For You
"Mom, I'm heading out early. Is that okay?"
Tomoko Kimura blinked, glancing up from her breakfast. Kouichi was already buttoning up his red dress shirt, before gently fixing his short hair. It was unusually early to be heading to anyone's house, most of them being asleep at such a time.
"Weren't Kouji and the others going to pick you up here though?"
Kouichi gently shook his head. "No, I need to uhh… pick something up from Takuya's." A sheepish smile covered his face as he looked at her.
Tomoko giggled. "Well if its Takuya's then alright. Though I doubt he would be up right now."
Kouichi chuckled, "Yeah, but I just have a feeling." He slipped on his sneakers and waved. "I'll be home later. Love you!"
A serene smile fell onto Tomoko's face as she watched her eldest stumble out of the house. In meeting Takuya, Kouji and the others he had been much more outgoing. His smiles seemed much more real, less pained, and she couldn't help but smile back. He was such a sweet boy, even bringing Kouji over. It was pleasant seeing both of her boys. It was pleasant meeting all of Kouichi's friends. They were such good influences. Though Kouichi did seem to be acting rather strange, today in particular.
"I'm sure he'll tell me when he's ready."
Sprinting down the back roads towards Takuya's, Kouichi bit his lip. True, it was much too early for any of them to meet up; that's why they normally planned meetings in the afternoon—a fact Kouichi was very glad for. Now the ex-warriors have had a deep natural tie to their elements, in more than one way. That situation has come with many misfortunes, amusing situations and wonderful gifts. As such, Kouji got far more annoyed by Takuya and his shining and Kouichi had been able to pick up the ability to read when someone was in trouble. Anyone really, except for Takuya. It was like trying to read Kouji, but given how they were twins, and extremely close Kouichi could read him like a book.
But the goggle head was different. Rarely did he ever let his flame diminish. He hid any sign of negative emotion from everyone, being especially careful around Kouichi. It annoyed the raven head to no end. He always knew something was amiss, but until recently he had no proof. That was what worried him. Takuya's sudden demeanor was slipping, small changes, appearing to be unpredictable. No one else seemed to have noticed. No one besides Kouichi. He could be wrong though, and he didn't want to worry the others. So, he decided to investigate himself.
Reaching the Kanbara house did not take long. The mid-morning sun was shining bright and Kouichi doubted that Takuya was even awake. Nonetheless he had to try. With a quiet knock he waited patiently for someone to answer. Mrs. Kanbara came out within a minute, broom in hand. She blinked, eyes widening in surprise to see the teen. "You're here early Kouichi. Takuya isn't even awake."
"I figured," Kouichi muttered, glancing down. Mrs. Kanbara sighed.
"You came all this way, feel free to come in. And don't mind the mess."
That caused Kouichi to blink. Given how messy Takuya and Shinya could be at times a mess was unsurprising. Why had Mrs. Kanbara even mentioned it? Upon walking into the house Kouichi's eyes widened slightly seeing items scattered. This was horrifyingly worse than normal. Even worse than the time Zoe and JP had gotten sick, resulting in a power outage and a mini tornado in their respective households (thank the Digi gods their families weren't home). Kouichi bit his lip; it wasn't his business to ask, but that didn't mean he couldn't worry. Parts of him hoped it was just caused by the brothers chasing each other around the house again, but somehow… he suspected he was wrong.
"I'll go and get Takuya." Wiping her brow Mrs. Kanbara was about to walk up the stairs until Kouichi lightly stopped her.
"It's alright, I can get him. I-If you don't mind."
A smile landed on her face. Correction, a fake smile. "Of course, go ahead." Kouichi hid a frown as he walked up the stairs. At least it was unscathed, but the atmosphere around the house was different from normal. It was normally so bright, sometimes hard to be around. Now it was abnormally dull, he missed the normal shine.
Walking into Takuya's room it was surprisingly clean and dark. The shades brought down only allowing a sliver of light to enter as a veil. There wasn't much to see until his eyes landed on the bed. Takuya, buried under layers of blankets and sheets, laid skewed in what he would consider rather uncomfortable. A limp arm hung off the side of the bed and his head precariously close to the edge; his pillow was already discarded on the floor. Eyebrows scrunched, eyes shut tight, and a frown covering his face, he seemed anything but comfortable, or happy.
Kouichi felt his stomach drop as he sat next to the sleeping teen. The movement of the bed created no reaction from the teen. He always did seem like a heavy sleeper though. Kouichi lightly nudged him, "Takuya?"
No response. Kouichi frowned. Maybe their normal call for him…
"Takuya, breakfast is ready. Might wanna hurry before JP eats everything again."
Not even a stir. His frown grew. That trick had always worked when they had a sleepover, even when JP wasn't around. He sighed. He could always do what Kouji done in times like these, but he didn't want to get anyone else involved, nor did he want to have to wait for Tommy to get here. Beside, lightly freezing Takuya seemed a little harsh, though so would pushing him off the bed.
However, at this rate it didn't seem like he had a choice. Without another word he gently pushed Takuya off the edge of the bed, at least making sure he landed on a pillow to break the fall. He winced, watching the gogglehead land on his head with a short thump. Hearing the shout of protest, he at least knew Takuya was now conscious. It was odd though, he wasn't as loud as he normally was. All the enthusiasm seemed all but gone as the teen rubbed his head, "Gah, Shinya. What happened now?"
"Wrong person Takky."
Kouichi watched as Takuya stiffened, slowly raising his head up from the floor to look up at the older twin. His voice was abnormally quiet, "Oh… hey Kou. I wasn't expecting to see you here so early. What's up?"
A frown fell on his face as he watched the elder Kanbara sibling. Takuya was completely playing this off as nothing, to his dismay. Did he honestly believe Kouichi was that oblivious to his actions? "Takuya… what's wrong?"
"Nothing. What makes you think there's a problem here?" He tried to smile, rubbing his head as he sat up.
"You didn't wake up until I pushed you. You didn't even throw a fit like you normally do." There was a fit of protest from the teen now, however Kouichi elected to ignore it.
"I just… didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Excuse me for being tired." Takuya crossed his arms, pouting.
Kouichi sighed softly, crouching down next to the younger teen. "Something tells me this isn't the first time this happened Takky. Especially if your first reaction was me being Shinya. Does this have anything to with-" Kouichi immediately stopped. It was probably best to not bring up the incident downstairs in case he knew nothing about it.
"Does this have to do with what?" Takuya blinked.
"Nothing. Nevermind I said anything. It's fine," Kouichi immediately said. Though Takuya knew him better than that. Knowing his friend had seen something, he hopped off his spot on the ground to check downstairs. Kouichi frowned again, trying to stop him, repeating that it was nothing. Takuya, however, was the stubborn leader he always was, gently pushing past him. Biting his lip, he followed.
At the top of the staircase, Takuya froze, causing Kouichi to nearly trip over him. He shouldn't have brought it up. He really shouldn't have. A good portion of the mess had been cleaned in the time he had been upstairs with Takuya. However, photos and papers were still scattered on the floor. Kouichi turned to Takuya, noting how the teens feature instantly changed. He stared, wide-eyed at the mess as his body began to tremble.
It scared Kouichi to see how distressed Takuya was becoming over this. Takuya was never one to show this level of fear. The most he had seen was a moment of shock before Takuya regained his head. Not many things could get to the younger teen. His voice was barely audible anymore, though from reading his lips he could only make out the word "again." Frowning, Kouichi wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led him away. This was far from what he expected their morning to turn into. "Takuya…"
"I… I just need a minute Kou. Don't worry." Once again, he tried to smile though his attempt failed.
Kouichi gently grasped his hand, giving it a small squeeze, "Take all the time you need."
"S-Shinya… he didn't wake up did he?" Takuya asked, leaning back against Kouichi.
"From what I can tell he's still asleep," He murmured gently. He rubbed small circles against the back of Takuya's hand.
"That's good," the sigh escaped his lips. Kouichi held him closer in response. They sat in silence for a while, leaving them both to think. Unconsciously, Takuya curled closer to him as a small blush hit Kouichi's cheeks. He normally wasn't one of the ones doing the comforting in the group. Normally it was Takuya or Kouji, once in a while JP as well depending on the situation. The only times he's really been a comforter was if Kouji ever had a problem. Hiding a frown, he thinks back to their small group of friends. Takuya rarely expressed having his own problems unless they were small. While everyone else could be vocal about what was on their mind, Takuya chose to stay quiet. He doesn't ever recall a time they've ever been in this position before.
Though maybe, he thought, it was time to help their leader whether he knew it or not. Giving his hand another squeeze, he murmured, "I won't tell the others. And no one is gonna force you to talk about this. But no matter what, I'll always be here for you if you need to talk about anything."
There was silence for a few moments when Kouichi felt his hand being squeezed back. "Thanks… Kou."
A/N: This is actually a pretty old story. I wrote it my sophomore year, so that's about three years ago. Most of it I kept as is but I did edit a few things. There is never enough Takichi stories in the world so I thought I would finish this up. As for the 'incidents' this takes place when their older and where they have side effects of technically being part digimon.
