Title: Universal Truths
Universe: XXXHolic/Bleach
Theme/Topic: Through the Looking Glass
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: Yuuko, Doumeki, Watanuki, Ichigo, Rukia, Keigo, Mizuiro (slightly DoumekixWatanuki, and slightly IchigoxRukia)
Warnings/Spoilers: None I can imagine.
Word Count: 1,617
Summary: Something stay the same no matter what.
Dedication: covet's holiday fic request!
A/N: Okay, admittedly I started out thinking I ought to write something serious given the theme you gave me. But um! Then Doumeki and Watanuki showed up and it kind of just went from there.
Disclaimer: Not mine, though I wish constantly.
Distribution: Just lemme know.

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"It's a mirror," Doumeki said.

"As always, so smart!" Watanuki cried, sarcastically. "I never would have been able to tell just by looking. Thank you so much for your help, Doumeki."

Doumeki pulled his fingers out of his ears when he thought Watanuki was done. "Are you done?" he asked, to be sure.

Watanuki sighed, and looked at…well, the mirror. Which—as pointed out by Doumeki's particular skill for pointing out the obvious— was indeed a mirror, albeit one in the middle of the murkiest part of the forest. It sat on the ground amidst a cloud of thick fog, vines of almost-black climbing ivy growing thick around it. Despite all that however, it appeared surprisingly clean for having been left outdoors all this time.

Yuuko only listened with half and ear as the two boys sniped with one another. "It is a mirror," she agreed. "Sort of. It's a mirror plant."

Watanuki stared at her, because upon reveals such as these, it usually meant the addition of some sort of nasty surprise as well. "Please don't tell me it's a man-eating mirror plant, Yuuko-san."

She chortled at that and waved at him, dismissively. "Silly! I wouldn't have asked you and Doumeki-kun to come along with me if it was."

"Maybe," Watanuki said, and eyed her. "Maybe you wouldn't have asked us to come along if it was a man eating mirror plant."

"Okay, well yes. Maybe I wouldn't have," she agreed, and was perfectly, morally okay with that.

Watanuki sighed.

"What's it do?" Doumeki asked. As always, getting straight to the heart of the matter.

"Well, it's very rare," Yuuko began, "and it only blossoms every thousand or so years. Because it allows the people who look into it to see their other lives, there are humans and other curious creatures constantly on the look out for them during this part of the millennium."

"Other lives?" Watanuki sputtered. "What other lives? Past lives?"

"Current," Yuuko said, cheerfully. And wow that didn't explain anything at all. She moved towards the mirror then, urging Doumeki and Watanuki to fight through the ankle-thick undergrowth in order to follow her. Unsurprisingly, her magnificent dress remained unstained. Watanuki on the other hand, thought he might have had mud in his ears at this point. "The mirror is supposed to show you one of the lives the you in another universe is living," she clarified after a moment.

"Oh, well that makes perfect sense," Watanuki drawled. "I always did wonder how the other mes were doing."

She ignored his sarcasm and paused then, to examine the frame of the mirror. "My, this one is a little bit smaller than normal," she diagnosed, after a few taps. "We won't get to see very far away from here with it, I think. But even though it's not as strong as I'd like, we'd best use it now before someone else finds it and breathes up all the pollen."

"Pollen? I'm allergic," Watanuki warned, instantaneously.

"This probably isn't the same as normal pollen," Doumeki suggested. "Since it's you know, an abnormal plant."

Watanuki scowled at him. "Well we don't know that for sure, do we?"

"Shhh," Yuuko urged, and then stepped to the side. "Now the two of you, look into the glass."

"Why don't you look into the glass?" Watanuki protested, by rote.

She smirked. "Because I wouldn't see anything of course. Now go on—take a look and breathe deep. Best get started before the pollen runs out; it makes zeroing the plant quicker when it has more power."

"Zeroing?" Watanuki asked.

"That's when you find a base reading point from which you can measure subsequent readings with…"

"I KNOW what it means," the other boy hissed, interrupting Shizuka hastily. "I just don't understand why a plant needs to be all…" he trailed off when he saw that Doumeki was only blinking calmly at him, and then sighed to himself. "Never mind. Let's just get this over with."

Yuuko smirked and looked over their shoulders as they both turned to face the glass. "Well. This ought to be fun."

The two boys shared a quick look at that—because it was as good as a warning— and then turned to the glass, taking simultaneous deep breaths.

The glass shimmered.

And after a moment, showed them an empty street somewhere in the middle of Japan.

"Well," Watanuki began, "that's fascinating."

But his waspish remarks were cut short when a pair of figures walked into frame—a tall, lanky orange-haired boy and a suspiciously petite dark-haired girl.

The boy seemed to be shouting about something—loud and indignant.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he snarled, and the girl simply laughed at him, sweetly.

"That must be you," Doumeki surmised, watching the boy shove his hands into his pockets and sulk to himself.

Watanuki glared. "I'm not like that."

"I hate you," the boy in the mirror muttered under his breath.

The girl ignored him.

Which was something—undoubtedly—that Watanuki could recognize, even if the girl was much better looking than stupid Doumeki was. "Ha! You're a girl in this world!" he crowed at the archer, and loved having the upper hand for once.

And then the girl—when he least expected it— punched the orange-haired boy right in the stomach.

He folded like a house of cards.

"And you're about the same," Doumeki observed, calmly

Watanuki glared. "I hate you."

"Interesting," Yuuko observed mirthfully, and said nothing else.

They watched for a little while longer, as the orange-haired boy grumbled irritably and rubbed at his injured stomach.

The girl's eyes glinted deviously, and from there the duo walked on in silence for a little while, before she eventually sighed at his sulking and stopped moving, rolling her eyes as she turned to face him.

Doumeki and Watanuki looked on in horror as suddenly, she stood on her toes and pressed a placating kiss to the corner of the boy's mouth.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Watanuki shrieked.

"Huh…" Doumeki murmured, eyes only slightly wider than usual.

But then, an echoing cry of "WHAT THE HELL?!" from inside the mirror surprised them all (and thankfully, temporarily distracted Watanuki from his distress).

Then there was two more boys suddenly jogging into frame—one with brown hair and a disbelieving, kicked-puppy dog expression on his face and another with black-hair, who was munching calmly on a granola bar as he followed after his taller counterpart.

The orange haired boy sighed with the arrival of the other two around the corner. "Morning, Keigo… Mizuiro," he said by way of greeting, while the brown-haired boy cried tears of mixed joy and jealousy.

"ICHIGO YOU CAD!!!" Keigo mourned. "HOW COULD YOU?! AND YET, CONGRATS."

"She was actually the one who kissed him," the dark-haired boy beside him pointed out, sensibly.

"That's not the point," Watanuki said, on instinct.

"That's not the point!" Keigo whined.

"Oh, I see," Doumeki began, after a moment of watching. "Zeroing."

Yuuko laughed heartily and patted them both on the back. "You two are so cute!" she exclaimed.

Oblivious to their audience, the scene continued to play out as well as could be expected considering. "When?!" Keigo prompted the couple. "How?!? Why?!"

The girl giggled, demurely. Somehow, it didn't look quite right. "Asano-kun," she said, with a false sense of sweetness that made Watanuki instinctively look over his shoulder at Yuuko, "I don't like to talk about these things in public."

Suddenly—just like that— there were hearts in Keigo's eyes and he fluttered at her, completely forgetting the apparent betrayal. "Hai, Rukia-chan!!" he exclaimed. "I would never wish to make a beautiful flower like you uncomfortable!!"

Doumeki paused to look at Watanuki.

"What?" Watanuki snarled, defensively.

"Nothing," Doumeki said, and turned back to the image.

Just in time to hear Ichigo snort rather derisively. "Right, ignoring all of you now."

"This granola bar is really good," Mizuiro murmured to himself, and kept walking right alongside Ichigo.

It was Kimihiro's turn to look at Doumeki this time. "How like you," he couldn't help but add.

Doumeki was unmoved. "Those are really good granola bars."

Watanuki sighed. "Never mind."

And then—just as Mizuiro offered Keigo a bite of his really good granola bar—the image flickered out.

"I would never do that!" Watanuki screamed, and pointed accusatorily at the mirror.

"Probably not," Doumeki agreed, and they watched as the plant slowly began to vanish, its pollen supply apparently depleted.

Watanuki blinked. "WAIT, ARE YOU CALLING ME SELFISH?"

"I didn't say you were."

"But you implied it!"

Yuuko grinned at them.

"What?" Watanuki asked, warily.

"Nothing," she began, eyes laughing. "It's just… nice to see that even in all the many universes… you two always seem to get along so well."

A beat.

And then, "WAIT HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?! WE ONLY SAW ONE!"

She simply smiled, mysteriously. "Na, let's go find some more of the flowers, shall we? If we get a bigger one this time, we should be able to see farther away! There's a world where everyone is talking fish, you know."

And then she walked away from the two of them laughing heartily to herself, causing something like heavy dread to begin welling up in Watanuki's stomach on instinct. "I don't like the sound of that."

Doumeki shrugged. "Did you bring lunch?"

Watanuki ignored him.

And as it turned out—that is, after four or five more viewings— it seemed like Yuuko was absolutely right. They did get along exactly the same everywhere else.

And every time, it made Watanuki cry a little.

Not because she was right, but because no matter what, they were always together.

It was naturally very disturbing.

END