Not dead yet. A smidge reclusive, but not dead.
I've been kind of MIA, had a lot of things going on at once, little to no energy and absolutely zero inspiration. But my love for 104 remains, inspiration is fickle anyway and energy comes and goes. So here I am. ;)
(see big damn stupid impossible table of drabbles here)
. Breakable, of how things are not
He used to believe that, while they outwardly maintained an image of codependence, really he was the one who was… well, strong, although perhaps strong would not be the exact word he’d like to use. More like… resilient. Or steady. But still. That he was the one to be leaned upon and the other, the one that would do the leaning. There has always been something fragile about the other one, at least to his eyes. Something that needed protecting. Something breakable.
Now, watching Watanuki give out comfort even in the cold, harsh face of the tragedy that has struck all of them but not least Watanuki for whom this is a highly personal loss, Doumeki has long since resigned himself to the fact that what he used to believe was completely and utterly wrong. Inbetween arranging shelters and organizing and caring for the wounded, in those short seconds when they catch a glimpse of each other, he searches that face and wonders whatever he might have been thinking of. Because written there, clearly, disproving him every step of the way, is the very real fact that some people never break. They just bend.
Watanuki glares at him as he shuffles past with a list. “Get some sleep,” he snaps gruffly, closing the door to a room where someone (or several someones perhaps, they’re running a bit short on beds as a steady stream of more victims pour in) has eventually been soothed to sleep. “You look like hell.” Then he strides off, looking every bit as haggard, because he probably believes that if he hurries then Doumeki will not take note of the worry and concern behind the words. Watanuki does not come with subtitles, unfortunately. But over the years Doumeki has learnt to speak him like a native. And again he relives the feeling - that what appears at first glance to be breakable, may turn out to be anything but.