Disclaimer: NO.6 is not mine.

14. The Visit

"Shion, shut up for a while." Nezumi was pinching the bridge of his nose, and he looked like he had just read a real badly-written novel—for eight hours straight.

Shion's opened mouth clicked as it was closed, the owner looking slightly indignant with his eyebrows taut together. "But—"

Nezumi's index finger was on his lips in a flash, brilliant grey eyes squinting sharply at Shion's rounded face. "Not. A single. Word."

"But Nezumi—"

Nezumi threw both his arms in the air—too dramatically, in Shion's opinion—and stalked ahead, leaving Shion behind, who still had this apprehensive expression etched on his face.

Shion had to half-run to keep up with Nezumi's pace, arms swinging hurriedly beside his body. "Nezumi?"

The person in question didn't say anything but to stare onward, hands shoved deep into the pants pocket.

Shion huffed, keeping a one-step distance behind Nezumi and just followed him, finally deciding to keep quiet.

Though he still felt that he didn't do anything wrong for asking where they were going that many times. It was Nezumi's fault for not answering him.

After they had rejoined in front of Shion's university after his lessons had ended, Nezumi had turned on his heel and proceeded to head out of the university compound without any words, which finally led to their current state of affair.

Nezumi had taken a route—to wherever, since Shion had honestly no idea where they were going—that Shion didn't recognize at all, to the outskirts of Chronos, into the Lost Town and almost reaching the West Block. He doubted that Nezumi was bringing him to his house, despite his plea, because Nezumi was mean like that. He wouldn't present Shion with such luxury on the second day of his return, no.

He also knew that this wasn't the direction to Inukashi's place, because Shion had been to Inukashi's several times, now, and he had the surrounding area in his route committed to memory, thus he would know if Nezumi was bringing him to her place.

It took approximately ten more minutes of walking in silence before Nezumi turned right at a narrow alley, between rows of shop-cum-houses—similar to Karan's bakery—and stopped in front of one of them, a particularly compact one, looking as if it was sandwiched between the larger shops on its sides. The area was pretty dark, with one or two eerily flickering, dim streetlights at one stretch of road and Shion could see nobody strolling about the streets.

He frowned.

After the incident two years ago, reconstruction had been going on at various parts of No.6, not only the main city but also the Lost Town as well as the surrounding Blocks. Sure, it wasn't progressing as quickly as what had been projected, but there was definite improvement in the living condition at the Blocks, especially, from what Shion had been observing from his intermittent visits to Inukashi's. Nonetheless, this section seemed what he could only classify as neglected, or, he really hoped, that it had yet to receive its turn in the upgrading process.

Shion made a mental note to remind himself to write in a report to the reconstruction committee—which wouldn't be the first time—later when they get back home.

Nezumi pressed the buzzer at the door's right and waited. There was a faint scuffling sound beyond the door and the curtain behind the glass windows shifted slightly. Seconds later, it seemed like whoever was checking his guests was satisfied, and the front door sprung open.

And Shion's waist felt two similar impacts that Nezumi had to grip his arm so prevent him from toppling backwards.

"You finally brought him here!"

"Shion!"

"I missed you!"

"I missed you too!"

It took Shion no time to recover from the bombardment of excitement and wrap his arms around the two kids who were clinging to him like there was no tomorrow. He himself felt a big smile stretched across his face, and turned to Nezumi, grinning wide like an idiot.

"Nezumi." There was a mix of disbelief, gratitude and eagerness in the name.

The owner, on the other hand, looked bored, examining his nails, and just shrugged. "They kept pestering me."

Shion kept his gaze on Nezumi for one more second, still smiling, before pulling back from the two, half squatting down and put one hand on Rico's shoulder, and another on Kalan's.

"Hey, guys. I missed you too."

The familiar, unchanging beams that greeted him once again reminded him why he would never regret having spent a part of his life in the West Block. And that it was coming back to him; he could ask for no better present than this.

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