-24th December-

"Satoshi-kun…"

"Satoshi-kun, wake up…"

Daisuke shook my shoulders and I opened my eyes a crack.

"Hey…" I said sleepily. I looked up at him and saw he was still in his pyjamas. I glanced sideways at the clock. 8:30.

"Satoshi-kun, we've still got to finish the decoration. Please can you help out?" Daisuke said looking at me.

"Give me half an hour and I'll be with you," I said looking towards him from my position on the bed.

It took me 20 minutes to wake up properly, because of my low blood sugar level. After those 20 minutes, I dug in my suitcase and found my black cords and white shirt.

When I arrived downstairs, I went to the doorway of the living room. I could see Daisuke straight in front of me, next to the tree, decorating, while Dark was slouched on the couch ordering him about. Kosuke and Daichii weren't in sight so I guessed they were in the basement. I could clearly hear Towa and Emiko in the kitchen.

"Breakfast, Dai-chan, Hiwatari-kun!" shouted a voice from the kitchen.

Daisuke immediately headed towards the table and slid into his seat.

"Satoshi-kun, come on, you've got to eat," said Daisuke.

I shrugged then crossed the room and slid into the seat next to him.

"Daisuke-kun, what's for breakfast," I said.

"Dunno, but we'll find out in a minute."

After the breakfast of toast and fruit, Daisuke and I were asked to run errands around town.

We were sent into the centre and to the various shops in the area, getting the supplies for the next day.

"Satoshi-kun, what's wrong?" Daisuke asked as we started the walk home, through the park. "You've been silent this whole time."

I looked at him closely and saw his eyes were swimming with concern.

I sighed.

"It's nothing," I said. "It's just this is strange."

"Strange? What do mean?"

"I've never celebrated Christmas before. I've never had anybody to care for me before. Now I'm getting both at once."

"I've always cared for you. You're my best friend. And father, he likes you. He doesn't think anyone deserves to be treated as badly as you were."

"I was taught to shield my emotions from the outside way. Krad and my 'father' put me through hell, yet I wasn't allowed to show it."

I stopped walking.

Everything went black.

The next thing I knew I was at the Niwa's house, looking into Daisuke's worried face above me.

"You're awake!" he exclaimed. "Mum, Satoshi-kun's awake."

I stared at the ceiling for a couple of minutes trying to work out what had happen and failed.

I rolled over, so I was facing Daisuke.

"What happened?" I asked, still slightly groggy.

"You told me that you were put through hell, and then you collapsed. You were really pale and you looking like you were having trouble breathing. I carried you home and Mum looked over you. She said that it was just exhaustion."

"'Kay," I said and I was about to fall back to sleep when Emiko came in.

"Hiwatari-kun, you need to eat something," she said. She looked genuinely worried. "Here, drink this."

She handed me a mug of soup.

"Daisuke, yours is in the kitchen, I'll just get it for you." She hurried off, back downstairs.

I sat up, and swapped the hand that was holding the mug. As I sipped I looked towards Daisuke. This was getting to be an obsession. He was sat on his desk chair, looking at the computer screen.

I put my mug down on the floor and stood up. I wobbled slightly and leant against the wall for support.

I slowly walked over to Daisuke and looked over his shoulder.

What was there surprised me. He had a web page up on the dangers of eating too little. He must be truly worried. He realised I was behind him and spun around.

"Satoshi, wha-"he was cut off by his mother shouting up the stairs.

"Daisuke, your soup!"

"'Kay!" he shouted back and walked to the door and down the stairs. When he came back, he had a steaming mug of soup.

"You had better finish yours, Mum will get mad otherwise" he said, indicating the mug I had left on the floor. I nodded and went to pick it up.

After I had finished, we took our mugs down to the kitchen for Towa to wash.

"Thanks," I said, looking her way.

I headed back upstairs, to my laptop, 'cause I had some work to do.

Daisuke followed me and picked up his sketchpad. He then headed out into the balcony.

I logged on and started on the work, but I couldn't keep my mind on the job. Daisuke was clogging my thoughts.

I quit what I was doing and shut down.

When I packed up, I found my sketchpad and joined Daisuke. I looked over his shoulder.

Yet again the picture was of me, but this time I was sleeping with my arm hanging of the bed. My hair was ruffled and caught the light.

"That is beautiful."

Daisuke jumped out of his revere and spun around, narrowly missing hitting me.

"It's nothing…" he mumbled, blushing the way only he can.

I got my pad out and started to sketch the view.

"Why do you like to draw, Daisuke-kun?" I asked suddenly.

"I don't know. It's sorta… it's a thing that I do. Why?"

"The Hikari clan have always been the artists; the Niwa's have always been the thieves."

"I guess I go against tradition then…"

We drew in companionable silence, both comportable with the others presence.

When I next looked at my watch, I was surprised. 8:30. We had been out here for nearly two hours.

I packed up and went back into the room. I got changed and collapsed onto the bed.

Daisuke came in a few minutes later, grabbed his pyjamas off his bed and headed to the bathroom to change. Half a minute later, he emerged and climbed into his bed.

"Tomorrow's Christmas…" he sighed.

"Yeah, my first 'real' Christmas," I said, sleepiness clouding my voice and vision.

I soon dropped off and went into a dreamless sleep. Daisuke, however, stayed up, just watching me.