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Motomiya Daisuke.
He was…curious, to say the least.
Ever since the beginning (which was not really that long ago), he’d waltzed into Ken’s garden without a care in the world. Hmm, no, ‘waltzed’ was too eloquent a word. Stumbled, more like. Though, he stumbled with so much blind optimism he almost made it look like he knew what he was doing. Almost.
He was…annoying. An insect, a pest, a thorn in Ken’s side like all of the Chosen Children. He’d somehow managed (with the others, of course, he was far too idiotic to do it on his own) to free Agumon despite how perfect Ken’s new Dark Spirals were. Yet…there was something. Something about him that drew Ken in, made him want to know more about him, know why he kept succeeding when he was obviously dense and useless without his friends.
So he was capturing him, of course.
It was rare to see Motomiya Daisuke without his friends, just as it would be strange to see a wolf without its pack or a starling without its flock. Like Ken said, the gogglehead was useless without them, so staying with them all the time was probably the smartest decision he’d ever made.
Yet, today he was wandering by himself. Not even VMon was with him. It was very odd, even worrying. Though he was mumbling something about ‘Hikari-chan and Takeru-kun’ so he presumably ran off and was now moping about his unrequited crush.
Ken sent some flying Digimon to capture him, and simply waited in his room until they got back.
He replayed scenes from old battles on his TV screens, trying to figure out where he went wrong. Nowhere, that was the answer. Obviously. He was a genius, he was perfect. So how did those infuriating idiotic pests keep beating him?!
He tapped his fingers on the edge of his keyboard, his eyes narrowing as he paused the video and stared at that one specific insect.
He scanned him, staring at every part of him for a little too long.
Nothing. Nothing, truly nothing about this boy was anything other than average. He had an average face. He had a lot of freckles and when he smiled and laughed he had those cute dimples. Nothing of note, though. He was short and chubby, his hands were soft and warm. Ken only knew that because he begrudgingly shook his hand at the soccer match, though the rest of Daisuke looked pretty soft as well. Anyway, once again there was nothing of note. The only thing that stuck out about him were those goggles, and they stuck out in a tacky way, not in a good way.
There really was nothing special about him. If there was, Ken surely would’ve figured it out by now.
Though he wanted to slam his fist into the keyboard in anger, he kept his cool. It wouldn’t make sense to lose his temper over such an insignificant thing, after all, and he didn’t want to have to repair the keyboard.
Just as his patience was beginning to run out, the Digimon arrived with the insect leader, Wormmon in tow. He’d accompanied the mission for some reason, despite the fact he could never be useful to them. It didn’t matter much.
As Ken turned to the Digimon, he was surprised to see Daisuke battered and unconscious.
He just stared for a few moments, his eyes settling over every painful-looking bruise.
“...what happened to him?”
“Well, Ken-chan, they…um…they were trying to capture him, and he resisted a lot, so they attacked him a bit, and he sort of punched them while they were trying to fly back and we crashed into a tree.”
Ken just blinked. He stood there in silence for a few seconds, as Wormmon held his breath.
Then Ken‘s expression turned to a glare. He clenched his fists and stormed over to take Motomiya from the Digimon.
When he turned to look at them, his raw fury was apparent on his face. He’d tried to keep his cool, but the Digimon had simply decided to be idiots today on top of everything. He thought that was a pretty reasonable reason to snap.
“I ASKED YOU TO DO ONE THING, YOU INSECTS!! HOW USELESS CAN YOU BE?!”
Wormmon flinched at Ken’s outburst, though he quickly tried to salvage the interaction and waved his little legs.
“Ken-chan, please don’t blame them!”
“Hm,” Ken turned back to the little Digimon, his cape whipping behind him as he dragged Motomiya by his shirt collar. “Are you suggesting that the whole thing was your fault?”
Wormmon shrunk in on himself.
“...w-well, um…no, but…they did what you asked…”
“Tch. I’m pretty sure I didn’t ask for him to be beaten up to the point of passing out.”
“...but he’s your enemy, Ken-chan…won’t it be easier to study him while he’s asleep…?”
Oh.
Hm. The insect kind of had a point for once. Of course, Ken would never admit that, that would imply he was wrong.
Ken thought for a moment, before nodding. “Very well. You three are dismissed.” He gestured to the three Digimon he’d sent, and they quickly left, hopefully to do something useful.
Wormmon stayed.
“What are you still doing here?”
“...I wanted to stay with you, Ken-chan…you didn’t give me orders to do anything else…”
“Go supervise those idiots or something,” Ken waved his hand vaguely. “Let me study the insect in peace.”
“...okay.”
Wormmon left without much of a fight, which meant Ken didn’t have to put up much of a fight either. He was glad, he’d done enough today.
Now, he could focus fully on Motomiya.
He was still out cold, his hands and legs trapped with shackles so he couldn’t try anything.
Now that he thought about it, Ken really could study him much better asleep. He wasn’t really sure why he wanted him awake in the first place, he was quite annoying. Now, what exactly Ken meant by ‘study him,’ he…hadn’t really figured that out yet.
He supposed he thought something would be obvious. Seeing him up close, which…he really hadn’t since the soccer match, he’d never get close to Motomiya under normal circumstances if he could help it. Though, once again…nothing stuck out. Nothing was special. Nothing to justify how he kept winning, how nervous his smile made Ken, or how drawn to him he felt.
Ken cursed under his breath. It really had not been his day. Or month. Or year. Or…life, to be honest. Though, that was getting more personal than Ken would like to.
Well…he supposed he should just stare at Motomiya until he got his answers or he woke up. It was…not his best plan.
His face…hm, average. Incredibly average, as he’d thought before. He lifted his hand to Daisuke’s face.
His gloves. They were preventing him from…making accurate observations. So Ken pulled off his sleek black gloves, and moved to gently stroke Daisuke’s cheek.
Wow…even softer than he’d imagined. Possibly softer than his hand.
Just to compare and analyze, Ken pulled off Daisuke’s bright yellow gloves as well, so he could softly intertwine their fingers, though the handcuffs made it a bit difficult.
Mm…Daisuke’s face was probably softer than his hands, simply because of all the callouses on the latter. The couple moles on his face made it a bit less smooth, though it was still very soft.
Wait. How was this information supposed to help him again?
Before Ken could rush to pull his hand away and put their gloves back on, Daisuke opened his eyes. And Ken didn’t move, for some reason. He didn’t even move his hand at all.
“...ugh…” Daisuke grumbled, his eyes struggling to adjust to the harsh blue light of Ken’s screens. Once they finally did, they widened in surprise, and then turned to anger.
“Ichijouji,” He glared. “Guess your Digimon servants captured me after all. I punched ‘em though, so hard we flew into a tree.”
“You know, that’s not the accomplishment you think it is. And plus, I already know. They were not supposed to bring you unconscious and beaten, so I knew something had happened.”
Daisuke rolled his eyes, before glancing at his hands, one of which was still intertwined with Ken’s hand.
They fit perfectly, strangely enough. That was all Ken was thinking. They hadn’t ever been intertwined like this before. Sure, they’d shook hands at the soccer game, but this…hm. It was strangely comforting, in a way. It felt…nice.
“Why are you holding my hand?” Daisuke finally asked incredulously.
Ken immediately yanked his hand away, slipping his gloves back on.
“T-To gather information. I was not holding your hand, I was examining it.”
“Uh, you literally were holding my hand though,” Daisuke continued to stare at Ken doubtfully. “What ‘information’ could you get from that anyway?”
“Insect. You don’t get to ask the questions here, you’re the one who’s captured.”
Daisuke scoffed, rolling his eyes.
“Why’d you capture me anyway if you weren’t planning to, like, torture me?”
“I don’t torture people, Motomiya. I captured you to gather information, as I said.”
“Information on what?? Just on…me?”
Daisuke paused for a second, and Ken silently nodded.
“Why wouldja ever wanna gather information on me?” Daisuke chuckled, though it had...a sad undertone to it. That was…strange…
“Well, you keep defeating me. Though, I have concluded thus far that every part of you is completely average, and therefore, there is no reason that you should be able to keep doing so.”
“Why’d you start talking all fancy? Anyway, yeah, I’m pretty average I guess. We just beat you ‘cause we have each other.”
Ken scoffed.
“Your precious teamwork cannot be that powerful that it overpowers my efforts, my genius, and my army every single time. There must be something special about you, Motomiya Daisuke, and I’m not letting you go until I figure out what it is.”
Daisuke rolled his eyes again.
“You said so yourself, I’m average. There’s nothing special.”
“Why are you so insistent on that, hm? I would hate to be treated so lightly.”
“Well, I’m not you. I think that’s obvious enough.”
Maybe there…really was nothing special about him. The insects just kept winning by pure luck, that was it. Though…it still didn’t explain…the way Daisuke sort of felt like a magnet. How Ken felt strange around him. His face would feel warm, and sometimes he’d have butterflies in his stomach. He really wasn’t sure why. It frustrated him, to be honest. He was a perfect genius, and yet he still couldn’t figure out why Motomiya Daisuke made him nervous.
Was it…because he was worried he’d lose to him again? Mm, no, that wasn’t it.
Hm…was it just because…Daisuke was so unpredictable? Maybe.
Maybe it was-
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?”
His eyes.
Daisuke was staring at him.
“Things much too complicated for your simple mind to comprehend.”
Daisuke groaned in annoyance, before shifting his position and looking straight at Ken with crossed arms. “Try me.”
Ken sighed. It was…embarrassing. Admitting to his enemy that he made him nervous? He’d never get to live it down if Daisuke laughed…
“...fine.”
Daisuke looked almost giddy with excitement, like he was being let in on some secret. Technically it sort of was a secret, so he wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Mm…thinking about someone, I suppose.”
Playing it safe. He didn’t have to tell Daisuke that someone was him, at least not right away.
“You gotta be more specific than that.”
“Tch. I told you that you wouldn’t understand. Why do you want to know more anyway?”
“I dunno! You didn’t give me anything else to do…”
Ken sighed once again. Well…he did want to see what Motomiya would say.
“...I don’t like them. At all. I get nervous around them sometimes, and I get butterflies. Though, I feel really…drawn to them. Like I almost…want to be close to them.”
As soon as Ken finished talking, Daisuke leaned in with a smirk.
“Ooooooh, sounds like the Kaiser has a cruuush!!!”
Ken’s eyes widened and a bright blush spread across his face.
“N-NO!!! Tch…Insect. Y-You don’t know anything.”
Of all the things…he was not expecting Daisuke to say that.
“There’s nothing wrong with having a crush, y’know. I have a crush on Hikari-chan! Did you kno-”
“Yes. You are annoyingly obvious about it.”
“Ugh, well, so are you!!”
“How could I be obvious if I never had a crush in the first place?”
Daisuke sighed.
“Alright, whatever, I’ll leave you alone.”
…that was…a lot to think about.
Ken wasn’t offended at the idea of liking another boy, he wasn’t even conventionally a boy by most people’s standards, so he didn’t really mind. The thing he hated was the idea of having a crush on Daisuke. Him, of all people?? That would not be good. At all. What would he do??
And yet…
Daisuke…he was kind of beautiful. Ken had denied it before, but he really did like looking at him…every part of him.
Oh no.
Oh no, no, no, no, no. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
“...you’re blushing, Ichijouji.”
Ken squeaked and hid his face in his hands.
No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, this could not be happening to him.
“...Kaiser? You good?”
“Fine. Tch.”
“...uh huh.”
Terrible. Absolutely terrible.
H-He wasn’t even, like…a good person to have a crush on! If his enemy was some incredible boy, maybe he’d get it, but Daisuke was…average! H-He was just Daisuke!!
“...this has to be a bad dream.” Ken muttered as he frantically shook his head.
“Um…well, with that reaction I’m guessing your ‘not crush’ is someone you really don’t like. Which is basically everyone.”
Ugh. Couldn’t Motomiya just leave him alone? He had enough to think about. And yet…his voice was somewhat soothing…
No!!! No, no, no, no!!!!!
He groaned and hit his head with his hands.
No, no, no, simply unacceptable.
He was unacceptable.
He had a crush on Daisuke.
“...is it Miyako?” Daisuke gently lifted Ken’s hands off his head as much as he could with his hands shackled. The thought was there.
“Why would it be Miyako? I’ve barely talked to her. She’s just loud and obnoxious.”
Daisuke chuckled.
“Kay, fair. Ooh, is it Hikari-chan? It’s Hikari-chan, isn’t it…”
“No. It would be easier if it was her.”
Wait. He was answering Daisuke’s questions. Why? And he couldn’t say something stupid like he wanted to hear his voice or something.
Sooner or later, Daisuke would find out if he kept asking. How would he react?
He’d probably laugh. He’d already assumed Ken’s crush was a girl, so he probably wouldn’t react well. And that was completely disregarding the fact he hated him anyway.
“Sooo, is it Takeru-kun?”
Ken blinked.
Oh. Daisuke didn’t assume he only liked girls.
That was…nice. More than he expected from his enemy.
“You…you wouldn’t be upset about that?”
“Eh? Why would I be upset?”
“...well, Takeru is a boy. And I’m a boy. Not that he’s my crush, but still…”
“Ohh…” Daisuke nodded in realization. “Nah, I wouldn’t care. I know most people wouldn’t like it or they’d think it’s weird, but I’ve had crushes on boys!”
“...you have? I thought you only liked Hikari.”
“No way! To be honest, all my crushes other than Hikari have been boys.”
“Really?? Like who?”
Now Ken was the one being curious about Daisuke’s crushes.
It almost felt like they were just friends at a sleepover. Though, that was untrue, of course. Ken had no friends. He didn’t need them.
“Well, y’know that famous actor, Michel J. Barton? He was in a couple of American action movies!”
Ken nodded.
“I used to have a celebrity crush on him.” Daisuke said with a chuckle.
“Ohh!” Ken leaned in with intrigue. He wanted to hear more. He’d basically thrown all logic out the window at this point, he wanted to hear Daisuke talk.
“So, yeah, him. There was also just this boy in my class when I was little. I don’t remember his name, but yeah, I definitely liked him. I hadn’t realized it at the time, though.”
“What did you do about it?”
“Uh, nothing. Since I didn’t know, I kinda just kept trying to be his friend, but I think he thought I was annoying.”
“Oh. How come?”
“Whaddaya mean how come? You don’t find me annoying?”
Ken froze. “I-I…of course I do, just…well, you’re trespassing in my garden and trying to take down my dark towers. All you were doing to that boy was trying to be friends with him.”
“Mm, I guess you have a point,” Daisuke let himself fall backwards onto the metal floor. It didn’t look too comfortable. “I’m just, like…an annoying person. I’ve accepted it, but just, like…nobody’s gonna like me. Ever. Cause I’m really annoying and stupid. And that’s okay, I don’t blame them at all. It’s just kinda, y’know…what happens.”
Ken’s expression turned sad, with a hint of confusion. This is how Daisuke felt?
“...well, that’s ridiculous.”
“Hm? Why?”
“Why? Look at all the people who love you. You have your friends, you have VMon. I heard you guys talking about your sister one time, so obviously you have her. So you have your family too. You have so many people, none of them think you're annoying.”
“...you don’t get it at all, do you, Ichijouji?”
Ken scoffed.
Daisuke sat back up, though he continued staring at the ground.
“Miyako’s annoyed by me. We always fight and stuff. I love her, but I dunno if she loves me. And Takeru too. I guess I’m just jealous that Hikari likes him so much, but he’s still cool and I’ll never be that cool. Hikari’s annoyed by me and she doesn’t like me, she’s really nice and I’m really stupid so she hates me. Iori doesn’t like me either, cause he’s smart and he always knows what to do even though he’s little, and all I do is get in the way. And my sister Jun hates me cause she’s a teenager and has important stuff to do, and I’m just her stupid little brother who’s annoying. My mom ignores me unless I’m doing something special, and I’m never doing something special cause I’m not special. And my dad hates me cause I’m not smart and I’ll never be smart and I’ll always be a failure for my whole life cause I failed at school and I failed at making friends and I failed at soccer and I failed at-”
“S-Stop!!!” Ken finally shouted, louder than he’d meant to. He grabbed Daisuke’s shoulders.
The other boy stared at him straight in the eyes, his eyes wide and…there were tears streaming from them.
“O-Oh, god, sorry.” Daisuke quickly went to wipe his tears, though the handcuffs once again made it difficult. Ken gently unlocked them and slipped them off. The ones on his legs too. He wasn’t trying anything anyway, and…he looked so sad, how could he keep him captured like this?
“...w-what are you doing?”
“Just what it looks like.”
Daisuke blinked in surprise, before getting back to wiping his tears. More just kept coming. His efforts amounted to nothing. Just as…it seemed like they always did, from what he’d said.
“...Motomiya…that was…”
“Annoying. I know.”
“No!! Sad, maybe…but annoying? Never.”
“W-Why are you pretending to like me? You don’t have to make me feel better, you can make fun of me, it’s okay.”
“Oh, Motomiya…”
Ken softly took his hands, keeping him from trying to hide his tears again.
“...am I the only one who knows you feel this way?”
“Um, yeah…you weren’t supposed to…It kinda just…happened. It was supposed to be a secret, nobody was s’posed to know…” Daisuke sniffled.
“I’ll keep the secret, okay? I’m good at that.”
Daisuke nodded.
“...t-thank you.”
“Though, if you do feel this way, I really think you should tell your friends. I know parents don’t listen, but…well, at least from what I’ve heard, friends are supposed to.”
“...you don’t have any friends?”
Somehow that was Daisuke’s biggest concern right now.
“No. But I don’t mind. Geniuses don’t need friends.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Ken smiled a bit.
“And why, might I ask?”
“Koushiro-senpai has friends. He’s one of the smartest guys I know. And Jou-senpai, too, he’s really smart. Miyako’s super smart and cool, and she has a bunch of friends. And Iori, he’s usually the smartest of us whenever we’ve gotta retreat or make a plan or something.”
“I see.”
“Do you want friends?”
Ken hesitated. He probably hesitated too long for someone who didn’t want to have friends.
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, if you ever stop trying to take over the Digital World…I think you’d make a pretty good one.”
Ken blushed. He let himself smile.
“...thank you.”
That might have been the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him.
The two of them sort of just…looked at each other.
Daisuke’s curly mahogany hair, the exact shade of his pretty eyes. His freckles. His silly goggles and flame jacket.
Ken wasn’t sure what he was going to do.
He really had fallen for this boy.
“...well, I should probably let you go now.”
“Yeah, I guess so. You probably collected a lot of significant information on me, heh…”
“I promise I’m not going to use what I learned today against you,” Ken brushed a strand of Daisuke’s hair behind his ear. “I’m keeping that a secret and never using it for any reason.”
Daisuke smiled with a slight blush, leaning into Ken’s touch.
“T-Thank you. Wow, that’s really nice of you..”
“You don’t have to thank me. You trusted me with that information, I won’t betray that even if we’re enemies.”
“I-I dunno what else to say other than thank you again, but you told me I don’t have to thank you.” Daisuke chuckled, and Ken chuckled too.
“I suppose just, see you soon?”
Daisuke nodded.
“See you soon.”
The short boy got up from the ground, and Ken whistled for his Airdramon.
They flew in quickly, awaiting his orders.
This was the Digimon Ken usually rode everywhere. They were faithful and trustworthy and didn’t usually crash into trees.
“Please fly Motomiya Daisuke back to his friends.”
“...uh…they’re not gonna attack me, are they?”
Ken shook his head, gently petting Airdramon. “They only attack people if I tell them to.”
Daisuke followed Ken, petting Airdramon’s head.
“You know we’re probably gonna break their dark ring, right?”
Ken sighed. “I know.”
“And you don’t care?”
It wasn’t that he didn’t care.
He just…hm. He was at peace, he supposed. With everything. At least for now. He’d probably regret it later, but for now…he was okay.
“No, it’s alright.”
Daisuke smiled.
“Thanks, Ichijouji.”
He slowly climbed onto Airdramon, holding tightly onto their mane.
“Take care, okay?” Ken said. Whether it was meant for Airdramon or Daisuke, he wasn’t really sure.
“We will.” Daisuke replied.
Ken nodded, and Airdramon flew off through the base. They knew the way out, so they’d be fine on their own.
And just like that, the day was over.
No new dark towers set up, no new Digimon captured.
And yet…he found he’d learned the most important thing he could’ve. Motomiya Daisuke was special. Because he was Motomiya Daisuke.