Itoe had just paused on the narrow bridge to adjust the bags in her hands when she heard the couple start to argue. They had just been bickering when she had passed them a second before, and she had tried to hurry past them, before she felt the first wave of emotion. But the bags had grown painfully heavy in her hands, and now the fight seemed to have escaladed.

"You are so controlling! Why the hell do you care where I was yesterday?!"

Itoe staggered, and dropped her bags. Out of all the emotions she picked up, anger was always the worst. It was the most painful at least. Raging flames swept across her skin, and she wheezed from lack of breath.

"It's okay," She told herself, "they'll walk away soon, and then it will end. Just don't let them touch you." Her eyes stung with unshed tears. She looked back at the couple. "Please leave!" She mentally urged, as the invisible flames continued to ravage her.

Unaware of her plight, they continued to have it out in the middle of a cold January street.

"I hate you! I wish you had never made me move out to this God forsaken countryside! I wish- I wish I had never even married you!" The woman screamed, and turned to rush past Itoe. She cringed away from her as she did.

"Your such a child! Mei! God damn it Mei! Get back here!" The man sprinted after her, and knocked into Itoe, which threw her off balance. What felt like a flash of lightning swept through her heart. She cried out, but the man didn't seem to care.

Oh.

It's so hot.

~≈†≈~

Watanuki shivered.

"Is it a spirit?"

"No! It's called the middle of freaking winter, you idiot! Of course I'm cold! Why do you ALWAYS ASSUME it's a spirit?! Think your getting a little paranoid you dumb jock?! And another thing! Why, are you, following me?!"

Domeki took his finger out of his ear. "I'm not. I live in this direction, moron."

Watanuki bristled. "What was that?" Then looked around, taking in his surroundings. Returning to the land of calm, of at least it's general vicinity, he said. "Oh. Well it doesn't matter," He pulled a piece of paper out of the pocket of his school uniform. "I'm leaving you here anyways."

"No Yuko today?" Domeki intoned.

"No," Watanuki sighed, "I still have to go, I'm just picking something up for her at this shop here." He eyed it suspiciously. The outside of it looked perfectly normal, but Watanuki wasn't going to take any chances. "If it's associated with Yuko then it has to be something weird."

Surprisingly, the inside looked just as ordinary as the outside. It was just a dusty shop with a lot of junk crammed into it. "Um, hello?" Watanuki called, Domeki trailing behind him.

A friendly looking woman, perhaps around her early 30's, stuck her head out of a pile of rolled up carpets just to the left of them, thoroughly scaring the hebbie jebbies out of Watanuki. "Um, hello." She said, laughing in embarrassment, "Could you please help me? I was doing a little organization and my carpets seem to have fallen and trapped me here."

Recovered from the sight of seeing a carpet with a head, Domeki and Watanuki worked on moving the carpets, which turned out to be surprisingly heavy. Once up, the small woman brushed some dust bunnies off of her clothes, while exclaiming, "Thank you so much! I was trapped in there for at least a few hours! Ha ha, well, I don't get many people in here anymore, after the sign got stolen. You see, this is a shop that collects items that other people will need someday, so only people fated to come in will. Oh, I know I sound a bit crazy, I'm sorry. So what can I do you for?"

Watanuki decided that then woman was very nice, but a bit eclectic. "I'm just here to pick something up for Yuko. She said that she called ahead…?"

"Oh yes!" The woman hit herself in the head. "I'll be right back!"

Watanuki turned to say something to Domeki but saw that he was busy looking at a restaurant apron that said, I'LL BE HAPPY TO MAKE WHAT EVER YOU WANT. Watanuki hoped that Domeki wasn't imagining him in it.

The woman came back in holding a lump wrapped up in brown paper, it was tied with a blue piece of string at the top. "Here you go! Be careful not to chip it!" She said smiling. "Please give Yuko my regards."

They left the shop, with Domeki thankfully not in possession of the I'LL MAKE WHAT EVER YOU WANT apron.

Watanuki looked at the package, and slowly began to untie the string…

What he found was slightly less interesting then he was expecting.

"It's a cat." Domeki said.

"I can see that!" Watanuki snapped.

And it was. A small porcelain statue of a striped gray cat sat in Watanuki's hand. It had a maroon collar with a small butterfly painted onto it. It was well made, but it looked like something you would find in an elderly woman's home. Perhaps on a bookshelf, or somewhere else where it didn't draw too much attention.

"I wonder what Yuko would want with such a tacky cat." He said.

It's eyes, which were the color of a spring leaf, glinted in the fading sunlight.

"Ow!" Watanuki cried, and dropped the statue. Domeki's quick hand caught it before it hit the ground.

"Watch it."

"It scratched me! The thing scratched me!" He said indignantly, inspecting the three vertical scratches on his hand.

"Well you called it tacky."

"You! Stop talking like you know everything! It's a statue! It shouldn't matter if I call it tacky or not!" Watanuki took the statue back from Domeki and re-wrapped it and stuck it in his bag, grumbling.

They continued to walk along the street, with Watanuki mumbling all the way. He glanced to the right, and spotted something floating in the river; a girl. Her lips were blue, and her skin seemed too pale to be human. "Must be a spirit." He thought. "And she's just a child. How creepy."

Following his gaze, Domeki looked as well. "Hey, there's a girl in the river."

Watanuki spun around to look at him, surprise widening his eyes. "You mean you see her too?"

Domeki nodded.

"Even if I do this?" Watanuki reached out and covered one of Domeki's eyes. Domeki nodded again.

"Well then…" Watanuki said slowly, then he looked terrified. "A corpse?!"

Domeki gave him a deadpan expression. "Or maybe she's just swimming."

Watanuki glared at him. "Well let's go get her before she floats away! Something's probably wrong!" He ran down to the embankment, Domeki slowly following after him.

They both rolled up their pants and wadded into the shallow water. With combined effort, they moved her over to rest against a tree. Watanuki checked her pulse, "She's alive," He said relieved, but then dismayed, "but she's soaking wet. Here carry her jacket." He peeled it off her and threw it at Domeki.

"Do you think we should take her to my temple?"

Watanuki shook his head, "No, I'll take her to Yuko's. It's closer, and she'll know what to do. Let's go."

~≈†≈~

Kind.

Someone who was very kind was carrying her.

Being near kind people was always a treat. It was almost as nice as being near people who were euphoric, or excited. Perhaps it was even better. Kindness made her heart feel like it was floating, and tremors of pleasure ran up and down her spine.

And this person who was carrying her was like kind-ness personified. It was like being touched by kindness.

"Being touched by kindness…" Itoe thought groggily. "That's a pun." Her head felt waterlogged.

She tried to move, but she felt so cold; like she was frozen in place.

The person carrying her shifter her weight, so that he could keep her on his back without her slipping.

"Do you want me to carry her?" Said a deep voicefrom beside her. Normally she would have noticed someone standing so near. But she felt so out of it, and this man's emotions were so reserved, it was like he was hardly there. It was so refreshing, and he was so calm. It gave her room to breathe.

"No!" The man who was holding her snapped.

Oh, irritation. It wasn't as bad as anger, but it was still uncomfortable. It was like lying on cement that was just a bit too hot to be relaxing. It normally went away quickly though. The same way you would jump up when you realized lying on the host cement wasn't comfortable.

"I can carry her perfectly fine myself, thank you very much! Are you trying to say that you think I'm weak?"

Itoe wanted to say that if he was going to be that irritated, then he could just put her down. But all she managed was a weak, "Ah…"

"Oh! She said something!"

"Your loud voice probably woke her up."

"Shut up, Domeki! Hey, can you hear me? Are you alright?"

Itoe tried to summon the energy to speak again, but the impossible cold crept through her and claimed her.

Cold.

So cold.

~≈†≈~

"Yuko! Yuko! Are you here?" Watanuki called. Domeki had left for his temple once Watanuki had assured him that he would tell him what happened to the girl tomorrow, at school.

"Of course I'm here Watanuki," Yuko said, sprawling out on the couch with an amused expression on her face. "Where else would I be?" She looked him up and down. "I see you've brought our guest."

Watanuki carefully set her down. "I found her in the river! I thought-!"

"I was talking about the cat, Watanuki. Not the girl."

Watanuki blinked, dumbfounded. "Huh?"

Yuko looked at him tiredly. "The one in your bag."

Watanuki fished it out, and handed it to her. "This tacky thing?"

Yuko sat erect quite suddenly and grinned. "Yes, that's it." She unwrapped it. "Cute, isn't it?"

"I don't know if cute is what you'd call it… But Yuko, the girl?"

She looked down at her. "Oh yes, she has quite a story to tell doesn't she?" Yuko said, lightly caressing her face. "Hmm, alright then, Maru, Moro! Please take our new guest and warm her up. She'll need some new clothes, so get the dress that I have prepared."

The two soulless girls jumped out from behind the sliding paper door. "Yes Mistress!"

"Get the dress! Get the dress!"

"Warm her up! Warm her up!"

Watanuki watched the two girls take the third, sup and whisk her off toward the bedroom.

"Yuko, if there's anyway I can help…"

She eyed him. "You want to help? All right. Then warm me up some sake!"

"Yuko!"

"Fine! You can make some snacks to go with it!"

"YUKO!"

"Go!"

Watanuki sulked.

Har Har Har. I just decided to post this on a whim, and I have a lot of other stories to write, so updates will be spastic. I apologize.

As you may or may not have noticed, I'm not using honorifics. Simply because I decided not to. Also, I decided to write Yuko's name with one u instead of two, like some people do. Because this is how her name in written in the manga. (Technecally in the manga the one u has a mark over it, but I can't get my computer to do that. Heh.)

As for the title, Empathy and Irony, it's a play of the words, "Embony and Ivory" which is the title of a song I'm pretty sure. Empathy is obviously talking about Itoe (whose story I will explain in the next chapter, sorry about that.), and Irony... well, I think xxxHolic is plenty about irony. It may not be subtle irony, but it's irony still.

Another thing that's ironic; I've always kind of mentally paired the word "Irony" with the word "Coincidence" which Yuko is against people saying. Anyway.

I hope you'll give me the pleasure of reading your reviews.

Write in man! Write on!

-OMGsickels

Ps. Ah yes, another story with an OC, I just can't seem to keep my sticky paws off them.