Days after Squalo had seen that car behind Dino's, he had become so paranoid, he was physically sick from anxiety. He wouldn't leave the house, and no matter how much Dino had tried to reassure him that it was okay, he constantly checked to make sure all the doors and windows were locked and couldn't stand to have the curtains parted for anyone to see inside. Squalo was shattered, and Dino was afraid that there was nothing left of his best friend.

The older blond had taken care to let Squalo have alone time, not wanting to stress the younger out further with his presence, so he had gone to tell Bel that he would be leaving soon and give him some jobs for the day. He smiled as he found the youngest curled up in his bed with a movie playing on his TV; Bel never had liked the cold and preferred to stay where it was warm.

"I've got a work meeting today, Bel." Dino stood by the bedroom door, not walking in too far so that he wasn't intruding on Bel's privacy. "Can you look after Squalo for me, please? He doesn't feel very well, so he's resting on the couch."

Bel smiled. He sat up on his bed so that he could nod; he would never say no to looking after Squalo.

Dino smiled back, glad that the other was just so sweet when he was in a good mood. "I'll be leaving in ten minutes, so will you be a good boy and run down to the corner shop sometime today and bring him back lunch? Good boy; thank you, Bel." It was then Dino noticed the cold chill in the bedroom. He frowned as he found the younger's bedroom window was wide open; didn't Bel care that he was going to get sick? "Why's your window open? It's snowing; you'll get sick from the cold. Is Mink still outside?"

Bel nodded.

"Then close it when he comes back in, please; the heating is going to waste with it open."

Bel got off his bed so that he could follow Dino from the room. He trailed behind his guardian around the house until the other was ready to leave, and after waving goodbye to Dino, he gave Squalo a hug before he went back to his room to finish watching his movie.

However, the last thing he had expected to find upon walking into his room was Mink, laying in the middle of the floor, twitching in agony as his body was twisted in an unnatural position. It didn't take a genius to realise that someone had done that to Mink, and for the first time in years, Bel screamed.

~~XX~~

The rest of the day had been nothing but a blur for Bel as police came and went from his home and Dino came back to take Mink to the vet. He had been terrified, not understanding how someone could do that to his pet; who would want to hurt his best friend…?

The stress of the day's events had kept him awake for most of the night, and all he could do was lay in his bed and hold Mink close to him. Mink, too, was distressed, and couldn't stop trembling in the blond's arms as he relied on his owner to care for him after suffering so many broken bones.

As tired as Bel was, he just couldn't sleep, and the movies he had been playing all night were simply background noise to him as he focused on keeping his pet calm. He knew Dino would be fast asleep by now, but he doubted Squalo would be, too; the long-haired man tended to stay awake reading until he fell asleep with his book on his chest.

Bel swung his legs out over the edge of the bed as he went to Squalo's bedroom. He held Mink protectively as he did so, not wanting to leave the animal alone for a second in case something else happened and he wasn't there to stop it. He knocked on the silver-haired male's bedroom door before he slowly pushed it open, finding his old guardian propped up by his pillows in bed with only a lamp by his side to give him light to read.

Squalo looked up from his book and offered a small smile to the younger. He didn't say a word as he closed his book and put it on his bedside table; he knew the blond wanted his help in getting to sleep. He put his hand on Bel's shoulder as he guided the smaller male back into the blond's bedroom, as gentle with him as always as he pulled back the blankets and wordlessly encouraged Bel to lay back down. He tucked Bel and Mink in beneath the comforter and sat on the edge of the bed as he rubbed the younger's head. "It's okay, Bel… Get some sleep; you're safe… You're safe, Bel…"

Bel was tired, but despite how stressed he was, he fell asleep within minutes of Squalo's comforting presence. He didn't wake when the man leant down to kiss his forehead, and he took no notice of his door closing as Squalo went back to his own room.

In fact, Bel even slept through his window being forced open from the outside, only shifting slightly but not waking. He nuzzled unconsciously against warm fingers that brushed against his cheek, but what he did wake to, however, was Mink being ripped from his arms and thrown across the room seconds before someone grabbed his hair and ripped it off the pillow. From the corner of his eye, he saw someone walking towards his bedroom door and locking it, but he was distracted from that when he was slapped across the face so hard, his head spun to the side. He could feel blood pooling in his mouth already, and he could only spit it out onto his mattress and whimper as he tried to get away from his assaulter. He wanted to scream for help when he heard someone on the other side of his bedroom door trying to get in to help in, but all he could manage was to cry as he knew he wasn't going to get away.

Whoever had locked his bedroom door came over to the bed now. The first assaulter and forced Bel down onto his back and was holding him there with the weight of their own body, and the second person reached out to cup the blond's face in a hold that Bel knew was deceivingly gentle. He tried to tilt his head to the side when the other's face came ever closer to his, but it was useless, he was forced into the kind of intimate kisses he had only ever shared with Gokudera before.

When an unfamiliar voice filled the air, Bel felt terror strike through him; that was the voice of the devil himself. "It is okay, Belphegor; no matter how much or how little you struggle, the results will still be the same." With that, Bel's lips were abused once more, this time with bruising force as a hot tongue forced its way into his mouth through closed lips.

Bel's tears came harder as he heard someone trying to break his door down. He hoped they succeeded and were about to rescue him, but all hope of that vanished when his mouth was taped shut so that he couldn't make any noise, and he was next thrown over someone's shoulder. He knew he was being kidnapped, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The blond closed his eyes as he cried, and he didn't open them again until he found himself being thrown into the backseat of a car. He didn't dare look at his attacker until the car started moving, but when he did, he instantly regretted it; in the back of his throat, the biggest scream he had ever made became stuck as he recognised Xanxus holding him down out of view of any passing motorists.

If Bel had ever wanted to die before, he certainly did right now.

~~XX~~

Bel couldn't stop crying, even after being taken from the car and brought inside a house he had thought he would never go back to. He couldn't bring it in himself to try and get away anymore; he remembered what had happened the last time he had tried to escape Xanxus, after all.

The blond cried to himself as he was dragged through the house and towards the basement, and though he knew he should have expected it, he wasn't prepared for being thrown down the long stairway. He whimpered as a splitting headache came on suddenly, and he was sure his hip had dislocated, but he couldn't let Xanxus find out he was hurt already; the man would only make him suffer more if he knew.

Bel fought back vomit as he felt someone grab his hair and drag him to a corner of the basement. He squeezed his eyes shut tight so he didn't have to watch, and he shuddered as he felt himself being chained up.

Xanxus knelt down so that he could grab hold of Bel's hair again. "You little slut, you're going to be what breaks the shark trash the most. Nothing will get to him more than knowing I've got you. You fucking whore; I'm going to fuck you so hard, you'll never be able to stand again."

Beneath the tape that was still silencing him, Bel screamed as he felt hands ripping his pyjamas from his body. He cried desperately, hoping it was all a bad nightmare he was about to wake up from, but he knew that this was reality, and that this wasn't going to be the same as all those years ago; Squalo wasn't going to come home and find them, and this time, there was no one there to stop Xanxus.

As Bel felt his backside being torn apart from Xanxus' aggressive thrusts, he couldn't help but wish he had never left Japan. Maybe he had never had sex with Gokudera, but the silver-haired male's fingers that Bel had ever-so-slowly learnt to allow to finger him had never caused him this much fear and agony.

Bel hated himself for choosing to come back to Italy, back to this, and he knew that if he ever got out of here, he was going to kill himself and never let anyone stop him this time.