Disclaimer: I do not own xxxHolic. Credits go to CLAMP.

- MORNING -

Watanuki woke up to birds chirping outside. Haruka-san had talked to him through a dream once again. It was a habit now, waking up to a bright morning after meeting with the old Doumeki. He got up from him futon and got dressed. He then went to the kitchen. He made breakfast for Yuuko-san and Mokona, as well as himself. After finishing his breakfast, he went on to make lunch for Doumeki – Shizuka Doumeki, the descendant of the Doumeki family, as well as Haruka's grandson, and Himawari-chan.

Suddenly, Watanuki gasped. He had not noticed the most important thing. He looked at the calendar on the wall. April 1st. Surely, that did not say the first of April, right? Watanuki rubbed his eyes. It was April 1st. His birthday... as well as April Fool's Day. Today.. was going to be a long day.. as Haruka-san said.

Watanuki sighed. "Ittekimasu! (I'm leaving!)" said Watanuki as he left the store.

- AFTERNOON -

Nothing had changed so far. It was lunchtime already.

"Tanjoubi omedeto (Happy birthday), Watanuki-kun!" said Himawari-chan, as she clapped her hands.

With a hand to his head, Watanuki replied, "Ii-ya da na (Oh no..), honto ni arigatou (really, thank you), Himawari-chan."

She handed him a wrapped package. "This is your present. I hope you like it," she said with her best smile.

Bliss was what Watanuki felt. The great queen has smiled her gorgeous smile again! ~ Watanuki took it gratefully. He asked, "Can I open it?"

"Sure," said Himawari-chan, smiling as always. Watanuki flipped the gift over and over to figure out where to open it.

Doumeki and Himawari-chan sat and waited patiently, with their feet either tucked under them or folded in a pretzel. Doumeki spoke up, "Just rip it open."

"Sh-Shut up! I don't want to break this precious wrapping that Himawari-chan put together!" snapped Watanuki.

"Oh no," said Himawari-chan, "That was wrapped by my mother."

A sweatdrop slipped down Watanuki's face. "W-Well, your mother has good wrapping skills," he said with a small grin.

He finally found a place to open it and carefully ripped it. When he finished unwrapping the package, he found that it was a book about spirits. He acted surprised and was about to say, "Wow, you really knew what I wanted, Himawari-chan!" when Himawari-chan said,

"That was chosen by my father. I told him about you and seeing spirits. I hope you like it."

Watanuki said, with another sweatdrop down his face, "O-Oh... your father has.. good present-choosing skills." He smiled to reassure Himawari-chan that it was a nice present. "Thank you, Himawari-chan."

A few moments passed.

"Okawari (More please)."

Anger rushed up Watanuki. He got up and hissed, "Y-You! Don't ruin the moment!"

Himawari-chan giggled at the thought of a cat shrieking at a car. "You two get along as ever."

"We do not!" said Watanuki. Himawari-chan kept giggling, and then she said, "Does Doumeki-kun have a present for Watanuki?"

Doumeki stopped his chopsticks in mid-air, and his mouth half open. He was thoughtful for a moment, and then he closed his mouth and put his chopsticks down on the bowl. He stared straight at Watanuki. "Do you want it now?"

Watanuki looked disgusted. He didn't know why, but it was just a feeling. From Doumeki's face, Watanuki did not know what it was.. or going to be. As calm as ever, Doumeki repeated, "Do you want it now?"

Watanuki jumped a little and backed up. "N-No.. not right now."

"Aww, why not, Watanuki-kun?" asked Himawari-chan.

"B-Because I have a weird feeling that it's going to be something weird."

"You're the one who's weird," said Doumeki, before resuming to his lunch.

"NAN DA TO? (WHAT WAS THAT?)" Watanuki yelled, with a big red angry mark on his head and a fist near Doumeki's face.

Himawari-chan began laughing again. "Himawari-chan~" whined Watanuki.

- EVENING -

School had already ended and Watanuki was walking home with Doumeki. Himawari-chan said that she had to go home immediately because her mom was sick, and she needed nursing. Watanuki was far ahead of Doumeki. As always, he was trying to make a large distance between himself and his rival. Suddenly, Watanuki bumped into something.

"Agh." Watanuki rubbed his head. "Ah, I'm sorry..." He looked up. He froze. It was a Yokai. Oh shoot. He looked behind him, to find that Doumeki was slow as ever. Why did I walk so fast today? Since I'm one year older, it's as if I got more power than before, and so I must be really delicious. He backed up. The Yokai slowly moved forward.

Watanuki inspected the big evil spirit. It was purple with multiple other dark colors, with at least three... no, more than ten eyes, one huge mouth, and slime. A lot.. of slime. When the Yokai reached a lamp post that Watanuki passed, the metal melted and the top part of the post began to fall. It was falling straight to where Watanuki was standing. Watanuki couldn't move. He was frozen still from fright... or was it really fright?

Then, out of nowhere, Doumeki ran and pushed Watanuki away from his spot. Watanuki landed on his back and Doumeki on top of him. Did Doumeki come from the front? But I thought he was walking behind me... Then, Watanuki understood. He was in a place that was between two paths.

When Doumeki crossed that little space in the road, he had felt the presence of Watanuki there, as well as the Yokai who put it there. Watanuki was careless and had walked straight into the evil spirit's trap. Doumeki had to walk backwards into his steps as he had walked before. It was hard but since the archer was good at concentrating, he finally got into the little gap in the road. From a normal person's point of view, he would have vanished right into an invisible wall.

Watanuki tried to get up but he was paralyzed by the many eyes that the Yokai had. He lay there, still as a statue. He could only move his mouth. "Doumeki... what kind is it? Do you think you can get it?"

The poker-faced one's only reply was, "Yeah."

Doumeki got off Watanuki and stood at a distance in front of the slimy evil spirit. He closed his eyes, as to not get paralyzed by its eyes, as Watanuki did. He put his hands to his bow position. He didn't know if it didn't work without a real bow but he had to try. He concentrated. He put an 'arrow' into his 'bow' and got ready to shoot. Concentrate... He let go of the string as well as the arrow and the arrow went flying straight to the Yokai.

The archer opened his eyes to see his result. The arrow had hit the biggest eye of the evil spirit, which was the most powerful spot of the monster. The purple slime burst into little pieces and then disappeared. The bad odor and color in the sky and air began to fade. Watanuki was still laying on the floor, unable to move.

Doumeki hovered over the lifeless body on the floor. "You okay?"

Watanuki closed his eyes as tears came slipping down. "No, I'm not. I can't move."

"Should I fix that for you?" asked Doumeki, with his blank expression.

Watanuki opened his wet eyes, and turned his eyes to his rival. "And how would you?"

Doumeki kneeled down beside Watanuki. He then put his face so close that Watanuki can feel his warm breath on his face. The gold-eyed one whispered, "Please be able to move, my Powerless Beauty."

Watanuki was about to yell at Doumeki when he felt his lips be met with the other's. There was a lot of tongue and saliva involved. Watanuki felt that it was a passionate kiss. But for what reason was a man kissing another man?

- NIGHT -

The two were at Doumeki's house, since it was nearby. Rain had started falling without warning and so they were drying themselves off with towels. The run home was silent, except for the repeating patterns of raindrops that fell onto the sidewalk. Doumeki had not explained why he had kissed Watanuki while he was laying on the road, defenseless. But after the kiss had Watanuki been able to move.

Finally, after Doumeki came back with hot tea that he made himself (amazingly..), Watanuki confronted him. "Why..." he began. "Why did you... you.. why did you kiss me?"

Doumeki smirked, but didn't reply. Watanuki was furious. He repeated himself, "Why did you kiss me?"

"Shock is used to overcome fear," was the reply. Doumeki picked up his tea and blew it in the quiet that followed.

"What?" asked Watanuki, finally.

Doumeki put the hot cup to his mouth and sipped. Then he put it down on the table. "I learned it from my grandfather."

"Haruka-san?" Watanuki raised an eyebrow.

"Actually..." Doumeki took a sip from the cup again. He sipped and sipped and sipped until Watanuki yelled, "'Actually' what?"

Doumeki was quiet for a while. Then in a low voice, he said, "Actually... Grandfather learned it from a manga."

Watanuki's glasses fell down to the bottom of his nose. His eyes were very big. He did not want to go further into this odd topic, and so he changed it. He pushed his glasses higher to his eyes, and said, "E-Ehem.. well, um.. should I make something to eat?"

Watanuki began walking to the door.

"Potato nikorogashi."

He turned around, pissed. Then, he calmed himself and said, "Fine. But only if you have the ingredients."

Watanuki then left the room and shut the sliding door behind him. Doumeki was a bit surprised by Watanuki for not being angry. Probably because it was his birthday? But that seemed to have nothing to do with it. Doumeki poured himself another helping of tea. He did that a few more times before he finally thought of a way to explain to Watanuki why he had kissed him. It was simple and sort of true.. though not really, but he was going to try anyway.

The door slid open and Watanuki came in with a tray of potato nikorogashi. Doumeki smiled to himself. For once, he had got something without a fight.

Watanuki put the steaming tray on table and sat down in front of Doumeki. He did not eat; he only stared at Doumeki, waiting for the answer to an unasked question. Doumeki ate one and then began to take another one when he felt Watanuki glare at him.

He took his hand away from the warm tray. "Happy April Fool's Day."

"What?" asked Watanuki.

"It was a joke. An April Fool's Day joke," said Doumeki, before stuffing himself with more potato nikorogashi bits.

Watanuki looked half shocked. He didn't expect this answer. As a joke? As a JOKE? Is he playing a joke with me right now? Who would kiss another – I mean, what man would kiss another man as a joke on April Fool's Day?

Doumeki looked at Watanuki's face. As expected, color sprout out from the pale man's face and turned redder every second that passed. Finally, the man exploded, "AS A JOKE? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"

Before Watanuki fully ran out of the room, Doumeki saw tears in his friends' eyes. He felt a little guilty. Well, actually... really guilty. He had lied to his friend on his birthday. What a fool he was. He ran after Watanuki. Unfortunately, Watanuki was a really fast runner. But fortunately, Doumeki was as fast as he was.

When Doumeki caught up with his friend, Watanuki was at the doorway of the kitchen, who knows why he was heading in that direction, and still crying. Doumeki grabbed the crying man's hand and tugged on it. Watanuki turned abruptly around from the force and Doumeki backed him up to a wall.

Doumeki let him sob for a while and then finally asked, "Why did you run?"

Watanuki couldn't answer nor did he want to. He just shook his head. Doumeki shifted his position, but left his arm next to Watanuki's head to hold himself up. Then Doumeki said, "What if I told you that I was just joking?"

I knew it. Watanuki stared at his rival with wide sad eyes and then he lowered his head in shame. Doumeki lifted the sad man's face up with a finger and then said, "Happy birthday."

Doumeki drew his face close to Watanuki and kissed him for the second time today. This time, Watanuki did not yell, but accepted it gratefully. He did not know why. But it felt safe. Being near this man... this specific person... made him feel safe in the world of spirits.

- NEAR MIDNIGHT -

Watanuki had baked a cake and celebrated his birthday with his friend, Doumeki. When it was time to blow the candles, Watanuki wished that Doumeki will stay by his side forever, and then blew his birthday candles, making the room dark around him. Doumeki let him stay over for that night, and did not do anything other than kiss Watanuki on the head one last time before going to sleep. "Happy birthday," he whispered.

- MIDNIGHT -

It was already midnight and Watanuki still had not returned to Yuuko's store.

"Ah~.. so hungry..." whined Yuuko. "Where's Watanuki?"

"WA-TA-NU-KI! ~" yelled the two minions that lived in the store.

Mokona's stomach grumbled. "So hungry..."

The yells, whines and rumbles of the store echoed throughout the night.

THE END.

A/N: I had a hard time trying to figure out why Doumeki kissed him xD I also had trouble finding a food for them to eat... I had to look back in the manga just to find one. Hoped that the plot was good :) PLEASE REVIEW, thankshu. ~SEi

Note#2: When I said that Haruka-san learned it from a manga, it was actually I who learned it from a manga. It was a shonen-ai/yaoi manga called Eerie Queerie! It's a good manga to read. A MUST READ. ^^