Lianda (Ballet, Jealousy):

It was any normal sunny day, and Ken was waiting for the bus outside the Odaiba Theatre. Checking his watch, he noted that the bus was a disappointing and aggravating three minutes late. Resigned to his fate, Ken sighed softly and decided to doze for a few minutes. Suddenly, a cry came from behind him. Ken's eyes popped open as he recognized the voice. He turned around.

"Daisuke? What are you doing here?" Daisuke was standing in front of the box office of the theatre, hands wringing in despair, tears gathering in his eyes. At the sound of Ken's voice, he looked up and scrunched his face.

"Ken!! It's not fair!!" Ken got up and slowly made his way to where Daisuke was standing.

Ken raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong now?"

Daisuke shook his fist. "That rotten PJ! He got the last two tickets to the Ballet tonight. Oh, I'm so jealous!" "...you wanted tickets to the Ballet?" "YES! It's Giselle! How could I not want tickets to the ballet? That PJ...why is it always HIM that gets all the good stuff...why is everyone out to GET ME?!" Daisuke snarled.

Ken blinked. "...I have tickets to the Ballet..."

Daisuke look up, eyes popping out of his skull. "REALLY?"

Ken shrugged. "Yeah. You want?"

"YES!"

"That'll be 100 bucks."

Daisuke's mouth dropped open. "WHAT?! But they're only $30! That's a crime!"

Ken grinned. "Tough."

Riko (Gravel, Anger):

They were standing in front of something Ken would rather not think about.

It had started as one of their normal, and increasingly frequent, strolls through the Digital World. Whether these were dates or not was a question Ken always meant to ask, but he would forget when Daisuke dragged him to a new cliff or through a new forest, laughing and holding his hand.

There were always new places to explore. With terrain that changed so suddenly from tundra to tropics and back again, they never ran out of things to see, but this was one thing Ken would have preferred to leave unseen. Never forgotten, just unseen.

Gravel dusted his boot. Black gravel. Gravel like soot. He clenched his fingers until his nails bit into the skin of his palm.

"Why are we here, Daisuke?"

"A year ago today, man," Daisuke said, dipping to his knees and fiddling with the wreckage. "Don't you remember?"

Ken laughed, shortly. "Of course. Do you think I'd forget?"

"Nope," Daisuke replied, and he straightened and rubbed his dirty palm against his pant-leg. "Remarkable Ichijouji-san forget a mistake? Never. So look around."

"Daisuke..." Ken warned, but Daisuke shushed him with a wave of his hand.

"Look around and then forget. Ok, Ken?"

When he sighs in response, Ken closed his eyes, and the image of his ruined fortress, little more than dust and gravel now, dark and hated, burned against his retina. But, to make Daisuke happy, he opened his eyes and smiled. "Ok."

Lianda (Post-Its, Wonder):

It was Sunday, and Dai was lounging around in Ken's room. He watched Ken quietly typing up a report on his computer, watched his silhouette move against the wall, and smiled helplessly when he noticed that Ken's brow twitched every once in a while as he worked. Daisuke sighed. "Ken..." he whined. The typing stopped and the dark head turned.

"Hmm?"

"I'm bored."

Ken snorted. "Always bored. What d'you want to do, Dai?"

"Don't you have work?"

"I can take a break."

"...sex?"

"...It's only 1PM, Dai."

"Eh...true." Daisuke sighed. Then groaned. Then waved his arms aimlessly about. "BORED."

Ken's mouth twitched. Opening one of his desk drawers, he said "Dai, come here..."

Daisuke jumped up from the couch and walked over to Ken. "Yeah?"

"Here. Play with this." Ken put some post-its on the table.

Daisuke glared at Ken. "What the hell?"

"No, see..look..." Ken took up a pen and started drawing little stick fingers and little soccer balls one after another on separate post-its. "These post-its are held together by adhesive, hmm? So when you flip them really fast...look. It's animation." Sure enough, the little stick figure looked like it was kicking a soccer ball.

Daisuke's eyes widened. "WOW!!!" he gasped. "THAT'S SO COOL!" He watched, mesmerized, as the stick figure moved. "Is...Ken, is that ME?!"

"Uh...if you want..."

"Gimme!"

"..sure."

Ken handed the post-its over to Daisuke and went back to work. But don't worry...the sex was only momentarily forgotten.

Riko (Soccer ball, Envy):

Daisuke had always sort of figured that, without the spore, Ken wouldn't seem so far away anymore. He'd been the Kaiser when they'd first met, and even though that meant he was evil and... mean, it hadn't made him anymore approachable than the TV reports had made him seem.

But without the spore, the spore which had been the beginning of the whole mess, really, Daisuke had always figured the playing field between them would be more or less even.

He was wrong. The brainpower at Ken's command might have diminished, but his work ethic hadn't. And put a soccer ball at his feet, and Ken was still a /god/.

It made Daisuke choke, sometimes, to realize that with all his practice and talent, with all the coaching Taichi, and Ken himself, were willing to provide, he would never be Ken's equal with a soccer ball.

But, after he'd swallowed his envy, and watched Ken just a little longer, he'd see the ghost of a smile that played across his lips, the human in the god, and he'd realize that soccer made Ken happy. And that was more than enough to make up for every humiliating defeat. He figured.

Lianda (Shopping carts, Fear):

"Dai?"

"Hmm?"

"Get up."

"Why?"

"...I have to go grocery shopping."

Daisuke sighed and stood up, stretching his arms above his head. "Okay," he smiled. "I'll go home, then."

Ken shook his head. "Dai..."

Daisuke looked down at Ken. "Yeah?"

"You have to come with me." Ken answered quietly.

"Huh? Why?" Daisuke asked, confused.

"Because I..." Ken hung his head. "I can't stand those shopping carts."

Ken started shivering uncontrollably. Daisuke realized what was happening to Ken, and with a furrowed brow, leaned down and placed a comforting arm around the darker-haired boy.

"What's wrong?"

"When...when I was small. I used to dream about shopping carts. They'd have mouths and they'd try to eat me. When I told my teachers they all laughed me. I was so angry...and it destroyed me inside..."

"..." Daisuke blinked. Then he grinned. "You're afraid of shopping carts? That's so CUTE, Ken! I'm scared of dumb things too! Crows...Soya Sauce...pliers..." Daisuke hugged Ken tightly. "We have so much in common!"

"...great."

-and Lianda went to bed, boohoo-