A week had gone by before Tsuna had worked out how to contact the Varia - talking to his dad wasn't something he enjoyed, but at least the man told him Squalo's contact number when the man rang him.

Currently, Tsuna was in the process of dialing the Varia Rain's number into the phone he had borrowed from his mother which, luckily, had international calling available. The woman was out of the house, having taken the babies out shopping with her, leaving Tsuna alone.

I hope Squalo'sin a good mood... If that's even possible... Tsuna winced and braced himself for the onslaught of screaming when his call was answered.

"Voi!" Squalo roared into his end of the phone, giving Tsuna a headache already - he wasn't entirely sure of what Squalo was raging about in Italian, but it was as loud and violent as his Japanese.

"T-tsuna..." Tsuna whimpered pathetically into the phone, "T-tsuna requires Japanese..."

"Tsuna? Who the fuck - oh, the Vongola Decimo?" Squalo's voice had softened as realisation dawned on him, but it took only a split second for him to start screaming again. "Do you know what fucking time it is in Italy, you little shit?! The fuck do you want?!"

"A-ah, I..." Tsuna took a deep breath before he started explaining. "...B-bel has been in Japan for -"

"That's where that little fuck ran off to?!" The sound of something banging in the background startled Tsuna; he could only imagine what Squalo was doing. "Voi! I'll kill the bastard when he comes back!"

"S-sqaulo-san..." the brunet was hesitant, but he eventually whispered what he needed to tell the other. "...B-bel is... Bel might be dying..."

"The prince trash isn't going to die, you stupid brat!" Squalo argued. "He's too fucking stubborn to let himself die!"

"But he's sick and in hospital! I've been seeing him, Squalo-san! He's... He's sick..."

"Voi! You think we can just drop shit and fly out for him?!" The sound of smashing glass made Tsuna wish he had called at a time he apparently wouldn't wake the man up - what time was it over there, anyway? "Why do you think we haven't gone looking for him?! We're too fucking busy to run after snot-nosed brats like Bel! He can take care of himself!"

"What didn't you understand about him dying?!" Tsuna found himself arguing back, unable to believe Squalo was being so unreasonable about his own subordinate - if what Reborn had said about Bel was true, surely Squalo would have been one of the ones who had raised the boy...? "Why can't you get that?!"

"It's not like I don't give a fuck!" Squalo sounded more pissed off than Tsuna had ever heard him. "Of course I give a damn about this! But you expect an assassination squad to fly out and sit by Bel's side and cry?! Do you?! We've got better things to do with our time then play the distressed parent role!"

"But you guys are like a family to him!" Tsuna could feel tears of frustration well in his eyes. "He's been with you since he was eight! You're probably the only ones he thinks of as his family!"

"Kid, Bel is a cold-hearted, blood-thirsty murderer who kills for fun, and if he gave a shit about family, he wouldn't have slaughtered his," Squalo hissed. "Call me back when he dies. Otherwise, don't bother using this number again unless he's ready to come back to Italy."

"S-squal -!" Before Tsuna could even finish saying the silver-haired male's name, Squalo had hung up on him.

With a sigh, Tsuna realised this was exactly what Gokudera had been talking about - as expected, the Varia didn't care whether Bel lived or died.

Maybe the brunet was wrong to feel this way, but he felt as if they had been more of a family to Bel than the Varia had ever been to him.