Watanuki was warm and surprisingly willing that night. He wrapped his arms around Doumeki's neck and locked his legs around his waist and moved, the friction hot and it made Doumeki's blood boil with need.

Perhaps it was a knee-jerk reaction after the scare they had that night. It certainly wasn't necessary for them to be intimate when Watanuki was on the temple grounds, but for the life of him once they were alone in his room Doumeki couldn't keep his hands off the shorter male. His tongue on Watanuki's bruised neck elicited such noises and moans of desire he couldn't have held back if he wanted to.

Why would he want to, after all? His touch healed the wounds that covered his partner's body and the pleasure their joining created made him crave it more and more. Seeing the open, honest and arousing expression on Watanuki's face every time he entered the shorter teen was like steroids for Doumeki's ego.

Watanuki had curled into Doumeki's arms when they were done all on his own, much to Doumeki's surprise. The taller teen rested his chin on the top of his partner's head and breathed in the smell of shampoo and spices from their dinner. He also breathed in a sigh of relief.

They slept well that night.

Waking up, however, was very, very strange for Watanuki. It was the first time he'd ever slept in a different place since his parents had died. The first thing his sleep addled brain thought to do when he awoke was panic. The ceiling above him wasn't his, the bedding smelled different and the light came into the room at all the wrong angles.

Then Doumeki was over him and bearing down into him, kissing him and groping and Watanuki suddenly realized that the taller male was a still a little damp from a shower and his kiss tasted like mint toothpaste. He hadn't even heard the other wake up and leave the room to bathe for the day.

Granted, it had been nearly two weeks since the last time he'd been nearly consumed by a malicious spirit. Watanuki had not even paid attention to how much energy was drained from him each time. His body suddenly felt like it used to just a month ago – tired and sore and just a little stretched. It only figured that making love that morning reduced those terrible aches to almost nothing.

It was just plain surreal to see breakfast served by Doumeki's mother that morning. There was food, food he hadn't cooked himself, served hot and ready to eat.

Akane smiled at his mild state of surprise and poured him a glass of orange juice. She'd had all night to absorb what happened and was really starting to come to terms with it. Cooking breakfast felt normal, and it would help serve as an apology for the trouble she'd caused. "Please eat, Kimihiro-kun. I've prepared oatmeal, toast and scrambled eggs."

"A western breakfast," he noted out loud.

Akane grinned. "I hope you like it."

Doumeki sat down and started eating without preamble. Watanuki sat down as well and took note of how quickly Doumeki was inhaling the food. It was unusual for him to eat like that, wasn't it? While he always ate anything Watanuki had put in front of him he usually ate slowly, almost reverently at times.

Watanuki took a bite of the eggs on the plate in front of him. Doumeki's gold colored eyes flicked up to look at him as the first bite went in and kept staring.

Watanuki winced very hard on the inside but smiled quite valiantly on the outside. "It's good!" He felt obligated to say.

Granted, the eggs weren't cooked all of the way and he was certain he'd just bitten down on a piece of egg shell, but he was far too polite to ever say so. The look Doumeki gave him spoke volumes. See.This is why you have to cook.

He sighed. Looked like he would have to start getting up earlier to beat Akane to the kitchen every morning.

Watanuki was also too polite to laugh when Haruka sat down to eat and very visibly winced when he took a bite of food. The moment his daughter left the kitchen Haruka drank the glass of orange juice in front of himself in one gulp and threw his eggs and toast in the garbage can.

"I want tamagoyaki for breakfast tomorrow," Doumeki told him bluntly.

"I am not a personal chef!" Watanuki growled.

"And Umeboshi," Haruka added.

Watanuki gaped for a moment. No wonder Doumeki acted the way he did, he clearly learned it from his grandfather. Still, though, Haruka was an adult and Watanuki was living in his house, and even if it was only the first morning he couldn't just say no. He'd feel like a leech if he refused Haruka's request to cook. He blushed and very quickly cleaned up his plate. "Uh, umeboshi. Right."

. . . . . . . . .

Doumeki frowned as he sat down at the table with his lunch box in hand. Still Watanuki sat on his own under the sad looking sakura tree and ate his lunch in isolation. They already walked to and from school together, lived together and waited for each other during after school activities, just what was so conspicuous about eating lunch together?

"Wow, Doumeki-kun, did you take your girlfriend on a hot date last night?"

"...What?" Doumeki asked. He tore his gaze away from Watanuki and looked at the student next to him.

"Your lunch!" The boy exclaimed. "It's a masterpiece! There's also more hearts in it than ever before!"

Doumeki looked at the lunch he'd just opened. Huh, well what did he know, it did have more hearts in it than before. Watanuki had also put in all of his favorites, including inarizushi, octopus shaped sausages, heart shaped balls of rice and all of the vegetables were shaped like sakura flowers. It truly was an awe-inspiring lunch. "Hm," he hummed thoughtfully.

"So, Doumeki-kun, just who is this girl?" The boy asked.

The rest of the table started to pick up with the question. They'd been getting more persistent lately. "I never said I had a girlfriend," Doumeki said before he shoved a piece of steamed edamame in his mouth.

One of the girls giggled. "Doumeki-sempai, we know your mom didn't make that lunch for you! And you can't buy a lunch like that from a convenience store! Come on, who is she? Is she from a different school?" The girl suddenly gasped, a look of bright speculation in her eyes. "Is she a college student?"

One of the other girls nodded at the guess. "Aah, Doumeki-kun would only attract the best of girls! She's probably an athlete, or a model!"

"Maybe she's the daughter of a big CEO?" Someone else suggested.

Doumeki rolled his eyes and ate a big piece of rice. This was getting ridiculous.

"Yeah!" Someone else exclaimed. "She would be, wouldn't she? She probably plays tennis, or golf! Rich people play those sports often, don't they?"

"Or a miko!" A different boy said enthusiastically. "Doumeki-kun lives at the big shrine, right? There's tons of shrine maidens there! I'll bet that's who his girlfriend is!"

"Oh, that would explain why we haven't seen her!" One of the girls agreed.

Kami-sama,someone make them stop. Doumeki shoveled the rest of the food in as quickly as he could. This conversation about a mythical girlfriend that wasn't actually a girl or any of the things his peers suggested was downright stupid. He packed up his lunch and headed inside toward the school doors.

"Waah~! Doumeki-kun is so cruel! He won't say anything about her!"

"Maybe he needs to keep her identity a secret? To protect her?"

Doumeki clenched his hand into a tight fist when someone else started to once again agree with the ridiculous speculations. He entered the hallway and lost the voices of the students as the doors blessedly closed behind him. He'd have to tell Watanuki to go easy on the hearts and flowers for his lunches from now on.

Not that he wanted to, of course. He liked his cute lunches. It was one of the biggest ways Watanuki displayed his actual affection for Doumeki. He sighed. This was getting hard to keep a secret. He didn't like hiding from things, but he would try for as long as possible, for Watanuki's sake.

. . . . . . . .

He did his best that day to ignore the shadow of uneasiness at the thought that he'd be packing up his belongings after school. How were they even going to carry everything over? Would they expect him to want to bring along his few pieces of furniture, too? The Doumeki temple had enough furniture and then some – he didn't really need to bring along his small table and miserable clothes dresser. What about his kitchen utensils? He didn't have the best quality knives and cookware, but they were clean and usable. Wouldn't Doumeki's family have better cooking supplies anyway? What would he do with the things to throw away?

What would they do with the apartment? The government paid for everything for him. If he informed the apartment owner that he was moving out the government would notice. Would they look for him? Would they stop putting the small amount of money in his bank account like they did every month? Would they make the Doumeki family sign adoption papers in order to live legally at their residence?

Watanuki's head spun with his questions. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. He was still a bit frightened at the prospect of such a big change in his life.

After school they went straight back to the temple. Haruka and Akane were both waiting for them at the entrance. Both of them were wearing a jinbei set of long shorts and the tied shirt. While Haruka's jinbei set was a plain blue color Akane's was white with patterns of peach blossoms. "Oh!" Watanuki said aloud. He had not expected to see them wear clothing outside of the traditional monk robes and summer yukata.

Doumeki's mother smiled. "We're dressed to help you move, Kimihiro-kun! Dad and I collected empty boxes today and packing tape." Her hair was up in a simple pony-tail and it made her look so oddly young Watanuki had to remind himself to not stare for too long.

"You did?"

"Best get in the truck, you two," Haruka prompted.

"You have a truck?" Watanuki gasped. Vehicles were expensive and he didn't know anyone that owned one.

"Of course," Haruka smiled. "We go through a lot of supplies here at the temple. We have a truck for pickups and a smaller car for when we have to go to Tokyo or Osaka for ceremonies."

Watanuki's mind boggled at having two cars. "Oh."

"Come on," Doumeki put a hand on the small of Watanuki's back and gently guided him toward the garage that was hidden at the far end of the property. "There's not much to move. We should be able to finish quickly."

Finish quickly. Finish before six, he meant. They only had three hours before then. "I don't think we can pack everything and move in three hours."

"We're not in a hurry," Haruka said mildly. "There's always tomorrow."

Or he and Doumeki could do it in the bathroom while Doumeki's mother and grandfather continued to pack in the living room, but it would be a cold day in hell before Watanuki would submit to such an embarrassing scenario as that.

The ride was, as expected, very short. Kimihiro's apartment was only a few blocks away from the temple. They could have walked if there wouldn't have been any heavy boxes to carry by hand.

Once finally in the apartment Haruka found himself standing in the doorway in a mild state of shock. He knew his grandson wasn't one to exaggerate on things. After this though he felt he should start taking everything Shizuka said at face value. Even the ridiculous things. If Shizuka suddenly said pigs were flying above them Haruka was suddenly very keen to believe him right away.

Doumeki had been so very right. Watanuki's apartment was tiny. Very tiny. The entire place, bathroom and bedroom included, was smaller than the sitting room at the temple. Haruka wondered how a person could live in such a small space without going stir-crazy.

The place was spotlessly clean, even if the hardware of the kitchen cabinets were in a bit of disrepair and there were cracks in the ancient drywall. The government did not afford Watanuki much.

"Where do you want to start?" Doumeki's mother asked him as she gazed at the kitchen.

"I'm not sure," Watanuki despaired. "The bedroom, I guess. We can start on my clothes and school supplies. I have some books on a bookshelf, and the bathroom supplies I suppose."

"Sounds good," Haruka agreed. "We have more boxes than we will need. Go ahead and start packing everything. If there's anything you don't want we can toss it later. You can look through everything at your leisure at the temple." Not that there was much to toss. Watanuki had no frivolities or trinkets of any kind in his apartment. It was all rather spartan in decoration.

"Okay," Watanuki said quietly. He walked into his bedroom without looking behind him and surveyed the small room.

Most of his life had been spent here. He managed to raise himself with no supervision. While the old land lady had been sweet and even remembered to give him a birthday cake every year she wasn't there often and had already died years ago.

Kimihiro had not enjoyed telling her soul that it was time for her to move on after her heart attack.

Doumeki stood next to him and studied his face as Watanuki stared a little blankly at the room. "Kimihiro," he said softly.

Watanuki's face flinched a little, nearly unnoticeable. "What?" He asked. His question lacked its usual heat.

"Take your time," Doumeki told him.

Dark blue eyes turned and searched his face. Watanuki looked like he had just lost a large battle at a great personal cost. Finally he sighed. His gaze moved away and stared forlornly at the floor. "All right."

Doumeki slipped an arm around his waist and pressed his lips to his partner's forehead. Watanuki closed his eyes and didn't even try to pull away.