Watanuki had wondered why Yuuko had stressed the "in-person" delivery until arriving at the temple and remembering that Doumeki was off at university. For a moment, his spirits dropped at the impossibility of the task – he didn't even know which university, or when Doumeki would be home – but then in desperation he opened and read the note.

He'll be there, Watanuki. He's coming back as you read this.

Instinctively he glanced out the window and saw nothing but the shadows of the temple yard. The sun had set a little while ago and while the sky to the west was still light, that light did not extend to the rest of the what Watanuki could see. He would have doubted Yuuko's statement, except that Yuuko was never wrong about things that happened or would happen. He had the idea it was because she knew too well what had already happened.

But as he watched the darkness grow darker he saw the top of someone's head over the wall, and he had refolded the note by the time the person he'd seen had stepped into the temple yard and established himself as Doumeki. Watanuki wasn't surprised, not after Yuuko's message, but something akin to that emotion that wasn't quite relief and wasn't really happiness nearly overcame him. Anticipation. Sudden adrenaline. Perhaps even a small (or not so small) amount of fear. But too much had happened for him to turn back now, not the least of which was him being here already, and so he stepped in front of the door and waited for Doumeki to open it and see.

--

His father must have left the light on for him, Shizuka reasoned, grateful at least for that. He had some witch-finding to go about – tomorrow. Tonight he was let down and had lost the resolution that had carried him most of the way home. He didn't know what to do. Until he did, he couldn't do anything. Improvisation was failing him.

Entering the temple grounds was always a calming experience, and eased the pang of defeat as it always had. Even if at present he'd failed, there was tomorrow. There was always another tomorrow, which became a today faster than it had seemed yesterday.

But he still could not shake the disappointment. Letting Watanuki down had been synonymous with letting himself down for a long time now. Shizuka wasn't used to being unsuccessful at all. And this was getting him nowhere.

He paused at the door, vision suddenly and inexplicably failing to align. For a moment, he wondered if it could possibly be the other half of his eye – but all he could see was the door. So much for that theory. Turning the unlocked, he pushed the door open.

And there in the light spilling from his room stood Watanuki.

Shizuka couldn't help it; his jaw fell open and he stared. Watanuki hadn't been in this world. How could he just show up in the temple – in Shizuka's room – show up as if the past two months hadn't been?

Was this why the girls had been unable to deliver the letter?

"For once you actually have an expression," Watanuki told him, not scowling but definitely not smiling either. "Yuuko sent me with this." He extended a folded piece of paper which Shizuka accepted numbly but did not open.

"What are you doing here?" he finally asked, forcing his voice to sound calm as it normally did on its own.

"I told you, Yuuko sent me with that." The paper might have fluttered a bit, or it could have been an errant breeze through the door. "I came back," Watanuki added, averting his eyes as if in apprehension of the reply.

"You came back," Shizuka repeated, unsure if he wanted more to repeat the goodbye gesture in a different greeting or become angry, properly angry. He did neither but continued to stare at the one before him, who had left and inexplicably come back.

"It was boring and depressing and life there would have been a misery, all right? But that's not the important point here!" Now Watanuki was scowling. "You were going to leave things like that, without answers! You…you completely…and that letter, that was supposed to make up for it? You expect me to just be okay with…with…" His rant lost its fire and died away, and the expression on his face turned confused, perhaps even shy. "With all that?" he finished in a small voice.

"All that," Shizuka repeated.

"Will you stop only saying what I say?" Watanuki demanded, once again full of fire. "You know what I mean!"

"And that's why you came back." It was a bait, but Shizuka knew well enough how to get answers out of Watanuki. It took coaxing and hearing damage.

"I told you why I came back! I'm asking you these things now because I'm here already, so you can explain now! Or open the damn note!" There was a hint, a very slightest hint of panic in Watanuki's voice that could have been read as anger. Shizuka found he knew what he was going to do now, and a small light flashed in the back of his head: go for it.

"All that," he reiterated, "is because I didn't think I'd get another chance at it." He didn't open the note, not really caring what Yuuko had to say at this point. There were more important matters, such as Watanuki's clearly bewildered expression.

"Another chance at…"

"Are you leaving again?" Shizuka cut in.

"No, I'm…staying here," Watanuki replied. "But –"

Shizuka didn't bother hearing the rest of this statement, but instead leaned in and closed the short distance between them with a second kiss. He let it carry on longer than the first, and didn't push away when he was done. There was time to deal with the consequences this time. There was time. And he knew what he was doing.

"I – that was – I mean!" Watanuki stammered, not actually growing angry but turning an intriguing shade of red. "That was!"

"I kissed you," Shizuka finished, probably not helpfully. He didn't much care.

"I know that!" snapped the other. "I know what kissing is, you moron! But you, you kissed me, and you did it twice, and damnit, that's not normal! For you especially!"

Shizuka smirked. "You really are an idiot," he stated, waiting for the inevitable reaction.

"Just who are you calling an idiot?!" Watanuki demanded, as expected. "I'm just to make sense of the weird things you're doing, and you just damn well kissed me so I have right to be confused and, and, and!"By this time, his face was the reddest Shizuka had ever seen it. It was an amazing sight.

"You're still an idiot," he replied.

"YOU CAN'T SAY THAT UNTIL YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" yelled Watanuki, loud enough that the neighbors would probably complain. In fact, the rest of the Doumeki family would probably complain too. Shizuka found he didn't really care.

"I kissed you –" he relished the sudden look of panic on Watanuki's face " – because it was what I chose to do." He stepped forward, into his own room, effectively forcing Watanuki to take a step back if he wanted to maintain a distance between them. It was gratifying when Watanuki did not back up very far.

"Ah – you should…" Watanuki swallowed nervously, "you should read Yuuko's note."

Lacking a reason not to, Shizuka obeyed and scanned the contents of the letter. Written in Yuuko's unmistakable script were the words: Kiss him, you fool!

"A bit late for that," he commented.

"What?" Watanuki snatched the note and read it, turning an even more vibrant shade of red. It was getting a little worrying. "I NEVER SAID THAT!" he protested loudly. "I NEVER SAID THAT AT ALL, DAMN YOU!"

"Said what?" Shizuka took the note back from ragefully-shaking fingers, but all he could read was: Don't worry, Doumeki-kun, he's just in a wee bit of denial. He glanced over at Watanuki, and speculated that "a wee bit" in Yuuko-speak was the same as "the entire Egyptian river-full".

"I didn't say anything!" Watanuki cried, flailing his arms wildly and knocking himself over onto the floor. Shizuka did not capitalise on the situation, and instead admired his self-restraint. He offerred a hand and was snapped at but allowed to help Watanuki up.

"Never mention this," Watanuki grumbled. "What did the note say to you anyway?"

Shizuka figured it would be just as easy to show.