The rain was pouring so hard it felt like the entire world would wash away. Watanuki lifted his eyes to see a black-clad figure steady like a stone sculpture in front of the gate. The rain dripped from the tips of his hair and trickled down his placid face, drawing uneven paths resembling blood vessels on brittle skin.

His slanted eyes had the same opaque look they always bear, impenetrable, unreadable. The vague resonance of his feet slapping against the watered cobblestones invaded his ears as he approached him. The gate closed firmly behind him with a loud clank.

"What are you doing here?" Stern, disapproving, the usual pitch of irritation clinging to his voice, everything in order to hide how much it hurt so see him like this, all broken and hurt and unwilling to admit it as the rain poured hard on them.

"Come back to me." He said, his tone the color of the uneventful clouds parading in the sky above them. But Watanuki could see right through the strong voice carrying a twang of urgency. It was his way of saying "I'm sorry."

"What makes you think I would do that?" his cerulean eyes narrowing in mock disdain, indulgence coloring his voice. He was just being stubborn. It was how he was, how he had ever been. It was his way of saying "I forgive you."

But what was there to forgive? It was his own fault he had become a mess, unable to disentangle himself from the thin cobwebs sewn around his mind. Watanuki coiled and faltered under the burden of being different, but loving and suffering all the same. And that he couldn't understand. Like a child that falls to the asphalt doesn't understand how his knees are suddenly bleeding, Watanuki was lost and confused, and he relied on Doumeki to heal the wounds he didn't know from whence they came. And that hurt them both. Watanuki, his pride hindering him from trusting Doumeki; Doumeki, unable to be the crutch for him to lean upon.

But those thoughts ebbed like waves on the smooth surface of wet sand. It didn't even matter anymore. They were back to the beginning. Just like Yuuko-san predicted. Their fate was threaded in such a way that the endings were just new beginnings. They could wander around aimlessly, trying to escape the future, but they always went back to the starting point. Inevitably, like the falling rain.

Watanuki's eyes were suspended on Doumeki's. Their hearts were back together, drumming in synch. When their lips finally met, Watanuki's inverted world was veered into its original position. There it was again, the metal clink of the gate, the sounds of footsteps on paving stone, the icy wind biting their faces regardless of the warmth that welled from the inside of their bodies and then they were back in the safety of his house.

/

The rain remains outside. It clatters on the shutters and drips on the window sills. But no one is listening to it, because the music playing on their souls is of a completely different nature. The air fills with moans as a pair of hands struggle deftly with buttons and zippers, raw need claiming the better of both of them. And then Doumeki's mouth is in his neck, drawling out a whimper from the seer. His lips slide along his pale chest, the warm breath heating his skin, and Watanuki trembles under his touch.

"Doumek-, oh-," He groaned, his mind driven far from reason. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter what he could or could not say. Because their bodies were pressing so flawlessly against each other that any concerns he might have remained outside like the rain. And Doumeki's mouth was also busy making him melt and squirm beneath him. And when he opened his glazed eyes, the archer was licking his lips, tasting him, dark eyes boring into his bright blue ones. And then his voice is soaring through the space between them, raw and pleading. I want you inside me.

Their bodies move in a steady pace. Their skin glistening with sweat as fire consumes their minds. Fists clenched tightly on crumpled sheets. And when they come, lightning strikes Watanuki's vision. The tension in the air lifts as their bodies slink back in relief. Cerulean eyes lock themselves in serene pits of black. The storm was over.

Outside, the bleary world peeked from the holes in the shutters, tussling and revolving, and eventually there would be terror, mistakes and problems all over, and they would break apart a thousand times more and come back together another thousand times because all of it was fate. But it didn't matter. At least, as long as the rain remained outside.

This is my first fic for this fandom. I still don't know if I'm going to write more for xxxHolic or not. But really, this a hell of an anime. And it practically screams Doumeki/Watanuki there, no squinting required...

Reviews would be lovely!