A/N: Obligatory overly-poetic reunion fic go! Feedback, as always, is love :D

And when the wandering star returns at long last to his place at the side of the star that stands still, the Earth has traveled four times around the sun. Nezumi returns early on the heels of spring; the thunderstorm that greets him is not a typhoon, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, all that matters is Sion, that Sion is there, that Sion waited for him –

And the window is open and Sion is there, smiling, tears and rain mingling on his cheeks. He screams into the wind: "Come in, Nezumi."

There is rain on Nezumi's face, too.

He's drawn to Sion's side like a magnet to metal, some inescapable law of nature. He pulls Sion close and hides the emotion in his eyes in that beautiful white hair, and over the roar of thunder in his head he thinks I'm home, Sion, and he thinks a thousand things for which he hasn't yet the words. Maybe there aren't words, for this, maybe he doesn't need words for this fierce pressure and warmth in his chest, settled behind his heart. Nezumi has always prided himself on his words, but Sion, he can't wrap his head around Sion, he can't wrangle his thoughts into coherency when Sion is holding him like this.

Nezumi doesn't realize that Sion is holding him up until Sion's knees buckle under his weight and they almost both fall over. Nezumi catches him in time and Sion laughs – the most beautiful sound in all the world – and says "I love you, Nezumi."

It feels like he's burning – like he's burning from the inside out, but it's not like before, no; he is being destroyed, surely, by these flames, by this smiling boy in his arms, but through this fire he is wiped clean, and through this fire he is reborn.

"Welcome home."

And Sion saves his life more and more every day. It is a debt he will never be able to fully repay, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, because Sion asks for nothing in return, wants nothing except the warmth of Nezumi's presence by his side and Nezumi will never leave him again, never.

His hands meet in a desperate clutch at the small of Sion's back and draw him close, draw him closer still, until Nezumi can't tell which heartbeat is which, until it doesn't matter anymore. Sion rests his head on Nezumi's chest like he belongs there, and he does.

And he doesn't have the words, doesn't have the words, and Nezumi says "I apologize for the wait, Your Majesty," and Sion kisses softly the exposed skin of his throat to let him know he hears, and he knows.