Dlbn: As promised, here I am with a new update! I'll post another later tonight.
Nbld: Let's start with the Review Corner! Thank you to Promocat for reviewing! Pie for you!
Promocat: Got that right. I feel like in the series Seimei may expect Ritsuka to sacrifice himself in some way (if the anime's ending means anything other than being random nonsense)
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Loveless or anyone in it. It all belongs to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of writing this story.
Disclaimer 2: I do NOT own the song *** by ***, which this fic is based off of. I make NO money out of referencing it.
000
Dinner with Soubi that night had been nice, but the blonde had seemed rather distant. Ritsuka tried to convince himself that it was just because he didn't want to get Ritsuka in the mood to do anything when the point of all of this was to just get him good food and a good night of sleep. Still, sleep couldn't find him as he lay awake in his bed three hours after Soubi had left; convinced Ritsuka was asleep when he had only been faking it. The photographs still confused him. He'd looked at the negatives after turning in the photographs to the editor and getting his next assignment. The assignment was relatively easy. It was the fiftieth wedding anniversary of an elderly couple in town. Ritsuka only had to take a few photographs of them-one of them alone and one of them with their two children and four grandchildren-while Osamu interviewed them and her partner recorded the conversation. At least there was no way for that intrusive doll to sneak his way in. Being at a town event where it was crowded and busy and he wasn't likely to be spotted was one thing. Showing up at a private residence where there weren't many people and he could easily be detected was another. Seimei seemed smart enough, so there was no way he was stupid enough to do something so reckless and risk exposing himself. Then again, if he could appear in photographs from the parade and go missing from them within fifteen or twenty minutes, maybe he could appear at the home and get away with it. Either way, Ritsuka would keep ti to himself if he did see the doll. Last thing he needed was for people to begin thinking he was going insane like the others in Kio's story been reported doing. He wasn't fond of the idea of being locked up like his mother should have been years before she murdered his father. Really, he couldn't blame her and only her for that instance his father was a lousy father and husband, and all around shitty person. He'd cheated on his wife for years and ignored her slow descent into madness although everyone, Ritsuka included, had warned him. He was only a little surprised to see his father's mistress and her son from a previous relationship at the funeral; a small diamond engagement ring on her finger. He'd been too disgusted with his father to say anything to her. She probably hadn't known he was still married until he was dead. Keeping secrets was one thing his father was good at. After all, he kept this Amia woman and her son secret from his wife for so long. Why not keep his wife a secret from them as well? It would explain why she was willing to wear his engagement ring.
Unable to sleep, Ritsuka stood and kicked off the blankets. He trudged into the hallway to the door that led to nowhere or somewhere and tried to push it open. This time, the door gave way for him and he was able to get into the room. It was still full of dusty boxes like it had been before.
"Seimei?" Ritsuka called. "Are you in here? Or am I alone?"
"You're never alone, Ritsuka." Seimei spoke from behind him.
Ritsuka jumped, surprised to see the doll in the hallway. "Oh…you scared me."
"My apologies. I was just heading to bed." Seimei nodded, grinning politely. "It isn't nice to go into people's rooms without their permission, you know."
"Sorry…" Ritsuka muttered. "I just had to make sure this was…"
"Was what? Real? Oh, dear Ritsuka, it's all very real. I assure you." The doll nodded. "Now, I saw Soubi here again. He's acting rather strange, isn't he? Like he's not interested? Pity. I thought you two might stand a chance…"
"Not interested?" Ritsuka shook his head. "You've got it all wrong. He wanted me t get some good food in my stomach and get some sleep so I'd stop hallucinating you…"
"How rude, I'm no hallucination."
"If he'd gotten too close, I would have been tempted to take him into my room with me." Ritsuka shrugged. "He was just taking care of me, is all."
Seimei shook his head, walking around Ritsuka with stiff legs. "So naïve." He commented. "I may not know what love is, myself, but I can tell what it looks like when someone loses interest in the person they once claimed to love. After all, he got your ears from you. What more does he need?"
Ritsuka stormed past the doll and slammed the door shut. How dare that little thing insinuate that Ritsuka was nothing more then some kind of cheap lay? Jerk. He shut off his flashlight as he crawled into bed. Pulling the covers over his head as he turned onto his side and closed his eyes to sleep, Ritsuka didn't notice the gleaming purple eye in the darkened corner of his bedroom.
000
When Ritsuka awoke the next morning, he passed the door that led to nowhere as if it wasn't even there. He was still irked at the doll for the night before. He paused at the top of the stairs. Had he really just thought that? The plum eyed teen shook his head and laughed nervously.
"Maybe I am going insane…"
"I wouldn't say that." Seimei's voice greeted.
Ritsuka let out a shout as he jumped and turned, gripping tight to the banister for support.
"God damn, Seimei!" He cursed, clutching at his chest. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"Language, Ritsuka, language." Seimei scolded, rubbing one porcelain finger against another in a scolding motion.
"I think I deserve to use a little bit of foul language with all the crap you do around here!"
"Ah, who ever could believe that someone who looks so angelic while sleeping could have such a mouth on him?" Seimei practically swooned. "What complex creatures you humans are. It…intrigues me."
Ritsuka shuddered. "You're such a creep."
"Not nice." Seimei frowned.
"You deserve it." Ritsuka shrugged.
Seimei didn't seem to like that but he didn't say anything about it. Ritsuka continued on down the stairs to get breakfast before going to meet Osamu to prepare for their assignment.
000
To say that he wasn't bored listening to the elderly couple's story of how they met would be a bold faced lie. Ritsuka took photographs as he was instructed to do before the interviews began, but Osamu insisted on a photograph or two of her conducting the interview for the newspaper office's bulletin board. He tried to ignore the feeling of sleep coming over him as he listened to the couple go on and on. He laughed when appropriate and threw in the occasional 'aw' when Osamu did. Looking around the room, he spotted a few family photographs hanging from the wall and on the bookshelf. The house was rather average and reminded him a lot of one of his old foster homes. Probably the second home he was in. Almost everything was the same; from the arrangement of the furniture to the type of carpeting in the living room. The only thing that wasn't the same was the creepy little Seimei doll sitting on the steps in the hallway. Ritsuka looked back to the couple to seem interested. Wait, what?! He turned back quickly to look at the stairs, but the Seimei doll was gone.
"It's all in my head. I'm just spooked by those damn dreams and hallucinations, that's all." He thought to himself. "The doll isn't here because he doesn't exist. Soubi told me so and he wouldn't lie to me."
Ritsuka blinked in confusion when he spotted the doll at the end of the hallway, grinning at him before turning around, first just the body and then the head. Seimei began walking down the hall.
"Um…I'm really sorry to interrupt, and even more so to even have to ask this, but…may I use your bathroom?"
The couple's granddaughter, about six years old, giggled.
"Sure." The grandfather smiled gently. "It's right down that hallway, fourth on the left."
"Arigato. Very much." Ritsuka quickly walked down the hall, hearing the interview pick back up as he did so.
He spotted Seimei standing near the entrance to the bathroom and scooped him up, taking him into the room and shutting the door. He set the doll on the counter and held him there by the shoulders.
"What are you doing here?!" He wondered, his growl more of a whisper so he wouldn't attract attention.
"I wanted to be with you." Seimei pouted, but it was far from adorable. "It's oh so lonely at that house, and you have such interesting adventures."
"I'm working." Ritsuka had to resist the urge to slam the doll into the medicine cabinet. "I don't need to be seeing you around here when I need to concentrate."
"You were practically sleeping. Hardly something to focus on." Seimei scoffed.
Ritsuka sighed and set the doll on the floor. "I've had enough of you. See yourself out before you get yourself caught. I'm going back to work. Don't bother me."
"I just wanted to be friends." Seimei sniffled, though there was no way his nose was stuffed or his eyes were watering.
He was a doll. Not a human.
Ritsuka sighed. "Hard to be friends with a three inch tall stalker."
He flushed the toilet and ran the water for a few minutes for good measure before exiting. Osamu was standing outside the door.
"Talking to yourself isn't healthy." She said.
"I was on my phone." Ritsuka replied. "Not talking to myself."
"Sure." She giggled. "We're done now, but I didn't think leaving without saying anything would be nice."
"Yeah probably not." He agreed.
"Well, come on, let's get going then."
Ritsuka spared one more glance at the bathroom to make sure the doll wasn't in plain sight, only to find him gone. Not surprised, he sighed and continued leaving. The door underneath the sink opened and Seimei's little head poked out. He growled before shutting the cabinet door.