i know a wish shop sounds sketchy, but hear me out?

Dark place?  Wasn’t it more depressing to hole yourself up in a dinky shop rather than go outside and get some fresh air?.. Maybe that was what Kimihiro needed– some fresh air.  Go outside.  Get some vitamin D, et cetera.  Was this guy actually some kind of… over-aged chunnibyou; all this talk of dark places and distortions………… Yusuke was believing more and more than he really did need to get out more.

“Actually… ‘s kinda is.  Most people don’t talk about causing distortions, y’ know..”  Having finished his own cup several replies back, Yusuke stood up, giving Kimihiro a brief nod.  “Thanks for the, uh, tea and talking… I’ll see you around, right?”  Kimihiro wasn’t going to distort into another plane or anything was he?  It’d long stopped raining, thus his reasons for hanging around were wearing thin, as was his brain cell count talking to someone like Kimihiro who seemed to contradict everything Yusuke said to him.

“I should… probably get going.. don’ wanna waste your shop hours or anythin’ longer than I already have.”

Well... looked like this was how far these two could go for now, huh? Figured that would happen when you spilled your true feelings for once. Kimihiro had made a wrong decision to trust his own feelings, but that was alright. Nothing a little fate could not fix in the long run. Watching the other get ready to leave the shop surprised Kimihiro, but he accepted it as quickly as it came up.

The inevitable would make their roads cross once again, after all.

Fuyuhiko frowned as he listened to the explanation he was given on how, theoretically, this guy would - or rather, could - fix his eye. He sipped from the tea without really thinking about it, too intent on listening and leaning forward slightly. When he finished his explanation, Fuyuhiko leaned back, closing his eye and nodding slowly.

“… I see… That… Makes no fucking sense whatsoever.”

Biology didn’t work that way, you moron! What Fuyuhiko had expected was something more medical and scientific, or perhaps some new research on fixing nerves and scar tissue in his sclera, but no- this guy was on some magical eye exchange mumbo-jumbo. Did he watch too much animes, or what? You can’t just exchange eyes or eyesights like that.

“Listen, this story makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Cures like that don’t exist for eyes. And especially not in that way.”

He hated to say he was intrigued by the amount of confidence the other showed in his explanation, as if this was all factual and genuinely happened. That didn’t mean Fuyuhiko believed anything of it, however. Tanaka had been the same, in some way; he also talked as if the things he said he could do were actually real, when they really weren’t.

“What’s next? You gonna claim you can revive the dead? Turn iron into gold?”

“Reviving the death is not possible, since it’s life and mortality we are talking about...“ Kimihiro retorted, downing the last bit of tea as he thought about that topic. “But I suppose it’s possible to freeze someone’s time. I actually spent a long time with a living corpse before.”

Referring to her as a “living corpse” was hurtful, but not far from the truth at all. It was just one of those things Kimihiro felt like he had to accept before she would return by his side again.

“About anything is possible if you wish strongly enough for it. A wish and the payment for it are the only requirements, you see? Therefore, wishes could potentially be granted by accident as well.“

Why was that relevant? Well, as far he knew, the whole revival of the corpse thing could have been done by accident. You know what they say, shit happens when the world’s most powerful magician is back on his bullshit. Maybe this kind of stuff would happen one day if Kimihiro became that strong too.

Ah yikes that’s definitely what he meant but that wasn’t the intended reaction.  Guess he’ll just pack his bags and move.  But in reality, Yusuke was simply a bit dumbstruck at what he was told.

Can’t leave? What in tarnation…  What was stopping Kimihiro from leaving the store?  Would the two little dancing sheep suddenly transform into some kind of thing and pull him back in?  Or was it maybe in another sense, that he was scared to leave because he was one of those real paranoid types?  Somewhere in Yusuke’s gut, he felt like he’d see Kimihiro outside of the store (at a beach) sooner rather than later, but never question it and in fact, probably completely forget about it happening or that he had said he couldn’t physically leave.

“What’s stopping you?”  Was he maybe now taking a turn into 2-star horror movie path? #cursed. “How does granting wishes make not being able to leave ok?”  Assuming that he actually couldn’t leave… Yusuke was still pining for an answer to that question most of all.. “You’re saying you’re trapped here so you accept it by making other people happy?? Shouldn’t you value yourself a little more?”

Ah.  Was that out of turn?  He’d just met the guy, was it really Yusuke’s place to tell him to change?  Probably not.

Being told he should value himself more felt familiar. Huh, it was almost as if Yusuke read the Spider Curse arc himself. That would be ridiculous, right? Completely bizarre.

“I made my own choice.“ He answered, pretty sure that it didn’t explain anything to Yusuke. “And that is why I have to stay in this store. It was the decision I made to save myself from a dark place.“ An actual dark place, for once. Remember when he was trapped in a dark dimension.

Kimihiro slowly finished his own tea, wondering what help it would be to tell a stranger about this. Maybe it wouldn’t help at all. Maybe neither of them would benefit of him opening up like this and revealing whatever tragic story he held onto. So what was the reason for them meeting? What would be born from it? The shop owner was left to ponder it on his own, as he acknowledged the inevitable once again.

“You say I should value myself more, but it’s because I value myself, that I am in this situation.” Technically, Syaoran counted as “himself“. And we all knew how much love Kimihiro felt for him. More so, than for himself. Kimihiro never really learned how to value himself, to be honest.

Except, did that situation really still apply? Kimihiro stayed in his shop because Syaoran and his party were still travelling, but circumstances have changed since Kimihiro arrived in this city. The first thing being that this wasn’t actually his shop, but more of a copy of it. Therefore, Kimihiro had no clue if the same rules bounded him to it. And the second thing was that he was separated from Mokona, so he had no way to contact the people he held dear and to get updates on the situation. So maybe he was meant to leave, he just didn’t know and submitted to a fate of waiting once again instead.

The first thing Fuyuhiko wondered as the tea was set down before him was whether he would have to pay for it or not. In the literal money sense, not in the sense this guy explained the prices for his wishes.

“Hrm. So, a right hand for a right hand, then, figuratively speaking.”

Yeah, Fuyuhiko was well aware of the cycle that especially revenge set off, in terms of what you had to pay for it. A life for a life, in return for another, until you lose all the things you wanted to keep.

He twirled the tea in his cup while frowning, thinking on the offer of a new eye. He didn’t desire it, really- nor did he think he deserved it. It was a good reminder of the stupid things he has done, of what he lost in the process, and of how he had to prove himself and keep on living, because otherwise everything she did would lose all meaning.

“No. I do not need one. I do perfectly well without it, anyways. Besides,”

“Don’t you think it gives me some prestige?”

Regardless of his own reasons for keeping the eyepatch and thus, his lack of a functional eye, it wasn’t untrue, was it? It added to his status and prestige, made him look more like the part he was supposed to fulfill once he got back home. So, rather than explaining all the reasons behind it, which were no one’s fucking business but his own- it was not a lie to fall back on this reason.

Even so, the offer stirred questions. His eye was not functioning, he couldn’t see anything out of it, and it wasn’t something that would heal or could be fixed, especially not after so long. Yet he had offered to give him a new eye- how? Was it one of those things where you got a new eye- as in, a jar with another person’s eye, or a glass eye, or just a different one, even though it didn’t work? Because then it’d be ‘new’, because it wasn’t the one you had before?

“… Out of curiousity’s sake though, how the hell would you go about that then? The eye is unfixable, so how would you do anything about it?”

"Unfixable? Those are words that only apply to common logic. I used to think along those lines as well.” Kimihiro trailed the edge of his cup with a fingertip, his mind sinking into thought for those few seconds before he took a sip again.

“Depending on the circumstances, I’d most likely get you half of someone else’s eye.“ Like it was nothing, he gave Fuyuhiko a smile again. “Because you still have both eyeballs, correct? It’s just that one has been impaired by circumstances.“

“To tell you the truth, I went blind in my right eye before. Then after a frie-- acquaintance,” He corrected himself, before continuing; “gave me half of his eye, I regained sight once again. It caused heterochromia in my eyes, though. As you can see, they are different colours.“

Pretending it was no big deal, he leaned his cheek into his own hand. “I didn’t pay a price, because it was given to me as a gift. Not to mention, we are both fine in our eyes aside from a few little side effects.”

Well, it’s your own fault for acting like one, you know? Anyways, don’t just assume you know about why someone lost an eye!

Fuyuhiko kept his one eye, now clearly agitated, closely on the other as he moved through the room and opened up a door. Was that a tea room..? Huh. Not too shabby, actually. Fuyuhiko could definitely appreciate the style of not only having a tea room but also actively using it. Or, well, he assumed it was actively used- mainly because the first thing this guy did was open it and wave him in, but still.

“… I figured it clear, but I do not have any wish.”

Not that you can fulfill, at least.

Regardless, he walked into the tea room after the other man, looking around him before sitting down. He didn’t know about ‘the inevitable’ or anything like that- he’d walked in because he was working on how well he knew the city’s layout, and he’d hoped to find some clues on getting out of Stella City in this Wish Shop, because it looked so sketchy.

So far, none of that. Perhaps it really only was a shop run by a guy who believes he has some sort of nonexistent skill.

“… The wishes I have are impossible to fulfill anyways, so don’t bother.“

And yet, here he sat. Perhaps, still looking for clues? Perhaps, because curiousity got the better of him, loathe as he was to admit that. He’d be out of here soon enough anyways, but it was good to know about a weird place and its location.

“Such little confidence in my skills, how hurtful...” Well, it didn’t matter. Kimihiro merely poured the tea that was already prepared and set on the table. Huh? Was that boiled a few minutes prior to Fuyuhiko’s arrival? There had to be a logical explanation for that, but Kimihiro seemed to pretend he knew the other would come to his shop at this time all along.

“It is true that I am not able to fulfill some wishes, but that is merely because the customer cannot always pay the price.” So he was going to pin the blame on that, huh? Well, it wasn’t like it was completely a lie in this setting. “For example, taking a life would require the payment of a considerable price-- and not many are willing to sacrifice that for their revenge. It is said you will be hunted eternally by many.”

“Ah, by 《 price 》, I rarely mean money, you know? Because the wishes I fulfill are usually something of importance to my customers; so in order to gain something of value, they will lose something they value in return. It is a fair trade, after all.”

He carefully set a cup of tea in front of Fuyuhiko before he sat down at the table. Kimihiro’s fingers trailed the ear of his own tea cup before he took a sip from his drink. “Balancing out these trades is an art of its own and fairly difficult, but worth it, in my humble opinion.”

To say Fuyuhiko’s heart might’ve jumped right out of his chest at the shock of someone suddenly appearing behind him might be a hyperbole, but it certainly felt like an understatement to Fuyuhiko himself.

“D-don’t sneak up on people like that, you moron! Do you have a death wish?!”

He cleared his throat and straightened his clothes right after. Just because someone caught you off-guard doesn’t mean you should look like it. He listened to the others examples on what kind of wishes could be fulfilled. In all honesty… He doubted wishes could really be fulfilled, so it probably meant something entirely different, right? Pay the right price to have anything done to any place or anyone. Something like that, definitely, right?

Especially revenge, though…

“… Don’t fuck around with dangerous shit like revenge. That always gets back at you, if a weirdo like you will even listen to any advice like that.”

It was all he could mutter out, a well-intentioned warning coming from experience no matter what Fuyuhiko’s personal opinion was on the person in front of him, when he was interrupted again. Something about- ah. His eye. An oddly relevant subject, really- but whoever this guy was, his guess was totally off. 

“Don’t be such a pretentious bitch. Not all of us are decent fucking people or any of that shit. If anything, my eye was collateral damage or some shit, or part of punishment, or however you wanna call it.”

Whatever, that’s not relevant for this person, anyways. He just can’t stand the thought of someone thinking it was some self-sacrificial bullshit that took his eye, because it wasn’t. It was his own ego, selfishness, stupidity- whatever you wanted to blame it on. All for some, you guessed it, revenge.

The eye wasn’t even the worst he’d lost out of that shit.

Oh, you didn’t have to worry about that, Fuyuhiko. Because Kimihiro was perfectly aware of how strong the curse of revenge was, not to mention the incredibly heavy price you would have to pay to have it performed. It all tracked back to a past experience with a spider’s curse? And to something Yuuko had told him? Something like that.

“Hm... so that was what it was.“ Kimihiro did not appreciate being called a “pretentious bitch“, but decided to let it slide since he was toying with the other  back there anyway. “You call it punishment.“

"Well, if you find salvation in that, I won’t stop you.” He opened up a door to the tea room and beckoned for the other to come too. Fuyuhiko’s attitude at this point didn’t even matter, Kimihiro was still operating a business here, after all.

@watomnuki

Fuyuhiko had, admittedly, fallen into habit while in Stella City. Get up, go to school when there was school, attend classes, and then go back to his room. He’d eat some, and then go out about Stella City, trying to ensure he knew everything like the back of his hand- which sometimes didn’t work out, as seemingly overnight new areas appeared at times, messing with whatever mind-map he’d made.

Today seemed to fit right in that schedule, as once again he’d come across a place he was very sure he had never seen before- he was sure he walked this road several times before, and this was the first time he saw this so called “Wish Shop” (though, if you asked Fuyuhiko what had been in that place before then, he’d be unable to quite recall).

The incredible sketchiness of this Wish Shop is actually what had made Fuyuhiko enter in the first place- it seemed well-fitting with the current celebrations in Stella City, and thus, might hold a clue. Or it might just be a sketchy place run by a sketchy citizen. Only one way to find out.

Once inside, it was no less sketchy than from outside. At the same time, it didn’t seem like some sort of obvious clue on how to get out of this place, but events had proven that just because something looked a certain way, it didn’t mean it really was.

“The hell does a wish shop even deal in… Like, doing peoples groceries for them? Otherwise shit’s just sketchy as hell…”

"If your wish is for an odd job to be performed, then so we will.” A voice called out. One would expect it to have come from inside the shop, but surprisingly enough, it actually came from behind. From the shop’s entrance, actually. Kimihiro, who was in the garden until a while ago, had come to the front to greet Fuyuhiko and poked his back with a fan.

“But dear customer, we grant wishes on a much larger scale too.“ Kimihiro clapped his fan open to hide his face. “As long as you are prepared to pay an equal price, then we will do anything to grant the wish. May it be a simple task, a wish for a specific item, or even revenge. Any wish will do. “

And it took a little while, but once Kimihiro glanced at Fuyuhiko from a different angle, he noticed the eyepatch the other was wearing. He blinked in mild surprise, but did his best to not show it on his face. There had to be a reason for this, after all. A reason Fuyuhiko was here. With the way Kimihiro navigated the world, he figured there was a reason for the other’s arrival, and he used quick deduction to link this “reason” to the absence of Fuyuhiko’s eye.

The end. The end?  The end of.. what?  In the beat between Kimihiro’s short answer, and the drink of tea, Yusuke felt one of those gosh darn pangs of mild sadness mixed with worry again.  He may not be the brightest light in the lamp, but Yusuke wasn’t necessarily stupid, per say, listening to Kimihiro elaborate on his response.

“…Why?” Oh.  Did that just come out of his mouth outloud? “No! I mean– I?? That was not supposed to be outloud.!! Really!! I didn’t mean it! AAUghghh”  Cursing his habit of vocal thought process, Yusuke could feel himself also suddenly thinking about and wanting the end to come on him as well.

Sure, he admitted that he was in fact still actually wondering why Kimihiro thought about such things, but honestly, it wasn’t the first time Yusuke was something akin to face-to-face with someone who may or may not be telling him he was waiting to die.  The fact that it wasn’t his older sibling may have made it a little easier, maybe.. “I-I mean… It wasn’t too dark.. I heard everyone has those kinds of thoughts, it just.. depends how you let it affect you… I think…?”

How you let it affect you? Ah, so perhaps in that way, Yusuke meant to imply that Kimihiro’s misery was his own fault? Surely, that would make sense. If nothing was a coincidence and all was a result of one’s actions; then Kimihiro’s feelings and how they were brought into this world must be by his own hands too.

Such a thought clung more to him than he had meant for it.

“I cannot physically leave the store.“ He finally answered, albeit in this setting, it was far from the truth. In Stella City, Kimihiro could surely leave this shop if he set his mind to it. There weren’t any sheep holding him back from doing so. No, far from it. Aries and Stella had actually encouraged him to leave this place and go to school.

“Therefore I grant wishes.“ Kimihiro continued, trying to fill gaps in the conversation with the sound of his own voice. Maybe if he talked, they could finally arrive to a topic he felt more comfortable with. “And that’s why I will grant yours if you are willing to pay the price and let me. It’s my job, after all. My time is the price I’ve paid for waiting.“

Kimihiro looked towards Yusuke again and set down his cup. 

He is just a normal guy doing his normal best.  You’re right, he doesn’t know anything. SHUT UP we talked about this ovER CALL.  We can’t ALL BE TRAGIC CLAMP CHARACTERS, KIMIHIRO WATANUKI. Some of us are just the tsundere classmate character in an otome game where you chooses to give up on the girl you’ve loved since middle school because she’s happy with YOUR OTHER BROTHER and while you love her you want her happy even if it costs you YOUR HAPPINESS.

But anyways.

No shit he wanted to sort of know, he wouldn’t have commented if he wasn’t a little curious.  Despite his general tendency to play right into the hands of an outburst, something about the other seemed to instead calm Yusuke down.  Listening to Kimihiro talk, Yusuke couldn’t help but feel what could best be described as a mild pang of sadness– the way the other spoke sounded as though he’d just given up.  Not that Yusuke wasn’t familiar with the concept of giving up, or better said, letting sleeping dogs lie.. But still…

“What are you waiting for?”

Ah, those words sure cut skin deep. Well, whatever the differences may be, it still seemed that birds of a feather flocked together. Even now, that appeared to be mostly likely true. Yusuke, who showed a genuine curiosity in understanding the mysterious things Kimihiro said, stirred something inside the Dimensional Sorcerer; which in turn made him take decisions that could be seen as bullying the redhaired teen. Well, it was mostly because Yusuke reminded him of his own past, after all.

“The end.“ He answered, as if that explained anything to begin with. Kimihiro let out a sigh and rolled up his sleeves, taking a sip from tea that I supposed must have been there in the scene. "I guess that was a bit too poetic of an answer.” 

What did the “end” refer to anyway? Death? If you considered Yuuko a personification of Death, then yes, everything he said thus far could be counted as true. He did say he was waiting for her, over and over again. Maybe that was a lie, a goal to keep himself from falling apart and taking his own life. It was said that taking a life requires a heavy price, after all.

“I’m not a bright guy, to be honest. Things like ceasing to exist; I think about that from time to time. Everything about my life is a distortion: the beginning, my dreams, how it goes on, and then even the end. It went on for a long time now, so I’m waiting for the final chapter.”

He peeked at Yusuke from the corner of his eyes, wondering if that scared him away. Maybe this wasn’t something he should have told a stranger he had just met. Huh. Wonder what his response would be.

It was a bit of both: noteworthy, and admirable.  Definitely a form of praise.   Yusuke was well aware of his own faults, and tended to dwell on them to the extent that he was stopping himself from doing things before trying, having already expected them to fail miserably on him.

“I ‘sspose.. At least you weren’t thrown in alone without some experience.”

The only things Yusuke really had experience in was being the butt of jokes at home, horribly ironic heartbreak, poor marks in school, short distance running, and of course sleeping and eating.  Nothing worth mentioning or trying to sound impressive by bringing up.  “Uh, what made you.. uh, get into this…business? If y’don’t mind me asking.”

Bih, what did you just say? “At least you weren’t thrown in alone”? What did you know? Oh no, oh yeah. That would be TRAGIC. Kimihiro would be the most pathetic human being on the whole earth if that happened, but HEY, at least he didn’t go into this whole business ALL ALONE. At least he had he, himself and him, to accompany him. YEAH! Solid companionship.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?“ His smile was coy and daring. “If anything, it started as getting pulled in against my choice, but ended up as being my choice.“

“I think in a way, a twist of fate has brought me here, doing this. I’m not going to fight it anymore.“ Like. Being born was a whole twist of weird fate, really. To continue on living, too. Kimihiro let out a short chuckle.

There’s a laugh and Tsukiyama nods,

“D'accord! We will see when the time comes, hm?”

He stops suddenly at a bookstore, opening the door for the other before stepping in,

“I needed reccomendations you see…”