There was a new peace in Satoshi's expression ever since the change, something that Daisuke attributed to the fact that Krad had been gone from the back of his mind since Satoshi's physical form had become female. It unnerved Dark, Daisuke knew, but seeing Satoshi relaxed—or at least as relaxed as he ever got—felt right. He didn't know how much the change had hurt or what it must have been like—he'd been there for it, and Satoshi had passed out screaming and Daisuke had never been more terrified on his behalf, but he'd woken up almost smiling so it was okay. There were no physical problems either, and the change was permanent since it had split the artwork created for this purpose, its power spent on the transformation. Satoshi fit as a woman even as he didn't feel feminine at all, and Daisuke couldn't really explain it.

"Stop looking like I'll break," Satoshi said. His voice was only a little bit higher than before, still smooth and calm. His face was the slightest bit rounder, his wrists and waist and shoulders just a bit thinner. He had no bust to speak of and barely any hip, but he was shorter than before and that kept throwing Daisuke off. All in all, Satoshi looked healthier and that had been one of their goals.

"I know you won't break," Daisuke said. He didn't quite mean it though. He still had memories of seeing long lines of bruises against Satoshi's pale skin and red scabbed wounds from where Krad's wings had forced their way free.

They were in the park again, under an old maple tree. They preferred neutral meeting grounds even now. Summer cicadas buzzed and filled silences between them. Daisuke sketched. Satoshi watched and occasionally gave tips. In the park they were just two people, not Niwa and Hikari. It was nice to just be Daisuke, all of Daisuke, without having to hide his secrets. Satoshi already knew all of them.

Satoshi pushed his glasses up his nose and Daisuke's eyes caught on how the collar of his shirt shifted almost off his shoulder. Satoshi still wore his old clothing even though they were two or three sizes too big now. It made him look even more fragile than before when shirt cuffs dangle around his wrists or collars showed how thin he really was.

"I appear to be fertile," Satoshi said, blunt and to the point as ever. No warning, no leading in. "I saw a doctor yesterday."

Daisuke set aside the sketch book and ignored Dark bristling in his head like an angry cat. "You want an answer."

"It doesn't have to be now."

But Satoshi wanted the suspense to be over, Daisuke could tell. Satoshi, for all that he could plan and make a dozen contingencies on the fly to be flexible, preferred to know where things stood for any given thing. He liked cut and dry answers and Daisuke knew that if he told him that Daisuke didn't think he'd ever be able to go through with it, the matter would be dropped. Satoshi probably would never seek anyone else out for a relationship of any kind or start a family with anyone else either. It was a strange position to be in.

He's probably wanted in your pants the whole time, Dark said, voice edged with desperation in Daisuke's mind. This is messed up. What about Riku?

He'd had a fight with Dark on this topic several times already. It still made his heart ache. He loved Riku. He probably always would on some level. He wasn't sure she could love all of him.

Do you really think Hiwatari loves you?

"No," Daisuke answered back, "not the way I love Riku. But he feels something for me or we wouldn't have made it this far at all. And if I'm honest with myself, I feel something for him or I wouldn't be having this much trouble deciding what to do."

No one knows if it will even work!

"We don't." Daisuke closed his eyes against Satoshi's gaze, the bright summer day, and the park around him, focusing inward on Dark. His heart ached even more when he met Dark's eyes inside his mind. Dark was part of him. And Dark was someone else he loved. "I don't want you to go," Daisuke said to Dark. "I want to share the world with you and coexist. But some day you're going to go away anyway whether I want you to or not. And I'd see you in my son or my grandson but you'd never be me again."

"It's not that I stop being part of you completely," Dark argued. "I'd still be there with you."

"And you wouldn't disappear if we did this." Daisuke felt tired. He didn't want to have this argument. He didn't want to choose at all.

"I don't want to merge with Krad." Dark shuddered. "I don't care if it's what we were supposed to be, it just feels wrong."

"What should I do then, Dark?" They stood only a few feet apart in Daisuke's mind, but it felt like their souls couldn't have been further apart at that moment. "Krad is going to die out with Satoshi. What then? You'll be half of a whole until the Niwa family dies out too. Then you'll be gone too."

"What happens to us if we merge?"

"Hypothetically? You are returned to the artwork you were supposed to be."

Dark laughed and ran a hand through his hair. His hand was shaking, contradicting the rictus of a grin on his face. "I don't think we were ever one person, you know. We're part artwork, part imprints of those first ancestors, the artist and the thief. There's no saying how the curse could change when we merge or what our personality would be after."

"I don't want you to go," Daisuke said again. He wanted to cry, but his eyes were strangely dry. "But we both know that this can't last forever."

Dark curled in on himself, shutting Daisuke out. "I could hope, right? You said we could coexist. You let me in deeper than any of my other tamers. I knew it couldn't last, but I still hoped."

"I'm sorry."

Dark snorted. "No. You're human. And humans want to live."

"I'm going to say yes."

"And Riku?"

Daisuke still struggled with an answer for that. "I guess we'll have to tell her. All of it. About us."

"You mean after," Dark said. It was accusatory. Daisuke winced.

"Only because if I told her before, I know I wouldn't go through with it."

"She's going to dump you."

"I know." He felt bleak thinking of it already, but he also knew he wouldn't forgive himself any time soon just for thinking about Satoshi as much as he had let alone when it would come down to cheating on Riku. He hoped she got angry. He'd rather her hate him than focus on feeling hurt and sad. "Risa?"

"…Let me talk to her?"

"Of course." Daisuke reached out to touch Dark's shoulder and Dark pulled him into a hug, brief and back-aching.

Daisuke let himself fade out of his mind and into reality. Satoshi was waiting patiently. He stared up at the clouds, hands folded in his lap. It was strange to think that this was the most peaceful Daisuke could remember Satoshi looking. Daisuke wet his lips. Satoshi refocused his attention toward him.

"Yes." The word felt heavy on his lips. But then, it was a heavy moment. One word that could change everything in his life, from the surface to its deepest levels. Dark didn't say anything. It was almost worse that Dark wasn't protesting, wasn't going to fight this until the end. "Yes, I'll end the curse with you."

"Are you sure?" Satoshi leaned forward, eyes intent on Daisuke. "If you have any doubts, don't move forward with this."

Doubts? How could he not have doubts? How could Satoshi be so sure about everything? Daisuke wasn't sure. He had never understood the curse in its entirety anyway. All he knew was that Dark would be leaving soon anyway with Krad suppressed, and that if they didn't do this, there would never again be a chance to make things right. And even if it wasn't a sure outcome, it wouldn't be right to not make an effort to fix what their ancestors had broken. Daisuke sighed.

"I don't know how this is going to work," he said. "We're sixteen. My family still hates you. Your papers still say you're a man and even if you've graduated college, I haven't." He shook his head. "You have a baby and then what?"

"I raise it," Satoshi said like it was obvious. "And determine if Krad and Dark have fused and can be sealed away."

"If it's a girl?"

Satoshi's nose scrunched up a little bit. "I try again."

Daisuke wondered is Satoshi knew how detached a statement that was, and felt vaguely worried about Satoshi's potential parenting skills. "That's a lot of commitment. From both of us."

"I'm only asking you to be a sperm donor," Satoshi said.

Daisuke scoffed. "If you think for a minute that I wouldn't want to be involved with a hypothetical child I'm blood related to, you don't know me. No, I'd be helping you raise it."

"Niwa…"

"And you and my family would have to learn to get along because I know Mom would want to babysit even if the child would be related to you too." Daisuke threw up his hands. "That's fourteen years and nine months to be sure if this worked, and that's providing the baby is a boy."

Satoshi's calm expression had been replaced with something between irritation and confusion. "Niwa, I'm mentally prepared to devote the next decade and a half to a child."

Daisuke stared him down. Because really? He didn't think even people who planned for years to have children turned out to be as prepared as they thought. Yuuji from class had mentioned his older sister having a child after three years of being married and still calling home every few hours the first few weeks panicking about something or other.

Satoshi looked away. "There's time to learn everything I need to know before a baby would be born."

"And money?"

"Niwa, I have a job with the police and a trust fund from clan inheritance."

"Well you won't be able to work if you're in the later part of being pregnant or having a baby, and how the heck would you explain suddenly being a girl? You're physically smaller than you were before."

"I can always relocate and build a new identity," Satoshi snapped.

"Well hopefully you won't have to!"

They stared each other down, both breathing a bit heavier than they started the conversation. Daisuke crossed his arms, rubbing his palms up and down his biceps. He didn't really need Dark's voice in his head telling him to calm down to know he was skirting around the edge of a meltdown, but it helped as a distraction.

Satoshi rested his hands on his knees. "Fine. You want to be part of the child's life. That's acceptable."

"Good."

"Niwa." Satoshi sighed, sharp and frustrated. "We can discuss the details in depth later. I even promise to meet with your family, although I can't see that going well. The question remains, can you do this?" He paused and there was a waver of uncertainty between them. "Do you want to do this?"

It was the slight emphasis on 'want' that had Daisuke's heart speeding up. Want. There's no doubt that the Commander 'wants' to, Dark said, but it was more tired than snide. You should know how you feel by now. But Daisuke, even if there were flashes of moments where he thought he could want Satoshi, wasn't sure he wanted the way Satoshi implied. But if he stopped and looked, really looked…

He could already admit that Satoshi was attractive. Man or woman, there was something graceful and untouchable about him. But crossing that boundary to touch? Following the line of that collarbone under Satoshi's shirt or the slight swell of hip? It was a little alarming to feel a similar adrenaline rush at the thought as he got sneaking somewhere he shouldn't be.

"Yes." Daisuke didn't think too hard about this. The words were true. And so long as he didn't think too hard, he wouldn't panic. He wouldn't get second thoughts. That didn't mean he might not have regrets later.

"Truly?"

"Yes." It was frustrating that Satoshi kept asking like Daisuke would take it back, so Daisuke didn't think too hard and did what felt right. He closed the gap between them and kissed him. Somewhere in his mind, Dark was fleeing to the space deep enough where he wouldn't watch this, but Daisuke was preoccupied with how Satoshi's lips were dry and just the slightest bit chapped and how they parted when he gasped. Belatedly, Daisuke realized he had one hand in Satoshi's hair and the other resting on the bench between Satoshi's knees. It would look indecent if anyone walked by. He pulled back and Satoshi followed for a few centimeters. "I…" Daisuke's voice broke and he coughed. It felt like his face was burning. "Like I said, that's not going to be a problem."

"Oh." There was a moment of open vulnerability on his face before he had control again. Satoshi leaned back, putting as much distance between them as the bench would allow. "Soon then. Not today. But soon. I'll call you."

Daisuke was tempted to ask how Satoshi would know when it was the right time, but it would probably lead to a long explanation that would be uncomfortable for both of them, and he didn't really need to know anyway. "Okay."

Satoshi nodded and stood. Uncharacteristically, he hesitated. "Niwa."

"Mm?"

Satoshi reached out and touched his shoulder, likely going for intimate but only managing awkward. "Thank you." The hand was gone as quickly as it had reached out and Satoshi walked away.

"There's nothing to thank me for," Daisuke said to the empty bench and the hush of leaves.


(Original Author's note from LJ): AN: For the comment_fic community. It was pretty long so I decided to post it separately. I'm not sure where to end this one. On one hand, it should have been silly with the prompt being what it is. Instead my brain took it serious and well, this is the result. On the other, it is serious, and I could keep writing it. But I don't really feel like writing kidfic at the moment and that's kiiiind of where it's headed. I have enough unfinished long kidfic tucked away, thanks. If I continued this they'd either have one kid or six, because it could only go 'yay, we have a son' or 'two daughters...ok, try again, wtf why twin sons? what does this mean? wait, how am i pregnant again, i was done with the twins, why am i having twins again? no. no more kids. why is this body so fertile make it stop.' ...Probably best for the world that I don't write that. But the hypothetical children would be the most gender identity aware kids, I mean yeesh "Kaa-san's a man in a woman's body. No really, my mom's a guy. Does this make Dad bi?"

Still feel it is best for the world if I do not go head first into a kidfic for this universe. I already have at least 2 WIP kidfics for other series. I do not need another. Still, this was interesting to write and I hope someone gets enjoyment out of it. :) (and if someone wants to write that kidfic, heck, go for it. Go for the whole mess of awkward that this universe promises to be.)