Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. But if I did, I would so read fanfiction about my show lol.

I am so glad you guys enjoyed the past chapter! Your reviews are very nice to find when I log on. : )


The laptop on his good leg was growing hotter by the minute, but Yamato didn't mind the heat. After the full morning it was nice to be able to focus his attention on a specific matter that did not involve sharing long-lost feelings. He would never tell Miyako how happy he was that their therapist conversation had ended, since both had to take the various pain medications the doctors seemed happy to throw at them. Whatever they had put Miyako on was strong enough to force her into taking a rather long nap. According to the clock on the wall, it had been at least an hour and a half since she retired to one of the guest rooms.

He punched a few keys and stared in wonder at the surprisingly long list of therapists available in the area. It seemed ridiculous that this many people had chosen a job where they sat and listened to people complain and rant. What kind of person could go in to work everyday to deal with people so depressive? Besides, he still hadn't figured out how the people could be so willing to share their deepest feelings with a stranger. Wasn't that something their mothers had warned them about in childhood? Stranger danger and all that stuff?

"What are you doing?"

Taichi broke the silence of the room and forced Yamato to glance up from his computer. It was rare to find a quiet moment in the busy house, but Taichi had been surprisingly respectful of Yamato's privacy and alone time after his talk with Miyako. In fact, the boy had been so busy talking with Takeru about something; he hadn't really noticed Yamato come back inside. But now, he was leaning against the door frame of Yama's bedroom with a genuine spark of interest in his eyes.

"I thought you and Takeru were busy talking about something?" He kept his hand still on the track pad; afraid any sudden window closings would alarm Taichi.

"We did. And now, I would like to spend time with the other blond in the family."

Taichi hadn't been to keen on ignoring his pressing desire to pester Yamato with questions about Miyako. It had taken a rather long talk with Takeru to push him into holding back said questions, at least for now. There was only so long the boy could avoid asking the important queries of the day! Besides, at this point he assumed that he had a bit of an in. Didn't the boyfriend get to know all the information the regular public would never know? That had to be part of some unwritten relationship code somewhere.

"Sure. I just have to check something first…" He felt uncomfortable hiding things from Taichi, but he didn't want a giant talk about the fact Miyako had been the voice to get him into seeing a shrink.

As the boy's good hand pecked at various keys with amazing speed, Taichi slinked over to his side and plopped on the bed. He hadn't been able to catch what the title of Yamato's earlier website was, but he did notice quite a few pictures of men and small bios listed beside them. What kind of things could he be researching? The idea that Yamato was looking at other men alerted that small voice of doubt in his mind, but he refused to feed the idea that something bad could be going on in this situation. If past experiences had taught him anything about Yamato, it was that the boy's desire to keep everything secret often led to large, drawn out misunderstandings. He'd keep an eye on the blond, but was not going to jump to any conclusions just yet.

Green lettering caught Taichi's eyes as his boyfriend busily typed in his e-mail address and password. The number beside Yamato's inbox left Taichi floored; 40,000 unread messages. How the hell did anyone acquire that many messages? What did he do, give his address out to strangers on the street and beg for spam?! As he stared closer at the un-opened e-mail list, the boy silently noted that almost each one was sent by a different username.

"How?"

"Hm?" Yamato looked up from the list and noticed Taichi gesturing at the screen with wide eyes.

"How in the world do you have this many messages?"

Yamato blinked for a second as the question rolled over him. It surprised him that Taichi was so… well, surprised about the mail. He knew that Yamato hadn't been able to check it very often and that quite a few of his high-ranking friends had been trying to contact him for a while. Truthfully, the situation shouldn't have been strange unless his mailbox wasn't slightly full with well-wishes and requests. Either way, he wasn't a fan of the bizarre look Taichi was offering him.

"What…" Tai recovered from the shock a few seconds later and pushed forward, "What was it you were looking for?"

This time he couldn't ignore the question. Instead of answering right away, he scanned the page for a name that wouldn't be too hard to look at. He wasn't proud of the fact he had shut himself off from his past world, but it had been the only option at that time. At least, the only option he thought was reasonable at the time. He wondered if the concern and worry his friends had once possessed about him could have shifted when it was announced he was in the hospital. As much as Yamato hated the thousands of headlines about that evil man and himself, they had been a pretty easy way for his old friends to finally hear something about his life. Now, he just had to find a way to shift back into the world. Why did he feel such an overwhelming obligation to apologize to everyone? Did every person who lived through an attack feel this uncomfortable?

"Yama?" Taichi waved a hand in front of his friend as the various flashes of emotions passed over the blond's face. "Are you alright? You seem to be twitching…"

"What?" Yamato blinked, much to Taichi's relief, and clicked on a random e-mail. "I just couldn't find the message I was looking for."

"Who is Wong Rinchei?"

"He is an old director friend I met at one of Sora's parties."

The blonde's eyes finally settled on the e-mail he had selected. It hadn't been sent too long ago and seemed to be pretty lengthy. Although, Yamato would call the man a friend if asked to describe their relationship, Rinchei was more of a common acquaintance. The boys had always ended up standing next to each other at parties when their dates were busy gossiping about random things.

Personally, Yamato had been perfectly fine with standing in silence as Sora talked with Rinchei's wife. That hadn't been in Rinchei's behavior manual, though. The older gentleman had always managed to drag Yamato into a conversation about his current projects. Near the time of the car bomb, Rinchei had looked into the idea of doing a musical film. Yamato had originally been able to avoid the subject of him participating in the film, but now it seemed the idea was back to haunt him.

"He wants to talk to me about a role in some new film. Apparently, the lead is supposed to look pretty beat up," He mentally cursed the man for finding a way to make a profit from his injuries. "And some new 'amazing' actress is determined to do a read through with me."

Taichi laughed suddenly and only paused when Yamato looked at him in surprise, "What? You can't actually be considering doing this?"

His brow furrowed as he tried to dissect Taichi's words, "Why couldn't I be thinking about it?"

"Uh," Taichi's tone turned a little patronizing as he once again spoke without thinking, "You are still recovering, for one. You aren't in any shape to go do a movie. Besides, you freak out when I try to take you to a store. How would you survive a huge movie set with people and tons of new things?"

"I am not exactly new to this type of thing." The words were blunt as their discussion began to escalate.

"You can't do it i-"

"You can't tell me what I can and can't do, Taichi."

The air in the room shifted to a new level of cold as the boys began to fall into their fighting positions. A reasonable person would have been able to see the point of miscommunication with ease; unfortunately a reasonable person was nowhere to be found in the room. Instead, the headstrong and the stubborn-independent scowled at each other in silence and tried to plan their verbal attacks.

"I am not bossing you around. I just know that you aren't ready for this."

If he was being honest with himself, Yamato hadn't expected to take the job offer. That e-mail had just been an excuse to avoid the therapist discussion (aka fight). The only thing that kept him from telling Taichi so was his stubborn side and a desire to retain some independence. The kidnapping had taken a lot away from him, his ability to walk, a leg that didn't require metallic help, the ability to relax or sleep, and a whole slew of other issues. The thing he hated the most, tied with the inability to trust his brain not to go insane, was his loss of independence. Taichi knew how much he detested asking people to reach things for him or push the damn chair so his hand didn't become worse! Why couldn't the brunet grasp the fact that this was still Yamato's life and his own choice, injuries or not?!

"You don't get to make that choice for me, Taichi!" His voice rose, as the mix of medication and stubbornness danced a tango through his better judgment.

"I never said I was making the choice for you!" He moved away from the bed and stared at the blond with furrowed eyes, "Though it looks like I would definitely make a better one then you are going to!"

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Taichi's brain finally caught up with the argument and alerted him to what he had just spat out at Yamato. Inside his mind was a continuously changing wheel of emotions. He wanted to give Yamato his freedom and he knew the boy wanted it desperately. But, this whole thing was such a stupid idea! Like it or not, and in this case it seemed hell not, Yamato was still in the beginning of a very long recovery period. If Taichi had any feelings for the musician, he couldn't let him go through with something he couldn't handle. Yamato had freaked out and had the most extreme panic attack Tai had ever witnessed when they took him to a simple convenience store only a week or so earlier. How could this thick-headed boy even fathom putting himself in this kind of position?!

"Look," He tried to take deep breaths to calm the emotional anger in his core, "I would have supported this idea, a little bit, if you would have at least agreed to see someone about your panic attacks and nightmares."

"I'm already doing that!" Yamato's own anger was not hidden as he spoke. As much as he disliked fighting with Taichi, there was something strangely cathartic at finally getting to vent all his pent-up frustration with the world. "Miyako asked me to and I was trying to find one when you came in."

"Wait a minute, I asked you thousands and thousands of times, before and after the incident, to go see someone and you chewed me out. Miyako asks once and suddenly you can't go fast enough?!"

The boys hadn't realized how loud their voices were growing until Hikari and Sora appeared at the doorway. While Sora merely watched the duo in confusion, Hikari's eyes grew wide and she immediately tried to insert herself between the boys. She wasn't sure what had started their fight, but she didn't like the look in their eyes. Until Yamato attempted to climb out of the bed and balance on his good leg, Sora remained by the doorway. Seeing her old friend wobble on his feet and glare with a new level of anger at Tai, forced her into action. She quickly joined Hikari and tried to keep Yamato steady while the female brunet attempted to gently move her brother back a few steps.

"What is going on in here?" Hikari asked, desperate for answers, as Yamato and Taichi continued to shout at each other.

XXX

The waiting room for the therapist was devoid of people, minus a couple on the other side of the room. Yamato sat in the uncomfortable wheelchair and rubbed his left temple. He was used to running on little sleep, but after a night of no sleep whatsoever, he was feeling the effects. Inside his temples was a constant pounding that increased when he let his mind drift into thinking about what was going to happen behind that door.

"I'm still surprised he could see us so quickly," Takeru, the only person brave enough and available to escort Yamato to his appointment, shifted in his seat and looked over the book in his lap. "I guess my therapist wasn't kidding about having connections to some of the top people in the field."

"Whoopee…" His brother groaned sarcastically and closed his eyes to try to block out the light of the room.

Takeru remained silent for a few moments. He hadn't been able to focus on his book since they arrived at the waiting room. Yamato had made concentrating nearly impossible with his quiet grumbles and constant finger tapping on the arm of the chair. Since they were children, Yamato had always been the worst of the two at handling doctors. Although Takeru's memories of their life before the divorce were faded, he could easily recall an incident where they had been brought in for booster shots. Most of the memory entailed Takeru sucking on a cherry flavored lollipop while the doctor and Natsuko chased Yamato around the room. That day had ended in tears for the older sibling, and Takeru wondered if this day would be a repeat performance. At least Yamato couldn't run fast in the wheelchair.

Ever since the amazingly loud fight between Yamato and Taichi, Yama had been even more edgy then usual. Taichi had, for the first time in weeks, stomped out of the house and slept at his own place. At least, Hikari and Takeru assumed he slept at his old apartment. When his fiancé had tried to call her brother and check on him, the phone had gone straight to voice mail; a very bad sign. As far as Takeru knew, Taichi would usually drop whatever he was doing to help out or talk to his sister. If he was screening Hikari's calls, he had to be pretty ticked off at the world.

"Yamato," Takeru closed his book in defeat and glanced over at the man grumbling to himself, "You know you are talking to yourself and glaring daggers at a fake tree in a psychiatrists office, right?"

The statement snapped the boy out of his current pout and brought him back to the current conversation, "I just don't like these people."

"Is Taichi one of those people?" Takeru ventured the question carefully, knowing his brother could snap if pushed in the wrong way.

Yamato, surprisingly to Takeru, remained quiet for a few minutes and actually thought about the question. He knew that he didn't hate the brunet, but that didn't mean he wasn't fantasizing about decking him at the moment. It had felt so weird to spend the night alone in his room. Taichi had been by his side for so many weeks now that he almost felt like a permanent fixture. Sure, he had a lot more room on the bed without Taichi hogging half of it, but it didn't feel right for some reason. Taichi had been there for him through so much, and never pushed him into going further into their relationship than Yamato was ready for. Up until last night, it had been pretty smooth sailing. But that still didn't excuse the fact he thought he could make all the decisions for Yamato. Damn Tai, the boy thought bittersweetly as he began to realize how attached and intertwined they had become in each others lives.

"No."

The answer was blunt and quick, but Takeru still smiled at the sound, "I'm glad."

"Why?"

"Well," Takeru retained the calm smile as he watched his brother's confusion and surprise, "I think you two are good for each other. A little stubborn and head strong-"

"Yeah, that's Taichi."

"That is both of you, actually." Takeru countered playfully and laughed as his big brother lost the smug grin on his face.

"Then maybe we aren't so great?" Yamato's tone was less serious than before alerting his brother to the slightly playful shift in their conversation. "Opposites attract and all."

"Yes, but similarities stick, oniisan," Takeru grinned at the man and patted his shoulder.

"Maybe… but I still want to smack him upside the head."


Ah, smell that? That is growing drama my friends. : ) Sorry, couldn't help myself. I love when characters show their human side and don't float through life with no problems. Makes the story so much better, in my opinion. Anyway, up next we will meet the character behind the psychiatrist's door and see if Taichi and Yamato can make up or break up. Stay tuned boys and girls! And thanks again for reading this story!