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In her long life Yuuko Ichihara had a considerable number of drinking buddies, but never one like Doumeki. The boy seemed annoyingly unaffected by alcohol, no confessions of secrets or embarrassing actions, until he suddenly slept wherever he was and nothing could wake him until the next morning. And that's exactly what happened that night when after returning from a successful mission Yuuko offered the boys a bit of sake, which eventually became a lot of sake.
She and Watanuki took Doumeki to the guest room and then returned to the porch where Watanuki continued to tell her all the ways Doumeki had annoyed him during their mission earlier that day. She had met people who when drunk acted like Watanuki, but that didn't make the experience any less entertaining, he was even more mercurial than usual, but also his smiles came more easily and he seemed more relaxed in general.
She asked Watanuki to go to the kitchen and bring some leftover sweets from the dessert he made earlier. After five minutes she came into the house to see why he was taking so long, she found him not in the kitchen but in the guest room.
Doumeki was still sleeping futon, and Watanuki was sitting on the floor staring at him, the electric light was still off but the curtain was open and the moonlight lit the room. It was a simple but still poetic sight, she looked for a few seconds trying to record in her memory the moment, after which she said:
"What are you doing?"
Watanuki jumped like he was a cat caught doing something he shouldn't do by his owner. Yuuko laughed.
"So?" She said also sitting on the floor and indicating for Watanuki to do the same.
"I huh... I was just turning his head to the side in case he vomits because of the alcohol, you know so he doesn't end up choking, I do the same for you all the time."
"Do you also usually admire my sleeping face in the moonlight when you do that?"
“I...Shut up, I was just looking. Not admiring. He looks less of an asshole when he's sleeping... almost handsome maybe.”
Okay, maybe she had given the boy too much to drink, Yuuko knew Watanuki would never have said that if he was sober. And he definitely would not have continued:
“… You know he has a very acceptable face in terms of features, I really don't know what pissed me off so much about his face that first day we saw each other. Maybe it was arrogance, it was just the two of us on the stairs, he was coming down and I was coming up, and he didn't even look at me, not even when we passed side by side, there was really no reason for him to look, we didn't know each other or were even in the same class, but it pissed me off, felt like I was invisible, not even like I was a ghost or even just air, it was like I was absolutely nothing to him. But I don't know, maybe if we had met on a different day under different circumstances maybe I'd be justified in making the mistake of thinking he was handsome. ”
“You realize attraction is not something that needs to be justified, right? It's just something you feel. ”
“I… I know it is like that. But it shouldn't be. It's my heart, I should be able to control what happens inside of it. ”
"You can control what you do, you can ignore what your heart and body tell you they want, but the real question is whether you should do this."
"The way you put it seems no, but it's easy to say these things looking from the outside."
“I speak from experience, once I found myself attracted to the most annoying man I have ever met.”
Watanuki looked at her in horror.
"Miss Yuuko you are attracted to Doumeki?!"
Yuuko laughed.
“Your Doumeki is an angel compared to the four-eyed demon I'm referring to.”
“He is not my Doumeki, he is not my anything... I'm going to sleep now, I'm tired." Watanuki said getting up.
“There's another futon in the storage.”
"Nah, I'm just going to sleep on the couch," Watanuki said and went into the living room.
He was already lying on the couch when Yuuko followed him. She went to her room and took one of the blankets and placed it over Watanuki on the couch.
"Thank you," Watanuki said, snuggling into the blanket.
"You're welcome ... I'll tell you something now that is not really something I should tell you, it's something you should hear from your parents, but since they're not here I think it's up to me."
"And what would that be ?"
“That it's okay if you're attracted to Doumeki, there's nothing wrong with that. It's also okay if you don't know exactly how you feel yet, you're young, you're a good boy and you have time to find out.”
Watanuki was silent for a few seconds, seeming to consider her words.
"Why are you being nice to me today?"
“I'm always nice to you.”
“Liar.”
Yuuko smiled.
“Good night Watanuki.”
“Good night Miss Yuuko.”