Aoyagi Ritsuka awoke to the sound of screaming and a door pounding.
"IT'S ELEVEN-O-CLOCK!" the voice shrieked. "MY RITSUKA ALWAYS GOT UP EARLY ON HIS BIRTHDAY!"
The boy sighed, his black hair falling in his face as he got out of bed.
It had been another sleepless night for him, for he hadn't heard a word from Agatsuma Soubi in days. He pulled his phone off his dresser, in the desperate hope that maybe Soubi had called, and he had slept through it.. But as he knew.. There was nothing.
He unlocked his door and gripping hands pulled him out.
They locked around him, shaking him, and the screams echoed in his ears.
"WHERE IS RITSUKA?" The woman threw him against the wall and slapped him across the face. "WHERE IS HE?"
"Mother, please," Ritsuka begged. "I am Ritsuka."
"YOU'RE NOT RITSUKA. BRING HIM BACK!" The back of his head slammed into the wall as he stared into the cold, lost eyes of his mother. She was driven to insanity. It's my fault, he thought. I did this to her. If only I could disappear and bring the real Ritsuka back. All I want for my birthday…
"I BAKED HIM A CAKE! CHOCOLATE, HIS FAVORITE!" Ritsuka didn't even like chocolate. Warm vanilla was his favorite, but the real Ritsuka always preferred chocolate, so he had to pretend to like it. Once, he forgot and chose vanilla over chocolate in front of her. He learned from that mistake from the scar across his cheek.
She saw the grimace he made and threw him on the ground. "OUT! GET OUT OF HERE! THIS CAKE IS FOR MY RITSUKA. GET OUT OF HERE!"
The boy pulled himself off the ground and walked out the door quickly. As he closed it behind himself, he heard the woman fall to the ground in sobs. Blood dripped out of one of his scraped hands. I deserve this, he thought. I deserve this for making her suffer.
Ritsuka walked, hands in his sweater, shivering on the cold December day. I wish I had grabbed my coat, he thought. It felt as though his tears were freezing on his face.
As he walked farther into the city, he started to think. Fifteen. It only occurred to him now. Five years since the old Ritsuka, and the years only made Aoyagi Misaki worse, and a little more than two years since..
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he excitedly pulled it out. "Soubi!" he exclaimed, pressing the button to read the text. His face fell as he saw the sender was Hawatari Yuiko.
'HAPPY BIRTHDAY RITSUKA-KUUUUN! YOU SHOULD COME GET DINNER WITH ME AND YAYOI!!'
He sighed. For a while now, he had felt distant from everybody, as if he was losing his faith. He had put up a mental barrier.. And the only one who could bring it down..
He kicked the snow. Stupid Soubi! Every time it felt as though their bond was deepening, Soubi would come back and confuse him. Two and a half years, and still.. I love you, and you still don't belong to me. Nothing is my own, not even myself. My friends, will they still like me if I were to change? What is it to like or love someone anyways? I only feel safe with you, but at the same time you break me so easily.
Ritsuka shivered, and all at once fell into a heap on the ground, his tears falling into the snow. All of him was beginning to feel numb, frozen, like his mind, and he couldn't move from the spot. He only huddled in a ball, to savor the warmth he had…
He awoke, not sure how much time had passed, but he felt sick, lost, and frozen.
"Loveless, we meet again," came an amused voice. It was them. He forced himself onto his feet and ran into what seemed to be the depths of nowhere.
"Cold snow, grasp him by the feet!" The snow seemed to tangle around him like roots and drag him down.
"Agh!" He stared into the dark, cold eyes that could kill surrounded by a tangled mass of black hair.
"Nice one, Kaz!" The female with the dark red, perfectly straight hair giggled.
The tall fighter with the dark hair and ivy-green eyes took a step towards Ritsuka.
"No!" Ritsuka gasped. "You can't do this. Where's Soubi?!"
The man let out a low laugh. "Loveless, your weakness is your name. Bound to have a heart with no love. You might as well be Heartless. Right, Haruka?" The female looked bored with the man's jokes.
"Kazuo, get this over with already. I want to see him suffer."
"Let the cold choke you until you are nothing," Kazuo recited. The root-like snow wrapped around Ritsuka's neck and he let out a small gasp for air.
Did Soubi share the same fate? Did he die in the hands of Heartless? Ritsuka fought for every breathe he took, until his air tube was firmly closed by the cold.
With one desperate look to the sky, he squeaked, "Seimei.."
"Now, this is fun." Haruka laughed.
"Loveless, let the cold drown you away, because that is all that is left of your loveless heart, you fall as a pathetic fool to the heart, and now you will-"
As Ritsuka was sinking deeper into the snow, a crash threw him out of place.
"Let flames burn your filth, Heartless scum, let a thousand fires burn the hands that have harmed my Sacrifice!"
Haruka let out a petrified scream of agony. Kazuo seemed to not give a care as he opened his mouth, but froze as his own self began to burn.
"Gah, what is this? I am the fighter. I cannot be harmed. Haruka, you weak fool, take my pain!" The girl screamed as blood shot from her fingertips and out her eyes.
He simply ignored her and turned to face Soubi. "Fighter, take the pain for the sacrifice you do not belong to. Deal my unworthy pain unto you, as a thousand icy blades shoot through you!"
"Deni- UGH!" Soubi cried out, falling to the ground besides Ritsuka.
"Let the Loveless disgraces die together, indulged by the darkness!"
Soubi choked on air and Ritsuka could feel his arms around him. He wanted to say something, to tell Soubi he loved him before they died, but he couldn't breathe, couldn't manage a breath for the words. He would die here in Soubi's arms.
"Ritsuka. Ritsuka. Wake up," a magical voice commanded. The shivering, sobbing boy woke to see Soubi's face so close to his, carrying him.
"S-Soubi!" What was happening?
"Ritsuka, I could not bare to see you having a dream that caused you so much suffering," Soubi gently said.
A dream? It felt so real. There he was, dying in Soubi's arms.. I'm in Soubi's arms now, he thought. It really was a dream. All my fears.. He shivered and tried to push back all the tears, but failed. He soon noticed he was wearing Soubi's coat.
"W-Where have you been?" he asked, feeling weak in every way possible.
"Not now," he replied. "Rest, Ritsuka. Let your dreams and heart protect you in a world of sound sleep."
"S-Sou.." but his eyelids grew heavy and he fell into a peaceful slumber.
Agatsuma Soubi carried the now deeply asleep boy in his arms. He kissed him on the forehead. "So much pain is within you," he said. "I wish you would take it out on me. Transfer your pain in a physical form to me."
He had found Ritsuka lying in the snow, unconscious. He had wrapped his coat around him and carried him, snuggling him safe into his warm arms, but something had been wrong.
Ritsuka's eyes were closed tightly, as if fighting something, and he let out jagged gasps of breathe, grasping tightly to Soubi's shirt.
There was so much pain in his state of dreaming, he knew Ritsuka was truly suffering to some degree.
"Forget," he said. "Forget the dream that caused you so much pain." Ritsuka's eyes fluttered after the spell was cast.
Almost home, Soubi thought. Ritsuka was so light in his arms. He's growing older but he's still so young.