I

Yagami Taesuke, age seven, was bored. Very bored. It was summer, and it was the family picnic, and no one was up.

Admittedly, this could be chalked up to it being seven in the morning. Taesuke, unlike his sister, tended to wake up with the sun.

So there he was with his brown hair in a furious untamable mess, pacing the small living room in his pajamas. Not even dad was up. It was just him and the bouncy pink form of his Koromon hopping after his every step.

Eventually, he gave up, flopping on the floor and turning his head towards the clock.

It was ten after seven.

"Uggghhhhhh."

Koromon mimicked him almost perfectly, except he burped at the end. "Gross," he told the Digimon. "Posed ta excuse yourself."

Koromon giggled at him and a voice dry with sleep offered from behind the sofa, "You don't say it either, bud."

"He doesn't burp well at all, Taichi," chimed a second, punctuated by a yawn.

Taesuke sat up immediately and leaped over the sofa. "Morning Dad!" He latched onto his waist. "Want some coffee! It's the picnic today!"

His dad laughed, his own, shorter hair just as rumpled as the rest of him at the moment and smelling of that woodsy stuff he used in his hair. "I'll make my own coffee, bud. The picnic is today. But we have about oh… six hours."

"That's forever!" He let go of his dad, dropping to the floor once more. "Seriously why do we gotta wait until lunch?"

"Because most people sleep until eight or nine on their days off." His father mussed his already messy hair and walked around him. "C'mon, let's surprise your mom with breakfast, hey? She's been under the weather for days."

Taesuke beamed and bounced after him. "Let's make omurice! She loves it!"

"She does, especially with a sore throat," his dad agreed, even as Agumon almost drowned him out with his own cheering. Koromon mimicked him from the floor now.

Suck up, he heard in his sister's head, nasty and at the end of her rope, like she always was when she said that. He frowned but shook it away. He was being silly, she was still asleep. And she never said that first thing in the morning. That came later.

"Get the water," his dad ordered.

Taesuke hurried to obey, as he was supposed to do.

There was nothing wrong with that. School taught you that.


Six hours, and two yelling matches later (both involving his sister and himself), they were scattered around a hill, separated by clusters of multicolored trees. Tae sat under a tree with his lunch, scowling at it like it would melt if he looked away.

"You all right?"

Taesuke jumped and looked up at almost rose red eyes. Twigs and dirt littered his hair, and Taesuke could have sworn there was a little bit of something red drying on the edge of his yellow sleeve. "Kei?" His scowl faded a little, worry creasing his forehead. "You missed tag."

It was supposed to be the group game of tag, all the kids, and their digimon of course. It was a mess and so much fun. It was the only time he and his sister could not get in trouble for hitting each other. And Kei had been with them at the start and just… not there after. None of the adults had seemed too bothered at the time so he hadn't said anything. But here he was, all messy. If it was his mom, she'd be wobbling all over.

Kei smiled at him, eyes crinkling a little as he did. "Plotmon went a little too far in trying to hide. Ended up getting lost." He rubbed his arm. "Led me right into the bramble forests she did."

Before he could stop himself, Taesuke turned to glare at the little pup. "Why'd you do that?" Koromon looked up from his own food to narrow his eyes. He only succeeded in looking cute.

Plotmon merely grinned and swallowed a piece of sausage. "Cause!"

Kei smiled a bit, shaking his head affectionately. "Are you okay? Everyone's over there."

Taesuke made a face. "'S just Sis and me. I'm fine."

Kei tilted his head at him, much like an owl on nature shows. "If you're sure."

Taesuke bobbed from head to toe. 'M sure. Thanks, Kei."

Thanks, Kei. The words tasted like burnt fish in his mouth. His cousin was always so kind, so different and out of reach but nice enough. He was nice and he meant his words almost all of the time and he took time out of his own day to walk them to school on the stormier days when Taesuke dragged his feet and brought Tsukiko down to a low simmer when she was boiling over and never ever seemed down no matter how sad things got.

Sometimes, like when the monsoon had rattled his bedroom walls and he had been left alone with his filled up lungs, he had wished for a sibling like him. Or to be like him, or both. At least then there'd be less yelling and less guilt and more fun time.

But then Tsu would come in and replace the hot water bottle and tell him about how school was canceled maybe forever and he'd feel bad about the thoughts and work hard to forget them.

"Anytime," Kei murmured. He made to turn, as if he was going to sit down, and an uncomfortable churning filled Tae's stomach at the thought. Then a quiet voice called the older boy's name and Kei turned right back around. He took a few steps away, back towards another boy and the Tanemon at his foot.

"Hey Kaito," he said, voice going from polite to almost sparkling in record time. He stepped between said other and Taesuke himself. "What's the matter?"

The other raised an eyebrow. "WhHy do you always assume something's wrong?" There was a wry note to it, like it wasn't really a bad thing. (Taesuke thought it was bad, no one liked worrywarts.)

Kei scratched his head. "Because you're always looking for me when something was wrong?" A teasing note entered his voice. "Cause you're a worrywart?"

Oka,y maybe he could like one worrywart.

"I am not." Taesuke couldn't see over Kei's shoulders but he could hear the small huff in that voice, like a pout. "Your mom's looking for you."

Kei's smile seemed to disappear for the briefest instant, then a new one slipped over as smooth as spreading butter. "Ooh. Okay. I'll see you both later then. C'mon Falcor."

"Keiiiiii," whined the pup as the two of them left together. Taesuke waved goodbye as he caught a glimpse of the older boy in his dull orange hoodie. Taesuke's brown eyes met dull blue that simply stared at him without blinking.

Taesuke stared back, fingers twitching over his chopsticks.

Tachikawa Kaito regarded him after blinking twice. "You comin'? Dai went to dunk Tsu into the lake."

Taesuke didn't even have to think. "Ye-Yeah! Of course!"

Kaito held out his hand and Tae took it. He didn't notice it was cold, nor that Koromon hadn't eaten a bite since Kei had walked away. He couldn't help it.

If Yagami Kei was who Taesuke wanted to be, Tachikawa Kaito was who he wanted to be with. He never really fussed at Taesuke, never really got excited about much of anything. If he messed up, he just told him to try again. As far as Taesuke was concerned, Kaito actually liked him. He was never useless when he hung out with Tsu.

"I'm gonna hit her with a water balloon," he decided and Kaito's lips twitched.

"Your aim is terrible."

"Is not."

He didn't even remember why he was mad anymore. After all, even if he had a not-great sister, Kaito made up for it whenever he was around.

Taesuke just wished it was more often.


A/N: Hey there! This is a... sidestory for In Prayer. Yet another one. I was supposed to do the Daisuke-centric one first but i'll get back to that one. Anyway this was a request from destiny chosen, that I was going to end up going through anyway because both of these characters come up in Sweet Song. So we're getting this a bit early. To clarify, this first chapter takes place at the end of My Sanctuary and before Sweet Song starts. So no spoilers now, and I'm going to try and keep them out of here as much as possible. But we'll see.

Challenges: Minific Masterclass Small MC (02) list 1, Mega Prompts Quote Prompts 143.