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some of these details might be borrowed from my synopsis of fran’s character I did way back when before I remade this blog, because unsurprisingly, they’re still relevant. so let’s get down to business!!

one of the best ways to define bel and fran’s relationship is that it’s complicated as hell. but, that should be expected from one glance at these emotionally constipated nerdlords. and I’m gonna try to do this as best as I can without delving too much into fran’s overall characterization.

the first thing I want to point out is the common misconception that they hate each other--which I will argue that they have never stated feelings of hatred. it’s true that they agitate one another constantly, they make it a point to regularly hassle and antagonize one another, but the word hate has never been used. in fact, the closest we’ve come to anything of the sort is fran’s stating that:

“I can’t stand his type.”

and notice. that’s not even a direct attack on bel, rather guys like him. while it’s not the most clear what exactly fran means by that, it’s fairly safe to assume that he’s referring to bel’s sense of entitlement, superiority complex, and cruel, sadistic behavior. the fact that he’s known to mistreat fran for the hell of it merely serves as the icing on the proverbial cake.

now this is something I have addressed before, and something I still chock up to fran’s want of understanding. bel is impulsive and unpredictable, known to act on whims and simply do as he pleases. it’s near impossible to get an accurate read on him and what’s going on in his head--and for an illusionist (any illusionist, that is), that’s extremely frustrating. when your trade is heavily centered on your ability to read your opponent and act accordingly, it places fran at a loss. and bel’s extremely off putting personality doesn’t make him any more keen on the idea of wanting to understand him better.

a lot of times, it seems that they put up with one another because they have to, which is certainly debatable. and to this, I’d like to reference back to the instance in which levi encouraged bel to go ahead and kill fran after bel stated to squalo that, “the frog may end up getting killed.” (or something to that degree, I’m not quoting verbatim.) immediately afterwards, bel refuses because he won’t align himself with the likes of levi.

clearly, as much as he might dislike fran, he’s not the person bel harbors the most animosity towards. and the same could be said in regards to fran, too.

another point I often make is while they’re on their way towards the confrontation with rasiel (don’t worry, I’ll cover that point, too). there’s a scene where they stop, the one where fran’s pulling bel’s knives out of his back and they start arguing after bel says to polish them before returning them, and fran’s response is to bend them and drop them before “accidentally” tossing the rest. bel lights up his ring which, initially, appears as intent to attack fran. what it turns out to be is bel shielding them from a surprise attack.

you know what bel didn’t need to do? shield fran, too. you know what bel did? he shielded fran, too.

if he wanted to be rid of fran so badly, he could’ve let him fend for himself, risked fran not activating his box in time and getting hit by the attack. but he doesn’t. all he does is chide fran for not making use of his box weapon.

and oooooh boy, then there’s one of my favorite scenes to discuss: FRAN DISCOVERING THE BIRTHMARK.

words cannot and will not ever express the unbridled joy and amusement I get from this particular scene. you know the part I’m talking about, where fran takes it upon himself to lift bel’s shirt and confirm what rasiel’s saying. and the reason I love discussing this particular scene isn’t because fran just went ahead and did it, rather, how bel responds to him doing that.

he doesn’t get offended that fran did it, he yells at fran to, “Ask first.” which tells us that his issue wasn’t that fran took it upon himself to check bel out, it was because he didn’t ask for permission first. and if that doesn’t say something, then I don’t know what does.

but of course, I’ve saved one of (what I find to be) the most important context clues for last, and that is the inevitable frog hat.

fran has proven time and time again that he has no respect for his authority figures. he talks back to all of them with little to no regard for his own safety or well being. he has no qualms with insulting them directly to their face, regardless of their position as his superior officers, or the fact that they could easily skewer him. so why wear the damn thing? it’s not glued to his head, and bel’s going to throw the knives at him anyway. there’s physically nothing stopping him from removing it.

so why does he keep it on, despite stating in multiple instances that it inconveniences him and even hinders his ability to fight?

a lot of the answer to this falls under my headcanons for fran, so I won’t go heavily into detail, but I think it stems from lowkey abandonment issues (I’m talking lowkey to the point that he doesn’t even realize he has them) and the hat giving him this sense of belonging. it means he has enough value that bel’s essentially claiming fran as his personal property.

hey, I never said their relationship was healthy.

their relationship is extremely problematic, honestly. I won’t deny that, I’ve never tried to deny it and I never will. because I think it makes it all the more interesting to look into. because when you look at them, they’re both elite assassins, both apparent geniuses. fran is someone who can stand on equal footing with bel when he takes matters seriously. and they both have their own share of issues that stem back to their childhood. despite being relative polar opposites, they have more in common than they realize because they both lack that ability to communicate efficiently.

there’s really a lot that can be said about these two and the relationship that they share on any level. they’re capable of reaching points where they can awkwardly converse with one another, but still able to go right back to fighting and harassing one another. but you know what, that’s never going to change.

that’s their safety zone. that’s the place where they go to keep other people at bay, to keep themselves from asking questions they don’t want answers to. to keep from remembering that they might still be human somewhere deep down.

and frankly, I love that aspect of their relationship. because they’re not traditional. they can be attracted to one another and it won’t take the aggressiveness out of their relationship. they’re never going to call one another their boyfriend and tell everybody that they’re dating. hell, they won’t even consider it dating.

what I always see those two having is this sort of unspoken relationship, it’s something that can’t be defined and they don’t ever try to. they know what’s there and they don’t need a label on it--not to mention that a title like boyfriend can’t even begin to cover that bond after everything they’ve overcome and dealt with together.

to bel, fran’s his frog.

to fran, bel’s his insignificant other.

and that’s enough. they don’t need to define the relationship, or even necessarily acknowledge there’s one to begin with, to know it’s there. because they both know, but they speak through their actions. and that’s not to say conventional actions of affection.

it’s to say that maybe bel will throw half a dozen knives at fran, rather than the usual dozen. and fran will call bel a fake prince mildly less frequently than he generally does. they’re small actions that don’t speak loudly to the outside eye, but say far more to either of them, fully aware that they’ll both deny it to their dying breath were anyone to comment on it. they could spend the night together and nobody outside the Varia would be none the wiser to it, because they don’t let the relationship define them; they stay true to who they are.

they share an unspoken degree of acceptance between them, and that’s exactly how they keep it--between them.

(even though the rest of the officers are probably well onto them and have been for ages. specifically lussuria and squalo...)