Notes: This is mainly off stuff based on the No. 6 light novels, which I have yet to finish (not all of the chapters are translated at my source anyway yet) so if something isn't totally accurate, that would be why. But I wanted to get this out anyway.

The freezing cold snowflakes fell out of the sky in abundance. Shion's face was close to numb by now as he lay on a snowy hill next to Nezumi, the two gazing at the grey skies that matched the color of the taller boy's eyes. Shion didn't mind the cold or the numbness that came with the snow. If anything, he sort of liked the feeling. The sting of that first chill that came with winter's arrival was just another thing that made him feel alive. Feeling cold in the West Block was different than feeling cold in No. 6. In No. 6 temperature was controlled everywhere, and out here it blanketed the entire area. Some people out here were freezing, starving. But to Shion the snow was...peaceful in a sense. Quiet. Serene.

He wondered what Nezumi thought of it. All Nezumi really ever said about the winter was that the people out here would suffer because they didn't have the luxuries of the citizens of No. 6. Many people didn't have something as simple as a heater. Shion had asked him but he didn't say much. Nezumi never said much that would reveal anything about himself. He'd been living with Nezumi for a few months now and he'd learned so little about him. He would push, Nezumi would put up more walls. He was sort of used to it by now, but it was still rather frustrating.

He looked over from the skies to Nezumi's calm, blank expression. Nezumi looked like he could be spaced out despite the fact that it was unlike him to be.

"Nezumi." Shion started, breaking the silence that came with the cold. "Don't you find the snow...peaceful?"

Nezumi's expression shifted, deadpanning slightly. "It's just snow, Shion."

Shion let out a sigh and looked back up at the calm, quiet sky. "You never answer any of my questions."

"Don't be ridiculous, of course I do. You just ask a lot of stupid questions."

"Like about your real name? Is that stupid? You promised you'd tell me when I got better. You never did. When will you tell me your real name?"

Nezumi's brow furrowed. He was on that again, huh? Whenever Shion brought that up it grated on his nerves. He wasn't so sure why he'd even made that promise. His real name, as far as he was concerned, was irrelevant.

It was then that Nezumi broke out in a theatrical, dramatic voice.

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title..."

"Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene 2." Shion said quietly. Suddenly, he felt a little embarrassed. Maybe he was naive, maybe he was ignorant, but Nezumi's words penetrated him. "Alright, alright, I get it.

"I am Nezumi. No more, no less. It's just a name. So stop asking me about it."

"Fine."

In that moment, Nezumi reached up a hand to the sky above him, as if trying to capture some of the snowflakes. Watching him, hearing those words over and over in his head, Shion thought that maybe the answers to all of his questions were more obvious than he liked to think.