A/N: To anyone who hasn't read it…the manga is so much better (than what I'd heard about it and than the anime). I can't pimp it enough and please don't judge it by my take on it XD …slight spoilers for recent chapters but nothing too extreme. This may become a drabble series if I stay hooked…

Disclaimer: Loveless is far too amazing to belong to me

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Agatsuma Soubi carries a legacy with him, it seems. It is a legacy of being everyone's discarded and deserted second best. An empty cicada shell. A blank fighter.

It is not something to be proud of, he knows, though it makes him stronger nonetheless. As a fighter, increments in power are sometimes what really count, what really define him and make him forget all the hell faced prior to gaining said power.

And just as he thinks he is growing used to it—or immune, rather—to this cycle of use and abuse by those who once had ownership over him, all hope of that is lost as his diminutive sacrifice comes into view.

Somehow, the scars bestowed upon him by Ritsu-sensei do not burn as much and Seimei's voice does not haunt as much because right now, Ritsuka is here. Never mind that Ritsuka is angry with him again without really being angry with him—Soubi has always been able to discern between the two—but the best thing about all of this is that suddenly he finds it a lot easier to forget.

Try as he might to not think much of it, he fears that this sense of security will be fleeting, like it always is and has been. He doesn't know though, how he would manage if left behind this time, by this one, and so he swears to protect this child with his life because they both know that there is only one way Ritsuka would ever leave him behind.

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