Ichijouji Osamu was a rather unusual young man. At seventeen, he was famous all over Japan, and quite probably farther than that. He was also famous in another world, but this is not that story. He had grown not to care that much for his fame. It was more of an inconvenience than anything else. It took away time he wanted to spend with his Digimon partner and his brother.

It is true that in their youth, Ken and Osamu didn't get along very well at times. Osamu had let his temper get the better of him on some occasions, and one year he had been very smug about the fact that he had went to a special school trip and Ken hadn't. Of course, that was the year that he'd wound up going to the Digital World and meeting his partner and becoming the Chosen Child of Compassion.

But that was in their youth. Now Ken was a Chosen Child himself, Chosen of Kindness, with his partner Wormmon. Now the two of them got along much better. There were several reasons for this, but the one that really mattered the most was that they had both grown up. Ken was famous in his own right, for the beautiful artwork he could produce, and the music that could flow from his fingers like liquid gold. He had dabbled a little in computers, and the two of them owned any soccer field they played on together, but he hadn't really made up his mind on what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Neither had Osamu himself. All he really wanted was to enjoy the time he had with the ones he really cared about.

He was pretty good at a lot of things, but he wasn't all that certain that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with computers or soccer or any of it. Whatever it was, he was pretty sure that he wanted to be out of the public eye. He wanted time to himself. Maybe he could look into being a librarian or something. They usually weren't famous.

Thoughts of the future, while amusing, were quite far from Osamu's mind at the moment as he unlocked the door to their apartment and headed in. Their parents were off visiting relatives for the weekend, so it was going to be just the two of them, him and his brother. Or rather, it was going to be the two of them, himself and his partner, since Ken had told him that he was going to be spending significant time with his significant other that weekend. Osamu had found the romance quite cute and touching, and was glad that his brother was so happy. Ken just didn't look right being anything other than happy.

Which is why Osamu was so very surprised to hear the soft sounds of tears coming from Ken's bedroom, muffled by distance and a closed door, but still very audible. He glanced down at his partner.

"Bakumon, are you hearing what I'm hearing?"

The small Holy Beast Digimon looked in the direction of Ken's room, then back at his partner, nodding quietly. "Ken's crying about something." He listened again. "Wormmon's trying to take care of him, but he's still unhappy."

Osamu nodded, then quickly hurried into Ken's room. When they'd been kids, they'd shared a room, but shortly after Osamu's return from the Digital World, they'd decided it was best if Ken had his own space. The first thing he noticed when he got in there was that Ken was curled up on his bed, back to the door, and very clearly sobbing his heart out.

"Ken? What's wrong?" He wasn't often given to demonstrations of affection, but this was his brother, and this was his brother in serious need.

He sat beside the sobbing amethyst-eyed boy, gently stroking his hair, hoping this calmed his brother down enough to talk. Ken just sobbed, and Osamu couldn't even be all that certain if his brother was even aware of the fact that he was there.

"Wormmon." He looked over to the small caterpillar, who kept nuzzling Ken gently. "What happened? What's got Ken so upset? I thought he was going to be out all this weekend."

The caterpillar sighed quietly, and was about to say something when a choked sob that actually had words in it was wrung out of Ken. Osamu blinked; he'd understood part of that. "Did he say what I think he said?" Wormmon nodded quietly and Osamu felt a touch of anger stirring up in him. How could someone dump his brother? And so cruelly...it made him want to find them and do things that were of the utmost painful kind.

Gently the Child of Compassion stroked his brother's hair, whispering soft and soothing things underneath his breath. He'd learned the hard way how to care for other people, but deep inside he'd always cared for his brother. For someone to hurt Ken now, after everything that he'd been through, was enough to make him put aside his usual ways and kick some serious butt.

Ken sobbed quietly, and Osamu thought hard and fast, trying to come up with some way to do something that would help him feel better, or at least calm him down a little more. He's so sensitive. This was his first relationship, and it ended like this. Osamu had never thought that anyone could be so cruel. He knew he'd had his bad days, and still had them, but he was fairly certain he'd never do anything like that. At least he hoped he wouldn't.

Finally it hit him. Ice cream. Green tea ice cream. It was Ken's favorite. It might just be what could help. He patted his brother's head a little more, noting that the pillow beneath Ken was quite thoroughly soaked with tears, and decided when he had the chance, he was going to administer some very necessary chastisement.

Ken didn't appear to notice anything when Osamu slipped out of the room and into the kitchen. The elder Ichijouji hunted around, glad he'd suggested they get a few cartons of the sweet treat to his mom the last time they'd been shopping. He didn't care for it personally, much preferring butter pecan, but if this would at least help a little, he was willing to serve it up. Just don't ask me to eat it, Ken. He smiled a bit weakly to himself. Ken never asked him to eat any of it. He claimed that it was because that left more for him, but Osamu knew better.

He scooped out two bowls of ice cream and stuck a couple of spoons in it. Then he reconsidered and scooped out two more bowls, and didn't bother with spoons this time. No sensible Chosen Child ever forgot to feed their Digimon partner. If they did, that was an open invitation to have said partner eat them out of house and home.

By the time he got back to Ken's room, Ken himself was sitting up and rubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand. He blinked as his brother came in with four bowls of ice cream on a tray. "Osamu?"

"Here you go." He sat down next to him and put the tray where all four of them could get to it. "Green tea ice cream, just the way you like it, Ken."

The younger boy looked a little confused, and Osamu couldn't help but wonder how anyone could ever want to not have this delicate angel in their lives. If I weren't his brother...well, who knows? Osamu had never really given much thought to romance himself, though he knew there were guys and girls alike who eyed him rather hungrily. All he really needed were his friends and family.

As Ken started to eat quietly, Osamu watched him unobtrusively. Plans began to form in the back of his mind, ways to take the shadows and sadness out of Ken's eyes. He could see Wormmon snuggling in his partner's lap, eating his ice cream delicately with his insect's mouth.

The small caterpillar looked up at Ken briefly, ice cream all over his mandibles, and the young Child of Kindness looked down just in time to see it. His lips twitched a little bit at the sight, and then he laughed softly. Wormmon blinked in confusion. "Ken-chan?" Osamu had always found it adorable how Wormmon called him that. The bonds between them were stronger than any he'd ever seen before.

"Yes, Wormmon?"

"Why are you laughing at me?" Wormmon didn't sound upset, just curious. Osamu was fairly certain that Wormmon had never really been upset in his life. It just didn't mesh with his personality.

Ken chuckled softly, the light starting to return to his eyes. Osamu smiled mentally; as hurt as Ken was, he could still laugh and he could still smile. He's going to be all right. He just needs time to heal. And someone to watch over him that isn't going to try and take advantage of him. Osamu knew he was fit for that role, and would have taken it anyway. After all, that was what brothers were for.

"You have ice cream all over your mouth." Ken told him softly, getting a handkerchief to wipe it away neatly with. Wormmon's cheeks turned a faint shade of red, and Osamu had to stifle himself from laughing out loud.

I never thought I'd see the day when a caterpillar could blush.

Both Wormmon and Ken turned to look at him, and he realized that a small snicker had escaped him. He tried to look serious, but he knew that he was failing rather miserably. Ken was about to ask him something, probably what was so funny, so Osamu quickly took the initiative. "What would you guys think about a movie night in? I can rent some stuff from the video place, pop a batch of popcorn, grab some sodas, and we can have fun laughing at all the idiot plots and plotholes."

Ken blinked for a moment, then slowly grinned. He could tell what Osamu was trying to do, and he wasn't going to object. He wanted to think about things other than having gotten his heart stomped on. He wanted to spend some nice quality time with his brother and their partners. I don't know what I'd do if Osamu wasn't around. They'd had their problems in their youth, but that had worked out slowly. Now they just had the occasional spat like any other normal pair of siblings.

"I'd like that." He said softly, the fingers of one hand going to gently stroke the top of Wormmon's head. "I'd really like that, Osamu. I...don't feel like going out for a while."

His brother nodded. "I know. I haven't had this happen to me, but a couple of my friends have had bad breakups, and I think I can at least keep your mind off of things for a while." He smiled warmly at the younger Ichijouji. "You're going to be okay, Ken. You're tougher than most people think you are, I know."

"I know." Ken couldn't fight the blush that flared up. Osamu was never overly free with compliments, so to hear this was quite unusual. "It's just...we were so happy together, and then it was like this..." He shook his head sadly. "Not even a word to me, I just came in and there they were, all over each other."

Osamu nodded quietly. He probably would have found the nearest blunt object and started to hit on them. The hard way.

"I just ran out of there. I couldn't face either of them anymore." Ken held onto Wormmon a little tighter, a few more tears finding their way down his cheeks. "I don't care what kind of excuses either one of them comes up with, I don't ever want to see them again. Not like we were, anyway. Maybe as friends. Someday."

"I know." Osamu patted his shoulder gently. "It really hurts now, and if you had the chance you'd be going insane with a butcher knife, I bet."

Ken looked up at him with wondering eyes. "How'd you know what I was thinking about?"

"I'm your brother, Ken." Osamu chuckled. "It's my job to do things like that. Besides, it's a natural human reaction. You're hurt and you want to lash out at something, anything." He stood up, gathering up the empty ice cream dishes. "I'll be back in about half an hour. Is there anything else you'd like from the market?"

Ken looked down, then up again with a faint smile. "Chocolate bars? Wormmon loves them and so do I."

"You got it. Bakumon, you going to stay here or come with me?" He glanced down at his partner as he started away from the bed. Bakumon blinked solemnly at him with deep blue eyes.

"Ken needs me." The soft voice murmured quietly. Osamu just nodded; he knew that Bakumon fed off of dreams, and if Ken happened to have nightmares, his partner would be there to take care of things.

He hurried the dirty dishes into the kitchen and washed them quickly; he wasn't normally the best of housekeepers, but he didn't want any extra details interfering in their enjoyment, or his free time with his brother. Once that was taken care of, he was off to market.

As Ken heard the door close behind him, he looked over at Bakumon. "I'm probably going to have bad dreams tonight, Bakumon. Could you...you know..." He knew that Bakumon would have without even being asked, but he wanted to make it official if he could.

"Of course." Bakumon snuggled against him a little, and Ken couldn't help but smile a bit. Wormmon and Bakumon were both very lovable, very cuddly Digimon when they wanted to be, and right now they obviously wanted to be.

He could never forget how lucky he was, not just to have a partner like Wormmon and a friend like Bakumon, but a brother like Osamu. Most siblings he knew would've just patted him on the back, said it was too bad, and went out on a date with someone or other, or tried to drag him out to a theater. Osamu was different. Osamu was trying to make sure he wasn't hurt anymore.

I'm gonna have to do something nice for him. He decided. Maybe he'd paint Osamu's portrait. Ken liked drawing and artwork. He'd found a deep well of creativity inside of himself, and he enjoyed using it any time he could. Maybe instead of a painting, though, he'd do something that no one else could do for his brother. Yeah, he knew what he could do. He'd gotten a new program from one of his friends a few days ago, and hadn't had a chance to work with it yet. Making something for Osamu would be a great way to break it in. After all, who could resist their own custom-made house?

He was deep in thought for what he could put into the virtual home that he almost didn't notice when Osamu came back. It was the smell of popping popcorn more than anything else that got his attention, and he found himself pulled into the living room just by the aroma alone.

"Oh, good." Osamu grinned at him as he came out of the kitchen, a huge bowl of buttered popcorn in his arms. "I've got the snacks and movies and things ready to go, we just have to sit down and pop it in. Feeling up to it still?"

Ken smiled; the pain in his heart was still there of course, but he knew he'd make it through. Maybe he'd even fall in love again someday. But for now, he was content to just be with Wormmon, Bakumon, and Osamu. That was all he really needed. The comfort of his friends and his brother.