Author's Note: So, since I had such an overwhelming number of reviews and story alerts, I thought it might be a good idea to sort of explain this story to you guys. First of all, there will be more chapters. But, there is no over arching plot line. This story began because I wrote the first chapter as a short story, and at the end of it went 'But Watanuki and Doumeki aren't in a relationship yet! I can't end it here!' So, the second chapter was born. At the end of which I went, 'But I made this story rated M for yaoi goodness, there isn't that much yaoi goodness yet. I can't end it here!' Which just goes to show that I have to have more chapters, each one begetting a new one. It's a vicious cycle. What it means though is that each chapter is meant to be more like a short story, a little look in Watanuki and Doumeki's life after Yuuko dies. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that if you are reading the English translation, Warning! Here there be spoilers.

The Five Week Mark

Pat, pat, pat. It was Doumeki walking down the hallway to the kitchen, trying to make his heavy footfalls quieter. Not that it would matter if Watanuki was asleep. He could sleep through just about anything, except his alarm clock. Speaking of which, Watanuki rolled over and looked at the red numbers: it read 4:17 am. He sat up and thought about turning on the light, since he wasn't sleeping anyway. He stared at the light coming from underneath the door and listened to the water run in the kitchen. If he turned on the light, Doumeki would likely knock to see if everything was alright.

Which was a ridiculous question. If everything were all right, neither of them would be awake at 4:18 in the morning. Of course, Watanuki thought to himself, it was better with Doumeki staying in the Shop with him. He didn't feel nearly so lonely. But there was still that little bit of him that was uncertain. Uncertain about a lot of things, and that was why he didn't sleep well at night.

It might have been better if Watanuki had turned the light on, and Doumeki had stopped by. They might have talked, might have been able to settle some of those roaming thoughts. And as Watanuki stared at the door, he seriously considered it. But he was afraid.

Mokona rolled over on the pillow next to Watanuki. He smiled and pulled the blanket more firmly over the little plushie creature. The familiar pat-pat came back down the hallway and paused outside Watanuki's door. He held his breath. When the steps continued he exhaled sharply.

But Watanuki did not fall back asleep. He stayed up, wondering what kept Doumeki up at night, what made him wander the Shop in the small hours of the morning.


Beep, beep, beep. Doumeki slammed his hand down on the top of his alarm clock with a loud smack. It was six am, and he had slept maybe a total of four hours last night, again. It wasn't so much that he lay awake in bed for hours, but that he would sleep and then wake up, fall back asleep just to wake up again. Eventually he would get up and get a drink of water. That sometimes helped him to settle his mind a little and then go back to sleep. It hadn't helped last night.

He shook off the blankets and stamped over to his closet. It took a few minutes for him to yank on his clothes. He put his shirt on backwards, which did not help his mood. He yanked it back off again and then shoved his arms into the sleeves.

He tore the seam in his left armpit.

Doumeki bit his lip hard to keep from shouting and waking up Watanuki. He couldn't sew up the seam himself, that would probably just end with blood on the shirt as well as a ripped seam. And he wouldn't wake up Watanuki. Maybe Himawari would be able to help him, if he got to school early enough. He dashed into the bathroom to finish getting ready to go and was out the door just after 6:30.

He had to stop by the shrine before school; the courtyard was a little dirty and he didn't want his parents to think he was slacking on his work. If he hurried, he'd be able to sweep the whole thing and catch Himawari before school started and still avoid a lecture from his mother about not being home very much the last week and a half.

No such luck. She was standing by the front door, broom in hand. "Welcome home, Shizuka."

"Good morning, mother. I thought I'd tidy up the courtyard before school today." He tried to appease her before even coming into the shrine.

She tapped her toe on the wooden porch and tapped her fingers against the broom handle. A very bad sign. "You've been very busy this past week. Too busy to come home to sleep."

He walked a little closer, stalling to try and find a good excuse. Not that there was an excuse that his parents would understand. "I've been trying to help a friend." He approached the porch. "He had a close friend die recently."

Her hard expression softened a little. "That's terrible. Will you be coming home for dinner tonight?"

Doumeki let out an almost silent sigh. He didn't want to leave Watanuki alone. Last time he had spent the night at the Shrine, Watanuki had forgotten to eat dinner, again. But then his mother was looking at him like hell would freeze over before she would accept a no from him. "Can Watanuki come?"

"Of course." She exhaled loudly and smiled. "It is a lovely day today. Dinner will be at six." She turned to go back into the house. "Don't be late."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Doumeki said to himself sarcastically. And then he realized that his mother had taken the broom into the Shrine with her. If he wanted to sweep, then he would have to go in after her. Angrily, he shoved his sleeve up his arm to look at his watch, 7 am. He had an hour before class started. If he left now, he would be half an hour early, bored and worried, or he could follow his mother into the house.

He stomped up the porch.

She looked particularly pleased with herself when he walked into the kitchen. "May I have the broom, please?"

"Sit down and have breakfast." She gestured to the table. "I'm making omelets today."

Doumeki's stomach growled, and even though he hadn't wanted to eat with his mother, he sat down at the table.

She cracked an egg on the edge of the skillet. "So, tell me about this friend you've been looking after."

And this was exactly why Doumeki hadn't wanted to eat. He didn't want the twenty questions to which he didn't know the answers. He didn't want to subject Watanuki to her demanding personality. But mothers are a whole other species not meant to be messed with. "His name is Watanuki. We are in the same class."

"Is this that same boy that you've been helping with exorcisms?"

Leave it to his father to share everything Doumeki did with his mother. "Yes."

"He must be a very troublesome friend."

She said it innocently enough, but Doumeki heard the underlying tone, the tone that said 'so this is the boy who has been causing my precious little baby boy so much trouble, taking his attention away from school and his duties at the shrine.' And Doumeki had no defense to that.

"I'll be very glad to meet him at dinner tonight." She handed Doumeki a cheese omelet, and Doumeki felt his stomach in his throat.


Watanuki decided to take Mokona to the grocery store to buy something for Doumeki's bento for tomorrow. It was a nice day, and he felt like getting out of the house for a little while. "Mokona? Are you ready to go?"

"Yes! Can I put up the sign?"

Doumeki had made Watanuki a sign for when he left the shop to do errands, just a simple little thing that said 'Out of the Shop, will be back soon.' Just having the sign made Watanuki feel like he really was running a wish granting shop, even though he wasn't very good at it yet.

"Sure." Watanuki smiled at Mokona and then helped him to his perch on Watanuki's shoulder. "Ready?"

"Yep!"

A trip to the store with Watanuki always meant looking for the best and freshest ingredients. Since he wasn't going to school and he didn't really need to worry about money as the Shop always provided him with exactly what he needed, Watanuki could afford to be very picky. Mokona was often very good at finding the best fruit, and it was good for Mokona to get out of the shop too. And, truth be told, Watanuki liked the company.

"Ooh! I found a good one, Watanuki!" Mokona called and pointed to a very nice looking squash.

"Thank you." But as Watanuki went to grab the vegetable, another hand reached in and took it. She bumped into Watanuki

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" She said.

"That's alright." Watanuki said, and then he looked at her. There was something very familiar about her, but he would have sworn that he had never met her. After all, it wasn't terribly often that he met middle aged women, excepting the Shop of course. "I'm sorry, but have we met before?"

She smiled. "I don't think so, but I do have a son about your age, so it's possible."

"Huh." Watanuki said, but the answer didn't satisfy his curiosity.

"I'm making dinner for him tonight, and a friend of his." A dark look crossed her face. "He hasn't been home all week, so I want it to be very good." And then she smiled again. "Anyway, I'm terribly sorry for bumping you."

"It's quite all right." Watanuki said, the incident already forgotten.


Doumeki was seriously wondering just how his day could get worse. There had been a pop quiz in English that he hadn't studied for last night, half of his math problems had been wrong, and Himawari hadn't been able to fix his shirt; it had been a terrible day. And he hadn't asked Watanuki if he would come to dinner tonight. And he just wanted to go to sleep. Oh, and his bow string had snapped at practice.

He stood in front of the Shop and could not make himself take another step. It was as if everything suddenly hit him. It had been five weeks since Yuuko had gone, and things were not getting better. Oh sure, Watanuki could sometimes fend for himself, but some days he didn't even get out of bed. The school work piled up, and his parents nagged, and for the life of him Doumeki just wanted Yuuko back. Was that so much to ask for really?

Watanuki was sweeping the front porch when he saw Doumeki come up to the gate. He watched as Doumeki stopped, and he saw the pain there. But he didn't understand it. "Are you coming in?"

Doumeki snapped out of his daze and walked purposefully through the gate. "Would you eat dinner at my house tonight?" That wasn't what Doumeki had meant to say, he had meant to ask if Watanuki would like to eat dinner, but sometimes things just don't come out right.

"Okay." Watanuki didn't know why he said yes, but he was having a good day and it seemed like a good idea.

"We should probably head over there."

"Okay." Watanuki propped his broom up just inside the door. "Do you want to change first?"

Doumeki looked down at his left shoulder, thinking about the tear there. "Yes." He walked into the house, passed Watanuki.

There was definitely something wrong with Doumeki, Watanuki realized as their shoulders brushed. Something very wrong, but he had no idea what it might be. Doumeki hadn't said anything to make Watanuki think there was anything wrong, except that today his head seemed to droop.

"Are you okay?" Watanuki asked when he came back to the front door.

"Tired is all." Doumeki grunted and moved out the door.

They walked to the shrine in awkward silence. Well, Watanuki thought it was awkward; Doumeki didn't notice. It was just before six when they arrived. Watanuki had been watching Doumeki's back through the whole walk, trying to decide exactly what it was that was so off about Doumeki. Just before they walked through the front door, it hit Watanuki, why the woman in the store had looked familiar. She had resembled Doumeki.

And then she stepped out of the kitchen. "Shizuka, I'm so glad you made it." She kissed him on the cheek. "And this is your friend?" Their eyes meet over his shoulder, and hers narrowed.

Watanuki quickly bowed. "It's very nice to meet you ma'am."

"Yes." She said slowly. "Well, why don't we sit down and eat?" She pulled Doumeki over to the chair next to her, leaving Watanuki on the other side of the table by himself. "I'm sorry that my husband couldn't be here. He had to be across town for a meeting this evening."

"I would have liked to have met him too."

"Yes, I'm sure." She gave that sickly sweet smile again, and Watanuki suddenly felt as if he were meeting the parents of a girlfriend. She distinctly seemed to not like him, and he desperately wanted to impress her.

Doumeki wanted to kill his mother, say something to get her to stop, anything. But there would be no stopping her, so instead he just ground his teeth together until his jaw hurt.

"My son says that you recently lost a friend. That's terrible to hear."

"Yes, she was—very important to me." Watanuki said slowly. "Doumeki has been very kind to take so much care of me."

"Yes, but don't you have parents or a guidance counselor to help you?" She asked. "Don't misunderstand, I am very sorry for you loss, but Doumeki's grades have been suffering, and I haven't seen him in over a week."

Watanuki swallowed hard. "I am very sorry to have inconvenienced you so much. I didn't know."

"It's fine." Doumeki growled out and glared at his mother. "It's not a problem at all."

"I just worry about my little boy finding a good job." She smiled and it was like acid to Watanuki. "You have no idea how hard he's worked to get where he is. I would hate to see him throw all of that away over—"

"ENOUGH!" Doumeki shouted. "Enough." He stared at his mother. "I have chosen to help Watanuki. He is important to me, and I will not listen to you blame him for everything that has gone wrong recently. You have no idea what his life is like. Yuuko was like family. The only family he had. And I need to help him!"

It was an outburst worthy of Watanuki, and his mother was stunned. She had never seen Doumeki shout, and certainly never at her. Watanuki was in shock. He had no idea that Doumeki had that much stress in his life. And as Doumeki walked out of the kitchen without another word, his mind zeroed in on the words, 'He is important to me.'

"I'm terribly sorry that I have caused you so many problems." Watanuki said quickly and ran out the door after Doumeki.

He was sitting behind a tree, having finally lost the will to keep standing.

"I'm sorry." Watanuki said quietly and awkwardly. He wasn't sure what to do.

"I just keep thinking that there was something I could have done, some way I could have prevented it all. And then it wouldn't be like this."

Watanuki sat down next to him. "Prevented what?"

Doumeki looked at him. "Her death, your pain. I should have—" He broke down in sobs, the great heaving kind.

Watanuki wrapped his hands around Doumeki and pulled him in close. It was awkward to sit on the ground turned towards Doumeki and holding him, but it was too important. "You couldn't have stopped it. There was nothing you could do."

"Yes there is. I could have stopped it." Doumeki jerked back. "I swore I wouldn't let anything hurt you. I could have stopped it."

"No." Watanuki repeated, his lower lip quivering. "Neither of us could have done anything. She was gone before we ever met her." He was crying too, but the quiet kind that stops easily. Watanuki had cried before. Doumeki was purging his grief, getting it all out and in the open. They stayed that way for a while, until the tears had all dried and Doumeki's eyes weren't red anymore.

"It's not fair. It was such a short time."

"It was a long time," Watanuki said. "And she was ready for it." He leaned his head against Doumeki's. "Did you— Nevermind."

"What?" Doumeki looked over, his face very close to Watanuki's.

Watanuki looked at him, and he realized that he wanted to kiss Doumeki. Not because he was lonely, not because Doumeki needed it, not because of some outside circumstances. But because he actually wanted to kiss Doumeki. He put his hand on Doumeki's cheek and very slowly leaned towards Doumeki until the lips touched. It was brief and chaste, but it was nice.

Doumeki was surprised. He shouldn't have been. After all, Watanuki had moved slowly, put his hand on his face, all the signs were there, but he was still surprised. When it sunk in, he said, "That was nice."

Watanuki blushed. "Do you think, maybe we could, umm, do it again?"

Doumeki smiled and started to lean in.

"Not now! Your mother's watching." He pouted a little and nodded towards the house.

Doumeki sighed. "Maybe later? Back at the Shop."

"Back at the Shop." Watanuki agreed.

Second Author's Note: Just so that everyone is aware, the next chapter is going to be lemon-y goodness. I had thought about adding it one to the end of this chapter, but I really want it to be good and lemony. And this chapter kind of emphasises the two of them dealing with their grief. So, if you do not like lemon (why are you reading this story? Wasn't the first chapter enough of a hint?) don't read the next chapter at all. If you do like lemon, the next chapter will be Nice!