Hikari loved him. Ken knew it deep in his heart. He could see it with his own eyes that she loved him. And more than that. She had said she loved him and her body language said she meant it. Hikari really and truly loved him.

Ken shook his head, his eyes downcast and hidden under his bangs, cloaking his expression from the girl beside him. Yagami Hikari, the Child of Light and his latest fixation. For almost four weeks, he had followed her around like a puppy. He had been to her house countless times and he knew for a fact her brother, Taichi, thought he was into her. Ken had picked Hikari up for work and taken her out for lunch on two of the three Fridays. He had tried to get to know everything about her that was necessary to give off the right appearance and yet not let it be a conscious impression.

Now Ken knew what he had been trying to find out. Hikari loved him.

She wriggled nervously in her seat, waiting for a proper reaction. The moment she had said out loud that she loved him, she wondered if it was the right thing to do. What if it was not what Ken wanted to hear?

Hikari wished Ken would lift his head up, so she could see what he was thinking. He had been coming over and spending so much time with her lately and he had learned her responses almost as well as Taichi – by her body language and the tiniest hitches in her voice – but she still could not read him without being able to see his eyes. She had no idea whether, at a given moment, he was happy or leaning back towards the suicide thoughts that had plagued him since he was a child. Not even thirteen years after their adventure could fully wipe those thoughts out of his system, though Daisuke insisted that he was a lot better than he had been. Still, it was no comfort that he might be so hurt that he would consider it again.

At first, Hikari had not thought, for the longest time, that Ken might consider them 'dating'. That was what they had agreed when he first asked her to let him take her to lunch. "Is that a date, Ken?" she had asked and his answer was plain and immediate, no strings attached.

"No; just two friends hanging out, that's all." And she had not thought of it as anything but that. That was, until Taichi started hinting that Ken did not spend nearly as much time with any of the other Chosen Children except for Daisuke.

"He comes down here nearly every day," the elder Yagami had pointed out, only that morning. "That seems like dating to me." And it did, when she truly thought about it. But she had never actually wanted to think about it.

"Ken?" She had expected this confrontation to be with Takeru, not with the beautiful, blue-eyed young man next to her. "Ken, sorry. I..."

"Are you over Daisuke?" he asked the table, his soft voice almost devoid of emotion.

Hikari winced and nodded. She had thought the issue over many times in the past few years and she had never been more sure in the months that preceded this day. But she had never had the courage to tell anyone... until Ken forced her conscience. She would not be leading him on ever again.

"Yeah," she muttered, smiling in spite of the situation's previous seriousness. "I'm over him." Hikari reached into her bag and pulled out a box of chocolates, wrapped in a pink bow. "Happy Valentine's Day." She held them out to him.

She heard a chuckle and when Ken finally glanced up, there was an unmistakable grin on his face. He gratefully accepted the gift of her love and stood up, only a few inches taller than her. Stroking one hand against her face, he murmured: "Thanks and I love you, too."

…

Challenges: Adventure section B27 of the Digimon Diversity; Pairing Diversity #5: forevermore; AU Diversity (realism! AU) #11: deserve; and finally, One Ship #40: official.