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Watanuki was doing his afternoon dusting in Yuuko-san's storeroom. He had just finished washing her linens, and was now trying to decide what to prepare for dinner.

Knowing Yuuko-san, she would want something that went well with alcohol... Yakitori perhaps? They'd had sashimi the night before, so something cooked would make a nice change. He had a bottle of fine Saké that Yuuko-san hadn't yet got her mitts on, so that would be fine for accompaniment...

As he was thinking about food, he wasn't watching where he was going and stumbled over a box of old books, knocking it over in the process.

Muttering about messy women who left things lying around where anyone could trip over them, he crouched down to pick up the books that had spilled out, and began to put them back into order in the box.

While doing this, he came across a faded old book that looked as if it had been kicking around a long time. It had a picture of a large and beautiful tree on the front cover, and was tattered around the edges.

Out of mild curiosity, he opened the book, intending to read the blurb inside the cover.

Instead, he felt as if a hand had reached out of the book and grabbed his insides, making him wince. It seemed to be pulling him forcibly into the book...

The room around him went all blurry, and with a sickening lurch Watanuki found himself in a dreamlike landscape. He was in a grassy meadow, under a bright blue sky with white, puffy clouds scattered here and there. At the center of the meadow was the same old tree that had been on the front cover of the book.

But the things that really stuck out were the fish (Watanuki thought they were some species of Koi?) that were flying though the air around him. It was surreal, like something one would see if one smoked Yuuko-san's pipe long enough...

Dodging the flying Koi, he made his way towards the tree, feeling as though he might discover a way out of this weird dimension (if that was what this was?) if he went there. When he arrived at his destination, he caught sight of a beautiful woman who he was certain, hadn't been standing there before. She was wearing an ornate kimono, and she was smiling warmly at him. Was she a spirit of some sort?

"Welcome," she said, greeting him. He remembered his manners and bowed to her. "Uh, g-good evening. Pardon the intrusion, I'm not sure how I arrived here, one minute I was looking at a book and the next minute, I was- no, wait, sorry, that sounds stupid, I..."

The women put her hand politely to her mouth and chuckled gently. "What a funny young man you are," she said with a smile. "So polite, so thoughtful. I have been waiting a long time for someone like you to come and visit me. I have been so lonely, you see..." She was still smiling, but her eyes looked a little sad as she said this.

Watanuki instinctively felt sympathy for her. He knew how it felt to be alone for a long time. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said, bowing again. "If there's anything I can do to help..."

The woman smiled once again. "There is no need for you to do anything. For you to be here at all makes me happy. You see, my creator was the only one who paid any attention to me, but he passed away a long time ago, before I was completed. But now, I have someone who can make me whole..."

She began to walk slowly towards the bewildered and somewhat frightened Watanuki, still smiling.

"That's far enough!" declared Yuuko, who had suddenly appeared behind Watanuki. Her expression seemed calm enough, but her elaborate skirts billowed around her slender ankles dangerously. The woman stopped walking and frowned. "Why?" she asked, a pleading note in her voice. "Why can't he stay? I have been waiting for so long... Nobody deserves to be lonely..."

Yuuko lifted her chin imperiously and told her with a note of steely finality in her voice: "This young man is under my employ, and I have further need of his services. You shall have to wait a little longer for the one you seek, but if you cannot control your possessive nature, you will be cut down before you meet him. I have it on very good authority..."

Without saying another word, she turned around and began to walk away from the tree. Watanuki glanced at the woman fearfully and bowed before following Yuuko-san. The woman was left standing underneath the tree, looking miserable...

A flash of white light and another stomach renching lurch later, and they were both standing back in Yuuko-san's storeroom.

"What am I going to do with you?" she sighed, holding her hands up in exasperation.

At this, Watanuki's temper suddenly flared up. "ME?" he squawked, "IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT FOR LEAVING DANGEROUS OBJECTS LYING ABOUT!!! MY LIFE IS PERPETUALLY IN DANGER BECAUSE I HAVE TO WORK IN THIS STORE!!!"

Yuuko chuckled at his outrage and waved it off back-handedly. "Fortunately I came looking for you," she said. "That particular book can be very dangerous if one is careless..."

Watanuki calmed down and looked puzzled. "Who was that woman, anyway, Yuuko-san? And what was she doing inside that book?" Yuuko looked at him with a grave expression on her face. "That woman WAS the book, Watanuki. She is the personification of the book's spirit, and she has been waiting to be completed for a long time. Unfortunately, that is no longer possible, as the author died many years ago. His family grew scared of the book and gave it away to someone else, and it eventually made it's way to my store."

"Oh, I see..." said Watanuki, looking a little sad. He still felt sorry for the woman that was the book's spirit. All alone...

"What will happen to the book?" he asked as they both walked out of the storeroom doors. Yuuko smiled at him, "The same thing that happens to all of the items in my storeroom, Watanuki. They are all waiting patiently for the day on which they will be given to the one who pays a fair and equal price for the item. It is Hitsuzen..."

"When will that be?" Watunuki wondered aloud.

"A lot sooner than you might think," Yuuko-san said, smiling mysteriously...

They had arrived in the main area where the front door had been left wide open to let the spring breeze in. A beautiful blond man wearing wire-framed glasses was standing patiently at the entrance. Yuuko greeted him in the usual way: "Welcome to our store..."

Kakei smiled back at her. "I'm looking for a particular item," he said in a clear tenor voice.

Notes:
ARRRGH!!! My first cross-over fic! I hope I did OK. I feel I should check the first volume of Legal Drug to make sure that the details are accurate, the problem being that someone still has my copy! And I won't see that someone until God-knows-when...

Oh well, I can always amend it, but I think it turned out OK, it just kinda poured out of me last night, after I started my Harry/Cedric fic o_O;