"Ritsuka! Diner is ready!" The sultry sound of the blonde's voice calling from the kitchen was enough to quickly snap Ritsuka from the video game that he was happily playing in the living room of the apartment that they shared together. Upon hearing his Sentouki call, Ritsuka was quick to put down his controller and called back while turning off the game system.
"Coming!" Ritsuka then put away his game system neatly before standing to his feet, giving a small stretch as he did, and made his way toward the kitchen and toward a rather intoxicating smell. As soon as Ritsuka turned the corner into the moderately sized kitchen, his heart almost skipped a beat when he saw the kitchen table covered in what must have been a dozen different steaming dishes and the tall blonde standing beside it with a warm smile.
"Happy anniversary Ritsuka." Soubi's tone was just as warm as his smile and the sight and sound was enough to make Ritsuka's heart melt and a bright blush cross his cheeks.
"S-Soubi…this is too much…you shouldn't have." This comment caused Soubi to saunter ever so elegantly over to where Ritsuka was standing, mouth agape, and take the smaller boys hand gently in his own before leading his Sacrifice over to the kitchen table.
"A home cooked meal is the absolute least I could do for you today. I made all of your favorite things." Soubi then pulled out the chair at the head of the table and gestured for the smaller boy to sit down with a smile. Ritsuka was quick to sit down, being drawn in by the look and smell of all the dishes placed perfectly at the table.
"Thank you Soubi. This is so amazing."
"Not as amazing as you." This small comment caused Ritsuka's cheeks to grow even brighter and it was all he could do not to stammer through his words with a ridiculously large grin.
"Stop it; you're making my face hot." This earned him a small chuckle from the blonde as he found his way to the chair at the opposite end of the table and sat down.
"I'm sorry. I just want to make sure that this day is as perfect for you as it is for me." Ritsuka then grabbed one of the steaming plates and pulled it closer to himself and took a large bite before replying with a satisfied grin.
"Perfect for you? But I haven't even gotten you a gift yet."
"You are all I need Ritsuka. Every day that I get to wake up next to you is perfect in my eyes." This again made Ritsuka blush wildly at the sweet things his Sentouki was saying; no one in his entire life had ever treated him so well before and he was still trying to fully adjust to it. It then took all of Ritsuka's will power to finally bring forth the words that he had avoided for so long.
"I…I love you Soubi…" These words pierced through Soubi's heart like an arrow and he had to fight back the small tear threatening to run down his cheek; he would never let Ritsuka see him in such a state.
"I love you Ritsuka." Ritsuka then picked his fork back up and began to fully indulge in the buffet before him.
"You should eat too Soubi. I can't eat all of this by myself you know."
"As you wish." The blonde then gladly picked up a pair of chopsticks and took a large bite from the bowl of ramen in front of him. Ritsuka slyly watched on in awe at how the blonde could look so elegant no matter what he was doing.
The air in their humble home remained warm and full of joy as the two enjoyed their meal accompanied by small talk and happy reflections of their times together. It wasn't long at all before the apartment was filled with the sounds of laughter and groans of satisfaction. Roughly an hour had passed before they were both simply too full to consume another bite and were now simply relaxing an enjoying every moment of their night. This bliss was suddenly interrupted however by the sound of Soubi's cell phone ringing from the kitchen counter a few feet away. The blonde let out a short groan before getting up and flipping open his small cell phone, Ritsuka watching on with a happy smile the entire time.
"Hello?"
"Soubi! Where the hell are you?!"
"Kio…this isn't a good time. I'm busy with Ritsuka right now."
"No no no no! I don't want to hear about your antics with your underage play thing."
"I've told you not to refer to Ritsuka like that Kio. Now, what do you want? I really am busy."
"Well I'm sorry to interrupt your escapades but did you forget that we have a project due tomorrow morning? A project, might I remind you, that we haven't even started!"
"Shit…I completely forgot."
"Oh that's just great Soubi! You better get your ass over here and help me! I'm not doing another project by myself just so you can babysit."
"Alright alright; I'll be over in just a bit."
"Good. I'll see you soon."
"Alright. Bye."
"See ya."
*click*
Ritsuka watched on with a quickly diminishing smile as Soubi closed his phone with a long sigh as he ran a large hand through his blonde locks in frustration.
"I'm sorry Ritsuka…I have to go over to Kio's for a while. I forgot that we have a project due tomorrow." Ritsuka then let out a small sigh of disappointment before putting on a small smile to reply to his partner.
"It's ok Soubi, I understand. You always tell me how important school is for me so it should equally important for you." Soubi couldn't help but to crack a large smile at this and made his way over to where the smaller boy was seated and placed a tender kiss on his forehead.
"You really have grown Ritsuka." This made Ritsuka giggle slightly. This nurturing and slightly parental side of Soubi always made him smile.
"I know I know; now get going. Kio always gets way too cranky when you keep him waiting. I'll clean up and I'll be waiting for you when you get home." Soubi then took advantage of the boy that was now looking up at him and caught his lips in a passionate kiss.
"I love you Ritsuka and I'll see you when I get home."
"I love you too."
With that, the tall blonde made his way quickly out of the front door with his messenger bag hanging perfectly off his hip. Once Soubi was out of sight Ritsuka let out a long sigh before standing from the table and taking plates two by two to the sink. Once he had cleared the table, he turned on the hot water and began washing dishes while his mind wandered freely to thoughts of his Sentouki and all the years that they had spent together. It was only a half hour or so before all the dishes were down and Ritsuka was washing his hands. After everything was clean, Ritsuka let out a long sigh before leaning against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed. After a few minutes of deep thought, Ritsuka became restless and consumed with thoughts of what he should do for Soubi for their anniversary. Finally after some pacing about, Ritsuka decided that he would go for a walk to try and clear his head. He quickly grabbed his light blue jacket from the rack by the door before exiting the apartment with is hands tucked neatly into his pockets. As soon as he was outside, Ritsuka gazed up to glimpse at the stars that filled the night sky and let out a long breath that was just barely visible in the chilly night air. Once adjusted to the cool night air, Ritsuka began his leisurely walk toward the small park that was only a half mile or so from their apartment. Ritsuka was always fond of the park; it was the very same park that Soubi had taken him to all those years ago when they had first met, and it was always a good place for him to clear his head. It was only ten minutes or so before Ritsuka was rounding the corner that led him to the small park and upon seeing the dimly lit picnic tables that dotted the area he quickly began to feel his head and heart clear. He then made his way toward one of the small picnic tables but was suddenly stopped by the sound of unfamiliar voice.
"Hey kid!" Ritsuka quickly whipped around to find that the course of the voice was a tall slender man that he had never seen before, accompanied by another shorter man that he also couldn't recognize.
"Umm…are you talking to me?"
"Who else would I be talking to? You see anybody else around?" The two strangers were quickly approaching Ritsuka as they spoke and he was already slyly looking around for an escape route, but could only back up against a picnic table.
"N-no…What do you want?" The strangers now had Ritsuka firmly backed up against the table and were only a few feet in front of him and closing in.
"Let's start with all the cash you have." Ritsuka's panic quickly began to set in upon hearing this threat and he did his best to try and stay calm but it was no use.
"I-I don't have any money…" The taller man, now being face to face with Ritsuka, then put on a sinister smirk as he placed an arm around the small of Ritsuka's back while using his hand to stroke one of Ritsuka's soft ears.
"Well I can think of something else you could give us instead…" This sent Ritsuka into a complete panic and he began to thrash wildly in an attempt to break free of his captures grip.
"N-no! L-leave me alone!" Despite his best efforts, Ritsuka was only pulled closer to the stranger that he was struggling against. During the struggle, the shorter man took advantage of the situation and took ahold of Ritsuka's thrashing legs, pinning the defenseless boy down onto the picnic table.
"Hold still brat!" Ritsuka's mind was racing with fears of what was about to happen and he could then only muster the only words that could come to mind in this desperate situation.
"Soubi! Help me!" This outburst caused his attackers to laugh at his fruitless calls for help.
"No one is around to hear you kid, now just quit fighting. You're making this harder than it needs to be." Ritsuka then closed his eyes tight, in an attempt to block out this horrible situation, as tears began to stream down his face.
"No! S-Soubi!" Ritsuka's cries were then answered by a deep voice from the darkness of the tree line.
"Hey! What do you two think you are doing? Leave the kid alone." The strangers were slightly taken aback by the sudden interruption and both turned their heads to look toward the direction of the voice, making sure to keep Ritsuka in their grasp as they did.
"Who the hell are you?! Mind your own business!"
"Well I think I've just made this my business. Now…let the kid go. I won't ask again."
Much to Ritsuka's surprise, this comment caused the two men to release him from their grip and allowed him to fall to his knees on the damp grass. He then opened his eyes and was even more shocked to see who exactly it was that had come to his rescue. His eyes grew wide when they set sights on the tall dark haired man in tattered clothes that he had encountered earlier that day outside of his school building.
"Mr. Kougaiji…?"
Ritsuka could then only watch on in complete shock and confusion at the scene unfolding before him. The two muggers began to approach the intruding figure that was now walking closer to meet them with arms crossed in an annoyed manner. Once the two opposing forces were only a few feet from each other, the shorter of the two muggers finally spoke out toward the pointy eared man.
"Hey buddy! We saw the kid first so why don't you just get lost before you get hurt." This only earned him a condescending scoff from the strange looking man.
"Well technically I saw him first but I won't hold that against you seeing as you probably didn't know that. So why don't you two buzz off and we won't have any problems." This snide comment only angered the muggers and the taller of the two slipped open a relatively good sized knife and began to wave it in Kougaiji's direction.
"So you want a fight then do you punk? Well we are more than happy to give you one!" The taller man then suddenly launched forward toward Kougaiji with his blade extended out in front of him. Kougaiji however, didn't move a muscle and allowed the man to land a rather large cut across his cheek, much to the man's surprise.
"W-what the hell?! You really have a death wish!" The mugger was frozen in confusion but was quickly snapped out of it by the sound of a large snap quickly followed by an incredible pain in his arm that had been snapped in two in the blink of an eye by the dark skinned demon that he had just foolishly assaulted.
"You really shouldn't have done that…" The frightened mugger, now in shock from the pain of his broken arm, gazed up into angry violet eyes and soon realized that escape had been mad impossible by the man's strong grip on his broken limb.
"W-what the hell are you…." Kougaiji then pulled up violently on the man's arm to bring him to be eye level with him before speaking.
"You're worst nightmare." The crimson haired demon then landed a swift blow right into the man's gut before dropping him to the ground where he began to cough up large amounts of blood. He then turned his angry gaze the man's shaking counterpart and spoke to him in an eerie voice. "If you want to live, I suggest you take your friend and get the hell out of here." The shorter man gave a feverish nod before rushing over to pick his friend up off the ground and limping away with him into the distance.
Ritsuka was in complete awe at the scene that he had just witnessed, so much so that he almost didn't notice that Kougaiji was now calmly walking over to where he was crumpled on the ground. This sight caused Ritsuka to begin to panic once more, not knowing whether or not he better off now or before. Once Kougaiji was standing right above him, Ritsuka flinched away from the man in fear until a slightly gruff yet soft voice rang through his ears.
"Hey kid, it's ok, I'm not going to hurt you and those creeps are gone." Ritsuka then timidly opened his eyes to see that the olive skinned man was extending a large and delicate hand to him. After only a few seconds of thought, Ritsuka clasped onto his hand and allowed himself to be pulled gently from the ground.
"T-thank you …" Once Ritsuka was on his feet, Kougaiji released his hand before speaking to him with a slight hiss.
"Don't call me that. Call me Kou or at least just Kougaiji."
"R-right…I'm sorry Kou."
"It's alright. What are you doing out here by yourself this time of night anyway?"
"Oh! I was just taking a walk really…what are you doing here? I-if you don't mind me asking." Kougaiji then slipped his hands coolly into the pockets of his tattered pants.
"I was looking for my sister. She saw a group of kids with those weird ears like yours earlier and she ran off after them. I haven't been able to find her since."
"Oh…I see." There was then a short slightly awkward silence before Ritsuka noticed the large bleeding cut on Kougaiji's face. "Oh no! You are hurt!" Kougaiji had already forgotten that he had gotten cut an raised a hand to his cheek to find that he was in fact bleeding.
"It's no big deal."
"Yes it is! I'm so sorry! This is all my fault…if you hadn't saved me then you would have never gotten hurt. I take full responsibility for this!" Kougaiji was slightly taken aback by Ritsuka's sincere concern and wasn't exactly sure how to respond to it.
"Um it's really fine kid. I couldn't just let those losers harass you."
"Well I insist that you let me at least bandage it for you."
"I really don't have time, I have to find my sister."
"I really insist…I don't live far at all and if you let me bandage that for you then I will help you find her afterwards." Kougaiji thought hard on this for a moment before deciding that two people searching would be more effective.
"Well…alright."
"Great. Thank you. Here follow me."
Ritsuka then began to walk back towards home with a still slightly reluctant Kougaiji following right by his side. The two walked in silence for a few moments before Ritsuka tried to strike up a conversation with this still very strange seeming person.
"So…your sister, is she the girl that was with you before?"
"Yeah. She is always wondering off like this; it's rather frustrating really."
"Well I'm sorry to hear that. I know it can be frustrating…I have a bad habit of doing the same thing and Soubi always tells me how much it worries him when I do."
"Who is Soubi?"
"Oh! He is my Sentouki."
"You're what?" Ritsuka then turned his head slightly to look at Kougaiji with a confused expression.
"My Sentouki….my fighter."
"I have no idea what you are talking about kid."
"Well first of all, my name isn't 'kid', its Ritsuka."
"Sorry…."
"Second, you must not be part of a battle pair then."
"I suppose not. None of this makes any sense to me. This whole place seems a little screwy actually…especially the weird ears." This comment really threw Ritsuka for a loop and it almost stopped him dead in his tracks.
"You think my ears are weird? You mean…you never had ears like mine?"
"Of course not." Before Ritsuka could question any further, they had arrived in front of the apartment that he shared with Soubi and decided that they could finish this conversation inside.
"Well here we are." Ritsuka then lead his new friend up to the door, unlocking it before opening it and gesturing him to come in. Kougaiji quickly walked inside and waited for his host to follow.
"Nice digs you got here."
"Thank you, it isn't much but its home." Ritsuka then motioned for his guest to follow him and he led him into the living room. "Here, have a seat and I'll go grab the bandages."
"Alright." Kougaiji then plopped down onto the large leather sofa and waited patiently for Ritsuka to return. It was only a short moment before the cat eared boy emerged from the other room with bandages in hand and sat down next to Kougaiji on the couch so that he was facing him.
"Ok, come here and I'll bandage that for you." Kougaiji did as he was told in silence and moved to be closer to the smaller boy and turned his face so that Ritsuka could get to the cut across his cheek. Now that Ritsuka could get a good look at the man on his couch he was finally able to see just how different he was. His ears were definitely not like anything he had seen before; they were long and came to a point and after brushing away some of the man's crimson locks, he could see three strange red markings that adorned his cheek. Finally after another moment, Ritsuka began to question his guest once again.
"Kougaiji….?"
"What?"
"Who…or what exactly are you?"
"I am Kougaiji and I am a demon prince." The words mixed with the nonchalant tone of this answer shocked, and somewhat excited Ritsuka and he was then very eager to find out more and continued his questioning with a new excited and inquisitive tone.
"A demon?! That's amazing! I have only read stories about demons; I didn't think they actually existed. Where did you come from?"
"I come from a place called Shangri-La. It is a beautiful place where humans and demons live side by side…or at least they did."
"Did?" Ritsuka's curiosity only grew the more he heard and it was all he could do to focus enough to continue applying the bandages.
"It's a long story."
"Well how did you get here?"
"I'm not sure exactly but I think we were banished here somehow."
"Wow…"
"My turn; what are you? I've never seen anything like people like you; what with the ears and all."
"Well I'm just a normal person, well except for being a Sacrifice. As far as the ears, everyone is born with ears and a tail and we lose them when we lose our virginity."
"Hmm….odd. So what is a Sacrifice then? And what was it you said before…a Sentouki?"
"Well that's also a long story but in a nutshell, there are certain people born with destined partners and those people become a battle pair. We engage in battles of spells and in battle there is the Sentouki, who does all of the spell casting, and the Sacrifice who receives all the damage from the battle." With that, Ritsuka finished putting on the last bandage and Kougaiji was finally able to turn to face Ritsuka.
"This really is strange place…thank you by the way." This caused Ritsuka to giggle slightly.
"Well you are pretty strange yourself Kou; and you are welcome." Ritsuka then gave the man a large grin that surprisingly earned him a small chuckle from the man next to him. "What's so funny?"
"Oh nothing." Ritsuka then gave the man a slight nudge to the shoulder in a coy manner with a slightly pouty expression.
"Oh come on! Tell me! If you are going to laugh at me you could at least tell me what is so funny." Ritsuka's expression again made Kougaiji chuckle and he raised a large hand to ruffle the boy's hair in a playful manner.
"Fine, geez. You just remind me a lot of my sister is all." This caused Ritsuka's cheeks to redden slightly and cross his arms in a pout.
"Are you saying I'm like a girl?!"
"No, it's not that. It's you attitude. You seem so small, fragile and innocent but in reality, and I'm just guessing at this, you are mature and wise beyond your years. I'm sure you could take care of yourself just fine and…you probably tend to bear the burdens of others more than anyone." Ritsuka's playful demeanor then quickly faded as he realized that this total stranger just completely figured him out in a matter of minute. He could only sit in a stunned silence. "Well, how close am I?"
"D-dead on…H-how are you able to read me that well?" Ritsuka then watched on as something seem to spark in the man's violet eyes and he saw them grow soft and his expression lighten, as if he was reminiscing.
"You really are so much like her…"
"Is that why…you saved me?"
"Hmph….I guess so. I have always been driven to protect her at all costs…so when I saw you being attacked, I just couldn't help myself. I felt the overwhelming urge to protect you, like I do her….it was a strange feeling actually." Ritsuka was then at a complete loss for words and he did his best to break the silence by changing the subject.
"Well should we start looking for your sister?" Kougaiji also tried to snap out of the odd daze he had stumbled into.
"Y-yeah."
"Alright, let's get going then." Ritsuka then stood from his place on the couch and turned to begin to walk towards the door, but he was suddenly stopped however by the feeling of Kougaiji grabbing gently onto his wrist.
"Hold on a second…" Ritsuka then turned back around to see that Kougaiji was still seated but looking up at with eyes filled an emotion that he couldn't quite figure out.
"Is everything ok?"
"Yeah…it's just that…I feel strange…." Ritsuka could feel Kougaiji's grip on wrist tighten slightly and he swallowed hard, beginning to become fearful of what was going on.
"I-is everything ok?"
"There is something about you…I…I just don't think I can help it…."
"Don't think you can help wh-"
Ritsuka's words were then abruptly cut off as he was yanked downwards so that he fell into Kougaiji's lap. His eyes then grew wide in shock when the crimson haired man pressed his lips roughly to his own. Ritsuka's first thought was to panic but, for a reason he didn't understand, his body did the exact opposite and instead his eye lids fluttered closed and he eagerly returned Kougaiji's heated kiss. Seeming to be acting on pure instinct, Kougaiji moved a large hand to rest on the small of Ritsuka's back and pulled the boy closer so that they were pressed together chest to chest. This sudden movement caused Ritsuka to gasp slightly and unknowingly allow Kougaiji access to slip his tongue inside his mouth. As their tongues danced together, they both reveled in the other's taste which was nothing like anything thing either of them had experienced before. Finally after a few moments they broke away from each purely out of a need for air. They then sat panting, looking into each other's eyes in silence before Kougaiji mustered the air to speak.
"I'm sorry….I said I couldn't help it."
TBC