This story contains spoilers. If you have not read the manga all the way through, reading this will spoil the ending for you. If you do not read Japanese, the final LOVELESS manga (volume 7) comes out in America on November 17th, 2007.
Preface: LOVELESS
LOVELESS. Ritsuka frowned, running his fingers over the red letters. L-O-V-E-L-E-S-S. One without love. What a name to be chained with...
The letters spanned out painfully across his thin shoulders, carved in a deep red. Thin, black lines swirled around the word, forming long, translucent butterfly wings across his back. The whole design was lined in pink and ached terribly; he didn't mind the pain, since it was the small price for such a beautiful marking.
For me, it's no more than formality of a fate I finally accepted. To fight and be fought, to be Loveless.
Soubi studied his own back in the mirror, his fingers running over the black lines he could reach; the blonde smiled even as his winced in pain from his own back. For me, a formality. For him, it's a mark of ownership. I don't think I've ever seen him wear that particular expression before. His cobalt eyes shimmered with a kind of gleefulness; Ritsuka knew by heart the false smiles he wore, that aching mask, but this was different, more open, his contentment stemming from his incurable addiction to dependence.
He'd been freed from Seimei, only to be chained to Ritsuka.
The prospect pleased Soubi far more than Ritsuka, but Soubi's codependency was something he'd also learned to accept. The tattoo was a great stride toward proving Ritsuka's submission to fate, finally creating the name he'd been, up until now, denied in a physical fashion.
"Are you happy now?" Ritsuka asked, rhetorically, trying not to itch his abused skin.
Soubi smiled at him, his eyes shining through the thin lenses of his glasses, before returning his attention to the mirror.
Finally having a true Sacrifice probably made him the happiest masochist in the world. Ritsuka smiled affectionately at the thought. Being a fake for years must have been incredibly painful to him.
When Ritsuka turned his attention back to Soubi, he was touching his neck, the giddy smile wiped from his features as if it had never been.
"Soubi?"
Seimei, why did you have to do this to him? That ever-present sadness in Soubi was his fault, Seimei's. The realization was still painful to Ritsuka.
"Soubi?" he repeated, gently, moving close enough to press his own fingers to the lingering scars on Soubi's neck. It had been more than a year and a half since Seimei "died," leaving Soubi to wallow in his silent despair. The scars of that time lingered, and not just the physical ones, giving endless depression and nightmares to the new Loveless sentouki. "Soubi, Seimei gave you this, didn't he?"
Ritsuka frowned as the older man nodded, his gaze cold and tired.
Seimei, why? Knowing he was a stand-in, why did you have to give him a false name? The spell that bound them together had been real enough, but the letters so painstakingly carved into the delicate skin of neck, those were a lie. You knew what going against his "name" would feel like. It would bleed during battle, Seimei, not because he was going against the name BELOVED, but because he was going against you.
Ritsuka tugged on his shoulders, and Soubi collapsed willingly into his arms. "I'm sorry, Soubi, for all he's taken from you. I'll make it up to you; I swear."
This last year, it's broken him. Ritsuka resettled himself on floor into a more comfortable position, embracing Soubi, careful not to touch the aching lines of new tattoo across his back. But I'll put you back together; I'll make Seimei atone for his sins.
I swear it, Soubi.