"Nurturing A Grudge"

Watanuki awoke with a backache.

He had been living at the shop since returning from the spirit world and last night was the first time he had spent in his own apartment in over three weeks. With the wounds on his hands and feet now almost completely healed, Yuuko had deemed it safe for him to return home. Although without the protection of the shop a sudden new ailment had surfaced.

A weight, pulling at his shoulder blades, like dumbbells used for training, or like he was wearing a folded glider on his back, had emerged to make his night restless.

Watanuki grumbled as he went about his morning tasks, carrying the invisible weight. His hands hovered over the extra bentou box he had left out, freshly cleaned, and waiting to be filled with something delicious. Doumeki's bentou box.

Grinding his teeth together, Watanuki loaded it with a huge lunch of all Doumeki's favourite foods. "I have to speak to him today." He ordered himself. "Okay maybe not speak, maybe not use actual words, but I have to acknowledge his existence."

He squirmed at the thought.

"Doumeki sacrificed his much treasured relationship with you..."

"Is our relationship really that special to him? Am I that special?"

Watanuki's face lit up like a lantern.

"No, no, no, no, no! No way!" He shook his head in a blur of black hair, red cheeks and denial. "There's no way Doumeki...there's no way anyone...cares about me that much."

After all, I'm just...

A blinding bolt of pain suddenly shot down his spine.

He gasped, going rigid, and snapped the chopsticks he was about to place into the bentou as his whole body tensed.

The pain froze him solid as from behind him a huge pale shadow rose up, darkening the kitchen worktop like an impending storm. Two huge arcs fanned out behind his back. The weight in his shoulders uncoiled, distributed evenly somehow, in the atmosphere. He tore himself free from his shock and whirled around instinctively to face whatever was looming behind him...

No shape, no shadow, just a bright window with the morning sun streaming in.

Watanuki stood aghast.

"A-Am I going mad?"

There was a tremor, a thrum in his veins. He was vibrating. Leaning back against the countertop he tried to calm himself down. Fragmented memories like shards of glass began to shatter his mind; Cho's hands touching him, squeezing his flesh; his Monarch wings, huge and bold; Jorogumo skewered and bloody.

Watanuki clutched his head. "No! I don't want to see this! I don't want to know about who I was when I was the Monarch! I don't know him! He isn't me! That wasn't me!"

He shook off the visions, clutching the counter top to ground himself, and panting with the effort of it.

"Hah...hah...!"

In his trouser pocket, a sudden buzzing snapped him back to reality. It was his mobile. He took it out and flipped up the screen:

From: Doumeki

"I know you're not talking to me, but I just saw through your eye - I know something's wrong since that only happens when your emotions are high. Just say something so I know you are alright, otherwise I'll come over."

Watanuki considered, his anxiety easing, and sent back a single sentence:

"Bring your own chopsticks today."

[Lunchtime in the School grounds]

"Where is the nikujaga?"

"Underneath the tamagoyaki, geeze you're such a glutton! Can't you eat the top layer first? That's how it's MEANT to be done!"

Himawari giggled as she watched the two bicker as usual. "Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun are such good friends!"

"It's really not like that Himawari-chan!" Watanuki sobbed.

"Oi."

"MY NAME IS NOT 'OI!'"

"There's a spider in your hair."

"A spider?" Sure enough when Watanuki combed his fingers through his bangs a little black spider came away on his hand. He stared at it, wondering how he never noticed it crawling on him. It was raven black with dark crimson diamonds down it's back. He was reminded of Jorogumo and guilt filled him to the brim. I killed her... he mourned. I can't believe I did that. I took her life.

He laid his had flat on the ground in the hopes it would crawl off. The spider instead stayed completely still.

"How strange." Himawari mused.

Watanuki shook it, tipping his hand sideways encouragingly. The spider began to slide, then bit him as if to cling on. "'Tch!"

After another firm shake it finally let go and scuttled away into the grass.

"Did it bite you?" Himawari asked.

"Yeah. It must have been scared."

"Or maybe it's holding a grudge." Doumeki warned, and Watanuki turned to stare at him, eyes wide and suddenly uneasy. Doumeki never broke his gaze.

"I'll walk you home today." He stated flatly, without room for discussion.

To his surprise Watanuki quietly nodded. "Fine. I have something to say to you anyway."

"What is it you want to say?"

Dusk was falling like a gentle mist as the two walked back from school. Stars glittered in the inky sky, but it was not yet dark enough for the street lights to be on. The only sound was the click of their heels, then that petered out into silence as Watanuki halted his footsteps.

"I..."

Doumeki stopped about four feet away, and turned to face Watanuki with his back to the horizon. He waited, heart in his throat, but his face didn't betray a single emotion.

Watanuki just stared at his feet, weeks worth of built up apologies struggling on his lips. The weight pulling at his shoulders was back, and between his shoulder blades felt damp with nervous sweat.

"I just-"

Watanuki finally raised his head to look at Doumeki, silhouetted by the dying light, and his heart stopped when he saw that behind the archer stood a massive black shape.

It was like the shadow that had loomed over Watanuki that morning, only this time it was eight spiny legs and a huge bulbous body which imposed itself behind an unsuspecting person - Doumeki stood seemingly unaware as the monster behind him opened it's jaws...

"Watch out!"

Watanuki flung himself forward without a second though, reaching for the archer with a desperate hand as the giant spider descended.

"Doumeki!"

Whew! Finally picked this up again because of all the favs and follows it's been getting while on hiatus. Thanks so much for your support everyone! I hope this latest chapter doesn't disappoint as we enter into Arc 2! Are any of you guys reading holic rei? What the hell is going on there?