Warnings: slash, crude language, aimless, short
Disclaimers: I do not own xxxHOLiC or the associated characters; they belong to the ever-so-wonder CLAMP and associates, of which I am not one (sadly). Written for violet-phoenix-rose's Calendar Challenge on HPFC.
Minatsuki: Water
"Sir?" Doumeki's eyes flicked left and he couldn't withhold his sigh. A woman was standing a bit behind him and to the left, wearing the department store uniform. From the concerned look on her face, Doumeki knew it had happened again. "You were completely spaced out sir. Do you need any assistance?"
"No, just lost in thought," the archer shook his head. This was a lie, of course; he had come to the department store to buy a new futon, and had been examining one. He had not been thinking of much other than the quality of the fabric and whether it was any firmer than his current one, and he certainly hadn't been "spaced out" like the sales assistant claimed.
He had, however, not heard a single thing she said in what he guessed was a thirty-second period of time, maybe more.
"If you say so," she bowed ever so slightly. "If you need any help, please go to the desk or find an assistant somewhere on this floor."
Doumeki hummed in a noncommittal manner, returning to his perusal of the merchandise without much enthusiasm. The entire situation, he supposed, was Watanuki's fault. And his own, of course, but it was Watanuki who brought Mugetsu with him to the shrine to pick up a book for Yuuko, and it was Mugetsu that ended up ripping several holes in Doumeki's futon to find a sock that had apparently been under it without his notice.
Unfortunately, that meant that Doumeki needed a new futon, and since his mother was busy with her final year of university and his father simply didn't have the time that day, Doumeki had been given a few large bills and instructions to pick up a futon after school. His parents thought that a dog had broken into the house and bit holes into it, which was close enough. So here he was.
However, that wasn't the only way in which Watanuki was responsible for that situation. It seemed the teen was shouting again, probably at his employer.
To most, the idea wasn't one to be associated with Doumeki's sudden deafness. To Doumeki, it wouldn't have even mattered since his friend was always yelling at something (usually him), except for a certain phenomenon that had been going on for the past month or so. Whenever Watanuki shouted, Doumeki would suddenly find that his ears literally did not work, just as Watanuki always accused him.
At first, it had only happened when Doumeki was personally within hearing distance. After a week or so, the moments happened more often, so Doumeki consulted Yuuko (with a bottle of finely aged wine as payment) to see if it was perhaps some fort of spiritual event.
It was, but not in the usual sense.
It wasn't some other spirit involving itself in matters pertaining to Watanuki and Doumeki or anything; Doumeki's own soul had, apparently, decided to "protect" him. Or that's what Yuuko told him after a full explanation of what he knew was going on. Something Watanuki had said hurt him, and because of the connection to the spirit version of catnip was now able to alter itself whenever the slight flare of Watanui's spirit signaled a raised voice.
Doumeki, of course, knew exactly what had hurt him -
I HATE YOU WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING!
- but he didn't know how to fix the damage. The only thing that Watanuki's voice could damage was Doumeki's ears, and maybe his pride, but that was it. The archer had decided this just as he had decided that wearing a girl's kimono as a child wasn't embarrassing, as he had decided that he wasn't afraid of spiders, and as he had decided that even if he did maybe reciprocate whatever feelings Watanuki apparently had for him that said emotions were not to be acted upon ever if he wished to keep his life.
Apparently, as convinced as Doumeki was that Watanuki could not hurt him with words, his heart or soul or whatever the hell it was disagreed.
Thus he spent about three to five percent of every day deaf.
He selected a futon and brought it to the front counter, forking over the money had been given, and left with the box hefted on his shoulder. It was seriously getting annoying, and he had even changed his habits when walking through the city since he could rely on the sound from crosswalk signs to tell him it was safe to walk in case he went deaf for a bit.
Clearing himself of pointless thoughts, Doumeki paid close attention to his surroundings and made his way home.
He was about three blocks away from his home when he noticed his hearing had shorted out again. His lips pursed momentarily, and he opted to pay extra careful attention with his eyes since Watanuki was obviously shouting again, and those outbursts could go on for a while.
It wasn't until he was suddenly seeing a double image of the street, one image being about ten meters further back and gaining, with his own back in the image, that he realized Watanuki was anywhere nearby. Doumeki turned around on the spot and hardly moved in time not to be completely bowled over by the running boy.
Of course, Watanuki was also flailing, red in the face, and judging by his flapping jaw, shouting very loudly.
"Oi," Doumeki grumbled, keeping his volume in check. He had learned that in his moments of deafness his voice would try to compensate for his lack of hearing and raise, which didn't actually help.
Watanuki shouted something - probably along the lines of "My name isn't 'Oi'!" - and quickly dashed around and then behind Doumeki, suddenly facing in the same direction as the archer.
Which, coincidentally, made it so Doumeki could see a very big, very malevolent looking spirit.
Apparently the deaf moments were more troublesome that he thought.
In an instant, Doumeki had dropped his futon box and was pulling taught on what was, essentially, an imaginary bow, even though he could see it in one eye. The arrow was notched, pulled back, and released before the ayakashi even progressed so much as a block, exploding like a firework.
There was silence, but this time it wasn't because of any hearing problems that the archer might have. He turned to his companion, who had apparently calmed down enough that he was no longer transmitting his vision, sitting on the sidewalk.
"Why didn't you turn around when I yelled at you?" Watanuki's voice was... calm. He was serious, not just freaking out, but honest-to-god angry. "You didn't so much as -" Doumeki's hearing cut out as Watanuki shouted the last word, but his meager ability to read lips gave him what he thought was "twitch" though he couldn't be sure.
"I can't hear you when you shout," he stated after a moment. "It's been like that for a month, and you only just noticed? Baka."
Mismatched eyes glared up at him, but there was something else in that gaze that, just then, Doumeki didn't want to contemplate.
"Come on," he sighed and pulled Watanuki up from the ground. Unlike previous instances of contact, Watanuki was not kicking up a fuss, but rather just looked shocked and followed Doumeki to his house. It seemed that he had finally said something that could silence his friend, but Doumeki was pretty sure that wasn't a good thing.
Not for the first time that year, something changed.
Author's Note: Sorry it took so long. I've been working on original stuff and some Mori/Harry, and this totally slipped my mind! O_O!
Once again, I just couldn't make the quote work. Sorry! But it would have been weird at this point in the story, so... yeah. "If a week goes by and your friends are not completely confused or terrified by one of your actions, you're not doing your job." It... wouldn't have made any sense to be honest, unless maybe Yuuko said it, but it still would have been weird.
