A/N: wow. it's been so long since my last chapter. will there still be any faithful reviewers waiting for me? peers across empty desert wasteland not that i really had any faithful reviewers in the first place. i had a lot of fun with it, maybe because i'm an art student too! kyaa! go DFA! flaming rainbows! (jk! and no i'm not gay) and if you think the blind contour exercise thing was weird, just shove it up because i was pretty proud of that almost fluffy moment. (ok. it wasn't THAT fluffy, but it was special!) enjoy! hopefull it won't take another three months for the next chappie to come out!

Disclaimer: do not own this anime. bla bla blaa. do not own this manga. bla bla blaa. do not own much of anything. bla bla blaa.

The Next Generation

Chapter 13

The Special Two

Daichii glowered at his paper. "I . . . can't . . . do it!" he hissed slowly.

It had been several weeks since the fateful drought. The heat wave had been reduced to a distant nightmare as the blistering winter weather set in. Some people-- cough, cough, Riku-- were out and about with holiday shopping. Instead of that, (you wouldn't catch Daichii shopping with his mother unless he had been absolutely forced to and dragged most of the way) Daichii was using the fact that teachers were giving out even less homework as an excuse to hang out at Ren's. With the busy scheduale of a Phantom Thief, his father's constant stealth lessons, his mother's constant bagdering on what they should get Aunt Sue for Christmas, and the torture of school, the boy hadn't been to see Ren in forever. Occasionally chatting with her during class changes wasn't enough, especially when he was aware that Takahashi DID have a lot of free time and DID get to hang out with Ren whenever he felt like it.

Course, if I had known drawing was this frustrating, I would have never suggested Ren giving me lessons in the first place, Daichii thought dryly. He sighed and tapped his pencil on his sketchbook. The art-impaired student had been there for about an hour, but he showed no signs of improving. Ren had decided to start with drawing hands, since no one's hands were exactly the same. That way, you would have a little freedom as to what you're hand looked like. Plus, it would make you start to pay attention to details and perspective, since you couldn't just copy someone else's work. But last time I checked, my hand seemed a little more human-like. Daichii gazed ruefully at his pages of failed hands, all of them resembling that of a frog's. He hug his head hopelessly.

"I'm back," Ren announced in her usual soft voice. She glided through the half-open door smoothly, carrying a small tray and a child-like grin. It was hard to keep a straight, sympathetic face whenever she saw Daichii's "works of art." Ren set down her tray and asked warmly, "Need . . . a break?"

"Yes! Please!" Daichii groaned as he grabbed his steaming cup of tea Ren offered to him

Ren took a sip out of her own cup, popped in her mouth a few of the bite-sized chocolate chip cookies she had brought down, and hovered over Daichii's shoulder. "Mmmm," was her only response for a long time. It seemed like Ren was having trouble with helping Daichii, he was that bad. Of course, it could have just been the fact that she had a hard time conveying her messages into words. She tapped her chin and gazed at her friend in a thoughtful, day-dreamy mannor.

"Run out of advice?" Daichii wondered with a sheepish grin on his face.

Ren stopped tapping. That's a yes, Daichii thought, taking a big gulp of his drink. Ren, however, had other ideas. He spluttered and choked on his tea when she suddenly grabbed his free hand and held it tightly in her own. A blush stained the boy's cheeks. "Ren, I . . . uh," he stammered as Ren molded his hand into stretched, "high five" kind of position. Smiling at her cleverness, she lifted her right index finger dramatically and placed it, waiting, just below Daichii's wrist.

"Close . . . your eyes," Ren told him, peering out from behind his hand.

"Why?" Daichii wondered weakly. Thoughts of all the good and bad things that could happen while his eyes were shut whirled in his mind.

Awww, is someone fantasizing?

Please, Dark! Please don't interfer now! Daichii begged.

You're heart's already racing? You better control it or Ren's going to get to know you real well in the next few seconds. The other you, that is.

Come on, Dark! How is this fair?

It's going to have to happen at one point anyway.

But why?

"I'll trace," Ren explained. She moved her finger slowly up and down Daichii's hand. He fought to control the shivers up his spin. "You follow . . . wherever . . . my finger goes."

"Like this is going to work!" Daichii tried to argue, pulling his hand away from her.

"Come on!" Ren laughed. "Ready?"

Daichii reluctantly returned his hand and readied his pencil on the sketchpad. He stared at her expectantly for a few moments before she cocked an eyebrow. "Eyes?"

Daichii took in a deep, calming breath and obeyed. The world shut off. Everything seemed to hush in interest as Daichii lost himself in the dark. Though he knew he was overexaggerating, he could not help but cling to that one touch, the one thing that kept him from drowning in the black sea. He almost forgot what he was supposed to be doing, and hurriedly began drawing.

It was an odd sensation. Wherever Ren's unhurried finger passed, the skin seemed to tingle, like a path being made. As Daichii followed her blindly, he could clearly see with his mind's eye the hand being traced by Ren, being drawn by him. He didn't dare lift his pencil, didn't dare scratch his itching ear. He was afraid of breaking that calm, soothing connection.

For a while, Daichii sat there waiting, not even knowing he had stopped. Ren's finger certainly hadn't moved from the other side of his wrist. "Daichii," she finally said. Her voice sounded so foriegn after all the crushing quiet. Daichii's slowly lifted his eyelids. The first thing he saw were Ren's bluer than blue eyes. He didn't know why, but he felt like there was something he had to do, something he had been putting off for a long time, completely forgotten. The boy gazed deeper into those eyes, wondering if the answer lied in them.

Out of the edge of his vision, he caught Ren's mouth twitching into a confused smile. "Aren't you . . . going to look?"

Daichii blinked, and whatever questions he had been trying to answer vanished. His hand lowered as he tore his eyes away from her face. This time, his drawing was much different. It still pretty much sucked, but it was good when one considered he had been doing it virtually blind. At least it didn't look like a frog hand anymore.

"Thanks," Daichii replied cheerfully.

Ren grabbed another cookie and leaned back in her chair. "Anytime."

Daichii fell silent as he tried to recall that feeling again, but it was like trying to memorize a really good dream. It slipped out of his hands the harder he tried to grasp it. Unable to figure out exactly what he had wanted to do, Daichii pulled out the charm he had been carrying around with him the past couple of days. "I found this a while back," he explained quietly. "Remember it?"

Ren cupped in her palms, bringing it close to her face. A finger ran across the grooves as her brow wrinkled in concentration. "Friendship charm!" she gasped happily, eyebrows flying up in recognition.

Daichii nodded, smiling. "Do . . . do you still have your part of the charm?"

"Nope!" she responded immediatly, admiring the piece of their history.

Daichii tried to hide how embarrassed he was. Of course she wouldn't still have it. He was stupid for keeping something so girly like that for all these years. Daichii's hand twitched on his knees. Now, he kind of wished he hadn't showed her the charm at all.

Ren caught his slightly disappointed expression. "I still . . . have it," she laughed, giving him a little wink. "I . . . used it . . . It's a part . . . of my mobile." At her friend's blank look, she continued, "The mobile . . . was a little--" Ren paused for a good word. "--personal . . . It was made . . . of many items . . . that symbolized--" Ren flourished her hand in the air, lowering it until she was pointing at herself.

"Oh, I get it." Daichii felt a little better, but he still kind of regretted bringing out the charm. "So . . . when are they supposed to announce the winners of the contest?"

"Mmm . . . few days?" Ren guessed. She gazed at the last dregs of her tea. "You know . . . for . . . a while now . . . I've had dreams." Her hands tightened around the cup. "They were all . . . about you."

For the second time today, fiery liquid scalded his throat as Daichii choked on his tea. "Me?" he asked hoarsely, coughing. The boy would rather die than admit it, but he had been having a lot of dreams of Ren too. Trying not to sound too interested, he asked, "What about?"

"Mostly . . . past memories." A childish light twinkled in her eyes. "Wierd . . . huh?"

"Same here! I keep dreaming about when we first met and other things when we were little." But sometimes, in those dreams a younger verision of Takahashi would steal Ren away so they could play together, far away from the little Niwa. Daichii felt that it would be better to leave that little detail out.

"Last night . . . I saw . . . this." Ren handed Dachii back his half of the charm.

"Really?" Talking about what used to be felt really good. It made Daichii feel more secure, like it would take a whole lot for Takahashi to break their current relationship. The one that had been going strong for so long. Why was he so obsessed about Takahashi? He really was such a small threat afterall. Still, maybe it would be best . . .

"Ren," Daichii began. "There's something . . . I want to talk to you about."

"Yes?" She was so cute when she looked at him like that, with trusting eyes and rapt attention ready to listen to whatever one had to say, even if it was bizairre.

Daichii swallowed. "You see . . . it's about Taka--"

"Sorry if I'm intruding you two," Mr. Mara exclaimed. His voice sounded as if he really didn't care if he just interrupted them, even if it had been something important like a proposal. Actually, probably especially if it was something important like that. Mr. Mara turned to Daichii. "Your mom called. She says that you need to come home soon. She has something for you to do."

Daichii sighed. Mom and Dad probably have found another work of art they want me to steal.

In that case, let's go home right away, Dark responded eagerly.

Easy for you to say. You actually enjoy this kind of thing.

Hey, you know that deep down, you kind of like it too. Besides, it's boring listening to such an uneventful conversation. If I were in your place, we would already be--

I don't think I even want to know what you would be doing.

Daichii stood up and set his tea cup down. "Okay then. I guess I have to go. Thanks for having me over." Aware of the adult's eyes following him with every step, he calmly walked out and descended the stairs. He passed by the twins, who huddled together in the kitchen.

"With these brownies, our teacher will never have the time to emerge from the toliet to give us work," he heard one of them mumble.

Daichii paused in the door to say, "Don't tell me you're going to slip some choco laxative in a present for your teacher."

He was confronted by two indentical Glares of Death.

Without skipping a beat, he continued, "If you use the laxative, then it will be easy for the teacher to punish you later. Add salt to the top to look like 'powdered sugar,' or fill them with dish detergent as 'caramel.' Then pretend as though you had worked really hard on them and make teary faces when she doesn't like it. She'll feel bad and be forced to eat the whole thing."

The Glares of Death softened into Stares of Admiration. "That's perfect!"

They huddled together again. Daichii left them, whistling happily. After all, this will ensure that the teacher gets nothing worse than an insane taste in her mouth. Plus, it's always smart to keep on their good side.

Daichii was just about to cross the street when he heard someone call out his name. He was surprised when he saw Ren jogging towards him, waving his sketchbook in her hand. "Oh man. I forgot all about that," Daichii admitted as she handed it over. "Thanks a lot."

Ren was silent as she caught her breath. "Another try?" she asked hopefully when the panting died down.

Daichii rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I don't know. I suck so bad, especially compared to you."

Ren frowned at him and put her hands on her hips. She was telling him that he was being a dork and he should just give it another try. She knew he could do it.

"Alright, alright!" Daichii laughed. "Maybe next week?"

Ren nodded energetically. Daichii started walking again. She matched him step for step. Just like the old days. The inseperable friends. The special two.

"Great." Daichii ran a hand over the cover. "I really hope that I'll get better soon. Hey, maybe we could do something together one day."

Ren smiled and cocked her head, a pleasant agreement.

"And I'm sure Dad would be proud if another Niwa became an artist."

Ren stopped dead. Startled by her response, Daichii glanced back over his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Niwa," she whispered.

"Huh? Uh, yeah?"

"Niwa," Ren repeated a little louder. Her eyes were large, staring at something Daichii couldn't see.

"What? Did you forget that was my last name?" Daichii chuckled a bit. "It's okay. I never call you Mara either. I guess it's easy to forget when we haven't used surnames since we were little."

Ren's head snapped up, as if she just realized that Daichii was there. She took a step backwards, two steps. "Sorry!" she exclaimed as she broke into a run.

"Ah! Wait! Ren, what's going on?!"

But the girl had already disappeared in the house, leaving Daichii standing alone and confused on the corner.

PREVIEW

"He has all the information he needs to steal whatever his heart desires. And it's all . . . your . . . fault."

"Ren? You dreamed about Ren? Why?"

"Think for a sec. It's not as though Daichii is a saint. When given power, a lot of people would abuse it. We are all born inherently evil."

"It seems like everyone's been doing a lot of remembering lately."

"There is no way five people can be having these weird dreams at the same time. Especially if they all deal with the past . . . if they all deal with me . . ."

REMEMBER YOU, REMEMBER ME