Dlbn: Happy Valentine's/Proud to be Single Day, everyone!
Nbld: This is the second year we're celebrating. O.o
Dlbn: But since pretty much everything on Valentine's Day is concerned with couples and the like, we figured we would write this as a shout out to those who are not in a couple this year. This fic is for all the single ladies and gentlemen out there! *hugs you all* Happy Valentine's Day to you all!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Loveless or any character contained within. They belong to Yun Kouga. Hibiki and Iyani are definitely mine, though. I make NO money off of writing in this fandom.
000
With pink and red hearts decorating the school walls and pink, white, and red streamers draping from the ceilings and on door and window frames, it wasn't hard to tell that Valentine's Day was rapidly approaching at Johansson middle school. The student council was selling little boxes of chocolates and single red, pink, and white roses and carnations for a dollar each for those who wanted them. Thirteen year old Aoyagi Ritsuka quickly walked through the hallways, ignoring the girls of the student council yelling out to him to buy something. He had no reason to get anything for anyone. He didn't have any reason to celebrate Valentine's Day. Ever since Agatsuma Soubi left him alone and crying in a graveyard next to the elder male's parents' grave, Ritsuka didn't feel like celebrating anything, let alone the day dedicated to love. As it was, his true name was Loveless, and the name had appeared on his side in heavy black script the day Soubi left him. So why bother to celebrate a holiday that was meant for everything that he embodied the opposite of?
000
Hawatari Yuiko hummed to herself as she made hand-made Valentine's for her friends and classmates. Valentine's Day this year wasn't going to be a big flop for her and her friends. The three of them-including herself, Aoyagi Ritsuka, and Shioiri Yayoi-were single this year. Maybe it was the perfect time to tell Ritsuka how she really felt. The transfer student seemed real depressed ever since about three months after Soubi stopped coming around. Yuiko had liked Soubi, as he was like an older brother to her, and thought that he and Ritsuka might end up together. She loved Ritsuka, yes, but she knew that was with Soubi and had decided to back off. But now that it appeared that Soubi wasn't coming back-it would be a year in March that he stopped coming around-she was ready to tell her friend how she felt. And nothing was going to get in the way.
000
Shioiri Yayoi sighed as he flipped through a book of recipes. Last year's declaration of his love to Yuiko hadn't gone as well as he would have hoped. He had given her some heart shaped cookies and professed how he felt later on that day when they were spending time in the park after school. She had panicked and said 'Yuiko can't' and then repeated 'can't' five times, so he knew there was no chance she was ready for a relationship. He had tried to tell her numerous times after, but she had made it clear that she only had feelings for Ritsuka-kun. But he had seen her start to change her mind when she thought that Soubi would be around. However, since the twenty-one year old (or was he 23 by now?) had mysteriously vanished and stopped coming around, it looked like she was going to start perusing the other teen again. So he had to act fast and really wow her this year. Cookies were not going to cut it…
000
Aoyagi Seimei never really gave much thought to Valentine's Day. Japan had two, Valentine's Day for the boys, and White Day for the girls. He hadn't wanted to celebrate either, as they both disgusted him almost as much as his classmates and touch from creatures other then Ritsuka did. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't fake a smile and politely thank a girl, or occasional guy, for giving him a box of chocolate or a card on February 14th. On White Day, however, he'd ignore everyone around him and wouldn't get a gift unless it was required by the school to do so. Thankfully, when he joined Septimal Moon, he was often too busy to even go to school on certain days-which he'd had Nagisa-sensei write a note that faked an illness-and often chose White Day and Valentine's Day to take off to Gora for work. No one ever seemed to question it. He may be Beloved, but that didn't mean he wanted to make anyone feel special. Only one person would ever be worth it to him, and that person was way out of his reach.
000
Sagan Nagisa sighed sadly as she studied the photographs in frames on her desk. One was of her Zero boys, and the other was of her and her departed sister. Her older sister had been in an accident a few years after Ritsu's fighter, Iyani, passed in an accident with her husband; Hibiki. Of all the people in her life, her sister was the only person that Nagisa ever looked up to. Their parents were often absent, and side from being wealthy, were not good role models. Her mother liked to buy expensive things that were just outside of the family budget for a thrill, while her father often left for days to partake in women and booze. Even when she was a little girl, Nagisa knew that something was wrong. Maybe that was why she decided to join Ritsu and Septimal Moon. It surely wasn't because he was strong, determined, headstrong, tough, and freaking adorable. No, it surely couldn't be that. The old man was a pain in her backside almost every day, and she wanted nothing more then to wipe his smug look off his face when he thought he bested her, or steal his words away when he began droning on about Agatsuma-kun. There was no way she could ever care about him. With that thought in mind, Nagisa hid a small box of chocolates and a card in one of the bottom drawers of her desk and locked it. It wasn't like Ritsu could read the message inside the card anyway.
000
Thoughts of a twelve year old Soubi-pale and leaning his hands on the white-grey wall in front of him invaded Ritsu's mind as he sat in his hospital bed. What he wouldn't give to go back to those days. So he could start from the beginning and make better choices. He'd keep Soubi from Seimei and have him as a replacement for his mother. Ritsu's name, Careless, would be printed neatly on his lower back to mimic the location where the name was still written on Ritsu's own body. That horrid, ugly scar that read 'Beloved' and was surrounded by barbed wire wouldn't be on his neck, and Seimei wouldn't be his master. Ritsu would. And he'd order Soubi to do all kinds of things. Or simply request certain things, since Soubi would still be in love with him and do anything and everything with him willingly. But alas, he couldn't go back in time. He couldn't make Soubi fall in love with him again and stay in love with him. He couldn't stop Seimei from taking Soubi and carving his name into the pale, creamy neck. He couldn't have his own name tattooed on Soubi's lower back by a former student who was now a tattoo artist. He couldn't stop Seimei from being Soubi's master. In doing so, anyway, he would stop Soubi from being there for Seimei's brother, Ritsuka. That would leave the younger brother alone and leave him susceptible to Seimei's influence and cost Septimal Moon a very powerful ally. So for now, he had to settle for immersing himself in fantasies of a love he'd had and lost, and a Valentine's Day when he was without the one he loved.
000
Nana nibbled away at some pocky as she worked away at redesigning the security system for Seven Voices Academy. What better way to celebrate a holiday then to go about your usual Thursday night business? No matter how many times she told Nagisa that she didn't care about the stupid holiday, she couldn't deny that the security system pattern looked strangely like a heart.
000
Shinonome Hitomi lectured her class about the importance of not taking those you loved for granted. Valentine's Day, she had informed them, was not just for lovers or to make declarations of love. It was a day of joy and love. But there were so many kinds of love, that being single didn't mean anything. You didn't need a lover to be happy. You could be happy loving yourself, or your friends, or pets, or family members. The lesson seemed to sink into her new students before she set them to work on making Valentines for the important people in their lives. She only wished that Yuiko-chan, Yayoi-kun, Ritsuka-kun, and Soubi-kun were still around so that she could teach them that. Then maybe they wouldn't go about their lives searching for a love that they already had in each other. There might not have been any romantic feelings between them-except for the unrequited ones that Yuiko and Yayoi both held onto-but their love was just as good as any other. They just needed someone to provide a different perspective on things. And if she were to ever see any of them again outside of school, she would make that clear. No matter how long Soubi-kun stayed away or how depressed Ritsuka-kun was, no matter how Yayoi-kun felt about Yuiko-chan and Yuiko-chan felt about Ritsuka-kun, they were all connected by their hearts. The love the four of them shared were not of four separate beings with no love lives to speak of, but rather of one large being filled with the greatest and purest form of love. Try as they might to deny it, they weren't alone on Valentine's Day. And neither was Hitomi. For with their hearts connected so deeply, no amount of distance could ever tear them apart from one another.