Shion walked through the door, already knowing what was on the other side. As expected, a tidy, neat bed lay to the corner, with shelves of books filling the entire right side of the room. A table, set so it favored towards the couch on the left wall, still held upon its face the envelope Shion left to be opened by one he hadn't seen in close to a year. He walked in, that familiar nostalgic feeling enclosing around as if the walls were creeping towards him.

In other words, the room was utterly empty and devoid of living organisms.

Closing the door behind him, Shion glanced around the room, seeking out anything to suggest another presence besides the two robotic rats scurrying up past his feet and ankles onto his shoulder. The two rats were inventions of the lost character Shion was hoping to see; and very clever inventions indeed. They hopped around like rats, squeaked like rats, sniffed like rats, and even had fur and claws like rats. Although the rats were good company, they weren't the greatest at comprehending the human spectrum of emotion.

There were originally three rats, Hamlet, Moonlight, and Cravat. But now Hamlet and Cravat were the ones to entertain Shion, for Moonlight had found his way into a little girl's care over the border at the city, No. 6.

Shion walked over to the couch and sat down with a flat "puff" as the couch's fabric stretched and contorted to his weight. His eyes again wandered to the unopened envelope laying on the table. It was still in the exact same spot he'd place it in; untouched and unbroken from the peril of being ripped open.

As he leaned over the table and stretched out his arm to grab the florescent white envelope, Cravat's cream colored fur dashed down Shion's shoulder, across his arm and onto the table, racing Shion's fingers to the envelope. Cravat grabbed the envelope in his paws then transferred it to his mouth- careful not to puncture the fragile paper with his fangs- and dragged it over to Shion. He happily accepted the envelope and allowed Cravat to prance back up his sleeve to his rightful spot on Shion's shoulder. Shion smiled and chuckled as he relaxed back into the cushions of the soft, yet lumpy, couch.

"Cravat, you always have to be the one in control, don't you?" Shion joked with the creamy fluffball on his shoulder, reaching up to softly tap the rat's soft, pink nose with his free hand. Cravat squeaked his delight at the comment he took as a compliment.

Hamlet whimpered a squeak, demanding for Shion's attention too. Shion laughed again patted the white rat's head with one finger. "And thank you, Hamlet, for always listening with such interest during story time," Shion complimented. The two rats seemed to smile back at Shion and squeak with joy at his presence.

Turning his attention back to the envelope in his hands, he firmly grasped both sides of the long, strategically folded paper and held it as one would a steering wheel in a car, only his arms were awkwardly straight while he held the note at at angle higher than his eye-level. He stared intently, and, slightly frowning, at the curvy, well rounded letters sprawling across the exact center of the note, spelling out "Nezumi." He gave a sad smile at the name, allowing a few frames of memory to consume his vision.

The restless rats squeaked their sympathy at the loss of their master, allowing Shion to recollect himself. "I'm not going to cry over him," he said out-loud to the rats. "He isn't gone. He said we'll meet again, didn't he?" Shion closed his eyes, frustrated that they couldn't take him back to the moment Nezumi made his departure, and relay everything back like film. "Did I just make up that he said he'll come back?" Shion knew as well as anyone that memory was not perfect, and could accidently be altered by thinking about the subject too much or too little.

To the rats he said, "It doesn't matter what he said or did though, because I know he'll come back. I know him."

"I know him," he repeated to himself. Nezumi liked to claim knowing nothing about each other, but they both knew each other better than any other, and they both knew it too. He adduced to that, so he could convince himself it wasn't true.

After about a half hour of aimless thinking, Shion dragged himself onto his feet and looked again around the room. He noticed a very thin layer of dust, as if making a territory line around where the envelope once was. He failed to notice that the two rats had scurried away while he was daydreaming, and were now wrestling and playing on the bed.

Deciding he could make himself useful and clean up a bit, he scavenged around the very back shelf of the mini library for a relatively clean rag- Nezumi didnt want cleaning supplies to taint the "warm, homely, and comfortable" style he had for the humble room, so they were "out of sight, out of mind". Finding a rag satisfying enough to the boy's tastes, he started to rub the table's surface until it gleamed as if it was almost new, mind the nicks and scratches.

Feeling very productive, Shion cleaned nearly anything he could get his hands on. He cleared the books from their snug places on the shelves, and wiped clean every shelf-the inside walls and ceilings of the cubbies, the width of the wooden lining; every book cover- front and back; he ran the rag under the table and down its legs- carefully getting gunk and grime from the niches in the detail work, and from the scrapes and dents made by God knows what, lastly, he got the couch's arms that wrapped around the base support and down to the legs.

Content that every possible surface had been cleaned, he started to put the books back onto their rightful shelves. He left them stacked in the order he had pulled them off, so it was more-or-less simple to put them back. He studied each title as he put them back, admiring how much work had gone into binding the books. He loved how every title detail was as unique as its name. The font, the placing, and the size contributed to giving the book personality. If you could accurately judge a book by its cover, every book would be simply captivating. All the books Shion's read have been alluring and enticing, but he's heard from Nezumi that there are, in fact, books that are rather dull and dreary.

Nearly three-fourths of the way through putting books back, he grabbed a book by Shakespeare called Venus and Adonis. Curiously, he flipped through the book, glimpsing a few random stanza's:

Forced to content, but never to obey,

Panting he lies and breatheth in her face;

She feedeth on the steam as on a prey,

And calls it heavenly moisture, air of grace;

Wishing her cheeks were gardens full of flowers,

So they were dew'd with such distilling showers.

/

'The tender spring upon thy tempting lip

Shows thee unripe; yet mayst thou well be tasted:

Make use of time, let not advantage slip;

Beauty within itself should not be wasted:

Fair flowers that are not gather'd in their prime

Rot and consume themselves in little time.

Shion blushed intense red at the vulgar yet beautiful depictions of the two lovers' intimate activities and closed the book feeling a bit tainted. He'd never even had a kiss longer than a few fast heart-beats. The thought of making love was horrifically awkward to him, yet he tried not to show it, and be like other guys who yearn for the opposite sex. A bit discontented, he placed the book on the shelf next to its partner, and grabbed the next book, Coriolanus, also by Shakespeare, as he was the most popular writer in Nezumi's collection.

He flipped through the book, reading random segments. towards the end of the book, he stopped, so not to give off any spoilers. Figuring that he deserved a break, he stood up and walked over to the bed, sitting down and laying his back against the wall, careful not smush the rats scurrying around.

"Are you guys interested in hearing a new book?" Shion asked the rats.

They gazed up at him with their blank smiles, as if giving him permission to read aloud. As he opened the book up to page one, the rats ran closer to him and perched on each of his knees, like kids scooting forward when something interesting was about to happen. Shion read out "Act I, Scene I," and was already very into the story, Cravat and Moonlight appeared to be so, too. However, he was starting to doze off; for he kept accidently re-reading lines, and had become unaware of if any words were even leaving his lips. "Sorry, you guys, i'll continue the story later, okay? I've been on my feet cleaining all day," he explained in slurs to the rats while he started to un-tuck the blanket from the bed. "Good-night, Hamlet, Cravat."

Within seconds all three of the innocent and humble creatures were curled up and asleep.

The next morning, Shion's eyes fluttered open to see a blank, wash-white wall. He closed his eyes again and wiggled around in bed, not yet willing to wake up. After a few minutes he realized going back to sleep wasn't going to happen, and tossed around in the bed some more, stubborn against his restless mind and body. Turning around to face the room, he sleepily called out, "Good moring, Cravat, Hamlet."

What he saw in the room, though, was anything but what he was expecting.

A black leather jacket; baish jeans, and worn-out, heavy-duty hiking boots were worn by a handsome figure with dark, silky hair tied back into a pony whom was sitting on the couch.

In the room.

With Shion.

"Nezumi?" Shion called out cautiously, afraid his voice may frighten the man in front of him like a mouse recoiling from a creak of the floorboards.

The man only responded with a glance of his eyes. Shion called out again, "Nezumi? Is that you? Are you actually here?" Those unwavering eyes held their position.

Unable to hold back any longer, Shion flung himself out of bed, hoping the movement would help alert the man to his presence.

His eyes contained a look almost of anger, and full of an unplaced emotion. He too stood up, slowly, but sturdily. Shion couldn't hold back a grin, even if this was a dream, even if Nezumi was slightly mad for whatever reason, if he were upset, anything, Shion didn't want for this Nezumi to leave.

"Hey! Nezumi!" Shion stumbled toward the man, tripping his feet with mere eagerness into the blanket he had too hurriedly thrown off, and toppled over into Nezumi's arms. "Aah, sorry!" Shion quickly hurried himself back up out of politeness, unsure if for some reason their relationship had reverted to a somewhat more awkward state, and gazed into the characters eyes, happy, that actually looked back.

"Heeeeey, Nezumi!" Growing childishly frustrated with the melancholic man, Shion nearly shouted, "Say something, Nezumi!" After stumbling forward, and inching his way closer in an attempt to ruse the rat from his dully-angry scowl, they were nearly face-to-face. The realization almost made Shion fluster with excitement at being able to look so endearing into those lost eyes again.

A more defiant frown appeared a Nezumi's face. "Say something?" He asked. "How does this work, 'What the hell were you thinking? Why is that damn door unlocked? Do you know how dangerous it is out there? With poverty takings its toll on nearly everyone within a 50 mile radius within No. 6, there's robbers out there willing to do anything to get a few cents for their next meal! Are you stupid, Shion?"

Shion couldnt hold back, he burst out laughing. He flung himself onto Nezumi, pushing him down onto the couch. Nezumi himself couldn't resist the contagious ring of Shion's precious laugh, and he too started to giggle, then laugh, just as hard as Shion. He wrapped his arms tightly around Shion's scrawny body and tightly gripped the fabric of his shirt.

Once Shion's laughing had slowed to his regular breathing, he looked up at Nezumi, meeting his once again composed, yet now relaxed and content, expression. He looked away, suddenly feeling like a shy infant, and felt his cheeks start to tingle with heat again.

"I- I missed you... Nezumi." confessed Shion.

Nezumi rested the side of his head against the top of Shion's. "I know," was all he said.