Good evening again, everyone!
Sorry for another late night update, I spent most of the day helping someone out with another writing project, so I didn't have much energy to edit my own work until a little bit ago. I'm pretty sure it came out okay, but still, I'm a little nervous, especially because I like this chapter a lot, short as it is. Watanuki continues to be adorable and Doumeki continues to be awesome. I can really feel things shifting between them now, and I hope you all can too!
I think that's it... All right, enjoy, have a wonderful night if your longitude is close to mine!
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to xxxHolic and I'm making no money off of this.
"I'm- I'm fine!" Watanuki protested weakly all the way back to their room, "and I keep telling you to get off me!" Doumeki ignored him and half carried him over their suite's threshold. As it was barely lunch time, their single futon hadn't been laid out yet, so Doumeki led Watanuki out onto the back porch and helped him into one of the chairs. Watanuki's face burned with humiliation and he kept up a fluent stream of moans and curses until Doumeki finally let go of him. The moment he did, any remaining strength left Watanuki, and he leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes. He felt Doumeki gently remove his glasses, then place a warm hand on his forehead, but he couldn't muster the energy to fight him off.
"Hey," said Doumeki, softly, right in his ear, "rest here."
"Not… Hey…" Watanuki managed to reply, before passing out cold.
For a long time, all was blackness, but then he saw Yuriko, dressed in a white nightgown and standing under what seemed to be a single yellow spotlight. She looked up at Watanuki and smiled what at first seemed a real, genuine smile, but then her face contorted as her fine gold necklace tightened around her throat, then pulled up as though to hang her. Her eyes bulged and she tore fiercely at the chain, fighting for breath, unable to even cry, then-
"AH!" Just like the night before, Watanuki sat bolt upright, gasping and shuddering and looking wildly around, though nothing would focus, but then he realized he wasn't wearing his glasses. He felt for them on the arm of the chair and shoved them on, and the porch and beach came into focus again. He got shakily to his feet, almost knocking over a glass of water sitting on the floor beside him. How did that get there? Doumeki must have- "Doumeki!" Watanuki demanded of the air. He'd have thought he'd be sitting beside him, just like he had done last night, but, "Doumeki!" he called again. Realizing how dry his mouth and throat were, he seized the glass of water and drained half of it in one gulp, still looking around wildly, his heart pounding.
However, he spotted Doumeki almost at once, hurrying up from the ocean in his bathing suit, soaking wet and silhouetted by the sun setting behind him. Watanuki would never say out loud how comforting this vision was after his nightmare, so instead he yelled, "What the hell were you doing?!" the moment he was in earshot.
"Swimming while I waited for you to wake up," Doumeki replied, stepping up onto the porch and seizing the towel he'd apparently left hung over the railing to dry his hair.
"You didn't sit next to me watching me sleep like a creep this time?" asked Watanuki through gritted teeth.
"Only for the first twenty minutes," replied Doumeki, before covering his ears.
"WHAT IF SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED?!"
"I'd have heard, I was paying attention," replied Doumeki, easily, wrapping the towel around his waist so that it absorbed the beads of seawater trailing down his bare chest. Watanuki flushed and his grip tightened around his glass of water. "Why, did something happen?" Doumeki suddenly sounded serious.
"No! Well, I had another dream…" Doumeki's eyes widened as much as they ever did. "Can't you put on a shirt?!"
"Was the dream about Yuriko again?" Watanuki shuddered as he remembered and took a sip of water before answering.
"Did you see the necklace she was wearing? I think that's what's causing her strange behavior." He stared meaningfully at Doumeki. "I don't know if it's cursed or what, but she told me on the hike that she'd been completely fine until a few months ago, and I'll bet you anything that was when she started wearing it."
"Anything?" asked Doumeki, but Watanuki was too focused to hear, and therefore to be annoyed, for once.
"We've got to get it away from her," he said, staring off into the sunset.
"We have to get it away from her without you getting sick or hurt," Doumeki corrected him.
"Shut up, that's not the point!" Watanuki glared at Doumeki again, and as their eyes met, a sudden breeze rustled through the trees, carrying the usual scents of pine and saltwater, but also it seemed, Dr. Sakurai's words from their session a million years ago.
"Don't you think you deserve to be cared about and looked after?"
"At the very least," said Doumeki, slowly, the orange glow of the sunset catching the water droplets still clinging to his chest and shoulders, "she seems to trust you, or at least is more forthcoming with you, so you'll need to get the necklace from her."
"I suppose so," Watanuki muttered, drinking the rest of his water. "We could probably destroy it with your bow, right? Assuming it's nothing too powerful." He nodded into the room to avoid looking at Doumeki, who replied,
"I think so. See, I was right to bring it after all."
"At least you're not totally useless," conceded Watanuki. "We'll probably see her and Renjiro when we go to dinner, and we can figure out what to do from there, so- DON'T TRACK SAND INTO THE ROOM, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"
Oh Watanuki you put up with so much. I have to say, I'd be comforted by that sunset vision too~
I think of reviews when I summon my kekkai, leave me some!