A/N: As always I must give a huge amount of credit to color2413. Also, Yoshioka Ai asked about Shion's hair: his hair is not white in this AU, it's blond, and it's his natural color. I don't think it makes much sense, but I needed to come up with something so...


Act IV: Taming of the Shrew

Nezumi ate his lunch on the school building's roof while reading a book. It was nothing out of the ordinary; both Nezumi and Inukashi ate their lunch there every day, although neither of them considered that activity as 'eating together' because they rarely spoke.

Considering the nature of their relationship, Inukashi's absence shouldn't have worried Nezumi nearly as much as it did. Yes, they talked very little and only about meaningless things, yet Nezumi knew Inukashi well enough to notice that missing school for so many days in a row was strange for her.

Nezumi and Inukashi had a lot of things in common, which was the only reason they spent all of their lunches together. Both of them were widely known around school in a very bad way; both of them had at least one shitty parent, and both of them had a house, yes, but none of them had a home.

These were similarities that connected them to each other only because these similarities separated them from the rest. They didn't need words to understand one another; they just knew how the other felt and what they thought, simply because they lived exactly the same way.

Lunch was almost over when Nezumi stood up and stretched. He picked up his book and what was left of his lunch, and headed to the classroom downstairs. Nezumi didn't like being in school. He didn't like his fellow students; he didn't like his teachers; most of the materials were boring; and all in all, the place was terribly noisy.

But it was better than his 'home', where he had to sit in his room silently from the moment he came back from school and until he left the next morning. Anyway, there wasn't much noise to make in that place. There were maids and servants, but they were too afraid to talk with him. There were his foster parents, too, but they never talked to him unless they wanted him to show up for some high-social class event they were about to attend so they can show how generous they were for helping a lost little boy like him.

Inukashi's father was the same, except that he was Inukashi's biological father, and there were many more events that he wanted Inukashi to attend so that he could show her off. At least Inukashi had one good soul to protect her, her mother, but she had little influence on Inukashi's dad, so there was just so much she could do to make Inukashi's life easier.

Knowing Inukashi's household, Nezumi couldn't take her absence lightly. Even if Inukashi was sick, she would rather come to school than to spend time alone at her father's fancy house with the servants and maids who feared her or tried to win her favor for their personal gain.

Inukashi and Nezumi were both alone; they were nothing more than dolls in a showcase made from gold and silver. School was hard, but it was the only place where they could escape the glass walls and the probing eyes of their parents, and that was worth more than anything in the world to them.

After what seemed like forever, the school day was over, and Nezumi, after spending as much time as possible in the library, walked 'home'. It was a long walk and his parents had said that they would send a car to pick him up if he wanted, but Nezumi preferred to spend as much time as possible away from them and the place they call home. It has been the same ever since his grandma died. The moment he set foot in the household, he knew he was only there as an ornament.

He dropped his bag in the corner of his room, which was small but well designed, and fell into bed. He felt too restless to read but there was very little else he could do, so after picking up a book and reading two pages, he gave up and turned on the TV. He flipped through the channels quickly, finding nothing on that he would consider entertaining, until he finally found some sort of a news channel and figured it would be the least boring thing he could find.

It was still pretty boring, and Nezumi was about to turn the TV off and call it a day, but he stopped the moment he heard the anchor saying the name of Inukashi's dad.

"A few hours ago, the company received a set of incredibly disturbing pictures of the CEO's wife and daughter, showing the two as hostages. The company admits that they both went missing a few days ago but to prevent panic, their disappearance was kept secret until today. Even now, with these photos, the people behind this act have yet to state their demands. The entire story by…"

Nezumi stopped listening as soon as the pictures were shown on the screen. It was Inukashi and her mom, no doubt. One picture showed them both tied to metal chairs, gagged with dirty pieces of cloth and covered with bruises. The next showed only Inukashi's face, who wasn't gagged this time. Her chin was violently restrained to position her so she could be identified unambiguously. The next picture served the same purpose for her mom, except that she was held by her hair.

Nezumi didn't go to school for the next week. His 'parents' didn't really mind. He spent the first few days searching every corner of the internet, trying to find more information about Inukashi and her mother. He found more photos that weren't on TV, mostly photos of Inukashi's mom. One showed her arm's being bent in at an unnatural angle, and another showed her other arm broken and bruised. There were photos that showed the condition of her legs, back, and face, which weren't much different. There was a video too, where a group of guys kept kicking her, again and again, and Nezumi swore that he could here Inukashi's muffled cries behind her mother's.

Eventually the kidnappers stated their demands, but other than more and more photos of Inukashi's mother appearing on the internet, nothing happened. Nezumi almost lost hope. In the newest pictures, Inukashi's mom was dying, and Nezumi knew that once the kidnappers realized that their methods were ineffectual and that their current toy was already broken, they would move to the next one. He spent these days lying in bed, feeling more helpless than he ever felt in his life.

Finally, a miracle happened. The police found the perpetrators and rescued Inukashi and her mom. The moment it happened, Nezumi rushed to the hospital where they were being treated, feeling the happiest and yet the most terrified he had ever felt in his life.

• • • • • •

"Nezumi."

"Mmm…"

"Nezumi, wake up, it's late."

"Um… mmm."

"Come on Nezumi, we promised my mom we'll be there by eleven."

Nezumi covered his head with the sheets. "Five more minutes," he murmured.

"You always say that but you never wake up," Shion argued and ripped the sheets off of him, then started poking his cheek. "Nezumi, wake up. Go on, open your eyes now. I'm waiting."

Annoyed, Nezumi shut his eyes harder. He wrapped his arm around Shion and brought him closer, effectively locking him against his chest and preventing him from poking him any farther.

"Let go!" Shion struggled in his hold, but Nezumi refused to release him. "If you have the energy to play games, you have the energy to wake up."

Nezumi hummed in agreement but kept hugging Shion. Because Shion always had to leave early for work, they rarely got to cuddle while enjoying the warmth of each other's naked bodies, although it might be difficult to call Nezumi's tight grip and Shion's endless struggle a cuddle.

After a month of sharing a bed in Shion's apartment or Nezumi's room, Nezumi became used to Shion's 'late' threats. They were hopelessly ineffective, and Shion arrived late to work about twice a week because Nezumi had a tendency to trap Shion in his arms and beg him to take a day off. Luckily, nobody in Shion's workplace noticed, and even if they did, they didn't mind. Anyway, most of the workers were late almost every day.

"Seriously, let go," Shion ordered again, in vain. Then Shion turned to his final resort.

"Ow!" Nezumi immediately released Shion to hold his own nose. "You bit me!"

"I warned you!" Shion sat up next to him and gave him a look that was both irritated and satisfied.

"Did not," claimed Nezumi. "You asked me to let go of you; you said nothing about the consequences of my refusing to do it."

Shion mimicked Nezumi mockingly then said, "just get dressed."

"Look who's talking," Nezumi said, examining Shion's naked back as he stood in front of his closet to choose his clothes.

"Just get dressed," Shion repeated, then got dressed himself. Watching Shion when he was too distracted to notice that his scars were exposed had become one of Nezumi's favorite activities, so he decided to keep at it instead of complying with Shion's demands. Then again, a lot of things had became "one of Nezumi's favorite activities" in the short period of time they were dating, and most of them were more… physically demanding than watching Shion getting dressed.

As Shion finished shoving all of his bright locks into a wool hat, he looked behind him to see that Nezumi hadn't gotten dressed yet because he was too busy staring at him.

"Come on Nezumi," he pleaded, "we're late."

"Okay, okay, I'm getting dressed," Nezumi sighed. As Shion got out of bed, he went to the desk in the corner of his room and took out his laptop.

"I'm going to check my e-mail," he announced as he left the room, "you have five minutes."

Nezumi smiled as he watched Shion walk away. Spending most of his nights with Shion became a regular thing, and Nezumi was too drunk with happiness to realize how happy he actually was. It was as if his personality had been transformed, yet he hadn't even noticed the change. Shion was almost like an extra limb; he was Nezumi's everyday life; he was the air he breathed and the blood in his veins; he was part of Nezumi's reality.

And the most amazing thing about it was that Nezumi never questioned it. He could hardly remember that Shion used to be just an incredibly annoying kid that Inukashi had driving him around. He knew where their relationship started and where it was at the moment, and he knew what they had gone through to get there. But he never realized just how great the change was; he never realized how different his life was from only a few months ago in England.

Nezumi never wondered what type of person Shion must be, a person who could turn his whole world upside-down in a few months without Nezumi's even noticing.

When Nezumi finished dressing, more than five minutes had passed since Shion left to check his e-mails. Weird, Nezumi thought, remembering all of the times when Shion bugged him every thirty seconds to see if he was done already. His nagging became especially unbearable when they were about to be late to Karan's place, which was another one of Nezumi's new favorite activities.

Shion never dyed his hair on days where they went to visit Karan's bakery because Karan loved Shion's natural hair color almost as much as Nezumi did. She accepted his decisions, of course, especially when these decisions were meant to protect him, but Shion felt a strange obligation to appear before his mother as he was. Nezumi never complained. Obviously, he loved every second he could spend looking at Shion's hair.

And there was the matter of meeting Karan herself. She was nicer and warmer than any person whom Nezumi had ever met, perhaps other than Shion, and she seemed like the "perfect mother" Nezumi had never had. That lack of experience didn't prevent him from feeling cozy and comfortable around her, sensations he wasn't very familiar with either, but it also caused a slight nervousness he couldn't shake whenever he was around her. Other than that, Nezumi loved being around Karan, and he understood very well why it was so important for Shion.

Nezumi rushed to the kitchen when he realized Shion had not nagged him in the past few minutes, only to see him sitting frozen before his computer screen.

"Shion?" he touched his shoulder to catch his attention, and Shion gave him an empty and slightly perplexed look, as if he didn't have enough time to be fully confused yet. "Something wrong?"

"No," Shion answered quietly, "it's just a mail from work."

"Did something happen?" asked Nezumi.

Shion shook his head. "Not anything bad," he assured him. "We sent a project design to a company in the United States few weeks ago, and they just told us they liked it."

"That's great!" Nezumi smiled. "It is great, right?"

"It is," Shion confirmed, still not looking completely focused, "it's a great opportunity for our company. There's just one thing…"

"What is it?" Nezumi lowered himself to look at the message on Shion's laptop. He skipped to the second paragraph and began to read it:

We're pleased to inform you that as one of the heads of this project, you will be supervising the building of your design. The buyers have already arranged a two-month visa—

"They need me to be there when they build the project," Shion interrupted. "They want me to go to the United States."

• • • • • •

Nezumi tapped his pen on the table restlessly. Although it was the early afternoon, which was usually the perfect time for him to work, he hadn't been able to get any work done. In fact, Nezumi had been unable to get any work done at all in the past three weeks. His boss didn't like Nezumi's lack of productivity, of course, and he had received a couple of warnings by now, but nothing had changed the fact that Nezumi simply couldn't sit down and work.

He blamed it on Shion. Every night, before he went to sleep, Shion would call Nezumi and tell him what happened to him that day. For Shion, it had little effect on the rest of the day, because it was night in his time zone, but for Nezumi it had become a major distraction that he couldn't afford but couldn't live without.

Nezumi leaned back in his chair and sighed. He didn't want to do anything, especially not his job. He decided to get up and walk around his room as if it would give him some ideas. I could visit Karan, he thought, she's always nice. He considered the option but decided to discard it. As nice as Karan was, she still made him a little nervous, and Nezumi wasn't sure he would be able to deal with it without Shion besides him.

I could visit Inukashi, Nezumi suggested to himself, but then he remembered that Safu said she had a series of tests that day, which also meant that Safu too was off the table. Nezumi strode into the next room and walked in circles until his eyes fell on a thing that hadn't occupied his thoughts in a very, very long time—his bookshelf. For the first time in his life, Nezumi stood before his books and felt almost alien.

Of course he still read regularly, but it wasn't the same. Nezumi used to read while eating breakfast and lunch and dinner. He used to read on the subway, on his breaks, before he went to sleep, when he was alone at home after a day of teaching at school, and when he wasn't alone because one of the new teachers somehow managed to drag him somewhere. Nezumi used to read like he breathed; it wasn't a hobby for him, it was a necessity. When did it become like this? Nezumi tried to remember, I'm pretty sure it was the same at least until Shion and I—Oh.

And just like that, the illusion was shattered and Nezumi was no longer blinded by his own happiness. Nezumi had suddenly realized that Shion changed him. A lot. Not reading as frequently was just a start. Nezumi never made friends other than Inukashi, and they almost never met outside of school, but here he was with Shion, and occasionally with Safu, or Karan. He had spent almost every night of the month before Shion left to the United States sharing a bed with him. He wasn't alone anymore.

Because of Shion he couldn't work; he became too attached, and he couldn't function properly without him around. He stayed in Japan. He drove to a bar in the middle of the night to pick Shion up. He was worried about him when he panicked about his hair. He tutored him. He had done so many things he wouldn't have even thought about before he met Shion. Normally, a person would be glad to think about how he changed for the better, but Nezumi felt nothing of the sort; his mind was infested with one emotion only.

Fear.

Shion had changed him. Shion had changed him so much, and he never noticed. He was blind and he was foolish, and he fell right into Shion's trap. This was not supposed to happen, not to Nezumi. Nezumi and Inukashi were once the same: survivors. They trusted nobody and advanced only on their own. When they reunited after all of these years, Inukashi was already deep inside of Safu's trap, and she was well aware of that. He promised himself he won't fall, because that's what survivors do, they keep going even if it means leaving other survivors behind.

Nezumi avoided countless of traps before, but not Shion's. Just like Inukashi with Safu, Nezumi didn't notice until it was too late. Yes, it was scary to know that Safu possessed the skills to trick Inukashi, but it terrified him to know that Shion possessed the skills to trick him.

It was simple and swift; Shion ambushed him patiently and attacked so fast Nezumi couldn't even tell he had been hit. It was cruel, heartless even; it was inhumanly accurate and impossibly effective. Shion held him captive now and he could kill him if he wanted to. He could torture him if he wanted to. But he didn't, he kept him trapped but alive, and Nezumi could do nothing about it.

All of a sudden Nezumi couldn't feel happy anymore. Not with Shion. He realized that Shion was scary; he was terrifying; he was every single one of Nezumi's nightmares; he was his downfall; he was his end.

Escape, Nezumi thought in panic, I must escape. Right now.

But he couldn't do that. All he could do was sit on the floor before his bookshelf and silently cry out for his limbs to move so he could run as far as possible from Japan, from Shion. He yelled and shouted, yet none of his cries could escape his lips.

He didn't know how much time passed, but eventually he heard a knock on his door. He walked back into the bedroom and from there to the door, exhausted, scared, and empty. He didn't think about anything, he couldn't. He just opened the door where Safu stood, looking at her feet, crying.

"It's time to fulfil your promise," she said.


A/N: This chapter set a new time record for this fic. As much as I'd love to say I'll try to break this record or at least get close to it, I don't see that happening. I'm super excited about the next chapter, so I already outlined it, and it was so long that I had to cut it 3/4 through, and it's still super long. My point is, yes it might take me a while, but it'll be worth it. Hopefully.