Rated: PG

Warnings/Spoilers: Post-series

1,290 words

Notes: Ha! Look at that! I did a little description-thing! This is just some NezuShi fluff that was inspired by this post.

"What are you doing?" Nezumi looked over at Shion, who appeared to be packing.

"Packing."

"Well I got that. What are you packing for?"

"Oh. Well, there's a conference..."

"That damn committee. They work you too hard."

Shion smiled. "Not really. Anyway, the conference is being held in No.5, so―"

"No.5?"

"Yeah." Shion crossed the room to the dresser and started putting clothes into his bag. "The committee has a bunch of proposals to put through regarding international matters. Economic, trade, travel regulations, things like that."

"Hm. Sounds boring. So when is this conference of yours?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow, early in the morning. I'll probably be gone when you wake up."

"Hm. How long's this thing supposed to last?"

"I'll be getting back sometime the day after tomorrow. It'll probably be pretty late."

Another "Hm." from Nezumi.

Shion finished his packing and threw the bag down by the door. "I don't wanna go."

Nezumi looked at him. "Then don't."

"I have to... The committee will mess everything up if I'm not there."

"Okay then, so go. I don't care." Nezumi turned away, most likely in an attempt to hide that he did care.

"I have to leave pretty early tomorrow, so I'm going to go to bed now. Good night."

"G'night. Have fun on your trip-thing."

"Yeah," Shion responded sarcastically. Then he was off to bed.

Shion left at about 4:30 in the morning. As he had suspected, Nezumi was still asleep. He didn't want to wake the other up, so he just whispered his goodbye and closed the door quietly, locking it behind him.

The train station was crazy. There weren't that many people there this early, but one of the security men saw Shion's scar and freaked out, calling Shion a terrorist, and all sorts of other fun names, until one of the other committee members was able to prove that Shion was not, in fact, a mass-murdering psychopath. The security guy still followed him around giving him an I'm-watching-you glare whenever he thought he could get away with it.

The actual train ride wasn't too bad. He slept most of the journey. Another committee member woke him up about a half an hour before they got to No.5 and the train staff gave him breakfast. The food was very good, and was about as fancy you can get for a breakfast served on a train. But Shion missed Nezumi's cooking.

The conference was long and boring, and about eighty percent of it was the different representatives of the different city-states showing off and trying to prove that they were better than the other and that there was no way they would ever be anything like No.6. The other twenty percent was completely nonproductive.

There were so many people. They came at him all at once, and he was expected to know what their names were, which city they were from, what they were in charge of, how they contributed to this conference, what their preferred beverage was, how many people were in their families, what their six-year-old daughter just scored on her spelling test... The list went on and on. And these people were expected to know all of these things about him. Shion. No.6. Reform Committee. Founding Member. Thank you sir. Just water, please. No, only my mom.

It was exhausting.

At the end of the day, they showed him to his hotel room. It was a very nice hotel, five star. He was in the top floor and had a beautiful view of the city of No.5. But he was too tired to admire it now.

He flopped onto the bed. It was very comfortable, something you would have seen in Cronos. In fact, this whole room wouldn't have been out of place there. He hadn't had that kind of luxury in a long time. He missed all of his books, his tiny apartment, his creaky bed. But mostly he missed Nezumi. Nezumi...

This was the first time that he and Nezumi had been truly apart since he came back. Somewhere inside Shion was the fear that Nezumi wouldn't be there when he got back. No, that wasn't true. He knew Nezumi would be there. He knew it. And with that thought spinning through his mind, he quickly fell into sleep.

But he didn't sleep peacefully. He thrashed around in the bed, running from the demons in his nightmares. He woke up in a cold sweat. He hadn't had these nightmares for a while, at least not this bad. And Nezumi wasn't here to take his hand and tell him that it's okay, and them to go back to sleep. Shion lay there, breathing heavy, trying to tell himself these things.

He was able to calm his breathing somewhat, and already the details of the dream were slipping away, though he'd had them so many times he knew what happened. He stared at the ceiling, then closed his eyes, listening to the rain outside. He couldn't get back to sleep. He tossed and turned for a bit, but couldn't get comfortable. His eyes fell on the digital clock on the nightstand. 2:54 AM. There was a phone next to the nightstand. Before he even realized what he was doing, he had picked up the phone and was dialing the familiar number.

It rang once, twice, three times. It was picked up halfway through the fourth ring.

"What?" Grunted a voice on the other end.

Shion smiled. He had missed that voice. "Hey," he said, his own voice incredibly hoarse as well.

A pause. "Do you have any idea what time it is...?" The other voice grumbled.

"Yeah."

"Why the fuck did you call me in the middle of the night, Shion? I was sleeping." Shion smiled. Nezumi's language got worse pretty proportionally with his tiredness.

"I couldn't get back to sleep," said Shion.

A sigh rattled through the speaker. "Nightmares?" Nezumi asked, his tone softening slightly.

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry," Nezumi said in a quiet, soothing voice. "It's okay. None of that stuff's real, not anymore."

"I know," said Shion. "I just... I needed to hear your voice."

"Go back to sleep, Shion. You've got another big day ahead of you tomorrow."

Shion didn't respond for a long moment. Nezumi was about to end the call when Shion said, "No, don't hang up. Please."

Nezumi sighed. This guy... "Okay. I won't." He held the phone to his ear, sitting up against the pillows and listened to Shion's breathing. He listened as it became slower, more regular, deeper. He don't know how long he sat there, silently listening to Shion's steady breathing. "Are you asleep?" He asked quietly into the phone.

No response.

He waited for another long moment. Then he whispered, "Truth is, I wasn't sleeping when you called. I was being kept awake, too. I miss you a whole lot more than you know, and more than I'm probably ever going to actually tell you." He stopped, and the silence once again filled the small apartment.

"I'm gonna hang up now," he whispered. And then, even quieter, he whispered, "I love you," into the phone. Then, slowly, he took the phone away from his ear and pressed the END CALL button. The screen lit up, a call time blinking at him. 54:37. He stared, motionlessly at the phone. A few seconds later, the screen light shut off. He stared into the dark for a few more seconds, then he leaned over and hung up the phone and settled back into the bed. Then, he too, drifted off to sleep.