"Hey shitty shark. Get up.", Xanxus barked out at Squalo.
He looked down at the body next to him, which was mangled and covered in fresh blood. It was unmoving.
Xanxus grunted and staggered a bit from the wound in his right shoulder. He knew that his entire arm was gone, completely chopped off, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the shark.
Usually Squalo would've responded by now. No matter how annoyed or irritated he would be of his boss, no matter how harshly Xanxus treated him, he always responded.
Silence engulfed the air. Everyone was just watching; Byakuran, Mukuro, Dino. No one dared make a move, in fear of Xanxus' fury or Jager's wrath.
Squalo's body remained the same.
...shark?
Xanxus' eyes closed as he recounted the previous scene. He had gone for Jager, trying to aim a shot at his head. Instead, Jager's speed gave him the opportunity to slash at him. The pain in his shoulder was sudden, and unbearable. The trigger he was supposed to pull was gone; dead. It was quite a blur after that; all he remembered was the cry of anguish he had held in, for he couldn't show weakness in front of such trash.
Vaguely he remembered hearing a yell from someone as his arm was cut off. Someone loud, someone angry; someone whose voice he was very accustomed to hearing. As his vision was blurring he saw the shark jump in front of him, ready to take Jager on. Next, a flurry of crimson engulfed his vision and Xanxus heard a bloodcurdling scream. A scream he never in his entire life thought he would hear. It was completely unlike Superbi Squalo, but it was absolutely him.
In that moment, Xanxus had been filled with the undeniable feeling of fear; something he had only felt once in his entire life. For, after that first time, the shark had always been by his side. Fear was something he never had to worry about. But here it was, and it ate at him; it ate at his very insides and his very heart. Looking at the man lying falling in front of him, hitting the earthen floor with a chilling thud; this was real fear.
But, there was no way the shark could be...
Xanxus' eyes widened and he looked down at Superbi Squalo's body. With the amount of blood sprayed all over his build, he was barely recognizable. In fact, the only way Xanxus could've recognized him was the length of his long, flowing hair, which was splayed all over the place; dyed red strands of hair tangled and covering parts of his face...
Xanxus gritted his teeth as a jumble of words passed through his mind...
"Hey Xanxus! I'm making a vow. Before that plan is realized, I'm not going to cut my hair. That's the wish I made. This is also the proof of my resolve to go along with you."
His hair...his trademark hair, Xanxus realized, was for him. Squalo had never cut his hair, and for one reason; to show his loyalty to his boss. Without Xanxus, Squalo would be a totally different person. He wouldn't be the Vongolian swordsman that everyone knew. In fact, he might've even been dead, since he was originally a candidate for the 10th Vongola boss; Squalo had said himself that he knew he could never beat Xanxus.
Without Xanxus, Squalo wouldn't be Squalo. He wouldn't be the loud, short-tempered, man that annoyed almost as many people as they annoyed him. But with Xanxus, he was the man that Xanxus could leave anything to. He was the only person Xanxus trusted, although he had never told him that. He was the Varia boss' right hand man, and he secretly, knew it. It was an unspoken fact that everyone knew.
When Xanxus woke up from his eight year slumber, Squalo was still there waiting for him. When Xanxus was being rejected by the Vongola rings, the only person who understood what he was going through was Squalo. He didn't know how he had known so much, and he didn't realize how much the shark had paid attention to his life; but it was nice having another person that knew what it was like.
Staring at his silver locks, Xanxus held his emotions in. Like always, he would never show weakness to anyone else. The only person that he allowed that privilege to was Squalo, who had first handedly witnessed his confrontation with the Ninth. Xanxus would never open up to anyone ever again, for Squalo was the only one.
So when Xanxus realized that the shark was dead, when he felt as if his heart stopped, and when his throat choked up and his eyes widened, he kept those feelings inside. Those types of emotions had been exclusively for Superbi Squalo.
He saw Squalo's death flash before him, as if they were his own, as if Squalo were his own. He saw the body fly back lifelessly; saw it land next to him in a crunch. He looked at Squalo's body and felt as if he should be dead too. It was just another example of how life was so unfair to him. He felt regret for all the times when he was a jerk to Squalo, to the man that he would give his life for. He saw in those silver locks, eight years worth of love, loyalty, and patience for his beloved boss.
And Xanxus wished that he was the same for Squalo. And that maybe if he wasn't so ignorant and hadn't gone for Jager himself, maybe Squalo wouldn't have died. His beloved shark.
It had really just dawned on him the last eight years of his life. Through all the times when he was drunk and out of it, with more stress than he could handle, the shark was always there for him...
Then he remembered that he was in the middle of a fight. The fight that took his friend's life.
Jager.
Xanxus gritted his teeth.
Thank you, Superbi Squalo...
He clicked his gun, ready to shoot.
...For eight years...
And the scars grew like wildfire on not only his face, but his entire body. He felt as alive as ever, despite the loss of his right arm.
He was going to kill Jager if it was the last thing he ever did.