Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman REBORN! was created by Akira Amano.

Claimer: I own the plot and OCs; nothing more, nothing less.

Warning: takes place before Gola Mosca comes into the Varia; there is some blood

Pairing: BelOC

The strobe lights… they were blinding. The techno music… it was deafening. The dancing… it was tiring.

Aria was dancing by the door where the men were hanging out. She did her best to look over without being obvious, and she did well. There were times where she would really get carried away with the music. All she could feel at that time were the vibrations of the bass penetrating through to her bones, and the need to move with the swaying limbs and bodies all around her.

There were times where she couldn't tell if she was dancing by herself, or with some completely random stranger.

Belphegor was sitting in the same place that Aria left him. He's messing around with the drink she ordered for him the first time around. He wanted to go into the herd of people, but if he couldn't take the feel and smell of them where he was, then what made him think he could take it while he was swimming amongst the flailing limbs?

He wanted to go find Aria, but if he went to find her then that would mean he would have to dance his way through everyone, and there was no way he was going to do that. He only wanted to find Aria because she was the only peasant he was used to in the flock of peasants he tried to ignore. Belphegor could feel annoyance bubble up inside of his stomach at the very thought of the word "dance". He never hated that word more than now.

There were girls who would sit down by Belphegor. He could feel the mind waves coming from them, almost begging him to talk to them. This just made him grin, making him imagine their regret for wanting him to talk to them when he was cutting deep into their bodies. That grin alone made the girls avoid saying the first words.

A brilliant idea popped up into the blond-haired head. Aria had him look for a door where there were guys hanging around. If he had to point that out, then wouldn't she be there? Belphegor didn't even have to move through the mass so long as he moved around the outside.

Belphegor left the drink. He stood up and left his seat, heading toward the wall. He couldn't help but step in beat with the music blasting in his ear. How would he be able to deal with the temporary deaf-stupor when he left?

When he made it around he found Aria. She was smiling, laughing, and speaking loudly with her body motions. The guys' attention was fully on her. Belphegor never noticed how Aria actually looked somewhat pretty when she usually looked so painfully plain. It's amazing what a little hair product and clothes could do, along with a smile.

Belphegor couldn't tell just how embarrassed Aria felt with the fact that she had to act so stupid in order to catch attention. If Belphegor could sense this, he would hold it above Aria's head no doubt. Why was it that Aria had to dress and act this way for commoners and she wouldn't do this for the Prince, who was more than deserving of it?

Such behavior was not acceptable. She wasn't supposed to pay more attention to those low-lives than she was for him. He was royalty! If he couldn't have that, then he would have to disturb the little love-fest.

The Prince had to shove some people aside in order to make it to where Aria was. He managed to slip behind her to the point he might as well have been invading her personal bubble in the most intense way. The guys straightened up when they saw Belphegor's unsettling grin. Aria's smile dropped, knowing what was going on.

The men wore what looked like a purposeful five o'clock shadow. They are wearing button up shirts with the first few buttons undone. Most of them had spiky blond hair, while one of them had slicked back blond hair. They all had varying colored shades of blue on their irises. They seemed so laid-back and unafraid of much, what with their hands in their pockets and their backs touching the wall or railing that kept the mob from spilling against the wall.

Belphegor would've loved to show them something to be afraid of.

"Ushishishi, having fun?" Belphegor asks into her ear.

"Who's this guy?" one of the guys asks, looking to Aria with suspicion.

It was a good thing she said the right words before it came to this. It was so easy being resourceful. Aria gave a teasing smile and answered, "He's the low-life who I'm trying to get help for from Beto. He has a real problem, and you can tell since he has to have me do work for him."

"Well, viel glück. Good luck, if you don't know what that means. Those who borrow from Beto tend to skip town for whatever reason," one of the guys announce as he nods at them as a sort of good-bye.

"Grazie for the information boys. If you don't know what that means, it means thank you," Aria says, nodding back.

Aria grabs Belphegor's hand and almost seems to drag him. She moves them away from the men. Belphegor can't necessarily say that he likes being dragged around, but he thinks its okay when it's Aria. He was used to her, after all.

Belphegor couldn't sense Aria's annoyance.

The Italian was lucky she was quick-witted; otherwise the conversation back there would've ended in a completely different way. She didn't like that Belphegor had to be breathing down her neck, reminding her of her hate toward him. Surely he could tell she didn't want much to do with him, right? He couldn't be that much duller than the rest of the crayons in the crayon box.

Aria stops them at a small space where no one would go. That was somewhere they could breathe, although it wasn't enjoyable since what you would breathe in was the constant smell of sweat. It was almost nauseating. Aria lets go of Belphegor's hand and turns to him. She did her best to mask her annoyance.

"Go do something, will you?" she orders over the music. "I'm not finished here!"

"Ushishishi, that's where you're wrong, you are finished here. I've grown wary of this place and want to go," Belphegor tells the stoic girl. He could tell she didn't want to hear this coming from him. In order to get what he wanted, Belphegor leaned close to the girl's face, as if openly challenging her. His grin blossoms back onto his face as he threatens, "Or do you want me to quench my boredom with someone here?"

The Prince kept his face close to the Italian's face. He wouldn't back down until he got what he wanted. Aria stared at Belphegor, trying to gauge just how serious he is; and he was very serious even though his wide smile said otherwise. She had no choice but to admit to defeat.

"Fine, we'll go ahead and leave now!"

Aria turns around and walks quickly away. Belphegor let out a chortle at getting his way and quickly followed her before someone would separate them. Both of these teenagers knew that if the girl had to wait for him to come out, then they wouldn't leave at all.

When they came to the door, Aria gave her most charming smile to the doorman. He let them leave, and her smile immediately fell. Belphegor trailed behind Aria, feeling relieved that the ear-deafening music wasn't so deafening anymore. Both people could still feel the ringing vibrating around inside of their skulls.

Aria couldn't help but shiver. The night had gotten cooler in the time that they were inside. It felt like it was freezing compared to the inside of the club where you were always enveloped in heat because of other bodies. There was only the occasional light of the occasional shop still open this late to light the way since the moon was hiding behind a blanket of black clouds.

It seemed eerie. Or maybe it was because Belphegor was following her. Aria would've been okay had it been anyone else. She can easily deal with anyone else but Belphegor.

"So you just wanted to know more about that guy we have to kill?" Belphegor asks, not liking the tense silence. He had to speak loudly in order to hear his own voice.

He hated that when he got what he wanted, the other person on the receiving end was angrily silent. It made the usual sweet taste of victory be tainted by the oh-so-bitter taste of angry disappointment. That was always a mood breaker, and Belphegor liked his mood to be as high as a kite.

"I don't think it'll hurt to know more about Xanxus's client, don't you think?" Aria retorts rather loudly. All the noise seemed to be muffled after what she heard inside of that building.

"You shouldn't be so infatuated with the likes of him. It should be the Prince you adore, not him! He's not royalty!" Belphegor announces. He already said something along the same lines earlier in the day, but he felt like he needed to announce this again so that Aria would get it through her head.

Didn't she call it jealousy?

"If you're jealous, just say so," Aria almost snaps at him. "I might stop making it so painfully obvious, in your point of view, if you just admit that."

That'll shut him up now, Aria thought to herself. He wouldn't bring it up again if he had to point out a flaw in his own personality.

Belphegor suddenly grabbed Aria's arm and shoved her back against a wall in the alley they were walking by. It was so dark, so dank, and maybe even cold. In the next moment, the blond-haired boy had a winking silver knife to a girl's warm neck, and an Italian girl had an oddly shaped gun pressed against the left temple of the boy in front of her. The boy wondered where the gun was hiding. The girl wondered if the knife was pressed up against the pink line on her neck that was made on the car ride here.

She was so close now… to getting rid of the boy. He looked so much like the picture burning a hole through her pocket where both boys—of different ages but still the same—held the same murderous grin. The picture seemed to be able to speak, to throw its words into Aria's ear.

The picture seemed to be chanting, "Do it. Don't wait anymore. I deserve it."

She could hear it as clearly as she saw Belphegor in front of her. A movie played through her mind, and she made it come true.

Aria's bullet goes through the Prince's left side of his head and out the top of the right. His blood splatters onto her face, and she's grinning. It's the last thing he ever saw before he fell to the ground. Aria stands over Belphegor's body, and she starts to laugh, and it slowly becomes hysterical. She ran her hands through her hair, mocking Belphegor's own body motions when he went into his own world of insanity.

She would no longer see that ugly grin of his. She wouldn't have to hear that detestable laugh of his. She wouldn't have to put up with that terrible personality of his. Only the clouds and the street lights stood as witnesses.

Aria bends down to Belphegor's face so she can laugh at him. She's practically singing, "I killed you, I killed you~! You thought I wouldn't do it, but I killed you~!"

But when she blinked, Belphegor was still in front of her. There was no hole going up through his head. He wasn't releasing buckets of the warm sticky liquid known as blood, letting the glorious life force make a puddle on the concrete. He wasn't sprawled out on the sidewalk in front of her.

"Do it, shoot me. Is that girl I killed running through your mind?" Belphegor taunts.

Aria grins at Belphegor. Now she wouldn't have to see a vision. Aria's grin makes his grin broaden, although he's wondering why in the world she would be grinning like he usually does. He didn't ask for a mirror. Before any of the two teenagers knows what happens, Aria pulls the trigger.

CLICK

What? There's no bullet?

Belphegor is frowning now.

Ah, that's right. Aria didn't put a bullet for the first shot. The scenario that played through Aria's mind—should worst come to worse—she would pull the trigger on a couple of guys that wanted to get rid of her for being too nosey. They would be surprised that she actually pulled the trigger, but they would also realize she was supposedly pulling a bluff.

She knew she would revel in the glory of their faces when they were given false hope. Then, after the blank was gone, she would shoot one guy right in between the eyes. The other men would be horrified, realizing that Aria was fooling them on purpose. That fear she would see on their faces would make Aria shiver with ecstasy before she would, one way or another, put a bullet into the other men and end their lives.

But that didn't happen. None of that happened.

Belphegor snatches the gun from Aria's hand and drops it to the side. Aria is tense, now that they both know that she would kill Belphegor if she could. He wasn't about to give her a second chance.

"You wanted to kill your Prince? Well, some sort of punishment must be dealt to the failed attempt, ushishishi," Belphegor chortles.

Prince the Ripper removes his knife from the gunman's neck. He grabs her wrist and makes her show her palm to him. He runs his blade across a line of her palm.

Oh, how he enjoyed letting his blade walk along the already-made path, leaving behind footsteps that blossomed into beads of blood. Ah, how they seemed to spill over the pathway, growing out of control. Prince the Ripper particularly enjoyed the jerk from the girl at the reception of pain.

"Ushishishi, you're so lucky that I won't do much more than this," Belphegor tells Aria. "Next time, I'll have to give you a worse punishment. Ushishishi~"

The boy ran his tongue along the cut, taking in the foreign blood into his mouth. He purposefully seemed to dig his tongue into the cut he made, which made the girl try to jerk free again. But Belphegor's grip was like iron; or maybe it was as hard as silver, like his knives.

Aria grabs a handful of Belphegor's hair. She manages to move his head and her hand just enough to keep Belphegor from touching. She drives her knee into his stomach, making him tumble back. Aria can't tell if he felt the pain, or he just had to stumble back because physics said he had to from Aria's knee's momentum.

The Italian girl bends down and grabs her gun. She holds it in her uninjured hand, that arm hanging loosely. Aria looks at the cut on her hand, and then holds her palm out so that it's facing the ground. She doesn't want herself to bleed on anything beside the concrete.

It's amazing how blinding hate can be. She's practically blinded by it now. She wants nothing more than to shoot Belphegor while he was standing up. But the thing is she couldn't. Belphegor might not kill her now, but if she killed him, then there would be someone she would have to answer to that would kill her.

Her perfect revenge wouldn't be so perfect yet if she shot him.

"You're such an interesting toy," Belphegor seems to purr as he stands up straight.

"I'm sorry," Aria apologizes. It's not apparent what she's apologizing for. She adds, "Your constant attempts at trying to terrorize me won't last forever."

A fit of laughter and the words, "I'll toy with you while I can."

I hope this update lived up to the review where I promised I'd try to do better with my sentences and add more adjectives. I hope you guys noticed, too!

If I make another update, I'll need three reviews. If it takes too long, then I'll lower it to two. ^_^ I'll take constructive criticism, so long as there's no cursing me out because it does nothing. It won't stop me from writing.