Daisuke blinked, yawning lightly. He was seated in a comfortable sofa chair by the living room
window, golden afternoon sunlight streaming down on to his flaming red hair. Yes, after all these long
years, Daisuke's flaming red hair had still not lost its vibrant hue. The red head shifted back slightly in
his chair, arranging the newspaper he held neatly before him. He listened to the sounds of his beloved
wife, Riku, humming in the kitchen as she prepared their oldest daughter's birthday dinner. Daisuke's
adult daughter, Miyu, was having her thirty- fifth birthday today, which was December 23. Daisuke
himself was sixty- three years old, looking no older then the day that he was married to Riku, forty
three years ago. He sprang up lightly from his seat, making his way smoothly to the kitchen in the next
room, not a single tremor in his movements to betray his age. He moved up to Riku, wrapping his
arms around her waist. She gasped slightly in shock,
"Hey there." He whispered in her ear.
"Dai- chan." Riku, turned around, smiling slightly, 'You know I have to prepare Miyu's dinner." She
glanced up at the clock. "They're going to be here in about half an hour." She gently moved past
Daisuke, to the stove where she began stirring various steaming and simmering dishes. Daisuke's face
fell for a second. "She's been treating me differently…" Daisuke thought, studying her back
thoughtfully. In recent months, she had begun to seem more distant to Daisuke, seeming to prefer her
own activities as opposed to spending time with Daisuke. The red head frowned slightly; he wasn't
entirely sure what was going on.
"Anything I can help with?"
"Ummm, could you set the table?" Riku asked, without looking up.
"'Kay!" Daisuke leaped to the job, flipping a cabinet door open and loading his arms full of dishes.
His humming joined Riku's, and for a while, an amiable silence filled the house, Daisuke setting the
table for a party of seven, Riku cooking in the kitchen. Miyu had her own family now, her husband
Toshi, who was thirty four and her two sons', Takashi and Fujitaka. Each was five and three
respectively. The last of the party was Daisuke's thirty year old single son, Tori, recently having
broken up with his umpteen billionth girlfriend. Daisuke sighed as he carefully arranged the delicate
cutlery they would be using for the dinner tonight. He and Riku were worried that Tori would never
settle down. Ever. Not that they missed having grandchildren, Miyu had solved the issue for them
already. But Tori was very play boyish in nature. He was always after the girls, and the girls were
always after him. Daisuke had to admit, he and Riku had turned out one good looking child, but that
still didn't help Tori in getting a wife. Daisuke smirked slightly at the thought, setting down the last
piece of shining cutlery on the table. He stepped back, surveying his handy work. Grinning he made
his way back to the kitchen.
"Play boyish, just like Dark." Daisuke said, muttering to himself. "Speaking of Dark…" Daisuke
probed his mind, poking around to try and find the purple haired kaitou. Dark had gotten very quiet
these days, and Daisuke didn't know why.
"Dark?" No answer. Daisuke tried again, still receiving no answer. On the third try, Daisuke gave
up, making his way towards the kitchen. There were two mysteries that Daisuke had in his life, newly
come with absolutely no answer to them or any clues what so ever. First was, how the heck did
Daisuke manage to stay looking so young. The sixty- three year glanced at himself has he passed the
hallway mirror. "Still looking like you're twenty eh?" Daisuke thought to himself. The other was
why was Dark still here? As far as Daisuke knew, the thief should have disappeared from Daisuke's
mind years ago. Daiki, Daisuke's late grandfather, lost his connection with Dark when Daiki had
turned twenty. And not only, that, Daisuke had himself a son. It wasn't that Daisuke had had only
daughters and that Dark, facing the prospect of lying dormant for years inside a Niwa female's DNA
had decided to stick around in Daisuke until a boy was born in a later generation of Niwa's in order
combat extreme boredom. Not only did Daisuke have a son, but he also had two grandsons. There
were plenty of males bouncing around to keep Dark thieving. So why hadn't Dark magically
disappeared from within Daisuke? Why was he still around? Not that it wasn't nice to still have Dark
around. Daisuke and Dark still went out once or twice a week flying, so that Dark could stretch his
wings. Though that had been occurring less and less often as of recent. Dark just hadn't been talking
to Daisuke lately. "I hope he's not mad at me…" As Daisuke reached the kitchen, the door bell
rang. He paused in mid stride. Riku glanced up at him.
"I think it's them." She said before returning to rolling huge rolls of sushi. Daisuke's eyebrows rose at
her rather curt remark. His mouth opened slightly, staring at her back, before turning around to get
the door. "Is she mad at me too? Why is everyone mad at me? Next thing I know, my
grandchildren will be glaring daggers at me." He reached the door, opening, just in time to be
greeted by a huge rush as Miyu and her two children pounced down on top of him.
"Otou-san!" She shrieked happily. She looked at him, grinning. "Still looking as young as ever I see."
She grinned again, giving him a giant hug. Meanwhile, her two children bounced up and down at his
feet, chanting
"Ojii-san, ojii-san, ojii-san!" Daisuke grinned.
"And how are my favorite grandchildren doing?" he asked, kneeling down to their level. Both
children broke out grinning.
"But ojii-san, we're your only grandchildren!" Fujitaka piped up, breaking in to fits of giggles after his
statement. His older brother, Takashi, nodded too, grinning like the child he was. Daisuke's grin
widened also.
"But that's what makes you two my favorite! You're my only grandkids!" He brought them in to a
close and encompassing hug. He could feel both children hugging him back.
"Now run along to the kitchen and greet grandma! She has something special for each of you! Go
along now!" Daisuke shooed them off to the kitchen and watched as both children scampered off.
He turned around to greet the last member of the party.
"Toshi! How have you been?" He moved forward, giving his son- in- law a formal hug, while smiling.
"Good as ever Daisuke. How about you?"
"As good as good can get. Here, let me take your coat." Moving forward, he took Toshi's coat and
turned around to hang it in the hallway closet. Dark chose that exact moment to speak up.
"So, the family's all here!" Daisuke nearly dropped Toshi's jacket in surprise.
"D-D-D-Dark!"
"Daisuke? Are you all right?"
'When did you wake up?"
"Awww," the thief replied, pouting in Daisuke's head. "I'm not wanted any more?"
"It's not that!" Daisuke replied. "it's just, I haven't talked to you in so long, I almost thought
you went and died in some corner in my brain!"
"Hey, that's mean!" The thief pouted again. "Fine, be that way! I'll just go to that corner and
die then!"
"DARK! I didn't mean it in that way! I was only joking!" Daisuke said, hastily trying to fix his
mistake. Dark began to laugh.
"I was only kidding. Now you might want to start paying attention to Toshi, he looks like he's
hemorrhaging! Heh, hemorrhaging." The thief snickered.
"H-huh?" Daisuke started in surprise as Toshi tapped his shoulder once more.
"I was asking if you were all right." Toshi looked at Daisuke inquiringly, his brown eyes reflecting
concern. Daisuke blinked and shook his head.
"No, I'm fine, just a little shaky." Daisuke grinned carelessly at Toshi. "Nothing to worry about, just
getting old, you know. Have all the shakes and things." He grinned again, praying for Toshi not to ask
any more questions. Thankfully for Daisuke, he didn't. Toshi nodded briefly.
"I'll just hang up my own coat then, I don't want to cause you too much trouble Daisuke." Toshi
moved forward, reaching for his coat.
"Ohh, n-n-no, it's no problem at all!" Daisuke switched to high speed mode, sliding the coat on to a
hanger, hanging it up and sliding the closet door shut before his son-in-law had a chance to say
another word. Toshi blinked twice at Daisuke.
"Ummm, okay then…let's just go in to the kitchen then. I want to say hi to Riku." Toshi moved away
from Daisuke, towards the kitchen, leaving the red head alone. He slumped back against the closet
door.
"Whew, close one."
"Dark, don't you ever go scaring me like that ever again! You could have blown our cover!" The thief only snickered evilly.
"That was too funny!" Dark's face was one huge mass of teeth, grinning at Daisuke. Daisuke
huffed, ignoring the thief and made his way down the hall way to the kitchen once again. Daisuke
hadn't bothered to tell Toshi about the Niwa family secret, seeing as Dark hadn't left residence in
Daisuke's body and hadn't even turned up in Tori on Tori's fourteenth birthday. He and Riku
speculated that much the same thing would happen on Takashi's and Fujitaka's fourteenth birthdays.
So did, Emiko and Kosuke. Yep, Daisuke's hyper mother and calm father were still alive, now
enjoying their eighty eighth year of life. Both were still young at heart, but moving a tad bit slower
then usual. Lucky for them, they had Towa- chan to take care of them. The vibrant Hikari art work
remained as young and cheerful as ever. Kosuke and Emiko had wanted Towa to live with Daisuke
and Riku after Miyu was born, but Daisuke had convinced them to allow Towa to remain with them,
in order to help them with the house hold chores. Now, in their late eighties, they needed her now
more then ever. The two of them were slowing down, Emiko not able to get as much house work
done and Kosuke falling asleep more often at his books. Not even Daisuke's kids knew much about
Dark. Miyu only knew about some 'myth' or legend surrounding the Niwa's blood line and Tori had
been subject to the same rigorous exercises that Daisuke had been put to when he was younger.
Miyu had refused to do the same with her own children, having personally witnessed what Tori had
had to go through when they were children. She had found no particularly good reason behind the
training, other then the torture it seemed to cause the trainee, so she had refused to allow either
Takashi or Fujitaka to be put through the same thing. Tori had not been too fond of the training
himself, but had told Daisuke he had found it useful when running away things or when playing sports.
The red head arrived in the kitchen in time to see Takashi and Fujitaka receiving their small gifts from
Riku. Both would be getting larger gifts in two days, when Christmas came. Daisuke smiled as he
saw their faces break open in to wide grins when they saw the cute little stuffed animals Riku and he
had carefully chosen and wrapped for them.
"Arigatou obaa-san!" Both grandkids jumped on Riku, hugging her tightly. Daisuke, paused, leaning
against the door. He studied Riku, studied her smiling face. Fine wrinkles creased her face; her
brown eyes sparkled as she hugged her grand children back. Her hair had turned from chocolate
brown to mostly white and gray. She looked exactly how she should. A sixty three year old
grandmother, spending time happily with her grandchildren. Daisuke, looked down. And he didn't.
He looked like the twenty two year father of the children and son of the grandmother He half
suspected that that was the reason why Riku had been so cool with him with the last few months.
Though it was an odd reason, it still was plausible.
"Well, now all we have to do is wait for Tori, then we can eat!" Miyu smiled happily. "But now,
mom, dad, we have to talk, it's been a year, there's so much to catch up on!"