Author's Notes: So this story came to me in a dream I had while writing another story, Stand in the Rain, which also came to me in a dream after I listened to a song. Make of that what you will. I'm going to be starting in the middle of the story and then sort of jumping around in time after that (and I mean by years sometimes).

In this story, Miyako is the same age as Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, and Ken because it is convenient for the story. Also, though I'll be following a lot of Digimon canon for the most part (minus the whole Digital Adventure part), some dates have been fudged for the story's sake.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.

Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant. ~Senaca

2 August 2013

There was an annoying buzzing sound. He was going to absolutely demolish what was making it…as soon he could open his eyes through the pounding headache in his skull. His hand reached out blindly to the nightstand beside him, and his fingers came to rest upon a rather squarish object, vibrating every other second. And he finally realized that it was his phone that was making the buzzing noise. Before he could answer it (because he was stuck wondering why his phone was on vibrate in the first place), it stopped. A few seconds later, it buzzed briefly and fell silent once more. Bringing the phone close to his face, he squinted at the screen, where it told him he had forty-three new messages.

His eyes widened and he blinked once in surprise, but he went quickly back to squinting as his headache spiked. It seemed incredulous and a little ridiculous that he had that many messages. He touched the screen to open this newest one which had arrived that minute before. It was from his older brother and there were simply three words in it:

WHERE R U? ! ! ? ? ! ? ! !

His first thought was that it had a rather unnecessary amount of exclamation points and question marks for such a simple question. His second was that he wondered where the heck his brother thought he was. He squinted up at the time in the corner of the phone. Sure, it was a little late in the day for sleeping—it was nearly noon—but (after another quick confirmation glance to the corner—for some reason he felt sort of out of whack) it was a Friday in summer after all and he had no plans that he knew of whatsoever. So, of course, he was sleeping in bed at his apartment. Where else would he be?

Shoving his phone into his nightstand drawer, he decided to ignore it for now. His brother's freaking problem could wait until he got rid of this stupid headache, though now he had a nagging doubt that he was missing something. When you've got a problem, review the basics and what you know…he was sure some famous person said something like that. Or maybe he read it in a book somewhere…but he stopped that train of thought as he focused. With half a smile, he reviewed what he knew. He was Takeru Takaishi, twenty-two years old, university student.

…

Perhaps that was a little too basic. So he closed his eyes and tried to just remember what he did yesterday. There was a party, he was sure of it. A birthday? No, that wasn't right. He vaguely remembered lots of white…and purple for some reason. But not purple purple exactly…a softer color…like lavender…Miyako!

His eyes snapped open as he remembered. Of course, yesterday had been Miyako and Ken's wedding. He had been at the reception, but why couldn't he remember much after…

Groaning softly, his eyes slid close again as he covered his face with his hands. He was never going to trust Daisuke again. He didn't care if his life was going to depend on it—from here on out, he was going to die rather than trust him. Because he now knew what had happened.

That thought had barely formed before he froze as he suddenly felt a hand that was most certainly not his own slide slowly across his bare chest. It was small and delicate and just quite clearly feminine…and why wasn't he wearing a shirt in the first place? Tensely holding his breath, he slowly turned his head and peeked between his fingers to see who was sleeping beside him. His hands lowered off his face and his breath rushed out of him in relief as he saw a familiar beautiful brunette. Hikari Yagami—his best friend and strictly platonic life partner, despite what everyone else thought or tried to implicate—was sleeping peacefully on her side rather close beside him, but then he'd learned rather quickly that Hikari tended to be a "snuggly" type of sleeper. He'd lost count of the times she'd mistaken him for a pillow, though he didn't quite see how as there were vast differences in softness between him and a pillow.

The headache still remained, but it was slowly becoming bearable to open his eyes as he sat up and took a quick glance around the room and recognized that he was in Hikari's apartment rather than his own…which made his brother's confusion at his location much more understandable. But not quite completely understandable, as Hikari's place should have been the second place he looked. It wasn't a secret that he and Hikari often spent the night at each other's apartments (though it didn't help in their insistence to others that they were just friends and nothing more). They had even joked more than once that they should just move in together to save money. But they never had as they thought that potential and actual dating partners—who wouldn't know them as well as their closest friends—would misunderstand.

A soft groan emitted from the woman beside him and Takeru looked back down at Hikari, who had her eyelids scrunched together for a moment before she slowly opened them in a squint, giving him the barest look at their warm burgundy color. "Good morning," Takeru said cheerfully as he almost saw the humor in the whole situation by now.

She just groaned and rolled over onto her back, swinging one forearm over her eyes. "How can you be so cheerful?" she asked incredulously which Takeru just answered with a grin, even though she couldn't see it—they'd know each other long enough that he knew that she knew it would be there. And sure enough, the next thing she said was, "And don't give me that grin; my head is killing me. I swear I am never drinking again. This is not worth it," she finished flatly.

"So, what do you remember from last night?" Takeru asked playfully, partly just to tease her, but also partly because he himself didn't remember much of anything past when Daisuke handed the two of them those glasses full of something that was most definitely not "just some orange juice" as he had claimed it to be…which was the exact reason why he was never going to trust the other man again.

Her arm slid up over her head as her face twisted slightly in thought. Suddenly, she gasped and sat up straight quickly, but then leaned over almost immediately with her hands on the side of her head. Her eyes clenched tight as she moaned, "Oww…bad idea."

"What is it?" Takeru asked with just the barest slice of dread about Hikari's violent reaction to whatever had occurred to her.

Hikari pulled her knees up nearly to her chest and crossed her arms over them. She laid the side of her head on them as she looked at Takeru and sighed. "Miyako is going to kill me when she realizes that her maid of honor doesn't even remember her wedding," she said despondently. When Takeru started to laugh, her eyes flashed with anger and she said, "Stop laughing. I'm serious!"

"Oh, I know," Takeru said as he struggled to control his laughter. His own headache was still there, but as time went on it had slowly progressed into a moderate dull thud. He was still in some desperate need of a little aspirin or ibuprofen or some kind of pain reliever (at this point, he wasn't going to be picky about which one). But with the kind of reaction she'd had, he was expecting something a little direr than what she had said. The laughter was more out of relief than anything else. "But, in your defense, if you're having the same problem as me, you probably do remember the wedding—it's just everything else that happened afterword that's the problem."

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise as she asked, "You can't remember either?" Takeru shook his head ruefully in answer with a small apologetic smile. She gave an atypical fierce grunt as she uncharacteristically said, "I am going to flay Daisuke within an inch of his life." Hikari was not a violent person at all (neither was he, though), so it was strange to her hear say something like that, but Takeru felt that he had to agree that the situation definitely warranted that reaction.

Stretching his arm over his head, he asked, "Why only an inch? Why not just go the whole way and put him out of his misery?"

Hikari gave him a sweet almost fake smile as she said mockingly, "Why, I thought I'd leave the last little bit for you, dear."

"Thanks, honey," Takeru replied, equally as sarcastic. "How kind and thoughtful of you." They had a long history of teasing between them having known each other since they were very young as both of their brothers, Taichi Yagami and Yamato Ishida, had been friends since second grade themselves after the "dark year" as the brothers liked to call their first grade in elementary. Taichi and Yamato had spent most of that year fighting each other with their mutual friend, Sora Takenouchi, acting as mediator between them. Then in the spring break between first and second grade, somehow the two of them all of the sudden became best friends. Takeru didn't remember what happened (as he and Hikari had only been four at the time themselves), and the two brothers didn't really ever bring it up themselves. Ever since then, the two of them had been as close as brothers themselves, and because of that, Takeru and Hikari had met and became close friends as well.

Takeru frowned suddenly as finally gave Hikari a good look up and down. "Are you wearing my shirt?" he asked as he recognized the light blue t-shirt. "And…are those my boxers?" he asked alarmed as he saw what she was wearing below as she leaned back to study the shirt after the question.

"Hmm," she said nonchalantly. "So they are."

"May I ask why exactly you are wearing my clothes?" he asked.

At that question, Hikari lost some of her calm demeanor as her cheeks flushed slightly pink. "Well," she started hesitantly. "You know how we keep clothes at each other's apartments, right?" Takeru nodded, his brows furrowed in confusion as where this was going. They had started that practice, after one particular night when Takeru had slept over at Hikari's place and both of them had accidentally slept in late, leaving no time for Takeru to go home and change. He'd gone to school the next day in the same clothes he had the day before…leading others to the obvious (and completely wrong, of course) conclusion that something had happened between the two of them (as it was only really known to their close knit of friends that they slept over with each other). After that, they'd given each other a drawer at the opposite's apartment to make sure it didn't happen again. "Sometimes," Hikari continued with her gaze focused completely on the wall in front of her, "when you're not here, I wear something like this to sleep in because they're comfy and they help remind me of you because most of the time I sleep better when you're here. You…make me feel safe," she finished quietly with a shrug.

Takeru didn't really have an answer for that as he was kind of immensely flattered and happy that she felt that way. So, before he could think of something to say, Hikari reached out and poked him lightly in the chest. "What about you? What's with the no shirt and only sweatpants ensemble?"

Seeing an opportunity for a joke to lighten the mood, Takeru put on a fake thoughtful expression said, "I don't know. It must've been cold or something last night. Because, as you know, I usually don't sleep with anything on," he finished with a wide grin.

Shaking her head slightly with half a grin herself, she said emphatically, "You do not." As she said this, she grabbed her pillow behind her and threw it at him. The action caught Takeru slightly off guard; he caught the pillow in his arms, but it caused him to lose his balance and tumbled backward off the bed with a tangle of sheets around his legs as he fell. He heard Hikari's startled gasp and her rush to the side of the bed as she said hurriedly, "Are you okay, Takeru? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean—are you laughing?" she finished suspiciously.

Takeru was indeed laughing into the pillow over her panic of him falling only a good two feet—nowhere near far enough to cause him any sort of serious injury. He moved the pillow aside as he said through badly suppressed laughter, "You've hurt me terribly. You better come kiss it better."

With a humph, Hikari picked up the other pillow and chucked it at him, hitting him squarely in the stomach, which only caused Takeru to laugh even harder and reconsider his earlier thought that Hikari wasn't actually a violent person. Without another word, she slid off the bed and walked out of the room, leaving Takeru to unravel himself from the sheets and tumble after her. Still not able to completely stop laughing, he called after her, "I'm sorry, Hikari." He found her in the kitchen rummaging in the cupboard; she didn't look at him as he sat down at the small table that worked as the dining room. But when she set a glass of water and two pills in front of him with a gentle smile, he knew he was forgiven. He downed the painkillers—the headache was still there after all, even if it was becoming bearable—as she sat down across from him with her own water and pills.

As she set the glass down on the table, Hikari propped her elbow up on the table and rested her head in her hand. "You know, guys are so lucky to just be able to whip off their shirts the moment they get hot. We girls have to just suffer," she said with a thoughtful gaze at his still quite bare chest. She lifted her gaze back to his eyes and he wondered what she saw in his blue orbs to give her that strange almost confused look in her eyes.

Deciding he didn't really like the sudden silence in the room, he said mischievously, "You could do it to, if you wanted to. It's not like I haven't seen it before," he finished nonchalantly.

She looked shocked for a minute before her eyes softened and she said dismissively, "I seriously doubt the one time our brothers threw us in the bath together when we were five counts."

Takeru gave an exaggerated sigh as he leaned back in his chair and said with false remorse, "I suppose you're right. Why did they do that again?" he asked, trying to think back to that day. He remembered that he and Yamato had gone over to the Yagami apartment, but he couldn't remember why Taichi and Yamato had done that.

Hikari gave a shrug. "Mom and Dad left Taichi in charge when they went out to help my grandmother. You guys were spending the weekend with us while your parents were out on assignment. I think a TV show they wanted to watch was going to be on soon, but Mom had specifically told Taichi to give us each a bath. I guess Taichi and Yamato just decided to save time by throwing us in together," she finished with a lopsided grin.

Takeru laughed both because it just sounded like something the two of them would do and his own memories were resurfacing of the incident, confirming what Hikari said. "I guess that was before the baseball bat days," Takeru said. Shortly after they had entered middle school, Taichi had bought a baseball bat—which confused quite a few people as Taichi had not expressed an avid interest in the sport before that (he was much more into soccer). But it became quite clear soon after Hikari's first date with a boy in her second year why he had bought it, the sole reason which was, of course, to drive away any and all boys Hikari dated that he did not approve of.

"Sometimes, I still can't believe he bought it, and actually threatened boys with it until I reached high school," Hikari said reflectively. "He never did tell me why he stopped."

A memory he had long since pushed away flashed across Takeru's mind at those words, but he pushed it back into the corners of his mind as Hikari suddenly fidgeted slightly in her chair. Instantly, he was ready to come to his feet as he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said softly. She reached her arms back and stretched as she continued, "I must have slept on something weird, that's all." Her arms fell back slowly to her sides as she gave him a reassuring smile. She stood up and reached across the table for Takeru's cup. Taking her own as well, she went over and rinsed them in the sink before grabbing the soap to wash them. As she did this, she said over her shoulder, "Why don't you go ahead and shower first? I'll leave some clothes for you outside the door once I'm finished with these cups."

"Okay," Takeru agreed, coming to his feet. As he walked to the bathroom, he suddenly remembered the message Yamato had sent him that he had just unceremoniously stuffed into what he now realized was actually Hikari's nightstand and not his own. Takeru wondered what it was exactly that caused Yamato to sound so panicked; he made a mental note to go over to his brother's place as soon as left here. Perhaps his brother would be able to fill in some of the blank slate that most of the previous evening still seemed to be.