AHA! I found a chapter two! It must be mine!
Title: Just to Feel You
Chapter: Two
Rating: It’s gonna be bumpy, kids. I’m estimating T, for now. At a minimum.
Summary: A promise made under the light of the sun-can it be kept by the shadow of the moon?
Author’s note: So you thought you’d find out what happened to Watanuki. *grins* Weeeeell…
You start to wonder if you’re ever gonna make it by-you’ll start to think you were born blind.
-Matchbox 20, “Hand Me Down”
* * *
Three months earlier...
* * *
“Yuuko-san,” said Watanuki in tones of long-suffering patience that was quickly reaching the end of its short rope, “as I have explained to you twice already, I do not want to run an errand for you today. I have two tests later this week, and I haven’t studied for them yet, and doing this errand will probably leave me maimed in some way that prevents me from studying for or taking the tests.”
His employer batted her lashes at him, her lips curving coyly. It reminded him of a Western song he’d heard once, a long time ago. Something about pretty eyes and a pirate smile. He couldn’t remember all of it.
“Ah, Watanuki,” Yuuko cooed at him overly-sweetly. “So driven and determined. You’re such a good boy.”
“A good boy who refuses to run an errand for you,” Watanuki clarified.
“And just because you’re such a good boy,” she went on, as if he hadn’t spoken, and for all the world like she was really rewarding him, “I’ll even let you take Doumeki-kun with you.”
Watanuki stared at her disbelievingly. “Do you even listen when I talk?” he demanded indignantly. “Or is your hearing just selective?” Or are you just evil? “Because that is not a improvement to the situation at all.”
Yuuko tittered behind a fan that she’d flipped out of no conceivable place or pocket. Certainly not one anywhere on her person, since that pantsuit she was wearing was skintight down to the knees, and then flared like an upside flower in bloom.
“Wa-ta-nu-ki,” she said playfully, enunciating the syllables with an obscene leer. “Surely you wouldn’t prefer to run the errand alone?”
“Surely I wouldn’t prefer to run the errand at all,” Watanuki replied sharply, and picked up his cleaning rag. “And I’m not going to, because I’m going to go home and study for my tests. Without that idiot Doumeki around to cause me more problems,” he added quickly, foreseeing her next comment.
And oh, dammit. There went Yuuko’s scary-serious face, the one that said If you know what’s good for you, you’ll listen to what I’m telling you. And sure enough, Yuuko waved the fan once, twice, and when he blinked his eyes against the odd visual patterns created by the motion, she spoke in a low, solemn voice.
“It would behoove you to keep Doumeki-kun at your side this night.” Her eyes were like twin blood-red flames, boring into his with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.1 “Whether or not you choose to accomplish this task, Watanuki Kimihiro, it would be folly to take for granted the safety of Doumeki Shizuka’s presence.”
Damn, damn, damn. She’d used his full name. Both his and Doumeki’s full names. This was definitely an errand that would leave him maimed in some way. He was not getting any studying done tonight.
Mourning the imminent drop of his grades due to the almost certain failure of the two tests, Watanuki turned away from Yuuko’s probing gaze. “All right, you scheming…witch. I’ll run your errand.”
Immediately, her demeanor shifted, and she plastered herself against his back, draping her arms over his shoulders. “Aw, Watanuki-kun! You really are a good boy!”
“Get off,” he mumbled, red-faced. “Only because you’re too lazy to do it yourself, you lush!”
“Speaking of drinking,” said Yuuko, and he could hear the grin on her face without even having to see it. “Bring me some sake, would you, Watanuki-kun?” She rested her chin on his shoulder. “Pleeeeease?”
“Get off!” he snapped, pulling away from her clutches. “It’s only ten in the morning! It’s too early for sake! And I’m working!”
“Awww, Watanuki-kun is so mean! I take back what I said about you being a good boy!” Yuuko pouted after him.
“Oh, my heart breaks,” muttered Watanuki, stomping away.
“Sake! Sake!” Yuuko called after him.
“No!” he shouted back, and disappeared into the storage room.
* * *
When he had finished his daily chores and general slaving-for-Yuuko-san’s-lazy-boozehound-self duties, it was just touching on six o’clock. He removed his apron and kerchief, scowling at the prospect of spending yet another evening dodging supernatural stalkers while suffering that jerk Doumeki’s expressionless mocking, fetching one of Yuuko’s stupid artifacts, and reluctantly abandoning his schoolwork.
He’d complain about it to Yuuko, but she’d only laugh and spout something about hitsuzen that would only frustrate him. He refused to believe his hitsuzen was to spend the rest of his life doing slave labor for Yuuko’s nefarious purposes.
And that damn Doumeki-it was galling to think that he was part of Watanuki’s hitsuzen, too. Why couldn’t it be sweet, kind Himawari-chan whose destiny was entwined with Watanuki’s?
Bemoaning the sad state of the universe, Watanuki dragged himself out to the front room, where Yuuko stood smiling indulgently at him. She knew him well enough by now to recognize a brewing fit of pique, and he knew her well enough to recognize an impending storm of teasing, so he didn’t bother telling her to quit smiling at him that way.
Sure enough, Yuuko trilled, “Hurry along, now, Watanuki! Doumeki-kun’s just outside waiting for you!” She gave him an innocent(ly evil) smile at his wordless exclamation of rage. “I took the liberty of calling him,” she explained, “so you’d have some company on your errand tonight.” By ‘company,’ they both knew she meant ‘protection against spirits.’
Her consideration for his safety was not enough to absolve her of her sin. He glowered at her. “I agreed to run the errand for you!” he shouted. “I never agreed to go with stupid Doumeki!”
“But you didn’t not agree to have Doumeki accompany you,” she returned gaily. “And omission of rejection is the same is acceptance!”
“In your twisted, alcohol-soaked brain, maybe!” shot back Watanuki, slipping into his walking shoes. “For normal people it isn’t nearly the same!”
“Oh, la.” Yuuko waved off the words with her fan as if wafting smoke away. “Watanuki-kun is so literal-minded. You must learn to read between the lines, Watanuki! Between the lines!”
“Right, right,” he muttered, storming past her.
“But be careful, Watanuki,” came her scary-serious voice from behind him. He froze with his hand on the door, suddenly feeling extremely nervous.
Yuuko came to stand beside him, her stare inscrutable and unsettling.
“Be very, very careful,” she repeated. “When the lines become blurred, it is too easy to see what is not there, and to be blind to what is.”
“Uh…yes, Yuuko-san,” said Watanuki slowly. “I’ll…I’ll be careful, then.”
“See you tomorrow, Watanuki,” said Yuuko, still in that solemn voice.
“What? You don’t want me to come back here?” Watanuki blinked. Usually when Yuuko asked him to retrieve something, she expected him to return with it that same night.
But she was shaking her head in the negative. “Not tonight. I will see you tomorrow,” she repeated, and she slid open the door to the courtyard.
Suppressing a shudder, and trying hard to act like he didn’t feel like he was heading straight into certain doom, Watanuki made his way past her to the gate, outside of which he could see Doumeki, leaning casually against one of the posts.
When the archer heard the door open, his head turned and his eyes found Watanuki’s. Another shudder chased over Watanuki; Yuuko’s voice echoed through his mind, and the sense of foreboding intensified as he strode slowly to Doumeki’s side.
“What’s going on now?” Doumeki said quietly when Watanuki reached him. Those golden eyes narrowed in concern when they spotted the trepidation written on Watanuki’s features.
Watanuki blinked and tried to shake off the weird feeling. “Wh-what makes you think something’s wrong?” he replied gruffly, walking past Doumeki and down the street. He could feel Yuuko watching him leave.
Obediently, Doumeki pushed off of the post and fell into step beside him easily. “You look like you’re going to your own execution.”
“What a gross exaggeration,” scoffed Watanuki. “Your brain needs retuning. And so do your-” He broke off, cursing inwardly, before he could say ‘eyes.’
“My what?”
Dammit, was that amusement in Doumeki’s voice? That particular tone could only mean that he knew exactly what Watanuki would have said, and that he knew exactly why Watanuki did not say it.
“Shut up,” suggested Watanuki instead, his cheeks pinking faintly.
“My shut-up works just fine,” Doumeki informed him blandly.
Was that ever an understatement. Outside of Watanuki’s company, Doumeki Shizuka was hardly a sparkling conversationlist. He seemed to save his vocabulary for making fun of Watanuki, or making himself a nuisance to Watanuki, or demanding exotic and complex lunches from Watanuki, or-
Well, sometimes he came in handy, Watanuki admitted grudgingly to himself. But rarely. Almost never.
“Oi.”
Watanuki shot him a dirty look. “I realize you are trying to spare your brain the extra effort of pronouncing too many syllables by actually using my name, as it would overload your speech capacity, but the fact remains that-”
“Where are we going?”
Seething at the blatant interruption, Watanuki settled for glaring venomously to convey his indignation. “To Tokyo Tower.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know!” Watanuki threw his hands in the air. “Why do we ever go anywhere Yuuko-san tells us to go? That woman needs to learn to do her own dastardly deeds-my grades are going to suffer for this, I tell you-”
“I’ll help you study later,” Doumeki said off-handedly, as if the matter of failing grades was an unnecessary distraction from the true problem. “She didn’t tell you what we’re supposed to get?”
“If I need help studying, I’ll ask for it!” Watanuki said from behind gritted teeth. “And I would not ask you, you supercilious cretin. And no, she didn’t. She just said-” He frowned, recalling Yuuko’s odd warning. “She just said to watch out for things that aren’t there, and not to overlook things that are.”
“Is that all she said?” pressed Doumeki.
Watanuki glared, then huffed out a breath. “She said to ‘read between the lines.’ Like that helps. And something about the lines becoming blurred,” he added.
What Doumeki thought about this cryptic warning, he didn’t say. He only frowned faintly and got that line between his eyebrows that meant his ‘protect-the-Watanuki’ persona was in full effect. Watanuki wanted to roll his eyes. When Doumeki got like this, he was extremely unreasonable about letting Watanuki do simple things like walking by himself (even if he’d been knocked around by spirits, he was still capable of basic motor functions, thank you very much, and did not need to be carried like the heroine in a bad romance drama) and carrying stuff (he was not a child, he could handle fragile objects without dropping them, even if he was dead tired and weakened from dealing with otherworldly assailants). It was like he didn’t trust Watanuki to be able to go about his life without Doumeki’s constant supervision. Hmph-the overbearing blockhead.
This train of thought made Watanuki send Doumeki a sidelong glance as he considered the probable outcome of tonight’s foray into unknown territory. They’d come across something bent on eating them, get banged up, escape with Yuuko’s specified object for retrieval, and stumble their way home. And if, in the process, Watanuki showed the slightest bit of injury, Doumeki would act in the aforementioned manner until he was satisfied that Watanuki was recovered enough to make him an irritatingly complicated or out-of-season bento.
He studied Doumeki’s profile from the corner of his eye, his dismay rising as he suddenly thought of how frequently such things happened in exactly the manner described-often enough for him to be able to predict Doumeki. That was, if nothing else, exceedingly creepy.
“Are you trying to flirt with me or something?” said Doumeki in his normal deadpan voice. “Because it’s coming off as more obsessed-fangirl than admiring-schoolgirl.”
“You are an ass,” Watanuki shot back, his face going red as he realized that he had been staring at Doumeki. Still, the jerk didn’t need to make it sound like Watanuki had a crush on him or something. “And furthermore, if you act like an ass tonight, I am going to strangle you with my bare hands. Just so you know.”
“Fair enough,” Doumeki replied amiably. “Maybe you should explain what behavior might fall into that category. Just so I know.”
He managed to say that, sound absolutely indifferent, and imply his utter amusement at Watanuki’s expense, all at once. Watanuki balled his hands into fists.
“You will not,” he said forbiddingly, “treat me like a child or like a girl or like an idiot.”
Doumeki turned his head to raise an eyebrow at him. “How am I allowed to treat you?”
“Like a man!” Watanuki exploded.
Silence fell. Satisfied that his point had been made, Watanuki nodded sharply and made to continue on his way.
“You want me to treat you like a man,” Doumeki repeated in a voice so devoid of emotion-even moreso than usual-that Watanuki blinked at him.
“Yes, that’s what I said,” he snapped. “And you’d better remember it, too.”
“Oh, I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon,” muttered Doumeki.
Watanuki’s brows drew together. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
Doumeki’s eyes caught his, held them trapped in a vortex of shadowy gold.
“It means,” he said, so casually that it had to have been deliberate, “that you’ve just blurred a couple of lines, Watanuki.”
And he turned his face forward again, as if he hadn’t just said something completely mystifying and nonsensical.
Watanuki stared at the side of his face for a full ten seconds, blinking.
“What?” He frowned in bewilderment. “What are you talking ab-”
“Act like a man and I’ll treat you like one,” Doumeki went on, shrugging carelessly. “Act like a child, or a girl, or an idiot, and I’ll treat you accordingly.”
Anger swiftly replaced the confusion. “Why you egotistical, arrogant, smug-faced bastard-” Watanuki ranted at him the whole way to Tokyo Tower, and Doumeki just plugged his ears and ignored him.
* * *
1 This is a quote from “The Fairly Odd Parents.” I’m sorry. I…had to. I’m not sure why. It was just…a compulsion. I couldn’t help myself.
A/N: So for all of you who wanted to know what the hell happened to Doumeki and to poor Watanuki in chapter one-*blows raspberry* We have to get there, first! WITH A BIT OF A MIND FLIP, YOU’RE INTO A TIME SLIP! HAHAHAHA…! *cackles into the distance*
Also, part one is here.
Chapter: Two
Rating: It’s gonna be bumpy, kids. I’m estimating T, for now. At a minimum.
Summary: A promise made under the light of the sun-can it be kept by the shadow of the moon?
Author’s note: So you thought you’d find out what happened to Watanuki. *grins* Weeeeell…
You start to wonder if you’re ever gonna make it by-you’ll start to think you were born blind.
-Matchbox 20, “Hand Me Down”
* * *
Three months earlier...
* * *
“Yuuko-san,” said Watanuki in tones of long-suffering patience that was quickly reaching the end of its short rope, “as I have explained to you twice already, I do not want to run an errand for you today. I have two tests later this week, and I haven’t studied for them yet, and doing this errand will probably leave me maimed in some way that prevents me from studying for or taking the tests.”
His employer batted her lashes at him, her lips curving coyly. It reminded him of a Western song he’d heard once, a long time ago. Something about pretty eyes and a pirate smile. He couldn’t remember all of it.
“Ah, Watanuki,” Yuuko cooed at him overly-sweetly. “So driven and determined. You’re such a good boy.”
“A good boy who refuses to run an errand for you,” Watanuki clarified.
“And just because you’re such a good boy,” she went on, as if he hadn’t spoken, and for all the world like she was really rewarding him, “I’ll even let you take Doumeki-kun with you.”
Watanuki stared at her disbelievingly. “Do you even listen when I talk?” he demanded indignantly. “Or is your hearing just selective?” Or are you just evil? “Because that is not a improvement to the situation at all.”
Yuuko tittered behind a fan that she’d flipped out of no conceivable place or pocket. Certainly not one anywhere on her person, since that pantsuit she was wearing was skintight down to the knees, and then flared like an upside flower in bloom.
“Wa-ta-nu-ki,” she said playfully, enunciating the syllables with an obscene leer. “Surely you wouldn’t prefer to run the errand alone?”
“Surely I wouldn’t prefer to run the errand at all,” Watanuki replied sharply, and picked up his cleaning rag. “And I’m not going to, because I’m going to go home and study for my tests. Without that idiot Doumeki around to cause me more problems,” he added quickly, foreseeing her next comment.
And oh, dammit. There went Yuuko’s scary-serious face, the one that said If you know what’s good for you, you’ll listen to what I’m telling you. And sure enough, Yuuko waved the fan once, twice, and when he blinked his eyes against the odd visual patterns created by the motion, she spoke in a low, solemn voice.
“It would behoove you to keep Doumeki-kun at your side this night.” Her eyes were like twin blood-red flames, boring into his with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.1 “Whether or not you choose to accomplish this task, Watanuki Kimihiro, it would be folly to take for granted the safety of Doumeki Shizuka’s presence.”
Damn, damn, damn. She’d used his full name. Both his and Doumeki’s full names. This was definitely an errand that would leave him maimed in some way. He was not getting any studying done tonight.
Mourning the imminent drop of his grades due to the almost certain failure of the two tests, Watanuki turned away from Yuuko’s probing gaze. “All right, you scheming…witch. I’ll run your errand.”
Immediately, her demeanor shifted, and she plastered herself against his back, draping her arms over his shoulders. “Aw, Watanuki-kun! You really are a good boy!”
“Get off,” he mumbled, red-faced. “Only because you’re too lazy to do it yourself, you lush!”
“Speaking of drinking,” said Yuuko, and he could hear the grin on her face without even having to see it. “Bring me some sake, would you, Watanuki-kun?” She rested her chin on his shoulder. “Pleeeeease?”
“Get off!” he snapped, pulling away from her clutches. “It’s only ten in the morning! It’s too early for sake! And I’m working!”
“Awww, Watanuki-kun is so mean! I take back what I said about you being a good boy!” Yuuko pouted after him.
“Oh, my heart breaks,” muttered Watanuki, stomping away.
“Sake! Sake!” Yuuko called after him.
“No!” he shouted back, and disappeared into the storage room.
* * *
When he had finished his daily chores and general slaving-for-Yuuko-san’s-lazy-boozehound-self duties, it was just touching on six o’clock. He removed his apron and kerchief, scowling at the prospect of spending yet another evening dodging supernatural stalkers while suffering that jerk Doumeki’s expressionless mocking, fetching one of Yuuko’s stupid artifacts, and reluctantly abandoning his schoolwork.
He’d complain about it to Yuuko, but she’d only laugh and spout something about hitsuzen that would only frustrate him. He refused to believe his hitsuzen was to spend the rest of his life doing slave labor for Yuuko’s nefarious purposes.
And that damn Doumeki-it was galling to think that he was part of Watanuki’s hitsuzen, too. Why couldn’t it be sweet, kind Himawari-chan whose destiny was entwined with Watanuki’s?
Bemoaning the sad state of the universe, Watanuki dragged himself out to the front room, where Yuuko stood smiling indulgently at him. She knew him well enough by now to recognize a brewing fit of pique, and he knew her well enough to recognize an impending storm of teasing, so he didn’t bother telling her to quit smiling at him that way.
Sure enough, Yuuko trilled, “Hurry along, now, Watanuki! Doumeki-kun’s just outside waiting for you!” She gave him an innocent(ly evil) smile at his wordless exclamation of rage. “I took the liberty of calling him,” she explained, “so you’d have some company on your errand tonight.” By ‘company,’ they both knew she meant ‘protection against spirits.’
Her consideration for his safety was not enough to absolve her of her sin. He glowered at her. “I agreed to run the errand for you!” he shouted. “I never agreed to go with stupid Doumeki!”
“But you didn’t not agree to have Doumeki accompany you,” she returned gaily. “And omission of rejection is the same is acceptance!”
“In your twisted, alcohol-soaked brain, maybe!” shot back Watanuki, slipping into his walking shoes. “For normal people it isn’t nearly the same!”
“Oh, la.” Yuuko waved off the words with her fan as if wafting smoke away. “Watanuki-kun is so literal-minded. You must learn to read between the lines, Watanuki! Between the lines!”
“Right, right,” he muttered, storming past her.
“But be careful, Watanuki,” came her scary-serious voice from behind him. He froze with his hand on the door, suddenly feeling extremely nervous.
Yuuko came to stand beside him, her stare inscrutable and unsettling.
“Be very, very careful,” she repeated. “When the lines become blurred, it is too easy to see what is not there, and to be blind to what is.”
“Uh…yes, Yuuko-san,” said Watanuki slowly. “I’ll…I’ll be careful, then.”
“See you tomorrow, Watanuki,” said Yuuko, still in that solemn voice.
“What? You don’t want me to come back here?” Watanuki blinked. Usually when Yuuko asked him to retrieve something, she expected him to return with it that same night.
But she was shaking her head in the negative. “Not tonight. I will see you tomorrow,” she repeated, and she slid open the door to the courtyard.
Suppressing a shudder, and trying hard to act like he didn’t feel like he was heading straight into certain doom, Watanuki made his way past her to the gate, outside of which he could see Doumeki, leaning casually against one of the posts.
When the archer heard the door open, his head turned and his eyes found Watanuki’s. Another shudder chased over Watanuki; Yuuko’s voice echoed through his mind, and the sense of foreboding intensified as he strode slowly to Doumeki’s side.
“What’s going on now?” Doumeki said quietly when Watanuki reached him. Those golden eyes narrowed in concern when they spotted the trepidation written on Watanuki’s features.
Watanuki blinked and tried to shake off the weird feeling. “Wh-what makes you think something’s wrong?” he replied gruffly, walking past Doumeki and down the street. He could feel Yuuko watching him leave.
Obediently, Doumeki pushed off of the post and fell into step beside him easily. “You look like you’re going to your own execution.”
“What a gross exaggeration,” scoffed Watanuki. “Your brain needs retuning. And so do your-” He broke off, cursing inwardly, before he could say ‘eyes.’
“My what?”
Dammit, was that amusement in Doumeki’s voice? That particular tone could only mean that he knew exactly what Watanuki would have said, and that he knew exactly why Watanuki did not say it.
“Shut up,” suggested Watanuki instead, his cheeks pinking faintly.
“My shut-up works just fine,” Doumeki informed him blandly.
Was that ever an understatement. Outside of Watanuki’s company, Doumeki Shizuka was hardly a sparkling conversationlist. He seemed to save his vocabulary for making fun of Watanuki, or making himself a nuisance to Watanuki, or demanding exotic and complex lunches from Watanuki, or-
Well, sometimes he came in handy, Watanuki admitted grudgingly to himself. But rarely. Almost never.
“Oi.”
Watanuki shot him a dirty look. “I realize you are trying to spare your brain the extra effort of pronouncing too many syllables by actually using my name, as it would overload your speech capacity, but the fact remains that-”
“Where are we going?”
Seething at the blatant interruption, Watanuki settled for glaring venomously to convey his indignation. “To Tokyo Tower.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know!” Watanuki threw his hands in the air. “Why do we ever go anywhere Yuuko-san tells us to go? That woman needs to learn to do her own dastardly deeds-my grades are going to suffer for this, I tell you-”
“I’ll help you study later,” Doumeki said off-handedly, as if the matter of failing grades was an unnecessary distraction from the true problem. “She didn’t tell you what we’re supposed to get?”
“If I need help studying, I’ll ask for it!” Watanuki said from behind gritted teeth. “And I would not ask you, you supercilious cretin. And no, she didn’t. She just said-” He frowned, recalling Yuuko’s odd warning. “She just said to watch out for things that aren’t there, and not to overlook things that are.”
“Is that all she said?” pressed Doumeki.
Watanuki glared, then huffed out a breath. “She said to ‘read between the lines.’ Like that helps. And something about the lines becoming blurred,” he added.
What Doumeki thought about this cryptic warning, he didn’t say. He only frowned faintly and got that line between his eyebrows that meant his ‘protect-the-Watanuki’ persona was in full effect. Watanuki wanted to roll his eyes. When Doumeki got like this, he was extremely unreasonable about letting Watanuki do simple things like walking by himself (even if he’d been knocked around by spirits, he was still capable of basic motor functions, thank you very much, and did not need to be carried like the heroine in a bad romance drama) and carrying stuff (he was not a child, he could handle fragile objects without dropping them, even if he was dead tired and weakened from dealing with otherworldly assailants). It was like he didn’t trust Watanuki to be able to go about his life without Doumeki’s constant supervision. Hmph-the overbearing blockhead.
This train of thought made Watanuki send Doumeki a sidelong glance as he considered the probable outcome of tonight’s foray into unknown territory. They’d come across something bent on eating them, get banged up, escape with Yuuko’s specified object for retrieval, and stumble their way home. And if, in the process, Watanuki showed the slightest bit of injury, Doumeki would act in the aforementioned manner until he was satisfied that Watanuki was recovered enough to make him an irritatingly complicated or out-of-season bento.
He studied Doumeki’s profile from the corner of his eye, his dismay rising as he suddenly thought of how frequently such things happened in exactly the manner described-often enough for him to be able to predict Doumeki. That was, if nothing else, exceedingly creepy.
“Are you trying to flirt with me or something?” said Doumeki in his normal deadpan voice. “Because it’s coming off as more obsessed-fangirl than admiring-schoolgirl.”
“You are an ass,” Watanuki shot back, his face going red as he realized that he had been staring at Doumeki. Still, the jerk didn’t need to make it sound like Watanuki had a crush on him or something. “And furthermore, if you act like an ass tonight, I am going to strangle you with my bare hands. Just so you know.”
“Fair enough,” Doumeki replied amiably. “Maybe you should explain what behavior might fall into that category. Just so I know.”
He managed to say that, sound absolutely indifferent, and imply his utter amusement at Watanuki’s expense, all at once. Watanuki balled his hands into fists.
“You will not,” he said forbiddingly, “treat me like a child or like a girl or like an idiot.”
Doumeki turned his head to raise an eyebrow at him. “How am I allowed to treat you?”
“Like a man!” Watanuki exploded.
Silence fell. Satisfied that his point had been made, Watanuki nodded sharply and made to continue on his way.
“You want me to treat you like a man,” Doumeki repeated in a voice so devoid of emotion-even moreso than usual-that Watanuki blinked at him.
“Yes, that’s what I said,” he snapped. “And you’d better remember it, too.”
“Oh, I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon,” muttered Doumeki.
Watanuki’s brows drew together. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
Doumeki’s eyes caught his, held them trapped in a vortex of shadowy gold.
“It means,” he said, so casually that it had to have been deliberate, “that you’ve just blurred a couple of lines, Watanuki.”
And he turned his face forward again, as if he hadn’t just said something completely mystifying and nonsensical.
Watanuki stared at the side of his face for a full ten seconds, blinking.
“What?” He frowned in bewilderment. “What are you talking ab-”
“Act like a man and I’ll treat you like one,” Doumeki went on, shrugging carelessly. “Act like a child, or a girl, or an idiot, and I’ll treat you accordingly.”
Anger swiftly replaced the confusion. “Why you egotistical, arrogant, smug-faced bastard-” Watanuki ranted at him the whole way to Tokyo Tower, and Doumeki just plugged his ears and ignored him.
* * *
1 This is a quote from “The Fairly Odd Parents.” I’m sorry. I…had to. I’m not sure why. It was just…a compulsion. I couldn’t help myself.
A/N: So for all of you who wanted to know what the hell happened to Doumeki and to poor Watanuki in chapter one-*blows raspberry* We have to get there, first! WITH A BIT OF A MIND FLIP, YOU’RE INTO A TIME SLIP! HAHAHAHA…! *cackles into the distance*
Also, part one is here.