Rain
Daisuke stumbled into the foyer of their apartment with a handful of bags in his arms. He struggled with the doorknob, and when he finally managed to turn the lock, half the packages he held slid to the floor.
"Daisuke?" Ken said, moving towards the front door to help him. He took the bags that were hanging from Daisuke's wrists, leaving Daisuke to wrangle with his bright yellow-green umbrella for a minute. When he couldn't jam the handle down, he tossed it onto a chair, pulling the hood of his raincoat away from his head.
"What happened?"
"Mondays suck," Daisuke declared. His sneakers made a loud squelching noise as he relaxed into their couch. As Daisuke wrestled free of his coat, Ken saw that his clothes were sopping wet, and rife with muddy patches. "Almost as much as classes."
"Did you fall in a puddle?" Ken asked.
"Mmhhhrrr," Daisuke mumbled, which sounded like "Fell over, tripped in the mud, and then got hit by a sugar-powered Chibimon" to Ken's ears. "Hey, instead of going out, how about staying here, watching bad American movies and eating junk food until we're sick?"
"We did that last Monday!" Ken protested.
"Yeah, but one more day won't hurt," Daisuke wheedled, grabbing one of his dry hands. "Come on, Ken."
Ken gave Daisuke a wry look, and then allowed himself to be pulled towards the couch. "For how long?"
Daisuke grinned. "Weeeeell," he said, wiggling his eyebrows, "If we're here, we don't need to go out at all, do we?"
"That depends," Ken said. He looked at the rain-drenched windowpane, and pulled the blinds down. "Did you see Miyako-san yesterday? She looked like she was ready to strangle you for skipping class last Friday." He toed off his own shoes and then sat next to Daisuke on the couch. "If she's still as angry as she was then, I'm not sure it's a good idea to ever leave here again."
"Miyako's always like that," Daisuke said. "It takes a special kind of person to piss her off, and--"
"You happen to be that person?" Ken replied, nudging Daisuke in the ribs.
"Damn straight." Daisuke grinned again, and then shrugged, continuing, "I mean, out of you, Takeru, Hikari-chan, and Iori, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who can pull it off."
"What would Miyako-san do without you?" Ken said, shaking his head slightly.
"Dunno. I've just got that flair, y'know?"
Ken laughed easily. "And you're so modest, too."
"That's a bad thing?" Daisuke said, reaching for a rag to towel off his wet hair, which closely resembled a porcupine's.
"Well, Motomiya," Ken said, trying to control his laughter at Daisuke's predicament. Outside, the rain was still pouring. He got up, pulled a towel from the nearest closet, and then gently tossed it to Daisuke, sitting down next to him again. "Let's just say...if you weren't like that, you wouldn't be yourself."
And if nothing else, Ken knew that would be a very bad thing, indeed.