The man's name was Xanxus, and the man they murdered in cold blood was someone he had been stuck with from the old blood from before he took over an organization of hardened killers and assassins.

Even Hadrian had heard of the Varia, and their Quality.

"Shishishi... this King wishes to offer us a place among them," she informed him, rather gleefully.

Xanxus didn't look annoyed by the odd title. If anything he looked pleased.

"What sort of place. I won't serve under some braggart who only sends his lackeys to do his dirty work. I can't stand those weak leaders."

Xanxus eyed him, and Hadrian felt as if he was peering into his soul. He snorted, and he felt like he passed some form of test.

"It's well known that in order to take the position of an Officer or the Varia, you must kill the one currently holding the title. And you, brat, killed the Cloud Officer by using your brain and a damn good partner."

"So what are you saying?" asked Hadrian.

"I'm saying you are going to take the spot of Cloud Officer, since you cost me mine. And your little friend is going to take the position of the Storm."

"Shishishi... no more having to run away from petty crimes. We can get real training and show the peasants who the real kings are," said his friend.

"So our only options is to stay here and get training, or deal with those idiot adults who keep trying to split us up claiming we're a bad influence on each other. Where do I sign up?" deadpanned Hadrian.

"Shishishi..."

She looked pleased with his decision. It was obvious she wanted to stay, very much so.

Xanxus looked equally pleased with his decision. Now he didn't have to deal with finding a Cloud.

The weird 'doctor' squealed.

"So brat. Do you have a name?" asked Xanxus.

"Hadrian. My friend still refuses to tell me theirs, though."

She grinned at him, mostly because he didn't give her gender away. In this world you had to take any advantage you could get, and hiding her gender was something that protected her. Especially when people thought that killing was a man's job.

He would later learn that Xanxus had given her the name Belphegor.

Needless to say he had endless amusement with calling her "Bell".

It was called the Cradle Affair.

Hadrian, now mostly called "Adi" and the one who kept the Clouds in line (Squalo didn't know whether to love him or hate him because he at least did his paperwork on time and in a legible hand) was the official prankster of the Varia. Without the looming threat of starving or being forced to work for someone he hated, a lot of instincts came out.

Like a pranking gene he didn't know he had, apparently.

But it pissed him off. They had stormed the Iron Fort, and he had taken out a lot of weak trash...and they lost the Boss.

Xanxus wasn't dead, thank god, but he was in a giant ice cube. Being recently bonded and not having their Sky hurt. He wondered if it was because he was so new to this bond thing, or if it was something about him, but it didn't hurt him nearly as much as it did the adults. Come to think of it, Bel was taking it a lot better than Squalo and the others too.

"Brat, you have a mission. Grab the Prince trash and meet Mammon in three," said Squalo bluntly. He was edgy, tense. Then again he was the closest to Xanxus.

Mammon was an odd one, even for them. They were a Mist who like Bel, obscured their real gender. However they seemed to have taken a shine to him and Bel, because he never asked questions outside of if they could do something.

He was being sent on multiple missions after a brief test by the Boss to see how he could handle being an assassin. Even when split from Bel, he managed to ignore any pain he had to do the job.

But by and large, Squalo made him team up with Belphegor and Mammon. Mostly because between the three of them, they could deal with damn near anything.

Especially since he was given proper training on how to use his Flames. Apparently he was a Cloud who had some elements of Lightning and something they were particularly able to identify. But he kept the other Clouds in line and that was all that mattered.

And while he wasn't particularly thrilled with the whole killing aspect, Squalo quickly found out he had another talent and was slowly putting him to a different use.

Hadrian could change his features, to the point no one recognized him. And with him channeling his Lightning Flames when everyone knew he was a Cloud, he could successfully infiltrate CEDEF and the Vongola to find out where they stashed the Boss...and to steal his X-Guns back from that coward Iemitsu.

Unfortunately this was a task only he could do, and it was taking a while because he had to keep the Clouds from killing each other.

Clouds were notorious for being territorial as hell. And since he was younger than any of them, it meant he had to assert his dominance over the whole lot of them to get them to heel.

He couldn't call Bel to help him either, because he had to be the dominant Cloud.

Which is why Squalo couldn't tell whether to love him (for filing the paperwork and at least trying to make his day easier) or hate him because since he couldn't overpower most of his Clouds or beat them in a normal way, he chose a third option.

Defeat by attrition. Hadrian made traps, tricked his Clouds into them, and then wore their asses out before he took them on in a fight.

He couldn't beat them in a physical sense, so he had to out-think them.

Naturally most of the Officers found his pranks hilarious, especially Bel. She didn't know he had it in him.

"Mu. On time as always, Adi," said Mammon with approval. They floated to sit on his shoulder, and he barely noted their presence.

"Bel's late again..." sighed Hadrian. Then he smirked, and handed Mammon a controller. "Do want the honors or should I?"

Mammon had an evil smirk of their own as they pushed a random button. There were screams of anger and rage from the Cloud division.

"Other side, though nice work. I'm sure the Clouds appreciate the mechanical cockroaches painted to look like real ones in their beds."

Mammon pressed another button.

There was a scream of rage, and Bel practically stormed downstairs soaking wet. There was pink paint all over them. You could feel the glare from her.

Mammon smirked.

"Three minutes, or I press another button and see what happens."

Bel growled and went to get changed.

"I'm taking the replacement bed and everything else out of your tab."

"I already paid one of your Mists to dump fake paint on Bel," said Hadrian smugly.

"...Then what did the button do?"

"Send a text message, mostly. You won't believe how easy it is to get the Mists help to prank my Clouds."

"What about the fake roaches?"

"I paid Verde off to make them so he could record response times and tell me how much extra training they're going to need," said Hadrian smirking. He tapped his head. "You're not the only one who understands the value of money. Better to pay people to do the hard work for you to make your own job easier."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you best."

Bel looked pissed, and it wasn't until she found out the paint was nothing more than a Mist prank that she calmed down.

"You know I hate pink."

"Shishishi."

"Don't steal my laugh," growled Bel.

Hadrian grinned evilly.

"What is your grudge against pink anyway?" asked Mammon.

The one time Luss tried to dress Belphegor and Hadrian up, with Bel as the "princess" because of the crown the boy always wore, Belphegor had damn near killed him. It was so bad that they had to pin the brat down for several hours before it was safe to let him up.

Needless to say Luss never tried it again.

Hadrian shared a look with Mammon.

"How much to keep this quiet between us?" he asked slowly.

"Hadrian," hissed Belphegor furious.

"Bel, eventually they'll figure it out and it would help to have someone as tricky as Mammon keeping this quiet. Besides, at least we know Mammon would understand why you keep it quiet."

Belphegor frowned, pissed. But out of the Varia, Mammon was the only one who'd understand why keeping one's gender was so important.

Mammon waited patiently, knowing the two were showing them a very large amount of trust.

"Fine. My real gender is female. I like being Belphegor more though."

Mammon's eyebrows went up, even if they couldn't see it.

"I see. I'll keep this information silent but you're going to have to explain this to Luss eventually as well as the boss."

Bel winced.

"Look at the bright side. You have at least three more years before you have to worry about puberty, since that's the earliest it will start."

"I hate you so much. Can we get to the killing already?" she said with a whine.

"So is the fact you were born a princess the reason why you left your country?" asked Mammon.

"I left because the idiots who ran the place weren't exactly subtle in encouraging my twin brother to treat me like a second class citizen, along with every other female. They even had me betrothed to my own cousin," said Belphegor in open disgust. Then a crazed grin appeared on her face. "Of course no one expected me to use my Storm flames to melt the armory door, steal a lot of the knives I could fit in my hand and then kill my brother and everyone who got in my way between the castle and the borders."

"You never did tell me what your original name was," said Hadrian.

"...Elsa."

Mammon found it strange, how easily the two of them accepted their presence. But they weren't going to question it.

"But I don't mind being called Bel."

Hadrian gave her a one-armed hug, and she relaxed into it. For some reason she could never stay tense around him. He was just so...cuddly.

Mammon felt like they should charge to keep this all quiet from Squalo and the others...but to be honest they way children seemed to naturally include them in their schemes was nice. Almost like being part of the Arcobelano before that day when they got turned into a baby. It was as if they naturally fit in to the strange trio.

Besides, Hadrian's hair was ridiculously soft and fluffy, and he didn't care if they used it as a bed. They knew he sometimes caught them sleeping, but Hadrian never said a word.

They almost wanted to ask what shampoo and conditioner he used.

Actually, it might be worth it to ask that question.

"Uh... I plead the Fifth?" he said sheepishly.

Bel and Mammon gave him a Look. He wasn't an American and this was Italy.

"Spill. The Prince demands to know what you've been using on your hair, if only so we can switch over."

Hadrian winced.

"I keep stealing Squalo's. I have no idea what the label is, but he hasn't noticed some of his spare bottles keep going missing. Or if he has, he hasn't figured out it was me taking them."

"...You are getting me some of those bottles so I can hold it over his head," said Mammon with a dead serious tone.

Hadrian produced two of them.

"Luss is going to pay me a lot for this information," said Mammon with glee.

"Again, don't tell Sorella where you got the information," said Hadrian.

Mammon smirked, but kept their silence.

Three days later...

Hadrian was holding back his laughter when he heard Luss squeal with delight after he paid to know what shampoo Squalo used. With his hair always looking so shiny and soft, many were dying to know the secret. Especially the few women in the Varia.

Four years after joining the Varia...

Bel cursed under her breath. Her chest had been growing recently and her stomach had been killing her for hours. Even she knew what the signs meant, if only because she had the knowledge shoved down her throat. The problem was she had no idea what the hell she was supposed to do about it.

She couldn't exactly look up on how to deal with the pain or hide her growing chest without someone finding out. Especially if she started going into the drug store or into Luss' division for something like Advil regularly every month. She wasn't known for headaches, so someone would find it suspicious.

Bel whimpered. She was going to have to bring Luss into something she wasn't particularly proud of.

She left her room, figuring she might as well get this over with. Thankfully, she ran into Mammon as well, and she wasn't above paying them to create a wall of silence around them so no one heard the discussion.

Mammon took one look at her face, what little they could see, and knew. Belphegor had been increasingly irritable lately and was occasionally rubbing their chest without realizing it. They drifted onto her shoulder as she headed into the Sun division.

Luck was apparently on Bel's side, because while Luss was in no one else was.

Mammon created a territory and made it look like Bel had come to annoy Luss for some reason or another.

"What seems to be the problem, darlings~!" asked Luss. Mammon wouldn't create a territory without warning for nothing.

"You need to explain what a period is to the idiot," said Mammon bluntly.

"I don't need to know what it is, just how to deal with it," corrected Bel irritably.

Luss stared at them, before slowly saying "Why would you need to know how to deal with a period? Only girls get them."

Bel glared at him. She hated explaining this.

Luss cautiously poked Bel with his Sun Flames and you could see his eyebrows fly up in surprise over his sunglasses.

"I see. Does Hadrian know?"

"He knows, as does Mammon. Only them though. I hate being looked down on for being a girl," scowled Bel.

Luss could tell from her tone alone that it had happened often enough that she had developed a hatred of feminine things and being addressed as such. Hence why she insisted she was a 'Prince'...and why she nearly killed him for the dress.

Luss patted Bel with sympathy. The poor kid had no idea what they were about to deal with every month and hiding it was going to be a headache and a half. At least until they got used to it.

Bel would leave the Sun division with a much more detailed explanation than the one she endured years ago when her brother was alive, a list of things Luss would discreetly leave in her room from now on, and would be given a demonstration on how to bind her breasts back so no one noticed the lumps on her chest without causing any damage to her body.

She noticed when she had another growth spurt that Luss switched her shirts to looser fitting ones, to better hide the new additions. Aside from being irritable more than usual once a month, no one noticed a difference.

After a year of this she relaxed. She wouldn't be treated as lesser because of her gender, because no one really noticed a difference. Though Hadrian did start packing her favorite chocolate with him just in case her period started during a mission, as well as other feminine supplies.

Thank god for Luss.