Disclaimer: I do NOT Loveless or anything in it. that all belongs to Yun Kouga. Including Akira, all of Kio's friends ARE mine. I make NO money writing in this category.

Disclaimer 2: I do NOT own the song "Life Outside Your Apartment". that is from Avenue Q. I make NO money off of using this song.

000

It had been three weeks and four days since Seimei passed away. It was three weeks and four days since Agatsuma Soubi stopped coming to classes and socializing, and it was driving Kaido Kio insane. Seimei wasn't even that great of a person, and he treated Soubi like garbage. Why was Soubi so upset over his absence? Yeah, death was sad and tragic, but there was nothing to be sad over. Then again, even evil people had people that cared about them, no matter how evil they were. Still, it didn't seem right that Seimei got to go off on his own while Soubi sat around depressed and withdrawn from everything he loved (most of the times Kio had gone over, he'd either see depressing paintings or none at all). He did feel some compassion for the little terror-after all, he was murdered by being burnt to death and all-but he felt more compassion and worry for Soubi. The blonde had attended Seimei's funeral, and had come back home grinning like an idiot, but soon regressed back to the depression stage. Soubi said that Kio just didn't understand why Seimei had to do what he did and hurt him. He said that he didn't understand? What was there to understand about Seimei abusing Soubi and making him think it was alright? Though the artist said that they weren't in a relationship, it was a domestic battery issue. It was a toxic relationship that both artists knew needed to end, but that Soubi wouldn't admit to needing to end and that the teenager he was enslaved to would have never given up. But now that he was gone? Soubi was left to walk around like a zombie; with no one to order to push him around or abuse and punish him whenever he failed to fulfill his duties. It killed Kio to see his best friend like that all the time, especially because of someone like Seimei, who wasn't worth the trouble, in Kio's opinion.

It was that opinion that drove him to gather his classmates that he was friends with together in the late spring.

"Alright, everyone." Kio clapped his hands once to get them to pay attention. "I need a little help here. I'm sure you've all noticed that Sou-chan is down in the dumps and hardly in class anymore. So, I think we should cheer him up!"

His friends were silent for a few minutes.

"Why should we do that?" Toya, a girl with short brown hair, wondered. "Agatsuma doesn't exactly talk to any of us or like any of us…"

"Not true." Kio objected. "He goes to events the college puts together…"

"And he hardly does anything." Mieya, a girl with long black hair, objected.

"Yeah, I guess that's true…but still, he's really down in the dumps and I think some cheering up is in order!" Kio slammed his left fist into his open right hand. "I know some of you don't actually like Sou-chan, but you all have to admit that he is depressed and needs some help before he does something terrible. If you're dead set on not joining me, then you can leave now."

The majority of his friends got up and left, leaving behind three people; a male with yellow-orange hair named Akira, a guy with short navy hair named Tsutera, and a girl with long bright pink hair in a brain named Amiyra. Akira was new to the social circle as of that semester (Kio's fourth and Akira's sixth, at least as far as Kio knew), so Kio didn't know him too well, but he was happy that he stayed even knowing that. Tsutera and Amiyra, however, were old friends of his from his first semester in college.

"So what do we do?" Amiyra wondered. "Do you have an idea, Kio?"

"I think we just need to go over there and get Soubi out of that dark, depressing apartment and out into the real world. Get his mind off his troubles."

"Did he get dumped or something, Kio?" Akira wondered softly.

"Um…I guess you could put it that way…" Kio shrugged.

Soubi had adamantly declared that he and Seimei were not together, but they seemed to act like it.

"Poor guy…" Akira muttered.

"I can't see Agatsuma as the settling down type, anyway." Tsutera replied.

"Me neither. He's always so cold and aloof. I thought he'd be alone forever." Amiyra agreed.

Kio sighed. "That's not the point, you guys." He stated. "Point is that we have to get him out of that apartment."

"So let's go." Akira nodded once. "First step is to get to him."

Kio nodded and smirked. "I think I have an idea."

000

It only took twenty minutes for Kio and his team to get to Soubi's studio apartment in downtown Tokyo from their college. Kio stood at the bottom of the stairs leading to Soubi's front door with the others.

"Alright." Kio grinned. "You guys remember the plan, right?"

The others nodded.

"We wait here until you get Agatsuma-san to come out, and we all yell 'surprise'." Akira replied.

Kio nodded. "Exactly." He looked up the stairs. "I apologize in advance for any erratic behavior." He took a deep breath to collect himself before ascending the stairs two at a time. At the top of the stairs, he bounced on the balls of his feet and knocked three times on the door.

"Sou-chan!" He greeted cheerfully. "Are you awake? It's Kio! Can I come in?"

"Yeah…" A small voice replied from behind the door.

Kio gave the others the thumbs up sign before pushing open the door and walking inside. Soubi's entire apartment was encased in darkness, since his curtains were closed and there were no lights on. The suffering artist sat on the floor on the edge of his bed, laying his head back onto the mattress. His eyes appeared to be closed, but Kio couldn't tell from the angle. Soubi wore a paint stained short sleeve shirt and long black sweatpants. A half-eaten bowl of ramen sat at his side. Kio looked around for a new painting, but didn't find any, so the paint splotches must have been old. The blonde's glasses were sitting on the floor next to his hand.

"Are you alright, Soubi?" Kio wondered. "You look down…"

Soubi sighed. "Fine…"

"No, you're not fine. Don't think you can fool me." Kio crouched down next to his friend-crush.

"I'm not trying to trick you, Kio…" Soubi turned his head the other way and shut his eyes. "I just don't want to be seen right now…"

"Then why did you invite me in?"

"Because if I didn't, you would've just walked in anyway. And I didn't want you to see…"

"See what? See you like this? Soubi, you're my best friend. I'm going to be here through thick and thin, and you know that…" Kio caught the sight of something glittering in one of Soubi's hands and took it away from him. "A blade?" His eyes widened. "Soubi, what did you do?!"

"Don't worry about it…"

Kio grabbed both of Soubi's wrists and looked them over. There was a small cut on the middle of his arm that was red, but no blood trickled out, even when Kio held it upside down.

"I didn't get far before you showed up…"

"Alright, that's it!" Kio stood and pointed at him. "Agatsuma Soubi! You get your backside off of that floor and stop pitying yourself! You should know better then that! I'm getting you out of this apartment right now!"

"I don't want to…"

"Come on, Soubi. Come with me and hang around the city! I bet it will get your mind off of things!"

"I bet it won't…"

"There's life outside of that Seimei brat

I know it's hard to believe

But there's life outside of that Seimei brat

And you're only gonna learn that once you leave." Kio began singing to his friend.

"There is cool stuff to do

But it won't come to you

Who knows?

Soubi

You might even score." Kio winked.

"There's life outside that Seimei brat

But you gotta give it a chance."

"Come on, Soubi! Your whole life was Seimei. And now that he's finally out of your life for good, you're just going to sit here and whine and mope and complain and hurt yourself?"

"Why not? It's my fault…I couldn't protect him…" Soubi looked up to Kio with wet, cobalt eyes. "I failed, Kio…"

Kio almost wanted to cry for his friend, but couldn't. How dare Seimei torment Soubi, even after death? "C-Come on, Sou-chan…no one could have seen that coming…"

"I should have." Soubi muttered stubbornly.

"It's not your fault." Kio argued again. "Now come on, Soubi. Are you going to sit here being all depressed? Or are you going to get out there and live your life?!"

"I'm staying here…"

"Do I have to force you to?"

Soubi shrugged. "I'm not leaving…there's beer in the fridge if you want it…"

Kio groaned in exasperation. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Kio grabbed Soubi's shoes and threw them to the blonde before going to the front door.

He tossed one last look over his shoulder at Soubi, but the blonde wasn't moving. Kio sighed and muttered under his breath as he opened the door. He peered out to his friends, who were waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey!" Kio called to them, waving. "He's being stubborn! I need help here!"

Akira was the first to climb the steps. The others followed him. Kio stood to the side of the doorway as they poked their heads in one at a time.

"There is life outside." Sang Akira.

"There is life outside." Tsutera was next.

"There is life outside." Amiyra finished.

"There is life outside your apartment." Kio continued. He kept Seimei out of the equation now that the others were there.

Soubi perked up immediately when he heard the three, unfamiliar voices that he hadn't been expecting. As the four made their way to him, Soubi quickly slipped on shoes and traded his paint-stained shirt for a clean one out of the floor storage unit. He didn't bother changing his pants when he knew that the others were there, especially Amiyra. If it was just Kio, he might not have cared. Akira grabbed Soubi by the left arm, Tsutera grabbed his right, and Amiyra and Kio pushed him from behind.

"Let's get going!" Kio grinned. "We have a lot to show you, Sou-chan!"

"Kio, I don't think…" Soubi began to object.

"So don't think!" Kio laughed. "Just come on!"

Once they got Soubi onto the landing, Kio's cheering up party led him downstairs while Kio locked up the apartment with the spare key Soubi had given him when they first became friends. Kio bounded down the stairs to meet the others.

"Let's go." Akira ordered. "This way!"

They pulled Soubi with them as they walked, gathering stares from passersby.

"There's lots of stuff to look forward to around town, Soubi." Tsutera informed. "Always so much going on here in Tokyo."

"There's a pigeon
Squashed on the street." Akira offered.

"Ew." Amiyra shied away from the road kill.

"There's how girls passing by…" Kio pointed at random strangers.

"I think that one's a guy." Corrected Tsutera.

"I'm a male." An angry blonde snarled as he walked past.

"And a homeless man that only wants to buy something to eat." Amiyra pointed out as a man shook his tin cup at them.

"Sorry. We're artists!" Kio informed.

The man pulled his cup away and smiled as they passed by.

"We could go to the zoo." Amiyra offered.

"Pick up girls at the local park." Tsutera suggested.

"We can go have sex somewhere private." Kio wiggled his eyebrows.

"Or not!" Objected Akira quickly.

The gazes he got made him blush and rub his neck as he looked away. Soubi cracked a small smile and hid it quickly, but Kio noticed. They were cracking through Soubi's shell already! He knew this was a good idea.

"There is life outside your apartment." Kio went on.

"I guess I could

Give it a chance…" Soubi finally joined in, making the others cheer.

"There is life outside your apartment." Kio and his friends sang.

"I know." Agreed Soubi.

"There is life outside your apartment…"

A bike messenger almost ran into them, making the five scatter and cry out. They regrouped and laughed as they continued on their way. A few feet away, a squadron of cop cars was parked outside a local bank. A man was standing on top of the bank, waving his arms erratically.

"I'm going to jump!" A voice called.

"Don't do it!" The police ordered.

"Oh…um…okay!" The voice agreed.

Kio and his group shared a look before shaking their heads and continuing on down the street towards the art district.

"There is cool shit to do!" Tsutera stated

"But it can't come to you." Akira sang.

"So come on…" Amiyra started across the street.

Soubi and Kio grabbed her and pulled her back as a speeding car barely missed running her over.

"Out of the road, you dumb broad!" The driver ordered.

"Piss off! She called back.

"That was close." Kio sighed. "Be careful, Amiyra."

"I was careful. He was the one speeding around a blind curb."

Kio rolled his eyes as she huffed. "Whatever. Come on, let's go to the café!"

"There is life outside your apartment." Kio sang.

"Yeah, I know…" Soubi sighed.

"You never know what's around the bend." Akira warned, pointing to a couple little children running around the corner without looking.

The group spread to the sides to allow the screaming kids to go past them.

"You might win the lotto." Tsutera offered.

"Or make a friend!" Amiyra pointed to a young girl at the café that was looking Soubi over.

The blonde blushed. Women were never his forte, so why start now?

000

Soubi and his group of rescuers made their way to the park. Sipping on drinks they had gotten from the café they had stopped at, they all sat down on a grassy hill to relax. Children were running around with their friends and families everywhere, and some couples were even having romantic picnics.

"How romantic." Kio swooned, leaning his head on Soubi's shoulder as he watched a young couple feed each other pie off a fork. "Don't you just want to do that with someone, Sou-chan?"

"Not really…" Soubi muttered.

They may have gotten him out of his apartment and improved his mood a little bit, but that didn't mean he was alright. He still missed Seimei terribly. They'd often hang at this park when Seimei wanted to give him and order or teach him a lesson that wasn't coming from the wrong end of a switchblade. Being there wasn't going to improve his mood anymore then before. The Fighter perked up as he sensed another power signature in the area. It was weak, but it was still there. This wasn't good. He couldn't deal with another unit with the others there. They'd be witnesses, and he'd either have to kill them, get the executioner to kill them, or erase their memories. But there were too many people around, and that could mean that they all had to be killed or had their memories erased. Soubi wasn't completely whole mentally anymore, so he doubted he could perform the forgetfulness spell on one person, let alone however many people were in the park. As his friends laughed and joked at his sides, Soubi looked around to see if he could spot anything out of the ordinary. His eyes settled on a young boy with choppy black hair, dark purple eyes, and black neko ears with a matching tail. The boy was familiar to him. Aoyagi Ritsuka; the brother of his beloved (no pun intended) former Sacrifice, Aoyagi Seimei. The last time Soubi had seen him, he had erased the boy's memory of the incident. It was at Seimei's funeral. Ritsuka had gotten so mad at his cousin's attitude that his power unleashed itself and broke the funeral home windows. Soubi had, at risk to his own safety, protected the boy from it. They had spoken briefly before Soubi stole his memories of their meeting and sent the boy on his merry way. That had been two years ago. A girl with long black hair, her ears and tail, and wearing a female version of the school uniform Ritsuka was wearing was walking with him. They appeared to be taking pictures of leaves and other inanimate objects. Soubi wondered where that had hobby come from. He smiled thankful that Ritsuka was still alive and alright. Well, as alright as one could be with no memories of the majority of his life, an allegedly psychopathic mother, an absent father, and a murdered older brother. Kio followed Soubi's gaze, but his eyes landed on a pretty young woman with olive hair down to her shoulders. She was sitting alone at the picnic table, reading from what appeared to be a textbook.

"She's pretty." Kio informed.

"Huh?" Soubi looked where Kio was looking. "Oh…yeah, she's cute, I suppose…"

"Why don't you go ask her out?" Kio asked.

"I'm not into women." Soubi replied. "Let alone students." His type was male and more of a teacher's age then anything else. He had no idea why, since he was raised by an ill-willed male teacher. But then again, didn't people always look for someone that was like their parents? The teacher, Ritsu-sensei was his name, wasn't his father, but he did raise him after his parents died.

"Take her home to see your apartment." Tsutera offered.

Soubi tuned out his group's taunts and attempts to get him to talk to the girl and bring her home like she was a cheap hooker. Instead, he muttered a spell to advance his hearing so that he could pick up what Ritsuka was saying.

"Why are we here, Osamu?" Ritsuka wondered.

"To take some photographs." Osamu replied. "It's your last day at school and I want you to remember."

"Take her home." Akira offered Soubi.

"Are we friends?" Ritsuka asked the girl with him.

"Sure we are." She replied.

"Why do you even care?" Ritsuka asked her. "I'm leaving for good you know."

"That doesn't mean we can't stay friends."

So Ritsuka was going to a new school? Where?

"There is life outside your apartment." Soubi's friends encouraged him.

"I think I should just go home…" Ritsuka hung his head in defeat and walked off.

"There is life outside your apartment."

"It's almost curfew." Ritsuka sighed. "And I cannot be late. Don't want to start a new school. I do not wanna leave…"

Soubi's heart broke for the boy. He wished his group would shut up. They were almost breaking through his mental barrier.
"There is life outside your apartment." Soubi's friends went on.

"To Johansson Elementary School." Ritsuka went on, making Soubi light up. "I wish I didn't have to go."

Soubi faded back into the world around him, to hear his friends egging him on more to go talk to the girl. Soubi sighed. "I wasn't staring at her." Soubi objected. "I was just thinking. Spaced out."

"Thinking about what?" Kio wondered. "A new painting? Oh, Sou-chan, you're back to your old self?!" He latched onto the blonde.

Soubi grunted and peeled Kio off like a layer of sunburned skin. "Yeah…I just had an idea for a new painting…I should go home before I forget it."

Kio grinned. "I knew we could help you, Sou-chan…" Kio smiled softly. "Go on home. Do what you need to do."
Soubi nodded. "Thank you…all of you." He took off, dropping his cup near Kio in the process. Kio sighed and picked up the cup to throw away with his.

"I thought the point was to get him out of his apartment?" Akira wondered. "Not make him want to go back."

"Our job was to cheer Soubi up." Kio argued. "We did that, and now that he's back to himself…did you see that smile?" Kio grinned. "I haven't seen him smile like that since..."

"Since what?"

"Nothing." Kio put his cup to his lips and took a sip; the brim hiding his wide as the sky smile from his friends.

000

Soubi flipped through the pages of information he had pulled up from the internet on the school computers after having left his friends. A couple of his Sensei had spotted him and welcomed him back. But when they noticed that he was too into his work to notice them, they simply slinked off with small, relieved smiles on their faces. From Soubi's studio, Johansson Elementary was about a half hour walk in the direction opposite of his school. There were three bus routes that could take him there and back at the end of the day or whenever Ritsuka needed him, if he didn't want walk. When he had returned home, he found an envelope taped to his door. 'Agatsuma' was written across it in scratchy handwriting that he didn't recognize. Was it from a Sensei or one of the people Kio had brought with him? Soubi had yet to open it, as he was too excited to work out how he was going to see Ritsuka, and when. Once he decided to go after school on Ritsuka's first day-a week from tomorrow-, he took a long, hard look at the envelope. It didn't have an official Septimal Moon seal on it, so it wasn't from Ritsu-sensei or Nagisa-sensei, or any other Septimal Moon member. He didn't recognize the handwriting, so it wasn't an old classmate he had spent time with, Seimei (that was a stupid idea anyway), or anyone he personally knew enough to knew their writing. It definitely wasn't Kio, because Soubi would have noticed Kio doing that before they had left the apartment, plus Kio would never refer to him as 'Agatsuma'. It was always 'Sou-chan' this, and 'Soubi' that. Never Agatsuma. So who was it? Soubi decided it couldn't be all that harmful and opened it. Inside was a folded up sticky note. Soubi pulled it out to find it weighing more then he thought it would have. He opened it and a silver key with the number '1652' written on it fell to the floor. It clattered against the wood as Soubi watched it. He looked to the sticky note. It was blank on the side that he could see, but there was writing on the inside.

"He wants you to have this." More of the strange handwriting wrote. "Aoyagi household. 1652 Sakura Drive, Tokyo, Japan. Make good use of it. His order still stands. Find Ritsuka. Love him. He hopes you haven't forgotten. Be a good boy now, Agatsuma Soubi, and carry out His orders."

Soubi blinked at the mysterious letter. Someone was communicating with him on behalf of Seimei; the capitalization of 'he' and 'his' everywhere proved that it was someone subservient to Seimei. The order itself hinted at who the 'he' was. Only Seimei would have, and did, ordered Soubi to find and love Ritsuka. It was Seimei's dying wish. Soubi looked over his plans again with a smile on his face. If it wasn't for Kio and his friends' annoying singing and dragging Soubi out of the apartment, he never would've seen Ritsuka; never would have felt his hope come back. Now he had a purpose again, a new reason to go on; a new master to serve unconditionally. When he saw Ritsuka in the park, he looked like a miniature Seimei. It was like Seimei had come back to life as a young boy again. Ritsuka was eleven; three years younger then Seimei was when he and Soubi first met. Perhaps with this Aoyagi, things would be different. Maybe Ritsuka would be kinder, gentler…or perhaps he was worse then even Seimei. With the physical abuse that Seimei had said Ritsuka endured at the hands of his mother, it wouldn't really surprise the blonde. Well, he'd have to wait it out until he met Ritsuka.

Soubi packed away his new information with the key into an envelope he grabbed earlier from under the kitchen sink. He attached it to the fridge with a magnet. Soubi returned to the living room and pulled out a fresh, unmarked canvas. He put paints onto a palette and set that next to the canvas, which he had laid on the floor. With thoughts of his new mission and new master in mind, Soubi dipped his brush into the navy blue paint and began to swirl it delicately onto pure white canvas.