So after half an hour Watanuki was still falling. Well, falling wasn't the correct word; it was more like floating down. Not that accuracy of words was that vital at this exact moment, but he might as well have proper usage… Stupid Yuuko and her stupid missions! Well, at least for this one he wasn't falling rapidly, which he's usually prone to on these crazy assignments. Especially when Doumeki wasn't around, much like now. Stupid Doumeki always rescuing him like that… Did he want Watanuki to be permanently in debt? Did he enjoy torturing him like that? Watanuki could only assume he had some sort of hidden masochism when it came to these things. It didn't help that Watanuki couldn't stop thinking about him for some utterly unknown reason. Did that make Watanuki a masochist too? Watanuki passed the thought off and figured there must be some other kind of reason. Like a curse he accidentally tripped and fell into while cleaning Yuuko's storage room or something…

Watanuki's thoughts had gone on rambling like this since about twenty-five minutes earlier when he had gotten bored of watching the random floating furniture around him. Which was after he had waved his arms madly for about two minutes in a futile attempt to pull himself back up. Needless to say it hadn't worked. If only he wouldn't have followed that stupid rabbit…


Two hours earlier…

"A rabbit?"

"Yes, Watanuki. A rabbit."

"You want me to search all over the park, for one rabbit."

"Yes, that seems to be it."

"Do you know how many rabbits are at the park?"

"Quite a few, I presume."

"And you want me to find one certain rabbit?"

"Any questions.?"

"Isn't that physically impossible or something?"

"Not if you want your wish granted."

Watanuki groaned and slid to the floor. It was torture day in and day out with Yuuko and now this? He might as well shoot himself now and get it over with. He was going to be doing that eventually anyway if things continued the way they were going.

"I promise not to send Doumeki with you."

Watanuki's ears perked up at that last comment. "I don't need Doumeki for this mission?" he asked hopefully. Watanuki then winced at his own slip of the tongue. He never needed Doumeki for anything. The idiot probably just came along for his own masochistic amusement.

"I won't send him there even if you beg me, Watanuki," smiled Yuuko as she draped herself over the couch drunkenly. Watanuki chose to ignore the begging for Doumeki comment in favor of the Doumeki not going with him comment. He began to dance around the room with sparkles filling his eyes and following his trail. Yuuko just laid on her couch grinning calculatedly. Watanuki was too happy to notice.

"You'll need to leave at 6:59 a.m. tomorrow and make sure you go straight there."

Watanuki stopped twirling momentarily, "Why 6:59?"

Yuuko just looked at him, "Why not 6:59?"

Watanuki opened his mouth, then closed it again. It was best not to argue with crazy people.

"So how will I know which rabbit?"

"You'll know Watanuki," said Yuuko in a foreboding voice, "You'll definitely know."

Watanuki paused. "It isn't going to try to eat me, is it?"

"Probably not."

"Oh… Okay." Watanuki had gotten used to not having guarantees. Coming from Yuuko, probably not was pretty good odds.


And so that's how he ended up at the park early in the morning. The grass was terribly wet from the morning dew, and it kept sticking to his shoes and pants. It was enough to drive his OCD side crazy. Every five minutes he's have to stop walking and pick of the individual blades of sticky grass, then waste another few minutes trying to pluck them off his hands. The humidity didn't help either. He felt like he was in some kind of watery version of a furnace. Overall, it wasn't turning out to be a pleasant day. Figures it would only get worse from there.

He moved through the bushes, careful not to rip his clothes. This wasn't helping his sticky wet feeling much, but he knew he wasn't going to find a rabbit out in a clearing. Nothing was ever as easy as that for him.

He stopped stumbling through and sighed. He knew a halfway decent mission without including Doumeki was too good to be true. But it had sounded so good at the time. He should have just told Yuuko no then and there. But then again, his debt would have gone up. Probably would have gotten a harder and more demeaning job next time too… Oh well, his life was pretty much down the toilet anyway.

He moved his foot again, only to discover it was tangled in some brambles. Perfect! Just perfect! He reached down to his jeans to see if he could manage to pull it out with ripping anything (skin tissue or otherwise). It didn't look like he was in any danger from the thorns, so he decided to solve the problem physically. Which wasn't the best idea he'd had all day.

He took a step forward and pulled his leg with all his strength, expecting the weak little vines to give. Of course they didn't, and the resulting fall was spectacular. Flailing his arms uselessly, he fell into the bushes. On his way down he manage to successfully rip his shirt in three places, cut the side of his left cheek, and pretty much screw up his hands when they tried to cushion his fall.

He silently cursed himself and looked at his hands. They were pretty but up, but luckily all of the cuts were minor and not very deep. He reached up with his palm and wiped off the blood off the side of his face. Again it wasn't a very deep cut. It was just slightly enough to draw blood. He put his hands on his face and groaned. His OCD was screaming at him to give up and find some alcohol to make sure the cuts didn't get infected. He was indeed very close to giving in to his sanity when he heard a rustling in front of him.

He opened his eyes and the sight in front of him left his mouth handing open. About three feet in away from his hands was a solid, snow-white rabbit staring at him with an unreadable expression. Not that he could normally read the expression of rabbits. But he figured it would be unreadable if he could. It looked like an average hare, like the ones you see at the petting zoo. Or at least it would have if it wouldn't have been wearing a tailcoat.

So there he was. Laying on his stomach in the middle of the park with his palms cut up having a staring contest with a white rabbit in a tailcoat. Curious how he always ended up in these kinds of situations.

The rabbit wrinkled his nose a little, sniffed Watanuki, then sneezed. Watanuki jumped at the sudden movement and the rabbit took off running, taking the jump as a sign of attack. Crap! He didn't have time for this! He grabbed the brambles (ignoring the deepening of his cuts) around his leg and forced his foot through the other end, finally free.

He could see the bright white of the rabbit in front of him. It was easily identifiable through all the green and brown, but it was way to swift for the clumsy Watanuki to keep up with the thing. While it neatly hopped through the openings in the underbrush, Watanuki struggled to get by without tripping again. So he would go through all this torture and finally have the prize right in front of him (for he was fairly certain this HAD to be the rabbit Yuuko was looking for) only to have it stolen away from him at the last—

And of course, that's when he had stepped in the whole.

And that's where he was now.

Still floating through the endless tunnel the looked like a tube shaped house.

And it didn't look like he was going anywhere any time soon.

Watanuki grew tired of his internally ranting finally and allowed his eyelids to droop. If he was going to float for a few more hours, he might as well get some relaxation time out of it. He pulled himself back and put his hands behind his head. This wasn't so bad. It wasn't even that hot in the tunnel. Definitely better than searching through the park…

"Ouch!"

And when he finally gets comfortable, his backside hits the floor. Hard. What did the universe have against him anyway?

He pulled himself up, rubbing his now sore backside added to his collection of misery and observed his surroundings. Okay, non-matching floral wallpaper. Red and purple checkerboard floor. Weird upside-down lamp thingy in the corner (or at least it looked like it was upside-down). Oh wait! A door! Well, that would make things a little bit easier. Depending on what was on the other side of the door that is. Eh, at least they didn't decide to make the door invisible.

He walked over to the door carefully. It probably be about this time when the floor would suddenly disappear and he would start falling again. He wasn't taking that chance. He amazingly arrived there without injury and was almost in a pleasant mood when he got there. That is until he tried to open the door.

The knob twisted angrily back and forth under his hand on its own. Watanuki yelped and quickly jumped back.

"Hey man! That hurt! What's wrong with you!!"

Apparently, this really wasn't Watanuki's day.


Okay, I should be working on my other story, but I really couldn't help myself!! I'm ADD and I admit it. (not really, butI will use that excuse to defend myself it pressed about it). I'll so work on both of these as soon as my writers block decides to stop hating me and leaves me alone!