Walking home

It's been three days since the mess that had turned my life around, and his.

Three days since I was torn from my brother. Poor brother, he deserves so much better than this.

I'm so angry with my parents for what they did- I'd even be willing to go as far as saying I hate them. Going home after school never seemed more pointless. I return to an empty home, and to his room which will be there, just like he left it three days ago, a silent false promise for his return. I really hope he's doing ok…

I have no idea how it started, or what was said, but I am well aware of how it ended.

I got back home from my date with my boyfriend Takeru, it was around midnight. Our otherwise romantic walk towards my home was nipped in the bud by the sounds of an argument that came from exactly where we were heading, and could be heard three blocks from there.

When we finally got there, I found my brother standing on the doorstep, arguing with my parents, holding a suitcase in his hand. He just left while our parents entered the house. They didn't even bother to look at him for one more time before they will never see him again. At that point I had already guessed what it was all about. But this still was not the time to jump to conclusions, or at least, that's what I desperately craved to believe.

I ran towards him, fearing I know the answer to what I was about to ask. "What happened? Taichi, what happened?"

With a slow, steady, serene, almost mechanic voice, he explained everything: How he came out to our parents because he hated lying to them, how he told them he was dating Yamato Ishida for several months, how our parents were less than accepting when he told them, how they called him a "disappointment", how they weren't willing to raise a "fag" under their roof and how he was kicked out of the house for being gay.

When I saw how calm he was I thought he was just hiding his feelings. But in fact, he had just cried more than his share of tears and had yelled more than his share of screams for one night. He had told me all about him and Yamato three weeks before that scene, Takeru knew, of course, his brother told him.

I had no idea my parents would react this way. At that point, for a second, I really did hate them; I wanted to scream in their faces, "Your son saved two worlds! Several times! How can being gay undo that? How can you call him a disappointment?"

I wanted to, but I didn't.

Instead, I hugged my brother, as tightly as I could, almost breaking his ribs, whispering, "You know I will always love you, right?" to his ear.

He only nodded to say he did know, and said "Thank you, Hikari."

That was the first and only time I saw my brother break.

My brother! The great Taichi Yagami, the leader of the digi-destined, the bearer of the crest of courage. The same one who helped save both worlds, and faced horrors and nightmarish creatures like Mayotismon, without ever giving up- was the same one who couldn't face two mere mortals, his parents, who told him they didn't accept him for who he is.

Takeru, who was standing next to us the whole time, finally asked, "Where are you going to now?"

My brother had no idea; he didn't expect being thrown out of the house that night.

Takeru reached his hand for his pocket. He did it reluctantly, even though he wasn't asked to. He took out his cell phone and dialed his brother's phone number.

When Yamato answered Takeru only said, "Someone here wants to talk to you." He handed the phone to my brother, looked into his eyes and mumbled, "Maybe you could stay with my brother, at least for a little while."

Taichi was stunned at the gesture; he could barely mumble a "Thank you". It's something I'll always appreciate my boyfriend for. I know how hard it was for him to do that- he still hadn't got used to the idea of his brother dating another man, let alone Taichi Yagami- my brother.

Back in his home, Yamato Ishida got a very disturbing phone call. As soon as he heard his brother, he could tell something was wrong. When he heard Taichi's trembling voice he was sure he thought right.

"Taichi, what's wrong? Please, relax and tell me what happened" he pleaded.

He entered his bedroom and closed the door. His father knew by then something was going on, but he also knew closing the door meant that Yamato didn't want to be disturbed; he could only hope his son will choose to tell him what it was.

Inside his room, with the door closed, Yamato could speak freely. "Sweetie, please, relax, take a deep breath and tell me what happened" Yamato started crying on the other side of the line. "Ok, I'll be right there, just let me sort things out with my dad first"

I've stood and listened as my brother recreated the events of that night for the second time.

I didn't envy him at all that night, for all I know I could have been in the exact same situation. No one can tell why my brother turned out gay whereas I turned out straight, but that moment I thanked god for being straight, and I'm not that religious you see, but I don't think I could have faced what my brother had to.

Generally, the road from Odaiba to here takes one hour while driving in day light when the traffic is low. But that depends on the person driving the car more than anything else. And so it turned out, that while driving in a poorly lit road, with low traffic, Yamato got to my home after half an hour, it's a miracle that he got there and not to the inside of an emergency room.

Needless to say, my parents weren't happy to see Yamato driving near our house, but they really didn't have the right to say anything, when they are the ones who caused this situation in the first place. I insisted on going with my brother, Yamato said his father would be OK with it. I'm not sure Takeru himself knew why he joined us, but he did.

During the drive to Odaiba, Taichi set in the seat near the driver, Takeru and I sat behind. He held my hand for the entire drive, but gazed through the window, thinking about god knows what.

To break the awkward silence, Yamato told us about his father's reaction:

I unlocked the door and got out of my room and found my father in his room, watching something on television. He turned it off as soon as he saw me coming in. I approached quietly and asked him if it would be ok if Taichi spent the night here.

"Sure" he said, "is anything wrong?"

"Ahhh, no no, nothing like that, just a sleepover. Well, he did have a fight with his parents but nothing serious"

"Are you sure? You know if something's wrong you can tell me right?"

"Yeah right", I thought to myself, that's what Taichi thought and look where it brought him. I have no idea why, but despite that thought crossing my mind, I decided to tell my father the truth.

"Well dad, the truth is-" I stopped and took a deep breath, partially to find the right words but more so that I could find the courage to continue "-his parents kicked him out of the house, because he's gay" I stopped and waited for his response, he was stunned, that's for sure.

"Well then sure he can stay here, for as long as he wants, I mean that's just wrong, no parent should do that. You know son, you're a great friend"

"No, no I'm not"

"Of course you are! What are you saying? He's lucky to have you as a friend"

"Dad! What I'm saying is…I'm not doing this because I'm a great friend, I'm doing this because he's my…my…boyfriend…"

The word remained hanging in the air.

"Well, I…certainly didn't expect that. You caught me of guard there, I…what I mean to say son is-. Look, I'm not gonna tell you I'm ok with it, cause that would be a lie, but I'll try to accept it, for you. Give me some time to get used to the idea it…certainly is… a surprise. For the time being, just go pick him up and we'll talk tomorrow morning after I had a chance to…think this through, alright?"

"Sure thing dad, and ahh, dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you"

Yamato stopped the car near his house, the one-hour drive passed by a lot faster than any of us anticipated.

When we stepped into his house his father commented with surprise, "And here I innocently thought you where going to pick up Taichi" he then hugged his other son, Takeru, who he didn't see for a long time.

Yamato's reply was, "Well, you know Takeru, the word 'no' isn't in his vocabulary, and the same applies for his girlfriend."

"True, let me just get the sleeping bags, we don't have so many beds"

The following day we didn't go to school, Yamato's dad said it's in "Parenting By-laws" that when your son tells you he's gay, it's ok to let him skip one day of school to talk about that with him and that it applies even more if his boyfriend was kicked out of his house. He pointed with comfort that this is at least their last year of high-school, and his tuition is paid, so there's no worry about his education. Parents tend to think of things like that in the worst possible times.

So like I said, it's been three days since my brother came out, two days since the four of us skipped school. Yesterday we returned to our homes, except for my brother, who stays with Yamato, that's his home now. I haven't said a word to my parents since.

All we can do for now is getting used to the new situation, living the present day by day while waiting to see what the future holds.