It was Friday.

And Risa didn't like the definite riff that had grown between her and Satoshi. She hadn't known that keeping secrets was such a big deal for him.

But then, when she thought about it, of course she knew. He had lived with a deadly secret for so long.

She invited him to her house after school to hang out.

Just to hang out.

To talk.

And hopefully win his forgiveness.

Riku had invited Daisuke over as well, but they both had after school activities, so they'd be there later.

------------------

Risa opened the door and shrugged off her coat, hanging it on the coat hanger near the door. She reached over and helped Satoshi out of his before he could say anything.

"Do you want anything to drink?" she asked.

"No, thanks." He hung his scarf with his coat. Risa could tell he still felt uncomfortable in her house.

"Come on up. I want to show you my room."

She started for the stairwell and then stopped when she didn't hear him follow.

She looked over her shoulder. He just stood there.

"Come on," she said again.

This time he followed.

-----------------

For nearly an hour they just sat on the floor in front of Risa's bed, their heads leaning against her comforter as they watched some sort of movie that had been playing on the television. It had been a comfortable hour. They were both relaxed and both content.

Like friends who were just hanging out because…

…they just wanted to hang out.

But, in the back of her mind, Risa wasn't happy. She wanted to curl up next to him and rest her head on his shoulder. She wanted his arm wrapped around her and the warmth of his closeness.

She wanted her boyfriend back.

-------------

Satoshi couldn't get the anger out of his mind.

The fact that she hadn't asked for help in the first place made his temper boil. He hated that she had kept a secret. He hated that she hadn't told him the truth.

He hated it because she had hurt his feelings by not asking for his help

And he couldn't get his mind off of his hurt.

---------------

Risa was thirsty, so she got up, said she would be right back, and left to get drinks.

She hurried down the steps quickly but silently, stepping toe, ball, heel on each step, just like she learned in ballet class when she was six years old. She stepped onto the landing, crossed through the living room and nearly made it to the kitchen before abruptly stopping.

Riku and Daisuke were there, but she hadn't even heard them come in.

They were making something to eat at the counter. Riku sat on one of the stools and was leaning forward while Daisuke stood beside her. They were laughing and he looked up from what he was doing, his face inches away from Riku's. Risa watched as their laughter slowly died out and Daisuke leaned forward to kiss her.

Risa backed away from the kitchen and pressed herself against the wall and out of sight. She was blushing terribly.

She knew that Riku and Daisuke had kissed before, but she had never actually seen them.

It was uncomfortable.

But it was also very sweet.

To think that clumsy Daisuke Niwa would have the confidence to lean in and kiss her sister.

The thought made Risa smile.

Sometimes, Riku needed a kiss to shut her up.

---------------

"What do you want me to do?" she asked, closing the door behind her.

Satoshi looked up from his spot on the floor. She wasn't holding a drink.

"What do you mean?"

She leaned against her door. "What can I do to make you forgive me?"

He stared at her. "I do forgive you."

"No, you don't. You're still angry that I didn't tell you right away. You're angry that I didn't come to you for help."

Did she really know him that well?

"I could have made them stop," he said blankly.

There was a pause.

"I didn't want to have to depend on you," she answered back. "I already bother you, and I didn't want to have to disturb you with something as--,"

"Bother me?"

She stopped talking. He was nearly incredulous, although his tone barely changed.

Risa shrugged.

"After all this time you still think that you bother me?"

She shrugged again.

He stared at her for a while before turning back to stare at her television and lean against her bed. "I don't walk you home after school because you bother me. I don't answer your phone calls because you bother me. I'm not here because you bother me. If you've noticed, I'm not someone who tends to waste his time on things he doesn't like."

She nodded and pushed herself from the door to walk over to him. She lowered herself onto the carpet at his side.

"Satoshi…"

He was frustrated, but he turned to look at her when she said his name.

"What?" She leaned forward and hugged him. He hadn't realized that they'd been physically distant for nearly three days.

She pulled away. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "And thank you."

They stared at each other for a long time before Satoshi opened his arm and Risa nestled into his side.

------------------

At one point during the movie the two had moved to sit on Risa's bed and Satoshi had fallen asleep. He was leaning against her mound of pillows, his arms crossed over his chest and his legs crossed at the ankles. His head lolled a little to the side, and the relaxation on his face made him seem endearing.

Risa had abandoned the movie and, instead, watched him. She lay next to him on her side, staring at his face. She smiled and reached up gently to remove his glasses.

"Do you want to know the truth?" she whispered to him. Satoshi continued to sleep as she folded his glasses and placed them on her nightstand. "The truth is a bit dramatic," she admitted. "But I might be falling in love with you."

She wasn't smiling when she said it. It didn't seem like something that she would smile at. Satoshi remained silent.

She unfolded his arms and fit herself perfectly at his side again, her head resting on his shoulder.

"And the best part is that I hope I am."

-------------------

When Satoshi woke up he panicked.

He was lying on his side in Risa's bed with Risa tucked closely in front of him. Her head fit in neatly under his chin, their feet were tangled together, and the cold must have seeped into the room because he had wrapped one arm over her, his hand having reached under her blouse to keep warm against her bare stomach.

The feel of her skin under his fingers sent a fiery jolt up his arm and he pulled away, nearly jumping out of the bed. His heart was racing and he couldn't see clearly. He looked around for his glasses while silently berating himself for his stupid behavior.

He saw a glint of light on Risa's nightstand and walked around the foot of her bed to retrieve his glasses. He knelt down next to the nightstand to put them on when she woke up.

She moaned quietly and started to stretch, reaching her arms over her head and flipping on her back. Satoshi watched, oddly fascinated, as her body went slack and she slowly opened her eyes, staring first at her ceiling, then the television, and then at him. She flipped back on her side and stared directly into his eyes. Her hair framed her face in tumbling curls and she smiled wearily at him.

A bolt sparked somewhere deep inside Satoshi. Something foreign. Electricity shot through every nerve tenfold. He wanted to kiss her and hold her and never stop.

"I have to go," he said. And because he wasn't sure he could handle it, he stood up and left the room without even a hug goodbye.

-----------------

When he stepped off the Harada grounds and onto the sidewalk Satoshi chanced a glance back. He looked up past the iron gate to where Risa's room was. She was standing in the window watching him. He saw her wave and he waved back briefly before turning away and heading on quickly down the street.

He dug his hands into the deep pockets of his coat and nestled his chin lower into his scarf. It wasn't until he was a full block away did he finally squeeze his eyes shut and felt himself collapse against a nearby brick wall.

His head ached terribly. His stomach churned with nausea. He could barely stand on his two feet.

What was going on?!

Krad had been gone for months now. His spirit had been locked with Dark's forever. Satoshi was supposed to be free.

So why was it that when he had seen Risa and had felt that powerful surge of romantic feeling inside of him it had been followed by the chalky after effect of Krad's coming? Why did his muscles ache? Why did he feel light-headed?

What was going on?!

------------------------

"Your blood pressure is low," the doctor said. Satoshi, lounging in the chair instead of on the paper-covered table, leaned back and rubbed his forward.

"The news is devastating. I had no idea," he said lazily. He stared up at the doctor and the doctor rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"What I mean is that it has gotten too low. You're not taking care of yourself." He sifted through his files. "Have you been sleeping properly? Eating properly? Over-stressing your heart rate?"

Satoshi thought of the night Risa came to his apartment at one o'clock in the morning. He thought of walking around in the orchard when it was snowing to meet Risa. He thought of walking around the block with her the day they first kissed. He thought of forgetting to eat lunch because he was always watching her.

"Maybe," he said.

-------------------

There was a knock at his door.

He went to answer it. Risa stood on the other side.

"You weren't at school today and I was worried," she said, smiling up at him. She rose on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. He moved aside and let her in.

"I went to see my doctor," he said off-handedly, shutting the door and taking Risa's coat and scarf. He hung it by the door and followed her into the living room. "Are you thirsty?"

"The doctor? Are you okay?" She turned around and looked up at him, her eyes wide and worried. He shrugged.

"Fine. Really, I am." He walked past her and into the kitchen area. His doctor had suggested more tea.

Risa followed him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Risa leaned against the counter while Satoshi set a kettle on his stove. She watched him gather the things he needed with a smile on her face.

He glanced at her and noticed.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Watching you do all of this," she said, shrugging. "Watching you set water to boil and making tea…." She trailed off, still smiling. Satoshi didn't understand.

"What?"

"It's cute."

Satoshi stopped what he was doing and stared at her.

He didn't really like being called cute.

------------------------

They sat together on his sofa.

He was drinking his tea. She was reading one of the novels he loved.

The television was silent.

Risa looked up from the top of her book and caught his eye.

"What did I do this time?" she asked. Satoshi lowered his cup and set it on the side table.

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been distant this whole time. You've barely said a thing. You're sitting on the other side of the sofa when yesterday you had your hand under my blouse."

Satoshi's face went beet red and he averted his eyes too quickly. It made Risa almost laugh.

"What is the matter?"

He was scared. Scared that anything between them would coax Krad out again. Scared that his demons weren't at rest.

"Nothing." He wasn't looking at her.

Risa put down the book she was reading. She scooted down towards him and reached up to take off his glasses.

She loved taking off his glasses for him. He loved when she took them off for him. His blush deepened.

"Um…Risa…I…"

She folded them neatly. When she leaned over him to put them on the side table she deliberately kissed him. He started to shrink away.

Were there wings? Were they white?

Risa set the glasses down and pulled back, frowning. "Well that was a little cold." Satoshi sighed and stood up to go and stand by his window. Risa turned around and leaned against the back of the sofa to watch him. "Just tell me what's wrong."

"It's not gone," he said quietly.

He didn't know it would be so easy to say it. And to her of all people.

"What isn't?"

"The same feeling. I can feel him there, at the back of my mind. He's gone, but he's not gone." He felt too hot. The long sleeves of his shirt felt too hot. The collar beneath his chin felt too hot. His jeans felt too hot.

Everything.

He leaned his head against the cold glass of the window, trying to cool himself down. He was afraid that the pain would come and Krad would tear right out of his body.

A shuddering sigh came from Risa. "You know, it took me a long time to get over Dark," she said.

Satoshi closed his eyes. "That's not really something I want to hear," he said truthfully.

"No, I think you're wrong. This is something you'll want to hear."

He turned around and leaned his back against the window so he could face her. Risa's head lolled to the side of the cushion so her cheek lay against the soft fabric.

"When Dark disappeared, and my sister and I found out the truth about you and Daisuke, it broke my heart. To know that the man you love is gone forever and was, in reality, your sister's boyfriend is a little hard to accept. I cried for so long. I mourned Dark like he died. I wished, with my entire being, that he would come back again.

"My sister hated my behavior. One day she couldn't take it anymore and barged into my room and ripped up my only picture of Dark. We screamed at each other and fought for hours, and in the end we ended up sitting on my floor and just talking. She told me that all those memories and hardships were just demons that I had to fight through. They weren't good for me and they were only tearing me down from the inside."

Risa smiled and sat up straight.

"She told me that it wouldn't be easy. That it wasn't something I was meant to go through alone. Riku said that she would help me and that my friends would help me and that, one day, I'd find someone else to like. Someone who was real and who liked me back, and that he would help me too."

Satoshi continued to stare at her, his blank expression masking his unease and, dare he say, happiness?

Risa shrugged at him and flopped backward, lying on the sofa and out of sight. "I never thought it would be you, though."

Satoshi's blank mask fell.

"Why, thank you."

Risa's disembodied voice laughed. "Oh, come on. We hardly talked and were barely friends."

He shrugged and looked back out the window. "If it wasn't for that project we probably wouldn't be talking now. The only way we'd have even thought about each other was if we were forced into the same room repeatedly."

"Actually, no. That part isn't true."

Satoshi turned back around.

"What?"

"I said 'I never thought it would be you', not 'I never thought about you'." She sat up and looked at him. "Ever since I found out you were Krad I always thought about you; almost as much as I thought about Dark. Besides, all my friends were madly in love with you, so your name came up in our conversations a lot."

Satoshi wasn't sure he liked that bit of information. "I don't think I like that bit of information."

Risa jumped up from the sofa and walked over to him so that she, too, stood next to the window, looking up into his face. He was so much taller than her. "I never thought it would be you," she explained, "because you were on a different level than I was."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't pretend. You live in a different world. I like crowds, you like solitude. I'm a B average student and you've already graduated college. I'm the Public Relations Commissioner of our student council and you're the Chief Commander of Police. Different levels." She nudged him with her foot and grinned. "You never acknowledged any of those love letters from all those girls, so I never thought someone like you would ever like someone like me."

Satoshi was caught of guard. She didn't think he'd like someone like her? The popular, social center of attention? The girl every girl wanted to be friends with and every guy had a crush on? The girl that was beautiful and friendly and could always be heard laughing?

He had always wondered what in the hell she could have seen in someone as dull as him.

"Risa, you're--,"

"Wait, I'm not done. When we became partners I was nervous. I never sent you love letters, but you were still the Satoshi Hiwatari. I walked into that library with my heart pounding. And now…

My demons of Dark were strong, and I thought it would take months and months before I'd be over him. He was a big part of my life. So it was practically a miracle when I found that whenever I spent time with you I never even thought about Dark. You didn't replace his memory…you would erase him. You made me forget about missing him. You made me not care." She wasn't smiling anymore, but looking out the window. "In the end it wasn't my sheer will that helped me through my demons. It was you. All of it was you."

It was snowing outside. Risa was watching the snow. Satoshi was watching her.

"I can help you too," she finally said, after a lengthy pause. She still didn't look at him. "If you need, you know. I can help."

After a moment Satoshi pushed off the windowsill and leaned towards her, brushing a light kiss against her cheek before walking past her. "You already are," he said quietly. He wasn't even sure she had heard him.

-------------------------

The rest of the day they spent sitting on the sofa, Satoshi drinking his tea while Risa read one of his favorite novels.

The television was silent.

Outside it continued to snow.