Lie no. 37:

It was around nine in the morning when Rosa got out of her room and walked into the kitchen. Squalo was sitting on a barstool as he had a coke and she stared at him in silence for a little while. "I could hear big brother on the phone with you last night, how did you get here so fast? She asked, pulling bread out of the pantry.

"I was already on my way here." he grumbled, glaring at the child "How old are you?"

"Eleven."

"Hey Squalo," she began, dropping the bread into the toaster "I know you who you are. I mean I'm a street kid, I can't not know about you and the Var-"

"What of it?"

"What of it? I thought you were smarter than this" she hissed "You're sleeping with my brother, who is in love with you, and do you know how rare that is? I've known him for seven months and when people realise what he can do they just shuffle away awkwardly. There is always a chance you will reject him and he'll be heartbroken, which is hard enough to think about. But if anything happens to my brother because of your position, so help me, I will crush you. Varia or not."

Squalo stared at the girl for a few seconds before sighing. "The only reason I'm not yelling at you is because your brother is asleep and you're trying to protect family."

"Family means everything."

('Strong, active lightening' he thought 'Huh… Didn't expect that')

Lie no. 38:

Later on, Harry walked in and stared at Rosa and Squalo as they glared at each other for each other from across the kitchen. He rubbed his temples as his sister passed him a bottle of water and painkillers. When he tossed the latter into his mouth, he ruffled her short hair. "Hey Squalo," he greeted before turning to the fridge. "Rosa, Sirius is coming to get you for the day in about…" he paused, looking at his phone "Two hours."

"Yay, do you think I could get him to teach me how to make backhand compliment?"
"With his upbringing… Probably."

"Yes!" she cried, running off with a sandwich into her room to get changed.

"Sirius?" Squalo asked
"My godfather. He's a bad influence." he explained pulling out some leftover pasta from the day before.

Harry sighed, and shuffled over before sitting down on the other side of the island table Squalo sat at. He looked at him for a little while. "We need to talk…"
"Look-"
"Please…" he mumbled, Squalo stayed silent before nodded after a while.
"Ok, so I was drunk, but I remember. I'm in love with you. And it's highly unlikely you feel the same. And so you will probably leave me but that's fine."

Truth no. 4:

"What do you love about me?"
"You're loud and don't care. You don't judge me. And even when you can't tell me things, you tell me that, you never lie to me."
"You do realise that just because I don't tell you doesn't mean I don't."
"Tell me what?"
"That I love you."

Lie no. 39:

Somehow, everything was relatively the same afterwards. They still slept together. They still spent Saturdays together. Harry still stole Squalo's shirts. They still called when Squalo went off for work. Everything was calm. The one difference was the lack of awkwardness. Sure Squalo rarely (if ever said) the words but the occasional hug or maybe just walking around the street for awhile in silence was nice.

Lie no. 40:

He remembered one time that he took Squalo to the countryside to drop of Rosa with Sirius. It was awkward for him. Sirius spent the entire time trying to tease them as Harry tried to melt into the sofa. Rosa was laughing off in the side.

At the end of all of it, Squalo looked at him and said "Your family is insane"
"You're preaching to the choir."

Truth no. 5:

It was Rosa's twelfth birthday when Squalo finally told him about Rosa's flame. Que an hour long conversation about dying will flames and Rosa being an active lightning. Apparently, at her age without proper training, it could have negative effects on her health and that Squalo was more than willing to teach her how to control them for safety (even if he didn't mention that last bit).

Harry fell in love a bit more (which, frankly, he didn't even think was possible).

Lie no. 41:

Squalo was sitting on his usual chair at the bar as Harry cleaned the counter before lock up when his phone went off with a text from Sirius (even Harry was surprised when he found out Sirius learnt how to) saying that Rosa had somehow snuck into the kitchen and had a bunch of sugary treats and a whole bottle of coke. The following video of the small girl running around, bouncing off the walls and being all around hyper, was amazing. He ended up using the counter to keep himself standing as Squalo gave him an odd look.

Passing the phone over, Squalo watched the video and let out a laugh. "Voi! She's crazy!"

Lie no. 42:

Somehow the Saturday afternoon was spent watching soap operas in French with Squalo and Rosa. It was pretty funny with Harry and Rosa making an odd relationship between Louis who was dating Chloe but also secretly in a relationship with Nathan. And Nathan's grandmother was secretly the runaway bride of a rich man and Nathan was his son born out of wedlock. It was amazing.

Well. it was until Squalo told them he could speak french and that was not what was happening at all.

"Squalo! Don't kill it for us!" Rosa cried, attempting to attack the assassin with a pillow.

Lie no. 43:

When he walked into his flat with the grocery shopping, his jaw dropped There in the kitchen was Squalo and Rosa in front of the stove struggling to make food. It was oddly.. Adorable.

"Voi! Where is the salami?!" Squalo roared, freaking out as drops of oil shot out of the pan.
"It's on the right, idiot! And so is the chicken stock and milk!" she exclaimed.
"What even is this recipe?"
"It's amazing and Harry's favourite, don't complain!"

Harry stood in the door frame and just let out a small chuckle. Pushing off the wall, he sat down and watched some more before Rosa glared at him for a little second "Aren't you going to help?!" she roared at him.

"Nahhh," he replied, smiling at their difficulties "You seem to be doing great!"

Lie no. 44:

Watching Squalo try to teach Rosa how to control her flames were hilarious.

He was trying to give her a more calm centre in an attempt to stop making her flames go crazy via meditation. Wasn't working. She kept getting distracted, and at one point she actually fell asleep. Another time, she tried to mess with Squalo's hair. The last occurrence, she snuck off and poured water all over him, which resulted in the two running down the streets with Rosa laughing her head off.

These two were his family, and that was perfect.

TADA! Despite working on this for hours today on my phone andon my laptop, I really like this chapter because it focuses on the growing bond between Squalo and Rosa whilst also adressing the relationship between Harry and Squalo. Hope you enjoy, also thank you to the guest who gave me the note about the issue from last chapter. Tired writer is tired... constantly.