NOTE: 'Regent' is a short series of One-Shots based around Xanxus/OC. May refer to characters from 'Sky Drive' (used to be 'Empyrean Hearts'). The option to read 'Sky Drive' is up to you.
A violent unrehearsed chorus of screams was always dominant in the Varia mansion. There was never a day where you wouldn't hear a chair breaking, a wall crumbling, or Squalo's bitch fits. But what was very uncommon among them was when Xanxus of all people started yelling. Well actually that was always very common but every since a certain woman reentered his life, his bitch fits were endless and nerve raking.
Now that his son reached the age of 14, fights between Xanxus and his wife seemed to grow. This was probably why she reduced her visits to once a year and forced the boy to spend Christmas with her. She hated these fights. She hated how she would come to the mansion thinking that she could start all over again only to leave with angry blood running down her clenched fists and a half broken heart. She knew that he hated this too. So did the rest of the Varia.
His wife was something like a Persephone— except with a less beautiful, goddess-like glow. She helped calm down Xanxus before he started throwing stuff at Squalo, she did the paperwork while Xanxus was out on a mission, and she cleaned his X-guns whenever he was drowning in paperweight. And like the goddess of spring, she always had to leave.
Back when they were newlyweds, she remembered always being alongside the Varia Boss. The sex was amazing whenever he was back from a mission and a diplomat had pissed him off. He was never slow with her, never careful. She liked it like that.
The first major fight they had was during her pregnancy with Steffan, Xanxus had gone a little too far, ordering her to make him a fillet mignon 7 o'clock in the morning. She didn't come back till three months later when her stomach was starting to swell like a whale. He started to treat her slightly better after that.
She remembered the first time she met Xanxus. She was eight at the time, and her father had introduced him to her first before her brothers in fear that his children wouldn't accept the kid.
"Gabriella, this is your brother Xanxus." he said, patting the nine year old lightly. He glared at her, "Xanxus, this is your new sister Gabriella."
She never questioned her father; he was the ninth Vongola boss so his word was absolute. Besides she never really thought much on the fact that she only had three real brothers anyways. She held out her hand, "Welcome to the de Giulio family!" she said smiling. When her father left the room with a satisfied smirk, she quickly ran to the windows telling him that he now had the privilege of knowing every inside joke and secret pathway shared only by the young heirs.
For the first time in Xanxus' nine year old life, he felt welcomed.
The years passed by like that, surprisingly with aid of Gabriella, Xanxus was well received by the Ninth's sons- Massimo, Federico and Enrico. But unlike Gabriella, they already knew the truth about Xanxus. This fact went ignored and forgotten the more and more they spent time with each other.
The two of them did almost everything together, it seemed like Gabriella was the only person Xanxus could tolerate and she was the only person who could tolerate his short temper. They sat together during dinner, had lessons together and almost at every party, they would be in the corner and just talk to each other like a good brother and sister would.
It wasn't until the Ninth sent him off to the Academy did he change dramatically. The summer when the academy finally let out and the sixteen year old came back to the mansion sporting an ugly buzzcut was when she realized just how much a single person can change. He didn't joke around with her anymore, didn't tease her every time she fell or did something wrong, conversations were awkward between the two, it was during this time that she realized she couldn't possibly be related with him. He had jet black hair- she had chocolate brown. He had angry crimson eyes—her a baby blue.
Gabriella came to the conclusion that he was adopted.
She was proven right the day she turned 16 and her father was making her choose a suitor from a book that Reborn had prepared. She had that book snatched away from her more than twice, had to save it from being dipped in an acid puddle and had to put it back together again page by page after one of her brothers decided to tear all the pages out and hide it all around the mansion when Reborn was away- none of these pranks were made by Xanxus though. Gabriella decided it was better to leave it alone.
Of course, then came that day she was sitting on the coach tiredly by herself flipping through the book. She was about to fall asleep when Xanxus came out of nowhere, throwing his Varia jacket at her and slouched on the couch, taking up most of the space. He smelled strangely of tequila and cognac. She just tossed the jacket off, already used to this kind of behavior and continued to flip through the book.
She almost screamed when Xanxus leaned over, his hot breath near her ear and asked, "What are you doing?"
She continued to flip through the book, too afraid that he might see the blush creeping up her face. Dammit, he's my brother!She thought to herself and silently wondered how much alcohol he consumed.
"Xanxus..." she stared at him wearingly, thinking up one of the many ways to check just how wasted he was, "I want a hug."
He only stared at her with an eyebrow raised before grumbling and pulling her into his lap, hugging her lightly.
Gabriella could've sworn her face exploded as she mentally reminded herself to tell her father to put a limit at how much alcohol Xanxus was allowed to consume. He grabbed the book in a drunken daze and started to flip through the book, "you getting married?"
"Yeah..." she muttered awkwardly, she heard him grumble angrily before flipping to a random page. "This one."
Gabriella turned a million different shades of red. "B-but..."
Xanxus passed out before she even had a chance to form proper sentences, leaving her to stare at the page with XANXUS DE GIULIO written all over it.
She didn't notice how DE GIULIO was crossed out and replaced with L'KRYX until the next day when Reborn had asked her who she would choose. As she merely said she wanted more time, she wondered if that was his real name.
As time passed, the two went back to their normal lives, Xanxus back to his grumpy and now alcohol-restricted self and Gabriella with suitors all at her heels (Reborn finally decided it was better for her to just meet all her potential husbands in person). The two stopped talking to each other altogether and her brothers kept trying to embarrass her in front of her suitors. Life really did return to normal after Xanxus and her brothers had to return to the Academy for their second year.
The day she finally decided on a suitor was the day Enrico died. Lately, Xanxus was hanging out in the Varia Mansion more and more, only returning home way past dawn. When Enrico died, her decision to get married and leave the house, though unknown to her at the time, saved her life (her decision to listen to Squalo that one time he told her leave Xanxus alone would've too but that was a different story).
Dante Estello was a man that almost radiated of accomplishment and good fortune. He was the ninth head of the Cavallone family and was a good six years older than her. At the time, Gabriella was only 18 when he proposed, he had spent a good two years chasing after her and felt ecstatic the day she finally accepted his proposals. She knew he meant well though, after years of studying from the book- she knew he was a polygamist but yet he held no ill fortune, he simply didn't know how to say no. The age border didn't even phase her one bit.
So she accepted his proposal, seeing as she was better off with him than any of the other suitors. The ring he gave her drove all her doubts about this marriage away anyways; it almost looked like a wedding ring. A beautiful 24 karat diamond sat sparkling on the silver band, cut into the shape of a small heart with golden wings holding it in place. It fit perfectly on her finger. It was the only thing from Dante that she loved with all her heart and soul.
Xanxus didn't think the same of it though; having caught a glimpse of it one day as he was walking by and Gabriella was toying around with the TV remote. He picked a fight, asking if she was getting married and why the ring was so ugly. That day the girl left the Vongola mansion, fuming like mad and sought temporary refuge at her fiancé's mansion.
Dante thought it would be a good idea then to take her to the Caribbean as a way to tame her anger. They were gone for a few weeks and during thse weeks, Gabriella had no idea what was going on back home. She didn't know a coup d'état was staged against the Vongola. She didn't know the Varia was finally rebelling. She didn't know the lasts of her brothers died during this battle. She didn't know Xanxus was encased in a block of ice in the dark corners of the basement until she came back and Reborn had dragged her to be her father's audience.
She didn't take the news well, screaming and crying as her father's guards carried her out of his private quarters and into her room where she would be locked into for days. Later Reborn explained to her that the Ninth was suspicious that she would attack him too. The news shocked her even more as she refused to eat or talk; only staring out her window sadly and sleeping when her body demanded it.
After a little while they let her fiancé see her, in fear that she might've been dying in her room and no one knew it. She talked if only for a few sentences, ate a slice of cake or two and finished off some of the homemade pizza Dante had brought over just in case she was hungry. It was progress, if only a little but it didn't aid in her mental health.
When the ninth ruled she was not a threat and allowed her out of her room, the first place she went to was the basement. Where Xanxus was in his little case of ice. It took hours to find but when she finally did, she was glad that there was a chair nearby.
Xanxus looked the same as ever, he looked absolutely furious, his clothes were slightly ripped and she noticed that his raccoon tail was starting to fall off. She could feel him glower at her as she sat down quietly.
"I'm still mad at you, ass hat." she started nonchalantly as she tried her best to maintain her poker face. It was so hard not to give in to the temptation and pity and free him of the icy prison already, "I really am getting married because of you"
She knew he could hear her. She remembered Reborn briefly explaining to her about the Zero Point Breakthrough. It only aided in her pity for Xanxus
"I don't love him, you know... I could see you throwing a beer bottle at me now..." she winced at the thought, "remember when we were little and you asked how I would to be married? Yeah well, it wouldn't be a wedding if you weren't there screwing it up would it?"
She smiled a bit and scratched the back of her head, oh how much of an idiot she felt like now... "You'd be there, in a suit sitting by yourself in the bar and I'll walk over and then you'll look at me strange before saying 'you clean up well' and then I'll slap you and tell you that you're supposed to say congrat- ahh.. I'm blabbering aren't I?"
She stretched and stared at Xanxus mutely, "I know we're not siblings Xanxus. We all did. And I'm sorry for not telling you sooner... Y-you're not going to see me again."
And with that said, she left. Never setting foot in her former home for the ten years that followed.
It was a rainy day and Squalo had just been called out by an old friend—Buckling Bronco. Apparently the ninth Cavallone boss had just been assassinated and they needed backup to help fight back the enemy. He was dead moody right now; Xanxus had made a bitch fit right before he left, demanding why his filet mignon wasn't cooked right. And the terrible weather and timing was just horrible.
He found Dino battling off some Mafiosi the second he got into Cavallone grounds. "Yo! Bronco, watch out!" he screamed as he jumped over the blond and killed his enemies in one swift swipe. The fights went off like that. Dirty trails of blood stained his jacket and he made note to wash it when he got home.
When the fighting was finally over, it was already midday the next day. Squalo had guessed Xanxus would be throwing another bitch fit at the moment and made an effort to leave. What he overheard Dino saying to Romario next immediately changed his mind, "did you find Gabriella de Giulio yet?"
"VOI! What about that damn woman?" he remembered when he was younger; he occasionally had tea with her. Once he heard her name being muttered out during one of Xanxus' vodka hangovers. It was strange; nowadays he was hearing nothing about the ninth's daughter's activities. It was almost as if she was dead.
Dino probably didn't know how close that woman was to the Varia, "Gabriella de Giulio. She was living here with the ninth head. We haven't found her yet..." he trailed off and Squalo rolled his eyes at the new found information, "VOOI! I'm leaving now then; I don't have time for this bullshit!"
He really didn't. Not when he knew what Xanxus would do when he found out what he was doing.
The sky broke free of its rainy prison, sunlight seeped through and ironically one of them hit Dino as he bid him farewell, making him look like one of Luss' wet dreams had came true.
Squalo almost threw up as he left hastily.
As he made his way to the Varia mansion he mutely wondered what would the boss do if he told him that his foster sister had gone missing. He remembered him getting so angry that minute he was out of the ice prison, demanding for her presence only to find out she was living with her fiancé in England. He was fuming and had Squalo not stopped him, he would've broken the foundation of the impregnable Vongola mansion. He wondered why they moved back to Italy and what they're relationship was. Eight years earlier, he knew that he cared for her like a dickhead of an older brother would for his younger sister but every since the cradle incident, he began to doubt his boss. Was he starting to like his ex-foster sister? How close were they exactly? Would he still care for her?
Something tumbling to the ground behind broke him out of his thought, he whipped around just as a bloodied woman staggered toward him in a zombie like trance. Squalo had to admit, it was kind of creepy; her hair was all in her face, chocolate hair was matted with blood and her clothes made her look like she was the Grudge or something. He would've turned back had he not heard her muttering, "S-se... Squalo?"
He watched as the ninth's daughter staggered toward him, a trail of blood following behind her and her arms that were decorated with cuts and bruises. He caught her when she tripped over a tree branch and twisted her ankle; Gabriella looked at him as if she wanted to say something but ended up coughing up blood and blacking out in his arms.
The next few moments were a blur, all he knew was that he called Dino and told him that he found the ninth's daughter and was bringing her back to the mansion since it was closer, hurled her over his shoulder and returned to the mansion half panting and covered in blood. He didn't know what he was thinking as he swung open the doors only to be met with the furious eyes of Xanxus.
"Trash, where the shut were you?" he asked angrily as he drained a bottle of tequila that was in his hands, he didn't let Squalo answer as he glanced at what he was carrying, " there will be no dead bodies in my house."
Squalo honestly didn't know what he was doing then. Didn't know why he brought back a half dead girl, didn't know why he didn't leave her in the hospital the way, didn't know why he didn't pick up groceries on the way back.
And he also didn't know if he was having a nightmare as he watched his stone cold boss stare at the woman carefully before gently taking her off his shoulder and into the infirmary where he would spent the next few days alone with only a half dead woman and the doctors as company.
He honestly didn't know.
So there's the prologue for you! This was laying around in my notes on my phone for the longest time ever so I finally decided to get it up on fanfiction! So yeah… updates well be random and each chapter would be a oneshot.