Cloud AU's

Reading Hearts

Viper never actually told anyone this, but as a security measure, they had a habit of passively using small amounts of Mist flames to see how much a person thinks to see if their nervous, relaxed, angry, lying, etc.
You know, like checking a persons heartbeat.

Of course, this habit didn't exempt the other Arcobalenos.

The first time Viper met Uni, they got a nervous feeling coming from her along with slight confusion and wonder; from this they could tell the younger girl was nervous over their first time meeting in person, confused over their gender and in awe at them floating in mid-air while giving off a mysterious vibe.

She was friendly and curious.

With Fon it was different.
His thoughts were calm and organized, the man most often observed his surroundings and waited out a situation before he acted on it. He was someone you could have a talk with and he'd remember the first words spoken even if he didn't say much.

It made him dangerous.

Reborn... His thoughts seemed lazy, but in a way that seemed like he knew that Viperwas watching him at the moment. This weird kind of omnipotence was like a death god waiting to strike while, when it seemed like he found something to do, he'd click into second gear and be... 'compassionate' about finishing the job. Like a lazy Puma.

Also dangerous.

Verde... His thoughts were moving way too fast for them.
Each thought seemed like it could break Mach2 to the point they questioned if the guy had anxiety or something.

Lal, well... her thoughts reflected her surroundings. Tense and ready when a situation presented itself or with many people, relaxed and at a normal pace when alone... or with her stalking student.

She was a common type for Viper.

Colonello... They didn't even need to hear or see it to know the guy had a puppy crush on his teacher. His thoughts went in waves: fast, then slow, pausing and/ or catching up on the previous one.
An idiot in every sense until someone beat the situation into him.

Also a common type when in love.

Lastly, Skull. To be honest his thoughts were so quiet, like a buzzing noise, that Viper was mostly reminded he was even there when he was shouting at one of them. Like the guy was actually hiding his ego while broadcasting it. He was, for lack of better wording, confusing for the esper. As a result, they didn't pay that much attention to him.

Until they had to.

Or when his thoughts betrayed him. Which happened after the Mist had allowed the other Arcobaleno to call them by Viper.

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Viper was sitting, scratch that, levitating over the ground in a sitting position and counting their money like every other day until an annoying buzz started coming closer to their location.

It was rather unpleasant than annoying to be frank. Not like a repeatedly hit buzzer at a Quiz-show but more like one of those old record discs creating a scratching sound along with actual music. Or the scratching of a pencil furiously going over a piece of paper. Except that it got louder as if the record player was walking into Viper's ears and through their skull.

Viper, after stashing away their money, turned to look at the direction the noise came from and, seeing that the others didn't hear it judging by their behavior and thoughts, these must be coming from someone else's thoughts.

Just then a guy in a black-purple suit came down the stairs, the noise increasing with each step and breath he took. He didn't have his helmet on so Viper could see his face. It was bleak, like he'd just lost something he loved more than himself. Something Viper hadn't thought he posessed.

Arriving at the bottom of the stairs, Skull just stared at the ground with his head down.
The only ones who noticed the almost depressing aura rolling off of him were Reborn and Fon, who glanced their way upon noticing that they sensed it too.

It was a numbing kind of noise at this point and Viper grew concerned over it, seeing as a Mist user deals with people's minds for work. Deciding to find out what that it means, Viper decided to invade his mind.

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The outer rim of his thoughts were letting out the noise along with thinking over some minor things like 'will Reborn shoot at me again?' or simply what to eat for lunch.

Digging deeper and deeper,
trying to find out from how far that noise echoed from the inside became increasingly more difficult. Not because of the amount of Mist flames needed -well, that too-, but mainly due to the still increasing noise and the 'layers' changing every time Viper came upon a new one.

Eventually, Viper could decipher the noise as actual words, and oh, how they wished they hadn't. That they couldn't. Wouldn't have found out what the noise actually was, what was going on in the recesses of Skull's confusing and twisting mind.

That 'confusion' turned out to be him self-questioning himself and his surroundings, an echo of a long time passed and passing.

"Can you hear the Silence?
Can you see the Dark?
Can you fix the Broken??
Can you feel...

CAN YOU FEEL MY HEART?!?!!"

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"Oh Skull..." Viper spoke in a quiet, almost soft voice. Those present in the room, aka Fon, Reborn and Verde, looked at their Mist.
They hadn't expected to ever hear such a voice coming from one of them, least of all Viper unless they suddenly owned all the riches in the world or Verde being treated like Jesus for his 'high intelligence' to the point they'd think DaVinci tried to 'copy' him before his time.

What they also didn't expect to ever see, and this was also from a general mafiosos point of view, was Viper, a Mist, hugging Skull, a Cloud. And said Cloud to have a breakdown in their arms shortly after upon realizing that he was being hugged by someone.

They gave each other critical looks, Verde took a picture to see if he's actually hallucinating - from the way his eyebrows scrunched up the others could tell he, and thus they, weren't.
Reborn wanted to comment on it, but Fon gave him an imploring smile that said to leave the two alone and to save whatever shit he wanted to say for himself.
Seeing the ever peaceful Storm give him a look like that Reborn unwillingly conceded, for now.

In the end, the trio never found out why or how they came to witness such a sight. Verde even took his photo as evidence and put it in his computers [Unsolved/ Unnatural] folder 📂.

And telling the rest when they noticed the Mist and Cloud mostly arriving together for meetings or the like was headache inducing. Viper didn't even seem to mind answering any stupid questions Skull asked for free...!!!
...They noted how they also became weirdly protective over each other.

Reborn, for once, wasn't able to come up with a tipp when his student, Dame-Tsuna, asked him 'how to get Mists and Clouds to get along like that', because he'd desired to that for years.

Yes, his student began using colorful language when it involved his Guardians.
...He didn't know if it was the male Half-Mist and Cloud's or the Storms fault for driving him to that point.

In any case, Viper found themselves a broken child to watch and Skull a caretaker/ older-sibling figure he could actually look up to, expect love from and know he'd receive their help if needed.

And as for the reason Skull had that breakdown?
He had a nightmare about being killed by them and his already dead family that had thrown him out when they found out he was gay.