HITSUZEN

AUTHOR: fantasylover12001

RATING: T/PG-13

DISCLAIMER: I do not own xxxHolic or any of its characters and am not making any money off of this ;sniffs;

AUTHOR NOTES: there will be future yaoi, please do not flame me for it I do not tolerate flames. Thank you to all who reviewed the last part; please keep the feedback coming!

CHAPTER 2: IT STARTS

Watanuki walked around his small apartment later that night in annoyance. After going to get alcohol for Yuko the woman made him cook her and Mokona dinner. Of course, being Yuko, she had eaten all of it and had drank all the beer. 'She's old enough to know beer is bad enough for her,' Watanuki thought exasperatedly as he cooked himself his own dinner. 'But she still continuously drinks it. She's going to have major stomach problems when she gets older.'

Then he couldn't help but wondered why he cared. It wasn't like Yuko was a relative or anything. If anything she was a meddling annoyance in his life. Yet, he still couldn't help but like her somewhat. 'She's as confusing as Domeki is' he thought with a sigh. The fox spirit heard his sigh and crooned at him. "I'm fine," he assured the spirit, who went back to his curled up state on the counter.

'My life is just confusing as hell'

xxxHolic

After finishing his studying for the night Watanuki got into bed.

Then almost immediately after falling asleep awoke with a frown. He glanced around his room trying to figure out what had woken him. Everything seemed to be fine. The fox spirit was curled up next to him on the pillow but it wasn't making any noise. Nothing had fallen from his desk or night stand so what had woken him up? The boy frowned and then got up. He walked out to the living area of his apartment and then blinked at the open window.

"I didn't leave the window open," he muttered and looked warily around. 'A thief?' he thought in panic. While he wasn't completely helpless there wasn't much he could do against a criminal who might have a gun. He prayed whatever intruder had been there didn't have a gun. If he didn't then he might have a chance to put those self-defense lessons Domeki had taught him to some actual use.

He hadn't wanted the lessons at first, insisting he was just fine not knowing any martial arts, but the taller boy could be down right stubborn when he wanted to be. He finally got Watanuki to agree to them by pointing out that he might be able to use the self defense against some spirit or another if the spirit got violent with him which they sometimes had the tendency to do. Liking the thought of not having to completely depend on Domeki for protection he eventually agreed.

'That's when these feelings started' the boy reflected sourly as he tried to determine where the intruder was.

Just as he was about to turn to the kitchen area a noise caught his attention and he looked up. He then froze as he saw a black figure hanging on the ceiling like a spider. 'Since when could thieves do that!' he thought frantically and got into a defensive stance looking around hopefully for some sort of weapon.

But the figure's arms shot forward and extended to grasp him before he could move. 'A spirit!' None of the spirits he had ever encountered ever acted like this before but it was obvious that this wasn't some regular thief. Unless thieves could usually extend their body limbs to reach across rooms.

Watanuki immediately tried to break the strong grasp on his shoulders but before he could something pierced through his thin t-shirt and into his skin. He gasped in pain and then stared in slight shock as the arms started to glow a soft blue color. Then he got dizzy and his vision started to blur in spite of his glasses. It felt like the...thing was draining something from him.

He started to struggle still despite the slightly weak feeling in his bones now when the creature suddenly hissed in pain and let him go. Watanuki gasped in relief and looked up to see the fox spirit (now in his large form) clamping it's mouth on the creature's arms. The spirit jumped back and then nudged him with it's nose.

"I'm okay," he said softly; even though he really didn't feel okay. Watanuki got slowly up and looked at the spirit clutching one of it's arms. Then it suddenly lunged for him again. Before he could move the fox spirit used his mouth to pull him onto it's back and it jumped out the open, and thankfully large, window. Watanuki clung to the fox spirit's neck in surprise as it started jumping from rooftop to rooftop, when he glanced back he saw the creature following them.

"Go to Domeki's place!" he told the fox spirit. It made a sound that he guessed was an agreement and turned in the direction of the temple. Watanuki silently hoped that Domeki wouldn't tease him too badly about needing his help. It wasn't that he couldn't handle spirits on his own, but this wasn't a regular spirit and even if it was, he couldn't exorcize spirits but Domeki could. Even if Domeki couldn't do anything, he felt safer when the other boy was around; not that he'd ever tell the other that in a million years.

But denial couldn't stop the relief he felt when he saw the temple come into view. The minute the fox spirit landed he got off and rushed to the front door, and started banging on the door frantically. "Domeki! Get up, you jerk! There's a crazy spirit after my blood or something!"

He continued to pound on the door even as the creature arrived and the fox spirit moved protectively in front of him. Finally the door opened to reveal an irritated looking Domeki dressed in pajama pants and with very messy hair carrying his bow and a few arrows. "What is wrong now?" he said in an annoyed tone. Then he glanced over the boy's shoulder and his eyes widened a bit. "What the hell is that?"

"I don't know! It got into my appartment and did this freaky arm thing and-" Watanuki paused and then stared at the taller boy. "Wait...you SEE it?" Domeki had never actually seen the spirits he'd exorcized before, he usually relied on Watanuki to know where to shoot.

"It's a little hard to miss," Domeki said blandly. He had a point there. The creature was now shooting some sort of energy at the fox spirit in order to get past it and get to Watanuki. The fox spirit was dodging but it's luck eventually ran out and one of the blasts hit on of its legs and it fell to the ground.

Watanuki gasped and ran towards it.

"Idiot! Stay back!" Domeki tried to stop him but growled in annoyance when the other boy moved too fast. The creature's limbs shot forward and grabbed Watanuki. Domeki glared at it as it started to glow again. "I don't think so," he muttered and aimed an arrow at one of the arms. Naturally, it hit it's target and the creature yelped and then disappeared.

Watanuki panted a few seconds on the ground and then checked on the fox spirit. "Oh no," he murmured as he saw the injured leg.

"Do you have any sense?" Domeki asked as he walked over to the kneeling boy. "If some thing is after you, wouldn't it make sense to stay out of it's way?"

"It's hurt badly," Watanuki said, ignoring Domeki completely who scowled when he noticed this.

"Shizuka?" a voice came from the door. Both boys looked up to see a woman that Watanuki guessed was Domeki's mother. She was slim with black hair and had the same color eyes as Domeki. Her eyes had the same effect as Domeki's as well; when they rested on him curiously, he couldn't help but fidget. "Is everything all right?"

"It's all right, Mother," Domeki said. "A spirit was harassing Watanuki, that's all."

Watanuki blinked and glared at Domeki. 'Is he crazy? There's no way she'd buy that!'

Then to his further surprise the woman merely nodded. "Oh. Well, then I'll be going back to bed. Watanuki, you're welcome to stay the night, if you wish." With that, she turned and left, leaving behind her amused looking son and a baffled Watanuki.

The minute she left, Watanuki glared at Domeki. "You told your mother about me!"

The other boy shrugged. "Mother knows quite a bit about spirits due to my grandfather. She doesn't have much power but she can sense them. Besides, I had to explain my injuries to her and I don't lie very well."

"You don't get injured that often," Watanuki muttered.

Domeki snorted. "If you say so. Let's get him cleaned up," he said, nodding at the fox spirit who had returned to it's smaller size and was now curled up in Watanuki's lap nursing its' wound.

"Yeah," Watanuki said softly, picking the spirit up and standing up. Then he got a good luck at Domeki and blushed when he saw that the other boy was shirtless.

"What?" Domeki demanded, noticing the blush.

"Nothing," he said quickly, looking away. "Let's go."

'You are NOT enjoying the view' Watanuki firmly told himself, even though he knew perfectly well he was lying to himself.

xxxHolicxxxHolic

Across Tokyo, Japan in a dark room a man hidden in shadows watched the two boys go inside.

"It didn't work," the woman beside him pointed out.

"No," he said calmly. "Very clever of Yuko to assign her son a protector."

"What will you do now?"

"I'll observe. There's plenty of time. After all, I've only just begun."

AUTHORS NOTE: Yeah, I know, really short. I'm still planning out the fine details of this fic. I'm also really sort of guessing about Domeki's mother because in the manga not much info is really given about his parents. We know his grandfather saw spirits so I'm sort of figuring that his mother has at least some experience with spirits. As for shirtless Domeki...I just couldn't resist ;smirk;