Growing
(Loveless)
Summary: The Zeroes weren't always as they are now. How did they become the things they became? A collection of peeks into their private moments. (Youji x Natsuo)
Rating: M, for lots of gore, swearing, and dark themes.
Pairing: Youji x Natsuo, possible offhand mentions of Yamato x Kouya or Ritsuka x Soubi
About these stories: You can choose to read each section of Growing as a one-shot or as a part of a larger story. Although not directly sequential, each piece is linked to the next,and there's themes that run through all of them.
Meeting
Youji sat impatiently, fidgeting, waiting impatiently in the stuffy room. Nagisa-sensei had told him today was the day he'd been preparing for. Today he was to meet his other half… someone just like him who felt no pain, who had none of this strange sensation that other children talked of. Today he was going to meet his Fighter.
The door opened and a boy stepped through, a boy his age with determined green eyes and maroon curls spilling around his fluffy cat ears.
"Is that him?" Youji challenged. "He's slow. He doesn't look like anything special."
"I bet I could beat you anytime," hissed the boy. "So they say you're like me. Is that true?"
"Of course it is," Youji boasted, his mint-colored tail twitching behind him. "My name is Youji."
"I'm Natsuo." The darker-haired child held out his hand to shake with his Sacrifice, and Youji accepted the challenge. As his hand clasped Natsuo's the fighter squeezed, tighter and tighter, testing if his sacrifice felt it. If this was the case, the boy said nothing, glaring defiantly out of a curtain of sea-foam colored hair as Natsuo tightened his grip to the point of cracking Youji's knuckles.
There was a long moment where the two appraised each other and then Natsuo yelled out and pinned Youji to the ground, biting and scratching him. Youji refused to take the abuse, flipping his fighter over and returning the punishment. A tussle erupted, and the adults in the room made no move to stop it, instead taking notes at the reaction the boys' meeting had caused. Finally, panting, bleeding and rumpled, the Zero children pulled apart, dusted themselves off, met eyes, and grinned.
"I like him."
Author's note: In this story, I'm imagining the Zero boys to be about five or six. I think they'd have been introduced to each other at a young age to increase the strength of their harmony during battle. Anyways, being only young, they wouldn't quite comprehend that they are ALWAYS going to be zeroes, and will never feel pain, so they'd be testing to make sure their partner didn't suddenly start hurting.