A/N: My best friend's grandpa is sick with cancer, and the doctor's are only giving him a month. So if you all can keep her family in your thoughts I would appreciate it.
Disclaimer: I have never, do not currently, and will never own Digimon. I think that covers all my bases.
Onto the story!
"Speaking"
flashback
Ken stared down at his phone, debating with himself. It had been over a week since Daisuke had been home, but he hadn't called yet. How did Ken know he was home then, you might ask. Ken had important dates like that penciled in on his calendar. It wasn't that he expected Daisuke to call him the minute he got in, but he had been hoping he'd get a phone call by now.
Ken dazed off, thinking about his best friend. Daisuke had certainly changed over the years. He was more mature than the goggle-head boy that had saved the digital world years ago. Daisuke still had his moments, but his acceptance into most of the colleges he applied to was testimony to his capabilities. The year away at college had done him good as well.
Not all of the changes had been good though. Somewhere around freshman year of high school, Ken had noticed a change in Daisuke's attitude. Around the others he still wore a mask of carefree happiness, but the key to Daisuke's true feelings were his eyes. And Ken had only seen the return of that sparkle that was Daisuke a few times that year. It had now been permanently absent for over two years. None of the others seemed to notice, but Ken didn't blame them. By then each member of their little circle had been designated a certain "position" in the group. Daisuke was supposed to be the arrogant, klutzy, and eternally happy person. As long as he acted like that, no one had reason to complain. Ken, however, knew that person had been gone a long time ago.
It wasn't until senior year that anyone noticed anything. Daisuke began distancing himself from the group, making excuses to avoid hanging out after school. By second semester, he rarely ate lunch with them. Ken of course knew why. That was when the divorce happened, and Daisuke really hadn't taken it well. It was hard to keep up the facade when he was hurting so much on the inside. Nobody knew about the divorce aside from Ken. There was a lot of speculation among the group, especially when he straight out avoided everyone the following summer. Still, only Hikari had actually come up to Ken to ask what was up with their leader. Ken couldn't remember what excuse he'd given her.
Only Hikari and Takeru seemed to be interested in what had happened to the brunette this year. Hikari had said Taichi was wondering what happened to his protégé as well. Takeru hadn't been expecting Daisuke to keep in touch with him, but Hikari had been surprised when she received no emails or phone calls. Just last week Ken had to assure the child of light that Daisuke didn't hate her. He had told her that he was probably just busy with college.
The truth was that, at least where the others were concerned, Daisuke had dropped off the face of the planet. At some point during the summer, when Daisuke had gotten sick of Ken pestering him, he had admitted to purposely avoiding everyone. When he went off to college, he changed his email and his phone number, forbidding Ken to give it out. Ken had reluctantly agreed, wondering what had happened to his friend.
It wasn't until winter break that Ken got some hint as to what was going on. Ken had surprised Daisuke by stopping by his apartment after work.
Ken pushed by a blinking Daisuke into the apartment. He went straight toward the kitchen looking for a snack. They both went to each other's places so often that this had become habit. He opened the fridge to find it almost completely empty. He blinked and looked to Daisuke, who was leaning sadly on the doorway.
"You finally did it. You actually cleaned out the fridge," Ken said jokingly.
"Yeah..." Daisuke fidgeted and looked away. Ken had seen something flash across his friends face, but he couldn't quite place it.
"Dai, what's wrong?"
Daisuke shook his head and walked out of the kitchen. Ken followed him into his room. Daisuke sat on his bed and put his head in his hands. Ken noticed his shoulders shaking. He lent down in front of the boy. "Daisuke?"
Ken soon found his arms full of a sobbing Daisuke.
It was the only time they got to see each other over break. That night he had found out that Daisuke was suffering from depression and had been off and on since high school. Ken leaned his head on his hand as he thought about how he could have missed that. His only conclusions were that either Daisuke was an incredibly good actor, or he was a horrible friend. He didn't particularly like either one.
He knew now that Daisuke's dad was never home, and that he and Jun had been surviving off of take out. Ken had seen Jun recently, and she hadn't looked too good. That's partly why he was worried now. He was afraid that the next time he saw his friend he'd look the same way. Decided, he picked up the phone. Just as he was beginning to dial, the doorbell rang.
Ken sighed and let the phone fall to the table. He walked to the door and opened it to find Daisuke standing there. Ken smiled. "Hey! I was just about to call you." He noticed tears building in his friend's eyes and his smile faded.
"My grandpa's in the hospital."
Ken pulled Daisuke into the apartment and led him to the couch. After making sure the brunette sat down he ran into the kitchen and grabbed the brownies his mom had just made and two glasses of milk. He set everything down on the coffee table and sat next to Daisuke. "What happened?" he asked quietly.
Daisuke took a deep breath and let it out. "Remember a few years ago when he got cancer?" Ken nodded. "Well, it's back. And it's worse. He's not responding to any treatments. They're only giving him a few weeks."
Ken frowned in sympathy. "I'm sorry, Dai." Daisuke nodded. "Is there anything I can do?"
Daisuke smiled bitterly. "Not unless you're hiding secret life-giving powers that I don't know about."
Ken shook his head sadly, remembering wishing for the same thing years ago. "Hardly."
Daisuke glanced at him. "Sorry."
Ken brushed it aside. "Don't worry about it. While I don't have powers, I do have brownies and milk." He watched his friend.
Daisuke chuckled and picked up a brownie. "You know me too well."
"So how was second semester?" Ken asked while picking up his own brownie and successfully changing the subject.
Daisuke smiled for real this time. "It went well. Better than last semester. I know I passed all my finals. I just wish it didn't have to end. I mean, I'm glad classes are done for a couple of months, but I'm really gonna miss Dan and everyone. I just don't have friends like that here." He paled as he realized what he just said. "I mean, not like, you--"
Ken laughed. "I'm not offended. I know what you're trying to say."
Daisuke shrugged. "I just don't have a group like that."
"You used to," Ken said carefully, taking a sip of his milk.
Daisuke shook his head. "Nobody ever really knew me. They wanted to see a cheerful Daisuke that didn't care when he messed up and got teased about it. So that's what I showed them."
Ken decided not to expand on that. It was a topic of many arguments. "People have been asking about you."
"What people?"
"Mostly Takeru and Hikari."
Daisuke sighed. "The two people I least want to see."
"They're not dating. They never have."
"They're in denial."
Ken shook his head. "Well anyway, there's a reunion in a couple weeks."
"That's pretty far into the summer."
"They wanted to give people time to get jobs and work out schedules and all that." He gave him a pointed look.
Daisuke caught it. "I'm not going."
"Are you planning to avoid them forever?" Daisuke shrugged. "You can't keep hiding behind your job you know. That's asking for trouble in the future."
Daisuke looked at him, puzzled. "How so?"
"Workaholic much?"
Daisuke rolled his eyes. "Well, I can't anyway. I don't work there anymore."
Ken gasped. "What? They fired you?"
Daisuke laughed. "No way! Like they would. They went out of business, but my manager knew someone who was looking for a summer employee. I now work front desk at a job resource center. Ironic huh?"
Ken shook his head in amusement. "At least you have a job though. That could've been bad." He frowned as he realized something. "Don't change the subject! How do you plan to avoid this one forever?"
Daisuke glared at his friend. "I'm thinking on it. I've succeeded for a year now. It shouldn't be that hard.
Ken sighed. "Look, I'm not going to force you to go. I just think it would be nice for you to see everyone again. You're not the only one that's changed." Ken paused but Daisuke refused to respond. "Just give it a chance. If you still think you'd rather not associate with them I won't bother you anymore."
Daisuke gave him a look that said 'Yeah right.' "I'll think about it okay?"
Ken drank the rest of his milk. "I guess that's good enough."
They were interrupted by Daisuke's cell phone. He gave Ken an apologetic look and answered it. "Hey Jun, what's up? … What? … Okay, I'll be right over. … All right. Bye." He hung up the phone and looked sadly at Ken. "My grandpa's getting worse. I need to get to the hospital."
Ken looked at his friend's face, and realized Daisuke was asking for help. He would never admit it allowed, but he was scared. "Do you want me to come with you?" Ken tried to hide how much he shook as he asked that question. He hated hospitals. They brought back to many memories. But the smile in Daisuke's eyes when he nodded was worth it.
I know I'm being cruel so I won't keep you in suspense for much longer. It looks like this is going to be a Daikari. ducks thrown vegetables I know some of you were hoping for something else, but before you kill me, I did leave this open to votes. And Daikari won. So don't blame me!!!
