To Kamilah Adair, from Iambic ♥
Title: Suspense
Author: Iambic
Recipient: kamilah_adair
Series: xxxHOLiC, TRC
Characters/Pairing: Watanuki, Doumeki, mentions Sakura, Ashura and Himawari
Rating: G
Author's Notes/Warnings [if any]: This was originally going to be much longer, but the plot would not come together - hence the lack of Clow/Yuuko. I am sorry. If you'd like the complete version, I'll try to write it for you.
Summary: Watanuki is at a school, learning magic (among other things). Things go wrong.
Watanuki had discovered, through long periods of trial and error and not a few bruises in places he declined to name, that he was simply bad at levitation. This would not have been so bad in normal circumstances, but he'd not had such astounding luck with the library ladders, either. They probably still bore a grudge from the memorable first time he'd attempted to use one - at least, Watanuki liked to believe that. It was infinitely more comfortable a theory than Sakura's, which was that they were simply trying to befriend him.
But this did limit his studies unless he resorted to drastic measures. This had led him to where he was now, which happened to be about thirteen feet up on a precariously shuddering carpet, searching the shelves for the elusive tome concerning dreamseers. He'd just about located it - before him was a book about interpreting dreams - when he was rudely interrupted from below.
"Oi."
He jumped where he sat and lost concentration for a crucial second. The carpet, his two books, and Watanuki all tumbled through the air toward the white marble floor, which would have made for quite a mess if the interrupter had not quickly halted their descent.
Watanuki glared from his position halfway off the carpet and about three meters above the floor. "Don't startle me like that!" he snapped at the unrepentant Doumeki Shizuka, whose non-existent expression changed not a whit. "And what have I said about my name?"
"You need to practice more," Doumeki replied, apparently ignoring everything that had just been said. Very slowly and deliberately he proceeded to direct his gaze downward; Watanuki dropped accordingly until his feet rested on cool marble and he landed in an undignified but uninjured heap.
It really wasn't fair. Doumeki should have at least had the decency to be a bit worse at practical magic in general, Watanuki fumed. It just added insult to injury when compared to Watanuki's questionable skill.
The thing was, he did practice. And practice. He spent hours trying to get a single basic charm to work while other students were off socialising or participating in sports or doing whatever normal people did. And it wasn't failure to learn to use magic - it was just that whenever he tried, things… reacted to him in unexpected ways. Magic itself got out of control, as if it were casting itself. Magical artefacts that he tried to use would go haywire; in the presence of his dubious spellcasting, they somehow incorporated themselves into the spell. Watanuki had no idea how or why this happened, and even less of an idea how to fix it.
But he didn't explain this to people - somehow, that felt like giving up. Besides, whom would he tell? He'd tried explaining it to his friend back at home, Himawari, but she hadn't really understood. And here, no one really bothered with him except Sakura and the insufferable Doumeki. Watanuki didn't want to worry the kind Sakura, and he would have much rather suffered in silence than admit a failing so embarrassing to Doumeki.
"I practice plenty," was therefore all he said, and he accompanied it with an even more potent glare. Watanuki had since first attending this academy been perfecting his glares. It was really all Doumeki's fault - well, Doumeki and every single magical artefact that made this place work so smoothly. "I'm working on it!"
Doumeki considered him for a moment. "Why not use the ladders?"
Glaring all the more fiercely for the holes punched in his excuses, Watanuki replied, "Because I'm practising!"
For a moment Doumeki seemed as if he were about to pierce that excuse as well, but he only leaned against the bookshelf in the end. "What are you looking for?" he asked in a manner which suggested that frankly, he didn't give a damn.
Watanuki considered telling the other boy to mind his own business, and discarded it in light of his current predicament. "That book on dreamseers that Ashura mentioned," he replied grudgingly. "I was about to find it, if I hadn't been interrupted."
Doumeki glanced at a book on a nearby table. "The one there?"
With a sinking feeling, Watanuki stood up and walked over to investigate. Sure enough, the book appeared to be the one Ashura had mentioned in hir lecture that morning. And of course it was lying there on the table, Watanuki thought irritably. Just waiting to be found. Although it really wasn't unreasonable for him to have assumed that the location process would be more difficult than it should have been. Nothing tended to go easily for him.
"Yes, that one," he muttered, and made a hasty exit, books in tow.
Author: Iambic
Recipient: kamilah_adair
Series: xxxHOLiC, TRC
Characters/Pairing: Watanuki, Doumeki, mentions Sakura, Ashura and Himawari
Rating: G
Author's Notes/Warnings [if any]: This was originally going to be much longer, but the plot would not come together - hence the lack of Clow/Yuuko. I am sorry. If you'd like the complete version, I'll try to write it for you.
Summary: Watanuki is at a school, learning magic (among other things). Things go wrong.
Watanuki had discovered, through long periods of trial and error and not a few bruises in places he declined to name, that he was simply bad at levitation. This would not have been so bad in normal circumstances, but he'd not had such astounding luck with the library ladders, either. They probably still bore a grudge from the memorable first time he'd attempted to use one - at least, Watanuki liked to believe that. It was infinitely more comfortable a theory than Sakura's, which was that they were simply trying to befriend him.
But this did limit his studies unless he resorted to drastic measures. This had led him to where he was now, which happened to be about thirteen feet up on a precariously shuddering carpet, searching the shelves for the elusive tome concerning dreamseers. He'd just about located it - before him was a book about interpreting dreams - when he was rudely interrupted from below.
"Oi."
He jumped where he sat and lost concentration for a crucial second. The carpet, his two books, and Watanuki all tumbled through the air toward the white marble floor, which would have made for quite a mess if the interrupter had not quickly halted their descent.
Watanuki glared from his position halfway off the carpet and about three meters above the floor. "Don't startle me like that!" he snapped at the unrepentant Doumeki Shizuka, whose non-existent expression changed not a whit. "And what have I said about my name?"
"You need to practice more," Doumeki replied, apparently ignoring everything that had just been said. Very slowly and deliberately he proceeded to direct his gaze downward; Watanuki dropped accordingly until his feet rested on cool marble and he landed in an undignified but uninjured heap.
It really wasn't fair. Doumeki should have at least had the decency to be a bit worse at practical magic in general, Watanuki fumed. It just added insult to injury when compared to Watanuki's questionable skill.
The thing was, he did practice. And practice. He spent hours trying to get a single basic charm to work while other students were off socialising or participating in sports or doing whatever normal people did. And it wasn't failure to learn to use magic - it was just that whenever he tried, things… reacted to him in unexpected ways. Magic itself got out of control, as if it were casting itself. Magical artefacts that he tried to use would go haywire; in the presence of his dubious spellcasting, they somehow incorporated themselves into the spell. Watanuki had no idea how or why this happened, and even less of an idea how to fix it.
But he didn't explain this to people - somehow, that felt like giving up. Besides, whom would he tell? He'd tried explaining it to his friend back at home, Himawari, but she hadn't really understood. And here, no one really bothered with him except Sakura and the insufferable Doumeki. Watanuki didn't want to worry the kind Sakura, and he would have much rather suffered in silence than admit a failing so embarrassing to Doumeki.
"I practice plenty," was therefore all he said, and he accompanied it with an even more potent glare. Watanuki had since first attending this academy been perfecting his glares. It was really all Doumeki's fault - well, Doumeki and every single magical artefact that made this place work so smoothly. "I'm working on it!"
Doumeki considered him for a moment. "Why not use the ladders?"
Glaring all the more fiercely for the holes punched in his excuses, Watanuki replied, "Because I'm practising!"
For a moment Doumeki seemed as if he were about to pierce that excuse as well, but he only leaned against the bookshelf in the end. "What are you looking for?" he asked in a manner which suggested that frankly, he didn't give a damn.
Watanuki considered telling the other boy to mind his own business, and discarded it in light of his current predicament. "That book on dreamseers that Ashura mentioned," he replied grudgingly. "I was about to find it, if I hadn't been interrupted."
Doumeki glanced at a book on a nearby table. "The one there?"
With a sinking feeling, Watanuki stood up and walked over to investigate. Sure enough, the book appeared to be the one Ashura had mentioned in hir lecture that morning. And of course it was lying there on the table, Watanuki thought irritably. Just waiting to be found. Although it really wasn't unreasonable for him to have assumed that the location process would be more difficult than it should have been. Nothing tended to go easily for him.
"Yes, that one," he muttered, and made a hasty exit, books in tow.