For They Shall Be Filled
By:
Vain (Vainglorious696)
__________________________________________________________
Remy: Viola, mes amis: here's de deal! Let me put dis in terms dat y'all can
compris, bien. *ahem* About a month ago one of you e-mailed Vain
with information about the four Guardians of the Digital World (names, regions,
colors, ect.). Vain, in her infinite
wisdom, accidentally deleted it, so, if ANYONE AT ALL has information on the
Guardians, please e-mail Vain ASAP or put it in a review. Merci beaucoup an' only you can prevent
forest fires.
Ken: You're weird, Remy.
Remy: Ah, oui! So you decide ta turn up encore, non? Vain's been goin' nuts lookin' for ya! An' 'xactly why do ya small like sewage?
Ken: . .
. Please read and review. *to Remy* You
weren't really that fond of the Kaiser, were you?
Remy: *lifts eyebrow* Why? What'd ya do, cher?
Ken: . . .
Remy: Cher?
Ken: *begins to rock back and forth and wistle
innocently*
Remy: Dis
ain't funny, Ken! Where is he?!
Ken: He's alive.
Sinister: Enjoy the fic and review.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~"Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and
ministered to Him."
-Matthew 4: 11
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
TK Takaishi stood
in front of the door of the Ichijouji residence, hand poised to knock. What are you doing here, TK? What on earth possessed you to volunteer to
pay a house call to your worst—okay, former—worst enemy? And what exactly were you telling the new
kids this morning? His hand knocked
on the door. What are you gonna say
to him? This is not the brightest thing
you've ever done.
The door swung
inward to reveal a small mousy-looking woman with curly brown hair and plain,
comely features. Her brown eyes blinked
at the blond in confusion.
The Child of Hope
pasted a bright smile across his face and removed his hat. "Is Ken Ichijouji here?"
Rika Ichijouji
mimicked his facial expression. "Sorry,
but we don't allow solicitors here."
The door began to
swing closed. "Hey, wait!" cried TK,
blocking the door with his hand. "My
name is Takeru Takaishi. We talked on the
phone, remember: the camping trip?"
The door flew back
open as though it was on a spring. "Oh,
I'm so sorry, dear. Please come in."
TK entered
self-consciously, stopping briefly in the hallway to remove his shoes and put
on the guest slippers. Ken's mother was
chattering away, oblivious to the boy's discomfort. "Ken is in his room packing his things. I'm sorry for closing the door on you, but ever since he came
back, the press hasn't given him a moment's peace. He's really looking forward to this trip, though. We all decided that he really needed to get
away from everything." She sighed sadly. "Especially today."
The blond
Digidestined looked around the apartment as the petite woman spoke. The flat was neat and expensive-looking,
with just a hint of sterility. There
were no scattered papers on the table or dishes in the sink. There wasn't even any dust. A few pictures were scattered about the
apartment. They mostly consisted of
color-coordinated watercolors, but some appeared to be family photos: pictures
of a small boy with wild indigo hair and glasses. TK paused in the living room to inspect one. It featured the wild-haired boy wearing
gold-rimmed glasses and a small triumphant smirk.
"That's a really
good picture of Ken," he offered when Mrs. Ichijouji paused for breath.
She half-turned
and regarded the photo with a sad smile. "Oh, no. That's not Ken; that's
his older brother Osamu."
A speculative
blond eyebrow lifted slightly. "I
didn't know Ken had a brother."
"He died a few years
ago. Ken was absolutely
devastated. He doesn't talk about Sam
much anymore . . ."
Nice, TK, he thought in disgust. Think there's room in your mouth for your
other foot, too? Aloud he only
said: "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
The woman shrugged
noncommittally and then brightened. "This," she said, indicating the last door at the end of the hall, "is
Ken's room. I'll just leave you boys
alone now."
"Thank you, Mrs.
Ichijouji."
He turned to knock
on door, only to have it swing open in his face. Ken leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe, his indigo hair
tumbling strategically in front of his face, obscuring part of it from view. A
pair of slightly faded blue jeans and a long-sleeved indigo shirt, so dark it
was nearly black, covered his slim frame and his face was set in a cool look of
slightly contemptuous indifference. "Hello, Takeru."
The other boy
paled and then blushed. "Hi, Ken." He tried not to stare at the other boy's
foreign clothing and Ken shrugged.
"Mother didn't want
my uniform stained. Come in," Ken
gestured and stood aside. "Minomon has
been anxious to leave."
"Hi, TK!" squeaked
a voice from somewhere above him.
TK entered and
closed the door behind him. The bedroom
was very dim and just as neat and sterilized as the rest of the apartment. An elevated bed dominated the wall directly
across from the door, set five feet in the air over a balcony door and a neat
bookcase. Purple curtains blocked most
of the light coming through the balcony doors and cast violet shadows over
everything. A pair of closed doors,
several bookshelves, all packed tight, and a dresser claimed the right
wall. On the left wall, high cupboards
and a shelf projected out over the modern-looking desk. A pencil cup, globe, PC, closed laptop, and
several books occupied the desk's polished surface. In the center of the room was a round table where Ken busied
himself with his bag, as Takeru browsed through some of the books standing
upright and neatly stacked on the desk. Titles like Viva La France, Physics for the Modern World, Honors
C++, and Advanced Programming and Mathematics adorned the hard
covers of the books lying down: they were all text books. The upright books appeared to be reference
books from his personal collections.
Next to the
computer, another picture of Osamu Ichijouji grinned up at him through a plain
and functional frame. TK's eyes roamed
and he saw another picture of Osamu on the bookcase beneath the bed. This time the older Ichijouji shared the
picture with a small child, probably a good five or six years his junior. The
younger child was leaning into the elder as though he were trying to sink into
him or hide from the camera. He was blushing a dusty pink. Osamu had possessive arms around his little
brother and he grinned at the camera photogenicly. There was something odd behind the smile, though, or perhaps it
was in the way he pulled Ken to him, but there lurked something closed and
dangerous in his blue-violet eyes.
Takeru frowned,
uncomfortable with that picture. Then
he frowned again and did a double take of the room as he noticed something else
odd. There were absolutely no toys or
posters anywhere in the room. It was
almost clinical in its maturity.
"Takeru?" The boy jumped as a delicate hand waved in
front of his eye. He turned to see Ken
watching him with an upraised eyebrow. The other boy's head was still tilted to the side, hiding the right half
of his face beneath his hair. "I asked
you if something was wrong."
He looked at the
pale boy oddly for a moment. "No,
nothing is wrong. . . .Nice room."
Ken retrieved his
laptop and a small bundle of cords and went back to his bag. "It suits my needs."
This comment
earned Ken another look, but the boy didn't appear to notice. He was placing something in the book bag
from the round table that occupied the center of the room. Takeru frowned darkly as he recognized the
long leather coils of Ken's whip. "What
do you need that for?" he demanded more sharply than intended.
Ken looked up in
surprise. That question had never
occurred to him. The sudden motion,
however, caused his hair to slide back from his face and revealed the angry
bruise running across his cheek.
TK stared in shock
at the purple mark that marred the other's face. "What happened?!"
The obvious
concern in his voice came as another surprise and for a moment Ken didn't
respond. Then he shrugged dismissively
and waved away the question with an elegant hand. "It's nothing."
"Nothing? You look like you let the soccer team practice
with your face and you call it nothing?"
"I'm fine. Why are you worried anyway?"
"Who said I was
worried?"
" . . .
Whatever." Ken finished packing his
bag. Ignoring the blonde's glare walked
over to the bed where he lifted up a small green and brown bundle. "We're ready to go if you are."
The bundle's eyes
crinkled in a sort of smile and a flipper-like appendage waved. "Hi, TK," Minomon chimed again.
"Hey, Minomon."
The in-training
digimon tilted his head in childish curiosity. "Where's your digimon?"
In spite of
himself, the Child of Hope grinned at the digimon's innocence. There was something about Wormmon and
Minomon that reminded him of Davis. Davis without the overpowering cockiness. And annoyingness. And
Davisness. "He's waiting in the car."
Ken raised an
eyebrow and TK shrugged. "Mom knows
about the whole Digital World thing."
"Really? That certainly had to be an interesting
experience."
"Well, I didn't
really have much choice. Once your mom
sees you walking around Japan with giant monsters and getting sucked up into
the sky by beams of light, there are bound to be questions."
A ghost of a smile
danced near Ken's lips and faded. "I
would imagine so." He gently secured Minomon
in the book bag and lifted it up to his shoulder. "We should go."
TK nodded and
followed him out the door. "You never
answered my question," he reminded the boy genius as he they made there way up
the hall.
"Goodbye, Mother,"
Ken said as he passed the kitchen.
"Oh, Ken!" the
plain woman called.
The boy bit back a
sigh. "Yes, Mother?"
Mrs. Ichijouji
emerged from the kitchen wearing a bright smile and carrying two paper
bags. She handed a bag to each of them and
gave them both a chance to bask in the glow of her motherly affection. "Have fun, boys."
He looked at her
and gave her a rare genuine smile. "Thank you, Mother."
She beamed and
returned to the kitchen.
"What question?"
Ken asked as he put his boots on.
Takeru grunted and
leaned against the wall, briefly struggling with his recalcitrant
sneakers. "The whip. Why are you bringing the whip?"
"Why are you
wearing that ridiculous hat?"
"…"
"Any more
questions, Digidestined?"
"Shut up."
The two pulled on
their shoes in silence after that. As
Ken closed the door to his apartment and locked he sighed. He hadn't meant to upset TK . . . no,
actually he had. He had had every
intention of irritating Takeru. And he
had been quite amused by the boy's brief flash of temper. . . . But now he did regret it. And the other boy had been concerned
about his injury. The genius
scowled. He had never had to worry
about all these damned feelings before. Hmph.
He turned
around. Takeru was leaning against the
wall in the hallway with his arms crossed and his head down. He was glaring like thunder. Nice, genius. Now how are you going to make this better? He paused hesitantly and looked at the other
boy. "Hey, Takeru?"
"What?"
". . . It's a nice
hat."
The blond watched
the other carefully, suspiciously. Then
he relaxed and smiled. "Thanks Ken."
Things were much
more pleasant after that.
**************
Thump! The
soccer ball hit the tree and resounded hollowly. Thump! Thump! Davis caged it neatly and dribbled it for a
moment before hitting the tree again. Thump! Thump!
Demiveemon watched
his partner with a small smile. "Why'd
we come so early?" he demanded in his child-like voice.
"I told you,
Demiveemon, we had sneak out before Jun finds out that Matt'll be here." Thump! "It's not like it's my fault she's obsessed with him." Thump! Thump! Thump! "Besides, Grandpa needs to get home before
dark to take his medication." Thump!
"Oh." A small blue head rose from the picnic table
curiously. Thump! "Will Minomon be here soon?" Thump!
"Yeah, Ken'll
bring him. You really like Mino, don't
you?"
Thump! "He's nice! He knows lots of
stuff, too."
Davis grunted as
he kicked the ball again. Thump! "Hmph. Livin' with a big brain like Ken rubs off, I guess."
Thump! The
soccer ball hit a knot on the tree and rolled away in a mocking flash of black
and white. "Aw, Damnit!" Davis glared at the offensive plastic as it
rolled past him and let out a long string of colorful language.
"Nice, Motomiya."
"Huh?" The goggle boy turned in surprise just in
time to see Ken Ichijouji catch the ball in a flawless cage and lightly kick it
back to him. Naturally, the kick was
perfect.
The genius
smirked. "You even lose when you play
by yourself. That has to take skill."
Davis shrugged
good-naturedly. Ever since Wormmon's
death he had noticed that Ken's little smirk were no longer the trademark evil
expressions of the Emperor. They were
undoubtedly mocking—even downright malicious at times—but they weren't
evil. "Everybody needs a talent."
"Right."
"Where's TB? Didn't you two come together?"
"Yes," Ken
responded in his polished voice as he gently set his book bag on the picnic
table next to Chibimon. He nodded in
greeting to the little blue dragon-thing. "His mother wanted to talk to him, so I came up ahead." He turned back to Chibimon. "Minomon's missed you."
The book bag
zipper slid downward and a small brown and green rocket launched itself at
Chibimon with a shrill squeal of delight. Ken's lips twitched towards a smile that didn't appear.
Davis frowned as a
dark mark on the side of Ken's face caught his attention. "What happened?"
"Hmm?"
"Your face,
dude. What happened?"
"Judo practice."
"Oh." Davis kicked the ball towards Ken. "Still feel like putting your game where
your mouth is, Ichijouji?"
A delicate eyebrow
rose. "Is that a challenge,
goggle-head?"
"That's goggle-man,
'Rocket.' And what do you think? Aren't
you supposed to be a genius or something like that?"
Ken's eyes flashed
in the sun. His smirk broadened. "Something like that."
"Hmph. Says you."
Ken launched the
ball back at Davis with far more force than necessary. "Shut up and play, Motomiya."
And the game was
on.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
About a month or so ago one of you—my wonderful
and adored readers—e-mailed me
with information about the four Guardians of
the Digital World (names, regions, colors, ect.).
I, in
my infinite wisdom, accidentally deleted it, so, if ANYONE AT ALL
has information regarding the Guardians,
please e-mail me ASAP or put it in a review. Thanks!
~Vain
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
