#My sister was concerned he’s not wearing socks but he’s just wearing very low below the ankle socks

[innocuously-ostentatious]

The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial share-alike 4.0 international license

[ladyanatui]

Knock, Knock *A Daiken Fic*

When Daisuke insists Ken doesn't need to knock before entering his bedroom, Ken is worried he might intrude on some intimate or inappropriate moment. Daisuke thinks his concerns are unfounded, but what does Daisuke know?

Written using the prompt: "How many times do I have to tell you not to knock? Get in here, loser."

Read on AO3

When Ken knocked on his best friend's bedroom door that afternoon, having been let into the Motomiya apartment by Jun, Daisuke's response wasn't the average person's. But Daisuke was anything but average.

No, he didn't open the door or ask who it was or even request the visitor to come in. Instead, Daisuke yelled, "How many times do I have to tell you not to knock? Get in here, baka!"

Ken pursed his lips and shook his head before slowly twisting the doorknob and pushing into the bedroom. "I can't just not knock, Motomiya," he said as he slid the door shut.

"Yeah, yeah…" But Daisuke was shoving through boxes in his closet and not paying much attention.

"What if you were indecent?" Ken suggested.

That made Daisuke pause, pushing his head out of the box he was sorting through to stare at his best friend. "What the hell does that mean?"

A light blush crept across Ken's cheeks. "You know…you could've been changing or something."

Daisuke frowned before returning to his box, and Ken didn't know how to interpret that reaction.

After a moment, Ken moved to the bed and dropped onto the edge, making himself as comfortable in the room as he felt was appropriate. "What are you looking for?"

"I know it's in here somewhere!" Daisuke pushed the objects inside the box around with a grumble before pulling back to answer the question. "I thought we'd walk to the park, okay?"

Ken hesitated as he looked at his clothes. "I'm not really dressed to play soccer."

But Daisuke shakes his head. "No, no. You're dressed fine."

After searching through a few more boxes, he finally pulled back with a triumphant yell and a dragon-shaped kite. "Finally!" And without warning, he grabbed his best friend's arm and dragged him toward the front door.

*

The next time Ken arrived at the Motomiya apartment, Daisuke's mom let him in and told him her son was in his room. The door was shut again, and out of habit, Ken knocked on the door, but then he remembered. Before Daisuke could beckon him inside, he turned the knob and hesitantly peeked his head inside. "Motomiya?"

Daisuke looked up from his place on the floor. "Ken, you're here!" He was still wearing his pajamas, but he was entirely focused on the video game console set up on the floor.

Ken raised an eyebrow even as he dropped to the floor beside his best friend. "It's after noon, Motomiya. You haven't gotten dressed yet."

His friend rolled his eyes. "It's Saturday. I'm not getting dressed before I have to."

"How are we supposed to go see a movie if you're wearing pajamas?"

Daisuke grumbled, but turned off his video game. "Well, how much time do I have before we have to leave?"

Without hesitation or warning, he pushed up onto his feet and marched toward his dresser—and then he tore off his shirt to pull on a clean T-shirt. But the moment his hands went for the elastic waistband of his pajama pants, Ken spun on his heel, facing away, a bright red blush on his cheeks.

Not that Daisuke noticed—he was too busy tossing the dirty pajamas on the floor and pulling on a pair of cargo shorts.

"Uh, it's at—I mean, I think it starts in forty-five minutes, and well, you know we need to, um, walk there," he stuttered out, his eyes focusing on one of the soccer posters on Daisuke's bedroom wall.

Behind him, Daisuke huffed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I'm ready."

Ken still hesitated. "You're decent?" he asked in a small voice.

When he turned, Daisuke's lips were pursed, but he was fully dressed, socks and all. "Depends on what you mean by that," he said, irritation lacing his voice.

Ken swallowed, unsure how to respond, but he followed Daisuke to the front door, and they slipped on their shoes before heading toward the theater.

*

After a while, opening the door without knocking became the norm, especially on days Daisuke was expecting him. And Ken never went to the Motomiya apartment without an express invitation, even if Daisuke occasionally showed up in Tamachi to surprise him.

"Hey, Ken," Jun said, uninterested as she opened the apartment door for him. "He's in his room."

He nodded and thanked her before heading back to the closed door.

This time, when he opened the door, Daisuke was asleep on his bed. And he wasn't wearing a shirt. Which really wasn't a big deal, Ken assured himself.

They didn't have any set plans, so Daisuke could nap if he needed to. He'd told Ken only a couple days ago that he was having trouble sleeping, though he didn't elaborate as to why and Ken hadn't pried.

He closed the door softly behind him, but he had to step closer to the bed to pull the covers over his best friend's bare chest. At least then he wouldn't have to look at it while waiting for him to wake up.

Ken sat at Daisuke's cluttered desk while he waited and read from the book he'd left here during the last sleepover. He didn't know why he'd brought it in the first place—he and Daisuke always wound up talking and goofing off till three or four in the morning during their sleepovers, and he never had time to read. It was simply habit to bring a book with him on overnight trips, even if they were completely useless at the Motomiya residence.

It certainly wasn't useless now, though. He would've been bored without it, and then he might have had to leave the bedroom and run into Jun again—and it was better to avoid Daisuke's sister.

Not that Jun was horrible by any means. But she had a nasty habit of teasing Daisuke and, by extension, Ken.

She particularly liked to tease them about what they got up to during their late nights after everyone else was asleep, and she loved watching Ken's face burn in embarrassment at the implication, even if nothing like that had ever happened.

By the time Daisuke woke up, Ken had read nearly a third of the book, and the room was quite dark, aside from the desk lamp Ken had turned on to keep reading.

"What are you doing?"

When he glanced over his shoulder, Daisuke was standing beside the bed, the soft spikes of his hair a mess, still shirtless, his gym shorts hanging far too low on his hips, emphasizing the tight muscles there, along with the hint of burgundy hair peeking out just below his navel.

Ken turned a bright red and twisted back to his book. "Reading," he said, trying to refrain from squeaking, but he wasn't sure whether he was successful. "Just, you know, waiting."

"Y'alright?"

Ken nodded stiffly, but he refused to look directly at his best friend until Daisuke put on a shirt and made himself look more presentable.

"So what do you wanna do?" Daisuke asked, sidling up beside him at the desk, already fully awake and upbeat. He ran a hand through his hair to fix the places where it had flattened. "Or do you just wanna hang out around here?"

Ken's eyes did a quick once-over of his friend's body, and he was relieved to see those muscles and that smooth-looking skin and the little trail of burgundy hairs were properly covered. "I don't care," he said, much more relaxed. "Whatever you want to do."

Daisuke grinned at him.

*

It wasn't until three months after Daisuke put his foot down about not needing to knock that it became a real problem.

By then, Ken had actually gotten used to not knocking on the door, and most of the time, he simply announced his presence as his pushed the door open. Daisuke's face would always light up when he saw him, even though they'd planned to get together that day anyway.

But that was not what happened this time.

Instead, when Ken opened Daisuke's bedroom door and said, "I'm here, Motomiya," he froze to stare at his best friend, mouth agape.

Daisuke was reclining on a towel on his bed, stark naked, still dripping from the bath, his hand wrapped firmly around his— 

Oh my god.

"Keeeeennn…"

He inhaled sharply.

Because his name on Daisuke's lips…well, right now, that sounded far too much like a moan, and his best friend moaning his name while masturbating was hardly something he needed ingrained in his memory.

But, well, there it was.

And worst of all was the following moment.

Ken was still frozen to the spot and couldn't take his eyes off his very attractive and very naked best friend, and Daisuke's gaze was locked with his. He was incapable of speech, incapable of thought. Which didn't improve when, not even half a minute after moaning Ken's name, he ejaculated on the towel spread beneath his bare ass. Daisuke's eyes clenched shut, and he panted, trying to pull himself together.

But Ken released a low strangled sound, dropped his overnight bag on the floor, and finally forced his feet to move.

Within two seconds, he'd rushed from the room and slammed the door shut behind him, and he stood there, clinging to the doorknob, panting, and desperately trying not to think about what he'd just seen inside.

Still, those images and sounds would haunt his dreams.

A minute later, the doorknob started to turn, and Ken pushed away from the door, spinning to face it as a now fully-dressed Daisuke tentatively pulled it open.

For a moment, they stared at each other, both blushing and stuttering and unable to know what to say.

But after a long minute, Daisuke cleared his throat and said, "So, uh, you still staying the night?"

Ken still couldn't manage anything more than a low whimper.

Daisuke frowned and cast his gaze at their feet. "You can go home if you want. It's okay. I'd understand."

"No!" Ken was relieved to realize he'd found his voice. "No, of course not."

Daisuke looked up, grinning again. "So we're…you know, good then?"

With a solemn nod, Ken said, "Yeah, we are."

He wasn't certain it was the truth, but it would be eventually. Once the images had faded, he was sure it would be much easier.

Not that he was certain the images ever would fade.

"But," he said, his voice firm, "I will be knocking from now on."

Daisuke scratched the back of his neck as his blush came back full force. "Uh, yeah, that…that's probably a good idea."