Fic: Captive (10/?)
Author: amarielah
Title: Captive
Fandoms: Digimon
Rating: PG-13 (or very, very light R) for this chapter.
Pairings: Ken/Miyako
Wordcount: 4,712
Warnings: Non-explicit sexual situations.
Summary: Aged-up semi-AU. In which Miyako gets captured, the Kaiser is repressed in all the wrong ways, and things become more complicated than either of them want.
Thursday came and the test with it, Miyako surprising herself with how quickly she finished it. Guess all that studying paid off. And,when she was done with school, she checked her D-terminal.
She honestly hadn't expected the Kaiser to message her that day, considering how cold he'd been after the previous day's encounter. But there was indeed a message from him, and it read: Meet me at 4:00 PM.
The coordinates were familiar to her, although she couldn't pin her finger on why. She was also a little worried that he'd chosen such an early time to meet her - it was already 3:15, after all, and she still hadn't reached her apartment. Still, she didn't have another test until after the Fall - which was a good month away - and she couldn't find it in herself to stress too much about this sudden change in routine. She was just too relieved that at least one aspect of the nightmare of the past two weeks was over.
It turned out that the coordinates were familiar for a reason; she appeared at a Digital Gate in the same field of flowers that she'd observed from the cliff the time she'd watched the sunset with the Kaiser. Gate coordinates that close together often had only a few digits that deviated.
Ken was standing with the flowers around his feet, dressed in a pair of black shorts and a grey T-shirt. A basket was hanging from his shoulder, and he was carrying what appeared to be a blanket in his left arm.
A picnic? Seriously?
The first thing she thought to say was: "I thought you were angry at me."
His expression remained unreadable. "Why would you think that?"
Because I said that you'd be a terrible boyfriend, and you all but kicked me out.
"I dunno. You just seemed angry when I left yesterday."
"Well, I'm not, so you don't need to worry about it." He turned around and began to walk, and Miyako soon realized that he was going towards the lake. She hurried to follow him.
The lake was just as beautiful as Miyako remembered it to be - perhaps even more so, now that she was closer. The flowers, which had looked almost like a colorful blanket from up on the cliff, were actually several inches tall; she could feel them brushing against her legs through the material of her pants.
Ken stopped walking when they were just a meter or so away from the water's edge, and barely a step away from where the flowers stopped and the mud of the bank began. He set down the blanket he'd brought - she could now see that it had a plaid pattern, like something out of a postcard - and unfolded it until there was a space large enough for both of them to sit comfortably without getting their clothes dirty. Miyako took that as a cue to put down the basket he'd asked her to carry and sit.
When he joined her, he said, "You thought this place was pretty, so I thought you might like to come back."
Miyako looked at him thoughtfully. No matter which way she sliced it, this was definitely a date, even if her present company would never admit it. Maybe he really was just that oblivious, she mused, watching him unpack two bentos from the basket.
"Ichijouji-kun really likes nature, huh?" she said, in order to stop herself from revealing the actual content of her thoughts.
"I suppose," he replied, now taking out two bottles of water.
Miyako sighed in exasperation. "But he doesn't particularly like giving straight answers to questions." She reached for a bento and balanced it on her lap. "Are you afraid that I'll try to exploit your love of nature as a weakness?" She deepened her voice in a very poor imitation of Daisuke. "'Hey guys - let's go destroy some forests instead of Dark Towers. That'll really annoy the Digimon Kaiser!'"
He sighed as well. "Yes, I like nature." A smirk. "Is that a straight-forward enough answer for you?"
She nodded. "Much better." Opening the lid of her bento, she snapped apart the chopsticks inside of it and used them to pick up a piece of shrimp tempura, biting into it.
Oh yeah, that's the stuff right there.
She polished off the entire batch of them in under five minutes, unable to keep a massive smile from spreading on her face. Her eyes had closed as she'd savored the last bite, and she opened them to find Ken blinking at her in disbelief. Blushing, she rubbed the back of her neck. "It's really good," she said.
He smiled then - a real smile, not one of his not-quite-smirks - and said, "Miyako-san really likes food." With a smile like that on his face, Miyako had to remind herself exactly who it was she was talking to, because it was difficult to believe that somebody like the Digimon Kaiser could look so...innocent. Angelic, even.
Gathering her wits, she blushed a bit deeper, but found herself grinning anyway. "Bingo," she said. "It's the best thing in the entire world." It took her a moment to realize that he hadn't so much as opened the lid of his own bento yet, and she began to pick at her rice self-consciously.
He obviously noticed, because he said, "I don't mind if you want to eat, Miyako-san. I'm glad that you like it so much."
"Ichijouji-kun..." she began, feeling as if she should say something, but at a loss for what it should be. She set down her chopsticks.
"Yes?"
It came to her with a sudden clarity. "I...don't really know how I should act when you're like this."
His smile morphed instantly into a slight frown. "What exactly do you mean?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I don't know how to act when you're being all considerate like this. Can you tell me what you want me to do so I don't have to worry about upsetting you?"
His frown deepened. "You weren't having any trouble a few seconds ago."
She shrugged once more. "Yeah, well, a few seconds ago I had kinda forgotten who I was sitting next to."
"And was I getting upset?"
"I...don't think so?"
"I think you're at least intelligent enough to draw your own conclusions from that."
Miyako snorted. "Gee, thanks." She finally took a big dollop of the sticky rice and put it her mouth, and didn't even bother to swallow it before she said, "I think that's the highest praise you've ever given me."
Mouth twitching in distaste, he replied, "Don't talk with your mouth full - it's disgusting."
She gave him a mock salute with her left hand. "Yes sir, Digimon Kaiser-sama."
Contrary to her expectations, this was what finally got rid Ken's ever-deepening frown. He sighed in mock exasperation. "Now you're just trying to be obnoxious."
She responded with a mock sigh of her own. "Well there goes that plan. I really shouldn't expect to get anything past you, huh?"
He smirked. "Absolutely not." The lid of his bento was finally removed, and Ken got to work on his own portion - far more slowly and elegantly than Miyako had. But that was something Miyako had expected.
The awkwardness she had feared was oddly absent, and she couldn't really put her finger on why. Perhaps it was because she was starting to get better at figuring out what she should and shouldn't say, or perhaps it was because she was keeping the thought of Hawkmon, her friends, and what he might do to either, firmly out of her mind.
Just focus on how pretty it is where you are, how good the food is, and how Ichijouji-kun's not being a complete jerk. Do that, and you should be able to get through this without causing a disaster.
With that in mind, she popped a squid-shaped sausage into her mouth with relish, thoroughly enjoying the salty taste. She looked at Ken, who was just now working through his second piece of tempura, and was struck by just how surreal the image was. "Thanks for making this, Ichijouji-kun," she said, and meant it.
He swallowed the piece of tempura he'd been chewing, his cheeks reddening a touch. "It was no trouble."
Putting down her chopsticks, she looked up at the sky above them - a clear blue with smatterings of fluffy white clouds. "I'd offer to make you something in return, but cooking is really not one of my strengths. I can make a mean cup of tea-" (she'd had something of a tea obsession when she'd been thirteen or so, and had spent far too much time perfecting her tea-making technique) "-and a passable miso soup. And...there's something else..." She snapped one of her fingers when it came to her. "Aha! I can use the rice cooker to make rice." Looking back at him, she grinned sheepishly. "But that's about it."
His expression softened into another one of his small smiles. "Then...I suppose you can make me some tea...should the opportunity to do so arise."
She winked and gave him a thumbs-up. "Tea it is, then." Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "I should warn you, though - if you turn out to be better than me at tea-making, I will cry."
He raised an eyebrow. "You're that proud of your abilities?"
A solemn nod. "Oh yes. In fact, I would go so far as to call myself the Tea Kaiser." She smiled impishly. "You shall soon learn to fear my skills, Ichijouji-kun. Mark my words."
"I'm terrified already," he replied, smile widening. And then he burst into soft laughter, covering his mouth his hand.
It was infectious, and Miyako soon found herself joining him. It felt good to laugh, even if it was under strange circumstances, and she felt lighter once their laughter started to fade away into silence. For a moment, she considered how pleasant his laughter was when it wasn't the result of humiliating somebody else, because it really was a nice sound. Why couldn't he laugh like that more often?
A question popped insistently into her mind, and she was pretty sure it was a mistake to give into the sudden impulse to ask it. But...
"Ne, Ichijouji-kun..."
"Yes?"
But if she didn't ask, her curiosity would kill her for days.
"What do you want to do when you're older?"
He looked a little surprised, but he thankfully didn't look angry. "Do you mean what I want to do as a profession?"
She nodded.
She was expecting him to use one of his usual evasions: asking her why she wanted to know, or telling her that it was none of her business. But he didn't.
"I want to be an archeologist."
She blinked. "Really?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, really. Is it so hard to believe?"
"N-no. I guess I just wasn't expecting it."
He snorted. "I suppose you were expecting me to say that I want to rule the entire world with an iron fist."
"...Don't you?"
The expression of his face was the same incredulous one he'd given her several times before; she was starting to become very familiar with it. "Logically speaking, if I wanted to take over the world, why would I be wasting my time here?"
Miyako snickered. "I was joking, Ichijouji-kun. I was actually expecting you to go into computer programming, since you're obviously so good at it."
"I'm good at soccer, too - it doesn't mean I'm interested in pursuing it as a career."
"Yeah, I think I get that." She smiled cheekily. "So, if I'm understanding this correctly: you're not a complete megalomaniac, and you don't intend to stay here forever."
"Bravo," he said sarcastically. But then his voice went quieter, more thoughtful. "This is just a distraction before I go back to the Real World and become a good little member of the hive. And, as far as I'm concerned, being the ruler of humanity sounds like the type of punishment you'd be given in the seventh circle of hell."
"But you like humanity enough to want to learn about what it did in the past. Seems kinda contradictory to me."
He looked at her pointedly. "Do you have to respect ants in order to admire an anthill? Do you have to like them?"
"I guess not."
"It's really quite simple: when humans organize into groups they can accomplish great things. But that does not make them any less pathetic as individuals."
"Did you have to learn to be this cynical, or were you just born that way?"
Picking up his chopsticks, he reached into his bento for one of his sausage-squids. "It's realism, not cynicism."
Miyako snorted. "Whatever you say." It took a moment for him to finish his sausage, at which point she continued, "So what do you plan to study at university?"
"Business economics," he said, surprising her again with a straight answer.
"How will that help you with archaeology, though?" she asked, nonplussed.
He smiled bitterly. "It won't. I want to be an archaeologist, but I'm not foolish enough to think that it's a practical option."
"That's..." Miyako wasn't sure how his confession made her feel. All she knew for sure that such a statement coming from him - a person who seemed so sure of his own worth - made her uncomfortable. "You're seriously giving up before you've even tried?"
His expression became cold, but his tone remained neutral. "Sometimes one has to in order to be responsible."
There he goes again, talking about responsibility. You'd think he wouldn't be here in the first place if he really cared about responsibility, seeing how his parents look on the news. This thought she wisely kept to herself.
"And what do you plan to do with your life, Miyako-san?"
She answered automatically. "Go to university, get a degree in computer science, start my illustrious career, and, at some point, get married and have babies." She began to play with a strand of her hair. "When I was younger, I used to think that I wanted to be a housewife. But I realized last year that there's no way I could do that - not without becoming one of those unfulfilled mothers who lives vicariously through her children."
Ken was oddly silent at that.
"So yeah, nothing extravagant for the great Inoue Miyako-sama. I'm sure you're very disappointed."
"Mortified," he said, the coldness leaving his face.
For a second, Miyako began to think very hard. Then she said, "Going back to you for a sec...have you ever considered becoming a detective? It involves similar skills to archaeology, but it probably pays much better."
At first Ken didn't respond, but then he started to snicker.
"Hey!" she huffed. "I don't think it's that dumb."
He shook his head. "It's not that it's dumb - although it certainly isn't a stroke of genius - it's just..." A sigh pressed past his lips, his mirth disappearing. "My father's a detective."
"...Oh."
"You're right that it's more stable than being an archaeologist, but it still doesn't pay that well."
From the way he said it, Miyako could tell that this was something that bothered him. She wondered why that was, considering that he probably didn't have to worry about tuition all that much. But she didn't press it. Instead, she looked out over the water, its surface so still that it almost looked like glass, and far clearer than fresh water had any right to be. Then, pushing her bento aside, she stood up and began to unzip her pants.
"W-what are you doing?" Ken sputtered.
"I'm going swimming."
He swallowed and averted his eyes. "But...you don't have a bathing suit."
"Oh come on, Ichijouji-kun. I'd be wearing less if I was in a bathing suit." Her pants dropped to the floor, and she went about removing her vest, leaving her in nothing but her panties and undershirt. "It's way too pretty not to swim."
He still refused to look at her.
Removing her glasses, she set them down on-top of her clothes pile. "Watch these for me, okay? I'm pretty much blind without them." She then walked over to the water's edge and dipped her feet in.
It's not that cold, she thought, mustering her resolve, and waded in even further. The incline of the bank was surprisingly steep, and took only a few steps before she was covered up to her torso. "Okay," she said aloud. "It's pretty damn cold." Pumping her fist in the air, she yelled, "But the cold's not enough to defeat the great Miyako-sama!" and dunked her head under the water.
When she resurfaced she began to shiver, but she forced herself to paddle around in the water in order to get her muscles working.
"If you catch a cold, you only have yourself to blame," chimed Ken. Miyako looked over to where he was sitting, but couldn't make out anything more than a vaguely human-shaped blur.
"Can you even catch colds in the Digital World?" she asked, turning around and swimming towards the bank.
"I...don't actually know," he conceded. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he said, "Your hair is really long."
Miyako took a stand of it between her thumb and forefinger, holding it out so that it stretched across the length of her arm. She grinned. "I like it long; it makes me feel like a princess." She released the strand from her fingers, and it fell gracelessly against her shoulder. "And when I swim, it makes me feel like a mermaid." She laughed self-consciously. "It's pretty childish, now that I think about it."
"I guess," he said, and she wasn't sure if he was agreeing with her or not.
Struck be a sudden, devious thought, she swam even closer to where Ken was sitting. "Hey, Ichijouji-kun..."
"Yes?"
"Why don't you come in as well?"
"I don't think I'll do that." His tone was stern.
She pouted. "Aw, come on. Aren't you even a little bit tempted?"
"Not even remotely."
"I never expected the Digimon Kaiser to be afraid of a little bit of water," she goaded.
"I'm not afraid - I just don't feel like getting wet."
Miyako's mouth stretched into an evil little smile. "Fine then. If you're gonna be a stick-in-the-mud, I'm just gonna have to take matters into my own hands." And she did so literally, splashing Ken with as much water as she could muster.
For a moment she was quite upset that she couldn't see his face, because the expression on it was no doubt priceless. But then he growled, "You'll pay for that," and she felt the first stirrings of fear.
Did I go too far?
He got up and headed to the water, and Miyako's heart skipped a beat. Soon, however, she found herself being assaulted by a massive wave of chilly water, and sputtered once it had passed.
Waist-deep in the water was Ken, and he was now close enough that she could see that he was smirking. "You've picked an opponent who you simply cannot beat, Miyako-san."
She grinned in return. "Oh yeah? We'll just see about that." She brought her palms together and bent her elbows, frowning in a way that she hoped was intimidating. "Special water canon-" she thrust her hands forward, aiming them directly at Ken's face, "ATTACK!"
The wave was dodged, however, and he came right back at her with a wave of his own. Miyako dived under the water to avoid it, only to be hit with another when she resurfaced. Wiping her dripping face, she said, "Okay. How about a truce?"
He made a sound of disbelief. "Just what do you take me for? I won't accept anything less than an unconditional surrender."
She let out an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, then. I surrender."
Wading towards her, he reached up and cupped her face between his hands. Then, leaning in very close, he said, "In that case, I'm entitled to claim my prize."
He kissed her, and Miyako didn't resist. The water was cold around her, but an insistent heat was spreading outwards from her belly, and she slipped her arms around his neck instinctively. She pressed herself more firmly against him, willing him to kiss her harder, to fan the fire inside of her. But he didn't respond to her silent plea, and Miyako moaned in frustration. Her imagination supplied her with tantalizing images - his hand trailing down, over her breasts and stomach, and down further still until it reached the place that she longed for him to touch. The heat spread to that very place in response to the fantasy, and she twisted her hands into his damp hair, deepening the kiss of her own volition.
I need to stop this, she thought, but couldn't seem to get her body to move away from him. It felt so good, even though she knew that it really shouldn't.
But then her mind supplied her with a single word - one that was enough to break the spell almost instantly.
Hawkmon.
She broke away from the kiss. "I...uh." She took a deep breath. "I'm getting cold. I think I'll get out and try to get dry."
His eyes were out of focus, and he blinked several times before he responded. "Y-yeah. That's probably a good idea."
She exited the water as fast as she could, and she was soon shivering on the blanket. The fact that it had become damp where she was sitting made it that much worse. Ken soon joined her, though he seemed completely unfazed by the slight breeze blowing past them.
He cleared his throat. "Are you dry enough to put your pants back on?"
She hugged herself. "Not really."
"...Can you please put them on anyway?"
"If it's bothering you that much, I guess I can." She stood up reluctantly, shivering harder as more of her bare flash was exposed to the air. It proved difficult to pull the pants up her legs, what with the moisture causing the fabric to cling stubbornly to her skin, but she managed it eventually. She also put on her vest and boots.
The breeze became far more bearable, even if the wet patch where her panties met her pants was both uncomfortable and embarrassing, and she sat down once more. When she slipped on her glasses, she found that Ken had visibly relaxed.
He touched the watch on his wrist, and his clothes were replaced in a scurry of data by his Kaiser costume - clearly dry and rather warm-looking. "No fair," she said, teeth still chattering.
"It pays to be prepared," he said smugly, but took off his cape and handed it to her. "This should help if you're really that uncomfortable."
Tentatively, she took it, and fastened it over her shoulders. The shoulder-pads felt strange and oddly heavy, but she was indeed much warming. "Thanks," she said.
"You look ridiculous," he replied, and got a glare for his efforts. Raising his wrist to his mouth - the watch had transformed into his far bulkier arm-piece - he said, "Come to the coordinates I specified."
He's summoning one of his slaves, Miyako realized. She hated it when he did that, but she wasn't planning on saying so at the moment. Under different circumstances, she may have felt rather proud of herself for how well she was exercising self-restraint, but it was much too awkward to feel triumphant.
The Digimon he'd summoned - which turned out to be an Airdramon - arrived barely two minutes later, and it lowered its head to give them both access to board. Miyako hadn't flown on one of his slaves since the very first time he'd captured her, and she was not keen on doing it again. It made her feel dirty.
The Kaiser scooped up the blanket and everything on it, tying the top of it into a thick, chunky knot, and stepped onto the Airdramon. He then held out his hand, clearly wishing to help her up.
You're such a neat, considerate gentleman, thought Miyako, and wondered if her own sense of morality was worth upsetting the Kaiser over, considering that he'd already let her off the hook for another offense. Too bad you're also an enormous jerk. Sighing in resignation, she reached for his hand and allowed him to guide her onto his slave.
They rode together in silence, and arrived at his base a few minutes later. The last time Miyako had seen it from the outside ,it had been "parked" in a large crater, but its true size and malevolent splendor were far more evident now that she could see it flying. It at once filled her with both awe and hopelessness.
Just how are we gonna beat this guy?
They docked in one of the many holes on the side of the base, departing from the Airdramon and walking over to a slightly raised bit of floor. On the wall beside it was a keypad, and the keys lit up as the Kaiser pressed them. With a jerk, the floor began to rise.
Miyako gave a yelp of surprise.
"It's stable, Miyako-san. As long as you don't move to the edge, you won't fall off."
She crossed her arms. "Yeah, alright. Just...warn me next time."
"'Next time' you'll already know, so warning you will be redundant."
"Good point." She bit her bottom lip for a moment, then asked, "So you don't have any normal elevators?"
"No." His eyebrows creased. "Why do you ask?"
She shrugged. "No reason in particular. Just curious, I guess."
Looks like at least one part of my dream was completely inaccurate. Here's hoping that the rest of it was, too.
The platform came to a halt in a what she now recognized as the 'observation deck', and the Kaiser walked briskly towards its the exit. Miyako followed him as he lead her through a series of identical corridors, and they soon landed up in front of another one of his unassuming-looking doors. Opening it, he stepped inside.
Once she was inside as well, she realized that this must be his bedroom. Unlike the kitchen, it was decidedly Spartan: a single bed, only slightly larger than a normal twin, a plain wooden desk with a lamp on it, a functional-looking desk chair, and a bookcase.
Before she had the chance to ask him why he'd brought her there, he said, "There's a bathroom through the door to the right; you can take a shower there if you want. In any case, you should leave your clothes outside the door so I can collect them."
Miyako was stunned. "...Why?"
"Because they won't have enough time to dry properly, and it's easier to duplicate them if I have a template to work from." He said it as if it was the obvious thing in the world.
She breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh. So you're gonna wait outside for me to...uh...change?"
"O-of course," he said, flushing.
"Okay, just give me second." She went to the bathroom and shut the door. She then started to disrobe, folding each item of clothing and stacking them on top of the toilet seat, careful to put the Kaiser's cape at the top of the pile. Holding up her bra and panties, she debated whether or not to include them in the pile, but figured she'd probably cause the Kaiser to have an aneurism if she did. And probably not the kind that would actually help us defeat him. She decided to hang them on the towel rack to dry. If worse came to worse, she would just have to go commando.
Wrapping herself in the white, fluffy towel that was also hanging there, she picked up her clothes and opened the door as little as she could in order to fit the stack of them through it. She closed it abruptly and removed the towel, walking over to the shower and turning on the faucet.
What she really felt like was a nice hot bath, but the Kaiser didn't have one for whatever reason. And he calls himself Japanese, she thought, stepping under the warm spray.
At least it was nice to be warm.
Title: Captive
Fandoms: Digimon
Rating: PG-13 (or very, very light R) for this chapter.
Pairings: Ken/Miyako
Wordcount: 4,712
Warnings: Non-explicit sexual situations.
Summary: Aged-up semi-AU. In which Miyako gets captured, the Kaiser is repressed in all the wrong ways, and things become more complicated than either of them want.
Thursday came and the test with it, Miyako surprising herself with how quickly she finished it. Guess all that studying paid off. And,when she was done with school, she checked her D-terminal.
She honestly hadn't expected the Kaiser to message her that day, considering how cold he'd been after the previous day's encounter. But there was indeed a message from him, and it read: Meet me at 4:00 PM.
The coordinates were familiar to her, although she couldn't pin her finger on why. She was also a little worried that he'd chosen such an early time to meet her - it was already 3:15, after all, and she still hadn't reached her apartment. Still, she didn't have another test until after the Fall - which was a good month away - and she couldn't find it in herself to stress too much about this sudden change in routine. She was just too relieved that at least one aspect of the nightmare of the past two weeks was over.
It turned out that the coordinates were familiar for a reason; she appeared at a Digital Gate in the same field of flowers that she'd observed from the cliff the time she'd watched the sunset with the Kaiser. Gate coordinates that close together often had only a few digits that deviated.
Ken was standing with the flowers around his feet, dressed in a pair of black shorts and a grey T-shirt. A basket was hanging from his shoulder, and he was carrying what appeared to be a blanket in his left arm.
A picnic? Seriously?
The first thing she thought to say was: "I thought you were angry at me."
His expression remained unreadable. "Why would you think that?"
Because I said that you'd be a terrible boyfriend, and you all but kicked me out.
"I dunno. You just seemed angry when I left yesterday."
"Well, I'm not, so you don't need to worry about it." He turned around and began to walk, and Miyako soon realized that he was going towards the lake. She hurried to follow him.
The lake was just as beautiful as Miyako remembered it to be - perhaps even more so, now that she was closer. The flowers, which had looked almost like a colorful blanket from up on the cliff, were actually several inches tall; she could feel them brushing against her legs through the material of her pants.
Ken stopped walking when they were just a meter or so away from the water's edge, and barely a step away from where the flowers stopped and the mud of the bank began. He set down the blanket he'd brought - she could now see that it had a plaid pattern, like something out of a postcard - and unfolded it until there was a space large enough for both of them to sit comfortably without getting their clothes dirty. Miyako took that as a cue to put down the basket he'd asked her to carry and sit.
When he joined her, he said, "You thought this place was pretty, so I thought you might like to come back."
Miyako looked at him thoughtfully. No matter which way she sliced it, this was definitely a date, even if her present company would never admit it. Maybe he really was just that oblivious, she mused, watching him unpack two bentos from the basket.
"Ichijouji-kun really likes nature, huh?" she said, in order to stop herself from revealing the actual content of her thoughts.
"I suppose," he replied, now taking out two bottles of water.
Miyako sighed in exasperation. "But he doesn't particularly like giving straight answers to questions." She reached for a bento and balanced it on her lap. "Are you afraid that I'll try to exploit your love of nature as a weakness?" She deepened her voice in a very poor imitation of Daisuke. "'Hey guys - let's go destroy some forests instead of Dark Towers. That'll really annoy the Digimon Kaiser!'"
He sighed as well. "Yes, I like nature." A smirk. "Is that a straight-forward enough answer for you?"
She nodded. "Much better." Opening the lid of her bento, she snapped apart the chopsticks inside of it and used them to pick up a piece of shrimp tempura, biting into it.
Oh yeah, that's the stuff right there.
She polished off the entire batch of them in under five minutes, unable to keep a massive smile from spreading on her face. Her eyes had closed as she'd savored the last bite, and she opened them to find Ken blinking at her in disbelief. Blushing, she rubbed the back of her neck. "It's really good," she said.
He smiled then - a real smile, not one of his not-quite-smirks - and said, "Miyako-san really likes food." With a smile like that on his face, Miyako had to remind herself exactly who it was she was talking to, because it was difficult to believe that somebody like the Digimon Kaiser could look so...innocent. Angelic, even.
Gathering her wits, she blushed a bit deeper, but found herself grinning anyway. "Bingo," she said. "It's the best thing in the entire world." It took her a moment to realize that he hadn't so much as opened the lid of his own bento yet, and she began to pick at her rice self-consciously.
He obviously noticed, because he said, "I don't mind if you want to eat, Miyako-san. I'm glad that you like it so much."
"Ichijouji-kun..." she began, feeling as if she should say something, but at a loss for what it should be. She set down her chopsticks.
"Yes?"
It came to her with a sudden clarity. "I...don't really know how I should act when you're like this."
His smile morphed instantly into a slight frown. "What exactly do you mean?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I don't know how to act when you're being all considerate like this. Can you tell me what you want me to do so I don't have to worry about upsetting you?"
His frown deepened. "You weren't having any trouble a few seconds ago."
She shrugged once more. "Yeah, well, a few seconds ago I had kinda forgotten who I was sitting next to."
"And was I getting upset?"
"I...don't think so?"
"I think you're at least intelligent enough to draw your own conclusions from that."
Miyako snorted. "Gee, thanks." She finally took a big dollop of the sticky rice and put it her mouth, and didn't even bother to swallow it before she said, "I think that's the highest praise you've ever given me."
Mouth twitching in distaste, he replied, "Don't talk with your mouth full - it's disgusting."
She gave him a mock salute with her left hand. "Yes sir, Digimon Kaiser-sama."
Contrary to her expectations, this was what finally got rid Ken's ever-deepening frown. He sighed in mock exasperation. "Now you're just trying to be obnoxious."
She responded with a mock sigh of her own. "Well there goes that plan. I really shouldn't expect to get anything past you, huh?"
He smirked. "Absolutely not." The lid of his bento was finally removed, and Ken got to work on his own portion - far more slowly and elegantly than Miyako had. But that was something Miyako had expected.
The awkwardness she had feared was oddly absent, and she couldn't really put her finger on why. Perhaps it was because she was starting to get better at figuring out what she should and shouldn't say, or perhaps it was because she was keeping the thought of Hawkmon, her friends, and what he might do to either, firmly out of her mind.
Just focus on how pretty it is where you are, how good the food is, and how Ichijouji-kun's not being a complete jerk. Do that, and you should be able to get through this without causing a disaster.
With that in mind, she popped a squid-shaped sausage into her mouth with relish, thoroughly enjoying the salty taste. She looked at Ken, who was just now working through his second piece of tempura, and was struck by just how surreal the image was. "Thanks for making this, Ichijouji-kun," she said, and meant it.
He swallowed the piece of tempura he'd been chewing, his cheeks reddening a touch. "It was no trouble."
Putting down her chopsticks, she looked up at the sky above them - a clear blue with smatterings of fluffy white clouds. "I'd offer to make you something in return, but cooking is really not one of my strengths. I can make a mean cup of tea-" (she'd had something of a tea obsession when she'd been thirteen or so, and had spent far too much time perfecting her tea-making technique) "-and a passable miso soup. And...there's something else..." She snapped one of her fingers when it came to her. "Aha! I can use the rice cooker to make rice." Looking back at him, she grinned sheepishly. "But that's about it."
His expression softened into another one of his small smiles. "Then...I suppose you can make me some tea...should the opportunity to do so arise."
She winked and gave him a thumbs-up. "Tea it is, then." Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "I should warn you, though - if you turn out to be better than me at tea-making, I will cry."
He raised an eyebrow. "You're that proud of your abilities?"
A solemn nod. "Oh yes. In fact, I would go so far as to call myself the Tea Kaiser." She smiled impishly. "You shall soon learn to fear my skills, Ichijouji-kun. Mark my words."
"I'm terrified already," he replied, smile widening. And then he burst into soft laughter, covering his mouth his hand.
It was infectious, and Miyako soon found herself joining him. It felt good to laugh, even if it was under strange circumstances, and she felt lighter once their laughter started to fade away into silence. For a moment, she considered how pleasant his laughter was when it wasn't the result of humiliating somebody else, because it really was a nice sound. Why couldn't he laugh like that more often?
A question popped insistently into her mind, and she was pretty sure it was a mistake to give into the sudden impulse to ask it. But...
"Ne, Ichijouji-kun..."
"Yes?"
But if she didn't ask, her curiosity would kill her for days.
"What do you want to do when you're older?"
He looked a little surprised, but he thankfully didn't look angry. "Do you mean what I want to do as a profession?"
She nodded.
She was expecting him to use one of his usual evasions: asking her why she wanted to know, or telling her that it was none of her business. But he didn't.
"I want to be an archeologist."
She blinked. "Really?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, really. Is it so hard to believe?"
"N-no. I guess I just wasn't expecting it."
He snorted. "I suppose you were expecting me to say that I want to rule the entire world with an iron fist."
"...Don't you?"
The expression of his face was the same incredulous one he'd given her several times before; she was starting to become very familiar with it. "Logically speaking, if I wanted to take over the world, why would I be wasting my time here?"
Miyako snickered. "I was joking, Ichijouji-kun. I was actually expecting you to go into computer programming, since you're obviously so good at it."
"I'm good at soccer, too - it doesn't mean I'm interested in pursuing it as a career."
"Yeah, I think I get that." She smiled cheekily. "So, if I'm understanding this correctly: you're not a complete megalomaniac, and you don't intend to stay here forever."
"Bravo," he said sarcastically. But then his voice went quieter, more thoughtful. "This is just a distraction before I go back to the Real World and become a good little member of the hive. And, as far as I'm concerned, being the ruler of humanity sounds like the type of punishment you'd be given in the seventh circle of hell."
"But you like humanity enough to want to learn about what it did in the past. Seems kinda contradictory to me."
He looked at her pointedly. "Do you have to respect ants in order to admire an anthill? Do you have to like them?"
"I guess not."
"It's really quite simple: when humans organize into groups they can accomplish great things. But that does not make them any less pathetic as individuals."
"Did you have to learn to be this cynical, or were you just born that way?"
Picking up his chopsticks, he reached into his bento for one of his sausage-squids. "It's realism, not cynicism."
Miyako snorted. "Whatever you say." It took a moment for him to finish his sausage, at which point she continued, "So what do you plan to study at university?"
"Business economics," he said, surprising her again with a straight answer.
"How will that help you with archaeology, though?" she asked, nonplussed.
He smiled bitterly. "It won't. I want to be an archaeologist, but I'm not foolish enough to think that it's a practical option."
"That's..." Miyako wasn't sure how his confession made her feel. All she knew for sure that such a statement coming from him - a person who seemed so sure of his own worth - made her uncomfortable. "You're seriously giving up before you've even tried?"
His expression became cold, but his tone remained neutral. "Sometimes one has to in order to be responsible."
There he goes again, talking about responsibility. You'd think he wouldn't be here in the first place if he really cared about responsibility, seeing how his parents look on the news. This thought she wisely kept to herself.
"And what do you plan to do with your life, Miyako-san?"
She answered automatically. "Go to university, get a degree in computer science, start my illustrious career, and, at some point, get married and have babies." She began to play with a strand of her hair. "When I was younger, I used to think that I wanted to be a housewife. But I realized last year that there's no way I could do that - not without becoming one of those unfulfilled mothers who lives vicariously through her children."
Ken was oddly silent at that.
"So yeah, nothing extravagant for the great Inoue Miyako-sama. I'm sure you're very disappointed."
"Mortified," he said, the coldness leaving his face.
For a second, Miyako began to think very hard. Then she said, "Going back to you for a sec...have you ever considered becoming a detective? It involves similar skills to archaeology, but it probably pays much better."
At first Ken didn't respond, but then he started to snicker.
"Hey!" she huffed. "I don't think it's that dumb."
He shook his head. "It's not that it's dumb - although it certainly isn't a stroke of genius - it's just..." A sigh pressed past his lips, his mirth disappearing. "My father's a detective."
"...Oh."
"You're right that it's more stable than being an archaeologist, but it still doesn't pay that well."
From the way he said it, Miyako could tell that this was something that bothered him. She wondered why that was, considering that he probably didn't have to worry about tuition all that much. But she didn't press it. Instead, she looked out over the water, its surface so still that it almost looked like glass, and far clearer than fresh water had any right to be. Then, pushing her bento aside, she stood up and began to unzip her pants.
"W-what are you doing?" Ken sputtered.
"I'm going swimming."
He swallowed and averted his eyes. "But...you don't have a bathing suit."
"Oh come on, Ichijouji-kun. I'd be wearing less if I was in a bathing suit." Her pants dropped to the floor, and she went about removing her vest, leaving her in nothing but her panties and undershirt. "It's way too pretty not to swim."
He still refused to look at her.
Removing her glasses, she set them down on-top of her clothes pile. "Watch these for me, okay? I'm pretty much blind without them." She then walked over to the water's edge and dipped her feet in.
It's not that cold, she thought, mustering her resolve, and waded in even further. The incline of the bank was surprisingly steep, and took only a few steps before she was covered up to her torso. "Okay," she said aloud. "It's pretty damn cold." Pumping her fist in the air, she yelled, "But the cold's not enough to defeat the great Miyako-sama!" and dunked her head under the water.
When she resurfaced she began to shiver, but she forced herself to paddle around in the water in order to get her muscles working.
"If you catch a cold, you only have yourself to blame," chimed Ken. Miyako looked over to where he was sitting, but couldn't make out anything more than a vaguely human-shaped blur.
"Can you even catch colds in the Digital World?" she asked, turning around and swimming towards the bank.
"I...don't actually know," he conceded. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he said, "Your hair is really long."
Miyako took a stand of it between her thumb and forefinger, holding it out so that it stretched across the length of her arm. She grinned. "I like it long; it makes me feel like a princess." She released the strand from her fingers, and it fell gracelessly against her shoulder. "And when I swim, it makes me feel like a mermaid." She laughed self-consciously. "It's pretty childish, now that I think about it."
"I guess," he said, and she wasn't sure if he was agreeing with her or not.
Struck be a sudden, devious thought, she swam even closer to where Ken was sitting. "Hey, Ichijouji-kun..."
"Yes?"
"Why don't you come in as well?"
"I don't think I'll do that." His tone was stern.
She pouted. "Aw, come on. Aren't you even a little bit tempted?"
"Not even remotely."
"I never expected the Digimon Kaiser to be afraid of a little bit of water," she goaded.
"I'm not afraid - I just don't feel like getting wet."
Miyako's mouth stretched into an evil little smile. "Fine then. If you're gonna be a stick-in-the-mud, I'm just gonna have to take matters into my own hands." And she did so literally, splashing Ken with as much water as she could muster.
For a moment she was quite upset that she couldn't see his face, because the expression on it was no doubt priceless. But then he growled, "You'll pay for that," and she felt the first stirrings of fear.
Did I go too far?
He got up and headed to the water, and Miyako's heart skipped a beat. Soon, however, she found herself being assaulted by a massive wave of chilly water, and sputtered once it had passed.
Waist-deep in the water was Ken, and he was now close enough that she could see that he was smirking. "You've picked an opponent who you simply cannot beat, Miyako-san."
She grinned in return. "Oh yeah? We'll just see about that." She brought her palms together and bent her elbows, frowning in a way that she hoped was intimidating. "Special water canon-" she thrust her hands forward, aiming them directly at Ken's face, "ATTACK!"
The wave was dodged, however, and he came right back at her with a wave of his own. Miyako dived under the water to avoid it, only to be hit with another when she resurfaced. Wiping her dripping face, she said, "Okay. How about a truce?"
He made a sound of disbelief. "Just what do you take me for? I won't accept anything less than an unconditional surrender."
She let out an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, then. I surrender."
Wading towards her, he reached up and cupped her face between his hands. Then, leaning in very close, he said, "In that case, I'm entitled to claim my prize."
He kissed her, and Miyako didn't resist. The water was cold around her, but an insistent heat was spreading outwards from her belly, and she slipped her arms around his neck instinctively. She pressed herself more firmly against him, willing him to kiss her harder, to fan the fire inside of her. But he didn't respond to her silent plea, and Miyako moaned in frustration. Her imagination supplied her with tantalizing images - his hand trailing down, over her breasts and stomach, and down further still until it reached the place that she longed for him to touch. The heat spread to that very place in response to the fantasy, and she twisted her hands into his damp hair, deepening the kiss of her own volition.
I need to stop this, she thought, but couldn't seem to get her body to move away from him. It felt so good, even though she knew that it really shouldn't.
But then her mind supplied her with a single word - one that was enough to break the spell almost instantly.
Hawkmon.
She broke away from the kiss. "I...uh." She took a deep breath. "I'm getting cold. I think I'll get out and try to get dry."
His eyes were out of focus, and he blinked several times before he responded. "Y-yeah. That's probably a good idea."
She exited the water as fast as she could, and she was soon shivering on the blanket. The fact that it had become damp where she was sitting made it that much worse. Ken soon joined her, though he seemed completely unfazed by the slight breeze blowing past them.
He cleared his throat. "Are you dry enough to put your pants back on?"
She hugged herself. "Not really."
"...Can you please put them on anyway?"
"If it's bothering you that much, I guess I can." She stood up reluctantly, shivering harder as more of her bare flash was exposed to the air. It proved difficult to pull the pants up her legs, what with the moisture causing the fabric to cling stubbornly to her skin, but she managed it eventually. She also put on her vest and boots.
The breeze became far more bearable, even if the wet patch where her panties met her pants was both uncomfortable and embarrassing, and she sat down once more. When she slipped on her glasses, she found that Ken had visibly relaxed.
He touched the watch on his wrist, and his clothes were replaced in a scurry of data by his Kaiser costume - clearly dry and rather warm-looking. "No fair," she said, teeth still chattering.
"It pays to be prepared," he said smugly, but took off his cape and handed it to her. "This should help if you're really that uncomfortable."
Tentatively, she took it, and fastened it over her shoulders. The shoulder-pads felt strange and oddly heavy, but she was indeed much warming. "Thanks," she said.
"You look ridiculous," he replied, and got a glare for his efforts. Raising his wrist to his mouth - the watch had transformed into his far bulkier arm-piece - he said, "Come to the coordinates I specified."
He's summoning one of his slaves, Miyako realized. She hated it when he did that, but she wasn't planning on saying so at the moment. Under different circumstances, she may have felt rather proud of herself for how well she was exercising self-restraint, but it was much too awkward to feel triumphant.
The Digimon he'd summoned - which turned out to be an Airdramon - arrived barely two minutes later, and it lowered its head to give them both access to board. Miyako hadn't flown on one of his slaves since the very first time he'd captured her, and she was not keen on doing it again. It made her feel dirty.
The Kaiser scooped up the blanket and everything on it, tying the top of it into a thick, chunky knot, and stepped onto the Airdramon. He then held out his hand, clearly wishing to help her up.
You're such a neat, considerate gentleman, thought Miyako, and wondered if her own sense of morality was worth upsetting the Kaiser over, considering that he'd already let her off the hook for another offense. Too bad you're also an enormous jerk. Sighing in resignation, she reached for his hand and allowed him to guide her onto his slave.
They rode together in silence, and arrived at his base a few minutes later. The last time Miyako had seen it from the outside ,it had been "parked" in a large crater, but its true size and malevolent splendor were far more evident now that she could see it flying. It at once filled her with both awe and hopelessness.
Just how are we gonna beat this guy?
They docked in one of the many holes on the side of the base, departing from the Airdramon and walking over to a slightly raised bit of floor. On the wall beside it was a keypad, and the keys lit up as the Kaiser pressed them. With a jerk, the floor began to rise.
Miyako gave a yelp of surprise.
"It's stable, Miyako-san. As long as you don't move to the edge, you won't fall off."
She crossed her arms. "Yeah, alright. Just...warn me next time."
"'Next time' you'll already know, so warning you will be redundant."
"Good point." She bit her bottom lip for a moment, then asked, "So you don't have any normal elevators?"
"No." His eyebrows creased. "Why do you ask?"
She shrugged. "No reason in particular. Just curious, I guess."
Looks like at least one part of my dream was completely inaccurate. Here's hoping that the rest of it was, too.
The platform came to a halt in a what she now recognized as the 'observation deck', and the Kaiser walked briskly towards its the exit. Miyako followed him as he lead her through a series of identical corridors, and they soon landed up in front of another one of his unassuming-looking doors. Opening it, he stepped inside.
Once she was inside as well, she realized that this must be his bedroom. Unlike the kitchen, it was decidedly Spartan: a single bed, only slightly larger than a normal twin, a plain wooden desk with a lamp on it, a functional-looking desk chair, and a bookcase.
Before she had the chance to ask him why he'd brought her there, he said, "There's a bathroom through the door to the right; you can take a shower there if you want. In any case, you should leave your clothes outside the door so I can collect them."
Miyako was stunned. "...Why?"
"Because they won't have enough time to dry properly, and it's easier to duplicate them if I have a template to work from." He said it as if it was the obvious thing in the world.
She breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh. So you're gonna wait outside for me to...uh...change?"
"O-of course," he said, flushing.
"Okay, just give me second." She went to the bathroom and shut the door. She then started to disrobe, folding each item of clothing and stacking them on top of the toilet seat, careful to put the Kaiser's cape at the top of the pile. Holding up her bra and panties, she debated whether or not to include them in the pile, but figured she'd probably cause the Kaiser to have an aneurism if she did. And probably not the kind that would actually help us defeat him. She decided to hang them on the towel rack to dry. If worse came to worse, she would just have to go commando.
Wrapping herself in the white, fluffy towel that was also hanging there, she picked up her clothes and opened the door as little as she could in order to fit the stack of them through it. She closed it abruptly and removed the towel, walking over to the shower and turning on the faucet.
What she really felt like was a nice hot bath, but the Kaiser didn't have one for whatever reason. And he calls himself Japanese, she thought, stepping under the warm spray.
At least it was nice to be warm.