Hello! :3 Here is the last chapter of Revolution. Thank you very much for reading so far, and for commenting, sharing, reblogging and giving kudos. I got an anonymous ask on Tumblr a while ago, and the questioner wanted to know if there'll be more love scenes in later chapters. We'll have a bit more fluff and more or less implied sexual content in this chapter, but not that much. The story was always about Shion and his healing progress. Nezumi is a part of it, though. :3

If enough people are interested, I could imagine writing a sequel in the near future. A sequel with a lot of love and not that much story! ;D Please let me know. (I would also highly appreciate it if you could let me know how you liked the story. Thank you! ^^)

Epilogue

18 month later

07:10 | West Block, Nezumi and Shion's house

The morning sun flooded the cozy sleeping room filled with hundreds of books, blooming potted plants and little mementos from Nezumi's journeys – pressed plants from all over the world, beautiful rare stones, feathers and shells. He had also brought a couple of post cards he had written for Shion but never sent. Books from all over the world stood in a couple of wooden bookshelves, not as many as they had back then, but quite a few. Of course, Shion had categorized them by subject and by author. Half of Nezumi's pants, socks and sweaters were scattered on the floor and on the chair of Shion's desk. The other half of them and Shion's clothes were neatly folded and placed in a massive oak wardrobe. Shion's huge wooden desk was right in front of the open window. A couple of papers rustled in the fresh morning breeze. The air smelled of summer flowers and new-cut grass, the clouds were marbled and the sky azure blue. It was a beautiful morning, and it was going to be a wonderful summer day.

Shion turned around in their comfortable bed and snuggled himself against Nezumi's chest, enjoying his pleasant and unique fragrance and the amazing feeling of warm, naked skin against his own. Both were still fast asleep, but the shrill ringing of the alarm clock changed that quickly. Shion grumbled and buried his face in Nezumi's shoulder. Nezumi hit the clock, but it didn't stop, so that he promptly decided to give it a free flight out of the window. He lay back down and didn't move for a while, but then he circled his arm around Shion. His warm hand stroked lazily across Shion's shoulders, his spine and the small of his back until it reached his bottom cheek, massaging it with his fingertips. Meanwhile, his slightly parted lips breathed soft kisses on Shion's forehead, cheeks and chin, until they stopped to linger on the scar on his neck, nibbling the sensitive skin tenderly and renewing a mark he had left in one of the last nights. Shion moaned softly and pressed his body closer to him. His own hand started to idly caress the burn scar on Nezumi's back and his lips searched the other ones, hungry for a good morning kiss. First, they just found Nezumi's delicate collarbone, but with a little help he managed to bring their lips together. The kiss was sweet and gentle, and it gave him a good energy boost. Shion was finally able to open his heavy lids.

"Nezumi?" he asked hoarsely while his eyes found those beautiful grey irises.

"Hmm?" Nezumi's voice was low and gentle.

"Did you just throw out the alarm clock?"

A soft laughter was the answer.

"Maybe?"

Shion sighed and raised one of his eyebrows.

"I wonder how you managed to wake up so early back then. You're quite the slugabed," he stated, sat up and stretched his body.

"Hey, I woke you up just now!" Nezumi pouted.

"Actually, the alarm clock did the job. But I liked your method way better."

"I should hope so too."

Shion laughed and stroked a strand of black hair out of Nezumi's face.

"Well, I have to get up now. And you should, too. Don't forget, you promised you'd accompany me today."

"Huh? I never—" he started to protest, but Shion just showed him his dictating machine. Nezumi groaned and hit his head against the pillow.

"This is the next thing I'll throw out of the window."

"I'll act as if I didn't hear that," Shion stated and got up. He picked up Nezumi's boxer shorts and threw them in his face. "Get dressed."

Then, he wanted to pick up his own underwear, but a loud: "Sensei!" nearly scared the living daylights out of him. Quickly, he wrapped himself in the sheets and faced the window. Natsuki, the little girl Shion had rescued from the fire, was looking at him. Her blue eyes shone vibrantly in the sun as her long dark hair blew in the wind. She smiled.

"Good morning, sensei!"

Shion let out a scream and hurried towards the window. In the meantime, Nezumi decided to disappear behind the bookshelves. He wanted to get dressed as quick as possible.

"Good heavens! How did you manage to climb up here?" Shion asked as he lifted the child over the desk and placed her on bedroom floor.

"The rain water downpipe," she answered happily.

"What? That was dangerous! Don't do that again," Shion scolded. Their little apartment was in the attic of the new West Block elementary school. The ivy-clad red clinker house itself was not new at all and they had to rebuild parts of it, but everyone had helped them to renovate the ancient little school building, which was only a stone's throw away from Inukashi's hotel and completely surrounded by nature. It was like living in the countryside, but the place had good transport connections and the city center of former No. 6 was within easy driving distance.

After his recovery, Shion had decided to quit the leadership of his working group, but he was still a part of the Restructural Committee. As a consequence, he still participated in the most important meetings every week, accompanied by Nezumi as representative of the Mao people. Nezumi was not overly excited about all the boring meetings, but taking part in them was the best way to keep a wary eye on the city administration. And after the meetings, they always visited Karan, and that was the best reward ever in Nezumi's opinion. He loved visiting her. And he loved it to gorge on her pastries and other dishes. It made her happy when he finished everything on his plate. And approximately half a year ago, he had finally started to call her "Mama". Karan was giddy with pleasure and her eyes had sparkled like little diamonds. Exactly like Natsuki's eyes right now. She beamed at Shion and put the demolished alarm clock in his hand.

"Look what I found!"

Shion raised one of his white eyebrows and put the former alarm clock on his desk.

"Thank you. But did you even listen to me, Natsuki?" he asked urgently. "Don't climb up here again!"

"Yeeees!" she answered fervently and grinned widely. "But it's not dangerous at all. When I'm going to fall, sensei will catch me!"

"How am I supposed to catch you down there when I'm in here?"

Natsuki let out a long "Uhhhhh!" and tilted her head. Instead of giving a proper answer, she just eyed the bed sheets around Shion's waist.

"Why are you sleeping naked, sensei? And why do you have so many bug bites?"

"Why don't you go and give Cinnamon something to eat?" Nezumi asked as he reappeared from behind the bookshelves, dressed in jeans and a black muscle shirt. He placed the little mouse on Natsuki's head. The girl let out a shrill scream and jumped around in excitement.

"Yes, yes, yes! Will do!" she yelled, hugged Nezumi's waist and pressed her chin against his belly to look up to him. Her sparkling blue eyes were nearly grey. He gulped hard.

"Are you coming with us today?" she asked with a high voice. He nodded slightly, causing her to let out another ear-piercing whoop of joy.

"Come on, Cinnamon! It's time for your breakfast," she informed the pet and hurried into the kitchen. Nezumi and Shion looked after her and then at each other.

"She— reminds me of my sister," Nezumi stated and breathed heavily. "Pretty stupid, huh? She was still a newborn when she died."

Shion shook his head.

"I understand why you're thinking like that. It's not stupid at all. Natsuki looks a lot like you. She looks like a Mao. It can't be ruled out that her ancestors were forest people," he assumed.

"Yeah."

"Too bad we can't ask them anymore. Her parents died during the manhunt."

"Maybe I should teach her a song," Nezumi mumbled and dressed Shion in a short-sleeved shirt.

Shion chuckled softly and put on his underwear and black trousers.

"I think she'd love to be taught by you," he said, stretching his arms a bit as he followed Natsuki in the kitchen. "Why don't you give music lessons? You know that I'm still in need of good teachers."

"No."

"This was not a yes or no question, Nezumi. What about literature then?"

"I'm not suited for teaching little kids. I'll just make them cry."

"You won't."

"This is your thing, Shion. You were always good with kids. I'll support you as much as I can, just like I promised to do, but I won't teach them shit. Besides, I have enough work to do in the theatre and you know that perfectly well."

"Too bad," Shion sighed and packed some lunch for the two of them in a bag. "Well, we're late. No breakfast today."

"What?" Nezumi complained bewilderedly and grabbed at least a couple of apples from the kitchen counter. It was a tiny, but colorful kitchen with a lot of fresh and dried herbs, an old stove and beautiful mosaic tiles on the walls behind the sink. Natsuki was sitting at the little table in front of the window and chewed a piece of apple while she watched Cinnamon munching her own little portion of the fruit.

"Let's go!" said Shion. "I'm pretty sure the other kids are already waiting."

They swiftly left the apartment together, went down the stairs and took a few steps from the side door to the main entrance of the school. A small group of children was already waiting on the schoolyard meadow. Natsuki happily joined her friends who came to greet Shion and Nezumi enthusiastically. Sayuri and Shionn were also among them.

"Morning, onii-chan!" Shionn greeted his namesake and hugged his leg. "Uh, no, I mean sensei!"

Shion chuckled and tousled his hair, lovingly.

"Good morning, Shionn. And Sayuri, you too. Hello Naoki, good to see you. Aoi, are you feeling better?"

"Yeeees!"

"Hello, sensei!"

"Sensei, good morning!"

"Good morning everyone. I hope you are prepared for our hike through the forest today."

A chorus of approving shouts and screams followed. Shion laughed.

"Fine, fine! Then let's go. But make sure you stay where we can see you. Don't run too far away," he ordered and followed the little group together with Nezumi. Two heads are better than one, after all.

"No whistle action today?" Nezumi asked and bit in one of his apples. He hinted at the daily morning gymnastic Shion used to do together with the kids. He usually whistled while he showed them how to do their exercises.

"I think we'll move enough when we're hiking."

"What a shame."

"Huh?"

"Ah, nothing. Forget it." Nezumi chuckled. The sleeping room window looked out of the schoolyard. He liked watching Shion's little gymnastic lessons. Quietly and secretly of course. Nezumi loved it to observe him.

Shion was a very patient and gentle teacher. He gave his students knowledge but also affection and received thankfulness and love in return.

Shion's school was a wonderful place – a paradise for children. A lot of his students were orphans. But not all of them; Lili's little sister Sayuri was an example. She had begged her mother for days to send her to Shion's school. Sometimes, she stayed over with Inukashi and Shionn. They were pretty close...

Shion smiled and continued his way. Every now and then, he stopped his little students to teach them things about nature, names of trees and flowers and how to identify plants and mushrooms. He taught them how to determine the cardinal direction without a compass or watch and he showed them typical freshwater species and other insects, how to read animal tracks and how to make a campfire.

Shion's memorization ability and the way he applied the theory in practical situations never failed to impress Nezumi. And the children loved it, too.

"I take it back," Nezumi said during a break while he ate his lunch, sitting on a tree trunk.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Shion asked confused and took a sip of his water bottle.

"I take everything back what I said back then. I mean the thing about your half-assed sympathy. And that there's nothing you can do. You changed everything. These children have a proper life and a future thanks to you."

Shion blushed and scratched the back of his head.

"It's just because of you, Nezumi. Never stop criticizing me. Don't take it back. I need your input and your honesty. It's just thanks to you that I was able to grow as a person. And furthermore—"

"Hm?"

"I also did it for you. I wanted to create a city fit for you to make your home in one day."

The feelings of people are bound to change over time. But mine for you won't. I've always loved you and I still do.

A dust of red covered Nezumi's cheeks. He looked away.

"Well, we're not exactly living in the city. But… Well, I never expected something like that. It's—"

It's a paradise. Our paradise.

Nezumi bit his bottom lip. Shion gently put his hand on Nezumi's and gave him a warm smile.

"You gave me the strength to do what I really wanted to do. Thank you."

"Anytime," Nezumi mumbled and blushed even more. A couple of kids giggled, causing him to quickly turn his head away. Shion laughed happily. The sound was balm for Nezumi's soul.

"We'll be fine, won't we?" Nezumi asked quietly and bend forward to steal a kiss from him. Shion kissed him back. The children cheered wildly.

"Yes."

Birds sang beautifully, chorused by the laughter of curious, happy children. Nezumi felt drunk with the scent of wildwood flowers; the gentle summer breeze caressed them tenderly and Shion's smile was as dazzling as the sun.

Warm and beautiful and alive.

"We already are, Nezumi!"

The End.