Interlude: Takeru
Takeru.
It’s over, at least for the moment. The Kaizer has been defeated and now all that’s left is the clean up. You spent all day in the Digital World helping with clean up and now you’re dead tired. You have some homework you should get started on, but you can barely lift your arms, so it’s just going to have to wait.
With nothing else to do, your mind starts to wander. At first you start to think about your earlier thoughts, that there’s some new danger in the Digital World that hasn’t yet revealed itself. The thought is troubling, especially since you feel the Digital World has gone through enough recently and really shouldn’t have to deal with more problems.
But of course, thinking about a new unknown enemy led you back to the old enemy and to the thoughts you have been trying to avoid for the past week.
The kiss.
You came up with a quick story to tell everyone after the fact, and you spent the whole time since then trying everything you could to drive the thought from your head. But now, with nothing else to do, it’s creeping up on you again.
You really did have the intention of knocking some sense into Ichijouji when you left Iori, Armadillomon and Tentomon to free the digimon from the holding cells; it just hadn’t worked out that way. So, most of the story you told the other Digidestined had been true enough just heavily edited.
Ken had struck you first with the whip. It hurt; the mark from that had just faded away about a day ago, but you managed to laugh it off. Your remark about solving everything with violence had not turned out as well as you made it seem. Instead of hesitating, Ichijouji had dropped the whip and strode over. You had been so sure the Kaizer was about to throw a punch that you balled up your own fist and shifted your weight to counter it. But you underestimated Ichijouji’s speed and you completely misjudged his intent, and before you blinked, the Kaizer had grabbed your face and dragged you in.
What a mess. It wasn’t like that had been your first kiss, thank goodness. Hikari and you have kissed a couple of times before, but you both agreed that the two of you weren’t really ready for that yet, so it never went anywhere... It figures; it wasn’t like you could have expected the Kaizer to respect your boundaries or anything like that.
No, the problem isn’t that the Kaizer kissed you, the problem is that no matter how much you try to deny it, ignore it, or not even think about it, you can’t think of anything else! You had been using the fight for the Digital World as a convenient distraction; but now it’s over, and you have nothing else to focus on.
And if you’re honest with yourself, it’s not even the kiss that’s bothering you, it’s the "What ifs." What if Ichijouji hadn’t been such a jerk about it? What if you had gotten over the shock in time to kiss him back?
It’s really exasperating to think that the Kaizer has gotten to you this way, but there is nothing you can do about it now, you just have to deal with it.
You know you like Hikari, but you also know the couple of times that you have kissed her have been nothing like what had happened with Ichijouji. If your kisses had been anything like that, you probably would have found some way to be kissing her right now. On the other hand, it could have just been a fluke; it happened so fast that you had barely registered what was happening before it was over. So, obviously, you need to find a way to test if it was just a one time thing, which would mean doing it again.
There is absolutely no way you are going to kiss Ichijouji again. Nuh-uh. No way. No how. But... maybe... naw, you just need to find another guy. Of course, that was way easier said than done. You don’t really have a lot of options. You’re not willing to go to any of the guys at school, you barely knew them... which really only leaves the guys you do know: the other Digidestined.
You wouldn’t dare go to Taichi. Tai would end up telling Yamato and just the thought of that is enough to send your skin crawling. Yamato would never let you live it down... or worse. What if Yamato decided he wanted to help? He would probably start trying to set you up with his band’s groupies... or one of the guys in the band! No. Just no.
You could probably get Koushiro or Jyou to at least be discreet about it, but... they just didn’t seem like the right people to go to about something like this. If it were a question about computers, or school work, or something like that, you wouldn’t hesitate; but not for this.
That, of course, leaves the current Digidestined, where your prospects are even bleaker. Iori is way too young and Daisuke is... Daisuke is...
Well, why not Daisuke?
You start to give the matter of Daisuke some serious thought. You know you joke about Daisuke a lot but you don’t really mean anything by it. Really, it was just that Daisuke was so much like Taichi; it was hard not to make jokes. Daisuke was goofy, that was true, but he was also brave and courageous and he was certainly a good friend. And he wasn’t stupid either; he was turning out to be a pretty good leader.
But you’re pretty sure he’s straight, the way he chases after Hikari and all that.... But then again, if Taichi is anything to judge by, then maybe.... After all, Taichi had spent ages chasing after Sora, but now it was so obvious that there was something going on between him and Yamato....
Maybe Daisuke wasn’t such a bad choice after all. It’s not like you’re looking for a life long commitment anyway; you just need help with this one small matter.
And now you’re stumped again. You have no idea how to go about asking for help with this, you’re not even sure exactly what you’re asking help for.
You close your eyes and think back to the moment, the kiss. You think about how the Kaizer grabbed you and pressed your lips together. It was hard and fast and... shocking. Just as shocking to remember now as it was when it happened. You remember how the Kaizer sucked on your bottom lip, bringing it into his mouth. Of course that was just so the Kaizer could bite you, not hard enough to draw blood, but it had stung for the rest of the day. And wasn’t it just like that jerk to spoil the moment like that...
But that was just the problem, it had been a moment... and now it seems like that’s the only thing you can think about.
Yep, this is definitely something you could use Daisuke’s help with. But you still don’t know what or how to ask. It’s all too easy to picture Daisuke laughing at you if he thinks you’re joking, and you don’t know if you’ll be able to handle that. So you think you’ll have to wait for a day when you’ll have time to explain the whole situation to Daisuke. It should be after school someday, or maybe even over the weekend. It will be difficult but it won’t be impossible. You can walk home with Daisuke one day; maybe start the conversation about soccer to keep his interest...
You give yourself a moment to imagine what it would be like to kiss Daisuke. He probably wouldn’t bite. But maybe he would hold your face, take the lead like he always thinks he has to. And he would kiss like his personality, too fast, all force and no skill but still good. Or maybe it won’t be like that at all. Maybe it will go slow because it will be his first time and you’ll both be nervous and...
You shake your head, you don’t want to get too carried away. You don’t want to get carried away at all. It’s a stupid idea and you’re going to just forget the whole thing. You’re going to sleep, things will look better in the morning.
But of course, nothing ever works out the way you plan. You managed to keep your attention focused on the Digital World for all of about four days, nothing happened; nothing regarding a new threat, anyway. The clean up was going smoothly and you were managing to keep your act together. It was something else that came up.
Ever since your little idea to get Daisuke to help with your "problem" you’ve been watching him, closely. And that would be why you were so quick to notice something was wrong. Daisuke started acting really weird, well, weirder than normal. He was suddenly... just... out of it. He would zone out during the middle of conversations and he was really jumpy like he had just seen a ghost or something like that. But you had to question your observations. After all, you were the only one to notice the change, so you thought maybe you were just imagining the whole thing.
You decided to ask Hikari if she had noticed anything, she was normally much better at noticing these types of things. And to your surprise, you found out it wasn’t that she hadn’t noticed, it was that she hadn’t cared.
"Takeru," she said, looking at you like you were crazy for bring it up, "It’s just Daisuke; he’s always acting weird. He’s not acting any different from normal. Why do you care anyway?"
And that had been a dangerous enough question for you to drop it and walk away, at least as far as Hikari was concerned. But you were more convinced that there was something going on, so you went straight to the source.
Daisuke was an absolute wealth of non-information. When you first asked him about it he tried to play it off but after he realized you weren’t going to let it go, he started avoiding you. He was walking away when you tried to talk to him and taking clean up projects in the Digital World as far away from you as he could get.
It went on for weeks until one day, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. You were very happy to see Daisuke had gotten over… whatever it was, but it seemed like he was still avoiding you. Every time you tried to talk to him he was still walking away, only he was doing it with a smile and a wave. That went on for a couple of more days and then you saw -him- again.
Last night you thought about the new situation. Ken was back, and it seemed like he was up to no good again. You had hoped that if he was ever going to go back to the Digital World, that he would have changed his ways. You thought he had wised up to Digimon being real. But you know what you saw and even though you don’t want to believe it, Ken and that new Digimon had destroyed Thundermon. It was possible, however unlikely, that there was something more going on than what you had seen; that Digimon had saved Iori, by his own acknowledgement, and even Daisuke wasn’t quite ready to believe the worst of the situation. You wanted to believe that Ken was no longer capable of something like that, but you were willing to accept that nothing had changed. If he had to be stopped again, the only way you were going to be able to do that would be with a united Digidestined team. That meant you had to get Daisuke back on task. For some reason, you had a feeling that was going to be more difficult than it sounded.
Today you showed up at school absolutely determined to get Daisuke to talk to you. The problem was you couldn’t get a hold of him. He darted out of the morning class that you share as soon as the bell rang, and you didn’t even think it had anything to do with avoiding you this time. You couldn’t get a hold of him at Lunch because he and Hikari were on cafeteria duty, though you did notice he and Hikari had an awful lot to talk about. And he never showed up for gym class! You weren’t discouraged though, everyone was planning to go to the Digital World after school again, and you could catch him then.
You dashed to the computer room before anyone else had made it and you hung out with the Digimon until Miyako came in, and then you couldn’t take wait anymore. You told Miyako that you were just going to take a quick walk and you’d be right back, Patamon asked to come with you so you took him along. Really, you were trying to catch Daisuke alone in the hall; you didn’t want to have the conversation in front of Miyako. Ah, but you were undone by one of those simple quirks of life; left or right.
You went left and he must have come from the right because when you made the full circle of the hallway and approached the computer room from the right side, he was storming out of the room to the left, with Chibimon trailing behind him. A quick conversation with Miyako kinda clued you in on what was going on and it only took a long moment of hesitation before you decided to follow him. You didn’t know what he was up to, because he wouldn’t talk to you, but you figured he might need some back up. Plus, you thought you might get the opportunity you were looking for.
This brings you to your current situation, and what a situation it is. Generally you don’t approve of eavesdropping, but you are not going to go down there to announce yourself and you surely are not going to leave Daisuke alone with him, so you find yourself standing at the bridge and listening.
You hear Daisuke trying to get Ken to join the team and you’re startled to find yourself disappointed when Ken rejects the offer! What are you crazy? Do you actually want -him- to… What if he….
"Hey Takeru," Patamon asks from the perch on top of your hat, "Do you think Daisuke is right about Ken? Should we forgive him for what he’s done?"
And you surprise yourself again, by answering truthfully. You do believe everyone deserves a second chance, yes even Ken. Maybe it’s enough that he doesn’t forgive himself; you don’t need to hold a grudge.
You spare one last glance at Daisuke, his profile, turned to look at the river, he looks… sad. You turn and walk away; you’re going home with a lot to think about.
