Thank you so much for all of your reviews on the last chapter:
Modified Tam: I'm sorry the end was off. Feels bad. I was trying to make people freak out, and want to see what happens next. But thank you very much for reviewing. :)

SailorYue: I'm sorry the end was confusing. I was trying to make people freak out, and want to see what happens next. Thank you so much for reviewing. :)

Lovelessfreak: I'm really glad you like it. I've been really worried that they are out of character. At my school, I'll be secretly writing on it in class, and I'll say "Dang it!! Ritsuka wouldn't say that!!" like really loud, and my teacher thinks I'm on drugs. Lol. Thank you so much for reviewing. :)

LostHeaven: Oh my goodness. I was looking on your account. And you have 800 something reviews on one of your Naruto stories. I feel really happy to have someone as great as you review me. I'm glad you like my story. I hope this chapter is long enough. Yea, I wondered about calling it A Beautiful Lie, because the last time I named one of my stories off of a song/album title, someone got a bit aggravated at me because they wanted to post a story with that title. But I couldn't help it this time. I love the song "A Beautiful Lie", the lyrics went along with what I was going to write, and Jared Leto is sexy… which really has nothing to do with any of it. Thank you so much for reviewing. :)

Sylunedarkchylde: Heh… I'm not sure what to think about this. I know! runs to get a bucket. There, now, I'm sorry I melted you into a pile of goo. Lol. Thank you so much for reviewing. :)

Ladiabla666: Hmm… was it just a dream, or was it something more? You'll just have to find out in later chapters… OR you could figure it out on your own by finding the clues: The third letter in this website. The second letter in my favorite character from Kyo Kara Maoh's name. The last letter in the abbreviation of the second genre of this story. The first letter of the manga with it's second word as Orion. The First letter of the second word of the band's name who sings 'All that I've got.' The first letter of the first name of the star of The Omen, who plays Dameon. The fourth letter of the first word in the manga with a Shinigami named Rem in it. The first letter of my name on this website. The first letter of the manga/anime series with an alien girl names Ren in it. The first letter of the name of the main character with black hair in the manga Diabolo. The first letter of the anime series that is: '….. Lied.' The second letter of the name of the main faerie in 'Faeries' Landing.' The first letter of the word that means green in Japanese. If you decide to figure it out, please do not tell anyone who doesn't want to know. Thank you so much for your review. :)

"Soubi?" Ritsuka whispered, walking through the dark apartment.

"Yes?" Came Soubi's voice from behind him. Ritsuka yelled a bit. Soubi smiled at scaring him, for it wasn't his intention. Then the smile soon went away as he looked at the clock behind Ritsuka.

"What time is it?" Ritsuka asked frantically, but still a bit sleepily, as if reading Soubi's mind.

"It's 8:00." Soubi replied.

"Soubi, it's past my curfew! Why didn't you wake me up?!" he asked angrily, wincing as he felt something in his eyes. He rubbed at it, looking at his hand. There was what looked like blood, but he could hardly tell in the dark. It was running from his head.

"That's the exact reason." Soubi told him, rubbing the blood off of Ritsuka's face with his sleeve. "You slipped on water in the bathroom, hit your head, and passed out." Soubi explained. Ritsuka started heading quickly to the door without another word, and Soubi followed.

"I can make it myself…" There was a hint of worry in his voice. That was the last thing he needed, for Soubi to find out about his mother's beatings. He would turn her into the cops for sure, or worse… And he didn't want that to happen to his mother. Besides it wasn't like it was her fault. All of these thoughts were going through his mind as he climbed aboard the bus. Little did he know that Soubi had been following him the whole time to make sure nothing happened to him on his way home. Ritsuka arrived home a short while later. The first words he heard as he walked through the door were,

"Ritsuka, where were you?" His mother came out of the kitchen holding a knife. "It's past 8:00…" tears came to her eyes. "I made you dinner, and this is the third time you've come home late this week."

"Mother, I'm sorry. My friend invited me over and we were washing his cat when I slipped on water and passed out. He didn't want to inconvenience you by bringing me home passed out, so he let me stay a while." Ritsuka explained slowly. She paused for a second, wrapping her arms around him.

"I was so worried…" she said, then suddenly swung her knife at him, gashing a big cut in his shoulder. It was soon seeping through his blue hoodie. He grabbed his shoulder.

"Mother, stop!"

"My Ritsuka would never be late home. He was a well-behaved child!" Ritsuka's mother yelled, swinging the knife again, tears still streaming down her face. She hit him several times. Ritsuka had seen his mother mad before, but never like this. Then everything felt like it sort of stopped. His mother lay passed out on the floor, the knife still clenched in her hand. Ritsuka looked up from his mother and saw Soubi standing behind her, looking absolutely horrified. Ritsuka could barely think, and his blue jacket now looked purple over the whole sleeve, and part of the front.

"Ritsuka, quickly, go and wash off your wounds, or they might get infected." Soubi told him. Ritsuka didn't even know what to do. He didn't know whether to argue, to disagree, to do as he said, or what. But he somehow found himself walking to the bathroom, without even thinking. He got to the bathroom, and pulled off his hoodie and shirt, wincing as the cloth went over his shoulder wound. He went and found the peroxide in one of the cabinets, and closed his eyes as leaned over the tub. He then poured the peroxide down his shoulder. It stung… His shoulder cut started bubbling from the peroxide. He had used to like the way his cuts would bubble when he would put peroxide on them, but now he found he hated it. It continued to bleed though, he had to stop it. He wet a washcloth, daubing at his shoulder. He looked up into the mirror that was one the cabinet. He had dark shadows under his eyes, and blood splattered on his face. Then the mirror when blurry for a second, and he swayed a bit. Ritsuka, noticing how dizzy he was getting, quickly wrapped his should up with bandages. And only a few seconds later, the blood began to seep through the bandages. Ritsuka was freezing cold, he knew this because the next thing that happened was he hit the bathroom floor, and it felt slightly warm. Everything was blurry now, and he struggled to open the slightly ajar door.

"S… Soubi…" he managed to get out in an attempt to yell before he was unconscious.

10 minutes before…

"Ritsuka, quickly, go and wash off your wounds, or they might get infected." Soubi watched as Ritsuka went into the bathroom, the door slightly cracked. He took out his cell phone calling the police, carefully watching Ritsuka's mother to make sure she didn't wake up. After giving the police the information they needed, he snapped his phone shut, then opened it once more and called his apartment.

"Oi! Soubi where are you?" Natsuo answered.

"I'll be late." Was all that Soubi said.

"What? Where are you?" Natsuo asked over the other line, as Soubi heard Youji saying something in the background. (God knows what…)

"I'll explain later." Soubi said, then snapped shut his phone again, hearing his name being called, and leaving a very confused Natsuo. Soubi rushed to the bathroom from where he heard his name and discovered an unconscious Ritsuka laying on the bathroom floor, blood getting in his beautiful smooth dark hair, making it sticky and mat together as it slowly dried. Soubi's eyes widened as he picked up his Sacrifice carefully, applying pressure to his wound to stop the bleeding as he laid him on the couch. There was a knock on the door. Soubi, looking over at Ritsuka's mother to make sure she was still unconscious, answered the door. There was a police car, and two ambulances with some stretchers. They rushed in and took Ritsuka and his mother in the back of the trucks. 'I'll come back for you, Ritsuka…'

Soubi was now at the police station. He had ridden down in the police car to be questioned. He now sat in and enclosed room with now windows. Only bright lights above him, and a big table at which he was sitting. Across from him was the policeman who had been at the scene.

"Agatsuma Soubi is it?" The man asked him. Soubi had told the officer his name earlier, and the officer was confirming it.

"Yes." Soubi replied. The light above them flickering on his glasses.

"Everything said here will be recorded." The officer informed him, "So, what were you doing at the boy's house?"

"I'm a friend of Aoyagi Ritsuka. I was coming over for a visit when I heard his mother yelling and objects crashing, so naturally, I went in to see what was wrong." Soubi replied truthfully.

"And when you entered the home, what was it you saw?" he was asked. Soubi recalled to the man seeing Ritsuka's mother with the knife in her hand and seeing the big gash and other cuts on Ritsuka. This went on for a little while longer, Soubi being asked a few more questions then the officer said,

"Ok. That's all we'll need to know." He stood up and opened the door for Soubi. Soubi also got up and walked past the police officer, then turned around to face him.

"What do I have to do to go about getting custody of Ritsuka?" This was one of the only things on Soubi's mind right now. It had been since he had seen Ritsuka, getting cut up by his mother. He didn't want Ritsuka to ever have to endure such pain again.

"We'll call social services to meet with you and the boy at the hospital. They should be able to get down there in about an hour. So you can head on down there as well." The officer explained, closing the door to the room behind him as he came out.

"Thank you." Soubi thanked the man, walking through a hallway towards the exit of the building. He was going to get to keep his Sacrifice. He knew he would. He had a more than stable enough home. (Or in his case, apartment) The only problem was: would Ritsuka want to live with him? Soubi didn't know for sure, he could only hope. He knew that Ritsuka was probably angry with him for what he had done to Ritsuka's mother. He would more than likely be angry for a while. But would it be so much that he would rather live in an orphanage than with Soubi? He had ridden a bus to the hospital, and was now at the front desk.

"I'm looking for Aoyagi Ritsuka's room." He told the receptionist. She typed quickly on her keyboard, and clicked her mouse a few times, then looked up at him with a smile.

"Floor 11, room 283." She replied, flashing her bright smile again. Soubi nodded, then walked toward the elevator that was nearby, pushing the 'up' arrow.

'Eleventh floor…room two eighty three.' He repeated back to himself in his head. The door finally opened and out stepped a tall man, taller than Soubi even, who had to bend his head down a bit so it wouldn't hit the entrance out of the elevator. He was a slender man who still had his ears. Soubi at once thought of Ritsuka's teacher, Miss. Shinonome, who also still had her ears, being twenty-three. The light purple (yes, purple) ears lightly brushed the top as he stepped out and went past Soubi. Soubi climbed aboard the elevator after him. He pushed '11.' Then he thought of his Sacrifice, who also still had his eras. Which was perfectly normal for a twelve-year-old. Then those thoughts led Soubi into wondering when Ritsuka's thirteenth birthday would be. When he would become a true teenager. (Or so they say.) But Soubi couldn't imagine Ritsuka being anything other than the twelve-year-old he was now. He was just unable to think of Ritsuka being sixteen, or even fifteen for that matter. Even when thinking about when Ritsuka would grow tall, (They both knew he would.) he could still only imagine a short Ritsuka with his cute ears perked out when he got angry, or flat against his head when he was sad. Which this led him to thinking about Ritsuka's ears again, and how he would look without them…that is if he ever lost them. But he would… Soubi knew he would. And again as hard as Soubi tried, he couldn't imagine the boy without his ears and tail.

DING!
This knocked Soubi out of his thoughts. He looked up at the number lit up at the top of the doorway. It read '11.' He climbed off of the elevator, and soon found Ritsuka's room number after a good five minutes of searching. He knocked lightly. Then realizing it still might've been hard for Ritsuka to talk, he let himself on in. There was a woman sitting in a chair across from Ritsuka's bed, looking all professional-like. He figured it was the social worker. Then he averted his eyes toward the bed, and the scrawny lump beneath the blankets. Ritsuka had a hospital top on, and his shoulder was stitched up. He had several bandages on his arms and face, but his face looked so beautiful despite the bandages. His dark hair stood out against the brightness of the light room. He noticed that Ritsuka's hair was no longer soaking in blood, nor was it matted together. He was glad for this. It would have hurt him deeply to see his poor Ritsuka in such a state.

"Well let's begin." The woman said. She hand dark brown hair that came down to her ankles, and eye liner on. "So Ritsuka, how long has this been going on with your mother?" The woman motioned for Soubi to have a seat beside of her. He did, and listened attentively, for he was curious as well as to how long Ritsuka had been enduring this pain. Ritsuka looked out of the window as the question, not really wishing to go over it right now. But he knew he had to.

"Around two years," he replied truthfully. "But it's not like she can help it, I'm the one that makes her that way. I'm not who I'm supposed to be." Ritsuka faced the social worker, a look of sadness and anger in his eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked. He sighed, realizing he was about to tell some woman he didn't even know, two years of his life. He just made it short,

"When I was ten, I got amnesia." Ritsuka said quietly. "And after that I never acted the same as I did before I lost my memories. And it angers my mother. She wants the old Ritsuka to come back. It's my fault, so I don't blame her for it. There's no reason to." He finished, trying to make it as short as possible, staring out the window once again… TO BE CONTINUED

Yes, I know I left it off really bad. But I'll try to update soon. Please review. You know, the more people that review, the more it makes me happy, and I want to write more. :D byes