My Only Reason
Summary: What would you do if we woke up and the whole world was gone?
Disclaimer: I don't own No. 6.
Nezumi and Shion lay quietly side by side, miles from any territory that any of the great cities would have considered within the habitable zone, looking up at the vast field of stars that speckled the inky sky a comfortable silence blanketing them. Nezumi was resting his head on Shion's shoulder and had a hand up under his shirt resting comfortably directly over top of the white-haired boy's beating heart.
"It really feels like we're the only ones alive out here," Shion murmured into the silky dark hair above Nezumi's ear.
Nezumi hummed his agreement, "It's nice."
"Hey Nezumi," asked Shion suddenly.
Nezumi rolled his eyes aware that some strange thought or realization had probably struck his lover and he wasn't likely to get any more peace unless he played along.
"Yes Shion," he answered dutifully.
"What would you do if we woke up tomorrow and the whole world was gone? Everybody?"
"Mmm…depends I guess. Are you part of the world in this case or do I get to keep you?"
"Let's say I'm with you."
"Well, that's easy. I would be perfectly content if you and I were the last two people on Earth. We'd probably go along just as we have been these past few months, settle down in some ruin somewhere, and live out the rest of our lives."
Truthfully to Nezumi that sounded a little bit like a dream come true. A world where he didn't have to share Shion with anybody.
"Alright then," sighed Shion, obviously displeased by the lack of both information and creativity, "What about if it was just you and I was gone too?"
Nezumi was quiet for a long moment.
"Nezumi?"
"That's easy too," he said finally, his tone even and unconcerned, "I'd lie down and die of a broken heart."
Shion dug a bony elbow into the taller boy's side.
"Don't tease. I'm being serious here you know."
That pissed Nezumi off, and he immediately rolled so that he was straddling Shion's waist glaring down into his big, curious crimson eyes.
"You think I'm not serious?"
Shion arched one thin skeptical brow in a motion he'd picked up from Nezumi.
"Aren't you the one who is always saying that surviving another day is more important than anything and anyone and that anybody who thinks otherwise is a dead man walking?"
Nezumi gave a put upon sigh and slumped forward onto Shion snaking his hand back under the other boy's shirt as he was wont to do since his return from the wind only knew where.
Shion didn't protest the sudden weight but instead shifted his hips a bit, spat out a mouthful of silky hair and wrapped his arms around the other boy, tracing soothing circles on his back. He'd struck a nerve somewhere. He could feel the anxious tension in Nezumi's deceptively lax frame.
"I love you Shion," Nezumi said softly.
It wasn't the first or even the second time Nezumi had said it but the occasions those three little words passed his lips were few and far between and Shion treasured each and every one of them.
"I'd rather die than live even one day in a world without you in it."
Shion's arms tightened involuntarily around the other boy and they stayed that way for a long while before Nezumi spoke again.
"How much do you remember, Shion, about the day we broke into the correctional facility?"
"More than I'd like to but less than I probably should," Shion answered with a faint grimace.
"Tell me."
"I remember getting captured pretty clearly and that mountain of bodies…the screams of the dying…then we reach the air vent and after that things are kind of hazy for a while."
Nezumi buried his face into Shion's neck feeling the steady pulse of blood pumping through his carotid artery against his lips.
"The next clear thing is Safu," he took a shaky breath, "And then the correctional facility coming down around our heads and desperately trying to get the bullets out of you and stop the bleeding. I all but carried you down the halls to the garbage chute. You were so…I'd never been so terrified in my entire life. Then there's a light and I hear singing and then I open my eyes and sit up and everything is suddenly over."
Nezumi nodded.
"There's something I should tell you about that day, about the parts you don't remember," Nezumi murmured.
"What is it?"
Nezumi paused, gathering himself.
"We're in the halls of the correctional facility, people are running and shouting and it's all a blur of din and pain and exhaustion. I'm so cold and you're so hot wherever you touch me burns. I remember watching you pull on my cloak and pry open the wall panel and thinking something like how it was strange that even though you're usually such an airhead you always manage to be strong and capable when it really matters."
Nezumi pressed himself even closer to Shion.
"You hold out your hand and you basically scream at me to take it and even though I'm pretty much done I gather myself and reach out…Our fingers just brush when… I don't hear the shot, but all of a sudden your eyes go very round and then they unfocus and I'm watching your white shirt stain dark wine red. I watch the light leave your eyes and I know that you're gone even as you fall backwards, even as I grab your hand and let your weight pull us into the garbage chute."
"W-what? Nezumi?"
"You died Shion. You were gone before we hit the bottom."
"Then h-how?"
"Elyurias, same as me, but that's not what I want to tell you."
"What then?"
"I could have gotten out. Inukashi tried to drag me away from you but I wouldn't let her. I, who always declared that my own life was second to none, simply lay down next to you, and cried and waited to die."
Nezmui felt Shion start to shake, felt his silent tears roll down his face and neck and brushed the nearest one away absently.
"It hurt," he whispered, "Gods it hurt so bad when I sang you away, and when Elyurias brought you back…I can't even describe it."
"Why did you leave Nezumi?" asked Shion finally, the question he'd never dared voice, the one nagging doubt in the back of his mind, "After all that, why did you leave me?"
"I thought maybe distance and time would loosen the hooks you had in me, but it didn't."
"Then, why did you come back?"
"I finally accepted the fact that when I decided I was ready for my life to end on that stormy night all those years ago and you chose to preserve it that it became yours. You are the only reason I am alive today so likewise you are my only reason for living."
"Your logic is flawed," Shion said with a short laugh, then, more quietly, "I love you too, Nezumi, forever. You're as much my reason as I am yours."
AN: Again, no idea where this came from...reading through it I think it might be a bit too sappy but I guess I'll let you guys decide.
Inspired by song In the Middle by Theory of a Deadman.
Let me know what you think.