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Abiding

Watanuki’s and Doumeki’s first kiss—the way you know it would really happen. Romance In Denial, I-3

Pairing(s): Doumeki/Watanuki

“You have to kiss.”

“WHAT?!”

Yuuko-san smiled so evilly that Kimihiro’s heart plummeted; that look could only mean she was serious. “This is a lovers’ gate,” she explained in a tone of immense reason, patting the right-hand pillar of the arch standing alone on the shop lawn. Her eyes gleamed. “You do want to get the mirrored shoes back, don’t you? After all, you were the one who let them escape…”

“How was I supposed to know shoes would run away?!” Kimihiro protested, utterly indignant. A pair of shoes should not jump out of their box, giggling, when one dusted them.

“Mmm, well I suppose I could let them go,” Yuuko mused, tapping a finger against her lips. Despite knowing, knowing, that it was a set-up, Kimihiro looked up hopefully. Yuuko-san smiled cheerily, hands clasped. “I’ll just put it on your tab! Lots and lots more time of Watanuki’s cooking for me!”

Kimihiro slumped as Maru and Moro cheered from the porch. He’d known it.

He mustered up a glare to shoot at the other party involved, though. “Why aren’t you saying anything?” he growled.

Doumeki gave him one of those infuriatingly unconcerned looks and raised an eyebrow.

“Oooh, Doumeki-kun isn’t as excited by the idea as Watanuki is,” Yuuko-san cooed.

“WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT?!” Kimihiro howled. “The whole idea is ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous! And I don’t need you making it any WORSE!” He stood, panting, glaring death at Yuuko-san, who just leaned against the carved arch, watching him with casual interest.

“So, you’re going then?”

Kimihiro growled once more at her knowing smile, before he admited defeat and turned to face Doumeki. “All right, fine, let’s get on with it, then.”

Doumeki stayed right where he’d been since the start of the discussion, looking down at Kimihiro calmly. “Scared?”

Kimihiro vibrated with rage. “OF COURSE I’M NOT SCARED YOU JERK!” He jerked his chin to the side and looked past Doumeki with a disdainful snort. “It’s just that anyone who isn’t a total idiot would have… reservations about this kind of thing.”

He jumped as a hand touched his jaw, and stared, frozen, as Doumeki turned Kimihiro’s head back toward him. Was he going to…? Kimihiro’s breath tried to sprint out of his lungs on a tiny squeak he would never admit to having made.

But no. Doumeki was just standing there with his hand warming Kimihiro’s jaw. Like he was waiting. Disgustingly calm, just like always, just… waiting.

Kimihiro’s thoughts jumbled around inside his head, and one that didn’t usually get loose made it to the surface. Doumeki always waited, like this.

Waited on Kimihiro’s choices.

Which meant he was going to have to…

Kimihiro swallowed, a little light-headed as he felt his throat move against Doumeki’s palm. He clenched and unclenched his hands a few times before he finally managed to step forward. If he hadn’t been staring fixedly at Doumeki, he’d never have seen the tiny nod before Doumeki’s hand firmed on his chin. Kimihiro closed his eyes as Doumeki’s head bent down toward him; he could do this, but he didn’t think he could watch.

In retrospect, that could have been a mistake.

Without his sight to distract him, all he could concentrate on was the feeling of Doumeki’s mouth brushing his, and the fact that his lips were soft and warm.

He also couldn’t see Yuuko coming around behind him to shove them both unceremoniously through the archway. He could hear her laughing perfectly well, though, even over his own squawk as he was shoved further into Doumeki’s arms.


Doumeki didn’t wait for his approval for the second kiss.

In justice, which Kimihiro was, eventually, able to muster, at least in the privacy of his own mind, running with a pack of flying monkeys on one’s heels wasn’t really the best time to wait for anything. And it was possible that Doumeki wouldn’t have done it at all if Kimihiro hadn’t wondered, with what little breath he wasn’t using to run, whether the gate would let them back through without another kiss. But still.

It was… disconcerting to find himself pulled nearly off his feet, against the length of Doumeki’s body, and kissed much more firmly than before, and, in the next instant, to find them both sprawled in the grass of Yuuko-san’s lawn where they’d tumbled through the gate.

“Ow,” he said, eventually. It was mostly a pro forma protest, since Doumeki was still holding him tightly and had broken his fall. He felt the shoes being removed from his fingers and squinted up at Yuuko-san, wondering why she was blurry. Had he hit his head? Doumeki was perfectly clear, though, when he levered himself up on an elbow and looked down at Kimihiro.

It was less clear why he was running his fingers through Kimihiro’s hair, and Kimihiro was opening his mouth to protest, despite the fact that it actually felt rather nice, but he had standards after all, when Doumeki dropped his glasses over his nose and everything came back into focus.

“They came loose,” Doumeki informed him. “You should get contacts for doing things like this.”

Kimihiro swelled with outrage. “Who says you get to tell me what I should do?” He extracted himself from their tangle of limbs and brushed himself off fastidiously. “Ah!” He straightened as another thought struck him, and pointed accusingly at Doumeki. “Especially after you stole my first kiss!”

“Mm. Second too,” Doumeki agreed, straightening his clothing.

“You… you… you…!” Kimihiro couldn’t come up with a name bad enough to call him. “DOUMEKI!”

Actually, that one summed it up pretty well.

He spun around to glare at Yuuko-san, who, sure enough, was grinning. As she opened her mouth, he cut across her hastily. “Ah, we’re done now, right? So you’ll be wanting some sake, right? I’ll just go get you some.”

Anything to keep her mouth busy with something besides teasing him.

Her laughter and Mokona’s enthusiastic approval trailed him into the house and Kimihiro sighed as he fetched down the sake bottle. He decided to bring out four cups, today. If he was really lucky a little sake would take away both the feeling of Doumeki’s mouth on his and the memory of calm, unquestioning eyes watching, waiting for his choice.

He didn’t think he could get rid of the memory of making the choice that Doumeki abided by, but he could certainly try.

A person had to keep some standards, after all.

End

Last Modified: May 15, 12
Posted: Oct 04, 06
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25 Comments

  1. lady-readwolf

    [giggles]
    Gods… at first, Watanuki really annoyed the heck out of me…. but now… I just can’t stop giggling. ^_^ [frowns] speaking of which…. I should try to look up those scans for Holic again. Wanna know what’s happening since the anime’s taking its time. :/

    You captured the personalities spot on. This was an absolute joy to read!

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      *hearts* Thank you!

      I really like the way the characters in Holic are developing; it’s probably tied with Veda as my favorite CLAMP manga. There’s an MSN group that has it up… exexexholic, I think.

      Reply
  2. akane2040

    It was less clear why he was running his fingers through Kimihiro’s hair, and Kimihiro was opening his mouth to protest, despite the fact that it actually felt rather nice, but he had standards after all, when Doumeki dropped his glasses over his nose and everything came back into focus.

    “They came loose,” Doumeki informed him. “You should get contacts for doing things like this.”

    That was one of my favourite bits from this piece. I enjoyed reading. Subtle and yet obvious, IMO,…just like the pairing… Thx for sharing.
    R.

    Reply
  3. lunargeography

    Just loved Doumeki here. Perfectly willing, eager even, but not showing it. And making sure Watanuki made his choice…. and then being the initiator. *squee!*

    Thanks!

    Reply
    1. branchandroot Post author

      *hearts* Thank you! *grins* If these two really did get together they’d totally make people snicker softly at them in the street, with their bickering and their sweetness.

      Reply
  4. dorrie6@insanejournal

    Somehow I don’t think I saw this story before! Or if I have… well, it’s possible I’m losing my mind. In any case, it’s really lovely. Doumeki in particular I feel is extremely in-character. Well, everyone is, but Doumeki very charmingly so. I’m so glad to have stumbled on this just now!

    Reply
    1. Icon for BranchBranch Post author

      *pleased* Thank you! It took me a while to get the feel for them, but really Doumeki is such a Clamp seme–total emotional sub and adorable about it. ^_^

      Reply
  5. dorrie6@insanejournal

    Okay, this is off-topic, but can you tell me what WordPress plugins you use to 1) allow the use of LJ & IJ icons, and 2) send comment reply e-mails?

    I downloaded things I thought would work for both of these, and they either don’t work with my layout, or just plain don’t work. I wondered if you have the secret plugins. 🙂

    Reply
    1. Icon for BranchBranch Post author

      Sure! The icons are actually my own rewrite of another plugin. It’s the third one down on this page. You should know a smidge of php, for it, since it’s one that needs you to copy in the tag to call it where you want it in your comments.php. There’s directions included.

      The comments are WP Thread Comment. It’s a really great plugin; you can customize it entirely through the Settings page, and adjust the CSS to make it fit in prettily. (The real secret is I do all my own layout design ^_^) You’ll want to adjust the wording for the replies and so on, too, because it was written by a non-native English speaker.

      Reply
      1. dorrie6@insanejournal

        Thank you so much! I may not know enough php to handle the first one, but I do know a tiny bit, so I will try! I do admire your skillz! 😀

        Reply
      2. dorrie6@insanejournal

        I just wanted to thank you again, because I have got both of these working! I’m having one issue with the icons, in that for some reason, I can only get them to show up in the first comment in a thread, but I’m working on it!

        I must tell more people about this fic, so that you can have more comments over here that aren’t about freakin’ WordPress. 🙂

        Reply
        1. Icon for BranchBranch Post author

          Oh, I think I know what that is. The little function call for the icons needs to go into the ‘edit comment html’ Settings window where you make the code for threaded comments. I find it easiest to just copy my whole print-each-comment loop into that window and add the ‘comment-childs’ class and the echo $deep%2 ? ‘ chalt’ : ”; line of php into that. But if you’re making your threaded comments simple, you probably just need to paste in the icon call in the header, in that window.

          My pleasure, really!

          Reply
  6. Aka-chan

    *squeals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* Wow. That was…wow….*squeals again!, then blushes*…yeah, wow. Ok, I’m not making any sense; let me try again: That was bloody brilliant. Great characterization; Doumeki, especially, was so…him. 😀 I’m glad to have found this fic.

    Reply
    1. Icon for BranchBranch Post author

      *hearts* Thank you! Doumeki is hard to do, so it’s wonderful to hear he worked out here. Him and his lack of expression and never saying what he thinks. *chuckles*

      Reply
  7. Shinigamis_fish@livejournal.com

    You are so awesome. There are no words to describe it. ^__^ Has anyone read the fic where Watanuki has to wear a maid’s dress before they can kiss to stabilize a dimension? I yours better, but that one’s funny too. If only for the images. Watanuki in a dress…Hee ^__^ Yes, I’m a shameless pervert. Your point?

    Reply
  8. MeganeSensei (zlabya)

    Oh, my, your descriptions of their actions as well as the dialogue are totally in character!

    OMG this line: “You… you… you…!” Kimihiro couldn’t come up with a name bad enough to call him. “DOUMEKI!”

    I howled. That is exactly what would happen.

    Reply
  9. Iambic

    Dang. I haven’t read Holic fic in ages, but this is really in-character and I really enjoyed it. And it’s just the right mixture of wacky hijinks and occult creatures and rituals to fit the source.

    Reply
  10. Cuddy

    Doukemi… no Doume… Douka… ah Doumeki xD damn I just can’t get his name right xD Especially not when reading it, which is sort of annoying ’cause it’s like a mental sticking point to me owo D’aw man but I like him, or rather the way he’s handling this ://D But he’s rather quiet, isn’t he? I thought he might never speak, then again why speak, when Kimi… *scrolls up* Kimihiro would badmouth it anyway I guess… I don’t know I’m just thinking xD Would he?
    *purrs* Well I guess Douke… Doumeki x//D” would enjoy a third kiss, thus I don’t think a few glasses of sake will help him get rid of his taste //D
    Had very much fun reading this <3
    *leaves kudos*

    Reply