Mnemosyne~

Disclaimer: I do not own loveless…though I wish I did.

A/N: Un-beta'ed. You're welcome to express interest through a review. *smile*

"Wake up."

The voice was utterly familiar to the twelve-year-old Aoyagi Ritsuka, but it seemed wrong somehow. Was it his mother? Had she come to his room to wake him up? Then it really would be wrong…

"Hey, wake up!"

Familiar, but it was as if he was hearing it from the wrong side. "Five more minutes…" he mumbled distractedly. Who was it?

"Our alarm clock's broken, we're going to be late for school!" an impatient voice commanded. There was a weight on his bed. "Wake up!"

"We? Who's we?" Ritsuka said, opening his eyes…

Only to meet another pair of violet eyes the exact same shade as his own. A child was staring at him, those pale face framed by messy masses of straight black hair. A pair of ears was perched on his head, and he was-

Ritsuka wondered if he was dreaming. The child looked exactly like him.

"Who…" Ritsuka choked. "Are you?"

"Aren't I supposed to be the one asking you that? You're sleeping on MY bed." The child looked petulant.

Ritsuka was utterly confused. Even their voices were the same. "I'm Ritsuka," he said lamely.

The morning light illuminated the doubt on the child's face. "We have the same name!" the child proclaimed.

After a few minutes of total silence, Ritsuka said, "You're…You're Ritsuka as well?"

"Yeah. Where's Seimei-aniki? He didn't wake me up today."

Ritsuka gasped. It couldn't be possible…"How old are you?"

"Nine." The child's gaze was clear, direct.

No way. No way that this could be real. Ritsuka had wished and wished that the old Ritsuka would come back, but he hadn't expected him to come back in this form.

Not like this.

Ritsuka poked at one of the new bruises that his (no, their, a voice whispered in his head) mother had given him last night. It was still there, and it STILL hurt, which seemed to rule out the possibility that this was a bizarre dream.

He could only thank goodness that Soubi hadn't spent the night. He could only wonder how his Sentouki would react.

"Well?" the other Ritsuka said. "Are we going to go to school?"

"You don't seem surprised by this," Ritsuka managed to say, still recovering from shock.

The younger Ritsuka cocked his head at him. "Seimei-aniki said that he was going to bring me a present. He said it last night. You're the present, aren't you?"

It was the first time in his life that Ritsuka had ever heard himself referred to as a gift.

"Aren't we going to be late?" the younger Ritsuka asked again.

Ritsuka thought that only Seimei could stun him into not doing anything. He did not expect that the pre-amnesiac Ritsuka could also do the same.

Soubi thought that Ritsuka was unusually quiet when he picked him up that day.

Yuiko gave him a worried glance. The Fighter remembered that she had emailed him saying that Ritsuka was acting strange today. Not grumpy or angsty, but peculiarly quiet and unfocused. Something was distracting his young Sacrifice.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," Yuiko said, trying to smile.

Yayoi standing beside her, nodded. "I hope that you'll be okay, Ritsuka."

"Nothing's wrong with me," Ritsuka said, automatically it seemed. Soubi knew a lie when Ritsuka spoke it, but by the same volition knew that he could do nothing. He was Ritsuka's servant. He only knew how to follow.

To obey.

For the children, Soubi smiled. "I'll take care of him."

The promise he made Seimei.

Yuiko and Yayoi nodded, reassured. They said their goodbyes.

Once the other two were out of sight, they began to walk in the opposite direction. Soubi wasn't surprised when he realized that Ritsuka was leading them in the direction of the park. In as far as he knew, Ritsuka never went straight home after school, and today was a Monday, not a day for his therapy.

He had just started wondering whether Ritsuka wanted more memories when a child came running to them. The boy had been a part of a crowd, but separated himself to greet them. Soubi thought that he looked familiar.

That was, until Soubi got his first proper look at the child.

"R…Ritsuka?" breathed Soubi, his eyes wide and disbelieving. He looked younger, but-

"Hey, you took a long time," the child said cheerfully. "Is sixth grade that hard?"

Then the child turned to Soubi. "How do you know my name?"

Soubi gripped Ritsuka's shoulder-his Ritsuka's shoulder- to remind himself which was the real one. Who was this child?

He looked like Ritsuka's twin. Their voices were almost exactly alike. The child was a few inches shorter than his Ritsuka, and although his eyes were the same violet that Soubi had grown to love, they were wider, more innocent.

"This is Soubi," Ritsuka said, his voice dull and lifeless. "Agatsuma Soubi. He's our friend."

"I see," the child said. "Is he another present?"

His Ritsuka's shoulders tensed, then relaxed. "I think you could say that," he murmured.

Despite everything, Soubi felt his heart lift a little.

"We are going to play now?" the child said eagerly.

"Who are you?" Soubi said at last.

"I thought you knew already! I'm Ritsuka."

"That's impossible."

"Why?" the child wanted to know.

Ritsuka glanced up to see others staring at them. "Let's sit," Ritsuka suggested.

The child nodded once then raced to the nearest bench. Ritsuka was reminded of a can of springs, waiting to burst.

Had he once moved like that, full of energy? He found it hard it to believe.

Soubi watched the child with suspicion. "Who is he, Ritsuka?"

"It's just like he said, Soubi. He's me, only younger, and with no amnesia. He showed up at the house this morning, looking for Seimei. He says he's nine years old." Ritsuka's blankness broke a little. "I didn't know what to do. He wanted to go to school, but I said that he had to go here. I had to sneak him out of the house so that Mom won't see him…"

Soubi hugged the boy tight. "I love you, Ritsuka," he said fiercely. "Why didn't you call me? I would've come, no mater what."

Ritsuka, far from being reassured, looked up at him sadly. "Which Ritsuka do you love, then?"

"Hey!" the other Ritsuka shouted, standing on his bench seat. "Are we going to sit or what? I have curfew, you know! I have to be home before dark."

Ritsuka and Soubi looked at each other. Then, as one, they walked closer to the younger Ritsuka. Ritsuka reached out, and held his Sentouki's hand. Soubi's hand tightened reassuringly, and Ritsuka resisted the urge to grip it like a lifeline.

Right now it was the only thing keeping him from despair.

~And that's it for the first chapter. I think that this is going to be short-maybe five chapters or so-but the next ones would be longer. Please read and review! Clicky the little button.

I'd love to know how I'm doing. Whether I've got the characters down, or if they're OOC, is my plot strong so far, things like that. I've got a pretty solid plot so far, but may fine-tune it according to the reader's input. YOU HAVE THE POWER! Muahahaha!

*somebody throws an empty pepsi can*