Disclaimer: Please don't sue since I'm just playing with the characters. I am aware that I don't own Digimon. Damn.

A little boy sat hunched over the round table ignoring everything around him as he drew. Every so often he would pull back to examine his work or push back his indigo hair. It had the most annoying habit of falling into his eyes.

A dark skinned redhead watched the other boy with growing interest from across the room. He was supposed to be painting, but the blue haired boy had caught his eye when the redhead had been looking around the room for something to draw. Setting down his paintbrush, the redhead gave up trying to paint and walked over to the other boy.

He spent several minutes trying to see what the boy was drawing, but his body kept getting in the way of the redhead's line of view. The redhead gave up his subtle peeking and went for the blunt approach. "Hi! Whatcha drawing?"

The boy, having been oblivious to the other's attention, shot up in his seat. He spun around to see who was speaking to him and came face to face with the redhead. Startled by the closeness, he pulled back, only to upset his chair. The blue haired boy tripped over one of the legs and followed the chair to the floor.

The tanned boy gave a little giggle, but stopped when he saw the glare the other boy was giving him. He cocked his head to the side. "What'd you do that for?"

"I didn't mean to." The response came out harsher than it had been meant to.

The redhead ignored the hostile words. "Are you okay? It looked like it hurt."

The fallen boy eyed the other boy warily then decided it wouldn't be too much trouble to answer. "I'm fine. Can you move so I can get up?"

The redhead ignored him once again, instead offering the boy his hand. The boy gave a defeated sigh and accepted the hand. The tanned boy yanked him up a bit too hard causing the boy to run into him, barely avoiding another meeting with the floor. When they'd regained their balance the redhead turned his attention back to the boy's drawing. "Can I see it?"

Blue eyes blinked in confusion. "See what?"

"Your picture!" The redhead could hardly contain his excitement; he always got this way over new and interesting things. "Please, please, please!" He started to jump up and down to accompany his plea.

The boy was slightly disturbed by the redhead's behavior. He didn't have any friend to compare the other boy to, but he was pretty sure that the redhead wasn't normal by anyone's standard. He wondered if he should stop him. It would be nice if the other boy went hoarse from his incessant yelling, but it was more likely that someone would get hurt. He concluded that it was probably best to give into the request before anything bad happened and gave a nod to show his consent.

Chocolate eyes widened in joy. "Really?! You mean it?!"

The boy nodded again. The other boy latched himself onto the indigo haired boy, hugging him tightly, before letting go to inspect the picture. The boy was shocked by the show of affection. It took him a few minutes to realize that the redhead had let go and when he did he couldn't stop from blushing.

Suddenly, the boy popped up in front of him waving his picture around. Luckily there was no chair to trip over this time. "What's this?"

The boy gently pushed the redhead's hands and the drawing out of his face. "His name's Leafmon."

The tanned boy turned back to the picture. It was of a small, green creature with a leaf hovering over its head. Off to the side were some blue and black marks where the boy had started to draw himself in before he'd been interrupted.

"Leafmon? Leafmon . . . mon . . . mon," The redhead's mouth played with the word and his eyes lit up, "like digimon?"

"Yeah." The boy looked at his classmate with interest, "How'd you know?"

"I have one too!" He smiled widely, but then his eyes widened. "Oh! But it's not a Leafmon. Mine's named Chibimon. He's blue and has really, really, really big eyes."

Here the redhead paused to demonstrate what big eyes Chibimon had. He widened his brown eyes and pulled them farther open with his fingers. The other boy nodded quickly and smiled to show that he understood just how big the redhead's digimon's eyes really were, hoped that the boy wouldn't poke out his eyes by accident. It would be quite interesting to explain to the teacher, though.

Fortunately, his nod and smile were enough to make the redhead stop, positive that the other boy got his point. He went back to talking about Chibimon. "He really, really, really likes candy. Especially chocolate. It's his super special, awesome, bestest favorite! Mine too! But I like all candy too. I really, really, really, really like it." He paused momentarily to take a deep breath. "Do you like candy?"

The boy stared at the redhead in awe and slight horror cause by his longwinded speech. There was no way a normal person could talk that much without breathing. He was positive now the redhead was well above and beyond normal.

He shook himself out of his thoughts when he saw the other boy staring at him expectantly. He thought back to the last thing he remembered the redhead talking about. Candy. Something about if he liked candy. He thought that was what he'd been asked.

Cautiously he replied. "Yes?"

The redhead's face split in a big grin. Apparently that had been the right answer.

"Cool! I'm Daisuke. What's your name?"

"Ken."

Daisuke took a moment to digest the name, and then nodded. "I like it," he declared.

Ken was relieved about that. He didn't want to think about what Daisuke might have done if he hadn't liked Ken's name.

"Want to be my friend?"

Ken wasn't sure; Daisuke seemed really nice, but on the other hand he was very hyperactive and seemed to have a very short attention span. What would Osamu do? The thought of what would happen if Osamu and Daisuke ever met had him holding back laughter. His bet would be on Daisuke.

He studied the other boy. Big, brown eyes stared back at Ken with hope. Yes, he did want to be Daisuke's friend. Mama would be happy about it. She always seemed sad because Ken didn't have any friends. He gave the redhead a small smile. "Sure, I'll be your friend."

Daisuke threw his arms up and cheered. "Yay! Ken's my bestest, best friend." He reached forward and grabbed Ken's hand. "Let's go build a castle."

Ken let himself be dragged over to the blocks. He smiled; he really liked this friend thing so far.

- - -

"Let's go to the Digiworld!" Daisuke flopped down across Ken's lap. They'd been friends for awhile now and it seemed to be in Daisuke's nature to be overly affectionate. At least he was to Ken.

"You want to go to the Digiworld?" Ken found that the best way to get clear answers from Daisuke was to restate everything the redhead said in order to get a clear answer. It was much easier than trying to figure out what the redhead wanted.

"Yeah! I was talking to Chibimon and Leafmon about what it was like before they came to live with us. The Digiworld sounds super awesome! There are forests and mountains and seas and they're all squeezed together really close. And there's lots of other digimon! And . . . and . . ." He faltered off to think of what else would appeal to Ken. He decided to go for Ken's kind and compassionate side, "Chibimon and Leafmon miss their old home!"

Ken was about to question Daisuke more thoroughly, but something Daisuke had said bothering him. He ran through what the redhead had said in him mind. Daisuke had talked about the Digiworld, Leafmon, Chibimon . . . Chibimon!

"Daisuke, where's Chibimon?" Ken asked in a calm voice, but inside he was screaming in terror. The last time Chibimon had been alone, he'd wreaked total havoc on Ken's room. He was still trying to scrap play dough off the ceiling.

"Oh, I left him in the kitchen."

Ken's eyes widened in horror at Daisuke's nonchalant reply. He scrambled out from under the redhead and raced to the kitchen.

"What's the matter?" Daisuke called out from behind him.

Thankfully, Leafmon had stopped Chibimon from touching anything. Just thinking about what could happen if the little, blue monster ever found the blender caused Ken to breakout in goose bumps. Daisuke shuffled into the kitchen soon after, confusion painted across his face. Ken waved it off by distracting him with the offering of food. Both the redhead and Chibimon expressed their thanks by cheering and glomping Ken. Leafmon was quieter with his thanks for which Ken was very grateful.

Once they had their food everyone went to Ken's room, only pausing in the hall for Ken to inform Osamu that they didn't want to be bothered. His brother had just laughed. "Sure thing, squirt."

After patting both boys on the head Osamu left for his own room. Ken thought that meant Osamu was respecting his request. They'd hurried to Ken's room before his brother could change him mind.

Daisuke soon finished his food and became bored. "So . . ."

Ken gave him a questioning glance. "So what?"

The redhead bit his lip in thought. What should they do? He was pondering over the question when it hit him; the very thing he'd been asking for earlier—to go to the Digiworld!

"We're going to the Digiworld!" Daisuke announced. Chibimon cheered and bounced around the room.

"But we don't know how to get there."

Chibimon stopped his jumping and his lip began to quiver. "Daisuke, I want to go!"

Ken turned to Leafmon for help while Daisuke tried to calm and comfort Chibimon. The green monster gave the problem serious thought, taking some time to come up with a good idea. "The digivices have to be the key to getting into the Digiworld. So if you focus your energy with them and think about wanting to go to the Digiworld, it should work."

Ken nodded in agreement with Leafmon's theory. It seemed pretty reasonable to him. He walked over to his desk to retrieve his digivice and turned to Daisuke. "Do you have yours with you?"

Daisuke patted himself down to find out that yes, he did have his digivice. The redhead stood and grabbed Ken's hand, nervous and excited about going to the Digiworld. Together, they focused on their digivices. Ken's computer whirled to life and bathed the room in a golden light. Daisuke's eyes widened in awe, tightening his grip on Ken's hand; Ken did the same.

Chibimon jumped into Daisuke's free arm and Ken gently picked up Leafmon, cradled him in the crook of his elbow. The boys took a cautious step towards the computer screen. Nothing happened. They exchanged looks and decided to move closer to the light. Daisuke took the first step, Ken following after him. They entered the circle of light and were suddenly sucked into the screen.

They landed in a jumbled pile of limbs from which they had to untangle themselves from. Looking around, they saw that they'd been transported to a barren desert.

The redhead hung off Ken's arm, trying to pull him farther into the desert. "Let's explore."

"I don't know, Daisuke. I have a bad feeling about this."

Daisuke turned his brown eyes into big, sad, doe eyes. Ken caved; he hated when Daisuke did that. It always made him feel bad about denying the redhead anything he wanted.

They wandered around aimlessly for some time until suddenly Ken collapsed in pain. The back of his neck burned making him whimper. Daisuke panicked, hovering over Ken but afraid to touch the boy. He didn't want to cause Ken anymore pain.

Leafmon tried to calm him and Chibimon while pushing down his own growing distress. Daisuke eventually calmed down enough to half drag, half carry Ken back to the monitor they'd entered through and ported through.

When Ken regained consciousness, he was alarmed by Daisuke's tear streaked face.

"What's wrong, Daisuke?" Ken reached out a hand to cup the redhead's face. Daisuke started to cry again and blubbered on about an accident and the Digiworld. It was hard to understand what he was saying through the tears.

Ken frowned in confusion. The last thing he remembered was walking around the desert. How had they gotten back to his room? He pushed aside the mystery and hugged the redhead close to him. Ken began to rock him, making hushing sounds and stroking Daisuke's back.

The redhead sniffled and buried his head into Ken's neck. "I was really worried."

"I'm okay." The blue haired boy really didn't know what else to say to comfort his friend.

Daisuke's hand clutched at Ken's shirt. "You'd better be. You promised to be my best friend. That means forever and ever."

Ken repeated what Daisuke's words to reassure him, meaning every one. "I'll always be your best friend and I'll never leave you."

Daisuke pulled back to look at Ken suspiciously. "You promise?"

Ken nodded solemnly. "I promise."

The redhead gave a watery smile and reburied his head into Ken's shoulder.