Stripped

Chapter Five: Trusting

Disclaimer: I don't own No. 6.

Author's Note: Check out my mad updating skillz! Thanks to everybody who reviewed, alerted and faved. Now please enjoy this next installment!

When Shion emerged from the locker room Nezumi was a little bit surprised to see him dressed in a pair of light wash jeans tucked into boots, though the white button down shirt and loose red button down sweater were more familiar. He picked up his tote bag and slung it over his shoulder and then bent down and took a bag out of the mini fridge. When he looked up he noticed Nezumi's intent gaze.

"What?" asked Shion plucking at the thin fabric of his sweater a bit self-consciously, trying to smooth out the wrinkles.

"Copycat," Nezumi accused with a smirk, nodding at Shion's boots.

Shion glanced down at his feet and then over at Nezumi's and pulled a face.

"Come on," Shion said rolling his eyes and leading Nezumi down the hall towards the stairs.

"No elevators?" queried Nezumi as they passed the smooth stainless steel of the doors and a couple of people in scrubs and lab coats.

"Not if I can help it," said Shion, "Those things are death traps. I've never liked them, well as far as I can remember anyways, and then last year I got stuck in one for three hours during a power outage. Now I avoid them on principle."

As Shion slipped into the stairwell Nezumi spared a dark glance over his shoulder for the elevators. Shion, even before he'd left, had never shown Nezumi any indication that he actually remembered being shot, falling, dying in that elevator shaft, yet even now he avoided elevators. It was something to think about.

"Are you coming or is walking up three flights of stairs really that strenuous?"

Nezumi snorted and turned to follow Shion with fluid grace.

"As if you can talk, your majesty."

"Wanna bet?" asked Shion shooting him a cheeky grin.

Nezumi arched an eyebrow the corner of his mouth lifting in an answering smirk. He'd rarely seen Shion in a playful mood, he looked about twelve years old, a far cry from the serious figure in scrubs he'd been just a few short minutes ago.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Last one up the stairs washes the dinner dishes?"

"You're on," Nezumi said spinning on his boot heel and dashing up the stairs.

Nezumi laughed a bit when he heard Shion's indignant squawk and the tromp of another set of booted feet on the stairs as he quickly recovered his composure and dashed after him.

Nezumi won the race, of course, but his fingertips only just brushed the door before Shion crashed into him from behind, sending the two of them stumbling into the hallway. He'd forgotten how fast the airhead could be when he put his mind to it.

"Cheater!" Shion cried, slightly out of breath, pointing an accusing finger at his dark-haired opponent.

"You never specified any rules, so how could I have been cheating?" asked Nezumi the innocent tone of his voice at odds with his devilish smirk.

Shion laughed. It bubbled up out of him with an unfamiliar ease as he grinned back at Nezumi.

"Shameless."

"I try."

"Come on, my car's this way," Shion said leading Nezumi down the hall and up to a door.

The white-haired coroner punched in a four digit code and swiped his ID card through the read and the door hissed open.

The room beyond was some sort of maintenance area.

"I sometimes take this shortcut when I want to dodge the media circus. My passcode and ID are registered at the front desk so there shouldn't be any problems there, plus there are no cameras back here."

"What if your detective friend checks to see if I'm on the list of people allowed to be in the building?" asked Nezumi.

"He won't," Shion said.

"Trusting fool," Nezumi accused with a shake of his head as Shion approached another door.

"Me or him?"

"Both."

"Olsen still thinks I'm the consummate goody-two-shoes," Shion explained, punching in his code a second time, "He'd never even think to consider that I didn't bring you in through the proper channels."

"Well, would you have snuck me in?"

Shion shot Nezumi an annoyed look as he held the door open for the taller man.

"No," he admitted a tad grudgingly.

Nezumi chuckled, stepping out into the warm late afternoon sunshine of the WDPD staff parking lot.

"Well, at least I'm not likely to be arrested over this little stunt."

Shion hummed in agreement as he led the way to his car. Reflexively he checked his kit before tossing the tote bag with all his paperwork into the back seat. He set the bag and box with his mother's cake more gently onto the floor and hoped that it hadn't taken too much of a beating in the race and his subsequent collision with Nezumi.

Nezumi, for his part, slid into the passenger's seat without prompting and Shion shook his head at the man's boldness. He would hazard a guess that Nezumi had never been apologetic about anything in his life.

"Are you going to get in or just stand there and stare at me?" Nezumi asked, amusedly.

"Stare," answered Shion just to see what he'd say.

Nezumi looked surprised for a second before recovering.

"You can stare over dinner just don't blame me when I steal yours, your majesty."

Shaking his head Shion took the hint and slid into the car, backing out of his space carefully and moving around the front of the WDPD building. As expected the crowd of reporters were staking out both the front and back entrances ready to accost anyone who stumbled into their midst and waiting for the Captain's official statement.

Shion shook his head.

"Glad we went around that," he muttered.

Nezumi shook his head a bit wonderingly.

"Four years ago a mob like that would have been gunned down in the streets or rounded up and sent to the Correctional Facility."

Shion spared Nezumi a brief sidelong glance.

"Freedom of speech, the double edged sword."

While Shion concentrated on driving the short way to the market Nezumi took the time to observe the city and the changes that had occurred since the day Elyurias fulfilled Shion's wish and brought down the wall that separated No. 6 proper and West Block.

There was animation in the city now, and chaos, laughter, love, tears and anger. You could see emotions in the faces of the people they drove past. There was an art shop with a whimsical stained glass wind chime in the window and in full view of the street a woman in a floral print dress shouted at a cringing man. In the shadow of a restaurant two teenagers were kissing their fingers interlaced. As Nezumi watched the girl pulled away giggling and flushing prettily, dragging the unresisting boy into the restaurant by their joined hands.

So much had changed in the time he'd been gone, it was hard to believe this was even No. 6 at all.

"Are you coming?"

Shion's voice broke Nezumi out of his reverie and, realizing they had arrived, he got out of the car and glanced around.

Shion had parked a little ways down a small side street filled up by new looking townhouses that sported small yards and a good number of window-box vegetable gardens.

"Where are we?" asked Nezumi curiously, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets and following Shion up to the main road.

"We're on the borders between Mid-Town and Lost Town, this is Seventh Street here. Most of the shops here get their wares fresh from the farms in the North and East Districts. It's mostly just standard fare, for the exotic stuff you have to get it imported from the other cities or pay an arm and a leg for the things they grow in the greenhouses on the east side of Chronos," Shion explained as they emerged into the bustling combination of a street market and shop fronts.

"It reminds me a bit of No. 2," Nezumi commented weaving through the crowd with practiced ease his sharp eyes taking everything in warily.

"You've been to No. 2," said Shion his eyes going bright and round with curiosity, "What was it like there? I hear it's really beautiful."

"It has its good and bad points, like any place," shrugged Nezumi thinking of the baking heat, a string of hand carved beads and a woman with haunted eyes, five children and a scimitar.

Shion's attention was caught by something beyond Nezumi's head and Nezumi turned to see what it was.

"Ooh, hey Nezumi, do you like mushrooms?"

"Sure, I'm not picky," Nezumi shrugged.

"Come with me," grinned Shion taking hold of his hand and tugging him diagonally across the street.

Nezumi glanced down at their interlaced fingers and a small secret smile crossed his face as he allowed Shion to drag him up to one of the vendors.

Shion took one of the bags from the overhead dispenser on the vendor's stall and began carefully picking out twenty of some of the largest fluffiest looking mushrooms Nezumi had ever seen.

"How much for these?"

"Three silvers," said the vendor.

Shion was reaching for his wallet and Nezumi shook his head in exasperation. Some things would never change.

"Are you selling some sort of miracle drug or a couple of mushrooms? One silver."

"These are the finest mushrooms in all the free cities! I cannot let you have them for less than two."

"One silver and three bronze."

"I have a family to feed. My wife will smack me silly if I take less than two silvers."

"You can feed a family on one silver but I'll be generous and give you one and six bronze."

"You drive a hard bargain my good sir, one and six it is," agreed the vendor with a grin.

Bemused, Shion handed over the coins and took his mushrooms.

"I can't believe you were about to pay three silvers for a measly twenty mushrooms," said Nezumi once they were out of earshot of the vendor.

"That's what he said they cost," protested Shion.

Nezumi sighed.

"You're supposed to haggle with the street vendors Shion, they mark up their prices just enough that idiots and airheads like you pay them twice what their products are worth."

"But what if they really need the money?"

Nezumi shook his head at his white-haired companion rolling his eyes fondly at his familiar naiveté.

"None of these people are on the verge of starving or losing their houses I promise you and it's not like they're not making any profit."

"I'm no good at haggling," Shion said taking out a few paper marks before handing his wallet over to Nezumi.

Nezumi stopped himself just short of gaping at Shion.

"You idiot, now you're giving me this—"

"Yes. I've already told you I trust you, let you into my office and home, it's just my wallet," Shion said cutting off Nezumi's impending lecture, "Now go forth and buy me vegetables at a reduced price."

Nezumi just shook his head at Shion for a long moment and thanked Elyurias that Shion had only had to live in West Block for a little less than a year because any longer and someone would have killed him.

"Still a natural. Very well," he gave Shion a dramatic bow worthy of his days as Eve. "As his majesty commands."

Shion flushed a bit.

"Will you stop that? It's embarrassing!"

Nezumi pretended to consider it.

"No."

"I'm going to go buy the stewing beef and some bread. I'll be in that shop waiting when you finish up."

Nezumi nodded in agreement and disappeared into the milling crowd with a short wave.

Shion made his way back across the street and into the butcher shop. A towering reed-like woman with short black hair was behind the counter wrapping up a few cuts of meat for a man in coveralls and work boots.

"I'll be with you in a sec Doc," she called over to him with a smile.

"No rush Sloane," Shion assured her.

Sloane was Bear's younger sister, she and her husband had taken over the butcher shop from her parents a few years ago and pretty much every cop in the district came here for their meat.

Sloane finished up with her customer and then turned to Shion with a smile.

"What can I getcha today Doc?"

"Just some stewing beef, enough for two people with leftovers."

Sloane shot him a surprised look, pausing as she grabbed the beef from the display case.

"You got company Doc?"

"Yeah, I have a friend staying with me for a while," Shion explained.

"A friend or a friend?" asked Sloane with a salacious eyebrow waggle.

"Just a friend," Shion laughed, "He just got back from travelling abroad."

"Wow, good for you Doc."

"Why is everybody so shocked that I have a friend?" grumbled Shion.

"Nothing personal, but even before you lost your memories you were kind of a loner type. To hear Bear tell it your only good friends were him and Lin."

Shion grimaced.

It was true, his dedication to his job pretty much meant that he had no social life outside of work and his family, but hearing it from three separate people in one day just seemed kind of sad. He wasn't a bad guy, people liked him and he liked most people, but most of the time he felt it was just too much bother to get to know someone when he was already swamped with work or he wanted to make more time to spend with his mom and siblings or he just wanted to be left alone.

Sloane handed him the wrapped up beef and Shion handed her the marks without bothering to check the total. He was in here often enough that he knew the prices by heart.

"Keep the change," he told her.

"Thanks Doc, good luck with your dinner."

"Thanks Sloane, I'll see you soon."

Shion wandered down the block to the bakery and bought a loaf of fresh crusty brown bread. He then went into the café he'd pointed out to Nezumi and ordered a drink before sitting back to wait for the dark-haired man to be finished his haggling.

Shion spotted him and waved.

Nezumi had a self-satisfied air about him as he carried the large bag of produce in one arm. He tossed Shion back his wallet underhanded and Shion caught it easily.

"Hey, I didn't know if you were a coffee drinker so I got you hot chocolate, I hope that's okay. Everybody likes hot chocolate right?"

Nezumi dropped into the chair across from Shion setting the groceries on the table and taking a quick sip of his drink.

"Thanks. It's good."

"I'm glad," said Shion with a smile tucking his wallet back into his pants pocket.

"At least check it to make sure I haven't robbed you blind," Nezumi ordered with an exasperated sigh.

"If you were going to rob me blind why on earth would you buy me vegetables?" Shion asked rhetorically, making a show of taking his wallet back out and checking its contents.

He narrowed his eyes at the amount still left in there.

"You did actually pay for those vegetables right?"

Nezumi laughed taking another gulp of his hot chocolate.

"I did, though a lot less than you would have paid for them if your expression is anything to go by."

"So what did you get?" asked Shion.

"The usual stuff, potatoes, carrots, celery, tomatoes, I indulged a bit and got a small bunch of fresh basil and some rosemary as well, hope you don't mind."

"That's great, I have the dried stuff at home but fresh is always better," said Shion.

"What about you did you get everything you needed?"

"Yes," Shion said with a pleased nod.

"Well, what are we waiting for? I'm starving and sick of eating my own cooking, let's get going!"

Shion chuckled.

"Pushy, pushy. The stew won't be ready for a few hours you know you should grab something to snack on while we're here."

Nezumi shook his head downing the rest of his drink.

"The hot chocolate will tide me over and besides the sooner we get going the sooner the stew will be done," he insisted.

"Alright, alright. Let's go then."

The two young men recycled their empty cups and made their way back to Shion's car where they loaded their purchases into the back seat and headed back to Shion's apartment.

AN: Hey guys, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! Next chapter we see some more emotion from our favourite couple and I hope to have that out in a couple of days since I have the chapter outlined and I seem to be on a roll with this whole updating thing.

As always reviews, and by extension reviewers, are revered! Imortalize your thoughts in Times New Roman font!