dante // awaken, beast. (am i toO LATE OR IS THIS OK)
(( DIDN’T WE ALREADY DO THIS KINDA PHFT ))
He didn’t want to be bothered right now. If the other had expected a friendly visited, had expected anything at all, this had to have surprised him. The fact that Squalo was indeed a volatile man was known to few, as he had a pride and dignity that demanded he appear composed. He enforced limits on himself. The only times he would let go completely would be when no one would live to remember it. But even then, those were few and far between. His needs to lash out had dwindled over the years. He’d become calmer. More composed.
Leave. That was the warning he gave. His voice not teasing, not mocking, not the slightest bit joking. It was harsh, serious, and direct. There was no way to question his words or find the slightest leeway. It was an order he demanded be followed for the sake of both parties involved. But it wasn’t. Perhaps the mutt was merely unaware, but he’d learn. And he wouldn’t fucking forget it.
It’s not a joke, Dante. He fucking means leave, Dante. Are you really trying to press this, Dante. Are you really still fucking here, Dante.
Without warning he struck. One second he was in that chair, his head bent over his desk, fingers curling against the palm of his hand. The next he had a blade against the others throat, his eyes not meeting Dante’s. He wasn’t looking at the other, he wasn’t acknowledging the mutt’s existence in the least. It was merely something he wanted to cut down. He used the rage he had buried from their last encounter, the uselessness he felt at his ineffective strikes, to drive himself relentlessly. It didn’t matter what the mutt tried to do, Squalo had taken a complete offense. Block. Step back. Right until the mutt was backed into the fucking corner. Something has to give, Dante. Something always has to give. You aren’t invincible. Neither is Squalo.
He stopped for a moment, panting a bit, his frustrations filling his breath and fueling him. His blade was pressed against the mutt, forcing the others back with a strength Squalo shouldn’t have had. A strength that was tearing his own muscles to shreds. A strength that didn’t give a single damn about himself. He hated it, hated it, hated it! That weakness of his own mortality! Being reminding how fragile he was! How little he could do! It was why he hadn’t challenged Dante after that first match. He pretended it never happened. He turned his back on it. Squalo wanted to forget it. He didn’t hold Dante in contempt for it, no he held instead the idea of Dante in contempt. The side of him that wasn’t human. The side of him Squalo felt fucking justified to be lashing against.
He continued to push back, forcing the mutt to the floor, towering over him like a god damn dragon, wanting to strike everything at once. Wanting to burn that god damn power into ashes.
Squalo leaned against the wall instead, letting his hands drop weakly to his side. The hell was he doing? The hell was he lashing out at? He was so close to making a terrible mistake. He could feel it. If he let himself keep going he was going to end up regretting it. This was something he didn’t want to lose. This companionship. This comradery. Having someone who could take the worst of him and accept it. Who had even seen the worst of him at all. He stepped back, trying to forget this too. Trying to brush it off. He hated dealing with his mistakes. It just made him seem like a much weaker man. His pride demanded he laugh, but his honor demanded he apologize.
He did neither, satisfying neither emotion and neither side of himself. He just took the middle ground and stepped back, a look of regret masking his face.