Thank you so much to everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed. It means so much to keep me going! I'm proud to reward your patience with the final chapter, though nothing I write is going to do these lovely boys the justice they deserve. Please tell me what you thought of the story in a review, so I'll know what do with my next shot at No.6.

My proof-reader's recommended listening: Celtic harp music. /5sujKEHe41s

Enigma

Very seldom did Shion allow his mind to wander. For weeks on end his demanding position as the council director for the committee rebuilding No. 6 required a razor-sharp intellect and usually more focus than he could muster. There simply weren't enough hours in the day to construct a new society as well as daydream of the past.

Though on rare occasions he would lay in bed, staring at his ceiling, and allow his thoughts to drift to a certain raven-haired rat. The memories were always the same, just like the questions rattling around in his skull. Why hadn't Nezumi ever replied to the message Shion had sent to him in Tsukiyo's cheeks long ago? He always drew up several possibilities. Part of him doubted the note ever made it to the rat, but the other figured he had read Shion's plea and simply never wrote a reply, while the tiny messenger had never returned in favor of his true master. Maybe Nezumi hadn't known how to answer such a request as "Come back home", or maybe he just hadn't wanted to.

Shion blinked awake hesitantly after yet another night of restless dreams and the cold cruelty of his memories. The first thing that received attention was his stark headache as scarlet eyes adjusted to the intense sunlight pouring in. But as Shion sat up in bed he was alarmed by an insistent squeaking. He couldn't believe his eyes as a little black mouse peered up at him curiously from its perch on his chest. It chirped once more before spitting a note capsule out at his paws. Shion fumbled over his fingers, unraveling the slip of paper in a desperate frenzy.

Three words gazed calmly back at him: Soon, your Majesty.

Hot blood surged under his porcelain skin. Without context the note was obscure, but Shion recalled exactly what he had sent two years ago: "Please come back. I need to see you". The simple message had Shion biting back tears when he wrote it. But this meant Nezumi was coming back. Nezumi was returning just like he promised.

He would be within Shion's grasp again.

Even without a specified time or place, excitement burned in his chest. He rushed to change out of the crumpled clothes he had worn to work and fallen asleep in. He needed to show the note to his mother. Maybe then she wouldn't fret and fuss so much about his well-being. As he pulled a pastel cardigan on over his snowy hair, Tsukiyo squeaked indignantly and scurried up his arm to settle in his breast pocket.

Tumbling downstairs with the paper clutched tightly in his palm, the bright morning light flooding in stopped him dead in his tracks.

Nezumi settled at the cozy kitchen table, swathed in sunlight and nonchalantly drinking a mug of black coffee along with one of Karan's famous muffins. His dark hair was longer in its ponytail than Shion remembered, and the jacket draped across the back of the chair was coated in dust though it remained un-tattered.

"Sleeping in like a prince, I see. It's a luxury not having to wash dogs at sunrise, isn't it?" Nezumi chuckled at Shion's silent, awestruck expression. Always the open book. He sipped his drink.

The casual tone caused Shion's eyes to dilate into saucers as he attempted to process the presence before him. "Nezumi, you're-"

"Here? Alive? Still taller than you?" the rat finished with a teasing smirk. "All of the above, yes. I promised you, didn't I?" Proper words were escaping Shion's rapier-sharp mind as he spluttered a response, making Nezumi laugh harder than he had in a long time. Too long, he thought. "I remember leaving an eloquent little boy, but I seem to have returned to a mute, grown nobleman. "How time doth change his nature"."

"Shakespeare. Act five of The Merchant of Venice," Shion's first intelligible words rattled off the source of the quote without thinking. Nezumi applauded slowly.

"My, my. I'm surprised you haven't lost your touch." Before Shion could respond, lightning reflexes brought Nezumi's breath to feather across Shion's ear. "I'm quite impressed." He embraced the slighter body, tracing the red snake scar he found so alluring with his thumb and staring into pretty, red orbs, entranced. Leaning forward suddenly, his lips swiped across Shion's, who quickly closed his eyes in turn. Though the moment was all too short-lived.

"Nezumi," Shion breathed when it was over, "What was that for?"

"A thank-you kiss," Nezumi replied, his arms still wound around the shorter boy's waist. "You waited for me. A proper guest never intrudes without a gift for his gracious host."

Try as he might, Shion couldn't help but submit to the mysterious grey eyes that had haunted his dreams for almost three years. They came in second in perplexity only to their owner. He stared, enraptured, until he was abruptly spun out of Nezumi's grasp and onto a chair the same moment Karan bustled into the sunny kitchenette.

"Ah, you're awake," she smiled sunnily at Shion. "This one came knocking at the door just before I was about to open the shop, staring at the door like death haunted the other side. I had to scold him for not saying proper goodbyes before disappearing for so long, and he just stared at the ground and asked to see you so awkwardly," she giggled.

It was Shion's turn to smirk at Nezumi, who for once seemed out of retorts. "You? Awkward?"

The deer-in-headlights expression as Nezumi stuttered to cover up his fall from grace sent Shion into a laughing fit as the rat settled for slumping indignantly, arms crossed and face burning with his rare humiliation. Only as lovely a lady as Karan could leave the mighty Nezumi stunned by wit.

Karan patted Nezumi's shoulder comfortingly. "Oh, don't take it so hard, dear. I've heard Shion call out your name in his sleep on several occasions. I think you're both even in embarrassment," a twinkle of mischief glimmered in her eyes as it was her son's turn to defend himself.

"Mom!" Shion whined. His scar was almost invisible with the blush on his cheeks.

She cheerfully ignored the plea. "Oh, I have to run to and buy more flour in a while, so I need you to watch the shop for a bit later."

Shion nodded dumbly and his mother smiled. Nezumi glanced down at the pale fist clutching his shirt under the table. Suddenly he threw his arm around Shion's shoulders and pulled him close, "Don't worry ma'am, I'll watch him while you're away," he grinned.

Shion rolled his eyes.

"Can you manage it? He used to be so energetic, running around the house," she sighed wistfully.

"My babysitting skills are a little rusty, but I think I can handle him," Nezumi ruffled the white head of hair jokingly, and though petulant, Shion didn't swat the hand away.

The baker laughed breezily before the oven timer dinged from the kitchen next door. "Oh, that's the croissants," she grinned. "I was just teasing you boys, lighten up a little." She hurried out of the room to save the bread from burning.

"Your mama is a real piece of work, you know that?" Nezumi shook his head and brushed the bangs from his eyes. "But Cravat was right about these muffins."

Shion glanced up innocently, sulking forgotten. "You called him Cravat. What happened to not naming your mice?"

Nezumi looked puzzled for a moment. "Oh, yeah, I guess I picked up the habit after I left," he shrugged. "Don't give me that smug grin."

The moment felt so surreal that Shion had to grasp Nezumi's arms to be sure he was real.

"Hey now, what's wrong?" the rat held his hands out away from the boy, floored when he looked down to only a tufts of white hair and a scarred face buried in his sternum. How was he supposed to react to such an honest embrace?

He gently tried to pry Shion off. "Come on, if you want to cuddle save it for bed. That's not proper table manners."

"I'm so happy you're back," he mumbled into the familiar long-sleeved shirt. "It's hard to believe you're real when you're not showing up to save my life."

"That's enough," Nezumi hooked a finger under Shion's chin and lifted his head. He offered a rare tranquil smile that Shion couldn't help but return. Crimson eyes danced with ashen grey and no words were uttered to break the calm between them.

Across from Shion lay a mystery. A puzzle he was content never fully solving because all of the past loneliness swept away like dust just from holding the other. The rat had left for years and yet Shion held no curiosity of his travels, only the bliss of having him returned. His arms wrapped around the warm, thin waist in front of him. There wasn't any other form of love in the world that compared to the intensity that filled his heart in this moment.

Nezumi wasn't so good of an actor as to be able to lie and say that he didn't feel the same rush of emotions. But that didn't mean he had to accept them so easily. Feelings were still something to be wary of, not embrace wholeheartedly. There had once been a time when he had felt comfortable around Shion, enough to confide into him on the occasional pitch-black night. The memories of lying next to a sleepy Shion who could prod blindly into his heart were some of his favorite, yet also his most terrifying. How could this one foolish boy hold so much power without realizing what lay in the palms of his hands?

"Did the other mice come with you?" Shion's clear words chiseled into his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, they must be upstairs with Tsukiyo."

Shion stood and ascended the stairs, Nezumi trailing behind him to the room he'd snuck into via trellis outside of the window the night before. He admitted the cliché but let it slide for once.

Familiar squeaks and chatters filled the air of the small bedroom as the two mice clambered up on the desk to see Shion, who held his palm out for both of them. He stroked them between the ears until the chittering ceased.

"They're still fond of you as ever, I see," the rat remarked, flopping down onto the twin sized bed in the corner. "This is a comfortable bed. Would you mind lending it to me again?" he grinned.

Shion allowed himself to laugh at the lightheartedness of the situation. "Do you really need to? You're not an injured vagabond this time around."

Nezumi offered an offended expression. "Me? A vagabond? How cruel. I was merely in need of assistance. And you," he tugged Shion down on top of him, face to face. "Were dead-set on saving my life.'

Nezumi had forgotten just how intoxicating the warmth Shion constantly radiated could be. The other boy brushed his dark hair from his eyes, and he wondered if Shion realized how captivating he was. "You don't hate me." It wasn't a question.

Shion shook his head, white locks swaying in time. "I couldn't. Hating you would mean accepting that I didn't want you to come back."

"And for some reason you wanted me back."

Shion let his weight drop, laying flush against Nezumi. "I have nothing without the faith that you'll always come back for me."

Once more their lips brushed for the faintest of moments, and once more they separated like the two kissers always would. Both lay with their eyes shut, Shion's face buried in the crook of Nezumi's neck, and the rat's arms cradling the smaller boy to him. The engulfing silence was a pleasant one that lingered even as they gently kissed once, twice, three times more. Enough for Shion to confirm that Nezumi wasn't a ghost that would soon fade into transparency. He hadn't realized that he was crying until Nezumi brushed the hot tears from his cheeks.

"I missed you so much."

"I know."

Simple exchanges were their specialty, and the Shion hadn't expected more, nor had he wanted it. The soothing grey eyes spilled the truth, I missed you too.

Breeze from the open window flustered their hair as Nezumi rolled them over onto their sides. "So what's life like here? Are Inukashi and the old man still alive?"

Shion perked up at the names and a mouse squeaked in recognition across the room. "We have them over for dinner sometimes. Shionn has grown a lot, too. He's nearly four, we think. Mom says he seems that age, at least. I guess she would know best," he trailed off.

"Have you ever been back to the library?" It was a tentative question, but Nezumi was curious.

Shion thought for a moment. "No, I didn't want to change the memories I have. Right now when I think about it, I remember the all the nights we shared. But if I were to go back my reality of that place would change, and I wouldn't like to think of it as empty."

Nezumi didn't reply. Instead he pulled Shion closer and shut his eyes, falling into the familiar position they slept in when sharing a bed. "I hate to think of all those books falling to ruin," he muttered as Shion's eyes slipped shut, though he remained uneasy. "Go to sleep, I'll still be here when you wake up."

With that, the weight of the boy's arm across his waist increased as he relaxed and Nezumi could tell Shion was lulled. Staring intently at the smaller boy, he stroked the lovely sun-drenched hair and hoped that Karan hadn't been serious about wanting them to watch the bakery until sleep stole him as well.

"You're leaving again."

Again, it wasn't a question. Now the sky burned pale orange near the horizon before fading into a faintly blue cap. Waking from their nap had prompted Nezumi to ask Shion on a walk. A familiar sinking feeling had settled in the gut of the latter.

Nezumi shook his head, almost regretfully. "I would ask, "Do I have an option", but you and I both know our answers are different."

"Why did you come back if you weren't going to stay?"

"I was under the impression that princes were above such brutally blunt questions," he snickered. "Well maybe I just wanted to see how this parasitic city was coming along with a spoiled boy for a ruler." He broke their eye contact to stare out at the sunset, such a familiar painting of parting ways. "Maybe I just needed to see you again. Every four years seems like a reasonable number."

Shion gaped. "Nezumi!"

"Fine, fine. I'll be back in a month. How's that?"

Shion's gaze stuck to the ground. "Why do you have to leave?"

The heavy sigh from Nezumi was an answer in and of itself. "I told you before that we can't be together. Isn't that obvious? There's so much that separates us, Shion. But there's also enough tying us together that I could never truly escape, even if I wanted to."

There was a silence. "Do you want to?"

And once more Shion found his head tilted up and his lips met with the sweetest of kisses. It had once been an oath, but this time it felt like gratitude. "Was that a thank-you kiss?"

"You're getting better," Nezumi smiled, brushing hair out of the boy's eyes. "Willing to place faith in my return while you have a city to rebuild; how silly." He pressed a final kiss to Shion's scarred cheek. "Just keep waiting a little more. Finish restoring this 'utopia'. I'll always wander back to you."

And maybe once you've constructed a city as innocent as yourself I can stay.