Poor little Daisuke. I feel so bad for him after reading this over. Buuuuut. It needed to happen! This is, after all, an angst-fic, is it not?

Enjoy. Hope it keeps you on edge.

Some things are different from the book. Deal with it; there were parts I didn't feel like writing out or putting in because I just don't like them, or they don't have a place later on in thefic and so needn't be written.

"Daisuke! Where are you go-ing?" Risa shouted after him, but he didn't pay her any more attention. She probably wanted him to go try and track down Dark with her, or something stupid like that, and he wasn't in the mood. He felt like he was curdling on the inside.

Satoshi didn't care about him. So nothing mattered. Life, despite his current problems, continued to go on. The earth kept revolving. He had dark patches under his eyes from sleeping against the wall in a freezing cold hallway, but aside from that he looked more normal than he felt.

"Wiz," Daisuke whispered, when he was sure he was safely into the forest near the hotel room. He'd been lying in the sun this morning when it had risen, hot and bright yellow, to shine into the window on the fifth floor hallway. As such his skin was mildly darkened, but not enough to be considered a real tan. Would he never get free time?

"Wiz! Nnh," Daisuke muttered, pressing a hand to his forehead and lifting the bangs up there. His head hurt again. "Where are you?" He didn't want to talk too loudly, in case someone overheard him, but he wanted to be heard. The fuzzy little creature must have been nearby, because there was a crash of branches and then it leapt into his arms, a soft whumph and a noise that sounded like an incredibly happy squeak.

"God, I missed you," Daisuke said, scratching it behind the ears fondly. It made more cooing noises, and after a moment pressed a rough pink tongue to his face. He couldn't help but laugh; Wiz had been their family pet for as long as he could remember, and besides having his more obvious uses he could almost always cheer Daisuke up for a moment or two. Before he remembered and his mood fell again. "Where were you yesterday? I was looking all over for you."

He didn't expect a reply, so when Wiz gave a startled squeak he looked over one shoulder. There, in the midst of the clearing, was Satoshi.

Neither of them spoke for a very long time, but when Wiz finally wiggled out of Daisuke's arms and hopped to the ground, squeaking at the silver-haired boy in a go away manner. Daisuke snapped his fingers at Wiz: "Sh, Wiz." And then to Satoshi: "I never thanked you for taking care of me two nights ago. And for… ah, bandaging my arm." This was said remotely, as if he didn't really care what Satoshi was doing in the clearing. He thought he did a good job making himself seem uncaring. He held up his arm; though he'd changed the bandages, he was making sure to keep it under a longsleeved shirt most of the time so as to avoid questions. Right now he was dressed in a black shirt with a blue zigzag across the front, and jeans that were so overused and loved that the cuffs at the bottom were starting to wear and tear. There was a gash in the fabric over one knee. His faded sneakers were on underneath, and they crunched in the underbrush as he made a move towards the hotel.

"Daisuke. Wait."

He paused. "What?" He was still feeling slightly hurt at being scorned like that. He'd opened himself up raw, and now that Satoshi didn't seem to want to actually pursue anything more, it seemed useless to try and be friendly. But Satoshi surprised him by grabbing ahold of his wrist. He turned around so that his wrist was in front of him now, and so was Satoshi. There was such a look of pain in his eyes that he looked like a fragile creature, as if Daisuke might touch him and break him in two.

His heart stuttered. Was Satoshi going to apologize, and tell him he'd been mistaken? Was he going to sweep him into his arms and say what he'd said before? If Dark was here, and this was anyone other than Satoshi, he would have said Daisuke was acting like a lovestruck little kid. Maybe he was.

"The dock," Satoshi said finally. "Go down to the dock. You'll find Dark there." His hopes shattered. No, just advice. No confessions.

"Why are you helping me? I thought you were afraid of me," Daisuke snapped.

The look of hurt in Satoshi's eyes deepened. His mouth hardened, lowered, and he suddenly pressed forward, slamming Daisuke against a nearby tree trunk. His forearm was shoved into Daisuke's throat, and his other hand pinned the boy's wrist against the bark. His head came closer, and then his mouth was right against Daisuke's cheek, his eyes glinting. "I told you before. I could get rid of my curse, and Dark, just like this. I could capture you. But I don't want to hurt you. Now get out of here before I lose it again."

Daisuke winced as Satoshi removed his weight—he was surprisingly strong—and straightened. Wiz snarled from behind him, and he looked down to the little creature, then back to Satoshi.

"I'm sorry for what I put you through," Satoshi said, like it hurt to talk. "Now go."

He did as he was told.

"There's nothing here," he told Wiz sullenly. Was it possible Satoshi had set some kind of trap--? No, no. If he wanted to help him, he would have meant to do so. He wasn't the kind to lie about his motives so passionately. So there must be something here, right?

No, nothing. The waves, the gulls, the calm shore breaking and lapsing and breaking again. It was beautiful; the water was turquoise-blue, and the sky was such a deep shade of azure as the bright sun beat down that all he could think about was taking off all his clothes and just leaping into the water. But he had a mission; he couldn't give up now!

"Looking for something?"

He stiffened his back and turned around quickly, thinking it was a classmate. But when he found himself backed against the guard railing, it turned out only to be a woman. And a rather beautiful one at that. She had short, curly hair and enormous eyes, and her rather revealing garments swirled around her narrow waist and hips.

He gawked. She gave a little hmph: "Looking… for… something?" she repeated, as if maybe he was mentally retarded and needed a second run-through. But he'd heard her perfectly; he just didn't know how she'd gotten there. Unless…

"Are you an artwork?" he asked timidly.

"Yup! That's me. The Towa no Shirube! But call me To-to, 'cause I feel so old otherwise, love." She beamed widely, revealing perfect white teeth. "Now what're you lookin' for? Finding things is what I'm good at, you know!"

"I'm looking for you," Daisuke replied miserably. "I'm sorry. You might not like it, but I have to take you with me."

"Ooo—ooh!" she cooed, rising into the air about a foot. Daisuke looked around quickly to make sure none of the other students were around; none were. "That would be so, so, so, so great! You know, I just hate being here. It's so boring. But you see, I've got something you might need first, so we can trade."

She flourished one arm into the air. Her hand glinted. No, not the hand. Something in her hand… was that really what it looked like?

A mirror! Yes, thank God! It was really Dark's mirror. Daisuke made a sweep for it instinctively, but she held it just out of reach, giggling coquettishly. "You've gotta promise me first, 'kay? I'm not gonna just give it to you, love! That'd be way too easy!"

"I've told you I will, haven't I? We'll take good care of you," Daisuke assured. Despite his mood before, he was now feeling slightly more chipper. He was going to get Dark back! His family would be proud of him if they were here. Doing all this by himself. Even if he hated Dark, it was all-right so long as he had their approval.

Even though he knew what would happen when he found him.

"Whoa there!" she shouted as she handed it over and he immediately made to try and stick his hand into the dark, oily surface. She snatched it back almost instantly. 'You can't just go in there, love! You need a bit of magic guidance or you could get lost forever. You're only mortal, you know, right now."

"Well, then I need you with me," Daisuke reasoned. "Please?"

She seemed to go into a wide-eyed daze where she was clasping her hands together. "You… are… so… cute!" she squealed. And then suddenly her face tightened again: "I mean.. er, of course, love. But just one way. You've got to get out by yourself, because I'm not quite strong enough to do that, all-right?"

"Fine," he said passively. Just let me get Dark back in one piece.

He didn't remember what she said after that. A lot of jibberish about the laws of magic and how he'd need to get out again. After about ten minutes of talking she seemed to give into the idea and in a whirl of energy collapsed herself, then Daisuke, into tiny spinning fragments. He had experienced this sort of form when he was dormant inside Dark, so it really was not very odd for him.

She sent them into the mirror. And there was darkness.

Six hours later he tumbled out of the mirror and straight into the ocean itself, soaked to the bone once more and covered in black otherworld sludge. They had tracked Dark through the mirror-world, and had had to spend hours in there before they'd collected all of his spare memories, lost amongst the fragments of the world itself. It hadn't been very hard, but there had been some near passes with death when To-To had started to lose energy; they'd made it out just fine, though. "I can't believe you made me come after you," Daisuke said angrily, kicking and spluttering his way to the surface. Treading water was no problem for him; he was an excellent swimmer, and shortly began stroking his way to the shore.

It took you long enough, idiot. You only had to find a few memories.

Daisuke cringed. Memories! Dark would figure out soon enough what had happened while he was away. He was bound to. He decided not to push Dark anymore and just sighed, pushing harder and with his free hand shoving the mirror into his shirt. The Towa no Shirube was back on the dock, panting her little heart out in the shape of a small bird. Wiz was there, too, but he seemed to be asleep, or nearly so.

"I didn't take long! If you hadn't gotten sucked into that stupid mirror in the first place, we'd never have had to do this!" Daisuke argued. He continued swimming and fighting to stay above whitecapped waves, looking into the dark water below with glazed eyes. So here's where Satoshi and I fought a couple of days ago. Guess it's already been that long.

What did you do while I was gone, anyways? Didn't get into trouble, did you? Dark gave the mental equivalent of wagging a patronizing finger at Daisuke, who twitched, but didn't reply. He was too busy trying to stay afloat now, as he was getting closer to shore and the waves were getting bigger. Eventually he tumbled onto the beach with an exceptionally large wave and crashing onto the sand in a heap.

"I didn't do anything," Daisuke said defensively, hoping Dark would leave it at that. Though he knew that the phantom thief would be likely to go over his memories out of sheer boredom if nothing else. He often caught Dark flicking through event after event that he found particularly entertaining. Having his mind ransacked like this was invasive and irritating, but there wasn't anything he could do; Dark was a three hundred year old spirit and Daisuke was a teenager.

He clambered higher up on the shore and forced himself to stand up, coughing up water and then shaking out his clothing so that it was remotely drier, but still sopping wet. He wouldn't catch cold out here, because it was pretty warm already. But he should really head for cover. He made for the forest and the treeline, his headache diminishing with each step. Dark had filled that empty place inside him, as much as he hated it. He no longer felt like half a person.

See? You're not whole without me, kid.

"Shut up," Daisuke growled. "Only did this… because… mom…" he said between jerks as he shook sand off both his tennis shoes. They were probably ruined. He had another backup pair, but he'd liked these shoes, damnitall. He brushed brambles aside and looked for the central path, and found it soon enough. He came out in the center clearing where he'd met Satoshi that morning.

"Guess this is in the middle," Daisuke said out loud, and looked back towards the direction he imagined the hotel was in. "I hope I'm not lost."

Hah! Right. You never get lost.

"But I do get sidetracked," Daisuke mused absently.

There was a crackle in the tree above him, and Daisuke looked up just as Riku fell clear out of it. His arms came out, her weight came down, and he didn't stagger beneath her. She was too light for that. She looked like she was half asleep, and at being caught in mid-air she opened her eyes very wide. "Daisuke! What're you doing out here?"

"Taking a night hike," he said fluidly. "What are you doing in a tree?"

Stalking you, Dark snickered.

"I… ah… got lost," she said sheepishly, and all of a sudden realized she was still in Daisuke's arms, being clasped to his chest. He was developing muscles. He wasn't a little kid anymore, that was for sure, and she hastily rolled over out of his arms and onto her own two feet. "But you're here! You doof, I can't believe you caught me." She laid a finger on her chin thoughtfully, looking heavenward.

"Eheh. Just luck, I guess," Daisuke managed.

You want to fuck her right here, don't you? Dark asked with silent mirth. Go ahead, I'll leave you alone for now. Your reward for getting me out of that stupid mirror.

"How kind of you," Daisuke muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Do you want to come back to the hotel with me, Riku?"

She smiled. "Well… we could stay here, maybe, if you don't mind. It's pretty out tonight, isn't it?" she looked up at the sky where the pale moon was showing through the treetops. Daisuke nodded. It was, actually, quite serene. If he hadn't just scraped his way out of death then he might have been more inclined to be at ease. She nudged forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her cheek to his chest. "Ummm, you're… " she began, and breathed in. And suddenly stopped: "Eww! You're all wet! You're freezing, Daisuke!"

He chuckled. "Sorry. I fell in."

"Klutz." She bent her nose towards him, her face pressed very close, but Daisuke felt himself warming down there and now that Dark was around he didn't want him to see this. No matter what the thief had said, he knew Dark would personally grudge him for it if he did, in fact, start getting physical with Riku. So he tilted his head a little and planted a kiss—just a little one--- on Riku's temple.

She looked up at him. "Daisuke… you don't think I'm a copy of Risa, do you?" she whispered in a very tiny, timid voice.

He smiled, shook his head. But the grin dropped off his face as soon as it appeared; images of Satoshi were flying through his mind, one after the other. God, I wish she was him—no! He shattered those ideas before Dark could get a glimpse of them. But now he'd made the phantom thief suspicious. He tried not to imagine her hands were Satoshi's, tried not to imagine her dark eyes were molding into an icy-blue color.

"The girl I love is you, Riku," he said. He didn't mean it, but he said it all the same. Because in that moment whether or not he liked it he had come to a choice.

I can never break my curse if I'm in love with Satoshi. Not ever. I have to focus on Riku.

"I love you so much, Daisuke," she said, and began to cry. He recoiled almost instantly. "Hey! No, don't cry! Why're you crying, Riku?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry," she said, and laughed, wiping away small tears. Almost in an instant they were gone, and Daisuke let out a long breath. Girls are so weird.

Now they were at the hotel room and he was dry again, thankfully. He hated himself for what he had told Riku, because it wasn't true. But then he was also proud of himself; in a martyr-like way he was giving up what he wanted, which was Satoshi. But Satoshi didn't feel the same way, or did a damn good job of hiding it, so whatever had happened that one night he might as well pretend had never happened.

Dark had been silent this entire trip back. Eerily so.

"Dark," Daisuke said when he was alone in his room. Takeshi was off at another all-night mahjong game, this time in another classmates' room, so he didn't have to worry about making too much noise. "There's… something… I have to tell you."

He would have to tell Dark sometime. Otherwise he ran the risk of Dark figuring it out for himself, and thinking Daisuke had been hiding it, which was much worse. He needed to get this off his chest now before that happened. Dark rumbled inside of him. Oh, that so? Like what, Dai? Finally decided to give up fighting me?

"No," Daisuke said.

…Then what?

Dark was uneasy, an emotion that he almost never had.

"Something happened while you were gone." He clutched his fists in his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed, trying to keep his cool. He couldn't afford to lose it right now.

Daisuke. What is it? For fuck's sake, you're scaring me.

"You remember when Krad appeared, right?" he began. Dark glimmered anxiously, but agreed that he did remember. "And then after that when you got sucked into that mirror thingy. You remember that, don't you?"

Again he remembered. Okay. So far, so good.

"Well, I kind of collapsed after that. When I woke up, I was in Satoshi's room, and he was taking care of me."

A sudden chill ran through him, and he knew it was Dark's doing. The thief had gone complete and totally rigid.

"We sort of… did some things. I know he's an enemy of the Niwas, and Krad's your rival, and that you think he's dangerous, but DarkIlovehimandIcouldn'thelpmyselfI'mreallyreallysorrypleasedon'tdoanything!" he slammed his eyes shut, waited, every nerve on edge.

Five seconds.

Ten.

You…

You and the Hikari boy… really… did…

The second I was gone, you ran straight to him, didn't you? It doesn't matter that you're breaking years of tradition, of sanctity and power, so long as you thought you were in 'love' with that little… that little… And then he said something in a foreign language. Maybe it was Latin. It sure didn't sound Japanese to Daisuke. He didn't dare move.

He could feel Dark's anger glowing as the thief manifested next to him, easily towering over him from this standing position, with Daisuke sitting on the bedside. His amethyst eyes burned into his face, his already pale skin turning a deathlike white, so he looked more like an unearthly ghost than an actual flesh-and-blood being.

"Dark, you don't get it, I just didn't know what I was doing!" Daisuke stammered.

"I get it," Dark said, "But I don't accept it."

"It was just once! Please don't do anything! Why—"

"BECAUSE YOU BELONG TO ME!" he shouted. A mirror on the wall fell off and shattered on a table below it, but it was only a small mirror and so there was only a mild tinkling of glass shards. The lamps in the room flickered and shone brighter and dimmed and then went out entirely. Everything was dark.

Now Daisuke was angry. "I'm not some… some thing!" he shrieked right back. "He treated me differently! He treated me like a person! Not like you… you're… you're insane, you sick freak! I hate you!"

"YOU ARE ME! YOU'RE NOTHING WITHOUT ME!"

"No! " he said, and was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Excuse me! Niwa and Saehara, is everything all-right in there?" It was Ichigo, their class president. A right proper girl, and she was knocking on the door. "I heard shouting, and something breaking. Do you want me to get a—"

He was at the door in a moment. "No, it's fine, we're just playing cards… sorry, we'll pick everything up," he said without opening the door.

She gave a snobbish little sniff. "Well! Don't break anything more or you'll be paying for it! This hotel isn't free, you know! The student union had to earn all the money for this tri—"

"Ichigo! We'll handle it, just leave us alone!" he said through the door. She gave another sniff and went off, mumbling something under her breath. Daisuke sagged against the door, his head leaning against the wood. In the heat of the moment he had almost forgotten Dark was there. But Dark hadn't forgotten anything from the previous minute.

He felt his head jerked sharply back by a hand grabbing his hair. He cried out with pain as he was dragged across the room and tossed roughly on the bed via an arm around his neck and upper arm. And suddenly he felt without a doubt that something horrible was going to happen. It was a premonition, like the sort of feeling one gets when the phone rings in the middle of the night.

"You need to learn," Dark was saying through gritted teeth, which were actually very pointy when one cared to look. "You need to learn that you… are… mine!" With each last word he tore at Daisuke's shirt until it ripped down the center. It was a t-shirt, and clearly not meant to be handled so roughly, and in a second nothing was left but shreds. "Dark! Please, please, no, listen, we can work it out! I'm sorry!" Daisuke was begging, trying everything to squirm his way out of the situation.

Dark, however, paid absolutely no attention. "You're a mortal, nothing! You'll be dead in a few years! I'm the fuckin' phantom thief! You have to love me! YOU HAVE TO!" He was literally over the brink of insanity. Daisuke was afraid of what he would do right now.

He finished with stripping the shirt into tiny segments and settled his weight straddling Daisuke's chest as he began working his hands through the strips, tying them to make… some kind of ropes or something…

Oh my God.

Dark had never actually forced him before, not like this. Sure he'd been pretty up front about sex, but he'd never made Daisuke go through with it. Daisuke had always given in or caved in the end. But for this… this was a different type, this was something horrible. "Dark, please, God, listen to me! Dark… come back!" he didn't' know why he was saying come back, except that Dark had this look in his eyes as if he were really a lunatic.

His wrists were each tied separately to a post of the bed, and his ankles followed soon after. He wasn't aware when he began sobbing quietly, but he knew he was doing it, and that his face was wet. "Dark, why are you doing this? Dark!"

"I have to make sure you don't move, because I'm going to make you love me," Dark said in a very singsong voice. Dark had no sympathy. He never had. He yanked down Daisuke's jeans and a few moments later was buried inside of him, his hands on the boy's waist, making deep red clawlike marks where his nails dug in.

Daisuke began to bleed from his stomach where the marks were too deep. His body wasn't used to handling Dark's length without any kind of preparation, and he began to bleed there too. This was a hideous nightmare. He'd never in a million years thought anything could be this bad, this dangerous, and feel so real at the same time.

Dark did not finish and did not come. He just thrusted over and over again, until Daisuke's sobs were so raw that his throat began to close and he had to stop altogether, making muted noises that a human shouldn't have been able to make. This was about power, determination, and control. It was not about love. It wasn't about feeling. It was about Dark trying to be mortal and failing every time, both hating and envying that which he could never achieve.

Thrust. Pain. Thrust. Pain.

"I love you, I love you more than anything, and I had to do this to you, don't you get it? You deserved this!" Dark said, an insane smile lighting his face as his too-wide eyes bored into Daisuke's. He looked like a jester, a joker with a grimace of happiness like that. As he untied Daisuke's bonds he soothed Daisuke's shaking, smoothed down his hair with petting hands and told him everything would be all-right in a voice like silk.

"There's only me. I'm the only one for you, Daisuke. We'll only have each other, for all eternity, so there can never be anyone else for you but me. That's why I had to make you understand this. You brought it upon yourself by doing that with Hiwatari, but now you have to understand that I did this for you." He wrapped his arms around Daisuke and cradled him to his chest as if he was nothing more than a very small child.

Daisuke didn't think he could cry so much. He was so scared, so terrified. Abused, dirty, and naked, he sobbed soundlessly into Dark's shoulder where his head was being pressed, but all he could think of, I'm trapped with a maniac.

Who could he pray to? Christ? No, if Christ wanted to save him, then he would have done so. God likewise. There was nobody to pray to. He had given up on that. He did not beg, because begging implied the possibility of mercy, and now he knew that that didn't exist either.

"I had to do this… I had to do this… don't cry… you made me do this to you…" more petting. More soothing. "I love you, so it'll be all-right now. Just you and me forever. It'll be fun."

If he had been looking down at this little scene instead of being an actor on the stage of his life. Daisuke Niwa would have said that this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. He would have said nothing could have been worse than this moment, when Dark had lost all reason, trying to tell him that he was in love with him.

He didn't know yet that the worst was still to come.