tampered | ongoing, closed

ongoing, closed

When; Midnight of the 25th
Rating; G?
Characters; Watanuki and Doumeki
Summary; Watanuki had disappeared for the entire day, and then he re-appeared.
Log;

He wasn't sure how it had happened. It had been any ordinary morning, and Watanuki had gotten up early to get everyone up and going for the day. He had walked past Doumeki's door, pounding his fist against it twice as he said "Get up," and continued walking to the kitchen. Fifteen minutes after that, when breakfast was on the table yet Doumeki wasn't up yet, Watanuki had frowned and walked briskly back to the bedroom. "Didn't you hear me? I said wake up!"

But when he had opened the door, Doumeki hadn't been there. And a quick check of the other rooms had shown Watanuki that none of his numerous roommates were anywhere to be found. That's when he had thought to check the network and see if he had missed something. But he had left his device in his room, as he usually did in the morning, and it was nowhere to be found when he had gone searching for it. That was when Watanuki had started to panic.

The rest of the day had been a long, exhausting blur for him. He had frantically traveled from place to place, from store to store, looking for someone, ANYONE. But he was alone. Nobody answered his yells, and nobody else was wandering around, looking for someone else. He was completely alone.

His worst fears had become a reality.

While the sun set, Watanuki finally trekked back to the apartment, and he curled up in a ball on his bed. Had everyone been taken home? But if they had, then why was he the only one left? Was he the only one not worthy of going home? Did he really not belong there? It reminded him of that one time, when for a moment it had looked like he hadn't existed back home. Everyone must have forgotten about him, he realized suddenly. Why would they remember him? They all had forgotten before, so of course they would forget now. All he could do now was wait, alone, until he finally faded away from existence.

Several hours later, far into the night, Watanuki had finally gotten up from bed. He couldn't stand waiting here any longer. He wanted to be somewhere else, though he didn't quite know where. But even if his mind didn't know where to go, his body did. Soon Watanuki found himself in Doumeki's room, and as he realized just where he was he said "Is this....but why?"

But he could find a little comfort here, at least. He walked over to the bed and considered it for a moment. He was mentally exhausted, and he just wanted to finally go to sleep. Maybe he would disappear when he fell asleep, too. But it would be rude of him to sleep in someone else's bed, wouldn't it? So instead he picked up Doumeki's pillow and went to sit in the corner, his back resting against a wall. He pulled his knees up close to him, put the pillow on top of his knees, and he rested his head on the pillow. But instead of sleeping, Watanuki found his frantic feelings from the day catching up to him, and tears began to roll down his cheeks. It wasn't fair. What had he done to deserve something like this? He had always lived a good life, hadn't he? He wasn't a bad person. So why...?

Watanuki buried his face in the pillow as he sobbed softly to himself. "It's not fair," he said, his voice, muffled by the pillow, cracking as he cried. And he was so caught up in himself that he didn't notice the sudden sound of footsteps as his 'world' merged back with where everyone else was, and he suddenly was in a room with someone who was pacing.

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It was one of those days when you weren't sure if it was just a curse, someone had gone home, or something was seriously wrong, even outside of the first two options. Doumeki had spent most of the day looking for Watanuki, going from his work to the Hall of the Missing, Xanadu, the zoo--essentially as much of the area as he could get to. He even went down into the underground and by the subway (despite the sick feeling in his stomach as he ventured down there) to try and find him, but after turning up absolutely nothing, he had gone back to his apartment. Oddly, he wasn't feeling that hungry, and he wandered into his bedroom.

There wasn't much to do but sit and wait it out until midnight, and hope that Watanuki reappeared. That, of course, proved difficult. He ended up getting up going through his photo album, to checking his bow for any blemishes, to cleaning his katana, to reorganizing what he had on his bookshelf, and finally, pacing.

He couldn't have been doing that for more than ten minutes, and was facing his bookshelf when he suddenly felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He glanced up to his clock on the shelf: 12:01 AM.

Past midnight.

If Watanuki was going to come back, it would be now. Doumeki turned and...speak of the devil. Or, not so much the devil, but you know what the sentiment is. Either way, he's incredibly relieved to see him, moving towards the bed. "....Oi."

Now Watanuki definitely heard that. For a moment he thought he had imagined it, and he was sure it was a sign that he was going nuts. But he could be wrong, right? He just had to check. So he lifted his head off of the pillow a little, and he looked up as he weakly said, "Doumeki...?"

His face was red and wet from his tears, as was the pillow. However, he seemed to have stopped for now, mostly because of that one glimmer of hope that a single word had given him.

And he just squats down in front of him. "Watanuki." I'm here.

He could see Doumeki, but was he hallucinating? It could have been his mind tricking him. He reached out with a shaky hand, just hoping to touch some part of Doumeki and find that he was real, as he said, "Is it really you...?"

Edited 2009-07-26 02:05 (UTC)

Doumeki reached out to take Watanuki's hand, fingers closing around his gently, a solid weight and warmth.

"Yeah."

It was real. HE was real. Watanuki felt like he was going to cry, but this time it would be tears of joy. "You're real...I'm not imagining this..."

He couldn't help himself. He reached up and hugged Doumeki tightly, holding on for dear life. If he let go, would Doumeki disappear again? He didn't want to even risk it.

Doumeki is a bit startled as he's suddenly hugged, throwing him a bit off balance and onto his rear--but it's not like he minds. In fact, he's quite happy to know he's alright--and he's wrapping an arm around his shoulders, holding him, cheek resting against Watanuki's temple.

While he was so close, it was easy to notice that he was shaking a little. That was to be expected, though: the whole event was traumatizing. For a long time he didn't move, content to just stay close to someone after being alone for so long. He didn't even register that he should be flailing and spazzing about how it would have been better if it was Himawari.

It is easy to notice his shaking, and his arm tightens around him a little, anchoring him. "You disappeared. What happened?" A curse, obviously, since he's back at midnight. But what SORT of curse was it?

It took Watanuki a moment, but when he could talk finally he ended up spilling it all. "I'm not sure what happened. I went to cook breakfast, but when I went to wake everyone up then everyone was gone! There wasn't a single person in this place: not at the apartments, not at the stores, nowhere. I looked and looked, and I couldn't find anyone."

It was pretty obvious that it was traumatizing for him. But as he talked he managed to get his bearings back, and he started to return to his normal self. "You better never, EVER do that again, got it? You're not allowed to disappear like that!"

Pretty obvious indeed. "You're not allowed to do that again either." He had enough scares with Watanuki disappearing to last him a lifetime. And he's not letting go until the other boy does.

"It's not like I did it on purpose," Watanuki said under his breath, not realizing the irony in his words. Still, he was grateful for Doumeki and the fact that he was there, and he found himself not wanting to let go for some odd reason he didn't really want to think about too much. It took a lot of effort to finally let go as he said, "It's pretty late, I should probably let you get some sleep now."

"You should get some sleep also." Doumeki ducked his head a little bit to peer at him.

He looked better overall then he had been just after the curse had ended. But he was giving Doumeki one of his 'looks,' and after a moment of silence he said, "I'll go to bed once you move so I can get up."

The corner of Doumeki's mouth quirked just slightly at that. "Alright." His arm dropped, before he pushed to his feet, offering Watanuki a hand.

Watanuki noticed that, and he said, "Hey! No laughing!" But still, he took Doumeki's hand and pulled himself up to his feet.

"M'not laughing." Not this time, anyway. It just made him smile. And he's helping Watanuki pull himself up, not letting go of his hand instantly, but holding on for just a moment longer before he does release him.

"And you better not start, either."

Watanuki knew he should have left the room on that note, but something was stopping him. Maybe it was the fear from what had happened? If he was alone again, would another day like the last one happen? He definitely didn't want that. "Y-You'll be able to sleep, right? I mean, I'm sure you were in a panic today, what with me disappearing and all." He was dancing gracefully around the issue, and he hoped that Doumeki didn't see through it.

He definitely heard that brief stutter is what he did. "Yeah, I was." He's not going to deny that. "...I'd sleep better if I was close enough to make sure you didn't disappear again."

Watanuki looked away quickly, not because he didn't like Doumeki's idea (it was only for his safety, he insisted on making that point clear) but because he didn't want Doumeki to see that his cheeks were slightly pink now. It was because he was annoyed. It had to be. Watanuki refused to admit that it was for any other reason. "Well if you're going to insist, then I guess I can stay here," he said, "But that's the only reason why! It wouldn't be fair if you lost sleep because of a stupid curse like that."

"Okay." Well that worked better than he thought it would. "You should probably get your pajamas."

Watanuki made a huffy sound, and then he said, "And what if I disappear again?" That was his whole reason for staying, after all.

Good point. "You can borrow a pair of mine." And he's moving to grab a pair out of his drawer.

Watanuki took them, though he didn't put them on right away. "Turn around," he ordered. He wasn't going to leave the room, but he would at least make Doumeki look away.

Damn. Oh well. Doumeki turned slowly, until his back was to Watanuki. "Alright."

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