A/N:

Set right after Youji and Natsuo's spell battle with Soubi.

Yet another random drabble. See, this is what happens when I get caffeine! I am actually pretty proud of this one, though. It was originally going to just be vaguely implied Natsuo/Youji… but then I went to Sakura Con, and I got an awesome yaoi manga called "Honeydew Syndrome", which brought out my yaoi fangirl even more than before (the people selling "Honeydew Syndrome" had the best sales pitch ever, by the way: "Hey… Do you like pretty gay boys?").

Disclaimer: Loveless belongs to Yun Kouga, I'm not Yun Kouga, I'm not pretending to be her, so don't sue, 'kay? Try to sue me, and I'll sick my lawyer on you!... Er, well, she's not so much "my lawyer" as my adolescent friend who wants to be a lawyer… But that's gotta count for something!

He had been certain that they would die.

Not because of the spell battle. They could recover from that, of course. That was nothing to worry about... But...

They had failed. They were useless. Worthless. Garbage. Literally less than Zero. Nagisa-sensei had no use for them, now. They could either go back, and be "disposed of"; or not go back, and die on the streets. After all, they had been raised completely by Nagisa-sensei their whole life. They had no social skills, no idea of how to survive on their own.

They were going to die.

And yet, he found that he wasn't scared for himself. He wasn't scared that he was about to die. There wasn't much to his life, anyway. Wake up, eat, fight, sleep, repeat. Nothing special. Not even feelings to stand out and make any day interesting. But still, he was scared... And after thinking for a moment, he realized why.

He was scared for Youji.

Youji had been with him since he was born. He had been the one positive in his life for so long. And now... he was going to... die?

...Not if Natsuo had anything to say about it.

There was a part of him couldn't help but wonder where this sudden feeling of protectiveness had come from. It was always there to a degree, but it wasn't usually this strong. It felt... Odd. Bad. Like his heart was slowly being crushed. This confused Natsuo. They weren't supposed to feel, after all. Nagisa-sensei had made that clear: They weren't human; they were nothing but experiments that couldn't feel.

But... Then, where did all of that come from? The way he felt like he couldn't think when someone made fun of Youji, and all he wanted to do was throw them off of a bridge and under a train; the way that he felt much better on almost any day just by Youji holding his hand; the way he felt that he would do anything if it would make Youji happy...

And the way that his chest felt all weird when he accidentally brushed Youji, or when he looked up and saw Youji staring at him, or when Youji hugged him before they went to sleep, or when Youji was looking at him like he never wanted to let him go...

And that was when Natsuo knew.

He knew that if there was any way... Any way at all that he could save Youji, he would take it. Even if it meant giving up his own life, if it would save Youji, he would do it in a heartbeat. He would do anything...

"Hey. Get up."

...Soubi? What was he doing? What was he playing at?

"Where do you want me to take you?"

Take them? They had nowhere to go.

"I'll take you wherever you would like to go."

He pulled Youji to his chest, as if by doing so, he could protect him from whatever Soubi was trying to do. "Leave us!" Natsuo could feel tears threatening to show themselves, and he hated it. "We don't have any place to return to anymore... Sensei always said that we wouldn't be needed anymore if we lost... Just leave us alone..."

"...I can't just leave you here like this. You understand, don't you?"

Natsuo felt fear turning into anger somewhere in his chest. "Of course I understand! Stop messing around!" He had crossed the line between raising his voice and plain yelling at Soubi by now. "We'll think about that when we're able to move! So just leave us alone!" He could feel tears threatening to fall, and that just made him even angrier.

"...How troublesome. Then, how about coming to my house?"

And then, he wasn't angry anymore... He was confused. Very confused. He was... inviting them into his home? After they tried to destroy him, after Youji put a freaking nail into his hand? "...Huh?"

Soubi sighed. "Do you want to come to my house? You can stay there until you're both fully recovered."

Strangely enough, as soon as Soubi said that, Natsuo felt a little bit... Better. Like something was lifted off of his chest. Even though it could easily be a trap, knowing that Youji might not die... It was enough to almost make him feel giddy.

Almost.

He might die... Soubi could easily take them out once they got to his house, or now, if he wanted to. But if there was a chance that Youji would be alright... Then...

"...Okay."