Sorry this took so long again. Life is hectic at the moment. I'll make it up by updating a lot in a very short period of time, which is what I do best.

He could have sworn that he'd just been dreaming.

When had he fallen asleep? Oh, right, after showering the night before. That made sense. He'd been on the boat coming to the island, and then he and Dark had come to the hotel and… well, there was a blank after that.

But he knew that he'd showered at least. He rolled over; his arm hit pillow.

This, really, should not have been so odd. He was, after all, sleeping, and normally he slept in a bed. But this was odd for two reasons: the motion woke him up, and he realized he felt curiously empty inside. And secondly, his bed was a single. This was definitely larger. He curled his knees up to his chest, opened his eyes, and sat up, clenching the bedsheets in both fists.

He was in Satoshi's room. Shit! What did I do! Panic rose in his throat like bile, eyes open as wide as they would go. No! I did not sleep with Satoshi! But even as he denied it, he knew it was true. He had the distinct memories to prove it. This made his cheeks brighten.

Satoshi was nowhere to be seen. The door to the bathroom was ajar, and there was a towel hanging on the shower rack—he'd put that towel there the night before. His clothes were strewn right next to the bed and were still sopping wet and slightly salty ocean-smelling from being in a pile, where he'd left them shortly before climbing into bed with Satoshi with only his boxers on. Yes, now he recalled. He shivered; it was cold in the room, probably to combat the searing island heat outside.

Today was a leisure day for the class, so he wasn't in any hurry to leave. Music drifted in from a radio somewhere: Chopan's Valse, he thought, but he wasn't sure. His knowledge of classical music was sparse at best. He shifted off the bed and picked up his jeans. Nope. Soaked through.

On the bedside table was a pair of jeans and a plain white tee-shirt. No note, no sign that these had been laid out for him, but he knew. He knew Satoshi meant him to take them as clearly as if there had been a note. So he did, and left his own out to dry on the side of the tub. Well, Satoshi's clothes weren't large on him; they were actually about the same size, which just made it more convenient.

After one last glance in the mirror he sighed and went to the door. It was locked from both sides. He punched in a few keys, watched the light shift from red to green, and swung open the door slowly, a small creak resounding as he looked into the hallway like a convict escaping from a cell.

Okay. I should be free if I just make it down to the lobby, and I can pretend like I was out last night and I didn't get back unti---"HEY! DAISUKE!"

Takeshi. He bounded up and narrowed his eyes at Daisuke. "I can't believe you'd do something like that with Satoshi!" he said, looking up at the room number. Daisuke froze. "Look, it's not what it looks like…" he started, then cleared his throat.

"I worked hard to get you into all-night mahjong, okay? You better damn play tomorrow night instead of playin' card games or whatever with Satoshi or I'll have your ass on a plate… I had to pay Sakehara to get us in!"

Daisuke had forgotten to breathe. Now he did. Thank God for Takeshi's dense-headedness. "Yeah, I will. Sure," he said, grabbing the side of the door and edging his way towards the stairs. "You'd better. I'm not kidding about the ass on a plate," Takeshi replied, giving Satoshi's door a last malignant look. With that distraction, Daisuke made a beeline for the staircase and disappeared down to the lobby.

He met Risa at the phone. Gladly, she didn't seem to recognize him. During the day he looked for Wiz, to no avail; the little creature couldn't be found anywhere. Maybe he was still healing from being flung about the night before. He slumped down into part of the hallway on the top floor, away from any other students, and looked out the window on the opposite wall with a wistful glance.

I've gotta get Dark back.

He was afraid to be alone with the voices in his head. When Dark was there, he filled that gap, but without him the silence, the overwhelming emptiness, was almost overwhelming.

I don't even know where to start.

Satoshi might know.

I don't know where he is.

So he screwed you and left?

…

If he actually loved you, he'd be here right now.

We're only highschoolers. Maybe he had something to do.

Right. At least Dark paid you the courtesy of sticking around. You should've been more loyal to him. Your family would disown you if they knew what's happened.

Daisuke shivered more, and not just from the polar temperature in the hallway. Would his family really disown him? It was entirely possible. He remembered how Emiko had freaked out the first time she'd discovered he was friends with Satoshi.

Friends… to this. He chuckled darkly.

Dark doesn't care. He just wants me to obey him, to worship him like everyone else. He wants ultimate control of my mind. Then he can use me as his physical body. That's what he wants—a body.

But you do worship him. You can't stop thinking about him, can you?

Maybe I do. But I don't love him. Adoration and love…

…Are different things? Or different faces of the same coin?

I don't love him.

You don't have a choice. Love Dark or be disowned.

He bowed his head, as if in prayer, and tried not to just curl up and die.

"…Daisuke…?" the voice was young, tentative. He lifted his head from his bout of misery and rose his eyes to the speaker: Riku. "Oh. Hey there, Riku," he said with a tired smile.
"Umm. Were you with Risa last night?" she asked, sinking down next to him.

"Last night…?" he was tempted to say, sure. She grabbed me around the waist because she thought I was Dark. But of course he didn't. "Nope. Sorry."

She watched him silently. It was disconcerting. "What?" he asked after a second.

"I saw you down there," she said. "Risa thinks it was Dark."

"Stranger things have happened," he said, and smiled. He was good at acting, and very good at pretending to feel what he didn't. "It could've been Dark down there."

"So it wasn't you she… hugged? You weren't down there?" Riku asked. She didn't look convinced at all. Daisuke shrugged. "No. I was sleeping. Ask Takeshi." He knew she wouldn't. Takeshi was weird, and nobody would try talking to him except Daisuke of their own free will, which was perfect. He crossed his legs, straight out so they jutted into the center of the hallway. Riku was kneeling at his side, her eyes very wide and blank.

"Daisuke? Why did you run away… that other day?"

He didn't turn to look at her. "I'm sorry."

"You said that. I wanna know why. Are you afraid of me or something?"

I'm afraid to get close to anyone. I'm afraid that Dark will be angry.

"No."

"So do you wanna try again, maybe? I mean, if we're going out and stuff, maybe we should do something."

He turned his gaze onto her. "What do you want from me, Riku?"

She bit her lower lip, casting her eyes down to where his hand was braced against the floor. She raised her own hand and then set it down on top of his lightly, her eyes very close to his own face. He leaned back subconsciously. "I just want to make sure you're real," she said in a dead even voice.

He blinked. "I don't know," he said. "What d'you mean?" His body, all by itself, began to react to her presence. His pants felt a little too small. Satoshi's pants, actually.

"I-I mean, you were talking with Risa before, and I know you've been seeing her outside of school too, sometimes, and I know you went with her to try and see Dark that one time. And you used to taste her cooking and stuff. I mean, you've never wanted to do that for me, so I…"

He blinked again. "You want me to taste your cooking?" Wow, she was close. He swallowed to keep the lump out of his throat. Cherry lip gloss—gah, don't think of that!

"No! Guys are so dense!" she fumed. "I want you to be my boyfriend, okay?"

He paused, looked down at her hand on top of his, and then looked back at her face. She leaned in, still biting her lower lip in that irresistible way, and pressed her lips to his own, her mouth trembling slightly. She was very light and lithe in his lap, nothing more than a small and very fragile female. But she was still female.

And Daisuke, in his poor and muddled state of mind, kissed her back.

"You really are beautiful."

He thought that he caught a flash of pale, silvery hair off the side of the hallway, around the corner. But then it was gone. Had Satoshi been there? Riku put one hand on his upper thigh and the other on his cheek, her eyes round and frightened and timid. She'd never done this before. "Is that okay?" she asked.

Daisuke looked at her for a long time. That one kiss had made his entire brain glaze over in a haze of physical need, and now he was a creature of habit. "Yes," he found himself saying, and kissed her again. They didn't pull away for hours.

"I need to find Wiz," he said to himself later. He was in the bathroom of his hotel room, scrubbing his face roughly with cold water to try and wake himself up. His mind was focused on only one objective at the moment and that was getting into Riku's pants. He had to stay focused, he reminded himself. Dark was in that mirror, and the mirror could be anywhere. Even in the middle of the ocean. If he had to dive for it, he would. He could probably get the stuff to dive down… well, a wetsuit might be hard, but he didn't need one, and an oxygen tank? Maybe he could buy one.

Takeshi stormed into the room and flopped onto the bed. "Can you believe Mayuri took her name off the mahjong list for tonight? Jesus fuckin' Christ, man. Now we don't have any chicks playing. What's the point? You're still playing though, right?" he pointed at Daisuke incriminatingly. Daisuke set down the towel and walked back into the room. "Yeah. Just let me get changed."

"Where'd you get those jeans, man? Those're, like, three hundred dollar jeans."

"…Uh… they were a present," Daisuke said. Shit. Why hadn't he changed sooner?

"Oh, okay." Takeshi was pacified. Daisuke shrugged coarsely and switched out Satoshi's jeans and shirt for one of his own, then set the old clothes on his bed. He'd have to return them later. Takeshi suddenly took hold of Daisuke's bed by the footboard and began dragging it, withDaisuke still on it: "c'mon, man, get off. We need to move this."

"Wait! It's now?" Daisuke protested. He needed to go look for Wiz. Why had he spent the afternoon in self pity? He hadn't even managed to steal the Towa no Shirube yet. If his mother called to check up in him tonight…

"Yes, it's now, retard. And it lasts 'till dawn, so you can sleep tomorrow." Takeshi would have none of it, and bodily shoved him into a chair, making him stay put while he personally hunted down the rest of the guys and forced them into their small room. Soon twenty four of the fourty boys in the freshman class were crowded around Daisuke's bed, pulled out into the center of the room to make a kind of rudimentary card table.

With a chorus of shouts and laughter, the game commenced. It was something of a tournament, so there were five boards going at once, and it was chaos.

He was horrible at mahjong.

Of course, they figured this out as soon as the game began, and everyone began groaning when it was his move.

Twenty minutes later, at approximately eight-oh-seven, Takeshi dragged him back out of his seat. "C'mon, man! You didn't tell me you sucked at mahjong! If you're that bad, don't play!"
Daisuke grinned sheepishly. "Hey, I told you I didn't want to play."

"Well, you're beyond bad. Should we kick him out?" This second part was addressed to the rest of the guys, who all gave loud shouts of approval. Takeshi wagged his eyebrows: "Sorry, man. Majority wins." Daisuke found himself outside the room, a door being shut in his face.

He laughed. The day had just been so absurd. He'd gotten kicked out of a mahjong game, for crying out loud. How often did that happen?

Well, I might as well return those clothes to Satoshi, I guess, he said, though even thinking this made his entire heart twitch spasmically. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. I told him I loved him, I think. I wonder if I freaked him out. Maybe… He was about to think that maybe Satoshi had only wanted him for sex. Just like Dark. Maybe he only wanted to control Daisuke. But he wouldn't let himself think that, and just pushed everything out of his mind.

He remained in this mindless state until he found himself outside Satoshi's door. It hadn't taken nerve to make himself get there when his mind was empty. He raised his hand and knocked three times.

Seven seconds after the third knock, Satoshi answered. "Yes?" The door was only cracked open, barely a sliver. He couldn't even see Satoshi's face.
"Uh. It's me. I'm just…well, your clothes…" he looked down at the bundle in his arms, and back up, swallowing nervously. His anxiousness was wasted, however. The door immediately swung open, and Satoshi stood there, an impenetrable expression on his face.

"Sorry," Daisuke said, though he didn't know why, and held out the clothes to Satoshi. Hadn't he done this before somewhere?

"You're not in the mahjong game?" Satoshi asked, his voice quiet.

"No. They… uh, kicked me out. I'm horrible at mahjong."

Satoshi's mouth flickered in a smile. "And they're playing in your room?"

"Yeah." Daisuke shrugged, still holding out the clothes. Satoshi took them and then eyed him up and down before replying: "Where are you staying?"

"…The hallway, I guess," said Daisuke. "I mean, maybe I can find someone to mooch off. Or steal someone else's room for the night if they're gonna be out until dawn. It's no big deal."

"Come on in for a second."

Daisuke looked both ways down the hallway. It was clear. Well, obviously; everyone was in their own rooms or playing the game. Nobody cared where Daisuke Niwa went in his spare time. That was good. He slipped into the room and shut the door behind himself, not giving Satoshi the opportunity this time. "Is something wrong?" Satoshi asked, turning his back and walking over to the armoire to slide the folded clothing in. "I'll imagine you… have questions."

Daisuke shifted nervously from foot to foot, and after a moment, moved into the room, then sagged against the footboard of the bed as if he was immensely tired. And in ways, he was. He was being stretched too thin these days, it felt, and this was just one more thing to add to the chaos that was his life.

"I have to find Dark tomorrow."

Satoshi went to the bedside table and opened the drawer there, beginning to fumble around inside for something. "I know." His voice sounded slightly rough, as if maybe he were concealing its true emotion. "And I expect he'll be angry."

"Is that why you left this morning? You thought you'd gone too far?"

Satoshi shrugged indifferently. "I don't want you to get hurt. I think I've made a mistake, pushing this on you."

Daisuke felt his face changing, falling. He was disappointed. The voices in his head had been right. "You didn't push anything on me. I mean… I've felt this way for a while… but I didn't really know what it was, I mean. Satoshi, I felt more clear-headed than I've ever felt last night. I mean, I felt like maybe I was a person for once." He was hurt, and it showed in his voice. He doesn't care, maybe. Maybe this is just one more way to weaken you so he can finally capture Dark once and for all.

"Daisuke, you don't know what you want." Satoshi stopped his looking in the drawer. He hadn't found what he wanted. He moved to the other side of the room where there was a cabinet. "We're nothing more than pawns. That's what I forgot last night, when I let all this get to my head. We're Tamers, and as long as we're Tamers, we're nothing more than puppets for our inner demons to control. I can't let myself be controlled."

Daisuke watched him tense up at the shoulders. "So you want to forget everything." He felt as if the inside of his stomach was dropping away, down three flights to the sand on the beach below.

"No!" Satoshi said, his voice rising. "No, I don't, but I don't want you to get hurt, damnit. I don't know anything about this kind of… this… love… shit. I don't know how to love you, Daisuke." His carefully gathered mask was slipping.

"Satoshi."

The mask slipped a little more. "No. Krad will awaken again, Daisuke. He… he and Dark are… Krad's sick, Daisuke. He's not acting the way a normal phantom thief should. He doesn't act like Dark. He is… sick in the head. Mentally insane. I don't know what he'll do to you if I can't control him again!"

"Satoshi."

"What?" he shot, his arm withdrawn from the drawer, fists clenched as he looked at Daisuke sitting down by the footboard. "I am sorry, Daisuke, that I did this to you. My head is not as it should be."

Daisuke rose, leaned on the footboard. "What are you afraid of, Satoshi? Dark, or me?"

Satoshi stopped cold.

Daisuke kept his eyes on Satoshi. "If you're afraid of Dark, then I don't blame you, 'cause I don't know what he'll do when I get him back. But I don't know why you'd be afraid of me."

He turned his profile to Daisuke. "I let you in. You could hurt me."

Daisuke wasn't sure what this was supposed to mean. "I won't hurt you, Satoshi. I'm not gonna, okay? I swear. I just…" he put a hand up to his head. He really, really wanted to put his hands on Satoshi right now. The physical urge was overwhelming. "…I'm in love with you, and I don't know what to do." He shifted so that he was sort of next to Satoshi, a hand tentatively reaching out as if he were going to take his arm. But he didn't quite dare.

"I can't cure you, Daisuke."

"I don't need to be cured. I'll settle for happiness.."

"Dark hurts you. I can see it. I'd give anything if you could get free of this… this curse, but as long as our families hate each other, there's no hope. I can't free you of Dark. Only Riku can do that."

"Riku is just a girl," Daisuke said flatly. He didn't know where he was drawing the courage from to be so bold. But he felt like, maybe, if he didn't say this now, then he'd never get to say it. He'd felt like such a different person last night. Maybe now that person was gone again? Maybe he was being re-eclipsed?

He pressed his lips to Satoshi, feeling the face unchanging underneath him. As stonily impassive as the day he'd met him. "You should be kissing Riku," Satoshi said against his mouth, but one hand snaked its way around his shoulders. Daisuke folded into an embrace, his head pressed to Satoshi's left shoulder for a moment before he raised it. "So you saw… us…?" he asked. Satoshi was there. He saw everything. That flash of silver I saw…

"I'm not right for you, Daisuke. I can't feel, don't you get it? If I let myself feel anything, Krad will destroy it. He'll destroy you. I won't be able to stop him."

They looked at each other for a second, limbs wrapped around each other. Satoshi was, for such a cold person, extremely warm. Almost ethereal or something. How could one person emanate such heat? Daisuke slid his handthrough the glinting, tantalizingly soft hair on the back of Satoshi' head, and this simple movement proved too much. Satoshi suddenly seized Daisuke's mouth in a fiery kiss, like an addict with a syringe. The relief was instantaneous and widespread, osmosing through every fiber.

We're in this together.

Dark and bittersweet and absolutely without a doubt amazing. Red wine and honey, that's what it was. Oddest combination; but it was so good he couldn't keep control of his own body, and they melded like two halves.

Suddenly Satoshi broke free, shoved Daisuke away from him, and stumbled back. "Get away from me," he said, showing teeth as he grimaced painfully. His ice-blue eyes were wide open, the pupils dilated, his shirt collar crooked and open. He looked sexy with his hair mussed like that.

"What? Wait, what was that ab—"

"Get out of here. Now."

Daisuke's jaw dropped open slightly, shock coursing through him.

"GET OUT!" he shouted, almost frantic. His wide eyes began to shift, the irises molting into black and then to gold, a deep amberish gold that was speckled with white and black. Feeling hard wood at his back, Daisuke realized he was pressed against the door, and he pressed the save-all code frantically, his mind hazing over. He tripped, a rare thing, and fell out the door, which slammed behind him, the lock clicking into place.

And he was out in the hallway and wanting to die and what the hell had happened?

The door would not open. Something was holding it closed, and it wasn't a physical force at all. He wanted to believe that maybe Satoshi needed help, maybe he'd just pushed him away because Krad was trying to take over. But maybe, a voice said in the back of his head, he'd done it because he really had made an error in judgement.

I told you, said that voice. I told you he was just like Dark. Nobody would care about you. Dark's famous. You're nothing.

He saw shadows on the ceiling as he stared up at it that night, sitting by the window on the fifth floor. Nobody was up there but him. Nobody would be up there for a long time. Good. He wanted to think. He could see shadows creeping in through the window, forming on the panes, dancing and flickering in slow, shifting patterns, exotic and different and strange. They were so different from the light of the day. Shadows were a thing he would never understand. Were they substances of their own, or were they merely the absence of light? Why were people so afraid of the dark? It was just blackness, it wasn't like there was anything there.

No, his thoughts made no sense. He wondered what was happening in Satoshi' room. He wondered if Krad had gotten out yet.

He slept curled against the wall, with the AC whirring softly in his ear.