This is what happens when you watch too many Asian serials, you know those things that go on for 30 episodes. Welcome to my little drama. Stay for the show.

Strawberry Wine/ Act 1: Strawberry Wine

Krad took a sip of his wine and swept the hall with his glare. Around him, women and men made fools of themselves, prancing around to century-old gavottes and waltzes. If it weren't for the fact that Niwa had agreed to attend, he wouldn't be here for all the money in the world.

He smiled into his glass. Niwa.

A breathy young girl crashed into him, having just completed a rigorous tango with her cocky, bow-tied consort. "Oh goodness," she said, and then spun away, led by her tuxedoed prince, not bothering to notice the plum-colored addition to the front of Krad's clothes.

To let out his fury, without getting thrown out of the mansion, Krad got another drink.

He got back just when the quartet leader stood up and announced the next song. By now, the duchess was glancing nervously at the balcony, where her nieces were going to make their entrances. Krad rolled his eyes at the tipsy party guests, all the while wishing that he wasn't wearing white, but then again, he hadn't planned on coming to a black-tie ball when he picked out his wardrobe.

"Ah! The mademoiselles!" The cello player stood up instantly and the music stopped. "Misses Riku, Risa---."

Krad paused in the sipping of his alcoholic beverage and gazed upward.

There, in the light of a crystal chandelier, were the Harada twins. And a consort.

----------------------------/when/we/don't/know/the/answer/we/stay/silent/--------------------------------

Risa was not happy. Dark, due to some freak poisoning----no one would tell her anything, even Daisuke----could not attend, and now as her giddy sister danced, she could only watch.

"It's not fair," she muttered. "I deserve some of the spotlight."

A waft of cologne caught her off guard. "Who is that dancing with your sister?" a deep voice asked her.

Spinning around, reacting to a voice extremely like Dark's, Risa was disappointed by a blond man with a purple pocket on his tux that strangely clashed with his white attire. "D-Daisuke," she said, biting her lip. How was it that he weirdly resembled Dark?

The man smiled. And Risa, heart flipping, forgetting that Dark's hair was the color of the man's drink, forgetting Dark----nearly fell head over heels when he asked, "Would you like to dance?"

----------------------------/sometimes/we/fall/from/grace/and/we/fall/hard/--------------------------------

"Riku!"

Her sister calling her from halfway across the banquet hall, Riku left Daisuke by the punch table and huffily turned toward the noise. "What now, Risa?"

Risa beamed, dragging a man behind her. "I'd like you to meet Krad!" she exclaimed. "Isn't he dreamy?"

Riku scrunched up her eyebrows. Yes, Krad was dreamy in the way that vampires were dreamy, in the dangerous way Dark was dreamy, so it was predictable that Risa would like him.

"Er," she said out loud.

"Pleased to meet you too," Krad said graciously, a displeased smile plastered on his face.

Riku backed away. "Uhhh…Risa, we need to talk. Um, over there. Really far."

Krad's smile broadened. Risa sighed. "Fine. Krad, stay here for a sec, will you? I'll be back, baby-cheeks!"

For a second, it seemed as though a dark (HAHA) cloud passed over Krad's face. And then it was gone.

"Sure, I'll go talk to Niwa---your boyfriend. What's his name? Daisuke?"

"Yes," replied Riku, edging away with her twin. "And don't even think of hurting him."

Krad strode to the punch, pretending he had not heard.

------------------------/the/music/quickens/the/tempo/swells/but/we/are/deaf/-----------------------------

"Hello."

Spoonful of punch. "Eh?" Daisuke turned around. His amber eyes widened. He dropped the punch.

Luckily, the gentleman in charge of beverages readily handed him another one. "Be careful, sir." As if Daisuke was listening.

"Y-you!" he gasped.

Krad looked down at him as one might look down on prey. "Why don't I hold that for you, Niwa?" he asked, a nasty smile spreading.

In shock, Daisuke blankly let Krad receive his punch. He did not notice the powder that was mixed into his drink.

"You are quite pale," Krad continued sweetly, like poisoned honey. "Want a drink now? It's your favorite. Strawberry…"

Daisuke choked as the fruity potion was forced down his throat.

"There, better…?"

No. This was not better. Daisuke grabbed the edge of the table and missed. This was what he saw Dark going through last month. And he had not seen Dark since, nor heard from him. There were rumors that Dark would not recover.

He thought he heard laughing as he fell.

--------------------------------/how/can/I/help/you/if/I/can't/help/myself/-----------------------------------

"Ambulance!"

"Daisuke! Daisuke!"

"My goodness gracious!"

"He fainted! Or did he drink too much?"

In the excitement, no one noticed Krad, who stood smirking a little ways off, sipping causally.

His mistake. He had grabbed a cup of punch, not wine. The punch was strawberry. Strawberries were nearly lethal to Krad.

The ambulance carried off two people that night, as it sped toward the Azumano Greater Hospital.

--------------------------/what/heals/sometimes/hurts/what/hurts/sometimes/heals------------------------

When Daisuke woke up, he was surrounded by so many flowers and presents he vaguely thought he was in a jungle. Then a nurse came in, his headache started, and he fell asleep.

When he woke up again, it was to the insistent beeping of machines and a hushed voice.

"Don't disturb him," the voice said. "Bad case. Memory loss."

Daisuke noticed there was now a curtain erected in the middle of the room, dividing it into halves. A doctor was apparently conversing on the other side, and from the sound of it, nurses were helping a new patient settle in.

"All done. Poor thing, can't hear us. Leave him be. Rest might prove helpful."

Yawning, Daisuke leaned back into the pillow, as the doctor and nurses marched out past his bed. The moon illuminated the window across the room, so that through the thin curtain, Daisuke could see shadows of a table and a hospital bed. Cool, he thought sluggishly. That patient gets a window bed.

He slept. And woke to Emiko's kisses and Riku's hugs and pats on the head from so many people his head hurt for that reason. And opened all his presents and slept and ate.

But there was a drumming in the back of his head that would not stop. And one day, he heard the doctors telling a crying Emiko that he had been fed poison, that a brain tumor had started growing in his brain from the residue. At night he had chills and dreams of angels and strawberries.

And woke and did everything all over again.

The hospital got boring. Needles poked him everyday, and blood and urine tests irritated his sensitive bodily functions. There was nothing to do in his room, and they forbade him to look in on his roommate, the one with the "memory loss".

So he stayed behind the curtain, and fell into fits more and more often, would eat less and less. But other than the obvious signs of weight loss, he felt fine. He wanted to be discharged from the hospital, but for some reason, everyone said no.

Then one night, he couldn't sleep. The CAT scan the next day made him apprehensive, and the window was open across the room, behind the curtain.

Overcome by curiosity, Daisuke slipped a foot out. He would have an excuse to go exploring. The window was open, and there was a breeze. He could say he couldn't sleep with wind.

So, slowly, he crept along the linoleum floor, past the life support and the clipboards, determined to find out about his mysterious companion.

He pushed the curtain aside a few inches and listened. No noise. He pushed it more and it rolled back. With a racing heart, he put a foot into the opening.

Halfway across the forbidden space, his conscience gave out and he looked around. The first thing he saw was how bare the room was. No flowers, no gifts. Next to the only table laid the bed. In it, lay a groaning body.

Every step an effort, the classic heart-pounding-out-of-chest sensation affecting him, Daisuke leaned over the bed.

In it lay a blond, his long, long hair streaming out over the edge of the bed, so at first Daisuke thought him a girl. Creeping just a little closer, Daisuke parted the hair just a bit, to see the face.

Dark in a wig? The face was familiar.

Too familiar. "AHHH!"

A nurse came rushing in to the sound of a crashing table and a horrified scream. She ripped apart the curtain and gaped at the mess. "Oh look what you've done!" she cried.

"I'm sorry!" Daisuke cried. "I didn't mean to break the table!"

"Not that!" she shook her head, still wide-eyed. "You've woken him!"

Aghast, Daisuke looked up into the face of one of his long-standing enemies, expecting a sneer. Instead, Krad, hair streaming, sat up dizzily in the bed and asked in a dazed voice, "Where am I?"