Series: Sanguine Bindings||Story Title: Ruler of the Shadows
Characters: Ken, Daisuke||Romance: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken
Chapter: 5-40||Chapter: 500||Total: 2,500
Genre: Supernatural, Romance||Rated: PG-13
Notes: In the setting of this story, these are the differing points: the Chosen are roughly five years older than in canon, meaning that Ken, Daisuke, Takeru, & Hikari are sixteen, while Miyako is seventeen, and Iori is fourteen. There are some other differences, but those will be revealed during the course of the story. Except for this: this story will involve vampires. It begins in episode 2, once Daisuke's been captured.
Summary: On his second trip to the Digital World, Daisuke is captured by the Kaiser. Time to learn a little about the guy he's just started fighting. Like the fact he has sharp, pointy teeth and a thirst for more than conquest.

"Daisuke, are you all right?" Takeru peered closely at him, blinking some as he reached over to try to touch the bruise on the other's neck. "What happened? Was it the Kaiser?"

Daisuke laughed, rubbing the back of his neck a little sheepishly. "Yeah. When he showed up, I tried to grab him and I guess he didn't like it, since he grabbed back."

"He's a real pain," Takeru agreed, pulling his hand away. The bruise looked like it hurt. "You should probably have Jou-san take a look at it."

It doesn't look like someone grabbed him there. He'd seen hickeys before and while this didn't look exactly like one, it was the closest thing he could think of.

He didn't want to think about it, though, because why would the Digimon Kaiser put a hickey on Daisuke? And Daisuke would say something if he had, wouldn't he?

The worry nibbled at the back of Takeru's mind as they headed for home, all of them glad to have rescued Daisuke and found two more Digimentals. There had to be others out there, ones that matched the other Crests, but no one could guess on who might be able to lift them.

Fretting over that gave Takeru a lot more to think about than anything else that had happened that day, especially how the Kaiser avoided coming close enough for them to see him and how close they'd come to losing Daisuke in the first place.

Why did he just leave Daisuke out there like that? Chained up to a cliff? It doesn't make sense. If he wanted to take away their biggest asset at the time, then putting Daisuke where he could be rescued just didn't make sense.

I probably shouldn't overthink this, though, Takeru decided. He made a mistake, that's all. He didn't think we'd be able to do anything. He didn't know about the other Digimentals. He might not even know about the Crests.

"Hey, Daisuke," Takeru called. "Did he say anything to you? I mean, anything so we can figure out what he's planning to do next?"

Daisuke shook his head. "Just a bunch of stuff about how we're going to lose. Half of it sounded like he ripped it off of one of those really cliché movies."

Of course. The bad guy didn't always spill his guts to the prisoner. They couldn't get that lucky. Would've been nice, though...

Takeru did his best to put all of that out of his mind. They'd made it through the first strokes of what was probably going to be a really long fight, and the sooner they appreciated what progress they could make, the better.

What mattered most would be finding the other Digimentals before the Kaiser did. He might not be able to lift them himself – at least Takeru hoped that he couldn't – but he could probably make it beyond impossible for them to get to them, and the more Digimon they had who could evolve, the better.

To Be Continued

Notes: Well, it wasn't really a hickey, but it was a hickey's first cousin? Not that Kaiser wouldn't leave one if it occurred to him (eventually), but dinner comes first, right?