Chapter 10

Of Stories and Pictures

Everyone turned and left with some knowing looks so that Ken and I could detangle ourselves. My face was still red and I felt it get a bit brighter when I had to carefully weave my fingers out of Ken's hair without tangling it into knots. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Ken was still blushing as well, but he was also suppressing a smile. I would have been too if the appearance of Tai and Matt hadn't reminded me of the other reason I was so upset.

Once Ken and I were sitting up I saw Ken glance over at me and all of a sudden he didn't look so happy anymore. I couldn't meet his eyes and stared as hard as I could at my carpet.

"Davis, what's wrong? Did you not want the others to know that we… that you… I mean what we, um," Ken attempted.

I heard him struggling and I felt myself smile almost against my will. "Ken, Ken, stop before you pull something!" I reached over and put my hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at me. "I don't care that they saw us alright? I've had feelings for you for so long that I wouldn't care if the world knew and I trust all of them more than most of the world." Ken's eyes widened and his smile found its way back to his face for a moment before his face became concerned again.

"Davis if you don't care that they know we're… together? Dating?" Ken said the last part so tentatively that I leaned so my shoulder hit against his to show my agreement. "Th-then what are you upset about."

I lean back onto my own space and stare back down at the carpet. "It's that picture Ken. It wasn't just the two of us I drew, I also drew our friends."

"Davis, if your feelings were real does that mean that the others are really together as well?"

I kicked my foot against the carpet a little debating. I loved Ken, but after everything that happened did I really have the right to tell Ken a secret that isn't mine to tell?

I was saved from having to make a choice by a knock on the door and Matt sticking his head in. "Hey, guys hurry up we're all waiting for you in the living room. There's some stuff we have to talk about."

Matt pulled his head back out the door and Ken and I share a look before standing up to go back into the living room. Right before I open the door though Ken nudges my hand like we do while walking only this time after he nudges it he twines his fingers through mine and when I look down he squeezes gently and I know he's not going to let go through this. That he has my back. I smile at him and squeeze back.

I open the door and see the three older kids on the sofa with Tai in the middle as usual and T.K. and Kari spread out on the floor facing them. Ken and I sort of loitered in the doorway holding hands, not really sure if we should sit down or keep standing.

T.K. turns to us with a smile on his face, "What took you guys so long?"

His smile had morphed into a smirk. I felt my face heat up again for the billionth time, but before I could come up with a good reason for the delay Ken shouted his own embarrassed response. "Davis's hand got stuck in my hair! We weren't doing anything!"

I turned to look at Ken, blinking slowly in disbelief. That did actually take up a lot of the time we were in there, but it seemed unlike Ken to admit details like that. Everyone turned from looking at Ken in astonishment to looking at my furiously blushing face.

Matt broke the silence first. "So, Davis, a hair fetish?"

Everybody burst into laughter, even Ken was trying to stifle embarrassed giggling. I used my free hand to rub the back of my neck. "It's not my fault! It-it's just really soft and-and nice looking okay!?"

Everyone else kept laughing but Ken stopped and whispered. "You really think my hair is nice?" in this really cute shy voice he uses when he's self-conscious and my insides melted.

My hand fell from the back of my neck and I smiled at him. "Of course I think your hair is nice! I've always loved your hair!"

Ken brought his free hand up to his mouth as if to hide his small smile and he averted his eyes to the floor and whispered, "Thank you Davis."

"No problem Ken! Hahaha!" my hand had found its way to my neck again.

"Aww, you guys are so cute." By now everyone had stopped laughing and had heard our whole exchange and were now grinning at us. Kari was the only one awing though as she snapped another picture.

Kari patted the ground next to her and I plopped down, Ken sitting much more gracefully beside me. Instead of leaving both of our hands in the middle I just brought Ken's over into my lap, making Ken sit closer than he maybe would have otherwise. Everything seemed fine now, but I just really needed to know someone was on my side of whatever this was gonna be.

Tai got really serious and leaned forward suddenly. "Davis, you know what we need to talk about right?"

I nod and avert my eyes to the rug in front of Ken. Hey, that's a really nice shade of light brown.

Tai continued, "The three of us have talked it over and we've decided that it's probably time to just come clean already."

I jerked my head up so fast I was surprised I didn't get whiplash, and I felt my eyes bug out of my head. Was Tai really saying what I think he was saying?! I flick my eyes over to T.K. and Kari who were both looking a bit confused.

I look back at Tai. "Yeah, I'm really serious Davis."

T.K. interrupted. "Wait does that mean you and my brother are really together like in Davis's drawing? And if you are with Matt then what about the Izzy section? And if your with Izzy and not Matt then what about the Izzy and Willis section? And how come Davis already knew? What the fucks been going on around here?"

Kari hit T.K. in the arm for swearing before turning back towards her brother with a confused face. "Tai? Please tell me what's going on."

Tai scrubbed his hands down his face and sighed, then reached over and took Matt's hand. Matt smiled slightly and nodded in encouragement. Tai glanced at Matt to see the nod then faced Kari with a look of determination. "Me and Matt have been together almost since the day we got back from the digital world after fighting the dark masters. It was off and on a bit at first but we got our act together pretty quick. We've both had feelings for each other almost since the beginning."

Kari's face became one of her customary ones of understanding, but she was looking at Izzy more than Matt and her brother. T.K. was looking at Matt with a raised eyebrow. "What about Sora then? And how come you didn't tell us?"

Matt answered, "We told Sora about us so that she could pose as my girlfriend for the paparazzi because Tai was getting jealous of all my fangirls and we weren't ready to come out yet for various reasons. At first it was because we were still getting used to it, then we kept being on and off for a while and didn't want to tell people while we were still getting sorted out, then my band got really popular and well we might have been okay coming out to just you guys we didn't want to get to comfy in public and have the paparazzi to get a hold of it, then there was a major change in our relationship and we had to again get used to it so we were comfortable, then we were so used to hiding it we were all scared of the reactions, then another relationship change that we are just barely getting over. I don't know. We've just hid it for so fucking long, we should have done it sooner but you hide for so long it's just easier to keep hiding it and not change anything. I mean we've been together about six years."

T.K. raised both eyebrows now. "Six years, really? And you couldn't even tell me?"

Matt just looked away, and I could just hear him say, "Well we're telling you now aren't we?"

Kari was now staring hard at her brother. "What were the relationship changes? Tai! What did you do?"

Tai gulped and opened his mouth, but was cut off by Izzy. "Actually Kari, it's my fault."

Now T.K. was staring at Izzy incredulously. I almost felt like I was watching some weird really tense tennis match. I knew exactly what was coming, I just had no idea how they were going to react. Izzy had been acting really nervous the whole time and was barely looking at anyone until this moment, now he was facing all of us on the floor dead on with a really determined expression. I squeezed Ken's hand for comfort and I saw Ken turn from the action to look at me out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn't look at him, I couldn't take my eyes away from what was going on. Whatever happened would be all my fault. Ken must have seen how nervous I was because he squeezed my hand back before looking away again and then moving closer so that our whole sides were touching.

When Izzy saw he had everyone's eyes he lost most of the determination from his look and stared down the carpet as he started his explanation. "I-I liked Tai for a long time. Since before we went to the digiworld even. Maybe since we met. I never felt comfortable enough to tell him because I always thought he was straight, and he was a good friend. Even though it hurt I at least had the comfort of thinking that him being straight was the only thing standing between us really. So I just… never said anything, never got over him, just content to be alone, just pining after my best friend forever."

Matt was looking a bit shocked, as if he hadn't heard all the details before now. Tai was looking at Izzy with a really sad, sort of regretful look. T.k. and Kari were looking really concerned with the new turn of events. I glanced at Ken out of the corner of my eye, just to catch him doing the same. The story sounded really familiar, and not just because Izzy told me most of this before. Ken saw me looking back and we both held it for a second before simultaneously looking away. I felt Ken squeeze my hand again and rubbed my nose to cover my blush I could feel while looking back at Izzy. Only to find that Matt had glanced over to see our reactions and caught us and was now smirking a bit.

Tai speaking made us concentrate again, "Izzy…"

"Its fine Tai, we've already discussed it." Izzy now looked up again with determination, "Tai called me over here one day about a little over a year ago to look at his computer which had gotten a virus. He and Matt forgot they had called me and told me to just come in and when I opened the door to Tai's room looking for him I found them… er… busy."

Kari covered her mouth with her hand, probably imagining how terrible that would have been for Izzy. Imagining walking in on Ken with another dude had me grimacing in sympathy as well. T.K.'s face was twisted into a grimace of disgust, probably trying not to think of his brother having sex, although I could tell he was trying to push some concern for Izzy through as well. If it was any other situation I would probably be laughing right about now at how hard he was fighting his facial muscles. Matt was grimacing too, as well as blushing. I'm pretty sure Matt wanted to discuss his sex life as much as T.K. wanted to hear it. He was probably remembering the actual incident too and that couldn't have been pleasant.

Izzy clears his throat. "Anyway, I ran away-

"Crying." Tai interrupted.

Izzy clears his throat again and nods. "Clearly upset. And Tai puts himself together and runs after me. He caught me at the park and made me sit down and explain everything to him. Long story short he kisses me and brings me back in to where Matt was waiting. After a lot of discussion we decide to try and all just be together that way. That lasted up until a while ago. Truthfully Matt and I just don't really have much in the way of feelings for each other though, and no matter what Tai may tell you it was obvious after a while that his feelings weren't as strong for me as Matt."

Tai opened his mouth as if to defend himself but Izzy just turned and glared at him as if daring him to continue and he slowly shut it and looked down. Izzy's expression lightened up once Tai was looking away and Matt put his hand on Tai's shoulder.

Izzy sighed and continued. "It was putting a strain on all of us to try and force us all together. We were all taking turns starting fights and things. The new Sora cover had its own problems as well, it was just a mess. I needed to talk to someone about it, so I eventually spilled it to Willis online; pretty early on actually."

Tai and Matt both look up in surprise, neither of them knowing this part I guess.

"His words convinced me that it couldn't go on like it was anymore eventually and I came over here and sort of demanded Tai choose. I knew he was going to choose Matt, and it hurt, but it was kind of relieving too in a way because it meant the situation wouldn't continue anymore."

Matt reached behind Tai and put a hand on Izzy's shoulder in comfort. T.K. and Kari were all concern now. Izzy smiled slightly at the concern and elbowed Tai so he wasn't looking down anymore.

Once Izzy had everyone looking again he continued, still with the smile on his face. "It took a while after that for the three of us to be okay again, but we managed. We're all too close to stay that bad off for too long. I-um-I-I actually got pretty close to Willis online um…"

Izzy was now blushing and it was pretty obvious what kind of close he meant. I felt my face stretch into a grin. Everyone else looking shocked, especially Tai and Matt, whose shocked look quickly morphed into a grin as well.

Seeing everyone's faces Izzy started waving his arms around. "I-it isn't quite like that yet! He's going to come visit and we'll see. He is a couple years younger than me and we've only talked online, and he knows I just got out of a relationship. We're going to take it slow and see where things go, that's all!"

I couldn't resist. My grin turned evil. "Yo Iz! If he's coming all the way over here from America to see you I'm pretty sure it's serious."

Everyone turned to look at me. Izzy's face now looked like he had a bad sunburn and his arms started flailing again.

I continued. "Not to mention when I met him I saw him kiss both Kari and Yolei on the cheek when he said goodbye to them and he didn't even really know them. Imagine how he's gonna wanna say goodbye to you!" I chuckled darkly for effect.

Ken and Kari were both stifling giggles, Kari with a slight blush, while T.K. and Matt were both grinning and Tai dodged to get out of the way of Izzy's hands so he didn't get his head knocked off.

Izzy finally found some words, "I-it's not like he's flying here! After he used the golden digi-egg his digivice changed into a D3 so he's just going to come through the digiworld! And-and he told me about the kissing thing! He said he just did it because you told him he couldn't and he liked seeing you angry! He said it made you look cute!"

Izzy pointed a dramatic finger in my direction. I blinked slowly as everyone turned to look at me. My grin had faded away.

I raised my left hand and pointed at my face and squeaked out a small, "Me?"

Izzy's blush was gone now that the attention was turned and nodded firmly. "Yep. He told me he had a crush on you when you met. It's gone now, but he said he liked goading you and probably would have at least asked for your number if you hadn't said you liked Kari."

My hand dropped and my face heated up again. I felt a small "me?" squeak out again.

How could anyone find me the least bit desirable? I mean Willis obviously liked Izzy now and I'm not the least bit like Izzy. And on top of that I was in top asshole form for a lot of that with all the old Kari stuff. I was mostly actually just concerned that he was just a playboy and Kari was gonna like someone like that, that was a total flirt. I know better now, but I was even concerned about Yolei then too and that can't have helped. My skin between my shoulder blades started to itch as I became hyper aware of the word written across there.

I opened my mouth but before anything came out I felt that Ken's hand had mine in a death grip and he was shaking. I turned to look at him and was met by Ken's most determined face. "Don't, Davis."

I opened my mouth to ask what he meant, even though I knew, but he cut me off. "I recognize that look from the mirror Davis, don't even try and fool me." His face softened considerably, "Of course someone could like you."

He raised our linked hands as if to say 'just look at us'. I grinned and looked away, guilty that I would think like that when I had just gotten Ken. My best friend in the whole world found me desirable, how could I forget something that important? I pulled Kens hand back into my lap and making up my mind quickly darted in and kissed his cheek in thanks, before turning to check out the others, realizing they'd been quiet for a long time. Ken jerked his hand in mine in surprise before I saw him raise his other hand to awkwardly put it over the cheek I had kissed, his mouth an O of surprise and his cheeks a bit red.

Everyone else looked like they wanted to smile at us, but were too worried. Everyone had clearly understood what our little display meant for where my thoughts were. There was another silent pause.

It was broken by Kari. "Oh Davis."

Matt let out a quiet "Jesus." Once the quiet was broken that I barely heard.

Tai was shaking his head. Izzy was now looking at the carpet again guiltily mumbling. "I didn't realize it was that bad."

I opened my mouth to break the now horrible atmosphere, but only got out a loud "guys!" Before T.K. cut me off.

He'd obviously seen how uncomfortable I was and decided to intervene. Although he did look genuinely curious. I definitely owed him one. "Speaking of Davis how did Davis come to know all of this? I mean he didn't look surprised by any of it except the crush Willis had on him. You haven't even told me or Kari anything until today. Hell I had no idea that you were interested in guys at all Matt!"

Tai went to go talk, but I did before he could start. "I think I should tell this part yeah? You don't care if I tell them everything at this point right?" I didn't want to accidentally tell their siblings something the guys didn't want them to know, but they'd told them just about everything already.

Tai and Matt both nodded immediately, Izzy took a few seconds, but after glancing around he nodded too.

I took a deep breath. "You remember how I said that the first time my father hit me I called Tai right?"

Nods and grimaces all around. Ken pushed his shoulder into mine. "Well as you can imagine I was really upset at the time, but not all of it was because of my father. Truthfully I probably should have been expecting that. What really surprised me was that… well…"

I stared at the ceiling as my face got hotter and hotter. This part was so sappy, how was Ken gonna react? I gulped nervously and just plowed on. "The whole time my father was attacking me, the only thing I could think of was how much I wanted to see Ken smile, how maybe seeing that would make the pain, better… or something."

Ken went perfectly still. I don't think he was breathing. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. He was looking at me with the widest eyes I've ever seen. I maintained eye contact as I continued. "When I got back to my room and had time to think about it, it made me realize that-that I was-was in love with Ken and that I maybe… er… probably had been since I met him, even while he was the Digimon Emperor and definitely since we DNA digivolved together."

I looked down. "I mean it was kinda obvious in retrospect, I mean just the number of drawings I had of him alone, even when he was the Emperor I must have drawn hundreds, at least ten for every one time we ran into him-"

I was cut off as Ken lifted my face in both his hands and pressed his lips firmly to mine. For the first second the only thing I could think through my shock was that Ken must have slipped his hand away when I wasn't paying attention. After that second I relaxed into it. It didn't last very long, the catcalling must have made him self-conscious.

After he pulled away he kept hold of my face and looked me right in the eye even though he was blushing. "I'm pretty sure I've loved you since then too Davis. I'm completely sure I love you now."

I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for a second. Then Ken smiled, a smile so beautiful I'm pretty sure it put the stars to shame. The grin it made spread across my face was totally against my will. I grabbed Ken's hands in both of mine and pulled them away from my face before letting go of his right one and bringing his left down and kissing his knuckles, in a way that I'm pretty sure was me just pressing my grin into them. Ken got even more embarrassed, even though he was still smiling and turned away from me to face the others. I put his hand down on my leg and laced my fingers back through his so my palm was against the back of his hand before turning my head back towards everyone.

My head almost caught fire I blushed so hard when I saw the expressions on everyone's faces. Kari had her camera up to her face again too, so she must have taken some more pictures.

"You know that this means you can't call me and Kari gross anymore right? You now have no room to talk."

"I've never been so happy to have my camera on me."

Tai, Izzy, and Matt were just grinning at me.

Before Ken and I literally melted into the carpet in embarrassment I decided to continue the story. "ANYWAY! So I was really freaked out about that and really upset about my father and the only person I could think of to call was Tai."

T.K. cut in. "Of course you'd call Tai."

I cleared my throat. "Tai was sleeping when I called 'cause it was like 2 or 3am and when he answered the phone he just hit the speaker button. I didn't even really wait for him to answer I just started babbling in a panic and it was really loud and woke up Matt and Izzy who were sleeping with him."

Tai spoke up then. "We were really worried Davis. It was pretty obvious in retrospect that your big gay epiphany wasn't the only thing wrong with you. We all felt really bad for not noticing about your father until the incident with your ribs."

I bit my lip. "It's fine guys. I was trying to hide it from you, you know? I got pretty good at that kind of thing. Anyway, so when I told who I thought was just Tai about Ken but was actually the three of them they helped me out by telling them about themselves and how they dealt with it and stuff. I spent most of the summer calling one or the other of them up when I wanted to talk about Ken and things like that."

"So, wait." T.K. held up a hand in a stop gesture. "So the project they were helping you with was your feelings for Ken? And when Izzy said that the three of them saw you like a little brother it was because they were helping you with that?"

All four of us nodded. "So that's basically the whole story now. OH, except the part where I was there when Izzy broke up with them or whatever. When I chased after him when he left he told me some stuff about how he was talking to Willis online, so while I didn't know if they would get together or not I kinda figured from that."

Tai turned to face me. "So how did that jerk get a hold of your picture anyway?"

I scowled. "My bag got dumped when I had that fight with him. S'why I wanted to get my bag back so badly when I left it in there. I was worried someone would see it. That's also why I didn't let anyone help me pick it up. I didn't have time to check for it without you guys getting suspicious so I just shoved everything in my bag. I didn't think anyone had touched it 'cause the blood he got all over my papers wasn't smeared at all, but it must have been right on top. I only brought it with me to soccer in the first place because I was gonna sneak off after to copy it onto one piece of paper. I was actually pretty proud of it cause it was the first time I've ever drawn myself decently and only about the thirdish time I got Tai down, TWICE EVEN!"

I flailed so hard I almost knocked Ken in the head. He grabbed both my hands and put them back in my lap and held them there for a second, when he was sure I was done flailing he just put his hand over my right one.

Kari made bingo face. "I remember! You showed me that one picture of you meeting Veemon for the first time and asked me what was wrong with it because you didn't think you got yourself very good, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. You gave me that little picture of me and Gatomon for taking a look!"

Tai got really excited hearing this. "Hey! Is that the drawing you've got framed on your desk? That one's fucking amazing Davis! I know Kari told me before that you could draw but you never showed me many of your pictures. Hey! Is it because you couldn't draw me and I kept asking you too? What were the other couple you were able to do of me?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Er, I'm not that great. And yeah I felt bad I couldn't really show you very many of you so…The only other ones I've got is this one of you and Kari with your digimon and er… actually the train track one with you and Matt was a redraw, I actually drew the first one right after we got back from the digiworld after the incident with Agumon. And I couldn't exactly show you that."

Tai looked shocked, as did Matt who spoke. "You drew that before you even knew we were together?"

I nodded. T.K. spoke next. "Can we see some of them? I wanna see the original one of them. I've never seen anything you've drawn before. I didn't even know you could draw."

I nodded again and slid my hand out from under Ken's so that I could get up. I walked into my room and grabbed the box out from under my bed. I paused for a second just staring at the lid. Then I decided it's no big deal and shrugged. They knew all my secrets now anyway. What's the worst they could do anyway, pick on me? I wonder how Ken will take it though. I did tell him, but seeing it's different. Hopefully he won't think I'm creepy.

The box is pretty big, the only reason it fit under my bed was because of how high up it was. Don't know why Matt needed such a high bed, but, whatever. Because the box was so big I decide to just push the thing instead of trying to carry it out there on my own. Everyone's eyebrows shoot up to their hairline when they see how big the thing is.

Once I'm a decent way in the living room with it I open it up and dig out my main sketch pad and hand it to Tai. T.K., Kari, and Ken get up to stand behind the couch so they can see over Tai's shoulder and Matt and Izzy lean in as close as they can.

They flip through it, making appreciative noises every now and then and talking about what they like about this or that one. Near the end they run into the original train track picture and they once again express their disbelief about it. I was gnawing my lip practically off my face waiting for one of them to notice.

When Tai closes the book he makes a noise in the back of his throat before addressing me. "Is this it Davis?"

I shake my head. "No, there are two more sketch books with you guys and a couple tiny ones I carry around to draw random stuff. Here."

I pull the other books out and resume waiting. Tai closes the last book and sighs. "You know these were really good Davis, but you know what I noticed?"

I shake my head. Tai grins. "There doesn't seem to be many pictures of Ken in hear. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say you drew HUNDREDS of pictures of him earlier? Let's see 'em then! Unless you were just exaggerating"

I sighed and blushed while I dug back around in the box. Ken's face was already a dead match for my digi-egg of courage. I came back out of the box with three thick sketchbooks in each hand. "So… You want Digimon Emperor Ken or post Digimon Emperor Ken first?"

Everyone laughed and Ken brought his hand up to cover his face. He groaned from beneath his hand, "Are you serious Davis?"