Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Trust and Kindness ❯ Courage & Friendship ( Chapter 4 )

Started: 7/04/02

Finished: 7/04/02

A/N: This was _amazingly_ easy to write, all things considered. If you want me to put up the argument that the DD had with Daisuke about Ken, please review and ask for it; it'll be a side-story.

Warnings: Dark, Angst, Bondage, Torture, Slight Yaoi w/ a little twist of Lime. Shaken, not stirred ^_^.

Trust and Kindness

Chapter 4 - Courage and Friendship

I'm finishing my homework when there's a knock at the door. You can imagine my surprise when I find Hikari on the other side; she looks distinctly uncomfortable, not that I blame her.

"Ken..." she says, as if she doesn't know what to say.

"Can I help you?"

"We were wondering if you'd seen Davis lately?"

"I talked to him on the phone yesterday, but I haven't seen him since Saturday," I tell her.

"Oh..."

"I thought maybe he was spending more time with the Digidestined."

"Oh, you don't have to worry," she says, falsely casual. "He didn't choose us."

"Choose?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you know, he chose to be friends with you instead of us."

"I wasn't aware that it was necessary for him to choose between the two."

"Oh come on, Ken!" She snorts, annoyance coloring her voice. "He hardly spends any time with the rest of us anymore! That's what you wanted, isn't it!?"

"Do you want to come in?" I ask, my voice cool. "I don't think it's very considerate for the neighbors to have to hear you yelling at me." She glares at me, cheeks flushed, as she walks past me into the house. I shut the door behind her.

"Contrary to what you may think, I am not a self-centered bastard," I tell her coldly. "I have no intention of cutting Daisuke off from his friends or making him choose between us just because we happen not to get along. If he is feeling pressure to choose, which was not my impression the last time we talked, it is not coming from me." Something occurs to me. "Did you have a fight with him about me?" She looks away. "You did."

"It isn't healthy for him to be around you!" She says, angrily. "You bite him, for God's sake!"

"I bit him, once," I correct her. "And I agree that I'm not a good person to be around right now; but I did try to get him to leave before, and it didn't work.

"He's kind, but he's also naïve. He doesn't see that I'm poison. I suppose I'm grateful to him for that."

She blinks. She wasn't expecting that.

"I won't blame him if he wakes up one morning and realizes that I'm not worth the trouble." I tell her. "But forgive me if I hope that it never happens; his friendship is the most important thing in my life at the moment." I open the front door for her. "If I talk to him, I'll tell him to call you."

~*~

After my parents were asleep I received an e-mail from Daisuke, asking me to come to the Digital World.

"Daisuke, it's late," I tell him.

"Yeah, I know," he says.

"Why here?" I ask.

"You know where we are, right?"

"About a quarter of a mile from one of my old bases."

"Yeah; we found it when we were looking for you back when you were still the Kaizer."

"I stopped using it just after you came to the Digital World the first time."

"Mm-hm. Let's go." He turned to where our Digimon were talking a short distance away. "C'mon guys, let's go!"

"Daisuke, what's going on?"

"You'll see."

Daisuke refuses to answer my questions as we walk to the base. When we finally get there, he tells V-mon and Worm-mon to wait at the entrance and Daisuke takes my hand and leads me deeper into the base.

"When we found the base we searched it from top to bottom, looking for clues." I close my eyes, knowing what's coming next. "You know what we found?"

"A torture chamber," I reply.

"Right."

"I didn't know they were more than data. It seemed like a good solution."

"I know." He squeezes my hand.

We descend a flight of stairs and he opens the door at the bottom. I don't want to go in, but he pulls me inside anyway and shuts the door behind us.

"What are we doing here, Daisuke?" I ask, looking at the floor; refusing to see the contents of the room.

"You need a reality check," He states, taking off his jacket and dropping it on the floor. "I noticed something that I don't think you've realized yet."

"Wakarimasen. (I don't understand)"

"Look around," he commands.

I do.

I finally know what he's been doing all this week. The room has been cleaned, the small fireplace in the far wall has been lit, the worn leather restraints on the low table in the center of the room have been replaced, and a number of implements are sitting neatly on the small table next to it...ready to be used...

"Daisuke! No!" I turn to the door and try to open it, but it's locked.

"V-mon has the key; he'll open the door in an hour." He sits on the low table.

"What are you thinking?" I whisper.

"I'm thinking I'm going to let you do whatever you want to me," he tells me.

"You don't know what that means!" I object, starting to panic. "You don't know what I can do to you!"

"Yes, I do," he tells me. "I know what you're capable of. And I do know what it means, to let you do what you want; the thing is, you don't." He lays down on the table and puts his hands into the leather cuffs above his head.

"Go on," he prompts me. "Fasten them." I hesitate for a minute before doing so, then I restrain his legs as well.

"Now," he says. "Whatever you want."

The look in his eyes, not the dark, contemplative look he wore before...

This look hurts...and I don't understand it...

What is he expecting?

"It's alright," he murmurs. "Just do what you want."

I look at the implements on the small table; remembering their past uses excites and, at the same time, sickens me.

Something simple, then...

I take up a small, sharp blade; like a cross between a scalpel and a paring knife, and turn back to him.

First thing's first. Get rid of the clothes.

I cut down the middle of his shirt, cloth parting to reveal perfectly tanned skin; it has always been a marvel to me how perfect his skin is, it would be a shame to damage it. I slice open the sleeves and pull the ruined shirt out from under him; I smirk at the hiss he makes when his bare back comes in contact with the cold metal of the table. Holding the knife between my teeth, I straddle his body, looking into his eyes.

The expression in his eyes is still the same; it still sends a painful jolt to the core of my being.

What are you saying, Dai-chan? I can't hear you...

I take the knife from my mouth, and lay the flat of the blade against the hollow where his throat meets his collarbone, then running it down his sternum, bringing it back to his throat, then running it back down, until I feel him relax. I smirk as I twist the blade and leave a thin, shallow scratch just below his collarbone.

He cries out, partly from pain, but more from surprise.

Weren't expecting that, were you, Dai-chan?

I lean down and lick away the thin line of blood from his chest, smirking all the while.

"With a knife this thin, I could cut you all over and you'd heal without scarring your beautiful skin; you wouldn't bleed too much either, but it would hurt a lot."

"Like getting paper-cuts everywhere," he observes.

"Yes," I say, making another shallow cut just above his navel. "Pity we don't have lemon juice."

He winces and I laugh as I get off of him.

I put the knife back and pick up a small metal poker, going to the fire to heat it. Not too hot, because, as I said, I don't want to damage his skin...yet...but enough to hurt.

When I come back, I lean over his stomach and slide my tongue into his navel to clean away the blood that collected there from the cut. He gasps, and I look up to see him blushing.

"Liked that, did you?" He blushes even more. Kawaii...

I take the poker, and slide it down the same path I traced with the knife. This time, he screams.

The skin reddens, but doesn't quite blister. Good, I didn't misjudge the heat.

"Mada wakarimasu ka, Daisuke? (Do you understand yet?)" I ask him.

"Is this what you want, Ken?" is his reply. "To hurt someone?"

"Yes!" I shout at him. "Yes! That's what I want!"

"I don't think that's true."

A flicker of annoyance and impatience fills me, and I slide the poker across his stomach. He screams again.

"Why did you bring me back here!?!" I yell at him, throwing the poker into a corner of the room. "Why did you put me in this situation!?! Why are you putting yourself at my mercy!?!" His eyes burn into me... "What did you expect!?! What is that look in your eyes!?! I don't understand!!!" I slam my hands down on the table on either side of his head.

"It is true!!! I want to hurt someone!!! I want to hurt YOU!!! And I HATE THAT!!!" I stop, gasping for breath, and I'm startled to feel the tears running down my face.

"Why are you making me do this...?" I whisper; my face only inches from his; as I try desperately to understand the expression in his eyes. "Why…?"

"I'm not," he says, smiling. "I'm not making you do anything. I only told you to do what you want." Then he's the one who surprises me; because his lips are suddenly pressed to mine in a kiss that's just like him; energetic, sweet, and so very naïve.

You know that feeling you sometimes get, like something's staring you in the face, like you're one step from an epiphany, and you can't quite reach it? That's what this moment is like... The truth is hiding between the heartbeats, between the breaths, in that strange look in Daisuke's eyes…and I just don't understand.

Then, suddenly...

Inexplicably...

...I do.

Courage and Friendship together make Trust...

And Trust must be met with...

...Kindness...