"My head fucking hurts like a bitch…" Rubbing at the bandage around his head, Squalo sighed, not quite remembering what had happened; just the loud explosion of gunpowder earlier was still making his ears ring. Glancing down at the hospital bed he was sitting on, the man looked to Dino expectantly. "What the fuck happened?"

Dino was sitting next to his friend, his brown eyes softer than ever. "Xanxus went to shoot you in the head; if I hadn't had pushed you out of the way… The bullet grazed your head, and when you fell, you hit something…"

Squalo nodded in understanding. When he spoke, it was in a quiet voice. "You should have just let him shoot me, Bucking Horse… It'd have all been over otherwise… Next time someone has a fucking gun to my head, don't intervene; let them pull that fucking trigger."

"I could never do that, no matter how much you want me to, Squalo…" Feeling tears well up in his eyes with the stress of everything that had happened, Dino shook his head. "Never… You… You're too important to me, Squalo… I can't lose you…"

Rolling his sleeves up, Squalo revealed his scarred wrists, hoping the other would understand; was it so hard to others to grasp the fact that no matter how prideful he carried himself as, he just wanted to die? "What if I told you that I don't want to live…?"

Letting his tears drip down onto those ugly scars he knew his best friend would live with for the rest of his life, Dino ever-so-carefully wrapped his arms around the younger. He held the abused male's face to his chest as he rested his chin in silver hair, knowing he couldn't hide things any longer; he had to tell Squalo about everything.

"Maybe you don't want to live, but… I want you to live… I love you, Squalo; I love you so much, I've never had eyes for anyone but you. For twenty years I've been in love with you and I've wanted nothing but your presence around me. I hated your relationship with Xanxus, but I respected your choice and I did my best to hide my feelings because I knew you wouldn't like them when you were already with someone. I've wanted no one but you, Squalo, because I love you."

"…" Staring ahead of him, Squalo's gaze became fuzzy as he lost himself in his mind.

"The cops came, and Xanxus was arrested and taken in for questioning." Changing the subject, Dino tried his hardest to make sure the younger didn't feel as if he were being pressured into making a decision or anything of the sort; his feelings were out in the open now, and the damaged man could take as long as he wanted in thinking about things.

"They won't hold him…" Squalo muttered sadly. "They'll release him because of who his foster father was. It's always been that way…"

"That's what I expected; that's why Tsuna and Hayato are at your home right now with a moving truck. They're getting everything out of the house and bringing it to mine. I don't expect for you to return my feelings or anything like that, but I really want you to live with me now, Squalo; the spare room can be yours and I promise I'll take care of you. We'll find a nice house out in the country and I'll buy us both nice new cars. I'll try and get a transfer to a different school and we'll build a new life for you, Squalo; one you can be happy and safe in. Does that sound good to you? Would you like that, Squalo?"

Closing his eyes, Squalo let his own tears slide down his cheeks. He didn't know how to reply, not even sure if he was happy with that plan – but did he really have a choice? He couldn't go back to Xanxus, not after what the man had done to Belphegor, and there was no one else he loved and trusted more than he did Dino – if he was going to be safe anywhere, it was with the blond.

Lifting his head, Squalo rubbed their cheeks together before he placed a feather-light kiss against the older male's soft lips. He flinched as he felt a warm hand come to rest on his cheek, leaning into the caress; how long had it been since he had been touched so affectionately?

Pressing their foreheads together, Dino's tears came harder as he smiled. "I love you, Squalo, and I never want to hurt you. I want you to be comfortable with me, and I understand completely if you want to set your boundaries high. Please tell me if I do anything you don't want."

The long-haired man nodded as a tired expression crossed his face. He dropped his head to rest against his friend's chest, listening to the steady heartbeat beneath him. He allowed the other to hold him close, the two crying silently together.

For the first time in eighteen years, they each had the person they needed the most to hold them together.

~~XX~~

"We got everything inside the house." Tsuna spoke quietly to Dino as he sat on the couch next to the older male, watching as Squalo slept quietly with his head on the blond's lap. "Gokudera-kun drove the car out. He put it in the backyard for now."

"Thank you, Tsuna." Dino threaded his fingers through soft silver strands, smiling softly as he thought about their conversation on the drive home. "Your advice worked for me; he's my boyfriend now."

"I'm really happy for you both," Tsuna promised, glad that Squalo was finally going to get the love and affection he had been deprived of for so long; the silver-haired male was more than deserving of it, after all. "I know Lussuria will be overjoyed to hear this; has Squalo told him yet?"

"We went to see him before we left the hospital, but Bel was going into surgery so we went home."

"Surgery?" Tsuna frowned, having been told what Belphegor had been put through.

"His skull was broken and pressing on his brain, Lussuria said." The oldest male sighed. "Said it was a depressed fracture."

"That's horrible…" The smaller male's eyes shone with compassion, wishing there was something he could do to help Belphegor, but he really didn't know how; it would be best leaving it up to Squalo and Lussuria to take care of him.

"Yeah, the nurses are going to move him into ICU afterwards, and then a high-dependency unit until he can go home. He's going to be in there for a while, I think."

"Poor thing; none of them deserved any of this." Reaching out, Tsuna put his hand on Squalo's shoulder, glad that the other seemed comfortable enough to not be disturbed by the action. "All we can do is be there for them and support them. I think Squalo's going to be okay now that he's out of that relationship and with you; it's Belphegor I'm really worried about; he was doing so well after coming out of that kind of childhood, and now…"

"Yeah, I know…" Dino frowned, hating how Belphegor had been caught in the same vicious cycle Lussuria had rescued him from all those years ago. "Poor Bel… He's going to need so much love and affection after this…"

Tsuna nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. "I'm going to go help Gokudera-kun with lunch, Dino. I really am happy for you both; I know he'll be so happy with you."

"I know he will be, too, Tsuna; we're going to look for a home together when he wakes up; we want to get out of here as soon as we can."

"I understand." With that said, Tsuna bowed before he left to tend to the kitchen, knowing that his two hosts deserved to have lunch cooked for them; they had been through enough without being treated as slaves.

Making a mental note to bring food down to the hospital to keep Lussuria's strength up, Tsuna went about helping Hayato prepare ingredients for fettuccini.