It was a bright, sunny day in Odaiba when the digidestineds met up for their weekly movie outing. The tradition had started after Matt moved to Odaiba and they all set aside a few hours every Saturday to just hang out together. After the trip to America and the fight against Chocomon they invited Yolei and Cody to join their weekly excursion. After Ken became a member of the team they had tried to invite him along but he had refused with a rather cold glare and so they hadn't pressed the issue. They never tried to invite Daisuke along. They could just see her being her usual loud self and getting them all kicked out of the theatre.
"Hey guys!" TK said. "Am I late?" he asked, seeing everyone else already there.
"Nah," Tai said cheerfully. "The guy at the ticket booth said that the first movie got a late start, so our movie won't be starting for almost an hour."
"Oh, that's too bad. Do you guys want to wait here then?"
Yolei perked up, "We can go by my family's store and pick up some candy."
"That sounds like a great idea," Kari said happily.
The path they took towards Yolei's family's store took them past the apartment building where Tai, Kari and Daisuke lived.
Cody looked at the building almost guiltily. "Do you think we should invite Daisuke to the movie with us?"
"No way," Matt said at once. "She's so loud she'd probably get us kicked out and maybe even banned."
Kari bit her lip, also feeling guilty. "Maybe we could invite her today but not let her know we do it every week? We can see if she gets us kicked out and if she doesn't we could start including her. It seems a little mean that we all get together without he once a week."
"Do we have to?" Yolei whined petulantly. "She's so annoying and we see too much of her as it is."
"Kari has a point," Tai said firmly. "It isn't fair that we don't at least give her a chance."
Matt rolled his eyes as Yolei huffed. "Fine, but when the manager asks us to leave I'm saying I told you so."
The group made their way up the stairs, some with more reluctance than others, and all too soon they were standing in front of the door. They wouldn't have known they were in the right place if it weren't for the name plate; none of them had been to Daisuke's apartment before.
Kari walked up to the door and knocked politely. They all heard a call of "Just a minute!" and Matt Shrank away at the sound of Jun's voice.
Jun opened the door with a smile, "Hey M—" before trailing off in confusion. "What are you doing here?" She asked, bewildered.
Everyone was confused at the greeting, but Tai said, "We're here to see Daisuke. Is she home?"
Still giving them a baffled, and slightly suspicious, look, she called out, "Hey Dai, he digidestineds are here."
Everyone jerked, startled. Yolei angrily blurted out what everyone was thinking, "She told you?!"
Jun glared at Yolei so fiercely that she actually shrank back. "Yes, my family believes in being honest with each other. We believe that nothing is a good enough reason to lie. It sounded unbelievable, but we trust Dai not to lie to us, so we believed her. Our parents want us to be safe, so they weren't sure about letting Dai do something so dangerous, but they came around. Rather than being angry that Dai isn't willing to lie to our faces maybe you should think about why you felt the need to lie to your families."
There wasn't really anything to say to that. Before the silence had a chance to get too awkward Daisuke came around the corner. She was putting in an earring but that what made everyone's jaw drop. She had on a tight orange tank top and blue capris which wasn't too unusual, but she also had a light purple shirt on under the tank top and she was actually wearing nail polish and some light makeup.
Seemingly oblivious to their shock at her unusually feminine dress, Daisuke asked, "Hey, wat's up?" She then frowned and check her watch, "Aren't you guys going to be late for your movie?"
Feeling guilty despite himself, Matt said, "How do you know about that?"
Daisuke raised her eyebrow, unimpressed. "I go out on Saturdays too. I've seen you guys waiting in line. I've heard you talking about how you're looking forward to the movie or about how great the movie was. Also, Ken told me about it after you invited him. He thought I should know that you were all getting together behind my back."
Feeling ashamed Kari meekly said, "If you knew, why didn't you say anything?"
Daisuke looked confused, "Why would I say something?"
Matt glared at her for making them spell it out, "Why aren't you mad at us for not inviting you to the movies with us?" he ground out.
Daisuke still looked confused and even a little uncomfortable. "Look, I know the difference between teammates and friends. I'm not going to be angry that you spend time with your friends on the weekend. I do too."
Sore looked indignant, "What do you mean "the difference between teammates and friends?" We're your friends Daisuke!"
Daisuke scoffed, "You can't possibly believe that."
TK, Kari, Cody, Tai and Sora looked hurt, Izzy and Joe looked shocked and Matt and Yolei looked angry.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Yolei demanded.
Daisuke and Jun both looked incredulous. Daisuke laughed, though there was no humor in the sound. "Gee, why would I think you guys aren't my friends. Kari, at the start of the year when I found out we were in the same class I said it was good luck. Do you remember what you said? Because I do. You said, 'I wouldn't exactly call that luck.' Tai, you acted like I was some kind of horrible monster because I didn't want to attack Skullgreymon. Matt, you treat me like a horrible monster because I said Jun had a big mouth. For your information Jun and I like embarrassing each other so we make things up about each other and tell people. Yeah, it might not be the nicest thing to do but sisters fight. And I've heard you say way worse things since then, but you still seem angry at me for saying what I did. You are such a damn hypocrite. TK, you act like the fact that I can accept that sometimes running away isn't an option means that I'm reckless and don't care about anyone. Yolei, you activated the Digiegg of Sincerity by sincerely thinking I'm a jerk. Yeah, my mistake. You are clearly my closest friends."
Nobody could look her in the eye. "The best part," she continued, "is Ken. I was the only one who wanted to give him a chance. You all saw him as the Digimon Emperor and when I asked, pleaded, for you to just give him a chance you said no. Accused me of not caring about the Digimon he hurt. But I became his friend anyway. I made him a part of the team anyways. And now you guys have the sheer nerve to act best buddy with him and, keep in mind I've heard you guys say this, you wonder why someone as cool as Ken would hang out with someone like me. That's why Ken won't hang out with you guys. He doesn't like the way you treat me."
Yolei wanted to be angry. She'd had a crush on Ken before finding out he was the Digimon Emperor and after he joined the team it had only gotten stronger. She had been really jealous when Ken and Daisuke had become DNA partners. She hated the way Ken would only be around the group when Daisuke was around. She bitterly waited for the day the two began dating.
"Hey, Dai, we're gonna be late."
The group jumped, startled, and whirled around to see some random guy standing behind them. He was tall and had his brown hair in a half-ponytail with green eyes and he was wearing a tank top and sleeveless sweatshirt revealing muscular arms. His face was open and friendly, and you could see the mischief in his eyes.
Daisuke smiled at him. "Hey, I was just talking to my teammates. I thought I had a little more time."
They watched his face close off, the smile becoming a frown. "Which teammates?"
"The digidestineds." She replied.
Matt couldn't help himself, "Just how many people have you told?!"
Daisuke didn't let his tone get to her. From the look in the stranger's eyes, he was taking offense. "For your information pal, my friends and I are also digidestineds. Dai saw us ad wanted to offer us help in case we didn't know what we were doing."
Yolei was mad. "You knew about a whole other team and didn't tell us? That's so selfish! We could have really used some help in some of our fights against Arukenimon and you just kept them a secret for no reason."
The stranger blew up. "You shut the hell up!"
Yolei flinched back but rallied herself quickly. "We could have saved so much trouble with even one extra person, but Daisuke decides to just hide you away. That isn't fair."
TK, sounding a little apologetic, said, "She does have a point. We could have really used some help, but Daisuke never even suggested that we call you."
The stranger growled—actually growled!—at them. "You don't know what you're talking about. My team is different than yours. We work out of a different Digital World."
That threw them for a loop. "What?" Sora asked, confused.
Daisuke jumped in, trying to defuse the situation. "We don't really understand it but the digital world they can go to is really different. It's really wild and there is a monarchy there. There was a king and Royal Knight type Digimon kind of ruled the world. They took me there once and it was so different. We all talked, and we decided that if we were supposed to work together our Digimon would be from the same world and they'd digivolve in the same way. It seemed best to keep separate: a different digidestineds team for a different digital world."
Several of the team felt ashamed at being surprised that Daisuke had actually thought this out and that is hadn't been a rash or impulsive decision. Yolei was not exempt from the shame but she refused to be cowed.
"Well if you decided not to team up what are you doing here?" She demanded snobbishly.
The stranger glared at her. "Not that it's any of your business, but Dai and I are dating. I'm here to pick her up for lunch."
The digidestineds gaped at him. Daisuke had a boyfriend? It was hard to believe. They had all kind of figured that eventually Ken and Daisuke would start dating, but it never really occurred to them that she might find someone else.
Yolei was gobsmacked. For the first time she was truly embarrassed by her behavior towards Daisuke. She had only seen her rival and responded aggressively. But to know that all that time she'd had a boyfriend? That made her feel awful. Unfortunately, she was too proud to admit she was wrong. It was much easier to put the blame on Daisuke. If she had mentioned having a boyfriend none of this would have happened.
"You have a boyfriend and didn't tell us?" Karri was hurt. Despite everything, she really did consider Daisuke to be a friend. She was disappointed with herself. For letting things get to this point.
TK was angry. He flirted Kari, but he'd thought there was some unspoken…thing between him and Daisuke. He used her sometimes to make Kari jealous, he had felt secure in the belief that she would always be available to him. The girl really didn't have many friends because of her intense personality. This is the reason TK hadn't really cared for Willis with the easy way he took to the hyperactive girl. It was also why he'd been against Ken joining the team. Having Daisuke so passionately defending him and seeing the easy camaraderie had made him fell threatened. The fact that the girl had a boyfriend and didn't tell him, didn't even consider him a friend, didn't sit well with him.
The stranger seemed to have decided to ignore them. He turned to Daisuke with a smile. "Everyone is waiting downstairs in the limo. If we wait too much longer Ken is going to think we forgot about him."
"Limo?" Sora blurted, shocked. Everyone gaped at the stranger in shock.
Daisuke cleared her throat, "A member of Marcus' team is rich. He likes to pick us up because otherwise we will be late. The one time we convinced him we didn't need a ride we got distracted at the park and ended up being 2 hours late. He doesn't trust us anymore."
Marcus looked amused despite himself. Thomas had been furious, but Daisuke reminded him too much of his sister to be mad at her. Now he stuck to passive-aggressively driving them around and making pointed comments about how important it is to be on time. He probably didn't realize how funny they found it and they now went out of their way to try to be late.
Cody stared at Daisuke for a moment. "Did he say Ken?"
Daisuke looked at Cody, confused for a moment, but then shook herself out of it. "Yeah, Ken hangs out with us a lot. It's easier for him sometimes because their team belongs to a digital world that Ken never hurt, and they never knew him as the Digimon Emperor. Plus, it's nice to hang out with everyone. Thomas and Ken get along pretty well, I think Thomas might remind him of Sam. We usually pick Ken up last since we have to go all the way out to Tamachi, so Ken is probably waiting for us."
It was obvious she was trying to dismiss them without being rude, but they refused to leave. "Come on, we can't just leave things like this," Tai said. "I know we have been major jerks to you, but you are our friend Daisuke."
Daisuke just huffed at them, "I don't have time for this right now, I'm sorry but I have to go." She tried to walk past them but Matt and Tk grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Get your hands off of her!" Jun and Marcus shouted at the same time.
Sensing the approaching danger, Kari, Sora, Joe, Izzy, and Cody all backed away, trying to get out of the line of fire.
Daisuke twisted under their grips and actually flipped them over her shoulder onto their asses. They looked shocked at Daisuke, not able to believe how easily she had escaped them and that she was capable of defending herself so well.
Marcus looked proud and angry at the same time. Daisuke had been very impressed to learn that he fought alongside his partner and she had asked him to teach her to fight. She hated sitting on the sidelined while Veemon was in danger. She knew that without the DNA charge she would probably never be able to fight the way he did, but she wanted to be more capable than she was. He had agreed to teach her, and their spars were some of the funnest he had ever had. He willingness to get down and dirty had endeared her to Agumon and he had taken to calling her boss lady. All the same, he did not like that she needed to use those skills against her own team.
"Do not ever," Daisuke seethed, "put your hands on me. I put up with a lot of shit from you, but that is where I draw the line. I told you I am leaving, and I am leaving this building even if I have to go through you to do it."
"Yeah! You tell 'em boss lady!"
The strange voice had everyone looking around for the source. Marcus pulled out his digivice and called out, "Agumon, realize."
An Agumon with red training grips materialized in front of them. Not so coincidentally, he appeared between the digidestineds and Daisuke. "That was awesome boss lady! You sure showed those guys what's what."
Daisuke smiled at him. "Well it's all thanks to you and Marcus. Now let's get out of here before the other digimon eat all of the food."
The trio started to leave when Sora called out, "Hey, don't leave yet."
Daisuke gritted her teeth, all of her patience gone. Before she could say anything Agumon and Marcus stepped in front of her.
"Now I've had just about enough of you. We have places to be and people expecting us. And if you don't let us leave right now you're going to regret it. My team is waiting downstairs and all four of us can push our Digimon past the mega level. Daisuke is coming with us whether you like it or not."
The digidestineds stared at Marcus in shock. Push past the mega level? Was that even possible? But Marcus didn't look like he was bluffing, and Daisuke didn't look surprised or shocked to hear it. They reluctantly watched the trio leave and were considering what they were going to do about everything they had just learned when they realized that Jun was still there. She as staring at them contempt and disgust.
"You know, Daisuke and I have always had a hard time making friends. Our personalities are just so intense we have a bad habit of scaring people off. That's why whenever we make a friend we are willing to do just about anything for them. Daisuke wanted to be your friend. But when I heard the things you said about her, the way you treat her, I begged her not to. I will never pass up a chance to embarrass her and we fight a lot, but I love my sister. I would never want her to think the way you treat her is acceptable, that she has to put up with such toxic behavior. Don't ever come by here again. I understand you're on a team together and that's fine. But do not ever come to this house again."
With that Jun slammed the door shut right in the faces. It hurt to hear that Jun considered the way they treated Daisuke so terrible that she would actually beg her sister not to befriend them. That she thought they would hurt her. The digidestineds stared at each other, unable to think of anything to stay, trying to process everything that happened. Without anyone really suggesting it, they all started wandering off, each going home to try and make sense of the day. None of them even realized that they were missing the movie that had been the start of the whole fiasco. When the finally did remember they were left to wonder how something so simple had led to the revelation that they were neglecting their teammate and abusing her kind and forgiving nature. Some of them, like Yolei and Matt, were forced to wonder why they treated the girl as they had and wonder even more why no one had bothered to call them on it. Why hadn't anyone said how rude and unreasonable they were being? Ultimately, they knew that they had to take responsibility for their actions and they silently wondered if they would ever be forgiven for their actions. Moreover, would they ever be able to forgive themselves?
While the digidestineds were busy castigating themselves for their failures and shortcomings Daisuke had a wonderful time with Ken and the data squad. She knew that her interactions with her team were likely to be awkward and uncomfortable for the foreseeable future, but a part of her was relieved to finally have confronted the issue. She hadn't been sure how to address the problem without sounding whiny or entitled. Maybe now things would get better. She had no intentions of becoming their friend anytime soon, but it would be nice to have a little more cooperation moving forward.
Daisuke shook her head, firmly putting the digidestineds out of her head. This was a time to hang out with her friends and she would not let anything ruin this day for her. She saw that Ken had brought a soccer ball and quickly challenged him to a game of one on one. When Marcus and Thomas joined in she let out a huge, happy laugh and felt the last of the tension flow out of her shoulders as she and Ken ran circles around the duo.