Transitions
Title: Transitions
Author: Serenetwinkle
Chapter: 6 of ...
Rating: PG- just cause
Word count: 5,513
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Status: Incomplete
Summary: A switching of the strangest kind gives Watanuki and Doumeki a glimpse of something more.
Disclaimer- Don't. Own. Period.
~Chapter 1
~Chapter 2
~Chapter 3
~Chapter 4
~Chapter 5
AN- Rawr
Tamago-zake- literally, egg-sake, (think eggnog - sake style)
Transitions
He’d had dreams about Watanuki before.
Pleasant dream, not so pleasant dreams, downright unpleasant dreams, weird dreams (he blamed those particular ones on the flu he had gotten last winter, apparently cough medicine and tamago-zake didn’t mix well together), and some dreams he was sure that if Watanuki knew about would cause the skinny boy to run screaming for the hills, if not put him in a coma on the spot.
The imagination was a powerful thing after all, and Doumeki had always prided himself on being rather creative, or at least not very boring.
But the point was, having the bespectacled boy as the center of his dreams was not altogether a shocking occurrence. Even less so since he had started sharing a part of himself with the other teen.
So it was a bit off-putting when, as he woke up in the middle of the night for apparently no good reason at all, he was left with a sense of having witnessed something very strange. Almost a vision more than a dream. But that couldn’t really be possible, since it was after 3 in the morning and neither of them had even had their eyes open. Unless Watanuki had developed a new habit of getting up and walking around in the middle of the night to look at strange paintings.
Hmm. A sleepwalking Watanuki? Not entirely impossible. The guy probably had so much energy he had to work it off at night.
He was just beginning to drift off again when a sound came from outside his door. Eyes snapped open and suddenly he was on full alert to whatever was making the noise. Doumeki sat up, letting the blanket fall into his lap absently, ears straining for more sounds. Figuring this was what had originally awoken him, the archer slowed his breathing and focused on the door across the room.
The sound came again, but this time Doumeki could tell it wasn’t coming from directly outside his door, but somewhere nearby.
Covers slipped soundlessly to the side as he rose from the futon and tiptoed to the doorway, pressing an ear against the wood and one hand against the door, ready to open it if something did happen to be lurking behind it.
“..stop…stop… nnnn… Stop!”
His body moved without a second thought, and he was halfway to the guestroom door before he was even aware he had left the room.
“Please! Stop!” The fearful voice was half muffled and clearly not awake, but in the still night air, the words had traveled effortlessly the twenty or so feet that separated the two rooms. Doumeki realized, before the door slid open and his eyes automatically began searching for an attacking demon or ghost, that the other boy must be in the midst of a nightmare. The cries had been too weak and far between for an actual attack, but it never hurt to check (you never could tell with Watanuki), and it wasn’t until Doumeki had deemed the room at least visibly safe that he made his way over to the smaller boy rocking about on the floor to try and wake him.
“Oi,” Doumeki called softly, placing a hand on one shoulder and shaking it slightly.
The only reaction from the sleeping teen was a few head tosses and a whimpered protest. The archer shook a little harder and called again, worried at the incredible heat that radiated from beneath the material where his hand lay. Doumeki hoped the boy hadn’t caught a fever sometime during the night and called once more, even louder.
In the dim moonlight that permeated the room through a partially opened curtain, Doumeki saw Watanuki finally open his eyes with a gasp and sharp jerk of his body.
“No!” There was nothing half muttered about the screams this time. “Get off! No, no!” Doumeki quickly slapped his other hand over the shorter boy’s mouth and attempted to keep him from escaping by pinning him to the bed. They may have been on the other side of the house, but he was pretty sure his parents would be able to hear someone screaming bloody murder in their own home.
“Quiet. Calm down.” Despite the frantic struggles to get away from the archer, Watanuki seemed to have heard him and gradually started to lose his will to fight. The small hands wrapped around the taller boy’s wrists eased their deathgrip and moonlight-faded blue eyes blinked rapidly with increasing awareness.
“Wha…” was the hoarse response. The confused teen finally appeared to notice he was being watched by someone and met Doumeki’s wary gaze.
“Shi- zuka!” Doumeki barely had time to prepare himself with that one relieved sob before the skinny teen flung himself into the awkward embrace of the archer. Holding his arms out slightly away from his sides, Doumeki debated if he should push the boy off now and save them both the embarrassment, or be kind and offer some obviously needed comfort. In the end he couldn’t pry the semi-hysterical teen off of his body (though admittedly he didn’t really try that hard to begin with) so the archer simply wrapped his arms loosely around the other boy’s back and let him cry and sniffle out half coherent apologies.
As the thin body shook and clung to him, Doumeki found it was rather difficult to keep from simply laying his head against the one currently pressed against his shoulder and promising unreasonable things to stop the tears. His arms constricted around the narrow back involuntarily for a moment before he remembered who he was soothing. It was hard, though, to keep immobile and unresponsive with Watanuki’s exact double literally hanging off of him.
He did feel somewhat deceitful though, and took to trying to lull the skinny boy out of his distress by calling Watanuki’s name, so when he finally came back to himself, the teen would know which person he was being held by.
It was sometime after the tenth chant of, “It’ll be okay, Watanuki-san” and other such variants, that the boy trembling in Doumeki’s arms finally began to relax. Bit by bit, the tightness in the bony shoulders left and skinny arms fell away from the taller boy’s neck.
Watanuki curled into himself, tucking his hands under his elbows and holding them stiffly against his sides. The shorter boy then pulled away until Doumeki realized it was only his own arms around Watanuki’s back that held them together. The archer immediately dropped his arms and gave the other boy some space.
“You… probably think I’m… a real pain, huh?” Watanuki’s head was hung so his hair covered most of his face and dark shadows fell over the rest, leaving Doumeki to look at what was basically a dark inky spot on the top of a small body. A tiny laugh that didn’t sound in the least bit amused escaped from under the darkness, followed by a quiet sniffle.
“I’m sorry… that I woke you.”
He honestly sounded sorry too. So much so that Doumeki wondered at the tone. Like the boy was used to apologizing for everything.
“It’s not a big deal.” And unusual though it was to be gotten out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to be emotionally assaulted by a virtually unknown person, Doumeki found his own words to be true. And here he had thought comforting strangers wasn’t something he did. Learn something new about yourself everyday…
He’d really been hanging around Watanuki too long. The apathy to abnormality was starting to rub off.
“You’re… very kind.”
And apparently, the random acts of kindness too.
Watanuki was squeezing his arms across his stomach, head so low now that he was almost hunching in on himself.
“Really? I’ve been told I’m something of an unemotional bastard.”
His attempt at humor seemed to work, as the smaller by looked up at him in surprise and blinked bemused eyes at him. “What?”
“Joke.”
Sort of.
A miniscule crease formed between slender eyebrows. “O-oh.”
So he wasn’t a great comedian. But at least the depressed look was receding as his companion straightened and dropped his hands onto bent knees.
“You’ll be alright now?” Doumeki was curious to know what had caused the alarm in the first place, but it wasn’t his place to pry.
“Yes, of course, thank you. I’ll be fine.” It was almost an exact replica of the answer he had given earlier in the night, right down to the shifting eyes.
The kid really was a lousy liar.
Despite the self-made promise not to pry, Doumeki had to ask at least one question. “Do you have nightmares a lot?”
Shoulders sagged again. “I’ll try not too.”
“Don’t be stupid.” That earned him a small glare. “You can’t control what you dream about.”
“Ah,” the smaller boy breathed as his expression cleared into something like fond remembrance. “He said that too.”
“Your… Shizuka?”
“Mm-hmm.” Eyes were distant as Watanuki stared of to the side, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “He would say if I wanted to keep myself from dreaming, then don’t go to sleep. Otherwise, I was just wasting my time wanting to try and change them. And that we would deal with them when they came. He… was always saying things like that. To make me feel better.”
“Makes sense.” And since the little smile on Watanuki’s face was beginning to fade into something more sorrowful, and since it was unreasonably late and he was starting to feel the tiredness creep up on him despite his best intention, Doumeki figured it was time to break up the party. A new decision took shape in his head and the archer spared a brief thought towards his sudden penchant for impulsiveness.
Grabbing Watanuki’s pillow and blanket, he motioned for the boy to stand. The smaller boy complied with a look of confusion and a short, “What?”
“Grab your futon.”
“W-what?” The surprise actually caused the skinny teen to move back a step.
It was too late at night for niceties, so Doumeki laid it out as directly as possible. “Look, you aren’t used to being alone, right?”
“H-How…”
“I can tell.” Like it wasn’t blatantly obvious. “So if you want, you can stay in my room. You’ll feel… safer, right?” he asked as he knelt down and flipped off the borrowed alarm clock.
Whatever it was that gave the boy nightmares was evidently more than a ‘once in a while’ thing. And if it was more of a nightly thing, well… he would rather not have to drag himself across the hall every night, anyway. So it was for slightly selfish reasons too. And letting the other boy scream himself back to sleep every night just seemed… cruel. And not an option at all really.
Instead of answering his question, Watanuki bent down and picked up the mattress from the floor and dutifully followed the archer from the guestroom, trailing him down the hall and finally into his room.
“I’m sorry to make you go through so mu-“
“Tell you what,” Doumeki interrupted, turning to look the boy directly in the eyes as he spoke. “If you stop apologizing for every little thing, we’ll call it even.”
Watanuki actually pouted. It was… cute. “That’s hardly equal.”
Doumeki shrugged noncommittally. “Depends on the value to the other person of what’s being exchanged.” And this was where Doumeki knew he’d been hanging out with Yuuko for too long also.
“Huh?” A look of perplexity fixed itself over Watanuki’s face so completely Doumeki might have laughed at it any other time.
But for now, all he did was give a quick shake of his head and a ‘never mind.’
Handing Watanuki his blanket and pillow, Doumeki walked back to his futon ad motioned to the empty area next to it. “You can set up here or wherever you like.” Then he flopped back down onto is mattress with a sigh. The skinny teen hesitantly followed and began to settle the other mattress about five feet away from Doumeki’s. After a moment, he scooted it a little closer, then a second later, closer still, glancing under his bangs to the archer each time to gauge a reaction. Possibly satisfied that he wasn’t going to be yelled at for the nearness, Watanuki finally crawled into bed after one final adjustment. Doumeki noted the original five feet was now about two.
He made sure to roll away from the other boy before letting the grin spread over his face. Wouldn’t his Watanuki just have heart failure if he knew about these sleeping arrangements?
“Good night Doumeki-san,” came a barely heard whisper, almost like the other boy was unsure if Doumeki had already gone to sleep or not.
“Good night,” he whispered back, equally as soft, just because it felt necessary.
A sigh, relieved and content, floated through the air to Doumeki’s ears, and he couldn’t help but think he made a good decision.
~*~
There was something odd about the way the light woke him up the next morning. It was… different. He would have spent a little more time trying to figure it out, but something else distracted him at that moment. A couple things, actually, that made him think it was very possible he was still asleep.
One was the hand currently attached to his. Slender fingers were interwoven with those of his own left hand as they lay innocently in front of the archer. Looking across the small hand and the pillow it was lying on, Doumeki found the sleeping face of its owner (distraction number two) resting peacefully beside him, the two feet that had been between them the night before reduced to less than two inches.
He took a minute to study the sleeping boy beside him, listening to his deep breathing and watching dark eyelashes flutter with every unconscious movement beneath the closed lids. A light pink blush was swept over pale cheeks, as if some wandering artist had snuck up in the middle of the night and thought he needed a bit of color. Doumeki sleepily wondered if maybe he was hot and reached out hand to brush against the smaller boy’s cheek. His fingertips lightly grazed the arch of one cheekbone and a soft sigh escaped from the smaller teen’s lips, accompanied by a tiny smile.
The hushed noise was enough to break through the remaining fog of Doumeki’s brain, and he hastily retracted his hand.
Wrong boy.
With a muffled groan, the archer rolled to his side and looked at his alarm clock.
Oh.
No wonder the light looked so different; it was nearly an hour later than he normally woke up. Which gave them approximately 20 minutes to get up and get to school.
Crap.
“Watanuki-san.”
“Mmm.” Watanuki opened mildly unfocused eyes and turned in Doumeki’s direction with an expression that clearly read, “I am not awake.”
“Watanuki-san, we have to get going. We’re late.” Realizing now that it was his fault for their lateness (he seemed to recall waking up at one point and turning the alarm off, then falling back asleep), Doumeki added a belated, “sorry.”
“Huh, late?” With miraculous speed, the lingering sleepy look was immediately wiped from Watanuki’s face to be replaced by a rather panicky expression.
Doumeki stood and stretched out still resting muscles. “Yeah, we have about...” The words trailed off as he watched with increasing amusement as Watanuki leapt from the futon and began to race madly around the room, looking for clothes and school books and becoming increasingly panicked when he couldn’t find them.
Suddenly remembering he was in the wrong room, the skinny boy raced out of the bedroom and across the hall to the guestroom, nearly knocking Doumeki over on the way.
“Hurry up, Doumeki-san!” came a shout, accompanied by the sound of drawers slamming open and shut and running feet.
“Huh.” Must be a Watanuki thing, this early morning energy.
~*~
Despite Watanuki’s efforts to speed their departure, they still ended up running a good portion of the way, though Doumeki had to slow down about half a mile from the entrance to let Watanuki rest. Apparently the lack of ghost chases kept him in a less fit shape than his own Watanuki, though no less painfully thin.
As they walked the remaining distance to the school gate, the smaller boy gulping mouthfuls of air as he tried to catch his breath, Doumeki let his mind wander back to the problem they were facing. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could do at the moment other than walk things through and hope for normalcy to return soon.
Truth be told, Doumeki wasn’t sure how long this new Watanuki would be able to pass for his own. Sure, there were no parents to fool, or even many friends aside from Kunogi, and he didn’t have any family to visit…
Actually, they might be able to pull it off after all. Watanuki’s depressing lack of acquaintances would be a good thing in this instance. There should only be the teachers to fool, not that it would be hard; half the time his instructors had trouble recalling individual names without the roster in front of them. And of course Yuuko.
Who, by now, most likely already knew the problem, figured out where Watanuki was (if she hadn’t already known that too), planned out a way to get him back, and was currently wondering how much she should dock the skinny teen’s pay for services yet to be rendered.
They entered school grounds and Doumeki went back into class-ready mode with a final speculation as to when the eccentric shop owner would make her first expectedly unexpected entrance.
They managed to get through the doors with three minutes to spare and several students were still lingering in the hall as Doumeki walked Watanuki to his first class. When the archer made to leave Watanuki looked back at him in surprise.
“Where are you going? Class is going to start any minute.” He was nodding his head to the side in a ‘come on hurry up’ gesture.
Doumeki pointed down the hall, sidestepping to let a student rush past him. “My class is down there.”
Disappointment flashed across Watanuki’s face a moment before he gave a good natured grin. “Well, I guess things are bound to be different.”
“Hn, I’ll meet you for lunch.” And he was off again before the bespectacled teen could agree, or disagree if he was so inclined. He’d be fine in a classroom at least.
God, let him be okay in a classroom at least.
~*~
“Trigonometry is easier here for some reason. I like this teacher much better.”
Well wasn’t he adjusting well.
“And the woman that teaches history is very nice.”
And quickly at that.
“I think I prefer my homeroom teacher though, I miss his jokes already.”
But at least he still wanted to go home.
“Ah, Himawari-chan! Over here!”
Once a Watanuki, always a Watanuki.
“Good afternoon, Watanuki-kun. Doumeki-kun. Can I join you?”
“Of course! Here. Hey move over, Doumeki-kun.”
If Kunogi noticed the difference in his name, she didn’t say anything. Probably put it down to them being ‘so close.’
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make anything this morning, but we bought lunch if you want to share.”
Automatic generosity, check.
“Alright, here you can have some of mine too.”
“It looks great!”
Automatic compliments, check.
“Yeah, my mom made it special for me last night since I wasn’t feeling well.”
“And you’re mom is a great cook. Did you have a chance to get that recipe from her?”
“Oh, huh?”
And just like that, pretend time was over.
Watanuki floundered for a moment. “Ah, I mean, would you be able to... that is. Um, get the recipe for me. Cause I’d like to try it sometime.”
Kunogi’s smile didn’t even falter. “Sure, Watanuki-kun. I’m sure it will be twice as good if you make it. Everything you make is delicious.”
“Th-thank you. Heh heh.” A normal Watanuki reaction would have entailed much fawning and twirling, but now the skinny teen seemed reasonably subdued after his slip up. Nothing like having reality crashing down on you to break a daydream.
The remaining lunch time consisted of polite conversation and small talk of the more general sort, though Doumeki noticed that the smaller boy let Himawari steer their discussions from then on. The pig-tailed girl left them a few minutes before the first waning bell, saying she wanted to ask her teacher a question before class. Doumeki suspected she just liked to leave them together as much a possible, but never said anything. What was there to complain about?
Having finished his own meal a while ago, Doumeki was left looking at a sullen Watanuki poking halfheartedly at a pile of rice with a pair loosely held chopsticks.
“So.”
The skinny boy looked up from his poking.
“All of your instructors are different?”
Setting aside the half eaten box, Watanuki leaned back on his hands and turned his attention to the boy in front of him.
“Well, so far I’ve only had one of the same teachers, but there are still three more classes, so...” He trailed off with a sigh and tilted his head up to look at the sky. “It’s alright though.”
“Everything happens for a reason.” Blue eyes fell closed and a mix of saddened peacefulness stole over the small teen. “Even if it’s not clear at the time. Things happen for a reason.”
The kid didn’t know anything about spirits or hitsuzen, but could still spout a Yuuko-esque paraphrase like no one’s business.
Maybe this Watanuki wasn’t so sheltered after all. Yuuko’s lessons never came without some kind of price attached to them, and if this guy was able to understand a bigger picture, maybe something had happened to him as well.
Something bad enough to give nightmares every night and fear being alone. A person didn’t necessarily have to be attacked by something non-human to fear the dark. There were plenty of scary things out there without having to deal with the supernatural.
The end of lunch bell rang, interrupting his thoughts. He helped Watanuki pick up the remains of their lunch and walked him back to the classroom.
“I have practice after school today. You can wait here, or go ahead to the temple if you want.”
“Oh. Your, um, friend. He doesn’t have a job?” Watanuki asked with a small frown.
“Well, yeah, but...” Doumeki wasn’t about to let Yuuko loose on him. In some ways, he was even more innocent then Watanuki.
“Well, I’ll go there then!” And the brightness behind then smile made Doumeki absolutely sure Watanuki had no idea what he was getting into.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
The smile fell a little. “But... doesn’t he work for Yuuko-san?”
The shock actually caused Doumeki to stumble to a stop. “You know Yuuko?”
Watanuki stood several feet ahead of him, staring back at him in amusement. “She’s a character, I know, but nothing I can’t handle.” He motioned for them to start moving again.
A character. That was one way to say it.
But if he didn’t know about spirits or ghosts and the like, how could he work for her? Surely even the most oblivious of people would start to notice things were a little off when hanging around Yuuko.
“Well...”
“Don’t worry Doumeki-kun. I’ll do my best and your friend will keep his job.”
Who could say no to that smile? Not him.
“Alright, but I’ll walk you there.” They reached Watanuki’s classroom just as the minute warning bell rang.
“Oh! But practice-“
“Just wait for me here.” And again, he left without hanging around to hear any response.
~*~
Sure enough, when he arrived back at Watanuki’s classroom, the skinny boy was waiting for him, talking amiably to a classmate by a window. The boy was no one Doumeki knew offhand, but had seen on occasion. He wasn’t even sure his Watanuki had ever spoken much with him before.
As he approached the two, he noticed the other boy had a slight blush on his cheeks and was watching Watanuki with wide eyes. Wondering what merited such an awestruck reaction, Doumeki turned his eyes to the smaller boy.
He couldn’t hear yet what was being said at this distance, but no words were really necessary to understand the expression on the bespectacled boy’s face. He was obviously talking about something he loved very much, judging by the excited hand movements and shine in his eyes. The smile never faltered as Watanuki eagerly gesticulated an explanation to the other boy.
Watanuki suddenly caught site of him and brightened even more.
“Ah here he is! Doumeki-kun, come here for a second.”
Wait...
“This is Motoshi-kun. He’s part of the school paper and was thinking of doing an interview with one of the archery club members. I told him you would be a good...”
They had been talking about him?
Something strange must have been showing on his face because suddenly Watanuki began to apologize.
“I-I’m sorry, I should have asked you first. I didn’t mean to-“
“Stop apologizing.”
“Oh, eh, right...” A flush crept up the bespectacled boy’s neck and he looked at the ground.
The other kid, Motoshi, looked back and forth between them and, apparently deciding they needed some alone time, excused himself with a bow and a thank you to Watanuki. Doumeki noticed he kept looking back at the skinny boy though, and wondered if he would have to keep an eye on him.
“Sor- er, I mean... I...”
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.”
If he ignored it, maybe he could forget the fact that Watanuki had looked so... incredibly adorable while talking about him. Though it was hard to keep from wondering if his Watanuki would ever look like that.
Doubtful, but good dream-fodder anyway.
~*~
The walk to Yuuko’s was fairly peaceful. Any talking was mostly on Watanuki’s part, with periodic answers from Doumeki when the occasion called for it. The distinct lack of yelling and hurled accusations took some getting used to, but it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant situation to be in.
“Ah, Doumeki-kun?”
“Hn?”
“Ah, um...” A slightly fidgety Watanuki cleared his throat before continuing. “I wondered, about this friend of yours. He... I mean you... well, I just got the impression from the other students...”
Ah. That.
“We’re just friends.”
“Oh, well yes, I got that much, but...”
“What?”
“Well, do I... I mean... am I supposed to hate you?”
The look Doumeki received was so sincerely confused he couldn’t help it.
He laughed.
It kind of hurt. Muscles not used for a while, he supposed.
When the archer could focus again, the boy in front of him was only one shade lighter than a pomegranate.
“How is that funny?!”
Doumeki supposed it wouldn’t have seemed that funny to anyone else, but really. That look and question at the same time was just too much.
“Never mind.” He thought back to the actual question for a second. “And yes.”
“Huh, yes?” The redness was receding a little, probably because he wasn’t being laughed at anymore.
“You’re supposed to hate me.”
“What?! You mean... they were serious?!” Shocked disbelief now covered the smaller boy’s face.
By ‘they’ Doumeki assumed he was referring to Watanuki’s classmates. Well, someone was bound to notice the complete 180 the skinny boy seemed to have pulled overnight in regards to the archer. Wasn’t it just earlier this week that Watanuki had told him to ‘drop dead you ungrateful bastard, no I will not make you snacks for after school’ in front of about half the student body?
“But... you said-“
“We are friends; Watanuki just has a different way of showing it. People might misunderstand it sometimes unless they really know him.”
Like Kunogi for instance. Behind the cute remarks and feigned ignorance of Watanuki’s affection, she really knew what was what. Doumeki was almost positive of it.
“Oh. I guess so. Does that mean I have to yell at you at school?” The blush came back across the bridge of Watanuki’s nose, but he didn’t look at the archer when he asked.
“Just be yourself.”
A quick glance from the other boy confirmed Doumeki’s sincerity and the taller teen could see him visibly relax.
“Alright.”
The rest of the way was walked in silence. The smaller boy was so deeply engrossed in his thoughts though, Doumeki had to hold out an arm to keep him from walking past the shop.
“Huh?” Watanuki threw a confused look at the archer. “Why did we stop?”
Doumeki nodded to the two posts Watanuki disappeared through every day. “We’re here.”
“Oh, heh, sorry. Guess I spaced out for a minute.” Watanuki turned and started to walk to the entrance. After a couple steps, the skinny boy stopped and addressed Doumeki over his shoulder.
“Um, Doumeki-kun?”
“Hm.”
“Are you sure this is the right place?”
Doumeki looked around. Barren field. No house. Two posts stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Yup, looked about right.
“Yeah, this is it.”
Watanuki whirled around and glared accusingly at his companion. “Very funny.”
Funny?
“What?”
A finger pointed angrily at the field. “Where is it?”
“Does it look different?”
“Of course it looks different! There’s nothing there!” was the exasperated reply.
Ah.
This could be a problem.
“Oh, you don’t see anything either?”
Watanuki’s jaw dropped. “Are you crazy? What was I supposed to see?”
“A house of some kind, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Well, he never really described it properly, so... yeah.”
Did he really deserve that ‘I’m staring at a crazy person’ look he was receiving from Watanuki? Well maybe, but still...
“Well, I guess we should just go home then.”
“But, but what about your friend’s job?” Watanuki hurried to catch up to the already leaving archer.
“You can’t see the house.”
“Huh?”
“If you can’t see it, you can’t go into it.” Simple.
“What are you talking about?” Watanuki’s face was saying ‘not so simple.’
“There was a shop there. But you couldn’t see it.”
“There wasn’t-“
“There was, but if you can’t see it, it means you don’t need to go inside.”
“I don’t understand...”
“Perhaps I can explain it better.”
Both boys stopped and looked up at the same time.
And there she was, just as expectedly unexpected as Doumeki knew she would be. Leaning against a wall, arms crossed and looking like, as usual, she held the answer to every mystery there ever was. Which, for all Doumeki knew, she probably did.
Watanuki was the first to break the small silence.
“Ah, Yuuko-san!” He ran a few steps to her side, pulling up short with a taken aback look when he was about four feet away.
“What happened to you jewelry!?”
The ensuing mischievous laughter made Doumeki decide he really didn’t want to know. Maroon eyes locked with his own as he too came up to stand in front of the shop owner.
“Good afternoon, Doumeki-kun.”
“Afternoon.”
“Been taking care of our Kimi-chan I see.”
Kimi-chan?
“Hn.”
A familiar 'I know something you don’t' smile snuck onto her face. “If it’s not too much trouble, I would ask you to allow him to stay with you a while longer.”
Was that really a request? Doumeki doubted it.
“That’s fine.”
“Eh? Yuuko-san?” Watanuki was looking between the two of them in perplexity.
“Kimi-chan, how do you like this dimension so far?”
Ah, a different dimension. Of course. Made sense in a mind bending kind of way.
“Your... dimension?”
Yuuko raise one slender eyebrow. “Indeed.”
“Ah, well... it’s different, I suppose.” Watanuki’s eyes darted to Doumeki before returning to the tall woman again. “Doumeki-kun tells me there are spirits here.”
The other eyebrow joined its partner. “But Kimi-chan, there are spirits in your world too.”
“Wh-what? No, I don’t think so... I’ve never seen anything.” He didn’t sound very sure of himself though.
“No, you wouldn’t have. But Shizuka has.”
For a moment Doumeki thought she was referring to him, but realized she meant the other boy’s, er, friend. Now wasn’t that a bit of a switch. Watanuki would probably love it.
“Shizuka... has?” Watanuki’s brows drew together with a small frown.
“Ah, I see. It seems there are some things being kept from you.” And that smile was the 'I’ll tell you what you want to know... for a price' smile.
A doubtful expression wavered over the smaller teen’s features a moment before solidifying into an entirely Watanuki look of determination.
“Tell me.”
The 'I’ve got you' smile.
“Very well. Follow me.”
Watanuki followed as instructed without hesitation, Doumeki only a step behind him.
~*~
Thus ends chapter 6. Great big thank you to Toriolees for making sure it didn’t come out looking completely craptacular. And for the captioned inspiration. XD
Thank you for reading, I hoped you enjoyed.
Author: Serenetwinkle
Chapter: 6 of ...
Rating: PG- just cause
Word count: 5,513
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Status: Incomplete
Summary: A switching of the strangest kind gives Watanuki and Doumeki a glimpse of something more.
Disclaimer- Don't. Own. Period.
~Chapter 1
~Chapter 2
~Chapter 3
~Chapter 4
~Chapter 5
AN- Rawr
Tamago-zake- literally, egg-sake, (think eggnog - sake style)
Transitions
He’d had dreams about Watanuki before.
Pleasant dream, not so pleasant dreams, downright unpleasant dreams, weird dreams (he blamed those particular ones on the flu he had gotten last winter, apparently cough medicine and tamago-zake didn’t mix well together), and some dreams he was sure that if Watanuki knew about would cause the skinny boy to run screaming for the hills, if not put him in a coma on the spot.
The imagination was a powerful thing after all, and Doumeki had always prided himself on being rather creative, or at least not very boring.
But the point was, having the bespectacled boy as the center of his dreams was not altogether a shocking occurrence. Even less so since he had started sharing a part of himself with the other teen.
So it was a bit off-putting when, as he woke up in the middle of the night for apparently no good reason at all, he was left with a sense of having witnessed something very strange. Almost a vision more than a dream. But that couldn’t really be possible, since it was after 3 in the morning and neither of them had even had their eyes open. Unless Watanuki had developed a new habit of getting up and walking around in the middle of the night to look at strange paintings.
Hmm. A sleepwalking Watanuki? Not entirely impossible. The guy probably had so much energy he had to work it off at night.
He was just beginning to drift off again when a sound came from outside his door. Eyes snapped open and suddenly he was on full alert to whatever was making the noise. Doumeki sat up, letting the blanket fall into his lap absently, ears straining for more sounds. Figuring this was what had originally awoken him, the archer slowed his breathing and focused on the door across the room.
The sound came again, but this time Doumeki could tell it wasn’t coming from directly outside his door, but somewhere nearby.
Covers slipped soundlessly to the side as he rose from the futon and tiptoed to the doorway, pressing an ear against the wood and one hand against the door, ready to open it if something did happen to be lurking behind it.
“..stop…stop… nnnn… Stop!”
His body moved without a second thought, and he was halfway to the guestroom door before he was even aware he had left the room.
“Please! Stop!” The fearful voice was half muffled and clearly not awake, but in the still night air, the words had traveled effortlessly the twenty or so feet that separated the two rooms. Doumeki realized, before the door slid open and his eyes automatically began searching for an attacking demon or ghost, that the other boy must be in the midst of a nightmare. The cries had been too weak and far between for an actual attack, but it never hurt to check (you never could tell with Watanuki), and it wasn’t until Doumeki had deemed the room at least visibly safe that he made his way over to the smaller boy rocking about on the floor to try and wake him.
“Oi,” Doumeki called softly, placing a hand on one shoulder and shaking it slightly.
The only reaction from the sleeping teen was a few head tosses and a whimpered protest. The archer shook a little harder and called again, worried at the incredible heat that radiated from beneath the material where his hand lay. Doumeki hoped the boy hadn’t caught a fever sometime during the night and called once more, even louder.
In the dim moonlight that permeated the room through a partially opened curtain, Doumeki saw Watanuki finally open his eyes with a gasp and sharp jerk of his body.
“No!” There was nothing half muttered about the screams this time. “Get off! No, no!” Doumeki quickly slapped his other hand over the shorter boy’s mouth and attempted to keep him from escaping by pinning him to the bed. They may have been on the other side of the house, but he was pretty sure his parents would be able to hear someone screaming bloody murder in their own home.
“Quiet. Calm down.” Despite the frantic struggles to get away from the archer, Watanuki seemed to have heard him and gradually started to lose his will to fight. The small hands wrapped around the taller boy’s wrists eased their deathgrip and moonlight-faded blue eyes blinked rapidly with increasing awareness.
“Wha…” was the hoarse response. The confused teen finally appeared to notice he was being watched by someone and met Doumeki’s wary gaze.
“Shi- zuka!” Doumeki barely had time to prepare himself with that one relieved sob before the skinny teen flung himself into the awkward embrace of the archer. Holding his arms out slightly away from his sides, Doumeki debated if he should push the boy off now and save them both the embarrassment, or be kind and offer some obviously needed comfort. In the end he couldn’t pry the semi-hysterical teen off of his body (though admittedly he didn’t really try that hard to begin with) so the archer simply wrapped his arms loosely around the other boy’s back and let him cry and sniffle out half coherent apologies.
As the thin body shook and clung to him, Doumeki found it was rather difficult to keep from simply laying his head against the one currently pressed against his shoulder and promising unreasonable things to stop the tears. His arms constricted around the narrow back involuntarily for a moment before he remembered who he was soothing. It was hard, though, to keep immobile and unresponsive with Watanuki’s exact double literally hanging off of him.
He did feel somewhat deceitful though, and took to trying to lull the skinny boy out of his distress by calling Watanuki’s name, so when he finally came back to himself, the teen would know which person he was being held by.
It was sometime after the tenth chant of, “It’ll be okay, Watanuki-san” and other such variants, that the boy trembling in Doumeki’s arms finally began to relax. Bit by bit, the tightness in the bony shoulders left and skinny arms fell away from the taller boy’s neck.
Watanuki curled into himself, tucking his hands under his elbows and holding them stiffly against his sides. The shorter boy then pulled away until Doumeki realized it was only his own arms around Watanuki’s back that held them together. The archer immediately dropped his arms and gave the other boy some space.
“You… probably think I’m… a real pain, huh?” Watanuki’s head was hung so his hair covered most of his face and dark shadows fell over the rest, leaving Doumeki to look at what was basically a dark inky spot on the top of a small body. A tiny laugh that didn’t sound in the least bit amused escaped from under the darkness, followed by a quiet sniffle.
“I’m sorry… that I woke you.”
He honestly sounded sorry too. So much so that Doumeki wondered at the tone. Like the boy was used to apologizing for everything.
“It’s not a big deal.” And unusual though it was to be gotten out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to be emotionally assaulted by a virtually unknown person, Doumeki found his own words to be true. And here he had thought comforting strangers wasn’t something he did. Learn something new about yourself everyday…
He’d really been hanging around Watanuki too long. The apathy to abnormality was starting to rub off.
“You’re… very kind.”
And apparently, the random acts of kindness too.
Watanuki was squeezing his arms across his stomach, head so low now that he was almost hunching in on himself.
“Really? I’ve been told I’m something of an unemotional bastard.”
His attempt at humor seemed to work, as the smaller by looked up at him in surprise and blinked bemused eyes at him. “What?”
“Joke.”
Sort of.
A miniscule crease formed between slender eyebrows. “O-oh.”
So he wasn’t a great comedian. But at least the depressed look was receding as his companion straightened and dropped his hands onto bent knees.
“You’ll be alright now?” Doumeki was curious to know what had caused the alarm in the first place, but it wasn’t his place to pry.
“Yes, of course, thank you. I’ll be fine.” It was almost an exact replica of the answer he had given earlier in the night, right down to the shifting eyes.
The kid really was a lousy liar.
Despite the self-made promise not to pry, Doumeki had to ask at least one question. “Do you have nightmares a lot?”
Shoulders sagged again. “I’ll try not too.”
“Don’t be stupid.” That earned him a small glare. “You can’t control what you dream about.”
“Ah,” the smaller boy breathed as his expression cleared into something like fond remembrance. “He said that too.”
“Your… Shizuka?”
“Mm-hmm.” Eyes were distant as Watanuki stared of to the side, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “He would say if I wanted to keep myself from dreaming, then don’t go to sleep. Otherwise, I was just wasting my time wanting to try and change them. And that we would deal with them when they came. He… was always saying things like that. To make me feel better.”
“Makes sense.” And since the little smile on Watanuki’s face was beginning to fade into something more sorrowful, and since it was unreasonably late and he was starting to feel the tiredness creep up on him despite his best intention, Doumeki figured it was time to break up the party. A new decision took shape in his head and the archer spared a brief thought towards his sudden penchant for impulsiveness.
Grabbing Watanuki’s pillow and blanket, he motioned for the boy to stand. The smaller boy complied with a look of confusion and a short, “What?”
“Grab your futon.”
“W-what?” The surprise actually caused the skinny teen to move back a step.
It was too late at night for niceties, so Doumeki laid it out as directly as possible. “Look, you aren’t used to being alone, right?”
“H-How…”
“I can tell.” Like it wasn’t blatantly obvious. “So if you want, you can stay in my room. You’ll feel… safer, right?” he asked as he knelt down and flipped off the borrowed alarm clock.
Whatever it was that gave the boy nightmares was evidently more than a ‘once in a while’ thing. And if it was more of a nightly thing, well… he would rather not have to drag himself across the hall every night, anyway. So it was for slightly selfish reasons too. And letting the other boy scream himself back to sleep every night just seemed… cruel. And not an option at all really.
Instead of answering his question, Watanuki bent down and picked up the mattress from the floor and dutifully followed the archer from the guestroom, trailing him down the hall and finally into his room.
“I’m sorry to make you go through so mu-“
“Tell you what,” Doumeki interrupted, turning to look the boy directly in the eyes as he spoke. “If you stop apologizing for every little thing, we’ll call it even.”
Watanuki actually pouted. It was… cute. “That’s hardly equal.”
Doumeki shrugged noncommittally. “Depends on the value to the other person of what’s being exchanged.” And this was where Doumeki knew he’d been hanging out with Yuuko for too long also.
“Huh?” A look of perplexity fixed itself over Watanuki’s face so completely Doumeki might have laughed at it any other time.
But for now, all he did was give a quick shake of his head and a ‘never mind.’
Handing Watanuki his blanket and pillow, Doumeki walked back to his futon ad motioned to the empty area next to it. “You can set up here or wherever you like.” Then he flopped back down onto is mattress with a sigh. The skinny teen hesitantly followed and began to settle the other mattress about five feet away from Doumeki’s. After a moment, he scooted it a little closer, then a second later, closer still, glancing under his bangs to the archer each time to gauge a reaction. Possibly satisfied that he wasn’t going to be yelled at for the nearness, Watanuki finally crawled into bed after one final adjustment. Doumeki noted the original five feet was now about two.
He made sure to roll away from the other boy before letting the grin spread over his face. Wouldn’t his Watanuki just have heart failure if he knew about these sleeping arrangements?
“Good night Doumeki-san,” came a barely heard whisper, almost like the other boy was unsure if Doumeki had already gone to sleep or not.
“Good night,” he whispered back, equally as soft, just because it felt necessary.
A sigh, relieved and content, floated through the air to Doumeki’s ears, and he couldn’t help but think he made a good decision.
~*~
There was something odd about the way the light woke him up the next morning. It was… different. He would have spent a little more time trying to figure it out, but something else distracted him at that moment. A couple things, actually, that made him think it was very possible he was still asleep.
One was the hand currently attached to his. Slender fingers were interwoven with those of his own left hand as they lay innocently in front of the archer. Looking across the small hand and the pillow it was lying on, Doumeki found the sleeping face of its owner (distraction number two) resting peacefully beside him, the two feet that had been between them the night before reduced to less than two inches.
He took a minute to study the sleeping boy beside him, listening to his deep breathing and watching dark eyelashes flutter with every unconscious movement beneath the closed lids. A light pink blush was swept over pale cheeks, as if some wandering artist had snuck up in the middle of the night and thought he needed a bit of color. Doumeki sleepily wondered if maybe he was hot and reached out hand to brush against the smaller boy’s cheek. His fingertips lightly grazed the arch of one cheekbone and a soft sigh escaped from the smaller teen’s lips, accompanied by a tiny smile.
The hushed noise was enough to break through the remaining fog of Doumeki’s brain, and he hastily retracted his hand.
Wrong boy.
With a muffled groan, the archer rolled to his side and looked at his alarm clock.
Oh.
No wonder the light looked so different; it was nearly an hour later than he normally woke up. Which gave them approximately 20 minutes to get up and get to school.
Crap.
“Watanuki-san.”
“Mmm.” Watanuki opened mildly unfocused eyes and turned in Doumeki’s direction with an expression that clearly read, “I am not awake.”
“Watanuki-san, we have to get going. We’re late.” Realizing now that it was his fault for their lateness (he seemed to recall waking up at one point and turning the alarm off, then falling back asleep), Doumeki added a belated, “sorry.”
“Huh, late?” With miraculous speed, the lingering sleepy look was immediately wiped from Watanuki’s face to be replaced by a rather panicky expression.
Doumeki stood and stretched out still resting muscles. “Yeah, we have about...” The words trailed off as he watched with increasing amusement as Watanuki leapt from the futon and began to race madly around the room, looking for clothes and school books and becoming increasingly panicked when he couldn’t find them.
Suddenly remembering he was in the wrong room, the skinny boy raced out of the bedroom and across the hall to the guestroom, nearly knocking Doumeki over on the way.
“Hurry up, Doumeki-san!” came a shout, accompanied by the sound of drawers slamming open and shut and running feet.
“Huh.” Must be a Watanuki thing, this early morning energy.
~*~
Despite Watanuki’s efforts to speed their departure, they still ended up running a good portion of the way, though Doumeki had to slow down about half a mile from the entrance to let Watanuki rest. Apparently the lack of ghost chases kept him in a less fit shape than his own Watanuki, though no less painfully thin.
As they walked the remaining distance to the school gate, the smaller boy gulping mouthfuls of air as he tried to catch his breath, Doumeki let his mind wander back to the problem they were facing. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could do at the moment other than walk things through and hope for normalcy to return soon.
Truth be told, Doumeki wasn’t sure how long this new Watanuki would be able to pass for his own. Sure, there were no parents to fool, or even many friends aside from Kunogi, and he didn’t have any family to visit…
Actually, they might be able to pull it off after all. Watanuki’s depressing lack of acquaintances would be a good thing in this instance. There should only be the teachers to fool, not that it would be hard; half the time his instructors had trouble recalling individual names without the roster in front of them. And of course Yuuko.
Who, by now, most likely already knew the problem, figured out where Watanuki was (if she hadn’t already known that too), planned out a way to get him back, and was currently wondering how much she should dock the skinny teen’s pay for services yet to be rendered.
They entered school grounds and Doumeki went back into class-ready mode with a final speculation as to when the eccentric shop owner would make her first expectedly unexpected entrance.
They managed to get through the doors with three minutes to spare and several students were still lingering in the hall as Doumeki walked Watanuki to his first class. When the archer made to leave Watanuki looked back at him in surprise.
“Where are you going? Class is going to start any minute.” He was nodding his head to the side in a ‘come on hurry up’ gesture.
Doumeki pointed down the hall, sidestepping to let a student rush past him. “My class is down there.”
Disappointment flashed across Watanuki’s face a moment before he gave a good natured grin. “Well, I guess things are bound to be different.”
“Hn, I’ll meet you for lunch.” And he was off again before the bespectacled teen could agree, or disagree if he was so inclined. He’d be fine in a classroom at least.
God, let him be okay in a classroom at least.
~*~
“Trigonometry is easier here for some reason. I like this teacher much better.”
Well wasn’t he adjusting well.
“And the woman that teaches history is very nice.”
And quickly at that.
“I think I prefer my homeroom teacher though, I miss his jokes already.”
But at least he still wanted to go home.
“Ah, Himawari-chan! Over here!”
Once a Watanuki, always a Watanuki.
“Good afternoon, Watanuki-kun. Doumeki-kun. Can I join you?”
“Of course! Here. Hey move over, Doumeki-kun.”
If Kunogi noticed the difference in his name, she didn’t say anything. Probably put it down to them being ‘so close.’
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make anything this morning, but we bought lunch if you want to share.”
Automatic generosity, check.
“Alright, here you can have some of mine too.”
“It looks great!”
Automatic compliments, check.
“Yeah, my mom made it special for me last night since I wasn’t feeling well.”
“And you’re mom is a great cook. Did you have a chance to get that recipe from her?”
“Oh, huh?”
And just like that, pretend time was over.
Watanuki floundered for a moment. “Ah, I mean, would you be able to... that is. Um, get the recipe for me. Cause I’d like to try it sometime.”
Kunogi’s smile didn’t even falter. “Sure, Watanuki-kun. I’m sure it will be twice as good if you make it. Everything you make is delicious.”
“Th-thank you. Heh heh.” A normal Watanuki reaction would have entailed much fawning and twirling, but now the skinny teen seemed reasonably subdued after his slip up. Nothing like having reality crashing down on you to break a daydream.
The remaining lunch time consisted of polite conversation and small talk of the more general sort, though Doumeki noticed that the smaller boy let Himawari steer their discussions from then on. The pig-tailed girl left them a few minutes before the first waning bell, saying she wanted to ask her teacher a question before class. Doumeki suspected she just liked to leave them together as much a possible, but never said anything. What was there to complain about?
Having finished his own meal a while ago, Doumeki was left looking at a sullen Watanuki poking halfheartedly at a pile of rice with a pair loosely held chopsticks.
“So.”
The skinny boy looked up from his poking.
“All of your instructors are different?”
Setting aside the half eaten box, Watanuki leaned back on his hands and turned his attention to the boy in front of him.
“Well, so far I’ve only had one of the same teachers, but there are still three more classes, so...” He trailed off with a sigh and tilted his head up to look at the sky. “It’s alright though.”
“Everything happens for a reason.” Blue eyes fell closed and a mix of saddened peacefulness stole over the small teen. “Even if it’s not clear at the time. Things happen for a reason.”
The kid didn’t know anything about spirits or hitsuzen, but could still spout a Yuuko-esque paraphrase like no one’s business.
Maybe this Watanuki wasn’t so sheltered after all. Yuuko’s lessons never came without some kind of price attached to them, and if this guy was able to understand a bigger picture, maybe something had happened to him as well.
Something bad enough to give nightmares every night and fear being alone. A person didn’t necessarily have to be attacked by something non-human to fear the dark. There were plenty of scary things out there without having to deal with the supernatural.
The end of lunch bell rang, interrupting his thoughts. He helped Watanuki pick up the remains of their lunch and walked him back to the classroom.
“I have practice after school today. You can wait here, or go ahead to the temple if you want.”
“Oh. Your, um, friend. He doesn’t have a job?” Watanuki asked with a small frown.
“Well, yeah, but...” Doumeki wasn’t about to let Yuuko loose on him. In some ways, he was even more innocent then Watanuki.
“Well, I’ll go there then!” And the brightness behind then smile made Doumeki absolutely sure Watanuki had no idea what he was getting into.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
The smile fell a little. “But... doesn’t he work for Yuuko-san?”
The shock actually caused Doumeki to stumble to a stop. “You know Yuuko?”
Watanuki stood several feet ahead of him, staring back at him in amusement. “She’s a character, I know, but nothing I can’t handle.” He motioned for them to start moving again.
A character. That was one way to say it.
But if he didn’t know about spirits or ghosts and the like, how could he work for her? Surely even the most oblivious of people would start to notice things were a little off when hanging around Yuuko.
“Well...”
“Don’t worry Doumeki-kun. I’ll do my best and your friend will keep his job.”
Who could say no to that smile? Not him.
“Alright, but I’ll walk you there.” They reached Watanuki’s classroom just as the minute warning bell rang.
“Oh! But practice-“
“Just wait for me here.” And again, he left without hanging around to hear any response.
~*~
Sure enough, when he arrived back at Watanuki’s classroom, the skinny boy was waiting for him, talking amiably to a classmate by a window. The boy was no one Doumeki knew offhand, but had seen on occasion. He wasn’t even sure his Watanuki had ever spoken much with him before.
As he approached the two, he noticed the other boy had a slight blush on his cheeks and was watching Watanuki with wide eyes. Wondering what merited such an awestruck reaction, Doumeki turned his eyes to the smaller boy.
He couldn’t hear yet what was being said at this distance, but no words were really necessary to understand the expression on the bespectacled boy’s face. He was obviously talking about something he loved very much, judging by the excited hand movements and shine in his eyes. The smile never faltered as Watanuki eagerly gesticulated an explanation to the other boy.
Watanuki suddenly caught site of him and brightened even more.
“Ah here he is! Doumeki-kun, come here for a second.”
Wait...
“This is Motoshi-kun. He’s part of the school paper and was thinking of doing an interview with one of the archery club members. I told him you would be a good...”
They had been talking about him?
Something strange must have been showing on his face because suddenly Watanuki began to apologize.
“I-I’m sorry, I should have asked you first. I didn’t mean to-“
“Stop apologizing.”
“Oh, eh, right...” A flush crept up the bespectacled boy’s neck and he looked at the ground.
The other kid, Motoshi, looked back and forth between them and, apparently deciding they needed some alone time, excused himself with a bow and a thank you to Watanuki. Doumeki noticed he kept looking back at the skinny boy though, and wondered if he would have to keep an eye on him.
“Sor- er, I mean... I...”
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.”
If he ignored it, maybe he could forget the fact that Watanuki had looked so... incredibly adorable while talking about him. Though it was hard to keep from wondering if his Watanuki would ever look like that.
Doubtful, but good dream-fodder anyway.
~*~
The walk to Yuuko’s was fairly peaceful. Any talking was mostly on Watanuki’s part, with periodic answers from Doumeki when the occasion called for it. The distinct lack of yelling and hurled accusations took some getting used to, but it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant situation to be in.
“Ah, Doumeki-kun?”
“Hn?”
“Ah, um...” A slightly fidgety Watanuki cleared his throat before continuing. “I wondered, about this friend of yours. He... I mean you... well, I just got the impression from the other students...”
Ah. That.
“We’re just friends.”
“Oh, well yes, I got that much, but...”
“What?”
“Well, do I... I mean... am I supposed to hate you?”
The look Doumeki received was so sincerely confused he couldn’t help it.
He laughed.
It kind of hurt. Muscles not used for a while, he supposed.
When the archer could focus again, the boy in front of him was only one shade lighter than a pomegranate.
“How is that funny?!”
Doumeki supposed it wouldn’t have seemed that funny to anyone else, but really. That look and question at the same time was just too much.
“Never mind.” He thought back to the actual question for a second. “And yes.”
“Huh, yes?” The redness was receding a little, probably because he wasn’t being laughed at anymore.
“You’re supposed to hate me.”
“What?! You mean... they were serious?!” Shocked disbelief now covered the smaller boy’s face.
By ‘they’ Doumeki assumed he was referring to Watanuki’s classmates. Well, someone was bound to notice the complete 180 the skinny boy seemed to have pulled overnight in regards to the archer. Wasn’t it just earlier this week that Watanuki had told him to ‘drop dead you ungrateful bastard, no I will not make you snacks for after school’ in front of about half the student body?
“But... you said-“
“We are friends; Watanuki just has a different way of showing it. People might misunderstand it sometimes unless they really know him.”
Like Kunogi for instance. Behind the cute remarks and feigned ignorance of Watanuki’s affection, she really knew what was what. Doumeki was almost positive of it.
“Oh. I guess so. Does that mean I have to yell at you at school?” The blush came back across the bridge of Watanuki’s nose, but he didn’t look at the archer when he asked.
“Just be yourself.”
A quick glance from the other boy confirmed Doumeki’s sincerity and the taller teen could see him visibly relax.
“Alright.”
The rest of the way was walked in silence. The smaller boy was so deeply engrossed in his thoughts though, Doumeki had to hold out an arm to keep him from walking past the shop.
“Huh?” Watanuki threw a confused look at the archer. “Why did we stop?”
Doumeki nodded to the two posts Watanuki disappeared through every day. “We’re here.”
“Oh, heh, sorry. Guess I spaced out for a minute.” Watanuki turned and started to walk to the entrance. After a couple steps, the skinny boy stopped and addressed Doumeki over his shoulder.
“Um, Doumeki-kun?”
“Hm.”
“Are you sure this is the right place?”
Doumeki looked around. Barren field. No house. Two posts stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Yup, looked about right.
“Yeah, this is it.”
Watanuki whirled around and glared accusingly at his companion. “Very funny.”
Funny?
“What?”
A finger pointed angrily at the field. “Where is it?”
“Does it look different?”
“Of course it looks different! There’s nothing there!” was the exasperated reply.
Ah.
This could be a problem.
“Oh, you don’t see anything either?”
Watanuki’s jaw dropped. “Are you crazy? What was I supposed to see?”
“A house of some kind, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Well, he never really described it properly, so... yeah.”
Did he really deserve that ‘I’m staring at a crazy person’ look he was receiving from Watanuki? Well maybe, but still...
“Well, I guess we should just go home then.”
“But, but what about your friend’s job?” Watanuki hurried to catch up to the already leaving archer.
“You can’t see the house.”
“Huh?”
“If you can’t see it, you can’t go into it.” Simple.
“What are you talking about?” Watanuki’s face was saying ‘not so simple.’
“There was a shop there. But you couldn’t see it.”
“There wasn’t-“
“There was, but if you can’t see it, it means you don’t need to go inside.”
“I don’t understand...”
“Perhaps I can explain it better.”
Both boys stopped and looked up at the same time.
And there she was, just as expectedly unexpected as Doumeki knew she would be. Leaning against a wall, arms crossed and looking like, as usual, she held the answer to every mystery there ever was. Which, for all Doumeki knew, she probably did.
Watanuki was the first to break the small silence.
“Ah, Yuuko-san!” He ran a few steps to her side, pulling up short with a taken aback look when he was about four feet away.
“What happened to you jewelry!?”
The ensuing mischievous laughter made Doumeki decide he really didn’t want to know. Maroon eyes locked with his own as he too came up to stand in front of the shop owner.
“Good afternoon, Doumeki-kun.”
“Afternoon.”
“Been taking care of our Kimi-chan I see.”
Kimi-chan?
“Hn.”
A familiar 'I know something you don’t' smile snuck onto her face. “If it’s not too much trouble, I would ask you to allow him to stay with you a while longer.”
Was that really a request? Doumeki doubted it.
“That’s fine.”
“Eh? Yuuko-san?” Watanuki was looking between the two of them in perplexity.
“Kimi-chan, how do you like this dimension so far?”
Ah, a different dimension. Of course. Made sense in a mind bending kind of way.
“Your... dimension?”
Yuuko raise one slender eyebrow. “Indeed.”
“Ah, well... it’s different, I suppose.” Watanuki’s eyes darted to Doumeki before returning to the tall woman again. “Doumeki-kun tells me there are spirits here.”
The other eyebrow joined its partner. “But Kimi-chan, there are spirits in your world too.”
“Wh-what? No, I don’t think so... I’ve never seen anything.” He didn’t sound very sure of himself though.
“No, you wouldn’t have. But Shizuka has.”
For a moment Doumeki thought she was referring to him, but realized she meant the other boy’s, er, friend. Now wasn’t that a bit of a switch. Watanuki would probably love it.
“Shizuka... has?” Watanuki’s brows drew together with a small frown.
“Ah, I see. It seems there are some things being kept from you.” And that smile was the 'I’ll tell you what you want to know... for a price' smile.
A doubtful expression wavered over the smaller teen’s features a moment before solidifying into an entirely Watanuki look of determination.
“Tell me.”
The 'I’ve got you' smile.
“Very well. Follow me.”
Watanuki followed as instructed without hesitation, Doumeki only a step behind him.
~*~
Thus ends chapter 6. Great big thank you to Toriolees for making sure it didn’t come out looking completely craptacular. And for the captioned inspiration. XD
Thank you for reading, I hoped you enjoyed.