warning for implied death, sensory overload

Chapter One - A Cosmic Joke

Covered in sweat and spitting out hair, Ren was fully prepared to declare this day a lost cause and cancel all plans. Everything rang like a cell phone, chittering offensive trash in his ears and the hissing of his dreams all too close until everything suddenly shut up. Ryouma slept on on his other side, face tight as it usually was during long hours of rest. And the silence slowed the aggravation in his head until everything outside of it relaxed. Reluctantly, Ren rolled away from his best friend and back into reality. Thankfully everything, including Airu's inability to not snore, was muted.

He watched the two of them sleep with his equivalent of fondness before heading to wash off. As he did, his phone gently vibrated in its cradle. Ren would have ignored it, if it weren't for the email address so visible on the screen.

Ren flipped it open. "Hey, Taiki."

He could feel the elder's smile through the phone. "Morning. Did I wake you?"

"Nah." He tried to inject the same sort of casual speech into his own words. "That was reality."

"Ah." A small pause. "Did the others help?"

Ren bit down the reflexive jump to sarcasm, recognizing real concern as only Kudo Taiki could do. "Yeah, but I can't stay there all day. Got things to do, you to see."

Taiki laughed and Ren felt his face ache. "True enough. I'll see you later today."

"Yeah, yeah you'd better."

Ren waited until the phone call clicked off before burying his embarrassed face in his towel.

"I," he managed to say. "Am completely screwed."

He had not gone into this experiment thinking he'd get feelings for the cinnamon roll.

If he could find a beginning to this black hole into adulthood that somehow led him into emotionally bonding with that guy you expected to have two-point-five kids at the age of twenty-seven, Ren would blame Tagiru by default. Everyone did it and it was usually true. Except this time that was definitely not true. This was totally on him, his weird dreams, and his god damn pride.

Oh and Ryouma being a nag but anyone who knew him figured that was his default after snarking, smarmy bastard. (Ren said all of this with blatant affection.)

It started with the dreams about Digimon.

He hadn't been sure about it, at first. After all, he had just seen Dracmon the week before why would he need to be dreaming about him? And yet… he had been. Not that he remembered much of it. Just Dracmon and a song clear as day.

In fact, sitting under the spray of a cold shower, Ren could hear the song now, a three-two-one beat. He grumbled and turned on the heat, willing himself clean.

He wouldn't have thought much of it. They still hung out and did things even if it was less of the fun destruction it had once been, well, it had its place, right? So why would he be dreaming about it?

Unfortunately, he had said that about Amano Yuu, the most notoriously literal and serious person he knew. And Yuu had suggested, ask the senpai. The senior of all the seniors who had saved the world.

Hence why he was hopping about to get dressed in the living room so the other two night owls could get their beauty sleep. He was going on a damn date.

The very thought made his face hurt.

"You're not a sap," he told himself firmly, sitting down and creasing his jeans. "You're just a reasonable person who needs help. That's all."

"Just keep telling yourself that." That voice was followed by someone shutting the fridge door.

Ren scowled. "Shut up, Ryouma."

Ryouma smirked a little, downing half of the remaining milk in a couple swallows. His smirk had never quite returned to that domineering pride of three years ago, but it was up there at least. He would take that. "In a hurry."

"Breakfast," Ren grunted.

Ryouma made a noise like a tisk. "Not with your hair like that you're not." He marched forward with what looked like a comb from hammerspace.

Ren let out a snarl like an angry cat. "Keep away from me! I'm just gonna put on a hat."

"No." His friend sounded completely unimpressed. "You go see Taiki-san looking like that and I'm going to kill you."

"Get away from me!"

Airu ended up eventually coming downstairs to find Ren perched on the window and hissing with Ryouma brandishing a brush like a bludgeon. She, used to this, went to go find some tofu.

Ren was almost late.

"Did you run here?"

Taiki's polite, baffled question was met with desperate wheezing and a middle finger before Ren remembered his manners. It was answered with a full stomach laugh. Damn him. It was cute too, damn him.

"From the train station," Ren finally managed to reply. "Yeah. It was awful."

Taiki, without hesitation, shoved the bowl of udon under his nose. "Eat it. Before Akari has to look after two of us. She's been threatening to drop a stove on my head for three months."

Ren's eyebrow arched. "Why?"

Taiki looked so amused. "Because that's just what she does."

Airu wasn't like that at all, so he was going to run from that topic and eat his damn noodles. "Right. So, uh."

Taiki sobered so fast it was whiplash on some drug. "Dreams. Right. Yuu said you had one."

"Yeah." Ren slurped as politely as possible. "Yeah. Like, I'm with Dracmon and he can't evolve. Or he isn't. I can't tell. And the sky is really, really clear. No." Ren paused, trying to remember it. "Nah, wait. Sorry. It's not clear. It's just cleaner than Earth. And the air feels different, unnatural. And." He had to stop because Taiki wasn't just listening. His hand scribbled across the page in what looked like chicken scratch. "What are you doing?"

"Shorthand." Taiki replied, taking a dumpling in his free hand. "Great for classes, looks awful." He smiled after swallowing a mouthful of pork and spices. "Go on."

"Right…" Ren paused, fiddled with his napkin. He didn't really want to say the second part. "There's a lot of fighting just ahead of me. I'd say it was a real battle." He wasn't delusional enough to think he had seen many real battles as a Hunter. "And… you're laying there dead."

A/N: Anyone who has seen me write knows I would have done this eventually.

Challenges: digiotpweek final day, three-sided box, novella masterclass hunters list 2, diversity writing (DFC) AM J38.