I think I'm successfully getting back into this. August really is a special month.
I shoulda gone to bed hours ago but I felt the need to get this chapter out of the way. Not much longer now before we bring in the other pair.
Read on!
Lag
The room was dim when he finally woke. A soft yellow light spread across the floor, though it didn't do much in manner of illuminating anything else. He could barely discern vague shapes as he let his eyes roll around, trying to find out where exactly he was. A few fancy vases, a couple elaborate lamps, and sophisticated drapes drawn over a darkened glass door. He was in a… mansion?
TK closed his eyes, completely content in where he lay. He listened, and noticed the voices that were filtering from somewhere outside the room. His mother's unmistakeable voice was out there, which meant the one she was talking to must have been Mrs Tachikawa. It was a simple, friendly conversation between the two. His mother couldn't sleep. Mrs Tachikawa had prepared them a late night meal that was shortly scarfed down by Tsukaimon. TK cringed internally as he heard that news.
He recalled that they were currently staying with Mimi's family until they were ready to get their own small apartment. It was just one of those little strokes of luck that the Tachikawas were willing to take them in. After all, the main reason they had moved to New York was in an attempt to distance themselves from the incidents revolving around digimon. The Takaishis had given plenty warning of the two digimon that would be accompanying them, and though Mr Tachikawa was somewhat irritable over the whole matter, they still agreed to let them come.
After a short while longer, the two women began to quiet down, and TK figured they may be resigning for the night. The door to his room slid open silently, sending a beam of light across the wall and ceiling. He felt a bit too lazy to show any reaction, so he lay still.
"Patamon?" Came a harsh whisper. That was Tsukaimon's voice.
"Shhh," the orange digimon replied. He had been sitting next to his partner this whole time. "TK's still asleep."
"Still?!"
Ms Takaishi spoke next, her voice soft. "There now, let's not wake him up. At this rate, he might make it all the way to morning."
"But he's been sleeping ever since we got here!" Tsukaimon said in protest, though he did his best to keep his tone quiet.
"He had a rough flight. This is for the better. If he wakes up on his own before morning, that's fine. You know where the food is anyway, don't you?" She ended on an amused note. "Make sure he eats when he wakes up."
"Okay, okay." Tsukaimon replied as he stepped into the room. TK felt a weight settle on the bed as his purple partner jumped up onto the covers. "Has he even stirred at all?" He whispered to Patamon.
"No…"
Mrs Tachikawa spoke next from out in the hall. "I'm heading back to bed, Nancy. Hope you can get some more sleep."
"Thank you Satoe. I'll try, but I can hear the news calling my name."
"Watching the news at midnight? I'm afraid there are only silly talk shows on at the moment. Good luck watching those. It took us the longest time to even understand what those Americans were laughing about all the time."
"Oh well. Maybe it'll help me sleep."
"We'll see about that. Good night again."
"Sleep well." Mrs Takaishi turned her attention back to the two digimon in the room. She gave them a playful warning. "Now you two, I don't want to hear any bad-mouthing or windstorms coming from here, okay?"
TK's partners only snickered.
"I mean it now." Nancy said, though he could almost hear the smile in her voice.
"Yes, ma'am," Tsukaimon replied.
"We'll wait until he wakes up." Patamon chuckled.
Ms Takaishi departed with a sigh. TK remembered her commenting to him a while back about the two digimon. With Tsukaimon around to spur Patamon on, it seemed to her like they had a couple extra toddlers around in the family. She was very gracious and kind to them nevertheless, though they got on her nerves from time to time.
The digimon were whispering to each other now. Tsukaimon told Patamon about the food that Mrs Tachikawa had made for them.
"You shoulda came out and had some," the purple digimon was saying. "It's not too late to get a little now."
"No way. If we go out and help ourselves, there'll be none left for him. And what if he wakes up while we're out?"
Tsukaimon chuckled. "He's a big boy. He can find his way around a house, I'd think."
"This place is closer to a castle than a house."
"You think so?" The purple digimon's voice turned curious. "I didn't think it was that big."
"What kind of house did you grow up in?" Patamon was incredulous, but his question seemed to settle ill with his counterpart.
"Well… Y'know, I didn't really grow up in any one house."
"Sorry, stupid question."
"That's fine. I've gotten used to it."
"Yeah." Patamon paused for an instant. "What's that supposed to mean?!"
"What's what?"
"Oh don't play dumb with me."
"I'm not. That's your job to be dumb."
"Ya pickin a fight? You snobby prune?"
TK had been smiling to himself at the whole exchange, but he wasn't expecting Patamon to be the instigator. He tried to stifle a laugh that came from nowhere, only to fail with a sudden snort. His partners fell silent instantly.
"TK?" Patamon ventured.
"Yeah," the boy replied.
"How long have you been awake?"
"A little while."
Tsukaimon spoke up. "You sneak."
TK laughed softly. "Sorry. I was still a bit too tired to get up."
He sat up and rubbed his face for a moment before looking over his partners.
"You guys mentioned food?"
The digimon shared a glance before nodding and taking off. TK smiled at them as he slipped out of bed to follow. He was lucky to have flying pigs as partners instead of tubby dinosaurs like Agumon. At the speed they were going, they would have woken the whole mansion if they stomped on two feet instead of taking to flight. They were in an unfamiliar place, but Tsukaimon seemed to know his way well enough. There was a small parlour at the end of the hallway that led from his room.
It was a spacious, comfortable living room, though not overwhelmingly large. It had a modest dining set where there were some snacks set out for the guests. TK didn't pay too much attention to his surroundings at the moment, remembering how hungry he had become. The lights were dim anyway, the room illuminated by a sole lamp on the dining table. The parlour had several large windows along one wall. Though the Tachikawas lived some ways outside of New York City, one could still see the lights of Long Island from their house. Due to the thick cloud cover that night, it was especially easy to see the glow from the city. The sky was nearly orange.
"Aren't those snow clouds?" TK asked, mostly to himself.
"Yeah." Patamon replied. "I mean... as far as I know."
The boy stood and walked over to the window, bread roll in hand.
"You guys do realize we're halfway into spring," piped Tsukaimon. "'Course it isn't snow."
"You're probably right," TK said, rubbing his head. He had left his hat in his room. "I think the jetlag's getting to me."
"The what?" Chirped Tsukaimon.
"Jiklag?" Patamon said.
"Jetlag," TK repeated. "It's when you switch timezones and get your body's timer all messed up. Like right now, here in New York, it's what? What time is it?"
"Almost one in the morning?" Ventured Patamon.
The boy nodded, doing a quick calculation in his head. He wasn't the best at math, but fortunately for him they were on the near opposite side of the world. "That would make it noon back home."
Tsukaimon said, "So basically you're saying it's...lunchtime?" He didn't wait for an answer, favoring the idea of rushing back towards the table and helping himself.
TK chuckled as he returned his attention to the clouds over Manhattan. Patamon flew up and perched on his head. "Kari and the others are awake right now?"
"Yeah," said TK, smiling at the thought. "That's true."
He finally pulled himself away from the view and walked over by the table.
"I haven't checked my mail in a while. I wonder if they've sent anything."
He grabbed one more snack as he passed the table where Tsukaimon sat up on his hindquarters. The digimon looked at him and spoke past the food in his mouth. "By 'they' you mean 'she,' right?"
Wordlessly, TK poked his purple partner in the forehead with enough force to topple him backwards. Tsukaimon only managed a short "Hey!" in protest.
"By 'they' I mean 'they.'" TK said.
"Oh," Patamon gibed. "Someone's in denial."
The boy forced a laugh. "Alright, alright. Let's not get into this now." He shoved the rest of his bread roll in Patamon's mouth to shut him up. They made their way back into TK's guest room, where he began leafing through his backpack. Once he retrieved his D-Terminal, he hopped back into bed as he opened the interface.
"Get anything?" Patamon asked.
"One from Cody," TK replied. "One from Izzy, and one from Kari. They're just asking if the trip went okay."
He sent his replies, all of them short and simple. Patamon giggled. "They're gonna wonder why you're still up."
"Yeah," the boy said with a sigh. "Why am I still up?"
"Jiklag," the orange digimon said matter-of-factly. TK shifted so he lay on his stomach.
"Mind going to see what Tsukai's up to? Don't want him stuffing himself too much, you know."
"And leave you here to flirt with Kari?"
TK scoffed. "What? No. Why are you always joking about that these days?"
"Well," Patamon hummed as he headed over to the door. "I didn't notice it until Tsukaimon mentioned it."
The boy groaned. "Figures. Just like him to start up something like that."
"Is he right about it though?"
TK shot his partner a warning look, to which Patamon made no response except to skitter out the door and into the parlour. The boy sighed as he turned back to his D-Terminal. He hadn't quite pressed the send button on his message to Kari. It was short.
Made it okay. Didn't sleep much on the plane but making up for that now.
He was basically telling her good night. Something in him said that he wouldn't mind staying up later exchanging messages. He pushed the button and buried his face in the covers. He was feeling the drowsiness come back, now that he was lying in bed again. It was probably the wiser idea to go sleep now and talk later. The D-Terminal gave a small buzz, and he checked the new message. Kari merely wished him a good night's rest in turn. TK reached to put the device on his nightstand, and then stretched out to relax. Whatever his two partners were trying to insinuate, there was really no point in working up a fuss over it. He was happy enough with his relationships as they were. Now, since they were on the other side of the world, he would rather settle with just keeping in touch with Kari and the others. It wasn't the time to spend effort on going any further than that.
Presently, he heard his partners' hushed voices coming into the room. They shut the door as quietly as they could and then he heard a pause in their conversation.
Patamon ventured. "Is he asleep?"
"Already?! Didn't you say he was emailing Kari?"
"Well, maybe you were wrong about those two." Patamon put a certain stress on the fact that Tsukaimon may have miscalculated. The purple digimon had developed a reputation of being able to read humans, and that was something he was rather proud of. He scoffed at Patamon.
"Oh c'mon, Porky…"
"Wait, waaiiiit a minute. You still calling me a pig after all that food you ate in the past hour?"
Tsukaimon laughed. "Whatever. Let's call it a night. No sense staying up if he's already back to sleep."
"Fine by me."
One of them switched off a lamp, and then the two digimon climbed into bed.
"Whoa," Patamon said. "He didn't even get under the covers."
"Leave him alone. I guess he really was tired."
TK waited until the two settled, and then spoke. "Night guys."
"Wow, TK." Tsukaimon huffed.
Patamon whined for a moment, but the two wished TK good night, and the trio finally quieted for the rest of the early morning hours.
comments? critiques? concerns? I really appreciate the feedback, everyone!
Next chapter is in the works. See you all then.