2004 – New Year, New Problems
Story #5: My Little Friend
Author's Notes: This one covers T.K. alone. He was not covered with Matt in story 2 because of the fact that they do not live together. Also, look for lots of Pata-cuteness! ;-) Enjoy!
Date: 1/2/2004
Time: 2:00 pm
Place: Takashi residence, T.K.'s room
Currently, Takeru "T.K." Takashi lay on his bed, staring vacantly towards the ceiling of the room. Even after 3 days, T.K. was still recovering from the acute case of shellshock that the New Year's Eve battle with MaloMyotismon had given him. The fact that it was an old foe long thought defeated had shocked everyone, but T.K. could see the immediate effects a little more clearly than some of the other Digidestined, due to his connections within the group. In addition to the large effects on him personally, T.K. knew the effect on Kari would be big (because of the shock given to her and Gatomon), that it would have hurt Cody pretty bad ("With it involving Oikawa, his dad's friend, probably cut straight through him, and with it being so close, his trust in others has probably been severely damaged as well." T.K. thought), and that Ken himself would be in an absolute rage over being used as a mere tool in the hands of such as evil and nearly losing everything in the process.
"Ken and Oikawa weren't evil, they were victims." T.K. stated to himself. "Just like Gatomon was." It was no longer incorrect, and indeed it may be quite correct now, to put Gatomon and Ken in the same category. He knew it, and he was sure everyone else knew it. The question was what would the implications be of that sad truism: Would Ken and Kari be pulled closer together? What would the effects be if that happened, particularly concerning Davis, Yolei and T.K. himself? How would Gatomon and Wormmon respond to this new situation? Would the revelations trigger a major social realignment within the group? "So many questions, so few answers..." T.K. thought frustratingly.
T.K. himself thought that if Ken and Kari were pulled closer, it wouldn't be a big problem for him. After all, it was Kari's choice who she decided to hang out with, and frankly he liked the image of Kari comforting the severely hurt Ken."Well... if Kari starts hanging out with Ken more," T.K. said to himself, "I guess that's all right, because Kari may be able to be the shoulder Ken needs to cry on, the hug he really needs right now... and I shouldn't try to control things. It's Kari's decision to make, not mine." Because of the deep relationship between him and Kari, T.K. felt a little bit hurt saying that, but he was sure that by not interfering with events in the coming days, something wonderful would develop that would ultimately strengthen the entire group. T.K. couldn't afford to be selfish, particularly now when things were so much in flux; he would have to put his own emotions aside for the good of the team...
He wondered what exactly might be going on with the others right now. Kari and Gatomon would be somewhere, trying to work their sorrows out without becoming dragged down by them. Cody was probably sitting by his desk, trying to put things in perspective and wanting to avoid an absolute emotional breakdown. Ken would be shutting himself in his room, trying to prevent an explosion of anger while also hiding his tears at being so cruelly used by Myotismon. And T.K. himself? He was grimly facing up to the fact that he and Patamon may at anytime be called upon to support or comfort any of them. This possibility would probably go on for a while, but he was sure that anything he would do, he would do for the good of the team, and that one day soon a stronger group would emerge from the uncertainties of this hour in the lives of all of them.
But the flux of the day was affecting T.K. internally as well. The revelations had now firmly placed Myotismon in the same category of evil as the enemy he dreaded the most: Devimon. T.K. remembered wanting Patamon to Digivolve, during the first adventure those four and a half years ago, when he was a lot younger. Looking back, T.K. chuckled at his own naivete, not knowing the surprise fate had for him. Yes, Angemon was cool, but that loss to defeat Devimon... He took it well at the time, but he thought that it scarred him for life. After that, he always dreaded the thought of Patamon going away and not coming back, which was amplified by several incidents in which a less-controlled version of himself actually pushed Patamon away. Patamon always came back, but the fear was increased and solidified in him. He guessed seeing Devimon again, just before Ken reverted from being the Digimon Emperor, brought the old fear back to the surface, and that the attacks of BlackWarGreymon just pushed things over the edge. Yes, they may have been right in saying that he overreacted, but as Cody figured out, he was not crazy in acting this way. At least that string of incidents had a good ending, particularly now that BlackWarGreymon had died an honorable death by revealing the possibility of Myotismon's presence and denying the mad Digimon direct access to the Digiworld.
T.K. sat up and looked over at Patamon, who was napping quietly in a corner of the room, hidden from the door's direct view by a box. T.K. couldn't help but chuckle just a little bit at how likable Patamon looked when he slept. Sure, Patamon may look all cutesy and snuggable now, but T.K. was sure he was extremely confident in himself; after all, under the right circumstances, the powers of an angel could be unleashed from within him. Such an ability was sure to inspire much self-confidence in him, but did it do the same for T.K.'s faith in him? In other words, did T.K. believe in Patamon as much as he believed Patamon believed in himself? T.K. wasn't sure; the simple matter of physical appearances was always working against that belief, and combined with the experiences, T.K. wondered if maybe the problem he had had wasn't so much about the concept of losing Patamon as it was a simple lack of confidence in the angel he could become and the ability he had to save the day for everyone, just as what had happened during that fateful battle with Devimon. He thought for a minute. "Well...hmm...maybe...perhaps...I don't know..." T.K. thought out loud, trying to sort out his true feelings. He concluded that maybe that was true, but he had no idea if it was the reason why he was afraid or how it interacted with anything else.
In any case, the whole concept didn't matter much. Devimon was gone, Myotismon was gone for good this time, and BlackWarGreymon had died a hero. T.K. didn't see any reason to be afraid about losing Patamon; sure, he was still a little guy, being able to squeeze into many small spaces or fly into nooks and crannies where it would be hard to be seen ("he would always win at hide-and-seek" T.K. wryly noted), but he would not now abandon T.K. intentionally. And besides, the concept of holding him in his arms or letting him perch on his hat-covered head made T.K. feel like it was impossible for Patamon to ever be lost or disappear off the face of either world. Now that the battles were over, T.K. had no reason to fear about anything concerning Patamon. T.K. sighed, wishing this bliss could go on forever...
T.K., having put himself in one of those moods where all he wanted was to have Patamon as his "teddy bear", got up and walked over to his Digimon in order to tuck Patamon into T.K.'s own bed. However, T.K. quickly noticed Patamon wasn't there in the corner anymore. Snapped out of his sentimental mood, T.K. quickly looked around the room for signs of the flying hamster-like Digimon. He turned to the partially-open door just in time to see something slip out into the hallway. T.K. panicked, as he had only left the door open because his mom said to, just in case she wanted to shout him something from the room where she was working.
T.K. raced over to the door and quickly pushed it all the way open. Looking down the hallway, he saw Patamon walking down it toward the kitchen, mumbling something about wanting ice cream in the freezer. T.K. sighed, unable to give a verbal warning lest he tip off his mom, and raced after him...
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Meanwhile, T.K.'s mom sighed as she tapped out another article for the newspaper. Just like most of the articles she had been assigned over the past few days, it was a theory about the recent monster attacks and that blanket of darkness caused by MaloMyotismon. She had heard of everything, and now she just wasn't sure what to believe about the incidents and how they related to Digimon anymore. Sure, when the darkness was there, she could believe what T.K. told her, but as a reporter by profession she wanted some more proof than just hearsay and stories. Sure, she believed in Digimon, but she felt she needed that something that would make her head line up with her heart. Problem was, there didn't seem to be the evidence she needed, and furthermore she felt T.K. hadn't told the whole truth about what was going on, particularly because her "mother sense" seemed to indicate that something other that just T.K. was currently running around somewhere in the apartment. She continued on tapping out the story, wondering when the craziness related to the appearance of Digimon was going to end...
Suddenly, her "mother sense" seemed to indicate that someone was watching her. She quickly turned around, but saw no one. A second later, T.K. peeked through the open doorway, wearing a nervous grin.
"Something up?" she asked.
T.K. looked over, a grin plastered on his face. "Oh, nothing. I was just going to get something to munch on." (Meanwhile, out of Mom's sight, T.K. tried to keep Patamon locked between his left arm and his chest so that he wouldn't sneak off again. Patamon was looking in the room out of curiosity and T.K. pulled him out of sight just before Mom turned around.)
"Are you sure?"
"Oh, yes!" T.K. replied, flashing the plastered-on grin again. (Patamon was slowly slipping out of T.K.'s grasp, and it was all he could do to hide the struggle from Mom.)
"Well...all right. Just don't eat too much, all right?"
"Oh, you can be sure of that!" T.K. replied. (At this moment Patamon slithered out of T.K.'s grasp onto the floor and started running for the kitchen). T.K. then rushed off to the kitchen (chasing Patamon again).
Mom furrowed her brows in confusion, but decided against spending an extended period of time puzzling out what was going on and instead turned back to her work. However, she now kept an ear open for unusual sounds coming from the kitchen, her "mother sense" now on high alert...
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T.K. rushed into the kitchen only to see Patamon fly up and grab on to the handle of the door of the small freezer above the refrigerator. T.K. rushed over and tried to pull Patamon off the handle, forcing out a reprimand to the Digimon for leaving his hiding place. As cute and likable as Patamon was, there were times he could be stubborn as a goat, and (unfortunately) this was one of those times.
"T.K., everything OK out there? Is something wrong?" Mom asked from her room.
T.K. started to get really nervous, as there was apparently enough noise being made in the struggle that mom could hear it. T.K. turned his head, trying not to panic, and yelled, still pulling on Patamon, "Oh, yeah, everything's fine!"
A second later, however, the freezer door flung open from all the pulling, sending T.K. backwards onto the floor. Patamon went sailing into some items on the kitchen table, knocking them over and sending one item onto the floor with a loud "crash!"
"Are you sure everything's all right out there?" T.K. heard his mom ask.
In a state of near-panic, T.K. quickly got up, slammed the freezer door shut again, and rushed over to pick up the dropped items, scooping up a disoriented Patamon. T.K. pulled his white "soft hat" off of his sandy-blonde hair and jammed it on top of Patamon's head (in order to partly conceal him, particularly the face) before replying with, "Oh, yeah, everything's fine! I just knocked into something with my elbow!"
"Funny, it didn't sound like that."
T.K. tried to maintain a grip on squirming and protesting Patamon. He needed an excuse to prevent Mom from investigating, and fast! "Uhh... well, I knocked something into something else. That's why you heard more than one thing fall over!"
"Very funny, T.K.! I'm coming out there to see for myself!"
"No, wait! I'll take care of it myself! Really!" T.K. replied in a panic. As he rushed to pick up the items, he took Patamon (hat still jammed on his head) and pushed him underneath the table, hoping that he would stay under there. He was just standing back up from doing that when Mom emerged from her office area.
"You sure everything's all right?" she asked, standing outside the kitchen in confusion.
"Oh, yeah, fine." T.K. said, standing up the knocked over items still on the table. He flashed a sheepish grin, which only made his mom more suspicious...
"Well, all right... what happened to your hat, though?"
"My hat?" T.K. replied, looking upward at where the hat would have been. "Umm... just a sec." He leaned down and peered underneath the table. Patamon was still underneath there, slowly moving around and apparently confused by the fact that the hat covered his eyes, making him unable to see for the moment.
"Uh...well, it's not under there." T.K. continued. "I guess I took it off in my room and thought I'd lost it under the table." Another plastered-on grin appeared on T.K.'s face.
"But weren't you wearing that hat when you peeked in a minute ago? How can you have taken it off in your bedroom?"
"Umm..." T.K. flushed; he realized he'd made a mistake. He hastily peeked under the table, but found Patamon wasn't under there. The Digimon had just made a blind dash back in the direction of T.K.'s room... right towards Mom's legs!
"T.K.? Everything all right?" Mom asked, a confused look on her face. She was unaware of the Digimon racing in her direction. T.K. peeked back up to respond with another "everything's fine" line and a sheepish grin. T.K. was really nervous now, and a bead of sweat formed on his forehead as he nervously switched his attention back and forth between the kitchen floor and Mom with her suspicious gaze at him.
Within seconds, Patamon had blindly bumped into Mom's right leg and quickly zoomed past her towards T.K.'s room. Mom jumped slightly in surprise, but quickly assumed a very serious manner and stated "T.K., something just bumped into my leg. Would you care to explain what is going on...?"
T.K. broke out in a nervous sweat and raced toward Mom. Because it looked like she wasn't about to move from her spot, he peaked around her in order to see what Patamon was doing. T.K. saw him charge blindly into the wall opposite the door to his room, then into the wall near the door, then managing to slip through the opening into the room.
T.K. made a motion to slip past his mother, but it was quickly blocked. "You are not going anywhere until you give me some answers." Mom stated.
"But mom...!" T.K. complained.
"No buts! Something is going on here, and I'd like to know what it is!"
"Mom, there's nothing going on. Just let me through!"
Mom now used her journalism-born logic to state her case. "If there's really nothing going on, then why did something bump into my leg?"
"Umm..." T.K. flushed even more, and he had no good way to counter his mom's argument...
"Over the past few days, I have heard various theories about the monsters and the darkness, and I have written up many of them as articles. Now, I have been believing and am willing to believe your theory about Digimon and a digital parallel world, but I cannot get my head to line up with my heart if I think something is being hidden from me. So T.K., what is that thing that bumped into my leg? And you can't say I imagined it either, because I know you would have seen it!"
T.K. quickly saw that there was no way out of the situation that would keep the secret intact. Mom wouldn't move unless he answered her, and she now suspected something as well. Knowing Mom the journalist, she wouldn't stop until she got all the answers she wanted. He sighed, a sign of concession, and said, "Will you let me through, so that I can tell you about it properly?"
Since it seemed that whatever it was had run past her, Mom found the request reasonable and agreed, stepping out of the way. T.K. rushed into the room, looking for Patamon. He found him in the middle of the room, trying to get the hat off his head. T.K. quickly went over and pulled the hat off, revealing a clearly annoyed Patamon. "What did you do that for?" he sputtered out. "I bumped my head trying to get back to the room!"
T.K. sighed again. "I'm sorry, but I didn't expect you to make a blind charge from underneath the table!" he replied. "I thought if you couldn't see anything you would stay put under there; that's the only reason I did that!"
"Well, it wasn't very nice!"
"No, but better than having to tell about you to Mom..."
"T.K., what's going on in there? I'm still waiting for your explanation!" Mom warned.
T.K. sighed heavily; this day had just gone from decent to horrible. He quickly said to Patamon, "Look, I'm sorry. I was desperate."
Patamon gave a pained expression which made T.K. feel even worse about the situation. "I'm coming." he wearily said to mom. He sighed again and went back out into the hallway, still holding Patamon. He put the hat back on as he approached his mom. T.K. rolled his eyes, wishing he didn't have to do this but having no choice in the matter now...
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T.K., holding Patamon in his arms, meekly approached his mom, flashing a faint smile. "Well, where is it?" Mom gently asked. Right now, Mom was more interested in simply getting the truth that railing on about the importance of being honest with people.
"He's right here." T.K. quietly replied.
"Right where?"
"In my arms; I'm holding him."
"Oh...hmm..." Mom looked down at Patamon, who had a cute little smile on his face, and wondered with a wry grin if the "tickle torture method" would work in getting information about him. She reached out and started scratching his belly, which caused Patamon to start giggling and shaking uncontrollably.
Through the laughing, Patamon tried to say something like, "Stop! I can't stand being tickled!". When Mom noticed this, she stopped and let him catch his breath. In fact, she was chuckling a bit herself, and her technique had admirably eased the tension that had developed before.
"My, you are a cute one! What's your name?" Mom asked, looking very sweetly at the Digimon.
"My name's Patamon!" Patamon replied, flashing one of those likable grins.
Mom started chuckling again. "So I presume this is your friend?" she asked T.K. He nodded in response.
"Well, at least I know what you look like now. Otherwise I may have thought there were mice in the house."
"Hey, I'm no mouse!" Patamon stated, looking indignant.
Mom chuckled again. "Of course not. You're...better than a mouse, and besides, you're too big to fit in a mouse hole anyway!"
T.K. couldn't help but laugh at a little at Mom's sense of humor, but all this cuteness was starting to get to him. He said, "So, uh, yeah, that's your explanation. Now don't you have articles to write up for the paper?"
"Oh, yeah, I can't leave them half-done. Thank you for reminding me T.K.!" Mom said as she went back to the computer and her job.
T.K. sighed again and shook his head. Little ol' Patamon had a tendency to bring the words "cute" and "adorable" out of people, and that he guessed made Patamon even more special. He took Patamon back into the room, still shaking his head out of silliness...
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T.K. was again laying on the bed, but this time Patamon was laying next to him. T.K. was now scratching Patamon behind his wing-ears, something T.K. liked to do. He was also thinking again: Whatever changes may come, he had several bedrock facts to secure himself on. The relationship between him and Kari would still be special (he remembered it once being called "the friendship of angels" due to the fact that Patamon and Gatomon both Digivolve to angel Digimon, a fact which catalyzed the friendship's development), the partnership between him and Cody due to the DNA-Digivolving would still stand, and Patamon would always have the power of the angel hidden somewhere inside him. These were things he could stand firm on, regardless of whatever happened over the next few days or weeks.
T.K. knew the winds of change were blowing, and by the time all was said and done the network of social relationships undergirding the Digidestined could be drastically altered. Nevertheless, he had several constants in which he could ground himself in. He knew he was likely to get caught up in any social shift due to his fair amount of importance and connections within the group, but T.K. knew just by looking at Patamon he had hard facts with which he could support himself with. And, for the first time in over a week, T.K. knew he could walk confidently and sleep soundly, because Patamon, his little Digimon friend, represented not only his pathway to importance, but also his foundation of confidence. And for the moment, that's all T.K. wanted out of his friend: just to be there, to symbolize his place in the Digidestined, and to provide not just a smile or a laugh but to boost his confidence as well...
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Remember all of this, T.K., because a new order is emerging, and there is a part to be played by you in this order. You must be able to firmly hold on to what you have before you will be able to perform this role. You must be ready for change, and not just one-time change either, but continual change. You must be able to stand on your rock of facts, for one day it maybe the only thing which keeps you from drowning in the seas of change which are sure to surge in soon. Always remember your rock, and always hold on to it, for otherwise no one will know what will happen to you. Always remember, and always hold on... that is the advice for T.K. Takeru in this, the beginning of a new year... and a new order.
The End