Disclaimer: The characters within this story all belong to CLAMP.
Warnings: Clean.
Summary: Watanuki thinks about Doumeki's rescue yesterday.
Completed: January 28, 2010
AN: I now officially blame midterms for the vignette lengths. X.x

Inarizushi
by: Kagome-reincarnation

"What do you want?" Watanuki demanded, glaring ferociously at his rival. It was lunch time and, as usual, he'd ended up making a bento for Doumeki, that moron. It wasn't as though he asked him to get in the way! Watanuki was quite sure he would've been able to get away from the oversized, gluttonous, ridiculously hungry spirit.

As confident as he might have been, though, Watanuki still shuddered at the memory. Surprisingly slick tentacles of the dark matter had come for him and he'd been too shocked to move. It had been a while since he'd been faced with such a large monster – the one from Himawari-chan's dream didn't even compare to this! – and he'd been unprepared. He'd had enough salt for a spirit of roughly half its size and he'd strewn it at the spirit before running.

"I want inarizushi in tomorrow's bento," came the bland voice of the injured archer.

Watanuki glared at him. While he might normally have shouted that he didn't take orders, he couldn't bring himself to do so. Even if acted confidently about the spirit from yesterday, he was well aware of what could have happened if Doumeki had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"You," Watanuki pointed an accusing finger at the other boy. "Where did you come from yesterday?!"

Doumeki's lidded eyes only stared at him for a moment: "From the school, of course."

The spirit-treat's arms flailed as he abruptly got to his feet, immediately beginning the usual string of insults against Doumeki.

The exorcist, having learned from experience, only stuck his fingers in his ears until he could see that Watanuki's face was red from anger and the boy was panting from the quick shouts he'd given. This, Doumeki thought, was one of the images that he never tired of.

Cautiously allowing a finger to slip from his ear, he decided it was safe and promptly returned to his meal. He'd managed to pull the question from the other's speech.

"I saw it," he said, touching his right eye.

Watanuki stopped short, a single, brief wave of guilt crashing over him before he shook it off. This… This was no longer a surprise. After the fireworks incident, Doumeki had grown to see more and more of the spiritual things that disconcerted Watanuki.

"Oh," he allowed himself to say, calmly returning to his spot on the stairwell. "I see."

Doumeki quickly polished off his food. It always amazed Watanuki how quickly the other boy would move the chopsticks between the bento box and his mouth. It was surprisingly quick – and the exorcist had never once dropped a piece of food.

Despite his many complaints, Watanuki would be lying if he didn't admit that he felt a bit flattered each time Doumeki requested a meal of him. Even if it was his fault for getting the exorcist involved in his troubles.

His dichromatic eyes fell on Doumeki's left arm. Beneath the sleeve, he knew, were the bandages where he'd gotten caught on the old-fashioned steel fence when he'd yanked Watanuki out of the way. Watanuki bit his lower lip, worrying it for just a moment before letting the question tumble from his mouth.

"Does it hurt?" he asked, his expression obviously one of worry.

Doumeki, having been replacing the emptied bento box in its ties, paused to look up at him. Gauging Watanuki's body language and facial expression, he decided on a safe answer.

"Hn."

AN: Below is a term that may not be very well known.

Inarizushi - usually a pouch of fried tofu filled with sticky or sushi rice