A.N: Hey y'all. It's been like what, three years since I last updated? I'm such a crappy person for forgetting this piece in my backup drive. It's been so long and I've almost forgotten the flow of the story *nervously sweatdrops*. But I'm here now and I'm going to see this finished. Love you and all those readers who have placed my story in their favorites and alerts, and still faithfully looking for an update.
Now on with the story! 3
WARNINGS: Foul language; I mean, it's Squalo and Xanxus. What do you expect?
Disclaimer: I do not own the familiar characters.
They had been sitting quietly for the better part of ten minutes; either refusing to acknowledge the other. Xanxus sat by the fireplace, drink in hand, and his eyes far away. Squalo noted with satisfaction that his boss looked well taken care of. There was an air of weary in the room, both assassins not knowing what to say to each other.
Surprisingly, the others gave them some much required privacy. Having been under the watchful eyes of both the Vongola Rain and Cloud for the past month, Squalo happily welcomed the change; not that he didn't know they were spying on the pair of them through a camera.
"So, I heard you were staying with the Sawada's." Squalo started after pondering for a whole minute on what to say. "What's it fucking like?"
Silence.
Squalo felt himself twitch in annoyance. Trust his boss to make this more uncomfortable than it already is.
"Voi! Say something you shitty boss!" Squalo exclaimed, making sure to use his indoor voice like that bastard Hibari always nagged him about.
"Shut up, you shitty shark." Xanxus growled from his arm chair. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"
Squalo gritted his teeth at that. His boss was such a little shit most times. Squalo didn't know why he even bothered sometimes with this oaf.
"If you got nothing to say then I suggest you leave." Squalo gritted out. Even having something as simple as a conversation was taking a toll on him. Damn him for loosing to a high school brat! Damn him for not dying at the shark's hand! Damn Xanxus for making him feel like trash!
"Well, fuck you for losing your match, trash." Xanxus finally spoke, his read eyes staring steadily at him.
'Well, fuck you for losing to Sawada, asshole.' Squalo wanted to say but he didn't want a bullet lodged between his eyeballs when he could barely dodge. Instead, Squalo just glared at his shitty boss with as much vehemence as he could muster. Speaking of bullets…
"Voi! Where are your guns, Xanxus?" Squalo inquired in mirth. "Don't tell me the Sawada's grounded you?
"Wanna run that by me again, trash?" Xanxus bristled from his perch, looking ready to hurl wrath flames at him any minute.
Silence reigned for a better minute before Squalo sighed.
"How are you, Xanxus?" Squalo inquired seriously, finally dropping his charade. "You look well."
Xanxus blinked, momentarily distracted from the strange game they were playing. He huffed before drinking from his cup. Squalo noted with humor that the cup contained lemonade and not the usual alcohol which Xanxus preferred. "It could have been worse." Xanxus finally said, suddenly looking very tired. "At least Nana Sawada is a decent cook."
"Not getting your fillet mignon, are you?" Squalo mirthlessly laughed at that. Xanxus looked like he sucked on something sour.
"It's all vegetables unless I offer to cook."
"At least it's not bland porridge like I have in my everyday menu." Squalo lamented, and Xanxus grimaced at that. "Did you hear anything from the rest of the Varia, boss?"
Xanxus mournfully shook his head. "They are alive." At least that's what Xanxus thought. If he was walking scot-free even after trying to murder his father, he pretty much guessed they had been lenient on the others as well. Internally, he scoffed. His father and his guardian were a bunch of softies.
After hesitating a bit, Xanxus spoke. "I-we spoke. The old man and I." The confession was worth it seeing the shark gape at him like he lost his mind.
"Vooooooi! You are crazy!" Squalo hollered. "What brought this on?"
Xanxus shrugged. He wasn't going to tell Squalo that he tried to slit his own throat only to be slapped be his father figure. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't proud of that moment. He had tried to take the coward's way out.
"There's also something else." Xanxus gestured for Squalo to come closer. "While I was at the Sawada's, I got mad enough to do this."
He showed Squalo his glass of lemonade, and focused his wrath flames on the glass. The temperature in the room grew, and the glass glowed a bright orange and started to melt in his hand.
"Voi!" Squalo observed this with stupor, "Your flame has gotten stronger. It's manipulating the very structure of the object." Squalo raised his hand with rain flames to touch Xanxus' glowing hand only to pull back with a hiss.
"It's stronger than storm flames. It burns through tranquility flames." Squalo explained in awe. "How is this possible?"
"I fucking don't know." Xanxus confessed. "I just got fucking pissed off one day at the Sawada's and I noticed the spoon I was holding glow a bright orange. I've been trying to manipulate my flames ever since."
"Does anyone else know?" Squalo's eyes never left the flame. "Did you tell anyone else about this development?"
"Like hell I did!" Xanxus looked insulted at the very notion as he snuffed his flame. "They will snap some Rain flame cuffs on me if they were to know.
"But this flame…" Squalo noted with uncertainty, "It seems to override Rain flames. It's dangerously powerful."
"Are you telling me you are scared, fucking shark?" Xanxus sneered.
"Of course, not!" The Varia Rain snorted, walking back to his seat. "I'm just asking you to be a little cautious around it. Don't want you to be burned by your own flames."
Xanxus humped before leaning back into his chair. "Those Vongola guardians, they taking good care of you, trash?"
"Like a new born." Squalo sneered, "What are our chances on escaping from this mess?"
Xanxus hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "I wouldn't go there if I were you."
"I can't believe you are reluctant for an escape." Squalo side eyed his boss with a calculative look. "What on earth did they threaten you with to behave?"
Xanxus mumbled something but Squalo couldn't hear it. "What was that, shitty boss?"
"I said it's none of your business!" Xanxus blushed a bright scarlet. Now, Squalo was curious. Whatever had they threatened him with that got him so flustered?
"Voi, come on." Squalo encouraged. "It can't be that bad."
"It's nothing…"
"Well, if it's nothing, perhaps you don't mind if we jump off the balcony and made a run for it?" Squalo asked jovially, relishing in the flash of terror on his boss's face.
"Like I do something that stupid!"
"Fine." Squalo huffed. "You don't have to tell me but you can't stop me from leaving." Squalo made to get up only for Xanxus to rush to his side and push him back into the chair.
"Shitty shark." He hissed. "I don't want to get punished just because you couldn't stay put!"
"So, they do hold something against you." Squalo waggled his eyebrows and made to get up again.
"Oh no you don't." Xanxus pounced on him and the two landed on the floor with a loud thud.
"Fight me, bitch." Squalo bit at Xanxus' shoulder.
"Ouch! You fucking shark." Xanxus kicked him in the shin. Before either of them could comprehend, the door flew open and Xanxus felt hands on him hefting him up from Squalo. And before Xanxus could object, he felt himself spun around before he felt a sharp stinging slap or two on his buttocks.
He yelped and turned to glare at Iemitsu only to wilt when the man glared daggers at him. "What do you think you were doing?" Iemitsu asked, folding his arms. "That kid's just out of a coma and the first thing you do is wrestle him to the ground?"
"Fuck off, Sawada!" Xanxus growled at him.
Sawada Iemitsu raised his brows at that. "Looks like someone needs a good five minutes over my knees before bedtime."
A snort behind him alerted the room's occupants towards Squalo. "Is that what they hold against you?" Squalo howled with laughter. "A spanking."
"Shut your fucking face, bastard!" Xanxus made to strangle his second in command, flustered with righteous embarrassment.
"Xanxus…" Iemitsu threatened. Xanxus glared at the man before sighing in defeat. "You just got lucky today, shark." He spat at Squalo who was laughing, holding his stomach.
"And that's enough out of you." Iemitsu stared pointedly at Squalo.
"Whatever." Squalo waved him off.
"If the both of you are done, I'd like to take Xanxus back home." Iemitsu spoke, "And it's good to see you up and about, Squalo."
"No thanks to you." Squalo sneered, taking a step back.
Iemitsu sighed, reaching for Xanxus' arm. "Alright, son. Let's get going." He started to guide Xanxus towards the door. "And Squalo, your guardians will take you to your room once we leave."
"Goodbye, asshole." Xanxus muttered as he passed Squalo on his way out.
"Later, fuckface." Squalo gave him a wave before shutting the door on his face.
Perhaps the visit wasn't a bad idea, he thought. The place was still intact and nobody was dead. Squalo considered it a semi success. Still…a spanking? Squalo shook is head as his shoulders shook with silent laughter. Served that shitty boss right!
Lightning blazed across the sky above and the rain almost pelted their skin. Heavy rain like this was either a curse or a blessing. Tsuna fought the urge to swear as he flew over the array of trees with Gokudera following him on the ground in his camouflaged bike. Coming out here was dangerous and foolish, especially without an army but…
'Xanxus is here fighting two Funeral Wreaths all alone.' Tsuna blinked the rain out of his eyes, 'He could be dead or worse."
How could a simple transportation mission go awry? Lambo had called the base twenty minutes ago, in near hysterics about how Xanxus had stayed back to fight while he, Lambo was forced to leave him behind. The transportation was safely in Milan, but at what cost.
"I'll never forgive myself if something happened to him." Lambo had said through the call. "I'll go look for him." They had told Lambo to stay put, and here was Tsuna and Gokudera searching for Xanxus with a signal they had barely managed to track.
They had caught a signal from Gokudera's SOS system like thirty minutes ago and the signal had been immediately snuffed but had stayed long enough for Gokudera to trace the location.
"Juudaime!" He heard Gokudera through the comm-link. "I see someone just ahead."
Just ahead was a clearing and a mud road along the mountain. Tsuna took a deep breath before landing down beside Gokudera. The place seemed to have seen its own devastation with storm flames scattered all over the trees. Large coniferous trees were down, blocking the rest of the road.
"Xanxus!" Gokudera called out, his voice strangely echoing in the rain. "Damn, this stupid rain." He muttered getting off his bike. A little movement by a bush got Tsuna's attention, and he was already on a mad dash towards it.
"Xanxus!" He called out, Gokudera trailing just behind him. "Is it you—"
Whatever Tsuna was about to say got stuck on his lips. He knelt by the lump on the ground, uncaring of the mud that caked his pants. He heard Gokudera swear, before returning to his bike.
"Xanxus…" he muttered in sorrow, pulling the naked man into his arms. Tsuna buried his face in the crook of his neck and released a dry sob. There was so much blood everywhere.
"Juudaime." He heard Gokudera approach with a blanket in his arms. "He needs medical attention, Juudaime." He whispered against the wind.
"They—" Tsuna choked on another sob, pulling away to look at the unconscious Xanxus over. "They violated him, Gokudera-kun." He shuddered as Gokudera pulled the blanket tight around Xanxus to cover him up.
"Juudaime, we need to leave."
Then with as much care as possible, Gokudera knelt down and scooped Xanxus into his arms, holding him securely. His skin was freezing cold and there was both fresh and dry blood caked to his inner thigs.
"We'll get them for this, Juudaime. I promise." Gokudera had to fight against the hot anger that threatened to consume him.
Tsuna stood up beside him and together they made the long way home.