Seimei was perfect - every action planned and every word chosen in just the right way to spin a web that Ritsuka could never leave. Not that he'd ever want to - not until Seimei let him go. He thought he'd grown while Seimei was gone, but really, Ritsuka hadn't changed much at all. Relief pushed all his dark thoughts away when Seimei looked at him that way. All fear and loneliness gone in an instant.

"Don't scare me like that," he said quietly as they touched foreheads. He didn't want to let go of Seimei, he couldn't. He'd walked so long hand in hand with him that the idea of letting go now was beyond terrible. "You're not like that at all - I don't think you're greedy or horrible. You're my brother and I love you."

Taking Seimei's hands in his, reassuring himself that his brother wouldn't go away or hate him, Ritsuka looked up into his brother's eyes. "If I go anywhere, anywhere at all - I'm going to come back to you. Maybe it'll be the old Ritsuka and not this one, but I'll come back, I promise. So don't you go anywhere, okay? It's selfish of me, but I don't want to think of a world without you in it anymore."