Squalo was tired, angry, ashamed, embarrassed. Named a negative feeling and you probably describe him. The Cradle event as it is now known was a disaster and it cost them their sky. Xanxus was trapped thanks to his ‘father’ caging him like an animal since he deluded himself in to believing it’s the only way to ‘contain’ him. The Varia was looking to him, their set was falling apart, and the Vongola were coming down on them like a brick wall making things worse. It has been a year, most of the sanctions were removed, but they still don’t have their sky back and Squalo was at a loss.
To his surprise Misser called in a meeting, said they had something important to discuss, and they needed everyone to be there. Bel, Luss, Levi and himself were all sitting at the table waiting for the misser to show. Before they knew it the misser came in quick raised their strongest wards and added a chair to the table.
“It’s safe, you can come out now.” A man showed out of thin air, he set at the chair next to the midget looking looking amused at their angry reactions and unsheathed weapons.
“Before you say anything I would like to introduce you all to Hollow, he is a friend…” that brought them all to a halt. Misser claiming anyone as a friend was unheard of. What more they were claiming they were sitting in front of Hollow, a cloud so powerful and possessive no one in the mafia dares try to control. From what he heard even reborn keeps his distance. This jackass has a good relationship with the Vindice somehow and is known to hang around with them. Every family that forcefully tried to recruit him burned, literally.
“I’m sure you heard some of the stories about the stuff he can do, but nothing solid… I can tell you he holds the record of prisons he escaped, vindice included… I am pretty sure they decided to make friends with him because it was just easier.” Hollow looked smug, the jackass took a ziploc bag from their pocket and gave Misser trash a cookie. Squalo snorted at that
“Anyway, he learned about our Sky’s situation and was displeased, has issues about parents caging their children and decided to do something about it.” That got everyone’s attention. “We need to prepare a safe space for the heeling process. According to the intel Hollow gathered, and I confirmed Xanxus is going to need to be surrounded by his elements while we remove the ice. That means we need a safe place with no interference for several days while also making sure things run smoothly inside Varia so no one realizes we are connected until it is too late.” They were all determined when they realized that, started planning every option and route needed, the whole time Hollow was silent, once in a while making a gesture to indicate agreement or for them to notice something. When they had a working plan, and about 30 contingencies Hollow turned to misser nodded his head and disappeared in to this air like he was never there.
They were all confused, and had to many questions, but none of them had time considering the amount of work they each had, they can ask everything later. Right now they have preparations for a trash sky to that’s hopefully coming home.
7 hours after Nono Vongola and his elements were nailed to the outside wall of the Vongola with child abuser carved in to Nono Vongola’ a forehead, and Xanxus was in the Varia underground medical facilities having the ice he was trapped in slowly chipped away by the scariest cloud any of them ever encountered while their set encircled them with their flames.
It took days, but the boss was finally out being closely treated by Luss, as each of them takes turns sitting with Xanxus feeding him his flames. The whole time Hollow didn’t leave, standing over their sky like a sentinel waiting for someone to dare do something stupid. When Boss finally woke he looked at Hollow with a lazy smile and whispered, “took you long enough…” Hollow made some movement with his hands that made boss chuckle.
“Really Harry, you know better than that…” the eye role he recived was enough to make his trash sky snicker. He wanted to be angry, and demand Xanxus to pay attention to his set that so desperately need him, but than he realized that the whole time his sky was holding his hand so he let it be.
It took Xanxus a while to recover, and the entire time the weird silent cloud never leaving him, eventually Misser explained that when they said he was a friend they never mentioned who’s. Apparently Hollow and Xanxus considered each other brothers and when one was in trouble the other came running. The only reason it took Hollow a year to do something was because he didn’t know how to safely extract him from the Zero point ice. Otherwise, he would have had him out the next day.
Eventually Xanxus was at his office, not drinking alcohol and actually eating his vegetables without a single complaint. It probably didn’t hurt that Hollow took over the kitchen had it completely cleaned than proceeded to cook all of Xanxus meals. When Squalo went to talk to the boss he saw the powerhouse of a cloud sleeping with his head in Xanxus lap, and his sky looking at his little brother with concern.
“Ask.. trash, stop looking at me like were in chick flick…” Xanxus said quietly while keeping the cloud from stirring.
“Hallow… or is it Harry… your brother? Whats that about…” because if he is this close with the cloud why is he not in their set?
“Met him years ago, probably before I even met you… ended up running around Britain shooting our way through a lot of posh pigs. He went after some people that killed his family, I helped because it was fun. Also helped build my reputation back than…” he does remember that by the time they met Xanxus had made a name in northern Europe. “I taught him how to fight, he tought me how to get in and out of places, things grew from there. It was a bitch and a half to learn sign language, arsehole refuse to use anything but India Sign Language. Said it’s the only useful one since it’s the only food worth ordering.” The wrath wouldn’t stop sniggering at that.
“Once we were done killing everyone on his list I came back and he settled his affairs. A year later he showed up in Italy driving the Vindice mad with his nonsense breaking in and out of every locked space for shits and giggles. Most annoying part is that he never uses his flames for that, says it feels like cheating.” That is impressive, easpcially considering some of the heist attributed to him, it also explained why Xanxus was so good for covert ops.” He never really cared for anything about the mafia as long as we didn’t hurt kids…” he chuckled. “His past, from the little I could find… makes ours look like heaven…” coming from the wrath that is saying a lot. He took a sip of tea, also offered Squalo a glass, say what you like about the cloud but he makes good tea.
“Why didn’t you bond? You clearly want to?” That was something he noticed, they loved each other, like true brothers, and all Xanxus was missing in his set was a cloud… so why not?
The wrath took a seep breath and with a sad look answered, “he’s to powerful, any sky that tried burned… he refuses to risk the same with me.” That was a terrifying statement, Xanxus is a powerhouse, for him to say that means Hollow is a beast. “The sad thing is I happen to know none of those sky’s were looking for a willing bond, it’s likely his flames are to traumatized since one of those sky’s was his parents killer, the other was his kidnapper… he burned them to ashes when they tried to force a bond on him…” welp, that took a turn to the horrific. For Xanxus to tell him something so personal about his brother means he is trusting his rain to look out for the cloud, his real cloud.
The Varia build themselves back up, and Don Vongola knew better than to interfere. Hollow really left a mark on him, literally, the engraving on his forehead couldn’t be removed, and when he tried to have the cloud ‘punished’, Hollow used it to troll the Vongola in it’s entirety to the verge of madness. They tried getting Vindice involved, but they were quickly laughed away. Did Nono forget that the vindice liked the menace?
Though the external advisor was found dead by torture a week after Xanxus happen to let his little brother know about a sky in Namimori that was sealed with the approval of his father. Hollow still visited and kept an eye on his big brother, and the rest of their set. Once in a while he took over the Cloud division and worked them to the ground until they were fit to his standard and than he would disappear again. It was a new normal, but it worked for them.