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Ears are Innocence	By : FairyBean Category: +G to L > Loveless Views: 1749 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Loveless, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
Another little chapter for you. Just not so hyped for writing lately- life stuff. Apologies from the tortured author lol.

--

Chapter 6- Seimei's First Move

Ritsu stared at the butterfly, always reminded of Soubi. The beautiful wings that were forced still in death. That beautiful hair splayed on the ground and stained with blood. His sacrifice…

“Seimei,” Ritsu breathed the name with distain. He was to blame for that, for the pain that Soubi associated with pleasure and for so many other things. But Ritsuka was different, he was purer and full of naiveté that would have most definitely gotten him killed if not for Soubi. But then, if it wasn’t for Soubi being a blank fighter, Rituska wouldn’t be involved at all. The Loveless fighter was still out of the picture, if he or she was even still alive.

He sat up, his heels clicking on the floor of the office. There were things to be done, and it seemed Seimei had taken Beatless to his cause. The others must be protected, if only so Ritsu could still call them his.

Though no one but Soubi was truly his, he thought maybe that was untrue now, now that the innocent heart of a child had twinned with his. Ritsu closed his eyes as Nagisa walked in and dumped a manila folder on the desk, almost crushing the butterfly.

“Seimei has Ritsuka.”

The silence resounded through the office then as Ritsu blinked, and Nagisa put her hands on her hips. She was wearing a rather more frilly than usual dress today and her hair was done up with ribbons.

“Well? What are you going to do about it?!”

--

“Yamoto, wake up.”

“Ehh~ Kouya? What is it?” Yamoto sat up, rubbed her eyes and then fell over onto her side with a hiss of pain. “Beatless!” she ground out between her teeth.

Kouya nodded.

“It seems they laid a trap. We didn’t get away unscathed. Are you alright?”

“I’m alive…we should warn Agatsuma.”

“I sent a message to Zero. But Agatsuma was no longer with them.”

“Pass me the phone Kouya,” Yamoto said softly. Phone in hand she lay back on the grass and let Kouya stroke fingers through her hair.

“Soubi?”

--

Kio jumped when Zero’s phone rang with the tone he knew was Soubi. He rushed over to them in time to hear Soubi’s words.

“Seimei is in play. He has Ritsuka. Come to me now,” and hung up.

“You’re injured,” Kio said as Zero began to move. “This is stupid! Wait!”

“Soubi cannot face Seimei without us. We have to rescue Ritsuka because he still cannot.”

“I thought he broke free of Seimei?” Kio said, side-tracked for a moment but Zero shook their heads in unison.

“Not yet, maybe he could but not yet.”

Youji stopped. “If you’re so worried, come with us.”

Natsuo stopped at the door, leaning heavily on it with bandaged limbs. Youji was similarly bandaged but less so, and Kio himself was just bumped and bruised for the most part. He couldn’t let the children go alone.

“Ritsuka would do the same for us,” Youji breathed and Kio nodded.

“Let’s go find Sou-chan.”

Kio looked up towards the door as he felt a presence and sighed. “No one you could want is here,” he said slowly but loud enough that Zero stilled while looking at him. They turned and beheld a pair that they had seen before.

“Moonless,” Youji breathed and shook his head.

“Ritsu sent us, though I think it was more to get Nagisa to shut up. So Seimei has Ritsuka?”

--

Soubi hung up the phone for the second time. It had rung almost as soon as he had hung up on Zero. The first Zero had called to warn him that Beatless had a trap, it had disabled them easily though they didn’t know what it was.

Soubi grit his teeth, he could feel Moonless’ aura nearby and knew they might have gone to the house looking for him and Ritsuka.

“Ritsuka,” he breathed, almost with longing in his voice but not quite. “I’ll find you. I’ll find you, I swear it.”

“You mean we will find him,” Youji’s voice came from behind him and he turned. “We brought Moonless, Nagisa sent them apparently.”

Soubi nodded. “I have no idea where to begin. Did Ritsu give you anything?”

Youji sniffed then before his eyes widened. “You’re injured.”

Soubi nodded. “Seimei was here,” he said but didn’t elaborate. There was a small stretch of silence before Moonless stepped forwards as one.

“We can follow his trail. Though doubtless he wanted it that way or he would never have left it.”

“Go then,” Soubi said and tried to move a step forward. His body swayed for a moment and Kio reached out to steady him but the hand was slapped away. Soubi’s face was set in determination. “Move,” he whispered, so low it would have been hard for anyone to hear.

Youji and Natsuo crept up behind him and pushed. He went skipping forwards, keeping his balance but barely. Then he turned.

“You didn’t break his word, we made you,” Natsuo said and then Kio understood. Seimei had told him to be still or some other such stupid order.

“Let me take a look at that at least, before we go. I don’t think he will hurt Ritsuka. Not if he has gone to the trouble to take him.”

“You misunderstand,” Soubi said with a hiss as Kio quickly cleaned the wound before covering it with antiseptic. “He might kill him. He knows Ritsuka couldn’t choose him last time. This time will be different. He might not try to win him over.”

Silence, heavy and disheartening fell over the group then but Moonless laughed, breaking the tension.

“If you find him broken you can fix him Soubi. If you stay here and he dies there is no cure for that.”

Soubi growled but Kio placed a hand on his arm.

“He is right, so. Where do we look? You're in charge here Sou-chan.”

--

“Seven Moons are moving Seimei. Just as predicted.”

Seimei made a noise of assent as he watched Ritsuka’s thin chest rise and fall. He mapped the new wounds, bruises, marks of pain that had come from his mother. He knew those now, subtly different from the wounds he received in spell battles with Soubi.

When Soubi failed his mission. When Soubi failed to keep Ritsuka safe. But Ritsuka failed too. He had chosen the wrong side, he couldn’t love Seimei the way that Seimei loved him. He swept his hand through the hair that lay on the pillow and shook his head.

“You could have been so much more than a pawn Ritsuka.”

Nisei moved slightly forwards at that, perhaps jealous, perhaps not but Seimei didn’t care.

“Perhaps you deserve another chance to choose?” Seimei mused, aware that Nisei was wringing his fingers. He didn’t like that Ritsuka was the only one allowed to so much as touch Seimei.

He stilled then as Ritsuka’s hand closed upon his own, and those moon-like eyes shone at him.

--

Ritsuka had become good at feigning sleep. The Zero pair had made it a necessity. They never discussed anything important to Soubi until Ritsuka was asleep. So he had purposely ‘slept’ in Soubi’s lap, on the sofa, and even a few times at the kitchen counter. Now it even fooled Seimei.

He clasped his brother’s hand when those words were spoken. That he might have another chance. But he would not betray Soubi so he pushed himself up as he looked at his brother.

“Seimei, it really is you,” he breathed and found himself pulled into a hug.

“Ritsuka, yes it’s me. And we are together this time.”

Ritsuka nodded and then looked around. Playing dumb would work the best. “Where is everyone else?” he asked upon just seeing Nisei. “I missed you, Seimei. Why did you go away? You left before I could make you understand.”

“Do you love me Ritsuka?” he asked, his voice quiet. Ritsuka didn’t hesitate. He nodded emphatically.

“Of course, you are my brother.”

“And Soubi? Do you love him?” there was thinly veiled anger then but Ritsuka put a thoughtful expression on his face.

“I like him,” he said slowly as Seimei’s hands tightened on his back. “He protects me from lots of things. I would like to have that…always.”

The answer seemed to satisfy Seimei however as he put Ritsuka down with a kiss to his forehead. “Go back to sleep, I have some work to do.”

Ritsuka nodded, noting he wasn’t chained by anything as Seimei swept out of the room.

--

“Fujiwara-kun?” Kio whispered as he and the male of Moonless crouched outside a run-down house on the edge of town. It was surrounded by forest but Soubi had told them that this was where Ritsuka was. And Mikado had confirmed it somehow.

“Hush, Mikado and Zero are nearly there, look,” he said and pointed. Kio squinted through the leaves and saw three shadowed figures making their way towards the house’s side window. Soubi was nowhere to be seen but that was alright, they had their plan. “I hate leaving her with them.”

Kio nodded, he didn’t much like leaving Soubi to create a distraction either, but it was true that he was the only one that Seimei would really pay attention to. Even if just to hurt him. Kio bit his lip. “I know, but this has to work. Ritsuka needs us.”

Fujiwara stood then and started to make his way around the bush where they had been hiding. “Now, it’s our turn for distraction number two.”

Kio raised himself to his feet. His entire body felt heavy and he remembered Soubi telling him he didn’t have to come because he wasn’t a fighter. He had insisted he would be fine so here he was. He couldn’t back out now.

“Right,” he muttered and pulled the firework he had bought from the waistband of his jeans. “Let’s go.”

They made a line for the other side of the house. Kio lighting the firework as he walked. He waited for the signal as he drew back his hand.

“SEIMEI!!”

Kio started at the shout, even though he knew it had been coming and looked to Fujiwara who gave one nod. He threw the firework, listening to the tinkle of glass as it went through the window.

“How powerful is it?” Moonless asked, the voices overlapping as Mikado came from the darkness.

“Powerful enough. Why aren’t you with Zero?”

“They have gone after Ritsuka. Nisei is moving him as Seimei takes care of Soubi. They said to rescue Soubi and they will follow and return with information.”

Kio nodded and without another word went sprinting for the front of the house. The firework exploded then, the back of the house licking with flames and he thought in passing that it was a good job Ritsuka wasn’t in that room, otherwise they would have been rescuing a corpse.

--

Ritsuka shouted, bit and scratched as Nisei lifted him bodily and started to take him away. He heard Soubi’s shout but Seimei had gone that way and Nisei had been given the order to take Ritsuka to safety.

“Soubi!” he yelled as Nisei put a length of cloth in his mouth and tied it behind his head. He gagged as he tried to breathe and Nisei took the opportunity to lift him over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Hush,” he hissed and started to walk through the woods. Ritsuka struggled, hurting himself more than Nisei but he saw no other choice. Just because they found him once didn’t mean they would find him again.

Then he was on the ground and Nisei was swearing. Ritsuka sat up, his hands bound behind him though he didn’t know how that had happened. Zero were fighting Nisei but they weren’t fully healed and Ritsuka knew that Nisei fought dirty.

He struggled to his feet and slammed his shoulder into Nisei’s back as Zero tackled him down again. An elbow hit Ritsuka in the face and he fell to the leaves, nose bleeding and eyes out of focus. He heard a yelp, a shout and then knew he had been picked up. It was beyond him now to struggle but he moved weakly when he realised they were running away. When he realised Zero must be hurt.

--

Soubi stared at Seimei, blinking a little at how he had seemed to have changed. There was always darkness in him but this was something new. As if they darkness enfolded his entire being.

“Ritsuka chose to stay with me this time Soubi. So it is up to you where you decide to stand. There will be no order. Just a choice.”

Soubi shook his head, his hair waving about in long arcs. He couldn’t believe what Seimei said. He had told Ritsuka the same thing before. Don’t listen to him, don’t let him poison you against Ritsuka.

“No, Ritsuka would never choose you!”

“Silence!” Seimei snapped and it seemed the breath was stolen from Soubi’s throat. There was nothing he could do against it but he clenched his hands until his fingers drew blood.

“Ritsuka loves me as he can never love you. Not with your lies. He hates and mistrusts you because of them. He knows I will always tell him the truth.”

Soubi glared at him, hoping that would be enough to hold his attention while the others rescued Ritsuka.

Seimei laughed. “Ah, so defiant. But there is nothing for you here Soubi. Ritsuka is gone, long ago now. I sent him away with-”

Kio ran round the corner of the house, followed closely by Moonless.

“Sou-chan! They are taking Ritsuka out through the woods. Zero followed but we have to hurry.”

Soubi gave one quick glare of hatred at Seimei and began to run before he could be ordered otherwise. He needed to see Ritsuka. And he needed to see him now.

Seimei stood for a moment as Soubi met his friends, and a chuckle escaped his lips. Yes, this was all going according to plan.
- 5
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Ears are Innocence