Title: Evening Visitor

Crossover: xxxHolic and Bleach.

Characters: Doumeki Shizuka, Watanuki Kimihiro, and Kurosaki Ichigo.

Pairings: Doumeki/Watanuki, if you want, but no more than canon-compliant.

Timeline: After the eye deal, before the Kohane arc of xxxHolic. No spoilers for Bleach. I've only watched until episode 14, anyhow.

A/N: Very slight cross-over with Bleach. As in, Ichigo appears. That's pretty much it. Mostly just an excuse for overprotective!Doumeki and capslock!spazz!Watanuki.

Watanuki was talking to thin air again.

That alone wasn't an unusual occurrence, although thrashing and screaming all by himself was a far more frequent sight. However, it was an odd development at this point, as Doumeki was sure the boy had been in mortal danger just moments before.

Doumeki had just been settling into his homework when the sight in his right eye had flickered. A huge monster, easily the size of a house, had flashed before his eye—close—far too close—

Watanuki.

He'd been out the door and halfway down the street, bow in hand, before he noticed he'd moved.

Come on, Watanuki, he thought desperately, look around. Show me where you are. His feet pounded the pavement, and all he could do was hope he was moving in the right direction.

Idiot, where ARE you?

His head spun nauseatingly as Watanuki turned—to run, Doumeki hoped—but it was enough for him to catch sight of a familiar landmark. The park. He threw himself to the left, into the mouth of an alley as a shortcut. He barely noticed his shoulder colliding with the wall as he took the corner too sharply. What the fool was doing in the park at sunset—without Doumeki—he really couldn't guess.

He saw the flash of black, and then stunning orange and the sweep of a sword. And then his sight flickered again, and the double image merged back into one. Just his own.

Doumeki stumbled. The fear building in his gut exploded into full-blown panic. He's not, he told himself firmly. It can't be. He's fainted, or he got away, or…or…

The other options weren't helping, so he shoved his thoughts away, focusing only on the burn of his muscles as he ran.

Several agonizingly long moments later, he rounded the corner. And was brought up short by the image of a cheerful Watanuki, sitting on a park bench, chatting away with someone Doumeki couldn't see.

He forced himself not to grab the boy and yank him away from the as-yet unseen menace. Instead, he raised his bow, aimed it at the space that seemed to be the object of the imbecile's attention, and moved slowly toward them.

"Uh, what?" Watanuki glanced over his shoulder as though following a pointing finger only he could see. "Oh!" He jumped to his feet and waved his arms, spasming frantically at Doumeki. "It's not a threat, you blockhead!" He turned back around. "Um, Kurosaki-kun, that's just…" his face soured, "an acquaintance of mine. And he's going to put. His. Bow. Away. Now." He shot another glare over his shoulder at Doumeki, who was giving his a cursory once-over. Besides a small scrape on his cheek, the spirit magnet didn't appear to be harmed. Doumeki would drag him back to get looked at more closely later.

Doumeki didn't put away his bow. The fool had been wrong before, and this…this had been far too close to…too many other times before.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Watanuki threw his hands up in disgust, muttering about oafs that didn't listen to a word he said, and turned back to the empty space. "Kurosaki-kun, I apologize." He looked at Doumeki. "This is Kurosaki-kun, and he saved my life. And he's a human. Most of the time?" he glanced back for confirmation.

"What is he, the rest of the time?" Doumeki glowered.

"DON'T BE SO RUDE, YOU SUSPICIOUS BLOCKHEAD!"

Doumeki raised an eloquent eyebrow. Its meaning seemed to go right over Watanuki's head. Perhaps all the flailing had damaged his brain, interfering with his ability to process information, Doumeki conjectured, slowly relaxing as it appeared Watanuki was as energetic as ever. At least his life force wasn't being drained by that intruder, whatever it was.

"Huh? Your body?" Watanuki was suddenly wide-eyed, and Doumeki tensed yet again. "You have anoth—one, I mean," he flushed. "Stashed it? What do you mean? Oh." He said, eyes following some moving point down the street, and sounded disappointed. "He ran off." Then he fixed his attention fully on Doumeki. "AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, ANYWAY? ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN MY DAY BY INFLICTING YOUR FOUL PRESENCE ON ME FURTHER?"

Doumeki eyed him impassively. "Why do you think I'm here?" he asked dryly, and cocked his head to the right.

"THAT'S WHAT I JUST—oh," Watanuki finished lamely, reaching up to brush at his golden right eye. "You saw that thing."

"Mm."

"Well, Kurosaki-kun was here, so I didn't need you. Who needs your ridiculous face anyway—oh, he's back!"

Doumeki turned, hand flying to his bow, but then he paused. He could see the boy now—for he was a boy, not far from Watanuki's and his own age—and he could recognize the bright orange from his vision as the boy's…unusual…hair. He was dressed in a grey school uniform, and had a schoolbag slung over one shoulder. Besides a rather forbidding expression that might have intimidated lesser men than Doumeki Shizuka, who had his own brand of riff-raff deterrent, he didn't seem to be the kind of threat that could tackle the monster Watanuki had faced. Nevertheless, Doumeki shifted closer to Watanuki instinctively, half-shielding the other. 'Human most of the time' wasn't good enough.

Watanuki waved the boy over. "AND STOP CROWDING ME, YOU LUNATIC," he added, putting his palm against Doumeki's chest and shoving. Doumeki shifted back. Two inches.

Watanuki—wisely—gave it up as a lost cause.

"I'd better be heading back now, Watanuki-kun," the stranger said. "Rukia's waiting for me. But look after yourself, alright?"

"Yes, thank you, Kurosaki-kun!"

His eyes met Doumeki's over Watanuki's head. And slowly, Doumeki inclined his head.

The stranger measured his expression for a moment, then one side of his mouth twitched up in a grin, and he nodded back. He turned his back, and with a casual "See you," and wave over his shoulder, strode off into the deepening shadows.

"Goodbye, Kurosaki-kun!" Watanuki called after him. "Thank you again!"

Doumeki turned around and started walking in the direction of the idiot's house. "Oi."

Watanuki whirled, and set off after him, lecturing as he went. "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF TO GET IT THROUGH YOUR UNFORGIVABLY THICK SKULL THAT MY NAME IS NOT 'OI.' IT IS WATANUKI. WA. TA. NU. KI. KIMIHIRO. GOT IT?"

"Kimihiro."

Watanuki jerked to a halt. "What," he said, at an uncharacteristically low decibel level. Then he took a breath and flailed in Doumeki's wake. "I NEVER GAVE YOU PERMISSION TO CALL ME THAT, YOU PRESUMPTUOUS ASS—"

Hn. Was that foam coming out of the idiot's mouth? He stuffed a finger into his ear to enjoy the show at a less earsplitting volume.

He waited until Watanuki was out of breath before he informed him of his latest bento request.

Watanuki's face was turning red from lack of oxygen, but he was not to be deterred. "I DON'T TAKE ORDERS FROM YOU, MORON. AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING TODAY."

Doumeki glanced around pointedly.

Watanuki twitched. "I didn't ask you to come running after me!"

"That wasn't what I meant."

"THEN WHAT DID YOU MEAN, YOU CRYPTIC FOOL? THE WORKINGS OF YOUR FEEBLE, INSIGNIFICANT MIND—"

Doumeki let the familiar voice wash over him, and concentrated on dissolving the knot that had formed in his stomach at the first flashes of Watanuki's fear.