Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Digimon Adventure 02
Title: Price of a Cure: Chapter 5: Lessons
Pair: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken
Word Count: chapter: 1,825||story: 9,332
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Written for Diversity Writing, section H, #22, fic that is T rated; Written for the One Pairing Boot Camp, prompt #30, rose
Notes: This takes place sometime after they have all their Digimentals.
Summary: When the only way to save Daisuke's life is to give him to the Kaiser, the Chosen have no choice. He'll keep him until he gets bored with him, so the Kaiser says. But how long will that be, and what will happen before then?

"I wasn't trying to bring a guest!" Daisuke found his voice a heartbeat later and glared at the Kaiser. "I was trying to get away from her so I could come back here!" He hated just the way it sounded, as if he were eager to come back. His eyes flicked behind Ken, searching for any sign of V-mon. He didn't think he was late, but the Kaiser would probably take any chance he could to punish him somehow.

"I don't care what you were trying to do. You did it." The Kaiser stared down at Jun much the same way he usually did to Daisuke, what could be seen of his expression disapproving. "I don't want her in my world."

"I doubt she'd want to be here in the first place." Daisuke threw a sharp glare at the Kaiser before he came over to where Jun was just starting to stir. He hadn't been that out of it when he'd first arrived in the Digital World, but maybe it was different because she wasn't a Chosen? Or because she was older than he was?

He doubted that she knew and he really wanted her to get home before their parents noticed anything anyway.

Jun lifted up her head and blinked, eyes bleary for the first few seconds before clearing and focusing on him. "Daisuke! What happened?" She jerked her head one way and then another. "Where are we?"

Daisuke sighed. He'd never thought about having to explain about the Digital World to her, and he really hadn't wanted to do it like this. "Would you believe me if I told you that we're in the lair of an evil jerk who wants to rule an entire world, and he's the guy I've got to work for to pay off the debt for saving my life?"

"No."

"Sorry about that. I can try for a really impressive lie if you want me to?"

Jun blinked again, rubbing the back of her head as she pulled herself onto her feet. "Would not believing you make you wrong?"

"Nope."

Jun blew out a long breath and glowered at her brother. "I hate you, you know that, don't you, brat?"

Daisuke shrugged casually. "That's not going to make me wrong either." He indicated the Kaiser, who stood there being more and more annoyed with every breath. "This is the Digimon Kaiser. You've probably heard of him as -"

"The Digimon Kaiser." Ken's voice held not a shred of leniency as he glared at Daisuke. "That is the only person that I am." He turned his attention back to Daisuke. "Your brother is my property until he bores me to the point I choose otherwise. That is all that you need to know. Daisuke, take her back and then get back here."

Jun threw off the last of her lethargy and set her hands on her hips. "Now wait just a second. What makes you think I'm going to go anywhere without my brother? He's a little jerk most of the time but you don't just go around keeping people as if they were prizes!"

"If it weren't for me, your little brother would be dead by now. His life is mine to do with as I choose, and I don't take 'thank yous' as a proper reward." The Kaiser's smile slashed through the darkness of his control room. "Daisuke, I told you to take her back and return here. I've left V-mon alone until now, but if you waste any more time, I will change that."

The noise Daisuke made could best be described as a startled squeak. He grabbed hold of Jun's arm and held his D-3 in the other. "Look, I can't explain all of this. I don't have time." He scrambled for something he could say or do, and latched onto something. He had to hope this worked. "Talk to my friends. They know."

"Motomiya!" The Kaiser's whip uncurled in his hand and Daisuke didn't dare waste another second. He transported them both back to his bedroom and looked at her.

"I can't stay. Just, don't let Mom and Dad know. They'd never understand. Please, Jun."

She stared at him for a few moments, confusion written large in her eyes, before she nodded slowly. He grinned, but it didn't feel like his usual one. Not at all.

"See you. And I will." He turned back to the computer and let the gate transport him one more time.

Jun stared at it, reaching out. She had time only to see the small figure of her brother being knocked down before the gate image closed and vanished off of the screen.

She stared only for another few seconds before she unplugged the entire laptop, closed it up, and marched out the door. There were people she needed to talk to.

Daisuke hit the floor almost as soon as he landed back in Ken's control room. He tried to get up, only to have the Kaiser's boot press him back down, grinding into the small of his back.

"You stay down there until I tell you to get up. And you stay quiet until I tell you to speak," the Kaiser growled. "You did not need to bring her here. You didn't need to tell her anything about me or this place. All you needed to do, all you were ordered to do, was get her back there. She would've written it off as being some kind of hallucination."

Daisuke began to open his mouth and the Kaiser's boot ground harder against him. "I said for you to stay quiet until I give you permission to speak. Are you too stupid to understand simple instructions? You'd better not be."

Daisuke considered pretending he was. Would that be enough to get Ken bored with him?

The Kaiser's breath puffed hot and hateful in one ear. "I know you're not. You just haven't learned how to obey orders yet. But I know how to teach you."

A thousand terrifying images cropped up in Daisuke's mind. He didn't have a chance to breathe a word of any of them before the Kaiser dragged him to his feet and pushed him down the corridor. "We're going to go get your little friend. He's a very important part of this lesson."

Daisuke slanted his eyes back to the computer for a brief second. He had no more time than that before Ken grabbed his D-3 and made it vanish inside the folds of his cape.

"Let me explain the rules. You should know them, but perhaps I've neglected to be specific. First of all, when I give a command, any command, you will obey it. You will not sit around trying to find ways around what I told you to do. You do exactly what I say and nothing else. If I don't tell you to do something, then unless it is something like breathing or your heart beating or anything that you need to survive by average human standards, then you won't do it. That includes passing messages of any kind and in any way that I do not approve of to your friends. Do you understand?"

Daisuke wasn't sure if he was supposed to answer, until the Kaiser pushed his shoulder roughly. "I understand." So far this little 'stay here with me because I saved your life' hadn't been all that bad. But now Ken looked hell-bent on chopping off every avenue he had to having even the smallest bit of fun.

"Second of all, under no circumstances will you attempt to escape. If you do, V-mon will pay for it. By your hand."

Daisuke snapped his head around to glare, but was met only by the distant, icy stare of the Kaiser hidden behind his visor. Whatever fury he could muster wasn't good enough to get through that, not now.

"Thirdly, you'll speak when I wish you to speak when you are in my presence. If I've not asked you a question or given you an order, you will remain silent."

Daisuke couldn't hold it back any more. "How do you expect me to do all of this? Do you really think that I will?"

The Kaiser's lips tilted upward into the most satisfied and smug of smirks that could possibly be created. "No, I don't, Daisuke. Not at all. And seeing you struggle and fail and suffer because of it is going to be far more interesting to me than you can possibly imagine." He shoved Daisuke so that the other stumbled into the room, where V-mon stood up as soon as they crossed the threshold. "I said that I'd keep you until I was bored of you. But I am not very easily bored by anything, least of all you."

Ice cemented itself in Daisuke's stomach, a fine bead of sweat springing up all over him at the same time. The Kaiser leaned forward, pinning Daisuke against the wall with the flat of one hand.

"I wouldn't look forward to going back home any time soon, Daisuke. It's not going to happen. You're going to stay with me and you're going to help me conquer this world and there is nothing that you can do to stop that from happening. I'm not going to have to put a Ring or a Spiral on you or V-mon, because I. Own. You." His smile lashed out, twisted and cold and full of an insanity that Daisuke had never seen there before. "And if I have to remind you of it in other ways, then I will."

Daisuke's first thought was of V-mon and what Ken had said about him being a part of this lesson. He knew there wasn't anywhere they could run inside of the Kaiser's fortress and even if there was, he still wasn't certain of how fast he could go or where to find an exit. The Kaiser had his D-3 back, which meant he couldn't get back to Earth.

He was trapped, with no way out. He hated it.

If Ken had meant to make V-mon part of this 'lesson', though, he had either forgotten it or changed his mind as he took a firm grip on Daisuke's hair, pushing him harder against the wall. Daisuke struggled, pulling his head away, but to no use. There just wasn't enough room for him to work with.

"What other ways?" Daisuke growled the words out, wanting to make certain Ken knew that he wasn't going to go down without a fight. Whatever Ken had done for him, it wasn't enough to make him bend his head and become a submissive slave.

"We have a very long time for you to find out all of them, don't we?" The Kaiser's face hung so close to Daisuke's own that he could feel hot breath on his lips. "And I look forward to showing them all to you. Every. Single. One."

The End

Note: Well, that's it for now. I don't know when I'll get started on the main story since there is so much else that I'm working on. But it will happen. You can trust me on that.