I know the last couple of chapters have been a bit awkward and useless, but I promise, this one actually has something relatively important to the plot of the main story! This is probably the only case of such a thing, but hopefully it will come out better than the last few chapters have…

The last scene of this was actually supposed to go at the end of the 11th Chapter of the main story, but I moved it over here to be a bit easier on my beta.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, nor do I own Kingdom Hearts. I'm just a rather creative person with an overactive imagination.

Elemental Hearts - Inside/Outside

Chapter 6: Observations

As a manner of principle, King Mickey was very rarely proud of anything that he did personally. After all, ever since his years traveling the river with his former boss, Captain Pete, and leading all the way to his friendship with the noble yet proud King Ansem the Wise, he had seen time and time again how pride could lead to pain and heartache for oneself and the people one cared for.

However, if there was any part of himself he could be considered satisfied with, it was most definitely his own keen observational skills as to what was happening around him.

Such as when he noticed that his he two traveling companions were beginning to get rather…close…to one another.

It was subtle, at first, as he assumed that all such relationships usually were. Riku spent a lot of his time caring for Kouichi while the younger of the two boys was down with the mysterious illness he'd been suffering from when they found him. The silver-haired boy's basic motives were simple enough - Kouichi had obviously come from the Worlds of Light sometime after the two other members of their group had arrived. This meant that there was a chance, however small or slim, that a Door to the Light was open once again, and that they could find a way home to Sora, Kairi and Minnie…

But when Kouichi had managed enough consciousness to speak with them, he turned out to know even less than they had. All the information he could really give them was that the Heartless were once again seeping into the World of Light…they had destroyed Kouichi's home, Shibuya, and were apparently spreading.

Troubling as this was, there was nothing the three travelers could do that might help or prevent it. But all of them had the same goal - return to the Worlds of Light and reunite with loved ones - so it was only sensible that they travel together to search for the common means to that end.

Kouichi soon proved to have as interesting a past as any of the creatures Mickey had met in his multiple travels throughout the worlds. His home world, a city named 'Shibuya', had a separate half known as the 'Digital World' available to only a select few 'Chosen'. Mickey recognized this sort of connection as being similar to another world he'd visited quite some time before this whole fiasco had begun - different names, but the same structure, a group of children able to access a secret, digitally-based half of their own world, populated by monsters called 'Digimon'.

Kouichi, it turned out, was one of his world's 'Chosen'…one of its protectors, in a way. It certainly seemed so, especially with his visible disappointment at not being able to prevent the destruction of said world by the Heartless.

In the recounting of his own history, Kouichi also proved himself to be a kind and sweet-hearted young man: He rarely, if ever, thought of his own predicament, and instead worried incessantly about his fellow Chosen, his mother and father, and, more than anything, his brother, Kouji.

Riku had sympathy with the other boy in this manner. Sora, always his best friend and constant companion on his home islands, might as well have been his brother, and the separation was painful for him. This was, Mickey suspected, the initial origin of their recent 'closeness'.

Gradually, as time went on, the boys began to get closer and closer, traveling alongside one another, talking late into the night, and volunteering to gather food or work together as they built their camps. And after a while, Mickey's well-trained mind began to hatch a conniving little scheme that his Minnie (famous throughout Disney Castle for her heartfelt attempts to pair off single friends into productive and happy relationships) would have been proud of.

"Kouichi."

Kouichi looked up from his place by the fire, adding a bit more kindling to the small, strong flames. "Yes?"

"Do you mind helping me?" Mickey stumbled through the trees, unable to stand very well under the weight of the bundle of food he carried over his small shoulders. "I think I got a bit much!"

Kouichi jumped up and scrambled over, pausing only to snatch up his obsidian black staff in one hand before he rushed over to the King. The boy took one end of the thin wood that the food was piled on, and the two carried the pile of fruit and veggies to the side of the fire.

"Whew." Mickey plopped down beside the food and fire with a broad smile. "Thanks for your help. Guess I got a little too much, eh?"

"It is a lot." Kouichi nodded, sorting through some of the fruit absently, then smiled. "We'll have plenty of food for a while, won't we?"

Mickey grinned. "You bet'cha."

Kouichi nodded and pulled out a few bluish-green veggies that they had found was better cooked. He speared each one on a sharp stick and buried the end of said stick into the earth close enough to the flame to be cooked.

Mickey decided that this was as good a time as ever to play his hand. "Where's Riku?"

"He went to collect more firewood." Kouichi nodded to the pile of sticks beside their seats. "He noticed we were getting low."

"You didn't go with him?"

Kouichi's cheeks colored just a little in a flattered, flustered sort of blush. "He told me to mind the fire. Make sure it didn't go out."

"I see…" Mickey glanced back into the pile of fruit and left his sentence hanging in a sort of hesitant manner.

Kouichi looked up at him and frowned lightly, worried by the King's tone. "What is it? Should I have gone?"

"Oh no, no, you didn't do anything wrong." Mickey waved his gloved hand comfortingly. "It's just, I'm surprised that Riku insisted on going alone. He hasn't been feeling well lately."

"He hasn't?" Kouichi's voice rose an octave in worry and concern.

"It's nothing to worry about, really." Mickey smiled just a little, though Kouichi couldn't see him. "He's had a bit of a fever, that's all. It happens now and then, he'll be fine in just a bit."

Kouichi let a small whimper slip, one of worry and concern, as a hand rose to his lip in a very uncertain expression. He glanced up, away from the fire, and looked towards the trees with a hesitant gaze.

"But…he's out there on his own."

"He'll be all right." Mickey soothed quietly, patting his arm. "You don't have to worry. He'll be just fine, don't worry."

"But…"

The trees rustled then, something moving close to them. Both figures at the fire stiffened slightly in naturally response, ready as always for an attack, before the bushes parted and a familiar silver-haired figure stepped through with an armful of dark wood.

"Hey Mickey." Riku grinned, dropping the firewood into the pile. "Wow, that's a lot of food you got there. Do we really need that…"

"Riku-kun!"

Riku jerked a bit, somewhat surprised, but he barely had any way to react before Kouichi appeared right in front of him, a concerned expression on his features. Before Riku could quite register what was happening, the dark-haired boy had pressed his hand against Riku's forehead with insistent concern.

"Are you all right?" Kouichi asked, his voice hesitant and worried. "You shouldn't be pushing yourself, Riku-kun!"

"What?" Riku pulled back, pushing the hand down. His pale eyes were wide, and his face a bit flushed in surprise. "What're you talking about? What's going on?"

Kouichi pulled his hand away, but his face was no more less concerned. "You feel warm, Riku-kun. You should sit down."

"What? Warm?" Riku stuttered, but fell back onto the ground. "What's with you? Kouichi, what's going on?"

Kouichi continued to fret, sounding more and more like a worried mother hen. Riku continued to stutter, taken aback, having almost never been fretted over like this even when he had been sick.

Mickey smiled to himself. It may not have been the magical, happily-ever-after ending that Minnie sought after when she played matchmaker with her friends, but he was in no hurry.

After all, they were healthy teenage boys. They could take their time if they wanted to.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

"Kouichi…"

The dark-haired boy suddenly sat up and blinked at the dwindling remains of their smoldering campfire. He blinked at the pale orangish sparks for a moment, wondering what had woken him, then turned his head upwards to gaze at the inky black, strangely-starred sky with dark navy blue eyes.

"…Kouji?" He asked the mournful winds, but there was no response.

One of the other figures in the camp shifted and sat up, his bright silver hair shining in the half-real, half-not moonlight. "What's the matter, Kouichi?" He asked sleepily, rubbing one pale blue eye.

The dark-haired boy smiled at his friend. "It's nothing, Riku-kun. I just…thought I heard something."

"Something like what?" Riku yawned and stretched, moving to sit cross-legged on the ground.

Kouichi leaned back on his arms quietly, looking up at the dark stars with a thoughtful expression. "…My brother. I thought I heard my brother."

"Your brother, huh?"

"Yeah…" Kouichi shook himself and grinned. "Stupid, I know. It was probably just the wind."

"Maybe." Riku turned his icy blue eyes up to the sky, one of his mysterious smiles worming over his face. "Or, maybe, it really was him."

Kouichi snapped his head around, giving his friend a wide-eyed, surprised look. Riku just smiled at him as mysteriously as ever. "Our hearts are connected, right? To the people we care for. And I bet that you and your brother have more of a connection than anybody. I mean, come on, you were together before you were even born."

He paused a moment, as though thinking of something else, but shook himself lightly and continued. "Maybe what you hear just now…really was him. He might have been calling for you with his heart."

"Really?" Kouichi leaned forward. "You think so?"

"I know so." Riku closed his eyes thoughtfully. "It's the same way I hear Sora and Kairi calling me. We're all looking for each other, so I guess normal that we'd call out every now and then. Right?"

Kouichi considered this for only a second before he smiled. "Yeah. You're right."

Riku grinned. "Still, calling back's just gonna confuse him. Let's get some sleep, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

The two boys lay back down, taking care not to wake their third companion as they nestled in. It was cold that night, so the three were sleeping very close to one another in an attempt to keep warm. Bodies moved into warmth without their owner's knowing, and quite soon they had returned to the world of slumber.

Not far away, a figure dressed almost entirely in black watched their little camp with careful, calculating eyes. One outstretched hand held a flat brown picture frame, the cover hanging open so that the picture inside was clearly visible. One of the campers rolled over to face the figure, eyes closed in slumber, face mirroring the two shown in the photo.

The figure smirked as he snapped the photo shut. Stifling a derisive laugh, he turned and disappeared without a sound.

TBC…