Gah, so long since I've updated! Stay with me guys, I apologize, really I do. I've had a lot going on (in between uploading other fics), and to be honest, I just wasn't getting hit with a lot of inspiration for this chapter.
This chapter is dedicated to endiahna, who showed a great deal of enthusiasm for wanting to read further chapters. She's (forgive me, endiahna, if you're a boy) a major part of the reason this chapter's here as early as it is.
Personally, with this chapter and the fake ears and all, it's something I've always said. In the Loveless world, you can hide if you aren't a virgin, but you can't hide it if you are. So much for all the guys who like to go around saying "Yeah, I score every night because I'm a big man!" when they've actually never done anything. They'd still have their ears.
Unless they cut them off or something...
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Ritsuka lay in Soubi's bed, which was nothing more than a mattress right now. The sheets had been stripped off the previous night. Ritsuka held a pillow that smelled overpoweringly like Soubi clenched in his arms, his face buried in it. Soubi was gone at the moment, to the store, Ritsuka assumed.
He couldn't stop his mind from reeling.
Was he wrong? Was what he and Soubi were doing right? They'd done it again. And Ritsuka didn't know if he should.
He loved Soubi, he knew he did, or else he wouldn't have given his ears up to the man. But now... it was almost as if he were starting to regret it. Losing his ears at his age was certainly not something he was proud of, not when he had to go to a school where everyone, even his teacher, still had ears.
He had stopped talking to people at school. He hadn't seen his mother in days. Not that he was feeling homesick. He'd rather stay with Soubi and have the very life pounded out of him each and every night than go back to her.
He heard the door open downstairs, and felt the color rise in his cheeks. He didn't want to see Soubi... but he wanted to see him so badly at the same time. The bedroom door opened, bringing a wave of fresh air with Soubi. Ritsuka pressed his face closer to the pillow. He heard Soubi chuckle as he sat down next to him.
"Here, Ritsuka."
Ritsuka looked bashfully up at Soubi, who was holding a pair of ears in his hand. His eyes widened, and he forgot his embarrassment.
"S-Soubi?"
"Ritsuka. You're... going to need these." Soubi looked away. "You're going back to your mother."
"No!" Ritsuka sat up straighter, pulling Soubi around to face him. "Why?"
"You have to, Ritsuka." Soubi said softly. "Look at you. Look at what I've done to you."
Ritsuka blushed. "You... haven't done anything to me!"
"Haven't I?"
"Well... it hasn't... bothered me! I'm still the same as I was before! Just... without ears..."
"Ritsuka." Soubi lifted the boy's chin in his fingers. "I love you."
"Soubi..."
"I... shouldn't have lost control last night. I... we... shouldn't have..."
"But Soubi!"
"Even now..." Soubi's eyes scorched into Ritsuka's. "I... I'm finding it hard to hold back."
Ritsuka blushed and looked down. "Please... don't send me back."
Soubi didn't answer. He pulled Ritsuka to him, holding his chin as he slipped the velvet black ears onto his head. He leaned back and smiled, pushing Ritsuka up toward the mirror. Ritsuka looked at his reflection, his breath catching. He'd always heard about fake ears, but these looked so... real on him. It was as if... he'd never...
"It looks perfect, Ritsuka. Your mother will never know."
"I... I don't want them," Ritsuka said quietly, reaching up a hand to pull them off. Soubi stopped him, his fingers lacing with the smaller ones. He held the hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss on it.
"Why, Ritsuka..." he said, hurt touching his voice. "Do you wish... that we'd never..."
"No!" Ritsuka looked wildly up at Soubi. "I don't wish that at all! I love you! I just wish..." His eyes flooded with tears again, and he sank into Soubi's warm chest, wanting to cry and never stop. Soubi ran a hand comfortingly through Ritsuka's hair, his body tingling as he felt the familiar ears sweep by his fingers. Ritsuka clutched Soubi's shirt tightly, and finally looked back up. Soubi wiped away the remnant tears still shimmering on the boy's cheeks with a delicate hand.
"I'll keep them."
"That's good." Soubi leaned down to claim Ritsuka's lips in another soft, passionate kiss. Ritsuka melted into the moment, feeling himself being pulled into the blissful haze that was Soubi's warmth.
"But I'm not going back," Ritsuka said when Soubi pulled away. "I'll just let her see me with my ears, and I'll tell her I'm going to stay with you for a little while. She'll think everything's fine."
"Are you sure?"
Ritsuka held onto Soubi, burying his face in the man's shoulder.
"Yes," he breathed. "She's been waiting for Ritsuka to return for a few years now."
XXX
"Mom?" Ritsuka stepped nervously into his kitchen, leaving Soubi waiting outside. His fake tail swished behind him, his ears set firmly on the top of his head. He saw his mother walk into the room, and stop.
"R-Ritsuka?"
"Yeah, Mom... it's me. I'm back."
"Ritsuka!" Misaki ran forward, embracing her son, but he stood quietly. He only wanted it to be over. "You're finally back... my Ritsuka... where have you been?"
"I've... been gone, Mom." He knew she wasn't talking about him. She was talking about the real "Ritsuka".
"Ma'am?" Soubi stepped into the kitchen, bowing lightly to Misaki. He stopped a few feet from Ritsuka's side.
"Mom," Ritsuka said brightly, feigning every minute of his happy charade. "This is Agatsuma Soubi. He's my friend." He thought he saw Soubi's lips turn up in a smirk at the word "friend", but he continued anyway.
"I'm going to stay with him for a while. Kinda like a sleepover."
"But, Ritsuka..." Misaki said. "Why don't you want to be here?"
"I just want to be with my friends for a while, okay?"
Misaki looked from Soubi to Ritsuka, and finally nodded with a smile.
"Have fun, Ritsuka!" she said, hugging him one last time, and placing a kiss between his ears. "Come home soon!"
"Yeah," Ritsuka said, thinking that he'd probably never come back. "Goodbye, Mom."
He turned around and walked out the door with Soubi, who bowed one last time to Misaki. He followed Ritsuka out the door, who had already disappeared around a corner and pulled his ears off.
Soubi caught him up for another kiss, and this time, Ritsuka returned it with fierce passion.
"Run away with me, Soubi," he breathed onto the man's lips.
"What?"
"Let's run away. Just you and me."
T.B.C...
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Heh heh cliffhanger! And thank you to all of my lovely reviewers! Please review some more!