When I look into your eyes

It's like watching the night sky

Or a beautiful sunrise

Well, there's so much they hold

And just like them old stars

I see that you've come so far

To be right where you are

How old is your soul?

It was a surprisingly peaceful morning at the Varia mansion as Squalo was waking up in the Boss' bed. He had spent the night with Xanxus before having to spend weeks, or even months, away on a mission. Squalo, as much as he wasn't a morning person, knew that Xanxus was ten times worse. He yawned slightly, stretching much like a cat would. The silk sheets slipping down to his midriff, letting a light breeze blow across his bare skin. He froze when he felt and heard shuffling beside him. He leaned over, his hair shielding his face from the other's face, but leaving him completely able to stare to his heart's content of his partner's sunset red irises. Squalo let a small smile grace his lips. They really have come so far from their first meeting.

"Stop staring at me, trash." Xanxus' gruff morning voice shakes him out of his revoir.

And there goes the moment.

Along with the silence.

"VOOOIIII!" Squalo shrieked in displeasure. "What? I can't look at you?" He demanded to which Xanxus just shrugged, already reaching for the bottle of wine on the bed table next to him, not even taking time to pour some out and just drinking from the source. Squalo could have sworn he heard something about needing a stronger type of liquor rather than that 'watered down crap'.

The long haired assassin turned to get up out of the bed, figuring that he should leave with his pride intact before he gets kicked out. Yelling under his breath and waving his arms around about how his idiot boss doesn't care for him. He was taken out of his stupor by Xanxus pulling him against his chest, holding him tightly.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked, eyes narrowing. "I didn't say you could leave."

"Didn't think I had to be dismissed, master," Squalo shot back.

Xanxus grunted, as Squalo elbowed him in the ribs in an attempt to escape his boss' grasp. "Voi, let me go!" He squirmed, pushing away more, but finding that having one hand at the moment is his detriment.

"No," he stated simply. Squalo decided that it would be better to spend his last day in the arms of the man he loves, (not that he would admit that) before heading out on a mission. He sighed, curling himself up around Xanxus, head on the other man's chest, and hair messily spread out. Eyelids fluttering shut, the strategy commander had concluded that sleep, considering how early it is, is always a good thing.

"Marry me."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement; an order. One that held many promises and underlying meanings. Squalo bolted upright, the scarred man letting him. He took another swig out of the wine bottle. he thought for a moment, the words connecting in his mind. A lazy, tooth filled smile filled his face, "now, what kind of subordinate would I be to disobey my boss?"

Xanxus smirked smugly at the response. He knew it was a yes. Leaning over to the end table once again, he pulled out a drawer and dug around in it for a few moments before finding what he needed. He threw it at the back of Squalo's head. Some things will never change.

"VOI!" He yelled as he rubbed his scalp while searching for the offending item. Standing up caused his loose sweatpants to hang lowly on his hips. He found a square, black velveteen box, cautiously, he opened it.

It was, what Squalo assumed it to be, an engagement ring. A large orange stone sat in the middle, surrounded by tiny sapphire blue gems. The Sky's and Rain's color. The ring had to have been custom made, which meant that Xanxus had probably been planning this for a while. The thought made Squalo's heart skip a beat. No matter what he does, he truly cares for me. He slipped on the ring, ignoring how ridiculous it felt to be wearing it, and how heavy it was, because Xanxus just proposed and threw the ring at his head.

All was right in his world.

Well, I won't give up on us

Even if the skies get rough

I'm giving you all my love

I'm still looking up

Blood spattered across the black leather uniform of the Varia. Squalo swatted his sword to the side, trying to rid it of the crimson liquid. The bottom of his hair was singed from the bomb that had exploded earlier, his lip split, and his face covered in black ash and soot. A grimace was placed upon his face. He felt dirty, but not mentally, oh, Squalo didn't care for the fact that he had just slaughtered a rival famiglia single handedly. In fact, he was proud of it, and he's sure that his fiance had heard of the reports already. Xanxus had told him to make them suffer, and suffering would have been a mercy compared to what Squalo had done. No, Squalo felt dirty because he was covered in blood and dirt and grime.

Now, normally the shark would rejoice in being covered in his enemy's life force, but he knows how much of a pain it is to wash it out of his hair, uniform, and get the dried blood out from under his fingernails.

His wedding was in a few days, and he's been away from Xanxus for six months just to eliminate the trash family. He didn't spare one person from the wrath of the Vongola and the Varia. Or his own annoyance.

He sighed. Luss was going to have a fit with his hair, and, well, everything. Not that they made their engagement known, but as soon as the flamboyant male caught sight of the large gemstone on his left ring finger, all hell broke loose.

Levi fainted, Lussuria squealed, saying something about being the maid of honor, Bel laughed as if it were a joke, and Fran, well, Fran just kind of stared at them, not realizing what the ring signified. Oblivious brat. No wonder Bel's proposals never work. That and the fact that the kid gets a knife thrown to his head when he speaks. Squalo finally let himself admit that they were a family. Albeit a dysfunctional one, but a family nonetheless.

And when you're needing your space

To do some navigating

I'll be here patiently waiting

To see what you find

"I'm not your son!" An enraged Xanxus screamed at the Ninth leader of the Vongola Family.

"Maybe not by blood, by you are still my son, Xanxus," Timoteo responded in a calm voice.

Squalo stood hidden behind a nearby column, his presence unknown to both parties. Xanxus was throwing a fit, but it was different this time. This time, Squalo knew, that something bad was going to happen. A sense of foreboding had washed over him, and his mind immediately went to the man to whom he swore loyalty to. Xanxus was known for his temper and rage, but this is something different.

This was hurt.

This was betrayal.

Squalo bit on his hand, keeping himself quiet and hidden in the shadows. "I was never going to be the Decimo, was I?" The swordsman heard the hollow laughter come from the voice he was already so infatuated with-not that Xanxus knew. "-set me up, didn't you, you old man!" He yelled. A large crash was heard and the assassin whipped his head to the side in search of the noise. He saw a fallen column, burning, parallel to himself.

"I'm gonna kill you, old man." Xanxus gruff voice let out a cry before he aimed his flames toward the Ninth. The Ninth, in response to his imminent threat, had tapped into his own Dying Will and aimed to freeze Xanxus where he stood.

"No!" Squalo cried out, lunging towards the pair from his hiding spot, hoping that he would be frozen in place of his boss. Xanxus' eyes widened a bit, but besides that, his stance didn't change as he saw his piece of trash, shark scum subordinate attempt to sacrifice himself in place of Xanxus.

Squalo was too late. There Xanxus stood, the wide eyed expression still on his face, his battle stance held firmly by the encasing ice. It glinted off of the sunlight filtering in from the hole in the ceiling.

"No..." He cried weakly. Timoteo was surprised. How come his Hyper Intuition let him know about the possible threat? Then, by looking at the young man in front of him, on his knees in front of his adoptive son's tomb of ice, he knew that the white haired man was not a threat.

Squalo had slept on the floor next to the entrapped Xanxus that night. And the next night. And the next. And the next. In fact, he didn't want to leave, but the Varia wasn't going to take care of itself. He had taken the position of Boss, and swore that when Xanxus was free from imprisonment, he would have his rightful title as Boss of the Varia back.

Squalo visited him frequently, letting out his frustrations by venting, and ranting about updates and how the idiot scum that are the newbies don't let him sleep nor do they listen and how one of them believes that he cares that he is a prince from some dead country. Or eight years old for that matter.

"He's got this annoying laugh, the little shit." He ranted once while pacing back and forth before sighing. "I'll get you out of there eventually, you know. Don't know when, don't know how, just know I will." He concluded before leaving that day.

Xanxus, unbeknownst to Squalo, was able to hear everything that his partner had said. Being trapped in ice seemed to leave the boy lots of time to think to himself about everything.

He even heard when Squalo confessed that he held feelings for him.

So when Xanxus was eventually able to get out of the ice, he distanced himself from the swordsman, his head filled with unknown emotions. Squalo didn't question it; it wasn't as if they were best friends before the incident.

Though, when Xanxus had eventually cornered the other in one of the long hallways of the Varia mansion, and kissed him until Squalo was breathless, the swordsman didn't question that either when Xanxus stalked away, brooding and wondering why he had decided to do that. The ravenette may have the body of a man, but still had the thoughts and hormones of a teenager.

So when the next day, when Xanxus began to throw things at his head and curse him out more than he had ever before, Squalo took it without complaint, ignoring the ache in his heart. Because any attention was good attention, right?

'Cause even the stars

they burn

Some even fall to the earth

We've got a lot to learn

God knows we're worth it

No, I won't give up

It's funny, that Squalo would think about that on the eve of his wedding. He felt a sense of looming in the air. As if something bad was going to happen, so he was on full alert. He was back in his own room due to Lussuria crying about how it was bad luck for the groom and the bride, yes, the flamboyant male had the gall to call the masculine swordsman a bride, the women in the damn relationship, to sleep in the same room the night before the wedding.

Little did Squalo know that Xanxus was at a different part of the Vongola territory, pacing back and forth, trying to decide for himself whether or not he should go through with this. Some of the runts at the bottom of the Varia food chain had ignored his looming presence in the dining hall, they had even talked about how he thought he was so tough, but in fact, that he was actually a fag in disguise. Xanxus had blasted them into next week. He did the same when he heard them talking about Squalo 'fucking the Boss in order to move up ranks'. Oh, they somehow mysteriously disappeared.

Xanxus cursed loudly. No. He couldn't do this. He couldn't do it. But he had to. He was boss of the Varia, he will do this. He loved his annoying shark trash, truly, he did. It wasn't even the fact that he was concerned that he wasn't loved back, because if he wasn't, Squalo wouldn't put up with all the shit that he does.

Xanxus was scared shitless.

Ever since he was young and his mother gave him to Timoteo, he instantly aligned love with weakness; he loved his mother, which left him weak, in turn he listened to her ramblings about he was going to be the Vongola Decimo. He built up hopes for nothing. That is why the fearless leader of the Varia is actually scared. The man's mind had the cunning edge and knowledge of men twice, three times his age, but emotionally he was still a boy. It crushed him to come to this realization about himself, but he would not back out of this wedding.

I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily

I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make

Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use

The tools and gifts we got, yeah, we got a lot at stake

And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did intend

For us to work we didn't break, we didn't burn

We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in

I had to learn what I've got, and what I'm not, and who I am

The next day, Squalo walked down the aisle. Somehow, someway, the rest of the Varia, minus Xanxus, had forced the swordsman into a white gown. Of course, that didn't happen easily. Squalo punched, and kicked, and spit, and bit, until finally, Fran was actually of use and used his illusions to restrain and silence the bride-to-be. Bel, the damn brat, had taken away Squalo's sword, saying something about how he wouldn't want to ruin the nice dress. Squalo cursed loudly, hearing giggles coming from the Storm and Sun guardians. Taking off the black gloves that the man usually wore, Fran replaced them with long, white gloves that reached his elbow. Then he felt someone tugging on his hair.

"Who the fuck-?" He yelled out, only to be shushed by a harsh tug to his long, silver hair.

"Oi, don't move, or you'll mess it up." A voice hissed out. The man behind Squalo obviously had experience with long hair as swift and nimble fingers worked at his strands.

"Shishou," Fran whined, "scary boss man will get angry if you cut loud-mouthed commander's hair."

"VOOOOIIII!" He screeched flailing his arms, hurrying to get away from the man he now knew was Mukuro Rokudo. "Thanks, but fuck off. What the hell are you doing here anyway?" He questioned.

"Oya, oya, now, now, I'm my student's plus one~" he let out a signature 'kufufu' laughter. God, that laugh was just as annoying and irritating as Belphegor's in Squalo's book.

"Out. I'll finish this myself." He sighed, sealing his fate.

"I try to help and I get kicked out." Mukuro whined.

"Shishou, I told you that the only thing you were good at with hair was making it pineapple shaped." Needless to say, Fran ended up with a trident in his ridiculous frog hat of his.

Soon enough, Squalo heard the bridal march begin to play; he took a deep breath, his black combat boots peaked out underneath the layers of chiffon fabric that the dress had. A bouquet of flowers were thrust into his hands as he stomped out the dressing room. Rolling his eyes, he accepted the flowers without much of a hassle. Squalo closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and he left the building and soon was stepping on to a long runway, covered in black velveteen. A small smile escaped his lips, Xanxus wasn't kidding around with this.

I won't give up on us

Even if the skies get rough

I'm giving you all my love

I'm still looking up, I'm still looking up.

Once he reached the end of the aisle, he stopped, and he finally lifted his head to look at his soon-to-be husband. Xanxus, for one of the first times in his life smiled warmly at the man before him. Squalo was beautiful in the dress, and he was glad that he bribed the rest of the Varia to get the swordsman into a dress. He would have laughed if the situation was different.

Squalo looked back, love and adoration evident in his eyes. You wouldn't know it, but it was there. The white-haired male barely heard anything else besides the part when Xanxus had to recite his vows.

"Do you, Xanxus, take Squalo to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do. No matter what happens. This means that you're now mine, trash." Ah, there is Xanxus for you.

"O-okay, well then. Do you, Superbia Squalo, take Xanxus to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"Fuck yeah, I do."

"You may now kiss the bride."

"VOI! Bride?" Squalo began to protest but was swiftly cut off by Xanxus pressing a long, loving, and possessive kiss to his lips. The male melted into the kiss, going limp in the other's arms. A few wolf-whistles and cat calls were heard throughout the audience, and a few people blushed at the display in front of them. Not like the newly wedded couple cared.

Well, I won't give up on us (no I'm not giving up)

God knows I'm tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)

We've got a lot to learn (we're alive, we are loved)

God knows we're worth it (and we're worth it)

I won't give up on us

Even if the skies get rough

I'm giving you all my love

I'm still looking up