A/N: Been a long while since Gaiden seen any updates. Well, never fear. I have something!

But, it's not written by yours truly. One of my collabs/beta-readers and long-time reader, LazerWulf, write this ficlet piece. Figured with Valkyrie Advent forthcoming, now would be a good time as any to release this from LazerWulf's vault. He's given me to go to post it.

And so, enjoy!

xxxxx

Kentori

Written by: LazerWulf

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It seemed like Kenta Kitagawa would be forever doomed to be stuck in the dreaded "friend zone". In fact, he had basically resigned himself to this fact. It's not like he had never had a crush before, though.

His first crush was Kimiko Nakatomi in 2nd grade. He had always been shy, so it had taken all his courage just to talk to her. The conversation went well enough, and pretty soon he found it easy to talk to her about things. He never told her how he felt, though he did tell his best friend Kazu. He found out later how much of a mistake that was.

To his credit, Kazu thought he was helping when he blurted out his secret to Kimiko. He figured that if Kenta didn't have the guts to tell Kimiko he liked her, then he would do it for him. Kimiko, however, didn't feel the same way, and things soon became awkward between them, so they just avoided each other. Kenta didn't blame Kazu for that, but he never did tell his friend about any of his other crushes.

After that, there was Jeri Katou, but she had a thing for Takato and then later Himura, so of course nothing ever came of that. Then there was Rika Nonaka, although that was more of a fearful admiration (she was, after all, the Digimon Queen). He had gotten over both of them eventually, and since he had never admitted his feelings to them, they were able to maintain at least a casual friendship.

There were a few others, none worth mentioning, and they all ended virtually the same way. Pretty soon, he had just stopped trying, and, amazingly, he started finding it much easier to talk to girls. He always kept it casual, though, never letting himself get too emotionally invested.

That is, until Kotori Ayami came along.

He had met Kotori briefly after the Rajita Invasion. He knew she was Himura's friend who had died, gone to work for Anubimon, and then came to help on a sort-of "special pass". She had gone back to the Underworld afterwards, but that was years ago, and then there she was, alive, thanks to Necromon's magic, and her only friend, her first love, in fact, had chosen someone else.

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"...I'm sorry," Himura said. Kenta saw him glance over towards where Jeri was standing, as if to remind himself why he was doing what he felt he had to.

"I... understand," Kotori replied. She gave Himura a smile, but Kenta had been on that side of the conversation enough times to tell that it was half-hearted.

As Himura headed back towards Jeri and the others, Kotori disappeared into a nearby alley, and Kenta followed. He knew, from experience, that she probably wanted to be alone, but that same experience told him that was the exact opposite of what she needed. She was still in her Valkyrie Brunhilde mode, so Kenta had to use his Shadow Teleportation (a trick he had recently discovered) to keep up. It wasn't too long before he heard a primal scream of rage and defiance.

"ARGH!"

Kenta turned a corner to see Kotori breathing heavily, her fist still in a freshly-made dent in the metal warehouse door.

"Usually, we try to avoid property damage."

Kotori spun around at Kenta's words, and there was murder in her eyes. He couldn't blame her. He was seeing her at her most vulnerable. "Are you following me?" she asked, her tone dripping venom.

"Yes," Kenta said, matter-of-factly.

His frankness must have given her pause, because her tone lost a bit of its edge as she inquired, "Why?"

"I overheard your conversation with Himura. I know what it's like to be rejected by the one you love."

"And, what? You thought I'd want to talk about it?"

"No, I thought you might want to go grab a bite to eat."

"Are... are you asking me out?" she asked, incredulously.

"Not exactly. I just figure it's been, what, about eight years since you've had a decent meal? And that new body of yours probably didn't come with any pocket money."

At the mention of food, Kotori's hand went to her stomach, and Kenta imagined that it must be roaring right about now. She regarded him skeptically. "Alright, but I hope you've got savings. After all, like you said, it's been eight years."

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They had found an Anna Miller's not too far away, and Kotori proceeded to eat through what seemed like their entire menu. Kenta truly had no ulterior motives, and Kotori must have sensed that, because she eventually opened up to him. She talked about how, even though she had urged Himura to move on, she had never really felt the need to do so herself, since she was dead. When she was brought back to life with those feelings still unresolved, a small part of her had still hoped that there still might be a chance with Himura. She said she was mostly angry and frustrated with herself for giving in to that part of her, even though she knew it was stupid. Kenta just sat there sipping a cup of coffee, listening. She clearly didn't want any advice, so Kenta offered none. It wasn't what she needed, anyway. No, what she needed was just to vent to someone, and Kenta was a very good listener.

That was a year ago. Now, he was probably her closest friend. Her relationship with Himura was... awkward, to say the least, and she had always been more of a protector to Philippe, so even though Philippe was able to stand up for himself these days, Kotori still found it hard to show her weak side to him, but Kenta was a different story. Kenta had seen her at her worst and befriended her despite that. He was her confidant, and in return, he had no secrets from her, save for one:

He had fallen in love with her.

He didn't mean for it to happen, but then, who plans on falling in love? He wasn't sure when it started, but once he had that realization, it seemed like he had always been in love. She was a lot like Rika, in a way, headstrong and confident, but where Rika was cool and collected, Kotori was fiery and passionate. Most of all, though, he enjoyed being with her. He couldn't pick out just one thing that made him love her, rather, it was the sum total of all the little things. He didn't tell her that, though. He couldn't. He knew that if he told her, there might be a chance she would return his feelings, but, based on past experience, there was a greater chance that their friendship would be ruined. For now, he was content to be her friend.

That is, until she said the seven words that tore his heart out: "I've got a date with Kouichi Kimura."

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A/N: And as a result, Kouichi x Kotori became official if you've might been following my slew of recent stories featuring Koutori (or Kotouichi?). Kenta, sadly, has been "friend-zoned", but for how long remains to be seen.

This ficlet's release is a sign that yes... Gaiden may be seeing an update or two in the near future. Lazer has something in the works and I might have something, too.

Until then, see you in the next installment!