Author's Notes: Standard warnings.. Yes, this is a Daiken/Kensuke. Yes, I warned you. If you flame me about the Daiken coupling, then I'll just laugh.. cuz ya know what? It was your choice to read this, despite the warnings.

And also, as Curious Blue requested.. it's longer.. and there's mush, mush, and more mush! ^__^;

Candy Canes and Winter Tracings
by MintChocolateChip



Like every snowy day, Daisuke parked himself right in front of his window, away from his parents and sister. As far as he could possibly get from his relatives when the weather was like this and they were all stuck in the same house, but that didn't change the fact that he wanted to run away and never come back. Run far away from his spoiled sister and her happy spoilers - namely his parents.

A small smile of satisfaction touched his lips as he stared at his fogged window. Not through, but at. Gently, as if afraid the warmth of his hand would melt the fog away, he started his first tracing. A curved line followed his finger.. then another.. then a few more.. and ah ha! Daisuke smiled smugly at a surprisingly amazing picture of an eye. Well, not so surprising to him, but surprising to anyone who would actually care enough to realize that Daisuke was really talented when it came to art.

"Mmm.." he hummed, then drew another eye beside the first one.. making them identical but opposite. "So beautiful.." His mind, of course, was not exactly just on the picture he had just traced out. It was actually on the guy who he got those amazing eyes from.

..Guy. A few months ago.. no, weeks ago, he would have scoffed at the thought of liking another guy. Then beat the crap out of whoever suggested something so ridiculous.

That was, of course, before he realized how much he cared for a certain raven haired boy genius.

"Daisuke!" His mother's voice rudely threw him out of his thoughts. "We're going to go get Jun's winter ball dress now!" The strained undertone in his mother's voice suggested that she *really* didn't want to go out in this weather, even though it was just mildly snowing. No real threat yet. "Don't wait up!"

Daisuke sighed. "Believe me, I won't." Louder, he called, "all right, Mom!"

A few thumps, mumblings, and a door slamming indicated that his family had finally left. Daisuke let out a sigh of relief then walked out of his room and down the hall to the kitchen. He pulled out his favorite old mug; a mug he'd had ever since he was a young boy. There was a faded picture of Superman on it, but no matter how much teasing he had to put up from the older Motomiya, he didn't think he could ever bring it on himself to dispose of his childhood mug.

He reached over and pulled out a packet of hot chocolate, ripping off the top and pouring its contents into his old mug. His mother had so graciously left him a near empty tea kettle of hot water.. but it was enough.

Sipping on his hot cocoa, he walked back to his room and back to his window, admiring his artwork.

..Until, of course, his artwork blinked at him.

"Oh my friggin' god!!" Daisuke cried, spilling the hot chocolate on his shirt. He sputtered out a string of cuss words, setting his mug on his bed stand then desperately and futiley try to.. well.. do *something* about his shirt. He figured, however, that patting down his shirt would do no good and instead glared at his artwork. The eyes behind his tracing were crinkled with mirth, sparkling with the laughter he knew was there but couldn't hear.

He pulled the sleeve of his sweater over his hand and wiped away the fog, blinking repeatedly as the cloth smudged the glass. He frowned. There went his beautiful piece of art..

Ichijouji Ken smiled at Daisuke through the smudged glass.

Daisuke felt his heart skip a beat.. or stop.. or speed up.. or whatever hearts did when they felt like they were dancing around in your chest. He smiled a quivery, weak smile back, and suddenly had the urge to sit down.

Instead, he opened the window.

"Ken.. what on earth do you think your doing.. scaring me like that!" Daisuke cried.

"Why, hello to you too, Daisuke," Ken greeted. "Mind if I come in? It is a bit chilly out here."

~Well.. don't I feel like a moron?~ "Su-sure!" Why on earth was he stuttering? "Come on over to the front." Before the other boy could answer, Daisuke had slammed the window shut and was already bounding towards the front door. When he got there, he flung it open and was greeted by a very cold looking Ken.

Who, at the moment, look *extremely* delicious. What with snowflakes clinging to his hair and eyelashes like that..

Daisuke suddenly found his knee's *very* weak. He cursed himself for being so damn.. cowardly. How ironic. The Keeper of Courage was afraid of.. well, falling in love, to be honest.

"Ne, Ken, why are you here?" Daisuke heard himself say. Inwardly, he winced. ~Well, let's make ourselves look like a royal ass, eh Dai?~

"..here." Ken shoved something in the other boys hands, then blushed very slightly and looked down. Blinking a few times, Daisuke opened his hands..

..and smiled.

"Thank you, Ken," he whispered, holding the candy cane to his chest. ~That.. had to be *the* sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.~

That, of course, only made Ken blush more. "Yeah.. anyway.. Merry Christmas, Daisuke.."

Before the slightly older boy could say good bye and start to leave, Daisuke grabbed his hand and dragged him inside. Ignoring the startled yelp Ken emitted, he slammed the shut behind the taller boy.

Ken *looked* at him.

The redhead shrugged, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Hey, it's cold." Was his only explanation. "Come up to my room.." He blushed a little at that, realizing how.. *inviting* that sounded.

However, Ken seemed to take no notice of it, so Daisuke shrugged and pulled off his shirt, starting to walk to his room.

Now *that* got the ex-Digimon Kaizer's attention.

"Wh-what are you you doing?" Ken stumbled over his words, his gaze never leaving the smaller boys slightly muscular back. His hands twitched, and he had to battle the sudden and overwhelming urge to grab Daisuke and kiss him.

Daisuke looked over his shoulder at the raven haired beauty. "Do you really think I'm going to wear this shirt, after I've spilled cocoa on it?" He continued to walk down his hall, not even making sure Ken was following him. However, having no where else to go, Ken *did* follow him. "Besides, it's not like you've never seen it before.."

Ken gulped almost audibly. ~That's different!~ his mind screamed. "Of.. of course." His voice cracked. ~Damnit..~ He leaned against the wall, watching as Daisuke meandered around his room. Shirtless. Ken was about ready to slam his head against the wall, but instead he just closed his eyes.

That is, of course, until he felt hot breath on his chin.

His eyes snapped open, and he found himself staring deeply into the most beautiful brown eyes he'd ever seen in his life.

The bearer of those eyes *still* wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Daijobu?" Daisuke asked, pressing a warm hand against Ken's rather cool forehead. That didn't help matters much.. "You look a little pale.."

Ken jerked away from the other boys hand, his breath coming out in thin, ragged gasps. "Ne.. I'm fine." Daisuke frowned, looking a little unconvinced, but he thankfully let it drop. And put on another shirt.

A part of Ken screamed in protest, another part of him was highly disappointed, and the last part was very much relieved. However much control he had, it was rather quickly deteriorating. Daisuke being shirtless did *not* help.

"You felt kinda cold.." Daisuke informed him, reaching up and gently touching his cheek. Ken whimpered quietly, closing his eyes again so he wouldn't have to watch his torturer. "Ken? Are you sure you're all right?"

~Not with you teasing me like this, I'm not!~ "I'm fine," he managed to squeak out, not opening his eyes. The warm hand left his face, and he frowned slightly, opening his eyes.

Only to be nearly nose to nose with what he swore a few months ago was the most beautiful creature to ever walk the earth. Them being nose to nose, you realize, also meant their lips were only a few inches apart.

"Oh hell with it," Ken groaned. Instincts were very rapidly taking over. ~It's his fault for teasing me, anyway!~

Let's just say, the last of Ken's control evaporated as he slipped his hands behind Daisuke's head, pulled him just a bit closer and kissed him rather passionately on the lips.

Daisuke, of course, didn't pull away.

He felt like he was going to melt, and in fact, the only thing that was holding him up at the moment was the lovely pressure of Ken's hands on the nape of his neck. The kiss was a little clumsy at first, but it slowly developed into the earth-shattering kiss they both had dreamed about in the time they'd known each other.

Almost as soon as the kiss started, it ended as both the boys drew apart for air. They stared at one another for a long time, each a bit glassy eyed and short of breath.

"Hot damn, you can kiss," Daisuke stated bluntly, completely ruining any romantic atmosphere that had been set up. This made both boys fall into nervous laughter, that died off rather quickly.

"Daisuke?" Ken asked, a bit of nervousness still evident in his voice. He was starting to worry. Really worry. What if Daisuke thought him some sort of.. freak? "What do we do now?"

Daisuke grinned up at him, his brown eyes sparkling. "Well, I was thinking we could go out for some ice cream.."

"Ice cream?! Are you insane?! It's.. below zero out there!" Ken cried. Inwardly, he was considerably relieved. He was also mentally doing leaps and bounds and twirls of joy.

"That never stopped me before!"

"Don't blame me when you freeze to death."

Daisuke grinned rather predatorily, making Ken wonder if he should have rethought his words. All thoughts, however, were banished when Daisuke pressed up against him.

"Why," the Keeper of Courage whispered, his hot breath against Ken's ear sending chills down the taller boy's spine. "I'll just have you to warm me up."

"Well.. since you put it that way.."
-end




Author's Notes: Yeah.. I know.. cheesy.. and the ending kinda sucked.. butcha know.. ^_^;;

Oh.. and.. I don't know if I spelled daijobu right.. but the way I know it to be translated is "Are you all right?" or something to that matter. My Japanese sucks. -.-;

AND.. I know they're both a little OOC.. but hey ¬¬;; It seemed cuter this way..