The Color of Chinese Bellflowers
Chapter five: One who let sky fall

Disclaimer: I do not own Loveless.
A/N: This is an original AU fic. I've tried my best to keep everyone in character.

Early morning rays of sunlight trickled through Ritsuka's open window. They illuminated his face softly, causing his sleeping eyes to twitch. His own delicate hand raised to cover his eyes. It was too early in the morning for him, who usually slept in until noon.

It had been about two weeks since his visit to the garden with Soubi. He hadn't seen him since then, every time he stepped into a room his eyes eagerly scanned the room in secret, hoping to catch a glimpse of the tall ash blonde man. Unfortunately he hadn't caught that glimpse he wished for so strongly since that night. He wanted it, he longed for it. Longed for the accepting gaze, the blissful aura of understanding that enveloped them both when they talked. It was even in his dreams, just he and Soubi talking. Rolling over he tried in vain to fall asleep again hoping to continue the dream.

He knew it wasn't real, but in the life he was leading dreaming was one of his few comforts. The loud and irritating growl of his stomach was too blaring for him to ignore. He slowly sat up, letting the blanket's fall off of his chest. It should have been about time for breakfast anyway, he judged by the position of the morning sun. Ritsuka lazily grabbed the sheets tossing them lazily off of his legs.

Standing up he regained his balance, his senses dull from sleep. It only took a few steps for him to reach the door, when dizziness took over and he had to close his eyes, resting his forehead against the doorframe gently. He stood there for a few moments before the smell of cooking food tickled his nose and the growling of his stomach he remembered how hungry he was.

He smiled, and slid open the door. Strangely enough his footsteps echoed down the wodden hallway with each thump of a step he took. Usually there were either maids or other geisha running around, and occasionally Mieko too. They must already be eating breakfast. He dismissed the thought. He bounded lightly down the steps and opened the door to the nearby kitchen. Normally he expected to see the maids scurrying about preparing and serving breakfast, or cleaning it. Instead he was staring into the eyes of Mieko, who sat in a chair.

"Good morning, Ritsuka."

"Good morning to you too Mieko."

She gestured towards the seat next to her, that was infront of a plate of food. Ritsuka nodded obediantly and sat, giving into the will of his stomach and eating without a care for manners. All the while Mieko watched on with empty eyes. This raised a few questions in him though, normally when he ate so messily Mieko would scold him and then give him a lesson on how to use his manners. Even though he was only halfway done with his plate his stomach bulged with the feeling of being full. He placed his chopsticks beside the plate and looked directly at Mieko. Something didn't feel right. "Is anything wrong Mieko?"

She cleared her throat. "As you know, this okiya is in need of money." He nodded, that was an understatement. "And recently I was offered a deal that would effectively take care of that problem for years to come." Ritsuka nodded absent mindedly again, not seeing how this connected to him.

"I've sold you."

Ritsuka's heart dropped. The food he had swallowed only minutes before sat uncomfortably in his stomach all of a sudden. His brain was flooded in a tidal wave of questions. Who had she sold him to? How much had the person paid her? Was it a nice person? Would he still be able to live his life as a geisha? It wasn't until now he realized how much he had taken that taboo life for granted.

Any other morning he would have continued on thinking it was a mundane world built upon lies and the upkeep of social facades, but right now it was the only string of normalcy he held onto. And he held onto it with a furious grip that was slipping. His heart began to beat again when Mieko smiled sadly, reaching out to grab a piece of rice Ritsuka had gotten stuck to his cheek while eating. It was her first and only familial gesture to him. But then again, Mieko wasn't there to be his mom. Or even be a maternal figure, she was there to whip him into shape so she could make money. The next phrase out of her mouth put Ritsuka at a slight ease.

"You will be able to continue your life as a geisha. You might even know the person I sold you to, he seems to know you."

Ritsuka's heard exploded into a dance of uneven beats, his eyes widened. There was really only one man he had gotten to know personally and it was the one person he had been dreaming about these past weeks.

"A man named Agatsuma Soubi."

He gained control of himself again, managing to swallow the saliva he had forgotten when all of his bodily functions seemed to have stopped still. "Soubi? Soubi bought me?"

She nodded. "He said he needed you for an okiya he had started. I'm not sure why he needed you specifically, but you're who he requested."

"Tell me did he," his memory flashed back to the house and garden, "pay a lot of money for me?"

Mieko nodded. "Enough money to keep this okiya afloat like I said, for a good amount of years to come."

Ritsuka merely blinked. His brain was too busy trying to put together a puzzle he only thought was there. Had Soubi gotten close to him to see if he could turn him into a profitable geisha? Or did he really want to know all those things he asked? His eyes began to sting. In his life it was always his luck for it to be the first option, but his heart yelled in protest. It protested that someone could actually care, that someone could give a damn. But his logic and mind disagreed. Standing, he turned so his back was to Mieko so she could not see the battle of emotions play out across his face. His voice came out as a hoarse whisper. "When do I have to leave this okiya?"

"You're room can answer that."

Ritsuka's eyes widened. He had been in his room about 10 minutes ago, right? He didn't remember if anything seemed off, but he had just woken up. Changes in detail could and would go easily unnoticed. He sprinted from the room and up the stairs to go see what he had apparently missed upon waking. Hand on the door, it flung open. How could he not notice this? All of the makeup that belonged to the okiya that previously sat on his table and mirror were gone. The small amount of belongings that were actually his were neatly packed up in the back-right corner. His futon still lay in the middle of the floor in a lazy disarray. Soundlessly Mieko stepped in behind him. "Agatsuma Soubi wil be here for you at noon today, which is soon. I took the liberty of having the maids gather your things. I thought you would wake up so I could tell you then but you slept so heavily even the maids couldn't wake you. So I decided I could give you one last meal in this okiya before I told you."

Ritsuka nodded. "Thankyou." He looked up to see one of the maids stop by the door. She brushed a messy lock of hair out of her face, "Mieko? That man is here."

Wordlessly Mieko turned to Ritsuka. He didn't need to hear it, the phrase was in her eyes. "Goodbye, Mieko."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Natsuo hugged his knees to his chest, his eyes moist and weary from crying all night past sunrise. It was around noon. Out of all of the times he had Youji had spent the countless nights snuggled into each others futons Nagisa had never known about it. He was confused, why was it such a bad thing? They weren't trying anythng they had seen any adults do. They just wanted to be close to each other, to hear their hearts beat in unison.

And now the morning after, Youji was in Nagisa's room attempting to explain temselves. Natsuo wasn't in there because quite frankly Nagisa preffered Youji more. He never knew what reasoning led her to pick a favorite since they were sort of a package deal. But he couldn't complain, if it weren't for Nagisa intervening on their fate that night he would have died a homeless half blind child in the blood stained snow. He never liked to think about what would have happened to Youji if that man had been able to continue on.

Tentatively, his fingers rested against his white eyepatch. The bottle the man had thrown at his face broke on that eye, shredding it. It wasn't like he didn't have one under there, it just didn't look very pleasant. His eye had healed in a way, looking a bit deformed. It was a large sore spot for him. That eye was a representation of the weekness he felt, the inability to save Youji that night. It also became something special to them in a way, Youji was the only person Natsuo let see it. Ever.

Often when they were alone, his mint haired counterpart requested that Natsuo not wear the medically issued eyepatch. He thought it was a special badge of trust between them, that Natsuo trusted Youji enough not to be put off by the look of his disfigured right eye. Fading pink scars still spead out around it. It made Natsuo so happy that Youji didn't mind it, that he would even at times touch it or kiss it when it was closed. He knew no one else could ever compare.

He jumped, upon hearing the sound of Nagisa's door opening. He had been sitting across from her door, hoping to catch a whisper or a word from inside but no luck. Slowly his eyes turned upwad, meeting Youji's. Suprisingly they weren't angry or vengefull, like he thought they would be. What bothered him was that they were completely emotionless, save for the flash of releif that was always present when they were within each others sights. "Youji? What's wrong?" Wordlessly, the mint haired boy offered out his hand. Natsuo took it and stood. Intertwining hands and fingers, Youji led them both back to their room. Closing the door behind them, he finally broke the stifling silence.

"A maid, she was instructed to check on us. She thought we were..." pausing he turned his head to the side slightly. His eyes for once too shy to meet Natsuo's. "Anyway she alerted Nagisa. That's where she came in."

"Did you explain to her?"

His voice came out loud and harsh "What? Explain the woman who took us in that-"

Natsuo stepped forward, grabbing Youji's chin and forcing him to look into his stern glare. "That we're meant for each other and only each other?"

Being forced to watch him as he spoke such words caused a blush to tint his face a rosy color. His temper immidiately cooled and his voice lowered to a soft whisper, "I couldn't tell her."

Natsuo's voice came out clear and strong. "I will then."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Ritsuka's bottom shifted nervously. Soubi had taken him this morning, not to the house with the beautiful garden but to an okiya he had bought.

"Soubi? This isn't your house?"

"Well, technically it is. The house I took you to last time we met as I told you was bought by someone trying to please me. However I myself bought this okiya. I live here now, with a maid named Kio. You'll meet him later. But I'd like to give you the honor of being my okiya's very first geisha."

You aren't giving me the honor, you bought me and made me take the honor. Ritsuka thought. It troubled him but he shrugged it off, there was time to think about that later.

"You don't seem very happy Ritsuka. Is there anything I can do to change that?"

Ritsuka blushed, this was always the redeeming part about Soubi. "Well, I'm pretty hungry."

"And what is your favorite food?"

Ritsuka's childish face formed into a blank stare. "Ice cream."

"Ice cream, OK. Do you have any friends Ritsuka?"

He almost immidiately said no, but then one person actually popped into his mind. "I did meet a girl named Yuiko on the street a while back. Why?"

"Oh, no reason." Soubi smiled. The kind of smile that had something else behind it.

And this something else was it. "I love this flavor Ristuka! Don't you?" Yuiko smiled with her head turned to the side inquisitavely.

"Yuck. I like vanilla much better." Ritsuka turned his nose up in playful mock disgust.

"You said your name was Soubi right? Thankyou for the icecream!"

So here Ritsuka was, a spur of the moment meeting. Soubi had taken Yuiko and himself to eat icecream, and now they sat at Ritsuka's favorite place in the whole district. A small bridge, without sides so ones legs could easily hang off of the side while sitting on it. Somehow, Soubi had known exactly which okiya Yuiko belonged to. It wouldn't have been as suprising if Yuiko were a geisha, but she was only a maid. Oh well, it was simply another mystery about Soubi that Ritsuka thought he'd somehow never solve. Although now the sun was setting, a que for Yuiko to hurry back to her okiya. Soubi and Ristuka waved goodbye to Yuiko as she happily bounced down the street, almost crashing into a stand while her head was turned back waving at them.

Slowly, Soubi turned to Ristuka. "Are you happier now, Ristuka?"

He nodded eagerly, "yeah! I'm glad you picked up Yuiko and everything. Thankyou!"

Soubi smiled, seemingly glowing, "that's good."

Ristuka looked up at him, "why?"

He kneeled down to meet the smaller ones eye level, "because your happiness is important to me. Just as important as understanding you, which I hold above everything else." Slowly, his long arms encircled the catboy in a warm embrace.

I hope you all liked the twist I threw in :3 Remember reviews make a happy author !

PREVIEW FOR CHAPTER 6 - October 26, 2007
It was about ten o'clock when he stepped out of the front door of the okiya. Kio had given him a confused face and asked him why he was leaving, to which Ritsuka puffed his chestly slightly and responded, "I need to find a woman." Amidst a sea of gut grabbing laughter curtousy of Kio Ritsuka left.