Work Text:
There was a steady beat in the bar. A thumping aligned with the rhythm of the patrons' hearts. People jumped, danced along, twisted together, they gave themselves to the alcohol and music. They were lost to pleasure, and not one of the regular patrons noticed anything was abnormal with the bar that night. They didn't see the woman sliding through the crowd as if she didn't exist, nor the man pursuing her like a tightly wound beast. Not one person noticed as they bounced to the beat, the trail of blood being quickly obscured by their shoes. They were clueless about that, but Renato was not.
He should have stood out in his suit and fedora. He should have dragged attention from every man or woman near him, especially considering he was the only person in the entire club not moving. Yet somehow, he went overlooked, a sign of a good hitman. This particular hitman had also lost his target in the crowd, far from his worst offence that night. Somehow the woman had taken his first bullet, a lethally aimed shot, and sidestepped near perfectly to avoid being killed. Thanks to her sudden movement, the woman had only been struck across the side. The bullet had gone through her and into the concrete wall, then… she'd bolted. This had caused the chase Renato was currently being forced to undergo.
He could have let her go, but he was somewhat offended she'd managed to avoid him in the first place. How had she known? Had someone snitched? And where had she gone?
The beat rose, the dancing grew more chaotic- and a door closed in the back.
Renato was off like a shot. He took note of smudged blood, all leading to the very same door, and then he burst out of it himself searching already for any hint or sign of her in the back alley the door had led too. Renato skidded to a stop, gun up, preparing to dodge the attack she would aim at him in defence of her own life. He wasn't disappointed. She was ready for him to arrive, though the head-shot missed when he ducked, and it splashed across the wall behind him in a surge of bright red.
Red. Storm flames?
Renato lifted his gun and shot at her, the bullets cracked against the stone walls and splashed against a shield hastily raised by her arm. Renato snarled silently as he stared the woman down. How had she done that? A storm shield? Was she disintegrating his bullets before they reached her?
"So… can I pay you off or something? I really don't want to deal with this." She shuffled on her feet, hand still up to defend but no longer actively attacking him. Probably she was waiting for an opening, well Renato would not give her one. She was, however, painfully civilian despite her attempts to find one. A conundrum that he was beginning to understand. The hit was placed likely because she was a civilian with storm flames; she'd likely been forced toward a family and had denied it. So now she needed to be killed off because some bastard took offence.
"Then the hit will end up on me," Renato commented with false laziness, "so… no."
Her nose scrunched, and Renato felt something within him stir… something in his flames, something he didn't dare name. "Can I know why you're trying to kill me, at least? Or why I have a 'hit' on me?"
"I don't ask questions. I just kill who I'm paid to kill."
"Bull!" she pointed at him, "there's no way that's true, you definitely know something."
Her eyes locked with his. Renato instantly tried to read her mind and- found her doing the same damned thing. How was she- magic-Potter-travel-running-help-anger-betrayal-orange-sky-
Renato yanked his eyes away from her, but it was too late. He'd seen it. The girl wasn't a storm- she was a fucking sky- he'd kill the bastards who hired him for this. Renato did not mess with skies, civilians or not. Especially not when he was unbonded! By messing with her, he could accidentally get attached, to a civilian no less!
"Not worth it." Renato grouched, trying to play off how spooked the flames she possessed made him. Instead, he turned on his heel and gave her his back, secure in the knowledge that she wouldn't attack him, too civilian for that, "best leave the country Potter, you'll be better off." Don't think about it. Don't think about how someone would be hired after him to kill her, to kill a sky who had absolutely no elements to protect her. Don't think about how he'd seen her flames in his mind and he was already slightly… attached-
No.
"Hey! Wait a second-" the damned woman followed after him. Her shoes hitting the pavement with the finesse of an elephant. She was pathetically civilian, she had absolutely no training, she was not boss material… probably soft. Renato disregarded the fact that she'd dodged his shot and had gotten quite the distance with a bloody wound. That was not civilian, not even if he wanted to think it was. Because if Renato acknowledged that he would also be forced to accept that she could likely be taught to become a proper boss and sky.
"Don't follow me," Renato spat at the sky, attempted to stop her in her tracks before she could touch him. He couldn't allow her to do that. If her flames were strong enough and uncontrolled, she might force a bond, and he was not allowing himself to bond with a civilian sky. Not even if she'd dodged his shot quite unlike any sky before her.
Thankfully for her, she did stop even as she started to ask. "I saw your memories; whats a sky? Is that what I am?"
Apparently, civilian meant fearless. Potter must have taken his dismissal as thought that he wouldn't reshoot her. She was wrong. Renato did not hunt sky's, but if she bothered him enough, he would shoot her. And he wouldn't hesitate either.
"Find out yourself," he snapped and moved to keep walking and-
And she was a heck of a lot faster than she looked. It really should have occurred to Renato that she would be; there had been a reason she'd avoided the lethal shot. Yes, she'd been hit, but she'd moved in an instant, dodged in a moment she'd heard the gun go off. She'd lived. So, of course, she was faster than she looked.
-Holly Potter, the sky who should already be dead under Renato's gun, grabbed his arm. A second later, a breath between heart-beats, long enough for Renato to look in her eyes in horror, and their bond snapped into place. The woman settled herself in his flames as if she'd always been there. Her sky flames, the most powerful he'd ever felt, overwhelmed his senses and damn near dropped him to his knees. No, Renato went so far as to stagger from how overwhelming it was, and she was dragged right with him.
A point to her, Potter tried to keep him upright even though she only reached up to his chest in the height department. But it was for naught as Renato quickly caught himself while his instincts warred. Half of him was basking in it, the flames, of finally getting a bond, of the feelings of a mighty sky. While the other half wanted to rip his arm away, shot her through the head- his flames rebelled against it- and flee.
"What. Have. You. Done." Renato snarled as she staggered. She wasn't prepared for this, hadn't learned what it meant. It meant when he recovered, she collapsed.
Renato automatically caught her-his sky-his: "Dammit." And felt the blood from the wound he'd given her coat his hands. Perhaps it wasn't his flames that had done it, it might have been the blood loss… and now his sky needed a doctor, because of him.
Another damned complication to his life.
Renato's hand lit up in glittering yellow flames. Healing was not precisely his strength, but Renato knew enough to get by. He knew enough to cover a through and through bullet hole anyway. So Renato pressed his to his sky's side, already calculating how to properly train her. The skin of Holly Potter's side knit together, and by the time the wound closed, Renato already had a plan. This sky, this event might just be fortuitous. Vongola's sky had been after him for months, forcing their young skies at him for months in the hopes that Renato would be bound to one of them, leashed to one of them. That plan was now up in flames; Renato could now easily brush off enemy skies because of Potter.
Likewise, Renato would not have to fight other elements for his new sky's attention because she and none. And he could train her in a way that suited his best. Renato could keep her well protected and outside the mafia circles enough that no one would notice her. He would also be keeping her aware enough to survive any hits potentially placed upon her. It would allow him more freedom to trade deals and contracts with families that may have tried to recruit him, such as the Vongola. Renato could turn this to his advantage.
Though, he'd have to remove one family from the face of the planet. They'd put a hit on his sky, that wouldn't sit. Renato would have no one aware of his sky's existence, and he certainly wouldn't abide any who desired her harm.
A smirk crossed Renato's face.
Yes… he could certainly work with this.