Title: What The Digital World Is For||Title: Frustration
Pairing: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken
Chapters: 3-5||Words: 6,171||Total: 18,558
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: PG-13
Summary: The Digital World is made up of data from Earth. Humans have a lot of data about...
Daisuke gripped onto Lighdramon with all of his strength, bent over as his partner galloped away, and started to count every sort of higher power he could remember who he might remotely want to consider praying or offering incense to just on the off chance that one or more of them might want to lend him a hand in getting out of this in one piece.
He didn't know if any of them were listening, but he determined if he did get back to everyone else and got home safely, he'd spend his next ten allowances buying incense and it would be well worth the loss of junk food. He didn't know what was going on with Ken, but the guy couldn't have been any creepier if he'd actually been trying.
What scared Daisuke was the fact Ken probably had been trying.
This is just too weird! And that was even by Digital World standards. He'd heard stories. He'd seen things for himself. And this one still took all the cards.
He still hadn't put everything that Ken wanted or intended together in his head, but what he'd managed told him that he wanted nothing to do with it. This place having a 'weird effect' on Digimon? The way Lighdramon really wanted out of here? The way Ken seemed to want him to stay? Yeah, all of that added up to 'time to leave and forget this particular corner of the Digital World existed' in his book.
"Are you all right?" Daisuke called down to Lighdramon as they kept on running. The faster they got back to the others, the better Daisuke would like everything.
"Yes! What about you?" Lighdramon tilted his head back to get a better look at Daisuke, who managed a quick grin.
"Kinda wishing that I'd brought some snacks with me, honestly." It wasn't entirely true. But he didn't want to admit how the thought of not getting out of here preyed on him.
Ken seldom did anything without some kind of plan, even if the plan made no actual sense. Which meant if Daisuke had run off, then Ken probably had at least considered it would happen. Daisuke could think of a lot of ways Ken would plan for that, most of which involved large amounts of Digimon doing things to him that he'd rather not think about.
It probably wasn't such a good idea to think about snacks, now that he considered it. He'd rather have one than be one, and if he thought about it too hard, he could come up with a lot more reasons why Ken would send something large and hungry after him.
The way Ken had looked at him made him wonder, just a tiny bit, if there wasn't something else going through the Kaiser's mind. It didn't really make a lot of sense to Daisuke, but he'd given up on Ken making sense a long time ago. It still bothered him, mostly because of the fact it didn't make sense. Revenge Daisuke understood. He didn't like it, but he could kinda see where the guy was coming from.
This he didn't get. What was the whole reason for it? Was he missing something? Had he left before Ken got started on his monologue about whatever the reason for all of this was?
Well, if he had, then so be it. As much as he didn't understand it, it was probably better just to cut Ken's time in the sun today short and go home once they'd trashed the Dark Towers here.
He hadn't paid as much attention to his surroundings as he felt he should have, now that they were going back. So he wasn't certain how far they had to go. Being pulled along by Ken and riding on Lighdramon's back were two entirely different speeds anyway.
But Daisuke suspected that he would've noticed if there'd been some kind of huge invisible barrier in the way when they'd come out here the first time. And said huge invisible barrier was there now. It made itself known not by sparkling in the sun like any decent barrier would, but by being completely impenetrable when Lighdramon slammed into it.
"What the-" Daisuke found himself tumbling head over heels, back slamming into a boulder. As if today wasn't bad enough, he hit what was probably the one actual sharp protrusion on the boulder itself. He gave it a look, just in case it was a Gotsumon in disguise, and struggled to his feet. "What was that?"
"Something blocking the way," Lighdramon answered, scrambling back to his feet and nudging until he came up to the barrier once again. "It's a wall."
Daisuke came over there, brushing his fingers along where Lighdramon's nose rested. "I bet the Kaiser has something to do with this."
"How very astute of you."
Daisuke did not want to turn around. Turning around meant actually seeing Ken standing there and seeing his insufferably smug expression. Daisuke did not want to see that. He set his shoulders and stared at the wall that wasn't there.
"So, think you can get rid of it?" If a few Blue Thunders couldn't get through this thing, then maybe a couple Fire Rockets could. He'd be willing to try either one. Or both.
Lighdramon backed up a couple of steps. He ignored Ken just as much as Daisuke did. "I'll find out!"
Pale blue energy gathered along the spikes that decorated Lighdramon's back, forming into a thick sphere that blasted toward the barrier. Daisuke covered his face with his arm as several nearby boulders resting against the barrier shattered, spraying him with debris. Once everything stopped falling, he looked up in hopes that it had worked.
"Can't see anything different," he muttered, a hint of a grin on his lips. He could hear footsteps coming closer and quickly bent to grab a couple of shards of rock. "Let's see if it worked."
He threw one of them straight at where the barrier – hopefully – had been, and winced to see it bounce back off. "I guess not."
"Did you really think an attack that small would bother something that I made?" The footsteps came to a halt far too close to Daisuke. He continued to ignore them. If he ignored them, they would go away.
Yes, it was toddler reasoning. Daisuke didn't care.
"Think we should try something else? Or maybe switch to FlaDramon?" He was ignoring. He ignored the shadow that fell over him for all he was worth.
"Nothing you can do will penetrate it. That barrier will go down only when I want it to."
No, no, no, no. Daisuke steeled himself and threw the second piece of boulder at the barrier. It bounced off and he had to duck to avoid getting hit by it. It didn't hit anything that was behind him, but that was more because the thing that wasn't there batted it away instead of standing still and letting himself be hit.
Lighdramon growled warningly and Daisuke shook his head. "There's nothing there." He hoped that got the message across. Lighdramon at least seemed to understand, as he turned his attention back to the problem in front of them.
"Maybe you could call one of the others? Let them know where we are?" His partner suggested.
"That's not a bad idea." Daisuke dug around for his D-Terminal; he should've thought of that earlier. Maybe it would've helped. That barrier couldn't go up all that high; Miyako or Hikari or Takeru could've flown over it to get him and V-mon out of there. Or Iori could dig under it. That would probably take it down faster than anything else.
A gloved hand wrenched his D-Terminal away from him and tossed it casually out of sight.
"It's rude to ignore people, Motomiya Daisuke. Especially when you're trying to ignore me," the Digimon Kaiser hissed, yanking Daisuke's head up to stare at him. "Didn't your mother ever teach you better manners than that?"
"She was too busy teaching me how not to let someone take over the world." Daisuke managed to snarl the words out, even with Ken's hands gripping at his jaw.
"Too bad. That's information you're not going to need to know for much longer. Now, we were doing something, weren't we?" Ken's grip tightened to the point Daisuke couldn't talk anymore. Lighdramon growled again, more energy gathering, this time at the tip of his armored head. Ken barely spared him a glance. "Do I need to remind you that this is your partner here? Attacking me means that you'll hurt him, and you don't want to do that. Now, you can stay here or come along as you choose, but Motomiya and I have a prior engagement to take care of."
Daisuke really did not like the way that Ken said that. It seemed to him that 'prior engagement' in this case meant 'I have so many horrible things to do to you that I can't even pick one to start with'.
Ken didn't have a huge army to back himself up with now. He didn't seem to need it, not once he had Daisuke's arms bent behind his back and a firm grip on the other's neck. Lighdramon followed along, still letting out annoyed growls, and Daisuke knew if there was so much as a moment's chance where his partner could get him away, he would take it.
Unfortunately, he didn't think Ken was going to give them that moment's chance. Not until he'd accomplished whatever it was that he wanted anyway. And only Ken knew what that might be.
It could be strange at times how different evolutions shaped how a Digimon thought. Nefertimon knew she was Tailmon and Angewomon all at the same time. What differed was her shape and her abilities, nothing more.
Yet being Nefertimon gave her a sort of distance, not just from the odd aroma that filled the air here, but from what she knew it could cause in Digimon.
So far as she could tell, the only effect it had on humans was to put them to sleep. It had done the same thing to her and Hawkmon as well, but whether that had anything to do with her level of evolution or something else was something she couldn't figure out.
She'd spent hours here before in the days of long ago, when she'd been Vamdemon's slave. The aroma hadn't bothered her much then. Now that she thought about it, she did vaguely recall having dozed off a time or two, but she'd always been under the impression that it had been because of how boring it was to stand guard while those two did whatever it was they were doing there. Could that be what the scent did to her, as opposed to them?
Sometimes she wished she were a more science-minded Digimon, or someone like Wizarmon, who could understand all of this. But she was a warrior, and she understood fighting.
Fighting that included the Digimon Kaiser and the fact he'd either taken a hostage or was busy trying to hunt down one. She scanned the area one more time, aware that Hikari did the same thing on her back. Their senses were different enough that they could check out the same region and come up with different information. It made them work better as a team like this.
"Nothing yet?" Hikari asked, hands buried in Nefertimon's mane. "Because I don't see anything."
Nefertimon shook her head carefully. "Let's try that way." She nodded toward a rise in the mountains. Their D-3s always seemed to have trouble with natural features like that, so it was possible that Daisuke could be over there somewhere and they'd never be able to notice him like that.
Hikari didn't object, so there Nefertimon soared. She enjoyed flying and wished that she could do it more often with Hikari, in times that weren't as tense and nervous as they were now. It didn't make a difference if she flew as Nefertimon or as Angewomon. The skies were her home either way.
Which was why she was very annoyed when a sloop of AirDramon coursed from around the mountainside and headed right for her. Each and every one of them bore one of the Kaiser's rings on them as well.
"Hold on tight, Hikari!" Nefertimon declared, bracing herself for battle. She was a warrior; she'd learned how from an early age and there was little she didn't know about how to fight. But that never once meant she enjoyed hurting other Digimon, especially ones that had no control over their actions. There wasn't any other way to handle the Kaiser's slaves unfortunately. So, like all of them, she did what she had to do.
What worried her more than anything was, as always, Hikari's safety. She wanted to defeat her enemies just to make certain her partner remained safe, just as she wanted to find Daisuke not only for his own safety, but so they could all go back to Earth and not have to worry about the aroma in the air. Just because it hadn't done anything harmful to them yet didn't mean that it wouldn't.
She dodged this way and that, moving swiftly and gracefully through the air to keep out of the AirDramons' attack patterns, blasting when she could, striking with her hooves when she couldn't. She had no idea where the Kaiser found so many AirDramon, but he always seemed to have a fresh fleet of them when their paths crossed, no matter how many they released.
She would almost think he made them himself, if that could even be possible.
If he could make a Digimon, then it would be something a lot worse than some AirDramon. She didn't have time to think of how much worse.
"Look!"
Nefertimon followed Hikari's gesture and saw Miyako and Holsmon sweeping in from the side, Holsmon's Red Sun striking at an AirDramon's Evil Ring and shattering it.
"Just in time!" Nefertimon declared. With this backup, it didn't take much longer for them to clear through the enemy, and soon enough the AirDramon had all sloped off out of sight. If they had any sense at all, in Nefertimon's opinion, they would stay as far away from here as possible from now on.
The two Digimon landed on a wide rocky ledge, their partners leaping down to greet one another.
"Have you seen any signs of Daisuke?" Hikari asked, glancing around to make certain there weren't any other Digimon forming an ambush. Nefertimon kept her own eyes, ears, and nose alert. If anyone turned up, she would be ready for them.
Miyako shook her head, frowning. "We did find something strange though. I was about to send you guys a message about it when we saw those AirDramon."
"What is it?"
"It's like a giant wall, but it's invisible. Holsmon couldn't find the top of it, it's so big." Miyako shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. "We went up so high it started getting really cold, but it was still there. You think the Kaiser has something to do with this?"
Hikari let out a deep sigh. "I'd bet on it. We should get the others and go check on it."
What she didn't say, and what Nefertimon suspected, was that this was probably the first clue they had as to Daisuke's whereabouts.
Ken hadn't really wanted to force Daisuke, not quite like this at any rate. He'd expected the defiant Chosen to either drift off into a doze at his feet or to start thinking out loud about that girl that he liked. Or perhaps someone else entirely; now that would've been interesting. Ken could not be entirely certain of what the ultimate effects would be, and he thought Daisuke made an excellent guinea pig to find out.
What he had completely not expected was Daisuke not actually reacting to the digital flower's aroma in the slightest. If anything, he'd looked more confused. He'd scarcely yawned, much less said a single word about anything else, and that was more than enough to click every switch in Ken's head. His lust for revenge hadn't been slaked and this just made it even worse.
Daisuke wasn't a weakling by any means at all, but Ken made certain that he held the other boy in such a manner that the only way to actually get out of the grip would've involved breaking bones, especially for Daisuke. Most of the strength he had was built up thanks to sports, not martial arts training, unlike Ken himself, and that made a difference.
As he pushed the other along, he wondered to himself if it would be possible to create a Ring or a Spiral that would take control of humans as well as Digimon. It might be; humans had much in common with Digimon, aside from evolution and the ability to shoot various forms of attacks out of hands, mouths, and various other body parts. Perhaps he'd dig into that one of these days.
Right now he didn't need something like that to drag Daisuke where he wanted him to go. He would've preferred it if Lighdramon hadn't come along, more because he didn't want the extra annoyance, but he could call up his own forces at a moment's notice, and the canine would be outnumbered. Just because no one could see them didn't mean they weren't there.
"Are you going to let me go any time soon?" Daisuke gasped, stumbling over a few scattered rocks.
"Only when we're where I want to go," Ken replied, smoothly gliding along. "And you can relax. We're almost there. Again."
Daisuke twisted his head up, and Ken permitted him to see they were going back the way they'd been before, leading to that spectacularly lovely bush. Ken hadn't yet figured out a name for it. He didn't know if the Digimon had one for it, nor did he care that much. He'd discovered it and that gave him the right to name it.
There was a new addition to the scenery when they arrived. He'd taken the time to arrange this before he'd gone after Daisuke earlier. A long, slender pole stood before the bush, and Ken thrust Daisuke up against it, keeping him pinned there with one hand.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were planning on burning me at the stake," Daisuke said, making a very poor attempt at a joke.
Ken stepped around Daisuke, yanking his arms behind him. Reworking the data of the Digital World to provide him with a pair of handcuffs was the work of under a minute and he clicked them firmly onto Daisuke's wrists.
"If I wanted to do that, I would have an audience here. Perhaps those friends of yours. You were willing to do anything at all to save them. I wonder what they'd do to save you." Ken rested his fingers for a moment on Daisuke's wrists, finding himself thoroughly enjoying the sight of Daisuke shackled and helpless.
Daisuke grated out something that Ken didn't pay that much attention to. He was a little too captivated by the feel of Daisuke's skin underneath his fingers. He tried not to breathe too heavily, not wanting to give away anything. He couldn't say what he didn't want to give away, only that he didn't want to do it.
Could this place be affecting me? No, of course not. He'd never cared to check if he'd begun puberty or not himself. He had too much else to do to wonder about something that insignificant. And even if he had, even if it was, then the last person he would want to be affected towards was Motomiya Daisuke. This was his enemy, the very leader of all of his enemies, someone that he'd gone out of his way more than once to humiliate in any way that he possibly could.
But Daisuke's skin was warm, a warmth he could feel even through his gloves, and the catch of his breath teased at Ken's ears, and there wasn't anyone else here but the two of them. He didn't count the Digimon; Lighdramon would do nothing so long as Daisuke remained prisoner, and Wormmon knew better than to bother him when he was working.
"Uh, Ken?" Daisuke shifted away a little, and Ken growled at that. "Not that you normally don't, but you are really freaking me out here."
Ken bit down on his own lip, hard. Daisuke couldn't see him and that alone helped to get his rebellious thoughts under control. He was not going to lose himself, no matter how tempting such an idea was. He'd brought Daisuke here for reasons that had nothing at all to do with the effects of the aroma on himself, only for what they could do to Daisuke.
He stalked around to the front and stood there, staring at Daisuke, forcing himself to remember all that the boy had done to humiliate and anger him over the last few months. He'd dared to enter the Digital World at all, defying the Kaiser by unleashing Armor Evolution. Then when Ken captured him in order to find out more, he'd had the gall to actually escape. Certainly it had been with the help of his friends and their own new evolutions, but he'd done it.
Then there had been that soccer game on Earth, the first time their paths had crossed there, and not only had he slid into Ken, he'd drawn blood, and that alone was enough for Ken to never forgive him. The whole mess with the Bakemon disguised as the other Chosen and Deltamon's appetite had been supposed to clear that up, to put Ken over on him in enough of a fashion that the Kaiser wouldn't feel the need to do anything else.
And yet it hadn't worked. The fires of rage still burned cleanly and furiously deep within the Kaiser, and he determined all over again that Daisuke would end up paying for all this and every other setback that he and the Chosen had delivered to Ken. This was just the beginning. Ken hadn't even begun to think of everything he could do in order to completely shatter Daisuke. He'd made a list. It was a very long list. And he wanted to keep thinking up entries for it.
Daisuke shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, and Ken let himself smile. Oh, yes. He wanted Daisuke to be uncomfortable. To be afraid of him. To know how much of a mistake he'd made in daring to stand against Ken.
"So, if you're not going to burn me alive, what are you going to do?" Daisuke asked, eyes flickering from Ken to the bush to Lighdramon and back again. "Because I think you're really getting Lighdramon angry and that's not a good idea." Ken didn't look up. He simply snapped his fingers, and two extremely large, even for their breed, DeviDramon swooped down from their hiding places, one of them pressing a clawed foot on LighDramon, pinning him down.
"I don't think I care. I simply don't want him to interfere in my work here."
Oh, he liked the terrified look on Daisuke's face so very much. He wanted to make it happen again and again. Always before Daisuke's friends made certain he could escape. Now Ken wanted to make certain that he couldn't. He couldn't see any further need for Daisuke to depart his presence until and unless he wanted him to, and he had yet to decide if he wanted Daisuke to.
"What if I want him to interfere?" Daisuke snapped, starting to strain harder and harder at his restraints. That wouldn't do any good; Ken had forged these cuffs so they had no keys at all. Only he could unlock them, by manipulating their digital code, or if they were destroyed. That was yet again something he didn't intend to let happen.
"Your opinion on the subject is irrelevant," Ken said, finally moving away. He didn't go very far, only a few steps to where the bush blossomed. He could feel Daisuke's eyes on him, as well as Lighdramon's and Wormmon's, as he reached out to break off a small branch. It had some of the largest and most fragrant blossoms of them all on it. "I've learned a great deal about these flowers, as I said before. But it seems there are still gaps in my information. And you, Daisuke, are going to help me fill in those gaps."
"I am really not interested!" Daisuke fought againt the bonds uselessly. "You would not believe how not interested I am!"
Ken smiled a slow, lazy smile as he began to move back toward Daisuke. "And you wouldn't believe how little I care."
Daisuke struggled even harder. If sheer willpower alone could've broken those cuffs, Ken suspected that Daisuke would've been able to do it. But he crafted his tools to be resistant to such things as 'willpower' from the one being held. Perhaps a Digimon's attack could destroy them, but aside from that, nothing other but Ken's own command would unlock them. And he wasn't in the mood to do that any time soon.
"Ken, you are approaching me with a bunch of flowers!" Daisuke tossed his head from side to side. Ken took measured steps, enjoying taking his time on this. He liked seeing Daisuke panic like this. "Did you stop and think about how ridiculous this is?"
"Not especially. I've told you what these flowers can do. Your own Digimon knows how dangerous they can be. Why, then, are you wondering why I want to see what they can do to you?"
Daisuke tried to kick at Ken, but given how he was chained up, he didn't have the kind of leverage he would've needed in order to make it good. Ken simply stepped to one side, now within reach, and extended the branch.
"Take a good whiff of these. It's for research." Ken's smile slashed over his features, and Daisuke's eyes widened as the blossoms brushed up against his nose. He did his best to hold his breath, but Ken wasn't having any of that. No, not when he was right in the middle of an experiment.
He was close enough to touch Daisuke, and that was exactly what he did, gloved fingers brushing down the side of the other's neck. "Are you scared of flowers, Daisuke? Or is it me that terrifies you so much?"
The Kaiser wasn't certain if it was the touch or the words that got Daisuke to draw in a sharp breath, but he did no matter what. His eyes widened as he took in the fragrance, and Ken bent forward in fascination. He could smell them as well, a sweet aroma that made all the most wonderful fragrances of Earth seem poor and weak in comparison. Roses and violets could not compare at all. He wondered in the back of his mind if that flower shop he'd passed on a regular basis would go out of business if he brought these back.
Perhaps it would, but his major focus now rested on Daisuke, and he was not getting any happier about this experiment.
Because nothing was happening. No matter how much he shoved those flowers into Daisuke's face, nothing happened.
And he wanted to know why.
Eight faces in various expressions of confusion stared at what appeared to be nothing more than empty air. Takeru reached out and set one hand on the invisible wall.
"I can't guess how high this is, but it goes up way too high for us to try to fly over it," Hikari told him.
He nodded, eyes curious and a little wary. This was something new and he didn't think that he liked. Ken was coming up with all manner of unusual tricks today, and it really got on his bad side.
"What about trying to fly around it?" he wondered, looking from side to side. "How far out does it go?"
"We haven't checked yet," Hikari told him. "It probably at least goes to the mountain." She gestured to where the gray stone rose up high over their heads. "But that way?" Now she gestured the other way, where fields of flowers marched off into the distance. "I don't know."
Miyako drummed the fingers of one hand on the opposing arm. "This is a mountain valley, right? So it probably at least goes to the mountains on the other side. The Kaiser doesn't want us finding what he's doing with Daisuke." She shook her head, rubbing at the back of her neck and trying to stifle a yawn. Those flowers still emitted their fragrance, the aroma being difficult to resist still.
"She's probably right on that much. That still means we need to find a way to either break it or work through it," Takeru said. He would've given a great deal for Koushirou to be there at the moment. Well, at least he could try this. He hauled out his D-Terminal and got to work, typing as fast as he could get his fingers to move.
Iori moved closer to the barrier, peering ahead of him. He thought he had an idea or two but he wanted to get a better idea of what this barrier was like before he said anything. Something on the other side glittered in the sunlight and he frowned, peering closer.
"Guys?" He glanced over his shoulder, hoping that this time they would actually pay attention to him. "I think I saw something."
Takeru still kept on typing, but glanced up for a second. "What is it?"
"Look!" He pointed, and one by one the group came over to stare at what he was looking at. "Isn't that Daisuke's D-Terminal?"
Hikari bent as close as she could, staring. "I think you're right. It looks like it, anyway." Worry threaded through her voice, a worry echoed by all the others.
"Why would he leave it here?" Iori wondered. He had ideas about that too but he wasn't certain if he wanted to express them just yet.
Miyako's fingers pressed against the barrier for a few seconds before she balled up her fist and slammed it against the unyielding force. "He probably didn't. I bet that idiot Ken made him drop it."
"So we know for sure that Daisuke's at least been on the other side," Takeru said, adding that information to his e-mail. "So Ken hasn't taken him off to wherever it is he goes when he's not around bothering us." That was something he wanted to figure out as well. Where did Ken go when not attacking them? For that matter, where did he sleep at night? He, of all people, would need a safe lair of some kind.
Maybe Daisuke would have some answers once they got him back. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.
Iori moved in a little closer, standing beside Miyako as she shook her fist. Slamming it repeatedly into the barrier didn't do anything, they all learned quickly. Miyako wasn't one to just give up, though.
"I think Digmon and I might be able to go under it," he said after a few more moments of intense thought. "We can at least see how far down it extends."
"Good idea!" Hikari praised him. "Be careful, though. The Kaiser's probably got troops of some kind waiting still."
"We'll keep an eye out," Iori promised with a small smile. He glanced at Armadimon. "Ready to go?"
"Always am!" The armadillo Digimon declared. Iori didn't waste another moment, but evolved his partner into Digmon. This was one of those times where only their abilities could help, and he was going to enjoy it very thoroughly.
Daisuke tried. Let it not be said that he didn't. He didn't want to; he didn't actually care that whatever Ken was trying to do wasn't working at all. He could see the worry and rising fear in Lighdramon's eyes, and that unnerved him more than anything else. These flowers could hurt Digimon, or so he'd gathered, and no one seemed to know exactly what they'd do to humans.
And yet Ken still kept shoving the branch in his face and muttering things that made Daisuke wonder if the scent was affecting him much more than it was Daisuke himself.
So he breathed in. He breathed in the aroma and tried to feel different, just to see if it would help in getting out of these chains. And yet no matter how hard he tried, nothing happened.
"Look, Ken, I just am not feeling anything. Nothing. Really. So can you untie me and we can fight or whatever and then I can go home?" He didn't expect the Kaiser to just release him, not without an epic battle of some kind. He knew how these things worked. Ken needed something to soothe his ego, especially now.
"No!" Ken's growl could've cut through steel. He stared down at the flowers in his hand as if he could force them to have some effect on Daisuke by sheer will alone. "Something is going wrong somewhere." He turned back to Daisuke, staring at him with that same kind of intensity. "Perhaps I should take you back to the fortress."
Daisuke didn't pale very often. He could feel the blood rush away from him now. No one knew where Ken hung out on a regular basis but the fact they didn't know that meant if Ken did take him there, then no one would know where to find him. They couldn't pull off any heroic rescue attempts when they had no idea of where to go to rescue him.
Of course he could always work on freeing himself, and he knew for a fact that he would, but who knew what Ken's place was like? Only Ken, and he certainly wasn't going to tell him. It could be an endless maze or have enslaved Digimon guards on every hallway. It could, in other words, be absolutely impossible to escape from.
It would be a challenge. And Daisuke loved challenges.
Still and all, he liked challenges he had at least some chance at winning, even if he didn't actually win it. Playing on Ken's personal playing field, with everything as stacked in Ken's favor as it would?
The more that he thought about it, the more the idea of actually escaping from Ken's hidden fortress actually appealed to him. He wanted to test his wits against the best that Ken could do, and to see the Kaiser's face when he actually managed to escape. He practically began to drool at the thought of it.
Ken smiled, tracing his finger alongside Daisuke's neck. Daisuke didn't ask what was on his mind. "I have a cell you could stay in while you're there. Just like these cuffs, it doesn't have a lock. It wouldn't need one. You wouldn't be able to get out. I could perform every test necessary to figure out why you aren't affected by this flower. I could perform every test I don't think is necessary but might be amusing to try."
Daisuke swallowed, and Ken's finger followed the bobbing trail down his throat. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Because I'm curious. Everything I've learned so far hasn't shown any reason why you should be different. You aren't that stubborn."
Daisuke tossed his head and twisted his lips up into a grin, more because he didn't want to show how unnerving Ken's words were. "How do you know? I can be as stubborn as I want to be!"
"I know you can try." Ken rested his hand on the hollow of Daisuke's throat. From the way he kept staring at Daisuke, and the burning light in his eyes, Daisuke wondered if Ken even realized he'd done it. Something was extremely wrong here, and it was all on Ken's side of things. And what made it even worse was that Ken clearly didn't realize it for himself.
"Look, Ken, I really think you need to go splash yourself with some water or something. Have you really looked at what you're doing?"
"I know what I'm doing," Ken said, leaning close enough so that his breath brushed across Daisuke's lips. Daisuke pulled his head back. It wasn't going to do much good, but he wasn't going to just sit there and let Ken do whatever it was that he was thinking about doing.
Daisuke had imagined his first kiss would be with Hikari. Or at least some girl that he liked, if he couldn't ever get Hikari to do it. He hadn't spent that much time thinking about it. And on those occasions when he had, he'd never thought about another guy.
And if he had, he was pretty sure that it wouldn't have been the Digimon Kaiser whose lips rested against his.
To Be Continued