Soubi/Ritsuka (Yuiko/Ritsuka). Anime-based.
Written for the temps mort challenge "Touch".

There
by Maaya

---

Ritsuka doesn't go near to his mother anymore, distances himself in a corner and watches her with wary eyes. He's not scared, really, only feels a chilling apathy mixed with nothing at all but a little sort-of sadness. He can't even, he thinks as he lies in his bed with his bedroom door locked, feel completely sad that it's his mother he's wary of. He's pretty sure he should.

He just doesn't know. Or. He knows that he doesn't know and that is the whole thing.

He rolls over and stares at the cell-phone on his right side. Seeing it is a little comforting. Constant.

But his right cheek is hurting, the cut stinging against the band-aid. And he has to roll over again, because with the pain, he can recall the feel of his mother's fingernail on his cheek. He always can.

---

Full of questions, Yuiko is. Her gifts are like asking; do you like this, Ritsuka? Do you like the taste of strawberries? Or are you allergic?

Ritsuka supposes he should feel glad that someone cares enough to wonder, but it's hard when he finds himself wondering the same things as her. But her questions, at least, makes him discover himself. Strawberries, he likes. Raspberries, apples and pineapples. Not bananas. Her presence is comforting. She's as constant as Soubi's cell-phone, and it's nice to know there's someone around who is normal. More normal than anyone else he knows, at least.

Yuiko has hugged him once or twice.

Just like her gifts, her touch is as warm as it is curious.

---

While Soubi is unfamiliar and cold, his touch is strangely comfortable. It makes Ritsuka want to move away as much as he wants to move closer. Even more constant than Soubi's cell-phone is Soubi himself.

He wonders why that is. Soubi should be the least constant of them all because Soubi just appeared, can just as well suddenly disappear and take all the memories with him.

Soubi brushes Ritsuka's hair out of his face, his fingers warm.

And even if Ritsuka tells himself he doesn't like it, he doesn't want to forget.

---

end