Authors Note: Hi there! This is obviously a Loveless fanfic, but the pairing is between Ritsuka and an original character. I usually don't do original characters (what am I talking about? This is my first fanfic!) but I really don't think any of the characters really 'go' with him. Well, the male ones anyways.

Anyways! Like I said before, this is my first fanfiction ever, so please Read and Review to tell me what I did right/wrong. With that in mind, enjoy!

The first beams of the hazy sun glared down upon Ritsuka Aoyagi as he walked down the stairs and out of his home. He had a feeling of impending dread as he made his way to his new school, his hair fluttering slightly in the fall wind. It was November, yet the leaves still hung proudly on the trees, almost taunting nature with their bold green colors.

It was 6:00AM, the sun had already filled up the sky and the last glimmers of night were quickly fluttering away. Even now, Ritsuka could feel the sweat form on his forehead, the result of the out-of-season heat wave that had been hitting Tokyo for its second week. He didn't mind however, he preferred the heat and was quite comfortable in his sky-blue long sleeve shirt and black pants. It was the cold that he couldn't stand, the way the icy wind would bring a thousand dull knives to strike any part of his body that he had not managed to cover up. The thought made Ritsuka shiver, and he shook his head, dissolving the thoughts that plagued his mind.

He quickly made his way down the street, his feet pattering softly against the pavement below him. It was only now that he noticed the lack of activity around him. There were no cars rushing onto the roadway while their drivers mindlessly talked on their phones, starting work before they even got to the office. So this was the suburbs.

Within a few minutes he had already made his way to the front gate of the school. Ritsuka checked his watch, which bluntly displayed the time of 6:12. His mind quickly raced to think of ways to kill the 18 minutes. Going into the school wasn't an option. If he ran into his teacher, he would be forced into a long, awkward discussion with the teacher asking questions she really didn't care to know the answer to.

With nothing else to do, he rested himself against a nearby wall and shut his eyes, enjoying the silence that came with early morning. He soon found his mind wandering, thinking about what he always thought about; as if it would somehow provide him with new information.

The silence and his thoughts were broken by the high pitched squeaking of a young girl's voice.

"Yayoi-kun, you really shouldn't walk me to school everyday" the girl said, an obvious annoyance in her voice.

"Ha! And let a pretty young lady walk by herself in this cruel, cruel city? I think not!" Said the boy standing next to her, straining himselfas he flexed his muscles

The pink-haired girl responded dully

"First off, we live in the suburbs, and my house is right down the street. Secondly-"She paused for a moment to bend down "You're shorter than me."

The boy she called Yayoi was about to respond when the pink haired girl looked toward Ritsuka, stopping in her tracks. Her eyes widened and she turned to Yayoi.

"That must be the new transfer student!" she exclaimed squealing excitedly.

Yayoi looked at her, confused.

"Where?"

Ritsuka quickly moved out of their sight The last thing he wantedwas some annoying girl bothering him, he shuttered in pain and covered his ears as he heard the sound of her squealing once again.

"HE WAS JUST HERE, I SAW HIM! I'M NOT CRAZY, HE WAS RIGHT THERE!" She yelled madly, shaking Yayoi by the shirt and pointing.

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The loud clanging of the bell drew groans from the student body as they begrudgingly made their way toward class. Ritsuka did not take the order from the bell however; he was in the teacher's lounge with Hitomi, his apparent new teacher.

-"Okay Ritsuka, are you ready to meet your new classmates?" Hitomi said cheerfully, her cat ears perking up. Ritsuka found it strange that a teacher would still have her ears and tail, though he didn't let his mind dwell on it. Those kinds of things did not interest him.

"Yeah" Ritsuka mumbled, poorly feigning intrest as he stood up and followed Hitomi to his new classroom.

Inside, the classroom was buzzing with activity. A thousand conversations were going on at once, Gossip about celebrities, girls giggling over pictures of their favorite singer, and rumors that were traveling about the school. A typical simian classroom, Ritsuka thought.

"Quiet everyone, please!" Hitomi said as she walked in. Many students still talked away, and she had to repeat herself three times before the room grew steadily quiet and she rested her hands on the table, satisfied.

She walked over to the chalkboard, promptly wrote "Ritsuka Aoyagi" and turned around swiftly.

"Everyone, this is our new student. His name is Ritsuka, please be kind to him." She paused "Ritsuka, would you like to share anything about yourself to-"

"No." He stated, already making his way to his designated seat while avoiding the peering eyes of his classmates

"Um…uh…ok! Well, today we will be studying some new kanji. Everyone please open your textbooks to…"

Ritsuka sat at his desk, setting his bag down and looked at the chalkboard. He had just opened his textbook when he heard a voice to the left of him.

"Hey, what's your cell phone number?" He turned to see the same pink haired girl from earlier staring him down. He gitted his teeth and looked away.

"None of your business." Ritsuka whispered coldly, staring down at his textbook.

"Huh? Hey come on, I'm trying to be nice like Hitomi-Sensei said. My name's Yuiko, I want to be friends." She smiled.

"I don't, leave me alone."

"Hey, why are you being such a jerk?!" She stood up, yelling quite loudly, until she realized what she was doing.

"Yuiko-kun, please sit down" Scolded Hitomi, a little flustered at the interruption.

"Oh! Um…Sorry Hitomi-sensei." Yuiko muttered, blushing.

The next few hours went by without incident, Ritsuka mildly paid attention to Hitomi as her hand would dance around the chalkboard, while most of his mind was on other things. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Yuiko shooting him dirty looks, and making obscene gestures towards him to the utter delight of the girls next to her, though he really didn't care.

"Ok, Satoshi-kun, would you read the next-" Hitomi was suddenly cut off by the loud clanging of the lunch bell, the students rejoicing as if they had just been rescued from a labor camp.

"Oh dear…everyone, please remember where we were! Uh…Ritsuka and Yuiko, I'd like you to see you outside for a moment!"

Ritsuka groaned, and waited for a moment,until Yuiko was a little ahead of him, then stood up and walked outside the classroom. Hitomi wasted no time in getting to the point.

"What was that sudden outburst about?"

"It's his fault! He was being such a jerk to me, all I wanted to do was be his friend and he was all 'I don't wanna'" Yuiko shouted, doing an exaggerated impression of Ritsuka.

Hitomi put her hand up to cease Yuiko.

"Now now, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. This is Ritsuka's first day at his new school, and he shouldn't be making any enemies. I want you two to sit together at lunch today and work out your problems. I'm sure you could even become fast friends, so eat together, just for today, alright?" Hitomi said cheerfully, her tail twitching and her hands clamped together.

"Fine" Ritsuka stated coldly, inwardly rolling his eyes and having the urge to curse her and Yuiko.

Yuiko however, seemed very excited about her new lunchmate.

"Come on, Ritsuka! I know a good spot we can sit at. It has just the right amount of sunlight and…" She shouted, forcing Ritsuka by his hand.

Hitomi laughed and inwardly smiled. If there was one thing she could do right, it was teaching. Even if she never found a husband, she would always have her students. That thought suddenly made her stomach drop.

Yuiko hummed to herself as she took two wayward desks and put them together by the window, where several beams of sun were shining through.- She sat down in the one nearest to her, and motioned for Ritsuka to sit in the other. He sighed and hesitantly sat down.

Yuiko happily pulled out her lunch, and unfolded the cloth from it, her mouth watering at the sudden smell that emitted from the box. She moved her head up to see what Ritsuka had brought, intending to sample it.

"Eh? Where's your lunch Ritsuka-kun?"

"I didn't bring one."

"Aha, looks like Mr. I'm-so-cool slept in today huh?"

"No, I don't eat lunch"

Yuiko opened her mouth to respond, but stopped herself. She was just happy to be eating lunch with such a cutie. She smiled evilly to herself, knowing she would be the envy of all the girls.

Ritsuka, on the other hand, was quite annoyed. He would much rather be sitting by himself. He knew now that he had to keep from making anyone upset, Hitomi-sensei was the kind of teacher who wanted all her students to get along. He looked around the room as Yuiko made small talk. He hadn't had the chance to look at all the students, but they were what he expected. As his eyes drifted across the room, he saw girls swapping magazines, makeup, and CDs, mindlessly giggling about nothing, and boys playing card games, reading mangas, and hitting each other. What else could he expect.

Ritsukas eyes wandered into a corner, where he saw a peculiar sight. There was a strange boy sitting by himself. He was the only person sitting by himself, in fact. His hair was a dark blue color, almost black, it was a bit shorter than Ritsuka's but was not as messy. He had a black shirt, pattered with a continuous square design, with tan shorts that went a little past his knees. His eyes were perhaps the most entrancing trait of him; they were blue, but much lighter than his hair. It seemed to Ritsuka that he could look into them forever. The boy was eating small bites of his lunch, which looked tasty compared to the other students store bought lunches, and had a look of nervous fear on his face, as if someone might suddenly attack him for no reason.

"…And Shion says it was Utada Hikaru but I think she-"

"Yuiko, who is that boy over there?" Ritsuka inquired, interrupting Yuiko's insanely boring story.

"Eh? In the corner? His name's….Mei? I think so anyways. Why do you wanna know?"

"He's eating by himself."

"Yeah, he always does. I dunno what it is with that kid, he's pretty weird"

"How so?"

"Well, whenever Hitomi-sensei calls on him to read, he reads every word perfectly ithout messing up. But if you try to talk to him, he gets all nervous and all quiet and stuff. Oh and-" she sputtered out why stuffing food in her mouth "Asuka says she say him at the park really late one night when she was coming home from vacation."

Ritsuka was about to respond when the bell rang painfully in his ear, causinga slight buzzing in his left ear.

"Ok everyone, desks back into place please! Open your textbooks back up; we need to finish this story." Hitomi chimed as the class hesitantly struggled to get the room back in order, killing as much time as possible.

When the seats where back in their proper place, Ritsuka looked around to see where Mei's seat was. After a minute he found him two rows and a few seats back from him. He didn't know what he found interesting in the boy. Perhaps it was the fact that he didn't act like a typical student, he seemed similar to Ritsuka in that respect.

Throughout the day Ritsuka's thoughts would drift to Mei, he found it quite strange, he didn't know him at all, he hadn't even talked to him. Yet that sense of familiarity seemed to draw Ritsuka.

"He rested his head on the pillow and drifted off to sleep." A student named Yuki hurriedly read and finished with a large sigh of relief from the whole class.

"See class? Wasn't that a wonderful story? Oh, and we finished right before the bell rang!" A few seconds later, as Hitomi predicted, the bell rang and the students rushed the door as if a bomb were about to go off.

"Please don't forget to do the questions on the story! Have a good day!" Hitomi shouted after the kids, most of them not paying attention to her, continuing their conversations from lunch.

Ritsuka lingered outside for a few minutes, not really sure what he wanted to do. He juggled several options in his mind; he could really do whatever he wanted to, his mother never cared; in fact they never talked much at all. She always made sure to eat dinner at a different time than Ritsuka, and she would go out or lock herself in her room the rest of the day.

Ultimately, he decided to go to the park across the street, it seemed quiet, and he had brought his camera with him. He had just started to walk when he felt something grab his arm.

Ritsuka immediately turned around and threw the arm off him. He said nothing, but glared at the silver haired man who had grabbed him.

"Hello, Ritsuka. You took your time coming out."

"You know my name? Who the hell are you?"

"Soubi"

"And what kind of business do you have with me? I don't know any adults."

"I'm a friend of Seimei's"

The statement struck Ritsuka like a bullet. A friend of Seimei's? Was it possible? He studied the man more carefully now. He had his long silver hair in a pony tail, with a few pieces hanging on his forehead. His glasses made him look very intellectual, and he was wearing very elaborate clothing, like somebody on TV or something. Could he really know his murdered brother? His age seemed right, and it was true that he didn't know many of Seimei's friends.

"Of Seimei you said?"

"Yes, your brother. He talked a lot about you, Ritsuka."

Ritsuka felt a sudden warmth toward him. Being around one of Seimei's friends made Ritsuka feel close to him again..

"Um…Soubi, would you like to take some pictures with me?" He muttered, not really thinking. He just wanted to extend this feeling.

"I would love to, Ritsuka"

Ritsuka smiled and led Soubi to the park across the street. It was strange that he felt so close to him, even though he barely knew him. They took several pictures in almost every part of the park and played in the scarce fallen leaves from the trees. He really felt like he was with his brother again.

"Ritsuka, let's go sit over there and look at the pictures we took." Soubi said, pointing to some nearby tables.

Soubi cleared off the nearest table and sat down, Ritsuka following.

"They all turned out really well, this lighting out here is perfect" Ritsuka smiled, flipping through the pictures of his digital camera. He suddenly felt warmth on his hand. He looked up to see that Soubi had taken his hand.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything" Soubi said, smirking at him.

"Um…ok" Ritsuka mumbled, going back to the camera. He began marking his favorite ones so he could print them out when he got home. Suddenly, without warning, he was pulled toward Soubi, who moved his head in to capture a kiss. His lips getting closer and closer until…

Ritsuka suddenly pushed him off and stepped away from the table.

"You…you said you wouldn't do anything."

"I love you, Ritsuka."

The sudden, random statement took Ritsuka aback, and he suddenly became very confused, angry, and most of all betrayed.

"I don't know who you are, but no friend of Seimei would ever do something like THAT!"

Soubi stepped toward him.

"Ritsuka, please understand…"

"Don't come near me!" Ritsuka shouted, running away from the park, away from these bad memories.

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It was that time of evening now, where the sun had gone past the mountains but a few stray sunbeams leapt out to provide a few more moments of light before the night came.

"I can't believe I let that guy trick me. What kind of adult tries to kiss a little kid, and then says he loves him?" Ritsuka thought to himself, his footsteps becoming heavier to vent his anger.

He had just reached the edge of the park when he saw a boy standing on a bridge, looking down toward the small creek. It was Mei, the strange boy he had seen in the classroom. There was something different about him now, his eyes were very red and he had a reasonably sized bruise on his cheek.

Ritsuka walked onto the bridge, curious.

"Um, you're Mei-kun right?"

Mei jumped a little, staring at him frightfully.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm Ritsuka, we're in the same class together."

"Um…yeah! You're the transfer student right? I…I'm sorry I got so scared…I guess it's the night"

"It was my fault" Ritsuka smiled. "Your names Mei, right?" He asked again.

"Y..Yeah, Mei Otsuka."

"Are you ok? You look like you've been crying, and you have a bruise on your face." What was going on? Ritsuka never acted like this on instinct.

Mei blushed, and started stumbling over his words.

"Oh! Um…yeah I tripped on the way over, and it…it hurt a lot so I started crying…I guess I should start growing out of things like that."

"Let me look at it" Ritsuka said, stepping forward. Mei looked at him suspiciously, but eventually let his guard down and lifted his face towards him.

Ritsuka ran his hand gently over the bruise, not really sure what he was even looking for. He did notice one thing however.

"Your skin is so soft." Ritsuka laughed. Mei's face turned slightly red, and he turned away

"Does it look ok?"

"Yeah, it should go away in a few days."

"Thanks"

Ritsuka felt a warmth with Mei, but not the same as he had with Soubi. That was feelings of closeness with someone he hadn't seen in a long time. This was…different.

"Hey Mei, would you like to take some pictures or something? I'm not going home for a while."

Mei seemed a little taken aback by this, once again looking at Ritsuka with a suspicious eye.

"You…you wanna take pictures with me?"

"Yeah, or whatever else. As long as you want to."

"Oh…Ok, that sounds fun" Mei smilied at him and they walked across the bridge, back towards the large park.

They didn't have to walk far, the area around them was a beautiful place to take pictures. The creek was surrounded by so many trees that one could mistake it for a forest, especially in a picture. Mei was a little nervous at first, but as time went on, and they started talking more, he opened up to Ritsuka, and even started smiling and laughing. Before either of them knew it, it was nearing midnight.

"Oh, Ritsuka do you have the time?" Mei inquired while they walked toward the houses.

Ritsuka glanced at the dim light of his cell phone

"10:30…it's pretty late, I should head home."

"Yeah, me too, I haven't even started those questions yet" Mei laughed.

"I'll walk you home then"

Once again, Mei was taken aback by this sudden statement.

"You…don't have to do that Ritsuka, I've walked home by myself before…"

Ritsuka smiled at him.

"I want to. We can't be friends if we don't know where we live can we?"

It was time for Ritsuka to be taken aback by his own statement. Friends? When had he considered Mei a 'friend'? In his own mind he shrugged it off, Mei wasn't like the other kids in his class anyways, so there was nothing to worry about.

In Mei's mind, it was perhaps the happiest moment in his recent life. He had finally found someone he could open up to without feeling nervous or embarrassed. Maybe his luck would change after all.

In a few short moments they arrived at Mei's house, a modest two story building that looked like all the others around it. There was no car in the driveway.

"Oh, it looks like father went back to work." Mei said, a sign of relief in his voice.

"He has to work so late?" Ritsuka responded.

"No, no. His office is pretty far away, so he lives somewhere else when he goes to work and comes home on his day off. I guess it's a pretty common thing these days."

Ritsuka nodded.

"You live all by yourself then?"

"Yeah, I don't have any siblings and Mom's been…gone for a while. I have access to my Dad's bank account though, so it's not like I have to fend for myself." Mei said, raising his head. "Anyways, I'd better go start on that homework." He said smiling.

"Alright then, good night." Ritsuka responded, patting his head, feeling a bit of sympathy for him.

Mei smiled wider and turned to go inside. A thought entered suddenly into Ritsuka's mind, and he called after him.

"Mei-kun, I don't have anyone to eat lunch with. Can I sit with you tomorrow?"

"Sure! As…long as you want to."

"Then it's settled" Ritsuka responded, waving to him.

It was 11:00PM now, and as Ritsuka replayed the day in his mind, all he could think of was sleeping. He felt a bit cheerful though, he had found someone he felt comfortable with. More importantly, Mei had a friend now, something Ritsuka knew he desperately needed.

After a few minutes of walking, he made his way back up the steps from which his day began. The house was quiet once he entered; his mother was probably asleep by now. Then again, who knew what she did in that room all day. He brushed the thought out of his mind and went into the kitchen where she had left a small meal for him. He took a few bites of it before he was satisfied, and ran up stairs to his bedroom where his precious bed sat waiting for him.

He opened his door softly, and flopped down on the bed, slipping off his shoes in the process. Once again, his mind was flooded with the events of the day. The heat, Hitomi, the rice flying out of Yuiko's mouth as she talked, it went on and on. But as he shut his eyes and drifted to sleep, there was only one thought in his mind.

That damn homework.

A/N: Ok, so I know this kind of comes off as a retelling of the series, but it's really not meant to be. I kept the whole Soubi thing in there because I wanted to keep his character open for use, even though I'm not planning on it. I'm not going to be going into the whole Fighter/Sacrifice thing either; it's going to be strictly a school drama type thing. Well, at least for now.

Kouya and Yamato will be a part of the story as well, so I'm not completely cutting out the whole battle aspect of the series. Anyways, please review while keeping in mind that this is my very first fiction.

Thanks for reading!

-Pie