Notice Me
-moving pictures-
"Seimei, what are you doing?" Nisei asked as he came to stand behind his master's computer chair, "Are those home movies?"
"Just felt a little nostalgic." Seimei smiled.
"Is that your little brother, Loveless?" Nisei pointed to a boy standing by a drinking fountain some park.
"No, that would be me." Seimei corrected, "That little one there is Ritsuka." The camera moved, following the younger Seimei, to a sandbox where a smaller child was making handprints in a large mound. Seimei picked up a small nearby stick and began to doodle in the sand, making his little brother squeal and giggle in delight.
"How old are you in this?"
"Eight, and Ritsuka was three." Seimei chuckled, "Isn't he cute?"
"He is." Nisei nodded. He watched as his master paused the home movie and got up to go use the bathroom. While he was gone, Nisei continued to stare at the paused image of Seimei and Ritsuka; both smiling and laughing as they played in the sandbox. Sighing, the sentouki traced a fingertip along the young Seimei's face, from his chin to the tip of his cat ears, on the screen, "And you still are incredibly cute, Seimei."
-failure-
So Seimei's plans crumbled beneath him. Soubi had actually fallen in love with Ritsuka, his little brother had overcome his fate, and now he was in hiding from Septimal Moon once more. He'd lost everything; his past, his property, and even the love of his beloved little brother. But there was something he still had; his dignity, his pride, and his ears.
"Who am I kidding? I have nothing." Seimei sighed as he crossed his arms on the kitchen table and laid his throbbing head down. He stayed that way for a while, not moving a muscle even when he heard footsteps coming up behind him.
"Seimei, are you okay?" Nisei asked. The cat eared young man didn't make any sound of voice or gesture to answer him or even acknowledge his presence. Seimei expected his 'true' sentouki to give up on him and just walk away to leave him alone, but to his surprise he heard the chair across from him at the table being pulled out.
Looking up, Seimei locked eyes with Nisei, and to his slight horror found the earless young man smiling at him from ear to ear with his jet black hair tied up in pigtails with red ribbons. Seimei managed to keep his face mainly neutral even as he felt his headache throbbing a bit harder, but he couldn't stop his slight wincing at the sentouki's stupidity.
"Don't worry, Seimei, everything's going to be just fine." Nisei assured his master, "You still have me so smile and laugh it up once in a while."
"…I have you, huh? God, what crawled into your hair and died like that?"
"Okay, jerk, I was trying to be funny and cheer you up but if that's the way you're gonna be…" Nisei let down his hair and got up to leave, but momentarily paused in the doorway of the kitchen and looked back at his master sadly, "I guess there just isn't anything right I can do for you. I'm sorry I failed you, master."
Seimei turned in his seat just in time to see Nisei's back walk out of the kitchen and sighed as he turned back around again to stare at the ribbons the young man had left behind. Picking them up, he tangled his fingers in their silky touch, still feeling Nisei's warmth lingering on them.
'You're wrong, Nisei, you're not a failure to me.' Seimei thought as he raised his ribbon endowed hand to his lips and softly kissed one of the silky strands, "And I'll never be a complete failure just as long as I still have you.'
-indirect kiss-
"Nisei, do you want this?" Seimei asked as he held out his half full frappachino cup.
"You don't want it? Are you sure you want me to have it?" Nisei asked, his cheeks flaring up a soft shade of pink.
"Yeah, take it." Seimei pushed the cup into his sentouki's hands, "Don't let it go to waste."
"But…are you sure you want meto drink it?"
"What the hell is your problem? I told you, you can have it." Seimei blinked as his eyebrows furrowed in irritation, "Why are you blushing?"
"Well…it's just…if I drink from your cup it'll be like…an indirect kiss."
"A what?" Seimei frowned, "You idiot, it's just a cup of coffee! I just don't want to waste it and the money I spent on it at that expensive bookstore. If you don't want it then throw it away and be done with it."
"Okay." Nisei murmured as he scrunched up his shoulders in abashed humiliation and lightly began to sip at the drink.
"An indirect kiss…that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Seimei huffed as he continued to walk down the sidewalk with Nisei following in toe behind him, "Honestly, if I wanted to kiss someone I'd just do it, not some indirect crap. Don't choke on it, you idiot!"Seimei shrieked as he whipped around on Nisei again, who was sputtering and hacking coffee all over the sidewalk.
-napkin-
My love, my hatred, my beautiful…
B-E-L-O-V-E-D
My dream, my destiny, my purely…
B-E-L-O-V-E-D
A word, a name, a common entity…
You are my…and I am your…
We are our…
B-E-L-O-V-E-D
Seimei's fuzzy, midnight blue cat ears twitched atop his head after he read the 'poem' scribbled on the napkin beside his plate of sunny-side-up eggs and toast. Glancing over his shoulder at his sentouki, who was standing over the stove scrambling eggs for his own breakfast, Seimei silently uncapped a nearby black ink pen and scribbled something down at a corner of the same napkin before quickly finishing his meal and getting up to return to his work in his bedroom just as Nisei was about to sit down.
Nisei sat down, not surprised that his sacrifice wasn't going to eat with him, but he was surprised to see black in contrast with the red ink he'd used on the napkin earlier. Pulling it towards himself, only after he was sure Seimei had gone, he read the sleek handwriting.
Your penmanship could use some work…
And you're a lousy poet.
The black haired 'adult' ate his breakfast in silence then cleared the table to do the dishes. As he walked through the main hall, going past Seimei's room, he paused to peek his head inside the doorway and scowled at the young man sitting at the computer desk.
"I was trying to do something cute, you bastard!"
Seimei showed no reaction to his sentouki's outburst and listened as Nisei stormed off and exited the front door. After a brief silence he slowly got up and went back into the kitchen to find the napkin still resting on the table and folded it over before slipping it into his back pants pocket with an amused little smile on his face.
