Watanuki only shrugged at his boss as he worked on making her dinner. She lounged fashionably in the doorway, watching his hard work and never lifting a finger, which was Yuuko all the way.
"Like it matters in the end."
He could almost feel her frown. "What's all this now? What are you so depressed about?"
The bespectacled boy didn't really feel like explaining to this all powerful Dimensional Witch that he had just about lost hope of ever attracting Doumeki's romantic attentions. It just seemed hopeless from his end. No matter what he tried, or anyone tried, the man was as stupid as a pile of bricks. He bit his lip, hoping the pain would stave off upset tears. He really did love that idiotic archer and damn it, it really hurt.
Yuuko apparently took his silence for what it was and she suddenly draped her arms around his neck from behind. Her expensive perfume surrounded him, and was strong enough to almost make him gag. The layers of her clothing draped over him and made it difficult to lift his arms. He wanted to struggle away from her, but he was too depressed to even put any effort into it.
"Don't be so down, Watanuki. It's only just starting. To capture anyone's heart takes time."
He was almost grateful and surprised at her motherly, encouraging words. "Yuuko-san…"
"Even if you are inept at seduction."
"You just had to go and say that didn't you!" he yelled and shrugged her off, going about making her dinner with annoyed vigor. He didn't hear as she commented to Mokona that her plan had worked.
"Go, go, Watanuki! Depression doesn't suit your cute face!"
"Shut up!"
Watanuki didn't even have to ask Yuuko for the day off, but if she had had her way, he would be walking into Doumeki's house buck-naked. Sometimes her zealousness made him fear. And Himawari! He had never known her to be such a schemer! He really didn't know anything about women at all or how dangerous they could be when it came to matchmaking.
He guessed that his situation put him in a special place where he could see this side of women, and now he knew they were dangerous creatures, and actors all of them. He was honestly terrified of them and doubted he would ever look at another without wondering what she was scheming ever again.
School had been rather uneventful. Himawari had not eaten with them today to keep up the guise of being depressed about being rejected. She really was sweet to help him, even if he was now convinced that she was anything but innocent. Her scheming with Yuuko had disillusioned him of that for the rest of eternity.
Watanuki met Doumeki at the front gates, reminding himself to breath and keep walking as the sudden urge to stop and gape came over him. It was a silly thing, but how good looking the archer was never escaped him.
Today was the start of a new adventure. Doumeki would be tutoring him. This could be both a good thing and a bad thing in his grand scheme of things. It could be another opportunity to test his ground with the taller boy. Or it could be another disappointment like all of his other attempts at seducing Doumeki Shizuka.
"Oi," Doumeki called out as if Watanuki had completely missed him. It made his eyebrow twitch in annoyance. Why couldn't he ever use his name!
"My name's not 'Oi'! Are you sure I'm the one needing tutoring; at least I can remember some one's name, Doumeki." He stopped in front of the archer, putting his hands on his hips. "I got the day off, so now what?"
"My house." Doumeki told him, starting to walk away without warning. It took him a minute to realize he was being left behind before he shouted and ran to catch up, though running wasn't such a good idea since he was carrying a second set of bento for their study snacks he had made at Yuuko's insistence.
He walked in a generally sour mood. Doumeki probably attributed it to the study session, but it was because every time he glanced at the taller boy he was reminded of what he so desperately wanted and couldn't have. Yuuko said it would take time, but with the way things were looking, 'time' was an eternity.
Watanuki hadn't ever really been in Doumeki's house before, at least not in any way that he was capable of noticing details. He'd been in his library, and once in his house when he had collapsed, but that was it. And suddenly the idea of being alone with Doumeki in his house was nerve wrecking. He flicked a glance out of the corner of his eye at the archer, but he seemed unaware of it.
The bespectacled boy shifted off his shoes and listened, but the house was silent. He glanced around and while it was clean and neat, it was hardly spotless, not like his own apartment where everything was always in its place since he had nothing else to do but clean.
"Nobody's home?"
Doumeki shrugged and lead him down the hall. "Guess my mother is out shopping."
"You only live with your mother?"
"My parents are divorced and my grandmother passed away two years ago."
Watanuki's eyes shifted away. Wrong subject to bring up, apparently, especially when one was hoping to seduce someone. He tried to peer into the various rooms they passed, but Doumeki didn't stop or seem inclined to give him a tour.
The archer slid open a door to his right and turned to glance over his shoulder at Watanuki. "This is my room. Set your stuff down. I'll be right back."
Watanuki watched in surprise as Doumeki went further down the hall and turned out of sight. Curiosity ate at him, wondering just what Doumeki was off to do. He was tempted to follow, but decided on reflection not to. He just wasn't up to trying all that hard. His depressed mood came back in full force to cling to him and he sat down on the floor next to a small table.
The room itself wasn't like he'd expected. It wasn't a complete mess, though it could stand a bit of cleaning here and there, like with the books stacked haphazardly in a corner next to a small bookshelf, obviously waiting to be put away. Trophies from competitions Doumeki won lined the shelves and walls, each taken care of, but the older ones looked a tad dusty.
He blinked and looked more closely at the date on one. God, he's been doing this for how long now?
The door slid open and Watanuki turned to look as Doumeki entered. He didn't carry anything with him, nor did he look any different than when he had left. So what had Doumeki gone to do?
He didn't have much time to ponder before Doumeki dropped a book in front of him.
Watanuki ran a hand through his tousled hair and stared at the page halfway through the book that Doumeki was telling him to decipher. He really hated the English language. It was one of his worst subjects and the most annoying. Really, was he ever going to run into someone who spoke English? Hardly! He probably would end up an old spinster, living like a hermit in a spirit-warded house and would never leave it.
But there was a bright side to the whole thing.
Doumeki sat close, maybe even closer than actually necessary. Every once in a while when one of them would shift, their thighs would touch and it left little lightning shivers going through his body. And every once in a while, Doumeki would touch his hand, even if it was only to move it away to see the page better. The finger calluses were rough on his smoother skin, but his hand was warm and large. All he wanted to do was twine their fingers together and hold his hand tight.
He lost track of what Doumeki was saying in his daydream and shook his head, bringing himself back to reality with quite a bit of effort. "I don't get it," he lied, needing an excuse for the shake of his head.
Doumeki straightened from his position of slightly leaning over Watanuki's shoulder as he peered at the book and papers and stretched his back. The bespectacled boy could hear the faint cracks one got from stiff muscles and he was almost tempted to offer to give him a massage, but reasoned that there was no way the archer would accept.
"We'll get back to it. What'd you bring to eat?"
Watanuki reached around the edge of the table, grabbing his bag and pulling out the two bento. "Here." He placed one on the table in front of Doumeki, and opened his own. Inside were various snack foods; dango, rice balls with red bean paste, and a few other assorted hand-made goodies.
He glanced over the textbook as he ate, idly examining what he hadn't been paying attention to. It just looked like a bunch of gibberish to him. Sure he knew the English alphabet but that didn't mean he understood it when you started combining the letters into words and words into sentences. English had a messed up sentence structure, placing the verb in the middle, or even at the beginning of sentences sometimes. He didn't know how Doumeki understood it.
As he was lost in his musings, a thumb that didn't belong to him, reached out and brushed over the corner of his mouth. Shocked, he followed said thumb with his eyes, noting the little bit of red bean paste on it. His eyes followed it until it to thin lips and watched as a pink tongue peeked out and made the bean paste disappear.
Watanuki couldn't think of any word to describe what he had just seen sort of 'hot'. It made his groin twitch painfully, and Doumeki had done it without any sort of incentive or prompting on his part. Perhaps there was still hope.
"What?" Doumeki asked, bringing him back into reality. Perhaps he had been staring a little too long.
"Nothing." Watanuki turned back to the English book. "We should get
back to work now." He knew he wasn't going to be able to concentrate at
all for the rest of the lesson.