“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