HITSUZEN

AUTHOR: fantasylover12001

RATING: PG-13/T

DISCLAIMER: I do not own xxxHolic or any of it's characters. I am also (sadly) not making any money off of this fic so please don't sue because I am a broke college student. You won't get anything except for a stack of bills.

WARNINGS: this will have future yaoi so if you don't like that then please don't read it. I do not tolerate flames so don't bother with that either. This is also my first xxxHolic fic and all I have to go by is the English translation by Delray so forgive me if there are a few cannon mistakes.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to all who reviewed the first part! Just so you know this will mostly be done in Watanuki's POV. I just thought doing the prologue in Yuko's POV would be an interesting touch. There shouldn't be too many POV switches though since that could get confusing for people.

CHAPTER 1: WATANUKI'S VERY BAD DAY

Watanuki Kimihiro hated Mondays. In particular, he hated Monday mornings.

He dealt with his irritation by hitting his alarm clock repeatedly. One of the blessings of moving into his own place before his senior year was the fact that now, no one could tell him to get up when he didn't want to.

Well, theoretically anyway.

"Arrgh!" he yelped when he was pounced on. He glared at the one responsible for disrupting his sleep. It was of course, the pipe spirit, whom Yuko had insisted he take in when he moved. He had protested (loudly) but there was no arguing with that woman sometimes. So now he was stuck with the thing following him around happily all the time. The spirit didn't seem to know it had done anything wrong though, and instead of cowering under Watanuki's glare like it was supposed too, the spirit crooned happily and licked him.

'It'd be safer for me, my ass. Yuko-san just made me take it in to annoy me' he thought as he got out of bed. Sometimes it felt like the wish granter was determined to run his life. First she made him spend time with Doumeki and now, even though he was trying to gain independence, she made him take in the spirit to watch over him when Doumeki wasn't around. If that wasn't enough, he was STILL working at the damn shop even after three years. You'd think he'd have earned enough for that wish by now.

'If my wish isn't granted by the time I graduate, I quit!' he thought in determination as he started to get ready for school.

The fact that he technically hadn't really applied for the job in first place was a technicality. He hoped.

xxxHolicxxxHolic

"Hey!" a voice called out to him as he headed towards the school.

Not bothering to turn around, for he already knew who it was, Watanuki muttered, "How many times do I have to say that my name is not hey?"

As he expected, Doumeki didn't bother answering him. This had become rather a routine for the two of them over the last few years. Over the last year or so the two of them had settled into what Watanuki thought was an odd relationship. They were no longer annoyances to each other and yet he was hesitant to call Doumeki a friend. He was pretty sure friends didn't tick each other off as often as Doumeki annoyed him and vice versa. He was also pretty sure friends didn't get weird feelings around each other like the ones he felt around Doumeki.

Watanuki blinked and yelped when a movement inside his uniform broke him out of his musings. "Oi!" he danced around trying to grab at the mystery object while Doumeki looked calmly on.

"You could help, you know!" Watanuki shouted at the other boy.

"You seem to have it under control," Doumeki said coolly, though Watanuki swore he heard a hint of amusement in the other's voice.

"Jerk!"

Doumeki's answer was a shrug.

Finally Watanuki was able to apprehend the culprit. "You! You're supposed to be at home!" the boy shouted in exasperation at the pipe spirit.

"Don't you think you should come up with a name for him?" Doumeki commented.

"He's a spirit! Spirits don't need names!"

Doumeki raised an eyebrow.

"Well they don't!" He turned to the spirit, who was now contentedly wrapping itself around his arm. "Don't do that! You need to get home now. I cannot bring you to school."

The spirit ignored him and crooned.

"You might as well bring him," Doumeki said. "We better get going if we don't want to be late. It'll be fine if he just stays out of sight."

Watanuki sighed and started to follow him to school. "You think this is hysterical, don't you?" he grumbled to the taller boy.

"Kind of," came a bland reply.

'Yup, I can tell this is going to be a great day' Watanuki thought sarcastically.

xxxHolicxxxHolic

By lunch time Watanuki already wanted the day to be over.

A teacher had reprimanded him in front of the whole class first thing in the morning for not paying attention even though he was, he was just a bit distracted what with the spirit hiding in his book bag and all.

In his next class there was a pop quiz and it was math, which was his worst subject. Somehow he had managed to leave all of his writing utensils at home and so had to borrow from a fellow student. Then in his literature class he got back an essay that was a grade lower then what he had been expecting. When he tried to argue with the teacher over it he got ignored.

"My arguments were not faulty," he muttered to himself, as he remembered the teacher's words.

"They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness."

Watanuki jumped and glared at Doumeki who was casually leaning against a tree. "They also say sneaking up on people is very rude."

"Hm. Do you have my lunch?"

Watanuki scowled and held out the second bento he was carrying. "You better be happy with what's in it, jerk. I can't wait until college, then I won't have to make you anything anymore!"

Doumeki raised an eyebrow. "You're going to Tokyo University, aren't you?"

"Yes. Why?" he answered suspiciously.

"That's where I'm going to college."

Watanuki blinked and then glared at the taller boy now calmly eating the bento he had made. 'What? I thought I'd be rid of him once I graduated!' he thought in annoyance, though a small part of him was actually quite glad he and Doumeki were going to be in the same university together. He ignored that part of him though, it was the same part of him that produced the strange flutters in his stomach whenever the other boy was near, after all.

"Something on my face?" Doumeki asked suddenly. That was when he realized he'd been staring at the other boy.

"No," he said quickly and looked down in slight embarrassment.

Luckily for him at that moment Himawari-chan arrived so Doumeki didn't get to say whatever he'd been opening his mouth to say. He felt a twinge of gratefulness towards the girl as he listened to her cheerful chatter.

The three of them certainly were an odd group, he thought absentmindedly. He used to hate Doumeki and have a huge crush on Himawari-chan but now Doumeki was something close to a friend and his crush on Himawari-chan had faded into mere admiration and respect for the girl who was now one of his closest friends. Their personalities were also vastly different from one another and yet here they were sharing lunch.

'I suppose this is something I have Yuko to thank for' he thought. Not that he was ever going to say anything to her. She'd probably say that was something he owed her too.

xxxHolicxxxHolic

It was with a great amount of relief that Watanuki headed over to Yuko's shop after school. 'You know it's been a bad day when I actually look forward to going there' he thought cynically.

To his surprise though, Yuko wasn't there with orders as she usually was. In fact, the shop was eerily quiet. He put down his bag as the pipe spirit flew out of it and squeaked in curiosity at the empty store.

Feeling slightly creeped out, Watanuki started to go to the backrooms and then finally came across Maru and Moro peering into a room he didn't remember ever going in. But then he didn't make it a point to explore all of Yuko's store. He felt it was safer for his sanity to just not know about everything in the store.

"Hey, you two. Where's Yuko?" he asked, coming up behind.

The girls turned to him and pressed fingers against their lips.

"Mistress is busy now," Maru said.

"You must not disturb her," Moro added.

"Oh. Okay. I'll be out in the front then," Watanuki said in confusion. He thought Maru and Moro were cute, but sometimes they creeped him out when they got those blank looks on their faces, like the ones they had on now.

He didn't see Yuko or the girls all afternoon so he spent most of the time just dusting and straightening out things. It wasn't until around six that Yuko finally came out of the backrooms followed by the black pork bun and the girls.

"Something bad is going to come," she announced as she came into the room.

Watanuki blinked at stared at her. "Huh?"

"Something bad is going to come," she repeated calmly. "Which means you need to go get beer."

"WHAT! What kind of logic is that!" he demanded.

"It's perfectly logical. Now go."

"It's perfectly logical," Maru and Moro gleefully repeated.

With a scowl on his face and much muttering about the bad effects of alcohol Watanuki did as he was told. Only because by now, he knew it was pointless to argue.

'I knew this was going to be a bad day' he thought sourly as he headed for the store.

AUTHOR NOTES:

Yeesh this was hard to write. I know Watanuki and Doumeki seem a little OOC but you have to remember: this fic is set about three years after the first volume starts. I do not know how old the characters are because it's never clearly stated but I'm figuring Watanuki is at least fifteen then, or sixteen. So they've had about three years to grow as people and become "somewhat friends". I know not much happened in this chapter, I was just trying to give people a feel for what's going on in Watanuki's life now and I'm also still mapping out how to introduce the conflict.