People always say that the eyes are the window into the soul, but personally they were of the opinion that hands told the most about a person. Sure, eyes could tell about what happened, what could happen and so on, but in truth it is easy to express fake emotions through the eyes. People fake tears all the time, fake ecstasy, fake happiness, fake anger... All through the eyes. And sure, the pupils dilate when a lie is told, the quick flicker would tell whether a person is remembering or constructing... But if a person is smart enough then they can control those reactions. In fact, Watanuki and Doumeki often faked emotions through their eyes. Every time Kimihiro tells Shizuka that he hates him, every time Doumeki refuses to give his thanks to Watanuki for the meal. The majority of all lies are told through the eyes, at least half of the makings of a lie are in the eyes.

No, the eyes are not the window to the soul.

Or perhaps they are, and the hands are the entrance. Hands tell the story of a person. People use their hands every day, for things that don't often require thought, the most powerful part about it. If one thoroughly examines another's hands, it would tell the story of their life. Through the minute shift in the way a person's hands are held together or apart emotions can be seen. Or through the examination of the muscles, the skin tone, the blemishes, it could tell much about a person; their loves, their hates, their work, their joy.

Shizuka likes Watanuki's hands the best. They are slender, especially the fingers, but strong. On some days, Watanuki looks like a stiff breeze would be able to blow him over. His hands always remind Doumeki of how strong he is. Kimihiro's hands are, by no stretch of the imagination, unmarred. He has faint scars along his fingers, from cooking he says, and calluses (from cleaning) but Shizuka finds it hard to think of them as anything except beautiful. They are flexible, strong and deft and they can create.

Shizuka is athletic and able, but he'd always thought that someone who could create was superior to himself. Of course when he'd once said that to Kimihiro the shorter (not by much!) boy had shouted at Shizuka for being cocky and lording his athleticism over him. But when he thought that Doumeki couldn't hear, he'd mumbled that his creations would only be for the people he cared about and that if he cared enough about someone, then they were obviously not superior to or below him; they were equals. (Except Yuuko and Mokona, and of course as soon as that thought popped up Watanuki had started ranting about the witch and the manju bun.)

Kimihiro likes Doumeki's hands the most. They are strong, large and square, very masculine. The tops are soft and smooth to the touch, even if they didn't seem like they would be. His palms are callused at the top, but the rest is just as smooth and soft as the top of his hands. His hands mean, to Kimihiro, strength, honesty, safety, loyalty... home. More than anything else, they represented hard work and purity, two of the things that Kimihiro valued the most in the world. Even though they were muscled, they were dexterous, efficient, and beautiful.

Shizuka never said he was better than anyone else, even though he had much to brag about. Watanuki knows that better than anyone. He calls Watanuki careless, cat-like, and makes scathing remarks with double meanings but he'd never compared himself to Watanuki. And he may not praise Watanuki's cooking, but part of that is the fact that it is a trade, and praise would make the exchange unequal. He compliments Kimihiro's cooking by eating everything and wasting nothing.

Relationships are complicated, but the three things that make a relationship (two humans and feelings) are just as complex. Humans may well be the most convoluted concept of all; relationships and feelings their greatest creation.