Title: Take To The Skies||Story: Grooming Night
Ship: Ken x Daisuke
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 1,500
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing, Digimon Adventure 02: Ken x Daisuke, C13, roll 2 dice & include that many random words in the story.
Notes: This is, of course, in the Take To The Skies universe: Daisuke has wings. I reread the whole series, since I haven't done so in a while, and realized I'd never set ages. I decided that from now on, it's set three years later than in canon. Jou is eighteen; Taichi, Yamato, and Sora are seventeen, Koushioru and Mimi are sixteen, Miyako is fifteen, Ken, Daisuke, Takeru, and Hikari are fourteen, and Iori is twelve. So, that's nice and settled. I'll make the necessary edits to the previous fics' author notes. Also: this is one of the series that could end well or end badly. If you've followed my recently updated works, then you know to vote on my FFnet profile or to comment on tumblr/AO3/FFnet to let me know. If not, well, now you know!
Summary: Molting season has rolled around for Daisuke and the only person allowed to tend his feathers is the Kaiser. Oh, joy.
Kaiser's hands moved through Daisuke's feathers, carefully checking each one of them. A few of those he lingered on, picking up the feather brush he kept nearby and smoothing them out. Others he gently worked out and set aside. Daisuke twitched and shivered each time he did that, his shoulders shaking whenever Kaiser's fingers got too close.
They shook a lot. Any time Kaiser's fingers touched him was too close, in his opinion. It also did not help that his molting season had finally arrived and Kaiser was grooming him. He did this for hours every day, making certain that Daisuke's falling feathers were cleaned up and the newly growing ones came in nicely.
Molting itched. It was a part of growing and he needed a lot of food when it got started – food that Kaiser still insisted that he beg for. Daisuke couldn't even begin to try to resist for that now. He'd considered it for a few hours, until the clawing empty gap in his stomach demanded food so strongly in between breakfast and lunch that he'd broken down and begged Kaiser for a mid-morning snack.
"How does that feel?" Kaiser murmured, one hand resting on the top of one wing. Daisuke closed his eyes and shivered all over. He had to stay where he was during the whole grooming operation. That made him wild to get moving – wilder than he normally was, with so much pent up energy.
He held it better than he had when he'd first been taken. Kaiser gave him times and places where he could burn it off, but grooming was difficult, more so than now.
"It feels all right," Daisuke said at last. "They do itch over here, though." He raised his left hand to indicate that side of his wings. "There's a bad patch right in the middle."
Kaiser now brushed his fingers through that area. "Here?" Daisuke nodded and Kaiser probed. "I see. Let me try this. I've been preparing it for you."
Daisuke wondered what he meant. He didn't have long to wait before something a bit chilled began to be smoothed into the feathers. The itching soothed almost at once and Daisuke heaved a deep, rested sigh.
"That feels wonderful, master. Thank you." It did. He didn't argue with himself about telling the truth to the Kaiser. It wasn't really worth the energy that it took. He wasn't ever good at lying; he never had been. If he thought about it, then being here meant he didn't have to keep lying to his parents about where his bruises came from or where he got in his flying practice or why he kept bringing extra food back to his room.
"You're quite welcome," Kaiser said, satisfied. "I made that cream for you. I'm glad that you liked it. Since it does such a good job, I'll have more of it made."
Daisuke wasn't so dense he couldn't figure out the meaning behind those words. What Kaiser meant was that he'd need more. Not just this molt but for many molts to come. Molting happened more frequently when a Flier was growing up – like he was now – and tapered off until an adult Flier molted about once a year or so. The idea of spending years and years restrained, chained, under the Kaiser's unyielding domination – he'd have nightmares about that. He'd already had a few but there were clearly more to come.
I wish I could talk to V-mon. He really wanted to do that but so far the Kaiser hadn't seen fit to allow that. He wasn't sure if he ever would. Kaiser was very, very possessive of him, after all. Those few times he got to see the others at distance grew rarer and rarer. Even if V-mon couldn't stay or he couldn't leave, he just wanted to see his partner again and talk to him, to know that he was all right. To let V-mon know that he was all right.
Even though he wasn't. Being the Kaiser's prisoner and pet meant that he'd never be all right and he refused to let himself forget that.
But then the Kaiser's hands brushed over the arc of his wings and down the sides of his neck. Daisuke arched his neck backward, shivering, a frisson of pleasure rocketing through him that he wished he could ignore. The longer that he stayed at the Kaiser's feet, the more the Kaiser touched him and the more often the Kaiser touched him, the more Daisuke liked it. Every moment of contact set every sense and every part of his body on unquenchable fire. At least not by himself…
Most people didn't touch a Flier's wings. At least not with permission from the Flier. Kaiser never waited for permission. He ran his fingers through Daisuke's wings whenever he chose to do so, finding all the places that made Daisuke make noises. It didn't take long. Daisuke hadn't ever had much in the way of self-restraint and when it came to his wings being played with – or parts of his hair being played with – then he had even less.
Kaiser had very talented fingers. Daisuke already knew that, from when they'd played soccer against one another in that time before. He knew it in an entirely different way now as Kaiser brushed and tended each one of his feathers and ensured that he was in perfect condition in every single way.
He wasn't sure of how long he sat there under the Kaiser's hands, his feathers being set in order, but at some point, Kaiser tapped him in the shoulder and he twisted his head around to look up.
Kaiser held something out to him – a bracelet. A real bracelet – not like a fancy piece of chains or shackles. Daisuke blinked at it and stared closer.
"Take it," Kaiser said, voice a trifle gruff. "I had it made for you."
Slowly Daisuke picked it up, not sure of why but certain if he did it, Kaiser would force it on him regardless. The bracelet was of a material he didn't recognize, but as he turned it over, he could see one of his own feathers encased within it, wound about with a strand of blue hair. He blinked several times, trying to wrap his head around this.
"What -" He knew that shade of hair. He saw it whenever he looked at the Kaiser. He could hardly forget it when it was such a part of his life.
"Your feather and my hair," Kaiser said, voice still gruff. "Encased together, forever. Just like you and me. It's been six months since I brought you here. An anniversary present."
Oh. Daisuke swallowed. Six months. He'd been away from home, his friends, his family, and his partner for six months. Half of the year. He thought he remembered what they all looked and sounded like but if he really tried hard – they seemed so faint. What he remembered clearest of all was his time here with the Kaiser. It was all but impossible to forget a moment of his time here. Held and bound, kept restrained in whatever way the Kaiser pleased, and unable to really do anything about it.
Some anniversary. He didn't even get cake.
"That's – yeah." He wasn't going to say it was nice. It wasn't thoughtful. It was pretty much a nightmare that he lived on a daily basis.
Kaiser reached down, picked up Daisuke's wrist, and slid the bracelet onto it. He admired it for a few moments before he turned Daisuke's wrist around and pries his fingers open, then dropped a kiss down on Daisuke's palm. Daisuke closed his eyes. Kaiser kissed him there again, then did the same thing to Daisuke's other hand.
"Tonight I have a feast planned for us," Kaiser told him, eliminating Daisuke's mental pouting about not having cake. Sometimes – all the time – Kaiser read him far too well. "Tomorrow we'll take care of your wings again. And every day until your molt is finished." Kaiser now tilted Daisuke's head to stare at him before he pressed a kiss to Daisuke's lips, tongue tracing along before probing between them. Daisuke tried to close his lips but Kaiser's tongue kept him from doing so. Kaiser broke the kiss when he was satisfied, leaning back to run his hands through Daisuke's hair. "Then I'll take you flying. Don't you want that?"
Daisuke breathed a sigh outwards. He knew the only answer that he could use right now. "Yes, master."
Kaiser smiled. It wasn't a terrifying expression, nor one of anger. It made Daisuke's heart sink to see it regardless, even as it pleased him. He didn't want to make Kaiser happy but he couldn't seem to stop himself.
"Very good, my pet. Very good indeed."
Daisuke leaned back against his master's legs as the Kaiser got back to work. He had to stay in flying condition. He had to be ready when the chance came. That was all.
The End
Notes: Poor Daisuke. Random dice roll was three & the words chosen were: order, perfect, and sense.