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Learning To Interpret

Kosuke studied art, but he could see easily that Dark studied humans.

So when Daisuke sat staring at him for minutes on end, then suddenly started and left as though he had no idea what he'd been doing, Kosuke smiled and didn't ask questions.

And when Daisuke asked him odd questions about his work twice, and reacted each time as though it was his first time hearing the answer, Kosuke smiled and patiently explained his answer twice.

Study was healthy. And Kosuke wasn't one to deny anyone---or thing---its health.

It was a bit of a study of his own, in fact.

It was a fact that Dark fascinated him. All art fascinated him: its beauty and the life behind it. Kosuke loved it, all of it. Dark was no exception. The perfection of him, the craft, the thought was captivating. It was not, of course, the same kind of love he felt for Emiko, the partnership, the parenthood, the bond. With art he felt no bond, but a detached yearning that gave him the most heavenly sickness in his stomach and heart. To satisfy the disease he had to follow it where he went.

And so he'd left Emiko and little Daisuke for years. Researching. Learning. Loving.

When he'd returned, the welcome he received...amazing. Nothing but warmth. A slight chill from Dark, of course. No doubt he resented Kosuke's little "gift" that forced him back into Daisuke's form, and besides, the two of them were unacquainted.

Such warmth though...did he deserve it?

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When Kosuke heard the door close, he turned to greet his son...and found himself facing Dark instead.

The art thief was immediately on the defense. "It was Daisuke's hormones that did it," He snapped. "I wasn't even thinking about Risa."

"That's fine, Dark," Kosuke laughed. "Calm down. Have a seat."

Dark glared at him for a few more seconds, then huffed and went to perch on the arm of the couch. Kosuke smiled. Ever since his talk with Dark a few weeks ago, the thief's guard hadn't dropped. But somehow, it seemed as though the thief was at least a little more tolerant of his presence now. It was easy to at least get that idea when he realized how much time Dark had spent staring at him the past few weeks since their little chat.

He turned, ever so slightly, to see from the corner of his eye what Dark was doing.

The sight was mesmerizing.

Dark was hunched over, his chin dipped low to his chest. Pale skin, translucent next to the dark of the fabrics, pulsed with life...not even life. Inhuman energy. Magic. The cosmos. And the cosmos again reigned in his violet eyes, focused at Kosuke alone, piercing him with want, with questions.

The look of study. Kosuke knew it well; it had haunted his own features for years.

The lips parted; breath was taken in, and then:

"Kosuke. Can I talk to you?"

Kosuke turned to him, as if he hadn't been looking, as if he hadn't been fascinated with the sight behind him. "Why, of course, Dark," He replied. There was plenty of time for staring at and studying Dark later. Studies took a long time, after all. "But first, would you like a drink? No way to start off a proper conversation than with coffee," He added with a knowing wink. Dark blushed.

As he prepared the kettle, he listened hard for any sound that would indicate Dark's activities behind his back. When he heard none, he turned again, just barely, to try to gain clues.

Dark was staring at him in earnest. Again. The most piercing, eager...calculating stare Kosuke had ever seen in the thief's eyes. Try as he might to ignore it, the gaze burned his neck like lasers.

Whatever Dark wanted to talk about, Kosuke didn't doubt that he had quite a conversation ahead of him.

"So, Dark," Kosuke placed the two mugs in front them, taking a seat at the other end of the couch. "What is this matter of great importance you must speak with me about?"

Dark blinked. "I wouldn't call it a matter of great importance..."

"But important to you, surely," Kosuke took a small sip of his coffee, letting the tastes run over his mouth. Coffee, cream, and cinnamon...wonderful.

"Well...I guess..." Dark had narrowed his eyes, as though scrutinizing the value of his thoughts then and there. Silence reigned for a few more moments, and then:

"You weren't around much when Daisuke was a kid."

It was a statement, not a question. Kosuke's eyebrows rose.

"Yes, that is very true," He said carefully.

"You left...a little after his first birthday, right?"

Kosuke smiled. "You remember that, do you?"

Dark shifted his gaze moodily around the room. "I've always been present in Daisuke's subconscious. Just watching." He paused. "I wasn't really expecting you to come back."

"Ah," Kosuke put his mug down. "You thought I flew the coop." Dark glanced at him quizzically, so Kosuke explained, "You thought I left Emiko and Daisuke for good. A divorce."

That seemed to register with the thief better, as he began to nod slowly.

"That's happened before, you know," He informed Kosuke quietly. "The guest of the parental pair finds out about the whole Phantom Thief thing and decides he---or she," He added quickly, as though he was afraid of offending the other man, "can't deal with it."

"Ah. No, I knew long before my marriage to Emiko what the outcome of an offspring would be. She made it rather impossible not to find out, in fact..." Kosuke trailed off, chuckling. His sweet, ornery little Emiko. "And I am grateful for that."

"All right then," Dark turned to face him full on. Kosuke turned likewise. "So why did you leave?"

"Why, surely you've heard me speak about it several times," Kosuke reached again for his coffee. "I was researching to better the future of the Niwas and the Hikaris. I'm sure you didn't sleep through all of that," He added knowingly. According to Daisuke, what time Dark didn't spend making snide comments about the provinciality of his son's life was spent sleeping.

Dark slid off the couch arm so he could sit more comfortably near Kosuke. "What about your son? And your wife?"

Ah. Was that what he was driving at? An...interesting endeavor. "I knew that my research would benefit their future. I want happiness for them," He replied, waiting for the thief's reaction.

Dark leaned in. "But weren't you worried?"

"Of course. I wrote as often as I could."

There was no further space to lean; Dark had to pull himself further in with his hands. "The time between the toddler stage and pubescence is the most important in a child's life. Did that ever occur to you?"

"It did. But I also wanted to see my son live past pubescence, and hopefully to the ripe old age of..." Kosuke thought for a moment. How long did he want Daisuke to live, anyway? "Oh, seventy at least sounds fair."

"And you wife?" Dark was on all fours now, glaring at Kosuke like a hunter. Animalistic. Feral. "What about her? Raising a child on her own...that's not easy. She had to work hard."

"But she wasn't alone," Kosuke pointed out. "Daiki was here to help, and I am forever grateful for that."

"And Daisuke?" Dark was coming nearer and nearer, his gaze becoming less and less congenial. If it had ever been congenial. "Growing up without a father is hard. Even Daiki and Emiko couldn't supply what he needed. Even me. He wasn't even ready for me yet." Pain of some kind made his pupils constrict. Kosuke's chest constricted with him. "He needed you."

Kosuke took a breath to answer with...and let it out again. He wanted to watch. To look. To memorize.

But Dark didn't seem to want to wait.

"Didn't you love them?" He persisted, almost angrily, it occurred to Kosuke. Accusing and piercing and...hurt.

Dark had seen what Kosuke had not. He'd watched Daisuke grow. He'd watched Emiko work alone as a single mother, keeping up with life and health and family every day. He'd heard Daisuke asking where his father had gone, seen Emiko writing letters, watched the family gather together to read the letters that came in response. Heard the wistful joy in Emiko's voice as she orated Kosuke's written love.

Another thought occurred to Kosuke...but he decided to save it for later.

Kosuke licked his lips. "I will admit," He said quietly. "That I have several loves within me. I love my wife. I love my father. And I love my son. I don't want to see any of them harmed. But...I love art as well. Perhaps that is why the research I involved myself in took so long." Dark's eyes narrowed; Kosuke could see the assumptions forming in his head. He pressed on. "But the work I did was for Daisuke's own good. He is important to the Niwa family's future, and to you, Dark. This cycle of life, if you can call it that, can't go on forever. Someday the feud between the Niwas and the Hikaris will end, and you and Krad will end with it."

The thief shrank from him a little. Any mention of his feud with the Hikaris was bound to sting, the idea of his end doubly so. Kosuke was gaining ground, he could see it.

"But what about Daisuke?" He continued gently. "Even after you are gone, my son will still have his whole life ahead of him. You know how that goes. I don't want his life to end with a family feud. It may be intrusive of me; I'm an outsider in all this. But I love my son. I want him to live. If that means that my part in his life must be diminished, than that's just how it has to be."

The hunter's gaze was gone; Dark's eyes were again an earnest cosmos. "And Emiko? You love her?"

Kosuke smiled. "I love Emiko. I would never have involved myself with the Niwas if I didn't. I know she loves Daisuke and you equally...but I won't see her have her heart broken by losing you both."

He fell silent. His speaking mood was gone; he didn't know how to make himself any clearer. Dark was still staring at him, looking a little lost and very confused.

"Sorry," Kosuke said kindly. "I don't know how else to put it."

Dark shook his head. "It's clear." He finally looked away, rising up to his knees. Kosuke considered reminding him about Emiko's no-feet-on-the-couch rules, but he was sure that that was the last thing on Dark's mind.

The thought from before came back to him.

"May I ask you a question or two, Dark?" The thief didn't turn to him, but Kosuke continued anyway. "Exactly whose questions were those?" When he didn't answer immediately, Kosuke pressed him. "Is that how my son feels, Dark?"

Dark teethed his bottom lip. "The questions were all mine," He admitted quietly. "Daisuke's never taken much offense to your absence."

"Offense?"

"Well...he missed you. He didn't resent you or anything, I promise," Dark added quickly, defensively. He flung his legs out from under himself and took a more comfortable seat, finally reaching for his now-cold mug of coffee.

The smile on Kosuke's face shrank; it seemed that it was time to ask the real question he had.

"Do you resent me, Dark?"

Dark's shoulders tensed; he put the mug down quickly, almost guiltily. Kosuke waited patiently for Dark to calm down.

"Yes..."

Kosuke took a long gulp from his coffee, waiting for the art thief to continue.

Dark crossed him arms, a little braver. "Yes, I do." He turned to look Kosuke square in the eye again. The predator's gleam was back. "I love Emiko, too. I didn't like watching her struggle by herself to raise Daisuke. I didn't like knowing that she was sleeping in a bed by herself when you should have been there to keep her company." He looked back at the coffee mug. "And I didn't like it when Daisuke asked her where his dad was, why you had been gone so long, and she didn't have a good answer for him." He reached for the coffee mug and took a long gulp before adding, "It's a man's duty to keep his family safe. And happy. You have an odd way of doing things like that. I don't like it."

Kosuke's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

Dark blushed. "Yeah. Really."

Kosuke closed his eyes, trying hard to stifle the emotions threatening to pour out of him. He passed a hand over his mouth, shaking slightly.

The art thief turned to him in concern. "Look, I'm sorry you're upset...well, not really, but---"

Kosuke burst out laughing. Booming, hysterical chuckles rolled out his mouth and spilled in the air, filling the nighttime silence. Somewhere in his head it occurred to him that keeping himself a little quieter might be a good idea, but God help him, he couldn't stop laughing. The expression on the art thief's face wasn't helping any, either. Horror and confusion, a comically bad mix of emotions frozen on his features.

When the need for air finally stopped his merriment, Kosuke managed to wheeze, "That's a relief!"

The horror was gone from Dark's face, replaced by indignation and anger. After all, no one laughed at Mousy Dark and got away with it, Kosuke thought to himself, his laughter threatening to return.

"A relief?" Dark whispered. "My concern is a relief to you?"

Kosuke sat up. "Dark, try to understand. When I returned here everyone welcomed me as though nothing had happened. I love them all for their understanding...but Dark, I felt like a little kid who'd gotten away with stealing a cookie. Happy, but guilty." He shook his head ruefully. "It only got worse the kinder everyone was. As though they were the ones who needed to make up for lost time...I don't know what kind of welcome I expected, but not that. Not this," He turned to look around, at the television, the living room, the kitchen, the stairs leading to his son's room. "I don't know what I thought was going to happen when my research was finished. I didn't think I'd be able to stay...or watch my son finish growing. Daisuke's becoming a fine young man...you're an influence on him, you know. I can see it. Where else would he find that confidence? Not from me."

Silence reigned. Kosuke scratched the back of his head. He was more than out of steam, and it seemed as though Dark was as well. The thief was staring miserably at his coffee, and didn't seem to be too disposed to move.

"I'm going to bed," Kosuke finally announced. "You probably should too, Dark. Aren't you tired from your endeavors tonight? Daisuke needs his energy for school."

As he headed for the hall, he heard a soft call. "Kosuke? Um..."

He turned. Dark hadn't moved. Kosuke waited for him to continue.

"Kosuke, you told me once that I'm a part of this family," Dark said slowly. "If I'm in any way a part of it, then that goes doubly for you. You were here first. I'm the intruder. Not you." He had turned around now. The cosmos sparkled dangerously in his eyes at Kosuke. "Don't ever leave them again. You hear me?"

Kosuke opened his mouth, but no words came. When he was out of steam, he was truly out of steam. So instead he just nodded, once, to Dark, and continued on his way.

"Don't ever leave them again."

He would always love art. It was a part of his being. But maybe he could keep that love at home. His family, after all, was like a work of art.

Especially when Dark was there to give it the cosmos.