Disclaimer: CLAMP owns them. I'm just playing with them for a bit.

A/N: Feel free to assume that this takes place in the same universe as Paths of Fate. Major SPOILERS for chapter 130! (Continues right from the end of the chapter.)

Kimihiro

Watanuki was happy. The gloves had fit Kohane-chan – well, almost at least – and she had liked them. He had every reason to be glad! Now, if there only wasn't that idiotic Doumeki, still staring at his gloves like a moron…

"Kimihiro?"

"WHAT?!" Now, Watanuki wasn't angry. He was too shocked to be angry. Staring at the other boy in absolute shock, he couldn't think of anything to say.

Had the idiot just called him simply by his given name?

"She called you Kimihiro-kun," Doumeki said, unfazed as always by his outburst. "And you call her Kohane-chan."

"Well, yes." Watanuki shrugged. "You remember what I told you? That her mother never calls her by her name? It's sort of an equal trade. I call her by her name, and she calls me by mine." He frowned, then, the usual annoyed feeling associated with Doumeki pushing his shock away. "What's it matter to you, anyway?"

"…" Doumeki gave him a long look.

"Well? What is it?" Watanuki asked, now genuinely angry. Damn that guy, always just giving him that look! "Spit it out now. What is it about?"

"Nothing." Just as he was about to strangle the other boy – or at least try his very best to – Doumeki added, "She's the only one who does, that's all."

"And?" Watanuki turned away again. "How's that special? You call everybody their family name, yourself. Who calls you anything but Doumeki, anyway? Nobody outside your family! I don't have a family, so what's wrong with it?"

"…Myself."

"Whuh?" Now, Watanuki was slightly confused – not that he would admit it, of course. He even turned to look at Doumeki once again. "What do you mean?"

"I call myself Shizuka." Doumeki's expression was just as indifferent as ever, but somehow there seemed to be even more seriousness in both his voice and gaze than usual. "But you… When you go into your fits and talk to yourself, you always talk about Watanuki. 'Stop it, Watanuki. What were you thinking, Watanuki?' Like that. Normal people at least think of themselves by their first names."

Watanuki stared at Doumeki for two reasons now. One, the archer had just said more at once than he sometimes did in an entire day. Well, not exactly, but it wasn't far from that. Two, Doumeki was, sad though it may have been, right. And he hadn't even realized it, himself.

What right did the idiot have, analyzing Watanuki deeper than he did himself?

"So what?" he spat after a moment for the lack of anything else to say. "It's none of your business."

"It's almost sad, you know." Oh, yes, definitely an extraordinary amount of seriousness in that voice. Watanuki was about to give actually a civil response as the archer continued, "Never mind that only morons talk to themselves."

"Oh, shut up!" Watanuki exclaimed. "Who are you to talk anyway, Sir High and Mighty? You are the moron here! The worst idiot this planet has ever seen, that's what you are."

"Shut up." The former seriousness was now replaced with simple indifference of the most annoying kind. Really, was this guy's life's mission to make Watanuki's life insufferable?

"No I won't!" Watanuki yelled. "You are annoying and you don't deserve anybody doing like you tell them to! And besides, you –"

His fit went on for quite some time, during which Doumeki seemed to ignore him altogether. Well, at least the archer wasn't staring at his gloves like an idiot, now. It would have been kind of hard to do, too, what with his hands covering his ears at the moment…

"Oi." Oh, great. At last the idiot had the grace to talk and then it was that insufferable 'oi!' Well, he wouldn't react, he definitely wouldn't. He'd see how long it would take for the other to realize that he did indeed have a name.

After a moment of silence, there was another, "Oi." Watanuki had to do his best not to start yelling again, but he did stay silent. The idiot would never learn his lesson otherwise.

"… Kimihiro-kun."

Now, that definitely got a reaction. Turning around in the time it takes most people to blink – or, very much possibly, less – Watanuki was again yelling at Doumeki.

"Why did you just call me that? I never gave you permission! We're not close friends or anything." Well, they weren't. However cute Himawari was, she wasn't absolutely perfect, since she seemed to still cling to her illusion that Watanuki and Doumeki were the best of friends. Didn't she notice how the idiotic archer always came to interrupt when he was about to have a moment of peace together with Himawari?

"Well, somebody has to," replied the other boy, perfectly calm as always. "Otherwise, you'll soon forget your own name. Assuming you haven't yet, that is."

"Your concern is touching. As if," Watanuki growled. "I don't need you to remind me of my name! I'm not some idiotic baby, you know!"

"Whatever." Watanuki had a feeling Doumeki wouldn't change his mind anyway. He never did, the big bully.

After Watanuki had calmed down – and Doumeki stopped covering his ears, once again – they walked side by side for another brief moment of silence. Neither seemed to have anything to say.

Finally, though, it was unsurprisingly Watanuki who broke the silence. "… If you think I'm going to call you Shizuka-kun, you're badly mistaken."

"..." Again, that annoying look. Why was the idiot always looking at him, anyway? It was disturbing!

"Well, I'm not! So stop looking at me like that!"

The look continued.

"Stare at those gloves of yours if you want to. After all, you found them so fascinating before! And no, I'm not going to make you mittens. That would be just wrong, you weirdo."

Now, Doumeki did indeed glance at the gloves. Good. Apparently he hadn't stopped completely listening to other people, however much it seemed like that at times.

"… You haven't made any for yourself."

Now, that was it. That was it! He wasn't going to bear any more of this idiocy!

"And now you start with that?" Watanuki shouted. "Well, guess what, no I haven't! If I wanted gloves, I'd make them. I'd make them long before I made anything for somebody as annoying as you. I'll have you know that I made your gloves the very last after the little one's and Kohane-chan's and Himawari-chan's!" Which meant, at that point he'd had a lot of practice and they'd turned out to be the best pair he'd made. Not that he'd ever mention that.

"…"

"What exactly do you want me to do about it, you idiot? My hands aren't cold. What should I do about it even if they were, anyway? Share yours?"

Now, Doumeki gave him a very strange look, one he wasn't sure he wanted to examine too closely. Especially since his mind now provided him with an image of himself sharing the gloves with Doumeki. Of course, for this to happen, he'd have to be right next to Doumeki. Leaning against his chest, perhaps, like his mind's eye suggested…

Argh. No, not that. Not ever that.

With an exasperated howl and a frown, Watanuki stomped forward, trying to put some distance between himself and Doumeki. Of course he didn't manage. If that idiot said another thing…

"Kimihiro-kun."

"What?!"

"Just wanted to check you still remembered."

Watanuki sent a silent mental apology to Himawari. She'd surely mourn the death of the idiot, as well as the fact that Watanuki was going to be arrested for murder…