Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Fine Art ❯ If You Can't Stand the Heat ( Chapter 8 )

Phew! This took a great deal of time to write. The chapter was supposed to be longer, but for some reason I just had to end it when I ended it. Did that make any sense? Didn't think so.

Anywho, thanks Flair! For reading my crap, giving me the suggesting to change "patted" to "pounded", for IMing me, for letting me read your *awesome* fics, and for being a very cool person. Yay! You rule!

Anywho again, THANKS FOR READING MY FIC! It means so much to me! I love you all! And so does Daisuke! ^^

~*~

"Two eggs please."

I reached into Ken's fridge and pulled out two smooth eggs. "Got them," I replied, holding them out for inspection. "Should I break them?"

Ken pushed a small bowl over the counter. "Sure," he said, as he turned back to the recipe. "You do know how to break eggs, right?"

"Of course!" I huffed indignantly. "I know how to do everything!" I had watched my mother break eggs hundreds of times. And Taichi told me that he used to make breakfast for himself and Hikari. If Taichi could do something, then I could too.

Gingerly I tapped the egg on the rim of the bowl.

Nothing happened.

Just as gently I tried again, lightly touching the egg down.

Still nothing.

"Stupid egg," I tapped harder, "Break already!"

Still nothing.

"So that's how you want to play, huh?" With all my might, I smashed the pale egg against the bowl, wincing proudly as it broke. Splatters of the egg flicked onto my face, but most of it dripped in between of my fingers and onto Ken's counter, little pieces of egg shell dotting the white and yellow. "Success!"

Ken leaned over my shoulder. "The only problem Daisuke," he said slowly, "Is that we were trying to get the egg in the bowl. And without egg shells mixed in."

"Oh," I stared sadly at my slimy hand. "I guess I don't know how to do everything." I washed off my hands and wiped the egg off my face. "I suck."

"No you don't," Ken said, passing me the second egg. "You just need to be taught. Here," he placed his hand over mine, "Now, hit it gently, like this."

My heart pounded and I inhaled sharply. His touch was cool and warm all at once, and I was intoxicated by it.

Ken guided my hand, and together we cracked the egg. It split evenly in two, and the insides dropped neatly into the bowl.

"There," Ken said, letting my hand go, "Now you know how to do it."

I ducked my head, trying to control my swirling emotion. "Yeah," My voice cracked, "So, I should break another egg, right?"

"Please." Ken glided back to what he was doing, oblivious to my sufferings.

Light headed, I accomplished my mission, breaking the second egg. "All done."

"I knew you could do it." Ken said with an approving nod. "Next we need to sift flour. Want to do that?"

Ken's praise made me warm with happiness, and I jumped at the chance to earn some more. "No problem dude, I'll get right on it."

"Great." Ken handed me a metal can with a handle. "Here, you use this."

"Ken," I said, taking the object from him, "I hate to break it to you, but this is a can."

"No," Ken chuckled, "It's a sifter. See? Put the flour inside and then turn this handle. It'll grind the flour into a softer powder."

"Oh," I said, eyeing the can suspiciously. "If you say so."

Obediently I sifted the flour. It was pointless, it was mind numbing, but Ken had asked me to do it. Ken could ask anything of me and I'd do it with a smile, no matter what the task.

We were both silent, me sifting flour and Ken looking gorgeous as he mixed the other ingredients. I was struck with just how right everything felt. It seemed so natural that we'd be working together. That we'd be doing such a domestic task together. That we'd be sharing such a perfect moment.

I couldn't help but stare at Ken. He was so beautiful. Everything about him was poetry. He was divine, I was sure of that. His movements were slinky and smooth, his hair looking inviting soft, his eyes sparkled purple and his lips pouted outwards slightly, his ivory mouth frowning as he concentrated.

My heart pounded again, and I dropped my eyes, away from Ken. My thoughts were full of images of him.

It wasn't fair.

I put all my energy into sifting. Numbly I watched the white powder drift into the bowl. It was like snow. Like the first snow of winter. It was like staying up really late to watch as white diamond flakes danced downwards, as if the show was only for you.

But it was only flour.

And I was only Daisuke.

~~~

I bent over, looking into the red darkness of Ken's oven. "So it'll be done soon, right?"

"No, not for a while."

"Oh." I stood up, looking sadly at the baking bowl. "But I'm hungry now."

Ken laughed. "You're the one who wanted cake." He pointed out, wagging a finger at me. "But fear not, we do have food in my house."

"Yeah, but not good food." I grumbled as I sat down at the kitchen table. "Not cake."

"Catch." Ken threw an apple towards me. I caught it, of course. "Eat this."

"Okay." I bit into it, savoring the juicy freshness. "Thanks."

"Not a problem." Ken had an apple too. Mesmerized, I watched him bite into it, watched his pink tongue slide over the red skin, and watched his pearly teeth rip into the apple's pale flesh.

I licked my lips, my eyes stuck on his mouth. What did he taste like? Would Ken be sweet? Sweet, but not like candy. Ken would be a dark, silky taste. Like night.

Like what? What was I thinking?

"Let's try to do some more math, okay?"

Ken's voice drew me back to reality. My eyes refocused and a smile formed. "Whatever you want, Ken."

He stood up, giving me a wry, crooked grin. "Yes, what I want to do is math. Your math, I might add." He grabbed my homework from the counter and dropped it in front of me. "Come on Daisuke, I know you can do this. You were on number twelve, right?"

"Probably." I arranged the papers neatly and stared at the problem. "Yeah, number twelve."

Ken scooted his chair over closer to me. "Right." He said, pressing a slender finger down next to the numbers. "So we have to isolate y."

"Stupid y." I grumbled. "I hate y." I scribbled some numbers down, moving everything so that y was left by itself. "Poor y. Nobody likes it."

Ken chuckled softly. "Anyway, now you can solve for x."

"Yeah yeah." I scribbled some more. "Stupid x."

Ken moved in even closer. "Right, see, I told you that you can do it. Once y is alone, you can solve for it."

"Poor y." I said again. "I'll be y's friend."

"Now, for this problem, you have to graph the answer."

"First I integrate y, right?"

"Isolate. But yes."

Just like I had done for the problem before, I made y stand alone. "There." I said when I had finished. "That part is done."

"Good." Ken nodded his head as he scanned over my work. "Now, use the equation at the top to make a graph."

I could feel Ken's warm breath on my cheek, and when I moved my head, a few strands of his hair brushed against me. It was torture. I was so close to him that I could smell his scent, and he smelled delicious. "This equation?" I forced myself to concentrate.

"Yes. That one."

Eager to please, I did as I was told. With Ken guiding me towards the answers, math made a lot more sense.

Ken hummed a pleased note. "Right! I knew that you could do it!"

I grinned at my paper. "That wasn't so bad!"

"I told you so." Ken leaned back in his chair. "Now you can finish the rest."

I was sorry that Ken had moved away. I bit down on my lip, but kept on working.

~~~

"There! I'm finally done!" I stuffed my homework into my backpack and stretched back in my chair. "Thanks for your help, Ken."

"You're welcome Daisuke." Ken stretched as well. "It was no problem."

"That's good." I stood up and walked over to Ken's oven. I bent at the waist, peering into the dark red stomach of metal. "When will the cake be done?"

"When the timer goes off." Ken replied. "Would you like to play some video games now, Daisuke?"

I turned, my eyebrows raised. Ken tried too hard to please me. Did he think that I would leave him if I wasn't always satisfied? Did he think that I was only his friend so that I could use him? Did he have such little faith in me? In himself? "Sure, Ken. Whatever you want."

Ken's eyes flickered to meet mine, and I was lost again in their beauty. Then he shrugged slightly and broke our stare. "Okay then, we can play until cake's done."

Ken led me into his family room, and we flopped onto the ground next to each other.

I grabbed a controller and settled into my video game position. "All right, be prepared to have your ass totally whipped."

"Eat shit, Motomiya," Ken said cheerfully back at me, surprising me with his unusually vulgar words. "And prepare to die."

~~~

Our all-out-war ended when a loud ring echoed in from the kitchen.

"Cake's done." Ken stood up and turned off the video game and TV in one fluid motion.

I stood up after him; following behind him like a puppy. A lovesick puppy. So, was this puppy love? Or was I just obsessed with dogs?

Ken bent over, looking into the oven. After a moment of consideration, he grabbed a towel, wrapped it around the cake's baking dish, and pulled the steaming dessert out of the oven.

It smelled heavenly. Almost as good as Ken. "I want cake!"

"Not yet." Ken put the cake on the counter. "It's too hot. You have to wait."

"Damn. I hate waiting." I inhaled deeply; sucking in as much as of delicious scent as my lungs could contain. I didn't want to wait. I wanted cake. I poked a finger into the cake's center and hissed with pain as the evil food burnt my finger. Yelping, I jumped back and stuck my finger in my mouth. Evil cake, with it's evil, tempting smell. "Ouch!"

Ken shook his head and gave me a slow smile. "Daisuke, I warned you."

I glared at him and sucked on my finger. I couldn't talk, what with half my hand in my mouth, so I satisfied myself with giving him a low growl.

His smile changed into a smirk, then back into a smile. "Don't worry Daisuke, I'll get you a band-aid for that."

With another angry noise, I climbed onto his counter to sulk. I kicked my heals against the wood cabinets and continued to suck on my finger. As usually, I had done something stupid, even though Ken had warned me ahead of time. I decided that I should start listening to advice.

Ken appeared in the kitchen, a bandage in one hand and a pot of something in the other. I glared at him again.

"This stuff helps with burns," he said, holding the jar out for my inspection. "It'll make your finger feel better, I promise."

After a moment of consideration, I pulled my throbbing finger from my mouth. "I suppose..."

Gingerly, Ken took my hand. "Once, when I was very little, I burnt myself on the oven. Osamu made me sit on the counter, in almost the same spot you are."

Ken's voice had become very quiet. He was holding my hand and his grip tightened slightly, but not enough to hurt.

I was lost again. Suddenly my finger didn't hurt as much any more. I gathered enough courage to raise my head, and I looked at Ken's face.

Our eyes met and his stare softened. "At least you're not crying," he said with a forced laugh.

I knew that he had been remembering when he had been hurt. Sam was one part of Ken's life that I'd never be able to share. Ken had lost something that nothing could replace. It was more than that, obviously. Sam's death had been more than just a loss.

Ken scooped some glop out of the jar and lightly dabbed it onto my blistering finger. "Does that feel any better?"

The gooey stuff was cool; I'd give it that much. But having Ken so close, and having Ken touch me, made me feel much better than any type of medicine. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good." Ken pealed paper of a bandage and curled it around the injured finger. "All set. What a brave little patient you were."

"I do have the crest of Courage." I reminded him as I looked my finger over. Then, with a grin, I winked at him. "And you're such a good doctor. What with your loving touch and all."

Ken laughed too. "Come on Daisuke, I believe we were in the middle of a game."

"Right," I hopped from my perch. "I was in the middle of kicking your ass, if I do remember correctly."

"Or something like that."

I grinned again. Sometimes, life works out for the best.

~~~

"That was some damn good cake," I sighed happily as I finished the last piece of cake. "My compliments to the chef."

"I can't believe you ate so much." Ken stared at me in awe. "You defy the laws of physics, Daisuke."

I rubbed a hand over my full stomach. "It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it." Heaven was being sated with warm chocolate cake and having Ken next to me. It was a double whammie. If I had died that instant, I would have died totally content.

"Amazing." Ken shook his head, his hair swishing gently. "You're completely amazing."

My heart flipped flopped. And then did a cartwheel. And then a full back flip, a round off and two splits. Ken said that I was amazing. That was good... right? That meant that he liked me. That meant that he wanted to marry me, carry me off to a private cottage by the ocean and have ten thousand of my babies.

Right?

Right.

After my heart had finished its gymnastic routine, I was able to think straight again. I needed to say something profound. Something that would seal our fate together. Something that would make him swoon and fall into my arms.

"I have to go home now."

***

Okay! End of this chapter! Thanks for reading!