Title: Smile

D.N. Angel: KradxDark

Disclaimer: I do not own D.N. Angel, nor any of its characters. This is purely fanfiction and I make no profit from it.

I remember feeling that strange lurch in my chest the first time it happened. It was hot, tight, pounding sensation from my body, my blood, my heart. The euphoria that spread in my veins was dangerous; as if I was hyperventilating from such a daring action I had caused in my other half.

Daisuke's reaction to either of the Haradas was nothing compared to this. My chest not only ached, but it twisted and tightened into the smallest, mangled twig. I lost my breath, my lungs. My arms and legs felt like lead, but simultaneously burned with rapture; my mouth salivated, but my tongue was suddenly desert-dry and cottony. It was like a drug had been injected into my soul, shattering it with ecstasy. It was all from such a simple, bone-shaking moment of the unfathomable.

We had been separated from our Tamers for months, now, and I haven't the slightest idea how. That freak Hiwatari had been playing with his brushes again, pouring life unknowingly into an art piece that was capable of creating human bodies – empty human bodies, ones without identities, features, emotions, souls. And then Daisuke and the freak meddled in it – after the few thousand times I told Daisuke not to! – and here I am.

The time has melted together in my mind. I may be a world famous phantom thief, but my long-term sense of time can get blurred rather easily. I get bored, usually. And I am not a boring person! I'm too old (and too well-known) for school or a job, I can't make friends other than the residence of the boundless corridor shadows in the Niwa home. I guess I have Towa and Argentine, but their bickering and fussing gives me a headache. They have their duties to attend you, and there was no way in hell Emiko was going to enslave me! Argentine always dresses me nice, and Towa's always great for the flattering compliments. Of course, I was still stealing the Hikirai works like berries off a tree. It was too easy with just Hiwatari trying to keep me away.

I always wondered in my wanderings of the vaults, musing along the arts hoarded by the Niwas, if Hiwatari had lost Krad just as Daisuke lost me. Well, lost isn't the right word; I had been freed, liberated from a centuries-old curse of not having my own being to thrive in. Yes, I had immortality and the ability to traverse the blood lineage of the Niwas; I had the chance to take control and love someone; but without a body, emotion just seems like empty promises.

Krad, on the other hand, had much less freedom than I did. He was constantly fighting: fighting against his Tamers when they suppressed his link, fighting against the Niwa temptation of stealing the artwork he was forced to fruitlessly protect, fighting me and my hatred...

Hate was not the word I wanted to use when thinking of Krad, but what else could it be? That burning sensation in my soul whenever we locked eyes couldn't be pleasant, nothing like it used to be. Yes. It once used to be a pleasurable burn of my heart. That is a past I cannot think of, nor hope to recreate.

Well, then Hiwatari formed us into living, breathing; separate, blood-flowing beings... and that can change things – ideas, thoughts, opinions, life-long grudges.

I saw Krad for the first time, alive, in flesh, the cold air swirling around his thin, pink lips like a tiny snake. His eyes were brighter than I'd ever remembered them, and held the penetrating, icy gold ore, with slited pupils, like a hunter. I remember feeling like the wind was knocked from my body, and suddenly I was locked to the ground. Damnit, With, for not following me. He was alone, at night, on the sandy cove I frequented amidst my lonely, sleepless nights. Hey, even entities can suffer from insomnia. I can't remember what I was thinking so fervently about that night that made sleep so hard to grasp, but it's because when Krad saw me, saw my bare footprints alongside his, he looked at me with such a strange... strange look. I forgot most of what happened up until he looked at me.

I tried to feel fear, terror, adrenaline to fight, hate, but it all alluded me. I could sense the magic in his system trying to stir something, but nothing happened. I felt our muscles stiffen, and the tingle of his wings mirrored my own. I, then, realized the absence of his famous white, glowing wings. He was grounded, like me? Was it temporary, or had the great white-winged demon lost his ability to fly, cursed to live an existence of dependence for flight. Like me?

"You've lost your wings," I stated, rather stupidly. He frowned, his long, artist's hands buried deep in the pockets of his white pants. His white coat billowed in the soft wind, shaping around his slim, muscled form. I caught a glimpse of his bare stomach before the pale clothes covered up the expanse of skin. Why did he have to wear white? It was so obvious, and easily stained, and not easy to sneak around in at all – so impractical, unlike black.

He sneered, "Lost and hidden are different words, Mousy," ugh, I hated that nickname so much, "Being mortal is not as easy and it seems for Satoshi and little Niwa, hm?"

"..." I tried to throw back a biting comment, to make him feel like he was alone in this struggle with being mortal. But... nothing would come out. I blanched and he looked away, out to the dark, swimming ocean under a slivered moon. The waves crashed and roared, tamed by the sands when approaching Krad's bare feet and licking lightly as his toes.

"I'm trying to find some reason to kill you right now, seeing as the opportune moment has presented itself, but I can't seem to find any will to."

"That's too bad. You'll get out of practice with excuses like that, Krad," I smirked, and I knew he felt it. His shoulders stiffened and bristled. I could see the moonlight shinning on the thick curtain of gold tied behind his head. I noticed the two sets of footprints together before I stopped and Krad's diverged towards the tide. I frowned.

"What do you know about our mortality?" Krad asked against the wind of the sea. I shrugged, knowing he couldn't see me.

"How should I know? Your little freak made this up somehow."

Krad was eerily silent when he turned to me, something strange in his eyes. My muscles tensed, like a mouse getting ready to run from a cat. Damnit, I hated when I used that simile! Krad eyed me, unmoving, steady, statuesque. God, I could feel every muscle of his hand twitch, his body responding to mine. Yeah, we were mortals now, but the magic flowed in our veins just as much as it did in Daisuke's and Hiwatari's. I could sense his, and I felt his awareness over mine. White and black, light and dark, always colliding, always in sync, always together.

Was that us? Krad and Dark.

"I want to hate you, Dark. I want to so bad."

I frowned, confused. Why couldn't he if wanted to so badly to hate me? He was a being of hate, wasn't he? Does that make me hate too? Or am I love? I was so confused with my inner musings that I almost got dizzy. Krad still stayed silent, and staring at him too long made me frown.

"Then hate me, Krad. I'm not stopping you."

Then, the strangest thing happened. It was literally THE strangest thing I've ever witnessed, and I'm a phantom thief – I've experienced a lot of weird shit. But this... not only was it such a surprise as it was a shock, it did the most terrible things to my body I couldn't imagine was possible. It tore my heart out by the strings, and tied it back in with the strangest designs.

"How could I hate you, Dark Mousy? How could I hate the one being I am destined to own, and be owned by?"

The words... so foreign from such a harsh, bitter mouth. Krad's language changed so rapidly to me, as if he were speaking gibberish only he and I could possibly understand. It was so bizarrely intimate; I almost laughed and cried at the same time. Emotions boiled in my skin, making it hot and cold, causing white spots to appear in my crisp vision.

He blinked slowly, his face like stone, and I took a slow step towards him. Tested the shark-infested waters. The footprints that had deserted mine were now side-by-side to the ones I was creating. This was insanity to me, truly. I couldn't feel anything but the golden, disguised hunter's breath, stoic muscles, fluttering wings. He was much more composed than I felt.

Then, I was before him, our parallel faces mere centimeters apart. Disgustingly close. I tried to not to breathe on him, in fear it would could out a toxic gas and make him flutter away like an apparition. I had to make him stay; I had to steal him.

He is mine.

"Own? Owned... by?" I softly let out. Krad tried to look away, but his eyes snapped right back to mine when I held his familiar chin – the exact shape of my sharp jaw – in my firm grasp. How many times I'd done this to a woman, to make her swoon when I possessed her face, and not felt but a flutter. My heart was an avalanche and volcanic eruption. He was my exact height, weight, size, type. Our coloring was different enough to differentiate, but I could feel it.

But we were exactly the same. It was like holding your reflection in the mirror.

Krad, still stone-faced and strong, let out his voice deeper and louder than I allowed mine, his gold hair tracing along his cheek, "I've been trying to reclaim you for centuries, Dark. You've been trying to claim me, but you always go for my artworks instead. The Niwas and Hikirais have confused us in our truth...

You have always been mine."

I gripped his face tightly, as if he could slip out from between my fingertips, but he snarled against the harsh treatment, "And now I'm going to claim you," I hissed.

This is the weird part.

I crushed his lips against mine, feeling a euphoric sensation wash over my body. I'd just taken a bath in cold, frigid waters, and I never wanted to thaw. His eyes widened at the force of my lips on mine as I hungrily tried to absorb him into me, but he gripped my arms with a fierce grasp. He did not push away, but did not lose control. Those white, pianist gloves, I realized sadly, covered his hands, and I slipped the hand holding his chin behind his head, fisting a handful of golden hair.

We made slight, almost unnoticeable movements, but my lips worked furiously against his, greedily opening my mouth to his bruised one, and sliding my tongue into his watering cavern. I felt like I was feeding a lion, letting him taste the meat, darting around and teasing him. He growled against my mouth, making me lose my focus for a moment, and he seized my control, sliding his hands around my hips and bruising his fingertips into my bared hips.

We pulled away, air seeping through our teeth and onto each other's faces. I couldn't remember what he tasted like, so I went in for another kiss, this time looking into his melted golden eyes. They no longer held the icy clarity, but sheen of lust covered him, and he pulled me close again. I smelled him - such a strange scent that I could pinpoint anywhere – and let our tongues mingle again. He gripped my lower back with clawed fingers as I forced his head towards him again.

Finally, regaining my old, not-weird senses, I had yanked myself away and huffed. I wiped intermixed saliva from my chin and Krad elegantly brushed his white, gloved pointer over a dribble on his pouting bottom lip. I glowered, feeling that strange, trembling feeling trying to take control of my crazed body.

"...That is ownership, Krad?"

Krad, blinking slowly, locked into my eyes again, this time with such a grip I may have died at that very moment and my eyes would not have faltered. My body felt another tremor, and overheated once again, a machine over stimulated. Hypnotized by my mortal enemy! I almost felt ashamed of my wanton actions, but then...

Then... Krad's mouth upturned. His eyes played furiously with the moonlight, trying to blind me from seeing it, but it was unavoidable. A finalizing tremor ran up my body, hitting my spine hard with a biting, pleasing feeling.

Krad smiled.

It was so sincere, so beautiful, so... rare! I always felt smiling was just the soul shining, and thus convinced myself Krad was without a soul. I was so, so, so wrong. Krad's soul was not shining. It was the sun. It made me revolve around it, a helpless lamb. There wasn't a flash of teeth, or even a snicker, smirk, scowl, sneering thing about it. It was a smile. That feeling you get in your face that causes your lips to turn upward, towards the sky, where you can fly, and fly, and fly.

Krad made my heart fly. The smile softened when he noticed my reaction, and my haggard breath must have startled him. How could I have lived so long – so, so, so long! – without ever fathoming that something like that could exist. Krad's smile was everything to me. I stumbled towards him, like drunken man who had just come from the best bar in town, and my hands fell upon his shoulders. His eyes hardened from the softness, but he kept his lips tugged, as if the smile was going to break through again if I did something. My mind, racing too fast to put anything together, shrieked at me. Too fast, too hard, too long without it.

I breathed onto his face as he caught me, "You... do that again..."

Krad's face down turned immediately, something definitely more familiar to me, and he scowled, "The great Dark Mousy, dazed by one kiss?"

I waved my hand before his face, and he flinched away, growling, "No... no, no, no... you... You smiled for me."

He seemed stunned, and his brow furrowed rather attractively in confusion. I almost wanted to laugh. Here I am, winded, exhausted, being held by my mortal enemy because I cannot keep myself on my feet, and all because he smiled! Ludicrous! But still, his smile...

"What can I do to make you smile again, Krad?" I begged him, sounding stronger than I intended. When did I get desperate? Why such a pleading tone? Why am I reducing myself to this?

Just to see it one more time...

Krad's eyes half-lidded, making an incredibly arousing face, and I pulled his lips to mine again. I was extremely soft, barely making enough contact. He pushed for more, his hands snaking around my neck and head. I was at his mercy, and I didn't care. I was his, now. I belonged to the golden, disguised hunter. As a thief, it drove my nerves insane, making all the endings spark at once, a numb feeling spreading around my limbs.

The kisses were so soft, our tongues danced velvet against velvet, and our teeth clashed more than once. I elicited soft moans from Krad's rather skilled mouth, as my hands wrapped around his face, "Krad... promise that smile is mine."

Krad pushed his nose against mine, looking down at me from the bridge of his. I sucked in a deep breath, my eyes challenging him. He didn't scare me, ever, but this was so thrilling, it even swirled into my loins. I could just see it now... white meshed against black, unable to turn grey because it is too vibrant. The darkness too black to penetrate, solid, like a sheet of ice. The white and black tried and tried to combine, but all that sparked was fire and ice.

"Only yours... forever."

The words were more commanding than sweet and comforting. I loved it. It surged my blood through my veins, pumping so fast I faintly thought maybe I would change into Daisuke. I couldn't, now. That was fine. Krad would not have to share my body with Daisuke, nor would I tolerate owning Krad through Hiwatari's body. He was mine, and only mine.

And feeling those long, talented fingers around my body made me feel owned.

I curled around the golden-haired, white-winged being, my other half, the opposite of the Kokuyoku, and he curled around me. We collapsed as a tumbled mess of black, white, violet and blonde onto the sands, and let the ocean lap at our bodies. It was not cold, nor was it hot. I almost felt nothing, but at the same time Krad's hands were like searing brands on my skin. He was trying to hold me, instead of strangle me; he tried to caress my face with the knuckles of his hand, instead of striking my cheek with hate and anger. I complied to the touch, letting my hands roam everywhere.

He pinned me, suddenly; my back sunk into the sand and he let out a strange growl. His white wings spurted from his back, and they hovered above my body with a looming fate. Krad's moonlight-glowing eyes bore into my dark ones, and his wings fluttered to keep his balance. He reminded me of a hawk mounting its prey, ready to tear out my life. His knees found their way around my damp hips, and my hair swirled in the ocean water. A benefit of white, I found that night; it can't hide anything when it's wet. I grinned as the outlines of Krad's chiseled body revealed its self, from the strokes of his muscles to the small veins protruding from his wrists.

I could see the darkness swirling in his irises, and I took his hand tenderly. The smile was still hidden, like a treasure, and I was ready to go hunting for a valuable prize. I grinned wildly, "We can go back to the manor if this is going to continue."

The wings wobbled, and Krad clenched my bare hand against his rough glove, "Hidden?"

"Deeply," I teased him, letting the word tumble from my tongue very languidly, and I felt Krad stiffen.

"Dark."

I smiled. He didn't use that idiotic nickname, and his eyes flickered with a remembrance from long ago. Krad saw a flash of it too, I could tell, and he shifted atop me. Another wave washed under my back, and I felt the sand swirl beneath me.

"Yes?"

Krad hesitated, and then the small, small, small smile peered its way to me, and my body supercharged again, seeing his flawless face graced with the lovely patterns of happiness. His eyes turned into little liquid gold stashes, and his body seemed to meld to mine. Tugged taut, his lips danced with that softening smile at me, and my heart raggedly jumped in every direction. Finally, finally!

"I am yours."

I squeezed his hand, and he leaned over me, his wet hair sliding over his shoulder to brush against my face, "As I am yours, Krad."

Read & Review please! I am pondering adding a lemon, as a second chapter. Thoughts?