A/N: This is a companion piece meant to be read alongside S. Walden's "Digimon Diary: Friendship Side" and follows our headcanon, but can be read without following either. This fanfiction will draw from the anime (dub and sub), the Digimon Memorial Albums, the first two volumes of the official novelization, and possibly some events from the PSP game "Digimon Adventure". This version is a retelling of Digimon Adventure from Joe's point of view. This fiction does assume you have seen the entirety of season one / Adventure and possibly Our War Game. Perhaps one day, I'll make a few bonus chapters to cover Zero Two as well, since the "present" takes place after the epilogue.

Warnings: Mature subjects will be handled in this fic, but it won't be the main focus. There will be yaoi in later chapters as well.

Pairings: Jyoumato (Yamato x Jyou), Taishirou (Taichi x Koushiro), one sided Sorato (Sora x Yamato), and Takari (Takeru x Hikari) with hints of Sorami (Sora x Mimi), Mimato (Mimi x Yamato), Yamakeru (Yamato x Takeru) and of course, Taito (Taichi x Yamato). Most of the latter depends how much you wanna read into things.

Chapter 0: Medications

My door was closed, but I could still hear my father's voice.

"I can't believe you! How could you throw away his future for some silly whim of yours?!"

I flipped the page of my algebra textbook, ignoring the sound of broken glass. Mom must be feeling better to be throwing plates.

"It's not a silly whim! God Himself told me that he needed to go!" I chewed the end of my pen, solving for "x" as Mom yelped. My father didn't hit her too often, as the few times she could leave the apartment he didn't want anyone to see her bruises. She screamed and there was a whump as he threw her, probably onto her couch.

"You need to listen, Joanne!" I knew that tone. He was most likely shaking some sense into her. "God does not talk to you! You need to take your medicine!"

"No!" I spit into my trashcan as the pen exploded in my mouth. The taste of black ink was bitter and I tossed it away to the sound of Mom biting my father's hand. He must have had her mouth covered to keep her from yelling too loudly. We didn't need the neighbors coming over again to ask about the screaming. Though Mr. Izumi had been very polite, and had easily accepted my excuse for my black eye the last time. "I hate that stuff. It's poison! You're trying to poison me!"

I sighed. I knew what was coming next.

"Joe! Get in here, now!"

I closed my textbook, not bothering to keep my page. I wouldn't be coming back to my room for a while yet. I winced as I stood, the bruises on the small of my back protesting any movement. It had only been that morning when my father had taken his belt to me for not making a high enough grade on the mock exam yesterday. The lock on my door was loose, but it was better than nothing when Mom tried to wander around at midnight.

I inched down the hall, keeping my head bowed. My father didn't like it when I looked him in the eye. He was standing over Mom, holding her down on the loveseat by her shoulders and one hand was bloody. She must have gotten a good chunk out of him. I could see her eyes, wild and bright, as they landed on me, and all I wanted to do was go back to my room and ignore everyone. I had an entrance exam on Sunday, and if I didn't make top marks my back would be the least of my worries.

"My baby," Mom crooned. She gave me one of her special smiles – the one that showed too much teeth and crinkled her eyes closed. It was extra creepy this time since my father's blood was still dripping off her chin. It made me want to puke. "Sweetie, Mommy only wanted the best for her special baby boy..."

"Joe!" my father snapped. I stood tall, though I wanted nothing more than to pass out. The smell of gore had finally reached me, and it was making my stomach churn. "Her pills are in the kitchen. Bring them to me, now!"

I yelped and ran toward the kitchen. I could already feel the hitch of asthma deep in my lungs, and I cursed that I'd forgotten my inhaler in my room. There was a pharmacy bag on the counter that I ripped open. Little beige pills rattled around in a full bottle. Quetiapine Fumarate. My father had changed her prescription again. He's a doctor, he knows that he has to give the old stuff a chance to work. Mom was squealing and I could hear her thrashing on the couch, working her way up to full-on rampage. If I didn't bring her pills soon, there was no telling what my father would do to her. I shook out four pills and hurried to the living room, wheezing and gasping. My asthma was always worsened by Mom's fits.

My father had her on her back on the sofa, pinning her arms to her sides with his thighs. His glasses were on the floor, and he was sweating, using his hands to pry open her mouth. He'd nearly lost his fingers that way last year when she'd had an allergic reaction to her lithium.

"Joe, get in here!" he screamed. I ran over, almost collapsing on the arm of the sofa and held out my hand to show the medication. He nodded and I dropped the pills in Mom's mouth. She made a terrifying gurgling noise as she tried to spit them out, but my father shut her mouth, holding her chin up with his bloody hand and pinching her nose with the other. She would either swallow her medicine, or pass out. At this point, either was possible.

As it happened, she did both. She stilled suddenly, eyes rolling back in her skull. My father was breathing almost as hard as I was, waiting to see if she was tricking him again. Slowly, he backed away, opening her mouth gently to make sure she hadn't swallowed her tongue. The muscle was in it's place and the pills were gone, thankfully. My father wiped the sweat from his forehead and climbed off her, straightening his shirt and tie.

"Joe, keep an eye on your mother tonight and make sure she doesn't have any adverse reactions. I have to go to work, a double shift tonight, and tomorrow we'll discuss this... mess your mother made." He couldn't mean her medication, could he? Was he actually going to sit down and discuss it, like a family should? "We can't have you going to some summer camp when you're supposed to be taking an entrance exam. I'll have to pull you out tomorrow morning." Of course.

Wait. Summer camp?