I have been sent several PMs stating that the characters are OOC. I forgot to mention that in the first chapter, and I just now noticed. Once the story is complete, the characters' OOCness will be explained.
On another note... Thank you guys so much for ... Yeah, well... I feel like being nice and updating it now, so here ya go.
Chapter 2
"You gotta towel around here, kid?" Kio asked, not taking his eyes off of Soubi. Ritsuka grabbed the white towel he always had next to his bed for Soubi in case he was wet. "Thanks," Kio stretched his hand behind him, making sure not to loose sight of Soubi. Ritsuka just sat leaning against his bed, slightly shaken up.
After half an hour scraping the blood off, Kio took some latex gloves out of his jacket pocket and slid them on like a professional. He reached into his pocket once more and took out some drop. (Morphine.) He pushed the tip of the needle into Soubi's arm and forced about ten milliliters into Soubi. 'Drugee,' Ritsuka thought, careful not to say it out loud. Kio waited a few minutes for the Morphine to start working, which didn't take as long as he waited. He took out a small sewing kit and placed it next to him. Ritsuka shuddered. Kio wrapped the towel around the edge of the knife in Soubi's neck and slowly, almost impossible to see, began to pull the knife out. Ritsuka shuddered again.
After what seemed like an eternity, Kio finally pulled the last millimeter of blade out of Soubi's neck with a crunching, sickening sound of bones crunching. Immediately, bright-red blood (that you only hear about but never believe that is what it actually looks like) started pouring from the wound again, and Kio pushed harder on the towel with one hand and picked the sewing kit up with the other. He flipped the top open and pulled out an already threaded needle. Ritsuka closed his eyes. Kio began sewing up the hole with the bloody needle along with sucking sounds from every tug, keeping extremely leaky parts covered with the stained towel.
"Done," Kio announced minutes later. Ritsuka opened his eyes and then wished he hadn't. Soubi's neck was bloody, bruised, and was hand-sewn up.
"What is that?" Ritsuka said, knowing that Soubi was out of it and wouldn't remember much later on.
"Well, you'll have to bring him to the hospital and have them stitch it up. Tell them that you had this done by a retired doctor who said it was temporary. Tell them that the doctor said to bring you here so they could rebandage him," Kio was sounding very smart at that moment, but Ritsuka knew it was just his imagination.
"OK, I'll tell them. Can you leave, now? Oh, and, take that towel with you, I can't get the stains out," Ritsuka was dying for Kio to get out of his house.
"Fine, fine, don't get all uptight. Just remember that I kept you two from getting in big trouble," Kio left with a smirk on his face and the bloody towel over his shoulder, knowing he had another win to hang over Ritsuka's face someday.
Ritsuka stood up and walked over to Soubi, who was now asleep. "I'll leave you for now, Soubi. I'm going to get you some lunch, stay right here or you'll hurt yourself." Ritsuka was talking like he'd have talked to a toddler that was kidnapped by some evil, demented person.
Ritsuka came up fifteen minutes later with two bowls of ramen noodles and a box of strawberry Pocky only to find that Soubi was still sleeping. Ritsuka shrugged and set the bowls down, letting them cool off. He opened the box of Pocky and before he knew it, had finished them off. Ritsuka put the box next to the bowls of ramen and started eating the ramen noodles. Again, before he knew it, he had finished them off. He scolded himself and then walked over to Soubi.
"Soubi?" Ritsuka said quietly, even though he always had thought that was stupid. Who's going to hear you if they're sleeping and you're whispering? "Soubi?" he said it louder. "Soubi? Wake up, you have to eat." Ritsuka shook Soubi lightly so as not to hurt him.
Soubi groaned, looking up at Ritsuka. Soubi shook his head to clear it, then smiled. "I'm...alive?" he asked, acting shocked yet playing around.
"Yeah, and you should be glad, too," Ritsuka grinned, "If you'd have killed yourself, you would have been seeing me soon in Hell, too." The two laughed at their bad sense of humor.
"Is it me...or is that a...bowl of ramen...noodles with the...chopsticks still dry and...Oh...my, God, an empty box of...Pocky Stix?? How...dare you!" Soubi joked around with the younger boy, but his voice was still weak.
"Sorry, I couldn't help it. You weren't awake and they were just...well, there," Ritsuka went and got the bowl of ramen noodles, perfectly cooled. Soubi sat there in silence for a few minutes, slurping on his ramen noodles, deep in thought. Ritsuka doing the same, but without the noodles.
Soubi finished his noodles while the two were still silent. Ritsuka was the first to break the silence, "Soubi," he said, not wanting to hear the answer, "why did you do that? Why did you hurt me like that? It scared me."
Soubi didn't say anything for a few heartbeats, and when he did, his eyes were wet with the saltiness that Ritsuka had stained his shirt with last night, "I'm sorry, Ritsuka. I'm really, truly sorry."
"That doesn't explain why you did that!" Ritsuka had tears trickling down his face now. Soubi looked at the poor, cat-eared child that had once been innocent until last night. 'And it was my own fault that he doesn't have that innocence anymore. You aren't supposed to lose it until you at least lose your cat ears,' Soubi was thinking at full speed when Ritsuka waved his hand in front in Soubi's face and said, "Hello? I asked you something...In a sense. Now answer or I won't take you to the hospital to stitch you up!"
"Ritsuka, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. At first, I thought I loved your brother, but then I realized I didn't. It wasn't real. Now I love you, and I know that this one is real, because seeing you always denying it hurts me so much. That never happened with your brother. Not even once. But it happens with you all the time. A constant ache in my heart. Constant worry about you. It never stops. Even when I'm sitting right here with you, I worry you'll just die on me. Or you'll hurt me, like your brother did. He had his laughs by cutting our name on me. You've never done that. I had to do that, but not the way I did. I was being stupid, and I thought that our love was illusionary, too. But, now I see that it's not. Please, forgive me, Ritsuka, dear, please forgive a bastard like me," Soubi was crying for the second time in front of Ritsuka.
"Soubi...Do you really love me? Do you believe it's an illusion? Do you really, truly love me?" Ritsuka's voice went from sounding strange to a whisper.
"Ritsuka, in my heart, I feel like I love you. I know I love you. I believe that I love you. I know it's not an illusion, but somehow, I can't believe it. I know, I just can't believe. I'm sorry, Ritsuka. Truly, I am," Soubi finally admitted his feelings to Ritsuka in words.
"Soubi?" Ritsuka said, putting what Soubi called 'cuteness' into his voice so he would get the honest-to-God truth. Soubi stopped eating and looked up at the cat-eared boy. "Soubi, where did all those scars come from?"
"What scars?" Soubi tried to hide the nervousness in his voice.
"Soubi..." Ritsuka put his head down, ashamed of his boyfriend.
"You," Soubi said, turning into his morbid, poetry-like personality that came up on the random occasion.
"What the hell do you mean, it came from me?"
"The black serpent...beckons to...you, calling you...into its...home. It waits patiently...day and night, night...and day, for you...to come...join it in Hell...It acts as though...you are superior...it acts as...though it is...innocent. But in...reality, it in itself...is Hell, personally...inviting you...into...its humble home...Yet, it does...not know this, for...it is still...too innocent...to realize...what it shows to you...and what doors it...opens to...you and what doors...it closes to you...It is still...too innocent...to understand...You stand there, knowing...what lies ahead. And...you walk...to it, to...your end. Not...caring what awaits...as long as...they both...live. Eternity sucking them...up into...a never-ending black...void of...pain. But...it was your choice, all...yours; you...have chosen this...You have made...your path."
"Morbid..." Ritsuka whispers, trying to understand what Soubi just said. Soubi just grunts. "Oh!" Ritsuka snaps his fingers. "I don't know what you just said or what it means, but I do know why you have the scars!"
"Oh?" Soubi said, not really to Ritsuka, more to himself.
"When-when you were talking about me denying our love, your eyes. Soubi, your eyes were so sad, so pained. Like they were last night. Sad, scared. It was me, wasn't it? It was all my fault, wasn't it, Soubi? Wasn't it? I wouldn't believe our love, and it hurt you. Soubi, I hurt you. I hurt you worse than my brother, didn't I? Soubi, didn't I? I didn't hurt you like you hurt yourself, I hurt you so you hurt yourself. Soubi, it was me, wasn't it, Soubi? It was all me, all me..."Ritsuka cried, realizing what he had been doing to the man he loved. Soubi patted the carpet next to him, and Ritsuka sat down.
"Ritsuka..." Soubi looked at Ritsuka out of the corner of his eyes, his neck hurting too much to turn it. "Ritsuka, you...you didn't know...Ritsuka...
