Title: The Perfect Cake

Series: XXXHolic

Spoilers: Not really (unless you don't know about Himawari)

Paring: Watanuki&Doumeki

Summary: It's Watanuki's B-Day! A fic to celebrate this special day - if you ever wondered why Watanuki is the only one who can bake his own birthday cake - here you go…

Beta Reader: JadeDragonHawk

The Perfect Cake

Like every year, the first of April came with one Watanuki Kimihiro slaving over the kitchen in the early morning, preparing his latest masterpiece - his own birthday cake!

Yep, today was his birthday, and just like last year, once again he's the one who's doing all the work! But unlike last year, this year he didn't complain about the injustice - in fact he was very happy to make his own cake. During the past year he had thought a lot about himself and the people surrounding him, and this year he was going to celebrate his birthday with all his special people. So he wanted to make his cake extra special - after all he was the only one capable of it as Doumeki had pointed out to him just yesterday…

Watanuki had just finished his work at Yuuko's when he met Doumeki outside. While previously he would have yelled and shouted that he was perfectly capable of walking home by himself, now he knew better, so he just let Doumeki walk him home. He didn't know how it happened, but somewhere down the road, Watanuki said, seemingly out of nowhere: "I wish someone would bake me a cake".

He didn't mean to say it out loud - but now that he had, he wanted to look everywhere but at Doumeki's eyes, which were staring at him with such unreadable look - he was going to change the subject, when Doumeki said "Who?"

He was shocked at first - he thought Doumeki would tease him, but after he got over the shock, he started to think about it. The first name that came out of his mouth was of course Himawari-Chan, but Doumeki immediately pointed out that even if Himawari did make him a cake, he wouldn't be able to eat it. As much as he hated to admit it, the other boy was right. Doumeki, noticing his sad face, had decided to continue to list all the people who couldn't make him a cake:

Kohane-Chan was too little to bake a cake, so she was out.

He doubted the Zashiki Warashi could bake a cake.

Moro and Maru were out too, since they also didn't have the ability to cook - at least from what he had heard from Watanuki's complaints.

Although he thought Yuuko might be able to make a cake, he was doubtful if it would be edible for anyone without a high alcohol tolerance…

"…if you really want someone to bake you a cake - I could give it a try".

When Doumeki said these words Watanuki felt his brain go blank; Doumeki, bake him a cake? While the cake wouldn't bring him bad luck and wouldn't be drowning in unbelievable amounts of alcohol, still the thought of Doumeki baking him a cake... It was something that made his heart, for inexplicable reasons, beat a little bit faster, and his hands start to sweat - was it warmer than it was before? He sure did feel hot for some unknown reason - and Doumeki staring at him like that didn't help him very much.

In the end he shouted that Doumeki would probably burn down the temple if he ever attempted to cook anything - and even if he did manage to make something remotely edible, it would probably taste horrible. No, if he wanted a cake he'd just have to make it on his own - that way at least it would be safe. By the time he finished his rant, they had already made it to his apartment door (when did they get there?), and Watanuki was just about to say goodbye when Doumeki did the unthinkable - he kissed him!

It was just a light touch of Doumeki's lips on his own, it was so light and short (far too short) - that if he wasn't there he probably wouldn't have noticed it. But he was, and as light and brief as the kiss was, it left Watanuki shocked to the core - Doumeki had just kissed him!

He was still in shock, when he heard Doumeki calling that he should consider this as a replacement for the unmade cake. At hearing this Watanuki didn't know what he should feel more - anger or this new feeling of, dare he say it, disappointment.

The next day, when he woke up, he thought of all that had happened during the passing year - more importantly yesterday, and he came to realize that, today was going to be different. He didn't need anyone to make him a cake - after all as Doumeki had pointed out to him, no one was really capable of it - it was fine with him. But more importantly, the one person who seemed to be somewhat capable of making him a birthday cake was offering him something - that after much consideration - was much better.

Watanuki made sure that this year's cake would be the best cake he'd ever made - after all this time he had to make sure that there would be a fair exchange; if there was something he learned from Yuuko it was that if someone made a bargain, the quality of each offering should be the some.

Yep, he's going to make sure the exchange would be fair - after all his cake should be worth much more than some unmade cake…

A/N: to tell you the truth originally I didn't plan on putting so much Doumeki&Watanuki (the ending was totally unplanned) but I don't know - maybe it's because I feel a little sick, or maybe because I'm such a fangirl - but that's what came up - hope you enjoyed reading!