Coming to Terms
by Meimi
Completion Date: 09.05.2004

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Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Toei or anyone who hold rights to Digimon Adventure 02. It isn't mine, I'm just playing with it.

Spoiler Warning: Spoilers for all of 02 as well as minor mention of the Digimon Wonderswan games.

Content Warning: There are hints of love/romantic affection between two male characters. If this disturbs you in any way please do not continue reading.

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It was too quiet. He was too quiet. It was completely unnatural.

He had been quiet on the trip to the train station. He had been quiet as they boarded the bullet train for Fukuoka. And now, two hours into the train ride, he was still quiet.

Daisuke was rarely quiet. He could best be described as pure energy in the shape of a teenager. That didn't lend itself well to quiet. In fact, quiet just did not fit into the vast majority of Daisuke's life, yet he had been quiet for nearly three hours now and it was starting to get on Ken's already stressed out nerves.

Ken sighed and attempted to break the silence that was beginning to drive him mad. "You didn't have to come, you know."

"Yes, I did."

The response was quick and stilted and stung as if Daisuke had reached up and slapped him. Well, at least now he knew where Daisuke's mood was, though he had no idea why it was there in the first place or why Daisuke had insisted on coming with him. Rolling his eyes, Ken said very evenly, "It isn't any of your concern."

"Yes, it is."

Again, the quick slap of words, and again, it just didn't make any sort of sense to him. Well, he might be able to guess at the cause, but he didn't want to make a fool out of himself just in case that small possibility was wrong. "You didn't even know him."

"Tell that to V-mon."

Ken tilted his head to the side in confusion. The little digimon that was Daisuke's partner, and previously Ryo's, didn't have much to do with his decision to make this outing to Fukuoka. There were the obvious connections, of course, but they didn't really make much of a difference in his final decision to visit Mrs. Akiyama. So why was Daisuke being all prickly about it? Frowning, he sighed and told himself that he wasn't going to start a fight with Daisuke. "I really don't think that has anything to do-"

"You know exactly what it has to do with this entire thing," Daisuke shot out fiercely, waving his hands around in agitation as he turned around and glared at Ken.

"No, actually I don't know why you're being such an ass about this when you were the one who insisted on coming in the first place," Ken ground out as Daisuke finally got on his last nerve, then regretted it almost instantly. He shouldn't snap at Daisuke, even if he was getting severely annoyed at Daisuke's evasiveness.

"I didn't have a choice," Daisuke growled bitterly as he flumped back against his seat and tried to glare a hole into the seat in front of him. "I can't ignore the ghost I've stolen everything from."

"He's not dead!" Ken hissed out venomously. He grimaced at the tone of his voice, he was starting to sound like his own personal ghost. Stop it, Ken reprimanded himself. There was no reason to get angry at Daisuke's little inane fit.

Daisuke sighed and visibly deflated. "Ken, one of these days you're going to have to face reality. If he could come back, don't you think he'd be back for you already?"

Ken's eyes narrowed suspiciously at what Daisuke was hinting at. He couldn't possibly have thought that he and Ryo... yet his words didn't have many other possibilities. This was so stupid. "No, he wouldn't," Ken said softly, releasing the annoyance he felt at Daisuke for suggesting that and instead turned to look out the window.

"Huh?" Daisuke blinked blankly at the sad sounding admission. Now that didn't make much sense. "I don't get it, you were in love with the guy." He held up his hand when Ken's head whipped around to deliver a rebuttal. "Come on, you can't hide that from me. Don't tell me you didn't have a relationship, it's written all over your face whenever you talk about him."

Reaching up and raking his fingers through his hair nervously, Ken grimaced. At least he now knew why Daisuke was acting so oddly about his trip, but he had never imagined that it would be quite this ridiculous. He knew that Daisuke had the capacity to be jealous, but him being jealous of somebody he had never known about something that had never happened just seemed truly bizarre. "No, we didn't," Ken voice sounded strained as he tried to explain, "Not for my lack of feelings, I suppose. You have to understand, Ryo was one of the first people to actually look at me as a person. But I was a child Daisuke, and he was involved with somebody else."

"Somebody else?" Daisuke blinked some more as he picked through what little he knew for the identity of this other person. After a moment, he picked out something unsavory and made a sick looking face. "Don't tell me that Gennai-"

"No!" Ken nearly shrieked indignantly. Thumping Daisuke lightly on the back of the head, he shook his head and nearly laughed, "It was my brother, you nitwit."

"Oh." Daisuke rubbed the back of his head as the proverbial light bulb went off in his mind. "Oh! That makes sense I guess. Sort of. They didn't... you know..."

Ken rolled his eyes at the insinuation. "I wouldn't know. I didn't listen in on them. That's rude you know."

"If you say so. I would have listened in," Daisuke muttered as he gave Ken the patented 'you are such a weirdo' look. Okay, so he had been a bit ridiculous about the entire subject. But still, the way Ken's face sorta lit up whenever he talked about Ryo made it the obvious conclusion to come to. "I still have to come though," he said quietly, going back to the original subject before their argument as he glanced down at his shoes.

"Why?" Ken asked, his tone softening at the note of solemnity in Daisuke's voice.

"Because he's not here," Daisuke said, wondering if he could explain this weird sort of feeling to where it would make some sort of sense. "And I have everything that he would have had if he were still here. I have so much now, more than I had ever hoped to have. I should at least acknowledge that part of the reason for my good luck is because someone else isn't here."

Ken closed his eyes at Daisuke's word. He felt like crying, but that wouldn't help anything right now. "Daisuke-"

"I'm serious Ken," Daisuke sighed, reaching over to stroke a strand of Ken's silken hair. "I've got everything that I could ever want: V-mon, the Digital World, friends... you. But he had it all first, and it was ripped away from him before I even got here. That means a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to you even though you won't admit to it. Because of that, I have to be there when you talk to his mother about him."

Plucking Daisuke's hand up from his hair, Ken pressed it gently against his cheek and took a deep breath before he began. "Daisuke, I did love Ryo, a great deal. He was the first friend I ever really had, and maybe I did want it to be more than just friendship back then. But I wouldn't ever trade you just to have him back. You are what I want now, not a ghost of something that never was."

"I'm sorry." Daisuke sighed, wincing at the little trace of hurt in Ken's voice. "I'm just being a dick," he said flippantly, trying to make his own stupidity into something even less.

Ken smothered a laugh at that and allowed the subject to be brushed under the carpet for the moment at least. "That isn't the first word I would associate with you, though it is an interesting one and it does bring some intriguing imagery to mind." He smirked as Daisuke's cheeks darkened with hints of a blush. "But that will have to wait until later."

"Ryo doesn't know what he's missing- Ow!" Daisuke yelped as Ken smacked him on the back of the head again. "What was that for?"

"Just being you, Daisuke, just being you."

--

This is all Herongale's fault. After bemoaning the fact of having to get up at 5AM and having to go to bed early, I just couldn't help but feel sorry for her -ducks swat-. At any rate, I promised her a little something for when she got off work the next night and this is what I came up with.

Little factoid: Fukuoka happens to be on the southern island of Japan, however the bullet train does have its southern terminus in Fukuoka. Either they have a bridge over the ocean or a tunnel under it or something there. It takes five or more hours to get from Fukuoka to Tokyo on the bullet train (it's about 550 miles).