A/N: i don't own XXXHoLiC...just this fic. I got the idea from a clip in an AMV I saw and therefore have no idea where the idea originated from -_- AND THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL REVIEW AND ALERTS! You make me a happy happy,authoress! Special thanks to EchizenRyomaLover and Catastrophic Monsoon, and everybody else for your consistent, honest reviews and for urging me on with this story! I only wanted a short three-shot, and I now am developing up to seven or eight-and the story is NOWHERE near done now! And thanks to all those people who reviewed anonymously and don't even have fanfiction accounts, that especially made me really happy! By the way, if

If the ring fits

When Watanuki woke up with a clear head and no ring on his finger, he was convinced that the whole ordeal was one cursed nightmare to begin with. The spirit magnet flexed his fingers, arched his back as relaxed entirely, grateful that today was a Saturday. An odd sound echoed throughout the room as Watanuki shifted his hips on the oddly soft mattress. He automatically abandoned thoughts of dreaming as he fished the ring from his pocket, the emerald shattering from his pressed weight on the delicate gem stone. Tears began to fill his eyes as he knew, just positively knew this couldn't be a dream. Disregarded the fact that he had morning breath from drinking rum,wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and woke up in Yuuko's bed of all places. As his bare feet cleared the cold tatami floor, the first thought in his head was how he was going to fix this blunder he had gotten himself into.

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His senile grandmother walked through to the kitchen, straight to the stove, drooling from the corner of her mouth and muttering unintelligible words. Her grandson put down his coffee cup to redirect her to the table. She cocked a brow at this, she knew she was not right in the mind sometimes, but her grandson hadn't ever stopped her from making breakfast before. But that was probably because she didn't know about a certain ghost-seeing chef. As her bottom touched the seat of the chair, arms still gripping the degenerating muscles of her own. She smelled the strong smell of soap and heat rolling off of his skin, Shizuka didn't bath much in the mornings, in fact, forgetting hygiene to begin with in favor of archery practice in the morning. The Doumeki sighed in exasperation, something he hadn't done in a while. Immediately he had her full attention at this small notion. No, this was important. He was telling her something important. The archer took another mediating breath as he released his burden in the form of two rushed monotonous words.

"I'm married."

He shut his eyes, his grandmother glanced at his left restricting arm, a thick gold band, centred with an emerald in the centre. She smiled toothlessly, lighting up with glee. It wasn't irregular for men back then to marry young like her grandson chose to. In fact, she lit up impatiently at the prospect of meeting her grandson's bride.

"What's her name?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear. The other Doumeki's ears reddened at the question and he answered it none the less.

"Watanuki." he muttered. She rose her brow, wondering why he was telling her the last name. She shrugged it off, and started mumbling plans to herself. Meanwhile, Shizuka was wondering how he was going to keep the two apart.-

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The smoking witch held the shards of the broken ring in her snowy white palm, the smoke around repelling it''s magical advances, drawing it to the epicentre of a viewer's attention. Unless you were Watanuki Kimihiro.

The orphan kept his saddened eyes downward as the sounds of Yuuko's heavy breathing echoed in the room. "Is it your wish?" she asked the glassy-eyed seer, he only nodded hollowly in response. She smirked, in a sad sort of way, like she did when a customer made a wish that only granted them impending doom in the end, leading themselves into their own demises. "Then, your time to fulfill the bonding process has shortened, you must now complete the ritual in the course of the next two weeks." The seer's eyes widened at the words thrown about casually, bonding? Ritual? "What do you mean?" he asked panicking, he was already bonded to Doumeki for like perhaps spiritually. What more bonds could?....Unless...

His eyes nearly widened out of their sockets as he remembered the first night he had moved in to his apartment, without the protection of his parents left him vulnerable to the ghosts. The foster parents taking care of him had hired a witch doctor. Beating him unless and performing, like a hindu wedding ceremony, and all of the sudden he had jumped up and started thrashing the young boy. Hit after hit.(5 )He snapped out of the brutal daydream and shivered in fear, anticipating her next words. "You'll have to find the jeweler yourself to figure it out." she winked, causing him to blink owlishly in confusion. Innocence too, he was a babe in the woods after all. Before anger infiltrated his eyes.

"The jeweler?! I wasn't even paying attention to what street the store is even on! How am I supposed to confront the jeweler?!" he asked, all but yelling in her face, hissing,and bristling like an angered tomcat. He stalked around the store,huffing,and puffing, but not knocking anything down yet. Like the third pig in that fairytale, she watched in amusement as her little feeble wolf, yelling obscenities at her. "You can always ask all, he was there to purchase and buy the rings was he not?" she leaned towards him, finding him in the exact spot he had started in. He paled at her words, but couldn't stop his curiosity. "He should know the conditions. I wonder what he's hiding from you." she whispered in his ear, and he suddenly had a purpose that day. They needed to talk.

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Doumeki Shizuka shifted through his mail in a fitting hakama, blinking at the rough brown paper packaged parcel addressed to 'Shizuka-kun and Kimihiro-kun.' As he tore it open, he found several strange items. A white, almost transparent lace veil, topped with red roses on the crown(6), some expensive looking wards,tiger balm, and an old fashioned card. Shizuka admired the cover of the card, depicting a sunset rich with dark oinks,yellows,deep oranges, and transparent blues. The single word was printed with gold ink precisely, spelling 'Congratulations'. If he hadn't felt the paper's material and noticed the subtle hints, it could have been from anyone. The dead giveaway was the picture of the three chibis, him,Watanuki,and Kohane holding hands. She wrote such lovely formal words, wondering if she really was just eleven years old. The passage read, in a cery hard to read cursive font, that she must have struggled to make look elegant.

'Best wishes to the both of you. I hope you live a happy and long life together.'

-Kohane Tsuyuri

Those words were the formal, but the several referenced quotes and strings of poem gave away the thought and effort she slaved away, in taking time to acquire these strange gifts, spend hours painting the sunset with her two Lilly white hands, seeming so feeble like Watanuki's,but creating skill with sheer effort. Doumeki had to admit, he had a soft spot for her,just in a different way then Watanuki temple brat liked her simplicity,level-headiness, and the strong maturity she exuded for a girl her she gave such peculiar items, then each held a meaning. The wards may have been old but she must have spent her life savings on the seer, and this thought made him jealous. If she knew that he would always be with Watanuki all the time anyways now that they were married, why did she give them now? But that was besides the point, the wards he could grasp, but a veil and tiger balm? He understood the concept of the lacy thing, but the day hell freezes over, or the dimensions crash, or simply Armageddon, is probably the only time when the seer would ever, ever wear the lacy thing,unless he decided to have a proper wedding that is. But tiger balm? It's a remedy for common ailment, and at best, lubricant. But what did-

He was cut off by the memory.

"He said it was rape you know." she had her hood pulled up,graphic multi-colored earphones printed on the hoodie,the pitch black a stark background for the neon pink,green,purple and white. He was huddled close to her under her tiny umbrella. One of those anime-mascots printed on them. He noticed it had a white and black pig on it. He held it above them, ducking his neck down to her height of four foot eight to allow her to plug a white earphone into his left ear. They hummed a j-rock and English songs they both knew. The scuffs of her jeans dipping into the puddles and soaking the denim as she attempted a caramelldansen stance as she danced ridiculously to unfitting music(7) She went on, panting as she held her abdomen at straining herself. He couldn't help but laugh until his lungs were screaming at him to stop.

"He said, either way,even if they are willing,it would hurt like hell. I guess that's why I only saw three guys in Japan on lavalife looking for an intimate relationship. He gawked at her in shock. "You didn't-" he began. now cut off by her high pitched giggle. "Oh but Shizuka, I did! And he asked me to bring tiger balm!" she bent over laughing, and together they let out guffaws of glee. Despite the very awkward conversation of her telling him her brother's opinion on gay relationships for a psychology project, he had no idea that two years later he would be remembering that context.

Ew.

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As Doumeki's grandmother called (or rather croaked) their names, he found said grandson walking straight towards him at a blinding face, his body accented by the white and navy hakama we wore, the fitting garments making him look rather...attractive. Before he had any time to question or further muse on Doumeki's looks, he was tripped,knocked over, and pinned down. About to yell very boisterously, the archer simply took a hand off of his pinned wrist to raise a silencing finger to his lips.

Quiet.

He tightened his lips into a thin line and complied, ashamed at how suggestive their position was! His grandmother could very well suffer a stroke, except on the off chance that the stoic exorcist had already told her. But judging by the way his grandmother was yelling out and stumbling, he didn't think that it was too far from the truth.

--

"What's her name?" he asked nervously,wondering if Doumeki would dare to answer,already too close for comfort. He waited,wrists pinned above his head,face coloring,as Doumeki's searching eyes finally graced his.

"Hm?" he asked nonchantly, still alert of his grandmother's growing distance.

This,to say the least,annoyed Watanuki. "I asked you what your grandma's name was, you cretin!" he wriggled,hips touching the archer's abdomen. They both froze,an awkward sensation for the differing fabrics, Watanuki could feel the thin rough fabrics of his newly changed uniform, it was like he was naked in front of his husband. But Doumeki was a ...

''! he thought, trying as gently as possible as he could to remove Watanuki's hips from his abdomen,to draw attention from his steadily climbing erection. "Shizune." he manged to say evenly, parting their bodies,finally. They both collected a break and heard her voice grow fainter.

"Shizune...Haruka...Oh! I see!" something simplistic must have made itself known as the boy recalled the resemblance in the younger Doumeki's name to his grandparents. The archer pulled him up by his wrists. Suddenly surprised, his nose crashed for a second time into Shizuka's jaw. Instead this time,it sent a jolt of memory to the seer. The many free kisses from last night. "Your sure missing some manners today." Watanuki didn't seem to get the insult at first,but stopped himself from grandmother was near and he knew just the way to throw the archer off. He smiled seductively, not sure if it would at the Doumeki's eyes, it worked. He worked his way up on his toes. He tried to use that voice that those girls did in Yuuko's animes when they went in for the kill (8) "Am I?I can make up for that in-" he blew in a stupefied exorcist's ear."...kindness." he finally breathed out, just not about to say pleasure. As if sensing that the act had lost its time, Doumeki pulled away,pinching the seer's delicate jaw in between several fingers. "Don't fuck with me." the brass eyes flashed, and his own Sapphire and gold eyes widened in fear and shock at the uttered swear. He unknowingly shivered, and his husband must have saw this because he let go and turned away,back tensed and muscles coiled in stress.

"Why did you marry me?" he whispered inaudibly, uncharacteristically sad and weak as the priest turned his back to the seer. The navy bow of the hakama titled, infuriating him at the sloppiness of the archer's chosen way of dressing. "I didn't know what i was getting myself into." he said matter-of-factly,slapping down some custom wards onto the dusty table for the spirit magnet to Doumeki. Besides, it wasn't like he was expecting or wanted Doumeki to say anything mushy, but unprepared for his harsh blunt honest words.

Doumeki furrowed his eyebrows, seeking a missing ward. As he reached backwards for the pile, something dripping onto the back of his hand,sliding over his knuckles. The temple brat jumped and check whether or not the seer was bleeding or salivating all over him. However, that didn't stop him from gawking (as close as a Doumeki can) at the person before him.. The beautiful boy looked down with wide blue and gold eyes, soundless tears running off of his face. He widened his eyes further, as if to stem the flow of tears and keep from crying, failing , the seer lifted the back of his hand to brush the tears that was it. He remembered the man, mutely hiding his sadness, chest wracking with stifled sobs as he simply walked away. Not bothering to snatch a seal. The archer began to doubt that this was the only reason the seer had wanted to come over to his house. To be perfectly honest, he didn't have the heart to follow after Watanuki. Despite that the month that suggested that the spirits be amok and abundant, especially at this time of day. Marriage is troublesome, he thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose and massaged his temple. the ring squeezed his finger as if to reprimand him and alert him of the mistake he was making, and punishing him for his insensitivity to the Watanuki's feelings. He wasn't so lucky as his grandmother found him and started to babble. Oh what he would give to be single again.

"I wanted to meet her!" she said in between nonsense, looking crestfallen.

He didn't want to break it to her that said 'her' was actually a 'him'.

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A/N: Sorry if this chapter was attempt at humor is very,very,morbid.

(6) Shouko's wedding veil in Episode seven of Baka To Test Shokanjuu (its really funny,trust me!)

(7) Bitches by Mindless Self Indulgence. It works, apparently, my friends do it all the time.

(8) Face Yuri.

Next chapter I'll post links for what I think the rings look a great March break!