Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Author: Higuchimon
Fandom: Digimon Adventure 02
Story Title: Broken Siren
Characters: Taichi, Yamato, Chosen Children||Pairing: Taichi x Yamato/Yamato x Taichi
Word Count: chapter: 2,075||story: 2,075||Chapters: 1/15
Genre: Romance, Fantasy|Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Diversity Writing Challenge, J4, 7-15 chapters; New Year's Mini-Advent, fic length determined by dice roll; (10,000-50,000 words); Valentine's Day to White Day Advent 2016, day #23, write a fic where everything turns out alright (no one said it had to start that way); Easter Egg Basket Advent, day #5, include someone almost, but not quite, dying; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #8, 32,589 words; TaiYama/YamaTai Week on Tumblr, prompt #2, bonds
Challenge Location: Diversity Writing, New Year's Mini-Advent, Valentine's Day to White Day Advent 2016, Easter Egg Basket Advent, & Word Count Set Boot Camp may be found at the Digimon Challenge forum on FFnet. TaiYama/YamaTai Week is hosted on Tumblr.
Notes: This is an AU. Things will probably be confusing now, but I will try to explain it all by the end.
Summary: Sirens are forbidden to exist in Prince Taichi's kingdom. He barely even thinks of them. So when a mysterious stranger with a compelling voice arrives at his twenty-first birthday party, Taichi's only desire is to get to know him better, no matter the cost.

"What is your purpose?" One voice, dark and cold and commanding.

"I will seduce Prince Taichi and bring him to you when he's under my control." A second voice, whisper-soft, raw edges and hurt echoes, rusty and thick.

"Why will you do this for me?" A hint of warning, a breath of a threat.

"Because I owe you my life. Because you will give me what I want." Still angry, still rough, but with a wisp of pain wrapped through it.

"Will you fail me?" Another edge of warning, nothing more.

"No, master. I will not." Conviction. Complete and utter conviction.

Taichi stifled a yawn and tried his best to smile. He usually wasn't too bad at pretending interest, but he'd been at this party since just before sundown. He'd had enough already.

I want to go to bed. He bit back another yawn. If something didn't happen soon, he'd make an excuse and get out of there.

Hikari leaned in a bit closer to him, her eyes sparking with enthusiasm. How she could manage this longer than he did Taichi had no idea. "Look over there," she murmured, her voice no higher than a whisper.

For lack of anything better to do, he followed her gaze to the door, where someone new had just entered. That wasn't surprising in and of itself; people came and went all night. Royal parties were like that. But what did surprise him was the fact this new person had hair of new-minted gold -a rarity in their kingdom - and eyes of a bright blue that Taichi couldn't remember ever seeing.

Except… hadn't he? Once before?

The ring on his finger pulsed in the enchanted lighting of the ballroom and the thought slipped away without leaving a trace in his mind. He stared at the newcomer and before Hikari could say another word, he was on his feet and moving toward them.

"Greetings, stranger," he said as soon as he was close enough to the new arrival. "I don't think I've seen you before."

The other turned toward him with his first words. Taichi's breath caught in his throat at his first sight of the stranger's face. Never before had he seen someone this beautiful.

"This is my first time at a royal ball," the stranger said, his voice almost too soft for Taichi to hear. Taichi listened harder, wanting to hear more of it already. "You can call me Yamato."

Taichi nodded, shivers racing outward from his deepest core. "I'm - "

"Taichi. I know. The prince." Yamato's lips curved to a smile. "THere are few who wouldn't know you at your own party, Your Highness."

Oh. Right. This was in honor of his twenty-first birthday. He hadn't even thought about that for half the night. But now he had something else to occupy his mind. He held a hand out.

"Since it's my party, then would you care for a dance?" It wasn't at all the first time he'd spun around the room with a new arrival, though none of them had caught his attention with little more than being blond and a handful of soft-spoken words.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't," Yamato replied, a quirk to the side of his mouth. The longer Taichi listened to him, the easier hearing his voice came. The longer Taichi listened to him, the more that he wanted to listen, and the longer he wanted Yamato to stay with him.

As soon as the band noticed the prince's return to the dance floor, they struck up a livelier tune, something fit for a prince and yet another potential suitor to dance to. It didn't take very long before Taichi found himself comfortable enough to ask a few questions.

The fact that Yamato answering those questions would enable him to hear that voice again could only be a bonus in Taichi's mind.

"How far away did you come from?"

That earned him another quirk of Yamato's lips. "What makes you think I came from far away?"

"Because I know all the nobles in the kingdom by sight or name and I don't recognize either of those for you," Taichi replied, making a bit of a face at the memory of all those boring lessons . "And I know most of the royal families that are close enough to get here soon and you're not from them, either."

Yamato laughed and the sound struck even deeper into Taichi's heart than his voice had. He could listen to either of them forever. "You're right. I had to travel for weeks to get here." He leaned a bit closer, enough so Taichi could see the fine stitchwork on the scarf around his neck. "But I would've traveled ten times as far to see you, Your Highness."

It wasn't at all the first time that people had said something like that to him in his life, let alone tonight. But it was the first time that Taichi thought they meant it.

"Is that so?" He grinned, losing himself completely in those sapphire blue eyes and the feel of Yamato's hands in his as they danced. Those weren't the hands of a warrior, that was for certain, for all that they retained calluses. "Why is that?"

"Why would anyone come this way to dance with a handsome prince?" THe words gave a feeling of practice, but they were heartfelt all the same. Taichi pulled himself closer.

"Are you going to be here for the next two nights?" ONe night of a ball wasn't enough for his father, not at all. No, this would last for another two nights, until Taichi had danced at least once with everyone eligible who turned up.

In under five minutes of dancing with Yamato, he couldn't imagine wanting to do so with anyone else. He could see Hikari watching him from the sidelines and when she caught his gaze, she nodded in firm approval.

"I wouldn't miss them for the world," Yamato promised. "I don't need to ask if you'll be here." He leaned in closer, so that only Taichi could hear him when he spoke. "Can we dance both nights?"

"I'm going to spend as much time with you as I can both nights," Taichi promised without a hint of thought.

Yamato's fingers tightened against his, a spark of joy in his eyes. "I can hardly wait."

Far too soon the musicians led the song to an end and Yamato stepped away. Not too far, for which Taichi found himself quite grateful, but he missed the close warmth of Yamato's body already.

"Something to eat?" Taichi grasped at what he wanted for himself and what he hoped would give him yet another excuse to spend a few more minutes with his unexpected guest.

"Definitely," Yamato agreed, falling into place beside Taichi as the prince led the way to the refreshments table.

Taichi could see his father and mother looking in their direction and avoided catching their attention. They'd want to meet Yamato and Taichi wasn't even close to ready to let anyone else talk to him. The thought of other people hearing that compelling voice, of not being the only one Yamato spoke to, sent chills all through him, and not of the good kind. He wasn't going to share. Not yet.

So he slid around a little so his back was to them and all of his attention focused itself once more on Yamato. He was supposed to be entertaining potential suitors and he'd already done something similar many times that evening. He could have something to himself, just once.

"Did you come with anyone else?" Taichi wondered. Yamato hadn't said where he had come from, just that it was a long trip, and he had to have some kind of escort. Taichi remembered many a time when he'd wanted to go just out to the city and his parents refused to let him go on his own.

"Of course. They're taking care of some personal business," Yamato shrugged as he spoke. "You'll meet them sooner or later, trust me on that."

"Your parents?" Taichi wondered if Yamato's parents could have the same kind of compelling voice that Yamato himself did. THe idea of listening to three such voices sent his head spinning.

Yamato's reply didn't come right away and Taichi looked closer, wondering what the problem was. The moment their eyes met, Yamato nodded, a sweet smile touching his lips. "Sure."

Taichi wondered at the phrasing, before Yamato picked up a plate full of small delightful pieces of food and gave it a very careful examination.

"What is this?" The simple question distracted Taichi almost at once from whatever he'd been thinking about.

"Hm? Oh, those are eggrolls," he said, gesturing to a couple of pieces. "And that's sushi right there. Don't you have that where you're from?"

"We're too far from the ocean to have much seafood. I'm a little more used to roasts or pork."

Taichi's eyes rounded. "You know, I don't think I can remember having pork. Ever." He remembered hearing about it but not tasting it.

"If you come visit me, then you can have all you want," Yamato promised, that spark gleaming bright in his eyes.

"You mean it?" Taichi almost couldn't believe how good his evening could turn out after all.

"I don't tell lies," Yamato said, nibbling at an eggroll. "THey're boring, anyway."

Lying was boring? Taichi hadn't thought of it like that, but now he saw it Yamato's way. Boring and way too difficult to keep up with. Who'd even want to bother with it?

Taichi couldn't have said how long they talked or what it was they talked about. None of it seemed to matter in the slightest, not compared to the fact he talked to Yamato at all. They spun out for another turn on the floor, the only time that Taichi gave someone a second dance all that evening.

"Who is that?" The Queen tried to get a better look at who her son danced with but their movement and the amount of people also out on the dance floor made that far more difficult than she liked.

"I can't tell," her husband answered, not paying that much attention. It was just as well that his son was making efforts to make connections of any kind tonight, and he'd better keep it up on the next two nights. Exactly who those connections were with he didn't care. There wasn't anyone here who would be a bad match in any sense of the word. "What do they look like?"

She moved her head, peering around in an attempt to get a better look. "All I can be sure of is that they're blond. They must be from very far away."

The king's head came up at once. "Blond? With blue eyes?"

"I can't tell. Why?"

He laid a hand on her arm. "Don't you remember? Five years ago…"

The queen paled at those words alone, fingers tightening into a terrified clutch. "But he's… it can't be!"

The king pressed his lips together, now casting his own eyes over the ballroom. "It shouldn't be. But we must make certain." They'd done too much five years earlier to let this happen again, and the foul creature had had a brother who looked similar to him.

The throng of people parted just enough for the king and queen to see their son standing on the edge of the dance floor, one hand raised in farewell to someone out of sight. The king refused to swear, but if he'd been a lesser man, he would have.

"We'll speak to him," the queen reassured him, laying one hand on his arm to calm him. "He needs to know there's a chance of such a thing happening again."

The king shook his head. "No. No, he doesn't. That's the last thing he needs to know right now. Or at all." His eyes hardened. "Whoever it is, they must not return to the palace. Not tomorrow and not ever again."

Taichi would be furious, but the king wouldn't back down. His son's life could depend on it, and for that, he would do anything.

He didn't need to see who the mystery guest was. The blond hair and the way Taichi was so drawn to them after only a few moments said more than enough.

The siren had returned from the dead.

To Be Continued

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.