Before Note: Heeeey guuyyys. This is a little later than I intended, but I finally managed to get it done. School has really been a bitch to me and I've slowly become very unmotivated and overall kinda depressed and anxious about everything, not to mention some other shits happening. But I've managed so far and I'm just working on reassuring myself that everything is going to be alright.

But anyways, I did mean this to be spit out a bit before Shun's birthday which kinda didnt happen and i feel kinda guilty but hey its still here.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and followed and favorited it means soooo much to get support like that and i cherish every notification i get even if i cant personally send each of you a message, know that you are LOVED.

Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Saint Seiya who do you think I am?

September is an odd month. Students go back to school, Halloween sales start to show, and the weather is reluctant to cool down. It feels like a slow Sunday where you sort of waste time the whole day and when it hits 8 o'clock you feel depressed enough to question your purpose in life while watching a shitty reality TV show.

'Isn't it your birthday tomorrow?'

Oh right, that too.

Shun wasn't really big on birthdays. Well, not anymore. He supposed birthdays are more exciting when you're younger, when you felt superior because it was your day, your turn to get the presents, and your day to celebrate however you want. Not to mention birthdays weren't really valid unless there was people there to acknowledge it.

But that wasn't a problem this time, since Ikki had called Shun earlier and invited him for breakfast on the little man's big day, as he had put it. The younger teen had snorted into the receiver, claiming that he was turning 16 and on his way to becoming more of an adult than the older one would ever be. Shun could just hear the sneer in his brothers voice when he responded with a simple "Who's the legal on here? That's right. It's me". The Andromeda saint had rolled his eyes, agreed to the invitation, and slammed the phone down into its nice little plastic pedestal.

'Step it up, gotta step it up son.'

Right. Ever since Hades had decided to make his annoying little voice heard—

'Hey, back up for a second.'

—Shun hated to admit it, but both of their levels of sarcasm had been increasing at an average velocity. He couldn't explain why, he couldn't say if it was a good or a bad thing, all he could say was that it made his life alone in his little apartment more…Exciting and simply not lonely. Now that he wasn't alone in his thoughts, now that he had 24/7 distractions and someone to talk to even if he didn't want to, his fits of depression and anxiety had lessened a bit. It was a little ironic, he guessed, that the god of death had these effects on him.

However, now was not the time to get philosophical. Tomorrow is going to be his birthday and he would like to spend the day stress-free, which called for the green haired boy to finish all his chores and errands by that night.

He busied himself with sweeping the floors, mopping the kitchen, cleaning the toilet, and washing dishes from the day before. He turned on the small radio he had found at a yard sale and quickly started humming to the song that first started. It was some old-ish rock song he thought he might've heard playing in the background at the store one day. He could faintly hear the god of death humming to the beat as well.

The sweat quickly accumulated on his brow and he instinctively went to brush away the hair around his neck that wasn't there anymore. The only downside to his hairdresser role-play that occurred sometime before was that now he couldn't put his hair in a ponytail, yet his hair still got in his face. After a trip to the dollar store, however, he managed to solve his predicament with some plain headbands he found were quite useful.

'You are simply the cutest.'

"Wow. No. Stop right there," Shun sighed as he snapped one of the headbands in place. He continued his chores, zipping from one side of the room to another, dusting, wiping, febreezing the shit out of the place. Nothing like the smell of ocean spray in an apartment located near the ocean.

When the teen finally collapsed on the couch, it was six in the afternoon, the sun just setting and giving the place a warm, orange glow. Shun sat up and stretched, staring out the window. He felt an odd sense of comfort.

'Get in the shower you filthy animal.'

That seemed like such a good idea that the saint didn't complain.

After his shower, however, he remembered he still needed to go to the store. Reluctantly pulling on his clothes, he sighed and made a mental checklist in his mind of what he needed to get. Milk, cheese, bread, he had just bought ham, hmmm...

'We definitely need yogurt.'

"Oh right, thanks."

'I got you're back, son.'

"...Sure."

If Hades was useful at all, then his only purpose now would be to remind the teen of anything needed to be remembered throughout the day.

He grabbed his keys and wallet on his way out the door, it was only 7 o' clock so he still had time to do the needed shopping.

Mindlessly walking down the sidewalk, Shun hummed in response to all the comments Hades would make as they passed by groups of people and small shops, not wanting to draw attention to himself by holding a conversation out loud. No one could see the god, not even the saint himself. It was a routine by now.

'Go into that party store, lets get you a party hat for tomorrow.'

The saint walked right past the shop, not even glancing at it.

'Excuse me,' the god said in disbelief. 'Disrespectful, kids these days don't have any manners why did I expect you to be any different?'

Wow.

The teen thought he faintly heard his name. He turned around slightly, and after not seeing anyone, shrugged and went on his way. It wasn't until he got to the crosswalk that he heard his name again, louder this time, and by a familiar voice.

"Oh thank god! I thought I was going to lose you in the crowd!"

Shun turned once again and let out a very uncharacteristic and low "oh shit" in surprise.

The other boy was panting for breath, hands on his knees and laughing slightly. After a few seconds he stood up straight. The green-haired teen was still in awe.

'Ohhhhh snaaaap.'

After the situation finally sunk into his head like the Titanic, a strong crash and then a slow descend, Shun smiled bright and nearly tackled his friend into a tight embrace.

"Hyoga!" He wrapped his arms around the other and he felt him do the same and stayed like that for a moment, its been so long since they last saw each other, and people started to look at them oddly as they walked around the two.

"You cut your hair," the blond pointed out, as both of them walked to the side of a cafe instead of standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Shun shrugged, trying to not make a big deal about it, and noticed that the Cygnus saint had grown his hair a bit longer than the last time he saw him.

"Your hair is longer," Shun answered.

Hyoga ran a hand through his locks. "Heh, yeah. But seriously now you look good."

"Same to you," Shun smiled. He noticed that the other was carrying a rather packed sports bag with him."So what are you doing in the city? You never hang around here much that I know of." Oh god he hoped that didn't sound rude.

Hyoga paused for a moment. "Well I came to see you actually, tomorrow is your birthday, right?"

The Andromeda saint stood shocked. Did his best friend really come all the way from Siberia to see him? It couldn't be, why would he waste time on him? Why now? Why not previous years? He called bullshit.

'Shun...'

"Seriously?" the younger teen stammered, "But, I mean, you didn't call, or, uh...I'm sorry. Its just such a surprise I didn't expect this at all." Shun felt his face heat up in embarrassment and he kept back the panic. God, he needed to shut up sometimes.

The bond scratched the back of his head, his confident atmosphere faltering a bit.

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I guess I did just pop up on you out of nowhere," he adjusted the bag on his back,"I did go to the Kido mansion first until I was told you weren't there anymore. They did have your address but I sort of got lost, but then I spotted you. Ah I guess there's a lot of explaining to do..."

"Its ok. I was going home right now, how about you go with me back to my apartment?" Shun offered. His friend seemed to be in distress, the shopping could wait.

'But the yogurt...'

Hyoga seemed to lighten up a bit. "That sounds great actually."

'I don't like him.'

Ugh.

Once home, it was almost eight o' clock, Shun dropped his keys at the counter and he heard Hyoga drop his bag near the door. It felt so surreal, to see his friend after so long, yet not feeling any different about the situation as if he had seen him everyday for the past few years.

The blond examined the living room for a moment before taking a seat at the couch. After offering the other some water, Shun did the same and dropped on the couch as well.

"So how have you been doing?" the younger teen asked, glancing at his friend curiously.

The blond leaned back into the cushions, staring at the window. The sun had set. "I've been great. I mean, everything is so calm and it was comforting going back to my hometown, just trying to move on after everything. It was really tough the first few months, I just felt so alone, things had changed but they hadn't. I trained to make myself feel better, and interacted with the people of my town. I thought about everyone a lot. I hoped you and everyone else was doing okay, but I knew I had to move on and rest before doing anything else. Then I got into this routine and things started looking up and I truly felt happy again. Then a while back I decided to visit Tokyo again, and thought I could find you here." Hyoga turned to look at him at that last part.

Shun nodded understandingly. After the war everyone needed time to themselves, to cope, to reflect. He was glad that his friend had managed to get himself back on his feet so quickly, and he told him so. It was more than he had accomplished. "It really has been a long time hasn't it?"

"It's hard to believe it has..." the Cygnus trailed off, but moved on to his next thought. "So how have you been?"

The teen stiffened at the question. How had he been? What had he been doing all this time?

'Drowning in your self despair and hatred, staying indoors most of the time?'

Ten points for that one.

"I...I've been ok."

'Liar.'

The Andromeda saint continued, "I couldn't stand being at the mansion anymore, Tatsumi was still an ass, so I decided to move on my own, as you can see. Saori still insists on providing for all my needs though."

"Ha, same. We do have to appreciate everything she does for us." Hyoga grinned at that thought.

"And, well, I guess I've just been adapting to a life on my own, just, trying to calm down and take care of myself, relax." He said as casually as he could muster, not wanting to spill too much information.

'Crying yourself to sleep, screaming into the pillow, feeling guilty, arguing with that annoying voice in your head.'

The blond looked concerned and in deep thought. "I...Well how do I put this...How have you felt after Hades?" He said so very carefully, trying not to tread on thin ice.

'Greetings.'

Shun laughed.

He didn't know why he laughed, but he laughed, and he caught himself midway and wide-eyed and almost face-palmed himself. Now Hyoga really looked concerned.

"I'm fine!"

'You're not.'

No.

"I..."

'You haven't been fine at all.'

No!

"...I'm."

'You know it.'

"I," the tears started to pool under his eyes, his hands shook slightly, "I'm not," he managed in a barely audible whisper.

'It's ok.'

The older teen shifted in his seat and faced the other, who was staring down at his lap. He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "Shun come on, talk to me."

And so talk he did.

He started slowly at first, as he tried to breathe normally, but soon enough he was talking with more confidence. He told him about how useless he had felt during the war. That he had let Hades use his body and he couldn't do anything about it until Saori came. That he was weak. How painful it was to sit in that void as his brother tried to save him, but ended up hurt instead. How he hadn't done shit as everyone else fought for Athena, and how guilty he felt because Seiya, dear Seiya, was stuck in a wheelchair alive and yet at the same time not. He managed to tell him how useless and depressed he got as he settled down, about all the nightmares and panic attacks he would have. How he just wanted to scream but would never say a word to anyone. How, over time, he managed to cope and calm down, but occasionally those dark parts of his mind would creep up at him at the most random of times and cloud his vision with negativity. That he felt so alone but he didn't have the heart to complain, especially when others have had it worse.

Hyoga listened, he remained silent and serious through the whole thing. And when Shun finished, he pulled him into a hug.

"I'm so damn proud of you."

"Huh?"

"You say you're weak and worthless, yet here you are. It's ok to feel depressed, been there, done that. Its normal. Its not a great experience, and it's never okay to feel depressed to the point you think you don't matter, because you do, you're here for a reason, you play parts in the lives of others. You've fought through so many things and you aren't afraid to express how you feel, you take everything that is thrown your way and you never complain and you handle it, and if that isn't true strength, I don't know what is."

Shun stayed silent but managed a smile.

'Hate to admit it, but he's right.'

"Thank you, I needed this."

The blond gave him a soft pat on the back and pulled away, looking at his wristwatch. Shun looked back at the clock on the wall. 12:06. Time had flied by.

"Happy birthday, Shun."

'Happy Birthday.'

After note: Kinda serious-ish chapter. This WAS going to be the birthday chapter but I wanted to write a lot of stuff that I thought it would be better to split it. So now you have like a pre-birthday chapter hehe. SO yeah I wanted to get Hyoga in here because I thought I could get some shenanigans going with Ikki also. Hm. I feel like I use this story to vent sometimes and I push what I'm feeling onto Shun. I don't know if that's good or bad.

Sorry for any OOC-ness, this is like my only Saint Seiya fanfic I've ever written and I still need to practice these guys. I know Hyoga is perceived as kinda cold when it comes to his emotions but I thought he would act different with Shun of all people. Well fanfiction is full of possibilities!

I'll try to work on the next chapter to get it done before Christmas I hope that works out. If not then I'll apologize in advance, and well, sorry!

Hope you enjoyed!