THE PRICE:

EPILOGUE

He hadn't managed to finish breakfast. The plate had started slipping from his bandaged hands, his eyelids lowering. Watanuki taking it from his weakening grip had been the last thing Doumeki had seen before his eyes had shut.

It was a weight on the bed that woke him now. The bedclothes were partly pulled back, a shadowy figure sitting on the side of the bed. There was a faint click as glasses were set on the bedside table.

Watanuki turned, drawing his legs up onto the bed and pulling the covers back up. "It's my bed." It was testy and - was he imagining it? - a bit defensive.

Doumeki was aware of that. He wasn't going to move, though.

Watanuki let out a disgusted growl and settled himself noisily on the mattress. Though he took care not to bump him, Doumeki noticed.

Doumeki wouldn't have minded if he had.

"As soon as you're better you can stay in the guest room."

It was a wonder he wasn't there now.

But Mokona's words had delivered several surprises. The long vigil on the verandah. The far flung search for information in a bid to find him.

A picture had started forming. A desperate yet determined use of resources. Doumeki had known that Watanuki wouldn't give up. It wasn't in Watanuki's nature to give up on anyone, even if he disliked them.

Watanuki kneeling, arms around Kohane. Being struck and refusing to strike back.

But Watanuki's actions went beyond that.

Tired as he was, Doumeki knew what Mokona had left out. With as much blood as he had lost, he wouldn't be alive now without more to replace it. And Watanuki was the only person who could have given it to him.

Mokona hadn't denied it when asked outright. Mokona had been silent then solemnly said the payment Watanuki had taken from the Onibaba had been adequate.

Taken.

It suggested action that Watanuki - whose irritable and prickly manner concealed a generous and caring heart - had never taken before.

Watanuki had taken the unprecedented steps. Had used all his power at hand. Had even acted against the forgiving instincts of his own heart.

And all for him.

Doumeki watched Watanuki settle. The first flickers of hope daring to surface.

Watanuki's met his, catching him watching.

There was a surge of movement, the bed shifting beneath him. Watanuki was suddenly leaning over him, eyes boring into Doumeki in a fiercesome glare he could feel even in the dark. "If you disappear like that again, you'll be in more pain than you are now." It was a low hiss.

Doumeki blinked up at him.

Threat delivered, Watanuki thudded back onto the mattress, the bounce that moved Doumeki like a following wave of anger. "Go to sleep."

Worried? Apparently so. More than he'd imagined.

He slowly turned his head on the pillow. Watanuki was a dark shadow, his hair a messy halo against the paler pillow. His breathing had slowed into a smooth steady rhythym. After days of watching over him, he'd finally fallen asleep.

Doumeki carefully reached out with a bandaged hand. Slowly. Cautiously. Ignoring the dull pain that ran up his arm.

Material. The warmth of Watanuki's body though clothes and bandages. The slight rise and fall of his breathing.

Whole. Alive.

Doumeki's eyes fell shut. He was asleep soon after.

~x~X~x~

Watanuki's eyes opened.

There was a weight draped across his stomach, dragging to the left. It took him a moment to remember where he was. What had happened.

Watanuki rolled his head to seek the dark warmth beside him.

Doumeki. His arm stretched across the bed. It was his bandaged hand resting on Watanuki's stomach.

He looked different asleep. Vulnerable.

Watanuki stared up into the darkness above the bed. It had been close. Doumeki had been close to death by the time they arrived back at the shop.

He'd almost lost him.

There was a price for getting too close to someone. To wanting when it was your fate to serve the desires of others.

Watanuki laid his hand over Doumeki's. Lightly covering the bandages with the added protection of his fingers.

There was a price. But it was a price he was prepared to pay.

~x~X~x~

Finis.

I hope you enjoyed this little adventure. For those of you who want more, well if you look hard in a few weeks, you'd be likely to find it XD But in the meantime, I have a plane to catch :D

As for the rest of you. You might want to re-read through Supernatural Entanglements.