Balance

Chapter One: Night of Blood

"Though thy slumber may be deep, Yet thy spirit shall not sleep;

There are shades which will not vanish, There are thoughts thou canst not banish;

By a power to thee unknown, Thou canst never be alone;

Thou art wrapt as with a shroud, Thou art gather'd in a cloud;

And for ever shalt thou dwell, In the spirit of this spell."

—Longfellow

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Satoshi clutched his bleeding side as he glared at the shadowed form standing above him. The sword grasped in the figure's hands swung dangerously close to his neck and halted just above his bare shoulder. It ripped across his skin, letting more blood flow. He closed his eyes tightly to hold back the screams of pain that threatened to tear the inside of his throat. But the searing pain of hot metal cutting through his body continuously had suddenly taken its toll, and he began to cry out in agony.

'Satoshi-sama...If you do not fight back...'

"Shut...up, Krad..." Satoshi coughed and turned to the side, spitting out the red metallic substance that filled his mouth. He moaned, backing up against the frigid tile wall behind him to try and escape the danger that loomed over him. His eyes darted up to meet his foe, its devilish eyes and malevolent smirk disturbing the soft face that possessed the features. A stroke of nausea suddenly struck Satoshi and he fell to the floor, his arm still wrapped tightly around his waist in an attempt to stop his bleeding. The crushing feeling of his skull against a marble floor made the Hikari dizzy; he was barely able to open his eyes before he caught a blur of red.

"N—Niwa..."

'I would be more concerned with yourself, Satoshi-sama. You, are bleeding to death.' It must have been the nausea and loss of blood because Satoshi found himself silently agreeing with Krad, something he would never have done, under even the most horrific conditions. That night, however, seemed to be an exception. Niwa was laying unconscious on the floor several feet away from him with blood spilling profusely from his forehead. Satoshi himself was bleeding in several places, and had a sword now pointed to the center of his chest. The situation must have confused his sense and logic.

"Hikari," the figure murmured. Satoshi rose just enough to glance once more at his opponent, his eyes going thin with disgust as it spoke to him.

"T—Tsubasa...No Kumori..." His eyes widened as he coughed once more, his head hanging low as a thin stream of red made its way down his mouth.

"Why...?"

"Hikari," the artwork repeated, stepping closer. Satoshi let himself fall back onto the floor with one arm around his waist and the other resting beneath his head. Thin fingers began to run through his strands of cerulean and the boy looked up weakly, his eyes dull and tired.

"He killed them, Hikari-san. He killed them all." The fingers tightened, pulling Satoshi closer until he was so close the soft sensation of the figure's breathing tickled his skin.

"Why won't you let me kill him, Hikari-san? You keep protecting him. Does that mean...You've betrayed your own clan?"

"No! You...You don't understand!" Satoshi hissed in pain when the figure wrenched at his hair once more. The ominous glow radiating from its eyes brightened to a haunting silver color, and its mouth split into a wicked, yet pained smile.

"Hikari-san," it crooned, "He has been an enemy all along. Why do you protect him now? You are in my way, Hikari-san. And that means..." Another frail hand found its way to his throat, nails digging deep into his flesh until the boy gasped out for air. "I will have to kill you as well, Hikari-san."

"Hiwatari-kun!" The figure grasping him suddenly released its hands from Satoshi's neck, cries of pain emitting from its lips. It fell to the ground and hissed, letting his eyes meet those of the Hikari before he whispered, "I will kill him." Then the artwork slowly vanished, a soft light engulfing it until there was nothing left but a few gray feathers.

"N-Niwa?" Daisuke stood above him, the same sword used to harm Satoshi, now clutched tightly between his fingers. His eyes were large and fearful, strands of red made even more crimson by the blood that soaked his hair and splattered across his face. He was drenched in sweat and covered in his own blood. Satoshi flinched several times from the pain of his aching body, and began to pull himself up.

Daisuke's eyes widened more. "Don't move!" The sword fell to the floor with a loud clang as Daisuke rushed to his friend's side, taking in the injuires with his eyes. He was on the verge of tears.

"Your bleeding...It won't stop!" Daisuke reached a shaking hand out to brush away strands of hair from Satoshi's face. There were several small cuts along his cheekbones, and a now small line of dried blood ran down the side of the boy's mouth. His glasses were nowhere to be found, probably laying somewhere broken and shattered. Neither seemed to take notice.

'...I will heal your wounds, Satoshi-sama. Just tell Niwa Daisuke to get his filthy fingers off of you.'

Satoshi seemed to ignore him for the moment savouring the feel of Daisuke's hands running through his hair. He closed his eyes, trying to relax when he felt the boy shaking him.

"You can't fall asleep! You...You might not wake up." When Satoshi opened his eyes again Daisuke was crying. The salty water that ran from his red eyes mixed with the blood that stained his face. With much reluctance, Satoshi gently pushed Daisuke away until he was at a safe distance. The instant the younger was away, Satoshi could feel the tingling sensation of magic spreading through his body. It was like small electric shocks that tickled the tips of his fingers, and made his blood pump more fiercly. He could even feel his own heart jumping up and down forcefully against his chest. Carefully, he focused on his breathing, making it soft and rythmic, trying to ignore the pain of bones snapping back into place and cuts closing up.

"Hiwa—"

'Hush, Daisuke. Krad is healing him...' Those were the first words that Dark had spoken all night long, in exception to the screaming he'd been doing moments before to try and wake his host up. It had evidently worked and Daisuke had rushed over, grasping the sword that had been carelessly left beside the artwork, and struck down onto the enemy.

'What should I do then?' Daisuke watched as Satoshi's eyes came to a chilling color, a blue so thin and pale it seemed like white.

'Run! He'll be fine, just get out of here!' Yet, the ghastly white was slowly changing to a sinister gold.

'B—But Dark!' Before the argument could be continued, Dark reappeared, forcing Daisuke back into the confines of his own mind. He stood over Hiwatari, scanning over the young boy's form.

"Gods...He looks awful." The immense puddle of blood that Satoshi was lying in clearly showed that. Dark flinched each time a bone cracked, or the soft sound of skin stretching over muscle sounded through the air like rain on glass. His senses were on high alert as the thief watched magic work its way into Hiwatari Satoshi, a soft glow engulfing the fragile body.

'Dark? What's wrong with him?'

The thief's eyes thinned as Satoshi moaned and groped for his head, still half awake, probably trying to massage his scalp in an attempt to calm the pulsing headache that was plaguing him. "Nothing," Dark muttered, "He's in a daze right now. It's sort of like...getting laughing gas. He'd be screaming if he was completely aware of what was going on."

'Why?'

Dark smirked slightly, yet his eyes were still focused on Satoshi with a pitying look in his eyes. 'It's not like a fairytale, Daisuke. Magic is painful.'

When the gentle pulsating of the golden aura around the Hikari faded, Dark watched carelessly as the bloody mess before him groaned and fell asleep on the floor.

'D—Dark!'

He felt Daisuke grasp at a chance to gain control, but only pushed him back and walked closer to Satoshi. The shirt he once wore was torn to ragged pieces, barely even covering his body anymore. Dark's fingers ran over the long scar that now made its way across Satoshi's chest.

"Don't worry, he's just out of it. Krad probably is too, with all the magic he just used. They'll wake up soon enough, both of the stubborn bastards." Carefully, Dark positioned Satoshi until the thief was able to carry the boy gently without dropping him, but also not too tightly, so as to not disturb the newly healed wounds. Dark's eyes lingered on the boy in his arms, Satoshi's blood soaking the thief's clothes, before they moved onto his surroundings.

"This place is a wreck!" he complained, plastering a taunting smirk on his face.

'This is no time for joking!' Daisuke twitched his nose and pushed his mouth into a frown.

Dark did so in unison. 'I know, Daisuke. Excuse me for stating the truth.' He sighed and looked back down at the Hikari sleeping peacefully in his arms, a tangle of limbs and torn clothing. Involuntarily, Satoshi curled closer to Dark, moulding his body to the one closest to him. A soft breath was released causing Dark's skin to go numb and his eyes to twitch.

"Let's just get him cleaned up. Wiz!" From his back, a pair of large wings sprouted, several black feathers scattering the floor.

'So we're just going to leave the museum like this?' Daisuke prodded and poked away at Dark's consciousness, complaining about the mess until finally the thief shrugged his shoulders, then snarled.

"I don't care, Daisuke!" The wings spread once more and took one lasting beat in the air. "The janitor will have fun cleaning this place." Then, they were off into the night, two arguing and one completely unaware of the danger of which he was in. The danger of what was to come.

IIiiII

"I'm not going to wash creepy boy, Krad would waste no time in killing me if I did." Dark was perplexed as he watched the blue-haired boy mumble things in his sleep and tug playfully at the sheets and pillows that were around him. He cocked an eyebrow and put both fists on his waist before Daisuke fumed again.

'And what about me? Do you think I want to...to bathe him!' Daisuke fell silent as he went on mumbling excuses of a homicidal blonde that came out when he was alone with a certain someone. Dark donned a mocking grin and scratched the back of his neck, still looking as puzzled as ever. It wasn't just the fact that Satoshi seemed to retreat to an innocent side in his sleep, but the fact that he was mumbling things. He would grasp for some sort of comfort, much like a child would, and pull it tightly close to his body while muttering things in his dreams.

Daisuke continued to ramble on as Dark wandered the apartment, allowing his fingers to touch anything that gained his interest. It was plain enough. All rooms needed for a human to survive; a kitchen, bathroom, and a living room. Along with a bedroom that contained nothing more than a low bed, drawers, closet, and a small lamp that sat lonely and dusty in a corner. The famous Phantom Thief entertained himself by leaning over and blinking curiously at the old light, then gently blowing on the lampshade causing a layer of gray to float into the air and catch into his eyes.

"Augh!"

'...Baka...'

"Be quiet!" Dark growled angrily as he went about wiping at his eyes with his hands balled into fists, rubbing away at his eyelids. After several moments he blinked trying to regain his sight and finding it to be very difficult. How could a room be so dusty and seem so...uninhabited when it was the exact opposite? From the corner of his eye—which was still not seeing exactly clearly—Dark thought he caught a glimmer of something bright and silver. His eyes focused on the object before he realized exactly what he was looking at and his stomach wrenched into knots. Daisuke seemed to be closing his eyes in aggitation as he waited for Dark to finish with trying to clean his.

'Are you done...yet...Dark?' Daisuke opened his eyes once more, and blinked when he received no quick remark, or reply of impatience.

"Eh?" He was snapped from his trance of staring into the closet and pulled his eyes away from the door, quickly making his way out the room, so not to let Daisuke catch sight of what he himself had seen.

'What's wrong?' Daisuke seemed to be nervously twitching now as Dark made his way to where he thought the bathroom might be. Amethyst orbs flickered back to Satoshi's room and narrowed before he closed the door.

"Nothing, Dai-chan. I just thought...I saw something."

Before Daisuke could ask anymore Dark started to wash his face, the cold sensation of water against skin causing him to shiver. When he suddenly stopped, Daisuke opened his eyes to find himself looking back into his own reflection, his own hands now gathering water between his palms. After a moment, he was staring back at a grinning Dark, reflected beneath him.

"Why'd I change?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

Lazily, Dark replied, 'You still need to give creepy boy a bath, remember? I'm going to sleep...'

Daisuke stumbled for words, but it was too late. Dark had already fallen silent, and the soft sound of his alter ego snoring echoed through his mind. With a sigh of irritation, Daisuke dragged his fingers down the mirror and stared into the cold water beneath him. His reflection was shown again, but this time it was his own; red eyes, red hair, and Daisuke notice he had dried blood running down his face.

"Tonight," he whispered, "Was a disaster." For a moment, he dwelled on the faint traces of memory that he'd held onto. Everything seemed fuzzy, like static, where Daisuke wasn't sure what he was hearing or seeing.

"Blood. Taste the Niwa blood. Taste how sweet it is."

He held his head, twisting his fingers between the strands of red that became sticky and slick against his skin.

"Kill him. Do it! Have you truly turned against your own clan?"

Daisuke allowed a soft moan of agonizing pain to escape his lips as he sank to his knees on the cold tile floor. His head was throbbing angrily with memories of poison words. The white walls around him seemed to be suffocating his entire being. His eyes were shut tight as he slammed his forehead back into the cabinets of the sink, anything to get rid of the images. Anything to make the memories of that night go away.

Satoshi, with a long, blood-stained sword raised above him. His eyes thin, tints of gold tainting the regular blue. His fingers shook for a moment and the sword dropped again. Screaming. Flashes of red. Blackness.

If Dark were awake, he had decided to let the child work things out for himself. The onslaught of horrific images could have woken skeletons, shaking them from their graves. Daisuke let his eyes open once more to be greeted with a silky red rug beneath him. Whimpering, he shut his eyes once more. It reminded him of that color, the color that had been so fresh and alive that night.

Kneeling in a pool of crimson. His head screaming in the absolute pain of someone ripping him from the inside. A shadowed, sinister figure above him. It smiled, a wicked knowing smile that craved for the taste of blood, the feel of it between his fingers, the sight of the color of the Niwa—red.

Blood, blood, blood.

Daisuke stumbled his way to the shower, his legs trembling as he groped for the edge and pulled himself up again. His fingers reached around blindly for the faucets, and once he found them he switched them on and stripped of his clothing. He let the garments lay disregarded at the edge of the white marble tub as he darted inside.

'...What did Satoshi say?' Daisuke allowed his eyes to open once more and watched as the water poured down onto his skin. The cold gave him goosebumps. He looked around quickly for the soap. Tendrils of red gathered in the tub's bottom, blood mixed with water, and vanished as it drained away. The Niwa quickly lathered himself, feeling as though he was intruding on Satoshi's things and home. Worse than that, he was bare naked in his friend's apartment, taking a shower while the other lay bloody and injured on the couch in the next room. As he roughly scrubbed his hair to rid of any dirt and material, his eyes squeezed themselves closed. He felt like he was cleansing himself of all the evil and sin that had surrounded him tonight.

'Tsubasa...No Kumori?' He sighed and closed his eyes, turning off the shower and exiting as he wrapped a towel around his waist. His eyes wandered back to the clothes on the floor. There were no rips, the exact opposite of Satoshi's attire—just numerous blood stains. He gathered them in his hands with dull eyes and pushed his way out the bathroom, trying to find the washer. When he noted Satoshi was still asleep, and had found the washer, Daisuke tossed his clothes in and walked back over to Satoshi.

"Should I...?" He jumped as Satoshi turned in his sleep and mumbled something inaudible. Daisuke decided that there was too little left of Satoshi's shirt to be kept and so he took what was left of it, and disposed of the clothing turned rags. His attention then turned back to the blood drenched—yet not torn, trousers.

'...You gonna strip him, Daisuke?'

'D—Dark! I thought you...'

'This was just too good to miss.' With a smirk, Dark continued to watch as Daisuke shyly removed Satoshi's trousers until the boy had nothing but a pair of black boxers on.

'Oh, looks like you ran out of luck, eh Daisuke?' The redhead simply ignored the thief as he tossed the trousers into the wash along with his own clothes, and turned it on. He stood, leaning against the metal until he heard another groan, coming from the couch.

'If you don't wash him up, some of the open wounds that haven't closed will get infected, you know.' For once, Dark was talking logically, his voice taking on a more serious tone. Daisuke's eyes wandered back to the sofa where Satoshi was tossing and turning in his sleep, calling out a name that Daisuke couldn't make out. With much reluctance, he found a pair of Satoshi's own jeans to put on for the time being and made his way back to the living room. Pulling Satoshi into his arms, he stumbled into the bathroom.

"Jeez Satoshi! You feel like a bunch of feathers..."

When the two were finally back inside, Daisuke gently set the boy in the tub and turned the water on until it was half full. As the water continued to run, Daisuke rummaged around for a cloth so that he could clean Satoshi properly. When he turned back to the other boy, the boxers were billowing up from his skin and the water was splashing against his exposded abdomen.

'You're lucky they're not white.' Dark commented slyly, earning another quick remark from a blushing Daisuke. He ignored his alter ego, instead occupying his mind with washing away the bloodstains on Satoshi's skin. The water slowly began to turn brown and murky and Daisuke had to change it twice before Satoshi was completely clean.

"So..." Daisuke wrung out the rag and opened the drain, tilting his head at the still sleeping Satoshi, sitting up in the bathtub, his head tilted innocently to the side as droplets of water ran down his face. His hair was hanging down, gently curving around his face. "How do I dry him off?"

'You have to strip him now! You can't leave the guy in wet boxers!' After being told to be quiet for the fifth time that day, Dark grudgingly left his host alone, letting his mind be occupied with other matters. However, as Daisuke looked down on Satoshi he realized that it would be bad to leave his friend in soaking clothes. Daisuke twitched nervously and hurried off to fetch several towels. This was going to take some quick maneuvering...

When Satoshi awoke some two hours later, he felt oddly refreshed. His eyes tried to adjust to the pitch dark of his room as he reached out blindly for some source of light, the lamp perhaps. While his mind slowly sorted things out, he tried to figure whether it was the evening or the middle of the night. His mind somehow told him he'd only been sleeping for a few hours, and it was still pitch dark outside whether he could tell or not. When his fingers grasped around something soft and silky, his eyes widened considerably. He ran his fingers over it again until the something beneath his hand stirred...

"Ne, Hiwatari-kun?" The words sounded slurred and the voice tired.

Niwa. The flooding of light suddenly stung his eyes and Satoshi covered his eyes with a groan of detest. When he uncovered them he found Daisuke sitting next to him, looking as if nothing in the world had happen in the past few hours. His hair was tangled and messy, an easy sign he'd been sleeping.

"N—Niwa?" For the second time that day, Satoshi stumbled for words.

'I see you're finally awake, Satoshi-sama.' Golden eyes watched malicously through blue as Daisuke smiled softly.

"Well, I thought I'd help you get back home and—"

"Why aren't you...?" Then, Satoshi noticed something else; he was in fresh clothes. No tears, no blood, no pieces of broken glass...nothing. When Daisuke saw the astonished look on his face, his cheeks flushed a deep red.

"W-Well, I used your shower and washer. And, I didn't want you to have all that...blood on you, so I—"

'Kill him. Now. He bathed you.'

'He what!' Satoshi's eyes dulled for a moment and Daisuke stayed silent, his own eyes tinting a soft purple.

'Of course, he saw nothing much, but still, he seemed to be having fun touching you. Clothing you seemed to be a pleasure as well. The impudent—Satoshi tuned Krad's rambling out for the time being, and leaned forward on his bed to pull Daisuke's chin up to face his.

"...Niwa-kun?" Daisuke's eyes snapped up and he gave a short nod of acknowledgement. "Did you...change my clothes?" Daisuke's blush very much resembled the color of his hair.

"Yes, well, I couldn't leave you with just boxers on, so I put you in a large shirt and well, I—I didn't see anything Hiwatari-kun! I swear!" He suddenly hung his head low and gave a deep sigh. Satoshi blinked several times before releasing Daisuke's face, and looked down at his clothes. He was wearing a large shirt, like Niwa had said, that reached down to his knees and his pants were large and loose on his hips. It was probably very easy to get them on, without seeing anything.

"I'd...better go Hiwatari-kun," Daisuke murmured. He stumbled to his feet nervously and tried to make his way out of the room quickly when he felt Satoshi's hand on his wrist

"You," he whispered, "Aren't going anywhere."