Mukuro wasn't sure how much time had passed since they had hidden beneath the trap door, but he eventually lifted it to poke his head out as he heard a familiar voice calling for him. Fran stayed down, sitting on Bel's lap, afraid that those... things might have come back.

"Are you alright?!"

Heterochromatic eyes fixed on the holder of the Lightning Pacifier, Verde. Mukuro couldn't help but smile wearily, injuries he must have received during all of the commotion hurting more than anything else he had experienced.

"We were caught in a little surprise attack that's against the rules of the Vindice," Mukuro explained. "But the boss watch is safe and I didn't show them our trumpcard... It was bad, but Fran's illusions saved us."

Fran climbed off Bel's lap at these words, peeking out from their hiding place. He noticed that the room they were in had been trashed, tables upturned and chairs broken into pieces. Rubble lay everywhere, but that was the least of his concerns - Mukuro's shirt was covered in blood.

"You're injured pretty badly." Verde frowned as he noticed the Vongola Illusionist was trying to conceal all hints of pain, but the grimace Mukuro wore made it obvious how much it was hurting him.

Bel, who had been sitting quietly, looked up at the younger teenager. He was frowning, wondering if Mammon and the other Varia members had been attacked as well.

"Maybe the prince should go back to the hotel..." Bel tried to get to his feet, but he was stopped by Fran throwing his tiny body at the blond. His arms wrapped around Bel's leg, hugging tightly as he rested his head against the teenager's hip, too small to reach any higher.

"Don't go out there!" Fran whimpered, his teal eyes looking up at Bel in horror. "There are mummies out there!"

"Mammy..." Bel let a bony hand slip into teal hair, worried that his best friend may have been attacked - why did he leave Mammon to wander the streets alone...? "What if they attacked Mammy...?"

"Don't go..." Fran rubbed his face against Bel's striped shirt, feeling tears prick at his eyes. "Don't go out there...!"

Bel was silent, having never thought someone would cry over him before - he was the ones who made everyone else cry while begging for their lives, after all...

"Fran's right..." Mukuro hated to admit it, but he wasn't the kind of person who would send someone out alone while the Vindicewere on the loose - despite his deep hatred towards the mafia, he did owe the Vongola Family for his freedom, after all. "You should stay here where we can hide in case they come back."

Bel picked the boy up, holding him close. He thought over the offer, knowing that, despite his strength, he would have lost his life standing there if Mukuro hadn't knocked him down. Those bastards were strong, and there was only one of him - these obviously weren't civilians he could chase into a corner and slaughter in groups.

"...Where will the prince sleep...?" Bel was quiet as he spoke, hating to acknowledge Mukuro as more than a peasant - the pineapple-haired male had saved his life on two different occasions in just a few weeks, but he would never thank the younger for that - he had his pride as a prince, after all.

"With Fran." Mukuro winced as his shoulder throbbed angrily. "He's still sick, and he's scared... Keep an eye on him for me."

Bel nodded, carrying Fran out of the room. The younger guided him quietly to his room and, when Bel was closing the door behind him a few minutes later, couldn't believe how neglectful Mukuro was being towards Fran - what seven-year-old slept in a dusty, ran-down room in an abandoned school with nothing but a moth-eaten, ragged blanket to sleep on...?

Even Bel, who had been born and raised into royalty, knew that the peasants of his old homeland didn't let their kids live in conditions like this, no matter how poor they were - Fran really needed a new home, somewhere he wouldn't suffer from neglect.

"How can you live like this...?" Bel laid Fran down on top of the makeshift bed, climbing in next to him. "The prince would be so depressed if he had to live here..."

Fran shrugged, moving closer to Bel's warm body. He curled against the scrawny male, yawning as he felt arms wrap around him and hold him close. "It's not so bad... Master still feeds me..."

Bel rested his chin against teal hair as he sighed, pulling the younger closer to him. Part of him wished he could bring the boy back to Varia with him, knowing that this was no place for a kid - the building itself was dangerous, and there was always the risk of vandals breaking in and catching Fran on his own if Mukuro had gone somewhere - there was no telling what could happen to the boy without someone to look after him.

Prince the Ripper wasn't someone who cared about others, but despite all the things he'd done in his life, all the murders he had committed purely out of boredom - even slaughtering his own twin at the age of eight - he wasn't the kind of person who'd hurt and abuse a kid. No - Rasiel had deserved what he got, but kids weren't like adults; they were innocent in his eyes, oblivious to the cruel world they had been born into. Bel didn't like kids very much, but he'd much rather kill an adult who had done worse than a kid could do - he saved his slowest, most painful deaths for those who had hurt others, and those who had suffered themselves or hadn't done much wrong got the quick deaths, though he wouldn't guarantee a painless one.

But where did Fran fall into all of this? The kid had been snarky and cruel during the future, but Bel could remember clearly that, despite the younger's attitude, Fran wasn't cut out for an assassination squad; he wasn't a murderer, only there solely because he had no where else to go with Mukuro in Vindice. But, unlike the other comrades who had raised Bel from a boy, Fran had never abandoned him in a fight - he had stayed by his senpai's side when Rasiel had made an appearance, and though the teal-haired male wasn't fond of hurting other people, he did what he had to when it came to backing Bel up.

Fran really didn't have a chance in life - he had been destined to have blood on his hands the very second Mukuro had picked him up from France.

Bel wondered if Fran would turn out differently in this timeline if it had been the Varia the boy had chosen back in France. He pondered if they would be lovers again when Fran grew old enough to understand it. Most of all, he tried to understand why he felt as if he wanted to bring Fran back to Italy with him, not leave him here where he would undoubtedly not be cared for properly - Lussuria would baby the kid and take care of him willingly, whereas Mukuro was distant and couldn't be the guardian Fran needed.

Maybe there was something Bel could do to bring Fran back to Varia - he was a prince, after all.