A Haunting Revelation
A 'Kenkeru' Digimon 02 Shonen Ai
by Meimi

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Standard disclaimers apply.

SPOILER WARNING: Spoilers for 02 (that's season 2 for the uninitiated) up to and including the episodes involving the first appearance of the Crest of Kindness.

SHONEN AI WARNING: This is a shonen ai fic and contains within it romantic themes and hints of an intimate relationship between two male characters. If this disturbs you in any way PLEASE do not continue reading. And yes, I am sick and twisted, thanks for asking.

Please read my other fanfics 'What You Want', 'The Words Left Unsaid' and 'Peer Pressure' (in that order) before reading this one. That way you'll know what's going on.

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It was cloudy outside, almost as if the weather was trying to match up with how Hikari felt inside. She stared out at it from her bedroom window, unseeing... uncaring. Blinking, she leaned forward fogging up the glass with her breath and slowly slid her finger across it. First she wrote her name, Yagami Hikari. Beneath that, she carefully drew a cute little heart, almost as delicate as she felt now. Below that, she hesitantly spelled out Takaishi Takeru. She stared morosely at it for a single moment before hastily rubbing it out. That would never happen now, too little, too late.

She couldn't really hate Takeru for it, never that. And she couldn't hate her replacement. Replacement? Ha, as if there had been anything there to replace. She had never really initiated anything other than friendly conversation with Takeru so how could there have been something to replace? She hadn't even tried to kiss him.

Sighing, Hikari leaned back in the chair and stared up at the ceiling. She had always thought that there had been all the time in the world for something like that. She had always assumed that she would have him with her forever. And now thanks to her naivete, she would never have him with her and they would be nothing more than just friends.

Oh, she had no illusions as to just what Takeru's relationship with Ken was all about. It didn't take a genius to read between the lines. And how could she possibly compete with a beautiful wounded boy who only smiled when Takeru was around? Ken needed Takeru and Takeru was starting to need him in return. And this had all happened before she had even discovered they had been seeing each other.

That was probably the reason why it rankled so much, the fact that it had happened right under her nose and she hadn't known a thing about it. Her best friend, the guy she had always thought she'd be with forever, had gone and fallen head over heels for their enemy. Ken wasn't exactly their enemy anymore, but still. She wasn't really bothered by the fact that he had chosen another guy over her, what with her brother and Yamato always necking when their parents weren't around. It was just the fact that he didn't love her now, possibly never had and yet she had loved him, still did.

Which left her with the biggest problem she had ever had to face: how to fall out of love with her best friend. She had absolutely no clue how do it, nor did she really want to deep down. And... she was scared. It was so much easier to love Takeru, who was nice and caring and understanding, even if she couldn't have any of that now.

Clearing his voice to announce his presence, Taichi poked his head around the doorjamb, eyeing his baby sister worriedly. "Hey squirt, mind if I come in?"

Hikari shook her head in answer, smiling weakly as her brother sauntered into her room. He was scruffy, as usual. He had lost his tie again, as usual. His hair was sticking up everywhere, as usual. But he was looking at her with concern etched across his features, not all that usual.

"You seem kinda down," Taichi started out carefully as he placed his hands on Hikari's shoulders, squeezing them gently. "Is something wrong? Daisuke do something stupid again?"

Hikari couldn't help but laugh at that. Daisuke did seem to cause more than his fair share of trouble, without really even trying. And while he was somewhat responsible for this particular problem, she couldn't really hate him for it. No, it was better to find out about it now than later, otherwise she might have managed to make an even bigger fool out of herself than she actually had. Smiling up at her brother in reassurance, Hikari shook her head, "No, nothing's wrong and Daisuke didn't do anything. I just needed some time to figure some stuff out, is all."

Taichi frowned in speculation. He knew better to believe that but if she wasn't willing to talk about whatever the problem was then she wasn't going to. Hikari wasn't the type of person who could be forced into doing anything, whether for her own good or not. Something was upsetting her though, that much was obvious. So if she wasn't going to take his offer to be a sympathetic ear then what else could he possibly do that would cheer her up? There was always the ice cream ploy, but they didn't have any in the house so they'd have to go get some. Now that he thought about it, Tailmon's listlessness in response to Hikari's depression was the perfect way to get the ball rolling. "Well, why don't we go out for ice cream?" Taichi started out with the most hopefully pathetic expression he could drudge up that just screamed 'please, do this for me, please please?'. "Just you, me and Tailmon. She's been moping around in the living room all day. The fresh air will do her some good, I'm sure."

Hikari's eyebrows drew together as her lips twisted down in a slight grimace. Oh, she knew what her brother was trying to do, but she hadn't actually seen Tailmon all day nor had she spared a thought about her digimon partner. It was awfully selfish of her, now that she thought about it, holing herself up in her room alone all day just to agonize over something this... this silly. Mentally smacking herself for acting like a selfish, lovesick little brat, Hikari climbed up out of the chair and plastered a cheery, though extremely fake, smile on her face. "That sounds like a great idea."

Taichi cocked his lips halfway in a humorless grin. Well, at least he'd managed to convince her to get out of the house for awhile. Gesturing grandly before him and towards the door, his grin widened into a cheeky smile, "Ladies first."

"Ha ha," Hikari smirked as she walked gracefully past her brother. "Don't even think I don't hear that 'Are you really a lady?' bit!" Laughing, she whirled around, poked him in the ribs and darted off towards the living room.

"Oh you are so dead!" Taichi yelled out as he chased after his little minx of a sister. Reaching the living room at a dead run, he launched himself over the couch and pounced on her as she tried to escape around the coffee table. "See what poking gets you!" he crowed out in victory as he mercilessly tickled his giggling baby sister.

"Ack! No! Stop!" Hikari giggled breathlessly as she tried to squirm out from under her brother. "No more! Mercy!" She cried out, laughing so hard she almost had tears in her eyes. Flopping down when he stopped suddenly, she looked up at him curiously and followed his gaze up to the back of the couch.

Tailmon sat perched on top of the couch, her tail twitching ever so slightly. She gazed down at them indifferently, though her cocked ears gave away the fact that she was curious about something. Humphing at their now undivided attention, she hopped down onto the couch seat, "You humans are so odd sometimes."

"Good afternoon to you too, dear," Hikari said in response as she pushed Taichi off of her and sat up. Hauling herself up off of the floor, she scooped Tailmon up into her arms and hugged the little digimon. "So, what would you say to us going out for some ice cream?"

"Oh, that sounds like a wonderful idea," Tailmon purred out as Hikari scratched her behind the ears. After a few moments spent enjoying the attention, she blinked up at her human partner and asked, "So are you going to carry me or do I get to follow along like a good little kitty?"

"Heh, I think I'll carry you this time," Hikari chuckled as she gently beeped her partner on the nose. "This is far too comfortable to let you down now." Looking over at her brother, she cocked an eyebrow as she asked the most important question of all, "You are paying right?"

"Well of course I am," Taichi whined as he headed for the front door. Slipping his shoes on he tossed back, "Would I make you pay when it's my treat?"

"Yes," Hikari answered blandly as she slipped on her own shoes. She smiled angelically at her brother when he stuck his tongue out at her. "And I must say, the fact that you actually have money for once is a shock."

Yanking open the front door, Taichi gestured for Hikari to precede him from their apartment. "Far be it for me to ruin my darling sister's romantic image of me, but I don't spend every single penny on Yamato," he groused as he closed and locked the door behind them.

Hikari gasped melodramatically, "Oh my! How shocking!" Narrowing her eyes in jest, she smirked, "How sad it must be for poor Yama-chan, stuck with an ingrate like you who just doesn't appreciate his need for romance."

"Hey now," Taichi wagged his finger in his sister's face. "Romance isn't something that needs to be bought." Feeling somewhat superior after having said that, he gently pushed Hikari off towards the elevator.

"Well at least you know that much. Maybe there's some hope for you yet," Hikari murmured sweetly, giggling at the strangled curses coming from her brother afterwards.

"Just you be glad we're in public now, you minx," Taichi grumbled half-heartedly. One of these days he'd managed to win one of these sparring sessions with his little sister, maybe.

Unfortunately, both of their good moods passed when they reached the elevator. They waited in silence after Taichi pressed the button, Taichi tapping his foot nervously and Hikari looking anywhere but at him. They stepped inside when the doors opened, still silent as the elevator descended to the ground floor.

Grimacing slightly at the jarring sound of her own silence, Hikari frantically sought for anything to talk about. Frowning at another not so pleasant situation, she hesitantly asked, "So, uhm, how's Sora? She found out about you two didn't she?"

"Oh... uh, yeah, she did," Taichi coughed uncomfortably. Oh joy, what a perfect subject to get on now. "Well, she basically ignored us for awhile, then she got pissed off at me and then she gave me the silent treatment. She's talking to me again now though," he muttered quietly as he reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "I'm not really sure if I'm reading her right, but I think she's actually relieved. You know, I think that whole 'best friends falling in love' crap really had her reeling for awhile. What with it being expected of her by her friends and all, but I think we're gonna be okay now." He blinked and smiled shyly at that last bit.

"Oh, that's good to hear." Hikari smiled weakly at her brother before losing herself in her own thoughts. Best friends falling in love huh? Well she had certainly fallen for that myth, hook, line and sinker. Only, Takeru hadn't fallen for it, which left her at square one again. What a farce the whole thing was: a girl falling in love with her best guy friend who was supposed to fall in love with her too. It's what was supposed to happen, wasn't it? The perfect setup. Yeah, right. Takeru was in love with Ken, not her. That was reality. And one way or another she had to face reality, even if she didn't really want to.

Taichi watched worriedly as Hikari strode out of the elevator almost mechanically when they reached the ground floor. Tailmon lay perched in his sister's arms, ear slightly flattened as if mirroring her partner's mood, which was quite likely with what little he knew about digimon. Something he had said must have disturbed Hikari somehow. But what and why?

"You know, I haven't seen Takeru around recently," Taichi ventured, hoping the subject of her best friend would be enough to drag Hikari out of her shell. He frowned in concern when his sister almost winced at the name. Okay, Takeru was a touchy subject. Why? Hesitantly, he asked, "Is something up with you two?"

"No no, he's just been really busy lately," Hikari answered hastily, trying her best to cover up any possible shock she felt at him asking that. No way was she going to let Taichi know anything about Takeru and Ken, much less her own feelings about the subject. If she told her brother, then everybody would find out about it. That would be very bad considering what her own reaction had been. No, she would never betray Takeru like that. That would be so wrong.

"Ohkay," Taichi drawled out as he thought about her reaction a bit. Hikari was hedging around the subject. Something was up with Takeru. Something she didn't want to talk about. Why? They were best friends, had been best friends for ages now. What could Takeru possibly be doing that Hikari didn't want to talk about? "Busy doing what?"

"Stuff," Hikari ground out, her tone easily indicating that she didn't want to discuss matters any further than that. Smiling in relief as the ice cream shop came into view, Hikari sighed silently at the timely rescue. "So, I want a one-scoop strawberry cone," she called back as she skipped up to look in the store window. Looking down at Tailmon she asked, "What would you like?"

"Hmmm," Tailmon blinked up at Hikari for a moment as she thought it over. "How about a chocolate swirl?"

Taichi leaned down, smirking knowingly as he looked Tailmon in the eyes, "You know chocolate is toxic for critters, don't you?"

"I'm a digimon, Taichi," Tailmon answered flatly in reply, not deigning to rise to the bait. "Do you really think that matters?"

Taichi pouted slightly at Tailmon's apparent lack of enthusiasm for his teasing. Shaking his head mournfully at the pair's resistance to anything that might garner a laugh or two, he sighed and headed into the shop. "I'll be right back."

Hikari smiled slightly as she watched him go. Oh, she did appreciate the effort he was putting out, but she just really wasn't in the mood. Squeezing Tailmon gently, she sighed and watched the people from across the street reflected in the window. Maybe she was being too morose, but she really didn't know how to get herself out of it, and didn't really want to either.

"Hikari?" The question was hesitant, almost as if Tailmon was afraid to disturb Hikari's mood.

Looking down at her partner, Hikari smiled in reply and quietly prompted, "What is it?"

Hugging Hikari's arms to her, Tailmon leaned her head back and looked lovingly up at her human partner. "You know I'll always be with you no matter what. Right?"

Hikari smiled then, a true genuine smile. It was the kind that lit up her face, softened her eyes and made her cheeks glow with a faint blush of pink. Hugging her partner closer to her, she closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of a summer shower that always seemed to lurk deep within Tailmon's fur. "I know. We'll always be together. No matter what."

Sighing happily at the pure love she felt right now, Hikari looked up into the window and smiled warmly at her own reflection. Tailmon was the greatest gift she had ever received and the greatest friend she would ever have. Tilting her head to the side, she caught a glimpse of a familiar hat in the window's reflection and froze. Her eyes widening in an emotion she couldn't even name, she watched as Takeru dragged a seemingly resistant Ken down the opposite side of the street. He must be taking Ken out somewhere, she thought wistfully. She blinked curiously as something else caught her eye.

Following a short ways behind Takeru and his apparently disgruntled significant other was a boy with wild, dark hair who was wearing glasses. He looked familiar to Hikari, almost as if she had seen him before recently. She dug around in her mind, searching for something that would tell her who this guy was and came up with a blank. Surely she knew him.

Ice threaded its way through Hikari's veins as he glanced over towards her and a vision sprang up in her mind unbidden: the last time she had seen Ken as the Digimon Kaiser, haunted and torn by his own deadly mistakes. The expression this boy wore, was somehow sadder, more guilt-ridden, but the resemblance was uncanny.

Whirling around, she locked eyes with the boy. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, gazing deeply into her eyes as if he was trying to tell her something. His eyes were clear and of a blue-violet color Hikari was almost certain twinkled in Ken's eyes as well. This wasn't Ken though, nor was it a ghost of the Kaiser. It was someone else. Who it was, she didn't know and for some reason that didn't matter.

He was worried about something, terribly so. Was it Ken? Yes, it was Ken this boy was worried about. She didn't know how she knew, but the instant the question had formed in Hikari's mind she knew the answer. Why was he worried about Ken though? That was only answered with a feeling of oppression that left her feeling weak in the knees. Who was this boy? How was he making her feel this way?

His only answer to these last questions was a tilting of his head and a humorless smirk twisting his lips upwards. Raising his hand, he pointed at her as sparkles of light began to travel across his skin. He shook them off in annoyance, smirked at her knowingly again and turned around as if he was going to follow after Ken and Takeru. And then, he promptly vanished, as if he had never been there at all.

She could see him because she was Light. That much, at least, Hikari had gathered from his silent display and subsequent vanishing act. The knowledge along with the entire occurrence left her shaking and frightened. She had always thought she had left the freakish bouts of the unknown far behind and buried in her past with the Digital World. But obviously, that wasn't true. What was he, a ghost? "Did you see that?" she asked breathlessly of Tailmon when she finally remembered her voice.

"That strange boy?" Tailmon asked quietly in response. Not waiting for Hikari to acknowledge the question, she continued on in curious speculation, "I think... he was an angel."

"An angel?" Hikari whispered quietly as she looked down the street in the direction Takeru had dragged Ken. Why would an angel be following after her best friend and the boy he loved? The fact that the angel, or ghost, or whatever he was, had resembled Ken so very much couldn't have possibly been a coincidence. So who had he been? And why was he here?

Hikari didn't know any of the answers to the multitude of questions popping up in her mind now, but she was going to find out, one way or another.

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Foreshadowing is my friend. *laughs* Props to Ajora for the idea of guardian angel Osamu. I hope you enjoyed this little interlude before I start cranking out an actual plot for my beloved Kenkeru/Taken epic. The next story in this saga is going to be very long, so please be patient with me as I write out the beast I have fondly dubbed 'Kindness'. Hope you liked it! ^_^