Vanishing Point

Yamato wandered a long time down the street. Endless nights of performing were slowly killing him, along with all of his demons that he had never bothered destroying. Seemed like he never drank enough to drown them or himself and so, here he was, wandering on a street at some God unknown hour.

He never expected to wind up at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, more commonly known as the Yamate Catholic Church. He went there as a child, with his family. His parents had been married there... The blonde took a seat on the steps. This early in the morning, no one would be around to bother him, he thought.

"How come... nothing's changed...?" he mused to himself. "I thought I was free. I thought this shit would end! What happened?!" Yamato demanded things of himself, always. Things that he knew would make him stronger, but he couldn't do.

Koushiro was walking down the steps when he heard the racket. He hurried over to the poor soul sitting there. The air was growing cold and he didn't look well. Perhaps, Koushiro figured, he could bring the guy inside out of the frost and set him on the straight and narrow.

He never really mentioned it to the other kids. The hopelessness of having nothing to believe in, even in the Digital World. One day he realized that was no way to live. So, now, he worked under his father's guidance, helping those around him, while still searching for the answer, the truth. If there was a God or not, he was going to find out.

Koushiro knealt next to the woozy person on the steps, barely hanging onto the rail. "Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry," he started, "I'll go." The blonde pushed his hand in Koushiro's face as he tried to stand. Koushiro caught him, then gently lifted the other's chin.

"Yamato...?"

"K-Koushiro... what...are you doing here?"

"I... I, uh, I... work here... and you?"

"I don't know why I wandered out here... trying to chase a figment of my past, I guess."

"You've had way too much to drink, friend," Koushiro replied. "Let's get you inside and warmed up."

So, the two went inside. They managed their way to the back where everyone usually gathered to eat after services. Yamato was given some coffee, but it didn't help much. All the memories of the place flooded back to him. Memories of his mother, when he loved her, at one point or another.

"Koushiro, my mother died," Yamato said.

The other poked his head out from the kitchen, eyes wide. "W-What? Why didn't you say anything?!"

"That just goes to show... how much we've drifted apart," Yamato replied. "You weren't aware, were you? That she went here, even though it's out of the way. For some reason, she still believed... even after all the things she's done."

Koushiro never pried into Yamato's past and he wasn't about to, but he did know a thing or two about faith and the universe, "Perhaps... she wanted someone to forgive her?"

Yamato laughed.

Koushiro sighed, bringing over a plate of heated up spaghetti, "I didn't mean you. I meant Him."

Yamato just smiled. "Koushiro, what happened to all of us?"

The other boy sat down and watched as the blonde barely touched the food. "We... grew up, I guess."

"We grew apart after all that crap with Oikawa, didn't we?"

"I suppose."

"The Digital World was the only thing keeping us together. May as well be a dreamland from our childhood now."

"Don't say that. Don't you ever go back?"

"...what's the point? I'm not needed."

"Gabumon needs you."

"Maybe... but I've becomed so consumed in this life that I haven't even talked to him an entire year. Why would he want to see me?"

"Because he's your friend, like I am, Yamato," Koushiro said. "Why are you really here?"

"I'm here... to see you, I think," Yamato smiled, taking a bite of food, finally. "You know, we never got to talk much."

"Yeah... well, we were on two sides of the social spectrum," Koushiro pointed out with a laugh. A cute laugh.

"Didn't stop us before."

"True, true. So, now that two old friends are back together, what do you want to do?"

"Talk."

"Talk? That's it?"

"Yeah... I miss just sitting around talking with you. About the universe... about your theories... maybe you're here to answer some of my questions for me, Koush."

Koush? "I'll do my best. How about you eat first, though?"

So, the two friends talked all night. Some questions were answered, but Yamato re-realized that he had to answer some himself. What he hadn't known all along, however, was that one thing he never knew he was missing: an old friend, would come back into his life. There was still hope for him yet. Not in faith or in science, but in friendship.