Disclaimer: I don't own them, so don't sue; all you'd get is my computer and 3 FF8 action figures.
Author's Notes: Part 1 out of a planned 3. Takedai and some Yamachi contained therein. I try to sick to the Japanese names, but he dub names are used as nicknames occasionally. Title is taken from a Fiona Apple song. Feedback is very much appreciated, please either drop me a line or leave a review. ^_~
This takes place in the same continuity as "But for the Grace of God," so probably reading that one before is a good idea, but not necessary. Let's say that Kari, Takeru, and Davis are about 15 in this one, so adjust the other's ages accordingly. Takes place after Ken is good, but before all the destiny stones are kaput.
***
The singular sensation of being pulled through the gate was unlike anything you could have experienced in the world, Koushiro mused, as he watched the new digidestined being pulled through. Thinking only about the sensation kept you from thinking about what the gate actually did to your body, which was not a pretty thing.
All the billion and trillions of electrical impulses that make up who you were -- transferred into a computer -- and one of a million minor mistakes could permanently change who you were. But Koushiro wasn't too worried about that, they had gated in time and time again without problem, so he figured the process was safe enough. The others though, didn't realize how truly complicated the process was when all they had to say was "Digiport Open." But -- of course -- none of them had spent as much time as he had sitting in the computer room, monitoring the goings on of the digital world. While very boring at times, the job did come with one significant and interesting advantage.
He could read their minds.
At that thought, the redhead let out a diabolical laugh that reverberated throughout the computer lab. He quickly came to his senses though, and looked around guiltily to see if anyone had been around to notice his outburst.
It wasn't as simple as it seemed... but since the kids were just a collection of data when they were inside the digital world, he could simply peer into the contents of that data. He actually discovered this fact during their first sojourn inside the digital world. Which nicely explained why Koushiro was inseparable from his laptop.
Though Koushiro, being aware of how people react to invasions of their privacy, wisely kept this information to himself and didn't use it in any obvious way. It did give him a nice chuckle though to know what exactly ran through Taichi's and Yamato's minds when they were fighting all those times, and why they'd sometimes disappear at night, together. Now though that they were back in the real world, he'd just had to rely on good old observation to read people.
The computer nerd briefly glanced at the screen, and discerning all had made it through safely, opened a new window -- he had a lot of time to kill.
***
Yamato gave a martyred sigh as he looked upon the clock in the second floor classroom. His math teacher droned on incessantly about something or other before finally stopping and giving an assignment. It was the last period of the last day of the school week, Friday, and he longed to free of class and to be in the arms of his boyfriend... speaking of which...
He looked down from the clock and to the student directly in front of him, and couldn't suppress a smirk. Taichi's head was plastered to the desk, and you could practically see the sleep bubble from his mouth. The teacher, being an extremely lenient sort of person, let the occasional good student by with a nap or two.
Yamato gave Taichi a good poke in the lower back, and then quickly busied himself with the math book, as Taichi snapped his head up and looked behind him. Yamato put on his best innocent look, but the brown haired boy was not to be fooled.
"Don't think that I'm not gonna get you back for that Yamato," He muttered under his breath. Yamato just continued smiling and went back to his work.
***
Takeru never thought that kind of thing would run in a family. Maybe that was the real reason his parents got divorced... he dismissed the thought as idle speculation. He was gay, thought that wasn't much of a revelation, considering he and Kari had become more like girlfriends, that boyfriend and girlfriend. She knew, and his brother did, and by extension Tai knew, but Takeru didn't quite feel up to telling the others yet.
He was brought out of his thoughts by Kari's arm elbowing his side. She gave him a gleeful smirk, telling him, yes she knew what he was thinking about, and yes that she noticed that he was staring at Daisuke's butt, who was walking slightly ahead of them.
"Oh would you stop it Kari," Takeru said, and she simply responded with a continued smirk.
"I'm not saying I wouldn't stare too, just don't be too obvious about it," Kari told him, as she giggled.
"Yes Kari, I'm staring purposefully as Daisuke's ass, so everyone will notice and they'll all know without me telling them, yes that's it," He rolled his eyes at her.
"TK, you're so funny," Kari told him in a tone lightly tinged with sarcasm. He let the comment pass, and they continued walking in companionable silence… which only lasted until Daisuke turned around and demanded to know what they were talking about. TK was caught staring at, shall we say, something south of the border, and blushed to the roots of his hair.
Seeing as Takeru was in no condition to respond, Kari jumped in with, "We were just talking about how cute your ass looks Daisuke."
***
Koushiro looked up from one of his numerous Macintosh magazines and peered intently at the screen -- after a moment he remarked, "Well, this certainly looks interesting..."
The text on his screen scrolled by fast as the 6 digidestined children contemplated the significance of Kari's remark.
Oh whoops... I don't think I should have said that. Umm… oh well, at least Takeru won't have to tell them now...
Did she just say what I thought she said!? Oh my God! That whole family is just fruity! First Yamato and now TK... maybe she was just kidding. Hehe, from the way TK looks I guess not!
I was wondering when one of them was going to slip.
… interesting…
Oh my, this isn't good at all. No, no, no. Very Bad.
He was staring at my ass?! Do I find that thought interesting? Do I want him to stare at my ass?
Of course, the fact remained that life was usually hardly that interesting, so Koushiro was woken from a pleasant doze and its attendant dream by the little alert noise the computer made. And found that, instead of the comedic situation that would prove to be great entertainment, Kari had simply laughed the comment away, and the group didn't give a second thought about it.
"Damn... I would have given anything for some awkward moments," Koushiro sighed regretfully, "these children have no fun at all..."
***
Takeru wasn't happy as he stared up at the pale white expanse of the roof to his room. He was spending the weekend with his brother, and it looked as if they'd have quite a few things to talk about. The younger brother was hoping that the rest of the weekend would be more auspicious than its beginning.
Kari glanced up from the book that she was reading at his desk. "You really should just tell him, you know," she admonished him, "you've been moping around for the past week."
"That's what, the twentieth time you've told me to tell him?" Takeru sighed, "I'll tell him when I want to."
"Which will be when…? Sometime when the third generation of digidestined comes around?"
"Yes! That's the perfect idea, I'll wait until the next generation comes around and we'll constantly annoy them with our sexual escapades!" At that, he hit the wall of his room that was shared with Yamato's and the noises within suddenly came to a halt.
He and Kari shared a nervous laugh, when Taichi and his blond boyfriend appeared in tow at their doorway.
"We gotta get going Kari or else mom's gonna start worrying." Kari gave TK a peck on the cheek, and the two Yagami children were off for the car parked out front.
***
She gave her brother a speculative look, "You know; they're a lot like you two."
Taichi looked away from the road a moment to shoot a sidelong glance at his sister, "Daisuke and Takeru?"
"Yah... I remember what you two were like in the digiworld, and TK filled me in on when happened before I got there."
He shot her another glance, "Maybe, but the situation is completely different. We were trapped there and it brought us together that much faster." He glanced at her to see if she was still listening.
"Go on, I'm not dozing off or anything." She gave him an amused look.
"With Daisuke and Takeru... they're here in the real world. If they argue here, they can go off and sulk about it. With us, the nearness forced us to confront what was really there. And I don't even know what they feel for each other." He threw a questioning glance at her. "As much as that boy tries to be like me, I can't read him."
Kari thought for a moment before answering, "Well, Takeru definitely has a crush on him, that much is certain. But I think it's something deeper than that, though he might not know it." In the numerous years following the original adventures of the digidestined Taichi had noticed that his sister possessed a heightened awareness of the emotions of others. Be it empathy or a particularly strong woman's intuition, Taichi had come to trust his sister's thoughts on other people. "And Daisuke... I just haven't spent enough time with him to know."
"So be sure to stay tuned for the next episode of, 'As the Digiworld turns.'" The car rang with peals of laughter as they pulled up to the apartment complex.
***
Both blond brothers sat down upon the wooden chairs that lined the dining room table. Yamato sat there in silence as he waited for Takeru to stop fidgeting and start talking.
Without any preamble the younger one began, "I just look at him sometimes during class, and I just think about how loyal he is, and how that when he really cares about something, he just doesn't give up on it, which makes him a bit headstrong, but that's just a part of him…"
"Where have I heard that before." Yamato murmured under his breath.
"...and then there's the fact I don't even know if he's… you know… like us, because he used to always drool over Kari, at least he doesn't do that anymore, and even if he was, he and Ken are always so close…"
"TK, slow down... just relax bro." The younger boy immediately stopped talking. Yamato could see his brother convulsively swallowing in an effort to keep some semblance of control over his emotions, but the fact that his eyes were a little too bright, and his fingers a little too pale from gripping the table gave him up.
Yamato moved to embrace his younger brother in a hug. With only a few sniffles he continued his diatribe, "and… and, the thing is that… I think I'm in love with him." The singer paused a moment as he processed the words before gently leading Takeru to the couch in the living room.
"Ah, TK... we've both really gotta stop falling for the goggles." They both chuckled quietly at the similarities. A moment of silence stretched on as the two brothers sat there absorbing each other's companionship.
"TK… do you remember when we were first in the Digiworld?"
"Uh-huh" He sniffled into Yamato's shirt. There was a silence as Yamato contemplated what to say next.
"Then let me tell you a story." Takeru let his eyes drift shut as his brother's soothing voice washed over him.
"There was a boy, and he wasn't much liked by the other kids. He usually kept to himself and it seemed like he only cared for his brother. But that boy had a secret. He loved another boy... a boy that was altogether sweet and kind and caring. He couldn't help but love the boy, with his beautiful eyes and his headstrong way. He dreamt, but they were not happy dreams. He dreamt of his love rejected and scorned; his love thrown to the ground and rubbed in the dirt." Yamato paused as his emotions threatened to overwhelm him.
Takeru opened his eyes and looked at his brother, knowing that no one had ever been told this before.
"But the boy gathered his courage and confessed his feelings, and they were returned. He was happy for a while; they still fought and had their disagreements but in the end they still loved one another. But it came crashing down around his ears one day when they came back to the real world. He was rejected again, he had seen and been happiness for what seemed like a fleeting moment, and then it was snatched away."
Yamato's voice had dropped to a mere murmur, and Takeru struggled to hear him.
"The boy despaired. The one shining light that he had, taken away. He went through life no longer caring, just drifting through. He thought he would never find true happiness ever again. But his love came back. The headstrong boy had seen what life was like without his love, and he couldn't take it. They knew what it was really like to get the best gift in the world, the gift of love. And so..." Yamato tapered off.
"And so…?" Takeru asked.
"And so, I've told you a story." Matt whispered
The soft words triggered a memory buried deep in Takeru's mind. He vaguely remembered the soft murmuring voice of his brother telling him little stories while being held in comforting arms as their parents raged outside. With his eyes closed, it was so easy for Takeru simply to let go and fall asleep.
Yamato chuckled and held his brother, as he himself closed his eyes and fell into the deep embrace of Morpheus. Both brothers, drained by their emotions, succumbed to the siren song of sleep.
***
As the odd vertigo sensation faded away, Takeru found himself suspended above a thick forest. As he looked around he could see that everything had been suspended in a luminous blue glow. He could vaguely make out the outline of a castle upon a mountain in the distance.
"Could this be… the digital world again?"
The boy could make out two figures that were near a cliff edge below him, and he swooped in for a closer look. He was astonished to discover that the two were his brother and Taichi, not as they were now, but as they had been years ago.
From his vantage point Takeru could see that his brother slowly reached out an arm to Taichi. And then Taichi had turned away, from what looked like disgust, and ran off. He could feel his brother's distress as he turned back towards the cliff, and sat down upon the edge.
All that Takeru heard was the soft, sibilant, crying of his older brother, before the dream faded, and the embrace of deep sleep took him again.
***
As dawn broke the Ishida apartment was flooded with a golden light, giving everything a certain angelic glow. Of course, it was odd to think that week old clothes and stale takeout had an angelic glow, but the power of the sun works miracles. This gave the two boys sleeping at opposite ends of the couch a Sephardic glow.
Such was the scene that presented itself as Taichi entered the apartment using the key Masaharu had presented to him weeks previous with the message, "It was either this, or risk you falling from our fire escape."
A devilish thought popped into his mind and he leaned ever so close to Yamato's ear.
"Don't even think about it Tai."
Yamato opened his eyes to find Tai only inches away from his face. He put on his best look of innocence, but Yamato was not to be fooled.
"Give TK a chance to sleep... he needs the rest."
Taichi winced as he could hear the vertebrae popping in Yamato's back as he stretched. The two walked over to the kitchen so they could talk without waking Takeru.
"So... how is he? It seemed you two had a lot to talk about." Taichi asked with concern.
Yamato ran a hand through his rumpled hair, a nervous habit he never managed to get rid of, before he responded, "Yeah... TK'll be ok, he's not one to brood too much."
"Unlike some other person I know..." Taichi gave him a grin.
"Heh, it's funny that you bring that up... I told him about what happened 4 years ago."
Taichi paused to consider the boy sitting in front of him carefully, "You told him everything that happened?"
"No, no -- I didn't tell him everything. But I wanted to tell him enough so that maybe he doesn't have to go through what we went through." Yamato threw impassioned eyes onto Tai.
"But you said yourself, TK isn't one to brood. And he does have the crest of hope."
"He isn't, but I worry, and, it's just that... I had one of those dreams again."
"You mean the ones…?"
"From when we were first in the Digiworld, yeah. I guess telling him about it brought it all back."
"I know you want to keep him safe Yamato, but maybe he and Daisuke just have to figure this out on their own. All we can hope to do is to be there for them when they need us."
Takeru roused himself from a sound sleep, awoken by the noise from the kitchen. He softly padded over to the doorway, which gave him a clear view of Taichi embracing Yamato from behind the chair, and placing a soft kiss on the top of his head. Takeru sighed softly and padded towards the bathroom, not wanting to disturb the two.
They're so happy together. Maybe Daisuke and I could be like that some day...