Rookie year

Hello everyone! This is something I wrote as a way to defeat some of the crushing writer's block that has been stunting my progress on my other projects (which, btw, are finally back to being worked on) as well as a reboot for an old fic I was starting to write on my deviantart some few years ago. Same concept, different execution. Now, I know that this isn't my regular audience, but believe you me, I'm trying just as hard to make it enjoyable for anyone who reads it.

Note: I do not have a beta, and my auto-spelling function has a nasty habit of changing words even after I have written them down correctly. If you see a mistake, please alert me so that I can fix it with brevity.

Enjoy!

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"Takuya," it never ceased to surprise him how much loathing Koji could fit into a single word. "I blame you for this," he hissed with an audible growl in his voice.

"Did you honestly think," the reply was returned in kind "-that I knew this was going to happen?"

That was a fair point, neither of the chosen children had expected this of all things to ensue. They were used to having misadventures from their time in the digital world, sure, but this? Ha! This was another thing entirely.

And to think that everything had been going so well before...

The day started out as well as any weekend could at the Kanbara's residence. The oldest of the two sons was sleeping in his fairly messy bedroom, mind drowning in dreams and the flow of his sleep muddled thoughts. The boy was stretched out comfortably in his bed, all limbs pointed in different directions and comfortable angles while his hair looked to be styled with all the finesse of a tornado; his bed head was a running joke in his family, his father always inquiring what animal he'd wrestled with in order to get it that way.

In the few years since his trip to the digital world with his pack of unlikely friends, he was the only one to start filling out his lean frame -well, except JP. Who'd have thought that boy had so much muscle hidden under his soft exterior? While the former flame carrier was taller than Zoe and nearly matched the twins -something that Koji hung over his head, the jerk- he was by far the most athletic looking from all the hard hours of practicing for his secondary school's teams.

It still didn't help his chances with the group's blonde any. Ah well, life sucks sometimes.

A flurry of energy -better known as his younger brother Shinya- burst into his room not a minute later, bouncing in excitement. "Wake up! Come on, mom's making pancakes and she said I can't have any unless you get downstairs and join us!" He clambered onto his brother's bed as he said this, pulling the sheets off his elder. "Takuya, I'm going to starve!"

"That's not my problem," the addressed answered sluggishly, turning over to try and get rid of the offending annoyance that was now shaking his shoulders. It didn't work and Takuya knew he didn't have a chance of going back to sleep when his little brother was like this. The kid could whine for hours if he was stubborn, and he seemed to be one one of those moods right now.

Having yielded to his fate, the older boy fixed a tired glance on the weight pressing down on his chest. "I think you could manage a day or two without pancakes." A small, playful smile spread across his lips as he began the mental countdown in his head. 'Three, two, one, and...'

"Mom!" Shinya squealed loudly, leaping off the bed and his little feet taking him to the stairs in record time. "Takuya called me fat!"

"Takuya!" His mother's half-hearted call rang out from the kitchen along with the clatter of silverware and plates being set onto the table. "Be nice to your brother, and Shinya, you should too!"

"But Mom," the younger whined shrilly as he rounded the corner and entered the dining room.

The older brunet just laughed as he heard their conversation devolve into softer tones and more amiable topics from his perch on the side of his bed. Forsaking all lingering ideas of falling back asleep due to the rumbling demands of his stomach, the former child of flame got up, stretched, and ran a hand through his hair in a poor attempt to tame his wild hair. Padding softly to his door, the teen rolled his shoulders and loosely tugged on his pajama shirt to remove some of the wrinkles in the fabric.

Walking downstairs he was greeted with the smell of his mom's amazing cooking skills and the sound of his brother's obnoxious weekend cartoons on the television. He idly mused that it was strange Ash had only matured so little throughout all of the copious Pokémon seasons that Shinya had sat through while it took him a fraction of an Earth day for him to learn multiple life lessons and actually be able to fight with techniques that would have incinerated anyone on the show.

Then again, Ash and Pikachu were just characters in a cartoon, not a kid who'd been dragged into a life-or-death scenario and carrying the weight of two worlds on his shoulders.

"Morning Mom," Takuya uttered as he took a place at the table while stacking some of the prepared breakfast onto his plate.

"Is it still really morning?" She began in a feigned, innocent voice. "You usually get up at noon on the weekends."

Her son rolled his brown eyes, "that happened one time, and it was the morning after a game."

"Oops, must have forgot," she said as she took a seat beside him, grinning wickedly at his messy hair.

The former fire-bearer tried -and failed- to hold in a smirk at the morning banter. In an attempt to change the topic of conversation, he pointed his fork at her blue blouse for a quick second before digging back into his food. "That's a new one, going for a job interview?"

His mom had been taking classes at a commendable nursing college to keep updating her skills for work. She'd dropped out of her position at a local hospital a little while before he was born and then when his younger sibling had come around, it seemed like she'd never get back in her field. Yet somehow she'd started going back to school and managed to keep her boys on track, and now she was applying for jobs in the area.

"Yes," she nodded. "I have one today while your father is taking Shinya out for his haircut."

"That's great!" Her son beamed like she'd already gotten the position. "You're going to do awesome, i know it."

"Oh, I can only hope," she replied with a content sigh.

He ate the rest of his breakfast in a comfortable silence, inhaling the pancakes as most hungry adolescents would in such a situation. Shortly after finishing, Takuya thanked his mom and took care of his dishes before heading back upstairs to take a shower and prepare for the rest of the day.

After the quiet start to the day -well, as quiet as it could be once Shinya started crying about having his hair hacked off by some crazed individual who should not be handling scissors- Takuya found himself relaxing on the couch in the living room, flipping through channels on the television. He came across some re-runs of his favorite shows and watched those while texting back and forth with some friends he met at his school on the soccer team.

In the middle of a commercial break, though, his phone beeped in a different tone. It was the personal sound he had assigned a very good -if not somewhat dry and humorless- friend he'd met when he was younger.

'Please tell me you didn't have any plans so I can get out of having to be dragged around by my step mom all day.' Ah, Koji, as straightforward as always.

'When do I have any plans?' Was the reply, which only spawned the response 'that's a great point.' The brunet snorted in amusement and turned off the tv. Standing up, he stretched then adjusted his gray and red t-shirt that sported the same symbol that his former favorite one had. He glanced back down to the device once it alerted him to another new text that read 'meet me in the park at noon'.

The message referred to their usual meeting place. Koji lived across the entire town from where Takuya's family resided, so it was a fairly long walk for either of them to take. They had agreed upon meeting up at the park, the midway point from the both of their homes and hanging out in the shade during sunny days or occasionally walking around the block a few times while they talked was perfectly fine with the both of them.

Of the six digi-destined, only the former warriors of Light, Darkness, and Fire kept in touch regularly. Zoe and JP lived out of the area and had taken numerous trains to the station on the day that changed their lives. Tommy would try and meet up with the twins and his surrogate brother, but most of the time his parents were shy about him being around kids so much older than he was. Thus the trio of flame, light, and shadow met as often as they could afford to.

After locking the house and leaving a note -and a text or two- to his parents that told them he was out with his friend, Takuya began walking to the park on the paved pathways that lined the narrow streets and made his way towards the center of the town. The smells and sounds of the urban area perfumed the air with the stink of car exhaust and screeching brakes as he passed into the downtown section. He winced as a particularly loud car squealed by and followed the road to a stop sign at the corner before driving off. Rubbing his ears, the brunet scowled at the disappearing metallic creation before continuing on his way. It was always so loud in this part of the city, be it from vehicles that didn't work the right way; noisy conversations of people that were a bit too dramatic and seemed more like an entire play; and the incessant traffic that congested the intersections.

To him it seemed almost counterproductive to put a recreational park in the middle of all the noise and bustle of the town, but for some reason it wasn't as busy and the echoes of the everyday life weren't carried over into the wooded field well. Maybe that had something to with suggesting the park in the first place? It was practical and rarely was the source of deafening disasters. Besides, the twins were partial to places with calm atmospheres, especially Koichi, and there was no way the former digidestined of fire was going to let his friend be uncomfortable if he knew he could fix the problem.

Soon enough, the brown eyed teen's feet had guided him to the park safely. With a quick glance at his phone for the time, he realized he had about fifteen minutes before Koji came around. Using these extra minutes, Takuya took in his surroundings as he went to sit under one of the numerous trees that enclosed the perimeter of the field.

There was a group of kids, maybe around ten or eleven years old, playing a game on the jungle gym not too far off to his right while some pet owners were in the left hand side of the park practicing their obedience class. The sight reminded him of how he'd once begged his mom to let them get a puppy, but she never gave into his pleas. There were picnics scattered about the grass, someone playing the guitar and serenading their lover, and a few rowdy toddlers on the swing set.

Despite all this, the park was perfectly peaceful and unperturbed.

Leaning against the tree with a content grin, the teen exhaled through his mouth and closed his eyes. He liked it here: the people going about their days; the sound of the wind shifting through the tree branches; the aura of safety the area emanated; everything was so calming.

"Typical, you're always so lazy," a familiar voice scolded. "Though, I guess it's not so hard to drift off when we're here, huh?"

"Nope," the brunet cracked open one of his eyes to glance at towards his right side where Koji stood, leaning against the tree. "It's pretty hard to stay awake on days like this."

"...it almost feels too peaceful, huh?" There was a hollow note of melancholy in the former child of light's words.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I know this'll sound bad, but sometimes I wish we were back in the digital world, fighting off evil digimon again. I can't sit still for too long or I'll get sleepy."

"You're right, that does sound bad," the bandana wearer teased.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Takuya chided, elbowing the other's leg lightly as he sat down on the grass.

"Yeah, I know."

"So, what was your step-mom going to have you guys do today?"

"Ugh," all the cold humor drained from the former light warrior's face. "She wanted to have me go with her on some errands, everything from shopping to a salon."

"Wow, sounds like a drag."

"It was gonna be," Koji affirmed. "But, thanks for bailing me out."

"Hey, it was nothing," the brunet grinned easily. "Besides, it wasn't like I had much going on at home anyways."

"Speaking of, how is everything over there?"

The pair passed an hour swapping stories of recent events. Koji and Koichi were going to go to an amusement park next weekend while Takuya had the start of a soccer tournament at school. There were tales both silly and awkward; stories of misadventures of teachers with death wishes and students with an affinity for poking their noses into places they didn't belong. Eventually, their legs grew stiff from sitting down too long in the same position. Thinking it best to get their blood flowing again, the duo headed off to take a short walk.

The daylight started to wane as thunderheads rolled in overhead. Thunder shouted off in the distance, ripping the attention of the pair away from their amiable conversation and directing it to the burdened sky.

"I didn't think it was supposed to rain today?" Amber irises were narrowed at the shadowed masses above that moved quickly.

"It's not."

The brunet wasn't sure why, but now the clouds seemed far more sinister than before that comment. "We need to find shelter," he murmured to the other as his gait changed into a swift walk. A grunt from his friend, as well as an echoed change of pace, and the two mutely searched for a storefront or building to hide from the weather in.

The weather had other plans.

A torrent of rain sprung from the burdened agents in the sky, soaking the boys beneath them in a matter of seconds. Their clothing was soon sticking to their bodies in an uncomfortable, clingy way, while the sheets of precipitation made it impossible to see.

"Koji!" Takuya shouted through the storm, unable to to find his friend.

"I'm right here," came the call somewhere off on his side.

Peals of deafening thunder clapped directly above them as lightning strobed and illuminated heartbeats between each endless stream of rain. There was a hum of electricity in their feet, undeterred by their shoes, and it felt like someone had magnetized them to the spot. An arc of light struck directly in front of the pair, who cried in distress. This flash, however, did not dissipate, and instead left something behind.

A towering object was before them, pulsing with the energy that reigned in the tempest. The aura of power it radiated was numbing, currents and pinpricks of static zapping and biting the youths who remained inert. It made a grainy, hacking sound before the sky trembled once again from the bravado.

"What the hell is that?!" The former child of light shielded his eyes from the too bright object as it shivered and cackled again.

"I don't know!" The once warrior of flame answered. He struggled to move but his legs refused to budge. No amount of his will could force them to bend or shift; his body was petrified, as was Koji's.

The mass of energy shuddered and after a violent chorus of electronic shrieking, flickered out. The boys' eyes began to adjust to the dark spots burned into their vision and regained their composure, only to have a flash of pure white burst in front of them.

Their sight faded to black, hearts skipping and sputtering in shock. Perhaps there was a dying delusion that made them think that there was a strong, reserved voice speaking to them as they fell deeper into the abyss of strange, inviting warmth.

Dream or not, the void was very real.

They woke up regardless.