"I don't think that's how it works, DemiVeemon..."
"Sure it does! Just..."
There's a sharp crack, and they both pause, staring dubiously at the gaming console Davis enjoys so much. Minomon looks at DemiVeemon reproachfully.
"Hey, come on, I don't think it's broken..." the lizard pokes at a glowing button. "...Probably. That's meant to come off, right?"
"It might be best not to mess with it anymore."
"...Yeah, maybe."
Tossing the piece carelessly aside (Minomon winces), DemiVeemon flops himself on the ground. "But I'm bored! Why can't get we go with them to this 'school' place?"
"From what Ken tells me, we might not enjoy it even if we went," Minomon points out reasonably. "Although, Ken seems to like it, for some reason..."
"Davis doesn't," DemiVeemon concedes. "Argh! How are you always so patient?"
"What?"
The lizard digimon rolls onto his back, kicking his legs into the air. "You never get impatient, or upset, or – or anything! How do you do it?"
"Do you want to try being patient, DemiVeemon?"
"Sounds kinda boring, actually," he mumbles...
Minomon clacks his mandibles, amused. "Well, maybe. I mean it took some getting used to."
"Getting used to?"
"Learning to be patient. I mean, I was never that hasty or... like you, I guess, but I had to learn to wait for Ken. When he was the Emperor, I mean."
DemiVeemon pauses mid-motion. He lets his limbs sag, falling back to the ground.
"...Oh."
Minomon waits for DemiVeemon to put his thoughts together – and, yeah, he is good at that, the blue digimon notes.
"I never really thought about that, I guess." It seems such a pitiful statement. "What he would have been like... I mean. I know you were with him, usually, when we saw the Emperor, but... you never fought for him, or digivolved. Was it hard?"
"He didn't like me," Minomon says. "He's wasn't – he wasn't Ken. I suppose there was something in him that remembered – he never made me go away entirely, and he never killed me - " DemiVeemon recoils in horror, " - but, sometimes, I think he thought about it..."
A pause.
"I was his most hated servant, and he thought I was so weak..."
"Something in him must have remembered, though, even through the Spore," is the protest. "It was only when you died that he really came back to himself..."
A hum. "Maybe I should have died sooner, then."
"Minomon!"
Minomon hops forward. "To have stopped the Emperor – to have made Ken his kind self again – I would have done anything, don't you see that? I've never regretted what happened, and to make him understand, to make Ken come home..."
DemiVeemon is shaking his head.
"What if it was Davis?"
The lizard stops short.
"But he wouldn't," is the confused objection.
"And the Ken I know wouldn't hurt me or kick me, either, but the Emperor did." The in-training digimon sighs – deep, strangely old, and weary in a way DemiVeemon can't imagine reaching. "Sometimes, you know, I'm glad Ken doesn't have the crest of Love. Because I think that's the most dangerous of all of them."
It's hard, not to look at Ken differently after that.
Come on, I'm being stupid – He loves Wormmon, Veemon thinks. Just look at them!
Because, indeed, Wormmon is happily nestled in his usual spot in Ken's arms as the younger generation of digi-destined walk through the digital forest. There are still a lot of repairs to be done, this soon after the defeat of MaloMyotismon, after all.
Even as he watches Ken smiles down at his partner, the light glinting off his sleek raven hair. His arms brush Davis' as he walks. Davis would probably be furious if he could hear Veemon's thoughts. He always gets protective when anyone brings up Ken's Emperor-days. Veemon usually understands, but abruptly he also understands, a little better, why the Emperor's reign was so horrific.
Veemon has only ever viewed the Emperor as an enemy, an equal combatant on a battlefield. To view him from below, as a victim – that is a very different thing, and one hard to imagine. Remembering Minomon's words -
- Maybe I should have died sooner -
- makes him angry, in a way he has never felt with the Emperor.
With Ken.
"You okay, Veemon?" Gatomon asks.
"Fine," Veemon mutters. Kari glances over at them, then gets distracted by something TK says.
"Uh-huh. You look like you're about to fry Wormmon. You have a fight?"
"What? No! It's Ken that's the problem!"
Veemon pauses. Gatomon is looking at him smugly.
...Maybe he does need to work on that whole patience, rashness thing?
"So, spill."
"But I can't."
Gatomon crosses her arms in a way that incidentally shows off her claws.
Incidentally.
"Really!" Veemon hastens to add. A few yards away, Patamon perks up from where he's perched on TK's hat, turning around to peer at them with interest. Once he turns back around, Veemon lowers his voice. "It's – I can't just go blabbing what Wormmon said."
"You're actually awful at keeping secrets, aren't you," says Gatomon without sympathy.
"What?"
Gatomon smooths an imaginary hair over her shoulder. Cats. "Wormmon doesn't seem upset with Ken," she points out.
"Maybe he should be," Veemon says darkly. But her words make him pause.
No, Wormmon isn't upset... Even right after Ken was Emperor, he wasn't upset. But then, the relief probably outweighed everything else back then. Did he even have a chance to think of his own feelings? And Wormmon would do anything for Ken...
"Maybe he should be," he says again.
Gatomon watches him awhile. Then shrugs. "Hey, he's your DNA partner. You would know, I guess."
"Yeah, I would!"
Gatomon shrugs, then walks up ahead with Kari, apparently losing interest in the conversation.
Veemon adores Gatomon. He also has a healthy fear of her, and would like the opinion of someone who doesn't look like they could toy with his insides with a smile.
"Hey, Hawkmon?"
Yolei and Hawkmon turn around, which, no. "Just Hawkmon!" he calls, and promptly runs ahead to pulls on the bird's wing, dragging him to the side of the group for a more private conversation.
"Well, I never!" Hawkmon squawks.
Yolei groans. "Can't you control your partner, Davis?"
That seems a little insulting. Davis, over by Ken, just glances at them and waves cheerfully to Veemon. Because he's the best.
Veemon shrugs it off. Hawkmon shakes his feathers, grumbling under his breath. "Now, what, may I ask, was so important you could not merely call me over like a civilized digimon?"
"I've got a question."
"Well, a question..."
"Do you think..." Veemon hesitates, screwing up his face and wondering how to phrase it.
"Yes, I do think," Hawkmon says impatiently. "I'm not sure you do, however. Now, if I may..."
"This is important!"
Hawkmon blinks owlishly.
"...Fine," says the bird at last. "...Go on."
"Do you think... Do you think the bond between partners, that it can be a bad thing?"
"Bad? Between humans and digimon, you mean?"
"Yeah."
"Certainly not – I mean, I have never heard of such a thing, at least..."
"But I mean... Just imagine, you know, if a human did something really bad – like something, hurting his partner or being really awful all the time, so his partner was miserable – but, don't we sort of... I mean, Davis is great, but, in a way partners have to stay together, don't they?"
Saying the words, it just seems true. Because Veemon knows that he could never refuse Davis anything. Not anything important, anyway.
Hawkmon frowns. "Miserable... Now, Veemon, I know Davis might be unsanitary, but that's a far cry from..."
"I'm not talking about Davis!"
This outburst catches some attention. Davis lifts his head and looks at the two, shifting like he might come over. Veemon shakes his head sharply, lifting both arms in the air and waving them wildly in a gesture to convey no-not-now-stay-I-got-this. Davis relaxes and goes back to his conversation.
Because he's the best.
"I mean," Veemon continues, "What we have, it's wonderful, but... if used wrong..."
"But you're not looking at it properly," Hawkmon chides. "It's not a one-way bond, Veemon. Our human partners feel just as bound to us as we are to them. So, the situation you are describing will not occur; or, if it does, can surely be resolved with communication."
But it did happen...
"Does that help?"
"...Sure."
"Wonderful. And in the future, please feel free to get my attention in a less brusque manner if necessary, yes?"
Wincing and shifting his bent wing, Hawkmon returns to Yolei.
Veemon walks alone for awhile, considering these not-entirely-applicable words. A two-way bond... Communication...
"Here we are!" Patamon cheers.
"Took long enough," Armadillomon grumbles.
Well, Veemon doesn't have time for more reminiscing; they need to begin repairs, and that's long, hard work. But, as the group shifts to their champion forms, he has an idea.
"Stingmon," Ex-Veemon prompts. "I bet Paildramon could get some of these heavier loads done easier..."
Stingmon tilts his head, surprised. It's not strictly necessary, really, but -
"It's been awhile," Stingmon agrees. They turn to Ken and Davis.
No one really scorns a chance for a DNA evolution, honestly.
Turning into Paildramon is probably the factor that truly cemented Veemon and Wormmon's friendship. It surprises him still, to see that Patamon and Gatomon are closer, and Armadillomon and Hawkmon, because how can that be, when you have shared a body with another digimon? Shouldn't it be Patamon and Armadillomon, Hawkmon and Gatomon? But some things are private, and even he does not ask these sorts of questions.
The part of Paildramon that is Wormmon recognizes Veemon's ulterior motives for this joining, and accepts them just as quickly, because, in the instance of their joining, he is Veemon – he has Veemon's concern, his own motives, and knows intimately the fierce jolt that rises in his abdomen with the memory of a high-pitched voice saying, Maybe I should have died sooner...
They go to work, quietly, diligently. Ken and Davis – if the two are successful – will not notice a thing. Inside, they remember, together, Wormmon's/their time in the fortress, and Ken's mourning, after. They try to understand. They do understand. They do not understand.
And when they part -
"Great job today, guys," says Davis cheerfully. "Things were a little quiet, though. Everything alright?"
"Just working hard," Veemon says. And, to make things seem realistic - "I could sure use some food though."
"That's more like it."
When Davis walks away, Veemon lingers with Wormmon.
"Do you understand now?" Wormmon asks.
"...I don't know."
His friends deflates, and looks like he might say something else. They both fall silent, though, as Ken starts walking toward them.
Toward Veemon.
Slowly, understanding that something is happening, Veemon moves to meet him halfway. They halt, and face one another.
"Kari tells me you have something to say to me," Ken says gently.
Kari?
Veemon remembers Gatomon's easy words, her clever, shining blue eyes. Cats...!
A small part of Veemon rises up again, something fierce and aching that refuses to be reassured by even the merging of selves that comes with DNA evolution. But, looking at the worry in Ken's eyes, Veemon spots something else, too.
Resignation.
He knows what this is about...
"Veemon," Wormmon says quietly.
Veemon pauses, looking behind him. Wormmon comes up slowly, and -
- and really, what hurts a digimon more, he realizes, than hurting their partner?
- What has he been thinking?
"Yeah, I do," he says.
Ken nods sadly.
"Wormmon's my best friend," he says. " - So, you... you better be sure to keep doing... Exactly what you're doing. That means treating him right and talking to each other and setting aside time to be silly on weekends and always making sure he knows how important he is and – and – and just being a good partner, okay?"
Ken stares at him, wide-eyed.
Hey, Veemon has to have some pride. "Got it?" he repeats.
"Yeah," Ken says. And if the boy's throat sounds a little hoarse, Veemon can pretend not to notice. "Yeah, I... I've got it."