storypaint (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
storypaint) wrote2009-01-07 10:39 pm
storypaint) wrote2009-01-07 10:39 pm
Seeking (Watanuki gen)
Title: Seeking
Crossover: Cardcaptor Sakura/xxxHOLiC/Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Length: 1121 words
Prompt: n/a
Pairing: Watanuki, Nakuru, Fai gen
Other: AU; the one in which they're all roommates
Excerpt: He falls asleep in microbiology and changes his major to psychology with focus in the parapsychology so he has an excuse to paw through the library. He reads books with gentle hands, as though he is afraid they will burn under his fingertips. He sleeps in English class and looks up the footnotes in necromancy books instead of doing homework.
Watanuki goes to college on a scholarship for orphaned students. He dreams about ghostdeathsmogmonsters snapping at his heels for three straight weeks. The bed is narrow and the room is too dark at midnight to wait up until dawn.
He falls asleep in microbiology and changes his major to psychology with focus in the parapsychology so he has an excuse to paw through the library. He reads books with gentle hands, as though he is afraid they will burn under his fingertips. He sleeps in English class and looks up the footnotes in necromancy books instead of doing homework.
He is nearly failing out of college when he sees the note on the message board. Seeking roommates, it says simply, with a phone number. Watanuki feels the things nipping at his heels and he has to force his eyes to focus in order to write down the phone number, but he does.
There is a little townhouse on the edge of the university campus, and this is where Watanuki goes. The grass is well-groomed and the place has a general feeling of newness to it that Watanuki likes. He walks through the grass instead of on the concrete, feeling an odd urge to smile and not realizing why until he is leaving.
The monsters (the ghosts?paranormal?supernatural?psychologycannotsay) did not chase him up the walk.
When the landlord calls him back the next week and offers him the room, Watanuki moves in the next day, and he sleeps from dusk to dawn, and then from dusk to dawn again. It is a heavy sleep and the room is moon-bright when he wakes to shuffle to the bathroom.
*
Watanuki has two roommates in the little townhouse. The first is his landlord, Flowright-san, a lanky man with blonde hair and tired eyes. He tells Watanuki that the kitchen sink leaks a bit and that he teaches fourth grade at the nearby elementary school. The thought makes Watanuki shudder; something great and awful owns the school, and that's the reason the children fail, not because they cannot learn, but because they cannot breathe.
Flowright looks at him and blinks politely; Watanuki makes up a vapid reason for the shudder and is about to mention it when their other roommate arrives.
His (her?) name is Akizuki Nakuru and he (she?) is in the process of becoming truly female. She spins around in a circle on the scuffed tile floor, twirling her skirt, and says that she feels at home already.
Ruby Moon, Watanuki mouths, quite unsure why, but this time no one notices his slip-up.
*
Watanuki has always been an observer and he sometimes falls asleep in the window nook where he has been doing his homework and watching passersby.
He does not dream often, now that he is freed from the ancient weight of the university building. He drops Parapsychology I and Introduction to Microbiology, his only night classes, and he tries to get home before dark. Somehow theyitwhat do not quite dare to chase him in the day, not anymore. There is something about Flowright-san's building that keeps them away. He has given up reasoning it through.
There are very few things, if any, that a human mind is unable to adapt to.
But there is something strange about each of his roommates, and though Watanuki's strangeness may fade to a dark place behind his right eye, he can still see it in the others. Flowright is accompanied home every day by a man who looks disconcertingly like Death personified, all hulking black trenchcoat and dark eyes. The dark man keeps a hand on Flowright's arm as if he is afraid that the slight blonde man will get away from him. Flowright doesn't seem to care. He wraps his hand around the dark man's arm and chats at him, content, and they look for all the world like a pair of young lovers.
And the dark man shoves Flowright onto the grass each day and walks away, trenchcoat flapping in the breeze, and Flowright sighs, and hangs his head, and goes indoors. Watanuki has seen the same scene play out five times, and that is enough for him to suspect this is a familiar routine.
He wonders what Flowright has done.
But not enough to move.
Flowright always smiles when he comes in after class, and that's enough.
*
For a while, Watanuki believes that the only thing strange about Nakuru is her transition. She is so awkward and confident and utterly female that it puts him in mind of high school, of girls trying too hard and lipstick on locker mirrors and a world he has only vague hints of, even now.
She is curious enough to be foreign and he hears it in her voice. She booms with confidence like the stereotypical American, but she is British, and she has left behind someone important to her there. She has never said so, but Watanuki knows the body language of loss, and he sees it sometimes lurking behind her exuberance.
She talks at him a lot when she is home, but she is always dashing off to a party or a class or her job. Sometimes Watanuki wonders at her popularity-- he has never heard of someone like her transitioning into her new life with such ease-- but he suspects that she simply tries so hard that people like her. She tells him all about her girlfriends, throwing off names like Watanuki has known them forever-- Tomoyo, Yumi, Himawari, Souma, Hotoko. Watanuki smiles at her; he cannot help it.
There is one bathroom in the townhouse and it is inevitable; Watanuki walks in on her twice. The first time, she doesn't talk to him for a week. He isn't exactly comfortable either.
The second time, he sees her wings in the moonlight, spread out in the small bathroom. She is poised on the windowsill and the look she gives him over her shoulder is a gaze of utter fear.
He wonders for a moment how she gets in and out of the window without snapping pinions. Then he nods at her politely and goes back to bed.
*
They're all a little strange, but the world moves on, and there is very little a human mind cannot adapt to.
Perhaps nothing.
They room together for two years before Nakuru moves back to England and Flowright moves in with the dark man. (Well, these are the things they tell Watanuki, anyway.)
He stays in the townhouse alone for three months before he puts up the notice.
Seeking roommates, he writes in a steady hand, and he waits for them to come, sitting out on the green, green grass and watching strangers walk by.
Crossover: Cardcaptor Sakura/xxxHOLiC/Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Length: 1121 words
Prompt: n/a
Pairing: Watanuki, Nakuru, Fai gen
Other: AU; the one in which they're all roommates
Excerpt: He falls asleep in microbiology and changes his major to psychology with focus in the parapsychology so he has an excuse to paw through the library. He reads books with gentle hands, as though he is afraid they will burn under his fingertips. He sleeps in English class and looks up the footnotes in necromancy books instead of doing homework.
Watanuki goes to college on a scholarship for orphaned students. He dreams about ghostdeathsmogmonsters snapping at his heels for three straight weeks. The bed is narrow and the room is too dark at midnight to wait up until dawn.
He falls asleep in microbiology and changes his major to psychology with focus in the parapsychology so he has an excuse to paw through the library. He reads books with gentle hands, as though he is afraid they will burn under his fingertips. He sleeps in English class and looks up the footnotes in necromancy books instead of doing homework.
He is nearly failing out of college when he sees the note on the message board. Seeking roommates, it says simply, with a phone number. Watanuki feels the things nipping at his heels and he has to force his eyes to focus in order to write down the phone number, but he does.
There is a little townhouse on the edge of the university campus, and this is where Watanuki goes. The grass is well-groomed and the place has a general feeling of newness to it that Watanuki likes. He walks through the grass instead of on the concrete, feeling an odd urge to smile and not realizing why until he is leaving.
The monsters (the ghosts?paranormal?supernatural?psychologycannotsay) did not chase him up the walk.
When the landlord calls him back the next week and offers him the room, Watanuki moves in the next day, and he sleeps from dusk to dawn, and then from dusk to dawn again. It is a heavy sleep and the room is moon-bright when he wakes to shuffle to the bathroom.
*
Watanuki has two roommates in the little townhouse. The first is his landlord, Flowright-san, a lanky man with blonde hair and tired eyes. He tells Watanuki that the kitchen sink leaks a bit and that he teaches fourth grade at the nearby elementary school. The thought makes Watanuki shudder; something great and awful owns the school, and that's the reason the children fail, not because they cannot learn, but because they cannot breathe.
Flowright looks at him and blinks politely; Watanuki makes up a vapid reason for the shudder and is about to mention it when their other roommate arrives.
His (her?) name is Akizuki Nakuru and he (she?) is in the process of becoming truly female. She spins around in a circle on the scuffed tile floor, twirling her skirt, and says that she feels at home already.
Ruby Moon, Watanuki mouths, quite unsure why, but this time no one notices his slip-up.
*
Watanuki has always been an observer and he sometimes falls asleep in the window nook where he has been doing his homework and watching passersby.
He does not dream often, now that he is freed from the ancient weight of the university building. He drops Parapsychology I and Introduction to Microbiology, his only night classes, and he tries to get home before dark. Somehow theyitwhat do not quite dare to chase him in the day, not anymore. There is something about Flowright-san's building that keeps them away. He has given up reasoning it through.
There are very few things, if any, that a human mind is unable to adapt to.
But there is something strange about each of his roommates, and though Watanuki's strangeness may fade to a dark place behind his right eye, he can still see it in the others. Flowright is accompanied home every day by a man who looks disconcertingly like Death personified, all hulking black trenchcoat and dark eyes. The dark man keeps a hand on Flowright's arm as if he is afraid that the slight blonde man will get away from him. Flowright doesn't seem to care. He wraps his hand around the dark man's arm and chats at him, content, and they look for all the world like a pair of young lovers.
And the dark man shoves Flowright onto the grass each day and walks away, trenchcoat flapping in the breeze, and Flowright sighs, and hangs his head, and goes indoors. Watanuki has seen the same scene play out five times, and that is enough for him to suspect this is a familiar routine.
He wonders what Flowright has done.
But not enough to move.
Flowright always smiles when he comes in after class, and that's enough.
*
For a while, Watanuki believes that the only thing strange about Nakuru is her transition. She is so awkward and confident and utterly female that it puts him in mind of high school, of girls trying too hard and lipstick on locker mirrors and a world he has only vague hints of, even now.
She is curious enough to be foreign and he hears it in her voice. She booms with confidence like the stereotypical American, but she is British, and she has left behind someone important to her there. She has never said so, but Watanuki knows the body language of loss, and he sees it sometimes lurking behind her exuberance.
She talks at him a lot when she is home, but she is always dashing off to a party or a class or her job. Sometimes Watanuki wonders at her popularity-- he has never heard of someone like her transitioning into her new life with such ease-- but he suspects that she simply tries so hard that people like her. She tells him all about her girlfriends, throwing off names like Watanuki has known them forever-- Tomoyo, Yumi, Himawari, Souma, Hotoko. Watanuki smiles at her; he cannot help it.
There is one bathroom in the townhouse and it is inevitable; Watanuki walks in on her twice. The first time, she doesn't talk to him for a week. He isn't exactly comfortable either.
The second time, he sees her wings in the moonlight, spread out in the small bathroom. She is poised on the windowsill and the look she gives him over her shoulder is a gaze of utter fear.
He wonders for a moment how she gets in and out of the window without snapping pinions. Then he nods at her politely and goes back to bed.
*
They're all a little strange, but the world moves on, and there is very little a human mind cannot adapt to.
Perhaps nothing.
They room together for two years before Nakuru moves back to England and Flowright moves in with the dark man. (Well, these are the things they tell Watanuki, anyway.)
He stays in the townhouse alone for three months before he puts up the notice.
Seeking roommates, he writes in a steady hand, and he waits for them to come, sitting out on the green, green grass and watching strangers walk by.