"I'm home," I said as I walked into my apartment. "Welcome back." I stopped as I heard Nezumi's voice come from the living room. I had forgotten he was here - the habit of saying 'I'm home' to the empty apartment was one I'd built up to deal with the emptiness. "What do you want for dinner?" I asked, moving forward again. Nezumi turned to look at me. "What can you make?"

He sounded genuinely curious, so I thought about it for a moment. Finally I answered, "I can make a lot of things, but... I don't have any alcohol here." This drew his attention, and I wondered if I shouldn't have said that. "So what do you have to drink?" That was easy to answer, "Mostly water." He didn't reply for a while. I began to think he'd fallen asleep, but then he said, "Make whatever then, I don't care."

"Okay." I pulled out some vegetables and beef. Stew should be fine. It's easy to make anyway. I reached into the drawer for a knife and discovered there weren't any clean ones left. Resigned, I glanced at the sink. It wasn't full, exactly... But it was neglected. I dug through it until I found a knife and washed it -

I swore quietly as I cut myself on the knife. "You okay?" I watched the blood turn the soap pink for a bit before, "Yes. I'm fine." I finished up, then proceeded to make the soup. It took a few hours, but I was reasonably pleased with how it turned out. I dug out some bread and prepared two plates.

Nezumi looked bored when I came out with them. "I'm sorry I took a while," I told him as I handed him his meal. He looked at me. "Why are you sorry? It's not like you were in a rush or anything." There wasn't anything I could think of to reply to that, so I shrugged and began to eat. "You should bandage that," he added. I ignored it.

When my plate was clean I started to walk back. Abruptly, Nezumi said, "Your hair is longer." I nodded. "It is," I agreed, beginning to wash the dishes. I shouldn't have left them alone for so long. "You stopped cutting it?" His words sparked amusement in me as I recalled the reason I let my hair grow out.

"Mm, apparently it made me look cooler. Females began to support me more - which can be useful, especially with how many government workers are still corrupt." Nezumi asking questions, so once I was done I checked on him. If he was asleep, I would have to be quiet. But he was awake.

And he looks sad? Why does he look sad? "You've changed," he murmured, staring at me. Ah. That's why he looks sad. "So have you," I replied. Without waiting for him to respond I turned and entered my room, locking the door behind me.

My chest hurts. Tears are beginning to leak out of my eyes. My eyes are burning. I pulled my hair out of the tight ponytail and let it cascade around my shoulders. It was longer than his now. His were only shoulder-length.

Like back then.

I swallowed a few more pills and lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling.

Hello! I'm kind of enjoying this. It's paced a bit slower than my last Shion/Nezumi story, and I'm happy about that. Although maybe I shouldn't be happy about that. *...* I haven't been able to write for a while, so I'm actually really having fun right now.