Chapter 9

As both Varia officers expected, there was no trace of their comrades. All the visitors that attended the celebration were dead. Blood streaked the party grounds. The mangled bodies of those who were defenseless lay on the floor in such gruesome poses. The furniture was in bits and pieces. The curtains and tablecloth were torn into pieces and the golden chandelier was broken to the point of no recognition. Fran and Aoi surveyed the damage in the area.

"Fran! Don't step on the blood," Aoi warned. He was surprised. This was the first time he heard a girl order him around. Fran took a closer look at the red liquid. It spelled out MILLEFIORE BASE.

"Ahh…" Fran looked at Aoi's direction. She looked back, smiling triumphantly.

"See? They were bagged and on their way to Millefiore base," she stated the obvious, "So Fran, are we going to save them or not?"

Fran thought. He wouldn't save them for five particular reasons.

1. Bel-senpai wouldn't be present to force him to wear a huge, ridiculous, frog-shaped hat every single day. (His head hurt from carrying all that extra weight)

2. Squalo wouldn't hurt his eardrums anymore because of all his annoyingly irritating "VOOOII's".

3. He wouldn't have to put up with Lussuria ni-chan's gayish antics. (And the way he pouted his lips at Squalo… now that was just disgusting.)

4. Not one of Levi's rants about his loyalty to the boss would reach his ears.

5. Xanxus's scarred face that always had a permanent frown no matter how happy the situation is (like during his birthday earlier) would never be within his vision.

Fran unconsciously gulped. He would die if Xanxus would point his guns loaded with his boss's flames of rage at him. Yep, the answer was clear. He had to rescue his hopeless and pitiful comrades.

"Fran?" Aoi prompted, he had been silent for a while. It bothered her to see him act like that. Was he quiet because of the thing they shared a moment ago? Or was he just thinking of the pros and cons of saving Squalo and the others?

"Yeah, we have to go and rescue them," Fran replied. He turned his back on the girl and ran outside.

"Oi! Matte! We don't even know where in the whole world is the Millefiore Base, for all I know, it might be in Japan, or Italy or Germany, the garbage can or…" Aoi trailed away. Fran was holding something that looked suspiciously like a phone but not a phone at all. What Fran held in his hands was a device that showed the path of a tracer. You know, those thingies that someone attaches to somebody in order to follow him or her. While he was kissing Aoi (for distraction, mind you), he managed to slip it into the Millefiore soldier's white boots. How thoughtful. It was beyond her imagination on how in the whole wide world was he able to do such a feat when even she failed to notice.

Anyway, as soon as Fran got hold of the soldier's bearings, both of them sped towards the enemy's base, in hopes of freeing their companions and escaping the wrath of their boss. Aoi and Fran never second guessed the thought of how foul Xanxus's mood would be, considering the fact that he was taken captive right on the date of his birthday. Their answer? Xanxus would be ultimately pissed off to the extreme x2 x2 x2.

Pit pat pit pat. The sound of the rain steadily grew louder by the minute. Aoi gazed up at the dark clouds and muttered a string of such colorful language that could have put the most prolific 'swearer' in the Mafia into shame.

She was soaked! For the love of – for all the days rain could have fallen, it had to be now. It had to be when she was unwillingly stuffed into a dress, and a short one for that matter. She was shivering in the cold. Running only made the matters worse. She abhorred the way her clothes clung to her slender frame. To put a cherry on top it all off, she was with a guy, a guy her age with green hair. She had zero knowledge on whether the illusionist was a hentai or not. If only Fran could act gentleman enough to offer his jacket to cover, well, whatever Aoi needed to cover, everything wouldn't be as horrid as it seemed. But no, Fran didn't do anything but sprint, or more accurately jump from tree to tree like what ninjas in the show 'Naruto' did.

It seemed like ages, yet the rain didn't yield, it's as if those droplets falling from the clouds were taunting Aoi. Due to the fact of the freezing atmosphere, she felt drowsy. She and Fran had no way of knowing that they'd been travelling for about two days with no rest, no five minute breaks, and no chitchats. All energy had to be reserved for running to reach their boss's destination. It appears to be impossible: running for forty-eight hours, but it's the Varia you're talking about. Still, Fran showed no signs that indicated a halt.

Aoi couldn't take it anymore; she couldn't even walk from the extreme exhaustion. She wasn't born for these kinds of things. "Hey, Fran! Mind if we take a break first?" Aoi called, gasping for oxygen, fatigue taking the best of her. One could hear the amount of pleading in her voice. Fran didn't move from his tracks. He paused for a moment. He too was tired yet pride and arrogance fueled him to go on. Of course, the sheer terror of Xanxus's fury was also one of the important factors that made him hurry up.

"Hah," he thought with a hint of boastfulness and arrogance to himself, "I just won the battle of endurance against Aoi." He spun around just in time to watch Aoi loose her balance and drop from the tree branch she was squatting on a moment earlier. Weariness and lack of sleep drove her to the state of unconsciousness. Without thinking, without a moment of hesitation, Fran landed on the ground as graceful as a cat and stretched his arms upward in order to catch the girl. He decided against his act despite the truth he was already in position. What would he gain from saving Aoi? She was one tough girl anyway and most of all it was her fault for joining Varia, that fact alone led her to a faint.

Aoi landed with a thud on the rain soaked ground. She moaned in pain and surprise. The fall was enough to jolt her into consciousness. "What the-" the words that were forming on her mouth died on her lips. She was lying on a puddle of water. (Thank God, it wasn't mud.) But when she looked at her dress, she gasped in horror. A particularly sharp branch snagged her clothes which resulted to a vertical tear that ran through her mid thigh up to her waist. A thin line of a wound was clear as the fact that the squall was still happening was present on her thigh, directly parallel to the tear in her dress. As she stared, a trickle of blood from the tiny injury sank through the soil. Worst of all, all that water made her clothing even clingier. The light blue of her dress miraculously became transparent.

Because of her gasp, Fran couldn't resist to follow his urge to look and see the state of Aoi whom he didn't catch. He gaped. He stared. Completely rendered speechless with what he saw. Unknowingly, a pink color started to creep up to his cheeks.

*Note to the reader: the author prefers not to go on the details. It's up to your perverted mind to imagine.*

"Wh-what?" Aoi protested, going red. "I'm a girl you know," she defended herself while clasping her arms firmly over her breasts. "And girls," she continued while she stood up and walked towards Fran who was motionless, as if roots grew to his legs. Every step she took required a tremendous amount of effort. "And girls don't like to be stared at in that kind of manner," she finished.

Aoi made a motion as if to nail a punch in Fran's face. He flinched, expecting hard contact with Aoi's fist. But instead of a fist, what made contact with him was Aoi's weight. He toppled backwards in genuine surprise. He didn't fall to the ground; he regained his balance and soon realized that he was supporting Aoi. Fran gaped. He stared. What in Hades was he supposed to do? These kinds of things never happened in the movies. Suddenly, he was aware of the heat emanating from the Cloud guardian's body. She was sick! Fan touched her forehead with one of his hands to confirm his suspicion. Just as quickly, he drew it back. Her head was searing hot! There was no doubt in his mind that she was feverish. He needed to get her out of the rain. This is such a waste of time! I still have to speed over to my useless senpai-tachi. In pursuit of his thoughts, and time was indeed running out on him, he would just let Aoi lean against a tree and run helter skelter among the trees. Maybe when she woke up, she could follow him. Fran decided to do just that. Without a wave of pity and remorse, he half-dragged, half-carried Aoi to a tree. There, she could at least be sheltered from the raging storm and its heavy droplets. He took one last look and went on his way.

I'M SOOO SORRY FOR NOT UPLOADING EARLIER! _ *sniff sniff* I kind of lost the dying will to write. XD XD To make me feel in the mood again, can you guys please leave a review? Just a simple "i love your story" type, :)) :P Thanks!

The tenth chapter's on it's way for creation. Get ready. :P

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