It had been two months since his first time transforming. He pondered this as he came down to the breakfast table, yawning and stretching with both arms above his head. He was dressed in his uniform, thrown on haphazardly, and one of his shoes was unlaced, as well as his tie being crooked. He was lazy in the mornings.

"You look adorable, Dai." Daisuke looked up surprisedly to see his mother near the fridge, one hand on top of the coffee machine. "Tie's crooked, though. In a hurry?"

"I'm just tired. Sorry, I'll fix it. Morning, mom!" Daisuke fixed his tie distractedly and whisked an orange from the fruit bowl on the center of the table. He wasn't too hungry anyways. He ate the citrus in complete silence, contemplating his own thoughts and revealing nothing to the woman who took a seat beside him.

"So. I'm leaving another note tomorrow night."

He groaned. "Mo-om. Do I have to?"

"Dai, sweetie, you're a phantom thief now! This is just what you are. I'm so proud of you!" she grinned, cocked her head to the side, and planted a motherly kiss on his cheek. "You know your grandfather would say just the same thing."

"And dad?"

"Oh, I don't know where your father's gone off to today. Who knows? He might even be going around the world!" she said this so cheerfully, as if the absence of her husband for years and years and years wasn't anything to be worried about. But Kosuke could take care of himself, Daisuke supposed.

"Come to think of it, do you still have that ring he gave you a month ago?" she prompted.

"The…?" He looked down at his hand, somewhat sheepish. "N-no. It broke." He was suddenly lost in memory for a moment.

"Daisuke, you can't fade away like this." It was Dark's voice that reached him as he was curled up into a ball, somewhere in the back of his mind. He didn't want to come out. Not ever. If he stayed like this forever, maybe he could just forget about being rejected by Risa, and not have to think about anything that required thinking.

"Yes, I can. Go away."

He was surprised to feel a hand on his shoulder, as physical as if it had happened in real life, and then Dark knelt next to him, put his face very close. "I came to take you back." His amethyst eyes were very serious and very dark, glimmering in the faint light.

"I gave Riku the St. White's Day ribbon!" he looked up, and there were tears in his eyes. "And I'm supposed to be… I mean, Risa… I love Risa, I do! And I don't want to share a body with you anymore! I hate this…"

"Doesn't matter. You can't stay here." Dark grinned, that irresistible crooked smile that had all of the world in love with him. He was a legacy. He was sexy. He was a walking god.

He wasn't Daisuke.

"Now come on. I don't have all day." Dark reached down and plucked Daisuke off the ground, wrapping him in an embrace, shifting so he was bearing his full weight. And suddenly Daisuke felt like he was dissolving, like he was becoming part of someone else. It was a very new feeling, even in those times.

"Don't fight me, Dai," Dark whispered, lips pressed to Daisuke's ear. And Daisuke, for once in his life, relinquished his consciousness to the thief.

He'd awoken in the school sick-bay, with Riku Harada next to him, eyes red from crying.

"Too bad. If you and Dark get separated again, it could mean problems. I'll talk to your father about getting another one, 'kay?" she winked.

"I… okay, mom," he said, rubbing the back of his head as he grabbed his school things and made for the train station, feeling as if today might be one of those days where he wasn't sure what the hell he was doing anymore. Where things went out of control, and he had to work to get life to seem remotely normal.

He looked into his desk in disbelief. Not a single pencil left. What was he going to do now? The teacher walked up to the whiteboard and began sketching out a few problems for the class: basic algebra, nothing too hard. Radicals and some basic geometry. To his left was Aika, and then Riku just in front of him. He didn't dare ask Riku for a spare, and he didn't even know Aika. That left Takeshi behind him, who was asleep at his desk, and Satoshi on his right. Takeshi never had pencils on him.

But he couldn't ask Satoshi. The guy scared him shitless. He craned around and chucked a ball of crunched-up paper at Takeshi's mouth, where drool was beginning to form. The ball went in—he had perfect aim—and Takeshi sputtered and snorted, gagged, then sat up straight.

"Takeshi, something wrong?" The teacher asked, turning around irritatedly.

"No, sensei." He saluted military-style, then shot Daisuke a distinctive look. "What?" he mouthed, without saying anything.

"Pencil?" Daisuke mouthed back. Takeshi turned both his pockets inside out with a shrug and shook his head no. He didn't have a pencil. As usual.

Well, shit.

He leaned both elbows on his desk and sighed, but his peripheral vision caught something: a flash of silver. Satoshi was staring at him with complete and open frankness. Well, actually, he did that most days; he just stared at Daisuke the entire class. Without any trace of embarrassment in those cold eyes. Just stared. Actually, he'd gotten used to being stared at after the first few days, and he didn't much notice anymore, though when he did notice it was with much chagrin. Daisuke's eyes slid to the side and he turned his head again: "Er… ah… Satoshi… do you have a pencil I could… borrow?"

He extended his arm immediately. There was a pencil, held out demurely between forefinger and thumb. As if he'd been waiting for Daisuke to ask. Daisuke blinked twice, paused, then took the pencil quickly with a glance at the board and copied down the problems. Satoshi, he saw, wasn't even writing anything down, though he had the best of everything in his desk. He didn't even have a notebook open.

"And then, class, we find the square root of two-hundred and fifty nine. Satoshi?" she called on him for the answer, and he was startled out of his staring-at-Daisuke reverie suddenly. He didn't so much as blink before answering: "Sixteen point oh nine to the nearest hundredth."

"Good, good." He hadn't even used a calculator.

Daisuke had been seeing more of Satoshi than he'd have liked lately.

It wasn't just the fact that Satoshi was a tamer, too—his body housed Krad, the other half of Dark's soul. It was more that whenever he was around him, he felt confused, and inflamed, and somehow incredibly aware of his own awkwardness.

Odd thing was, it wasn't such a different feeling as when he was near Riku.

That's what bothered him.

Not to mention he kept popping up in unexpected places, at just conveniently the right time. Like once when Daisuke'd fallen down the stairs. Satoshi had caught him. And then when Daisuke had fainted that one time… Satoshi'd carried him to the sick bay. And then when he'd been out as Dark the first time, Satoshi had been there, trying to capture him as always, with that steely glint in his eyes that was so rare. Satoshi had gone through a lot of effort to see him. He'd dressed up like a girl once, even. It was thoroughly awkward, because he knew… somehow he knew that Satoshi had some kind of weird feelings for him. He was only fourteen, but he recognized the signs.

"Niwa!" Takeshi yelled as they exited the classroom for the end of the day. "Hey, your turn to stay and clean today, idiot!"

"Whuh?" Daisuke relied intelligibly. He'd been daydreaming about Riku again. Riku in a bikini, with a towel rolled up under her arm, and lip gloss all over those perfectly arched lips, her eyes bright, smile tugging at her mouth. 'Come on, Dai, don't you want to go in the water?' She'd been asking.

"You. Clean. Today. Hello?" Takeshi waved a hand in front of his face. "You're such an oddball sometimes. Daydreaming about Riku Harada again, aren't you?"

"Shh!" Daisuke said, brow furrowing. "Don't say it too loud—"

"RIKUUUU! HARAAAAADA!" Takeshi screamed in a sing-song voice. Several kids turned their heads, but nobody took much notice of Takeshi, because he was an idiot and he did that kind of thing quite often. Suddenly a short crop of red hair popped out from behind a colonnade. "Someone call me?" Riku asked, and both of them stopped dead.

"Oh, yeah. You've got cleaning duty too," Takeshi said brazenly.

"Gah, I hate cleaning," Riku said, eyes falling to half-mast, and she stepped up to Daisuke. "Well, are you coming or not? It's your day, isn't it?"

Daisuke almost cringed away from her. "I-I-I… uh, yes, I mean, yes. It is." Why was Dark so smooth with this kind of thing, and he wasn't? he felt like a complete moron trying to talk to her. She was just a girl. Just a girl, right?

They walked back into the classroom and Daisuke dropped his books on a nearby seat, grabbing up a rag from the teachers' supply cabinet. "Isn't Satoshi on duty today, too?" Riku asked as she handled a mop. "He always skips out."

"Uhn, I'm not sure," Daisuke responded lamely.

Just then the door creaked again and Satoshi himself walked in, a commanding presence at almost three inches taller than Daisuke, and more than that over Riku. He perched on a desk, looking casual.

"Ooh, he showed!" Riku said. "Well, wipe down the board, then. I don't have all day. I've got lacrosse practice in twenty minutes!"

Satoshi simply nodded and did as he was told, though he positively emanated a vibe that he was in charge and that he was just obliging to be nice. Not that he was nice very often. Daisuke found himself studying the easy way he moved, wondering if someday he could manage that. Maybe he could be like that one day. Right now he was just… eh. Not Satoshi, and not Dark, and definitely not his father. So who was he?

Riku suddenly looked up. "Daisuke…?"

"Yeah?" he looked up from his wiping of the window-sills to find her very, very close to him. All of his daytime fantasies suddenly sprung into his head and he worked very hard not to let them color his face. She smiled: "I kept that recording that Keiji Saga gave me."

Oh, shit. The one where he'd said I love you, Riku. She still had it?

Daisuke gulped, and suddenly found strength. "I… Riku, I wanted to say…"

Suddenly she jerked and broke for the door at a sprint. "Oh, my God! I'm ten minutes late already! Sorry, Daisuke, I'll talk to you later!" she shot him an apologetic glance and was gone, a scuff on the floor the only sign of her departure. And now Satoshi was looking at him oddly, with his head tilted just the tiniest fraction, his eyes meditative and questioning as he stood poised with one eraser in his hand.

"Damnit," Daisuke swore, and sank down into a chair.

There was silence.

"You love her?"

Daisuke looked up at Satoshi, surprised. "Um… well, I don't love her. But I like her, sure."

Satoshi made something of this, but he couldn't tell what it was. "Are you going out tonight?" he asked suddenly, his voice as cold and emotionless as always. Daisuke drew his knees up onto the chair and pressed his mouth together. By going out Satoshi, of course, meant to ask if Dark was stealing anything tonight. Though he already knew the answer, and it didn't matter what Daisuke said. Satoshi was always well informed. He was head of the police squad, for that matter.

"No. I don't think so.."

Satoshi lifted his eyes a little. "You shouldn't tell me that."

"Why not?" now he was baffled a little.

"I might use it against you. You'll be at home tonight, then."

Daisuke opened his mouth, closed it again, opened it. Both times words failed him. "Sorry," he finished lamely.

"Don't apologize," Satoshi returned. "It's not a matter of what you tell me. It just makes me so… angry… " he moved to the desk where Daisuke was, and Daisuke shrugged back into the chair, suddenly a little afraid of the look in Satoshi's eyes.

But all he did was put a hand on Daisuke's shoulder. "As easy as this, I could capture you. Just… whisk you away, and nobody would know." The contact was firm, unyielding, but not painful.

"But you aren't, are you?" Daisuke asked warily. He didn't want to fight Satoshi. Dark was asleep inside of him, watching quietly, ready to force Daisuke to transform if he thought it was necessary. But it wasn't, apparently, because Satoshi gave him a helpless look and turned back to the board. He slammed his eraser onto its ledge and then stormed out, not even bringing any school supplies with him. He never needed school supplies anyways.

That was interesting, Dark said when Daisuke was back at home, opening the front door and feeling quite bewildered at the day's events. Daisuke shrugged him off and greeted his mom and grandpa before setting foot on the stairs and shutting the door of his room behind him, retreating to his desk.

"I have homework to do," he said brusquely, because he knew what would happen next if he wasn't careful. He had to be careful around Dark, all the time. In just two short months he'd learned that much. "I'm tired."

There was a sudden lessening of his mind and a flicker of light behind him. Dark, in his physical form, was standing just behind Daisuke. Daisuke knew he was just an illusion, knew that Dark was still inside his mind and body and wasn't really there, and that nobody but he could see him when he was like this, but it still struck a note of presence on his mind.

Dark twined his arms around Daisuke's shoulders as he leaned over the chair, breathing in the scent of his hair.

"You smell good, Dai."

"I probably smell horrible. I've been cleaning."

"Not at all." He smiled against the back of Daisuke's head, and Daisuke felt it, the pencil in his hand surprisingly idle. Satoshi's pencil—shit, he'd forgotten to return it.

Dark and he… well, what had begun as a partnership had become something much, much different over the course of two months. It wasn't just that Dark was pushy, or that he was a romantic at heart; it was that they both knew each other's thoughts so thoroughly that it almost seemed natural. The first time Dark had fucked him, it had been not at all what a first time should be, and he hadn't even known what was going on, mostly. It'd been painful, too. He wasn't the most clued-in guy about sex. And was it his fault? He lived in a house with his mom and his senile grandpa, for God's sake. Where was he supposed to learn this kind of thing?

He sometimes didn't know if Dark did it because he loved Daisuke, or if he was angry over being stuck in someone else's body and this was a personal form of revenge. It didn't matter why it happened so much as that it just happened, and was a part of life.

And the thing was, neither of them talked about it except when it was happening, when it was real. Dark pressed a kiss to the nape of Daisuke's neck, and he shivered up and down his spine. Not from pleasure. Not from happiness. He didn't like Dark in that way. Dark knew this, but he didn't let up. Daisuke tried to concentrate on his geography homework, studiously tracing the edge of one word with his pencil.

Hands moved over his shoulders to his school-tie, slipping it off casually.

Daisuke narrowed his eyes at the paper, ignored his body's reaction to the touch, and pushed all feelings out of his mind. This was much harder than it seemed. The equator runs straight through the Congo Basin, doesn't it?And…

Dark pressed his lips to Daisuke's cheekbone, just under one eye, and Daisuke allowed it, but didn't say anything in reply. Is Libya different from Liberia?—oh, shit.

In all actuality, the phantom thief was only three years older than Daisuke, so how was it possible that he was so experienced? Well, he'd been trapped in a seventeen-year-old body for three hundred years, so maybe that made a difference. He finally found Daisuke's mouth with his lips, and Daisuke's pencil dropped from his hand onto the page, rolling until it hit the crease in the center of the geography book. He couldn't see anything but Dark's face, close, real, warm. He didn't respond, though.

"Come on, Dai. What's the matter?" Dark urged, his mouth slipping off for a moment. His voice was little more than a whisper.

He didn't reply. Whatever Daisuke Niwa was thinking, it was indiscernible at the moment, even to someone who shared the same mind.