To Sophia, From Sherri ♥
Title: Cages
Author: doumeki
Recipient: sophiap
Series: xxxHOLiC
Characters/Pairing: Maru, Moro, Watanuki, Doumeki, Yuuko, Himawari
Rating: G
Author Notes/Warnings: Sorry for the extreme lateness. It's a bit disjointed, but I hope you like it. Spoilers through the entire series, but they are light enough.
It's a cage, they know, but not one that they wish to escape. They understand the outside, the world outside of their cage, and they know what would happen were they to step past the gate. They are curious, but not enough that they are willing to risk their existence.
They watch as people come to them, to her. They watch them come and go, unseen from the shadows except for those who desire to see them. They do not mind not being seen; the ones that truly matter can see them, and it is enough for them.
---
He doesn’t understand why they cannot leave. The world is more than the shop, more than the city that they live in. He is beginning to understand his own world, and everyone’s place in it, but in doing so, he wonders about the worlds of others.
Yuuko-san’s world is large, incongruous with his own. She is existent in the periphery of most people's reality, despite being such a large part of his world. She is the beginning of it, yet she is the end. Doumeki and Himawari-chan and Kohane-chan, and their worlds that coincide with his own, have changed his own, broadened it, and slowly, he is learning from these worlds outside of his own.
He knows that the people he has met and the people he will meet will influence him, however small or large that influence may be, and he knows that he will influence them, as well.
But the girls are different. There are things he understands, yet he does not understand everything.
---
The world that they live in is small and the people who exist in it do not exist in the world outside of the gate. They do not exist in the way they exist in the shop, not anymore, never again. They look at them and give the respect they are due and have been denied, and they are in turn looked upon kindly.
Watanuki is a catalyst, they know. He will do great things, despite his reluctance and age. He will change their world, and they are ready for it. When it happens, if it happens. For once someone is admitted into her world, they are admitted into their world, and once something is changed, it does not return to what it was before.
---
She understands everything, yet she is prohibited from speaking of it freely. For anything worth doing, anything worth saying, requires compensation, a price. There is nothing free in the world they live in, not even the emotions one harbors.
---
They know nothing of disappointment, nothing of anger. They dance from room to room, voices raised high in unison, and they know nothing of feeling.
A customer once asked them if things without souls could love, and they had replied that one does not need a soul to love; they need only a heart.
They know nothing of emotions, but they know of love.
---
The first time Doumeki enters the shop, there is a fierce determination about him that keeps them silent. There is blood covering his hakama, and Watanuki is clutched closely to his chest. He has a need for this place, a wish that he would have granted despite the price.
He notices them only after he has laid Watanuki on the bed. They set about dressing his wounds while that woman stands silently behind him, a cup and a knife in her hand. When she names his price, he holds out his wrist quickly. The blade cuts into his skin, and he doesn’t flinch. He watches unwaveringly as the blood drains from his wrist into the cup.
His world holds very few things, and if Watanuki is taken, his world would be gone.
---
No world is without sadness, not even theirs. The people who come to see her are always sad, whether they show it or not. There are many kinds of sadness, they have learned, but the deepest sadness is only seen in glimpses. It is that kind of sadness that they see every day, and it is never from the ones who come to see her, but from her herself.
They know that that kind of sadness is not something that can be wished away, for the price is higher than she would accept.
---
Himawari’s first thought has never been for herself, but for those around her. For the people who would form a connection with her and have misfortune befall them. Her existence is a cage of its own, one that she would not give away, lest another get captured by it. She has adjusted to her fate, has come to terms with the fact that her relationships will be superficial and distant.
Before Watanuki-kun notices, she does her best to limit her time spent with him and Doumeki-kun. She expects him to let her leave when she finally tells him the truth. She is prepared to accept her price and the consequences; she is not prepared for Watanuki-kun to stop her, to tell her he is glad to have met her.
To accept her. To forgive her.
It is jarring, upsetting in a way she isn’t used to. To think that he doesn’t mind sacrificing himself, regardless of the gravity of the situation, doesn’t sit well with her, despite his assurances that he will be fine.
But it also makes her happy, truly happy, for the first time in years.
---
They live in a cage of their choosing, a cage that changes, a cage that lives and is supported by the people who make up their world.
Worlds change, they know, and worlds mean different things to others. To some, they are cages that they wish to escape. To others, they are places of comfort. They are filled with familiar people, and they overlap with the worlds of others who may become familiar someday.
Maru and Moro look at the gate, the door to their cage. They see nothing but nothingness, though they know that Watanuki’s world lies beyond that gate as well as within the shop.
Yuuko’s voice whispers through them, and they turn their back on the gate, on the world that they know exists, but do not know, and re-enter the heart of their cage, their world, and they are content.
Author: doumeki
Recipient: sophiap
Series: xxxHOLiC
Characters/Pairing: Maru, Moro, Watanuki, Doumeki, Yuuko, Himawari
Rating: G
Author Notes/Warnings: Sorry for the extreme lateness. It's a bit disjointed, but I hope you like it. Spoilers through the entire series, but they are light enough.
It's a cage, they know, but not one that they wish to escape. They understand the outside, the world outside of their cage, and they know what would happen were they to step past the gate. They are curious, but not enough that they are willing to risk their existence.
They watch as people come to them, to her. They watch them come and go, unseen from the shadows except for those who desire to see them. They do not mind not being seen; the ones that truly matter can see them, and it is enough for them.
---
He doesn’t understand why they cannot leave. The world is more than the shop, more than the city that they live in. He is beginning to understand his own world, and everyone’s place in it, but in doing so, he wonders about the worlds of others.
Yuuko-san’s world is large, incongruous with his own. She is existent in the periphery of most people's reality, despite being such a large part of his world. She is the beginning of it, yet she is the end. Doumeki and Himawari-chan and Kohane-chan, and their worlds that coincide with his own, have changed his own, broadened it, and slowly, he is learning from these worlds outside of his own.
He knows that the people he has met and the people he will meet will influence him, however small or large that influence may be, and he knows that he will influence them, as well.
But the girls are different. There are things he understands, yet he does not understand everything.
---
The world that they live in is small and the people who exist in it do not exist in the world outside of the gate. They do not exist in the way they exist in the shop, not anymore, never again. They look at them and give the respect they are due and have been denied, and they are in turn looked upon kindly.
Watanuki is a catalyst, they know. He will do great things, despite his reluctance and age. He will change their world, and they are ready for it. When it happens, if it happens. For once someone is admitted into her world, they are admitted into their world, and once something is changed, it does not return to what it was before.
---
She understands everything, yet she is prohibited from speaking of it freely. For anything worth doing, anything worth saying, requires compensation, a price. There is nothing free in the world they live in, not even the emotions one harbors.
---
They know nothing of disappointment, nothing of anger. They dance from room to room, voices raised high in unison, and they know nothing of feeling.
A customer once asked them if things without souls could love, and they had replied that one does not need a soul to love; they need only a heart.
They know nothing of emotions, but they know of love.
---
The first time Doumeki enters the shop, there is a fierce determination about him that keeps them silent. There is blood covering his hakama, and Watanuki is clutched closely to his chest. He has a need for this place, a wish that he would have granted despite the price.
He notices them only after he has laid Watanuki on the bed. They set about dressing his wounds while that woman stands silently behind him, a cup and a knife in her hand. When she names his price, he holds out his wrist quickly. The blade cuts into his skin, and he doesn’t flinch. He watches unwaveringly as the blood drains from his wrist into the cup.
His world holds very few things, and if Watanuki is taken, his world would be gone.
---
No world is without sadness, not even theirs. The people who come to see her are always sad, whether they show it or not. There are many kinds of sadness, they have learned, but the deepest sadness is only seen in glimpses. It is that kind of sadness that they see every day, and it is never from the ones who come to see her, but from her herself.
They know that that kind of sadness is not something that can be wished away, for the price is higher than she would accept.
---
Himawari’s first thought has never been for herself, but for those around her. For the people who would form a connection with her and have misfortune befall them. Her existence is a cage of its own, one that she would not give away, lest another get captured by it. She has adjusted to her fate, has come to terms with the fact that her relationships will be superficial and distant.
Before Watanuki-kun notices, she does her best to limit her time spent with him and Doumeki-kun. She expects him to let her leave when she finally tells him the truth. She is prepared to accept her price and the consequences; she is not prepared for Watanuki-kun to stop her, to tell her he is glad to have met her.
To accept her. To forgive her.
It is jarring, upsetting in a way she isn’t used to. To think that he doesn’t mind sacrificing himself, regardless of the gravity of the situation, doesn’t sit well with her, despite his assurances that he will be fine.
But it also makes her happy, truly happy, for the first time in years.
---
They live in a cage of their choosing, a cage that changes, a cage that lives and is supported by the people who make up their world.
Worlds change, they know, and worlds mean different things to others. To some, they are cages that they wish to escape. To others, they are places of comfort. They are filled with familiar people, and they overlap with the worlds of others who may become familiar someday.
Maru and Moro look at the gate, the door to their cage. They see nothing but nothingness, though they know that Watanuki’s world lies beyond that gate as well as within the shop.
Yuuko’s voice whispers through them, and they turn their back on the gate, on the world that they know exists, but do not know, and re-enter the heart of their cage, their world, and they are content.