But this was also not the same courtyard he had been in a few minutes ago, smelling the sweet scent of flowers that some woman who had been at least eight months pregnant had been holding next to her husband. He blinked and rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. This courtyard was beautiful, the trees in full bloom in the height of summer, which made his winter jacket that he wore unbelievably hot. After all, it had been fall not five seconds ago.
He wandered forward a little, spotting a small moving figure near the flowerbeds. Upon closer inspection, the little huddle revealed itself to be a child. The boy was actually quite cute, but not in the way that suggested he would be "pretty" as an adult. His hair was black and almost abnormally long, falling in front of his eyes in what would be a roguish way if he weren't five years old.
"Shizuka! Shizuka, where are you?!"
Shizuka? No way! This couldn't possibly be Doumeki! And he'd even just thought that he had looked…cute!
Shizuka's head jerked and he pelted into a run away from the disembodied voice of who could only be his mother, considering the irritated tone that mothers always used when children were being overly disobedient.
And he happened to be running this way…
They collapsed onto the ground, ending up behind one of the huge cherry blossom trees just as footsteps sounded near them. Watanuki held his breath as the irate mother's voice filtered over the courtyard, but neither him nor Shizuka dared move.
"Shizuka!"
"Leave him be for now, dear. He'll come back on his own."
Watanuki knew that voice and craned his neck just a little to peer around the base of the tree to get a glimpse of Doumeki's grandfather, who'd he only recently learned was named Haruka when he'd been alive. Somehow…it was extremely strange to be having dreams of his rival's grandfather.
"Father…! He's supposed to be doing his homework!"
"He will, I'm sure. Shizuka is a very good boy."
Was it his imagination or did his eyes meet Haruka's? Did he…know he was there? Moreover, did he know that Watanuki wasn't supposed to be there? This obviously was not his "time". Had he somehow got shoved into the past?! Now there was a scary thought…but if he was…did that mean he could see his parents again?
Shizuka sat up, but seemed disinclined to move from his sitting position on Watanuki's chest and he felt his eyebrow twitch. Even as child, even cute, Doumeki was an annoyance! He was not a pillow, especially for someone that was covered head to toe in dirt.
"So you didn't want to do your homework? If you don't do it, you'll never get smarter."
Hearing an argument he apparently was treated to constantly by family members, the boy crossed his arms and proceeded to sulk. Sulk! This was actually really interesting, because as a little boy, Doumeki certainly showed a whole lot more emotions than he ever thought of doing in high school.
"Who are you anyway? Don't you know that the shrine is closed today?"
Watanuki frowned a little, but he was a sucker for children and couldn't bring himself to yell at his rival's cute, smaller counterpart. He sat up as best he could with the dead weight on his chest and annoyingly, Shizuka didn't move and only slipped down until he was sitting in Watanuki's lap.
"I don't know how I got here. I was just…here."
"Are you a spirit then?"
"No, I'm not a spirit," he shot back, but more kindly than he would have if this boy had been sixteen. "But I can see them."
"You can see them?"
"Yes. They follow me around."
"Cool! Grandfather can see them too and he gets rid of the bad ones and helps the good ones."
"Actually," Watanuki muttered, "it's not all that cool. My whole life they've been following me around and they're really dangerous."
"Your eyes are pretty."
"Eh?" How did…? Was this how children always thought, bouncing from one subject to another with no connection, or was Doumeki Shizuka just some very, very weird child? It was even weirder because it was Doumeki, who'd never given him a compliment in his whole life. "U-um…thanks."
"What's your name?"
Actually…if he really was in the past, this presented a good opportunity. He smirked at a thought and leaned in close until their noses were nearly touching. "My name doesn't matter, but I'm going to tell you something really important, so you have to remember it, okay?"
"Okay! Is it like a secret?"
What was with those golden eyes lighting up with such enthusiasm? Was this really the same Doumeki? "Yes, it's exactly like a secret. Now, when you get older, you're going to come across a boy named Watanuki Kimihiro. He's a very special person and very handsome and nice. When you meet him, you have to treat him like—"
"Shizuka! Come here, wherever you are!"
Shizuka frowned a little and Watanuki didn't like how his audience's fickle attention span was broken. Crap! He was just about to say he had to treat him like a god…! And make sure he never asked him to make him another bento for the rest of his life!
"I gotta go, mister. But I'll remember. Watanuki Kimihiro is a special person and I have to treat him nice."
He wrapped his arms around the almost fleeing child. "Hold on just a sec, don't go yet! You have to treat him like you like him!"
"Like I like him?" This confusing statement got the toddler to pause. "You mean like I love him? Okay, sure! Papa always says you have to protect the people you love, so I'll grow strong too!"
"Ehhhhh?!" he muttered just as Shizuka broke free and ran toward the temple. Wait just one second here! He hadn't meant it like that! His cheeks flushed with a blush and he pounded the ground with his fist in annoyance. Even at five, Doumeki Shizuka was impossible to deal with.
That particular scent from before filled his nostrils once more and he blinked, turning his head to try to find it, but only seeing blackness. He blinked once more, and the first thing that came to immediate notice was a ceiling and he was lying on his back.
"Where am I?"
"You passed out in the courtyard."
"Eh?" Watanuki sat up and turned to his left, spotting Doumeki with his arms and legs folded, as if he was prepared to wait all day for the bespectacled boy to wake up. "So it was all a dream?"
"What was?"
His cheeks flushed and he looked away. "N-nothing."
"You're uniform jacket was dirty so it's being washed. Somehow you manage to get your stuff so dirty when all you did was fall lightly on the ground."
"Shut up!" he hissed, but already he began to wonder. If it was that dirty that even dusting himself off wouldn't have helped, did that mean he really did go into the past and met with a dirty, five year old Shizuka?
He chewed his lip before asking, "Hey, Doumeki?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever remember meeting someone when you were really young wearing a uniform similar to ours?"
"Hn. Yeah, I think once. When I was five. It's all hazy, but there was someone like that."
"Really? Did you talk?"
"I think so. I do remember that I was hiding from my mother at the time, because I didn't want to do my homework."
"What did you talk about?"
"Why are you asking?"
Watanuki flushed a little deeper and looked away. "Forget it, it's none of my business." This couldn't be happening! He could not have gone into the past and just…my god, was it possible that he could have even…changed the future?!
After a moment of silence, he heard movement and suddenly Doumeki was sitting at his side, almost too close, and their eyes were meeting. "We talked about someone named Watanuki Kimihiro and I remember someone saying that he was a special boy, very nice and handsome." Watanuki's cheeks were turning an even deeper red, but it appeared as if Doumeki wasn't finished. "And I remember them asking me to like this person, to love him. And I've been waiting my whole life for that."
"Wh-why?!" he stuttered, not liking how their faces were growing ever closer.
"Isn't that what you do when you're waiting to meet your soulmate?"
"S-soulmate?!"
And then Doumeki had stolen his first kiss, even going so far as to slide his tongue through his shocked, parted mouth. He really should not have messed about in the past! The Doumeki he knew wasn't in love with him! My god…! He had turned Doumeki gay!
A whimper escaped his throat when arms slid around his waist and shoulders, pushing him to lay back down on the futon without breaking the contact of their lips. And it was so nice, he almost didn't want to fight it.
"I can't believe I managed to somehow change the future!"
Yuuko only smiled after listening her part-time helper's terrified ranting. She knew, by his disrupted appearance of his uniform that what went on was a great deal more than just kissing like he had told her, but she'd leave him at least a little pride. No need to put him in shambles for her amusement just yet.
"How do you know that what happened wasn't already foreordained and that, in truth, you haven't changed the future you knew, but rather preserved it? That if you hadn't gone back in the past, that the future where you just got laid wouldn't have happened?"
She enjoyed the silence and watched with the biggest, smuggest grin yet as it seemed that Watanuki's brain and his mouth got disengaged and he floundered in silence, waving his arms frantically and not able to utter a single sound. He looked as red as a cherry.
"Now go get me more sake, Watanuki. Or would you like me to wring out of you all the details of your time at the temple earlier today?"
Watanuki fled and she laughed, sharing a wink with Mokona.