AN: Hello! This is Kait1991; I'm co-author with my brother EmporerMage! I'll just call him EM. We just kind of came up with this, hope you like it!!
EM here, its mine I tell you, MINE!!!! …what ever she tells you is lies trust me ….
Kait: liar. Oh, and EM chose the names. I didn't want to name him Eric. Got one too many of those….
EM: Lies, its all lies, except for the name idea…
DISCLAIMER: We own nothing by Eric Shimada and Schatten! Oh, and the plot!!
SHADES OF GREY
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Diasuke stood next to his mother. She had been so excited when they got the call that they where going to host a Foreign exchange student that he didn't want to upset her by pointing out a few fairly key things. Number one being his being Dark. He was almost happy when a voice came over the intercom.
"United Flight 452 departing from Las Vegas has now landed."
"Oh, Diasuke! He's here!!" Emiko squealed excitedly, jumping around and holing up the sign she made, reading 'Eric Shimada'.
Diasuke smiled woefully. "Yep." He sighed. Most of the passengers where American tourists, He glanced over the crowd as it filed out of the plane. He spotted a teen walking towards them. He was Diasuke height with longish spiky dark brown hair with reddish highlights. His hair was covering his face so you could hardly see his eyes that were what looked permanently fixed to the floor in front of him.
He looked up to Emiko and Diasuke and said "I'm Eric Shimada." In a soft tenor voice, flashes of soft blue briefly appeared when he looked up at them.
"HI!!" Emiko squealed, hugging the foreign teen tightly. "You're going to enjoy being here so much!!"
"Okay," he said softly, sending a slightly scared look to Diasuke.
"Mom, just let him go." He said, his mother reluctantly removing her arms from Eric. "I'm Diasuke Niwa. This is my mom, Emiko."
"Hello," He greeted shyly. "You're my host family?"
"Yes! Isn't it great?" Emiko laughed.
"Sure…" Eric agreed a slightly worried look in his eyes, which where once again directed at Diasuke.
Diasuke sighed, "Let's go get your luggage, Mom, hail a cab, please."
"Okay!" Emiko agreed, bouncing off towards the door.
Eric followed silently behind Diasuke, speaking only to identify his suitcase, a large business travel case, almost as tall as himself. Diasuke took his back pack and Eric dragged the suitcase behind him on the wheels. They got outside just as Emikos cab came to her. The cab driver helped the teens put the case on the roof and tie it down. The three got in the cab and where off, Emiko playing tour guide and pointing out important things like train station and nearest subway station to their house.
'Gahhh this is annoying' thought Diasuke as Emiko went into full tour guide mode 'And this is where…'
The ride was 10 minutes long and it seemed like hours to Diasuke "Ah, finally home!!!"
Emiko ran up to the door, unlocking it, and whisking Eric into the house. She bounced around, showing him the important rooms on the first floor before grabbing Diasuke and ordering him to show Eric their room while she makes dinner.
"c'mon." Diasuke sighed, waving for the brunette to follow him. Eric followed him, a thoughtful look on his face. Diasuke led him to the end of the hall, "This is our room, I have the far bed, you the one on this wall." He pointed; the bed was rather plain, with the wall surrounding it undecorated. "Feel free to add wall hangs and such. As long as it's nothing… well yeah." Diasuke blushed, grinning slightly.
"Profane," Eric finished for him.
"Yeah, profane." He shrugged, "Get settled, Mom'll call us down when it's done."
Eric walked into the room, turning to Diasuke, smiling, "Danke für das Zeigen mir Sie Haus."
"eh… What?" Diasuke asked, flopping onto his bed.
"Its German, it means something along the lines of 'thanks for the tour'." Eric explained, sitting in a more dignified fashion on his bed, "I like speaking in German, makes me feel closer to home. I didn't live in the States until a little more than a year ago. Germany, that was my home." He nodded. Diasuke shrugged in response.
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They sat at the table in a western style, Emiko, and Diasukes' Grandfather at the heads, Diasuke and Eric sitting across from each other, looking at the small feast Emiko had prepared.
"So…" Mr. Niwa started, "Tell us about yourself, Eric."
"Well, I'm 14, and I'm a German National, but I have U.S. Citizenship, so I got in on the Foreign Exchange Program. Um… my father, he's Japanese, but all I know about Japan is the language, and I speak English better than it, so apologies if any Deutsch slips in. Let's see, I have a fairly active imagination and my favorite subject in school is History. When I was at the Airport I heard someone talking about some phantom thief named Dark. He's supposedly a ghost that was wronged, that his painting was stolen and destroyed. At least, that's what the crazy lady I sat next to on the way here said." He shrugged.
Diasuke shifted uncomfortably in his chair, dark in the back of his mind laughing like a fool. "Yeah... Dark's a menace." He said, blushing slightly. 'Hey! Don't lie to the kid!' Dark yelled at him, making his eye twitch.
Emiko squealed, "Speaking of Dark, guess what I heard on the radio when I was fixing dinner! He's going to have a heist tonight; he claims he's going to steal the Forlorn Hearts at 9:00," she giggled, "That's only a little more than an hour! If we leave now we could get a good spot to see if we could spot him!"
Dark, to Diasuke, said 'Remind me to kiss your Mom later for the brilliant way to get lost in a crowd!'
"And to celebrate it, I'm going to give you both costumes I've been working on! Eric, it's so great that your Diasukes height! You can wear the one I made to look like what Dark wore to steal one of his first paintings in more than fifty years! And Dia, it's a new Coplay costume!!" she giggled uncontrollably.
"I'll leave the gallivanting to you young types, to bed for me!" Mr. Niwa laughed, walking up the stairs to his room.
Twenty minutes later found Diasuke and Eric dressed up to Emikos satisfaction; Diasuke sported a skin-tight long-sleeved black shirt, with a loose half-length grey-black short sleeve zipper shirt over it. Loose black pants tied the outfit together. Eric wore black pants and a short sleeved black shirt with a long sleeved black and white jacket half zipped ((See the costume that Dark/Diasuke wore when he went on a 'date' with Risa in vol.2, pg 48/49)).
"Does she do this often?" Eric asked, following Emiko to the gallery Dark was supposed to be stealing from.
"Not usually, I don't know what's got her so hyped up." Diasuke told the other teen, a nagging voice in the back of his head shouting 'You do too! He'll know eventually.' Diasuke muttered, "Not if I can help it."
"What was that?" Eric asked.
"Oh, just thinking out loud," Diasuke lied quickly, a little too quickly for Eric's liking.
"We're here!" Emiko shouted, spreading her arms to overlook the mayhem of reporters and police hovering around the small gallery. She caught Diasukes eye, nodding. He gave her a small nod, leading the trio into the crowd, loosing Emiko, who was leading Eric, within a few feet.
He slid off to a near by alley to change into Dark. He looked into a picture of the twins, waiting for the feeling to rise and Dark to appear. Within a few seconds it happened, and Dark slinked down the alley away from the mayhem, whistling softly, waiting for his wings to join him, his wings, of course, being Wiz. The rabbit-thing appeared quickly, transforming into the wings that allowed Dark to fly.
"C'mon, we got us a show to put on." He laughed as they took off into the cloudless sky; he had five minutes to waste before the time that has been set was upon them.
Meanwhile, back with Emiko and Eric, Emiko noticed that she was alone and both teens had disappeared into the crowds. She glanced about worried, the teen had just arrived in the country, and he shouldn't be off on his own yet.
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Inside the Gallery Satoshi Hiwatari waited for Dark to appear, for a moment he thought someone was watching him, but dismissed it, remembering the cameras. He didn't have to wait long, Dark showed up in a few seconds, lifting the painting from the wall without setting the alarms off.
"Your too good at this, Dark, for me to catch you in the act every time." He said clearly, Dark smirking at him.
"But if I didn't show you, who would I egg on for Diasuke to gloat at?" Dark asked good naturally.
"You know as well as I do that he-"Satoshi stopped, grabbing the wall, clutching his stomach, "Get out of here, he's coming."
"Krad? Right now? He sure knows the most inconvenient times to show up!" Dark sighed, "We'll be seeing you," he waved to Satoshi, about to turn and dash off into the night when he heard soft foot steps coming from a grouping of shadows in a near-by corner.
"Heh," a masculine voice said cockily, "This is going to be easier than I thought." The figure stopped, to reveal a smirking Eric Shimada.
"Eric? What the hell? You're supposed to be with Emiko!" he looked over at Satoshi, who appeared to have gotten control over Krad again.
"So are you, Diasuke, or are you pretending to be the Niwas' pet-thief Dark today?" he asked, the sneer getting bigger. "I am the shade of grey in this world, the middle man of the Niwa-Hitari feud. I was sent here by the Shimada elders to stop this foolish battle once and for all, with all permissions granted." He examined, "After all, it would be really hard for either line to have more Dark or Krad puppeteers if both lines suddenly. How do I say this... hm... vanished." He gave them an evil grin.
"You can't do anything to me or Krad, we're stronger than you, plus, we can fly." Dark pointed out savagely, Diasuke too shocked to comment about anything to Dark. Satoshi nodded in agreement.
"Well, I got a little bit of everything up my sleeves." He laughed, giving the pair a hateful look as he began to change.
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Kait1991: done! Three sessions of marathon writing, and chapter 1 is done!
Em: she picked my name... oh, sorry. Lost my train of thought.
Kait1991: didn't think you ever got the coal to run it...
Em: Ha Ha. Please Review! We want to know if you want us to continue this story!
Kait: Yes, Please Review, any input will be greatly appreciated.