Packages rarely came to the Varia headquarters.
Even if one did, it would be either Xanxus' carton of Tequila, Lissuria's monthly B.B (Body Builders') magazine or Flan's mini frog collectables.
Over time, Squalo had become the 'package collector' since everyone in the morning ignored the persistent calls of the package guy. Given that his room was closest to the front door; all sounds went through the gaps in the window and straight into the ears of a not-happy-Squalo. He would yell a loud 'VOOOOOIII!!!' waking up the whole mansion in the process (and scaring the shits out of the package guy), and storm to the door to grab the parcel.
If it was Xanxus' big Tequila package, he would put it on his boss' desk in his office.
If it was Lissuria's medium B.B package, he would personally smack it into the sleeping guy's face.
And lastly if it was Flan's small frog package, he would set the frog croaking sensor on and put it right beside the sleeping boy's ear.
But today, there was something odd about the package.
Squalo had woken up hearing the doorbell ring and automatically thought about the delivery of someone's package. Although grumbling along the way, the man opened the front door to receive it but to his surprise, saw no sign of the package guy. The silver head looked down at the package in front of him, and found that its size didn't match up to any of the three packages that usually came.
It was really big.
He then realised something.
Christmas is in a week…don't tell me someone ordered a fake Christmas tree or something…
But strangely, there wasn't even a paper on the front telling who it was to or what its contents were. Squalo felt curiosity bubble inside of him and cautiously opened the flaps of the box. What he saw inside was nothing he expected.
There was a person in it, possibly sleeping(?) with a tiara-like crown on his head.
What the fuck!!?? The silver head looked around wildly, not knowing what to do and peered inside the box again. He then noticed a piece of paper stuck to the side and ripped it off to see what it was about.
It read 'Till the 25th of December' in a large, bold font.
Squalo scratched his head in thought, unable to work out why this blonde boy was in a cardboard box with a paper saying the date of Christmas day. But his thoughts were interrupted when a thunderous noise filled the atmosphere.
Damn that yawn of Levi's!! I'm definitely going to tape his mouth one day…
Now that everyone was probably awake (except the boss), Squalo had no time to think about what to do with the package. He did what any 'boy' would do if he found something out of the ordinary; that is hide it in his room, at least for now. Though the boy in the box appeared to look skinny, Squalo felt that he weighed more than the man expected, and while struggling a little in carrying the box, he managed to chuck it into his bedroom before a familiar face greeted him along the corridor.
"Buon giorno dear big brother!!" Lissuria flew towards the wide-eyed silver head in the hope of giving a rib-crushing hug, but the man noticed that the hungry blade of a sword was awaiting him.
"My! So violent, even in such an early morning!" The hippy-like man remarked, easily dodging the attack with a flip. Squalo gave him the eye to 'shut the fuck up and hurray the fuck up and make breakfast,' but as usual Lissuria seemed perfectly unaffected and went skipping off to the kitchen to do his magic. Even though Lissuria was a rather weird and 'non-manly' person who drove anyone up the wall, it was rumoured that he got into the Varia because his resume said he had a professional chef license. Before Lissuria had come, it was also said that everyone was living off two-minute-noodles and convenience store lunches, which was true, as much as Squalo didn't want to admit it.
The guy said he even cooked for the Queen herself…
But it's not like he cared if he ate caviar or shit. What was important to him was to be beside a certain someone.
Squalo went into his room and flopped onto his bed, as if all his energy had seeped away just thinking about the boss. He grabbed his pillow and squeezed it over his head, wanting to forget about everything for a second.
"Worried about something?"
Perhaps not. The voice had a hint of childishness which he didn't recognise. He turned around, expecting the boy to be staring at him with puppy-dog eyes or something, but the man realised that he wasn't in the box.
"I'm here! Shi-shi-shi!"
Weird laugh...As that thought crossed his mind, Squalo felt as though déjà vu had slapped him in the face. There was just something he wasn't grasping and it was like as if he was trying to remember a dream, so far away. He buried his face into his pillow, not bothered by the fact that he was slowly suffocating.
"Awww no fun! Wake up, wake up!" A pair of hands started rocking the man's body like a rag doll, to and fro, till the silver head's anger meter burst to the extreme. He started throwing all the pillows he could find in the direction of the voice. Squalo glanced to his left, about to slam a pillow down on the boy's head but stopped halfway, raising his eyebrows. The 'boy' seemed much older, maybe even hitting mid 20's, but the grin was full of childish mischievous.
"Where am I? He chirped, lying across the bed like a sprawled eagle and having a wide yawn.
Squalo paused for a moment, suspicious about whether the blonde could be a spy, but let the thought fly away seeing how exposed he was, lying about on the bed like a pampered dog. "Varia Headquarters, " he replied almost proudly.
The blonde however cocked his head to one side. "Va-ri-a? Never heard of it." He then glanced up at Squalo, that is if he could 'look' through that eye-covering-fringe. "Can I stay here Mr. Varia?"
No-one had addressed him like that before. "M-Mr. Varia!? You should be calling our boss that!" Squalo regretted saying that as the expression on the blonde turned to one of curiosity. "There's a boss?" He asked, his lips curving into a sly smile and the silver head hesitantly nodded.
"Can I meet him?" The question threw Squalo off so much he started laughing. "If you want to get a glass of Tequila smashed on your head then sur-" Knock knock. Squalo almost jumped out of his skin, and swiftly rolled off his bed, onto the floor and grabbed the door handle as it was turning.
The handle was creaking with pain as the two challenged their strength against each other with the metal. "Is your door handle broken? I can't seem to open it dear brother."
Don't. You. Fucking. Dare. Come. In.
However, Lissuria's long, hard body building sessions was starting to pay off as the man opened a slight gap in the door. "Don't tell me you're trying to hide porn magazines Squalo!" He cried, giggling in that high pitched tone of his and Squalo felt the temptation to rip the guy's voice box out and hurl it into the bottom of the sea.
"VOOOOIII! I'M NOT HIDING ANYTHING!!" He slammed the door shut with such force that it rocked the whole mansion, (this time successfully waking up the boss.)
Lissuria sighed with a smile. "If you say so, but be down in the dining room soon dear," the man remarked, hopping off to tell the other Varia members that breakfast was ready.
His hand was still gripping the handle, even thought he knew that Lissuria had gone. Squalo pointed at the blonde. "You," his finger pointed down, "stay here," his hand moved towards his neck, making a swift horizontal movement, "or die." Seeing that the blonde got the message, the man swung the door open and was about to leave, but a question came to his mind.
"What's...your name?" The words seemed new to his tongue. He wasn't used to becoming 'friendly' with another.
The blonde seemed to sense the discomfort in Squalo's voice and grinned in an amused manner. "It's Belphegor, but Bel for short Mr. Varia."
"I told you it's not Mr. Varia! It's Squalo!"
Bel was really curious about 'the boss.'
Is he strong? Is he scary? What does he look like? Questions appeared in his head faster than a packet of popcorn popping in the microwave.
He was just that damn curious, and so did what Squalo told him exactly not to do.
I wonder where the boss is…?
Even though Squalo had so desperately tried to hide Bel from Lissuria, it seemed that he wasn't planning to let the blonde stay for long. Without a sound Bel opened the unlocked door, keeping in mind that for any average person breakfast wouldn't take long. Hopefully the silver head would be prodding at his food for a while, at least until he came back from his secret sneak-out.
Surprisingly none of the members kept their rooms locked and after a few head poking into several rooms, the blonde found the person whom he wanted to meet. Through the gap between the door, Bel saw a man with a permanent frown on his face, though it wasn't as obvious because of his black fringe but just judging by his aura, the blonde knew he had hit the jackpot. He crept into the room, and it wasn't till he closed the door that the boss pointed his gun at the smiling Bel.
"Who the fuck are you?" His vermillion eyes were fixed upon the blonde as if a predator had 'locked on' to its prey.
Bel realised that he hadn't thought up any excuses and decided to make up one on the spot, even if it was to cause some mayhem to Squalo. "Uhm..." He paused, looking up at the ceiling then at the boss, "Squalo's secret son that he's been hiding...?"
The excuse was quite a wild one since Bel didn't resemble Squalo whatsoever, but the boss seemed to think otherwise.
Suddenly the atmosphere was revolving around the man and created a circle of aura, pulsating with rage.
"That piece of trash…if he's gone out sleeping with some woman, I'll shoot his balls off!" He took in his hand the other gun by his side, and started striding towards the door like a mad killer on the way to his daily slaughtering spree. "Get out of my fucking way," he growled, trying to shove Bel from his path towards the door.
The smile disappeared from Bel's lips.
"But why?"
His question contained only two simple words. Compared to the boss' guns, it had neither power nor speed since they were just words, but at that moment, those words became a much powerful weapon then those guns. Words can make one silent without being threatened by a weapon and that was exactly what had happened to the boss.
It was as if the man had lost his power of speech.
"Why are you angry? It's not like he's yours," as he said this, the muzzle of a gun came to contact with the blonde's forehead, but Bel knew it was quivering. Not from fear nor from rage, but from confusion.
"Shut the fuck up," the man said in low voice, gritting his teeth.
Bel stayed calm, smoothly lowering the gun down from his head and nodded his head in understanding. "Just as I thought, shi-shi-shi," the grin returned upon his face, but his tone of voice didn't seem to quite match its cheerfulness. "Why don't you plan something this Christmas Eve?"
"Like what?" The boss asked almost cautiously. He had a tendency to return questions with another question. Only Bel proved to be a step in front of him.
"What do you think?"
The man was caught off guard with the reply being another question, and his expression changed to one of annoyance.
"A…party?"
Bel shook his head, slightly disappointed with the big man of Varia.
"Think about it," he started, opening the door to take his leave.
"If you wanted to give a shark light and water at night, where would you take him?"
From that day, 6 days before Christmas Eve, Bel became a regular visitor to the boss whose name he found out was 'Xanxus.' Every visit he made, he asked for the answer to his little 'riddle,' but the answer was always the same.
"I don't know."
The blonde sighed; trying to ignore that fact that his mind was shouting to him about Christmas Eve…which was tonight. Time was running away as easily as water dripping out from a broken cup.
"Why do I have to even figure this out?" Xanxus tapped his finger on the wooden desk, juggling thoughts about his mountain of paperwork, missions that he had to give out to the Varia members tomorrow, a call from Vongola regarding some Christmas party and the riddle.
"Because if you figure it out, you, Squalo and I will be happy," Bel remarked, wishing for the hands of the clock to stop for just a moment.
"And I want you to be happy because…?" The boss raised his eyebrows, looking at the blonde.
A chuckle escaped Bel's mouth. "Oh, so you want Squalo to be happy?"
Xanxus hid a small pout on his lips and resumed working through his papers. Damnit, why does he easily put me off guard…
In the distance, there were the sounds of the city clock striking its hourly bell.
It was 11 o'clock at night…an hour till Christmas day.
Bel decided that he had to give an extra push to get the boss going.
"Who would be the shark out of the Varia members?"
The answer was quite obvious, but the boss still replied hesitantly. "…Squalo."
He moved onto his next question swiftly. "Where's a place that has lots of water in the city?"
"Namimori Fountain," Xanxus replied promptly, remembering that there had been an incident there.
The blonde had a wide grin on his face. "What's happening there in the sky tonight?"
Xanxus' dropped his fountain pen, its ink spilling onto the paper and bleeding to others. The man glanced at the clock on his wall.
11:10…there's still enough time…
He was about to run to the door but Bel caught onto Xanxus' shirt before he went zooming away.
"Wait, I have to be back in his room before you tell him."
"Where did you get that little Christmas decoration Squalo?"
"It was in an antique store. I bought it because it looked lonely."
"Don't be silly dear, decorations can't be lonely."
"I also bought it because it looked different from the other angels hanging on our Christmas tree.
"It does look different…it has a crown on its head...I've never seen that before."
"I haven't either."
Squalo opened his moonstone-like eyes and silently let his eyes pierce the darkness around him. He had never experienced a memory without any images and he lay in thought as to what the decoration looked like. A crown… He glanced towards the blonde figure sleeping beside him but shook his head.
"Impossible…"
All of a sudden, the door flew open with a loud bang and a figure walked in, turning the lights on and effectively blinding Squalo.
"Xan-…boss…what the fu-"
"In 30 minutes time, meet me without your uniform at Namimori fountains," Xanxus said in a commanding manner and then swung the door shut.
"What was all that about?" Bel pretended to wake up from a deep sleep, rubbing his eyes and yawning as wide as a cat. He watched the silver head stand up and start pacing around the room, fiddling with his sleeve.
"I think…the boss…just…asked…me out…" As if some important screw had come out of Squalo's head, he began jumping up and down from one end of his room to the other and the blonde chuckled, catching the jumping man.
Bel directed the man to his wardrobe and slapped him on the back. "Well get ready and off you go!"
Luminous white lights speckled the bodies of trees around the Namimori Fountain as they spread their branches far above, fusing together with the starlit sky. Children ran around, pointing at the brilliant prancing reindeer with the red nose or the star at the top of the fountain glistening with sapphire-like embedded jewels, as their parents admired the colourful lights dancing together with the water. There were tiny flames everywhere with everyone holding a candle in a cup as they looked up at the sky, waiting for something.
Squalo leaned against a wall away from the crowd but with a good view of the sky. But he was more concerned about whether he was going to freeze to death. The cold winds were seeping in through his white coat and he regretted the fact that he hadn't wore something warmer.
"Are you cold?" The deep voice made him jump the slightest, even though he knew it was just his boss.
"A little..." He took a glance at the man feeling a tinge of red spring up on his cheeks, and was grateful that it was night time. The boss looked so much sexier with casual clothes. It wasn't his fault that he was basically trying to hold in a massive nose bleed.
Suddenly his neck felt warmer. Squalo felt around his neck and found that there was a scarf wrapped around it.
"You can have it," Xanxus said, looking up.
A small laugh escaped the silver head's mouth. "What? Just for tonight?" Boss couldn't have got it as a Christmas present...he's never done that before...
"What do you think you idiot?"
Xanxus looked into his eyes.
"Look!" Someone shouted.
A moment later, the sounds of fireworks filled the sky as the clock tolled its bell.
"Merry Christmas Squalo."
It was around 2 when they came back. Squalo couldn't hide his joy and flew into his room.
"Bel! Bel! It was the greatest thing ever, I mean the bo-" He stopped, sensing no sign of the blonde.
On his desk, there was a small Christmas tree but with nothing on it.
Squalo saw a piece of paper on the flap of the cardboard box he had found Bel in and grabbed it, unable to stop his heart racing.
-
Merry Christmas Mr. Varia
Liked the present from the boss?
Hope you did, and don't lose me again or I'll be lonely
from the once lonely but now happy angel
-
In the box there was a Christmas decoration.
It was an angel with a crown on its head.
Notes from Yuhazaki:
Merry X'mas and lots of love to everyone^^
Also btw I got the title from Sakamoto Ryuichi's song 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,' replacing 'Lawrence' with 'Varia.'