FIC: Cat's paw 01 (Loveless)
Mar. 9th, 2008 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xantissaSoubi/Ritsuka, Kio/Soubi, Seimei, OC
Ratings: everything from PG up to NC-17
What’s it all about: The idea is that sometimes after vol 9 ch 5 Seimei made a deal with Ritsuka. He would leave Soubi, Kio and everyone else alone if Ritsuka gave him 4 years of his life during which he would not contact any of his friends.
Ritsuka, still trying to save his brother, agrees and leaves with him. He asked Soubi to wait for him but that conversation will only be shown in little snapshots of memories.
It’s a series of drabbles, fic-bits, scenes that will form a story together. EDIT: they are not always in chronologic order
Cat’s-paw 01: The deal
PG
Ritsuka, Seimei
Word count:
Summary: “How much is Soubi’s life worth for you, Ritsuka? And that Kio, what would you give to save him? Would you give me four years of your life for them?
"What do you have for me today?” Seimei’s voice was low, filled with a kind of wicked amusement that sent shivers down Ritsuka’s spine every single time.
It’s been over two years since he left Tokyo with Seimei in his last attempt to save everybody. To protect Kio, Soubi and even his brother. Ritsuka believed, with all his heart, that he could save him too, could bring him back home.
“How much is Soubi’s life worth for you Ritsuka? And that Kio, what would you give to save him? Would you give me four years of your life for them?”
He watched his brother everyday. Saw in him everything that Kio and others had spoke of. He saw the cruelty, the wickedness, darkness with an edge of madness to it. He also saw gentleness and love, overindulgence towards him.
This time, however, he wasn’t a small kid. He could no longer blindly accept whatever Seimei told him.
He looked at his brother; he used to be larger than life, in Ritsuka’s eye. This huge, warm, safe presence that could soothe any pain.
But no longer.
These days, whenever he closed his eyes in search of comfort, it wasn’t Seimei’s face he saw. It wasn’t his arms he felt around himself.
Coming with Seimei, his heart was filled with love and anxiety, a desperate hope to save his brother, to see, once again, the gentle being that soothed his cuts and bruises away.
“Three possible fighters,” Answered the older man, taking sheets of photographs from his briefcase “Two of them are quite talented and their bond with their Sacrifices is extremely strong. Both are Chinese and never properly trained. The third one is a woman. Trained in Hong Kong by the best teachers, she is said to be very strong because of her exceptional defensive skill. While her attacks are strong but nothing extraordinary, it’s her ability to resist spells cast at her that makes her so valuable.” The man pointed to the last picture.
“Oh?” Seimei seemed interested; he looked at the pictures like a collector acquiring another piece for his collection. Ritsuka doubted he even saw humans in them anymore. “Strong fighters have strong bonds.” Seimei remarked.
“True. But her Sacrifice died. Their opponent broke the rules and had a sniper waiting in hiding. Her Master was shot in the back. He ordered her to live, that’s why she is currently nameless and unbounded.”
Ritsuka loved Seimei. It was that simple. Nothing anyone could say could change that fact. Two years ago he believed that he would love Seimei always.
He never realized that the only person capable of killing that love was Seimei himself.
Bit by bit, day by day, that love died inside Ritsuka making him question his decision.
He left his mother, his friends… Soubi… to save someone who didn’t even want to be saved.
Thinking about his fighter made his chest constrict, pain racing through his whole body. He forced Soubi to swear, to obey the orders given no matter what, but he wasn’t sure if he would.
He told Soubi to wait, told him that in four years he would come back, but would the Fighter survive without him?
He looked at the last picture laying on the gleaming black table. The woman would have been pretty, beautiful even if not for the too skinny body and eyes that were as dead as her Sacrifice.
“Her name is Liu Mey.” Continued the man, an information broker Ritsuka saw before and despised with vengeance. “I’ll sell her for four thousand.”
Ritsuka only half listened to the conversation, staring at the picture. Her eyes reminded him of someone else who had the same haunted look behind his smile. The same pain and that overwhelming desire to die. Both of them could not die, however.
In the time spent with Seimei, he learned a lot about Fighters and Sacrifices, he learned about the power of orders, the words and spells that even Seimei used even though he wasn’t a Fighter. He often wondered how much pain Soubi could avoid if he had known all those things two years ago.
He could not look away from the picture, in his mind the frail woman became one with another well known figure.
“Once I retrain her, she could become a valuable tool.” Mused Seimei aloud.
Ritsuka jerked out of his thoughts at those words.
Retrain.
Like he did to Soubi.
Ritsuka clenched his fists.
Soubi, whose eyes were never free of pain and suffering, who could not feel pleasure without pain, who equaled love with pain, whose back was covered in so many scars he could barely feel anything there anymore. He remembered those beautiful hands touching him with a gentleness that was never directed at Soubi himself.
No. Never again.
“Let me go to her.” Asked the younger boy.
It was a risk, Seimei kept a tight rein on his movements. But his brother also insisted on finding him another Fighter, to erase Soubi from his mind.
Two more years.
Two more years, and the deal would end.
In two years, he will make his final decision and never again look back.
tbc
Archive is here
Ratings: everything from PG up to NC-17
What’s it all about: The idea is that sometimes after vol 9 ch 5 Seimei made a deal with Ritsuka. He would leave Soubi, Kio and everyone else alone if Ritsuka gave him 4 years of his life during which he would not contact any of his friends.
Ritsuka, still trying to save his brother, agrees and leaves with him. He asked Soubi to wait for him but that conversation will only be shown in little snapshots of memories.
It’s a series of drabbles, fic-bits, scenes that will form a story together. EDIT: they are not always in chronologic order
Cat’s-paw 01: The deal
PG
Ritsuka, Seimei
Word count:
Summary: “How much is Soubi’s life worth for you, Ritsuka? And that Kio, what would you give to save him? Would you give me four years of your life for them?
"What do you have for me today?” Seimei’s voice was low, filled with a kind of wicked amusement that sent shivers down Ritsuka’s spine every single time.
It’s been over two years since he left Tokyo with Seimei in his last attempt to save everybody. To protect Kio, Soubi and even his brother. Ritsuka believed, with all his heart, that he could save him too, could bring him back home.
“How much is Soubi’s life worth for you Ritsuka? And that Kio, what would you give to save him? Would you give me four years of your life for them?”
He watched his brother everyday. Saw in him everything that Kio and others had spoke of. He saw the cruelty, the wickedness, darkness with an edge of madness to it. He also saw gentleness and love, overindulgence towards him.
This time, however, he wasn’t a small kid. He could no longer blindly accept whatever Seimei told him.
He looked at his brother; he used to be larger than life, in Ritsuka’s eye. This huge, warm, safe presence that could soothe any pain.
But no longer.
These days, whenever he closed his eyes in search of comfort, it wasn’t Seimei’s face he saw. It wasn’t his arms he felt around himself.
Coming with Seimei, his heart was filled with love and anxiety, a desperate hope to save his brother, to see, once again, the gentle being that soothed his cuts and bruises away.
“Three possible fighters,” Answered the older man, taking sheets of photographs from his briefcase “Two of them are quite talented and their bond with their Sacrifices is extremely strong. Both are Chinese and never properly trained. The third one is a woman. Trained in Hong Kong by the best teachers, she is said to be very strong because of her exceptional defensive skill. While her attacks are strong but nothing extraordinary, it’s her ability to resist spells cast at her that makes her so valuable.” The man pointed to the last picture.
“Oh?” Seimei seemed interested; he looked at the pictures like a collector acquiring another piece for his collection. Ritsuka doubted he even saw humans in them anymore. “Strong fighters have strong bonds.” Seimei remarked.
“True. But her Sacrifice died. Their opponent broke the rules and had a sniper waiting in hiding. Her Master was shot in the back. He ordered her to live, that’s why she is currently nameless and unbounded.”
Ritsuka loved Seimei. It was that simple. Nothing anyone could say could change that fact. Two years ago he believed that he would love Seimei always.
He never realized that the only person capable of killing that love was Seimei himself.
Bit by bit, day by day, that love died inside Ritsuka making him question his decision.
He left his mother, his friends… Soubi… to save someone who didn’t even want to be saved.
Thinking about his fighter made his chest constrict, pain racing through his whole body. He forced Soubi to swear, to obey the orders given no matter what, but he wasn’t sure if he would.
He told Soubi to wait, told him that in four years he would come back, but would the Fighter survive without him?
He looked at the last picture laying on the gleaming black table. The woman would have been pretty, beautiful even if not for the too skinny body and eyes that were as dead as her Sacrifice.
“Her name is Liu Mey.” Continued the man, an information broker Ritsuka saw before and despised with vengeance. “I’ll sell her for four thousand.”
Ritsuka only half listened to the conversation, staring at the picture. Her eyes reminded him of someone else who had the same haunted look behind his smile. The same pain and that overwhelming desire to die. Both of them could not die, however.
In the time spent with Seimei, he learned a lot about Fighters and Sacrifices, he learned about the power of orders, the words and spells that even Seimei used even though he wasn’t a Fighter. He often wondered how much pain Soubi could avoid if he had known all those things two years ago.
He could not look away from the picture, in his mind the frail woman became one with another well known figure.
“Once I retrain her, she could become a valuable tool.” Mused Seimei aloud.
Ritsuka jerked out of his thoughts at those words.
Retrain.
Like he did to Soubi.
Ritsuka clenched his fists.
Soubi, whose eyes were never free of pain and suffering, who could not feel pleasure without pain, who equaled love with pain, whose back was covered in so many scars he could barely feel anything there anymore. He remembered those beautiful hands touching him with a gentleness that was never directed at Soubi himself.
No. Never again.
“Let me go to her.” Asked the younger boy.
It was a risk, Seimei kept a tight rein on his movements. But his brother also insisted on finding him another Fighter, to erase Soubi from his mind.
Two more years.
Two more years, and the deal would end.
In two years, he will make his final decision and never again look back.
tbc
Archive is here
