Setting out that morning, Sora's group remained fairly lighthearted under the circumstances.
"Noooo, Yo-yo!" Daisuke wailed. "Maiko's is the best restaurant in the college area."
"It's food, Daiiiisuke! I would know! The Happy-Go-Lucky Shrimp is the best restaurant around!"
"No, it's not!"
Ken couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes over the stupid argument. They still picked at each other like a couple of kids.
I wonder if Dr. Tanaka made it work? We were still together at the time, and I know how she is. Maybe she took Dai chan's DNA for the experiment... I wish I knew.
"Oh, shut-up." Miyako growled, grabbing Daisuke' hair and pulling him under her arm. Daisuke squealed in pain.
"Take kun was right, you are scary!"
"What did he say?!"
"Miya, calm down." Sora scooped both of them into a big hug. She planted a light kiss on the irritated girl's face and smiled. "It's not worth fighting over. Takeru kun isn't like that."
Miyako released Daisuke reluctantly. "Alright."
Sora pulled her over and petted her hair as they walked. Miyako sighed contentedly.
Ken averted his eyes from them and began to wonder. Do I want to know if Dai chan is the father??
"The sky looks so beautiful." Hikari remarked. She tossed her shining hair back and looked over at her companions. "Did everyone sleep well?"
"Very well." Miyako declared, still snuggling into Sora's chest. Daisuke shrugged.
"I think I was sleeping on a rock all night."
Ken laughed silently. "How is that different from usual?"
"Hey, I usually sleep in my bed, not at my computer!" Daisuke shot back. Ken grinned at him.
"It has to be more comfortable than sprawling yourself over the bedrail."
"You never complained about it before." Daisuke pointed out. "You said you thought it was cute when I fell asleep on you."
Hikari's cheeks reddened a bit. She once again began to intervene. Wait... what right do I have to stop them? They were together before. And they worked so well...
"I never said I minded, so long as you don't squish me."
"Well, I wouldn't like that. Maybe if you wanna wrestle."
Ken turned his head and gave a withering look. "Not right now, thanks."
"Why no- ohhh. Never mind."
Tailmon giggled and poked Hikari's calf.
"Brilliant competition you have there." She whispered knowingly. Hikari mussed the fur on her Digimon's head.
"None of your business, furball."
"Whatever you say, lovergirl."
Y'know... Tailmon is right. Daisuke is the competition right now. Its not like he went easy on Take chan when he was after me. Though I'm not so sure what to think of that, considering both the boys that were courting me both ended up on the other side of the fence.
"So how'd you sleep, Ken chan? Any dreams?" She inquired, trying to get Ken talking to her instead of Daisuke. Pretty soon they'd be waist deep in fighting, and there'd be no time for this romantic nonsense.
"Hn... Did you have any?" Ken replied elusively. Hikari thought for a moment.
"I saw the black wings a few times, but nothing as scary as I did before."
Ken nodded silently. He opened his mouth to say something, but caught sight of a shadow on the sun. "Speaking of wings."
"Biomon!" Sora cried happily, releasing her love as she ran forward. Miyako, just as thrilled followed suit.
"Hawkmon!!!" Miyako screamed as she grabbed the birdlike Digimon and proceeded in nearly squeezing him to death. "I missed you!"
"Calm down, Miyako chan! I shall never be able to fight if I perish here!"
"I can't believe how lucky we are!" Sora petted Biomon's head. "We found you guys right off."
"Well, lucky maybe, but that didn't really have anything to do with it." Biomon informed them. "Gomamon apparently asked all the fish where his groups partners were and the message spread that you guys were looking for us."
"Gossip must spread like a Dai Suki virus in the Digital World." Koushiro remarked dryly, again tapping away at his D-terminal. Daisuke began to sweat a little.
"What do you mean by that? I'm not diseased."
Ken groaned at the joke and Daisuke's last comment. "I'll explain it to you later."
"Geek humor." Daisuke exasperated. Hikari frowned.
"That's not very nice, Daisuke kun. You should be more considerate."
"Oh, and you're Miss Conventionality?"
"I think you mean Congeniality." Hikari pointed out.
"I guess you're as smart as Ken chan now, huh?"
"How come nobody says as smart as Koushiro anymore?" Koushiro pondered aloud. Biomon looked at Sora quizzically.
"Aren't you guys all still friends?"
Sora closed her eyes, trying to grab some patience. "It's complicated. But we are still friends, for now."
Sora stood and rubbed her chin. "Do you guys know where Tentomon is? Or Veemon? If we could find them, we'd be done, then we could maybe spend the rest of the time looking into what Tailmon saw. Maybe get some information to bring back to the others?"
"You're great, Sora chan! I love that idea." Miyako said smiling widely. My koi is so wise and wonderful. Who needs boys to have fun?
"I don't know where they are now," Hawkmon said. "But we could Digivolve and go on a brief air search."
"That sounds good. If you think you can track us by air," Koushiro added. "We can keep looking by foot."
Sora and Miyako nodded, raising their Digivices. After a few moments and a fly of feathers, and the two girls took off.
Koushiro yawned loudly and stopped abruptly. "Let's take a break."
"No kidding." Daisuke agreed, immediately dropping to the ground. "I wish Veemon would keep up with the gossip and get over here."
"It isn't that easy. He can't fly in his regular form." Wormon reminded him. He too was anxious to see Veemon. Sure, he'd kept in touch with him, but not as much as he'd have liked. Besides, he loved fighting alongside the rambunctious lizard. He certainly didn't like losing his friends over and over.
"It's been a long time since breakfast." Hikari remarked. She pulled an orange out of her jacket and began sectioning it off. "We're going to have to find a better way of getting food. I'd forgotten how hard it was the first time we were stuck here."
Hikari handed each of them a few pieces of the orange. Tailmon nodded. "That's true. We won't be able to fight properly without it."
"I don't suppose Digisoft makes portable fridges." Ken joked. Koushiro smirked.
"Of course. With email and an alarm clock."
Hikari sucked on her piece of the orange. It was warm, but still tasted okay. She'd been holding onto that at the reunion, and was glad she'd managed to keep it on the trip over, but that little bit of food wouldn't be enough to keep the Digimon sated for long. Maybe they could go fishing.
Tailmon finished her orange and began sniffing the air.
"Smell a rat?" Hikari asked teasingly. Tailmon raised a brow at her and twitched a whisker.
"More like a bat." She scampered off on all fours into the brush. Hikari got up and followed the sound. "Nyao!"
"Patamon!" Hikari cheered, hugging the furry flyer when he came at her.
"Where's Take chan?" He asked them.
"He's with the other group." Tailmon answered, flicking her tail with amusement. "Your radar's off."
"Don't worry." Hikari said reasuringly. "We can point you back in the right direction. Have you seen Tentomon or Veemon?"
"Yeah." He replied warmly. Veemon stepped out of the bushes.
"Long time no see, Da-" The rest of his reply was muffled by a strong-armed Daisuke glomp.
"We're doing pretty good." Koushiro said. "I wonder how the other group is doing?"
"Probably not so well if Patamon is here with us. We should let Takeru san know he's on his way. So he won't worry." Ken said. Koushiro nodded and began clacking at the D-terminal. Ken held his hand in front of Koushiro's terminal silently.
"Oi!"
"Wait a minute. I hear something." Ken whispered darkly. Tailmon and Hikari perked their ears up to listen.
"What is it, Ken chan?"
Waves. Violent, murderous waves. He thought briefly. But something else, too. What...
"The beating of mighty wings." He replied finally. Ken brushed his pant legs off and started to hunt for the sound, with Wormon scuttling after him. The others got up and followed.
"I don't see anything, Ken chan." Hikari said quietly. Ken frowned and placed a finger to his lips. She waited and watched.
"Oh my goodness!" She cried as a flash of black feathers whooshed past them, stirring a wind that would not still. In an instant, it was gone, and a small boy was standing in its place. "Who are you?"
"Yugo." He giggled, stepping forward and raising his palm. Floating about his hand was a black bauble, swirling a bit and emitting a dark blue light. "Bai bai."
He threw the bauble into the air and jump out of their field of view.
"What the fu-??" Daisuke began, cut off by the sudden appearance of a black beast in front of them. Long tentacles slapped the earth and shook the Digidestine nearly off their feet.
"Did that kid just summon a monster?!" Koushiro cried, trying to get off the shaking ground and back onto his feet. Wormon and Veemon rushed forward.
"Wait!" Ken screamed reaching out for them frantically. "You'd better Digivolve first! That thing is strong!"
"Desperado Blaster!" Paiildramon yelled after a quick Digivolve. The creature spurted with black blood, but did not slow down. It began crawling toward them.
"Sick." Daisuke said. "You think they can go Ultimate, Ken?"
"Let's try it!"
Daisuke and Ken raised their Digivices to no avail.
"Damn! They don't have enough energy!" Ken sighed, thinking rapidly. "How are we going to get away from this thing?"
"Hey, Hika chan!" Miyako called waving her Digivice in the air as she flew in.
"Okay!"
Soon Sylphiemon and Paiildramon were standing on each side of the monster.
"Static Force!"
"Desperado Blaster!"
"Keep on hitting it!" Ken instructed. "I think you're getting through."
Abruptly the monster stopped moving, and exploded into mess of black oil.
"Again. Sick." Daisuke said, catching DemiVeemon when they de-digivolved.
"Koushiro san, was that a Digimon?" Ken asked, patting Wormon's head. "Good job."
"No. That was... something else."
"A creature oozing black gunk that explodes when you attack it, is definitely something else." Sora rolled her eyes. "Look who we found."
"Tentomon! Prodigious."
Sora dismounted and took Miyako's hand. "Let's set up camp. Preferably away from that."
Hikari attempted to explain to the others what had happened in their absence, about the child, and his black bauble.
"Great." Miyako grumbled. "A demented kid named Yugo. Aren't the little ones supposed to save this dimension?"
"I think if we see him again, and it is possible, that one of us should scan that black bauble of his." Koushiro inputted. Ken nodded.
"I doubt he's alone. Just the first lucky enough to encounter us." He shook his head. "And that fight was too easy. A monster that strong should have been harder to beat."
"So why did it explode, huh?" Daisuke asked.
"Simple. They're feeling us out." Ken answered. "They want to see how difficult we will be to defeat."
"Well, I think we should follow up on Tailmon's lead." Hikari said. "We need to feel them out, too."
"It's a plan." Sora admitted wearily. Am I getting too old for this? But I do still love the Digital World, so I guess it doesn't matter. I'd never turn away from it.
"So in the morning we head for that castle and gather information." Koushiro nodded. Ken nodded as well and turned away.
"I'll be back soon." He promised. Daisuke waited a moment as the others struck up a conversation, then followed. He hadn't gone too far. He was just standing straight and still, staring into the distance. His hair was lifted lightly, as if a cool wind were allowing it to fly up, but Daisuke didn't feel any wind.
"Ken chan..." He whispered. For a moment he thought Ken hadn't heard him, but Ken eventually turned around and wiped something wet off his cheek.
"Daisuke."
Daisuke stepped closer and breathing heavily, looked into Ken's deep blue eyes. It always amazed him how much seemed to be going on behind those sparkling sapphire gems.
"You did good... spotting that kid before any of us. He could have caught us by surprise."
"Thank you, but the Digimon would have felt it soon. They can sense things like that."
"So can you, it looks like."
Ken looked down and studied his shoes. Daisuke took his face in hand so he could still look into those bottomless eyes. The Jogress made him feel closer to him. He could feel how fast Ken's heart was beating. Perhaps because his own heart was doing the same.
Daisuke bit his lip, then plunged in. Ken barely had time to take a breath before his best friend was locked lip to lip with him, slowly tickling his soft upper lip with his tongue, then gently pushing farther within. Almost as if asking permission, Daisuke' tongue waited to be met with Ken's as they mutually massaged each other's mouths.
"Oh!" Ken pulled back with a fearful look on his face. Daisuke cringed.
"You okay?"
"I... oh, Daisuke chan." Ken sighed. "It's not that I don't want.... I just don't know what to do with that right now."
"Tell me you'll take me back." Daisuke insisted still holding Ken's face. "I was wrong. Please."
Ken pulled away and pensively put his hand to his lips. They felt... used.
"Let me think about this." He whispered, hesitantly turning and leaving Daisuke standing there alone. There he stood motionless looking at his friend and old lover walk away from him, and there was nothing he could really do about it.
"Daisuke chan."
He turned at the sound of Hikari's stern voice.
"Stop it." She said firmly but quietly, as she pushed back a branch to come closer.
"Stop what?" She was giving him a fierce look, but he sincerely didn't have the faintest what she was talking about. He rubbed his head waiting for her answer.
"Stop going after Ken chan. Leave him alone." Hikari replied. Daisuke could only stand there with his mouth open. He couldn't believe Hikari had just said that to him.
"B-but... I'm not going to give up that easily, Hikari chan!"
"Then get ready for a fight." She calmly turned to walk away. "We're friends, so I thought it would only be fair to let you know you have some strong competition. Plus, I've never broken his heart."
Daisuke was again rendered speechless, as the newly assertive Hikari left to join the others at the campsite.
"I guess love is worth fighting for to her." Daisuke told himself. He started moving, planning on going back to the camp himself. "But... it's worth fighting for to me too!"
"Are you alright, Ken chan?" Daisuke could hear Wormon speaking. He drew closer to the sound.
"I'm alright. I just have a lot on my mind. That's all."
"Your face is wet. Are you crying again?"
Ken stared ahead, hugging his knees. Daisuke looked closely at the form of his lover, shimmering, almost glowing. There had been water on his face before, like he had been splashed. "No. It's not tears. It's sea spray. From the ocean."
"But... there's no ocean around here."
"It doesn't matter. It's always there. I just hope it's there for me, and not someone else."
If you like, email me and let me know. I'm vain and like to know if yall like what I'm doing.