Flashback:

The more that Lil sat there and thought about the boss and how he always treated her like she was a person, even more so than his most-trusted colleague, Levi… it all came crashing down like a wave.

Tears formed in her eyes as she struggled to wipe them away before more kept coming and coming, and soon, they were all that she could concentrate on.

Chapter 28: Permission

"Lili-chan, what exactly are you doing out of bed?"

Lussuria asked in a pitchy tone as usual. These last two days, it'd all been just perfect, hadn't it? With being injured, slowly regaining a normal walking pattern again and learning how to use her left arm without flinching.

"I'm just getting a drink, Luss…" Lil sighed, attempting to stretch her arm to reach a cup, but only ending up with a broken glass scattering across the floor, prompting Lussuria to groan exasperatedly.

"You should get someone to help you with that, Lili-chan."

"I'm not dying, Luss, I just need a little movement to stretch myself out."

Fran sauntered in with the absence of his frog hat, laying a stack of papers upon the table.

"Do you think the mailman thinks we're dead yet? We haven't picked up the mail a week."

"Fran! You know that's your job; don't try to pin it on someone else!"

Lussuria proceeded to lecture him like he was his mother, but Fran shrugged and began to sort the mail into their respected piles as Lussuria swept the glass away from Lil's feet.

"Hmm… bills for the boss, bills for the boss, bills for the boss, a fashion magazine for you, Lussuria, porn… expensive porn… for Levi… I bet he missed that…"

Lil drowned out Fran's mutterings as Squalo headed for the table and proceeded to help him through the mail.

"Lil, come here."

Squalo commanded, and Lil limped over to the table, where the shark held something unbearably close to his face.

"Squa-san, what is it? Why would you make a cripple walk to you, when you should have walked to the cripple?"

"Oh, shut up. I found this, and it's addressed to you without a return address. Do you know what it is?"

Lil shrugged, leaning against the table now. "How would I know if I don't know who sent it? Besides, I didn't think anyone knew I lived here."

"Neither did I. Do you think it's a bomb or some shit?"

Lil shook her head and gave the shark a disapproving look. "Hush up; I want to see what it is."

She grabbed the letter from him and noticed the neat, handwritten way her full name was sprawled across the front. She ripped it open sloppily and spotted a nicely handwritten notice:


Liliana Del Vecchio,

It has come to my attention that you have been hired by the Varia without external permission.

I require a formal meeting as soon as possible, my earliest open date being on the 14th of October.

Please arrive at the Italian restaurant on 63rd avenue on the date provided in formal wear at approximately 7:00PM, unaccompanied.

Thank you for your time.


At the bottom of the letter, a bright flame marked the bottom as a signature, but no name followed as Lil stared up at Squalo.

"Who's this from?"

"SHIT!" The shark yelled in surprise as he took the flaming notice. "Shit, shit, not fucking good."

Fran glanced over before doing a double-take and shrugging. "Yeap, we're all fucked."

"Say 'yeap' one more time, and my sword is going up your ass," Squalo fumbled around in the mail for a moment before pushing the letter back to Lil. "You can't go without asking for the big bitch's permission first, and to hell with that. Just mentioning this fucker will set off a shitstorm."

"Wait, wait, why does it say that I was hired without 'external permission'? What does that even mean?"

Lil watched Squalo grimace and shrug. "It means that that bastard's boss didn't know that we hired you and hadn't found out until now."

The kitchen was oddly quiet until the oven dinged and Lussuria pulled out some delicious-looking cookies, but before Lil could even comment on the quality of the cookies, a deep voice penetrated the quiet silence.

"Did Fran finally go out and get the mail?"

A tall figure stood in the door. Levi adjusted his mustache and stared at the pile on the table, before lunging for a certain magazine.

"Ah, ah, ah, Levi-san," Fran snagged the magazine off of the table and made the ticking motion with his finger. "I just want to know how much you paid for this magazine."

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT SHIT; GIMME THAT THING, YOU PIECE OF TRASH!"

Levi pulled out one of his parabolas and stuck it in the frog's face, but Fran merely shrugged and began flipping through the magazine.

"Do you really get off to this stuff, or…?"

Squalo let out a belting laugh and Lussuria's shoulders quaked as he fought to control his own, but Lil stared at the scene with glassy eyes as a familiar blonde walked into the room.

Even though it was stupid to be so angry and not even want to be anywhere near him, at the same time, she wanted nothing to do with him. Being hurt was something that she hated with all of her heart, and he'd done it twice.

The prince had walked into the kitchen and began to search around in the fridge, but he stopped and adjusted the sleeves on his gray shirt before continuing to look for food.

"Damn it, Fran! Give me that!" Levi growled deeply, but the kid only frowned and waved it in front of his face. "I'm not giving you anything unless you tell me how much you paid for it."

Lil turned to stare at the prince once more, and the longer she stared, the more it hurt. As if she really liked him the way she thought she did.

Fighting it didn't appear to help her situation as he suddenly shot back up from crouching and turned to her. Though his eyes weren't visible, Lil could feel them locking with hers as she attempted to look away, but she was dragged straight back to his gaze.

"Oi, little girl, are you even listening to me?"

Levi's loud voice caught her attention and she looked away from Bel and to him, who glared at her menacingly.

"I asked you if you were going to take any hits today… wait, you're injured aren't you? I heard it was for being a dumbshit."

Lil shook her head immediately, holding her hands over the letter that she had received. "No. I was just doing my job."

She took a seat in one of the chairs and her hair was yanked down so hard, that her heart jumped.

Levi chuckled annoyingly as Lil glared up at him, narrowing her eyes. "Let go."

"Levi-san, let go of Lili-chan and tell me the cost or the magazine goes to the prince and his knives over there."

Fran's interrogating skills proved fatal to Levi's pride as Lil immediately felt his grip disappear.

"OKAY, OKAY! I paid more than 50 euros for it!"

Fran handed the thing over to get Levi out, which he hurried out of the kitchen and thundered down the hall.

"Damn, that shit was expensive." Squalo swore, running his hand through his hair.

It was quiet for a moment, until Lil stared at the letter in her lap. Was it truly… as bad as Squalo made it seem?

"I'm going to, um… go ask the boss about this."

"Make sure he's in a good mood, Lil. He'll probably shoot at you." Squalo scoffed and poked her head with his sword superiorly. "Even then, I doubt he'll let you go anywhere when you're still healing."

"I'd like to tell you that it'll be that easy, Squa-san, but I don't think I have much of a choice but to go."


Xanxus watched Bester stalk around the room, his tail swishing hastily. The liger had been anxious for two days, probably because of his master's insomniac nights.

God damn, he'd been so angry that he hadn't even been able to sleep right.

That stupid woman and her careless tendencies and the way that she fucking spoke to him were the only things that kept him awake at night, the cause of the wrath coursing through his body.

The urge to shoot people and kill everything in sight was almost unbearable and the need to drink was driving him up a fucking wall by now. Just when the hell would it end?

"Oh, boss! I'm sorry I didn't come in yesterday, Lussuria made sure that I was bedridden all day…"

A familiar, light-hearted voice pierced the silence in the room as she hopped into the room, standing unevenly and holding her hands behind her back.

Bester stopped his pacing and hurried over to her, sniffing her injured leg before nudging it gently, surprising even his master. Why the hell was the damn thing so careful around her all of the time?

"Bester, no, that hurts…"

The whisper caused the liger to back off a bit as she looked up at him and did a double-take.

"Boss… are you okay?"

Xanxus sat there, staring at her, for more than a few moments. "What?"

"I-I asked if you were okay…"

He ran a hand through his hair and forcibly relaxed his muscles before asking:

"What the hell did you want?"

Liliana sort of shook on her feet and regained her balance with the help of Bester, and she hobbled up to his desk and placed an opened envelope on it, gingerly.

"U-um… I was just wondering if you would let me go, because it looks pretty important to me…"

Xanxus opened the envelope again and immediately noticed the flame signature at the bottom, which took a moment to register as he read the text within.

"W-what's wrong?"

The stupid woman must have noticed the anger climbing up to its climax, he realized, as he gripped the notice tightly and shook his head, attempting to suppress the hatred that threatened to swamp him.

"Fucking piece of shit." Xanxus swore, tossing the notice across the desk in disdain.

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"Woman, stop fucking talking. Just fucking go before I fucking shoot you."

The wrath inside relentlessly pounded against his will and the wall that he had built to stop himself from feeling so much anger to the point where it had to have been showing on his face.

"I'm sorry." Liliana whispered before beginning to limp out of his office and shutting the doors quietly, and that was when he felt his nails dig into his palms, springing two leaks of crimson.

Xanxus sat in his chair, feeling his shoulders shaking as he attempted to hide his anger, but soon he stood up and kicked his chair out of the way.

Blindly, he made his way out of his office in haste, leaving a very confused liger to stare at the door.


Lil made her way down to her room, while dragging her injured leg behind her.

"Is he still angry at me for what I said the other day?"

It would make sense; she hadn't been very sensitive, and she never really had the chance to tell him that she was sorry.

Finally, Lil had reached her room and she sat down on the bed that she had been too sore to make that morning.

"Formal wear is what it said… do I even have anything formal?" Lil wondered to herself, staring around her room as the sun invaded it. It was silent for a while until the door creaked open.

"Ugh, Fran, I swear to God if it's you…"

Lil's exasperation halted when she realized that it was, in fact, not Fran. A tiara shone in the sunlight when the door closed behind the figure.

"Ushi, Lilie, it's been awhile since we've talked to each other~"

Cold chills swept over her when she realized exactly who this was. Why would Bel even want anything to do with her?

"I-I suppose…" Lil stammered, tripping over her words in the shock that she had just experienced. Since when did Bel have any time for her, anyway? With all of that time that he spends with Abriana, eh?

The prince sat down next to her and smiled characteristically, giving away no indications that the Prince lurked inside of him at the given moment.

"Lilie~ How have you been?~"

His voice, his tone, his smile, his presence… his everything, even… it all came crashing down together, triggering the hidden pain within her heart.

Bel reached out to her cheek, rubbing it with his finger and laughed like he normally did. "I missed your soft skin, Lilie, ushishishi~"

Lil shied away from his touch, though… and she could feel her heart breaking inside of her own chest.

"Lilie, what~? Why don't you love me?~"

Lil shook her head softly, and bit her lip. "I thought that… you'd have, um… been busy with Abriana. You know, ever since the night club, and-"

"Haven't you been listening to the news, Lilie~?" His pink lips pressed themselves together as his face got closer to hers.

"What?"

"Mmm… they found her body behind a dumpster yesterday~" Bel's breath tickled her blind cheek and his head pressed against hers.


It's not like he had to tell Lilie that he had killed Abriana two days ago with the help of the Prince, did he? After all, he was half-happy that she was gone. Her relentless calls were starting to get damn annoying anyway.

"Lilie~ Why are you so distant with me~?

Her tiny hands wrung themselves in her lap and Bel watched her bite her lip, just like she always did when she was uncomfortable or hungry.

"I-I don't know… I'm sorry…"

The tone that she used was accompanied with uneasiness as she tensed when he put his arm around her and hugged her side.

"Bel, I'm sorry, I just…"

"You don't trust me, do you, Lilie~?"

Silence was the only answer that he needed to that question as she tensed again, and he nudged his face into the crook of her neck.

"I'll make you trust me~"

Lilie turned to him, her green eye widening in an increasingly attractive way. It was hard to resist, since she had avoided him for so long.

"Lilie, please~"

Lilie's green eye sharpened momentarily, before finally softening when he bit his own lip. "Please… I missed you~"

That final sentence seemed to cause her to break apart; she broke down into soft tears as she attempted to wrap her arms around him.

Bel quietly shushed her and rocked her as tenderly as he could muster up, which led to his own query; just what had been going on in her mind just then?


"I think this is formal enough, right? It's my favorite, and I haven't had an excuse to wear it yet."

Lil asked Bel as she stepped out of the bathroom and twirled around in her crispy white, lace dress that only descended down to the knees with a very conservative look overall.

"Aww, Lilie~ Even though you look like a table cloth, you make it look cute~"

His little laugh at the end of his sentence caused her to feel a little lightheaded as she staggered back to her bed to put her short heels on.

"Bel, walk me down the stairs, please." Lil asked quietly when she lifted herself up from the bed.

"Okay, Lilie~"

He assisted her all the way to the marble stairs and down to the front door, all without sharing a word with each other.

"Thank you, Bel…"

Lil smiled thankfully and Bel wrapped his arms around her, letting his chin rest on her head.

"Hurry up, Lilie~ You'll be late~"

Lil hurried out of the building and tried not to trip down those stairs as well and heading toward the limo that had been waiting for her.

"Okay, head to 63rd street," she whispered to the driver, who began the smooth ride to the street.


"Bel-senpai. What have you been doing all day?" Fran asked, curiously, as he walked up to the prince.

"Ushi~ I've been talking to my princess."

Fran's eyebrows shot up at the mention of a princess, and then his eyes narrowed. "You haven't drugged Lili-chan yet, have you?"

"Shut up, frog-shit~ I've just been talking to her again~"

"Why; did you miss her?" Fran asked, shrugging and staring at the prince suggestively. Before Bel could gratify that with a response, though, the frog took note of his relaxed pose.

"Senpai… has the Prince been bothering you at all today?"

Bel took a moment to think about that; the Prince hadn't bothered him today. "No~ I think he's satisfied with the people that I killed two days ago, and he hasn't really been too much of a bother since. I was able to control him today~"

Fran itched his head, which gaped with the absence of that frog hat. "Well, I like that you haven't hurt Lili-chan again."

Bel's smile widened again as he thought about it. "I don't hurt her, the Prince hurts her, idiot. Don't make me stab you."

"You're sure about that, senpai?" Fran asked and began to walk down the winding, marble halls, leaving the prince in confusion and deep thought.


"I think this is the place," Lil murmured to herself as she stood up and stumbled out of the limo ungracefully. "Wait here, it could be awhile."

The sleek, black door closed behind her and she watched the lights flash in the streets as she scanned the entire place for an Italian restaurant.

"C'mon, an Italian restaurant in Italy? How hard can that be?"

Lil looked around at the buildings that she clumsily passed by, none of which even being a restaurant.

"Is that it?" Lil asked herself, staring at the bright sign that read 'La Casa Delle Rose' with a beautiful pink rose depicted beneath it.

It smelled like pasta as Lil made her way inside of the restaurant and a nice lady with a nametag that said "Gina" on it immediately escorted her to an isolated room when she mentioned that she was meeting up with other people.

Lil attempted to hurry to catch up with her, but her injury throbbed with pain as she tried.

The isolated room had very pretty wooded walls and flooring and a large table, surprisingly, having other people sitting at it. All of whom looked up at her with curious eyes that spoke with previous experiences.

"Liliana Del Vecchio, am I right?"

A relaxed voice asked as a man with chocolate brown eyes stood up, with matching hair that stuck up unnaturally.

"Yes, hello. Wh-who might you be?"

The man took her hand and shook it very professionally and a sweet smile swept across his face.

"I am Sawada Tsunayoshi."


Thank you for all of the reviews, guys! I have reached 120 reviews, and I could not be happier right now! ^-^

4/5/14: (UPDATE) Because of my obsession with my other story, 'Flowers', I may not post for awhile. I apologize for the cliffhanger and hopefully I'll post another chappy soon!

I bet you guys were wondering when Tsu-kun and the rest of the guardians would appear in this fic, and it sure as hell isn't his last appearance. Haha, nope. ^-^

Another fun chapter, here we are!

63rd avenue is a place that came out of my head, do not stalk it.

50 euros is about 70 dollars in American money. Looks like Levi prefers his 'girls' expensive… x.x Bleh.

Also, I see that SOPA is back… may it die again and the government focus on health care or something that actually helps other people. I dunno, just me.

Reviews:

Chocolatluver4ever: Soon, my fellow chocolate lover. Soon. xD Thank you for leaving me another review and your continued support!

Livelovehatedie: Indeed you are, friend, indeed you are… xD Alpha-senpai is the ultimate senpai for all of your senpai needs. ^-^ -trolls with the shipping war- I'm glad that you thought boss-chan was in character ^-^ I try very hard to keep him so, him being one of the hardest people in the fandom to write… DON'T REMIND ME OF THE AMAZING THINGS, NOOOO! Squalo got that bitch slappin' life down. I'm glad you didn't think he was OOC; that was one of my biggest fears q-q Levi needs to like… stop. xD I'll make sure Levi knows he's beneath Lili-chan. xD Yay, so I'm not being irrational with my emotions, woop woop! Thank you for much reviews and much support and much shipping, friend :3

ddmahan922: Aww :3 He sort of is the Grinch, though. xD I suppose we could, and even though that might just be the hottest thing ever, we'd all be shot dead xD Thank you for reviewing again :3 ^-^

Frost-Sparrow: Oh no… oh no! NONONO. There, it has been signed. Thank you for bringing this to my attention! Q-q...

animeotaku0434: Haha, I suppose! xD She's really, really oblivious to the point that it sometimes annoys me xD I feel bad for Bel-chan, too… maybe he'll get his chance… Thank you for leaving a review and your continued support! :3

stella-chan: Yelling and swearing is the perfect way to describe it, yes xD I thought that it fit him well, too… I could really not see him sitting down and having a discussion without cursing, to be honest xD I'm glad you love the story as much as I do, and I enjoy updating because even I want to see where this is going to go :3 I can't reveal the final pairing yet, and even then it's not that simple xD I absolutely love answering reviews because it makes me feel good and I know that it makes others feel good and that they know I read my reviews :3 Hehe, all reviewers are important to me, stella-chan :3 WHAT, showing other people? –is blushing so hard right now- Even if they can't understand it, that's literally the nicest thing someone has told me all day, so thank you! :3 ^-^ I think Bel-chan will get a little more screen time soon, after all of these miscellaneous events get out of the way. Thank you for leaving me another review and your continued support :D Also, you have the honor of being my 120th review! Thank you so much :D (This is also probably my longest review answer) xD.

MichiyoYuki: I was surprised when I wrote that Fran could see Bel's pain in what you can see of his face (mouth), too, but at the same time, it just made sense to me xD I mean I've always thought of Fran as half-psychic, but that's probably just me. I've tried to incorporate the box animals into the story as much as possible, and just recently I noticed that I haven't put the rest of them in there and I just kinda "UGH", but they shall come soon… very soon… because they're kinda fun to write, especially when it will come to their relationships with one another and the owners and stuff. xD ^-^ Lili-chan and Bel-chan do just need to sit down and have a serious conversation… hopefully, it'll go well and they will make up… or maybe it'll make things worse. xD Squa-san is the love doctor. No doubt about it xD ^-^ Thank you for leaving me another review and your continued support! :3