It was one of those glorious days

It was one of those glorious days.

It was one of those rare free days where he didn't need to slave his ass off; either cleaning the never-ending mess in the treasure room or cooking some crazy food combination as ordered to fill the seemingly bottomless stomachs of his alcoholic employer and a live black meatbun. Yuuko-san had been strangely generous enough to let him off for a day, but only if he cooked their three meals in advance, mowed the front lawn, done the laundry and prepared special orders of inari sushi and sake. And more sake.

No "More, Watanuki, more!" or "You missed a spot, Watanuki!" for a day! And to imagine the even more glorious walk home with Himawari-chan later, life could not get better for someone as simple as Watanuki Kimihiro.

Things were going smoothly with only one more minute on the clock before the final school bell, until the teacher so suavely asked for his help to arrange stacks of books on the table suddenly. Being the decent and helpful student that he was, although he was more excited about the journey home today, he agreed anyway. The bell rang in spite of him and soon his classmates begin emptying the classroom loudly, talking to each other about what to do after school. Without wasting another second, he hurriedly begin to arrange the books neatly.

He was about to place the last two books on the stack when suddenly Watanuki felt a presence way too familiar in the classroom. A monotonous 'Yo' filled the classroom suddenly and it shocked Watanuki so much that he had sprung up and flung his body and arms around, knocking two piles of books off the table.

Hence the past tense. It WAS supposed to be a glorious day. Until the thing that took the glorious factor out of his every day routine appeared in the doorway.

"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!", he yelled at the top of his voice, twirling on his feet and waving his arms in the air.

"Are you practicing ballet here in an empty classroom?" asked the straight-faced boy who propped himself casually on a desk nearby.

"NO, I AM NOT PRACTICING BALLET!! YOU MORON!" Watanuki yelled again, this time his face was flushing with redness from annoyance. At this rate of yelling and screaming for 365 days a year for at least 3 times a day, each lasting about 5 minutes long, Watanuki could predict that he will die of hypertension or heart attack before he could ever leave high school.

"Oh. You're arranging books then?" Doumeki asked, suddenly regaining his brain, Watanuki thought. "Yes, if it isn't obvious enough. I'm running out of time here, I need to go and meet up with Himawari-chan! You can go home yourself. I'm already very thankful that you don't mess things up further for me," he ranted, picking up the books from the floor and starting to arrange them into a pile again.

"You missed one over there-"

"URGH!" Watanuki smacked his own forehead.

"Kunogi is walking home with her other friends today. She said she's sorry and that you and I should walk home together," Doumeki said the string of words in one tone. Watanuki stooped down to pick up another book and missed the small glint in the other boy's eyes that did not suit his deadpan expression.

"But-but-Himawari-chan!! She said she'll walk home with me today! But I guess she has more important things to do," Watanuki sighed, placing the last book on top of the last pile. "Okay, I'm done. And why haven't you moved and gone home yet?! Do you still need to be babysitted?!" he found himself yelling again. With Doumeki around, yelling was inevitable.

"You're so slow."

"I don't remember asking you to wait for me!"

"But Kunogi said that we should walk home together."

"Since when do you do everything Himawari-chan says?! Don't you dare have anything for her!" he hissed like an angry cat. Doumeki stuffed his fingers into his ears and looked sideways, pretending to be more interested in looking at a stray fly.

"I'm hungry. Make some curry tomorrow. Less spicy. More chicken."

"Are you even listening to me?? Fine! Let's go then! I'm not going to waste any more of my precious day off with you!"

"Hng."

They left the classroom together.

A miniscule smirk found its way to the corner of Doumeki Shizuka's lips. It is one of those glorious days for him.

--

"Hmm, why isn't Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun waiting here at the school gate like usual? I told Doumeki-kun that I'd be 15 minutes late today but I'll walk home with them. Have they forgotten about me?" Himawari-chan wondered to herself, standing alone among other students in front of the school gate, with none of the two boys in sight.

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