So, this chapter is going to be kind of different, since Yamato's knocked himself out. The first part of this is going to be in Takeru's point of view. I was going to do the whole chapter, but I promised you guys a reason for Matt's adoption, and I will give you that. We get to find out what little brother really thinks about Yamato! So, enjoy! Sorry in advance for spelling/grammar mistakes. Reviews make me want to write!

Takeru

It's been three days since my parents showed up to take me out early. Yamato was in the hospital. Kari had called that first night, asking how I was. I had been angry, so I yellled at her. She hasn't asked since. I felt bad, but ever since Yamato had moved in, I've been growing more and more depressed. I was hardly ever sad before, but just being around him brings you down. I've been trying, really I have. I want him to trust me. Maybe if he gets out his 'rough past' as Vincent had called it, he'd be better. Sitting in class, my attention is gone.

"-keru!" Something just outside..my name?

"Takeru!" My eyes snap up and I look at my teacher, mouth opening to give a lame excuse, then it closes, I'm lost.

"His brother's in the hospital, ma'am." Kari says from my side. The teacher's eyes narrow.

"I've heard. That doesn't mean he can't pay attention."

"He's been in a coma for four days. And he's not responding to anything" I say. Her eyes widened slightly. There's a slight gasp from the kids around me, and Daisuke laughs. I give him a warning glance. He grins at me. I look away. I can't wait for lunch. I'm not bugged for the rest of class, and at lunch, I go on a Daisuke hunt. He's on the soccer field.

"Hey, T.H!" He calls, waving at me. I pretty much ignore him, and that makes him grin. He's itching for the fight just as bad as I am. He approaches me.

"I heard your brother's pretty famous for being a druggie." He says. Something in my snaps, and I lunge at him. We're rolling around, attacking each other. I gain the upper hand, and he takes three punches to the face before the other soccer kids can pull me off of him. Daisuke sits up with a bleeding nose, and a split lip. He hadn't hit me back, I look to my right and see Kari. She looks pissed. At me. I don't care though. No one will talk bad about my family. Even if I don't know anything about him. A teacher is on his way, yelling from across the grounds at me. I rip my arms away from the boys that were holding me away from Daisuke, and grab my stuff. I go towards the teacher. My arm is grabbed and I'm marched to the principals office. There's more yelling, no time for explaining, parents called.

"Grab your stuff and get back here, immediately." I head to my locker where Kari is waiting for me.

"Are you in a lot of trouble?"

"Suspended for a month." I say without looking at her.

"Why'd you attack him?"

"He said he's heard Yamato's famous for being a druggie, and I snapped." I say with a shrug. I don't look at Kari as I walk away, but I hear her hurried footsteps in the other direction. I sit at the office for nearly twenty minutes before my dad shows up to get me. He apologizes to the secretary for the wait, then motions for me to move my butt. I follow him to mom's car.

"Where you at the hospital, again?" I ask.

"Well, I wasn't." I nod.

"I'm so disappointed, Takeru. Why would you attack someone?"

"He called Yamato a druggie.." He looks at me, opens his mouth, then closes it. Something in eyes. Something about Yamato.

"Can I go to the hospital, too?"

"Sure.." I climb into the front seat and put my seat belt on. The drive to the hospital is half an hour, and spent in silence. My dad stops, and I jump out. He waves, and then drives away. I walk into the hospital.

"Can I help you?" A too cheery voice asks.

"Uh..My brother's been here for four days. He's in a coma.."

"Oh?"

"Yamato Ish-. Ranger?"

"Oh, yes, yes! Down the hall." I already know where the room is, but I don't tell the nurse that as she leads me to Yamato's room. Mom's sitting in a hard plastic chair next to his bed. I watch as he twitches. The nurse smiles and walks away. I sit next to mom. She looks at me.

"Why would you attack someone, Takeru?"

"Dad and I just had this talk. He called Yamato a druggie, and I just kind of exploded. I'm sorry." Something flashed behind her eyes, I just can't tell what. I watch Yamato for a few minutes, and his eyes seem to slip up, then fall back down.

"I think he's waking up."

"No, he's not." A male voice. I turn to look at Yamato's doctor.

"His eyes ju-"

"I know, they opened. I believe he's put himself into a 'locked-in' state."

"A what?" My mother asked.

"I don't know how to explain it. He can hear us. Smell us, I'm sure if his eyes were open, he could see us. He just can't respond."

"And he did this to himself?"

"I've seen it before. Mostly from severely abused kids." My mouth opens in an O. My mother takes a sharp breath in.

"What?"

"He's thrown himself back in attempt to not feel pain."

"Will he wake up?"

"I don't know. There's been cases, I've never seen any myself."

"And how high are the chances this is from abuse?" My mother seemed..angry. My hand was resting on the bed, and something brushed across it. Yamato's fingers. Without looking at him, I flipped my hand, palm up. His fingers connected with mine again. I knew he could hear us. He wanted me to stop the doctor. He was almost in a panic. I my brain raced to try and make him stop.

"Well, with the x-rays we had to do, I'd say high, a lot of his bones have grown crooked, probably from healing with no cast, and the bru-"

"I'm fine." Three heads whip around to see sapphire eyes staring back at us. His eyes are narrowed at the doctor. The doctor shifts uneasily.

"I'll uh..let you be." He scampers from the room. My mother throws her stuff at him. His eyes widen and he looks at me. He mouths 'help me'. Although he looks terrified, he pats her back.

"I'm alright," He says again. My mother is crying, as she lets him go.

"What did you do to yourself?" She asks him, instead of letting him answer, I move myself from my chair and hug him. His arms wrap around me and he mumbles

"Thank you." against my shoulder. An instant smile hits my face. I feel we've bonded, and I'm glad. I let him go and sink back into my chair.

"What day is it?" He asks.

"Tuesday."

"I've been out for four days?" I nodded. My mom sobs, and he looks down, in his own thoughts. I've never noticed until now how guarded his voice is. Like the world is meant to hurt him. The hospital surrounding doesn't bother him, as it would me, and I almost want to ask why, but I don't. Not with my mom here. She's upset as it is.

"Can you imagine how angry Vincent would've been?" She asks, suddenly. Yamato looks up at her.

"No one's told him yet?"

"No, we we're going to wait another day.." Yamato doesn't seem worried about this information either. He doesn't ask about our father, either. He just seemed..tired. He stays relaxed against his pillows, every once in awhile he'll voice a thought, but mostly he just listens to my mom tell him about her four days sitting by his bed. When she's done, he sits quietly. Then, she goes,

"Oh. And Takeru got suspended for punching his friend in the mouth."

"Not the mouth, the face.." I defended myself.

"Why?" Yamato asked. There was no actual question, he just knew that's what she wanted him to ask.

"Because he insulted you.." I honestly admit. Yamato's silent and I look up to seeing him watching me. He gives that half shrug.

"Probably cause he's jealous. I'm better looking." Yamato makes us both laugh, and my mom stops her crying. My mom tells Yamato more about our life. She even adds in the recent fighting between her and my dad. I look down at this part. She says the argue. I say they scream and smash things. After awhile, my mom grows tired.

"Maybe you should go home, and rest." Yamato suggests. She looks at him.

"I can't leave you alone here."

"Why not? I'm eighteen. I'm not scared of hospitals. And besides, Takeru's going to stay. Aren't you?" He adds looking at me. He can see that I have questions for him. I nod.

"Yea, of course." My mom seems hesitant.

"Well, okay..I'll be back in a few hours, okay?" Yamato gives her a smile. A forced, fake smile, but it was enough for her. We watched her leave, and I had tons of questions for Yamato. Which to ask though? He played wit his fingers, not really looking at me.

"Who was abusing you?" I asked, almost silently. I don't know if he heard or not, but he didn't answer.

"Whats your favorite thing to do?" He shrugs.

"Listen to music?"

"Whose your best friend?"

"...Baby."

"Human best friend?"

"Uh..Billy." It continues until Taichi and Hikari show up. It seems my mother called them, to let them know Yamato was awake.

"Hi, Matt!" Kari greets with a smile.

"Hello." He says, annoyed they interrupted. Kari comes in, without stopping, Tai, however stops at the door. I realized then that it was Yamato that had broken his nose.

"Are you coming in?" I ask him. He shifts his wight.

"He bought Matt a present, so he's nervous." Kari said with a small giggle. Yamato seemed to assess this for a minute, staring at Tai, whose cheeks had turned pink. Then, surprising me, and obviously Tai, Yamato held out his hands. Tai turned crimson, but approached Yamato and handed him a blue bag. Yamato peeked inside, and pulled out a wolf stuffed animal. He laid it against chest. He didn't thank Tai, but he studied him. Tai sat, and began to squirm under Yamato's gaze. Kari started talking about what she'd done to Daisuke for insulting Yamato, and I noticed Yamato began stroked the wolf's ear. He was a million miles away.


Yamato

I'm absently aware of Kari talking about a boy name Daisuke. I'm not overly interested though. I'm worried about when Natsuko gets back. She'll probably have questions I won't want to answer. I sit, and I wait. Takeru's fingers brush my arm, and I look over at him. He's watching me with worry. Kari stops talking, as she noticed the exchange.

"I'm okay," I repeat my earlier statement. Kari smiles at me, Takeru's unsure. At that moment, though, Natsuko reappears with Hiroaki.

"Tai, Kari. How are you?" Nastusko greets.

"Good," From them both. I find it annoying they keep doing that, and I hmpf at them. They look at me, but I look away.

"We need to speak with Yamato." Hiroaki. Cold. Firm. Taichi, Kari, and Takeru give me goodbye looks, and they leave the room. I'm left with two people I don't want to be with. I'd even take Taichi, right now. My fingers stroke the wolf again. I'll have to thank him. The room is silent as the door closes behind Takeru. I wait. They wait. It's Natsuko that speaks first.

"Severe abuse? Why didn't you tell anyone." I ignore the question, and Hiroaki gets angry.

"Answer her!" He snaps. I glare at him.

"Answer me, first." I'm calm on the outside. Panicking on the inside. Hiroaki blinks.

"What?" He says.

"You don't think I have questions? I'd love to know why I was given up for adoption." Pain, then anger flashed through his eyes. Hers filled with tears and she looked away.

"You weren't given up for adoption." Hiroaki says through clenched teeth.

"No? Well, tell me what happened then. Maybe then I'll answer some of your questions." Hiroaki turned red in anger. It was Natsuko who spoke.

"We were very young, Yamato, and we were unsure if we wanted to keep you, so you went unnamed for almost two weeks." My eyes narrowed slightly, alright, fine. Why did Andrew Ranger adopted me then? Hiroaki began then.

"I had a friend. An Andrew Ranger.." My heart stopped.

"And he was so jealous of you Yamato. He kept saying he'd adopt you, if we chose not to keep you. It took us two weeks, but we decided that we wanted you, and that we loved you." He knew my abuser. Is that why he was so cold towards me? Is that why he hated me?

"The night we told him, you went missing. Right from under the nurses. We suspected it was him, but by the time the police got to his house, he was gone."

"He's from Canada, though. How'd you know him?"

"He went to high school with me. Moved here when he was twelve I believe." Things became clear then. He really had stolen me. I didn't hate the Ishida family so much anymore. And maybe, they really did deserve some answers.

"It's your turn now, Yamato.." Natsuko. I shrugged.

"What do you want to know?"

"Was it actually Andrew that was hurting you?"

"Yea, and his brother. His friends." Nameless other people. But they didn't need to know about that.

"When did it start?"

"I don't know. My first memory is being scared to upset him. He threw me down the stairs.."

"How come no ones ever caught him?" Hiroaki asked. It was rhetorical, but I answered anyway.

"We moved a lot. I've lived in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Alaska, Seattle, Las Vegas, California, Cairo, Venice, and some place in Germany. Plus countless other places whose names I didn't bother to learn." Natsuko began crying again, and she reattached herself to my neck. I patted her arm gently. Maybe they really did love me. Hiroaki opened his mouth.

"I have another question." I said, and his mouth closed.

"Why do you hate me?" Natsuko's body froze against me, but she didn't let me go. Hiroaki stared at me, and I looked right back into his eyes.

"I don't hate you! I could never hate you. You were my first born son. You were stolen away from me! Just, your name...I didn't know if it was the same Ranger or not, I was confused." I nodded. Suitable enough for me. Something changed, then. I knew that living here might be forever, but they actually cared about me. Something only Vincent had ever done, and I couldn't even tell if he was just doing his job, or if I really meant anything. I've never had so many answers, and been so confused at the same time.