Title: Misadventures in Love and Art

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Digimon is the property of an assortment of writers and companies which I have no part in. I am not making any money off of this work of fiction, this is purely written for fun and free entertainment.

Notes: Written for the 28 Days of Love and the Pairing Diversity Boot Camp on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges Forum. Beta'd by Kanarah J, thank you lovely lady ^_^ Please don't forget to leave a review!

...

A glance at the closed bathroom door brought a sigh to Daisuke's lips. It was supposed to have opened nearly thirty minutes ago, but instead it stayed firmly shut. Or at least as firmly as that door could be shut. Normally the door couldn't close as well as it should have. Someone was leaning against it from the inside, keeping it closed that way. Daisuke leaned against the door frame.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want - "

"Why, so you can go and ogle some other girl?"

"No, I already told you - "

"This was a stupid idea anyway!"

Daisuke sighed, and waited. After a moment, he spoke. "Are you done now?"

"Have I told you how stupid you are?"

"About ten times today."

"And that I hate you?"

"No, not yet,"

"Because I do."

"Noted." Daisuke smiled in spite of the insults. "You really don't have to do this if it makes you uncomfortable, Miyako-chan. I won't mind. I won't ask anyone else. I'm just thinking about you." The weight against the door shifted, the typical one-inch crack falling back into place.

"I know," Miyako's voice softened from its formerly loud and harsh tone into something sweeter and more vulnerable. "I'm just - nervous, is all."

"You don't - "

"But I want to." Daisuke chose not to say anything else. He had the feeling that his words only made things worse not better. He stood outside of the door for a moment longer before sighing and retreating back into the living room. He's known Miyako since elementary school, been dating her since middle school. He knew her moods better than most people. Even so, this was a strange one he had zero experience with. Miyako very rarely grew nervous about anything. Even those few times that she was nervous, Miyako just put in more effort and energy than humanly possible not to show it. This though... Daisuke wasn't sure, but he thought that Miyako could be more embarrassed than nervous. Her reactions to being embarrassed varied from unnecessary anger to unprecedented sadness to outright idiocy.

"Of all the girls in the world," Daisuke mumbled to himself, fiddling with his workspace "I had to go fall in love with the most insane, impossible girl of them all. Whatever happened to dating a nice girl like Hikari or Noriko? I could've even gone for Mimi - "

"Daisuke?" the clarity of the voice had him looking back towards the bathroom, where Miyako stood with a bath towel wrapped around her chest. It didn't cover much, she had to hold it fairly low over her breasts - because Miyako hated any other word to describe them than the "proper" word - for the towel to just attempt to cover the bits down below. "I... I'm ready. I guess."

"Did you put - ?"

"Yes, I used the tape like you told me to."

"And you left - "

"Yes, Daisuke."

There was an awkward silence then. Daisuke wasn't sure how to move forward then, which was strange because he always knew what to do. Or he did a good job pretending to. But how did one go about painting his naked - mostly naked - girlfriend? Whom he has never seen naked before?

"Come here," he finally told her, gesturing with a hand for Miyako to stand directly in front of him. "You trust me, right?"

"No, I just stand naked in any pervy man's apartment," was the snarky response.

"Yeah, just double checking." Daisuke grinned before snatching the towel from her clutch and tossing it to the side.

"You jerk, that was my - "

" - in the way." Daisuke cut her off.

"Regardless! You should have asked me first."

"Why, so we could spend another hour arguing about it before you run away again?"

"Well maybe I'll skip the arguing and just get dressed?"

"Well fine, see if I care."

"Ugh! Why do you have to be so annoying?"

"Why do you have to be so frustrating?"

"You just snatched he towel and I am naked here!"

"Of all the - " Daisuke cut himself off. He sighed deeply, checking his temper, before going to retrieve the towel. Right. It wasn't right to just snatch it away like that, was it? Again, Daisuke was only making things worse, not better. He returned, and offered the towel back to Miyako. "Take it."

"Of all the what, Daisuke?"

"Nothing," he replied, hoping to avoid another argument.

"No, what?"

"Take the towel."

"Of all the what, Motomiya?"

Daisuke groaned. "Of all of the women in the world, Inoue, out of all of them, millions of them, I had to go and pick the most difficult, most frustrating, most obnoxious and unfortunately the most beautiful out of them all! Okay? The only one I can't ever win an argument against, the only one who constantly insults me and calls it affection, the only one I couldn't possibly hate, even when I want to. Because I really want to hate you right now. Happy?"

Miyako took the towel back from her boyfriend, not at all disconcerted by his speech. "You're such a dork, do you know that?" In spite of the insult, her voice was soft and appreciative.

"Yeah, sure."

"I love you too."

"That's not what I said, Miyako-chan."

"That's what I heard, anyway." Miyako dropped the towel on the floor beside her feet. Daisuke shook his head at her. Difficult, frustrating woman. "Are you going to get started or what?"

-0-

Miyako's happy attitude didn't last very long. She might have agreed to let Daisuke use her skin as a canvas, but she had never agreed to be a quiet canvas.

"It's so cold," she had begun to complain after exactly two minutes.

"It's paint," Daisuke argued a moment later. He didn't stop painting.

"But does it have to be cold?"

"I am not sticking this stuff in the microwave,"

"Fine,"

"I won't put it in the stove either."

"You aren't the one who's getting painted!"

"Nope, I'm not."

Daisuke continued with his paintbrush along Miyako's stomach, trying to paint around her wriggling. Daisuke was surprisingly good at art, a fun hobby for when he wasn't making noodles. However, even he would doubt his own ability with the way things were turning out.

"Can you please stop moving?"

"Can you please turn on the heat?"

"It's the middle of summer."

"And I'm covered in cold paint."

"You aren't covered in it," Daisuke corrected her. "I've barely done anything yet."

"I'm shivering, Daisuke,"

"You're fidgeting, Miyako,"

"You can't tell me how I feel," glared Miyako. "I'm cold. I'm shivering. You won't warm the paint up, so at least let me put on the heat."

"It's like, ninety degrees outside, and it's not much better in here! Are you serious?"

"You aren't the one who's getting painted."

Daisuke growled lowly, in the back of his throat, and for a moment, Miyako was afraid that she'd pushed him too far. She had been goading him all day, hadn't she? Being annoying, picking fights, insulting him, simply because she could. It was fun, and Daisuke allowed her to. However, she had never expected to push him, past the point where he looked like he wanted to harm her. Miyako really didn't didn't think that Daisuke had such a limit, not for her. He was the sort of guy lonely, romantic women wrote about, who sent her good morning texts and good night texts and called back when she hung up on him. He opened doors and held her purse - not willingly of course - and did pretty much whatever she asked. But if she had really pushed him this far...

"Here," Daisuke thrust clean paint brushes into Miyako's face. She flinched but only barely. Gingerly, she took the brushes from his hand and watched him take off is t-shirt rather aggressively. "I don't know how the paint feels since I'm not getting painted. Show me."

"Um. What?"

"Show. Me." Daisuke repeated. "Put the brush in the paint. Spread it across my chest. Make a picture, I don't care." Miyako blinked.

"Where was that support when I was in the bathroom?"

"I was on the other side of the door trying to calm you down!"

"I complain about cold paint and your solution is for me to paint you too! You didn't offer to get naked with me!"

"You want me naked, Miyako?" Daisuke's voice struggled against the strain not to shout. "Fine! I'm naked." In one swift moment, his sweatpants and boxers were around his ankles, arms folded across his chest to drive his point home. Miyako could still feel his glare on her as she averted her own embarrassed gaze. Maybe goading Daisuke further had been a bad idea. Not maybe, definitely. Being mostly naked, in front of a completely-naked Daisuke was more uncomfortable than the thought of being in front of a clothed Daisuke.

"I didn't mean..." she admitted after a tense silence. "I wasn't being serious, Daisuke."

"I am."

"I know." Miyako sighed. "I'm sorry." Apologies weren't exactly her strong point. In fact, Miyako could probably count the number of times she's actually apologized, rather than just implied that she was sorry.

"Yeah, I know," Daisuke bit out. "But... I just want you to be comfortable, okay? And if I have to be naked with you, or if you need to paint terrible attempts at bunnies or birds or whatever -"

"Terrible attempts?"

"Miyako-chan, you can't draw." Miyako heard the laugh in Daisuke's voice and smiled.

"You don't have to be naked with me," Miyako told him quietly. She still hadn't looked at him. "At least put some pants on."

"Got it," After she could tell that Daisuke's pants were up, Miyako looked back to her boyfriend. She didn't understand how he could be so nonchalant about that display, though she suspected he might just be really good at hiding his own embarrassment.

"I'll try to be less frustrating from now on." She decided. Daisuke leaned forward and kissed he forehead.

"Thank you."

-0-

It took a lot of effort for Daisuke not to sigh or groan at Miyako's accusation. He should have seen it coming, honestly. He had been surprised when Miyako hadn't asked last week, but thought she had shown an awful lot of faith and trust in him for once.

"No, Miyako, I did not only want to see you naked. That is not why I asked."

"If you wanted to have sex - "

"That's not why I asked you to model for me,"

" - all you had to do was ask."

"You said not until we're married."

"Damn straight."

"So why even bring it up?"

"I don't know... too quiet."

Daisuke couldn't help it, he laughed. It had been rather silent in the apartment for the last forty minutes or so, something Daisuke did not exactly mind... but it was Mikayo, she was almost never silent, especially for so long. She even mumbled in her sleep.

"I can turn the radio on for you," Daisuke offered.

"Why did you ask me to model for you?" Miyako was oddly soft-toned today. The last time that had happened, they'd had the sex talk; she had been afraid Daisuke would leave her if she admitted she didn't want to have sex until she was married. Daisuke stopped painting and straightened up to look his girlfriend in the face.

"What do you mean, why? Why wouldn't I?"

"I just mean..." Miyako looked away from Daisuke once again. Daisuke grabbed her chin an gently brought her face back around.

"Miyako-chan? What's wrong?"

"If you didn't just want to see me naked then...?"

"I thought that it might be really cool and fun!" Daisuke grinned, hoping to ease whatever it was bothering her. A quiet Miyako was absolutely wonderful, but wrong. If something was bothering her, Daisuke wanted to kill the problem so hard that it reincarnated as a corpse. "For both of us. I'd heard about people doing it online and some of the pictures looked really awesome, and I wondered if the two of us could try it. Plus, you said you wanted to watch me paint one day - "

"Yeah, watch you paint - "

"But you always fall asleep or get bored. If you're my canvas, you can't get bored."

"That's not my fault."

"Yes, it is."

"Then what do you want me to do?" This time Daisuke did sigh (briefly he wondered if being in love with another girl would cause him to sigh so much?) and stepped away. "I told you, if you didn't want me to do this, we didn't have to."

"Do you know how embarrassing this is, Daisuke? To let you stare at me and touch me like that? I am completely at your mercy!"

"Miyako, you know I wouldn't take advantage of you like that,"

"But that's besides the point, Daisuke!"

"Then why didn't you say so?" Daisuke asked, exasperated. "You went out of your way to make me happy even though - "

"Because you go out of your way to make me happy!" the declaration was an indignant whine, as if Miyako were a child complaining about the unfairness of it all.

Daisuke took Miyako's face into his hands.

"Miyako-chan. I go out of my way because I can, and I want to."

"I can too!" Miyako cried. "I want to."

"I know. But don't do things you're uncomfortable with to make me happy. You'll just get me annoyed."

"And frustrated?"

"I'm always frustrated with you."

"Do you hate me?"

"That's impossible for me."

"Are you disappointed?"

"That I can't hate you? Yeah, but I'll live. I love you too much." Daisuke kissed her to prove his point, smiling when Miyako pulled him back for a longer and deeper encore.

-0-

"Aren't you done yet?!" Miyako screamed from the kitchen.

"Didn't you ever learn patience?"

"Just because I learned patience doesn't mean I want to use it!"

"You need to start," mumbled Daisuke.

"What was that?"

"I'm working on art!"

"That better be what you said."

"Why would I ever say anything to rile your temper?" Daisuke grinned at Miyako over the back of his easel. "But seriously, I'm almost done."

"Then I can see it?"

"Then you can see it." Daisuke agreed. "Dinner ready yet?"

"Not until your painting is."

"Are you serious?" The look Miyako gave Daisuke proved her point. "Okay, I get no food."

Miyako smiled to herself, watching Daisuke work. She'll admit that maybe she abused the power that she held over him, just a little bit. And she'll admit that she kind of liked that Daisuke doesn't know just how much influence he has over her as well. She liked it, but sometimes she wished that he would ask more from her. Miyako demanded everything and Daisuke provided it all - usually with a smile, but often with a few cross words and a glare. A very loving, adoring glare, but a glare nonetheless. Miyako wanted to do more, she really did, but Daisuke never asked for anything, and it didn't seem as though he expected much else either. As far as Miyako could tell, all he wanted was her company, her happiness, and her cooking.

"I'm finished!" Daisuke finally called, an hour later. Miyako jumped up, putting aside her book to join him. Daisuke had been painting with his back to the balcony, facing the rest of the apartment so that Miyako couldn't even glance at his work. He wasn't usually so secretive about his projects, so Miyako was extremely curious. She didn't particularly like secrets, but did her best not to piss Daisuke off like she had the previous week.

"So can I see it yet?"

"Can I eat dinner yet?"

"Only if I can see first."

"Go ahead. I'm getting food." Miyako grinned, hardly waiting for Daisuke to part a path in his work area and move before occupying the space herself.

What she found was a swirling clash of bright, bold colors; it almost felt like an argument between earthy oranges, yellows, and browns, against electric greens, blues, and violets.

"Did you just spend two days painting an exploding heart?" Miyako asked incredulously.

"You don't like it?"

"I'm not sure if I should."

"Aw, come one, Miyako-chan! Do you like it or not?" Miyako cocked her head to the side.

"Are the colors supposed to be fighting?"

"They always fight. That's just how they work."

"Yellow does not fight with blue," Miyako argued. "Yellow hooks up with blue and that's how you get green."

"That's besides the point, Miyako. And so what if blue and yellow make green? Can't two colors really love each other and fight at the same time?"

"If that's the case then they sound a lot like us."

"That was the point," Daisuke shrugged. "Is this Korean? You make really good Korean food."

"It's Thai, learn your geography, idiot. Is this painting about us?"

"Hey, I passed Geography. I can find countries on a map, not by taste."

"Is this about us or not?"

"No, we're talking about the geography of food." Daisuke looked up from his food to the annoyed expression on Miyako's face. She pointed to the easel and he nodded. "Oh, that. Yes, that's us."

"... It's actually kind of beautiful. In a chaotic, dysfunctional sort of way."

"Are you just saying that because you're in it?

"Why this?" Miyako ignored Daisuke's question.

"Huh?"

"Why did you decide to paint this?"

"Oh. It was gonna be on you. I wanted it to be a little more... delicate, I guess, and involved and more than just the heart part but - "

"I want to see it." interrupted Miyako. Daisuke blinked, chopsticks halfway to his mouth.

"What?"

"I want to see the whole thing." Miyako picked her way out from behind Daisuke's work space to stand in front of him in the kitchen. She folded her arms across her chest, daring him to argue.

"I thought you said being naked made you uncomfortable?"

"... So what's your point?"

"My point is that I'm not doing anything that makes you all nervous and uncomfortable and annoying."

"But I want to do it this time," Miyako whined. "A lot. For both of us. Please?" Daisuke put his bowl aside and stared at her. Miyako had always thought that his thinking face looked like a cross between intense concentration, and clueless confusion.

"Are you totally positive about that?"

"Yes!" Miyako nodded her head enthusiastically. Being naked in front of Daisuke was rather nerve-wracking, but it would happen eventually when they got married - because they were going to get married, there was absolutely no way that they wouldn't, Miyako had put way too much into this relationship to not get married. Not only that but... Miyako really wanted to see the rest of Daisuke's painting, even if that meant becoming the canvas to see it.

"You won't spend three hours pouting in the bathroom?" Daisuke raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms too, standing off against her.

"No, just two." Miyako smiled pleasantly, taunting him.

"One and a half."

"Deal."

-0-

When Daisuke said that the end result would be a lot more involved than the exploding-heart-on-canvas, Miyako did not imagine that he would have meant it so literally. Looking at herself in the mirror, Miyako could fully understand how Daisuke's work represented their entire relationship and love. Yellow swirled and danced with pale blues before knocking hard against navy. Ugly brown and bold oranges clashed with gentle purples and awkward greens, colors that should mix easily, knocking violently instead.

And there was more than just the exploding heart which covered her stomach and breasts, but a dozen different scenes and symbols that were just so them, so Miyasuke, that Miyako did not understand how she didn't realize it when she saw Daisuke's previous painting last week.

"Why are you so freaking talented?" She gasped, turning around to see the work on her back. "Who owns a noodle cart when he can have a career in art?"

"Art's just for fun, Miyako-chan," Daisuke told her. "But I'm really happy you like it."

"Use me for inspiration again," Miyako begged. "Do another one!"

"What you mean on you?" he had that cluess expression of his, that cute, confused-but-slightly-hopeful face he got whenever Miyako did something unexpected. "Seriously?"

"It could be fun," Miyako defended herself. "Or do you want me to paint you?"

"Miyako-chan, you suck at art."

"But I'm good at being art, so please?"

"I'll think about it."

"Please?"

"Maybe."

"Please?"

"I'll say no if you don't stop."

"Liar." Miyako accused.

"I'm not very good at it, huh?" Daisuke nervously rubbed at the back of his neck. Miyako thought it was adorable. "You already know the answer. I never tell you no."

"Good. Next week." Miyako decided.

"I need more time than that."

"Two weeks?"

"Next month. Maybe." Daisuke frowned in thought. "Yeah, next month sounds right."

"And then you'll paint me pretty colors?"

"I'll paint you as many colors as you like." ~