let him know that you know best

[drainedpaladin]

Who: Doumeki Shizuka and Watanuki Kimihiro
When: Feb 2, just after the sirens
Where: Tower Apartments to the nearest emergency station
Summary: While trying to help Susumu out in the baseball diamond shortly before sirens, Doumeki got a kunai to the shoulder from the scared ninja. After getting Susumu settled down and sleeping, Watanuki demands

Comments

[drainedpaladin]

Doumeki lifted his chin as they moved out into the Darkness - the City looked degraded, sidewalks cracked as if they'd aged decades in minutes, buildings covered in rust and filth. The Darkness was a powerful degrading force, it seemed, eating away at everything strong or good and making it weak. He could feel it around him like some kind of cloying presence.

His hand tugged at Watanuki's wrist, pulling him slightly closer. There were things in the Darkness peering at the pair of them from the very edge of the radius that Doumeki's natural repelling abilities gave him here. It wasn't as strong as at home, it felt like a barrier made of tissue paper, and it set him on edge.

Doumeki's breath sped up slightly, and he glanced down as Watanuki spoke quietly, "I will." he said, his own voice quiet, "We need to look for a new apartment anyhow."

[successoroftime]

Watanuki followed when Doumeki tugged on his wrist, sensing the tension between the other's pure aura and the Darkness around them. It was limited compared to before, and Watanuki couldn't think of any reason why it should be so. A dampening effect by the Core's abilities, perhaps? Or was the Darkness here just different from the ayakashi they've encountered at home?

He stroked his thumb on Kouki's side and sped up his walk to keep up with Doumeki's stride.

"So we do." He returned the look. "Perhaps after lunch."

[drainedpaladin]

Doumeki's fingers tightened slightly around Watanuki's wrist, and he kept moving, trying to remember where the emergency station had been, and stave off the exhaustion that set in with blood loss and the strain of going for Susumu, his day of work. He just kept moving, his eyes scanning the area around them, keeping his gaze level, in case something should attack.

The one thing he'd learned the first week he was here was that he didn't repel everything in this Darkness, only most of them, and then only in the most fragile way.

"Mhm." he mumbled, his voice low, "I'll sleep in."

He wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the conversation. Not right then. He had other things to mind.

[successoroftime]

Too quiet, that voice was. Watanuki made a discreet glance at Doumeki's injured shoulder and tried to see how much blood now stained the other's cotton shirt. Around them, nothing seemed to move, save for the distant roar of the train and the muffled sounds of various clubs and stores still open for the night.

No help would come if they were attacked now. Watanuki squeezed the bow, feeling its strength between his fingers, and held his head up. Whatever happened this night, staying in fear would leave a foul aftertaste.

"Good."

[drainedpaladin]

Doumeki's free hand was still pressed over the hole in his yukata, trying to stall the flow of blood. It wasn't bleeding so much anymore, but the front of the shoulder of his clothing was damp, sticky, and slightly cool to the touch with blood. He ignored it, continuing to move, golden eyes skimming the area around himself and Watanuki, his hand still around the boy's wrist.

Things were quiet. He could almost feel how there were somethings repelled by him, and others attracted. Not attracted to the boy at his side, but to Doumeki himself. His fingers tightened just a bit more, his thumb pressed slightly at the inside of Watanuki's wrist, over his pulse.

"If something comes." he said softly, "Stay behind me. Keep me between you and it." he sighed slightly, his eyes closing for just a moment, "The ones I don't repel, I attract."

[successoroftime]

That response made Watanuki still for a few moments before he remembered himself and continued to walk. Doumeki attracted the Darkness he couldn't repel, he said. That, on top of his diminished ability and his job as a bodyguard on the night shift, always exposed to the dangers of the physical and spiritual realms.

Just how much had Doumeki hidden from him?

He gave Doumeki a sharp glance, shifting his hand so that he, too, was clasping the man's wrist.

"Were you planning to tell me that earlier than this?"

[drainedpaladin]

Doumeki paused when Watanuki fell still, and started walking again when the shorter boy did, his expression slightly troubled. Watanuki seemed to be thinking, and Doumeki realized somewhere in the slight fuzziness of his own mind that Watanuki hadn't known about the fact he attracted things he didn't repel.

He heaved a sigh when Watanuki switched his grip, taking sharp hold of his wrist, and glanced to the side between sweeping gazes at the area around him, watchful for things that might come to take advantage of his weakened state.

"I was planning to tell you when it was important to tell you." he said, his voice low, "It hadn't become important yet."

[successoroftime]

Hasn't become important yet, indeed. Doumeki likely forgot to mention it, in the same manner that he tended to neglect informing Watanuki of other matters that fell in the category defined by Doumeki as 'things that don't need to be mentioned.' Watanuki clenched his fist by his side and walked a little faster, glancing to see if he and the other man were still on the same pace.

"Your definition of 'important' can be different than mine," he replied, looking left and right on the sidewalks and the streets to see if they were being followed, allowing yet again for their shared sight to be used. They would see more of the terrain they were entering, in that way.

[drainedpaladin]

It wasn't worth mentioning it to Watanuki, not when it would worry him unnecessarily, not when he needed to work and Watanuki knowing these facts would've resulted in him not being able to hold the job they needed him to have. He couldn't think of something else to do. Nothing short-term, that he would be paid this much for, nothing safer.

He sighed a bit, moving alongside Watanuki, his legs tired, his shoulders tired, his head bowed slightly.

"I know." he said, his voice low, "Having a job seemed more important at the time, and I haven't been hurt or gone out in the Darkness alone..."

Sighing, he glanced down at Watanuki, seeing, suddenly, in a new way that was still somehow entirely familiar.

[successoroftime]

Adjusting to this kind of double-sight always took some time, no matter how often he used this while he sent Doumeki out on errands involving a client's wish. He took a small breath to refocus himself, absently stroking Kouki's back when the kitten's muffled mew came through from his hiding place.

"I know it was, and I wouldn't have stopped you." Watanuki returned his gaze, ignoring for a moment the oddest sensation of seeing himself through the right half of his vision. "You've always kept your promise to return alive, after all."

[drainedpaladin]

Doumeki's brows furrowed as he adjusted to the strange shared sight. It brought the right half of his vision into sharp focus, as it had been when he was younger, before the sharing of the eye, and showed him things he hadn't seen before, the myriad of normal spirits in the Darkness, angry and hungry and staying away from him and from Watanuki. He caught a flash glimpse of himself from Watanuki's vision, and his stomach clenched.

Sometimes he wondered what it was Watanuki saw when he looked at him, but the shared vision gave no insight into that.

Sighing a bit, he nodded, "I don't intend to die." he said, his voice low, his tone stubborn, glancing over at Watanuki again, "You might not stop me, but you wouldn't approve."

[successoroftime]

Watanuki distinctly remembered the conversation that lead to that promise, even as it overlapped with his memories of what happened in their original world. Until now, it displeased him to know that Doumeki had those kinds of thoughts at all. He could only hope that what he said before stuck to Doumeki as it seemed to do now, or else Watanuki would be glad to remind him of it.

"Remember that much at least."

Watanuki's hold on the other's wrist tightened for a moment as they turned right at a corner, and noticed how different their grasps were. It's been a long time since they had to do this while walking at night, and Doumeki's hand was bigger now. How things have changed.

"Unlike the island we were on before, we don't know if people return from the dead here." He looked up. "If you die before we return home, you'd be breaking your word on two counts."

[drainedpaladin]

He found himself reminded of the promise he'd made every time he was foolish enough to put himself in danger, any level of danger, even if it was for the sake of Watanuki himself. He glanced down at the boy for a moment - sometimes it was hard to remember that Watanuki inhabited the same body, that he hadn't grown or aged, because so much about him had changed since the day he'd said he was staying in the shop. His body wasn't older, but there was definitely something older about him. Too old. Too far gone

[successoroftime]

There was something wrong with Doumeki's gait, and Watanuki scooped out Kouki from the fold of his clothes, letting the kitten snuggle up to Doumeki's stomach as he held him up, biting back a comment about how heavy Doumeki was.

From this close, he could smell how far the blood's seeped and spread into his clothing. Too much.

"You don't intend a lot of things." Watanuki rested his temple on Doumeki's shoulder for a moment, gathering his thoughts before they moved on: slower than before, but not slow enough to double their walking time. He slid his hand from Doumeki's grasp and wrapped his arm around Doumeki's waist for additional support. "What is it you don't want to repeat?"

[drainedpaladin]

Doumeki slowed and fell to a stop as Watanuki started taking on more of his weight. He didn't like it, and Doumeki's mouth fell into a straight line, his brows furrowing slightly. He tried to pull away from the smaller boy, but the heat felt good and he was dizzy when he stood up straight. His eyes trailed down to see Watanuki cradling the tiny kitten between his palm and Doumeki's chest, and his own hand came up from where it had been holding Watanuki's wrist, to wrap around both the kitten and Watanuki's hand.

He kept moving, though, listening to what the boy had to say as he pressed against him and took some of his weight - comforting, in its own way.

"A lot of things." he said, softly, voice low, "The injuries. Overextending myself. A lot has changed about me since I was there, though."

[successoroftime]

Kouki mewled and rubbed his cheek on Doumeki's shirt as he was cradled next to it. Watanuki spared the kitten a small smile, seeing how comfortable it looked in his and Doumeki's hands.

"It's good that you got out of that habit," Watanuki said, his tone softening. "I think that was why I was angry with you at the time, pushing yourself as you did. You were reckless, even if you planned out what you did."