Title: Fogged Perception
Author: Yami no Kaiba
Fandom: D.N.Angel
Rating: R
Characters/Pairing: Satoshi/Daisuke, Krad/Satoshi

Summary: Satoshi may have done something extreme, but he can't remember what.
Disclaimers: I do not own the characters or the concepts of D.N.Angel. Yukiru Sugisaki owns them.
Warning: Satoshi does things that are not to be considered healthy.

*---*---*---*---*

The first inkling Daisuke had that something was wrong was something so entirely *good*, that it didn't register that Hiwatari-kun might be in trouble.

Because Hiwatari-kun had smiled. In class. At someone that wasn't Daisuke himself, and Daisuke had thought, at the time, that Hiwatari-kun was merely finally becoming more social. Which could only be a *good* thing, right?

Daisuke would come to find that assumption to be grossly, hideously wrong.

*---*---*---*---*

Three days after that first, slightly abnormal smile, Daisuke was the happiest he'd ever been. And the reason for that happiness was none other than Hiwatari Satoshi.

His Satoshi-kun.

As in, Hiwatari Satoshi, Niwa Daisuke's new boyfriend, who -- only five minutes earlier on this very school rooftop -- had kissed Daisuke and asked him out.

Sighing happily, and tuning out Dark's dumbfounded spluttering, Daisuke stared with a goofy expression through the chain-link fence.

His first *real* kiss. While Satoshi-kun wasn't Riku-san or Harada-san, at least Satoshi-kun *knew* the bad things about Daisuke and still wanted to be with him.

Still with that goofy expression, Daisuke turned around and dashed for the stairwell. He had a date tomorrow to get ready for!

*---*---*---*---*

Kicking his legs back and forth, heels brushing the concrete of the wall of the fountain he was sitting on the rim of, Daisuke swiped at a drip of his vanilla ice cream cone before attempting to broach the subject Dark was nagging him about. "Ne, Satoshi-kun...?"

Satoshi eyed him over the sprinkled topping of the blue-haired boy's own strawberry cone. "Yes?"

He could feel his eyes sliding away from Satoshi's own against his will. He knew it was a touchy subject with the other, but Dark just wouldn't shut up about it -- "How is Krad taking, um, this?" and Daisuke waved the hand not holding his ice cream to indicate both of them and the new twist in their relationship.

A startled hitch of breath brought his eyes right back to Satoshi, and what he saw startled him so bad that he froze.

Entire body tense and stiff, paler than normal hands clenched around a mangled waffle cone and slick with strawberry ice cream mashed between fingers and dribbling down the backs of those slim hands, even as the top portion fell off to splatter over Satoshi's lap.

But it was Satoshi's eyes that caught him more than that. Eyes framed by silver metal and glass, that had just only moments ago been radiating calm fondness, were wide and frantic with *something* that Daisuke had no words for --

And as quickly as it had appeared it was gone, and Satoshi was smiling at him, blue eyes radiating that quiet affection once more. "Having problems with your Mathematics project, Daisuke-kun? I can come over this weekend to help -- Oh." And Daisuke watched, perplexed and edgy, as Satoshi stared at his hands and lap as if he'd only just noticed what he'd done to his ice cream with a bemused expression. "How careless of me. If you'll excuse me...?"

Before Daisuke could give his boyfriend anything other than a confused nod, Satoshi was already up and halfway down the path to the park's restrooms.

It was ten minutes later when Satoshi-kun rejoined him at the fountain. Too rattled by Satoshi's reaction, Daisuke didn't bring the subject up again for the night.

So it was that when Satoshi-kun finally took him home at nine, Daisuke politely pushed Satoshi away when the blue-haired boy leaned in to kiss him, jokingly saying it wasn't appropriate for the first date.

It took Daisuke much longer than usual to go to sleep that night, even though Dark wasn't saying a word.

*---*---*---*---*

For two weeks, such behavior continued. Daisuke observed his boyfriend during school, study meetings, and dates, thinking that what had happened that day had just been a rather disquieting and unique event.

It wasn't.

Satoshi-kun just... Wasn't *Satoshi-kun*. Why just the other day, Hiwatari Satoshi, the boy that could have won the award for being the most composed boy in school if such an award existed, had *laughed* at a rather obvious joke.

And as much as Daisuke wanted to write it off as a positive personality adjustment to being in love, he knew it wasn't that.

Because at the same time Satoshi-kun was becoming more and more expressive in his pleasure of everyday life, the neatly dressed boy was having more and more frequent 'episodes'. He'd caught Satoshi-kun three times just yesterday stopping suddenly in the middle of sentences, that same indefinable *look* about him for a few seconds before carrying on as if nothing happened.

There was also a box full of snapped pencils in Satoshi-kun's desk at school. And when things like *that* happened, Satoshi-kun would look absolutely baffled before getting rid of or replacing the destroyed item.

Daisuke didn't know what was going on, and although he could feel that Dark had an idea, Dark wasn't talking to him about it.

So when his mother sent out a notice for that night, Daisuke gave a sigh of relief. *Finally* there'd be a bit of, dare he think it, normalcy.

*---*---*---*---*

It was an absolute, utter disaster.

That was Daisuke's very first thought, when he blinked his eyes once more after Dark gave him back control.

The entire south wing of the Yamamoto Memorial Museum was rubble, and if the creaking and groaning he could hear was any indication, the west and east wings had suffered enough structural damage that it was only a matter of time before they followed the same example as their predecessor.

On the upside, Dark had managed to seal the Hikari artwork his mother had wanted.

On the downside, it was somewhere under all the rubble, most likely broken beyond repair with hundreds of other priceless artworks.

Rubbing at his neck awkwardly, Daisuke winced in pain as he touched at another downside from the night; his neck had a nice set of bruises in the shape of a certain homicidal angel's slim fingers.

Krad had been...

"Know this, little Wing Master: no matter how close he lets you come near him, Satoshi-sama will *never* be yours. Satoshi-sama is *mine*; gifted to me through the sins of his ancestors, and even if the blood completely drained from his veins, if his flesh was burnt from his bones and those bones ground to ash, he would *still* be *mine*."

The word 'intense' left a lot to be desired.

Eyes wandering around, Daisuke locked onto the white dress shirt of his school's dress-code uniform.

Satoshi-kun was sitting against a crumbled wall, one shoulder propped against a broken stand and dazedly looking around with the most bizarre, totally not *there* expression Daisuke had ever seen on the other boy's face.

Screwing up his courage, Daisuke approached. Perhaps this wasn't the right place or time, but he'd been ignoring it for too long. It was time to get some answers from his boyfriend.

But first to get them out of here and back home, so that the police wouldn't find them while checking the rubble.

*---*---*---*---*

"Who's Krad?"

Daisuke stopped mid-rant, and just *stared*.

He'd always known it would be Satoshi-kun that would break his brain, or something connected to Satoshi-kun, but he hadn't thought it would be so *soon*.

Only Dark's persistent prod in his head rerouted his brain in a reasonable amount of time. "I... What?"

Satoshi-kun had his head tilted to the side, watching him with what *would* have been the custom Hiwatari stare of "I know you know what I'm talking about, so stop being stupid" if it wasn't for the fond amusement and affection dancing in those blue eyes. "You said Dark had me cuffed to the door handle and was sealing the painting when Krad appeared and knocked Dark across the room. Then I asked you who this Krad person is."

Daisuke had been brought up in a rather strict household. One where naughty words were not used often, if indeed ever.

Daisuke thought that if ever there was an okay time to use such language, it was now. "Shit."

*---*---*---*---*

As incredibly unreal as it sounded, Daisuke could tell that, no matter what question he asked, Satoshi-kun, for some unknown and incredibly surreal reason, did not remember *anything* at all about Krad.

And worse yet, anytime Daisuke attempted to tell Satoshi-kun anything beyond the vagueness that there *was* an entity named Krad, and that Krad opposed Dark, Satoshi-kun would have another episode. Especially if he tried to even insinuate that Satoshi-kun and Krad were one and the same.

It was scary and insane, and Daisuke was panicking like he'd never panicked before.

*---*---*---*---*

"I'm telling you, Daisuke, we can't *do* anything," Dark sighed with an edge of frustration in his voice.

"But--!"

"Whatever creepy Commander did, we could make it worse by meddling. And magic is *not* as lovingly forgiving as those fairy tales you've had crammed down your throat since you were young enough to listen."

Daisuke chewed on his lower lip, and paced around his room. "But what if we did find out--"

"Daisuke!" Dark snapped at him, finally reaching the end of his patience. "You've already asked Hiwatari-san what he did. Quite thoroughly. He doesn't remember, and I don't think he's going to remember unless he wants to."

And that was the entire problem, wasn't it? Satoshi-kun didn't *want* to remember Krad, so he'd found a way to make sure he *didn't* remember, and covered his tracks so that even he wouldn't be able to reverse it.

No wonder Krad had been angrier than usual last night.

Daisuke froze mid-step, brow furrowing as his thoughts pinged. Wiz, who'd been munching quite happily on a strawberry while sitting on the desk, squeaked in protest when Daisuke scooped him away from the delicious treat and started running out of the room.

"Daisuke? Where are we--"

Far too excited, Daisuke bypassed the traps in the hallway leading to the front door as he interrupted Dark. "Don't you see? Even if *Satoshi-kun* doesn't remember what happened, Krad might!"

Grinning at his own genius, Daisuke ignored the startled squawks he got from that as he raced through the streets, intent on a certain blue-haired boy's residence.

*---*---*---*---*

Groaning, Daisuke shook his head to clear the stars out from his vision, fingers twitching around to find purchase.

He was waking up far too many times in rubble heaps lately, he decided as he found a sturdy slab of concrete to hold onto and lift himself from the rubble.

"Far be it from me to tell an insect what to do--"

Daisuke startled at the unexpected voice, and yelped as he overbalanced and sliced his hand open on the ragged edge of a broken porcelain statue on his way down. Ignoring the injury, Daisuke's wide eyes locked onto the figure crouching placidly across from him on the remains of a kitchen island.

Golden predatory eyes that screamed the very nature of the non-human being were watching him intently, a gently structured chin held in a gloved hand that was propped against a knee as white wings stretched restlessly behind the blond curse.

Krad gave him a sharp smile that had Daisuke wishing he'd paid heed to Dark's earlier protests before the other half of the kaitou continued. "--but one must occasionally ask themselves what certain drones were thinking, venturing into territories they know they are not welcome in."

Daisuke blinked in bewilderment. What...?

One of those long slim fingers tapped impatiently against pursed lips. "Was that too complex a metaphor for you, Niwa?"

Oh! Dark must have hit their head harder than he'd thought if he hadn't been able to figure that out. Raking a hand nervously through his hair, dislodging ash and plaster dust out of the matting, Daisuke ordered his thoughts, knowing that stuttering could lead to *bad things* around Krad. "Why can't Satoshi-kun remember you?"

Krad leapt up from his crouch, golden eyes narrowing at Daisuke with such an intense glare of hatred that Daisuke flinched back, smacking his shoulder against a cement pylon. White wings flapped in response to the irate being. "And what right do *you* have to know the reasons why *my* Satoshi-sama does anything, baby Niwa?!"

"'Cause he's my boyfriend," Daisuke fires back before he thinks about it. The absolute fury in those eyes--

Slim gloved fingers around his throat, and he's already choking. Blond hair caressed his exposed skin as the winged-being leaned in to hiss in his ear. "Stupid boy. That's the reason entirely."

The calm iciness he sees creep into those golden eyes when Krad leans back--

--Fin.