Captured Hearts

Chapter Twenty-four: The Rivaled

Mammon blushed as Bel came impossibly close, then moaned quietly, for their bare chests had begun to rub together with that sweet friction that he loved. The prince smirked, then caressed his fellow werewolf's cheek, before meeting their lips together. Weakly trying to resist, Mammon whimpered as the blonde stroked his tail, then shuddered, for the other werewolf had run his cold fingers right up his spine.

"You will be my mate," Bel hissed to the indigo-haired werewolf. "Fran will give up on me... it's for the best."

"Ah- but... Bel...," Mammon tried to protest. "Fran loves you... while I..."

"... Does Monta find fault with the prince?" Bel asked, and through his bangs, Mammon could see quite clearly the beautiful, pouting eyes that he often hid from the world. Mammon paused, biting his lip gently, before giving in. Bel's face was too cute.

"I love you too," he sighed. "But Fran's my friend... I don't want to hurt him..."

"Ushishi... if he were really your friend, he'd understand, ne?" Bel laughed, before becoming serious. "He should understand that crossbreeding is wrong, and that I don't like him. I don't think that you two should be friends if that's how he feels."

"Bel," Mammon started again, his ears flat. "The poor guy loves you."

"I don't care," Bel snarled. "All right? I don't. For all I care, he can watch us mate."

With that, the prince shoved Mammon up to the observation gate and forced him to bend over, before easing himself against Mammon's backside, and, even though they were clothed, it sent the message. 'Mammon belongs to the prince, and the prince belongs to Mammon.' "How does it feel, Mammon?" Bel hissed. "I'm so close, yet so far away, ushishi..." A hand trailed up Mammon's back, before fisting his hair and pulling his head up. "I love you," the blonde snarled.

"I love you too, Bel...," Mammon whined, blushing, not because of Bel, but because Dino and several observers were seeing this happen.

"That's right," Bel laughed as he roughly turned the other around and kissed him, making Mammon quiver with confused pleasure. Then, Bel began to get at the other werewolf's pants, and Dino blushed, knowing what was going to happen between the two.

"Uh- well, clearly, it's time to close the observation area!" Dino said, before dropping the gate closed, leaving the werewolves to do as they pleased.

SPLASH.

Bel waited with a mischievous grin on his face as Fran stormed over, then yelped when the merman grabbed him by the tail and yanked him back, having gotten out of the water completely. "Fran!" Bel yelped. "What the hell are you doing?" The prince barked. Fran turned and kissed him, his body finding every way to embed itself within Bel's. The prince snarled with anger and tossed the merman off of him, making Fran land painfully on the ground as the blonde scrambled up to his feet. Fran lied on the ground, his back to Bel, and he reached up, then cradled his forehead as he hummed quietly to himself. A sweet melody left his lips, making all three werewolves in the area perk up and try to listen in. "What's he doing?" Bel asked.

"Merpeople song," Mammon breathed. "Fran must be able to sing... or hum... without being beneath the water."

"Shh... it's okay, Fran...," the merman whispered quietly to himself, reaching up and massaging his shoulder as he continued to hum. "He doesn't mean to hurt you... he doesn't mean it..."

The merman curled up on the ground, and ran his fingers over his legs, breathing softly as he lied there. "Bel...," Mammon murmured. "I've heard of this. It's not good."

"Nn?"

"My parents used to hunt merpeople every so often," Mammon began, "and they taught me that when their self-esteem is ruined, they'll go into a state of self-soothing, usually using the same words their parents would've said. Merpeople song isn't the sound of happiness, Bel, it's the sound of a broken soul."

The blonde werewolf paused, then, noticing how intently he'd been listening to Fran, he shook his head, and dragged Mammon to the far side of the enclosure. "That doesn't matter for me," he muttered. "What matters is that Fran knows that I don't want to crossbreed with him."

Meanwhile, Fran remained curled up on the ground, 'self-soothing,' until the werewolves had gone inside, and the vampires soon came out. Hibari and Basil were talking to each other in lighthearted voices, when suddenly, Hibari noticed Fran, and rushed over. "Fran, are you all right?" he said, picking the merman up. Fran's eyes were as dead as ever as he mumbled something that the ravenette couldn't distinguish, and Hibari carried the merman over to the pond, then dipped his feet into the water so that Fran would be more comfortable. With the doll-like Fran sitting on the edge of the pond, Hibari murmured, "Fran, it's okay. I don't know what made you like this, but you don't need to worry. I'm your friend... you can talk to me."

Basil stepped forward as well, and said, "And since thou art Lord Hibarin's friend, thou art my friend as well. Speak, Fran. For thee, comfort is all I have to give."

"I'm not good enough," Fran rasped. The vampires took a moment of trying to figure just what Fran wasn't good enough for, but Fran soon spoke again, as if to clear it up. "I'm not good enough to be Bel's mate. I'm not a werewolf... I'm not Mammon..."

Hibari sighed, and touched the merman's cheek, before saying, "Fran, you're a beautiful merman. You don't have to be a werewolf. You're better than 'good enough' as it is! Bel needs to see the real you, buried under all that infatuation. You have to be patient... okay, Fran?"

The merman nodded absently, then wiped at his eyes, humming a little more as he submerged beneath the water. "That poor merman," Basil murmured. "Belphegor art much too hard on him."

"Yeah," Hibari agreed. "He sure has it rough."

The vampire glanced back at Basil after he had said the word, and he blushed. He was so glad that he wasn't like Belphegor.

Later...

"All right, how many creatures are coming from Italy?" Dino asked as he looked uncertainly at his boss. Reborn snorted.

"Too many," he said. "Two vampires, two werewolves, a merman, and some weird centaur halfbreed."

"Well, that's actually pretty good, right?" Dino said. "It'll balance out the merpeople and the centaurs..."

"We're having trouble feeding all these animals," Reborn explained. "We're going to have to keep the observation area open for longer periods of time." Dino paused, suprised.
"But Reborn," he tried to reason. "They need privacy! These creatures are already quite angry with the observers!"

"They'll have to groom each other, exchange blood or whatever in there own enclosures, all right?" Reborn said. "This is for the good of this entire operation."

Spanner leaned back in his chair, pausing his research to input into the conversation, "If we increased observation time by a half-hour, we'd get twenty percent more profit."

"See? That's just enough to cover the feeding while giving us a little extra," Reborn said. "Dino, do you have a family?"

Dino paused, about to say no, when he decided that he'd take a leap of faith, and he said, "Yes, sir, these creatures are my family."

Reborn arched a brow, then shook his head. "Get back to work," he murmured. "The Italian branch is going to arrive in Japan tomorrow evening, and they will be here two days from today. And Shoichi, Spanner, finish up the new werewolf enclosure- they're practically sleeping on each other."

The scientists nodded, and Dino sighed, walking out of the enclosure. When he got out, though, he heard a faint song, and took a moment to listen, before seeking out the origin. What he came up to was the merpeople's tank, where he had left the last group of observers to feed the merpeople, and Fran, his back to the watching people as he sang quietly. Not knowing this state of merpeople, Dino grinned, and called out, "That's a beautiful song, Fran!"

The merman stopped singing for a moment, then pushed himself off of the rock, not sparing the tamer a glance as he submerged. Confused, Dino wondered just what Fran was moping about, when he recalled how Bel and Mammon had been earlier. The tamer heaved a sigh, and ushered the observers away from the merpeople enclosure, wondering to himself if Fran would be all right.

-End Chapter

And there we have it~ Jeez, I dunno what happened, I just am on a role with this stroy lately. I'm almost halfway to 100,000 words! :D

Italy branch to arrive in the next chapter~

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