The PicFic

Yeah, this is what I call a PicFic; a story based on a picture I saw. And you know that bluish piccie with Ritsuka all chained up and Soubi about to kiss him? Yeah, THAT piccie. I liked that piccie. So I'm gonna write a story about the piccie.

Loveless is not owned by me. Whoot.

--

As the bell rang signaling the end of school, hordes of children ran out of the school gate, laughing and relieved that their day had ended.

Except for Aoyagi Ritsuka, who slowly walked out, and started to survey the area around him.

Perfect. He could go to therapy without a stalker at his heels.

Zipping up his coat, he put his gloved hands in his pockets, and started to walk to the bus stop.

Slightly shivering in the cool autumn air, he looked up at the sky and admired the clear crisp blue that colors the sky in autumn, reminding him of Soubi's eyes…

Emmbarassed at himself, he quickly shook the thought out of his head, and started to walk faster, flustered.

Why the hell didn't he come today anyway?

Arriving at the bus stop, he leaned against a sign and patiently waited for the bus.

What would he talk about to Katsuko-sensei this time? He sure as hell was NOT going to mention that guy, and wasn't planning to. But then again, what was there to talk about? He definetely was doing better in his social life, they've talked about Seimei enough, and he wasn't planning on talking about his mother.

That just left Soubi.

Struggling to think up a topic, his thoughts were interppted by a sharp ringing in his ears.

"Ow!"

Clapping his hands to both ears, he realized that he heard something like this before…the time when the two female Zeros came to Soubi's place.

It was a fighter signal.

Damn!

His first thought was to stay where he was and try to ignore the high-pitched shriek that went on and on in his ears, but he found that impossible to do. In the end, curiousity overtook reason and he found himself walking away from the bus stop, trying to find the source of the signal.

Besides, perhaps THEY might tell me something, right?

Breaking into a run, he turned corners and crossed streets, marveling at how strong this signal was, and how it kept getting stronger and stronger.

He finally found himself in an abandoned lot, a gloomy and eeriely quiet place.

Although the ringing was now stronger than ever, there were no one around, as far as Ritsuka could see.

Then, clapping his hand to his forehead, Ristuka realized just how idiotic he was being.

He didn't call Soubi.

Cursing and reprimanding himself, he hastily whipped his phone out of his pocket and speed-dialed Soubi's number…

A sharp blow to the back of his head made Ritsuka crumple to the cold ground with a gasp , dropping his phone somewhere. His head swam in a fog of nearly unbearable pain and was barely able to make out what the sneering voices around him were saying.

"Hey, lookit that. The moron forgot to bring his fighter. Ha! What do we do now, eh?"

"Ah, let's just have fun with him while we can. We can worry 'bout the fighter later."

The first voice belonged to a female, whose singsong and arrogant tone seemed to try to cover up the eeiriely psychotic tone underneath those thin layers, while the other's was a male, deep and brutal sounding. Ritsuka tried to raise his head, wincing, to get a glimpse of his abductors, but failed, as his head was roughly pushed to the ground again.

"Oi! Keep your head down, dumbass!!"

The girl laughed. "System Initiate!" she shouted. Ritsuka could feel it getting darker, even when his face was mushed up against the ground. Sense suddenly popped back into his brain and he abrupty started to flail his body around, trying to loosen the grip his captor had on his hair.

He was violently lifted up off the ground, meeting the dark eyes of a tall teenage boy.

The teen smirked.

"Ha. Looks like you're all alone on this one, ain't ya?"

Smiling, he shoved his fist into Ritsuka's jaw, making him scream in pain as he fell to the ground again.

Opening his panicked eyes halfway, Ritsuka watched as the boy leant down, slicked his chin-length platinum blonde hair back, and whispered hoarsely, "Oi, you thought you could get away with a free fighter, eh? Well…I'm here to tell you different!"

Grabbing hold of Ritsuka's black hair, he knealt to his ear and said, "Thought you could break out of fate? Immpossible. Fate is an unstoppable force. And no one's gonna save you. No one."

Ritsuka closed his eyes in pain and tried to blank out the boy's words from his ears. What was he saying? This guy was insane.

No one was going to save him.

Forcefully getting Ritsuka on his legs and setting the younger boy against a cold wall, the teen ripped the younger boy's coat off and threw it to the side. He then took two steps back and smiled at his female partner.

"He's all yours, m'dear."

The girl gave a toothy smile and started walking towards the staggering boy.

Ritsuka wiped his mouth to get rid of the blood and tried to somehow dash to the side, but ended up tripping and falling to his knees with a startled yell.

Chuckling, the girl's long black hair started to whip around her shoulders as a strong wind swirled from her hands.

Pointing her hands at the weak boy in front of her, she yelled, "O Winds! My words are your whetstones! Become blades of the air!"

Flashing a evil grin at the trembling Ritsuka, who had been rendered unable to move, she screamed, "GO!!"

A ring of pain enclosed around Ritsuka's neck, shifting shapes until it became a glowing chain. Ritsuka screamed to the heavens once, then again as Restrictions encircled his throbbing wrists.

Grasping him by a chain, the teen boy yelled tauntingly at him, "Hey, y'know, no one can hear you. We're in negative space! The fighter's space! Like I said, don't plan to be saved."

Snickering, he let go of the chain. Ritsuka fell to the ground and closed his eyes shut, trying to stop his tears from leaking out. The high laughs became blurs in his senses, as he screamed silently in his mind, Soubi, help…

He felt a strong arm move around his back, lifting his frail body up, and another arm tug at the Restriction around his neck, raising his head. Opening his eyes slightly, he gazed at the dumbfounded pair who watched the whole scene with indreculity, then closed his eyes as he gave in to Soubi's deep kiss.

And then everything went black.

--

He felt a soft surface beneath him, along with a soft weight draped over his quivering body. Opening his eyes halfway, he waited for his eyes to focus and saw that he was in a bed.

That reeked of cigarette smoke.

Abruptly sitting up, and wincing as he did so, Ritsuka saw that he was in his Fighter's apartment. Looking at his arm, he saw that it was bandaged in several places.

"Don't try to get up."

Looking up, Ritsuka saw Soubi standing over him, a grim expression on his pale face.

Soubi streched his arm out and gently stroked Ritsuka's hair. "You were in the roughhouse today, weren't you?"

Looking down, Ritsuka asked, "How long have I been here?"

"You woke up supringly quickly. 'Bout five hours, I'd say."

FIVE HOURS!?

"You call THAT rather quickly?"

Soubi shrugged. "Given the state of your condition, yes."

Sighing, Ritsuka slowly layed himself down back on the bed. Damn. His mother was going to kill him.

Then another thought struck his head. "How did you find me?"

"You called me."

"Huh?"

Soubi looked at him long and hard. "I heard the whole thing on your phone, so I got there as quickly as I could."

"Oh."

Closing his eyes, great feelings of relief and gratitude seeped through Ritsuka's heart and mind. Someone had come for him.

"Hey, Soubi."

Looking questioningly at the younger boy, Soubi asked, "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Soubi allowed the corners of his lips tug back in a small smile. Kissing the boy gently on the head, he said, "Anytime."

--

Da end of da end. How refreshing. Sorry, this is only my second (third if you count that abomination that I once did) so the part at the end was rather lame. I tried not to make Soubi OOC as people are prone to doing.

But, y'know what's weird? In the beginning of the manga, it looks like only Fighters can hear signals, but in volume 4, Ritsuka gets the signal from the Zeros. I really found THAT rather strange.