It had been the night of celebration for defeating Byakuran and saving their future, and to the Vongola's surprise, the Varia had come along with them. It was strange to be in the same room with them – especially much older versions than the ones that had once tried to kill them – but it was mostly tolerable; Xanxus had taken a corner to himself where he sat with bottles of whisky and glared at everyone as if they were the source of his anger. Squalo, too, was drinking, but he and Lussuria were together with their respective Vongola counterparts telling them about how their future selves were. Leviathan was off brooding somewhere, and Mammon was with the other Arcobaleno who also had disappeared.

But it was the Mist and Storm guardians of the Varia that were really worrying Tsuna as he watched them interact from across the room, and when he found that Mukuro was heading over to join them, he knew nothing good was going to come from it – but what was he supposed to do? All he could do was sit there and try to intervene if it looked like they were about to kill each other.

"Tenth, why do you look so troubled?"

Tsuna blinked as his "right-hand man's" voice broke through his thoughts. He frowned. "I have a bad feeling about those two being with that new Mist Guardian…"

Gokudera shrugged. "Not our problem. Just enjoy the night."

Tsuna nodded. He tried to do as the older male had suggested, but he found that hard to do when he felt stressed upon realising that neither Belphegor nor Mukuro were trying to hide the fact that they were abusing their teal-haired comrade with plenty of other people in the room to witness it. He felt sick as they both stabbed at him and threw sick words his way, and though he had expected for Belphegor to treat his companion like crap, what really surprised him – though in hindsight he knew it shouldn't have – was the fact that Mukuro treated his prized student just as badly, if not worse.

The new Mist Guardian always donned an expressionless mask, even during the times Belphegor would stab him or Mukuro would impale him with his trident, but Tsuna worried that maybe the teal-haired male was actually feeling something in those moments – after all, who could put up with being assaulted in such horrid ways every day?

What if the other males' actions caused him distress, Tsuna wondered. What if Fran suffered – both physically and mentally – due to their actions? Damage could be done to the boy and no one would even notice. He could be suffering greatly at their hands but, for whatever reason, told nobody.

Tsuna hated it, and it made him want to do something about it – but when he watched Belphegor drag the other out of the room with an air of maliciousness about him, he knew he had to do something because no one else was going to. The only problem was, he didn't know what to do.