Fandom: Loveless
Title: Resolution
Pairing: SoubixRitsuka
Rating: overall- NC17; this chapter- PG
Timeline: Hints at events through volume 4/episode 12 but diverges from that point
Summary: Can Ritsuka forgive Soubi in time to save him?
AN: My first Loveless multi-chapter fic. This story deals with some dark themes, including (but not limited to) graphic violence, abuse, and murder.
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AN: The chapter numbering will be off on this site, since the prologue is going under Chapter 1. Sorry 'bout that.
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Resolution
Prologue
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Ritsuka stood outside of the apartment building, craning his neck up to the window.
His window.
The young man watched carefully with amethyst-colored eyes which, years later, were still startling in their intensity…even if they were no longer so naïve.
He shook his head, amazed that he had ever been that innocent.
That trusting.
That happy.
When Ritsuka tried to remember those emotions, he felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as if those feelings had belonged to a different person altogether.
All he could recall, all he'd known in the past few years, were darker things.
The things he could never forget.
Ritsuka closed his eyes and sighed, feeling the phantom twitch of ears long gone.
Soubi needs you.
Kio's pleading words reverberated through Ritsuka's mind and he caught himself actually taking a step toward the apartment….
But he couldn't.
He just couldn't.
Not yet.
After everything that had happened between them… and everything Soubi had done….
No.
Ritsuka quickly turned around and walked away from the building, blinking away tears and imagining the tail that no longer existed twirling behind him in the breeze.
It was too soon…
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It was too late…
Soubi sat on the edge of his bed and turned the knife over in his hands, the blade gleaming with deadly luster in the bright light of the small room.
He smiled sadly, feeling very much a fool.
He had actually believed that Ritsuka might come.
In his heart, which had so little reason to hope for anything, Soubi had believed it to be true.
Idiot.
Of course Ritsuka wouldn't come.
And why should he?
After everything that had happened between them… and everything he had done…
Ritsuka had saved him so many times before. By his words, his touch, his mere presence alone.
This time the boy was right to save himself.
Soubi slowly stood to his feet and walked over to the dresser, over which hung a cracked mirror. He looked into his own radiant blue eyes; the only part left of him that was truly alive.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
It was time.
He unwound the thin, white material from his neck with his free hand, letting it flutter to the ground around him. When he was finished, he forced his eyes open and stared at the scarred reminder of the man he once was.
Beloved.
The name that had both enraptured and enslaved him, so many years ago.
The name behind all of the misery.
The name that made him… what he was.
And what he feared he would always be.
With a steady, calm hand, Soubi raised the weapon to the jagged B.
It was only fitting that the knife which started it all would also be the one to end everything.
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"Soubi! Quit nibbling my ears!"
Ritsuka frowned and wriggled stubbornly against him. As recompense, Soubi pulled the pouting teen closer.
"Your tail then?" he asked with a twinkle in his eyes, pretending to reach for it.
Quick as a flash, Ritsuka pulled his tail away and used it to swat Soubi on the cheek, inciting a melodic grin from the older man.
Ritsuka smiled, unable to help himself. The sound of Soubi's laughter was so… beautiful.
Soubi was beautiful.
He nuzzled his way past Soubi's long blond hair and buried his face into his neck, wanting nothing more than to melt into the arms that tightened around him.
"I love you, Ritsuka."
"Soubi…" Ritsuka whispered.
He didn't say it, even though he felt it.
With all of his heart.
And nothing would ever change that.
----- Coming soon: Chapter 1