"How do you get money…?" Fran found himself asking Mukuro as he stood at the back of the ice cream parlour with the older male while Chrome ordered their treats. He was looking up into Mukuro's mismatched eyes, honestly too curious about how 'money' worked to remain quiet.

"Squalo pays us for working," Rokudo explained calmly. When he saw the boy's eyes widen, he could only imagine how his words had been misconstrued; he should have been more careful with this fragile child. He patted teal hair as he clarified, "If we help clean the house or do the gardening with Squalo, we get rewarded. It is nothing bad. Chrome and I did the dishes for Lussuria last night because we wanted to, so Squalo gave us money to spend in town as a reward."

Fran relaxed the body that had unconsciously tensed. "…Oh…"

Mukuro chuckled quietly. He was glad the younger had calmed down; he hadn't meant to frighten the child, but he had to remind himself that someone with Fran's history could be easily triggered. "Let's go get a table, okay? Chrome will be with us in a moment."

Fran quickly reached out and joined his hand with the bigger one. He followed closely behind Mukuro and glanced emotionlessly at the people around them. He was wary of them, not trusting those strangers to stay where they were. He unconsciously moved closer to the older male as he sought out Mukuro's protection, and the teenager couldn't help but laugh and wrap his arm around his new friend; if Fran wanted someone to look after him, he would be happy to do so.

Fran chose a table in the corner of the ice cream parlour away from everyone else. He pushed himself close beside the older male on the bench seat, leaving Chrome to sit across the table on the single chair. It was nothing against Chrome, but at the moment, he felt more comfortable with Mukuro than he did her, and it was the older male he wanted to be next to right now.

Mukuro didn't mind the younger's actions; he knew that Chrome would understand, and as long as Fran was okay, that was all that mattered. He looked down at the other when he felt Fran fidgeting beside him. He tilted his head slightly. "Are you okay, little one?"

Fran nodded slowly. He forced his emotionless expression to stay as he said quietly, "I'm… trying to understand…"

"Hmm?" Mukuro smiled gently. "What is there to understand – if I may ask?"

"…" Fran bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to convey his thoughts. "…You and Chrome don't hurt me… The others don't, either… But why is Bel just like everyone else…?"

Mukuro couldn't help but feel angry at Bel for treating the boy the way he had, but he knew the circumstances surrounding his personality. He didn't judge the blond; Bel had been broken from his own personal hell – a hell that even now, he still couldn't escape. Just because he had been taken away from what had made him like this and had people trying to help him didn't mean he was going to be fine; the boy had never known a second of kindness and only knew violence, so even though he was now showered with love and affection, he still couldn't understand it; all it had ever seemed to do was cause him pain to be treated with gentleness and so he withdrew even further from everyone. "What Bel did was wrong, but he cannot help it. That is why Xanxus and Squalo took him; because they knew he might never be put back together and did not want him to be mistreated any more than he already has been. I believe you are familiar with his history now?"

"Yes…"

"Bel hurts, just like the rest of us who came to the Varia. He just… shows it in different ways."

"Does that mean you and Chrome hurt, too?"

Mukuro nodded. "Very much so."

"…" Fran looked down at his lap as he saw Chrome approaching them with three cones of ice cream in her pale hands. "…Is it bad that… I feel like… I can trust you…?"

Mukuro ruffled Fran's hair affectionately. "Not at all. It just means you feel safe with me, and I am glad for that."

"…What if I… I think I'm feeling more than just… being scared all the time…?"

"Then that is a good thing. No one wants to go through life always scared."

"…Will I be in trouble…?" The fear in Fran's voice was evident in this sentence.

"For what? Being human? Fran, if anyone ever taught you any differently, they are disgusting filth. It is okay to have emotions and to show them."

A single tear dripped down Fran's cheek at these words. He nodded, humming softly to himself as he accepted the chocolate ice cream Chrome handed to him.

"Are you okay, Fran?" Chrome asked in a voice softer than Fran had heard it before.

"He is okay, Chrome," Mukuro said as he accepted his own treat from his sister. "We were just talking."

"A-ah." Chrome understood, and she didn't pry; it wasn't her business, after all. She sat down across from the two boys with a shy small smile on her face as she ate the dairy product.

There was silence between the three for a few minutes until Chrome noticed Fran hadn't touched his ice cream. "Do you not like it, Fran?"

Fran blinked before he looked up. His eyes were brimming with tears and his voice was choked as he explained, "…N-no one's ever given me an ice cream before…"

Mukuro was the next to speak. "That is because you were with animals before. We are your friends, so of course we are going to give you ice cream."

Fran sniffed before he nodded and gave a muffled, "Thank you..."

Chrome and Mukuro smiled at the boy before they returned to their treats. They watched from the corners of their eyes as Fran took a tentative lick before he smiled. They could see the boy's shoulders slowly relaxing with each lick, and a little bit of life came to those empty emerald orbs; in the here and now, Fran was finally relaxing like he should be at his young age.

Minutes passed in comfortable silence before the grey skies opened and pelted the earth with heavy rain as thunder roared and lightning flashed. Fran seemed oblivious to this as he continued licking up the last of his now-melted treat; he was too focused on the chocolate-flavoured ice cream to care about what was going on outside. The only thing that snapped him out of his thoughts was when Mukuro's hands rested on his shoulders. He turned his head upwards to look into heterochromatic eyes.

"We should hurry and get home before the storm gets worse," Mukuro said.

Fran frowned and looked at his half-eaten treat. He sighed before he reluctantly placed it down on the napkin it had come in; he had really been enjoying that ice cream, too…

Chrome frowned. She could feel her heart tug at her chest as she saw the dejection on the younger's face; Fran obviously didn't realise that he could bring the ice cream with him. She picked the cone back up and held it out to Fran as she explained, "Just because we're leaving the store doesn't mean you can't bring it back to Varia."

Fran's eyes lit up at these words. He accepted the cone that was handed back to him with a tenderness that Chrome knew showed just how wary the kid was towards others; it was as if he could barely believe he was actually being given something and expected it to be snatched away just before he could grab it – as if the ice cream she was trying to give back to him was nothing more than something to taunt him with.

"…" Fran looked down at his ragged shoes as he felt his fingertips graze the cone. "…T-thank you…"

"That's okay, Fran." Fran was starting to like Chrome; she was just so different to the kinds of people he used to know. "Let's get going."

Mukuro hummed in agreement as he shrugged his green jacket off his body so that he could wrap it around Fran's body. He smiled when Fran looked up at him in confusion. "It is cold and wet outside, and you are sick. We have to keep you warm or else you will get sicker."

Fran's tiny hand reached up to grip at the jacket. His eyes were wide and confusion was clear in them; he couldn't understand what had just happened, and when he tried to think about it, it only hurt his head. His wary eyes studied the two carefully as he grasped his ice cream cone tightly; what did he say? What did he do? Too many questions but not enough answers.

As Mukuro guided the smaller two from the ice cream parlour, Fran noticed for the first time that the twins were both wearing school uniforms; did they go to school?

"Do you go to school, Mukuro?"

"Kufufu~" Mukuro smiled down at the younger. "Chrome and I go for a few days a week. Some of the other kids go to school as well, but none of us go for the full week."

"Have you ever been to school?" Chrome asked.

Fran shook his head. "Never. …What is it like?"

"It is… interesting, kufufu~"

Fran tried to imagine what this 'school' thing could be like. He knew that school was where kids went to learn things as some of the other orphanages he had been too would send most of the orphans to school, but other than that; he really didn't know anything else.

The child quickly gave up on thinking about school when he suddenly realised how exhausted he was; he hadn't thought that going to get ice cream would take so much out of him, but here he was, feeling as if he were about to fall asleep on the spot. He slumped against Mukuro. "I'm tired…"

Chrome was quick to act. She picked Fran up in her arms held him close. It took only a minute for him to fall asleep with his head resting against Chrome's chest; never before had he known the comfort of someone's arms around him as he slept, and he hadn't realised just how easily he could fall asleep until he actually felt at peace for once.

"He's cute." Chrome smiled up at her brother. The older teen nodded in agreement.

~~Varia~~

Bel was just about asleep before a hand started shaking him gently. He groaned and pulled his pillow over his head, mumbling that he wanted to sleep.

"Bel, it's time for dinner," Tsuna explained. He was a little concerned; Lussuria had been in the room half-an-hour ago telling Bel that it was time for their meals, but the blond hadn't left his bed – usually Bel was the first one at the dinner table as he had a healthy appetite and was a bottomless pit. "Come on. You have to eat."

"The prince isn't hungry…"

"Bel…" Tsuna knew the blond well enough to know that something was bothering Bel; the boy never turned down food. "Bel, if you need to talk…"

"I'm fine…" Bel sighed before he pushed himself into a sitting position. He was exhausted; Tsuna could see that much. "Leave the prince alone..."

"Bel, come down and eat, please…"

Bel ignored Tsuna's comment and instead raised his hands in order to look at them. His hidden eyes closed fearfully as he started rubbing his hands against his striped shirt, as if he was trying to scrub something off them that Tsuna couldn't see.

The brunet had seen this before; Bel was losing it. He had to do something before the blond snapped and started hurting himself or someone else. He reached out as gently as he could possibly could so that he could grab frail wrists and pull them away from Bel's stomach. "What's hurting you, Bel?"

"The blood… The blood…" Bel whimpered as he tried to tug his wrists free. "There's so much blood…"

"Bel, you're not there anymore…" Tsuna knew what was happening; Bel was reliving the time he had killed his only surviving family. "Bel, you're here at the Varia. Listen to me."

"There's blood all over me…" Bel's body started shaking in fear. "What have I done…? I just wanted them to stop… I wanted them to stop… Stop… Stop…! Stop touching me! Let me go!"

Tsuna released pale wrists as he pulled Bel's body against his and pinned the younger's arms against Bel's side; if he didn't restrain the boy, he was going get scratched, hit and punched during the blond' bout of insanity. "Bel, it's okay. It's okay. It's Tsuna. Tsuna. No one's going to hurt you."

"Get off me! I don't want this!"

Bel's screams of panic grew louder, and he struggled with all the strength he could muster to get free; to him, it wasn't Tsuna who was holding him down, but the person he was most terrified of. What he was seeing was his father and his twin brother, hurting him in ways no one could ever want. He saw the blood – both his and that of his family's – all over his naked body and the bed sheets he had been tied down onto. Most of all, the blood was caked onto his own hands as two corpses lay before him. He could still see all the wounds that had faded into nasty scars he would have for the rest of his life, and he swore the agony he once hadn't gone a day without had returned with a vengeance, sending shockwaves all through his body.

Tsuna heard a small whimper from the doorway behind them. When he turned his head, he could see Fran was staring into the room with wide eyes as Mukuro's school jacket hanging over his frail body; had Bel woken the child from his sleep?

"Fran, it's okay," Tsuna called. "I need you to go find Xanxus or Squalo. It's important Tell them it's about Bel."

Fran nodded. He hurried to find the two adults; as he stared at Bel's terrified form, he knew that was how he himself had looked so many times, and seeing the blond like that… though he would never forgive the teen for what he had tried to force him into… he knew what it was like to be lost and scared.

Maybe… Fran thought to himself as he walked down the stairwell, maybe I should help... I have Mukuro and Chrome… I have friends now… But Bel doesn't have any…

After finding Squalo outside smoking a cigarette and explaining to the man what he had seen, Fran knew he had to do something after seeing the concern cross Squalo's face before the man ran up the stairs. He could still hear Bel's screaming and, when he walked into the dining room to see everyone with their heads down as if they didn't want to hear it, he understood Bel had nobody. No one his own age wanted to help – it was left up to the adults who couldn't relate to him.

Fran wasn't hungry; he could only push away the plate he had barely even glanced at so that he could go back upstairs. He didn't know what he could do for the distressed teenager, but surely there was something.

But despite his thought process, when he finally got back to his bedroom, he could only stand by the door and listen to Squalo and Tsuna trying to soothe the hysterical boy before he went back downstairs; he couldn't deal with that – he was just too young to be able to handle such intense emotions from the other.