Indiscriminate Happenings
Fandom: xxxHoLiC
Characters/Pairing: Doumeki, Watanuki, Sakura, Kurogane/Fai
Prompt:11:5- Customer
Rating: T
Chapter Genre: Humour
Summary: Requested by Circinus; Either he's being stalked and doesn't know about it, or someone's hiring hit men. Three guesses who that would be.
I
Kimihiro sourly jotted down the order of the restaurants latest customer, jabbing his pen against the paper with more force than necessary.
"Will that be all?" he inquired, straining to keep his voice polite and professional in the face of the rudest, most ungrateful man he had ever had the misfortune of knowing, and he had come across many a different people. Dark golden eyes stared at him, as if attempting to convey that there was nothing else to add on top of the already massive order with them alone. When it clearly didn't work, the irritating man simply nodded, nearly drawing a growl from the waiter.
Kimihiro fought to keep his steps slow and even as he trekked back to the kitchen.
"Sakura-chan, can you keep up by yourself out there?" he asked, deftly tying the strings of his apron as he prepared to cook. The brunette shot him a wide smile and a small laugh, cheerfully answering positively. Fai, a fellow chef and part-time waiter in their oddball family, kept his grin up and pretended to ignore their conversation, delicately preparing the desserts when Kimihiro joined him.
"He's back again?" the blonde asked softly, traces of quiet laughter evident in his voice. Kimihiro huffed, rolling up his sleeves and fetching a pan and oil for the recipe he was recreating.
"Of course he is," he muttered, chopping his ingredients as the pan and oil heated, smoothly making the needed transitions between jobs. The kitchen, though small and often cramped with more than two people working in it at once, was comfortable and familiar and bared little running around like a chicken with its head chopped off.
Kimihiro grinned grimly at the simile, slicing the poultry that was called for.
"He enjoys your cooking," Fai stated flippantly, "perhaps his constant presence is to be taken as a compliment, not as an insult."
"Somehow I doubt that," Kimihiro snorted, leaving the mixture to simmer, spicing it and taking another order to work on from Sakura, handing the entire requested dish over to Fai. " It's from Kurogane-san."
Blue eyes went wide and a happy 'Hyuu~!' sounded from the enthusiastic foreigner. Kimihiro smiled and leaned on a counter out of Fai's way. Honestly, the man was absolutely enthralled by Kurogane that it bordered on unhealthy. The guard didn't even seem to like him, but was Fai deterred? Not at all.
II
Kimihiro sighed and locked up for the night, twisting the key and shoving his hands into his pockets, breath fogging out in front of his face and misting the lenses of his glasses. The skin on his fingers felt tight and dry from the nightly clean-up, the products they used unfriendly when it came to flesh. He shrugged his back further onto his shoulder, wishing he had remembered that the forecast called for snow that night and brought his gloves.
It was just his luck that he didn't.
Trudging wearily down the back alley he snuggled deeper into his scarf, the cold biting at his exposed cheek bones and forehead, the tip of his nose probably bright red by then. The warmth provided by his jacket and accessories wasn't enough to be strictly comfortable in such conditions but it was enough to get him home and into a hot, relaxing bathtub, and that was all he wanted then.
Something scraped along the concrete of the street behind him, but Kimihiro ignored it, too lost in his fantasy of heat to allow his paranoia take over.
The only thing that stopped the man from stabbing him was Doumeki.
"Oi."
Kimihiro froze, standing utterly still then slowly turning to face his would-be attacker and his savior. "Wha-?"
"You should be more careful at this time of night," Doumeki stated, bending the muggers arm back until it looked as if it would snap in two and the grungy man gave a loud shout of pain. Kimihiro's mouth moved silently, unable to produce words of scorn, gratitude, or surprise. Doumeki released the man and he scampered off like a scolded dog with its tail between its legs, thoroughly frightened.
"Wha- what are you doing out here so late?!" Kimihiro demanded, disregarding the former scene that he had beheld, not knowing how to react to it. Doumeki frowned and plugged the ear closest to Kimihiro.
"You talk too much," he grumbled, stepping in the direction that the smaller man had been heading before. "I think you owe me a free dinner."
"Excuse me?! How does that work you ass?!"
Shizuka felt that this was, perhaps, the beginning of a wonderful new relationship.
III
Symbiotic perhaps. Doumeki constantly shows up at the right time to save Kimihiro from the bad men and gets free food for it. Either Shizuka is secretly a stalker and no one knows, or he's hiring people to try and mug Kimi and then kicks their butts. (Yes, I totally stole that for the summary... XD) I'm still sick... T.T And I need a few more prompts, or I'll ask for doubles and triples and come up with some myself. Okay?
Okay. ^^