Days after Romario's rescue and hospital release, we were gathered again. Squalo and I had just finished sparring. He was splayed out in the grass, gasping for breath. I grasped at one end of my hair. It was uneven but I suppose it was better than if I had lost my head to that damn sword of his.

Squalo had noticed, sitting up quickly, "Fuck… My bad."

"No. It's fine." I looked dumb but it was to be expected, "I'll just… Can you just cut the other side too?"

"With my sword?!" He grumbled, turning into that embarrassed loud guy again, "Crazy piece of trash! It's not for weird shit like that!"

I heard his protests but it seemed as if his body had not. His hands were already reaching for the other side of my head, his fingers running through the long side of my hair a couple times. In one swift motion, he had cut the other side to match. It made me laugh.

"All that complaining and you still cut it." I laughed at how his face turned red and he refused to look me in the eye, "I guess you're just dishonest."

Squalo was yelling incoherent things at me and honestly, I was used to it by now. I kind of thought it was funny.

"Okay, okay. Do you want to shower before our briefing?" I offered, "I'm going to clean up."

He thought about it and agreed. It's not like this was his first time. We cleaned up quick. No problems until we were both dressed and sitting around snacking prior to our briefing.

Dino came running into the room. He snatched me up and declared, "If you're cheating on me with Squalo, I'm not mad just please stop. I'm begging you. Don't leave me."

"Pathetic." I deadpanned, glancing at a frozen Squalo, "Why would I cheat on you with Squalo-senpai?"

"They said he's been up here to take a shower with you twice now!" He wailed, "I don't get why the rumors started. I just want them to stop!"

Oh. It's just like Koge said.

"I know we've been busy but I swear I'll be super good to you once this is all over." He continued to ramble, "I love you and you know it!"

Strange. My heart no longer pounds when he swears he loves me. I suppose we've been together too long. We're too comfortable.

"Calm down, would you?" I huffed, rolling my eyes as I pushed him down, "I'm not cheating on you so cut it out."

Although I felt guilty about never telling him about Squalo's recruiting attempts, I was not cheating on him. I smiled subconsciously at the way he breathed a sigh of relief. Even if my heart didn't pound anymore, I cared about this herbivore. I would never let anything happen to him.

Dino finally seemed to notice something was different, yelling, "What the hell happened to your hair?!"

I glanced at Squalo and he looked away, "We had a sparring accident."

"An accident?" Dino looked like a small, snarling dog when he glared at Squalo, "It was totally on purpose, wasn't it?"

Squalo didn't take well to the hostility but then again, I suppose it was just his competitive nature. He sneered right back, "So what if it was?"

Stepping between them, I rolled my eyes, "You know it wasn't cause he took the time to even it out for me."

They remained quiet but never stopped glaring.

I turned, gesturing to the clock, "It's time. We should start gathering."

Watching them walk away, I stared at Dino's unruly blonde hair. He's definitely an idiot. I would never cheat on him but how would he feel if I wanted to work for the Varia instead?

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

I stared sideways at Dino who had somehow managed to trip and fall all the way down the stairs, slamming into the front door harder than I thought was possible.

I shrugged, turning my attention back to Koge, "So you found Xanxus?"

Koge nodded, "Well, I didn't actually find him personally. I know someone who insists he's being held in the basement in a block of ice."

"Ice?"

"I-Ice!" Koge was now backing away from me.

I turned, looking over my shoulder at a knee-shaking Dino. A monster was crawling down the stairs towards him.

"The fuck…?" I scrambled to get my gauntlets on and join him, "What is that?!"

"Enzo!" He managed, "Reborn gave him to me! He got in the sink and he won't stop growing!"

"Was he intended as a weapon?!"

I slapped my armored hands around its mouth when it took a snap at us, "How do we make it go back?"

"I don't know! I don't know!" He snapped his whip around the turtle's legs as it tried to get out of my hold, "Just don't let go!"

"I wasn't planning on it." I grumped, a little less irritated than I should've been, "This guy might be stronger than Romario."

"'He's a turtle!"

"I stand by my statement."

Ever so resourceful, Koge was standing at the top of the stairs now. He was holding a blow dryer in one hand and a flamethrower in the other.

"How desperate are we?" He asked, tone flat and even.

"Flamethrower/Hair dryer." I had answered at the same time as Dino. Clearly, I wanted to take more drastic measures than he did.

"You want to use a flamethrower on my pet?!" Dino's hypocritical statement and actions didn't seem to bug him.

I glared, shifting my eyes down to his whip and then my hands, "Really?"

"Okay but a flamethrower?! Seriously?!"

"Ugh!" I rolled my eyes, "Koge, bring the dryer but if it doesn't work, I'm torching him."

We didn't have to torch him but it took us a good long hour to blow dry him into a less dangerous size.

I sighed, "You're too soft."

"He's not a wild beast." He was holding the whip as tight as he could stand to, "And he's nothing I can't handle!"

"Oh really? So you want me to let go?"

"No! I meant we!" He wailed, "Don't abandon me."

"Then don't say stupid things!"

Pouting, he changed the direction of the conversation, "Is that why you always hang out with Squalo? Because he can handle Enzo and I can't?"

"I suppose it is." I didn't really have to think about it. I became friends with Squalo because of his strength so my words were the truth.

"You're so cruel." He grumbled, giving his whip a strong tug, "Fine! Let go then! I'll show you! I'm just as good as Squalo!"

I didn't hesitate. I let go and laughed as Enzo snapped his jaws at Dino's nose, narrowly missing. I stepped in and slapped his mouth shut with my armored hands once more.

Grumbling incoherent things, Dino was a pouty child once more, "No wonder… Hey… You… Do you think Squalo's attractive?"

I shrugged. I hadn't really thought about it. Looks don't really matter in this case. Squalo has other attractive qualities like skill or strength. I realized Dino was seriously waiting for an answer.

I sighed, "He's not unattractive, I guess. Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters!" He looked like he was about to cry, "If you think Squalo's more attractive than me…"

I stopped to actually think about it. I guess I never stopped to think about how attractive or unattractive Squalo was physically. I mean… He's getting pretty tall. When he's fighting he's got a dominating presence? And we're back to his skills.

"I can't see past his strength. I don't even think I know what he looks like." I declared truthfully, "I don't think I ever really looked."

He seemed relieved, "Well good! You're not supposed to be looking at anyone but me anyways!"

I smiled briefly. It was kind of cute. I honestly couldn't imagine what kind of person could be more attractive than Dino but I suppose I was just too young to know.

Enzo was finally shrinking and Koge was giving me a blank stare. Once Dino had scooped up a normal-sized Enzo and kissed me as a thanks, he was gone. Koge was still giving me that blank stare.

"What?" I demanded, "Don't judge me."

"I'm not." He shrugged, "But you really don't think Superbi Squalo's attractive?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "I'm not a liar."

"Really? You don't think his crooked smile and bad-boy style is charming?" His tone gave away nothing but his eyes sparkled in jest, "I heard there's quite a few heiresses out to get him."

"Yeah well Dino's getting real popular nowadays too." I grumped, crossing my arms over my chest, "So to each their own."

"You mean you're not into the bad-boy type?" He continued, "That's unexpected."

I glared him into silence, "Squalo-senpai isn't even an actual delinquent. I went to school with him. He was studious. He knows multiple languages and he's an athlete beyond the 'jock' stereotype."

"Oh? So you don't like him because he's not the stereotypical bad-boy." He concluded in jest, "And yet you have me searching for his friend who was thrown in an icy prison for unspeakable crimes against his own father."

"Yes." I said, ending his playful mood there, "So you found him in a block of ice."

"Like I said, I didn't personally confirm these rumors but my source is someone trustworthy." He told me, "I think it's true. It's just with my skills I can't confirm it."

"So the security is tight." I grumbled, "Anything you can tell me?"

"That's the thing." He lowered his voice as Romario walked by, waving nonchalantly as he continued, "Everyone claims that Xanxus is a high risk prisoner but there's so few guards. I'm thinking he's not being kept where they claim he is or… he's dead so they don't need guards."

"What? If he's dead, why would they bother? Isn't it more likely that their guards are super strong?"

A lightbulb seemed to go off in Koge's mind, "Or their ice prison is inescapable. Why is it that the strongest assassins in the world don't go release their boss on their own?"

"They must know something about that prison that we don't know." I sighed, "Well now what? I ask Squalo-senpai to help?"

"He didn't ask you to do this… He might get angry."

"Yeah… I guess we should hold off." I told him, "You can find out more about the ice. I'll research it my own way."

"You mean you'll see if you can dig it out of Squalo." He said in a definitive manner. He knew I was going to try something.

"Yeah."

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Two days later, I sat in an empty limo. We had just dropped off a load of freshly rescued kids at an orphanage. It was sad in a way. We rescued them only to drop them off here. It was kind of a less sad ending rather than a happy one.

My phone rang and I knew it was my next assignment.

"Senpai?" I answered, scowling when I got nothing but singing as a response, "So you're not Squalo-senpai."

"Right-o~!" Lussuria's voice was becoming the norm on these calls, "So we're ready to get picked up. You really should just get us our own limo or let us use one of ours. This is getting to be a hassle, dear."

"No." I growled, "We can't afford to pay for one of your fancy vehicles if something happens. I'll come get you."

"Yes yes… we've heard the 'we're poor' spheal many times now. Just hurry it up, okay?"

"Annoying." I grumped and hung up on him.

On the scene, the Varia was playing rock-paper-scissors. I arrived to find them howling with laughter. Lussuria had apparently lost the game and was forced to drive. I shrugged, switching with Lussuria to get in the back with the rest of their officers.

Sitting next to Squalo, I realized he was stiff as a board, "What?"

He looked away, a tint of pink on his nose, "Shut up!"

"Don't mind him." Lussuria called back at us from behind the wheel, "He's just a little mad cause we teased him about the long hair. Don't you think it's at an unattractive length now?"

"Oh." I glanced up at him twice and shrugged, my heart skipped a beat but not more than once, "No. I think it's fine. Who cares what you look like as long as you're strong?"

"So she says, Squ-chan."

Squalo cleared his throat but said no more.

I pointed directly at the kid seated across from me and said, "I mean if we're talking about hair, can this one even see?"

"Bel-chan?" Lussuria was laughing again, "See! I told you. Just let Mama Luss handle the haircuts and you'll all look fine!"

"Leave it!" Belphegor huffed, crossing his arms over his chest like the child he is, "I told you they can't see my eyes!"

"Who is they?" I didn't understand, "How do you fight if you can't see?"

"I can see!" He insisted, ignoring my first question.

"He insists that he's royalty." Squalo scoffed, "The eyes give away his bloodline or whatever."

"Don't tell her!"

"I just did, you little brat!"

Just before a fight broke out, Lussuria slammed on the brakes, "I hate to break up your fun but we're here. We need to give our report to Don Cavallone, right?"

"I'll do it." Squalo was without a doubt their leader.

"Okay. I'll stay with Squ-chan and the rest of you can head home." Lussuria handed me the keys as we got out, "Our limo is coming to get us now that we're off the clock."

I ignored him, leading Squalo up to see Dino. Lussuria followed behind us in silence.

"Why don't you guys just stay here?" I offered, "We have open barracks."

"HQ is more comfortable." He grumbled, grunting when Lussuria elbowed him, "What? You want to stay here?"

"Why don't we think before we talk, hmm?" Lussuria poked his finger into Squalo's chest, "She's being very kind, right?"

I laughed quietly at their antics, "It was an invitation to stay the night and do a little sparring. Just so you don't have to call for a ride home and you can be here for tomorrow's operation."

"V-Voi!"

Lussuria quickly cut in, "He means yes."

"Of course he does." I grinned at the stunned look on the assassin's face, "But my ulterior motive was actually for you to stay the night."

"M-Me?" For the first time since we met, Lussuria was flustered, "You mean-!"

"I meant I want to spar later." I cut him off before he could tell me how broken my gaydar was, "And I want to spar with you."

"You're really trying to spar with me?" He was now speaking in a haughty tone, "Just because I've been nice to you doesn't mean you're stronger than me."

"I'm just testing my strength."

It was true. Squalo is strong but Lussuria must be just as good if they're on the same squad. It's about time I challenged him. It would be disrespectful to him if I didn't.

Squalo was bristling, "Kira, he knows everything about you. You know nothing about his style."

"Good." I grinned, opening the door to Dino's office where he was waiting for us, "We're home."

"I was getting worried!" Dino looked relieved to see us, "I was about to call but I didn't want to disrupt your combat plans."

I snorted. He knew damn well that I wasn't fighting today. I was just a taxi driver today.

"I dropped off the orphans. No problems." I began my report, "Picked up the Varia. No injuries or fatalities."

"It was easy. Almost too easy." Squalo picked up the information relay, "We're good so it's not like we expected to fail but… it almost seemed like they were…"

"Hiding their main fighters." Lussuria finished for him, "We actually know the famiglia you're fighting. They're the third strongest famiglia in the alliance. They should be able to put up a better fight."

"So they're holding out…" Dino looked troubled for a moment, "And we've already called in the big guns. They're trying to drag out the battle."

"So we should end it." I made a decisive comment but I didn't know how to drag out warriors who were hiding, "We just need to force their hand."

"There's only two ways to force them to meet us head on." Squalo said, "We outplay them so well they have no choice but to go all out or…"

"Or we pretend we're the weaker force to draw them out to make the finishing blow." I didn't like that but considering our background and status that might be more convincing.

"I have a plan." Lussuria's sunglasses glinted in the lamplight, "How about we play it this way? Kira-chan comes back to HQ with us. We pretend she left you for Squ-chan. We have no reason to help you anymore. Varia pulls out of all Cavallone engagements. They think you're out of manpower."

"And they come to finish us." Dino gulped, "Okay… I'm just going to say it. I don't like this plan."

"But it sounds like it would work." I finished for him when he trailed off, "There have actually been a lot of rumors about me and Squalo-senpai as it is so this is a very convincing scenario at this point. The groundwork has already been set for us."

"This is super risky, Kira!"

Of course he would say that. His family is weak. There's no guarantee that they'll survive long enough for us to come back in if we pull out of here.

"We don't have another choice." I told him coldly, "By exposing our home base to an all out offensive, we can draw them out. If we don't we'll struggle long and hard and still potentially…"

I couldn't finish the sentence but the last few words rang in my head over and over.

We could still potentially lose like herbivores. Like herbivores.

Since when did I join a family where losing was a huge possibility?

"If you'd let us, we can lead the operation." Lussuria suggested, "We're mostly just saying this because Kira-chan has grown on me but we don't really care what happens to the Cavallone Family specifically. We, the Varia, don't have the same opinions on the moral points."

"So then why are you here?" Dino asked a dumb question.

I surprised him by answering with the two assassins, "To help the Vongola's chosen ally."

Grinning proudly, Squalo put a hand on my shoulder, "Voii! We're here on orders. The Vongola Family is the strongest. We came here to prove that and nothing more. Both you and the Gagliano Family were our allies. If you fight it out and we don't intervene, it means we stand by you equally. Our presence on the battlefield means we've chosen a side."

"And you chose us?" Dino's eyes narrowed into a skeptical glare.

"Don Vongola chose you. We came on his orders but we stayed this long for Kira." He glared right back, "We believe the Vongola is the strongest so we fight for them. You have Kira so between you and the Gagliano's we think you're stronger. If you didn't have Kira, we would've backed out long ago and told Vongola Nono that you're not going to make it."

It was a fair answer. It's only right for those seeking strength to seek strong allies as well as strong enemies.

"If you trust me, let's try their plan." I said after a moment of silence, "I think it'll work."

"But how many of my men will die on failed operations before they come for the kill?" Dino shook his head at me, "I can't have you all leave. Kira, please!"

"Maybe we don't all have to leave." Lussuria said, "We have someone who can make it seem like we left. We can use him and the rest of us can remain in hiding in the basement."

"How…?"

"We have a skilled illusionist on our side."

"Well good. Call him in!"

I stopped Lussuria from grabbing his phone, "Call them tomorrow. We'll proceed with tomorrow's operations as planned and you'll all come in to report and we'll have a huge spat. Then we just have to make a scene and have your illusionist leave with his illusions. I'll have Koge prepare a room for us to hide in."

"Okay." Dino reluctantly gave in, "If you have a plan that ensures the safety of my subordinates then I'll cooperate. What should I do?"

"Well if Kira-chan isn't rescinding her invitation to have a little sparring sleepover tonight, I think we're set to put down the groundwork." Lussuria grinned, "Are you still up for a round with me?"

"I thought you'd never ask." My heart fluttered the smallest bit at the prospect of a good fight with a new partner.

"Then follow my lead."

I didn't really know what that meant so I just went at him like I always did-fast and hard. My armored hands clanged against his knee. I blinked at the metal, barely reacting in time when he spun and lashed out with his other leg. Another clang echoed as I raised my arm to defend myself.

Squalo stood on the sidelines, watching us-observing my skills.

"Oh?" Lussuria swung at me again, raising the amount of force behind the blows.

I gave no further warnings, swinging at him with my full strength. I grazed his rib cage and saw the surprise make his lips part the smallest bit, "Heh."

Lussuria wasn't a big guy but he wasn't a small person either. He was lean and well balanced. He was a multi-talented fighter but my opinion on people who are multi-talented is that it simply means they're not excellent at anything. They waste all their time being mediocre at everything that they don't have anything special in their belt.

Don't get me wrong. Varia Quality implies that Lussuria's "mediocre" was actually above average. So all of his skills were on a higher level than normal people. It's just that I come from a household where Fon's level of strength is the top of a ladder where everyone sits near the top so I was not at all intimidated by him.

I watched as Lussuria changed his strategy. He backed off and I gave chase. The sly smirk crawling across his face was the only warning I had before a glint of light angled off his metal knee straight into my eyes. I growled, blinded. All I had was instincts to tell me that Lussuria was now closing the distance in a rapid flurry of blows.

"You're a monster!" He exclaimed as my gut caught his first kick and my hand caught his second one and held tight, "Let go!"

I punched, using his voice as the direction for my first blow. I don't know how he did it but he twisted out of my grasp and dodged the blow. His knee went into my chest as I blinked my eyes quickly in an attempt to clear my vision. Wind knocked out of me, I coughed.

"Kira, get away from him!" Squalo's warning was as serious as his voice could get.

My body reacted on instinct to his tone. My blurry vision was clearing and my eyes widened on the blow I had narrowly avoided, the tip of a blade glinting at the end of Lussuria's shoe. The force of his kick sent the addition to the boot flying off, indicating that Lussuria wasn't well-versed with the grieves method of fighting.

"Bastard!" I snarled, immediately rounding on him in a bone-crushing round-house kick to the shoulder, "You were armed?!"

"I never said I wasn't!" He stumbled back, shocked by the killing force behind my blow. It hadn't connected all the way so he got lucky. Rather, he was skilled enough not to take the blow full force.

Furious, Squalo was now cutting us off. His blade was at the tip of Lussuria's throat in an instant, "You bastard! I told you not to use those on Kira! She doesn't know anything about you and I told you everything about her style! You cheating, filthy-!"

I grabbed him, "Senpai! Stop it! This was my fight!"

The look of relief on Lussuria's face betrayed the conclusion of the fight. If we had continued, he thought he would've lost. I grinned at him, making him sneer back at me.

"You don't think you won that fight, do you?" He snorted, jabbing a finger into Squalo's chest, "If it wasn't for Squ-chan, I would've killed you!"

"Your toe-blade was falling off already! You didn't even properly attach it! Do you even know how to use that thing?"

"Obviously not!" He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, "I just thought you would know more about my style so I put it in earlier so I could at least have one secret. I didn't know Squ-chan never talks about me!"

Squalo was indignant, "Why would I?!"

"That's so cold! I'm like your best friend! Why wouldn't you tell the girl-?!"

Squalo punched his companion in the face, expression twisting again. He seemed embarrassed but didn't say anything again.

I sighed, "Well, you interrupted our fight so you'll pay."

"Me?!"

"You take his place!" I gave no further warnings, lashing out at him.

The night went on and on in an exchange of tips and jests during sparring sessions. It was the most fun I had since I came to Italy. It reminded me that I was here for the sake of strength first and foremost and my dimmed flame of passion roared to life.

It would be so much fun if I could just spend every night sparring just as we spent this night.