A/N: Starting a new fic. I promised myself I wouldn't until Outside and Nihilistic were done, but Nihilistic only needs about two more chapters, and I'm getting restless with all of these plotbunnies running around in my head, plus I've been wanting to start a humor fic for a long time. I'm tired of having to write nothing but angst for my chaptered stories. It's getting me down. Here's a nice break from all of the angst. I have no idea how long this is going to be...but it's going to be quite the odd fic. All of the Digidestined will eventually make an appearance, though it's going to center around the journeys of Daisuke, Takeru, and Ken. It's only Daisuke and Takeru in this chapter...but don't worry, Ken will show up in the next one. I'll let you all start reading this, then.

By the way, my birthday is coming up on the 20th. Eight more days, hooray! ^-^'

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any of the characters.

After Daisuke had tripped and fallen a third time, he groaned, lying on the floor, and wondered how he managed to get into these messes. It wasn't his fault the wretched house had caught on fire. People shouldn't leave so many damned candles lying about out in the open in small, carpeted rooms with curtains drooping all over the floor and clothes lying about the place. Of course, he was the one that had thrown the clothes everywhere, and he had knocked the candle over onto the floor in the first place, but he still didn't blame himself for the fire resulting from his blunder.

Said blunder had caused quite a disturbance in the small village, leading to Daisuke's flight into the forest in a feeble attempt to escape the law, which was where he now lay, on the forest floor, moaning about ill fortune.

Daisuke was a thief. He was usually very careful during his jobs, but the lack of anything very valuable to snatch at the last house had been frustrating to the redhead, causing him to wreak havoc upon the guest bedroom of a two-bedroom house where an old widow dwelled. He had accidentally knocked a candle over, which had set fire to the nearby window curtain. He had high-tailed it out of the house, though not very gracefully, as the frightened old woman had bumped into him in the hallway and had received a very clear sight of his face, as he had always been partial to not wearing any masks, convinced that his goggles over his eyes were concealment enough for his face. The woman had surely recognized him; they had spoken to one another oftentimes when seeing each other in the village marketplace. She knew his family, and she had surely reported him to the authorities. This thought had caused him to flee in fear for his life into the unfamiliar woods, which he was now stumbling through, completely lost and wishing he had stuck to the blacksmith job his father had tried to pawn off onto him.

Daisuke rose again to his feet, rubbing his hands against his pants to remove the dirt and filth, and looked around at his surroundings. Trees stretched out on all sides, all identical to his inexperienced eyes. He had no idea which direction he had come from, since he had been panicked when he first stepped foot into the forest, blindly running and darting around trees in no set direction at all. He concluded that he was quite lost, and he decided to continue on his current path through the foreign foliage, figuring he would happen upon some kind of settlement if he walked for long enough in a straight path.

He soon came upon a creek of a sort and immediately fell to his knees before it, bending his head to lap up the clear water. As he drank from it, he heard a distant lapping sound from off to his right, and he slowly turned his head to check what it was. He saw that a deer was drinking water much in the same manner as he was, and it didn't seem to be frightened by his presence.

He remained still, curiously watching the deer as it finished drinking and stood for a few seconds, basking in the sunlight filtering in through the canopy of leaves overhead. It suddenly turned and scampered off into the woods, and Daisuke, not knowing what else to do, followed it as quietly as he could manage.

The deer led him to a clearing where there stood a giant tree in the center, with a bed of leaves surrounding its large, round trunk. Daisuke walked up to it, staring up into its highest treetops in wonderment, having to shield his eyes from the strain of staring up into such bright light. He could not place what type of tree it was. In fact, he doubted he had ever seen a tree like it. It was not like the rest of the trees he had been walking through, and seemed to be the only one around: a small forest all on its own.

As he made his way around the base of the tree, he noticed something lying on the ground upon the bed of leaves. He was shocked to find a boy, looking to be around his age, having what Daisuke guessed to be a midday nap. The boy struck Daisuke as beautiful and delicate all at once, and he could not help but pause and stare down at him.

Suddenly, the boy opened his eyes and stared up at Daisuke, and Daisuke got the impression of staring into twin oceans of the deepest and most precious sapphire blue. He admired them for all but a second until the boy leapt to his feet, grabbing a rock in his hand on the way up and holding it above his head. Daisuke held his arms up, crying out and stumbling back awkwardly. The boy narrowed his eyes in a suspicious glare, gripping the rock threateningly in his fist and moving into some sort of weird stance.

"I'm not gonna hurt you!" Daisuke cried, holding his hands out to block any incoming rocks thrown at him.

The boy shook his golden blonde hair out of his eyes and began circling Daisuke, still clutching the rock for his own protection, inspecting him. While the boy examined him, Daisuke took the opportunity to study his clothing and features.

He had golden hair that looked bleached wheat blonde under direct sunlight. He was thin, but Daisuke could tell from the subtle shaping of his upper arms that the boy was strong and packed hidden muscle underneath that smooth, pale skin. He was shirtless, seeming to wear only the red and brown cloth skirt tied around his waist and falling to just above his ankles. He had a strange bracelet worn around his right ankle that seemed to be made from stringing dark pink blossoms on a vine and wrapping it around the ankle three or four times. The boy had leaves stuck in his soft hair from sleeping in them, and Daisuke thought he saw what seemed like a scar from a burn just above his left collarbone. The features that stuck out the most to Daisuke's eyes were the intricate, light brown Henna-tattoo-like drawings covering the backs of both of the boy's hands.

The boy finished circling Daisuke and stood up straight again, losing the threatening pose and tilting his head slightly, as if asking Daisuke who he was.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Daisuke repeated. "I'm harmless."

The boy remained standing still, looking Daisuke up and down, and suddenly seemed to lose interest in him, turning and walking through the part of the clearing Daisuke had just entered minutes before. Daisuke watched as the deer he had followed in pranced after the boy. He shook himself and chased after him.

"Hey, wait! I got lost. Maybe you can help me find my way out of here?"

The boy didn't seem to take any notice of Daisuke's following him and crouched near the creek Daisuke had drunk from before. He cupped his hands under the water and brought them up to his face, sipping delicately from the small pool in his palms.

"Can you help me?" Daisuke asked, crouching down next to him.

The boy glanced at him and pouted his lips slightly. Daisuke raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what that meant. He came to a realization.

"Do you understand English?"

The boy looked up at him, blinked, and then stood up, looking around at the surrounding forest, as if trying to remember where he was going. Daisuke stood up as well, trying to figure out how he was supposed to communicate his message to the boy with the language barrier.

He tapped the boy on the shoulder and the blonde slowly turned to look at him, seeming almost exasperated with him.

Daisuke began moving his hands around, trying to illustrate his message.

"I," he began, pointing to himself, "am lost." He held his arms out to the side. "Can you," he pointed to the blonde, "help me," he pointed to himself again, "find the way out of here?" He gestured to the forest around him.

The boy narrowed his eyes and walked up to him, so that their faces were close to each other. He reached a hand up and jabbed Daisuke in the chest with his finger.

"I can hear you, asshole. I'm not deaf."

Daisuke's jaw dropped open as the boy turned and began walking off in the opposite direction. The deer rose from where it had been resting on the bank of the creek and began trotting at his side. Daisuke began walking quickly to catch up to the blonde.

"You speak English?"

The blonde snorted. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you say so?"

"You woke me up from my nice afternoon nap. I wanted to torture you a bit and let you frustrate yourself."

Daisuke narrowed his eyes, mouth falling open to form a look of indignation.

"Hey, that wasn't very nice of you!"

The blonde rolled his eyes and began looking from side to side, as if trying to figure out which way he was supposed to go next. He switched directions and began walking down the path to the right. Daisuke stayed right on his heels.

"What's your name, anyways?"

"What's yours?" the boy asked casually over his shoulder.

"Motomiya Daisuke," Daisuke replied easily.

"Call me Takeru," the blonde responded, taking another right down an even clearer path.

Daisuke looked down the path and noticed that the trees thinned out to reveal what seemed like a small Indian village. Daisuke guessed that the Henna and the odd garb Takeru wore were the custom clothing for this tribe. The deer ran ahead of them and pranced to a part of the forest near a small hut, where it joined several other deer playing about in the wooded area.

Daisuke followed Takeru into the heart of the village, where many people were gathered around a small raised square, talking amongst one another. There were people removing chairs from on top of the raised area and someone was cleaning it off with a broom. Takeru walked up to a woman with light brown hair and she turned to greet him. They said a few words in a language Daisuke didn't understand, but then they began talking in English.

"Were you sleeping again?"

"Of course."

"I told you not to leave the village today. You missed the entire ceremony!"

"Oh, damn," Takeru mumbled. "And I was looking forward to it, too."

The woman gave him a reproachful look. "Now, Takeru, I know these ceremonies bore you, but you must still attend them. As a member of our tribe, you are required to attend all of our ceremonies. You know that."

"Yeah, sorry," he said insincerely. He glanced over his shoulder at Daisuke. "I've forgotten something in the hut. May I go get it?"

"Yes, but don't be long. The feast should be starting soon."

Takeru turned and began running off. He paused once to look back at Daisuke, tilting his head as if indicating for him to follow, and then continued running. Daisuke hurried after him.

Takeru paused in front of the door to a hut, looked back towards the square, and then slipped around the side of the hut. Daisuke followed after making sure no one was looking their way. Takeru was fishing something out from behind a nearby tree. As Daisuke walked up to him, he heard Takeru hissing in his native language.

"I can't stand it anymore," Takeru began in English. "I don't want to stay here anymore. I want to be able to explore and do things on my own, instead of taking orders from everyone in the tribe whom are superior to me. I can't take another damned ceremony. They have one for everything. They have a ceremony if it rains a little, a ceremony if a baby is born, a ceremony if two people are wedded, even a stupid ceremony if someone's relative has come to the village to visit."

"You're running away?" Daisuke questioned, eyeing the sack that Takeru was beginning to slide over his shoulder.

"Yes," Takeru responded, shifting the sack on his bare back. "I don't know where I'm going, but I'm getting as far away from here as I can."

Daisuke paused, looking thoughtful. "You slept in the forest on purpose, didn't you? You meant to sleep in long enough to miss the ceremony."

"Of course I did," Takeru said. "There was no way I was attending another one of those stupid things. All I do is stand around for an hour while someone talks about the same thing using the same words over and over, clap, eat at the feast, and then go home."

"Who was that woman?" Daisuke asked, following as Takeru began slipping through the trees.

"My mother."

"Where's your father?"

"Gone," Takeru replied bitterly. "He got the right idea and left the village a long time ago, not long after I was born. Everyone in the village started talking nasty about him, saying he was no good, but I've always wanted to go and find him."

"Is that where you're off to now?"

"I'm going to go and find myself a new life," Takeru said over his shoulder, lifting a branch over his head to pass under it. "If I happen to see him along the way, I guess I could stop for a little chat and do some catching up."

Daisuke ducked to avoid getting hit by the branch as Takeru let go and it swung back. "I'm traveling, too."

"Where are you going?"

"To a place far, far away, where no one knows my name or recognizes me."

"Well, that's odd. Apparently, we're going to the same place."

Daisuke narrowly ducked under another branch and then sighed in relief when he found they were entering another clearing.

"So does that mean you don't mind if I go with you?"

Takeru stopped and turned to look at him. Daisuke nearly tripped over his feet trying not to ram into Takeru and watched as Takeru looked him over for the third time that day.

"Sure, but you'll have to keep up with me. If you can't, then I'm afraid you're on your own, but if you want to tag along, I'll let you, as long as you stay out of my way."

Daisuke brightened. "Great! Then I guess it's going to be you and me, buddy."

Takeru turned back around, rolling his eyes. "Wonderful."

They continued walking on, neither of them knowing what they were getting themselves into, but neither of them caring much right at that moment.

"Watch that branch."

"Ow. You did that on purpose."

"Did not."

"Liar."