I'm so sorry! I know this was really late, but here are the last two chapters for your enjoyment! Just to clarify, if any of you were confused, the entire thing is a sort of flashback. You'll know when it comes back to the present.

Disclaimer: We don't own Loveless

Chapter 4

The next day was pretty much a repeat of the previous one. More witnesses, more testimonies, and more of the same accusations about Soubi.

"The prosecution may call its next witness." Judge Nanto stated.

The terrible woman stood and turned to the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen, Agatsuma-san, in fact, lives with two other little boys. I call Youji (insert last name here) (3) to the stand."

The mint green-haired boy stood, his fighter following suit.

"Excuse me, just Youji-kun for now." She said.

The boys looked at her. "Lady, I'm not saying a word unless Natsuo comes with me." The burgundy-eyed boy stated, crossing his arms.

Watanabe pursed her lips. "Your honor?" She questioned, turning to the man.

The Judge though for a moment. "It's a bit odd, but I'll allow it. Proceed."

The Zero boys smiled and walked up to the stand. "Hag." Youji whispered as they passed the woman.

They were, by far, the most oddly dressed ones in the courtroom and everyone noticed this.

"Boys, how long have you been living with Agatsuma-san?" She began.

"I dunno...maybe four months or more, eh Natsuo?" Youji stated, his partner nodded. They had somehow both managed to fit on the chair.

"And in that time, has he ever done anything to you?"

"What do you mean?" Natsuo responded.

"Has he ever touched you?" Watanabe explained.

The boys burst out laughing.

"Soubi?" Natsuo asked through his laughter. "He would never do that." The sacrifice continued through subsiding giggles.

"If anything, we would be the ones to do something to him." His burgundy-haired partner stated once they'd stopped.

The woman didn't dare ask what they meant by that. "That's some odd clothing that you're wearing, Natsuo-kun, a bit girly though. Does Agatsuma-san make you wear those?"

Youji stared at her fiercely. "Natsuo can wear whatever he wants, I think he looks great and I don't like the way that you're talking about Soubi. He took us in when we had no where else to go. We-...our parents didn't want us anymore. He's good and would never hurt Ritsuka, he protects him." He stated leaning forward.

He had the urge to just stab her with something.

"Yeah, he's Ritsuka's guardian. Nothing can ever happen to him when Soubi's around." Natsuo added.

Watanabe fought back a glare, the boys did not.

"That is all." She stated tersely, going back to her seat.

"No further questions, your honor." Ukai-san stated.

The boys walked back to their seats hand in hand. "I really hate that woman." Stated Youji, his partner nodded.

Kio looked at them in awe. They had totally shut that evil woman up. "How did you do that? You were amazing." He whispered.

Natsuo and Youji smiled at him. "Hey, we like Soubi." Natsuo said with a shrug.

The man shook his head with a smile. "I'm buying you guys candy when this is all over."

Ritsuka could just kiss those boys. They had just helped Soubi's case greatly. He briefly looked over at the flaxen-blond man.

Don't worry Soubi, I won't let them do this to you...

He turned to his mother. This woman should have been the one sitting across the room. She should be paying for what she'd done to him...but she was his mother and he would never wish such a fate for her.

Yuiko was called up next for questioning, luckily his lawyer went relatively easy on her.

"Hawatari-chan, how old are you?" Watanabe questioned.

"Twelve." Yuiko replied.

"My, well you certainly don't look it." The dark-haired woman commented.

Yuiko wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or insult. She was too nervous to think about it.

"Hawatari-chan, you're friends with Aoyagi-kun, correct?"

The pink-haired girl nodded.

"And to your knowledge he is a good, wholesome boy, is he not?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever met Agatsuma Soubi?"

"Yes, Soubi-san is very kind. He really cares about Ritsuka-kun."

"Have you ever seen him do anything...weird to Aoyagi-kun?"

"Weird?"

"Have you ever seen him kiss him or anything like that?"

"No, Soubi-san protects Ritsuka-kun, he would never do something like that. Then Ritsuka-kun might tell him to go away and he would be sad and Ritsuka-kun would be sad too, but he wouldn't tell anyone."

"But he tells you?"

Yuiko shook her head, causing her pigtails to sway. "Ritsuka-kun doesn't like to talk about his feelings. I can just tell when he's had a fight with Soubi-san or something because he gets really sad. He'd never admit it, but Soubi-san's very important to him. I think it's nice that Ritsuka-kun has someone who really cares about him and takes care of him."

Watanabe could tell that she wasn't going to get anything out of this girl. "Thank you Hawatari-chan, I have no more questions."

Ukai-san stood. "No further questions, your honor." The girl had already helped his client.

Yuiko got up and went back to her seat. She could only hope that she'd helped at least a little bit.

Please don't let Soubi-san go to prison, then Ritsuka-kun would never smile again...

There was no one left to question now; no one but the only two people who knew the whole truth.

"I call Agatsuma Soubi to the stand." The young lawyer stated.

Soubi looked over at his sacrifice, blue eyes softening. It was all for Ritsuka, none of this was for himself at all. He would fight to protect Ritsuka...always.

The defendant took the stand at long last. He folded his hands, ready to state what he had already explained to the police a hundred times.

"Agatsuma-san, would you please describe to the court what happened on that day?"

The blond nodded once. "I was waiting for Ritsuka outside of the school as usual-"

"You wait for him often?" His lawyer interrupted.

"If he permits it."

"Continue."

Soubi decided that he would get the truth out in the open before that evil woman could. "And after his friends left, I did kiss him."

Ritsuka couldn't believe it.

How could Soubi say that? He was practically throwing his freedom away.

Didn't Soubi want to be with him?

Soubi dared to glance at his sacrifice, the boy seemed crushed.

I'm sorry Ritsuka...

Ukai swallowed hard and fixed his tie.

Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, huh?...

His client wasn't exactly making this an easy fight.

Soubi continued. "But I did nothing else. I do not see the crime in one innocent kiss."

"Well, as Yukimura-san stated yesterday, there had most likely been previous instances in which you kissed him as well."

"Yes, well...I did, but they were all innocent, friendly kisses. You know how embarrassed some people can be with such displays." Soubi explained.

"That is true. Agatsuma-san, according to your friend, you seem to have had Aoyagi-kun over to your apartment quite often."

"Yes, Ritsuka came over sometimes after school."

"Don't you find that a bit odd? A grown man, alone in his apartment with a little boy. Many could characterize that as suspicious."

"I don't believe there is anything wrong with that. He sometimes played computer games with Natsuo and Youji. Kio is over a lot as well, he said so before, so we were rarely alone. It was a safe place for Ritsuka to go."

"But couldn't he have gone home?"

"Yes, sometimes I visited him at his house as well."

"But his mother claims to have never met you." Haruto pressed.

"I was always in his room."

"Alone?"

"Yes, but nothing ever happened. Sometimes I watched Ritsuka do his homework...I protected him."

"No further questions."

Watanabe stood. This was what she had been waiting for. She loved to manipulate someone until they were knee deep in a pool of their own incriminating confessions and sinking fast.

"Everyone keeps stating that Agatsuma-san is Aoyagi-kun's 'guardian', his 'protector.' He makes himself out to be some sort of glorified superhero. But look at him, he's the same as any one of us. There's nothing special about him, he doesn't have any sort of magical powers."

A giggle was heard at that statement.

She glared in the direction from which it had come, and continued.

"I've noticed that you use no honorifics when speaking about Aoyagi-kun. You two must be awfully close."

"Ritsuka and I do not care for honorifics and yes, we are very close."

The woman nodded thoughtfully. "I submit to you, your honor, exhibit 'B.'" She stated, handing a plastic bag with Ritsuka's cell phone in it to the man. He examined at it and handed it back to her.

She placed it in front of Soubi. "Have you ever seen this before?" She asked.

"Yes, I bought it for Ritsuka." The fighter replied.

"Isn't that odd? Why would you spend such money on a child?"

"I wanted Ritsuka and I to be connected. Besides, it didn't cost much and his phone bill is low."

She placed some papers in front of the judge. "These are text messages that were sent to and from this phone. If you'll look at the phone numbers, they are all the same one; it belongs to Agatsuma Soubi. In fact, Aoyagi-kun has never even called anyone else."

The judge regarded each of them in turn.

"There were also a number of phone calls ranging from a few seconds to half an hour each. That's somewhat short for a phone call, don't you think Agatsuma-san?"

"I prefer speaking to Ritsuka in person." He replied cooly.

"I'm sure you do. You are, as you said, very close to Aoyagi-kun. So close, that you often were inside of his house, his bedroom without his mother's knowledge."

Soubi didn't speak, he had already said as much.

Watanabe turned to the courtroom. "Ladies and gentlemen, this man assaulted an officer in the police station. How are we to know whether he would harm a child or not. He has admitted that he was almost always alone with the boy, it is surely possible."

Soubi glared.

This woman...

Ukai-san stood. "Objection! Your honor she has no proof of this accusation."

The judge looked down at her. "Watanabe-san?"

She smirked and picked up another bag. "Exhibit 'C', your honor. These are pictures taken during Aoyagi-kun's physical, of numerous bruises, cuts and scars on his body."

Again, she placed them in front of Soubi. The man went through the stack of photographs.

The ones on Ritsuka's arms he had seen before, but not the rest. There was a scar on his upper thigh that looked like a shallow stab wound, another was a bruise on his abdomen, a healing cut, another scar; and another...

The flaxen-blond looked down, his eyes becoming shadowed.

Protect the sacrifice...

They had degraded Ritsuka, seen his body...

"Have you ever harmed this boy?"

"No."

They'd taken pictures of him as if it was nothing...

"You've never hit him at all, just a little smack when he was annoying you perhaps?"

How could she say that? He wouldn't even think about hurting his sacrifice. Ritsuka meant everything to him.

Soubi slowly lifted his head, glaring at the vile woman. "Why don't you ask his mother?" He stated angrily.

Misaki stood. "How could you say that? He's my son!" Ritsuka looked up at the woman as his father pulled her back down.

"Aoyagi-san, please control yourself." Judge Nanto stated.

Watanabe looked at Soubi. The man had calmed himself some, his training came in handy.

"Do you mean to tell me that you believe that his mother hits him?" She questioned.

"Yes and perhaps even worse than that."

"And what gave you this impression?"

"Ritsuka always seemed to be terribly afraid of his mother, so I never questioned him when it came to such matters. He always made sure that we were quiet whenever she was home and he was always afraid of staying out past his curfew. I saw the cuts and bruises and it didn't take long to figure out who had inflicted them."

His mother had dared to put a single scratch on that perfect boy's skin...

"And yet you never told the police?"

"I figured that he would tell me the truth when he was ready. Although, yes, I should have told someone and I'm so sorry for that."

Here he turned to his sacrifice, sincerity shining in his sapphire orbs. "I vowed to protect you Ritsuka, but I couldn't even save you from your mother. I would never have forgiven myself if something terrible had happened to you too."

For the most part, that last word went unnoticed, except by Ritsuka.

The dark-haired woman moved on. "When did you lose your ears, Agatsuma-san?"

"Objection, this is irrelevant." Haruto stated.

Soubi answered anyway. "When I was about Ritsuka's age."

"Is that so? Perhaps you wanted to make him loose his ears at the same age that you did to make up for whomever took them away from you not loving you. You wanted to erase the mistakes of the past with that little boy, is that correct?"

"No, that is far from the truth." This woman had no idea.

"Have you ever had sexual intercourse with him?"

"Of course not, he's too young. Check his ears, they're completely authentic."

"Oh, so he's too young to have sex, but not too young to be in love, is that correct?"

Ritsuka wasn't ready to lose his ears yet...

"Yes. I would appreciate it if you'd stop depicting Ritsuka as some ignorant little boy. He's very smart and understands some things better than most adults." He replied.

"So you mean to tell me that you've never touched this boy inappropriately?"

"That is correct." The fighter stated angrily. This woman was irritating, how many times did he have to repeat himself?

"But you wanted to, didn't you? Just look at him, that pure white skin, big purple eyes. Don't tell me that you never even thought about it. You longed to stroke his dark hair and take away his velvet little ears-"

Ukai-san interjected. "Objection. Your honor, she's badgering the defendant."

Soubi slammed his hands on the wood of the witness stand, rising. "That is enough! Don't you dare talk about Ritsuka like that!"

He could take everything that she said about him, but he couldn't stand her talking about his Ritsuka in such a way. She was an evil person and Ritsuka was innocent and pure...

The woman hadn't even realized that he hadn't answered the question. The truth was, of course he wanted to.

Ritsuka watched the questioning of his fighter.

Soubi looked irate, he had good reason to be. Somewhere inside of him, Ritsuka felt proud that the man was so passionate about him.

The boy hoped that the jury would see what a great person Soubi was and believe his claims of merely wishing to protect him.

Hope you liked it, please review!

(3) I know this must be getting annoying, but I have no idea what his last name is.

I know that Soubi was stretching the truth a bit, but you don't want him to lose, do you?

The next chapter is the end, enjoy.