Chapter Text
Verde is sitting with Luce, the pair working in silence as Luce is filling out Giglio Nero papers and Verde is taking a break, a new Rubik's cube in his hands as he's leaning back in his seat, one leg crossed over the other.
"Going out for a bit, I'll be back!" Skull calls.
Verde's head snaps up, as he quickly races out of the living room, as Checkerface appears between Skull and the door.
"I need to buy something and I can't ask Wonomichi for it, so I need to go myself," Skull states.
"What?" Checkerface asks.
Skull glances at Verde.
"Monthly things, as well as to get to the hideout I have for this exact reason so I don't accidentally blow things up," Skull whines, "I can't deal with this right now!"
Checkerface pauses, leaning on the door, arms crossed, as he tilts his head.
"Didn't I leave some with Lal?"
"NOT THE TYPE I NEED!" Skull explodes, Cloud flames flying up as Verde has to avoid the things on the reception hall's table hitting him, the vase that had been there shattering.
Checkerface looks at Verde, then at Skull.
"I'll take you to buy some, whilst Verde makes part of the basement able to hold you for however long you're doing this."
Skull huffs, crossing his arms.
"I have all I need at that hideout..." he grumbles.
Verde heads towards as he hears Checkerface yelp in pain, looking back to see Skull's taken his helmet off and is thoroughly scolding the person who had Verde out cold until Reborn helped him.
"...Nope," Verde mutters, as he quickly hurries to his hidey-hole lab...
When they get back, Checkerface looks oddly humbled, as Skull has their helmet back on, exuding an air of confident glee.
"I built the thing you wanted, if it isn't enough, just tell me," Verde states.
"Verde! There you are!" Skull is suddenly in front of the scientist, flames boosting Skull's speed and strength, as proven when Verde can feel the muscles in his shoulders being crushed.
"O-Ow..." Verde says, a shocked grin on his face with slight terror in his eyes.
"Ah! S-sorry, senpai!" Skull stammers, removing their helmet, "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"It's fine..." Verde mumbles, "I take it this is what happens with these sorts of situations?"
"Yup! Though I managed to encourage Checkers to buy us all ice cream, as a present to say sorry for hurting you and destroying your favourite toy!" Skull grins.
Verde's grin turns genuine.
"Oh? What flavour?"
"We ended up getting a selection, old Grandpas should do this kind of stuff when they're bad, right?" Skull hums, grinning as he tilts his head at the man.
"Y-yes..." Checkerface grumbles, entering the kitchen, where Lal and Colonnello had been chatting with Reborn over some beer.
At the sight of Checkerface, a smiley, suited, mysterious man, carrying plastic backs holding ice cream, Reborn had pushed his beer away and headed to the living room, Lal had stopped mid-sip and stared, whilst Colonnello had downed the rest of his beer.
"...Checkerface got us ice cream at Skull's request," Verde says.
"Reborn? Where's the bottle! I'm not drunk enough!" Colonnello calls; Verde was out of his lab, and smiling, what had the world come to?!...
Later, Verde returns to his lab from his own room, having had a shower, correcting the cuff on one of his sleeves as he descends the steps.
He looks up.
Then promptly stops in his tracks at the sight of Checkerface waiting, sitting on Verde's couch with a flute of champagne.
"Tell me, how often is Skull like that?"
Verde glances at Keiman, raising a brow when he recognises the signs of a drunk alligator.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine after a nap."
"I hold him to account for trusting you in the first place."
An upset whine is the reptile's reply, as Verde sits in the armchair he used to sleep in, Keiman crawling up into his lap for a belly rub.
Verde complies, thinking.
"Skull turned full brat on you, didn't he?"
Checkerface nods.
"It was... A surprise."
"That was one of Skull's masks. He uses that whenever he knows more than the rest of us." Verde says, "It's why I want him to get rid of his masks, already; they can get annoying. You're just lucky enough to have lasted this long without a full confrontation..."
They're silent, as Verde looks over to the room he'd transferred the toilet from his lab into; the reason he had been forced to use the one in his own room.
"I used all my anti-flame tech on that thing," Verde grumbles, before a smirk crosses his face, "But Skull's yamato nadeshiko act is probably the one that annoys me most; he dresses up in a kimono and acts all refined and alluring and stuff, it works on all of us, though I can tell... It's not what he wants. I mean, his normal self doesn't like the idea of playing hard-to-get, or having to play at being weak to strengthen others... Even if it means that then we all get aggravated enough to get protective."
"So, instead of all of you becoming Luce's Sky and you becoming Luce's, it's more... Skull has become yours, and you have become His?" Checkerface hums, "I see..."
A chuckle passes Checkerface's lips, as he straightens.
"Well then; I take back what I said earlier. You can try and remove his masks. But... If you don't succeed in, say, four or five years, Skull will become one of Mine, alright?"
Checkerface holds out a hand, as Verde is reminded of the picture-bibles he'd be read as a small brat, about devils and the day of the damned.
Frowning, Verde makes a fist with the hand that been petting Keiman.
"Why? You already have Luce, and you'll be making us part of your web, anyway, what could you possibly get from this?"
Checkerface s silent, before tilting his head, swigging back the rest of his champagne.
"I have already told Skull,, so this files under Client Confidentiality, but I have a daughter, who will soon have a child of her own... My species has not awakened in her blood, but I will need someone there for that child if it does in them. Skull has already agreed to that idea. It depends on you and the others, however, as to whether I will make him disappear if such a time should come."
"That is why you said four or five years? Because that would be the time of the child showing their power?"
Checkerface gives a chuckle.
For once, it is not menacing, or filled with the mysterious power that hides behind the man's humanoid form, but old, weary.
"Immortality is a disease, a recessive one, but a disease nonetheless; I will not lose a possible light to that darkness, especially if what I hope won't happen does happen..."
Checkerface shrugs.
"I'll let you think on this."
A swirl of mist flames, and Checkerface is gone, as Verde finds Keiman had fallen asleep in his lap.
"Hn."
Verde carries his companion to the part of his lab specially-installed for the water-loving reptile...