Dark felt a faint ringing in his ears. Everything seemed to fade out, and his vision failed, and he fell into a swirling void that pulled him down. He heard the dead samurai's voice again.
"Your partner? You mean the blond? He's already dead, and bleeding out in the hallway down there."
Krad.
Krad dead.
Krad's beautiful eyes, smiling in delight at him only a few hours ago. Floating in front of him, they changed to the blank unseeing shells they would be now.
Krad, who was so cutely innocent about the most simple of things, like pizza. Like attraction. Like his own beauty.
When Dark came back to himself he was alone in the hallway, getting rained on by the sprinklers and deafened by the alarm. Judging by the smoldering ruins of the area directly in front of him he assumed he'd blasted the two men into tiny flecks of carbon, but he couldn't bring himself to even spare them more than what time it took to make sure they were out of his way.
He spread his wings and sped down the hallway the samurai had indicated, bounding even faster than before in his hurry to get to his partner. He was going so fast, in fact, that he almost missed Krad's body lying crumpled on the ground.
"Oh no," Dark muttered, kneeling next to the still form and unmindful of the blood that pooled around his legs. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no…" He reached out shaking hands and tried to stop the flow of blood from the hideous gash that split open his love's body from his collarbone almost to his groin, but it was useless.
But the blood was still flowing.
That meant he was still alive. Dead bodies didn't bleed.
He'll never survive, Dark realized, never survive the trip back to the Niwas. If I can't save him here, he'll die.
What could he do? He didn't know the first thing about healing someone, much less a wound this bad.
I can use my power. My power would heal this. I think.
It was Krad's only chance. Dark placed his hands directly over the cut, took a deep breath, closed his eyes tight, and swamped his love with his power. Fix him, he begged. Fix him so that he will live and be strong again.
Dark felt …something… happen, and then his energy was sucked so thoroughly and so completely from his body that he was rendered unconscious. His body settled gently over Krad's, and the two of them lay there, the sprinklers drumming softly on their forms.
—
—
—
Dark wrinkled his forehead. He was freezing cold and wet, and lying on something both warm and soft and hard and cold. Where the fuck was he? And more importantly, where was Krad?
His purple eyes opened slowly, and he winced at the bright light that stabbed them and made his headache worse. He tried raising his head next, and found that with a fair amount of complaining from his absolutely miserable skull, he could do it. That was good. Dark discovered that the soft and warm thing he had been lying on was, in fact, Krad. He was still sleeping and looked absolutely fine, overlooking the blood-drenched white clothes.
Thank god…If there is a God…Do artworks have to worry about going to heaven or hell? Do we even die?
Now Dark knew he was really out of it. He only started wondering about random shit like theology when he was so far past where his limits were supposed to have ended that they weren't even in the same zip code anymore.
So. One question (the most important one) answered, the other one still up in the air. Dark looked around and it took a moment for his bleary and exhausted eyes to register what he was seeing.
Bloody hell.
They were in jail.
"Oh fuck." He groaned, because he wasn't going to be able to do anything about their situation until he had recovered, and that could take a while. Dark was usually conservative about his use of power, so the complete draining he had given his system left his energy centers feeling raw and inflamed.
Okay, what to do, what to do, what to do. The police obviously pulled us out of the museum, sooo… do we have any of the shards still? He checked his hand; the ring, incredibly, was still there. Wow. Wonder how they managed to miss that. Or if they left it on purpose… but why would they leave it on purpose? That makes no sense, it was museum property. Oh well. What about the two shards Krad had? Dark tried to lift his arm to check his still partner, but was only capable of making the appendage twitch. Damn. As much as it hurt him, he extended his senses just far enough to sense the pulsing of the shards somewhere under him and Krad. Wonder why they left them with us? And I wonder why we're in the same room? I've undoubtedly been recognized as the phantom thief Dark, so wouldn't they have wanted to separate us? Doesn't matter, focus, focus. Should remain unconscious, I think, they can't question us if we're unconscious and that'll give me enough time to get enough energy back to get us out of here.
Dark let his head relax onto Krad's chest again, and delighted in the strong steady heartbeat he heard there. Now that I've got a plan, I can sleep…
—
—
—
"Why aren't they awake yet? It's been nearly twelve hours."
"They're not human, sir, we don't know what they are but they're not human. Whenever we try to run their DNA through the system, whenever we try to wake them up, no matter what we use, our machinery always goes haywire. The X-rays we took showed nothing. Nothing! They didn't even register on the screen! Sir, we have no way of knowing when or how they will wake up. Judging by the blood all over the blond he was critically hurt, but he shows no sign of it now. That simply cements the fact that we have no facts about them. Sorry sir, but that's all the help we can be."
"Well, what about separating them? Have you figured out a way to get them separated yet? Dark should be in an isolated room by himself."
Now the other voice, besides the slight nervousness and fear, held exasperation as well. "Sir, we've told you, there's absolutely no way of separating them without cutting Dark's hands off. And you've already refused to order that."
There was vague muttering, and then the door shut. Dark smirked slightly but didn't open his eyes. So, not human, eh? Didn't register on their machines, they went haywire. Most interesting. He sighed and snuggled deeper into Krad, who still hadn't woken. A few more hours and his energy levels would be up to breaking them out.
—
—
—
Satoshi paced a circle around Daisuke over and over and over again. The redhead barely even stirred anymore, and Satoshi only knew that he was awake from the half-lidded eyes that followed him. What was that woman doing? She'd nearly killed Daisuke, and now Satoshi was having to fight off his own collapse as well.
Krad, Krad, where are you? We need you so badly… Satoshi knelt down next to Daisuke, wrapping the smaller boy in his arms. Daisuke sighed and snuggled closer, and his hands clutched tightly at Satoshi's shirt.
"I feel better," a small whisper came, and Satoshi started, wild hope bubbling in his chest. Daisuke had been too weak to talk before. "It's not such a constant draw anymore. Maybe she's drawn as much as she needs."
Overwhelmed with relief, Satoshi pressed a kiss to the top of Daisuke's head. "Thank God, thank God you're okay."
"Satoshi?"
The blue-haired boy sighed. "I couldn't have born it if you had died, Daisuke-kun. It would have torn me apart. I wouldn't have wanted to survive." His voice dropped even lower. "Aishiteru, Daisuke."
The body below him went still. Satoshi wondered if he had even heard the words that had been whispered into his hair. Then, disturbingly, he began to shudder.
"Daisuke-kun? Daisuke-kun!" Satoshi gripped his shoulders and shoved him back so he could see his face. "Daijobu ka?"
Daisuke was crying silent tears. Satoshi wrapped his arms back around his only friend, heart ripping into pieces. "Gomenasai, Daisuke-kun, I won't mention it again, I promise I won't, I understand if you don't want to talk to me ever…"
Daisuke's arms convulsed tightly around Satoshi's waist, and he raised his angry, tear-stained face. "Don't you ever say that again!" he hissed.
Satoshi swallowed painfully, trying to pull his cold mask out and keep it on his face. "I understand." He pulled away.
Daisuke wouldn't let go. "Niwa-kun?" Satoshi asked, heart bleeding a little bit more at the realization that he wouldn't be allowed to call his love by his first name anymore.
Daisuke surged upward and tackled him to the ground, arms circling his neck and his wet face pressing against Satoshi's. Still too weak to do anything else, he lay there on top of his friend. "I love you Satoshi, I love you too, don't you ever say you won't mention it again, 'cause if you didn't I'd have to kill you."
Satoshi stared in shock at the still crying boy on top of him. "You…you what?"
Daisuke managed as much of a glare as he could with a tear-streaked face. "I love you too, you big dork. Do you need me to say it again?"
"If…if you wanted to, I wouldn't stop you," Satoshi managed, sliding his hands up and around Daisuke's back.
Daisuke grinned brightly. "Aishiteru, Sato-kun."
Satoshi gently wiped away the tears. "Aishiteru, Dai-chan." He pressed a soft kiss against the lips hovering so temptingly above his, then sat up, automatically tightening his arms around Daisuke as he slid down into his lap. "Now you need to sleep. You can't wear yourself out."
Daisuke, about to argue the point, yawned instead. "Only if you sleep with me."
The ex-tamer smiled. "Of course. I'd be glad to."
—
—
—
At exactly the same time Dark was carefully finishing carving out a large section of the roof of his prison cell with his power. Calling Wiz in a soft voice, he smiled as the white rabbit, now fully healed, transformed and attached himself to his shoulders. He picked up Krad gently and took off, ignoring his still-screaming body and similarly ignoring the shouts as policemen and other authorities noticed him. In minutes, despite the many shots taken at him, he disappeared into the dark night sky.
"Wiz, take us home," he ordered, and fought to keep a grip on Krad. "As quickly as possible, please."
In minutes the two of them were dropped softly on the floor of the living room and surrounded by two worried, panicky Niwa men. "We're fine," Dark said, hoping his voice wasn't really as slurry as it sounded. "Just need rest…No!" He clutched Krad tighter as Kosuke tried to take him away. "Together."
Kosuke nodded. "All right." He helped Dark to the bedroom and stripped him of his severely beaten clothes. Dark set to work on Krad's bloodstained ones, and sighed with relief when he stripped away the white shirt to reveal a pale chest marred only by a silver scar. The power he had given Krad had apparently healed the wound so thoroughly that the scar had faded in a matter of hours rather than months.
"Oh good, he really is okay. Why hasn't he woken up?"
"How much blood did he lose?"
"A lot."
"Then it's completely up in the air whether he'll wake up at all."
"What!?"
"If he's lost too much blood his body won't be able to make up the extra fast enough, and his cells may start dying from lack of oxygen."
Dark's face drained of color, and he knelt next to the bed. "He'll wake up. We heal faster than anyone."
Kosuke, seeing the open despair in Dark's face, only nodded and left.
"Krad, you idiot," Dark whispered, "Wake up. Don't leave me here alone. Don't you dare die before I've told you I love you. Goddamnit, Krad, wake up, please." He sniffed and wiped a hand over his eyes. "Satoshi will kill you if you die before you save him. Fuck, I'll kill you if you bail on me, so don't you dare."
He reached out and grabbed Krad's still hand, resting his head on his blanket-covered chest. Krad's pulse beat erratically and quickly underneath his ear. Without meaning to, Dark fell asleep holding Krad's hand, half-lying on top of him.