-Chapter 2-

Ritsuka was walking through Seven Moons academy. Just wandering with no set destination. He passed many rooms with odd shaped doors. Some were triangles, some circle, some polygons, but he didn't pay attention to any of them. He just kept walking. He finally reached the end of the hall and saw a door on both sides of him. They were both normal looking doors, but the one to his right was black, and the one to his left was white. He went to the left first and opened the door. Behind the door was his older brother Seimei, standing in the middle of a very dark room.

It was odd in the sense that it was devoid of all light, but Ritsuka could make his brother's body and features perfectly. He was wearing a black turtleneck and was holding something in his hand.

"Seimei…wha-" But he stopped talking when he realized that his older brother was holding a dead cat in his hand. From the size of her belly Ritsuka could tell she was getting ready to have kittens.

Seimei turned and smiled at Ritsuka, holding the cat up to just below his face.

"Hey Ritsuka, did you know that if a mother cat is about to lose a kitten she'll kill it and eat it. She'd rather kill it then let anything else have it. Do you think it's the same with people? Would people rather kill the one they love then give it up?" He asked in a very cryptic voice. A voice that wasn't Seimei.

Ritsuka took a step back as Seimei dropped the cat's dead body into the darkness.

"Maybe it is the same. Do you love me Ritsuka? Would you kill me rather then let someone else take me?"

"I love you Seimei. I love you. But I don't want to hurt you, let alone kill you! I won't kill you!" Ritsuka yelled in unknown panic, not sure what to say.

Seimei dropped to his knees and started to laugh. Ritsuka turned around and ran to the black door that was at his right. He swung the door open and nearly ran into Soubi.

He was wearing his white coat and had a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He dropped it to the floor and looked at Ritsuka with concern.

"Ritsuka, what's wrong?" He said calmly. Tears started to form in Ritsuka's eyes. Something about Soubi was wrong. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Seimei…is…he's…" Ritsuka couldn't quite get the words out and started to cry. He didn't know why. He never cried. At least, not in front of Soubi.

"There, there. No need to cry." Soubi wrapped his arms around the smaller boy. Soubi's flesh was cold. Ice cold. Death cold. Ritsuka ripped himself free of the embrace, looking closely at Soubi's eyes. They were blank. Empty, and devoid of all emotion…and life…

Ritsuka gaped at the man who suddenly crumpled to the floor into a pile of ashes.

"You see what I mean Ritsuka? I'd rather kill Soubi then let you have him." Came a cold voice from beside Ritsuka. He jumped back and saw Seimei covered in blood.

"Soubi is mine. He does what I tell him. Even if the order is to take his own life. You don't love me Ritsuka. You loved him, and him you. But he's mine. You can't have him. Now, or ever." As the speech wore on Seimei's voice became more and more unrecognizable in the mania that Ritsuka saw forming in Seimei's eyes. Finally, Seimei's voice had escalated to a psychotic maniacal cackle that sent Ritsuka tearing down the hall away from him.

He ran past the circle doors, and the triangle doors, and the polygon doors, but the voice of the man who is not his brother didn't seem to get any farther away. Ritsuka saw someone wearing a blue outfit up ahead.

As he got closer to it, he realized it was his mother. He was afraid of what his mother would say about him running from Seimei, but he just couldn't stop running. Eventually he ran into his mother's open arms.

She placed a gentle hand on his head and rubbed his back as he cried. The evil cackle began to get closer and she took Ritsuka's hand and ran through a glass revolving door into a giant forest. She slowed to a walk and led Ritsuka to a clearing. There was someone standing in the clearing. No, there were a lot of people standing in the clearing.

There was Yuiko, Natsuo, Yoji, Ritsu-sensei, Yayoi, Yamato, Koya, Midori, Ai, Osamu, even Nagisa-sensei. Misaki, Ritsuka's mother, held his shoulders.

"This is where your trust should lie. In all your friend's that you've made. But don't forget to trust your heart. Even if your mind tells you it's wrong, your heart will never lie." She simply said before vanishing in a thick fog.

As she disappeared Ritsuka heard someone come up behind him. He turned around but couldn't see his face. Ritsuka suddenly woke with a start.

He looked at the clock sitting on Soubi's nightstand and saw that it was after midnight. It wasn't until he tried to move that he found out that Soubi had crawled into the small bed with his arms wrapped around Ritsuka's waist, and his face buried into the smaller boy's chest. Ritsuka sighed and laid his arm over Soubi's shoulder.

Ritsuka wasn't much for cuddling, but when Soubi curled up against him like that, he just couldn't resist. No matter how much he hated himself for it.

Sometimes Ritsuka would lay awake with Soubi sleeping in his chest like this and wonder how all of this happened. How Soubi came into his life, how he fell for him. What made it all happen? Or did it just…happen?

Soubi stirred against his chest making a small murmur before a small smile graced his beautiful face. As Soubi shifted, his hair fell halfway across his face, uncovering the small butterfly earrings that were pierced into the cartilage of his ear.

When Ritsuka had originally pierced his lover's ears, it was in the ear lobes, but the female Zero team, Yamato and Koya, had ripped them out in a two against one battle with Soubi as proof to their mentor, Nagisa-sensei, that they had defeated the Loveless/Beloved fighter unit.

Ritsuka smiled at the sleeping man affectionately. Something he rarely did when Soubi was awake. Soubi was the only one who could pull Ritsuka out of his deep depressions, and when he did, he finally smiled. Or when he would play with Yuiko. The older man became almost a kid again as he did cartwheels, or played on the swings with her at the park. For such a gorgeous person, cute really wasn't the right word, but it was the only one that fit properly.

Ritsuka hadn't realized he was crying. It was only when a tear drop landed on Soubi's cheek, and he fluttered his eyelids open in confusion did he realize it and he quickly tried to pull himself together. When it came to Ritsuka's emotions, it wasn't so much that he didn't trust Soubi enough to show them around him, it was more that Ritsuka didn't trust himself. He had always had a volatile temper, but unlike his mother, he had total control over it. He wasn't the violent type. But that didn't keep him from thinking about it.

Soubi reached up a gentle hand and placed it on Ritsuka's cheek.

"What's wrong?" Such a simple question asked in such a caring voice. It was almost too much for Ritsuka. But he simply turned his face away from the comforting hand and hn'd.

"It's nothing. Just a bad dream. Go sleep in your own bed." He stated simply, before rolling over, turning his back to Soubi. Soubi gave a small chuckle before wrapping his arms around Ritsuka's waist and nuzzling against his spine.

Ritsuka knew this wasn't a battle he was going to be able to win easily so he didn't even bother. He simply placed a tentative hand over Soubi's and closed his eyes. Slowly, he started to drift back into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

The next morning Ritsuka woke up to find that he was alone in the bed. He panicked for an instant before settling down a little. That always happened the morning after they slept in the same bed. Ritsuka sat up and scratched behind his ears ruffling his sleep mussed hair.

He got out of bed and headed to the bathroom but noticed a piece of paper on the kitchen counter.

Dear Rit-chan,

Had to go the Academy, won't be home till late tomorrow. Don't stay up too late, eat a good breakfast, don't be late for school, have a good day. ^_^

P.S. Meat in the freezer, produce in the fridge, milk went bad I'll pick some up on the way home.

Love,

Sou-chan

Ritsuka crumpled up the note and tossed it back on the counter and scratched his neck. To anyone else, it would've seemed harmless. But to Ritsuka it was deadly. The little things that Soubi does to make Ritsuka feel loved. It meant so much to him, but at the same time, they scared him. Ritsuka went to the bathroom and locked the door. He climbed into the shower, brushed his teeth, put on his pants and socks.

He stood in the bathroom looking at the full length mirror that sat on the back of the door. Looked at himself. How he hated what he saw. The weakness, the fear, the emotions that ran through him so fast, often times he couldn't identify them. Everything about his psychological make-up.

Ritsuka had been doing fine for a few months. Nothing making him sad. But the note…that note was dangerous. It unlocked feelings in Ritsuka's heart that terrified him. He didn't want to ever feel those emotions again. He knew full and well that they would only lead to heartache.

So he turned from the mirror and opened the bathroom door. He reached under his mattress and pulled out a small blue back-pack with a butterfly pattern designed in glitter on the outside pockets. It had been a gift from Yuiko and Soubi both.

The contents of the bag clattered together, whispering a dark secret in a language that only Ritsuka understood. It was whispering, "relief". He closed and locked the bathroom door behind him.