30 - [Katekiyo Hitman Reborn] in-between-scenes
Rating: PG13
Fandom: Katekiyo Hitman Reborn
Characters: Squalo/Xanxus, Xanxus/Squalo, other people mentioned in passing.
Summary: Five things that could've happened, should've happened, never happened.
Notes: ...urk.
1.
Setting: cafeteria. Time: thirty minutes before third period class. He's watching him take his first drink of whiskey from a styrofoam cup and predictably he spits it out and wipes the liquid off of his lips. "This shit tastes like burning rubber and perfume!" he yells. By this time he's gotten used to the constant yelling, the sentences ending in profound accusations against everybody and sighs. He tells him, "that was a waste of good liquor, you trash" and punches him hard on the jaw for good measure. He gets some of the drink on his knuckles and licks them carefully. Squalo's knocked down flat, belly slightly seen because his shirt's riding up, making whimpering noises like a mangled cur. He sways to and fro on the ground, trying to stand back up, slightly dizzy from the force that hit him. The cup rolls over to Xanxus' shoes, shiny patented leather, stiff and sturdy enough to break bones. There's a sick, twisting feeling inside his stomach that tells him danger, tells him to be careful but he's long ignored those things way back before. He tells himself to be still and be fucking alright. It was just a punch. He's taken harder hits.
A silent hush falls over the crowd and there are eyes that are watching them move and talk and Xanxus doesn't give a fuck whatsoever. He just picks the cup up and wipes it around with the edge of his uniform because like hell he's gonna take a drink from a cup which this trash just drank in. He crushes the goddamned thing later on and grabs another one. "I don't want your fucking spit on my cup," he says stiffly. "I can't believe you drink this shit!" Squalo yells, and Xanxus ignores him, pours himself a drink and tries to look cool as he does it; well, as cool as he can manage while wearing a shirt and a tie and some schoolboy shoes. He passes the bottle to Squalo and drinks his own whiskey carefully, holding the glass like it's burning and makes a mental note to his head that when he's fighting with someone it's best not to have that thing on your hand spill all over your shirt because it then looks bad on you, and it looks slovenly and shitty. When he becomes leader of the Vongola he's not gonna spill his drink for anybody else. Squalo grits his teeth while he does this because he doesn't get a reply. He doesn't want any. He's not sure what to expect from this bastard. He's just been introduced to this madman and he doesn't know quite well how the fuck to walk around, breathe around, think around the so-called Vongola heir. He's cool. But that's all.
Wordlessly he takes the bottle and drinks from it straight this time ("boor," Xanxus hisses), wincing as the whiskey made its way (more like burnt its way) through his throat. When he's done he's completely wishing that his mouth wasn't filled with this stuff. It was awful, it felt like drinking shit. He rubs his tongue against the sleeves of his uniform to get some of the taste out and it's sorta not working. Xanxus watches him do this and he snarls at him. "You're fucking weak, and I don't like you, and I don't wanna hang around with you anymore. Also, by the way, your breath stinks" and he just throws the glass right onto Squalo's head for good measure before he takes out a cigarette, because he looks so cool when he does that.
"Well, fuck you too, and thank you very much your highness!" He yells and before a member of the student disciplinary committee of their school can approach them and apprehend Xanxus for starting a fight and smoking a cigarette inside the school, Squalo grabs his arm and punches him so hard in the gut that the cigarette comes falling from his lips and he crushes it with the heel of his shoes. "Your drink stinks to hell and I hope you die from burning like your drink which tastes like burning rubber and perfume!" Xanxus coughs out smoke and spit and growls something unintelligible in reply and grabs Squalo's hand, yanks him hard enough to make him look at him and aims a kick right on his crotch. Squalo started screaming like a banshee while the students clamor around them screaming "fight! fight! fight!" and a teacher comes in between them saying "that's enough!" but nobody's listening anymore. Squalo's down on the floor again, whimpering like a mangled cur and he's thinking that maybe he needs new friends, this guy's too much of a bastard for him.
2.
A month after he's de-iced and went through various trials involving his recent coup Squalo drives him straight to a spa after requesting a special leave from the Varia. "It's called a period of relaxation," Squalo says as he leads him in and from the moment Xanxus steps into the establishment he can smell perfumes, he can hear women chattering and magazines being flipped over and passed around and he growls, "this isn't really what I need right now."
Squalo sighs. "Well, you need to heal, and the Ninth said you need to relax, this is the thing they recommended, I thought you can rest for a bit here, okay. Just try it. Bel and Mammon go here from time to time just to unwind when they're not doing anything and they say it feels nice to them, so what the hell, I thought I'd recommend it to you too."
He's lead to one of the more private rooms by two women and Xanxus turns to him and asks him, "what did you sign me up for, then?" and Squalo grins and shows him a hell of a lot of teeth while he looks at his fresh scars and replies, "hydrotherapy."
3.
Squalo places his half Vongola ring on his hands and he doesn't even have to look at the thing to know it's fake.
"I'm -- I'm so -- I apolo -- sorry," he growls out, and it feels terribly wrong to say them; the words have a taste like burning rubber and perfume and it's sickening and Xanxus hisses at that slight confession and snarls, "I don't need your fucking charity" but he pockets the ring anyway. He walks away. From behind him he hears Squalo whisper something like "this is as far as we'll ever go" and he pretends not to have heard him. He clenches the ring in his fist inside his pocket all night long until there was a bleeding circular impression on his skin.
4.
It was Lussuria's idea, keeping up with the Christmas spirit, that all of them receive their paychecks and some comments on their performance enclosed in a christmas card. Xanxus didn't like the idea, but Sawada did, and so he tried to compromise by sending in all of their paychecks in a christmas-themed card filled with expletives and other manners of swearing, and he smiled at the work he did and found himself feeling content and slightly in the christmas spirit. Just slightly.
"You know, you suck at giving thank-yous," Squalo says conversationally because their cards weren't really red and green and christmassy at all; it was filled with black marker comments of 'trash' and 'scum' and 'you are the laziest piece of shit I know, merry christmas to you'. Levi was treating it like a god and Bel was wincing at some of the comments because they were true about him and Mammon's just double-checking the numbers and his schedule to see if they added right. Squalo doesn't even want to read his card; he just opened it to get the check out and had it deposited straight to his account. "I can't help it," he growls, "Hallmark doesn't have anything that expresses my feelings" and Squalo just rolls his eyes and mutters "whatever".
5.
Squalo hated getting phone calls late at night unless they're really important, but his celphone was ringing with Beethoven's Ninth and there's no way he can ignore that call because fuck, that's the ring tone he assigned to Xanxus and Xanxus gets pissed if he doesn't answer his calls right away. So he swims from under the cover of his warm blankets to pick up the goddamn celphone just to make it shut up. "I'm not working overtime," he says grumpily. There was no answer on the other line but he hears the sound of paper rustling, pages turning. "What the hell is it?" "Pickup lines." "... what." And in a grave, deadly serious voice that'd make hell freeze over Xanxus said: "would you touch me so I can say to my friends that I've been touched by an angel? My lenses turn dark in the sunshine of your love. Your father must've been a thief, for he stole the stars from the sky and -- " Squalo resists laughing and hits his head on the wall instead. "... are you laughing, you jerk?" "Probably. Look, Xanxus, if you really like the girl and you wanna go formal and go with the whole courting thing, maybe you should just do it straight up and tell her that you like her, like how brutally honest you are with us. I mean, to be honest with you, you sound like an idiot trying to use pickup lines." There was another pause at the other line, until finally Xanxus said "if you tell anybody I asked you for advice on this I'm going to gut you alive and string your organs across my christmas tree and you'll never be the godfather of my first-born child" to which Squalo replies "okay, can I go sleep now?" and then he hangs up. Grinning, Squalo makes a mental note in his head to tell Lussuria the following morning. He's pretty sure the boss doesn't mind; they're family, after all.
Fandom: Katekiyo Hitman Reborn
Characters: Squalo/Xanxus, Xanxus/Squalo, other people mentioned in passing.
Summary: Five things that could've happened, should've happened, never happened.
Notes: ...urk.
1.
Setting: cafeteria. Time: thirty minutes before third period class. He's watching him take his first drink of whiskey from a styrofoam cup and predictably he spits it out and wipes the liquid off of his lips. "This shit tastes like burning rubber and perfume!" he yells. By this time he's gotten used to the constant yelling, the sentences ending in profound accusations against everybody and sighs. He tells him, "that was a waste of good liquor, you trash" and punches him hard on the jaw for good measure. He gets some of the drink on his knuckles and licks them carefully. Squalo's knocked down flat, belly slightly seen because his shirt's riding up, making whimpering noises like a mangled cur. He sways to and fro on the ground, trying to stand back up, slightly dizzy from the force that hit him. The cup rolls over to Xanxus' shoes, shiny patented leather, stiff and sturdy enough to break bones. There's a sick, twisting feeling inside his stomach that tells him danger, tells him to be careful but he's long ignored those things way back before. He tells himself to be still and be fucking alright. It was just a punch. He's taken harder hits.
A silent hush falls over the crowd and there are eyes that are watching them move and talk and Xanxus doesn't give a fuck whatsoever. He just picks the cup up and wipes it around with the edge of his uniform because like hell he's gonna take a drink from a cup which this trash just drank in. He crushes the goddamned thing later on and grabs another one. "I don't want your fucking spit on my cup," he says stiffly. "I can't believe you drink this shit!" Squalo yells, and Xanxus ignores him, pours himself a drink and tries to look cool as he does it; well, as cool as he can manage while wearing a shirt and a tie and some schoolboy shoes. He passes the bottle to Squalo and drinks his own whiskey carefully, holding the glass like it's burning and makes a mental note to his head that when he's fighting with someone it's best not to have that thing on your hand spill all over your shirt because it then looks bad on you, and it looks slovenly and shitty. When he becomes leader of the Vongola he's not gonna spill his drink for anybody else. Squalo grits his teeth while he does this because he doesn't get a reply. He doesn't want any. He's not sure what to expect from this bastard. He's just been introduced to this madman and he doesn't know quite well how the fuck to walk around, breathe around, think around the so-called Vongola heir. He's cool. But that's all.
Wordlessly he takes the bottle and drinks from it straight this time ("boor," Xanxus hisses), wincing as the whiskey made its way (more like burnt its way) through his throat. When he's done he's completely wishing that his mouth wasn't filled with this stuff. It was awful, it felt like drinking shit. He rubs his tongue against the sleeves of his uniform to get some of the taste out and it's sorta not working. Xanxus watches him do this and he snarls at him. "You're fucking weak, and I don't like you, and I don't wanna hang around with you anymore. Also, by the way, your breath stinks" and he just throws the glass right onto Squalo's head for good measure before he takes out a cigarette, because he looks so cool when he does that.
"Well, fuck you too, and thank you very much your highness!" He yells and before a member of the student disciplinary committee of their school can approach them and apprehend Xanxus for starting a fight and smoking a cigarette inside the school, Squalo grabs his arm and punches him so hard in the gut that the cigarette comes falling from his lips and he crushes it with the heel of his shoes. "Your drink stinks to hell and I hope you die from burning like your drink which tastes like burning rubber and perfume!" Xanxus coughs out smoke and spit and growls something unintelligible in reply and grabs Squalo's hand, yanks him hard enough to make him look at him and aims a kick right on his crotch. Squalo started screaming like a banshee while the students clamor around them screaming "fight! fight! fight!" and a teacher comes in between them saying "that's enough!" but nobody's listening anymore. Squalo's down on the floor again, whimpering like a mangled cur and he's thinking that maybe he needs new friends, this guy's too much of a bastard for him.
2.
A month after he's de-iced and went through various trials involving his recent coup Squalo drives him straight to a spa after requesting a special leave from the Varia. "It's called a period of relaxation," Squalo says as he leads him in and from the moment Xanxus steps into the establishment he can smell perfumes, he can hear women chattering and magazines being flipped over and passed around and he growls, "this isn't really what I need right now."
Squalo sighs. "Well, you need to heal, and the Ninth said you need to relax, this is the thing they recommended, I thought you can rest for a bit here, okay. Just try it. Bel and Mammon go here from time to time just to unwind when they're not doing anything and they say it feels nice to them, so what the hell, I thought I'd recommend it to you too."
He's lead to one of the more private rooms by two women and Xanxus turns to him and asks him, "what did you sign me up for, then?" and Squalo grins and shows him a hell of a lot of teeth while he looks at his fresh scars and replies, "hydrotherapy."
3.
Squalo places his half Vongola ring on his hands and he doesn't even have to look at the thing to know it's fake.
"I'm -- I'm so -- I apolo -- sorry," he growls out, and it feels terribly wrong to say them; the words have a taste like burning rubber and perfume and it's sickening and Xanxus hisses at that slight confession and snarls, "I don't need your fucking charity" but he pockets the ring anyway. He walks away. From behind him he hears Squalo whisper something like "this is as far as we'll ever go" and he pretends not to have heard him. He clenches the ring in his fist inside his pocket all night long until there was a bleeding circular impression on his skin.
4.
It was Lussuria's idea, keeping up with the Christmas spirit, that all of them receive their paychecks and some comments on their performance enclosed in a christmas card. Xanxus didn't like the idea, but Sawada did, and so he tried to compromise by sending in all of their paychecks in a christmas-themed card filled with expletives and other manners of swearing, and he smiled at the work he did and found himself feeling content and slightly in the christmas spirit. Just slightly.
"You know, you suck at giving thank-yous," Squalo says conversationally because their cards weren't really red and green and christmassy at all; it was filled with black marker comments of 'trash' and 'scum' and 'you are the laziest piece of shit I know, merry christmas to you'. Levi was treating it like a god and Bel was wincing at some of the comments because they were true about him and Mammon's just double-checking the numbers and his schedule to see if they added right. Squalo doesn't even want to read his card; he just opened it to get the check out and had it deposited straight to his account. "I can't help it," he growls, "Hallmark doesn't have anything that expresses my feelings" and Squalo just rolls his eyes and mutters "whatever".
5.
Squalo hated getting phone calls late at night unless they're really important, but his celphone was ringing with Beethoven's Ninth and there's no way he can ignore that call because fuck, that's the ring tone he assigned to Xanxus and Xanxus gets pissed if he doesn't answer his calls right away. So he swims from under the cover of his warm blankets to pick up the goddamn celphone just to make it shut up. "I'm not working overtime," he says grumpily. There was no answer on the other line but he hears the sound of paper rustling, pages turning. "What the hell is it?" "Pickup lines." "... what." And in a grave, deadly serious voice that'd make hell freeze over Xanxus said: "would you touch me so I can say to my friends that I've been touched by an angel? My lenses turn dark in the sunshine of your love. Your father must've been a thief, for he stole the stars from the sky and -- " Squalo resists laughing and hits his head on the wall instead. "... are you laughing, you jerk?" "Probably. Look, Xanxus, if you really like the girl and you wanna go formal and go with the whole courting thing, maybe you should just do it straight up and tell her that you like her, like how brutally honest you are with us. I mean, to be honest with you, you sound like an idiot trying to use pickup lines." There was another pause at the other line, until finally Xanxus said "if you tell anybody I asked you for advice on this I'm going to gut you alive and string your organs across my christmas tree and you'll never be the godfather of my first-born child" to which Squalo replies "okay, can I go sleep now?" and then he hangs up. Grinning, Squalo makes a mental note in his head to tell Lussuria the following morning. He's pretty sure the boss doesn't mind; they're family, after all.