A/N: Well, at this point, I have no idea how many of you actually reviewed the first chapter of this story, but I plan on continuing it no matter how many reviews it gets! Actually, I plan to do that because I have this story planned out chapter-by-chapter. And that's how I roll!  Just kidding—I really can't stand urban lingo. But seriously, I do have the entire story planned out. Now it's just a matter of executing it properly…and in a timely fashion. Because I know that a lot of you are impatient. So relax. I think I should be able to get this done very soon…

Oh, and by the way…I don't own D.N.Angel. I don't know why you would think that—nor do I think that you think that. I just like insulting people.  And that is something I'm not kidding about! …Aren't I just the rudest fan fiction author ever?

Savior… Chapter Two: Teardrops and Snowflakes

As Freedert's snow began to fall on the park, Daisuke staggered aimlessly down the twisting, cobblestone pathways that wound their way through the trees. His mind was far away from the sounds of the snow crunching under his feet, far away from the wind that whistled across his face and turned his cheeks scarlet, far away from everything in the real world. But instead of the blanket of white flakes falling before his eyes, he saw Freedert lying on the floor of the temple, her tears cascading out of the open windows like waterfalls, her beautiful white hair turning a misty gray, her blue eyes staring blankly into space. And then Dark's black wings, night-black feathers all around him, pushing him higher and higher above the floor. Then the glittering sword, screaming toward earth…toward Freedert…

A tear, shimmering in the starlight, slid down Daisuke's cheek and froze there, like a diamond tattooed into his skin. He sighed. "I could have saved them, Dark. I know I could have."

You did all you could, Daisuke, Dark replied softly, his voice echoing gently in Daisuke's head. Saving everyone…it's an impossible dream. Believe me…I've tried to do it so many times…

Daisuke shook his head. "I know I can't save everyone, Dark. It's just…" He sighed and blinked, letting another tear fall and freeze on his cheek as he collapsed onto a nearby bench, causing a cloud of sparkling snow to wrap itself around him like a blanket. "I just wanted to save her. I wanted to save them, Dark. Even if it was only them…"

I know, Daisuke. I've been trying to save the same person for an eternity…

Daisuke laughed, but only bitterly. "I believe you, Dark." His eyes looked up to the sky, where the stars returned his gaze. "I think I know what it means to be in love with the thing that could bring about your undoing."

Dark's voice did not reply.

Daisuke gathered his coat around him and prepared to get up. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something emerge from the tree line, and he heard the sound of light feet crunching in the newly fallen snow.

He turned. Risa was standing beside a tree, her fiery cheeks matching her long red hair, her head bowed low to combat the wind.

"Who were you talking to, Daisuke?"

He shrugged. "The wind."

Risa frowned. Daisuke found himself frowning as well. Even he found his own words unconvincing.

The wind whistled shrilly in the uneasy silence between them, blowing a thin sheet of snow in front of Daisuke's eyes. By the time it cleared, Risa was standing next to the bench, looking worriedly at her friend.

"Do you mind?"

Daisuke shook his head. She sat down gracefully, a puff of snowy air wrapping itself around her shoulders like a parka.

Daisuke watched as she shivered in the cold, rubbing her arms for warmth. He shrugged off his coat and laid it over her shoulders. She glanced at him and smiled warmly. Then her smile twisted into an odd glance.

"What's that on your cheek?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

Her slender fingers brushed over his cheek and his crystallized tears. "You were…crying?"

"Oh…yeah. I guess I was."

"…What for?"

He shrugged.

Risa smiled thinly and let her eyes fall uneasily to the ground.

Daisuke found himself looking at Risa. In the ghostly luminescent snow, the snow that wrapped the city in Freedert's loving heartbeat, with her hair taking on a rosy pall, it was almost as if Freedert was sitting beside him again…

Risa turned back to him just as another tear slid down his cheek. She wiped it off before it had a chance to freeze.

"Daisuke…why are you so sad?"

"I don't know," he lied. Any sort of emotional strength had been drained from him in the temple of the Toki no Byushin.

Risa didn't press the issue—she could tell that Daisuke didn't want to answer her. As she stared at him, she could tell there was something different about him tonight. His eyes seemed distant, as though they were drowning in a sea of sorrow that only he could feel…and his brow, furrowed by unfamiliar lines of worry and pain...

A soft flake of snow landed on the bridge of her nose. She glanced at it idly at first, but soon found that she couldn't help but stare at it in wonder. Though she hadn't noticed it before, each flake of snow was slightly radiant, and felt warm to the touch. And then there was that soft, pulsating rhythm that emanated from it, like a calm heartbeat.

She took a deep breath of crisp, cold air and exhaled it, marveling as it turned into a cloud of mist before her face. The night was so beautiful, so pure… When she fell, she had thought she would never see another night again…

Without realizing what she had done, she suddenly found herself holding a white feather in her hand. She smiled as she looked at it. The feather that her savior had unwittingly left behind was just as pure and white as the snow that fell around her. She watched, entranced, as the feather reacted to the falling snow, emanating its own glow, and pulsing rhythmically in its own time. She let go of the feather involuntarily, as though she was led to do so by some otherworldly power. But the feather did not blow away in the wind—instead, it began to dance with the snowflakes just above her hand. She gasped in wonder.

Her gasp woke Daisuke from his trance. He turned and immediately saw the white feather, hovering above her hand.

"A white feather…" Daisuke thought. "But it couldn't be…"

Yes, Dark answered. That is most definitely a feather from Krad's wings. No other feather would react with Freedert's snow like that.

Daisuke frowned. "Risa…"

She turned to him with a huge smile on her face. "Look, Dai! My feather is dancing with the snow! It's like magic!"

More so than she knows…Dark murmured.

"Where'd you get that?" Daisuke asked Risa, pointing to the feather.

She bit her lip and plucked the feather out of the air, laying it gently in her palm. For a moment, she stared at the ground in silence. Then, slowly, she said, "I lost your painting, Daisuke."

"…Oh." He barely caught himself before he said something he would have regretted. There were plenty of good reasons she couldn't know he was Dark…weren't there?

Risa looked up at him. "So…you aren't mad?"

Daisuke shook his head. "Things happen."

She chuckled. "Then I guess you should be honored."

Daisuke didn't like where this was going. "Really?" He was trying to feign curiosity, knowing it was coming off as suspicious.

If his fake emotion was conspicuous, Risa didn't seem to notice. Her eyes glinted mischievously as she said, "The Phantom Thief Dark stole it from my room! Can you believe it?"

Daisuke locked his lips together and said nothing, not trusting his words not to betray him.

Risa continued, undeterred by Daisuke's lack of response. "I came tonight to yell at him for stealing your painting. I was on top of the roof and I had to make a jump to the next roof." Her eyes fell. "I thought I could make it, but Riku told me I couldn't." She laughed bitterly. "Of course, that only made me more sure that I could do it. So I jumped."

Daisuke swallowed uneasily.

"…As soon as I did it, I knew I wasn't going to make it. The air just kind of…fell out from under me. I didn't even notice…" A tear slid down her cheek and crystallized, just like the ones on Daisuke's cheek. She turned and looked at her friend with eyes full of sadness. "I thought I was going to die. But all I could think of…all I thought about was you."

Daisuke nearly choked on his own breath as he felt the temperature of his blood rise, and the familiar tingling sensation grow in his fingers…

"No." he told Dark in his mind. "I can't change now." Immediately, he felt his blood cool, and the tingling in his fingers disappeared. When he refocused, he found Risa sobbing beside him on the bench, clutching Krad's feather like it was the last memento of a fallen loved one.

Go ahead, Dark urged. She needs your support now, more than ever.

Daisuke nodded and gingerly laid his arm over Risa's shoulders. She shifted closer to him in response to his touch, laying her head on his shoulder, letting her hot tears dampen his shirt and warm his skin.

She sobbed quietly in his arms as Freedert's snow continued to fall around them. Daisuke stayed by her side, comforting his friend in silence.

Without warning, she whispered, "But…I woke up. And I was alive. I didn't know how, but I was laying there, on bench inside this park, with a trenchcoat wrapped around me and this feather beside me." She fingered it tenderly as she spoke of it. "I guess…I carry the feather around because I want to find the person who saved me. I want to thank him…you know?"

Daisuke would have nodded, but the way talked about the feather…they way she mentioned her 'savior'…it bothered him. Perhaps it was just his hatred for Krad at work, but…it couldn't be jealousy, could it?

Risa sobbed again and withdrew from his embrace. "Thanks for listening to me, Daisuke."

He smiled thinly. "Don't mention it."

She smiled and rose. "I really should be going. Riku's probably pacing tread marks into the carpet in our living room."

Daisuke looked up and returned her smile. "Do you want me to walk you home?"

Though she didn't mean to, she glanced down at the white feather in her hand. She felt a wave of protection wash over her, and her eyes brightened. "No. I'll be fine on my own."

Daisuke nodded. "Well…bye."

Risa smiled. "See you later, Daisuke." As she turned and started down the path, a breath of wind blew a curtain of swirling snow in front of his face. He shielded his face from the stinging snow, and when he looked back, Risa had disappeared into the trees. His flushed cheeks burned in the icy wind, and Daisuke couldn't help but feeling that somehow, for some reason, Freedert's snow had scorned him.

He fell back onto the bench. "I don't understand it, Dark. She doesn't even know who saved her, and yet she worships that feather as if it represents her patron saint." He shook his head in disgust. "And she drops me like a pack of socks wrapped in Christmas paper."

For a moment, Dark was silent. …I think she feels attached to the person who saved her.

Daisuke snorted indignantly.

Here me out, Dai. She might feel like she owes something to the person who saved her…Even if that person is Krad.

As Daisuke contemplated Dark's words, a snowflake found a perch on the bridge of his nose. He watched as it pulsed with light in time to Freedert's ethereal heartbeat.

"I know I can't save everyone Dark. I just want to save the people I love."

Though Dark's voice was resigned to his mind, Daisuke could almost feel the Phantom Theif smiling at him. I think that is a good goal, Daisuke.

Daisuke looked out at the swirling snow. "So do I."