This is a bonus chapter as a thank you because this story got so much more popular than I ever expected. It's a side story that takes place about a year after Nezumi met Shion and began living on his own in West Block. Please enjoy!
A cool breeze ruffled Nezumi's dark hair as he walked the crowded street back home. The wind carried the brisk scent of rain, and he paused to look up at the morose clouds rolling in. Several others must have also noticed because awnings were being pulled to shelter merchants and their children, and food stands were being quickly packed up to avoid spoiling their livelihoods. He kept walking until the shops dwindled and he stood in front of the door to an underground library, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to step inside. Breeze rushed into wind, and soon Nezumi closed his eyes as raindrops pelted his face. The clouds broke and he stood once again as a drenched rat.
For the past year, every rain had reminded him of a brunet boy who had grinned like a maniac while tending his wounded shoulder. He could only remember the moments outside that were illuminated by lightening when he had been hiding in front of Shion's window that evening. The blackened skies blurred his sense of time and memories. How many hours had he spent with the boy? It felt like an eternity. That night marked the first time he'd honestly wished something wouldn't end, because it felt too good to be true. Sleeping wrapped in the arms of a living, breathing person remained the best feeling he could remember. Regret sometimes nagged at a corner of his heart for not leaving with a proper goodbye, but good sense told him that he'd already been forgotten about.
He opened the door and stumbled inside, cursing himself for getting so wet and trailing it into the room. He shook his hair out as he dried off, and water droplets splattered over the covers of several of the books. A brown mouse poked his head from one of the heaps of books that coated the floor and scampered up his leg.
Heh, he smirked to himself, that boy was such an airhead he'd be the type of person to try and name these mice!
Scratching the mouse under the chin gently, he lit the oil lamp and grabbed a book he'd left that morning, falling down on his bed. It was one of the few clear surfaces in the room, save a small sofa and a coffee table. As he lay in the dim flickering light, he'd be lying if he said that he'd never imagined bringing Shion to this room. To break the perpetual silence that plagued his mind and be able to hold conversations with someone, and to sleep every night fitted together, and share the warmth of another human being.
Why can't I forget him?
Days, weeks, months had passed since he'd left that bedroom, but still he grudgingly longed to return. Life was so much simpler before Shion. Now his heart questioned what his logic dictated and the conflicting desires to go back and to stay away wracked him daily. He kicked himself, knowing that his pining must be completely one-sided. But a small voice in his mind said that maybe one day he'd see Shion again. Maybe there was a reason why he couldn't forget, or heal the rift in his heart.
Minutes passed to hours as the typhoon cascaded down on the ground above, and Nezumi lapsed into sleep with the raindrops falling above him, knowing in the depths of his heart they would be reunited.