Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ To Freedom ❯ A Decision ( Chapter 7 )

Wings

Digimon does not belong to me. This writing does.

Chapter 7 - A Decision

So far, Daisuke thought, the balls had actually been okay. In the two that had occurred, his parents hadn't bothered him once. Okay, maybe twice, he admitted to himself. But each night he'd stayed up till five talking with Ken. And Daisuke frowned, drinking. Not Ken - Ken never took so much as a glass of wine. It bothered Daisuke that he had. He'd been drinking a lot lately.

Daisuke slipped into bed at 7'oclock in the morning, with the intention of sleeping until the next ball started. It occurred to him then, that Ken had been acting rather oddly. Not so - quiet, not so nice.

"What'm I talking `bout?" Daisuke muttered, before yawning and crushing his face into the pillow.

"It's not like I've known him that long," he said to the pillow. "Even if I feel like I have." The pillow didn't answer, but Daisuke thought it was probably agreeing with him. The thought that Ken might not always be lovely didn't bother him so much as he thought it would.

"Maybe I'm just a masochist," Daisuke said. Again, the pillow didn't answer. Not that it would have anyway, Daisuke thought. Probably just raised its eyebrows.

What sort of a pillow was it not to have eyebrows anyway? Honestly, they just didn't make pillows like they used too.

When pillows had had eyebrows, Daisuke was not sure. But they must have at some point.

Why was he thinking about pillows?

Probably, the pillow would answer this with a `because you drunk too much'.

Satisfied with this answer, he fell asleep.

Daisuke woke not in the evening, as he would've liked, but early in the afternoon. Someone was shaking him.

"Ow," he said. "Lemme sleep."

"Daisukeeeeeeeeeeeee," a voice said, almost whining. Daisuke tried to cover his ears. The voice was making his head hurt.

"Prince Daisuke Motamiya the third wake up this instant or I will tell our parents you're planning on running off with some guy who's a swan."

Daisuke woke up instantly.

"What told you," he demanded, a little too loudly for his own liking. He covered his ears.

Jun looked at his shrewdly. Then she said,

"You do you think?"

Daisuke's eyes widened.

"Miyako!" he said. "I'll kill her!" He tried to get out of bed, but Jun held him down easily.

"Don't be stupid," Jun said. "Miyako isn't - there is no way she would have told me, unless it was in a fit of angst."

Daisuke didn't understand this, so he just glowered.

"I saw you meeting him, stupid. As if it wasn't obvious to the whole world."

This was not good enough, Daisuke knew. He was sure the running off part wasn't obvious, unless they'd been talking louder than he thought.

They hadn't talked about Ken's swanness at all.

"And," Jun continued, "You talk in your sleep."

"Oh," was all Daisuke could think of to say. Then, "Is that usual?"

"How should I know?" Jun snapped. "It's not like I make a habit of sneaking into your room at night. Not," she added, "that it's night time!"

"No. Um - sorry?" Daisuke said, hoping he wasn't cowering.

Jun's expression softened.

"It's probably just one of those things you do when you're drunk."

Oh, Daisuke thought. So that was why his head was so sore.

"I'll go get you something for that," Jun said. "Then I'll tell you the news."

Daisuke nodded. That was right. It must be important, for her to wake him up like this. And she must be feeling very kindly, to go get him something for him head. Either that or she was worried it would distract him. It was very easy for Daisuke to be distracted, especially when Jun was talking. She'd get sidetracked halfway through, or take ages to get to the point. It was boring.

"Jun," Daisuke said, and then, "Oh."

She'd already left.

Jun got back - must be very important, he thought. Usually she liked to make him suffer as long as possible.

He took the drink, still bitter even with all the sugar heaped into it. He wondered who'd done that. It wasn't like Jun to sweeten his drinks.

He swallowed, making a face, and waited. For two things - his head to stop hurting, and for Jun to start talking.

Unfortunately, the latter happened first.

"Daisuke," Jun said, "They've decided who you'll marry if you don't make a decision."

"You woke me up for that?" Daisuke asked, honestly shocked.

"Shut up, brat. I'm doing you a favour. Unless you want to whole world to know about you're little affair with swan boy."

Daisuke shut up.

"So, brat, guess who it is."

"I don't know."

"Guess."

"I don't - oh hell, um, Miyako?"

Jun muttered something that sounded an awful lot like `she wishes'. Daisuke chose to ignore it.

"Evil Princess Mimi?" Daisuke asked. He had bad memories of being forced to dress in pink frilly things.

From the twinkle in her eye, so did Jun.

"Nu-uh. She's betrothed, remember? You should pay more attention. Guess again."

Daisuke was relieved she wasn't teasing him. She'd used those pink dresses as threats, and later blackmail, in the past.

"Uh, let's see, who else? Um, not the Girl Who Acts Like a Boy?"

Jun snorted. Oh dear - the etiquette teachers had tried so hard to train her out of that.

"That's a bit rich from you, Daisuke. I mean, you're the Boy Who Acts Like a Girl. It could be a perfect match."

"I-am-not," Daisuke said through gritted teeth. "And it would not."

"So you say. No, it's not Princess Sora."

Daisuke flung himself onto his back.

"Oh, I don't know," he said, "Hikari?"

Jun snorted again.

"Not likely," she said, "She's a bit low down on the ranks of nobility for her to be the choice. Surely you know our parents better than that?"

"Not really. I hardly ever see them."

"Isn't that the truth. No, it's not Hikari. She's the one you used to have a crush on, right? What happened to that?"

"Takeru the bastard threatened to kill me if so much as said hello to her."

"He's not a bastard," Jun said, "He has a very good family. Very well brought up."

"Didn't help with Yamato, did it?"

"Shut up," Jun said. "So what happened to you? Could've sworn you were straight, the way you carried on `round Hikari. Or maybe," Jun said, a grin spreading over her face, "you were trying to make Takeru jealous."

"What!"

"Or maybe he turned you down for Hikari, so you did it to upset him!"

"No way. Shut up!"

"Okay," Jun said, with a happy sigh. "Guess!"

"Who else is there? Must be some random foreign princess."

"They're all foreign, silly. Anyway, you know this princess."

Then it hit him.

"No," he said, slinking under his covers. "Not her."

"Not who, Daisuke?" said Jun, looking very pleased with herself.

"No! It can't be, not her, not SheWhoMustNotBeNamed!"

"Ah, poor Daisuke. You'll be making a quick decision, won't you then."

"No! How can they do this to me," Daisuke moaned.

Jun patted him on the head, before Daisuke pushed her away.

"Looks like I'll be running off then," Daisuke said, suddenly calm.

"Now Dai," Jun said, worried, "It can't be that bad."

Daisuke sat back up.

"It can be and it is. I love him, Jun. More than I've ever loved anything. I won't hurt him like that."

And for once, Jun couldn't find anything to say.