Today the boys of class 2-A would be playing against the boys of class 2-B in soccer.

The coach had no idea what it was about this match-up that made him pay more attention, and it wasn't like these two classes were full of J-league material. But if he had to guess, he would say his interest lay in the two lead-players, who, through the spirit of competition or pure unyielding hate for one another, (he was not sure), had revitalized the spectator aspect of the sport.

Watanuki eyes followed the ball as a hawk would follow its prey. A plan was forming in his head—a plan to end all plans; most of his team-mates could tell this because every now and again his glasses would gleam menacingly.

But never mind them, Watanuki Kimihiro was sneakily plotting in the middle of the soccer field, waiting for the perfect moment when he could unleash his plan on the unsuspecting (totally knew what was happening) class 2-A.

His super-genius plan would go a little something like this:

He would steal the ball from class 2-A, somehow make Doumeki look really bad in the process of stealing the ball, and then score the winning goal that Himawari-chan, whose class was playing volleyball on the court across the soccer-field, would see and fall head-over-heels in love with him.

It was a good plan.

Now all he had to do was steal the ball from class 2-A. They were charging towards him now in fact. How nice of them.

Using the speed he had honed throughout his years of running for his dear life, Watanuki was easily able to come out ahead of his team-mates and put himself in a favorable position to claim the ball. The current possessor tried to go around Watanuki, but the spectacle-wearing boy was too quick for him and he kicked the ball from between his legs.

"Doumeki-kun, get him!"

"I'd like to see him try," Watanuki cackled triumphantly as he ran down the field, ball still in his possession. "I'd love to see that big dofus—hey that's my ball! Give it back!" Coming in from the opposite direction, Doumeki swiped the ball and ran off with it, leaving Watanuki with no choice but to turn around and chase him back down the other side of the field, an indignant fist shaking at him the entire way.

"I think you misunderstood the rules behind the game," Doumeki said before kicking the ball into class 2-B's goal and scoring a point. Suddenly a loud cheer went up from the volleyball court where the girls were playing, some of those lovely maidens pressing into the fence and waving at Doumeki to get his attention.

"Stupid Doumeki just evened out the score. It's nothing to get worked up over," Watanuki grumbled, crest-fallen that he didn't have cute girls cheering for him.

"Nice run, Watanuki-kun~"

Like a thousand dulcet bells all harmonizing together to form one beautiful song, Himawari's voice rang into his unworthy ears and brought him back to life.

"Himawari-chan~" Watanuki swooned, and waved back eagerly. "I did it for you. It's all for you~" he squealed, startling every boy within a 100 yard radius of him—which just meant everyone on the field. "Nevermind that sneaky bastard and his dirty tricks. I could run circles around him." Speaking of the sneaky bastard, Watanuki turned to find Doumeki standing right next to him and waving at Himawari.

"She's not waving at you!" Watanuki shouted.

Doumeki put his hand down but did not go back to his own team. "Did you give any thought to what we talked about yesterday?"

Watanuki bent down to tighten his shoelaces. "Of course I did. I gave it a lot of thought."

"And?"

"And what?" Watanuki snapped. "We'll talk during lunch. You don't expect me to just give you the answer now."

Doumeki stared at him with one of his characteristic heavy silences. He looked like he very much expected him to give up an answer now.

"We'll talk when we're alone," he patted Doumeki on the chest, "Okay?" But even though he'd phrased it as a question, he didn't wait around for Doumeki's consent and walked off towards his teammates. It was possibly the reason why, when he reached his side of the field, he could still feel Doumeki's eyes on him, boring into his head.

When everyone had gathered around the center-line to fight for the ball, Watanuki avoided eye-contact with Doumeki, as it was just easier to play without having that on his mind.

His side was able to wrest the ball away from class 2-A, and as they all rushed ahead towards the goal, the current possessor passed it to Watanuki, but at that exact moment Doumeki put himself right in Watanuki's path, and the other boy, running at a full sprint, slammed right into him.

Not wanting the ball to get away from him, Watanuki scrambled up onto his hands, ready to take off after it, but it seemed the body beneath him had other ideas in mind, because when one of Watanuki's legs cleared the archer's shoulder, he grabbed the ankle and pulled so Watanuki ended up doing a bellyflop in the grass.

The coach blew the whistle.

"Foul!" Watanuki's voice reached a pitch that not even the whistle could approach. "Foul! If anyone saw that blatant foul I'll be asking them to give their eye-witness account in a court of law. I'll promise you full protection against Doumeki—hey!" Watanuki was trying to get up, but Doumeki still had a hold of his ankle and he yanked him back so he fell on his stomach again. That earned Doumeki a sharp curse from Watanuki and it made the coach, who had been walking over, start to jog.

"Boys, boys, what's going on here?"

Doumeki dropped his ankle and sat up on his elbows. Watanuki, still face down in the grass, raised an indignant finger in the air to get the coach's attention. "Foul!" he declared, except that it didn't sound like "Foul!" with all the grass in his mouth.

"Okay, everyone get back to your sides. Doumeki-kun, Watanuki-kun, be more careful around each other or else you'll both be put in time-out. Okay?"

"But…" Watanuki scrambled onto his feet, kicking Doumeki in the face in the process, which made the archer fall back onto the grass, "Doumeki fouled me. I have proof. I have eye-witnesses. Anyone?"

Everyone on the field was already scattering by the coach's instructions. Watanuki turned back to the coach with a strained smile. "I'll go back to my side now," he said and started packing it in his team-mates' direction, but not without throwing a glare in Doumeki's direction first.

The second bout for the ball ended in Watanuki passing it to one of his team-mates because Doumeki would not leave him alone. But even when the ball was no longer in his possession, Doumeki would still not leave him alone. It got to the point where the coach had to give them a second warning to separate.

"You need to get away from me."

"You don't own the field," Doumeki said prosaically. "I can stand wherever I feel like standing."

"But I do own the space around me," Watanuki snapped, "and the space around me doesn't want a Doumeki in it!"

Doumeki shrugged. "That's too bad for the space then."

"Asshole! You're such an asshole. I don't even know why I'm even trying to go out with you." Watanuki abandoned his prime spot near the goalie post. He would intercept the ball in another area—far away from Doumeki. But Watanuki only got as far as a couple of steps before he realized Doumeki was following him.

"You don't know when to quit."

"We need to talk," Doumeki called after him, "before your erratic brain writes off yesterday as nothing but a mistake. You avoided me all of this morning and now I'm being avoided again when I bring up the subject. I don't think I'm being unreasonable in assuming you're trying to back out."

Watanuki turned towards Doumeki with a horrified expression, not because Doumeki had spoken more than one sentence in one go—although that had something to do with it--, but because of what he was saying. "Do you want to have it out here in the middle of the soccer field? I told you we would talk about this in PRIVATE!"

"Okay," Doumeki said, but it didn't sound like he was agreeing with him, more like he was about to do something that would have everything fall in place--for him--as far as this argument went. Watanuki gave the archer a wary look.

"Hey, you two stop talking over there and get in the game. This is your last and final warning."

"Oh, sorry coach." He turned away from Doumeki for a second, so he was surprised to see the archer already halfway across the field and heading towards the ball. Watanuki ran to catch up, forgetting about his previous anxiety as the game came back into focus. One of his team-mates passed the ball to him when he reached their side and he ran towards the goal, dodging human-shaped obstacles left and right. The score was still 1-1: a stalemate that Watanuki was planning to break.

But first he had to defeat the final boss, the 'really annoying, thinks he's so mature, actually had the nerve to question my sincerity' final boss. He also went by Doumeki in some circles.

Watanuki trapped the ball against his foot and glared at the boy standing in the way of his goal. He pointed towards him in the traditional 'I'm going to defeat you and laugh about it later' pose.

Doumeki tried to kick the ball away from him, but Watanuki feinted to the left, escaping with the ball to the right, and there was much celebration and laughter in Watanuki's world… until Doumeki turned around and tackled him from behind.

"!!!"

Past the loud and quite embarrassing yell made by Watanuki, there was a general hush over the soccer field as everyone watched the school-body president tackle the school-spaz. Most had no idea how to consolidate the information they had about these two with the reality of what was going on, so they tried not to.

"Ow, get off—" Watanuki elbowed Doumeki in the head, "Get off me!"

The coach dropped his whistle.

"This isn't Rugby! SOMEONE TELL HIM THIS ISN'T RUGBY!!"

Currently, Watanuki was pretending to exist in a world devoid of Doumeki and anything that was Doumeki-like. It was pretty hard to do this, however, when the very thing he was trying to deny existence to was sitting right next to him in the grass.

"This is my time-out area. Get out of it and find your own."

Unfortunately Doumeki chose that time to exercise a few of his basic human rights, mainly freedom of speech, which in his case came out to none-speech, and freedom to annoy Watanuki by not moving, which was pretty self-explanatory.

"Can't you understand that we're in trouble and we can't exactly sit next to each other because that would get us in deeper trouble?"

"My team is beating yours."

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING I JUST SAID?!"

Doumeki paused, shrugged. "We're alone now."

"Yeah, I know. I hate it too," Watanuki replied.

Doumeki turned to stare at him. "You can talk now."

"Why would I want to do that and with you of all people?" Watanuki said acidly.

"Because we're alone. No one will bother us until the match is over, so you can say whatever you have to say to me now."

Watanuki stared at Doumeki as if he was the devil himself, which in all fairness to the devil he probably had better manners. "You bastard…you got us both kicked out of the game because of that. I told you, we would talk about it during lunch. We eat on the stairway to the roof sometimes, so I thought that would be a better place than the middle of a field."

Did Doumeki think he would try to back out of his promise? Did he actually think he would pretend that nothing had happened yesterday? Watanuki did not have the best track record when it came to being upfront with his feelings; denial had helped him deal with his existence as well as many other things in his life, but surely Doumeki didn't think he would—

Watanuki lowered his eyes to his lap as his fingers fiddled with the end of his shirt. Of course Doumeki thought that when he'd been avoiding the subject and doing suspicious things like not making eye contact. His embarrassment over their newly forming relationship was coming off as guilt and it was making Doumeki anxious to talk. Watanuki bit into his lip, not knowing exactly how to take this news.

Why did Doumeki want to go out with him so badly?

Watanuki pressed his hand against his chest, feeling his heart-beat quicken. The back of his neck had gone warm and for a moment he could not think. "I ah… look." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I just wanted us to be alone when we talked about this. Don't take it like I'm avoiding you because I do want to—" Watanuki lowered his eyes, "…you know. And I'm free today after school…"

A dark golden pupil slid towards him, but the owner of that stare did not turn his head to acknowledge what he'd said, instead he kept on watching him with that one immutable eye.

"We could…do something," Watanuki suggested hesitantly, "Unless you're busy with archery practice or just want to be an asshole-and-make-me-do-all-talking-while-you-look-on-like-a-dimwitted-bystander."

Doumeki finally turned towards him. "I had to pretend I couldn't evade someone who trips over his own feet at least once a day. Don't act like you're the only one who's trying hard."

"Hey, if you wanted to talk, you should have just said something," Watanuki said callously.

"I did and you ignored me."

"Well…" Watanuki could not deny that he had blown Doumeki off when he'd tried to talk to him. "That doesn't matter anymore," he said, neatly sweeping the blame under the rug. He was very good at housework. "What matters now is that you're a psycho who overreacts."

"The amusement park has discount on tickets. I want to go."

"That has nothing to do with you being an overreacting psycho," Watanuki replied. "Transition. Transition, at least! …And why the amusement park? It's so lame…" and scary. As lame as it was for two boys to go to the amusement park, it was a much scarier experience when taking into consideration that one of those boys was a ghost magnetic. And there were plenty of ghosts to be had at the amusement park. Even if Doumeki was with him, some ghosts might still chance an encounter.

"The only people who go to amusement parks are children and lovey-dovey couples." Sighing, Watanuki rested his chin in his hands and gazed off towards the volleyball court. "Ah, I wish I could go there with Himawari-chan."

Watanuki could suddenly feel Doumeki staring at him. Hard.

He sat up. "What?"

"I'll pick you up at five," Doumeki said coldly, and stood up to go elsewhere. The bell for the end of the period had yet to sound so Watanuki was at a lost as to where Doumeki thought he was going.

"That's fine, but, hey, where do you think you're going?"

Doumeki didn't answer him as he walked off towards the other side of the field.

"Doumeki," Watanuki called, slightly irritated by the other boy's sudden need to ignore him. "Oi. Dou—" Watanuki frowned as he watched Doumeki walk out of hearing distance.

What was up with him? He had even left without making one of his impossible bento requests.

Resting his chin in his hands, Watanuki sighed for the second time that morning.

"What does he have to be so moody about?"

As far as classic dating spots went, amusement park was pretty high on the list. He'd even overheard some of the girls talking about it once, about dates at amusement parks and what that usually said about the guy who wanted to take you there. Watanuki had listened very attentively—he suspected he was not the only boy who was doing so—and had come away with a bunch of contradicting statements that did not really prepare him for anything other than being confused.

If your date took you to the amusement park on the first or second date it meant he was a fun guy, that was the first statement of the hour. But then another girl had interjected that no, that wasn't right. Amusement park dates are so overdone. It means he has no imagination whatsoever. Boring. Moving on…. Another girl had added that while it was overdone, the classics still had their charm and screw you my very first date with my new boyfriend was at an amusement park. Then someone from another class, who was not a girl and again not even from their class, jumped in and added that the haunted house was a great way to get his girlfriend to cling to him, and then a girl had added that her boyfriend was usually the one clinging because the fake spiders rightly freaked him out.

So that was the info Watanuki had to work with when he entered the amusement park that evening with Doumeki. He had no idea why Doumeki had wanted to come here, but he suspected his reason didn't have anything to do with the reasons his classmates had listed. It was never a good idea to overthink Doumeki. He was a pretty straightforward guy, and if he provided a reason, then it was best to take it at face value: a discount on tickets was his reason.

Doumeki didn't put special emphasis on locations or activities like most people their age—good restaurants and eating were the exception, but other than that he had no preferences. He looked just as comfortable sitting in an empty dojo as he did standing in the middle of a crowded amusement park. The location or the activity was not going to give him any enjoyment, only Doumeki could do that, and Watanuki was of a like mind, so he could tell that despite the blasé expression Doumeki wore, he was amusing himself in his own way, which for Doumeki involved a lot silence and the occasional, well-timed smart-ass comment when Watanuki had done something especially spaz-tastic.

To demonstrate his point observe article A—the first roller-coaster ride of the evening. Watanuki had yelled the entire way through and Doumeki had remained as silent as a wall, but the moment the ride had stopped, Doumeki's first reaction was to face him, unnecessarily place a finger in his ear, and then say 'shut up.' It looked like he'd been waiting to say that even before they'd gotten on the ride.

When they were going through the haunted house, Watanuki's shirt had caught on one of the card-board ghosts, and thinking it was a real ghost that had grabbed him, Watanuki's survival instincts had immediately kicked in and he had taken off, dragging the cut-out with him the entire way through the haunted house until he'd reached the hall of mirrors and had seen that his attacker was made out of cardboard. It was at that moment that Doumeki, coolly walking in behind him, said that someone might try to hire him to freak out the other couples since he was already so good at it.

After Watanuki had stood outside the exit of the haunted house and bowed to each white-faced couple upon their nervous exits—made Doumeki do it too because his face was too stupid to not apologize to someone about it—they walked around the amusement park and Doumeki got side-tracked by the kiddy-rides, and when Watanuki said side-tracked, he meant he climbed into a retarded fish creature that looked way too happy for it not to be a thing of pure evil, and then proceeded to ride it, while telling him to get on—because apparently it was so slow that Watanuki could just get on. Watanuki was, however, too busy laughing at the ridiculous picture that the archer posed in said kiddy-ride to even fathom joining him, but then Doumeki had said card-board cutout and the laughter had stopped.

They ended their date on the Ferris wheel. Watanuki had decided even before they'd entered the park that this would be their last ride. He and Doumeki seriously needed to talk and the other rides, with their break-neck speeds or in the kiddy rides' case embarrassingly slow speeds, were not conducive to this. He was still… sort of confused as to why Doumeki liked him, no actual reason had ever been given, so Watanuki thought they could take this moment to clarify some things. Like feelings, or dating rules, or anything that was important to them getting through this evening without someone ending up dead.

Watanuki took the seat across Doumeki and waited for the ride to start. He could hear the crank and strain of metal as it unlocked itself from its resting position and began to move forward. He gripped the underside of his seat when he heard the groan from the metal go on for longer than he wanted it to, then relaxed when the low thrum from the internal machine took over.

Watanuki glanced over at Doumeki expectantly, waiting for him to say something. But it seemed his expectant look had confused the archer, because in the next instant he began to stand up in his seat, like he was about to come over.

Startled, Watanuki kicked his leg out, lodging his foot in Doumeki's stomach and pressing him back towards his seat. He had a feeling Doumeki had wanted to sit next to him, but Watanuki would have none of that. The bench was big enough for two people, but it would still be kind of cramped, and Watanuki truly did want to have that serious talk with Doumeki. And he sensed that nothing of the sort would be accomplished if Doumeki parked himself right next to him: it would be way too distracting for all parties involved. Better to have Doumeki where he could keep an eye on him.

Watanuki pressed his foot harder into Doumeki's stomach and got the other boy to fall back in his seat. Doumeki gave him a somewhat irritated look before he started to stand up again, like he was about to give it another go, and Watanuki raised his leg in warning for him to sit back down.

"I won't do anything," Doumeki replied, unnecessarily serious. He intercepted the foot that went to push him away, and as if to off-set his tone, he grabbed it by the ankle and pulled back a little; Watanuki slipped down in seat and would have fallen right off if he hadn't finally kicked Doumeki away.

"I know that!" Watanuki said as he crawled back up his seat. "I'm just… we have things to talk about."

Doumeki sat back down and leveled him with a critical stare. "Like what?"

"Like what?" Watanuki asked in disbelief. "Like… all kinds of things. Like what we're going to do now."

"I thought we could go get ice-cream."

Watanuki felt like taking off one of his shoes and lobbing it at Doumeki's head. "Not that, you idiot. I'm talking about what we're going to do now—now that we're going out."

"Ice-cream," Doumeki repeated.

"You really are hard of hearing," Watanuki hissed and dared Doumeki to say something stupid again. He was reaching for his shoe.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"Me? It's not just me," Watanuki bitched. "You're in this too. I might let you get away with all that 'hmming' and grunting crap because I know you're brain is really tiny and it can't be expected to run at the same speed as mine, but I at least expect some form of human communication once in a while."

Doumeki's eyes narrowed a bit, so they were even narrower than usual.

"You're lucky you're cute and can cook or I would have thrown you from this ride a long time ago."

"See, was that so hard?" Watanuki said, not really paying attention to the words as much as the word-count. Then he stopped as it dawned on him what Doumeki had just said. He narrowed his eyes and frowned. "What the hell did you just say to me?"

"Insulting me is not communication," Doumeki stated.

Watanuki continued to glare at Doumeki.

He did not appreciate being called 'cute.' Handsome and good-looking were totally acceptable, but cute was not something any guy appreciated being called. Doumeki had better take it back or he was going to be the one thrown from the ride.

"You called me what?" Watanuki's eye-glasses hitched down his nose.

Doumeki stared back at him like that was the least of their problems. "I think you might be onto something when you say we need to work on our communication skills, you especially."

"Me?! Oh no-no-no-no, you're the caveman here. Don't put us in the same category."

"I'm not," Doumeki said, "you talk a lot. But that's not the problem—it's what you say to me half the time. Everyone else gets the nice treatment."

"Well… that's…" Watanuki struggled for a reply that didn't involve 'shut up.' "Hey, look, you're always insulting me so how I am supposed to react."

Doumeki looked like he'd concede with him on that point. "I'm not always the one who starts it."

"So what do you want me to do about it? Stop being such an asshole and I'll be nicer to you. It's as simple as that."

"Is it really?" Doumeki said, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, I'll try to be better about it—better than you anyway," Watanuki added, completely missing the point of what Doumeki was asking for. He tapped his foot against the metal grating below him and his mind wondered back a few lines in the argument, and then a few more lines to the reason he'd want them to talk in the first place.

"So…is that why you like me?"

"Hmm?" Doumeki was staring out the side-window, but Watanuki could tell he had his attention.

"I can cook and I'm…" he struggled with the word cute, but it seemed the archer had picked up on that.

Minutes ticked by and Doumeki had yet to turn away from the window. Watanuki had all but given up on an answer when a single word traversed the space between them.

"Bonuses."

Bonuses? That was it? Then if Doumeki rated his ability to cook and his looks as bonuses, what were they bonuses of? Watanuki was pretty proud of his cooking ability and he wouldn't have had a problem if Doumeki liked him because of it. His looks he wasn't so sure of, but he at least tried to keep himself tidy and well-groomed. Though Doumeki liking him solely for looks would have been hard to believe, because the last thing Doumeki came off as was superficial. Neither did Watanuki see himself as some great beauty that could draw people's attention in that way, definitely not when compared to the girls that confessed to Doumeki on a regular basis. They were great beauties. He was just… normal looking.

"Bonuses…" Watanuki repeated, like it would make more sense if he said it out-loud.

"Really good bonuses," Doumeki clarified. He was still looking out the window.

Watanuki would have blushed if he still wasn't so confused over the real reason Doumeki liked him.

"So what's the reason you actually like me?" At this point he just wanted Doumeki to cut to the chase.

Doumeki finally turned away from the window. He looked deeply into his eyes.

"If you have to ask me the reason then I have nothing to say. Also the ride stopped."

Watanuki blinked. "Huh?"

"The ride stopped." Doumeki stood up, waiting for the gate to the unlatched, and Watanuki scrambled out of his seat after him, not wanting to keep the other patrons waiting for their turn to get off.

Watanuki climbed the steps for his apartment building. He could hear Doumeki behind him, his footsteps completely out of synch with his own, and he felt the sudden urge to match their pace, as if that would somehow help console their disparate personalities.

His door was an imposing figure of his night when he walked up to it. He heard Doumeki step up on the landing behind him, and he hesitated to turn around and face the archer.

Watanuki nervously touched a hand to his pants-pocket where he kept his house keys. He had a sudden urge to throw his door open and close it behind him forever. And was there any way that would not come off as insulting, because, on the whole, the date had been enjoyable. It had been a date for one. Doumeki and he had had a real date where both of them considered it a date and no one had died horribly. There'd been that one moment in the night where he thought he might kill Doumeki because he wouldn't be upfront over why he liked him, but after they'd gone for ice-cream, his craving for Doumeki's destruction had dissolved into a craving for blueberry fruit sorbet, and their conflict had run its course. Watanuki thought he should take a moment to bask in the victory of an actual post-date event.

He wanted to bask, but he'd gotten himself even more nervous with his mention of 'post-date event.' From all the movies he watched and all the talk he'd overheard of what others did after a successful date, some type of… physical gesture should be exchanged.

Like a punch in the face.

No, not like a punch in the face. What was he thinking? Well, that was the point; he wasn't thinking, couldn't think because he was so nervous. Maybe if he punched Doumeki in the face it would help with that. Watanuki put his head in his heads: oh god this was so hopeless.

"Watanuki."

Despite his nervousness his body apparently knew what to do and turned around in answer to that call.

Doumeki didn't usually call him by his name; it was usually 'idiot' or some other annoying moniker that from mere recollection made Watanuki suddenly want to punch him in the face, and not for reasons of nerves, either. Wow, he didn't feel nervous anymore. He just felt annoyed and somewhat bitter.

Watanuki crossed his arms in a challenge pose. "We went on a date so I think you know what to expect now."

Doumeki stared back at him like he was an idiot.

"I swear to god I'll punch you in the face."

"I don't think you can make this any less romantic," Doumeki replied.

"Che, I am much more romantic than a mere Doumeki, so shut up and get over here."

Doumeki was still staring at him like he was an idiot.

"I held your hand on the way over here and got your cooties all over me; I think I've gotten over the hard part. This should be a piece of cake," Watanuki bragged, steeling himself for what was to come. "So…any time now." Watanuki reached up to take off his glasses, but Doumeki's hand on his wrist stopped him.

"Don't take it off."

Watanuki blinked at Doumeki in surprise. "What?"

Doumeki answered him by tightening his hold on his wrist and drawing his hand down to his side, far away from his glasses. Watanuki did not know exactly how to take this. Should he be worried? He was feeling worried. "But they'll… get in the way," he added, now feeling other kinds of nervous.

Doumeki did not really look like he cared about things getting in the way. He tugged him closer by the hold on his wrist and Watanuki turned his head to the side to avoid meeting him face to face. He could feel Doumeki's breath against his cheek, and he closed his eyes momentarily, feeling suddenly overwhelmed by just this alone. Doumeki's other hand tentatively traced through the hair near his temple, pushing it back and revealing more of his forehead, and Watanuki tried to turn his head the other way. He only got as far as Doumeki's cheek, however, before his eyes traced his jawline back to his mouth. Face to face like this, it put them much closer than Watanuki expected, but he suddenly couldn't find the reason why that was so bad.

And up close like this, Watanuki was struck by the unusual shade of brown of Doumeki's eyes. His eyes were small, so it was usually hard to tell, but they were this… peculiar tawny color, with tiny flecks of gold dispersed around the small dark pupil. The right eye was a duller shade of its counterpart and, looking at it, Watanuki felt a pang go through his chest. He suddenly lost his self-consciousness and slid a finger down the side of that eye.

It was such a shame. His eyes were so beautiful and yet he'd given one up so easily… Watanuki slid his hand around Doumeki's neck, about to pull him down for a kiss.

His breaths were coming in fast, faster now with every second that dragged by and they stared at each other from so short a distance. Anticipation and nerves were one part of it, but being so close to Doumeki, feeling his breath pick up along with his, his jaw go tense, his eyes go hard, there was something else, something inside of him, of both of them, that was making this so…

Watanuki licked his lips. Geez, they hadn't even kissed yet and he already felt like he was about to faint.

Was this normal? It certainly didn't feel normal. And throughout it all there was this indefinable pressure in his chest that felt like it was expanding out with every breath he took, but at the same time constricting all the organs in his body that fell into its radius--most notably his heart. Watanuki felt like gasping for air. This was the movie theatre all over again, except more intense, more…

Watanuki gripped the back of Doumeki's neck in a not-too-gentle hold. Doumeki didn't seem to notice because he was giving Watanuki's wrist the same treatment.

Watanuki had a fleeting thought of being in way over his head before Doumeki leaned in and kissed him. It was only a brush of lips, but that pressure in chest constricted even tighter until Watanuki felt like he might die from it and wouldn't mind terribly.

He wrapped his other arm around Doumeki's shoulders and the kiss became less hesitant, turned into a chain of slow, gentle kisses that involved nothing more than lips and breath, and yet, for every second that slipped by, had them pressing in closer and closer together, those kisses pursuing each other at shorter and shorter intervals until Doumeki crushed him to his mouth and it turned into one long liplock.

The hand on his lower back was pushing more upward than forward, forcing him on his toes, and Watanuki shoved at the hand—really had to shove hard, because Doumeki was strangely strong and he was putting all that strength into holding him still.

Watanuki fell back a few paces and ended up banging into the door behind him, his breath all over the place as he clutched at his chest.

Holy crap. That was…what was that?

Doumeki was still standing where he'd left him, eyes wider than Watanuki had ever seen and hair all disheveled in the back from where his hands had been roving not even a minute ago.

Watanuki swallowed and felt for the door knob. That pressure in his chest was out of control. But now that he and Doumeki had some space between them, he was starting to figure out what it was.

Pulling.

It was like he had cords tied around his heart and they were pulling him with everything they had towards Doumeki. The sensation was so intensely physical that his hand was groping around at the front of his shirt, expecting to feel chords coming out of his chest, expecting to see them coming out of Doumeki as well. A few deep breaths later, Watanuki felt the pressure between them go taunt, like a leash that had spanned its length and could go no further in either direction.

Doumeki took a tentative step towards him and that pressure returned, double—triple—made Watanuki want to throw himself at Doumeki. He'd think that whatever this was would slacken up, give them some reprieve when they did what it wanted and got closer to each other, but it only made the pressure worse. Doumeki took another step towards him, then another, so he was right in front of him now, the look in his eyes now that he could make it out smoldering, as if he'd let that intense magnetic power possess him.

"We…" Watanuki swallowed as Doumeki leaned into him. "We should really say goodnight to each other now."

Doumeki nodded, in full agreement of what was being said, but didn't move an inch. Watanuki felt breath on his neck and he rested his hand in the middle of Doumeki's chest, ready to push him away, but found himself instead pulling him closer.

Oh really, what was going on here?

"I'm-I'm saying goodnight now," Watanuki stammered. He gripped the doorknob beside him and could not make his hand move no matter how hard he willed it to. "I'm serious…I'm…" Doumeki's hand suddenly covered his on the doorknob and he turned it for him, opening the door behind them. Doumeki then put both hands on his shoulders and in a deliberate gesture moved him to the other side of the threshold. He then moved to pull the door close, but Watanuki grabbed the doorknob on his side of the door, pulling it open.

"I…" He had something important to say, something truly life-changing on the tip of his tongue. "I had fun." That was certainly not it.

"Lock the door behind you," Doumeki said, gripping the doorknob tighter than was necessary.

"Right. Bye." For some reason that escaped him he raised his hand to wave. "Bye."

Doumeki pulled the door close haltingly and then there was the sound of absolute silence on both ends, before Watanuki heard Doumeki slowly make his way down the stairs. Watanuki was also slowly making his way down something, his back sliding down the door until his legs finally gave out and he crumpled the rest of the way down. He leaned his head back into the door and realized he'd yet to lock it. He should do something about that. When his legs worked, he decided.

A half-an-hour later Watanuki had yet to get up.

A/n: Watanuki and Doumeki are seriously meant for each other. Anyone who thinks otherwise is not reading the same manga as me.