What's In A Name?

by fringeperson

ONESHOT. COMPLETE. DO NOT OWN. A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, and it would still have thorns. Ritsuka is thinking too much again, and this time he's turned his attention to his name, and the names of the other people he has met.

Ritsuka was thinking again. He did that a lot, always had, ever since the day he had stopped being the Ritsuka his mother wanted, and had become this new Ritsuka. Right now, he was thinking about the true names that belonged to some of the fighting pairs he had met.

Breathless.

Sleepless.

The Zeros.

Fearless.

Loveless, his own name. All were lacking something. To be without breath, sleep, fear, love, or the Zeros who were a total of nothing. Yet he was beginning to realise... their names had little to do with who they were.

Breathless clearly breathed. Sleepless must have their sleep. Fearless were very scared, though perhaps not always in battle. The Zeros were the most complicated amalgamation of every available quirk he had ever seen.

It was all in perception.

His mind started to turn over his brother's name. Beloved. Yet he slowly seemed to be driving everyone to hate. To hate him, to hate those who had ever had anything to do with him.

And Ritsuka was called Loveless.

He had at first thought it meant he was unable to love. No, his mind was telling him. That would be Heartless, he was merely Loveless.

Breathless claimed to steal breath away from others. Sleepless likewise had made the claim that they were not the victims of their name. Fearless had proclaimed that they were, despite their actions to the contrary. He wasn't going to try and understand the Zeros. Beloved... Seimei had seemed to think that he was so beloved that he could get away with everything, and he was wrong.

So what did Loveless mean?

Would he leave those around him in the pit of despair that was lovelessness? Keeping it all for himself as he stayed with Soubi? Perhaps. Or did it simply mean that they suffered at the hands of those who should have loved them, and were stronger because of it? Perhaps.

"I love you, Ritsuka," Soubi whispered.

Ritsuka smiled, coming out of his thoughts. "The world is a loveless place, Soubi, and we shall teach them how to fix it," he said, having made up his mind about his own name. Loveless. The world was loveless, and so he was the world. Bandages, in large amounts, were going to be needed, but right now... "And I love you too."