Digimon belongs to Toei! It's not mine!

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Shi-chan: Yeah...I'm definitely floating in what I'd call "Fanfic Limbo,"...
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Sadness-Colored Sandglass
Part 4
~By Shimegami-chan
Music: "Friend," (AiM) from Digimon

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is only my second Digimon fic, but I think I've got the hang of things now. Enjoy! The title is from an instrumental GW peice. Very pretty, and really works for this story, especially in later chapters. ^_^

Warnings: Shounen-ai; it's Kensuke. At the moment. And yeah, there is definitely some actual Kensuke in this chapter. (Sorry, Jei, Zippo! It was going to happen eventually!)






"Ken..."

"Mmph..."

"Ken!"

"No...leave me alone...let me be..."

"Oniichan."

Ken sat straight up. "*Osamu!*"

He was seated in a field of flowers, violets the same shade as his dark hair, and his vision was tinted by a pair of dark glasses. The sun was bright and strong, but clouds drifted over it every few minutes turned blinding day to black night.

Ken eased himself to his knees in the field and looked for the source of the voice that had called to him. "'Niisan? Osamu? Are you here?"

"I'm here, Ken." The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Ken had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, as though something were terribly, terribly wrong. With the glasses on, even the dim light of the cloudy sun was almost blotted out.

Glasses?

Feeling even sicker, Ken reached a gloved hand up to touch his face, removing a pair of thick glasses from his face. They weren't the same pair that had appeared in his room; these were even more familiar, more frightening. They were yellow with tinted purple lenses, and gold designs between the two eyes.

Ken dropped the glasses in horror, tore the gloves from his hands. He was clothed in dark spandex, purple, blue, and yellow, with heavy metal cuffs and a cape that resembled insect wings. The clothing of the long-dormant Digimon Kaizer.

"No," Ken muttered to himself. "This isn't me. This isn't me." He tore the cape from his shoulders. "What's happening? This isn't me anymore!"

"Hold true to yourself, Ken-chan." Osamu's voice again. Ken diverted his attention to a figure before him, wearing khakis and a bomber jacket, goggles perched on top of a mop of mahogany hair.

"Daisuke?" Ken blinked, trying to sift through the new happenings all at once.

"Oniichan..." Daisuke stepped forward and picked up the glasses that Ken had dropped in the violets. "You and I share the eyes of truth. As does the one who sees my form in the mirror. Trust in him, 'niichan. He beleives in you."

"Wait!" The voice that came from Daisuke's mouth sounded so similar to Ken's own, a soft and gentle alto. Osamu's voice. "Who are you? *What* are you? What am I?"

Daisuke/Osamu knelt in the violets in front of Ken and held a hand to his cheek. "The answer will come to you, 'niichan."

"But..."

The mahogany-haired boy lifted his palm to Ken's silky hair and smoothed it, twining a limp strand around his fingers. He held the glasses out to Ken. Ken hesitantly took them and lifted them up to his eye level, watching his reflection in the tinted lenses. His chin-length dark hair fell in his glittering eyes and impaired his vision, but he did not brush the strands away. Looking down, Ken noticed that he was again clothed in his grey uniform, complete with black Digivice at his hip. Daisuke/Osamu looked at the D-3, then back up to Ken, gently removing the glasses from his brother's shaking fingers.

The brown-eyed boy slid the glasses onto his face and put both his hands on Ken's shoulders. "'Niichan, he beleives in you." Suddenly Daisuke's chocolate-brown eyes were a sharped indigo, the red hair a deep purple, the face more slender and so like Ken's own.

"Osamu?" Ken whispered, not beleiving what he saw. On Osamu the glasses were clear and sharp, with brown rims and shining eyes glistening behind them.

"Your sadness is the color of the sandglass, Ken." Osamu said. "Beleive in him."

Then, as quickly as he had transformed into Ken's long-lost brother, the figure was gone and Ken was alone in the field of violets. "OSAMU!"

Violets.

Violets.

Tears sprung to Ken's eyes, overhwhelmed with emotion and confusion. "Osamu!"

The sky turned black.



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"Ken-chan!"

"KEN!"

Ken sat bolt upright for the second time, nearly falling out of the narrow bed. "Nani!?"

Wormmon was already burying his face in the cloth of Ken's shirt. "You're awake! I'm so glad!"

Chibimon was another few inches away, looking worried. "Are you okay, Ken?" The blue Digimon had Ken's open D-Terminal in his lap.

The door flew open and someone stumbled in in the dark, almost crashing headfirst into the bed. "Chibimon! You there?"

"I'm here, Daisuke!" Chibimon yelled, hopping to the edge of the bunk. "Ken woke up too!"

"Ken! You okay?" Daisuke gasped, fumbling to keep from bumping into the wall. "The Digimon e-mailed me and said you weren't waking up and you were having a nightmare!"

"A...nightmare?" Ken said slowly. So it had all been a dream. Belatedly he realized that he was still in his school uniform, but the bedclothes were kicked off and he was breathing hard. His watch indicated that it was three o'clock in the morning. "Dai! What are you *doing* here!?"

Daisuke had clamoured up onto the bed beside Ken and the two Digimon. "Chibimon and Wormmon told me to come as quickly as I could. What happened, Ken? Tell me!"

"He was mumbling in his sleep, and wouldn't wake up," Chibimon said helpfully. "He was going, 'samu, samu,' and saying something about violets in the desert. Then he started talking to you, Daisuke."

"I was having a dream," Ken muttered. "I...don't think I can talk about it."

Daisuke nodded in the darkness. "We'll give it some time. Why don't you tell me what happened to you earlier? I highly doubt you got an electrical shock like you said."

"No." Ken shook his head. "I saw...I found...a D-3 on my bedroom floor. It wasn't mine. It was just like it thouhg, black and grey. Wormmon saw it too. Then I picked it up, and it...exploded. Right in my hand."

Daisuke didn't say anything for a few moments. "The burnt carpet."

"Yeah." Ken didn't think it's be wise to mention the glasses he had found. Instead he leaned forward into Daisuke's arms and rested his head on the other boy's chest, heaving a sigh. "I'll be fine, Dai. Don't worry."

Daisuke smiled in the blackness and patted Ken's back. "I'm not going anywhere 'til I'm sure you're okay, though."

"Sure. I'm glad you're here." Ken's eyes were already becoming heavy-lidded again. "Think I'll just...rest, a bit..."

"Hai." Daisuke leaned his shoulder against the wall, cradling Ken against him. "I'll be right here when you wake up, okay?" When he didn't get an answer from his quiet friend, Daisuke ran his fingers through Ken's silken hair and stared at the line of moonlight striking the far wall.

It was going to be a long night.







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Shi-chan: More soon! ^_^