Welcome to Gaia! ::

Series: xxxHOLiC
Pairings: Doumeki and Watanuki, of course!
Rating: T
Author's Note: So in the end, I didn't have to pay Yuuko my drawing skills; I just needed the right kick in the butt! ^_^ (Chapter one will be up today or tomorrow. It's being proofed at the moment! heart )
WARNING: Sequel; cannot be read alone; angst; seven deadly sins use.
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Prologue: Raining Inside
(And I'm still waiting for the rain to fall/ Pour real life down on me)

Understand that it was not the feelings that I wanted… It was you. Understand that I knew you would hurt when I offered my heart… It hurt me as well. Understand it and believe it when I say that I would rather die inside than be in a world without you… It may be ungrateful to all that you’ve done for me, but I myself would gladly die a thousand times in your place.
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Rain fell against his face, mixing with salt and metal; he slowly tilted his head up, ignoring the stars of pain that danced behind his eyes. He wanted to look up at the sky one last time, but the shard of his glasses dug against his eyelid so sharply that he knew he’d never see again…. If he were to live. He knew Doumeki had to be seeing blood from his eye…

He could feel blood trickling down his arm, and he could hear it drop from his fingers onto the ground.

He let the pain and the relief and the utter sacrifice overwhelm his body, and a shaky laugh left his bruised throat. Quickly, the laugh turned to shaking, heart-broken tears, and he knew that this was his price…

Doumeki’s life for his.
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His wounds were slowly healing, and he hated it; the closing hole in his heart meant that Watanuki was suffering.

He could hear the rain beginning to pour from outside the shoji-screen doors, and he stood slowly, taking the container that Yuuko had allotted for him. He slid his thumb around the edge, and blood began to build around a thin cut across the ball of his finger. He allowed for a few drops to fall into the ornate jar, and then he slipped outside, waiting for the rain to extinguish the fire that burned within the bottle.

It took five minutes, and when it was finally full, Doumeki left in search of Watanuki.
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“Will this work?”

Yuuko sighed, taking a long draw off of her pipe. “…All we can do is put our hope into those two,” she murmured ambiguously. “And pray that hitzusen is favorable towards them… Or this time… Watanuki will die.”

Author's Note: Hmmm... Editing took a while longer than I thought; I couldn't get happy with it... But, viola!!! So, the captions underneath the titles are song lyrics. The one for the prologue was "Good Enough" by Evanescence, and this one is... "How Does it Feel" by Avril... (At least I think that's the title of the song!)
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“There has to be a way to reverse the wish,” Doumeki insisted, scowling across the room at Yuuko.

The woman blew smoke to the ceiling, her maroon eyes boring into Doumeki from the side. “As I said before, on several occasions, the wish that was made first overweighs the second. I cannot do anything unless Watanuki himself wishes for it. Until then… he remains emotionless.”

The archer glowered, gritting his teeth. “He looked like he was about to break; I’d not call that emotionless!”

Yuuko sighed, slowly rising into a sitting position. “You’ve caught it?”

“If you mean the fact that you botched his wish, yes!” Doumeki growled, standing.

A small gasp emanated from the screened doorway, followed by a choked sob.

Doumeki turned slowly, his eyes resting on the tall, pale boy who stood, half-veiled, by the paper-screened door.

“Yuuko-san,” Watanuki whispered, stepping forward. “I have been contemplating the same…”

The archer winced; this wasn’t his Watanuki. His Kimihiro would scream and shout and pitch a hell of a fit for just even mentioning he wasn’t getting what he paid for. But… then… he did get what he paid for, he just didn’t pay for what he thought he was getting…

Yuuko exhaled slowly, shifting slowly, her silk and lace dress rustling as she stood. She straightened her hair, setting her pipe lightly on the table. “I wondered when you would notice, Watanuki.”

“What emotion did you leave?! That was the only way to save him! That was the only way,” the boy hissed, shaking all over. “What’s going to happen to him?”

“Don’t you care about yourself?” Doumeki snapped, stepping in front of Watanuki, glowering dangerously.

“Of course I don’t,” Watanuki replied flippantly. “I wasn’t the one dying. Can’t I save your life for once?”

The archer clamped his hands over the raven-haired boy’s shoulders and shook him. “You could have done something differently!”

Watanuki’s eyes slid shut, and after a moment he finally replied, his voice frail and sad. “Yeah,” he whispered, “I could have let you die… ”

Doumeki glowered for a moment, then pulled the raven-haired boy into a lip crushing kiss. Watanuki froze for a second, but soon pushed the taller boy off of him.

“Stop that! Stop!” he shrieked, tears pooling in his eyes. He turned away from the archer, staring at Yuuko. “What happened?” he whispered, “It hurts. Why is it like this?”

The woman crossed her arms underneath her chest, frowning. “Because it is part of your price,” she answered. Yuuko uncrossed her arms, gracefully waving at Watanuki and Doumeki to sit. Once the boys did so, she slid back into her own seat.

“But Yuuko-san, I thought…” “You never said anything…”

The witch silenced both of their protests with an outstretched hand. In her palm, was a braided rope of silver string. “These threads are Watanuki’s emotions. If you look closely, you will see that one is missing. … This missing string is pain.

“I could not take it because it was not part of your wish, Watanuki. You wished for the emotions that caused the empath to kill Doumeki to disappear. You felt no pain during the time that you were fed off of, therefore it was not included in the price.”

“Now all I can feel is pain,” Watanuki mumbled, shooting a watery glance at his once-lover. “And he remembers… This is why I wished your memories away, you!” he hissed.

Doumeki shrugged. “You figured it would cause less pain. … Bad planning on your part. But importantly,” he continued, directing his words towards Yuuko, “How do we fix this?”

Yuuko grinned slyly. “I grant your wish, of course. And to do so, we must return Watanuki-kun’s emotions.”

“But what about—”

“If it so entails in what Doumeki wishes for, we will also kill the empath,” the black-haired woman continued, leaning against the couch’s backing. At Doumeki’s slight nod, she laughed. “Well then! Let’s get down to business! Watanuki! Get us some liquor!”

Watanuki sighed, rolling his eyes. Some things never changed, he reasoned. “One day… you’ll die of liver cancer,” he remarked, standing.

Once in the hallway, he stopped and leaned against the wall. Everything was eating away at him, and it hurt. He raised a shaking hand to scrub the tears away from his eyes.

Something was going to go wrong, he just knew it… And he was scared to death.

O_O Umh... Chapter Two? (I am soooo sorry that I've not posted in a bazillion years!)

Chapter Two: Explanations (Challenges/ Never in a Million Years!)

“Do you remember/ Itami wo shiru koto de hito ni yasashiku hareu kara…”

(Do you remember/ By learning pain, you can be a person who can be kind to others…)

“So, to get right down to the matter,” Yuuko mused, draining her fifth glass of wine; “Your wish is to both return Watanuki’s emotions and banish Kieran, the empath.”

“That’s right,” Doumeki affirmed, shooting a warning glance over at Watanuki, who was about to protest.

“In that, Watanuki, you have a wish of your own.”

“Yes,” the bespectacled boy murmured. “I don’t want for the wounds to return to Doumeki. And, I want to be able to successfully kill Kieran.”

“Killing the empath falls under Doumeki’s wish,” the witch pointed out, handing her glass over to Watanuki to refill.

The boy grumbled. “I… Yuuko-san, you know what we want,” he mumbled finally. He averted his eyes, feeling the archer staring at him. Pain singed through his heart, and his eyes shut tightly. “I just want this to be smoothed out.”

“Yes, I see… Unfortunately, the outcome of your wishes is for you both to control; I cannot help you at all, for human emotions fall outside of the things I am allowed to meddle with. I will, however, implement a price for my services—the magic it takes to kill the empath, and to heal all wounds sustained in the battle with her—and for the information I am about to give.”

Both boys nodded, and Yuuko continued.

“I cannot give you a price at the moment, but I can tell you this… It is a price far too great to be paid by one alone, and both of you will be left in considerable debt… In fact, your struggles may be in vain, for I may have to take the source of your happiness away; I am warning you now. There is no telling how much magic will be necessary to kill the empath, nor how much time it will take to regain Watanuki’s lost emotions…

“That said: do you wish to continue?”

“I’ve made my choice,” Doumeki said, nodding.

“I’ll… see it until the end,” Watanuki whispered, growing pale. His hands began to shake, and his eyes were wide with something akin to terror.

Yuuko nodded, and took a long draft from her pipe, which seemed to have appeared from nowhere. Smoke quickly filled the room, and the characteristic winds of Yuuko’s magic-laden speeches stirred at her sleeves and hair.

“There are eight emotions that are the spring of all; any other emotions are simply the vestiges of one of the seven. During the course of history, humans have struggled with this idea, finally grasping it. Some call them the Seven Deadly Sins. They are not sins, however, but feelings that are essential to living, for no one is able to live without them… In number, however, these ‘sins’ are lacking one; the missing emotion is pain.

“However, we needn’t bother with the eighth, since it was never taken from your heart. What we need to worry about are the other seven: Sloth, greed, gluttony, wrath, envy, pride, and lust. Because you have the eighth emotion you posses the potential to feel the other seven, and therefore the other ranges of emotions that come with the seven.

“By fully embracing your pain, you can become whole once more,” Yuuko concluded, blowing a thick column of smoke into the air before placing her pipe onto the table. “And once you come to terms with what hurts you the most, you can find the catalysts for the other seven… You’ve already begun to feel again, haven’t you Watanuki?”

Watanuki looked from Yuuko to Doumeki, shaking even harder. “I’m scared something’s going to go wrong, Yuuko-san… That this time, someone will really die…”

“Fear pains you, Watanuki. Fear is a vestigial emotion of pain. …Your journey has already begun.” The black-haired woman picked up her liquor glass and took a long, dainty drink. “As for your other wish, and Doumeki’s as well… It will be granted when the time comes.”

The two boys nodded, and Yuuko stood. She grinned, raising her glass into the air as if to make a toast. “You know… I could really go for some chocolate cake right now,” she cheered.

And that was the end of that discussion.


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Doumeki and Watanuki left the shop, side by side, in silence. Once at the gate, the two stopped and stared at each other for a long time, until Doumeki broke the silence. “Come live with me.”

Watanuki paused for a long moment, seemingly thinking it over. He did not splutter, blush, protest, or scream as he normally did; he was nowhere near restored to his old self. “I don’t see what purpose it will serve.”

“You’ll be protected until the time comes to fight… And we can try to break the spell on you in the spare time. You’ve no intentions of returning to school,” the archer stated, never even batting an eyelash.

“No. Yuuko-san said that Kieran will come back. I don’t—”

“You don’t want for me to be hurt again,” Doumeki finished. “But either way, the wounds will return, there’s nothing you can do about that.”

“I’ll stay at the shop,” Watanuki intoned, turning his back on Doumeki. “And my wish prevents the wounds from returning to you. They’ll come t me instead,” he muttered stubbornly.

“What good does that do you?”

“A lot,” the younger boy sighed, “It’ll keep both you and I safe. It may take longer to grant my wish, but I’m willing to wait if it—”

Doumeki grabbed Watanuki’s shoulders and spun the boy around, staring him down. “I don’t want any of this self-sacrificing crap that you do—it does no good for you to estrange yourself now!”

Watanuki flinched, turning his head away from Doumeki’s golden glare. “Fine,” he whispered. “I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll stay with you… for a while.”

“I won’t let you get hurt,” the archer swore, glaring down at his once-lover. “Not after all we’ve been through.”


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“I’m not sleeping in the same room as you are,” Watanuki protested dryly, his duffle bag slung irately over his shoulder. “Give me a guestroom.”

“Unfortunately, the guestroom is on the other side of temple grounds, and therefore defeats the purpose. Besides, she—”

“I know! Yuuko-san said it was best if we became just as we were…” The boy sighed, waving his hand dismissively. He dropped his bag on the floor, sitting on it afterwards. “I don’t get why here; you used to live with me…”

Doumeki shrugged, pulling a spare futon from his closet. “…It’s safer here.”

“I still have the ofuda charms,” Watanuki mumbled, shrugging.

“There’s a limit to what those can do. I spoke with Yuuko, and she said that Kieran shouldn’t be able to step food on temple grounds.”

“Why are you going to such lengths to protect me!?”

Doumeki shot Watanuki a sad glare. “Because I love you,” he answered simply.

“Why?” The raven-haired teen shook his head, tears welling in his eyes. “It’s my fault,” he whimpered, cradling his face in his hands. “I’m the one she fed on; I’m the one who was scared! It’s my fault you almost died.”

“Shut up,” Doumeki admonished, reaching out to tip Watanuki’s face upwards. “It’s not your fault. It was her decision to feed on you; it was my decision to stay as long as I could to protect you.”

Watanuki trembled at the force of Doumeki’s convictions, feeling his face being guided closer to his ex-lover’s.

Doumeki gave the younger boy a chaste kiss before releasing him. Watanuki stared up at the archer with a distraught expression, hands trembling against the sheets.

“You may not love me now, but I know you will. I’m determined to make sure you’re never hurt again.”

With a quite whimper, Watanuki threw his arms around Doumeki’s shoulders, clinging to the other teen. Never before could he remember feeling this helpless.