The worst thing about the whole ordeal was that Doumeki didn't even seem to know it had happened. Oh, he knew he'd been in an enchanted sleep, that Watanuki had been the one to get him out of it, the whole deal. He just didn't know the terrible sacrifice Watanuki had had to make to do it.

Everything was exactly the same, except that occasionally Watanuki wanted to shake him by the shoulders and say, "I HAD TO KISS YOU, THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS REMEMBER IT".

Or, or, and this would be the perfect solution, if Watanuki could also scrub his mind of the incident, rather than waking up in the middle of the night with the memory of soft lips starting to move under his own and eyelashes fluttering against his cheek.

He found himself staring at Doumeki's mouth as he ate whatever delicious, unappreciated tasty morsel Watanuki had put in his bento that day.

"What is it?" asked Doumeki. "Do I have some rice on my lip?" He rubbed at it thoughtfully.

Watanuki shook his head frantically and looked down at his lap. He could feel his cheeks flaming.

He considered going to Yuuko and offering her a nice set of "memories of kissing Doumeki" and maybe getting something in return, but eventually decided it just wouldn't be worth the sly looks she'd give him, and anyway that probably wasn't how it worked.

On Friday morning, a week after the incident, he thought he finally had it.

"I know!" he cried, running into the shop. "It's part of the curse! It was because it was supposed to be a lover's kiss to wake him up, and because I wasn't his lover it's making me all..." He made appropriate flailing motions. "You have to help me!"

Yuuko stared at him. "Watanuki," she said, sweetly, "you didn't have to kiss him to wake him up. You came up with that all on your own."

"WHAT?"

"Don't you remember? I said, Watanuki, you'll have to be the one who wakes him up, and you said 'do have to kiss him' and I thought that it just sounded so sweet, that I..."

"WHAT?"

"So there it is. Aren't you happy to know you're not under a curse, Watanuki?"

Watanuki found was reduced to incoherence. No amount of arm movements or enraged sputtering seemed to be enough.

Yuuko just smiled at him and handed him a broom.

And yet he still couldn't stop thinking about it.

Clearly there was only one thing to do - he would have to go to the source itself.

Finding a moment alone with Doumeki wasn't very hard, what with Yuuko seeming determined to throw them together at any opportunity.

Figuring out what to say was the hard part.

"Is there something wrong, Watanuki?" asked Doumeki, after the third time Watanuki had started a sentence, only to have it die mid-word.

"Canikissyou?" he asked, which was totally not what he'd meant to say at all. He put his hands up in front of himself defensively, just in case Doumeki took him seriously. "I mean, I kissed you! To wake you up!"

Doumeki just looked at him impassively.

"And now I can't stop thinking about it!" he continued, hurriedly.

"You want to do it again?" said Doumeki, slowly. His expression somehow seemed even more mask-like than usual.

"Yes! No! I don't know!"

Doumeki's eye twitched slightly. "Well, if you make up your mind, let me know."

Watanuki wailed in frustration. "Yes! Yes, all right, I want to do it again! Is that so hard to accept?"

"I don't know. Is it?"

Watanuki choked on his next gasp of air, his planned retort lost forever.

Once Doumeki was done whacking him on the back and he could breathe again, Watanuki collapsed onto the ground, flat out on his back and closed his eyes in utter despair.

It turned out that being kissed was much better than initiating the kissing himself. Or maybe the difference was the other partner being awake.

When Doumeki pulled away, Watanuki opened his eyes.

"Well?"

Watanuki licked his lips, finding his vision incurably drawn to Doumeki's own. "I don't think it worked," he said. "We'll have to try again."