Written for Tumblr's No. 6 Secret Santa 2015 for headlesshomos. Merry Christmas!

Disclaimer: I don't own No. 6.

Nezumi unlocked the door to their apartment and took a breath, bracing himself for the impact of Shion throwing himself at him. But when he finally opened the door, he was met only with silence; the lights were off, the windows were all closed, and there wasn't even the slightest sign of the white-haired boy.

"Shion?" Nezumi called out, though he had the feeling he wouldn't get a response. "I brought presents." Still, nothing. With a sigh, Nezumi collapsed on their couch, letting his bag of treats slip from his fingers. It was nearly midnight, and while it was not unheard of for Shion to be working that late, Nezumi had stopped by Shion's office before coming home to see if he was there. But his assistant had informed him that Shion had left hours before.

He's probably at the bakery. It was too late to call though, and he was too tired to make the trip out to Lost Town, despite how much he wanted to see Shion. Letting out a breath, Nezumi stood up, stretched, and made his way into the bathroom to wash away the stickiness of travel.

The next morning, Nezumi picked up the bag of gifts he'd discarded the night before with a smile on his face. No. 5 was much more into Christmas than No. 6 was, having never banned the holiday, and he'd been able to pick up a few things to decorate their small apartment with.

Nezumi, deciding to surprise Shion when he got home, spent the day pinning up strings of garland and hanging rows of lights along the ceiling, humming Christmas songs under his breath as he did so. The hours passed quickly, and by the time Nezumi finished decorating, the sky was completely dark. With a smile of satisfaction on his lips, Nezumi brushed off his hands and went to make Macbeth soup.

Another hour or so passed before Nezumi began to worry. Although it wasn't unusual for Shion to stay even later than this, it was rare for him to work overtime on a night Nezumi was supposed to be home after traveling.

He waited until the soup had cooled and started to congeal before really starting to worry, however. Nezumi had been gone a while – anything could have happened to the airhead in that time. But the apartment was clean and nothing was out of place. Besides, he had at least been at work the day before. He tried to calm his racing thoughts by repeating this in his head, but eventually he gave in and decided to call the office before he went out to look for him.

"You have reached the office of Shion of the Reconstruction Committee. Unfortunately, he is –"

Nezumi hung up the phone before the automated message finished, knowing that he only did that when he'd already left for the night. He could have stopped at the bakery on his way home. And Karan does like to talk… He dialed the number, hoping that it would be Shion who answered. He didn't want to have to explain to Karan that he seemed to have lost her son.

"Hello, Karan's Bakery. I'm afraid that we've already closed for the night, but we open at five tomorrow morning."

"Shion."

There was a tense silence on the other end that Nezumi wasn't sure how to handle, so he let it linger between them. Finally, Shion let out a sigh. "When did you get back?"

"Last night."

Shion didn't ask for anything more, and the longer the silence went on, the less Nezumi wished to break it. Eventually, Shion gave up. "I've had a long day and I have to get up early tomorrow. Goodnight."

Nezumi held the phone in his hand, completely still. The brat had the nerve to hang up on him? And he wasn't even coming home. Pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation, Nezumi took a deep breath and released it in an even breath. He was still tired from traveling, and spending the day decorating had only worn him out more. It was too exhausting trying to figure out what the airhead was thinking. So instead of spending energy on what was surely a useless endeavor, Nezumi took a quick shower and crawled into an empty bed.

Not wanting to spend another day alone, Nezumi decided to go shopping downtown. He normally avoided the area as much as possible, but there were a few things he wanted to get that he couldn't have brought back from No. 5.

It was Christmas Eve, and all the last-minute shoppers were out on the streets, making the area even more crowded than usual. Nezumi pulled his superfiber cloth around his neck and buried his nose its folds. It was too cold, too crowded, and Nezumi kept having to remind himself why he was there in the first place. You're doing this for the airhead. Just a little bit longer. Find what you need and get out.

Eventually, he found a shop selling what he wanted. Releasing a breath of relief, Nezumi rushed in and bought some mistletoe. If Shion was going to continue avoiding him, he would make sure he was forced into acknowledging him.

Scaling the side of Shion's office was much easier when he didn't have mistletoe in his mouth. He'd had plenty of practice on nights he went to pick him up after an especially long day (Shion's assistant locked the door behind her, even when Shion was still working) but scaling the building was made more difficult by the fact that Nezumi had a poisonous plant in his mouth.

After several minutes, Nezumi made it to Shion's closed window. His frustration was mounting – when did the airhead ever close a window – which was apparent by the loud thud his boot made as it connected with the window, visibly startling Shion from his work.

But instead of racing to the window as Nezumi expected, Shion let out a sigh and walked towards him, as if debating whether or not to open it. After a small eternity, however, Shion unlatched the window to let Nezumi in before quickly returning to his desk.

"Make this quick. I'm busy."

Spitting out the plant into his hand, Nezumi narrowed his eyes, less than happy with the reaction he'd gotten. "What the hell, Shion? It's Christmas Eve. Did anyone else even come into work today?" Silence. "Shion, would you at least look at me when I'm talking to you."

Shion put down his pen and turned in his chair to face him. "There. Are you happy now?"

No. "Whatever. Why haven't you been coming home?" Nezumi had already forgotten his original, romantic plan of getting Shion under the mistletoe he'd brought with him, due to Shion's less than welcoming attitude.

"Mom needed help at the bakery the last few days and there was no point in going back to an empty apartment afterwards. If you only came here to ask me that, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. There's too much that needs to be dealt with and I'm the only person here."

"Shion."

"What?"

"Just… just come home tonight, alright?"

Shion seemed to thaw a bit at his words, and a slight smile crossed his lips. "I will. I'll see you when I get home."

Nezumi relaxed and went towards the window. But at looking down at the slightly beat up plant in his hand, he reconsidered his normal exit. Shion let out a slight chuckle. "You can use the door. It's okay."

Only a couple hours passed before Nezumi heard the door unlock and Shion come into the apartment. "I'm home," Shion called out hesitantly, closing the door softly behind him.

"Welcome back. I'm in the kitchen."

Nezumi quickly took off his apron, pulled on a Santa hat, and brought out the cake he'd spent the last few hours baking and decorating. "Merry Christmas, Shion."

Shion dropped his brief case to the ground as a smile lit up his face and he ran to hug Nezumi. After carefully placing the cake on the kitchen table, Nezumi wrapped his arms around him. This was the reaction he'd been expecting when he got home the other day. "I'm home, Shion."

Tears were streaming down his face as he looked up at Nezumi. "I missed you. You were gone so long this time. I thought…" Shion trailed off and hid his face in Nezumi's shoulder. "I thought you'd left me for good this time."

Nezumi tightened his arms around the fragile boy. "My manager extended the tour of the play. If I'd known, I would've said no, but we were already in the next city before I realized we weren't heading back to No. 6."

Shion stepped away from the embrace and dried his tears on his coat sleeve. "Six months. You were gone for six months, Nezumi. You'd only told me four weeks at most."

Flinching at the hurt behind Shion's words, Nezumi reached out to him again, only for him to turn away. "Shion, I'm sorry." Shion stopped at those words. It was the first time Nezumi had ever said them. "I'm sorry," he repeated, even softer. When he went to pull Shion back into a hug, he let him this time. "I talked to my manager and threatened to quit at least three different times if he ever pulled a stunt like that again."

Shion snorted. "Ever the drama queen."

Nezumi continued as he ignored Shion's words. "I actually did quit, at the end. Once I'd been paid – the bastard had refused to pay me after the shows, probably because he was afraid I'd do something like this – I left No.5 as soon as I could. The play was supposed to run until New Year's, but I wasn't going to miss Christmas with you."

Shion tore himself away from the warm embrace. "YOU QUIT?! How could you quit? You love acting!"

"What, so this isn't some 'oh no, how ever are we going to pay the bills now?'" Nezumi pitched his voice nearly a full octave higher, playing the part of the worried housewife.

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "It's not like how it was in the West Block. I make enough for both us now."

"But it doesn't matter anyway. The idiot didn't think I'd actually do it, so there's no understudy. He'll be furious with me, of course, but he knows he can't find anyone as talented as I am, so he'll probably come crawling to our door once he realizes I came back home, begging me to come back. I'll probably even get a pay raise."

"Nezumi –"

"Besides, even if he doesn't, there are plenty of theaters in No.6 now, thanks to you. Any one of them would be more than willing to take on the famous Eve."

"Even if Eve has a serious attitude problem?"

"But you're missing the point here," Nezumi continued as if he hadn't heard what Shion had said. "I came back for you. I will always come back to you. You don't have to worry about that. Now come on, we have a cake to eat." He tried to play off the embarrassing, though heartfelt, words, but Shion was able to see the light blush coloring his cheeks.

Nezumi brought forks to the table as Shion went to take off his coat and put his briefcase where it belonged. With his sleeves rolled up and his tie loosened, Nezumi realized just how much he'd missed Shion while he was gone. Leaning over the cake, he let their lips meet for the first time in six months.

"What was that for?"

"Mistletoe."

Shion looked up at the ceiling, and sure enough, Nezumi had hung a sprig of mistletoe above the kitchen table. A smile crossed Shion's face as he leaned in again, letting this kiss linger for a moment between them. "I love you."

"I know."

Less than satisfied with Nezumi's response, Shion puffed out his cheeks, taking a fistful of cake and smashing it in Nezumi's face. His jaw dropped in shock. A smirk then crossed his face as he wiped the cake from his face, grabbed some more from the mess on the table, and smeared it all over Shion's face.

Tears started to fall from Shion's face as he swallowed some of the cake remnants. "This tastes terrible," he said, as he laughed.

"You're just spoiled from all of your mama's cakes. I'll have you know that this cake tastes fabulous. I made it, after all."

Shion just shook his head. "Try some," he said, forcing a chunk into Nezumi's mouth.

"Oh god, this is terrible," Nezumi cried as he bent over double, wiping the cake pieces from his tongue.

"I told you."

"But want to know what it is good for?"

The glint in Nezumi's eyes as he sat up made Shion more than a little wary, but he was just a little too slow in inching his way from the table. Nezumi grabbed the remnants of the cake a dumped them down Shion's shirt.

"I guess now you'll just have to take that off."

Shion let his shock turn into a smile. "I think I'll need some help."

With a grin, Nezumi pulled Shion towards the bedroom by his tie. As they entered the hallway, Nezumi pressed his lips to Shion's, who happily joined in the kiss. "What, more mistletoe?"

"Look up." And sure enough, Nezumi had pinned even more mistletoe to the ceiling, one sprig about every three steps, leading the way to the bedroom.

Shion started laughing before he pulled Nezumi into a kiss. "I guess we'll just have to get started then."

At the entrance to their bedroom, Nezumi pulled away from their kiss, pressing his forehead to Shion's. "I love you, Shion. I really, truly do. More than I've ever loved anything."

Shion let out a happy sigh. "I love you too, Nezumi." Pulling his own sprig of mistletoe from his pocket, Shion held it over their heads as he tilted his head slightly to meet Nezumi's lips. "Merry Christmas."