"Search and rescue?"
Ritsuka's expression quickly shifted his attitude from anxiety to surprise while Soubi's suspicious showed all too clearly on his face.
"The school isn't the appropriate for this…let's take this elsewhere. There is a park nearby." The opposing duo gave each other a quick glance before turning back to the blonde with grins from ear to ear.
"That's fine with us."
"We don't care one way or the other."
With that, Soubi took his small partner under his arm, pulling him close, before leading the way towards the park and away from the school building. As they walked along the sidewalk Soubi made sure to put a good amount of distance between himself and his partner, and the boys behind them. Ritsuka could hear Youji and Natsuo giggling periodically behind them, but in that moment he was more concerned about just how tightly Soubi was clinging onto him.
"Soubi…" The sound of the boy's voice was just enough to snap Soubi out of his forward fixed gaze to look down at his side to reply.
"Yes?"
"What's wrong?"
"I just don't trust them…and I don't like the look of all this."
"Well I don't either Soubi, but why are you so worried? It's still just Youji and Natsuo…even if we have to fight them, it shouldn't be too hard. You've beaten them before." Soubi seemed to completely ignore the boy's words and instead stopped where he was and turned to face the boys that were trailing them.
"This is good enough."
Youji and Natsuo both stopped in the middle of a small grassy clearing in the middle of the heavily wooded park where they now found themselves. The Zero boys stood in silence, hand in hand, and simply waited until the tall blonde broke the somewhat eerie silence.
"So…Search and rescue?" The blue haired boy cracked a smile at Soubi's overly serious expression.
"That's right."
"Who exactly is your target?"
"It's rather obvious isn't it?" Soubi gained a very sour expression at the boy's arrogance.
"It's not actually…so humor me." The caused both boys to chuckle before the red head answered.
"It's Ritsuka Aoyagi of course." This was genuinely surprised both Ritsuka and Soubi but Ritsuka was the first to question.
"Me? Why me? I'm not missing or in danger." Soubi then added with his own questions.
"Even if he was…why would Nagisa or Ritsu even care enough to send someone?"
"Why exactly anyone would care is none of your business. As for why he is the target, well…think about it. After all the attention you two attract it's not hard to see why it would raise interest when Loveless suddenly vanishes from school and can't be found at his home. He basically disappeared overnight without a trace, so of course someone noticed that." Soubi gave a scowl at this, not being entirely comfortable that someone at the academy had been watching Ritsuka without his knowledge.
"He didn't disappear. As long as I am alive, Ritsuka will always be safe." Youji gave a small scoff at this before replying.
"Well we brought up the idea that Loveless was with you, but you up and moved without telling anyone. So it's not like we could just drop by to check."
"It's no one's business if I move or not."
"That may be true, but the fact remains that we have our orders to locate and retrieve Loveless by any means necessary." Soubi then gently pushed Ritsuka to be standing safely behind him.
"That's not going to happen."
"Come on now Soubi…you're not really going to fight us are you?" Soubi gritted his teeth as he shot a fiery glare at the small blue haired boy.
"That's entirely up to you…but Ritsuka isn't going anywhere." Youji let out a long sigh before looking to his partner with a grimace.
"It looks like he is serious."
"I told you."
"Yeah yeah. Let's just get this over with already." The red head then shot a cocky smirk towards the tall blonde.
"We declare this to be a battle of spells." Soubi then looked over his shoulder at his Sacrifice, silently awaiting approval.
"I don't want to go with them Soubi…you better win."
"Understood." Soubi then took a deep breathe, very unsure of what may happen, before turning back to face the Zeroes. "We accept." Youji and Natsuo then replied in unison.
"We are Zero. Prepare the pain of absolute Zero."
"We are Loveless."
With those words a large wave of light erupted from the center of the clearing, engulfing the entire area. With the battle area set, Natsuo quickly went of the offensive.
"Shatter! Cut the skin in a million places!" The red heads words sent a powerful shockwave through the area, shattering the glass from all of the street lamps and sending the shards hurdling towards Ritsuka. Soubi was very quick to raise a large hand in defiance of the attack.
"Denied. Turn the attack away and damage is zero." Despite Soubi's quick and effective defense, Youji gave an annoyed scoff at the blonde's words.
"Heh…Zero. That's our line." Soubi ignored the boy's comment completely and instead continued the battle with haste.
"Disintegrate. Turn the enemy to dust." The blonde's spell sent vibrations racing through the air towards Zero's Sacrifice.
"Deflect. Nothing will reach here." Soubi's attack was stopped just short of its target and was faded away to nothing. Natsuo was quickly growing tired of the mundane routine of battle and was quick to attack once again.
"Incinerate; Speed times three. Flames spread over the body and burn everything." A towering wall of crackling flames then washed over Ritsuka before Soubi could utter a single syllable of defense.
"Ahh!"
Ritsuka gritted his teeth in pain as a restraint clamped down tightly around his small neck. He suddenly felt his knees buckle and his vision blur slightly, but what Ritsuka couldn't figure out was why his body was reacting in such away after only one hit. He had battled with Soubi countless times and never once had he even fainted or not been able to handle the pain. Before he could wonder about it any further, he felt Soubi's strong arms wrap around him before everything went dark.
"Ritsuka?!" Soubi held the boy's limp body tightly in his arms, feeling completely helpless, until Ritsuka finally let out a few small coughs and his eyes fluttered open.
"I-I'm fine Soubi. I'm sorry…I guess it's just been a while." Ritsuka then shakily picked himself up out of Soubi's arms before looking at him with a determined smile. "Now you better beat them Soubi."
"Understood." The blonde then turned to face the Zeroes who were now standing with arms crossed and annoyed expressions on their faces.
"Are you two just about done over there? We do have lives you know." Soubi ignored the snide remark and began his offense.
"Inferno. Fan the flames and melt away everything down to bone."
The words rekindled the smoldering embers until a vortex of flames completely engulfed the small blue haired boy. Once the flames settled, Soubi gave a satisfied smirk upon seeing that the boy had gained two restraints around both of his wrists. Despite the restraints, Youji quickly gave a cocky smirk of his own.
"Oh come on now Soubi…I really hope you weren't actually expected a reaction out of me. You should know better by now."
Soubi gritted his teeth slightly as he thought about whether even to respond to the boy's remark. Before he could decide however, he was happily distracted by the sound of Ritsuka's voice calling to him from behind.
"Soubi! Don't let them get to you! You've beaten them before and you can do it again." The blonde tried his hardest to be inspired by the boy's but for once in his life, he simply couldn't.
"The same spells won't work on them Ritsuka…I can't just lower the temperature anymore. We need a new strategy!"
"I know I know! I'm working on it."
"We really hate to disrupt this little lover's quarrel but…you really should be paying attention." Youji then gave a grin and a nod of his head to his partner.
"Decimate! Tear the enemy to pieces!" Natsuo's words sent a wave of bright light rushing across the clearing.
"Deflect! The attack cannot reach here." A shimmering bubble then quickly enveloped both Soubi and Ritsuka. Only a split second later, the wave of light crashed against the bubble before shattering it to pieces. Ritsuka couldn't help but to cry out as two more restraints appeared around his small wrists.
"Ahh!"
"Ritsuka!" Soubi immediately whipped around to see that this time Ritsuka was standing on shaky legs with gritted teeth behind an angry scowl.
"Soubi! I'm tired of this damn it! Get rid of them already!"
"How?!" Ritsuka then steadied himself as best he could before answering in a very serious tone.
"You know how Soubi…" The blonde's expression and tone then became frustrated and pleading.
"I don't!"
"Think about it…think about how they've been defeated before." Soubi's eyes grew wide in as he suddenly realized what the boy was suggesting.
"No…I won't do that!"
"Why not?! You are plenty powerful enough to pull it off."
"Because you aren't strong enough. It could cause permanent damage!"
"I can handle it Soubi!"
"No! I won't risk it!" The conversation was then suddenly interrupted by the blue haired boy.
"Didn't I say you should be paying attention? End this Natsuo!"
"With pleasure…Total destruction. Completely annihilate the pesky lovers!" The ground then began to shake and rumble as clouds full of lightning gathered above. A massive bolt then erupted from the clouds and Soubi could only look on helplessly, knowing he had almost no time to react.
"Soubi! Do it now! That's an order!" The blonde then let out a low deep growl before begrudgingly obeyed Ritsuka's order.
"Substitution. Severe this bond to form another." Before anyone could react, the bolt of lightning suddenly changed its target before landing squarely on Youji.
"Youji!" The red head quickly rushed over to his, now unconscious and completely restrained partner and fell to the ground to wrap his lifeless body in his arms.
"Victory." Soubi's claim caused the battlefield to burst and disappear. As soon as the field collapsed, all the restraints disappeared and the red head looked up from his partner to yell at the tall blonde.
"You bastard! That was low even for you!" Soubi then walked over to the boy before picking him up off the ground by the collar of his baggy shirt.
"Don't ever try to take Ritsuka from me." Soubi's tone was pure ice and anger, getting his point across very clearly.
"Ok ok!" Youji then snapped back to life just in time to try and diffuse the situation.
"Soubi that's enough! Let him go! You've already won!" Soubi did just as requested and dropped the red head to the ground with a thud. He then watched as the defeated boys scampered off into the darkness before returning to his own partner.
"Ritsuka, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. I told you that….nnn!" Ritsuka stopped mid-sentence to wince in pain as his knees finally buckled beneath him. Before the boy could fall more than a few inches however, Soubi dropped to his knees to catch his lover in his arms.
"Ritsuka! What's wrong?!" Ritsuka looked up at the blonde with a small smile and half lidded eyes.
"I-I'm fine…the battle on top of everything else was just a little too much on my body. It'll be fine." Soubi then ran a large hand delicately through the boy's soft jet black hair as he looked down at him with soft doughy eyes.
"What do you mean Ritsuka? What's everything else? Did something happen today?" The boy gave a small adoring chuckle as he raised a small shaky hand to gently touch the pale white skin of Soubi's cheek.
"You'll get this down one day…Until then don't beat yourself up about it ok?" The boy's eyes then began to flutter and his hand fell back to his chest. "See ya next time blondie…"
Soubi's eyes grew in surprise as he realized who he had been talking to, but before he could respond, the boy finally fell unconscious in his arms, sound asleep. All he could do in that moment was let out a long sigh before hoisting the small body up into his arms and beginning the walk home.
"Until next time…Riku."
TBC