I'm back! Sorry about the wait. I hope you like this next chapter.

Sorry about any mistakes I missed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

One World Away From Darkness

Chapter 10: Biology Partners

Ken Ichijouji

Ken hurried into biology class, gasping for breath, just as the final bell rang. He let out a sigh of relief. Finally! At least something has gone right for me today! Well...almost. He flinched under Mr.Ono's dirty glance and meekly shuffled over to his seat.

"Dude, Where were you?" Davis asked, sounding surprised. "I'm the one who's always suppose to be late."

Ken barely heard him and did not reply. His violet eyes were glued to T.K.'s handsome face. Does he have any idea of what I had witnessed in that bathroom? Does he know that I was in there? That thought made him tremble, and he all but fell into the seat across from his blond friend and beside Kari.

T.K. was currently staring out the window beside their table and seemed completely oblivious of his stare. This did not make him breath any easier. If anything, it made him even more nervous.

"Alright," Mr. Ono said loudly, waving a hand to get everyone's attention. "I want you all to copy the note on the board that I'm going to write down, and then I want you to do questions one to ten in your textbooks."

Ken quickly opened his textbook and managed to stifle a yawn. Last night had been filled with nightmares and little sleep. He knew he looked terrible, but there was not really anything he could do about it.

"You didn't answer my question. Where were you all this time?" Davis asked, turning to T.K. He was seated next to the blond and poked T.K. in the arm to get the other boy's attention.

T.K. shrugged and lowered his troubled gaze to the table. Ken immediately felt a wave of concern for his friend. Why is he so upset?

"Fine!" Davis huffed. The goggled headed leader turned to him instead. "Alright, Ken. Where have you been?"

"Bathroom," he said quickly, without thinking.

T.K.'s biology textbook hit the floor with a loud smack, and Ken jumped at the noise.

Startled, he looked up and found T.K. staring at him with wide frightened eyes. He realized what he had said and felt his heart stop. I didn't just say that, did I? I did! I just admitted to T.K. that I'd been in the bathroom with him! Now he's going to know that I heard everything he had said! Feeling horrified, he quickly averted his eyes from his blond friend. T.K. was going to think he had been eavesdropping and hate him forever. But I hadn't been! It was an accident! Unfortunately T.K. probably would not see it that way. Another thought struck him, and he felt his blood run cold. What if T.K. had been talking about me and now he knows that I know!

"You couldn't have been!" T.K. blurted, and to Ken's surprise, his friend's face turned pink. "I was alone in there! I know I was! Otherwise I wouldn't have said-" T.K. abruptly broke off and hastily picked up his textbook. The blond avoided everyone's eyes and quickly began to flip through the pages of his book.

Ken stared at him in shock. He had never seen T.K. act so strange before. Why is he acting so frightened? Is he afraid of me, or is he afraid of what I might have heard? Why is he blushing? T.K. never blushes unless Yolei and Kari are giggling over how good-looking he is. T.K. admitted in the bathroom that something was wrong with him. It looks like I'm not the only one who's hiding something. That thought frightened him, and he quickly opened his textbook to keep his hands from shaking. There was something very strange going on, and he had a horrible feeling it was going to make T.K. despise him even more than he already did.

"I used the one upstairs on my way to the library," he said hesitantly, carefully choosing his words. "I was going to get some books for a project." How could I have just lied to him like that? No wonder T.K. doesn't want to be friends with me. I don't deserve his friendship. There was nothing he could do about it now. Instead, he swallowed his guilt, which felt like a stone settling in his heart, and turned his face away from T.K.'s penetrating gaze.

"Why does it matter which bathroom he used?" Davis asked, eyeing T.K. with suspicion.

"It doesn't," T.K. mumbled, but there was unmistakable relief in his eyes.

Ken felt the huge lump of guilt inside him grow larger. The thought that T.K. could be afraid of him made his heart ache.

Davis and Kari exchanged a look. It was plain that the pair did not believe T.K. for a minute, but neither one seemed egar to press the issue.

They both turned to look at him, and he blushed. Both Kari and Davis would have to be stupid not to realize that there was something going on between himself and T.K. Neither one of them was stupid, and he had a feeling it was only a matter of time before they made it their own personal mission to figure out what it was that had T.K. and himself on edge. It was a disaster waiting to happen, but thankfully, this time, Kari and Davis stayed silent. But what exactly is going on between myself and T.K.? Even I don't know! That, more than anything, he wanted to understand. Unfortunately that sort of thing had never stopped Davis and Kari before. They'll probably know before I do. It was a bitter thought.

"T.K., aren't you going to write down the note?" Kari asked, watching him with concern.

T.K., who had been staring out the window again, blinked and turned towards the table. "Huh? Oh...right."

The blond quickly began to write down the note, and Ken watched him with a sort of awed fascination. He had never seen T.K. so rattled before. Ever since he had known T.K., his friend had always been so in control of his emotions. Not like me. Had his presence really affected T.K. that much? He smiled at the thought and Davis's voice rang in his ears.

"Ken, dude, aren't you going to write down the note, too? Even I'm writing it down, and I don't do homework!"

He blushed and quickly pulled out a sheet of paper. He could feel Davis's eyes on him, and he made a point of ignoring his best friend.

"Ken?"

He looked up. Davis leaned across the table and touched his arm. His friend's dark eyes were full of concern and uneasiness. "Hey, Ken," he said slowly. "You know you can tell me anything. If there's something wrong..." Davis trailed off and gave him an uncertain look.

He felt his eyes fill with tears. Why do I always have to hurt everyone that I care about? Oh, Davis. You know I would tell you if I wasn't so afraid of losing you..."I know," he tried to say, but his voice came out barely above a whisper. If Davis knew he was suffering from the darkness, maybe this time his friend would not be so willing to stick around. If darkness claims me, I'll lose my friends forever.

T.K. suddenly glanced between the two of them his face a mask of emotion. "Davis," he said quietly. "I envy you sometimes. You really don't know how lucky you are."

Davis stared at T.K. in shock. He appeared to have lost his ability to speak. Kari blinked at T.K. in surprise, and Ken felt his face heat up. What exactly is T.K. getting at? Wait. Does this have something to do with me? T.K. never gets jealous of Davis! Usually it's the other way around! The thought stunned him into silence and a small spark of hope welled up inside of him.

Davis finally got his voice box back and glanced between himself and T.K. "What do you mean?"

T.K. sighed, and his sparkling blue eyes filled with sudden sadness. "Nevermind," he muttered.

Davis fell silent and stared at the table. He seemed humbled by T.K.'s remark, and he kept glancing sideways at the blond with confusion.

Ken had never seen T.K. display so many emotions in front of him before. Am I the cause of his sadness? Could he really care about me after all?

"Alright," Mr. Ono said loudly, interrupting his thoughts. "You all have biology projects coming up, and I'm going to be picking your partners. You have two weeks to complete them, and I want your topics in by Monday with a completed outline for your project. We discussed possible topics last week so you know what you have to do."

"Why can't we pick our own partners?" a girl at the front complained loudly.

"Dude! You've got to be kidding me! We've got another project?" Davis shouted at the top of his lungs.

Ken gave his friend a sympathetic smile. Davis looked ready to cry.

"Be quiet, Mr.Motomiya!" Mr. Ono snapped. "You knew very well that we had projects coming up so don't act so surprised!" Clearing his throat loudly, Mr. Ono began to read off a list of names looking pleased with himself.

Ken tuned him out and gave Davis a disappointed look. Usually they got to pick their own partners, and he always went with Davis. The thought of being stuck with someone he did not know very well made his stomache flutter nervously. He hated being forced to make conversation with someone who knew nothing about him. It made him feel awkward and insecure. He looked up and spotted T.K. and Kari exchanging disappointed looks. Those two were always partners like Davis and himself were.

"He's enjoying this way too much," Davis whispered, watching the evil smile on Mr. Ono's face. The rest of the class was glaring at Davis convinced that this was a result of the frog fiasco and Ono's way of getting revenge.

Davis just stared defiantly back at them. That was one thing you could say for Davis. He never backed down no matter how much he screwed up.

"Mr. Motomiya."

Davis straightened up as Mr.Ono turned to him with an evil gleam in his eyes.

"Your partner will be Kari Kamiya."

Davis looked like he had been hit by a hurricane. "Are you serious?" His friend's eyes lit up with excitement.

Mr. Ono glared at him suspiciously and immediately Davis let out a loud groan. "I mean...that's so unfair! There's no way I want to work with her!"

Mr. Ono's face filled with a look of satisfaction. He was positively bursting with glee at his successful attempt to ruin Davis's day. The man could be totally clueless sometimes. The rest of their classmates were currently trying to stifle their laughs. They knew very well how Davis felt about Kari. Apparently the frog incident had been forgiven. Their hatred for Ono far surpassed their anger at Davis, and by staying silent about Kari, they could get back at their horrible teacher with a vengeance. Ono was sure to have a heart attack if he ever found out. No doubt someone would tell him after the projects were handed in and marked.

"Can you believe this?" Davis whispered, barely containing himself from jumping out of his seat with joy. "What an idiot!"

Ken was inclined to agree though he wasn't surprised. Ono was a miserable old bachelor who would not recognize love if his life depended on it.

"Isn't this great, Kari?" Davis whispered, smiling at her from across the table.

"Right," Kari replied, watching him warily.

"And here I thought I was going to be stuck with T.B.!"

T.K. gave him a dirty look and stared quietly at the table.

Ken sighed. He had a feeling T.K. was pretty upset that Kari had ended up with Davis.

"Hey, I'm just kidding," Davis said, reaching out to put an arm around T.K.

T.K. shrugged and managed a vague smile. His mind seemed to be somewhere else at the moment.

"Ken."

He jumped at the sound of his name and felt his heart sink. Great. What stranger am I going to end up with?

Mr. Ono looked at his attendance list and frowned. "You'll be paired with T.K. Takaishi."

Ken froze. He felt like an entire building had just come crashing down on top of him. He stared at Mr. Ono with his mouth hanging open. This can't be happening to me. This has to be another nightmare. We can't be partners! How will we even be able to communicate? We barely even speak to each other under regular circumstances! That, unfortunately, was not the worst of it. If he was T.K.'s partner, then that meant that he would have to spend a lot of time around his blond friend. What if he somehow gave away what was happening to him? T.K. obviously had some suspicions, and it was impossible to deny that anymore. What if he let something slip that would enable T.K. to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together. Their sorry excuse for a friendship would be ruined, and if that happened, he would never recover. Even though T.K. did not put that much effort into their friendship, he was desperate to hang onto any shred of it that was left. This biology project could prove to be the thing that broke the last thin threads holding their relationship together. He could not really explain how he knew that T.K.'s awareness of the situation would ruin things. It was just a feeling. T.K. had no love for darkness, and if his friend knew that even after all this time he still could not escape it, it would destroy his last chance of breaching the wall between them. The sound of his heartbeat roared in his ears, and despite his efforts not to look, his gaze fell on T.K. The thoughts running through his head were filled with pure terror.

T.K. slowly looked up at him. His friend's blue gaze was hard to read, but Ken could feel his friend's surprise at Ono's choice. Unfortunately he was not able to detect any other emotion.

The sound of the school bell ringing startled him, and he almost dropped his textbook which he had not realized that he was trying to shove into his bag.

"Davis, if you think for one second that I'm going to do all the work on this project forget it!" Kari said, frowning as she stood up.

"Is that what you think of me?" Davis put an arm around her and grinned. "So, your place or mine?"

Looking indignant, Kari pushed his arm away and stomped out of the room.

"Your place then?" Davis called out, running after her with a hopeful expression on his face.

Ken managed to shove his book into his bag with shaking hands and felt the first stabs of panic. They had left him alone with T.K. Davis had been so caught up in his own excitement that he had not even noticed who his best friend had been paired up with. Kari, too, had been so distracted by Davis that she had not realized a thing. He had to get out of there and fast.

He grabbed his backpack and stumbled away from his chair, but somehow T.K. had managed to circle the table and intercepted him before he had a chance to make his escape. T.K. caught his arm and he was forced to stop.

"Ken, listen," T.K. said softly, his blue gaze growing cloudy. "About this-"

Ken jerked his arm away, and T.K. broke off in mid sentence.

He could not stand it. He could not stand T.K. looking at him like that with such little expression. It was unnerving, and it terrified him more than any creature of darkness ever could.

"Don't," he whispered.

T.K.'s eyes filled with confusion, but Ken did not give him a chance to speak. His world felt like it was crumbling around him, and he was powerless to stop it. He did the only thing he could think of to escape. He ran. Unfortunately his terror went with him.

T.K. Takaishi

T.K. gazed after Ken with shock. What had Ken been trying to tell me? He had a strange feeling that Ken had been lying to him earlier. Had his friend really been in another bathroom like he claimed, or had Ken heard every word that he had said? If so, then Ken knew that there was something very wrong with him. Does Ken know I was talking about him? T.K. felt his heart sink. Of course Ken knew. Why else would he have run away? It explained everything. A deep sadness settled in his soul. Ken's strange behaviour was because of him. Now that Ken knew he was aware that there was something going on between them, his friend would never want to mend their friendship. I know there's something up with Ken, and he knows I know. Now that he's aware there's something going on with me, he's going to come to the same conclusion. They must be connected somehow, and if I knew what was up, I could understand better what's going on with him, too. But he doesn't want that, ever. Suddenly he knew exactly how Ken felt about him. His own friend was utterly afraid of him and there was nothing he could do about it.