Transitions: Chapter 5
It took a while, but here it is. Thanks for your patience. Enjoy!
Title: Transitions
Author: Serenetwinkle
Chapter: 5 of (?…?)
Rating: PG- more bad words
Word count: 7,390
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Status: Incomplete
Summary: A switching of the strangest kind gives Watanuki and Doumeki a glimpse of something more.
Disclaimer- Note to self: You do not own CLAMP characters.
Forgot to put this in again, but here are the other chapters:
~Chapter 1
~Chapter 2
~Chapter 3
~Chapter 4
Transitions
The dry and frigid night air ripped mercilessly at his throat, harsh breaths burning fiery trails down into his lungs. The only sounds to be heard were his own pounding feet and ragged pants. Even the streets were empty of cars and pedestrians. For the time being, he seemed to be the only other person in the world.
He felt like the only person in the world.
Watanuki wasn’t sure how long he had run or even how far. When he had exited the shop there had been no thought to where he was going, only the need to get away from that place before he lost it completely. Anywhere, anywhere at all, would have been better at that moment.
He knew it was somewhat childish of him to try and run from his problem, but the realization that he was stuck in this dimension, for who knew how long, had been too sudden. Escape, even a temporary one, had been the only response his mind could think of.
Hey, it usually worked on the ghosts, why not reality too?
But reality was something that wasn’t so easily avoided, he was finding. Case in point: Where the hell was he exactly?
Watanuki supposed that he had most likely, subconsciously, chosen the direction in which his own apartment was situated, but somewhere along the way he had lost his bearings or missed a turn. Now, as he slowed his mad dash into a more reasonable jog and then finally a walk, he could see he really didn’t know where he was at all.
The bespectacled teen decreased his pace even more, one hand to his side massaging out a cramp, letting his breathing gradually return to normal. Though he could see no familiar landmarks, he wasn’t overly worried just yet. If he kept moving, eventually he would run across something he knew.
Despite many of the differences of this world, Watanuki had realized that the majority of things were identical to his own. At least in appearance, though not necessarily function.
What did worry him, though, was the astonishing lack of spirits out at this time of night. He probably should have been grateful for it, and had more than likely just jinxed himself by thinking of it, but still...
It was almost unsettling how quiet and untainted the night was. Not even the ever present lingers of ‘spirit stench’ were in the air. Almost always at night he could at least smell them, whether they showed themselves of not.
For some reason, instead of setting him at ease, it put Watanuki even more on guard. He couldn’t help but compare it to the proverbial calm before a storm. The last time the air had been this clear when he was by himself had been... Well, he couldn’t even remember when.
But when he was with Doumeki...
He wasn’t going to thank him or anything. All the bastard did was stand there for crying out loud. It’s not like he was actually doing anything...
Still, it would have been easy to understand the pureness if Doumeki was around, but he was positive that the taller boy was nowhere near him. And even then, Watanuki had to be within a certain range of the archer for the stench to go away at all.
Thinking about it made him pick up his pace a little. Bad things happened to people who dawdled in the dark. Alone. With no one around to hear them scream...
His feet went faster still. No sense in waiting around for things to get worse, right?
Soon, the buildings around him became more recognizable until he was able to figure out his location. Not so very far from his apartment, just several blocks past it actually. He had missed a turn after all.
Watanuki began to backtrack in the proper direction when he stumbled (quite literally, damn feet) upon a thought, it suddenly dawning on him that he was overlooking yet another obvious problem.
What if the apartment wasn’t there? Or even if it was, what if someone else was living in it? That... wouldn’t be so great.
Chances were, if he explained his situation:
”Yes, I’m very sorry to disturb you, but would you be willing to put me up for the night? You see I live in this apartment too, well not this one exactly, but in a different dimension it’s the same one. Strange, I know; but it’s the truth. And I don’t really have any other place to go since you are here right now. Alright then, so... Got an extra futon?”
Watanuki doubted he would even get to finish before the door slammed in his face.
Well, the only thing he could do for now was cross his fingers and hope that this alternate world Kimihiro lived in the same apartment.
Onward he trudged, resolutely attempting to think positive thoughts, though alternately trying to figure out what he might do if he ended up with no place to stay for the night. He sincerely hoped he didn’t have to go back to Yuuko’s house.
The human psyche could only take so much trauma in the form of multiple piercings and lascivious intent.
His thoughts occupied him for the rest of the trip to the apartment building, and before it consciously registered to his brain, he was already walking through the front entrance and up the first set of stairs.
Relief tickled hesitantly at his mind. But now the important part came.
When his autopilot switched off and he became more aware of his surroundings, Watanuki began to feel slightly nervous, his heart picking up it’s rhythm almost in direct opposition to his decreasing foot speed.
Despite his attempts to stave off the inevitable arrival to his front door, Watanuki soon found himself staring at a familiar set of numbers.
He stood, for nearly a full minute, simply focusing on the tarnished brass digits in front of him. There were no sounds of motion behind the slightly cracked wood, nor any indications of sleeping people. With a sigh and a swallow that only stuck a bit in his throat, the bespectacled boy reached into his pocket and withdrew his house key.
His hand shook imperceptibly as he slid the key into the lock and turned it with a soft click. The breath he unknowingly held whooshed out in a small puff and some of the tension eased from his shoulders.
It must be the other Kimihiro’s apartment if he had the same key. And surely he wouldn’t begrudge Watanuki the use of his home. The other boy was likely in the same situation back in Watanuki’s own world and he wouldn’t mind giving up his apartment to the boy.
As long as he didn‘t make a mess.
Withdrawing the key, Watanuki took a brief moment to rest his forehead against the cool surface to the door and allow himself a second to believe things might just work out and return to normal soon, so long as he just held on for a while longer. He was home, in a familiar place, soon to be asleep with familiar dreams. Tomorrow was a new day. He could start over then and try to figure out what to do.
But for now. Home. Relax. Sleep.
Watanuki opened the door.
Two seconds, possibly three.
Watanuki closed the door.
The numbers stared him in the face again, seeming a bit more mocking than before.
Obviously there was someone very high up, with a great deal of power.
And this being hated him.
With a burning, vindictive passion.
The door opened inward of it’s own accord, causing Watanuki’s fingers to falls from the doorknob they had previously been resting on. His hand flopped back to his side, unnoticed.
A pair of red-rimmed golden eyes peered at him from inside of the doorway. For an astonished second Watanuki thought the boy in front of him might have been crying, but he dismissed the idea as absurd. Even in a different dimension, there was no way that was possible.
But back to the real problem.
“What are you doing here?” The deep voice seemed a bit harsh to Watanuki.
“That should be my question! Why are you in my apartment?” Okay, technically it wasn’t really his.
“I live here. This isn’t your apartment.”
Watanuki glowered. ‘I don’t need you to remind- Wait. What?!’
“W-what do you mean you live here?” This was Doumeki’s place? What about the other Kimihiro then? It didn’t make such sense to the bespectacled teen that Doumeki wouldn’t live at the temple.
“This. Is. My. Home.“ He gave a short pause, as if to let the information sink in. “Why are you here?” The archer still had that sharp tone that Watanuki was beginning to feel ill at ease with. He didn’t like it when Doumeki spoke to him like that. It made him feel... almost... sad?
It was a weird, unexplainable feeling, one he really didn’t like it at all. And it also kind of pissed him off, but then again, that wasn’t precisely new.
“But... You can’t live here! What about the other boy? The- the one who looks like me? I thought he would- cause I have- and... You can‘t live here!”
Too much. Too much. Watanuki could feel the beginnings of a hysterical fit coming on. The only thing was, he couldn’t be sure whether he was going to start screaming his head off or just drop in to a little ball and start crying again.
Either one wasn’t going to be pretty.
Doumeki was staring at him with a wary expression and the shorter teen supposed he must have looked as wild as he felt.
With a sigh that even Watanuki recognized as ‘resignation’, the archer grabbed the bespectacled boy by the wrist and dragged him into the apartment.
“Wha- hey!”
“Shut up. You’re going to wake the neighbors up with all your shouting.”
“Ah, sorry.” Feeling slightly admonished, Watanuki allowed himself to be pulled into the room and the door to close behind him.
A small table lamp placed on a dresser near the balcony dimly lighted the room. The lamp looked like one he owned, but the dresser was new. Watanuki had a sudden urge to explore the apartment, but knew it probably wouldn’t be appreciated. He was just turning to the side to see what other obvious differences there were when a voice interrupted him.
“I take it you have no place to stay?”
Was there some unwritten rule that said every Doumeki Shizuka ever made had to be completely tactless?
As usual, the blunt words made Watanuki hunch his shoulders in annoyance and want to retort something scathing in reply, but fortunately he remembered he didn’t actually know this person and restrained himself at the last second.
Instead, the smaller boy turned to face the room’s other occupant, eyes on the floor, lest his irritation get the better of him. With a short bow Watanuki answered.
“If it wouldn’t impose too much-”
“Don’t do that.” Doumeki’s voice cut through the appeal before it even began. Watanuki looked up in surprise, straightening his back.
“Don’t, what?”
The taller boy was already moving past him and Watanuki stepped sideways to let him pass, watching as the archer went to the closet and began to pull various items out, apparently searching for something.
“The bowing. You don’t have to do that.” Several more items went into a growing pile on the floor. A box, a suitcase, a stack of books, some board games, a small folding table.
“Oh, alright, I just thought...” A sharp look from Doumeki stole the shorter teen’s words.
For some reason Watanuki couldn’t quite figure out, he couldn’t seem to get as angry with the person in front of him as he normally would have with his own Doumeki.
He wrote it down to them essentially being strangers. Plus, he kind of wanted to be on Doumeki’s good side if he was going to be staying here. No need to get choked again.
“Ah.”
Watanuki blinked out of his musings to watch as Doumeki pulled out a rolled up futon from the back of the closet.
How he had managed to fit it in there was beyond Watanuki, but he wasn’t going to complain.
“Here.” The archer was holding out the futon for Watanuki to take. After exchanging hands, Doumeki began to put the items on the floor back in the closet.
“Why are you helping me?”
Doumeki paused in his work and looked up at him, confusion and something Watanuki could only term as mild incredulity passing over the taller teen’s features. But the archer said nothing.
Feeling a little uncomfortable with the look he was getting, Watanuki tried to fill the silence. “Well, it’s just that you don’t know me and you seemed really angry earlier...” He shifted nervously. “This is kind of sudden too, so-”
“You thought I would kick you out?”
“Er, well” Fidget. “You don’t know me,” he finished lamely.
Doumeki straightened and crossed his arms in front of him, a gesture he had seen probably a thousand times on another person with the same face. For some reason, a pang of homesickness shot through him.
“Are you going to steal all of my money and leave in the middle of the night?”
The bastard even had the nerve to say it with a straight face.
Every last trace of homesickness evaporated as if it they had never been.
“Of course I’m not going to steal your money! Who would do that!? Don’t even suggest stupid stuff like that!”
“First of all,” Doumeki bent back to the stuff on the floor and now started to randomly chuck things into the closet. “Plenty of people would take advantage of the situation and steal money or other things.”
Watanuki opened his mouth to once more vehemently defend himself.
“But.” Doumeki cut the shorter boy off again. “I don’t think you are one of those people.”
His jaw snapped shut again. Who could argue with that? “No, I’m not.”
The archer finished depositing things in the closet and slid the door shut before facing Watanuki. He gestured to the bedroll the shorter boy was holding.
“You can set that up anywhere you want. Bathroom’s there.” He gestured again, and even though Watanuki knew where it was already, he dutifully followed where the hand pointed with his eyes. “I think there’s an extra toothbrush in the cabinet. And sleeping clothes are in that drawer there.” The taller boy stopped for a moment and seemed to be considering something.
“I guess that’s it for now. I’m going to bed. Turn the light off when you’re done.”
“Wha- Wait a minute! That’s it?”
Doumeki had been heading towards the curtain that separated the rest of the room from his futon, but turned back at Watanuki’s shocked voice.
“Did you need something else?” An eyebrow rose in question, but otherwise his expression remained impassive.
The question made Watanuki pause for a second. Was there something he needed? Well yeah, but...
“I mean, don’t you want to know what’s going on?” He couldn’t quite keep the exasperation out of his voice. Surely Doumeki wanted to know, right? After that display he had been witness to that afternoon, Watanuki was almost positive that Doumeki was in desperate want of getting back his friend.
A brief flash of pain passed though golden eyes so quickly Watanuki wasn’t even sure he really saw it.
“I can only assume that since you’re still here, that you couldn’t find a way back to your own home.”
That was true and Watanuki said as much.
“Alright.” He turned again to the corner of the room.
“But-”
“Look.” This time the archer remained facing away, one hand already on the curtain, gripping it tightly. “There isn’t anything more we can do tonight. It’s late. We’re both tired.” A long and weary sigh issued from a bent head and Watanuki got the impression that the other boy was much more tired than he had let on before. And not just physically.
It made the shorter boy realize that maybe the mental strain wasn’t just his own. He would have to be blind and stupid not to see that the missing Kimihiro was very close to the person in front of him.
He suddenly felt very insensitive.
“Doumeki, I... Thank you. For letting me stay.”
The only reply was a short nod and then Doumeki was behind the curtain and settling down for the night.
Watanuki was careful to make as little noise as possible as he set out the futon in the main living room and got ready for bed.
~*~
Sleep came in ephemeral spans, each short-lived period of rest punctuated by a gasping wakefulness as brief, unremembered dreams slipped quietly back into his subconscious.
After the fifth or so time of resurfacing from a fitful slumber, Watanuki lay awake, simply staring at the ceiling, not even bothering to try for sleep again.
A lazy roll of his head reveled the digital clock on a dresser across the room from him. It was the same kind he had at his own place, with large red numbers that were tall enough for him to see even without his glasses, though he did still have to squint a little.
2:58am.
Watanuki closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, holding the air for a moment before exhaling forcefully.
This could single handedly be the longest day of his life. Granted, it was technically a new day, but he figured that since he hadn’t actually gone to sleep yet, he could still count it as the same day.
Why he would want to, he couldn’t really say, but it was there all the same. Watanuki blamed his irregular thinking pattern on the lack of proper sleep he had been getting (or was it not getting?) lately.
Ah, damn. Now his head hurt.
As he debated whether or not to search the medicine cabinet in the bathroom for some kind of aspirin, his gaze wandered over to the front door, eyes seeking out the dim glow of a small white paper in the dark. A habit born from the need for reassurance and peace. A ritual he usually practiced before even attempting lay down for the night.
There was none.
Watanuki blinked hard, trying to focus his eyes as much as he could.
No, still nothing. It wasn’t his eyes. There really was no ofuda above the door. Or on the side. Or below it. Or...
Watanuki sat up as the jerk in his abdomen threatened to flip his stomach completely over.
Not there either.
The tiny slips of white paper that always put his mind at ease were missing. Chances were the one in the kitchen was gone too.
A cold wash of fear slid over his body, causing his throat to close over the small gasping sounds trying to escape. His hands bunched the sheet beneath his hands in a death-grip.
Without those little papers, any kind of spirit that happened to pass by could come in uninvited. Any multitude of ghost or specter or-
His heart gave a mighty leap and tried to beat its way out of his chest when a hand clamped down over his shoulder.
“Aaah! Get off! No!” Without even thinking, Watanuki threw himself as far away from the owner of the grasping hand as he could, kicking out with a foot and scrambling with a severe lack of grace across the futon.
“Wait a sec- oof.” A thump echoed behind Watanuki and he spared a second in his panic to look behind him and see what kind of spirit was so easily tossed aside by a poorly aimed and half blind kick with a shoeless foot.
Oh.
Oops?
“Doumeki? Ah, oh, I’m sorry!” In his distress, Watanuki had completely forgotten the other boy was even in the same room. The shorter boy felt a faint stirring of shame for having unintentionally injured his would-be host. “I- Are you alright?”
“That, kind of hurt,” was the answer from the floor. Crawling back to the other side of the bed, he saw Doumeki sprawled: half sitting, half lying down and propped up on one elbow with a hand held against his chest. A slight grimace played across his face and Watanuki felt another wave of embarrassment flood through him.
“I’m really sorry. I...” What could he say? That he though Doumeki was a spirit coming to attack him?
It seemed a bit rude.
“I have strong legs...” he ended feebly.
“No kidding.”
He probably deserved the sarcasm, but still.
“Well, what the hell are you doing sneaking up on people in the middle of the night anyway? Of course I’m going to be surprised!”
It was dark, but Watanuki could still see the light glinting off a pair of amber eyes as they studied him. It reminded him of cat’s eyes, as they reflected the light in rooms too full of shadows for a human to see though. Seeing things that no human could see with regular eyes. But Doumeki was human.
It was... disconcerting.
“Doumeki...”
The archer sat up slowly, grunting slightly. “I thought you were having another nightmare.”
“A- another?”
For a second, Doumeki looked confused, then his eyes widened in understanding. The almost nonexistent light flashed across his eyes again. This time in the kind of gray-green sheen of nocturnal animals.
It was really starting to creep him the hell out.
“You don’t have those nightmares?”
Those?
“No, I don’t really have nightmares so often anymore.” The weirdness of talking to Doumeki about nightmares was surpasses only by the increasing weirdness of the eyes.
With a tilt of the archer’s head the weird factor raised another notch. Silver. Silver this time!
Creepy, creepy, creepy!
“Uh, Doumeki...” How did one broach a subject like this exactly? Was it really even any of his business?
“Hn?” Tilt. Back to amber.
Did he care any more if it wasn’t his business?
Not especially.
“Um, your eyes... Uh...”
The boy on the floor straightened abruptly, fixing Watanuki with undivided attention.
“What about them?” The question seemed a bit too suspicious to be casual, and Watanuki debated for a second if he should continue.
Grey-green again.
Fuck it.
“They keep changing color! Why...? How...? What is that?”
Doumeki seemed to be contemplating something, brows drawn together slightly.
“You... See them change color...” Not so much a question as a musing of what had just been stated. Watanuki answered anyway.
“Yeah. It’s kind of freaky.” He waved a placating hand when Doumeki raised an eyebrow at the comment. “Er, I don’t mean offence. I mean it uh, just looks freaky. But- but, not that you‘re freaky or anything!”
Mouth, foot. Bon appetit.
An amused smile tugged at the taller boy’s mouth for a second, before a more serious look wiped it way.
“This isn’t good.”
“Eh?”
Instead of elaborating, Doumeki got to his feet (a little stiffly, Watanuki noted) and approached the little desk lamp that had been on earlier when he first arrived.
“What are you- Ow, hey! Warn me first!” The tiny lamp seemed to emit an almost sun-like radiance compared to the previous darkness. Watanuki rubbed his eyes irritably in an attempt to erase the pretty little afterimages floating in front of his irises.
“Sorry.” He didn’t sound the least bit.
Payback for the kick most likely. The sadistic ass.
When his vision finally adjusted to the glare, Watanuki saw the archer leaning against the dresser, nervously tapping his fingers against the wooden top, a troubled look etched in his features.
Unsure of what to do or say, the Watanuki could only sit anxiously on the ground and wait for the other boy to explain what was making him so agitated. But then the reason for his own earlier uneasiness popped back to mind and suddenly the skinny boy was on his feet also, waving manically at the front door.
“Ah! I forgot! The doors! They aren’t protected, Doumeki! The ofuda are gone, the balcony too. We have to put more up right now. It’s okay with you here, but…” Well he didn’t need to go into details. Watanuki was sure the archer already knew what would happen without him being around. No need to give him another excuse to feel superior. “Do you have your stuff here?” The skinny teen moved towards the desk in search of the proper charm making equipment.
“Don’t bother.”
Watanuki paused and glanced back at the taller boy in surprise. “Huh?”
Doumeki had his head turned so he was looking out a small crack between the curtains hanging in front of the balcony doors. He spoke without looking at Watanuki. “Don’t bother. You won’t need them.”
Irritation began to worm its way up the skinny boy’s back and into his shoulders, stiffening them. Arrogance was another universal Doumeki-ism it seemed.
“Maybe you don’t need them, but what would happen if you left… Kimihiro by himself? He’d have no protection against the spirits around here.” It was weird to say his own name aloud like that, speaking almost in the third person, but Watanuki reminded himself firmly that it was a completely different person he was referring to. One with the same name and face, sure, but different all the same. Just look who he had chosen to room with. Proof if ever there was, that they were two very separate persons. And that one of them lacked quit a bit of good common sense.
For some reason, Watanuki’s query seemed to amuse the boy standing across from him. “Believe me. Kimihiro does not need that kind of protection.”
It may have been amusing for Doumeki, but Watanuki was anything but. “This is serious! Without the wards… things… can come in. And… do stuff…”
He was being incredibly vague, he knew, but damned if Watanuki was going to stand there and explain to the archer all the nasty things that happened when a charm happened to wear off or get nullified. And to not have any at all? An involuntary shudder ran through him. That in particular was a lesson quickly learned.
Despite the skinny teen’s earnest appeals, Doumeki still seemed unfazed by the lack of ofuda. He did lose the infuriating grin, however, which Watanuki was sure had less to do with being respectful and more to do with the fact that it was the middle of the night and the archer was working on less than five hours of sleep.
Watanuki was strangely unsympathetic.
“Are you just going to stand there and look out the window? This is a real problem!” On the verge of shaking the taller boy, Watanuki settled for a quiet stomping over to the other teen instead. He opened his mouth to demand some sort of answer, but was cut off by the abrupt shoving aside of the balcony’s curtain by Doumeki.
“Wha-“
“Like I said. You don’t have to worry about it.” And damned if that smug little smile wasn’t back in place.
Watanuki stared, open-mouthed at the newly revealed piece of wall next to the glass door. A thin section of wood approximately five feet by four inches was stuck fast to the wall next to the exit. Every square inch of the board was covered in beautiful shimmering writing that seemed to be made of light, but emitted no radiance into the room. Watanuki tried to decipher the words, but only ended up with a headache after realizing they kept changing, subtly and ever so slowly, so that it was only a mess off half defined characters, most not even in the same language.
“I don’t… what is it?”
“Your protection.”
Watanuki broke his gaze from the mesmerizing shift of writing and aimed a curious look to his temporary roommate. “My- But you said Kimihiro didn’t need protection.”
“He doesn’t.” And before Watanuki could get suitably annoyed with the oblique reply, he continued. “But I do. And apparently so do you.”
He may have been sleep deprived and unbalanced with all of the newness of his surroundings, but even he could put two and two together eventually.
“Wait. You mean that Kimihiro doesn’t need protection from spirits, but… but you do?”
Could it be true? Was there really someone out there with such a…
Such a…
Terrific sense of justice?!
“Hn.”
Suddenly it was all worth it: Being dropped into a strange world. Having to put up with strange people. Rooming with a strange, uh, Doumeki.
All. Worth it.
Hell, even the prospect of not being able to get home for a while (only a while; he would get home soon) was bearable now.
Doumeki was the one chased by ghosts.
It was inevitable, really, that he ended up rolling around on the floor like he did, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe and started to get cramps in his stomach.
Also worth it.
“If you’re quite done…”
“Just… just a… minute,” he managed to gasp between mirthful howls.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
It actually ended up taking two minutes for Watanuki to settle himself enough to speak normally again, though he was pretty sure that the giant smile on his face was going to be sticking around for much longer.
When it finally appeared that the smaller boy was done, Doumeki broke his stare away from the ceiling and quirked an eyebrow to the teen still kneeling on the floor and wiping tears from his eyes.
“I’m surprised you didn’t wake the neighbors.”
“Oh!” Belatedly, Watanuki clamped a hand over his mouth and looked rapidly from side to side, as if an army of irate neighbors was going to burst in and start complaining.
Doumeki snorted in disbelief and shook his head. “You’re something else.”
Why was it Watanuki felt that ‘something else’ sounded oddly like ‘an idiot’ when coming from this Doumeki?
“Er, sorry. It was just, um, kind of funny.” Watanuki felt the corners of his mouth pulling up again. “That you…” Biting back laughter and trying to speak at the same time was never easy. “Attract ghosts.” Only a small snicker escaped this time, which the shorter teen quickly muffled with the back of one hand.
Doumeki rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “How is it you’re still alive?”
The question sobered the smaller boy quickly, as the reason, or at least the reason’s look-a-like, that he was still alive began to show signs of annoyance. He had forgotten how bad this Doumeki was a hiding his emotions. And refreshing as it may have been to see a pissed off Doumeki, Watanuki had to remind himself that if it wasn’t for the boy in front of him, he wouldn’t have a place to stay right now.
“I apologize, Doumeki. I shouldn’t have laughed at you.” Watanuki got to his feet and bowed slightly in the other boy’s direction. “I didn’t mean offence.”
A hand grabbed his shoulder and pushed him straight. “I said quit that.”
Anger at having his apology so gruffly ignored flickered momentarily in Watanuki until he saw the uncomfortable and slightly saddened expression on his host’s face.
He let it drop and let his eyes wader back to the board with the shifting print.
“Where did you get that?”
“My grandfather made for me.”
“Ah.” A fond smile found its way to Watanuki’s mouth.
“What, aren’t you going to laugh at that too?” And though it sounded almost annoyed, there was a responding smile on Doumeki’s lips as well.
“Nah, I actually like Haruka-san.”
“Ah.” After a moment more, Doumeki turned and faced the boy next to him. “Ki-Watanuki-san, how long have you had your sight?”
Surprised, Watanuki blinked uncomprehendingly at the archer for a second before answering. “Huh? Oh, seeing- How long? Well, I was just born this way I guess. I mean… weren’t you?”
For a moment, Doumeki seemed shocked by his answer and equally confused by Watanuki’s own question.
“Born… with your sight?” Now an awed expression flowed across the taller boy’s features.
Unease began to tickle at Watanuki’s brain, mingling with embarrassment at the way Doumeki was looking at him.
“Wha- what’s the problem? So what? It doesn’t matter when you get it. You still have it anyway, so it’s not that special. And stop looking at me like that!” Watanuki felt his cheeks burn at the way he was being stared at by the other teen.
As if suddenly realizing what he was doing, Doumeki started and quickly glanced away.
“Sorry. I’ve just never seen someone born with sight.”
“Know a lot of blind people, do you?” It came out snippy and Watanuki didn’t care.
“No, you dolt. Not vision. Sight.”
And the way Doumeki said it left Watanuki no doubt that he was referring to it as Sight, with a capital S, leaving him vaguely annoyed that he now had to think of the word in a proper grammatical fashion in his own head.
It was really too early for this stuff.
“It’s just that… everyone who has Sight has to go through a… process. They also have to register. Which is why you’re a problem right now.”
“Huh? Register?”
But Doumeki ignored the question, seemingly lost in thought. “I suppose we could just wait it out and hope no one notices. But if something were to come after you, it might be trouble. I guess we’ll just deal with that if it happens though.
“Plus your eyes are normal. No one can tell from just looking; I couldn’t even tell at first,” Doumeki mumbled, half to himself, so that Watanuki had to almost strain to here him. “Except…” Here a scrutinizing look was aimed at Watanuki.
When the taller boy didn’t continue, Watanuki anxiously blurted, “Except what?”
One side of the archer’s mouth pulled down into a sort of half-frown. “Except sometimes your right eye… it almost looks… different. I can never really tell though.” Doumeki tilted his head to the side studied the smaller boy again. “It’s like I can see it, but I can’t. Out of the corner of my eye… “ A blink and shrug of his shoulders and Doumeki was back to the impassive look Watanuki was more familiar with.
“Never mind.”
Unsure of what would constitute a reasonable explanation, Watanuki was just as eager to let the subject slide. If this world’s Kimihiro wasn’t a supernatural beacon of ‘come-and-get-me’ like Watanuki was, then he rationalized there would be no events leading up to the sharing of eyesight that he and his own Doumeki experienced.
For reasons uncertain, the knowledge left the skinny teen with an incomprehensible sense of… pride. These feelings abruptly got pushed to the back of his mind, as many of his more obscure ones for Doumeki often were. Time enough to sort them out when he was old and gray.
“So, yeah. About your eyes anyway.” Watanuki waved a hand at the other teen’s head. “You never really answered me before.”
Doumeki heaved a sigh and glanced over to the clock across the room. “It’s really too late to try and explain the whole thing right now, but basically, it’s the Sight that causes the physical change. It helps us to see through the layers and identify anything from a different realm. It’s also handy to locate other Seers.”
“Other Seers?” Another new term Watanuki knew nothing about.
With a small groan Doumeki rubbed a hand across his face and sighed again. “No. That can wait for morning.” The archer pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against and walked back to the side table lamp. “Let’s get at least a couple hours of sleep tonight.” He waited until Watanuki waked back to his futon before clicking the lamp off.
“But what about-“
“Tomorrow,” was the weary reply accompanied by a soft padding of feet across the floor.
“Fine.” And though he was sure it would be useless, Watanuki soon found himself drifting off into a deep and dreamless sleep.
~*~
Watanuki prided himself on always being on time for school. Learning was important, so following the path of logic, school was also important. Important things should be treated respectfully. So every morning, Watanuki made sure he had plenty of time to get up and ready.
It was still early enough that the sun hadn’t completely risen yet, though the indirect morning light had begun to seep through the material of the curtains and subsequently soak the floor and walls with its dim radiance.
The only thing Watanuki had every really mourned about his apartment was the direction it faced. He was ever a morning person and would have loved to see the sunrise from his window.
Having an alarm clock was, by now, more of a formality than an actual need. On most days, the skinny teen would awaken several minutes before the ringing would even begin, using the opportunity to shake off the lingering effects of sleep and prepare himself for the day ahead.
The room was quiet as ever, with only the sounds of early morning traffic and the occasional chirping of birds to disturbed the calm.
Even with the lack of sleep and all that had happened the previous day, Watanuki still managed to open his eyes to the familiar setting of his room at precisely the same time he had his whole school life. With this last month’s exception of completely ridiculous predawn wake-up calls, of course.
He took a minute or two to simply lie in bed. If he didn’t look around and see that he was on the wrong side of the room, or that some of the furniture was different, he could pretend that he had simply awoken like any other day. That the events of the day before were nothing more than a product of his overworked brain.
But of course he did look around, and (of course) he was on the wrong side of the room, staring at new furniture and a still slumbering (and also new) roommate. A quick glance at the clock showed nearly two hours until they were due at school.
Watanuki hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should wake his host up, but remembered that the archer only had morning practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so decided to let him sleep in a bit more.
Not that he was avoiding him or anything. It was only good manners to not wake other people up before they were ready.
Really.
Ignoring the little voice in his head that sounded aggravatingly like Doumeki saying, “uh huh,’ the skinny teen pushed back his blanket and started his morning routine.
It wasn’t until he reached the portion of his morning where he usually made lunch for the day that he hesitated. Would he be taking liberties if he went through Doumeki’s fridge? He already felt guilty for borrowing the shower, but he had promised himself he would pay for what he used… somehow.
Should he make the food? Would Doumeki appreciate his making breakfast and packing a lunch or would he be imposing upon the other teen’s goodwill? He debated for a good minute before finally deciding he would just ask the archer himself.
Watanuki crossed the room and pulled open the dividing curtain. He only paused for a second to take a deep breath and steady himself. Honestly, what was so hard about waking up a stranger and asking permission to cook for him?
Kneeling next to the futon, which he distantly noted was a lot wider then the one he had, Watanuki rested one hand on the taller boy’s shoulder and gently shook him. Doumeki let out a sigh and rolled on his back.
Trying again, Watanuki grabbed both shoulders and shook a little harder, calling his name quietly at the same time.
“Come on, Doumeki. Get up already.”
A groan this time, with an arm thrown across the archer’s face for added effect.
So. Doumeki wasn’t a morning person.
Go figure.
“Look, you can go back to sleep in a minute. I just wanted to know if I could- wah!” His words were suddenly cut short as an arm reached out to yank him down to the futon, leaving him half sprawled across a still sleeping Doumeki and uncomfortably aware of the fact that the archer apparently liked to snuggle in the morning.
Warm arms wrapped around his back and squeezed tightly as an equally warm mouth nuzzled into his neck.
“Kimihiro,” came the soft murmur pressed against Watanuki’s throat.
Heat exploded across the skinny teen’s face as he struggled to remove himself from the vice-like grip. When he finally succeeded in slipping underneath the arms he realized, belatedly, just why the futon was so big.
Lunch be dammed; the idiot could buy his own food.
He hightailed it to the kitchen and didn’t come back out until the last possible minute.
When he went to wake up the larger boy for the last time, Watanuki made sure he was well out of grabbing distance as he shouted Doumeki’s name several times while throwing a pillow at his head. Fortunately for Watanuki, this time the archer fully awakened, with only a groggy and half exasperated look at the unorthodox wake-up.
There was an unspoken agreement that Watanuki would be accompanying Doumeki to school, though it was actually closer to Doumeki raising an eyebrow at the school uniform Watanuki had on and Watanuki glaring back at him, defying the archer to say something.
He didn’t and Watanuki claimed the small victory for his own.
It was somewhat awkward walking to school with Doumeki. It wasn’t that he hadn’t done it before, but more like he hadn’t ever done it after being used as a personal teddy bear.
Instead of dwelling on it, because the idiot obviously didn’t remember having done it in the first place, Watanuki tried continue the conversation they had started the night before.
“So what exactly is a Se- erk!” He was less than thrilled about the hand that suddenly clamped over his mouth and the glare he was receiving from the other boy.
“Don’t. We’ll talk about that later.” The hand moved and Watanuki had the sudden urge to bite it, just out of spite.
It would probably taste bad.
“What the hell?! ,” Watanuki steamed, arms akimbo in an indigent pose of… well, indignantly. “You said you would tell me about this stuff today.”
“Right, later. When we aren’t out in the open.” With that, Doumeki turned and started back on the path to school.
“But-“
“Later!”
The shout may have surprised Watanuki for a second, but I didn’t keep him from stomping after the taller boy and muttering under his breath about the general thickness and idiocy of all things Doumeki in the universe.
He was, in fact, still grumbling as he caught up to the archer and probably could have gone on for a good long while, possibly even until they reached the school, if Doumeki hadn’t interrupted his string of obscenities with a sigh.
“Look, I’ll take you to the temple after school and we’ll talk to my grandfather then, alright?”
It took Doumeki a few seconds to realize Watanuki was no longer following him. When he turned around to see what the problem was, Watanuki could only stare at him with an uncertain and slightly hopeful look on his face.
“What?” The archer turned and took a step back towards Watanuki, puzzlement in his eyes.
“Your grandfather?”
The confusion lingered as the archer replied, “Yeah, I talked to him yesterday, so you won’t have to explain much.” The excitement must have been showing in his face by then, since Doumeki was starting to give him an odd look. “You said you’ve met him before…”
Watanuki couldn’t quite keep the delight out of his voice. “Only in my dreams! It’s so great he’s alive here! You’ll really introduce me to him?”
A blank look and two blinks later Doumeki gave a slow nod and turned around once more.
Watanuki was too absorbed in his own cheerfulness to notice the general lack of response from his companion the rest of the way to school.
~*~
Thus ends chapter five. Great big thanks to my beta, Toriolees. Also thanks to all those who pestered, harassed, and generally nagged encouraged me to continue. Sorry it took so long. XD
And, of course, thanks for reading!
Title: Transitions
Author: Serenetwinkle
Chapter: 5 of (?…?)
Rating: PG- more bad words
Word count: 7,390
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Status: Incomplete
Summary: A switching of the strangest kind gives Watanuki and Doumeki a glimpse of something more.
Disclaimer- Note to self: You do not own CLAMP characters.
Forgot to put this in again, but here are the other chapters:
~Chapter 1
~Chapter 2
~Chapter 3
~Chapter 4
Transitions
The dry and frigid night air ripped mercilessly at his throat, harsh breaths burning fiery trails down into his lungs. The only sounds to be heard were his own pounding feet and ragged pants. Even the streets were empty of cars and pedestrians. For the time being, he seemed to be the only other person in the world.
He felt like the only person in the world.
Watanuki wasn’t sure how long he had run or even how far. When he had exited the shop there had been no thought to where he was going, only the need to get away from that place before he lost it completely. Anywhere, anywhere at all, would have been better at that moment.
He knew it was somewhat childish of him to try and run from his problem, but the realization that he was stuck in this dimension, for who knew how long, had been too sudden. Escape, even a temporary one, had been the only response his mind could think of.
Hey, it usually worked on the ghosts, why not reality too?
But reality was something that wasn’t so easily avoided, he was finding. Case in point: Where the hell was he exactly?
Watanuki supposed that he had most likely, subconsciously, chosen the direction in which his own apartment was situated, but somewhere along the way he had lost his bearings or missed a turn. Now, as he slowed his mad dash into a more reasonable jog and then finally a walk, he could see he really didn’t know where he was at all.
The bespectacled teen decreased his pace even more, one hand to his side massaging out a cramp, letting his breathing gradually return to normal. Though he could see no familiar landmarks, he wasn’t overly worried just yet. If he kept moving, eventually he would run across something he knew.
Despite many of the differences of this world, Watanuki had realized that the majority of things were identical to his own. At least in appearance, though not necessarily function.
What did worry him, though, was the astonishing lack of spirits out at this time of night. He probably should have been grateful for it, and had more than likely just jinxed himself by thinking of it, but still...
It was almost unsettling how quiet and untainted the night was. Not even the ever present lingers of ‘spirit stench’ were in the air. Almost always at night he could at least smell them, whether they showed themselves of not.
For some reason, instead of setting him at ease, it put Watanuki even more on guard. He couldn’t help but compare it to the proverbial calm before a storm. The last time the air had been this clear when he was by himself had been... Well, he couldn’t even remember when.
But when he was with Doumeki...
He wasn’t going to thank him or anything. All the bastard did was stand there for crying out loud. It’s not like he was actually doing anything...
Still, it would have been easy to understand the pureness if Doumeki was around, but he was positive that the taller boy was nowhere near him. And even then, Watanuki had to be within a certain range of the archer for the stench to go away at all.
Thinking about it made him pick up his pace a little. Bad things happened to people who dawdled in the dark. Alone. With no one around to hear them scream...
His feet went faster still. No sense in waiting around for things to get worse, right?
Soon, the buildings around him became more recognizable until he was able to figure out his location. Not so very far from his apartment, just several blocks past it actually. He had missed a turn after all.
Watanuki began to backtrack in the proper direction when he stumbled (quite literally, damn feet) upon a thought, it suddenly dawning on him that he was overlooking yet another obvious problem.
What if the apartment wasn’t there? Or even if it was, what if someone else was living in it? That... wouldn’t be so great.
Chances were, if he explained his situation:
”Yes, I’m very sorry to disturb you, but would you be willing to put me up for the night? You see I live in this apartment too, well not this one exactly, but in a different dimension it’s the same one. Strange, I know; but it’s the truth. And I don’t really have any other place to go since you are here right now. Alright then, so... Got an extra futon?”
Watanuki doubted he would even get to finish before the door slammed in his face.
Well, the only thing he could do for now was cross his fingers and hope that this alternate world Kimihiro lived in the same apartment.
Onward he trudged, resolutely attempting to think positive thoughts, though alternately trying to figure out what he might do if he ended up with no place to stay for the night. He sincerely hoped he didn’t have to go back to Yuuko’s house.
The human psyche could only take so much trauma in the form of multiple piercings and lascivious intent.
His thoughts occupied him for the rest of the trip to the apartment building, and before it consciously registered to his brain, he was already walking through the front entrance and up the first set of stairs.
Relief tickled hesitantly at his mind. But now the important part came.
When his autopilot switched off and he became more aware of his surroundings, Watanuki began to feel slightly nervous, his heart picking up it’s rhythm almost in direct opposition to his decreasing foot speed.
Despite his attempts to stave off the inevitable arrival to his front door, Watanuki soon found himself staring at a familiar set of numbers.
He stood, for nearly a full minute, simply focusing on the tarnished brass digits in front of him. There were no sounds of motion behind the slightly cracked wood, nor any indications of sleeping people. With a sigh and a swallow that only stuck a bit in his throat, the bespectacled boy reached into his pocket and withdrew his house key.
His hand shook imperceptibly as he slid the key into the lock and turned it with a soft click. The breath he unknowingly held whooshed out in a small puff and some of the tension eased from his shoulders.
It must be the other Kimihiro’s apartment if he had the same key. And surely he wouldn’t begrudge Watanuki the use of his home. The other boy was likely in the same situation back in Watanuki’s own world and he wouldn’t mind giving up his apartment to the boy.
As long as he didn‘t make a mess.
Withdrawing the key, Watanuki took a brief moment to rest his forehead against the cool surface to the door and allow himself a second to believe things might just work out and return to normal soon, so long as he just held on for a while longer. He was home, in a familiar place, soon to be asleep with familiar dreams. Tomorrow was a new day. He could start over then and try to figure out what to do.
But for now. Home. Relax. Sleep.
Watanuki opened the door.
Two seconds, possibly three.
Watanuki closed the door.
The numbers stared him in the face again, seeming a bit more mocking than before.
Obviously there was someone very high up, with a great deal of power.
And this being hated him.
With a burning, vindictive passion.
The door opened inward of it’s own accord, causing Watanuki’s fingers to falls from the doorknob they had previously been resting on. His hand flopped back to his side, unnoticed.
A pair of red-rimmed golden eyes peered at him from inside of the doorway. For an astonished second Watanuki thought the boy in front of him might have been crying, but he dismissed the idea as absurd. Even in a different dimension, there was no way that was possible.
But back to the real problem.
“What are you doing here?” The deep voice seemed a bit harsh to Watanuki.
“That should be my question! Why are you in my apartment?” Okay, technically it wasn’t really his.
“I live here. This isn’t your apartment.”
Watanuki glowered. ‘I don’t need you to remind- Wait. What?!’
“W-what do you mean you live here?” This was Doumeki’s place? What about the other Kimihiro then? It didn’t make such sense to the bespectacled teen that Doumeki wouldn’t live at the temple.
“This. Is. My. Home.“ He gave a short pause, as if to let the information sink in. “Why are you here?” The archer still had that sharp tone that Watanuki was beginning to feel ill at ease with. He didn’t like it when Doumeki spoke to him like that. It made him feel... almost... sad?
It was a weird, unexplainable feeling, one he really didn’t like it at all. And it also kind of pissed him off, but then again, that wasn’t precisely new.
“But... You can’t live here! What about the other boy? The- the one who looks like me? I thought he would- cause I have- and... You can‘t live here!”
Too much. Too much. Watanuki could feel the beginnings of a hysterical fit coming on. The only thing was, he couldn’t be sure whether he was going to start screaming his head off or just drop in to a little ball and start crying again.
Either one wasn’t going to be pretty.
Doumeki was staring at him with a wary expression and the shorter teen supposed he must have looked as wild as he felt.
With a sigh that even Watanuki recognized as ‘resignation’, the archer grabbed the bespectacled boy by the wrist and dragged him into the apartment.
“Wha- hey!”
“Shut up. You’re going to wake the neighbors up with all your shouting.”
“Ah, sorry.” Feeling slightly admonished, Watanuki allowed himself to be pulled into the room and the door to close behind him.
A small table lamp placed on a dresser near the balcony dimly lighted the room. The lamp looked like one he owned, but the dresser was new. Watanuki had a sudden urge to explore the apartment, but knew it probably wouldn’t be appreciated. He was just turning to the side to see what other obvious differences there were when a voice interrupted him.
“I take it you have no place to stay?”
Was there some unwritten rule that said every Doumeki Shizuka ever made had to be completely tactless?
As usual, the blunt words made Watanuki hunch his shoulders in annoyance and want to retort something scathing in reply, but fortunately he remembered he didn’t actually know this person and restrained himself at the last second.
Instead, the smaller boy turned to face the room’s other occupant, eyes on the floor, lest his irritation get the better of him. With a short bow Watanuki answered.
“If it wouldn’t impose too much-”
“Don’t do that.” Doumeki’s voice cut through the appeal before it even began. Watanuki looked up in surprise, straightening his back.
“Don’t, what?”
The taller boy was already moving past him and Watanuki stepped sideways to let him pass, watching as the archer went to the closet and began to pull various items out, apparently searching for something.
“The bowing. You don’t have to do that.” Several more items went into a growing pile on the floor. A box, a suitcase, a stack of books, some board games, a small folding table.
“Oh, alright, I just thought...” A sharp look from Doumeki stole the shorter teen’s words.
For some reason Watanuki couldn’t quite figure out, he couldn’t seem to get as angry with the person in front of him as he normally would have with his own Doumeki.
He wrote it down to them essentially being strangers. Plus, he kind of wanted to be on Doumeki’s good side if he was going to be staying here. No need to get choked again.
“Ah.”
Watanuki blinked out of his musings to watch as Doumeki pulled out a rolled up futon from the back of the closet.
How he had managed to fit it in there was beyond Watanuki, but he wasn’t going to complain.
“Here.” The archer was holding out the futon for Watanuki to take. After exchanging hands, Doumeki began to put the items on the floor back in the closet.
“Why are you helping me?”
Doumeki paused in his work and looked up at him, confusion and something Watanuki could only term as mild incredulity passing over the taller teen’s features. But the archer said nothing.
Feeling a little uncomfortable with the look he was getting, Watanuki tried to fill the silence. “Well, it’s just that you don’t know me and you seemed really angry earlier...” He shifted nervously. “This is kind of sudden too, so-”
“You thought I would kick you out?”
“Er, well” Fidget. “You don’t know me,” he finished lamely.
Doumeki straightened and crossed his arms in front of him, a gesture he had seen probably a thousand times on another person with the same face. For some reason, a pang of homesickness shot through him.
“Are you going to steal all of my money and leave in the middle of the night?”
The bastard even had the nerve to say it with a straight face.
Every last trace of homesickness evaporated as if it they had never been.
“Of course I’m not going to steal your money! Who would do that!? Don’t even suggest stupid stuff like that!”
“First of all,” Doumeki bent back to the stuff on the floor and now started to randomly chuck things into the closet. “Plenty of people would take advantage of the situation and steal money or other things.”
Watanuki opened his mouth to once more vehemently defend himself.
“But.” Doumeki cut the shorter boy off again. “I don’t think you are one of those people.”
His jaw snapped shut again. Who could argue with that? “No, I’m not.”
The archer finished depositing things in the closet and slid the door shut before facing Watanuki. He gestured to the bedroll the shorter boy was holding.
“You can set that up anywhere you want. Bathroom’s there.” He gestured again, and even though Watanuki knew where it was already, he dutifully followed where the hand pointed with his eyes. “I think there’s an extra toothbrush in the cabinet. And sleeping clothes are in that drawer there.” The taller boy stopped for a moment and seemed to be considering something.
“I guess that’s it for now. I’m going to bed. Turn the light off when you’re done.”
“Wha- Wait a minute! That’s it?”
Doumeki had been heading towards the curtain that separated the rest of the room from his futon, but turned back at Watanuki’s shocked voice.
“Did you need something else?” An eyebrow rose in question, but otherwise his expression remained impassive.
The question made Watanuki pause for a second. Was there something he needed? Well yeah, but...
“I mean, don’t you want to know what’s going on?” He couldn’t quite keep the exasperation out of his voice. Surely Doumeki wanted to know, right? After that display he had been witness to that afternoon, Watanuki was almost positive that Doumeki was in desperate want of getting back his friend.
A brief flash of pain passed though golden eyes so quickly Watanuki wasn’t even sure he really saw it.
“I can only assume that since you’re still here, that you couldn’t find a way back to your own home.”
That was true and Watanuki said as much.
“Alright.” He turned again to the corner of the room.
“But-”
“Look.” This time the archer remained facing away, one hand already on the curtain, gripping it tightly. “There isn’t anything more we can do tonight. It’s late. We’re both tired.” A long and weary sigh issued from a bent head and Watanuki got the impression that the other boy was much more tired than he had let on before. And not just physically.
It made the shorter boy realize that maybe the mental strain wasn’t just his own. He would have to be blind and stupid not to see that the missing Kimihiro was very close to the person in front of him.
He suddenly felt very insensitive.
“Doumeki, I... Thank you. For letting me stay.”
The only reply was a short nod and then Doumeki was behind the curtain and settling down for the night.
Watanuki was careful to make as little noise as possible as he set out the futon in the main living room and got ready for bed.
~*~
Sleep came in ephemeral spans, each short-lived period of rest punctuated by a gasping wakefulness as brief, unremembered dreams slipped quietly back into his subconscious.
After the fifth or so time of resurfacing from a fitful slumber, Watanuki lay awake, simply staring at the ceiling, not even bothering to try for sleep again.
A lazy roll of his head reveled the digital clock on a dresser across the room from him. It was the same kind he had at his own place, with large red numbers that were tall enough for him to see even without his glasses, though he did still have to squint a little.
2:58am.
Watanuki closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, holding the air for a moment before exhaling forcefully.
This could single handedly be the longest day of his life. Granted, it was technically a new day, but he figured that since he hadn’t actually gone to sleep yet, he could still count it as the same day.
Why he would want to, he couldn’t really say, but it was there all the same. Watanuki blamed his irregular thinking pattern on the lack of proper sleep he had been getting (or was it not getting?) lately.
Ah, damn. Now his head hurt.
As he debated whether or not to search the medicine cabinet in the bathroom for some kind of aspirin, his gaze wandered over to the front door, eyes seeking out the dim glow of a small white paper in the dark. A habit born from the need for reassurance and peace. A ritual he usually practiced before even attempting lay down for the night.
There was none.
Watanuki blinked hard, trying to focus his eyes as much as he could.
No, still nothing. It wasn’t his eyes. There really was no ofuda above the door. Or on the side. Or below it. Or...
Watanuki sat up as the jerk in his abdomen threatened to flip his stomach completely over.
Not there either.
The tiny slips of white paper that always put his mind at ease were missing. Chances were the one in the kitchen was gone too.
A cold wash of fear slid over his body, causing his throat to close over the small gasping sounds trying to escape. His hands bunched the sheet beneath his hands in a death-grip.
Without those little papers, any kind of spirit that happened to pass by could come in uninvited. Any multitude of ghost or specter or-
His heart gave a mighty leap and tried to beat its way out of his chest when a hand clamped down over his shoulder.
“Aaah! Get off! No!” Without even thinking, Watanuki threw himself as far away from the owner of the grasping hand as he could, kicking out with a foot and scrambling with a severe lack of grace across the futon.
“Wait a sec- oof.” A thump echoed behind Watanuki and he spared a second in his panic to look behind him and see what kind of spirit was so easily tossed aside by a poorly aimed and half blind kick with a shoeless foot.
Oh.
Oops?
“Doumeki? Ah, oh, I’m sorry!” In his distress, Watanuki had completely forgotten the other boy was even in the same room. The shorter boy felt a faint stirring of shame for having unintentionally injured his would-be host. “I- Are you alright?”
“That, kind of hurt,” was the answer from the floor. Crawling back to the other side of the bed, he saw Doumeki sprawled: half sitting, half lying down and propped up on one elbow with a hand held against his chest. A slight grimace played across his face and Watanuki felt another wave of embarrassment flood through him.
“I’m really sorry. I...” What could he say? That he though Doumeki was a spirit coming to attack him?
It seemed a bit rude.
“I have strong legs...” he ended feebly.
“No kidding.”
He probably deserved the sarcasm, but still.
“Well, what the hell are you doing sneaking up on people in the middle of the night anyway? Of course I’m going to be surprised!”
It was dark, but Watanuki could still see the light glinting off a pair of amber eyes as they studied him. It reminded him of cat’s eyes, as they reflected the light in rooms too full of shadows for a human to see though. Seeing things that no human could see with regular eyes. But Doumeki was human.
It was... disconcerting.
“Doumeki...”
The archer sat up slowly, grunting slightly. “I thought you were having another nightmare.”
“A- another?”
For a second, Doumeki looked confused, then his eyes widened in understanding. The almost nonexistent light flashed across his eyes again. This time in the kind of gray-green sheen of nocturnal animals.
It was really starting to creep him the hell out.
“You don’t have those nightmares?”
Those?
“No, I don’t really have nightmares so often anymore.” The weirdness of talking to Doumeki about nightmares was surpasses only by the increasing weirdness of the eyes.
With a tilt of the archer’s head the weird factor raised another notch. Silver. Silver this time!
Creepy, creepy, creepy!
“Uh, Doumeki...” How did one broach a subject like this exactly? Was it really even any of his business?
“Hn?” Tilt. Back to amber.
Did he care any more if it wasn’t his business?
Not especially.
“Um, your eyes... Uh...”
The boy on the floor straightened abruptly, fixing Watanuki with undivided attention.
“What about them?” The question seemed a bit too suspicious to be casual, and Watanuki debated for a second if he should continue.
Grey-green again.
Fuck it.
“They keep changing color! Why...? How...? What is that?”
Doumeki seemed to be contemplating something, brows drawn together slightly.
“You... See them change color...” Not so much a question as a musing of what had just been stated. Watanuki answered anyway.
“Yeah. It’s kind of freaky.” He waved a placating hand when Doumeki raised an eyebrow at the comment. “Er, I don’t mean offence. I mean it uh, just looks freaky. But- but, not that you‘re freaky or anything!”
Mouth, foot. Bon appetit.
An amused smile tugged at the taller boy’s mouth for a second, before a more serious look wiped it way.
“This isn’t good.”
“Eh?”
Instead of elaborating, Doumeki got to his feet (a little stiffly, Watanuki noted) and approached the little desk lamp that had been on earlier when he first arrived.
“What are you- Ow, hey! Warn me first!” The tiny lamp seemed to emit an almost sun-like radiance compared to the previous darkness. Watanuki rubbed his eyes irritably in an attempt to erase the pretty little afterimages floating in front of his irises.
“Sorry.” He didn’t sound the least bit.
Payback for the kick most likely. The sadistic ass.
When his vision finally adjusted to the glare, Watanuki saw the archer leaning against the dresser, nervously tapping his fingers against the wooden top, a troubled look etched in his features.
Unsure of what to do or say, the Watanuki could only sit anxiously on the ground and wait for the other boy to explain what was making him so agitated. But then the reason for his own earlier uneasiness popped back to mind and suddenly the skinny boy was on his feet also, waving manically at the front door.
“Ah! I forgot! The doors! They aren’t protected, Doumeki! The ofuda are gone, the balcony too. We have to put more up right now. It’s okay with you here, but…” Well he didn’t need to go into details. Watanuki was sure the archer already knew what would happen without him being around. No need to give him another excuse to feel superior. “Do you have your stuff here?” The skinny teen moved towards the desk in search of the proper charm making equipment.
“Don’t bother.”
Watanuki paused and glanced back at the taller boy in surprise. “Huh?”
Doumeki had his head turned so he was looking out a small crack between the curtains hanging in front of the balcony doors. He spoke without looking at Watanuki. “Don’t bother. You won’t need them.”
Irritation began to worm its way up the skinny boy’s back and into his shoulders, stiffening them. Arrogance was another universal Doumeki-ism it seemed.
“Maybe you don’t need them, but what would happen if you left… Kimihiro by himself? He’d have no protection against the spirits around here.” It was weird to say his own name aloud like that, speaking almost in the third person, but Watanuki reminded himself firmly that it was a completely different person he was referring to. One with the same name and face, sure, but different all the same. Just look who he had chosen to room with. Proof if ever there was, that they were two very separate persons. And that one of them lacked quit a bit of good common sense.
For some reason, Watanuki’s query seemed to amuse the boy standing across from him. “Believe me. Kimihiro does not need that kind of protection.”
It may have been amusing for Doumeki, but Watanuki was anything but. “This is serious! Without the wards… things… can come in. And… do stuff…”
He was being incredibly vague, he knew, but damned if Watanuki was going to stand there and explain to the archer all the nasty things that happened when a charm happened to wear off or get nullified. And to not have any at all? An involuntary shudder ran through him. That in particular was a lesson quickly learned.
Despite the skinny teen’s earnest appeals, Doumeki still seemed unfazed by the lack of ofuda. He did lose the infuriating grin, however, which Watanuki was sure had less to do with being respectful and more to do with the fact that it was the middle of the night and the archer was working on less than five hours of sleep.
Watanuki was strangely unsympathetic.
“Are you just going to stand there and look out the window? This is a real problem!” On the verge of shaking the taller boy, Watanuki settled for a quiet stomping over to the other teen instead. He opened his mouth to demand some sort of answer, but was cut off by the abrupt shoving aside of the balcony’s curtain by Doumeki.
“Wha-“
“Like I said. You don’t have to worry about it.” And damned if that smug little smile wasn’t back in place.
Watanuki stared, open-mouthed at the newly revealed piece of wall next to the glass door. A thin section of wood approximately five feet by four inches was stuck fast to the wall next to the exit. Every square inch of the board was covered in beautiful shimmering writing that seemed to be made of light, but emitted no radiance into the room. Watanuki tried to decipher the words, but only ended up with a headache after realizing they kept changing, subtly and ever so slowly, so that it was only a mess off half defined characters, most not even in the same language.
“I don’t… what is it?”
“Your protection.”
Watanuki broke his gaze from the mesmerizing shift of writing and aimed a curious look to his temporary roommate. “My- But you said Kimihiro didn’t need protection.”
“He doesn’t.” And before Watanuki could get suitably annoyed with the oblique reply, he continued. “But I do. And apparently so do you.”
He may have been sleep deprived and unbalanced with all of the newness of his surroundings, but even he could put two and two together eventually.
“Wait. You mean that Kimihiro doesn’t need protection from spirits, but… but you do?”
Could it be true? Was there really someone out there with such a…
Such a…
Terrific sense of justice?!
“Hn.”
Suddenly it was all worth it: Being dropped into a strange world. Having to put up with strange people. Rooming with a strange, uh, Doumeki.
All. Worth it.
Hell, even the prospect of not being able to get home for a while (only a while; he would get home soon) was bearable now.
Doumeki was the one chased by ghosts.
It was inevitable, really, that he ended up rolling around on the floor like he did, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe and started to get cramps in his stomach.
Also worth it.
“If you’re quite done…”
“Just… just a… minute,” he managed to gasp between mirthful howls.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
It actually ended up taking two minutes for Watanuki to settle himself enough to speak normally again, though he was pretty sure that the giant smile on his face was going to be sticking around for much longer.
When it finally appeared that the smaller boy was done, Doumeki broke his stare away from the ceiling and quirked an eyebrow to the teen still kneeling on the floor and wiping tears from his eyes.
“I’m surprised you didn’t wake the neighbors.”
“Oh!” Belatedly, Watanuki clamped a hand over his mouth and looked rapidly from side to side, as if an army of irate neighbors was going to burst in and start complaining.
Doumeki snorted in disbelief and shook his head. “You’re something else.”
Why was it Watanuki felt that ‘something else’ sounded oddly like ‘an idiot’ when coming from this Doumeki?
“Er, sorry. It was just, um, kind of funny.” Watanuki felt the corners of his mouth pulling up again. “That you…” Biting back laughter and trying to speak at the same time was never easy. “Attract ghosts.” Only a small snicker escaped this time, which the shorter teen quickly muffled with the back of one hand.
Doumeki rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “How is it you’re still alive?”
The question sobered the smaller boy quickly, as the reason, or at least the reason’s look-a-like, that he was still alive began to show signs of annoyance. He had forgotten how bad this Doumeki was a hiding his emotions. And refreshing as it may have been to see a pissed off Doumeki, Watanuki had to remind himself that if it wasn’t for the boy in front of him, he wouldn’t have a place to stay right now.
“I apologize, Doumeki. I shouldn’t have laughed at you.” Watanuki got to his feet and bowed slightly in the other boy’s direction. “I didn’t mean offence.”
A hand grabbed his shoulder and pushed him straight. “I said quit that.”
Anger at having his apology so gruffly ignored flickered momentarily in Watanuki until he saw the uncomfortable and slightly saddened expression on his host’s face.
He let it drop and let his eyes wader back to the board with the shifting print.
“Where did you get that?”
“My grandfather made for me.”
“Ah.” A fond smile found its way to Watanuki’s mouth.
“What, aren’t you going to laugh at that too?” And though it sounded almost annoyed, there was a responding smile on Doumeki’s lips as well.
“Nah, I actually like Haruka-san.”
“Ah.” After a moment more, Doumeki turned and faced the boy next to him. “Ki-Watanuki-san, how long have you had your sight?”
Surprised, Watanuki blinked uncomprehendingly at the archer for a second before answering. “Huh? Oh, seeing- How long? Well, I was just born this way I guess. I mean… weren’t you?”
For a moment, Doumeki seemed shocked by his answer and equally confused by Watanuki’s own question.
“Born… with your sight?” Now an awed expression flowed across the taller boy’s features.
Unease began to tickle at Watanuki’s brain, mingling with embarrassment at the way Doumeki was looking at him.
“Wha- what’s the problem? So what? It doesn’t matter when you get it. You still have it anyway, so it’s not that special. And stop looking at me like that!” Watanuki felt his cheeks burn at the way he was being stared at by the other teen.
As if suddenly realizing what he was doing, Doumeki started and quickly glanced away.
“Sorry. I’ve just never seen someone born with sight.”
“Know a lot of blind people, do you?” It came out snippy and Watanuki didn’t care.
“No, you dolt. Not vision. Sight.”
And the way Doumeki said it left Watanuki no doubt that he was referring to it as Sight, with a capital S, leaving him vaguely annoyed that he now had to think of the word in a proper grammatical fashion in his own head.
It was really too early for this stuff.
“It’s just that… everyone who has Sight has to go through a… process. They also have to register. Which is why you’re a problem right now.”
“Huh? Register?”
But Doumeki ignored the question, seemingly lost in thought. “I suppose we could just wait it out and hope no one notices. But if something were to come after you, it might be trouble. I guess we’ll just deal with that if it happens though.
“Plus your eyes are normal. No one can tell from just looking; I couldn’t even tell at first,” Doumeki mumbled, half to himself, so that Watanuki had to almost strain to here him. “Except…” Here a scrutinizing look was aimed at Watanuki.
When the taller boy didn’t continue, Watanuki anxiously blurted, “Except what?”
One side of the archer’s mouth pulled down into a sort of half-frown. “Except sometimes your right eye… it almost looks… different. I can never really tell though.” Doumeki tilted his head to the side studied the smaller boy again. “It’s like I can see it, but I can’t. Out of the corner of my eye… “ A blink and shrug of his shoulders and Doumeki was back to the impassive look Watanuki was more familiar with.
“Never mind.”
Unsure of what would constitute a reasonable explanation, Watanuki was just as eager to let the subject slide. If this world’s Kimihiro wasn’t a supernatural beacon of ‘come-and-get-me’ like Watanuki was, then he rationalized there would be no events leading up to the sharing of eyesight that he and his own Doumeki experienced.
For reasons uncertain, the knowledge left the skinny teen with an incomprehensible sense of… pride. These feelings abruptly got pushed to the back of his mind, as many of his more obscure ones for Doumeki often were. Time enough to sort them out when he was old and gray.
“So, yeah. About your eyes anyway.” Watanuki waved a hand at the other teen’s head. “You never really answered me before.”
Doumeki heaved a sigh and glanced over to the clock across the room. “It’s really too late to try and explain the whole thing right now, but basically, it’s the Sight that causes the physical change. It helps us to see through the layers and identify anything from a different realm. It’s also handy to locate other Seers.”
“Other Seers?” Another new term Watanuki knew nothing about.
With a small groan Doumeki rubbed a hand across his face and sighed again. “No. That can wait for morning.” The archer pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against and walked back to the side table lamp. “Let’s get at least a couple hours of sleep tonight.” He waited until Watanuki waked back to his futon before clicking the lamp off.
“But what about-“
“Tomorrow,” was the weary reply accompanied by a soft padding of feet across the floor.
“Fine.” And though he was sure it would be useless, Watanuki soon found himself drifting off into a deep and dreamless sleep.
~*~
Watanuki prided himself on always being on time for school. Learning was important, so following the path of logic, school was also important. Important things should be treated respectfully. So every morning, Watanuki made sure he had plenty of time to get up and ready.
It was still early enough that the sun hadn’t completely risen yet, though the indirect morning light had begun to seep through the material of the curtains and subsequently soak the floor and walls with its dim radiance.
The only thing Watanuki had every really mourned about his apartment was the direction it faced. He was ever a morning person and would have loved to see the sunrise from his window.
Having an alarm clock was, by now, more of a formality than an actual need. On most days, the skinny teen would awaken several minutes before the ringing would even begin, using the opportunity to shake off the lingering effects of sleep and prepare himself for the day ahead.
The room was quiet as ever, with only the sounds of early morning traffic and the occasional chirping of birds to disturbed the calm.
Even with the lack of sleep and all that had happened the previous day, Watanuki still managed to open his eyes to the familiar setting of his room at precisely the same time he had his whole school life. With this last month’s exception of completely ridiculous predawn wake-up calls, of course.
He took a minute or two to simply lie in bed. If he didn’t look around and see that he was on the wrong side of the room, or that some of the furniture was different, he could pretend that he had simply awoken like any other day. That the events of the day before were nothing more than a product of his overworked brain.
But of course he did look around, and (of course) he was on the wrong side of the room, staring at new furniture and a still slumbering (and also new) roommate. A quick glance at the clock showed nearly two hours until they were due at school.
Watanuki hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should wake his host up, but remembered that the archer only had morning practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so decided to let him sleep in a bit more.
Not that he was avoiding him or anything. It was only good manners to not wake other people up before they were ready.
Really.
Ignoring the little voice in his head that sounded aggravatingly like Doumeki saying, “uh huh,’ the skinny teen pushed back his blanket and started his morning routine.
It wasn’t until he reached the portion of his morning where he usually made lunch for the day that he hesitated. Would he be taking liberties if he went through Doumeki’s fridge? He already felt guilty for borrowing the shower, but he had promised himself he would pay for what he used… somehow.
Should he make the food? Would Doumeki appreciate his making breakfast and packing a lunch or would he be imposing upon the other teen’s goodwill? He debated for a good minute before finally deciding he would just ask the archer himself.
Watanuki crossed the room and pulled open the dividing curtain. He only paused for a second to take a deep breath and steady himself. Honestly, what was so hard about waking up a stranger and asking permission to cook for him?
Kneeling next to the futon, which he distantly noted was a lot wider then the one he had, Watanuki rested one hand on the taller boy’s shoulder and gently shook him. Doumeki let out a sigh and rolled on his back.
Trying again, Watanuki grabbed both shoulders and shook a little harder, calling his name quietly at the same time.
“Come on, Doumeki. Get up already.”
A groan this time, with an arm thrown across the archer’s face for added effect.
So. Doumeki wasn’t a morning person.
Go figure.
“Look, you can go back to sleep in a minute. I just wanted to know if I could- wah!” His words were suddenly cut short as an arm reached out to yank him down to the futon, leaving him half sprawled across a still sleeping Doumeki and uncomfortably aware of the fact that the archer apparently liked to snuggle in the morning.
Warm arms wrapped around his back and squeezed tightly as an equally warm mouth nuzzled into his neck.
“Kimihiro,” came the soft murmur pressed against Watanuki’s throat.
Heat exploded across the skinny teen’s face as he struggled to remove himself from the vice-like grip. When he finally succeeded in slipping underneath the arms he realized, belatedly, just why the futon was so big.
Lunch be dammed; the idiot could buy his own food.
He hightailed it to the kitchen and didn’t come back out until the last possible minute.
When he went to wake up the larger boy for the last time, Watanuki made sure he was well out of grabbing distance as he shouted Doumeki’s name several times while throwing a pillow at his head. Fortunately for Watanuki, this time the archer fully awakened, with only a groggy and half exasperated look at the unorthodox wake-up.
There was an unspoken agreement that Watanuki would be accompanying Doumeki to school, though it was actually closer to Doumeki raising an eyebrow at the school uniform Watanuki had on and Watanuki glaring back at him, defying the archer to say something.
He didn’t and Watanuki claimed the small victory for his own.
It was somewhat awkward walking to school with Doumeki. It wasn’t that he hadn’t done it before, but more like he hadn’t ever done it after being used as a personal teddy bear.
Instead of dwelling on it, because the idiot obviously didn’t remember having done it in the first place, Watanuki tried continue the conversation they had started the night before.
“So what exactly is a Se- erk!” He was less than thrilled about the hand that suddenly clamped over his mouth and the glare he was receiving from the other boy.
“Don’t. We’ll talk about that later.” The hand moved and Watanuki had the sudden urge to bite it, just out of spite.
It would probably taste bad.
“What the hell?! ,” Watanuki steamed, arms akimbo in an indigent pose of… well, indignantly. “You said you would tell me about this stuff today.”
“Right, later. When we aren’t out in the open.” With that, Doumeki turned and started back on the path to school.
“But-“
“Later!”
The shout may have surprised Watanuki for a second, but I didn’t keep him from stomping after the taller boy and muttering under his breath about the general thickness and idiocy of all things Doumeki in the universe.
He was, in fact, still grumbling as he caught up to the archer and probably could have gone on for a good long while, possibly even until they reached the school, if Doumeki hadn’t interrupted his string of obscenities with a sigh.
“Look, I’ll take you to the temple after school and we’ll talk to my grandfather then, alright?”
It took Doumeki a few seconds to realize Watanuki was no longer following him. When he turned around to see what the problem was, Watanuki could only stare at him with an uncertain and slightly hopeful look on his face.
“What?” The archer turned and took a step back towards Watanuki, puzzlement in his eyes.
“Your grandfather?”
The confusion lingered as the archer replied, “Yeah, I talked to him yesterday, so you won’t have to explain much.” The excitement must have been showing in his face by then, since Doumeki was starting to give him an odd look. “You said you’ve met him before…”
Watanuki couldn’t quite keep the delight out of his voice. “Only in my dreams! It’s so great he’s alive here! You’ll really introduce me to him?”
A blank look and two blinks later Doumeki gave a slow nod and turned around once more.
Watanuki was too absorbed in his own cheerfulness to notice the general lack of response from his companion the rest of the way to school.
~*~
Thus ends chapter five. Great big thanks to my beta, Toriolees. Also thanks to all those who pestered, harassed, and generally nagged encouraged me to continue. Sorry it took so long. XD
And, of course, thanks for reading!