Hello! Welcome to the new story... I hope you like it and keep a look out for the rest of the chapters!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN! Sadly.


Belphegor buried his face into the downy pillow of his huge bed. He laid face down, spread out over the lavish covers, but he felt no comfort. He felt anger. He felt the wet tear stain press against his cheek. He felt lost.


He had skipped into Xanxus's office the day before to announce that it was his birthday and the boss should come down to celebrate with the rest of the Varia. Xanxus had taken one look at Bel, pulled out his gun and before the prince could react, shot it. The bullet missed Bel's head... but had hit his crown and shattered it before lodging itself in the wall behind him. Belphegor stood rooted to the spot, too shocked to move, and then slowly, he reached his thin fingers into his hair where they brushed against shards of the broken tiara.

He stumbled backwards, speechless. His mouth was absent of its usual smile and hung wide. "Get... out..." Xanxus's voice growled from the other side of the room. Bel could not look at him, could not lift his eyes to see his boss sitting in his comfy chair. Bel turned and took one step towards the door, before bolting out of the room. Distantly he could hear Xanxus yelling for him to shut the door behind him but Bel did not stop, he didn't even pause until he reached his room.

He reached for the handle, but could not see. His vision blurred as tears welled in his eyes. A drop fell onto his outstretched hand. The tears hurt. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried.

Fran watched silently from down the hall as Bel leaned against his door and sobbed. There was a part of the glittering tiara clutched in one of his hands, but as Fran stood there, it clattered to the ground. The prince didn't seem to notice.

Eventually, the flow of Bel's tears slowed. Sniffing, he gripped the handle and opened his door. He stepped through to the inner chamber and quietly shut the door behind himself. Fran stood frozen in the empty hallway. The rest of the Varia had heard the goings on from the living room downstairs but only Fran had thought anything of it. When he heard Xanxus begin to shout for Bel to shut the door, Fran had excused himself to see what had happened.

As quietly as he could, Fran crept down the corridor. The shard of Bel's crown still lay on the carpet in front of the prince's door, forgotten. Fran bent to pick it up, but almost dropped it as one of the edges sliced into his skin. As he straightened up, he froze. From inside the prince's room, Fran could hear Bel's sobs. He seemed to be screaming into his pillow. Muffled rage and anguish echoed through the door.

"Voi... What the hell?" The swords man's voice was quieter than usual but there was no chance Bel would hear it over his pain.

Wordlessly, Fran held up the piece of the crown. Squalo nodded once before saying, "Ha, a prince without a crown? He can't hold anything over us now, can he?" The shark snorted and then turned and headed back downstairs.

Fran looked down at the crown again. They didn't understand, Bel without a crown was like Xanxus not wanting to be Vongola Tenth. It just wasn't possible. It wasn't right.

Slowly, Fran walked back to his room. He couldn't even imagine what the prince must be going through. He had never seen Bel upset about anything before and to hear him crying his heart out into his pillow had unnerved the Frog.


It had been a week and Bel still hadn't emerged from his room. In the presence of others, that is. Fran had witnessed the prince creeping into the kitchen in the middle of the night once to get food. As Fran watched from the shadows of the door way, Bel reached out and ran his fingers over one of the magnets Lussuria had stuck on the refrigerator. It was an image of Mammon grumpily looking up from a stack of money. Fran jumped as Bel spoke into the silent darkness.

"I wish you were still here," Bel's voice cracked from disuse. "Things were better when you were still here. I miss you mammon, I can't talk to the frog the way I could talk to you."

Fran retreated as Bel pulled open the refrigerator. He was shocked at what he had just heard. Fran knew Bel had been close to the arcobaleno, but he had never imagined that Bel wanted to be close to him too.

As Fran walked back through the living room to go back to bed, he saw the stack of unopened presents. They were Bel's Christmas and birthday presents. He had never gotten a chance to open them. Unable to look at the gloomy heap any longer, Fran climbed the stairs back to his room.

Inside, Fran stood in front of his dressing table. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, for once without the frog hat. He only ever took it off to sleep. He could have gone without wearing it this past week due to the prince's absence, but he felt too guilty to do so. Around the mirror were his things, but what caught his eye was one of Lussuria's gifts. It was a picture of the Varia standing outside of headquarters. They were all lined up, being their usual selves. On the right side, Bel's face grinned up at him as he had an arm slung around Fran's shoulders which the frog was trying grumpily trying to shrug off.

Fran sighed, something inside of him wanted Bel to go back to his usual princely self. Fran wanted him to smile again, and he had an idea as to what would make that happen.


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