Nezushi House Spirit

Shion's forgiveness

Shion woke to bright light filtering in through the open curtains. The piercing brightness hurt his head. He groaned covering his face up with the blanket. With his eyes scrunched tightly closed he tried to get back to sleep. A few things stopped him.

One was how bright the sunlight was. It was never that bright when he first woke up. He peered out from under the blanket to check. Yep, it was bright. Ow that hurt! He covered his head back up. The next was the curtain. Shion always closed the curtains before going to bed. The fairies liked to do rude things out his window to wake him if he didn't.

Then there was the fact he was in bed. Shion had no memory of coming up to bed. With his eyes still closed he tried to think over the night before.

He had gotten into a disagreement with Nezumi. The rude rat only talked to him about the house. It was as if Shion wasn't his own being, just a part of the house. The anger, hurt, betrayal he had felt the night before rose back up in him.

Shion recalled wandering the house for a time. He even went to sit on the roof to watch the stars twinkling over head. It was here that he thought about his life before. His family, how he missed having people like that to talk to. How lonely he felt all the time. He tried to bury these feelings since there wasn't much he could do about them. Then he thought about the pirates.

He recalled how they always tried to find the wine cellar. How they insisted there had to be 'good drinking' in there. Shion had hidden the wine cellar from them.

During their stay here, he had been stronger. He had the ability to hide sections of the house, make it so people couldn't find doors that lead to the places they were looking for, things like that.

The fairies hadn't liked the pirates either, so they had helped Shion plan different pranks on them. With a smirk, The present day Shion had gotten up from the roof to go to the wine cellar. He had been the only one to enter the room in over a century. He walked in now. The barrels lined the walkway. He trailed his hand over them.

The bottles were dusty in their racks. There were casks of various liquors settled around the open space. Near the back was the actual wine. It sat on a rack next to the bags of fermented grain. He was certain the grain had gone bad a lifetime ago. His ruby eyes surveyed the line of bottles.

Plucking one up by random, he pulled the cork free. The first sip was strong. He winced at the taste of it. He settled himself on the bag as he sipped a few more times. That was it, that was where his memory left him. He didn't recall leaving the wine cellar.

As Shion cowered in the bed, he heard the click of the door. He bit his lip. Nezumi must have awoken. Shion sighed. He would wait until the other boy left the room, then he would get up. He really needed something for his aching head. His stomach was churning as well. He needed to use the bathroom.

The door clicked closed. Assuming that Nezumi had left the room, Shion tried to get up. Keeping his eyes closed, he sat up. His head pounded with each beat of his heart. The sunlight touched his pale cool cheek.

"Oh, you're awake." A soft voice spoke close by.

Shion's eyes opened. He was starring into cloudy grey ones. Nezumi was bent over next to Shion's side of the bed. He had just placed a tray on the table beside the house spirit. The owner of the inn was only a hair's breath away from Shion's face.

With a cry, Shion scurried to the far side of the bed. It was cold. Shion shivered as he gazed at the rat across from across the bed now. Nezumi straightened up. He pointed to the tray

"I made you breakfast." He offered.

"Not sure if you have a headache, but there is medicine and water. I'll leave you to eat." Without fully looking at the spirit, Nezumi walked back toward the door.