Requested by: ppgzrrbz

I had so much fun writing this one, and I think it had so much potential, so keep an eye out for a part two.

Hope you like it, I haven't written for Ken in a while and I don't usually write kids, so I'm not really used to it. The pre-school is low key based off the one I went to tbh XD

Warning: Fluff.

(Four years old)

Ken Midori was nervous, or at least he thought he was. His mum said that the tight, fluttery feeling he sometimes got in his chest and stomach meant that he was nervous. Ken didn't like feeling nervous, it made him feel sick, and hiding behind his mum's legs, he was definitely feeling nervous.

"Ken?" Came his mum's gentle voice. She turned around, seeing him hiding behind her and crouched down so they were at eye level. "I've got to go to work now sweetie."

"Why can't I come with you?" He whispered, staring at his feet.

Her fingers cupped his chin and tilted his head back so that he was looking at her properly again. She smiled and brushed some of his hair out of his eyes.

"Because you need to stay here at school."

"But I don't wanna," he argued quietly, feeling even more nervous at the thought of being away from his parents for an entire day.

"You need to Ken," she told him firmly, but not unkindly. "Those are the rules, remember? You get to stay here and have fun and learn lots, then me or daddy will be here to pick you up at the end of the day."

Ken whimpered and buried his face in her shoulder. His mum's hand rubbed comforting circles on his back through the oversized green jumper he wore.

"Come on Ken, can you be brave for me?"

She pulled back and smiled at him.

"Please?"

"Okay mum," Ken nodded.

"Come on Ken," someone said. Ken turned around to see a nice looking lady with dark brown hair smiling at him. "I'm your teacher, Miss Katie. Say good-bye to your mum and I'll take you to the classroom. Sound good?"

"Bye," Ken said softly, hugging his mum tightly.

"I'll see you in a couple of hours, okay?" She reminded him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. "I love you."

Ken grasped his teachers hand and waved at his mum as she walked out of the pre-school doors and got into her car, driving away.

"It's okay Ken, you're going to have lots of fun today." Miss Katie promised him. She led him down a hallway, walking much slower to keep up with his smaller steps. They stopped in front of a yellow door that had a smiley face stuck to it and a window at the top, much to high up for Ken to look in through. There were loud sounds coming from inside, the sounds of other kids laughing and shouting at each other.

Miss Katie opened the door and led Ken inside, there were kids running around everywhere. On the left, there were tables pushed together and chair surrounding them, a well as a soft green couch that was in front of a brightly coloured mat. To the right, there was a wall of hooks with some bags already hanging off them and boxes and boxes of toys.

It was scary, and Ken started feeling even more nervous than he had before.

"See those hooks over there Ken?" Miss Katie asked, pointing over to where the hooks were. "I want you to go and hang your bag up on the one that has your name written above it. Do you think you can do that for me please?"

Ken nodded mutely, wanting to shrink down and hide away in his jumper where no one could find him, but at the same time he didn't want to let his mum down.

"Okay, go and do that and then you can go and play with some of the other kids before class starts." Miss Katie instructed, patting him on the back and then going off to make some of the other kids stop jumping up and down on the lounges.

Ken was alone. He took a deep breath and hurried over to where his new teacher had pointed. He could do that, that was easy. The hard part was going to be talking to the other children. Ken didn't like talking to other people.

He got over to the hooks and pulled his dark green bag off his shoulders, holding it in his hands and searching for the one that would have his name on it. When he couldn't find it, he began to panic. He hadn't learnt to read properly yet, even though he was pretty good at reading and writing his own name. He knew that there were three letters and that it started with a K, but Ken couldn't see any names like that.

"Hey! Are you okay?"

Ken jumped as an unexpected voice piped up beside him. He spun around to see a grinning H/C haired girl with bright E/C eyes standing there.

"Um..."

"I'm Y/n, what's your name?" She introduced herself brightly.

"K-Ken." Ken stammered, feeling his face heat up. That urge to shrink back and hide returned to him. Y/n seemed to realise that something was off and she smiled kindly at him.

"Are you new here?"

Ken nodded, grateful that he could respond without speaking.

"That's so cool!" She exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "Are you sure you're okay though?"

"I... I can't find my hook," Ken admitted softly, his eyes downcast.

"I can help you if you want," she offered.

"Please?" Ken whispered.

"No problem," Y/n assured him, carefully saying each word and looking embarrassed to do so.

"My mum keeps telling me to talk clearly cause people can't understand me," she explained, shaking her head and quickly recovering from her moment of embarrassment. "Let's find your hook."

Y/n went to the end that was closer and started looking at all of the names, one at a time, going over all of them and working her way down to the other end. She came back to Ken frowning a little while later.

"You're name's got a K at the start, yeah?" She checked.

Again, Ken nodded and Y/n pouted.

"I can't find it," she admitted, sulking until her eyes landed on something which made her entire face lit up.

"Hey! That's one of them!" She rushed over to the wall and bent down to pick something off the floor, quickly hurrying back over to Ken and presenting it to him. "Is this it?"

Ken looked at it. It looked right, there were three letters, the first one was a K and the last one was that funny looking one that Ken was pretty sure was a capital N.

"I think so," he murmured, realising something else. "But if it fell off then how're we gonna know where it goes?"

"That's easy!" Y/n said, giving him a crescent eyed smile. "Just see which one doesn't have a tag."

The two of them went back to looking and it wasn't long before Y/n was dragging him over to an empty hook beside a F/C bag. She pointed up at it excitedly and grinned.

"That's my one there, so that means we're together."

"Thank you," Ken told her once he'd finally hung his bag up. "How'd you do that?"

"We did problem solving a while ago, Miss Katie said I was the best at it." Y/n informed him proudly.

"That's awesome," Ken mumbled, looking down at the ground again.

"Why d'you keep doing that?" Y/n wondered, bending down so she could look at his face instead of his hair.

"Do what?" Ken asked her, voice muffled.

"Looking down," she explained like it was obvious. "Your eyes are so pretty, you shouldn't hide 'em."

"I don't know what to do now," Ken admitted.

"Come and play?" Y/n suggested.

"I don't know anyone," Ken whispered fearfully, tears stinging his eyes.

"Hey! Don't be sad!" Y/n exclaimed, her eyes wide and concerned. "We can be friends if you want?"

"R-really?" Ken asked, afraid to believe it.

"Sure!" Y/n smiled, hugging him tightly, surprising Ken with the gesture. She pulled back and rested her hands on his shoulders.

"No more crying, you and me are friends now and we're gonna have loads of fun, so you can't be sad."

"Okay," Ken promised, and for the first time that day, he smiled.

~OoOoOoOoOoO~

Pre-school was great, Ken decided. Especially because he had a best friend now. Y/n had only asked if he wanted to be friends, but she'd soon switched to calling him her best friend, so Ken was pretty sure that meant they were best friends now. After the scary incident finding where to hang his bag, class had started and Y/n had dragged him over to sit on the carpet in front of Miss Katie who was sitting on the lounge. Y/n had wanted to sit in the front, but seeing how nervous Ken was, she had changed her mind and suggested that they sit in the back instead.

When they went to sit at the tables to do painting, Y/n had left her old table and boldly asked the teacher if she could sit in the empty seat next to Ken instead from then. She had actually asked if she could sit next to him because they were best friends, which was the first time she had called him that. Miss Katie had agreed, then the next thing Ken knew, there was a smiling Y/n sitting in the seat beside him.

By the end of the day, Ken loved pre-school and was looking forward to coming back the next day. In fact, he was having so much fun that he almost didn't want to go home. Almost.

It wasn't long after lunch that Miss Katie came and told Ken that his mum was there to pick him up. Ken had grabbed his bag and ran out to where he was mum was waiting next to the front desk. He slammed into her legs and hugged her as tightly as he could.

"Hey honey, did you have a good first day?"

"Yeah, I did!" Ken told her excitedly. "We did reading 'n painting 'n free time, then we went to lunch and-"

"Don't forget to breath Ken," his mum laughed, surprised at how happy her son was. She had honestly been tempted to come and pick him up as soon as she had gotten to work and called the receptionist to ask how Ken was doing. The lady had told her that Ken was fine and having fun with one of the other children, but she hadn't quite believed it.

"Ken!" A girl's voice called out before a H/C haired girl appeared and ran over to them. She stopped beside Ken and pouted adorably.

"You forgot to say bye."

"Bye Y/n," Ken said, hugging the little girl tightly and completely taking his mother aback. What had happened to the shy boy she had dropped off that morning? It seemed like he had taken a turn for the better, and she was happy to see that he had at least been able to make one good friend. The two kids detached and the girl looked up at her.

"Hi Mrs-Ken's-mum, I'm Y/n." She introduced herself politely, and held out her hand.

Ken's mother blinked before taking her hand and shaking it gently. "It's nice to meet you Y/n, please, call me Lucy. Are you friends with my son?"

Y/n pouted again as if she had some how offended her.

"No, Ken's my best friend."

"Y/n! Come back to class right now young lady!"

Y/n sighed.

"COMING MISS KATIE!" She shouted, before smiling at Ken and quickly giving him another hug. "See you tomorrow Ken!"

~OoOoOoOoOoO~

(Eighteen years old)

Ken smiled faintly to himself. He didn't know why, but he always remembered that day whenever he was starting at a new school. It was probably because that it was the best 'first day' he had ever had.

That town was the place his family had stayed in for the longest, up until he was nine years old. He had been four years old when he started going to pre-school, and a year later he had been just as terrified about going to primary school. Or at least he had been, until a very familiar girl had run up to him.

"Ken!"

Ken turned around, his face breaking into a wide, relieved smile when he saw who was running over to him. She skidded to a halt, just before they collided, and gave him a crooked grin that she had only just begun giving.

"I hope your not looking for where to hang your bag again, because I don't know this time."

Ken couldn't help it, he laughed.

Moving schools had been the worst thing that had ever happened to him, especially because it meant leaving his best friend behind. Y/n's parents had brought her over to Ken's house on the day they were due to leave, and the two friends had parted with red eyes and tears running down their nine year old faces.

"Don't you ever forget about me, okay Ken?"

Nine years later and he still hadn't forgotten about his best friend, but there were days where he wondered if she still remembered him.

If she remembered the way they did everything together. The way that she refused to do absolutely anything without him. Even if it meant missing out on doing something she wanted to do, Y/n would flat out refuse to join in if Ken was uncomfortable with it. She had brought him out of his shell, and despite retaining his shy nature, Ken had been an entirely different person when he was around her.

He also wondered if Y/n would be disappointed with how shy he had become.

Y/n was the easiest friend he'd ever made, and she had never let him down. He wished that he had been able to keep in touch with her over the years, but in truth, he hadn't seen or heard from his best friend since the last time he saw her out the back window of his parent's car. Whenever he went to a new school, he couldn't help himself from keeping an eye out for a particular H/C haired, E/C eyed girl, hoping and praying that he would see her again but to no avail. Now, at eighteen years of age, nine years later, Ken Midori was starting at yet another school.

Beigoma Academy.

Ken had joined the BeyClub on the condition that he had been able to have a BeyBattle against Shu Kurenai. Valt had given him that chance and unfortunately he had lost, but that meant that he would already know some of the people in his year level, reducing his anxiety somewhat. Unfortunately for Ken, his first class of the day was a double period and there was no one he knew in the class with him.

Other kids laughed behind their hands when they caught sight of his puppets, but Ken was used to that by now. It happened at every school he went to, but the simple fact was that Ken hated speaking to other people, and Ker and Beus helped him with that. Valt seemed to like them at least, not caring that Ken was eighteen and used hand puppets to talk, he hoped that the other members in the BeyClub would be the same.

When the bell rang for first break, Ken quickly packed up his things and hurriedly left the classroom. Valt had caught him that morning before class began and told Ken to meet him and the rest of the BeyClub on the rooftop where they trained at every lunch break. It wasn't too hard to find his way up there, and when Ken emerged on the rooftop, it was to Valt excitedly calling out his name.

"Ken!" The young blue haired man waved. "Over here buddy!"

"Uh, Valt? You know that there's nowhere else up here for us to be, right?" The blond, Rantaro, Ken remembered, reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Valt laughed, scratching the back of his head. "My bad."

"So you guys train here all the time?" Ken asked, opting to use Ker to speak.

"Yep, pretty cool, right? Rantaro grinned.

"It's alright," Ker responded.

"Don't mind him," Beus interjected, waving his two little hands apologetically. "We think it's really cool."

"So is this everyone then?" Ker asked, paws on where his hips would be if he had any.

"Almost," Valt nodded. "This is pretty much everyone. Me, Honcho, Daigo, Wakiya, Shu and-"

"I'M HERE!" A loud voice interrupted Valt, along with the sound of a door being thrown open.

A H/C girl ran over to them and doubled over, panting. Wakiya looked at her with his arms folded, appearing genuinely exasperated.

"Did you seriously run all the way here?"

"Yep," she panted.

"You overslept again, didn't you?" Shu asked.

"Yep," she repeated.

"I know the feeling," Valt nodded sagely.

"We know," Daigo shook his head.

"I ran... all... the way... here." She breathed, standing back up properly, her eyes falling on Ken.

"Oh, Ken, this is our other member," Valt began to introduce, but didn't need to as Ken's eyes were met with a brilliant shade of E/C.

"Y/n," Ken breathed, not using either of his puppets to speak, too stunned to do so.

"You two know each other?" Rantaro wondered.

Ken took in the girl's appearance, hoping it really was her and not someone else. He noticed her H/C hair and the way it fell around her face, and that fluttery feeling in his stomach appeared again. She was dressed casually in a worn-out pair of converse and shorts, and a flannel which he remembered being her favourite colour.

"Ken?" His names left her lips, and he knew it was her. Sure, she had grown up obviously, but he could still see his best friend staring back at him.

"Hi." He whispered.

"Ken!" She exclaimed, flying into him and wrapping her arms around him tightly. She squeezed him, hard. Ken stood completely still for a second before reality came crashing back to him and he hugged her back just as fiercely.

He could hardly believe that it was really her, that she was really here in his embrace. Part of him feared that it was just some sort of dream he had thought of, but at the same time, Ken knew that wasn't true. Ken noticed something warm on his shoulder and realised that Y/n was shaking.

"Why're you crying?" He wondered, pulling back and seeing the tears running down her face.

"Because I haven't seen you in years, goddamnit!" She glared through her tears, though there was no anger at all in her stare. Mostly she was just torn between being happy and crying, unable to decide between one or the other.

"I've missed you too," Ken smiled.

"I don't think we've ever heard him talk this much," Wakiya observed.

"So wait, you two know each other?" Daigo looked at Y/n questioningly, and Ken saw that all five boys seemed as equally as confused.

"Ken's my best friend," Y/n explained, her gaze switching back to Ken, seemingly unable to keep her eyes off him like if she looked away for too long, he would disappear.

"He's the best friend you mentioned?" Valt tilted his head curiously.

"He is" Y/n nodded, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand to get rid herself of the tears, then pouted suddenly. "But I haven't seen him in nine years."

"It wasn't my fault," Ken argued gently.

"Yeah yeah, I know." Y/n huffed, before getting distracted when she noticed the two puppets on Ken's hand. She carefully took his wrists in her hands and lifted them so she could inspect them better.

"These are new," she remarked, smiling at them. "What are their names?"

"I'm Ker, and he's Beus." Ken introduced, using them to do so.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Y/n said seriously, using her thumb and forefinger on each hand to politely shake their paws in greeting.

"So you got into ventriloquism like your parents?"

Ken nodded, ignoring the way his cheeks heated up. Y/n would never judge him, he knew that, but it was hard not to feel embarrassed when he was used to the scrutiny he received.

"That's amazing," she replied earnestly, her eyes gleaming.

"I like her," Beus declared, and Ken felt a small swell of pride when he saw Y/n blush.

"Hey, Ken? There's something you need to know." Y/n informed him, her face suddenly becoming serious, though Ken could see the mischief hidden away there.

"Yeah, and what's that?" Ker growled, not unkindly.

"This school doesn't have bag hooks."

None of the BeyClub had any clue as to what she meant, and they looked utterly confused and lost at her statement. That didn't matter to Ken, because after all this time and completely by chance, he had his best friend back, and seeing how serious she looked, Ken couldn't help himself.

He laughed.

Well, what did you think? I think if I do a part two, it'll probably be romantic.

Please vote, votes make me happy. I go back to school in a few days, I need to be happy. :)