He tried to open his eyes, but either there was nothing to see except blackness or his attempt didn't work. Wherever he was, it was warm and comforting. He didn't feel the need to move or speak, and it was soothing in a way that made someone want to go to sleep. Was he floating? He didn't feel anything solid beneath him…
He was feeling strangely disjointed. As if there should have been something between him and somewhere else that should have been linking them. He tried to turn his head to look beneath him where that something should have been, but he didn't find anything. Or rather, he couldn't find anything because he couldn't make his body move.
Was it his body he was trying to move? It didn't feel like a body. It was far too weightless to be a body. With a body, you felt weight and gravity and all that physical stuff. There wasn't anything right then like that.
And he had strange glimpses while floating or swimming or whatever wherever he was. Flashes of night, of warm hands surrounding him, of a somehow strangely huge moon and heard loud but unintelligible sounds somewhere in the distance. They didn't last long, but long enough to know they were there. What did they represent?
His eyes began to close. Had they been open this whole time? He was tired. Sleep beckoned…was that his grandfather smiling at him, looking as if he was in his late twenties? How could that be? Why was he shaking his head and gave off the impression he was making shooing motions with his still hands?
A white, slim hand appeared from nowhere in the blackness. That was what it was, right? His memory seemed to be growing larger and larger gaps. He felt as if he should know the hand, but he couldn't place it. It looked familiar, but no face floated in his mind to connect with it.
He didn't want to, but his arm lifted to reach out for that pale white hand. Or at least he thought it was his arm. He couldn't really see anything of himself. It was like it wasn't there.
The hand was smooth and soft when their palms touched, warm even. He felt a smile grace his lips. He still had lips, right? Whoever it was, he remembered he liked them. Were they funny? He couldn't remember. All he knew was that he felt glad and that he liked them.
Whooshing wind and suddenly instead of black, it was all white. He wanted to feel fear, but whoever it was kept their hands together with a vise-like grip and kept him calm. They wouldn't let go. They wouldn't leave him here in the cold where he couldn't do anything for himself.
Who is it?
"Ah?" Doumeki's eyes snapped open and stared up at the stars above him. He could feel the cold pavement beneath him and the heaviness of his limbs. His memory was intact and he no longer felt so disjointed. Whatever had been missing was suddenly back.
And what the hell is that weight on my legs?
"What am I doing here?"
He sat up, coming face to face with a grin. It was Yuuko all right, and wherever she was, so was Watanuki. It didn't take long to pick out his frustrated figure doing his strange little, irritated dance. Oi, he was a very odd one.
"Hi there."
"Oh, hello."
The Dimensional Witch, or so he'd been told that she was called that, seemed so completely full of glee that he wondered what had happened. He truly couldn't remember anything except his grandfather's smile and that warm hand.
"You have to hear this! Just now, Watanuki received chocolate from a very cute girl! It was chocolate he made himself, but…" She paused, as if waiting for a suspenseful beat to pass. Was she trying to judge whether he had interest or not? She handed him a sweet potato as she asked, "Wanna hear the whole story?"
If he did, would he find out the owner of the hand that had saved him? He was certain it had saved him, but from what, he had no idea. He hadn't felt any fear being there, but what would have happened if he'd stayed? His grandfather had been there, but his grandfather was dead. Had he been in the world of the dead? What had happened?
"Yes!"
He tuned out Watanuki having another one of his fits in the background as he listened avidly.
-end
Note: the dialogue excerpts are from Del-Ray's manga. And I don't own xxxholic in any form other than my own fanfiction.