Wake the Nightmare
Series: Loveless
Rating: T
Setting: After 'A Losing Bet'
"It burns...God, where is he?"
Ritsuka clutched his chest as another racking bout of pain swept through him. Stumbling in the dark he followed the pain like a thin red cord attached to his heart, every wrong turn caused him to suck in the ice cold air, each breath feeling like needles piercing his lungs. Yet each right turn brought that slight tug, the feel of warmth growing around the pulsing skin, flesh translucent under the cotton smoothness of his shirt.
"Soubi..." his chest felt as if he'd burned himself with scalding water. The lines of his fighter's name crawled across his skin, the scar, where only a few days ago had been smooth, clean flesh, moved like a living thing, or maybe it was all in his mind and he just wasn't use to the sensation yet, he wasn't sure, but it ached.
The throbbing resounded in his head as he ran through the park, trying to locate the strongest feeling, the stabbing pain that proved he was close. The soft vanilla scent on the breeze brought him up sharp, head whipping back the way he came and with a word the air shifted, melted and faded until the sky and ground were upside down, inside out, black and white and the stars replaced the sun and clouds and the smell of blood stained the air.
"Soubi!" he ran to the fallen fighter, sliding to his knees and cradling the man's fair head in his arms, cushioned on his knees, now damp with the crushed corpses of Autumn's grass and leaves.
"Heh. So you're Loveless, from all I'd heard I'd figured you be a bit harder to kill, guess they were wrong."
Ritsuka's eyes took on a hard glint, metal flashing in the night and blinding in their intensity, he slowly removed Soubi's head from his legs, draping his fur lined coat over the man he stood up languidly. Raising his arm from his side he spoke, and the world shattered.
The fighting unit in front of him screamed, their voices ripped away by the swirl of leaves and debris, the lightening that flashed out dissolving them into glittering specks of light that fluttered away in the wind.
Ritsuka ran said hand through his hair, unconsciously angling around the ears that were no longer affixed to his 12 year old head. He laughed a short bark of humorless noise into the dissolving darkness and turned back to Soubi.
He reached the man in the space of a breath, going to his knee he put fingers to cold flesh and checked for a pulse, sighing softly as he felt the gentle thrum against his finger tips.
"Soubi...Sou..bi...SOUBI!!!" he shook the blonde's shoulder roughly. He could see no immediate injuries, but that didn't mean there wasn't a spell of some sort binding him in this sleep.
He slid his fingers up under Soubi's shirt, the multicolored iridescent fabric shimmering as he pushed it up far enough to see his name carved above his heart. Leaning in he pressed a kiss to the glowing lines, gently running his tongue over their raised surfaces, smiling softly as the bright blue light faded to the even tone of normal skin, the scars receding back into the surrounding flesh.
"Soubi...come on, wake up, I can't carry you, you know."
A soft grunt and twitch of eye lids showed him his fighter was starting to come to. Ritsuka ran his hand through his hair again and sat back, hugging himself to keep warm as the sun set around them, the cold Autumn night settling in. As the lamps flickered into existence, the light glowing orange on the peripherals of his vision he smiled as Soubi slowly rose to his elbows, Ritsuka's jacket falling into a puddle of cloth and fur on his waist.
"So, you ok?" he pursed his lips at the frown fluttering across Soubi's face. Pulling his jacket on he reached down and helped the older man to his feet, standing on tiptoe to reach a wayward leaf that had tangled in his white-gold locks.
"Ritsuka?" Soubi lifted his hand to clasp the boy's. "What happened? They were..." He glanced around confused.
"They're gone." Ritsuka twined his fingers in Soubi's and started walking towards the exit, pulling the man along after him.
"Gone, but I...why did they leave?" His free hand was pressed against his temple, struggling to add up events he was unconscious for.
"I got rid of them. This is so much easier, I don't know why we waited this long."
His voice is weird. Something, something happened after the spell was initiated. What was it?
Soubi stopped hard, the sudden jerking pulling Ritsuka back hard against him.
"What now? Are you hurt?" Ritsuka's voice was hard, edged, it wasn't right, he didn't sound like himself, he sounded like...like...him.
"Seimei..." he breathed, confusion and fear and understanding flashing across his face as he pulled his hand roughly out of Ritsuka's.
"What? Was he there or something? He wasn't when I got to you, but before? Soubi, tell me. That's an order!" his hands clutched at Soubi's collar, he was struggling to keep the anger controlled, to force Soubi to answer him.
Soubi shook his head in denial, stumbling as he tried to pull out of the eerily strong grip.
"No, you, you are not Ritsuka! Ritsuka can't use spells, he wouldn't have been able to defeat opponents by himself, and he would never order me like this!"
He jerked free as the air shredded around him, the Ritsuka in front of him smiling as manic laughter filed his ears, until all that was left was whiteness and the sound of that creepy laughter reverberating in his mind.
***
Nisei laughed at the crumpled figure at his feet, less-than-lightly prodding the prone form with his boot.
"What now?" he craned his neck to toss the question over his shoulder at the shadow sitting in the darkness of the park.
"Now? Now, I go say hello to my little brother. You keep him company until I return, don't kill him though, I've got something special planned for him." He tossed a set of manacles at his fighter and hopped down, coat billowing in the wind as he left the quiet woods.
***
Ritsuka was starting to get worried. An hour ago he had fallen, doubled over by a sharp stab of pain in his chest. He'd rung Soubi immediately, but only got the voicemail. After pacing around their room for an hour he had just grabbed his coat and pulled open the door when a sharp blast of cold hit him straight on.
Reflexively he put up his arm to block the gust, crying out when said arm was roughly wrenched forward into the night.
"Ahh! What the..." squinting into the wind he felt his breath catch, "Seimei?"
Seimei drew a finger down Ritsuka's cheek, brushing his hair out of his eyes and smiled sweetly at his little brother.
"Ritsuka, it seems you've grown a bit since I saw you last." Letting go of his arm, Seimei leaned in close, pinning his against the door of the studio and lightly running a finger through his now earless hair.
"Hmmm....I'm not sure mother would approve of this, you know? I don't think I quiet approve either; guess I'll have to punish both of you." His eyes took on an odd glint like melted metal pouring into a deep dark pool of water.
"Brother...no, Seimei, why are you here, where's Soubi?" he tried to stand firm, tried to pull on that invisible cord that ran between them, between brothers and lovers, he had to focus himself, had to calm down and think rationally.
"No, I can find him myself, why are you here? What do you want?" he decided, he would let his mind deal with Seimei; he trusted his heart to find Soubi, to call him back to his side.
"I came to see the happy couple. Can't I be happy for my little brother? Well, probably not, I mean, he is beneath you, beneath us, I can find you someone much better, less damaged perhaps?"
Ritsuka seethed beneath his calm exterior, for the first time he really wanted to hurt Seimei, but words here could do nothing to him, he had to find Soubi quickly, knowing his brother he'd sicked that freak Nisei on him.
He closed his eyes, breathing deeply as he struggled to forget his brother, forget the cold, focus only on the light burning in his chest.
Breathe.
Breathe.
*Soubi*
"Heh! I don't think so little brother!" Seimei's anger twisted his face into a mask of ugliness and suddenly Ritsuka understood, his brother died that day a year ago, this man, well, he wasn't who he remembered and he definitely wasn't someone he wanted to be around.
He screwed his eyes closed, fighting to get his breathing back under control as Seimei shook him back and forth in his mounting rage.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe.
*Soubi*
*Soubi*
*Ritsuka?*
*No, Ritsuka's not here, a lie, it's all a lie*
*Soubi*
*Shh...Soubi...*
In his mind he pictured the two of them in their room, Soubi sitting on the floor beneath him with his head on his lap, a pale imitation of their first night together. He ran invisible fingers over a translucent head, pale hair and pale skin, black buckles laying forgotten on the floor beside them, fingers woven into silken threads and dancing over stained bandages.
*Soubi, where are you?*
*Dark, it's so dark*
*Shh...it's not dark, it's light, see? Remember, we had every light burning that night, even during, when I begged you to turn the lights out, remember?*
*Lights?*
*Yes, lights. Come on now, I need you to come home. Can you do that? Can you come back to me? I really need you here.*
*Soubi?*
*Yes...yes...*
There was a shattering in his mind, a blinding flash of light and suddenly he was kneeling against the railing of the stairs, his chest throbbing with a pulsing light that grew brighter with each breath he took.
He tried to push himself up, falling as his wrist buckled and for the first time he realized there was blood pooling around him, the bone ivory white as it protruded out of the torn flesh of his wrist.
He stared at it in morbid fascination, before he heard the scream in his head and everything went monochrome and shiny and then suddenly dark.
***
He woke several hours later. Stiff and groggy, his head felt fuzzy and his vision danced in and out as he struggled to pull himself into a sitting position.
A cool hand pressed against his forehead, pushing him back down into the downy confines of the sheets and he let a soft smile slip across his lips.
"You came home."
"You called; I came."
"Simple as that, huh?"
"Well, I think we might need to change the locks again, but yeah, simple as that."
Ritsuka curled up on his side, wrapping his thin arms around Soubi's waist. His broken arm seemed to be set and bandaged, he'd have to remember to go to the hospital tomorrow and get a cast, but for now...
He sat bolt upright, "Seimei! Soubi, what happened to Seimei?"
"He's gone. That freak of his thought it'd be funny to mess with me."
"Nisei..."
"Yeah, well, after our little talk I think Seimei has more to worry about trying to put that psycho back together than screw with us for a while."
There was a manic sparkle in Soubi's eyes that warned him off asking for any specifics; maybe his brother was right, after finally becoming a proper unit he had changed. The scary possessive way Soubi got around the other fighter didn't bother him as much as it would have a few days ago; it actually made him feel a bit proud. Wrapping his arms around Soubi's chest he squeezed tightly, shifting until he was sitting across his legs.
He looked the older man in the eyes, searching for something, some secret that he was hiding.
"Soubi?"
"Hmmm?"
Soubi leaned in and nuzzled the boy's neck, blowing lightly across his ear.
"You came home."
"Yeah."
"Okaeri."
Soubi glanced up and smiled, "Tadaima."
He pulled Ritsuka in closer, enveloping him in his warmth, dusting soft kisses across his eyes and lips, pulling the covers over both of them and shutting out the world.
Every light left burning through the night.
Fin.