At age twenty-seven, Watanuki Kimihiro was afraid to go, but not because of the spirits.
Flashback: Ten years ago
"Why do we have to go?" Watanuki grumbled under his breath as he, Doumeki Shizuka, and Kunogi Himawari were on the doorstep of a huge, mansion like house. One of the seniors had thrown a huge, Christmas bash and had invited most of the school to come.
It was, no doubt, a given that there would probably be alcohol since he had said his parents would be out of town. Watanuki hadn't wanted to come at all, but since Himawari had said she was going, he had had little choice. And since he couldn't go by himself unless he wished to make himself human fricassee for the spirits, he'd had to drag along his Spirit-Repellent, a.k.a. Doumeki.
Doumeki smelled as bad as bug spray too.
"This is going to be so fun," Himawari gushed, ignoring or not noticing the less than stellar expression on the slim boy's face.
The door swung open and a red-faced senior ushered them in. He didn't think it was their host, or rather, he hoped not. It was barely two hours into this little party and if their host was already drunk, Himawari or no Himawari, he was leaving.
Spirits lingered on the edges of his vision and he frowned when he saw just how packed the place was. Really, there was little room to squeeze past people and the crush of bodies made some rather unpleasant smells and attracted way too many interested supernatural things. Over the blasting of stereo Christmas music, there was a group of people huddled around a piano and trying to get their Christmas song into some sort of melody that didn't sound like nails on a chalkboard while still more around them commented and laughed.
Somehow in all the time it took for Watanuki to process everything in his vision, he'd been separated not only from Himawari, but from Doumeki too. It was Doumeki's lack of presence that bothered him the most. Not that he liked the evil jerk, oh no, but because if Doumeki wasn't there, all the spirits would naturally draw to him. So far, he was good as they weren't noticing.
Apparently they hadn't gotten the Watanuki-Is-Good-Meal memo. YET.
Somewhat panicky, he tried to get through the crush of people, trying not to step on too many toes on the way, to find the archer, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, as they said.
The further into the mob of people he got, the worse the spirits were getting, however if he looked oddly pale and sick, those around him obviously marked the cause as alcohol related. He covered his mouth at several points as when it became clear that the center was not only where all the people gathered, but also the spirits gravitated to.
Not wanting to even try getting close, screw Doumeki if he was over there, Watanuki swerved and bumped lightly into a table. Glancing down, he noticed it was the 'buffet' table, but it was basically picked clean of food, which Watanuki would have had no intention of touching anyway. It was probably full of processed crap.
He didn't even think about what drink he grabbed, just grabbed something to not be noticed, and disappeared wonderfully into the mass of his surroundings. The cacophony of noise assaulted his ears until he thought he was deaf. He wasn't sure which was making him sick: the noise from the crowds or the spirits.
Seeking only solace and privacy, he stumbled from place to place until he found the stairs. His watery, discolored eyes that were being stung by the unnatural heat and smoke from the smokers in the house glanced up and he stumbled upwards. Once he was on the second floor, he took a long swig from the bottle he clutched and relaxed against the wall in the relative silence.
"Oi."
"What?" he asked, sounding tired. Working his way through that mob had taken all his energy.
"I've been looking for you." Doumeki approached him and peered at his face. "Your face is red. How much did you have to drink?"
"Just a sip from this drink, that's all," he defended, as he was nowhere near drunk.
The archer reached up to touch his face and frowned a little. "Your cheeks are warm."
"That's because with all those people down there, packed in like rats, it's hot." To his disgust, Doumeki looked perfectly fine. "Where were you? Bet some girl cornered you or something."
"Yeah."
Bastard doesn't even deny it! "Ask you to dance or something?" he muttered ungraciously and swallowed another gulp from the beer that stung against his sensitive taste buds.
"Yeah."
"Did you?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I was looking for you."
Watanuki gave him a shooing motion with one hand and fanned his hot face so that it would cool down faster. Already he was feeling better up here. "Go ahead, don't let me get in the way of your fun. I'll just stay up here and…you know…cower from the spirits."
"Watanuki."
"What?"
"We shouldn't stand in the hallway. If you're up here, you have to be in a room. If not, you have to go back downstairs."
"And who says?" he retorted belligerently.
Doumeki grabbed his arm and listened at one of the nearby doors before opening it and tossing them both in an empty room. "It's like an unwritten rule," he answered finally and locked the door so that no one would stumble in drunk.
"About what?" Watanuki muttered, giving him a look full of disbelief.
Doumeki dropped down to sit on the edge of the bed. "You don't know anything, do you? At parties like this, the upstairs is generally kept quiet for couples to come up and have sex. It's bad manners to stand in the hallway talking. This whole upstairs is reserved for that. The host has to provide such a thing when he throws a big party like this."
"How do you know all that?!"
"The captain of my archery team told me. He hosted one last year."
"Did you go?"
"Yes. I'm part of the team. I had to."
"Well…did you…you know…come up here…?"
The archer, who had leaned against the headboard and closed his eyes, opened them and looked at him curiously. He noted that now the slight redness on Watanuki's cheeks were more of a light stain of blush. He smirked a little and that set the bespectacled boy on edge. "Why do you want to know?"
"I don't care!" he retorted, looking away and crossing his arms. "I just feel sorry for the girl. Probably weren't very good with her."
There was shifting behind him, but Watanuki firmly refused to deign Doumeki with a glance so he didn't notice when the boy approached him from behind, his voice whispering and ruffling the hair around his ear. "You want to find out?"
"Ew, hell no!" he retorted, turning to attempt to push Doumeki away, but the archer had gripped his wrists and pulled him into a deep kiss that left Watanuki weak-kneed and helpless.
Doumeki dropped them onto the bed again, lips breaking away to suckle on the soft skin of Watanuki's neck. I don't want this, I don't want this—oooh, yes I do!
Watanuki knew he was making the biggest mistake of his life, but that night, he let Doumeki love all of him.
Present
After that night, he had avoided Doumeki. He refused to admit just how good Doumeki had made him feel and he didn't even want to think about how much that had changed their relationship. Whatever Doumeki might have wanted to say to him afterwards, he never did. He refused to go any errand for Yuuko that would entail Doumeki going with him, so that cut down drastically on what he could do to earn up his 'pay' for his wish faster. Once he'd graduated, thanks to a little help from Yuuko, he'd managed to get into college without dying and one where Doumeki wouldn't be going to.
He hadn't seen Doumeki since graduation. Their eyes had met only briefly under the sakura blossoms before he'd turned to leave.
Lost in his musings, he didn't notice when someone approached him.
"Watanuki-san, are you enjoying the party?"
Watanuki blinked and looked up at his manager. He straightened from his leaning position against the wall and pasted on a smile to hide the fact that all he wanted to do was go home. "Yes, thank you."
"I'd like you to meet someone. I invited a few clients to the party this year and one of them brought this man as his friend. He works and runs a temple nearby." His heart sinking, Watanuki glanced in the direction that the manager gestured to. What was it about these damn parties? "His name is Doumeki Shizuka."
"Oi. Been a long time."
"Oh, you know each other?"
"Too well, I fear, Manager. We went to high school together," he said, trying to be pleasant.
"Then I'll leave you two alone to catch up!"
His manager seemed entirely far too happy with this development, but Watanuki just wanted to run. There was awkward silence and the bespectacled man shoved his hands in his pockets, eyes staring over the still taller priest's shoulder.
"Still working at Yuuko's?"
"Yup."
Somewhat fearfully, he looked up when Doumeki leaned in, bracing one hand on the wall next to Watanuki's head. The fire in those golden eyes, the determination and emotions, floored Watanuki. He'd never seen him show such emotion when they'd been in school. And Doumeki looked distinctly…angry.
"Ten years, Watanuki."
"Ten years?"
"Ten years that I've been waiting to tell you this. From that day at the other Christmas party."
"Wh-What is it?"
"I love you."
"Yeah, you did, I'm sure." He looked away bitterly. He couldn't tell how many years ago it was when he'd realized the reason he'd run away from Doumeki after that night of sex was because he'd been in love with him, but the feelings were still there, as the archer was proving.
Doumeki grabbed his chin and made their eyes meet. "No, I still do. I've never stopped. You ran away from me before I could get a chance to keep you. You won't again."
"Wh-what do you mean—"
His words were cut off with a deep kiss. Amid the darkness of the corner, no one noticed the two men's reunion. Doumeki's hands roved down his body, causing Watanuki to shiver and remember those long-ago sensations.
"Your house or mine?" asked that hot, heavy breath against his mouth as they parted for a few seconds.
"Mine."
"This time it'll be all night. I'll have you all night long. You're my present."
"Cheeky," he muttered, even as his lips were claimed once again.
Maybe these parties weren't so bad.