Chapter One: Snow Falling

"Dai's hogging the crayons again!"

"Use the markers then, stupid girl!"

"Are you calling "girl" an insult?"

"No, but I'm calling you stupid!"

On and on it went, punctured with the derisive kick of a soda can. Eleven-year-old Yagami Kei pinched his nose, wishing his hair was thicker so as to block out the pair in front of him. There was always something that drove those two up the wall and he either could stop them ignore them. Today, at least for right now, he was ignoring them. He had a math test tomorrow and just wanted to make sure he could pass. Stopping them would not help him study.

"Stupid fractions." The comment came from the other side of the couch. His best friend, yes, not even Motomiya Daisuke's son could really, truly count as Kei's best friend for many reasons, Takaishi Hirose, had his brow furrowed in a way that would look constipated on anyone else. On him, it was just irritation

Kei agreed privately but focused on chewing his rice and puzzling over the way to divide numbers that don't go together. "At least it's not algebra," he said with a wince and a swallow, remembering that one of their... clan, for lack of a better word, to be a year ahead of him had ridiculous equations to stare at for an hour or so. He could see the smoke from here.

Hirose yawned and cracked his knuckles, deciding not to comment, turning to the actual fight. It was probably about to become a brawl. "If you two aren't gonna study, can you make your cards without killing each other? This ain't your house to blow up!" Ayame-san would kill him for that rough of language, but secretly, Kei liked it. It was Hirose. He couldn't be any other way. Unless a Pucchiemon hit him with a spell or something.

Dai looked up, burgundy hair spiking more with affront. "Then you tell Miya to use the markers like everybody else!" Miya threw her beanie at him and it smacked him hard enough in the face to send the other boy to the floor. Kei always wondered if she kept rocks in there,

"That doesn't mean you should be hoggin' the crayons!" Before Dai could retort, Miya had already vaulted over the length of the child-sized table and tackled him without knocking anything over. If it were anybody else, Kei would have thought that was impossible. But it was Miya, and around Dai, she could perform feats that she would never think of doing otherwise. Dai had a tendency to bring that out of people.

Kei got up from his food, but it was too late. The two of them were already wrestling towards the television, hair flying in faces, yelling words he hoped to god they had learned by accident. They were moving dangerously close to the wooden stand. Kei ran over and wrapped his arms around Miya's middle, trying to wrench her grip from Dai's shirt. It was his favorite. If she ripped it, there really would be no stopping them.

Thankfully, Hirose got the hint and scurried to drag Dai away from her, wincing as he moved to dodge flailing hands. Dai was not helping matters, clawing like a cat. "Chibimon, Poromon grab the humans, will ya?"

"I don't think my beak is strong enough for that," murmured the pink bird, but he went over and pecked Miya gently in the face anyway. "Miya-san, you're getting out of hand."

Chibimon scoffed from his perch on the window sill. "Dai can do whatever he wants!"

Kei muffled a laugh. Somebody was still sore about being thrown through a window back in August. Digging his heels in, he murmured. "Please stop trying to destroy my family's apartment, Miya-chan." He widened his eyes, trying to look pitiful.

The effect of his words, or perhaps Kei himself, was instantaneous and the two stopped struggling, sheepish grins forming on their faces like they had stolen cookies instead of scuffed up the carpet and each other. They mumbled apologies and Kei slowly released Miya to slump to the floor. Hirose mimed slitting his throat before doing the same for Dai. Kei gave them both a soft, yet wary glance before going back to the couch. The two continued to fidget where they sat, staring between their holiday cards and the slightly older pair with some childish form of trepidation. Plotmon muffled a snort from her spot on a pillow.

As if on cue, the door eased open. "Are the brats ruining our cheap carpeting again?"

Kei turned and leaped from his seat to tackle the woman at the door into a hug. "Nana!" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Noriko's face flush with warmth at the name he knew he should have grown out of but honestly didn't want to. "Welcome home, how was work?"

She grunted, putting him back on his feet. He was probably too heavy for full-body tackles by now. Oh well! "Glad and hating the exams that will be on their way. Have you studied for the day?"

"Some, just taking a lunch break." Kei stretched and danced around her so she could get by.

"More like a keep-the squirts-from-destroying-your-house break," Hirose added from his newfound position on the arm of the couch.

Dai's eye ticked but he bit his tongue. Not even he had the lack of self-preservation that would induce getting the wrath of Hirose and his dangerous temper on full blast. Takaishi Takeru's son his left-

His thoughts were thrown abruptly out of whack by Noriko's bark of laughter. "Typical squirts," she said with a smirk. Dai and Miya flushed, embarrassed, and looked to Kei, who waved them off with a meek sort of indulgence in his nana's eccentricities. "Would it kill you two to get along?"

"Yes," Dai blurted out. "She threw Chibimon out the window!"

"You painted Poromon YELLOW!" Miya retorted. "He smelled like my brother's kindergarten class for a week! And he couldn't see!"

"YOU THREW CHIBIMON OUT THE WINDOW!"

"I'LL THROW YOU OUT THE WINDOW NEXT!"

Hirose, eyebrows raised to the heavens, threw himself off of the couch and smacked both of the kids to the ground. "Swear if ya'll can't at least hate each other without shoutin'-" he snapped, making to get up and do it again.

Kei pinched his nose again. "Nana, why is our extended family insane?"

"Don't question this," Noriko told him with a sly laugh. "You're as weird as they are."

Kei had the courtesy to flush. "Thanks, nana." He paused. "Where's mom?" They usually came home together, had some quality time.

Noriko glanced at her terminal. "She went to stop at the store."

"E-eh..." Kei sighed. "She could have called before that, I wanted to ask her about dinner..."

Noriko ruffled his hair and moved to catch Terriermon as he jumped in through the window, a bad habit from hot summer days in a college apartment. "What, you want a favorite?"

Kei flushed and shook his head. "I thought you guys would want me to try cooking stuff for a few days... because of exams and all..."

"We're not that swamped, Kei," hummed his mother as she opened the door. "Well, I'm not anyway." Hikari laughed and reached up to squeeze Noriko's shoulder. "I'm not sure I can say the same about this one, however."

Kei looked away to avoid laughing at the childish expression on his nana's face, barely managing to poke one of her puffed-out cheeks. "Welcome home, mum, what's for dinner?" The others waved, Dai and Miya now supervised enough to not risk not behaving themselves.

"Something simple," was the woman's reply, brushing wisps of slightly ragged brown hair from her face and smoothing her shirt. "I'm starting to think that the parents are more difficult to work with than the children." Tailmon purred in her arms, tail lashing at her partner's exhaustion.

Noriko strolled over to put on a pot of tea. "I've been telling you that for years." Her voice turned nasally and she turned up her nose. "'My daughter cannot possibly be ranked only thirty-two in this class! Are you showing a bias, Kawada-sensei?" Noriko dropped her voice back again with a grumble. "If I have to hear harpies complain one more time that that eighty should be an eighty-three..."

Dai snickered behind a gift card and Miya and ventured to ask. "That's... nobody we know, right?"

"None of the clan, no," Noriko answered with a snort. "I did hear Jou's son's skipping a grade next year."

"He and I had a chat in the store," Hikari said from the sofa, eyes scanning Hirose's math work. He shot her an imploring frown "He's terrified."

"But Uncle Jou's a pushover," Dai called from where he was grabbing crayons under the table. He bit back a swear word when Miya's foot missed his head. "He could just tell him no."

"I've never heard Shika say the word 'no' to anyone without stuttering it," Hirose muttered in Kei's ear. "Poor bastard."

Kei twisted his ear, trying not to smile. "Bad Hirose."

For some reason, this got a particularly pouty look from Dai, which Kei didn't understand, but decided to ignore. Dai was Dai; he had to doubt the boy even knew he was doing it.

Hirose rolled his eyes and shoved him. "Go help your mum with food. I need to actually study."

Kei pouted but did so. Hirose could be so mean!

Hours later, Kei sighed in relief. "Done, Mom, nana!" He put down his pencil and thumped his head on the desk. The others would have laughed if they hadn't gone home already.

"Don't break that, you need it," Noriko called from the dining room. Terriermon was loopily dangling himself from one of the blades of the ceiling fan. Nutcase.

"My desk or my head?" he muttered, rubbing it with care anyway.

Hikari chortled and brushed a glass of ice water against his cheek, causing him to yelp. "Both." She laughed at the look on his face. "Come on, from the chair and to the bed. You've been sitting there so long; you might get back pain."

"Mom's so confident in me." Kei began to pack up. It was almost not worth it because of the mess he would make in the morning.

"Of course I am." She mussed his hair. "I'm not the one with the test anxiety, now am I?"

Kei had the courtesy to flush. "Well, these are tough exams. I can't just let Plotmon beat them up like the Digimon."

Noriko snorted into her second mug of tea. "She could do it to the teachers."

"My coworkers wouldn't appreciate that," Hikari said with a laugh. "You want a bath, Kei?"

"Please!" He moved to clean his desk, putting papers away and packing his bag. He rubbed his eyes, nearly tripping over Plotmon. He gave her a gentle nudge with his foot. "Up, furry-face."

Plotmon yawned, ears flopping as she raised her oversized head. "Wanna sleep."

Kei tried not to snort. "I need a bath. And you need a brush. Come on." He picked her up, ignoring her playful whining into his shirt.

His mother was still in the bathroom when he came in. She dabbed at the light traces of makeup left on her face." The water may be too hot for Plotmon," she said, folding up the wipe. Kei nodded and set his yawning partner on top of the toilet seat.

"Have you 'heard' anything recently?" Hikari asked as he undressed, offering him a scrunchie. Kei took it, mulling the question over as he tied his wisps of hair back. He shook his head as he entered the water.

"Not that I remember," he said with a grimace of relief. The hot water felt good. "I'm pretty sure exams have been blocking it out for me, or I've been doing it without thinking about it." From where he could catch a glimpse of the mirror, he saw his mother's lips pursed with worry, wrinkling her face like a paper. ball "What have you heard?"

"Noriko thinks I shouldn't get involved," Hikari said, almost to herself. Well, that was helpful. Kei hated when his mother said stuff like that. That meant it was dangerous, and danger was more appealing when you were eight and knew you could get bigger people to help. At eleven, you were the help.

Tailmon snorted from her place by the radiator. "Noriko thinks you should never get involved with anything exciting because she can't be as much fun."

"I heard that!" Noriko shouted from the living room. Mother and son looked at each other and laughed.

The tension ruined, Hikari let out a sigh. "At the time, I thought it was just a daydream. But the god of the black sea doesn't just send dreams."

Kei winced and sat up straight. Plotmon opened one eye. Tailmon, however, did not react. Not fair, Kei thought. I learn everything last. Not that he had any real reason to know first, but still!

"I know he is a Digimon," Hikari continued, and she didn't seem too concerned. "But he is a god too, I ought to respect him."

Funny though, everyone else hated when his mother mentioned that other world.

"He told me there was a lost soul wandering around. He had an idea of who they were, or what they were, and he cannot establish contact with it. Eldritch abomination and all." She smiled. "Overwhelming at best."

"So he's asking you," Kei summarized. "And you're asking me."

"If I was younger, I'd just go ahead," Hikari admitted. Tailmon let out a scoffing hiss. "Yes, Tailmon, with or without you. I'm not completely helpless."

"The last time you went there alone, those creatures tried to take you as a mother of endless children." Her partner's tail lashed, narrowly missing a fly. "I'm going to worry."

"I know, but worry about Kei." She winked at her son. "He's the one that's going to do it."

Kei didn't even try to argue. He was going to do it, like it or not. Lost soul? Adventure? The god of the black sea? He was already all in. Too many interesting ideas to just run away.

"I've been around Taichi-oji-san too much," he decided, sinking back into the bubbles.

"You've been a Chosen Child too long," Hikari corrected, leaving the bathroom and offering him some privacy.

That was true too. He had been a Chosen Child long enough that he knew a gentle world and an easy adventure did not exist. That was why he couldn't let go.

He looked out the window of the bathroom. Flakes of white fell in and out of his vision. As he watched, some of them turned pitch black.

A/N: Okay, hit me. Why is an Aiko starting more fics? Well, this was supposed to be out in December. And I got pretty busy so it didn't happen. I figured it ought to come out eventually. So, here it is. I was gonna wait, but a friend of mine was like: I need more fic! So I, of course, obliged. This is dedicated to my friend firagaproductions, who loved the earlier works and encouraged this one! Well, here goes! Please review and tell me what you think!

Challenges: Winter Advent Calendar Day 17: write about an OC and J28. write a next-gen fic. If you have not read My Sanctuary, that would help with some background! If not, well, don't worry. This is semi-canon compliant so you can look there for the main confusion.