Squalo wished that they had just let the shark eat him. He despised the situation he was in currently, being at the mercy of those who could do harm to him because he wasn't in a fit state to fight back. It was like karma for all he had done throughout his years as a member of the Varia, and even some years before that. Why did that woman have to intervene? He had already accepted his fate when she had swept in to save him, he was willing to die his way with a decision that HE made and she had ruined it. He didn't remember much from his time in the depths but he did remember regaining consciousness, if only very briefly, in the air pocket. While she hadn't noticed him, Squalo took in everything in those few seconds. The way she gripped on to him for dear life and how frantic her voice sounded as she tried to coax him back to life, unknowing that he was watching her the whole time. Her eyes were the most startling. Big and purple, the whites of them stinging red from the salt water they were surrounded by and they were giving away every emotion. Fear, sadness, determination. Those eyes had come to haunt him, every time he thought he had gotten them out of his mind they would appear suddenly and wake him from his sleep. He hated it. He hated HER. And yet, he didn't want her to disappear from his life because in the extremely short time he had known her she had managed to make him question some of what he believed in. People didn't put themselves before others, people did not care about the villains, people certainly did not dive into shark infested waters to save their would-be killers. But she did.

The door to his hospital room was opened abruptly and in walked the woman who had plagued his thoughts. She quickly closed the door behind her before bringing herself to look at Squalo but in those few seconds he could tell that something was off. He noticed her bandages were cleaner, so presumed they were new, and there was dejected look to her eyes which she attempted to hide with an elaborate attitude.

"What or who is the Guardian of the Vongola?" She demanded of him in a semi-shout before she walked to the other side of his bed and sat on the chair, she had previously occupied.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Squalo told her as she removed her jacket and fixed her blonde hair. What he said made the woman whip around to him angrily, with a face of slight disgust. Squalo waited for her to challenge him, as she always did, but that didn't happen before Amaya propped her legs up on the hospital bed and crossed one over the other. Something which Squalo was surprised she dared to do. True, he wouldn't harm her now but it was brazen of her to freely be so close to him.

"Bullshit!" She spat at him before raising her eyebrow. "I'm not just excellent at lying, I'm a pretty good lie detector. So, it would be easier if you just told me what you know." She explained to him, crossing her arms over her stomach as she did so. Squalo smirked at her then, a sadistic smirk that was his trademark but it didn't seem to faze the young woman as much anymore.

"Or what? Are you going to do what Dino did to me? Take advantage of my current state." A small sardonic chuckle escaped him as he finished his sentence but once he saw the disgusted and hurt look on Amaya's face he sobered up.

"I would never do anything like that to anyone, not even you." She spoke softly, turning away from Squalo for a second before the hurt expression returned to a neutral one and she too, turned back to face him. Did his comment really hurt her that much? He hadn't realised how much she detested what Dino did, she didn't like being compared to someone who could pull off such a feat. "You know something so I'm just asking nicely. Please tell me what you know." That's when it began, the stare down. They had many stare downs but not one like this. This one wasn't out of hate or bloodlust; it wasn't out of anger or humiliation. She was begging him with her eyes, hoping that she could unlock something in him by staring so deeply into his eyes. Squalo hadn't had someone look at him in that way unless he was going to take their life. Whenever he killed someone, he would always look into their eyes because they were the window to the soul and he was able to see every little detail in the persons last moment of living. The combination of this woman and the purple eyes that he feared he wouldn't be able to rip himself away from was dangerous for him and yet he stayed locked with her, gazing so intently that he could see his reflection in her eyes. Those damned eyes. Why did it have to be those damned eyes?

Squalo let out a huff as he broke eye contact with the woman, instead turning to look at the foot of his bed. It surprised Amaya that he was the first one to brake, he was so proud that she thought he would rather gouge his eyes out then lose, especially to her. She waited patiently, watching him intently, as he finally opened his mouth to speak.

"The first and only Guardian of the Vongola was in the First Generation." Squalo retold the story that he had heard before and he knew that Amaya was hanging on his every word. "Rosetta Valiano was the daughter of a tavern owner in the heart of the Vongola territory, one day when she was working at the bar a fight broke out outside of the tavern between the Vongola and a rival family. Eventually the fight broke into the tavern, instead of running like everyone else she stood and fought with the Vongola Family, she even killed the leader of the other family when all the other guardians were knocked out." Amaya couldn't help but be awestruck by the story, she shifted her body so she was lying on her side with her arm propping her head up. Squalo noticed how easily she trusted him; he could easily break her leg in that moment, if it were anybody else, he probably would have already. "The First Boss, Giotto, wanted her to join him and wouldn't take no for an answer and so she became 'The Guardian of The Vongola' a position Giotto didn't know he needed until he met her. When she joined the fight, no one was able to come close to touching any of her boys." Squalo stopped then, he had told all of the story and believed that he had satisfied her question but she was still curious and couldn't help herself.

"What happened to her?" It was an innocent and he wished that he could have given her an innocent answer but he knew the lie wouldn't seem real to her. She could look through it so easily.

"One of the Vongola Guardians believed that the Vongola would be better if there were different guardians, the First Generation agreed to retire and leave but as they were preparing to go the Guardian who betrayed them showed up. He planned to kill them so that he knew they weren't going to return but when he arrived to the mansion, Rosetta was there to fight him." Squalo started, seeing that what he was saying was slowly sinking in for Amaya. "He slit her throat, her own Guardian betrayed her, but she did her job and stalled him long enough for the others to escape." Amaya gasped, her own hand gliding along her throat while her eyes turned blank.

"Oh my god." She whispered, shocked at what she had just heard. "She sacrificed herself for them."

"Sound familiar." Squalo said as he fixed her with a look. Amaya turned back to him with a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Too familiar." Was her reply. "I guess I'm destined to die protecting them huh?" She asked cynically, casting her eyes down to the floor as her mind ran wild.

"The fate of the past isn't the same as yours, you can choose how you want to die." While Squalo hated her generally, he hated her the most when she looked like this, as if there was no light left in the world. For him that was true but when it came to her she still had a dwindling flame to hold on to. She looked back up to him then, smiling just a little bit more but not enough that it reached her eyes.

"You know so much about the Vongola," She began as she sat up in her chair again and gave him a cheeky grin. "It's almost like you were supposed to be the Boss of the Varia." The mention of the title he was supposed to possess made Squalo's blow up to twice their size and Amaya couldn't help but smirk at him. She needed this to cheer her up and make her forget the news she had just heard.

"Bastard Dino can't keep his mouth shut!" Squalo hissed as he clenched his hand into a fist, the other one Amaya had noticed was not currently attached. "What else did he tell you?" It was his turn to make the demands, since he had helped her Amaya thought there was no reason to prolong his misery.

"Nothing. He just said you were the rightful Boss. So why did you give it up?" Just like that, he descended back into his cold self and Amaya instantly regretted asking him the question.

"That's none of your business!" He all but growled at her, hoping to strike some form of fear into her but she just shrugged it off like it was nothing.

"Is that a bit of a touchy subject?" Amaya asked sarcastically, removing her legs from her bed so that she could instead lean on her knees to throw him a bright smile. "Is the reason really that embarrassing?"

"Shut your mouth, bitch." Squalo was seething, itching to do something very rash. He wasn't prepared to be insulted by her in this way. Especially when it concerned the person who he was supposed to be.

"Bitch? I thought we were making progress for a second." Amaya faked a sniffle before she pouted at him. "Don't worry, I won't think less of you." She teased in a baby voice. He snapped then and Amaya didn't have time to react before he sat up quickly and placed his hand on her neck, pulling her towards him. Her hands were clawing at her throat in an instant, trying to wrap around the strong grip his finger had on her. She hadn't realised how strong he could be after such a long surgery, she thought he still wasn't able to pull himself up. The pain in her throat was only intensified by the burning of her lungs trying to get more oxygen.

"I said. Shut. Your. Mouth." He brought her close to his face as he the words escaped through gritted teeth. Her eyes were starting to water now but she still persisted in grabbing at his hand so he would release her. Her vision was starting to go hazy now as he pressed firmly at the sides of her throat, pushing his palm into her oesophagus. She made a split-second decision based off of a stupid post that her friend had showed her, she just couldn't believe that she was actually going to do it. Using the little strength she had, she looked directly in Squalo's eyes and opened her mouth to speak.

"Harder, Daddy." Amaya was almost as shocked as Squalo was when the words actually escaped. Thankfully that moment of shock was enough for Squalo to release Amaya, causing the woman to fall to floor while spluttering uncontrollably. Squalo couldn't comprehend someone saying that to him. EVER. It shocked him beyond belief but it also made him feel tainted and disgusting.

"Never say that again." Squalo glared angrily at the woman who was now laying on her back next to his hospital bed and laughing at what had just happened.

"It made you let me go didn't it." She spoke through her chuckling before she sat up and rested her back against the wall. She reached up and grabbed the cup of water from his bedside table before drinking a large portion of it. "It serves you right for being a dick." She told him as she finished the rest of the water.

"I told you to shut up and you didn't listen." Squalo thought that that was a good enough reason to strangle her apparently. "You know I drank out of that, right?" He asked her while she pulled herself up and walked over to the tap to refill the cup.

"I don't really care," She said as the water filled the cup. She then looked through the mirror to lock eyes with him. "Does it bother you?" She took a drink again as if to emphasise her previous point.

"I could have any disease." He grinned at her in the shark like way he was slowly becoming famous for. Amaya smirked back at him before downing the rest of her water.

"Well I said you could kill me, doesn't matter if it's through disease." She placed the cup on the side before walking back over and perching in her chair. "Also, you're going to pay if you messed up my cuts," Amaya told him as she looked at her bandages that looked a little out of place. "I've already had them ripped open; I don't want to have to endure that a second time." She sighed, silently preying that they were okay.

"You're the idiot for messing them up the first time." Squalo spat back at her. Amaya put her jacket back on after looking at the clock, it should be shift change soon and she was secretly glad for it. She needed to sleep. As if she could predict the future, she heard footsteps outside of Squalo's door. She placed a finger to her lips just in time as Dino walked in looking pretty beat up.

"Jesus what happened to you?" Amaya couldn't help but ask despite the fact they had a fight before he left. She stood up and walked over to inspect him, pulling at his jacket and moving his hair out of his eyes as she did.

"Training the Guardian, he's rough." Dino laughed as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "So, are we good?" He asked her. Truth be told he had been hoping all night that he wasn't going to lose her as a friend or an ally and had wanted to come back and ask her as quick as possible.

"If you don't go preying on defenceless people again, then I guess so." Amaya answered as she patted him on the shoulder with a small smile. "Now I would be more than grateful if you could takeover, it's been really boring and I almost fell asleep." She lied to Dino, again.

"Of course, I'll see you tomorrow at the battles." Dino told her. Both of them seemed to forget that Squalo was there, or simply didn't care that he was which greatly annoyed him. He glared at the woman as she left his room, not even saying goodbye, and people thought the Varia were rude. The last he saw of her was blonde hair flying around the corner, Squalo couldn't help but feel alone now that she was gone even though his childhood friend was stood in the same room.

So we have a nice little interaction chapter before we continue with the story line. I hope you guys liked it, it was really fun to write this chapter and explore their dynamic a little bit more. Especially from Squalo's POV more. What do you guys think of the way she got out of being strangled? That was quite amusing to write. Until next time.