She wanted it to be meaningful, her first word. She had been mute since the car accident when she was six when she broke her neck, the doctors said she wouldn't ever speak again, but was lucky she only lost her voice. Lucky wasn't the word she would have picked. And she kept trying to speak again anyway, alone in her room. And now, at fourteen, as the new leader of the Digidestined, after years of practicing with her voice, she felt she could do it. She could make little sounds when she tried speaking in her room, she just needed to figure out how to make those broken and lost sounds fit together to make a word.
During lunch, once, she showed her friends her progress with all the little sounds she could make. They were happy for her, but she was still frustrated she couldn't make those sounds into a word.
She wanted to talk again so bad it hurt. Even if she could only say one word she would be happy, but all she had were odd, broken up sounds that meant nothing by themselves.
At one point she tried to scream in frustration, but all that came out was a high pitched, broken up, twenty second whine that gave out sounding like a tire on gravel. It only made her more frustrated.
When Ken joined the team and became her friend he would often sit with her in silence and they would just enjoys the others lone company. During those times, and only those times, she was alright with her muteness, and she actually liked those quiet moments with her friend. Of course that didn't change the fact she still wanted to speak, to be able to have a word she could say. Her word.
Everyone else had words they could say, words they could make their own. So was it really so much to ask that she could have one word that was hers, that could make it past her lips for the worlds, or at least her friends and family, to hear?
She hated it when most people heard her practice speaking, because all she could make were embarrassing little sounds, but sometimes she would let Ken hear her try. Most often she would go to him, they would sit in his room while he did his homework and studied at his desk, and she would sit with her legs crossed on the floor and try to make a word out of her sounds.
Sometimes he would comment, try to help if he could, and she would be quiet and listen to him, watch his perfect lips move. He even got a few books and read about her condition to see if he could find anything to help, she was touched when she found out because not even her family did that.
"Just keep trying Daisuke. You'll get it, and I hope I'm there when you finally master your beautiful voice." He told her once when she was feeling down.
So she kept trying, and trying, and trying.
And one day, while they laid side by side on the floor of his room, just watching his ceiling fan spin in lazy slow circles, and they were both half asleep in the peaceful quiet, she was gifted with her first whisper in years.
And he became her word.
"Ken..."
Alright another One-shot with Kensuke! Again written while waiting for dinner out of boredom, but hey, whatever works. I really hope you all enjoyed this. Let me know what you thought, reviews are awesome!