Notes from Shardy: Ah, it's me again. Finally. After months of settling in a new apartment with my dad and working my little toosh off, I finally bought my own laptop. It is love. I'm sorry for being away so long, but I'm back now. This particular fic was written before I moved, but I like it a lot, so I wanted to share it. Think of it as my coming-back debut or something.

Disclaimer: Nope. I did not create these characters. I have enough of my own to deal with. Fanfiction is a way to escape from them from time to time.

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Lost

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It was cold. That was all she was aware of. It was cold and it was dark. She couldn't see anything. She knew she was lost, but how remained to be in question. She had been searching for something.

Something…

Oh, yes, Risa. That's who she was searching for. Risa had snuck out of the house again, no doubt looking for that good-for-nothing felon, Dark Mousy.

That girl had gone above and beyond stalker mode with this guy. It was freezing, it was winter, and it was in the middle of the frickin' night! What in the hell was Risa thinking coming out here to look for some criminal who would no doubt stab her in the back the first chance he got?

And the worst part was, while Harada Riku hit the streets to look for her demented younger twin, she got herself lost in the process.

At the moment, Riku would've given anything to slump down to the ground and sob her eyes out.

Unfortunately, that same ground was covered with ice and frost. And she did indeed make contact with it when her foot slipped and she went flying backwards, landing ungraciously upon her delicate bottom.

"GAAH! Risa, the things I do for you!" she screamed into the night, remaining on the frozen cement in spite of the chilling numb seeping painfully through her ski jacket and into her back.

"Yes, the things you do indeed do for her," a male voice spoke up out of nowhere.

Startled, Riku rolled to her knees, nearly slipping back down again. He chuckled at her, trying half-heartedly to cover the smile that was so obvious on his face. She felt her face blush heavily. Here she was, lost and cold and making an utter fool of herself in front of Dark, of all people! She hated it when she lost her composure at his presence, spoon-feeding him stuff for him to use against her later. He probably had a secret camera on him or something and was recording this indignation for blackmail.

Riku suddenly felt very, very sick.

"You Haradas aren't the type to stay in one place, are you?" Dark inquired, tilting his head and his violet eyes sparkled with in their usual mischief.

"Shut up!" Riku snapped, struggling to get to her feet. The ice beneath her was not quite so willing to let her go just yet as she couldn't seem to regain her balance.

"I'm serious. I found your sister wandering about so naturally I took her home. Only to discover you were missing as well. So, I went looking for you."

"Gee, how generous of you. You're too kind." Even Riku cringed a little at the nastiness that erupted from her tone. Just a little.

Dark didn't seem to pick up on her impolite remark. Either that, or he just didn't care. Instead, he reached down and took her hand. Riku felt rather taken aback at how much larger Dark's hand was compared to hers. It consumed hers completely, with plenty of room leftover. Before she could protest, he hoisted her to feet, leading her to a more stable area of sidewalk.

Once she was able to fully recover, Riku snatched her hand away. "I can get home from here, thanks," she snapped.

Dark simply blinked down at her before shoving his hands into the pockets of the oversized black trench coat he wore. "If you say so…" was all he said.

Infuriated with his patronizing attitude, Riku whirled around and stomped off toward home. She had forgotten that the process of stomping usually meant that one was so focused on his or her anger that the feet are placed rather carelessly on the ground. As a result, Riku took a misstep and her stomach lurched to her throat when she slipped on yet another hidden slab of ice.

This time, instead of hitting hard cement, Riku felt her back slam into a warm chest as arms suddenly wrapped themselves tightly around her waist.

"Klutz," she heard Dark laugh softly above her.

Oooh! If every limb in her body wasn't iced over, she'd reach up and strangle him!

Instead, Riku felt her legs being lifted over his other arm. While the rest of her body was cold, her face certainly was not! "Wha--what are you doing?" she exclaimed. Though in her alarm, a part of her pointed out that the position of her feet provided the perfect opportunity to kick Dark in the head.

She certainly felt tempted to at any rate.

"I'm taking you home," Dark replied simply and before Riku could protest further, all the air was sucked painfully out of her lungs when Dark suddenly took off into the sky.

"GAAH! You jerk! Warn me when you do that!" Riku screamed when she could breathe again.

"I thought I did." Dark's voice was innocent sounding enough. But it was overwhelmed by the playful grin he didn't bother to hide.

It was no exaggeration now. She hated him.

Even with this thought, it did nothing to prevent Riku from snuggling as close to Dark as possible. Well, who could blame her really? It was incredibly cold, the wind they were riding on was not helping matters any, she was tired, she was hungry…

…and Dark was a lot warmer than she'd suspected he would be.

-End-