Everything had gone all wrong right from the beginning.
It had been very quiet at the Varia base. Well quieter than usual. The silence didn't actually last that long. Xanxus was still ordering his right hand man around and throwing everything in his sight at the poor Squalo. But the rest of the Varia had all gone on vacation courtesy of their boss, which was highly unusual and unlike him.
When they were told the news, Belphegor had just given his usual sadistic smile. Mammon didn't really care too much, he would just go off and scam someone else out there. Lussuria smiled, winked at Squalo and told him to have fun (which caused Squalo to shout at him as he left. "Voii! Piss off!"). And Levi, well Levi was the only person who objected to the vacation. He did not want anyone else to be left alone with their boss, especially not Squalo. If anything it should've been him. So as he begged and pleaded to stay, Squalo had to knock him out and drag him into the car. The rest of the Varia left quickly as to not give Levi the chance to regain consciousness, the silver haired swordsman put his hand against his head, swore a bit before letting out a sigh and walking back into the mansion to go and cater to some other bullshit need his boss had.
Xanxus lay there on his chair in his office watching the rest of his subordinates leave. He smirked to himself. He was definitely going to enjoy the rest of this week. Just as he was about to call Squalo over, the phone rang. "Fuck!" He growled as he went to pick it up. His fun was going to have to be put on hold.
Squalo lay on his bed facing the ceiling whilst staring at his reflection through his newly polished sword. He was contemplating his life during these last eight years. What had he actually accomplished? Most of that time was spent on researching Xanxus and his past, there was very minimal training that had occurred. And yet, why? Who would spend so long waiting for someone when there was such a little chance that they would be coming back. Who wouldn't have spent the rest of their teen years doing what ever the hell teens did.
He let out a deep sigh and put his sword down on his bedside table.
"It's probably true," he muttered to himself, "I love him."
There were countless moments where Xanxus would unexpectedly grab the swordsman and pull him into a rough kiss, many nights where Squalo would scream his name as Xanxus thrust himself relentlessly into his second in command. But still, he never actually hated it. He had grown accustomed to it over time and soon learnt to enjoy himself even though his pride would never let him admit it to the other's face.
'I need to tell him my feelings.'
'He wouldn't believe you.'
'But I'm worried that if I don't tell him now, he will go off and find some other willing slut.'
'He wouldn't care. He doesn't feel anything.'
'But still…'
Squalo screamed out in frustration.
"Fuck my life," he mumbled. Why did he have to fall in love with a being incapable of feeling any emotion but anger.
All of a sudden, he heard a large crash, the shattering of glass and then his boss's voice ringing through the air.
"TRASH! Get over here now!"
Squalo sighed again. 'That proves my point.'
In his office, Xanxus felt extremely mad. So as soon as he saw the silverette walking through his door, he couldn't help but throw his empty wine bottle at him. It flew through the air and hit Squalo right in the middle of his forehead.
"VOOOIIIIIII!" What the fuck was that for!" He exclaimed rubbing his head in pain.
"Shut up noisy shark," growled Xanxus. He got up off his chair and grabbed his jacket. "We're leaving for a meeting. Come on."
"Fine," he mumbled as he followed his boss out the mansion.
It had been a five hour drive to the forest they were going to meet in. Xanxus had received a call from Tsuna telling him to hear out the other family who Xanxus couldn't be bothered remembering their name. They were trying to create a peace treaty between the two sides so violence would be a last resort only in a desperate situation. Xanxus told Tsuna to stop bitching and that he knew what he was doing. And with that, he hung up on the Vongola boss.
And now in the car staring out the window, he was still extremely pissed and feeling kind of tired. He let out a yawn and started to close his eyes before the car stopped.
"We're there boss," said the driver, a random Varia subordinate.
He grunted his reply before getting out of the black car and slamming the door shut. Then he started to make his way to the centre of the woods followed by his trusty swordsman. When they got there, they were greeted by three men standing there waiting patiently. The man in the middle had a briefcase in his hand.
"So who are these people anyways?" Squalo whispered.
Xanxus just shrugged, he had absolutely no idea, trash wasn't worth his time.
He approached the man in the middle.
"Hello Xanxus, my name in Dabile and you no doubt know that we're here to talk about establishing a peace treaty between our two families. Now firstly… Blah blah blah…"
Xanxus' eyes began to close and he slowly dozed off in the middle of their conversation.
"So basically," he said opening his briefcase and sliding something out, "we're asking you, the Varia, to ditch the Vongola and work for us instead." He pulled a gun out and pointed it at the half-asleep man.
"Vooooooooiii! There is NO FUCKING WAY that that is happening!" Squalo shouted and with that, he pulled out his sword and knocked the other man to the ground as well as the gun out of the man's hand.
"As expected," he chuckled slowly getting up, "you're much too proud to accept this offer. Then we shall do this the fun way." As he finished his sentence, many unknown faces began to emerge from the woods. They were surrounded. And then, in a split second, all hell broke loose. Gunfire erupted and bullets flew everywhere. Squalo charged at the gunsmen and skilfully weaved his way through them, running his sword through their soft skin. There were screams as bodies started to collapse onto the ground. Meanwhile, Xanxus just stood there, still half asleep, unaware of the chaos going on around him.
Squalo smirked, this was a piece of cake. He decapitated the man closest to him and stopped to admire his work. The pure and once green grass had now been tainted with the blood of many. He surveyed the trees. Most of the backup men were gone. Some ran, some died. All of a sudden, he saw a glint of metal in the forest. It was a sniper aiming his loaded gun right onto the half conscious Varia boss.
"VOOOOOOIIIIIIII! Boss! WAKE UP!" Squalo shouted futilely but Xanxus didn't even flinch. He started to run towards him. Bang! The bullet was shot and went whizzing through the air at high speeds. Squalo ran as fast as his legs would take him to try and intercept the bullet. The bullet pierced right through his chest and narrowly scraped his heart, but it had fatally punctured some of his other organs. Squalo collapsed onto the ground, blood spurting out of the wound.
In this time, Xanxus finally woke up. It was abnormally quiet. He first noticed the bodies covered in blood blanketing the once fresh green grass. Then he realised that his second in command was nowhere to be seen. He immediately looked down at the ground and noticed Squalo lying there, his silver hair sprawled all over the blood stained grass, soaking it up to become a bright crimson colour. He sensed the sniper in the forest and sent him a spine chilling glare causing him to flee for his own life. He knelt down next to the swordsman.
"Get up trash." He said coldly.
"Sorry boss, I can't." Squalo looked into his boss's eyes.
"You get up right NOW. That's an order. I can't have you dying on me trash."
"I can't. This will be my last mission, sorry for being so useless." He coughed, blood starting to trickle from his mouth down the side of his face. "I was too weak to help you achieve your goal, and now look at me." He managed a weak chuckle.
"Are you listening? Do you dare to fucking disobey me?"
"S… Shitty boss…" Squalo mumbled. 'I need to tell him my feelings now. It's my last chance. "H…Hey Xanxus. I need to tell you something important…"
But before he could say anymore, Xanxus put his arm behind Squalo's head, leaned in and pulled the dying man into a kiss. This wasn't like their normal kisses where it felt like Xanxus was selfishly devouring him, this kiss was passionate and loving, which was very out of character for Xanxus. Squalo's eyes widened at first from surprise, but he returned it with the same amount of emotion behind it. Did this mean that this whole time, his love had never been one-sided? That as much as Xanxus seem to torture him, he had always cared about the silver haired swordsmen?
Xanxus, out of breath, eventually pulled away but never broke eye contact. The whole time, his facial expression had never changed, always wearing that same serious look. But Squalo could tell that behind those ruby eyes, he was in despair and sure as hell furious. He smiled weakly. He could feel the warm blood quickly leaving his body, he was not much longer for this world. With whatever strength left that he could muster, Squalo said four short words in his dying breath.
"I love you Xanxus."
And with that, his pulse faded away, his breathing stopped and the last of his life left his body. Using his fingers, Xanxus softly closed Squalo's eyes and slowly picked him up bridal style. His left arm cradling the dead man's head close to his chest, not giving a damn about the blood staining his clothes. Anyone left over was too scare to even move. No one in their right mind would be willing to confront Xanxus in the state he was in.
So he carried Squalo back through the forest to where their car was parked.
'How could such a simple mission go so wrong?'
The driver said nothing when he saw Xanxus emerging out of the woods with the dead swordsman in his arms. Xanxus laid the body along the back seats and sat himself in the front. He wiped the blood off his lips from their last kiss and gazed out the window, his heart still in pain from the loss. The car slowly began to move as they started their journey back to the Varia mansion.
Not once did he shed a tear.