author's note: *author hides from the hated eyes of uploading this so late* l-let's just start...
Chapter 21:
The light at the end of the tunnel
Three years, oh, the magical number - three. That's how many years passed since she wasted on getting over her master and now, repeating itself, the same amount of time passed since she made the deal with the Ninth. This time though, the raven beauty turned to a completely different road, loyally keeping her part of the deal, learning the necessary languages, training, making up Varia's image again with good results.
It wasn't as hard as it has been promised.
In fact it ended up being the easiest thing in the world.
Stand. Bow. Take a life. Study the code, a language, anything, as long as it's given right to your face. Steal. Give. Make arrangements. Be the good girl, if you're told to be one.
A lot of people would think of this as not 'living'. But, really, think about it, isn't it the best option. Follow orders and never think for yourself. It helps, especially when you're trying so hard to fight against your own emotions.
Annette became one of the countless, thoughtless female assassins working under the mafia families.
Orders had become absolute. That was it. It didn't matter if they were from the boss, or from someone just above you, as long as it was an order and said to bring benefits to the family, you did it.
She hated herself, for becoming someone she very much despised.
That's why, she preferred to shut down her brain with booze. Lots of it. And men. Lots of those too.
One guy after the other, it didn't matter if it was a mission or not.
None the less, even in her half-awake state, she was very picky. Only powerful, scary, muscular men could share her company. Don't get the wrong impression, none of them made it past the door to her bedroom. Most of them hardly survived even five minutes. None of it made her feel better, because the swollen emptiness still kept on eating her up.
And then when that thought came around, she drank more and ate chocolate. Chocolate helped her with the sick feeling she got from drinking too much alcohol. And alcohol did visa versa.
And that was all what happened in the free moments of the potentially strong female assassin's days in those wonderful and peaceful three years.
In the third year Lussuria walked in to the girl's room, after a long thought of how and why exactly did the raven turn into what she had turned, and understood that she could not possibly go any lower.
Annette was lying in her queen-size bed, asleep in the most awkward position, with Belgian chocolate packages lying around every where, together with lots of bottles from red wine. On her was an oversize t-shirt, which was completely covered in stains and only barely managed to cover her chest , so her dirty panties were completely open to anyone passing her bedroom. The whole room smelled like a trash zone. Or worse.
The gay man got so shocked that he couldn't believe his own eyes. I mean, he knew that the poor girl took Xanxus's state quite seriously, but until then he never realized how serious it was. Don't get him wrong, being the caring mother of the Varia that he was, he tried to get her to talk to him about it. But she always brushed it off and said that nobody could have ever given her a better present than the one the Ninth made for her by taking care of that selfish brat of a son he had. And then the french girl used that as an excuse for explaining why exactly she was so keenly doing all of her missions without a fail.
Almost the whole of Varia jumped on her for declaring something like that, but Lussuria knew better. He thought that she just needed more time and then everything would cool off. But after three years, his hypothesis was proven wrong.
Everything was going downhill for her and it would never get better unless someone helped her.
So that night, he decided that it was enough and that it was his mission to help her as the most caring sister in the Varia!
.
.
.
"Anne-cha-an, sweetheart, will you come shopping with me? You're free today, aren't you?" The gay man broke into our heroine's room, opening the closed curtains. The dark room suddenly was beaming with light, outlining all of the mess that was in it.
The girl didn't move a centimetre from her spot and just gave her colleague a rough glare. She had a huge headache and an even worse hangover. Her whole body felt like ripping itself apart.
"Go to hell, Lussuria. Shopping is stupid, just order something to be ma..d..e" And snoring came back to life.
"Wow, that was so fabulous, I think it can pass through any famous modelling magazines and be a hit!" Lussuria's sarcasm was answered with a pointing gun to his head.
"Do anything and I'll shoot your brains out." Her low voice gave the man shivers, but he knew that he couldn't just leave her like that.
"Oh, don't be such a bully! You haven't been in the sunlight for almost a century! Look, your pretty tan is turning vampire pale! And seriously, when have you last had a bath!" The man placed his hands on his hips, making him seem like a real mother scolding a daughter.
"Shut it. I don't need baby-sitting. I've been already over the legal age at least for a year now." Annette understood that the annoying man wouldn't let her sleep longer, so she stood up. And then felt like puking.
Without warning, the girl couldn't handle it and just threw up right in front of herself.
"Oh. My. God. you've turned into actual trash, young lady! It's ironic how the boss's calling fits you so well now! Are you happy?" Lussuria couldn't help but tear up.
"Don't get God into this. And yes, I'm happy, for I wouldn't give a damn about what the hell that man would've called me now. Just keep your pretty little mouth shut. You know you always spill the most unnecessary words, right?" Annette spit on the ground the last of the ugly puke and walked off from her room.
She knew that it was wrong to be so mean to a man who was genuinely concerned for her, but she couldn't help it. It sort of came automaticly already, since she used the same sort of tone on any man that came around. There was no point in being nice unless it's a mission.
Indeed, why bother being on anyone's good turns now?
Her empty state of mind was too scared to wonder further most of the time and yet, occasionally it did. Maybe it was time to get going with her life. Forget Xanxus. Forget the Vongola. Forget everything that happened to her here and be free again. But again, why bother? It would end up the same if she went anywhere else, right? And the mafia was much better acquainted with finding people. She had no where to run or hide. So everything should just stay as it is.
"Anne-cha-an! You're not escaping! I'm going to make you start over! I know you're better than this!" The gay man ran to her, shining in the glorious afternoon sun.
"Lussuria." The girl finally stopped walking and looked at the man in his face, "Why are you so bothersome? I'm perfectly alright, so why do you bother me?" She finally felt a bit better from smelling something other than the horrible smell in her room.
Her companion stood there for a moment, but after a minute of long silence, he replied, "Look at yourself and repeat that again. Let's see if you'll be so confident then."
"I'm perfectly alright! Are you calling me ugly?!" The girl snapped, not wanting to even look at the window reflection.
"You know exactly what I mean, now look!" No matter how much training she did, Annette would never beat hand-to-hand the man with his muscles. And now, he held her captive, but only her hands, and with enough force made her turn and look at the window reflection.
"That's not how a person looks when they're perfectly alright."
Annette's eyes widened. She never expected herself to look so unattractive. God, how right the gay man was. She looked terrible. And was that fat on her face?! Did her face just get rounder?! Was that even possible
"Oh min.." She couldn't even pronounce a proper word at her own disappointment, "That's disgusting! That can't be me! Lussuria, let me go!" Her struggles were futile, because of her bad hangover and headache that did not pass.
"That's you. And I don't think I have to mention that you stink worse than a dumpster."
That was a line Lussuria wasn't suppose to cross over. It was one too much.
"You son of a -" She elbowed the man right where it hurt and screamed, "-Bitch!" There was no going back now. He was right, she was wrong. Then again, isn't it that the winners were always the right ones? Oh, yeah. And who was she again? Definitely no loser!
"You pathetic excuse of a Varia officer dare to insult me so bluntly?! You'll pay for that!"
In the world, there were those who were born to be winners and those who were meant to serve those winners.
There was no one that could beat her. Not in her eyes. Not anywhere in her sight. She was the ultimate.
And yet, how pathetic she was. What was she thinking again?! Oh, wait. It wasn't. That was the first point for why she started drinking hard.
Be the good girl!
Follow orders!
Ha!
"AHAHAHAHAHA-" She began laughing out-loud. From a third-person's eyes, it would seem like she went a bit into the psychotic side.
"OH MY -AHAHAHA!" Her laughter was so hard, that her lungs couldn't hold so much oxygen in and her knees gave up, "SWEET DARLING OF AAHAHAHAHA!"
This lasted for five minutes. Alright, four minutes and fifty-six seconds, but close enough estimation.
"Anne-chan...?"
"Lussuria." The black haired girl stood up from her heavy laughter, "Merci." And with a small peck on the cheek, she ran really hard somewhere, as if energy was filling in her lungs.
She got herself back. It was all that simple, but with just a few moments, the terrifying emptiness that has been building up in her for three whole years evaporated.
Poof.
And a bang.
The door almost broke from Annette's sudden burst in.
All of the Varia's main officers turned to look at the figure, which so actively made its entrance.
"Salut, losers!" She put an arm on her hip, swishing her long sparkling black hair with the other.
The grown officers just stared blankly.
Annette's smirk turned into a pitying sigh.
"Boring as ever, aren't you?"
The girl's hair looked sparkling clean. It was so sparkling that even gold would never match such black onyx shine. On her, there were just some very simple leggings with a simple long shirt that ended looking like the next hit fashion sentence. Even the slight bigger shape than several years ago, Annette didn't lose her confidence. In fact, if anybody could guess, they would say it grew even more, if that was even possible.
Everyone just stayed quiet.
"You're annoying as hell...come on, Lussuria, we're going shopping." Her long black eyelashes almost covered her night dark irises, radiating a more profound irritation with a wave of higher power.
Lussuria was so stunned, that he almost lost his balance. Even if it was true that he couldn't care less for women, the young adult made his heart pitter-patter, with her out shining personality. The tension of the whole room dropped, only when both of the shopaholics left the room and the door shut by itself.
Shopping went so wonderfully that the gay man could not hold in his emotions.
It was obvious. It was amazingly dull and obvious that he missed his little girly friend (Not very little and not very girly..but oh well).
"Anne-chan, I'm so happy you can't imagine!"
"Try me." The black haired french girl smirked, winking at a stuttering shy boy who passed by and accidentally smiled at her. He was going to be her next target. Smiling around and looking cute is not going to get him far from danger, didn't anybody tell him that?
Well, by boy, it was meant that he's around a year younger than her, blond and very familiar. Why so familiar?!
Lussuria couldn't hold in his giggle. This was so typical of her. Poor same-age-as-Squalo kid.
"Don't drive him too mad, 'kay hun?" He wasn't going to stop his giggling spree any time soon so Annette just went and continued with her plan of showing her individuality.
"Hey, you little piece of hot stuff, did anybody ever tell you that cute kids should not show-off or else-" The cat walked with her seductive face, making the poor kid stutter.
"W-well..its not like you can-" And he could help himself from shaking so badly that the chair under him went through anti-gravity zone and back. Thus he turned out to hit the floor, head first - butt up and a lot of laughter with giggles around.
Even the dark-haired hitman began to feel pity for him. But that didn't stop her from acting like the very opposite of a good girl.
"Oh, my, did your mummy forget to add anti-awkward pills into your diet?" Our heroine asked in curiosity, setting up a chair right next to the fallen figure and relaxing while that one was trying to stand up. "Or were you trying to make me take my words back?" The milkshake in her hands somehow managed to appear in her hands magically.
"n-no." The poor boy replied completely embarrassed of what happened. He was so taken in by Annette's aura that he couldn't even consider getting mad, "I just-"
Then he stopped mid way and looked outside the window, as did everyone who was watching in curiosity.
"Hm- what's so interesting could be-" Before Annette finished, the blond kid already jumped from the opened window to the outside with a whip and defeated the guys who were troubling some other men in dark suits.
"Oh-, the boss is as amazing as ever!" One of the rescued's eyes glittered in appreciation.
And indeed it was amazing. The dark-haired beauty suddenly had a change in heart. This boy was maybe worth a shot. Not a bet for life, but definitely a curiosity that might kill a cat. Anyway, better than having Xanxus on your mind 24/7 and not a bore like the rest of the man she spent time with for the past few years.
I have no even apology words to say how sorry I am of not updating...blame school and procrastination and whatever else you can think of.
I'm sorry, but the next chapter will probably last forever to be updated... . Please don't send assassins after my head!
Annette: Oh, please, I can do the job myself quite perfectly without any help.
me: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?! TT^TT
Annette: the people that actually care about me, unlike you, pathetic author of a lazy bone...making me look disgusting...Like I'll never forgive *pulls the trigger*
me: *in panic with the bullet a millimetre from my head* *from fear of dying continues* Ok then! The next chapter will be out more quickly then~. I can promise you that, cuz I am looking forward to it as much as you are (maybe). You probably can guess who the blond kid is (a little spoiler: this is an AnnettexXanxus story, so don't fret about this, it will be just different from usual depressing awakenings...I've noticed I've done quite a few of them...sorry...I truly am, I'll try and make this less depressing at some point in time)