It was crazy how fast it happened. To the surprise of everyone, Hikari was the first to become engaged (even before Sora and Yamato, who took forever to turn living together to married together). As expected, when the news broke there was much freaking out and grumbling from Tai (you've been dating for how long? to who? and you said yes?!). Takeru always had an inkling that she was hiding something behind her ever-present secretive and mischievous smile – he knew her best, he thought – but it hurt that she hadn't told him. At all. Not until she cheerfully announced it at a digidestined gathering like it was the weather.
Of course they all liked the guy, once they met him. He was pretty awesome, actually. He was a little shy but once he opened up, a great conversationalist who found everyone and everything interesting, but most importantly, treated Hikari like she was the best thing in the world. (Which she was, of course.) So Hikari became the first to be engaged, first to get married, first to have a kid.
Meanwhile he settled down when it felt like the right marrying age with girlfriend number…12? 13? It was hard to keep count and he didn't understand why all the girls cared so much how many came before when the current one was obviously the most important one, so why do the others matter so much? (Alien creatures, they were.) Girlfriend-then-fiance-then-wife was sweet, accommodating, and always smiling until he noticed she never smiled at him anymore, only at their son. It wasn't her fault. He didn't know how to be a good husband. (He blamed the lack of a role model, but he knew better. He could have tried, he should have seen the signs, but it had always just been easier to pretend like a peaceful home was a successful one.) And so he had the unlucky distinction of being the first (and only) to be divorced.
Not long after, Hikari became the first (and only) to be widowed. It was a freak accident that left everyone reeling. Afterwards, Hikari didn't have her steady smile in place anymore. It was a little plastic. Takeru could tell.
He began hanging out with Hikari again. Their sons were the same age and fast friends so it only seemed natural to take them to practice together or let them hang out after school. It was nice to spend time with Hikari again; she was the only one who happily make fun of him or wasn't afraid to call him out when he did something terribly or not-so-terribly wrong. (Maybe the problem was that his wife – ex-wife – adored him a little too much to tell him these things.) He tried his best to get the old, cheery Hikari smile out. It was hard. It didn't succeed too much.
Takeru watched his son run first to Hikari as they gathered for their monthly digidestined meeting, pulling her down furtively to whisper excitedly in her ear. He clearly liked her, a lot. All children did – she was a great teacher. The kid must have said something shockingly cute because her eyes turned bigger (as if that was possible), then giggled. Takeru saw the giggle and heard it in his mind, wondering what his little twerp said.
She turned to him and smiled. It was full of the old mischief again. He felt his insides go hot and cold at the same time, tried his best to look back and laugh it off, oh kids these days!
"My mom is really pretty, right?"
Takeru jumped. He turned and saw a matching mischievous grin right beside him on the same brown haired head.
"No wonder she's asked out all the time by the single dads of kids in her class."
"What?" Well this was new news. Why didn't she tell him? Not that it was his business.
"But I'll have you know," said the boy in a grave, confidential voice, "I don't like any of them as much as you. They act like my mom is easy."
"Where did you learn that term?!"
"Oh, you know. Anyway, it's been getting reaaaally hard for me to protect Mom by myself. I can only get sick or have an emergency so many times. There's this one guy who is really persistent and I don't think mom can refuse him much longer because he's some kind of rich donor to the school."
Takeru silently pondered this.
"He must have had a much younger wife because he's seriously bald but his daughter is only in 2nd grade."
"Young guys can start balding, too," Takeru remarked, but the brat just smiled at him knowingly.
"He'll be asking her out again next Wednesday right after their parent-teacher conference. Just thought you'd like to know!" With that, the boy ran away and joined the other offspring in playing with their digimon. Takeru noticed Hikari walking towards him with a grin.
"What did he say to you? You look like you've been punched!" she said, laughingly. Takeru smiled back, reveling in her happiness.
"Nothing much, but are you free for dinner Wednesday?"
AN: It's good to be back in Digimon! Inspired by a picture from akeemi-art, written for my Takari tumblr, Fuck Year Takari.