A/N: Whew! Wow, I'm typing my fingers to the bone! If I get carpal tunnel syndrome at a young age, it will be all your fault for begging me to continue this thing! ;-)
Anyway, here's part three!
Disclaimer: Amazing. I still don't own Digimon. And after all those bribes I paid…j/k. Oh, well, better luck next time! ^_^
The Heart of an Emperor Part Three: Thaw
"No, you fool! Mitochondria are more common in animal cells! Chloroplasts are responsible for changing sunlight into energy in plant cells!"
It had been three long days in the Kaizer's dungeons. Yolei, though she admitted her prison was more comfortable than the ones in the stories she had read (she got water, some bland food, and a chance to use the restroom every day), she still wanted out – by any means possible. And the means she had come up with? Annoying the hell out of her imprisoner.
She had hit on this plan after the third failed attempt to rescue her by her friends. As much as she hated to admit it, she really doubted that her friends could rescue her. The Emperor's guards were too strong, and Davis' plans were getting more stupid and more desperate every time. His last attempt had been to have the Digimon hurl themselves bodily at the stone walls of the castle. Needless, to say, this had not been successful.
She had started out by reciting her multiplication tables. The practice was easy enough to require no conscious thought, and she slipped into a monotone that succeeded in driving all of the guards assigned to her absolutely insane. After the fifth time they came running up to the control room, begging to be assigned elsewhere ("Anywhere else, please Master, just don't make me go down there again!" sobbed a Vegimon), Ken had decided to come down to make her stop. She had promptly switched to rattling off the parts and functions of the cell – which had led to this rather entertaining conversation.
Yolei didn't know why she was surprised that Ken knew all about the cell – after all, he was the smartest kid in the world. But she never expected him to start correcting all her mistakes – and certainly not to start an actual conversation.
"Well, excuse me!" she said in mock anger. "Maybe if you hadn't captured me, I could have taken this quiz and known all of that stuff, but no, I had to spend Tuesday in this disgusting dungeon!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, is it not luxurious enough for you? I'll be sure to tell the interior decorator right away, so the prisoner can be more comfortable!" Ken retorted with horrible sarcasm.
"Well, good. As long as I don't have to wait."
Ken stared at her with the oddest look on his face. She sighed. "It was a joke! You know, funny, ha-ha type of thing? Or is the Digimon Emperor to important for stupid things like laughing?"
He glared at her. "Very funny," came his icy retort.
"Honestly, you need to loosen up," Yolei complained. "It's bad enough I'm stuck in here for all this time, I don't need to be with someone with no sense of humor!"
"Humor is unnecessary," Ken said, pulling back into his don't-touch me mask.
"Nonsense. How can you possibly get through the day acting all serious the entire time? I know I'd go mad within an hour."
There was no reply from Ken. She glanced up at him. He was staring at his watch and mouthing something to himself. He looks really cute that way, she thought suddenly. His hair falling over his face and concentrating hard… No! What the heck was she thinking? This guy had imprisoned her and was making her life miserable. She sneaked another look at him. Still, you have to admit that he is cute…
A loud bang interrupted her thoughts. Ken looked up, and she realized that this is what he had been waiting for. "Right on schedule," he said. "Every day they attack at the exact same time. You think they'd try some variety after awhile."
"Aren't you going to attack them back?"
"Do you want to me to go attack your friends?" Ken sneered. "Anyway, I am attacking them. Wormmon has orders to send out a portion of my army when they come. He should be doing that right now."
"Great." Yolei sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was starting to look like she would never get out of here.
Ken stood up. "I've wasted enough of my tine here."
"Wasted?" Yolei began angrily, but he had already left.
"Self-centered snob," she muttered to herself.
* * *
After that, though, the Digimon Emperor came down to her cell every day. More often than not, they would get into some sort of heated debate before he had been down there for ten minutes. Yolei won most of these, which infuriated Ken to no end, leading him to try and win the next one…and the next. She was starting to look forward to the time when she heard the quick pace of his walk coming down the hall. Only because she missed having someone to talk to, of course: at least, that was the excuse she made to herself.
It was during one of these debates that the change took place. For once, Ken was winning, and Yolei was not taking it well. Finally, in an attempt to derail his train of thought, she burst out, "Why do you always wear those sunglasses? How can I possibly argue with someone if I can never see their eyes or what they're thinking?"
"That is none of your concern," Ken replied. He apparently fully realized what Yolei was trying to do, and his tone told her she was out of luck. That didn't stop her from pressing the issue farther, though.
"Is there something wrong with your eyes? Is one of them blue and one orange or something?" (No offense to people who do have eyes like that.) Yolei asked, playing off his pride.
"There is nothing wrong with my eyes," he snapped back at her. She smiled inwardly; her plan was working! If she could just keep him off balance… "I bet they're really ugly. That's why you cover them up all the time."
For an answer, he reached up and angrily yanked the glasses off his face. When he turned to face her, Yolei found herself staring into the most beautiful blue-violet eyes she had ever seen. Her breath caught in her throat as those two dark orbs mesmerized her.
"Satisfied?" he asked her. Too breathless to speak, she merely nodded. He started to put them back on his face. "Will you keep them off?" she asked suddenly. He looked startled. "I mean, it's a shame to cover up your eyes like that, and anyway you don't really need them inside…" she was babbling. She was babbling, and she knew it. What was Ken thinking?
He regarded her for a second, then slowly and deliberately put them back on. She was disappointed, but at the same time a little relieved. His eyes affected her too much.
She lost the debate. After what had just happened, she couldn't even remember what it was about.
* * *
Ken paced back and forth in his room in the top of the tower. His mind was completely preoccupied with the previous afternoon. My sunglasses…why did they mean so much to her? Why did that mean so much to me? A sudden rage filled him, and he slammed his fist against the wall. The pain racing up his arm momentarily distracted him. All too soon it faded away, and he resumed pacing. Frustrated, he ran a gloved hand through his hair. That afternoon…it was that afternoon that was confusing him so much. He had been arguing with Yolei as usual (a part of his mind registered that this should not be usual; Ken worked alone and never talked to anyone) when he realized something. He was enjoying himself. Sitting there in his own dungeon, when he could have been out conquering a new area, arguing with his own prisoner (who had no right to speak to his face anyway), and he was enjoying himself. It made no sense.
And then, the deal with the sunglasses…why had she looked so startled when he took them off? That look on her face just then was different then any other time he had seen her. It was almost…he firmly squashed that thought before he could finish it. It's just the shock, he decided. He had never been without his sunglasses in the Digital world, and without them he felt so…vulnerable. In some way those glasses had become a symbol of who he was. Without them, he felt unsure of himself. And that's all it is, he thought. Nothing else. He lay down in bed, and the thought he had pushed away sprung unbidden back to his mind. Beautiful…
* * *
Yolei was startled out of sleep from a rattling at her cell door. Blearily she opened her eyes and saw, to her surprise, Ken standing over her. And he was holding the key! She stared as he unlocked her chains. "Go," he said brusquely.
"What?" she said. She knew she must sound like an idiot, but she just couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"You heard me. Go!" he said.
"But why?" she asked.
"Look," Ken said, yelling now, "do you want to go free or don't you? You have no use to me now, the other Digidestined are staying away from the castle and my Digimon still have not managed to capture them. I have no need for a prisoner anymore, so just leave!"
Yolei needed no other invitation. She couldn't help feeling a little pang in her chest, though, when he said he had no use for her anymore. Was that all she was, a tool to be picked up and thrown away any time he felt like it? She quickly wrote off those feelings as foolishness and said, "Where's Hawkmon? I'm not leaving without him!"
Ken stared at her incredulously. She would rather be locked up even longer than leave him behind? he thought. A grudging respect filled him, but he pushed it away. He was good at not letting his emotions control him.
"Fine. Hawkmon is in the second cell on the left on the lower level. The guard there has the key; you'll have no problem getting it from him. He has not been harmed," Ken added, seeing another question rising in her big, expressive eyes. She shut her mouth and looked startled. "Now go before I change my mind!"
Yolei turned and ran towards the exit of the dungeon. Ken watched her go, a strange feeling running through his chest. Suddenly he ran after her, easily catching up with his long legs. "Wait," he said, catching her by the shoulder.
She looked up at him, her expression unreadable. Ken licked his lips. He was uncertain of what he was going to do. He had run after her so impulsively, he hadn't thought about what he was going to do when he got there.
"I don't understand this," he said quietly. "I don't understand any of this, but…" Here she broke in.
"I don't understand either." She said. As he gaped at her, she leaned in closer to him…then softly, almost timidly, she kissed him on the mouth.
The kiss was over almost before it had begun, but it left Ken breathless anyway. He unconsciously rose his hand to his lips. Yolei looked at him a minute longer, then her eyes widened in fear and realization of what she had just done. Without a word she turned and walked as fast as she could down the hallway, towards Hawkmon, towards freedom.
And tried as hard as she could not to want to turn back.
Finally, actual…uh…romance! If you can really call it that…how is it now? Do you want to finish this? Please review!