Day 6 - Career/Hobbies: First Day At Work
Ken and Wormmon stopped outside the police station for a couple of minutes. It was their first day as detectives and the man was feeling a mix of excitement with anxiety. After years of hardworking in college, it was finally time to put his knowledge into action.
"Ken, aren't you going in?"
"I am." He replied, still staring at the door. "I'm just trying to assimilate everything first."
"I see. It's a big moment."
"Yes, it is." He took a deep breath and a step forward. "Alright, let's go in."

The noise from the inside of the office invaded Ken's ears as soon as he walked in. Police officers were either talking loudly on the phone or to each other or walking around in a hurry, and no one gave him attention. Ken couldn't help but wonder if that was a daily routine or something important and urgent had happened that day.

"Seems like a lot of work here. No one came to talk to us yet."
"I guess it's just a routine." Ken shrugged and checked his phone. Him and Wormmon had been sitting for about an hour, waiting to be noticed by one of the police officers.

Only after another hour or so that an officer came to talk to them. He apologized and said things were chaotic that day. Then he took them to a room in the end of the hall and quickly went back to what he was doing previously.
"Looks like it's just the two of us again."
"I wonder what's going on for everyone to be so stressed."
"Why don't you try to find out? Maybe you can be helpful."
"You think so?" Ken looked at Wormmon. "If they needed my help, they would have asked for it."
"Not exactly." The Digimon said. "You're the new employee here. I think you should volunteer to help."
"That's a very good point." He walked to the door and looked over his shoulder. "Come on, let's go."

They walked back towards what seemed to be the reception area. He couldn't help but notice things were much calmer now and half of the staff seemed to be out. Still, he couldn't find the officer who had talked to them earlier.
"You shouldn't be here, sir. If you want to talk to a clerk, you should wait your turn."
"Oh no." Ken turned to a woman sitting on a desk, frantically typing on a computer. "I work here. Today is my first day."
"Oh, are you Ken Ichijouji?" She looked away from the screen for a moment.
"That's me."
"Nice to meet you. I'm so sorry. There's a been a massive situation and we're trying to solve it."
"That's what I came to talk about. I was wondering if you needed extra help."
"Didn't you say it was your first day?"
"I did. But I thought I could offer to help if needed."
"Hmm, we don't usually ask newbies to get to the streets so fast, but I guess we can make an exception. Still, I need to check with my boss. I'll be right back."
"Alright." He said as he watched the woman disappear in the hall.

The woman returned five minutes later with a piece of paper in her hands. She was distracted she didn't even see Ken and Wormmon were still there until he fake coughed and she looked up.
"Oh, that's right. I'm so sorry! My boss is willing to make an exception this time, but you'll have to be very discreet about it."
"Got it." He said with a smile. "We'll definitely be cautious about it."
"Good luck."
"Thank you. So what do we need to do?"
"These are the instructions." The woman handed a paper and some folded clothes. "And this is your uniform, you'll need it from now on."
"Thanks." He looked at his partner. "Let's go, Wormmon."
"Let's do it."

.

"This place scares me." Wormmon said as he looked around. Everything was dark and had a strange energy. "Are you sure this is the right place?"
"That's what it says in the paper." Ken unfolded it again and looked at it. "Yes, that's right."
"I'm not getting a good feeling from it. Can we go back and try to find another mission?"
"I'm sorry, buddy, but we'll have to do this. This is my first chance to prove I'm capable of being a good detective and I'm going to take it. You're free to stay here if you want to."
"No, I want to go. As much as I'm terrified, you might need me."
"I can call you if I get in trouble."
"I'm going in with you."
"Then let's go."

.

Ken opened the door from his apartment later that day and quickly threw himself on the couch after taking off his shoes and leaving them by the door. He took a deep breath and looked at his partner.
"So, today was a good one, huh?"
"Absolutely! I definitely wasn't expecting to be thrown into a mission in the very first day."
"Neither was I. But I'm glad we were, so we could see what it was like."
"Was it what you expected?"
"It was." He looked at Wormmon and nodded. "What about you?"
"Same."
Ken was about to say something when the doorbell rang, surprising him and his Digimon and making them look towards the door.
"Were you expecting someone?"
"Not really." He stood up and went to open it. "But I have a feeling I know who it is."
"Who?"
But he didn't get his answer right away; it took a few more seconds until he heard Ken's voice again.
"Hey."
"Hi." Hikari's voice echoed. "I hope I'm not disturbing you, but I brought you food to celebrate your first day at work."
"Thank you." Ken couldn't help but smile. "You're not disturbing at all, please come in."
"Thanks." She walked in. "I promise I won't take long. Hello, Wormmon. How are you?"
"Hi, Hikari. I'm good, what about you?"
"I'm good too." The woman smiled at him and then turned to the bag over the sink, taking a few pots out. "There's a whole meal here. Salad, main course and dessert."
"That's quite a lot of food." He said surprised.
"I know. I purposely made more, so it could last a few more days."
"Wow, I can't thank you enough for this. You work all day and still managed to make this amount of food."
"It wasn't any trouble at all. I had to make it to myself too." Hikari said softly. "So how was your first day at work?"
"It was quite busy, actually."
"We went on our first mission today." Wormmon said from his place on the couch.
"Really?"
"Yeah, we started in a rather chaotic day at the station." Ken placed his hand in the back of his head and laughed a little awkwardly.
"Isn't this a standard? I assumed people would already get into action on their first day."
"Not on their own. First we follow more experienced officers before we have our own mission."
"Oh I see. And how was it?"
"It was amazing, so thrilling. We had to go to a rather dark place."
"That doesn't sound good."
"It was a terrible place."
"Wormmon was scared to death. He even suggested we should go back and get another mission."
"You agreed to that, didn't you?"
"He didn't."
"Thank you, Wormmon." Ken was ironical with his partner and then turned to his girlfriend. "He's a sensitive Digimon. It wasn't scary at all, it was just a normal place. Besides, it was a big opportunity to me."
"I'm not sure how I feel about that. It gets me worried. It's too risky."
"Every job is risky."
"Being a teacher isn't."
"You don't have to worry about me, Hikari." He assured her. "I can take care of myself. Besides, if anything more serious happens, I have Wormmon with me."
"I know, but…" Hikari looked away for a moment and bit her lower lip. She tried to look confident when she looked at him again. "Okay, I'll believe you. But you have to promise me you won't put yourself at risk if you can avoid it."
"I promise."
"Good." She smiled. "Well, now that the food is here, I should go home."
"Already? Can't you stay a little more?"
"I wish I could, but I don't want to get in the way of your routine. And I also have to work tomorrow too."
"You're right." Ken said disappointed. "We're both working."
"Yeah, but the weekend is coming. We can definitely do something. I miss hanging out with you too." She approached him.
"Are you sure you can't stay a little more? Just half an hour, I promise."
"It's really hard to say no when you ask like that." She looked up at him and smiled. "Okay, I'll stay."

"And then you put this piece over here." Ken grabbed a piece from the board and moved to another position. "Check-mate."
"I honestly have no idea what you do did. You explained how to play chess, but I can't get my head around it. It seems so difficult."
"It isn't that much. It gets easier as you play."
"I bet it does. Would you be upset if I wanted to do something else?"
"Absolutely not. It was getting boring anyway. So what do you want to do? Watch a movie?"
"No, I need to go soon. If we watched a movie, I'd probably fall sleep and stay the night here."
"Would it be such a bad thing?"
"Considering my mom would freak out if she found out I slept here when we're not even engaged, then yes." Hikari covered her mouth and her eyes went wide as soon as she heard what she had just said. "Oh my God! I didn't mean to…"
"It's okay, don't worry about it. I completely understand it."
"You really didn't get offended by it? I don't want you to think I'm pushing you into proposing to me in any way."
"I didn't get offended at all. I think your mother would freak out too, so we better not push our luck."
"Yeah…" She bit her lower lip and laced her fingers together nervously for a moment. "How about we bake a cake?"
"A cake?"
"That's a great idea! I'd love to eat some cake right now."
"That sounds perfect to me. Let's do it!"

Ken finished putting the ingredients and bowls on the sink and went to get an apron for Hikari and one for himself.
"Is this all we need?"
"I think so. You've never baked a cake before?"
"Not completely on my own. I've helped my mother before, but never really bothered learning it. It's not something I feel proud of right now, honestly."
"Well, there's always time to learn it and change things if you want to. Do you?"
"Absolutely, let's go."
"Alright. Then let's start. First you need to put flour into the bowl and then…"

Ken and Hikari were looking at the oven to see if the cake was ready. She had a large smile on her face.
"Looks like it's ready. It also looks beautiful, you did a great job on your first time."
"Really?" He looked up at her with his eyebrows raised. "Can you tell just by looking at it?"
"Of course. I can tell it looks soft, which is a good thing. No one wants to eat a cake that doesn't look soft."
He couldn't help but smile and looked at the oven again.
"You should really feel proud." She grabbed the thick gloves on the sink. "Some people take months or maybe years to learn how to bake a cake. Some never do."
"Did you?"
"At first, yes. It took me a few months to learn and a couple of them after I learned to mess it up again." She laughed. "Until I learned for real. So getting it right the first time is a huge accomplishment. Great job."
"I only did good because of you."
"No, I didn't do anything." Hikari shook her head and said in a reassuring tone. "I was just guiding you. You did all by yourself and deserve all the credit for it."
"Thank you." Ken smiled at her. "You're so amazing."
"I know." She bragged and giggled before opening the oven. "I think we can take it out now."

"So, what do you think?" Ken turned to Wormmon when he finished eating his slice of cake.
"It's so delicious, Ken! You're such an amazing cook."
"See? I'm not the only one who thinks so. I'm very proud of you." Hikari ate some of her cake. "By the way, I completely agree with Wormmon. You're an amazing cook."
"Well, then I'll have to bake cakes more often. That way you can come here more and spend more time."
"Oh, so is that a bribe?"
"Absolutely not. I could never do that."
"For the record, I wouldn't need a cake as an excuse to come here. I already have enough of a reason to."
"You two are so cute! I'm so happy you found each other."
"Me too."
"So do I." She leaned over and kissed him briefly. "I hate saying this, but I really have to go now."
"Alright." Ken stood up and noticed she was collecting everything from the table. "What are you doing?"
"I'm pick the dirty dishes to wash them."
"Absolutely not." He picked them up from her hands and went to place them on the sink. "I will do that."
"Are you sure? Cause I don't…"
"Yes, I'm sure." He walked to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I don't want you to get in trouble with your mother for being at your boyfriend's house more than you're supposed to."
"Okay, okay. I'm going."
"I'll walk you to the door."
"Thank you."
"Text me when you get home."
"Alright." She kissed him briefly. "I'll see on the weekend."
"Of course. Thank you again for the food."
"You're welcome."
"Ken?" Wormmon spoke when his partner closed the door.
"What is it?"
"You do know that Hikari wants to get engaged, right?"
"I do." He leaned against the door and closed his eyes. "And it's gonna happen soon."