Chapter Text
Every year Inukashi closed down their hotel to clean everything top to bottom. Of course, that had absolutely nothing to do with Nezumi. No way was he going to help Inukashi free of charge and no way was he cleaning up his own apartment. He was fine living in what was basically a glorified tomb for books.
Shion on the other hand wasn’t. Nezumi had been on edge since Inukashi offhandedly mentioned they would be cleaning out the hotel soon but his fears had only been confirmed when Shion came home from work and immediately leveled Nezumi with his best attempt at a glare (it was about as threatening as a puppy) and told him the two of them needed to clean up the apartment.
Shion had been more stubborn about it than usual too, maybe Inukashi was rubbing off on him. Nezumi inwardly cursed them as he prepared himself for what would most likely be a harrowing tale of low effort low reward cleaning.
Why did his roommate have to be so impressionable?
***
Nezumi wrinkled his nose as he poked at the nearest book. As much as he loved his collection he had no love for hours spent crouched on the floor and meticulously rearranging musky books. If it had been up to him he would have maybe picked up one of the piles lying haphazardly on the floor and shoved it in the corner too rot (barring it was Shakespeare of course).
As if he could hear his thoughts, Shion glanced towards him, brows furrowed slightly.
“They’re all important, don't just pick out the dramas”
Nezumi couldn't help but sigh at that, tilting his head to the side so he was leaning slightly on Shion’s shoulder (perks of sharing a small apartment). He glanced up just in time to see Shion visibly startle at the impact.
“I don't see why they need to be reorganized anyway. We know where everything is.”
It was honestly such a dumb argument and they both knew it. The issue wasn’t not knowing where everything was, the issue was that the two of them had spent the last couple months tripping over both the books and each other. Having a roommate out of nowhere turned out to be harder than either of them had thought it would be. Nezumi couldn't really force himself to care when he was at the perfect vantage point to see the blush spreading on Shion’s cheeks. Cute.
He found himself absentmindedly reaching out to take Shion’s hand in his.
He could see Shion’s scar from this angle. Not the unnatural one that wrapped around his body but the one Nezumi had given him himself. The tiny pale white line from a rushed incision.
Somehow it only served to make him more vivid in Nezumi’s mind. He was alive. Nezumi was alive.
Alive and sitting in a dingy apartment. Maybe it was worth cleaning.
“You better be rethinking your ways, we have to get this place clean” Shion shot him another glare.
“Absolutely not. I happen to like it this way.”
He didn’t, and he had admittedly been thinking it over, but something about Shion tended to bring out the contrarian in him.
Shion’s brows furrowed. He extracted himself from Nezumi and faced the bookshelf once again. Nezumi totally didn’t miss the contact in the slightest. He was just a bit cold was all.
To further his point that no way in hell was he helping he found himself pulling a book at random and slouching against the wall like he was reading a book. He wasn’t. In his haste he had grabbed a textbook of flora. The sort of thing Shion loved but Nezumi hated. Too many scientific terms, too little plot.
Shion started humming slightly under his breath and Nezumi found himself straining to listen under the guise of studying the book even harder.
He felt something warm swell inside him when he realized it was one of his songs from the last show he had acted in. Shion could definitely be a bit spacy sometimes but never once had he failed to pay attention to Nezumi. It was sweet.
Nezumi was a decent fifteen pages into the book when Shion finally called his bluff. Honestly he was thankful for it, the book was boring as dirt.
He was less thankful when Shion took his hand and hauled him up from the floor to give a hand.
”Common, it’ll be romantic.” Shion said, trying his hardest not to laugh.
“I can't believe you find re-organizing the books romantic” Nezumi deadpanned.
He was trying to stop the corners of his mouth from lifting into a smile but honestly how could he. If he couldn’t let himself be happy in his own home, with Shion of all people, when could he be happy.
He let himself try to help a little bit from there, he had his reasons. Shion smiled a little wider with every book he reshelved in the right place. Like Nezumi said, he had his reasons.
(If his reasons happened to be his kind roommate with a shock of white hair that was no one's business but his own.)
The two of them shelved books for the remainder of the afternoon, a back and forth of yelps of excitement when one of them found a book they deemed interesting and groans of disappointment when the other realized it was the type of book they hated the most.
A while back they had started placing bets on whether there were more fiction or non-fiction so now every time Nezumi saw a non-fiction he would silently tuck it behind the other books. He loved Shion but the two of them had never set rules so technically, this wasn't cheating, it was winning.
***
“I get the feeling you cheated”
Shion had his head on the table in what the competitive side of Nezumi loved to call defeat but the rational side knew to be exhaustion.
Between the bet and the actual cleaning the two of them had been going at it for hours. The loser of the bet was supposed to cook dinner but Shion was a horrible cook and Nezumi didn't trust him within one inch of his kitchen so he had volunteered.
“For the last time” Nezumi crowed, hoping the satisfaction in his voice wasn't audible, “I didn't cheat, the prior owner was just smart enough to know fiction was infinitely better.”
Shion scoffed but left it at that and Nezumi turned his attention back to the kitchen.
“How do we feel about stew?”
Shion raised his head slightly off the table, just enough to blink at Nezumi. “Mcbeth?”
Nezumi found himself laughing at that, how could he not, he was honestly surprised Shion remembered the first lines Nezumi had ever quoted to him.
“So that's a yes, good stew is easy”
His fingers ran along the Shelves searching for the (preferably non expired) things that would fit into a stew.
Just as he hit gold, a whole row of canned beans, he heard a faint snore from the table.
Shion, after a full day of self imposed cleaning, had finally passed out. Nezumi impulsively reached over to ruffle Shion’s hair. The other boy impulsively leaned into the touch, his mouth tilting up into a smile.
All in all it hadn't been that bad of a day. Maybe cleaning up wasn't so bad if he had someone to do it with.
“I'll wake you when dinner is ready” And with that Nezumi turned back to the stew, completely unable to rid himself of the warm feeling in his chest.