A/N: again, spoilery for Tri if you haven't watched the 5 minute preview of Tri that came out weeks ago. Also if you don't know who the Tri antagonist is, I suppose. This is really just my own personal head canon to explain some stuff. Also, it wouldn't be a fic of mine without Takedai/Daikeru, so that's mentioned in here. Set in the same universe as the other two I've written, "Not Another Hat" and "Always." *sails the Takedai ship into the sunset*
The Other Side
His scars ached.
They'd all guessed that the slashes that ran down his arm and torso had gone in so deep, they'd scarred on the inside when they healed.
And they'd taken a long time to heal.
"Do we need to find another pharmacy?"
Daisuke started, not realizing Ken had been watching him massage the long scar on his arm.
The blue-haired boy crouched down, graceful as ever, to examine the old wound, but Daisuke pulled away.
"Nah. The heat is probably making it swell."
Ken looked a little hurt at the rejection, but offered, "We might be able to find some anti-inflamatories?"
Daisuke opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted from behind them.
"What, we're going hunting for supplies again?" Miyako, her clothes smeared with mud, several of their makeshift bags slung over her shoulder, appeared at the mouth of their current hideaway.
A natural opening in a labyrinth of tangled aerial roots, vines, and hanging foliage, it served well to hide the three of them. It was a pity they'd have to move again soon.
Daisuke stood, muttering "Don't do it on my account" over his shoulder as he made his way past Miyako and down the winding path the roots provided.
Miyako exchanged a look with Ken, setting the makeshift bags down by the fire. "He's been like that for a couple of days," she pointed out, kneeling down and rummaging through the bags.
"I know." Ken paused for a moment before murmuring, "I'm not entirely sure it's just his scars, though."
Miyako sighed. "Can you go after him? It's getting dark."
Ken nodded. Without her glasses, Miyako had a hard time navigating the brush at night.
"Thanks," she said, and tossed Ken a couple of mandarin oranges from one of the bags. "Hawkmon found these growing in a phone box."
Ken snickered. Where else would you expect to find fruit in the Digital World? He thanked her and started the climb down to ground level, passing Hawkmon roosting by the entrance.
He paused further down to give Wormmon an appreciative hug, and finally stopped when he reached V-mon, standing at the rim of the nearby lake.
"He's over there. He didn't want me to follow him," the blue digimon said dejectedly, pointing across the way.
Ken knelt down and held out one of the oranges for him. "I'll see what I can do."
V-mon nodded, looking over at Daisuke's prone figure, shoulders haunched, arms crossed, leaning against a rock in the moonlight.
Ken approached cautiously, realizing as he got close enough that Daisuke was staring down at something in his left hand. It was his busted up, faded blue D3.
Ken and Miyako had tried their best with what parts they could find, but after weeks of no success, decided to abandon the effort to repair the devices.
"You kept yours," Ken said, with only a hint of surprise in his voice. He and Miyako had left theirs behind months ago.
Daisuke looked up at that, his brow knitting.
"Couldn't let it go," he finally said, staring back down, running his thumb over the cracked, blank screen. "Something just... wouldn't let me."
Ken sighed and took the last few steps before settling next to Daisuke against the rock. "It's been a year, Daisuke."
A year since the battle with Alphamon had not only destroyed their D3s and shrunk their number by one, but also closed the gates and trapped the three survivors in the Digital World.
"I know, I just…" he shook his head, releasing a frustrated sigh. "It's like this is all I've got left of, of..." he trailed off, gazing out onto the lake, and the blunette recognized the look that stole over Daisuke's face.
Ken waited for him to continue, but when Daisuke remained silent, Ken ventured, "... Of Takeru?"
Daisuke's shoulders curled in dejectedly, his throat catching, but he nodded. He knew... He knew it didn't do them any good to dwell on the what-ifs and the maybes... But more than his family, more than having a roof over his head or regular meals, Daisuke ached for his boyfriend.
"I hate not knowing if he's okay. And... it's keepin' me up at night, wonderin' if..." he hesitated, eyes now focusing back on the D3, "if he's moved on."
Ken smiled sadly, wishing he could say he knew how Daisuke felt. Of course, his missed his parents, but the only other people who had ever really meant anything to him, Daisuke and Wormmon, were right there with him. There was no fear of being forgotten, not when the three children and their digimon had come to rely on each other not only for survival, but also as a makeshift family.
He wanted to tell Daisuke, We'll find a way back, and you can make sure yourself, but... instead he replied, trying to inject as much optimism into his voice as he could, "He hasn't. Not if that stubborn, idiotic faith of yours rubbed off on him at all."
Daisuke chuckled ruefully, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth but never actually making it across his face. His whole body cried out for one last touch of that bunny soft blonde hair, for one last look from that bright blue gaze, to hear his voice whispering softly, one last time, "You're all I need... always." And suddenly, panic gripped him when he realized he couldn't actually remember what Takeru's voice sounded like.
"Oh, god... I-I can't remember his voice-" His face screwed up, tears stung his eyes, the D3 fell from his hands as they gripped violently into his messy hair.
And then everything shifted. Ken's hand was halfway to Daisuke's shoulder, the red head's name halfway out of his mouth when a thunderous noise, a blast of searing heat, a gale of wind all rushed over them both, and V-mon was screaming both their names, pelting towards them as fast as his short legs could carry him.
Both red head and bluenette stared up in disbelief at the blazing remains of their refuge.
They both spared a single glance at each other before making a mad dash back up the pathway, Daisuke scooping V-mon up in his arms along the way. They dodged past flaming vegetation and fought their way up, brains not quite caught up with what had actually happened.
As they made it halfway up, Ken was wailing Wormmon's name, frantically turning up everything in his path in search of his digimon partner.
Dread was conjuring a lump in Daisuke's throat so big he felt it would choke him as he watched the flames lick at the night sky, morbidly transfixed.
And then Ken was backing up against him, hands grabbing and trying to shove him along, "Daisuke-RUN-"
V-mon had freed himself from Daisuke's arms and was charging in the opposite direction, and Ken was jerking him along behind him as they crashed through the trees...
"It's him, it's him," the bluenette chanted, panic and adrenaline pounding through his veins, and dreadful realization finally washed over Daisuke like an ice-cold wave.
Alphamon had found them.
"Oh, god, M-miyako-" The last thing he'd said to her.. he couldn't even think of it, and V-mon...
Ken was still yanking him along through the bushes, still chanting, "It's him-it's him-it's him-" like his brain had short-circuited and those were the only words he knew now.
And then they'd reached the tree line, and there was nowhere else to go, nowhere to hide.
And he was there.
Black metal gleaming deadly in the moonlight, blue mantel fanning around him, lance mere inches away from them both as they clung to one another, gasping for air...
And Daisuke's scars ached.
Takeru...