A/N Sorry about not having updated anything within the past week; my cat was bitten by a snake and I had been too distraught to write. We brought her home from the vet yesterday, but she can still go downhill in the coming weeks, so if I abruptly stop updating again, that's probably what has happened and apologies in advance.

Squalo hated seeing Fran so lifeless, but he understood that, with the boy's already-weak lungs, being trapped in a house fire wouldn't be the easiest thing for him to overcome so quickly. He was waiting for Mukuro to come and sit with the boy, needing to go and oversee the company with Xanxus - if the company's stability went downhill now of all times, they would be at risk of bankruptcy in the middle of having their home repaired, along with all of their possessions being replaced.

The long-haired man was unusually quiet as he tapped away at the touch screen of his phone, bringing up his Facebook to open Fran's boyfriend's profile - he had been kind enough to add him as a friend, which simply left waiting for the Japanese teenager to see his private message and reply.

There's been a fire and Beland Franare in hospital, Squalo typed, almost ready to send it to Yamamoto Takeshi. Franisn't doing too well. We can put you on the next flight down if you want to come and see him.

Hitting send, Squalo knew all he could do now was wait; Takeshi should be asleep by now, and with the teenager's daily baseball practise, it would be a while before he sent a response.

"Squalo..."

The silver-haired man looked up at Mukuro Rokudo's voice, finding the man standing in the doorway of Fran's hospital room. He gestured for the blue-haired man to take a seat, not knowing what to say - what could he say?

"He looks awful..." Mukuro reached out, brushing sooty hair out of Fran's closed eyes.

"By the time the firemen got in, it was almost too late for them..." Squalo, for once, was speaking in a quiet voice. "Bel tried to protect him... They were in Xanxus' office... They were lucky; the fire surrounded them, but... Well, they made it to a hospital..."

Mukuro knew how much Squalo cared for Bel and Fran, and he could only imagine how hard this must be for the man; having lost his home and all of his possessions... as well as for the two youngest of his family to be hospitalised...

"If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know." Mukuro had never known Squalo to show any distress, but the bags under the man's eyes indicated that he must not have slept for a while, and that he was utterly exhausted.

Before Squalo could reply, Fran's body started shifting, teal eyes blinking heavily. His and Mukuro's eyes fixed on the boy, both silent as they watched Fran carefully.

The boy's eyes were clouded as his hand reached up, tugging at the tube that entered through his mouth and went down into his throat. By his shaky actions, the two adults could see just how weak he was.

"Don't," Squalo growled, pulling Fran's hand away. "It's helping you breathe. Leave it."

Fran didn't make a sound - rather, he couldn't make a sound. His teal eyes just stared blankly at Mukuro and Squalo for a few seconds before they slipped closed once again, Fran falling once more into oblivion.

Squalo turned his back to his charge at this, not wanting Mukuro to see how badly Fran's condition affected him. When he spoke to the blue-haired man, it was in a voice barely above a whisper. "Going to check on the company... Text me if something happens..."

"I will." Mukuro pulled his chair closer to Fran's bed, holding the tiny hand in his. "It's okay, little one... It's okay..."

Squalo couldn't bear to listen to this anymore; grabbing his black jacket from the chair he had draped it over, he hurried out of the hospital and down to his car. He unlocked the white Mercedes-BenzesXanxus had bought for him as an anniversary gift a few years back and slid into the driver's seat.

Squalo didn't start the car yet - he didn't even put the keys in the ignition; he instead buried his face in the steering wheel, not knowing what to do; he loved his family with all his heart, and he just didn't want to lose any of them.

~~Varia Company.~~

"How is it?"

Xanxus glanced up from the paperwork he was reading over, acknowledging his lover silently. He waited until Squalo took the seat next to him before he spoke, his voice heavy with exhaustion - in the two days that had passed since the fire, he, Squalo and Lussuria had been ran off their feet in trying to run a demanding company as well as visit the boys at the hospital; none of them had had much sleep at all.

"It seems fine." Xanxus pointed out an error on the sheet he had circled before explaining. "Someone made a mistake regarding the stock. I've fixed it before it was finalised."

Squalo nodded, grabbing the paper from the older male. He read over it carefully while Xanxus stood up and headed to the liquor cabinet, grabbing a bottle of wine from the shelf. He poured two glasses, bringing them back to the desk and sliding one to the long-haired male.

They drank in silence for a bit while Squalo went over the paperwork, searching for errors his lover hadn't picked up on.

"What's Lussuria doing?" Xanxus asked, standing over by the liquor cabinet again as he poured himself his fourth glass.

"I think he said he's talking to the subordinates and making sure there's absolutely no doubt they know what they're doing."

"Good."

Squalo sighed and sat back in his desk chair, rubbing at his eyes. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and, pulling it out, he noticed he had an alert from Facebook regarding Takeshi's response.

"Takeshi replied," Squalo said as he opened the message. Xanxus was stiff as he awaited for the younger to read out the message. "He said, 'That's horrible! Please, if you could find a flight for tonight, I can get everything ready. Please message me back with some flight details to make sure they're suitable for us both.' He's a good kid. Really good."

"If he wasn't, I'd have knocked his head in and never allowed Fran near him again," Xanxus agreed.

Squalo chuckled as he closed Facebook off to instead bring up the internet, searching for the next flight from Japan to Italy.

A/N Regarding VariaCompany, I'll probably never really clarify just what kind of company it is as I'm a Retail Assistant myself and will probably never be good enough to make it into company management, let alone get facts of a fictional company right. So, just use your imagination. All you need to know is that VariaCompany is an independent branch of VongolaCompany, headed by Xanxus' foster-father, VongolaNinth.