Lockdown- the 'lost key'

**Words on the computer screen**





Mother's are so annoying. Koushiro was a traitor. Daisuke was stuck with the first, because the second had 'to clean his room'. Right. They all knew that that was a lie, since said room was spotless, but that hadn't kept the redhead from running, and leaving his cellmate alone with the Warden.

"How have you been, Daisuke?" They were sitting in the living room, she relaxed in the chair, and he on the edge of the couch, his hands respectfully in his lap.

"Fine. You?" It was Saturday morning, and he had thirty-six hours to go before departure on Sunday. He'd only been in the apartment five minutes, and he was already starting to feel the walls close in on him.

"Good. How are your grades?" He grimaced.

"I failed another test." He'd been so sure that he knew what he was doing. He'd missed passing by one point. It might have been the closest he'd ever gotten, but he was still upset. One point, and he could have laughed in the teacher's face, and shown the world that he was capable of it.

"That's too bad." Her smile was sympathetic, and he had to look away. He couldn't stay mad at her if she was being sweet and kind, and he wanted to stay mad. "How is everything else? Soccer?" He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as they continued to play twenty questions.

"Soccer's good. We have a game next Saturday." He rolled his eyes at her knowing smile. It would be his only escape for another three weeks. The Warden had prolonged their sentencing.

"We're coming." He looked up, the surprise on his face a mixture of hope and confusion. "It's been years since I've been to a game, and I know that Koushiro would enjoy it." What in the world did that mean?

Nevermind, that. They were going to his game! He'd have someone to cheer for him, since his parents rarely managed to make it to any of his games. He grinned, his eyes growing wide and happy. The woman who had said those words, not realizing how much they would mean, nearly cried at the heartbreaking innocence on his face. She swallowed and stood up.

"Excuse me. I have to check on lunch." He nodded, and watched her leave. When he was alone, he fell back against the cushions, his grin in place. Maybe the Warden wasn't so bad, after all.

~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

The woman was an evil dictator from the planet ZimBuDari, who's sole mission was to make his existence as miserable as possible in the quickest amount of time allowed. Who ever heard of making a guest wash dishes, clean windows, and dust? All in the same three hours. The Warden was a tyrant, and had to be stopped.

Daisuke was miserable, Koushiro was hiding behind his computer, since they didn't have to study. The homework had been accomplished on Friday, a fact that had amazed everyone except Daisuke, who didn't seem to really notice or care. Mrs. Izumi seemed intent on getting all of her spring cleaning done with his assistance, whether he liked it or not.

Which he didn't.

Little did he know, though, that the Warden had silently approved their escape, and was hoping that they'd try it again. However, Koushiro seemed determined to thwart her plan, since he had told her outright, "I'm not going to let him kidnap me again, mother, just so you can have the satisfaction of hoping that we're doing something other than study. Like kissing, or necking."

Her glare had gone unheeded as he turned back to his computer. His little friend was falling right into her grasp, but her own son was turning into an enemy in her quest to find him a boyfriend. Her reply: "You enjoyed it. Don't deny it. You'd love to be kidnapped by him for a reason other than studying. Admit it."

The teary-eyed look that he gave her had been enough, but his words stung. "Yes, that's true. But he won't ever see me as anything more than his tutor, and maybe even his 'cellmate'. We were barely friends before this mother. What makes you think that forcing him to spend time with me will make him something more?"

So, she had let him go, watched as he turned on his shield, and shut out the rest of the world. Her attention had been turned to Daisuke, and trying to solve the puzzle that was his emotions and mind. Not a simple or undaunting task by far, but worth it, if she could find a way to make her baby happy. He deserved to be happy, and she was going to help him find a way to be just that. Whether he liked it or not.

Which he didn't.

She watched Daisuke move into Koushiro's room to wash his window, and then stepped into the doorway. "Boys." They looked at her. "I'm going to shut the door, since I'm going to be vacuuming the hallway." They shrugged and nodded, and went back to ignoring her and each other. She shut the door; her smile sly as she stealthily clicked it shut, and jammed the locking mechanism. They had food, they had water. And now, they had each other.

Her laughter floated under the door, unnoticed by the prisoners. Sometimes, a mother's love couldn't go far enough.


~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

Daisuke finished the window, and then started out of the room. On the way, he stopped to read the computer screen over Koushiro's shoulder. "That's rude, you know."

"So is ignoring your houseguest, and leaving him to deal with the Warden on his own." His angry reply was met with a chuckle. "Thanks. I get stuck with LP, and you laugh at me."

"LP?" Koushiro didn't look up, but the grin could be heard in his voice. In their three weeks of mutual punishment, Daisuke had learned to read a lot into that deep sound. Amusement, anger, frustration, happiness, sadness, loneliness, surprise. Very expressive, very soothing. Like a glass of hot cocoa on a winter day. Oh, yes, his voice was HOT.

"Yeah, you know. Where you have to clean latrines, and wash floors with toothbrushes." Daisuke shook his head as if Koushiro were simple-minded, and tsk-ed in disapproval. "Jeez, Kou. I thought you were a genius."

He walked away as the redhead turned to face him. "What did you call me?" The sly, trouble-maker grin gave Daisuke away as he shrugged innocently, and moved towards the door.

"Nothing." He tried to turn the knob as the older boy stood up, and started toward him. They were nearly the same height, but Koushiro was just a little taller, where as Daisuke was that much broader. He twisted the knob again, and then looked at it in stunned disbelief. "Oh, Kami-sama."

Koushiro frowned, wondering why Daisuke suddenly looked like he was going to hyperventilate. "Dai? What's wrong?" The auburn-haired soccer star pointed to the door with a trembling hand, his worst fear becoming realized.

"We're trapped. She's locked us in. We're going to DIE." Koushiro tried the door, played with the lock, and then gave it a hard kick for good measure.

It didn't move. "Ow. We are not going to die, so just get a grip." Koushiro hobbled to the bed and pulled his sock off, looking over his toes to make sure that he hadn't broken anything. Finding nothing but tenderness, he looked up in time to see Daisuke pulling madly at the door handle. "Are you claustrophobic?"

The idea was plausible, giving his reaction of the current situation, but the look that the redhead received was highly offended. "As in: afraid of something? No way." Daisuke moved away from the door with unfeigned nonchalance, and sat at the computer chair. "I just really don't like the idea of being locked in. What if the building catches on fire, or an evil digimon attacks the city?"

He pointed this all out calmly, rationally, and Koushiro couldn't help but grin at the picture of Daisuke patiently making sense. "You amaze me." He chuckled under his breath. "You can do physics, but not long division. You have actually read popular, long, and difficult books, but you say that television makes you smarter."

"So?" Koushiro decided that the lost look on his face was too cute.

"So. You're a walking contradiction. Like a person who was born deaf, becoming the world's greatest singer. Or Einstein, who failed math."

"And this is going...where exactly?" Still clueless, Daisuke was losing interest in the conversation. He had turned around, and started to play with the computer mouse, pulling up files, and trying to find the games.

He hit the START button, then accidentally clicked on run. The A drive option came up, and he hit OK. A long list of file names opened, and he glanced down it. They were all dated, like a journal, and he realized that he had accessed something he shouldn't have. The genius hadn't noticed yet. "Nowhere."

He was blushing, having caught himself singing Daisuke's praises. Daisuke clicked on the newest date, and looked guiltily over his shoulder. If Koushiro had seen the look, he would have realized that something bad was happening. As it was, he was trying to hide his red face.

Daisuke turned back to the computer as the window opened. Dear Journal… He paused, then decided not to risk the glance over his shoulder. Today is yet another day in purgatory. The conspirators who have deemed it necessary to steep my life in hormone-ridden agony and conceptual hell have found a new weapon.

Big words he was sure had no purpose than to confuse unintelligent readers such as himself. Koushiro had lapsed into embarrassed silence, and was digging through his bookcase for something to read, unaware that his secrets were being brought into the open.

Why, for curiosity's sake, did that dratted, annoying, talkative, overbearing, loud, obnoxious… Ouch. That wasn't very nice. Daisuke had no doubt who that was about. He looked over his shoulder angrily, and aimed the arrow at the X in the top right corner of the screen, ready to close it, and hope that the redhead didn't realize that nosy and sly fit that list when the rest of the sentence caught his eye.

have to turn out to be such a sweet, loyal, caring, and adorable human being. Look at this. I'm writing rambling, run-on sentences thanks to the little demon washing my window right now. Why has fate doomed me to such a fate, as to always be so close to, and yet so far from my dreams. Did I anger the fates, or is it just the luck of the draw, having to sit by while he drives me to the brink of insanity with his ideas, and his personality. How can any person be such a puzzle of things. Like a Rubic's Cube, with one of the white stickers peeled off and replaced with a red one. Unsolvable, but irresistable.

Recreation- better than working out

Davis stared at the screen. Koushiro read his book. Mrs. Izumi waited with her ear pressed against the door. She couldn't have been wrong. Her son's friend had been eyeing her baby for a week, his brown eyes so sweetly tender that she'd had a hard time keeping from sighing like the crowds at a romantic movie during the first kiss.

Now, however, she had a feeling that maybe she had gone overboard. Not that locking them in together could really have any negative consequences, unless Daisuke managed to find a soccer ball, or tried to climb out of the only window in the apartment without a fire-escape.

She walked away slowly, uncertain if she had done the right thing, after all.

~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

Daisuke hesitated with the arrow over the close icon. Finally, he pushed the mouse away, and scrolled down with the keyboard. If I had had to classify myself three weeks ago, I would have admitted that I was gay. My mother, of course, is aware of this. Predictably, she has been trying to get me to ask someone, anyone, out. She doesn't care who, as long as they make her baby happy, to paraphrase.

He thought back on the last three weeks, and her little comments, and slight, encouraging smiles. Of course, that means that Dai hasn't been able to avoid the wrath of a mother determined. She believes that he could be it, the one that makes me happy. There isn't an hour that goes by where she doesn't comment on his 'charming manners', or 'those darling chocolate eyes of his'. It's enough to turn a gay man straight, the way she goes on about his qualities and virtues.

A thought struck him, and he frowned. If this was all true, and he had no reason to think otherwise, then they weren't going to his game for him, but for their son. The thought was depressing. I have tried, on numerous occasions, to list and define his faults and quirks. He's impatient, loud, and obnoxious. He never backs down, whether he's at fault, or not. He bites his nails, and grinds his teeth, and his hair needs a weed-whacker to calm it.

Double ouch. Attacking his physical appearance, and his personality. He reached for the mouse again, determined to close it down and push it out of his mind. Three more weeks, and it would be over. He could deal with that, and then get himself away from Koushiro before he 'drove' him to the brink of 'insanity'.

I have a theory that those are the same qualities that draw me to him. I'm almost certain that she's aware of this, as well. There could be no other reason behind her constant pushing and attempts at coercion. She actually told me that she'd withdraw our punishment if I asked him out. And yet, here they were, still locked together. Daisuke snarled to himself.

I won't, though. At this point, I'm going to make the best of each day, another one spent with him, and then I'm going to watch as he runs like the demons of hell are after him to get away from me. It's better this way. I'll have had a chance to get to know him, and stored away the memories to reflect on in later years, and I will never have had to know his scorn. 'Tis better to have loved, and lost, than to never have loved at all. Six weeks with him will never be enough, but it's the most that I can hope for. Kou

Koushiro looked up from his book to the boy that was sitting so rigidly in his computer chair, his form unmoving. "Daisuke? Find something interesting?" He swallowed, realizing that he'd left his disk in the drive. If he read that...he didn't want to think about it.

The auburn-haired one shook his head, then turned around with a grin. "Nothing much. Is it okay if I open a file, and type something?" His eyes were bright and dark, like a dark-chocolate cake mix.

"That would be fine." He smiled back, his black eyes deep and unreadable. Daisuke turned around, the grin disappearing, and opened a file, instantly saving it to the A drive before he started typing. The redhead went back to his book, the sound of typing pushed to the back of his mind so that he was lost in his own world.

Thirty minutes later, Daisuke resaved the file, closed the drive, and stood up. He marched to the door, pounded on it, and waited. Black eyes looked up and tracked his movements. "Mrs. Izumi! I have to go to the bathroom really, really, really bad!" The genius winced at the volume and whininess of his voice, and returned to hide behind his book.

There was silence, and then the sound of a key in the lock, and then the door opened. Daisuke zoomed passed Koushiro's confused father, and into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He came out a few minutes later, and went into the living room. The other two males stayed where they were through all of this, then looked at each other. Koushiro shrugged. "When he has to go, he has to go."

His father frowned, thought about it, and walked away as confused as before. Sometimes he wondered if his father liked being oblivious to most of the happenings in his house. Then he thought about those activities, and decided that the answer was probably 'yes'. The book was set aside, and he stood, trying to decide what to do. He could go back to his computer, or he could go find Daisuke again, and talk with him some more.

Unable to think of a single reason not to, and too many to do so, he went out the door to find his friend. The living room was empty, and he cold hear his mother in the kitchen. Which meant that she had probably rounded Daisuke up for more work. He headed in that direction, and found Daisuke at the table with a large bowl and wooden spoon in front of him. He was glaring at the items with annoyed dislike.

"KP?" Brown eyes shot up. Confusion was first, then amusement, then disgruntlement when he decided that the duty was his alone. Koushiro sat down in the chair next to him, and pulled the bowl so that it sat in front of him. He held his hand out for the spoon, which was farther away and would have required crawling across Daisuke to retrieve.

It was slapped into his hand with a look of gratitude and curiosity. He simply smiled and began to stir the ingredients of what ever his mother was cooking. There was silence, except for the obvious sounds of cooking and food-preparation. Daisuke sat in his chair, glancing around idly. Koushiro was pointedly looking down, but secretly watching his every move with covert glances. The Warden stood at the counter, her back to them.

Daisuke tapped his arm, and he looked at him, glad for a reason to drop the spoon. Without a word, Daisuke pointed at the clock, which read twelve-thirty, and held up two fingers. Then he signaled a hand over his shoulder, and two fingers running. He grinned, eyes wide as he waited to see if Koushiro would catch on. After a moment's hesitation, the redhead nodded, and smiled slyly. He pulled his wallet far enough out of his pocket so that it was known that he had it. They grinned at each other.


~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

At five minutes to two o'clock, Daisuke sat quietly in the living room, pretending to watch television. Koushiro was in his room, and had been for about ten minutes. They were waiting for Mrs. Izumi to go to the back of the house, but hadn't found a reason for her to do so, yet. The redhead came out with something in his hands.

"Mom?" She looked up and smiled at him. "Could you possibly try getting the stain out of this? I've already tried twice, but it doesn't seem to have been pulled out of the fabric, yet." He held out a white dress shirt.

"Sure, dear. I'll be back in a moment. Make sure Daisuke doesn't steal any of the cookies." She was making cookies for when the rest of the digi-destined would come in later. They were due at six, so they had several hours to kill before they expected them.

"Alright." He smiled as she walked away. As soon as she was out of sight, Daisuke jumped up, ran into the kitchen, grabbed two cookies, Koushiro, and his shoes, and dragged everything as quickly as possible out the front door. In stockinged feet, they made it to the elevator before the apartment door opened. They shoved in side, and hit the down button as Mrs. Izumi started yelling at them. As soon as the doors shut, she stopped, and went back inside with a grin. Until she saw that two of her cookies were gone.


~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

"My mother is going to kill me, and it's going to be your fault." They put their shoes on in the elevator, a cookie in each of their mouths. Of course, his doom-prophesizing was done with mumbles and grunts, but Daisuke knew what the message was, and ignored it anyway.

"Okay. Ice cream? Or the movies?" His shoes laced, Daisuke removed his cookie and waited for Koushiro's input. If they were going to escape together, it made sense that they vote on what to do during their period of freedom.

Instead of answering, Koushiro looked at him slyly. "If we keep this up, my mother's going to decide that you're a bad influence, and start grounding you from my house, instead of in it." His smile slowly faded when he realized what that would mean, and he turned his face away so that Daisuke wouldn't see the sadness in his eyes.

"Aw, no she won't. Your mother adores me. Heck, given the chance, she'd probably adopt me just to corrupt you." He laughed, the sound happy and care-free as they left the elevator and building behind. "The movies."

"Why?"

"Because it's dark, and even if they look for us, they won't see us in the theater." Good point. He followed the auburn-haired escapee gladly, smiling over the thought of his mother's face when they got back. Despite his normal fear and trepidation when concerning her, he knew that she wouldn't actually do anything to hurt him. The worst she could do would be to take away his computer.

He was suddenly glad that he'd hidden his laptop under his bed. "What movie?" He was content to let the other boy call the shots. After all, it was at his instigation that they were going at all, he deserved to choose.

"You choose." He blinked, surprised by the warmth in the brown eyes thrown his way. He swallowed, hard, and then shrugged. "There's a new Sci-Fi flick showing down at the Cineplex. It looked to be of interest."

"Cool!" They moved down the side-walk side-by-side, as if they'd been in-step forever. Friends for a lifetime.