Title: Hunger
Universe: XXXHolic
Theme/Topic: Temptation
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: DoumekixWatanuki, Yuuko
Warnings/Spoil: 2,916
Summary: Parallel piece to "Fairytale Prince"- the story from the other side.
Dedication: for swinku- feel better my poor dear! And I lied about doing your script today. I did the "warm up drabbles" and then the fever kicked my ass.
A/N: Requested by westside on my other lj… lol and don't worry, I have definitely had much worse prompts than this!
Disclaimer: Not mine, though I wish constantly.
Distribution: Just lemme know.

---

Doumeki kind of suspected something was maybe a little wrong here, but he couldn't be sure because the only thing that was acting weird all of a sudden was Watanuki, and that wasn't so weird in the larger sense because it was normal for Watanuki to always act at least a little bit weird.

But this was a little bit more weird than even Doumeki was used to from the other boy, and so he had his suspicions that something wasn't quite right in the universe, even if a big part of him was disinclined to do anything about it right at the moment (which, he supposed, was maybe another thing that had suddenly become sort of weird in the last few minutes).

In short, Watanuki was being nice to him.

Everything had been going like usual as they'd walked towards Yuuko's shop that afternoon after school, and it felt like it had just been a few minutes ago that Watanuki was in the middle of another one of his scathing diatribes involving Doumeki's many faults in the area of common social graces, when Shizuka had gotten hungry and pulled out the apple Watanuki had given him earlier.

From there he'd ignored Watanuki—who'd seemed just as pleased to go on regardless of who was or wasn't listening to him—and bitten into it.

It had been nice. Crunchy, sweet, juicy.

So good in fact, that he hadn't even noticed that Watanuki had suddenly gone quiet until he was halfway through eating his fruit.

Usually he just took that as a sign that his mind had naturally blocked out the other boy's endless chatter, but when he looked up, expecting to see Kimihiro glaring at him and pointing a long finger at him and still lecturing, he saw a quietly smiling Watanuki instead.

It was enough to give him pause from his apple, as good as it was.

"What?" he'd asked.

Watanuki put his hands behind his back and stood with his head bent downwards slightly—something a lot of the school girls who were confessing to Doumeki did when they were on the brink, and he'd never understand what the appeal was in it, not in a million years.

"Nothing," Watanuki said quietly, and that was another thing the girls sometimes did.

Doumeki stared. "You want your apple back?" he asked, and figured it might have been that. There was still half of it anyway, if the other boy was so inclined.

"No… just… is it good?" Watanuki asked, and there was no typical "Oh my god you're disgusting who would want to taste someone else's half-eaten apple?!" attached to the end of that like there would have been if everything was perfectly okay in the universe. Instead, the other boy licked his bottom lip, a bit nervously.

"Sure, it's fine," Doumeki said slowly, and wondered why he felt a little bit odd when he looked at Watanuki's moistened bottom lip. "Uh… we should go, or you'll be late."

Watanuki looked shy again. "I don't actually have to be in today," he murmured, and shifted on his feet a little, hands still clasped behind his back. "I just…"

Doumeki knew Watanuki sometimes went in on the days he wasn't supposed to just because he was lonely or there was extra food left at Yuuko's from a shopping excursion earlier in the week and he had to use it before it went bad (etc., etc., etc.), but even if Doumeki knew these things and Watanuki knew that he knew these things, the stubborn idiot wouldn't ever admit to them. Out loud, anyway.

Curiouser and curiouser, though not exactly bad, Doumeki supposed. Maybe Watanuki had grown a brain in the last few minutes and decided to stop deluding himself.

Though it was doubtful.

"So, you want to go home instead?" Doumeki offered, and could still taste apple juice in his mouth when he spoke.

Watanuki nodded. "Walk me back," he said, and did that thing with his bottom lip again that made Doumeki's heart flip a little inside of him.

He ignored his heart. "Well, that was the point either way I guess," he said, pragmatically.

And then Watanuki smiled at him instead of saying something about how he always ruined a good atmosphere by saying stupid things, and before he knew it, they were walking side-by-side back to Watanuki's apartment instead of towards Yuuko's shop.

Which, Doumeki supposed, he preferred over the usual Watanuki-lengthens-his-strides-to-stay-at-least-three-feet-ahead-and-lectures-backwards-at-Doumeki-whenever-they-have-to-go-anywhere-together-method, but it was really just another check mark in the whole "this is kind of weird" column of Doumeki's day.

It was when they passed the park that things started to get really weird… he could have sworn there were some squirrels in the trees trying to throw nuts at his head and for a moment it seemed like a wisp of ivy had tried to worm its way out onto the sidewalk and around his ankle. He thought he could hear shouting in the distance too, and maybe laughter, but when he looked around there didn't seem to be anyone there.

"Is something the matter?" Watanuki asked, and paused next to him, close enough that Doumeki could feel the other boy's breathing against his ear.

He blinked and dodged a pinecone. "Are those squirrels throwing things at us?"

"Maybe it's just that time of year," Watanuki suggested sensibly, and that was when Doumeki realized that maybe things were weird because they were very, very wrong. "C'mon, let's go… I'll make you dinner."

And then Watanuki tugged on his arm, hooked it through his so they were intertwined, and the squirrels and the park's atmosphere in general seemed to get just that much more frantic. A nut hit Doumeki right in the head.

"Hey," he began, and thought that maybe the shouting and general annoying noise he'd been hearing in the background earlier was getting louder. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Weird-Watanuki asked, innocently. He pulled on Doumeki's arm some more. "C'mon, don't you want to go? I'll make your favorite foods."

Doumeki shrugged mentally and kept walking—he figured he might as well see whatever it was that was going on through until the end. Not just because of the free dinner or anything, though that was part of it. He warily eyed a rosebush dying near the edge of where park met sidewalk and wondered if he was dreaming.

When they got to Watanuki's place and the other boy shyly kissed him instead of going right into the kitchen and starting dinner so Doumeki would leave quicker, Shizuka definitely knew something was going on. With his luck, it was probably a hallucination and something that had originally wanted to eat Kimihiro was actually trying to eat him now. Stuff like that happened a lot. It was either that or Watanuki was possessed, which wasn't all that farfetched an idea either, considering how often it happened to the two of them.

When Weird-Watanuki pulled back from the kiss and looked up at him with hooded eyes, Doumeki swallowed and blinked and thought this was kind of awkward, all things considered. "So…" he began, "who are you?"

The other boy looked wounded. "What do you mean?"

"Are you possessed?"

Watanuki sighed. "Stupid Doumeki!" he muttered, and almost sounded like himself again for a moment. "Don't you like me? I like you."

Maybe not so much then. Doumeki wondered if from now on, demon-who-wanted-to-sex-him-up-first-and-then-eat-him was another one of those things he and Watanuki could look forward to running across as often as they did demon-who-just-wanted-to-eat-him. "It's not that I don't like you. I just don't know…"

Weird-Watanuki lunged forward and kissed him again, this time longer, and while Doumeki knew he should pull back, theory was far different from practice, and he discovered that he couldn't quite do it though he wasn't sure why. The second kiss was harder and longer and Weird-Watanuki's tongue snaked into his mouth and made him stumble a bit, until he was braced back against the apartment door. It wasn't the kind of nice-weak-kneed he imagined came with kissing someone you liked either, but at the moment he felt rather powerless to stop it regardless. In some distant place, Doumeki thought he heard those faint shouts again, this time stronger in his head, though just as muddled. They sounded like pissed-off, Normal-Watanuki. He wondered why they were so far away.

It was whatever-was-wearing-Watanuki's-face who pulled back first then, licking his lips again, though in a much less chaste manner than before. Doumeki felt lightheaded.

"Definitely not him," Shizuka murmured, and would have moved to push the apparition off of him if he had the strength to move his limbs.

"It's not unpleasant, is it?" the creature purred, finally giving up the charade and resting his (or hers or its) head on Doumeki's heaving chest. "I can be him if you let me."

"He probably wouldn't try to make out with me," Doumeki pointed out in all honesty.

The spirit laughed and nipped at his ear tantalizingly. "A little bit of change can be good if you let it be," he breathed, and then kissed Doumeki again.

It was actually starting to hurt when he did that now, and Doumeki knew he couldn't move, so he stopped struggling and tried to conserve his strength—maybe come up with a plan. The distant voice in his head had gone silent a little while ago, and he thought that might be a bad sign, because the voice had definitely sounded a lot more like Watanuki (angry and kind of idiotic) than whatever it was currently wearing his face.

It got harder to think though, and his mind started going foggy. He supposed in all honesty, there were worse ways to die. At least this thing wasn't trying to tear him apart and chew on his flesh, like the last thing he'd had to save Watanuki from.

But still. He didn't fancy having it end like this, and did his best to stay conscious even as it got harder and harder.

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he could see some of that climbing ivy from the park trying to crawl its way from under the crack in the door.

Evil-Watanuki pulled back again, flushed in the face and energized, resting his forehead against Doumeki's and panting. "I could make it so pleasant if you'd let me," he promised, touching the larger boy's jaw line with his fingertips. "All you have to do is pretend I'm him."

Doumeki sighed. "That all seems a little fantastical, if you ask me."

Across the room, he saw a collection of squirrels and chipmunks gathering on Watanuki's balcony. He thought they looked anxious.

Apparently this whole world was a little fantastical right now.

Evil-Watanuki followed his gaze and glared, sending the rodents scurrying. "Look," he said after a moment, "the real thing would never kiss you, and if you're going to die, don't you think the least you could do was make it a pleasant end for yourself? I mean…"

The ivy coming in from under the door suddenly wrapped itself around Evil-Watanuki's ankle and pulled, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"What the…"

"This better work or I'm going to kill him right where he sleeps, I don't care if that evil-witch-or-whatever is already doing it, I'm going to kill him dead. Oh, my first kiss! Forgive me, Himawari-chan!"

Doumeki and Evil-Watanuki both blinked when Real-Watanuki's thoughts suddenly invaded the apartment—loud yet distant and not at all like it had been when they'd been walking past the park earlier.

Evil-Watanuki stared. "I don't believe…"

"Me either," Doumeki conceded, and both captor and captive shared a mutual moment of surprise. It was all they could muster before there was a brilliant—if slightly brief— flash of light and the apartment faded all around them. Doumeki felt some of the strength beginning to return to his limbs.

Evil-Watanuki looked up at him from the floor, ivy still wrapped around his ankle. He seemed strangely resigned. "You sure you don't want to stay?" he suggested, smiling lopsidedly. "You'd have exactly what you wanted for the time you were alive."

Doumeki was honest when he replied. "The things I like about him are the things that would make it impossible for me to pretend the two of you are anything at all alike."

"Well, that's that then, I guess," the apparent witch sighed, and then with a flick of his/her/its wrist, dissolved into nothing just like the apartment had.

And then Shizuka was alone.

"Huh," he murmured, and wondered if maybe he was supposed to be doing something here.

He flexed his arm.

Still a little stiff, but he could feel the circulation returning, and slowly, instinctively, he forced it up… forced it around…

And everything went black.

When he woke up it was because it was a little hard to breathe. Probably because his tongue was in Watanuki's mouth and he was—apparently—trying to eat the other boy's face.

On that realization—and the whole needing air thing—Shizuka quickly pulled back, trying to get the breath back into his lungs. He felt his heartbeat going a hundred miles a minute in his chest.

What a weird way to wake up. Not entirely unpleasant, but regardless, very far from the norm.

The two boys stared at each other for a moment.

Or rather, Watanuki stared while Doumeki blinked up at flushed-and-panting-Watanuki blearily. He licked his lips absently and wondered if he was dreaming or something. "Buh?" he said, and that hadn't been what he'd meant to say at all. He took a moment to gather himself. "What happened?" he asked, once he'd regained his faculties.

The eyes staring down into his suddenly narrowed dangerously, apparently broken out of whatever spell had held the two of them captive. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT HAPPENED?! YOU JUST TRIED TO EAT MY FACE!" Watanuki shouted, jumping back and pointing at Doumeki accusatorily.

Nope. Not a dream then. Definitely real.

"I did?" Doumeki asked, sitting up off the park bench he'd been laid out on and stretching a bit. The last thing he remembered was cleaning his apple off on his shirt while Watanuki was yelling at him about how he had no manners and was rude and was impolite (which were really all the same thing when you thought about it, but Doumeki supposed Watanuki just liked hearing himself talk). Then he'd been ignoring Watanuki like usual, eating the apple, and after that, promptly waking up flat on his back on a park bench with his tongue in the other boy's mouth and no knowledge of what happened in-between there and here.

Weird day.

"YES, YOU DID!"

Oh. Well. Doumeki stared at him.

Watanuki bristled and turned to Yuuko instead, because she was guaranteed to be more reactive, if not in the way he wanted her to be. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! THAT NEVER HAPPENS IN THE FAIRYTALES! IT'S CHASTE IN FAIRYTALES!"

Yuuko shrugged. ""Just like they're not all lies, they're not all truth either," she said, lightly. "Besides, you should be thankful it stopped at that. If you'd waited any longer, the things you would have had to do to cut the connection between his heart and the witch's so that it could connect to yours instead would have had to be a lot more… intense."

In a conversation that didn't make any sense, that especially didn't make any sense. At least to someone who'd woken up a long way into the proceedings and was still kind of ready to nap some more, all things considered.

Except his stomach rumbled then, and Doumeki supposed that while he was up, he might as well have a bite to eat.

"I'm hungry," he offered, when it looked like Watanuki and Yuuko were done with their dirty-look-I-don't-care-look-dirty-look-I-don't-care-look glare/smirk tennis.

Watanuki—predictably—whirled on him and hissed like an angry cat. "THAT'S WHAT GOT US HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!"

Doumeki could only suppose that meant whatever had happened to him had something to do with his apple from earlier.

Which would technically mean that Watanuki being late to class this morning was what had gotten them here in the first place, but Doumeki wisely didn't say anything about that, because Watanuki looked like his blood pressure was on the verge of working its way up to dangerous levels and Doumeki really would like a snack if he could get one.

Yuuko chimed in then, and Doumeki could always rely on her to pull rank on Watanuki when he couldn't. "I'm hungry too, Doumeki-kun. Watanuki, go buy us some snacks!!" she ordered, breezily.

Just like that Kimihiro deflated. "You can't be serious."

She smiled then—so innocently it couldn't be anything but fake—and waved her assistant-slash-indentured-servant off. "Of course I'm serious. Food is no laughing matter after all, Watanuki. Very serious business. Or haven't you learned that yet?"

Doumeki agreed.

She just smirked.

And so Watanuki trudged off, Doumeki and Yuuko both watching him go in silence.

After the other boy disappeared out of sight, Yuuko cleared her throat. "So, did you have pleasant dreams?" she inquired, out of pure curiosity and nothing else. Clearly.

Doumeki simply eyed her and shrugged, feeling too tired to try and suss out her true motives for asking. "Nothing memorable."

She laughed at him then, and for the first time, he noticed the tendrils of ivy embroidered on her dress.

END