some skills, but he knew better, he had seen the abilities of the Gesso famiglia, compared everyone else's to his own, that he wasn't all that great. The only thing that he had, his only skill, was being able to stay alive and regenerate quickly due to his cloud flames. Other than that, he was useless when it came to many others, he couldn't really fight, he couldn't really read a book and understand what it meant, he didn't even always know how to use a machine that seemed unknown to him, guns included. So he remained on his own, never speaking up, and kept his shoulders sagging depressingly and allowed others to simply walk over him.

But the Gesso famiglia was changing that, or well, the core members were. Skull ended up helping around the place and cooking, it wasn't much but they seemed to appreciate his supposed help so he continued to go along with it. It wasn't as if he had something better to do, there was no one waiting at home for him. Bluebell took a liking to him almost instantly and before long was hanging on him literally to get him to play with her. With his immortal body, he was able to survive her terrible games and soon Daisy ended up joining as well. The other members took a while longer since he was an outsider, a once enemy they had been killing off repeatedly in other worlds.

"Neh, Skull, you look so depressed~" Byakuran commented one day, three months into the constant, almost ritual, visits, and was chewing on some marshmallows happily with Kikyo at his side in the kitchen. He watched as Bluebell clung to the once-purple-haired man, now a brunet after the dye finally faded away, some of the purple still barely seen at the tips. She was trying to see what he was cooking, able to sniff the food from below.

Skull blinked at that curiously, twisting around, with a solemn expression he wasn't aware he had. Though in the back of his mind, he knew he had changed over the past couple of months, it wasn't hard to see, everyone that saw him or at least talked to him could tell the obvious difference between who he was before and the present him now. The full body suit had long since disappeared and he was simply dressed in torn jeans, purple undershirt and a biker jacket. He didn't even have his helmet with him anymore, only using it whenever he got on his bike. "Is that so? I think I'm fine." Skull shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the stove. He had gotten better, he told himself, at cooking at least, it wasn't as dull as before when he first started.

"Now, I think what Byakuran-sama means is that you've done a complete one-eighty compared to your past self. I remember you being somewhat obnoxious, if not overly so. Even your once future self was like that." Kikyo chuckled, his arms folded neatly and ran a hand through his bluish-green hair to bring the long strands back.

"Oh…" Skull didn't have an answer to that but then again, he was still cursed as a baby at that time as well, he wasn't an adult. It wasn't hard to see that things had really changed and diverged from the once future, its sight no longer there, and probably no longer existed. It was strange but welcoming, his future being unknown.

"Hey, Skull, I want to know what you're cooking! Tell me!" Bluebell pouted, yanking at the biker jacket roughly, her long blue hair flowing down almost to the ground. Skull noted that he would need to trim it and comb the said hair later on.

"Just some pasta. There's cheese filling inside."

Byakuran continued to stare with that creepy grin of his, he never expected Skull of all people to somewhat join his little group. It was funny, hilarious even, and yet it seemed perfectly fine to him and everyone else. The Skull he remembered killing multiple times in the other worlds didn't seem to exist anymore, this Skull was far too different. It was like he had matured and perhaps for the wrong reason. If there was one thing he liked about this version, it was that he was quiet. Skull didn't talk often, no, he tended to remain to himself, and simply stand there with the same dull expression. The scars on the other's body was more obvious than ever before, something he had never noticed, and Byakuran had even spotted the one on the head, buried underneath the hair, a sharp deep one that had probably been caused when the brunet was younger. The story behind it? He didn't know, but it made him curious. Regardless, this Skull was much better and he planned on keeping him around.

None of the Arcobaleno ever noticed Skull's regular disappearance with the general timing he would leave and come back and the times he wouldn't come back at all, they no longer saw him. He didn't eat with them at dinner, rarely ever showed his face around during the day, and so he had been forgotten.

"Alright, it's dinner time!" Yuni had called out, just pulling the lasagna out from the oven. She enjoyed doing all the chores around the place despite her duties to her own famiglia, but it was fine. It gave her something to do and she made sure to finish all her work. Slowly, the others came in, settling down onto the table just as she placed the pan onto the table along with a salad. She looked over the group, never once noticing the missing once-purple-now-brown-haired man, and nodded to herself. "Oh, it looks like everyone is here!" She gave a wide smile, impressed that even Verde had managed to bring himself up from one of his many holes in the ground to join.

It was only then that Mammon spoke up. "Not everyone."

There was a pause and everyone looked up at each other, trying to figure out who was missing. Everyone was here, they told themselves, it had been the same amount for the past few months. Yuni wiggled her nose in confusion, and settled down in her usual spot. All eyes peered back at Mammon in question, most of the members having a questioning look. The mist Arcobaleno only sighed, but didn't answer, using food to remain quiet by keeping his mouth busy. He wasn't going to waste time on talking, he had probably been the only one to notice the odd disappearances of their cloud.

It was then that the bolt on the front door unlocked, the hinges creaking, and then a light slam as it closed. The group peered up curiously, wondering who could be this late, and Yuni was the first to move, heading towards the living room.

Her eyes took in a sight of a brunet with solemn eyes, dressed in casual clothes, and yet those white bandages were familiar to her. "Who…are you?"

This got a reaction among the group, thinking it was possibly an enemy except for Mammon who continued to eat. The others, however, peered over the supposed person before them in question, unable to place the name to him.

The mist Arcobaleno leaned back to look over the obviously changed cloud, eating his own part of his meal, not caring about the others. "You're back early."

Finally, Skull responded. "Just picking something up real quick, need some medication since someone decided it would be funny to catch the flu." With that, he stepped upstairs, sounds of something being rumbled through could be hear with cabinets slamming and more footsteps along the second floor. Before long, the brunet was heading back down the stairs, holding onto two bottles, and pocketed them into his jacket. His keys were now out, the jiggling of them echoing in their ears.

"Which famiglia have you associated with these days?" Mammon continued, still remaining in his seat at the kitchen table. "You resigned from the Carcassa Famiglia, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did, as for what famiglia, not sure yet. Just wanted to be on my own." Skull sighed, opening the door to leave, pausing to give one last look at the other Arcobaleno members before closing it, locking the door behind him. Silence was next and it settled among the group like a disease. The person was familiar, but they couldn't figure out why though.

"W-Was that Skull?" Yuni was the first one to speak, looking over everyone, and then at Mammon, stepping closer to the mist Arcobaleno in question. "That was Skull, right? He looks…"

"Different?"

"Yeah…"

Mammon didn't answer to that, still eating. He couldn't help but smirk, people could really change when one looks away long enough.

Skull sighed, pushing the thoughts of his fellow members out of his mind and parked his bike at the entrance of the Gesso building. He got off and headed towards the entrance, entering without a second thought and made his way up to the top floor, to the boss room, and opened it. Inside he could see the other Gesso members and Byakuran in a bed, looking a little pale in color, obviously sick. Tissues were scattered around the room and there was a foul odor of vomit in the air where Byakuran had thrown up and was coughing repeatedly, shivering terribly underneath the covers. Two weary purple eyes peered up when Skull came by, giving a small smile before coughing again.

"I got the medication, now just remain in bed for a week or so," Skull pulled the two bottles out and popped open the cap, the thick liquid swishing around inside. "It'll taste terrible but it'll make you feel better."

"Aww~" Byakuran pouted, looking disappointed. "Any way you can make it smell like marshmallows?"

"No."

The white-haired man simply huffed, earning a small chuckle from the rest of the members.

Yuni snapped her head up when she heard the front door unlocking and looked at the time, it was the afternoon and she knew that there was no one had left the place except… She stood up to rush over, there could only be one person that would be returning. When the brunet stepped inside, she smiled lightly and watched as the other snapped his head up in surprise. He held a shopping bag in one hand and blinked as he stared at the barely teenager. It had been three weeks since he had last saw her. "Skull, you're back."

"Yeah," He didn't say anything else and held the bag up with cold eyes. "The medication I took last time, I bought new ones."

Yuni blinked at that, had Skull really done such a thing? "How long are you staying? Dinner will be started soon, do you want to stay for it?"

Skull shook his head. "Ah no, I have someone waiting for me. I just needed to pick up some extra clothes to take with me."

"Eh?"

It was then that the others started coming out. Some seemed a little hesitant at this different Skull, not used to him and his silence.

"Hey, if it isn't Skull, you staying, kora?" Colonello rounded the corner, giving a grin despite the confusion that was evident on his expression. It was hard to react to such a new Skull, lifeless was one of the words he would use to best to describe him. Reborn, Lal, and Fong weren't far behind, gathering so that they could hear better and peered over at the two.

"No, I have someone waiting."

"Oh, who is it, kora?"

Skull went quiet, not sure on how to answer that. It was more that he didn't want to. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the door slammed open, effectively cutting him off. His eyes peered back at the young girl behind him, long blue hair flowing down, and sighed. He should have known she wouldn't wait all that long.

"Mu, what's taking so long? Hurry up!" Bluebell sneered and puffed out her cheeks, hands on his hips. She looked at the entire group with disinterest, keeping her attention on Skull. "Just get what you need and go."

"Right." Skull started to move, rushing up the stairs to get those clothes he needed. The rest of the group stared at Bluebell with semi-wide eyes, why was she here of all people?

Yuni was the first to speak, making the connection. "Bluebell, is Skull part of your group now?"

"What was that, useless girl?" Bluebell taunted without care. "Yeah, he joined us a long time ago. I think it's been almost a year. What? Didn't notice? Has your brain gone to mush these days?"

The insults were ignored as Skull came back down, holding a backpack, and handed it over to the blue-haired girl. "I put something on top of it inside. The gear in there you can use. I think you'll like it." Her face lighted up at the thought, hanging onto it for dear life and made her way out back to Skull's bike so that they can head back to the base. The brunet wasn't far behind and peered back as he pushed the door open.

"Can you lock the door for me? I won't be back for another month or so."

And as the door closed, they realized deep within their hearts that they had lost a very important member of the Arcobaleno to someone else and to the worst group of them all. It wasn't a good thought to have and they only had themselves to blame.