Author's Note: Well, here it is...The first chapter of The Angel Cards. I'm all excited! My first post-worthy DNAngel fic! Oooh...Feel the excitement! Or...don't. That's fine too, of course. Oh, yes, the point of this little note. If anyone finds the basic plot familiar, that's because it's based of CLAMP's CardCaptor Sakura. Well, loosely based. I was watching a movie with my mother and it wasn't all that good, so my mind started wandering and well, I came up with this. I actually really like it, especially in later chapters. Well, read on, if you wish!

Disclaimer: Amethyst Bubble does not own DNAngel. She had considered saving up money to try and buy it, but then she looked at her shopping list (full of manga and anime) and realized that she can barely save up for the second DVD and the rest of the manga, let alone the rights to the series.

WARNINGS: Slight language (courtesy of Dark Mousy), future violence (nothing incredibly graphic), and future shounen ai (SatoshiDaisuke, KradDark).

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The Angel Cards

Chapter One-Card One

By Amethyst Bubble

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The snow was coming down in torrents. It made what was already a cold, snowy, gray day even, well, colder, snowier and grayer. Any children who had had visions of playing in the fluffy white substance had long ago surrendered to the weather (and their parent's requests) and returned inside.

Two such children were currently climbing the winding staircase to the upstairs floor of their house. In their state of boredom, the elder of the two had come up with a plan. Maybe it wasn't the best plan in the world, but at least it would cure their boredom.

"Come on, Daisuke!" Dark grabbed his cousin's arm, tugging him up the stairs.

Daisuke hesitantly followed the purple haired teen, a quizzical look in his ruby eyes, "I don't know, Dark… Dad's library? Are you sure you want to look in there?"

"There's got to be something interesting in there!" Dark exclaimed as they reached the top of the staircase, "Why else would it be locked?" Fishing into the pocket of his black jeans he pulled out a hairpin and winked roguishly at Daisuke. "Lucky you to have a cousin like me, huh?"

"Yeah…lucky me…" Daisuke muttered to himself, voice containing just a tiny hint of sarcasm.

Locating the right door, Dark tried the knob, just in case. It was locked. Smirking to himself, he bent down and inserted the hairpin into the keyhole. Moments later, the door swung open, revealing shelf after shelf of books.

Dark strode in, placing his hands on his hips as he surveyed his surroundings, "…And here I thought there'd be treasure or something." He sighed and tilted his head to one side, purple bangs falling into strikingwineeyes.

"My father is not a pirate!" Daisuke protested from his place in the doorway. "Dark, why don't we go do something else?" They really weren't supposed to be in here. The door had been locked, after all. Locked doors were meant to keep people out.

Dark frowned. Once he started something, he liked to finish it. Especially since there had to be something good in the library. The door had been locked, after all. Locked doors always contained something good.

Keeping his serious frown in place he turned to Daisuke and said solemnly, "Daisuke, it's this, or we go look for porn on the internet." He hid his grin, knowing that would get a reaction out of his cousin.

Daisuke turned about fifty two shades of red, pink and purple, "D-D-Dark!" He sputtered, making strangled noises.

Now wearing an innocent smile, Dark turned back to the shelves, "Well, I guess we'll just have to settle for this then!"

Reluctantly, Daisuke followed him over to the nearest shelf, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Exactly twenty three minutes and nineteen seconds later, Dark was really starting to believe that there really wasn't anything interesting in this mountain of books. He let out a frustrated sigh, pushing yet another volume of world history back into place.

Daisuke looked over at him, "Oh, yeah, Dark, this is really fun." He said, voice containing a little more then a hint of sarcasm this time. His hand brushed against the cover of a book, dislodging the dust that had gathered there. He coughed, swatting at the dust particles with his hand and covering his mouth with the other.

"You know, the porn option is still-" Dark stopped mid-sentence. Something had caught his eye. Walking over to the shelf Daisuke stood by, he bent down slightly so he was eye-level with Daisuke, and more importantly, the shelf the younger had previously been looking at.

Between coughs, Daisuke managed to splutter, "No way! Dark, you pervert, that's gross!"

Dark waved him off, pulling two books off of the shelf and carrying them to a desk that leaned against the wall. "Daisuke," He motioned to his cousin. "Come look at this."

He picked up one of the books, a black and purple hardcover with a silver spider web design covering all of the cover, except for the center, where there was nothing but blank space, as if it was waiting for someone to draw something there. On the bottom, in flowing silver script, the words 'The Fallen' were inscribed.

Daisuke was more drawn to the second book. The cover was red and white, with pink cherry blossoms spiraling across it in a graceful design. Like The Fallen, the center of this book was also blank, just waiting to be filled. In the same flowery script, the words 'The Keeper' were scrawled across the bottom. Both were bound shut with chains and a padlock, though the chains on The Fallen were considerably heavier.

"These are weird, aren't they?" Dark turned the Fallen over, examining the silver spider webs on the back cover, "Wonder why they're locked?"

"I think we should put them back," Daisuke said, suddenly gripped by fear. "I don't like them, Dark…" He held The Keeper at arms length, eyeing it warily.

Dark laughed, "It's just a book, Dai." He cast an amused glance at his cousin, "Besides, I like this one…It's intriguing…" He flipped it back over to the front cover, tracing the intricate designs with a fingertip. They felt like they were embossed. Dark's hand brushed against the chains and he frowned. Fishing into his pocket, he once again pulled out his trusty hairpin.

"Dark?" Daisuke's voice broke through his thoughts, "What are you doing?"

Dark nodded to the hairpin in his hand and then to The Fallen in a silent explanation to his cousin. His curiosity was nearly overwhelming now; he had to see what the book contained.

"Oh, Dark, don't!" Daisuke cried, tugging on his cousin's sleeve. For some reason, he did not want to find out what was in those books. Why did Dark always have to be so curious about everything?

Dark laughed again, "Like I said, they're just books, Dai. Don't you want to find out what's in them? It's got to be something good, or else they wouldn't be chained shut." The lock came undone with a click as Dark finished his sentence. He removed the chains and blew away the dust that had gathered under them. Placing the pile of chains on the desk, he moved to open the book.

Daisuke watched anxiously, biting his lip.

The book opened. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Daisuke suddenly felt very silly; what had he been expecting? An explosion? A surge of dark energy? He'd been reading too much manga.

"Weird… look at these…" Dark murmured, holding up what looked like a tarot card. Daisuke leaned into get a better look. It looked like a tarot card, but to someone with a trained eye, it obviously wasn't. The card had a border with the same silver spider web design that covered the book it belonged to. In the center of the card was an image of two gigantic black feathered wings, spread out majestically. 'The Black Wings' was written across the bottom of the card in that same flowery script that appeared on the covers of both books.

Dark turned the card over in his hand, staring at the back, "A book of cards, eh? Doesn't seem like something that would have to be chained up." Snatching The Keeper out of Daisuke's hands, he looked it over, "Let's see if this one's got cards in it too."

A new wave of fear washed over Daisuke. Taking a deep breath, he pushed it back, telling himself that he was just being paranoid.

"Argh!" Dark growled lowly, glowering at the book, "Why won't you unlock?!" He shook the book as if demanding an answer from it. Of course, because it was a book and therefore an inanimate object, it could not give him any sort of answer.

Daisuke crept up to his cousin, trying to take the book from him, "Maybe it's a sign that we shouldn't open them…" The words died in his throat as his hand brushed against the lock and Dark let out what Daisuke could have sworn was a squeal of glee.

"It unlocked!" The purple haired teen exclaimed, "Wow, Dai, you touched it and it came undone. You've got the magic touch!" He grinned widely at the younger boy.

Daisuke gulped, cringing. "That's…great, just great…" He mumbled to himself.

Dark opened flipped back the cover, examining the contents, "Yeah, it's some more of those weird cards…Guess they're like sets or something…" He held the book out to Daisuke, still turning The Black Wings over in one hand.

Daisuke took the book from Dark, gazing at the intricately drawn cards inside of it. He gently ran a finger over the top card, admiring the beautiful petals that swirled around its edges.

Then, something odd happened. As Daisuke touched the card, a stream of blinding light issued forth from the book. He screamed, dropping the book to the ground and raising his hands to shield his eyes against the surge of light.

"What the hell?!" Dark's voice came from somewhere on his right.

As suddenly as the light had appeared, it dimmed, and even though the windows in the room were all shut, a strong wind started whipping around the room. Daisuke lowered his hands in time to see the wind form into a swirling cyclone in the middle of the room, knocking books of the shelves and throwing him and Dark to their knees. He heard Dark swear loudly as he was thrown against a bookshelf.

Daisuke stared wide eyed as the winds swept the cards from their books, both sets of cards melting into the swirling cyclone. The Black Wings, still clutched tightly in Dark's hand, tried to fly away with the rest of them, but the purple haired boy gripped it so tightly the joints of his fingers turned white.

"You're not going anywhere!" Dark shouted at the card over the howl of the winds, holding onto the card with both hands now. He wasn't going to let this one fly away too.

As suddenly as they had come, the winds stopped. The two boys sat in silence for a few minutes, stunned. When they were sure that nothing else would happen, Daisuke shakily got to his feet and Dark sat up, removing one hand from the card to touch the back of his head where he'd been slammed into the book case.

"Ow…" He moaned, wincing as his fingers brushed against his the back of his head. Withdrawing his hand, he glanced at his fingertips. "Damnit," He growled, shutting his eyes.

Daisuke scrambled over to his cousin, kneeling in front of him, "Dark, are you okay?" Catching sight of his Dark's bloody fingertips, he gasped, "You're bleeding!

Dark opened one violet eye and glared indignantly at Daisuke. "Really now? I hadn't noticed."

Ignoring the other's sarcastic tone, Daisuke got to his feet, "I'm going to go get mom, okay? You wait here!" He dashed for the door, only to stop right in front of it.

"Hey, Dai...what're you doing?" Dark blinked, wondering why his cousin had suddenly stopped moving. Well, that and the fact that his head really hurt and it wasn't going to get any better with Dai just standing around like that.

"Err, Dark, who is this?" Daisuke moved aside to reveal a girl about his age with long dark hair standing by the door. The girl looked around, blinking in a slightly dazed manner.

"... Hey, beautiful..." Dark winked in the girl's direction. His head may have hurt like hell and that girl may have appeared out of no where, but that was absolutely no excuse not to turn on the charms.

The girl spun around to look at Dark, the skirt of her violet dress fanning out as she did so, "Uh...where am I?" She asked. Before he had a chance to answer, she spoke again, "Never mind, that's a stupid question!" She clapped her hands together, her dazed look turning into a smile, "You must have released the cards!"

"The...cards...?" Daisuke blinked. This was all too much.

---

"Why oh why did I ever let you open those books?" Daisuke wailed, burying his face in his palms as Emiko left the room to retrieve the few final touches for their costumes. Costumes for what? Capturing the cards, of course.

It had taken an awful lot of explaining from the girl, Risa Harada, the so-called "Guardian of The Keeper" and a few of the Niwa's large books on magical artifacts before it had even begun to make sense, but in the end, the pieces had begun to fit together in the two teen's heads.

And they hadn't liked it at all.

"Hey, hey, don't blame me!" Dark said, fingering the one card he'd managed to hang on to, The Black Wings. On the back of the card, his name had been signed in black ink; one of the books had contained a sealing method for the cards, to make sure that they wouldn't fly away like they had in the library. The scratch on his head had been cleaned up, but now his head hurt for a different reason. The whirlwind of events that had happened ever since they'd gone into the library was almost too much for him.

"Well, who am I supposed to blame then?" Daisuke shot back, "It was your idea to go into the library in the first place!" He pulled at the sleeves of his black shirt, scowling slightly. Why exactly did they need to get so dressed up for capturing these cards? Well, at least it seemed to make his mother happy to play dress-up with him and his cousin...

"The cards didn't actually fly away until you touched them!" Dark snapped, waving the card around.

Daisuke pouted; he had to admit that was true, "Well, at least you had enough brains to hold on to that one card, so the situation isn't completely hopeless..." He mumbled, not wanting to give Dark too much credit. After all, no need to inflate an already too-large ego.

Dark almost grinned, still waving the card, "The Black Wings." He said the name of the card with mild enthusiasm as he held it up to the light. Only, it wasn't there anymore.

"...Wha?" Dark looked down at his empty hand with a puzzled expression.

Daisuke gasped, "Dark, your back!" He pointed at his cousin, ruby red eyes wide as saucers.

"What?" Dark spun around to look in the mirror, only to see a pair of huge, black feathered wings extending from his back. "... What the hell...?" He murmured softly, his shocked mind absorbing this new information.

"How did you do that?" Daisuke asked, walking up to Dark and running a hand over the wings now adorning his cousin's back. They certainly felt real. The feel of the feathers under his fingers felt just like they would on a bird's wings.

Dark shuddered, involuntarily folding the wings against his body, "Stop it, Dai! That tickles," He sent a glare at his younger cousin.

Daisuke withdrew his hand, looking the wings over curiously, "Do you think you could fly with them?" He asked, casting a questioning glance at Dark.

Dark's eyes lit up, "Fly? Maybe..." He spread out the wings, only to knock several books off the nearby shelf. "...Whoops..." Dark laughed nervously. Note to self: do not attempt flying indoors.

Emiko appeared in the doorway, clutching a couple black ribbons in one hand, "What was that noise?" She asked, peering into the room.

"Ehh..." Dark folded his newly acquired wings against his back nervously.

"Oh!" Emiko gasped, her eyes widening at the sight of the wings that had sprouted from her nephew's back. "Dark, you released The Black Wings!" She cried, clapping her hands together in glee.

"Err, yeah..." Dark muttered. "But just how did I do it?"

---

"Dammit, it's cold!" Dark, now wingless, shivered, pulling his black trench coat tighter around himself. "Why do we have to capture the card tonight?"

"Because," Risa spoke up, walking along the deserted, moonlit street next to Daisuke, "If the cards go unchecked and uncaptured, they could cause incredible amounts of chaos." She'd been sent along with the two boys to capture the first card that had started causing mischief. Said card had been spotted on the news, making a bulldog fly across town. Well, the card hadn't actually been spotted, but a flying bulldog was almost certainly the work of one of them. From the little stunt, Emiko had determined that it was a Keeper card by the name of Fairy's Flight. Upon hearing the name, Dark had burst out laughing.

"Yeah, it's going around making puppies do cartwheels in midair...Real dangerous," Dark muttered sarcastically, shivering slightly.

Risa pouted, "What if it dropped one of those poor little dogs?"

"Well, then the dog would fall and go spla-"

"Would you both knock it off?" Daisuke yelled. He was a patient person, really he was, but there was only so much any one individual could take. The poor little red-head was nearing the end of his rope and running out of sanity.

Dark and Risa fell silent, Dark brooding and Risa still pouting in a rather adorable manner. Silence reigned for a few moments. A few short, blessed moments.

And then, the silence was broken. It was Dark, of course, who broke it. "Erm, Daisuke? Is that cardboard box over there flying?" He pointed up ahead, where a cardboard box was indeed floating in midair.

Daisuke stared at it, then back at his cousin. No, he was not going to believe this. Really, he wasn't. "It's got to be the wind..." He murmured quietly, despite the fact that there was little to no breeze blowing currently. Certainly not enough to make a cardboard box flutter ten feet off the ground, at least.

Risa was jumping up and down with glee, "This is so exciting! The first card!" She squealed.

"Joy..." Daisuke mumbled. Dark elbowed his cousin in the ribs.

"Hey, you're the Keeper candidate; you've got to catch it!"

"How?" Daisuke asked, wide-eyed, "I don't know how!" He looked desperately from Dark to Risa.

Just then, the box went into a dive and would have hit Risa square in the face if she hadn't ducked.

She shrieked, covering her head with her arms, "I'm the guardian of The Keeper! You can't attack me!" It seemed to the card had other ideas as it went into another swoop. Risa screamed and ran for it.

"Hey!" Dark yelled after her, "Come back! You're the only one who knows what we're supposed to be doing!" When she didn't listen, he cursed under his breath.

Daisuke sweat dropped, "Dark, she's being chased by a cardboard box...what do you want her to do?"

Dark scuffed at the snow covering the ground, "I don't know...use magical powers to beat it up or something like that." If she didn't have magic powers, he swore someone up there was out to get him and Daisuke.

Once again, Daisuke sweat dropped, "But we're the candidates, Dark. Isn't that our job?"

"She could claw it to shreds, you know. Have you seen her fingernails? Claws, Dai, claws!"

Done with sweat dropping, Daisuke moved onto sighing, "Don't you think you should summon The Black Wings?" He wished his cousin would be more serious.

Dark stopped ranting and blinked once, twice, three times before he whipped out the card, "Oh, right." He mumbled, releasing the card. He stretched the gigantic wings that had sprouted from his back, grinning as he looked at them. They really did look cool.

As Dark attempted to take to the skies, Daisuke ran after Risa, shouting over his shoulder at Dark, "You try to knock it down from above and I'll see if I can hit it or something!" Locating the guardian and the possessed cardboard box, Daisuke tried to bat it away from the dark haired girl.

"Hey, leave her alone!" He shouted, delivering a mighty hit to the side of the box. It flew up high, away from the threat that the red-headed boy presented.

Offering a hand to Risa, Daisuke asked, "Are you okay?"

Risa lowered her arms from the defensive position over her head. She reached out to take Daisuke's hand, but stopped, eyes fixed on something behind him. Letting out another shriek, she had him in front of her as a sort of human shield before he could blink. Daisuke found that the box was back, and very, very angry.

For a good ten or so minutes, Daisuke was battered by the box (which didn't hurt all that much because, after all, it was just an old cardboard box) while Risa screamed from behind him, digging her fingernails into his shoulders, which hurt more then the box, because Dark was right; her nails were sharp.

Then, suddenly the box was gone and Daisuke found his face full of black feathers instead. "...Dark?"

"This flying stuff isn't as easy as birds make it seem!" His cousin responded as his feet touched the ground. Folding his wings against his back, he delivered a mighty punch to the box, which, in turn, tried to side-swipe him. Daisuke didn't know whether to be thankful for Dark's apparent fighting skills or be worried about where he had picked them up.

"You saved us!" Risa exclaimed, clasping her hands together.

Dark grinned widely, "How could I not rescue a damsel and distress? … Oh, and my little cousin, of course." He nodded in Daisuke's direction before turning back to Risa and giving her a charming smile.

The red-head slapped to his forehead, "Dark...Now is not the time. The box is back." Three seconds after the words had left his mouth, Dark had the box on the ground and was holding it down with one foot.

"So, how do we get this thing back to card form?" He asked, swiping violet bangs away from his eyes. The box swiped at his leg with one of its flaps and Dark scowled, pressing down harder with his heel.

Risa tapped a finger to her chin in an intellectual manner, as if trying to remember exactly how. Letting out a small 'ah' sound, she walked over to Dark and plucked a feather from his wings.

He yelped and glared at her, "What the hell was that for?" He scowled at the fact that it really did hurt when someone plucked feathers from magical wings. They weren't really attached to his body, so why did it hurt when someone plucked a feather from them? He hadn't known there would be pain involved in this 'card capturing' job. Then again, until this afternoon, he hadn't even known about the cards. He kind of regretted not listening to Daisuke and opening those books now.

Risa scowled in a 'do not question my motives' sort of way and handed the feather to Daisuke.

Daisuke blinked at the feather, "...What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Well, you've got to kind of spear Fairy's Flight's host with it," She explained, smiling now that the box was no longer a threat. "Pierce the box with it." The feathers were the nearest sharp object, and the plan was to inflict as much pain on the box without completely destroying it. If the host was destroyed, there was a good chance that the card would be destroyed as well.

Daisuke blinked quizzically for a moment before kneeling down before the box. Taking a breath and hoping that this would work like Risa said it would, Daisuke plunged the feather into the side of the box.

Silence reigned. Heavy, heavy silence.

After a few good minutes of everyone staring at the box, Dark's eyes slowly traveled to Risa, "...What's supposed to happen?"

"This has always worked before!" Risa protested, spreading her arms wide in frustration.

"How many times has this happened before, eh?" Dark asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He was finding this all very frustrating.

"Well, you're the third set of candidates...But the candidates before you...they...well, they failed..." She looked down at the snowy ground, scuffing some of the powdery white substance with her shoe.

Dark looked puzzled, "They failed? At what? Collecting all the cards?"

Risa shook her dark haired head, saying nothing.

Dark opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off by a soft sound a fluttering and a muffled yelp from Daisuke. The red-head was kneeling in the snow, searching for something. In a flash, he straightened up, a card with a cherry blossom patterned border clutched in his gloved hand.

"Fairy's Flight!" He announced, brandishing the card with his sleeve. Fishing a pen out his pocket, he flipped the card over, "I just have to sign my name, right?" He asked, glancing at Risa.

She nodded, her brown eyes still solemn from what she had been telling Dark before. Risa quickly put a smile on her face as he swiped the pen across the card in the form of a signature, reminding herself that that was then and this was now. She had to be cheerful and encourage them. It was her duty, after all.

As soon as he was done, she pounced, tackling him in a hug and loudly exclaiming, "You caught it! The first Keeper card!" She was definitely thinking on the sunny side of the street now, she thought to herself.

Daisuke blushed, awkwardly patting her on the back before she let go, taking a step back.

"Hey! How come Dai gets a hug?" Dark protested as he gingerly stepped off of the box.

Risa winked, "When you catch a card, you get a hug! The Black Wings doesn't count!" She stuck her tongue out in a teasing manner, doing a twirl so that her skirt fanned out.

"Aw, no fair!" Dark said as he willed The Black Wings to return to card form. As the purple tinted card drifted back towards the ground, Dark caught it in one fluid motion, sticking it into his pocket.

"Think of it as inspiration, Dark," Daisuke said in a teasing tone as he began walking back towards home, absentmindedly twirling Fairy's Flight between his fingers. It felt kind of cool, having a magical card in your possession. Especially one with the power of flight.

Risa flounced after him, excitedly chattering about adventures to come.

Dark followed at a slower pace, glancing over his shoulder every so often. Why did it suddenly feel like they were being watched? He shook it off as paranoia, quickening the pace of his strides.

---

Two figures surveyed the entire scene from the top of a building.

The shorter of the two gazed at the red-headed teen below in a shocked sort of manner, "Niwa…"

A cool breeze blew by, ruffling the long blond hair and white trench coat of the other. "Hmm? And who would this Niwa be exactly? Besides the Keeper candidate of course..." He turned an inquisitive glance to the teen besides him, smirking a bit. "He wouldn't be...someone special, would he?" He asked, narrowing his golden eyes in a cat-like manner.

Cold blue eyes hardened, "No. He's simply a classmate of mine."

"Ah," A disbelieving glance. "It would be awkward if he was someone close to you, after all."

A sigh, "I know, I know. You do not have to remind me." He knew his place, his job. How could he forget?

The small smirk the other wore widened, "Of course I don't. But all the same..." A pause as he glanced at the figures below them. "Don't get too attached."

Satoshi sighed, "I won't, Krad..."

---

Card One-Captured

---

Yaaay...first chapter down. I've written about five versions of this chapter. I can't say I'm all that happy with this one, but...It'll do. I like it the best out of the rest (which...says something about how much they sucked, doesn't it?). Despite the fact that I like this one the best, I still don't like it very much. The other chapters will be better, I swear. I suck at beginnings…

I'm having a hard time writing Risa. Sigh...I expected that, though. It's kind of hard to get her in character without making her all insanely in love with Dark (if I wrote her like that (AKA, in-character), I would probably gag). And...I'll stop rambling. Yes, yes I will. Reviews are appreciated, of course.

::Hopes everyone isn't incredibly out of character, even for an AU, but secretly knows that they are:: ::Sulks::