A/N: wow, this fic is old. but i still like it. if you like it too, it might actually get somewhere.

On a two-week trip to America, the teacher of classroom II-B at Azumano Middle School had managed the worst thing possible.

She'd given Daisuke Niwa and Satoshi Hiwatari the same hotel room.

"Hey, be careful with that canvas!"

Even though the room had two beds, it would only have been big enough for one of them if that one had happened to... well.

"That's my camera!"

"Are we the only ones here?"

Daisuke sighed. "It sure seems that way. I think we were the only ones assigned to this room."

"Shoot," muttered Satoshi. "And good... Which bed do you want?" he asked aloud.

The amiable red-head shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"I'll take the window, then," said Satoshi, who was a tall, studious young man, but very stoic.

Daisuke was the only one who could "understand" him.

"All right." The two unpacked their clothes and supplies from their suitcases. There were many art supplies, as both were avid students of the finer culture.

Satoshi's packing had not been neat, but now he took all the time he needed to perfectly hang every article of clothing he'd brought. Daisuke's suitcase held everything, neatly managed and folded, and currently he was swiftly hanging his shirts and pants from home.

Daisuke finished in half the time Satoshi took. By that point, he was studying the scene outside their window. "There are so many big buildings," he said. "Not like Japan at all. Seems like there's a bit of smog here, too."

"Well, sure," interjected Satoshi. "We are in New York."

"Yeah. It's really depressing."

Satoshi moved his suitcase off of his bed and walked to the window behind him. He stood next to Daisuke. "This should be an educational experience, though," Satoshi said. "It will be interesting."

Daisuke shifted a bit and grinned. "Of course, it'll be interesting."

'I'm this close.'

"We're supposed to go down at seven, right? We've got an hour to spare," said Daisuke. "Let's watch some American TV."
Satoshi nodded slowly, the softest smile on his lips. "All right."

They climbed onto their respectable beds, and Daisuke immediately took charge of the remote. He flipped on the television and was greeted by the hotel general help screen. There were subtitles in different languages running along the bottom of the screen. "Oh," said Daisuke, "you can choose something."

"Thank you."

"What the heck is this?"

"I have no idea."

This repeated until seven.

"Oh, no! You broke the glass case!" Daisuke whined.

"It's not my fault," snapped Satoshi. "It's yours. You moan in your sleep!"

"Oh, that's nice to know!" Daisuke struggled to open the huge window by the bed, grunting loudly.

"Stop that. It's getting worse." Indeed, Satoshi's wings were spreading to nearly twice the size they were before they'd woken Daisuke up, and the tips of his hair were just starting to turn gold.

"Aargh! Shut up! If I weren't helping open this thing, you'd be strangling me by now!"

"Probably. Thanks."

"No PROBLEM!" And with that, Daisuke threw open the glass, and Satoshi toppled out though the opening.

His wings brought him back up to meet Daisuke's view. But he wasn't quite himself.

Daisuke now stepped up to the windowsill and also spilled out towards the ground. In a second, Wiz was on his back and his black wings shone, again at the level of the window. "KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!"

Dark flew for Krad's throat, dragging him towards the ground, the asphalt of the parking lot.

'Why not? He's right there.'
'I'm why not, you dolt.'

"Please, Hiwatari-kun..." groaned a sleeping Daisuke. "Would you take this to... Room Five-A?"

Satoshi grunted in despair and covered his head with a pillow.

'Oh, his voice... He's such an angel when he's awake, but when he's asleep...'

'Don't even think about it! There's no time for that!
'We'd just be fighting again, anyway.'

He was still sore from...
He looked at the clock again.
... Five minutes ago.

They'd both been quite scratched up.

'I could bandage him again, like last time.

'I don't think he'd wake up.
'No, that's not good enough.
'Because I'd still have Krad.'

"Good morning, boys," said the teacher when Daisuke and Satoshi entered the breakfast lobby. "Did you enjoy your sleep? The rooms are very different, ne?"

Daisuke looked cheerful as usual, but poor Satoshi looked as though he hadn't had any sleep and was red in the face. "Yes," the boys said simultaneously.

A group of girls in the class, sitting at a table nearby, began to giggle. As Satoshi and Daisuke began to walk away from the teacher to a table, the girls started to gossip about the boys' rooming situation the night before.

"Oh, my," started the teacher. The two boys stopped and turned, as did the group of girls. "What happened to you both?"

Both Satoshi and Daisuke looked down at themselves. Their arms and necks were covered in scratches from the fight on the asphalt below the room. Satoshi's elbows were even rough with scabbing from the short brawl. They had bled, and he'd had to stop it with tissue as he laid in bed, trying to sleep.

Satoshi began to mutter, but Daisuke spoke up. "Oh, it's not a problem anymore," he said, smiling gently. "I just tripped on the way here from the bus. Satoshi was in front of me. I knocked him over by accident."

A few of the girls grinned and blushed at the rather romantic mental picture of Daisuke having fallen atop the blue-haired boy, just beginning to pick himself up.

"Ah, all right," sighed the teacher, "that's a relief."

The boys nodded and continued to a table.

Daisuke looked off to the side, still uncertain. "But, Riku," he mumbled slowly. "There's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" Riku asked, tilting her head and eager to listen. "If it's about Satoshi, it's just gossip. You shouldn't believe them."

Daisuke shook his head. "No, not with Satoshi." He was silently staring at the short-haired girl's attentive, brown eyes, contemplating his words.

"Then, what?"

Slowly, Daisuke struggled to let himself speak. He finally told her... "I'm Dark."

Riku laughed, an odd, unaccepting look on her face. "You're kidding, right?" she said.

"No, I'm not." Daisuke seemed almost hypnotized as he spoke. "I'm Kaitoh Dark. Dark Mousy."

Riku's expression seemed not to let the information alotted to her register. "No. No, you can't be," she giggled nervously. "You're nothing like him. You're clumsy, and cheerful. You're young. Your hair is red and wild. Your eyes are bright and warm.
"He's always accurate and mysterious. He's much older than you are, of course. His hair is purple. His eyes are dark and they show that he takes advantage of people. People like me." Suddenly, she seemed to be out of her quiet daze. "He's a jerk!" she started to shout. "He took advantage of me to shut me up! Did it shut me up?! No! I'm screaming about it now! So why would you be Dark? You've been kind to me all this time. You took time to approach me..." Her voice began to waver. "But if you're Dark, then you didn't need to take that time. You could've used me to do anything you wanted. And I would hate you," she finished slowly, starting to cry.

Daisuke could only stare down at her wracked form in pity. He knew this would happen. He knew that this was how she would react.

"I'm Dark..." he repeated slowly to himself.

"... Then it's you I hate..." Riku wept. "And Rika... Grandmother must be the only one in your heart."

Daisuke gasped, surprised. Rika?

"Risa told me all about it. So neither of us can have you.
"I'm sorry, Daisuke. Dark. Just leave."

Daisuke stood up from the plastic deck chair and pushed it in underneath the table.

"... LEAVE!"

Her voice rang in his ears as he left her outside at the deck table, in the dark. He walked back to the hotel, almost in a daze, but after the first few minutes, he could feel. He could see. He was almost twice as attentive, it seemed, as before the conversation. He was alert in the darkness, eyes sharp in the courtyard as they flicked from plant to lizard and all about. But soon he had to direct his sight straightforward, his ambitions toward his destination. He walked with perfect attention back to the hotel room that he shared with one Hiwatari Satoshi of the Hikari clan.

And yet, he tripped. His eyes set on the door of the hotel room, he missed what would have otherwise been obvious: a bag of trash sitting outside someone's door, on the floor, directly in Daisuke's poorly chosen, though perfectly straight path to the customary left. And in the dimmed flourescent lighting, he fell. He fell onto his face and shoulders, his head right in front of his room door, which was to the left.

"That was stupid," he said to himself. "Pssh, obviously." He laid down his palms to support himself as he tried to stand back up. A sharp pain struck through his left shoulder, towards the wall. "Ow." He flopped back to the carpet.

Pushing his knees around himself into the hallway, to the right, he set himself straight in front of the door. He lifted his other hand to the door and struck three times.

"Hiwatari-kun?" he called. "Satoshi? I tripped."

Satoshi opened up the door with his eyes closed in the statement of his obvious clumsiness-- "Why, of COURSE you tripped, you're only supposed to be the most talented..."-- but he stopped himself. His glasses were off, and, looking as though he had just finished his bath-- as his shoulders were wrapped with a fluffy, white towel to catch the small amount of water dripping from his tousled hair, and his clothes were represented by a pair of sweatpants and a half-open white blouse-- he looked down at the still-gangly red-head. He asked in mild surprise, glaring at him startledly, "Did you hurt yourself?"

"Yeah." Daisuke, flat on the floor, was trying to look up at his temporary roommate. "I think I may have pulled something in my shoulder."

"Do you need help?" Satoshi swallowed.

"Yeah, please?" Daisuke gave him only the most innocent of smiles.

Satoshi stepped over Daisuke's right arm and crouched down to pick him up. "Okay," he said. "This is still your good arm, right?" Daisuke nodded. Satoshi repeated, "Okay." Satoshi hefted Daisuke over his shoulder to carry him back into the room, shutting the door behind himself.

Satoshi flopped them both onto Daisuke's bed, side by side, so Satoshi could breathe. He wasn't used to carrying people, much less ones his size. He panted, "How'd it go?" knowing Daisuke had been out speaking to Riku, even past their curfew.

Daisuke also took a deep breath inward and sighed. "I'm done. She knows."

Satoshi was shocked at this news. "And Dark?" he asked, not showing his surprise.

"He's still here," the red-head muttered.

"She rejected you?!" Satoshi demanded, sitting up. Daisuke nodded. "Daisuke," Satoshi said more quietly, "concerning your condition, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. She wasn't your Sacred Maiden when you started stealing."

"I know," said the other. "I know I would still have Dark around. I know I would have to keep stealing. But I thought, if she knew... we could still be happy together."

"But it didn't work." Satoshi let himself fall back to the bed.

"No."

Daisuke stared dazedly at the ceiling. Satoshi had left the room dimmed from the sun that morning, so the lights remained low. Both boys still lay on the side of Daisuke's selected bed.

"Satoshi?" Daisuke questioned.

"Hm?" the other moaned sleepily in response.

Daisuke turned his head to look at the other boy. "Satoshi, do you have a Sacred Maiden?"

Satoshi nodded slightly. "Yes."

"Because," Daisuke continued, "if you have a Sacred Maiden-- I know Krad hurts you a lot-- you could get rid of him, couldn't you? A lot of girls like you, I'm sure one of them can handle an evil winged guy living inside of you," he half-joked. "I mean, I already know about him, and even I know he's different from you."

"Yes. I think the principle is the same as yours with Dark."

Daisuke smiled. "Can I help you?"

Satoshi looked back at Daisuke. "Yes."

"Who is it?"

Daisuke watched and waited expectantly. But he couldn't have expected Satoshi's answer.

"... You."

"WHAAAAT?!" Daisuke reared up from the bed on his good arm, leaning back when he would normally raise up his other arm to guard himself.

Satoshi sat up, too, leaning ever slightly towards the other boy. "You're my Sacred... Maiden."

Daisuke panicked. "I'm-- But I'm...!"

"... Not a maiden," Satoshi finished.

"Yeah!"

"I know." The blue-haired and -eyed boy turned his head downwards and sighed. "But the pact isn't limited by gender for me. Maybe not even for you."

"They just return when the other one does... when the time is right," the red-head muttered as he realized this.

"Exactly."

Daisuke said, shocked, "But they don't go away until the tamer's original love falls in love with the tamer."

"Or until the beast is killed while in possession of the body of the tamer. Both the beast and the tamer die. That was Rio Hikari's fate. My grandmother-- the last Krad before me-- was killed by Daiki Niwa." Satoshi looked toward the window. The curtains had remained pulled back.

"Grandpa?" Daisuke gasped. "... Grandpa killed Krad?"

Satoshi's head whipped back to Daisuke's face. "Daisuke! Daisuke..." His voice was a low hiss at first, baring his jumping to protection, that softened to ease the boy's tender conscience. "... I'm sorry-- Daisuke... I didn't mean to make you feel bad. It was probably necessary."

"No," Daisuke said, voice wavering. "No one deserves to be killed." The first tears were beginning to form. "Especially not a carrier of Krad." The tears welled in his eyes. "She deserved... a chance to live without pain!" The tears...

... Fell.

Just like Satoshi fell to Daisuke's comfort. Forward, he fell, to wrap his arms unyeildingly around the smaller boy. 'My Sacred Maiden.

'Where are you now, Krad...?'