Another extremely (sorry!) belated betaing thanks giftfic for Aiko Isari, who requested something cute!
Who's cuter than Wormmon?
But of course I need to address the angst.
"Aargh, why is this so hard?" Davis complained, rubbing the sides of his head furiously.
Ken smiled, because that was Davis, but, "It's harder than I remember it being." Now that he wasn't a genius anymore. He still remembered everything that happened while that thing was inside him, so he remembered the formulae and what to do when he had to solve certain kinds of problems, but he didn't think it was his imagination that it took a second longer now to recognize those problems when he saw them, to analyze what he was looking at.
That got a smile from Davis – not happiness that Ken was no better than he was now, although he knew he would have seen it that way, when he still had the Dark Seed in him. Davis was just happy whenever he was reminded that they were the same, partners, even if they didn't have the power to DNA-digivolve anymore.
He couldn't help smiling himself, feeling that connection, ignoring Yolei's frown.
"The way that thing was hooked into your nervous system can't have been good for you," she said, biting her lip and holding Hawkmon on her lap.
"I don't care," Ken said, smiling to reassure her. "I'm just glad it's gone." If it had given him brain damage, then that was the least of what he deserved. And it wasn't as though it was too bad a thing not to be good at academics. In some ways, Davis really did have it together the most out of all of them.
He was the only one whose eyes weren't shadowed. Simple, but so was a sword…
"Look, it's a beautiful day!" Davis reminded them.
"Yes?" Cody asked. "It's always a beautiful day near Primary Village."
"Can't we play soccer with the little guys? Come one, back me up Cody, I was lured here under false pretenses!"
"Would you like to play soccer, Ken?" Wormmon asked, looking up at him from where he sat next to Ken, drawing in the blank book with the crayons Ken had gotten him. Thick ones, so they were easier to grip.
"Yeah!" Veemon cried, jumping up and punching the air. "Soccer! Come on, let's go!"
"Oh no you don't," Kari said, snatching the ball out of the basket. There was a half-smile on her face, and she looked about ready to laugh. "Come on, you can't own a business if you can't do math?"
"Sheesh, Kari, that's what calculators are for."
"You need more than a calculator to do payroll," TK said, looking doubtful.
"If I have employees, then I'll delegate the stuff I'm not good at. That's being a leader, right?" Davis nodded.
"Davis is a great leader!" Veemon agreed.
"I just want to run a noodle cart, so why are you bringing up payroll, TK? Got that much confidence in me, huh?" Davis asked, lunging over and making a grab for TK like Matt did sometimes.
TK easily avoided it and laughed, but not mockingly. "Well, it's your dream, isn't it?"
"Yeah?" From the way Davis' head tilted, they could hear the 'So?'
"You really are so casual about it," Ken said. "That's great, Davis. I envy you."
"Aww, knock it off Ken," Davis said, but from the slight color in his cheeks he was flattered.
"Choosing a career is hard… Not that a noodle cart is much of a career," Yolei added, then sighed, giving up. "Sometimes I do envy you, Davis."
"Geez, you're making me blush." Davis laughed it off, but he didn't sound uncomfortable.
"It is a nice day," Ken said. 'I don't know if I deserve to play soccer with the baby Digimon, when I'm the reason a lot of them are babies,' he didn't say, because he knew how everyone would react to that. Wormmon would be sad, and he didn't want to make Wormmon sad ever again. Wasn't Davis playing with the baby Digimon when that control spire Digimon showed up at Primary Village? The spy programs he'd used as Digimon Emperor had come in handy when he needed to tell whether a control spire was transformed or just destroyed by local Digimon and respond fast if it was Arukenimon's doing. He hadn't meant to watch, it was just… the difference between him and them.
He'd used Digimon as his slaves, thought their emotions weren't real, while his enemies helped Digimon, played with them, made them laugh with joy instead of scream in terror…
Wormmon patted his knee, and he turned to smile at his partner. Wormmon always knew when he was starting to feel down, and he wished he could fool Wormmon with his smiles because he didn't want Wormmon to feel bad just because he was sad, but it still… This was a partner. How could he possibly have forgotten? He still barely remembered the first time he went to the Digital World, something that had made Izzy and Yolei exchange worried glances, but Wormmon…
"Gotcha!" Davis yelled a moment before he grabbed the ball out of Kari's hands, but she couldn't, or maybe didn't, keep him from snatching it away. "Come on Ken, let's go start a game! You up to being referee, Wormmon?"
"Leave it to me," Wormmon said, serious face on. "Come on, Ken." He tugged at Ken's pant leg. "Let's go with Davis. You like soccer." And Wormmon wanted him to do things he liked, wanted him to be cheerful, even after everything Ken had done to him.
It might have made him cry, another reminder that he didn't deserve Wormmon, but Yolei was saying, "Well, a little while won't hurt."
Ken stood asked as Armadillomon asked, "What about you, Cody?"
"We should get some exercise."
"Well, if even Cody agrees," Kari said, and that was a full smile instead of a half-smile. "It would be nice to catch up with the Digimon from Primary Village."
"Then come on guys, let's go!" Davis cried, bouncing the ball on his knee and then catching it to wave at them. "Have to work off all those snacks somehow, right?"
"You know, you do burn calories by thinking," TK said with a glance at Kari.
"I don't know, guys, the way Davis' brain was overheating, thermodynamics says that heat energy had to come from somewhere. Not that he's getting Hawkmon's share of the snacks." Yolei grinned, lifting up Hawkmon. "I'm not exactly a soccer person but it did look cute, all those baby Digimon playing. Let's join in, huh Hawkmon?"
"Of course, Yolei."
"Should we choose teams?" Cody wondered.
"Nah," Davis said, bouncing the ball again, full of energy as always. "They're still trying to understand that you want to get the ball towards the goal, I don't want to confuse them with two goals in opposite directions."
"Baby steps with baby Digimon," Kari agreed. "Good thinking, Davis."
They all laughed, the warmth of the Digital sun beating down on them, and Ken felt warm in a way that made him forget that he'd ever been chilled to the core of him.