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The class stood, packing their school supplies away as the last bell rang for the day. And what a nice day it had been. At lunch, Takeshi and the girls had talked and eaten together outside. To top it off, Daisuke hadn't got stuck with cleaning duty after school. A rarity.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Satoshi leaned on the wall outside of the classroom. Daisuke turned to him as he exited, moving safely from the line squeezing passed.

"Yep. Did you ever like the show Poke'mon?"

'Dark! You're not very tactful!'

A strange glint came to Satoshi's azure eyes. He knew who was actually talking to him.

"I knew the first one-hundred and fifty. One-hundred and fifty-one according to some."

"Sweet!" The disguised Dark grinned. Inside, Daisuke's mouth dropped open.

"But that was before..." Satoshi's line of sight dropped to the floor as he trailed off. An aura of sadness came over the bluenette, but he shook it off quickly. "Never mind," he dismissed himself. "Why?" Azure fixed back on fake crimson. To his sharply trained Hikari vision, it was like looking at twin counterfeit gems.

"Have you been teaching your...pet any tricks?"

Satoshi pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. Dark hadn't answered his question, as was mannerly. The Wing Tamer didn't let an irked expression show, but decided he was interested enough to keep on with the conversation.

"I've had to, or she would have...wrecked my apartment. I've even taught her how to stay. She's almost fully grown now."

Dark whistled. Both him and his Tamer were impressed. They hadn't figured out a way yet of keeping the phoenix chicks from randomly turning into searing flames. Thank goodness their house was almost flameproof; all account of the bizarre traps Emiko and Daiki rigged, mostly for fun these days.

"Now to answer your question." One of Satoshi's eyebrows twitched. Dark had skipped his earlier question to be rude on purpose. The proof was written in glee on the usually innocent face of Daisuke's. "I want us to have a poke'mon duel."

Satoshi opened his mouth once, wanting to say something, then thought better of it and shut it, turning around to walk off without saying a single word.

"What did I say wrong?" Dark raced up to walk steadily beside the bluenette.

"First off, how old are we? And secondly, that's technically animal abuse."

Some big kid that had obviously failed a grade too many times plowed into Satoshi's right shoulder, going the opposite way down the narrow hall.

"Watch it, shortcake!" The flat, pimply face twisted around to stare down the blue-haired teen. Satoshi turned on his heel, not caring who was at fault, aiming the glare meant for Dark at the older teen. The other practically wilted where he stood, and Satoshi turned back around to continue on, clearly the winner.

"Someone's not in a pleasant mood." Dark hovered behind to watch the big kid shuffle away, pride hurt. Catching back up to the Tamer, he said, "It's not abuse when they enjoy a good fight. They even enjoy dying!" Dark whispered, "You're a Hikari. You should know what can happen if a phoenix gets any energy pent up."

"Well, that leaves us with our first problem."

"The age thing? We're fourteen!"

Azure looked pointedly over at Dark before pale hands threw open the school's double doors. Fresh air blew around them. In the far distance rain clouds were gathering, but the sun still shone brightly.

"Okay, okay. But you're never too old to have fun." Dark, as Daisuke, grinned. Satoshi drew in a deep breath, resisting the urge to sigh. The kaito was being annoyingly persistent about this. A bit of color came to normally pale cheeks.

"You actually want to, don't you?" The kaito scrutinized the details of the other's face carefully, his grin turning into a full blown smile. Satoshi really did sigh this time as he looked away to hide additional coloring. Was it really okay for them to be getting along so well like this? It seemed like ever since the incident with Miranda they were all veering off their predetermined courses. Would this mean they'd all lose their goals in the end?

At least if they all fought each other one of them would get what they wanted.

"Then that settles it. We're stopping by the store on the way home," Dark declared, receding back into Daisuke as he slipped control to his Tamer. Daisuke blushed deep red as he bowed his head and apologized. Satoshi knew it was wrong, but he let himself chuckle lightly. He wasn't quite ready for the peace between them to end, although he knew that would make it harder to get back to the almost constant fighting of before. And they would have to. Satoshi just hoped Daisuke understood that. The bluenette smiled at the redhead, and either the hint of sadness didn't show through, or Daisuke was reluctant to noticed it as he smiled back warmly.

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