Hello there! First xxxHolic fic! Basically, a Watanuki/Kohane friendship fic. Takes place sometime after chapter 155.

May Tomorrow be a Sunny day

XX

"Ah, we're having good weather today, aren't we?" Watanuki raised his arms above his head, stretching out all the muscles in his back and arms, cramped from many hours of cleaning and cooking. Kohane, silent besides him, nodded in agreement.

The park was empty, though the morning was waning and afternoon was almost upon them. He wondered if he should have been grateful to Yuuko for letting him take the morning off and go out with Kohane. Then again, he had to make the bento, plus prepare lunch in advance for not only Yuuko and Mokona but Doumeki too! He was sure that they were using this time to create more work for him whilst he was not around to reprimand them.

"This is where we once met, wasn't it?" Kohane ran towards a familiar tree, placing a tender hand on its bark. She turned to him as if silently asking, 'do you remember?'

Watanuki smiled. Well, whatever trouble Yuuko was getting up to, it was worth being able to spend some time with Kohane since things had settled down after that awful television program. Since then, he had hoped that he could see her smile more. Before, she always seemed ready to offer one, but they had always appeared slightly half-hearted, marred by some sombre note in her mind.

He hoped to see her smile as if she meant it.

"Why don't we sit over there? I brought some food with us," He lifted the straw basket, pointing to a long, open field of grass cut away from the path by a row of trees.

"If that's what Kimihiro-kun wants," she replied sweetly and took the first step towards the field, Watanuki trailing close behind.

"I hope that we'll have weather like this tomorrow," he sighed with content, stretching out again underneath the sun. Warm days were the best; not too hot, not too cold, a perfectly pleasant day for relaxing. "You don't like the rain, do you, Kohane-chan?"

She shook her head. "I don't mind it. But I prefer weather like this."

Scooping her long skirt underneath her, she settled down on the grass like a positioned doll, her hands resting carefully in her lap, brown hair gathered and left trailing over one shoulder so not to touch the ground. Only her eyes moved, unable to resist the temptation, they curiously roved across the open field, over the cattails and bowing dandelion heads waving slightly in the wind.

Before Watanuki could tell her to relax, she broke her position, stretched her arm for something hidden in the grass and drew back with it in her hand.

That something could grab Kohane's attention piqued his own curiosity and he leaned closer to her in order to see what she had found.

"What's that?"

Kohane lifted it closer to Watanuki's face. "Clover," she twirled one between her finger and thumb, the rich green and the light pattern on the three leaves becoming a spinning blur.

"Oh, if you find one with four leaves it's supposed to bring you luck, right?" he turned his head to survey the field. Clumps of clover appeared to sprout all over the ground in large patches, occasionally dotted with the bright yellow head of a dandelion and the cheerful white dress of a curtseying daisy. "It would take forever to search a field this big," he murmured, more to himself than to her.

"It's okay," she replied absently, gathering more in her lap and plucking at the grass. "Mother taught me a charm."

Watanuki accidentally let a concerned frown slip over his lips. "Your mother did?" he spoke tentatively. Kohane's mother was a sensitive topic for them both and he did not want to unintentionally pour salt on a wound that had yet to fully close.

"A long time ago. When father was still here," she explained without hesitation. Her hands did not once waver as her fingers knotted pieces of clover together but she refused to look at him. "The three of us went on a picnic and she taught me how to make a crown of clover."

There was a long pause of silence between them. Kohane, who remained fixated on recreating that crown, did not appear to notice Watanuki's eyes carefully watching her with a mixture of sobriety and hope.

Plucking the longest stalks from the field, he carefully tried to copy the crown that she was making. His fingers weaved the strands in and out, trying to bind them into a secure ring.

"Like this?" he showed her his progress. Though it was undeniably shoddy work, she nodded her approval.

He battled with the long strands of grass that seemed to unravel every time he knotted the ends together, and the clover which always fell out of the weave. Whilst Kohane patiently worked on her ring, his own lack of improvement was frustrating.

"Ah! I give up! I'm not good at this!" he finally sighed, throwing his clumsy work into the air. He fell onto his back, arms outstretched along the grass as the half-made crown broke apart under the sky and drifted back down in slithers of green, like tiny fairies parachuting onto his face.

He suppressed a sneeze and hurriedly wiped the grass and clover from his face. For a brief moment, he closed his eyes and let the sun warm his skin, breathing in deeply the smell of the earth and the grass, still slightly damp from the morning dew, tickling his hands.

The sky was too blue. Cloudless, and burning bright. He knew that if he stared at it, it would probably hurt his eyes. Maybe it would swallow them whole. Maybe that would be a good thing. If they could live as peacefully as they were now.

He picked out the grass from his hair, which he had missed before, as he sat up again.

"Kohane-chan, are you hungry? I made - "

Something light and soft landed on his head. His eyes trailed up to his brow, where he could just about see a friendly clover peeking over him.

"It's a magical crown. For every clover in it, you get one wish," Kohane tilted her head to admire her handiwork.

"You say that but…" he jabbed a finger at his head, "it looks sort of dorky on me, doesn't it?"

"Not at all! It suits you, Kimihiro-kun!" she assured him.

"I don't know whether to be glad about that or not," he muttered, slipping the crown off of his head. "I think it looks much better on Kohane-chan!" he dropped that crown upon her head. Now that he could see it properly, he could tell that it was really well constructed. He never would have thought that grass and clover could be so sturdy or so strong.

Now that he thought about it, was that not just like Kohane? She appeared fragile and easily hurt, yet strong enough to stand up every time someone stepped on her.

Remembering where he was, he reminded himself to smile."Go ahead, make a wish," he nodded to her.

Kohane paused for thought. At length, she put her two hands together as though in prayer and gently closed her eyes. "May tomorrow be a sunny day," she prayed, opening her eyes again.

"That's it?" Watanuki frowned. "You've got to put more feeling into your wishes otherwise they won't come true. Like this!" He slapped his hands together, squeezing his eyes shut, his brows furrowed in concentration. "May Yuuko-san be sober when I get back!" he spoke clearly, loud enough for his voice to ring through the deserted field. "Oh, and may that jerk Doumeki finally learn how to appreciate my cooking!"

"May Kimihiro-kun find time to rest," Kohane clapped her hands together.

"May Himawari-chan and I finally spend a romantic night together!"

"May Kimihiro-kun have success in love!"

Head slightly bowed, Watanuki allowed a small sigh to pass through his lips. "That's no good! If you keep wishing for my sake, I'm going to feel like a really selfish person," he said, gently chiding her.

"That's not true," she adamantly shook her head, eyes wide as if astounded by the thought. Determined to prove him wrong, she clapped her hands together once more. "May…may I get to taste fatty tuna sushi one day!"

"May the stores in the high street lower their prices!"

She smiled at him and made another wish upon the crown. "May I continue to be friends with Watanuki-kun and everyone."

"May all those spirits stop bothering me." They continued to take their turns.

"May I grow up a good person."

"May I one day finally work off my debt to Yuuko-san!"

"May the government never decide to build over Yuuko-san's shop!"

As they continued to wish, their prayers sometimes realistic, sometimes fanciful, sometimes wishing for petty things, things they did not need, sometimes wishing for what they had always desired, Watanuki opened one eye to sneak a peek at Kohane's face.

She was smiling as she clapped her hands together again and again, her lips ready to break into a laugh at any moment. He hoped that he could see that kind of Kohane more often now. That was the Kohane that he liked the best.

Softly pressing his hands together, fingers touching at their tips, he did not close his eyes this time as he made his last wish.

"May Kohane-chan find happiness."

Though his words had been spoken quietly, the park was empty enough for her to hear. Kohane started, eyes wide as though she did not know whose voice had spoken.

Her smile was awkward at best, wavering somewhere between abashed and hesitant pleasure. "K - Kimihiro-kun too. May Kimihiro-kun also find happiness," she stuttered, eyes finding their way to gaze at the ground. "And Mother," she clasped her hands together, more tightly than before. Her pained expression was not so easily concealed that it could escape Watanuki's notice.

"May Mother also be able to find happiness one day. May Mother be about to smile again. May she…may Mother…"

Her voice trailed away feebly, her words fading into a whisper and disappearing into the air.

Watanuki's expression softened. Sliding towards her without a sound, he reached for her head and gently removed the crown above her brow.

"Kohane-chan doesn't need something like this," he ruffled her hair with affection. "You can make your wishes come true with your own will. You're strong after all."

Gaze turned to the grass, she shook her head. Her crown of clover became a crown of thorns, a great pain keeping her from meeting his eyes. "No. If I was strong, then…"

"Kohane-chan is very strong."

Kohane bowed her head so sharply that he was afraid that he might have accidentally hurt her with his thoughtless words. Yet when she finally managed to meet his gaze, he was sure that her smile was more brilliant than he had ever witnessed before.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to. It's just the truth," he busied himself with their basket of lunch in order to hide his embarrassment, and pleasure, at being thanked. "Now me, I'm the type that really needs to rely on these things. Especially with Yuuko-san badgering me every second of the day, Mokona jumping on me all the time, shopping, cooking, studying, and that idiot Doumeki…" he trailed away before the bleakness of reality could depress him any further.

Kohane stifled a timid laugh behind her hand. "Well, I know lots of other charms."

"Really?" he instantly brightened. Himawari liked those sorts of things, right? Maybe if he learnt a few, it would grab her interest.

"What kind of charms are you interested in? Love charms?" she gave him a knowing look.

"W - Well, I don't know about that," He muttered. Surely he was not desperate enough to resort to that. Yet. "How about ones that makes you smarter?" he suggested.

"Smarter?" Kohane titled her head questioningly.

Watanuki carefully unloaded the basket, spreading his hand-made bento over a small, chequered cloth.

"There's something I want to try."

XX

The moment both Watanuki and Kohane returned to Yuuko's shop, they were greeted by an over-enthusiastic Mokona, who bounced onto their shoulders and flung itself into their faces with affection. Doumeki followed soon after, wearing a yukata and holding an empty bento box in his hand.

He nodded to them in turn before speaking to Kohane; "Yuuko-san is out back, waiting for you. She has tea and biscuits prepared," then to Watanuki; "She also wants to know what's for dinner."

"Dinner! I just got back and she expects me to cook?" Watanuki exploded into a hissing fit.

Kohane smiled and slipped past them to the garden. Calming down, he watched her go before attempting to search his pockets for the product of his morning work.

"Hey!" he called for Doumeki's attention. "Put this on."

Without bringing his eyes to meet him, a chain of dandelions; each stripped of leaves and dangling downwards by their stalks, was pushed into Doumeki's arms.

"This?" Doumeki put the dandelion chain around his neck without questioning its purpose and Watanuki had to suppress the urge to call him an idiot for not inquiring about the suspicious chain at all.

It did not take Doumeki long to realise that he was being stared at, quite intensively, by the great bearer of his strange gift. In fact, the forcefulness of Watanuki's gaze as it attempted to bore into him was somewhat unnerving.

"What?" he matched him, an apathetic stare for an impatient one.

"Well?" Watanuki continued to stare at him unfalteringly.

"Well what?"

His reply only served to annoy him. Watanuki's eyes narrowed, perhaps burning with more intensity than before as if he wished to push the boy back with his eyes alone, yet they remained fixed on Doumeki's blank expression.

"Do you feel anything?" he asked at length.

"Feel anything?" Doumeki repeated, beginning to sound much like a monotone parrot.

"Like a sudden light dawning over your eyes!" He cried, flailing his arms around in an angry fit. "Like the sudden urge to scream 'Thank you Watanuki-sama for all you've done! I was too stupid with that stupid face and stupid blank expression to see it before, but now I fully understand how truly magnificent you are!' Anything like that?"

"No."

"What do you mean 'No'?" he screamed.

"Are you an idiot?"

Grasping his head in his hands, he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Arrrgh! Did I do something wrong? I did exactly what Kohane-chan told me to!" he yelled to himself, oblivious to the fact that Doumeki was not only looking at him as if he was an idiot but an insane one too.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he muttered, his voice unchanging and unmoved even by Watanuki's latest spaz attacks.

This apathy, of course, coupled with the montone in which Doumeki spoke, only served to further annoy the other, who elicited a strangely strangled, irritated yell, which could be heard from outside the shop.

"My, aren't they having fun?" Yuuko dryly noted, depositing the ash in her pipe into a small, lacquered tray.

Kohane sat across from Yuuko, by the small white table in the garden of her shop. The smell of tea and the sweet scent of a single daffodil standing in the middle of the table warmly wafted over them, almost masking the musky scent of Yuuko's smoke.

Twisting herself around to glance back at the old shop, Kohane laughed before turning back to her tea. This time, she did not hide the sound behind her hand but allowed it to be taken by the wind; her payment for the happiness she had received in meeting such people.

With a nod in Yuuko's direction and another for the yellow daffodil, brightly ushering the warmth of the season, she clapped her hands together yet omitted making a wish.

After all, there was no need for wishes. She already knew that tomorrow would be a sunny day.

And that, as they say, is the end. Took a fair amount of time to write, mainly because spellchecker wanted to automatically change Watanuki to satanic for some reason. Honestly. Watanuki? Satanic? Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought of it.