Y/N: I got the "Next Time" segment wrong last time…unfortunately, and this time is Willis and not Michael. Either way though, my brother wrote it! Enjoy and review if you can!

U/N: Due to complications with the space between America and Japan these few chapters caused a problem that we had to work out :P But I... like them all anyway... the next few chapters are in my three favourite characters to write's perspective, WIllis, Michael and Kurayami, as well as one of my favourite characters Miyako and then... Koushiro xD I hope you like this chapter and see why Willis's one shots in the "Moments" Story were important... anyway... i hope you like it and review :D

Title: Digimon Adventure 05

By: Yukira and Urazamay King

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.

Part 1: Targets Unknown

Chapter 7: Photograph

Willis:

I stared down at the mess in the attic as Hikari and Tatum pulled out old dresses and clothing from the past. Michael was going through old items, like rings, toys and the likes. I, of course, was saddled with all of the paper work and old photo albums.

We were going through all of my mother's things that she'd collected over the years. The walls of the musty attic were lined with manikins, chests, old dressers, piles of boxes, filing cabinets full of everything and anything, and everything else my mother could possibly fit in here. The room was lit by a single light bulb in the center of the room.

The attic was the final room in the house that still had to be cleared out until my mother was successfully moved out of my home. It took a rather long time—but now that she was able to move in with Michael's father. I was pretty psyched to finally have her gone. I was completely sick of all of her constant bickering and complaining. She thought she'd won and that I'd picked her over Terriermon and Lopmon. But I hadn't. They just had to stay in the Digital World. Well...

But she thought they did anyway. And I had to keep her in the dark because if she knew...

Point being, she was crazy and thought I'd picked her over my best friends, but I had never, and I would never do that. She was an awful human being who could only be considered cruel to the point of complete idiocy. I was almost to the point where she'd never be able to redeem herself. And once I passed that point I was going to be shutting her out of my life forever. I'd made that point very clear to her but she didn't seem to care.

She just moved on to another boyfriend and paid less attention to me. At least this boyfriend had the brain capacity to keep an intellectual conversation with me, so I suppose that was a step up from the past morons. The only problem was that it was my best friend's dad.

Whatever though, they got married anyway...

"Willis!" Mom had cried out with happiness as she barged into the room wearing her wedding dress that made her look like a very large cloud. "Don't I look wonderful?"

"You look like a marshmallow." I told her bluntly.

"Oh sweetheart, you just don't understand the joy of being married to the most wonderful man alive." She said, "Michael is my soul mate. I love him more than I've ever loved anyone! I feel like I could finally make something right for a change. Something worth living for."

I had wanted to point out that she had me. And ask her if I was worth living for. But I was scared of the answer. Either answer. I was afraid of the guilt I would feel if she told me she loved me, due to all of the thoughts that crossed my mind at the thought of her—and not in a nice way. And I was afraid that if she didn't love me I'd realize how much I really did love her. If I did. I couldn't be sure really. More importantly Michael's father knew about, and accepted digimon, which was a nice change of pace from my mother.

But I had a much more serious talk with Michael's father the very same day as he rushed into my bedroom in his suit and tie.

"Willis," He said to me, "Willis I'm so glad you're awake. I realize this wedding is very sudden for you—because it's sudden for me too."

"Are you backing out?" I asked him.

"No." He said, "No, no. I love your mother very much Willis, even if she can be a bit jaded, one sided, argumentative and stubborn. She is a caring woman... but the reason I came to talk to you was because in all the rush of excitement I've forgotten to ask you something very important."

"And what's that?" I asked him.

"As the man of the household," He said seriously, which didn't really have any effect as I was sitting on my bed in boxers and a t-shirt. "Will you give me your blessings to marry your mother?"

"Oh, what a relief." I sighed, "I thought you were going to ask me something legitimate. Yeah go ahead. Marry her if you want to."

"Willis, you take this wedding even less serious than my own children," He sighed. "Willis, I know it would mean a lot to your mother if you were my best man at the wedding."

"Oh no." I said shaking my head quickly. "I'm not really into those kinds of things. What about Michael? He's your son!"

"It was actually upon his insistence that I came to you." Mr Washington said kindly. "Willis, I promise you I will do whatever I can to make your life as smooth as possible. But I only ask you one favour. Will you be my best man at the wedding later today?"

"But I just got up!" I groaned, but the look in his eyes changed my mind quickly. "Okay, fine." I nodded, "I'll be your best man. Now leave my room so I can get ready."

He laughed and jumped to his feet, slipping out of the room. "Thank you Willis," He said quickly, stepping away and revealing Michael who winked at me and then skipped off, pleased to not have to be the best man.

The wedding would have been awful too, just as I'd thought, only... Michael's little sister Jenna was there. And she was literally the most hilarious person on the face of the planet. She basically made fun of everything the whole time while "accidentally" getting drunk. I would have stopped her from doing so, but it was wedding and I was pretty sure that was the point of them.

To get so drunk that you didn't notice how boring it was. Because all weddings were boring. The only people who found weddings interesting were the people who were getting married. So why did they always have to invite people to sit there and watch them be boring together?

Whatever...

The wedding was bearable in any case because of her since Hikari was unable to actually attend the wedding due to her having an exam during that time. The only good thing to come out of that night as far as I could see was that my best human friend and I had become brothers.

But I was happy my mother was moving out now. Finally I'd have my own house—with Hikari of course, and Michael, Jenna and even occasionally Tatum. But no mother around. And I'd finally tell them about Terriermon and Lopmon. Maybe. Probably.

Michael was holding what appeared to be a music box. It was just a small silver box, but as hard as he tried it wouldn't open. "Should I throw it out?" He asked, but I shook my head. There was something about it that was very familiar.

"Willis, a lot of these dresses are really cool." Tatum said with a smile on her face as she held up a Victorian Era dress that had been passed down through generations.

"Burn them."

I looked to the doorway and saw Jenna standing there. Her blonde hair was in two curly pigtails as she stood with her hip out sporting what looked like a red tube top and leather pants with her heels seemingly going on forever. I never really wanted to know what she was doing owning all her strange clothes, but it wasn't up to me...

"We can't burn everything." I told her. "My mom wants to keep some things."

"Your mother is a bully Willis," She said, stepping into the room and sitting down on one of the boxes by the door.

"I know, and burning her things would give me great satisfaction." I said, "But I'm not willing to put up with the consequences."

"Fair enough," She said.

"Where are the snacks you went to get?" Michael asked her.

"You wanted some?" She asked, "Sorry, I ate them all."

"Butt face." Michael said with a roll of his eyes.

Jenna laughed at him.

"Willis..." Tatum whispered, stepping toward my mother's wedding dress from her first wedding. It looked a lot less fancy than the one she wore to her more recent wedding, but I liked it more. It was also a much smaller size, since it was before she found out about me being a gold mine and gorged out on food all day after quitting her job. "This is beautiful." She ran her hand down the sleeve of the gown and grinned, "Really, really pretty."

"Burn it." Jenna joked causing everyone to laugh.

"Is this what she wore when she married your dad?" Tatum asked. I nodded. "She had much better taste back then."

"She was also a real person back then... instead of being a shell of her old self." No one said anything after that, unsure of how to react to me actually caring about my mother, but I shook it off.

"There is a key around the manikin's neck." She said pointing out what, in my opinion was rather obvious. She picked up the silver key and held it up. "Does this go in that box you had earlier Michael?"

Michael's eyes widened with excitement suddenly upon the possibility of finding out what was in that box. I knew Michael enough to know that his curiosity often got the better of him.

He rummaged through some old things until he pulled the silver box out again. Tatum tossed him the key and he excitedly jammed it into the keyhole and twisted it.

The top popped off of the box and it began to play a soft melody. Michael's face fell.

"It's a music box." Michael sighed.

"With upbeat music!" Jenna said happily.

"Is this from your childhood?" Hikari asked.

I shrugged and closed my eyes, listening to the music... it was even more familiar now that the music was playing.

"Let's open the door to summer..." I said slowly, "Because someone is waiting there."

"Pardon me?" Hikari asked as I began to hum to the music, and then I actually started singing, which I felt embarrassed about for a moment, but it faded quickly as the song and memories rushed back to me of my mother singing this song to me.

"We're standing here again, and light is shining on the street corner. Where are we going? Anywhere is fine, wherever the wind goes, wherever we feel like. Let's open the door to Summer... because someone is definitely..." I was suddenly picturing a laughing child, as I finished the verse, "Waiting there for you."

"That's a cute song." Hikari said as I opened my eyes allowing the memories to fade away again. "Where did you learn it?"

"My mom..." I said slowly.

"What does it mean?" Hikari asked, but I responded by simply shrugging my shoulders.

Everyone stood silently for a moment before returning to what they'd been doing. Michael continued excitedly flipping through old trinkets my mother had collected. Tatum continued examining my mother's old dresses, as Hikari let out a small scream as the bottom of the box she was holding fell out and clouds of dust erupted amongst old pictures. Hikari dropped the remnants of the box and fled the room in a coughing fit.

"Can we burn that box?" Jenna asked me as I followed Hikari out of the room and down the stairs. She ran all the way to the main floor and out the door to get some air.

"You alright?" I asked her as she breathed in the fresh winter air. She nodded and coughed one more time. "You know you don't have to help. You can take a break whenever."

"No," She said with a small smile, "I want to help you out. You want your mother and all of her things gone, and I'm happy to help."

"Because you want her gone too," I joked.

"No!" Hikari insisted, "I think your mother is a very sweet woman. Sometimes. I am however sick of her checking constantly to see if I've gained any weight."

"What?" I asked, "What was she doing that for?"

"She wanted to see if I was pregnant." She said. "And she kept asking me why we weren't married yet. And she kept asking me why I wore my clothing in such a 'sophisticated manor' since I was so young and still had something to show off."

I laughed nervously, "Yeah, Mom's a strange one... sorry about that. If you'd told me about it earlier I would have talked to her about it."

"No, don't worry." She said. "That's nothing. You know this is the first alone time we've had in over two weeks."

"You're right." I laughed, "Michael never leaves us alone." She stepped toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"That's okay though," She said, "It's worth the wait." She leaned in to kiss me but we were interrupted by a loud cough. We both turned to stare down the stone steps to where a red haired boy stood tall and extremely muscular I couldn't help but notice.

"Marshall." I sighed. I hadn't seen him in a rather long time. He was a bully. Much worse than my mother. He'd picked on me since I had started school... what he was doing at my house though, I didn't know.

"Hey Willis," He said with a rather joyous grin. "Long time no see..."

"Marshall... what do you want?" I asked him, stepping away from Hikari and glaring down at him. "If you've come to apologize—"

"I'd never apologize." Marshall said, "You know that. I actually came here to see if you and Rebecca were still in contact."

"No, actually." I told him as my heart began to sink. "You've seen her more recently than I have. As the story goes, you followed her to Japan only to get rejected in yet another country."

Marshall's grin faded quickly but he shook his head. "Dude, no need to be mean, I was just wondering."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I miss her. And I think she'd miss me." He said. "We're both older and mature now. I'm a lot better looking than I was, and she's probably smart enough to put on a baseball glove and pick me up."

"What?" I asked, totally not sure where he was going with that.

"Because I'm a catch." Marshall explained, "She's going to catch me."

"Ah, yes." I sighed, "Well good luck with that, if you do find her please tell her that I say 'hello'."

"I don't think she wants to hear from you." Marshall said, shaking his head. "You broke her Willis. Into a million pieces."

"Whatever Marshall." I snapped, not in the mood to relive the mood I'd felt the last time I'd seen Rebecca. "Now please escort yourself off of my property or I'll do it myself."

"You and what army?" He joked as he flexed his muscles. I thought about telling him about my guard dog and his partner rabbit who could shift into giant monsters and rip his head off, but he'd seen enough of Lopmon for one life time. His eyes slipped past me though and rested on Hikari who he grinned at. "I don't know you, but you are adorable, Babe. Could I take you out on a date?"

"My name is Hikari," She said calmly speaking in the English tongue she'd picked up on quite easily, "Not, 'Babe'. And no, you may not take me on a date. I'm actually in a relationship with Willis."

"Well he's kind of pathetic don't you think?" Marshall asked her as if I wasn't there. Anger was surging inside of me again, so simply. Everything Marshall had ever done to me was piling up inside me. Every time he'd thrown me into a dumpster, taken my lunch, thrown pie in my face, filled my shoes with raspberry jam, slashed the tires in the parking lot and blaming me for it, tripping me, calling me names... everything... it was all coming back to me as if it were yesterday. "He's a scrawny nerd. I'm a hot jock. He's going to get you an unhappy life filled with work and stress, whereas you could be my hot trophy wife who was meant only to sit there and make me food."

I balled my fists up as Hikari gasped behind me.

"Oh really?" She asked, "How romantic of you." The sarcasm in her voice was evident.

"Why thank you," He grinned, totally missing her tone of voice, "I had initially planned for Rebecca to be my little sandwich maker, but you'll do too."

I wasn't sure how anyone could possibly be so irresponsibly, unequivocally awful in every way imaginable. And before I knew it, the 'scrawny nerd' had swung his fist back, and propelled it with such a force that I couldn't even fathom, hitting Marshall across the face with my fist as hard as I could. He staggered backward for a moment but I knew I'd made a mistake letting my anger get the better of me.

Within seconds I was on the ground with his fist pounding into my face with strength and power that made my punch seem more than pathetic in contrast.

"Stop!" Hikari screamed, running toward Marshall and trying to pull him off of me. I could barely see what was happening, but I could feel pain as his fist came in contact with every part of my body Marshall could get to. "STOP!"

Soon enough I heard the door fly open and felt the pain stop for long enough to see Michael be punched in the face by Marshall, and as he turned back to me, before he could do anything there was a hand around his neck forcing him back.

"Hey, Dick-face." Jenna growled with such anger. "Touch my brothers again and I will end you."

I was suddenly being lifted up from both sides. As I looked over I saw Tatum looking at me, scared, but it was nothing to Hikari on the other side who was crying at the sight of me. Yay... more reasons for Marshall to make fun of me!

"Lil' Willy got his girls to fight his battle for him?" Marshall barked with laughter.

"I'm quite positive I'm a man actually." Michael growled.

"Hardly." Marshall said.

Michael jerked toward him but Marshall was quicker and pushed Michael backwards and into the snow.

Jenna reached forward quickly and grabbed Marshall's pinkie finger in her hand and bent it back sharply. "You leave here right now. I'm giving you five minutes until I call the police."

Marshall pulled his hand from Jenna's grip, looking down at his hand and then he sighed. "Whatever." He spun around and started walking off, down the laneway rolling his shoulder and cracking his neck on the way. I was sure it was just for show.

As he left and the tension and fear left my body I was left with just the raw pain and my legs suddenly buckled underneath me. Tatum and Hikari caught me though and I started laughing.

"This isn't funny!" Hikari insisted. "You could have died!"

"It's my fault." I said, "I shouldn't have started it."

"You were defending me and your friend Rebecca." Hikari said, "You were very brave Willis." She kissed me on the cheek and turned to the house.

"We should get you inside." Tatum said quickly.

And so that's what they did. Hikari passed me off to Michael though and he, along with Tatum got me all the way back to the attic as Hikari headed to the bathroom to find whatever medicine and bandages she could find.

Eventually Jenna entered the room with a sigh, dropping the phone, "Are you sure you don't want me to call the cops?" She asked, and I responded simply by nodding. "If you say so... oh—also, Hikari was looking for bandages, so I told her that there were some in the supply closet. It's okay if she uses those right?"

"No!" I said quickly, but it was too late. Hikari had already let out a loud scream.

"What is it?" Tatum asked, turning toward me.

"Tell her that it's okay!" I said quickly, "and that if she comes here I'll explain it to her!"

Tatum nodded, unsure of exactly what I was saying, but she set off at a run anyway. Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he rubbed his face where Marshall had punched him. "Dude, what's down there?"

His question was answered as Hikari stormed into the room with Tatum right behind, both of them looking very angry. In Hikari's arms were two very apologetic looking digimon to whom she dropped in front of me.

"Explain yourself." Hikari said seriously. "Now."

"It's a long story, but I need you to calm down first." I told her.

"It's after dark Willis!" Hikari groaned, "They're going to offset the balance of the Worlds!"

"No!" I insisted, "They aren't. I promise. Well... they haven't so far."

"So far?" Michael asked, "How often do you keep them out?"

"What are they?" Jenna asked, raising her hand, but she was completely ignored.

"For... well..." I sighed, "Since we defeated Fanglongmon?" I was met with a very angry roar, but I raised my hands to silence them. "Guys! Listen to me!"

"Or us?" Terriermon said, "We're cute."

"Yeah we are!" Lopmon agreed, "But I'm cuter."

"In your dreams Carrot-face!" Terriermon growled.

"Everyone just calm down!" I shouted. I was met with total silence as I winced at my side which hurt quite bad still. I'd have to explain fast so someone would help me with my wounds. "Okay, so my first thought was... I didn't want to have to say goodbye all the time. They were my only friends for a long time you know? And then eventually it came to a point where I couldn't do it anymore, and I just wasn't going to. Why? Because there's no balance needed of destiny and miracles. Those two traits are part of the world itself—they were never balanced—I have no portrayal of Destiny. Everyone has a destiny. Not just me. And miracles happen—that's the miracle of them! I can't just sit here and spurt out miracles... so I knew that my crests were different and that I didn't need to keep them balanced, so I tried it one night. And I prayed. I really did. I crossed my fingers, I hoped I did everything I could to prevent the chaos from ensuing... and it worked. The worlds didn't fall out of line... and so I continued doing it. Every single night."

"Willis..." Hikari said breathily, "Do you realize how careless that was? You could have put us all in a very large amount of danger. You were risking more than just spending time with your friends. You..."

"But Hikari," Lopmon smiled, hugging her legs, "Nothing bad happened! It wasn't Willis' fault! We love him, and we wanted to stay anyway. It was a joint screw up!"

"Yeah!" Terriermon agreed. "So if you punish him, you have to punish all three of us."

"Fine," She said, "You're all grounded." I laughed, but the look Hikari gave me shut me up quickly. "I am very serious Willis. You put us all in danger. I'm not entirely sure how to ground a grown man yet... but whatever the case—you two. You get no cereal for two weeks."

Terriermon and Lopmon burst into tears instantly and began crying out about how sorry they were and how it wasn't really their fault, it was all my fault all along.

"I'll figure out your punishment later." She told me as she stepped toward me and motioned for Tatum to follow with an armful of supplies. As the two of them began to tend to the pain all over my body inflicted by the most awful creature in the world Jenna and Michael began cleaning up the mess Hikari had created with the faulty box.

"What happened to you?" Terriermon asked with a raise of his eyebrows. "Did you fall over?"

"Terriermon," Lopmon sighed, "Falling over wouldn't hurt him this much."

"How about no studying for a month?" Hikari suggested, trying to find a decent punishment.

"I don't study. I'm naturally a genius." I smirked.

"Oh, rub it in why don't you?" Michael laughed.

"No supper?" Hikari tried.

"Already ate."

"Oh I'll think of something." She pouted.

"Hey... Willis." Michael said slowly staring at a picture Jenna was showing him. "You might want to see this." Michael snatched the picture and slid across the floor toward me where he held the picture up in front of me.

The picture was rather old, and not well taken care of. It was of a man with big blue eyes and blonde hair sitting in a chair and holding two babies in his arms, both of them wrapped in quilted blankets. In the corner of the picture there was a mirror where you could see that it was my mother who had taken the picture.

"Okay?" I asked, "So who is this?" Michael looked to me as he flipped the picture over, and in my mother's handwriting were the words 'Keith and my precious twins.'

Everything seemed to stop suddenly as I took in what I was reading...

"Since everyone knows about us now..." Terriermon started.

"Do we still have to sleep in the closet?" Lopmon finished.

Next on Digimon Adventure 05: Michael takes over, dealing with his own mission of friendship, and the first meeting with one of the 'terrorists' doesn't go as well as they'd hoped.