A/N: Just had the idea for this when I was listening to "Love Is A Battlefield." I don't know why, though, since the song has *nothing* to do with this fic whatsoever. Hmm. Oh well. This is going to be a Takesuke, but there isn't any in this chapter. That's only because this is Daisuke's point of view, and Takeru's the one with the crush on our dear Dai-chan, though that won't last forever. Oh, and this has Daikari, and I'm sorry if it seems I'm sort of bashing Kari or Miyako, because I'm not. I love them! I just need to portray them like this to work with the fic. Anyways, go ahead and read. You can skip the disclaimer, since you know what it says.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon or the characters. Also, I don't own "Scarborough Fair" or "Three Libras." They're just songs I use in this fic because Dai listens to them on his CD player.

Balanced

Daisuke got up that morning with the usual smile on his face. He slid out of bed and waded through the clothes, books, papers, and other random junk on the floor to his closet, opening it as best as he could with the mess on the floor and pulling out a shirt and jeans. He pulled the shirt - it was dark blue and said, "Remember my name - you'll be screaming it later" - and the dark blue baggy jeans on, then grabbed his CD player from his dresser and went to the kitchen, slipping the CD player into his large front pocket and putting the earphones in.

He went to the cupboard and pulled out a cereal box, then went to get the milk, a bowl, and a spoon. He remembered to pour the cereal in first this time and then followed it with the milk, putting the cap back on the jug and putting it back in the fridge. He put the cereal box away and grabbed the spoon, going to the kitchen table.

He sat down and began eating straight away. He finished his cereal in five minutes and put the bowl and spoon in the sink, going to the counter to grab his backpack off of it and going out the door.

~ ~ ~ ~

He sat in his History class. The only thing keeping him from falling asleep was the song that was currently playing on his CD player, which he loved, and was mouthing the words to, and the paper he was drawing on.

He glanced up a few times at the teacher, so the teacher would think he was writing down notes or something like that, and she'd also think the CD player wasn't that loud if he could hear her. Sure enough, the teacher never asked him to turn the CD player off or stop writing.

His doodling slowly became a picture of Demiveemon eating cookies, and he smiled. Demiveemon visited him on weekends, but other than that, he wasn't ever allowed to see his blue friend. It was a rule Gennai made up after their last adventure in the Digital World. How did Daisuke know Gennai had made it up? Gennai didn't remember what the rule was the next day, when Koushirou asked him something about it.

Daisuke laughed. Gennai had to be senile, he thought. That was the only reasonable explanation for how kooky he was. Great to talk to if you wanted to laugh, though.

Anyways, the Digidestined were allowed to have their Digimon over on weekends, but other than that, the Digimon had to stay in the Digital World, and they all had to stay in the real world.

Daisuke glanced up once and realized that the bell had just rung. He gathered everything into his arms, dumped it into his backpack, zipped his backpack shut, and slid the CD player into his pocket, slinging the backpack over his arm as he made his way out of the room and down the hall to the cafeteria.

Lunch was Daisuke's favorite time of the day, mostly because he got to eat, but he also loved it because it was the only time of the day besides before and after school that he got to see any of the older Digidestined. They were all seniors, and the younger generation were all freshman.

He made his way through the crowd towards his lunch table and dumped his backpack onto a seat to save it for himself.

"All right, who's going with me to grab a plate?" he asked, looking around at the people who didn't have a plate yet.

"I'll go," Sora answered, standing up.

TK stood also. "Me too."

"Great," Daisuke responded, smirking. "Then let's go."

The three walked to the lunch line and got in line, huddled in their group of three.

"So, what's up with you guys?" Sora asked, smiling. "Still like the people you like?"

TK blushed, but Daisuke smiled. "You ask everyone that every single day. Why would it change?"

"You'd be surprised the way the heart works, Dai," she responded sagely. "It is possible to fall out of love with someone in a day."

Daisuke shook his head slightly. "I never really believed that, the same way I never really believed in love at first sight. It takes years to develop love for a person, and maybe even more years to realize that you love them, acknowledge it, and act on it."

Sora shrugged. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. So I'm guessing the answer to my question was yes?"

TK and Daisuke both nodded. Sora laughed and turned around to get a plate. She moved along the line and began putting things onto it. TK and then Daisuke did the same, punching in their ID numbers at the end of the line and walking back out towards their table.

Daisuke went to his saved place and took his backpack off of the chair, putting it in the middle of the table where there was already a pile of backpacks, purses, folders, and books. It was a habit that everyone would throw their stuff in the middle of the table. They'd been doing it since they first started sitting together during lunch.

Daisuke noted happily that Hikari was sitting directly across from him. As he ate, he watched her as she talked to Miyako about something. After a while she turned to look at him, eyes narrowed.

"Stop looking at me, Dai."

"Aw, Kari, you know you like it."

She made a face of disgust and turned away, talking to Miyako again. "*Anyways*, as I was saying..."

Daisuke didn't look affected by this brush-off at all. He was far too used to it to think it rude. For him, it was just routine. Him flirting with Hikari, and then her coldly blowing him off. That was just the way things happened.

Pretty soon the lunch bell sounded and they all got up and went to throw their plates, then separated into small groups to go to classes. He had this next class with TK, Miyako, and Kari, so he walked with them. He made sure to walk beside Kari, with TK on his other side, and Miyako on Kari's other side. This was the way they always walked.

As they went to their class, Kari spoke only to Miyako, who seemed to hang on her every word. Daisuke felt slightly jealous that Kari was paying so much attention to her, but shrugged it off. They were best friends, why *wouldn't* they talk to each other all the time?

Daisuke played "Scarborough Fair" on his CD player and smiled, suddenly feeling peaceful. This song always calmed him down. Whenever he listened to it, he was back in the Digital World, sitting beside Veemon, outside in the snow. Not playing in it, just standing there and watching it fall. Veemon would be calm and serene for once, catching a snowflake on his tongue. Daisuke would stretch his arms out and turn in a slow circle, eyes closed, feeling carefree, so wonderfully carefree.

When in this world, he would be protected from all outside forces. He would be protected from the daily insults, from Kari and others, the usual callings of "stupid", which, while he always laughed them off, sometimes did hurt. He wouldn't have to worry about impressing people, or of beating the other soccer team. He wouldn't have to pretend to teachers that he was listening, and wouldn't have to stare at all of those questions on his tests as if they were in a foreign language, then have to guess them all.

He was brought out of his snowy world when they reached their class and went to their respective desks, sitting down. The song continued to play, and he sunk deep into his mindworld until a paper was placed in front of him - the assignment.

He went to the page the assignment said it was from and skimmed over the paragraphs and explanations. He hated Reading in junior high, and he now hated Literature in high school. He didn't know how TK could love this as his favorite subject. It was so boring. He never got into any books. His attention span was too short.

Daisuke sighed and rubbed his temples, reminding himself of the only reason he didn't want to fail any of his classes: His friends. If he failed, and they moved on to the next grade, he wouldn't be able to see them, and they would graduate before him, go to the prom before him (unless he snuck in), and all of that junk. He tried to concentrate on the assignment and did his best to get the answers right out of the book.

He knew he was much smarter than people took him to be, but he was just too damned lazy to sit down and really read about all of this junk. He didn't care for school work too much, but he was smart logic-wise, despite what other people believed. Sometimes he played stupid to be babied, sometimes to be funny, and other times just because he was so used to it that there was no other way he could be.

His CD player began to play, "Three Libras," by A Perfect Circle. He finally finished the assignment and turned it in, then looked up at the clock, only to see that he still had twenty minutes of class next. He tapped his finger on the desk and glanced around the room, feeling somewhat bored now, but then he looked at TK, who was sitting just across from him, in the next row. He was done and was boredly doodling random things on a paper.

Daisuke got an idea and got a piece of paper out, then scribbled on it, "Hey, TK, you as bored as I am?"

He folded the paper up and tossed it onto TK's desk. TK jumped slightly, but then glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow. Daisuke looked at the paper then back up at him and TK got the point and opened the paper, reading it. He saw TK's face break into a grin and then he began writing on the paper.

Daisuke waited patiently until TK threw the paper onto his desk and then opened it. "What does it look like? So, any plans for today?"

Daisuke thought for awhile. What was he going to do today? He never liked to think too much ahead, because it spoiled the fun of having sudden ideas pop up as to what to do. He supposed he should write the only thing he could come up with. "None whatsoever. How about you?"

In a few seconds, he had the paper back. "Nothing here either. Boy, aren't we the boring ones? Want to grab Ken and have Playstation Wars or something after school?"

Daisuke grinned. He, Takeru, and Ken always found themselves in either his or TK's bedroom, laying on the bed or the floor in boredom and doing nothing. He didn't remember when they started hanging out just the three of them, but he remembered feeling much closer to TK after the blonde told him that he didn't like Kari anymore.

"Sure, why not. There isn't anything else to do. My house or yours?"

They never hung out at Ken's house. For one, TK's and Daisuke's parents were rarely willing to drive anywhere farther than the grocery store across the street. Ken's mom, on the other hand, was always willing to drive him to their houses, because she was overjoyed that he had actual friends at last. Also, they never went to Ken's because Ken hated to have anyone over, for some reason he couldn't explain. Just a feeling.

So, it was always at Daisuke's or TK's that they spent time. The paper flew onto his desk again.

"It's my turn, remember? I'll call Ken after school and you can just come over when you want to."

Oh, yeah, they had crashed at his house two nights ago. It was TK's turn. "Right, I forgot. Okay, I'll head over after school," he wrote in response.

He threw it at TK and the other boy caught it and opened it. He caught Daisuke's eye and nodded, then tore the note up into little pieces. TK always had a habit of doing that whenever they were done with the note. He tried to tear it up into the *tiniest* pieces. Daisuke shook his head in wonderment, and then the bell rang, and they both got up out of their seats, TK gripping the remains of the note in his fist.

They followed the girls out, who were *still* babbling on about something, and TK opened his fist and dropped all of the pieces of the note into the trash can, scraping a few clingy pieces off of his palm with his fingers, and then walked out the door, shaking his head to get a lock of his hair out of his eyes.

TK had abandoned his white Gilligan hat the previous year, by Miyako's advice; she had said wearing it in junior high was one thing, but wearing it in high school was another, a definite no-no. The only reason TK listened to her was to get her to finally shut up about it after she continuously advised him to drop the hat for that entire summer. Daisuke absolutely refused to stop wearing his goggles, and since Miyako knew how stubborn Daisuke was, she didn't bother pressing him. And so, Daisuke still had his goggles perched proudly on his head.

Daisuke had to admit that TK looked a lot better-looking without the hat, because his hair was silky and looked incredibly soft, like Yamato's did. Of course, Daisuke thought all of that in a completely non-gay, only-stating-a-fact kind of way, or so he said to himself.

They went to their respective lockers, and since TK's locker was only three lockers to the right of Daisuke's, they could freely talk, since the people in between them weren't there.

"So, I'll head right over when I'm done eating and doing homework, and all of that junk," Daisuke told him.

"Okay," TK responded.

They wouldn't be seeing each other the rest of the day, having different classes, and they didn't pass each other by in the halls, either. They separated and Daisuke went on to his Algebra class, sighing.

"I hate algebra," he muttered.

~ ~ ~ ~

That afternoon, Daisuke walked home from school, smiling again. The torture was over; he had survived another day. He charged into the house and threw his backpack onto the counter, rummaging around for homework. He just had to do one page, so it didn't take very long, and then he made himself a large sandwich with everything on it, and began walking towards TK's house as he ate it.

'I wonder if Ken's already there,' he thought, munching on his sandwich. Ken's mom didn't like driving, so, naturally, she drove faster than necessary so she would have to drive as little as possible.

He turned into TK's driveway and began walking towards the door, his mouth still full.

'I hope Ken's still alive and everything. It'd be too bad if his mom crashed before I got to beat his ass at Super Smash Bros. And the rest of him, too.'

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: I'm sorry that there's no Takesuke in this chapter, but don't worry, the next chapter will be in TK's POV and you'll see it there. Dai doesn't like TK back yet, but he will soon, don't worry! He won't be pining after Kari for too much longer. So anyways, I hope you all liked this, and please review this, and tell me what you think. Positive reviews make me so happy! Er, this fic will get angsty, and then there will be fluffy parts, and maybe even a bit random humor in here? Dai is one of the two main characters, after all. We'll see. Bye, everyone!

In the next chapter, look forward to:

1. TK's mind rolling around in the gutter!

2. Daisuke eating pickles!

3. Ken getting mad, getting chased, and getting sat on!

4. Playstation Wars!