A/N: Good morning one and all. Had a bad time sleeping last night, and that throws a lot of my plans out the window, but oh well. I can still get the really basic ones done. Keeper, you made me laugh, seriously. That was great. :D Hello, hitomi65. Thanks and nice to meet you!

2.5-5

That explains a lot.

It explains too much, actually and Hikari finds she is still nauseated but her brother is finally asleep and that would wake him up. So she takes a few deep breaths and finds that distant part of herself that handles things. It takes a few moments to detach the nausea from the realization, and she is slowly able to think clearly again.

"Your brother's nice," her partner says after a while, sitting in her lap and sticking her tongue out at Miko the cat whenever she comes near. Hikari nods, stroking her back, dangerously close to her butt. "Don't tweak my tail."

"It's a nub, there's nothing to tweak," Hikari protests, giggling, trying to be okay.

Plotmon huffs. "To me, it's a tail." She recovers so quickly; it's actually a little scary.

"All right, all right..."

Her partner, accepting her understanding, bats near Miko's nose. "Anyway, your brother worries about you, a lot. Are you sure he's not supposed to be the older one?"

Hikari chuckles. "He tends to fret over me because I never do it for myself. It's all right, I usually worry about him more. He likes running into things."

"So do you sometimes."

"We are siblings, after all."

Plotmon shrugs. She doesn't really grasp siblings like she grabs 'closeness' so Hikari leaves her be and focuses instead on the Digivice on her belt. It hasn't glowed once, and that worries her.

Then, very suddenly, it shrieks.

The television, having been on as background noise, shuts off abruptly in unison with the computer turning on. Hikari barely gives Plotmon a chance to scramble off her towards the monitor before she's up and moving, looking at the slowly forming image of...

"Koushiro-kun?"

The picture blurs and fades out of focus, but she knows that red hair and those dark eyes anywhere. Yet they gleamed with so little now. What had happened?

"-You're- good to see-"

"What's wrong with you?" she tries not to shout, but her brother's feet are padding out of bed and she is very grateful she put him on her bunk because he falls off half the time. "Koushiro-kun!"

Hikari realizes she sounds upset.

Koushiro doesn't react, even the blur remains a dull frown and a lack of interest.

"Don't-return- don't- all is-"

It cuts off and her Digivice falls silent.

Hikari is silent a moment, looking at the calendar labeled August First.

"Screw that," she then whispers to the nearly silent room.