Disclaimer: Digimon, its plots, characters and concepts are not mine. They're belonged to such people as Toei Animation, Bandai and Saban. All are being borrowed and will hopefully be brought back as they were. No profit is being made, so please don't sue. Any quotes from the Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux aren't mine either. The Ghost Roads idea was borrowed from the Buffy Trilogy, The Gatekeeper I think. It's not mine either. Any original characters and this fic are mine.
Daisuke had always known his friendship with Takeru hadn't been your average friendship. For one thing, they were both kids who saved the world every now and then. For another, they had both been competing for the same girl -- Hikari -- a while back, but seeing as she had finally admitted she'd had a crush on Mimi for years, the competing had automatically stopped. No point competing for someone who didn't like either of them. But possibly the most important thing was... they were just so different from each other sometimes.
Takeru was calm compared to Daisuke's usual hyperness, but if you got the Keeper of Hope mad, he could be just as angry as Daisuke. Takeru was the person who watched out for Daisuke and kept him from doing something stupid or saying something wrong. They looked out for each other, as that was what best friends did.
So it seemed natural that one of them would have fallen for the other at some point or other. It was just Takeru who happened to fall first.
Once he'd finally realised he'd had a crush on Daisuke (Yamato would have been so proud), Takeru had quickly discovered the terrible trials of having one large crush. Daisuke had been in his thoughts for most of the day. Classes had been near unbearable, the only ones giving him salvation being ones where Daisuke wasn't there. And there weren't many of them.
And finally, he just couldn't stick it anymore. Despite being a Digidestined, he was still human, and humans weren't trained to keep secrets, not really. And you didn't keep a much bigger secret that this. So he'd finally buckled under.
One of the few coherent thoughts left in Takeru's mind was that kissing Daisuke was very pleasant. His lips were soft, and he smelled like apricots. Takeru found himself falling helplessly to his kness, dragging Daisuke with him. The redhead put up no resistance, not even when they heard an outraged squeak that meant Chibimon had tumbled from Daisuke's lap and landed somewhere. The two paid him no heed, still trying to figure out whether they should stop for air or not...air was rather vital after all.
Finally Daisuke pulled away, his face flushed and his eyes wide. He stared at Takeru, hardly able to believe this was happening. Takeru stared back at him, suddenly afraid and regretful of what he'd just done. Now that he actually stopped and thought about it, this hadn't been the smartest thing he'd ever done. What if this ruined his friendship with Daisuke? Hikari had been wrong: he suddenly wasn't so sure that he'd value Daisuke's love more than his friendship.
It didn't help his already guilty conscience when Daisuke averted his gaze and said in a quiet voice, "This was a mistake."
No! his mind screamed, not able to believe this was happening. No, no, no! Daisuke had to like him, he just had to! That was the way things worked -- you admitted you had the crush and the other person admitted they'd also secretly loved you... that was the way things worked. But apparently they didn't work that way for him. This couldn't be happening. It had worked for Yamato and Taichi! Why wouldn't it work for him?
He stared incredulously at Daisuke, who had an expression of extreme sadness on his face, and realised he had just been rejected. Rejected rather bluntly. Pain flooded his face, followed by anguish, and then finally anger. No, not anger -- rage.
"Who is it?" he asked, his voice dangerously soft. Always a warning sign with him. Daisuke frowned at him, clearly not understanding what he was on about. Takeru repeated it for him, feeling alarming anger building up inside him. Red tinted his vision as he glared at Daisuke. "Is it Ken? Is it?"
"What are you talking about?" Daisuke asked, but Takeru could see it in his eyes. Daisuke knew what he was talking about. He knew very well what Takeru was going on about about. The redhead looked away, trying to keep his face an expressionless mask, and not succeeding very well. "I don't understand." He rose to his feet and tried to put as much space between him and Takeru, but Takeru bounded to his feet and grabbed Daisuke around his wrists and glared at him furiously.
"I think you do Daisuke," he said tightly, betrayal evident in his face and voice. "Answer me: do you like Ken?!"
Daisuke stared at him and Takeru was briefly sorry when he saw the fear in the cinnamon orbs. Then he remembered what Daisuke had just done and the regret disappeared. Takeru clenched his teeth and started to shake Daisuke. Daisuke yelped, his teeth clicking together as he was dragged back and forth. "Takeru stop it!"
"Answer me!" Takeru snapped back, not lessoning his shaking. Why wouldn't he answer him? He'd just rejected him, wasn't he good enough to be answered now?!
"Takeru stop! You'll get Jun in here!" was Daisuke's cry. Suddenly Takeru felt something bite him hard in the ankle and gave a startled cry, dropping Daisuke, who tumbled back onto the bed in a surprised heap. Takeru looked down to see Chibimon clinging tightly to his sock, staring up at him with large eyes that were a mixture of fear and anger.
"Don't kick him off!" Daisuke shrieked, seriously alarmed that Takeru would actually do just that. Considering what he had just been doing to him, Daisuke had the right to be afraid for his digimon.
Thankfully Takeru seemed to recover his senses once more, as he leaned down and gently untangled Chibimon from his sock, holding him out to Daisuke. Daisuke took him quickly and cradled him to his chest, both of them staring at Takeru with wide eyes. Takeru shuffled uncomfortably and turned away, unable to look at them. "I better go," he murmured, fighting to keep his emotions in check.
He had just reached the door when Daisuke's soft voice made him turn around once more. Daisuke eyes were large and still afraid, as he whispered, "I'm sorry Takeru. For everything."
Takeru gave him a bitter smile. "It's not you who should be sorry Daisuke. It's me." Then he turned and pulled open the door, shutting it softly behind him. Daisuke stared at the space where Takeru had stood with a miserable expression. What had he just done?
To say Takeru was upset as he walked dazed around the streets was about as effective as describing a hurricane as a breeze. The blonde's azure eyes were pained and haunted, as he stared listlessly down at the pavement making his way through the Odaiba district. He either made sure to avoid walking into people or they made sure to avoid him. He didn't feel like being the gracious, polite person he usually was. He'd just had his heart broken after all...
After a while (and after walking through five blocks) the pain began to be replaced by anger. How dare Daisuke reject him like that! He had deserved to be shaken like that after what he had done! Takeru glared angrily at the ground, his sense beginning to dim in comparison to his lust for revenge. Yes, he wanted revenge against Daisuke for what he had done to him. He wanted revenge very badly.
And there was someone he could hurt to satisfy his revenge. Someone Daisuke obviously cared about because he had just rejected him. Ken.
It had occurred to Takeru for a brief moment that he didn't usually act like this. He was the Keeper of Hope after all; he didn't go around seeking revenge for things that had probably been his fault in the first place. Daisuke had just been honest with him. He was sure he would have been hurt even more if Daisuke had led him on along with Ken.
But then he remembered the pain and humiliation he had felt at the redhead's hands, and he felt anger boil inside him once more. It wasn't fair for all this to have happened to him. He hadn't deserved any of it! Yes, he would get revenge all right -- and he would make sure it would be so sweet his teeth would almost rot.
His expression set, Takeru hurried over to his apartment, to use his mother's computer. The best place to get into the Digital World.
The Digital World was dark as Takeru made his way towards Ken's base, but the blonde was sure Ken would still be there. Since the Kaiser was teaching Daisuke (exactly what he was teaching him, he didn't even want to think about), there would be a chance that Ken would have to stay even longer during the night to ensure his areas remained under his control and to try and conquer new areas. Although, since Daisuke hadn't been with them on their last few trips to the Digital World (he knew now that Daisuke had been having lessons with Ken then), they hadn't been able to get much done without Flamedramon's help anyway.
There were no digimon about that could cause serious harm to him, which he found strange, although he made sure Patamon had stayed home. The flying digimon had been outraged that Takeru had wanted to go to the Digital World completely alone, but he had been adament. But then Takeru remembered something Biyomon and Tentomon had told them months ago: the Digimon Kaiser never came out at night. He just hoped that was the same for the digimon he controlled.
Ken's base loomed ahead, but Takeru couldn't see if there was anyone there or not from this distance. He sighed and kept going, trying to ignore the rather angry doubts that were beginning to set in. Was he really this stupid? Apparently so. But he couldn't give up now. He just couldn't and that was that.
It was too easy to get in. Far too easy for Takeru's liking. Ken was slightly obsessed when it came to his precious base being guarded. He never wanted it to be infiltrated -- surprise, surprise -- so he shouldn't have been able to get in so quick. It was as if Ken knew he didn't have a digimon with him, and so wouldn't be able to put on a good fight. It was slightly disturbing.
He slipped inside Ken's control room and stared up at the monitors that had hidden controls near them. He was so busy looking at them and trying to imagine how much Ken was able to see with them, that he never saw or heard the person coming up behind him.
"What are you doing here?" a cold voice said and Takeru whirled around to see Ken standing behind him, arms crossed and not looking very happy. He gulped but met Ken's shaded gaze bravely.
"I asked you a question," Ken said icily, not moving at all. If anything he just looked really, really annoyed. He began to tap a finger against his arm, eyeing Takeru unpleasantly.
Takeru gritted his teeth and felt his hands curl into fists. "I came to see you," he said bluntly. And hopefully punch you for what you've done as well, he added silently, watching Ken's reaction with a sudden queasy feeling. Ken didn't look too happy about this.
Ken not looking too happy about this was a very big understatement. He looked furious! "Excuse me, but what right have you to come in here at all?!" he hissed, taking a threatening step forward. Takeru refused to step back, although his legs were itching to be allowed move.
"I'm your enemy: of course I have the right!" he retorted, wondering secretly if he'd been taken over by aliens or something. Even he knew that he never acted like this!
Ken only raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing a word he was saying. And this made Takeru, already mad, go near breaking point.
"Do you like Daisuke?" he asked, finally getting to the point.
Ken was completely unprepared for this, and his startled expression showed it. "What?!" he demanded, looking at Takeru warily.
"Do you like Daisuke? It's a very simple question you know," Takeru told him smoothly, knowing Ken was going to go ballistic any second. The boy was a very unstable Kaiser as it was. Having questions he didn't like thrown at him wasn't going to help things.
Ken looked like he couldn't believe what he was just hearing. "It's also a very personal question!" he snarled, eyes narrowing behind the tinted shades.
"So you do like him? That's going to make what I'm just about to do much easier." This was said along with Takeru moving rapidly towards the Kaiser and he reached out and punched him squarely in the face at the end of the sentence. Ken was completely at a loss, flying backwards to land fully on his back. He looked stunned for a second before coming to his senses.
"What the hell do you think you just did?!" he howled, reaching for the handle of his whip and lashing Takeru full across the face with it in seconds. Ken didn't like being punched much. Takeru yelped and leaped back, but Ken had already come to his feet at this point and flung himself at Takeru, sending them both tumbling to the ground.
They grappled, both wanting the upper hand and neither willing to let the other have it. "Why the hell are you doing this?!" Ken demanded, as he pinned Takeru down by his arms. He looked positively livid and wasn't hiding it.
"You took Daisuke away from me!" Takeru snapped back, kicking Ken in the stomach and sending him backwards groaning, as he clutched his stomach, and tried not to look in pain at the same time. "Do you expect me to like that?!"
"So it's me who's getting the pummelling?" Ken asked. "I didn't even know you liked him blondie!" he added, glaring up at him.
"You still took him away!" Takeru panted, coming towards him again. Ken narrowed his eyes and made a deft movement with his hand through the air that floored Takeru. Ken quickly flung himself on top of Takeru, using both his arms and body to pin the other boy down.
"Do you realise how irrational that just sounded?" he asked, glaring down at him. Takeru glared back. Then they both realised how close they were to each other at the exact same moment. Ken's eyes widened, as Takeu blushed before he could stop himself.
They both froze when they heard the strangled, anguished voice say, "What are you two doing?!"
Ken twisted his head around to see Daisuke standing there, looking horrified and amazed at the same time. His eyes were red-rimmed and there were dry tear tracks on his face. He had been crying. And he had the betrayed look on his face that Takeru himself had sported only a while ago.
Oh this was going to take some explaining.