Ariana: Woohoo! I'm back again!

Daisuke: Don't you have homework to do?

Ariana: What's your point?

Takeru: Does this mean you'll finally clear my name?

Ariana: Well that all depends on you...

Takeru: But you're the author!

Ariana: I am, aren't I? Oh well...I'm actually supposed to be doing a reading assignment for class tomorrow but this was way more fun! Onto the story!

Daisuke: Ariana doesn't own Digimon or anything related to it!

Ariana: ::crying on her knees:: Why oh why?!!

Takeru: Hello? In serious need of some name clearing here...u.u ....... .......
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Takeru dragged himself up the stairs to his apartment. Two weeks had passed since the meeting at the pizza parlor. Since then, Daisuke hadn't been at the past two meetings. Takeru would be lying if he said this didn't worry him. The truth was he'd been thinking about the redhead more and more. He really hated whoever coined the phrase "absence makes the heart grow fonder." It had started to get to the point that soon Takeru wouldn't be able to deny that he...well, that his feelings toward the boy had drastically changed.

That was what made him finally talk to Hikari. He had just spent the past hour explaining to her that they would never be more than friends. He couldn't answer when she asked why. The conversation hadn't ended well and she was pissed at him. Though he really couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. He knew he couldn't stand it anymore. Every time she latched onto his arm he got extremely uncomfortable. He really just didn't want to deal with her flirting anymore.

He sighed as he opened the door to his apartment. It had been a long day. Daisuke hadn't showed up to school and for some reason that worried him.

"Hey Takeru!"

He jumped. "Yamato! What are you doing here?"

His brother raised an eyebrow. "Glad to see I'm still welcomed here," he said sarcastically. "Remember, our weekly dinner?"

Takeru repressed the urge to slap his head. Of course, Tuesday nights were when he and Yamato got together for dinner. It was their way of staying in touch. With all that had been going on he had forgotten. "Sorry," he smiled. "It's been a long day."

Yamato shrugged. "No problem. I don't mind that I'm no longer loved. I'll just take my pasta and garlic bread and go on my way." He faked a sniff.

Takeru laughed and shook his head. "You're such a drama queen." Yamato frowned and threw a pot holder at him. Takeru laughed again. A fight began, in which Takeru and Yamato began throwing pot holders and oven mitts at each other. Their game was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Expecting visitors?" asked Yamato.

Takeru shook his head and opened the door. He came face to face with Ken. He blinked. "Hi Ken."

Ken stared at him. "We need to talk."

Takeru's stomach began to knot. He had a bad feeling about this. He looked at Yamato and back at Ken. "Can it wait? I mean Yamato's here and it's not really a good time..."

Ken shook his head. "No it can't. I would have talked to you sooner but things got a little crazy the past couple of weeks. Look, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important."

He hesitantly let the boy in.

"Hi Ken! How are you?" asked Yamato politely.

Ken smiled at him. "Fine thanks. How about you? Heard you had a great party recently." Why did he have to bring up the party?

Yamato laughed. "Yeah, a couple weeks ago. Hey, why didn't you show up?"

"Other commitments," he said vaguely.

Yamato nodded. He looked between the two boys. "I'm gonna go use the bathroom," he announced and walked down the hall.

The tension in the room thickened. Takeru took a deep breath and turned to Ken. "What was so important?"

Ken glared at him. "It's about Daisuke."

Takeru paled. "What about him?"

"I talked to him, about Saturday."

Takeru backed up and shook his head. "No, no! I don't want to talk about it." He turned only to be pulled back around.

Ken narrowed his eyes. "I didn't ask if you wanted to talk about it."

Takeru yanked his arm away. "I knew it. I knew he wouldn't keep his mouth shut. How many people know? Did he send you to try to make it better? Well it's not working." He was scared, but covered it with anger.

Ken clenched his fists. "You are an idiot. He hasn't told anyone. I had to force it out of him. He doesn't even know I'm here. I'm only here because I hate what you're doing to my best friend!"

Takeru blinked. "He didn't tell anyone?"

Ken sighed. "What do you think happened Saturday night?"

Takeru froze. What did he think? How could he ask that? Why was he even talking about this? He wasn't there. It wasn't his damn business!

Ken shook his head. "Never mind. I'm going to tell you what really did happen. Your brother asked Daisuke to look after you if he found you. When he finally did, you were too drunk to take to your own home, so he took you to his place. He called your mom and let you sleep in his bed."

Takeru blinked. "Wait. You mean...he didn't...we didn't..." He shook his head. "But we woke up in the same bed!"

Yamato chose this time to walk back into the room. He gave his brother a funny look. "Do I even want to know?" Takeru blushed.

Ken ignored Yamato and looked at Takeru as if he was an idiot. "He fell asleep looking after you. If it weren't for Daisuke who knows what could have happened to you!"

Yamato looked between the two of them. "What's going on here?"

"Your brother is an idiot." Yamato raised an eyebrow.

"Well what was I supposed to think!" Takeru shouted. He was getting a headache.

"It's not what you thought; it's how you handled it. You should have given him a chance to explain. You should have talked about it. Then we wouldn't be in this mess."

Yamato finally figured out what was going on, which was pretty amazing seeing as the two boys weren't being very helpful. "You mean you actually thought that you two..." He started laughing.

Takeru felt his face grow hot. "Shut up. It's not funny."

"Yes it is!" Takeru glared at his brother. "But seriously, Daisuke? He would never do something like that."

"Maybe a sober Daisuke wouldn't." Takeru was trying every way possible to defend himself.

"He wasn't drunk. In fact, I don't think he had anything. That's why I asked him to look after you, I knew he would."

Takeru stared at his brother. It was beginning to make sense. The only reason he would have gone home with Daisuke was if he had been extremely drunk, which he had been. The only reason Daisuke would have gone looking for him was if Yamato had asked him to. The only reason Yamato would have asked him was because he was sober. But still... "How did you know? Me and Daisuke aren't exactly the best of friends. I'm surprised he didn't just drop me somewhere." Ken glared at him.

Yamato smiled. "Daisuke isn't one to break promises. Besides, he cares."

"Yeah," muttered Ken. "Enough to get socked in the face."

Takeru looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

"How do you think he got the bruise on his face?"

"He ran into a pole. You were there when he told us." Takeru knew it was a lie, but how much did these people expect him to take?

"If you believe that, then you're stupider than I thought."

Takeru flinched. "Then how did he get it?"

"When Daisuke found you, you were with some guy. Daisuke thought you were too drunk to really know what you were doing, but the guy wanted to keep you at the party. Daisuke tried to force him away and the guy punched him."

"Keep me at the party?" Takeru's head was swimming.

"That means he wanted you." Yamato winked and laughed as Takeru took on the impression of a fish. "He took on a drunk for you? Now that's love."

Love? Takeru couldn't take much more of this. If only he hadn't panicked and had actually talked to Daisuke. Or better yet, if only he hadn't gotten so drunk. If he were too be perfectly honest though, the thought of waking up next to Daisuke wasn't so bad. That's what scared him the most. This feeling that he had tried to suppress for the past couple months had surfaced that morning. He panicked at the situation and the feelings it brought. He hadn't been ready to deal with it. He still wasn't sure that he was.

"So are we okay now?" he vaguely heard Ken ask.

"Huh?"

"Can I tell Daisuke that this is all sorted out? He's convinced himself that you hate him and that his life is now ruined." Ken shut his mouth fast, almost as if he said something he shouldn't have.

Takeru was pretty sure he was missing something here. "Why would he think I hate him?" Ken stared at him.

Yamato shook his head. "You really are an idiot."

Takeru frowned. What was he missing? Daisuke always started the fights. He was the one that tried to make Takeru look stupid. He was the one that started the competition over Hikari.

Then he remembered. Hikari had asked him to help her get rid of Daisuke. He could understand, even he was getting irritated by Daisuke's attempts to hit on her. That was when the fights really got bad. Slowly, the fights became less about Hikari. Now that he thought about it, they hadn't fought over Hikari for over a year. Daisuke had stopped hanging out with them, constantly making excuses for his absences when they hung out. That was one of the reasons Miyako had started the Monday ritual. Yeah the group teased him a lot, but Daisuke never seemed to mind...

Takeru thought about the past few months. Looking back, he could see that the redhead began taking their teasing to the heart. Or maybe he always had, but now his mask couldn't hold up. The realization hit him hard. Daisuke had always taken the ridicule with a stupid grin or a snappy comeback. Now he realized it was all an act. That meant that these things had been eating at him for years. Takeru also realized that Daisuke had been wearing wristbands for the past year. He gasped as the reality hit him.

Yamato and Ken were staring at him. "Do you mean to tell me," asked Ken, "that you honestly didn't realize what was going on?"

Takeru absently shook his head. "Ken, have you noticed Daisuke's wristbands?"

Ken sighed. "Yes," he said reluctantly. "But it wasn't a battle I wanted to fight at the moment. There were other things that had to be taken care of first."

"Like what?"

Ken looked at him, seemingly struggling with an answer. He was just about to open his mouth when his phone rang.

Daisuke sat at the kitchen table, staring at the knife in his hands. His wristbands were off, and his arms displayed an array of scars, some new, some old. The new ones outnumbered the old ones, proving how hard the past two weeks had been for him. He was absolutely sure Takeru hated him now. The blonde avoided him like the plague. Last Monday they had been paired together in class, and Takeru had tried to speak as little as possible to him. That was when Daisuke decided he couldn't do the Monday rituals anymore. It hurt too much to watch him and Hikari flirt. He had convinced himself that something was going on between the two of them. He had also decided that he was only at the Monday meetings out of obligation. He was a digidestined, they had to invite him. Well, he wasn't going to be a problem for them anymore. He briefly thought of Ken, but decided he'd be better off without him. He knew his friend worried about him, and if he was gone all that stress would be taken away. With his mind made up, Daisuke pushed away from the table. He closed his eyes and drew the blade across his wrist. He quickly exchanged hands and did the same to the other wrist. He watched as the blood freely flowed. It wasn't long before he started feeling dizzy. He distantly heard the phone ring before he fell into darkness.
Ken answered his phone. "Hello."

"Hi, Ken, it's Jun."

Ken blinked. "Jun?" Yamato and Takeru watched him. He shrugged. What was she calling him for?

"Yeah. Is Daisuke with you?"

"No..." said Ken puzzled. "Should he be?"

"He's not? Maybe he's sleeping...He stayed home sick from school today. I just called to check up on him but he didn't answer. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't with you. I know he's probably sleeping, but could you just go over and check. I just have a weird feeling..."

Ken suddenly got the chills. "Yeah, no problem. I'll head over there right now." He said goodbye and hung up the phone. "Jun called the house and Daisuke's not answering. She wants me to go check on him."

Yamato nodded. "I'll give you a ride." Ken smiled his thanks.

"I'll come too," said Takeru. "That way we can get this thing sorted out, without any misunderstanding."

Ken nodded. He just hoped it was in time...but he wouldn't think that way.

The ride to the apartment was a silent one. Ken didn't want to voice his concern aloud. By the nervousness in the car though, Ken knew the other two felt something was up. He really didn't like the fact that Jun had called. She wasn't generally one to get paranoid. If she had a bad feeling, that was enough to convince Ken something was wrong.

They pulled up in front of the apartment, and Ken led the way up. He knocked on Daisuke's door but there was no answer. He tried the door and it was unlocked. As he opened the door he covered his mouth to keep from screaming.

"Oh my god," he heard Yamato say behind him.

On the floor of the dining room was Daisuke, lying in a pool of blood. A cutting knife lay close to his hand. Ken ran to his friend and grabbed his wrists. "Get me some towels and call an ambulance!"

The two blondes moved quickly. Yamato dialed the ambulance from his cell phone and Takeru ran to the bathroom. When he returned, Ken wrapped the towels around Daisuke's wrists and pressed on them. He silently prayed that Daisuke would hold on and that the ambulance would hurry up and get here. He felt something wet fall on his arm and looked up. Takeru was crying. ....... .......
.....

Takeru: Nooooooooooo!!!!!!

Daisuke: You...you killed me!

Ariana: No I didn't...yet.

Daisuke: What do you mean by that? Why do you always make me suffer!

Ariana: I won't say anything cuz it'll give away the story. And I don't always make you suffer...

Daisuke: Name a time that you haven't.

Ariana: Uhhh....

Daisuke: See!

Ariana: Purely coincidental.

Takeru: My poor Daisuke! ::cries::

Ariana: Guys...u.u; Well anyway, thanx to everyone who's reviewed and has been keeping up with the story. I'm not sure how long it'll be til the next update but I'll try to make it soon. Til then, click the "review" button. You know you want to.

Daisuke: Will you save me?

Takeru: Will you clear my name?

Ariana: It really just depends on my mood...

D&T: Review people! Review!