Characters: Daisuke, Ken||Pairing: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken
Chapter Word Count: 1,624||Story Word Count: 3,126||Chapter Count: 2/8

He was free.

The limited moments when he'd flown before, either at the end of his chains or in a roofed over area where he couldn't escape, didn't even begin to compare to being outside of the fortress, free to go wherever he wanted, free to go home at long last.

Daisuke stretched his wings as far as he could, breathing deeply and letting it all out in the biggest laugh possible.

How long has it been since I really laughed? Too long. There hadn't been anything to laugh about while he stumped along behind the Kaiser or knelt at his feet and tried his best to please him just so he could eat.

But now he could laugh, he could smile, he could and would do anything he wanted, just because he wanted to!

He stopped paying attention to where he was going, so long as it was away from the fortress. A quick look around told him that he didn't recognize this area, but he didn't stress himself about it. He didn't want to stress about anything, ever again.

Instead, he soared as far and as fast as he could, glad that he'd eaten well that morning, because he would need it now. He spun here and there, laughing even louder, eyes bright with joy, dancing on the wind and curving into the breeze.

"I'm free!" He shouted it as loud as his lungs could make the words. "I'm going home!"

He curved backwards, darting around, leaping onto the tops of trees – hoping one of them wasn't a Jureimon – and coursed over a lake, reaching down to run his fingers through the sparkling waters, tossing up handfuls to catch the sun.

Daisuke paid no attention to how long he'd been out there. He didn't think he had any reason to. Why should he, when he was free?

Only when long strands of shadows began to reach across the sky did it dawn on him just how long he'd been out there. He stopped where he was, perched on top of a tree branch, and stared to the west.

"He left this morning," Daisuke murmured, "and he said he wasn't going to be gone that long. He'd be back before noon."

Trails of cold shivered their way down his spine. By now the Kaiser must've returned to the fortress, which meant that he knew Daisuke wasn't there anymore.

That was all right, though. Sort of.

I've been out most of the day and he still hasn't found me. I did it. I got away.

He wanted to think that, to believe it down to his core, but he knew it wasn't completely real just yet. He wasn't back home yet, and only then would it be real.

And he'd spent his day sky-dancing instead of going back where he truly belonged.

Daisuke shook his head, smacked himself a little, and took back off into the sky. They're going to be home by now already, I bet. So I have to find one of those portals, and see if I can get in touch with someone. Or find one of the Digimon.

Where would V-mon be? The others had found him; he knew that much, because he'd seen them all together on those rare occasions he'd been allowed to watch his friends. But Kaiser never let him learn too much, not enough to spark genuine hope.

So he'd have to look for his partner, or for any of the other partner Digimon. Only one tiny problem remained with that.

It was getting dark, and he'd never had the best night vision anyway. And the more he flew, the hungrier he got. His stomach gave a harsh rumble even as he thought that, reminding him how much energy flying took.

He dropped down through the tree branches, wiggling this way and that to avoid getting caught in them, pulling his wings in closer until he got to the ground.

"All right, if I were some decent fruit, or just something to eat that grows on trees, where would I be?"

There was a simple answer to that, but not the one he really wanted it to be, since that was 'in front of me, ready to be eaten'. Even being free didn't mean life would be that convenient for him.

So he wandered around in search of food of any kind. Going back up into the sky to search for that lake, which could possibly have fish in it, slipped back into his mind over and over. Only one thing kept him from doing it: he couldn't see in the dark, and if Kaiser tracked him down, he wouldn't know it until too late.

Yeah, not doing that again.

He rubbed absently at the collar around his neck. He needed to take it off, but he'd found out the hard way weeks after his imprisonment that it wouldn't, no matter how hard he tried. It latched in the back somewhere, but he'd never been able to find the exact spot. Sometimes he searched for it when he had nothing else to do and Kaiser wasn't there to punish him for it, but the results never changed.

Once I find the others, I'll get it off then. Hope wasn't his particular area of expertise, but he'd learned a lot about it since being captured. It kept him going as much as courage did, or the sure and certain knowledge that his friends were looking for him and would find him sooner or later.

Something moved overhead. Daisuke reacted without bothering to look at what it was, darting for the nearest batch of cover that he could find and wrapping his wings tightly around himself, his heart in his throat and his blood colder than ice.

The fortress? He couldn't tell. Was it too fast? Not fast enough? His throat closed hard and he tightened his wings in, not wanting to give any hint that he was there at all. He wouldn't give up his freedom, not after only a handful of hours. He just wouldn't.

Kaiser's boots echoed faintly back from the steel corridors as he made his way to his personal quarters. He'd been gone only a handful of hours and yet he wished to see his pet again, to feel the warmth of Daisuke's feathers against his fingers.

I'll have to give him a treat of some kind. He's been well-behaved lately.

Though in all fairness, such good behavior worried him. Daisuke wasn't obedient by nature, and his training had been slow and full of obstacles. What kept him quiet was only knowing that he couldn't escape and that Kaiser would come after him if he even tried.

Which was why when Kaiser stepped into his private quarters and found it empty of his pretty caged Flier, his hands clenched into fists and his eyes blazed with rage, even as he wasn't surprised in the slightest.

Not surprised, no. Daisuke would, of course, take whatever he perceived as a chance to escape. He'd expected this for weeks now.

But furious beyond the ability of words to express. He whirled, one word ripping out of his lips.

"Wormmon!"

His supposed partner wriggled up moments later, just as Kaiser began to tap his whip on his hip.

"Where did he go and when did he get out?" There wasn't any need to question how. Kaiser didn't care how. He wanted his pet back and the sooner the better.

"We were cleaning your room when it happened," Wormmon murmured, head tucked down. "We had to take the chain off of the wall to get to the floor and he grabbed it and ran off. I think he got out through the launch bay." He scrabbled his tiny claws at the floor. "I tried to tell him not to. I told him you'd be mad at him."

Kaiser sneered down at the pathetic Digimon. "Clearly you didn't make it plain enough. Have everyone who was on that cleaning detail punished." He suspected Wormmon's idea of 'punishing' them would be to send them to bed without their dinner, but he had other duties on his mind at the moment.

He stalked his way from there to his control room, lips set into a smirk that would've terrified Daisuke if he'd seen it.

What a foolish, foolish pet I have. He thinks that just leaving my fortress is enough to grant him his freedom. I'm the only one who can do that, and I have no intentions whatsoever of doing so at all.

If anything, this little show of rebellion made him want Daisuke even more, to tame the wild creature to his hand in ways that nothing could deny. That would require punishment once he had Daisuke rounded up, but Kaiser already had ideas on how to do that. He'd splintered Daisuke's will already. This would solidify their respective stations once and for all.

It might take him a little time to find his pet, but he knew he would succeed. Daisuke couldn't hide from him no matter how much he wanted to.

That collar wasn't there just to show Daisuke who his master was, nor just to look attractive on him – though it did do that very well indeed. He made a note to look into some other clothes for Daisuke as well, if he could manage to earn them after this situation resolved. The Kaiser's pet had to look his best.

But that collar had another function altogether and Kaiser wanted to see what results he was getting from it.

Every good master made certain that if their pet ran away, there was a way to track him, after all. Kaiser wasn't any different in that regard.

To Be Continued

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.