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The room was more than just dark. It was like the floor and walls were painted shadows, Daisuke's wrist and ankles shackled to unyielding nothingness.
A familiar, mocking cackle. He lifted his head and peered into the black. A single circle of light shined down on the floor like a stage. Footsteps echoed endlessly and Ken swept into the view, cape like folded wings and glasses hiding his eyes with flaring lenses.
“I trust we're enjoying the accommodations?” he gloated.
Daisuke wiggled from his spot on the wall and looked around the dark room. “Not really what I'd call Five-Star. No minifridge, no cable, not even an evil mint on my pillow. My travel agent's gonna hear about this.”
With the glasses, all Daisuke could see was Ken's arrogant smirk. “Ah yes, the heroic bravado. We'll see how long that lasts, won't we?”
“And how long do you think you can keep up the 'Evil Overlord' routine, Ken?” Daisuke surged against the shackles. “You've got a life back in the real world! A home, a family! I see you mom crying her eyes out every night on the news begging you to come home!”
Ken laughed up at the ceiling like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. “My parents?” He sneered. “Proud genius producers or the tragic family full of lost sons, so long as those ingrates get their time on camera, they're content.”
“You can't really mean that, Ken...”
“And how many times do I have to repeat myself before it penetrates your thick skull?! My name is the Digimon Emperor!”
“I dunno Ken, 'Digimon Emperor' just has way too many syllables...”
Ken cleared the space between them in three wide strides and grabbed Daisuke's chin. He struggled and thrashed his head, but Ken's grip bit just under his throat and forced his head up meet his gaze.
“Keep laughing, you insipid little buffoon,” he hissed. “Do you want to know something fascinating about the Digiworld? It translates humans into raw data. Computer code that I can manipulate.” He wrapped his fingers around Daisuke's throat and leaned close, lips an inch from Daisuke's ear. “There's so many experiments I've just been dying to try. Give me a few days, and I'm going to have a dark ring around your pretty little neck. Then I'll have you on your knees for me...”
Daisuke shrugged. “Not sure I can kneel right now, but how 'bout a bow?” He smashed his forehead right into Ken's nose, breaking the glasses and sending him stumbling backwards.
Ken howled and held his hands to his face. “AAGH!” He threw the ruined glasses off into the dark and glared at him with slivers of hard ice. Blood trickled from his nose and a ran down from a cut on his forehead.
“Ha! How's that for a thick skull, Kenny?”
Ken backhanded him across the face, stinging and hard enough to echo off the dark walls. “Shut up! I'm going to make you pay for that, you miserable little worm!”
“Oh yeah? Well just you just wait until my friends get here and you're gonna be the one who-”
“Your friends?” Ken's grin cracked across his anger. He let out a short, throaty chuckle that wiggled a little worm of dread in Daisuke. “Your friends are never coming for you. They can't. You're not there to lead them.” He planted his hands on the wall on both sides of Daisuke's head, helpless and enclosed. “Because I've finally figured it out,” Ken was starting to ramble, half-crazed with his wide eyes and slithering blood, “how mere children could possibly dismantle my perfectly constructed designs. It's you. It's always been you. Mr. All-or-Nothing, the X factor, the only one who would ever do anything so unfathomably stupid that a genius like myself can never predict it!”
Daisuke snorted. “Doesn't that sorta make you the stupid one, then? Wow, that must be embarrassing for you.”
Ken growled between his teeth and sharply seized Daisuke by the hair.
“Don't start thinking you being a worthy adversary makes you any less beneath me.”
Then Ken kissed him, spiteful and owning like ungentle conquest and Daisuke was torn between biting him and kissing back when he shot upright in his bed, wide awake.
What. The. Hell.
Curled on the pillow next to him, Chibimon peeked open a sleepy eyelid. “Daisuke? Are you okay?”
“Yeah...” He panted, breath unexpectedly short. “I'm...I'm okay.”
“Did you have a bad dream? You're sweating.”
He was sweating. A lot. There was an aching tent in his boxers, and when Daisuke lifted his covers he groaned.
“You can say that, yeah.”
Daisuke rubbed his wrists absently and tried to pay attention to the map Miyako had pulled up on her handheld instead of Ken.
So far it wasn't working.
Because Ken wasn't the Emperor anymore. His eyes were softer, kinder, always distant and thinking about something far-off. It's not like Daisuke missed it when Ken was a cruel, crazy supervillain, but he just couldn't get their first meeting out of his head. The Ken that was like a honed, edge- sharp and commanding and single-handedly dodging Daisuke's entire soccer team like they were just traffic cones in jerseys. Ken was his best friend next to Veemon now, but a part of him kinda missed Ken the rival.
Daisuke watched him frown examining the map, saw his lips purse almost like a pout, then Daisuke almost choked remembering the Emperor's hard, merciless kiss and violently shook his head to throw the image out of his ears before things got...uncomfortable.
Ken noticed the action, raising a concerned eyebrow at him. Daisuke shoved his hands into his pockets and pointed his head somewhere, anywhere else.
Wait- Hikari!
Yeah, Hikari! She was standing just a few feet away, Gatomon purring in her arms while she scratched behind her ears and nodded at something Miyako said. Yeah okay, that worked. Daisuke spaced out tons of times daydreaming about Hikari. Sure her figure wasn't all busty and curvy like most guys preferred but Daisuke liked her how she was. She was always so sweet and gentle and her hair was pretty like...
Like...
He darted his eyes between Hikari and Ken. Oh crap, they had the same hair! Wait, maybe that explained it! Yeah, Ken was all pretty like a girl and had Hikari's hairstyle and they'd been hanging out so much lately that it must've thrown Daisuke off or something. Girls were always swooning over Ken, Miyako especially. Which was weird, when you thought about it. What was the deal with girls getting so goo-goo eyed over boys that were sorta girly looking, anyways?
For some weird reason, he started thinking of Hikari and Miyako laughing and holding hands and snuggling like in those manga he kept under his mattress. Okay, that was way less annoying than all the times Mikayo was chasing after Ken, for some reason; she was always finding some excuse to sit next to him, or get close, chat him up, even interrupted Ken and him a couple times like it was nothing.
It was enough to make him grit his teeth and growl; almost as annoying as seeing Hikari holding hands with Takeru or giggling at some stupid in-joke because it was totally Daisuke's fault he didn't save both worlds together with her when they were eight!
Not that Daisuke was comparing Ken and Hikari because it was totally different things. Miyako was being totally annoying but Ken was too nice to say anything about it so it was Daisuke's job to stand up for him because Ken was his buddy!
Daisuke's attention wandered and he thought about that time they all went to the beach and Hikari wore a cute little two-piece and Ken had on trunks but was too shy to take of his shirt until Daisuke had to beg him to play with them all in the water because it wasn't the same without him and then..and then...
Hey look Ken was pointing at the map and talking. Right, the map! Places to go, Control Spires to wreck, important Digidestined stuff to do, yep, yep!
Ken's finger circled around a cluster of black dots due south. “I know this area. The topography is a pretty difficult to navigate on foot, but Wormmon and I should have no problems flying over it and-”
“We should stick with working in pairs,” Takeru said. “That way we'll be able to cover more ground and keep us all from being scattered and vulnerable.”
“Buddy system,” Hikari nodded. “If it works for First Graders...”
“Point taken,” Ken agreed. “Alright, Daisuke and I can take the southern zone and-”
“I'LL GO WITH IORI!” Daisuke volunteered loudly.
Daisuke scratched the back of his head and tried to shake off the weight of five humans and six digimon staring at him.
“Huh?” Iori blinked. “Me?”
Daisuke may not be a super genius, but he knew better than to try to partner up with Hikari, much as he wanted to- that was doomed battle. All he knew was that he just needed...space to figure stuff out and being alone with Ken- even with their partners along- would just be distracting and stuff.
“Yeah!” Daisuke said. “I thought me and you could take the east zone, just the two of us. We never just...hang out, y'know?”
“...but you always call me a little kid” Iori pointed out, calmly stating fact. “And short.”
“Aw, I'm just teasing you man, just like when Miyako calls me doofus.”
“Or numb-skull?” Iori asked.
“Don't forget porcupine-head,” Miyako said cheerily.
“Oooh, oooh, or goggle-brain!” Veemon excitedly added.
Daisuke risked peeking at Ken in the corner of his vision, looking confused and maybe...disappointed? “Yes, all of those can we just go already?”
“Are you okay, Daisuke?” Ken looked vaguely worried.
Hard possessive lips on his, fingers stroking the hollow of his throat, making him shudder against the shackles (can't fight can't press closer). Daisuke had to resist the urge reach for the dark ring around his neck he knew wasn't there. “Uhhh...'course I am, why wouldn't I be?”
Hikari said apologetically, “It's just that you're acting a little...weird.”
“-er.” Takeru added.
“Aw, don't sweat it guys!” Veemon came to his defense. “Daisuke just didn't get a lot of sleep last night!”
“Bad dreams?” The dark circles around Ken's eyes were sympathetic.
“He wouldn't tell me, but they must have been pretty bad. He even had to wash his sheets last night because of all the sweat!”
“AAAAHHHH!” Daisuke clamped his hand over his partner's mouth. “Dude! Bro-code!”
Veemon muffled confusion and Daisuke face felt like it was getting sunburned as Takeru snorted and was visibly straining to not laugh. “Sweat...huh?”
“How...horrible for you,” Hikari wrestled her mouth shut to keep the giggles down. Of course, she had Taichi-sempai as an older brother.
Miyako and Iori were exchanging puzzled looks with each other. Right, 'cause Iori was still a kid and Miyako had an apartment full of sisters. At least everyone didn't-
Ken.
Ken was frowning, looking at Daisuke, then at Hikari and Takeru trying not to laugh and failing miserably at it. Daisuke could see the exact moment when the honest-to-God genius figured the whole thing out; their eyes met briefly before both boys turned away with reddening faces.
“Why do I have the feeling something just flew right over my head?” Hawkmon tapped his beak thoughtfully.
“When you're as close to the ground as me, you learn to get used to it,” Armadillomon shrugged his tail.
“I'm just shocked to hear about Daisuke doing laundry,” Miyako said, thank-all-the-gods oblivious.
“Yes,” Takeru agreed with a knowing smirk. “The laundry.”
Daisuke rubbed his wrists watching Ken tap Miyako's shoulder and pointed at her handheld. Right, the map. “Let's go, Iori.” He grabbed his hand and started walking in the direction he thought was east. He could check later.
“Uh...okay,” Iori said. “Hey...Daisuke? What was all that about, before? With your bad dream and the laundry.”
“It'll make more sense when you're older.”
“Does it have something to do with sex? Because my grandfather told me-”
“AAAAAND WE'RE WALKING!”