To Maaya, From Rekall ♥
Title: At This Midnight Hour
Author: Rekall
Recipient: chaineddove//Maaya
Series: xxxHolic and Gouhou Drug
Characters/Pairings: Characters - Watanuki, Kazahaya, Rikuou, Doumeki, Yuuko and Kakei (and Saiga); Pairings - Watanuki/Doumeki and Rikuou/Kazahaya
Rating: PG-13
Author Notes/Warnings: The plot for this fic is mostly based off the prompts ‘whisper’ and ‘talisman’ (which is the amulet). I hope you enjoy it since it was certainly fun to write.
Watanuki kicked at a pebble as he walked down the sidewalk. For once he was not headed towards Yuuko’s shop for his normal after-school job, but he was heading towards a nearby drug store; it was a nice autumn day, a welcoming change from the rain they recently had, a day where Watanuki normally would be happy, but he knew what was in store for him, which was why he wished he was at Yuuko’s place.
As he continued on his way, he wondered how he kept on getting into strange situations and thought back to the day before at Yuuko’s shop. It had been a typical day for him, doing chores until Yuuko decided she wanted something to eat, when an odd man had entered.
Watanuki should have known he was in trouble as soon as he saw the wide grin appear on Yuuko’s face when she saw him. Watanuki should have ran then, claiming he had school work to do, but instead he decided to stick around, sweeping the floor, waiting to see what happened.
“Kakei! You haven’t visited since you delivered the vase! You need to come over sometime for some drinks!”
Watanuki groaned at that, knowing he would be in charge of serving drinks and cleaning up any drinking party. In retrospect, that would have been an easy job compared to what found himself getting involved in.
“I’m afraid that business brings me here Yuuko-san,” the man named Kakei replied with a cheery expression on his face; it was a look that Watanuki had seen all too often from Yuuko and didn’t like where things were going. “For an upcoming job, I require a way to see ghosts.”
“Payment?”
Watanuki watched as Kakei pulled a bottle of wine from the bag he was carrying, now Watanuki didn’t know much about wine but he could tell from the worn label that it was very old and the foreign language on it told him it was probably very valuable.
“Ah,” Yuuko mused. “I heard all these bottles were lost at sea.”
“It’s the last known bottle. Saiga heard about it and my boys were quick to recover it since I knew it would be beneficial in the future.”
“Payment is suitable,” Yuuko declared, the large grin returning to her face. “And I’ll loan you my shop-boy, Watanuki-kun, for the time being.”
Watanuki’s jaw fell in shock when he had heard that. Moments later he was in the middle of a spazz attack, yelling that Yuuko couldn’t do that without his consent. It was useless however as Yuuko calmly insisted that while he was in her employment she could do what she liked and in the end Watanuki was forced to accept the orders from Kakei to go to the Green Drugstore after school the next day to learn more about the assignment.
The pebble bounced onto the road as Watanuki stopped in front of the drugstore; he recognized it as one he had been to before and after he was finished there that day, it was one he wanted to never visit again.
Entering the shop, Watanuki surprised to find the place empty, not even an employee was in sight. It was then however he noticed the man seated behind the counter, his feet propped up on the counter, fast asleep.
Watanuki was wondering if he should wake him or not when Kakei came from out a back room. “Ah, Watanuki-kun, you’re here. This way please, the others are waiting for you; oh don’t worry about Saiga, he’s actually quite good at watching the store.”
Silently Watanuki followed the store owner, he could see why the man and Yuuko were friends; they were too much alike for Watanuki’s taste and he had that same feeling of dread he always got when Yuuko was up to one of her tricks.
Entering the back room, Watanuki two people around his own age, sitting on a couch, waiting; one had dark hair and the other was smaller with light-brown hair. Another couch was opposite it and that was where Kakei sat down while Watanuki continued to stand.
“These are Kudo Kazahaya and Himura Rikuou,” Kakei cheerfully said, pointing to first the smaller one and then the larger one. “Rikuou, Kudo-kun, this is Watanuki Kimihiro, the expert help, I was telling you about.”
The one called Kazahaya glared at him while the introductions were being made and Watanuki wondered what he was supposed to do as he stood there looking at them. Finally, Rikuou wrapped an arm around Kazahaya’s waist and pulled the smaller teen towards him so that Watanuki would have room to sit down. Kazahaya struggled to get away the entire time but Rikuou wasn’t letting go. It reminded Watanuki of an annoyed cat trying to get away from the arms of its owner and he imagined if Kazahaya really were a cat, Rikuou would have been scratched to pieces by then.
“Of course since there are three of you, you’ll be paid more than the normal amount,” Kakei cheerfully announced and that quickly caused Kazahaya to calm down; Watanuki noticed however that Rikuou kept his arm around Kazahaya’s waist. “And it’s a simple assignment too.”
“Really?” Kazahaya asked in awe and Watanuki wondered if there was something wrong with the teen. It was obvious Kakei was up to something and Watanuki was sure it wasn’t just him who could tell since he could see that Rikuou was also suspicious but chose to remain quiet so Watanuki followed his lead.
“Of course,” came the reply and Kazahaya beamed. “All you have to do is find a simple little amulet.”
“Yay!”
“That’s currently in the possession of a ghost.”
Watanuki would have laughed at Kazahaya’s shocked expression if it hadn’t been similar to the one he had used the day earlier at Yuuko’s shop.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rikuou smack the palm of his hand to his forehead and he got the impression that this happened a lot with Kazahaya. Nevertheless, that didn’t make him happier knowing what was in store for them later that night.
*~*~*~*
Kazahaya pouted as the walked with the other two; although the pay would be more, he still didn’t like working with someone new. Without the additional baggage of someone new, Kazahaya expected they could get the job done quicker and therefore could be back home sooner so he could cuddle with Rikuou until the early hours of the morning.
The three teens walked in a single file, Watanuki in the lead, Rikuou trailing them and Kazahaya huddled in the middle, while he wondered who he wanted to stick closer too more, the one who could see the ghosts or the one who could protect him.
“I think this is it,” Watanuki said and they looked at the old western-style mansion. The place was run-down; a dilapidated fence surrounded the property with a gate that hung half of its hinges; uncut grass and weeds littered the law; the front porch looked like it could collapse under their weight and there was an eerie feeling that caused Kazahaya to shiver.
“Why us?” Kazahaya groaned as they each took their turn, slipping around the gate. The pathway was in shambles causing one of Kazahaya’s feet to touch the long grass, wet from the recent rain. Above in the sky, thunder crackled and Kazahaya wished he had brought an umbrella in cased it rain, so he could huddle under it with Rikuou while they made Watanuki do all the work.
When they were all through, they made their way up to the porch; a board broke under Rikuou’s foot and it creaked a lot but other than that it seemed to hold up pretty well.
“Locked,” Watanuki said as he tried the door. “Oh well, I guess we’ll have to leave; can’t do anything about a locked door.”
“Unfortunately that excuse doesn’t work,” Kazahaya whispered to him as Rikuou stepped forward and used his powers to destroy the lock, the door then easily swung open.
“See anything?” Rikuou asked as they stepped into the foyer of mansion and Watanuki shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Now what?” Kazahaya questioned as he looked around the place. Old furniture was covered with white sheets and there were piles of dust everywhere but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Split up?”
“No!” Kazahaya and Watanuki replied together as they glared at Rikuou.
“Okay, fine,” Rikuou declared. “We’ll search the place and hopefully we stumble upon the ghost.”
“Why would a ghost have an amulet anyway?”
“It probably was something special to him when he was alive,” Watanuki replied; he had learned some things from his time with Yuuko.
Taking the lead again, since he was the one who could see anything that might be in the mansion, Watanuki began leading them up the stairs to the other floors. It had been silently decided they’d check up there first and work their way downward.
They quickly determined that the third floor was clear and moved down to the second floor. It was then that Kazahaya began hearing it, a soft whisper calling out his name.
“Kazahaya…”
“Rikuou? What was that?” he asked in a frightened voice while turning around, which was when he discovered that Rikuou wasn’t there. “Rikuou? Watanuki! Rikuou’s gone! A ghost took him!”
The pair clung to each other in fear as they wondered what they were going to do. The whispering that Kazahaya had heard was now gone but that did nothing to ease their frightful feelings.
“We need to find him,” Kazahaya whispered; he had too, he couldn’t just leave Rikuou at the mercy of the ghosts.
“Okay, so what do we do?”
“Split up,” Kazahaya ordered with a determined look on his face; he didn’t like the plan but it was the fastest way of finding Rikuou. “I can’t see ghosts but I can see Rikuou. Yell or something if you find him.”
In the dim lighting, Kazahaya could tell that Watanuki paled slightly but he nodded his head before heading back down to the first floor. Kazahaya meanwhile began retracing their steps; they had disturbed the dust on the floor where they walked so he hoped he could find the point when Rikuou had disappeared. It wasn’t long though before he heard the faint whispering again.
“Kazahaya…” it said, causing him to shudder. “Kazahaya…”
With a gulp, Kazahaya began heading in the direction where it seemed like the whispering was coming from, the floorboards creaking under his feet in the process. It was a man’s voice, he could tell that but there was nothing else that gave him a clue as to who or what was calling his name.
“Kazahaya…”
Placing his hand against a door, he pushed it slowly open and discovered a child’s playroom. Old toys, covered with dust and spider webs, were scattered on the floor along with moth-eaten pillows and there was a large toy box against one wall.
“Hello?” he called out but the whispering had stopped.
Kazahaya screamed when felt a hand on his shoulder. His heart was racing and he was worried he was going to faint when all of a sudden he heard familiar snickering.
Swinging around, he ended up being pressed against Rikuou and he glared up at him. “You idiot! This was all only one of your jokes!” Calming down, he rested his head against Rikuou’s chest and felt Rikuou wrap his arms around him. “Do you know how worried I was?”
“I’m sorry,” Rikuou said as his laughter subsided. Kazahaya felt a kiss to the top of his head and he began relaxing. “Seeing how scared you were of this place, I couldn’t help but frighten you a little.”
“You’re not nice,” Kazahaya grumbled. “And if you think I’m going to make out with you in a creepy, old mansion, you’re also crazy.”
“Nah, I can wait until we get home.”
Kazahaya felt better being in Rikuou’s arms. The place wasn’t as creepy with him around and he knew if he touched one of the toys, he would see memories of happy times in the room as children played without a care in the world.
“Thanks for getting rid of the one with weird eyes by the way; it’s more fun just to scare you.”
“Watanuki!” Kazahaya gasped as he pulled back slightly and looked up at Rikuou. “I forgot all about him!”
*~*~*~*
Upon separating from Kazahaya, Watanuki headed out into the garden, not wanting to stay in the house by himself.
It was then he saw them; three ghosts walking near a dried up and broken fountain. There was a woman and two men; all wearing old fashion western clothes.
They hadn’t seen him so he dropped down into some bushes, trying to hide and wondering where the others were. Rikuou didn’t appear to be with the ghosts, which meant he had to be in the house somewhere with Kazahaya, which was where Watanuki wished he were at the moment.
“What now?” a voice whispered and Watanuki had to clamp his hands over his mouth to muffle his screams. His heart racing he looked beside him and found himself looking into the calm face of Doumeki.
Watanuki was so happy he felt like kissing Doumeki but instead he had to know why his classmate was there. “How?”
“I got a call and was told to come here,” came the reply and Watanuki suddenly knew what had happened, Yuuko. Silently he thanked her.
“Can you see them?” Watanuki asked, looking back towards the three ghosts who were oblivious to their presence.
“Through the eye, yes.”
“One of them has an amulet we need to get.” He noticed the bow on the ground next to Doumeki. “Can you exorcise them?”
“I should be able too.”
Before Doumeki could try however, Kazahaya’s scream was heard all throughout the garden, causing the ghosts to all stop.
“Oh, we have guests!” the female excitedly exclaim. “Oh dear, if I had known I would have prepared tea!”
“No time to fret, my dear,” said the older of the two men. “We need to go greet our guests!”
“Oh yes, right Father; how silly of me.”
The three ghosts began moving towards the house when to Watanuki’s horror, Doumeki stood up and made himself known to the ghosts.
“Hello,” he said to them and Watanuki had no choice but to stand up as well.
“Oh they’re right here!” the younger man said to his companions. “I hope something in the house didn’t scare you; we heard a frightful scream just now.”
“It’s fine,” Doumeki assured them. “We’re looking for something though; some kind of amulet and were wondering if you could help.”
“Ah! Mother’s pendent!” exclaimed the woman. “That has to be it! Father, you remember it, it’s the one you got for her in Egypt!”
“Of course, she loved that thing dearly,” replied the older man. “Now where was it placed…?”
“In the drawer of the table next to the couch in the downstairs sitting room,” the other man replied. “Go ahead, you should be able to find it there.”
“Thank you,” Doumeki replied and turned to head towards the house.
“Umm… where is your wife anyway?” Watanuki asked the older man; he stopped being scared when he realized how friendly the ghosts were.
“No clue,” the man sadly replied. “We’ll wait for her here until someone forces us to move along.”
“Then I hope you find her one day,” Watanuki said before hurrying after Doumeki.
The pair found the amulet easily enough and left quickly as possible, just in case something else was hiding in the run-down mansion; even after meeting the friendly ghosts, the place was still way too creepy for Watanuki’s tastes.
“Thanks for the help,” Watanuki muttered as they headed back towards the drugstore. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“It’s fine,” Doumeki replied. “People are suppose to take care of the ones they love.”
“Wha…?” Watanuki said in shock, stopping in his tracks. Taking advantage of the moment, Doumeki leaned over and placed a quick kiss against Watanuki’s lips.
“Now where did you have to deliver the amulet?”
“The Green Drugstore,” Watanuki murmured, realizing they were in front of the store. The kiss was still on his mind, however he had the strangest feeling he was forgetting something. “Ack! We forgot Kudo-kun and Himuara-san!”
“Don’t worry, I already called Rikuou’s cellphone,” spoke a voice, which was when Watanuki noticed that Kakei was standing in front of the store along with the man he had seen sleeping behind the counter earlier that day. “They’re both on their way back and should be here soon. For now lets go into the back room and wait for them, Saiga prepared some snacks. Unless of course you two wanted to get back to what you were doing.”
Deciding it was best to accept Kakei’s offer, Watanuki, along with Doumeki, followed the two older men through the store and into the same room Watanuki had been in that afternoon. Watanuki had to admit the food was good and it wasn’t long before they were joined by Rikuou and Kazahaya, the latter who was rather irritated over being left at the mansion.
“You left us!” Kazahaya accused, pointing at Watanuki before jabbing his finger at Doumeki who calmly continued to eat his food. “And who are you?”
“Now, now Kudo-kun, everything will be explained but it’s getting late so Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun should be getting paid so they can go home,” Kakei said which defused the situation and allowed them to get down to business. “Since Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun did most of the work, they get most of the share of money. Since Rikuou’s skills were also necessary on this job, he’ll also get a slightly higher cut. Sorry Kudo-kun.”
Payment was issued and Doumeki, sensing it was time to leave, grabbed Watanuki’s wrist and began dragging him out of there.
“Don’t worry Kudo-kun,” they heard Kakei say behind them in an attempt to cheer up the depressed Kazahaya. “Lets play a game of Mahjong so you can win some more money.”
“Yay!”
*~*~*~*
Two days later, Watanuki found himself again not going straight to Yuuko’s shop after school. This time however he was headed towards Doumeki’s place.
After unsuccessfully coming up with a way of thanking Doumeki for his help, Watanuki eventually decided to cook him a big meal since he knew how much his classmate liked food. Unfortunately Doumeki had been busy with the school council at lunch so Watanuki had hurried home after class to cook while Doumeki was busy with club activities.
“Here!” he said as soon as he saw Doumeki, handing the bundle of food to him. “I need to go to work now.”
“Kiss?” was all that Doumeki said Watanuki turned bright red; although Doumeki still annoyed him at times, he decided to give things a shot and see where their relationship went.
Watanuki nodded his head and Doumeki leaned forward while cupping Watanuki’s cheek and tenderly kissed his mouth. His tongue pressed eagerly Watanuki’s lips, who unconsciously opened them, allowing the kiss to grow deeper.
“All right; enough,” Watanuki finally declared shoving Doumeki away. “Yuuko-san warned me to not take too much time.”
They said their good-byes and Watanuki hurried along to Yuuko’s shop. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but get a feeling of dread; there was simply something in Yuuko’s voice when he spoke to her that morning that said he should expect trouble.
He knew something was wrong right away when as soon as he opened the door he could hear giggling laughter; two of which he recognized as Yuuko and Mokona, and a male’s he couldn’t quite place.
Fully entering the shop, he received a horror more terrifying than any ghost; Maru and Moro were happily dancing around together, while Yuuko, Mokona and Kakei were all seated on cushions on the floor with plenty of empty beer cans and sake bottles scattered around them.
Watanuki would have fainted if Maru and Moro hadn’t rushed over to him, both grabbing a hand and began twirling in a circle with him. Despite their attempts to make Watanuki have fun, all he could think about was the mess he would have to clean up later and the horror of dealing with two drunken sadists.
Author: Rekall
Recipient: chaineddove//Maaya
Series: xxxHolic and Gouhou Drug
Characters/Pairings: Characters - Watanuki, Kazahaya, Rikuou, Doumeki, Yuuko and Kakei (and Saiga); Pairings - Watanuki/Doumeki and Rikuou/Kazahaya
Rating: PG-13
Author Notes/Warnings: The plot for this fic is mostly based off the prompts ‘whisper’ and ‘talisman’ (which is the amulet). I hope you enjoy it since it was certainly fun to write.
Watanuki kicked at a pebble as he walked down the sidewalk. For once he was not headed towards Yuuko’s shop for his normal after-school job, but he was heading towards a nearby drug store; it was a nice autumn day, a welcoming change from the rain they recently had, a day where Watanuki normally would be happy, but he knew what was in store for him, which was why he wished he was at Yuuko’s place.
As he continued on his way, he wondered how he kept on getting into strange situations and thought back to the day before at Yuuko’s shop. It had been a typical day for him, doing chores until Yuuko decided she wanted something to eat, when an odd man had entered.
Watanuki should have known he was in trouble as soon as he saw the wide grin appear on Yuuko’s face when she saw him. Watanuki should have ran then, claiming he had school work to do, but instead he decided to stick around, sweeping the floor, waiting to see what happened.
“Kakei! You haven’t visited since you delivered the vase! You need to come over sometime for some drinks!”
Watanuki groaned at that, knowing he would be in charge of serving drinks and cleaning up any drinking party. In retrospect, that would have been an easy job compared to what found himself getting involved in.
“I’m afraid that business brings me here Yuuko-san,” the man named Kakei replied with a cheery expression on his face; it was a look that Watanuki had seen all too often from Yuuko and didn’t like where things were going. “For an upcoming job, I require a way to see ghosts.”
“Payment?”
Watanuki watched as Kakei pulled a bottle of wine from the bag he was carrying, now Watanuki didn’t know much about wine but he could tell from the worn label that it was very old and the foreign language on it told him it was probably very valuable.
“Ah,” Yuuko mused. “I heard all these bottles were lost at sea.”
“It’s the last known bottle. Saiga heard about it and my boys were quick to recover it since I knew it would be beneficial in the future.”
“Payment is suitable,” Yuuko declared, the large grin returning to her face. “And I’ll loan you my shop-boy, Watanuki-kun, for the time being.”
Watanuki’s jaw fell in shock when he had heard that. Moments later he was in the middle of a spazz attack, yelling that Yuuko couldn’t do that without his consent. It was useless however as Yuuko calmly insisted that while he was in her employment she could do what she liked and in the end Watanuki was forced to accept the orders from Kakei to go to the Green Drugstore after school the next day to learn more about the assignment.
The pebble bounced onto the road as Watanuki stopped in front of the drugstore; he recognized it as one he had been to before and after he was finished there that day, it was one he wanted to never visit again.
Entering the shop, Watanuki surprised to find the place empty, not even an employee was in sight. It was then however he noticed the man seated behind the counter, his feet propped up on the counter, fast asleep.
Watanuki was wondering if he should wake him or not when Kakei came from out a back room. “Ah, Watanuki-kun, you’re here. This way please, the others are waiting for you; oh don’t worry about Saiga, he’s actually quite good at watching the store.”
Silently Watanuki followed the store owner, he could see why the man and Yuuko were friends; they were too much alike for Watanuki’s taste and he had that same feeling of dread he always got when Yuuko was up to one of her tricks.
Entering the back room, Watanuki two people around his own age, sitting on a couch, waiting; one had dark hair and the other was smaller with light-brown hair. Another couch was opposite it and that was where Kakei sat down while Watanuki continued to stand.
“These are Kudo Kazahaya and Himura Rikuou,” Kakei cheerfully said, pointing to first the smaller one and then the larger one. “Rikuou, Kudo-kun, this is Watanuki Kimihiro, the expert help, I was telling you about.”
The one called Kazahaya glared at him while the introductions were being made and Watanuki wondered what he was supposed to do as he stood there looking at them. Finally, Rikuou wrapped an arm around Kazahaya’s waist and pulled the smaller teen towards him so that Watanuki would have room to sit down. Kazahaya struggled to get away the entire time but Rikuou wasn’t letting go. It reminded Watanuki of an annoyed cat trying to get away from the arms of its owner and he imagined if Kazahaya really were a cat, Rikuou would have been scratched to pieces by then.
“Of course since there are three of you, you’ll be paid more than the normal amount,” Kakei cheerfully announced and that quickly caused Kazahaya to calm down; Watanuki noticed however that Rikuou kept his arm around Kazahaya’s waist. “And it’s a simple assignment too.”
“Really?” Kazahaya asked in awe and Watanuki wondered if there was something wrong with the teen. It was obvious Kakei was up to something and Watanuki was sure it wasn’t just him who could tell since he could see that Rikuou was also suspicious but chose to remain quiet so Watanuki followed his lead.
“Of course,” came the reply and Kazahaya beamed. “All you have to do is find a simple little amulet.”
“Yay!”
“That’s currently in the possession of a ghost.”
Watanuki would have laughed at Kazahaya’s shocked expression if it hadn’t been similar to the one he had used the day earlier at Yuuko’s shop.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rikuou smack the palm of his hand to his forehead and he got the impression that this happened a lot with Kazahaya. Nevertheless, that didn’t make him happier knowing what was in store for them later that night.
*~*~*~*
Kazahaya pouted as the walked with the other two; although the pay would be more, he still didn’t like working with someone new. Without the additional baggage of someone new, Kazahaya expected they could get the job done quicker and therefore could be back home sooner so he could cuddle with Rikuou until the early hours of the morning.
The three teens walked in a single file, Watanuki in the lead, Rikuou trailing them and Kazahaya huddled in the middle, while he wondered who he wanted to stick closer too more, the one who could see the ghosts or the one who could protect him.
“I think this is it,” Watanuki said and they looked at the old western-style mansion. The place was run-down; a dilapidated fence surrounded the property with a gate that hung half of its hinges; uncut grass and weeds littered the law; the front porch looked like it could collapse under their weight and there was an eerie feeling that caused Kazahaya to shiver.
“Why us?” Kazahaya groaned as they each took their turn, slipping around the gate. The pathway was in shambles causing one of Kazahaya’s feet to touch the long grass, wet from the recent rain. Above in the sky, thunder crackled and Kazahaya wished he had brought an umbrella in cased it rain, so he could huddle under it with Rikuou while they made Watanuki do all the work.
When they were all through, they made their way up to the porch; a board broke under Rikuou’s foot and it creaked a lot but other than that it seemed to hold up pretty well.
“Locked,” Watanuki said as he tried the door. “Oh well, I guess we’ll have to leave; can’t do anything about a locked door.”
“Unfortunately that excuse doesn’t work,” Kazahaya whispered to him as Rikuou stepped forward and used his powers to destroy the lock, the door then easily swung open.
“See anything?” Rikuou asked as they stepped into the foyer of mansion and Watanuki shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Now what?” Kazahaya questioned as he looked around the place. Old furniture was covered with white sheets and there were piles of dust everywhere but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Split up?”
“No!” Kazahaya and Watanuki replied together as they glared at Rikuou.
“Okay, fine,” Rikuou declared. “We’ll search the place and hopefully we stumble upon the ghost.”
“Why would a ghost have an amulet anyway?”
“It probably was something special to him when he was alive,” Watanuki replied; he had learned some things from his time with Yuuko.
Taking the lead again, since he was the one who could see anything that might be in the mansion, Watanuki began leading them up the stairs to the other floors. It had been silently decided they’d check up there first and work their way downward.
They quickly determined that the third floor was clear and moved down to the second floor. It was then that Kazahaya began hearing it, a soft whisper calling out his name.
“Kazahaya…”
“Rikuou? What was that?” he asked in a frightened voice while turning around, which was when he discovered that Rikuou wasn’t there. “Rikuou? Watanuki! Rikuou’s gone! A ghost took him!”
The pair clung to each other in fear as they wondered what they were going to do. The whispering that Kazahaya had heard was now gone but that did nothing to ease their frightful feelings.
“We need to find him,” Kazahaya whispered; he had too, he couldn’t just leave Rikuou at the mercy of the ghosts.
“Okay, so what do we do?”
“Split up,” Kazahaya ordered with a determined look on his face; he didn’t like the plan but it was the fastest way of finding Rikuou. “I can’t see ghosts but I can see Rikuou. Yell or something if you find him.”
In the dim lighting, Kazahaya could tell that Watanuki paled slightly but he nodded his head before heading back down to the first floor. Kazahaya meanwhile began retracing their steps; they had disturbed the dust on the floor where they walked so he hoped he could find the point when Rikuou had disappeared. It wasn’t long though before he heard the faint whispering again.
“Kazahaya…” it said, causing him to shudder. “Kazahaya…”
With a gulp, Kazahaya began heading in the direction where it seemed like the whispering was coming from, the floorboards creaking under his feet in the process. It was a man’s voice, he could tell that but there was nothing else that gave him a clue as to who or what was calling his name.
“Kazahaya…”
Placing his hand against a door, he pushed it slowly open and discovered a child’s playroom. Old toys, covered with dust and spider webs, were scattered on the floor along with moth-eaten pillows and there was a large toy box against one wall.
“Hello?” he called out but the whispering had stopped.
Kazahaya screamed when felt a hand on his shoulder. His heart was racing and he was worried he was going to faint when all of a sudden he heard familiar snickering.
Swinging around, he ended up being pressed against Rikuou and he glared up at him. “You idiot! This was all only one of your jokes!” Calming down, he rested his head against Rikuou’s chest and felt Rikuou wrap his arms around him. “Do you know how worried I was?”
“I’m sorry,” Rikuou said as his laughter subsided. Kazahaya felt a kiss to the top of his head and he began relaxing. “Seeing how scared you were of this place, I couldn’t help but frighten you a little.”
“You’re not nice,” Kazahaya grumbled. “And if you think I’m going to make out with you in a creepy, old mansion, you’re also crazy.”
“Nah, I can wait until we get home.”
Kazahaya felt better being in Rikuou’s arms. The place wasn’t as creepy with him around and he knew if he touched one of the toys, he would see memories of happy times in the room as children played without a care in the world.
“Thanks for getting rid of the one with weird eyes by the way; it’s more fun just to scare you.”
“Watanuki!” Kazahaya gasped as he pulled back slightly and looked up at Rikuou. “I forgot all about him!”
*~*~*~*
Upon separating from Kazahaya, Watanuki headed out into the garden, not wanting to stay in the house by himself.
It was then he saw them; three ghosts walking near a dried up and broken fountain. There was a woman and two men; all wearing old fashion western clothes.
They hadn’t seen him so he dropped down into some bushes, trying to hide and wondering where the others were. Rikuou didn’t appear to be with the ghosts, which meant he had to be in the house somewhere with Kazahaya, which was where Watanuki wished he were at the moment.
“What now?” a voice whispered and Watanuki had to clamp his hands over his mouth to muffle his screams. His heart racing he looked beside him and found himself looking into the calm face of Doumeki.
Watanuki was so happy he felt like kissing Doumeki but instead he had to know why his classmate was there. “How?”
“I got a call and was told to come here,” came the reply and Watanuki suddenly knew what had happened, Yuuko. Silently he thanked her.
“Can you see them?” Watanuki asked, looking back towards the three ghosts who were oblivious to their presence.
“Through the eye, yes.”
“One of them has an amulet we need to get.” He noticed the bow on the ground next to Doumeki. “Can you exorcise them?”
“I should be able too.”
Before Doumeki could try however, Kazahaya’s scream was heard all throughout the garden, causing the ghosts to all stop.
“Oh, we have guests!” the female excitedly exclaim. “Oh dear, if I had known I would have prepared tea!”
“No time to fret, my dear,” said the older of the two men. “We need to go greet our guests!”
“Oh yes, right Father; how silly of me.”
The three ghosts began moving towards the house when to Watanuki’s horror, Doumeki stood up and made himself known to the ghosts.
“Hello,” he said to them and Watanuki had no choice but to stand up as well.
“Oh they’re right here!” the younger man said to his companions. “I hope something in the house didn’t scare you; we heard a frightful scream just now.”
“It’s fine,” Doumeki assured them. “We’re looking for something though; some kind of amulet and were wondering if you could help.”
“Ah! Mother’s pendent!” exclaimed the woman. “That has to be it! Father, you remember it, it’s the one you got for her in Egypt!”
“Of course, she loved that thing dearly,” replied the older man. “Now where was it placed…?”
“In the drawer of the table next to the couch in the downstairs sitting room,” the other man replied. “Go ahead, you should be able to find it there.”
“Thank you,” Doumeki replied and turned to head towards the house.
“Umm… where is your wife anyway?” Watanuki asked the older man; he stopped being scared when he realized how friendly the ghosts were.
“No clue,” the man sadly replied. “We’ll wait for her here until someone forces us to move along.”
“Then I hope you find her one day,” Watanuki said before hurrying after Doumeki.
The pair found the amulet easily enough and left quickly as possible, just in case something else was hiding in the run-down mansion; even after meeting the friendly ghosts, the place was still way too creepy for Watanuki’s tastes.
“Thanks for the help,” Watanuki muttered as they headed back towards the drugstore. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“It’s fine,” Doumeki replied. “People are suppose to take care of the ones they love.”
“Wha…?” Watanuki said in shock, stopping in his tracks. Taking advantage of the moment, Doumeki leaned over and placed a quick kiss against Watanuki’s lips.
“Now where did you have to deliver the amulet?”
“The Green Drugstore,” Watanuki murmured, realizing they were in front of the store. The kiss was still on his mind, however he had the strangest feeling he was forgetting something. “Ack! We forgot Kudo-kun and Himuara-san!”
“Don’t worry, I already called Rikuou’s cellphone,” spoke a voice, which was when Watanuki noticed that Kakei was standing in front of the store along with the man he had seen sleeping behind the counter earlier that day. “They’re both on their way back and should be here soon. For now lets go into the back room and wait for them, Saiga prepared some snacks. Unless of course you two wanted to get back to what you were doing.”
Deciding it was best to accept Kakei’s offer, Watanuki, along with Doumeki, followed the two older men through the store and into the same room Watanuki had been in that afternoon. Watanuki had to admit the food was good and it wasn’t long before they were joined by Rikuou and Kazahaya, the latter who was rather irritated over being left at the mansion.
“You left us!” Kazahaya accused, pointing at Watanuki before jabbing his finger at Doumeki who calmly continued to eat his food. “And who are you?”
“Now, now Kudo-kun, everything will be explained but it’s getting late so Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun should be getting paid so they can go home,” Kakei said which defused the situation and allowed them to get down to business. “Since Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun did most of the work, they get most of the share of money. Since Rikuou’s skills were also necessary on this job, he’ll also get a slightly higher cut. Sorry Kudo-kun.”
Payment was issued and Doumeki, sensing it was time to leave, grabbed Watanuki’s wrist and began dragging him out of there.
“Don’t worry Kudo-kun,” they heard Kakei say behind them in an attempt to cheer up the depressed Kazahaya. “Lets play a game of Mahjong so you can win some more money.”
“Yay!”
*~*~*~*
Two days later, Watanuki found himself again not going straight to Yuuko’s shop after school. This time however he was headed towards Doumeki’s place.
After unsuccessfully coming up with a way of thanking Doumeki for his help, Watanuki eventually decided to cook him a big meal since he knew how much his classmate liked food. Unfortunately Doumeki had been busy with the school council at lunch so Watanuki had hurried home after class to cook while Doumeki was busy with club activities.
“Here!” he said as soon as he saw Doumeki, handing the bundle of food to him. “I need to go to work now.”
“Kiss?” was all that Doumeki said Watanuki turned bright red; although Doumeki still annoyed him at times, he decided to give things a shot and see where their relationship went.
Watanuki nodded his head and Doumeki leaned forward while cupping Watanuki’s cheek and tenderly kissed his mouth. His tongue pressed eagerly Watanuki’s lips, who unconsciously opened them, allowing the kiss to grow deeper.
“All right; enough,” Watanuki finally declared shoving Doumeki away. “Yuuko-san warned me to not take too much time.”
They said their good-byes and Watanuki hurried along to Yuuko’s shop. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but get a feeling of dread; there was simply something in Yuuko’s voice when he spoke to her that morning that said he should expect trouble.
He knew something was wrong right away when as soon as he opened the door he could hear giggling laughter; two of which he recognized as Yuuko and Mokona, and a male’s he couldn’t quite place.
Fully entering the shop, he received a horror more terrifying than any ghost; Maru and Moro were happily dancing around together, while Yuuko, Mokona and Kakei were all seated on cushions on the floor with plenty of empty beer cans and sake bottles scattered around them.
Watanuki would have fainted if Maru and Moro hadn’t rushed over to him, both grabbing a hand and began twirling in a circle with him. Despite their attempts to make Watanuki have fun, all he could think about was the mess he would have to clean up later and the horror of dealing with two drunken sadists.