Monday morning marked the beginning of the first day Daisuke would go to school since he and Dark separated. Needless to say, he was anxious about how it would go. He wasn't sure what would become of Dark, who sat in the middle of the bedroom floor in his new clothes, which had been made to fit him with safety pins for the time being. And he wasn't sure what it would be like to not have Dark with him for most of the day. A year ago he would have been ecstatic. Now he just felt like his best friend had moved away.
"I'll see you in a few hours, Dark!" he said on the way out his bedroom door.
"What? No farewell kiss?" Dark pouted around a mouthful of Daisuke's toast that had been snuck upstairs.
Daisuke backtracked and gave Dark a kiss on the cheek.
"Stingy!" Dark complained.
"No lips until I come home and see that you've behaved yourself."
"What am I? A puppy?" he grumbled and pulled on Wiz's ears.
Daisuke chose not to answer that and hurried out of the house before Dark's mysterious powers caused him to be late.
"I wonder what he's going to get up to while I'm gone," he pondered as he arrived at school. "I know I don't need to worry about him, but still I can't help myself… I guess the bright side to this is that maybe now without Dark literally on my mind all the time I can focus on my schoolwork more."
"Daisuke," Satoshi's somber voice called for him on his way to their classroom. "I need to talk to you."
"Hmm?" Daisuke turned around in a full circle but couldn't find a single glimpse of blue hair anywhere. A hand reached out from a dark and empty classroom to pull him inside.
"What have you done?" Satoshi sounded distraught while Daisuke rubbed his shoulder, which had been pulled from the sudden movement.
"What have I done? What do you mean?" Daisuke cocked his head and asked innocently.
"You know what I mean!" he snapped. "What happened between you and Dark? Is Dark…gone, too?"
"Uh," Daisuke's voice caught in his throat. How dangerous would it be to tell Satoshi what had happened? On the other hand, he seemed to have a pretty good idea that something that happened between them already. "I…well, I mean…" Daisuke stalled. "Wait, did you say 'too'? Do you mean Krad is—?"
"When I woke up two mornings ago, he was gone."
The room was uncomfortably silent for a brief moment. Daisuke was at even more of a loss of what to say.
"What happened with Dark?" Satoshi repeated, his voice cracking. Daisuke started to realize Satoshi wasn't going to let it rest until he got a straight answer.
"Well, you see, sometimes things happen and they don't seem to make any sense at first, but you can't really help it and your feelings are so strong you just blindly go along with—"
"Daisuke! What happened with Dark? Is. He. Gone?"
"He…well you see…" He looked up at Satoshi and suddenly realized there was no point in keeping it from him. "We separated."
"What?! How did this happen?" he cried, although the wheels in his head were clearly turning even as he spoke. "The sacred maiden?"
"Like I said before…sometimes things happen. I didn't expect to fall in love with him, and I definitely didn't expect for him to love me back," Daisuke looked at the floor as he quietly explained.
"You and he—!" Satoshi balled his fists tightly. "So does that mean Krad has disappeared without warning, just like that?"
"I-I don't know! But…aren't you happy? I thought you wanted nothing more than to be free from him." Daisuke looked at Satoshi, riddled with confusion until a thought hit him. "Ah! Unless you also…?"
"No, of course not!" Satoshi spat. He looked away and the light coming from the main hallway reflected off of his glasses, hiding his eyes.
"But—"
"I could never feel anything other than hate for that monster!" He grabbed Daisuke's collar and stared straight into his eyes.
"I-I'm sorry Hiwatari, I just—" Daisuke began but stopped when he heard footsteps.
"This new camera I got is going to be awesome! It can zoom in ten times closer than the previous models and the picture clarity is still amazing! Just think of the money I can get from the pictures of Phantom Dark, and if you pay me in advance I'll give you some super exclusive close upsss…ssss…sssss…" Takeshi's sentence trailed off, and both boys looked over to find him and Risa staring at them from the doorway. "Hey guys. What's going on?" he spoke awkwardly to his two classmates who were hiding in a dark and secluded classroom, lips just mere centimeters apart, sweat gathering on Daisuke's brow...
"I thought I saw a mouse in here. I asked Niwa to come in and help me look for it. It ran right past him so I grabbed onto him to keep him from fainting." Satoshi didn't miss a beat as he released Daisuke's shirt and pushed his glasses further up his nose. Daisuke glared in Satoshi's general direction.
"M-m-m-MOUSE? EEEEEKKKKK!" Risa shrieked and ran off to their classroom.
"Cool! Let me see!" Takeshi started to shove between them.
"Don't bother. It must be long gone by now." Satoshi pushed past the two and headed for class.
.:.
"I wonder how much longer Daisuke's gonna be at school. He's been gone for a pretty long time, so he should be just about done," Dark spoke to Wiz and got up to check the clock. 9:45am. He sat back down and sighed. Maybe he was wrong about this whole 'not going stir crazy' thing. Sure, Daisuke's soul was pretty cramped, but at least he got to kill time by enjoying the view outside and eavesdropping on other peoples' conversations.
"Doo dee doot doo…" Towa's overly casual humming could be heard outside Daisuke's door just before the doorknob began to wiggle.
"Oh shi—" Dark jumped up and looked around for something to hide under.
"Just sweepin' the floor, la la la…" Towa sang as she entered the room with a broom. She scanned her eyes over the tranquil area and set her broom down against the wall. "Now if I were a Christmas present, where would I be?" She rubbed her hands and headed for Daisuke's desk.
"That little—!" Dark thought to himself as he pressed his ear up against the door of Daisuke's cramped wardrobe, where he had stuffed himself along with Wiz.
"Nothing in here," she pouted after she had searched each drawer and came up empty. She climbed up the bedside ladder and felt around under the mattress. "Not here either!"
"Kyu!" Wiz started to wriggle from Dark's grasp but he held tight and shushed the little creature. "Kyuuu!" he whined more insistently and bumped his nose against the door.
"Wiz! Be quiet!" Dark commanded in a harsh whisper.
"Where could it be?" Towa pondered, straightening her dress out after having searched behind the sofa. Her eyes fell upon the wardrobe. She smacked herself on the forehead. "Of course, Towa!" She bounced over and pulled on the handle.
It didn't budge.
"Come on!" She yanked harder.
A mere two inches away on the other side of the wood, Dark was breaking a sweat, gripping onto the door as hard as he could. It was even harder than it sounded, since the doors opened outward and he had no handles on his side to grab onto. He had to make do with gripping the stubby bolts that held the outer handle in place.
"What does she think she's doing?!" he grumbled to himself as he started pulling Daisuke's clothes down on top of him with his other hand as a last resort.
Towa struggled to get the door unstuck and then finally *bam!* it swung open.
"WAHHHHHH!" she screamed in shock. "W-what in the world? How could Daisuke ever let his clothes get so messy?" she gasped when she saw the huge pile of clothing off their hangers. She reached out to start tidying up, and whatever presents she may happen upon in the process would just be a bonus.
Suddenly the pile moved.
"Uh…" She blinked. She waited for a few seconds. Maybe she had imagined it. Yes, that's probably it; she had been using strong cleaners to scrub the bathtubs just a little while ago after all. She reached toward clothes once more. Once more the pile moved by itself.
"Kyuuuuuuu!" Wiz cried and came flying out of the laundry, grabbing Towa's headband off of her head as he flew past her.
"Waaaaahhh!" she shrieked, grabbing her chest. "Wiz! Come back here with my headband!" She chased after him as he lept out of the room to head down the stairs.
When the commotion had died down, Dark peeked one eye out from under the pile of clothes. All clear.
"Whew!" he sighed and hurried to shut Daisuke's door, then dragged the desk chair over to put under the doorknob. "This crap sure isn't as easy as I was expecting it to be. It does break up the monotony, though..."
.:.
"I'm…home?" Daisuke started to announce to Dark, but his bedroom door wouldn't open. He jiggled the doorknob. It felt locked. How was that possible? His door didn't even have a lock on it!
"Who is it?" He heard a strange voice ask from the other side of the door. Was that…Dark? Pretending to be a girl?
"It's me! Who else?" Daisuke frowned.
There was a loud scraping noise and then the door opened a crack. Daisuke's own face peeked out at him. "Kyuu!"
"Wiz?! What are you doing?" he yelled as Wiz poofed back into his own form.
"Daisuke! It was awful!" Dark emerged once Daisuke stepped inside his room, noticing that his chair was out of place. "Towa came in right after you left for school and started snooping around for Christmas gifts! I've been on edge all day! I thought it would be easy to avoid being seen! I mean I'm Phantom Dark for crying out loud! But there are only so many places in your bedroom to hide!"
"What?! Did she see you?"
"No. With Wiz's help I was able to get through the day, but you're going to have to do something to squash that girl's curiosity." Dark sat down on the sofa in a pose-o-misery.
Daisuke sighed and flopped down beside him. "Just what I needed: something else to worry about."
"Hmm? Did something happen at school today?" Dark snapped out of his self-pity to attend to his tired love.
"Uh…" Dark was now nuzzling against his neck again, his nimble fingers dancing across his back. He had planned to tell Dark about what Satoshi had said to him right away, but now he reconsidered. It could wait until a little later. "No, not really. It's just the normal stress."
"Want me to help you decompress?" Dark turned him around and caught him up in the welcome home kiss he had neglected to give right away.
"Mmm…" Daisuke whimpered as his body turned to jelly. He shut his eyes, reaching his hand up to caress Dark's neck, and… "No!" He pulled away.
"Hey!" Dark fell face first onto to sofa cushions as Daisuke swiftly stood up.
"I won't be able to relax and enjoy stuff like this until I've figured out what to do about Towa. After I've made sure the room is secure, we can…we can…uh…" He felt overheated again when he looked back at Dark, who winked and waggled his eyebrows. "Put my desk chair back where it was!" he shouted and went to do some brainstorming.
.:.
"You could have brought me more dinner," Dark griped at bedtime as he tried to squeeze into one of Daisuke's t-shirts.
"That would have been too suspicious. Why would I eat downstairs and then bring a bunch of food back up to my room with me? If I had brought any more for you someone would have noticed," Daisuke argued back.
"Well, tomorrow can you at least bring some snacks to keep in your room so I don't have to go twelve hours between meals?"
"Fine, fine," Daisuke waved him off. He was too tired for this. Besides, he needed to tell Dark about what Satoshi had said before he had a chance to get distracted again. "Um, Dark?"
"Hmm?"
"When we separated, what do you think happened to Krad?"
Dark stopped wiggling into a pair of shorts and looked up at him. "I don't know, Daisuke. Why? Did Hiwatari mention anything to you today?"
"Well…" He sat up and looked at his hangnails for a long beat. "He said he had disappeared."
Dark looked alarmed. "Disappeared? Is he sure? Is he positive he isn't just sleeping?"
"He seemed pretty sure he was gone."
Dark frowned but said nothing. He appeared to be deep in concentration.
"That's a good thing though, isn't it? You won't have so many problems to worry about now," Daisuke tried to regain his attention.
After a moment or two Dark snapped out of it and pasted on a happy face. "Right, Daisuke. Anyway, don't worry about it. For now let's just get some sleep." He started for the bed but then stopped. "Daisuke, do I have to wear this stuff? It's so uncomfortable, I can hardly move."
"Dark, please? Just for a couple more nights."
"How about just the shirt?" He waggled his eyebrows again.
"Dark!"
"Alright alright." He surrendered and hopped into bed. "Kiss?"
Daisuke didn't put up a fight at this request and gave him a warm goodnight kiss before curling up under the blanket.
Dark settled in beside him and waited. Once Daisuke's breathing became rhythmic he stealthily slipped out of the binding garments and breathed a sigh of relief.
"He'll live." He kissed the boy's forehead and drifted off to sleep.
.:.
The next morning Daisuke headed off to school bright and early, and Towa headed back up the stairs to do some extra 'cleaning' while he was away.
"Tra la la~la la~" she sang as she poked her head in the bedroom once more.
Dark peeked down from the rooftop and shook his head. "Oh Towa, don't you know that curiosity killed the cat?"
She tip-toed right for the wardrobe again and opened it, pleased to see that Daisuke had hung up his clothes in an orderly manner since the previous day. She was even more pleased to see a simple white box with a green ribbon on it, with a tag hanging from it stating 'To Towa' plain as day.
"Ooh!" She picked it up and shook it. It wasn't even in wrapping paper! Daisuke would never know that she had peeked! Ohh, what could it be? Chocolate? Earrings? Perfume? Her heart went pitter-pat as she carefully untied the ribbon and untucked the box top.
Toothpaste.
TOOTHPASTE?!
"Hmph!" She sloppily tied the ribbon back on and threw the box back into the wardrobe before stomping away.
Somewhere in Azumano, Daisuke was smiling smugly to himself as he skipped toward school.
