A/N: Sorry I'm late! I have been pressured into working almost constantly
on a different story by my stupid friends, and my stupid computer sucks.
Meh. BTW, the "stuff that makes fire turn pretty colors" is, in fact, real.
At least, it is here in Wisconsin. Fairly graphic violence in this chapter
- nothing I would watch in the movies, but the book I got the idea from is
Young Adult, so...
Chapter Six: The Cure/Illness
Daisuke sighed heavily. His arms were starting to go numb. After Ken had kissed him, the sick boy had fallen asleep in Daisuke's arms, and the redhead didn't think it would be a good idea to move him in his condition. Plus, it give him a very good opportunity for snuggling...
Quite suddenly Ken opened his eyes and sprang away from Daisuke. Before the redhead could react, Ken knelt, coughed, and vomited. "I don't feel so good," he said faintly.
Daisuke crawled over to his friend - friend, yeah, not anything more - and gently brushed a strand of damp indigo hair out of Ken's eyes. The sick boy grinned weakly and proceeded to throw up again.
~It's getting worse,~ Daisuke thought anxiously. ~What happened to Miyako and Iori?~
~~
The aforementioned duo were currently arguing over breakfast cereal, oblivious to the events transpiring in the Digiworld. "Daisuke told me the other day that he likes Cocoa Puffs best," Iori stated, crossing his arms protectively around the box.
Miyako hid the blue box behind her back. "But Ken told me last Christmas he likes Frosted Flakes!"
"So? He's sick. He'll probably throw it up anyway."
"Exactly! I mean, not exactly!" Miyako took a deep breath. "What I'm /trying/ to say is, he's sick and he deserves what he likes."
"But - but - Tony will give him nightmares!" Iori spluttered, backing away.
"Oh, like all that unhealthy chocolate will do any less!"
Iori sighed. "Why can't we buy both?"
"Because it's /my/ money, you numbskull!"
Iori leaned to the side and stared pointedly at the mostly-full shopping cart. She groaned and stuck the Frosted Flakes in on top of the bacon, then held out her arms. Iori inched backwards and she gave an exasperated sigh. "I won't put it back."
"I don't trust you. I'll carry it," he said. The only problem was that he was already carrying S'mores-flavored Pop-Tarts, a two-liter bottle of root beer, the kind of popcorn you can pop over an open fire, and a bottle of stuff that made fire turn pretty colors. After juggling it all for a few moments, he managed to stagger down the aisle, stopping in front of a display of chocolate graham crackers.
"No," Miyako told him, laboring over the heavy cart. "C'mon, that's all we need, let's go."
"Can't we just - "
"No."
~~
Jyou banged his head against the side of the cliff. His mantra had recently become, ~You're doing this for Koushiro. You're doing this for Koushiro. Don't throw yourself off the cliff, you're doing this for Koushiro...~
It was very hard to stick to the mantra when he was forced to listen to Jikimon's rambling about how depressed she was. At least as far as Jyou could tell, there wasn't one single event in her life that had made her happy. He had never particularly liked psychiatrists, had never imagined becoming one, but for the past hour he had been playing psychiatrist to the pathetic Ultimate.
"So right now you're depressed /why/?" he asked, checking the rope for the nineteenth time. The climbing had been going slow, and he was morbidly convinced that it would fray of old age and drop them both several thousand feet to the ground below.
"Because we're going to find the cure and I'll get what you call 'poison ivy,'" she replied. "And then Shizu will die before we can get back up."
Jyou almost fell off of the cliff at that and was only saved by Jikimon's catlike reflexes and the rope, which, despite his paranoia, was perfectly fine. "/Who/?"
"Shizu." Jikimon gasped theatrically. "Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell you...forget I said it."
"I don't think I can," he said numbly, feeling very dizzy all of a sudden. Shizu. Koushiro's girlfriend. That meant this was /her/ army. /She/ was the one holding him prisoner. /She/ was probably responsible for Ken's condition...
And she was also ill, and nothing would get better until he found the cure.
He carefully inched his way down toward a ledge where a blue-purple plant bloomed, doing his very best to ignore Jikimon's mutterings about her depressingly short memory.
~~
Ken walked in a dream. He knew that it was a dream because there was no way reality could be so vivid. He was barefoot in a desert, stumbling across the hot sands, blinded by the sun. He tripped, fell to his knees, and couldn't get up. His pale skin was turning red with the heat. He gasped, trying to get a breath of cool air, but the air around him was humid and did nothing. He wiped sweat from his forehead and tried to stand, couldn't, fell again, threw up. He hadn't eaten in such a long time, surprising there was anything left to throw up.
And the sun - the sun was there, burning him, blistering his skin, and all over he was too hot - too hot to think about how sick he was. It was so real, but it wasn't, and he knew it. That was what made it so terrifying.
His skin - bubbling up, peeling off, catching fire from the sun that was too hot to be real. Burning, burning. He screamed and reached up to claw at his face, put out the flames, but that made it worse and he couldn't breathe and he was on fire and oh, God, it wasn't real, it could not possibly be real, but it was, oh, it was!
~~
Daisuke had almost drifted off to sleep when he was violently awakened by screaming. He jerked up and saw that Ken was half-awake, shrieking an unearthly scream and clawing at his face, actually drawing blood.
"Ken!" the redhead cried, grabbing the other boy's wrists and holding them tightly, staring in horror at the tears streaming unchecked down Ken's cheek. Ken wrenched away and touched his face, his hair, pulled up his shirt to stare at his stomach in terror.
"Daisuke - " he gasped, throwing himself into his friend's arms, sobbing into Daisuke's chest. "Oh, oh God, Daisuke..."
"Shh," Daisuke murmured, wrapping his arms around Ken. "It will be okay."
"Yeah, just a nightmare," Ken said, voice muffled since his face was pressed against Daisuke's chest. "I'll be okay in a minute." His body shuddered, causing Daisuke to pull him closer.
They both realized at about the same time just exactly how close they were. Ken disentangled himself and went back to leaning against the wall. Daisuke watched his friend, who was shivering, and realized that there were several long, bloody cuts on Ken's face - made by his own hands in his terror. Daisuke shuddered. How awful...
Ken calmed down slowly, but he continued to run his fingers over his face, wincing when his fingernails touched the cuts, still searching for the burns that weren't there.
~~
"I know!" Tentomon buzzed. "We can sing again! This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friiiiends..."
Koushiro took a deep breath and counted slowly to ten. They had been walking towards the faint red light on his digivice, straight south, but the enthusiastic Digimon had felt the need to sing to pass the time. After a rousing chorus of the "Song That Gets on Everybody's Nerves" Gatomon had decided to teach them various songs that Hikari knew. One can only listen to a badly-mangled version of "Spectacular Spectacular" for so long before one decides never to watch "Moulin Rouge" ever again. Koushiro had put an end to that song, but now...
"Somebody started singin' it not knowin' what it was, and they'll have to keep on singin' it forever just because this is the song that never ends..."
"Shut up," the human muttered.
"Oh, come on," Veemon said in his adorable accent. "You could sing too, ya know."
"I don't want to..."
"I know!" Gomamon said. The seal was curled up in Koushiro's arms, having decided to join them in their quest. "Let's talk about love."
"What?" Koushiro asked, blushing.
"Love," Gomamon repeated. "Um...Jyou likes you."
Koushiro dropped the seal and crossed his arms. "What did you say and what the heck did you mean by it?"
Tentomon laughed and stopped flying. The rest of the Digimon looked faintly amused. "You mean you didn't know? I thought everyone would know by now..."
"About what?"
Gomamon chuckled. "Jyou has a crush on you! I mean, didn't you all know about it?"
Wormmon shook his head. "I just know that Ken likes Koushiro, too."
Koushiro blinked slowly and sat down, pale. "I seem to be popular..."
"I didn't know about it," Gatomon offered, sulking. "Not for sure, anyway..."
"Do you think that makes me feel any better? What am I supposed to do about it? I don't...swing that way. I like girls. I mean, I like Shizu..." He closed his eyes and tried to slow his pounding heart.
"I think they would make a cute couple," Patamon chirped.
"I know that they would," Hawkmon said. "They obviously fancy each other..."
"I do not!" Koushiro cried.
"Oh, come on," Gatomon scoffed. "It's not that hard to tell. Remember when VenomMyostismon was knocking down buildings and I had to shoot Tai with my arrow? You two were holding hands. Maybe no one else noticed - "
"I did," Patamon volunteered.
"So did I," Tentomon noted.
Koushiro blushed. "We were scared. You were shooting two of our friends, after all. Frightening experience."
"Sure," the eight Digimon said as one.
"I was ten years old! And I am /so/ not gay."
Wormmon turned to Gatomon. "That's the same tone of voice Ken used when he told Iori that he was over Koushiro...which he's not..."
Armadillomon laughed. "Same tone of voice Iori used when he told me he was over his fear of water the other day, but he's not. I can tell."
All of them giggled. Koushiro sighed. ~Of all the things that could possibly go wrong today, I find out that two of my best friends are gay and that, apparently, everybody else thinks that I am, too. Great.~
~~
"We need to talk," Daisuke said after a very long silence.
"About what?" Ken asked listlessly.
"Us."
"What us? We're just friends."
"Then why did you say, and I quote, 'I wuv you'?"
Ken blushed and looked away. "Must have been the poison."
"I don't think so." Daisuke took a deep breath and said, very quickly, "Because-if-you-like-me-then-I-think-you-should-know-I-sort-of-like-you- too."
"Just sort of?" Ken asked after a moment. "That's a depressing thought."
They were unable to pursue that thought any further because, at that moment, Miyako and Iori finally arrived, bearing two bags of groceries. Each.
"I got Frosted Flakes," Miyako announced.
"I got Cocoa Puffs," Iori snapped, glaring at her.
"They're both good," Ken said.
Miyako looked closer at him. "What happened to your face?"
"I brought a first aid kit," Iori announced, tossing it to Daisuke. "I'll start the fire and then we'll head off. It's nine in the real world and I'm going to tell your parents that you're both staying at my house."
"Thanks," Daisuke said, wrestling with the first aid kit. It was surprisingly hard to open. Iori had the fire started and had tossed some color-changing powder on it, turning it a sparkly blue.
Miyako pulled some blankets out of one bag and a pillow out of the other. She rapidly set up a bed for Ken and tossed the extra blanket in Daisuke's direction, narrowly missing the fire. "I gotta get home. See you two tomorrow." They left almost as quickly as they had come, leaving the two alone.
Daisuke crawled to Ken's side and pulled out a small tube. "It's supposed to prevent infection," he said. Ken nodded and allowed his friend to smear it on. Quite suddenly, he reached up and grabbed Daisuke's wrist. Their eyes met.
"When I said that I loved you...I'm starting to think I might have meant it."
"The feeling is mutual."
Ken blinked. "Where'd you learn a word like 'mutual'?"
~~~~
A/N: Augh, that's it. I'm cold, tired, I have a test tomorrow that I'm not ready for, and...did I mention I'm cold? Bleh. Um...Jyoushiro update: Koushiro-chan knows o.O Now stop bugging me, I have other things to do.but, um, reviewing doesn't count as bugging ^^;;;;
Chapter Six: The Cure/Illness
Daisuke sighed heavily. His arms were starting to go numb. After Ken had kissed him, the sick boy had fallen asleep in Daisuke's arms, and the redhead didn't think it would be a good idea to move him in his condition. Plus, it give him a very good opportunity for snuggling...
Quite suddenly Ken opened his eyes and sprang away from Daisuke. Before the redhead could react, Ken knelt, coughed, and vomited. "I don't feel so good," he said faintly.
Daisuke crawled over to his friend - friend, yeah, not anything more - and gently brushed a strand of damp indigo hair out of Ken's eyes. The sick boy grinned weakly and proceeded to throw up again.
~It's getting worse,~ Daisuke thought anxiously. ~What happened to Miyako and Iori?~
~~
The aforementioned duo were currently arguing over breakfast cereal, oblivious to the events transpiring in the Digiworld. "Daisuke told me the other day that he likes Cocoa Puffs best," Iori stated, crossing his arms protectively around the box.
Miyako hid the blue box behind her back. "But Ken told me last Christmas he likes Frosted Flakes!"
"So? He's sick. He'll probably throw it up anyway."
"Exactly! I mean, not exactly!" Miyako took a deep breath. "What I'm /trying/ to say is, he's sick and he deserves what he likes."
"But - but - Tony will give him nightmares!" Iori spluttered, backing away.
"Oh, like all that unhealthy chocolate will do any less!"
Iori sighed. "Why can't we buy both?"
"Because it's /my/ money, you numbskull!"
Iori leaned to the side and stared pointedly at the mostly-full shopping cart. She groaned and stuck the Frosted Flakes in on top of the bacon, then held out her arms. Iori inched backwards and she gave an exasperated sigh. "I won't put it back."
"I don't trust you. I'll carry it," he said. The only problem was that he was already carrying S'mores-flavored Pop-Tarts, a two-liter bottle of root beer, the kind of popcorn you can pop over an open fire, and a bottle of stuff that made fire turn pretty colors. After juggling it all for a few moments, he managed to stagger down the aisle, stopping in front of a display of chocolate graham crackers.
"No," Miyako told him, laboring over the heavy cart. "C'mon, that's all we need, let's go."
"Can't we just - "
"No."
~~
Jyou banged his head against the side of the cliff. His mantra had recently become, ~You're doing this for Koushiro. You're doing this for Koushiro. Don't throw yourself off the cliff, you're doing this for Koushiro...~
It was very hard to stick to the mantra when he was forced to listen to Jikimon's rambling about how depressed she was. At least as far as Jyou could tell, there wasn't one single event in her life that had made her happy. He had never particularly liked psychiatrists, had never imagined becoming one, but for the past hour he had been playing psychiatrist to the pathetic Ultimate.
"So right now you're depressed /why/?" he asked, checking the rope for the nineteenth time. The climbing had been going slow, and he was morbidly convinced that it would fray of old age and drop them both several thousand feet to the ground below.
"Because we're going to find the cure and I'll get what you call 'poison ivy,'" she replied. "And then Shizu will die before we can get back up."
Jyou almost fell off of the cliff at that and was only saved by Jikimon's catlike reflexes and the rope, which, despite his paranoia, was perfectly fine. "/Who/?"
"Shizu." Jikimon gasped theatrically. "Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell you...forget I said it."
"I don't think I can," he said numbly, feeling very dizzy all of a sudden. Shizu. Koushiro's girlfriend. That meant this was /her/ army. /She/ was the one holding him prisoner. /She/ was probably responsible for Ken's condition...
And she was also ill, and nothing would get better until he found the cure.
He carefully inched his way down toward a ledge where a blue-purple plant bloomed, doing his very best to ignore Jikimon's mutterings about her depressingly short memory.
~~
Ken walked in a dream. He knew that it was a dream because there was no way reality could be so vivid. He was barefoot in a desert, stumbling across the hot sands, blinded by the sun. He tripped, fell to his knees, and couldn't get up. His pale skin was turning red with the heat. He gasped, trying to get a breath of cool air, but the air around him was humid and did nothing. He wiped sweat from his forehead and tried to stand, couldn't, fell again, threw up. He hadn't eaten in such a long time, surprising there was anything left to throw up.
And the sun - the sun was there, burning him, blistering his skin, and all over he was too hot - too hot to think about how sick he was. It was so real, but it wasn't, and he knew it. That was what made it so terrifying.
His skin - bubbling up, peeling off, catching fire from the sun that was too hot to be real. Burning, burning. He screamed and reached up to claw at his face, put out the flames, but that made it worse and he couldn't breathe and he was on fire and oh, God, it wasn't real, it could not possibly be real, but it was, oh, it was!
~~
Daisuke had almost drifted off to sleep when he was violently awakened by screaming. He jerked up and saw that Ken was half-awake, shrieking an unearthly scream and clawing at his face, actually drawing blood.
"Ken!" the redhead cried, grabbing the other boy's wrists and holding them tightly, staring in horror at the tears streaming unchecked down Ken's cheek. Ken wrenched away and touched his face, his hair, pulled up his shirt to stare at his stomach in terror.
"Daisuke - " he gasped, throwing himself into his friend's arms, sobbing into Daisuke's chest. "Oh, oh God, Daisuke..."
"Shh," Daisuke murmured, wrapping his arms around Ken. "It will be okay."
"Yeah, just a nightmare," Ken said, voice muffled since his face was pressed against Daisuke's chest. "I'll be okay in a minute." His body shuddered, causing Daisuke to pull him closer.
They both realized at about the same time just exactly how close they were. Ken disentangled himself and went back to leaning against the wall. Daisuke watched his friend, who was shivering, and realized that there were several long, bloody cuts on Ken's face - made by his own hands in his terror. Daisuke shuddered. How awful...
Ken calmed down slowly, but he continued to run his fingers over his face, wincing when his fingernails touched the cuts, still searching for the burns that weren't there.
~~
"I know!" Tentomon buzzed. "We can sing again! This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friiiiends..."
Koushiro took a deep breath and counted slowly to ten. They had been walking towards the faint red light on his digivice, straight south, but the enthusiastic Digimon had felt the need to sing to pass the time. After a rousing chorus of the "Song That Gets on Everybody's Nerves" Gatomon had decided to teach them various songs that Hikari knew. One can only listen to a badly-mangled version of "Spectacular Spectacular" for so long before one decides never to watch "Moulin Rouge" ever again. Koushiro had put an end to that song, but now...
"Somebody started singin' it not knowin' what it was, and they'll have to keep on singin' it forever just because this is the song that never ends..."
"Shut up," the human muttered.
"Oh, come on," Veemon said in his adorable accent. "You could sing too, ya know."
"I don't want to..."
"I know!" Gomamon said. The seal was curled up in Koushiro's arms, having decided to join them in their quest. "Let's talk about love."
"What?" Koushiro asked, blushing.
"Love," Gomamon repeated. "Um...Jyou likes you."
Koushiro dropped the seal and crossed his arms. "What did you say and what the heck did you mean by it?"
Tentomon laughed and stopped flying. The rest of the Digimon looked faintly amused. "You mean you didn't know? I thought everyone would know by now..."
"About what?"
Gomamon chuckled. "Jyou has a crush on you! I mean, didn't you all know about it?"
Wormmon shook his head. "I just know that Ken likes Koushiro, too."
Koushiro blinked slowly and sat down, pale. "I seem to be popular..."
"I didn't know about it," Gatomon offered, sulking. "Not for sure, anyway..."
"Do you think that makes me feel any better? What am I supposed to do about it? I don't...swing that way. I like girls. I mean, I like Shizu..." He closed his eyes and tried to slow his pounding heart.
"I think they would make a cute couple," Patamon chirped.
"I know that they would," Hawkmon said. "They obviously fancy each other..."
"I do not!" Koushiro cried.
"Oh, come on," Gatomon scoffed. "It's not that hard to tell. Remember when VenomMyostismon was knocking down buildings and I had to shoot Tai with my arrow? You two were holding hands. Maybe no one else noticed - "
"I did," Patamon volunteered.
"So did I," Tentomon noted.
Koushiro blushed. "We were scared. You were shooting two of our friends, after all. Frightening experience."
"Sure," the eight Digimon said as one.
"I was ten years old! And I am /so/ not gay."
Wormmon turned to Gatomon. "That's the same tone of voice Ken used when he told Iori that he was over Koushiro...which he's not..."
Armadillomon laughed. "Same tone of voice Iori used when he told me he was over his fear of water the other day, but he's not. I can tell."
All of them giggled. Koushiro sighed. ~Of all the things that could possibly go wrong today, I find out that two of my best friends are gay and that, apparently, everybody else thinks that I am, too. Great.~
~~
"We need to talk," Daisuke said after a very long silence.
"About what?" Ken asked listlessly.
"Us."
"What us? We're just friends."
"Then why did you say, and I quote, 'I wuv you'?"
Ken blushed and looked away. "Must have been the poison."
"I don't think so." Daisuke took a deep breath and said, very quickly, "Because-if-you-like-me-then-I-think-you-should-know-I-sort-of-like-you- too."
"Just sort of?" Ken asked after a moment. "That's a depressing thought."
They were unable to pursue that thought any further because, at that moment, Miyako and Iori finally arrived, bearing two bags of groceries. Each.
"I got Frosted Flakes," Miyako announced.
"I got Cocoa Puffs," Iori snapped, glaring at her.
"They're both good," Ken said.
Miyako looked closer at him. "What happened to your face?"
"I brought a first aid kit," Iori announced, tossing it to Daisuke. "I'll start the fire and then we'll head off. It's nine in the real world and I'm going to tell your parents that you're both staying at my house."
"Thanks," Daisuke said, wrestling with the first aid kit. It was surprisingly hard to open. Iori had the fire started and had tossed some color-changing powder on it, turning it a sparkly blue.
Miyako pulled some blankets out of one bag and a pillow out of the other. She rapidly set up a bed for Ken and tossed the extra blanket in Daisuke's direction, narrowly missing the fire. "I gotta get home. See you two tomorrow." They left almost as quickly as they had come, leaving the two alone.
Daisuke crawled to Ken's side and pulled out a small tube. "It's supposed to prevent infection," he said. Ken nodded and allowed his friend to smear it on. Quite suddenly, he reached up and grabbed Daisuke's wrist. Their eyes met.
"When I said that I loved you...I'm starting to think I might have meant it."
"The feeling is mutual."
Ken blinked. "Where'd you learn a word like 'mutual'?"
~~~~
A/N: Augh, that's it. I'm cold, tired, I have a test tomorrow that I'm not ready for, and...did I mention I'm cold? Bleh. Um...Jyoushiro update: Koushiro-chan knows o.O Now stop bugging me, I have other things to do.but, um, reviewing doesn't count as bugging ^^;;;;