The Secret Life of Akane Ichijouji

Disclaimer: Okay, G, you're up for the disclaimer this time. *hears crickets chirping* G? Where are you? It's your turn to say, "Digimon isn't mine." Humph! Now where could that muse be...?

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Chapter 3-The Talk

All through the drive home and the walk up to the apartment, neither father nor daughter spoke to each other. Even when Ken Ichijouji's iron grip on his daughter's wrist made her wince in pain as he dragged her along, the girl simply bit her lip and held it in, fearing that anything she said would anger her father further.

Not as if she could imagine how it could get worse, though...

He entered the apartment noisily and stormed past a puzzled Yolei, who was carrying a crying baby Koro. Neither of the silent pair bothered to answer her flustered questions as Ken hauled Akane into her room and slammed the door behind them.

Finally letting go of her, Detective Ichijouji gave his daughter a slight shove towards her bed and commanded, "Sit down!"

Normally Akane would have bitten back that she was no dog to be ordered around, but in this case she thought it wiser to make an exception.

No sooner had she done as she was told, Ken burst out, "What the heck were you thinking?!"

Akane shrank back, feeling the walls of her room shake at the incensed man's roar. Now she could definitely relate to the digimon her father had enslaved as a kid.

"Bringing your stories to school, infecting their computers, making your teachers think those things of us!" Ken growled, pacing around the room much in the same manner he had the night before. "Words can't even describe how...how humiliating this is!"

"I-I-I..." Akane stammered, grasping desperately for anything to say to calm her father down.

"You-you-you what?" His fiery cerulean eyes burned into hers.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't think..."

"Like heck you thought! No idiot would have even been that stupid and pulled what you did!" he snapped.

This came as a stab to the girl's heart, and she made no effort to hide that she was deeply hurt by the criticism.

Despite the fog of anger shrouding his eyes, Ken saw this in her pained expression and immediately realized what he had just said. He turned his head away and walked to the opposite side of the room to collect himself.

For a few moments, in contrast to the previous clamor, the only sound in the room was Ken's deep breathing to calm himself down.

"...Akane..." the indigo-haired man said in a low voice, "why?"

The fourteen-year-old girl blinked. Why what? Why what she did at school?

"Well...you wouldn't let me write at home, so I thought maybe if I wrote them at school..." she trailed off, seeing her father make no motion to confirm or refute that that was what he wanted to hear.

After a minute, he shook his head slowly. "No, that's not what I meant..." His voice was surprisingly gentler, which took Akane aback. He slowly walked over to her chair, pulled it up in front of her, and sat down. "Why do you write those kinds of stories?"

Akane was at a loss for words. Not only had he suddenly stopped going Emperor on her, but now he was trying to understand her? After some thinking, she answered, "I guess...writing's just something I enjoy doing. And there are people that read my stories and like them. They say so in those reviews, and apparently more people like the kind I write now."

Ken sighed. "Akane, did it ever occur to you why I don't want you to those stories?"

"Uh, 'cause it involves you and mom having..."

"Right," he cut her off and tried to keep himself from blushing. "Akane, that's very personal stuff. I mean, how would you like it if someone were watching you and your, um, husband--you are not doing this before you are married and over 22 years old, got it?--do what we do in private and write about it in public? Even if you do change or...add things...it's still based on what me and your mother don't want anyone else to know about. Do you see my point?"

"Yeah, I guess. Okay, but what if I stop writing about you guys and, um, make up my own characters for my lemons? I think my readers would still like those."

"Well, uh..." Ken scratched the back of his neck nervously. "That's another problem..."

"What? I mean it doesn't invade your guys' privacy, and I am free to write what I want, right?"

"Yeah, but it's kind of a...moral...thing."

"Moral thing?" Apparently such an issue had never crossed Akane's mind.

"Yeah, it's like...you know, distributing porn on the Internet."

"Oh..." The young girl looked down. "I see your point."

"Uh, you don't happen to do that, too, right?" Ken inquired.

His daughter shot him a glare. "Dad!"

"Just making sure!" The indigo-haired man put up both hands in front of him defensively.

Akane sighed. "Darn, you just had to go and play with my morality like that, didn't you?"

"Comes with the job. Remind me to give you a copy of the manual some time." A small smile formed on the Digidestined of Kindness' face, which induced a similar smile to appear on his daughter's.

"Fine, I'll write clean from now on." She sighed again, more heavily this time. "But I got so many reviews from my lemons," she lamented, "much more than my first adventure or romance fics."

Ken placed a comforting hand on Akane's shoulder. "Trust me--you're not losing much. From those reviews I read the other night, I think most of your readers were just saying those things to get you to write more of...that kind of stuff. If I were a writer, I'd prefer to have one insightful review rather than dozens of poorly-spelled, superficial ones."

"Yeah, I guess you're right...I hate when you guys are right, you know?"

Ken simply gave her a smug grin.

"Heh, okay, Dad. I'll give my clean fics another try." Akane's smile broadened. "But just to warn you, I might fall back on my lemons if my ego takes a nose-dive."

"Well, just give those stories a chance first. Then we'll see if we need another talk, deal?"

"Deal."

***

Somewhere on the highway...

G: *sees a truck and jerks her thumb out hitchhiker style*

Truck: *stops next to her*

G: * climbs into the back and sits down beside an indigo-haired girl with glasses*

Girl: So where are you headed?

G: Anywhere where there's an author that needs a new muse.

Girl: (eyes sparkling) What luck! I'm searching for muses.

G: Really? *raises eyebrow warily* What's your name?

Girl: My name's Akane, but everyone on FFN knows me as "Kaiser'slittleprincess."

G: *scratches head* That sounds familiar...*shrugs* Oh well, I guess I'll stick with you for the time being.

Akane: Perfecto! Now, at the next stop I need you to go online and find me all these digimon's evolutions. *pulls out a list that unravels to 5 meters long* Afterward, you can help me brainstorm ideas for my first action fic, and then you're going to help me proofread and revise it...

G: (groaning to herself) Why me...?