Me: Konichiwa! Sorry I haven't updated sooner, I was working on my fic "Chance Meetings". Also, I own Digimon not, I simply have the imagination behind the plot. So, no suing please. All you would get is a cracked egg and a month old PB&J with a black Banana. And thirty five cents.
True to his word, Hirokazu did indeed stop by the cemetery that very next day. He had been chewed out by his mother ( who was surprisingly sober) for being home late, and his father hadn't come home at all until around seven that morning.
Then the fighting had begun.
Again.
So now here he was, once again seeking refuge from the shouting and slapping and hateful words, accompanied by the sounds of breaking glass and other things, and doors slamming and swear words flying.
Here, it was peaceful and beautiful, the sun shinning gently through the leaves of the many shade trees that were scattered around, the birds sitting in their gently swaying limbs, trilling out their tunes in a way the tells you that this was a day for song. They weren't singing to talk, but for the sheer pleasure of it, and it calmed Hirokazu's mind, which, up until now, had been whirling in an angry haze directed towards his parents.
He took in a deep breath of the sweet summer air and released it slowly. So what if his parents usually forgot he existed, unless they had something to complain about. So what if he ended up, on more than one night, slipping out of his room hours after his father had slammed the door for the final time that night to drag his boozed-up mother to bed. Here, none of that mattered. No one here cared, and so he shouldn't either.
Jumping up and catching the limb of the tree he had hid in the night before, Hirokazu pulled himself back to his former perch. Here, in the bright daylight, he could see all around the grassy knolls and small, mini-valleys filled with white and grey stones, small and large alike. He smiled and pulled out a small sketch pad. He would never let anyone know of his love of drawing. It was a secret he would carry to his grave.
Drawing a few strokes with his charcoal pencil, he sighed happily and was soon lost to the living as he captured the world he had become so enamored with on his paper to remember forever.
He didn't reenter reality until his stomach growled loudly, interrupting his wondering thoughts and reminding him that he had skipped out on breakfast. Chuckling slightly to himself, he put his sketch pad and pencil away, and was about to hop out of his tree when a movement caught his eye.
Turning his head, he blinked at the object in front of him for a moment before it hit him what it really was.
Sitting innocently on the limb in front of him, where it most defiantly hadn't been before, was his handkerchief, spotless and neatly folded. He looked around quickly, searching for Kenta. But the other boy was nowhere in site. Shrugging slightly uneasily, he picked the white piece of cloth up and stuck it in his pocket, hopped the rest of the way out of the tree and headed for the entrance to the cemetery.
Kenta watched the boy from the night before, Hirokazu, slip from the tree, handkerchief tucked away safely back in his pocket, and head for the entrance to the cemetery. The other boy hadn't been able to see him that time. Not that he was surprised.
Kenta frowned around the trunk of the tree he was standing behind. As much as he hated the thought, Juri was right. 'Kazu really shouldn't come back any more. It just wasn't safe. Not for a live person, anyway, like the brown haired boy.
"Hey squirt, wha'cha doing?" Kenta gasped an unneeded breath softly, whirling around to come face to chest with the apparition who had decided to sneak up on him.
"Ahh….uh….D-Dan! You startled me!" Kenta squeaked, for lack of any other train of thought going through his head. Dan laughed, brushing transparent black curls out of his shimmering onyx eyes.
"I could see that." He laughed. Kenta didn't like his laugh. It made him shiver unpleasantly. "So where's your girlfriend?" He continued conversationally. Kenta frowned.
"Juri's not here." He said. Then as an after thought "And she's not my girlfriend." Dan raised an eyebrow, smile never leaving his face.
"Really? But the two of you died together." Kenta flinched.
"Yea, I kind of know that." He snapped. Now that he had recovered his wits, he was very annoyed with the spirit in front of him. He had never been fond of people (and ghosts counted in this too) sneaking up behind him.
"No need to get short…." Dan leaned over him, displaying the fact that he was a head and a half taller than he. "Shorty!" He smirked.
"Oh, clever." Kenta said with a roll of his eyes. "Please forgive me for not sticking around, but I think I left a toaster or something on." Lame excuse delivered, he faded away, leaving Dan alone, still smirking. He held up a small sketch pad, looking at the well proportioned, carefully detailed sketches covering the pages.
"He'll be missing this." He said to no one in particular. "I wonder where I should leave it for him to find." And then he, too, faded into nothingness, the small notebook in hand.
An Intersection Somewhere a Few Blocks From the Cemetery
Hirokazu looked behind him for what had to be the millionth time since leaving the cemetery. He had that creepy crawly feeling he got when someone was watching him. He had chalked it up at first to it just being his nerves. After all, when your handkerchief suddenly showed up in front of you all by it's self with no sign of the boy you had leant it to, it was pretty disturbing. He snorted. Sure it was. And there was an alternate universe somewhere that was home to a variety of digital monsters or something. Just a bunch of bull shit.
"'Kazu!" Turning back around, he waved back to the exuberant looking Takato as the boy drug an indifferent looking Lee down the sidewalk towards him.
"Hey chumly. What's up?"
"Nuthen but the sky!" came the overly enthusiastic response. Hirokazu gave Lee a look that was a mixture between board and accusing.
"You gave him coffee or some other form of caffeine, didn't you?" Lee shrugged.
"He wouldn't get outta bed." He said in half hearted self-defense. 'Kazu was willing to bet the Lee didn't mind how hyper the smaller boy was anyway, if the way Takato had his and in a death grip and was clinging to him like a leach and the way Lee's face kept getting pinker and pinker was any indication.
"Uh-hu." He said. He was willing to bet Lee had drugged the poor kid to keep him in bed just for that reason.
Hehe, conspiracy theories were fun.
He was about to say something about the color of the other boy's cheeks when he felt that prickling feeling on the back of his neck again. Turning swiftly, he caught a glimpse of pale skin and dark hair ducking behind a lamp post. Ah-ha!
"Hey Kenta!" He yelled, crossing the street regardless of the traffic signals, flipping off a rather annoyed driver who had to stop short to avoid hitting him. He made it to the lamp post in time to catch the boy heading in the opposite direction. Catching the retreating boy's arm, 'Kazu pulled him up short.
"Hey, wha 'cha running away for?" He asked cheerfully. Kenta turned wide, startled eyes on him.
"You can't talk to me here! On the street!" The smaller boy gasped, trying to pull his arm away, all the while giving the hand that held him the same odd look he had been giving 'Kazu's whole body the night before. Kazu just laughed and held on tight.
"Oh 'cummon Kenta, I know the glasses make you look a bit like a dork, but it's not that bad."
Kenta shot him a slightly offended look before finally managing to twist free.
"You-you can't come back to the cemetery any more. It's not safe for someone like you." He mumbled, just loud enough for Kazu to hear him, as if he were afraid of being overheard, not that Kazu could think of anyone who would care.
"What do you-" Kazu started, his voice outraged. How come this short, scrawny little kid could tell him to stay out of the cemetery. It wasn't as if, as had been insinuated last night, he was actually the caretaker's kid. But a call from Takato caught his attention and he glanced behind him to see the other two (who had waited for the traffic light to change) jogging towards him. He turned back to Kenta to finish his rant, but the boy was gone. He frowned in puzzlement, scanning the street for the now no-where-in-site boy.
Funny. He had only looked away for a moment and the boy had completely vanished, as if into thin air. He needed to get the him to show him that trick.
"Damn he's good!" He muttered approvingly as Takato and Lee stopped beside him, both giving him a funny look.
"Who?" Takato questioned. Kazu raised an eyebrow at him.
"Kenta, the boy I was just standing here talking to." More blank looks. Kazu shifted in agitation. He had seen them looking right at them when he had crossed the street. There was no way they could have not seen him.
"Goofy looking skinny kid with pale skin and glasses."
Blank looks.
"Dark hair?"
It didn't seem to be registering.
"Look! I was standing right here talking to him!" He shouted, annoyed. Takato and Lee exchanged an odd look before Takato turned back to Kazu, look morphing into concern.
"Kazu, we were watching you the whole time-"
"Exactly!" Kazu cut him off in exasperation. "So you saw him!"
"Kazu…." Lee began carefully "what we saw was you standing here talking to your self."
Me: Ok, I'll end it there. BTW, what's Kenta and Juri's last names? I need to know for something in the next chapter please……