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“Wake up.”
Ken sighed out an acknowledgment, not opening his eyes in favor of shrugging his cheek back into the side of his pillow, cold from the sharp winter night even as the rest of him tingled with warmth.
“C’mon, sleepyhead. Wake up!”
A hand shook his shoulder, and Ken registered the weight beside and atop him, hovering over him as the rest of the world started to piece together, sleep still clinging to his eyes when he opened them to see Daisuke.
Daisuke, smiling down at him so freely, his hair askew, yet somehow alight with a spark in his eyes.
“Let’s go!”
Daisuke didn’t say where they were going this early, didn’t say why he’d gotten Ken up before the crack of dawn even though they’d stayed up watching Kohaku right until the very end, Daisuke dancing along with the musical numbers and making Ken move with him, pulling him up into the air, the twinkling lights he’d helped his parents put up around the living room making Daisuke glow even more than usual.
Daisuke scrambled down Ken’s ladder, nearly falling and making Ken jump before he righted himself, laughing the whole while. He pulled his warm covers off, blasted by the cold as he shivered in his heavy, swimming pajamas.
“Where are we going?” He asked once he managed to crawl down his ladder as well, joining Daisuke where he bounced on the balls of his feet with excitement.
In lieu of an answer, Daisuke just said, “Happy new year.”
“Happy new year.” It came out without a thought, just the response ingrained in Ken forever, and his brain started to wake up more, putting the pieces of Daisuke insisting he get up and go somewhere so quickly. “...Daisuke, do you want to...”
“C’mon, let’s go!”
Daisuke gripped his hand, pulling Ken towards his bedroom door before stopping at the threshold and seeming to realize both of them were still wearing pajamas. Ken found that despite that, he didn’t want him to let go, even as he watched Daisuke’s face turn red with a deep blush and skirt back to his bag, pulling out a set of clothes he’d brought over yesterday when he’d barged into Ken’s New Year’s preparations with his family. He went over to his own closet to pick out something nice and warm to brave the nippy cold outside, pulling his sweater on just in time for Daisuke to hug him from behind, burying his face in between Ken’s shoulder blades and just hold there for a bit, time stretching as his warmth permeated Ken’s back and he nearly melted into the easy affection and constant reaching touch.
He’d be happy staying just like this, bringing in the new year just being as close to Daisuke as physically possible, held tight in his arms, but Daisuke had a plan and he seemed, finally, to remember that.
“Oh no! We’re gonna be late!” Daisuke pulled back but kept one hand firm in Ken’s palm, so they weren’t separated for even a second as Daisuke picked up a picnic basket from Ken’s own kitchen, something he must have made last night in between helping Mama with the osechi boxes, then led him not to the genkan, but to his computer.
“Are we going...to the digital world?”
“Well...” Daisuke turned back to him with a mischievous smile, squeezing his hand. “We’re going through it.”
Daisuke led Ken through a lush field in the digital world, but he barely felt the warm breeze, the sharp air contrasting even his heated apartment fighting against the cold, he couldn’t focus with the way Daisuke threaded their fingers together, pulling Ken closer so they were side-by-side instead of Ken a half-step behind.
Ken knocked his shoulder to Daisuke’s, enjoying the easy way he could initiate the closeness he craved here, when it was just him and Daisuke together, enjoying how Daisuke laughed in response and swung their arms together, linked how they belonged.
Daisuke checked his wristwatch only to squeak adorably. “Gotta hurry its almost time!”
Ken, for his part, had no idea what time it actually was at the moment, having not looked at a clock since falling asleep last night, so he put his faith in Daisuke’s knowledge, their hands breaking off with a moment of hesitation before they both turned their walk into a sprint, which turned into a race, which ended with Ken the victor at the TV, Daisuke just a split second behind.
“I’m gonna catch you one of these days, ugh!” Daisuke grasped his knees to catch his breath, but there was a smile on his face and ringing through his words.
“So where are we going then?”
“Oh, yeah!” And Daisuke grasped Ken’s elbow this time, awkwardly balancing the basket he’d brought along with holding his digivice out to activate the gate, and they both materialized together on a mountaintop, a small cabin behind them, a beautiful view in front.
“Where...are we?” Ken looked around while Daisuke bent to open the basket, pulling out a thin blanket and flipping it the full length out to flutter onto the grass with a soft thwump, and then another, thicker one, settling onto the outstretched cotton and patting the space beside him.
“Come and sit.”
Ken slid right in next to Daisuke, instantly swaddled by the other half of the blanket he was holding out for him and Daisuke’s own arm itself, resting on Ken’s waist and pulling him inches closer.
They sat there, facing the expansive view, for a bit before Daisuke responded to Ken’s actual question, in a very roundabout way.
“Last year,” He started, fingers flexing into Ken’s sweater, “We didn’t get to do this. It had already happened by the time we...got back. Finished stopping him.”
“Daisuke...”
“I just...I want this year to be perfect for you. I didn’t get to, after...you went through so much.”
“Daisuke.”
“I wanna do everything I can to make better memories, move on from the bad stuff, and I wanna be with you the whole year. Just like this.”
Ken fought back the urge to hide his face in his hair, the jittering of his neck changing to resting on Daisuke’s shoulder as he reached for his knee and squeezed it. “I want that too.”
Ken had read that some people spend their New Year’s Day how they want the rest of the year to go, and he couldn’t think of anything better than sitting here, basking in the beauty of nature, with Daisuke the fire beside him.
“You deserve everything , Ken.”
He’d already made Christmas special this year, taking Ken out somewhere with just the two of them, and it made hope bubble up inside Ken that there was something there, an extra layer to add to the partnership that made life worth living for both of them.
“You deserve that too, you know, Daisuke.”
But Daisuke had gotten distracted in those seconds, watching the horizon with a focused laser of intent.
“It’s time. Look.”
And Ken turned from staring somewhere between Daisuke’s face and the ground to look .
The sunrise just peaked over the lower hills surrounding them, washing the world in brilliant reds and golds, slowly washing away the deep blue of the night sky. He gasped as it blazed, a single point of light brightening the world with its power and intensity.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Daisuke prodded, and Ken turned fully now to watch his face, the first rays of sunlight just starting to hit his smile and make him glow too .
“It is.”
Something like courage welled up inside Ken, courage and passion and need that had him getting closer and closer, until Daisuke turned with wide eyes and raised brows, so their mouths slotted together perfectly, Daisuke so warm , almost painful as he made Ken’s cold lips tingle from the sensation, and then Daisuke moved his hand to card through Ken’s hair, his lips puckering against Ken’s, and everything was as Daisuke said he wanted.
Perfect .