I do not own xxxHOLiC

Warning: OOC

There was nothing about Ichihara Yuuko's shop that could be defined as normal, but despite the abnormalities that were present, a routine of sorts–a very odd routine, at that–had formed. Watanuki would walk there after school every afternoon and prepare lunch for Yuuko. Then he would go about finishing whatever chores Yuuko had set for him to do while Yuuko drank herself senseless. Then in the half an hour break he received (in which Mokona, Maru and Moru tormented him), he'd finish his homework or assignments and then start on Yuuko's dinner.

Occasionally, a customer would show up and Yuuko would somehow get him involved into their problems (a few times though, he had gotten himself involved willingly) and Watnuki would groan at the thought of dealing with more spirits and whatnot. At the end of every day, he thinks that even if Yuuko were to throw him into a pit full of dragons, even if Yuuko were to pair him up with that dimwit Doumeki and even if having to work for Yuuko didn't allow him to live like a regular teenager, life without Yuuko would actually be very boring.

"Aha! Watanuki! Be nice and bring me some more sake!"

"Yuuko-san, don't you think you've had enough sake already?"

"Don't be so mean, Watanuki~!"

"Watanuki's being mean! Watanuki's being mean!" Maru and Moru chanted in unison.

"I'm not getting you any eki-kyabe if you complain of a hangover tomorrow."

"You need to learn to appreciate the finer things in life..." Mokona sighed audibly, "such as sake!"

Watanuki was about to retort when a loud ring interrupted him. A customer, he thought. A woman in her mid-twenties with short stylishly cropped brown hair and robin egg eyes stepped in, looking more bewildered than anything else. Yuuko sat up and pulled her loose kimono around her lean frame and glanced at the confused woman.

"Yes?" Yuuko drawled, in her usual lazy, but observant manner, "How may I help you?"

"I...well...I've heard that the owner of this shop grants wishes," the woman started.

"I do," Yuuko nodded. "do continue. Watanuki, bring us some tea."

Watanuki darted off to the kitchen, throwing a few glances over his shoulder at Yuuko and the woman.

"I'm Inoue Fuyuumi," the woman's confused manner was slowly vanishing. Yuuko could now see sadness in her cerulean eyes, "how do I put it...my luck has been very bad lately..."

"Hm? Why would you say so?" Yuuko raised an eyebrow. Watanuki arrived with two cups of steaming tea and placed one in front of Yuuko and the other in front of Inoue-san.

"Well – about a fortnight ago, my husband was in a car crash. He...he broke both his legs," Inoue-san faltered slightly. "and he's had to be hospitalised. After that, I lost my job because the company I'm working in is facing budget cuts. We had to sell our car to pay for the hospital bills. I've also been unable to find work...and my husband will also need physiotherapy and we don't really have enough money to afford it at the moment...I just don't know what else can possibly go wrong..." At this point, the woman's voice sounded choked and tears began to spill over her eyes.

"I see. I can help you," said Yuuko.

"You can-"

"However," Yuuko cut the younger woman off. "you will have to pay a price."

"Anything. Anything." Inoue-san mumbled, determined.

"Take this and wear it around your neck always – even when you sleep." Yuuko handed the shaking woman a necklace – a thin string-like chain with a large, silver pendant with carvings in it. "You can give me your compensation later."

"Thank you – thank you so much."

And with that she left.

xXx

"Do you believe in luck Watanuki?" Yuuko turned to face the high-school boy.

"Luck?"

"Yes, luck, Watanuki. As in, have you ever written tests with a certain pen and you did well on all of them and thus you called it a lucky pen? Or have you ever considered an object unlucky because it brings you misfortune?"

"Hm? No. Not really. It don't think there is anything that can control the outcome of an event."

"I see. "

"Does that pendant really make you lucky?"

"In a way it does."

"I wish you wouldn't talk in riddles all the time Yuuko-san. It can't hurt to speak without hiding anything, can it?"

"There's no fun in that. Now fetch me more sake."

Watanuki rolled his eyes and found a bottle of alcohol in the kitchen cupboard and handed it to his employer. She grinned happily as she accepted the bottle, resembling a child in a candy store.

"It's getting late; I should get going now."

"Take care on your way back." Yuuko wished him.

"Tch. Knowing my luck, I'll probably meet a lot of spirits on the way." The bespectacled boy shrugged.

xXx

Saturday dawned on Tokyo bright and sunny. An extremely frazzled Watanuki came into work, looking nervously over his shoulder, as if expecting mad men to ambush him from behind. Maru and Moru were playing some card game and Mokona was making sure that neither of them was cheating and commenting every so often. Yuuko sat on her couch, smiling widely and not the least bit affected by the alcohol she had consumed the night before, as Watanuki had expected her to be.

"Hm...rough night? You look troubled."

"There were...there were at least a hundred of them chasing me last night."

"Spirits? That must have been unlucky."

"I'm sure it was a coincidence."

"There is no such thing as coincidence. There is only the inevitable." Yuuko stated. Watanuki glared at her.

"How would I explain what happened to you, especially after you mentioned that 'you'd probably meet a lot of spirits on your way'? You said you would meet them, and that's why you did."

"I'm not sure I quite follow."

"Nobody's luck is pre-defined Watanuki. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that the outcome of an event cannot be controlled."

"I still don't understand what you're implying."

"Human being lead such a restricting life – they are bound by so many chains – the existence of a vessel known as the 'body', the presence of the 'mind', the flow of time, feelings, thoughts, emotions...and words. As I told you, words are the only chains human beings can control. Words are living beings – they are just as much as living as you and I are, as Mokona is, as Doumeki-kun and Kunogi-san are."

"So you're saying that you can control your luck?"

"That is one way of putting it. That woman who came in yesterday – Inoue-san – her husband being involved in a car crash was inevitable. But her 'luck' went bad because she believed it would. She believed that her current predicament would worsen and that is why it did."

"So that necklace..." Watanuki struggled for words.

"Was an ordinary one, but it allowed her to believe that her luck would change. Perhaps it will." Yuuko finished for him. "Your luck is determined only by you. Remember that."

I used to believe in luck too. Watanuki mused. I used to think a stalk floating vertically in green tea bought you good luck. I used to think a black cat crossing your path bought you misfortune.

Then my parents died and I wondered if anything could go right for me. I stopped believing in luck. But if luck is just something that's been created for fear of failure or the need to blame something when things don't go as you planned...then does it really matter at all?

"Don't worry too much about it." Yuuko reassured, in a rare moment of kindness. "Now go fetch me some sake!"

Ahem, sorry about the crappiness. Comment?