Bite To Death

It's been fun.

No, really, Xanxus has been having a lot of fun.

At first it pissed him off since all of his subordinates were dying, either from the first change into infected or being mauled to death by both zombies and humans after.

But then when he abandoned the overrun Varia headquarters and took to the streets, one of those dead things finally got past the barrier of Guardians and he took out one of his guns.

A bullet straight to the brain, and the head practically exploded.

"Oh f.u.c.k the hell yes," Xanxus breathes out, staring wide eyed at the crumpled body by his feet.

"Boss," Lussuria begins cautiously, like trying to not startle a wild animal. "We really should get to a safe house."

"F.u.c.k the shitty safe house!" Xanxus barks with a feral grin. "Its f.u.c.k.i.n.g head exploded!" He throws back his head and laughs.

"God damn you, Fran," Squalo hisses quietly to the teen in the background. "I know you let that one through on purpose."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Fran replies, trying for innocence - but not willing to try hard enough so it comes out in a monotone voice.

"Come at me, trash!" Xanxus roars, firing a spray of bullets that all find their mark.

Infected are being decimated in a large radius around the Varia boss, their heads being ripped to shreds under the onslaught of metal projectiles. The streets are far bloodier as the bullets tear flesh and blood away and throw it on walls and the occasional abandoned car.

One of said cars gets Xanxus' attention and promptly goes up in flames as the man fires an entire clip of tracer bullets into it.

The humans are still running and screaming, but it's now because of Xanxus instead of the zombies.

...

The first time Xanxus meets Hibari Kyouya, the man is surrounded by infected, and the rest of the Varia Guardians watch from a rooftop a safe distance away as he gleefully slaughters his way through them all.

A helicopter flies overhead and then backtracks a bit, hovering. Xanxus takes a moment to look up and finds a black blur launch itself from the chopper and plummet to the ground.

When it lands, it craters the pavement and sliver chains whip out, tearing through infected. The chains retract and it whirls as tonfas flash in the sunlight, cracking through bone and flesh in precise, quick movements.

It's power and death wrapped in the form of a teenager.

Xanxus grins and strides for the boy, the infected around him taking barely a smidgen of his focus when they rush him and he has to shoot. He barely takes note of the helicopter taking off.

The boy turns to face Xanxus and watches the Varia boss confidently cut a path through the walking dead, leaving true corpses in his wake with ease.

The teenager smiles and they meet in the middle.

"God damned Hibaris," Mammon mutters.

Squalo lets out a low whistle as he watches the two rip into each other. Even from half a block away, Squalo can hear them clashing, the sound of metal tonfas screeching against the guns Xanxus wields.

Xanxus knocks a tonfa from the kid's hand and the teen just comes back even fiercer. It's Xanxus who runs out of bullets first and both pause, three meters of distance between them and a hoard of infected collapsed at their feet.

On some silent command, they both toss their weapons down and sprint for each other. They throw out hits so fast their limbs blur. Eventually they leap backwards, panting, but the pause lasts for a second before they charge again.

This time they forgo any technique and just slam into each other with as much force as they can manage. Xanxus wins that one, obviously, considering he's a fully grown a.d.u.l.t going up against a teenager.

They hit the ground with Xanxus on top and start rolling – not even trying to do damage now, just playing around. The kid scr.a.p.es up a handful of rotten flesh from the infected scattered around and shoves it down Xanxus' top.

The Varia boss retaliates by mashing a handful into the kid's hair and they're both laughing.

"There's two of him," Belphegor comments dryly.

Lussuria lets out a hum. "I mean, I love my boss…but in moderation."

The helicopter, which had been circling around the battlefield, comes to hover over the building they're standing on. The Varia are already near the edge so it has space to land on the rooftop.

One of the two teenagers inside steps out, the DC making his way over to them with a neutral expression.

"Tetsuya Kusakabe," he introduces himself in Italian with a short bow. "Am I right to assume that man is yours?" he asks calmly.

"Squalo Surperbi, and yeah, that's our boss Xanxus," Squalo answers. "I'm guessing that kid is your one?"

"He's Kyouya Hibari, the…owner of Namimori," Tetsuya explains. "I'm sorry about the whole situation over there, the Chairman gets excited when he meets strong people."

Said Chairman is currently hovering over Xanxus on his hands and knees, and both of them are grinning like feral beasts at each other, covered in gore from head to toe because of the earlier fight. He says something and Xanxus roars with laughter before they're both rolling around again.

"No," Squalo says dismissively to the apology. "It's fine, Xanxus gets the same way."

"He was getting bored with just fighting zombies," Lussuria states. "They die too easily – wasn't a challenge for him." He smiles and holds out a hand. "I'm Lussuria, sweetheart."

Tetsuya accepts the handshake politely. They chat for a while and the Varia learn about Namimori, the safe zone quickly expanding in Japan. Tetsuya gives them an invitation to join, and a writes down a list of sites that the Patrollers tend to visit.

He explains that they don't have a concrete plan yet, they're just here to get a few radio towers working and see if any country managed to survive.

Squalo raises an eyebrow at the information. It's been just over a month since what people are calling the outbreak. If these DC guys are already this well set out, Squalo considers what they could do in a year.

(They won't need a year.)

Eventually Tetsuya insist that the Namimori kids have to leave and continue with their planned route. The Varia are weary of trying to take away Xanxus' new pet, but they concede that they won't stop Tetsuya from asking for Kyouya back.

They troop down the building and step into the street, walking over the infected because trying to avoid stepping on one is impossible.

The two have separated –kind of- and are now sitting cross-legged in front of each other with their knees touching. They seem to be talking about kill counts and subordinates who don't understand their humour.

"And then he says herbivores get disturbed when I spell things out with corpses," Kyouya cries, throwing his arms up in disbelief. "Like, they're my kills, why should I stop just because herbivores get queasy?"

Xanxus scoffs. "It ridiculous what trash get concerned about. This one time, my Varia half tackled me to get the flamethrower out of my hands." He shakes his head, incredulous. "I mean, yeah, the zombies on fire ran around and caught other things on fire, and maybe it was a bit more difficult to kill them while avoiding the flames, but still."

They both sigh in exasperation, echoed by Tetsuya and Squalo but with more pain.

"Chairman, we should get going," Tetsuya speaks up when he reaches the two.

Kyouya looks up at him and stares until he twitches. Then the Chairman sighs and gets to his feet gracefully. "I will be keeping this one," he informs Tetsuya calmly.

Xanxus chuckles darkly. "I think you've got it the other way around."

Kyouya turns to stare at him and then smiles with too many teeth.

"Chairman, please?" Tetsuya tries.

Kyouya rolls his eyes but nods. As Tetsuya goes to collect the scattered tonfas, the teenager turns back to Xanxus. "Until next time," he says, and his jacket flares out when he turns and strides for the chopper just landing on the street.