"Satoshi, what's wrong with you?" Daisuke asked, brown eyes firm, mouth set in a decisive line.

As much as his friend was an easy and out-going young man, someone who spread so much life and energy and laughter, Niwa Daisuke could be as serious and persistent as the next person. He didn't ignore problems and hoped they would disappear or get better on their own; he tackled them head on. It was something Satoshi loved about him, but right now he was scared.

"Nothing," he lied now, knowing he wouldn't get away with it. Daisuke was too perceptive and he knew him too well.

"Nothing?" came the echo. "You evading me is nothing? You not talking to me is nothing? You pulling out those hair-raising lies about having to work late and be up early is nothing?" Daisuke asked levelly.

"I'm not lying about my work, Daisuke."

Brown eyes glared. "I know exactly what kind of work you're doing, Hikari Satoshi. I live with you, remember? I know it doesn't require you to come to bed when I'm asleep and get up before I wake- if you come to bed at all!" There was a sudden shadow crossing the handsome features. "If you want to tell me that you're fed up sleeping with me, that you don't want this any more, there are better words than 'I have to work, Dai'!"

Satoshi stared at his young lover, mouth hanging open. "What?"

"You haven't touched me for weeks, Sato! A kiss here, a caress there, that's it! What's wrong?"

He felt his emotions rise, felt disappointment and fear and an emotional wave he couldn't decipher swamp him.

"What's wrong?" Satoshi yelled. "You and Eri!"

Daisuke stared at him in bemusement. "Eri? What about her?"

"Don't play dumb, Niwa! I saw you together! I saw the way she keeps looking at you with her adoring eyes, how she flirts! You and her have spent more time together than..." Satoshi stopped, jaw clenching, hands balled into fists.

He hadn't planned on losing it, but now he was here, right in the middle of it, and the pain was flooding the open gates. He had seen them together, Eri and Daisuke. He had seen her adoring looks, had seen her so up close and personal, and it had hurt.

"Satoshi?" Daisuke stammered.

"When had you planned on telling me that it's over?" Satoshi whispered.

"Over? I... Sato! Eri and I are in the same classes! She needed some help and I tutored her, that's it! I'm not dating her!"

Wide brown eyes stared at him and Satoshi felt his resolve crumble at the honest confusion in there. Daisuke was truly and openly confused.

"I love you, Satoshi," Daisuke continued. "I'm not interested in Eri or any other girl. Or boy, for that matter. Just you."

A tremor passed through his lithe frame. Something inside Satoshi clenched. He drew a shaky breath.

"Sato?"

The softly voiced question of his name made him look at his lover.

"Sato, why? Why would you believe I'd dump you for a girl? After one year..."

"I saw you with her," he heard himself say, his voice so strange to his own ears. "Repeatedly. She flirted with you..."

"I never flirted back," was the quiet reply. "I know she likes me, but I told her I'm already involved."

Blue eyes widened. "You... did?"

Daisuke smiled. "Yes. I'm involved with you, Satoshi. Very deeply. I'm not going to drop you for Eri or anyone else. Because I love you. Deeply."

Satoshi felt another tremor. He had always known about Daisuke's emotions for him in that relationship, sure. He had loved him, too. Still loved him. Very much. But to hear it out loud, that Daisuke had turned down a girl who had been so persistent, told her he was involved...

"You really thought I'd just... end it?" he heard Daisuke ask and there was hurt in that voice.

Satoshi looked away. Yes, he had believed it. Because Daisuke had been with girls before. He was bi. Satoshi had never found those relationships remotely satisfying, but the same could be said about the men he had dated. There had been just one person he had truly loved and that person had now been accused of going behind his back by Satoshi himself.

For someone so bright, he was immensely stupid, he realized.

And helpless, and scared, and frightened of his deeper feelings...

A hand touching him made Satoshi flinch. He looked into his lover's warm eyes, took in the smile that played over the lips he had kissed so often before.

"I love you," Daisuke whispered, drawing closer. "I love you." The words were whispered into his ear and the lips brushed over his skin. "I love you."

Satoshi wrapped his arms around the slender form and pulled Daisuke closer.

"She's a pretty girl," part of him still argued.

"You're prettier," was the light answer and lips brushed over his.

"Men are not pretty," he protested before that protest was swallowed by familiar lips.

"You're handsome," Daisuke told him when they separated. "Handsome and smart and wonderful. I love you, Hikari Satoshi. Just you, just like you are. I'm not going to dump you for some flirtatious girl. You should know me by now."

Those lips trailed over his neck and he caught his breath.

Yes, he did know Daisuke, but his own insecurities were yet to be laid to rest. Even after a year he feared a possible future without Niwa Daisuke.

"Sorry," he whispered, hands clenching into the fabric of Daisuke's shirt. "I was stupid."

"No, jealous," Daisuke answered, light amusement in his voice. "It honors me that you think girls are after me, but I'm a one man kinda guy, Sato. You're that man, no one else."

Satoshi was the one to initiate the kiss this time. Daisuke responded. His Daisuke. The attractive, open and easy-going young man who loved him. The handsome man who turned heads without even realizing it.

The kiss grew more intense, harder, more possessive.

Daisuke moaned as he was pulled flush against the other body and Satoshi felt the evident sign of arousal press against his leg. Desire rose. Desire and passion and lust.

They separated, both breathing hard, and Satoshi looked into the smoldering brown depths.

His. Daisuke was his alone. He held that love, that devotion, that passion.

It made him proud, it scared him, it elated him.

They ended up in bed, clothes strewn everywhere, and Satoshi looked down into the flushed face of his lover, took in the ravaged, parted lips, listened to each gasp, each plea, as he sheathed himself in that willing body.

His.

Daisuke was his lover. His alone.

He wondered if the possessiveness was a legacy of Krad, but then he pushed that thought aside as need drowned out all other thoughts.

---

"I left Daisuke with quite a hickey," Satoshi chuckled. He pulled the comforter around his body, feeling warm and relaxed. "I think it was to show Eri that there was someone, in a way."

Krad smirked and Satoshi felt a mild case of embarrassment, even now three years later.

Three years.

It had been so long already? He and Daisuke were together for four years now?

Warmth spread through him.

Four years together.

He hadn't really given it that long. He had hoped and dreamed, but he had never dared to think... to believe... that anyone, least of all this wonderful man he had known since they had both been fourteen, would love him like that. Four years and going strong; four years and living together; four years... and having Dark and Krad back.

The winds rattled at the windows and he glanced at the covered openings. The forecast had been oh-so-right and he hoped Daisuke was okay.

"He'll be okay," Krad's calm voice interrupted.

"Yeah," Satoshi murmured and sank back against the pillows.

They had always been all right. Strangely and unexpectedly, throughout the hardships and the pain, they had made it.

To the here and now.

Back then, when he had thought Daisuke was leaving, was looking for a woman, Satoshi had been ready to let him go. He had been ready to give up on the best thing that had ever happened to him. Now, today, he would fight with teeth and claws, he would do everything to keep this man he owed so much. Daisuke was his happiness. He needed him.

Satoshi yawned and Krad shot him a pointed look. He grinned a little.

"Come back," he only said softly, then felt the tell-tale whisper of a touch as the demon melted into his body and soul once more.

Satoshi left the warmth of the couch and exchanged it for the warmth of the bed, even if he was missing half of the usual equation. Krad embraced him, hugged him, and he smiled as he closed his eyes, letting that feeling lull him into sleep.