Disclaimer: Don't own xxxholic. Duh.

Surprisingly, well maybe not that surprising, Doumeki took charge of the kiss. Moving his lips softly but firmly, he made sure to capture all of Watanuki's lips.

Watanuki felt as if his desires were answered, like an alcoholic craving for beer and got it, and he responded to the kiss in his own awkward manner.

Doumeki took advantage of Watanuki's compliance and pressed his hand on the latter's back to close the distance as much as possible without squashing the sleeping baby in between them.

This time, before Doumeki had a chance to touch any part of his tongue to his lips, Watanuki had pulled away abruptly. The archer opened his eyes and blinked in surprise at the sudden loss of contact.

He paused, half-expecting the outburst of outrage of modesty from the other boy. When none came, he started, "Watanuki…"

Watanuki got up quickly, keeping his head lowered and turned so as to avoid meeting the archer's gaze. "I… I need to go back to cooking."

Then he strode away and disappeared into the kitchen. Doumeki was left still staring at his wake but before he could ponder any longer on the matter, a soft sound alerted him to the warm bundle to his arms.

He glanced down to the bright green eyes of the baby, who was obviously very much awake. The baby gave a giggle and Doumeki could have sworn he saw a twinkle in those captivating eyes.

"Hey, you little brat. Did you see what you're not supposed to see?" Doumeki lifted the baby up and took hold of the little fists that were trying to grab at his hair. The baby giggled again and started to pull at Doumeki's shirt.

"You want to see Watanuki?" Doumeki got up from the couch and carried the baby on his left arm. As much as Doumeki knew that was a lousy excuse to go see Watanuki, he ignored the sneering thought and stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

Watanuki had donned on his apron and was standing before the stove, stirring something in the pot. Doumeki padded across the small kitchen and leaned over Watanuki's shoulder. "Breakfast?"

Watanuki jumped and nearly sent the ladle flying. He shot an accusatory glare at the archer and yelled, "Don't creep up behind me like that!"

Doumeki ignored him and kept his gaze on the bubbling pot. The baby squirmed for a while then stretched out both his little arms towards Watanuki. "Gah…bah…bah…" he said incoherently, looking intently at Watanuki and waiting to be carried.

Watanuki blinked for a moment, then set his ladle down and took the baby from Doumeki. The baby chortled happily and snuggled into Watanuki while Doumeki looked on in amusement.

"I was right. You have affinities with infants."

Watanuki glared. "Shut up. And don't slack off! Breakfast is ready, grab some bowls and ladle out the stew! Lazy bum!" he strode off, the baby tucked securely in his arms.

"Ooh look! Isn't he adorable?"

"Ooo yes! How cute! They look good together."

"Ne, ne… isn't he a bit young?"

Watanuki tried to ignore the cooing and whispering and continued to choose spring onions from the crate.

"That person there… do you think they could be…?"

"Really? You think so? Maybe they adopted the baby or something…"

Watanuki grimaced. It was impossible to tune out the whispering and gossiping obviously targeted at them.

Two guys and a baby who was drawing adoring looks from every female in the supermarket.

Watanuki groaned. He knew it was a bad idea.

"Oi. You done with those spring onions? You're choosing vegetables, not a prospective partner."

Of course it was a bad idea.

Watanuki grabbed a stalk of spring onions and pointed it at Doumeki. "Stop emitting pheromones here! Just go home will you? Why the hell did you have to tag along in the first place?"

Doumeki didn't flinch. He walked calmly over to the meat section, grabbed some packed beef and dumped it unceremoniously in Watanuki's basket. "Because I'm choosing my dinner."

The yells of audacity that followed had the gossipers around them dispersed immediately. The baby seemed a little startled and he clutched tightly onto Doumeki's shirt, lips quivering.

Watanuki felt a little guilty. "Fine. For the sake of the little guy, I'm letting you have your way for now." He grumbled and continued to shuffle around the supermarket

Watanuki was getting a little more jumpy than usual. Judging from his erratic behaviour these past few weeks, he knew he was in a more or less unstable state and he wasn't sure when he was going to 'act up' again.

However, things only seemed to act up when Doumeki was around and it seemed that this bizarre behaviour was occurring more and more frequently. And plus he was losing more and more power to resist.

This could be dangerous, he thought to himself as they walked out of the supermarket and began heading to his home in the dusk light. 'What if I do something extremely stupid in front of Himawari-chan? Argh!'

"Oi, Watanuki."

Startled by the sudden voice breaking through his rambling thoughts, Watanuki turned annoyed to Doumeki.

Then realized why the archer had suddenly called out with a slight urgency in his tone.

Their surroundings had completely darkened. It was like someone had draped a black translucent cloth over the setting sun. The outline of the street was blurry and the temperature had dropped by a notch.

If Doumeki could see it, it couldn't be something spiritual right? Watanuki froze and glanced around the area which seemed to be darkening by the second.

Then a breeze began to pick up. The wind got stronger and stronger and Watanuki saw a black ball of what looked like mist suspended in front of him. The ball increased in size tremendously, swirling and spiraling until it got bigger than the both of them.

Watanuki backtracked in fright and looked to the archer. Doumeki was frowning as he watched the growing black mass. Before the archer could open his mouth, Watanuki was swept off his feet.

Yelling out in shock, he kicked furiously in mid air as he got lifted higher and higher. Doumeki instantly rushed forward to grab him but failed to reach him. Watanuki could only watch on helplessly as he got sucked into the black mass.

The last thing he saw was Doumeki running towards him, arms outstretched and his yell of Watanuki's name fell silent upon his ears.

Then everything went black.

A/N: I'm sorry, I don't do baby talk.

Thank you so much for the reviews. Will try to get the next chap up sooner instead of the somewhat long hiatus.