Escape: best when shared

The movie was boring. So, of course, they talked all the way through it, ignoring the cheap special effects, and the equally horrifying acting (or lack thereof). Afterwards, they got ice cream, to make up for the first disappointment.

Daisuke paid. Koushiro nearly had a heart-attack when Daisuke walked up to the counter, ordered two cones, pulled out his wallet, and paid for both of them, without giving him a chance to voice protests. Which was fine, since he was stunned speechless. He should have known better, of course, but it was often joked about how cheap Daisuke could be. He bought triple scoops, too.

By triple scoops, he meant each one of a different flavor. By the time they reached the cones, the flavors had run together into an indistinguishable blob of sweet-milk consistency. It was the best memory they shared between them at that point: a mark of their blossoming friendship and strengthening bond.

Koushiro wanted to weep from heartbreak. It was another sign that this was the best that it got. He had finally allowed himself to fall in love, and let in the ever-diminishing hope that something could happen between them, only to find out that he connected with this person in the only way he'd ever allowed himself to connect with anyone else.

If he couldn't love him like he wanted, he'd be the best possible friend he could, and hope that it wouldn't devastate him too much when Daisuke fell in love.

"The monster was lame." Daisuke licked at his ice cream, seemingly oblivious to the puddle making its way down his chin, and towards his neck. Koushiro tipped his head to watch it dribble onto his shirt, lips twitching. "What?"

He paused, his mouth open to say 'You're just too cute'. He caught himself in time. "You're dripping." He held out his mangled and sticky napkin. Daisuke looked at it, then at his wet hands, then up at the redhead. With a sigh and a mocking, but gentle expression, he reached out, and wiped the trail of melting ice cream off of his neck and chin. His eyes and hand paused slightly at the corner of his mouth, and Daisuke held his breath as that black gaze stared at his mouth.

"Your mother is looking for you." They jerked away from the contact hastily, turning to face a smiling Ken. Koushiro looked at him with something akin to resentment, and Daisuke met his violet gaze with disappointed eyes, and a shake of his head.

"What else is new?" Daisuke grinned at his best friend, letting the moment pass easily. It was easier when you knew where you stood, unlike poor Koushiro, who was totally clueless. For once, the tables were turned, and Daisuke, too-dense-to-notice-Motomiya, was on top of things. "Did she send out the alert to all the Guards?"

A shrug and a side-glance at his fellow genius was his only answer. "We're just about done." Koushiro pushed up from the park bench where they had taken their ice cream, and walked to the trashcan to throw his soiled napkin away. He watched it drop into the abyss of garbage, and then turned back to them with his normal guarded expression. "We might as well return now."

They headed back together, the three of them silent for several moments. Then Daisuke turned his grin to Ken. "So?"

"So what?"

"Come on, man! Tell me!"

"Tell you what?" Daisuke growled in frustration.

"Did you talk to him?"

"Who?" Ken hid his smile, and even Koushiro was amused by the look of absolute betrayal on Daisuke's face when her realized that Ken was playing with him.

"Man, that's cold. Never mind, I don't want to know!" The silence resumed for several minutes. "Was it fun?"

"Was what fun?" Koushiro's shoulders were shaking, and he could tell that Ken was having a hard time pulling it off.

"The date!" Daisuke was practically shouting now.

"What date?" Ken walked on calmly.

"What date? What DATE?" Daisuke stopped, and they continued on a pace before turning back to look at him. "Dude, you told me that-" He spoke slowly, obviously agitated, and then cut himself off mid-thought.

"Oh, that. Yeah. It never happened." Ken started walking again, and Koushiro waited for Daisuke to follow him to move himself.

"After all the things I've gone through to make this happen? Man, you suck. I do not envy you your love life." He smiled slightly at his little barb. Until it backfired.

"At least I have one." Ouch. Koushiro winced in sympathy. Daisuke hissed a breath in through his teeth. Ken looked at him from the corner of his eye, waiting for retribution. A sudden laugh caused both genius' to look at him oddly, but he waved them away as he doubled over. When he stopped laughing, he shook away their questions and moved toward the apartment building that had come into view.

"What's so funny?" Ken.

"Are you feeling well?" Koushiro.

"Spill it, Dai."

"You're not going stir-crazy, are you?"

"Come on, Davis."

"Do you need to sit down?"

"Dang it, Daisuke, that's not fair!"

"Maybe you should lay down for a little while." He laughed away their concern and irritation as they entered the lobby. Some things were better left secret, at least for a while.

~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

Twelve assorted teenagers sat scattered throughout the living room when Mrs. Izumi ripped into them this time. Her voice was raised, her eyes flashing, and she was working herself into a frenzy. The culprits were scared for their lives, and Mr. Izumi was nowhere to be seen. Their friends were looking at them with morbid fascination, and sympathy.

Needless to say (or it could have been, but whatever) they were surprised to find out that they had formed such an unlikely friendship, and had run off together not once, but twice. Such things were expected of Daisuke, but Koushiro? Most definitely not. Not only was it a shock, but it was amusing to know that it had taken zero coercion for him to go along with it all.

"I can't believe you two! Twice! In one week? What are were thinking? You had to know that I'd just extend your punishment. Do you even care anymore? Maybe I should start grounding you two from each other. Maybe that would make you realize how serious I am."

Their expressions didn't change, but the pain that flashed through their eyes was mutual. She knew that she'd hit her mark, but she didn't dare push it too far.

"You two will be under lock and key for the next three weeks. Daisuke, you'll only have to be here three hours, and you don't have to come on the weekends, since it's obviously too much for you guys to have to be stuck together seven days a week. Koushiro, you're ungrounded. You only have to make sure that you're here to tutor Daisuke Monday through Friday. As for today, I want everyone out. Everyone."

She pointed toward the door, and watched with a slight smile as twelve teens stood up.

"Except for you two." Their groans were audible. "Say goodbye."

"Bye, guys." Koushiro sat down dejectedly.

"Tell my mother that I loved her. And tell Jun that she can have my stereo." Daisuke flopped down next to him.

Paroled: Breaking Probation

At four o'clock Monday afternoon, Daisuke arrived at the Izumi apartment. He was half-an-hour early. He knocked quietly on the door, praying that anyone but Koushiro answer. The door opened, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hi, Mr. Izumi. Please, don't let Koushiro know I'm here, yet?" The man smiled at him and nodded, opening the door wider in invitation. "Is your wife home, sir?"

"Not today, Davis." He was the only one left in the house that called him by his nickname, instead of his real name. "Can I help you?" His smile was gentle, questioning, and sincere. He could see where his friend inherited his quiet respectfulness from, whether the bond was biological, or emotional, it was easy to see his upbringing after being in their home constantly for three weeks. Only three more to go, and then they could go their separate ways.

After thinking for a moment, the boy nodded. They moved into the kitchen, as it was farther from Koushiro's room than the living room, and sat at the table. "How much...What if...Do you...Are you aware of your son's sexual preferences?" He spit out finally, blushing as he realized what topic he was discussing with the redhead's father.

"Yes. I can't say that I'm as gung-ho as my wife about it, but I can't say that I love him any less than I did before I knew, either. Why?"

Daisuke grinned, then leaned across the table seriously, his expression earnest. "Sir, I would like you to know that my intentions towards your son are honorable. That is, I may ravish him, but not for many years, and not without intending to be with him forever."

~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

Three weeks later, Friday afternoon rolled around, with Koushiro still unaware of Daisuke's visit with his father. They had studied together, and hung out with the digidestined on the weekend. Except for the times that they poured over books, they were never alone, a fact that they both silently resented, but only one was doing anything about.

Daisuke was hatching a plan. As part of it, he had made it a point to find out when Koushiro typed in his 'Journal'. The Friday in question, he knew that Koushiro would open the file dated for that day shortly before Daisuke would be due to arrive. At approximately four-thirty, he'd shut the file, and move to save it, only to realize that there was already a file with that name on it.

Koushiro, being cautious as was per his nature, would check out the file at the same time that Mr. Izumi got back, and informed his wife and son that Daisuke hadn't been there when he went to pick him up. If things went as planned, Koushiro would be reading Daisuke's note while he was getting to the library, so that he could be there if the genius showed up.

A lot of variables, twice as much hope, and loads of courage could only get you so far before the rest had to be placed in another's hands.

~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

Koushiro looked at the clock, and decided that he should probably at least start the day's journal entry. He inserted his disk, opened a word-processing file, and started typing. Two minutes before Daisuke normally walked through the door, he hit the save button, chose drive A, typed in the name, and hit OK. A message error showing a file already named for the day's date popped up.

He frowned, and then opened the disks' files, stopping at the one he wanted. He double-clicked, then maximized the window. And received the shock of his seventeen years.

By the time you read this, Kou, you're father should be on his way to inform you that I wasn't at the school to be picked up. He heard the apartment door open and shut through his open door, and then his father's voice telling her that he couldn't find Daisuke. Of course, this was to be the last night that we got stuck together. You might think that I forgot, except, I obviously had to write this at some point, which meant that I planned this.

He looked up as his mother stopped in the doorway. "Your little friend has stood you up. I'm going to call his mother, and then see what she wants to do. You might try to see if you can find him. If he doesn't show up here at all tonight, I'm going to find a new punishment, and this time I'll find a way to enforce it." She turned and walked away, muttering about separations and timeouts.

According to the plan, you're mother should be making all kinds of threats at this point, which, to me, is a good thing. See, I decided that the last three weeks have been some of the best of my life. I wouldn't trade them in for anything. If things don't go as planned, then your mother has decided to ground us from each other. That would be bad.

Koushiro nodded in agreement. However, I know of a way that the Warden would have to pardon us, and a way we could be paroled. Indefinately. See, I happened to...kind of see one of the passages of your journal. Sorry. SORRY SORRY SORRY!!! I was being nosy, and you weren't talking to me, and I did it because I wanted to know more about you!

He chewed on his bottom lip, trying to recall the last time he'd let Daisuke use his computer. Your lip is not edible. At least, not for you. Don't chew your lips, don't chew your friends, chew your friends' lip? Kami-sama, that was lame. Sorry, agian...again. Dang computer. It's not my fault that it can't catch all of my spelling errors. Typical Daisuke. Rambled even when typing.

Anyway. You wrote something about how she'd ixnay the unishmentp-ay if you would ask me out. Well, you don't seem to want to do that anytime soon, so I thought I'd do it for you. He frowned. Was one night of freedom with the consequences really worth so much to Daisuke? If so, he didn't know the boy well at all. Disappointment settled in his chest.

I'm not explaining myself very well. Ken was always good with words, but I'm not. My reasons for this? Because Ken and I had a discussion on the type of person that I was looking for, and I refused to give him a direct answer. See, Ken looks for all the world to be my type. Intelligent, cute, nice voice, cute butt, manga collection the size of China, and just all-together perfect.

Still not getting this right. Okay. Now, take all the qualities that I just listed, and add one more, obviously: gay. Out of all the things I was looking for, that was the most important, and for him it was least important, because he'll always be my best friend, nothing more. But, somehow, I managed find all of those things in another person. Let's think. Take twelve teenagers. Take away a third, who are females, and you're left with eight boys. Subtract one, me, and two, Ken, to leave six. Divide by the number that like to bring me down: Takeru, Iori, Matt and Jyou. Even Tai. That leaves one.

Now, let's match that one to the qualities I wanted to find: Intelligent-check. Cute-double-check. Nice voice-double-check-check. Cute butt-hehe, ask your father about three weeks ago Monday. Manga collection-I'll just steal TZ's. All-together perfect-why do you need perfection when you have me? Black eyes narrowed at the screen.

Still not getting it? Okay, okay. I think that I fell in love with you the first time you woke me up to throw Physics at me. Or maybe it was the first time you refused to take the insult I left wide-opened for myself. It could have been the day that you let me kidnap you, and then tried to convince your mother that it wasn't my fault. Of course, it could have been before all of that, when I realized that your theories didn't give me headaches anymore, and I found myself willing to sit through them just to hear you talk, and to watch the emotions cross your face.

Koushiro wiped away the tear that had slipped down his cheek. Now, cutey-patootey. Get your little behind down here to the library, before you break my heart, and I do something drastic to break my probation. Move it, move it!!

~~~~~~^^~~~~~~

Ken handed the phone back to the young woman behind the counter. She smiled at him, and moved on to help another reader. The violet-haired boy turned to one with auburn hair, and relayed the message. "Koushiro ran out of the house, and they had to throw his shoes out the window at him before he realized that he was barefoot."

Daisuke grinned, sat down, stood back up, and resumed his pacing. "He should be here in about..." The doors slammed open, and Koushiro walked in, his shoes in his hand. He looked around wildly, realized that people were staring at him, and bent to put his shoes on. When he straightened, Ken stood in front of him.

"Interesting." It was the only thing he said before he pointed towards the nonfiction section. Daisuke could be seen at the end of a row of books, sitting against the wall, watching them. The redhead smiled at him, then started calmly towards the boy at the far end. Ken returned to the desk, and asked for the phone again.

"Hello."

"Mrs. Izumi? He found him. I think that it might be awhile before you see either of them again."

"Hello, Ken. Really? What happened?" He could hear her smirk through the phone, and smiled, wondering what she had in mind. He decided that he probably didn't want to know.

"Well, Koushiro came in, saw Daisuke, and has proceeded since then to set records." On what, exactly, he wouldn't say. Some things just weren't meant for a mother's ears.

"Thank you, Ken. Have a good day."

"Bye, Mrs. Izumi."