Shion had awaken later that morning. Nezumi noticed, but ultimately turned a blind eye as he attempted to delve deeper into the fine literature he held tightly in his grasp.
..It was also a bit of a test of trust. He'd not-so-purposefully set his chair along the opposite side of the bookshelf, hidden away from Shion's line of sight. If he rose to escape, then..
"Nezumi?" he whispered as he broke into a low yawn, "Are you here?"
He shut the book and set it quietly on the shelf, somewhat disappointed that he'd not a reason to test this boy's strength, yet. He moved to round the corner, but it appeared Shion had beat him to it.
"I knew you were going to be here." he stated simply as he smiled, "You love to read so I figured you might want to find a quiet place, away from distraction, namely myself..and sit back with a good book before I woke up. Was I right?"
It appeared his eyes had returned to their natural color over night—or as natural as they were able, in Shion's case—so that was a good sign.
"Really, now?" he inquired, "And do share how you figured that out, your majesty?"
"..The first thing I noticed here was the plethora of books. Anyone so intrigued with literature, especially with the way it was banned in the holy city—as you refer to it—either makes quite the paycheck off of pawning them, auctioning them, or hollowing them out and smuggling black market goods across the borders..or they're just genuinely fascinated by..who was it, Shakespeare? And works of the like."
Nezumi wanted to laugh, and brush it off as he should have..but this kid was far too insightful for his own good. Sure, he wasn't exactly hiding it but he managed to link Nezumi into the Black Market after having known the boy over the coarse of a single afternoon, excluding the amount of time he'd spent sleeping. When had Shion actually given his collection that much thought, actually?
"If you're wondering when I'd given it thought, it was somewhere between opening the door and washing the blood off."
"Smart." he smirked to himself, "You're useful. I'd keep you around if I wasn't so sure you were a headcase."
"..What's a headcase?"
His eye twitched, "Airhead."
"Airhead?" he repeated, "Nezumi, I don't know what kind of education they have in West Block..but it's been scientifically proven a multitude of times that your head, nobody's head for that matter—no matter how dimwitted—could ever possibly hope to survive-"
"-I've got it." he groaned, "Just stop talking, Shion."
Shion smiled, "Sure thing, Nezumi. Hey, if you don't mind my asking, what are you doing for breakfast?"
He shrugged, "I don't eat breakfast?"
"You don't?" he gasped as if it were one of the strangest things in the world, "How do you function? Don't you feel your hunger gnawing at you sometime in between the time you wake up and get ready? Or, when you start your day-"
"Shion." he snapped, despite his better judgment, "It's clear that you don't know as much as you should about West Block, so I'll do you a favor and clue you in. Here, it's a rarity for anyone, unless you truly are involved in either No. 6 or the black market, to get your fill of food before late noon. Food is scarce and it's not exactly a necessity when your body is so used to functioning without it. Understand?"
The boy remained silent for a moment, to the point Nezumi believed he'd made a bit of a mistake, before his frown upturned into that familiar, innocent smile. "I should have known, Nezumi. See, I assumed that you humans would have built up some sort of immunity, given the poor living conditions that seem to limit themselves to West Block in particular, but I wasn't sure, since West Block is somewhat of a broken off part of No. 6..If you will, it's kind of like our city dump. I wasn't sure if the citizens were the same, but it's clear that I was wrong."
Resisting the urge to punch the little idiot—an urge that had surfaced somewhere around the comparison of how these citizens lived while it seemed that most everyone in the holy city received a bit more than their fair share of meal's daily—and decided that urging the other awake wasn't such a good idea.
Stepping out of the confines of the bookshelf, he brushed past Shion. Expecting some sort of shove, he was rather amused as Shion simply stepped out of the way and followed him.
They'd sat quietly on the couch for an awkward five minutes, before Nezumi desperately broke the silence. "I have to ask. With a background like yours, shouldn't your immunity to hunger pains surpass ours?" He asked as he'd noted the boy clutching the lower half of his stomach.
He hummed in acknowledgment before smiling happily, "You're right!" and his eyes, regretfully, shifted violet, "I have no need for food..At least, not to the degree that normal humans do. It's true that I, myself, am human..There's no help denying that, but I've gone a substantial amount of days without food a multitude of times to the point where the pains don't bother me anymore. Rather, I can't tell if they've gone away or I'm just immune to needless pain. And if you're wondering about my stomach.." he lifted his shirt, "I was just wondering when these bandages got here."
Nezumi groaned. This kid clearly didn't know when to shut up, although that was interesting..
"I'm going out." he stated simply as he grabbed his coat and switchblade, "Stay here and do not, under any circumstances, allow anyone inside this room, got it? And don't escape. With those wounds and that hair, you wont get far before someone gives you a hard time. And I'm sure you don't want to resort to killing again.."
Shion shook his head, "It's not my choice. Really, I don't understand it much myself but-"
"Yeah, got it." he groaned one last time before pushing the metal door open and locking it behind him.
XXX
"So you mean to tell me that you've got something so valuable that it compromises the position of No. 6 waiting for you inside of your trashy little hole of a home and you're not going to tell me what that something is?"
He smirked, rather enjoying the irritated look on Inukashi's face as he shared that bit of untouchable information. It was a rare occurrence, to know something that this little information broker didn't seem to know, and he was going to enjoy it.
When he grew bored of his whining, he opened his mouth. "It's not as though I've found the literal messiah. You can relax, you know. Actually, it's better if you don't know.."
"What could possibly make that okay?!"
"The fact that if you knew, there's a likely chance you'd die. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if some underground officials of No. 6 have already bugged your dogs. For all you know, they're listening to us now."
"Then you're going to die, Nezumi!" he angrily exclaimed as he tensed his shoulders, "And shut the hell up! We both know that out of anyone in this entire, stupid city, I'm going to survive. Even if it means I'm alone!"
"You won't be alone." he shrugged, "If I don't make it, he will."
"Damnit, Nezumi, so it's a he?"
"Don't know."
"What the hell do you—"
"–I don't know, Inukashi. My memory's a bit foggy lately. You know what seems to always due the trick?"
"I swear to god, you little pick pocket. You're not weaseling money off of me again!" he stomped his foot indignantly on the dirt floor, alerting a few dogs resting nearby. They cocked their head at the commotion and while few rose to an armed and readied position, others simply watched as their keeper threw a tantrum.
Nezumi was definitely enjoying himself too much to care for the dogs that bared their teeth in his direction, "Actually, now that I think about it, I hear Rikiga offers much more for this sort of stuff. I'm sure that anyone at this point, really, is willing to offer an arm and a leg.." he hummed thoughtfully, "And all I'm asking for is a bit of lunch money. Is that so bad, Inukashi?"
Inukashi, seething at this point, tossed a bag of coins in his direction. "Take it, then! Just tell me already. What the hell am I supposed to do if this damn place is overrun by officials; I wont let you be the last survivor, Nezumi!"
He shrugged, "It's really not all that important, but if you must know..I'm harboring a fugitive. If you want to live, a longer life at least, you wont ask me who he is or what he's doing here, because I don't know myself. He's got a few screws loose but he's not much of a threat in his current state..Send anyone, one of your damn dogs to my door and I'll make a coat. Got it?"
"I've got it." he grumbled, "What a useless bit of information. You damn cheat..If someone knocks on my door, asking for you, you're in big trouble!"
But Nezumi had already sped off in the opposite direction, unwilling to listen to any further lectures or complaints the keeper might offer.
XXX
He took a deep breath as he neared the door to his apartment. It wasn't as though he was nervous, but sharing an enclosed space with someone who likely wasn't certifiably allowed near children or minors—according to the city of No. 6—wasn't quite the comforting thought, either; especially when he'd, although somewhat deliberately, left a knife on the counter.
Hopes of remaining silent were crushed upon pulling the metal door open, followed by a loud creak. There was no sudden lunge or pain in his side, so he assumed he hadn't been stabbed just yet. Even so, he kept his overall safety in the back of his mind; at least if he died today, he wouldn't do so without a fight.
Rather, meeting an untimely death by way of a raging battle with an underground, bloodthirsty assassin sent from the devil city of No. 6—as Nezumi referred to it—seemed like quite a death.
He was greeted with a moan of pain. "N..Nezumi?"
"Shion?" he panicked as he slid down to the floor, when Shion lay, "What the hell happened to you?"
Naturally, his first suspicion had been something along the lines of, 'they've caught us, already?!' but Shion's calm and collected exterior, other than the obvious discomfort, wasn't much to spark much of a need for panic, just yet.
"What the hell happened to you?" he growled under his breath as he noted the blood staining his right arm. He would have helped the boy up and treated him immediately, just for the sake of not having someone die so profoundly on his doorstep, until his eyes spot the knife in his opposite hand.
He attacked his wrist, "What the hell is this, Shion?"
Shion smiled back at his glare with hazy, violet eyes. "That's a knife, silly. Shouldn't you know, Nezumi?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he spat, "Fine, I don't care; but this situation looks bad. People don't willingly attempt to sever their own arms off, so tell me what happened."
"—Exactly that, Nezumi."
"You've got five seconds to explain,", he twisted the arm that held the knife, "Before you lose the privilege to keep both your arms."
"Ah..That kind of hurts, Nezumi." he chuckled, "I only thought of myself, I'm sorry. That was inconsiderate of me..You see, I was so angry with myself for a moment that I lost control. I never thought about the mess that I would make, I'm sorry; you'll forgive me, wont you? I swear, I'm—"
"Enough." he snapped, "I don't give a damn. Why would you attack yourself? That doesn't make any sense..Are you telling me that the wound I wrapped yesterday was your own fault?"
He sheepishly nodded, "You wont tell, will you?"
"Tell?" he inquired, "Who would I tell?"
He shrugged, "Somehow, they've always found out. They've always known where, when, how I was going to do it and they've always arrived—or at least the paramedics—just in time. A minute sooner and I would have been close, but somehow you caught me so early. Thank you, Nezumi. You're such a nice person.."
He'd stopped listening ages ago. His intentions had been well over implied, and he didn't want to pry..He knew all too well that an existence to the pitiful degree of his was nothing more than a nuisance. As noble as the ideas may seem, such a program was a blemish upon the surface of the human race. Rather, he'd lost a considerable amount of faith in humanity upon meeting Shion.
"Forget that." he sighed as he yanked the boy, a bit too violently by the way his face twisted in pain, and lead him back to the bathroom to re-treat his wounds.
XXX
Shion remained silent a better majority of the time, and Nezumi didn't particularly mind.. Or at least, he wouldn't have paid so much attention to it, had his eyes not remained that same color, unnatural to the point of surpassing his typical red on a scale of intimidation.
"Shion."
His head snapped up from it's position, previously facing the floor as if his feet had become a thing of wonder, "What is it, Nezumi?"
"Stop kicking me."
He nodded and Nezumi chewed his lip as he frustratedly wrapped the last bandage around the appendage of his arm, silently thanking any god that may exist for the fact that he'd arrived on time. Somehow, he'd managed to save a life capable of destroying the very bane of his own existence.
"Hey Nezumi, do you hate me?"
Nezumi hesitantly spared a glance in his direction, "What kind of question is that?"
Shion shrugged, "I don't know. It seems like you're a naturally hateful person..I mean, you have so much to hate and other than your rats, not a single person has stopped by. Aren't you lonely?"
"I'm about as lonely as you are, Shion." he stated simply with no true intention of unveiling his own emotions, which, in truth, had nothing to do with loneliness or a petty hate for anyone in particular..Of course, unless No. 6 was personified..
"But I'm lonely, Nezumi. I miss my mother, and Safu, very dearly. Sometimes I think about life before mother was murdered, and it makes me so happy.."
His eyes had shifted back to their comfortable shade of red, and Nezumi relaxed. Something about those eyes were unsettling; it was as if he became an entirely different person, undergoing such a sudden change. The longer he kept that little tendency of his under wraps, along with the rest of his bumps, cuts, and bruises, the lesser chance there was of being discovered.
"How long has it been since you've eaten?"
Shion hummed in thought, "I would say..I don't know. It's been four days since my last check-in and I believe I had breakfast that morning..Yeah, about four days."
Four days without food and he wasn't showing signs of hunger pains. That was..impressive, for a twig like him. But then again, that twig was probably also more than capable of slaughtering a small crowd of people.
Patting the bandage one last time in affirmation, he rose to his feet. Shion followed shortly, into the main room where a bed, shelves, and apparently a small kitchen lay. Nezumi grabbed the bag of what smelled a lot like food and tossed it in Shion's direction, "Do what you can with it."
"You're.." he pointed to himself, "Letting me cook for you?"
He rolled his eyes, "Quit being such a robot. The food is ours, not just mine and not just yours. As long as you know what sharing is, you'll be fine. And I don't care what you make, I'm not picky."
Shion's eyes lit up as if he'd been given a gift from god, "N-Nezumi..Thank you..!"
Wishing for anything but another break down, he hurried back to the shelves. "Right, just cook."
XXX
Dinner wasn't so terrible. Although the thought hadn't exactly occurred to him the moment he'd bought the food, he wasn't quite sure that a boy of his..background had ever had many or any if at all formal cooking lessons. He was sure that dinner would bite and he'd pinch his nose and pretend to enjoy it. He really wasn't picky and in a place like West Block, you couldn't afford to be.
Surprisingly, it was rather..adequate.
"Shion.." he asked with the most courtesy he could muster with his cheeks stuffed with soup, "Who taught you how to cook?"
Shion smiled happily, seeming perfectly content with the fact that Nezumi was more than a little satisfied with his meal. "Mother taught me how to cook. Before the incident, she was a baker. Her bread was the best, though..It's a shame I never learned the recipe, but if you truly wanted me to, I'd do my best."
He set his bowl down as he restrained himself from coming off as a pig any longer, "She was a baker? Must have been a pretty homely place. That how the rest of No. 6 operates?"
His eyes fell to the bowl resting between his palms, "Really, I have no idea. Those were just the memories I had with mother, and I believe I have quite a few with Safu and her grandmother, but.."
Nezumi swore to himself. That wasn't what he had wanted to say at all..All he had wanted to do was ask a bit more about his life, before the..incident. Just a vain attempt to determine whether or not they'd drained the last of humanity out of this soul, and it was clear that—no, they hadn't. He was troubled, and he was lost, but Shion was most definitely human.
He nearly forced himself to choke out a quick apology, but his nature, being vehemently against such displays of weakness, felt it inappropriate..Even in the presence of such a saddened face. He gathered the empty bowls and carried them to the bathroom sink, where he insisted he would wash them later.
His mind wandered to the figure in the living room, the anxiety of never knowing what to say next finally setting in. He decided that now was as good of a time as ever to get started on chores..
XXX
With two bowls, a pot, and the variety of utensils he'd somehow managed to scavenge lying around the house, there really wasn't too much work to do. Even so, somewhere along the way his rationality had lost to his will and he'd taken a shower, shortly afterward. It wasn't as though he was worried for the boy, nor did he mind the fact that he'd probably made himself comfortable.
Rather, it was the lingering sense of dread he'd felt upon witnessing the aftermath of leaving the boy alone, even for what seemed like such a little period of time. Sure, the sun had nearly set by the time he'd returned, but..
And even then the boy displayed nerve enough to apologize for his actions..Not because they were wrong, or immoral, or everything that Nezumi stood against, but because of the inconvenience he was so sure he had caused Nezumi.
What exactly brought that on? What kind of mindset must this boy had developed over the coarse of his life, to feel so irrationally?
The shower ended when he'd grown bored of playing games with himself. Asking one-sided questions never lead anyone to an answer, and he was no exception. He'd have to ask Shion in the morning..
When he passed the set of bookshelves and noticed the sleeping figure tucked neatly under the cover, he wasn't so sure what he'd do with himself, then. He was a man of no pity, but he tried so desperately to level himself around this kid, all for the sake of scorning No. 6, that he'd lost all hope in having any kind of answer.
It wasn't as though he'd be able to push the kid out of bed..and there was no way in hell he was taking the floor. Logically there was only one solution, and he seriously doubt that Shion would mind. It seemed that he was a bit more comfortable with Nezumi than Nezumi was in his own skin, and that was fine.
It just meant less of a commotion and the chances of Shion deciding to ultimately abandon him and jeopardize his long-term goal was gradually getting slimmer with the passing days.