Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

She hadn’t known what to expect from this meeting to begin with, but nothing could have prepared her for something quite like this.

‘One of these days your skulduggery will land you in trouble that you can’t just walk out of Ms. Potter.’

Jasmine wanted to laugh. Who’d have known that the situation her tricks had gotten her into would be a muggle-mafia one? She let her amusement show on her face, grin wide and eyes gleeful.

The others stared her down, and she just let her grin get wider, the faintest sharpness to its edges. They thought they were being big, bad, and scary, but to her it was just funny. They had nothing on the people hiding in her past.

“Hey there,” she piped up cheerily, a complete contrast to the mysterious and harsh tones everyone else had used to introduce themselves. “The name’s Skull,” she reached for one of the gingersnaps the woman named Luce had brought and broke it in half, the sound extra sharp in the silence of the room, “and I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

Luce smiled at the gathered elements. The meeting was going about as well as could be expected when you put seven of the strongest flame users in the world in a room together. Though, her eyes kept drifting back to the cloud that Kawahira had found.

The young woman was the only element her visions hadn’t shown to her. The most she’d seen was a shadow on the ground after they were all affected with the curse which didn’t tell her much at all, so she observed.

Skull, as she called herself, was of average height with purple hair in a braid over one shoulder and messy bangs, and matching purple eyes. A biker’s helmet sat on the table in front of her, and she wore a leather jacket over a high-necked athletic shirt. Even her hands were hidden away behind well fitted leather gloves.

While the others were silently and not-so-silently jockeying with each other for dominance, Skull just seemed to watch on, lazy grin on her face as if she hadn’t a care for who ended up as the leader of the group.

Luce saw it as an opportunity to engage the other in conversation, so she leaned forward in her seat. “Did you like my gingersnaps, Skull?”

“They’re okay,” Skull said, placing her elbow on the table and her head in her hand to talk to her around Lal Mirch who was sitting between them. “I’ve had better.”

“Oh,” Luce said, a little discomfited. She’d always been praised for her baking. Skull just gave her a lazy smirk, eyes twinkling. Though, Luce thought there might be a hint of sadness to the look, like her question had made Skull remember something, or someone.

“You’re not interested in the leadership position?” Luce tried again, as Lal Mirch slapped her hands on the table and stood up, barking at something Renato had said. Skull looked at her, then Lal Mirch and the others, and then back again.

“Not really.” Skull gave as much of a shrug as she could with her head in her hand. “It’s not like I’m planning on sticking around anyways.” Luce paused. That— had she heard that right? Skull wasn’t going to stay? She knew clouds liked to drift, but she couldn’t just let Skull get away. Not when she and Kawahira had gone through so much trouble. They’d searched through all the known clouds for one that could be part of the Arcobaleno with no success. None of them had been nearly strong enough. It was pure chance that Kawahira had stumbled upon the unknown cloud just a week before.

“What do you mean, Skull?” Luce asked, putting her sweetest smile on her face. She could not let Skull leave. No. Matter. What.

Skull gave another shrug and got to her feet, the sound of her chair scraping against the floor silencing everyone else as all eyes in the room trained on her, but Skull’s eyes never left hers.

“I’ve got no interest in fancy titles. Things like the strongest seven, and being their leader? No thanks.”

Luce’s mind raced as she watched Skull pick up her helmet. She had to say something. Something that would make Skull stay. Even if it was just for the first mission. That would buy her more time to convince the young woman to stay. But what could she say that would draw the young cloud in instead of driving her away?

“Too weak to play with the big leagues?” Renato asked before Luce could think of a single thing to say. Everything about the man at that moment reminded her of a shark that had scented blood in the water.

“Hardly,” Skull replied, twirling her helmet around on her hand twice before tucking it under her arm. “I can handle your big leagues. I just don’t want to deal with the shackles that come with it.”

“What a cloudy thing to say.” Renato’s voice sent chills down Luce’s spine. Suns and clouds often had interesting relationships in sets. It was obvious he was testing Skull, seeing if she could handle him, or if her clouds would be burned away under the fierce burning of his sun. She could only hope and pray that Skull would pass Renato’s test. Then she wouldn’t be the only one invested in keeping the cloud around.

“Says the ball-of-sunshine,” Skull joked back, relaxed as ever. “You think you can handle the pressure that will follow a title like I Prescelti Sette?” Perhaps Skull was testing Renato too.

“I won’t just handle it, I’ll thrive under it.”

Skull seemed to tilt her head just so and enter into a staring contest with Renato that no one else dared to interrupt. They could all feel the flame pressure oozing off the sun. Skull’s own flames stuck close to her, thick and dense, but never wavering against Renato’s increasing onslaught. Eventually, Skull nodded. “Yeah, you may be right, but that doesn’t mean I have to stick around to see it.”

“Scared?” Renato mocked. If Luce hadn’t been studying Skull so closely she probably would have missed the look of nostalgia that washed through her eyes. A wry smirk quirked her lips.

“You wish.”

“Then stay,” Luce found herself saying. Something inside her saying that this teeny sliver of an opening that Renato had knowingly or unknowingly opened was her only chance to get the cloud to stay, and she would do everything in her power to make it happen.

Skull stared in her direction, but it was obvious she was more in her head than fully present, debating with herself over whether she should stay or not. “You won’t be shackled,” Luce nudged, lying through her teeth. “Other than running missions, and living in the mansion that’s been prepared for all of you, you’ll be free to do as you please.”

The others started at the mention of the mansion. Luce hadn’t gotten that far in the explanation yet, but she had to make Skull feel comfortable. Clouds were tricky to deal with when you knew them, and far worse when you didn’t. She had no idea where Skull claimed her territory, but she wanted the cloud to know she was still free to take care of it as long as she returned to the mansion.

“There was nothing said about a mansion before,” Viper hissed. “You’ve withheld information.”

“Not intentionally,” Luce replied, feeling herself start to sweat. Skull was stirring up more trouble than she’d like. “I just hadn’t gotten that far yet. Everything that you could want has been or will be provided to you as long as you run the required missions.”

“Everything?” Verde chimed in. “Even a private laboratory?”

“Yes,” Luce said, her polite manners making her turn her attention from Skull who still hadn’t given an answer.

“Training grounds?” Lal Mirch asked.

“Yes.”

“A shooting range?”

“Yes.”

Question after question followed. Luce answered all of them patiently, her eyes darting back to Skull now and then. The young woman seemed to be observing them all again, but she hadn’t retaken her seat. It put Luce on edge. She needed confirmation that the cloud would stay.

“Well, Skull?” Luce finally asked when the others ran out of questions about both the mansion and the basics of what would be required of them for the missions. “Will you stay?”

Leather drummed against plastic as Skull’s gaze passed over each of them, assessing, cold, and calculating. “Fine,” Skull finally huffed, “but on one condition.”

“What’s that?” Luce asked, already prepared to give whatever it was. Anything to make the strongest cloud stay.

“No one, and I mean no one,” Skull said, voice hard as steel, “for any rhyme or reason enters my room. I don’t care if it’s life or death. Everyone stays out no matter what, or I’m gone.”

“Of course,” Luce sighed with relief. That was an easy request. If Skull was going to claim her room as territory, no one would be stupid enough to enter it without permission.

“I request the same,” Viper piped up.

“Me as well,” Verde said, shifting his glasses up higher on his nose.

“I think it would be reasonable to agree that everyone’s rooms are off limits to everyone else,” Fon said, folding his arms in front of him. “We do not trust each other or the staff. I think this will go better if we are each the only person to enter our own rooms.”

Renato and Lal nodded in agreement.

Luce just smiled, her face aching. “I’ll be sure to inform the staff that all your rooms are strictly off limits. You’ll be in charge of maintaining them yourselves, but I ask that we do try to have meals together. The point of living together is to get to know one another better so we can work as more of a team on missions.”

There was a lot of grumbling, but eventually everyone assented. Then Skull spoke up again.

“Dibs on the highest room.”

Luce did not appreciate the headache the following argument gave her.