Children of the Mirror 3: Acceptance

...First Part: Krad...

I believe I owe it to Kosuke Niwa that I am able to stay with Dark. I've learned that, coming from neither of the previously warring families of the Hikari or Niwa, he has incredible insight and a forgiving nature that often puzzles me. It was he who kept Emiko and Daikii Niwa from killing me on the spot when Dark brought me... home...

Dark, regrettably, had to carry me back, which damaged my pride a bit once I got to thinking about it, but for the moments in Dark's arms, I was too busy feeling like an idiot to notice how much weaker I'd gotten. Later, I was also amazed to realize that the thief actually had carried me all that way.

It was December 30th, and after about five days of being with Dark, we had more or less reverted back to how we'd been in the world of the Mirror of Dreams and the Black Wings.

That was quite entertaining, really, when either Emiko or Daikii were around – especially Emiko.

"Hey, Krad!" Dark greeted me after coming back from running some sort of miscellaneous errand that he failed to tell me about. He hung up his coat and, tracking muddy, melting snow across the floor with his shoes, grabbed me around the waist and kissed me full on the mouth, making quite a display for Emiko, who had just happened to be walking by at that moment.

"DARK! St –"

"Emiko?" Kosuke called just then from another room, pausing her outburst. "Could you come here for a minute?"

Glaring directly at me, she walked away to find her husband, and once she was gone, both Dark and I began to laugh.

"You're actually kind of fun to be around when you get your way," Dark remarked.

I looked at him skeptically for a moment, unable to hide the grin that pulled at my lips. "You wouldn't have thought so, a few years ago."

Dark shrugged. "You didn't exactly want the same kinds of things, then," he pointed out.

"I wanted my own body, mostly," I recalled.

"The most I remember is you trying to get rid of me," Dark argued.

I shoved at his shoulder disapprovingly. "Well, now I most certainly do not." A smile slipped easily onto my face again – which felt somewhat unusual. "And I am completely me, now." I spread my arms in show. "So nothing of what happened then matters anymore."

Dark was looking at me strangely. It was kind of an amused and thoughtful look, simultaneously.

"What?" I suddenly was beginning to feel a little self-conscious.

"Nothing. I just like it when you smile," he said.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You're such a cliché, Dark."

"What's wrong with that?" Dark said defensively. "Are you saying I can't appreciate you?"

"No!" I said fiercely, starling myself. "Of course you can appreciate me," I added, lowering the volume of my voice again. "Just don't look at me like that."

"Fair enough," Dark said, shrugging again. He smirked widely. "As long as I can still kiss on you, I'll be fine." Saying that, he practically attacked me, kissing my face all over and laughing.

"Dark! Stop it alre – aah!!" I don't know what I tripped over, but I fell backward, landing on the couch in a somewhat awkward way.

Dark laughed harder and I kicked his leg.

"Oh, be quiet. That was hardly that amusing."

"So you admit that it was amusing," Dark tried to turn my words against me.

I growled at him under my breath and got up, brushing past him to the door. I grabbed a coat I'd just recently acquired and put it on.

"Hey, where are you going?" he called after me, running to snatch up his coat again, as well.

"I don't know."

Dark, grinning in a you-are-so-predictable sort of way, followed me outside.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I really did think I was done before, but after it was brought up, I got to thinking and... Now here's a threequel for you all! I just couldn't resist...