Fire to the Third Bar

A No.6 Fanfiction

by Tomoyo-chan

Disclaimer: I do not own, but I do love.

Fic accompanies song "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Partrol. Find it, listen to it if you can.


It was cold, it seemed, in the small space of his shed. Cold and dark. Shion liked to leave several small lights around, but Nezumi didn't need them to see so he left them all unlit. Still, he found himself reaching for the matches. Stupid. He thought as he pulled his hand back. Shion wasn't just going to burst back in the doorway, goofy grin on his face and an apology for keeping the other waiting. Shion was gone.

He didn't feel like eating, so he walked over the the cot in the corner and flopped down. Nezumi stared at the ceiling for a few moments before curling to his side. His hand was a faint outline in the faint light. It was cold.

His mind wandered. He had to remember to get groceries in the morning. Usually Shion was the one to do it, but he couldn't rely on the white haired boy anymore. He silently cursed again as he realized how dependent he had come to be on the idiot. It had only been a few weeks, but those weeks seemed to have gone on forever. How weak had he gotten since returning from No. 6 with a naive brunet trailing behind him? He reached his hand out, almost unconsciously, to touch the edge of the couch before him. He could almost feel Shion's warmth under his fingers, a phantom feeling that should never have been.

He couldn't stay like this. Angrily getting to his feet and pulling on his coat and shoes, scarf once again wrapped securely around his neck. Within minutes he was back out in the late night chill, making his way along unfamiliar paths. Loud voices and shouts, laughter and cries, made their way from a number of the businesses along this street. He walked into one at random. They were all the same anyway. Cheap places to forget your troubles in a few glasses of alcohol. Placing his coat upon his chair, he gestured to the bar for something strong.

By the time he was kicked out of the first bar he was quite tipsy, and angry from being repeatedly hit on, and by the second nearly drunk off his feet. The third trip ended with him setting fire to the bar. Barely able to keep standing, he stumbled down the street, somehow reaching his front door. The lock however refused to work. Nezumi slid down the wall next to the door. Why wasn't Shion opening the door? Surely he had heard him. Hell, everyone in the entire West Block probaly heard him stumbling down the alleys and twisting paths of their city.

Nezumi found himself staring at his fingers again. Even drunk he couldn't get him mind off of Shion. It was cold, breath frosting in the night air. Slowly he slid fully to the ground. He had lost his hair-tie somewhere, dark hair spilling around his head on the packed dirt. Perhaps if he waited long enough, Shoin would come home? They could sleep side by side, just like that first night they met. When Shion had been amazed by being immobilized and had offered him food and safety despite knowing Nezumi was a VC. It would be nice, to feel that secure again.

But Shion was miles away by now. Back inside the deathtrap, the lie called No. 6. Why couldn't the boy forget the place. It wasn't much better for him there then it would be for Nezumi. He had been punished by the city, first by being moved out of Chronos into Lost Town, then nearly being sentenced to the correctional facility and the pain it encased. Nezumi knew he wasn't the most personable person around. He purposely pushed others away. But that boy, the first and only good thing to come into his life...

He wanted Shion back by his side. Back where he would grumble and bitch and secretly love the inane little moments with the other boy. They fit together in this life so easily. It seemed those four years in between were there so he could prepare, could gain experience so he and Shion could survive out here in the badlands. Lord knows, the boy would never have survived on his own. He needed Nezumi to care for him.

He closed his eyes.

It was cold without the warmth of a human being beside him.


Wow, this story made it's way out really fast. Usually a series makes me wait weeks, month even, before I feel confident enough with the characters to post. I've only been watching No. 6 maybe two weeks, this is the first fic I've written for it, and I'm only 4 or 5 episodes in, but I love it... Hope you liked it.

~Tomoyo-chan