A/N: Here's the next chapter guys! Thanks so much for the lovely feedback for all the previous chapters, it really helps! This chapter has fluffy fluff in it, so please enjoy!

Warning: Minor character death.

Chapter 6

How to Spend A Quiet Day

"Ushishi~"

Bel snickered menacingly as he made his way down the main staircase of the Varia mansion. It was 8 in the morning, and Squalo called everyone downstairs for a group meeting, Of course, Belphegor, being the lazy prince he was, took another two hours before getting to the living room (which was considered their meeting area).

"Vooii! You're late! We've been waiting, dumb brat!" Squalo yelled as the prince closed the door behind him. Bel simply shrugged and walked over to his usual seat.

As soon as the blonde settled himself, he looked around, noticing something, or rather, someone was missing.

"Where's Fran?"

The room fell silent. For some reason, Squalo and Lussuria had worried looks on their faces, while avoiding eye contact with the prince.

"A-ah. Bel-chan... Fran-chan is..."

"...he's outside. His grandmother died yesterday." Mammon butted in. "The news of her death came a bit late, I guess."

Bel's hidden eyes widened, not really believing what he had just heard. "Wha-"

"Voi, he's spending a day in prayer or something, so I gave him an early day off." Squalo sighed, before adding, "Don't fight with him today, Bel. It's not a good idea right now."

The prince simply nodded as the others went on with the meeting.

Fran hugged his knees closer to his chest as he sighed heavily. Since 7 in the morning, he had been sitting on the soft, green grass in the Varia Headquarter's garden, just in front of the main building. He sat under a tree, made a tiny monument out of stacked rocks with a small flower in the middle, and stared at it all morning.

Grandma...

As soon as the name crossed his mind, he could feel a sting in his eyes as tears started to form.

"So this is were you were, Froggy."

Fran gasped in surprise, rubbing his eyes violently before turning to the source of the voice. Slowly turning around, he greeted the prince, hiding the nervousness in his voice.

"Ah, good morning, senpai..."

The prince settled himself beside his kouhai. Confused, the young illusionist tilted his head, noticing his ever-so annoying senpai was unusually quiet today.

"Bel-senpai...?"

"Sorry to hear about your grandma, Froggy."

The kouhai's eyes widened at that. Was his senpai actually worrying about him? No way. But the thought of Bel being concerned for Fran made the younger male smile, even though it was barely noticeable.

"It's fine, senpai."

Bel turned to his kouhai, his mouth in a straight line. "You seem to be taking it rather well."

"Hm. I don't really care if she's dead. It wouldn't make a difference if she is, anyway."

"Liar."

"Huh?"

"You... you're pretending you don't care, do you? Shutting away your feelings again."

"..."

Fran said nothing. In fact, he was pretty calm. At least, that's what it looked it from the outside. He may have gone quiet, but his mind was practically yelling, raging even.

Who do you think you are?

The prince noticed the grim look on his kouhai's face, and continued. "The more you hide it, the heavier the burden it'll be on you."

Don't talk like you know me.

The teal-haired boy looked away. "Shut up. I don't know what your talking about."

Don't talk like you understand.

"Don't play dumb, Froggy. Deep down, I bet you're probabl-"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Fran yelled, burying his face in his knees.

"Eh-" Bel looked at his kouhai, dumfounded. That was certainly new. His froggy never showed emotions, so this was pretty unusual for Bel.

Then again, why would he hide them anyway? What was so bad about showing your feelings, making them known to the world?

"Ne, Froggy." Bel started again, poking Fran's forearm. "I have a question."

"...what do you want now, senpai?"

"Why do you have to hide them?"

Fran lifted his head from his knees, facing his senpai. "Eh?"

"I mean, why don't you ever show your emotions?"

"That's none of your business, moron-senpai." Fran mumbled, playing with a stray strand of hair.

Annoyed at the frog's stubborn attitude, Bel pulled out a knife, ready to plunge it into his kouhai's skin. Suddenly, the white-haired captain's words played through his mind again.

'...Don't fight with him today. It's not a good idea.'

Sighing heavily, he dropped the knife back into his pocket, swearing to himself he'll stab the frog tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Turning to Fran, the prince murmured, "...it's alright, you know."

The kouhai snapped his head at the prince. "Sorry?"

Belphegor turned to Fran and answered with a louder voice, "It's alright...to cry."

The prince knew that Fran had been holding it in for quite a while now. He just needed to reassure the frog and let him show his emotions, just this once. However, Fran wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Who do you think I am, senpai? Some kind of crybaby?"

"You are, aren't you?"

…!

Fran bit his lip. How can he say these things so easily? Fran had come a long way of hiding his emotions, and yet, this guy, Belphegor, he just wasn't letting it go. It was like the prince was reading his mind, ripping his mask piece by piece.

He can't stand it.

Just when Bel was about to give up, Fran spoke. "Back then..."

"Huh?"

"Back then, I used to cry a lot, you know. I got mad a lot too." Fran started, not really sure on how to continue this conversation. "In contrast to my grandma, who was always smiling and laughing, I was nothing but a ball of negative emotions."

Belphegor nodded internally smiled.

Froggy is actually opening up to me, huh...?

Fran continued, "Everytime I cried, someone would always call me weak and vulnerable. I would cry over the silliest little things. I hardly smiled. But..."

The prince nodded and listened intently to what the frog was about to say.

"...grandma always said that she never wanted to see my cry, pout, frown or anything like that."

Fran looked up at the branches of the tree, hugging his knees to his chest tighter. "But what could I do? It was as if all the emotions I knew were sadness and anger. That's all tears were for, right?"

Froggy...

"Grandma told me she never wanted to see me cry ever again, and promised she'd scold me if I did. That's when I learned how to mask every emotion, soon enough, I got used to it. Grandma never saw me cry ever again. Stupid, huh?"

The prince tightened his fists. He just couldn't believe that the frog would shut out all his emotions just because he wasn't allowed to cry anymore. How about the other emotions? Happiness? Excitement? Love?

…

Cross out that last part.

"But..."

Bel's thoughts were interrupted as he turned back to the frog.

...!

Drip. Drip.

"Froggy...?"

Tears rolled down Fran's cheek, his voice quivering as he spoke.

"But... it's fine now right?"

"Huh?"

"..."

Fran brought his arms up to cover his face as he continued to sob. "Sh-She's not h-here anymore, so th-that means... I don't have to hold back any -hic- anymore too... r-right?"

So that's it. You've really been hiding it all this time, have you?

Bel scooted closer to his kouhai before pulling the young illusionist into an innocent hug. "It's alright." the senpai murmured, holding the teal-haired boy close. "It's alright now."

As if that was the final reply necessary, Fran cried. He wailed, whimpered, hiccuped and sobbed. All the sadness he had been hiding these past few years, he let it out. All that hurt and suffering, all those painful memories he tried to forget, he cried for them. It's as if he saved them all up and pushed them all out in one go. He didn't have to act to strong anymore, didn't have to hold back.

The arms that were wrapped around him made sure of that.

Bel smoothed the little boy's hair, smiling victoriously. He finally broke his uncute kouhai's mask. His shoulder was all wet with tears, but he didn't mind. However, he wasn't so used to comforting people, so he really felt useless seeing his frog cry like that while he continued to stroke his hair comfortingly.

After a few minutes, the young illusionist had gone unusually quiet. Bel leaned back to check on his kouhai, only to discover that he had fallen asleep. Sighing, the prince settled the young boy's body under the tree, and stood up to leave.

Much to his surprise, Fran, who was supposedly asleep, grabbed on to the corner of this coat and sleepily murmured,

"Don't go."

"What?"

"...Don't go..." the young boy repeated, eyes still shut. "Stay with me, Bel-senpai."

Bel couldn't resist. He let his kouhai rest his head on his lap, napping peacefully to the silent breeze of the afternooon. The prince smiled to himself, glancing over the small monument Fran had made for his deceased grandmother.

Don't worry. I'll take responsibility.

After all...

Bel leaned his back against the tree and slowly closed his eyes.

...I'm a prince.

3 days later...

"VOOOIIII! Bel! Fran! Get your asses down here! I have a mission for you both!"

"Yeah, yeah." Fran monotoned, walking over to the captain.

"Mou~ You shouldn't be so strict with them, Squ-chan!"

Squalo handed the envelope to Fran, as he combed his ruffled-up hair with his fingers. They were starting to get tangled more often, probably because of all the stress he had been going through. Especially with the boss.

Lussuria pulled out a comb out of nowhere. "Let me help you with that, Squ-chan! On second thought, please allow me to practice my makeup skills on your face!"

"VOOOIII! WHAT'RE YOU- HEY!"

The swordsman struggled to keep his face away from the gaylord, but it was too late. He had him.

Fran walked back to the room, the envelope still in his hand. "Ah, I forgot to-"

The teal-haired boy stared at the scene before him. Squalo. The always-so-masculine captain had lipstick all over his face, messed up mascara staining his eyes, an excessive amount of blush on on his cheeks, and his hair was tied into two adorable pigtails.

"...Nevermind, captain. I'll go ask Mammon-senpai instead." Fran slowly spoke before closing the door.

"IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!"

Bel stood at the front door, waiting eagerly for his kouhai. "Ushishi~ What took you so long?"

"Ah, captain had some... business to attend to." the kouhai lied.

Drip. Drip.

Tears started to drip from his eyes again. Bel saw that and handed him a handkerchief as they both headed out the door.

Bel didn't have to ask why Fran was crying. The two already knew the reason, and it was perfectly fine. Because the tears Fran shed weren't the tears of sadness anymore.

They were tears of joy.

Next chapter: How to Get Along With Senpai

A/N: Done! Early update for you guys, since I didn't update for two weeks straight. Is it okay? It's pretty long-ish... so much fluff in this too! Please leave a review! It helps me become more motivated to type, actually. Also, if you'd like, please leave a few suggestions/headcanon so I may have a few ideas on how to continue this story.

Thank you, I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review!

Sincerely, Minto-san.