Some days were worse than others, when it came to missing Yuuko. Some days he spent in a haze. Waiting was easier when you weren't really there. But dreamless sleep was sometimes hard to come by, so he found other ways.

Maru and Moro and Mokona and Doumeki gave him looks. Looks of concern. Sometimes Doumeki even looked angry, though it was hard to tell with that guy.

Didn't matter what Doumeki thought. What Doumeki did or didn't approve of.

Yuuko wasn't here. Wouldn't be for a long time, he knew. He knew. He wished it wasn't so long, so long, but he chose this he chose this he had to remind himself that he chose this he would wait

Wait

Wait

Waiting.

There was a hole, a hole, and he was waiting for it to be filled, he wanted it filled, Yuuko could fill it, she was what was missing

Missing

pieces.

All he wanted was-

"What happened to him?" he heard suddenly, and he was pulled out of his thoughts, but not out of his daze.

"He isn't feeling well," Maru said timidly.

"Not feeling well," agreed Moro.

"A wish?"

Was it a wish? Was that why he was laying here?

Watanuki stirred, and found he was laying across the couch and his hand was dangling off the side, so he pulled it up and knocked over some empty sake bottles.

Ah. That's why he was laying here.

It wasn't like that every day. No, he had good days too, more and more frequently. When wishes were granted correctly (well, close to it) and Doumeki brought decent food and the girls played in the yard and giggled when Watanuki threatened to take away Mokona's alcohol and Watanuki smiled at it all.

But there was always that undercurrent there. Constant reminders of Yuuko, all over the shop. The shop itself. But Watanuki wanted it that way. This was Yuuko's shop, after all. He was just a caretaker, and a terrible one too.

But Haruka was helping him. Taught him to listen to himself, listen to instinct, and listen to the shop. He learned magic that way, and could do a few simple things, but not much for now. Enough to grant some wishes, but he would never be as good as Yuuko. These were Yuuko's customers, he was a replacement. He only ever had one customer of his own - the woman who wanted to cook - but she never came by again. Watanuki wondered what happened.

Either way, everything he'd learned didn't help much with the prices. He still didn't have a method, and he desperately, desperately wished Yuuko was here instead. Yuuko knew, Yuuko knew, Yuuko could do this. She could tell him what to do, could do it instead and tell him to do something else.

It always came back to Yuuko.

He let Maru and Moro comfort him, lay next to him if he slept in his - in Yuuko's old bed. It was the only bed in the shop, but it did help to be close to her (did it?). And he was always close to her. Wearing her clothes, sleeping in her bed, smoking her pipe, helping customers meant for her.

No one ever talked about her though. They always tiptoed around the subject, probably for Watanuki's sake. He didn't need to be coddled though. Or maybe he did? God, he didn't know.

Didn't matter. It was a good day. The sun was out and it was warm, but with a nice breeze to keep it from getting too hot. Maru and Moro were playing ring around the rosy and Mokona was jumping on their heads. Watanuki was smoking on the porch mending an obi that got ripped (such a shame, Yuuko would be upset) and all in all, it wasn't that bad.

And then a pressure in the back of his mind - no longer a headache, not lately - and he knew someone had come through the barrier to the shop.

He put the pipe back in his mouth, stood and stretched, and tied the fixed obi (poorly) around the yukata he wore, ready for whatever request he might be bombarded with, but when he entered the house, he found Doumeki in the kitchen with the usual takeout.

That guy just kept showing up.

But Watanuki was in a good mood. He was. So…

He took the pipe out of his mouth, and crossed his arms in front of his chest, then frowned - almost like old times, but it was more of a pout instead of his old scowl.

"Doumeki."

Doumeki raised an eyebrow as he put the bag on the kitchen table.

"Watanuki," he said. "I brought sushi."

"You never listen to my requests," Watanuki whined before putting the pipe back in his mouth as he made his way to the table to search the bags. Though sushi sounded better than what he requested last night which was… eh, he didn't remember, rarely did. Sushi sounded good. Looked good too - where did he go for this?

"I don't recognize the restaurant, is it new?" he mumbled through the pipe, pulling out the boxes.

Doumeki sat down at the counter.

"Mm," he agreed, using about as many words as he ever did. "I'm told it's very good."

Watanuki pulled the pipe out of his mouth and set it aside as he opened the boxes and set them on the table.

"By whom? Why should I trust their opinion, hm?" he complained. "Ah. I've made better sushi than this." He hadn't. "This looks all wrong." It didn't. "Honestly, it's like you don't know anything - grab some chopsticks." He gestured vaguely in the direction of wherever Doumeki put the chopsticks.

Doumeki handed him some of those pull-apart wooden chopsticks, but didn't say anything.

Why did that bother him so much now?

But he was chewing loudly and that irked him like it hadn't in a while.

"Don't munch like that! It's rude," Watanuki said after swallowing a mouthful of (amazing) food, and it felt for a moment like old times, before everything.

Doumeki continued to not talk, but he used his grubby hands to steal a sushi off the tray next to Watanuki, even though there was an identical one on the tray closer to him - what an ass.

Watanuki scowled at him - an actual scowl, and god, did it feel good - and pulled the tray closer.

"Don't just grab whatever you want! Where did you learn table manners…"

And then there was that pressure in his head and he knew someone was coming but Doumeki was already here, so it must have been a customer.

"Don't throw all that sushi in your bottomless void; I'll be right back and I actually do want dinner today," he said, putting down his chopsticks and picking up the pipe again.

Watanuki put a face on. The usual face - Yuuko's persona. He put on a soft smirk, something that on Yuuko looked mysterious and sensual, but on him probably looked ridiculous. He'd try though. This was his job. He was the (temporary) owner of a wish-granting shop, it wouldn't do well to look or act anything less than the part.

He moved lazily, but inside, he was all nerves. He had no idea what this wish would be, or if he could grant it, or at what price. Didn't know, didn't know, and Doumeki was following him out of the kitchen - Doumeki would be watching, would see.

Would be there if he screwed up.

The thought was both comforting and incredibly terrifying at the same time.

He was about to turn around to tell Doumeki to stay in the kitchen, don't come out, but they were already at the front, and a young man, maybe college-aged, was standing in the front, closely inspecting a framed painting on the wall.

"Hello," Watanuki said, speaking soft and low.

The man startled, and jumped. "Oh, god!" he yelled.

Watanuki couldn't help but laugh at that.

"I am so sorry, I was walking along and-"

"Your feet carried you in on their own?" Watanuki finished.

"Yeah! I- Wait. Does this happen often?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Okay, alright, so me just stopping in here isn't that weird. Feeling a little bit better about the whole… thing, so I'm just going to go now…"

And Watanuki was tempted to let him leave. Let him just go and then Watanuki wouldn't have to grant his wish and he could just eat sushi and pester Doumeki because dammit this was a good day.

But he was the shopkeeper for now, and he couldn't turn down a customer.

He took a breath, and spoke.

"You have a wish though, don't you?"

The man had been headed out, but stopped short.

"Or else you wouldn't be here."

"That's kinda funny, I really was just thinking about something I guess you could call a wish… What a coincidence…"

"Well now, there isn't such a thing as coincidence," Watanuki said, then grinned. "Only hitsuzen."

"Ah." He looked a little disconcerted, so Watanuki explained.

"It was inevitable that you came to my shop today. I can help you with that wish." I hope. I hope I can help, I should be able to help, Yuuko could help better, Doumeki is watching.

"So, what, you grant wishes?" the man asked.

"Why don't we sit down?" asked Watanuki, gesturing to the sitting room.

"So you do grant wishes."

Watanuki frowned. "Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I-" He paused. "Magic."

Who was this guy, and why was he pissing him off so much? Maybe that good mood had put him off his act.

"Magic?"

"Yes. You have a wish, I can grant it, if you pay an equal price."

"It's one of those deals then?"

"It generally is."

The man seemed to consider the whole thing.

"Your art's all authentic," he said suddenly.

"What? Of course it is. It was-" It was Yuuko-san's.

"Someone with art this fine… I don't think you'd lie about this…" he trailed off.

Watanuki was a little confused, but went with it.

The man blinked and pointed at the other room. "So, that room, yeah?"

Watanuki nodded, and turned to Doumeki, waving for him to get out.

Doumeki followed them into the room, ignoring Watanuki's unspoken instructions. Watanuki wasn't sure whether to be upset, or glad. Or upset that he was glad. He settled on that.

"So you said you had a wish," Watanuki said once they were seated (with Doumeki standing to the side and being an intrusion).

"Okay. Yeah. I do. Well, I guess it's a wish."

Watanuki took a breath from the pipe and waited for the guy to say what he needed. Not one of his strong-suits in the past, to be sure, but it came with the territory.

"So, I've got a girlfriend, yeah? And… she's going on this study abroad. To London. For a while. Like, two semesters. I didn't get the scholarship to afford it without my parents' help, but they cut me off, saying I didn't want to go for studies - which I did!"

Did the guy expect Watanuki to finance his trip to London? Does that constitute a wish? How would he do that? Just give him something expensive to sell? He liked the art, maybe - no that was Yuuko's art there was no way he could ever. There must be something else to-

"But that doesn't really matter now. I just… I just want her to be safe, you know? I love her, and I don't want her to get hurt and sometimes she's a little reckless and naïve, so, I don't know, all the good luck she can get." The man rubbed the back of his head and smiled.

Watanuki thought it over, breathing in more smoke, enjoying the burn that used to send him into coughs, and then blowing it out to the side.

That sounded much more like the sort of wishes people came to the shop for. Good luck. Fortunes. Magic. Abstract wishes that you can't just buy.

But how would he grant this one? Good luck for his girlfriend?

"So you wish for your girlfriend to have good fortune on her trip?"

The man nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Yeah, I do. I mean, it sounds a little stupid, a little sappy… But that'd be great. I'm not sure I'm 100% on the whole magic thing though…?"

Watanuki frowned. "You don't believe I can do this?"

"It's not that I don't believe you don't believe, and, honestly, if there was going to be magic… it'd be in this place."

"So then, you must decide," Watanuki began, leaning back in the chair and crossing his legs. "Do you have a wish to make, or no?" He already knew the answer though. The man wouldn't have been able to come into the shop if he wasn't going to make this wish. In fact, Watanuki wasn't sure the man was anywhere near as skeptical as his talk suggested.

"Alright, sure, yeah. I just want her to be okay."

His heart sped up in anticipation for the wish. He'd heard it, felt it, and now he had to grant it.

How?

"Then I will grant your wish," he said, still unsure, so unsure, what was he going to do how would he do this.

Watanuki looked at the man, really looked at him. Tried to see something, anything. There was something at the edge of his vision, but every time he tried to focus on it, it slipped away.

So he'd have to be creative.

Good luck, he'd said. Good luck. There was no such thing as luck, just inevitability, hitsuzen, fate. But fate and fortune were two separate things. Intertwined, yes, but… different. Everyone had fortune, good or bad, some had more of one or the other, and maybe…

"Your… good fortune," Watanuki said slowly.

"My good fortune?"

"Yes." This was starting to make sense the more he thought about it. "Yes, I can transfer your good fortune to her. The price grants the wish. It's equal." Oh god, he hoped it was equal. Either way though, that's what he came up with, that's what he would tell the customer.

"So what, I'll be unlucky?"

"You could look at it that way." Could he? "Wait- wait here. I need to get something from the back."

What he needed from the back, he had no idea, but apparently he did, so he stood up and left the room, grabbing another piece of sushi as he went through the kitchen. It really was very good, just like Doumeki said. But… he could do better. Maybe he would, sometime. He'd have to clean first. He didn't want to clean right now.

In the storeroom he found a bracelet. That girl's bracelet from his first wish as shopkeeper. The one that wasn't enough and slashed his foot. He couldn't remember her name, but he certainly remembered the price.

He picked it up twirled ti around in his hand, warming it up and a thought struck him. Whether or not he could do it… He could do it. He wouldn't have thought of it if he couldn't do it.

So he hurried back out to the front room, but slowed to a walk before he entered, not wanting to ruin the act more than he already had.

The man was inspecting the table when he returned, and Doumeki was still standing near the wall, wearing some sort of expression that Watanuki didn't care to interpret right now (wanted to though, he wanted to be able to read him).

Watanuki sat back down and put the bracelet on the table.

"A bracelet?"

"Wear it for twenty-four hours, then give it to her," Watanuki said, suddenly very sure of himself, but completely unsure as to why. "It will take in your good fortune, and transfer it to the wearer."

"How?" the man asked.

Watanuki smirked and looked at him through lidded eyes.

"Magic."

"Fair enough. I'll do that."

They both stood, and the man bowed, so Watanuki bowed back.

"Thanks for this. I… I have a feeling it'll work," he said, putting the bracelet on.

"I do too," Watanuki agreed, and he almost sent him away before he realized that he'd have to take more for the bracelet. "Oh, wait, the price for the bracelet…"

"Yeah, yeah, that's right, what do you need for that?"

Watanuki thought it over. That bracelet hadn't meant much to the original owner, and didn't mean much to him, aside from a reminder to keep the transactions balanced. He shouldn't need to charge much for it, as it really was just a convenient vessel for the wish.

"Where did you get your necklace?"

"Old souvenir," the man said, looking down at it. "Accidentally bought two, actually, just different colors. I like this one better though. Is that the price?"

"I…" A necklace he cares about, but not that much… "Yes. Your fortune for hers, and your necklace for the bracelet."

The man shrugged, and pulled the necklace off over his head. "Sure thing."

Watanuki took the necklace and Maru and Moro saw the man out.

The moment he was left alone (not alone, Doumeki was still right there, almost forgot, he watched the whole thing, what did he think, what did he think, was he disgusted again? impressed?), Watanuki looked down at his hands, his arms, his legs, his feet, and he waited. Waited for the inevitable wound from the universe because he was still terrible at this and sure it might not be that bad this time but every scratch, every bruise was a reminder of how awful he was at this job and Yuuko needed to come back soon and even if he never seemed to scar, it was still, was still…

Nothing. Nothing happened.

He looked up to Doumeki - did the price bounce onto him? was that possible? - but he didn't look injured. In fact, he looked… not happy, but satisfied with the moment.

"It was even," Watanuki said, holding out his hands and arms to show Doumeki. "It was even and that sushi was good so I'll be eating the rest of it."

He turned back to the kitchen with a flourish.

A/N: Hey, thanks for reading and for the reviews I've gotten! Apparently I'm continuing this because more keeps happening, so expect updates sporadically.