Summary: Where Doumeki has the urge to press Watanuki flat on his back, but settles for having the boy sleep over. Hints of Doumeki x Watanuki

AN: So yeah maybe I am sort of hinting towards future volumes, but nothing you'll understand if you don't know what I'm talking about. Took me ages to get this bastard up. Let me know how you find it, yes? I fiddled a lot with time and space here methinks.

Warning: Unedited. Yes, it will have many errors. I just don't have the time.

Edit 11/4: took some of the more obvious errors out, methinks. It was hurting my ego, also put a slightly different layout to prevent confusion. For those that reread: let me know if this is better

Lucky Charm

Walking Watanuki home was an experience in itself, Doumeki reflected. If it were a day where he would walk home himself, or even before he started accompanying the boy, he would simply leave the school gates, think about nothing and the weather and suddenly find himself at the gates of the shrine with no recollection of the journey. He assumed this happened because it was frightfully dull, but with Watanuki he never had those blackouts, even when they didn't speak about much, or anything for that matter.

When they did talk, Watanuki raged at him about something or the other –usually Yuuko, he did that often. Doumeki would listen half-heartedly for the keywords 'horrible', 'drunk' and 'slavery'. If Watanuki felt in form he'd skip to Doumeki's faults, listing them according to horribleness and uselessness and finally if there was sometime left –there usually wasn't though, Watanuki managed to find fault in everything Doumeki did- Watanuki would wax lyrical over something completely normal Himawari had done that day, and elevate it to the point of divinity.

This was something Doumeki failed to see. Completely. True enough, Himawari was kind and perhaps even cute, but still naïve despite her powers of perception. Besides, she was not at all doing well in classes, whereas Doumeki managed to be in the top three still, regardless of how many hours he spent in the rain waiting for Watanuki the idiot to find a new way kill himself. The boy's grades had gone down these past few weeks. Doumeki hadn't been there, but he had heard the teacher yell from across the hallway when Watanuki had finally been caught sleeping.

He'd been meaning to ask about Watanuki's grade average. There were a lot of things he'd been meaning to ask, though he now knew why Watanuki had chosen to enter his apartment through the fire-escape rather than the front door. It would've been funny if it weren't a bit sad, but despite all the short-cuts and long-ways-around, Watanuki had apparently still managed to escape from the clutches of the landlord and find the time to prepare a meal.

And as good meal it was. In silence and peace and with Watanuki's perfect table manners it reminded Doumeki of the official gatherings he'd been taken along to when he'd been young.

Sometimes Watanuki could be at rest.

Until he had to speak.

"So." Doumeki started as the boy rose on his knees to reach for the teacups.

"So?" Watanuki said weary.

"I am waiting for your story."

"Hn." Watanuki said.

It hit Doumeki, as Watanuki was pouring the tea, all gracious point of knuckle and slender fingers and fluid movement, that it was good they didn't live in a big city, or near the centre of this one. Someone with Watanuki's skill and appearance could've ended up in far worse places than Yuuko's shop.

"You owe me for saving your life."

"When?"

"Pick one." Doumeki scratched his ear, appearing as uninterested as possible, even if by now he really wanted to know what was going on.

"And what is this?" Watanuki pointed at the pot they had planted in the middle of the table one of Doumeki's rooms. Simmering inside was what Doumeki found to be one of Watanuki's best meals yet. For all his sputtering, the boy put a lot of effort in whatever he made.

"Payback for the scarf." Doumeki said, drinking his tea.

"That's, that was a gift…"

"Why are the spirits after you?"

"Ack!" Watanuki twitched, "Don't change the subject."

"Well?"

The boy had seemed genuinely surprised for a moment and if Doumeki didn't know better he'd think the boy almost forgot to be upset about that.

"They just like me, you know that." Watanuki replied, refilling Doumeki's cup.

"They seem to like you a lot more these days."

Watanuki's reactions were still entertaining to observe. Doumeki could predict and list Watanuki's various states of mind the same way Watanuki had listed his shortcomings on his way over.

"Is it because Yuuko has you watching the sky?" he went on.

"Argh." Watanuki said.

"Tell me."

"Why are you so interested in personal problems, just buy a magazine like normal people do."

"I rather hear it from you." Doumeki assured.

"It's stupid."

"I'm sure."

Watanuki gave a glare and adjusted his glasses.

"It's complicated," he started, "it's- well it's all that Yuuko's fault."

Obviously, Doumeki thought.

"She had me cleaning out the entire storage room, do you have any idea how big that is? It's a maze, no worse, it's an abyss." Watanuki shivered. "Who knows what lurks all the way at the back."

"You didn't finish it then?"

"Hah! No way. I'd be old before I'd be able to finish that!" A look terror passed over the boy's face for a moment before he continued with a growl, "But Yuuko doesn't care about things like time and mortality and my well-being and told me to clean it anyway. So I did."

He had been cleaning for the past few hours. With all the junk, excuse him, 'treasure' that Yuuko gathered there was plenty of opportunity for dust to gather and spiders to hide. Watanuki tried never to kill the spiders, ever. Well, not if it could be helped. There was a particular big one that he'd accidentally crushed a few minutes ago when it was trying to escape his duster. It shouldn't have bothered him that much, but for some reason a dark feeling of foreboding hit him, and he'd learned not to ignore that.

It didn't help that when he passed one of the backrooms Yuuko looked at him through the layers of smoke from her pipe and said 'don't do that again Watanuki'. Then, as Watanuki was going about his business, Yuuko had wondered out loud if Watanuki would gather dust like that as well if she was done with him and put him on one of the shelves. She'd laughed madly as Watanuki dropped his duster and his cleaning spray, and left Watanuki to stand and contemplate the many horrors of becoming one of Yuuko's items. Spending the rest of his days a soulless object gathering dust. After all, who was to say Yuuko didn't collect people as well, she took both inanimate objects as abstracts for a prize-

"This is a long story."

Watanuki coughed

"Don't interrupt! Ah! You made me lose where I was."

Doumeki drank his tea

"You were a soulless object gathering dust."

Watanuki blinked at him. "Oh, right."

That evening, when Watanuki was set up to leave, nervous and jittery from dodging all the spiders -and every dustbunny resembling one- Yuuko appeared in full robes and blocked his way. She loomed over him, sweet smile on her face –Watanuki though it was more a leer- and eyes glazed over with alcohol; the smell of incense clung to her, wrapped around her in thick clouds. She batted her eyelashes, grin widening.

"What?" Watanuki wrung out.

"Please, set the table for two."

"Now!"

"No time like the present, Watanuki." Yuuko replied happily.

"Easy for you to say." Watanuki grumbled.

Yuuko clapped her hands when Watanuki took off his coat again. As if Watanuki staying was something he did out of the good of his heart just for her, and this was a wonderful surprise and not at all because she forced him to do so.

"I'm going to need some snacks and lots and lots of alcohol." She said.

"Alcohol!" Chimed the two girls who had materialized at her side with an apron.

"I don't have clean clothes for tomorrow," Watanuki said in his defence.

A lot of alcohol meant a long night ahead with countless of useless things for him to do and no time for him to do homework or to even go home. Yuuko shoved the apron in Watanuki's hands and leant in close. Watanuki never really realized how tall she was until she did that.

"My clothes..." Watanuki tried.

"You won't need them."

Watanuki could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and took a few steps backwards, realizing he'd lost this battle.

"Argh, fine! Don't comfort me, see if I care." He grumbled as he stomped off to the kitchen, with Moru and Maru on his heels.

Much later, when Watanuki was setting the table, complete with snacks and alcohol and Mokona who helped by singing a song, there was indeed a knock on the door. Yuuko's voice floated from the ante-chamber, telling him to let the guest in.

"So, who was it?"

Watanuki growled for a second but answered anyway.

"It was a woman, a really amazing woman."

"How amazing?"

Watanuki stared for a moment. Doumeki stared right back until he noticed Watanuki really had the wrong idea.

"Amazing doesn't give me a visual."

"Oh," Watanuki shifted, "she was wearing a business-suit, but she was white."

"She was foreign?"

"No- yes, she is, but no, that's not what I mean."

Doumeki put his chin on his hand and rubbed his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Er." Watanuki said, flustered. "She was white, her appearance, her hair, which was dark brown, but still white and why am I explaining this to someone who is imaginatively challenged."

Doumeki nodded lazily and made a noncommittal noise.

"No, I see."

"I wonder." Watanuki sneered loud enough.

"Your eyes are the same."

"Eh? What?"

"You have the same eyes, one colour and then a true colour, if I look long enough I can see it." Doumeki said, finishing his tea.

"Ew" Watanuki said.

"Ew?"

"That type of talk is for girls, don't go around saying that to guys."

"You're blushing."

"Only out of shame for you because you have none!"

"Your parents are Japanese, right?" Doumeki went on.

"Why is this turning into a marriage interview?"

"There is no way your eyes can be blue as well as dark, but they are."

"What are you doing?"

"Your eyes, that woman sounds the same."

"Stop!"

"They're definitely two colours."

"Stop! Don't you dare lean any closer!" Watanuki yelped.

Doumeki wasn't planning to, not really. If he did, Watanuki would be pressed flat on his back on the floor of Doumeki's living room in an attempt to keep a healthy amount of distance between them. Though Doumeki didn't lie to himself and would very much like to see what Watanuki did in that particular position; eyes wide behind askew glasses, hair ruffled, hands braced beside him, palms flat on the tiles; it would probably all end with the idiot hurting himself and not revealing the secret that was 'so dark he couldn't tell anyone'.

Doumeki still doubted that last bit sincerely. In his experience, the things Watanuki thought to be terribly embarrassing were often every day matters everyone had to cope with. Those issues that caused the boy to huff and scoff and work up a blush -to the point where it was cute- served to amuse Doumeki till no end. But the things Watanuki dismissed with a wave of his hand. Issues he turned into trivialities with a shrug of those skinny shoulders, those were the ones that mattered. They endangered the boy and that attitude aggravated Doumeki, wishing he would lose his patience right now, and that he would push Watanuki down and would hold him there until every demon was dragged out into the sunlight.

But not now.

There was no sun anyway.

"Why are you watching the sky?" He asked again slowly, backing off and allowing Watanuki his breathing space.

"You are such a pervert." Watanuki ground out.

That was another thing Doumeki doubted. At given times. He was sure he wasn't like the other boys in school, or the ones on television. He didn't have that much time to try all that anyway. Still, there were some nights that he woke up with a dry throat and the distinct notion that there was something not right with him. Maybe it was even worse being this way and maybe Watanuki had a point after all.

"So the woman was white over the other colours?" he asked. Watanuki's glare could be interpreted as a 'yes'. Or as 'die now'; either was good enough for Doumeki.

"That is an amazing woman."

"I just said that." Watanuki groused. "She was amazing and she knew Yuuko, and she spoke perfect Japanese, and she petted me on the head."

Doumeki would have very much liked to see that.

"Who was she?"

"I can't remember her name, something weird and foreign, but you know what she was? She was a god, a real one."

Doumeki frowned. There were spirits and ghosts and spectres and creatures that lived outside what he and the rest of humankind could see, but he had met them all in various ways anyway. A god, however, was something else. Yuuko didn't seem to entertain gods on a regular basis.

"She wanted to quit."

"Quit being a god?" Doumeki asked, frowning a little still.

Watanuki nodded.

"So that was her wish, and what was the price?"

Watanuki shook his head.

"Yuuko refused. She said it couldn't be done, it would mess up the universe."

When Yuuko said it messed up the universe, it wasn't an idle threat Doumeki knew. It was a good story, albeit a long one, but it just created more questions. All Doumeki wanted to know was-

"Why are you sitting on my roof then?"

"I'm filling in for her. Yuuko told her to take a break."

Doumeki's elbow almost slipped from the table, but not quite. To be honest, he hadn't expected to get an answer out of the boy as fast as this. Relatively fast. It was still sudden, no matter how close it was to whatever truth Doumeki had expected.

Also, it was something Watanuki treated as unimportant, but was in fact eating away at him.

"What does she do exactly?" he asked.

"She just guards, a dog."

"A dog in the sky?"

"Yes, he's-, he's huge. I never saw him before, but that night at Yuuko's I could. He's been there a long time, he's trapped in the stars, but if he breaks free then, well…" Watanuki made a vague gesture with his hand that possibly could mean anything. Doumeki interpreted it as 'bad'.

"You watch him?"

"It's stupid, he's been there for thousands of years."

"What do you do when he breaks free?"

Watanuki lowered his head and smiled. "I don't know. I don't think it will come to that in my lifetime at any rate."

"That's not what you're thinking." Doumeki said, warning signs flashing up in his head as they always did when Watanuki avoided eye contact. "You're thinking 'what if it happens during my watch?'"

"You have any idea about embarrassment?"

"I don't think failing where a god can't keep up is embarrassing. At any rate, nobody is left to notice."

"Not helping!"

"It's irresponsible to ask this of a normal person, if something happens it is the fault of those who asked."

"That is-"

Doumeki leant over and picked the last fish cake out of Watanuki's bowl, then used Watanuki's tea to wash it down with. The boy looked like he couldn't decide where to start his lecture on.

"Are you quite finished?" Watanuki finally managed.

"I've never had oden this way before."

"Hmpf"

"What type of fishcake did you use for this? The cheap kind?"

"Of course not!"

"Will you stay over tonight?"

"Eh? No, I can't. Anyway, I have to…you know, for the next few hours." Watanuki pointed a finger up in the air.

"I'll make a bed for when you're done." Doumeki said, getting up and stacking up the dishes.

"I don't have any clothes…" Watanuki protested.

"You can wear mine."

"I don't have anything else…" Watanuki continued.

"You can have mine." Doumeki said, bringing the bowls and plates to the kitchen.

After all, protests he couldn't hear weren't valid protests.

TBContinued.

If you managed to wade through the syntax errors and still live, tell me what you think? Suggestions are welcome.Your reviews flatter me till on end, even when they're critical. Thank you very much for your time and see you next month.