Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Dating Game ❯ Spreading the News ( Chapter 3 )

The Dating Game

Chapter 3: Spreading the News

* * *

"So you almost kissed Ken on the first date?"

"Yes." Yolei answered. It was Saturday night and she was talking to Kari on the phone about her first date with Ken which ended earlier than expected. "But we didn't because of that stupid boat."

"And that was before you fell in the lake. By the way, how did you manage to fall in there?"

"I was standing up on the boat - yeah, stupid, I know - and suddenly, it shook and the next thing I knew, my mouth and my nose was full of water." She sighed. "Leave it to my clumsiness to spoil the date that was going spectacularly well."

"Don't worry Yolei," Kari consoled, "I'm sure next time won't be so bad."

"I sure hope so…and I really wanted to kiss him too."

"Isn't it a little early on in the relationship to be thinking about kissing? Tai always tells me that he never kisses on the first date. Maybe a kiss on the cheek but never on the lips."

"Ken didn't even do that." Yolei exclaimed, suddenly more downtrodden. A kiss on the cheek would have been wonderful. "And I'm not even sure we're even going to have a relationship."

"Well, you know Ken, always slow and steady." Kari suggested. "Just give him time. I'm sure you guys are going to make a great couple." Yolei had to smile at the thought of Ken and her actually being a pair.

"He did ask me out on a second date and we would be alone…"

"See what I mean. Besides, you've liked him for a long time; it's about time you got together with him. You're not the keeper of love for nothing you know."

"I guess you're right. But promise me one thing Kari."

"What is it?"

"Ken might not want anyone else to know so please don't tell anybody else about him and me." Personally, Yolei would have wanted everyone to know as soon as possible but she didn't think Ken would. It would have to wait.

"I won't."

"Thanks Kari." Yolei then decided to change the subject. "So, speaking of getting together, what about you and TK?"

"What about us?" Kari sounded slightly surprised.

"Well, is there something going on between you guys, I can see it. You're always taking sneak glances at each other. Even Cody has noticed. The only person that hasn't is Davis, TK too, but since when does Davis notice anything."

"I…well…I like TK…a lot." Yolei had to smile at Kari's shy answer. "Yes, I do." Kari said more strongly this time. It was almost as if she was getting comfortable saying it out loud. "As much as you like Ken almost."

"That's really a lot than."

* * *

"You know Ken, I can't believe you're dating before me." It was Sunday afternoon and Davis and Ken were at the park kicking the soccer ball back and forth as to kill time whilst they were talking about Ken's too-short-in-his-opinion date with Yolei the previous day. Meanwhile, Wormmon and Veemon had disappeared somewhere, probably playing Tarzan with Wormmon's string attack. Both of them could hear Veemon's occasional ape-man-like howl.

Ken had gotten to the part of Yolei falling in the water and he than became silent, blushing red of the thought of how close they were yesterday after she fell. He wouldn't have minded spending more time with her right than, even if she were wet. Of course, a more slightly evil part of his brain thought that that look suited her just fine. But he didn't tell that to Davis, nope, that was a thought he'd rather keep to himself for now, along with a bundle of other thoughts. Davis continued on. "Then again, I didn't know you were so daring as to try to kiss Yolei on the very first date." Davis kicked the ball extra hard towards Ken.

Stopping the ball with a slight movement of his foot, Ken answered, "That's funny, I didn't realize I was either." To say the truth, at that moment, he didn't feel daring at all. In fact, he felt more like a wimp for not kissing her. 'No,' the rational part of his brain shouted, 'take it slow.' 'Slow sucks,' the more evil-emperor part of his brain argued.

"So why didn't you kiss her than anyway?" Davis kicked the soccer ball to him.

"It's not like I didn't want to, the boat shook and the moment was lost." He kicked the ball extra hard while saying that. Davis dodged it and his eyes lit up in sudden acknowledgement.

"So you did want to kiss her."

Ken looked down to the ground, blushing. "Of course I did, who wouldn't want to." He said truthfully. "But I shouldn't do that yet."

"Touché." That was all he said before they went back to kicking the ball again. After about 8 minutes of silence, "So, did you ask her on a second date?"

"Yes."

Davis raised his eyebrows, two of his closest friends were indeed on their way to becoming a couple, the horror, the unspeakable horror. "You must really like her." Ken didn't answer the question but for once, Davis could see something that didn't have to be said. The answer was apparent in Ken's face and how it looked happier (and redder) at the mention of Yolei's name.

"Don't tell anyone about her and me, or else." Ken gave Davis a mimic of the Digimon's Emperor's evil glare. For a minute, Ken did quite look like Davis' former nemesis. "Really, I don't really want anyone to know just yet."

"No problem, I won't tell anyone about your secret affair." Davis started laughing at his own corny little joke and pretty soon, Ken joined in and after a while, they both had a stitch on their sides. When he finally gotten a hold of himself, Davis continued, "But anyways, congratulations Ken."

Ken looked at him surprised. "For what?"

"You've finally become a teen."

* * *

"Ken." They were walking home and Ken had his hands in his pockets as usual while Wormmon was sitting on his shoulder.

"Yes Wormmon?"

"What were you and Davis talking about that made you turn red?"

"Just stuff."

"Was it about Yolei?" Ken was surprised at his digimon's guess. Still, he nodded. It must have become apparent since no one else can make Ken blush except Yolei. "Are you guys a couple now?"

He was slightly baffled by the question. Were they? "Well, next Saturday marks our second official date so yes, I guess by then we would be a couple." Warmth crept into his skin as he said this. Than it hit him, was their digimon going to come with them? He hadn't considered this before. Wormmon loved going to the fair every year and it wouldn't be fair for him to miss this year's. "Would you like to come with us to the fair Wormmon?"

"Is Yolei going to mind?" 'Didn't Ken want to spend some time with Yolei alone?' he wondered.

"I'm sure she won't." At least, Ken hoped she wouldn't mind. He'd have to call her some time and see.

* * *

"I guess we could." Yolei said over the phone, trying to hide the obvious disappointment from her voice. Instead, she tried to hide it with her usual happy persona. "We can go two on two on the bumper cars."

Ken smiled, whilst breathing out a sigh of relief. Good, she didn't have a problem. Here he was, worried that she wouldn't be happy, she's always happy. He was beginning to care about that particular emotion more often from her. "You have to be careful, I can be a very tough adversary. Just ask Davis." He could hear her giggling. The mere sound of it was enough to make his stomach flip over in circles.

"I can see it by the many times you kicked his butt in soccer. I'd say some more things but he is our friend and I can't do that." Yolei suddenly didn't feel angry with him anymore.

"Well, it's nothing. They don't call me the 'Rocket' for nothing."

She laughed again, "Not exactly modest are you? Listen, I have to go, my sister wants to call her boyfriend. She can talk to hers for as long as she wants but she won't even let me spend a half an hour talking to mine." Yolei suddenly covered her mouth. 'Oh gods, I shouldn't have said that. Why do I always have to humiliate myself?' Great, she suddenly just embarrassed herself and lost her voice for a moment to boot.

Ken couldn't believe what Yolei just said. Did she say that he was a boyfriend? He did want to be, very much so. He wasn't sure he heard her right. Did she just hang up on him? Why was she suddenly so quiet? "I'll let you go now than. Good bye Yolei, I'll see you on Saturday."

"Bye Ken," she said weakly. And she hung up. 'How am I going to face him? He probably thinks I'm too desperate.' Groaning, she laid her face in her hands. Another thought than came to her head, 'So much for the Tunnel of Love.'

* * *

Ken pushed open the door to the flower shop, greeted by a whiff of rose and other flower scents. The bell attached to the top rang softly as he stepped into the small, yet cozy store. It was Friday afternoon and had just gotten out of school. Passing by the flower garden at his school, he had decided that he should give Yolei flowers for a reason he couldn't really comprehend. That's what guys do right? They give gifts to their girlfriends, right? He'd seen guys around his school occasionally give their girlfriends things like a teddy bear or flowers. Or sometimes, they'd give them a kiss right there between classes. Ken would have liked to be able to give that to Yolei but than, no, he ultimately decided against it for now.

"Hey Ken," Sora said smiling, looking up from the vase in which she was arranging tulips, star orchids, red gladiolus, and purple roses in an artistic fashion. "What brings you in here?"

"I'm looking for flowers…for someone. I didn't know you worked here on Fridays."

Sora raised her eyebrows while cutting some leaves off the roses. She didn't think she heard correctly, did he just say for someone? "Matt had to cancel our date today so I just thought I'd come here just to kill time. Besides, I'd thought it would be best to finish this arrangement I've been working on. Anyways, may I ask who that someone is?" Ken looked to the ground and shifted his weight from one foot to the other while blushing in discomfort. Sora had to work to suppress a laugh. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"Thanks," he said. Than, his eyes fell on the purple roses on the table. That particular one suddenly reminded him of Yolei. That's the exact color of her hair. "Sora, do you have any more of those roses?"

Sora suddenly understood; she nodded. "She got up and went over to a sliding glass door. After choosing a particularly large blooming purple rose from the vase, Sora also chose a white rose with a dash of pink.

Catching Ken's bewildered look, she said, "Well, she is the keeper of love and purity isn't she?" She gave him a sly smile and proceeded to wrap decorate the roses with babies breath and plastic wrap. Tying a purple ribbon onto the flowers, she handed it to him. "It's on the house."

"No," he said, obviously embarrassed that she knew, "I can't let you pay for this. It's my gift to her."

"Alright than, consider the white rose a gift from me to you to her. I'm sure she'll love them." Giving Sora a grateful smile, he placed the money on the counter and walked out of the shop. "See ya Ken. I hope your guys' ride isn't a bumpy one," she added quietly.

* * *

'"You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you - and full as much heart! And if God has gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave - "' Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Yolei jumped from her resting position on her bed, her reverie broken. And she was just getting to the good part in the book too. No one, not even her digimon, was home so she couldn't have anyone else open the door. Her brother had taken Hawkmon somewhere that day also. "This better be good," she said to herself. Putting her book down, she walked from her room to the front door.

Opening the door, she looked around. Funny, there wasn't anybody there. She was about to close it when she stopped, spotting the gift lying on the doormat. It was two roses, one purple and the other white with pink lining. 'I didn't know Ken was so sweet,' Yolei thought to herself. There was also a card. Reading, she started smiling, than giggling happily, while hugging the roses to her chest. The card read:

To Yolei

From Ken: boyfriend-in-training

* * *

"Oh look, the roller coaster!" Yolei shouted, "C'mon Ken." She grabbed Ken's hand and started to run, and dragging him, towards the line. It was Saturday and they were well on their second date. There were a lot of people there that day, all of them with their own digimon. It was amazing on how many different kinds there were. Some, even Yolei haven't even seen. Ken, on the other hand, was a different story and he was oddly quiet when she looked around and marveled how odd or strangely beautiful some looked. All of the guilt that was beginning to form disappeared just as quickly each time Yolei smiled and pulled him toward a ride. He couldn't ever remember having this much fun with just one person. Yesterday, when he had left the rose on her doorstep, she had called him up and they ended up engaging in a conversation that lasted for hours until her dad had to pull her away from the phone.

As they stopped in front of the fairly small roller coaster, Yolei blushed, realizing how tightly she was holding Ken's hand. Wormmon looked at the ride with slight trepidation. His eyes widened even more as he saw the drop downwards and as he heard the screams coming from the people and digimon. He'd never been on this particular ride before, all the times he had gone, Ken had never gone on that one. "Ken."

Ken tore away from the conversation he was having with Yolei. "Yes Wormmon."

"Is this ride scary." He asked as they stepped forward in the line a few steps and another batch of screams could be heard.

"Not really." He turned back to Yolei before looking back to his digimon. "Are you going to be all right when we go on? I don't want you to get nauseous or anything like that." Wormmon nodded weakly, his eyes still looking at the drop. They were almost to the front of the line.

Yolei followed the digimon's glance. "Well, maybe we shouldn't go," she said.

"I can stay here with Wormmon." Hawkmon intervened. He knew that Yolei wanted to get some time by her self with Ken and there was also the fact that despite the many times he's been on roller coasters, they still managed to make him quite queasy. Seeing his partners eyes light up, the digimon knew she was going to give him one of her bear hugs when they got home as a thank you.

"That's settled. Don't look so unsure Ken, I'm sure they can fend for themselves for five minutes." Yolei said happily. Ken nodded finally.

The gate opened and the two of them stepped inside the car. "Remember to meet us at the exit," he called to them. His eyes then fell on Yolei as she took off her hat; that looked better, though her hair stood up a bit. He reached over and straightened it. She looked over at him, surprised and Ken looked away sheepishly.

"Are you having fun?" She asked. The car started moving.

"If you count being dragged around like a dog, fun." He joked. Spotting her downcast face, he added hastily, "Just kidding. Of course, any day spent with you is always fun."

She smiled and blushed. Ken thought she looked pretty cute when she did that. "You're not a dog, dogs can't be this cute. Well, except little furry puppies." It was Ken's turn to blush now. The ride started to go upwards. "We're almost to the top, prepare to scream." He gave her a funny luck as to ask why. "Just for fun."

Coming to a suddenly halt at the very top, they sat there still for a few moments before the ride gave a lurch and propelled downwards. Air whooshed past both of their faces as Yolei threw her head back and screamed. As he looked at her, Ken couldn't help but smile as he tried to get the ringing out of his ear. She looked absolutely adorable at the moment to him with her hair flying back behind her, her hands lifted up, and her head thrown back happily laughing and screaming. Besides Yolei, he couldn't imagine anyone who had a stronger set of vocal cords and who'd he rather be with at that moment. Finally, he gave up trying to stop his ears from ringing and started screaming along with her.

Down by the exit, Hawkmon was perched on the gate while Wormmon was sitting on the ground. They were watching the cars going up and down and sideways and around, trying to spot their partners. The screams drifted over to them. "I just heard Yolei," Hawkmon said, "I hope she hasn't made Ken deaf." Wormmon opened his ears to see if he could by any chance hear Ken.

"I think I hear Ken, he's screaming."

"Hmm, I didn't know he could scream that loud."

"Funny, I didn't either. What kind of scream do you think that is?"

"Well, it could either be Ken screaming for fun or Ken screaming in order to block out Yolei's scream. I think it's all in good fun. Oh look, I think I just spotted Yolei's hair." About a minute later, their two human partners emerged from the ride, hair slightly windswept but laughing all the same. Both of the digimon were surprised at how loud Ken was laughing, he didn't do it that often. They weren't, however, at all amazed that the two teens were actually holding hands for more than a few seconds and neither one looked like they were going to let go anytime soon.

Clearing her throat and trying to straighten up her face, Yolei looked at them as if remembering that they were actually there. "Ok, let's go. Wait, just one more thing" She placed her hat back on and reached inside her purse taking out a small brush. "Stand still," she commanded Ken before running the brush through his hair while standing on her tiptoes. He instantly went still and his heart beat faster realizing just how close she was standing. They were almost face to face if not for the fact that Yolei wasn't exactly looking at his face. He could feel her breath against his forehead and instantly wished that their digimon wasn't looking. "There, all neat again." She started giggling again at his bewildered expression while both their digimon looked at the two with unblinking eyes, wondering what in the world happened during the ride.

* * *

"It's too bad both Yolei and Ken couldn't come today," Cody said as the rest of the gang were walking around the carnival, each sharing cotton candy with their digimon. Davis and Veemon were pigging out on anything they could get their hands on including cotton candy, ice cream, and other high calorie, low nutritional foods.

"Yeah, maybe it's a good thing too," Davis said, "If Yolei was here, she would've made gone through all the rides by now." He tore a particularly large peace of cotton candy and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Maybe than, you wouldn't eat so much." TK said laughing.

"Shut up TP," Davis retorted, once again purposely-getting TK's name wrong. TK, like always, choose to ignore him and continue to tearing off peaces of candy and giving it to Patamon.

"Cody," Armadillomon looked up at him, "Are you going to eat the rest of that?"

Cody was going to give his digimon a lecture on not eating too much sugar when something caught his eye. It was a person with purple hair and someone next to her with indigo hair. "Hey guys, I think that's Yolei and Ken," he said, pointing to the two, who were in front of one of the booths.

Both Davis and Kari suddenly remembered that their friends told them not to say anything. "No, that doesn't look like them, Yolei's a lot fatter than that," Davis said. He prayed inwardly that no one would say that to her, he didn't want her to kill him. "Oh look, tunnel of love. Kari." He turned to look at her and wriggled his eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes; they needed a better diversion. "Why don't we go on the ferris wheel? C'mon guys." She took TK's hand and pulled him away from the two people in questioning. Davis followed the two of them, all while shooting glares at TK's back. Cody gave his digimon the rest of the candy and looked behind him. The two people were gone. Nevertheless, he suspected that there was something his friends weren't telling him.

A few minutes later, all of them got off the wheel and they all went through the exit gate.

"Hey TK, is that Ken and Yolei," Patamon said to his partner. The digimon pointed towards the end of the ferris wheel line and sure thing, the two of them and their digimon were standing there engaging in what seemed to be an engrossing conversation. Ken was holding something that looked like a purple teddy bear and he was actually smiling a bit. The rest of the gang had also spotted them and were proceeding to go over there, all of them, with the exception of Davis and Kari, were surprised that the two of them were there (especially together). Of course, Cody - and Kari - knew very well of the crush that Yolei has had on Ken ever since she saw him. Or course, who could forget that day in the soccer field when she had practically pulled Poromon apart in her ecstatic chanting of "Ken and Yolei Ichijiouji."

Ken and Yolei than noticed that their friends were coming towards them and waved nervously. "Hey everyone," Yolei said cheerfully, too cheerfully.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" TK asked; he knew it was them he had seen a while ago. "I thought you were busy today."

"Well…we…we're," Yolei started to say, stammering strangely, something she rarely did. She didn't know why she was so reluctant to say anything, didn't she and Ken just agreed to tell their friends. They would approve wouldn't they?

"We're on a date," Ken said matter-of-factly. Yolei looked at him strangely as if amazed that he was the one actually breaking the news. She wasn't the only one that was; both TK, Cody, and their digimon looked fairly surprised - either by the news or by Ken being the one to deliver the news. Kari looked calm and Davis looked rather amused by the silence that was passing between everyone. Finally, it was Cody who broke that silence.

"It's about time," he said smiling and eyeing their joined hands.