AN- This is my first attempt at an xxxHolic fic (also posted on LJ community doumekiwatanuki, lots of good work there if you've never been). I tried my best and I promise no such things as staying in character or having a cool plot. Slight spoilers for volume 7 and I think 8.
Chapter: 1 of (who knows)
Rating: PG- for naughty language
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Transitions
It was the sound of raindrops pattering relentlessly on the glass of his bedside window that eventually roused Watanuki from his restless sleep. He lay in bed for a minute or so, staring at the ceiling blankly, a vague question as to why it was so dark out hanging within the hazy, sleep filled recesses of his mind. Turning his head to the side, he saw the red digits of his alarm clock glowing an all too early time of 4:28 am.
It was, at least, a little bit later than he had woken the night before.
Knowing from almost a month's worth of previous experience that it was ultimately useless in attempting to go back to sleep until he was decently awaken by either his alarm or a ray of morning light, Watanuki heaved a weary sigh and sat up. As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he could hear the sound of thunder in the distance. Resting his head in his hands for a moment, Watanuki tried once more to remember what exactly he had been dreaming about before he woke up. As usual, however, the dream had slipped away like so much sand through the fingers of his conscious memory. Another resigned sigh escaped his lips as he pushed back the covers from his legs and stood from his bed before making his way to the bathroom.
It was going to be long day. Again.
"Oi."
Oh yes. It was going to be a long, splendid day today.
Watanuki stopped in his walk and turned his head to the side, giving his profile to the speaker.
"I realize that the long and complicated syllables of my name may be a bit too much for you to handle, but I would appreciate it if you at least made the effort."
"Why are you up so early?"
Spinning around fully and raising an angry, school bag laden fist in the direction of one Doumeki Shizuka, the bespectacled teen growled out, "Do you even hear me when I speak to you?"
Instead of answering, Doumeki stepped closer and peered into the other boys face with narrowed eyes.
Watanuki began to get slightly nervous, not to mention annoyed, when the taller teen didn't say anything for several moments.
"Wh… what are you staring at, you idiot?" he said, backing us a couple steps to widen the space between them.
Locking golden eyes to blue, Doumeki bluntly stated, "You look tired."
And again, "Why are you up so early?"
Evading the question, Watanuki shot back, "Why are you up so early? Shouldn't you be doing chores or something." Though he could see that since Doumeki was already in his uniform, he was probably on his way to school already, also.
"Club practice." Short and to the point, but the look he gave the shorter boy said he was obviously still waiting for an answer.
Watanuki rolled his eyes and muttered, "Jeez what are you, my mother?" Louder, "I couldn't sleep, alright? Satisfied, nosey?"
"Why not?"
Raising his arms above his head and flailing his umbrella about wildly to properly display his annoyance, he yelled, "None of your business! If you have club to go to, then go and stop pestering me with pointless question while we stand here in the rain and freeze our asses off! Jeez!"
With that final parting shot, Watanuki spun on his heel and made to stomp off to school on his own.
Of course, this being the wonderfully perfect day it was turning out to be, he took five steps and immediately got dizzy, toppling to the side. A gloriously wet and hard sidewalk rose to catch him as fuzzy blackness crowded his vision.
"Watanuki!"
He heard a clatter and the sound of running footsteps. A brief, sarcastic thought flitted across his mind half a second before his head hit the cement.
'See, I knew you could say my name.'
His head hurt.
His cheek stung.
His shoulder felt sore.
And for some reason, he smelled disinfectant.
Watanuki opened his eyes and saw a blurry white ceiling above his head. This seemed somewhat strange to him, as he specifically remembered being outside, in the rain, the last time he checked.
"Watanuki-kun, I'm so glad you're awake!" A small hand set itself atop his own. Turning his head to the left, he found a smiling girl with two long curly pony-tails seated next to him.
"Himawari-chan…"
The girl's smile softened and she looked at him in concern. "How do you feel?"
Confused, Watanuki frowned slightly. "I'm, uh, alright. I think. But what are you doing here? Actually, where am I? Am I at school?"
Himawari's smile disappeared altogether and the concerned look deepened.
"Don't you remember, Watanuki-kun? We were walking from class and you accidentally got pushed down the stairs. One of the teachers brought you up here to the nurses office. The doctor had to go to a meeting after he treated you, but I said I would stay with you. You've been asleep for about 20 minutes now; I was starting to get worried."
The injured boy stilled, even his breath momentarily halting.
'The stairs? Nurses office?'
Watanuki blinked several times, pausing to try and process the information. No, it was no use. He was certain that the last thing he remembered was standing outside the Doumeki's temple gate on his way to school. Then he had gotten dizzy and fallen.
Right?
"I don't think I remember that. Wasn't I outside? In the rain?"
Suddenly, he felt a cool hand on his forehead and was surprised to see Himawari with a frown on her face. And while normally such an act by his beloved would be cause for a grand celebration, Watanuki couldn't seem to get past the fact that his timeline was all out of whack.
"Are you sure you're alright? You don't seem to have a fever." The hand retreated, but the frown deepened a little. "Maybe I should go get Doumeki-kun for you."
Watanuki was about to demand to know why in the world he would need Doumeki of all people ,when he realized that maybe the other boy might know what had happened, since he was the last person he had spoken to.
"Well, maybe-"
His sentence was cut off by the abrupt and somewhat violent opening of the office door. The curtain by his bed was currently open, so he could clearly see a red-faced and breathless Doumeki rushing through the doorway. Even before the door had a chance to close all the way, the teen was already at his side and leaning over the bed.
Watanuki could only stare in wide-eyed disbelief at the flushed and worried face that hovered over him. He dazedly noted that the other boy was wearing his archery uniform. Had he run all the way from the practice field? But that was all the way across the campus...
"Thank God you're okay," the archer panted, as he reached out a hand and stroked Watanuki's uninjured cheek. Golden eyes softened and a small smile graced his mouth.
Unable to even utter a sound, Watanuki could only hang his jaw open in shock as his eyes widened even further.
'What… what the HELL?'
"Doumeki-kun," Himawari's voice interrupted. She swept a troubled glance over him before motioning for Doumeki to follow her over to the other side of the room.
They were speaking in low tones, so the injured boy couldn't really hear what they were saying, though he was almost positive they could have been screaming profanities back and forth at one another and he would have paid them just as little heed.
Doumeki had...
He had...
He...
And what the hell was that look he gave him!
He had looked so... upset. And then, he smiled. Doumeki didn't smile! Smirk, yes. But not smile.
And he didn't get upset either.
Well except that one time, with the eye. He had gotten plenty upset then. Well, angry was more like it. Or rather, incredibly pissed off if one was to be completely honest.
But this time, he had looked genuinely distressed. Almost the way Watanuki imagined a person would look like if someone they loved had gotten hurt.
So.
'What the hell was that? Doumeki, you confusing bastard!
The sound of the door opening snapped him out of his mental meanderings and he saw Himawari wave at him from the door on her way out.
"Take care Watanuki-kun. I'll see you tomorrow if you're feeling well enough."
He stared at the door as it clicked shut once more. That only left one other person in the room with him. A person that was currently making his way over to the chair recently vacated by Himawari.
Watanuki watched with wary eyes as Doumeki scooted the chair as close to the bed as he could with out actually moving it on top.
For several second, neither boy said anything. One pair of eyes narrowing in suspicion, while the other watched with an unreadable, though still somewhat worried, expression.
Finally, "How's your head?"
Not letting his guard down, Watanuki answered carefully, "It's fine."
Pause.
"What about your cheek?" Doumeki reached out his hand as if to brush against his face again and Watanuki automatically leaned back away from his touch, pressing farther back into his pillow.
The hand stopped halfway and for a second Watanuki though he saw a hurt look flash across the taller boy's face.
"I'm fine, I told you that already. Man, you really don't listen at all do you?"
He could feel the familiar weight of irritation settling into him. Good, he much preferred that to the more confusing feelings he was developing from Doumeki's strange new attitude.
"Kunogi says you don't really remember what happened." He had that unreadable expression again and the words sounded cautious.
Watanuki suddenly felt very tired as all the energy to argue drained out of him. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with Doumeki, for that matter?
"It's not that I don't remember. Well okay it is. I mean, I don't remember the same thing Himawari-chan seems to remember, but- Arg! I don't know. But you were there right? This morning?"
Doumeki's brow creased in a frown. "What about this morning?"
Exasperated beyond belief, Watanuki blew out a frustrated breath. "You know, we were standing out in the rain this morning next to the temple and you were acting like a moron as usual, asking dumb questions. Kind of like now. Imagine that. And then, I uh, fell and... Well, then I woke up here for some reason. And what the heck! It's suddenly after school and the whole day went by with out me knowing about it! And you're acting all weird and, and, emotional! What's up with that anyway?"
"This morning..." Doumeki was staring at him with an increasingly worried look.
"Yes, you idiot!" Watanuki shouted, patience at its end, energy nominally renewed enough for a few arm waves to stress his point. "This morning!"
"It-"
The archer clamped his mouth shut abruptly and looked down at the bed sheet with a contemplative look.
"'It', what?"
Thoughtful eyes darted to his for a brief second before looking back down.
"Well? What is it?"
After a few more seconds, and just moments before Watanuki was about to decide it would be more effective to wring the words out of the idiot by force, Doumeki looked up once more, this time with a completely serious expression.
"It didn't rain this morning. Actually, it hasn't rained for almost a month now, and I met you outside the front gate before school."
It was official. One of them had lost their mind.
Watanuki had the sinking suspicion that it might actually be his own.
"Stop kidding around Doumeki. This isn't funny!"
Doumeki leaned back and stared at him as if he had just been slapped. This time the injured teen was sure he saw hurt reflected in the other boy's eyes. But why?
"Doumeki?" His voice betrayed his confusion and he couldn't quite keep a small bit of panic from welling up inside his chest. The archer was still staring at him, the hurt look slowly being replaced by a more frightening emotion.
The chair Doumeki was sitting in jerked backwards and crashed to the floor as he flew to his feet. His eyes were narrowed as he glared angrily at the boy on the bed, suspicion radiating from him in near visible waves.
Where the heck had this come from?
Watanuki had cringed back in into his pillow when the other teen rose suddenly and now he could only look up at his companion in perplexity and apprehension as he hovered menacingly over the bed.
"Who are you?"
'Eh?'
"Eh?"
Doumeki's fists balled up at his sides and for a split second Watanuki feared he was about to be hit. His head pounded as his brain struggled to keep up with these new messed up situations that kept presenting themselves to him. Since when didn't Doumeki know his name?
"Who. Are. You." It wasn't even a question anymore, really. More like a grinding of words from beneath clenched teeth.
A ripple of anxiety wavered through the smaller boy's body and he was almost afraid to answer in face of the other boy's barely concealed anger.
"Wh-what are you talking about, Doumeki? You know who I am..."
Doumeki didn't say anything for a moment as his chest rose and fell in a heavy rhythm that reminded Watanuki of someone desperately trying to catch their breath.
"I... don't think I do."
Watanuki blinked at the whispered words. Something was completely wrong and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was. Why was Doumeki so upset? What in the world was going on here?
For a moment, the archer's face lightened, as if a thought occurred to him, before asking, "What day is it."
As random as the question was, it was no more out of place than anything else that had happened so far, so the answer came immediately.
"November 3rd."
Pursed lips and then, "What year?"
That one threw Watanuki off for a second, but he still answered promptly, "2006."
He hadn't hit his head that hard...
Doumeki took a step closer to the bed, with a determined look. "What did we do on your birthday?"
Okay, even for the weird situation he was in, that was still kind of a non sequitur. Brow scrunched in puzzlement, he could only repeat the question.
"My birthday?"
Golden eyes bore into his own. "What did we do."
Unable to look away from such an intense gaze, Watanuki wracked his muddled brain to try and figure out what exactly they had done all those months ago.
"Um, I think we had a picnic. No that's right, we did. We went to the park with Yuuko-san, Mokona, and Himawari-chan." He would have smile at the memory if he hadn't been getting a stare down at the moment. It had actually been a good day.
"That's all?" Quietly.
"Um, yeah. That's all, but-"
"And the year before that?"
Watanuki had been on the verge of demanding to know what all these questions had to do with anything, when Doumeki's next question interrupted him. There was something desperate sounding in his voice, though the taller boy's eyes were no longer giving anything away.
Cautiously, Watanuki answered, "The same thing. Same park too."
There was unquestionably a desperate undercurrent to the next question.
"Nothing else happened that day? Nothing at all?"
"No, not really. It was... Pretty ordinary."
"Ordinary..."
It was beyond strange to be seeing so many emotions at once from someone Watanuki had always thought of as incredibly impassive. So when Doumeki suddenly sagged to the floor with a half choked laugh, he couldn't help but sit up in surprise and worry.
"Doumeki! What's wrong?'
Head bowed, palms on the floor, Doumeki knelt beside the bed, shaking almost imperceptibly. Needless to say, Watanuki was beginning to get freaked out at last. This was just so not normal!
Leaning over the mattress, the smaller boy put a hand on one trembling shoulder. The bowed head lifted and uncertain eyes locked with his.
Doumeki spoke next in such a pained voice that was almost hard to listen to.
"A person... can forget parts of their past, but... to forget things and have completely different memories..."
Watanuki distantly felt his hand slip from the archer's shoulder and flop back to the bed.
'Completely different memories?'
"What are you talking about?" he asked, barely above a whisper.
Once more, Doumeki's gaze pierced him through, until he felt as if the other boy was looking much farther inside him than was humanly possible.
"You, are not my Kimihiro."
AN- Thus ends chapter one. Critique is welcome and appreciated. Please let me know what you think of this, so I can improve in whatever way (first attempt at this after all). Thanks for reading!