Prologue: A Conversation About An Abstract Past

Somehow, the conversation had managed to fall flat. Again. Even the Mokona was silent. The only sounds in the room was the steady sounds of eating, the soft clicks of chopstick against chopstick, and every now and again the sound of a teacup being lifted or of tea being poured. But then again, even when they were talking, it was like they weren't: their mouths were just moving and no real meaning came out with the air and noise. It had been like that for the past three and a half years.

He finally sighed, laying his chopsticks against his rice-bowl, folding his hands upon the table. "Do you remember?"

Watanuki looked at him oddly in that half-lidded, exhausted, almost-mysterious-looking way he had adopted since that day all those years ago. "I remember quite a bit of things," he said evenly, laying down his own set of utensils. "I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific." Although he was quite aware of what his companion was speaking of he had become used to making sure his intuition was right. With Doumeki, though, he never really had to practice; it was much easier to know things when you were close to that person.

"That trip."

"There were several."

"What happened afterwards."

"There were a lot of afters."

Doumeki sighed, studying Watanuki's face from across the table. He still looked a young teen; nothing much had changed physically, yet the way he held himself, the things he knew changed Watanuki to the point that Doumeki sometimes had to struggle to recognize him. "She wouldn't want you to be unhappy in this, you know."

Watanuki bristled, and then grit his teeth to calm himself. He reached for his glass, taking a sip of the bitter alcohol before saying, quite calmly, "Who said I was unhappy here?"

"No one," the college student replied. "I'm simply stating a fact. There's no problem in letting yourself think about the past. You seemed firmly entrenched in it already."

"As are you," Watanuki replied, leaning back onto his hands. He peered through his lashes at the man, "I know why it was you chose to study what you did. I'm not that naïve."

"Now that the pretenses are gone, do you remember?"

Watanuki sighed, reaching up to rub his temples, the silk of his shirt brushing against his cheek, reminding him of the way the memory felt. He rose. "Since you insist on succumbing to nostalgia," he said, smoothing the front of his Chinese-style top, "Let's go somewhere more comfortable to sit. Mokona, do we still have that faerie liquor that the water sprite gave us in exchange for deterring the construction?"

Mokona thought for a moment, then brightened considerably, "Yes! We do have that, Mokona almost forgot!"

Watanuki smiled, "Let's go fetch it, shall we?" The Mokona hopped up from the table to Watanuki's shoulder, looking at Doumeki in concern as Watanuki brushed past him to the storage hall.

必然

Watanuki seated himself gracefully on the long chaise lounge, pouring drinks one by one, finishing with himself. Doumeki took his glass, then set it aside, staring at his companion.

The raven-haired teen raised an eyebrow at the former archer over the rim of his glass; "And you're refusing to drink…?" he queried, lips around the edges of the small bowl-like cup.

Doumeki leaned forward, bracing his elbows against his knees, fabric of his dress-shirt pulling against his shoulders. "I'll make it a wish if you keep avoiding the question."

Watanuki smirked, "You wouldn't like the price," he teased.

"Do you remember?"

"Of course I do," the teen answered wearily. "I remember quite vividly."

"What went wrong?"

Watanuki flashed Doumeki a lightly exasperated look, then said with the deliberant voice he saved for his most stubborn customers, "Hitsuzen, of course.".

A/N: Welcome new readers and old! After a year's hiatus on this story, I am rewriting it. Several things made me want to do it, but in reality, the newest chapter pushed me over the edge and made me want to write for this fandom again. Spoilers up to chapter 186 (and I will completely ignore, until the time comes, events afterwards), slightly AU-ish air, minor crossovers with Legal Drug and TRC. I'm going to do my best to incorporate the cannon events into this.