Dlbn: Back with another longer chapter. Need to make the chapters longer if I want to finish updating on Christmas Day. Expect another chapter maybe Saturday and one Monday.

Nbld: No reviews so no Review Corner.

Disclaimer: I do not own Loveless or any canon characters (such as Ritsu, Nana, Nagisa, etc.). I however do own their Fighters, certain members that aren't canon yet, and certain personalities of characters such as Aoyagi Aidien and Kunugi Asitai. All canon pieces belong to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of writing in this category.

Spoiler Warning: Nothing major. Just some scenes set during the time of Careless that you won't see there.

000

"Mirai, wait!"

Asitai grabbed the wrist of his younger Fighter just before he reached the Seven Voices Academy lobby.

"Tai, my parents are waiting, and they're not happy with me as it is…" Mirai muttered. "I don't have time."

"Make time." Asitai urged. "We have to talk."

"About what?"

"What happened the other day…when we got kicked out…?"

"You mean when I embarrassed the shit out of myself by kissing you…?" Mirai flushed. "I'd rather try to forget about that, master, if you don't mind."

"Well I'm not set on forgetting." Asitai frowned, spinning the boy by his wrist to face him.

Mirai kept his eyes trained on the ground.

"Would you look at me, please? I can't let you walk out that door without talking to you about this."

"MY parents aren't happy, Tai, if I keep them waiting…"

"This won't take long."

"Can't I just call you tonight?"

"No, it has to be in person, and I don't know how far apart we're going to be."

"Fine. Make it quick…"

"I know you think I was upset or bothered by it or whatever, but I promise you, I'm not."

Mirai looked up. "You're…not…?" He wondered, confused. "But…but why…?"

Asitai pulled him close until Mirai had no choice but to drop his remaining bags and press his hands against the elder male's chest.

"…Tai…?" He wondered.

Asitai smiled gently, flushing deeply. "I love you, Shenai Mirai…" He pressed his lips gently to the younger's.

Mirai's hands flew up to his collar and pulled him into a deeper kiss. They parted a few moments later, though neither really wanted to.

"You…" Mirai flushed. "I…I love you, too…"

Asitai kissed him again, this time with a little strength behind him. His hands slid up Mirai's back under his denim jacket and cotton tee. Mirai's fingers gently gripped at his Sacrifice's hair at the nape of his neck. They separated and pressed their foreheads together.

"I'll call you later, okay?" Asitai wondered.

"Hai, that's fine. Just give me time to get through unpacking and lecturing."

"Same." Asitai chuckled, kissing the younger's temple. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Asitai picked up one of Mirai's bags. "I'll help you out."

Mirai nodded. "Thanks…" He grabbed the other suitcase.

This was the moment he dreaded since they were kicked out of the Academy. The walk through the doors and out into the real world. Asitai held the door open for his Fighter, arm trembling slightly. Mirai noticed and brushed his fingers against his Sacrifice's arm as he left.

Outside, the blinding light overtook them. Mirai's parents and little sister were out front with the car. His sister was in the back playing with dolls while his mother sat in the front seat with the door open, fanning herself with a map. His father was leaning against the trunk of the car.

"About time." His father muttered. "Who's this…?"

"This is Kunugi Asitai." Mirai replied. "My friend."

He took the other suitcase from his boyfriend and tossed them both into the open car trunk.

"A pleasure, Shenai-sama." Asitai bowed slightly. "I regret the circumstances that have led to us meeting."

Mirai flushed.

"Yeah." His father nodded. "Nice to meet you, too. Say goodbye, Mirai. We're leaving."

His father slammed the trunk closed with one hand before going to the driver's side. His mother smiled gently at Asitai.

"It's nice to know our little Mirai had friends here. We were worried about him." She giggled, turning to get her legs in the car and shutting the door.

"Mother…" Mirai groaned.

Asitai chuckled, pulling the shorter male into a hug. "I'll talk to you later, okay? Don't forget about me while you're gone."

"I couldn't forget you." Mirai flushed. "Even if I tried. You're like a parasite. Borrowed into my memory."

"Hey, now." Asitai chuckled as his Fighter hugged him back.

"Sukidayo…" Mirai muttered, so his family wouldn't head.

"Sukidayo." Asitai whispered back.

It took a few more minutes for Mirai's father to honk the horn and shout out the window for Mirai to hurry up.

"Impatient." Asitai chuckled. "So much unlike ourselves."

"You can say that again." Mirai opened the back door on the driver's side and slipped in. "I'll talk to you later."

"Goodbye." Asitai swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Goodbye." Mirai muttered, as if he didn't want to say it.

Asitai shut the door and tapped the top of the car to let Mirai's father know he could leave. With a honk of the car horn, Asitai watched his Fighter, the love of his life, drive off into the distance. Mirai leaned out the window to wave, before being yelled at very audibly by his father to get back in. Asitai raced down the hill and hopped on the edge of the little wall that surrounded the driveway to the Academy. He waved until the white town car was nothing more than a dot in traffic on the highways out of town. He heard a shout from the front of the Academy to come back due to the night lockup, and rushed back. Stepping back into the building that gave and took away someone very dear to him all in the span of two years, the weight overtook him and he collapsed onto a couch in the lobby, head between his knees and sobbing.

000

Asitai shook of the memories as he entered Mirai's room. That had been the second worse day of his life. They'd been able to meet up again since Asitai was living with his divorced aunt after getting expelled. His father was in prison for some weapon's charge, and his mother had run off after dumping him at that wretched school. The worst day of his life occurred when he and Mirai faced the Fighter that did this to his lover. Scratching where his left neko ear used to be, Asitai sighed. Beeping monitors and the annoying thrum-hiss of the breathing machine connected to the tube in Mirai's throat were becoming overwhelming. Forgetting his earlier idea of checking vitals for the brunette, Asitai sat down on a metal chair next to the comatose man's bed. His once short light brown hair was not long, dangling past his shoulders with more split ends then Asitai could or cared to count. He ran his glove covered hand through the soft locks, which needed to be washed again sometime soon. He'd do it himself, but it was normally the nurses' job to bathe patients. Plus, he wasn't sure he could hold himself back if he had to see the man naked again after all these years. Knowing it was wrong to even think of doing something to his lover, he couldn't help it. They hadn't had sex often-only twice, in fact-but it was something he wasn't going to be forgetting anytime soon. Was it wrong to have those thoughts while this man lay here unconscious, not a single limb or muscle moving within his body? Yes, of course it was. There was no excusing it, though Asitai could come up with a million different reasons if he wanted. A CAT scan done a week ago showed no increase in neural activity, which he had expected. There were pills and medicines they could inject into his IV to reach his blood stream, but thus far none of them had even registered a blip on the CAT scans. Considering that it was a spell that landed him in this position, there wasn't much research. Nagisa had tried while creating the Zero series in their prototype phase, before Yamato and Koya-the eldest successes-were even a thing, but she hadn't gotten far. They know the kinds of effects spells could have on a person, but this was something else entirely. There were no records of such spells in the Septimal Moons records office, and no books in the school library either. He had expected that. Most of what the old Septimal Moon knew was in their minds and in their minds only. Even on torture or promise of death, they wouldn't give it up to save themselves; or anyone else for that matter. They were a rather selfish group of Sacrifices, for people who were governing a world full of mostly asleep children, awoken units, and old fools that had either retired or lived on in secrecy.

It wasn't like he could just use Google or the library's books and periodicals to simply search 'how to undo the effects of a coma-inducing spell'. The librarians would simply laugh him away, and Google would give him some crap that he didn't really care to bother sifting through for any kind of clue.

000

Asitai groaned as he was awoken late one night by furious pounding on the door and incessant ringing of the doorbell to his apartment. Now eighteen and in his senior year of high school, he'd convinced his aunt to let him get his own apartment and support himself so he'd no longer be a financial burden on her. The poor old bat had six kids of her own-and three grandchildren, as one of her daughters was married and another had a child as a teenager and didn't stop at one-plus herself to deal with. Her husband was gone and didn't do a dam thing to help with the kids. Having him was just an extra mouth to feed. She'd been reluctant but accepted and let him go anyway. He was doing fine on his own, for now, anyway.

He tossed the covers off himself and trudged out of his bedroom. The apartment doorbell kept ringing.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" He yelled, hoping he didn't wake the neighbors, if the other noises hadn't already done so. "Someone better be dying! It's three AM!"

The doorbell stopped when he unlocked the door and pulled it open.

"What's the big…Mirai…?" He wondered.

The sixteen-year-old Fighter was standing in the hallway that Asitai's place was connected to. The poor thing was drenched, ears pressed flat to his skull from the rain, and normally rather bushy tail thin and long as it wrapped around his drenched pant leg. His white shirt was plastered to his skin as water dripped from his bangs into his eyes, making Asitai's mouth run dry.

"Rai?" He asked again. "Why are you here? Are you okay? You look like hell…"

"Can I come in?" The younger's teeth were chattering, and he was rubbing his arms form the cold. "I've been walking so long…I'm tired…and cold…"

"Sure, of course."

Asitai grabbed his boyfriend's suitcase off the ground outside the door and ushered him in. when he finished locking the door and turned, Mirai was stripped down to just jeans and boxers. His discarded dripping green jacket was hanging on the coat rack, and his white shirt and socks were on the floor in a heap on top of his shoes. He was still rubbing his arms from the cold. Asitai dropped his bag and scooped him into a hug before he could react.

"Rai, what's wrong?" He wondered. "Why are you here at three AM?"

"I got into a fight with my parents…dad gave me an hour to get my stuff and get out…I've been hopping between hotels, trying to find one I can afford." He shook his head, spraying some water as he did so. "I can't find anything…so I came here…"

"Why didn't you come here first?" Asitai wondered. "You know you're welcome to stay here whenever you need to…"

Mirai shook his head again. "I don't' want to be a burden, Tai…"

"You're not a burden." Asitai smoothed down his hair, noting how his ears perked once his hand was out of the way. "Don't ever think that. Let's get you dried and into some clean clothes before we talk anymore. I'll do your laundry in the morning. You can wear some of my pajamas for the night, alright?"

"I brought clothes…they're mostly clean…"

"Did you grab pajamas?"

"I barely had time to grab my school stuff, shoes, clothes, and a few other personal items before I left. An hour seems like a lot of time, but it really isn't."

"That's what you get from having a messy room." Asitai teased, kissing him on the nose. "Come on, before you get sick."

Mirai nodded and followed him to his bedroom. Asitai went into his closet and pulled out some fuzzy pajama bottoms and a dark grey shirt.

"Here, change into these. I won't look." He turned, flushing wildly.

He heard Mirai's zipper slide open and then the soaked denim fall to the floor, boxers silently following. He took a deep breath to compose himself before Mirai cleared his throat for him to turn around.

"I'm done…"

Asitai looked. His boyfriend looked absolutely adorable in his clothes, which were a little too baggy for him but too small in the legs, considering he was thinner and about a head taller. Mirai adjusted his belt line so the pants were almost falling off to cover his ankles. Asitai handed him some slipper socks and he slid them on, one foot at a time.

"I'll make tea." He stated. "Feel free to turn up the heat or snuggle under the covers."

"I can't sleep…"

"I didn't say sleep. I just want you to get warm. You'll get frostbite if you stay cold too long."

"So?"

"You can die from that…?"

"At this point, I'd rather be dead…" Mirai muttered.

Asitai's ears perked up and twitched angrily as the hair on his thin tail stood on end.

"Don't you ever say that." He snapped. "Never again, that's an order."

Mirai flinched and stepped back as if his Sacrifice had hit him. Something more must have happened to him than he was willing to speak about. Asitai sighed.

"Gomennasai, I really am, babe…" He pulled Mirai close by the wrist and snuggled against his now dry chest. "I just…I just almost lost you once getting kicked out of that hell hole and separated. It's a fluke we were able to stay so close together like this…I just don't want to lose you again…the thought kills me…"

Mirai wrapped his arms around the redhead's waist. "I'm sorry…I don't mean it…" He muttered against contrastingly dry hair. "I've just had a miserable day…"

Asitai looked up and pecked him on the lips. "I'm sorry. I wish I could have been with you…"

"No…you don't…" Mirai replied. "And I wouldn't have wanted you to be…you would've been hurt."

"Rai…what happened…?"

"I don't know…" He sat down on the edge of his bed. "Someone saw us the other day…"

"O-Oh…?"

"Yeah, and blabbed to my homophobic father…"

Asitai flushed, sitting next to the wounded teen. "I take it that didn't end well…"

"If it did, I wouldn't be here…" Mirai smiled gently. "He said I'm a disgrace to the family…that it's disgusting…god I can't even repeat the things he said to me…" He pulled Asitai close. "And my mother…just stood there and listened…I can't believe it…the child they raised…thrown out of the house, of the family, because they don't approve of his lifestyle…two more years…just two more years and I would have been able to get out of there and deal with them finding out later…but now…"

"All that secrecy ending in flames." Asitai muttered, nuzzling the taller teen's chin. "I'm so sorry, Mirai…"

He shrugged. "I knew it couldn't last forever…I just wish they'd been more receptive…"

"I agree…so what are you going to do now?"

"Do I have to think about it now? It's been a long day…I've been at this since around seven…"

"I wish you had just come here…"

"I know how you'd react if you saw me the way I was at the time…" Mirai sighed. "You don't exactly think rationally sometimes where I'm concerned."

"I know." Asitai grinned. "But hey, Calmless is our name. I'm meant to overreact to everything."

Mirai grinned back. "That's why I love you." He muttered, kissing him full on the lips. "You know just how to make everything better…"

"I love you, too." Asitai muttered, kissing him back. "You can stay here as long as you need, okay?"

"Thanks…"

"You're welcome."

000

Little did he know at the time that Mirai would never leave his apartment. Even as they joined up with Ritsu and his ragtag team of losers, up until the day Mirai landed in his coma, he never left. It was both a blessing and a curse, and Asitai had half a mind to find his parents and rip them a new one, but then they'd ask to see their son, and he knew they'd make him pull the plug. And he couldn't do that, not after all this hard work, and not with how much he loved his boyfriend. His parents lost the right to know anything about him or control anything concerning him the night they threw him out. Asitai was slightly grateful that they had, because it gave them more time together, but he still hated that they did it. His parents would have been accepting, and his aunt did know now that he was gay and didn't care as long as he was happy and safe about it, so he couldn't understand how Mirai's parents couldn't. Over time Mirai had come out to him about the things his father had called him and said to him. They were all out of line, and if the patriarch of the Shenai family ever ran into Asitai, he'd be screwed over a thousand times. Mirai had been so broken that night…

Asitai leaned over him and pressed a kiss to his temple, resting his forehead on the younger's as he closed his eyes and just enjoyed the closeness they were sharing. He pulled off a glove and took Mirai's left hand in his.

"I miss you so much…" Asitai muttered. "I've been thinking about us a lot lately…do you know what day today is, Rai?"

Silence from the body underneath his answered him.

"We met…thirty-five years ago today…" He sighed gently. "It's been thirty-five years since I first laid eyes on you…my Fighter…"

Silence reigned in the room, the only exceptions being the annoying machines. Asitai leaned down and pressed a kiss to Mirai's top lip.

"If only true love's kiss could wake up this sleeping prince…" He chuckled. "But this isn't a fairytale, my love…it's a nightmare…one we can't escape from…you've been here far too long…oh, how I wish you could wake up…" He trailed his hand down Mirai's face. "So I could see those pools of blue again…feel your lips on mine…sleep with you again…" He chuckled. "How sick of me…talking about sex while my other half is lying in a coma at my side…but then again, I suppose neither of us have always been right in the head. After all, we agreed to help Minami and his crew…if we hadn't…then perhaps I'd still have you with me…I shouldn't have talked you into it…you wouldn't be here if I hadn't…if you had just flat out refused me…" Tears threatened to fall, so he stopped him with a gloved hand and wiped it on his yellow gown. "I swear to you, Mirai, when you wake up…I promise I'll marry you…you hear me…? When you wake up, I'll make you my fiancé…and when you're better…my husband…" He sighed. "If only…"

Mirai's heart monitor beeped as Asitai slid back down into the chair at the side of the bed.

Why? Why, of all the teams working together with them and Minami, had this had to happen to them? Nagisa's Fighter had died in a car crash years before they met, so she didn't count. Only three Fighters had survived without injury, but Iyani had died in a car accident thirteen years ago. He supposed he did have it better than most people. Mirai wasn't dead, and he hadn't run off with some guy Asitai couldn't stand, he was just in another plane right now…that's all this was. He was on a vacation, and he'd come back…the last living Sacrifice of the second Septimal Moon. Seimei's living Fighters-his true Fighter Nisei and the blank Fighter Ritsu had given him, Iyani's son Soubi-, and Mikado's Fighter Tokino didn't count, as they weren't part of the group that overthrew the old Septimal Moon. They were the third generation, Ritsuka being the fourth without a Fighter. The running theory as his had been killed by Seimei to fake his death. Soubi had served Ritsuka, but left him the moment Seimei ordered it.

God, no matter who was in it, Septimal Moon left death and destruction in their wake wherever they went. All these poor teenagers roped into something bigger than themselves and far too large for them to comprehend or control, and they were supposed to just accept it? Minami had attempted to stop the cycle, but so far, it seemed it was still ongoing with the Aoyagi brothers and Mikado.

Asitai lay his head down on the bed next to Mirai as the monitors and machines in the room did their dances.

"Kunugi Mirai…Shenai Asitai…not certain which I like more…you're the wordsmith, Rai…what do you think…?"