The next morning Watanuki wakes up later than normal, feeling oddly groggy. He figures it probably has something to do with the fact he stayed up so late the night before and after simply staring at his ceiling for a minute he gets out of bed, wincing as the cut on his ankle gives a painful twinge. After a few minutes of scrambling around to get ready the pain becomes more of an annoyance than anything, a fact he's immensely grateful for.

By the time he gets out the door there's only about fifteen minutes before school starts and he has to run to make it in time, irritating his ankle even more. As he's running by the temple he spots Doumeki and immediately scowls, picking up his pace as much as he could in his slightly injured state. He gets nothing for his efforts to avoid talking to the idiot and he swears the universe loves to make things difficult for him.

Doumeki's eyes narrow as he sees how Watanuki is favoring his right foot. "Hey," he said, and the hint of concern would be obvious to anyone who knew him well enough. "What did you do?"

Watanuki grudgingly slows down as he realizes that the manners that have been ingrained in his head wouldn't allow him to ignore Doumeki, no matter how much he wanted to so with a look that suggested he wanted nothing more than to make the taller teen go away and never come back he asked, "What are you talking about?" The annoyance in his tone was obvious. "And why the hell do you care?"

Doumeki just rolled his eyes at the predictable reaction. "Your foot, idiot."

Watanuki masks his confusion at Doumeki's concern by flailing around in his usual manner and turning back to glare at the stoic teen. "It's none of your business!"

Doumeki merely persists. "What did you do?"

With an exasperated sigh, Watanuki answers, figuring that the refusal to do so wouldn't get him anywhere but driven up a wall in annoyance. "If you imust/i know, I didn't do anything."

Realization dawns on Doumeki's face and really, he should've figured it out earlier. "It was a spirit."

"Of course it was a spirit!" Watanuki looks at Doumeki like he's an idiot for not realizing that sooner. Spirits were almost always the source of any injury Watanuki ever got.

"How often do spirits attack you?" Doumeki stopped walking, waiting to hear the answer.

Watanuki gives him a puzzled look, wondering why the archer would even care about his wellbeing. "What?"

"Are you an idiot?" Doumeki says it like he's already made up his mind that Watanuki is indeed an idiot. "I said, 'how often do spirits attack you?'"

The bespectacled teen was so taken aback he didn't even yell at the other for calling him an idiot. "Every day." The answer is quietly and somewhat hesitantly spoken.

Doumeki just nods and continues walking until they get to school, each going their separate ways for the first class of the day.

The first four periods of school happen as usual, uneventful, boring, and with a few snide remarks thrown at Watanuki and he's happy when he finally gets to go outside for lunch. He isn't so happy when Doumeki demands his food and is even less happy when he takes some of Watanuki's own, albeit uneaten, food. "You can't just go around stealing my food! Especially when I took the time to make yours!"

Doumeki just gives him an unimpressed look. "You weren't eating it, were you?"

"Agh!" Watanuki pulls what's left of his lunch behind himself as Doumeki reaches for another bite. "That isn't the point! It's impolite!" He heaves an exasperated sigh. "Besides, I even packed you extra. Is your stomach some kind of infinite void?" Doumeki doesn't respond, reaching around Watanuki to grab the rest of his lunch. This doesn't go over particularly well as Watanuki scrambles to try and prevent him from getting anything and in the process of doing so somehow manages to get Doumeki way closer than Watanuki ever wanted him. In the end, the whole struggle ended with Watanuki fuming, Himawari laughing, and Doumeki with more food, a fact that Watanuki proceeds to yell about until lunch is over.

Watanuki's next couple of classes were uneventful. They went on slowly until finally the last class of the day was starting. He was hunched over his work when he felt something brush his leg and stiffened because he knew that feeling all too well. He raises his hand to be excused and as soon as he is he stumbles out of the classroom, spirit chasing him down. He was beginning to slow as the spirit advanced and it felt like he was beginning to suffocate. Leaning against a wall and sliding down it he tries to get more air, attempting to take deep breaths and to calm down because panicking would only make him run out of breath faster. Luckily someone heard the noise he was making and right as he was sure he'd pass out from lack of oxygen arms wrapped around him and lifted him up. The spirit disappeared with an unearthly hiss and while he couldn't see who was carrying him due to his eyes being closed, he had a hunch. "Put me down." The command was weak and he knew it. Doumeki knew it too.

"No." Watanuki looked like he was dying earlier and that struck a chord in Doumeki. No matter how annoying the guy was, Doumeki didn't want him dead. In fact, he would be happy if Watanuki stayed alive and in one piece. "I'm taking you home." He begins walking away from the school, enduring Watanuki's complaints to put him down the whole way there. He only set the shorter teen down for his key. After a brief argument Watanuki gives in, grumbling under his breath about how rude Doumeki is.

The afternoon passes by and when it reaches seven Watanuki can barely take Doumeki's presence anymore. "Are you ever going to go home or are you just going to stay here and leech off of me?" It's not like he really has much to offer but food and right now he's pretty much out.

"Your wards are worn out. I'm staying until you get new ones." He said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Watanuki sputtered, looking at Doumeki like he was crazy. "That's for me to decide, and I decide no!"

"They'll kill you. Do you want to die?" Doumeki stares at him.

Watanuki looks away after a few seconds of staring back, unable to take it. "I-" He sighs. "No."

Doumeki looks satisfied, plopping down on Watanuki's couch. "Good." He grabs a blanket at the foot of the couch and covers up. "Turn off the light."

Watanuki opens his mouth to protest but just sighs, doing as he says. He turns around as he's heading to his room "Goodnight, idiot."

AN: Hello once again readers! (wow that was lame) um I'd like to dedicate this chapter to 2 people. One is my friend ash () who's always here for me b/c ive had a shit week. And the other is my friend Jaqi, who is going to kill me when she finds out that this is actually my story. I think you can tell I got pretty lazy near the end of this but overall im ok with it. I reached my word goal so...