Several weeks after the destruction of the wall of No.6

Nezumi and Shion eventually reunited in the former No.6, and decided to return to Nezumi's home one more time before the New Year

The pair arrived in the afternoon at the fairly dusty, yet untouched, underground house. They discarded their layers of jackets that had protected them from the harsh winter cold. However, it was still slightly chilly, but nothing compared to the outdoors. They both knew that there wasn't much they could do about it. For one thing, starting a fire in an underground building with limited doors and windows was not the best idea. Both Nezumi and Shion silently decided to just put up with the cold, since they weren't planning to stay too long. Karan's bakery had a wonderful heating system, and the two boys had made themselves quite comfortable there in the past few weeks, and didn't want to be away from there for long.

Nezumi's old house brought back plenty of memories for the both of them. They ended up spending the rest of the day simply sitting around and reading nostalgic books from Nezumi's impressive collection.

Even though the house was underground, they knew that night was approaching by how many hours they had stayed. Nezumi and Shion bundled themselves up with their coats and gave the room one last look; hoping that looters will continue to be oblivious to the hidden house.

Once they had reached the exit door, they knew something was not right. On the other side, Nezumi and Shion could hear the thundering wind and see how the door rattled. Through the cracks of the door, bits of white precipitation leaked through. Nezumi hesitantly opened the door, but immediately closed it right after.

"Damn it..." Nezumi cursed as he brushed the flakes of snow from his jacket, "There's no way we can leave tonight."

"How long do we have to stay here?" Shion questioned.

"We can leave in the morning. Don't worry, we won't get snowed in. I've lived here long enough to know that it doesn't get that bad," Nezumi said and walked back down the hallway with Shion following closely behind.

"But my mom thinks we're returning sooner than that..." Shion worried.

"What do you suggest we do then, genius?" Nezumi teased, "And I'm pretty sure your mom has gotten used to sitting around, waiting for you to return."

Shion sat down on a wooden chair, his worried expression still remaining. Nezumi sighed and patted him on the shoulder.

"There's nothing we can do. We just have to wait it out," Nezumi said.

He ruffled Shion's pure white hair roughly, causing his worried face to finally disappear.

"Come on, let's go to bed. It'll be morning before you know it."

As Nezumi and Shion changed into their pajamas, they realized their predicament. The more they stripped their clothes, the more the noticed just how cold in had gotten.

"N-Nezumi?" Shion began, and his teeth chattered a bit.

"Yeah, I know. There's some extra blankets in the storage closet."

Nezumi watched as Shion left the room into the hallway.

"Nezumiiii~~ Which door is it?" Shion called.

"The door at the very end, on the left," Nezumi answered and began to make himself comfortable in his old bed. There was a pause before Shion called again.

"Nezumiiiiiii~~ Are you suuuure?"

"YES, I'm sure," Nezumi, starting to get annoyed, answered his albino friend.

"Nezuuummiiiiiiiiii~~~"

"Whaaaaaaat?"

"There's no blankets in here..."

Nezumi climbed out of bed and walked to the door, grumbling to himself, "...can't do anything on his own... got to do everything myself..."

He approached Shion who was standing in front of the open door to the storage closet.

"Need some help, Your Majesty?" Nezumi asked, with more than just hints of sarcasm.

"...I think there were looters after all..." Shion said and pointed to the inside of the closet.

Not only were all the blankets gone, but the whole closet was entirely picked clean. Nezumi simply stared at the empty room for a few seconds to process the information.

"...those... Those BASTARDS!" Nezumi eventually exclaimed.

"What are we going to do?" Shion asked. His worried expression from before had returned.

"Like I said, there's NOTHING we can do. We can't leave tonight, no matter what," Nezumi said angrily and slammed the closet door so hard that Shion thought it might cause a cave-in.

The pony-tailed boy stormed his way back into the main room. Shion hesitantly followed him. Once he had reached the room, he found Nezumi already in bed, facing the wall. The red-eyed boy stared at his companion's back, waiting for him to say something. Shion was too afraid of Nezumi's temper to open his mouth. After a moment, Nezumi spoke again, his voice calmer than before.

"We only have two blankets. One each will be too cold. We'll have to share the two, so we'll have to share the bed. We can also use our jackets as blankets too."

Shion was grateful that Nezumi had cooled down.

"Nezumi is probably used to living in rough situations, so having a cool, composed head must be a survival technique," Shion realized.

His teeth then began to chatter even more.

"...Rough living situations, indeed," Shion thought, "Its going to be a long night."