Chapter Text
If Reborn could change one thing, it was that he brought a goddamn gun with him. Perhaps he could shoot Skull and everyone else, but mainly Skull, before he had gotten… attached . Maybe that would have changed the whole story, maybe it wouldn’t, he wouldn’t know now because he didn’t bring a gun.
It all started with a fight with his mother.
Reborn doesn’t remember anymore what that fight was all about despite it not being too long ago, mainly because he’s too busy pondering over other things that now need more thought than his mother. But he remembered that it was bad, like bad bad. (He may be one for exaggerations but he can assure you, this time, he was not exaggerating.)
Reborn was a good kid. No, really. He wasn’t the best person but he was a good son. He was intelligent, he was charming and suave, and he didn’t disrespect his mother who he knew had worked hard to raise him on his own; he knew that she gave her all just so that they can have a financially stable life. Reborn respected his mother.
But she had pushed his buttons too hard and even the most patient angel would burst one day if you keep on kicking it around. And Reborn was far from being the most patient, he was even farther from being an angel, so he himself was surprised that his patience even lasted this long.
He didn’t throw anything, he didn’t even yell. It was his mother who threw and yelled but his even tone and straight face had hurt and pissed her more than any kind of yelling or physical actions. Reborn was the scariest when he wasn’t loud. (Not that he usually is loud. He’s always been the silent person, not exactly an extrovert, leaning more to the introverted side. He preferred his own company. But when he’s really mad, it’s as if he’s the most silent person despite talking a lot—saying a lot of hurtful words because that was his special skill.)
He walked out on her. Took his wallet and other important belongings and didn’t look back, not even when the train doors closed and not even when he finally got off two cities away. He knew that what he did was wrong, he knew that it was rude because his mother was only trying to scold him for doing something wrong. But Reborn was sick of it.
All he wanted then was a cheap place to stay for a few days (around three) because he knew that he had to come back before time passes longer than he wanted. His mother only had him now and he can’t be gone for too long. He just wants to be gone for the moment, to cool off, before going back. (And he also had to go back to his university, ugh.)
As if the world was against him, all the cheap places he checked were taken. There was no vacancy, no place for him. He could have taken a more expensive place because Reborn does work hard in his part time jobs (he’s responsible) but he recently used up his saved budget for the newest batch of suits from Armani. Because if Reborn’s going to live, he’s going to live with style. (Which comes with a void of a wallet as well but Reborn promised to himself that he was going to start stacking up again soon.)
He sits on a park bench, wondering if he should just go back home. That would be embarrassing. He knew that he walked out cooly, it would be just shameless to go back when it hadn’t even been a day yet. He looks up, sighing. Even the sky seemed to be laughing at him. (It was not. It didn’t even have indications that it was but Reborn is petty and he thinks everything is against him.)
That was when a man sat down behind him.
Reborn mainly ignored him, he wasn’t interested.
“Do you need a place to stay, young man?”
He was interested now.
Reborn knew that it was stupid to believe weird things like this because they were most likely scams but he’s kinda desperate now. He does not want to go back and he does not want to sleep here in a park, like a homeless man.
He shook the man’s hand the moment he said the price.
(In hindsight, he should not have trusted a stranger with unkempt white hair, glasses barely staying on his face, and a weird smile, who not only approached him out of nowhere but did it in the middle of the night as well.
Reborn shouldn’t have.
But Reborn is also broke.)
Luce was the first victim.
Reborn knew that she was a seer and could only facepalm because why ? It’s not everyday you meet a seer but Reborn was thoroughly unimpressed when he found out she was one, because again, why ? She could see the future and she didn’t bother to avoid this whole ordeal, Reborn knew that anyone that could see this future, would give everything to avoid it. So it’s either Luce is a fakeseer who gets the laugh out of tricking people, or she was insane. Reborn is undecided because Luce doesn’t seem to be both… yet.
Reborn wonders if it was his fault, but it wasn’t, simply because he’s Reborn and he knows what he’s doing all the time. (He doesn’t. He’s 20 and is living off cup noodles and espresso, smart and yet barely passing college. And, Luce adds, he’s got cosplaying problems that always damage his wallet.)
There wouldn’t have been any complications if Luce was the only one in it but Reborn fell down in the rabbit hole of hell as well after her because he was broke and he was mad and he was stupid. No , Reborn is never stupid. He makes the best decisions! (Everyone would like to disagree because Reborn had a different meaning of what best is.)
Viper came next.
That woman loved saving more than her own life for a reason Reborn didn’t bother listening to. She wanted a cheap deal, and she had a sixth sense of sorts.
Unlike Luce, who Reborn is unsure is insane or stupid, Reborn knew that Viper was insane. She dabbled on the dark arts!
That was enough explanation of why she was here.
The fourth and fifth victims came as a package, it was basically impossible to separate them because the blond was a damn leech. Trust Reborn, he physically tried pulling the blond away for a few days and that bastard actually grew weak as if he was a demon being exposed to a cross.
Lal Mirch and Colonnello had known each other since forever because they were neighbors and Lal’s parents were sure that the two of them would end up together. They didn’t. Because Lal Mirch is a tsundere (Reborn’s words, not hers) and still refuses to accept that the blond idiot had made her fall for him even though it’s been years already. (Reborn could still see more years to come before Lal finally admits defeat.) When Lal decided to finally move out for college because she was tired of commuting early everyday, Colonnello happily followed after her like a loyal dog.
Unfortunately, both of them are broke and Colonnello is a goddamn idiot. So before Lal could stop him, he shook the hand of the man that gave them the deal which had pushed him into an airplane that was set to dive into an abyss.
Fon was a foreign student and honestly just wanted to see his younger cousin since he loved him like the nice person he is. That was all he wanted. Really. And what did he get? Reborn and the rest. That was seriously the end of his story. Fon isn’t insane, he doesn’t dabble in dark arts, he isn’t loud or disturbing, he’s polite and he doesn’t disturb Reborn. Reborn liked that.
Fon was therefore the only person who passed his mini-exam and if Reborn was given the choice as to who to kill first in his housemates, it would be him. You did not read that wrong.
Reborn liked him so he’s going to end his misery early.
The seventh victim was a genius named Verde. Reborn muses that he’s not much of a genius if he got roped into this whole thing too. Verde replied that he came here willingly and it was him who had approached the man.
See, most scientists are mainly curious. That was what started everything after all. People in the Scientific Revolution were curious, that’s why they researched, they learned, they made theories even though it was against the Church, they were thinking for themselves. That’s also why they were punished.
Verde had walked in willingly because he sensed something like how Viper did (only the man had approached Viper first). No one was around at that time, all far too busy in their own things to even notice that Verde was around. The man had approached him a few minutes later and that was how Verde added more problems to everyone in this inescapable hole.
The (hopefully) final victim, Skull, was the youngest of them all. (Probably the stupidest as well, Reborn adds. Luce hushes him because she genuinely cares for everyone that got into this predicament, especially Skull, because he reminded her of a friend of her younger sister. That innocence and energy… Only, Skull is kind of… How does she put this… suicidal .) He wasn’t even in college yet unlike the rest of them—just a senior in high school who has a bad habit of skipping to do other more interesting things.
Skull with big excited eyes and a wide smile before it changed into one of disappointment when he realized he was right, his mother did get tricked! (Or he did…) His mother had told him that if he could learn to survive on his own (at least for a year) without depending on her too much, then she might allow him to go and travel the world and perform stunts like how he wanted. So he shook the hand of a man his mother had introduced to him.
It wasn’t that his mother really tricked him… It was that his mother tricked him. (Though she really was going to allow him to do whatever he wanted if he can prove that he can handle life on his own. Only problem now is that he can’t leave even if he wanted to.)
Now, you may be wondering, what in the world happened? What was the problem? What are they all mourning about?
The House.
It was a fucking house . They were fighting because of a house. Yes, a House. It was a neat house that a man had let them live in for a cheap price. Four floors including the attic: nine bedrooms, a living room, three bathrooms, two vacant rooms, a kitchen, and a dining room. There was a large backyard as well and the right height of walls for privacy surrounding the property. It seriously was a nice house.
A house that all eight of them are now bound to live and guard forever until their hair turns white and they die. A house where the peculiar always happens, switching it up every week because it hated repetition for some reason. A house that tortures them, not in a glaringly obvious way, but forcing them to be stuck together . And Reborn prefers to work solo (in short, he’s a loner), Verde is a mad scientist, Viper charges you for the smallest things, Colonnello is loud, Skull is stupid, Fon is too kind, Lal is insane, and Luce is Luce.
Reborn did want this, he confirms. It’s either this or death.
Reborn chose death, obviously. Now, if only Luce did not stop him from jumping out the house with a noose around his neck and had forbidden him from doing it again. Reborn wasn’t going to listen to her, he didn’t even listen to his mother (wasn’t that the reason why he was in this predicament in the first place?). But when Luce brought up burning all his clothes when he’s dead, Reborn immediately stopped.
His clothes were more expensive and treasured than the house, okay?! (And wasn’t that another reason why he’s in the House???)
“Did you pass the exam?” Luce asks the moment Reborn finally came down to eat which was at around 3 in the afternoon.
The male snorts, unable to believe that Luce was even asking him this. He shows the opened envelope that had the letter inside because he knew that Luce was going to ask him the moment he stepped down. The Trinisette crest was on the envelope, one Luce caught when Reborn threw it at her before he sauntered into the kitchen.
Luce smiles while reopening the envelope, pulling out the neatly folded paper that contained the news as she walks into the living room where Skull and Colonnello were bickering over something. She only skims over the words, already knowing that it was how she wanted it to be.
She looks up upon entering the room where everyone else was scattered. Verde was reading a book on one corner, Viper doing something suspicious in another, while Fon was right beside the entryway—Luce was aware that it was so that he could immediately exit if worse came to dawn on them. Colonnello and Skull were actually bickering over a game they were playing in the middle of the room, one that ended up with the loser getting flicked on the forehead and Colonnello was terribly losing. The couch cushions surrounded them and Luce reminded herself to tell them to clean up when they’re done. Lal was calmly watching a movie on the television, ignoring all the noise around her.
Luce smiles seeing the domestic sight. It had only been three weeks since they started living with each other. (The day they arrived was consecutive. Luce on the first, Reborn the next day, Viper the very next day, Lal and Colonnello didn’t even reach 24 hours after Viper arrived and they were already in, then it was immediately Fon, less than 12 hours later it was Verde, and 26 hours after that was Skull.) So far, so good. There had been numerous fights about hygiene, cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping but it was all resolved with a schedule. Nothing too serious.
Luce knocks on the wall to get their attention. “Guys, look,” she waved the letter around. “Reborn’s letter of acceptance finally came!”
In those three weeks, they had a unanimous decision. They were all transferring schools. Everyone of them attended different universities, Skull wasn’t even in one (he’s still in high school), but after this, they decided that they should just stick together. And though reluctant, everyone agreed because they were wary of when it would first happen.
They had spent the three weeks studying (or were trying to, at least) because apparently Trinisette Academy was filled with insanely smart (or strong, or talented, or skillful, or basically geniuses) people and that it was extremely hard to get in. The only reason they chose that school was because it would be fair, not one of them attended it and so there would be no biased decisions (and also to avoid fighting). (Reborn wanted to stay in his school, and most of the others as well; hell, Fon wanted to go back to China. So Luce decided to say that they all should transfer to a school that not one of them attends so that it would be fair.)
Skull was the one who suffered the most. He got stuck with Reborn. And Reborn was a demon in tutoring. It doesn’t change the fact that Reborn managed to force one whole year of lessons into Skull’s head within less than three weeks so he can skip the rest of his high school days to get to Trinisette Academy with them. It was also the biggest surprise that Skull managed to achieve just that.
“He passed,” Verde says without looking up from his book. Everyone already knew that because it’s Reborn , and everyone found out that Reborn was a whole different level entirely after the first few hours they met each other, so no one was that interested. They were more interested in knowing how Skull managed to do it.
(“I already told you, I didn’t cheat!” Skull whines once Colonnello once more asks what kind of cheating trick he used. Lal had smacked the blond for that.)
Luce sighs at the unimpressed and uninterested teens in the room who immediately went back to what they were doing before she called their attention. Okay, maybe we should work on getting to know each other more…
Reborn, munching on an energy bar in the kitchen, looks at the paper stuck on the refrigerator with a magnet. He had read it more than once already, almost every time he entered the kitchen (which was often because no one made coffee how he wanted it), and could now say it word-for-word without any copy. He still takes his time reading it.
It was a letter that arrived a few hours after Skull did.
It was an explanation as to why Lal hand felt like it got electrocuted when she tried to leave the city or why Fon couldn’t breathe and felt like he was being fried on a frying pan when he tried to get on the plane back to China.
They were cursed.
They were bound to this house now, forever. And the farthest they can go would be the end of the city.
Reborn hated getting bound, he hated the chains and he hated not being able to do whatever he wanted. But what he hated more was the last part written on the paper.
Apparently, they should expect unusual happenings to happen to them.
“Viper, get rid of the hood.”
“Lal, please don’t smack Colonnello unless it’s really important.”
“Colonnello, do you have your schedule?”
“Verde, listen .”
“Fon, if someone hits you, hit them back. Don’t just smile there.”
“Skull, do you have three extra pens on you?”
Everyone watches as Luce fuses around them, making sure that they all had everything they needed as if they were grade schoolers going to school for the first time and Luce was their mother. Luce isn’t old enough to be one, she’s the same age as Verde and he’s 22.
Skull rummages his bag before excitedly showing the four pens he brought with him with a big proud smile.
Reborn snorted when he finally stepped down the stairs and saw what Skull was doing. “Bet that he’ll lose all of them within the day.”
Luce glares at him while Skull pouts, keeping his things. She could only sigh, patting his shoulder. “Then, since we’re all here, let’s go.”
“Viper and Verde already left,” Lal finally speaks up.
“What?!”
“They said that they didn’t want to be seen with idiots,” Colonnello grins as if those idiots didn’t include him.
“Make friends!” Luce reminds one last time as she watches everyone run off and scatter like children (except for Lal and Colonnello because again, that blond was a damn leech and not even a gun could get him to budge). She sighs happily like a proud mother before heading to her own class.
No one had minded her or even looked at her weirdly after what she said and how she entered with other transfer students, Luce thinks that Vongola Academy is really filled with special (crazy) people then. Perhaps that’s why they don’t think anything is really abnormal.
Luce doesn’t mind and the students here don't seem to either.
Reborn does mind.
He wasn’t in the mood to garner attention from others but he continued to walk with a strut and his head held up high. If Reborn was any lesser man, he would have avoided eye contact with everyone, but this was Reborn. He continued on giving people stares and or smirks, depending on who it was.
Until, a clumsy brunet almost bumped into him.
“I’m sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going!” The tiny caramel eyed hurriedly said and before Reborn could say anything more, the male was off running as if a playful kid with a bazooka was right behind him. It wasn’t a kid (thankfully), but rather a silver haired man, screaming something along the lines of EXTREME, who ran past Reborn to chase after the brunet.
Another silver haired whizzed past him, also screaming something incoherent. A smiley raven soon followed, laughing at nothing despite another raven with steel gray eyes was right at his tail—wielding two tonfas and an unamused look ready to murder someone. (And, might Reborn add, a weirder phrase, “I’ll bite you to death!”)
That was when Reborn decided he was going home.
“YOU SKIPPED YOUR FIRST DAY?!?”
Reborn startles awake, ears ringing at the sudden scream and the sound of the front door slamming downstairs. Luce was yelling something but Reborn already glanced at the window to see that orange was stretching the sky. He curses under his breath, immediately getting a pair of shoes in his closet and resting his fedora on top of his head before pushing the window open.
His one leg was already hanging outside when Luce started banging at his locked door, screaming like a demon. “REBORN, YOU IDIOT!! WE DON’T ENROLL INTO A SCHOOL ONLY TO NOT ATTEND CLASSES- Skull, be a sweetheart and get the hammer for me, will you.”
Reborn hurriedly scans the perimeter. He wasn’t in the mood to have a hammer smashed into both his door and his face. Luce didn’t have a mean punch but she was amazing at swinging things and Verde’s glasses were a victim to it once. (Trust him. How did you think they were able to have a schedule for grocery, cleaning, and basically everything else where everyone had to agree?)
He catches a tall tree a few feet away from his window, growing in the middle of their backyard. He throws his shoes, hoping that it won’t catch the attention of the people inside the house, his foot rests on the lower window ledge. Not even thinking for a moment, Reborn leaps for it, arms outstretched and before he knew it, he was grabbing onto a branch.
The branch snaps at the sudden weight and Reborn continues to fall, snapping multiple branches along the way. It seemed like a long journey until his back met the grass. Groaning, he could only be thankful that the branches had managed to slow his fall, even if just a tiny bit.
Ignoring the pain and the cuts, he pulls on his shoes, not even bothering to untie the shoelaces as he already heard his door being forced open upstairs. His fedora, obstructed by the leaves, lands on his head as he does so.
“What the- This is the third floor?!?”
Reborn snickers at their idiocy. Did they really think that Reborn wouldn’t jump? Idiots.
He gathers himself, seeing Lal a few steps away from the clear sliding door that leads to the backyard, staring at him with wide eyes. Winking, he pushes himself up before bolting, jumping over the wall that surrounded the property, hearing Luce’s distant screaming.
Reborn could deal with anything, demons, curses, witches, and even the mafia. But never—and he means, never —Luce. That woman was just scary. Reborn would rather die, thank you very much.
Man , he sighs. Women are scary.
That was when he remembered.
Fuck. My mom’s going to kill me.