Author's Note: Back again after a loooong hiatus! I recently moved to Japan, and brought with me a new laptop. Unfortunately that meant I had a ton of programs to reinstall, and one of them was Word. But—everything's fine now, so hopefully I can get this thing done some time this century! This remix will consist of broken scenes strung together chronologically with little segues between, them—so my apologies in advance. I will at least be describing the new scene changes, however, so as to cause minimal confusion. Thanks!


Galatea: Remix
Track 03 – The Relationship Less Traveled

"When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take -- choose the bolder."

Joseph William Slim


Dinner that evening was quite possibly the most awkward affair any present had ever taken part in. Four pairs of eyes continued to jump from one face to another as Krad loaded the table with the small feast he'd managed to cook up in between taking jabs at Dark.

When the table was finally set and everything in place, the group murmured a quick itadakimasu, and dinner began in earnest. Loading his plate down with salad from the communal bowl, Daisuke carefully took his chopsticks in hand and brought a seemingly innocent leaf to his mouth.

"Wait—Daisuke, NO!"

The boy stopped in mid-bite, lips not even fully closed around the lettuce. "Mwafah hah?" Krad shuddered at the display as Dark reached beside him and pulled the food right out of Daisuke's mouth, shaking a finger at him.

"I can't believe you're just digging in like it's no big deal! Didn't you learn anything from Emiko?"

"Dark—" Daisuke laughed nervously, "…It's salad…not poison."

Dark narrowed his eyes, "And you're sure about that?"

There was a scraping sound, and a bang on the table as Satoshi pushed himself up, "How dare you, Dark Mousey! To imply that your host—even Krad—would sink so low is, even for a Niwa, the rudest—"

"Hey—no such thing as being rude when it comes to life and death, Commander! Besides—" He gave a derisive snort, "—just because you're all lovey-dovey with blondie here now doesn't mean I don't still have to watch Daisuke's back around him."

Under his breath, and missed by the two boys, Krad muttered just loud enough for Dark to catch, "Is that really his back you watch, I wonder?"

Dark shot him a look that clearly said saying anything else would not be a good idea in present company, and for once Krad chose to leave it at that. Besides, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future to ruin Dark's relationship with his Tamer—well, former Tamer—why spoil all the fun so early in the game?

"Dark," Daisuke called warningly, motioning at the thief to sit back down, as he too had left his chair, raring for a fight. "You're gonna have to get used to this sooner or later…just sit down and eat. I promise you can kick his butt if he kills me, I won't haunt you or anything."

This apparently came as little consolation, but Dark sat down again regardless, choosing to illustrate his distaste with the situation through abstaining from eating altogether.

Eventually accepting that change wasn't going to occur so quickly, Daisuke finished his meal and excused the two of them, managing to offer some mild thanks for dinner, no matter how strange it felt saying something like that to the very being who'd tried to kill him on more than one occasion.

Feeling little better leaving than they did coming to the apartment, the Niwas returned home, leaving Satoshi and Krad to their own devices.


Satoshi stepped back inside after seeing Dark and Daisuke safely down the hall to the elevators, all parties offering stiff farewells as they continued to adjust to the idea that they weren't really enemies anymore. He peeked around the corner of the genkan for Krad, expecting him to be cleaning up in the kitchen, but instead found him sitting alone on the couch, staring at nothing.

"I…I have a question I feel I must ask."

Satoshi didn't reply, eyeing the blond apprehensively, and slipped over onto the couch, taking a seat just far enough away from Krad that they weren't touching.

"…Do you hate me still?"

The boy's eyes widened in barely concealed shock. "Of—of course not! How could you think—after everything that happened, with the Sealing and what we talked about afterwards and the—the—ki-ki—ki—" He cut himself off, running a hand through his hair in frustration with himself for getting so worked up over a simple thing like a kiss. He cast a flustered eye to Krad, but the blond wasn't smiling as he usually would at getting his host so riled up. "…What's wrong?"

"…I'm…so sorry, Satoshi-sama—"

"Satoshi," he ground out, "I told you to stop calling me that."

"I—forgive me…force of habit…"

"And stop talking to me like I'm better than you!" Krad finally looked up at him, confusion marring his features. "Just—you don't have to be so proper like that," the boy pleaded, "I'm not some conceited master of yours."

The blond gave a concessive nod. "Then…will you tell me something?" Satoshi straightened up, ready to hear whatever was asked. "…What are you…to me now? I'm…confused. To say the least, I'd never calculated such a scenario as this…arising between the two of us. And so, I don't know how to regard you anymore. You won't let me continue as I did before, and yet—"

His questions fell short in the wake of having another pair of lips cover his own. Enough pressure to assure the blond that the boy was very much an active participant, was very much there, and then he pulled back, eyes half-lidded.

"Whatever that was," he answered softly, "—that's what we are now. I don't serve you, and you don't serve me—or anyone, not any Hikari, not any Niwa. It's over, Krad. No more clan wars, no more artpieces to protect. It's just…us now. You're you and I'm me, and if it happens that we by chance seem to—to have feelings for one another, then…then that's what we are. And if…you ever get confused again about that matter, just let me know…and I'll repeat it. However many times you need reminding."

Krad blinked a few times, golden eyes still trying to take in the fact that the boy before him professing his intent to impress his ultimatum via kiss as many times as necessary was the same boy who not twenty-four hours before had willed him into nothingness. "Understood…" He added with a smile, "…Though I confess I've something of a short attention span—you may need to remind me frequently."

Satoshi nodded firmly, a smile twitching along his lips, and scooted closer to Krad so that he could lean into the other man's warmth, completely relaxed.

"About…what I said before…" the blond began again after a moment's silence, and Satoshi was too content where he was to offer more than a faint, "Hm?"

"…I wanted to say…how sorry I was…"

Satoshi took the bait now, sensing that Krad had something on his chest that he'd do best to relieve himself of. "Sorry for what?"

"I…I lied to you, hurt you so much… Just to separate us, even going so far as to Seal—"

He was cut off again by Satoshi lips on his own, brief blinding pressure that spoke volumes. "You needed reminding." Krad's brows knit in confusion at the action—why wouldn't the boy let him finish? "I. Don't. Care," he announced with deliberation. "As far as I'm concerned, before this day dawned, my life…was nothing. And as such, I see no point in discussing anything that happened then when there are so many more pleasant topics to touch on."

Krad balked still, gaze turning off to the side, and Satoshi dropped his head to rest his forehead in the crook of the blond's neck. "…My hypothetical was true, you know…" His face burned so with embarrassment that he was sure Krad must have felt it branding him as well. "When I asked you, on the way here, would you forgive me if I told you I loved you… It's true, I guess…I do."

Krad's gaze was now flitting about the room, trying to focus on anything but the boy curled into him. "But I—even so, I was the one who should have been seeking forgiveness—"

"You saved me!" Satoshi now cried, head lifting up and forcing Krad's focus back on him, "When all I wanted to do was curl in on myself and sulk after losing Niwa, you wouldn't let me! You took me and spoke to me and talked with me and—and—and made me feel, and you expect me to be angry with you?!" He was tearing up now, and a crack had worked its way into his voice.

"Gods, you're right! I was furious, I told you so myself! I hated you like I'd never hated you before when you told me that lie! Because before—before I'd never had any sort of concept of your true nature; you'd always been the same, just you. I'd never thought before that you could draw me in like you had, made me think that maybe, just maybe, you weren't so bad, that maybe you were good—were more than good, that you'd changed just for me. So at that point, yes—I hated you so much, Krad…so much I wished you would die…"

His face was an ugly frown, eyes puffy with unshed tears, and he wrapped his arms around the blond's neck and pulled him close, relishing the sensation of their bodies coming together as Tamer's and Tamed's never had before. "But you didn't—and for that I love you ever so much more than I hated you at that moment. I love you…for letting me hate you, and then for making me not. For showing me that anyone can change…change so much that I would come to care for them…for you…more than anything else in the world, enough to forget everything about you save for the fact that you changed for me, because you loved me…"

He pressed a kiss to the temple, letting his breath fall soft over Krad's ear. "I don't care about before anymore… I care about now…about us…"

Krad was completely broken, completely at Satoshi's whim now. He could press the matter no further. "…Tell me more about…this new us…" Satoshi pulled back, resting his forehead now against the blond's. "Let's talk about now, then…ne? What shall we do now…?"

"I'm sure we'll find something to occupy our time with…" Satoshi assured him demurely, then added warily, "You are staying with me…right?"

Planting a kiss squarely on his cheek, Krad gave in at last, "I suppose I'll have to—I don't think I made any friends in the Niwa household this afternoon. Though I can't for the life of me figure out just why you'd want to keep someone like me around."

"Well I will need someone to keep me properly fed, after all. And you having your own body makes that a lot easier than having to transform three times a day."

Krad gave a nod, waiting for the boy to continue. When nothing else came, he protested, "Wha—that's all?"

"Pretty much. That, and, well, you are kind of nice looking. I'm pretty used to you."

"I suppose I am at that—how generous of you."

The boy settled back against him, threading their fingers together, and began stroking the skin across the back of one hand most enticingly. "Ne…why would you stay with me?" It was apparent from the tone that this wasn't a question to be laughed off as his own had just been. "…I always thought…you wanted a body of your own. What's the use in finally getting one…if you're stuck in the same place as you were before…?"

"Did you never consider…" Krad responded hesitantly, "…that you were the very reason I wanted a body of my own?" The hands stilled their ministrations. "You may be convinced upon learning this that my intentions before were far from honorable…and perhaps you'd be right. But always, always…I wanted to stay with you."

"But why?" the boy hissed in confusion. "Why would you…with me…?" He shook his head in frustration, "I never understood you…I'm just a…child…"

"I was your curse, Satoshi. Your Tamed. I seldom saw your physical form, you know, unless I projected, but I was forever surrounded and held captive by your soul. That was what I saw. That was what fascinated me about you—for the soul has no age, no Hikari features, no Niwa personality. Such a complex, intricate maze of emotions…I would have had to have no heart…not to fall in love with you. At first…I wanted to possess you completely, to be able to call that soul my own and to see it shared with no others. I didn't care how it came into my grasp—willingly, unwillingly—I simply wanted your all." A wry smile. "Then I changed. Wanted to earn you, to render myself worthy of that soul of yours, to better what you saw of me. I won't…say that your physical form meant nothing to me…"

He turned his eyes away now, aware that Satoshi had always been sensitive about retaining as much modesty as possible given that he was never alone. "…But you were never a child, not to me. You were ageless—are ageless. This skin—" He brushed a finger down the boy's forearm, raising goosebumps, "—is simply a container. A particularly aesthetically pleasing container, I assure you, but it pales in comparison to that which captivated me first, Satoshi…"

The boy pulled back, frowning, "That's not fair…"

"What isn't?"

"You have such a deep reason…and all I have is wanting a meal ticket and…and your body…" If he flushed any more often, the red was bound to become a permanent part of his skin tone.

"Ah—well you'll hear no complaints from me."

"Still!" he protested, "It feels…so mundane. And dirty."

"Do you love me, Satoshi?"

"Eh? I…yeah…"

"Then that is enough for now."


Satoshi dared a glance up to the clock on the wall; try as he might to forget about the time passing, it indeed had, and it was getting late. He pushed himself up off the couch, then pulled a puzzled Krad up with him towards the bedroom. "Come on, you'll need something besides that to sleep in." He gestured pointedly to Krad's astral wear.

He motioned for the blond to take a seat on the edge of the bed before wandering back over to a chest of drawers, rifling through pajama bottoms and undershirts until he found some light linens that were a bit big on him, hoping they'd fit Krad better. After tossing them over to Krad, he pulled out another set for himself, then began to pull off his shirt.

"I—sorry—" There was a creak from the bed, and before Satoshi could turn around to see what exactly the blond was apologizing for, Krad was halfway to the door, the nightclothes he'd just been issued in hand.

"W—wait!" Satoshi protested, and Krad paused, eyeing the boy warily. He knew full well Satoshi didn't appreciate being watched all the time, least of all when he was changing clothes, and had intended to take his leave right then. Satoshi had a shirt clutched to his chest, a flush painting his cheeks as he made every effort not to meet Krad's questioning gaze. "You don't…you don't have to leave…if you don't want to… I—I don't mind, really…"

"But—you don't like being watched—"

"You don't have to leave…" Satoshi repeated firmly, forcing his gaze up to impress his meaning, "…if you don't want to." Krad must have gotten the hint, for he wandered back over to the bed now, still discreetly looking the other way as the boy hastily changed into sleep bottoms. Well, some things still hadn't changed, at least.

"You can change here, if you want, or the bathroom's right outside…" The boy's words belied a fragile unease, neither quite sure what was acceptable and what was "too soon." Krad didn't quite trust himself, to be truthful, though, and so he moved to slip into the bathroom and sort out these clothes in private.

"It's different but it's not…" Krad stopped, head turning in response to the boy's whisper. "You and me…we're separate but…it's still so much like before…"

"…Would you rather it not be?" An almost-imperceptible nod—that had been the whole point, hadn't it? A new beginning, a new relationship forged. "Tell me how, then…tell me what to do. I don't…I've never…"

"Me neither. I just…never thought about what to do…I never considered…" He couldn't suppress a soft chuckle. "This is the last place…I ever thought I'd be…" Here. With you. Together. So desperately in love that it scares me how much I was capable of hating you.

Krad's gaze dropped to the floor, almost pious. "…I don't know how to treat you… You told me what to think of you…of us as, but…" So fragile, so beautiful—I'll break you… He swallowed a lump that kept cropping up and stopping him from speaking. "You'll tell me, right? If I go too far or…or if I should do something not—"

"You won't."

"Not knowingly, but you don't…know what I know…" He stepped closer, voice growing breathier, softer. "What I could do to you…" He lifted a hand to Satoshi's face, bringing it close as if to brush a hair away, then made a fist and pursed his lips, letting it fall away again. With a shake of his head he turned on his heel for the bathroom again.

"You know…you can…you can touch now." Krad paused, cursing the boy silently for holding such sway over him and being so damn tempting. "You don't…have to just look anymore."

The pajamas slipped to the floor with a soft poof, landing in a heap at his feet. The boy was blushing to the tips of his ears, eyes focused on the floor as if the secret to life was inscribed therein. "It's stupid to have a body…and not use it… Especially if I…if I don't mind, like I just said I didn't. So you…if you want to—to touch—" But Krad's fingertips were already trailing over his cheek.

It was heaven, this sensation. Krad would never tire of it—the soft roughness of skin upon skin, feeling the bone just below the surface as he ran a finger along that high cheekbone, so warm, so giving, smooth and solid like ice, like a Hikari, those features ingrained in memory forever, manhood just delayed.

Those deep blue eyes slid shut almost as if the touch pained him, yet it wasn't discomfort that flitted across the boy's features—not by far. He leaned into the touch, lips parting to release a sigh and a barely repressed faint moan.

So vulnerable, so trusting, so unlike the Satoshi he'd known for nearly fifteen years. But then, more than simply Satoshi himself had changed in the last twenty-four hours.

He leaned forward, studying the boy's features diligently. After a moment's hesitation he covered the still-parted lips with his own, lingering only long enough to rouse Satoshi back to awareness, watching amusedly as the eyes fluttered back open, then pulled away.

"Payback, for this afternoon." Profiting from Satoshi's shock, he reached back down to collect the clothing he'd dropped.

"…This afternoon's was longer."

Krad stilled, forgetting the shirt he'd reached for, and pulled back up, gauging the boy. His head held high, there was no wavering to his speech, and his gaze spoke something of a challenge. The blond had never backed down from a challenge; it was something of an Achilles' heel of his.

"You'll stop me…right?" Krad reached forward, tilting Satoshi's chin up just so. "If I should do anything…?"

Satoshi would have laughed to see Krad brought thus—treading on eggshells of propriety, scared to move an inch lest he offend the boy in any way. The same Krad who'd so often murmured in his ear phrases just shy of lewd, who'd kept watch with a critical eye every time he'd changed clothes or taken a shower.

He would have laughed. Instead, he simply closed the distance separating them. Their lips met less hesitantly than before, but still so gentle and questioning, warm breath passing through partially open lips bearing pleas of, "Are you sure?" and "Tell me to stop…"

"Shut your eyes," someone whispered, and they both complied, an orchestral surge of color playing just behind the eyelids as they lost themselves in the sensations of such contact they couldn't have imagined before. Krad pushed forward a bit, or perhaps Satoshi yielded, lips parting to let a daring tongue dart in and catch the flavor contained therein. Sharp, refreshing, heady—like a dash of ice-water. So Hikari.

When Krad's hands wandered boldly down around the boy's stomach, darting under the nightshirt and up his sides in tracks, he was pleased to meet a puff of air that belied a moan, breaking the kiss to catch something that sounded like, "—didn't do that this afternoon…"

The blond smiled, quite pleased with himself, and pushed forward again, savoring the stimulating friction from contact between their lips and continuing to delve. "You can get payback later…" His hands trailed back into safer territory, settling at last near the neck and using the leverage to pull them closer, fingers playing in the strands feathering his nape. Satoshi had gotten a bit bolder in his explorations, deciding the whole idea of what Krad's kiss reminded him of—Niwa or Hikari—merited a bit more study, with his own tongue as pioneer.

"Satoshi-sama…" Krad breathed, turning his mouth away to kiss the corner of the boy's throbbing lips, "Gods…what have I done that could possibly deserve this…?"

He could hear the smile in Satoshi's voice, even if he couldn't see it, as he felt lazy kisses trail agonizingly slowly down his jaw to his neck, "I certainly hope you meant that in a good sense…"

"Oh yes…most assuredly in a good sense…I—ah!" Satoshi pulled away, worried, for a moment, then quickly deduced that it hadn't been a cry of pain he'd heard, and was about to plunge back in to take advantage of the little point he'd discovered just beneath the blond's chin, when Krad stopped him. "Ah ah ah…I think that was payment enough. I believe I've collected what's due me so far."

Satoshi was obviously quite put out about this. "…Are you always going to keep score like that?" Their relationship was stacking up to read like an accountant's book.

Krad smiled coyly, picking up the clothes and heading towards the bathroom, still working on regaining his wits about him. "Only until we work out some other method of payment."


Satoshi was, without a doubt, a master negotiator, especially with respect to matters dealing with his former police work. But he had never been a very effective arguer when it came to matters of refuting the obvious.

"I'm not—" An unmistakable yawn interrupted his protest, and his eyes drooped lower as he fought off the impending wave of exhaustion that was threatening to engulf him like a shipwrecked sailor lost at sea, "—not tired, really."

"Now there's an effective argument if ever I heard one," Krad chortled, running long fingers through the thin blue hair that covered the crown of the head currently relaxing against his chest, rising and falling in rhythm to his slow breaths. "You're about ready to drop off right here—come on, I'll bring you to your room." Satoshi, though, protested this proposition by clinging more tightly to the body that was trying to rise. With a knowing frown, Krad continued, "You're going to try and tell me that you're not completely worn out from—well, everything that's happened today?"

The blue eyes refused to turn upwards, with their owner still clinging to the elder man's torso beneath him. No, it wasn't that he was simply being a child and running along the line that he wasn't ready to go to sleep, nor was it that he wasn't tired—truthfully he was exhausted, and going to bed sounded like a wonderful idea, melodious as any symphonic masterpiece.

But it was…the fact that for the first time in his life…he would truly be completely alone in that bed, with no one beside him, and no one inside him. Simply himself and that dark empty room—a room he now found himself regretting he'd so sparsely decorated.

His arguments, though—or rather, his silent protests—appeared to have no effect against the blonde, who easily freed himself from the Hikari boy's embrace, slipping out to stand up straight. But it was a mere moment later that Satoshi found himself being scooped up like a child in the same arms which had so recently disentangled themselves from around his own body.

"Since you seem intent on being contrary to the end, this seems to be the most efficient method to get you to rest." The boy blushed brighter than Niwa Daisuke's hair, but did not protest the move, and instead he relaxed onto the position, draping his arms across Krad's shoulders for a more comfortable position, earning a soft smile.

One shoulder-push through the door later, and Satoshi reluctantly found himself in his own room, being slowly lowered onto the soft mattress as Krad ducked out of his embrace. "You will go to sleep, won't you?" the golden voice questioned warily, like a parent regarding his child, and Satoshi allowed himself to have the coverlet drawn over him as he slid down lower, relaxing against the pillows behind him, "I won't be able to sleep if you can't, you know."

A hesitant pouty nod. "Where are you going to—"

"The couch is fine—I've done well enough without a proper bed for three centuries, I see no reason to change it now." Satoshi sat up a bit as if he wanted to protest, "Ah, ah ah—you are here, I am on the couch. Understand?" A frown was his only answer. He knew, though, that the boy wasn't angry at him in any way, and offered a wry smile in return, leaning forward to grace the pale forehead with a light kiss, "Good night, Satoshi. Until morning."

With that, he eased up off the bed and turned to leave the room—but only got a step away from the bed before a tugging on his sleeve let him know that it was not alright for him to leave yet. Suppressing a sigh, he turned his upper torso to see that Satoshi could not meet his eyes, instead diverting his gaze to the wood paneling on the floor, which was apparently very interesting to him at the moment. "…Satoshi?"

"Do you…have to leave me…?" The eyes found the courage to lift up and clash with Krad's own amber ones, desperately seeking acknowledgement.

"Satoshi," he breathed, squatting down until he was at eye level, and removing the hand which had snagged his robe, cradling it in his own palm, "I'm just sleeping in your den—I'm not leaving you—"

"No—I just…I don't want to be alone…"

"You're not going to be alone, you know." He smoothed away a few locks of blue that were falling into the boy's eyes, "I'm only right down the hall—if you need anything—"

Satoshi shook his head fervently, pursing his lips, "That's not it—I don't…it's just…I'm alone…" He pulled his hand back and brought it, trembling, up to feel his temple, treating his own skin as if it was some scalding surface he was hesitant to touch. "Alone…in here…"

Yes, that was it—that's what he was afraid of. That little pressure that had always been there, that essence of Krad, occupying space, constantly there. The reassuring presence that never left, never moved—was gone. No, rather, it was just standing here before him now, human as himself.

Either way, he was convinced that he wanted to have that existence always near him—whether it was within or without. And if one was no longer an option, he would simply defer to the other.

Krad's eyebrows knit together as he addressed the turmoil inside his own mind. Half of him wanted desperately to stay there with Satoshi all night, just holding him, making up for all the time—minutes, hours, days, years—that he could only sit back and watch helplessly as his precious host cried out for someone to be there for him, to embrace him. The other, less emotional, more practical half of him knew that it would do the boy some good to finally be free from Krad, if only for a few hours. He as the curse—or former curse—had to bear it and do what was best for the one he cared most about.

He sighed low, and eventually gave in to the practical half. "It's only for a few hours—and you need your rest."

"But—I can rest just fine with you! Much better than I could alone—"

"You've never slept alone, though—how would you know what it feels like?" Satoshi's frown, if possible, deepened, and Krad shook his head, trying desperately to maintain his position on this topic—one which his former host was trying just as desperately to uproot him from. "One night, please? You need…to be alone for one night at least…"

When the blonde's voice took on that more worried than firm-parental tone, Satoshi tensed up, sensing Krad knew something he didn't. "You don't…want to be with me?"

Oh, that was it—that voice, that pouting that Satoshi hardly ever indulged in, and the blonde was all but reduced to a sludgy pool of Krad-goo. Struggling valiantly to maintain some semblance of control over himself, and fighting the urge to jump the boy then and there, he managed to press out, "Far from it, Satoshi…you've no idea. But—trust me when I say that just one night apart will do us more good than harm. When we've been one being for so long, we should take chances to truly be apart when they come…see?"

In a roundabout way, the Hikari boy could understand the logic of Krad's argument, and reluctantly nodded, slipping back under the covers and curling into a small ball, eyes sliding shut when the light flicked off, and he heard feet padding away into the darkness towards the living room.

Of course he understood what Krad was saying, but—the thing was, he didn't care.

For fourteen years he'd hated his curse. Had screamed out in indignation that it wasn't fair, that he shouldn't have had to bear the burden of the Hikari bloodline, that he never chose to be Krad's host. And for those same fourteen years, not once would he have ever objected to being alone in body and mind.

But then…Krad had to go and change on him. Had to shift from his overly-possessive nature, had to start caring, had to do all those things for his Tamer that utterly frustrated Satoshi to no end until…until he found that he was starting to like it. Was starting to enjoy the little attentions Krad paid him having nothing to do with Dark or Niwa. Started to enjoy their infrequent chats regarding relatively mundane matters like cooking or a school assignment on dancing. Started to enjoy…Krad.

Satoshi himself had shifted from wanting so badly to be alone to wanting so badly to be with his curse, for as long as Fate allotted. And now, with the two finally separate in mind and body, it was like a dream come true—yet he found that he still wanted to be with the blonde always. Wanted to never be separated from that strange sensation he got when they were near, as if they were two halves of a whole who fit.

And sleeping alone…he missed his other half.

Krad thought they needed time apart, needed to cherish this time granted to them when they were finally separate—why oh why were his old prayers always answered too late? Right now, being apart was the last thing on the boy's mind. After being one with his curse for all those years, it just felt…wrong to be sleeping here alone.

But…Krad had suggested it, so he grudgingly complied, tossing and turning fitfully, hoping desperately that the blonde hadn't been serious when he'd said, "I can't sleep if you can't sleep." If his counterpart wanted to be alone for the night, Satoshi too would bear it.

…For a while, at least.

That while lasted until some time well past midnight, in the early hours of the morning. Oh, he wanted to go to sleep so badly, but…that little void in the back of his mind refused to let him. Cracking his eyes open wearily, he sighed softly and pulled back the covers. Maybe a drink would help.

He padded softly as he could back into the den area headed for the kitchen, eyes immediately darting over to the couch to see how his guest was faring. Perhaps, he thought, maybe he would find that Krad too was having a hard time sleeping. Satoshi would laugh softly at him and remind him in his "I told you so" voice that they should have just slept together anyway, and they would then fall asleep in each other's arms until some time well past noon…

Well, that's what he was hoping for, at least. So suffice to say he was more than a little disappointed to find the blonde stretched out comfortably, eyes shut in deep slumber. Frowning, he shifted over until he was staring down at the sleeping form, and regarded it silently.

The chest, now clad in a t-shirt Satoshi had provided him the evening before as it was surely more comfortable than his stiff robes, rose and fell in quiet rhythm, and he found himself losing the frown quickly. Behind the shut eyes, he noticed the lids quivering slightly—Krad was dreaming. Had he ever dreamt before, Satoshi found himself wondering. If so, he'd never seen any of them. It was something to ask about in the morning.

He took a small frightened step backwards, though, when the body on the couch shifted ever-so-slightly, pulling back further into the couch cushions, widening the space free as if making room for another person to join him in his dreams.

Satoshi's hesitation lasted for about another five seconds, before he completely forgot what he'd gotten out of bed for in the first place, and now concentrated his energies on sliding onto his couch beside Krad without waking the blonde and being sent back to his own bed. This proved easier said than done, but after a few close calls—during which his hair tickling the man's nostril's almost sent him into a bought of sneezing—he finally found a suitable position and cuddled close.

When Krad awoke, he would be at first surprised, then a bit miffed, but it would all dissipate into utter bliss when he heard tired lips muffle, "Love you…"

Well, the bed was more comfortable than the couch anyways. "You win, Satoshi…"