Transitions: Chapter 3
I have no excuse for the length other than I just don't know when to shut the heck up. I'm so sorry. ^_^;;
Title: Transitions
Author: Serenetwinkle
Chapter: 3 of (uh...)
Rating: PG- Watanuki, you potty mouth
Word count: 5,293 (sorry)
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Status: Incomplete
Summary: A switching of the strangest kind gives Watanuki and Doumeki a glimpse of something more.
Disclaimer- They are all not mine.
AN- Some words to look for:
Izakaya- Japanese bar or tavern, also serves food
Shoji- sliding door or room divider
Korokke- croquettes
Yakitori- basically, chicken kabobs
Transitions
“You are not my Kimihiro.”
It took several seconds before the statement fully registered into Watanuki’s shell-shocked mind. The intense stare from the kneeling archer didn’t help matters.
When it finally permeated through the layers of hazy chaos, however, the response was immediate. And loud.
“What the- Damn straight I’m not your Kimihiro!” Just hearing it out loud again produced a fierce rush of heat to his face. Of all the inappropriate things Doumeki had ever said, this was...
This was...
“ I don’t ever want to hear that from you again! Stop acting overly familiar with me, you presumptuous jerk!”
Really, what nerve! The bastard hadn’t even asked first if he could use his given name. Not that he would have given permission. Well, he was pretty sure he would have said no. Actually, it might have been nice...
That didn’t mean Doumeki could just go and say it whenever he wanted, right out of the blue like that!
And what was with the whole ‘my’ thing? Acting all possessive, like they were a couple or something.
As Watanuki’s thoughts buzzed angrily around his head, he failed to notice as the boy beside him rose and leaned in closer to him, until their faces were less than two feet away from each other.
Before he could protest the invasion of his personal space (two feet was definitely within his bubble), Doumeki grabbed a fistful of his uniform and twisted the fabric, dragging him even closer. A dangerous look was in his eyes and Watanuki was sure he wasn’t going to like where this particular path was taking him.
“Presumptuous?” The words issued from the taller boy’s mouth in a dark sort of half-growl. “Overly familiar?” Golden eyes glittered with barely contained rage.
Doumeki gave him a hard jerk and fear washed over Watanuki, making his heart race and his palms sweat. Had Doumeki finally snapped? Had he finally said one insult too many and the archer had decided enough was enough? Please, please just let this all be a bad dream...
“I don’t know who you are, but you will give me back Kimihiro. Now.”
The last word was emphasized with another twist of his shirt, causing the collar to become so tight he began to have difficulty breathing.
“D-Doumeki,” he choked out, tears forming in the corners of his eyes against his will. It was the lack of air, he knew. Nothing else. “Please... I can’t... breathe...”
The other teen stared at him, a frigid expression covering his features, the anger in his eyes the only indication of his emotions. Watanuki thought for a few desperate seconds that Doumeki would continue to hold onto him like this until he passed out from lack of oxygen. Or until he died.
Hot tears leaked from his eyes, burning two identical trails down the sides of his face.
Doumeki blinked and abruptly let go of the smaller boy, retreating backwards. As Watanuki sat, gasping for air, he thought a brief flash of horror passed over the other boys face, but he quickly turned around, giving the injured teen his back.
Watanuki couldn’t be sure, since he didn’t have his glasses on, but he thought for a moment Doumeki looked like he was ashamed.
He damn well better be!
Watanuki wisely chose to keep his thoughts to himself for the time being. Just in case the archer was still harboring any homicidal tendencies. One throttling a day was his limit.
And frankly, he was just too shocked to speak.
The only other time he had been treated so severely by the other boy had been when Doumeki found out he had removed a spiders grudge from him and placed it on himself. But even then, Doumeki had never looked so... uncontrollably violent.
Neither boy spoke as Watanuki gradually got his breathing to return to normal. Looking around, he spied his glasses resting on a side table to his right. When he placed them on his face, with a small inward sigh of relief at the returned familiarity, he noticed the taller boy’s fists were clenched at his sides and there was a slight hunch to his shoulders.
“Doume-”
“I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t so much the words that made whatever he was about say die before it even got past his throat; it wasn’t even the tone of voice the archer used that made him stop, though the rough whisper did disturb him somewhat.
No, it was the fact that the other boy was now shaking from head to foot, tiny tremors and small twitches that might have even gone unnoticed by anyone who wasn’t really looking.
But Watanuki was looking, and he knew that Doumeki did not tremble for anything, fearless idiot that he was.
Which may have explained why he found himself out of bed and half way across the space between them before he caught himself. What was he doing anyway? The moron had just tried to strangle him and now he wanted to what? Comfort him?
Again the soft, low voice of the archer interrupted his train of thought.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. You...” Here the taller boy turned around to face Watanuki, mild surprise flitting in his eyes as he saw the other boy was no longer sitting in bed. The surprise was quickly replaced by a more guarded expression before he continued his sentence.
“You don’t know what’s going on either, do you?”
And though Watanuki was mentally filing away the fact that Doumeki had not only apologized to him, but done it twice, sincerely, he still found it necessary to speak without his usual sarcasm.
“I really don’t. I’m... missing something important, aren’t I?” He had asked it as a question, but Watanuki was almost certain that there was, in fact, something terribly wrong with everything. Something big. And he could almost feel it edging around the sides of his consciousness, hinting to him as to what it was. Different location. Different time. Different Doumeki. If not for the throbbing in his head, he might have thought he was dreaming.
But it was real. A little too real.
Suddenly Watanuki felt that he couldn’t stand still for another second. What else was different? How many other changes would he find if he stepped out of this room? He was almost afraid to find out, but the urge to know what the hell was going on was too overwhelming.
“Excuse me, I... need some air.” And his breath was indeed coming faster, the room beginning to feel stifling and too small for both of them at once. Watanuki hurried past a silent Doumeki, with only a modicum of surprise when he wasn’t stopped. A pair of golden eyes followed his movements until the door to the nurses office closed behind him and he was alone in the hallway. The bespectacled teen still felt the need to get farther away and made his way to the exit, his footsteps causing dull echoes to bounce off the walls.
Everything was as normal and unchanged as it had ever been, but for some reason Watanuki couldn’t shake the feeling of unfamiliarity the seemed to radiate off of every surface around him.
The closer he got to the exit, the faster his feet took him, until he was full-out running by the time he slammed open the outside door and flung himself into the late afternoon light. The cool air relieved some of the suffocating feeling in his chest. He only slowed his pace once he was a good distance past the front gates of the school, his feet once again falling into a slow walk.
His steps automatically followed the path they had walked so many times before. It was almost startling when he found himself outside Doumeki’s family temple. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised, since he walked past it every day now, even when he wasn’t on his way to work, ever since he had changed apartments. He remembered how Yuuko had given him that mysterious and utterly aggravating smile of hers while he had grumbled about the fact that the only places he could find in his price range had all been within five blocks of Doumeki’s house and each and everyone of them in a place where he would have to pass by that damn temple every time he went to and from school, unless he felt like walking and extra mile out of his way.
Hitsuzen, his ass.
Watanuki paused for a moment and studied the grounds visible from the entranceway. Funny, how he had never noticed that tree in the middle of the yard before... And he could have sworn that one house in back had looked a lot newer... And weren’t those lamp posts in front of the main house supposed to be...
Watanuki ripped his gaze away from the temple and forced himself to keep moving. It was all in his head, as simple as that. He was just upset from the fall and Doumeki being all weird. Not that he wasn’t always weird, but he was being especially weird today.
He was just making himself see things that had always been there, that was all.
But that out of place feeling was creeping over him again. And the little hints at the edges of his mind were now clambering about, trying to make themselves heard.
Eventually, he came to the split in his walk where he could either go straight, to his apartment, or turn left and go to Yuuko’s shop.
He was tempted to just continue on home, crawl into bed and go back to sleep until everything started to make sense again. But he had a job to do and, he grudgingly admitted to himself, he really wanted to talk to Yuuko and see if maybe he was losing him mind after all. Or if it was something else entirely.
Maybe even that ‘something big’ that he was missing.
“Yeah, and how much will that cost me I wonder?” he grumbled to himself as he changed directions, veering to the left toward Yuuko’s house.
The trip was short enough, but by the time he reached the edge of the wall that indicated the wish shop was coming up, Watanuki had his eyes firmly fixed on the sidewalk and his feet, refusing to look up at more buildings or stores.
He had been walking this path for more than two years and he knew, he knew half the places he had just passed, he had never seen before.
A dozen or more brand-new stores and buildings didn’t just pop up overnight. Price be damned. He needed to talk to Yuuko now.
Watanuki ran the last stretch along the fence surrounding Yuuko’s place and rounded the gate post with an immense sense of relief.
Until he saw the large neon letters blazing above the front porch.
“Wha- What the...?”
There in bold red letters easily five feet tall were the words, ‘Yuuko’s Izakaya’.
And that... was the straw that broke the Watanuki’s back.
If he had remembered to grab his school bag before rushing out of the nurses office, he would have thrown it. If there had been a person standing in front of him, he would have shaken them until they told him what was going on. If he had seen Doumeki at that moment, he would probably have run screaming.
As it was, all he could do was drop to his knees and slam his fists to the ground in frustration. His shoulders were hunched, head hanging between his knees, breath coming fast. He didn’t know how long he knelt there on the ground, just staring at the stone walkway beneath him, silently praying that the world would be back to normal when he looked up again.
‘There is a perfectly logical explanation for all of this. Like, I’ve hit my head and am experiencing a kind of hemorrhage induced hallucination of some sort. Or this is an elaborate and carefully construed ‘let’s tease Watanuki and make him think he’s insane’ ploy of Yuuko-san’s because she got bored or ran out of liquor or is having an off day.’
Either that or he had fallen into some strange alternate dimension
Watanuki almost managed to squeeze out a laugh at that last thought before a snippet of a memory suddenly came to him.
“Are you... The Witch of the Dimensions?”
“Yes, I have been called that.”
Eyes that had previously been squeezed tightly shut popped open as a quiet, ‘oh’ escaped his lips.
Then... it was possible that he...
Was it crazy? He didn’t think so, not the way his life had been going lately. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. And strangely enough, he felt better, the tension in his shoulders lessening somewhat. So, if it was just a simple case of being in a different world, then it meant he hadn’t lost his mind after all!
Watanuki blinked, slowly reprocessing his last few thoughts.
“Aaah!!” The bespectacled teen jumped up, clutching his head as if in immense pain. “At what point in my life did waking up in a different dimension become normal?!”
About the same time his hand first connected with a mysterious fence surrounding an even more mysterious house, no doubt. And about the same time he had crossed paths with one Ichihara Yuuko.
Shop owner, wish granter, dipsomaniac and all around pain in his ass.
“Yoo-hoo!”
Speak of the lush...
Watanuki spun around to face the front porch of the bar. There, standing in the partially opened shoji was Yuuko, one hand cupped around her mouth while the other waved back and forth in the air to get his attention.
“Part-timers who are almost an hour late to their jobs don’t need to be standing outside yelling their heads off and scaring the customers away!”
Watanuki was about to shout back that she was doing the exact same thing, but changed his mind at the last second, deciding instead to just go inside and try to sort out this mess as quickly as possible. Dropping his hands from his head, he jogged the short distance to the porch to join his employer.
“Yuuko-san! I need to talk...with...” His voice trailed off as he approached the tall woman and finally got a decent look at her. He stumbled to a stop in front of the steps and couldn’t help but gawk a little at the sight before him.
It wasn’t so much her outfit. Compared to what she normally wore, it was downright tame, just some tight leather pants and a deep red tank top that managed to be both high and low cut at the same time, a black sparkly butterfly emblazoned on the front with wings strategically placed on her, well... At any rate it wasn’t the outfit.
Nor was it her hair, which he admitted was a little odd looking with it’s different colored streaks of red and purple. No, it wasn’t really the hair that was so shocking. But...
He had never seen so many piercing on one person before in his entire life.
With her hair pulled back into a tight pony-tail he could see them all in their shiny, metallic glory. There were at least ten in each ear. Hoops, big and small. Studs, some with red jewels, some plain metal. Clips, two each, one on top and one in the middle. All silver. One tiny silver ring in her nose topped with an equally tiny diamond stud. Two somewhat bigger rings on the left side of her mouth. One silver stud below her bottom lip. Three bars on her left eyebrow.
Did he miss any?
The shiny eyebrow lifted slightly and he was finally shaken from his daze when she rather calmly asked him if he was done admiring her and if he was would he mind getting his ass in the kitchen already, she had hungry customers waiting.
And one more in the middle of her tongue. A black smiley face with fangs.
“Don’t tell me, Kimi-chan. You’ve finally decided you want me to show you where the rest are?” This last statement was accompanied by a leer that even the other Yuuko had never pulled on him before. A single finger trailed its way down her collarbone down between her breasts and lower still. The sheer wrongness of it made him turn bright red and hightail it into the waiting familiarity of the kitchen.
And one more in her belly-button. A tiny black butterfly on a chain.
As he rushed past her to enter the shop turned bar, her laughter ringing mirthfully behind him, he opted to ask her about traveling between worlds some other time. Like after his brain came back from the dark corner it was shivering in.
He decided then and there he really, really didn’t want to stay in this world any longer than humanly possible.
As his eyes adjusted to the dimness inside the house, Watanuki took a cursory look at his new surroundings
Though he had seen the sign outside above the porch, he still hadn’t fully grasped how much of a change would be made to the shop until he found himself inside the lounge area of what was obviously a very popular hangout.
“Alright! It’s Kimihiro!”
“‘Bout time kid, I’m starving!”
“Hey Kimi-chan, make some of those beef korokke like you made the other day!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“Me too, Kimihiro!”
“And here!”
Watanuki found himself barraged from all sides by shouts from the people sitting around him on bar stools and at the tables scattered throughout the room. Trying not to look as lost as he felt, the still somewhat red faced teen nodded in what he hoped was a friendly manner with a smiled pasted on his face as he headed towards the kitchen area of the store.
But alas, even his precious kitchen had been the victim of an alternate dimension makeover. No longer was it the homey looking room with its small stove and island counter. Now the kitchen was twice its normal size, with two stoves, two ovens, a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, a deep fryer and an entire wall dedicated to cutting board space and utensil storage.
It was... a dream come true.
He was so absorbed in all of the new and wonderful changes made to the kitchen he almost didn’t notice the other person in the room.
Until...
“Ah! Kimi-chan, thank goodness you’re here!” A tall boy with short black hair and messy bangs flashed a relieved smile and came rushing at him brandishing a spatula and an apron.
“Here,” he shoved the apron into the shorter boy’s hands. Without even thinking about it, Watanuki put it on and took the spatula that was then handed over.
“You have no idea how glad I am to see you. I honestly don’t know what Yuuko was thinking, putting Gingestu in charge of the cooking. I keep having to come in here to bail him out.”
“What was that?” Watanuki looked over and saw a large box and a pile of vegetables with platinum blonde hair make its way out of the refrigerator.
Apparently undaunted by the gruff question, the boy in front of him grinned at the vegetable man. “I said, Kimi-chan is finally here, so you can take a break from burning everything.”
The box was settled onto one of the counters with a thump and the person carrying them stepped back to give Watanuki a somewhat blank look.
“Oh, good,” he sated before turning back to the pile of greenery in font of him.
“Well,” the boy in front of him smiled again, eyes crinkling at the corners. “I have to get back out to the guests.” With a short wave he was out the door, leaving Watanuki alone with the large pale-haired man across the room, who was currently cutting up a cabbage.
It took all of 5 seconds for the teen to decide what to do.
He smelled yakitori burning.
~*~
Immersing himself in the hustle and bustle of a busy kitchen was suitably distracting enough to keep Watanuki from having to think about anything too confusing. Things such as the fact that everyone seemed to be on a first name basis with him and then some. Or even the fact that Yuuko now looked like some sort of punk rock covergirl. Or Doumeki...
Having never worked in a commercial kitchen before, he was rather proud of the fact that no one seemed to notice that anything was out of place. He knew all of the items on the menu well enough so whenever the other boy (Ran was his name he found out) came in shouting orders at him he was able to keep them going out at a steady pace. He figured it must be because he was used to working under pressure and having food orders constantly hurled at him.
He was so engrossed in his work, in fact, that he failed to notice when someone came up behind him until a hand slapped down on his shoulder.
Startled, Watanuki spun around to see amused burgundy eyes watching him.
“Ah, Yuuko-san, I didn’t notice you there.”
One dark red eye closed in a playful wink as Yuuko shook her head. “Now now, how many times have I told you to just call me Yuuko, huh? You’re always so formal, Kimi-chan.”
“Eh, heh, well...” Watanuki was having a hard time looking at her with all the jewelry on her face. It just seemed so strange to him, although... He studied her again for a few seconds. Yes, it definitely suited her somewhat.
Still strange though.
Yuuko pointed one finger behind her back and he followed its path to a clock on the wall which read 9:45.
Watanuki blinked stupidly at it for a moment. Where had the time gone?
“Quitting time, sweets. You’re such a workaholic sometimes, you know.” She said this last part with a happy laugh that took away any harshness that might have been heard in her words.
“Come on, I bet Shizuka is waiting for you. Let Ran take over and get cleaned up.”
“Uh...”
“Oh yeah, didn’t you say earlier you had something to talk with me about?”
“Oh, um, that’s right. I-”
“I hope its not about a raise. ‘Cause you’re worth it Kimi-chan, but I just gave you one a few months ago and I don’t want everyone else to think I’m playing favorites.”
“No, it’s not-”
“Good. I’ll be out front then.” With that that older woman sauntered out into the lounge area, leaving behind a subdued Watanuki.
Well apparently some aspects of Yuuko were still the same. Such as her pushiness.
With a sigh, Watanuki removed his apron and placed it with the other dirty linens, then washed his hands at the sink before walking out to the lounge area.
Customers at tables were few, with the majority of people sitting at the bar drinking or conversing with each other. He spied Yuuko at the far end of the long counter taking shots with one of her patrons.
Clearly love of alcohol also traveled well between worlds.
Before the young man could think of a suitable way to get her attention without appearing rude, Yuuko, through that bizarre sixth sense of hers no doubt, waved over a dark-haired man to take her place behind the bar and excused herself from the person in front of her. Without once even turning around to look at him, she ducked under the counter and made her way across the room and through a curtained exit. The only indication that she expected him to follow was one crooked finger over her shoulder as she disappeared through the doorway.
Watanuki was too tired to do anything but obediently follow.
Pushing aside the heavy fabric obscuring the door, Watanuki caught a glimpse of heavy black boots turning a corner and set off after them. He made his way down a hallway unknown to him and up a set of stairs that he remembered being in a different part of the house. When he reached the top of the steps, Yuuko was already seated and waiting for him, lounged comfortably in an armchair in front of a large window. Her legs were crossed, feet propped up on a small, rather beaten-up table that looked as if it’s only purpose in life was to be a resting spot for her boots.
She was currently staring out the window up at the sky, a lit cigarette dangling from one hand. Though Yuuko made no move to turn and face him, she nodded her head at his entrance and curved one side of her mouth into a tiny smile.
“I got a lot of compliments for you tonight,” she stated without preamble. “You did a good job tonight, even if you were late.”
Watanuki blinked at the unexpected praise. “Ah, well um, thank you.” He shifted from foot to foot, wondering if he should just come right out and ask her, or if he should try to lead up to his request somehow.
“Kimi-chan?”
It took him a second before he remembered. “Oh, eh, yes?”
Now Yuuko did turn to face him. The half smile was still on her lips, but for some reason, Watanuki felt as though it didn’t really reach her eyes completely.
“I can’t quite remember, maybe you can help me out here. What was the name of that restaurant Shizuka took you to last week? You know, the one that you went on and on about that had that wonderful strawberry mousse.” She took a drag from her cigarette as she waited for his answer.
Ah, here was his opening. Now he could explain everything and she would send him home. It was probably going to add several years worth of service onto his debt, but at this point, he was willing to pay just about anything to stop having Yuuko call him ‘Kimi-chan’.
It was just plain embarrassing.
“No, I don’t know the name. But that’s because, ah... Well, you see-”
“You are not Kimi-chan, I know.”
Oh.
Naturally.
Pop, went the vein on Watanuki’s forehead.
“Then why the hell did you make me slave around in that damn kitchen all day!?”
“Ho-ho-ho, well I wasn’t absolutely sure, you see. I had make certain before jumping to conclusions, didn’t I?” Her smile was full blown by now and her eyes danced with mischief as she tilted her head to the side, awaiting a response.
“Make sure, my ass! You just wanted someone to cook for you!”
One long finger set itself against Yuuko’s mouth next to the two silver rings, clinking them together softly. A thoughtful look came to her features as she appeared to think about what he said. Finally, “Yes, that sounds about right. I wouldn’t due to have me be short staffed after all, now would it?” A smirk replaced the thoughtful look as she placed the cigarette to her mouth again, inhaling and then blowing out large rings of smoke around her head.
The frustrated boy threw his hands in the air with a cry. “If you had just sent me home in the first place, you could have had... (he refused to say that ridiculous nick-name) your regular employee back to help you!”
“Sent you home? How would that have helped me?” Her brows scrunched together prettily, traces of her playful grin still lingering.
Watanuki stilled and glared at her. Why did she always have to make things so difficult? Fine, she wanted him to draw a picture for her? Whatever got him home fastest.
“I can only assume I’ve switched places with (would not say it) that other person. When you send me home, obviously he will come back too, right?”
Yuuko was frowning at him again, but now her smile was gone and a serious expression was settling in her eyes.
“Send you home?”
He was beginning to get annoyed by the repetition. “Yes, yes. You send me home and we can all be happy!”
He was startled by two loud thumps as her feet fell to the floor when she sat up. The cigarette was crushed into an ashtray next to the armchair and one elbow came to rest on the previously occupied table. Her pierced face leaned itself against her hand as she studied him for several moments. He was about to ask her what the problem was when she spoke again.
“Kimi-ch-”
“Watanuki!” he barked, annoyance in his voice.
A humorless smile twitched briefly into view before wiping itself away. “Very well. Watanuki-san, where exactly is it you live that you need my help to send you home?”
“Er, well, you know...” He waved his hand around vaguely. “From another world out there.”
Yuuko’s eyebrows shot up. “Another world?”
“A different dimension, what ever.”
“Different... dimension.”
The childish urge to stomp his foot took hold of the bespectacled teen. “Will you stop repeating everything I say?!”
“Well it is a bit strange you know.” This was accompanied by an exasperated sigh and rolled eyes.
“You’re one to talk about strange,” was the muttered reply.
“What was that?” Maroon eyes narrowed at him dangerously.
“Er, nothing. But anyway, just grant my wish and we can move on with our lives, okay? I’ve had just about enough of this place.” Watanuki raised one hand and waved it about in a ‘come on already’ gesture and closed his eyes to prepare himself for the worst. “So, tell me what I have to do already.”
When he got no response, snarky or otherwise, Watanuki opened his eyes to see what the hold-up was.
And found Yuuko sitting straight up in her chair, looking at him with such a profound look of pity, he began to get very nervous.
“Wha... What’s the matter?”
“I’m very sorry, Watanuki-san.”
A tight knot began to form in his stomach. “Sorry?”
Yuuko nodded her head, her mouth in a tight line.
“But... What do you mean? You’re a wish granter! I wish to go home! You have to help me!” Desperation crashed into him so swiftly he stumbled a few steps closer to the woman seated in front of him.
This time Yuuko shook her head, the merry tinkling of her earrings contrasting harshly with her sober expression. She rose from the chair to tower over him briefly before turning to place herself in front of the window, her back to him.
“I really am sorry Watanuki-san, but I can’t help you.”
“I don’t care what the price is! I’ll pay it off, I swear!” His body began to shake with uncontrollable spasms. What she was telling him couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t be.
“It’s not a matter of price.” Here she turned around to face him, outstretching her hands in a motion of helplessness.
“I’m not a granter of wishes, Watanuki-san. I never was one.”
Shock momentarily stole his voice.
“B-but... You knew...”
A smile graced her lips once more, this one sorrowful and full of regret.
“My sincerest apologies Watanuki-san, I am a keeper of secrets in this world, so I see and hear things many others do not, but... I cannot help you.”
Can’t help him...
His only hope.
Watanuki was out the door, down the stairs and outside before he even registered the tears running down his cheeks, Yuuko’s words still echoing painfully in his ears.
~*~
AN- Thus ends the incredibly long chapter three.
Thanks for reading.
Title: Transitions
Author: Serenetwinkle
Chapter: 3 of (uh...)
Rating: PG- Watanuki, you potty mouth
Word count: 5,293 (sorry)
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Status: Incomplete
Summary: A switching of the strangest kind gives Watanuki and Doumeki a glimpse of something more.
Disclaimer- They are all not mine.
AN- Some words to look for:
Izakaya- Japanese bar or tavern, also serves food
Shoji- sliding door or room divider
Korokke- croquettes
Yakitori- basically, chicken kabobs
Transitions
“You are not my Kimihiro.”
It took several seconds before the statement fully registered into Watanuki’s shell-shocked mind. The intense stare from the kneeling archer didn’t help matters.
When it finally permeated through the layers of hazy chaos, however, the response was immediate. And loud.
“What the- Damn straight I’m not your Kimihiro!” Just hearing it out loud again produced a fierce rush of heat to his face. Of all the inappropriate things Doumeki had ever said, this was...
This was...
“ I don’t ever want to hear that from you again! Stop acting overly familiar with me, you presumptuous jerk!”
Really, what nerve! The bastard hadn’t even asked first if he could use his given name. Not that he would have given permission. Well, he was pretty sure he would have said no. Actually, it might have been nice...
That didn’t mean Doumeki could just go and say it whenever he wanted, right out of the blue like that!
And what was with the whole ‘my’ thing? Acting all possessive, like they were a couple or something.
As Watanuki’s thoughts buzzed angrily around his head, he failed to notice as the boy beside him rose and leaned in closer to him, until their faces were less than two feet away from each other.
Before he could protest the invasion of his personal space (two feet was definitely within his bubble), Doumeki grabbed a fistful of his uniform and twisted the fabric, dragging him even closer. A dangerous look was in his eyes and Watanuki was sure he wasn’t going to like where this particular path was taking him.
“Presumptuous?” The words issued from the taller boy’s mouth in a dark sort of half-growl. “Overly familiar?” Golden eyes glittered with barely contained rage.
Doumeki gave him a hard jerk and fear washed over Watanuki, making his heart race and his palms sweat. Had Doumeki finally snapped? Had he finally said one insult too many and the archer had decided enough was enough? Please, please just let this all be a bad dream...
“I don’t know who you are, but you will give me back Kimihiro. Now.”
The last word was emphasized with another twist of his shirt, causing the collar to become so tight he began to have difficulty breathing.
“D-Doumeki,” he choked out, tears forming in the corners of his eyes against his will. It was the lack of air, he knew. Nothing else. “Please... I can’t... breathe...”
The other teen stared at him, a frigid expression covering his features, the anger in his eyes the only indication of his emotions. Watanuki thought for a few desperate seconds that Doumeki would continue to hold onto him like this until he passed out from lack of oxygen. Or until he died.
Hot tears leaked from his eyes, burning two identical trails down the sides of his face.
Doumeki blinked and abruptly let go of the smaller boy, retreating backwards. As Watanuki sat, gasping for air, he thought a brief flash of horror passed over the other boys face, but he quickly turned around, giving the injured teen his back.
Watanuki couldn’t be sure, since he didn’t have his glasses on, but he thought for a moment Doumeki looked like he was ashamed.
He damn well better be!
Watanuki wisely chose to keep his thoughts to himself for the time being. Just in case the archer was still harboring any homicidal tendencies. One throttling a day was his limit.
And frankly, he was just too shocked to speak.
The only other time he had been treated so severely by the other boy had been when Doumeki found out he had removed a spiders grudge from him and placed it on himself. But even then, Doumeki had never looked so... uncontrollably violent.
Neither boy spoke as Watanuki gradually got his breathing to return to normal. Looking around, he spied his glasses resting on a side table to his right. When he placed them on his face, with a small inward sigh of relief at the returned familiarity, he noticed the taller boy’s fists were clenched at his sides and there was a slight hunch to his shoulders.
“Doume-”
“I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t so much the words that made whatever he was about say die before it even got past his throat; it wasn’t even the tone of voice the archer used that made him stop, though the rough whisper did disturb him somewhat.
No, it was the fact that the other boy was now shaking from head to foot, tiny tremors and small twitches that might have even gone unnoticed by anyone who wasn’t really looking.
But Watanuki was looking, and he knew that Doumeki did not tremble for anything, fearless idiot that he was.
Which may have explained why he found himself out of bed and half way across the space between them before he caught himself. What was he doing anyway? The moron had just tried to strangle him and now he wanted to what? Comfort him?
Again the soft, low voice of the archer interrupted his train of thought.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. You...” Here the taller boy turned around to face Watanuki, mild surprise flitting in his eyes as he saw the other boy was no longer sitting in bed. The surprise was quickly replaced by a more guarded expression before he continued his sentence.
“You don’t know what’s going on either, do you?”
And though Watanuki was mentally filing away the fact that Doumeki had not only apologized to him, but done it twice, sincerely, he still found it necessary to speak without his usual sarcasm.
“I really don’t. I’m... missing something important, aren’t I?” He had asked it as a question, but Watanuki was almost certain that there was, in fact, something terribly wrong with everything. Something big. And he could almost feel it edging around the sides of his consciousness, hinting to him as to what it was. Different location. Different time. Different Doumeki. If not for the throbbing in his head, he might have thought he was dreaming.
But it was real. A little too real.
Suddenly Watanuki felt that he couldn’t stand still for another second. What else was different? How many other changes would he find if he stepped out of this room? He was almost afraid to find out, but the urge to know what the hell was going on was too overwhelming.
“Excuse me, I... need some air.” And his breath was indeed coming faster, the room beginning to feel stifling and too small for both of them at once. Watanuki hurried past a silent Doumeki, with only a modicum of surprise when he wasn’t stopped. A pair of golden eyes followed his movements until the door to the nurses office closed behind him and he was alone in the hallway. The bespectacled teen still felt the need to get farther away and made his way to the exit, his footsteps causing dull echoes to bounce off the walls.
Everything was as normal and unchanged as it had ever been, but for some reason Watanuki couldn’t shake the feeling of unfamiliarity the seemed to radiate off of every surface around him.
The closer he got to the exit, the faster his feet took him, until he was full-out running by the time he slammed open the outside door and flung himself into the late afternoon light. The cool air relieved some of the suffocating feeling in his chest. He only slowed his pace once he was a good distance past the front gates of the school, his feet once again falling into a slow walk.
His steps automatically followed the path they had walked so many times before. It was almost startling when he found himself outside Doumeki’s family temple. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised, since he walked past it every day now, even when he wasn’t on his way to work, ever since he had changed apartments. He remembered how Yuuko had given him that mysterious and utterly aggravating smile of hers while he had grumbled about the fact that the only places he could find in his price range had all been within five blocks of Doumeki’s house and each and everyone of them in a place where he would have to pass by that damn temple every time he went to and from school, unless he felt like walking and extra mile out of his way.
Hitsuzen, his ass.
Watanuki paused for a moment and studied the grounds visible from the entranceway. Funny, how he had never noticed that tree in the middle of the yard before... And he could have sworn that one house in back had looked a lot newer... And weren’t those lamp posts in front of the main house supposed to be...
Watanuki ripped his gaze away from the temple and forced himself to keep moving. It was all in his head, as simple as that. He was just upset from the fall and Doumeki being all weird. Not that he wasn’t always weird, but he was being especially weird today.
He was just making himself see things that had always been there, that was all.
But that out of place feeling was creeping over him again. And the little hints at the edges of his mind were now clambering about, trying to make themselves heard.
Eventually, he came to the split in his walk where he could either go straight, to his apartment, or turn left and go to Yuuko’s shop.
He was tempted to just continue on home, crawl into bed and go back to sleep until everything started to make sense again. But he had a job to do and, he grudgingly admitted to himself, he really wanted to talk to Yuuko and see if maybe he was losing him mind after all. Or if it was something else entirely.
Maybe even that ‘something big’ that he was missing.
“Yeah, and how much will that cost me I wonder?” he grumbled to himself as he changed directions, veering to the left toward Yuuko’s house.
The trip was short enough, but by the time he reached the edge of the wall that indicated the wish shop was coming up, Watanuki had his eyes firmly fixed on the sidewalk and his feet, refusing to look up at more buildings or stores.
He had been walking this path for more than two years and he knew, he knew half the places he had just passed, he had never seen before.
A dozen or more brand-new stores and buildings didn’t just pop up overnight. Price be damned. He needed to talk to Yuuko now.
Watanuki ran the last stretch along the fence surrounding Yuuko’s place and rounded the gate post with an immense sense of relief.
Until he saw the large neon letters blazing above the front porch.
“Wha- What the...?”
There in bold red letters easily five feet tall were the words, ‘Yuuko’s Izakaya’.
And that... was the straw that broke the Watanuki’s back.
If he had remembered to grab his school bag before rushing out of the nurses office, he would have thrown it. If there had been a person standing in front of him, he would have shaken them until they told him what was going on. If he had seen Doumeki at that moment, he would probably have run screaming.
As it was, all he could do was drop to his knees and slam his fists to the ground in frustration. His shoulders were hunched, head hanging between his knees, breath coming fast. He didn’t know how long he knelt there on the ground, just staring at the stone walkway beneath him, silently praying that the world would be back to normal when he looked up again.
‘There is a perfectly logical explanation for all of this. Like, I’ve hit my head and am experiencing a kind of hemorrhage induced hallucination of some sort. Or this is an elaborate and carefully construed ‘let’s tease Watanuki and make him think he’s insane’ ploy of Yuuko-san’s because she got bored or ran out of liquor or is having an off day.’
Either that or he had fallen into some strange alternate dimension
Watanuki almost managed to squeeze out a laugh at that last thought before a snippet of a memory suddenly came to him.
“Are you... The Witch of the Dimensions?”
“Yes, I have been called that.”
Eyes that had previously been squeezed tightly shut popped open as a quiet, ‘oh’ escaped his lips.
Then... it was possible that he...
Was it crazy? He didn’t think so, not the way his life had been going lately. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. And strangely enough, he felt better, the tension in his shoulders lessening somewhat. So, if it was just a simple case of being in a different world, then it meant he hadn’t lost his mind after all!
Watanuki blinked, slowly reprocessing his last few thoughts.
“Aaah!!” The bespectacled teen jumped up, clutching his head as if in immense pain. “At what point in my life did waking up in a different dimension become normal?!”
About the same time his hand first connected with a mysterious fence surrounding an even more mysterious house, no doubt. And about the same time he had crossed paths with one Ichihara Yuuko.
Shop owner, wish granter, dipsomaniac and all around pain in his ass.
“Yoo-hoo!”
Speak of the lush...
Watanuki spun around to face the front porch of the bar. There, standing in the partially opened shoji was Yuuko, one hand cupped around her mouth while the other waved back and forth in the air to get his attention.
“Part-timers who are almost an hour late to their jobs don’t need to be standing outside yelling their heads off and scaring the customers away!”
Watanuki was about to shout back that she was doing the exact same thing, but changed his mind at the last second, deciding instead to just go inside and try to sort out this mess as quickly as possible. Dropping his hands from his head, he jogged the short distance to the porch to join his employer.
“Yuuko-san! I need to talk...with...” His voice trailed off as he approached the tall woman and finally got a decent look at her. He stumbled to a stop in front of the steps and couldn’t help but gawk a little at the sight before him.
It wasn’t so much her outfit. Compared to what she normally wore, it was downright tame, just some tight leather pants and a deep red tank top that managed to be both high and low cut at the same time, a black sparkly butterfly emblazoned on the front with wings strategically placed on her, well... At any rate it wasn’t the outfit.
Nor was it her hair, which he admitted was a little odd looking with it’s different colored streaks of red and purple. No, it wasn’t really the hair that was so shocking. But...
He had never seen so many piercing on one person before in his entire life.
With her hair pulled back into a tight pony-tail he could see them all in their shiny, metallic glory. There were at least ten in each ear. Hoops, big and small. Studs, some with red jewels, some plain metal. Clips, two each, one on top and one in the middle. All silver. One tiny silver ring in her nose topped with an equally tiny diamond stud. Two somewhat bigger rings on the left side of her mouth. One silver stud below her bottom lip. Three bars on her left eyebrow.
Did he miss any?
The shiny eyebrow lifted slightly and he was finally shaken from his daze when she rather calmly asked him if he was done admiring her and if he was would he mind getting his ass in the kitchen already, she had hungry customers waiting.
And one more in the middle of her tongue. A black smiley face with fangs.
“Don’t tell me, Kimi-chan. You’ve finally decided you want me to show you where the rest are?” This last statement was accompanied by a leer that even the other Yuuko had never pulled on him before. A single finger trailed its way down her collarbone down between her breasts and lower still. The sheer wrongness of it made him turn bright red and hightail it into the waiting familiarity of the kitchen.
And one more in her belly-button. A tiny black butterfly on a chain.
As he rushed past her to enter the shop turned bar, her laughter ringing mirthfully behind him, he opted to ask her about traveling between worlds some other time. Like after his brain came back from the dark corner it was shivering in.
He decided then and there he really, really didn’t want to stay in this world any longer than humanly possible.
As his eyes adjusted to the dimness inside the house, Watanuki took a cursory look at his new surroundings
Though he had seen the sign outside above the porch, he still hadn’t fully grasped how much of a change would be made to the shop until he found himself inside the lounge area of what was obviously a very popular hangout.
“Alright! It’s Kimihiro!”
“‘Bout time kid, I’m starving!”
“Hey Kimi-chan, make some of those beef korokke like you made the other day!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“Me too, Kimihiro!”
“And here!”
Watanuki found himself barraged from all sides by shouts from the people sitting around him on bar stools and at the tables scattered throughout the room. Trying not to look as lost as he felt, the still somewhat red faced teen nodded in what he hoped was a friendly manner with a smiled pasted on his face as he headed towards the kitchen area of the store.
But alas, even his precious kitchen had been the victim of an alternate dimension makeover. No longer was it the homey looking room with its small stove and island counter. Now the kitchen was twice its normal size, with two stoves, two ovens, a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, a deep fryer and an entire wall dedicated to cutting board space and utensil storage.
It was... a dream come true.
He was so absorbed in all of the new and wonderful changes made to the kitchen he almost didn’t notice the other person in the room.
Until...
“Ah! Kimi-chan, thank goodness you’re here!” A tall boy with short black hair and messy bangs flashed a relieved smile and came rushing at him brandishing a spatula and an apron.
“Here,” he shoved the apron into the shorter boy’s hands. Without even thinking about it, Watanuki put it on and took the spatula that was then handed over.
“You have no idea how glad I am to see you. I honestly don’t know what Yuuko was thinking, putting Gingestu in charge of the cooking. I keep having to come in here to bail him out.”
“What was that?” Watanuki looked over and saw a large box and a pile of vegetables with platinum blonde hair make its way out of the refrigerator.
Apparently undaunted by the gruff question, the boy in front of him grinned at the vegetable man. “I said, Kimi-chan is finally here, so you can take a break from burning everything.”
The box was settled onto one of the counters with a thump and the person carrying them stepped back to give Watanuki a somewhat blank look.
“Oh, good,” he sated before turning back to the pile of greenery in font of him.
“Well,” the boy in front of him smiled again, eyes crinkling at the corners. “I have to get back out to the guests.” With a short wave he was out the door, leaving Watanuki alone with the large pale-haired man across the room, who was currently cutting up a cabbage.
It took all of 5 seconds for the teen to decide what to do.
He smelled yakitori burning.
~*~
Immersing himself in the hustle and bustle of a busy kitchen was suitably distracting enough to keep Watanuki from having to think about anything too confusing. Things such as the fact that everyone seemed to be on a first name basis with him and then some. Or even the fact that Yuuko now looked like some sort of punk rock covergirl. Or Doumeki...
Having never worked in a commercial kitchen before, he was rather proud of the fact that no one seemed to notice that anything was out of place. He knew all of the items on the menu well enough so whenever the other boy (Ran was his name he found out) came in shouting orders at him he was able to keep them going out at a steady pace. He figured it must be because he was used to working under pressure and having food orders constantly hurled at him.
He was so engrossed in his work, in fact, that he failed to notice when someone came up behind him until a hand slapped down on his shoulder.
Startled, Watanuki spun around to see amused burgundy eyes watching him.
“Ah, Yuuko-san, I didn’t notice you there.”
One dark red eye closed in a playful wink as Yuuko shook her head. “Now now, how many times have I told you to just call me Yuuko, huh? You’re always so formal, Kimi-chan.”
“Eh, heh, well...” Watanuki was having a hard time looking at her with all the jewelry on her face. It just seemed so strange to him, although... He studied her again for a few seconds. Yes, it definitely suited her somewhat.
Still strange though.
Yuuko pointed one finger behind her back and he followed its path to a clock on the wall which read 9:45.
Watanuki blinked stupidly at it for a moment. Where had the time gone?
“Quitting time, sweets. You’re such a workaholic sometimes, you know.” She said this last part with a happy laugh that took away any harshness that might have been heard in her words.
“Come on, I bet Shizuka is waiting for you. Let Ran take over and get cleaned up.”
“Uh...”
“Oh yeah, didn’t you say earlier you had something to talk with me about?”
“Oh, um, that’s right. I-”
“I hope its not about a raise. ‘Cause you’re worth it Kimi-chan, but I just gave you one a few months ago and I don’t want everyone else to think I’m playing favorites.”
“No, it’s not-”
“Good. I’ll be out front then.” With that that older woman sauntered out into the lounge area, leaving behind a subdued Watanuki.
Well apparently some aspects of Yuuko were still the same. Such as her pushiness.
With a sigh, Watanuki removed his apron and placed it with the other dirty linens, then washed his hands at the sink before walking out to the lounge area.
Customers at tables were few, with the majority of people sitting at the bar drinking or conversing with each other. He spied Yuuko at the far end of the long counter taking shots with one of her patrons.
Clearly love of alcohol also traveled well between worlds.
Before the young man could think of a suitable way to get her attention without appearing rude, Yuuko, through that bizarre sixth sense of hers no doubt, waved over a dark-haired man to take her place behind the bar and excused herself from the person in front of her. Without once even turning around to look at him, she ducked under the counter and made her way across the room and through a curtained exit. The only indication that she expected him to follow was one crooked finger over her shoulder as she disappeared through the doorway.
Watanuki was too tired to do anything but obediently follow.
Pushing aside the heavy fabric obscuring the door, Watanuki caught a glimpse of heavy black boots turning a corner and set off after them. He made his way down a hallway unknown to him and up a set of stairs that he remembered being in a different part of the house. When he reached the top of the steps, Yuuko was already seated and waiting for him, lounged comfortably in an armchair in front of a large window. Her legs were crossed, feet propped up on a small, rather beaten-up table that looked as if it’s only purpose in life was to be a resting spot for her boots.
She was currently staring out the window up at the sky, a lit cigarette dangling from one hand. Though Yuuko made no move to turn and face him, she nodded her head at his entrance and curved one side of her mouth into a tiny smile.
“I got a lot of compliments for you tonight,” she stated without preamble. “You did a good job tonight, even if you were late.”
Watanuki blinked at the unexpected praise. “Ah, well um, thank you.” He shifted from foot to foot, wondering if he should just come right out and ask her, or if he should try to lead up to his request somehow.
“Kimi-chan?”
It took him a second before he remembered. “Oh, eh, yes?”
Now Yuuko did turn to face him. The half smile was still on her lips, but for some reason, Watanuki felt as though it didn’t really reach her eyes completely.
“I can’t quite remember, maybe you can help me out here. What was the name of that restaurant Shizuka took you to last week? You know, the one that you went on and on about that had that wonderful strawberry mousse.” She took a drag from her cigarette as she waited for his answer.
Ah, here was his opening. Now he could explain everything and she would send him home. It was probably going to add several years worth of service onto his debt, but at this point, he was willing to pay just about anything to stop having Yuuko call him ‘Kimi-chan’.
It was just plain embarrassing.
“No, I don’t know the name. But that’s because, ah... Well, you see-”
“You are not Kimi-chan, I know.”
Oh.
Naturally.
Pop, went the vein on Watanuki’s forehead.
“Then why the hell did you make me slave around in that damn kitchen all day!?”
“Ho-ho-ho, well I wasn’t absolutely sure, you see. I had make certain before jumping to conclusions, didn’t I?” Her smile was full blown by now and her eyes danced with mischief as she tilted her head to the side, awaiting a response.
“Make sure, my ass! You just wanted someone to cook for you!”
One long finger set itself against Yuuko’s mouth next to the two silver rings, clinking them together softly. A thoughtful look came to her features as she appeared to think about what he said. Finally, “Yes, that sounds about right. I wouldn’t due to have me be short staffed after all, now would it?” A smirk replaced the thoughtful look as she placed the cigarette to her mouth again, inhaling and then blowing out large rings of smoke around her head.
The frustrated boy threw his hands in the air with a cry. “If you had just sent me home in the first place, you could have had... (he refused to say that ridiculous nick-name) your regular employee back to help you!”
“Sent you home? How would that have helped me?” Her brows scrunched together prettily, traces of her playful grin still lingering.
Watanuki stilled and glared at her. Why did she always have to make things so difficult? Fine, she wanted him to draw a picture for her? Whatever got him home fastest.
“I can only assume I’ve switched places with (would not say it) that other person. When you send me home, obviously he will come back too, right?”
Yuuko was frowning at him again, but now her smile was gone and a serious expression was settling in her eyes.
“Send you home?”
He was beginning to get annoyed by the repetition. “Yes, yes. You send me home and we can all be happy!”
He was startled by two loud thumps as her feet fell to the floor when she sat up. The cigarette was crushed into an ashtray next to the armchair and one elbow came to rest on the previously occupied table. Her pierced face leaned itself against her hand as she studied him for several moments. He was about to ask her what the problem was when she spoke again.
“Kimi-ch-”
“Watanuki!” he barked, annoyance in his voice.
A humorless smile twitched briefly into view before wiping itself away. “Very well. Watanuki-san, where exactly is it you live that you need my help to send you home?”
“Er, well, you know...” He waved his hand around vaguely. “From another world out there.”
Yuuko’s eyebrows shot up. “Another world?”
“A different dimension, what ever.”
“Different... dimension.”
The childish urge to stomp his foot took hold of the bespectacled teen. “Will you stop repeating everything I say?!”
“Well it is a bit strange you know.” This was accompanied by an exasperated sigh and rolled eyes.
“You’re one to talk about strange,” was the muttered reply.
“What was that?” Maroon eyes narrowed at him dangerously.
“Er, nothing. But anyway, just grant my wish and we can move on with our lives, okay? I’ve had just about enough of this place.” Watanuki raised one hand and waved it about in a ‘come on already’ gesture and closed his eyes to prepare himself for the worst. “So, tell me what I have to do already.”
When he got no response, snarky or otherwise, Watanuki opened his eyes to see what the hold-up was.
And found Yuuko sitting straight up in her chair, looking at him with such a profound look of pity, he began to get very nervous.
“Wha... What’s the matter?”
“I’m very sorry, Watanuki-san.”
A tight knot began to form in his stomach. “Sorry?”
Yuuko nodded her head, her mouth in a tight line.
“But... What do you mean? You’re a wish granter! I wish to go home! You have to help me!” Desperation crashed into him so swiftly he stumbled a few steps closer to the woman seated in front of him.
This time Yuuko shook her head, the merry tinkling of her earrings contrasting harshly with her sober expression. She rose from the chair to tower over him briefly before turning to place herself in front of the window, her back to him.
“I really am sorry Watanuki-san, but I can’t help you.”
“I don’t care what the price is! I’ll pay it off, I swear!” His body began to shake with uncontrollable spasms. What she was telling him couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t be.
“It’s not a matter of price.” Here she turned around to face him, outstretching her hands in a motion of helplessness.
“I’m not a granter of wishes, Watanuki-san. I never was one.”
Shock momentarily stole his voice.
“B-but... You knew...”
A smile graced her lips once more, this one sorrowful and full of regret.
“My sincerest apologies Watanuki-san, I am a keeper of secrets in this world, so I see and hear things many others do not, but... I cannot help you.”
Can’t help him...
His only hope.
Watanuki was out the door, down the stairs and outside before he even registered the tears running down his cheeks, Yuuko’s words still echoing painfully in his ears.
~*~
AN- Thus ends the incredibly long chapter three.
Thanks for reading.