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PART II: TOUCH YOUR LIPS TO MINE

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An hour or so later they were all sitting in Koushiro's room, discussing Daisuke's strange predicament. Koushiro had figured it out almost instantly -- that Daisuke had been transported from a parallel reality. He was absolutely fascinated, asking Daisuke endless questions about his world. Koushiro had been hypothesizing about this very thing for quite some time, and was insanely delighted to have living proof that he had been correct.

Daisuke was so busy answering Koushiro's questions that he didn't noticed how Ken was sitting alone in the corner, hugging his knees close to his body and avoiding eye contact with everyone. He had dreamt so long of having Daisuke come back to him -- he would hold him, love him, never let him go, tell him how much he meant to him...tell him goodbye. Ken's lips and memory burned, longing for Daisuke. He felt he was in some kind of hell...or someone's idea of a sick joke. I'm not laughing, Ken thought, pulling his knees closer. He couldn't get the image of Daisuke jerking away from their kiss out of his mind. His eyes had been scared, betrayed, and...disgusted. That hurt worse than Daisuke's death -- that Daisuke saw him as some kind of a freak. I don't understand... Ken thought dejectedly, his mind full of images of Daisuke. He stared at the floor, trying to tune out the sound of Daisuke's melodic voice, trying not to think of how that same voice could call his name so sensually.

"Right, Ken?" Ken snapped out of his reverie, realizing that Daisuke had been talking to him. Daisuke's eyes were a beautiful, warm brown, staring at Ken with a high degree of affection. The redhead broke into a lopsided grin when he discovered that Ken had not heard a word he had said, leaning his head on his arms, which were folded on the back of the desk chair he was sitting in.

It was too much. Ken leaped to his feet, running out of the room and slamming the door. He bypassed Koushiro's mother entirely, not even answering when she asked him what was wrong. He jammed his feet into his shoes, sprinting out the door and down the stairs. It wasn't until he was far, far away, ensconced in the protection of a small, well-kept forest, that he let the tears come.

And come, and come, and come. He curled up in a ball underneath a large tree, covering his tearstained face with his hands. It was as if someone had turned on a tap, and once it had come on Ken could no longer hold back the lagrimal torrent pouring from his boyish eyes. Months and months of agonizing grief manifested itself in that slender boy whose body was shaking with quiet, irrepressible sobs.

When Ken flew out of the room, Daisuke just stared after him in shock. He had seen a pain in Ken's eyes -- the same pain that had permeated Ken's entire being after he fell as Kaizer, and after Wormmon died in his arms. Completely ignoring the protests of the others, he ran after Ken, following at a distance, keeping the fleeting figure of the indigo-haired boy in sight. He slowed down, quieting his breathing, as he saw Ken collapse into tears at the base of a Japanese maple.

At some intuitive level, Daisuke knew this had to do with him. He...kissed me. And I...pushed him away. I pushed him away! What a jerk I turned out to be... Daisuke thought, smacking his head with his hand. In a moment of insight, Daisuke realized that this was a different world -- no matter if he and Ken didn't have that kind of relationship in his world, that didn't mean he could go and break peoples' hearts like that. Baka. Baka. Baka. Daisuke accentuated each "baka" with a sharp slap to his forehead.

"Daisuke...I love you, Daisuke..." Ken quietly sobbed, his face buried in his arms.

Daisuke stiffened, his heart skipping a beat. Ken loved him? Love loved him? No one had ever loved him before...Daisuke tilted his head to one side, eyes brimming with worry and affection. He walked silently over to Ken, kneeling beside the Child of Kindness and laying a tender hand on his hair, smoothing it.

Ken sat up with a start, staring at Daisuke with wide, blue-violet eyes. Tears clustered on his lashes, making them sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. There were shining tear tracks along his cheekbones, and as he blinked, two more tears traveled down the path already set out for them. Ken sniffed, his face contorting as he tried to suppress his sobs. Daisuke continued smoothing the other boy's hair, tucking a strand of it behind one pale ear. Ken's eyebrows furrowed and he jerked away, covering his face with his hands and continuing to sob.

I shouldn't be able to hurt someone so much, Daisuke thought fleetingly. He crawled after Ken, who had collapsed back into a tight ball of grief. Before he could continue his comforting caress, Ken managed to speak.

"G-g-g-go away," Ken said through the veil of his tears. "Go away. Go away. Just leave me alone!" Ken wailed.

"No. I promised that if you ever had a problem that I'd help you with it, remember?"

"Just leave me alone," Ken sobbed from behind his folded arms. Daisuke lay one hand on one of the other boy's shaking shoulders, rubbing slightly with his thumb.

Ken leaped away like he had been stung. "Damn it, I said go away!" he yelled, quivering with rage. "Everything was better when you were dead," he added with quiet fury. "At least you didn't reject me then."

Daisuke jerked his hand away, shocked and hurt. "Ken-chan..."

"Don't...don't say that. Just go." Ken's voice had lowered dangerously. Daisuke got up to leave as Ken burst again into tears. The Keeper of Courage and Friendship looked over his shoulder, unable to bear leaving the other boy like this. Ken was so full of anger and pain and grief, and it was all his fault. He promised Ken that he wouldn't let anything happen to him, and then this?

"I'm such an dumb bastard," he said quietly as he turned to go.

He stole a glance over his shoulder after he walked about ten feet. Ken was still hunched over, but had raised his head, blue eyes glittering with tears. Their eyes locked, and Daisuke leaned on a nearby tree for support.

"Daisuke...I'm sorry...come back..." Ken almost whispered, looking like a small child with his large eyes widening and his lips quivering. "I'm sorry..." Two more tears overflowed down his cheeks.

Daisuke ran back, throwing his arms around Ken. "No, no, no, no, don't be sorry...it's not your fault, it's mine...shh, shh..." The indigo-haired boy buried his face in Daisuke's shirt, sobbing quietly in the arms of his beloved.

Ken finally seemed to be cried out after a while, and simply sat as he was, his face still in the wet spot his tears had made on Daisuke's shirt. After a few minutes of silence, Daisuke spoke up.

"I think we should go back...the others are probably really worried about us by now. And I don't want them to think that I died again..." Ken smiled into Daisuke's collarbone, then sat upright. Daisuke gave another lopsided grin, and Ken felt as if his insides had turned to rubber and had been left on a hot stove. He wiped his face with his sleeve, drying all evidence of his grief, physical and mental. A wave of confidence took him, and he stood up, offering a hand to Daisuke.

When they were both standing, Ken looked deeply into Daisuke's eyes once more. Open and honest, loving and innocent -- everything that Ken loved so deeply about the other boy were mirrored in those eyes. "Please, Daisuke...please, let me kiss you. Please."

Daisuke froze again, fear clouding his features. He looked down, fidgeting.

"Please, Daisuke. I need this." Ken stood a foot or so away, eyes huge, lips trembling. Daisuke, again, met those violet eyes with his own, little twitches of nervousness in the pit of his stomach.

He nodded, suddenly unable to speak. Ken stepped closer, softly framing the smaller boy's face with his hands. Daisuke let his eyes flutter shut. Ken's words echoed around in his fevered mind. Please, Daisuke. Please. I need this. I need this. No matter what Ken needed, Daisuke would be there. He had promised that.

Ken's lips were inches from his own, their breath mingling and teasing. Daisuke's mind had frozen in place -- he stood completely still, trembling with fear and...anticipation? Ken's hands were soft, slender, and lovely, sending an almost electrical current between them. But Daisuke still wasn't prepared when Ken finally leaned down, trapping his lips in a tender, searching kiss. He wasn't prepared when Ken slid a hand around to the back of his neck, pulling him closer, and he definitely wasn't prepared for the rush of feeling originating in his stomach, telling him that he needed this as much as Ken did.

Maybe more.

When Ken finally pulled away, Daisuke collapsed against him, burying his face in the taller boy's shirt. He only wondered for a moment when he had thrown his arms around Ken, and when he had begun kissing back, against all reason. It was almost a powerful drug the way Ken's arms were encircling his waist, holding him up, holding him close. Ken kissed the top of his head, inhaling the summery scent of the other boy's hair.

"I love you, Daisuke-chan..." Ken breathed, lightly caressing the curve of Daisuke's spine. Daisuke felt as if cracks were forming in his emotional dam, water spraying out at an alarming rate.

He began to cry.

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END PART II: TO BE CONTINUED...

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