This is Your Life!

by Empress of the Eclipse

Veemon and Wormmon decide to help Ken become good. But the plan backfires and now the Digidestined are all in very strange positions...they've all swapped bodies! Contains very slight Daiken and some self-harm references.

This is Your Life!
By the Empress of the Eclipse

Disclaimer - I don't own Digimon. The title is a TV show which I also don't own. I got some of the ideas from a Buffy fic called 'A Day in Your Shoes'.

DAIKEN! That means Shounen-ai! For the challenged, that means that this is Davis and Ken liking each other which means it's two boys liking each other (hence the shounen-ai!) There's not much Daiken, but there is some. There's also ISTUTO but not exactly (Istu Katsuragi is an original character made up by me. He's one of the members of Matt's band, along with Gendo Ikari, Akemi Nakatsuru and Toshiki Miyahara.)

Body Chart.

Tai = Mimi TK = Sora
Matt = Kari Kari = Iori
Sora = Yolei Davis = Ken
Izzy = Matt Yolei = Joe
Mimi = Izzy Iori = TK
Joe = Tai Ken = Davis

So Tai is in Mimi's body, Matt is in Kari's body, Sora is in Yolei's body and so on. I've tried to make it as clear as possible, I hope I've succeeded. The list will be repeated at intervals because I know what a pain it is when everyone forgets this stuff!

"Davis! Davis get up now you little toad!"
Ken rolled over in bed, ignoring the shouts that had to be all in his head anyway. He'd been having a really nice dream...
"Davis! You'll be late for school!"
Ken pulled his sheets over his head. Then he frowned. These weren't his sheets....
Someone grabbed him and wrenched him out of the bed. Ken angrily struck out with a yell.
"Get off me!"
"I told you to get up you moron! And don't you hit me or you'll be sorry!"
Ken stared. This girl wasn't a Digidestined. Or a Digimon. He'd never seen her before ever.
"Jun! Davis! Stop that!"
Ken stared at the woman who was glaring at them both. Who was she? Where on Earth was he? What was going on?
"Jun, leave your brother alone. Davis, hurry up and get dressed or you'll be late."
They marched out, closing the door behind them. Ken stared at the door in utter confusion.
"What...?"
He froze. That wasn't his voice! He hadn't realised before but it definitely wasn't his voice.
"What's going on!"
He looked around in a panic, then dived out of the room. A bathroom. He needed a bathroom. There'd be a mirror there. He had to see himself.
Luckily no one saw him frantically trying to work out where the bathroom was. Diving in, Ken looked the door and stared at himself in the mirror.
Davis Motomiya's face stared back at him.
"What?" Ken whispered "No. No, this can't be! This isn't possible!"
He ran his fingers over his face slowly. It was definitely this body's reflection in the mirror. The face wore an expression of stupefied horror. Ken looked down at his yellow pyjamas, shaking violently.
"Oh my God!"
"Davis! Get out of the bathroom!"
Didn't that girl give anyone a break?
"In a second!"
"No dammit, now!"
Ken left the bathroom. It seemed easier. He managed to make his way back to Davis's room and sat on the bed.
This couldn't be real. This was some sort of very bad dream. A very, very bad dream. It was Wormmon's cooking. That was it. Wormmon had given him food poisoning. And any minute now, he'd wake up and this would just be a terrible, terrible dream.
"Davis, are you getting ready?"
"Yes!" Davis yelled "Okay, clothes. Davis has to have clothes. I just need to find them."
He grabbed the first clothes he could find and pulled them on, trying not to see any of Davis's naked body. That would be just too freaky.
"Okay. Now I need a time table. What classes does he have?"
Ken frantically clawed around the room, desperately hunting for a time-table. He couldn't find one.
"Davis, what are you doing?"
"Nothing!" Ken yelled. Grabbing his - Davis's hair - he yanked at it "Oh GOD!"
Eventually he just grabbed Davis's bag and hoped that it had been packed the night before. Pulling on some trainers, he walked out of the room, praying that he'd wake up really soon.
* * * *
Davis sighed. He'd been having such a nice set of dreams and now he was being woken up. Boredly, he stretched, like he always did.
Then he frowned. Normally his arms had banged into the wall by now.
Davis opened his eyes. Then he stared.
He was lying in a huge four-poster bed with black silk sheets.
Slowly, Davis sat up and looked around. This definitely wasn't his room. It was too big and it was all black. Looking down at himself, he realised he was wearing black pyjamas.
"Huh?" he said then clutched at his throat. That wasn't his voice!
Leaping out of bed, he looked around until he spotted a door. Diving through it, he found himself in a bathroom. Leaping at the mirror, he froze.
Ken Ichijouji's face was staring at him.
"Okay, this isn't funny!" Davis yelled. The reflection yelled it too and Ken's voice came from Davis's mouth. Davis gulped.
"What's going on?" he said "Come on Ken, if this is your game then it's worked okay? I'm scared. Really. Just stop it!"
But it was Ken's voice. Ken's face. Ken's body.
"Oh God!" Davis wailed, staring at himself in the mirror "Oh my God!"
* * * *
Wormmon scurried into Ken's room with his morning cup of tea. Ken wasn't in bed which was unusual but the bathroom door was open. Wormmon approached.
"Master?"
Ken was standing at the mirror. His face was bone white and he was clutching at his hair, trembling.
"Master, are you all right?" Wormmon asked.
"I'm Ken!" Ken said "I'm Ken!"
"Of course you are," Wormmon said "What's wrong?"
"I'm Ken!" Ken wailed.
Wormmon looked at him anxiously. What was the matter with Ken?
"Ken?"
Ken turned and stared at him.
"What the hell is going on?" he yelled.
"I..." Wormmon shrank back, not sure what Ken wanted to know.
"What the hell is going on?" Ken shouted again, turning back to the mirror "I'm not Ken! I'm not Ken!"
"Of course not," Wormmon said nervously. Before he could continue, Ken sank to the floor.
"I'm Davis!" he cried "I'm Davis! I'm Davis! This isn't real! This is just a really bad dream! I'm not Ken!"
"Davis?" Wormmon repeated slowly "You're one of the Digidestined?"
Ken looked at him, nodding.
"Yes!" he said "I know this sounds crazy but I'm not the Digimon Emperor! I'm just...in his body somehow! But I'm Davis!"
"Then where's Ken?"
Ken/Davis shook his head.
"I don't know," he said "I don't know where he is. Maybe he's in my body. Somebody must be." He froze "Or...or what if my body's empty? What if they think it's dead? They might bury it and then I'll never get back! Or I'll get back and find myself in a coffin!"
He began to hyperventilate. Wormmon scuttled up and pressed his legs against his arm.
"I'm sure that's not true," he said soothingly "Don't worry about it. I'm sure Ken's there."
"That's nearly as bad!" Davis cried "What if he's...I hate to think what he's doing with my body!"
"It will all be all right, you'll see," Wormmon said "Now why don't you drink this tea and have a nice shower?"
Davis gulped the tea, said that he liked it with a lot more sugar and refused the shower.
"I am not showering!" he yelled "This is Ken's body and..."
"And you have to take care of it while he's away," Wormmon said firmly, pushing him into the shower "Now make sure you wash behind his ears and between his toes!"
"But..."
Davis groaned. He removed the pyjamas and threw them out, closing his eyes as he did. He turned on the water and then stood there. There was no WAY he was cleaning between Ken's toes! In fact, there was no way that he was going to be cleaning any of Ken. He did not want to see his emery naked thank you!
At least, not much.
Davis gulped. Oh no. Now was not the time to be thinking about Ken in that way. He'd got over that anyway when they'd discovered that Ken was the Digimon Emperor. So he didn't want to see Ken naked, not at all, not even a little bit...
Davis gritted his teeth. Grabbing a flannel and some soap, he quickly began to wash himself, studiously not looking.
* * * *
Matt woke up feeling out of proportion. He wasn't quite sure why but he felt all wrong. Sitting up, he frowned. Those weren't his bedsheets. And why was Gatomon asleep next to him? And why was he in a nightdress?
"Huh?" he said. Then paused. That wasn't his voice. That definitely wasn't his voice.
"Gatomon?" he said nervously.
Gatomon opened her eyes.
"Hello Kari," she said.
"Kari!" Matt yelped. He leaped out of the bed. Unfortunately, it was a cabin bed, meaning he landed on the floor with a crash.
"Kari!" he heard Gatomon yelp.
Matt ignored her. Rushing over to a mirror, he stared at himself.
"Oh no. Oh no, no, no!" he said.
He was Kari! That was Kari's face.
"Kari, what's wrong?"
"I'm not Kari!" Matt squeaked "Oh my God, this isn't real. No way. This is some strange dream."
He pinched himself hard.
"Ow! Wake up! Ow! Got to wake up!"
"Kari, are you okay?"
"I'm not Kari!" Matt yelled "I'm Matt! At least normally!"
Gatomon was staring at him. Matt shook his head.
"This cannot be true," he said "I'm Kari?"
Gatomon came over and sniffed him.
"Stop it," Matt said "Tai! Tai'll know what to do!"
He hurtled out of the room and into Tai's. Tai was standing in the centre of it, staring into the blank computer screen!"
"Tai!" Matt said.
Tai looked at him.
"Um, Kari!" he said, sounding strained.
"Okay Tai, this is going to sound very strange but I'm not Kari," Matt said "I'm Matt. Somehow, I'm in Kari's body."
Tai just stared.
"It's true!" Matt said "You have to believe me!"
"I do," Tai said "Particularly as I'm not Tai. I'm Joe."
"Joe?" Matt said.
Tai/Joe nodded.
"Kari....Matt, tell me that this is a really bad dream!" he said "I just woke up and I was in Tai's body! I don't want to be Tai!"
"Well at least you're not Kari!" Matt spluttered "At least you're still male!"
"Are you two getting ready for school?"
Joe and Matt exchanged panicked looks.
"School?" Joe said "Matt, what classes does Tai have?"
"I don't know!" Matt said "I can't think! I can't even remember my own timetable! And what does Kari have? What does Kari normally wear? I have to dress Kari!"
The two stared at each other.
"Okay," Matt said after a moment "Tai's time-table."
He wrote it all out on a piece of paper.
"Soccer?" Joe said "Matt, I can't play soccer! I'm all left feet!"
"Say you're ill. Forget your kit," Matt said "What classes does Kari have?"
"Ask Gatomon. I've got to get dressed," Joe said "Matt, Tai's bad at Maths isn't he?"
"Yes."
"Okay," Joe said.
Matt rushed off to where Gatomon was waiting. He blurted the situation out.
"Gatomon, quick! What should I wear?"
Gatomon threw some clothes at him. Matt pulled them on, blushing furiously. Tai was going to kill him when he found out that Matt had seen his sister naked! Gatomon was sorting everything else out and seemed to know exactly what she was going.
"There," she said "You just need breakfast and then you are all ready to go."
"Oh this is going to be a nightmare," Matt said.
* * * *
TK woke up with violent cramps.
"Ow! Ow!" he yelped, the paused.
"Ow," he repeated experimentally.
That wasn't his voice. It was more feminine than his voice. And in fact, that wasn't his ceiling. He didn't have a lampshade like that!
TK sat up and stared at himself.
"Woah," he said slowly "Where did THOSE come from?"
Slowly, he got out of bed and went over to a mirror.
"Sora?" he said, looking at his reflection "Sora?"
Something very strange was happening. He hadn't been Sora when he went to bed.
TK gulped. This was a dream right?
Another stab of pain went through him. Looking down, he saw the nightdress he was wearing was soaked in blood.
"AHHHHH!"
Mrs Takenouchi rushed in.
"Sora? Sora are you all right?"
"I....I..." TK stammered.
Mrs Takenouchi had already seen his nightdress.
"Oh dear. Poor Sora," she said sympathetically "You get changed and put that for the wash and I'll get you some painkillers. I know what your cramps are like."
"Oh boy," TK whispered. Periods. How did you cope with periods? What precisely did you do?
He clawed through the drawers until he found some sanitary towels. He went into the bathroom, blushing. Oh no. He was going to have to...
TK tried to fit the sanitary towel to Sora's knickers without looking at anything. It wasn't easy and he got a right eyeful anyway. Miserable, he went back to Sora's bedroom and dressed himself.
"I want to wake up now," he said pitifully as another cramp went through him "I really, really want to wake up!"
* * * *
Matt looked around the class room. This was where Gatomon had said to go so...
"Kari?"
He looked round.
"TK!" he said "Look TK, this is going to sound really strange but I'm not actually Kari!"
"Oh thank goodness, I thought it was just me!" TK said "I'm Iori!"
It wasn't exactly a surprise to Matt. Iori had forgotten to put on TK's trademark hat.
"I'm Matt," Matt said "Iori, what's going on?"
"I don't know!" Iori said "But when I met Yolei this morning, she was actually Sora!"
"Joe is in Tai's body," Matt said "It seems like we've all swapped! At lunch, lets go up to school and find my body because I want to know who's got it!"
Iori nodded.
"Where does TK sit?" he whispered, looking around the classroom.
"Erm...."
Matt looked round too.
"I don't know," he said "I know where Kari sits. Gatomon told me."
"Patamon told me pretty much everything else," Iori said "But not that. I forgot to ask."
Matt shrugged. He went and sat down in Kari's place. Everyone else was sitting down too. Iori eventually just sat down and looked hopeful. No one questioned him so he'd either guessed right or nobody cared. The teacher came in and began to read the register.
"Where's Motomiya Davis today?"
Matt looked around, realising that Davis wasn't there.
"Yagami? Do you know?"
"No Sensei. Sorry," Matt said, remembering just in time that Yagami was him.
They'd just begun the lesson when Davis hurtled in. Something seemed wrong but Matt couldn't quite work out what.
"Motomiya, why are you late?"
"Sorry Sensei. I..." Davis appeared to be scrambling for an excuse "I..."
"Oh just sit down and report to me at the end of the lesson," the teacher said wearily. This obviously wasn't the first time Davis had hurtled in late without an excuse.
Davis sat on his chair, looking dishevelled and panicked. Matt wondered who he was. He certainly wasn't Davis. Matt had realised what was bothering him. Davis wasn't wearing his goggles!
So who was in Davis's body then?
* * * *
Ken sat at Davis's desk, struggling to keep awake.
This was so boring! He knew this all already and it was so easy! How could anyone stay awake in these classes? Stifling another yawn, Ken began to doodle on Davis's notepad.
He was half way through a math problem which he doubted anyone in this class would be able to solve in a million years when the teacher called on him.
"Motomiya Davis!"
Ken looked up.
"Huh?"
"Are you paying attention?"
"Yes," Ken said disinterestedly.
"Then perhaps you'd like to come up and do this sum on the board," the teacher suggested with a smirk.
Ken heard giggles. Obviously Davis was rubbish at maths. Ken felt a sting of annoyance on Davis's behalf. Getting up, he went up to the problem and wrote the correct answer on the board, before writing a long, more complex looking sum next to it.
"That's another way to solve the problem Sensei," he said helpfully "It's slightly harder but you get a more accurate result."
He nearly laughed at the stunned expressions on everyone's faces. He spotted one of the other Digidestined giving him a speculative look. He walked back to his seat feeling smug and sat down, continuing with his private maths problem. Someone prodded him in the back. Turning, he saw that he was being offered a note. Taking it, he unfolded it. There was just one word written on the paper.
KEN!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Ken took his pen and wrote 'Yes'. Then he passed it back. The boy handed it to the Digidestined girl who unfolded it, read it and stared at him, her face pale.
At the end of the lesson, she grabbed him before he could escape.
"Oh my God!" she hissed "What are you doing in Davis's body?"
"I don't know!" Ken snapped, throwing her loose "This isn't my fault!"
"Matt?" asked the other Digidestined in the class.
"Matt?" Ken said "That's your name?"
"The name of the body is Kari," the girl said "The name of my mind is Matt. He's Iori but the body belongs to TK."
"Who are you?" Iori asked Ken.
"Ken."
Iori looked shocked.
"Look, how do we get out of this?" Ken demanded angrily "I want my body back!"
"Don't we all?" Matt said "At least you two have guy's bodies? Have you tried to get dressed without looking?"
"It's quite plain you have," Ken said "Those colours clash."
Matt punched him, his fist connecting solidly with Ken's face. Ken staggered, feeling his nose begin to bleed. Everyone turned and stared.
"Yagami Hikari! Motomiya Daisuke! What on Earth...?"
"Uh oh," Iori muttered.
"Daisuke?" Ken hissed.
"Davis's real name!" Matt hissed back.
They were taken off to the headteachers office. The head seemed unable to believe that Kari had punched somebody. Matt sat squirming, hoping that Kari wasn't going to kill him when she heard about the week of detentions he'd got her. They walked out of the office together as the lunch bell rang.
"I wonder what lessons we missed," Matt muttered.
"Don't know," Ken said "If they were as boring as the last one, I'm glad I missed it."
"Davis," Matt said "Will not thank you for that math stunt."
"Why?"
"Because it's going to look very strange when he doesn't have a clue next time," Matt said "Come on. Let's find Iori and...and whoever it was in Yolei's body and whoever it is in Iori's. We're going up to the big school to find out who is inhabiting who's bodies!"
* * * *
Body Chart repeat.
Tai = Mimi TK = Sora
Matt = Kari Kari = Iori
Sora = Yolei Davis = Ken
Izzy = Matt Yolei = Joe
Mimi = Izzy Iori = TK
Joe = Tai Ken = Davis
* * * *
"Who are you?" Iori's body demanded "Why have you got me in those clothes?"
"Kari?" Matt guessed.
"Uh huh!"
"I'm Matt," Matt said "Gatomon picked the clothes!"
Kari frowned. She looked at Davis.
"And who are you?"
"Ken," Davis said flatly.
"Hey Davis!" someone yelled "Hey DAVIS!"
Matt gave Ken a kick. Ken blinked, then looked round.
"Are you coming to play soccer later?"
"Say no!" Matt hissed out of the corner of his mouth.
"Can't make it today! Sorry!" Ken yelled, feeling slightly gloomy. It had been ages since he'd had a good game of soccer. Wormmon was useless at it and it was no fun playing with slaves anyway.
"Yolei and TK!" Kari said.
"Actually, Sora and Iori," Sora said.
"Come on," Matt said "Whoever's got my body - please don't let it be Davis - had better have been taking care of it!"
* * * *
They arrived at the high school and wandered in. They headed to the cafeteria, peering in to see if they could see any of their friends and bodies wandering about.
"There's mine!" Sora said "I look a bit odd. And they've got my skirt back to front!"
"Sora!" Matt yelled "Sooo-raaaaaa!"
Sora jumped. She shot over.
"Guys! Who's in my body?"
"Who are you?"
"TK!"
Everyone quickly clarified who was sharing who's body. TK gave Ken a hostile look then looked apologetically at Sora.
"I think I failed your English test," he said "And I didn't understand a word of your Physics."
"It's okay. I don't either," Sora said.
TK suddenly doubled over, clutching his midriff.
"TK?" Matt said anxiously.
"Ow!" TK said "Oh ow!"
Sora frowned. Then she guessed.
"Oh no!" she said "Am I on?"
"What?" Iori said.
"On," Sora said "Am I having a period?"
TK nodded.
"How do you stand these things in your knickers?" he hissed "They feel like nappies! And they...they chafe!"
Sora groaned. Then she looked at him.
"You put a pad on?"
TK nodded. Sora blushed bright red.
"Oh..."
"There's my body!" Matt said suddenly "Matt! Matt!"
He suddenly realised that there was nothing stranger than yelling for yourself and seeing your own body walking towards you. Only...
"What the hell have you done to my hair!" he hissed at his body "Did you even brush it? And what's with that much gel? Who's in there?"
"Me. Izzy," Matt's body said mournfully.
Matt stared. His own voice.
"I do not," he said "Sound like that."
"Sounds normal to me," TK said.
Matt gulped.
"Izzy," he hissed "My hair!"
"I don't know how you do it!" Izzy hissed "I couldn't work it out! And I couldn't find your door key so I'm locked out! When does your Dad get home?"
"Late," Matt said flatly "Izzy, where's your body and who's inhabiting it?"
"I don't know where she is," Izzy said grimly "But Mimi's the one in my body."
"No!" Matt said.
Izzy scowled.
"She's going to have failed my computer science test," he said "I just know it!"
"Of course she is!" Matt said "When did Mimi ever know anything about science?"
Izzy groaned and ran his hands through Matt's hair.
"I'm going to be washing that for days," Matt said flatly "Where's Joe?"
"Joe the mind or Joe the body?" Izzy said.
"Both," Matt said "Joe the mind is in Tai's body. I know that."
"I think Tai's body's locked itself in the boy's changing rooms," TK said "That's what some of the girls in the toilets were saying anyway."
"Poor Joe," Matt said "He must have done so badly in soccer!"
Joe's body arrived trailing it's feet.
"Hi guys."
"Who are you?" everyone chorused.
"Yolei."
"Oh Lord!" Matt said.
"Look, we should move," Sora said "We've blocking the cafeteria door and people are giving us weird looks."
"TK," Matt ordered "Go and find Joe and Mimi. Meet us outside on the playing field.
TK hurried off. The others all walked outside. Eventually, TK, Mimi and Joe joined.
"I hate sports," Joe said "I hate them."
Matt sighed.
"Let's clarify," he said "Joe is in Tai's body. Izzy is in mine. TK is in Sora's body. Mimi is in Izzy's. Yolei is in Joe's body. Iori is in TK's body. I am in Kari's body. Ken is in Davis's body. Sora is in Yolei's body. Kari is in Iori's body. This means that Tai and Davis are unaccounted for. One must be in Mimi's, the other must be in Ken's."
"Only one way to find out," Matt said "Joe? Got a cell phone?"
"If Yolei remembered it."
Yolei produced it. Matt dialled the Tachikawa's number.
"What time is it over there anyway?" Kari asked.
Matt ignored it. Mimi's father answered the phone.
"Hi, it's M - Kari," Matt said "Can I speak to Mimi please?"
"Mimi's not feeling very well but you can talk to her a little," Mr Tachikawa said.
"Kari!" Mimi said sounding frantic "Thank God!"
"Actually it's Matt," Matt said "In Kari's body."
"So it's not just me!" Mimi wailed.
"Who are you?" Matt asked.
"Tai!"
"Tai," Matt said "Okay. That means Davis is in Ken's body."
"Davis is in Ken's body!"
"Yes," Matt said "Are you okay?"
"I don't speak American!" Tai wailed "I had to claim sickness to get away with it and they've got an American housekeeper who keeps talking at me!"
"Oh dear," Matt said sympathetically.
"Matt, I'm going crazy!" Tai said "I can't take this! What the hell is going on?"
"That's what we're going to try and solve," Matt said "Don't worry Tai. It's going to be okay."
"Has everyone swapped?"
"Yes. Joe's in your body. I think he messed up your soccer."
"No!" Tai wailed.
"Ken scared everyone to death by making Davis understand complex maths," Matt said.
"Oh Lord," Tai said.
"Look, I'd better go," Matt said "Joe hates me already I can tell. Good luck Tai!"
"See you Matt."
Matt hung up.
"Wonderful," he said.
"You're telling me," Ken said "That Davis Motomiya is currently controlling my body in the Digital World?"
"Yes," Matt said.
Ken scowled.
"I want to go," he said "Now."
"And blow off school?" Matt said "Yeah, great plan Ichijouji!"
"I'll willingly blow off school," Mimi said "Izzy has advanced physics next!"
"Joe, are all your days as boring as this one?" Yolei asked "It's awful! I nearly fell asleep!"
Joe shrugged.
"I hate sports," he said again.
"I don't care about the rest of you fools," Ken said coldly "I care about what that idiot is doing with my body."
Everyone stared at him.
"What?" he snapped.
"You have no idea how weird it is to hear Davis's voice using that tone," TK said.
"And Davis never looks so mean," Iori added.
Ken clenched his fists.
"You've been bleeding!" Kari said suddenly.
"Matt hit me," Ken said.
"Matt!" Kari said.
"And got you a week of detention," Matt said gloomily.
Kari looked like she was going to batter him. Matt sighed.
"Look, we've all got to hold out until the end of the day," he said "Then we can all go to the Digital World and discuss what to do. Until then, we'll just have to muddle through. Us 'younger' ones have to go now or we'll be late back."
"See you," Joe said.
Matt, Kari, Ken, Iori and Sora walked off together.
"I hate this body," Iori said "No offence to your brother Matt but I keep falling over. I can't get used to being so tall!"
"Is there anything I need to know about your classes?" Kari asked anxiously.
"Try to get me full marks on my biology this afternoon," Iori said "I was up half the night studying for that test!"
"I wish we knew how this happened," Sora said "And why. If it's a Digidestined thing then what did we do?"
"I don't care!" Ken snarled "I just want my own body back!"
"Are you even a little interested to be in somebody's else's body for a while?" Matt asked him.
"No!" Ken said "You would be of course, being in a girl's body! Stripped her naked already have you?"
Matt would have punched him again if Sora hadn't instantly got in the way.
"Don't you even start!" she said fiercely "We've got enough problems! We could say the same to you Ken, you'll have seen Davis naked now!"
A flush spread over Ken's face. He turned away.
"We've got to keep level heads in this," Sora said quietly "Whatever's happened to us, we've got to remember that we're not in our own bodies now and we have a responsibility to the person who's body we're in."
"So jumping in front of a bus is a bad plan then?" Kari joked weakly.
Sora smiled.
"You could put it that way," she said "Come on. We'll be late."
* * * *
Ken struggled with the chemistry class. He was fighting a losing battle to stay awake. Why didn't Davis learn anything interesting? In a desperate effort to keep himself occupied, he rewrote Davis's book, correcting all of his mistakes. Then he rewrote the person next to him's book. The boy gave him a look like he was insane but Ken didn't care. Listening to the teacher drone on and on were boring him into a stupor. He dropped his head onto the desk and closed his eyes.
'He was standing with the other Digidestined. Kari was crying, he was trying to comfort her. TK was standing slightly apart, his face grey. Yolei and Iori were clinging to each other. Looking over, he saw the Digimon Emperor standing there, holding his whip. The Digimon were huddled in front of him. As he watched, the Emperor cracked his whip. Black rings flew and snapped round the Digimon, enslaving them.
"No!" he heard himself shout "Veemon, no!"
But the Digimon were advancing now, preparing to destroy them. They'd digivolved and now they were going to kill them!
"Ken!" he cried "Ken, no! Ken, please don't do this!"
The Digimon Emperor just laughed.
"Destroy them!" he shouted, his voice cruel and cold.
The Digimon lunged.'
Ken jerked awake and fell off his stool. The class began to laugh. The teacher fumed.
"Are you all right?" Matt asked.
Ken nodded, pulling himself back onto the seat.
Davis's nightmares. He'd just had one of Davis's nightmares. Obviously this body swapping thing went deeper than they'd thought.
Ken's mind went to how Davis had perceived him in the dream.
Did he really sound like that? So...so inhuman? And his face. He'd looked...different. He'd looked beautiful but at the same time...cold. No warmth. No life. Like a marble sculpture.
Ken shuddered and gripped the desk slightly. It had just been one of Davis's dumb dreams. That was all. Nothing to get worked up about.
But he spent the rest of the lesson shivering all the same.
* * * *
"Okay, are we going to go through?" Yolei asked.
Everyone nodded.
"D-3's please!" Joe said.
Everyone produced their Digivices.
"Digiport open!" Sora said.
They fell through.
"Where do we go?" Izzy asked.
"Follow me," Ken ordered.
"Hey, where's Veemon?" Kari asked.
Everyone looked at Ken.
"How should I know where Veemon is?" Ken snapped.
"Well, he's yo - Davis's Digimon," Matt said.
"So?"
"So why didn't you bring him with you?" Matt asked, sounding very patient.
"It's freaky hearing Kari's voice sound like that!" TK said.
"What do you mean, why didn't I bring him with me?" Ken said "He should be here!"
"Not if you didn't bring him from home!"
"What are you all drivelling about?" Ken demanded.
"Oh God!" Matt exploded "Someone else try. It seems that now Ken is in Davis's thick skull, nothing can get through there either!"
Ken was about to reply (and he did not look happy) when Mimi's body ran up to them. Mimi gave a shriek of horror.
"Tai! What have you done to me? I look terrible!"
"Huh?" Tai gaped at her.
"My clothes!" Mimi yelped "And have you even brushed my hair? My hair needs brushing twice a day with two hundred strokes!"
"Why?" Tai said, sounding utterly confused.
"SHUT UP!" Matt bellowed.
Everyone stared at him. Matt took a deep breath.
"Let's just go and find Davis," he said through gritted teeth "We'll find Davis, we'll sort this out and then we can all go home!"
"But we have to sort out Veemon!" Iori said "Ken, you must have seen him at Davis's house!"
"Why would a Digimon have been at Davis's house?" Ken practically screamed.
"BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE WE TAKE THEM WHEN WE LEAVE THE DIGITAL WORLD YOU GREAT BIG IDIOT!" Tai yelled.
Everyone looked at him. Tai took a deep breath.
"I've been wanting to yell at someone all day," he said calmly "I feel much better now."
"But how can you take them home?" Ken said "They're just Digital data."
They all stared at him.
"Forget it," Matt said eventually "Are you saying Veemon wasn't there?"
"Yes."
"Then where is he?" Kari asked.
Silence.
"Oh let's just go!" Izzy said.
Ken silently led them to his base. They all walked straight up to the main room.
Davis was sitting on the throne looking sulky. He was wearing the Digimon Emperor outfit but not the glasses. He had a plate of what looked a lot like peanut brittle on his lap and was gnawing at it discontentedly. When he saw the others, he leaped up, dropping the whole thing.
"Guys! You're here!" he yelled, leaping at them. They all stepped back before they could stop themselves.
"What?" Davis asked.
"Sorry," Sora said "It's just...strange to see the Digimon Emperor do that."
Davis looked down at his Emperor outfit and scowled.
"Well he doesn't have any better clothes!" he snapped.
"Huh," Ken said "There's nothing wrong with my clothes!"
Davis looked at him.
"You're in my body?"
Ken nodded.
"What about everyone else?"
Matt filled him in.

Tai = Mimi TK = Sora
Matt = Kari Kari = Iori
Sora = Yolei Davis = Ken
Izzy = Matt Yolei = Joe
Mimi = Izzy Iori = TK
Joe = Tai Ken = Davis.

"Wow!" Davis said "But what happened? How did we all end up like this?"
Everyone shrugged.
"That is what we need to talk about," Izzy said "I've been thinking about it all day but I can't think of anything. This shouldn't be possible."
"We all noticed that," Sora said. She pushed at Yolei's glasses "We've got to think of something. I can't bear this! People keep talking to me and I don't understand because they think they're talking to Yolei."
"And we've got swimming tomorrow," Kari said "And I am not going swimming in Iori's body!"
"I wish I was dead," TK remarked.
"Take the paracetamol then!" Sora said.
"I keep forgetting," TK said "Then the pain comes back and I wish I was dead."
"Well you'd better not do anything," Sora said "Because it's MY body!"
TK nodded and hugged his stomach mournfully.
"I don't want to be a girl," he said.
"I'm glad I'm missing my period," Sora said.
"Oh for pity's sake!" Ken exploded "Do you ever actually talk things through like normal people?"
Everyone looked at him.
"I," Davis said "Do NOT sound like that."
"True," Tai said.
"Oh, does anyone have a hairbrush?" Mimi asked "I can't bear to see myself look like that a minute longer. Ken, you must have some hair things."
Ken shrugged.
"Wormmon!" he bellowed "WORMMON!"
Wormmon came in.
"Ken?" he said.
"Who else would be ordering you around?" Ken snapped "Go and find a hairbrush."
"Yes Master," Wormmon said, rushing off.
Ken noticed Davis staring at him.
"Don't...don't do that," he said, sounding uneasy.
"What?"
"Order him round like that," Davis said.
"He is my Digimon," Ken said "I shall do as I please."
"But it's my body!" Davis said "And I don't like you talking to him like that in my body!"
Ken gave him an icy stare and turned away. Wormmon scurried in with a hair brush. Mimi snatched it and grabbed Tai firmly, yanking the brush through his hair.
"Ow!" Tai yelled "Ow! Ow! Ow! Get off me you crazy person!"
Everyone laughed as Mimi dragged the brush through Tai's hair over and over again.
"Well, while this is a lot of fun," Ken said irritably "What are we going to do?"
There was a silence, only broken by Tai's faint yelps.
"I don't know," Izzy said finally.
"Please."
Everyone turned. Wormmon was standing there. Next to him was Veemon.
"Veemon!" Davis said "How did you get here?"
Veemon bowed his head.
"Davis," he said "Please don't be angry. I...we were only trying to help."
"But what happened?" Joe asked.
Wormmon and Veemon exchanged glances.
"I've been worrying about Ken," Wormmon said "He's been doing things that he shouldn't have been doing. He's not a bad person really. Really he's very kind and gentle. But he kept doing things that he oughtn't have been doing."
Matt winced at the expression on Ken's face. It didn't suit Davis's face at all, made him look different, strange.
"So Veemon and I decided that we needed to show Ken what he was missing," Wormmon explained "So I found a book of Digital spells and we performed one to switch Ken and Davis's minds."
"WHAT?" Davis yelled.
Wormmon shrank down.
"Don't be angry Davis," Veemon said "We picked you because we thought you were the best. You're the only one who's really had any contact with Ken. We thought you two had a connection."
His look told Davis a lot more than he was saying. Davis thought about some of the dreams he'd had and blushed, knowing that he must have been talking in his sleep.
"But it went wrong," Wormmon said "We thought that nothing would have happened. But somehow, the rest of you got pulled into the spell too."
"So that's why only Ken and Davis made a clean swap," Joe said "The rest of us we sucked into the aftermath because of a mistake. But as it was directed at those two, they still made the correct switch."
"I suppose so," Veemon said.
"Well, switch us back," Yolei ordered.
Veemon and Wormmon exchanged looks.
"We don't really know how," Veemon admitted "When Davis woke up in Ken's body, we tried the spell. But nothing happened."
"Well, maybe we have to be sleeping," Mimi suggested "I've read stories like that."
"I don't think that will work," Veemon said.
"Let me see the book," Izzy ordered.
"Mimi, can you leave me alone now?" Tai asked hopefully. Mimi was still brushing his hair.
"Oh stop it Mimi," Matt said irritably.
Mimi sighed and handed the brush to Ken.
Izzy looked at the book that Wormmon had bought him. He began flicking through it.
"It's all in data," he said "This could take me months to translate."
"MONTHS!"
"No!" Tai yelled "No way! I don't speak English! I can't spend months in America!"
"I don't want to be Sora for months!" TK wailed.
"I won't," Ken said flatly "I will not pretend to be Davis for a month."
"Do you think I like this?" Izzy demanded "It's not like I'm looking forward to being Matt! Do you think I can play guitar?"
"Oh Lord!" Matt said "We've got a gig soon! The band are going to go mental!"
"I can't," Davis said.
Everyone looked at him.
"I can't stay here for months!" Davis said "I'll go crazy! What do you do here?"
He looked appealingly at Ken.
"Books," Ken said "Computers."
"Which I can't use either of!" Davis said "I hate reading, I don't do computers."
"Conquer Digimon. Set them having....matches....against each other."
"Good for evil, not for me."
"Then you'll just have to be bored," Ken said with a shrug "Frankly, it doesn't really concern me."
Davis grabbed him and shook him violently.
"Well it damn well should!" he yelled "Because if we're going to solve anything, we are - and believe me, we'll hate this more than you - going to have to work with you!"
"Get your hands off me!" Ken snarled.
"I'll do what I please!"
"Stop it you two!" Kari ordered.
She was ignored completely. Ken and Davis were obviously preparing to murder each other.
"I say leave 'em to it," Matt said flatly "If they can handle hitting themselves then let them have fun. Besides, I could use a laugh."
Neither boy seemed to be able to quite throw the first punch. It seemed to be turning into a stare-you-out contest rather than a fight. Eventually, they both turned away from each other, both with looks of identical huffiness. Joe was reminded violently of the first time Matt and Tai had ever been about to fight in the Digital World and doubled up to stop himself laughing.
"Are you both finished now?" Yolei asked.
Neither boy actually spoke but both made mumbling noises that were quite clearly pinning the blame on the other one.
"Right," Izzy said "The best thing I can do is to take Veemon back with me and to get him to help me translate. I'll do it as quickly as I possibly can but I can't make any promises. In the meantime, we'll have to teach each other how to handle each other's lives."
"But this will never work," Mimi said "I can't understand any of your classes."
"And I don't speak AMERICAN!" Tai yelled, obviously feeling neglected.
Izzy sighed.
"I suggest Mimi, that you take Tai aside and teach him some important phrases. If you know where he can find a phrase book in your house, that might be a sensible thing to give him."
Mimi nodded.
"Can Sora teach me something?" TK asked in a small voice.
"Of course. What?" Sora asked.
TK turned crimson.
"Where's the bathroom?" he asked Ken.
Ken said nothing.
"It's in there," Davis said "Why?"
TK's blush darkened.
"Girl stuff," he muttered, and ran. Sora sighed.
"This is going to be so embarrassing!" she muttered, following TK.
"Ken?" Davis said "Ken! Hey! Wakey, wakey!"
Ken said nothing. He was still standing there.
"I don't want to be Davis," he said, his voice quiet "I don't want to be Davis."
"Well I'm afraid you don't have much choice," Izzy said "People are going to notice that we've all had violent personality changes but it can't be helped."
"Can we sort something out please?" Davis asked.
Everyone looked at him.
"I'm not staying here," Davis said flatly "No way."
"Davis, I understand your feelings but you need to think this through," Izzy said "While you are here, you won't have any problems trying to pretend that you're Ken. If you go back to the real world, not only will you have to make up an excuse about why you've been missing so long, you'll also have to try to be a genius. And I'm sorry, but you won't be able to pull it off."
Davis stared at him.
"But I can't stay here! I'll go crazy!" he yelled.
"Davis, you don't have a choice," Yolei said "You'll have to stay here."
Davis gave a really weird sounding yell. Turning, he stormed off, leaving a rather startled group behind him.
"He's upset," Joe said quietly "He's going to be very lonely here."
"We'll still come," Mimi said.
"In the afternoons. When we aren't doing each other's life stuff," Matt said "Izzy, I have a practise with the band at my house tomorrow."
"Matt, I don't do guitar!" Izzy said.
"Well you aren't dropping out of the band," Matt said "That's my future thanks! I'll teach you how to play guitar."
"In one evening?"
Matt groaned. TK and Sora came back in, both looking really, really red.
"So TK," Iori said, breaking the silence "What classes do you have tomorrow?"
* * * *
Davis was stalking up and down when Veemon came out to join him.
"Davis," he began pacifyingly but Davis cut him off.
"How could you do this to me?" he demanded "How could you do this to me Veemon? You've put me in the body of my worst enemy! God only knows what he's going to do to my life! And I'm going to be so bored here!"
Veemon gulped. When Davis was ranting like this, he really did look just like the Digimon Emperor.
"Davis," he said "We did this because we wanted Ken to become good. Wasn't that what you wanted?"
"And you think this'll work?" Davis shouted.
"I don't know," Veemon said "Probably not considering how everything has gone. But we were only trying!"
Davis sat down with a thump.
"What am I going to do here?"
"Free Digimon? Destroy Control Spires?" Veemon suggested.
Davis lay back with a sigh and stared at the sky.
"You're getting my clothes dirty."
Davis didn't move. He heard a thump and then Ken was sitting next to him. Davis sighed.
"Are you going to help me?" Ken asked flatly "As far as I'm concerned, you can lose all your friends and fail all your classes. But you might not want that."
Davis sighed. Then he sat up and grabbed Ken by the shoulders.
"If you hurt my family," he said quietly "or my friends or do anything that's going to get me in trouble, I swear that I'll kill you. I'm not joking either. I will kill you."
Ken believed him. He suddenly felt afraid. Surely...surely he never looked like that. That had to be Davis's influence.
"I won't," he said "Why should I care about your stupid life?"
Davis shoved him away. He began to tell Ken quietly about his time table. Ken listened, storing it all up in his memory.
* * * *
Tai lay on Mimi's bed, looking around the pink room with stuffed toys and fashionable clothes and make-up.
"I'm never going to survive this," he whispered.
Mimi had given him millions of tips (mostly involving clothes and make-up) and had taught him several useful phrases and told him where to find a phrase book. But Tai had never been a very quick learner, especially not with languages. And he loathed pink. And he really didn't want to see Mimi naked.
"Mimi? Are you feeling any better?"
Thank God Mimi's parents still spoke to her in Japanese.
"Not really," Tai said, making his voice sound pathetic. The last thing he wanted was for Mimi's parents to think that he was healthy enough for school. School with English-speaking people!
"Well, I hope you're feeling better in the morning," Mrs Tachikawa said "Goodnight sweetpea."
Tai buried his face in the frilly pink pillow.
"I wish I was dead!" he whispered passionately.
The problem was, he could only get to the Digital World when a Digiport happened to be open. He could phone and E-mail the others but it wasn't the same.
Tai was being to feel great sympathy for Davis in the Digital World.
* * * *
Ken dragged himself through Davis's next day at school. He managed to stay awake and not draw attention to himself until English when he got so bored that he translated an whole English poem and then got into some quite complicated analysing. He knew that Davis would murder him and noticed Matt giving him a filthy look but he was too bored to care.
He was relieved to find no one at home when he got back. He started watching TV, wondering what sort of things that Davis liked.
The phone rang.
"Hello Ic - Motomiya residence," he said, mentally kicking himself.
"Hey Davis, it's me."
Oh great. Somebody who Ken didn't know.
"Hi me," he said for want of anything better to say.
"Very funny Davis," the voice said dryly "Listen, do you want to come out for a kick about? You were busy yesterday but c'mon, please?"
Ken paused.
"What if I were to tell you," he said after a moment "That I'm suffering amnesia and don't remember who you are?"
"I'd say you were crackers!" the voice laughed.
"Well, it's true!" Ken said, hoping that the boy would treat it as a dumb game.
He did.
"Well Daisuke Motomiya, I'm Kiyoshi Aida, remember?" Kiyoshi Aida said.
"Nope," Ken said "My amnesia still hasn't left me. But I think I'll force myself to play soccer with you. Where do we meet up?"
"Usual spot."
"Amnesia, remember?"
Kiyoshi laughed.
"The park near the swings you doofus," he said "Honestly, you have the weirdest sense of humour."
"It's no joke Kiyoshi," Ken said "I really am suffering amnesia!"
"Of course you are Davis," Kiyoshi said "See you in a few minutes!"
Ken hung up and scrawled a note for the parents. He went down as he was, unable to find a soccer kit. He prayed he was approached the right group at the park and walked over.
"Hey," he said.
"Davis!" one of them said "Glad you could make it!"
Ken gulped, not recognising the voice.
"Davis is suffering amnesia!" Kiyoshi's voice said.
All the boys cracked up.
"Trust you Motomiya," someone said "Your sister hit you over the head?"
Ken nodded.
"With a frying pan," he said.
The boys all cracked up again. It was weird. No one - except all the sucky female reporters - laughed like that when he was Ken.
"So who are you all?" he asked.
The boys cheerfully introduced themselves.
"Okay, now let's play!" Kiyoshi said impatiently "Let's just hope the amnesia hasn't made you forget how to play soccer!"
"Like a tap with a frying pan could erase my natural skill!" Ken said.
Kiyoshi chuckled.
"Same old Davis," he said "I've missed you, you know. Ever since you started hanging with those other friends I've seen you so much less. What's so special about them anyway?"
Ken struggled for a moment, then came up with the answer that he knew Davis would use.
"Have you even looked at Kari lately?"
Kiyoshi laughed.
"Enjoy the game Motomiya!"
"Same to you Aida!"
Ken found the playing strange. It had been such a long time since he'd played soccer - and this was so different. When he played with his own team, they were in awe of him and they obeyed him blindly. They weren't friends with him, not really. But with this group...they were friends. They didn't care about winning or losing. If Ken tried to boss them around, they threw the ball at his head or tackled him.
"You shut up Motomiya!" someone yelled "Or I'll go and tell everyone exactly what happened last year at summer camp!"
Ken would have rather liked to know what had happened at the summer camp but he knew better than to ask. Besides, he was enjoying the soccer too much to interrupt it to find out some dirt on Davis. His team won 9-7 but Ken didn't really care. He'd had too much fun.
"Amnesia gone yet?" someone yelled.
"Nope!" Ken said "Still haven't a clue who any of you are!"
"Motomiya, you are such a weirdo!"
Ken bowed modestly and everyone laughed. Ken smiled. He hadn't realised how much he had missed company in the Digital World. He told himself that he didn't care but he knew that it was a lie.
"Oh look," Kiyoshi said "Fangirls."
Ken grinned.
"All mine?"
"No, they all hate you. Remember?"
Ken looked at the Kiyoshi and noticed the gleam in his eyes.
"Oh wait!" he said "A sudden stab of memory! I see fangirls....millions of cheering fangirls...all yelling my name. Davis. Davis!"
"Sounds like your memory's got more problems than just amnesia!" Kiyoshi said with a laugh.
Ken walked home alone. He actually got lost, instinctively heading towards his own home. When he arrived at the Motomiya household, it was past dinner. Davis's mother seemed to be in a complete panic and told him that he could have fallen under a truck for all they'd know. Then had food shoved at him.
"Did you lose?" Jun said sounding hopeful.
"I never lose," Ken said. He decided that Mrs Motomiya was a better cook than his own mother.
"Please," Jun said scornfully "You always lose!"
Ken ignored her.
"Kari Yagami called," Mrs Motomiya said "She said you had to call her back."
Ken suddenly wondered what on Earth Kari's phone number was. He had to do a quick mental skip to remember that Kari was in fact Matt. He waited until after dinner before sneakily flicking through the phone book.
"Hello, Yagami residence."
"Hi, it's Motomiya Davis," Ken said "Can I speak to Kari?"
"Kari! Davis for you?"
There was a slight pause.
"Hello Davis."
"What do you want?" Ken asked flatly.
"D - Ken is going to kill you when he finds out what you did with that English poem," Matt said "The idea is to keep everything as normal as possible you moron!"
"I was bored," Ken said with a shrug.
"Bored!"
He heard Matt gulp.
"You think I'm not bored?" he hissed "I've learned all this already! It's not exactly fun for anybody!"
"At least you've got a girl's body you can ogle!" Ken snapped "I'm stuck with Davis's!"
"I am not using Kari's body as a sex object!" Matt hissed "Only a perverted little freak like you would think of something like that!"
"Oh please!" Ken said derisively "I bet everyone else who's done a body swap had already taken full advantage of the new situation!"
"You little creep!"
"Bye KARI," Ken said and slammed the phone down. He went into Davis's bedroom and began systematically going through his drawers. He needed a laugh.
* * * *
Davis lay sprawled on Ken's huge bed flicking miserably through one of Ken's books.
"This isn't even in Japanese!" he wailed after a while.
"Of course it is," Wormmon said.
Davis scowled. Pushing the book into 'useless' pile, he reached for the next one.
"Oh Davis," Wormmon said with a small sigh.
"I'm bored!" Davis said "This place sucks!"
Wormmon sighed again. Davis had been complaining all day. He obviously wasn't intending to stop ever.
"Okay, this really isn't in Japanese," Davis said.
"Of course it is..." Wormmon began, then looked at it "Oh. Well no, that's not Japanese."
Davis gave him a look, then threw the book across the room.
"Damn you!" he yelled "Damn you and Veemon both! I don't want this! I hate being Ken! I want to be me!"
He buried his head in the pillows, making small whimpering noises of misery. Wormmon stared at him in distress.
"Please don't cry Davis," he said.
"I'm not crying!" Davis said "I'm laughing for joy because this is going to be so much fun."
Wormmon sighed.
"Go away," Davis said "I'm going to bed."
Wormmon left. Davis looked with gloomy distaste at the black satin pyjamas, then slowly started to strip, for the first time actually looking at Ken's body.
He stared.
All over Ken's body, on his arms, his hips, even his thighs, were cuts. Violent gashes, made by some sort of knife. Some looked old and scabbed. Others were scars. But some were fresh, new.
"What on Earth...?"
Davis slowly ran a thumb along a long one on his hip, an angry one. How had he missed these before?
He knew how. He'd been changing so quickly, keeping his eyes closed when he showered. He hadn't looked before, half-scared of exploiting Ken's body. But he'd been angry enough not to care any more that night.
"Ken, what on Earth have you been doing to yourself?" Davis whispered "And you'd better not do that to my body!"
He finished changing and got into the bed. While it was nice to have such a massive bed it also felt so empty. Lonely.
"Ken, why do you want to be so alone?" Davis asked the empty air.
* * * *
Tai = Mimi TK = Sora
Matt = Kari Kari = Iori
Sora = Yolei Davis = Ken
Izzy = Matt Yolei = Joe
Mimi = Izzy Iori = TK
Joe = Tai Ken = Davis
* * * *
"So how's everyone doing?" Joe asked tiredly.
They were in Ken's base as that seemed the best place for them to all meet up and talk bluntly about their predicament. They had brought all their homework with them and everyone had swapped, trying to get work that they could actually handle. The only person who wasn't there was Tai as no Digiport was open in America that day.
Everyone was groaning after Joe's question.
"I'm going to go crazy," Mimi said pitifully "I can't take any more computer jargon."
"Joe, how can you survive?" Yolei asked "It's so boring in all your classes."
"I hate soccer," Joe said, not answering Yolei's question "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! I want to quit!"
"You can't," Kari said "Tai would kill you."
"And how are you coping with my Kendo lessons?" Iori asked.
Kari curled up in a ball and hid under a science text book.
"I hate prune juice," was all she could be persuaded to say on the matter.
"TK, how are you coping?" Sora asked.
"Your period is nearly finished," TK said "I shall never take my body for granted again."
"Thank God I missed it," Sora said.
"Oh yes!" Yolei said "My period starts in three days."
Sora groaned.
"Tell me you don't get cramps!"
"Not normally," Yolei said.
"You don't have a period do you?" Matt asked Kari anxiously.
"No," Kari said.
"Thank God," Matt said "Izzy, how's things going with the band?"
Silence.
"Izzy...." Matt said.
"I can't play guitar."
"I gave you a crash course."
"But I still can't play guitar. And the band are scary."
"They are not scary!" Matt said indignantly.
Izzy raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
"You have no idea how strange it is to be given a knowing look by your own face," Matt said with a sigh "Okay, so the band are a little...intense."
Izzy gave a violent cough which sounded a lot like "Drugs!" Matt suddenly became very interested in the nearest text book.
"Davis, how are you doing?" Yolei asked.
Davis slid down in the throne.
"I thought math was boring," he said "I thought listening to Jun talking about Matt was boring. I thought you were boring. But until now, I never knew what boredom was. The highlight of my day was three hours spinning on the chair. Three hours non-stop. Then I was violently sick for another hour. That was my high-lights."
"Here," Joe said. He handed Davis a bunch of magazines "I brought these for you."
"Joe I love you!" Davis yelled, grabbing the magazines.
"Where did you get them?" Iori asked.
"I bought them," Joe said.
"With what?"
"Tai's money," Joe said.
"Woah!" Kari said "You used Tai's money!"
"Hey!" Sora said "You can't use any of my money TK! I'm saving that for a trip to America to see Mimi!"
"Mimi, don't use mine!" Izzy said "I'm saving for a new computer and I've just got enough! If you spend it, I'll be saving again!"
"And you can't use mine Izzy!" Matt said anxiously "I'm saving for a new guitar which'll have better sounds. Either that or a jigsaw making machine."
"I'm going to pay him back!" Joe said, looking nervous at the storm he'd caused "I'm going to! It's just that I needed some money and - "
"A jigsaw making machine?" Ken repeated scornfully "Excuse me?"
Matt gave Ken a dirty look.
"Excuse me, who gave you permission to exist?" he asked icily.
The look Ken gave him made him wince mentally. It was so strange seeing looks like that on Davis's face. It just didn't seem real.
"Well if you had a jigsaw making machine, maybe I'd have something to do!" Davis snapped, coming to Matt's defence.
"You have plenty of books to read," Ken said coldly "If it wasn't for the fact that you're to stupid to understand any of them!"
"You jerk!"
"Oh no, I'll never get over it," Ken said "Davis Motomiya thinks I'm a jerk. Oh well. At least nobody could ever possibly think I'm as stupid as he is!"
"I'm NOT stupid!"
"Oh don't lie!" Ken said scornfully "I'm in your life now Davis! Literally! I'm in your body. I've met your family and friends. I'm living your life! I am you!"
Davis gave a roar of rage and threw himself at Ken, knocking the both backwards.
"Stop it you two!" Sora shouted "Stop it now!"
"Stop! You're messing up the homework books!" Kari yelled.
Matt reached out to pull them apart before remembering that he couldn't do it as he was in Kari's body and not strong enough.
"Izzy, rip them apart," he ordered.
"I can't!"
"You're in my body. You can."
Izzy did so.
"You never say that again!" Davis screamed, lashing out at Ken again "You NEVER say that again! You're not me! You're not me! You're not me!"
Ken laughed mockingly.
"Poor Davis!" he cried "Does the truth hurt? Does it hurt to know that if I wanted, I could change everything that is you and you'd be powerless to stop me? Does it hurt to think that I have power over you?"
"Bastard!"
Davis made another grab for him.
"That's enough!" TK yelled.
Davis wrenched himself free from Izzy's grip. Turning, he stormed out of the room leaving everyone looking after him.
"You jerk!" Iori said angrily to Ken.
Ken said nothing, just gave him an icy look. He pulled away from Izzy as well and went back to reading the book he'd been reading before. Everyone sat around in silence. Ken had rather killed the mood to talk.
* * * *
Davis ended up sitting outside, letting the wind blow his hair around.
"Damn you Ken!" he hissed "Damn you!"
But it wasn't him. It wasn't him saying it. It was Ken's voice. He was trapped in Ken's body, trapped. And Ken had been right. If he wanted, he could effectively kill Davis, just by changing everything in Davis's life.
"Damn you Ken you bastard!" Davis screamed.
What if Ken did change him? What would happen when he returned? What if Ken lost him all his friends? What if Ken got him family hating him? What if...?
Davis gave an animal scream of frustration and sank to his knees. This wasn't happening, Ken wouldn't, he wouldn't, he wouldn't....
"Oh GOD!"
In a fury, he used his fingernails to rip at his hand until blood was flowing. The pain woke him from his haze of fury and he stared.
He'd hurt himself. Like Ken was always doing. He'd hurt himself. But...but he'd never thought of doing anything like that. Never. He didn't want to hurt himself, it was dumb, crazy...
He was becoming Ken.
It hit him like a ton of bricks. He was becoming Ken.
"No!" Davis moaned "No! I'm not Ken! I was just angry! Everyone does stuff like this sometimes when they're really angry! I'm not Ken! I'm not Ken!"
He curled up in the fetal position, cradling his hurting hand and closed his eyes. If he just lay there like that, maybe he'd be okay. Maybe he wouldn't be Ken when he opened his eyes. Maybe...
* * * *
Ken sat on Davis's bed, frowning. He was dealing with an emotion that he hadn't let himself feel for a while now.
Guilt.
Maybe he shouldn't have said that to Davis. After all, at least he had something to do. Davis didn't have anything to do apart from mooch around in the base. And it wasn't fair to mention Ken's power over Davis's life...
No! Angrily, Ken pinched himself. He wasn't feeling sorry for Davis, he didn't care! He didn't care!
He flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Stupid spell. He was going to kill Wormmon when he got back. How dare the little Digimon mess with his life?
"Davis, what are you doing?"
He looked up. Jun was peering in at him.
"What?" he snapped at her.
Jun looked slightly startled.
"Sorry," she said "You just looked really mad. I didn't mean to make you mad."
Ken sighed.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
"Let me guess," Jun said "It's a girl?"
"Huh?"
Jun sat down next to him.
"It's a girl," she said "That's why you're being so freaky lately. A girl."
Ken was about to deny it when he realised that that was the perfect way to explain any odd behaviour.
"Well...yes," he said.
Jun nodded knowingly.
"Of course it is," she said "So...which is it? She like you and you not like her or you liking her and her not liking you?"
"I like her," Ken said "But she hasn't noticed my existence yet."
Jun nodded.
"What NOT to do," she said "Don't act like a little moron. You'll just put her off. Don't tag around after her like a love-sick puppy. You'll just drive her crazy. Do try to show a friendly interest in what she does and do try to help her with stuff."
"Thanks," Ken said "Or I can just sit and stare at her from a distance and mope."
Jun snickered.
"That works," she said. She ruffled his hair "Good night Davis."
"Good night," Ken said.
Jun walked out. Ken looked after her. It was nice to have an older sibling, even one as annoying as Jun. It was nice not to be alone...
He shook his head and pressed his head into the pillows. He didn't care. He didn't care!
* * * *
"Matt, what exactly is wrong with you?"
Izzy gave Gendo a panicked look.
"Nothing!" he said "Nothing at all!"
The band exchanged looks.
"Okay Matt," Toshiki said gently "You seem to have forgotten how to play guitar. You don't remember the lyrics very well. And you don't seem to be able to get the rhythm properly either. So...what's going on?"
Izzy gulped.
"I'm sorry guys," he said "I've just been...um...well...sort of out of it lately. I haven't been feeling very well."
The band all exchanged looks again.
"Okay," Toshiki said "That's okay. Just as long as you start feeling better soon. It's weird having you forget your words!"
Izzy shrugged. Oh this was so embarrassing. So, so very embarrassing.
"Oh, I'll be fine soon!" he said, trying to sound cheerful.
If he could ever manage to translate that stupid, annoying, dumb book...
"Feeling too ill to come out tonight or do you want to?" Istu asked.
Izzy tried not to wince. Oh no...
"I think I'd rather not..." he began.
"Oh no you don't!" Akemi said firmly "You haven't been out with us for ages! Nothing short of limbs dropping off is going to stop you coming out with us tonight!"
"Okay then," Izzy said, his heart sinking. Oh no. From what he'd heard the band saying before, this wasn't going to be his type of fun at all. And he'd rather spend his time with that book anyway. But he couldn't blow his cover.
Izzy smiled again, quietly planning terrible sufferings to heap on Wormmon and Veemon for their well-meaning but chaotic experiment.
* * * *
Tai scowled. Great. He was lost.
"Okay," he said softly to himself "Okay. This place can't be that big..."
He scowled harder. He knew he should of learned 'How do you get to such-and-such a place?' in English.
Tugging at the skirt he was wearing, he tried turning left every time he got to a turning. He knew that this wasn't a really scientific idea but he was fed up and wanted to get back to Mimi's home.
He was actually getting somewhere. He recognised the place. Mimi's home was only a little way away now.
Somebody said something on his left. Tai turned to look at the man who was standing there. He hadn't understood whatever it was but it sounded fairly friendly.
"Sorry, I don't understand," he stammered in American.
He turned to continue on his way. The man caught hold of his arm and said something else, sounding slightly less friendly.
"Sorry, I don't understand!" Tai repeated desperately. He wished he could say 'Let go!' This was painful. He tugged at his arm pleadingly but the man tightened his grip. He was still talking, his voice sounding even angrier.
"Let go!" Tai cried in Japanese "Let go of me you bastard! You're hurting me! Stop it!"
The man threw him into a wall, banging the air out of him.
"OW!"
The man pulled him into an back way and pushed him to the floor. Tai felt a wave of terror and began kicking and struggling. He wished that he was in his own body, then he'd kick this man off him...
He tried to scream, remembering Mimi's high-pitched wail but the man pressed a hand over his mouth, his hand going up the skirt, his fingers going inside Mimi's knickers, touching. Tai squirmed desperately, terror filling him. He couldn't, he couldn't, this couldn't happen to him...
The man was unfastening his trousers, still pinning Tai to the floor. Tai closed his eyes, suddenly feeling limp with fear. He couldn't fight, he was doomed, this was going to happen....
The man entered him. It hurt and Tai tried not to scream. He'd always wondered what it would be like to have sex in a girl's body but not like this and it hurt, hurt so badly. It was like someone using a knife to twist around in his insides, cutting holes in him, damaging him.
'Mimi, I'm so sorry...'
He heard himself cry something, he didn't even know what he shouted. The man struck him on the side of the head, sending stars through his head. He lay completely still, struggling not to cry out again. He closed his eyes tightly, gritting his teeth. Maybe if he just lay there and didn't think, it wouldn't be real, it would be just a dream...
When he opened his eyes, the man had gone. He'd passed out. Slowly, Tai sat up. Pain shot through him, horrible, dirty pain. Mimi's skirt was ripped. He pulled himself to his feet, staggering. Somehow, his legs didn't seem to want to support him. He felt sick.
Home. He wanted to go home.
He supposed that he must have blacked out again or something. When he opened his eyes, he was sitting at Mimi's gate. He staggered to his feet again and crawled up to the door, banging on it.
"Mimi! Where have you...Mimi?"
He felt someone catch him as he swayed again.
"Mimi, what....?"
Mrs Tachikawa kept talking but Tai couldn't understand it any more. She was talking in American. Or maybe it was Japanese but he just couldn't do it. He dropped into unconsciousness again.
* * * *
Izzy opened his eyes and rather regretted it. A large portion of his brain seemed to think that he was nocturnal and couldn't stand light in his eyes. Also, it meant that he could see that he wasn't wearing anything, which probably didn't bode well.
"Ow."
"Hangover?"
Izzy paused at the half-laughing voice in his ears. Slowly he opened his eyes again, more cautiously than before.
Oh no. Oh no, this wasn't good at all.
"Hi Istu," he said weakly.
* * * *
Ken sat listening to Davis's maths teacher droning on and on and on. He was so bored. Why were they teaching this drivel? Why did they want to torture him like this?
Sighing, he looked round at the rest of the class. Matt was draped over Kari's desk, looking slightly glazed. Iori was looking confused and miserable. Annoyed at the boy's obvious inability to understand a simple mathematical concept, Ken turned back to looking at Matt. Picking up his ruler, he fitted a rubber to it. Carefully, he sprung the ruler. The rubber sailed through the air and smacked Matt on the side of the head.
"AH!"
Everyone turned to look at Matt, who blushed. Everyone laughed.
"Something wrong Miss Yagami?" the teacher enquired.
"No Sensei. Sorry. I...I thought I saw a really big spider."
The teacher turned away. Matt gave Ken a filthy look. Ken smiled. He noticed that several people were giving him grateful looks. Obviously, they liked having their maths lessons interrupted. Ken grinned and went back to drawing little pictures in his maths notebook.
He was grabbed by a furious Matt as they walked out.
"You threw a rubber at me!"
"I was bored," Ken said coolly "Take care Kari. You aren't behaving in a very nice manner."
Matt's scowl was poisonous.
"You are a real creep!" he hissed before stalking off. Ken shrugged, trying to remember Davis's next lesson."
"Hey Davis!"
For a second, Ken didn't move. Then he remembered and turned round. A girl was looking at him smiling.
"Hi!" she said "I saw what you did!"
"I was bored," Ken said.
"I wasn't asking for justification silly!" the girl giggled "I just thought it was funny! That Kari Yagami can be really stuck up!"
"Hey, don't diss Kari okay?" Ken said, trying to put the right amount of indignation in his voice "She's not bad. I just threw the rubber at her because she looked practically asleep and I knew it would shock her."
"Oh," the girl said, looking slightly crushed. Ken looked at her, feeling a little confused. He hadn't meant to upset her.
"We're going to be late for class," he said.
"Oh yeah," the girl said "You wanna walk with me?"
"Um, sure," Ken said "You know, I can't remember your name..."
The girl looked a little confused.
"I'm suffering amnesia," Ken said "My sister's ego got so big it exploded and I got thrown against the wall."
It worked. The girl laughed.
"I'm Hidéyo Oikawa," she said "I don't blame you for forgetting me though. We've never really spoken before."
"I guess not," Ken agreed, thinking how true it was "So...you come here a lot?"
Hidéyo laughed.
"Davis, you are so funny!" she said.
"Oh," Ken said "Thanks."
Hidéyo smiled again, a little shyly.
"Would you like to eat lunch with me today?" she asked.
Ken blinked.
"Well sure I guess," he said "If you want me to."
"Course I do!" Hidéyo said "I'll meet you later."
She rushed off. Ken stared after her, then hurried into Davis's class, feeling confused.
* * * *
"What's Ken doing?" Iori whispered to Matt in the lunch line. Matt followed his gaze.
"Eating lunch with some girl," he said.
"She's flirting with him!" Iori muttered.
Matt looked. Hidéyo definitely was flirting with Ken. He was looking slightly flustered but flattered too.
"Should we rescue him?" Iori asked.
"Why should we care about Ken?" Matt asked.
"We don't. But what if Davis doesn't like the girl?" Iori pointed out.
Matt frowned.
"Good point."
At that moment, a girl raced up.
"Hey!" she said "You're Matt Ishida's younger brother aren't you?"
Matt gave Iori a discreet side-ways kick. Iori looked startled then nodded.
"Is it true that he slept with that guy?"
Iori froze. His eyes turned slowly to Matt (who had turned an inexplicable green shade), then back to the eager looking girl.
"What guy?" he stammered.
"The one from his band! Istu Katsuragi!"
Matt dropped his tray. The bang made everyone look up and start laughing. Matt noticed Ken practically falling off his chair and felt even more mad. The girl was still looking at Iori.
"I don't know! Matt doesn't talk about those things to me!" Iori yelped as Matt stormed out, not even picking up his tray.
The girl looked disappointed. Iori quickly shoved his tray into her hands and chased after Matt, mentally cursing the two Digimon who'd got them all into this predicament.
* * * *
Tai was sitting on Mimi's bed, holding a pillow. He hadn't moved for over an hour but his brain wouldn't stop churning thoughts round and round and round.
'Mimi, I'm so sorry....'
It was his only really coherent thought. How he'd let Mimi down. Let somebody violate her body in this way. He'd taken an emergency morning after pill so she wasn't pregnant. But what if she had some sort of disease now? What if Mimi's body had HIV? Or anything else?
Tai shuddered, feeling sick. What was Mimi going to say? What would the others say? He was supposed to be responsible leader, the one who was careful. Instead, he'd damaged Mimi's body, probably more than everyone else could possibly do to the bodies that they inhabited.
"Mimi baby?"
It was Mr Tachikawa. He was looking at Tai nervously.
"Would you like something to eat?"
"No," Tai said "I'm not hungry."
"Is there anything you would like?"
"I want to visit my friends in Japan," Tai said. He didn't really mean to but the words blurted out. Mr Tachikawa looked a little surprised, then nodded.
"Sure sweetie. Anything for you. I'll have to clear it with the police of course but then you can definitely go."
Tai felt a small feeling of relief. He could tell Mimi to her face and apologise and be in a place where they spoke the language he understood. And see his own body.
Tai curled up on the bed, ignoring the pins and needles going through him. At least he'd be going home.
* * * *
Izzy was trying to remember Matt's locker combination when someone tapped his arm.
"Yes?" he began turning round.
A small fist caught him in the face, sending him staggering backwards into the locker. Blinking, he stared.
Kari's body was standing there looking murderous. For a second, Izzy didn't get it. Then he remembered who was inhabiting Kari's body.
"Um....hey Matt?" he suggested in a tiny voice with a very weak grin.
He could feel blood trickling from his - Matt's nose - and put his fingers up.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't stop he - him," Iori explained.
People were staring at them, obviously deciding that they were insane. Izzy didn't blame them.
"Come on!" he muttered.
They walked outside into the sunlight.
"Istu?" Matt practically yelled "Istu?"
"Um, well I..." Izzy said, wondering what on Earth he was going to say.
"I have been refusing that guy for three years now!" Matt snarled "Three damn years! And now you've ruined three years of good work because he'll never, ever, EVER give up now!"
"Matt, I..."
"I mean, Istu!" Matt continued "Istu! Why? Why?"
"I was drunk," Izzy said.
"Izzy!" Matt snarled.
"Akemi wouldn't take no for an answer!" Izzy said pathetically "He insisted I went so I agreed. And then I drank a lot and I'm not really used to drinking so I didn't realise how much I'd drunk and Toshiki said someone had to take me home so I said that Istu could if he wanted and everyone laughed and that's where the memories get a bit odd but I woke up in the morning and we were both naked and we'd had sex. Basically."
"Oh man," Matt said shaking his head "Tell me that we were dominant!"
"What?"
"That you in my body was the one on top," Matt said "Please tell me we were on top."
Izzy shook his head.
"Nope," he said gloomily "I remember being on the bottom."
Matt gave a snarl of rage.
"Izzy," he said "Tell me he used lubricant because if not, you're staying in that body until the pain goes away!"
"We used lubricant!" Izzy said "And a condom and everything!"
Matt sighed.
"Good," he said "Now Iori and I are going to go away now. You are going to go and find Istu and tell him that you are taking medication that reacted violently with the alcohol. If he doesn't believe that, tell him that you were drunk out of your mind and insane. Then go to the nurses office and sort out my nose."
Izzy sighed.
"Okay," he said.
"Thank you," Matt said.
He dragged Iori off with him. Izzy stared after him and sighed.
He wanted to be back in his own body now.
* * * *
"Yagami, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Sorry!" Joe called miserably.
Soccer. Why, why, why did he have to end up in Tai's body? Izzy's would have been fine. Iori's wouldn't have been bad. Even Ken's would have been a picnic. But no. He got stuck with Tai. Tai who happened to be good at the one thing that Joe was so appalling at.
Joe sighed. He hated soccer, he hated it. When the ball came towards him, he just wanted to run away. But he knew that he couldn't. Tai would never run away from a soccer ball.
Joe swallowed. Stupid game. Stupid, stupid game.
The ball came at him again. Swallowing his terror, Joe struggled to stop it from escaping him. This time he actually managed to stop it and quickly began dribbling it so he could pass it to another player. One of the other team's players promptly tackled him.
It wasn't a very good tackle. The real Tai or Davis would have been fine. But Joe went down straight away. He threw out his hands to catch himself and landed painfully. There was a strange crunching noise and then he was staring at the green grass.
"Yagami, are you all right?"
"Fine," Joe began, then gave a yell as he tried to get up. His right wrist was sending daggers of pain through him "Not fine! NOT FINE!"
He knew he'd broken it. He'd been learning first aid for ages after all.
"Broken wrist," he muttered.
Tai was going to kill him.
* * * *
Mimi sat at Izzy's computer, irritably tapping at the keys. This wasn't any fun at all. She was bored. Izzy didn't have anything that she would even consider reading and the games on the computer had all got really dull.
Sighing, she clicked on another file. It was all numbers and symbols and didn't make any sense. Mimi supposed that it was some sort of computer programme. Shrugging, she exited it and tried a different one. More stupid symbols and numbers.
"I'd kill for some decent magazines," she muttered, boredly poking at the keys.
The computer suddenly froze up. Frowning, Mimi pressed ESC-ALT-DEL which she'd heard worked quite well. Nothing seemed to happen.
"Oh no!" Mimi hissed. Angrily, she jabbed at the keys. There was a small beep and the screen went blank.
"What?" Mimi snarled.
She listened to the strange whirring noise the computer was making.
"Uh oh," she whispered "No. No, stop what ever you're doing. Please."
The computer didn't. Mimi groaned. She didn't know what she'd done but something told her that she'd done something really, really bad.
Izzy was going to kill her.
* * * *
Davis sat on Ken's swively throne and swivelled. The Digimon Emperor cloak swirled around him.
"I like the cloak," he said to Wormmon "It's cool."
"Oh," Wormmon said.
Davis spun again.
"Why haven't they come to visit me today?" he asked moodily "No one's come to see me."
"I don't know," Wormmon said.
Davis scowled.
"They've forgotten about me," he said "Ken's probably got so good at living my life that they've forgotten all about the real me. Or they just don't care."
"I'm sure they do care," Wormmon said.
"No they don't," Davis said miserably "They've never really liked me. I'm just Davis, stupid Davis. They've never really liked me. And now they can just forget all about me and pretend I've never existed and have super clever genius Ken in my place!"
"Now Davis," Wormmon said "You know that's not true. Your friends would never forget you."
Davis scowled.
"Why not?" he said "They're probably really glad to forget about my existence. After all, who am I? Just Davis. I'm not important!"
Wormmon sighed. When he'd talked to Veemon about Davis, Veemon had said that Davis was a cheerful human, happy and always joking. This Davis seemed to be much more like Ken.
"Davis," he began hopefully.
"Oh shut up," Davis said "I am so bored. I just wish I was dead."
"Don't be silly," Wormmon said "It's not that bad."
Davis scowled.
"I'm going to bed," he said flatly.
"You're always in bed," Wormmon said.
"What else can I do?" Davis asked "All I have are the magazines Joe gave me. Even when they all came to see me, I ended up alone. I've got nothing. Not even my own life. All I can do is lie in bed and dream."
"You could do what Ken does when he's in bed," Wormmon suggested, trying to cheer Davis up "He's always doing it."
"What?" Davis asked.
"I'm not sure," Wormmon admitted.
"Then what was the point of mentioning it?" Davis snapped "Stupid creature!"
Wormmon shrank down.
"I just thought it would cheer you up," Wormmon said "Ken always likes it. Even though it's like he's sick."
"What?" Davis said.
"Well, he moans and sounds very sick," Wormmon explained "But when I tried to find out what was wrong the first time, he screamed at me. So I just leave him to it. And he moans and yells things and then me makes me change the sheets."
"WHAT?"
Wormmon looked at him.
"He makes me change the sheets," he repeated "He does it quite a lot and I have to change the sheets all the time."
"Oh my God," Davis said "Oh my God, STOP!"
Wormmon blinked.
"You have NO idea what he's doing, do you?" Davis asked.
Wormmon shook his head.
"Okay," Davis said "Since you have already traumatised for at least twelve years you might as well tell me if he yells any names."
"Names?"
"You said he yells," Davis said "Does he yell people's names?"
Wormmon considered.
"Mostly he just yells incoherent things," he said. He saw Davis's unhappy look "He shouted your name once."
"MY name!"
Wormmon nodded.
"It was after that soccer match where you stopped him scoring a goal. He locked himself in the room and yelled your name."
"I'm going to bed," Davis said, his voice weirdly calm "I didn't hear any of this. I wasn't here."
He walked into Ken's room and closed the door. He carefully got changed and curled up in the bed.
"Great," he muttered "Just great. Just what I wanted to know."
'He yelled your name once...'
Davis frowned. Ken had shouted his name?
'No!' he told himself 'Doesn't mean anything! He just probably has twisted fantasies about beating you up and gets off on them. Means nothing!'
He closed his eyes and tried not think about Ken.
* * * *
Tai = Mimi TK = Sora
Matt = Kari Kari = Iori
Sora = Yolei Davis = Ken
Izzy = Matt Yolei = Joe
Mimi = Izzy Iori = TK
Joe = Tai Ken = Davis
* * * *
Matt woke up feeling funny. He had a stomach ache.
'Great. Maybe I can miss school!' he thought hopefully. He was sick of Kari's lessons.
He swung himself out of bed, then froze.
His legs and Kari's nightdress were smeared with blood.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Matt screamed.
"Kari? Kari what's wrong?"
Mrs Yagami rushed in. She stopped when she saw Matt.
"Kari!" she said "Oh Kari sweetheart, there's no need to panic!"
"What do you mean, no need to panic?" Matt practically screamed "I'm gushing blood! What makes you panic?"
"It's just your first period sweetie," Mrs Yagami said soothingly "Don't worry. I know it can be scary at first. But it's easy enough to handle. Can you cope with pads by yourself?"
"Yes," Matt said miserably.
"Good. Then you just strip off your nightie and your bed and put it for the wash. It's all right, don't fret. Then you have a nice shower. There's sanitary towels in the cupboard. You know where."
Matt nodded, hoping he could find them.
In the shower, he struggled not to cry. It wasn't fair on Kari that she was missing it and it wasn't fair on him that he was enduring it! Stupid, stupid Digimon! Why hadn't they translated the book properly before casting this wretched spell?
He sighed. There was no use getting weepy over it. He'd read that some girls did get weepy around their periods. Terrific. Trust Kari to be one of those girls!
* * * *
"Are you all ready?" Sora asked tiredly as they stood round the computer.
Everyone nodded. Nobody looked especially happy.
"Hey."
"Tai!" everyone chorused.
Tai looked at them. He looked awful. His face was very pale and his eyes were shadowed. Mimi's hair, normally immaculate, was looking unbrushed. He was wearing a long brown skirt and a man's shirt untucked over it. Mimi gave a horrified whimper.
"What's wrong?" Izzy asked.
"Let's talk about when we're through!" Sora said quickly "Davis is going to be waiting!"
Everyone used their Digivices and made their way to the base.
"Oh. Worthy of your attention today?" Davis said sarcastically. He was spinning on the chair again.
"That chair will break," Ken said flatly.
Davis pulled a revolting face at him.
"Joe! What have you done to Tai's arm?"
Tai blinked.
"My arm?"
Joe sheepishly held up Tai's plaster covered wrist.
"Oops?" he suggested.
Everyone waited for Tai to explode and kill Joe. Instead, Tai just hung his head. Before Matt could ask him what was wrong, Mimi spoke up.
"Um, Izzy, I have to tell you something," she said, her voice low.
"What?" Izzy asked.
Mimi swallowed.
"I've um....I've....I've wiped your hard-drive," she blurted "On your computer."
Izzy stared at her.
"I didn't mean to," Mimi said "I was just messing and....and it happened. I'm really sorry..."
"My hard-drive?" Izzy said in a tiny voice "How could you? How could you do this to me?"
"Sorry," Mimi repeated.
"THAT WAS ALL THE WORK I HAD IN THE WORLD!!!!" Izzy screamed "Anything not saved on disk is HISTORY, how could you be so STUPID, you thick little BITCH!!!!!!"
Everyone gasped. They'd never heard Izzy lose it like that before.
"Izzy?" Matt said "Please don't have an apoplexy in my body. I like it."
Izzy took and deep breath. He went over and sat down in a corner where he could be heard muttering things like "Incalculable loss." and "Irreplaceable files."
"Since everyone's confessing things," Matt said "Kari..."
"What have you done?" Kari asked.
"I haven't done anything," Matt said "Your stupid body on the other hand..."
"What?"
Matt scowled.
"You're not a little girl any more."
Kari blinked. Then her eyes got huge.
"My......period?"
Matt nodded.
"It could have come any time but nooooooo," he said bitterly "It had to come when I'm in your body."
Kari's mouth dropped open.
"That's so unfair!" she wailed "A first period is special and now I'm missing it!"
Matt shrugged.
"Well it's hardly MY fault!"
"Oh and Davis?" Ken said "You've got a girlfriend."
"WHAT?!?!?!"
Davis fell off the swivel chair.
"Please refrain from damaging my body," Ken said coolly "You have a girlfriend."
"WHO?"
"Hidéyo Oikawa."
"WHAT?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"I don't LIKE her!" Davis howled "She's a pain!"
"Tough," Ken said "I like her."
"Okay," Davis said, his voice dangerously soft "I think there's something I need to explain to you Ken. When you leave my body, I'm going to be back in it. And it's going to be ME who has to dump her. So drop her NOW!"
"No."
Davis clenched his teeth.
"I don't want to go out with Hidéyo Oikawa!"
"But I do."
"Fine," Davis hissed "That's the way you want to play it? That's the way we'll play it."
He sat down and turned his back on them all. There was a small, uncertain pause.
"Anything else anybody wants to confess?" Yolei said, trying to sound jokey.
Tai made a strange noise.
"Tai?" Mimi said "What's wrong?"
Tai pressed his face in his hands.
"I'm really sorry," he whispered "I'm just so sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"What?" Mimi said "Tai, what's happened?"
Tai started to cry.
"I'm so sorry!"
"Tai, please tell us what happened," Kari said.
"I...I was walking home to Mimi's place and I got lost," Tai sobbed "I was finding the way when this guy said something to me. I didn't understand him so I said so and carried on. But he wouldn't let me go away and he grabbed me and then...then he..."
"Oh no!" Sora said, guessing "Oh Tai!"
"What?" Mimi asked in a small voice.
"I got raped!" Tai cried "He just...I couldn't make him let go!"
He broke down in hysterical tears. Davis sprang off the swively chair and came over, kneeling down to hug his friend. Tai shied from Davis's friendly hug.
"I'm sorry," he whispered "But I just..."
"Can't let me near you in this body," Davis guessed dully.
Tai nodded. Matt hugged him, guessing that sympathy from Tai's sisters body wouldn't hurt. Davis backed off, looking like he'd been smacked in the face. He saw Ken glance at him just once. Ken was looking smug, like he thought it was funny that Davis's friends were frightened by him. Something in Davis snapped.
"You can take that look of my face!" he snarled "The only reason Tai doesn't want me near him is because I'm in your inferior body!"
"My body," Ken said icily "Is not inferior."
"It is from what I can see!"
"Having seen your body and being able to compare," Ken said "I can safely say that my body is certainly more...well-equipped."
"You fucking pervert!"
"As if you haven't seen my body naked!" Ken sneered "You've probably been measuring with a ruler!"
"Guys...." Sora began, trying to sound pacifying.
"Yeah?" Davis yelled "At least my body wasn't covered in knife marks last time I saw it!"
Silence. Ken's face turned completely white.
"See?" Davis sneered goadingly "Maybe your body isn't so superior after all! At least I don't need to take a knife to myself to make myself happy!"
Ken said nothing. He was trembling all over, his fists clenched.
"Maybe that's what you do in your room when you moan and won't let Wormmon in," Davis continued. His voice had a cruel under-tone that none of the others had ever heard before "Get off on it do you?"
Ken threw himself on him. They went flying backwards and rolled.
"Stop it you two!" Sora yelled "Stop it now!"
She was ignored. Davis was trying to beat off Ken's murderous attack.
"Bastard!" Ken was screaming "You bastard, you bastard!"
"Stop!" Tai shouted "Stop it!"
Izzy sprang out of his corner, reaching out to grab them. Ken slapped him away. Grabbing Davis by the shoulders, he began to slam him against the floor repeatedly.
"Bastard! You bastard! You think you're so great but you're not! You're not! You're just a stuck up little creep! Nobody likes you! You don't have anybody! Nobody would want to like you! You're just a dumb, stupid, selfish CREEP! You're worthless and stupid and a waste of everyone's time! You're nobody! Nothing! Nobody!"
"Ken, stop!" Matt yelled "STOP!"
With difficulty, Izzy seized Ken around the waist and lifted him bodily away from Davis. Davis lay on the floor, looking dazed. His lip was bleeding and he already had a developing black eye. Joe carefully helped him up. Ken was still kicking and struggling and Yolei was helping restrain him. Matt moved over. Grabbing Ken, he hit him hard on the face.
"Stop that now!" he yelled "You're behaving like such a child!"
Ken stared at him for a moment. Then he shoved Izzy and Yolei away from him and moved away from them all, shaking violently.
"Davis, are you okay?" Iori asked.
Davis nodded, still looking shaken.
"I think so."
There was an uncomfortable silence, only broken by Ken's soft gulping. No one was entirely certain what to do. Ken's outburst had shocked all of them.
"I've got to go," Ken said abruptly.
Turning, he left the room.
* * * *
Ken sat hunched on Davis's bed. He refused to come out for a meal and wouldn't talk to anyone. He didn't want to talk to any one.
Davis knew his secret. Davis knew that he'd been cutting himself.
Ken clenched his fists, feeling tears in his eyes. He'd never let any one know that. He'd always been so careful. Hiding his knife, making sure that no one ever saw the marks on his arms. And now Davis - Davis for crying out loud - knew his secret and had told all the other Digidestined.
Ken bent his face and hid it in his knees. What was he going to do? Everything was changing. He just wanted things to go back to normal. He wanted his own body back, wanted to make it easy again.
If that would ever happen.
* * * *
Izzy lay on Matt's bed, staring at the book without really seeing it. Istu had phoned six times while he'd been out and Izzy knew that Matt wasn't going to be very happy about it. In fact, Matt was probably going to kill him about it.
"Izzy, shouldn't you be doing the book?"
Izzy glared at DemiVeemon and looked back at the book.
"Stupid book," he said moodily "I don't understand a word of it!"
"That's not true!" DemiVeemon said "We've done some of it!"
Izzy sighed and ran a hand through Matt's hair.
"I hate Matt's hair," he said "I'm going to get it all cut off!"
"Matt would kill you!" DemiVeemon yelped, feeling scared. If Izzy did it, DemiVeemon would probably get blamed.
Izzy scowled. He began aimlessly flipping through the pages of the book, not paying attention to what he was reading until something caught his eyes.
"What the....? Hello...."
Slowly he began to focus on the page in front of him.
* * * *
Tai lay on his own bed. Matt had invited him to stay over. Joe was sleeping in Kari's room and Matt was on the floor.
"How're you feeling?"
Tai said nothing. He had his back to Matt so Matt wouldn't see that he was crying again.
"Tai, are you crying?"
Silence. Tai didn't want to speak, didn't want to communicate.
"Tai, please don't."
Matt lay on the bed next to him and hugged him.
"It's okay Tai," he whispered "It's really okay. Mimi wasn't mad was she?"
"She didn't have time to process it," Tai said miserably "Ken and Davis started ripping themselves apart before we could even talk about it. She'll probably kill me tomorrow."
"No she won't," Matt said "She knows it wasn't your fault."
"But I should have been able to fight him off!" Tai cried "I should have been able to stop him! What if Mimi's sick now? What if she's damaged inside and can't have kids?"
"You'd already know that from the hospital," Matt said firmly "And I'm sure she isn't sick. Tai, none of this is your fault. I swear that this isn't your fault."
Tai continued to cry. Matt struggled to soothe him, wishing he was in his own body rather than Kari's. On the other hand, Tai might not have let him hug him then.
Matt hoped that when Tai was back in his own body, he'd feel secure again.
"And Mimi's going to have to go back to her own body to all the problems I've caused!" Tai wailed "She'll end up at a trial and everything!"
Matt hadn't thought of that. It was a good point. Once Mimi was back in her own body, she wouldn't be able to be any use to the police at all. She hadn't been there, hadn't witnessed her own rape. It was a rather strange thought.
"Tai," he said "I know it's going to hurt but you're going to have to tell Mimi everything with detail."
"No! I can't!"
"You must," Matt said "Tai, I know this is hard. But this guy needs to be in jail for a long time. If you don't help Mimi, they won't be able to prosecute him when she's back in her own body. You have to."
Tai gave another sob.
"Matt, I don't want to."
"I know. But we'll help you. We'll all help you."
Matt cuddled up to Tai, wrapping his arms tightly round him. Tai lay there, gulping every now and then until he finally dozed off. Matt lay awake, trying to puzzle everything out. Eventually, he went to sleep too.
* * * *
"Davis?"
"Go away," Davis said, not looking round.
Wormmon sighed. Davis had been like that since his fight with Ken.
"Davis, you need to have some breakfast," he said gently "It's important that you keep Ken's body nourished..."
He had to dodge the heavy book Davis threw at him.
"Will you shut up about that?" Davis screamed "I don't CARE about Ken's stupid body! I don't CARE what happens to it! I HATE Ken okay? I HATE him!"
He slumped down in the throne again. The others would all be going to school now. By now they could probably handle each others lessons. Ken would be bored in his. Iori would be wishing he could go back to his easier lessons. Yolei would be thinking how crap all Joe's lessons were. Everyone would be wishing they were in their own lives. And here was Davis, sitting alone in a cold, miserable fortress, lonely and afraid. And no one cared. What if he was like this forever?
A tear ran down Davis's face. He hated this, he hated Ken's body. Everything was so strange. He was dreaming Ken's dreams. It was like seeing something so different. And Ken - Ken was in his life. Ken knew him better than his friends did now.
"Wormmon why did you do this to me?" he asked out-loud "Why have you done this to me?"
Wormmon didn't say a word. Davis sighed and put his head in his hands. A completely different life. Everything had changed.
"Davis."
Davis jerked round.
"Ken! You're supposed to be in school!"
"I cut," Ken said flatly "I wanted to talk to you."
"No! Take my body back to school and get me my grades!" Davis yelled.
"Davis," Ken said quietly "I need to talk to you."
Davis scowled.
"Then do it quickly so I can have my body in school getting grades and not getting grounded when my parents discover that I've skipped school!"
Ken took a deep breath.
"I want to keep your body," he said.
Davis stared at him.
"What?" he said at last.
Ken walked over and took Davis's hands.
"Listen," he said "I like your body. I like your life. I want to keep it."
Davis tried to think of something to say but all that came out was "Whaaaeeeiahuh?" Ken squeezed his hands. He had been planning this all night. He had to convince Davis, no matter what it took.
"Come on," he said, making his voice as gentle and persuasive as possible "You're getting used to my body. I know you are. And if it was your body, you could take it home to my house, have a life again. You'd like my life. You like feeling what I feel. My body's more sensitive than yours. And my parents would understand if you seemed a little different. After all, I've been away for months."
Davis just continued staring at him. Ken gulped, unsure if he was making an impression.
"Please?" he said "You'd still see everyone. I'd let you come over and everything. And I know you'd like my life once you were at my home."
"You're insane," Davis said flatly.
"What?" Ken said.
Davis jerked up, pushing Ken away from him.
"You're completely crazy," he said. His voice wasn't angry or vicious or anything. It was cool and calm and understanding, as though he'd figured something out for the first time ever "You don't get it, do you Ken? You can't tempt me with your life because I've already seen it. I've lived it for the past few days, just as you've lived mine. You've been able to compare them and you've suddenly seen your life for what it is - cold, miserable and empty. You've got no one. I've got people. You spend your time alone with books and darkness. I spend my time with people and computer games. I have friends. A family. You might have had those things once but now you've thrown them away to be the Digimon Emperor. And now you've been able to compare my life to it, you've realised what you've lost and you'll do anything to keep it. But I won't let you Ken. You've made your bed. You've made your life. You'll have to live it. Not me."
Ken stared at him.
"But....but Davis," he said "Please. Please!"
He was practically begging.
"I just want to keep your body," he said "If not forever, then just for a little longer! Please! I like your life!"
"Of course you do," Davis said "No Ken. I'll never let you keep my body longer than necessary."
"Please!" Ken cried "Davis, why won't you let me?"
"Because it's my life!" Davis exploded "It's my life! I want to be back in it, back with my friends, my family, my body! You just can't handle the fact that when Izzy reverses this spell, you'll be back in this dark horrible dungeon place instead of in a real home surrounded by people! It scares you because you know you can't cope!"
"I can cope!"
Davis wrenched up his sleeve, revealing the marks.
"This isn't coping!" he yelled "This is hurting yourself because you're just a scared little kid! My life has helped show you that you are just some dumb little kid, just like the rest of us! And you know it! That's why you attacked me like that and yelled all that stuff! It's not me you hate Ken. It's yourself!"
Ken opened his mouth. Davis waited for him to say something. Instead, Ken began to cry. Sinking to his knees, he sobbed hysterically. Davis dropped down beside him and slightly uncertainly wrapped his arms round him.
"Come here," he whispered "It's okay Ken. It's okay..."
Ken clutched at him and pressed his face into Davis's shoulder. Davis just knelt there, gently rocking him backward and forwards as Ken sobbed bitterly into his shoulders.
* * * *
Izzy looked at the experiment everyone else was doing, then at the one in front of him.
"Matt, I still don't understand why you want us to do a completely different experiment from everyone else and get in trouble," Istu said.
"Because," Izzy muttered "Okay. Hand me that Digivice."
Istu handed it over. Izzy sent up a mental prayer that this would work, then dropped Matt's Digivice into the heating beaker of liquid.
* * * *
Tai was reading a magazine aimlessly in Mimi's hotel room when he suddenly felt a feeling of violent sickness. It was like being on a roller coaster only completely different. He grabbed at the bed, trying not to fall. Only he was being lifted up. There was a huge wind and he could see streams of different coloured light around him, blinding him. Orange, blue, red, purple, green, grey, yellow, pink, orange with streaks of blue, red with streaks of green, yellow with streaks of grey and a strange violet one with streaks of black that were beginning to fade. They were what was blowing him away. The orange one slammed straight into him, shoving him backwards, through the wall.
"AHHHHHH!"
"Mr Yagami, what is the meaning of this?"
Tai blinked. He was sitting on the floor of his biology class, blinking hazily up at the teacher. His wrist was feeling odd and looking at it, he saw that it was covered in plaster.
"Mr Yagami?"
Tai slowly reached up and ran a hand over his face. His hair was sticking out like a bush. His face felt like his. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was in school uniform. Completely immaculate school uniform but that was Mimi for you.
"I feel a little strange," he offered "Can I go to the nurses office?"
The teacher nodded. Tai leaped up and shot out of the room. Where were the others?
* * * *
"Matt! Matt! Are you okay?"
"Misters Ishida and Katsuragi, what have you done NOW?"
Matt blinked. Istu was staring down at him. He was lying on the floor.
"How'd I get on the floor?" he mumbled, then froze.
That wasn't Kari's voice! That was....that was....
He sat up. His Chemistry class. His bag, shoved under the table with an anxious DemiVeemon peering out of it. A smashed beaker and liquid stuff all over the table. His Digivice.
Slowly, Matt sat up and grabbed the Digivice. The teacher was yelling at him and Istu but it was fairly meaningless. He was in his own body! He was in his own body!
Matt put a hand to his hair.
"Uh oh. Does anyone have a comb?"
* * * *
"Koushiro Izumi, please get up off the floor."
Izzy got up off the floor.
His computer class. He was in his computer class. And that meant....
"YIPPEE!" he yelled, doing a small tap-dance of delight "It worked! It worked! I'm ME! HOORAY!!!!!!!"
"Koushiro, what are you doing?"
Izzy remembered that he was in class and everyone quite clearly thought he was nuts.
"Um, nothing!" he said "Sorry!"
He sat down but couldn't keep the grin off his face. He was back in his own body!
* * * *
Ken didn't quite understand it. One moment he'd been sobbing in Davis's arms, the next moment there was a horrible wind, a purple and black striped thing slamming into him, a scary feeling of being thrown...and then he was holding Davis in his arms.
Davis looked up at him, his face tear streaked.
"Ken?" he croaked.
Ken nodded.
"I...I'm back in my own body," he said softly.
Davis's face lit up.
"I'm ME again!" he screamed, leaping up "I'm ME! I'm ME! I'm MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Ken watched him leaping around, feeling miserable. Wormmon scuttled up to him.
"Ken?"
Ken looked at him.
"Hey," he said uncertainly.
Davis interrupted.
"We've got to have a party!" he yelled "Everyone's gonna be so happy! Where do you keep your food?"
"What?" Ken said.
"Food! For a party! I bet the others are on the way here right now!"
Ken said nothing. Davis's happiness vanished.
"Oh," he said "Oh Ken, I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Ken said dully "I'm fine."
Davis knelt down next to him.
"Ken, it doesn't have to be this way," he said "You know that. You can go home, like you wanted me to do."
"No," Ken said "I can't."
Davis grabbed him.
"Ken, listen to me," he said "Your parents miss you. You know they do. And you're not happy here. You know that. I know that."
"You don't know me."
It was a feeble protest and Ken knew it. Davis gave him a small grin.
"Oh no?" he said, then went serious again "Ken, if you come home, I'll help you. I want to be your friend Ken."
Ken leaned against him. Davis felt solid and real and friendly.
"Davis, I'm sorry."
"It's okay."
Davis wrapped an arm round Ken, hugging him firmly.
"I'll help you," he whispered again "I promise you Ken. I'll help you."
"You hate me."
"I don't hate you," Davis said.
Ken sighed. He closed his eyes and continued to lean against Davis.
"When do you think the others will come?"
"Soon. When they can get away from school."
Ken sighed.
"Davis?"
"Yes?"
"I....I'm sorry."
Davis smiled and said nothing.
"When you go home, you can come and stay at my house again," he said "Maybe I can even see your house and say how I'd rather have lived here!"
Ken gulped.
"I can't go home," he whispered.
"Ken," Davis said "When you were in my body, were you ever late for dinner?"
Ken thought.
"Once."
"Did my parents give you the 'Oh my God, we were so worried, you could have fallen under a truck' speech?"
"Well....yes."
"For being how late?"
"About ten minutes."
"Exactly. How many months have you been missing?"
Silence.
"Ken, if you go home, your parents won't be angry. They'll be so glad to see you that they probably won't even ask where you've been."
Ken shivered.
"You think so?"
"I know so," Davis said.
Ken thought. Home. It felt much more inviting than staying here, alone.
"Davis," he said "Davis, what if nothing changes? What if it all stays the same?"
Davis frowned.
"It won't," he said "Nothing's going to stay the same."
"Davis! Davis!"
"Here!" Davis yelled. He pulled Ken to his feet and they turned to the door as a pile of Digidestined sprinted in.
"We're back in our own bodies!" Matt yelled "Ken, I need a mirror, some hair-gel and a decent comb. It's an emergency!"
Davis jumped at Izzy.
"Izzy! You did it, you did it, you did it!"
Izzy grinned proudly.
"I had help from DemiVeemon," he said.
Veemon leaped at Davis cheerfully. Davis hugged his Digimon with a grin.
"Hey Veemon. It's nice to see you," he said "And if you ever, EVER do ANYTHING like this EVER again, I will personally kill you."
Veemon blushed slightly.
"Well...sorry."
Davis grinned. He looked round at his friends. Matt was frantically sorting out his hair. Mimi was looking at her outfit in total disgust. Kari was looking slightly uncomfortable. Tai was looking at his wrist with some confusion. Everyone else just looked odd.
Davis looked over at Ken. Ken was standing away from them all, staring down at himself. He looked like he was going to cry again, watching everyone hug each other and being happy. Davis walked over and threw an arm over his shoulders.
"Hey Ken," he said "You never did tell me - where's your party food?"
Ken gave him a watery smile.
"Wormmon did the food," he said.
"Party food?" Wormmon said "Would you like me to fetch some?"
"Someone mention FOOD?" Tai said, sounding delighted "I haven't a decent meal for ages!"
"Good!" Mimi said "Your idea of a decent meal would have made me gain weight!"
Tai laughed. He suddenly looked upset. Matt instantly put his comb down and tucked his arm in Tai's, giving him a squeeze.
"We can talk after food," he said firmly "If there's pizza, I want extra slices of tomato on mine."
"No anchovies for me!" TK yelled.
"Sausages on my slices please!" Kari called.
"You like sausage on your pizza?" Matt said, looking revolted.
Kari nodded.
"Oh I'm glad I never had to eat pizza at your house," Matt said.
"Oh yeah," Yolei said "Joe, your parents reckon you've got a girlfriend who's a vegetarian because I wouldn't eat these beefsteak things they served."
"NO!" Joe wailed "My Mum's beefsteaks! I LOVE those!"
Everyone started to laugh at the look of utter horror on Joe's face.
"I'm sure you'll manage to convince your parents that it was just a passing phase," Izzy said reassuringly.
"I'm going to have to tell Istu that I was on hallucinogenic drugs," Matt said "I wonder if he'll believe me? I could always say that I bought them off a travelling salesman. He might believe that. After all, that's where Akemi got that green stuff that made us all see those little flying saucers which 'Property of Zaphod Beeblebrox' on the sides..."
He noticed the looks he was getting.
"What? WHAT?"
"Forget it," Izzy said.
Ken looked at Davis. He was sitting on the swivel throne.
"Ken?" he said.
"Yes?"
"Can I take this home with me?"
Everyone looked at him.
"What?" Davis asked "I like this throne!"
Ken grinned.
"Sure," he said.
Davis grinned at him. Ken smiled nervously back. He noticed that everyone else was giving him slight sideways looks and gulped. He wasn't sure how he was going to fit in with the others or how he was going to explain anything.
"Pizza!" Wormmon called, scurrying in "I bought what I could find."
"Excellent!" Tai yelled grabbing one box. He read the label and frowned "Cheese and pickles? That's weird!"
Ken shrugged.
"I like cheese and pickles," he said.
"You have no taste," Davis told him "You don't take enough sugar in your tea."
Ken looked at him.
"You take too much," he said "It's not tea, it's slightly tea-flavoured sugar filled water!"
Davis stuck his tongue out at him and they all tucked into different pizzas.
* * * *
"Davis, I can't do this," Ken said.
Davis looked at him. They were standing just round the corner from Ken's apartment block.
"You have to," he said firmly "You don't have a choice."
"Davis, please!"
Davis gave him a killer glare.
"Ken Ichijouji, you are going up those stairs and you're going to ring your doorbell and go in and talk to your parents and you're going to neglect bits of the truth but you're going to tell them about cutting yourself and then you're going to get help," he said.
"But I can't face them! They'll..."
"They'll be glad to see you," Davis said "Come on Ken."
He gently took Ken's hand in his and squeezed it.
"Everyone's done so many things this week," he said "You can do this."
Ken swallowed. He thought about Tai, crying as he told Mimi the details about his rape so she could testify in court. He thought about Kari, upset because she'd missed the beginning of her first period. About Izzy bemoaning the state of his hard drive and Joe worrying about all the school work he'd missed.
Then he thought about Davis, trapped in his base with no one to talk to except Wormmon, cold and lonely and struggling not to be sucked into the darkness that surrounded the place. How miserable Davis had been. And how happy he, Ken had been in Daivs's body, surrounded by friends.
"I'm going to miss Hidéyo," he said out loud.
Davis groaned.
"I still have to break up with her," he said.
"Give her a chance," Ken said "She's nice."
"I'll try. If you go up to the door now."
Ken shuddered. He clutched Davis's warm hand tighter for support and they made their way up to Ken's apartment.
"Well?"
Ken knocked.
He heard footsteps and then the door opened.
"Hel - "
Her voice broke off. His mother was staring at him.
"Ken?" he whispered, looking like she was going to faint.
"Mum," Ken managed before she'd thrown her arms round him, clutching him tightly.
"Ken! Ken baby, we were so worried! I thought you were dead or gone forever!"
Ken remained still for a moment then started to cry and clung to her.
"Mum! Mum, I'm so sorry!"
Davis stood watching for a moment. Then he grinned, turned, and walked away, leaving them alone together. He was sure Ken would be all right now. He had his life. Davis had his. Well, his slightly altered life anyway.
Maybe he'd phone Hidéyo and see if she wanted a date that Saturday. After all, Ken liked her. And he could always dump her afterwards if she was really awful...
Davis glanced at his watch and groaned. He was late. He launched into a run, crashing into the house ten minutes later.
"Davis! Where have you been? We were so worried! You could have been anywhere! You could have fallen under a truck for all we knew!"
Smiling, Davis threw his arms round his mother and hugged her tightly.
"I love you Mum," he said "It's nice to see you."
"Davis, what on Earth is wrong with you?" his mother demanded.
"Have you switched bodies with a alien?" Jun asked from the table "You aren't really Davis at all, are you? You're a freaky person in his body! Admit it!"
Davis began to laugh.

The End.