Summary: Doumeki knows what he's doing, he is being petty. Watanuki knows something is wrong. Hints of Doumeki x Watanuki

AN and spoiler warning for this author note: As this story is slowly but surely coming to an end I feel I should thank you all very much for your support. As most of you can guess by now, it connects to the rest of the xxxholic chapter that are currently being released in English. I probably would've finished it by now if I wasn't so lazy, but I might still make it in time.

Edited by Arrhythmic Song. Own + win.

Lucky Charm

It didn't exactly resemble any of the old films he'd seen when he was little, nor was it like the films from America with stampeding dinosaurs. The glasses didn't clink against each other and the ground didn't tremble. Even the tea in his cup didn't so much as ripple in the slightest. Still, Doumeki could hear the other boy coming from blocks away. He wondered if it was possible for someone under the healthy standard weight to make that much noise at all. The fact he heard it clearly had nothing to do with the question of whether it was possible.

It seemed to be on his mind every day now, Watanuki's body that is. More specifically, Watanuki's body in relation to words such as 'skinny', 'tired' and 'enthralling', which even Doumeki recognized as a weak excuse to keep looking because Watanuki wasn't that skinny at all. After all Doumeki carried him around the city on regular basis and it was still a chore.

Hoisting around a dead weight was always a chore as matter of fact, especially bodies. Not that Doumeki had a lot of experience in that, but Watanuki did sleep like the dead.

Watanuki was not in a good mood. Doumeki knew that from the footsteps alone. He was halfway down the shrine grounds now and the proverbial animals already had already run for cover. To be honest, Doumeki liked to see Watanuki angry. Not that he liked to make the boy angry, but there was something so, so glorious about Watanuki Kimihiro's rage. Everything around the boy smouldered a bit around the edges. The air around the boy almost felt like static electricity.

It sounded like something large had fallen over just now.

Watanuki didn't knock or ring the bell or wait before storming into the main building, Doumeki could hear he was in a hurry. The door was pushed aside and left open, shoes were being kicked off in one motion and then there was the thumping of sock clad feet on wood, becoming louder with every step.

Doumeki heard one of the shrine-maidens try to object along the way. His tea rippled slightly now as the footsteps skidded in front of the room and came to a halt. Doumeki took a deep breath. How Watanuki knew he was in there was beyond him.

"Doumeki!"

The doors slid open so fast Doumeki almost missed the movement entirely, picking up his teacup too fast and burning his fingers in the process. It didn't matter because Watanuki stood in the doorway equal parts menacing and worthwhile, looming over Doumeki, glaring down at him. Doumeki kept his cup steady and his gaze level between Watanuki's heaving chest and exposed collarbone.

"Found you! What do you think you're doing?" the boy demanded.

Doumeki took a moment of deliberation before he answered.

"I rearranged the flowers, now I am having tea, I will be doing homework later, remember we have History tomorrow."

Watanuki growled and stomped his foot on the floor exactly where the tea had been a minute ago.

"That's not what I mean. I mean last night; what did you do last night!"

"Before or after I carried someone to bed?" Doumeki asked, looking up.

"Gah!" Watanuki said, a nice blush spreading over his already reddened cheeks.

It probably explained to him why he had woken up in bed with proper sleeping attire on, instead of slumped over the table in his wet uniform. Doumeki didn't need gratitude; he knew he wasn't going to get that. Doumeki didn't want recognition either, honestly. He supposed that deep down all he wanted was some peace of mind for everyone.

Watanuki had been fast asleep when Yuuko and Doumeki had gotten back, but not before he had prepared food and drink. The manjuu had suggested they left Watanuki there because he seemed comfortable. Yuuko had suggested Doumeki turn on a heater to prevent the boy from getting a cold.

Doumeki had left the both of them to their drinking and had put the boy to bed.

"You! I was supposed to-"

"I talked with Yuuko." Doumeki continued, deciding it would be better to come as clean as possible quickly because Watanuki looked like he was about to pass out from stress.

"You haggled, did you?"

"We made an agreement."

"You-" Watanuki sat down with an unceremonious thump. It was not the reaction Doumeki had been expecting. "You made a wish." Watanuki finished, hanging his head, his hair hiding his expression from Doumeki and denying him an insight as to what Watanuki was thinking.

"If you want to call it that." Doumeki added slowly, before putting his tea down.

Watanuki clenched his fist.

"You are an idiot!"

Doumeki blinked.

"What did you ask? What else did you have to give?"

"You assume I haggled with that woman?"

"I know you haggled with her, everyone does! Don't you see? She collects things. She keeps them, forever and ever and ever. Did all those years of watching my enslavement set any example at all? You know what happens to people who deal with her!"

"It will be different."

The boy shook his head.

"That's what they all say!"

Doumeki frowned.

"I know what I am doing."

"No!" Watanuki threw his hands in the air. "That's what they all say! Ah, how can you be so stupid?"

"Are you jealous?"

"What? Jealous of you? Never!" Watanuki crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"If you are worried about me, you can cook me lunch." Doumeki offered.

"I am not-" Watanuki twitched. "I am not cooking for you!"

Doumeki got up and took his tea and effects to make for the kitchen. Watanuki's padded footsteps followed as expected.

"Did you haggle? What did you ask for?"

"My business is my own business." Doumeki said stiffly. "Don't make it yours."

"I am the one who wants to say that." Watanuki grumbled. "Tell me."

"I have homework."

"Tell me afterwards."

"I have bow-practice."

"Tell me after that!" Watanuki said, stomping his feet, marching after Doumeki through the maze that was the shrine's chambers and hallways.

"Don't you have work?" Doumeki said in a final attempt to get rid of the boy with grace. It was so blatant, what Watanuki felt. The last thing Doumeki needed now was…well this.

"You can walk with me." Watanuki said. "And don't think of running away."

Doumeki shrugged.

"You can come and watch me practise."

"I will, not that I want to." Watanuki retorted.

And that's what it had to be, Doumeki supposed. Unless the world ended between now and tonight.

During school Watanuki hovered around him, muttering that it was unfair, finding fault in most things Doumeki wrote down and generally obstructing very simple tasks to the extent that they became practically impossible.

Doumeki acknowledged it was unfair, especially because it was completely Watanuki's business, despite earlier statements. But he stood by his point. He wasn't lying; he had not wished for anything. Things had to go particularly bad for him to actually make a wish with Yuuko.

He wasn't even sure if there was anything out there that could make him consider that. Especially not after Yuuko's little anecdote about the travelling exorcist and his distorted death-and-life wish.

"Perhaps you better save a wish for when it is needed more."

Doumeki wasn't stupid; he knew perfectly well this meant things would get a lot worse in the future. So for now, he'd settled with a simple deal that wouldn't cost him much extra.

He hoped.

"It wasn't your fault, Doumeki." She said.

"That is so kind of you, Himawari." Watanuki beamed. "Too kind for him. Why are you still here? Shouldn't you go to the hospital wing or something?"

Doumeki gently brushed his fingers past the cut in his cheek. It left a small trace of red on his fingers; it was just a graze.

It was a freak accident. Amateurs cut their fingers on the strings, got hurt standing by the wrong position, or suffered the consequences of neglect. But Doumeki looked after his bow; he looked after all of his few material possessions. It stung a little, not as bad as some of the ordeals he had suffered for the idiot boy, but still enough to annoy him. It bled a little too.

As far as anybody watching was concerned, it had been a freak accident: the string on Doumeki's bow had snapped and caught him on his cheek. It could happen to anybody.

Doumeki knew exactly why it had happened to him.

"I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Himawari said, moving in to examine the cut.

"Himawari, don't do that!" Watanuki yelped. "Who knows what you might get."

"I'll be fine." Doumeki repeated.

"Just go to the hospital wing, go, go!"

Watanuki walked towards him and motioned with his hands the same way people did to shoo a dog away.

"Will you come with me?" Doumeki asked, leering as much as he could.

Watanuki took two steps back again.

"What, of course not!"

"I might run."

"What?"

"You two get along so well." Himawari interrupted, laughing.

"How can you say that!" Watanuki screeched.

Himawari laughed more.

"I'll see you afterwards at the school gates, is that alright?"

"No, wait. Don't leave… ah, she left." Watanuki sighed and turned his eyes back on Doumeki. "This is all your fault!"

During Doumeki's visit to the hospital wing Watanuki only mentioned a couple of times how Doumeki was single-handedly trying to ruin him –though this morning that had been Yuuko with the most outrageous request for some cookies- and how Himawari was the absolute best, even if her grades seemed to curve and her cooking skills didn't even match up to the boy's own.

Doumeki didn't need to hear it to know it. In fact, he didn't even want to hear it.

"Yes it is! So cute." Watanuki chimed, nodding vigorously at the superbly wrapped cookies Himawari held up.

They were pink. They had pink glazing and pink wrapping with a pink bow on the top. They were pink. Doumeki didn't hate pink -he didn't like it either- but he didn't mind it. Watanuki on the other hand hated pink, he knew. It had come up in a conversation once or twice or multiple times. It was one of those few moments where Watanuki had actually sat down and talked. Doumeki regretted the fact those conversations generally were on the more depressing side and topics of life.

Not that pink was particularly depressing. It was just…pink.

"What about these?" Himawari asked, holding up another pack that looked almost exactly the same.

"Absolutely cute." Watanuki said, lying through his teeth.

"You're the one who is being cute." Doumeki said.

Watanuki tripped over thin air and glared when he regained balance. Doumeki could just hear the lecture of infinite reproaches on manners, sexuality and socially adjusted behaviour -which Doumeki obviously all lacked- if it weren't for Himawari intervening.

"Oh, I think I'll buy this one."

"Ah yes, that is a great choice. Excellent." Watanuki nodded.

"I didn't know your voice could go that high." Doumeki remarked.

"What?"

Doumeki ignored Watanuki's dark look and waved his hand in the air, considering standing on tiptoes. He doubted it was possible to upset the other boy even more, though. From one of the top shelves he grabbed a small bag of cookies that didn't look like more ribbon than cookie and wasn't pink and carried it over to the counter.

"Well… well at least I don't have a girl's name." Watanuki said, way past the five-second rule of retaliation.

"Hmm." Doumeki said, not rising to the bait. "I'll take these ones."

The girl at the counter looked at him lovingly when he requested the cookies wrapped up in anything but pink. She winked at him too when his case broke and his money rolled over the counter and to top it all off she patted him on the arm when Watanuki sent him a particularly nasty glare.

He didn't bother to stay and wat for Himawari and Watanuki to finish. Besides, he needed air. If Watanuki wanted to call it running, he could.

"Doumeki!"

Doumeki didn't pick up his cup of tea. Watanuki would not trip over it anyway and he didn't feel like burning his fingers twice on the same day.

Watanuki looked worn out and was still slightly dusty from what had probably been a good cleaning session at Yuuko's shop.

"Dou-me-ki, you bastard, you ran!"

Doumeki didn't really have anything to offer as an argument for that.

Watanuki let himself drop down in the floor and put his arm over his eyes. Having made the shrine his home in just a week he seemed to have adopted all the habits he'd had at his own apartment. Doumeki wondered what was going on with that place and its massive landlord.

"Ah, and now I have to go up and watch the mutt in the sky, I can't take it."

Nor did Doumeki have anything to say to that. Yuuko had warned him that he'd feel differently about certain things. As it would seem, Doumeki thought, he was just tired and annoyed. Which he supposed was natural if one looked at today's events. The graze on his cheek still hurt, even if he took the bandage off when he got home.

"Don't ignore me." Watanuki said, peeking from under his arm. "I asked a question."

"You did?"

"I have been asking all day!" the boy reproached.

Oh right, Doumeki thought, feeling decidedly too tired to resist.

"I made a deal."

"What did she want?"

"My phone number."

It was quiet, and Watanuki hoisted himself up into a sitting position.

"That's why she me asked tonight." He muttered.

Doumeki nodded. It was in Yuuko's nature to request things that were seemingly unimportant and turned out to have greater meaning later. Sometimes Doumeki wondered if that type of insight in the world wouldn't destroy one's mind at some point. Yuuko was probably built of stronger stuff than ordinary humans. Perhaps multi-temporal and dimensional insight came with multi-dimensional and temporal abilities to tolerate all that information.

It would be a good thing to have. Doumeki felt increasingly upset and his world got increasingly distorted as the day went on. He should have known he was too normal to deal with this type of thing.

"So now you don't have a phone number anymore?" Watanuki asked.

"Nobody seems to remember." Doumeki said. "Not even me."

Watanuki was quiet for a moment, frowning. He quickly gave up.

"I knew it by heart a few hours ago." He said indignantly. "So I might as well delete you off my phone now?"

Doumeki shrugged. Not having a cell-phone didn't really upset him; he wasn't too fond of the concept anyway. At least he didn't have to lie his way through life anymore. He just hoped it wouldn't cost him dearly one day.

"If that's all, what did you get in return?"

A headache, Doumeki thought.

"Are you all right?" Watanuki asked.

Doumeki inspected the boy's features, but he seemed genuine.

"I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine." The boy said and scooted closer.

"I am fine." Doumeki protested, not entirely sure he could cope with today's world gone upside-down continuing here in his own living room.

"Shut up." Watanuki said and put a hand against his forehead.

Watanuki's hand felt cool and smooth. It gave Doumeki a moment to collect himself and point to focus on. He hadn't been feeling that lightheaded all day, had he? Today had been an ordeal, but Doumeki was sure he could live through it without getting any permanent damage in this sense.

"I think you have a fever." Watanuki mumbled.

Doumeki didn't say anything.

"I am not doing this because I like you." The boy added quickly before bumping their foreheads together.

That was even better. Everything about the boy was smooth and cold to Doumeki. Even the silky breath ghosting over his lips seemed cool.

"You have a fever." Watanuki concluded, seeming surprised by that himself.

"Yes." Doumeki said, not entirely sure if he was agreeing to anything.

"Can it be the cut on your cheek?"

"Probably." Doumeki said and got up slowly.

"Where are you going?"

"To bed."

Watanuki just nodded and Doumeki left him there, making his way through the corridors towards his bedroom. He wasn't even feeling hot or bothered; he didn't even feel ill, he was just annoyed with every little detail of today's day.

The dark wood of the walls felt cool and smooth, almost the same way Watanuki's skin had done. It was a pleasant sensation that tickled more than just his finer senses, despite the way he felt right now. It was odd for him to be so late noticing a fever. It was odd for him to have a fever to begin with. But everything was odd today, even Watanuki.

It was as if his world turned slightly hazy.

The walls were cold and trembled.

There was a rumbling under his feet.

"You idiot!" Watanuki yelled, grabbing him by the arm and hoisting him upright. "What are you doing?"

"You're loud." Doumeki said.

"This isn't from the cut, this is from Yuuko. I knew it, she said this was going to happen." Watanuki fumed. "She said, 'you better keep an eye on him". She said, 'now that you can't reach him, you better keep an eye on him'."

Doumeki tried not to drop his entire weight on the smaller boy's frame, but it was getting harder not to by the second.

"What did you do?" Watanuki demanded.

Doumeki shook his head, trying to clear the smoke.

"Argh, let's get you to bed first, you can tell me tomorrow."

"Yes." Doumeki managed.

"Damn right, yes. You're heavy! Where is everyone in this place? Aren't your parents around? What good are parents when they're not around?"

For some reason that statement held incredible sadness to Doumeki, and that was probably why he didn't protest to Watanuki's constant flow of words on Yuuko's forewarnings of the evening.

It struck him as typical that Yuuko would warn Watanuki.

He could see her standing there, looking at him through smoke and mirrors, through heavy air and cloth, through colours and butterflies. Black hair dissipating with the background, half-lidded eyes focussed on him through flesh, walls and time.

Doumeki swallowed. He could actually see her, he could feel her gaze on him from every direction.

She held one hand in front of her eye. Smoke came from between her red lips as they moved.

'You better keep an eye on him, now that you still can.'

TBContinued

What can I say? Thank you for reading, if you come back in a week or so my beta will probably have tweaked it so that you can't see that I'm not English.

I would appreciate it very much if you would leave me a review or an email telling what you think. And I would like to thank everyone who has been doing so.

See you next month!