marigold, marigold, marigold...
31_days. Be patient, there is more. Sorry for the overload.
Title: Keeping Score
Day/Theme: September 16: Why do you keep counting?
Series: xxxHOLiC (of course)
Character/Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki, Yuuko
Rating: G
“Sixteen,” you observe over your glass of wine while your assistant mutters under his breath. The scratches of straw against wood cease as he pauses in his sweeping, looking to you in adorable confusion.
“Sixteen what?” he inquires in that hesitant tone that means he’s curious but not sure he really wants to know what you’re talking about. That’s one of your favourite aspects of his personality: his inclination to second-guess his own often faulty, if he but knew it, “better” judgement. He really does live in his own world, you muse, and that in a world already his own.
All you say aloud, however, is: “Sixteen times you’ve said it.”
“Said what?” he persists, sounding less uncertain of his desire to know what it is you’re on about. He can’t blame you now for telling him, you think as a smirk comes to rest on your face.
“Sixteen times you’ve spoken of Doumeki-kun in the past…twenty minutes,” you tell him gleefully. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but you expect that if you told him that it had been in the past five minutes instead, which happened to be the truth, he’d probably go into a twenty-minute rant. And that would only create a vicious cycle, because you would then be forced to count the mentions of Doumeki in that space of time, and comment, which would anger your assistant further.
He of course is horrified anyway. “You’ve been keeping track?” he demands. “And I’m only complaining about the utter injustice that has been this afternoon! I swear, that bastard lives to torment me!”
You reflect that your assistant is probably entirely correct, although not at all in the way he meant.
Title: Another Beginning
Day/Theme: September 17: You bring out the sunshine underground
Series: xxxHOLiC
Character/Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Rating: G
You can’t hear anything but your own frenzied breathing as you flee from Yuuko’s house, conscious of the presence behind you but not paying attention ahead. It is at this point that you collide with a warm and relatively soft mass and knock it down. You’re about to scramble up when you realise that the thing chasing you has disappeared, and you wince because now you know who you crashed into.
“Oi, you okay?” Doumeki asks.
You want to mutter irritably that your name is not ‘oi’, thank you very much, but that is ungrateful and Yuuko just lectured you on ingratitude. She probably foresaw this whole thing. But you don’t want to thank him, either, so you compromise by letting him off just this once. “I’m fine,” you say instead, and ignore the nagging voice that tells you to ask him the same.
He stands up and extends a hand to you. When you stare blankly at it, unsure what to do with it, he gives off an air of rolling his eyes and hauls you up by the arm. “You’re going home,” he guesses - or perhaps reminds you, as if you could have forgotten. Apparently that also means “I’m following you there,” as he doesn’t leave when you are assuredly all right.
Remembering Yuuko’s words, you don’t protest. ‘Just this once’ has become your mantra. You’re too tired to argue the point, anyway, and when he doesn’t make any move to leave when you reach your apartment, you sigh (loudly) and unroll the spare futon that you’d forgotten you had until just now and leave him to his own devices in the living room. If, in the morning, you wake up feeling as if you’ve had the best sleep of your life, you don’t mention it. There was an explanation, you knew, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the boy in the other room.
Title: Change of Mind
Day/Theme: September 18: Holding your poly-morphing opinion
Series: xxxHOLiC
Character/Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Rating: G
It hasn’t become a pattern. You’ve just been plagued with hungry spirits lately, and Doumeki being who he is has turned up each time. The fact that he doesn’t trust you to take care of yourself is the reason he accompanies you home each time, and the fact that he’d probably wait until you fell asleep and then break in is the reason you allow him to. It’s his problem if his parents are suspicious or concerned, and as long as he stays out of your way in the morning it’s not really a problem.
Plus, you hate to think it, but he has become a friend. And not just recently, although it’s only been recently that you’ve acknowledged this. You can change your mind about these things. And so you can also allow him to stay. For his convenience. Maybe for yours as well.
Title: Change of Heart?
Day/Theme: September 19: The hustle and bustle of traffic greets you
Series: xxxHOLiC
Character/Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki, Himawari
Rating: G
You’ve begun to suspect that things are picking up speed when you see them walking to school together not once in a while but every morning. Still, you don’t say anything, but your curiousity is getting the better of you. So this morning you wake up earlier than usual and make your way to the building where Watanuki’s flat is.
Although you’ve had your suspicions, you’re still more than a little surprised to see Doumeki there. You don’t jump to conclusions - you do know them both rather well, and things have not changed that much - but this does mean that something big has changed. You make your escape, masked by the sounds of early-morning traffic, and when they reach school bickering as usual you’ve managed to stop smiling too brilliantly and refrain from making telltale comments. At this rate, though, you may not need to step in at all.
Title: Guru
Day/Theme: September 20: Your heart is an empty room
Series: xxxHOLiC
Character/Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki, Yuuko
Rating: G
“You know, Watanuki, you’ve been much less clumsy lately,” you tease him. “New glasses?”
Of course, you know exactly why he’s been more alert, and he probably knows you know. He doesn’t make any sharp retorts, though, but blushes. Intensely. That colour red is probably not so healthy, but you’re more intrigued by the fact that there is something to blush about. “Or have you been getting better sleep?”
“I - I guess so,” he stutters, looking down. You can tell the possibility has crossed his mind, and you can tell he’s uncomfortable with it. But apparently not annoyed. Things certainly have taken turns you hadn’t expected to happen so soon. Time really does get away from you. That creep in glasses was right.
“You are fortunate,” you tell him seriously, causing him to look up in surprise. “There are some things you can’t deal with alone.” He’s hanging onto your words now, as he does whenever you take the care to make them sound important. And this is good, because Watanuki has no business being on his own for too long. If he’s going to solidify the world he makes, keep it centred, he cannot have an empty space in his heart. You know the significance of this more than anyone.
Still, you can’t help but take advantage of the opening he’s so obligingly presented to you. “Loneliness is no laughing matter,” you continue. “You should be grateful that Doumeki-kun is so willing to help you sleep.”
You cannot maintain a straight face as he explodes anew into his ranting.