Takeru rubbed the back of his head and sighed. He reminded himself that the reason he had to tell the Digidestined for not talking to them was not a very good reason at all, but, now that he was back, he couldn't leave his friends, especially Hikari, in the dark about why he had acted the way he did. "I'm not really sure where to start," he finally said.

"Let's start with why you didn't come to the Digital World anymore after you moved," Hikari said. "With your D-3, you could have come to the Digital World anytime you wanted. We could have met up much easier there than here in the real world."

Takeru smiled wryly. "That's actually an easy question," he said. "We didn't have a computer in France."

"What?" Hikari asked and Takeru could hear the shock in her voice. "Why didn't you have a computer?"

"My mom didn't want one," Takeru replied. "I guess that's kind of the beginning of the reason for everything. Mom didn't want me going to the Digital World anymore because she felt that every time we went something bad would happen to me. I thought she was exaggerating a bit, but what could I do? She's my mom." He paused and sighed. "She knew that if we didn't have a computer in our home that it would be much harder for me to go to the Digital World, especially since she forbade me to go. She thought that since there was peace there now, I didn't need to go anymore. She didn't understand that there was more to going to the Digital World than saving it from dark Digimon all the time. I couldn't go against her wishes. She's my mom," he repeated, a little more softly this time.

Hikari laid her hand on his arm again as they continued to walk to her apartment. "I guess I can understand why you didn't come to the Digital World. I can't really be mad at you for that." But her voice took on a slightly harsher tone with her next words. "But I can be mad about this: why didn't you explain this to us?" she asked.

Takeru shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I just thought eventually I could convince her to let me go, but after a few months, I knew she was adamant about it." He sighed. "Then I just stopped talking to you guys because…because, well, it was painful, I guess."

"Painful?" Hikari repeated, hurt clear in her voice.

"Uh…that didn't exactly come out as I meant," Takeru said in a rush. "I knew that since I couldn't go to the Digital World and my mother was fairly adamant that we would be staying near my grandfather from now on, the likelihood of me seeing you guys again anytime soon were about slim to none." Takeru ran a hand through his hair frustrated. "I guess I thought it would be easier to just not talk to you anymore since I knew I wouldn't see you again. Then I thought that if I didn't explain myself, you guys would be too mad at me to bug me too much. Which worked on all of you except, I guess, Daisuke." He sighed again. "I know it's not a very good reason. But it's the explanation that I have."

Takeru waited as Hikari said nothing. They walked the whole rest of the way to her front door in complete awkward silence. They stopped and Takeru waited for Hikari to open the door, which she didn't. He looked down at her and saw the tears brimming in her eyes that were probably only staying there and not streaming down her cheeks by her own sheer will. "Hikari?" he asked tentatively.

Hikari, wiping her eyes, said, "I suppose I understand your reason, but when you just stopped talking to me, it hurt so much. I just kept wondering if there was something I did to force you away."

"It wasn't your fault at all, Hikari," Takeru said almost desperate. "The blame is all mine." He had almost forgotten this about Hikari. She usually did blame herself for everything. She was always thinking of others.

Hikari shrugged, not really saying anything else. Takeru reached out a hand to touch her cheek, but halfway there he let it drop back to his side as he turned away from Hikari. He clenched his fist and wanted to hit himself. He hadn't really thought about the pain it would cause his friends. He had forgotten to think of Hikari, Patamon, and the rest of his friends. He had given up hope in himself and his friends. And that was probably how they had gotten to him. "Some bearer of hope I turned out to be," he muttered out loud. He turned back to Hikari. "I promise I won't ever do this to you again."

Hikari put the key in the lock and opened the door. "I forgive you, Takeru," she said. "Really, I do." She walked into the empty apartment with Takeru walking in behind her.

Takeru had to smile when he saw the inside of the apartment. It was exactly the same as when he had left four years ago. But then a frown came back onto his face. "Are you sure, Hikari?" he asked. "Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you stayed angry at me for a long time."

Hikari shrugged. "It's just not my nature, I guess," she said. She slipped her shoes off and Takeru followed her example. Instead of leaving them by the door, she carried them to her room. Takeru did the same. After all, he knew it probably wasn't a good idea to go to the Digital World with no shoes.

Honestly, Takeru wasn't too surprised that Hikari had forgiven him so easily. As the bearer of light, Hikari always thought of others before herself. She seemed to have kept truer to her strength than he had.

They walked into Hikari's room, and she sat down at her computer, bringing up the port to the Digital World. She pulled her D-3 and D-Terminal from her own bag and turned to Takeru. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.

Takeru pulled out his own D-3 and D-Terminal. "As ready as I'll ever be," he replied.

Hikari nodded and held up her D-3 to the computer. "Digi-port open!" she said.

When they arrived, Takeru looked around at the forest they were in. "This place hasn't changed at all," he said. "These are still some of the weirdest trees I've ever seen."

"I prefer unique," Hikari said dryly. They laughed together and somehow, Takeru almost felt the click. Just like that, they were best friends again.

"Hikari! Hikari!" a familiar voice called out from down the trail.

"Gatomon!" Hikari called back, running to her Digimon companion. She gathered her friend up in her arms and Takeru had to smile. Somehow, Gatomon seemed to get smaller each time he saw her. When they first met, Hikari could hardly pick her Digimon up. Five years ago, Hikari could hold her companion, but now Gatomon seemed to be somewhere along the size of a normal cat in Hikari's arms.

Gatomon's blue eyes turned to Takeru. "Hikari?" she asked. "Is this who I think it is?"

"It's nice to see you again, Gatomon," Takeru said, not knowing what else to say. He really wanted to ask about Patamon, but was almost afraid of the answer. But suddenly he didn't have to.

"Gatomon, you shouldn't run ahead so fast!"

Patamon came flying into view. He stopped when his eyes locked with Takeru. Takeru felt his heart constrict at the sight of his Digimon. He had no idea what to say. Patamon was sure to be so mad at him, and wouldn't likely forgive him as well as Hikari had. But, as it turned out, he didn't have to say anything at all. Patamon's face split into a huge grin and he cried out, "Takeru!" Patamon flew to him, and Takeru gathered him into a hug. He was surprised at how small Patamon seemed, just like Gatomon. He and Hikari had grown, but their Digimon had remained just as they always had been.

"Patamon, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me," he mumbled. He felt the tears gather in the corner of his eyes, but they didn't quite fall. He noticed that Hikari and Gatomon had slipped a little way away to leave him and Patamon in somewhat privacy. Takeru began to explain to Patamon just what he had said to Hikari earlier.

"It's all right, Takeru," Patamon said. "I forgive you. Just please don't leave again for so long."

"I won't, Patamon," Takeru said. "Never again."

Hikari and Gatomon joined them again and all four smiled at each other.


Taichi opened the door to his family's apartment, glad that someone was home. He thought that Hikari would probably be home from school, since she didn't belong to any clubs, but some days when he came home for a visit, it was only to find his sister had gone to the Digital World again.

As he slipped off his own shoes, he looked at the shoes already in the entryway. Hikari's were there, but his parents' shoes were gone. Usually that meant that Hikari was home alone, but there was another pair of shoes that he did not recognize. It wasn't completely unheard of for Hikari to have friends over, but the unknown shoes clearly belonged to a male. He didn't recognize the shoes as belonging to any of the Digidestined men, who would usually be the only boys Hikari would have over.

Taichi was suddenly a brother of mixed feelings. It was possible that this boy could be Hikari's boyfriend and he didn't quite know how he should feel about that. On one hand, Hikari was after all seventeen years old and plenty old enough to have a boyfriend. On the other hand, Hikari was his precious little sister that no man would probably ever be worthy enough for her.

But then again, he had heard from Yamato, who heard it from Sora, who had talked to Miyako, who told her that Hikari turned down any confessions that she got.

Suddenly, he heard Hikari scream from her room, which launched Taichi into action. He raced to her doorway and threw open the door. He found Hikari sitting on the floor against her desk and some blond kid on his knees leaning over her with his hands on her waist.

The three stared at each other for a moment until the blond sat back on his heels and said, "Oh, hey, Taichi. How have you been?"

Completely ignoring the fact that this "stranger" knew his name, Taichi marched over to him, grabbed the kid's shirt, and brandished his fist in the blond's face. "All right, buddy. I don't care if you are her boyfriend or whatever, nobody lays a hand on Hikari."

Hikari placed a hand on his fist and, almost but not quite yelling, said, "Taichi! Let Takeru go! He wasn't doing anything."

Taichi looked at his younger sister in surprise. Her face seemed to be red with anger, but he could also see a flash of embarrassment in her eyes. He turned his attention back to the blond, whose blue eyes seemed to be full of amusement more than anything else. "Takeru?" he repeated, releasing the boy's shirt and backing off, just a bit. He studied the kid for a moment and found the boy he once knew in the young man before him. Not to mention that he looked somewhat like Yamato did at seventeen, minus the hair gel.

Takeru smiled. "Somehow, that wasn't exactly what I was expecting," he said. "But it is still good to see you again, Taichi."

Taichi rubbed the back of his head and laughed weakly. "Sorry about that, Takeru," he said, still reeling a bit at finding the bearer of Hope in his apartment again. "When I heard Hikari scream, I guess my older-brother-mode sort of kicked in automatically. I thought someone was attacking her."

Hikari huffed and said, "That's not really far off."

Takeru laughed and said, "Well, if you had just told me what I wanted to know, I wouldn't have had to tickle you."

Taichi felt like it was four years ago before Takeru moved. Taichi felt just as out of the loop in their relationship as he always had. That was when it really hit him. Takeru was here and not in France. Yamato's behavior suddenly made a lot more sense. He had been acting strange all the past week, especially since he had been going to his father's apartment more often than usual. Whatever had been going on with him, both Taichi and Sora noticed that he was happy about it, so they had decided that they wouldn't bother him about it.

"So, what are you doing here, Taichi?" Hikari asked.

Taichi came out of his reverie and said, "Oh, Yamato and Sora are having a dinner date at our apartment, so he basically told me to get lost." Taichi laughed. "In the nicest way possible for Yamato I'm sure," he added.

Takeru laughed with him. "It's nice to know some things don't change."

Taichi shuffled to the door. "Well, I'll just be in the living room." He closed the door behind him and flopped onto the couch. He turned on the television and began mindlessly flipping through the channels, but keeping one ear honed to Hikari's door. He trusted Takeru, but four years was a long time.