Chapter Text
Skull knew a surprising amount about gemstones and antiques. When the Arcobaleno finally caught on and asked him about his familiarity with antiques, he’d simply laughed and said his work took him to all sorts of places and that he’ll take any sort of payment.
(“Skull-sama understands that for some, these possessions mean more than money to them! And who is Skull-sama to reject such kind offerings?”)
The first instance of this was with Viper. They had simply been managing their finances at the dining table when a sudden voice spoke (and wasn’t that a huge warning, that Viper didn’t notice the stuntman until he spoke up) and gave them a huge scare.
“Woahh, is that actual tanzanite?”
Disguising their shock with a small cough, Viper nodded, allowing the cloud to see the little gemstone better.
“Payment from a wealthy family. They threw it in as a tip, not that the work was hard.”
Recounting this encounter, Viper bemoaned at how they completely missed Skull’s eyes glint.
“Tanzanite this colour is very rare, Senpai.” He paused, then cocked his head. “Do you accept gems and antiques as payment?”
Viper hummed.
“If it’s genuine, I’ll take it. Cash is easiest, but if I’m offered an antique worth enough, I’ll accept the payment. I can always sell it for even more profit.”
Skull’s eyes flitted back to the tanzanite sitting innocently in Viper’s hand. “I’ll keep that in mind, Senpai.”
A couple days later, Skull came bounding up to Viper with a huge grin.
“Senpai! Senpai! The great Skull-sama has a deal to make!”
Viper paused, intrigued by the wording. Around them the rest subtly settled down, sensing something interesting was about to happen. This civilian cloud had proved himself not incapable of mafia qualities, and already seemed to display quirks that suggested a not so clean civilian life.
“You better not waste my time Skull…”
“I won’t!” Skull waved his hand around. “Remember that tanzanite you had a couple days ago? I want to buy it from you! Here’s the check!”
Fon frowned. Wasn’t tanzanite a rare gemstone? How did their lackey have enough to write a check for it?
They all witnessed Viper grab the check, see the amount written on it, and go still.
“Skull.” For the first time, Viper regarded Skull seriously. “I have more gems. And antiques. Are you willing to buy them too?”
“Ahahahaha! Skull-sama has a better deal! I want every gem and antique you receive, and I’ll be sure to compensate you in cash!”
(“What the fuck.” Lal muttered. “Is he seriously that loaded?”
Verde pushed his glasses up. “He’s a world-famous stuntman, they get paid handsomely for movie work. Hm. Maybe I should talk to him about sponsoring some of my inventions…he’s at least good for something I suppose.”)
Viper nodded, pocketing the check and retrieving the tanzanite from god knows where. Skull beamed, cradling the stone with careful hands. As Viper turned to leave however, he stopped him.
“Ah, Senpai, I’ll need a verbal confirmation please! Do you agree to this deal?”
(oh boy oh boy, what a red flag this was. Viper groaned as they downed another shot while Collonello snickered.)
“Hm. If you insist. I agree to this deal.”
“You gotta say your name!” Skull insisted.
Viper rolled their eyes, not that anyone could see.
“I, Viper, agree to this deal. Are we done? I need to cash this and organise my collection for this little agreement.”
Feeling the wash of happy cloud flames, the arcobaleno simply filed this down as their cloud displaying some of the known tendencies of his flame. Clouds were territorial, maybe this one, with all his eccentricness, simply hoarded materials.
(Viper never told them how much Skull had offered, but based on the smug flames that curled around their mist no matter how hard they tried to dampen it, he’d offered way above the market price. No one ever asked what Skull did with his new possessions.)