63. Rot

(TYL) Rei

"Rei-chan, get down here RIGHT NOW!"

Rei flinched at the sharp call from all the way at the foot of the tree.

"Lussuria?" he had to wonder.

Quickly, Rei made his way down the tree, jumping down branch to branch and eventually landing on the ground.

"What do you think you're DOING, going up to face the temperatures in today's weather? You're going to get sick!"

"Sorry, Mama Lussuria." Rei apologized, but his tone was semi-monotone, "Mimi was doing some recon work with me."

"You didn't need to be on top of the tree to do that."

"Oh, you're right."Rei realized.

Lussuria sighed, "Goodness, just nine years ago you were a sickly boy that couldn't handle a stormy night." he whined, "I'm the only one left that's worried about your condition, dear."

"I'm alright, really." Rei assured him, "Ever since my miraculously successful lung transplant, my issues have been minor things like asthma and stuff."

"That's not minor at all!" Lussuria retorted.

Rei pouted, "Not my fault the gods are desperate to make me suffer."

"Regardless!" Lussuria snapped, "Leave everything to your little Mimis and head inside. That's enough work for you today!"

"Yessir, Mama Lussie."

-

Upon going back inside the mansion, Rei headed to his room. He found a vase on his desk-- a vase that contained two stems of white lilies.

Drew's favourite flowers, Rei recalled. White lilies.

I wonder who brought them in?

"VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIII!!!!" Squalo's yelled was heard all throughout the mansion, reverberating through the walls as if he used a megaphone.

Rei jumped like the scaredy rat he was, and turned around quickly. "Squalo?"

-

Russo

Securing bandages over the whole length of his arm, Russo stretches, moves his arms about, and determined if his arms were in working condition. He hides the rest of the roll in the desk drawer, and pushes it shut,

Russo draped his long, black coat over himself, and passed the mirror on his way out. Black long coat, black hair, and bright red eyes-- 

"I look like an anime character now,  don't I?" he mused.

His eyes drifted to the red gem pendant around his neck. Picking it up, he pecks it affectionately, with his lips, once. With a smile, he whispered to himself:

"I'll be off."

-

(TYL) Rei

"ARE YOUR NECKS STILL FUCKING ATTACHED, LOUSY BRATS?!?"

Shutting his ears tight, Rei walked toward the source of the sound. The living room? No, it's the room that-- oh wait, found them nevermind.

When he entered, Squalo and Belphegor were squabbling, punching and kicks and knives and blood flying-- 

Rei facepalmed.

He headed toward the screen, where he could see the other end of the conversation. Stepping over the quarreling idiots and smiling at the shocked faces. 

"Hi there, Tsuna, Gokudera and Takeshi." Rei greeted them.

"VOi, what are you doing here too??" Squalo turned around from his battle.

"Even if you say that, you screamed so loudly I bet those lilies in my room wilted at the noise." Rei whined.

"Wait, Rei-san??" Tsuna's surprised tone came from the screen, "What-- you're the Rei from ten years in the future? You're in the Varia??" 

"Yeah! Didn't we meet a few months ago?" Rei chuckled, "Ah, I was on a job, so I wasn't wearing my uniform."

"No way, you qualified?" Gokudera was shocked too, "Despite the Varia Quality and all? You're an assassin now?"

An Assassin. Rei was affected by that term.

It was true for him-- in many ways, and it was something he'd long gotten over.  But these people were more familiar with the him of ten years ago. The emotionally unstable brat that still hadn't grown up.

So he just smiled at them.

"Yeah. I'm much more inexperienced compared to everyone else, but I'm a proud member of the Varia now." I explained, "It might seem weird, because you're just over fighting them, but the Varia are some cool people!"

With one last smile, Squalo shoved Belphegor aside and turned to the screen.

"Whatever! I hope we meet again in this lifetime!" he screamed at the screen with bloodshot, angered eyes, "Until then, don't die!!"

He shut the screen off-- and turned to Rei and Belphegor with those same menacing eyes.

Rei and Belphegor met eyes-- uh, they turned to each other silently for a second-- then bolted out of the room at the same time, laughing.

-

Russo

"Hi there, Kyouya-san." 

Russo and found his way into the Hibari's side of the base, and even into the specific room Hibari was residing in. 

He swiped the door open loudly, causing Kusakabe to jump in surprise and freak out, "Wait a minute, how did you get in here? When?"

Russo chuckled, "I got lost and found myself here!"

Hibari tuts, picking up his cup of green tea, sitting down calmly on his knees, not sparing the male a glance. "Get out of here, herbivore. You stink like rotten meat."

And I dare to say, even Kusakabe was mortified at the usage of language. 

Russo laughed out loud the hardest he'd ever, so much that he shed some tears in the process. "You're so mean, Kyouya-san." Russo stepped into the room anyways, "No one's ever said that to me before!" 

Dismissing Hibari's hostile demeanor, he sat down on the tatami as well, on his knees. 

Kusakabe decided to excuse himself before war erupted.

And now Hibari didn't seem to chase him out any longer. He simply grumbled a resigned "What do you want?" followed by a sip of tea.

"Nothing much, really." Russo didn't smile. "Just wanted to talk."

Cracking open one eye, Hibari observed the male. The mysterious male that never really spoke his heart-- Hibari didn't exactly hate him, but he acknowledged Russo was a little more Carnivorous than the average. Sometimes.

But other times, he wasn't even herbivore. Sometimes, Russo seemed a frail as a freaking plant waiting to be eaten.

"I'm not strong, Kyouya-san." He said, "I'm weak, and only getting weaker." 

Hibari raised an eyebrow. What was this sudden herbivorous chatter?

"Even now, I don't think I'd be able to last to the end of this war." Russo admitted. "That's why, Kyouya-san, I came here to spill my guts about something."

"I refuse." Hibari immediately responded.

"Y'see, it was about sixteen years ago now-- oh, I'm 37 now by the way--" Russo's smile finally crawled up to his face, "So basically, I woke up in the middle of an alley in Sicily, with a bullet hole in my skull!"

Hibari glowered, not wanting to listen to his neverending stories-- but put the tonfa down as he reminded himself nothing could stop this herbivore from speaking until he was done.

"I didn't have a name, and I didn't know who I was, so I made myself a new name and a new identity and began to live as a Mafioso!" Russo fake cheered. "With a bullet hole in my head!"

"Well, that certainly explains your idiocy." Hibari mumbled absent-mindedly.

Russ chuckled awkwardly, "But years after that, I realize that my spirit-- ironically and in a cheesy way, my soul was alive; but my body was not."

His tone changed into a deeper, more serious tone, and that caught Hibari's attention.

"Then eventually I realize I could not feel pain. My wounds no longer healed--" Russo's smile was stretched wide-- and Hibari mildly compared him to a madman-- "And well, sometimes, can't move parts of my body."

Hibari gulped. Russo, although always happy-go-lucky, actually looked absolutely serious for once. This striked Hibari as strange. Not that Hibari was scared or anything-- just-- curious.

"Do you know what that means, Kyouya-san?" Russo smiled again.

Pulling his shirt collar a little away from his neck, Russo exposed his nape.

Hibari's breath held. One section of the skin was a grease of dark, maroon brown and bile green and sick white. Like rust, the section like a growth from a plague or of-- rotten flesh.

"I don't just smell like rotten meat, Kyouya-san." Russo smirked.  "I'm a legitimate Zombie."