He was trembling and gasping for breath. His legs felt weak and jittery and the spots that were dancing before his eyes slowly started to clear. Watanuki clung to Doumeki's shoulders while large hands gripped him beneath his knees and kept him elevated. The wall he was still pressed into had grown warm behind him after their exertions.

Now that he had his sanity back again Watanuki knew he'd been stupid. Stiffness and soreness were slowly and steadily climbing up his lower back and spine. He'd told Doumeki that they couldn't do it... that way... but dammit it all once Doumeki's fingers slipped inside of him and pressed right there he became nothing more than a demanding pile of putty in Doumeki's hands. It also wasn't helping him that the oaf was still inside of him...

"Ow," Watanuki muttered. He winced as he flexed his legs and tried to start standing. Doumeki's body all around him was like trying to move against a wall of cement.

"...Sorry," Doumeki murmured in his ear. "I shouldn't have..."

"S'my fault," Watanuki tiredly replied. "Now just... help me get dressed again."

"Right," was the other male's response. He slipped out without a sound and dropped one of Watanuki's shaking legs. His knees would have given out had Doumeki not been holding him up so carefully. He blinked when he felt soft lips touch his forehead in a kiss.

"Why do you... how can you..." Watanuki started, his face scrunched up in frustration.

"Hm?" Doumeki hummed in question.

"This!" The shorter male demanded. "How can you do this so casually! You're not... you're supposed to... Argh!" One of his hands gripped his hair in consternation. "You don't even like me! How can you do this with me?"

"I never said I don't like you," Doumeki remarked.

"That's beside the point!" Watanuki growled. "You're supposed to do this one someone you love! You can't... you've only known me for a couple of days!"

Doumeki blinked at him, his face expressionless and neutral as always. It made Watanuki want to punch something. "I like you."

"But you don't love me! You're only supposed to do this sort of stuff with someone you love!" The hand that was still holding up his other leg squeezed a little tighter while the other hand slipped around his back and pulled their chests flush together.

Doumeki looked him deeply in the eyes. "We have a unique situation. I like you. A lot. Love can come in time."

Watanuki gaped at him. "You're crazy."

Doumeki dropped his partner's other leg. He bent down and picked up a pair of discarded pants. He held them up with one finger hooked through a belt loop. "You're half naked." He quirked a single eyebrow up.

He growled and grabbed for the pants. "Jerk."

Doumeki smirked.

. . . . . . . . .

Watanuki snarled when he felt a presence looming over him at his locker. He looked up once he retrieved his wrapped lunch boxes and glared at the taller student standing above him. "Here's your lunch." He thrust out a hand that held one of the lunches.

Doumeki stared at him intensely as he took the offered food. "Where are we eating today?"

"You," Watanuki started, pointing a finger at him in warning, "are eating lunch wherever you normally do. I am eating lunch alone."

The staring did not stop. "Why?"

"I told you already!" Watanuki huffed. "No one at school can know about... this! Whatever this is! Just go about your business as you normally do."

"You are my business now," Doumeki deadpanned. "I want to eat lunch with you."

"Tch!" The shorter male stomped a foot. "I need some alone time! I'm not used to being around someone else so much!"

Doumeki turned the answer over in his head. He hadn't thought about the adjustment time someone like Watanuki might need. It might be a little overwhelming to be with someone a lot if they'd been alone for so many years. "... Fine," he said at length. "Don't run away after school, though."

Watanuki closed his locker with a little more force than necessary and turned sharply towards the doors. "I already said I would wait for you! Geez, you're such an overbearing oaf!"

Doumeki put a finger in his ear and followed Watanuki outside. "You're so loud."

"Cretin!"

Once they were outside Watanuki made a swift beeline towards the half dead sakura tree he always sat under. Doumeki wandered about for a few seconds before he heard familiar voices calling his name. Normally it was his peers from the archery team that he ate lunch with, though most of the jocks from the other sports teams were there as well. Doumeki never really cared where he ate lunch. He usually just sat down wherever someone was calling him from that day. Since it made no difference to him where he ate he figured he could appease his peers by sitting with them.

He sat down at the end of the table that was, luckily enough, in view of Watanuki on the other side of the lawn.

Watanuki himself was just starting to sit down with his lunch and what looked like a paper-back book in his hands. Doumeki frowned a little when he noticed how slowly the other male lowered himself to sit down. He used the tree behind him for leverage and was very careful about how far he leaned forward or backward. Doumeki reminded himself that he couldn't get carried away the next time. It would take time for the shorter male's body to adjust to the constant physical intrusions.

"Doumeki-kun, you dog!" One of the boys next to him gasped out. "Which girl fell in love with you this time? Just look at that lunch!"

Doumeki tore his eyes away from Watanuki and looked down at the lunch box he'd just opened. He hadn't even been paying attention to what his hands had been doing while he stared. He was a little surprised to see just how much detail was put into his food.

"Oh, man," someone else said, mouth agape. "Are you going to eat all of that, Doumeki-sempai?"

Hm, an underclassman. Doumeki didn't remember the last time an underclassman had eaten lunch with their group.

The rice balls were shaped like little cat heads with perfectly rounded ears, black sesame seed lips and pickled ginger cut for a perfect pink nose. Watanuki had even used sesame seeds for the whiskers. The small sausages were shaped like miniature octopuses and his carrots were shaped like stars and sakura flowers.

Even the broccoli was cut and stood upright like little bonsai trees!

Doumeki might have drooled a little bit when he noticed there was inarizushi in his lunch box. Watanuki's cooking had blown him away each time already, he couldn't wait to eat his favorite food cooked by the shorter male.

"New girlfriend, Doumeki-kun?"

Doumeki eagerly stabbed his chopsticks into his rolled ahi tuna sushi and stuffed it in his mouth. He looked up at the student next to him briefly "Something like that."

The table breathed in collectively in anticipation. "Doumeki-kun has a girlfriend? Who is it?"

There was a cry of despair a few seats down. It sounded like one of the girls in their class. Doumeki contented himself with eating and not responding.

"Uwaaaaah! Doumeki-sempai is so cruel to not tell us anything!" Someone bemoaned.

He turned his brass colored eyes back to Watanuki. The blue eyed student had just finished with his food, only half eaten, and was working on getting back up. His face was screwed up as though he were in pain. Doumeki felt a stab of guilt roil unpleasantly in his stomach.

. . . . . . . . .

Doumeki took the string off his bow and packed up the rest of his gear as quickly as he could. Watanuki was waiting in the spectator stands with a grumpy look on his face.

He grabbed his bags and headed to the entrance to the practice field. Watanuki took that as the sign that he was finished and stood up from the stands and practically leaped down the stairs to the ground. His blue eyes were sharp and disapproving when he looked at Doumeki. He crossed his arms and tapped a foot in impatience. The taller male reflected that he looked very girly doing something like that.

"You're still wearing your hakama and keiko-gi," Watanuki pointed out.

"Yeah," Doumeki replied. "Let's go."

"W-We can't go to the grocery store with you looking like that!"

"Why not?"

Watanuki blushed in his rage. "Because, you oblivious moron! Your..." His arms flailed about in front of him.

Doumeki raised an eyebrow.

"You jerk!" Watanuki raged. "Half of your chest is visible! And those pants look funny! Go put your normal clothes on!"

Doumeki started to walk towards the school's exit. "It's fine. I've gone to the store in this before."

"You're impossible!" Watanuki glowered but followed along behind him.

Apparently Doumeki made quite a habit of doing his shopping at this store in his archery clothes because not very many people paid any attention to them as they walked down the aisles of food.

And Watanuki did not admit that he felt a tiny little spark of jealousy whenever a woman would blush and giggle with her friends when they noticed Doumeki's firm chest visible in the gi that he wore. Watanuki thought the boy might as well have just worn a robe to the store instead.

Doumeki picked up a bottle of soy sauce and held it out to Watanuki. "I like this brand."

"Don't be stupid," Watanuki retorted. He snatched the bottle from Doumeki's hand and put it back on the shelf. "I don't buy store made sauces. I make them myself."

Doumeki's eyebrows rose sharply up in surprise. "You brew your own soy sauce?"

"Yes," Watanuki replied. One of his eyebrows twitched with annoyance.

"What about sweet and sour sauce?"

"That too!"

Doumeki looked at the basket that Watanuki was carrying. It only had fruits, vegetables, oil, flour and meat in it. "Do you grow your own rice?"

"Don't be stupid! Does it look like my apartment has space for a rice paddy field?"

Doumeki shrugged. "Do we need rice then?"

"Of course we need rice!"

Doumeki leaned down and picked up one of the largest bags of rice from the bottom shelf.

Watanuki nearly squeaked again for the third embarrassing time that day. "That's a twenty pound bag of rice! I only get the five pound bags! I don't have room for that in my kitchen!"

"We'll eat it fast enough." Doumeki slung the bag over his shoulder and held it in place. "I eat about twice the amount of food you do. You're too skinny."

"I eat just fine!" Watanuki turned and started walking towards the registers. "Don't you have a family? Aren't they going to wonder where you're at? They must be worried sick!"

"It's fine," was the lame response. "My father moved out years ago. It's just my mother and grandfather at the shrine. Grandfather is away from town for the week on business. Explaining you to mom without his help wouldn't be easy."

Watanuki froze in mid step. "What?"

Doumeki readjusted the rice on his shoulder. "My mother is a mild mannered woman, but she's never believed in the supernatural. She thinks grandfather continues on with the work for the shrine because of tradition. My grandfather Haruka is a very powerful exorcist. His Sight has always been better than mine. I'll need his help explaining you to mom."

The look on Watanuki's face was hard to read. "You didn't tell me this would cause so much trouble for you at home. It's your family! I can't..."

"You're not any trouble," Doumeki affirmed. "My mom will be fine. She doesn't worry much. This is my decision."

Watanuki looked crushed, but he looked away and didn't say any more. Family was very important to him, even more so because he had lost his so young. He couldn't fathom being so careless about their feelings.

A warm hand lightly landed on his lower back. Doumeki leaned down near his ear. "It's all right." The hand slipped around his lower waist. "No one is getting hurt by this. By us."

Watanuki looked away and blushed.

"I will keep you safe."

"You're weird," he mumbled.

"No more weird than you are."