Nooooo comment. But if my computer crashes one more time, I swear to Sweet Jesus there will be pain. Which will include me, violently kicking my monitor.

Thanks to all you who review. Yes,I know, I AM THANKING MY REVIEWERS. I don't really write to be reviewed; I write because I enjoy it. But the reviews do make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

He was startled awake by crashing into a rock wall. His spine made a creak noise, his head thwacked back and connected with stone, sending veins of pain through the back of his head, and there was a surge of bone-on-concrete as he reflected off it as easily as if he were made of rubber. He went flying off the wall and before he knew it he was plummeting towards the ground.

He landed easily, tucking in his knees and bringing his body around into a somersault, but as soon as he did his mind was hostilely invaded and he was forced to transform into Dark.

Dark. This wasn't a dream! Where was he!

"No time! Just look!" This was Dark, his thoughts frantic.

And then he looked up and through Dark's eyes, and realized that Krad was standing across from him as he stood on the bridge about a half-mile from the hotel, his eyes glimmering with building power. He looked remotely apathetic, as if this were nothing more than a show.

Krad had very long nails. He brought one now to his wrist and carefully carved a line down the vein, which began to trickle blood almost instantly.

"You see, our Tamers have had a bit of a… shall we say, connection?" Krad said. "Your Tamer seems to have caused my Satoshi to fall in love. I'm afraid I can't have that."

"I hate you. I hate your kind… Krad," Dark said, clenching his fists.

Krad lazily brought the wrist to his face, and an almost feline tongue came out and lapped at the blood. He was enjoying it. Daisuke recoiled, confused at the entire situation. Dark took over my body… while I was sleeping? But what for?

The answer came instantly. To punish me. He wanted to kill Satoshi, I bet.

"Ah, my dear, I don't expect you to love me… even if you and I were once whole," Krad said liquidly. "But my Satoshi is, quite simply, my possession. I can't have what's mine running off and giving his love to someone else, can I?"

Dark didn't answer. But Daisuke could tell he had that look in his eye, the one that meant he was on the brink of explosion.

"And don't give me your piety. You're having trouble with yours, too."

"My Tamer loves me," Dark said coolly. "He's just a bit confused."

Daisuke didn't want to think about that. He hated Dark with every fiber of his being. He didn't want to be trapped in the same body any longer, not ever again, not for one second… Dark had taken over his body… Dark had tried to kill Satoshi, probably… What would he do now? He was intent on taking over Daisuke, body and soul.

"Confused!" Krad laughed. "You can't force him to love you, Dark. Only through fear, only through complete submission do you think you own him. You're so used to your Tamers practically falling at your feet with infatuation that you don't even know what do to with this one. And---correct me if I am wrong---I suspect that this is the first Tamer you're really in love with in return. Am I wrong?"

"Don't lecture me, Krad."

Just for a second, Krad's eyes widened. "I'll make you return to me someday, Dark. And then you'll learn a thing or two about respect."

Dark's eyes slid sideways. Daisuke saw his parents and grandfather perched on a landing above them, and his mother was clutching Riku protectively. Riku was unconscious. Dark! What's happening? Why did you do this? Why, Dark?

Dark didn't answer, because Krad threw a bolt of light at Dark, spitting some kind of curse. Dark tucked in his body and dodged, calling Wiz as he took off into the air. Over the next few minutes Dark was forced to move and move again as Krad chanted spell after spell. Daisuke could feel his energy waning as Dark drew from him over and over again, trying to counter the spells as quickly as possible.

Dark pressed in and threw himself, wings and all, at Krad's shoulder. The both of them went barreling off the rock, round and round through the air. Daisuke couldn't feel Dark's legs. His nerves were going dead. Pretty soon, he knew, the magic Dark was using to stave off Krad would get to him.

"Daisuke, try and handle this," Dark said in a low, cutting voice, before absorbing some of his energy to shoot a blast of fire at Krad. Daisuke felt like his insides were being sucked out of his body through a tube in his navel, and tried not to cry out in pain as the torment continued. But if just one attack, just one spell hurt this much, then what about Satoshi?

Dark's blast hit true. Krad gave an agonized shriek and dropped to the rocks just underneath Dark. Dark swooped down and pinned Krad to the rock shelf below the bridge, panting hard as he quickly locked him into position with his full weight on top. He was larger than Krad by only an inch or so, but it made all the difference. Krad stared back up at them with murderous, luminous eyes.

Satoshi's eyes.

You can't kill him! Daisuke shouted. You can't!

"He took you from me," Dark said conversationally, but there was a hint of malice in his tone. "Don't tell me what to do."

Dark, you bastard! I won't let this happen! Daisuke pressed with all his might, tried to force a transformation. Dark resisted. It was like pressing against a very flexible wall.

"Don't make me hurt you, Daisuke! Stop it!"

The wall was weakening, just a little. Daisuke threw all of his remaining strength into it, willed Dark away with all his might. There was a snap-shudder of transformation and he knew he was victorious, though Dark certainly didn't come quietly; there was a thirty-second struggle in which both souls fought for dominance. He'll never do this to me again, Daisuke swore to himself with narrowed eyes, concentrating on himself.

It was like all the memories of that night had simply been sucked away. He was repressing them; he knew he had to, because to face them head-on would mean confronting his darkest fears.

"You've got me, Dark, but you won't get Satoshi too," Daisuke said when he had Dark under control. "Because Satoshi…" He pressed a hand to the face below him, looked straight into Krad's eyes without a trace of fear, "…Satoshi is my friend."

There was a shifting, a sudden melting of form into form, and the face beneath him changed from an expression of shock to one of weariness. And when he looked again, he noticed that Satoshi was indeed back. His eyes closed and then opened, wider than before, and Daisuke suddenly realized he was still straddling Satoshi's hips to keep him in place. He quickly backed off and gave the guy room.

"I'm sorry," Satoshi said quietly. "I came to stop him from telling Riku… he took over your body to tell her, and Krad… Krad couldn't handle it." His shirtsleeve began to turn red from the elbow down, and Daisuke realized that the skin he could see was covered in little red incisions, about an inch long, and that Satoshi's forearm had a gash down the center of it.

"Why, Satoshi? Why're you trying to help me out when it hurts you like this?" he pressed. But Satoshi drew his legs up, supported himself on steady legs, and clutched his forearm in his other wrist. "It's complicated, Daisuke," he said tightly.

"What the hell is so complicated about it? The way I see it, you act like you don't care, but then you go and pull a stunt like this!"

"Riku's up there, Daisuke. She's the one you need to focus on right now."

He turned to look behind him and noticed that his mother and grandfather were eagerly watching him. Though they were unable to hear the conversation, they had to know it was getting heated, and they looked slightly worried. Riku's hair spilled over her forehead and her mouth was parted slightly, her brow creased as if in a bad dream.

"Stay here," Daisuke said firmly. "I'll be right back. I want to find out what happened."

When he returned five minutes later, Satoshi had disappeared. There were white feathers all around, and a few drops of blood, but beyond that, nothing.

"I hate you," he said to his face in the mirror as he toweled the side of his face with a wet washcloth. He had just gotten back from helping his mother stick Riku back in her room; only time would tell if she would think she had hallucinated or had really, truly seen Dark transform into him. He was, of course, not talking to himself; he was speaking to Dark. But Dark had obviously become very weakened by the magic he'd used. He was in a deeper sleep than Daisuke had ever felt before.

"Hey, Daisuke, you here?" A voice called from the adjacent room as the door creaked open. It was Takeshi; he slammed it shut behind him and threw himself onto his own bed. When Daisuke had come in earlier he'd noticed his bed had been changed and cleaned; apparently Dark was meticulous about those things when he raped somebody. Hah. Bitter humor. "Yeah, I'm here," He replied, throwing the towel into the sink and moving back into the main room. "What about you? No mahjong?"

"Eh, I need the sleep," Takeshi said, crossing his arms behind his head and shutting his eyes. "You know, it's harder than it looks, kicking butt at that game. You get any action with Harada?"

"What?"

"Yeah, I saw you leaving the room earlier when I was down the hall. Talking to Riku, right?"

That must have been when Dark was in control. Daisuke shook his head.

"Come on, man. All you've done is kiss her?"

Daisuke sat down on his own bed, hands folded in his lap, his neck bent slightly. "What do you want me to do, throw her down and screw her in front of you? I'm not like that," he said irritatedly.

Takeshi opened his eyes, slid them towards Daisuke. And then he paused and blew out a puff of air, slow and deliberate, before shifting off the bed and taking a seat next to Daisuke. The sudden weight on the mattress caused a dip and Daisuke lowered about half an inch. "Look, man. There something you want to tell me?" Takeshi said earnestly.

It was one of the only times Daisuke had ever seen him remotely serious. He still wore an irate expression as he turned his head to Takeshi, eyeing him. "Like what?"

"I don't know. Anything. Seems like something's been bothering you for the last few days, you know? You're out of it. You don't have to tell me, whatever it is, just—" he trailed off, looking expectant. As if he would be more than happy to listen, and not make fun of him for once.

Daisuke blinked. Was it really that obvious?

"You got some kind of family trouble or something? Come on, Daisuke. I've known you for ten years. You don't act like this unless something's really up."

Act like what? He wondered. The ten years part was what struck him as odd: had it really been that long since he'd met Takeshi? It didn't feel like it. He felt like the older boy didn't know him very well. But how could he? How could anyone? Nobody could ever get close to him, or they'd figure out his secret. And that could never happen.

But he wanted to tell someone.

Takeshi would understand.

"I'm in love," he said softly. A light came into Takeshi's eyes and he punched the air with one fist. "I knew it! Some other chick, right? And you don't know how to break it to Riku?"

"…No, not really," Daisuke said. "It's more as if… well, this person… they don't seem to want me the same way I want them. But I think, underneath it all, they're in love with me, too. But I don't know what to say to them." He sighed.

Takeshi looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Easy, man. Just corner her and force a confession out, right? I mean, if this girl likes you, and you're sure she does, then all you've gotta do is get her to admit it. Sounds like she's screwed up mentally or something. Believe me, people love it when someone else straightens out their problems." Takeshi whacked him on the back enthusiastically. "Just do it, yeah?"

Daisuke bit his lower lip, eyes lowering. He was determined to make this right. It was time to make amends between him and Satoshi.

With that thought in mind he went to sleep; he would confront those other dark thoughts later. But what was important now was staving off the rising feeling of panic, the feeling of having to tread to keep his head above the water. He had to swear to himself never to think of what had gone on last night, even though he knew he couldn't forget it entirely. It would always be in the back of his mind, lurking quietly. But for now he needed to keep afloat. And he couldn't do that alone.

In the morning he slipped out of bed before anyone was awake. He went to the bathroom and picked up the matted washcloth to wipe off his face, pausing when he caught his reflection.

There were purple hand-marks around his neck.

He hastily pulled up his shirt and looked at his stomach: red marks, the little half-moon shapes that nails would make if someone had been gripping him very tightly, sprinkled his hips. And there was a single slash mark down the left side of his chest, which had been bleeding but was not anymore. He must have gotten that from the fight.

He went back into the room and tugged on a white turtleneck top and jeans. Since it was overcast today, it was about sixty degrees on the island, which was warm but not too warm. And it was freezing inside the hotel, anyways.

He opened the door and made his way down the hall towards Satoshi's room. It wasn't very far, but it seemed much longer than it actually was; his heart was beating, his palms were positively drenching in sweat. He paused just outside Riku's door as he saw her kneeling in front of it, feeling a small sense of betrayal pooling inside him when he realized that this was the girl he'd helped into her bed last night because she had been drugged. Drugged for learning too much about me, he said guiltily to himself.

"Daisuke..?" she asked as he approached. "Can you unlock this for me?"

He looked at the door, a quizzical expression on his face. "Er… no, I'm sorry."

Sudden relief.. relief? Washed over her face. "Of course you can't. Sorry, dunno what I was thinking. I mean, it's not like you're Dark or anything!" she said, and laughed too loud. He grinned widely: "You're right, I can't. Since I'm not… Dark," he concluded, and laughed as well. His voice sounded false even to his own ears. Sorry, Riku. I have to pretend, he thought quietly.

"I guess I'd better go," he said out loud, and she waved him on with a nod of her head. "I'll get a teacher," she called after him as he disappeared round the corner.

Satoshi's room. Here he was again for the second time. Why was he here, again? Oh, right, Takeshi's advice. Force a confession out of them. Get them to admit their feelings…

He knocked three times. Nobody came to the door.

There was a noise from behind him and he spun to see Satoshi, a cell phone grasped in his hand and fully dressed. As he recognized Daisuke he slid the smart device into his belt and gave a very small sigh.

"I daren't ask what you're doing here," he said.

"I came to see how you were feeling after last night," Daisuke replied grudgingly.

"I'm fine," Satoshi lied through his teeth. "Better shape than you."

"I beg to differ," Daisuke said. He made a small noise of protestation when Satoshi neared him and pulled down the neck of his turtleneck, revealing the angry purple bruises. Shaped just like fingers. He sucked in a hissing breath: "Daisuke!"

"It's nothing," Daisuke said.

"Krad did not do this." This was not a question.

"…No."

"I hate him," Satoshi said. "I swear... God, Daisuke. What else?"

"There's nothing else," he said. "It wasn't very bad. Look, Satoshi. All I came here to ask was, do you really not care at all, and did you really just make a mistake that one time, or are you just afraid of what Dark will do to me if we're together? Because nothing he could do to me is worse than what he's done."

Satoshi fixed him with a strong gaze. "Like I said, Daisuke. I don't want you hurt."

"Damnit, it hurts more dreaming about you than it does to be with you."

Satoshi watched him. "Do you mean that?"

Daisuke reddened. "I'm serious. I didn't just do this off the top of my head, okay? I really thought about it. I'm not just a kid, Satoshi. And you're acting like you don't care, but I think you really do, underneath…"

Daisuke found himself emboldened for a moment by the echo of Takeshi's words, and he forced Satoshi against the door of his room, still in the hallway, anxiously seizing his lips in a kiss. Much to his surprise Satoshi's response was like a slingshot. He hadn't realized how tense the older boy had been. He softly nipped at Daisuke's lip as if drawn by force to do so. Satoshi's hand slipped down to Daisuke's thigh, tracing an idle pattern there as they were sandwiched against the wood. Daisuke's eyes widened; whatever he was doing, it felt good. Nothing should be allowed to feel that good.

Suddenly Satoshi broke away. "Not here… inside…" he said in short, gasping breaths, working the key into the lock and snapping the door open.

The both of them tumbled inside and Satoshi shut the door as they pressed against the backside of the door, mouths joined and the both of them trapped in a little bubble of paradise. Once again the hand slid to between Daisuke's legs, finding the area already hard, and as if surprised, began to stroke Daisuke softly. The feeling was electric, and Daisuke gave a small moan and a shiver as he half-collapsed onto Satoshi's shoulder.

"I'm going to hate myself for this," Satoshi said in a voice thick with lust.

"My God, just…" Daisuke said incoherently, "Just… more, don't stop now…"

Satoshi worked his hands into Daisuke's fly and unzipped it, dropping his jeans to a pool around his ankles. Boxers likewise; in a moment his hand had paused on the side of Daisuke's hip as he looked down in horror at what he saw. Just above the slightest thatch of reddish hair were the nail-marks.

"I'm going to kill him," he said, not for the first time.

Daisuke shuddered with need; his erection was already stiffer than ever. "Do it later. Stay with… me right now," he said with some difficulty. His brain seemed to have drifted down to the area between his legs. He wasn't thinking properly.

Satoshi looked into his eyes: "I can't believe you're real," he said helplessly, wisping the very tip of his index finger down the head of Daisuke's erection. A million ultrasensitive nerves blazed into brilliance and Daisuke saw stars. "Of all people, you… why did it have to be you…?" he wondered aloud, and curled his hand loosely around the tip, sliding his fist downwards, nails slipping further and causing warm, twinging feelings in the soft flesh just between his legs. "It could have been anyone, but it was a Niwa…" he slid his hand up and down his shaft, his aching hard-on throbbing insanely.

This elicited another small moan from the back of Daisuke's throat. He grabbed onto the front of Satoshi's shirt with both fists, his head pressed to the dip just between Satoshi's shoulder and neck. Satoshi continued to fist him as his breathing grew steadily more laboured, more erratic, his eyes unfocused. He yelled Satoshi's name as he spilled onto the tile, onto Satoshi's pants, and then sagged against him as the silver-haired boy embraced him, held him safely and securely. They both sagged down to the floor.

"Daisuke, you have to understand that I may lose control again. Krad could get out. He won't right now, but he could soon," Satoshi said. There were no traces of fear in his voice, but Daisuke knew that if he looked up they would be plain on his face.

"I understand," Daisuke said. "It's okay."

Satoshi pressed his mouth to the top of Daisuke's head, seemingly at peace, and Daisuke lifted his face so that their noses were nearly touching. "It's okay," he repeated softly, and they kissed.

They ended up on the bed again. How, he didn't know, but he did know that his clothes were still over by the door and Satoshi was still fully dressed.

"How do you know what you're doing?" he asked Satoshi bewilderedly as he slid back onto the comforter. "I mean all this. You're… good at it."

Satoshi's face darkened. "I had practice."

"…You did?"

"I am… relatively experienced. My adopted father, he insisted I learn how to control myself in every situation. And then there was Krad."

Now Daisuke really was confused.

"Krad has been with me since I was born. He did not 'awaken'. He… was first. It just seemed natural, I guess. He taught me most of what I learned, and though he's rather jealous and certainly posessive, he's not half bad when it comes down to it."

"My family.. mmph… always made him out to be… mm, more… a villain." Satoshi traced the outlines of the tears and bruises with his fingertips, giving a very divine mix of pleasure and pain. "Yes," he said absentmindedly, "They would say that, I suppose. But Krad has never done anything like this." He kissed Daisuke's neck, right in the palm of one of the hand marks.

Daisuke slipped Satoshi's shirt off his shoulders before Satoshi realized it was happening. A skill only a thief might master. Satoshi fumbled with the button on his pants, tossed the rather expensive-looking cell phone onto an armchair, and did away with the belt entirely. "We're cursed," he said, meeting Daisuke's eyes, "And I will truly hate myself for giving into you. But you… are like… poison." He was undressed now, and he paused perched on the end of the bed, staring solemnly at Daisuke's neck.

"Are you sure about this, Daisuke?"

"Yes." His voice was straight. He was not making light promises. He hadn't known the extent of his feelings for Satoshi until the moment he'd seen him that morning.

"We can't go back if we do this," he said. "Not to the way we were before. I'm in love with you."

"Satoshi, I'm serious. I want you to do this."

Satoshi smiled. "Then I suppose that's that," he said. "You must let me know if I hurt you, though."

"You're not going to hurt me," Daisuke said reassuringly. "You wouldn't hurt me."

"Not for the world," he said, and silenced him as an oiled finger slipped inside his opening, sliding in and out up to the third knuckle; professional, but altogether tender, and more compassionate than anything he'd felt in his life. Satoshi was absolutely crazy about him, and though he seemed to be taking his time he was going very slowly and gently.

"God, and you're mine," he said in disbelief.

He added another finger, and this time as he probed he twisted his fingers up at the end. "Somewhere here… I think…" he whispered almost inaudibly, and Daisuke suddenly arched in a wordless shout. Satoshi had found his pleasure centre and was now rubbing against it from the inside. Shock spasms raced through his upper legs and all the way up to his neck. He was entirely dissolved into nothing in Satoshi's arms, under his patient ministrations.

When Satoshi entered him, slick and professional, there was not a single stab of pain—this was a hundred percent perfection, down to the very last fibre. An experience of the highest caliber. Filling him, completing him, now he realized why people used cliché words for things like love, because there was nothing else to say but what had already been said. All the clichés were true, and that was why they were there in the first place. He arched his neck and his adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, eyes shut, hands like a vise gripping Satoshi's back.

He shuddered as Satoshi pushed again, this time even deeper, and the older boy paused halfway. "I'm not hurting you, am I?" he said in a very uneven voice, uncontrolled with passion. Not his usual cold tone. Daisuke's mouth was open slightly, and he barely managed a "no, God, no" before he was swallowed by emotion entirely.

He had never come twice before, but the feeling was beautiful and wrenching and so amazing that he couldn't stand it when the final waves ebbed and disappeared. Satoshi did not pull out as he came and instead half-slumped onto Daisuke, his elbows pressing into the bed on either side of Daisuke's neck. Everything had been squeezed out of him now, every last modicum of feeling, so that he was simply lying there feeling satiated with the hum of satisfaction in the air around him.

Satoshi withdrew slowly and crawled next to him, wrapping his arms around Daisuke's shoulders and bringing him to himself. "Are you all-right?" he asked. Daisuke nodded and bit his lower lip, a few tears pooling in his eyes before slivering down his face and onto his chin. Satoshi just held him tighter. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing. Just… don't get up. Don't leave me right now," Daisuke said as he buried his nose in Satoshi's skin. It should've been illegal to have skin like that. Not human at all. Satoshi was the perfect image of a Tamer: intelligent, strong, brave, handsome… really, really handsome…noble, courteous. Daisuke was just one rather pale, lanky redhead. He wondered what Satoshi saw in him.

"I won't," Satoshi promised in a whisper, pressing his chin to the top of Daisuke's head.

And this time he kept his word.