Ken tilted his head a little. "What did your teacher think?" In answer, Daisuke handed a piece of paper to Ken. When the skater looked at it, there were several compliments praising the skill of the artwork, a perfect grade, and questions about Ken's phone number and marital status. Ken turned bright red and muttered, "I still can't believe I agreed to do that."

"So when are you going to ask him?"

Chocolate eyes flicked to the calendar on the wall, displaying the current month of November. "Um...June?"

"Care to see if you can digivolve faster than I can skin you?"

Tai pouted even more. "You're no fun when you're acting responsible."

"Hey! No free gropes!"

The other chuckled. "Why not?"

"Because I said so!"

"Hey, Daisuke, it's me." It was Takeru, sounding far too bright and chipper. The Child of Courage and Friendship entertained the momentary notion of ants and honey before he answered.

"Still think you can't relax?"

Daisuke's response was very winded, and not from fear. "I think the problem now might be standing if I have to...."

"Now roll your hips," Daisuke instructed.

"I don't have hips!" Ken exclaimed, "How can I roll something that's non-- Daisuke get your hand away from there!"

Daisuke turned to look at him, "I'm not a quitter. You are going to learn to dirty dance, or you will die trying."

"Mind? Of course I mind, you’ve stolen my little brother out from under my nose! Life just isn’t fair; Daisuke got a boyfriend before I did. Come on, you have to admit there’s something tragic in that."

"Slow down, slow down!" Daisuke interrupted when he could. "Takeru, what is wrong with you? You're not acting like yourself!"

"Of course I am!" Takeru hummed a little tune for a few moments. "So, when should we go out?"

"Well, I really have to get to bed early tonight, so I guess---" He broke off for a moment. "What???"

A deep and throaty chuckle echoed across the phone lines. "I love you and I want to go out with you."

"Are you drunk?"

"I say---" Whatever Daisuke might've said was broken off by the clearing of a throat, and the two of them looked up to see Ichijouji Ken standing in the doorway, Wormmon in his arms.

"I say that whatever you two are up to, should probably be taken to the bedroom." The elegant Child of Kindness said with a quirked eyebrow. "If you were going to have company over, Daisuke, you really should've let me know."

Daisuke blushed a deep red. "Sorry about that, Ken. I wasn't exactly expecting this."

The Kaiser only stared, his eyes almost trying to jump out of his head and dive underwater to check out more of what he hadn't seen the first time around. "I was just out for a walk." He tried to sound nonchalant, but since he was practically gaping at the water-covered figure of his archenemy, he was fairly certain he wasn't succeeding.

"Rika’s gonna kill you Takato."

"I know, but she deserved it. Especially after this morning."

"Still, Terriermon’s right, Takato, she was really mad."

"I know, but I was irritated at her. Of course, I’m a little irritated at just about everything when I’m ChaosGallantmon."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about..."

"Come on... Takato! You think that some hair dye and contacts are gonna fool me? After everything that’s happened? I mean I’ve known you since you were six! We did the almost-mind-reading thing again just now, like we used to when avoiding Kazu when he had some crazy scheme."

"Kazu didn’t notice..."

"Do you think the evil Digimon kidnapped him?" Jeri wondered.

They all looked over to group of evil Digimon who stood in a crowd talking to each other. "What? Whenever there’s some sort of trouble, you guys always blame us! Why?! We have feelings too, ya know?! *sob*"

Then Piedmon started to cry and flood the evil Digimon.

" . . . Okay, I don’t think it’s them," said Takato.

"Oh man, Takato, it’s you buddy! Hey, help your old *gack* Uncle Beelze here, please?" Beelzemon choked.

Takato was confused. "Uncle Beelze?"

"I think the oxygen in his brain is lacking at the moment," Renamon explained.

"You’re not being stalked by a vampire!" Iori yelled in complete exasperation, regretting it as soon as he was subjected to all the stares that Daisuke usually managed to get whenever he went out in public. "Oh, you’re hopeless. Help me carry this home, set it out, and then get a few bags of ice, and I will look the other way while you steal consecrated water from the nearest church."

"And now that we’re here, let’s get this summoning out of the way!" she said, pulling out her giant book, some chalk, and a large knife. As one, everyone took a very big step away from her.

"Dude, whose throat do you plan on slitting with that?" Daisuke asked nervously, fairly certain it would be his.

Miyako looked scornful. "Don’t be stupid. This is just for show. Someone kick the carpet out of the way and let me draw all the symbols we’ll need."

"Do we really have to summon this great evil sleeping in Iori’s house?" Hikari asked, sounding bored and a bit petulant. "Can’t we go TP someone’s house or tie Daisuke up and leave him on the steps for his stalker? Something exciting?"

"Draw your damn symbols," Daisuke ordered, glaring suspiciously at Hikari.

"I don’t like this whole ‘terrible revenge’ thing," Miyako said suddenly, looking worried. "What if it involves tadpoles? I hate tadpoles!"

"Tadpoles could be arranged!" the vampire called out.

"Come on, you guys," Hikari wheedled. "It’s just Daisuke. Steal his holy water and crosses and let his stalker have him. At least I can bake cookies!"

Koushiro opened his eyes, sensing another invasion of his nap-time. He’d only just thrown two blonde guys out of there, one of whom was naked and sniffing the other. And he’d been woken up again just as he was starting to fall asleep by that stupid voice. What did a guy have to do to get some rest around here?!

But when he opened his eyes, there was no room. There was no bed. There was... mist.

"I guess the blue-haired Evil’s going to show up soon," he muttered. "Great. Just wonderful."

He went back to sleep.

"We’re all going to die in here," Hikari said in an eerie voice. "At each other’s hands."

"You’d think it had been at least half an hour since our first sacrifice attempt," Koushiro said dully. "Not three minutes."