I'm back. I've finished this semester's courses over here in Long Beach, but I signed up for a summer class I need. Sucks, but I need to do what I need to do.

I've been thinking, maybe we've been in Osaka a bit too long? Perhaps we deserve a change of scenery?

Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to some Japanese company. I want to say Bandai?

It wasn't a word that he used very often, with good reason considering Yamato's home life when he was a boy, but so far the night had been wonderful.

Sora had had the idea for them to all dress up and go out for a night on the town for no particular reason at all, in fact the spontaneity of it all actually added to what made the night turn out so lovely, and there wasn't anything that Yamato had found to be at all wrong with their evening. Koushiro and Jou had both been too busy to join them, Jou at the hospital where he interned and Koushiro had been vague about his plans, but Yamato thought that it was nice enough for just him and his housemates to go out instead just themselves.

They had all dressed up in suits, even Sora and Jun, and he and Taichi were even given matching bow ties since Sora thought that it was "cute" when couples wore matching outfits. They had gone to a Western-style opera that Sora was able to score tickets to from her job, which Yamato still wasn't quite sure what it was, but he didn't think any more of it when Sora had asked him if he wanted to go. Truthfully, an opera wasn't really his thing, but then Taichi of all people had expressed slight interest in going. With that, the deal was already done.

It was a sort of time that was magical and wonderful and all those words that people used to describe evenings that they would never forget, but reality had returned to them and Yamato knew that the memory of the night would forever become soured because they weren't in that opera stadium anymore listening to beautiful and fleeting Italian voices dancing through the air, but they were standing right at the entrance of one of Osaka's many alleys, staring at a dying dog.

"Should we call animal control?" He heard Sora almost whisper right behind him, the first thing that any of them had even thought to say.

Starkly, the dog in front of them was a reminder that even if things had been going smoothly, or even if life had been happy in the moments right before, that sometimes endings had a way of finding themselves becoming dark, even if the story had otherwise been a happy thing. It was a lesson that Yamato had thought he had learned under Hiroaki's household, but with all the years that Taichi and Jun had been at his side, and even more recently Sora, it was a lesson that had begun to mean less and less to him as time had gone on. As he stared on at that poor dog, he thought that maybe this was a reminder to what Hiroaki's heavy fist had taught him?

"Won't they put it down if we call them?" the young man who was wearing clothing that was matching with his responded, Taichi sounding unsure and hesitant in his words.

If anything, that probably would be the outcome of what would happen if they called animal control. It was breathing heavily and looked like it was trying to find refuge of some sort by the dumpster in the alley, and Yamato figured that Taichi was right, and that if animal control was called that it would be decided that maybe the dog was beyond their help. It looked recently bloody, part of its ear seemed to be gone, and the animal had patches missing all around its body where fur should have been.

"Maybe that's the humane thing to do?" Jun responded Taichi, almost as quiet as Sora had been.

He himself was still quiet and Yamato took a few steps towards the cowering animal before getting down on one knee to get a better look at it. The alley floor was wet and dirty and he was wearing a new and expensive suit, but is was something that he didn't care about as he carefully held out his hand towards the dog. It flinched as he touched it, and Yamato frowned since it was that that let him know that whatever had happened to the poor thing was the work of another human being.

Taichi, Jun, and Sora may have thought that putting the animal down was the humane to thing to do, and perhaps it was once he thought about it, but at the same time he had the feeling of wondering since when was 'humane' a good thing? In all of the animal kingdom, only human beings had ever expressed anything close to savagery.

He continued to pet the animal softly, and felt a twinge of something inside of him when he saw the fear that the dog still had in its eyes. It was a fear that Yamato himself had had before once upon a time, and he felt a sort of kinship with the canine knowing that the two of them had gone through some of the same things in life. He brought his hand to the missing part of its ear before stopping, and then he let his hand drop away from the animal as let himself think for a moment.

Without saying anything, no words ever being able to come to his mind considering the current situation, Yamato simply began to take off the jacket of his suit. If nothing else, this was the least that he thought he could do.

"What are you doing, Yamato?"

Ignoring Taichi, he started wrapping his jacket around the poor dog. Pulling it in towards his body, Yamato stood up and began humming as best as he could one of the Italian songs he had listened to earlier in the night. He heard and felt the dog whimper against his chest, and all he could do was hold it tighter. Hiroaki had taught him that people were selfish and that at the end of it all that happy endings weren't really a thing, but as he held that dog Yamato felt as if maybe, just maybe, Hiroaki's teachings weren't actually true.

The night would still be wonderful.

Starting A Home at the End of the Street soon. Probably going with the different viewpoints each chapter.

Also, if you want a dog I suggest maybe checking out a shelter first? It really is one of the best things you can do regarding animals, and you don't know the extent of how much you're actually doing for it. It really is an amazing thing.

Peace.