Tantalizing the Senses
Chapter 1 – Sight

AN: For someone who doesn't 'ship Dou/Wata at all, I certainly find myself writing them a lot… So enjoy, Emi-prey-chan, and Happy Birthday! If writing were a sin, then you are surely the little devil on my shoulder.

I follow the manga as it is being released in Japan, so there will be mild spoilers – nothing overt – for up to around chapter 120. Also, these shots follow an evolution of Doumeki and Watanuki's relationship, so this is starting out slow and easy, with the more interesting interactions to come with the other senses.

xxxHoLiC belongs to the brilliance that is CLAMP.

..sight..

Watanuki was long past the days when he was startled every time he saw a spirit or some slinky shadow at the edge of his vision. He was nothing but a trooper, despite his placid personality and deceptively bendable will and understood the concept of survival of the fittest very well; years surviving on his own and dodging hungry spirits hammered that lesson hard.

It was much, much easier to simply back away slowly rather than draw attention to his presence with a shout. Watanuki had enough brushes with the other world to know that each one was a potentially lethal one.

Of course, he still had knee-jerk reflex of jumping out of his wits every time a big stormy cloudy blob swamped around him, but that was only common sense – he didn't want to become a ghost and have Yuuko laugh her head off at how he had been digested by a cloud, of all things. Because if there was one thing Watanuki could count on, it was that Yuuko will never allow him to rest in peace. Once she had her claws snagged on some poor person's clothes, that soul would be ensnared in the greater scheme of Yuuko's plans, whatever they may be.

Stick with Doumeki-kun, she had said, a fox-like grin adorning the curve of her lips, and you'll find that spirits bother you less.

That was the problem. It's what he didn't see these days that bothered him more than the ghostly creatures that used to haunt his general vicinity.

Watanuki stared daggers into the back of Doumeki's head, and wondered if the constant spectacle of that immaculate black hair and that bland, utterly unruffled face was a fair tradeoff.

Sometimes, the only way to notice something is to take it away and leave a gaping absence in its wake. There was always a constant pressure, of knowing, of seeing something others couldn't; not seeing them was like being given a breath of air after being submerged in water, a welcome respite Watanuki couldn't help gulping down at first.

Now, it was strange, because his right eye sometimes saw right past the flickering shadow, and all his left eye registered was a flat one dimensional image of the spirit. Watanuki had his foot firmly planted in two different worlds, straddling two different sets of senses, sometimes unable to reconcile the two scenarios he was presented. It was a wonder he never quite drove himself crazy when his vision splintered, his brain struggling to dissociate and follow both; the headaches he received were quite spectacular.

Subconsciously, Watanuki found himself trailing Doumeki, invariably ending up at the same destination. He felt more at ease, the subtle pressure on his right eye dissolving when they stared in the same direction; if the other just shut up and stopped smirking for a while, it was almost pleasant to be around him if it meant extinguishing those irritating split-visions.

He wondered if Doumeki experienced the disconcerting effects of double vision, wondered if Doumeki ever saw himself out of what was now Watanuki's eye. If there was any of the sort, Watanuki couldn't pick it out; it was ironic that possessing one of the man's eye didn't allow Watanuki to read Doumeki any better.

"Hey. What will you do if you couldn't see spirits one day?"

"Laugh and rejoice, of course. That's a stupid question to ask, even coming from you."

"I'm not the stupid one who can see ghosts. That's the point – I can't, that's why I'm asking you. Idiot."

"What did you say?! And there's a point in there? Really, I swear it's like trying to find reason in Yuuko-san's madness: there isn't any!"

"Don't be surprise if she overheard you somehow and is ready to sic a vicious assignment on you for that comment. Anyway. You can't see them, but you'll still know they're there, right? Being able to see them means being forewarned."

He pondered the idea long and hard, then. Watanuki wondered if it would be like how the blind felt, to have experienced the rush of bright colors, stark and yet so often overlooked, only to have that lovely canvas snatched away by darkness. He loathed his other vision – it wasn't like it was a positive thing to have – but it didn't bring grief to him every time. There was the parasite wings, the snake spirit and Jorougumo, who ruled the spiders and took his eye, and then there was Zashiki Warashi and Kudakitsune, and the dozens of other friendly spirits he had met.

Did the friendly spirits outweigh the deadly ones he always seemed to gravitate to? Watanuki didn't know. Slowly but surely, however, Doumeki was dragging him across the border towards the world of the normal, and just as slowly, Watanuki was beginning to think that he wasn't ready to be normal, at least, not for now.

Normal meant not seeing anything, and Watanuki didn't like the vast emptiness that marked their time together even though he should, because it was peaceful, and time spent with Doumeki was never supposed to be that.

..end..

More AN: I've looked over this several times, but the Doumeki/Watanuki pairing is one I don't identify with much, so please, shout my way if I've written them OOC or if you think my characterization of their relationship is off.

I am currently working on NaNoWriMo for all of November; so… new sense-chapter will be added every five or so days to allow for minor rewrites and editing. As always, reviews and con/crit are much beloved.