Cloud AU's

Conflict

Skull is a simpleton.
Skull is a stuntman.
Skull is an ex-Civilian.
Skull is a born Lackey.
Skull is the Cloud Arcobaleno.
The Weakest Arcobaleno.

All these are things said and spread far and wide about him; everybody who's heard his name knows of them.

But do they really know him?
Do they know the person who 'Skull' is? Do they know what he's thinking? His intentions? His views, his priorities?

Of course not. Otherwise they would know that he is at war.
Constantly, with himself and his past and his Famiglia.

with everything.

He's 16 years old, something everybody can see, but do they know his real age? Of course the answer is a variety of 'no'.

Nobody has ever asked him anything about himself, only assumed and derived things from there. If they had, they would know that he's 16

since 1647, that is.

That he was and still is older than almost everyone they knew, that he was 375 years old today, but had stopped celebrating his birthday as there is no one to celebrate it with him, nor did his birth hold any importance to him or what could be regaled close family.

He simply lived as that is the only thing he couldn't change about himself. He lived and found disappointment and sometimes even solace in that fact. He lived. Alone and without relying on anyone. Attachments would make him loathe the fact that those bonds rusted over time and broke, leaving him behind.

And from this repetition he's learned many things. Such as the fate of an immortal such as him to a human. Derisively, it was like a human to a fruit fly.

He could change his appearance, make himself look like an elder, a woman or a baby or even a cripple - but it wouldn't change him as a person.
He could also speak most languages used today and even remembered some from way back when, although the words ellude him often when he wasn't using them ling (he's forgotten many, but the voices echo and clog his ears).
He only used those when cursing or celebrating the death-day of one of his few friends in recent days. (Does it count as recent if he's been doing it for more than 50 years?)

He knew how to work most weaponry as he'd studied mechanics and a few other things before, some even under a different name. Working on his bike was one of the most constant and time-consuming activities he actually did.
He had it for barely more than a decade but he wouldn't part from it for anything. It was his silent companion that would accompany and bring him anywhere and everywhere - he'd dubbed it Halsey.

His prowess as a mechanic was overlooked by many, regarded as being limited to a hobby with his motorcycle. How wrong they were. He could disassemble and reassemble a gun in 5 seconds flat if asked - his fingers being quite nimble in their work from all the crafts he's used them in.

He could be caught dead in the desert, an earthquake, a volcano eruption, thrown into the sea or even hit with Reborn's Chaos shot or petrified by Sky Flames - nothing could kill him.

Well, ok, it would stall him for a while -maybe a month?- but nothing could keep him chained to anything. The only thing he was chained, bound to, was life.
He was forced to be the single survive no matter what in everything.

A curse, in all honesty.

Hence he tried to make life seem more appealing for himself, instead of failing to tolerate his own existence. He made fun of everything even if there was no reason for him to. At times even his own patheticness. Often he seemed annoying and unrealistic, naive to his fellow Arcobaleno and other outsiders.

It was a facade to fool himself. One he'd surely discard in the next hundred years, again and again and again. As often as it took to avoid trouble.

But it wasn't like nobody knew of his existence. Kawahira had found signs that 'something' was as long-living as him and hiding in human society. He was looking for 'it', to find out who or what they are and maybe recruit them for his cause.

The Vindice were also looking for him. Well, not directly. They were looking for many people: women, men, children and elderly alike. But all of which shared one distinctive trait - Cloud flames.
They had been suspicious and on their radars before they disappeared and another strange individual reappeared - almost like a shapeshifter...

They were a top priority.

And, may he just say, Skull was excellent at avoiding all of them.

-until Kawahira had, through pure accident, found him in his circus cabin and invited him to the meeting of the strongest 7. And things spiraled from there like an episode of Gintama.

With his problems being ignored, pushed aside even, multiple times.

Until an earth and two skies noticed his facade and slowly started to peel each layer off, fragment by fragment and piece by piece. Each layer made him seem different; stronger, less vulnerable, vicious, idiotic, etc.

They were all made in a hopeless attempt to protect himself, each layer stronger than the previous, twisting and stretching his own image to the point even Skull hadn't realised how much he'd fooled his own emotions and forgot his own ego. His original personality.

Oftentimes when that happened, Enma had to use his Earth attribute to help calm him down along with a cuddle session to try and help the other ease his centuries old heart and burden. Nobody was deserving of something like that.

And admittedly, Skull was grateful for receiving help, as much as he tried to run away from it.
He wasn't used to it and neither did he ever want that kind of exposure. But he had learned to trust a few individuals, and he trusted them to find him - the real him who'd hidden himself even from himself. A coward.

Plus they did it at his place, not with a Mist 'dusting' every corner of his mind at their leisure.

And the conclusion they found, was an ease to Skull's mind and a shock to Enma, Tsuna and belatedly Kawahira, who had been made to come to terms with it. With what? The 'thing' he had pursued was his nephew, his actual nephew.
A descendant of his race. In a way, Skull was like Seraphina, Uni's ancestor, except that he was a Cloud who had inherited the clans longlovety and who's flames strengthened it to unfathomable lengths!

So in a way, Skull was actually Uni's and Kawahira's family.
And he later made sure to work that out with them later.

At least, now he wouldn't be as lonely as he was and would get some more answers to his questions. He had family and was no longer alone.
And Kawahira had even apologized for trying to kill Skull with the Arcobaleno War, he had not originally intended it like that if he'd known who he was. To make up for it, he even became defensive for him towards the other Arcobaleno of his own volition, specifically Reborn and Colonello, who had never restrained themselves in making fun of and using Skull.

He would be fine.

And if, for some reason, the Arcobaleno - Aria, Uni, Fon, Viper, Verde, Lal, Reborn and Colonello - would follow him around as ghosts when they died due to their bond then that would be fine with him. The more the merrier, they say.