All right, next chapter! Bel is still not in a good mood~
Belphegor slowly opened his eyes, seeing through the haze of his own bangs. The room was strangely quite, a quite that he had never experienced before. At the Varia headquarters there was no silence, someone was always fighting (usually he was fighting) and making noise. He hated the silence.
He pushed himself up, ignoring the pain in his ribs, gingerly avoiding using his left arm to much. He was still in the hospital room where he had awoken what seemed like not to long ago, in the Vongola's secret base Basil had said.
He glanced around the orderly room, searching for some sign of life.
No one else was there. The perfect time for an escape.
Pushing aside the thin sheets of the hospital bed Belphegor threw his legs over the side and hopped lightly down. Pain seared up his side, making Belphegor hiss. He stood still for a moment, the pain slowly subsiding back into its usual dull pang.
He hated being injured, it was the worst. Walking slowly he had to be careful as every movement sets his ribs ablaze, a fire that seemed to make all of his wounds hurt in some way.
He grated his teeth and set his mind to the task of ignoring the pain and escaping.
He reached the door when it suddenly opened, and there she stood.
"Hello dead women." Belphegor sneered, giving her a nasty smile, she frowned at him. "Do you happen to know where my crown is?"
He missed it, it proclaimed who he was, and without it he felt like a normal peasant.
The dead women just frowned deeper, in her eyes a flicker of fear passed through but so did anger.
"Get back in bed." She ignored the crown question.
Belphegor's smile grew. "Can't order a prince naughty peasant." He leaned closer toward her, chuckling his signature laugh, a scare tactic.
The women just glared at him then pushed past him bumping against his wrapped arm. He drew in a breath, as the pain once again was set ablaze.
"Please get back onto the bed so I can take care of your wounds." She threw the bundle she had been carrying in her arms onto a chair in the corner then got busy getting around new bandages.
Belphegor's smile fell, a more imposing frown taking its place. "Who do you think you are ordering a prince around?"
Haru noted the dangerous sound in his voice, her back stiffening, much to Belphegor's pleasure. She turned around a bit, watching him cautiously.
"Fine, you can go."
Belphegor blinked then turned. It seemed strange for her to just let him go, not after how set she had seemed to keep him there, but he wouldn't second guess her goodwill.
He inspected the door; it was a silver thing, large enough for a hospital bed to be wheeled out. However there was no door handle.
"Women." He growled.
"My name is Haru."
"Idiot." Belphegor rephrased. "How am I supposed to open the door?"
"You're not."
Belphegor wheeled back toward the women, who was gathering all her equipment onto the table beside the hospital bed where he had been placed, watching him with big innocent eyes.
Oh, she was definitely not dead.
"Are you saying you won't let me leave?"
"Not until you're healed."
A smile spread across Belphegor's face, annoyance radiated from him. "So… determined." He muttered, walking slowly toward her. "You better let me out, I can still kill you."
Red marks still discolored the white skin of her neck; there were even a few scratches where Belphegor's nails had dug into her skin.
"You can't."
Oh yes, he could easily kill her. Belphegor could still recall how small her neck was, how easy it would have been to strangle her, he could have even snapped her neck just to make it quick.
Yet there she was standing across from him, a determined frown on her face, quite alive. And quite annoying.
"Why not?" Belphegor did not like being ordered around, and this woman, Haru, had done enough ordering as far as he was concerned. And his body still flashed with pain, and his mind was not working bogged down by the pain. He was not in a good mood.
"I am under direct protection of the tenth Vongola boss, the current Vongola boss, if I was killed your life would be forfeit."
"Tch." Belphegor chuckled. "Tsuna is too much of a wimp to sentence me to death."
"If he doesn't I'm sure the Guardians or the CEDEF will."
She did have a point. Belphegor's smile just widened, her determined frown softened a little at the insanity of that smile.
"So I see I did not realize how much of a priority Tsuna's consorts are."
"I-I'm not his consort!" Haru blushed.
"Shishishi."
She glared at him and reached forward, grabbing his arm. Belphegor let out a yelp of pain before stifling it. The two glared at each other, Belphegor raging inside for showing her a sign of weakness.
"Just let me change your bandages, the quicker you heal the sooner you can get back to doing whatever you were doing."
Belphegor remained still for a moment longer than slowly climbed back onto the bed, sitting there cross legged. He hated her that was for sure.
He pledged to himself to someday kill her for real, one way or another.
Haru reached over, beginning to unwrap the bandage around his chest, Belphegor looked away, so he would not see his blood, and so he could hide the pain that showed in his face.
While she was certainly quite mad at him she was gentle enough with taking off the bandages, she threw the old bandage away, wiped down the wound with warm water. The washcloth hurt against the fresh wounds, making Belphegor wince.
But he did not show any of his pain to her.
She took a new bandage and wrapped it around his chest, then did the same to the wound on his arm. When she had finished she seemed to hesitate.
Belphegor was about to ask if that was all she cleared her throat.
"Lay down."
"What?"
"Lay down."
"Are you sure that's an order?" Belphegor smiled at her, charmingly, though it was certain she did not see it that way.
"Yes, it is." Belphegor hated her more. "I have one more bandage I need to change."
Belphegor frowned but complied, lying down. If what Haru said had been true, he did need to heal. He hated how vulnerable he felt, lying down like that, her over him. He nearly sat up again but stopped when Haru reached down toward his hip, placing her fingers around the bandage taped there.
Belphegor could not help but chuckle, Haru just shot him an annoyed look.
She carefully pulled up the tape and threw away the old bandage before dipping the cloth into the water and reaching back toward the wound. Then she hesitated.
Belphegor chuckled again; she should consider herself lucky to be able to touch the prince in such an intimate way!
She glared and pressed the washcloth to the wound a bit roughly, stifling Belphegor's chuckles. After a while of silence Belphegor had enough of it and his sadistic humor returned.
"I do believe that's enough, unless you want to continue touching me."
Haru jumped back immediately, glairing at Belphegor. Who was rewarded only for a few short moments by her sharp look before she none to gently replaced the bandage.
"There are cloths over on that chair." Haru motioned toward the chair she had thrown the bundle earlier. She dumped out the water, ignoring Belphegor's drawn expression.
How dare she purposefully put the prince in pain!
"And you should probably take a bath, there's one over that way." She jerked her thumb toward a door in the hospital ward and with that she turned toward the door and quickly left.
But not before Belphegor saw how she got out.
A smile stretched across his face, the simple information had made his day. Slipping off the bed Belphegor held up the clothing left for him. It was simple, too simple. A plain green shirt and blue jeans. No socks, no shoes, no belt, no jacket. Just a shirt and jeans.
These people were sad, sad people.
But he was cold, why was this place so cold? And the shirt would help hide his wounds. Belphegor carefully put the shirt on then took off his pants and climbed into the jeans. They fit fine, but he felt like a peasant in them.
But they would do for the time being.
However, a bath was out of the question. Mainly because she suggested it.
Instead he turned toward the door, where the keypad was. Of course he should have realized earlier, but he was too caught up in the fact that there was no handle. (And though he hated to admit it the pain was affecting his thinking) But Haru had slipped up, letting him see in plain view what numbers she had pressed. He punched in the numbers and stood smugly as the door slid open.
He walked out with a slight swagger in his step, unfortunately he still had to be careful, for one his wounds still hurt, and secondly he had no idea where everyone else was.
It was a strange thing hiding from ones'allies', escaping from ones 'ally's'.
After roaming the halls and finding nothing and no one of interest, just a bunch of locked doors, he had managed to find the laundry room, which had baskets out front, one of which had his shiny knives on top, a nice find if he did say so himself. But after that it was just a bunch of doors. Finally he found something of interest.
Haru.
She was standing in front of a door, grumbling and gripping to herself.
"Idiot assassin guy." She was muttering, Belphegor raised an eyebrow. "So self-centered, a jerk, a big brat."
Target practice would be nice.
Raising a knife he aimed… then threw.
Haru gave a shriek as a knife clattered off the door in front of her. She turned around quickly dropping the basket of clothing she had been carrying.
"Belphegor!" She exclaimed in shock as he came sauntering toward her. "How did you get out?"
How could he have missed? His arm throbbed with pain from throwing the knife, he probably shouldn't have thrown it with his injured arm but it had been instinct.
"A certain stupid women showed me the way." Belphegor chuckled, watching in delight at Haru's reaction of shock and horror.
"Just go back there!"
"Can't." Belphegor replied quickly. "For one thing, I don't take orders, and two I need to go."
"Look, you can't leave ok!" She knelt down gathering up the cloths that had been scattered on the ground. "We're all trapped here for the time being, everyone here is trying to get us out, so just sit tight ok?"
Belphegor was in no stretch of the word, patient.
Belphegor knelt to retrieve his knife when a wave of dizziness hit. He groaned inwardly in annoyance, how inconvenient. His body was sore all over, the long wandering around the base taxing his already wounded body.
He straightened, showing no sign of weakness to Haru.
"I feely you're giving order to me again." Belphegor growled.
"I'm not." Haru retorted, straightening up and clutching the laundry basket tightly against her. "I'm just stating facts."
Belphegor flicked up another knife between his two fingers, this time using his non injured arm.
"W-where did you get your knives?" The glint of the knife reflected in Haru's fearful eyes.
"Shishishi." Belphegor chuckled. "You left them there for me."
Haru gulped. "What do you mean?"
"I found them on a laundry basket."
"Oh…" Haru's face went a bit pale. "I… I did take care of your ruined jacket…" She mumbled.
Ruined jacket? His day just got a bit worse.
"But I'm afraid they'll have to be confiscated." Haru said firmly, Belphegor raised an eyebrow.
"I think not."
"No," Haru pressed, annoying Belphegor more. "I'm afraid it's not a debatable point."
A smile widened across Belphegor's face and he flicked the knife he held right before her face. "I will be keeping my knives."
Haru opened her mouth to speak was interrupted by a sudden loud and screeching beep. Both looked over toward where the sound came from. A small little robot wheeled closer to them, it looked like a small little trash can but with a rounded top. Red and green lights flashed on the little dome, but other than that the little trashcan was unadorned, simple and silver with six parallel lines running down its side.
"What's that?" Belphegor scoffed at the little thing.
"I… I don't know." Haru cocked her head at it. "Probably some invention of Giannini-san's."
Belphegor frowned at it; the thing still rolled toward them and gave another beep. "What's it doing?"
"How should I know?"
The two watched it come a bit closer. Then it stopped a foot before their feet, and remained motionless.
Belphegor blinked, this place just got weirder. "So… I'll just destroy it now."
"No!" Haru tried to step in front of the little robot but Belphegor pressed the knife point against her throat, keeping her where she was. "It's one of Giannini-san's inventions, you can't just d-"
"Object: Found." The robot interrupted Haru, drawing both Haru and Belphegor's attention back to the little thing. "Target: Found." Belphegor frowned at the thing, wondering when would be the best time to destroy the thing, wait until it said more or just do it now?
"Enact plan 2033-B46." The flashing red light became stable while the flashing green light turned off. The thing rolled closer and bumped against Belphegor's leg.
Before he had time to kick it an electric jolt swept through his body jarring him, a fiery pain raging in his wounds.
The knife he held fell down onto the basket Haru held her face as shocked as his. Pain swept through his body attacking his mind.
That little robot would pay. Belphegor crumpled down, knees buckling, mind receding back into the blackness. Next time he saw that thing he would destroy it, no matter whose invention it was.
He was tired of fainting in front of that woman.
"Target: Neutralized."
Haru watched in shock at the robot sent an electric jolt through Belphegor that almost instantly made him slip back into unconsciousness and crumbled onto the floor with a loud thud. She blinked in surprised, looking down at Belphegor than over at the robot.
"Target: Neutralized." It declared in its robotic monotone voice. The red light flicked off and a steady green light flicked on. "Object: Safe." Haru blinked at the thing, she would definitely have to ask Giannini about it.
Then she turned her attention back to the fallen man, realizing that while the robot had helped her it had also caused her a lot of problems. Belphegor was now lying in the middle of the hallway.
He caused her nothing but troubles.
Really, who did he think he was? He was using her, she knew that, just because she did not like seeing people in pain, just because she worked hard, he jeered at her and mocked her. Yesterday he had almost strangled her, and now today he held her at knife point.
He was terrible.
Haru angrily punched in the code for her room and threw the basket inside. Then she turned back to the unconscious assassin, grabbing him under his armpits and dragging him into her room.
If he was awake he would come up with some jeer, Haru thought sardonically. If he was awake he wouldn't allow her to even touch him, especially not the way she was.
But she couldn't just leave him in the cold hallway. She dragged him to the edge of her bed then let him laid there, taking the cover from her bed and spreading it over him.
It wasn't the best to let him lie on the floor, but it was the best she could do. Besides it was his fault, he was the one who left the hospital ward. She would have to get Basil or Fuuta to help carry him back to the hospital ward. But they were both working hard, and Haru did not want to interrupt them, especially not for Belphegor.
Haru sighed, pushing aside her bangs and tucking them behind her ear. Really he was just like a child, a bratty one. He was so tiresome; this really would be a test of her endurance.
Haru watched him a moment longer, shocked by how peaceful he seemed sleeping there, almost like a regular man.
Haru laughed at her own thought and turned away closing the door. Belphegor was Belphegor.
And Belphegor was a handful.
The robot remained where it had been, green light still steady. Haru watched it a moment then sighed, might as well ask Giannini about it before it kept on attacking Belphegor.
Haru stepped away from door to her room and the robot rolled forward. Haru stopped, as did the robot. Haru twisted her lips into an interested frown, curious as to the little robot that had seemed to appear out of no where.
She continued forward, the robot following, saying nothing, green light steady. It followed her all the way to the control room here Giannini sat at the keyboard.
"Giannini-san." Haru watched over her shoulder as the robot followed. "What is this?"
"Hmm?" Giannini glanced up at Haru then down at what she was looking at. His face brightened. "Oh! I see you met PH-1."
"PH-1?" Haru repeated, looking away from the robot to Giannini.
"Yes, it's a wonderful little invention I just made." Giannini explained excited to show off his inventions. "Just finished it and sent it off! Just wait until you hear what it's programmed to do!"
"It attacked Belphegor."
"Oh, so you already know!"
Haru raised an eyebrow. "That's what it's supposed to do?"
"Oh yes, PH-1 stands for Protect Haru, this ones model 1."
Haru blinked. "You made it to protect me?"
Giannini smiled proudly. "Of course, I can't just leave you alone in the base without some form of protection."
Haru smiled a bit, both pleased and a little… disappointed. She was glad to have something watching her back but it made her seem more like an extra hand, something that everyone had to protect. A liability.
"I tried to make it cute, as I know you would like it that way. What colors would you like it to be? I can change that if you want."
Giannini looked so happy and excited Haru couldn't help but go along. Besides, it did look a bit cute… but it would look cuter if…
"Green and silver." Haru said. "It would look cute if it were green and silver." The colors wouldn't clash with the flashing lights but it would help make the plain silver robot a little cuter.
"Perfect." Giannini rubbed his hands together. "I'll get right to work on that."
"What about getting back up communications and all that?" Haru asked, vaguely sweeping her arm around at the various computers in the room.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Right now I'm more at a stage of just having to wait and see some things through. I'm running various system checks and filters so it will take a while to pinpoint any problems. I have enough time to perfect PH-1!"
"All right." Haru wouldn't try to argue with him.
"Don't worry Haru-san." Giannini smiled at her. "You'll be happy to have PH-1. I've programmed it to follow you around, except for certain areas like in your bedroom, I've also programmed it to listen to your voice commands, I'll give you a sheet of what they are. Of course," Giannini had lifted himself from his seat and was heading toward the motionless PH-1, eyes filled with excitement and joy at his latest creation. "Its main purpose is to protect you, the primary target being Belphegor-san."
"Uh… Giannini-san," Haru interrupted. "When you're changing PH-1's color could you… could you tone down the shock it gives?" Haru asked. "I don't want to be having to take care of an unconscious Belphegor every time PH-1 has to 'protect' me. Maybe just a little jolt?"
"That's understandable Haru-san!" Giannini nodded thoughtfully. "I'll fix that too."
Then he launched into another description of different aspects of the PH-1. Haru just pretended to listen, nodding her head every so often.
PH-1 would be helpful, but Haru did not want it. In a way she felt foolish, putting her own besides before her safety but… but she felt odd having the robot trail her. She wanted to take care of things by herself. How could she prove anything if a robot was protecting her?
This trip was just getting worse.
And there we go! Tell me what you think? Are they still in character? How do you like the story? What do you think of PH-1? (I'd like to thank airi-07 for the idea to add some inventions of Giannini's!)
Thanks to: jrlrock, airi-07, and SeXySqUcHaN for reviewing, and thanks to everyone who has put the story on their alerts/favorites!