Fandom: XXXHOLiC
Characters: Watanuki Kimihiro, Doumeki Shizuka
Theme: 43 – Under the Bed
Warnings/Ratings: There is a bit of conversation in here copied verbatim from a conversation with a friend of mine. Yes, that means you should be very worried.
In A Nutshell: "What," Watanuki began, raising what he'd uncovered to the other boy's face, awed but not angry (yet), "is this?"
Disclaimer: I don't own Holic.
Seeing as Watanuki was running out of things to offer in exchange for his life being saved (he was already cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the big oaf, as well as snacks whenever he wanted, which had meant running over in torrential rain a few times and ARGH LIFE WAS SO UNFAIR) he was currently at Doumeki's place and cleaning his room. He supposed (hoped) that it would be hard to run out of rooms, seeing as the place was gargantuan.
Still, it was pretty bad giving up his Sunday afternoon to clean Doumeki's room. It could be worse, he reminded himself whilst dusting the bookshelf, I could be in a maid's outfit. He shuddered. Those words will never leave my head. He winced as he thought about it, finishing the bookshelf and proceeding to vacuum the floor.
The worst part about it, he found, was that Doumeki was watching him. It was so creepy. He passed the vacuum over the majority of the floor, then turned it off and dragged it over to where the futon was.
Doumeki was one of those people who left their futon out because they had an abundance of space as well as an abundance of laziness. Watanuki had already taken the sheets off and left them in a nice pile somewhere to be washed; now he just had to roll up the thing and shove it someplace while he vacuumed where it had been.
Just as he was about to commence rolling it up, he heard a voice behind him inquire, "What are you doing?"
He turned, irritated, to see Doumeki standing there, his face devoid of expression, as usual. He huffed in a way that he hoped was derogatory (it wasn't, and it would never be, but he wouldn't give up that hope) and shot back with just about as much venom he could muster up, "What do you think I'm doing? Oh, wait, of course you wouldn't know, you've obviously never cleaned a single day in your life." It hadn't come out sounding as poisonous as he would've liked, but there wasn't much he could do about it; it had been a long day and he was tired from cleaning, drawing ever closer to a line he would have to cross where one side meant apathy and the other meant sheer hysteria.
Of course, the statement about Doumeki never cleaning was probably true. His room had been a disaster zone, which Watanuki hadn't really anticipated. He seemed like the sort to keep things clean, if only so they were functional, but there were things thrown all over the floor to the point where he couldn't even walk in a straight line to the futon. Yes, it had been a very long day.
Doumeki shrugged at his not-insulting insult, and repeated, "Really, though, what are you doing?" Was he looking… nervous? Watanuki mentally shook his head; a nervous Doumeki was an impossibility, as it would interrupt the laws of the universe and send the earth careening out of orbit into the blackness of space.
"I'm rolling up your futon so I can vacuum under it." He rolled his eyes and turned back to his work. That is, until a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"You don't have to do that." Did his voice sound just a tiny bit tinted with some sort of emotion?
Chalking it up to his imagination, he retorted, "Doumeki, you twit, stop it." He batted off the hand and continued to roll up the futon. Before Doumeki could stop him again, he discovered what it was he was not supposed to find, and he could feel the archer stiffen up behind him as tension came off of him in huge, intimidating waves. Any other time he would have been absolutely amazed that the stoic boy had expressed emotion, but he was too shocked to even register it.
The silence couldn't last forever. "What," Watanuki began, raising what he'd uncovered to the other boy's face, awed but not angry (yet), "is this?"
Doumeki cleared his throat, trying to buy time. "It's… uh… a magazine." It was the first time he'd heard him stumble on his words but this was lost on him due to what he was holding between his thumb and index finger.
"Would you mind explaining why you have a magazine like this?" Watanuki's voice floated up to him.
"Uh…" He was waiting until the inevitable explosion would come so he wouldn't have to say anything.
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity of an awkward moment… "It's… it's… IT'S NOT RIGHT!"He jammed his fingers into his ears. "YOU ARE A TEMPLE KID." The temple kid stereotype, eh? Doumeki thought absently. Watanuki just continued. "YOU GREW UP IN A TEMPLE. THIS IS A PLACE COMMONLY CONSTRUED AS A HAVEN OF PURITY. OH MY GOD! YOU WERE KEEPING SOMETHING LIKE THIS," here he waved the offending material for emphasis, "IN HERE! A TEMPLE, OF ALL PLACES! OH MY GOD!" Doumeki would have told him to shut up if it weren't so damn entertaining. Personal embarrassment ebbing away, he was now relaxed enough to fully enjoy the panicked yelling. "YOU'VE SULLIED MY PURITY!"
He had to do it. Watanuki was just asking for it. "Isn't purity only supposed to be ruined through sex...?" He prided himself on successfully throwing out this sentence with no emotion, because on the inside he was pissing his pants laughing.
He watched as the smaller boy's eyes grew wide (direct hit! Instant K.O!.). Then, of course, he was hit with the thought that maybe he should defend himself. "MENTAL PURITY. YOU'VE DEFILED MY MENTAL PURITY." He then shot a dirty look towards the taller boy as a sort of afterthought.
They lapsed into silence for a few moment. Then Doumeki smirked; Watanuki had totally walked into this, after all. He stepped closer to the loud boy, who stood up and backed away, perhaps to avoid being touched and therefore contracting pervert-itis. How foolish of him, doing exactly what he had been expected to do. All too easily, he had been backed into a corner, where he was forced to stop, dropping the magazine he was unaware he'd still been holding.
Doumeki leaned in closer. "Well, since I've already taken away your mental purity…"
Needless to say, the area under the futon remained un-vacuumed.
I honestly have no idea what was wrong with me when I wrote this.
Something very, very important, obviously...
This was written some time ago, as the majority of the rest will have been. I only have three left to write, isn't that sad?
Happy 104 day, everyone!
Edit: Thanks to FLACEDICE for correcting a mistake of mine.
Fear it not!
Seriously, if you spot an error, point it out.
Most of these are written and posted at 1h or later, so there are bound to be many of them.
