Title: Imperfection
Rating: T
Pairing(s): Dark/Daisuke
Genre: Romance / General

Summary: (DarkDaisuke) As an artist, he wanted to find someone whose looks and personality were beyond unparalleled; he wanted raw perfection in the form of a human being. What he found was someone he actually needed: a loud, obnoxious kleptomaniac named Dark.

WELL, I’m tired of trying to limit my chapters – and thus, my chapter counts – like I have been… So screw it! Like some of my reviewers have been advising me, I’m just gonna let this story flow. It’ll no longer be a planned three-short, like I had intended. It’ll end when it ends. Joy! So I went back to the last two chapters and took out the chapter counts…yaaaaaay. xP

- - - - - -

Daisuke stared with wide eyes as the man in – on? – his electric fireplace stumbled onto the carpet with a grunt. He righted himself immediately, hands automatically flying up to check his face. The movement would have seemed a little more than vain to the redhead, but he realized with a start that the intruder was checking the area around his eyes to properly secure the white mask he was wearing over the upper part of his face.

A burglar! The alarms in his head were screaming quite loudly, and he stared at the man with narrowed eyes. “Excuse me?” With an arched brow, Daisuke regarded his visitor with an outer coolness that masked his utterly freaked-out insides. He could swear that his stomach was curling with anxiety, and his rioting kidneys sure weren’t making the situation any easier.

The man grinned at him, raising a gloved hand and sending him a military salute. “Why hello there, Niwa-san.” His mask had holes punched in for eyeholes, but the shadows thrown across the room seemed to enshroud those openings in darkness. Even the whites of his eyes were barely visible; his eye color remained a mystery. “I do believe you know who I am?” He ran that very same hand through his unruly hair, dispersing the dust particles that had taken refuge atop his head and returning it to its royal brilliance.

Daisuke started suddenly, staring closely at the man. His hair was a very familiar deep plum that sent his thoughts scattering. Oh I don’t believe it.

“I am, after all, the most infamous Kaitou in all of Japan! The most renown since…well, no one, because I just so happen to be the best. You know of my thieving infamy just as I know of your aesthetic skill. I am…” Smirking to himself, the kaitou ran another hand through his telltale hair and paused for dramatic effect.

“No, you can’t be…” Daisuke stared openly, his sentence trailing off into a stunned sort of silence.

The thief ignored Daisuke’s murmur, still grinning alluringly. “The one, the only –”

“Mousy Dark!?”

The man almost fell over, suddenly tripping on thin air at Daisuke’s exclamation. When he regained his footing, he withered almost comically, his lips drooping into a crushed frown. “What the hell! How did you –? Er…I mean…” He attempted a smile, but the faintest hint of a pout could still be seen. “No. I’m not Mousy Dark. I am the great Phantom Thief Dark!”

And then the best thing happened: his mask fell off.

Deep, sensual purple eyes widened in shock and incredulity, staring at Daisuke with an expression somewhere in between horror and bewilderment. “I…you… Er…”

Daisuke nearly laughed; the look on Dark’s face was just too priceless. “Mousy-san! You? You’re that Kaitou Dark?” Of course he knew of the ever elusive thief; despite the man’s overenthusiastic bragging, it was all very justified by the fact that he was indeed famous all across Japan. “That’s just insane.”

Dark glared at Daisuke, holding his body up in an affronted sort of manner. “Insane? Why shouldn’t I be the great Phantom Thief? Is there something wrong with me?”

No, nothing wrong with you at all! Daisuke cleared his throat loudly, stopping his eyes from raking up and down Dark’s figure with an elevator stare. “Well…it’s just that you were at my showcase. Like you were a normal person.”

Dark let out a bark of laughter, all formality in his stature immediately dissipating into thin air. He swept from his position in front of the fireplace and threw himself onto a couch to Daisuke’s right. “Niwa, I am a normal person. I’m not just a famous thief. I don’t just sit at home during the daytime with my mask on waiting for art to look great enough for me to steal. I need to work, I need to interact with human beings, and I need to pay rent.”

Daisuke considered the young man’s words. “Well I guess that makes sense… But isn’t it risky? Walking around the city is broad daylight with your hair and eyes the very same color as the thief on everyone’s minds?”

Dark shrugged, lounging on the couch carelessly. “The mask hides my eyes and on most heists, it’s too dark to really make out my hair color.”

Daisuke nodded. “Okay… Uh…can I ask why you’re here though?”

Dark sent a glance at his surroundings, sharp eyes taking in the pile of ruined canvases on the ground, the wet palette and brush grasped in Daisuke’s hands, and the empty, lonely-looking easel placed before a comfy reclining chair. “I had been planning on pillaging your cabin and taking all the new, great, awesome, super fantastic artworks you were supposed to have made by now…but I guess I can’t do that at the moment.”

Daisuke glared at Dark crossly. “Excuse me?”

“Daisuke,” Dark drawled, rolling his eyes. “Did you honestly think that I would make such a journey to this godforsaken mountaintop in my thieving outfit to just drop in and say hello?”

Daisuke put his palette and brush onto the coffee table beside him, placing his free hands onto his hips as his face flamed a bright red. “Mousy-san, just when did you get on first name basis with me?”

“I prefer the Western way of naming people; makes me feel like I have a closer bond to everyone around me,” Dark explained coolly.

“It makes you seem like an arrogant freak,” Daisuke bit back, “Mousy-san.”

“Please, call me Dark.” He winked flirtatiously, doing nothing to help Daisuke’s blush.

“I will not grant you any favors when you’re just planning on stealing my art. Now if you would please just leave, that would be great.”

Dark shifted his position on the couch, stretching his body out comfortably as if he had been lying on it for years. “Nah, I don’t think so. I always get what I want, and I want your art. I think I’ll just stay here until you can make something pretty for me.”

“You always get what you want?” Daisuke repeated. “I’m not going to make you anything you bigheaded jerk. I don’t give spoiled little brats like you what they whine for.” He stepped forward, arms outstretched in an attempt to push Dark. “Now get off the couch and get out.”

Dark laughed openly, his eyes trained on Daisuke’s approaching figure. “I’m not spoiled,” he stated. In a quick flash, he grabbed both of the artist’s arms in his tight grip and tugged playfully. The redhead immediately lost his balance and fell on top of Dark in a tangle of awkward limbs. “And ‘little brats’ don’t usually do these kinds of things,” he murmured, rolling his hips up to meet Daisuke’s.

“Oh!” Flushing uncontrollably, Daisuke ripped his wrists out of Dark’s grasp and placed them on his chest to balance himself. “Don’t do that, you…you pervert!”

Dark chuckled lowly, his breath rolling over Daisuke’s nose and cheeks and reminding the painter just how close their faces were. “Seems I’m not the only one, though. I saw you staring at me.” He smirked, causing the shorter man to bristle. “And let’s not forget that fact that you seem to be straddling me.”

Daisuke made a strangled noise at the back of his throat, promptly rolled off Dark, and fell heavily to the ground. “Ow!”

Dark languidly lifted himself up off the couch and stared down at Daisuke with faux pity on his handsome face. “Ah, poor Dai-chan – did you faaaall?” he drawled.

“Well obviously,” Daisuke snapped, supporting his upper body by propping himself up on his elbows. “And don’t call me Dai-chan! Honestly, don’t you have any respect?”

“Respect, yes, but self respect…now that’s a whole other matter. I find nightly solace in the arms of countless men.” He winked and licked his lips slowly, watching with relish as Daisuke’s face glowed a furious scarlet.

“Wha…what?”

Dark threw his head back and laughed, bending down to grab Daisuke by the waist and hauling him onto his feet. “I was kidding, Dai-Dai.”

“Must you really give me such stupid nicknames?” Daisuke stared down at Dark’s chest, feeling more than comfortable with the taller man’s arms around him. “It’s Niwa to you.”

“How about a compromise, Dai-chan? I call you…eh…Daisuke,” Dark purred, “and you call me…Dark-sama.”

Daisuke rolled his eyes. “Anything to make you stop with the embarrassing nicknames. We’ll compromise.” He reluctantly shrugged himself out of Dark’s embrace and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you Dark. I’m Daisuke.”

Dark sighed over-exaggeratedly and shrugged. “Well all right then, if that’s what you insist on…” He extended his right hand and shook Daisuke’s in a businesslike manner, his plum eyes sparkling lightheartedly. “But I still like Dai-chan.”

In the silence following Dark’s statement, a sudden clink filled the air.

Several minutes of an even louder silence ticked by, involving a very flabbergasted Dark and an equally ecstatic Daisuke.

Dark stared down at his wrist, gaping in horror. He had heard the clink, and he had felt the telltale coolness on his skin, but he still couldn’t quite grasp the revelation before him.

Daisuke had just whipped a pair of handcuffs, of all things, out from his pocket, effectively letting one cuff clasp itself hungrily around Dark’s extended wrist. With his eyes dancing, the redhead cuffed his own left wrist and let out a bark of laughter. “And here I was, thinking that Hiwatari-kun was just a kinky fiend,” he murmured to himself, tugging their joint wrists up at eye level. “But they did have their use!”

“Daisuke…what the hell?” Dark inspected his restrained limb with something akin to fascination and annoyance showing clearly on his face. “Did you just handcuff me?”

Daisuke beamed, obviously proud with himself. “You’re a wanted felon. The police are looking for you everywhere. I can’t just let you walk around like a free man. Besides…it would help Hiwatari-kun out a lot if you were just brought in subdued. Those midnight chases through museum halls really take a toll on him. He’s got low blood pressure, you know,” he reprimanded, as though Dark was responsible for his enemy’s health.

Dark stared at Daisuke with wide eyes. “You know Commander Hiwatari Satoshi, the man in charge of catching me?” His thoughts reeled back to the portrait he and Daisuke had talked over at his gallery exhibit; a stoic-looking man with silken hair and icy blue eyes. “Oh, well of course you know the creepy bastard… Just my luck, ne?” He laughed, letting his arm drop down to his side, bringing Daisuke’s with it. “Well this sucks!”

Daisuke looked impossibly giddy, his face flushed with excitement. “Hiwatari-kun’s gonna be so happy! I caught the Phantom Thief Dark.”

Dark growled, attempting to cross his arms and failing. “You didn’t catch me. You tricked me.” He placed his hands on his hips indignantly instead. “And personally, I really doubt that chunk of ice even knows what the word happy means.”

“Don’t talk about Hiwatari-kun like that. I’ve known him since junior high, for your information!” He used his right hand – his free hand – to pull his cell phone from his back pocket. “Now I’m gonna call him up here to take you out of my hands and arrest you.”

Dark’s mind started to spin. Arrest? I think not! There was a protesting beep and a frustrated groan as he waited for Daisuke to realize that cell phone reception up in the mountains often fluctuated, more negatively than positively, though. Suddenly, a deliciously devious idea began to form in his head, and he chuckled darkly as the artist beside him struggled noisily. “Awh damn!”

“Sorry about your little predicament, Daisuke.” Dark’s voice was liquid as he watched Daisuke wrestle with the keys of his phone. “But it seems like you can’t contact Hiwatari at the moment. And considering the fact that it’s snowing up a blizzard outside…I don’t think you can haul me to the police station anytime soon. You’re stuck with me until morning.” He smirked dangerously and dropped onto the sofa, tugging Daisuke’s smaller form down with him. “Might as well make good use of our time together…”

Daisuke fell onto the couch with a surprised cry, using his knees to break his fall. Somehow, he ended up sitting in Dark’s lap, his knees straddling the thief’s hips. “Dark, what are you –?”

“Relax, Daisuke. I mean,” Dark whispered into the redhead’s ear, snaking his left arm around Daisuke’s waist, “you’ve taken a bit of an interest in my body, and you’re not half bad yourself. It’s only natural.”

“What’s only natural?” Daisuke demanded, squirming awkwardly. Dark’s toned body was surprisingly soft, and not to mention comfortably warm.

“Why, getting it on, of course!”

That creepy predatory look on his face should be declared illegal, Daisuke decided, trembling slightly and trying not to look the thief in the eye. I mean, as much as I’d like to agree to his suggestion… He shook his head, insides curling as the fingers of Dark’s cuffed hand intertwined with his own.

“Daisuke…”

Daisuke bashfully lifted his head up, locking gazes with Dark’s darkened eyes. The way the thief had purred his name sent shivers up his spine. “Dark…?”

“Kiss me.”

- - - - - -

He hadn’t expected Daisuke to obey him, but to Dark’s utter delight, the artist actually had.

Interesting…

As Dark busied himself with Daisuke’s sinfully soft lips, his left arm tightened possessively around the redhead’s waist. With a simple brush of his tongue against the other’s bottom lip, Daisuke’s mouth opened invitingly and his tongue began a gentle exploration of the smaller man’s wet caverns.

Groaning heavily into the kiss as their tongues danced against each other, Dark’s free fingers unclenched Daisuke’s shirt and began to wander, agilely drifting towards their clasped hands. He reached metal, smirked into the redhead’s lips, and began to run the pads of his fingers over the metal’s coolness, searching for something – anything – that would unlock his restraints. A trick mechanism, or an easily accessible clasp, perhaps.

Daisuke shifted restlessly and squeezed his thighs together, causing Dark to groan blissfully at the tight constriction of their lower halves and inwardly wonder if the other knew of his plans. He abandoned his search for freedom for a quick minute, choosing instead to disconnect their mouths and attach his lips to the smaller man’s neck.

Once Daisuke was thoroughly distracted again – as his husky moans and whimpers proved – Dark continued to finger his handcuff, making sure his hand didn’t brush unexpectedly against the artist’s. He frowned against the other man’s heated skin and nearly growled; however, he dutifully kept his lips pressed to Daisuke’s flesh, peppering kisses along his neck and up to his jaw. Still inwardly scowling, he instigated another steamy liplock, matching his fervent searching with the hungry way he plundered the redhead’s mouth.

The metal cuff was completely smooth except for where it actually locked; there seemed to be no way to unlock it without a key, unless he could somehow reach the wire in his boot while still keeping up the make out session… Not that it was a burden to him, oh no, not at all –

“OUCH!” Dark felt Daisuke pull away from his face languidly, smiling cheerfully in response to his outburst. “What the hell?”

Daisuke cocked his head to the side and stared thoughtlessly at his lifted hand, which coincidentally was the one attached to Dark’s, and which coincidentally had been used to slap the thief in the face.

“Oh…” He licked his lips, a movement Dark certainly didn’t miss. “Hiwatari-kun is…eh…an efficient sort of person, if you can excuse my understatement.” The redheaded man jangled the handcuffs and grinned. “These are new, state-of-the-art handcuffs, designed by Hiwatari-kun himself. They lack the secret opening mechanisms that usual handcuffs have, and they can’t be opened with anything but the key.”

Dark gaped. How did he…?

Daisuke evaluated the expression on his face, arching a brow. “You honestly think I didn’t know what was going on? God, you’re not that great of a kisser… Your arms were all stiff and you kept your hands to yourself instead of trying to molest me like a normal person would.”

“Hey, Mister Conceited, you’re not that molestable, you know! And I’ll have you know, I am that great of a kisser.”

Daisuke puckered his lips and stared at Dark sourly. “Yes, I kind of am,” he snapped. “And no, you’re not.”

Eyes gleaming, Dark overpowered the unprepared man above him, flipping their bodies over and taking the more dominating role. He forced Daisuke out of his sitting position and laid him down until his back was completely flat against the couch’s cushions, triumphantly hovering over the artist with a smirk plastered onto his face.

“D-Dark!” A deep red tint marred the ruby-eyed man’s face. “Get off…”

Dark’s smirk only widened as he crashed their hips together playfully, pulling a strangled gasp from the redhead’s lips. “I’m going to prove you wrong, Dai-chan! I am too a freaking awesome kisser.”

“Dai-chan…? Hey, we decided on a compromise –” Daisuke’s protests were rudely cut short when Dark’s hot lips descended upon his, thoroughly silencing him. …But, of course, that just wasn’t true. The flirtatious combination of the thief’s tongue and hips reduced Daisuke to a whimpering, squeaking, grunting pile of mush. Suffice to say, he was probably the farthest thing from silent, due to Dark’s ministrations.

However, before Dark could continue – and before Daisuke mind could un-fog itself to even think about pushing Dark off him – something very abrupt and pleasurable startled them both, causing their lips to part and simultaneously drawing moans from their disconnected mouths.

“Freaking signal!” Daisuke snarled under his breath, pulling his hands out of Dark’s hair – when they had gotten there, Dark didn’t remember – and shifting his hips out from under Dark’s. With his free hand, he hurriedly jammed it into his pocket, where the source of their sudden burst of pleasure was. “Now it decides to give itself bars…”

Dark laughed under his breath, climbing off the darkly muttering redhead and watching as he sat up against the sofa’s back and pulled his wildly vibrating phone out of his pants. “And we were having so much fun, weren’t we?”

Daisuke shot Dark a dirty glare and flipped his cell phone open, not bothering to check who was calling. “Hello?”

Dark couldn’t hear the voice on the other end, so he sat himself comfortably in the artist’s lap and snaked his left arm around his small waist, pressing their faces together and straining to hear the voice on the other end of the line. With a soft smile playing on his lips, he pressed a kiss to Daisuke’s cheek. Feeling playful, he continued to rain chaste kisses over the smaller man’s soft skin, migrating up to the outer corner of his eye and down to the hollow part of his neck, right around his adam’s apple.

Daisuke’s breath left his lungs in one very quick whoosh. “Dark…no…” He struggled to keep the glower firmly on his face.

Dark responded to Daisuke’s protests by flicking out his tongue and tracing the contour of his jaw.

Daisuke’s glare heightened before transforming into a wicked smile. He pulled his face away from Dark’s and held the phone closer to his ear. “Oh, hello Hiwatari-kun.”

Dark immediately stiffened, clutching Daisuke tighter and staring him in the eye. ‘Creepy bastard?’ he mouthed, eyes wide.

“No, no, it’s just fine up here. I’m just painting a little, same old same old.”

Dark glared at the phone, as though wishing for it to burst into flames.

“What? You want to come over?”

Dark shook his head rapidly, his lips puckered and his brows furrowed.

“Oh… Well I have company at the moment, and he’s a bit of a handful.”

Dark nodded. Damn straight I am, he declared, grinning at Daisuke proudly.

“Who’s my company?” Daisuke’s wicked smile doubled tenfold. “Why, it’s someone you know quite well, Hiwatari-kun.”

Dark stared at Daisuke in horror, shaking his head slowly. ‘Nonononono. Do NOT tell him,’ he mouthed hurriedly, tightening his grip on Daisuke to the point that he was sure the artist couldn’t breathe.

“No, I don’t think you want to know who… You might want to storm up here and knock him out!” Daisuke laughed good-naturedly.

Damn sadist! Dark growled. You’re giving him too many hints!

Daisuke laughed again. “Why, you genius. You caught us red-handed!”

Dark’s eye started to twitch. ‘S A D I S T,’ he spelled out, his lips moving slowly.

“Yes, yes, I know how much you hate him… But we’ve been – er, friends, I guess, since junior high! You know how strung up on me he is.”

Excuse me? Mister high and mighty, what are you talking about?

“Well then, Saga-kun is starting to carve the word manslave into the wall…I’ve gotta go. I’ll tell him you said hello, okay?”

…Saga-kun? Manslave? Dark stared mystified as Daisuke sighed into the phone.

“Yes, yes, I know you never said hello in the first place. But it’s not polite to tell him what you really said concerning him… Yes, yes, Hiwatari-kun. Take care to you too. Okay, yes, I’ll protect myself from him. Okay. Uh-huh. All right. Bye!”

Dark grabbed the cell phone out of Daisuke’s slack grip with his handcuffed hand, making Daisuke’s arm float alongside his. “You… You didn’t rat me out to Hiwatari.”

Daisuke wiggled out from under Dark’s body, causing the thief to fall ungracefully onto the ground. He stood above the thief’s tangle of bodily limbs, placing his only free hand on his hip contemplatively. He stared down at Dark, his eyes discernable. “Dark.” He said the name strangely; it sounded weird to Dark’s own ears for some reason. “You…interest me.”

- - - - - -

Killah: I bet you’re all like “Wth is going on?” Dark drops in, they talk like normal people, they’re both attracted to each other, Daisuke handcuffs their arms together, they make out, Dark molests Daisuke, Satoshi calls, Daisuke keeps Dark’s presence at the cabin a secret, and then the chapter is wrapped up with a slightly creepy declaration of Dark’s interesting-ness. It’s really spastic and “WTF”-worthy, I know, but yeesh! This chapter took me forever! I had been planning to finish it and post it up on my birthday, the 18th, but that obviously didn’t work out too well… Anyway…point of this A/N is that this chapter kinda sucks. XD Oooooooops! Argh. Maybe the next one will be better, and flow much smoother… But still… I hope the spastic choppiness doesn’t piss you brilliant people off! It’ll make more sense as the story goes on. :D …I’m hoping… /cough/