Disclaimer - I. DO. NOT. OWN. IT! I never have and never will! XxxHoLic is property of the amazing women that are CLAMP, I'm just borrowing the characters for some evil deeds.
A/N - So this is my first XxxHoLic story ever. If it's not good then I'll take it down, but after seeing a drawing by darkness333 over at Deviant Art, I just had to write a story about it. I've put the link to the drawing at the end of the story, so you can all see it. This story has not been sent to a beta so please excuse any mistakes you see. I tried getting all the mistakes but there might have been some left. Also, the last line was taken, and twisted from the description the artist made.
Enjoy the story and please let me know what you thought of it!
He was mad. In fact he was so mad he was furious! So furious he was livid! So livid he...well, you get the idea right?
But of course he had no other choice but to follow directions. If he didn't follow directions Yuuko-san would just add on to his price and probably make him do something embarrassing. Like that one time she made him cosplay as Alice from Wonderland. He really should have told her no, now every time she wants to mess with him, she simply takes out one of the many pictures she took and threatens to show to them to Himawari-chan and that idiot Doumeki.
Doumeki, he could careless about him. But Himawari-chan? His beautiful, perfect, amazing Himawari-chan? No way. He would make sure that those pictures did not see the light of day until the end of the world.
But right now, he had other fish to fry.
Well, not exactly fish to fry, it was more like he had a cake to bake. Yuuko-san had ordered him to bake a cake. And not just any simple cake either. No, little Miss-I'll-have-you-working-here-till-you're-old-and-wrinkly wanted a five tiered cake, decorated with sugar roses and wings like Sakura-chan's memory feathers. And to top things off, she wanted it for tonight's dinner. How he hated his job.
"Ooohh Watanuki-kun, how are you coming along with the cake?" Yuuko-san's voice drifted from the yard. She was sunbathing while the girls were playing in the small kiddy pool.
"It's the same as it was when you asked me five minutes ago, Yuuko-san!"
"Well, hurry up! I just can't wait to see how it comes out!"
Growling and remembering that it was illegal to kill his boss, Watanuki set about taking the bread out of the oven. Setting the final pan out to cool, he started on washing the fruits he would be using for the filling and decoration. He would be in the kitchen all day, which meant he would be working on his homework till late at night.
Washing the strawberries and peaches, he left them to dry for a while and set about cutting the five circular pieces of breadintothree layers. He tried tuning out all the noise the girls were making so as to not accidentally cut the pieces wrong. If he did that then he would have to start all over again, and that was not something he wanted to do.
Once he was done he started cutting some of the fruit into small pieces and then started on making the homemade whip-cream. Yuuko-san was specifically strict when she said she wanted the whole cake to be made from scratch. While just buying pre-made cake mix was convenient when you didn't have a lot of time to properly bake, it wasn't the same as taking the time to hand pick all your ingredients and then working hard to make the cake. That's one of the reason why Watanuki hadn't told Yuuko-san to bugger off every time she asked for complicated dishes. Because despite all his whining about how it was too much work, he truly did enjoy watching as she fawned over the food he made. It made her happy and to him it was one of the perks that came with working for her.
"We want cake! We want cake! Cake! Cake!"
And then there were times like these when he wished they would just shut up!
"Will you guys be quiet! I can't concentrate with all of that noise! It doesn't matter how many times you scream for cake, it's not going to get done any faster!" he screamed at them as he attempted to finish mixing the whip-cream.
Hearing the padding of small foot steps he quickly grabbed all the sharp knifes and set them in the sink. He didn't want anyone getting hurt, and by anyone he really meant himself.
"Waaatttaaaannuuukkkiiiiii~!" Mokona said as he jumped on Watanuki's shoulder. "Whatcha doing?"
Giving the black fur-ball an annoyed look he went back to mixing the fruit he cut up with the whip-cream. "The same thing I've been doing for the last three hours, Mokona, working."
"You're slow!"
"Why don't you try cooking a cake and see how long it takes you!"
Instead of answering Mokona simply laughed and quickly stole a strawberry before Watanuki could stop him and ran back to the yard.
"Come back here you thief!"
Knowing better than to run off and chase Mokona, he went back to the fruit filling and finished mixing it. When he was done he carefully put the filling into each layer of the cake and set each piece back together, careful not to break the bread. It was all about precision and symmetry.
Once all pieces were done, he set about making a simple white frosting for the cake. He didn't want to go over board with the colors. The white would make the red roses he made stand out more and would help the feathers to blend in making it look like they were really a part of the cake.
Taking a steel spatula, he then began to frost the cakes, after he was done with the first one he put in on the stand. Soon, he had the first three of the tiereds stacked on the small foundation. He then took out the sugar flowers and wings he had made earlier out of the fridge and set about putting them on the bottom tiered of the cake. The wings took a bit of time to get them to stay but he managed to do it without messing the cake up. Next, he started putting the flowers on, careful to put them close enough to look good but not too close that it would just look like a blob of red.
Once he was finished with those, he looked at the two remaining tiereds. How was he suppose to stack and decorate them? The cake was already as tall as him and if he tried to stack them with out standing on something the cake would be ruined. Standing on a chair was too risky because it could tip at any time and the only ladder they had was the one out in the yard, and he was so not bringing that dirty chunk of metal into the house least of all the kitchen.
Stepping back to look at the cake he crossed his arms, thinking. "Well, I could ask one of the girls to come help me," he mused out loud. "I could hold Maru-chan up, but what's to say she wont give the flowers to Mokona? Or she might not be strong enough to hold each cake up to put it on the stand."
While he was thinking about his new dilemma the floor was suddenly swept from underneath him. Quickly trying to steady himself his hands fell on a familiar head. "You idiot! What do you think you're doing? Put me down this instant!"
"I can't do that." Doumeki's monotone voice said. Moving a bit from under the blue eye teen he set him firmly on his shoulders. "You have to finish the cake."
"I know that you moron!" Watanuki yelled, hitting Doumeki on the head with his fist. "That's what I was trying to do before you..you..." He couldn't even finish his sentence. It was too embarrassing for him to do so. He could feel his face blaming as he continued to hit Doumeki.
"Keep hitting me and I'll dump you on the cake," the stoic teen said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"You wouldn't," hissed Kimihiro.
To prove his point, Doumeki lean forward enough to make Kimihiro's legs to hook underneath his arms. "Okay, okay! I believe you! Just stop moving you dolt!"
"Well, then hurry up and finish it."
"Don't you dare boss me around! I cook your lunch, don't you forget it! You should be worshiping me!"
"You're too loud," Doumeki said and he plugged his fingers into his ears. "All that screaming is going to make the cake fall."
"Shut up and hand me the large tiered." With the added height, all the stand were soon carefully stacked. All Watanuki needed to do was finish with the decorations.
"Start handing me those flowers!" Watanuki said with a growl. "And you better not eat any of them!"
Pushing his glasses up so they wouldn't fall, he took the first flower that Doumeki gave him. With steady hands he started working again on the cake. Neither one of them noticed a certain red-eyed witch standing near the door of the kitchen with a camera in hand.
"There," Watanuki said slightly wiping his forehead with his forearm. Looking down at the boy holding him he asked, "How much longer can you carry me like this?"
"As long as you need me to. You're not heavy."
Nodding his head and then realizing that the other couldn't see him Watanuki said, "If you're sure, then I need you to pass me that frosting tube that has the gold like frosting."
Moving steadily, Doumeki grabbed the tube and carefully held it up to Watanuki. "This one?"
"Yeah, I just need to fix the frosting of the edges here."
"Take you time," Doumeki said. "What are you going to do after this?"
It was a couple of minutes before Watanuki answered, and that was when he was done with fixing the fourth tiered. "Make dinner. There was no way I'd be able to bake this if I focused on dinner first."
"What are you going to make?"
"Does it really matter? If you're here it means Yuuko-san invited you to dinner. Which means that whatever I make wont make a difference since you'll just scarf it down without even waiting to see what the food tasted like."
"I'd still like to know what we're going to eat."
Deciding not to answer, Watanuki went back to finishing with the last tiered and wishing that the damn blush he had would go away. Looking at his finished work he thought he heard a click go off somewhere, but he wasn't cooking anything that needed to be timed. Looking around the kitchen he didn't see anyone else and could hear the girls and Yuuko-san shouting outside.
"You can put me down now," he told Doumeki. The other boy just grunted and slowly knelt down enough for Watanuki to jump off his shoulders. Once both feet were firmly planted on the ground, he set about cleaning up so he could start cooking dinner. And to give him an excuse to not look at Doumeki in the eyes.
Lately, he'd been feeling awkward around the young archer. Not awkward as if he didn't want to be near him. But awkward as if not being near him bugged him. He didn't know why he kept feeling that way. He hate the other boy with a passion. He was always getting in between him and Himawari-chan. Never leaving them alone, so that Watanuki could confess his love to her.
"Sooooo hungry!" Yuuko-san's dramatic voice drifted from the yard.
"Mistress!" Maru and Moro cried.
"Maru. Moro! I'm afraid I might not make it!"
"Don't die!"
"Stop being so melodramatic!" Watanuki yelled at them through the kitchen window. "I'm already starting dinner so just wait one more hour!"
Grumbling to himself he started to cook the rice in the steamer and set about cutting the chicken. Chicken curry was going to be their main course.
"Want any help?"
"Why are you still here?" Watanuki said with a tired voice.
"Because I want to help. I thought I made that clear."
Not wanting to deal with the idiot who seemed to live to torment him he pointed at the vegetables and said, "Wash them, peel them, and then cut them into small pieces, the size of your thumb."
It wasn't long before the small kitchen was filled with nothing but the sounds of food being chopped and bubbling pots. Doumeki and Kimihiro moved around each other with ease and before they knew it dinner was done
Yuuko-san was giddy with joy at the sight of a full Indian meal. She had wanted to try it for ages, and with Watanuki, her dream finally came true.
"Hmm! This is simply amazing!" she said as she took another serving.
Watanuki could only stare in awe as her, Doumeki and Mokona eat everything in the course of five minutes. "Did you guys even taste the food?"
"Of course we did! And like I said, this was simply amazing!"
"Yeah!" Mokona said as it laid on his back with his tummy pouting out from all the food he ate.
Doumeki simply held out his clean plate and said, "Cake."
Following his example, Yuuko-san and Mokona did the same. "CAKE!"
XxxHoLicXxxHoLicXxxHoLic
"Gaahhhh!"
"You're too loud."
"Too loud? Too loud? How could you simply say that?"
"You two are so funny!"
"Himawari-chan! It's not like that! Where in the world did you get these picture anyhow?"
Himawari looked at the two young men standing in front of her. Watanuki's face was flushed with embarrassment, while Doumeki's was just as stoic as ever. With a smile she said, "I don't know, I found the envelope in my book-bag when I was getting ready to leave my house."
Watanukie's eye-brow twitched behind his bangs, he knew how it had gotten there. It was most likely that a certain black-hair ball had bounced his way to Himawari-chan's house and left the envelope with all those embarrassing pictures inside her bag.
"I really don't see what the big deal is. They're just pictures." Doumeki said as he took them from Himawari's hand and looked through them. "Personally, I like this one."
"Oh! That's my favorite one too! Watanuki-kun looks so cute like that!"
Tears ran down Watanuki's face at her comment. He had dreamed of the day he would hear those words coming from Himawari-chan, but for completely different reasons. Not because of those pictures. Those pictures that seem would now taunt him for the rest of his life. He definitely was going to give Yuuko-san a piece of his mind as soon as he reached the shop. He didn't even know how he hadn't noticed her taking the pictures.
The ringing of the first class bell brought him back to reality. With that reality he noticed that at some point, Himawari had left them. It was just Doumeki and him standing outside the school gates, while everyone else rushed inside to make it to their classes on time.
"Here," Doumeki said handing the envelope to Watanuki. "Kunogi-san said you should keep them since they're really not hers to keep."
Watanuki couldn't help the annoyed look that graced his face. "What?" he sneered, "aren't you going to take them and show them to everyone so they can make fun of me?"
"Now why would I do that?" Doumeki asked curiosity laced in his voice. Grabbing the blue-eye teen by the arm, he brought the two of them closer. Leaning down to look at him straight in the eyes he said, "I want to be the only one to see you blush like that."
Watanuki was too shocked to say anything and before he knew it Doumeki had closed the small space between them and lightly kissed his lips. When they broke apart, he could feel his legs shaking so much he thought it a miracle to still be standing. Glaring at the archer he said, "You damn pervert, taking advantage of me like that."
"It's not like you were pushing me away."
"Shut up. We better hurry up or we'll be late for class."
With a slight smirk on his face Doumeki walked besides Watanuki noticing the slight blush that the other boy had. "I am keeping one picture though," he said.
"I knew it! You're a real jerk you know!"
Plugging his ears from the loud shouts, he simply said, "Too loud."
"Well, what the hell do you expect?" Watanuki screamed at him.
"For you to ask which one I'm keeping," was the simple response before Doumeki walked into his own classroom leaving a speechless Watanuki out in the hall. Walking to his desk he took the one picture he had taken from the envelope and looked at it.
It really was his favorite, because even though he would never admit, at that moment, he had truly been in heaven.
http :/ darkness333. deviantart. com/ gallery/ ?offset=72#/ d2dix0p (take out the spaces, please)
