Chapter One: Le Matin Chez Niwa

When Daisuke had woken up and begun to get ready for school, he attempted to confront Dark.

"Dark," he said as he stripped his T-shirt off, "I haven't gotten a goodnight's sleep in forever, and neither have you."

"Yeah," the thief said bluntly, "I know."

Rebuffed, Daisuke got into the shower, and immersed himself in lathering his body while thinking of how to proceed with Dark. As he rinsed in the steaming water, he tried again, with a new tactic.

"I've noticed you've been thinking about Satoshi a lot recently."

"Yeah," Dark repeated this time with a twinge of bitterness, "I know."

"Dark…"

Daisuke knew Dark understood his curiosity and concern, for they spoke to each other in the most intimate way possible: through each other's thoughts, even feelings. Daisuke felt Dark's tender dejection and surmised from his unwillingness to share that the topic was better dropped. Tonight's theft substituted as the new topic.

"Mom told me that yesterday at the museum there was a note left warning that the notorious Phantom Thief would steal Le Rose de Cristal." Daisuke's voice always carried a little weariness when he recounted the flashy and dramatic messages his mother always left for the police.

"What do we know about this Rose whatever thing?" Dark responded after a short break, greatly relieving Daisuke. Hey, at least he was talking now.

"Dunno," shrugged the Phantom Thief's host, "Hikari art work, survived the Cultural Reformation, impossible to steal, same old schpiel." And at that point Daisuke's tummy gave a rumbly. On queue, his mom walked in, in her soft pastel bathrobe and smiled.

"Good morning, sweetie! Hungry?"

"Dressed and downstairs, Daisuke sat down to a quick breakfast of Special K at the table with his grandfather.

"Mornin', grandpa!" He said cheerily, " Where's Dad?"

"Kosuke is probably still asleep, lazy bum son-in-law."

"Dad!" Groaned Emiko, "Daisuke and I wouldn't be up this early if it weren't for his school bus, and you wouldn't be up either if you weren't a really old guy!"

"Now hold it RIGHT there," this affront to his pride was so serious that grandpa even put down his newspaper to say, "when I was Kosuke's age I was busy being the host of a Phantom Thief, which let me tell you when you get around thirty-six gets significantly more difficult. Why, I remember back in '57…."

Blahbly, blahbly, blah thought the teenager and his mother as grandpa droned on. But Daisuke was relieved to be immersed in life again, free momentarily from the awkward position with Dark. But still, that bitterness was still there, lingering in the back of his mind…

"Honey, you'd better be going out to the bus," Emiko chimed amidst her father's anecdotal diatribe. Taking a final bite of his cereal, the high schooler hugged his mom goodbye and bid his trading grandpa farewell as he ran out the front door into the brisk Monday morning air.