"Good morning, Squalo. You've slept in late; it's almost eight o'clock."

Bel was woken by these words being purred right by his ear, but he ignored them; no one could be stupid enough to mistake him for Squalo. At least, he was convinced that was true until he felt arms wrap around his waist and pull him against a stronger body. He froze, too nervous to even say anything, but it was when he felt a deep kiss against his own lips did he finally break away and kick his unintentional assaulter.

"Get off me, dirty old man!" Bel elbowed the older blond in the stomach before he jumped off the bed. He noticed now why he had been mistaken for his foster parent; while Squalo had exited the room sometime earlier, the other hadn't been aware of Bel coming in to sleep with them; it was natural to assume it was one's lover in bed with them, but really; couldn't Dino open his fucking eyes and make sure he wasn't about to try and sleep with the wrong person?

Bel ran back to his own room. He sighed as he tried to close his door as quietly as he could; there was no school today, and if he made the slightest noise that signalled he was awake…

"Bel-senpaiiiiiii~"

The boy winced at the younger's voice before he dived into his bed and pulled the blankets over him to pretend he was still asleep; the last thing he wanted right now was to deal with the brat.

When the blond's door opened and he sensed a small body standing next to him, he tried his hardest to relax and feign sleep, but he knew it wasn't fooling Fran; the little shit was a cookie just as smart as his senpai, if not smarter, as much as the blond refused to admit it out loud.

"Senpai, I know you're not sleeping because the long-haired loud mouth is making breakfast, and I asked him if you were awake yet. He said you weren't, and that was five seconds before I heard your door shut. I made it here in three. You can't fall asleep in two seconds, senpai."

"…"

Fran pulled the blankets from Bel's body before he spoke again; he knew exactly how to get the attention he wanted. "Senpai's pants are clean this morning. I expected for you to need another shower like you do every other morning because senpai's hormone levels exceed the normal standard for a sixteen-year-old."

Bel growled as he rolled over to face the boy. "How would you know that, frog?"

"Because my room is right next to senpai's, and these walls aren't exactly thick, senpai. Bel-senpai should know this; he has the long-haired shark's bedroom on the other side of his, and the stupid horse comes over and stays most nights."

The boy flushed and lowered his head at what his kohai was implying. "S-shut up! I don't want to think about that!"

Fran allowed a hint of understanding to seep into his otherwise monotonous voice as he nodded. "Senpai likes Squalo, doesn't he? If he thinks about the sounds the horse helps Squalo make, then senpai will need to spend hours in his room relieving himself. I understand."

Bel's cheeks turned scarlet as he threw his pillow at the smaller male. "I was fifteen, and it was a crush! How did you find out about that, anyway?!"

"I wasn't sure if senpai was sexually attracted to people or technology, so I asked the loud shark, and he told me. He also said you are sexually attracted to people, technology and shoes and clothing. Bananas, too; he's seen you deep-throating them."

"How did he know all of that?!"

"He said it wasn't hard to tell because you kept blushing every time you looked at him and was stuttering and giggling like an obsessed schoolgirl. And for technology, he told me he once walked into your room and is still pretty sure he saw you trying to mate with your laptop. And the clothing and shoes is a no brainer; you do make some pretty orgasmic noises when you go shopping with the drag-queen."

Bel made a frustrated noise at this. He got off his bed and moved to the computer so that he could turn the monitor on before he got ready for his day. He then approached his dresser and opened it, and within seconds he had chosen his outfit for today. He took the clothing to drop onto his bed and lifted his pyjama shirt up and over his head afterwards so he could change. He dropped it to the floor when he noticed Fran was watching his every movement; what was with that little pervert?

"Do you mind?" Bel tensed and turned around so that his back was to Fran; he didn't like feeling such an intense stare directed at him.

"But senpai, we're both guys here. You don't have anything I haven't already seen. Unless you're really a girl; I haven't seen any of that before."

With another growl, Bel snatched up his clothing and left so that he could disappear into the bathroom in order to get dressed. It wasn't that he didn't like the attention; it was just that it was something he wasn't accustomed to, and…

Well, the biggest reason of all was that Bel was honestly embarrassed to know how much his… ahem… little prince was enjoying the younger's company in such an intimate situation. He was someone who felt constant arousal on a daily basis, but he felt it directed at so few people, it was strange to feel it for someone he had only known for a few months now; he found it hard to be interested in someone he didn't know well or wasn't particularly close to, the reason why Squalo and Mammon were the only two he had ever developed crushes on before. He wished he could spend extra time in the bathroom doing things other than dressing now that his train of thought had derailed, but he decided not to; Fran would only have more reason to annoy him otherwise.

Finally, once he was dressed, Bel returned to his bedroom. He wasn't surprised to find the teal-haired male had waited for him to come back; nothing he could do was enough to shake the little brat, after all.

~~XX~~

When Squalo had finally rescued Bel from Fran just after lunch, the blond couldn't have been more thankful; he liked being by himself with just his games for company, and though he didn't mind someone coming in to talk to him for a little while, he found it extremely difficult to cope with someone in his ear all day. He valued his alone time, and he still had yet to learn how to deal with others getting in the way of it.

But then, sure enough, after returning with the shopping Squalo had sent him to get to in order to give Bel a break, Fran was as determined as ever to stick by Bel's side.

"Senpai, can I play with you?" Fran sat next to Bel at the desk, and the blond wasn't fast enough to stop him from taking the mouse from the older male. "What are you playing? What do you want me to do?"

Bel gave a resigned sigh. He knew he was once again stuck with the brat; the younger had already made up his mind to play with Bel, and nothing the boy could do was going to get him out of his room – it would just waste the energy he didn't have in the first place. "Fine. Whatever. You've got the mouse; you're controlling where we go and what we're looking at."

"Why are we in a dark forest?" Fran moved the mouse around so that he could decide where to go. He cocked his head to the side and asked, "What are we supposed to do?"

"We're looking for notes. Go the other way. No, the other – fucking turn around, Fran!"

Fran didn't do as told; he simply walked their character up to a tree before saying, "No notes on this one, senpai. Where are they?"

"They're randomly scattered around the map – damnit, Fran, they're not on these trees! Stop walking up to them!"

"Senpai is grumpy as always." Instead directing the character over to a building he could see off in the distance, Fran asked, "Is there a note in there?"

"It's random, but one does spawn in there sometimes. Go check it out." A mischievous look crossed Bel's face at this, having decided that since Fran obviously didn't know what this game was, he might just be able to get the little shit back for what he did last night. "Make sure to check the whole building – even the dead ends. We have to walk as far into them as we can to make sure we don't miss the notes."

"Okay~" The younger hummed an annoying tune as he did as instructed. He made sure to walk right into the walls so they didn't miss the notes, but he couldn't say he wasn't getting bored; what was the point of this if they only had to walk around looking for pieces of paper? "Senpai, you have terrible tastes in games."

"You want to die that badly?" Bel turned to glare at Fran and bonk his companion on the head in annoyance. He took no notice of the game camera automatically turning around, but the second he looked back, he was taken by surprise by the jump scare he had planned to get Fran with – but alas, as always, the teal-haired male looked unfazed.

"Is that it, senpai? This game sucks. Can we play something else?" Having missed the way Bel had jumped and squeaked loudly at the scare, Fran moved the mouse to click the game off. It was the first time he had seen the other's wallpaper for the desktop, and he couldn't help but look at the other with a raised eyebrow. "Really, senpai? Naked girls? I thought you were gay."

"Oi! There's nothing wrong with liking a bit of both. It just means that I can get the best of both worlds, shishi~" Bel had already forgotten his previous fright and opened up a different game. He left it on the log-in screen as he turned to Fran and said, "Go get me your laptop; I'll install this on it and we can play online together."

Fran didn't hesitate to do as told; this was the first time since his arrival that Bel had allowed him to share in his hobby. When he came back with his laptop, he was quiet as he watched Bel focus on installing more than just the aforementioned game onto it; it seemed that the blond was putting recording software onto it as well. Fran wasn't entirely sure of what his fellow foster's intentions were, but he didn't get a chance to question it; now that Bel was simply waiting on everything to install, he had closed his eyes with the intention to rest them for a while, but had fallen asleep at his desk again.

Fran left his laptop where it was and moved to Bel's bed so that he could pull the blanket off it. He brought it back over and draped it across the taller male, and when the boy stirred and mumbled something incomprehensible, he brushed his small fingers against a pale cheek.

"It's okay, senpai." Fran tucked the blanket tight around the skinny teen and backed away once he was satisfied Bel was going to be kept warm; he could have easily left the other there in the cooling temperature, but he had never seen his foster brother look so at peace before; Bel actually looked cute when he was resting. "You can sleep. I'll come back when you're awake."

Fran knew that Bel never slept much at night; the blond was always up late playing videogames and doing other things, and had a habit of sleeping for long hours during the day or falling asleep in random places until someone woke him up or carried him to his bed. Fran never minded the other's insane sleeping patterns; he liked that there something Bel enjoyed and made him happy.

Just before he turned around and left the room, Fran reached out and hugged his sleeping senpai lightly as to not wake him. He didn't say anything as he let go; he just left, making sure to close the door quietly behind him and tell everyone to keep it down so that Bel could sleep.

Fran didn't know how to show it, but he really did like his senpai; he wouldn't spend all his time with someone if he didn't, after all.