It's Lau who finds him, hunched over, clinging to a dirt and blood smeared jar. The man tilts his head, staring at him with what might be a mix of curiosity and pity. Soma knows he must look a sight.

The lingering eyes of passersby, the quickened paces of mothers ushering their children along, tell him he looks as wrecked as he feels. At one time, he would have been aghast to let himself be in such a state. Even when it was just he and Agni in the Phantomhive townhouse Soma still dressed up like he would be addressing the public.

It was a matter of pride, he supposes. Wearing his fine gold jewelry and intricate clothes, for no other reason than to admire his reflection. Well, perhaps there was one other reason.

Agni had loved looking at him when he thought Soma's attention was elsewhere, and would sometimes let absentminded compliments slip past his lips. When he realized what he'd done the man blushed pink, like the spring flowers they wove into wedding garlands in India. Soma loved those moments. Loved every moment that Agni was by his side.

Those times are forever in the past now.

Going forward he is alone, and if Agni is not beside him there is no purpose in the jewelry he'd given to that homeless child. If his clothes are soiled by the blood of thieves and his own scarlet tears, and Agni isn't there to fret about it, then it's fine.

Let him be tainted by the muck that before had not stuck to him.

Without his khansama everything is dark, ugly. Agni compared him to the sun, shining and warm and beloved. How could the man have known that it was Agni himself who made Soma able to be that way?

He couldn't have, Soma thinks. Because I never told him. I didn't tell him nearly enough times how much I needed him. Valued him. Loved him. And the opportunity to remedy his failings is gone.

He squeezes his eyes shut and curls tighter around what is left of his friend, trying to keep his tears at bay. Hasn't he cried enough? In that closet, at first clawing at the handle, then with his back to the door, sobbing and praying that it wasn't real. Then in the sheets of a friend's bed, when they told him Agni had taken his last breath.

The flow of tears ended, eventually, and he had managed to leave the house with a dry face. In the suitcase they gave him was Agni's ashes and nothing else. He couldn't return to that place for his things, and he didn't want for them, anyway. Agni was with him, in the only way he could be, and that was all he needed for.

Then those men attacked him and it was like he was losing his beloved friend all over again. He killed them. Every one of them. He gave that brash boy what he could, hearing Agni's words about his growth in his mind. Mocking him.

Agni told him more than once that he had a grand heart. If he really had, it's gone now. Had been carved out of his chest with the knives that pierced his khansama. It laid shattered on the polished floors of the Phantomhive townhouse, leaving behind a gaping maw that was Agni's absence.

In the emptiness was a throbbing pull. It knocked at his soul, plagued him with memories of Agni and tarnishing them with his death.

He walked the streets. Tried to out-walk the memories and the pain, but they followed. Part of him searched for Ciel, led by that pull which threatened to dislodge his firm loyalty and morality.

He'd stopped here, slumped against a soot covered brick wall where Lau had found him.

He glares at the man, ready to sling harsh words when Lau stoops and grabs a lock of hair that hangs over Soma's face in tangles. He tuts, says something about getting him cleaned up as well.

Just days ago Agni had been smiling down at him, working a comb through the purple tresses.

The tears he tried to deny sting his eyes and Soma averts his gaze down to his khansama's remains.

All that time ago, on that scorching day in India, he had saved a sinner from death. It was a whim. A fancy that had flitted through his mind and demanded to be done. So he had, and it changed his life forever.

Agni helped him discover many things he wouldn't have on his own. Agni always said it was Soma who saved him. It's only now the prince sees that it was Agni who had saved him from a listless existence within the palace walls.

He showed Soma the truest love he's ever known. His parents hadn't the time to love him, Mina had hated him. It Agni was who loved him through his selfishness and childishness. Soma may have been Agni's prince, but Angi had been his everything.

And he's gone.

Lau takes him to his opium house. Or perhaps it's a brothel. Both, Soma decides, as they walk through wafts of smoke and past gaggles of women doting on a rich looking customer.

On the way the man explains what little he knows, and it's everything Soma does and doesn't want to hear.

A twin? It's the perfect solution. It's also absurd.

He thinks back, and his stomach twists into painful knots. A visitor had arrived, he had greeted the familiar face happily. But the boy had been acting strange, and scowled hatefully when Soma had leaned in close to feel his forehead for a temperature.

All of which was in typical Ciel fashion.

Soma stops suddenly.

Eyes.

His eyes.

How had he not noticed, that on that day, Ceil had not been wearing an eye-patch? Nor had his menacing guard dog been in tow.

Still… it feels as though he's clinging to a lie to make himself feel better. The way a child believes in a parents falsehood. A twin is simply outlandish. He would be a fool to believe it.

I am nothing if not a fool, he thinks bitterly.

"Take me to him."

Bruise-like bags under Ciel's eyes make him look worn down by a lifetime of burden that should not weigh on his shoulders. When Lau and Soma walk in Sebastian puts a hand on his lord.

The boy's face twists in irritation and he shifts, looking ready to snap at the intrusion of his thoughts.

His eye-one, and a blue more stunning than the finest sapphire-widens when it lands on the prince.

Soma makes no move to close the distance between them.

Ciel hops from his chair, his mouth moving. No doubt explaining his innocence. Soma doesn't hear a word of it. The other stops a few steps short of touching distance. His eyes are red-rimmed, his cheeks flushed. He looks completely unlike his usual, confident self.

Soma's foot slides forward and he sinks to one knee. His hands find the boy's shoulders. He studies the face he knows so well. Delicate features, like a dolls, are pulled into a rare display of poorly concealed guilt. Soma's unbandaged hand rises slowly, brushes disheveled hair back. His palm settles against a blotchy cheek.

Ceil stares at him with bated breath.

This is a boy who would do anything to accomplish his goals. A boy who is cutthroat and ruthless. This is Soma's little brother. The person he wanted to make smile freely, to accept all the love showered upon him.

He tugs on the frail body before him and Ceil comes easily, collapsing into Soma's long arms. He lets himself be captured in the tight embrace, and Soma is surprised when the other reciprocates the gesture.

"I'm sorry." Ciel murmurs, so quietly Soma almost doesn't hear the words. The prince shushes him, cradles the youth against him tenderly.

What if I became his "Agni"? I came here prepared to get hurt. Even if Ceil doesn't see me that way, I'm still his friend!

"I know." Soma says. "I know it wasn't you." He doesn't say Ciel isn't capable of such monstrosities.

-As long as you continue to shine, I am certain that there is no ice on earth that can withstand your warmth.-

"It's not your fault," Soma promises, drawing back to hold Ciel at arm's length. "And if you think it is, I forgive you."

The knocking, the call of the Goddess Kali, gets a little bit softer.

Soma can't remember ever seeing the young master cry, and it takes a moment to realize that the silver stream tracing his cheek is from tears. He hugs Ciel again, well aware the child would never initiate such a pathetic display.

"We will punish the one who did this." The prince declares, finally standing. "The one who killed my khansama and stole your face will pay."

Ciel's eyebrows pinch, his mouth hardens into a frown. He nods, looking every bit the determined boy Soma recognizes.

Sebastian comes to him later. The butler is almost unrecognizable in new clothes, his hair slicked back. The smooth perfection that is Sebastian's face has changed, too. Lines are around his mouth and on his brow, a convincing mimicry of sorrow.

"Would you like help, Prince Soma?"

He notices the neatly folded Chinese apparel the butler brought with him and takes the offered clothes, grateful to see a comb on top of the pile.

"That isn't necessary."

"I am sorry for your loss, Prince Soma. It was very gracious of you to forgive the master."

Soma stands tall, determined not to cower under the butler's attention. Even without Agni's protection.

"It was not his doing."

Sebastian nods, and the ghost of a frown on his lips doesn't escape Soma's scrutiny.

"I will be his Agni."

Soma makes this promise to himself for a second time while watching the boy's servants fret over him. He barks at them to leave him alone, but the loyal staff stays closer than they normally would. The prince can't blame them. He's doing the same.

He'll protect Ciel to the end, just as his khansama had done for him.

The time to keep his promise comes sooner that he thought it would. He can't bring himself to mind.

The imposter Ciel's goons surround them, accompanied by an eccentric, grey haired man. A part of Soma senses that this is it, that he won't be there when his friend takes their revenge. He can only make sure that Ciel survives to see their plan through.

So he fights, fueled by rage he hadn't known before deaths cruel touch brushed his life. He goes until his sides ache and his heart is running rabbit fast in his ribcage. And when Soma sees a goon fumbling with a gun, Ciel in his sights, he springs into action he failed to the day Agni died.

He and the brute of a man grapple long enough for one of Ciel's servants to come to his rescue. But Soma's time has reached it's limit. The call of Kali is silent now, as a bullet rips through his abdomen.

The battle around them slows to a stop. They've won this fight and Soma can only pray that Ciel wins the war he's been fighting for so long.

His little brother holds him in his lap, any semblance of composure abandoned. He yells at him not to go-something Soma thought he would never hear.

"Thank you for everything," Red hot pain sears through him and Soma chokes on his words. Ciel's trembling hands grip Soma's warm ones. Ciel always was too cold. "Because of you, I became a man to be proud of. So thank you."

The younger falls apart, and it brings joy to Soma's heart to know that the other really did care about him beneath is cool exterior.

"It's not your fault." He croaks. The taste of copper blooms on his tongue.

The burning pain fades, almost as quickly as it had come to be. Like someone lighting matches in the night. A spark. Then darkness.

It's that darkness that consumes Soma now. The last thing he sees is Ciel's face. The face of the person who murdered his khansama.

When he wakes up the first thing he sees are dearly missed grey eyes and white hair.

A/N: Drop a review if you liked this and or want more Soma/Agni content from me.