Chapter edited as of 15th April, 2016.

Japan was very different to Fran's old village back in France, but already he found himself preferring this new environment over the old one; he didn't know why, but it was just something about Japan's atmosphere that felt more welcoming than France ever had to him; here, people actually smiled at him and didn't mind when he would accidentally bump into someone. He actually felt as if he belonged somewhere, and after the few minutes he had followed Mukuro through the airport, he knew he never wanted to go back to France.

When they arrived at the motel they would be staying in for a few days, Fran hadn't had much to do outside of helping everyone unpack; he still had his toys and all, but he liked going outside to play and Mukuro didn't want him wandering around on his own where there were too many people around.

Needless to say, Fran had quickly become bored, and he couldn't help but take it out on the teenagers he was living with.

"Hey, Master Pineapple?"

Mukuro bit his lip as he whacked Fran across the head, not hard enough to cause any damage but to let the younger know such names weren't tolerated; he had hoped the other would learn by now that he hated being compared to a pineapple, but he was starting to wonder if the younger was doing it on purpose just to get a bite from him.

"What do you want, Fran?" Mukuro was stressed. It wasn't because of the boy he had taken in, but because the stress of having to repeatedly jump countries so soon - if he could have had his way, he never would have left his homeland of Italy, but things never seemed to work out in his favour and all he had been able to do was keep moving around and not stay in the same place for too long.

Fran puffed his cheeks up as he pointed out of the window at a couple walking their dog. "Can I have a dog?"

Before Mukuro could snap at the boy, Chrome took over, knowing how frustrated the blue-haired male was growing.

"Fran, I'm sorry, b-but you can't have a dog," Chrome said gently. "We can't afford a pet…"

The blond teen who sat on the couch in the hotel living room let out a laugh before he said, "You'd be more suited to a frog, if anything, brat."

"You don't need another dog when you already have one sitting near you named Ken…" the last male of the group said. He played absentmindedly with a yoyo as he leant against the wall; Mukuro wasn't the only one having a hard time adjusting.

"Shut up, four-eyed Kappa," the blond – Ken, Fran knew him as – growled.

Before the other could retort, Mukuro raised his hand and turned to glare at them. "Both of you need to be quiet. I am not in the mood."

Fran sighed before he nestled against Chrome. In truth, he really liked the people he stayed with, but Mukuro was scary when he was angry. Of course, it didn't stop him from annoying the other, though.

"Are you tired?" Chrome wrapped her arms tighter around the boy.

"A little…" Fran let out a yawn.

Chrome smiled. "Why don't you have a nap, Fran? You must have jet-lag."

Fran wanted to protest and stay awake, but the more he thought about what he could get up to in the motel room, the heavier his eyelids became until he just couldn't hold them open any longer. He mumbled something incomprehensible before he fell asleep on Chrome's lap, and the last thing he was aware of was Chrome standing him and carrying him somewhere. He didn't know where to, though; he was asleep before he could find out.

~~Later that day~~

When Fran had next awoken, he had found himself in a bed. He hadn't minded; he had come to feel comfortable enough with everyone he now lived with to leave the room and find Mukuro himself – after all, it was kind of hard to feel scared of someone as stupid as Ken.

Fran didn't have to look far before he found Mukuro. The teen had opened one of the windows and was sitting on the ledge, with his back against the sliding window and his feet holding him still against the latch for when the window was closed. The boy came closer until he was standing next to his guardian. "Are we going to live here forever?"

Mukuro, who seemed to be in a better mood now, shook his head. "We will have our own place soon. It is just until everything is sorted out."

Fran pulled himself up on Mukuro's lap. He peered down at the ground below, knowing that it was a long drop to the cement, but he trusted the other to keep their balance. Once he had made himself comfortable, he asked, "Why did you leave Italy, Master? How come you came to France and then to Japan?"

The smile Mukuro was accustomed to wearing faltered for a split second as he thought about this question. If he were to be honest, it wasn't that he wished for this, but his family…

Well, his family had pretty much had him and his friends running for their own safety.

"It is nothing to be concerned about, little one." Mukuro looked out over the other buildings as his body tensed slightly; he wasn't going to tell Fran something that might only worry him. "It was just better for us to do schooling over here; that's all. We tried to go to school in France, but it was not very suitable for us, so we want to try a Japanese education."

"Am I going to go to school here, too?"

"It would be best for you to do so, yes. Have you been to school before?"

Fran shook his head. "Grandma never took me to school. I guess she just… didn't remember…"

"Well, you now have a chance to begin again, little one." The teen nudged at the younger to get Fran off his lap so he could stand up. He wiped imaginary dirt from his clothing before he started walking towards the entrance door. "Come. We are going to get our belongings from school."

Fran tried to keep up, but his little legs were too small to match Mukuro's long strides. He didn't say anything until they had left the building and were making their way through the hordes of people; it was almost daunting for him as the tiny village he had grown up in had never had as many people outside at once like this town did.

"Hey, Master?" Fran looked up at the blue-haired teen. "What town is this?"

"Namimori, little one. The school my friends and I are going to was rebuilt in this town after it was damaged by a fire in the next town over. The fire damage must have been very bad if they had to build it again from scratch."

"What school is it?"

"Kokuyo Middle."

Fran hummed. "Will I go to that one, too?"

"No. You will be in a different part of the school because you are younger." Mukuro didn't look at the boy, but he could feel the sense of dread wafting from his charge. It was understandable; Fran only had him and his friends, and to be told they were going to be separated so soon must have been devastating. "It is okay, little one; you will still be close to me; you just will not be where I am."

Fran frowned, but he didn't complain; if there was nothing Mukuro could do, then he would only be a bother to make a fuss over it.

The two fell into a comfortable silence as they made their way through the town. Fran was so absorbed in his new surroundings, he wasn't thinking of anything to converse about. Mukuro didn't mind; he was just glad the younger was happy.

When they walked past a school that was not the one Mukuro needed to be at, the teen wished he had been holding the younger's hand; it would have been much easier to tug him to a halt because the kid was much faster than Mukuro had anticipated, and he hadn't been fast enough to snatch Fran's arm and stop him as the boy run into the school out of interest.

"Fran, come back!" The teen chased after Fran to try and catch him before he got into trouble. It was class hours so Mukuro hadn't expected anyone to be around – but he was proved wrong when a black-haired male who appeared to be a student came out of the building Fran had disappeared into, and was dragging said boy by the arm.

Mukuro narrowed his eyes as he closed the distance between them, not liking the other holding his charge so roughly – in fact, he didn't think he liked the student touching Fran at all.

"Does this belong to you?" The raven-haired teen's voice was cold, almost void of emotion as he pushed Fran in front of him to show to Mukuro.

Mukuro reached out to take the boy as he nodded. "He does." The blue-haired teenager growled inwardly as Fran was shoved at him, and once the boy was back by his side, he wrapped his arms around the kid protectively. "He is not a toy for you to manhandle like that."

"He shouldn't be in a school he is not enrolled in. If he does this again I won't hesitate to bite him to death."

Mukuro could feel his temper rising. While he was usually a calm person, he had become protective of Fran, and he was finding that his emotions were getting out of control when it came to the boy. "Who are you to make such threats against a child?"

Mukuro watched as a silver tonfa was pulled from the black jacket that hung over the student's uniform. His eyes narrowed further as he pulled Fran to stand behind him; if it was a fight the other was looking for, he would get one.

"If you are looking for a fight…" Mukuro's soft voice paused as the bell rang, signalling the end of the school day, "…then you can fight me."

Another tonfa appeared out of nowhere, poised to strike at any second, but Mukuro was confident in his fighting ability; he had been raised in an abusive environment, and fighting was the very first thing he had learnt.

The blue-haired teenager looked over his shoulder at Fran. "Little one, move away."

Fran moved onto the grass to put distance between him and the two teens. He cocked his head to the side when the doors to the school opened and students started flooding out. He didn't understand why everyone started circling around Mukuro and the other; he knew they were about to fight, so were the other kids going to join in, too?

The idea of Mukuro being beaten up by so many people was nerve-wracking for Fran, and he couldn't help but let out a whimper. Some of the students who were close to him noticed, and they moved to his side. It was a brunet, a silver-haired male, and black-haired male, and while the silver-haired one looked rather bored, the other two held looks of concern on their faces as they knelt by Fran's side.

The brunet was the one to speak first. "Do you know the person Hibari-san is fighting with?"

When Fran nodded, the black-haired male stood up and said, "Tsuna, I'm gonna go get Dino before this gets bad."

When Fran looked back to Mukuro to make sure he was okay, he could see the blue-haired teenager on the ground with the raven-haired one as they fought ferociously. He was glad that no one else was joining in, but he still hated to see his Master fighting like this.

The brunet could sense the distress in Fran and reached out to hug the boy. "Don't watch it; Yamamoto is getting a teacher to stop the fight." When Fran only frowned at these words, he asked, in an attempt to distract the younger, "What's your friend's name?"

"Mukuro…"

"My name is Tsuna," the brunet said. He gestured to the silver-haired boy standing behind him and said, "This is my friend, Gokudera-kun. What's your name?"

"Fran…"

Just as the boy had responded, Tsuna saw his teacher running out to break up the fight. He smiled as he said, "Fran, Dino-san is here now. He'll sort this out."

Fran looked up to see a blond-haired man parting the crowd of onlooking students. His hair was messy, hanging in his face, and he looked stressed. The man rushed into the fray and pulled the two teenagers away from each other and held the black-haired male tight against his body. Fran couldn't hear what was being said, but Mukuro seemed rather calm as he spoke to the blond; was that a good thing or a bad thing…?

The boy remained in Tsuna's arms until Mukuro nodded at the teacher and then went back to his charge's side. The teen's eyes were soft as he surveyed the way Fran was pressing himself against the brunet, and once he was close enough, Fran pulled himself away from Tsuna and wrapped his arms around the blue-haired male's waist and hugged him tight as he buried his face in the familiar chest.

When Fran dared to look up, he found a cut just above Mukuro's eyebrow. He reached up and wiped at the blood, dismayed that the teenager had gotten hurt because of him; that was the last thing he wanted.

"Kufufu~" Mukuro laughed, letting the boy do what he wanted. He looked at Tsuna as he introduced himself. "I am Mukuro. I see you have already met Fran. Thank you for taking care of him."

The brunet gave a shy smile. "That's okay."

"We have to be going now, little one." Mukuro tugged at the boy's hand. "We have places to be."

"Okay." Fran looked up at Tsuna. "Bye, Tuna."

Yamamoto laughed at the kid's nickname for his friend. "See ya, Fran!"

As the two left the school grounds, Fran caught sight of the teacher and the black-haired student Mukuro had been fighting with. Mukuro noticed where his charge was looking and said, "His name is Kyouya, I believe. I do not like him."

"I like Tuna. Do you think I could play with him some time?"

"We will see." Mukuro didn't like the thought of Fran liking someone other than himself; he wanted to be the only one in Fran's life who he looked up to and loved.

Fran's lips twitched into a slight smile. "I love you, Master."

Mukuro froze at those words, never having been told them before by anyone, not even his own parents. He certainly hadn't expected for them, and when Fran wrapped his arms around his middle section, he could only shudder; love? Was that what he, too, felt for the boy he had taken in…? He wasn't sure; he didn't even know what love felt like.

The blue-haired teen shook his head before he replied, feeling awkward about this whole thing. "…Okay…"

Fran didn't mind when he was pushed away gently; he just continued on with a hum. Mukuro, however, couldn't help but wonder; was he starting to love the other, too…? Only time would tell.