Disclaimer: I own nothing. Loveless and anything in it belongs to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of writing this.

Dedication: This fic is dedicated to my boyfriend, who missed his ride home from a convention and went missing for six hours. He's been found, though, and is coming home tomorrow.

000

He'd looked everywhere, literally everywhere he could think of for Soubi. There was no way the blonde could have just disappeared off the face of the Earth with two dark haired teenagers leading the way. Surely someone had to have seen them leave, right? It wasn't like Soubi cast a spell and they vanished into thin air. He had walked away with Seimei, and presumably Nisei, and off into the cemetery and the woods that lay beyond. He had to be somewhere, right? He couldn't have just left…

But why did he leave? Just because Seimei ordered it? But Ritsuka ordered him to stay where he was. Why couldn't he have listened to Ritsuka instead? Had Ritsuka hurt him somehow? The last thing he asked of Ritsuka was to never leave him. Ritsuka promised he wouldn't leave, and the two had kissed before Seimei had shown up. He hadn't done anything wrong, that he could think of. So why did Soubi just run off like that? The idea was terrifying. What if he was hurt or dead? It had been three weeks, and Soubi hadn't called or messaged Ritsuka once. It was unusual for the fighter to go one day without talking to him, let alone an entire week.

In his mind, Ritsuka tried to go over every fight they had ever had. Well, more like Ritsuka snapping at Soubi because the blonde had angered him in one way or another and Soubi just staying away like he was told to do…for half a day before the artist would crack and come visit. Maybe he was a little mean to Soubi. After all, the blonde wasn't a normal person-both with his traumatic upbringing and the abuse he suffered at Seimei's hand-and he couldn't be treated like one. Ritsuka probably should have been gentler with him then he was. The little Aoyagi was so quick to anger and get frustrated easily, just like his mother, and he didn't mean to do anything to harm the blonde, not on purpose. He didn't mean to make him feel alone and like less of a person. But maybe he had with how often he had yelled at him. And it wasn't like it was over something big like Soubi stealing from him or lying about something big. It was always over little things. Like Soubi not calling or telling Ritsuka that he loved him one too many times, or kissing the neko in public. Or like Soubi buying him stuff or holding his hand as they walked together, or Soubi offering to come to Parents' Day when his own parents wouldn't or picking him up from school when he had an appointment or didn't want to be bothered. He should have just let those things slide. There was no reason for him to get so angry and hostile over it. Maybe he was just too sensitive. Maybe he should have toughened up a little bit and let things slide off his back. Then again, he didn't want Soubi to get into trouble for showing his affection in public, or appear at Parents' Day and cause questions to come from students, teachers, and actual parents. He also got worried when Soubi didn't message or call him, just like he was now. It was just unusual for Soubi to not contact him in one way or another.

It wasn't a surprise that Seimei wouldn't let the fighter contact his brother. He was overprotective and possessive of Ritsuka, as he had learned from various sources, and overly controlling of his fighters (plural since he had his own fighter plus Soubi being give to him by Ritsu-sensei). Letting Soubi talk to Ritsuka would not only give up his control of who he thought was his property, but allow them to get close to one another and one day rebel against him.

Ritsuka had contacted everyone he could think of -Kio and Akira, Nagisa-sensei, Ritsu-sensei, Seven, Gomon and her fighter the Zero boys, Breathless-that may know where Seimei had taken Soubi, but no one knew. Gomon would only offer that they had indeed been at the school, but that she didn't know where they had gone after Seimei was defeated twice; once with Akame at his side, and the second with Soubi. No one would give him information or even a hint, though he knew Kio and Akira wouldn't have known and that the Zeroes had been with him the whole time and thus couldn't know anything either.

So for now, he would have to just sit and wait. He'd have to go on with things as if they were normal and Soubi hadn't run off with Seimei and wasn't missing for so long. It just wasn't fair that Seimei would take away the one person left in the world that loved and cared for Ritsuka more then even Seimei himself and would give up his life to protect Ritsuka from anyone, including his own mother. It didn't make sense. Why would he want Ritsuka alone and vulnerable to other units' power and their mother's abuse? Why would he send Soubi to Ritsuka under orders to find, love, and protect him, only to take him away just as Ritsuka was starting to come to terms with his feelings for the blonde? It just didn't make sense.

Then again, nothing Seimei Aoyagi did made sense. So for now, he'd just have to wait and try to make sense of a senseless situation; one that he knew he couldn't escape from even if he tried. His options were limited. He only had a few more days before he felt he would break down and return to Seven Voices Academy to join Septimal Moon and be a student; just so he could be somewhere safe and protected from harm by other units and his mother. He didn't want to go back to that place, and he really didn't want to be a student in that psychotic school, let alone take his brother's place in Septimal Moon (and possibly go insane afterwards like Seimei had done).

The waiting game would be the hardest thing he'd ever had to do in his life. Taking one last forlorn look at the photos of Soubi on his corkboard, Ritsuka snuggled under his blanket and faced the balcony window; to sit and stare and wait for the day Soubi came back through those doors to say 'I'm home'.