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[ Reunion will come. The words were used as a promise that Nezumi will come back to Shion, someday. Vague as the promise sounded, it was because he didn't know the 'when' himself. All he knew was that if he tried to stay then, it would have failed and possibly for good. Nezumi needed time to find himself, to figure out who he was without the hatred for the city, and he couldn't do that while in the middle of the city. It was never about leaving Shion, but about being able to give him something more permanent when he did return.

It's fitting, Nezumi thinks, if only because he's of a dramatic mind. Shion's door isn't nearly as high-tech as it was back then, making it easier to get in even without help. He didn't mean to arrive so late, but the roads back are as dangerous as they've ever been, and he decides not to wait until morning just because he'd gotten held up.

He could sneak in. Nezumi's good at opening normal doors. But, he doesn't know if Shion is asleep, no matter the hour. It's just like him to be burning the midnight oil.

He could also knock on the door, but why bother when he can tap against a window? ]

[Shion isn't asleep. He sleeps so little nowadays, there's always a thousand problems to solve. Running a city had not been a job he had ever considered, but it was also a job that had been given to him by a far higher power with a very steep or else attached.

So he had to succeed. Too much depended on it. Sleeping happened rarely, eating happened when his mum coaxed him. The world had been in fog since Nezumi had left. We will meet again was a nice promise but there was no certainty.

Nezumi was never far from his mind and so honestly, when he heard that tap and looked out to see that familiar figure looking in... He was dreaming right? He has dreamed this a thousand times and so he must have nodded off.

He sighs, smiling sadly. He knows, if he walks to the window that Nezumi will vanish. Or worse he will fall. So he doesn't move, wanting to hold on to this moment for as long as he can.]

[ Even if Nezumi hadn't known when he'd be back until it felt right, Shion knew even less. At least one of them knew he was on his way and the other had to wait until he arrived. Because of that, of course Nezumi assumed some reactions.

This wasn't one of them. ]

Have you gone blind since I was gone? Will the sound of my voice work better?

[ The words are muffled by the pane in the window, but Nezumi's sure to speak loudly enough to be heard, and he's always spoken clearly. ]

But then, does that mean you've taken up the habit of smiling at the window?

[His dreams didn't normally speak... Shion blinked. Rubbed his eyes. Pinched his hand.

And Nezumi was still there. Cautiously, ever so cautiously he stood up off his chair and walked towards the window, expecting to wake up any moment.

It isn't hard to open it and he does so, blinking as Nezumi is still there.]

Nezumi?

I'm glad you remember me. This would be a lot more awkward if I had to remind you.

[ It doesn't look like he's changed very much. His clothes continue to be a bit on the raggy side, but that doesn't stop his lanky form from adding some grace to the outfit. Perhaps he's a little taller; perhaps not. It's a bit hard to tell in the darkness outside.

It's good to see him. Still awake when he should be sleeping, but Nezumi expected nothing less of Shion. In the wilderness, he's thought of him often. Now, Shion stands in front of him. ]

Do I get an invitation inside?

[Of course he remembers. Nezumi isn't someone he would ever forget. Even if he was the sort to forget anything.

He doesn't look any different to when Shion saw him last, as if only hours not months had passed since Nezumi left in the middle of the night.

He steps back, giving Nezumi room to enter through the window.]

Yes. [The moment Nezumi does enter he closes the distance again, reaching out to touch Nezumi's cheek. As if double checking he really was real.]

I can come back later if you'll have more energy then.

[ Of course he's teasing. Would Nezumi be Nezumi if he didn't? But Shion does seem tired, enough that even Nezumi's a bit worried.

A hand covers the one on his cheek, real and solid, carrying weight a dream can't have. Steel-like eyes search crimson orbs, looking for signs of sickness or something else. ]

You're being quieter than one of my rats.

Don't... [The skin is warm and alive under his hand. Real. More real than any dream could be.

He was real? Nezumi was here. A heavy hand envelopes his and Shion stares.

He had dreamed this a thousand times and yet all the words he wanted to say, the things he had dreamed and planned to say to Nezumi if he ever returned all evaporated out of his mind.]

You're real. You're really here?

[Nezumi would perhaps think him mad after this and truly leave. Shion feels mad. The last... far too long, had been shadowed by Nezumi's absence and now there were beautiful grey eyes staring into his and Shion was just stood, still staring.

[ A part of Nezumi expects it. It's hard to understand why he left when he isn't willing to explain it. Part of him hopes that Shion gets it. Once, the other boy had to adjust to the Western District, had to completely redo his life to fit into the harsh reality of a world outside of the wall. So, Nezumi should be able to adjust to this new world, shouldn't he? The difference was that while the Western District was dangerous to Shion, Nezumi was dangerous to this world. He couldn't just live beside normal people every day, couldn't just trust them. It took time to find something in himself, a way to promise he wouldn't make a body count the first time somebody grabbed his shoulder to ask for directions.

Maybe Shion got that. Maybe he didn't. Nezumi's growing increasingly sure the boy is in shock instead. ]

Yeah, I'm real.

[ For once he spares Shion a dramatic line. ]

I'm back for good this time.

[For good? He wasn't sure anything was for good. It was only for now, until he left. Or Elyurius deemed Shion unfit or some other thing happened that tilted the whole world onto it's axis.

But for now? Nezumi was here. He was real. This wasn't a dream.]

Nezumi...

[He practically flings himself forward, towards him, to hold him. He trusts Nezumi not to attack him in return.]

[ He doesn't plan on leaving. Maybe he'll die, but if that's the case, Nezumi will consider his 'for good' promise to be fulfilled. He didn't spend this long soul searching just to decide he liked the life of a wanderer better. As much as it was for himself, it was for Shion, too.

No attack comes. Instead, arms open to catch Shion before circling around him again, holding him close. It's surprisingly unguarded for Nezumi, but that doesn't mean he's changed that much. Just here, with this particular man, after everything they've been through. Shion's saved his life; he isn't going to try and take it. And if he does? Maybe there's so little hope left in the world that Shion can have that life. ]

You do remember me.

[ Leaning down, he smiles warmly into his hair. ]

Sorry for keeping you waiting.

How could I ever forget you? [Nezumi who had plucked Shion from a life as an unthinking city boy and changed absolutely everything. Nezumi who's eyes haunted his dreams. Who he dreamed of returning so often that even now with his arms around him it seemed hard to believe.

Easier to forget his own name. He takes a moment, to just let his mind take it in. Then draws back slightly to ask.]

Where have you been? Are you hurt? Are you hungry? We have food if you want it.

I've been around.

[ It's a vague answer but not intentionally to avoid. Nezumi's been everywhere and nowhere, wandering, thinking, adapting, and even reflecting. Shion's been rebuilding this city; Nezumi's been rebuilding pieces of himself. Nezumi is still himself but different enough to exist in this city. ]

I'm not hurt or hungry. I managed to keep enough to eat.

[ Survival skills are so very important.

Reaching out, Nezumi's hand cups Shion's cheek, a gloved finger stroking along the skin, following the snaking mark. ]

You look like you're doing okay, but you're not sleeping much, are you?

Good. I'm glad. [He hadn't had any doubts of Nezumi's capability to survive the wilderness. He knew he would. Nezumi was best at survival.

He wants to push, to ask more but he knows Nezumi well enough to know he won't get an answer and he doesn't want to do anything that will push the other boy away. Not tonight, when he's only just returned.]

There's just so much to do. Running a city is a lot of work but I sleep when it is necessary. [Sometimes.]

You sleep when it's necessary?

[ Nezumi smirks, well aware of how much Shion is bending the truth. He smiles down at him, but he isn't going to lecture too much. He isn't the kind to show worry, even if he feels like it. ]

Is it because you've missed sharing a bed with me.

[ Bending down, he stops just an inch from Shion's lips. They'd parted with a kiss. ]

I'll let you share one with me tonight?

[ Nezumi says in Shion's room, where the bed belongs to Shion. But before that can be pointed out, that small distance is closed and their lips pressed together. What better way to greet with a kiss as well? ]

[The question throws him but the lips just an inch from his fluster him even more. It's the last thing he remembered of Nezumi. His lips on his. You'll be alright. Like an order.

One he had obeyed. He was alive, he was fine.

He frowned, it was his bed. If anyone was allowing sharing it was him but then that thought vanished as well as Nezumi's lips touched him and he pressed forwards, kissing him back.]

[ The kisses they shared in the past were always brief, barely more than a press of lips before pulling away. Never had they happened in a place that allowed anything but a short joining, but today, it lasts a bit longer. There's too much to say, and Nezumi's too tired, for it to linger for very long, but it's definitely more substantial than their past attempts.

Once it breaks, the hand that was on Shion's cheek moves down, Nezumi's thumb gently rubbing across the lip he'd just kissed before pulling away. ]

What you were doing can wait until morning. Let's go to bed.

[Both kisses of the past had been goodbyes. This was different, this was longer, a greeting. A reuniting. A rush of feelings they, or at least Shion, had kept pressed down. Thinking about Nezumi always but never allowing himself to drown in those feelings, those memories.

He had a city to run after all. He glanced at the desk, at reports and letters. So much work... But then nods. It can wait. He glanced at the bed. Somehow something that had always been natural, sharing a bed because Nezumi only had one, felt different here, in this city.

You're still thinking of it.

[ Shion, rest. Work will always be there. Wondering if Shion's mind can even turn off enough to sleep, Nezumi grabs his hand and leads him to the bed. It's new to him, actually, another foreign place to sleep, but he usually does sleep in different places most nights so that's not going to be an obstacle. ]

Get in first. If I wake up and find you doing more paperwork in the middle of the night, it'll disturb my beauty sleep.

[ Ah... What an odd feeling. Nezumi doesn't like it. Worrying and fussing about someone feels a bit like having an alien in his brain. ]

[He blushed to have been figured out so quickly. He was till thinking about it, because part of him never did. He felt as if he were balancing the weight of the city on his own head. Because he was. It was down to him. If he failed, Elyurius would destroy it all.

It would be his own fault. But he can res, he can especially rest with Nezumi. He lets himself be pulled to the bed and nodded as he clambered up first.]

I won't disturb your sleep. [Even if he couldn't sleep, he could lie here next to Nezumi. Nezumi was probably exhausted after his travels.]

[ When they shared a bed in the Western District, it was platonic. Necessity. There was no way Nezumi could get a second bed, and if he hadn't trusted Shion enough to share the bed, he didn't trust him enough to share his home. Now, as Nezumi slides in after him, an arm goes around the smaller body and pulls him closer. Before, there were many barriers between them, Nezumi himself being among the largest. It was one of the many reasons he couldn't stay even as the city itself changed. However, after so long of searching a lot of nothingness, things have changed a little. Not completely, but a little.

How long has it been since he's slept in a bed? Nezumi can't remember. Before the suicide mission, certainly. Back in the bunker. It feels nice to have something so soft beneath him. ]

Get some sleep tonight. I'll know if you don't and will complain about it early in the morning when you really want to sleep.

[It was different, to sleep side by side here where there were plenty of other spaces, than back when they had no other choice. But he is pulled closer, surprised by Nezumi drawing him closer rather than pushing him away.

But he had came back, that fact was only just hitting him. He had come back. He had returned to Shion, Shion hadn't been sure he would ever see him again. ]

I can't have you complaining then. [His voice is soft, a teasing lilt to it. He's still in shock but here, with Nezumi's arms around him, it almost feels like it is really real.

Nezumi is truly here.]

[ Admittedly, the reunion wasn't meant to happen at an hour so late that they were both so tired. Nezumi didn't actually plan it out enough to have a preferred time nor a preferred place, but he didn't think it would end with them sleeping so soon after, but he is tired and Shion is likely the same.

Tomorrow, they can... what? Plan? Celebrate? Whatever it brings, they can do it tomorrow, when they're rested and clear-headed. He knows they'll be choices to make. What he'll do now. Where he'll stay, though he assumes Shion has no complaints about housing him for now. Planning is easy enough. He's planned before. It's adjusting that's going to take time, but he's finally back to actually try. ]

And what if I want to complain?

[ In spite of being in bed with the insistance to sleep, he seems ready to keep talking. ]

Now that I'm living inside, I'm sure I can find a lot of things to complain about.

[Planning can certainly happen the next day since there are probably things to think about. But right now they can rest. Now that he's lying down Shion realised he was actually tired. Very much so.

He's been working harder than he had thought.]

Well I guess since I'm the governor. [He twisted slightly so he was facing Nezumi, a small smile playing on his lips.] It's me who will need to hear your complaints.

I'm sleeping with the governor of the same city I've hated most of my life. Books have been written about irony a lot weaker than that.

[ Nezumi once said Shion would have to choose: him or the city. If there was even a choice. Maybe Shion was so too much part of said city if there to really be any kind of decision in the matter. It was very possible that they were natural enemies.

He said after tracking him for years, guaranteeing his safety. He said after protecting him and watching silently so he could be protected without ever relying on the protection.

Now, it's Nezumi in the city with Shion, who's running the entire operation. ]

I'd give you a list now, but the city's dark so I haven't had a chance to update it.

[It does almost seem like the sort of thing Shakespeare would right about. But would it be a comedy or a tragedy. Shion had not chosen, he had refused to chose and it seems he had gotten both. But could that last? Would that choice be forced upon him?

And what would he do?

None of these thoughts were conductive to sleeping.]

It can go in the pile with the rest of the complaints. I can't give yours special treatment, just because you kissed me.

Prompts here. misc threads can also go here

open to misfires, etc. gen. shipping/smut with previous or assumed CR

vampires, ghost, slasher movies, etc. nezumi would play the victim. willing to go as dark as you'd like here

physical, emotional, etc. nezumi can play either role with a slight preference for the injured. if he's doing the comforting, assumed or existing cr must exist; willing to go as dark as you'd like here

open post

texts from last night overflow;

for savedbyasong;

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mushing book and anime here but who cares I do what I want

mush all you want

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random scenario;

text meme;

horror meme;

hurt/comfort, angst;