Hale
Disclaimer: Nope.
Summary: Ken the Kaiser had been a total douche but Ken the teenaged Digidestined is, like, the sweetest guy Davis has ever met. This is actually a pretty serious problem.
AN: I regret nothing and have decided that this makes up for my not ever writing Digimon fanfic when I was ten and watching it religiously, and shipping the ever loving hell out of these two without really getting how hard I shipped it and why.
Ken the Kaiser had been a total douche but Ken the teenaged Digidestined is, like, the sweetest guy Davis has ever met.
In his life.
And it's ridiculous because he thought that when he was eleven and honestly it hasn't gotten much better now that they're sixteen and still best friends but now they go to the same school, even though Ken goes to cram school and Davis doesn't, and Davis plays soccer three times a week and Ken...well, he doesn't play officially. He still likes it because he'll kick around a ball and still give Davis a run for his money but he doesn't really want to play with other people or compete, which is about half the point.
So yeah.
Ken being a sweetheart is actually a pretty serious problem, because Davis probably shouldn't think of his best friend and the word 'sweetheart' in the same sentence, but it's true and he can't help it. What else do you call a guy who's over at your house for dinner all the time and helps do the dishes without being asked even after like five years and your parents wonder how the hell you can be friends and totally love him more than you, and gets all of his friends regardless of gender Valentines chocolate every year because he thinks they deserve it, or who still calls you once in a while at three in the morning, voice shaky and guilty and it never fails to kick you in the freaking chest?
It's ridiculous.
So even though they're best friends and Ken's a dude and can still totally kick his ass if he wants to, Davis will also be the first to tell you that if you hurt him, or, so help you, lay a hand on him, it is his duty and pleasure to destroy you. Because even though they're best friends and Ken's a dude and can still totally kick his ass if he wants to, Ken is a sweetheart and if you hurt that then Davis will simply have to kill you. Maybe not in spite of those things but because of those things.
He thought it would get better as they got older because teenage boys aren't supposed to think like that, and Ken's been taller than he is for years and isn't fragile the way he was when they were eleven and Ken cracking a smile or laughing was so new and tremulous. But it hasn't. In fact, it may have even gotten worse because even though he's not eleven and fragile he still doesn't like people the way Davis doesn. He's not unfriendly or antisocial but there's an awkwardness to him that's easy to see if you look for it, and Davis makes friends like a fish swims but Ken doesn't.
There's a part of him that's still horribly afraid of people and horribly afraid of himself. Even though many people admire him and very few people are unkind to him, Ken still doesn't trust himself or anyone else and he's very, very shy.
And that's fine, Davis thinks. He's got plenty of time to not be shy and in the meantime he's got Davis and the other Digidestined to back him up and none of them give half a crap if he's shy and Ken knows it, and that's awesome. Ken just needs to keep being Ken and things will be fine and eventually maybe he won't be so skittish and afraid of people, but today is not that day.
It's kind of weird to think about but Davis thinks that if he ends up going to college, he and Ken will probably be roommates, if only because there's probably nobody else who could stand to live with him, and it'd be hard as hell to break in someone new to the idea of digimon, and hell no is Davis going to live with anyone for who knows how long and not let on about Veemon. He thinks maybe he ought to focus more on finding a girlfriend but in the end he'd much rather stay with Ken who makes him think but doesn't make him try, because all Ken wants is for Davis to keep being Davis just like Davis wants Ken to just keep being Ken.
"You're staring."
Davis jerks a little bit and looks up to find Ken peering at him from over the top of the book he's reading. Maybe it's kind of weird to go over to someone's house and just read, but Davis goes over to Ken's house just to play video games and read comics, so whatever. That's what friends do and Davis and Ken are best friends and jogress partners so that's like...double friendship right there.
"I was just thinking."
T.K. or Yolei may have made a smart comment about how uncommon an occurrence that was but Ken is neither of them and so he doesn't, just hmmms a little.
"What are you thinking about?"
Davis fidgets a little on the floor and looks at the controller in his hands.
"If we go to college together-" If I go to college at all, he thinks, "You want to live with me?"
Ken blinks once, twice, and then hmmms again.
"Yeah, okay," he answers eventually and then furrows his brows like he's just thought of something very obvious. "But wouldn't you rather try and room with someone like Kari?" Because of course Davis has been head over heels for her ever since they were eleven and of course he'd much rather try and get himself a girlfriend than stay with his very shy, very reclusive best friend, except…
Except that he kind of doesn't.
When Davis thinks about the people he wants to come home to, it's not Kari he pictures behind his eyes but someone taller and with darker hair, who reads too many books and forgets to eat sometimes and always knows where Davis put his train pass even when he can't find his own. So no, Davis would not rather try and room with someone like Kari, especially because it's clearer than it ever was that she's going to end up with T.K. No, he'd much rather stick with Ken.
"Nope," he replies, "You're stuck with me forever," and grins, and gets up to grab another box of cookies out of the cabinet, and hears Ken laughing at him behind his back. He thinks for a moment that there should maybe have been something significant in the exchange but there isn't, just something very obvious that's been there for what feels like eons.
And later, when Ken gets up to leave and leans down before he goes, splaying his hand out on Davis' cheek and pressing a kiss to the other that Davis returns when he pulls away, Davis thinks that this isn't the sort of thing that most teenage boys do with their best friends.
But it's what Davis does with his.
AN2: Thank you for reading! If y'all have any comments, questions, concern, worshipful praise...feel free to leave it in the form of a review or a PM!