Doumeki swept the courtyard at the temple where he lived. A chore he did almost every morning for years.

It was a chilly fall day, and leaves were falling to the ground, giving him more work as he pushed the dry, fragile leaves into a pile.

Then he was at that spot again. The spot where Watanuki had gotten caught into the web one day, almost a year ago. The day he had destroyed the spiders web to help Watanuki. He had lost his eyesight in his right eye later that day, but soon Watanuki had done something stupid, to get Doumeki's eyesight back.

Doumeki had hated it.

He had given up half his eyesight for Watanuki, and later quite a large amount of his own blood to keep Watanuki alive. Yet Watanuki continued to act the same towards him.

Doumeki didn't want to be Watanuki's rival, at the very least, Doumeki wanted to be friends. But Watanuki still yelled, still called him an idiot, and didn't seem to appreciate Doumeki's efforts at all. How could someone that was always helping others still think only of himself in situations like this? And why did Doumeki still like him? Why did Doumeki still continue to be around?

Why?

"I think it's better when it is just me and Himawari-chan. I don't want you to think I need you around or anything, whether or not she is bad luck! And she is not bad luck to me! When I see her face, it makes me happy! Unlike some people I know!"

Doumeki sighed, looking over at the gate. Watanuki had actually said that. Watanuki never paid any attention to... well anything. He had a hard time figureing things out for himself, he never looked at the big picture, and he rarely took interest in the details either.

There was one thing Doumeki did know, he loved Watanuki, and he would wait. He would wait as long as it took for Watanuki to realise this, but he was going to let Watanuki figure it out himself. Watanuki needed to learn things on his own, that was the only way for him to be ready.

And Doumeki still had that girl to tutor.

It didn't matter to him if Watanuki thought that he was ignoring the bispectacled teen. In truth he wasn't really. Doumeki wasn't acting differently at all, it was Watanuki that was acting different. And the way Watanuki was changing, Doumeki could see it, and he could only hoped that it would be enough.