Heka: Coming up with a two-shot is going to be hard you know – liltenshiarishi; like seriously. Damn.

Shigure: No one told you to write this.

Heka: I shall ignore that. This was written within 3 hours and hence quite sparse. But I liked it as I had great fun writing it and coming up with analogies. And the title's a complete flop.

Dark: She would just like to add the standard disclaimers here, and that this was written after the Second Hand of Time arc, which is, in my personal opinion, the best arc of D. N. Angel ever.

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Title: The Wager

It had all started with a simple bet.

Now we all know about bets; they start small then unravel into hugely impossible things like the pile of smelly laundry rotting at the corner just dying to be washed but so damn difficult to start because you really don't know where to start from in the first place.

Coupled with the fact that it's last month's laundry in there. Do you really want to touch it?

Our story begins like that – simple and short, like a white blouse thrown carelessly into the empty laundry basket, the calm before the storm.

'Daisuke. I have a brilliant idea.'

Naturally, bets have to start somewhere, usually from absolutely-brilliant-beyond-brilliant ideas… which go down in flames anyway.

'Dark, it's 3 am in the morning. You just stole some painting from some museum an hour ago, and now you have a brilliant idea?' a slightly whiny voice muttered back from under the ruffled covers. 'Can't it wait till morning?'

Dark grinned, the flashy, triumphant know-it-all grin at his Tamer, who merely dozed on.

'No. Because it wouldn't sound as nice if I said it in the morning.'

Daisuke moved about under the covers a bit more before finally giving up to his Other Side and listening to what the Great Phantom Thief had in mind.

'Let's have a bet.'

Cue throwing of a pair of shorts into the metaphorical laundry basket.

'I wager that if I kiss my Sacred Maiden before you, I will get one whole day to myself.'

Daisuke was still dozing, so it was only natural to wait for a while before he actually reacted to that statement. When he finally did react, of course, the result was traditional, loud and generally annoyed a lot of dogs and random animals in the Azumano district.

'WHAT?!'

And thus the scene was set.

-/-

The next morning, Daisuke was rudely awoken up by his fellow comrade-in-arms who decided that until Daisuke agreed to the conditions of the bet, Dark would make it his personal agenda to annoy the hell out of Daisuke until the redhead said yes.

Thus, Daisuke woke up with a headache, and not to mention several muscle aches all over his body.

He told himself that he would be strong, and would not go so low as to agree to this ridiculous bet.

However, by midmorning as he was trying very hard to ignore Dark's singing of 'Ten Thousand Green Bottles (The Uncensored Version)' loudly in his head while listening to his teacher drone on about trigonometry in general, Daisuke felt that no one, who lasted through torture and torment of any kind in any war, ever had Dark Mousy singing in their head.

And by lunch time, he was settling the terms of the bet with the sneaky bastard in his head and ignoring Saehara's serious talk about how much Daisuke the little boy had changed into this serious angsty teenage guy and how he could talk to Saehara any time he wanted.

Of course, Daisuke removed the hidden recorder from Saehara's pants, and continued settling the terms of the betting, albeit in a quieter and more private place.

They would have to find their own respective Sacred Maidens and obtain a kiss from said party before Christmas. Daisuke wasn't supposed to interfere with Dark when he was in control and vice versa. Should Daisuke succeed, he would have one week of no nonsense, no annoying Dark Mousy in his head, unless it came to the occasional rag which Dark seriously couldn't resist pulling on his mild mannered Tamer.

Should Dark succeed however, he would get one whole day to himself, with his Sacred Maiden.

'Tough luck,' Dark smirked when Daisuke protested. 'So what will it be? Yes? No?'

Daisuke sighed. 'Okay then.'

Let's add two more shirts into that basket now shall we?

-/-

Daisuke walked home with Riku that day, trying very hard to drum up the courage to actually move his head to kiss Riku, with Dark whispering words of encouragement in his head, in accordance to the bet's terms of agreement.

Eventually, he gave up at Riku's doorstep and was in a rather gloomy mood that night when his mother announced that Dark had another mission to go through, which was to steal another painting by the same artist from another museum. Daisuke barely had time to wonder why priceless art pieces kept appearing in their town when they kept getting stolen before Emiko flashed the picture of Riku in front of him and Dark had already pounced and taken control.

'Evening, Emiko. Ooh, look, mistletoe.' He grinned as he produced a tiny sprig of the plant from nowhere.

And as Emiko gushed on about how dashing he looked that night, Dark bent down for a perfunctory kiss on her blushing cheek.

'Bundle up, dear! It's cold out tonight,' she tossed him his usual black coat as he called With and swooped out of the balcony window.

Dark wasn't really interested in the heist that night; he was already planning what to do with his particularly feisty Sacred Maiden who had an excellent aim and how to properly show Daisuke how to kiss a lady. He performed it with routine accuracy; outwitting Saehara (who didn't need much to outwit in the first place) and was laughing out of the museum even before the old man knew what hit him.

The real challenge came later, when he was flying past the Harada mansion. He then noticed it was beginning to snow, slowly and quietly.

Wonderful atmosphere, he decided as he blanked and wheeled down towards his favourite piece of architecture in the entire town.

She wasn't outside, the first thing he noticed as he landed as silently as a cat on the balcony. He then placed two gloved fingers on the balcony glass, listening out for anything and (automatically) peering through the glass to see if anyone was in.

The room was empty.

Dark shrugged and began to look elsewhere, his fingers tapping impatiently on the glass.

'Riku…' he sang out quietly as he peered over the balcony.

His eyes scanned the lawn of the Haradas before –

Ah.

This was equivalent to throwing an entire set of football uniform after a week of practice and rolling about in the mud into the laundry basket.

There she was, sitting out on the lawn, enjoying the night sky and letting the virgin snow kiss her cheeks.

Dark felt a small prick of jealousness for the snow.

Then again, he felt that he couldn't have picked a better Sacred Maiden. She even had the location selected for him already!

Unable to leave a lady sitting out there in the snow alone, Dark swooped down form the balcony and slowly approached her from behind.

She looked so innocent and sweet in her nightshirt, which was just so unbelievably sexy to him that it took all he had not to tackle her there and then and kiss her senseless. Damn that Daisuke for capturing her heart. Dark could be a pervert, a sex maniac and a flirtatious playboy but above all, he was a gentleman.

Hence, Riku was rudely interrupted from her star gazing by a Thief when he sat down next to her.

'Well, hello there.'

She froze. She'd know that voice anywhere.

'Dark…' she breathed, her mood immediately spoilt and rapidly entering the Danger Zone.

'You remembered me. Brilliant. You wouldn't mind me sitting here right? I just want some peace and quiet with my favourite person.'

Riku was about to stand up and move but at his words, she stopped. She looked at him incredulously.

'Peace and quiet?'

'What? I'm human too. I want quiet sometimes too, you know.'

Riku nodded slowly to herself. Dark Mousy wanted peace and quiet. That was like… like Satoshi suddenly breaking out in pimples or something – a temporal impossibility.

The pair sat in awkward silence for a while, before Dark felt that he had to say something.

'So, Riku? What are you doing out here? Usually, you're in your room… but today?'

'I thought someone wanted peace and quiet?' Riku growled, her mood already settling down in Danger Zone.

Dark seemed to ignore the danger signs. 'Yes, well, you can't expect me to actually keep silent for the next twenty minutes or so right? The tension between us… man, it's bloody thick.'

'Not my fault,' Riku muttered in a small voice as she continued looking at the sky, quite forgetting where her last constellation was.

Dark smiled knowingly in reply, content to just sit there next to her and watch the night sky.

'Okay… fine.' Riku's resistance crumbled as her conscience ate her up from the inside. 'I wasn't in my room because… I guessed you'd be coming tonight. And I'm sorry about the tension,' she added in a rush.

Dark grinned wider. That's what he liked about her. She was just too cute for words.

'No problem,' Dark replied cheerfully. 'At least we cleared it up now.'

Riku nodded slowly again, as though in a dream. She had just apologized to Dark Mousy for what… tension between them? Why did she do that? And she was actually having a civilized conversation with him…

Satoshi better be having a huge acne attack right now.

'Hey… somebody looks troubled here,' Dark mused, looking at the girl beside him who was frowning in such a terrible manner. He moved to brush a lock of hair from her face and produced that same sprig of mistletoe from nowhere.

'Well, what do you know…' he smirked, dangling the sprig in front of her. Riku stared at it quizzically for a moment.

Then her face changed.

'Oh no.'

'Oh yes,' Dark leered, leaning in. 'It's traditional.'

'Dark Mousy!' Riku squeaked, putting her hand up between their mouths. 'You jerk!'

She pushed his face away brusquely, doing slight damage to his perfect chin. 'Don't even think about it!' she hissed as she scrambled further away from him in the grass.

'But it's traditional! You're not going to deny centuries of tradition now, are you?' Dark whined.

'Try me,' she snarled, bristling.

'Look, kissing under the mistletoe is a sign of forgiveness!' Dark reasoned hastily. 'In Norse mythology…'

'We aren't Normans!' Riku snapped.

'Look but you just apologized right? And I have to apologize to you as well right? For interrupting your star gazing?'

'With a kiss? Hah!' Riku laughed derisively.

'Seriously! Look, it's honestly a sign of forgiveness! And besides, it's Christmas! Just one?'

Riku glared back. Dark continued on earnestly.

'Look, I promise, it'll be a short, chaste one. I won't do anything!'

'Right. Kissing isn't anything, eh? Goodnight, Dark.'

And she turned on her heel, striding towards the mansion. Dark huffed (he was so close) and scrambled after her, catching her wrist. He stopped and without thinking, pulled her back.

Riku spun slightly on her heel in surprise and crumpled onto the ground in agony. Dark landed on his knees beside her breathlessly.

'Ouch…' Riku groaned on her back, trying to get up. However she realized her hands were pinned above her head… by that perverse Thief no less.

'Let go!' she struggled against his grip. It shifted slightly, but that was all.

Dark had moved until her head was situated in front of his knees and he bent down, staring straight into her angry eyes, the two of them breathing hard.

'Look, damn it, I'll prove it to you.'

One hand holding the mistletoe and another one pinning both her wrists on top of his thighs, he leant further down and covered her lips with his.

Riku felt a impression of sensual heat on her own lips, so different from the cold previously – she noted with alarming alacrity – and protested violently but it lasted barely a second before he broke it off, releasing her arms.

'See?' he gasped impatiently – and was that a hint of a blush on his cheeks? 'That wasn't so bad now was it?'

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. Riku was sitting up and shooting daggers at him.

'You – you…' Words failed her as she struggled to express her fury against that sexist perverse jerk who –

Dark only managed a silly smile, so happy he was at actually completing the task before Daisuke did, that he did the only natural thing a man would do to thank a girl who helped him out.

He pulled her into a warm hug.

'Thanks Riku. You helped me a lot back there.'

Riku was too surprised to even think of an answer, only experiencing the brief feel of being warmer than she had ever been and strong arms protecting her for an instant before Dark leapt into the night sky with With on his back, flying homewards.

Unsurprisingly, he melted back into Daisuke (just in time too), who was, understandably, very upset over the whole matter.

With that, the laundry basket was already half-full and already smelled badly – but the wheel of consequences had yet to begin turning.

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Heka: I don't care if I don't win; I just had so much fun writing this! And I discovered this on wikipedia:

Bill McLain wrote in his book, "There are many legends about mistletoe. One Scandinavian legend states that Loki, the god of mischief, killed Baldur, the god of peace, by shooting him with an arrow made from mistletoe. Other gods and goddesses were saddened by Baldur's death and asked that his life be restored, which it was. In appreciation, his mother Frigga hung up the mistletoe and promised to kiss all who passed under it. Because of this, mistletoe became the symbol of both forgiveness and love." So it's true!

And, though Dark didn't say it: 'It sometimes believed that it was once used as a way to announce your love interest, if two kissed under a mistletoe it was a way of publicly stating that the male wished to wed the lady.'

Dark: Hey! You blew my cover!

Riku: Oh! Now I see! Dark…!

Dark: Excuse me while I calm my fair lady.

Heka: And I'm sorry to have cursed Satoshi with acne. I hope you'll forgive me!

Satoshi: Yeah. Right.

Heka: Review and you'll have cookies with Dark Mousy's signature on them.