i don't own anything. just a simple one-off fluff story for your viewing pleasure. written and illustrated for my friend as a christmas gift. :)

For three years, the digital world and real world's ambiguity had been blurred. With people and digimon becoming an everyday norm, it was essential that some sort of regulation was setup. The original chosen children from around the world stood up and took the reigns, setting up inspection cycles and stationing patrols in the Digital World to insure its safety. It was a grand task for a relatively small group of children—but as proven before, their combined strength and teamwork proved to be more than sufficient.

Daisuke and Ken worked together on their bi-weekly patrols. The days changed several times over the years—mostly due to cram school, soccer practice, or whatever media obligations they may have been forced into. But they always met twice a week—even during vacations and illnesses. Today, however, was the third time they met during the week; it was for a very special occasion.

"Happy birthday!" Daisuke greeted Ken with a tackling hug, throwing them both down to the plush ground of the Village of Beginnings. Veemon mimicked his partner, taking a running start as he pounced on Wormmon. The two digimon flung slightly into the air and tumbled back down in a fit of giggles.

"The big one-four, huh!?" Daisuke sat on top of Ken's stomach, one hand planted on his chin as he looked up in mock concentration. "Hmmm… I wonder how it must feel to be an old man?"

Ken pushed his friend off of him, Daisuke rolling over to lay next to Ken, a smile painted on both of their faces. "Feels about the same, Motomiya. Also, fourteen isn't that old."

"Older than thirteen."

"If we're going by simple facts of what number is bigger, then yes. Fourteen is old."

Daisuke rolled his eyes, "Oi. Well, at least you agree."

The Village of Beginnings was a regular location for their patrols, but Ken always chose to meet here on his birthday. Even though Ken had worked hard to redeem himself from his past as the Kaiser, it was no real surprise that the remorse within him had yet to be fully eradicated. Being around the young digimon put him at ease—doing what he could to erase the faint memories of a whip wielding psychopath from the redigitized babies that hatched.

Ken was good. Daisuke could see it. Wormmon could see it. Many of the baby digimon saw it. The only one that had a hard time seeing it was Ken himself… But whenever he blew bubbles with a Botamon or dribbled a soccer ball with a Yuramon—he was able to temporarily forget all of it.

He could really feel like a kind person.

Daisuke shifted onto his stomach and studied his friend. "So what do you want to do today, Ken-chan?" Daisuke grinned wide, knowing how much Ken hated it when he used the cutsey informal title.

Sighing, Ken said, "I don't know. I figured we could help some Elecmon hatch some digi-eggs… Maybe feed some of the younger babies? Did you have anything in mind?"

"Weeeelllll," Daisuke scooched himself a few feet forward and grabbed his backpack that he had tossed before assaulting Ken. Sitting up and putting it into his lap, he unzipped it and shifted through its contents. "I got something for ya."

Sitting up himself, Ken faced Daisuke, placing his hands on his thighs. "Oh?"

"Actually, I made something for ya." Daisuke said, his voice getting lower. He suddenly felt very self-conscious—he wasn't much of an artist, and honestly wasn't even sure Ken would like it.

Ken's face lightened. "Made something? Wow."

"I mean, it's not much, but uh…" Carefully, Daisuke pulled the homemade egg from the bag and held it in front of Ken.

"A digi-egg?"

Daisuke smiled big, proud that his creation was recognizable. "Y-yeah!" He tongued the empty gap in his teeth as he came up with his explanation. Being the younger of the two, he had only just lost his final baby tooth the week before. "So, like… I was thinking. What if Paildramon was just one digimon?"

"He already is."

"Well, I know that. But I mean, like, what if he was always one—not a jogress digimon. Right? What would his digi-egg look like?" He rubbed the surface of the paper-mache gift. "So here it is!"

"Paildramon, huh?"

"He'd still be our partner. So, it has our crests on it." He rotated the egg and pointed at each symbol as he said them aloud, "Courage. Friendship. Miracles. And of course, kindness."

Ken held out his hands and took the digi-egg from Daisuke. Its construction was a bit rough, the paint that covered the newspaper often not laid down thick enough to cover up the stories beneath it. Holding it closer, Ken squinted and tried to read some of the contents. Smiling, he breathed out a small laugh. "These newspapers are really old."

"Yup! They're all from the first few interviews we were on together after the 'Million Points of Light' incident."

"This is…"

"Veemon and I were talking about how Paildramon would look as a baby. Demipaildramon, if you will. We agreed he'd have the body of Chicomon but have Leafmon's tail. He'd be really good at making bubbles, and could really knock the wind out of you with his headbutt! And if you ask me, he'd never stop eating. Just like those two." Daisuke nodded his head toward their partners, who were currently off playing with the baby digimon.

Ken nodded, his smile growing as Daisuke continued. "Then he'd evolve and he'd get his wings back and those sick claws… But he'd still be really small, so like, he'd weigh himself down? He'd fall forward all the time because he'd be so front heavy." Daisuke started to giggle.

"He'd have to fly everywhere to stay upright." Ken chimed in.

"Yeah! Ugh. He'd have to eat even more."

Ken started to laugh, softly at first, but as the imaginary digimon kept building in his head, he couldn't help but get lost in his amusement. The deep baritones of puberty lingered on the lower tones of each giggle.

But really, the best part about Ken's laugh was that it was always genuine. He didn't do it often, and he rarely ever lost control. So as the chuckles turned into tears, Daisuke found himself laughing so hard until his stomach hurt.

Whipping his eyes dry, Ken placed the digi-egg down in front of him. After a few more moments of hiccuping laughs, Ken looked at Daisuke and placed a timid hand on Daisuke's leg. "This is the best present anyone has ever given me, Dai."

Daisuke's face grew red hot. "O-oh? Nah. Shut up."

"It's… So thoughtful. You really are creative. I love it."

Daisuke wanted to hide his face inside his vest, Ken's kindness causing the intense desire to run away. "Shut up."

"You shut up." Ken threw his arms around his friend and held him close. Seconds turned slowly into minutes. Each time Ken took a breath, he brought Daisuke closer to him. "Thank you."

Returning the embrace, Daisuke smiled into Ken's collar. He could hear Ken's pulse driving through his neck—steady and soothing. "You're welcome."

Sitting back, they both looked at each other, their cheeks rosy with overwhelming happiness. Little could interrupt their moment… Unless it was about three feet tall, blue, and charging at them without regulation.

Daisuke swooped up the digi-egg as Veemon barrelled into Ken. "Hey! Watch out!" Quickly, he stowed away the egg back into his backpack for safe keeping.

Ken was knocked backward, but wrapped his arms around Veemon before the digimon could escape. He stood up, the digimon pinned inside his grip. "What are you up to, little guy?"

"Play with us~!" Veemon pled. Wormmon came scuttering up, humming in agreement.

"All right, all right. What do you say, Motomiya?" Ken set Veemon down and offered Daisuke a hand.

Daisuke took it, a grin so big it nearly went ear to ear, a feeling bubbling in his chest that had him too giddy to remember to let go when he was on his feet. Hand in hand, together with their digimon, they walked off toward the nursery to celebrate birth, life, kindness, and new beginnings.