"Are you cold too?" Nezumi said.

"Um, a bit," Shion said. "I'm not too bad, though, to be honest."

"The blanket's still up for grabs. I think it's getting colder in here."

"Yes, it is getting colder. I'll try the heater."

"Fuck."

Shion looked up from bopping the little battery-operated heater. "What?"

Nezumi was rubbing his eyes. "Those batteries were shit to begin with. Did you have it running the whole time I was… Did you leave it running?"

Shion blinked. "Oh. Yes. Oh dear."

Nezumi sighed. "Ah fuck." He straightened up and hauled himself over his seat and into the back of the cab, landing gracefully on one of the few spaces that was not filled with books. He shifted a few piles until there was a bit more room, then lay down. "Bring the blanket and get over here."

"What?"

Nezumi glared at him until Shion obeyed, sliding on a few paperbacks and landing heavily on a corner of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. "Ouch!"

"All right, don't make this weird." Nezumi had climbed out of his sleeping bag and was holding it open, glaring. It took a woefully long time for Shion to comprehend what the other man was suggesting.

"Um."

Nezumi's mouth twisted into something ugly. "Shut up and get in. It's going to get worse in here very quickly. Even the rats'll be cold at this rate."

"Will they? Do we need to find them—"

"They're fuckin rats, they can take care of themselves. Don't freak out if you feel one crawling around your ears at night, though, I don't take kindly to being kicked awake."

Shion knew that there was no way he was getting out of this with his dignity. He toed his boots of, stripped out of his parka, and kept his eyes focused on the ground as he tucked himself into the back of the sleeping bag with his back to Nezumi. He tried not to noticeably swallow when he felt Nezumi climb in behind him so they were back-to-back. The blanket covered the pieces of them that stuck out of the sleeping bag and the cab of the truck fell painfully silent.

Shion coughed and felt Nezumi go tense. "Sorry, Nezumi."

"For what?"

"Bothering you."

"I told you to wait in the fucking car!" The rage was back, but this time it was loud and fiery. Nezumi sat up, dragging most of the blanket with him. "Why the fuck did you go in a bar in the first place? You're an innocent moron!"

Shion felt himself blushing. "…I had to pee."

"Then you go outside, Jeeesus Christ!" Nezumi's voice was muffled, as if he'd buried his face in his hands. Shion felt him sigh, then winced as the rage returned full-force, this time taking a completely different direction. "And you didn't tell me I still had makeup on? Goddammit, Shion!"

Shion looked up and saw Nezumi glaring at his hands, eyeliner smeared and lipstick smudged. It didn't take away from the fact that he was beautiful, and Shion could feel his thoughts pressing up against the skin of his eyeballs, writing his emotions for Nezumi to see. Shion looked away quickly. This man was not a kind person. He was angry and loud and he swore a lot and… He was scared, Shion realized. He blinked, then looked back at Nezumi, who was muttering to himself as he wiped at his face with a corner of the blanket. Nezumi was scared for some reason. Safu would have said that this was classic defensive behavior. She would have known why he was scared, too, but Shion didn't know. Safu would have been able to tell Nezumi his own innermost thoughts. Shion kept his mouth shut, but now he didn't look away.

Nezumi caught him looking. "What," he spat.

"You are a beautiful singer," Shion said seriously.

Nezumi laughed once, hard and ugly. "Really. That's where you want to start this. I thought I told you, don't make it awkward."

"I'm telling you the truth," Shion said. "I really loved that song. Did you write it?"

"…Are you serious?" Makeup almost gone now, Nezumi laughed for real now, then shook his head. "No, Shion, I did not write 'Faithfully' by Journey, Journey wrote it in the eighties. What the hell kind of music do you listen to?"

"Quiet music, mostly. I liked that song a lot, though. It was quiet when you sang it. Most music from the nineteen-eighties is loud."

"Yeah, thanks." Nezumi's steely eyes zereod in on Shion's red ones. "You want to talk about anything else?"

Shion tried very hard not to start blushing. "Um. What else? You… you…" He took a breath, watched it fog the air when he let it out, and then maintained eye contact. "I don't really know how else to put this, but you have wonderful stage presence, and it was wonderful to watch you perform."

Nezumi was frowning, confusion apparent. "…Are you into men in drag?"

"What! No!" Shion was blushing very hard now. "I just… I like you."

Nezumi now looked as if he didn't believe any of this situation was real. "Right. Okay. Are you saying… I have no idea what you're trying to say here. It can't be what you're actually saying, though, because we talked about this. You're giving too much away."

"And why do you think that?" Shion was sitting up too, even though he was very cold outside the sleeping bag. It meant he was on a level with Nezumi, and maybe now he could stop feeling like a child. "I'm just telling you the truth. I'm not ashamed of it. You're a, a magnificent singer, and you're fantastic on the stage. I loved seeing you up there. It was damn well one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and I'm not ashamed of thinking that."

"What are you ashamed of then?"

Shion blinked, deflating. "Um. Unemployment. Being a burden. Not knowing everything you know. Being inferior."

"Oh. Good."

Shion could feel himself getting angry, a quiet bubbling in the pit of his stomach. "What? What's good about—"

"You're human after all."

Shion twitched away. "That's a weird thing to say." He remembered classmates laughing when he recited textbook answers from memory, the memorial service for everyone who'd died in the epidemic, the stares of people who'd lost friends and lovers, girls squealing in terror when they saw the way he looked now, his mother's brown eyes widening when his new red ones met hers—

"You don't talk like you're human. You're way too up-front with things. And that's the first time I hear you curse, and all I get is a 'damn well'? You can't do better than that?" Nezumi was shaking his head and laying down on his back, readjusting the blanket so it lay across both of them again. His smile was barely there. "You're too strange, Shion. I'm glad you have fears like the rest of us. Lie down, you'll freeze."

Shion lay shoulder-to-shoulder with Nezumi for half an hour, until Nezumi's even breathing hitched, the man rolled onto his stomach, and his left hand slid over Shion until it reached Shion's right hand. It stayed there for a moment, then clenched for a second around Shion's fingers. Gently, Shion squeezed the hand back. He didn't know if Nezumi was awake or asleep. It didn't really matter to him. He drifted off after that, surfacing a few times when Nezumi snored or when a rat found their collective warmth and settled close to their bodies. The storm raged, but Shion slept.