Ken looked up from his essay at a knock on the door. He frowned and went back to work. His parents could get it. He groaned as another knock sounded. He saved what he had typed and got up to answer the door. He noticed a pink slip of paper on the door that informed him that his parents had gone to visit his grandparents and would be back in a few days. He now vaguely remembered them mentioning the trip. With a sigh he opened the door.

"Daisuke?"

"Hey," his friend greeted with a forced smile.

Ken frowned. "What's wrong?"

Daisuke pushed past and into the apartment. "Why do you always assume something is wrong?"

"Because something always is," he answered, pushing the door closed.

Daisuke flopped down onto the couch. "Why do I even try?" he muttered.

Ken ignored him and sat down. "What's up?"

Daisuke sighed. "I saw my mom."

Ken blinked. "You actually went to see her?"

Daisuke snorted. "No. I saw her at the aquarium."

"You went to the aquarium?" He received a pointed look. "Sorry. Did she say anything to you?"

He shook his head. "She didn't see me."

Ken hummed thoughtfully. "What was she doing at the aquarium?"

Daisuke turned red, from anger or embarrassment, Ken couldn't tell. "She was with a guy."

Ken stared at his friend in shock. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, finally deciding to just stay silent.

"He was our age Ken," Daisuke finally added. "She was flirting with him and then she kissed him in public!"

Ken shut his mouth tight. He had no idea what to say. He had no words of comfort for his friend's situation this time. "I'm sorry Dai," he tried.

Ken paused as he heard a knock on the door. "I better get that," he said apologetically. Daisuke just nodded. Ken side and stood up to answer the door. He opened door to find a young woman with brown curly hair pulled back into a ponytail and worried brown eyes. "Can I help you?" he asked politely. He had no idea who this woman was.

"You must be Ken," she said with a smile. "My name's Sachi. I'm one of Daisuke's friends from school."

Ken thought for a minute, then smiled. "Yes, I remember him mentioning you."

"Well I hope it was all good!" she chuckled. Her eyes shifted to over Ken's shoulder. "Is he here?"

"Why, what's wrong?" He then noticed that Yamato, Takeru, and Hikari were all hiding behind Sachi. He narrowed his eyes and turned to look over his shoulder to Daisuke. "I'll be right back, okay?" He heard a muffled reply before walking through the door and closing it behind him. "What's going on?" he demanded.

Hikari stepped forward. "We're all here for an intervention."

His eyes widened. "An intervention?" he asked, surprised. "He's not on drugs!"

Hikari sighed. "Not that kind of intervention. The kind of intervention where we all let Daisuke know that we're his friends and we care about him. And that keeping things from us not only hurts us, but hurts him as well."

Ken nodded. He then turned to the other three. "How do all of you know about this?" he asked suspiciously.

"He told me when we went to the mall earlier," said Sachi defensively.

Ken nodded. "And you two?"

"I told Takeru," said Hikari, looking down.

Ken was about to open his mouth but Takeru jumped to her defense. "I could tell something was eating her up. She's my best friend and I was worried. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."

"But you told your brother?" Ken accused.

"I felt he needed to know since he lives with him."

"I'd already guessed most of it," added Yamato.

"Look, Ken," said Takeru. "We all care about Daisuke, and we're all worried. I know he seems to be away from most of the problems now, but that kind of stuff doesn't just go away. He needs to talk about it and he needs to trust his friends. I know you're doing your best to be there for him, but eventually it's going to become too much for you to handle by yourself."

Ken studied him for a moment. Then he sighed. "I forgot you were a psychology major." Takeru just raised an eyebrow. He sighed again. "All right, but don't be surprised if he doesn't take this kindly."

He opened the door and walked into his living room, motioning the others to follow him. His best friend was still sitting on the couch, hugging a pillow and staring at the opposite wall. "Daisuke?" Ken called tentatively.

Daisuke looked up. His eyes went wide as he noticed the others. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Helping you," said Sachi, arms crossed.

He glared. He looked between Sachi, Hikari, and Ken. "I trusted you guys." He moved to get up but Ken moved quickly and forced back down on the couch.

"Daisuke, stop this!" he demanded, hands still on Daisuke's shoulders. "Stop running away! It doesn't solve anything and it won't help you."

Daisuke glared at his best friend. "I told you not to tell anyone," he hissed.

"And he didn't," said Sachi. "You told Hikari, Ken and I separately. Yamato had already guessed most of it. Hikari confided to Takeru because it was a lot for her to take in. Takeru saw this and forced it out of her." She glanced at the younger blonde. "I won't tell you what I think of psychologists." Takeru just shrugged.

Hikari sat down beside Daisuke. "Listen, none of us want to hurt you. We're sick of seeing you hurt, that's why we're here. Stop closing up and let us help you."

"I didn't ask you to," Daisuke protested.

"You don't have to," said Yamato. "And don't think this is pity either. I asked you to move in with me because I needed a roommate I could live with, not because I felt sorry for you. I told you my story, and I told you how things didn't turn around until I finally let Taichi help me. Your situation isn't exactly the same, but it's similar enough for you to have gained something from."

"Yamato's right," said Sachi. "We've talked about this before. You can't handle everything by yourself. Remember when Tama's grades started falling because her uncle died but she hadn't told anyone? You were the one that yelled at her about friendship! Don't be a hypocrite."

Daisuke glanced at all his friends. "But I'm not keeping it all in."

"Yeah, but you're not letting it all out either," said Ken.

Hikari took one of Daisuke's hands. "Why won't you let us care about you?"

Daisuke turned to her. "What do you mean?" He glanced at their clasped hands.

Hikari blushed but didn't let go. "Daisuke, I—" She paused and looked down, embarrassed.

Ken moved his hands from Daisuke's shoulders and shared a glance with Sachi. "Let's go," he mouthed, getting up.

Sachi nodded and turned to her cousins. "That's our cue to leave," she whispered. As silently as they could, the four of them left the apartment.

Daisuke vaguely heard the door close, but was still focused on the fact that Hikari was holding his hand. What was going on here?"

Hikari sighed and he looked up. "Daisuke," she started again. "I…I guess…you know I like you?"

Daisuke raised an eyebrow. "Considering you cornered me at work and wouldn't leave me alone until I told you what was going on…yeah, I kind of figured. You're one of my closest friends."

She sighed. She knew Daisuke wasn't that dense, but she forgot how stubborn he could be when he wanted to. "That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

She grabbed his other hand so he had to look at her. "I mean that I like you." She smiled slightly at his shocked expression. She dropped his hands and stood up, fidgeting. With a deep breath she mustered up all her courage to confess how she felt. "I don't know when, I guess I've always kind of liked you. But it wasn't until high school when I realized just how much I liked having you around. And then when you left…" She took another breath to keep from choking up. "When you just disappeared I thought I'd never see you again. I thought maybe you didn't want to see me again." She paused. "I didn't understand why I was so torn. I was really hurt. When you showed up at the picnic I was so happy. But then I noticed something was different, and I wanted know why you had disappeared last year. I realized something was wrong and wanted to help. I had this dream…. You died, and Ken blamed me. It was then I knew I had to do something."

She paused again. "It was Takeru that finally knocked some sense into me," she continued, smiling. "It was the same night I told him everything, and I am truly sorry about that. He has a tendency to get anything out of me, but he's usually good about not telling anyone else. Well, anyway, he told me I worried too much about you. He made me realized that you're not just my friend, but that I really do like you." She stopped and chanced a look at her friend.

He was looking at her strangely. "But aren't you and Takeru…I thought you guys…everyone knows you're meant for each other!"

Hikari snorted. "Please, Takeru is so—" She stopped herself. "We're just really good friends."

Daisuke mumbled under his breath. He was going to have to kill Ken and Sachi quickly, before they had a chance to gloat about being right. Well, Ken wasn't one to gloat, but Sachi definitely would. After making that decision he noticed Hikari was watching him. "What?"

She sighed, but looked down at her shoes, suddenly embarrassed. "I know you used to like me, and I know I wasn't exactly nice about it. I'm not proud of myself during that time. It was the one time I let something get to my head and I didn't realize how much it must have hurt you."

Daisuke shrugged. "I got over it."

She looked at him sadly. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Daisuke looked at her strangely. "What do you…?" He stopped as he thought back over what he said. "That's not what I meant!" He slapped his hand to his forehead and Hikari chuckled. "I mean, I came on a little strong. I could understand how I could be annoying."

"Even still…" said Hikari, eyes downcast. She shook her head and looked back up. "Can we go back to that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Back to when you liked me?"

Daisuke stood up and took her hand. "I never stopped."


Sachi watched Ken as the group walked away from the building. She hurried up beside him. "What's eating you?" she asked quietly.

Ken looked up, startled. He smiled grimly. "Nothing, just can't believe I got kicked out of my own house."

Sachi laughed. "Technically you left willingly."

He shrugged. "Either way it's the same result."

She smiled. "You're a good friend, you know that?" He looked at her quizzically. "You've stuck by him through all of this. I know it had to be hard keeping all of his secrets. They were pretty big problems, and it had to be tough for you not knowing how to help him. But no matter how much he placed on your shoulders, you never let him down. You never betrayed his trust to tell anyone. Not even Hikari did that." She received a raised eyebrow. "She can't replace you."

Ken started. "I didn't say anything like that!"

"But you were thinking it." It was a statement. He glared at her. She rolled her eyes. "I'll take that as a 'you hit the nail on the head.'" Ken turned away from her and quickened his pace. "Whoa there genius!"

He paused and looked at her strangely. "What did you call me?"

"Uh," she smiled at him innocently, but she could tell he didn't buy it. "Sorry, Daisuke always called you that. Guess you didn't know about it huh?" She laughed nervously at his surprised expression. "Hey, you know what'll cheer you up? A huge ice cream sundae big enough for a group of four." She turned around. "Hey boys?" Her cousins looked up from their conversation. "Where's the nearest ice cream shop?"

Sachi dragged the group to a "pick me up sundae," leaving behind a young woman and a young man who had finally found that thing called love. The romance that just a few months ago Daisuke would have claimed was nonexistence. The start of a relationship that would perhaps get him to believe, and hope, again. Those shadows of his life that he had succumbed to so easily were now being chased away by a new light. As the new couple shared their first kiss, Daisuke thought that perhaps life wasn't so bad after all.

A/N: And there you have folks. It's finally done. I'm rather proud of myself actually.

Ti: Took you long enough.

Ariana: Don't get me started! Well, as always, please review. And keep a look out for the epilogue. It should be up in the next couple of days. Now I shall go recover from this corny crap Ti made me write...

Ti: I enjoy my job.